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   BACKUS— Assistant County Assessor Penny Vikre was recognized during the Cass County Board meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 15 for receiving the 2024 Minnesota Association of Assessing Officers Assessor of the Year award. Board Chair Neal  Gaalswyk thanked Vikre for her hard work and dedication.

Assistant County Assessor Penny Vikre was recognized for receiving the 2024 Minnesota Association of Assessing Officers Assessor of the Year award. Pictured above with Board Chair Neal Gaalswyk. Photo by Josh Stevenson. 

   Deep Portage Executive Director Lindsay Bjorklund shared the annual report for Deep Portage and the five year capital improvement plan. Bjorklund began her report by sharing a recap of the year from Sept. 1, 2023 through Aug. 31, 2024. It was stated Deep Portage hosted 70 schools with approximately 4,487 students this past year. This year summer camp attendance was down a little with only 246 campers, out of these campers 226 youth attended a firearms safety/hunting camp. Bjorklund noted the lower attendance may be due to everyone’s busy schedules over the summer and stated the camp is looking at adjusting their camp weeks to accommodate more youth. Deep Portage also saw 11 weekend retreats, 295 event participants and 353 donations.

   Bjorklund also mentioned Deep Portage hosted their first annual summer rendezvous fundraising event. With about 70 people in attendance they were able to raise almost $10,000 between the raffle prizes and silent auction items. Overall, Bjorklund stated the event was a huge success.

   Chief Financial Officer Becky Toso shared the final results from the 2023 audit. It was noted that Cass County had one written audit finding for the year, which related to verifying vendors that received COVID grant money. It was found that those vendors  were not checked for suspension and debarment, Toso stated a corrective action plan is in place to avoid this in the future. 

   Toso also mentioned a few adjustments that were made to the general fund account, the road and bridge fund and the Health Human and Veterans Service fund. Most of these adjustments were due to reclassifying revenues from grants received or a change in expense categories.

   In other business, the county board:

   • Approved the purchase of additional material from Leech Lake Lumber for the Deep Portage Window replacement project in the amount of $2,908.63.

   • Approved Lakewood Petroleum Services, LLC to replace the Sheriff’s office generator fuel tank for the amount of $18,680. This will include the removal of the 42 year old under ground tank and replace it with an above ground double wall storage tank.

   •  Approved the renewal of the memorandum of agreement with Crow Wing County for road maintenance with the addition of the west leg of Gull Lake Dam Road for one winter due to Cass County currently not having access until construction of the bridge and roadway are complete in 2025.

   • Approved an agreement with Minnesota Department of Transportation regarding a detour on County State Aid Highway 45 and 5 during the construction of the Trunk Highway 371 project through Hackensack in 2025.

   • Approved a memorandum of agreement with Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in the pursuit of IIJA Grant funding to help improve County State Aid Highways 8, 9, 13 and 91 and approved the hiring of WSB to help develop the IIJA grant application with cost not to exceed $30,000.  

   The next meetings are as follows: Commissioner’s board meeting 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5 at the Land Department meeting room in Backus; commissioner’s board meeting 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 19 at the Land Department meeting room in Backus and commissioner’s board meeting 3 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5, followed by a public hearing for the 2024 Cass County Fee Schedule and Budget and Property Tax levy beginning at 6 p.m. at the boardroom in the courthouse annex in Walker.

 

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