Thursday, June30, 2011

Volume 95; Number 3

www.bladepublishing.net

A community newspaper serving Browerville, MN and surrounding areas. USPS 067-560

75

Browerville Days 2011 offered something for everyone

County begins combining offices

By Tim King Todd County Commissioners took the first step in combining the offices of the Assessor, Recorder, and Auditor Treasurer at their Tuesday June 21 meeting. The decision to combine the three offices was made largely because the Assessors and Recorders offices have had a growing shortage of employees in recent months. Both the County Assessor and the County Recorder told commissioners their departments were so understaffed that accuracy in document preparation and customer service were suffering. County Assessor Chuck Pelzer told commissioners he was so short of staff he had to briefly close the offices customer window recently. Earlier in the year, commissioners asked the three offices to work together to attempt to solve some of the problems caused by staff shortages. County Administrator Nathan Burkett said he was impressed by the teamwork between the three departments. He said, however, that further action should be taken. As part of the solution, Burkett recommended hiring an employee called a generalist. The generalist, a new position, would be trained to serve the public in all three departments. Commissioners agreed to hire a generalist as soon as possible. There is currently money in the departmental budgets to hire a generalist. Burkett also recommended the three departments begin preparing proposals to combine their offices. The new combined department will likely be called Property Records and Taxpayer Service. MOBILE HOME TAXES Commissioners agreed to accept the Auditor-Treasurers recommendation to cancel $3,724.89 in mobile home taxes. County Auditor-Treasurer Karen Bush made the recommendation because the taxes appear to be uncollectable. She said people who owed the taxes were either not in the area any more, had sold the mobile home, or were dead. Commissioner David Kircher voted against the resolution to cancel the taxes. EMPLOYEE SETTLEMENT and TERMINATION Commissioners voted to accept a settlement between Todd County and Mark Vigil. Vigil has worked as a Jailer for Todd County since Continued on page 16.

Above: Left, The Swimming Pool Games were just one of the many activities for kids over the past weekend. Right, the car show is always popular with all ages. Additional photos inside.

Will a government shutdown affect Todd County?

any reimbursement. The state and federal government are broke. We cant spend our reserves down to support state programs, said Neumann. Ruda commented, in reference to the Association of Minnesota Counties meeting when counties were notified they shouldnt expect state reimbursement, I get very, very frustrated with having to pick up the pieces of a system thats broken in St. Paul. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO BROWERVILLE CITIZENS? How would a government shutdown effect the city of Browerville? Nobody knows for certain what will happen, but the city is well prepared for all possible outcomes. There are many ifs in this kinds of situation. One of the biggest things that will be affected is the local government aid or the LGA. The LGA helps keep taxes down in the city and organizes state money to be set aside. Each year the city receives $206,600 in LGA which is received in halves, one payment in December, and one in July. If the government does not sort out this budget deal before July 1st, the July LGA payment may be delayed. If the July payment of $103,300, which funds public works such as cleaning streets and mowing the grass, is delayed the city may have to borrow internally from one fund to another. The city is well prepared if the government officials do not sort things out and a shutdown occurs. We will be okay. It creates more of an annoyance then anything, said Lynn Fabro, the Browerville City Administrator. I believe that the possible shutdown would affect individual residents interactions more then it would the city. Browerville would also be effected in smaller ways, such as licensing certain businesses. It would also be effected if something goes wrong, or problems arise without warning, but that would effect any community. Another way a government shutdown would effect the city is if payroll taxes reporting is shut down without notification. How would a government shutdown effect Browerville Schools? Being asked this question, Bob Schaefer, superintendent of the Browerville Public School, stated, At this point and time, we cannot tell for certain what effect a government shutdown would have on our school. We need to wait until we have more information to determine how it will affect us. However, a government shutdown would affect the school. Patrick Sutief, Dean of Students, commented A government shutdown shouldnt impact the school in any harmful way. A shutdown would only effect the school slightly. The biggest problem that could occur from a shutdown would be delay of contact with the Department of Education. Another problem would be teaching license renewal if teachers need to renew their license during a shutdown. The shutdown would also effect former students seeking financial aid for college because they plan on reducing or shutting down the programs. In preparation for a possible shutdown the school moved the grad retesting from July 5th through 13th to June 27th through 30th. As for the school, the office will stay open and school will begin at the same time in the fall. Paula Becker, Principal of Christ the King School, said We are praying the government sorts this out before the upcoming school year. Although Christ the King school is funded through the Continued on page 16.

By Tarissa Host The state of Minnesota is teetering on the edge of a potential government shutdown. What will happen if the state government shuts down? Many of you may recall the Minnesota partial shutdown in 2005. After the shutdown counties were reimbursed for expenditures during the nine day shutdown. This year counties doubt they will receive the same help. At a recent Minnesota Counties district meeting, commissioner Randy Neumann, along with commissioner Gerry Ruda, commented it was unlikely there would be

WEEKLY WEATHER REPORT

Wed. June 29 Partly Cloudy 83/69 Thur. June 30 Partly Cloudy 84/68 Fri. July 1 T-Storms 80/60 Sat, July 2 Sunny 79/62 Sun. July 3 T-Storms 79/59 Mon. July 4 Sunny 76/57 Tue. July 5 Sunny 73/56