The Polk County Commissioners met on Tuesday at the Polk Government Center. They had a chance to meet the new service dog that will serve the Polk County Courthouse and the victims’ services offices. They heard from Finance Director Stacy Grover about a problem some people have had cashing checks from the county due to the changeover from Bremer to Old National Bank.
NEW SERVICE DOG
Polk County Attorney Greg Widseth introduced the commissioners to Silas, the new service dog that will be serving the Polk County Justice Center. Widseth told the board how Silas ended up working for the county. “So about a year ago, Dana came to me and said that she was interested in having a facility dog, and so I was at our annual meeting for our County Attorneys Associatio,n and they had a presentation on them and one of the companies that had done the training was a non-profit out of the cities called Can Do Canines,” said Widseth. “Can Do Canines happens to be run by Jeff Johnson, who’s married to Sonny Lee from Crookston, who graduated a year in front of me, and we’re friends on Facebook, so I messaged him on Facebook, and ten months later, here we are with a facility dog out of Can Do Canine.”
Dana Johnson and Erin Thode of Polk County Victim Services introduced Silas to the commissioners. “Silas is our new facility dog for the Polk County Courthouse. He’ll be working with victims of crime. So anytime we have victims, you know, domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, it will bring a lot of comfort,” said Johnson. “He can sit on the stand with them if they have to testify and be that support during testimony for things that can be really difficult for people to get through, and hopefully minimize the trauma they’re going through.”
Johnson said that having a dog instead of a person has been proven to work better in the courtroom, “The studies have found that they’re actually better than a support person because a jury does not see them and they can actually have that touch on the leg with victims and provide that extra support that a human can’t do.”
Johnson added that if you see Silas or any service dog, you shouldn’t pet the dog if it has a vest on. “Silas is a facility dog and a service animal. So if you see him out with his vest on, he’s not allowed to interact unless we give him a cue to do so,” said Johnson. “So anytime you see a dog with a vest on, it’s important not to interact with them. You can say hi and say nice dog, but ask the person before ever interacting.”
POLK COUNTY CHECK ISSUES DUE TO BANK CHANGE-OVER
The Polk County Finance Director informed the board that they have been experiencing issues with employees and vendors attempting to cash their checks. The problem isn’t with Polk County, but it is because Bremer Bank’s switch-over to Old National Bank this month. “We’re just needing to kind of update the board on a situation we’ve had with a large number of our checks being returned for our vendors, our payees, and just kind of want to make them aware because it was a large number, impacted social welfare clients, it impacted our vendors, contractors, and things like that,” said Grover. “So we’re just working with Old National, the now new Old National, to… fix the situation and just respond to it. Some individuals have been able to re-present the check to their bank, and the banks have processed it. Others, the banks have not processed the return check, so we are having to work through re-issuing checks and then figure out how quickly we can get the money to the folks. And then if anybody is incurring any NSF checks or fees because of that, We will reimburse those fees as well, and we’ll work with Old National on that, working. So it’s just an unfortunate situation.”
