Grand Marais Sustainability Coordinator Shane Steele came before the Cook County Commissioners on Tuesday, February 25, with a proposal from the city.
Steele said the city had received a grant to do an electric vehicle (EV) Suitability Assessment on the city’s fleet of vehicles. The grant had come from the Clean Energy Research Team (CERTs), who said they would double the grant if the city could find another government organization to partner with.
According to Steele, the assessment, which will be conducted by Sawatch Labs, a Denver based company that specializes in fleet assessments, will be used to determine if electric vehicles would be a suitable option for the city/county fleets.
Geotab devices will be installed in vehicles. The Geotab will collect data such as daily mileage and fuel consumption over six months and capture driving habits from both summer and winter. The data gathered would be compared to data from EV makes and models similar to the capabilities of the city/county fleet of vehicles.
The timeline to start the project would be next July or August, said Steele.
Commissioner Dave Mills asked if the collected data would belong to the county and Steele said the data collection tool and the data itself would indeed, belong to the county.
When asked how many vehicles would be used for the study Steele replied 20. He understood the city of Grand Marais had nine vehicles that would be included in the test. He also said he had reached out to Grand Portage to see if they want to be included but hadn’t heard back from them by the time of the county board meeting.
While the grant would cover the cost of analysis, it wouldn’t cover the hardware (geotab) or data collection, which would run about $200 per vehicle over the six-month study, said Steele.
Mills suggested that this would be a good way for the county to get more data about its fleet of vehicles, and while commissioner Heidi Doo Kirk agreed with him, she said she wouldn’t vote in favor of this project at this time because, “It’s not in our budget.”
Commissioner Ginny Storlie said she would need more information about the study before she would be willing to cast a vote for the project and added that Brian Silence, the county maintenance director and manager of the county’s fleet of vehicles, would need to be brought into the conversation.
Steele said he could come back at a later date if the county board wanted, and they agreed they would be willing to have him appear again sometime in the future.
* Mike Keyport was sworn in as the new Emergency Management Director. Mike has been the director for a while now, but the state requires all new Emergency Management Directors to be sworn into office.
*Commissioners approved the purchase of a 2019 Clark Forklift at a cost of $22,350. The funds to pay for the forklift, which will be used at the county recycling center, will come from the “Future Landfill Development” account in the building fund.
* Land Commissioner Tim Nelson went before the board to request $11,000 from Fund 85 that will be used to match funds for the trails working group grant project previously approved by the county board. His request was approved.
* With the election fast approaching, two commissioners were selected to serve on the Canvass Board of the Presidential Primary Election.
The Canvass Board meets on the second or third day following the primary to prepare a report about the election results that are then sent to the Minnesota Secretary of State.
Cook County Attorney Molly Hicken presented a draft and review of by-laws concerning the operating rules and guidelines that give structure to the county board. The commissioners went over the various parts of the document and suggested changes noted by Hicken. At the end of the lengthy process Molly said she would bring back a revised copy once those changes had been made.
Included in the draft was a Statement of Principle: “The Foundation for Rules of Order lies in the basic and enduring principles of rights, specifically enunciated, these rights include the right of the majority to rule, the right of the minority to be heard, and the right of the individual to participate in the decision making process, these rights are important canons of efficiency; namely, attend to one matter at a time, and the balancing of the affirmative and negative actions to a pending matter.”
*Abbie Prom and Drew Negangard were hired as seasonal Stream Crossing Inventory staff for the Cook County Soil and Water Conservation District.
*Commissioners appointed John Bottger and Fred Smith to serve as trustees on the Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire Department Relief Association for 2020.
* Tim Norman was reappointed to a three-year term on the Cook County Airport Commission. Tim’s current position on the airport commission expired.
* Commissioners talked long and hard about replacing the 23-year-old chairs in the commissioners’ room. Commissioner Bobby Deschampe, who serves as the county board liaison on the building committee, said the committee had come to a consensus to replace the worn out chairs. Commissioner Doo-Kirk said she had called Bobby to see if he agreed with the building committees’ decision and she said she was surprised when he said yes, he did agree. “Bobby’s conservative when it comes to spending money, so I was surprised by his decision,” she told the board.
The old chairs will be auctioned off or used at the community center.
When the chairs come the commissioners will get nine new “Flash Furniture Martha Washington High Black Leather Executive Swivel Chairs” to replace the current board room’s chairs at a total cost of $2,286.
A total of 75 “comfort burgundy fabric” stackable steel chairs will replace the current chairs in the boardroom at a cost of $4,275.
The total $6,561 cost of the new chairs was budgeted for in the 2019 Building Fund, said interim County Administrator Rena Rogers. Commissioners voted all ayes in favor of the purchase. The new chairs will be purchased through Quill Lincolnshire Inc.
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