DARE COUNTY, N.C. — The main tourist season on North Carolina’s Outer Banks is fast approaching and leaders in Dare County want to make sure a key function is fully staffed: trash collection.
Dare County is down about a half dozen sanitation workers right now, leaving little slack. Some other public works employees are helping out in the meantime.
The Public Works department handles trash collection for unincorporated parts of the county and in Kitty Hawk.
Within the town limits of places like Manteo and Nags Head, trash collection is handled by the towns themselves.
And that’s part of the challenge: they’re all competing for the same workers.
After considering a range of options to deal with the labor shortage, County Manager Bobby Outten asked county commissioners to approve a raise for sanitation workers to match the highest rates in the area.
Commissioners signed off on the request at their February monthly meeting.
Environment
Port of Va. first on East Coast to operate entirely on 100% clean electricity
"We need to take a position that we're not losing any more of our drivers to the municipalities," said Wally Overman, vice-chair of the Dare County Board of Commissioners.
“We’re going to pick up the trash. There’s not an option to not get the trash picked up,” Outten said. “What we’re doing is we’re planning ahead, so that I can keep that promise.”
One factor in the shortage is the need for workers with a commercial driver’s license. The county will now pay for CDL training in effort to help with the staffing crunch.
Outten told News 3 that the $80,000 needed to fund the new salaries for the rest of the fiscal year is available in this year’s budget. Leaders will keep the higher salaries in mind as they formulate the budget for next fiscal year in the coming months.
