CASS COUNTY BOARD

Cass County Board: K-9 Ryker is back on duty after on-the-job injury

Kyndra Johnson | Cass County Correspondent — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 11:57:00 GMT

BACKUS — Cass County Sheriff’s K-9 Ryker returned to full duty after being off the past seven weeks while recovering from an injury suffered Sept. 17.

Cass County Sheriff Bryan Welk delivered the news about Ryker Tuesday, Feb. 20, to the Cass County Board while delivering his annual report.

Ryker was injured after being struck in the head with a metal pipe twice while trying to apprehend a suspect in an assault near Cass Lake. Ryker underwent surgery and received treatment from the Animal Emergency and Referral Center of Minnesota for a fractured snout and eye socket, broken teeth, and several lacerations.

Welk said the sheriff’s office received a huge outpouring of support after the incident, with many residents sending notes, cards, well wishes, gifts and financial support during Ryker’s recovery and rehabilitation.

During the annual report, Welk said calls were slightly down again from 2022 at 19,442 initial complaint reports, which is average compared to previous years.

Out of the 45,233 calls fielded by 911 at the sheriff’s office, 43,261 (approximately 95%) were received from cellular phones, with Saturdays continuing to be the busiest day and Wednesdays being the slowest day for calls, Welk said. The most calls continue to be between 3-9 p.m. with 6-8 p.m. being the peak, with weekdays now being just as busy as weekends, Welk noted.

The processing of gun permits continued to rise during 2023, with the department processing 333 permit-to-purchase applications and 785 new and permit-to-carry renewal applications. Despite a statewide increase, Welk said in Cass County traffic crashes resulting in injuries decreased, with the sheriff’s department responding to investigate 79 crashes with injuries and 204 without injuries. For the first time in several years, there were no motor vehicle fatality crashes in 2023 within Cass County.

A serious increase in overdose-related medical calls and deaths, mainly due to use of fentanyl, is being seen across the region, Welk said. Cass County responded to 80 medical-related overdose calls, with five resulting in death. The department administered Narcan, an opioid overdose reversal drug, on a total of 65 calls during 2023.

The county continues to see an increase in all-terrain vehicle traffic and complaints year-round, with the rise in traffic on trails, roadways and public property. Welk said during 2023 several highly visible off-highway vehicle enforcement and educational saturations were conducted in high-traffic and complaint areas, along with hundreds of contacts being made with warnings and citations being issued for a variety of violations. For the first time in several years, off-highway vehicle crashes were investigated at a much lower rate, with zero fatalities and only 13 crashes resulting in injury.

For a complete list of calls and to learn more about the sheriff’s programs, see the full sheriff’s report at www.casscountymn.gov.

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Cass County Board: Intakes up, programming expands at juvenile center

Kyndra Johnson | Cass County Correspondent — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 14:15:00 GMT

BACKUS — Intakes at the Northwestern Minnesota Juvenile Center in Bemidji rose slightly in 2021 compared to the previous year, the Cass County Board learned.

Mindy O’Brien, superintendent of the juvenile justice center in Bemidji, shared the annual report along with a programming update at the Tuesday, March 15, board meeting. A total of 76 youths were part of the program last with the majority between the ages of 14-17 years old and of Native American ethnicity.

O’Brien also shared updates to programming the center offers, including in-house therapeutic services, use of the sweat lodge approved by the school district as class credit and a therapeutic dog named Willa.

During the past year, the center was able to utilize Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funds to build an activites court, purchase dayroom furniture and update intake. Another update at the center was the switch to a self-run kitchen in August. With the center having its own kitchen, it is able to offer higher-quality homemade meals and apply for various grants to aid in the purchase of food.

During the first quarter of 2022, the center was awarded the following grants: $2,500 from Farm to Table; $ 2,750 from Fresh Fruits and Vegetables; $6,100 from Supply Chain Assistance; $9,200 from U.S. Department of Agriculture �� Lunch Program Commodities and the preliminary approval of an equipment grant in the amount of $16,445.

Bob Smith, cultural coordinator at the center, introduced the youths in attendance to perform on a feather drum they constructed themselves. Smith also shared the cultural programs are open to all youths who reside at the facility but are limited to smaller numbers because only so many people can fit around a drum.

A second drum may be constructed because the number of residents wanting to participate in this program is increasing, but it is expensive. The expansion of this program will be explored to allow more participation, Smith said.

