WALKER - Cass commissioners will meet in closed session at 11 a.m. Oct. 7 at the courthouse in Walker and at 11 a.m. Oct. 21 to conduct annual performance evaluations on department heads.
They authorized Sheriff Tom Burch Tuesday to purchase a new boat for the Lakes Area Dive Team, which is comprised of largely deputies from area law enforcements agencies. The dive team provides rescue and recovery services.
The $43,000 boat will be paid by an $18,004 federal grant and $15,000 from the Nielson Foundation, $5,000 from Hubbard County and $5,000 from Beltrami County.
The sheriff will receive a $30,171 grant to match an equal amount from the county to provide emergency management services.
Land Commissioner Joshua Stevenson reported to the board a recent forest inventory update indicates there will be less mature aspen to harvest during the next 15 years than in the recent past as the county waits for the next aspen crop to mature.
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It takes about 25 to 30 years for aspen to reach maturity, he said.
In the meantime, the total volume of county timber harvested likely will be lower, because other northern hardwoods will be the primary timber sold, he said. Those are neither as abundant, nor as fast growing as aspen.
Stevenson reported the Minnesota State Board has recommended for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places an old stagecoach road near Widow Lake in Woodrow Township.
He said he expects a letter from the Minnesota Historic Preservation Office will direct the
county on how the listing will impact vegetation management along the site.
Cass sold 3,943 cords of timber for $101,283.37 from eight tracts of county land at an Aug. 28 auction. The county also sold 10,500 board feet of red pine saw logs for $1,312.63.
Aspen sold for $27.10 per cord. The highest prices were paid for oak ($33.14 per cord) and white spruce ($44.99 per cord).
Doug Shultz, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fisheries division, obtained county board support for the DNR to purchase 4.3 acres with 1,050 feet of Leech Lake shoreline in Pine Lake Township.
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The property is adjacent to U.S. Forest Services property and near another three-acre site the DNR acquired this spring on Miller's Bay of Leech Lake. It is one of seven areas on the lake known for muskellunge spawning.
Cass health, human and veterans services spent 50.5 percent of the 2014 budget through July or 58.33 percent of the year.
Only 47 percent of the out of home child placement budget was spent in the same period.
Cass will receive a $43,000 state grant to pay for crime victim services from Oct. 1, 2014, through Sept. 30, 2015.
The county also will receive $106,700 to pay for Wellness Court operations in the next year.
Cass commissioners voted to cancel 31 checks the county had written in 2013 that payees failed to cash. The checks were worth $1,500.80.
