Our family has been seasonal residents of Cook County since 1936. I am a retired public and health care administrator and I have a few thoughts on housing and taxes. Much of my working life was spent in communities of 1000 where I enjoyed serving many organizations and governments, and I get the rural challenges. I lived in Pipestone County for 5 years.
Housing: In South Dakota, our prison system builds houses inside called “Governor’s Houses.’ They are available in up to 3 bedrooms and with garages, and transported anywhere in the state. They can be placed slab on grade or atop a foundation. The family purchases its own appliances. I believe the cost is between 50,000-60,000 delivered. It’s my understanding that modular homes are being considered as well. Obviously the land and utilities would need to be arranged. This might be a possibility for the state penal system to consider.
I volunteer for Habitat for Humanity in Sioux Falls where houses are built inside. It takes about 3 weeks to build them. Licensed folks do the plumbing and wiring. It might be possible for a Habitat chapter to interact with your community. I would guess that Duluth has one.
I note that the community is developing culinary and other programs to fill some of the hospitality and other employment positions. It might be able to partner with a vocational/technical school to erect a building in the county and develop a local construction trade satellite program along with the high school.
Perhaps the school already has a program in place. Even if it was limited to framing and finish carpentry, it might be able to draw in the local tradespeople to assist, especially in the wintertime, and the wood and other supplies are readily available. That might aide in the growth of long-term local economic base. No doubt there would be other customers interested up and down the shore.
County Taxes: It’s my guess, looking at a plat book, that only about 5-7 percent of the land in the county is privately owned, and it looks to me that the county population is about .5400, Is it possible to share more services with Lake County, as I think is done with the county highway engineer?
As positions turn over, could the leadership positions be shared with Lake County? My guess is that they have similar tax and other challenges. Sharing some of the higher paid or other positions could still have the county meeting the various state and federal requirements but perhaps not impact tax increases quite as much.
Thank you for allowing me to share these thoughts.
Tom Hoy
Sioux Falls, SD
Leave a Reply