The leave of absence of county MIS director Kevin Stensrude, who was called to active duty in Iraq at the end of last month, is still causing concern among commissioners and county employees.

At the Mar. 3 county board meeting, more than 30 minutes were devoted to discussing possible solutions for compensating the two part-time employees who remain in the Management Information Systems office while Stensrude is away for eight months on active duty.

Eventually, the board agreed by consensus to have County Attorney Kyra Ladd, former management consultant Mike Gibson and Commissioner Ralph Miller look further into the situation and return with facts to the next meeting of the board.

Morris Electronics Inc. (MEI) president Shawn Larsen, who has been contracted by the county to provide professional MIS services for two days per month on site, appeared before the board along with Ladd, to further consider the various proposals that have been made to cover Stensrude's absence.

Ladd said that none of the previous absences of department heads is comparable to Stensrude's absence and departmental situation. The two employees in his department are permanent part-time employees.

Comments on handling

the MIS situation were

made by Gibson. He said, "This department is critical

to the county, and if these two people have to take on more responsibility, then they should be given an increased wage, according to union business manager Joanne Derby. I checked with additional labor counsel. If you're going to make these two employees temporary department heads, you have to give them additional authority to make them real department heads, not just more of the duties that they already do."

Board Chair Dave

Schermerhorn asked, "Who do we refer this to?"

Commissioner Lane Waldahl suggested, "To Kyra and Mike. Mike is still working on our union contract (with the 49'ers)."

Ladd said, "I have not been involved in any of (he union negotiations) to this point, and we don't want to undo what's been done, or tie your hands about future events. ... We have (Kevin's) job description and we can look at those duties and see what supervisory responsibilities will need to be performed."

In other business, the board:

o HEARD a request from County Engineer Joel Ulring to approve the purchase of a shouldering machine to replace the current one that has worn out. The board asked Ulring to talk with local contractors to see if any of them own a shouldering machine that the county could lease.

o REFERRED to the Building Services Committee an offer from the owners of the Quest Building to sell it to the county.

o HEARD more discussion about the disposal of the Verndale Shop, and another request from Comm. Bounds for figures on the pay and benefits of the employee who operated the county truck stored in the Staples Public Works building, and the cost of driving the motor grader equipment from Verndale to Wadena.

o LEARNED from Sheriff Mike Carr that Hubbard County and Crow Wing County have reduced their fees for boarding prisoners, from $55 per day to $46 per day. This reduction is expected to save Wadena County more than $20,000 in 2009, Sheriff Carr indicated.

o HEARD a report from 4-H Coordinator Kris Huebsch about the activities of young people in Wadena County 4-H.

o SET a special board meeting for March 5, so that all commissioners could attend a SWCD annual feedlot meeting to learn more about manure management and other feedlot issues.