Saline County Commissioners heard from 16 citizens Tuesday morning in regard to last week’s decision to immediately eliminate four department head positions. Four of the citizens spoke directly in support of the decision, while the other dozen did not.

At last Tuesday’s Saline County Commission meeting, in a 2-1 vote, the commission did away with the positions of County Administrator, Road and Bridge Director, Planning and Zoning Director and Health Department Director. The move means Rita Deister (Administrator), David Neal (Planning and Zoning) and Dave Nowak (Road and Bridge) are all out of work as of January 1st. The position of County Health Director has been vacant since Bronson Farmer resigned unexpectedly in early October. Tuesday’s vote stopped the search to fill that position.

Outgoing Commissioner Randy Duncan and Commissioner John Price voted in favor of the motion to eliminate the positions. Commissioner Jim Gile voted “No”.

After the public comment session ended Tuesday, commissioners did not address the issue. Both John Price and Jim Gile indicated that the new commission of five will address the topic at their first meeting next week.