Johnston County Commissioners approved a request Monday night to add two new full time positions. Register of Deeds Craig Olive received unanimous approval to hire an additional deputy register of deeds to help meet growing demand.
“With the increase in the population here in Johnston County, also with increased demand for services, I had to ask for the position. This will help expedite customer service,” Mr. Olive told Johnston County Report.
One of the areas seeing high growth is the request for marriage licenses. In 2020, the agency saw a 500 percent increase. Mr. Olive said 57% of the increase is from out-of-county applicants. In addition, demand for passport services is up significantly. The new position will be filled as soon as possible. It will grow the Register of Deeds Office to 11 employees.
Johnston County Environmental Health received approval to hire a new Environmental Health Specialist to assist with on site water and wastewater permitting. Environmental Health Director Todd Ramsey said the new position will help with a backlog of permits.
Currently there is a 12 week wait time for septic permits in the county. The new position will take the wastewater program from 7 to 8 positions and hopefully cut down on the wait time, Ramsey said. The new position will increase the department to 18 full-time employees.
Craig Olive is one of the few department heads left that puts the needs of the public at the highest priority. It is easy to get people to so-call work from home but when it is time to bring them back is where the fear of Covid-19 will rear it ugly head. Perfect example any school system any where in this country. I do have to say Craig Olive you did well getting these positions out of these Johnston County Commissioners that have shown by their past history if your not the Johnston County School Board the check book is closed. I wonder how that makes the rest of the Johnston County Employees feel?