The Owen County Commissioners have decided to move forward in the pursuit of creating a maternity leave policy for the county during their second March meeting. 

Currently, employees can only use their accrued vacation and comp time and take unpaid FMLA leave with short-term disability. 

“It's important for us to maintain our younger employees,” president Gary Burton said before asking if there was any discussion on the matter. “If not, I would like to have our counsel put together a policy for maternity leave for six weeks.”

The commissioners also decided to move forward with asking the county council to support the creation of another position for the building department. 

“We had presented a plan to the council some time back, and we pulled that for a rezone officer,” Burton said. 

He added that they attempted to create the position under the sheriff’s department, but it did not work out with the budget. 

“So we would like to present to the council, and I've talked to Polly [Chesser, council president] a little bit, and I've talked to Anton [Neff, councilman] a little bit about using the storage unit funds to put this officer into place.”

The plan would be to train that individual to help with code enforcement and then leave some funds available for a part-time building inspector if that was needed in the future. 

Burton commented on the long lines typically found at the building department’s office. 

“So anyway, we're looking at going to the council with using roughly $35,000 out of the storage unit money. It will be self-supported. No taxpayer dollars would be going to that whatsoever, and it would help that department and help our county,” Burton said. 

The commissioners also approved highway superintendent Greg Melton posting the road plan on the county website. 

The Owen County Commissioners typically meet at 9 a.m. on the first Monday and the third Wednesday of each month in the Commissioners Room on the second floor of the Owen County Courthouse, 60 S. Main St., Spencer.