Edgefield County Reorganizes Staff Positions to Continue to Improve County Government

From the Assist. Administrator’s Office, Feb. 2, 2012

Edgefield County is announcing changes in its Administrative staff to better utilize the skills and talents of the employees so the County can continue to provide improved services to taxpayers, according to Lynn Strom, Assistant Edgefield County Administrator.

First, Lakeisha Bryant is appointed as the County’s GIS Manager and Grant Writer.  The County often receives requests for County mapping that contains different layers of information, such as topographical, infrastructure, land ownership, etc.  The County does not currently have this information readily available.  Ms. Bryant is trained in GIS mapping.  GIS mapping is an important area for the County’s future.  Using her knowledge of the County and her GIS training, Ms. Bryant will be able to transform our mapping system in order to include valuable information through GIS mapping to County officials, developers within the County, and most importantly our citizens.  She will also assist other departments within the County in identifying grants available for County projects and assisting in the application process creating a funding mechanism for important County projects.

In order for Ms. Bryant to devote her time and skills to advancing our GIS department and securing grant funds for the County, Mike Reed is being named as the County Assessor.  Mr. Reed has a great deal of training and experience as the County Assessor both in Aiken County and Edgefield County.  He has been working for the past few years as the County’s Building Official.  We appreciate the work that he has done and feel his experience in the field and knowledge of the County will be beneficial to all citizens of Edgefield County.

Through the strategic planning process that the County has been undergoing for the past few months, we have identified the need for strong leadership in the area of Development Services.  This would include planning, development standards, roads, storm drainage, and recreation.  Roger LeDuc has agreed to join us part time to lead the Development Services for the County.  Mr. LeDuc has tremendous experience both through his engineering background and his position as the Manager of the City of Aiken.  Mr. LeDuc has brought many fresh new ideas to the County over the course of the past year and we know that he will expand our Development Services.

A final needed change for the County is the addition of a risk management team.  The County pays huge workers compensation premiums each year due to the number of work related accidents reported each year.  Laureen White and Lee Ann Anderson have been appointed to oversee our team to inspect our buildings, equipment, and analyze our safety procedures to reduce the number of injuries in the County.  Both of these employees have a true passion for employee safety and we know that they will help keep our employees safe while reducing our premium and our taxpayers’ liability.  Ms. Anderson will take on these duties in addition to her job as County Human Resource Director.  Ms. White will also add these new duties to her role as Intermediate EMT.

Due to a vacant position in the budget that will not be filled, we are able to offer these new services to the citizens at no additional cost to the taxpayer.  The employees will transition into these roles beginning the first of March.  We are very excited about the new direction that Edgefield County is headed and we feel strongly that these new roles will help lead this County to success.