Commissioners meet Jamin Carlson the new Water Plan Coordinator

 

The Clearwater County Board of Commissioners met on  April 17, 2018, hearing from Soil & Water Conservation District, Nursing Service, Veteran Service Officer, and other business. 

Lori Buell, District Manager, Jamin Carlson, and Chester Powell, Program Technician came to the meeting to introduce Jamin Carlson, the new Water Plan Coordinator of the Soil & Water Conservation District in Bagley. 

Commissioner Dean Newland asked about the invasive species prevention program at Itasca Park. Chester Powell said they will have their own program and training, and will write their own plan. Then he will assess the plan. They receive funds for implementation of plan through Clearwater County. 

Director of Nursing Marissa Hetlund brought the 2017 Agency Annual Evaluation of the service staff, including nurses, home health aides, hospice staff and volunteers. The evaluation itemized skilled nurse visits to Home Care clients (2963); home care visits (5883); homemaking visits (4358); newborn, child and parent visits to clients; health promotions, immunizations, child and teen screenings and other services carried out.

Highlights listed included WIC, bicycle safety, farm safety, babysitting clinics, nutrition presentations, and Matter of Balance classes in Gonvick and Bagley. Radon detection kits are now available in the Nursing Service office for residents. 

Other business brought approval to delegate nursing director to administer quality improvement programs for hospice and home care programs; purchase of nine laptop computers at a cost of $15,151; moving of secretary Taylor Anderson and home health aide Tasha Bakke both from casual to part time status; and hiring of Bonnie Como and Lavonne Vascend as casual home health aides and homemakers. Ms. Vascend has over 10 years experience as a Certified Nursing Assistant and other experience which justifies her being hired at Step 3, $13.67 per hour. 

County Engineer, Dan Sauve` awarded the bids for summer road work to the lowest bidders at last weeks meeting. Notable was the bid for pavement markings, which showed an increase of 33% more than the cost for the job last year; and regraveling at 17% higher. The Board approved that the lows bids be awarded as presented. 

“The construction on Highway 92 will cost $155,102, which is our cost of the project,” he reported. A bike trail is being planned from Clearwater Polk area to the High School. 

County Veterans Service Officer Hutch Hutchens presented the quarterly report for the period of January 1 to March 31, 2018. The “Give A Veteran A Lift” fundraiser he coordinated at Bagley High School yielded $1,954. This was the 11th annual program.

Besides calls, visits, and other tasks, he facilitated the Clearwater County Safety Committee meetings for January and March; and attended the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs CVSO Spring Conference at Walker, Minnesota March 20-21. 

No further news is available regarding the Eagle Nest project in Clearbrook.

B2B continues to draw questions about the future of a proposal for Clearwater as well as other counties. Commissioner Dan Stenseng said that what is in the County's favor is that local road authority has the say over what signage is put up on our roads, and MnDot for Hwy. 2. They have received no approval for signage on county roads.

Several Commissioners said they would like to see the DNR bring their proposal to the County for an actual vote, which would be “No”.

County Auditor Allen Paulson was authorized to pay the submitted invoices of $17,386 for the County Revenue Fund and $6,557 for the Nursing Service Fund. 

All Commissioners were present at the meeting: Daniel Stenseng, Dean Newland, John Nelson, Neal Illies and Arlen Syverson.