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Cass County, Leech Lake officials agree to continue working together

Monica Lundquist | Forum News Service — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 14:22:19 GMT

CASS LAKE — The Cass County Board and the Leech Lake Tribal Council each voted unanimously during a joint meeting Monday, Dec. 2, to support three items before them for consideration.

They met for the joint meeting at Leech Lake’s new Cedar Lakes Event Center in Cass Lake.

The board and council voted to extend their Memorandum of Understanding to continue working together on issues of mutual concern through Dec. 31, 2024.

Since signing the original memorandum, the Bush Foundation awarded the county $5,000 and the band $5,000 for that initiative to cooperate. Monday, the council and board each voted unanimously to spend the $10,000 grant money to buy furniture for the band’s new homeless shelter for juveniles at Cass Lake.

They also voted unanimously to extend their agreement to jointly operate the Wellness Court, which gives chronic offenders who’ve driven under the influence an alternate option to regular court. Participants complete an intensive program to break their addiction cycle.

Some department heads from the county and band gave updated reports during the joint meeting.

Administrator Joshua Stevenson said following Monday’s meeting he expects the county and band to review whether to update the joint law enforcement agreement and the joint solid waste management plan before the county and band meeting jointly in 2020.

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Cass County WIC recipients to switch from paper vouchers to debit cards

mlundquist — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 19:51:02 GMT

BACKUS-Renee Lukkason, Health, Human and Veterans Services public health team leader, described new debit cards being issued to Women, Infant and Children program recipients at the Tuesday, March 19, Cass County Board meeting.

The WIC program serves pregnant women and their children up to age 5 for women whose family of four income is up to about $46,000 a year and up to age 2 for women whose annual family income is up to about $69,000. A yet-to-be-born baby is counted as a family member.

It includes health department counseling and assistance on healthy nutrition and breastfeeding. The program also offers payment for designated healthy foods at the grocery store.

Until now, participants have been issued a paper voucher on which they checked off the items they were buying. They had to turn in the voucher when they made a purchase.

This meant they could lose out on some items for which they qualified if they didn't want to stock up all at once. It meant some women tried freezing milk, while others would run out, she said.

Starting May 6, WIC participants will instead be issued a debit card on which their qualified items are stored. They keep the card. It is reloaded once a month.

With the card, a woman can shop for one or two items daily for up to a month as long as the items have not been exceeded in her allotment for the month. The cards expire once a month, then are re-loaded.

Users will get a list of items remaining on their card at the end of their grocery store checkout receipt, Lukkason said. They also can check items they have remaining on a smartphone or by calling a telephone number on their card.

In other HHVS business Tuesday, March 19, Chief Financial Officer Sandra Norikane obtained board approval to transfer $250,000 from a 2017 year-end HHVS fund balance to the capital improvement fund, because it was not needed for any unanticipated expenses in 2018.

Norikane uses a modified accrual basis for the county's financial reporting. That system allows for final adjustments to year-end totals for 90 days after the year end. Because of that, some of the state and federal reimbursements for HHVS programs may not be recorded as revenue until the end of this month, nor may some final billings to the county.

Current totals for 2018 show the county had $15,511,932 HHVS income, or 3.81 percent more than the budget anticipated. HHVS spent $14,199,458 or 4.98 percent less than the budget anticipated.

This leaves a 2018 net revenue gain of $1,312,474.

Some of this may be due to the fact Cass' out-of-home child placement costs have remained relatively stable the last two years, despite concerns those costs could rise. The vast majority of those costs are paid by county tax dollars, not a state or federal program.

Total out-of-home placement costs ran $2,293,901 in 2017 and $2,343,646 in 2018. Of those totals, the county share was $1,977,161 in 2017 and $1,993,288 in 2018.

The board approved a service contract for this year with Productive Alternatives to assist clients with service planning/job coaching at $30 per hour, job placement development and assessment at $50 per hour and a per diem rate of $30 per day.

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Cass County Board: Health and Human Services reorganization approved

Forum News Service — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 15:39:15 GMT

BACKUS-Cass County commissioners Tuesday approved reorganizing health and human services.

The agency started as a separate health department and a separate human services department. After the two were combined under a single director, they have continued to operate under separate supervisors.

Now, the board voted to eliminate the public health nursing director position and to have the social services manager oversee both programs. The former nursing director will continue working for Cass.

She will fill a vacant public health nursing position. Since her former pay grade was higher, her salary will be frozen at the current level until pay in the new, lower grade rises to that level. This is standard practice for Cass employees.

