Douglas County Board reorganizes

Talk about it

Douglas County commissioners kicked off the new year with some routine business this week.

In their first meeting of 2009, board members reorganized themselves, paid a few annual dues, updated their meeting dates and committee assignments and awarded a contract for publication of all the county’s public notices for the year.

In four unanimous votes, commissioners voted to name the Echo Press as Douglas County’s paper of record and award it contracts for publishing the county’s annual legal notices, financial statement and delinquent tax list.

The Evansville-based newspaper, the West Douglas County Record, also submitted a bid for the county contract.

After debating whether or not to split up the county’s state-mandated publication responsibilities between the two papers, board members ultimately decided to go with the Echo Press for every category.

The Echo Press has a circulation of 8,439 households in Douglas County, while the West Douglas County Record is circulated among 2,370 county households.

Commissioners also updated their organizational structure and their various committee responsibilities on Tuesday.

District 3 Commissioner Bev Bales was elected board chair for 2009, with District 4 Commissioner Paul Anderson named vice chair.

Collectively, board members committed to serving on 68 local, regional, state and national committees this year, two more than they had in 2008.

Anderson is signed up for the most committees with 26.

Commissioners also paid $16,777 in annual membership dues during their meeting: $13,855 for the Association of Minnesota Counties, $1,562 to the Association of County Social Services Administrators and $1,360 to the Local Public Health Association.

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