IC Finance Committee recommends switching to Chippewa Valley Bank

HURLEY - The Iron County Finance Committee hired two employees Thursday morning, creating a new position, and backed switching the county's depository to another bank.

New bank

The committee heard a presentation from Chippewa Valley Bank, which recently opened in the town of Kimball.

The committee was informed it could make a lot more money off of the county's deposits in the bank, compared to the current depository, Hurley Associated Bank.

County treasurer Mark Beaupre attended the meeting and said the accounts "need to make money, simple as that."

Questions were raised if the county could change depositories after selecting a bank during the April re-organizational meeting.

"Appointing a bank can occur at any time," clerk Mike Saari said.

A motion was approved to recommend changing the depository to Chippewa Valley Bank to the full county board.

Saari said he will most likely have the item on the July agenda to discuss payroll changes and set a time-frame to get everything in place.

Floater position

The committee approved a motion to create a part-time "floater" position for the sheriff's department after sheriff Tony Furyk spoke.

Currently, Furyk has two male and two female part-time employees and wants to keep the part-timers in Iron County.

Furyk's concerns included the salary and the training the county invests in the employees. According to Furyk, around the state the cheapest wage was around $16 an hour for part-time employees.

Iron County currently pays $12 an hour.

"If we don't have the part-time employees, we have to pay $33 an hour to a full-timers in overtime," Furyk said. "We also have 1,440 hours that need to be filled because of compensation and vacation time."

The committee was asked if a floater position could be created for one female part-time employee because of females being housed in the jail.

The board decided to create the position, and guaranteed the employee at least 24 hours a week.

"We can try it with the female, and readdress it later to see how it's been working," Furyk said.

New hires

Carolyn Kolson-Janov addressed the committee to have a full-time child care consortia manager position be approved for the Northern Economic Support Consortium. The committee approved the position.

The consortium covers 12 counties in Wisconsin and Iron County is looking to move its child care programs into the consortium.

The full-time manager position will overlook the child care program for NESC, but would work out of Iron County. NESC will pay the salary, benefits and travel expenses for the employee.

"They would work out under my direction and the direction of the consortium manager," Kolson-Janov said.

The employee's salary will be $50,689 a year, and applications are being accepted from across the state. Iron County will not make the final decision on who gets hired, because the individual will handle programs from the other counties in the consortium, as well.

The committee also approved hiring Melinda Nasi as a part-time janitor for the courthouse after receiving three applications for the position.