Staff photos/Jane Howard The county board has authorized Maintenance Director Brian Silence to do something about the bushes overtaking the steps and sidewalk in front of the courthouse. He has been receiving complaints about them and his staff has difficulty removing snow from the steps. Removal of the bushes follows installation of a rain garden in the courthouse lawn designed to catch polluted runoff from the parking lot.
Cook County Maintenance Director Brian Silence has been hearing complaints about overgrown bushes in front of the courthouse. They are overtaking the sidewalk on Second Street and making snow shoveling difficult on the front steps.
Pruning the shrubs would leave ugly stubs that look like tree trunks, Silence told the county board Tuesday, September 22, 2009. What should he do? Silence asked the board if he should ask the Highway Department to come and take out the shrubs or hire an outside contractor.
Commissioner Bob Fenwick said he believed the board should let Silence and professional equipment operators decide how the job should be done.
What to replace the shrubs with was another question left unanswered. The board discussed replacing them with grass or finding out if the Master Gardeners would be interested in planning a new garden there.
Silence said he figured with the new rain garden going in on the courthouse lawn, now might be a good time to address the overgrown bushes as well.
By the end of the next day, the bushes were gone.
Infrared camera for
sheriff’s department
At the request of Sheriff ’s Deputy Leif Lunde, the county board authorized the Sheriff ’s Office to purchase over $90,000 in equipment. The equipment is funded entirely by an Operation Stonegarden grant from the Department of Homeland Security and will be used to assist the work of the Border Patrol.
The equipment will include night vision equipment, GPS units, binoculars, listening devices, zoom-capable digital cameras, computers, a surveillance DVR recording system, and a handheld infrared camera.
The infrared camera could identify illegal aliens hiding in vehicles attempting to cross the border, Lunde said, but they could also help find people lost in the woods. The department will be able to keep the equipment after the terms of Operation Stonegarden have been fulfilled.
Broadband info to be mailed
Information Technology Director Danna MacKenzie informed the board that the county won’t know until mid-October whether it will be awarded a multi-million dollar federal stimulus grant to install broadband Internet throughout the county. They had originally been told they would know by mid-September.
MacKenzie said that if the project were approved, she would like to see an oversight committee comprised of attorneys, bankers, county commissioners, and county employees. Those working on the project are looking at contracting with Boreal Access for management of the utility.
In order for the county to operate the system that would bundle high-speed Internet, phone, and TV service, state law requires that 65% of this fall’s referendum voters would need to vote yes to the second question on the ballot asking if the county should operate a telephone utility. If that question is turned down, MacKenzie said, the county would have to turn down the federal grant.
The city of Wyndham failed to pass just such a question the first time it was presented to voters, but with more public education, a second referendum approved the utility “overwhelmingly,” said MacKenzie. With money left over from a broadband education grant, she said, information will be mailed out to all Cook County residents.
Broadband service is one of seven projects that would benefit from the passage of a 1% sales tax that will be the subject of the first question on the referendum ballot. The board talked about the need to avoid spending public dollars to promote the 1% tax rather than simply informing the public of the option.
Commissioner Bob Fenwick believes the board should be spreading the word about the 1% option. “We have an obligation to not be silent,” he said. “We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t believe it was in the public’s best interest.” New snowmobile
groomer in Lutsen
The board approved a 10-year 0% interest loan of up to $50,000 to the Lutsen Trailbreakers Snowmobile Club to help with the purchase of a 2010 Tucker Terra snow groomer costing $142,916.36 plus tax.
Brad Ludlow, trail administrator and club president for the last 15 years, said that the club’s current groomer has logged 4,300 miles. A letter to the board said, “Our current groomer is 17 years old and has served us quite well, however annual maintenance costs are starting to become excessive.”
Each year, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) gives Minnesota Snowmobile Trails Assistance Program funding for snowmobile trails in Lutsen and Tofte and on the Gunflint Trail. The 2009-2010 award for the Lutsen Trailbreakers Snowmobile Club was $33,835.50. In exchange for the annual grant, the club maintains 51.5 miles of trail.
Over the course of years, the club has been putting money aside in a capital improvement groomer fund. It currently has $104,605.68 available in its savings account.
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