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Lee County Conservation Boost

Lee County’s Conservation Department is getting an employment boost.

The Board of Supervisors has authorized the department to promote its part-time assistant naturalist to full-time status.

The department’s oversight board had already signed off on the promotion.

Board of Supervisors Chairperson Janet Fife-LaFrenz says this will help the department in several ways, in particular through educational programs and tourism opportunities.

Conservation Director Tom Buckley says the additional money to pay for the position (@$17,000) will come from savings discovered in the current budget.

He says some examples are the fact that an employee will not be switching from a single health insurance policy to a family plan and that some road repairs will cost much less than anticipated.

Buckley says his office turns away a couple of school groups each month because of busy work schedules.  He says moving this employee to full time status should help prevent that.

The Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 in favor of the promotion, with Supervisor Larry Kruse abstaining from the vote. 

After the meeting, Kruse said he did not vote because he did not feel it was appropriate to make such a request so early in the new budget year.

Jason Parrott is a former reporter at Tri States Public Radio.