Dawson County commissioners celebrated two pieces of good news at their Nov. 1 voting session the final payment on the jail and parking lot debt, and a one-time bonus for county employees by the end of the year.

Full-time employees will receive the approved $541.42 per employee for the pay period of Nov. 1 through Nov. 16. Part-time employees, not including seasonal or temporary employees, also will receive a bonus of $270.71 per employee. It will average to about $500 per full-time employee, or $250 for part-time employees, depending on the workers deductions.

The total adds up to $150,663.37 coming out of fund balance.

District Two Commissioner James Swafford made the motion, with District Three Commissioner Jimmy Hamby seconding. The vote passed unanimously.

The county also will have its debt for the jail and courthouse parking lot paid off by the end of the year.

The debt stands at $4,396,911.75 for the jail, and $678,297.52 for the courthouse parking lot, according to County Manager Kevin Tanner. Tanner also said that, around Nov. 15, the county will notify the bond holders of the intent to pay off the debt.

The funds will be wired out on Monday, Dec. 3, Tanner said.

This is a big issue, though, because it shows our viability, said Chairman Mike Berg at the Oct. 25 work session. That we do what we say were going to do in the time we say were going to do it. It ought to mean something to the citizens of this county that we pay our debts.

The commissioners also voted to approve the request for additional county attorney money for the tax assessors office, totaling to an additional $15,000 to the budgeted $11,000. The extra funds will come from the countys contingency fund.

The extra funds were requested due to court cases pending from last years appeals, which were prepared for trial but did not go through. The cases involved disagreements over property valuations.