(gentle music) - Stay tuned for On Q.

For KSMQ, I'm Eric Olson.

We're going to speak with Mower County administrator, Trish Harren, about her position, her career, finer details of county administration.

We also learn a bit more about the Albert Lea Arts Center, and we'll visit with Justin Osborne, fun job, winemaker at Four Daughters Vineyard and Winery.

That's all coming up next On Q.

♪ Local idea is that matter to you ♪ ♪ Sharing our regions you need point of view ♪ ♪ Telling the that you never knew On Q, On Q ♪ - Many of us, me included, don't realize the services we use every day that we rely on county government for planning and operation of what we do in our regular life, much more than the its the eye.

Handling our waste, zoning, building, taxation management, counties are responsible for many of the elements of our day-to-day existence.

Here with us now, Trish Harren, Mower County administrator.

Welcome Trish.

- Thank you, Eric.

I'm glad to be here.

- Yeah, same, thank you for the time.

How many people work for the county?

Like in an average county or Mower County?

- Well, in Mower County, we have just under 300 people.

- And that's a lot of area, square miles and everything for those people.

What are the primary, the largest offices that people might recognize that you manage?

- Right, so our largest office would be health and human services.

So that is our social services and our public health combined.

There's about a hundred employees that work just in that department alone.

And then we have just under 90 employees that work for public safety.

So that would be our law enforcement.

So our patrol officers, our detention officers that work in our jail and then our dispatch on officers that run 911.

- So human services, public safety, and then many of us through the COVID became aware of the health department too.

Is that part of that other group you were saying?

- So that's part of health and human services.

So that's our public health division within human services.

That's a department that manages everything from WIC clinics to well-child checkups, home visits, to managing a pandemic.

- And your budget, what's the size of it?

- Yeah, the Mower County budget is 56 million dollars, and about 23 of that comes from our local levy and the of it comes from state and federal dollars as well as some fees that are charged for services and then wind, wind helps us out a lot in this county.

- Really!

- Mm-hmm.

- Talk about that for a minute.

The windmills we see out.

- Yes, so they generate about $2 million a year in revenue for the county.

So we get a tax that comes off of wind production and that buys on our levy by probably about six points.

- Oh, that's remarkable, didn't know that either.

And a lot of your position, I would guess is managing those dollars that come from desperate sources, federal dollars, state dollars that come to you, the county administers that, but I'm sure there are different things you have to do to satisfy the conditions of the federal and the state.

- Right, so most of the federal dollars come in for programs that people get qualified to participate in.

So a lot of those federal dollars are through human services.

So they would be medical assistance, they would be any kind of financial assistance.

So a good part of our federal dollars really is related to our social services side.

Our state dollars would come for our roads.

So we get a lot of funding that goes towards our road department, which I would say would be our next department.

That's the next largest would be our Public Works Department that does our maintenance, new construction and recycling and also planning and zoning.

- So those are the two basic and the local or the county levy, are those earmarked for specific services as well.

- A lot of our local levy dollars go for what we call general government.

So it funds public safety.

So that funds our jail and our law enforcement side and all of the basic offices that support the day-to-day services of taxation, land values, little things like getting your vital statistics.

And so the basic functions that are in our government center are funded through local levy.

- There's so much going on that if you go into the courthouse for something, it can be daunting to a person.

And I know you're trying to streamline things for some services to make it easier for people to get information and access.

Now you have the website, but there's so many people and they're busy.

So you're trying to make it easier, I don't wanna say one stop shop, but more convenient.

- We are doing that.

And so we've been working on this for probably a decade, but it's really escalated with the pandemic, really.

Government by design is designed to be pretty stable and it's a big ship, a big system to change.

And so things change very slowly.

But the pandemic really taught us a lot about how we can be adaptive and be quite agile.

So we've put a lot of services online.

So the number of people coming to our courthouse for services has really changed dramatically in the last two years.

So two years ago you had to be in person to pay your taxes.

Now you can pay them online.

Most permitting is online now.

So almost every service we provide you can access online.

So that's really different.

But we're also trying to create just some divisions bringing like offices together or offices that somebody from the public might come in and need to see, and instead of having them go to three different offices, create kind of a one, like you say, a one stop shop for people.

- We're speaking with Trish Harren, who is Mower County administrator, leader of Mower County.

How did one become you, Trish?

I mean, if we have young people watching our show, is there a normal route to get to leading a county?

What's your experience in background?

- I would say historically, there is not a normal path to this.

