Rock County gets more money from state for next year

By Sara QuamRock County cashed its first local government aid check from the state of Minnesota Tuesday.This year in total, the county will receive $941,558 in two halves.The complicated funding formula gives Rock County an estimated $40,720 increase next year, for state aid in 2006 to be $982,278.State aid in 2005 for some other counties of interest include: Lincoln County — $622,890Lyon County — $1,211,248Murray County — $791,729Nobles County — $1,082,426Yellow Medicine County — $820,316Pipestone County — $1,140,470Cottonwood County — $968,410Jackson County — $781,887In other business Tuesday, the board:
Directed County Engineer Mark Sehr to negotiate with the city of Luverne on the maintenance and snow removal work the county pays the city of Luverne to complete on county state aid highways within the city limits.The city now gets $6,800 per mile for portions of streets such as Main, Blue Mound, Dodge, Warren, Cedar, Luverne and Lincoln, for examples.The annual allotment is $49,000 to the city of Luverne.Sehr said the city has been doing good work and the county can’t do it on its own with the manpower it has. But after comparing with other similar-sized cities and counties, Sehr said they pay cities from $2,000 to $4,000 per mile. "I think they can do it for closer to $4,100," Sehr said.The current dollar amount the city receives was set with the previous county engineer and previous Luverne public works director.
Was introduced to Justin Decker, new employee of the Land Management Office.
Decided to contribute $1,000 to the Southwestern Methamphetamine Task Force. The group requested money from its three member counties — Rock, Nobles and Pipestone — in order to continue operations.