After initially declining to fulfill County Engineer Jess Greenwood’s recommendation to hire a full-time Parks and Trails Manager, a divided Goodhue County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 to add the position, after board member Linda Flanders changed her mind.
Joining with board members Todd Greseth and Brad Anderson in favor of a motion to approve the request, Flanders said that while she generally is in favor of making hiring decisions during budget time always, “extenuating circumstances” have given the proposal increased urgency.
With several hundred thousand visitors coming to Lake Byllesby Park over the course of a year, Flanders said that it’s especially important that Goodhue County take full advantage of grant funding that has been secured to ensure the park stays in tip-top shape.
Maintaining the park system has been made more difficult by continued vacancies in the Public Works department, which ironically will ensure that Goodhue County can move the Park Manager position from part-time to full-time while staying within the budget it set last year.
Moving the Park Manager position to full-time is part of a broader restructuring Greenwood has pursued since taking over from longtime County Engineer Greg Isaakson last year, with an eye on providing key services while accommodating retirements and a tight labor market.
With Greenwood’s support, dedicated funding to move the Park Manager position to full-time was nearly included in last year’s budget. Yet with an eye on keeping the property tax levy low, the Board ultimately decided to pull that funding, with Flanders’s support.
Board Member Susan Betcher said that the county might be better served by hiring someone to focus on “special projects,” using the money available in the budget due to vacancies to help compensate for the impacts of understaffing in a variety of areas.
By making the commitment to a full time Parks Manager, Board Member Jason Majerus also warned the Board that it would likely by not only committing to better maintaining its existing parks but significant new expansion and investment in the system.
In response, Greenwood said that the new Parks Manager could see its job description morph and take on additional responsibilities so as to meet the needs of the Public Works department and desires and needs of Goodhue County residents and their Board of Commissioners.
“I’m not going to know 100% of what’s going to happen until it happens,” Greenwood said. “A lot of our job descriptions, over time they morph, they adapt, they take on additional work if their workload is light for some reason.”
Greenwood promised Flanders that the Board would be kept up to date on the new position and the impact it will have on the county’s cherished parks, with a Committee of the Whole update expected within a six month timeframe.
“Any time you try to do something new, you don’t know exactly how it’s going to go,” Flanders said. “But that’s also where innovation and creativity comes from — it’s never going to come from doing the same thing.”
Unlike nearly all official county meetings, last week’s Board meeting was held not in Red Wing, but at Kenyon’s City Hall. It’s part of an annual tradition, briefly interrupted by COVID-19, that longtime Kenyon-Wanamingo Social Studies teacher Dan Rechtzigel started during his 12 year tenure on the County Board.
After he was first elected to the County Board in 2004, Rechtzigel decided that it could make for a great learning experience to bring his students to a County Board meeting. However, the hour and a half round trip drive from Kenyon to Red Wing proved to be a challenge.
At first, there was little that could be done because under a state law dating back to the 1800s, all County Business had to be conducted in the County Seat. Rechtzigel and his County Board colleagues were ultimately able to successfully lobby legislators to remove that restriction.
After completing their formal business, the Board held a Committee of the Whole meeting to provide students with information on a wide variety of public sector careers. A survey was given to students beforehand to gauge their interest in potential county careers.
Outreach and Communications Specialist Briggs Tople played a short video for students providing a broad overview of county government, followed by remarks from Human Resources Manager Jessica Albrecht, Alex Dicke, a Senior Engineering Technician with Goodhue County Public Works, and Captain Collins Voxland of the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office.
Albrecht said that the survey results indicated strong interest in several areas where Goodhue County is hiring, including in corrections, law enforcement, maintenance and health care-related careers. She told students that a career with Goodhue County could provide significant benefits.
“When you work in public service, there is an opportunity for federal student loans to be forgiven after 10 years — that is a huge benefit,” Albrecht said.
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