BLUE EARTH– Sarah Eischens, who is the new Sentence to Service (STS) supervisor for the district which includes Faribault County and Thomas Hennis, the area crew leader for STS, were both on hand at the Faribault County Board meeting on Tuesday to update the commissioners on the STS program.

“I am here to share with you a quarterly report,” Eischens told the commissioners. “It provides a work service summary of the last three months of 2021.”

Eischens explained things are picking up again after slowing down because of the pandemic.

“We are now able to get more crews out than we have since COVID-19 began,” Eischens commented. “We have scaled back the size of the crews because of COVID, but we will reevaluate the situation each month. We are hoping to have the crews back at full strength by this spring.”

The commissioners thanked Eischens for the report.

“I appreciate the detail of the report and being able to see where the crews are working or not working,” commissioner Bill Gros-kreutz said.

Faribault County Sheriff Mike Gormley was also at the meeting and expressed his satisfaction with the STS program.

“Tom (Hennis) has always been good to work with,” Gormley mentioned.

Board member Tom Loveall was the next to speak.

“I have never had a problem with Tom or what happens at the local level,” Loveall noted. “My problem is with the state and the way they treat us in regards to our contract with them. We did not get all of the services we should have during the pandemic but the state never made any adjustments in our payments.”

Eischens also explained how the STS works.

“The judge may tell an offender they can pay a fine or work off the fine by hours served,” she explained. “So, they will do so many hours of service in lieu of payment.”

The commissioners also:

— Were introduced to Jennifer Howard, who will be assisting Faribault County Economic Development Authority (EDA) specialist Annie Nichols.

— Approved the training requests of Dustin Anderson and Merissa Lore of the Faribault County Drainage Department to attend the Minnesota Association of Drainage Inspectors Annual Meeting and Conference.