Commissioners hire full-time employee to oversee water works

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Scurry County Commissioners decided it would be cheaper after all to hire a full-time employee as operations manager for Hermleigh Water Works — even if it costs more to hire that employee than originally advertised.
By a 4-1 vote — Pct. 3 Commissioner Shawn McCowen voted against the measure — the court decided to hire Pct. 3 road and bridge employee Gary Ashley as operations manager for the system effective Wednesday. He will make $20 an hour, which figures to about $41,600 a year. With insurance, benefits and other budgeted items, the position will cost taxpayers about $71,000 annually.
County Judge Dan Hicks and others surveyed contractors to see if that option would be cheaper than hiring a full-time employee. The cheapest estimate they found for a licensed contractor who could supply his own vehicle was $91,000 a year, considerably more than what a county employee will make in the position.
Given that disparity, Hicks said he had little trouble deciding to hire a full-time employee.
“The way I see it, there’s three advantages to this,” Hicks said. “One, it’s cheaper. Two, we’ll have more control over the employee. And, three, I think an employee will have more skin in the game than a contractor. He would care more about the position than a contractor would.”
Ashley was one of two people interviewed for the position by commissioners last week and both candidates expressed reservations about the $16.42 an hour the county was offering as salary.
Those arguments didn’t sway McCowen.
“I don’t have a thing against Gary, but we have employees who have worked for this county for a number of years and have all sorts of extra qualifications, and they don’t make $20 an hour,” McCowen said.
County Treasurer Nelda Colvin said the water works generated slightly more than $89,000 in revenue in 2018 and that figure is expected to go even higher after commissioners approved increased customer rates earlier this year. 
That revenue was offset by just more than $41,000 in expenses, which included $17,695 in contract labor expense. Repairs, utilities and supplies cost more than $23,000 last year.