Cook County commissioners discussed a wide variety of county related business at the April 9 county board meeting and passed several resolutions.
In-lieu-of -taxes
Commissioners sent a letter to Vicki Christiansen, chief of the United State Forest Service, asking about Cook County’s BWCAW 10-year appraisal payments that were supposed to be given to the county September 2018.
The funds come through the Thye- Blatnick Act, passed in 1948, that provides payments-in-lieu-of-taxes to Cook, Lake, and St. Louis counties for land in the BWCAW managed by the Forest Service. In exchange for giving up future taxes on this land, the counties were granted partial in-lieu of property tax payments, which is determined over 10 years.
Last year, Cook County received $1,891,350.
The letter to Christiansen stated, “This funding is an irreplaceable portion of our budget.”
Neither Lake nor St. Louis County know what their portion of the funds will be at this time.
Community Center assistant
Commissioners passed a resolution to hire a part-time assistant at the Community Center.
The job will pay from $17.15 to $23.50 per hour and take 16 to 20 hours per week to perform. There are no health insurance benefits for this position.
KOOTASCA Community Action
The county board passed a resolution authorizing KOOTASCA Community Action, Inc. and AEOA to administer funds made available through the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency Family Homelessness Prevention and Assistance Program in Cook County.
The Minnesota Housing Finance Agency has been authorized to set up a program to provide funds for Family Homeless Prevention and assistance projects. KOOTASCA Community Action, Inc. and AEOA have demonstrated the ability to perform the required activities of the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency Family Homelessness Prevention and Assistance Program, therefore, has been charged with the administration of funds made available through the program.
The resolution covers the grant term of July 1, 2019, through September 30, 2020.
South Shore Drive to be repaired
Cook County highway engineer Krysten Foster came before the board with a request to seek bids for work on South Shore Drive on Devil Track Lake.
This project consists of grading, reclamation, culvert replacement, culvert lining, and bituminous surfacing on 3.373 miles of South Shore Drive (CSAH 18).
Foster said the work would be funded with State Aid funds, and the commissioners agreed the job should go forward.
Mineral Center Road to be paved
Foster brought up the paving project for the Mineral Center Road. The money to pay for the paving and the outside engineering work is included in the 2018 bonding, said Foster. Commissioner Bobby Deschampe suggested that the county move ahead and finish the road, which has been needing repair for at least the last quarter century. The board agreed with Deschampe and bids will be let so the road can be completed this summer.
The Northeast Minnesota Area Transportation Partnership
(NEMNATP) is a group convened by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and the Arrowhead Regional Development Commission (ARDC) to prioritize the use of federal transportation funding and guide regional transportation planning efforts in northeast Minnesota.
The Partnership consists of 45 members, including elected officials, transportation infrastructure professionals, and others, from an eight-county area (Aitkin, Carlton, Cook, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake, Pine, Saint Louis) of northeast Minnesota.
RESOLUTION 2019
Association of Minnesota Counties Transportation Funding Resolution
WHEREAS Minnesota Counties maintain 30,742 miles of County State Aid Highway (CSAH) roads and 14,141 miles of county roads, totaling over 30 percent of the state’s roadways; and
WHEREAS the total annual need is $1.084 billion over the next 25 years just to maintain the current CSAH and county road system, not including expansion; and WHEREAS the annual funding gap for counties has resulted in deferring basic maintenance, delaying expansion projects with resulting safety concerns, mounting congestion, and missed economic growth for businesses and commuters; and WHEREAS a comprehensive and sustainable transportation solution should include robust funding for roads, bridges, and transit, and address the varying needs in different parts of the state; and WHEREAS increased funding for Minnesota’s Highway User Tax Distribution Fund would provide additional, stable funds for MnDOT, all 87 counties, all cities with a population of 5,000 or more, and townships across the state; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Cook County Board of Commissioners encourages the Minnesota Legislature to pass and the Governor to sign a bill that brings adequate funding to Minnesota’s statewide transportation system.
As Foster told the commissioners, the resolution doesn’t call for a specific amount of money but calls for adequate funding for road and bridge projects. The commissioners unanimously passed the resolution.
Highway 61
Starting in May MnDOT will begin to install traffic control devices and signing from Duluth to Grand Marais at the cost of $1 million. The project will include shoulder closures, single-lane closures, and flaggers and is slated to end in November.
Visit Cook County
Linda Jurek, executive director of Visit Cook County, came before the board with a financial overview of the 1 percent funding for the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
VCC is now able to expand the scope of the use of the 1 percent Events Tax beyond traditional event promotions, said Jurek, with the goal to spotlight individual communities and bolster brand recognition by marketing sub-brands that lift the organization as a whole.
Working to create events for the shoulder seasons is crucial, said Jurek, noting that the Night Skies festival was “crazy good,” in turnout and more work would continue to find festivals and events that filled the slower season niche.
Credit cards
Under the current county policy, 19 credit cards are authorized for county staff. But two more credit cards were added to the mix on Tuesday when commissioners agreed to amend the policy so one card would be given to the Administrator’s Office and one card would be issued for the commissioners.
By amending the current policy, credit cards would be available when needed at no additional cost to the county, advised auditor/treasurer Braidy Powers.
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