Cass to use grant to hire a deputy

WALKER -- Cass County Sheriff Randy Fisher obtained board approval to provide a $3,699 match to obtain a $33,292 federal grant.

Fisher said he expects to recommend the grant be used to hire and train an additional deputy and to pay the county's 2001 membership in the Paul Bunyan Drug Task Force.

The board authorized Emergency Management Director Mike Carey to execute an agreement with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety to apply for and accept $4,000 or more for county emergency management operations in the coming year.

The county agrees to provide a 50 percent match.

Carey also was authorized to accept a grant for a terrorist exercise with the cities of Backus, Walker and Remer. That Federal Emergency Management Agency grant will provide $1,500. No local match is required.

The board accepted a $17,692 Minnesota Department of Economic Security grant to continue the probation department diversion program, designed to give first-time juvenile offenders an alternative to the correctional system.

There is a $1,966 local match for that grant.

Fisher reported 32 men and seven women participated in sentence to serve the third quarter of this year, working 3,202 hours.

Their service saved the county the $13,300 otherwise spent to board and feed these offenders during 266 days in jail. They worked off $420 in fines.

They completed 1,046 hours of work for cities, 708 hours for the county, 615 hours for townships, 400 hours for schools, 371 hours for Minnesota DNR and 61 hours for non-profit agencies.

They are estimated to have completed $16,010 worth of labor.