City of Dundas Administrator John McCarthy formally announced his retirement effective May 31st, just shy of thirteen years as Administrator. He explains that he’s enjoyed being the City’s Administrator and still does, however, the City has doubled in size and as it continues to grow, he believes that someone younger can help usher the future in. McCarthy will be 72 by the time he retires and decided that he wants to slow down a bit. Dundas council, last night, approved David Drown and Associates to search for a new Administrator. The company’s head of Government Employment is former Rice County Administrator, Gary Weiers. The plan is to have someone in place by June 3rd.
McCarthy will help in the transition for a while, “until they decide to move me out there door totally”. Then, as someone who’s taken photographs since he was 5, he’s got a lot of sorting to do. He said, in fact, thousands of photographs and other media including 16 and 8mm film. McCarthy’s entire interview is on kymn.net.
Draheim discusses surplus $ and recreational marijuana
The legislative session got fully underway today. District 20 Senator Rich Draheim said he’s known newly elected Governor Tim Walz for years and, while they differ on policy, he’s looking forward to working with him. In terms of the budget surplus he believes it’s too early to start spending it and said the economy will likely be slowing down. Walz has indicated that he would expand the use of marijuana beyond just medicinal use. With it still a federal offense, Draheim is concerned about collecting taxes and said that, “until the Feds make some adjustments on the Federal level so the banks can openly accept money from marijuana type businesses”… he doesn’t think the conversation should even begin. Additionally he said we’ve worked so hard to lower DWI and distracted driving that he’s afraid that if they expand the use of marijuana there will be more impaired drivers and crashes. There’s no definition yet of what would be “over the limit” in terms of driving under the influence. Draheim will be on-air with Jeff Johnson each Monday morning at 7:20 during the 2019 legislative session. District 20b Representative Todd Lippert will be on-air Fridays at 8:45am.
Sheriff Dunn wish list includes regional mental health facility
On Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn’s wish list for 2019 would be more help for mental health issues. In an interview last week he said that his department and all of law enforcement are dealing with mental health issues daily, adding that there isn’t an appropriate amount of treatment facilities and beds for people in “serious crisis”. Emergency rooms are overwhelmed. He said, as a community, as a nation, we need to find ways to deal with the mental health crisis.Legislative leaders are well aware of the issue, the problem is how to agree on spending. Dunn said he would sit down and, “work with whoever to come up with these answers for us”. He said the whole system is being taxed. He’d like to see a regional center. They’ve talked about somewhere along I-35 in Rice County or Hwy 52 in Olmsted County.
