The Washington County Supervisors approved adding one staff person to the engineer’s office.

Washington County’s engineer’s office will be adding one employee and one more motor grader district this year. In their meeting Tuesday, the Washington County Board of Supervisors approved adding one employee with the potential to add another next year depending on the economy. County Engineer Jacob Thorius explained the current situation when he made the request last week for more staff, explaining he has 22 employees and adding a few employees would improve work in the county in maintenance and snow removal.

The county will increase to having 11 motor grader districts from 10, which will increase the speed of response time for the department. Thorius added his budget has the capacity for additional staff and equipment, in part due to the gas tax.

The staffing increase was approved on a vote of 4-1.