Department of Public works looks to hire
By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
The East Troy Village Board unanimously approved an apprenticeship position at the wastewater treatment plant at the July 6 meeting.
The apprenticeship will be run in conjunction with Gateway Technical College, said Department of Public Works Director Mike Miller when he came to the board requesting the $10,000 to $12,000 needed to fund the program until the end of the year.
Because the apprenticeship program was on hold, the board didn’t budget money for it out of this year’s budget, but Miller explained Gateway had contacted him and they were going to be able to supply them with candidates this year.
“I think it’s a great program,” Trustee Ann Zess said. “There are not many kids being trained in this field.”
Miller told the board the apprenticeship was for three years and it was his hope that they would be able to retain the individual as a full-time employee once they had finished their training and received certification.
Looking to hire
Miller also requested permission to post a full-time public works position to replace a retiring employee.
Some of the board members were surprise by the request, because the village had hired what they thought was a replacement for the retiring employee last year.
Miller some some new regulations from the Department of Natural Resources in regard to the water utility were the reason they were looking to hire. He said the village needs a water operator and someone to handle the collections system. The new position would require certification, but Miller didn’t have the details on exactly what type of certification would be needed yet.
Zess wanted to know what the new duties were and said she didn’t think they had enough information at that time to go ahead and give Miller the approval to post for a new hire.
Miller said that the report on the new DNR rules he had provided the board with explained why the new hire was necessary.
“We have to inspect, televise, repair – that’s going to cost dollars,” he told the board.
Trustee Dusty Stanford was in support of giving Miller the go ahead to post for the position but other board members, including Zess and Village Board President Randy Timms, wanted to see a job description for the new position before the village went any further.
Miller said he knew he had to create a job description, but because of the short notice of when the retiring employee would actually be leaving, he hadn’t had the opportunity to do it.
“I planned on creating a job description, I didn’t think it would be such a big deal,” he told the board. “One of the biggest reasons the job description hasn’t been developed is because I was getting the run around from him on when he was going to retire. I know I have to do all this, but I just found out last Thursday that he was going at the end of the month.
The board requested a written job description and Miller said he would have it for the next meeting.
