The Sunflower County Board of Supervisors held a special call meeting on Monday to address some unresolved topics and one of the segments focused on an attempt to smooth out some bumps within the county’s road department.
After a lengthy session that involved the five assistant road managers and manager T.J. Fairley, the county leaders voted 3-2 to allow Fairley to hire Willie Sykes as a trainer for the road grader operators.
Fairley proposed paying Sykes $17 per hour, which is about $2 more than what the current operators are making and some of the assistants seemingly had a problem with that.
Fairley said that of the six grader operators working for the county only two were grading the rural thoroughfares properly, which is why he wants to hire Sykes back to instruct the crew as well as do some of the work on the county’s ailing rural infrastructure.
The five assistant road managers were asked to weigh in on the matter and were questioned about their own ability to train grader operators.
Neither declared that they had enough proficiency in that area, although a couple of them professed some knowledge of how the machines operate and how the roadwork should be done.
Assistant Road Manager Rusty McIntyre expressed his dismay over the proposed higher pay for the trainer.
“It would be my opinion that Sunflower County can’t afford $17 an hour,” he said, adding that $15 would be enough.
He added that the other workers are going to complain about it.
President Glenn Donald had reportedly invited the assistant managers there to hash out certain other concerns within the department.
The assistants were queried about the ways in which they aid Fairley. District 2 Supervisor Riley Rice, who was chairing the session until Donald arrived said, “Something has been going on in the road department, we haven’t been getting things done in a timely manner.”
The discussion that ensued raised many varying opinions with regard to the proposed hiring, the proper steps for repairing the rural roads, the practices and procedures of the assistant road managers as well as their ability to do their jobs effectively.
Recent visits to the county’s meetings by citizens who are not pleased with the conditions of their roads has revved up attention to the fact that the rural roads are not getting repaired and maintained properly. And apparently part of the problem stems from the lack of skilled road grader operators.
Assistant Road Manager Kirby Chambers offered his opinion on the skill-level of the current labor force, he expressed his thoughts on proper road grading techniques and added that it was not something to be acquired overnight and he also stressed the worth and importance of a skilled grader operator. He said he sees Sykes’ hiring as a plus.
District 5 Supervisor Gloria Dickerson stressed and clarified that Sykes would not just be a grader operator, but also a trainer. Dickerson then asked the other assistants if they thought Sykes would be an asset.
Assistant Road Manager Willie Davis responded, “We cannot fix a road, if we fix it, it’s going to last 6 months, 10 months. We don’t do that. We just maintain roads over and over,” he said. Dickerson was adamant that she just wants the roads fixed.
Donald stated that if a road was fixed the right way it wouldn’t need all of the repetitive maintenance. He said that when a road in the county gets graded the right way, Fairley is the one who does it. And he added that if the current workers are not getting the jobs done satisfactorily they should be let go so the county could hire someone who is capable.
He was strongly advocating for hiring skilled help.
“How is he (Fairley) going to be managing the whole county if he is sitting on a grader, grading the road,” Donald said, “What’s the problem with bringing somebody in to help you? If everybody sitting up here don’t think we need no help on the road, then I got a problem with you being in the position you’re in because evidently you don’t know what you’re looking at.”
He insisted that the roads needed to be repaired correctly even if the workers were only able to complete one road a week.
At one point the assistant road managers were dismissed because the board members stated they didn’t have a say in who gets hired anyway because it was up to the board and the road manager.
Donald reiterated that he had asked the assistant road managers to come in to discuss the road conditions not make a decision on how much to pay a new hire.
Rice made the motion that was seconded by Dickerson and they along with Donald voted yes.
District 3 Supervisor Dennis Holmes and District 4 Supervisor Anthony Clark voted no; however, Clark explained that his no vote was not because he was against the hiring, but based on the fact that Sykes had implied that he would come back and work for the county for $16.50.
Sykes is a former road grader operator of the county who left to take a higher paying job in an adjacent county.
Apparently he had been given a pay increase, but according to Fairley it was rescinded after murmurings and complaints arose from some of the other workers and that is when Sykes elected to take the other higher paying position.
Rice said, “If the other grader operators can’t train anybody, they shouldn’t complain. We can’t worry about them complaining. If they keep complaining, then let them go get another job.”
The county lawmakers also voted in a policy that requires any re-hires that have not been employed with the county for six months or more to go through the drug screening process again.
