Northfield LWV observer - Georgiana Campbell
This was a day-long meeting, of which this LWV observer was only able to observe the morning segment. The afternoon business, a discussion of the Rice County Zoning Ordinance and the highway department-led discussion of corridor studies was re-scheduled to the afternoon from an earlier meeting which had run out of time for those discussions.
The morning portion of the meeting began with outside agency budget presentations, an annual, pre-budget preparation procedure which will continue on September 6th. The Rice County Historical Society, represented by Susan Garwood, highlighted its many activities, including several particularly for local school children. An increase of $1800 was requested.
The Southern Minnesota Initiative Fund, Carol Cerney representing, explained their support for beginning businesses in the county, but it is an agency which so far has never been funded by the county. The Rice County Hmane Society, represented by Liz Messner, requested $4500, $500 more than last year, partly in order to bolster their spay-neuter program for cats and dogs. So far the program has reduced the number of strays they are called on to shelter, and the plan is to reduce the number further.
The Rice County Dispute Resolution group, represented by Eduardo Wolle, requested $15,000 this year. This group is l out of only 6 such groups in the state. and this year will offer conciliation services - which will cut the number of cases judges must handle (a savings of county dollars, one of the commissioners pointed out).
The Agriculture Society, Denny Sammon representing, which is in charge of the Rice County Fair, requested $20,000 to be used primarily for maintenance of the fair’s buildings and grounds. The commissioners requested more information and documentation about the budget, and Mr. Sammon will work with Fran Windschitl to prepare that statement to be submitted after all such information is available.
The public libraries of Faribault and Northfield, represented by Renee Lowery and Lynn Young reviewed their activities and the number of residents served. Also, Ms. Young encouraged the commissioners to discuss Northfield’s offer to let their bookmobile (Booker) replace the SELCO bookmobile which is being discontinued but had served Lonsdale, Morristown, Vesli, and Warsaw. The county’s cost for this service would be $11,914 - less than the current payment to SELCO. Budget requests for the coming year are Faribault - $213,861, and Northfield - $180,861.The Cannon River Watershed Partnership (CRWP) was represented by Hilary Ziols, who summarized CRWP’s activities and asked the county to consider itself a working partner with CRWP, both concerned with upgrading river quality and providing information about such projects. Noting that it had not requested money from the county since 1999, it requested $5000 this year.
Having finished hearing the budget requests, the commissioners heard Mark Shaw (Social Services) give the periodic out-of-home-placement report. It indicated that with
50% of the year passed, 46% of its budget has been used. Out-of-home placement is less costly than institutional placement and so total costs depend on the extent to which out-of-home placement is appropriate and available.Arlyn Grussing, Planning and Zoning introduced summer intern, Josh Pearson, who had handled the business licensing project. Seven pages of businesses and one page of day care centers and gravel pits are now on file. These business were within the county and do not include the cities. Safety was one reason cited for requiring licensing, thus collecting information useful to fire or police if their services were required. Personnel would know, for example, who might need to be rescued or what the specific dangers might be (gasoline? chemicals?). Also, some revenue will be generated by the license process; 308 businesses responded to the licensing request (although it was not necessary for some of them to do so).
