Commissioner complains about progress on fair manager post

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean expressed frustration to Great Northern Fair Board members during the board’s monthly meeting Tuesday night for not having moved any closer to hiring a manager-groundskeeper.

“We don’t have a job description for manager,” board member Karla Vaughn said during the meeting.

She said the hiring committee had not met since the last meeting, Dec. 20, and so had not agreed on whether the position will be one or two, whether it will have a different title and whether the house on the fairgrounds will be included with the position.

McLean said tabling the motion to advertise the position for another month will make it that much harder for whoever will eventually take the job. The person taking that job will have more to do the closer it gets to summer, she said.

“That’s what I see,” she said. “It makes it that much harder for that person that does step in there. (The job description) doesn’t have to be perfect.”

McLean added that candidates for the position already have expressed interest.

During the Dec. 20 meeting, board chair Paul McCann said the goal by the time board members met Tuesday was to have the description solidified and ready to advertise. McCann was not present Tuesday night.

“There aren’t any guarantees. We hire someone and then we roll with it.” McLean said after the meeting. “You look at that person and you interview and you make the best decision at the time and you don’t know.”

Board member Chelby Gooch told McLean during the meeting that advertising a job that wasn’t ready to be advertised is what had caused the problem they’re now dealing with.

“We want to get it right this time,” board member Ray Kallenberger said.