Shepherdstown Water Board member John Bresland requests for town employee pay scale adjustments to be made at the monthly Town Council meeting on Sept. 10. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — The Corporation of Shepherdstown’s Town Council unanimously approved a major change to the town employee pay scale in its monthly meeting in Town Hall on Sept. 10.

Shepherdstown resident John Bresland, representing the Shepherdstown Water Board, noted that a lack of competitive pay has become increasingly problematic in recent years.

“The operations of the water plant and the wastewater plant are critically important to the town of Shepherdstown. We all need a consistent supply of drinking water,” Bresland said.

Prospective employees must be capable of complying with the “stringent” Environmental Protection Agency and West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection regulations, which makes hiring for these positions a little more challenging, according to Bresland.

“Each plant is technically complex. I would describe them as small chemical plants. The employees at each plant are highly trained and skilled technicians,” Bresland said, before giving an example of the level of training required of these employees. “At the water plant, they are classified from Operator in Training up to Operator Class 3. To move up to a higher class, they must have up to four years of experience and pass a state authorized examination.

Public Works Director Woody Coe speaks during the Corporation of Shepherdstown's monthly Town Council meeting on Sept. 10. Tabitha Johnston

“However, now we have a problem. Experienced employees are leaving the Shepherdstown drinking water plant and Woody is having difficulty in attracting new employees, because they are being recruited by neighboring communities who can offer better salaries for these highly skilled workers,” Bresland said, referring to Public Works Director Woody Coe. “How did we get here? Historically, the employees have had no regular pay raises or Cost of Living Adjustment. It is only in the last four years that the staff have received any pay increases, and then only two percent. This is not a sustainable situation.”

Currently, the Corporation of Shepherdstown is accepting applications for four positions: one in the Shepherdstown Wastewater Department, two in the Shepherdstown Water Department and one in the Shepherdstown Public Works Department. No applicants with the minimum requirements for any of the positions have applied.

According to Coe, the town’s current employees are working an extensive number of overtime hours, to cover the gaps left by these vacated positions. As the town employee positions are all salaried, none of the town’s employees are receiving overtime pay. Coe said that if the town had full-time, hourly pay, he and his fellow workers would likely be making anywhere between $4,000 and $5,000 in overtime this year.

At the request of the Shepherdstown Water Board, Coe did extensive research into what would make the Corporation of Shepherdstown competitive with the rest of the region. He proposed several changes, based on this research, to the town’s pay scales, compensation time and use of take-home vehicles in the Sept. 10 meeting.

“If we make all of the adjustments needed, we will have no trouble hiring people and keeping those that we do have,” Coe said.

Coe proposed several changes, including allowing the town’s employees to take home their work vehicles, since they have to do emergency calls at all hours of the day and night; applying a wage scale to employee salaries, which will raise the salaries competitively with the market; and designating $28,000 for compensation hours, in lieu of the extreme hours of overtime work caused by staffing issues.

“With this kind of proposal, it’s not just catching up — it’s an emergency,” Coe said.