By: Sheila Crowley Staffwriter One of the items topping the Murray County Commissioners meeting this past Tuesday was the discussion revolving around the need of funds for Southwest Minnesota Health and Human Services. According to Commissioner Magnus, who sits on the board, SWHHS will be out of funds by the end of May 2018. Magnus said two options were discussed at their recent SWHHS meeting. 1) Push the levy funds date up. 2) Have each of the six counties do a loan to put money in the reserves and help build it back up. Funds requested tallied $2,000,000 which makes Murray County’s share $220,800. This loan would be in addition to the levy money the county already pays. SWHHS employs 241 employees over the six counties. According to Magnus they are currently in a hiring freeze to help with the fund shortage. He said the SWHHS board is asking each of the counties to talk if over. Part of the problem, according to Magnus, is there hasn’t been a levy increase over the past number of years and in return has burned up their reserve. Both Aurora Heard and Heidi Winter expressed their wish to meet with colleagues from the six counties before the Board makes a decision on how they wish to proceed. Currently SWHHS have three million in monthly bills. Commissioner Jens explained part of the shortfall comes from the lack of matching funds from the State. “They were suppose to have had matching funds and the State didn’t come through.” Commissioner Thiner was not in favor of doing anything unless there can be proof the organization is doing something different in order to correct the spiralling effect. According to Jens and Magnus, Beth Wilms, Director of Health and Human Services will be attending one of the upcoming meetings to address some of the Board’s concerns. No action was taken. Also on the agenda was the Missouri River One Watershed One Plan. Jean Christoffels said the planning work group, policy committee, and advisory committee have all been working with Houston Engineering to write the plan. According to the documentation, great strides have been made in development of the Plan and completion is anticipated late 2018 or early 2019. Prior to this, each governmental entity needs to provide how they wish to move forward. One is a memorandum of agreement which allows participants to agree to certain items. The second is a joint power agreement meaning there is a board and representation from each governmental entity to help decide where projects will be done, money spent, and how much each county is responsible for. She explained there are 14 different governmental entities over the six counties. According to Chrisoffels Missouri Watershed is 12% of Murray County. She the Board to keep in mind there are three other watersheds in Murray County. Christoffels explained each of those three will also be doing this same process over the next couple of years. Christoffels informed the Board Murray County currently receives $3200 in shoreline funds. Part of this process is to create a budget for Missouri Watershed. With only 12% of Murray County being in the Missouri Watershed, Christoffels questioned whether 12% of the shoreline funds should be dedicated to the Missouri Watershed when in reality the majority of Murray County’s water is around the Lakes area. Christoffels said the idea of the watersheds is for each to have better water – starting from the top so that when it leaves the State it’s cleaner. “This is the idea behind the One Watershed – One Plan.” The Board decided the best way to proceed was to have a Memorandum of Agreement. Discussion took place in regards to the Courthouse Safe and Secure Grant. The County was awarded $39,157 to help increase security in the court house. Chris Lewis has drawn up possible plans to relocate EDA, Community Relations, Aurora Heard, Ronda Radke and extension offices. In addition there may be a wall added on the north corridor along with shutting off the north entrance door and relocating Travis Smith office along with visiting attorneys. Lewis mapped out the secure area on the drawing presented to the Board. The Board approved to move forward having engineers TSP to visit and starting getting plans in place. In addition the Board approved purchasing a magnetometer. Nate Grimmius, commander of the Buffalo Ridge Drug Task Force, appeared before the Board sharing statistics of drug activity. The Force serves, Murray, Pipestone, and Nobles Counties along with the cities located within those counties. The BRDTF employs six full-time agents and covers 1,893 square miles. Grimmius shares his information quarterly with the Boards involved. Grimmius said some funding for the program comes from the federal government, however, the majority is a grant from the State. Currently the BRDTF receives a $200,000 grant and he said there hasn’t been any change in the funding since 2009. The majority of their arrests come from meth, marijuana, and prescription drugs. He said there is more meth, heroin, and cocaine coming out of Mexico. Over the past 12 years the BRDTF has taken 6 1/2 million dollars worth of drugs off the street. From 2006-2017 they took in 24,172.15 grams (53.29 lbs) of meth and 12,937 in prescription drugs. This past year they made 73 drug arrests, 35 non-drug related arrests (violent crime), did 70 search warrants and 33 consent searches. Grimmius explained most often cases go in waves. The highest was 140 in 2013 and in 2017 was 80. He also spends part of his time educating the public and doing presentations which equated