Chairman, vice chairman elected for county board
Jan. 3—The Freeborn County Board of Commissioners elected new leadership for the year on Tuesday during its first meeting of the year.
Leading the board will be 3rd District Commissioner John Forman as chairman and 1st District Commissioner Brad Edwin as vice chairman.
The board has two new members this year: 2nd District Commissioner Dawn Kaasa and 5th District Commissioner Nicole Eckstrom. They replace commissioners Dan Belshan and Ted Herman.
Forman and Fourth District Commissioner Chris Shoff later in the meeting welcomed the new members to the board and said they looked forward to working together over the next year.
The board also approved other action typically passed at the start of the year, including banks that the county will do business with, signatories, change funds for various departments and petty cash funds for the Auditor-Treasurer's Office and Sheriff's Office.
The board approved the official Freeborn County newspaper for 2023 as the Albert Lea Tribune for purposes of publishing legal notices, including the publication of the delinquent tax list. The resolution informed potential bidders that transportation projects may be noticed on the Freeborn County website.
Shoff asked what the annual cost for the notices was.
Freeborn County Administrator Candace Pesch read the rates aloud for the commissioners, which are 43 cents per word or $10.69 per column inch for a display ad.
Eckstrom asked if the notices were published on the county's website and noted that many people no longer get newspapers.
Shoff said the issue has been a longstanding issue with the Association of Minnesota Counties and said the initial intent of the law was to provide information to the public. He said he thinks the reality is that not many people read newspapers, and they get their information elsewhere.
Forman said as of now, however, it is state law to publish the notices in an official newspaper.
Edwin said this was an important issue to reach out to legislators about to discuss how to best reach taxpayers.
In other action, the board:
—Set the crop damage rate for crop damages that may occur due to repair, improvement or construction projects. For standing crop the rate is $1,108 per acre for corn and $754 per acre for beans.
The yield is determined by using a three-year average yield for Freeborn County from data received from the United States Department of Agriculture.
The board set the crop damage rate for not planted crops to $660 per acre for corn and $375 for beans.
Auditor-Treasurer Pat Martinson noted this was an increase from last year.
—Approved a resolution setting a bounty of $60 on beaver trapping in county drainage ditches.
Martinson said this was a $10 increase from the previous rate.
She noted it is advantageous to do this to keep the ditch system clean and have drainage flowing well.
—Established an absentee, Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act and mail ballot board for the 2023 election year in the event of a special election.
—Set the 2023 board meeting dates for the first and third Tuesday of each month starting at 8:30 a.m.
—Set the 2023 workshop meeting dates for the second Tuesday of each month starting at 8:30 a.m.
—Accepted the resignation/retirement of Nancy Kelly, account specialist senior for the Department of Human Services effective March 10. The board approved a resolution to fill the position.
—Approved a resolution to fill the vacant license center specialist position. The person is moving to another position within the county.
