County OKs pay raises, $400k change order for landfill work

It was a mixed bag of news at the June 18 Lincoln County Commission meeting.

An investment of federal money helped the commissioners to unanimously approve a 5% cost of living pay raise for all elected employees, effective July 1.

District 2 Commissioner Jim Hammons said $7 million was invested with Raymond James Financial Inc., last year from money that the county got from the Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund. The fund is a general revenue enhancement program that provides additional assistance to eligible revenue sharing counties, Tribal governments and revenue sharing consolidated governments.

The federal American Rescue Plan appropriated $2 billion to the U.S. Treasury across fiscal years 2022 and 2023 to provide payments to eligible revenue sharing counties, such as Lincoln County, for use on any governmental purpose except for a lobbying activity.

The return on the investment nearly paid for the cost of the raises. As they have in the past, commissioners have justified pay raises for elected officials because county sheriff's deputy's pay is tied to that of the county sheriff.

“We’ve lost some good people to the private sector and this will allow us to hopefully keep more,” District 1 Commissioner Brent Teske said. "We want to keep them happy."

The cost of the raises are about $289,390 and the commissioners had to use $45,000 from the general fund since the investment brought in the rest.

According to Resolution 2025-23, Sheriff Darren Short and Commissioners Brent Teske, Jim Hammons and Noel Duram each will make $68,324.75.

County Attorney Marcia Boris will make $66,324.75. A portion of her salary is paid by the county. 

Superintendent of Schools Suzy Rios will make $66,324.75, as will Clerk and Recorder Corinna Brown and Clerk of Court Tricia Brooks, Treasurer Sedaris Carlberg.

For the county coroner, Craig Riddel, he will be paid $19,847.43. His salary is set at 30% of the Clerk and Recorder’s salary. The Deputy County Coroner, Jay Moody, salary will be $5,969.23, set at 30% of the County Coroner’s salary.

For Justice of the Peace Jay Sheffield, his salary will be $68,324.75

In 2024, county employees received a cost of living 1.5% pay raise. 

But when it came to a discussion about the landfill expansion, the report was quite different.

Teske said that the landfill expansion encountered an unanticipated layer of mud and as a result, the engineer submitted a change order resulting in about $400,000 over the available grant and ARPA funds.

Hammons made a motion to approve the change order and pay for it out of PILT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes). Commissioner Duram seconded and the motion was approved. 

“I’m not sure why we spent money to do the test drilling,” Teske said. "But the mud was so gooey their equipment couldn't work through it. Fortunately, they didn't charge us a standby or stop fee."

Part of the discussion included core drilling not initially revealing soil issues and the clay layer that prevented developers from attaining the engineered depth for the liner. It will now be placed on top of the clay requiring pond expansion.

At the Feb. 26 commission meeting, the commissioners unanimously approved awarding the contract to M.A. DeAtley Construction, Clarkston, Washington at the Feb. 26 meeting. DeAtley’s $5.05 million bid was well under the offers made by five competitors, including two Libby companies.

DeAtley’s bid of $5,049,375.10 bested Stanfield, Oregon’s Swaggart Brothers bid of $5,346,770, Libby’s Noble Excavating offer of $5,372,930 and Libby’s Thompson Contracting bid of $6,472,746.10.

At the time, District 3 Commissioner Noel Duram questioned the history of bid overruns for DeAtley. 

County Health Department Director Kathi Hooper said her research through GreatWest Engineering indicated similar projects coming in on time, in a quality manner with minimal change orders.

The expansion includes about 17.4 acres of property located southeast of the current landfill at 2501 Pipe Creek Road. An existing drive will be used to access the site from the main entrance off Pipe Creek Road via Libby Landfill Road. Of the 17.4 acres, 14.3 acres will be used for active landfilling activities. The remaining acreage would remain undisturbed.

But because of the layer of mud, the expansion of the landfill will be less than first planned.

"Because they can't go any deeper, we lose one or two years of use," Teske said.

 The existing landfill is expected to reach capacity in 2027. In its application, Lincoln County explained that the expansion would allow for the continued acceptance of Group II, Group III and Group IV waste, all of which are accepted at the existing landfill, alleviating the need for this waste to be transported outside of the county for final disposal. 

Originally, the expansion would extend the timeline for active landfilling in this area by about 29 years.