REGULAR MEETING OF THE KOOCHICHING COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Held on Tuesday, April 2, 2002; 9:30 a.m.

MEMBERS PRESENT: Commissioners McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck

MEMBERS ABSENT: None

OTHERS ATTENDING: Mary Ann Hanson, Pat Hill, Ann Scholler, Richard Lehtinen, Dennis Hummitzsch; Reporters Roger Jerome and Laurel Beager

2002/04-01 Motion by Lepper, seconded by Hanson to approve the agenda with additions and deletions. Voting yes: McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck. Motion carried.

2002/04-02 Motion by Pavleck, seconded by Lepper to approve the minutes of the March 26, 2002 special meeting. Voting yes: McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck. Motion carried.

2002/04-03 Motion by Lepper, seconded by Hanson approving a B21 Office Clerk position for the Land and Forestry and Extension Departments (retaining a percent of time to service other departments in short-staff and emergency situations) as recommended by the Personnel Committee. (Reference Board Motion 2002/03-05.) Voting yes: McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck. Motion carried.

2002/04-04 Motion by Lepper, seconded by Chezick to approve payment of the Auditor bills in the amount of $63,554.10 including $21.90 of non-board expenses, to approve payment of the March Board of Prisoners claim in the amount of $3,878.00, to approve payment to Ron A. Jerich & Associates in the amount of $1,000.00 from the 2002 Legislation Budget for lobbyist service for interregional corridor designation legislation for Highway 53. Payment detail on file in the Auditor’s Office. Motion further accepts the Assessor’s recommendation to abate parcel #06-32-31000 for Jack Wolfe to decrease valuation due to the removal of double-wide trailer. Voting yes: McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck. Motion carried.

000 Mary Ann Hanson and Pat Hill, representing the Blackduck Ambulance Association, met with the Board to request additional funding for the service until a taxing district is established. The Association is in the process of setting up a tri-county taxing district through approved special legislation and that legal counsel from Duluth has been obtained to assist them. The counties involved are Itasca, Beltrami and Koochiching, with two of the counties involving organized townships and all of the counties involving cities. Legal counsel is researching which of these local government units needs to be involved in the establishment of the taxing district. It is their hope that a taxing district is established for tax year 2004. Currently the service is supported by one and one-half paid staff and volunteers and that they are losing volunteers at a very fast pace. In order to keep the service going until a taxing district is in place, they need to increase paid staff to obtain another eighty hours of service per week. Currently paid staff receive $5.50 per hour and in addition to adding paid staff, they want to increase this rate to $6.00 per hour. Also volunteers receive $1.00 per hour and they want to bring this up to $2.00 per hour. Lastly they are proposing a three-percent cost of living increase for existing staff. This proposal, based on existing revenue, will cause a $87,352 funding deficit. Last year the Ambulance Service broke even on revenue and expenditures, however, there were no dollars left for capital replacement (ambulance and equipment). Using population counts, they service an area with approximately 6,431 people. Dividing that figure by the $87,352 deficit, they arrived at a $14.00 per person charge. The County is now contributing $5.00 per person. For Koochiching County, they are requesting $3,074 for 2002 (population of 491 times $14 less $3,800 already provided in the2002 Budget) and requesting $6,874 for 2003 with intent to have a taxing district in place for 2004. The Association is going to each governmental unit involved with this service to request additional funding. Commissioner Chezick, though supportive of the service and agreed the need exists, wanted a firmer commitment from the other local governmental units on forming the taxing district and additional funding contributions. He also asked if the Association looked into grant sources to help fund the service, which Ms. Hanson stated that they are looking into a Blandin Grant. Commissioner Chezick also raised concern with the number of different governmental units involved in this process – counties, cities and townships – and asked whether a joint powers could function with so many authorities. Commissioner Pavleck in looking at the figures provided on populations and funding shares did not feel the contributions were equal. Ms. Hanson stated that more information would be provided on funding shares. In addition, he stated that residents of the Silverdale area have come to the County looking for support for fire protection service and he told them that funding would have to be obtained from a taxing district and has the same position on this matter. Commissioner Lepper stated his support for the needed service but agreed that the County has created taxing districts to fund these services. The Coordinator asked why they were looking at tax year 2004 when there is still time this year to organize a taxing district for tax year 2003 (stated that levies need to be certified for the next tax year by September 2002.) Ms. Hanson was not aware of the timeline or levy requirements and will look into this. Also it was asked whether they looked at adding to the existing subordinate taxing district which provides first responder service instead of adding another taxing district to the same area. This should be looked into also.

