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WALKER - Cass County Board voted Tuesday to seek state mediation and to hire Tom Fitzpatrick as legal counsel to represent the county in the mediation.

This is in response to the health, human and veterans services unit of American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees bargaining unit vote to reject the county's contract offer.

Administrator Robert Yochum said the main issues unresolved are those concerning hours of work and job postings.

Work hours the county offered would be the same as all other county departments, he said. The job postings issue relates to the county's position that it has the right to make changes to a job description after a person has been hired, an issue Yochum said the county thought was settled in an earlier arbitration decision.

The county has agreed to provide an increase from Step 1 to Step 2 on the county pay scale at the end of a new employee's probation period rather than at the first July 1 following a person completing probation.

That change will be made to all other county union contracts, which have been settled earlier this year.



Cass Board named Commissioners Jim Dowson and Jeff Peterson to represent the board on a discussion of who should own the building currently housing Longville Ambulance Service.

Longville Area Ambulance Building District was formed in 1997 to construct the building with member townships Blind Lake, Boy Lake, Kego, Trelipe, Wabedo and Woodrow contributing to build the structure.

Fred T. Smith, Kego Town Board chair, informed the county by letter that the joint powers building committee has not met in six years, despite the fact it originally agreed to meet annually.

In the intervening years, the county formed Longville Ambulance Service District to collect taxes from and oversee operations of the ambulance service. The service district includes an area covering additional local governments not in the building district.

North Memorial Ambulance has the current contract to provide ambulance service.

Smith said in his letter to the county he thinks the building committee should either meet more regularly to manage the building or should dispose of it and dissolve the original building district.

One option could be for the building district to sell it to the county, which oversees the ambulance service district and service operations. If it were sold, Smith suggested there could be deed restrictions that stipulate it must continue to be used for ambulance services.

Representatives of the building's member townships will meet with Dowson and Peterson to determine a direction to take the ownership.

Central Services Director Tim Richardson obtained county board approval Tuesday to award contracts to low bidders to replace bathroom partitions in courthouse bathrooms with solid plastic dividers and to replace broken concrete outside courthouse entry doors.

Richard Glenn Construction will replace the bathroom dividers for $16,315, plus sales tax. Current metal dividers have rusted. Danny's Masonry will replace three of four concrete areas $6,850, plus sales tax. A fourth area will be delayed until the county can also replace a cracked retaining wall at the back of the courthouse annex.

One reason the concrete deteriorated, Richardson said, is because the original concrete appears to have been poured without any metal reinforcing rods in it.

Also approved were low bids for repairs to the third and fourth floors of the original courthouse building where courts and some offices are located.

Bay Carpet and Tile Inc. will install new carpet tiles for $56,634, plus sales tax. DOW Acoustics Inc. will install new ceiling tile for $18,620, plus sales tax. RW Electric Inc. will install new ceiling fixtures for $3,520, plus sales tax.

Cass Board voted to eliminate the full-time county surveyor position and to seek requests for proposal for a surveyor to provide part-time contract services to the county. The current surveyor will be laid off.

Since the county hired the current full-time surveyor in 1998, the county has completed a program to re-establish all major government corner markers in the county. Timber sales from the land department are down, necessitating less survey work preliminary to offering sales.

More county survey information is available on the website today, so fewer people come to the surveyor office to view records, according to County Engineer David Enblom, who oversees the county survey office.

Cass Health Human and Veterans Services spent 20.8 percent of the 2013 budget after 25 percent of the year. Out-of-home child placement costs ran 16 percent of budget in the same period, despite the fact the county lowered that budget about $400,000 from 2012.

Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota has recognized Cass among 25 counties and two Indian reservations for their efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect with a 2013 Blue Ribbon Award.

Sheriff Tom Burch reported the county will receive $13,250 from a federal boating safety patrol grant in 2013.

Leech Lake Township donated $2,500 and Fairview Township donated $500 to the sheriff's office for the Lakes Area Dive Team.

Twenty-two men worked on the Cass County sentence-to-serve crew the first quarter of 2013, working off $2,237 in court ordered fines and completing an estimated $19,300 worth of work for the county, cities and non-profit agencies. Their work value is computed at $8 per hour.

Cass commissioners declared May 19 to 25 as Emergency Medical Services Week.

Region 5 will hire a student research assistant this summer to analyze programs, policies and practices in county departments to identify efficiency practices that other counties within Region 5 might copy to improve their efficiency. Cass will provide an office in a county government building for the person while they do their research here.

Cass will engage the Minnesota State Auditor's Office again this year to conduct the county's annual audit.

Second publication rights after Brainerd Dispatch.

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