Local News

County solid waste department to make cuts

Published

7 years ago

March 6, 2018

La Crosse County is looking at making its solid waste department more compact.

Under the proposed change, the department would eliminate one full-time position and two seasonal employees.

County administrator Steve O’Malley told a county committee Monday that a deputy director position that oversees most solid waste operations can be dropped once a full-time director is hired.

“Spread out responsibilities with some impact on taking on responsibilities, so some of the lower paid positions will receive some recognition but that should save one full management position for an entire year,” O’Malley said.

Solid waste director Hank Koch’s retirement last year gave O’Malley a chance to study where there might be an overlap in management needs. O’Malley wants to distribute duties throughout a 13-person staff.

“We evaluated the responsibilities among all the positions and felt that we could do a lot more cross training and get by with one less management position, than the three foremly in the previous structure,” he said.

O’Malley added that if the change is approved by the county board, it would not take effect until the 2019 budget year.

Related Topics:la crosse county steve o'malley

Brad Williams

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.