The Polk County Commissioners set the preliminary tax levy at 5.5% at their meeting this week at the Government Center. If the tax levy does not drop from the preliminary number, the county would bring in more than $1.2 million in additional tax revenue in 2019, bringing the total to more than $24 million. Budget requests currently exceed $24 million, but commissioner Joan Lee hopes they can make enough cuts to lower the tax levy. “The preliminary level is the maximum amount we can levy at the end of the year,” said Lee. “We will go back to department budgets and make cuts with the goal to decrease the levy below that 5.5% preliminary amount.”
Polk County Sheriff Barb Erdmann and Emergency Manager Jody Beauchane met with the commissioners about some possible legislation that might be on the table. Lobbyists are currently working on legislation to secure emergency management funds for each county. It will be tough to get through said Beauchane, but it would help and lobbyists will be sending information to each county commissioners. Each county sets up their emergency management program in whatever way they can. In the twin cities area, they may be stand-alone entities, here in Polk County emergency management is tied in with the Sheriff’s Office. Erdmann told the commissioners that the total emergency management budget is about $100,000 including salaries. Polk County currently gets a federal grant for roughly $24,000 a year, with the rest of the budget funded by the county. The $30,000 would represent a significant portion of the county’s annual emergency management budget.
Beauchane also updated the board that of the two major incidents of storms in the county June 15 through July 11 and Polk County has been declared part of the Federal Disaster declaration. There will be an applicant briefing meeting on Tuesday, October 2 at 2:00 p.m. at the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
The commissioners also approved Sheriff Erdmann to place a job announcement for a full-time deputy decision. There will be at least one opening with Erdmann’s retirement heading into 2019, but this will allow the department to advertise and hopefully begin the candidate review process soon enough to limit the days the department operates short staffed.
Jake Schneider also presented a proposal with Pitometry to the commissioners who voted to enter into an agreement. Pitometry is a company that provides aerial photos and Commissioner Lee explained some of the different uses the county will get out of those. “It will be a user tool for buffer enforcement, assessors, the highway department,” she said. “They will be a before and after too see changes that have been made, where compliances issues might show up once the buffer deadline has come and gone.”
Polk County Engineer Rich Sanders, along with representatives from MnDOT and Jacobs Engineering presented an update on the County Road Safety Plan currently underway. The commissioners then attended a workshop in the afternoon discussing the Polk County Road Safety Plan along with other city and county staff and citizens. We will have more on the County Road Safety Plan during Friday’s news.
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