Policy updates, construction approved

In the absence of commission chair Blair Nelson, vice chair Brian Harguth led the March 21 regular meeting of the Waseca County Board. John Donahue attended as a visitor and took the podium during public comment to inform the board he felt like they'd given a “slap in the face” to Warnecke Construction regarding bids for the bridge northeast of Janesville. Warneke lost the bid by a very small amount, about $150 according to Donahue; he observed that a statute exists which would have allowed the county to choose the “best value” bid over the lowest bid. Warnecke, Donahue said, has done a lot of great service for Waseca County and he feels the company should have won the bid under the best value statute.

Christopher Dieker asked the board to enter into a three-year maintenance agreement for an updated version of Microsoft Office. The board approved the agreement after county administrator Michael Johnson explained there was little choice in the matter. The county had previously been using a perpetual license for Microsoft 13, and Microsoft has chosen to discontinue support for their offline programs in favor of a subscription-based cloud storage product. The yearly cost for the new agreement will be $56,075. For the first year, it is suggested this is paid from the Recorder Compliance funds, which started the year with about $105,000, but this fund doesn't take in enough yearly to continue to cover the costs so the agreement may be a factor in future budgetary decisions.

Chris Howard of Land and Water resources received permission to individually purchase numerous tools and pieces of equipment to establish, maintain and repair the nearly 250 miles of buffer strips which Waseca County took responsibility for during the March 7 board of commissioners meeting. The total cost of the purchases is not to exceed $164,000. These will come from the Riparian Fund, which is an assigned fund and has no impact on the 2023 county budget or future tax levy dollars. Maame Yorke of Planning and Zoning brought two conditional use permits, both of which were approved, before the board. The first was for the construction of a kennel in Alton Township, where Seth and Nicole Hollerman plan to convert an existing 16' by 14' shed into a kennel building and attach a dog run. Standards will restrict their kennel to 7 dogs at its current size, though the owners already hope to expand it in the future. The second is for Nnl Properties, LLC, of Janesville, who are permitted for a recreational camping area for private use.

The board also approved four policy updates brought forth by Melissa Sexton of human resources. First was to add Juneteenth to the holiday schedule, in compliance with the collective bargaining agreement, now that it has been acknowledged as a holiday by the state legislature. The second and third updates brought policies for ID and facility access and county vehicle usage in line with current and best practices. The fourth was for cybersecurity needs in Information technology policies, and resulted in the most changes, according to Sexton. The updates were approved as a slate without discussion.

The scheduled public hearing for fee changes for public health services went without public comment. “I am confident that these are wise adjustments to our fee schedule,” said Commissioner Malterer prior to the board's vote in favor of the changes.