LCHS board requests director pay increase

The Lyon County Historical Society presented a request to the Lyon County Board of Commissioners at its July 19 county board meeting for more money for its executive director.
Lyon County Historical Society acting President Bill Palmer said research of nine other counties’ historical societies with populations ranging from 8,000-47,000, showed the executive director position in Lyon County is grossly underpaid.
“Members of our board, for some time, have been concerned that our salary scale may not be on par with that of peer and near peer county historical societies within the state,” Palmer said in his address to the board. “I conducted a salary-and-benefits survey in March and April of this year where I contacted 13 different county historical societies, asking them for salary and benefits information and the nature of positions they have.”
Palmer found the average salary for executive directors at those historical societies in counties comparable to Marshall in population is just over $44,000. Palmer looked at two categories — average peer or smaller population (26,000) and average peer or smaller budget ($200,000). Currently, the Lyon County Historical Society director’s salary is in the $32,000-per-year range.
“We were concerned immediately that we were well below our peer organizations,” Palmer said. “Our current executive director represents our county and our organization really well; she’s well-known around the state, and we feel the need to elevate her salary so it is on par with other peer organizations … whose goal is similar to ours.”
The historical society’s ask to the county, and the City of Marshall, is an increase in funding over a three-year span to ultimately bring the total salary to $44,000 for the executive director and $30,420 for the collections manager; both are adjusted for a 3% yearly increase.
The LCHS’s immediate ask is for an additional $7,612.26 for 2023; after that, the increase would by 9.80% in 2023, 9.33% in 2024 and 8.92% in 2025, with the increase dropping back to 4.01% in 2026. The LCHS will approach the City of Marshall with the request next week.
“Currently, the distribution between government appropriations to our support is that the county provides about 75% of that support, the city about 25%,” Palmer said.
The current LCHS budget is about $200,000, and the group uses donations for program funding and not operations. The majority of its operations budget comes from the county and city, with a small amount coming from food and gift sales. The LCHS’s typical funding request increase is 2.23% and goes for things like utilities. The difference between that and the request will be used strictly for wages.
The board planned on taking the request into consideration as the budget process moves forward over the next couple of months.

In other news from Tuesday…
• The LCHS’s request wasn’t the only one heard Tuesday. Commissioners also heard a proposal for additional funding for the county’s Drug Court program. The reason for that request is a lack of staff available to provide drug testing for participants of the treatment program. Grady Holtberg, representing the Drug Court program, told commissioners that the program saves a significant amount of taxpayer money every year. He said the average cost for a one-year prison stay in Minnesota is $41,364, while a treatment program costs the State about $4,500 per year. Holtberg said the increase in funding would help pay for two drug testers — one male, one female — at $20 per hour for three hours a week. That comes out to $5,760 per year, with half coming from treatment court participation fees and the other half from the County.
“We just don’t have the funding available to pay that full amount without completely draining our funding resources that we need for other areas,” Holtberg said.
Commissioner Gary Crowley said the program has proven its worth over the years.
“One time before COVID I attended a graduation there, and I was very impressed,” Crowley said. “It helps get people back on track; I think it’s a good program.”
Commissioner Charlie Sanow made a motion to fill the program’s financial need immediately for one year, as opposed to waiting until the budget process kicks in and allocating money in 2023.
“I’ve been a part of the drug program for a long time and have actually had people come out of the drug program work for me,” said Sanow. “It is a great program; these are supposed to be random tests, and you can’t have a random test when you have to organize these things.”
Board Chair Steve Ritter seconded Sanow’s motion to allocate $1,440 for one year and then revisit the issue at a later date for a possible additional allocation for a second year. The motion passed unanimously.
• The board heard a request for consideration of support for new restrooms and showers at the Lyon County Fairgrounds, but no decision was made, as commissioners asked for a deeper look into facilities at other fairgrounds.
• The board adopted a floodplain ordinance and approved the repair of tile repair for JD 18 at an estimated cost of $27,000. The bid was for 620 feet of 30-inch tile at $28.95 per foot.
• The board approved the hiring of Jackson Stauffacher as correctional officer with a starting rate of $21.02 per hour, with a start time to be determined. His hiring is contingent on a successful background check and pre-employment screening.
• The board approved the hiring of two temporary part-time staffers, Tom Muelebroeck and Stephen Zimmer, for the election season.