June 10, 2021 at 1:12 p.m.
Cass Board votes to declare state of emergency
Emergency Services Director Kerry Swenson reported the county will partner with the Leech Lake Band to seek disaster relief. So far, the county has tallied $60,000 in public infrastructure losses and the band, $67,000.
The county and band together exceed the state's $55,000 minimum for disaster relief and the $110,000 federal disaster minimum. However, Swenson said, the county only can qualify for federal funding if there also is a minimum of $7.5 million statewide from the disaster.
He predicted Cass will qualify for state disaster aid, but may not get federal money for this storm because of the required statewide amount needed. He expects the county's overall losses when townships are added in to run much higher than these preliminary totals. He reminded towns to submit their public infrastructure losses to the county as soon as possible. Generally, local governments receive a 75 percent reimbursement from state disaster funds, he said.
Losses on private property only would qualify for low-interest loans from federal disaster funds if a federal disaster were declared, he said.
County Engineer David Enblom obtained board approval to trade some Cass state aid to Crow Wing and Wadena counties for an equal amount of their federal aid to enable Cass to use federal money to improve County Highway 77 in Lake Shore next year.
Road resurfacing and a trail system are planned. Minnesota Department of Transportation must approve that funding exchange.
In response to an accusation Itasca County resident Doug Carpenter made at the last Cass Board meeting, Enblom presented a copy to the board Tuesday showing an agreement the county had signed for 2015 to share construction, maintenance and improvement costs on a list of roads that are considered both unorganized town roads and U.S. Forest Service roads. Carpenter's daughter owns property in Cass County unorganized township.
Enblom said similar agreements have been in force for these roads annually since the 1970s. The list includes 25 roads in the northern part of the county that total 62.2 miles.
Carpenter maintains that if the unorganized township roads also are on the USFS inventory that the county is illegally spending town road money on federal roads.
Cass plans to build a new satellite highway garage to replace its old one at Remer in 2017. Initially, the county had looked into adding the county garage to a MnDOT facility there, but talks on that proposal failed.
Now, the county is looking at the possibility of locating its new facility on what currently is city property in order to connect to city water and sewer.
The existing old county garage there lies outside city limits and does not have city services, which will be needed for the new garage.
The commissioners approved hiring a half-time clerical person to assist the county's 4-H coordinator. Annual cost would be $27,323 this year, $27,938 for 2017 and $28,635 for 2018.
They referred the expenses for 2017 and 2018 to the budget committee for consideration.
Personnel director and future county administrator Joshua Stevenson obtained board approval to spend $7,320 per year to use Accela software beginning in September 2016 to prepare board agendas and minutes. Stevenson said he expects to save staff time and money by using this software.
He also obtained board approval to cancel a contract with Arthur J. Gallagher in September. Gallagher has been overseeing the county's cafeteria insurance program. The county chief financial officer will oversee the program the rest of this year. Stevenson will investigate software options for open enrollment for 2017. Cancelling the Gallagher contract for the balance of this year will save the county $10,000.
Health, Human and Veterans Services Department spent 43.68 percent of its budget through the first half of this year. This is despite the fact out of home child placement costs ran 2 percent over budget. The county share of child placement costs exceeded the budget by 5 percent.
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