County moves on small business payments

A total of 62 local businesses applied for the Carlton County Covid-19 small business relief grants this fall. Those businesses will know soon if their applications were successful, following approval by the Carlton County board of commissioners at its meeting Tuesday, Dec. 8.

The grant program offered Carlton County businesses grant money to offset expenses and losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and is funded federally through the CARES Act. Requests for the small business grants came in at $812,583, with some businesses requesting far more than the limit of $7,500. After going through all the applications, the committee approved a total of $369,000 in grants.

Some grants were not approved because either the business was not the applicant’s primary source of income or the financial statements showed no net loss when reviewed. In some cases, money was available through another CARES Act program.

Carlton County commissioner Marv Bodie acknowledged the challenges of keeping both people and businesses healthy.

“We are worried about all aspects of county functioning, but we know that requires a balance. If our residents are not healthy and cases increase, shutdowns happen, and we lose important economic supports within our community,” Bodie said in a press release this week. “We support the governor’s most recent guidance to protect health so that we can get back to normal economic functioning.”

Korteum is official

After a year as the “acting” Carlton County Auditor/Treasurer, Kathy Kortuem will become the appointed auditor/treasurer at the annual meeting of the Carlton County board of commissioners on Jan. 5. The move will complete the transition from an elected auditor/treasurer to an appointed one.

State law provides for the appointment of that position rather than have it decided at election time. During this past year the county’s human resources department developed a job description and arrived at an established pay level for that job.

“This has been a tough year for Kathy’s department,” commissioner Dick Brenner said. “The election cycle with heavy dependence on absentee and mail-in balloting created many hours of increased staff time. The stresses of Covid-19 and the paperwork involved with the CARES Act monies complicated the daily accounting work in the auditor/treasurer’s department. Kathy should be commended for all her work to do it right.”

The county board’s annual meeting will be on Jan. 5, with sworn oaths given to newly re-elected commissioners Peterson, Brenner and Proulx, and Korteum.

Jail tax still on

County Board members approved a new resolution requesting the Minnesota State Legislature give the county permission to ask the local voters if a new half-percent sales could be levied to fund a new jail facility. The choice is either that or a levy on the local property taxes, as the current aging facility faces

a state-mandated sunset date of July 31, 2023.

If approved by voters and the legislature, a new local option sales tax could raise up to $1.8 million annually to help fund the construction of a new jail facility, estimated at $24-$36 million.

This is the second time the board has made the request to the Legislature. State approval for a half-percent sales tax vote was not given in the last legislative session.

The county did get $2 million from the Legislature to pay for designing and planning a female offender program. It’s a demonstration project to “address current state requirements of parity in serving male and female offenders” and could be key in getting legislative approval for a sales tax referendum.

More cleaning

A part-time custodial position (24 hours a week) was approved for the beginning of the 2021 budget year for additional responsibilities at the old Cloquet City Hall complex. More custodial help is also needed due to increased cleaning because of Covid-19 and for some areas in the new Barnum county garage. The vote was unanimous.