Latest news with #KandiyohiCountyHealthandHumanServices
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Willmar City Council to meet Monday, April 21
Apr. 20---- A regular meeting of the Willmar City Council will take place at 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 21, in the boardroom at the Kandiyohi County Health and Human Services building, 2200 23rd St. N.E. in Willmar. There are only two items for consideration by the council under regular business — an amendment to the agreement with city engineering firm Bolton & Menk for the fiber internet phase one project and scheduling a City Council work session for 5 p.m. Thursday, May 1, at a site to be determined. The amendment to the agreement is to establish documented right-of-way or easements within certain areas of phase one of the project where there currently are no documented right-of-way or easements. Survey services are needed to establish and record these project needs. The phase one project area overall includes the and residential and business neighborhoods that are north of 19th Avenue, south of the railroad tracks and west of First Street. The current contract with Bolton & Menk for design services for phase one of the fiber internet project, known as Connect Willmar, is $403,000. The additional costs are estimated to be $100,000 for a total of $503,000. The complete agenda and accompanying materials can be found on the city's website at
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Kandiyohi County Board hears Woodland Centers, child services reports
Apr. 2---- The heard a report Tuesday from Woodland Centers, whose client numbers leveled off to a more expected figure last year after a jump in 2023. According to the report, the provider of mental health and substance use therapy served 4,762 clients in 2024, down from the 5,324 clients served in 2023, which was a jump of almost 600 clients the year prior. "2023 was an anomaly. We served over 5,300 people. It was a huge bump for the year. I can't quite explain why that number went up so high. We are back on that normal trajectory of increasing the number comparative over the years," Chief Executive Officer of Dr. Ashley Kjos said at the board's regular meeting Tuesday. She is a licensed psychologist. Woodland Centers provides crisis, mental health and substance use services. The organization employs nearly 250 people, both in full- and part-time positions, in order to meet the needs of the seven counties it traditionally serves. Clients from outside of those counties make up 16% of the clients served in 2024. Of the clients served, 36.25% came from , remaining relatively in line with the percentage in previous years. Out of all clients served, 1,504, or 33.37%, were below the age of 18, according to the report. The board also heard from Kandiyohi County Health and Human Services Director Caroline Chan on Tuesday, as well as Nicole Monson, Robyn Stryker and Stacy Gareis, child services supervisors in the department. The given report came as a part of a request for the board to make a proclamation of April as Kandiyohi County Child Abuse Prevention Month. The board approved the proclamation unanimously. The county's ongoing child units are made up of 13 social workers and three case aides. According to Monson, at the end of 2024 a total of 171 cases were open; 106 of them are ongoing child protection cases and 65 are child welfare cases. The causes for these cases included parental substance abuse, child abuse or neglect and psychological abuse. "I really appreciate hearing the numbers. I think it is so important, this presentation you gave. Taxpayers should know where their dollars are going and that we provide important services here. This is an area we don't hear much about," County Commissioner George Corky Berg said at the meeting. Chan also presented information regarding the launching of a nine-month-long family resource center exploration project. This project, paid for in part by a grant from the Sauer Family Foundation, would determine community needs and how they would shape a potential family resource center. The invests in strengthening the well-being of children to help them thrive in their families and communities, according to its website. The foundation's work with describes the centers as welcoming families to provide assistance or access other needed services, all to end child abuse and neglect. According to Chan, the exploration process for a family resource center would attempt to gather input from 10,000 community members in order to determine their needs. The input provided would then be used to determine the form that a local family resource center would take, whether it is a centralized location, multiple smaller locations or mobile services. In order to reach the goal of 10,000 community members, the county will be hosting several focus groups and community conversations while putting out surveys and utilizing social and local media. For more information on the County Board meeting or to view meeting documents for this and other county meetings, visit the Kandiyohi County website at and look under the commissioners tab.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Willmar City Council to hear more about proposal from Charter Communications
