Newbold board holds off on decisions related to employee evaluations

The Newbold town board did not make a formal decision with regard to employee evaluations during its Aug. 8 meeting, but town chairman Dan Hess indicated to The Lakeland Times after the meeting the board will likely resume evaluations.

Town supervisor Scott Ridderbusch brought up the idea of resuming evaluation and Hess agreed to put it on the agenda for the board to discuss further.

“Newbold stopped evaluations in 2013 of town employees,” Hess said. “My concern with it is (that) a yearly evaluation is healthy for the employee and the employer. It gives (us) a chance to meet with the employee (as well).”

He explained that not holding evaluations goes against town policy. 

“In order to get … a raise or a step increase, it says in our policy that we’re supposed to have a (yearly) evaluation,” Hess said. 

“So it was brought up on the agenda. We didn’t act on it last night. We’re probably going to meet in closed session at some point to discuss each employee to see where they’re at (with wages) and move forward with it,” Hess added.

The board will also go through the town policy and make sure it’s up to date, Hess added, noting that it hasn’t been updated the last few years. 

Possible permitting of town road right of way

The board also postponed any decision with regard to permitting for town road right of ways. 

“It’s related to like … cable companies, phone companies and all that stuff,” Hess said. “It gives us a chance as a town to be there so they’re not putting pedestals in the areas of where our plow trucks are going to knock them over.”

He said other area townships have ordinances in place in order to essentially have a say where cable, for example, is being laid along town roads. 

“A lot of times they’ll put the pedestals in the spot where the plow truck usually pushes snow, then they get upset with us because we knocked the pedestals over and it gives the town an opportunity to say ‘No, you got to put it over in this spot.’”

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].