There was a new look in the Sherburne County Board of Commissioners meeting room Tuesday at the start of the first meeting of the year.
Gone were Commissioners Rachel Leonard, John Riebel and Bruce Anderson.
In their places were Tim Dolan, Barbara Burandt and Lisa Fobbe, who were all sworn in as commissioners by Judge Walter Kaminsky to begin the meeting.
The first order of business was selecting a chair and vice-chair, and even though there were two remaining commissioners on the board, they decided to follow the sequence that would have continued had no one new been elected.
Burandt was voted in as chair and Fobbe as vice chair.
The board voted to continue to use Roberts Rules of Order as a guideline for conducting its meetings, then also voted for Burandt and Fobbe as chair and vice chair of the Sherburne County Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA).
All five commissioners were sworn in as the county’s Regional Rail Authority.
Greg Olson was sworn in as county assessor by County Recorder Michelle Ashe.
After that, the agenda was relatively light.
The board approved a reclassification in the auditor/treasurer’s office. Auditor/Treasurer Diane Arnold said elections have become a very time-consuming job with more requirements by the state. She said reclassifying a accounting support assistant position to an accounting/ elections specialist would cost an additional $1,606 over the 2017 budget for personnel. But with the retirement of two staff in her department, overall savings would be $26,000.
The board awarded the bid to publish the county’s financial statement, delinquent tax list and commissioner proceedings to Elk River Star News.
The board passed a resolution to apply for a grant from Greater MN Transportation for construction of the Great Northern Trail between Elk River and Zimmerman.
The maximum grant amount is $800,000. The current construction estimate is about $1 million. Public Works Director Andrew Witter said he believes that number will be reduced to about $1.2 million with design changes and using maintenance staff for tree clearing. He said he is also looking at other sources to assist with the required matching funds.
The board also passed a resolution agreeing for the county to operate and maintain the trail - as required as part of the grant application.
The board approved the purchase of two tandem trucks with plow equipment at an estimated cost of $500,000 for the public works department.
The new trucks will replace two tandem trucks from 1996 and 1997. The expected delivery date is fall, 2017.
Other Business
In other action the board:
• Renewed the contract with Tri-CAP to provide transit services in the county at a cost of $26,325;
• Approved a gambling application for North East Sherburne Fire & Rescue at Ridgewood Bay Resort in Baldwin Twp. for a raffle on Aug. 26, 2017;
• Approved an updated joint powers agreement with Minnesota Counties Information Systems to provide software and technical support;
• Appointed Louisa Tallman and Diana Weissenfluh as members and Angela Bouma as an alternate member to the Sherburne County Solid Waste Committee for three-year terms;
• Proclaimed January, 2017 as Youth Mentorship Month in Sherburne County.
