On Tuesday, the Polk County Board met at the Polk County Government Center in Crookston.
PLANNING AND ZONING
Jacob Snyder, the Planning and Zoning Administrator, started the meeting. He discussed three items regarding three different properties.
The first one he talked about was for James Senske, where he wanted the large accessory building on his land near Union Lake.
Secondly, he spoke about Zanaida Boianoff, who also wanted a large accessory building on her property in Halverson Lake.
Lastly, he talked about Jana Hankey and her request to upgrade the current septic system on her boat house at Union Lake. All three items were approved with conditions.
“Really, we amended some of our ordinance requirements to allow buildings that were on large tracts of land (bigger buildings). Historically, under Polk County’s zoning ordinance, we would regulate those accessory buildings under 2,400 square feet no matter how many acres you were sitting on,” said Snyder. “So our planning commission and our board of commissioners felt that it was important that if you had a larger tract of land and were looking at, for instance, in our agricultural districts, that’s how we would historically regulate accessory buildings is they would be regulated on how much parcel size you have. The bigger the parcel you have, the bigger the accessory building. So we just took that and amended it into our zoning ordinance for the same type of philosophy.”
PUBLIC HEALTH
Sarah Reese, the Polk County Public Health Director, discussed four items, two of which were advertising/hiring for two new positions within public health, both for Wellness Coordinator positions. Then Reese spoke about a foot care service that Public Health helps provide. “We have provided foot care in East Grand Forks, Crookston, and McIntosh for several years. It is a really important community need for folks,” said Reese. “So, we have not had a change in the suggested fee or donation schedule for over a decade, and so our current fee is $20; starting on September 1, that suggested donation will go up to $30, and the reason for that change is because of the nurse salary and fringe related to providing that service.”
The last thing Reese mentioned was an out-of-state travel request for Sarah Shimek to attend a Public Health conference. The board approved all four of her items.
SOCIAL SERVICES
Karen Warmack, the Director of Social Services, told the board Social Services needs to replace two recently resigned people. She also discussed a contract with UCare to provide mental health target case management services. The board approved all three items.
