June 10, 2021 at 1:12 p.m.
Cass Board to receive dividend
Of that $108,382 is based on workers compensation insurance experience and $59,187 is based on property/casualty insurance experience.
Cass commissioners passed a resolution Tuesday to allow Jacob Wolfe of Walker to undertake a renovation of the target shooting area at Deep Portage Reserve as a project toward earning his Eagle Scout badge.
He will construct shelving for improve equipment storage and new seating benches, repair clay pigeon storage boxes and a thrower shelter, construct new floors for the shooting stands and clear brush around the shooting area.
Central Services Director Tim Richardson obtained board approval to have low bidder Bay Carpet of Walker install new window blinds in the remaining old courthouse offices where blinds have not already been replaced for $9,293.
Richardson also obtained authorization to spend up to $25,000 to replace broken electric baseboard heaters in the courthouse complex and to tie heating controls for those units to the central courthouse heating system.
The board authorized Richardson and Sheriff Tom Burch to obtain cost estimates to add more security cameras to the courthouse complex and to tie together two existing security systems into one.
Richardson gave the board a demonstration of the new county website. The county converted to the new site in July from one developed in about 2002 and expanded since that time.
The new website uses the existing mapping system, but the new site has been designed to enable each department to directly update the department information daily. Previously, departments had to wait for the county's main computer department to enter their updates.
The new site also provides a complete list of direct telephone lines to each county employee. Cass commissioners accepted the lowest of three bids for propane heating gas for county buildings this winter.
Lakes Gas Company of Pequot Lakes offered the lowest of three bids at 53 cents per gallon for transport truck deliveries and 83 cents per gallon for bulk truck deliveries. Based on prior year usage, Chief Financial Officer Larry Wolfe estimated the county's total cost to heat all county owned buildings will run $65,332 this year under the contract.
Lakes Gas has offered the lowest bid the county received the last three years, Wolfe said.
Last year, the county paid $1.425 per gallon for transport deliveries and $1.49 per gallon for bulk truck deliveries. If the county had not converted its heating systems to propane from heating oil, the cost this year for oil would have been close to double the cost for propane to generate the same amount of heat.
Human Resource Director Joshua Stevenson obtained board approval Tuesday to research costs for the county to hire Arthur J. Gallagher & Company to oversee the county's employee insurance program during a one-year transition from the Wolfe, who plans to retire, through the hiring of a new chief financial officer.
The board also authorized Stevenson to have the employee insurance committee research whether the county should offer more choices of insurance plans to employees. Currently, the only choices are a single plan or a family plan.
Additional choices could be for a single plan, plus spouse or a single plan, plus child(ren).
The committee also will look into the possibility of offering employees an online tool where they can answer questions about their financial status and insurance needs. Then the computer program would recommend the plan level that best covers their insurance needs and ability to pay.
Stevenson said this prevents people from having to disclose their personal financial status to the county's payroll clerk in order to get help picking the right plan for themselves. He also reported few county employees, if any, will have to pay the 5 percent penalty under the federal Affordable Care Act for having a "Cadillac plan."
Stevenson will report to the board at the Sept. 15 regular meeting on a cost estimate to hire Gallagher and on the insurance committee recommendations.
After advertising for bids, Cass County will sell a used packing hydraulic packer to bidder Requip LLC of Jordan for $2,000. The ram has been used at the county transfer station north of Pine River to compact recycled cardboard and trash. It is sold "as is."
Veterans Service Officer Jeff Woodford obtained board approval to accept a $12,500 grant from Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs.
The money will be used to reach out to veterans, to assist combat veterans to reintegrate to society, to collaborate with other organizations to enhance services offered to veterans, to reduce veteran homelessness and to enhance the veterans service office.
Burch obtained board approval to eliminate the jail program coordinator position and add a jailer position, making the total number of jailers 15. The current program coordinator will shift into the new jailer position.
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