---

WALKER - Cass County Board approved final payment for 2014 road rebuilding and paving on County Road 143 and a recreational trail along County State Aid Highway 75 near Cass Lake. That project ran $18,000 under bid price.

The board approved final payment for Highway 371 widening and work on Phase 5 of the Shingobee Connection Trail from Paul Bunyan Trail to Walker. This included the tunnel under Highway 371 at Walker city park.

That project ran $14,000 over bid price.

The commissioners approved final payment to Vredenburg Construction of Akeley to build the 55-by-84-foot storage building at the county highway garage at Hackensack.

They also signed a quit claim deed to acquire about 10 acres of land from Stockman Transfer without cost to the county. It is adjacent to the county recycling center north of Pine River.

Stockman operates under a contract the recycle center and garbage transfer station the county owns there.

The board approved a 2015 contract with Waste Partners to collect recyclable cardboard from six public bin locations between Backus and Pillager. Waste Partners will make separate contracts with businesses, which formerly were served under county contracts.

Drive Right 365 donated $952 to Cass County Sheriff's Department to enable purchasing two alcohol testing devices. Drive Right 365 generates money for such purchases from victim impact panels held throughout the state.

Margaret Brown of Hackensack donated $100 toward the ongoing care of sheriff's department K-9 dog, Yankee.

Land Commissioner Joshua Stevenson reported the county sold 17 of 18 timber tracts offered to loggers at a Dec. 18 auction for $243,609. Loggers paid $31.70 per cord for aspen in December. Aspen sold for as low as $19.18 in January 2014 and as high as $38.04 in June 2014. All other months, aspen sold mostly in the mid-$20s per cord.

Loggers paid varying prices for other tree species, ranging between $5 for yellow birch and $32.35 for jack pine.

Health, human and veterans services (HHVS) spent 82.36 percent of the 2014 budget through November or 91.67 percent of the year. HHVS spent 94 percent of the out of home child placement budget in the same period.

The board approved sending Recorder Katie Norby to a Property Records Industry Association symposium in February at Arlington, Va.

The city of Pine River notified the county board of an upcoming public hearing on the city's proposal to amend its airport zoning ordinance. The hearing will be 7 p.m. Jan. 12 at Pine River City Hall.

Second publication rights after Brainerd Dispatch.[[In-content Ad]]

---