Wednesday, March 27, 2013

County Board Notes: March 26, 2013



A part of the OACCT's Public Policy efforts for 2013 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.


Introduction of New Employees

    • 3 resignations

Request to hire 2 and reevaluate need for 3rd (engineer)

    • 1 of the 2 will be filled with promotion (sheriff’s deputy sergeant) and backfill the vacated position

Southwest Minnesota Service Region Re-design.

    • Commissioner Huntington
    • Charity Floen
    • Jane Hardwick (co-chair)
    • Jim Schug (project manager)
    • Tom Shea (co-chair)
    • Current status is unsustainable.
      • New SDA to include Dodge, Mower, Steele, and Waseca counties.
      • Federal and State fund follow the individuals
      • 1/3 of the cost will be divided equally between the 4 counties
      • 1/3 of the cost will be divided by market value of real estate
      • 1/3 of the cost will be divided by the population of each county. It has been suggested that this should be utilization instead of population. There are some difficulties in tracking utilization but this is still being discussed.
    • While the new SDA does not show a cost savings, it does allow the use of more FTEs in actual client contact and fewer in administrative and support roles. This will improve the quality of the services provided.
    • The addition of another county would more than likely result in an efficiency that will equate to cost savings. 

Low Income Septic Grant Bixby.

    • $20,902
    • 11 applicants. 
      • 3 not homesteaded
      • 1 did not meet the low income requirements
      • 7 were given the grant
      • 3 considered low income
      • 4 considered very low income
      • Grant was divided among the 7 with higher percentages give to the very low income recipients.

Administrator Report

    • Request by AMC for transportation funding
    • Jeff Nelson requested an extension of the deadline for the Emergency Management Communications Network grant application. 3 vendors included.
    • SWCB has suggested that the board support erosion prevention. 


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