WOODSFIELD — At the request of the Monroe County Emergency Management Agency, the Monroe County Board of Commissioners approved an additional $20,000 to the department’s budget to aid with overtime pay due to the coronavirus pandemic.

EMA Director Phil Keevert met with Commissioners Mick Schumacher, Dave Price and Carl Davis to request the additional funding during Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting. Keevert said the department has been struggling to pay employee overtime amid the pandemic.

In March alone, Keevert and Deputy EMA Director Jeremy Taylor worked more than 150 hours of overtime between them. Keevert said around $6,000 was used from the department’s budget to pay the March overtime hours. The director and deputy director are averaging anywhere between two and eight hours of overtime per day, he said.

After some discussion, commissioners approved the request and the funds will be administered at next week’s meeting. Keever said the advance will be reimbursed to the county through the Federal Emergency Management Agency at a later, unknown date.

Additionally, commissioners sent out a letter to the county’s elected officials and general fund department heads urging them to monitor budgetary funds.

“In conjunction with other counties who have already implemented budget reductions, we want to address the short- and long-term financial picture of the county due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are not sure how far revenues may fall, which will impact the decisions that we ultimately will make,” the letter states.

Commissioners requested officials implement a set of four temporary guidelines at this time:

∫ Hiring freeze on new positions;

∫ Large purchases be delayed if possible;

∫ Delay start of any large projects that do not already have funding sources;

∫ Request those within the general fund to search their budgets for ways to reduce expenses other than current employee salary and benefit reductions.

“Praying we can get through this without any reductions, but we wanted to make everyone aware of our concerns at this time,” commissioners stated.