FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Carolyn
Marinan, Communications, 612-348-5969
County board actions
Votes Tuesday move forward joint treatment facility, approve the 2016 county budget, establish supportive housing programs and food support study
Plans move forward for joint youth residential treatment facility with Ramsey County
The County Board agreed to proceed with plans for a joint Hennepin-Ramsey County residential youth treatment
center. Two existing
residential treatment centers, at the Hennepin County Home School and Ramsey
County’s Boys Totem Town, are in need of significant ongoing preservation and
maintenance efforts. For the past 18 months, the counties have worked toward creating
a joint facility replacement. The next phase will:
- Complete facility pre-design with an
architectural consultant
- Finalize site requirements, develop site option
descriptions and finalize site selection
- Finalize capacity, scope and staffing needs
- Complete project construction, project cost
estimates and update project schedule
- Draft cooperative agreement and develop
projected operating budget
- Arrange capital funding
The cost for a facility pre-design is expected to exceed
$50,000, to be shared equally between Hennepin and Ramsey Counties. Once a
consultant has been identified, further approval will be sought from the
respective county boards. This phase is expected to be accomplished in 12 to 14
months, at which time staff will be ready to seek final Board approval to begin
the construction process of the joint facility.
Learn more about the joint treatment facility.
The County Board voted Tuesday to approve the county’s 2016
budget of $1.9 billion. The budget includes a property tax levy of $726.8 million,
an increase of 4.48 percent over 2015. The budget reflects the significant level
of service demands across the county.
Learn more about the 2016 county budget and property tax levy.
The county approved a $63 million budget for the Regional Railroad Authority. The budget
supports the following priority projects:
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The Southwest Light Rail Transit requires $33.1 million – as the project completes engineering and moves to construction
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The Bottineau Light Rail Transit requires $12.33 million as the project completes the project development phase and moves toward engineering
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The Orange Line Bus Rapid Transit requires $2.67 million for project development and property acquisition purposes
- The Hiawatha Light Rail requires $2.89 million for debt service
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The 2016 HCRRA budget includes $11.96 million for maintenance of the 55 miles of corridor and staff support for transitways and oversight of HCRRA's infrastructure assets and operational needs.
Learn more about the Regional Railroad Authority's 2016 budget.
The board approved six labor agreements with AFSCME Council
5, various locals. The three-year agreements cover approximately 4,000 employees
from the clerical, social services, probation/parole, legal, adult corrections
and professional units. Prominent provisions of this agreement include
modifications to wages and differential pay, merit steps, market adjustments,
health insurance and the union dental plan. The agreements also ensure that members
of the county’s largest union are paid a minimum of $15 an hour.
Learn about the labor agreements with AFSCME.
The County Board awarded 39 Youth Sports Grants for projects ranging from a $225,000 baseball field complex in Minneapolis to a $1,000 disc golf course in Champlin. The board approved 14 large facilities projects in the amount of $1,815,000, and 25 small equipment grants totaling $125,000. The Hennepin Youth Sports Grant program provides substantial
support to local communities throughout the county.
Search the list of 2016 Youth Sports Grant projects.
The board agreed to accept a $5.7 million two-year grant
from the Minnesota Department of Human Services to oversee supportive housing
programs for people who have experienced long-term homelessness, and families
who are at risk of long-term homelessness. Hennepin County has been designated
as lead agency and fiscal agency for a multi-county collaboration. As part of
the ongoing plan to end long-term homelessness, the county will work with St.
Paul-based Hearth Connection to provide supports across county boundaries,
training to service providers, client monitoring and tracking, data collection
and reporting and connections for clients to permanent supportive housing.
Learn about the supportive housing proposal.
The board agreed to support a study of current contracted
food support programs, to look for opportunities for increased efficiency,
effectiveness and maximum accessibility. Currently, the county works with six
providers that provide emergency food support; in all, 80 programs provide food
support in the county. The Human Services Department will report back to the
board with recommendations by July 1, 2016.
Learn more about the food support study.
The board established a joint public hearing with the
Metropolitan Council and the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority, for
municipal approval of preliminary design plans for the Blue Line Extension
(Bottineau) Light Rail Transit. The hearing will be held Tuesday, January 19, 6
p.m., at Hennepin County Library—Minneapolis Central, 300 Nicollet Mall. The
hearing will be preceded by a public open house beginning at 5 p.m.
Learn more about the Blue Line Extension hearing.
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Look for more news on
the Hennepin County website at www.hennepin.us/news.
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