Residents of the southern part of Koochiching County will lose access to an information and referral service as a result of budget troubles.

The Northome Resource Center is about $10,000 in the red at the end of 2009, the Koochiching County Board was informed Tuesday.

The board agreed to accept the recommendation of county Community Services Director Terry Murray to close the center and use $10,000 designated for the center in 2010 to close out the center’s 2009 budget.

Murray told the board that he became aware of the financial situation of the agency in November.

The county’s Public Health Department contracts with the center to provide area residents with information about county services, assist in scheduling appointments for those services, and help in making referrals to appropriate agencies.

Other service agencies, which have helped fund the center, are also struggling and Murray reported that he’s found no funding available to help the center stay open.

“Their budgets are conservative, but the revenue streams have either been reduced, unallotted or shut off altogether,” he said of potential funding sources.

Murray called the situation unfortunate for area residents.

County Board Chairman Mike Hanson said the center did a good job for the southern county residents. He noted that in the past, the county was able to provide full-time staff in the Northome community. The center was developed after those staff were removed.

Public Health Director Susan Congrave said she would continue to look for funding for the center.

“I don’t want to give up on the Northome Resource Center yet,” she said. “It’s been extremely successful. It filled a huge void in that area.”

Congrave pledged to meet with other agencies in an effort to find funding that could keep open or reopen the center.

Hanson said he, too, would like to see the center, or at least its services, be made available to county residents living nearly 100 miles from the county seat.

Murray said a grant being sought by Kootasca Community Action may help fill some of the needs of the community that may be left unfilled by the closing of the center.

The grant would fund a volunteer project that would seek retired professionals, such as accountants and attorneys, to volunteer their skills to help residents in outlying areas of the county with applications and other needs.

In other business, the board agreed to continue support, with a grant of $2,000, to recapitalize the Arrowhead Regional Development Commission Revolving Loan Fund.

Earlier this year, ARDC sought a $3 million Economic Adjustment Grant from the Federal Economic Development Administration to support financing the needs of businesses in the region. The grant required local money to help support the grant and to date, $772,000 has been raised.

In November, the EDA proposed a $1.4 million grant.

“It’s a good bang for the dollars,” said Commissioner Wade Pavleck.

Commissioner Chuck Lepper noted that Koochiching’s contribution is “paltry” when compared to the $300,000 contributed by the Iron Range Resources, $200,000 from the city of Duluth 1200 Fund, and $100,000 from St. Louis County.

Koochiching’s Highway Department staff will seek grants to add profile stripes to some county roads. Commissioners agreed to explore the idea, provided no county money is used in the effort.

Michael Malachi, assistant county engineer, discussed the idea with the board, explaining that profile stripes are intermittent half-inch grooves in the pavement along the white line on the side of the road.

The grooves help the white paint to be more visible to drivers during rain and storms. However, he noted, the grooves do not make the loud noise that rumble strips do when driven over that have caused annoyance to nearby property owners. Rumble strips are deep grooves cut into the shoulder area of some roads, including a portion of Highway 53 south of International Falls.

The board is expected to discuss during committee on Jan. 5, a plan for a meeting on rural fire protection issues and canceled its Jan. 12 meeting.