Public Works in need of drivers

Whitman County Public Works is feeling the pinch from a lack of Class A drivers.

“It’s a nation-wide shortage,” Mark Story, Public Works director told the board of county commissioners Monday morning.

Public Works has been continuously trying to fill positions requiring Class A drivers for about six months. Storey stated the department is short four or five drivers with several current drivers within a few years of retirement.

The county’s operators drive snowplows and sanders in the winter and dump trucks with rock and asphalt in the summer.

“This is year-round employment,” Storey said. When...