Real estate records to be turned into digital resource

WALKER The Cass County Board voted Tuesday to spend up to $100,000 to have Mid America Business Solutions scan the old real estate property tax and assessment book records to make a digital record that also will be made available to the public on the county website.

Commissioner Jeff Peterson voted no." He said he support preserving the records, but did not think this was an appropriate time to spend the money doing so.

Personal property tax records will not be preserved to save costs, the board decided. The records have been stored in a sub-basement under the jail. Courthouse employees commonly refer to the area as "the dungeon."

County Recorder Katy Norby showed the board last month how water and sewer pipe leaks from pipes in the area's ceiling have caused some of the oldest 1800's records to deteriorate and begin flaking apart.

The board will move the Dec. 7 regular meeting to 3 p.m. Dec. 9 at the courthouse in Walker. A 6 p.m. "Truth in Taxation" meeting will follow at 6 p.m. Following that meeting, the board will adopt a final 2011 budget and levy.

The county board authorized Land Commissioner Joshua Stevenson to accept a $594,000 grant from the state's outdoor heritage sales tax fund to purchase property from Potlatch following approval from townships where the properties are located.

Those include Powers, Becker, Byron and North Trelipe Townships. Stevenson told the county board these properties will afford the county access to existing county manage land and will be managed for timber production and public recreational use as all county lands are.

The board held a first public hearing Tuesday and scheduled a second hearing and proposed adoption of amendments to the Soo Line Trail Ordinance for 6:30 pm. Sept. 21 at East Gull Lake City Hall.

Cass County received $39,042 net proceeds from the annual county auction of surplus property held in August. The most paid for a single item was $5,000 for a 2002 Ford F150 pickup.

They appointed Walker-Hackensack-Akeley School Superintendent Wallace Schoeb to succeed Remer-Longville Northland School Superintendent Theresa Meyers as school representative to the county Health, Human and Veterans Services Advisory Committee. Meyers recently resigned from that committee and as Northland school superintendent.

The Eddy Family Foundation donated $1,000 to the sheriff's boat and water safety program. Hackensack American Legion donated $300 to the county veterans transportation program.

Chief Financial Officer Larry Wolfe obtained board approval to switch life insurance providers for county employees to Minnesota Mutual to provide the benefit at $0.536 per $1,000 of coverage. This will provide employees with the same benefits at $33,700 per year lower cost to the county, Wolfe said.

The board approved restructuring the human services division in response to recent retirement announcements. There will be one social service supervisor instead of two, who used to oversee over 30 employees each.

Instead there will be three team leaders under the single social service supervisor, who will each oversee about 10 to 12 employees. This is predicted to result in a $10,000 annual wage cost savings and provide more efficient direct supervision, according to Ane Rogers and her successor Probation Director Reno Wells.`