Administrator Joshua Stevenson said private companies now provide a lot of the services public health used to provide. He said this shift accelerated after the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

Health as well as human service employees will now be hired under the state merit system.

Cass County offers a prescription drug discount card to the public, which can be used at any participating pharmacy in the county.

Cards are available to county residents from pharmacies and county health-humans service offices at 400 Michigan Ave. W, Walker; 218 Washburn Ave. E. Backus; or 190 Sailstar Drive NW, Cass Lake.

People using the cards have averaged 20 percent savings from full cash price on branded drugs and 20 to 70 percent off generic retail, Jamie Richter, Cass health services, reported.

Foothill Christian Academy donated 30 "Hugs" backpacks and 10 to 20 hygiene bags to health, human and veterans services, to be distributed to people in need who are taken out of abusive/bad homes.

HEALTHCAREfirst, a Web-based home health and hospice software and billing and coding service and analytics provider, has named Cass County's home health care service an honors recipient for consistently providing quality care from the patient's point of view.

Jeff Woodford, veterans services officer, obtained board approval for his assistant, Stephen Sether, to attend a one-day training in Fargo, N.D., in February, and for either Woodford or Sether to attend regional quarterly veterans administration meetings in Fargo.

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Cass County Board: Hearing set on police body cameras

Monica Lundquist, Cass County Correspondent — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 04:37:15 GMT

BACKUS - Sheriff Tom Burch will conduct a public hearing at the 9 a.m. Nov. 1 Cass County Board meeting on a proposed updated department policy on the use of police body cameras.

All Cass patrol officers have such a camera. Deputies have been using them for six or seven years, Burch told the county board Tuesday.

The updated, written policy and public hearing are designed to help the department comply with new state laws and to better inform the public about policies in place, he said.

All department members are expected to wear a body camera while assigned to patrol and court duty.

They are expected to record all enforcement stops and field interrogation situations, the proposed updated policy states. It is up to the officer's discretion on additional circumstances that might have evidentiary value.

Once started, the cameras should record continuously without interruption when feasible, the policy states. An officer, however, should not jeopardize his/her safety in order to activate a recorder or change recording media, but the recorder should be activated as soon as practicable.

Officers may not use the department issued cameras for personal use and are prohibited from making personal copies of recordings created while on duty. Officers will upload data from the recorders at the end of their shift or when near capacity to a county hard drive.

Recorded information is retained for at least 180 days in accordance with the sheriff's department general records retention policy.

Officers may review the body camera recordings when preparing written reports, but must still make their written reports detailed and cannot use the recordings to replace formal taped statements.

Department supervisors may review body camera recordings when conducting employee performance reviews, investigating alleged misconduct or evaluating meritorious conduct.

In general, body camera records fall under the sheriff's department general policies and state statutes governing all sheriff's department records, Burch said.

He said the body cameras have been well received here by both sheriff's personnel and the public.

Burch obtained board approval Tuesday to purchase seven squad vehicles, a Sentence to Serve program van and a jail transport van. All were budgeted for 2017.

The board approved an agreement to provide a $28,380 match for a grant of equal amount from federal Homeland Security and Emergency Management funds to operate the county emergency management division of the sheriff's department.

The money is channeled through Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

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Cass County Board: Commissioners name replacement for retiring county engineer

Monica Lundquist, Cass County Correspondent — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 15:30:44 GMT

LAKE SHORE-Cass County commissioners Tuesday selected Darrick Anderson from among seven applicants to succeed retiring County Engineer David Enblom.

Anderson will join the county no later than Nov. 21 and work with Enblom until Enblom officially retires in April 2017.

In addition to being a registered professional engineer in Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin, Anderson also holds a restricted individual sewage treatment system designer license in Minnesota.

He has managed the transportation construction group for Bolton and Menk Inc. in Baxter since September 2012. Previously, he worked for Westwood Professional Services of Baxter and St. Cloud and Landecker and Associates Inc. of Pequot Lakes and Walker.

Anderson has a diverse background in highway design and construction.

He has been chairman of the board of trustees at Zion Lutheran Church in Brainerd. He enjoys hunting and fishing for recreation.

He will be appointed to serve to May 2017, the state-set month for county boards to appoint highway engineers. At that time, the county board will decide whether to extend his appointment to a regular four-year term.

In other highway business Tuesday, Enblom reported he has taken action to re-combine the county-owned highway garage and post office properties into one parcel.

