NAFRS to work information delivery
The NAFRS joint powers board re-elected Chair Glen Castore and new member Anne Haddad as Vice Chair last week. They deliberated on their regular meeting time. Dana Graham made a motion to set the time earlier explaining that the 9am start time disrupts the work day. (Meetings can last up to 2 hours) They’ll now meet at 8am on the 3rd Thursday of the month. How subcommittee meetings operate was also discussed. Dundas and Northfield have had issues with recommendations coming forward as resolutions
without structure or information on how they came to their decisions. Haddad asked if it would help to create a template that the head of each working group could fill out and report on? That way there’s standard information. You can hear Castore in the audio saying yes. Dundas Administrator John McCarthy commented that this is a great step, adding that if he goes to a Council and explains something, he has to be able to explain where his reasons came from. Castore and Haddad will work on a template for committee reports. Dundas Mayor Switzer also felt that this is a good step. An Administrative Audit was completed in 2016 by Tim McGrath Consulting, NAFRS is working on a date for the public presentation. Their next Board meeting is January 19th at 8am at the Northfield Police Station.
Mental health crisis a high priority for law enforcement
The new legislation is underway. For local law enforcement, finding space for those in a mental health crisis is high on their priority list. Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn said that right now, when someone is in crisis, they take them to the Emergency Room where they could be waiting days or weeks for a bed to find a placement. Dunn says they also have people sitting in their jails that need mental health assistance. He said they need funding to find secure placement for these people and increasing some of their funding for training for law enforcement officers on crisis intervention and de-escalation. Some departments are already doing that, including Rice County, but he’d like to see standardized training throughout the state. He added that they’re supposed to be reimbursed for their training from the State but, last year, law enforcement training costs were $36 million and the State only reimbursed $1.8 million. That means the cost falls back to the municipalities.
Nfld Council to interview candidates for Councilor-at-Large
The Northfield City Council will hold a special meeting tonight beginning at 6 o’clock to hold interviews for the Councilor-at-large appointment. They’ve also left room to vote on the selection if appropriate. Eight people have applied for the position. Henry Carras , Mariveliz Arique Aguilar, Joe Gasior , Christopher Lambert, Gregory Colby, Mark Hofstad, Clifford Martin and Jon Denison Also on the agenda is a discussion of the County Road 1 pedestrian underpass. Administrator Ben Martig will be in studio at 7:20 with a recap.
KYMN launches redesigned website
We’ve launched our new website. KYMN has been working with some talented website designers and we’re happy to offer a fresh new look with some added features and a more user-friendly site . Take a look at kymn.net. We are continuing to tweak the site and learning how to update it ourselves! So continue to check it out.
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