As the Wright County Board of Commissioners opened its Tuesday, April 21, meeting, the audience section of the county board room was filled. It wasn’t a group of citizens in for a public hearing. It was a collection of high school juniors, there as part of the annual Boy-Girl County Day.
The program has been in place for more than 25 years.
Wright County is one of just two counties in the state that has such a program. The purpose of Boy-Girl County Day is to expose high school juniors to the inner workings of county government. At this year’s Boy-Girl County Day, students from Buffalo, Delano, Maple Lake and Monticello were represented.
Lori Pawelk of the human services department is in charge the event at the county level, and said the students are selected based on their desirability to seek out government employment careers.
"The students selected are boys and girls at the top of their classes that are interested in government," Pawelk said. "It’s the American Legion that puts on the event, so there are also students involved who are pro-military. They’re the people most likely to get involved in careers in government."
The county board meeting was just the first of a series of introductions to county departments. After meeting with the commissioners, the students heard long presentations from the courts (district court, county attorney and court services) as well as the sheriff’s department.
In the afternoon they heard shorter presentations from department heads representing the administration, assessor, extension, highway, human services, information technology, parks planning and zoning, recorder, surveyor and veteran services departments.
The benefit for the students is that they get exposed to potential careers they might not even know exist.
"There is an entirely different level of jobs that kids don’t even think about," Pawelk said. "There aren’t a lot of high school kids who say, ‘I want to be a property appraiser.’ Many of them don’t even know what that is. Every department in the county either has handout information or speaks to them about what it takes to do a job in their department.
"Most people think of county government in terms of being a cop or maybe a county commissioner, but they don’t always know that we have accountants, social workers, appraisers – jobs like that. This is our day to give them a look at the jobs available in the public sector."
While the hope is that the students will find a potential career in government, there is a sense of gratification for the county employees, who see the next generation of employees getting exposed to the opportunities available in government employment.
"There are a lot of positives for the students, but there are a lot of benefits for us as well," Pawelk said. "These kids represent the future. This is an opportunity to see what county government has to offer them, and we’re proud of what we do here."
Other items
In other business, the board:
■ Accepted three quotes for services to be provided as bond advisors for the county.
The bids were from the firms of Springsted, Ehlers and Northern Securities for a dual-purpose bond issue. One bid will be for a new bonding issue for the ongoing construction of the public works center-sheriff’s impound lot project. The other is to refinance the 2007 bonds for the law enforcement center.
That refinancing will allow a better repayment rate than can currently be achieved.
Northern Securities submitted the low total bid of $48,575. The three bids were accepted and referred to the next committee of the whole meeting, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. following the Tuesday, May 12, board meeting.
■ Approved a service contract with the City of South Haven for planning and zoning services. The contract was used with the same boilerplate language used between the county and Corinna Township.
South Haven used to have its own city building inspector, but it was determined that at the present time it was more cost-effective to contract with the county – much like most Wright County cities contract with the sheriff’s department for law enforcement services.
■ Was introduced to Sunny Hesse, the county’s new human resources director. Hesse was most recently the assistant human relations director for the Great River Regional Library.
■ Authorized payment of $3,182 to the law firm of Madden, Galanteer and Hansen for union negotiation services conducted in the month of March.
■ Accepted the minutes of the committee of the whole from its Tuesday, April 14, meeting. The topic of discussion was a plan by the City of Buffalo
■ Approved a pair of season on-sale and off-sale liquor licenses, one for Olson’s Campground in Silver Creek Township and one for Lantto’s Store in French Lake Township.