Barb Hovde has been appointed to the Mower County Planning Commission.

Hovde, of Leroy, is the business director for the Leroy-Ostrander Independent School District.

A housewife and mother, Hovde has been involved in a host of civic endeavors in the LeRoy community.

Hovde replaces Bev Weness, rural LeRoy, who resigned from the commission this summer.

Ray Tucker, 2nd District Mower County Commissioner, made the motion to appoint Hovde to the county planning commission at Tuesday's meeting. "We had several applicants, but Mrs. Hovde comes highly recommended," Tucker told the county board members.

Dave Hillier, 3rd District Mower County Commissioner, seconded Tucker's motion and Hovde's appointment was unanimously approved.

Hovde will join the other Mower County planning commission members Monday when the commissioners will meet again.

The Monday meeting is a departure from the regular fourth Tuesday of each month schedule and necessary because of the Mower County Board meeting Tuesday.

Monday's county planning commission meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the county board's meeting room in the lower level of the Mower County government center in downtown Austin.

The commissioners will hear two requests for conditional use permits from Ulland Bros., Inc. to operate gravel pits in Section 3, Windom Township, and Section 12, Austin Township.

Also Oct. 1, the county commissioners approved final changes to the agreement to form a new environmental services department.

Under the terms of the agreement, Darryl W. Franklin, county planning director and zoning administrator, becomes a department head over environmental health, feedlot regulations, recycling and hazardous wastes programs and services.

The building maintenance department in the government center moves under the supervision of the county administration department.

The reorganization was recommended by the county board's personnel committee and Al Cordes, human resource director, who recalled four meetings with the employees impacted by the change and the acknowledgement of their input.

There are no salary adjustments being made because of the reorganization.

The county board members also gave Franklin permission to apply for hazardous mitigation plan funding from the Federal Emergency Management Association.

The city of Austin has already applied for the same funding for its own use.

The funding paves the way for local government units to prepare plans of their own for hazard mitigation efforts and should assist them when and if they need to apply for more funding in times of natural disasters.

Second District county commission Tucker also reported an agreement with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has been entered into by local government units guaranteeing the development of a trail head for the Shooting Star Recreation trail at Leroy.

The trail head will be located on the east side of Mower County Road 14 at the north edge of LeRoy.

The bike trail is the result of efforts of the Prairie Visions joint venture of residents in the communities of and rural areas around LeRoy, Taopi, Adams and Rose Creek.

The $29,000 funding will be used to purchase two parcels of land, including a small tract of the property where the Mower County Housing and Development Authority owns the senior housing project at LeRoy.

When the trail head is developed, it will mark a new milestone in the beleaguered Shooting Star trail project.

Lee Bonorden can be reached at 434-2232 or by e-mail at :mailto:lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com