New board leader: Housing, broadband are focus

The Carlton County board ushered in the new year with its annual meeting and changing of leadership in the chair position.

Last year's chair, Dick Brenner, nominated Susan Zmyslony to succeed him and she earned a unanimous vote Tuesday at the Transportation Building in Carlton.

"Thank you; I appreciate it," said a humbled Zmyslony before immediately turning to the agenda.

Zmyslony had mentioned Brenner during the final meeting of last year, Dec. 26.

"I'd like to take this opportunity, Dick, to thank you for being chair," she said. "I'm amazed at the amount of information you have in your head and how you present yourself."

Zmyslony spoke to the Pine Knot on Tuesday, following her election as chair. The first question was about priorities.

"I'm in line with the other commissioners," she said. "We really need to work on housing and broadband. ... There are some communities just outside of Cloquet, just outside of Carlton, where there are new housing developments with nice houses and they have no telephone, no internet."

The county is currently working with rural townships, trying to get matching funds to bring Starlink internet access to some of the most remote places, where fiber optic cable is either years away or even unlikely to ever go in. The county is getting as many as 40 and 50 people signing up at a time, the county's economic development director, Mary Finnegan, told the newspaper last month.

"That was one of my campaigning conversations, too," Zmyslony said. "With the number of people working from home, if we can get that established we can help ourselves."

Zmyslony said she was looking forward to the challenge of being chair. When asked about residents' seeming desire to see an end to even small tax growth, Zmyslony was understanding.

"I'm agreeing with that," she said. "I worry tremendously about what it's going to be like next year. We are going to have to make some changes; we are going to have to try to bring in money, but we also have to take a look at what we're spending."

The Pine Knot reported last year that the county is faced with potentially skyrocketing health insurance premiums for its employees when its negotiated 10.5-percent cap on increases with Blue Cross Blue Shield expires after 2024.

Zmyslony said she's been in contact with county human resources and coordinator Dennis Genereau about costs, and that it's not time yet to implement personnel changes or hiring freezes.

"That is not where we're at right now, but we have to be cognizant of what we're doing," she said.

Zmyslony has been part of contract negotiations with county employees' bargaining units, and said curbing spending has been a topic.

"The conversation is, 'What is it we can do to decrease the spending, but still keep the quality people that we have and provide the quality services?'" she said.

Zmyslony mentioned the possibility of combining with other counties for the procurement of supplies, so that "we can combine our resources," she said.

Regarding housing, the county passed the establishment of a housing trust fund late last year, so that it could have a place to capture state and federal housing money that will be made available later in 2024.

Budget, levy set

The county board approved a 3.9-percent increase in the 2024 levy at its final meeting of last year, Dec. 26. The levy came in under the proposed 3.99-percent ceiling set earlier in the process.

"We did go down," auditor/treasurer Kevin DeVriendt said, citing up-to-date changes in terms of public safety aid and other revenue.

The board voted 5-0 in favor of a $33.5 million tax levy for 2024 on a $79.6 million overall budget. Last year's levy was $32.2 million.

Categorically, levy costs break down as follows:

• Offices and administration (with salaries), $20.2 million.

• Roads and bridges, $3.3 million.

• Human services, $7.8 million.

• Debt repayment, $2.2 million.

Salaries set

Commissioners set their salaries at $26,393 for 2024 during the Dec. 26 meeting, including a 3-percent increase from a year ago.

On Tuesday, the commissioners divided up committee assignments, with totals that served to showcase the complex schedules kept by commissioners. Brenner, Gary Peterson and Zmyslony all are featured on 18 committees, followed by Marv Bodie with 13 and Tom Proulx with 12.

Assignments include an array of boards, including the airport commission, committees for both jail and regional corrections, environmental, public health and transportation policy committees, economic development and finance boards, pipeline, water and waste boards, a tribal relations committee, EMS, fire and law enforcement services boards, health insurance and the library system committees. A complete list of board and appointments was included on the Jan. 2 board agenda.

Additional salaries approved by the board last month were for Sheriff Kelly Lake, at $142,937, and county attorney Lauri Ketola at $152,734. Lake's 18 years in the sheriff's role, and 34 combined in the county, were considered in resetting her salary. Ketola's salary was reestablished by citing her five years in the role along with eight combined years in the county attorney's office.

Legal newspapers

The Pine Knot News and Moose Lake Star Gazette were once again selected unanimously as Carlton County's legal newspapers for 2024.

The joint bid was the only one received by the board, and included a $14.40 per inch rate to publish legal notices and financial statements in both newspapers.

DeVriendt noted that it cost more to do so, and that the board could have rejected the bid and reset its request. But Zmyslony and the others agreed on continuing what is now a 5-year-old arrangement.

"It's important because it's [reaching] both north and south parts of the county," Zmyslony said.

Up for election

Later this year, three commissioner seats will come up for election Nov. 5. Districts 1, 3 and 5 will be up to the voters to fill. Incumbents are District 1 commissioner Brenner, representing Cloquet, Scanlon and Sawyer, District 3 commissioner Proulx, representing most of Cloquet, and District 5 commissioner Peterson, representing Cromwell, Wright, Kettle River, and Moose Lake. Their terms conclude at the end of this year.

The terms in office for Zmyslony, of District 4, representing Barnum, Mahtowa, Holyoke and Wrenshall, and District 2 commissioner Bodie, representing Carlton and Thomson Township, run through December 2026.

The 2024 Truth in Taxation hearing was set by the board for 6 p.m. Dec. 11.