The general fund rate to meet the county’s general fund needs will go up. The rate for rural services funded activities will go down for the ’22 fiscal year according to Auditor Barb Rohwer. The general fund finances court house functions, primarily except for Clerk of Court and Assessor. The General Fund also provides funding to Secondary Roads, Conservation, the jail and the administrative services for the sheriff’s office.
Rural services is the main support for secondary roads, the weed commissioner and rural patrol for deputies, and libraries.
Brian Schimmer, O’Brien County Conservation Director attended along with Amber Wetherell, Assistant Director and Kathy Ludeke, O’Brien County Conservation Board member. He distributed a letter of support from the director and vice director from the 3rd district for the 5th ranger in O’Brien County.
Schimmer outlined the work duties of the rangers. He said there are 96 campsites in 4 campgrounds throughout the county. The rangers also provide support for 2 shooting ranges in the county under an agreement with O’Brien County Sportsmen.
Schimmer explained that OCC is very spending conscientious, fixing as much as possible with the workforce. That would include 49 buildings, shelters and other structures OCCB is responsible for. Lawnmowers, vehicles and other motorized items they also do as much work to themselves as they can. He explained that every ranger, in addition to being certified law enforcement officers. They also have CDLs and chemical applicator licenses. Schimmer himself is a certified plumber. They all have first aid and CPR certifications.
Rangers are responsible for cleaning cabins when necessary which rent each year until January 2 and the bins. During camping season the restrooms at the campgrounds also must be cleaned each day before 8:00am. He explained the education programs (archery) that one ranger conducts. The rangers rotate 24-7 on-call including weekends during the summer. He noted that O’Brien County parks hosted 5383 campers last year and 614 days of cabin and Lodge rentals. He wanted to know what changed since last year when the 5th officer was approved unanimously by the Board of Supervisors. He noted that OCCB gave back to the general fund last year, $250,000 reducing the amount the agency depends on from taxpayers.
Dan Friedrichsen resonded to the question asking “What changed?” Friedrichsen explained that is because he has received so many calls in the past 4-5 months from dissatisfied residents. Generally, according to Friedrichsen, constituents want OCCB defunded. As far as if the cut is permanent, Friedrichsen replied, “Earn it back.”
Dennis Vanden Hul took a turn to explain the decision. He noted that it is unknown how many tickets the 5 rangers write each year. And when compared to other counties, OCCB don’t use law enforcement. Schimmer shot back that probably those counties don’t have campsites.
Nancy McDowell explained her position. “Last year, we didn’t know everything that was going on. My decision is from the people.” She said she’s heard from hundreds of people. And from what’s been published. “Now they feel they can come forward.” She expressed appreciation to Schimmer for what he is trying to do and ended with noting that there are some issues with board members.
Kathy Ludeke expressed some dismay that 5-6 months ago the supervisors supported conservation. She said then we had some issues and the horse thing came up.
Schimmer noted that the rangers, as law enforcement officers can help county deputies as backup. Each of the rangers are on a list as trained officers. Schimmer said, “They have stepped up quite a few times over the past year.” He said he would keep track of that statistic in the coming year. Publicly available reports support a single acknowledgement of Conservation officer involvement with county activity. At press time, the O’Brien County Sheriff’s office was unable to provide any information.
Schimmer reported that he estimated the split of ranger worktime between maintenance duties and law enforcement at 90/10.
Following discussion by the board of whether to accept the 3% pay increase recommendation for county employees, which they did, Sherri Bootsma asked if there were any reconsiderations for the cuts to Conservation. There were none.