Pingree Grove hires three new staff members

The village of Pingree Grove added three new members to its staff this month, but budget projections haven’t changed significantly, officials said.

A superintendent of water and sewer services and a water plant operator — both new, full-time positions — began work Feb. 1, while a full-time assistant finance director should start work around Feb. 22, Village Administrator Ken Lopez said.

Superintendent of Water and Sewer Services Gary Zickuhr makes $68,500 yearly, while the water plant operator gets paid $17 per hour for 2,080 hours per year, Lopez said. The village previously contracted a Rockford company to operate and maintain the plants, he said. “The operator elected to scale back its operations, and it gave us an opportunity to evaluate how we do things,” he said.

The change will yield a savings of about $60,000 per year, Lopez said. Pingree Grove’s fiscal year ends April 30.

On Monday, the village board narrowly approved the hiring of Juliet Gaber of St. Charles as assistant finance director in a 4-3 vote, with Village President Greg Marston casting the tiebreaking vote. Marston did not return a request for comment.

Gaber most recently took time off to rear her children; she has a master’s degree in accounting and is a registered CPA, Lopez said.

Her pay will be $46,000, the same as Candi Gay, the former assistant to the finance director, who quit after Thanksgiving to take a job in the private sector. Pingree Grove had a full-time finance director for 3½ years until January 2011, when that person quit and the positions was combined with that of the village administrator.

Trustee Brian Paszkiewicz said he but wanted to wait until next fiscal year, which begins May 1, to hire someone. “It was a very expensive year, and I just wanted to try to minimize our expenses,” he said.

Village officials have been projecting a hole of about $50,000 in the budget. “We are on track for what was budgeted,” Lopez said. Paszkiewicz said the village board is determined to have a balanced budget next year.