The county board added $750 — about 20 hours of work — to Sheriff Terese Amazi’s overtime budget Tuesday to help catch up on the abnormally high number of gun permits.

Since President Barack Obama’s re-election, Amazi said her office has received requests for 535 gun permits — about three times more than normal.

“That’s been a tremendous increase,” she said.

The additional overtime capabilities will allow Amazi’s office to catch up.

“For a small county, that’s a lot,” Commissioner Jerry Reinartz said.

Many homes test high for radon

Some local homeowners could be taking a second look at radon levels in their homes.

Late last year, Mower County Public Health offered about 200 radon kits through the Minnesota Department of Public Health. Community Health Director Lisa Kocer told the county board Thursday results from 47 kits have been returned and 33 kits tested at a higher than normal level.

Anything over 2.0 picoCuries per Liter (pCi/L) is considered high, and homeowners should seek at least a second test. If it’s higher than 4.0 pCi/L, it’s often recommended to fix the home. Sixteen of the kits were higher than 7 pCi/L, according to Kocer.

Radon is an odorless, colorless, tasteless, radioactive gas that occurs naturally in soils. Testing is the only way to know if a home has an elevated level of radon, which can cause lung cancer.

According to the Department of Health, one in three homes in Minnesota has radon levels that pose a significant health risk and 80 percent of Minnesota counties are rated to be in “high radon” zones. Mower County is one of those counties.