Long term Geary County employees will continue to receive longevity bonuses.

That has been a budgeted practice for the county in recent years. County Commission Chairman Ben Bennett said it will continue in 2017. “They will be coming up in the next couple of weeks, that we’ll be doing that. We have 64 employees who have given us 10 years of service or more, and two of those employees have been 40 years for us.”

Bennett reported that the cost of the bonuses has been calculated at a total of $53,640 for all employees combined. They will have to pay taxes owed on the bonuses they receive.

The commission believes this has been an effective practice for the county, serving as an incentive for the employees. “It’s paid off for us very well, in the fact that we have 64 employees. There’s a lot of counties that are bigger than ours that don’t have that many employees…10 or more years service.”