The Wake County Board of Commissioners approved last week the hiring of 86 new full-time employees to assist with the increased workload generated by NC FAST.
Regina Petteway, interim director for Wake County Human Services, told the commissioners that caseloads for the employees of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services increased 67 percent while staff increased only 55 percent in the years from 2008-2014
Petteway asked the Board to appropriate $5.9 million of state and federal funds to establish those FTEs, which will fill needed case manager positions and infrastructure positions
Once the positions are filled, the number of case-management staff will rise to 365, and increase of about 50 percent
The request was unanimously approved by the commissioners.
Commissioners last week also discussed the land acquisition necessary to create an elementary school in West Cary. The site, valued $2.9 million, is in an area that has seen residential growth and transportation improvements.
Schools in this area will experience student crowding in the near future without the establishment of a new school, and that this is the “most cost-effective site in this area.”
The Board of Commissioners was asked to receive this information so that “this item will be placed on a future agenda for consideration of approval of funding,” according to the Board of Commissioners agenda.
The commissioners’ consent agenda concerned two items—the Samaritan Ambulance Service and the conveyance of property rights of a public greenway easement and potential storm water easements—and was passed with unanimous approval.
