The Clark County Board of Supervisors met on May 16 at the Clark County Rehab and Living Center for their regular monthly meeting and were treated to a tour of the facility by CCRLC employees. The board members and visitors were given a guided tour of both the new and old sections of the building. The contrast in size and comfortability was quite evident between the remodeled and original sections. The crowd was encouraged to peak into the rooms, check out the new rehab equipment and ask questions along the way.

Following this tour, the board approved two resolutions, grants for a snowmobile trail bridge, the Hwy 98 Stumpner Loyal Bridge and the Stanley Brubacher Chippewa Co. Culvert. They also approved Ordinance 246-5-24, amendments to “Clark County Code of Ordinances, - Clark County Governing Bodies – Rules.” The board approved these items without a hitch unlike the resolution to designate Veteran’s Day as a paid county holiday.

Several supervisors, although they were grateful for their Veterans, were not convinced Veteran’s Day should become a paid holiday for the county.  As it stands now, the board adopted a resolution to recognize Veterans Day by closing the courthouse from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. so employees can observe a program coordinated by the Office of Personnel. The Clark County Veteran’s office and the Personnel Committee now recommended that the courthouse be closed the whole day and employees be paid for the time off. If approved it would give employees 10 paid holidays.

Supervisor Schindler was concerned about the fiscal impact of paying for workers who will not be able to take off on Veterans Day and will be given holiday pay and asked what that dollar amount would be to the budget? Heather Roman, Assistant Comptroller of the Finance Department, who was on hand to answer questions, responded, “The wages are budgeted for as a whole dollar amount throughout the year so there's no magic answer to tell you that it will increase in 2024 by this amount. It all depends on the all the staffing levels of our agencies of who will be on shift for those holidays.” She later mentioned that the Sheriff’s department would not be included in this as they have their own contract for days off etc.

Other supervisors were also unclear about how much giving another paid holiday would affect the budget. Supervisor Gerhardt spoke in favor of this resolution and noted that the day is already half devoted to the Veterans Program and he sees it as a nonproductive day as it stands. Supervisor Klabon, another advocate for the day off, asked what is the cost of the program held at the fairgrounds. Roman answered, “$18,000 just for the non-productive time of the employees that attended the service last year. That doesn’t take into account the amount of preparation and then clean-up that went into this plus the non-productive time in the morning because people cannot really get into a whole lot of work…”

After extensive debate, mostly on the fiscal impact of this resolution, the board voted to send the resolution back to the personnel committee to consider trading the Veterans Day paid holiday with the day after Thanksgiving holiday pay.