Posted: 8/30/05
County to hire PC network specialist
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Houston County commissioners voted 4-1 on August 23 to hire a PC network specialist.
The new person will help the information services department, personnel director Tim Comstock told the board. It will eliminate overtime and will provide time for better training, he said.
The county will be able to expand how it does business by hosting information on-line like property taxes, land records, and GIS information, Comstock added. ìIt would require significant upgrades, security measures, those types of things,î he said.
Second district commissioner Kevin Kelleher said he supported the hiring. Information service work in the sheriffís office alone is almost a full-time job, he said. ìAnd theyíre six months behind.î
Fourth district commissioner Dave Corcoran opposed the idea. He suggested that a private contractor could help the information services department get caught up with its work. He thought the board was jumping ahead too much with budget meetings coming up.
Contractors arenít cheap, Kelleher said.
A full-time employee isnít either, Corcoran countered.
Architect hired
In other action at the hour-long meeting, the board approved a contract with David T. Prachar Jail Consultant to hire Klein McCarthy & Co. for architectural services for the first phase of the proposed criminal justice center. The contract is for $28,200.
Prachar and architects will be in Houston County on September 12 and 13 to meet with the criminal justice committee and commissioners. Their goal is to come up with a conceptual design and evaluation of up to three sites, two on the current justice campus and one a remote site.
Plans will be presented in October, revised in November with cost estimates, then presented in final form in November or December.
Hazardous waste collection
Environmental services director Rick Frank told the board that the household hazardous waste and pesticide collection date has been set for Wednesday, September 14 from 1-6 p.m. in the commercial building at the Houston County Fairgrounds.
The board gave Frank permission to reduce the cost to consumers of disposing of the household hazardous waste this year, because he has a fund balance of $3,850. (Prices are listed in an ad in this weekís Argus.)
Building codes, venison
donation, wetlands credit
ï Frank also announced that a public meeting on the Minnesota State Building Code has been set for Tuesday, September 20 at 7 p.m. in the basement of the Caledonia City Auditorium. It will be a way for contractors and the general public to give feedback to the county board on whether to adopt the building code, something the board has discussed at several recent meetings.
ï The board also voted to be a part of a venison donation program sponsored by Hunters Against Hunger in Mora, Minnesota. The program works with the Minnesota Departments of Natural Resources and Department of Agriculture to allow hunters and meat processors to donate deer to people in need.
ï The board voted to approve a wetlands credit sale from Dick Walters to Roverud Construction for a site near the Gengler quarry in Mayville Township.
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