The Cook County Highway Department facilities study is under way. On September 20, 2011, the county board approved an agreement with Braun Intertec for geotechnical borings and evaluations needed to assess the potential costs of new facility site grading and foundations.
The proposal states, “As requested, we propose to drill 10 standard penetration test borings for the project, extending them to a depth of 20 feet or refusal on bedrock. Penetration tests will be performed at 2½-foot vertical intervals to the termination depths of the borings. …We have assumed an average refusal depth of 15 feet….” The estimated cost is $3,500.
In other Highway Department news, Engineering Technician Fran Johnson notified the department that he would be retiring as of November 1. He has been with the Highway Department since1988.
Engineer Betts described Johnson as “an excellent employee – a very, very smart man.”
The board accepted his resignation with regrets and authorized Betts to advertise for his replacement.
Advertising for bids will be coming out soon for snowplowing the four private roads the county gets paid by homeowners’ associations to maintain. They are Evergreen Road in Lutsen, Voyageur’s Point and Mile-O-Pine roads up the Gunflint Trail, and West Rosebush Lane 3 ½ miles west of Grand Marais.
The bids will be due at 2:00 p.m. October 10.
Colvill hall tables and chairs
Sharon Bloomquist and Arvis Thompson wrote a letter to the board requesting funding to replace 10 tables, 24 folding chairs, and storage carts for them. Bloomquist was at the meeting with Cook County Maintenance Supervisor Brian Silence to discuss the request.
“The tables need to be replaced,” the letter stated. “They are not dependable to stay up, have slivers, and are too heavy for one person to move or set up. Recent activities have had need of additional tables such as family holidays, Girl Scout events, rummage sales, fire department trainings, and meals and wedding events….The Colvill Hall Committee has recently put new flooring in kitchen, replaced the kitchen stove, a new refrigerator and added some cupboards.”
The board authorized Maintenance Supervisor Brian Silence to purchase the items at a cost not to exceed $4,000. Silence and Bloomquist expressed determination to find good quality tables and chairs for less than the catalog cost, which was $3,987.60. Bloomquist will do the shopping.
Abatement minimum
Commissioner Jim Johnson agreed to work with Assessor Mary Black on looking at the county’s abatement policy. With recent abatements of one and two dollars, the board has discussed whether the amounts are worth the administrative expense of issuing abatement checks in these cases.
Black said some counties charge $50 for abatement applications. She doesn’t mind paying out the small amounts, however. “It’s not a big issue in our office. It doesn’t take a ton of time at this point.”
Employee travel policy
At the recommendation of the state auditor, the board amended its employee travel policy. In the future, if advances are given to employees to cover meals ahead of time, the employees will be required to fill out travel vouchers upon return reporting the actual amount spent on meals and to return any unused advances.
Previously, employees received a set amount of money for meals they expected to be eating while on business trips.
1 percent projects
Tom Wacholz and Rob Barse of ORB Management, the county’s representatives on the 1 percent sales and use tax capital improvement projects, gave the board an update on the projects.
As of September 15, the following amounts had been spent: $375,879.76 for the community center (3 percent complete), $586,437.63 on the Grand Marais Public Library addition (39 percent complete), $56,313.95 on the Birch Grove Community Center (8 percent complete), and $46,849.76 on Superior National Golf Course (3 percent complete).
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