Lincoln County to advertise county-paid nurse position; PHRC grant pay raised to $27

Lincoln County commissioners on Feb. 21 authorized the Public Health Nurse Manager to advertise a county-paid nurse position with a salary range of $30–$36 per hour and agreed to raise the PHRC (Public Health Response Corps) grant-funded rate to $27 per hour.

Madison Wilkes, Public Health Nurse Manager, asked the board to raise the PHRC pay rate to align with grant requirements and to support recruitment. "We need to be competitive to recruit and retain nursing staff," Wilkes said during her update. Commissioners agreed and instructed staff to advertise the county nurse position at the stated range.

Brittany Ritter, Prevention Coordinator, also briefed the board on a new online resource guide, an upcoming suicide-awareness event in Kemmerer on March 9, QPR trainings and recent TIPS trainings, and discussed opioid-abatement funding priorities. The board opted to defer broader salary-compensation plan discussion to the March meeting.

The actions taken are administrative approvals to advertise and to set pay ranges; specific hires and funding sources were not finalized in the minutes and will follow standard county hiring and grant-management procedures.