By Sara StrongThe Rock County Board of Commissioners responded to the city of Luverne’s most recent contract proposals Tuesday.The two governments have disagreed for months on costs for shared contracts: Pool and Fitness Center, law enforcement, dispatch, and property assessing."In my mind," Commissioner Jane Wildung said, "we have a huge philosophical difference, and we aren’t going to come to terms with proposals until we come to an understanding of the philosophies."The County Board told the city that it wants to wait to discuss more proposals until the spring, when it will have a budget to work off of. Without talking about service cuts, the board said it didn’t want to start negotiating new prices for services.Wildung said, "It’s not as if the county is making a profit and transferring money to other departments."Commission Chair Bob Jarchow said, "We’ve got other things to do, to be honest with you."Instead of responding to the eight or so proposals from the city, Jarchow said, he’d rather deal with one contract at a time, and include service expectations. "We can’t get beyond the numbers so far," Jarchow said.First on that list of immediate contracts to negotiate is the assessing contract.The city has terminated its assessing contract with the county. It also requested proposals from assessing firms and individuals to make a contract offer to the city. The county is considering making an offer.New ethanol method Loren and Russell Forrest, rural Luverne, just got back from a 4,500-mile drive through 16 states to research a new method of ethanol production.Loren Forrest has spent three years researching a way to make ethanol without using corn kernels, instead using stover and silage (called biomass).He’s closer to getting final plans on a production plant he hopes to locate in Luverne."I’m not here asking for money from the county," he said to Rock County Commissioners Tuesday. He’s interested in the county helping him find grants and political support for the new catalytic conversion method. Now, ethanol is made through fermentation.Forrest said the product would be the same, but how it could be made is the difference."If this catches on, it’ll be fast," Forrest said.Commissioner Richard Bakken said he wished different grasses could be used.Bakken said, "If you can find a profitable market for grass, you can take marginal ground and plant anything, so long as it’s biomass."Forrest said that would be ideal, but for now, silage is a good start because he knows it will work.Forrest said that he’s also in favor of avoiding corn kernels for ethanol production because livestock feed prices wouldn’t increase as ethanol plants increase."I appreciate anything you can do to show support," Forrest said to the board.
