The Polk County Commissioners met Tuesday morning and the Polk County Government Center, and approved Juneteenth as a county holiday, and received updates from department heads.
JUNETEENTH HOLIDAY
There is a new federal and state holiday known as Juneteenth that was passed. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz passed Juneteenth as a state holiday. Polk County Human Resources Director Alecia Helms came forward and spoke about this new holiday stating, “Governor Walz just signed a provision to his initial bill, making it effective this June. Currently, we have 10 holidays that are recognized in Polk County for our employees it is moved up to 11 now.”
Helms was asked what the importance of this federal holiday is, and she responded with, “Diversity matters and all lives matter.”
BOAT AND WATER SAFETY GRANT
Michael Norland was representing the Sherriff’s office in hopes of passing the annual State of Minnesota Boat and Water Safety Grant, which is an 18-month grant where the county receives $8,180. This program funds boat and water safety programs carried out through county sheriff’s offices.
SOLID WASTE PROGRAM UPDATE
Additional information was provided for program updates on the solid waste program. “We gave an update on a number of our projects. The big one was the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers wetland permit for our landfill,” said Jon Steiner, Director of Environmental Services. “We put in an application in 2018 for the wetlands we ended up with joint jurisdiction with the court of engineers.”
Five years later, the Solid waste program seems to be making good progress. “We’ve been working our way through that process with the four different permits and the coming of that process, and we’ve received conditional approval on three of them,” said Stinar.
The Army Core of Engineer permit hasn’t been as smooth of a process, but it is reportedly making progress. There are two meetings in place with the MPCA and the US Army Corp of Engineers due up, and the solid waste program is hopeful that the fourth petition will be signed and they will be clear to work on further issues.
