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Levee District No. 3 Board Approves Raise For Superintendent

By ERIC X. VICCARO

eviccaro@stegenherald.com

Ste. Genevieve County Levee District No. 3 board of directors approved a raise for superintendent Norman Gallup at its Jan. 12 regular meeting.

The hour-long meeting covered a wide variety of topics.

Gallup performs a highly technical and specialized functions on the levee, and he brought up the matter of increasing his salary during new business.

He has been working on issues surrounding the levee for the past four years, and often goes “above and beyond” the required details.

Relatively new director member Philip Loida questioned what the budget allowed in terms of wages — which was part of the brief deliberation process.

Gallup said his job since becoming the levee’s caretaker has been to, “fix everything to the way it’s built or better.”

The general consensus is the levee board needs to begin having a yearly maintenance program in place.

Director Tom Okenfuss made a motion – seconded by Loida – to increase Gallup’s pay by $5 per hour to $25 per hour.

It also was agreed to renegotiate’s Gallup’s compensation in January 2022.

The amount of work Gallup performs changes from year to year, depending upon how much rain falls – and how that impacts the levee.

There also was discussion on raising board of director Sue Schweiss’ pay for her services, which Loida brought onto the table.

Schweiss also serves as the levee district’s secretary and assistant treasurer.

Loida then made a motion, seconded by board president Vern Bauman, to increase Schweiss’ pay to $200 per month for 10 hours of work, and $20 per hour for anything beyond that amount of time.

Schweiss had been making $162 per month for her services.

Also under new business, Okenfuss said someone was needed to fill the remaining term of Robert Eck, which runs through November 2022, who reportedly resigned from the board.

Eck before a director’s meeting late last year refused to comply with regulations for either wearing a mask or participating in the session via the Zoom teleconferencing application – which was an option made available to him.

Okenfuss recommended local farmer Brian Kertz, who could be nominated at the next meeting in February should he be willing to fill the opening.

Also during new business, it was learned the levee board has not heard from the United States Army Corps of Engineers on road expansion for the crane pad.

Gallup said Pump No. 2 needs servicing while Pump No. 3 needs a check up.