Bill Buckley got upstaged Tuesday by dozens of Mower County high school students participating in County Government Day.

Wednesday, April 04, 2001

Bill Buckley got upstaged Tuesday by dozens of Mower County high school students participating in County Government Day.

Buckley, the county’s environmental health services director, was in the midst of a presentation to the county commissioners about an important environmental health project this summer.

According to Buckley, the project began last summer to determine the amount of contamination in the Cedar River south of Austin and would be expanded this summer to other areas upstream of Austin.

In addition, Dobbins Creek would be included and 13 different sites tested.

The county board members quickly referred the request to the finance committee, when the high school students started pouring into the commissioners’ meeting room and Buckley stepped aside.

Dave Hillier, Third District county commissioner and chairman of the board, welcomed the students to County Government Day and each commissioner described their individual districts and told what their most important projects were.

Earlier, the students and their chaperones toured other county government facilities in Austin and had breakfast and lunch at the Austin American Legion Post. Every Legion post in Mower County sponsored the County Government Day events, which were organized by County Treasurer Ruth Harris.

A second group of students interrupted a conditional use permit hearing later Tuesday afternoon and the commissioners made a similar presentation at that time.

Mary Kiffmeyer, Minnesota’s secretary of state, spoke briefly to the county commissioners Tuesday.

Kiffmeyer made a pitch to the county board members to purchase new "Optiscan" voting equipment and discontinue use of paper ballots.

Kiffmeyer said the new high technology allows voters’ mistakes to be uncovered immediately at the polls, eliminates the need for lengthy counting by hand and even recounting and gives the public more immediate results.

"It’s not a mandate. It’s your choice," the secretary of state said.

According to Kiffmeyer, she is asking the Minnesota Legislature for funding to aid local units of government in purchasing the new scanning equipment.

Ray Tucker, Second District county commissioner, reminded Kiffmeyer: "Some of our township halls aren’t wired for something like this. Plus, there’s not kind of climate control to ensure the computer equipment will be protected and secured."

Kiffmeyer said cooperation among local units of government could make a central storage area available in between elections.

Kiffmeyer, who made a similar presentation before the county board last December, reminded them of the presidential election problems in Florida and said the new Optiscan voting equipment could be purchased by state purchase agreement thus saving local units of government more money.

On the subject of redistricting, Kiffmeyer shared the latest information her office has on the impact to come.

She also visited with Mower County Auditor Woody Vereide about what needs to be done by the April 30, 2002, deadline imposed by the Minnesota Legislature.

In other action Tuesday, the county commissioners:

n Granted a conditional use permit to Gary Rueter and Frazer Construction to extract sand and gravel for construction of the new K-12 monolithic dome Grand Meadow Public Schools building. The county Planning Commission had recommended approval of the request and the Grand Meadow Township Board had no objections.

n Approved a change to the county soil and water erosion control ordinance. Because there is a new way to measure soil erosion, the old standards in the ordinance were removed and replaced with the new. The Mower County SWCD recommended the changes.

n Approved a request from Rick Morrison, county drainage system inspector, to have Jones, Haugh & Smith Inc. perform an environmental assessment worksheet for the proposed improvements to Judicial District No. 1 in eastern Mower County.

Call Lee Bonorden at 434-2232 or e-mail him at newsroom@austindailyherald.com.