(chuckles) And when I was in kindergarten and was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I certainly didn't say county administrator, I didn't even know that job existed.

I wanted to be a teacher, and so that was my first career.

I was teacher in public school and then alternative education.

But really, I was kind of accidentally led to this work.

So fate or accident, I'm not sure, but I was running a victim services program in Rosa County, that creating actually the first victim service program we had for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in general crime.

And I had to create an advisory board, and I had to have two commissioners serve on that advisory board.

So after about three years of working in that position, the county decided they wanted to create a central administration.

So they hadn't had a county administrator before and were moving in that direction, and the commissioners invited me to apply for the position.

And I said to them, "I do have a social science background.

"I've taught government, but I'll be honest, "I don't even know who my own commissioner is.

"So I really don't think I'm qualified to apply."

And they said, "We think you can learn those things, "but you have these transferrable skills "that we're interested in.

"So you have leadership ability, "you can collaborate and work with people "and so I'd like you to apply."

So I applied, and I was hired, and that's how it began.

But most people in this field have a master's degree in public administration or public finance.

So I have a master's degree, but it's in leadership and organizational development, which is also one of the common pathways to get to this line of work.

- But the people skill are still important in this day and age.

- I would say they're the most important skills because we can't do this work alone as a government.

The work of government is so huge, you can't do it alone.

Each department can't do their work alone.

So with inside government, we need to work collaboratively together with every other department.

And we need to really be engaged in our community to have partnerships, to be able to deliver all the services we do.

- And so it's a very lot of administrators.

What about common issues when you get together with like the Minnesota County administrators, are there issues that across the state are important or concerning at this time?

- Yes, yes.

I would say right now, the number one issue that we are dealing with in all counties is the mental health crisis.

So there's an adult mental health crisis and there's a children's mental health crisis.

And our biggest challenge is that we do not have beds or places to put people who are severely, persistently, mentally ill, or who are having a crisis episode.

So as example, there might be somebody who is having a mental health event, but they have some violence tendencies that are happening in this event.

So they would go normally go to the ER, but if there is any violence that's happening, they won't keep them at the ER.

And so then they call law enforcement.

And so then that person ends up getting arrested and having to come and spend their time in jail.

And jail is not the appropriate place for somebody who is having a mental health event, but there just are not beds and facilities for us.

All these hospitals were closed nationwide or mental health hospitals, and maybe there were some good reasons to get rid of the institutions, but the need for temporary or even long term placement for people that have mental illness persists.

And it's ended up creating homelessness for us and really turning our jails into mental health facilities.

- The deputies, it's not really, they aren't trained and aren't, shouldn't be trained in that kind of work.

- And they've had to become trained.

And so you will find a lot of these situations where there is an officer involved shooting that it's involving someone who has mental illness.

- And I know there's been attempts in the past at the state level to build some brick and mortar facilities.

Senator sent Jim over in Rochester.

It's a champion of, here's there's a surplus now, but I don't know if that's in the mix anymore to build these facilities.

'Cause you're not the first person, I've heard this often.

- Right, so I think we simply need more collaboration with our local hospitals because that is a kind of a temporary place, and they used to be able to hold and house people for longer periods of time, but they aren't for a myriad of reasons.

And you build a new facility like Rochester did get a facility built, but it's filled up in a really short period of time.

So it's kind of a massive issue that really is a major issue for us, but transportation funding is another issue for us.

There's just never enough money that comes to us to be able to be a partner in maintaining our miles of road.

Every year it changes, but those, I would say are two key issues.

- We'll have to leave it there.

Those are two fascinating conversation.

You have your plateful, thank you very much for your time.

- You're very welcome.

- And your service.

Trish Harren, county administrator of Mower County.

We'll be right back.

The Albert Lea Arts Center was created in 1959 with the goal to create, educate, promote, and showcase the arts.

And there's a lot of that in our region a lot of talented folks.

After relocating many times throughout the decades, The Albert Lea Art Center purchased a permanent home on South Broadway back in 2018.

And with us today to speak a little more about the art center, board president, Darlyne Paulson and board member, Kari Brick.

Welcome to you both.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for having us.

- Is it nice to be in a permanent home?

- Oh, it's absolutely fantastic.

We are enjoying it.

- Does it help do the work more efficiently also?

- Yeah, we're able to do a little more than what we've normally done, and we have more room to do things.

- And Kari, talk about the programming that you do at the art center.

What kind of things, if you haven't been there before, what can you experience?

