County job vacancies may lead to contracted services

Shawano County has been hit hard trying to fill vacant positions, and now those difficulties have extended to the custodial staff.

Steve Dreher, director of facilities and grounds, told the Shawano County Public Property Committee on Sept. 12 he is still short two of five custodians and the three remaining are facing burnout.

“We’re getting applicants, but none of them are worth anything,” he said. “We had a really good candidate that we interviewed, and she ended up taking another position.”

With a starting pay of $16.47 an hour, the full-time job duties include routine building cleaning tasks such as sweeping, mopping, stripping, waxing and buffing floors; washing windows, doors, screens and blinds; collecting trash and recyclables; cleaning restrooms; dusting; and shoveling snow from stoops and entrance ways when necessary.

“The existing staff is really starting to get burnt out. We have them jumping around all these buildings and stuff,” Dreher said. “If we burn up too many of the existing staff, the next thing we know we’re hurting even worse.”

Committee members voted to have Dreher and his office investigate using a contracted company to clean the Department of Human Services (DHS).

Normally, the custodial staff includes three at the courthouse, two at DHS and one part-timer at the library.

Elsewhere in the county, the sheriff’s department has had ongoing issues finding sufficient staff to serve as dispatchers and correctional officers. The public library also has a high turnover rate, although much of that is because many of those jobs are part time. There is also a high turnover rate at DHS.

kpasson@newmedia-wi.com