Skip to content

ADVERTISE WITH US | EMAIL: KROX@RRV.NET

Polk County approves six Septic Fix-Up Grants, three Conditional Use Permits, and gets re-test on Fosston Plant stack test

The Polk County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday, July 1, at the Government Center in Crookston.

Environmental Services – Jon Steiner
Environmental Services Administrator Jon Steiner brought multiple items to the board, beginning with a motion to approve engaging the services of Husch-Blackwell LP, a law firm of Minneapolis. “We are engaging an attorney for some legal services that we will be using on a couple of different projects,” says Steiner. “Some changes in state law, we are doing some things with our programs in Fosston that we have to modify some ordinances for.” The legal services desired include, but are not limited to, Solid Waste Plans, Solid Waste Ordinances, Solid Waste Contracts, and Solid Waste opinions concerning State and Federal laws. The board approved of engaging Husch-Blackwell LLP.

Steiner asked the board for approval to make adjustments to the MDV steam billing. Polk County Resource Recovery Facility (RRF) sells steam to three steam customers in the Fosston Industrial Park. It is believed that the steam flow meter at Minnesota Dehydrated Vegetable (MDV) was inaccurate in late summer 2024. A new meter was placed and calibrated, and it indicated that the estimation method was varying greatly from the meter. This prompted MVD to request consideration of Polk County for corrected billings. The board unanimously approved Steiner adjusting the billing for MDV.

Steiner also had some information for the board on the 2025 Resource Recovery Facility’s Stack Test performed in April. “We were notified that our test went very well. We were waiting for some labs, and when the labs came back, we had one exceeding on Dioxin/Furan,” says Steiner. “It was a spike, and it was enough to pull us over the threshold, so we have to retest.” This information led into the next item for Steiner which was a motion to approve the Re-test of Unit #2 by Elemental Air of Medina, MN, in the amount o $26,685.00. Elemental Air was on site at the time of the board meeting, and the board approved unanimously of the re-testing so the county can show that they are compliant.

Steiner also offered some information about the Disaster Response from the storms that damaged areas of Minnesota on June 20, and what part Solid Waste is playing in the aftermath. “Polk County had wind damage. Like a lot of places, we get wind damage every year,” says Steiner. “Beltrami County primarily, and Hubbard County.  Hubbard County got hit really hard. Beltrami was a disaster. We take in their waste at the landfill, so we have to make some modifications to our hours and days. We have been providing some equipment to them to help them get through this. So, that’s what we have been doing.”

Steiner’s last item was a motion to approve the expanded hours/days and lease of equipment to respond to the June 20, storm damage cleanup. The board unanimously approved it.

County Engineer – Richard Sanders
Polk County Engineer Richard Sanders asked the board to approve the purchase of a truck-mounted broom from Titan Machinery of Crookston, in the amount of $15,147.20. “Our broom that we use for sweeping after we’ve done shouldering and other types of work finally quit working,” says Sanders. “It was bought back in 1950, so there are no parts available to fix it, so I came to the board to get approval so I could purchase a new truck-mounted broom for our use.” Titan Machinery was the lowest responsible bidder, and the board approved of the purchase unanimously.

The board approved the Certificate of Performance and Certificate of Final Acceptance for grading and aggregate surfacing on County Roads 202 and 203. The original contract, awarded to Gladen Construction, Inc. of Laporte, was for $1,188,566.37. The final contract amount was $1,268,566.72. Sanders says there was some extra work at one of the swamps that could not have been known beforehand, and that is why the final contract amount was higher. The board approved closing out the job and signing the Final voucher to Gladen Construction.

The board unanimously approved contracting with Stennes Specialties, Inc. of Thief River Falls, and allowing County Engineer Richard Sanders to sign the contract. “He does inspections for bituminous projects. He started his own company, and because of losing a couple of employees recently and our experience with new paving, we are going to hire Stennes to come out and help our inspectors to make sure the paving on County State Highway 46 goes the way it’s supposed to.” Sanders is estimating he may use Stennes around 160 hours at $110/hour for a total of $17,600 to help with the project.

Assistant Environmental Services Administrator – Jacob Snyder
The board unanimously approved purchasing replacement loader tires for an amount not to exceed $25,000. Polk County Environmental Services, Jacob Snyder received four bids for new tires for the 930M front-end loader at the Crookston Transfer Station. The tires are in disrepair and only have a few months left on them.  The purchase of the tires is in the Transfer Station operating budget for 2025.

The Commissioners approved awarding six grants for the annual Income-Based Septic System Fix-Up Program. “I had a couple of septic grant applications that we got filed, six actually,” says Snyder. “We do have a septic fix-up program, which is for households that are considered low-income or very low-income. So, we break it out where we are either going to pay for 60 percent or 80 percent of the total bill, up to a certain value as septic systems do cost a lot of money.”