- Well, we work with local organizations.

We bring in like STaRs Mentor.

We've worked with United Way.

Let's see here, The Chamber.

We offer classes, painting classes, all kinds of neat things for children and adults.

- That was where I was going, was the whole concept is to bring people like me who think, "I don't know how to do anything.

"I'm not an artist."

And to connect them with the different are types of art.

- Yes, absolutely.

And don't say you're not an artist.

You always have a gift of something.

(chuckles) - And that's to find out.

What are your most popular events programs that you put on?

- Well, we have a gallery show every six weeks that changes.

So we have six galleries, different gallery shows a year.

We have classes for youth, kids, adults, mostly painting classes, but any kind of class is welcome.

- Do people come to you?

Do the artists in the area say, "Hey, I have an idea."

For instance, I did take a mosaic glass class one time.

And that I only knew about because Barb Keith who hosts our show, "Off 90", she's an artist and she does it for a living.

But otherwise I wouldn't have known that she does these things.

Do the artists come to you with ideas for classes?

- Yes.

- Yes, they do.

- So how does that work?

I mean, do they... "I do such and such."

'Cause you don't want all watercolor people, one after another, I don't know, how do you program it?

- Well, so far, we haven't run into that problem.

(laughs) - There's always more ideas than days.

There's so many ideas out there that people come to us with and if they're willing to teach the class, we'll get it organized for them and post it on our website and it just fills up.

- Do people need to be a resident of Albert Lea or Freeborn County to participate or a member of the organization?

- No, we're open to all.

- Okay, so if they can see your website, they can come and enjoy and partake.

- Yeah, they can.

Well, do a class, you mean?

- Mm-hmm.

- Yes, now we do have a gift shop there also and you have to be a member to display in that.

And that's we have jewelry, we have paintings, ceramics, many different things that are sold there and they come from a 50...

I think you have to be a member.

- [Both] 50 mile radius.

- Oh, okay, is there one type of art that you would think is very more popular among artists in our area than others?

That's more developed as a craft, as an art form?

- I would say we have very talented artists in our region and it's so diverse, and we're bringing all these different ideas to the public.

You don't have to go to New York City or Chicago to see fabulous art, we have it sitting right there for people just to walk in and view on a daily basis.

- Is there an opportunity for people to meet the people who create, the artists?

Do they ever come into the center?

- Yes, they come in, I've met a few of them over the years.

Actually, our gallery shows we do have an open house for those and then they're there to meet the public.

So that's always been fun too.

- Talk a little bit in our last minute about how people can find you, when you're open, that kind of thing.

- Well, right, now we're open on Tuesday from 12:00 to 6:00, and then Wednesday and Friday from 10:00 to 4:00, and Saturday 10:00 to 1:00.

But we will be adding Thursday in pretty soon.

Because of COVID we've had to shorten our hours, and maybe all the hours will change back to 10:00 to 4:00, I don't know, we haven't gotten there yet.

- Is the best information updated on a Facebook page, or what- - Yes.

You can find us on social media.

Yep, just Google the Albert Lea Art Center, our Facebook page pops up.

You can always give us a call and yeah.

- [Darlyne] And we do have a website also.

- Okay, congratulations on your new home.

Well, not new much anymore.

- No, it's not new, but it's good in there.

- Your permanent home.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- And Darlyne and Kari, thank you very much.

Four Daughters Vineyard and Winery is a fully operational winery.

Many of you probably know about it.

Cidery, it's a restaurant, all kinds of things, an event center, really added a spark to the Spring Valley area.

Justin Osborne from Four Daughters joins us now.

Congratulations, first on the success, it seems like it just opened, but how long have you been there?

- We opened in December of 2011.

- So wow, 11!

- This is the 11th year, I guess technically.

- And you've been there from the start.

- From the start, from before the start, yes.

- (chuckles) When it was just an idea.

- Yep, you gotta plant your vines like three years before you expect to get something off of them.

So we planted our grapes before the opening.

- And we were talking beforehand, you grew up in the Twin Cities, Metro Area out in Wayzata.

How did you find yourself in this line of work?

- Well, it was kind of of a combination of things.

Just good timing.

I worked with my father in the construction industry.

I was a project manager and this was in the 2008 time period where the great recession was starting, and construction got super stressful.

And I just happened to be asked by my in-laws if I would be interested in starting a winery.

And if I'd be interested in making wine.

And I had no experience in any of that.

My only experience was I had a company credit card, and I knew my way around a wine list at a restaurant for taking clients out.