to 821 from 2017 to present. An additional statistic shared is one joint is equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes. Another area he touched on the BHO (butane hash oil). It’s the resin from the plant, however is extremely dangerous and highly explosive in trying to extract this resin. He also encouraged residents to bring unused prescription drugs to the drug take back boxes to properly dispose of the drugs. This is much safer than flushing or throwing them away. They are then taken to a proper incinerator. There is one located in the entrance of the Murray County Sheriff’s office. They ask that no needles are dumped in them. Grimmius said drug overdose is currently the second leading cause of accidental death. In 2017 there were 67,000 OD death reported and it’s estimated to be closer to 80,000 next year. This translates to an OD death every 19 minutes. A piece of Carfentanil the size of a grain of salt can kill because of it’s absorbtion through the skin. He al commented they’ve worked a couple of cases that have involved individuals from Mexico who are coming to this area. “So the Cartel is here,” says Grimmius. “There’s money to made and that’s what it boils down to.” According to him the statistics show 90% of treatment for drug usage fails. Compared to alcohol, of 100 people, eight will become an alcoholic again. However with drugs, 90 people of the 100 will become addicted again. Another sad statistic involved children. He said when they’ve tested children in drug homes, most often they come back as if the child is a daily user. One way people can help is if they are aware of something going on is to text 372DTF with your tip, send to 847411 (tip 411). The tip is 100% anonymous. In other business Auditor Winter brought forward the ditch bills and authorization of for payment including $55.87 for mailings involving CD11 and CD 29. Also approved was the $2500 held back from final payment for Hulstein Excavating. The contractor was asked to lower an intake in Sec 12-Bondin Township and finish grading and seeding before the final payment could be made. They things have been done and payment was approved. The Board also accepted a $700.00 donation from Murray County 4-H Clubs for the purpose of offsetting expenditures for horse stall repairs. Sheriff Steve Telkamp appeared before the Board with information regarding the $5,765 annual Boat and Water Safety Grant. According to him there is also a federal grant coming to help offset costs of related equipment. Aurora Heard asked to start the hiring process for a seasonal recycling center worker from now til August. She also shared Lori Hill will move from zoning and put in 24 hours in the license center starting April 10th. Heard asked to start the recruitment process for a person to be hired for 28 hours a week as a part-time environmental secretary/license center clerk. Heard also shared Zach McFarland will be working intermittent in the recycling center as needed. The Board went into to closed session to consider the purchase of parcel #20-016-0050 or 20-023-0040. When they came out of closed session it was reported no action was taken. Following a short break, the Board resumed and held discussion in regards to CD11 which is part of the Highway 30 collapse last summer. Landowners, James Sorenson, Harry Brands, Doug Halbur and Steve Fresk were on hand sharing their concern in regards to bills of CD11. Attorney Kurt Deter, Heidi Winter, and Howard Konkol listened and are in the process of developing a letter on behalf of the county and owner to send to the MNDOT. Commissioner Thiner re-addressed his concern with the Buffer funds. Instead of placing these funds in three different areas, he feels it would be best to keep the funds intact in one place and then distribute from there. “It’s a much better way of tracking.” The Board held discussion and in the end passed a motion to move all of the funds back together in one account. The Board ended their day by going into closed session for labor negotiations strategy.

by ffpadmin | @ | April 6, 2018 11:04 am

By: Sheila Crowley

Staffwriter

One of the items topping the Murray County Commissioners meeting this past Tuesday was the discussion revolving around the need of funds for Southwest Minnesota Health and Human Services. According to Commissioner Magnus, who sits on the board, SWHHS will be out of funds by the end of May 2018.

Magnus said two options were discussed at their recent SWHHS meeting. 1) Push the levy funds date up. 2) Have each of the six counties do a loan to put money in the reserves and help build it back up. Funds requested tallied $2,000,000 which makes Murray County’s share $220,800.  This loan would be in addition to the levy money the county already pays. SWHHS employs 241 employees over the six counties. According to Magnus they are currently in a hiring freeze to help with the fund shortage. He said the SWHHS board is asking each of the counties to talk if over.

Part of the problem, according to Magnus, is there hasn’t been a levy increase over the past number of years and in return has burned up their reserve.

Both Aurora Heard and Heidi Winter expressed their wish to meet with colleagues from the six counties before the Board makes a decision on how they wish to proceed. Currently SWHHS have three million in monthly bills. Commissioner Jens explained part of the shortfall comes from the lack of matching funds from the State. “They were suppose to have had matching funds and the State didn’t come through.”