LaGRANGE – Some county employees will be able to retire early, freeing up positions for those forced out of the correctional institute.

With only a few weeks left before the correctional institute closes, county officials voted Tuesday to offer early retirement to employees that are close to retirement.  The commission has been searching for creative solutions to make sure employees from the correctional institute are not left high and dry.

“This is to encourage some of our folks who are eligible to retire – but have not decided to yet and meet the age requirement and either meet and are within one year of the service credit requirement – (to retire),” County Manager Tod Tentler said. “We are asking for this to be a one-time thing, where if they would retire by June 30 of this year – announce that they are going to retire, and we can start the paperwork – that they would be able to get one extra year of credit to go into retirement, which would basically mean 1.8 percent to that employee for their term of the length of their retirement. This is in an effort to free up a few positions, so that we can put some of the folks from the CI in if possible.”

Since the county commissioners voted to close the CI and work release programs on May 4, the county has hosted a series of career fairs to place employees with other jobs and has made a point of hiring internally as much as possible. Those efforts have seen results, but a few employees still remain uncertain about their future after June 30.

“We are now down to 15 people that have not been placed yet out of the 73 positions that were there when we started this,” Tentler said.

Several of the commissioners complemented the hard work that county staff have done to help CI employees in their job hunts, and the work that is still being done.

“The staff should be commended for trying to find places for them,” Commissioner Morris Jones said.

The Troup County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, June 20 at 9 a.m. at 100 Ridley Ave.