Raising concerns

At a special meeting on Friday, the county commissioners chose to address raise requests for the next fiscal year by allocating an amount per employee to be distributed by the head of each department. This cuts a significant chunk from the amount originally requested while allowing elected officials to continue their efforts to bring salaries in line internally and ensure they are competitive.

The total originally requested by the various county departments to go towards raises this year was $101,000, said County Clerk Linda Fritz. If the commissioners opted to give a blanket 2% raise instead,...