Some White County employees to get extra vacation time pay

CLEVELAND - Some White County government employees have an extra reason to be thankful this week.

Employees who have accrued more than 80 hours of vacation time and haven't used that by the end of the year have been given a early Christmas present from the county commissioners. Those employees will receive pay for the accrued hours that are more than 80.

Commissioner Craig Bryant proposed the pay during a meeting this week.

In making his motion, Bryant said, "Employees of the county, if they've got vacation time and it's not used by the end of the year, they'll get paid for their time rather than losing it, because we've got the money. We can either take it out of contingency or we can take it out of general fund and make a budget adjustment at the end of the year, it don't [sic] make no difference to me. My motion is we pay them their time so they won't lose it."

One of the areas where the employees will benefit most is the White County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Neal Walden said his employees have around 900 combined hours of vacation time accrued.

The extra vacation time pay will cost the county around $82,000.