Supervisors accept pay raises

During Monday’s Supervisor meeting, the board voted to accept the recommendations of the Wright County Compensation Board for pay raises for various elected officials. As has been previously published, this included a 4% raise for county supervisors, 22.5% raises for the auditor, county attorney, treasurer, and recorder and a 36% raise for the sheriff.

During the open forum section of the meeting before the board voted on the above measure, Al Mattison, current Belmond councilmember and former mayor, spoke. He said they are having a very difficult time dealing with requested law enforcement raises in Belmond. Mattison explained that their police department cited “Back the Blue” legislation and is following the lead of the county when asking for raises. “This has caused a big budget problem for us,” said Mattison.

He added that he asked Guth and Baxter about the Back the Blue legislation in the previous week’s town hall in Belmond and what their intent was behind it. Mattison said that the lawmakers indicated they intended for raises to take place over three to five years. Supervisor Karl Helgevold said that the legislation did not actually give a timeframe for raises. Mattison concluded by noting all these raises are the biggest he’s ever seen in years of budget-making and that they would never go through in actual arbitration.

Adam Clemons, Wright County Engineer, asked the board to consider his next year’s budget for Secondary Roads. He noted that they have about $6.489 million in total expenditures budgeted including $3.39 million for road maintenance and $1.5 million for equipment operation. He also said he has a carry-over of about $400,000

The board held the first reading of an ordinance amending county voting precincts. Due to the county being split into two house legislative districts, precincts in the southeastern part of the county had to be refigured. According to the ordinance, there will be ‘voting centers’ available in Dows and Woolstock for those in that corner of the county for school, city and special elections, though they will still have to go to Dows for primary and general elections.

In other board business, a resolution was also passed for the adoption of the county budget and certifying the tax rate, as decided on in last week’s budget hearing. A public hearing was set for April 11 for budget amendments to the current year. Auditor Betty Ellis noted that amendments are necessary due to American Rescue Plan funds being received as well as conservation’s land purchase. With the new amendments, expenses exceed revenues by $17,000.