Board organizes, gets briefed on vaccine

The Carlton County Board of Commissioners had its annual organizational meeting Tuesday with expected leadership changes. As has been the tradition, each of the five commissioners takes a turn as board chair over a five-year period. District 3 commissioner Tom Proulx, representing Cloquet, was elected Tuesday and takes charge of running the board meetings. District 5 commissioner Gary Peterson was elected vice chairman and is taking his turn as chair of the Committee of the Whole. District 4 commissioner Mark Thell was elected vice chair of the Committee of the Whole.

Also Tuesday, Health and Human Services director Dave Lee reported that only 100 doses of the Moderna vaccine has been made available to the county public health and human services department so far. Local hospitals, long-term care facilities, clinics and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa have each received their own supplies of Covid-19 vaccines. Lee reported that the first round of county vaccines were administered to Emergency Medical Service personnel, as well as Covid testers and those giving the shots.

Lee expects another round of vaccine will be allocated for Carlton County use soon. He envisions an active vaccine program by the end of January and a high rate of vaccinations by March. He expects the cycle of public vaccinations to be ongoing for a long time, with public health focused on vaccinating for Covid-19 now and through the summer, then flu shots, then returning to Covid-19 shots this next winter.

Bids for publication of legal notices came in from the Duluth News Tribune, the Pine Journal, and a joint bid by the Moose Lake Star Gazette and the Pine Knot News. Notices for legal business, summaries of proceedings of board of commissioners meetings, miscellaneous legal publications, and the list of delinquent real estate taxes all came in for a joint bid of $13.50 per column-inch for the joint bid of the two papers.

Auditor/treasurer Kathy Korteum explained that with only one newspaper (the Star Gazette) publishing two years ago, the cost of publishing the delinquent tax list averaged around $13,000. The cost last year was closer to $30,000, because it was published in both local papers under the joint bid.

Jana Peterson, editor of the Pine Knot News, explained to the board that the Pine Knot News and the Moose Lake Star Gazette are the only newspapers that operate primary offices in the county and by state statute were the only ones that could be awarded the bid, adding that the board could ask the two local papers for separate bids if it desired.

When commissioner Marv Bodie asked if the county could publish the delinquent tax notices just on its own website, Korteum explained that the state legislature has been reluctant to curtail the rules for legal publication to ensure the public's need to know.

Gary Peterson made the motion to accept the joint bid, Thell seconded it, and it passed.

In other county news:

The Regular County Board meetings continue to be held at 8:30 a.m. on the second Tuesday of each month. The Adjourned Sessions are at 4 p.m. on the fourth Monday of each month. As exceptions to that format, the Adjourned meeting for January will be on Jan. 25, the December Regular meeting will be on Dec. 14, and the December Adjourned meeting will be held on Dec. 28.

Committee of the Whole meetings will be the first Tuesday of each month at 4 p.m. All county department heads (elected and appointed), Carlton County Township Officers Association representative Dan Reed, and transportation matters representative Rick Norrgard are also part of the Committee of the Whole.

Holly Compo has been appointed to the Minnesota Agricultural Extension Board for the next two years.