County commission approves Islamic School plan, holds hearing on 2016 budget

Boone County leaders approved a variance to allow the Islamic School of Columbia of Mid-Missouri to add a daycare to their new facility.

The property covers more than 3.5 acres near South Cowan Road off Highway 36 near Discovery Parkway. Boone County Planning and Zoning said the daycare facility could allow for as many as 40 children.

The commission also held its first of three public hearings on the 2016 budget. The $74.4 million budget is a two-percent increase over the 2015 version.

County auditor June Pitchford said the 2016 budget adds 10 new employees when the new 9-1-1/Emergency Management Operations Center opens in the middle of next year. The new staffing costs $572,000, Pitchford’s budget statement said, paid through the 3/8-cent sales tax voters approved in 2013.

The county will also continue the salary evaluation process with technological staff. The new budget accounts for $94,000 in pay raises for office and administrative employees, whose salaries were evaluated this year. Northern District Commissioner Janet Thompson said the county needs to stay competitive when hiring and keeping qualified staff.

“People get trained in county government and then can go off and make a whole lot more,” Thompson said. “We don’t want to lose those great employees, because they’re doing such a wonderful work for us as citizens. If there’s a way we could keep them in county government, we’d love to keep them.”

The county implemented higher salaries for the sheriff’s department and court marshals after a 2014 evaluation.

Pitchford noted additional money in the General Fund – the collection of tax money from non-specific sources – would come from “several vacancies” in the sheriff’s department and county jail staff. That money would be used for the costs of putting on the 2016 voting cycle, $850,000 for an emergency fund and equipment replacement.

The commission will hold its next public budget hearing on December 8 at 9:30 a.m.