Thirty-six people have applied for Cook County’s new county administrator position. “I was tickled pink,” Consultant David Unmacht of Springstead Group told the county board on August 13, 2013.
Unmacht said he knows 11 of the applicants. Another 10 live in Minnesota and the rest are from across the Midwest and beyond. At first glance, Unmacht said, he could see that at least four or five were “solid” applicants.
Unmacht said he was surprised to see resumes from a couple of the applicants. He expected a couple of them, and there were others that he thought would be submitted but were not. He said that it seemed like people who know the area either want to live in this community or don’t apply. “You’re a small rural community,” he said. “You’ve got to want to be here to be successful.”
One qualified applicant who just retired applied for the job, Unmacht said. The applicant said it was because he knows the area and has a place up here. Other applicants have driven up to see the county and talked to Auditor- Treasurer Braidy Powers.
Unmacht said that there would be an obvious “no” pile, a “maybe” pile, and an obvious “yes” pile. He will create a matrix to evaluate and compare applicants and with input from commissioners will send out a set of screening questions to 7-11 of the highest-ranking applicants. From there, he will narrow the list down to 3-5 people to invite to a first interview and will call them with more questions before that interview.
Unmacht said they could do first interviews soon after Labor Day and second interviews shortly after that, leading to a decision by the end of September. After the first interviews, finalists will be selected and their references will be checked. If the whole board interviews the final set of candidates, their names will be available to the public.
Commissioner Sue Hakes said she wanted to see all 36 resumes because she was curious and because she wanted the board to be able to throw out any applicants they might know and have disqualifying information about. Unmacht is making the applications available to the board, and the board will decide on August 27 which candidates will be invited to a first interview.
“It is exciting,” Commissioner Jan Hall said.
The board talked about a recommendation from the Personnel Committee that its job classification system be updated. It is likely to be one of the first projects for the new county administrator.
Drinking fountain at tennis courts
The board authorized moving forward with installation of a drinking fountain the county purchased previously for the area outside the tennis courts. It will be installed by Edwin E. Thoreson Inc. for just over $1,150. Rebuilding the curb will be another $700 if it is damaged during installation.
The city’s charge for hooking into the city’s water system will be $1,300 – a $1,000 hookup fee plus $300 for labor and parts – but the county will be asking the Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission to waive the fee. Ongoing charges will be $10 plus the cost of the water used each month.
The money for installation is coming out of the county’s Building Fund.
Commissioner Bruce Martinson asked if the ongoing costs could be paid out of the Community Center budget. Commissioner Hakes said that wouldn’t be fair because it is not in the budget. Martinson said he was talking about the “old community center” budget, not the Cook County Community YMCA budget, and Hakes said, “I’m comfortable with that.”
Garry Gamble said he thought it made sense for ongoing fountain costs to come out of the “old” (current) Community Center budget. The fountain will be used by people involved in numerous outdoor sports near the Community Center and the YMCA/Cook County Schools facility.
Skadberg Masonry is installing sidewalks outside the tennis courts to replace the walkways that were taken out during the YMCA construction.
Price of business park lots
Commissioner Bruce Martinson asked his fellow commissioners what they thought the Cook County/Grand Marais Economic Development Authority (EDA) should charge the city if the city wants to locate a new maintenance facility in Cedar Grove Business Park. He suggested charging $60,000 instead of $30,000, the current list price, because the property would not generate property tax.
Commissioner Sue Hakes said she didn’t think it was right to inflate the price of a lot just because the buyer was a public entity.
Even though the county is represented on the EDA by Commissioner Heidi Doo-Kirk, Commissioners Hakes and Gamble agreed that if the county commits to helping the city make business park bond payments, the whole county board should have a say in the sale of the lots.
Selling all the lots at $30,000 would not cover the cost of repaying the bonds.
Budget trimming
A week after most of the department heads presented their 2013 budget requests to the board, Commissioner Garry Gamble said he would like to ask each department head to come up with a plan to reduce his or her budget by 5 percent by both cutting expenses and increasing revenue if possible.
The board agreed to have the department heads do this. County Attorney Tim Scannell said it would be easier for some departments to reduce their budgets than for others.
Land exchange denial
The board denied a land exchange request by John Scheef brought to them by County Assessor Betty Schultz. Scheef owns an 80-acre parcel north of County Road 7 and west of the Old Ski Hill Road in Grand Marais. The property borders U.S. Forest Service land on the north, west, and south, a private parcel also on the south, and county land on the east between his land and the Old Ski Hill Road. According to County Assessor Betty Schultz, this was his fourth request for a land exchange with the county.
On November 10, 2009, Scheef appeared personally before the county board and said that he had made numerous unsuccessful attempts to obtain easement through the land that surrounds his property — from Brandon Lane to the north, from the Old Ski Hill Road to the east, and through Forest Service land to the south and west. County Attorney Tim Scannell told the Cook County News-Herald that he did not believe his office had handled any cartway petitions from Scheef reguarding access through the private land adjacent to his property.
Scheef proposed several county-owned properties for the exchange, including parcels on Bearskin Lake, off the Arrowhead Trail in Hovland, adjacent to the Ball Club Road, between Hungry Jack, Flour, and Aspen lakes, on Loon Lake, and on South Shore Drive near Devil Track Lake.
Assessor Schultz told the board that Highway Engineer David Betts said the property would not be useful to the county as a source of gravel. Commissioner Garry Gamble said he saw no value to the county in the proposed exchange.
Scheef, who purchased land in 2005, could petition the county board for a cartway granting access to a public road through adjacent private property, but he would have to pay for it.
Head of Recycling Center retires
Upon the retirement of Recycling Center Operator Jeff Sylvester, the board authorized Planning & Zoning Director Tim Nelson to advertise for the position internally. Anyone already working for the county would be able to apply for the job.
AEOA office rental
The board approved an agreement with the Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency (AEOA) for renting space in the current Community Center. The AEOA office used to be in the Community Ed wing of the high school. Community Center Director Diane Booth said AEOA clients did not like having to go into the school building.
The rent will be $200 a month.
Funding to remodel NERCC
The board authorized a contribution of $81,600 to Arrowhead Regional Corrections (ARC) for improvements to the Northeast Regional Corrections Center (NERCC). This represents 1.36 percent of the $6 million cost of the improvements. This figure was derived from a five-year average of inmate days by people from Cook County. Between 2008 and 2012, Cook County had an average of 680 inmate days a year at NERCC (an average of 1.86 inmates a day), which is 1.36 percent of the average of 49,896 total inmate days a year at the facility (about 137 people a day).
The project includes replacement of outdated and inefficient infrastructure systems and a redesign of the floor plan. A memo to the county from ARC Executive Director Kay Arola said, “The redesign of the floor plan allows for safer and more efficient use of the space to provide programming and security for residents and staff. It includes an area for special management cases as well as administrative segregation. The current lack of these functions severely limits NERCC’s effectiveness.”
Leave a Reply