By Sara StrongRock County and the city of Luverne share many contracts, and exchange about $800,000 annually through those arrangements. Considering their effect on one another’s budgets, both boards met in a joint meeting Monday to review their many agreements.Mayor Glen Gust said, "This is an informative meeting. There’s a lot of us who need to be brought up to speed."Some of the shared county and city of Luverne responsibilities were formed 20 years ago, but current elected people weren’t a part of those initial decisions.The meeting reviewed how the decisions were made and addressed contract updates that occurred later.The joint contracts reviewed were: Rock County Community Pool and Fitness Center, County State Aid Highway Maintenance Agreement, Law Enforcement and Dispatching Services, Rock County Community Library, Rock County Ambulance Service and Assessor’s Services.AmbulanceThe Rock County Ambulance agreement between the city of Luverne and Rock County will be terminated. Rock County contributed to the Luverne ambulance before it was sold to Sioux Valley Hospitals and Health System. Since the sale, the contract is null. Rock County still contributes $15,000 to the local ambulance service out of Luverne, $1,400 to Jasper, and $500 to Edgerton.DispatchDispatching services were a joint operation even before Luverne and Rock County merged its law enforcement units in 1997.The dispatch contract will be updated to reflect that the departments are one. The city of Luverne and Rock County each pay $139,586 for dispatching. In other dispatching discussion, the boards are waiting for a state Department of Administration study that will determine whether the concept of regional dispatching centers is feasible. The state is interested because it pays for some of the dispatching center costs. The E-911 Committee made up of county representatives, city council representatives and emergency personnel recently looked into the regional concept as well. That committee met with vendors who advised that it isn’t the time to combine several county dispatch sites into one. Also, from a customer service stand-point, the dispatching center would only be used for emergency calls. The local information line wouldn’t be accessible unless the county hired a separate person to answer questions. The non-emergency line also handles things such as calls alerting the department when people are starting a permitted garbage burn.The state report on regional dispatching feasibility will be ready sometime in 2004.The county recently approved upgrades to the 911-phone system that will allow cellular phone calls to be more effectively tracked and transferred to the appropriate nearest responders. Funding for those upgrades comes from the monthly charges on all phone bills for 911 services.AssessingThe city and county are also bargaining over the assessing fees. The city will pay the county $35,700 for 2004, but has said it wants to review the per-parcel rate and make it equal to what other cities are paying the county. When the original agreement was signed, the discussion centered around Luverne’s higher percentage of commercial and industrial properties, which take more time and work to assess the tax value. The current fee structure has Luverne paying 77 percent of the assessing office’s budget, because it requires 77 percent of the work, according to the county. The costs don’t include things such as office space or county employee labor additives or mileage.The city had earlier this year proposed a reduction in the 2004 assessing contract by about $9,500. County Administrator Kyle Oldre said, "I hope we can just get along and not concentrate on the smaller dollar amounts, considering our extensive partnerships."The city and county will continue working on the 2004 and following years’ assessing contract fee schedule.Other contracts reviewed at the meeting needed minor language adjustments or updates.
