WELLINGTON COUNTY – Following up on a discussion from a November meeting, the Roads Committee in Wellington County is putting road-maintenance staff back on the forefront as a part of a 2024 budget request.
The budget will be presented and possibly approved at a County council meeting on Thursday.
The request from the roads committee is to convert ten current seasonal snowplow driver positions to full-time road equipment operator positions.
A report to go before staff at the meeting says in order to reduce the budget impact of this staffing conversion, the proposed change would partially be funded by allocating budget amounts from other departments for contract landscape work.
Seasonal snowplow drivers are currently employed each year from mid-November to April. The conversion of these ten seasonal positions would be just under a third of the seasonal hires. Last year, the county hired 34 seasonal drivers and this year have hired 36.
Two scenarios will be tabled as methods of phasing in the shift. Option one would see the conversion of five seasonal snow plow drivers to full time equipment operators in April, 2024 and then convert an additional five seasonal snow plow drivers to full time equipment operators starting in November, 2024.
The second scenario would be to convert ten seasonal snow plow drivers to full time equipment operators starting in November, 2024.
The ten converted operators would work full-time 40-hour work weeks.
