2002 County Achievement
Award Winners
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Rut Paving as a
Highway
Rehabilitation
Technique
Anoka
County
The Anoka County (MN) Highway Department is responsible
for almost 425 miles of paved highways in the metropolitan area of
Minneapolis and
Saint Paul
in east/central
Minnesota. Combined with the high volumes of heavy
truck and vehicular traffic in both the rural and urbanized parts of the
country, many of the country’s roads have developed wheel track
“ruts.” This has
caused a great concern for the safety of the traveling public in that the
deeper ruts hold as much as 2” to 3” of water or slush causing
hydroplaning in speeds as slow as 30 mph.
Traditional pavement rehabilitation techniques to solve the rutting
problem were either very costly (mill and overlay) or did not address the
problem (patching). Utilizing the
creativity and ingenuity of the maintenance section staff,
Anoka
County
was able to fabricate a custom designed screed as an attachment to a skidsteer
that, in combination with other standard pieces of highway department
equipment, could effectively and efficiently fill and pave over the rutted
portions of the pavement. After
researching for the proper bituminous product for this application was
completed, the Anoka County Highway Department had a complete system to
adequately treat the rutted portions of the highway pavement in a manner that
produced exceptional work quality and production with very cost effective
results.
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South Country Health
Alliance
Brown, Dodge, Freeborn,
Goodhue, Kanabec, Sibley, Steele, Wabasha and Waseca
South Country Health Alliance received approval from the
Center for Medicare and Medicaid (formerly Health Care Finance Administration)
to implement
Minnesota’s
first Country-based purchasing program.
SCHA is a group of
Minnesota
counties that are collaboratively purchasing health care services, including
Brown, Dodge, Freeborn, Kanabec, Sibley, Steele, Wabasha and Waseca. Country-based purchasing allows county
governments to better coordinate services for persons eligible for Medical
Assistance and General Assistance Medical Care, which means that health care
services are managed at the local level.
The mission of SCHA is to provide improved services to low-income
constituents through increased coordination of medical, public health and social
services. SCHA completed a phased
in enrollment of all members in February 2002. By September 2002, SCHA has enrolled
11,474 members.
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Housing Opportunities Enhancement (HOPE)
Demonstration
Project
Dakota
County
Accessible, affordable housing is not available to a
growing number of residents and workers in
Dakota
County,
threatening the long-term ability to maintain a vigorous, sustainable economy
in the County. Despite a history of
providing a wide range of housing and assistance and services, the Dakota
County Board of Commissioners determined additional leadership and action is
necessary to close the growing gap between the need for affordable housing and
the development and retention of affordable units in the County. The Housing Opportunity Enhancement
(HOPE) Fund was created to demonstrate the ability of a suburban county to help
to close the gap in housing needs by providing a source of financing to
leverage additional public and private sector funds for the construction or
rehabilitation to retain affordable housing units. With an initial capitalization of $1
million from budget reserves, a commitment to provide an additional $1 million
in 2003 and 2004, and authorization of the community Development Agency’s
use of its statutory levy authority to provide an additional $865,000 in its first
six months the HOPE Fund has been able to provide the “gap
financing” necessary for five projects that will create 169 affordable
housing units and rehabilitate an additional 131 unties. The HOPE Fund has leveraged over $25.7
million dollars of funding for affordable housing projects in the County. Both the number of units and the amount
of funds leveraged exceeded the board’s annual goals (200 units and a
10:1 leverage ratio) in the first six months. In addition, the project has helped to
secure a $500,000 grant from the Family Housing Fund, with a commitment to
provide a $0.50 per $1.00 match of County appropriations in 2003 and 2004.
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Property Owner’s Resource Guide
Lake County
The Lake County Land Use Office, during its 30 years of
existence, has become a portal for obtaining a variety of useful
information. Because of the
County’s sparse population and the variety of public expectations, the
Lake County Comprehensive Water Management Plan committee, together with the
Land Use Office developed The Property
Owner’s Resource Guide, A place in Lake County to assist
it’s customers in making wise land use decisions. It is a popular tool well received by
the public and it reduces demands on staff time.
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Interagency Review Team for
Truancy
St.
Louis
County
The St. Louis County Interagency Review Team for truancy
is a collaboration of community agencies focused on service provision to
increase school attendance. During
the 2001-2002 academic year, the Team reviewed and screened 206 referrals from
community schools. They diverted
78% of referrals from juvenile court into mediation and community support
programming. The remaining students
appeared in Juvenile Court, assigned a probation officer and social worker, and
connected to appropriate support systems.
The project has identified truancy as symptomatic of more serious family
dysfunction, while providing the necessary supportive community services to
increase school attendance.
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Automated Public Safety (APS)
System
Stearns
County
Law enforcement agencies throughout
Stearns
County
are working together to improve public safety.
Stearns
County
is a leader with respect to cooperation among law enforcement agencies and the
innovative use of law enforcement technologies. Working with the BCA, the county
has linked the sheriff’s office and all of the police departments in the
county to a comprehensive county-wide public safety computer system that is
supported by the county’s technical staff. The county’s law enforcement
agencies share criminal records information, investigation data and other
critical information with each other through a secure computer network. From the laptop computer in their patrol
car each police officer has access to county dispatch information, county-wide
criminal records, county jail records (including mug shots), and the National
Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. Sharing information among law
enforcement agencies and officers has greatly benefited police investigations
within the county.
Stearns
County’s countywide public safety
project can be a model of collaborative law enforcement for other counties.