June 10, 2021 at 1:12 p.m.
Cass County Board: Poor road conditions result in late meeting start
Commissioners Dick Downham and Scott Bruns were absent, so Commissioners Jeff Peterson and Bob Kangas needed Commissioner Neal Gaalswyk of Pillager to make a quorum.
Gaalswyk called the courthouse from Pine River to report the snowy roads were tougher going than he expected but he arrived shortly after the 9 a.m. start.
Cass County commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding Tuesday with Northern Daytime Activity Center for an exchange of services.
This puts in writing an arrangement the county has had by verbal agreement for several years.
People who work at the DAC pick up recyclable paper from the courthouse and annex and from health, human and veterans services building. They shred sensitive documents and forward all collected paper for recycling.
Those workers get paid $7.50 per hour.
Cass County provides snow removal for their center, which is located near the county highway garage in Walker, for $100 per hour. The DAC vehicles may be filled with gasoline at the county pump at the county's current purchased rate and have the county service DAC vehicles at the county garage at the county's current wage rates, plus supplies.
Both agencies bill monthly.
Michelle Piprude, Health, Human and Veterans Services director, reported the county met state requirements to receive all of its state funding for child protection services in 2016, plus some extra made available when some other counties did not meet requirements.
The state pays 80 percent of a county's annual allocation, but each county must meet the state guidelines to earn the other 20 percent. Cass got $108,000 for its 80 percent and was scheduled to receive another $27,000 for its 20 percent. Cass actually received $56,935 instead of $27,000 for its second payment, because some other counties did not qualify.
Funding is allocated by child population, screened reports of child abuse/neglect and open child protection case management.
The county qualified for the second payment by making face-to-face contact with at least 90 percent of alleged child victims in screened cases, making immediate contact where sexual abuse of substantial endangerment occurs, and within five days for all other reports.
Additionally, county case workers monthly must visit children in foster care and child protective services in their home-at least 90 percent of all children in care were visited monthly.
Piprude said, especially as a result of state legislation passed in 2014, the number of children receiving child protection services has increased significantly from 245 in 2014 to 393 in 2015 to 572 in 2016.
Case workers are seeing an awful lot of neglect, especially from parents who are using drugs, she said.
Workers try first to find a relative to provide foster care for neglected children and, when possible, to arrange for relatives to adopt the child or children. They also try to keep siblings together, Piprude said.
Minnesota Department of Health has awarded Cass County a $40,000 grant to provide children's mental health respite care services this year and next year.
The county has a contract with Lutheran Social Services to provide guardianship/conservatorship services for up to $55 per hour per client.
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