The property was divided into two parcels, because there were two uses and it seemed to make sense at the time last year.

Subsequently, a sewer line was run across last fall from the existing office building (part of which the county leases to the U.S. Postal Service) to the anticipated new county highway garage. All that remained was to connect the line now that the new garage is nearing completion.

The state changed its rules in January this year. It now requires a separate connection for each property to a municipal sewer line.

This would mean Cass County would not only have to pay a separate $3,000 connection fee to Pine River Area Sanitary District, but also would have to pay for removing a portion of the paved street curb and gutter and replacing that. It would have to run a new line from the street and abandon the line from the post office building.

"Patches never work as well as the original pavement," Enblom said.

So, the two parcels will be reunited. The line running from the post office to the new garage building can still be used as originally planned, he said. The board approved the property reconnection.

Korby Contracting Company Inc. presented the low bid of six to replace the Wabedo Township bridge on Sioux Camp Road. The contract the county board approved Tuesday is contingent upon Wabedo Township Board approving their $20,000 share and contract terms.

State township bridge bonding money will pay the balance and be channeled through the county.

Korby's $502,696.03 bid was 15.83 percent below engineering estimate. Only two of the six bids exceeded the estimate.

Enblom said the Legislature's failure to approve a transportation bill this year means there is little money available for bridge projects, so bridge contractors are looking for more work.

The county board signed a letter of support for Leech Lake Band's application for a safety grant to install a pedestrian trail parallel with County State Aid Highway 13 (Onigum Road) on the south side of Leech Lake.

Cass will use McLaughlin Auctioneers again this year to sell in an online auction used county highway equipment, county vehicles and other miscellaneous equipment. The three week auction will begin about Oct. 1 and close Oct. 19.

Chief Financial Officer Sandra Norikane informed the board proceeds from this year's sale will be set aside in a separate capital equipment fund, to be used for future new county equipment purchases.

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Cass County Board: Cass approves sending more inmates to Crow Wing County Jail

Monica Lundquist, Cass County Correspondent — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 15:06:32 GMT

LAKE SHORE-Sheriff Tom Burch obtained county board approval Tuesday to amend Cass County's contract to house prisoners at Crow Wing County Jail in Brainerd.

Cass will now guarantee 60 prisoners per day rather than 40. The daily boarding rate was increased from $51.41 to 52.97 per day for 2017. The contract runs through 2027 unless either party gives 180 days notice of an earlier cancellation.

Crow Wing County Board will have to approve the amended agreement for it to take effect.

Cass will end its short-term contract to guarantee 15 prisoners per day at Morrison County Jail for $50 per day.

In 2015, Cass County averaged 79 prisoners per day, with 23 of those housed at the Cass County Jail in Walker and 56 at jails outside the county.

If Cass County were to build a new, larger jail inside the county, it would cost an estimated $15 million.

The commissioners authorized Burch to accept a $400 donation for the sentence to serve program from Hope Lutheran Church Turtle Lake Cemetery.

They approved an agreement with Minnesota Department of Public Safety to conduct a Toward Zero Death enforcement effort between Oct. 1, 2016, and Sept. 30, 2017. The grant is for $37,650.

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Cass County Board: Electronic bill payment now in the majority

Forum News Service — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 13:14:27 GMT

WALKER - Cass County now pays more of its bills electronically than by paper checks, Auditor-Treasurer Sharon Anderson reported to the county board as part of her annual report presented Tuesday.

The county has e-deposited all incoming checks since 2007 and keeps the record of those checks electronically as well. Paper checks are destroyed after 60 days, Anderson said.

That office has reduced staff by two positions in the last 10 years, partially by switching to more electronic activity.

A goal in 2016 will be to transition to secure, electronic personnel file management within the existing imaging software system. In 2015, the office redesigned its land sale database, invoicing and buyer information.

The use of paper mail and of telephone calls has declined as people increase their use of electronic communications. The county increasingly collects more fees electronically, especially for planning and zoning permits.

The county outsourced its property tax statement printing and mailing for the first time in 2015.

In its election oversight, the auditor-treasurer office has seen growth in the use of absentee balloting.

Cass County has 73 voting precincts. In 1994, 28 of those chose to switch to mailed ballots rather than to have voting at their local township or city polling place. This year, 44 precincts will vote by mailed ballots.

Since 2008, mailed ballot precincts drew significantly more voters for primary elections, but the percent of voters in general elections was about comparable to those retaining voting in person at the precinct polling place.

