This Faribault County Sheriff’s Office pickup truck, driven by chief deputy Scott Adams, was involved in the chase of a suspect through the city of Blue Earth two weeks ago, and was one of four law enforcement vehicles damaged. The County Board voted at their meeting to replace the vehicle with a new pickup.

Faribault County has a new county auditor/treasurer, again.

Kari Jacobson was approved to begin serving immediately as the auditor/treasurer for Faribault County at the County Board meeting held on Tuesday, May 21.

A native of Kiester, Jacobson most recently served as the clerk/treasurer for the city of Motley.

After the hiring was approved, Human Resources director Amanda Shoff announced that Faribault County was now officially fully staffed.

Deputy chief Scott Adams of the Faribault County Sheriff’s Department was at the meeting to talk about the purchase of a new squad.

“On May 13, four of our squads were damaged and one was totaled,” Adams explained. “The 2022 Ford F150 involved in a crash during a pursuit was determined to be a total loss.”

Adams presented two different options of vehicles to purchase to the commissioners.

“A half-ton 2024 Chevy Silverado from Karl Chevrolet in Ankeny, Iowa is available for the quoted price of $57,382. A three-quarter-ton is $19 less. That would also be a 2024 model.”

Adams said that although he prefers the half-ton option, he knew the Buildings and Grounds Department would be due to get a different vehicle in a couple years and they might be more interested in getting Adams’ used vehicle at that time if it was a three quarter ton.

“We put a snow plow on our pickup and it is definitely better to put it on the three quarter ton,” Building and Grounds supervisor Saxon Warmka offered.

Adams also explained the insurance money for the totaled pickup would go into the general fund and could then be used for the purchase of the new vehicle.

The board voted to approve the purchase of the 2024 three quarter-ton pickup.

County engineer April Wellman attended the board meeting and provided an update on the road construction progress in the county.

“The paving and shouldering on County Road 17 was to have been completed by May 17 and the paving on CR 23 was also supposed to have been finished by the end of last week,” Wellman told the commissioners. “The crews are going to help work on Interstate 90 for a couple of weeks and then are set to begin paving CR 11 on June 3. After they are done on CR 11 they will begin work on CR 51.”

She also noted the work on replacing bridges on CR 1 and CR 2 has been delayed because of the recent rain.

The board approved a resolution presented by Wellman to apply for a Department of Natural Resources grant from the state of Minnesota for maintenance and grooming of the snowmobile trails which are managed by Faribault County Trails/Blue Earth Snow Rovers Snowmobile Club/Stateliners Snowmobile Club. The resolution also authorized Wellman to serve as the fiscal agent for the project.

The board also received a visit from the directors of the Blue Earth Community Library, the Muir Library in Winnebago and the Wells Public Library. The three directors presented a proposal to the board to fund a digital service which would be accessible to all county library members.

“Hoopla Digital is a service that provides e-books, audiobooks, music, comics, television shows and movies to library patrons through their public library,” Heidi Schutt, director of the Blue Earth Community Library, said. “There are millions of titles available in different languages for all ages and interests, and more are being added each month. Patrons download an app to their phone, tablet or Smart TV to check out and use the items that they choose to borrow.”

Muir Library director Nicole Krienke told the commissioners that the library in Winnebago has offered Hoopla Digital to its patrons for seven years.

“We have seen great usage and feedback from our library members,” Krienke commented. “It is a convenience factor because the library does not have to be open for people to have access to material.”

The three directors compared Hoopla Digital to another available digital provider, Libby.

“Our library in Wells just began offering Hoopla Digital at the beginning of 2024,” Wells Public Library director Betsy Bushlack added. “With Libby, there can be a wait list to get what you want. With Hoopla Digital, if you see it you can download it.”

The library directors requested that $7,000 be allocated each of the next three years, 2025, 2026 and 2027, to help cover the costs of the service.

“That amount would make it possible to offer Hoopla Digital to every library card holder in Faribault County,” Schutt explained. “We believe it would be more efficient to manage it from a county level.”

The commissioners thanked the trio for providing the board with their request ahead of the upcoming budget talks.

“I might be in favor of budgeting for this for one year,” commissioner Greg Young said. “Then we would have the opportunity to see how things were working.”

In other business, the board also:

• Voted to approve the requests of Nick Bleess and Kasta Amundson of the Faribault County Sheriff’s Office to attend a Dispatch Priming training course.

• Approved Amundson to attend the Active Threats Incidents training course.