County, watershed agree on new dam, bridge

Staff

Published Wednesday, January 17, 2007

By Sarah Kirchner, staff writer

The Freeborn County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of a partnership between Freeborn County and the Shell Rock River Watershed District to pursue the building of a dam and bridge. The dam will be on the Shell Rock River at Albert Lea Lake and the bridge to be replaced will be for County Road 19 over the river.

Within this vote the board decided the cost should not exceed $250,000 and that Freeborn County is responsible for 25 percent of that cost and the Watershed District responsible for 75 percent.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources also is interested in the creation of a dam and bridge.

“If the city and county would somehow create a structure jointly, maybe the DNR would be able to add to that structure,” said County Administrator Ron Gabrielsen.

The Watershed District would like to pursue a joint dam-and-bridge study and would like Freeborn County to participate in the funding.

In other action, the County Board:

- Decided to go with Central Services Supervisor Susan Phillips to help find a new county administrator. Gabrielsen’s final day is March 1.

They voted 3-2 in favor of Phillips doing the search. Commissioners Mark Behrends and Jim Nelson were for hiring an outside agency to find administrator candidates. Commissioners Glen Mathiason, Christopher Shoff and Dan Belshan were for Phillips.

The board will give Phillips a few months to find candidates, and if none works out then the board will hire an outside agency for hiring.

- Heard from County Attorney Craig Nelson. He appeared in front of the board to answer any questions. Nelson said that the Albert Lea city attorney now will handle all gross misdemeanor charges that happen within that city.

Previously all gross misdemeanor charges in Freeborn County were prosecuted by the county attorney because there was a need for “uniformity of prosecution across the county,” Nelson said.

He said this shift in cases covered will not have a dramatic affect on his workload. He does not plan to change the size of the prosecution staff in his office, he said.

The responsibility of trying Albert Lea’s gross misdemeanors was asked for by the city attorney.

- Participated in a discussion and heard a presentation by Jail Administrator Steve Westland about the capacity of the county jail. Belshan had talked with surrounding counties and suggested the vacant beds in the Freeborn County Detention Center be rented out to surrounding counties who may need them.

The discussion went back and forth about whether the county should offer to rent beds; however, there was no decision made Tuesday.

The county jail can hold up to 136 people, but the operational capacity is only 122 people or 90 percent.

- Voted 4-1 to repair proposed ditches. Behrends abstained because there is water in one of the ditches mentioned, he said.

- Voted unanimously to approve meeting schedule, proposed by County Auditor/Treasurer Dennis Distad, to discuss shared ditches with neighboring counties. This was suggested because there was little representative from Freeborn County at previous meetings about shared ditches. The board will meet with neighboring counties starting at 1 p.m. Feb. 6.

- Authorized the final wording of the Freeborn County elected officials’ travel policy to make sure the board has prior notice of any out of state travel, if possible. Should prior notice not be possible then the board should be made aware of the travel after the fact.

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