Broadband and next year's budget dominate board talks

Carlton County commissioners gave their support for a $400,000 broadband internet grant during their meeting Monday, July 25.

The board instructed economic development director Mary Finnegan to write a letter of support for the Border-to-Border grant application being filed by Consolidated Telephone Co.

Due by Thursday, Aug. 4, the grant would help cover $984,790 in costs for Brainerd-based Consolidated Telephone to lay fiber optic cable past 246 homes in northern Cloquet.

Consolidated Telephone has also proposed a broadband extension to include 92 homes in western Thomson Township at an additional cost of $531,000.

The proposed projects would address areas unserved, or underserved, by high-speed internet, including the Highway 33 corridor from North Cloquet Road to St. Louis River Road, and nearby roads including but not limited to Stark, Crosby, Laine, Prevost, English and Freeman roads in Cloquet.

In Thomson, the project would include Hill, Erkilla, Maki and Stark and North Cloquet roads within the township boundaries.

If approved, Cloquet city councilors have promised to contribute $300,000 in America Rescue Plan Act funds. Thomson Township supervisors pledged $37,500 at their July 19 meeting.

This additional area improves the Consolidated Telephone proposal rating and chances of receiving the grant.

The county is not providing any funding for the proposed project. Consolidated Telephone would pay costs not covered by local governments or the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development grant.

At the last minute, a national telecommunications company, Frontier Communications, submitted a grant proposal for some line expansion in the Cromwell-Eagle Lake area. The mayor of Cromwell, Sharon Zelazny, had asked for county support.

County coordinator Dennis Genereau said he has heard much criticism of Frontier service in rural Carlton County.

Main cable has been installed, but Frontier has been slow to hook up homes in the area, depending on their old copper wire line to provide service to the house. Genereau said he would write a letter of support for the Frontier proposal, but include the county’s concern of poor service in their service area.

Budget prep

Carlton County staff and organizations subsidized by Carlton County are making their case for funding in 2023. County board members spent four hours on Monday, July 25 listening to presentations by county departments regarding budgets needed for the 2023 budget year.

Presentations were lengthy, filled with information, and included the following:

• The Arrowhead Library Service provides free internet service to all three public libraries (Carlton, Cloquet and Moose Lake) in the county. The funding comes from the state of Minnesota, with the help of federal funding, to get discounts for internet service for libraries and schools. Arrowhead provides several services such as the ChiltonLibrary.com, which provides 24/7 information on vehicle maintenance and repair.

• Carol Klitzke is the new executive director for the Carlton County Historical Society in Cloquet and works 25 hours a week. She facilitated permission to borrow “Finns of Western Lake Superior” from the St. Louis County Historical Society, as well as an exhibit on the fur trade from the Minnesota Historical Society. Partnering with the Fond Du Lac Reservation Historical Society, Klitzke wrote a grant proposal for the creation of exhibits focused around “Sharing Traditions: Wild Ricing and Maple Sugaring.” Membership has gone up 14 percent this year. Visitors at the Carlton County fair can experience the “Potato Patch Trail,” which will feature a manure spreader, plow, tiller, potato planter, potato hiller, potato picker and real potatoes at the end.

• Carlton County Emergency Medical Service Council continues to finance the IamResponding emergency notification and response system for all county EMS and ambulance services, a communication program that works through phones and pagers to allow EMTs responding to a crisis to keep the rest of the Carlton County emergency response teams informed. The system costs $26,120 for a five-year period. The council does have budget reserves at this time.

• Arrowhead Regional Corrections is close to opening its new processing plant to serve the region’s farmers and meat producers. Operated by residents at the Northeast Regional Corrections Center outside Duluth, the plant allows the facility to raise and process its own food, while teaching trades to residents. It will provide a product that is federally certified through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ARC — and the old St.Louis County work farm before it — has a long history of the incarcerated working the farm there.

• The Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District is asking for additional funding of $27,284 to cover inflation costs.

• Budget pressures in the Transportation Department are forcing the county to turn more roads back to gravel.

• Use of America Rescue Plan Act funding during the next two yearly budgets in the county’s information technology department focuses on aging equipment and programs and could run over $600,000. The budget request comes on top of $200,000 in CARES Act funding the county spent for aerial imagery, and about $100,000 for technology purchases.

• The Carlton County Sheriff’s Office has been unable to update its fleet vehicles using the rental company Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which had managed vehicles used at the courthouse and by the Public Health and Human Services Department. Back orders are a national problem due to a shortage of computer chips. Other options are being considered.

• The Community and Family Initiatives Department headed by Donna Lekander has asked for a nearly full-time program support clerk for the front office.

• Carlton County’s University of Minnesota Extension Services is asking for less budgeted money for 2023. “They have asked hard questions for what type of program they will run and I commend them for a reduced budget request,” auditor/treasurer Kevin DeVriendt said. A request has been made to move the master gardener volunteer coordinator position back to the extension office.

• Land commissioner Greg Bernu requested the geographic information system staff housed in his office gradually become paid totally by levy dollars rather than using part of timber sales to cover their salaries.