The Freeborn County jail could see a reduction in its current Immigration and Customs Enforcement inmate population as a result of a proposal by President Barack Obama.

Freeborn County Sheriff Bob Kindler said in an effort to reduce the number of ICE inmates Obama has proposed a review of all ICE detainees throughout the country who are being held on misdemeanor criminal convictions or no criminal conviction at all.

“If, in fact, they no longer wish to detain those people, we would lose about 40 percent of our ICE detainees,” Kindler said.

Freeborn County has been housing federal detainees since 2009. The county is paid $77 a day from the federal government per detainee.

It was done in an effort to fill the 120 available beds at the local jail, which were sometimes not even half full.

With the agreement came the hiring of additional staff to meet requirements.

Kindler said he plans to wait until the first of the year to see if the federal government refunds the program or if it plans to move forward with changes before making any changes in staff levels.

He did note, however, that the jail is down one programmer and three line staff from what it had been at, along with being down by two employees who are deployed. The jail is still approved under Minnesota Department of Corrections standards, however.

Kindler briefly gave an update on the ICE agreement when the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners took action Tuesday to accept the resignation of a detention center officer.

In other action Tuesday, the board:

• Reissued one of three sets of bonds for the Freeborn County Government Center, a decision which will ultimately save the county about $1.1 million in interest costs.

Freeborn County Administrator John Kluever said over the next 12 years prior to the sale of the bonds, the county was going to be paying $8.5 million; however, now it will be paying $7.4 million.

The county re-issued the other two sets of bonds for the government center earlier this summer.

In total for all three sets, there are savings of $2.2 million.

Myron Knutson with Public Finance Management Inc. said Freeborn County’s bond rating is at Aa3, which is actually up from 2010.

Knutson said the rating is extremely high given the size of the county.

• Approved a resolution asking for a management plan to be instituted for Bear Lake before a new outlet structure is put in at the lake. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is overseeing the project.

• Approved a grant agreement with the Minnesota Department of Health for providing perinatal hepatitis B services and immunization practices improvement site visits from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2012.

For the perinatal hepatitis B services, the county will provide case management to make sure that a pregnant woman who has hepatitis B is documented and the newborn infant is treated appropriately to keep it from acquiring the disease.

Under the immunization practice improvement site visits, the county performs site visits to Mayo Clinic Health System of Albert Lea and Alden at least once every two years, evaluating immunization practices, vaccine storage and handling, among other services.

• Approved a resolution recognizing Oct. 11 as the 150th anniversary of the mustering of the 4th Minnesota volunteer regiment into federal service in the Union Army during the Civil War.

There will be a special presentation on this day beginning at 11 a.m.

• Had a brief discussion about the federal fair housing law.

• Approved the cleaning of county ditch No. 54 in Manchester Township for $8,750.