A four-day work week could be in Mower County’s future.

At least, it’s something to think about, according to one Mower County commissioner.

David Hillier, 3rd District county commissioner, brought up the topic at Tuesday afternoon’s meeting.

According to Hillier, Winona County is studying making the transition from a five-day work week to only four days.

“They found, there could be a utility and energy savings by having county offices and departments only open four days a week,” Hillier told the commissioners.” “In order to do that, they would have to increase the hours worked by their employees during four days, but that also held advantages for citizens, who, like the workers, worked regular 8-to-5 schedules,” he said.

“If the county workers started work earlier on a 10-hour day and worked later, they would be available to help citizens doing county business.”

Hillier said the time is right to investigate how that could be done in Mower County.

He said one of the first steps to take would be to visit with local bargaining units representing county workers.

The county board’s budget committee — the finance committee plus county coordinator Craig Oscarson and county finance director Donna Welsh — are in the midst of budget preparations for the 2009 property tax levy and budget.

Hillier also proposed, the county commissioners consider hold a work session with county department heads and others to prioritize county programs and services to be funded another year.

The strain of unfunded mandates from the state, rising costs to provide services, rising fuel and energy costs and other impacts are taking their toll on the county’s “bean-counters.”

It’s also an election year, when voters are expected to ask tough questions about county spending at the annual Truth In Taxation hearing.

Hillier said he was not, at this time, proposing a 4-day work week, but he said, “It’s something to think about.”

Ray Tucker, 2nd District county commissioner, said, “I think it’s worth looking into.”

In other action Tuesday, the commissioners:

— Agreed to temporarily transfer Austin – Mower County Area Transit (AMCAT) clerical duties from Denise Bartels to Dawn Mueller. Bartels was recently reassigned to work 40-hours per week as an administrative assistant in the county coordinator’s office. The reassignment will force her to give up the 10 hours per week she worked on AMCAT matters. Mueller, a part-time worker in the Mower County Auditor-Treasurer office, will assume the AMCAT duties.

— Agreed to appoint a commissioner to join a protest Sept. 24, at the State Capitol, where opponents of the state’s decision to reduce reimbursement to counties for the short-term offender program will congregate. Mower County Sheriff Terese Amazi has already agreed to join the Mower County delegation.

The state reduced compensation to counties to house prisoners serving state prison sentences from $27 to only $9 a day. Exacerbating the problem for Mower County is the fact that it was reduced to a 90-day lockup facility by the Minnesota Department of Corrections in November 2007. Now, Mower County must pay to have offenders from state prisons who return home to serve the remainder of their sentences, because its own facility is not certified to house them. Mower County pays four to five times more to board out the prisoners than it receives from the state.