County fills crime victim coordinator position
At the Tuesday, September 23 county board meeting, commissioners moved to accept a grant of $30,000 from the State of Minnesota to support the county’s crime victim witness coordinator position. That position has been vacant since Jeanne Smith was moved from that job to the position of assistant county attorney in October 2013. After acceptance of the grant, acting County […]
County board sets preliminary tax levy increase at 7 percent
With pencils sharp and an eye toward vastly lowering the initial 27.8 percent increase in county department budget requests, Cook County commissioners met in special session Monday, September 29 and after 2 1/2 hours of wrangling over numbers decided to set a maximum tax levy increase of 7 percent for 2015. Cook County Auditor- Treasurer Braidy Powers presented information depicting […]
Former county attorney Tim Scannell sentenced
A St. Louis County jury found Tim Scannell guilty of two felony counts of 4th degree criminal sexual conduct on July 25, 2014. On Friday, September 26, Judge Shaun Floerke announced sentencing on the former Cook County Attorney. Scannell was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 300 hours of community service and 10 years of probation. He began his incarceration […]
City to research cost of public restrooms
At the urging of the Cook County Chamber of Commerce, Grand Marais city councilors directed City Administrator Mike Roth to find out what it would cost to convert unused space in City Hall into more public restroom facilities at their meeting Sept. 24. The discussion was prompted by a letter written to council by Chamber Director Jim Boyd after the […]
A quality of life narrative
I’ve ended up in a lot of meetings lately, as part of my job and as a citizen. Right now, the all-important update of the Cook County Comprehensive Land Use Guide is under way. I went to the well-attended meeting at the Cook County Community Center on September 17. I was pleased to see the turnout and even more pleased […]
Indigenous People Day excludes some people
In the September 27th article Chris Goettl to run as write-in school board candidate, it is noted that the school board is proposing to rename the Columbus Day holiday “Indigenous People Day.” Since “indigenous” is defined as “existing, growing, or produced naturally in a region or country; belonging (to) as a native,” I can but wonder why such a divisive […]
Good policy concepts should be considered
Regarding the September 27 letter to the editor from Marion McKeever: Marion, I will keep it brief this time since no amount of reason is likely to change your mind, but first I have not been ignorant of these planning meetings from the beginning, but have been referring to them in my continuing work with various advocacy committees for years. […]
Sex offender program should consider victims
In light of the recent sentence of 30 days in jail and probation for former county attorney Tim Scannell, I wanted to once again bring forward this information. There is a great deal of discussion lately, both in the media and the courtroom, about the Minnesota Sex Offender Program. Some claim that in practice this works out to be a […]
Moose calf study successful only for zoos
From May 8-15 this year, moose mortality researcher Glen DelGiudice and his crew captured and collared 12 newborn moose calves. Seven (58 percent) of these were abandoned by their mothers. Rather than leaving the calves to meet a natural demise in the wild and recently armed with an ingenious Abandonment Contingency Plan, researchers “recovered” these seemingly motherless calves. Six of […]