Over the past few months, personnel at the Wright County Courthouse have received numerous requests from residents to accept credit cards at the county's license bureau. With more and more people using credit cards for purchases rather than cash or check, the inconvenience has resulted in some people waiting in line only to find out they can't pay for license tabs with a credit card. At the Oct. 21 meeting of the Wright County Board, those people found out they're going to have to stick to the same procedure.

Auditor/treasurer Bob Hiivala brought the matter before the board and said that the cost to the county accept credit or debit cards would be prohibitive.

"To install credit card machines, the county was be assessed a fee for transactions," Hiivala said. "That fee is in the neighborhood of 2 percent and, looking at 2007 activity at the license bureau, if we were to accept credit cards, the cost to the county could be as high as $125,000 a year."

The other option discussed by the county was to install an automatic teller machine. The county had an ATM a few years back, but it was later removed due to lack of activity. However, faced with the option of breaking even or potentially even making a modest amount of money as opposed to paying upwards of $125,000, the decision for the board was pretty easy.

"It would be a great loss to the county and the taxpayers if we were to accept credit cards," Commissioner Jack Russek said. "I would have been in favor of going with an ATM anyway, but, based in this information, there is no way I can support authorizing accepting credit cards."

The commissioners voted 4-1 in favor of denying the request to accept credit cards and approving the installation of an ATM in the courthouse. Commissioner Dick Mattson voted against the motion, saying he doesn't believe people with use the ATMs to take out money to pay in cash at the license bureau.

In other items on the Oct. 21 agenda, the board:

AUTHORIZED board signatures on a letter to the Minnesota Commissioner of Revenue requesting an extension to new green acres legislation. There has been a lot of confusion as to how the legislation will be implemented - it differentiates between productive and non-productive farm land and assesses that land at different values. Wright County Assessor Greg Kramber said his office has received a lot of questions and that answers aren't easy to come by. He said the county has put more information on its website concerning frequently asked questions about green acres and added that a public information meeting has been scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19 to address citizen concerns.

APPROVED adding a double-white line along four segments of County Rd. 35 when rumble stripes were installed this summer. The county has received numerous complaints about the stripes, which are extremely noisy and have been known to cause some damage to tires. In a compromise plan, the county ordered that new lane stripes be added inside the current lane stripe - which is directly on top of the rumble stripes. It is hoped that the second line will keep more drivers between the lines rather than driving over the stripes themselves.

BY a 4-1 vote, approved the purchase of small land parcel adjacent to the county fairgrounds for the price of $27,500. Initially, the landowner presented the county with a proposal asking for $32,500. The county counter-offered $27,500, which the landowner accepted. Mattson voted against the matter, saying he believed that $20,000 was the most that the county should have offered for the parcel.

AUTHORIZED signatures on a Homeland Security and Emergency Management grant for $182,875 for the purchase of a mobile (vehicle) command post for the Monticello Nuclear Plant. Homeland Security identified Minnesota's two nuclear plants as potential targets for terrorism and the mobile command post will allow the county have to a vehicle that can patrol the buffer zone between the plant and where the public can have access.

APPROVED payment of $1,562 to Frank Madden & Associates for labor relations work completed in September.

APPROVED the revenue/expenditure guidelines for September.

ANNOUNCED the cancellation of the Nov. 11 board meeting because of a conflict with Veteran's Day, in which the courthouse will be closed.