The program helps those who may not be able to cover the cost of fixing their system, so they let it go, and over time, the problem only gets worse. “It is a good program, and it has been a successful program over the last dozen years. We get that funding from the state to run that program, and then we set guidelines on how we are going to allocate those funds,” says Snyder. “We pay the contractors in full, and we receive a down payment from the applicants to cover their portion. So today we did six of them to various septic installers that bid on the project.” The board approved the six Fix-Up Grant Awards.

The Septic Fix-Up Program Grant Recipients thus far in 2025 are listed below-
Clayton Bakken—TS Excavating was awarded a bid for installing the septic system at a total project cost of $13,107.

Gordon Erickson—A bid was awarded to Jeremy’s Septic and Excavation for the $14,900 total project cost to install the septic system.

Chad Moser –Bid was awarded to Olson and Sons at $8,500 to install the septic system.

Ben and Hannah Olson—A $14,600 bid to install the septic system was awarded to Jeremy’s Septic and Excavation.

William Schmitt—A bid of $12,100 was awarded to Jeremy’s Septic and Excavation to install the septic system.

Rose Weber –Bid was awarded to Olson and Son’s Excavating at $13,750 to install the septic system.

The Commissioners unanimously approved resolutions seeking approval of Conditional Use Permits.

The first was for Dale and Colleen Bergeron to construct an accessory structure over 800 sq. ft. on their lot on Union-Anderson Lake. The Bergeron’s property which is approximately 50,960 sq ft. in size, contains an existing cabin and one 8’ x 10’ shed.  The new shed is planned to meet all setbacks and applicable ordinance standards. The board approved unanimously of issuing the Bergeron’s a Conditional Use Permit.

The second Conditional Use Permit was for Josh Kunz to install a new septic system to an accessory structure with conditions. Kunz wishes to tie a new accessory building to a new septic system on a backlot on Maple Lake. Planning and Zoning, upon receiving the Kunz application, deemed that there is plenty of room on the lot for a full septic system. The shed being built will have a bathroom, but the conditions for the Conditional Use Permit include that there be no habitable space or kitchen, just a bathroom. The board approved the Conditional Use Permit unanimously for Kunz.

Daniel Gunter was seeking a Conditional Use Permit to construct a 4,200 sq. ft. (60’x70’), accessory structure located on his parcel on Cable Lake. The land owned by Gunter on Cable Lake is 183 acres in size. Planning and Zoning staff did recommend that the visibility of the structure from the lake should be reduced by keeping the existing vegetation between the proposed structure and the lakeshore. The shed is to have no habitable space and is planned for shop/storage use. The board approved the Conditional Use Permit unanimously for Daniel Gunter.

Polk County Public Health
Polk County Public Health Director Sarah Reese asked the board to approve the TSI Inc. quote of $22,335, including a PortaCount Model 8048-T with Tablet Fit Test Probe Refill Kit and a five-year warranty. Reese explained that with this purchase, Polk County will have in-house, real-time quantitative fit testing for all staff and volunteers required to use N95 and other tight-fitting respirators during emergency response activities. She also explained that without it, employees would have to travel to get a fit-test done, which could cause delays when response time is pertinent.  The board approved unanimously of the purchase.

Marshall & Polk Rural Water System – District Expansion Planning
The Commissioners heard from Marshall & Polk Rural Water System President Paul Bergeron seeking support for their plans to continue bringing fresh water to areas in Northern Minnesota. “They came in and asked for funds from the county, though not a specific amount. They are looking at doing a reservoir North of Crookston for water supply, and the discussion flipped more towards where they are at with the newly formed West Central Regional Water District, which is really to the south,” says County Administrator Chuck Whiting. “Some of the nuance of the discussion was when the West Central was being formed by the three counties, we had to file with the court in order to create the district. That required a map, which to a great extent sets a territory, even though there is no water service from this West Central group.  The map was essentially set up to not encroach on Marshall Polk’s existing service area.”

The concern, Whiting says, is that Marshall Polk wants to expand its service area, and that could possibly mean contesting the formation of the West Central Group. “The Polk County Board had to submit our area for this Regional Map for the West Central Group going down into Clay County,” says Whiting. “So, this concern has existed essentially since the meeting in front of a judge last year. The Polk County Board says, let’s get water to anybody, from whoever can provide it. That’s proved to be a little elusive in a formal understanding.”

Whiting says that there will be a follow-up and more discussions to come. “Marshall Polk has been around now for 50 years, and the other group is still not a formal legal entity,” says Whiting. “The fact that it splits our county geographically, it’s like, where would the line be without this issue. There still needs to be something from the court standpoint, like what is the territory. So, it’s a little frustrating to deal with because clearly you’ve gotta have a map, and as soon as you draw a map, you are drawing lines, and then it’s, what does that mean.”

One thing that was pretty clear was that the board wants fresh water to be available to everyone, and that will be a great thing. “It’s just dancing through the nuances here, and I certainly think the betterment of the entire county is what everyone has in mind.”

Share:
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,