The number of rejected absentee ballots has dropped from 15 percent in the 2010 election primary to only 2.7 percent in the 2014 general election.

The auditor-treasurer office records and retains birth and death records and issues licenses for businesses, events and marriages.

Business permits the office issues include those for precious metals dealer, mass gatherings, fireworks, auctioneer licenses, cigarette licenses, beer and liquor licenses. Only fireworks permits have increased since 2003.

Annual auctioneer licenses have dropped from nine to two; cigarette from 56 to 38; beer from 40 to 32; and liquor from 51 to 43 since 2003.

The office issued the fewest marriage licenses when the recession hit in 2008, with only 55 issued. There were 67 issued in 2015. Births hit a peak in 2007 right before the recession with 666, then declined annually to only 280 in 2013, but have increased to 388 in 2015.

Cash and investments the auditor-treasurer office managed at the end of 2015 totaled $70.6 million. Of that $64,622,929 was from the county general fund; $4,774,814 was from a land department trust fund where the county has to retain the principal, but may spend interest earnings; and $1,210,908 was being managed for a multi-county computer consortium of which Cass is a member county.

County investment earnings have exceeded beginning of the year budget projections every year since 1996 except in 2003 and 2012.

The county mailed property tax statements to 2,473 landowners in 2014 at addresses with 2,473 different zip codes, some of which were international.

Anderson said she is seeing an increasing number of landowners paying their taxes fully in May rather than paying half in October.

Cass County taxpayers are pretty good at keeping their property tax payments current. Even during the recession, the rate for late payment delinquencies ran 2.81 percent and was at only 1.82 percent in 2015.

The county published in April as many as 119 potential tax delinquencies, but landowners resolved all but 36 that actually forfeited in the peak year of 2013. Published notices were fewest in 2006 when 51 notices were published. Fourteen actually forfeited that year.

In 2015, the county published 78 notices in April. Sixteen of those actually forfeited by year end. Those included 13 for land only and three with buildings on them.

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Cass County Board: Commissioners updated on Eelpout Festival cleanup, storm

Forum News Service — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 14:05:56 GMT

BACKUS - Cass County Sheriff Tom Burch reported to the county board Tuesday Sentence to Service inmate crews and sheriff's deputies picked up 900 pounds of trash from Leech Lake over three days following Eelpout Festival earlier this month.

The Sentence to Service crews spent 42 hours on the ice doing clean-up, Burch said.

John Ringle, environmental services director, also reported another 900 pounds of trash was collected and removed from the ice during the event.

The event promoter, Jared Olson, was required to submit $5,000 assurance with his event permit filed with the sheriff prior to the event, Burch said.

The sheriff now plans to submit a bill to Olson for $1,740 to cover the cost of work the Sentence to Service crew did. If Olson pays that bill, his $5,000 deposit will be refunded, Burch said.

On another clean-up program, Emergency Services Director Kerry Swenson submitted an update on costs for damage from the July 12, 2015, storm that hit southern Cass County.

So far, total cost for all government agencies affected in southern Cass has run $1,289,939.18.

East Gull Lake preliminarily estimated their damages at $217,500, but the actual cost ran $384,175.17. The state reimbursed $288,131.37 of that.

Lake Shore preliminarily estimated their damages at $36,000. Actual damages ran $12,575. The state reimbursed $9,431.55 of that.

Fairview Township preliminarily estimated their damages at $5,300. Actual costs ran $707,650.90. The state reimbursed $530,738.17 of that.

May Township had no preliminary damage estimate, but their costs ran $15,965.50. The state reimbursed $11,974.13 of that.

Minnesota Department of Transportation preliminarily estimated their damages at $123,500, but actual costs ran only $4,392.97. The state reimbursed MnDOT $3,294.73.

Damage claims for all those agencies are considered closed at this point.

The following agencies' cases for damage reimbursement from the state remain open:

Cass County: preliminary damage assessment was $166,800. Actual incurred to date is $185,537.71. The state has reimbursed $139,153.28 of that.

Sylvan Township: preliminary damage assessment was $40,000. Actual incurred to date is yet to be determined. None has been reimbursed yet.

Minnesota DNR: preliminary damage assessment was $46,700. Actual incurred to date is yet to be determined. None has been reimbursed yet.

Tuesday, the county board authorized paying Pratt's Affordable Excavating $500 in behalf of the county highway department, which rented a backhoe from Pratt's to pile up trees, stumps and brush at a drop location on County Road 18.

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