The Polk County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday morning at the Polk County Government Center.
The meeting started with Sheriff Jim Tadman showing the monthly review for July at the Sherriff’s office. The statistics for July cases included 89 boat and water incidents, 181 traffic stops, 17 fraudulent welfare checks, 24 traffic hazards/complaints, 14 motor vehicle crashes, and 14 cases of suspicious activity. Tadman claimed it was an average month, and he expects these cases to decrease in the following months due to the DNR not seeing as many people on the lakes.
Polk County Engineer Richard Sanders brought three requests to the commissioners that were all approved.
Sanders received approval for replacing the engineer replacement software or Auto CAD. This software is set for renewal every three years, and the approximate cost for the renewal is $29,203.78.
The commissioners also approved a maintenance request from Sanders for County Ditch 72 (located west of Mentor), which has been experiencing culvert issues. “The culverts are getting old and need to be replaced,” said Sanders, “The landowner requested that the County replaces the culverts.” It is Polk County’s policy and the state statute that the county is responsible for the maintenance of field and farm approaches.
The following approved item was a request for a coalition against more giant trucks. The legal gross vehicle weight for a 5-axle semi-truck in Minnesota is 80,000 pounds. “The coalition against bigger trucks is a national organization, and they are constantly reviewing bills coming out of Congress,” said Sanders, “This year, there was a bill to increase the legal weight standard to 88,000 pounds.” The commissioners signed a petition stating they would like the county’s legal gross weight to stay at 80,000 pounds.
BUILDING PROJECTS UPDATES
Facilities Director Richard Langlois gave the commissioners updates on their current building projects. Langlois reported everything is as planned for the re-roofing project at the Justice Center, and they spent $20,000 for new rock to that roof. They will use the original rock pile from the Justice Center roof for a future project.
Langlois claimed to have spent $25,000 on the couplers in question for the couplers in the Justice Center. That project is nearing completion. The last project for the Justice Center discussed during the meeting was the door frame project which has reportedly given the Facilities department some issues. A short time after the project was completed at the juvenile center, they started having problems with doors that were hard to close and were twisting inside the door frame. “I went back to the architect and contractors, and they agreed that it needed a heavier door frame, and that’s what we’re currently waiting on,” said Langlois, “We will be getting one door frame, assess it, and after the assessment, we’ll see if it’s acceptable and move forward to replacing all of the new doors.”
The retaining wall project is reportedly going smoothly and could be completed as soon as Thursday. The final project discussed was a preliminary discussion about re-roofing the Polk County Government Center. The board agreed to start taking bids in January 2024.
The last item on the agenda included a closed session to evaluate County Administrator Chuck Whiting. According to the commissioners, they were more than pleased with Whiting’s work. “We were delighted with his performance,” said Polk County Commissioner District 2 Warren Strandell, “Now we have to come up with a budget for next year, and we’re starting that process now, and we’re pretty much happy with what’s going on.”
The consent agenda during the meeting included approving bills and disbursements for $883.31.
