No one commented at a public hearing on the fees Crow Wing County charges for various goods and services before approval during the county board's Tuesday meeting.
The sheriff's office submitted several changes to its fee schedule, including an increase in the dangerous dog fee from $50 to $250 and the addition of a dangerous dog hearing fee of $150. The office also increased fees for non-contracted security services and deputy standby from $60 to $80 per hour and reduced first-time alarm fees from $50 to $20.
Fees associated with the county's GIS mapping system were also updated. The biggest change is in the cost of labor, which was increased from $50 to $100 per hour. The changes were driven by an analysis of the true costs of labor, including vacation and holiday pay, and Mike Carlson, accounting and finance manager, said the increases match what the IT department charges for services to other agencies, including the city of Brainerd.
The GIS department also made a big deduction in the cost of obtaining a copy of all parcel data from $9,000 to $1,800, which puts the county more in line with what other counties charge.
Jay Sikkink, county IT director, said no one has ever purchased the entire lot of 90,000 parcels and he believes that this in part is because of the prohibitive cost.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We're going to reduce a fee that never produced any revenue," said Tim Houle, county administrator. "We believe that at $1,800, we may actually generate some revenue. That remains to be seen. There's no guarantees about that. But we believe that that's more market competitive with what we're charging for that data."
Other changes include removing fees for faxes, which according to a summary of fee changes cost the county more to collect than the fees cover, and an increase in the cost of mailbox support installation on non-county roads.
The land services department did not submit any updates to its fee schedule.
In other business, the county board:
Approved commitments of fund balances as required by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. A major change to committed funds came in the highway department, which was required to move up $5 million in spending due to a change in schedule for the State Highway 371 expansion project. The project will begin two years earlier than originally planned.
Renewed contracts for 2015 with Heartland Animal Rescue Team (HART) as a holding facility for impounded dogs in Unorganized Territories and dangerous dogs throughout the county.
The costs for both services are the same as last year.
In 2014, 14 dogs were impounded from Unorganized Territories. Six dogs were returned to their homes and the impound fee was covered by the owner, four dogs were adopted by HART and four dogs were euthanized.
ADVERTISEMENT
There are no charges to the county for dangerous dog impounds so far this year.
Renewed contracts for court-appointed attorneys for children in need of protective services, termination of parental rights and commitment cases.
Approved a gambling permit for the Brainerd Snodeos for an event to be held at Paradise Shores Resort in Maple Grove Township.
Approved a new tobacco license for Vapor Trail in Nisswa and renewed licenses for all tobacco-selling businesses outside of Brainerd and Baxter, within which the county is not charged with licensing.
Approved final payments totaling $942,523 to Anderson Brothers Construction Company for projects on the following roads: CSAH 48, CR 117, Legionville Road and Love Lake Road. The costs were 5.2 percent under the original contract amount because less bituminous mixture was required than planned.
Final payments were also approved for graveling and overlay patch contracts with the company, totaling $174,989 and $67,867 respectively.
Agreed to sponsor the city of Emily in its plan to apply for transportation funding for a trail. The federal funding, granted by the Transportation Alternatives Program, requires a state-aid city or county to sponsor a project.
Authorized the county auditor-treasurer to seek bids for the following 2015 highway improvement projects: reconstruction of CSAH 36; resurfacing of CR 114 from Greer Lake Road to CSAH 36; resurfacing of CSAH 16 from Peoria Road to Whitefish Drive; resurfacing of CSAH 47 from Highway 210 to Highway 210; resurfacing of CR 135 from Highway 210 to Highway 210; resurfacing of CSAH 45 from CSAH 2 to CR 117; resurfacing of CR 121 from CSAH 2 to 1.3 miles north; bridge replacement on CR 122 at the Little Nokasippi River; culvert replacement on CSAH 11, eight miles east of Highway 6; culvert replacement on CR 111, .25 mile east of CSAH 10; seal coat program and annual pavement marking contract.
ADVERTISEMENT
Authorized community services to approve purchase of service contracts for 2015.
Accepted a $20,000 grant from UCare for community services to develop a Women, Infants and Children (WIC) breastfeeding peer counselor program.
Accepted a $95,500 grant from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety for expenses related to the bomb squad in 2015.
Agreed to sponsor improvement projects on Inglewood Drive and Dellwood Drive and supported applying for funding from the Local Road Improvement Program. The cities of Brainerd and Baxter, along with the county board acting on behalf of the First Assessment District, agreed to provide a local share. The estimated cost of the projects is $819,000, of which $573,000 will be applied for. The projects would include new surfacing, 6-foot paved shoulders and a 10-ton design.
Approved an out-of-state travel request for Kara Terry, community services director, to attend a National Association of Counties conference. Terry was invited to the conference to present a session entitled, "Data sharing across agencies and jurisdictions: Improving preparedness and outcomes." The registration fee, lodging, meals and up to $800 for travel expenses are covered by the organization. The county will incur the cost of Terry's time.
Appointed citizen committee members to appointments expiring Dec. 31: Kathy Edelman, Extension committee, District 1; Dona McEnelly, Extension committee, District 3; Sharon Magnan, Housing and Redevelopment Authority, District 3; and Jim Goshey, Serpent Lake Sanitary Sewer District Board of Directors, to replace Jim Traylor.
Approved the hiring of Jeremy Holder, correctional officer at the jail.
Approved the promotion of Kathy Condon in community services.
ADVERTISEMENT
Accepted the departures of Melissa Stuber, program coordinator in the health and social services division in community services, and Deb Backstrom, financial worker in community services.
Approved replacement staffing for the following positions in community services: administrative/technical specialist, program coordinator and a financial worker.
CHELSEY PERKINS may be reached at 855-5874 or chelsey.perkins@brainerddispatch.com . Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DispatchChelsey .
