Editorial: County shouldn't cut its EMD

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• Fire chiefs take a stand for Emergency Management Director

We understand Nobles County — not to mention counties and municipalities across Minnesota — is facing and will continue to face a number of extremely difficult budgetary decisions. When confronting these challenges, however, we hope common sense ultimately prevails.

A decision on the employment status of Nobles County Emergency Management Director Dan Anderson is one example in which a desire to cut costs would trump a greater rationale. Anderson is scheduled to have his post trimmed from full-time to three-fifths time as of Jan. 1, but county commissioners can reconsider that move before the end of the year.

There are a couple of good reasons to keep Anderson from becoming a part-timer. For starters, he’s saved the county — and its taxpayers — considerable money already. By obtaining grants for the new ARMER communications system, a group of county fire chiefs said last week during a lobbying effort on Anderson’s behalf, as much as $1.4 million in costs has been saved. Additionally, Anderson’s knowledge of the new state-mandated system has been deemed by emergency managers as critical in helping meet a 2013 implementation deadline.

It also should be pointed out that Nobles County Commissioner Marv Zylstra believes that significantly more money could be saved by keeping Anderson. “With these ARMER radios,” Zylstra said Thursday, “if we’ve got to go outside (for reprogramming), maybe in the long run it’s cheaper to keep Dan at full time.”

Maybe it’s also best for all of us, too.

Tags: nobles county, opinion, editorials