County seeks new deputy

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — Nobles County commissioners on Tuesday approved the recruitment of a full-time deputy for the Nobles County Sheriff’s Office, with a hiring to be delayed until after the county approves its final budget on Dec. 21.

Sheriff Kent Wilkening made the request after commissioners approved a six-month unpaid leave of absence for another deputy, which leaves the department two deputies short.

“Kent knows I’ve been tough on him, but he’s got two down,” said Commissioner Diane Thier. “I feel we can’t take two out and have the county work like it should.”

Commissioner Gene Foth, who cast the lone vote against the hiring, said the county still has its hiring freeze in place.

“In the budget, in order to provide for the financing of that deputy there were several other positions that had to be put on a reduced time,” Foth said. “I don’t know what kind of outcry we’re going to get from these other departments.”

In other action, the board:

* Received a report from Schnieder on the condition of several of the timber bridges in Nobles County that have shown deterioration. On Nobles County 14, the county has had to post the bridge weight limit down to 10 ton, which will prevent county plows from crossing the bridge. The posting will still allow school bus traffic, he said.

“Five other bridges will require posting,” he said. “We’re running into a lot of deterioration that we hadn’t had. A lot of these bridges were on a two-year inspection process and we didn’t inspect them last year.”

Schnieder will give a full report on the bridges at the Dec. 7 meeting of the Nobles County Commissioners and discussion funding options at that time.

* Approved a resolution and joint powers agreement authorizing the issuance of $8.5 million in Build America bonds for the Lincoln-Pipestone Rural Water expansion project in Nobles County.

l Was notified of the county’s $173,722 dividend check received from MCIT. Of that, approximately $130,000 will be placed in the county’s operations budget.

* Voted 3-1 to discontinue offering passport services as of May 1, 2011, due to new rules that require passport applications and birth certificate services be handled by separate staff. The recorder’s office only has two full-time staffers and it would not be feasible for duties to be separated.

County Recorder Lynn Wilson said they earned approximately $14,000 in 2010 for processing passports, and she didn’t predict they would earn much more than that in 2011, whereas they earn substantially more money by processing birth certificates. Wilson also said there is another place in Worthington where people can receive passports.

Commissioner Vern Leistico, who cast the opposing vote, said they should see if another department in the government center could process passports. That option was deemed not feasible because two people would need to be trained, and the additional work would take away from the jobs they are already to be doing.

* Received a report from Nobles County Family Services Director Nicole Names and Child Services Supervisor Beth Mahoney on variances for daycares. They provided information on a draft policy in advance of a Tuesday night meeting with daycare providers.

* Approved the appointment of Dr. Gerald Swanson as a deputy coroner.

* Approved an appropriation to RSVP for $7,239.

* Accepted the retirement of Roger Spillers as director of the Nobles County Library and its Adrian branch.

* Approved a joint powers agreement between the Nobles County Sheriff’s Office and the State of Minnesota for use of the criminal justice data communications network.

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