Briefs: Marine on St. Croix library receives $6,000 for materials and services

The city of Marine on St. Croix will receive $6,000 from the Jordan bequest to be used for materials and services at the Marine Community Library.

In 2001, Elizabeth Jordan made a bequest in her will to the Washington County Library to be used for the Marine Library branch. When the county closed the branch in 2012, an agreement was reached to provide money to support the new community library.

A separate nonprofit organization, the Marine Library Association, maintains a small library that includes privately purchased materials as well as materials and services provided by the county library. Through an agreement between the city and the county, residents of Marine on St. Croix, Scandia and May Township can connect to the county library system and continue to pay the county library tax.

The Washington County Board recently approved the 2015-16 implementation of the county compensation study and the extension of an agreement through 2016 with the county's AFSCME bargaining units.

The county has undergone a countywide classification, job evaluation, and market review to determine job equity in county government and place jobs in salary ranges that are competitive with other metro counties.

Meeker County Attorney Tony Spector honored George Kuprian, the civil division chief in the Washington County Attorney's office, at the Dec. 23 County Board meeting. Spector told the board that after he had been appointed county attorney in Meeker County, he sought advice and assistance regarding his new role from a number of Washington County assistant attorneys, particularly from Kuprian.

Spector traveled to the board meeting in Stillwater to express his appreciation for the help he received.

A new federal mandate requires every county within a 50-mile radius of a nuclear power plant to participate in training every eight years. Washington County is near both the Monticello and the Prairie Island nuclear power plants.

Washington County will continue to work with the Tubman organization during 2015 to provide services to victims of domestic violence.

The County Board approved the $159,685 contract Jan. 6.

Tubman provides shelter, crisis intervention, counseling, advocacy, and assistance with protection orders while also delivering community presentations. Tubman works with the county on the Lethality Assessment Protocol program, used by county law enforcement officers to help identify the most dangerous offenders in cases of intimate partner violence and to connect victims with services.

Through September 2014, Tubman worked with 454 criminal cases and assisted with 75 protection orders, a 26 percent increase over the same period the previous year.

In January 2008, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency requested that 3M install a single monitoring well in the Whistling Valley area of Lake Elmo to collect perfluorochemical data from the Jordan aquifer.

The well was installed in the park, south of Eagle Point Lake. 3M asked to extend the agreement to Dec. 31, 2016. When well monitoring activities are completed, 3M will, at its own cost, restore the affected land to its previous condition, the county said.