photo by: Shelley Hanson

Ohio County Commissioners Zach Abraham, left, and Don Nickerson listen to a report during Tuesday’s meeting. Ohio County sheriff’s deputies plan to direct traffic during busy holiday shopping times at The Highlands this year.

The Ohio County Sheriff’s Office aims to keep shoppers at The Highlands merry during the holiday shopping season.

Ohio County Sheriff Nelson Croft told the Ohio County Commission on Tuesday that he plans to have deputies work overtime at the large shopping center in Triadelphia starting around Thanksgiving and each weekend through New Year’s.

They will not only conduct extra patrols, but also direct traffic so it does not get too congested. He said traffic backups have been a problem at the site in the past during high shopping season.

Ohio County Commissioner Randy Wharton noted it is important to have good traffic control at the site because doing so will keep shoppers happy. This in turn will help the retailers do well and result in better tax revenues.

He said the site also has a full-time maintenance crew and EMS personnel for quick responses.

“It’s important that people feel good and that they feel safe while shopping there,” he said.

Croft added The Highlands, if it were a city, would be the second-largest in Ohio County, next to Wheeling.

In other matters, commissioners heard a short presentation regarding an employee pay study conducted by Dave Evertsen of Municipal Solutions. Evertsen said he compared Ohio County to similarly sized governments with similar budgets. Commission President Zachary Abraham said a copy of the study would be available after it was discussed with county department heads.

Some proposals highlighted by Evertsen included creating a new salary range for management and having a merit-based pay grade system. He also noted the county has some jobs that pay more and others that pay less compared to other governments. For example, the 911 director job pays about $5,000 less than the market.

He also noted Ohio County has 55% fewer employees who do the same amount of work as other counties with more employees.

Abraham noted the study did not compare employee benefits.

The City-County Building will be closed Nov. 11 for Veterans Day. The next commission meeting is set for 8 a.m. Nov. 18.