Two months into the collection of a 1% Cook County sales and use tax, county commissioners have started reporting on progress toward implementing several capital improvement projects earmarked for income from the tax.
County Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers told the county board Tuesday, June 8, 2010 that about $37,000-38,000 was collected in April, the first month of the tax. The county will pay the state some startup fees from that amount, however. April is generally a slower month in Cook County. About $1 million a year is expected from the 20-year tax – an average of $83,333 a month. At future meetings, Powers will be able to report on the exact amount generated from the tax each month.
Rather than waiting 20 years until all the tax dollars have been gathered to do any of the projects, the county plans to issue bonds. This could be done either with one bond or two, Powers said. He and commissioners Bruce Martinson and Bob Fenwick are working on a form that community groups can use when requesting funding for their projects.
A 1% tax committee recommended using the tax to fund seven projects: a new community center/pool facility in Grand Marais, expansion of the Grand Marais Library, improvements to Superior National at Lutsen golf course, upgrading outdoor recreational facilities at Birch Grove Community Center in Tofte, upgrading outdoor recreational facilities on county land just west of Cook County Schools, a biomass-generated heat and power plant for public buildings in Grand Marais, and a countywide fiber optic communications network.
Commissioner Fenwick reported that a community center steering committee would pursue a company to design the facility and the recreational grounds around it.
Commissioner Martinson said that Birch Grove Community Center has found alternative funding for its parking lot. Requested will be funding for a new playground, a tennis court, and a hockey rink.
The library board is also investigating additional sources of funding, Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said, in order to bring the building all the way to where they would really like it to be. The library has sent out requests for proposals for architectural services.
In other news:
. At the request of the Lions Club, the board voted to allow overflow camping during Fisherman’s Picnic in the county parking lot on the west side of the Gunflint Trail across from the courthouse. Arrowhead Transit was recently given permission to park up to three buses in that lot as well, but Maintenance
Director Brian Silence said the county has plenty of room in various county lots
to accommodate all parking needs during Fisherman’s Picnic. . The Community Center will be purchasing a newer and better used piano for $500. The old one will be given away. It will also be installing a new
refrigerator and beverage cooler, since the old ones were breaking down. . Even though major landscape changes may be made to the current Community Center property when outdoor recreational facilities are added and if a new community center is built on the property, erosion control landscaping funded by a Coastal Grant will be completed this year at the
direction of the grantors. Large rocks and fill will be placed behind the hockey
rink but could be moved and used somewhere else in the future. . The board approved contracts with two soil scientists who will begin mapping the soil of Cook County. The project will be reimbursed by the state and will take up to five years with some of the mapping conducted by the federal
Natural Resources Conservation Service as well. Soil surveying has already been
completed on much of the federal land in Cook County. . Extension Director Diane Booth told the board that 11 experimental grape vineyards are being started from Pike Lake all the way down to Lake Superior in a five-to-six-year pilot project. She also reported that a local beekeepers’ association is addressing a worldwide concern over unhealthy bee colonies. WTIP Radio reporter Jay Anderson said he recently interviewed botanist Chel Anderson, who said that black flies pollinate blueberries.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if black flies had a purpose?” Janet Simonen asked.
Regarding foods black flies enjoy, Braidy Powers wondered, “What’s the similarity between us and blueberries?”
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