The Shelby County Board of Supervisors approved a new 2 year contract with the county’s union representatives. In a board meeting Tuesday, the contract for Shelby County Sheriff, Emergency Management and Secondary Roads was approved with increase in wages, insurance and deferred compensation. The contract states on July 1st, 2014, a cost of living raise of 2.25 percent will go in effect and then on July 1st, 2015, the contract will increase by 2.5 percent.

The deferred compensation went from $48.07 to $50 per pay period and insurance increases increase on July 1st, 2014 from 10 percent to 12 percent and another 3 percent in 2015. The Supervisors also noted the language in all three contracts had some changing and cleaning up to make them all universal. Secondary roads saw an increase in longevity to match the Sheriff’s and EMA and their boot allowance increased to $25. Supervisor Steve Kenkel said the board was disappointed in one aspect of the new contracts, “I thought everything went fairly well. I know the board is really disappointed in we initially had a proposal in there to enact performance evaluations on an annual basis with performance pay. Long story short, all three unions rejected that offer. So we will keep trying.”

In other business, Shelby County Auditor Marsha Carter presented the canvass voting from the primary election that was held on Tuesday, June 3rd. Carter stated the county had 15.05 percent of the residents vote which she said was “good for a primary but overall pretty sad.” The Supervisors approved the canvass. They also approved the early retirement application of Secondary Road Shop Officer Denny Anastasi. This was the second early retirement application approved and will save the County about $51,000. Shelby County Engineer Dan Ahart said Anastasi has put in 43 years of service to the county. His last day on the job is June 27th.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)