By Sara StrongThe Rock County Board of Commissioners received a feedlot inventory update at its Tuesday meeting, and the results hold steady with what previous inspections have shown — few feedlots have environmental problems.Land Management Director Eric Hartman said, "We’re expecting that to continue."Many of the feedlots inspected in the total inventory process are open feedlots, or pastures, making the high marks notable, Hartman said.He expects the more than 600 Rock County feedlots to be through the inventory process in 13 months.Last year, the Board of Water and Soil Resources and local staff were able to work through the winter because of mild weather. This year may be different, but the end completion date is still a goal.To help producers who have to make changes, the county is matching a portion of a grant that will bring an engineer to the LMO for two years. The engineer option is open to the county because of a state grant that would allow a regional engineer to be housed out of Rock County for two years. The local cost would be mostly "in kind" costs of about $34,000 that would come from providing a work area, telephone and vehicle for the engineer.The two-year grant allows most of the engineer’s time to be dedicated to working with feedlot owners in Rock County who have to make changes based on the Level III inventories. Some that have to come into compliance have to do so because of changed regulations since their original permit.Some highlights from the quarterly feedlot report are:o365 sites have been visitedo80 percent have no environmental concernsoSeven active sites have basin and runoff concernsoGrand total cost for the county is $54,018.81.Auditing changesNot only does the county have to change its accounting practices, but how it gets audited is changing for the first time since Rock County was formed.The state is no longer Rock County’s auditor. It was selected among 20 other counties to contract for private auditing instead of using state auditors.That means the county has to advertise for an auditing firm and hope that a private agency wants to take on Minnesota auditing laws. In the past, the county had a good, longstanding relationship with its supervising state auditor, and employees could call with very specific questions and get them answered immediately. Rock County obviously hopes that level of service will continue.The county doesn’t know what to expect for cost through a private auditor, but auditing a county is time consuming. In the past, four state auditors worked 10 to 15 days to complete the audits.On the in-house accounting side, things are changing too.The new financial reporting system is called Governmental Accounting Standards and Board and the county should be finished with changing to its standards by the end of the year. Rock County Auditor-Treasurer Gloria Rolfs said, "It’s just one of those things that comes with the job."She said the changes involve specific ways of recording accounts, and their actual code numbers are different. Rolfs said that making the changes won’t be difficult, as much as they are time consuming.GASBY training is ongoing in the county and at the regional level.Domestic violence The Southwest Crisis Center is using the Rock County Courthouse lawn to display the names of domestic violence fatalities in observance of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.Crisis Center director Raevette Loonan said her caseload has stayed steady, but funding was cut 37 percent this year. She said her team of volunteers is valuable to keep services available to people in crisis.She told the board some of her duties this year:oAssisting nine women and children to safe houses.oHelping 28 victims file for protection orders against their abusers.Loonan and volunteers are on call 24 hours a day in case of a crisis. Loonan covers the region through a special hotline, and is periodically on call for that as well.Change in recorder The Rock County Board of Commissioners Tuesday formally appointed Jere Ohme to the recorder position, after he resigned.The resignation means he left the position as an elected person, and is now a county employee, appointed by the board. The board successfully changed the position from elected to appointed this year, through state legislation.
