Wadena County Commissioners: Dissolve Wadena County or combine with other counties?
by Trinity Gruenberg
The Wadena County Commissioners held a strategic planning session on July 27.
Commissioner Murlyn Kreklau felt the direction the county is heading is not sustainable. He plans to solicit input from residents and invited the commissioners and department heads and employees to share their input as well.
Kreklau discussed inter-county opportunities, consolidation of departments, and would like to come up with a plan, a study of the county ditches, and auxiliary dwelling units. He also suggested moving the meeting up north every once in a while to the Sebeka/Menagha area as he has seen other counties do this.
He would like to see an extra hour once a month after the regular meeting to discuss these miscellaneous items.
Board Chair Sheldon Monson asked Commissioner Jon Kangas, who is on the budget committee, what he thinks could be cut.
Kangas was uncertain. He shared his thoughts on the state of the county. Wadena County is one of the lowest-income counties with some of the highest property taxes. He discussed the job market analysis comparison done along with surrounding counties in 2018. Some Wadena County employees are paid more than neighboring counties. He also added that salary costs increased from $11.2 million to $13.2 million, which includes costs such as insurance. . .