By Amanda Amsel
Staff Writer
At a recent Prairie Township meeting, the board of trustees unanimously approved to give one township employee a pay increase, while also revising their job description.
The board approved giving the road department supervisor Dave McAninich a 12 percent pay increase, increasing his hourly pay from $35.10 an hour to $39.31 an hour.
“His new salary will be $81,000 a year and due to the nature of his position he will still be eligible for overtime,” said Tracy Hatmaker, administrator for Prairie Township. “His title will be changed from road superintendent to service director.”
According to Hatmaker, when McAninich had the title of road superintendent it was misleading because his job encompassed so much more. Hatmaker said this title change is just the township catching up with work McAninich has already been doing and making the title reflect the full job he already takes on daily.
“Over time, the road superintendent job has really grown and that title just doesn’t make sense anymore,” Hatmaker said. “Dave is in charge of the township parks, park maintenance, has been involved in construction projects, oversaw the construction of the community center and works with the department heads on various issues. He has acted as more of a director of service for some time.”
Trustee Ron Ball expressed his initial hesitation of this promotion and raise.
“Originally I was against this, but the more I thought about it, the more I was in favor of it,” he said. “He is going to have people working under him and he is taking on so many other jobs, so this does make sense.”
Trustee Steve Kennedy agreed, saying McAninich is critical to the township.
“He is the only township employee I can say we can’t afford to lose,” Kennedy said.
McAninich won’t have an assistant and will have five full-time employees reporting to him.
“This really is in recognition of the great quality of work he has provided the township,” Hatmaker said.
The board also approved a contractor for the township’s annual sidewalk program. During the program, the township provides loans to township residents to repair their sidewalks. The interest free loans do not have to be paid back for 10 years.
Prairie Township Community Center Director James Gant also gave an update on the membership at the community center, saying that they had almost 5,000 members.
“Several hundred people are using the center every day,” he said. “Right now, we have no limit on how many members we are going to have, we will just have to wait and see if it becomes an issue.”
