Local News

Elkins considers creating urban landscaper position

ELKINS -- The City of Elkins' Personnel Committee discussed potentially creating a new city position for an urban landscaper during its meeting this week.

Marilynn Cuonzo, although not present at this week's meeting, is planning to give a more in-depth presentation about this potential position at the regularly scheduled Elkins City Council meeting set for Thursday, Feb. 20.

"Looking back, our city had the tree boxes and the trees planted in the late 1900s," First Ward Councilwoman Judy Guye said. "They were really nice and they looked nice for several years, but there was no real maintenance done on these trees."

"I think, with an urban landscaper working for the city, then that person would keep up with the trees," she continued.

Guye noted that, in the past, the city had sections of the street department who were responsible for maintenance of the downtown greenery.

"Those employees really weren't enthusiastic about doing this type of work and it just sort of phased out and (the plants) weren't taken care of," Guye said.

This position would not be full-time as this type of work doesn't need to be done every day, officials said. The committee proposed that the individual may work just a few weeks out of the year to care for the plants.

Financial aspects of this position were not discussed as no motions to move this issue out of the Personnel Committee have been made.

Also during this meeting:

• Committee members also discussed the dates for administrative officers' yearly evaluations on Monday.

It was proposed during the meeting to have yearly evaluations performed at one point in the calendar year, as opposed to sporadically across multiple months.

There was no motion for this discussion as a decision had not yet been reached.