St. Joseph — The Berrien County Board of Commissioners voted on Sept. 28 to establish the Berrien County Road Department and to dissolve the Berrien County Road Commission effective on that date. This follows two required public hearings hosted on Aug. 17 and Aug. 24 with an additional one on Sept. 7.

With this, the transfer of the powers, duties and functions of the road commission are absorbed into Berrien County government as a new department. The Berrien County Road Department assumes all pending contracts, work orders, funding agreements, and adopted plans that were previously approved by the road commission with no break in service.

Berrien County staff will be working with this new department and its employees through the transition period, as all employees and positions of the former road commission are transferred to the road department.

The county administrator has appointed Louie Csokasy as road department director (interim), Don Geisler as road department superintendent (interim), and Brian Berndt as road department highway engineer (interim). A salary schedule for all non-union employees will be established prior to Dec. 31 and the collective bargaining agreement for the union employees is recognized.

The county administrator is directed to combine and/or amend job responsibilities and make the necessary personnel changes associated with these changes to improve the efficiencies within the road department. All policies of the road commission are adopted by the Berrien County board of commissioners until such time as they are reviewed, amended and/or replaced by county policies. It is the intent of the Berrien County board of commissioners to approve the hiring of a road department director by Dec. 31.

Berrien County has also procured the services of an environmental consulting firm to complete Baseline Environmental Assessments for any appropriate properties. While this transition is underway, the website formally used by the road commission, bcroad.org, is under construction. To place a service request for road maintenance issues please call (269) 925-1196 and follow the prompts or visit berriencounty.org and select the “contact us” option.

It is the Berrien County board of commissioners’ intent to assure a smooth transition of this department and to provide the best service for the residents of Berrien County while maximizing the efficiencies and opportunities offered by departmentalization.