Soper noted that the group ….

Soper noted that the group has put a lot of time and money into the project and saw it as being more of a county-wide thing. He made the motion to recommend giving $10,000 to Rib Lake Fish and Game to help with the trailer purchase.

Billie Hartwig and Doug Gasek presented on behalf of Huey’s Hideaway, which was seeking funding to help with a rotating exhibit display. Gasek explained the impact COVID-19 has had on the museum’s operations and that they are taking steps to revamp exhibits and bring people back. Hartwig said they have lowered the cost of membership to help raise membership numbers and that they are looking at areas that are underrepresented in the community.

Zenner noted that this was the third time Huey’s was requesting money from the county and that to this point the county has given Huey’s $30,000.

“Is there ever a point you will see this as being self sufficient?” Zenner asked.

Gasek was optimistic that they are getting better on their finances and are looking into more grant opportunities and revenue streams.

Committee member Cathy Lemke said she did not support giving Huey’s more money at this time, noting that it seemed that every time they needed something they were turning to the county.

Zenner said he would like to see giving them something and made a motion to give them $5,000. “Right now, I would say no,” Soper said. The motion failed without a second and the request goes to the full county board without a recommendation.

The final request at the meeting came from Jessica Mudgett of Taylor County Supportive Housing asking for $10,000 to help with renovation costs for the Taylor House Homeless Shelter project. Specifically she was looking for funds to help cover the replacement of the sidewalk from the street to the building.

Zenner noted that Mudgett had said the project would not require additional county money. “Now you are asking for county money,” he said.

Mudgett said that the costs came in higher than they had anticipated them to be. She said that the Taylor County Supportive Housing serves a large number of people and that they needed to provide a safe way to get into the building.

Zenner said he did not feel it was proper to use power line funds for the project since they have more typically sought to use the funds for recreational-type projects.

Lemke said she felt they should do something to help the project and that she would like to see it go to the full board. “I am not totally on board, but I think Cathy is right,” Soper said, noting he felt it was important enough to send to the full board. He cautioned that he might still vote against it at the board level.

The motion passed to send the request to the full county board with the recommendation of the committee.

In other business, committee members:

_ Approved transferring $15,000 from the county’s contingency fund to the information technology department to cover the additional costs associated with the implementation of the computerized time keeping software. Due to the complexity of scheduling and accounting of hours for law enforcement and human services additional support for the program was needed. The total project will have cost about $300,000 to implement when it is done.

_ Began the budget review process reviewing the budget requests from the human services, sheriff’s department and highway departments. All of them came in with budgets that met the zero percent increase requested. The county is awaiting word on health insurance premium costs in order to finalize budget numbers. County finance director Larry Brandl said the current proposed budget is about $600,000 out of balance, but said there are quite a few areas that can be adjusted to make up the difference. The county remains under state levy limits.