Wadena County received nine applications for the position of county engineer during the January application period, commissioners learned last week.

Acting Highway Department Head Jeff Adolphson appeared before the Wadena County Board at their Feb. 2 meeting and recommended a committee of six people to evaluate the applications.

Commissioner Rodney Bounds objected to one member of the proposed committee, management consultant Mike Gibson. He asked why Gibson should be included in the process of evaluating the county engineer applications.

Board Chair Bill Stearns told Bounds that Gibson was the county’s current Human Resources person, and was called in on an asneeded basis. He is paid by the department who calls on him, at an hourly rate of $50.

Bounds asked, “When did his contract get extended?”

Stearns replied, “There is no contract. He is paid by the hour, as needed.”

Bound asked, “Where was I when this happened?”

Stearns said, “You were sitting right there.”

Bounds said, “I’d like to see the motion. I don’t remember when the board extended his contract.”

Stearns retrieved the relevant board meeting minutes from Oct. 21, 2009, and showed them to all the commissioners. In the minutes, the “Highway Department Continuation Plan” developed by the county and adopted at that meeting included a listing of the personnel assigned to assist Jeff Adolphson during his service as Interim Department Head. Mike Gibson is

listed as “Human Resource

Person”, to be contacted “as needed.” This ended the

argument about Gibson’s participation on the engineer application evaluation committee.

The board proceeded to approve unanimously the committee membership recommended by Adolphson. The committee will be composed of Board Chair Bill Stearns, Commissioner Dave Schermerhorn, Jeff Adolphson, Auditor/Treasurer Char West, management consultant Mike Gibson, and MnDOT Engineer Kelvin Howieson, the MnDOT District 3 State Aid engineer. Howieson will be contacted first to see when his schedule

will allow him to attend committee meetings in Wadena.

The board hopes to have a hiring decision made by March 12, when the county’s contract expires with Todd County for the parttime services of an engineer.

In other business, the board:

o HELD a brief discussion about the need for a county administrator, and agreed to hold more meetings to discuss it. The topic has been discussed every year since at least 2004.

o WERE reminded of the bid opening on March 1 for a highway construction project on Wadena County Road 21.

o HEARD that a Wadena County Highway Safety meeting will be held March 3 for four counties in MnDOT District 3 to receive training on intersection safety.

o LEARNED from Emergency Management Services Director Scott McKellop and Sheriff Mike Carr Jr. that the county expects to receive enough grant money to cover the purchase of enough 800 megaherz portable and mobile radios to equip all the sheriff’s department squad cars, the SWAT van, the sheriff, the jail administrator and the EMS director. A total of 23 radios will be purchased with grant funds of $72,500. Sheriff Carr said, “This is a huge accomplishment on our part to get these radios and get this funding. We are sitting fairly well with the 800 megaherz system and won’t need to go to the taxpayers at all.”

o APPROVED an agreement with the city of Staples for the city to provide winter snow plowing on CSAH 30 from 4th Street to the junction of CSAH 2.

o WELCOMED temporary court administrator Rhonda Bott, who will coordinate the courts of Wadena, Morrison and Douglas counties for an unspecified time period for the Seventh Judicial District of Minnesota.

o APPROVED the hiring of administrative assistant Linda Jungbauer at Grade 49, Step 1, effective Feb. 2, 2010, in the Zoning and Parks Department.

o LEARNED from Comm. Schermerhorn that SHIP grant funds can be used for community gardens, among other things.

o RECEIVED from Comm. Stearns following his attendance at an Association of Minnesota Counties (AMC) committee meeting, a set of frightening chart projections of the state’s general fund cash balance for FY 2010 and FY 2011. Stearns said that the state is required to keep a cash balance fund of $500 million on hand at all times. Economists’ projections show that the state will fall below this amount in March, April, and May of 2010, as well as for the entire FY 2011 after the first month of FY 2011. Stearns said that AMC expects that the July 2010 Local Government Aid (LGA) payments will be made to cities and counties, but that there will be no other LGA payments made for the foreseeable future. Stearns also said that AMC believes that almost all the state’s public employee pension funds will begin to reduce pension payments to retirees in 2010, because the funds cannot afford to keep the payments at their current levels.

o APPROVED four citizen appointments to the Public Health Advisory Board: District 2, Darlene Leonard; District 3, Lois Larson; District 4, Janet Mattson; District 5, Robert Allebach.