Pickett County Commissioners approved compensation Monday night for EMS and Sheriff’s Office employees who complete in-service training during their off time.
County Commissioner Chris Masiongale said EMS and Sheriff’s Office employees have to complete at least 40 hours of in-service live training to stay certified. Maisongale said occasionally employees have to show up for training on their day off and are not being compensated. Commissioner Tony Beaty said this would be a good incentive on top of the $800 state stipend to meet the training requirements.
“You can’t force them to come in and not pay them,” Beaty said. “But with this, this would give them an incentive to come in and make sure that they got that 40 hours. It would benefit the billing department, it makes for better care for the people that are having to go and help, I mean, and pick up.”
Employees will be paid at their respective hourly rate, only for the number of hours spent during the training while off the clock. Not all commissioners were on board. Commissioner Deborah Garrett said she wanted to know more about the proposal before voting.
“Well, now there are other positions that have to have continuing education to keep their licenses, and people don’t get paid for going to it,” Garrett said. “I think I want to hear some more research on what other counties say before I vote on this.”
County Executive Stephen Bilbrey said EMS trains every third Thursday of each month and usually lasts from two to four hours. Bilbrey said he didn’t have hard numbers but believed approving the compensation pay would not cost the county a lot of money.
“Probably at the most, at the ambulance service, you would be looking somewhere around $9,000 – $10,000 extra, and at the Sheriff’s Department, I would say the Sheriff’s Department would be about the same,” Bilbrey said.
Bilbrey said the only training that employees will be compensated for is training that is performed in Pickett County. Bilbrey said he does not think employees should be compensated if they travel to a conference for training.
In other business, the commission approved the county’s 2025 Debt Obligation Report.