Steele County Board Notes-June 21, 2010

A part of the OACCT's Public Policy efforts for 2010 is for volunteers from the Public Policy committee attend both City and County meetings and report back on items that are of interest/concern to business.

Chamber of Commerce Policy Committee Report
Steele County Board Meeting, June 21st

3:00pm East Beltline EA/EAW – WSB & Associates
Anita Benson – Public Works Director, County Engineer and Jack Forslund – WSB gave East Beltline Workshop. They handed out agendas and a Project Matrix that included where they are and summaries of open houses held to date. The information is also available on their website.
The Beltline Technical Advisory Committee includes the City of Owatonna, MNDot and Steele County and meets every month to complete study analysis. News releases and two open houses have been held regarding the East Beltline. April 29th and June 2nd and they will have one more to present the recommended alternative analysis methodology. They are looking at a September timeframe.

A question was asked by commissioners if input from the townships were going to be included. It was decided they should be included in the conversation. They will include them going forward.
In general there seemed to be an equal number of valid comments or concerns for either of the eastern beltline options. They expressed the need for an objective evaluation to compare the beltline options. Evaluation criteria for comparing options may include wetland impacts, farmland impacts, forecasted daily traffic, travel time savings, right of way needs, construction costs, etc….need to remove the emotional aspects and determine what is best for the community.

They are upgrading HWY 14 to a freeway status and all at grade intersections will be eliminated escalating the need for a determination of the connection to HWY 14 and the East Beltline. The East beltline study will determine where to place the East Beltline interchange will be located.
Final report from the Advisory Committee is scheduled for April 2011. The surveys completed by the county commissioners and township supervisors will assist with weighting. Including the following categories:
Current Survey (each category is weighted 1 – 10)
Project Cost 9
Increased County Maintenance 8
Wetland Impacts 2
Farmland Impacts 5
Daily Traffic 6
Mobility (travel time) 3
Consistency with comprehensive plan 5
Number of required relocations 7
Number of property access points 5
Number of directly impacted farms 5
Wildlife habitat Impacts 5

Next steps – commissioners and township supervisors will complete surveys that will be used as a tool to make decisions and lead them in the right direction. Once they have the composite score they will issue the report.
If the county gets money from the fed and select longer term project funding challenge to get the hwy done - Hwy 43 and will handle traffic now. They will start making acquisitions throughout to get the ability to do that. Once they designate corridor any construction has to meet the needs of the county for that corridor. Currently both corridors are officially mapped. East beltline originally mapped so there has to be collaboration between the city the county and property owners. Decisions are driven by traffic demand and decisions made by the county. You might still need to connect to 43rd in the interim until 34th can be connected to 26th St. Kenyon road might be affected by the decision as well. Interim projects should be taken into consideration before weighting the report by the beltline technical advisory committee. County Commissioners added the interim construction under Mobility on the survey.

4:00pm Dental and Life Insurance
The county must bid their insurance every five years by statute.
Life - They sent out for bids and received five bids. MN Life came back as the lowest bid and they are the company they are currently with. It will be cheaper for the employee and the county. The new rates will begin in September. Savings of about $12,000 a 25% reduction.
Dental – Oaks has been looking at Dental trying to get a better rate for the county. They presented it to a meeting and had the employees vote ending at the end of this week going into effect August 1st. Cheaper and guaranteed for 2011 we know if we didn’t change Humana would go up at least 7%.

4:30pm Storm Damage Report
Local disaster declaration would impact this years taxes in 2010
Credits payable next year disaster credits……..homestead disaster credit area has to be an emergency area which it has been. 25 have to have been damaged at 5,000 total county value and 1% is reported 3.2 billion currently there were only 24 reported.
Any storm related damage it needs to be reported to the county. Reporting is very similar to flood reporting. Disaster abatement applies homestead applies only to houses not outbuildings. Damage that’s repaired made by the inspectors and Keep us informed. No roads lost. Road signs twisted but no roads and trees down power lines were back up and get loads out leaning on 45 and should be fixed today. Lots of debris roads were good Blooming Prairie Township and Berlin had theirs cleared provided traffic control and let the townships take care of it. Minimal damage.