LWV Observer – Georgiana Campbell
All commissioners were present.
Today marked Rice County’s celebration of Youth Government Day. This is an annual spring event for the county government. The event began at 8:15 a.m. with registration by students from Northfield, Faribault, Waterville, and other locations.
First on the students’ agenda was observation of a regular meeting of the commissioners after which the students were invited to ask questions.
Next came a tour of the district courts followed by a tour of the county jail, which reportedly is of great interest.
Several departments were toured after lunch: Planning and Zoning, Social Services, Public Health and Nursing, and finally the Recorder’s Office. A wrap-up and the turning in of evaluations were the final events of the day.
After the students left the commissioners meeting at 9:15, there was plenty of time for the commissioners to cover the rest of their agenda. They proceeded as follows:
Planning and Zoning: Julie Rundel There were 5 CUP’s, (conditional use permits) all related to gravel mining, placing and operating a hot mix asphalt plan, and 3 aggregate crushing operations. All were approved by the commissioners. Companies requesting permits had submitted permit applications which included: an operational plan with environmental considerations, reclamation plan, and more — drawings, operational and reclamation plan maps. There was much more of such information than had appeared before in the usual packets available at commissioner meetings.
The last part of the meeting focused on the 2010 budget goal and timeline. Administrator Weiers led this discussion. The 2010 Budget Principle as stated in the prepared material was: ” the commissioners will challenge the status quo and explore all operations for reducing expenditures which included requiring departments to submit levy requests comparable to those for 2009.” The commissioners discussed this at some length. Comissioner Malecha stated (in the midst of the discussion about keeping taxes low) that he was not proud of Rice County having such a low tax rate compared to the rest of the counties in Minnesota. He believes that his constituents’ needs are not being met, adding that some of his constituents agree with him. Other commissioners did not agree, and the discussion was lively. The budget discussion is scheduled to continue through December.