Todd Smith
When he has receives his accreditation, Assistant County Assessor Todd Smith won’t have to move his desk many feet— should he choose to move it at all—to accept his new position as Cook County assessor.
Cook County commissioners voted unanimously on September 13 to offer Smith the position after conducting a search to replace Betty Schultz who resigned late spring and whose last day was June 24.
Once he has completed all of his Accredited Minnesota Assessor (AMA) credentialing, Smith will become the new county assessor. Smith will have two years to obtain his Senior Accredited Minnesota Assessor (SAMA) from the time of his appointment.
“I am grateful that we have Todd,” said Commissioner Frank Moe. “My interactions with him have been positive. I take great pleasure in recommending him for this position.”
New Emergency Management director also approved
Commissioners also approved hiring Valerie Marusco to replace Jim Wiinanen as the county’s new Emergency Management director. Wiinanen is retiring at the end of this month. The Emergency Management director position is a full-time position with county benefits. Marusco starts at the C42-1 Step 15 rate, which is $25.71 per hour.
Marasco is the Public Information Officer for the city of Thunder Bay and has worked with Cook County Emergency Services on training in the past.
“Based on many, many years of working with Valerie I will make the motion to approve hiring her,” said County Board Chair Heidi Doo-Kirk.
One of Wiinanen’s last duties involved asking commissioners to require that any event permit application include requirements for event organizers to have an emergency action plan (EAP).
“Luck is not a plan,” said Wiinanen. “All events face some hazards whether natural or human caused. Event organizers should take responsibility for emergencies that may happen during their event and think through and document their procedures to address risk reduction and emergency actions.”
County Administrator Jeff Cadwell suggested forming a temporary committee, which included officials from Grand Marais, the highway/police departments and private event organizers to make suggestions about what an EAP should look like before the board passed a motion on the subject.
“Event planning has a way of wearing out volunteers,” said Moe. “I would hope that if we put together a committee that we don’t make the rules too onerous for those who are putting on events.”
Commissioner Ginny Storlie talked about the Lutsen 99er and noted that people had complained about the short shutdown of Highway 61 for that event. “I would recommend getting people involved that are putting on events when you form this committee,” she said.
The board unanimously supported forming a temporary committee to study and make suggestions to the board about what they felt would make a good EAP.
Highway Department staffing addressed
County Administrator Cadwell asked commissioners to approve a motion that would extend the out-of-class appointments for Charlie Sawyer and Lisa Sorlie for six more months (or until key position in the highway department are filled).
Sawyer has been filling the position of maintenance foreman on an outof class basis since February 10 in the absence of Russell Klegstad on disability pay.
The board granted the request but Commissioner Moe asked Cadwell to keep working on a way to alleviate the staffing challenges at the highway department. Cadwell said he would include commissioners in ongoing plans to find qualified applicants to work at the highway department.
In other business
. Kathy Sullivan appeared before the county board during Citizen’s Comments and asked the board to pass a motion declaring September 21 as the United Nations’ designated International Day of Peace.
The Day’s theme for 2016 is “The Sustainable Development Goals: Building Blocks for Peace,” said Sullivan.
“I believe we can begin in a small way to heighten awareness of people where we live to call for peace,” Sullivan said. “So I am asking the Cook County commissioners to join in support by officially declaring Wednesday, September 21, 2016 as A Day of Peace.”
Commissioners voted unanimously to honor Sullivan’s request.
. Joan Farnam was appointed to the Community Center Board of Trustees to take the place of Gwen Carman who resigned from the board when she became the superintendent of schools in Carlton, Minnesota.
. Also approved was $10,187.12 that will be used to purchase and replace two network switches, which are used to connect the county’s infrastructure to the Internet. This was a routine scheduled request for replacement needed to ensure reliable service.
. Sealed bids for snowplowing will be sought for the Subordinate Governmental Service Districts (SGSDs) and will be received by the Cook County Highway Department on behalf of the Evergreen Road Association, Voyageur’s Point Association, Mile-O-Pine Association, West Rosebush Lane Subordinate District, Irish Creek Subordinate Service District and Rosebush Hill Subordinate Services District. Bids must be in by October 12.
. Commissioners approved final payment of $3,218.54 to Parsons Electric for its work on intersection lighting improvements.
Parsons was well under its original bid of $38,117, completing the work for $32,664.60.
Funds to pay for the project came from the Federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), which covered 90 percent of the costs and the remaining 10 percent came from (CSAH) State Aid Funds.
. Commissioners approved a policy to manage radio tower requests as presented by the committee formed to draft the procedure. The purpose of the policy is that while towers allow for valuable service, sometimes they also have negative aesthetic impacts. “For this reason, the county prefers to use existing towers for services over building new facilities to limit the negative aesthetic impacts,” stated the new policy.
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