At the end of a contentious discussion held during the Sept. 2 Wadena County Board meeting, commissioners voted 3-1 to reopen the county's highway department shop in Verndale, nearly two years after voting to close it.

The meeting was held in the evening so that county highway workers, Mayor Ardith Carr of Ver ndale, and other interested people who worked day shifts could attend. About 10 people came to the session.

Commissioner Lane Waldahl cast the deciding vote to reopen the shop. Commissioners Rodney Bounds and Ralph Miller had expressed their support for reopening the shop during their campaigns for election in 2008, and frequently since being sworn in on Jan. 6. Commissioner Bill Stearns voted against it.

Miller made the motion to reopen the shop and end the contract for space rental with Staples, with Bounds seconding the motion.

When it was time for the discussion to begin, Board Chair Dave Schermerhorn asked County Highway Engineer Joel Ulring to make the presentation that had been rescheduled from July 24. Ulring explained his overall approach to being the county engineer, a position he has held since May 2006, and his perspective on the department operations.

"When I was first hired, I was asked (by the board) what could be done to improve and make the highway department more efficient. I looked at everything and found that the number of facilities operated by the department is significantly larger than the surrounding counties. Changes in operations and services make it inefficient to have equipment and personnel spread out over the county," Ulring said.

Wadena County is one of Minnesota's smallest counties in size and population, but has 228 miles of county roads to maintain and plow. Ulring raised the example of Otter Tail County, a much larger county with only 62 miles of county roads.

Ulring's suggestions for improving highway department efficiency since 2007 have included road revocation (turning back 17.5 miles of low-traffic roads to the townships) to reduce road maintenance costs, and reducing the number of Highway Department shops from five to four.

He also recommended not replacing a department employee who resigned earlier this year, and using a contractor instead, and selling some used highway equipment that is no longer needed.

"I am looking for ways

to save costs," Ulring said. "Our intent is to serve the

residents of the county as best we can."

After Ulring's presentation, several members of the public asked to speak.

Ken Moyer, a highway department employee, spoke in favor of reopening the Verndale Shop. He has operated a county snowplow truck for a number of years, and prefers having the truck based in Verndale rather than in Staples, where it was housed after the Verndale Shop was closed in 2007.

Don Weniger, a Verndale resident, said he was concerned with safety of the roads, and that plowing of the county roads in Verndale had been consistently later in the morning than before the shop was closed.

Mayor Chris Etzler of Staples said that he did not want the issue to become a conflict between Verndale and Staples. He said that since the plow truck had been housed in Staples, there had been improved plowing on CR 30, especially near Central Lakes College. He asked the board to make its decision based on the interests of the county as a whole.

Bob Schultz, a Verndale resident, said that he did not like it that Wadena County was keeping a piece of highway equipment in the Staples city shop that is in Todd County.

Mayor Ardith Carr of Verndale agreed that the issue should not be seen as Staples vs. Verndale. She said, "We have a building that's paid for, that's more centrally located. Why go to the far end of the county?"

Joe Pierce, a plow truck driver, said "You can't compare Wadena County to other counties that are bigger and have more taxable value. All we need is a supply of salt-sand in Staples. Gary is our spare guy, he can drive a truck, it's not like it's costing anything, it's paid for, why sell stuff that we own, like selling that gravel pit, it's stupid."

Board Chair Schermerhorn then called for commissioners to comment and raise questions.

Waldahl said, "No mater what decision is made, it's going to make some citizens upset. I represent the citizens of the whole county, not just my district. I want to save money. I need some concrete evidence to see where we can save money. I need to see where we're going the make the savings, and hear from Rodney (Bounds)."

Bounds listed a number of dollar figures on which he disagreed with Ulring. He spoke quickly and did not distribute any copies of the figures. At the end of his statement, he said that he thought that $6,899 could be saved from the current highway budget by having the Verndale Shop open.

Miller said, "I don't care where the equipment is located as long as plowing can be done cost effectively. I believe the scheduling thing is the nucleus of the change."

Stearns said, "Five garages to house equipment in a county this size seems like a lot to me. Cutting back seems to be the order of the day. Another thing we could do is contract with Staples to plow those county roads over there. We are already doing that with the City of Wadena and the City of Menahga."

After a few more comments, Board Chair Schermerhorn called for a motion to be made and a vote taken. Miller made his motion to reopen the Verndale Shop and it was approved 3-1.