There are times when every job becomes a dirty job, when there are tasks that need to be done no matter how repulsive the task or who gets offended by it. Just ask any nurse or janitor.

Butler County Commissioners are not exempt from performing unpleasant tasks, like telling staff members their services are no longer needed.

When Commissioners Bill McCarrier and Dale Pinkerton first pitched the idea of selling Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, the county’s nursing home, they stressed that part of Sunnyview’s annual deficit included indirect costs that the county assessed to the nursing home. Those indirect costs included hours spent by government center employees on Sunnyview issues, amounting to $295,609 in 2013, the last full year of county ownership of Sunnyview.

The obvious implication was that the sale of Sunnyview would enable the county to cut some of the staff hours required for Sunnyview business, most notably in the Human Resources Department.

The commissioners deadlocked on the first of proposed staff reductions at a salary board meeting in November. The Salary Board is made up of the three commissioners plus Controller Ben Holland.

“We just disagree on how to make the cuts,” Jim Eckstein, the minority Democratic commissioner, said at the time. Holland sided with Eckstein in seeking to eliminate two HR positions, while McCarrier and Pinkerton proposed cutting one and a half positions.

Eckstein also proposed a review of Human Resources Director Lori Altman’s salary. In 2011, Altman received a 20 percent pay raise on top of the 3 percent given to all nonunion employees. At the time, her on-call status for 24-hour operations such as Sunnyview were cited as justification for the pay hike. Eckstein says it’s reasonable to cut Altman’s salary by 11.5 percent since the sale of Sunnyview greatly reduces the on-call responsibilities.

Last week, the county settled its final sale price for Sunnyview at $20.4 million. The commissioners ratified a final payment $48,943 to the buyer, Investment 360 of New Jersey, that was the net difference of credits owed to both parties.

Subtracting real estate transaction costs, including $510,000 in brokerage fees and a $150,000 state tax, that leaves the county with a net $18.7 million.

By any standard, that’s a sweet windfall for the county. Pinkerton and McCarrier have every right to savor the result of their job well done.

But now the sale is finalized. It’s time to do the dirty work — beginning with a detailed accounting of the $18.7 million, and ending with meaningful staff reductions approaching the $295,609 worth of services said to have been devoted annually to Sunnyview.

It’s not a pleasant task. But it comes with the job.