Goodhue County Board briefs

County waives laptop fee for area police departments

Police departments with computers operating on Goodhue County’s mobile data system will not be required to pay a fee for each of their laptops, county commissioners decided Tuesday. The Sheriff’s Office discussed implementing an annual participation fee of $250 per laptop for those on the system, but some city administrators objected to the idea.

“The cities kind of pushed back on that, saying, ‘We already pay taxes on the county,’” Goodhue County Sheriff Scott McNurlin said. “They weren’t really sure why they would be charged a separate fee.”

McNurlin explained that the money would be used to go toward an IT employee’s salary.

Commissioner Ron Allen was opposed to the fee, commenting that people in Red Wing pay the county for the service, and if the fee was in place they’d have to turn around and pay the Red Wing police as well.

Commissioners unanimously voted to waive the $250. Individual police departments will still pay the annual license renewal and maintenance to run the software on the computers, as well as paying an hourly rate to the county’s IT department if work has to be done on the laptops.

Meeting watch

Tuesday's board meeting lasted 4 ½ hours. All members were present.

--Compiled by Regan Carstensen, staff writer

Tags: goodhue county, county board, government