The Polk County Commissioners met on Tuesday morning at the Polk County Government Center. The board approved commissioner warrants and audit list, along with a payment to Card Member Service for $16,497.31 for credit card purchases on the consent agenda. The board also voted Robert Franks and Donovan Wright to additional terms on the Planning and Zoning and Board of Adjustment commissions.
The commissioners approved three contracts for Polk County Social Services, two with Northwest Mental Health and one with The Village Family Service Center. They also approved to fill a Case Aide or Office Support Specialist position within Social Services that will be vacated by Kathy Kelly’s March 2019 retirement.
The board approved four items for the Highway Department, the first being a Crossing Surface Installation Agreement with BNSF for upgraded railroad crossings at CSAH 8 and CSAH 41 in McIntosh. As part of the agreement, Polk County will be responsible for $75,000.00 of the total $254,993.00 for the project. The second item was for snowplow equipment totaling $218,814.00 for two tandem axle diesel trucks approved for purchase at the January 8 meeting. The third approval was a contract with Safety Compliance Service for the department’s annual training, safety meetings and shop inspections totaling $14,400 and finally, they approved Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Department to attend the biennial conference in San Diego July 7-12.
Polk County Administrator Chuck Whiting informed the board that the Polk County Engineer term would be ending in April and wanted to know if the commissioners had any changes in mind for an engineer for the upcoming term. Hearing none, Whiting informed the board he currently plans to recommend Rich Sanders for another term as the engineer. Whiting also made a travel request for September 15-19 on behalf of Public Health for Judy Ophus to attend the 2019 Nurse-Family Partnership 2019 National Symposium in Nashville on a scholarship from the National Symposium which the board approved.
Ken Peterson, secretary for the East Polk Soil and Water Conservation District board, introduced the new staff – Rachel Klein, Interim District Manager, and Kelsey Hedlund, District Technician – to the commissioners. Klein then presented an update to the board on the district’s water and sediment control basins program. “Between the clean water funds and a targeted watershed grant we completed an additional 28 basins this fall,” said Klein. “The 133 sediment control basins keep 5,540 tons, the equivalent of 426 dump truck loads of sediment out of our lakes and streams. Also, 4,120 pounds of phosphorus are kept out of the river by the sediment basins each year.”
Phosphorus can cause algae, so the lakes and streams benefit from having the sediment basins explained Klein. “Phosphorus helps plants grow like corns, soybeans or aquatic plants, but overloading of phosphorus can cause algae blooms to become much larger than they should be,” said Klein. “That can cause the lakes to have less available oxygen causing a problem for recreational use, making it tougher for plants and fish that need oxygen in the water. By installing these water and sediment basins, the sediment drops out, and the water is piped out to the nearest ditch, lake or stream.”
Algae, especially toxic blue-green algae, is becoming an increasing concern in areas like Maple Lake following the closing of Tindolph Beach for stretches of 2018 in Thief River Falls. “Blue-green algae is usually caused in late summer when the waters are warmer and excessive nutrients enter the lake in can cause the blooms to be worst then if they occurred naturally,” said Klein. “Phosphorus and Nitrogen, two of the big topics for algae in lakes, can be found naturally in decaying plant matter but are also found in fertilizer that is applied commercially to farm fields and in lawn fertilizer.”
The board also signed a memorandum of agreement to work with Becker, Clay, Clearwater, Mahnomen and Norman Counties, their own Soil and Water Districts and the Wild Rice Watershed District to complete one plan for the Wild Rice and Marsh River Watersheds as required through state legislation.
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