Vacation Policy Will Be Enforced For County Employees

​Vacation policy enforcement was front and center at the Antelope County Supervisor’s meeting on Tuesday.
 
According to the vacation/sick days policy in the employee handbook, county employees have a maximum of 320 hours of vacation that can accumulate over years. Because the policy hasn’t been enforced, some employees have nearly double those hours.
 
Antelope County Clerk Lisa Payne said she believes the policy is generally sound but needs one tweak to make it less confusing to the county office, as well as the employees.
 
“Instead of doing days, we need to do hours,” Payne said. “Especially if we’re going to be changing from eight to 10 hours a day. I think it’s working fine, it just needs to be enforced.”
 
Antelope County Road Boss Casey Dittrich agreed with Payne, but also did not want to take away the hours that the employees have built up recently.
 
“It’s owed to them; they’ve earned it,” Dittrich said. “And this is the perfect time to use it when we’re not pushing snow.”
 
Dittrich said he believes he can handle the enforcement with few problems.
 
“Give me a year, and I’ll get it cleared up,” he said. “When we talk about this the first of the year, know that it will be completely handled.”
 
The decision for any policy changes was tabled for next week, when the board plans to assign a policy handbook committee.
 
During the meeting, the supervisors once again discussed the options of buying a new vehicle for the courthouse or fixing the current vehicle.
 
According to the employees present at the meeting, the current vehicle leaks water, has mold and isn’t safe to drive.
 
Koinzan stressed that it would be pointless to get rid of the 2008 vehicle with 166,000 miles to get a vehicle from the same year with 130,000 miles.
 
“Either fix it or buy one that works,” Koinzan said. “If it is bad, replace it. But please don’t replace it with one that is burnt out already.”
 
County Assessor Kelly Mueller said that the current vehicle has been taken to OK Tire and Jonny Dodge numerous times for repair.
 
The board will continue to search for a newer and safer vehicle.
 
Barb Finn brought attention to the possibility of some changes for the county court office.
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“I’m just asking for permission to let Kinnan (Construction) know that he can start with construction for what’s in here,” Finn said while pointing to the bid agreement.
 
At the meeting, Finn presented bids that included some upgrades for the office including safety glass and other safety features.
 
Finn explained to the board that the county court office would have safety glass on the front desk. She said there have been issues with people walking around the counter when they shouldn’t be.
 
Koinzan said that if safety glass is installed in the county court office, then they will have to put safety glass in all the offices. His concern was not being able to have private conversations due to the glass between the county employee and person in front of the counter.
 
“I think in the future you will be forced to use safety glass,” Finn said.  “But you can put the microphones in them.”
 
Along with the safety glass, there would be a keypad on the door to get behind the front counter.
 
Barb Finn said that new doors on the south side of the courthouse are needed as well.
“Right now we can put a can of pop in there, and it freezes. There is so much heat that escapes that room,” Finn explained about the south doors.
 
Ultimately the board voted to move forward with the construction on the county court office.
 
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​*This story has been updated to clarify the hours.