WAYNE – County Commissioners in Wayne may have held one of their final video/telephone conference meetings with a recent announcement of their reopening in less than a week.
Both the Board of Equalization and Board of Commissioners held a meeting in the Public Safety Annex Tuesday morning.
County Assessor, Dawn Duffy provided her three-year assessment plan which doesn’t change much from year to year and stated they had no protest hearings scheduled. The valuation documents were sent out earlier this week as Duffy wanted to have these hearings set before late July.
Moving into the Board of Commissioners meeting, FEMA cost codes and maintenance policy requirements were first discussed before the board moved into an hour-long talk about updates on the courthouse restoration project.
One of the early subjects saw the Commissioners approve $51,932 outside the not-to-exceed amount of two million dollars to remove the existing copper caps and repair the slate roofing on the four turrets of the courthouse. The end date for all companies including Berggren Architects for the project is July 31.
Two hours into the meeting, Commissioners began to talk about their plan to reopen the courthouse which will be Monday, June 8 to resume business as usual.
Treasurer in Wayne county, Tammy Paustian mentioned during the meeting there are over 70 titles in the back that people are just waiting to come in and take care of.
Residents in Wayne county have been able to call the office they’d like to meet with and they would be let into the courthouse by appointment. The treasures office has been using their two outside stalls keeping the customers six-feet apart but those who wait outside are clumped together.
The way the board of Commissioners are taking the current Directed Health Measures (DHMs), is that the six-foot separation and masks are encouraged. It was brought up that county and city business operations were exempt from the DHMs.
The treasurer’s office does use plexiglass screens at their counters.
Another discussion item was that the courthouse closes at 5 p.m. If county residents still need assistance, Tammy doesn’t have a problem helping them but she doesn’t have overtime for her staff built in the budget. Commissioners will be adding an agenda item during their next meeting of whether to pay county employees for overtime or offer comp-time to stay late and help county residents for June and July before being addressed during their first August meeting. There was also talk about the county getting reimbursed during the coronavirus when paying their employees overtime.
The courthouse entrance will be locked at 5 p.m. for people to exit but not able to come in after being closed.
The next regularly scheduled Wayne County Board of Commissioners meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 16 at 9 a.m. from the Wayne County Courthouse courtroom at 9 a.m.