The Polk County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday morning inside the Polk County Government Center for their last meeting of 2021.
2022 BUDGET APPROVAL
The board officially approved the 2022 budget, 2022 Net Levy, 2022 Commissioners Salary/Per Diem, and set the 2022 Wage Grid for the County Administrator, Department Heads, and other Non-Union Personnel. The total operating budget for the County in 2022 is $74,127,971.
The initial Net Levy was set at 4.6% increase and has since been reduced to a 3.5% increase for the 2022 budget. Polk County Administrator Chuck Whiting discussed some of the cuts made to reduce the levy down to 3.5%. “It wasn’t as much cutting as it was just taking capital expenses out,” said Whiting. “We think we can finance those things differently for the 2022 budget. A lot of it was applying how we could use the American Relief Program money. It was pretty straightforward this year.”
Whiting said the bigger question this year had to do with setting the wage grids. “The real big question was what wages were going to be because we were negotiating our union contracts,” said Whiting. “Once those started to work themselves out, we were able to finish putting together the budget.”
Whiting said there were a few changes to the wage grids in this year’s budget, and the changes should help hire and retain employees moving forward. The board also approved the list of new positions and changes, effective in the 2022 budget.
JON STEINER ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES
Jon Steiner of Environmental Services asked the board to authorize Polk County Environmental Services to apply for and participate in a Greater Minnesota Recycling Grant Project compromised of nine counties. Steiner explained what the grant project is. “We’ve applied for these grants before, and Polk County has gotten them before a part of our six-county group we participate in,” said Steiner. “It’s a competitive grant project, and it revolves around construction, demolition, and debris. There are a lot of facilities around the area that are going to be closing soon, so this is looking at options and proposals around the region. The benefit to Polk County is that if there are no options available, it will go out to Fosston and tear apart our processing equipment out there. So that’s a primary interest in the grant and trying to come up with solutions to the facilities closing.”
The board approved the request unanimously. Steiner was also asking the board to approve the releasing of retainage on the Polk County Transfer Site Improvement Project for $42,483. “The project was the expansion of the compost area,” said Steiner. “When we built the new transfer station out there, we constructed a temporary area for the compost, and it never set up the way it was supposed to. We enlarged the area, so it’s all concrete out there now. So now that the project is done, we owe the contractor R.J. Zavarol & Sons the rest of their money for completing it.”
Steiner noted it’s standard procedure to release the last 10% of what is owed to the contractor after the project, and the board approved the request unanimously.
RICHARD SANDERS HIGHWAY
Polk County Engineer Richard Sanders had two resolutions for the commissioners to approve. Both were related to the city of Fisher, and Sanders explained what the resolutions were for. “The city of Fisher is a town less than 5,000 in population, which means they can’t receive federal funds on their own,” said Sanders. “So, they go through us, and we sponsor their projects when they need federal funding. They will be doing a project where they’ll be redoing the city’s sidewalks, and the project would be 80% federally funded. So, they’ll need us to sponsor the project, and the board passed a resolution this afternoon so we can sponsor that project, and the city of Fisher can move forward in January with applying for the funds.”
The second resolution was a requirement from the federal highway department stating that the sidewalks must be maintained if federally funding is received for the project. The board also passed this request with the consent of the city of Fisher, stating they will maintain the sidewalks once the project is complete.
OTHER ITEMS
Other items included a ditch hearing for County Ditch #25. The hearing was held to discuss partial abandonment of parcels in sections 15 and 16 per the request of property owners Dennis Goodyke and Mike Gasper. They plan to operate the ditch as a private ditch instead of a county ditch. After the public hearing was held, the board had a time of discussion and voted 3-2 to postpone the approval of the partial abandonment until legal advice could be sought out. Commissioners Warren Strandell, Mark Holly, and Gerald Jacobson voted to postpone the approval, and Commissioners Gary Willhite and Joan Lee voted against the postponement.
Michele Cote of Property Records gave the board the annual report of the Payment In Lieu Tax. The report was informational only, and no action was needed from the board.
Karen Warmack of Social Services had nine different items and various contracts and agreements for the commissioners to approve. All nine items were approved by the board unanimously.
Polk County Assessor Mark Landsverk sought two approvals from the Board of Commissioners. The first was approval that the board of commissioners acknowledge the list of 2021 abatements. The second was acknowledging the receipt of notification stating that 2021 clerical changes have been made to assessments. The board approved both resolutions.
The meeting ended with the board approving the 2022 meeting dates. The next Polk County Board of Commissioners meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 4, inside the Polk County Government Center.
