Visit Cook County Executive Director Linda Jurek and new employee Lily Nelson-Pederson came before the county board on Tuesday, June 26 with a report about projects funded by the one percent sales tax.
Jurek said that in 2016 Visit Cook County promoted 15 events but at this time, “We are pushing around 50 events.”
Next year Visit Cook County will spend about $418,000 to assist with promoting countywide events, she said.
The staff at Visit Cook County works daily on the website and they have created a dashboard, said Jurek, adding that they have been “getting much more into digital marketing, and seeing growth from that.”
Among the new events this year were the Grand Marais Block Party, a Welcome Neighbors “for our Canadian travelers” and the kite festival. Despite a lack of wind for the kite festival, Jurek noted that it brought in a new demographic of people to the area.
Jurek touted the growing success of the Lutsen 99er bike races and mentioned that this year’s Boundary Waters Expo, which was moved to Bearskin, was the best Boundary Waters expo ever.
New truck fueling station
Dean Berglund and a cousin of his who will be his partner, requested permission for an interim use permit to install a fueling station on Berglund’s 80-acre property on the Gunflint Trail.
Cook County Planning & Zoning administrator Bill Lane said the site would have security cameras and meet MPCA guidelines. “The conditions we established were pretty far-reaching,” he said, adding that the planning commission recommended that it be approved 4-1.
When asked why Dean would want to build a fueling station, Lane said he never mentioned money. “He’s a trucker,” said Lane, “He wants to make this service available for truckers.” Lane said Dean’s cousin owns and operates these types of fueling stations across several states, and has pumped over 50 million gallons for truckers and he hasn’t had an issue.
Berglund plans to install two double walled above-ground 15,000-gallon fuel tanks on a concrete base, which he will operate as a self-serve fueling station. The station will operate on a subscription/keyed use basis and will be restricted to commercial, local and long-distance trucking operations.
Commissioner Heidi Doo-Kirk made a motion to approve Berglund’s request with Myron Bursheim seconding and the rest of the commissioners voting to approve the motion.
RV for employee housing
Lane said Bluefin owner Dennis Rysdahl was requesting to use a large RV for temporary employee housing.
“He’s looking at a stopgap now, bringing in an RV, not as a permanent solution,” said Lane. “Dennis said it wouldn’t be more than two years… maybe he said five years, but he’s looking at permanent solutions.”
Commissioners approved the Tofte Homestead PUD #1 LLC request to allow the seasonal use of an RV for up to five employees affiliated with Bluefin and Surfside Resorts. The RV will be connected into the PUD system and be connected with electricity. “It will have some of the creature comforts,” said Lane.
Regular business
County highway engineer Krysten Foster couldn’t be at the meeting due to a conflict in the schedule. She asked that commissioners hold off on voting on her request to hire the Arrowhead Regional Development Commission (ARDC) to develop a 20-year transportation plan for the county until she could be at an upcoming meeting.
ARDC, a regional planning and development agency with expertise in transportation planning, made the proposal to develop a transportation plan for Cook County. ARDC projects the cost to develop the Cook County Transportation Plan at $29,821.10. Commissioners agreed to wait until Foster makes a presentation to the board.
Whitney Wahlers was hired as a temporary communications assistant for up to 225 hours of work (approximately 15 weeks for 15 hours per week). She will assist Emergency Management and Public Information Director Valerie Marasco. Because the position is temporary, a formal posting was not required. The office of emergency services and public information will pay Wahlers’ wages.
Land Service
Land Services Director Tim Nelson requested that the Land Service secretary’s hours be increased from 35 hours to 40 hours due to the increase in “all areas of permits, as well as the required up-keep in maintenance and customization of the RT Vision permitting software system, among other new projects. This has been in consideration for quite some time, but I am requesting this now due to the significant increase in all levels of permits and workload,” said Nelson. Commissioners approved the request.
A motion was made and approved to allow the Border Route Trail Association to relocate the Portage Brook Bridge about 100 yards downstream along the Border Route Trail. The county has a lease agreement with the State of Minnesota for the Border Route Trail and the maintenance agreement with the Border Route Trail Association for them to maintain the trail. The move will allow the bridge to go to a higher location and be less susceptible to being displaced by flooding.
Lost and found
Cook County Highway Engineer Krysten Foster received approval to donate some items to the Cook County Historical Society.
Foster reported that when the engineering tech area was being tidied up, the following items were discovered: 100 stereographic photos with glasses; 1 polar planimeter; 3 Leroy lettering templates; 1 Abney level; 1 steel tape accessories; 1 digital scale master; 8 brass benchmark tags; and 20 Highway 61 field notebooks from the early 1900s to 1920s.
Some of those items were given to the Recorder’s Office, said Administrator Jeff Cadwell.
Administrator Cadwell presented an update for the county Emergency Director and Public Relations contract which was approved.
Bonding projects
Cadwell gave an update on the bids that came in for the playground, skating rink, and Hovland public works building, and he noted they were over budget by almost $400,000.
“I’m asking you for the authority to negotiate with the lowest bidders to meet the standards we set for those projects,” Cadwell said. Cadwell said he would work with the county’s consultants and the lowest bidders to see if they could reach agreements on price and quality.
All told the county budgeted just over $2 million for the projects.
Bids for ice rink, warming house, sidewalk, landscaping etc. came in at $546,000—19 percent over budget. The low bid for the community center playground was 8 percent over projection.
“Either we get these projects done with our budget or we reject these bids,” said Cadwell.
Commissioners approved Cadwell’s request to negotiate with the low bidders to see if he can get some or all of the projects under way this year. He will start with the hockey rink first. He said, “Sadly, we could reject these bids and bid again next year and get lower bids but get an increase in materials.”
Commissioner Deschampe said, “If we can negotiate them down, fine. We don’t have any more money than what we have.”
Commissioners passed three motions for the three projects, contingent on the projects meeting the standards and price set by the county. The motions allow Cadwell to sign the contracts for the county.
New Roth program available
Judy Hill, HR Generalist, came before the board to request a motion to approve the addition of a Roth 457 option to employees.
Hill said the employees on the benefits committee requested a Roth 457 option.
The county currently contributes up to 3 percent for a Roth plan, which would continue to be pretax and would remain the same.
“There really wouldn’t be any difference for the county, it just gives the employees another option,” said Hill. Commissioners unanimously voted for a motion to grant Hill’s request.
Hill also asked for a motion, which was granted to post a replacement dispatcher/ jailer job due to a termination.
With the meeting speeding ahead of schedule, commissioner Heidi Doo- Kirk read a resolution in support of the B2B trail that she will present formally at the next meeting. She said it was the first resolution that she had written as a commissioner.
Consent agenda items approved
. Nesgoda Services LLP ($30,820), TNT Timber ($24,252), and Wright’s Tree Service ($58,855) were each awarded contracts not to exceed the dollar amounts of those contracts to cut and clear in the Hungry Jack Lake areas to reduce fire danger in wild land-urban interface areas. They will be paid by the Hungry Jack Lake Steven’s grant.
. The MIS system administrator job was posted for hire. In the job summary, it states, “The MIS system administrator will be responsible for implementation, maintenance configuration, and the secure and reliable operation of computer systems; specifically, enterprise for business systems, such as servers, databases, and networks.
“The system administrator seeks to ensure that the uptime performance resources and security of the computers managed to meet the needs of the users and the county.”
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