(Spirit Lake)– There’s going to be a major changing of the guard in the Dickinson County Attorney’s office the first of the year, and the board of supervisors hope it’s a smooth one.
Ned Bjornstad was defeated in his bid for re-election last week by challenger Rosalise Olson, who met with the supervisors Tuesday.
Olson requested, and was granted, permission to look at the former Farm Bureau building across the street to the west of the courthouse. Olson made the amount of money the county was paying to rent the building currently occupied by the county attorney an issue in her campaign. She says moving it to the former Farm Bureau building, which the county owns, would save a considerable amount of money. The supervisors also directed Olson to look at the D-H-S building, which the county also owns, in the former fire station in uptown Spirit Lake. By locating in the former Farm Bureau building, Olson said she could tie directly into the county’s computer system through the engineer’s office, without requiring an additional server…which would also save money.
Olson says she’s also going to ask the supervisors permission to access records in the county attorney’s office. But the supervisors want to talk to Ned Bjornstad about that first to make sure it would be mutually agreeable.
Olson also asked to see an inventory of equipment and furniture.
She also told the supervisors she’s going to formally request the County Attorney position be made full-time, and that she’s going to seek an increase in compensation to reflect that. Olson says she’ll study what full-time County Attorneys in counties the same size as Dickinson are getting and will make a recommendation.
