June 10, 2021 at 1:12 p.m.
Cass County Board: Leech Lake River watershed plan comes with $191K price tag
Cass County Board approved the final $13,426 payment Tuesday, Aug. 20, during its meeting at Thunder Lake Town Hall.
RESPEC of Rapid City, S.D., prepared the plan now known as Leech Lake River Comprehensive Plan.
Cass and Hubbard counties and Hubbard Soil and Water Conservation District approved the plan. Cass SWCD is scheduled to approve it Sept. 5. Money from the state Board of Water and Soil Resources grant will pay for the counties' costs to have RESPEC write it.
There is a little over $12,000 left in the grant, which will be used for a stormwater improvement project in the city of Laporte. With the plan in place, both counties expect to qualify for more BWSR grants, Environmental Services Director John Ringle has told the county board.
Either county or SWCD can withdraw from the plan at any time after giving 30 days notice.
In other business Tuesday, the county board:
Voted to lease three walking floor trailers from Mastell Trailers for $2,000 per month each and to purchase a skid steer with forks for $48,878 from the state contract to use at the county garbage and recycling transfer site north of Pine River.
Approved reclassifying 40.87 acres owned by Hope Parsons in Walden Township from Agricultural/Forest to Rural Residential 10.
Referred to the planning commission Chad Boesen's request to reclassify 20 acres from Rural Residential 2.5 to Commercial 2 in Loon Lake Township to use the property for boat storage.
Approved the temporary appointment through Dec. 31 of David Tanner of Hackensack to the planning commission to fill a vacancy created by the recent death of a commission member.
Approved spending up to $150,000 to purchase new computer servers for the courthouse and health, human and veterans services building. The cost will be covered through by temporary vacancies in departments that use the servers and the county recorder's technical fund.
Received a copy of a new judicial policy, which essentially describes the ongoing practice in Cass County during which district court judges select the probation director and the agents. Those probation officers then become county employees.
Authorized Probation Director Jim Schneider to attend the 2019 Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Inter-site Conference in October in Seattle.
Approved a contract with Moore Engineering of St. Cloud to survey and design reconstruction of Highway 204 in the city of Hackensack by Dec. 31. Cost for the design phase is not to exceed $61,075.
The city plans to replace some sewer and water lines under the street before the county mills and overlays pavement and creates handicapped accessible sidewalks.
Approved selling a used land department 2009 Ford 250 pickup with 123,378 miles on it to the city of Hackensack for $7,105.
Accepted the lowest of four bids to buy heating propane from Lakes Gas at $0.969 per gallon for bulk loads totaling 35,690 gallons and $0.76 per gallon for transport loads of 56,000 gallons, with total contract cost at $77,250.
The county paid $101,650 for the same volume of propane in the 2018-19 heating season.
Approved a contract with Dovetail Partners of Minneapolis to draft a 10-year update to the county's forest resource management plan, with costs not to exceed $40,000.
Approved a contract with Holmvig Excavating for $15,120 to improve Snoway 1 Trail in Moose Lake Township, with Ruyak Enterprises for $4,997 to install a culvert in a Rogers Township forest access road and with Schrupp Excavating for $4,000 to reroute a portion of Triville Trail in Boy River Township.
Approved Health, Human and Veterans Services contracts with MAK Consulting to train county employees for three days on health care claims, with costs not to exceed $4,200 and with TALX Corp. of Missouri to provide the county with income verification of applicants for social services benefit claims, with costs to run $104,140 per month for up to 198,000 claims through June 2020 and $113,726 per month July 2020 to June 2021 for up to 207,900 claims.
If there are more than 198,000 claims or 207,900 claims in those years, the overage would be charged at $6.40 per claim the first year and $6.67 per claim the second year. The total contract for two years is expected to cost $2,770,555 based on prior income verification usage.
Cass contracts for this service through the state.
Approved a contract with Walker-Hackensack-Akeley School District to provide research-based early childhood curriculum aligned with state early learning standards and other early childhood services for children up to age 5 and their families.
Learned the county earned $875,535 interest earnings on investments through July or 92% of budget expectations for earnings in all of 2019. This is also above 2018 earnings through July of $762,819.
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