Board ponders landfills, human resources

The first snowfall to hit like a heavyweight this winter found the county board meeting late in the afternoon Monday. Commissioners congratulated each other and staff for making it through in spite of the storm. Inside chambers in the Transportation Building, business flew by as fast as the flurries.

Zoning and environmental services coordinator Chris Berg urged commissioners to consider the future of waste disposal in Carlton County. The landfill in Superior, Wisconsin is sunsetting as soon as 2026, Berg said, meaning Carlton County and other jurisdictions throughout the area will need to look elsewhere for their waste disposal.

St. Louis County is developing plans for a waste management facility in Canyon as well as an expansion of its existing Virginia facility. The Virginia project is further along, Berg said.

The board voted unanimously in favor of a letter of support for St. Louis County’s plans for its Virginia facility. The letter is being sent to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

In terms of a waste solution, “This would be an intermediate fix,” said Berg to commissioners.

With the MPCA pushing for alternatives to landfills, such as waste reduction, mass composting and recycling, the county’s letter said, “There is still a need for environmentally protective landfills.”

The MPCA hasn’t authorized a new solid waste landfill in northeastern Minnesota in decades, so the letter figures to help highlight the deadline communities are facing to find an alternative to Superior’s landfill.

Carlton County disposes of approximately 11,700 tons of material solid waste annually, the letter said.

If Virgina expansion happens, it will give Carlton County leverage to negotiate pricing with a private landfill in Sarona, Wisconsin. Berg cited the private landfill, Republic Services Lake Area Landfill, as an existing alternative.

The distance to Sarona and Virginia was negligible. Both mean trucking waste about an hour away, Berg said.

HR support

County coordinator Dennis Genereau argued for continued support for the human resources department, earning a majority vote to replace an outgoing HR assistant.

Commissioner Gary Peterson was the dissenting voice, arguing that all departments in the county could “make the argument they are short-staffed and need help,” Peterson said.

Peterson cited conversations that originated last year ago with the HR position being a 0.8 position and not entirely full-time.

“There are people out there who might not want full-time,” Peterson said of potential candidates.

Genereau gave a bleak portrayal of the human resources department, saying it’s three people managing 350 employees.

“I haven’t done a good job of explaining what HR does and that’s on me,” Genereau said, making up for lost time by outlining a series of shortfalls, including not being able to attend all hirings, the lack of a countywide safety component, and a need to recruit more in the face of a tighter job market.

“Recruitment and retention nationwide are becoming an issue and we are starting to see the same thing,” he said. “Pools are smaller. We are getting less applicants and they’re shallower.”

Instead of 20-30 applicants for a job, they’re getting five and only one or two might be hireable, he said.

“We don’t actively recruit and we need to do more to actively recruit positions,” Genereau said.

County attorney Lauri Ketola and sheriff Kelly Lake have made similar arguments to the board within the past several months about dwindling applicant pools for openings in their offices.

Genereau said he’d like to have HR present at all hirings to help identify red flags and prevent some of the poorer hires the county has seen.

He’d also like HR to be able to agree to accept the unions’ invitation to meet quarterly and get to know one another outside of the pressure of negotiations.

“We just don’t have time,” for those meetings, Genereau said.

Genereau said he’d like to create a stronger culture and more effective workforce, but is concerned about what he hears from the HR office that includes more than 50 years of professional HR experience. Onboarding new employees and performance reviews are both insufficient, he said, while exit interviews are non-existent, he added. Attention to societal change and added details such as lactation rooms is “hit or miss,” Genereau said.

He’s been told “that we are not able to keep up, and it causes us to lose sleep and be stressed, because we know things have to be done to not put the county at risk,” he said.

“I have to respect that opinion,” Genereau added.

The board affirmed the replacement of a full-time HR assistant by a 4-1 vote.

“This position is critical to office functionality,” the board letter said and would provide savings through more efficient administration.

The Pine Knot reported last summer that the HR assistant position would cost $69,510 annually, including benefits.

In other matters

• County engineer JinYeene Neumann got bids approved on a pair of upcoming highway projects. Both bids were below engineering estimates.

The summer’s $3.1 million reconstruction of 22nd Street in Cloquet (also known as County State Aid Highway 55) went to Northland Constructors of Duluth. It was the lowest among three bids and 16.8 percent below projections, Neumann said. The bid is contingent upon approval by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, as well as the city councils of Cloquet and Scanlon.

The county board also awarded a $526,00 contract to Asphalt Services Technology Corp. of Saint Joseph, Minnesota, for microsurfacing of Washington Avenue to County Road 45.

“This is the first time we’ve done microsurfacing,” Neumann told the board. The bid, the only one, was 50 percent below county projections, and Neumann reasoned it was because the process is new and the county’s calculations for costs per square footage was off.

Neumann described the microsurfacing as something above and beyond chip sealing.

“It’s a preservation method that adds a bit of structure to the road,” she said.

If it works well, she said the county would look at microsurfacing as a possibility for Highway 61 outside the Transportation Center in Carlton.

• The board unanimously approved the hiring of forester Mark Westphal to replace retiring land commissioner Greg Bernu, who worked his last week this week after 16 years with the county. Westphal came to Carlton County shortly after Bernu, and together they have managed the land department to profitability and a long series of project-based successes, such as the county’s seed orchard. Westphal was among five applicants for the job.

“We had some really good, quality candidates,” county coordinator Dennis Genereau said. “As we went through the process, it was clear at the end Mark was the best candidate, but he wasn’t the only candidate.”