Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties

Finance committee approves UW-Extension office manager description

HURLEY — The Iron County Board of Supervisors’ Finance Committee Thursday approved the job description for the office manager of Iron County’s University of Wisconsin Extension office.

Current office manager Joyce Gayan is retiring at the end of the year.

According to the description, the job entails a number of responsibilities to support the UW-Extension’s staff.

Neil Klemme, the Extension office’s department head, said the job also requires interacting with people.

“This (job) is the face of Extension,” Klemme told the Daily Globe after the meeting. “This is the first person people see when they come into our office. So that’s what we’re looking for.”

The committee had a brief discussion on whether to post the job as a grade 6 position on the county pay scale — where Gayan currently is — or the grade 2 position the job began as.

It was agreed the additional responsibilities that have been connected to the title since Gayan started remitted the higher pay.

Klemme told committee members it would also ensure they get the caliber of applicants they want.

The deadline for applications is Aug. 24, with interviews scheduled for the first week in September, according to Klemme.

While Gayan isn’t leaving until 2017, the plan calls for the new hire to begin in October, so there can be a transition period.

In other action:

—The committee approved purchasing a plow truck for the county courthouse lot, with the purchase budgeted for the next fiscal year.

—The committee approved the purchase of fencing for the county’s radio towers at Germania Hill in Hurley and Saxon. Along with the fencing, a back-up generator was approved for the Saxon site. While the final cost is dependent on the price of the generator, the total isn’t expected to be more than $18,850 for the fencing and $7,500 for the generator.

—At the end of the meeting, the committee met with the majority of the county’s department heads to discuss how the upcoming year’s budgets look and where they see their departments financially. Several department heads said their budgets would either stay the same or increase slightly, while others — such as the forestry and highway departments — said they expected to require larger budgets for the upcoming year.