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YMC Board pares down list of admin finalists to five

GRANITE FALLS — The Yellow Medicine County Board narrowed the field of county administrator applicants from eight to five.

The board chose five finalists. They are Aurora Heard, Trish Herron, Amanda Luepke, Heber (Matt) Perry, and Angie Steinbach.

Heard is the county coordinator in Murray County. She was previously employed in Lyon County as assistant to the county administrator and then the human resources director.

Herron is the elementary director at Warroad Elementary School. She was previously county coordinator in Roseau County and county administrator in Itasca County. She graduated from the St. Mary’s College of Graduate Studies in Minneapolis.

Luepke is the city administrator in Clarkfield. She has a bachelor of arts degree from St. Scholastica College.

Perry is a compensation specialist at Utah State University. He was the county administrative officer in Lake County, Calif. He has a master’s of public administration degree from Brigham Young University.

Steinbach is the assistant city manager in Montevideo. She has a master’s of public administration degree from Hamline University.

Interviews will take place on Nov. 14. Finalists will meet with department heads in the morning and a committee of commissioners. Interviews with the full board will follow in the afternoon. The board portion will be open to the media and the public in accordance with the Open Meeting Law.

The board can then revert to a number or letter system to discuss its views of each finalist. The number system is needed because of data privacy laws.

Commissioners can then decide to select an administrator on the spot or narrow the field again as much as possible for second interviews.

The board also voted unanimously to accept a low price of $99,283 for video cameras in the county jail. The contractor, SGTS Inc. of Verona Wis., submitted the low bid.

Sheriff Bill Flatten then talked to SGTS to see if it could be possible to bring the cost down to stay within a target price of $100,000.

“All of the changes are minor,” Flatten said “One example is that we went with 60 days of video storage instead of 120. We could add more later if we need it.”

The cost will be paid over two years, with half coming from cash on hand and the rest in 2019 from reserve funds.

The upgrade will replace an older camera system installed in 2001 when the jail was built.

Flatten said improvements in technology will make the new system a good investment.

“We compared apples to apples,” Flatten said. “It’s a needed improvement for the jail.”

The board also voted to endorse a request from the Minnesota Department of Transportation for a bridge upgrade on Minnesota Highway 67 north of Echo. It will involve culvert improvements to a ditch with input from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Under state guidelines anything with an open depth of 10 feet or more is considered a bridge.

Engineers from MnDOT estimate that Highway 67 will probably have a detour for about two weeks.

Commissioner Gary Johnson said it will be important to avoid potential hydrology disputes with the DNR.

“It involves water, so we’ll need to be sure we keep them informed,” Johnson said. “We don’t want to be surprised with a problem.”

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