New overtime rules to affect county workers
Staff writer
The county commission room was quiet Monday when department heads were told what changes in federal fair labor standards will mean for them.
A new rule, which goes into effect Dec. 1, means employees paid less than $47,476 per year must be paid overtime or given compensatory time at a rate of one-and-a-half hours per extra hour worked.
Some positions already close to the new salary threshold might see a salary increase.
“It’s coming down the road,” commissioner Randy Dallke said. “It will affect some people, it won’t affect some others.”
Dallke said close attention will have to be paid to work hours.
“We’re not in a position to raise everybody’s salary above the threshold,” Dallke said.
The county has decided to give compensatory time, but will closely watch how much is utilized, commissioners said. Consistently working more than 40 hours per week won’t be allowed.
“It’s just one of those things,” Dallke said. “We want to keep up in all departments, so we’ll have to take care.”
“Every office is going to have to be different,” commissioner Dan Holub said. “There’s something driving it.”
The day a deteriorating county bridge will be replaced is starting to come into view.
Kansas Department of Transportation provided an estimate of $122,358 for engineering work for replacement of a metal span bridge over the Cottonwood river on Alfalfa Rd. a half-mile south of US-50, road and bridge superintendent Jesse Hamm told county commissioners Monday.
A complaint from a landowner about a county noxious weed inspector “trespassing” on his land will result in a change in how inspections are handled. Noxious weed director Bud Druse told commissioners about the complaint, and they decided Druse will send letters in the spring and summer notifying property owners whose land will be inspected.