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Employees of Kosciusko County will receive a wage increase of 3 percent across the board for 2002.
The Kosciusko County Council approved the increase at the budget hearing Thursday. Councilmen Tom Anglin and Maurice Beer abstained from voting. Beer said he thought the department heads' wages and those of other employees are getting too far apart.
Part-time rate for entry-level employees will increase from $8 an hour to $8.25, as approved by the council. The council also approved for the county boards to continue to be paid $80 per person per meeting.
To make the county dispatcher wages equal to Warsaw's dispatchers, the council approved an increase of $2,619 per dispatcher per year for the county dispatchers. The 3 percent raise given to other county employees is included in the $2,619 increase.
Kosciusko County Auditor Sue Ann Mitchell will receive an increase in pay of $3,000 plus the 3 percent given to other county employees.
Several new county positions also were approved by the county council.
Kosciusko County Prosecutor Chuck Waggoner asked the council for the county to pay for the part-time contract prosecutor. Currently, the position is paid for through the incentive funds. However, Waggoner said, those funds have been decreasing substantially by the federal government, and their use will soon be limited.
Waggoner said the contract prosecutor covers for the prosecutor's office when "we're absolutely swamped." The county will not have to pay for any benefits for the position, he said.
The council approved paying for the contract prosecutor, Kathy Groninger, at $227.26 per day.
The council also approved the new position of a paralegal assistant for the prosecutor's office.
"This person would focus on murder, attempted murder, aggravated batteries and class A felonies," said Waggoner.
He said they have 304 felonies filed as of the end of July. "We've gone consistently up in felonies," he said. In 2000, 551 felonies were filed for the entire year and there were 507 two years ago.
The council also approved: the Soil & Water Conservation District's part-time help to be full time; a new category of pay - court reporter/secretary - for the Circuit and Superior courts; two new probation officers; human resource secretary and Geographical Imaging System technician under the county commissioners' budget; two new jailers for 2002 and money for the possible hiring of two more jailers in the middle of the year.
A grant of $43,000 received by the Kosciusko County Health Department for the Well Child Clinic also was approved.
The final reading of the budget will be at the council's Sept. 6 meeting at 7 p.m. in the county courthouse.