And I guess that qualified me to be asked to be winemaker, so I agreed.

I tentatively agreed.

And I started going to school for oenology, which is the study of wine making.

- Say that again, what kind of Biology?

- Oenology - Oenology is wine making.

- Is wine making, correct.

- So it's interesting to me that you have the scientific... 'Cause wine it's very...

I don't know, subtle.

It's very, I would imagine tough business with, from a science standpoint, making sure it doesn't get bad or good.

And a lot of on that side and then entertainment.

So on the other side with a restaurant, presentation, attracting customers, that's a lot on your plate.

- Yeah, I mean, I obviously don't do everything.

We have a lot of employees and we're always looking for employees or I'm always looking for employees that are better than me, because we're always trying to improve, but wine is definitely science and art.

Like there are components that they can isolate, there's compounds.

It's like this wine has this compound in it.

Therefore, it's gonna taste like grapefruit, but we don't know exactly how to get that compound in the wine.

So it's a great combination of science and art.

And then you mentioned marketing, trying to get people in there, packaging your product and your experience in a way that attracts people.

I mean, that's super, super important.

We always try and focus on that.

Want everyone to have a great time and a great experience.

We use that word all the time.

There are lots of products out there that are fantastic, that just don't take because the packaging isn't great.

And we really try and focus on that too.

- Did you have a hard time during COVID?

I would imagine just like most businesses or did you float along okay.

- There was a dark few days in COVID there.

It was not enjoyable to tell everyone that they had to go home, that really stunk.

But as far as navigating the business from a business perspective, inflation right now is much more difficult for me than COVID.

- Oh, talk a little bit about that.

- Without being a downer, I'd say that this inflation right now, I'm afraid that we don't see the full extent of it because me and everyone else that I know in my line of work, people that are selling a product, everyone's costs are going up by like 50%, but we know we can't just pass that on to customers.

And so everyone is taking incremental increases like the cost of our products are going up by less than they need to, to cover these enormous costs.

So that's gonna be...

I'm afraid that inflation's gonna take a while to bleed itself out, because if you're not buying something, like buying these raw goods, raw materials, you're not really seeing it.

- And then from your standpoint, when those prices start going up at home on Friday night, I'm thinking, "Gee, maybe we better not go out to dinner, "go to Four Daughters."

Is that a concern that people will stop frequenting your place?

- Well, yeah, I guess that's a concern of everyone during a recession.

If it does come to that, if prices do go up by that much, another big thing is supply chains are crazy.

Like if I want two pallets of bottles, I used to be able to just call someone and say, "Give me two pallets of bottles."

Now I have to order two shipping containers of bottles from Europe or China, and then get them the shipped to me overseas.

And that process is obviously more expensive.

And it takes like, I don't know, three, four, five months.

- Because you can't find just the amount you need, you have to order a massive amount to get the attention of people.

- Yeah, well, you just can't find what you need, period.

And so we actually just built this big storage shed.

We're better-positioned than probably 99% of the people where we have this huge storage shed that we built.

Just a big warehouse where we can just accumulate- - Product, the bottles that you need.

- Yeah, the bottles, the cans, all these things.

- Speaking of the things you're adding onto, we have about a minute and a half left.

You're branching out.

You have some big plans, Bourbon and such.

Tell us about that.

- Yeah, we started making Bourbon secretly about 2 1/2 years ago.

And Bourbon does take a long time to age and mature in barrels.

And so we've been doing that for about two years and we're very, very excited.

We've never had a product that has been as anticipated as this one.

The people that have tasted it say, "It's phenomenal."

They can't wait.

And we agree, we also can't wait to release it.

So we're hoping, end of May, our Bourbon will finally be released to the public.

- And also in the control room, somebody was looking over your info and went, "Oh, they make Loon Juice, I didn't know that."

- Yes we do.

Loon Juice has been my baby for some time now.

We're very proud of that.

And that just keeps humming along.

People just keep drinking it and enjoy it.

And we really appreciate.

- Within just the area or where can you find that?

- North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, there are like probably 4,000 places that sell Loon Juice.

- That's great.

You must feel quite gratified about that.

- Yeah, I do.

But you don't take anything for granted, you keep striving and do your best every day.

- Good, well, that's a good attitude to have.

Thank you very much, Justin.

Exciting news about the new product line- - Yeah.

- Best to you.

That's it for today.

Thank you for joining us here On Q.

For KSMQ I'm, Eric Olson, see you next time.

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