Washington courthouse aims to open July 6

It won't be long before citizens can get into the Washington County courthouse, but county leaders are urging people to do all they can to continue to do their county business online or over the phone. County department heads have been discussing reopening the courthouse and have tentatively decided that July 6 is a target date for reopening the doors. At the June 23 Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. said he felt each department head should be empowered to set the rules for his or her own department regarding policies after the reopening. Some departments have discussed limiting the number of people in their offices while others have discussed requiring doing business by appointment only. Seward said no final decisions have been made and the subject will be discussed at the Wednesday, July 1 meeting at 10 a.m.

County Salaries

A number of required resolutions and other items related to the 2021 fiscal year budget were discussed and approved during the meeting. One item was county departmental wages. The top ten wage or salary earners in the county in the coming fiscal year include:

*County Engineer Jacob Thorius $143,409

*County Attorney John Gish $121,900

*Sheriff Jared Schneider $100,238

*Assistant County Attorney Janney Anthony, $91,425

*County Assessor Christy Tinnes, $87,100

*Ambulance Service Department Director Jeremy Peck, $85,904

*Deputy Sheriff Shawn Ellingson, $84,864

*Public Health Administrator Danielle Pettit-Majewski, $78,416

*County Auditor Dan Widmer, $77,088

*Sheriff Deputy Timothy Smit, $74,880

The supervisors each will receive a salary of $38,493 except for Board Chair Seward who will receive $39,993.

Personnel Change Requests

The supervisors acknowledged and approved the following personnel change requests:

*Termination of employment of Becky Widmer from the Public Health Department due to retirement;

*Termination of employment of Carol Detweiler from the Public Health Department due to retirement;

*Hiring of Sean Salemink in the Communications Department at $18.46 an hour in a full-time position;

*Hiring Riley Thomann as a full-time employee in the Communications Department at a wage of $18.46 an hour and

*Changing the classification of Jason Taylor in the Public Health Department to Environmental Health Director increasing his wage from $21.43 to $28.50.

Other Business

In other business the supervisors:

*Approved leasing space in a county building at 2175 Lexington Boulevard in Washington to Hillcrest Family Services of Dubuque to be used to provide mental health services at a monthly rental rate of $2,586.67;

*Heard an update on recycling from Lynn Whaley from We Make It Go Away (WEMIGA);

*Approved a contract with Rob Brenneman regarding reimbursement of a portion of the costs ($15,000 of $60,000) for stabilizing part of 155th and Larch Ave where the landowner will reimburse the county for work on .82 miles of the road that runs by his property;

*Approved resolutions granting public highway easements from Robert and Mildred Thomann, LLC and William and Cynthia Lopshire related to a culvert construction project;

*Approved a number of required resolutions related to the fiscal year 2021 budget which was previously approved included including:

---A resolutions regarding the allocation of fiscal year 2021 appropriations;

---A resolution regarding the assigned funds form fiscal year 2021;

---Two resolutions regarding distribution of county funds;

---A resolution related to an interfund transfer of funds to the secondary road find;

---An interfund operating transfer resolution and

*Discussed a COVID-19 update.