Feb. 28---- The is expected to hear details of a proposed agreement between the city and at its meeting on Monday, March 3. The meeting takes place at 6:30 p.m. in the boardroom at the Kandiyohi County Health and Human Services building, 2200 23rd St. N.E. in Willmar. The agreement generally would be for the city of Willmar to terminate the , a plan to build a citywide, open-access fiber-optic network, in favor of a guarantee by Charter Communications to build out fiber in the and enhance its services throughout the rest of the community at no cost to the city. This would save the city from bonding $24.5 million for the Connect Willmar Initiative, but also allow Charter to continue its near monopoly on internet service in the city of Willmar. Throughout the two-year planning and research process for the Connect Willmar Initiative, there have been a lot of examples of "failed" municipal networks that have been brought up as Willmar has analyzed the feasibility of its project. The discussion surrounding the "failed" municipal networks is that they have saddled taxpayers with debt that should not have been accrued in the first place — and that municipalities should not be competing with private businesses that provide those services at "no cost to the taxpayer." However, the Connect Wilmar Initiative is expected to increase Willmar's tax base by giving the community choices for fiber-optic internet service and spurring economic development. It is also expected to provide choices for affordable internet services for low-income households and small businesses. Willmar Community Growth Director Pablo Obregon agrees that the Connect Willmar Initiative provides for equity and inclusion, noting that Justice Walker, the former planning and development director, included that in his vision when planning for the project first started. It is expected to provide affordable internet options while also removing a barrier for startup or small internet service providers to compete with large telecommunications companies. These are all things that the Willmar City Council will have to weigh as it considers whether or not moving forward with the Connect Willmar Initiative is providing public infrastructure or risking taxpayer dollars on something that should be left to private business. The Minnesota examples used for "failed" municipal networks — or those that have not performed as well as financially expected and relied on taxpayer funds to continue to make debt payments — are projects that do not precisely compare to what is being proposed by the city of Willmar, according to the discussions that have taken place during council meetings and work sessions throughout the two-year planning process. Willmar's network, as planned, would be the first municipal open-access network in the state. The examples used are municipalities that have become an internet service provider that owns, operates, maintains and provides services on the municipal network. Some of the networks have been fiber-optic networks and others are networks operated on coaxial cable. For the Connect Willmar Initiative, the city would own the infrastructure for the open-access fiber-optic network and Hometown Fiber would operate and manage the network. Multiple internet service providers will pay a fee to use the network to provide a variety of options for service for Willmar residents and businesses. The $24.5 million project will be funded with general obligation bonds, which, with interest, will be closer to $31 million. The fees paid by the ISPs will be used to pay the principal and interest payments on the bonds, as well as the costs for network maintenance and operations. To be financially successful, the initiative needs a take rate — the percentage of households and businesses that sign up on the network — of more than 30%. That take rate is achievable, according to the feasibility studies that have taken place. The Connect Willmar Initiative is expected to pay for itself, without taxpayer subsidies, while offering the community choice in ISPs and reducing the cost of internet service. The initiative is planned to be constructed in three phases, with the first phase proposed to be constructed in 2025 at an estimated cost of $9.2 million. It will install fiber in the Willmar Industrial Park and east to First Street between 19th Avenue Southwest and the BNSF Railway tracks. The network operations center will also be constructed during this phase. If the first phase does not perform as well as the city expects, phases two and three may be delayed or terminated. The Willmar City Council during its work session on Feb. 10 heard examples of municipal and private open-access projects that are successful from Jason Jenkins, vice president of open access at Silver Star Communications. Jenkins specializes in open-access consulting and designing and building open-access networks. SilverLight Fiber Network, a division of Silver Star Communications, is expected to be one of the ISPs that participates on Willmar's open-access network. Two cities in Idaho have successfully constructed and operate municipal open-access networks — Idaho Falls and Ammon. Jenkins focused on Idaho Falls, which started providing residential access to its network in 2019 and completed the build-out to reach all of its residential neighborhoods last year. noted that Idaho Falls Information Systems Foreman Jace Yancy commented that approaching broadband as public infrastructure means fiber will reach every neighborhood in the city, not just those where a private company thinks the biggest profits can be had. "It's not going to be a service that just the nice areas or the rich have," Yancey is quoted in the story. SilverLight Fiber Network is currently building out open-access networks in Rexburg, Idaho, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Mayfield, Idaho, and working with 15 additional entities — cities and counties, as well as developers — pursuing open-access fiber-optic networks, according to Jenkins. The take rates of the open-access networks with which SilverLight works are 30% to 40%, with additional growth of 15% over time as residents "get the message" and see the value of fiber and open-access. There are throughout the United States, according to Community Broadband Networks, a program of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, "a national research and advocacy nonprofit focused on fighting corporate control and building an American economy driven by local priorities."
