Name Raymond Palonen New Highway Commissioner

The Marinette County Highway Committee recommended to the County Board that Raymond Palonen be hired as the county new Highway Commissioner. The recommendation took place at the Committee’s Wednesday, Aug. 15 meeting.

Several years ago the County eliminated the post when it created the position of Director of Public Works (DPW) which handled Highway, Parks, Forestry, and Building/Properties. When the DPW director resigned earlier this year, the County Board reinstated the Highway Commissioner position and eliminated that of Public Works director.

After closely examining the many applications for Commissioner the County eventually interviewed what they said were the two strongest candidates. Palonen was chosen for the position and accepted. He most recently served as the Deputy Highway Commissioner in Outagamie County. He will be introduced after his formal hiring by the County Board at their Aug. 28 meeting.

In 2002 the position was removed from the Salary Study list and the pay of the person in the position at that time was given a ‘higher than rated’ salary figure. When that person vacated the job, the County Board voted to allow it to return to a Level 13 pay grade. But the position was removed from the Salary Scale with the hiring of a DPW director.

As result of all that, the Administration and Human Resources had to come up with a salary number, and settled on the figure $74,649, which is on the high end of pay grade 13. There are no salary ‘steps’ figured into the salary.

Human Resources Director Jennifer Holtger added that Administration is considering reissuing and updating the Salary Study, which has been in place since the 1980’s. The Highway Commissioner position and others that have been removed from the study may be added back.

Highway Committee member Shirley Kaufmann, while pleased with the hiring, expressed her desire that more of the Highway Committee members, which number five in total, could have been involved in the interview/hiring process.

In other business, the committee approved the 2013 Highway Department User fees, which were forwarded to the County Board. Most of the fees remain the same, but the committee did approve a hike in the Single Trip Overweight Transportation Permit fee, raising it from $50 per load to $75. The committee considered establishing a multiple trip or even an annual overweight fee, but decided to deal with those type requests on a case by case basis since every situation would be different.

Finance Department Director Pat Kass explained proposed changes to the process for filing county positions. The proposed process is the result of ways county administration is considering to implement Lean Principles into County Government.

The committee reviewed the two proposals that were received for the 2012 Biennial Bridge Inspections. After much study, the committee decided to table the awarding of the bid so that both companies can be contacted to larify some items in their bids. A special meeting of the committee will be held prior to the next County Board meeting to come up with a recommendation.

Approval of a proposal from Coleman Engineering for work on County Highway R was put on hold so that the company can make some corrections on the document and reissue it.

Approval was given to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for winter snowplow blades for the coming season. The county utilizes a variety of blades, depending upon conditions, including grader, carbide, underbody, wing, ices and four foot blades, etc. Supervisor Russ Bauer asked about the specifics in the RFP regarding blade “hardness specs.” He recalled an episode a couple of years ago when inferior blades were acquired.

Shop Foreman Duddek said he would look into a study on blade hardness. He also asked if the RFP this year could allow getting blades for equipment pieces from different companies, saying that the county could save money because prior RFPs only allowed acquiring them from one company. The number of companies selling all the kinds the county needs are getting fewer.

The roof at the Crivitz Shop is still leaking, even though Markell Company recently replaced the roof. Markell did eventually come back to inspect, and apparently discovered a rip in the rubber. They said they would send someone to patch it. The committee will not know if it works until the next heavy rain.

The Department decided to sell two older single axle trucks, including plows and wings. Another vehicle discussed was an old tar tanker unit. No action was taken on the vehicles, but the department is strongly considering to offer them first to municipalities before trying to sell them online.

Amendments were made to Chapter 7-7.09(1) All Terrain Vehicle Routes of the list of County Ordinances. The amendment added a couple that were missed last year when the document was amended. The sections in Goodman and Pembine added have been long-standing routes in the county trail system for many years.

Two Bridge Aid requests were approved in the Town of Beaver for $9,680.44 and the other in the Town of Niagara for $2,750. Both will be forwarded to the County Board.

A final payment to Michael Mans for $1,750 was approved. Mans was hired to remove stumps and dispose of them along a section of County Highway L. The area has been covered, seeded, and looks very good.

The Highway Supervisor reported that wedging and overlaying has been completed on sections of County X, and the project is complete. The only thing that remains to be done on County L is on shouldering. The shouldering on CTH W was in progress and shouldering on CTH X will take place next.

Vouchers in the amount of $242,286.98 were approved as closing piece of business.

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