At the spring meeting of the Minnesota Counties District 3 meeting in Ada, it was announced that the fall meeting would be in Marshall County. The counties in the district consist of Marshall, Kittson, Roseau, Mahnomen, Pennington, Norman, Polk and Red Lake with a rotation each spring and fall. The Legacy Center in Middle River was suggested by County Commissioner Sharon Bring, thinking the new endeavor would be of interest to them as many counties have had to deal with a closed school building or two in their counties.
The Board agreed that would be a good place so they proceeded to check with Middle River Mayor Dave Cassanova and Legacy Center manager Sandra Melby. Guy Strandberg was also contacted about using their church, Open Door Fellowship Ministries, for their meeting as the size, wi-fi, tables and chairs met their needs.
All felt a warm welcome as the Mayor, Sandra, and Guy welcomed the attendees at the beginning of the meeting and each told of their role with the Legacy Center.
The Minnesota Counties office advised to plan for 30 or 40 as that is typically the number that attend the meeting. Humblebees Café in Newfolden were hired to do the catering for the continental breakfast and the hot meal at noon. Sannes Coffee provided the coffee and gifted all attendees with free samples. Mayor Dave, Guy, Sandra, Sannes Coffee and Humblebees Café were all very accommodating and received rave reviews on all facets of the meeting, and the attendees were very excited that they were able to have a tour of the facility. They were also given a list of all businesses in Middle River and encouraged to visit them if time permitted after the meeting or at a later date.
The meeting consisted of reviewing the last legislative session and looking forward to the next one and what needed to be accomplished. The group heard reports on Cybersecurity and how to keep their counties safe from attacks and Cannibas Ordinance issues. Each county attending gave a report on what was happening in their county which included hiring issues, building projects, road projects, public safety and mental health issues. All of the commissioners in attendance selected what they thought were most important issues for our counties in the next session which were compiled by Minnesota Staff for their lobbyists to work on.
Attending from Marshall County were Auditor Scott Peters, Social Service Director Chris Kujava, Highway Engineer Lon Aune, and Commissioners Jim Duckstad, Larry Nybladh and Sharon Bring.
A summary quote from Commissioner Larry Nybladh, “Thanks for all your efforts in helping establish and organize today’s AMC meeting. Very nice venue and a great opportunity for Middle River to blow its horn. They all did great! I think Marshall County looked pretty good today!”
