Justice center almost 30 percent complete

Carlton County's $75 million justice center is 28-percent complete, jail administrator Paul Coughlin told Carlton County Commissioners at the June 13 meeting. Crews are putting in 2,000 hours each week on average. The wells for the ground-source heating and cooling pumping system are all drilled and the piping into the building is done, Coughlin said. The insulation and the rubber roof is installed, with most areas covered with wash rock to hold the rubber in place.

Overall, the highest-cost items usually come in the early phases of the project and are coming within budget guidelines, he said. Contingency funds, which provide for a cushion in case of overruns or plan changes, are not stressed, Coughlin said.

In other security matters, the county will soon be changing its domain name to CarltonCounty.gov in an effort to keep the website safer from hacking.

The county information technology department recommended the change of address to increase online security. The transition to a new domain name would be completed in about six months.

"We need this new website provider to improve security for not only elections, but other information we provide on our site," auditor/treasurer Kevin DeVriendt said. "We want to protect any activity on our website such as people paying their taxes, values and ownership of property, emails, minutes to meetings, published notices, reports from departments, to name a few."

Several state counties have changed their websites to (dot) gov, including St. Louis County to the north. There is no cost for using the domain.

No more private plowing

The county transportation department has received permission to drop private driveway plowing during the next winter season. There are only 18 private residences that the county was plowing.

"The county equipment gets bigger and bigger," highway engineer JinYeene Neumann said. "Most of the private driveways are not built to handle our large and heavy equipment. Insurance is a concern, because those driveways are not in the public right of way."

She said the county should not compete with private contractors.

Neumann asked that a decision be made now to give those private parties that have used county snow plow services time to find private contractors. Some people using the county service have special needs or are elderly. Health and human services director Dave Lee said he would look at the list and see if there could be some help in special cases.

Other news

• County assessor Kyle Holmes reported that 70 percent of local property taxpayers have taken advantage of the state refund option. All told, $3.65 million has been returned to the local taxpayers. The county will continue to provide information to property tax payers on the state refund at any opportunity.

• The Moose Lake schools requested, and was approved to have, a half-time social worker assigned to seek solutions to students struggling with poverty, attendance, behavioral and mental health issues. The social worker in Barnum will now be full-time and serve the two schools.

• Zoning and environmental services administrator Heather Cunningham reported that the Western Lake Superior Sanitation District has notified the county that fees will be going up 7.45 percent for use of the Superior landfill. SKB Environmental in Cloquet will increase rates 4.9 percent for its landfill and the same percentage for hauling. The good news, Cunningham said, is that the cubic-yard charge for household garbage will remain the same at $10, while mixed waste will go up to $154.11 per ton, and demolition debris will still be accepted on Wednesday and go up to $62.74 per ton.

• Minardi Outdoors, owners of the Knife Island Campground, received permission to build six 12-foot-by-24-foot bunkhouses on existing campsites and establish 14 new walk-in campsites to make a total of 56 campsites at that facility.

• The Cloquet and Moose Lake airports received grant funding of $45,083 and $21,956 respectively, for each of the years 2024 and 2025.

• Forester Mark Westphal reported that the timber auction on June 5 had timber appraised at $219,320 for 8,560 cords but brought in $342,318. Sappi bought three of the parcels for a total of $317,190. Poplar stumpage came in at $47.21 per cord.