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The Mower County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday formerly adopted a new use policy for the green behind the Mower County Jail.

The policy establishes liabilities of use and follows an incident a year ago at the Austin ArtWorks Festival in 2022, when damage to the sprinkler system caused it to go off underneath one of the vendor tents, resulting in $10,000 worth of damage to art.

According to Mower County Administrator Trish Harren Gjersvik, the festival has always been required to have liability show insurance as well as name Mower County as an additional insured, but it’s been an unwritten policy. This new policy simply reaffirms that same agreement.

The festival also requires vendors to have their own insurance covering any damage to their property.

The sprinkler damage itself came in 2021, when a spike used to hold a vendor tent in place damaged the system. A fix was established, but it was only a temporary fix.

At the time, Harren Gjersvik said the county thought it was liable for the damaged artwork, but the county’s insurance company said it wasn’t and that it fell on the festival, but then the festival’s insurance came back and said the vendor was liable.

“Now we’ll be more clear going forward,” she said Tuesday morning. “It will be more clear and more of a line of protection for the community.”

Dollars and cents saved

Commissioners also approved Tuesday a contract with Masters Touch to send out tax statements and evaluation notices digitally for those who sign-up.

It’s the second year with Master’s Touch, which replaced an earlier attempt to do the same thing with another company that didn’t work out because of issues related to the timing of the sent documents. 

According to Human Resource Director Kris Kohn, Masters Touch is the preferred company for this kind of work throughout the state of Minnesota.

Currently, the county sends out 22,000 notices at a cost of $6,000. This new method is expected to come with a cost of savings.