By MaryHelen Swanson

Chisago County Court Services will ìplug a holeî in the existing court/corrections system with the hiring of a full-time probation officer.

Steve Paquay, director of Court Services, received approval from the county board last week to proceed with the hiring of this new position.

According to Paquay, this position would perform bail evaluations on required criminal cases, and would supervise the pretrial release conditions placed on selected misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor and felony defendants who are released from jail on bail, while they wait for their court hearings.

Right now, he said, the only defendants receiving pretrial release supervision are DWI offenders who are posting a partial bail and are placed on electronic home alcohol monitoring.

The new position, Paquay explained in a memo to the board, would expand the pretrial release supervision to selected drug offenders, property offenders and person offenders, such as in assault or domestic assault cases.

With this position, supervised pretrial conditions could include random alcohol and drug testing, curfews, limitations on movement, mandator reporting to a probation officer and restrictions on contacting certain people, in addition to the standard conditions of remaining law abiding and employed.

Funding for this new position will come from the Minnesota State Department of Corrections (up to 50 percent of the salary and fringe benefits reimbursed) and local corrections fees charged to these additional cases and to the pretrial release cases.

The position received support from three Tenth Judicial District judges: Douglas. G. Swenson, Robert G. Rancourt and John R. McBride.

In addition, Sheriff Todd Rivard supported the position, because he said the need for such a position has ìcontinually been referenced to at various meetings involving the criminal justice systemî in Chisago County.

Chisago County Attorney
Katherine Johnson also supported the new position. ìA program of this type in Chisago County will promote public safety and the integrity of the Courts,î she said in a letter to Paquay.

The board gave it unanimous approval, also.

In other business:

ï The board approved a joint law enforcement agreement between the Chisago County Sheriffís Office and the city of St. Croix Falls, Wisc., police department. The purpose of this agreement is so that each department may obtain assistance from the other when unexpected circumstances arise.

ï Approved a contract for testing services with Northern Technologies, Inc., for the construction of the new Health and Human Services building in North Branch. Cost is $4,900.

ï Approved parking lot repairs behind the Rush City library to correct a water problem with Prefer Paving Inc., in the amount of $2,900. The money will come from the dedicated funds for Rush City library included in the library bonding.

ï Approved replacing a contract case aid position in HHS, with a non-contract employee, at a cost savings of $3,000.

ï Approved a contract with Beste Logging for trail clearing along the Swedish Immigrant Trail.

ï Approved a $7,900 contract with Milcon for roof design changes at the Wyoming library for safety measures, but to get reimbursement from architects KKE for the cost, as the need for the change is due to poor original design. The county was concerned about a law suit should someone slip on ice in the winter. The money for the work would come from the library funding contingency, and be restored to that account when KKE reimburses the county.