As we slide into the New Year, Sherburne County will build on foundations (literally and figuratively) established in 2018. In June 2018, the County opened the new Judicial Services Building which houses our courts and related public safety functions.  In March of this year we will complete 135,000 square feet of renovated space to accommodate the County’s growth for a 20 year period and to provide better customer service to our residents.   

 

Jan. 8, the county board officially welcomed Raeanne Danielowski, who will replace Ewald Petersen.  With this change, for the first time in Sherburne County’s history, a majority of the board will be led by women.  Commissioner elect Danielowski will join Lisa A. Fobbe, Barbara Burandt, Felix Schmiesing and Tim Dolan who will chair the County Board in 2019.

 

One area of focus in 2019 will be enhancing the use of technology – specifically allowing residents to use more self-service opportunities through our new website. Presently, for example, court fines & fees, child support payments, electronic geographical maps all can be paid for online.  With the recent purchase of new software, the county plans to allow residents to electronically complete and send various forms, applications etc. and not have to drive to the Government Center in Elk River.

 

Further, the county board continues to emphasize economic development efforts with several projects in the 2019 hopper.  This is important as we push for a diverse tax base which includes residential, agricultural, commercial and industrial properties.  In the event of an economic downturn, a broad tax base helps insulate the County from these deleterious impacts.

 

Having said that, we continue to observe positive growth patterns in the county as indicated by the following historical data:

 

• 6.9% population growth 2010-2017 (88,499 to 94,570);

 

• New housing permit growth: 140 in 2012 to 496 in 2017;

 

• Added $143,500,000 in new construction to the 2019 tax base:  a 55% increase over 2018; 

 

• Average residential taxable value has increased approximately 9.2% to $222,000.

 

From a county levy standpoint the approved 2019 county levy reduces the county tax rate for the fifth consecutive year. Due to the increases in tax base mentioned earlier, if your home value remained flat, the county portion of your taxes would actually drop.  Compared to all 87 counties in the state, Sherburne County is in the top 20% of the lowest levies on a per capita basis.

 

As we look forward into 2019, the county does have some challenges mixed with opportunities.  We do have an aging workforce, similar to that of other private and public organizations so we continue to on succession planning and continuously developing our employees.  This is important in any case as 67% of the county’s operating costs are spent on personnel.  

 

Tied into this are the increasing health care costs for our staff which is outpacing inflation by a wide margin.  To address this we issued a Request for Proposals and subsequently changed health insurance companies in 2019.  By offering different medical plans and the introduction of an employee clinic in the Government Center we hope to reduce these rising costs.

 

In early December 2018 the county board identified a number of legislative priorities and met with most of our Representatives and Senators (the priorities can be found on our website).  The meeting resulted in our local legislative delegation better understanding a number of county issues we are facing in the upcoming session.  At last year’s legislative priority meeting we identified the need to improve the deficient MnDOT Highways through Elk River (TH 169 and TH 10).

 

Through the hard work of our elected representatives, as well as city and county public works staff the county was recently awarded $157 million as part of the Corridors of Commerce project that will eliminate four traffic signals, build three full interchanges and consolidate access throughout the Elk River Hwy 169 corridor. The project was the top scoring Greater Minnesota project and engineering work is already taking place!  The county board also passed a ½ cent local option sales tax effective January 1, 2019 which will address a significant backlog of county transportation needs stretching out for the next 20 years.