The Polk County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday morning at the Polk County Government Center.
CONSENT ITEMS
The board’s consent items included approving the Auditor Warrants and to approve the minutes for October 18 and the 25. The board approved the agenda unanimously.
HIGHWAY-RICHARD SANDERS
The board was then approached by County Engineer Richard Sanders, who came forward with a set of quotes he had sent out for snow removal in parking lots and sidewalks for Polk County Facilities (Polk County Government Center, Justice Center, Sheriff’s Office, etc.) from October 1, 2022, to October 1, 2026. He came forward with a quote from Total Lawn Care for $485 per event. When Commissioner Joan Lee asked how much the services had gone up since the last time they sent out quotes for snow removal services, Sanders explained that it had only gone up $40 since 2018.
Bridge Replacement Priority List
Sanders then came forward with a request from the state for a resolution prioritizing bridge replacements in Polk County. “The State of Minnesota requires us to submit a bridge priority list to them so they know which bridges within our county we prioritize for bridge funding. So, as the townships request culverts and bridges to be replaced, we put those locations on the list so they can have town bridge or bonding dollars put towards them,” Sanders explained. “We put our county bridges on there as well, so we have a list of about 25 bridges on our bridge priority list, and as we get those plans done and submit them to the state, the state will fund them with the appropriate funding.” The board approved both motions unanimously.
PLANNING AND ZONING-JACOB SNYDER
The board was then approached by Assistant Environmental Services Administrator Jacob Snyder, who came forward with a request from Isaac Larson to amend section 2.5 of the original PUD for the Backlot Development Second Common Interest Community from back in 2018. Screening the construction of several 40 x 60 storage buildings in the Agricultural Zoning District in Section 34 of Grove Park Township was still an important aspect. Larson attempted to plant three rows of off-setting trees to satisfy the 2018 PUD conditions. But the trees did not survive in the area of the fence separating the property, which did not satisfy the PUD, so Snyder met with the applicants to make an amendment to the PUD conditions to make the fencing the screening for the construction instead.
Revocation for Resolution #2015-19 & resolution #2016-9
Snyder continued with the parcel with a request by Isaac Larson to approve the revocation of resolutions #2015-19 and #2016-9 to revoke previous resolutions for the conditional use project as they were issued by the former owner, Kurt Larson, and were never acted upon. These CUPs included building storage units that never moved forward and now were null and void as they were never acted upon.
Preliminary Plat- Buhns Bay Addition
Snyder’s final item he brought forward was a preliminary plat that was proposed to plat four riparian parcels from of portion of land in the Shoreland overlay district on Maple Lake that encompassed over 48.6 acres of land located in Section 5 of Woodside Township. “Buhns Bay plat is along the back bay of Maple Lake. It’s a really scenic route area to create four residential lots there. One of the lots is pretty large. It’s about 32 acres with a lot of fields. We went through the steps for preliminary approval today, and there are still a few things that need to get polished on the plat, and then we’ll be back for final review.” Snyder also reported they would utilize CSAH 12 as the public road frontage to the parcels. The board approved all motions unanimously.
POLK COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE-JAMES TADMAN
Polk County Sheriff James Tadman then approached the board to perform an Oath of Office for four new deputies to the Sheriff’s Office. These deputies included Brittney Neil, Jarrin Gunderson, Dylan Van Der Stad, and Jordin Gunderson. Pictures of the deputies with Polk County Sheriff James Tadman can be seen below.
HUMAN RESOURCES-ALECIA HELMS
The board then heard from Human Resources Director Alecia Helms who came forward to approve a settlement agreement that had been reached through legal counsel with former employee Cynthia Muggli regarding pending litigation for an existing Insurance Fund balance that was discussed with the board in a closed session on September 27, for $10,000. The board approved the motion unanimously.
ADMINISTRATION-CHUCK WHITING
The board finished the meeting hearing from County Administrator Chuck Whiting, who had an update about the 2023 Budget. Whiting showed the new taxes and tax rate the preliminary levy would create, which would be about $603,844. With that, he found that compared to other tax rates in recent history lowered the rate to 45.432%, and without Enbridge’s wage plan, that would also drop it to 44.239%, which was a decrease from 2022 at 46.453%. He noted that this could be a thing they could use with the fund balance to help find things to cut to lower the preliminary budget. “We talked quite a bit about rates, and it was certainly interesting and suggests that the actual value of our parcels in our county are going up more than the levy is, even at five and a half percent,” Whiting explained. “We still have a target to get down to three and a half percent range, but I had a couple of ideas that I wanted to share with the board of maybe how to look at that and identify using this differential from the Enbridge property tax payments.” He then gave another update on the American Rescue Plan funds. One change he had made was reducing the addition of a mobile radio unit from two to one to reduce the amount to $192,797. The projected Grand Total was currently at $6,737,708, which gave them a balance of $645,619 over their allocation of $6,092,089. He then showed the current payroll budgets that would be changed for 2023 and had four departments finished already and still had to aggregate the wages and bring the results back to the department heads to help them figure out their budgets. However, he reported that the Human Resources Department was working with the County’s Labor Attorney to learn the actual wages for each of the unions, and the employees would be able to see the impact the David Drowns study would have on their salaries. With these new developments, he reported he would continue to work with the wages and other requests to see what he could cut and have a new report of lower budget numbers by their next meeting.
The Board of Commissioners will next meet on Tuesday, November 15, at the Polk County Government Center.