2002/04-05 Motion by Hanson, seconded by Lepper authorizing a contribution of $3,000.00 from the 2002 Projects Budget (budget transfer and expenditure from emergency service budget) to the Blackduck Ambulance Association contingent on providing proof that a taxing district will be established to fund the service and that the funding request for 2003 will be resubmitted in a separate request with more information on funding shares, areas served and authorities commitment to the taxing district. Voting yes: McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck. Motion carried.

2002/04-06 Motion by Hanson, seconded by Pavleck to add payment of a Sheriff’s bill to the agenda and approve its payment in the amount of $1,792.16 from the 2002 Sheriff Budget to Wimmer’s Body Shop for squad vehicle equipment. Voting yes: McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck. Motion carried.

2002/04-07 Motion by Lepper, seconded by Chezick authorizing payment of $505.00 to the MPCA for the Koochiching County NPDES Permit pursuant to modifying septic system discharge standards and forming a Water Quality Cooperative with payment from the 2002 Environmental Service Budget and as recommended by the Director. Voting yes: McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck. Motion carried.

2002/04-08 Motion by Pavleck, seconded by Hanson appointing Joseph Prettyman and alternate Ted Frederickson as full-time members to the five-member Board of Adjustment, (five-member Board established by a Zoning Ordinance amendment). Voting yes: McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck. Motion carried.

000 The Land Commissioner informed the Board that a request was received from the Voyageur Trail Society asking for a snowmobile access trail connecting the Ray community to the Arrowhead Corridor Snowmobile Trail. It is anticipated that two or more private parcels would need to be crossed to reach tax-forfeit land to connect to the trail and that easement agreements have been executed and are in place for the private parcels. In addition, it is anticipated that an access easement on land owned by I.S.D. 361 and the State of Minnesota may also need to be completed for the proposed trail. The Land Commissioner stated that one meeting has been held and at this time there is preliminary support to pursue the proposal. He stated that snowmobiles are using the Ray North Road, which is not a good situation. The Board supported the Land and Forestry Department’s continued work on the proposal.

2002/04-09 Motion by Lepper, seconded by Pavleck authorizing the Board Chair’s signature to a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers providing responses to the EPA’s comments on the proposed Peat Horticultural Mining Project and requesting a prompt reply on the information provided and the status of the federal permitting process for the project. Voting yes: McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck. Motion carried.

2002/04-10 Motion by Chezick, seconded by Hanson authorizing the Highway Engineer to call for bids for culverts, road oil and timber bridge materials with a bid opening scheduled for May 6, 2002 and results presented to the Board on May 7, 2002. Voting yes: McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck. Motion carried.

2002/04-11 Motion by Pavleck, seconded by Hanson authorizing the Board Chair to send a letter to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, whose mission is to help extremely ill youngsters fulfill a dream, asking that they clarify their policy for denying hunting and fishing wishes. Voting yes: McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck. Motion carried.

2002/04-12 Motion by Pavleck, seconded by Lepper to close session at 11:10 a.m. to conduct performance reviews for the KCCS Directorship managers. Present for the closed session were the full Board, County Coordinator, Ann Coulombe, Cindy Ellefson-Oswald, and Terry Murray. Voting yes: McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck. Motion carried. The Board recessed for lunch at 12:10 p.m., reconvened in closed session at 1:40 p.m. and opened session at 4:40 p.m.

2002/04-13 Motion by Lepper, seconded by Hanson to adjourn the meeting at 4:44 p.m. Voting yes: McBride, Lepper, Hanson, Chezick, Pavleck. Motion carried.