Highlighting the Cook County Board of Commissioners March 22, 2016 meeting, was the introduction by Cook County Sheriff Pat Eliasen of his new part-time transport/bailiff deputy Mark Marxen.
“Mark played football and basketball for me. He’s a fine young man,” Eliasen said of Marxen.
After the introduction, Eliasen sought a motion from the board seeking Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA) benefits for his new deputy. Although Marxen is part-time, he has been getting in enough hours so he is eligible to start accruing PERA benefits, said Eliasen. The board passed a unanimous motion in support of Eliasen’s request.
When no one spoke up at the public hearing to consider changes to Cook County miscellaneous fees Board Chair Heidi Doo-Kirk called on Sheriff Eliasen to come forward to explain proposed increased fees for his office.
Eliasen recommended increasing the current permit to carry fee (for new applicants) from $50 to $75. He also suggested an increase in permit to carry renewal fees from $35 to $55 and proposed the county start charging $10 for replacement/change of address for gun permits. As of now the county doesn’t charge anything for that service.
“I was one of the authors of the permit to carry legislation and I feel very strongly about people’s rights to carry,” said Commissioner Frank Moe, a former two-time legislator in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Moe favored no increase in the current fees.
Moe asked why the county needed to increase the fees and Eliasen responded, “For us to issue a new permit it is a lot of work. Some of the things in the permit process take a lot of time.”
He also said Cook County’s permit to carry fee was lower than much of the state, and the permit fee to carry in St. Louis County was $75.
Last but not least, Eliasen said when people from out of the state find out about Cook County’s lower fees they register here because it is cheaper to do so. “We get permit applications from all across the U.S. because we are at $50,” he said, noting this caused an increase in the workload to his staff.
Moe suggested a two-tiered approach, one for out-of-state applicants at a higher fee than Cook County residents, but with Cook County Attorney Molly Hicken on vacation no one on the board knew if that would be legal. After some discussion the board decided to table these three fees increases until they can get more information about Moe’s suggestion to charge more for out of state applicants.
The board did pass increases to fees (or new fees) in the Sheriff ’s office for 9-1-1 Voice Audio copies, which will now be $5; typed 9-1-1 transcripts will cost $20 per hour; research time to create a 9-1-1 copy will be $20 per hour; and cost to make a DVD will be $20.
Also increased was the fee to use the outdoor horse arena for events. The rate went from $20 per day to $50 per day plus applicants have to provide proof of insurance.
Commissioner Jan Sivertson asked how the county determined how much to charge for fees and how often the county changed its fee schedule.
Auditor Braidy Powers said the county changed its fee charges “every five years or so” and often looks at what other counties charge to help determine where to set the county’s fees. He said the county wasn’t trying to make a profit on its fees, but was trying to recover the costs of providing the service.
Safe Routes to School
Maren Webb, Safe Routes to School coordinator, Sawtooth Mountain Clinic, came before the board to ask commissioners to support a Safe Routes to School update, which was first created in 2010.
Formed in 2009, the Safe Routes to School Committee is a collaboration between ISD 166 and Great Expectations School, Cook County Highway Department, Public Health and Human Services, Law Enforcement, and the City of Grand Marais. The committee created a plan that works to address safety for students who walk or bike to school.
An emphasis is also made to help encourage more kids to get more exercise, and several times a year SRTS sponsors a “walking school bus” with adults leading students on a safe route to school.
In the 1960s, nationally more than 65 percent of children biked or walked to school. Today, that number has dropped to less than 10 percent. One of eight children today is obese while almost half of young people are not vigorously active on a regular basis. Webb explained that one of the reasons for this is because parents don’t feel safe about having their kids walk or bike in traffic to school, and it was against this backdrop that the SRTS program was begun.
The Arrowhead Regional Development Commission (ARDC) Regional Planning Division helped facilitate the first plan and assisted with the update of the plan, said Webb. She said a lot of positive changes were made.
Webb noted that Safe Routes to Schools is a nationwide program funded at both state and federal levels to primarily improve the ability of students to walk and bicycle safely to school. But she said the group also helps encourage physical activity for people of all ages and abilities. To demonstrate she asked Nicki Boostrom to stand. Boostrom said she was at the meeting to represent the disabled in the community. Frankie Jarchow also stood and said she was there to represent the elderly.
Support from the county board, said Webb, would increase opportunities for future grants, and help fulfill the committee’s vision.
The board thanked Webb for her report and voted unanimously to approve the updated SRTS plan.
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