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Board rejects another lease plan
By MONICA LUNDQUIST Cass County Correspondent WALKER - Cass County commissioners Tuesday stuck by their recent policy against paying a lease for sheriff's deputies to use office space at any outlying city or township.
They turned down a suggestion Tuesday to lease for $250 per month an office in the new Pine River Law Enforcement Center next to city hall.
Board Chair Jim Demgen said he turned down a similar proposal from Sylvan Township recently.
Earlier this year, the board declined to renew a lease with the city of Cass Lake and opted instead for free use of space with a neighboring township.
The board told Pine River Mayor Jim Sabas and Pine River Chief Josh Ebert the county would be willing to try to provide some office furnishings and equipment for their new law enforcement center.
If offered space at the new center without rent, Demgen said the county would pay its own utility costs for the space a deputy would occupy.
The board voted to re-create a wetland off Cass County Road 77 in Fairview Township where herons used to have a rookery. Beavers used to dam the area, but are no longer present, so the wetland had dried up.
John Maxson provided a conservation easement for the project. Minnesota DNR and Board of Water and Soil Resources and Cass County Highway Department have approved the plan to install a control device at the end of a road culvert to recreate the effect of a beaver dam in that area.
Environmental Services Director John Sumption reported compliance has drastically improved to have sewer systems inspected and, when needed, to upgrade systems when people sell properties in the county. Cass ordinances require obtaining a certificate of compliance for sewers before transferring property ownership or upgrading within one year of the sale.
The board approved a first reading and will consider adopting Nov. 7 a change to the county tobacco ordinance, which would remove the clause allowing the county to cite clerks as well as business owners for non-compliance with laws against selling to underage persons.
That clause has not been enforced. The board decided it was the owner's responsibility, not the county's to discipline employees who might fail compliance checks.
Veterans Services Officer Faye Dudley reported she has worked on a committee with Leech Lake Reservation representatives to establish a veterans program on the reservation. Dudley served on the selection committee for a new reservation veterans services officer and has offered to help train the new officer.
This will add more help to better serve veterans throughout the county, she said.
Dudley also serves on a state veterans transportation committee, which is trying to secure a handicapped accessible bus to provide transportation to Twin Cities veterans' medical services from cities along the Highway 371 corridor from Bemidji, south.
Commissioners Demgen, Jim Dowson and Bob Kangas declined to support a proposal from Commissioners Virgil Foster and Jeff Peterson to increase the 4-H coordinator position from 60 percent to full time.
Foster said it has been difficult to keep employees in the position, because it is only part time. The position currently is vacant.
Administrator Robert Yochum said there have been three employees in that job in the last five years. He said it would cost the county about $24,240 more per year than the current $38,910 budgeted for that extension program in 2007.
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