Children need to feel safe and be comfortable when visiting with a noncustodial parent or being transferred from one parent to another. Finding an environment for that to take place is proving to be difficult for families along the North Shore.
On April 15, 2012, Wendy Hansen of Cook County’s guardian ad litem office requested funding from the county board for the North Shore Visitation Center (NSVC), an initiative begun in 2008 to provide supervised visitation and child exchanges for children of separated or divorced parents.
The program was started with a grant from the Northland Foundation, but funding was not ongoing. Fifteen different families representing 23 different children have been served over the last 3½ years, and all but two were referred by the court. Judge Michael Cuzzo has relied on the program in family court proceedings, but it ran out of money this spring and had to suspend services.
“Although supervised visitation is court-ordered,” said a request for county funding from the North Shore Visitation Center, “it is, unfortunately, an unfunded service so our community struggles to pay for this valuable service.
“The nearest visitation center to Grand Marais is 100 miles away in Duluth and 146 miles from Grand Portage Reservation, creating a great need for a supervised site on the North Shore.”
A second location was established at Birch Grove Community Center in Tofte, and last fall, Grand Portage Reservation requested the service and offered a space to provide it. A group of professionals from Lake County has also asked the North Shore Visitation Center to provide the service in the Two Harbors area.
A description of the program states, “The Center strives to increase safety for children while providing enjoyable visits with their parents. …The Center also offers safe locations for divorced or separated parents to exchange their children. This gives those parents a safe place to exchange their children where the parents do not need to see each other.
“…The service also focuses upon building and maintaining positive parentchild relationships even under difficult circumstances. …Supervised visitation has proven to be a valuable tool to maintain family relationships and also reduce repeated crimes against children and partner/ spouses of abusive people.”
Both of the current locations – in the Community Education wing of the Cook County Schools complex and at Birch Grove Community Center – have childfriendly spaces with toys, books, crafts, and outdoor playgrounds nearby.
An April 25 letter in support of the program from Judge Michael Cuzzo states, “…Your service gives many children a safe environment in which to interact with parents that may require supervision of their time with their children, often as the parents recover from broken relationships, mental illnesses, and chemical dependency issues. I think I have made it clear in many of the cases before me that parents wrestling with these issues should be encouraged to have continued, safe contact with their children.
“I am very sorry that NSVC is currently on hiatus. It is a great loss to this area.”
With staff only working as needed, the program budget has been under $35,000 a year. Wendy Hansen asked the board to commit to paying $5,000 a year for the next five years. Other entities such as Lake County, the Cliffs Foundation, the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation, and the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation are also being approached for funding.
Hansen also asked the board to make its contribution a line item separate from any departmental budgets.
Commissioner Bruce Martinson said he was not willing to make a five-year commitment, saying that adding a line item to their budget mid-year goes against the budgeting principles the board has been trying to follow in recent years. He said he was willing to contribute $5,000 this year and hoped they would find other funding sources in the meantime and be presented with a request for ongoing funding during their normal budgeting process in late summer.
Hansen said they were asking for a five-year commitment so their staff time would not just be taken up in fundraising. “We see this as an excellent way to take some pressure off our staff,” she said. “We’re trying to do this as low-budget as possible.”
Annie Debevec, who is on contract to provide the supervised visits and exchanges, said, “I have written oodles of grants over the last 3½ years since the program started.” Grantors ask if they have any ongoing funding sources, she said. Only one of their funders has made an ongoing commitment, and that is the Grand Marais Lionesses, who give $100 a year.
“I’m willing to fund this for five years,” said Commissioner Fritz Sobanja. “This is a dang good program. …I think the county should show its support.”
A motion to give $5,000 a year to the program for five years passed by a vote of three to one, with Commissioner Bruce Martinson voting no and Commissioner Jim Johnson absent.
In other county news:
. Edwin E. Thoreson Inc. was the only bidder on a gravel crushing contract with the county, something the county pays for every year. The bid came in within the budgeted amount and was approved unanimously.
. Two bids for liquid calcium chloride for next winter came in exactly the same. County Engineer David Betts consulted with County Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers, County Attorney Tim Scannell, and several other counties about how to handle this. “The consensus was that, since the bids are identical, the board chair should flip a coin to determine the successful bidder,” he wrote in a memo to the board.
With Auditor-Treasurer Powers verifying that the quarter to be flipped actually had both a head and a tail, Board Chair Jan Hall flipped the coin, which landed tails up, resulting in the bid going to Tri-City Paving.
. Commissioner Sue Hakes said she’s been hearing concern from neighboring property owners about potential noise and dust from proposed gravel crushing on the old airstrip on Devil’s Track lake.
Ulland Brothers will be submitting an Interim Use Permit application to the Cook County Planning Commission for permission to crush up old blacktop from Devil’s Track Road to be put back down as Class 5 gravel this summer when the road is reconstructed. County Engineer Betts cautioned the board against pre-judging an application that would soon be going before the Planning Commission. The project would likely take longer if Ulland had to go elsewhere to do the crushing, and transporting the material could cause roads to “take a pounding,” he said.
The week before, the county board had authorized Ulland Brothers to purchase gravel from its nearby gravel pit and crush it there for use in the new blacktop.
The board took no action on this matter.
. The board approved a tax abatement in the amount of $7,664 for the Human Development Center in Grand Marais. The previous director had neglected to file for exemption when the building was purchased several years ago. County Assessor/Land Commissioner Mary Black consulted with the Minnesota Department of Revenue and County Attorney Tim Scannell, and she and Auditor- Treasurer Braidy Powers approved the request before taking it to the county board. Abatements must be approved by the county assessor, auditor-treasurer, and board of commissioners.
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