Pine County commissioners have approved the 2010 Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic (HEAT) grant for Pine County. The grant provides $28,000 for overtime patrols by Pine County Deputies and Minnesota State Highway Patrol troopers.

Pine County Chief Deputy Steve Ovick explained to commissioners that law enforcement spends those overtime hours on roadways where speeding and unsafe driving is causing problems.

Troopers and deputies study traffic reports in order to “find out where our troubled areas are and where traffic is worst, and then concentrate on those specific areas,” Ovick said. “We’re out there all day and all night, whatever it takes to enforce the traffic laws and hopefully cut down on accidents and fatalities.

“Last September, we worked Highway 70 for two days straight,” Ovick noted.

- New chair shuffles committee appointments

Pine County Commissioner Doug Carlson was elected chair of the Pine County Board of Commissioners for 2010. Carlson lives in Sandstone and represents the Fifth District. The other four commissioners voted unanimously to elect Carlson.

Fourth District commissioner Curt Rossow was elected vice-chair.

“As the new chair, I really ask you guys to help me out,” Carlson said to his fellow commissioners. “This is not a one-man operation.”

Carlson offered his opinion that the county board members should travel around the county in the coming year. “I’m going to request for each one of you, at some point, including myself, find one site or one place and say, ‘Let’s go visit that,’” he said. “I think it would be educational for all of us.”

He added that though he was against giving commissioners pay raises, he felt that they should be reimbursed for their time if they went to city council and other meetings in their districts as part of their work as commissioners.

Carlson also made tentative appointments to the outside boards and commissions and the county-established committees. A number of changes were made, which Carlson justified as a learning experience for the commissioners. “The more knowledge we all have, the better off we are,” he said.

- In other business:

• Commissioners approved lawful gambling for: Northern Pine Riders, to conduct lawful gambling at Dobo’s Bar and Grill (formerly known as Red Oak Inn) in Windemere Township; Pokegama Lake Association, at Home Town Catering in Pokegama Township; Finlayson Giese Sportsmen Club at Finlayson Giese Sportsmen Club Hall in Pine Lake Township.

• The Pine City Pioneer was approved as the official Pine County newspaper for 2010.

• Final payment of $30,644.59 was approved for Lunda Construction for work done on Highway 61, one-quarter mile south of County State Aid Highway 39 over the Pine River.