The Fairground’s Convenience Center currently only has one employee working at a time during the week. With the amount of business the site does, Sanitation Department director Josh Roberts has requested to hire another employee.

Roberts presented his proposed budget to the Health and Welfare Committee on Thursday night and requested $16,000 to hire a part-time employee during the week since the work load is becoming too much for one employee to manage alone.

“I am asking for $16,000 there to hire one for labor at the Fairgrounds Convenience Center. So that site as of right now we have one employee there on a shift. That site, we counted the cars last week and they serviced 400 cars in an eight-hour shift,” said Roberts.

Roberts wants to hire someone to work for a few hours during the week because the site is becoming increasingly busy. He told the committee they currently have two people working on weekend so the new employee would only be needed for about four days during the week.

“I am looking to at least give them somebody there six hours out of the day to have two there to better serve the people and to take a little pressure off them,” said Roberts. “The guys are hanging in there doing the best they can, but they are coming to me and saying, ‘Hey Josh, we would love to have some extra help,’ and a lot of times when I get off during the day I will go over there and I will check on them. I’ll jump on the loader and run it for them as much as I can, but they are doing about as much as I can so I would like to see us be able to fund at least $16,000 there just to be able to hire an extra guy to take the pressure off them.”

Roberts also told the committee the site has grown a lot in the three years he has been there. The Budget and Finance Committee will vote on the proposed budget.