The Polk County Board of Commissioners met inside the Polk County Government Center on Tuesday morning. They heard from Public Health Director Sarah Reese in an update on COVID-19 in the County and an Advertise & Hire Dietician, Tax Administrative Assistant Sam Melbye on the Redistricting of Wards, Temporary Election Positions, a Resolution Repurchase of Tax Forfeited Properties, and a request for County Ditch Levy, Richard Sanders on Highway developments and Minnesota Department of Transportation Agreements, and Polk County Sheriff James Tadman on the purchases of the 24 Motorola APX Portable Radios and Mics. The meeting also had other information with County Attorney Greg Widseth, Environmental Service Agent Jon Steiner, MIS Director Evan Bruggeman, Finance Director Ron Denison, and County Administrator Chuck Whiting.
CONSENT ITEMS
The Board opened by first approving the Commissioner Warrants and Sign Audit List and their Board minutes from the meetings on January 25th, February 22nd, and March 1st. They then approved a payment of procurement card purchases to the US Bank in St. Louis, Missouri of $155,351.08 and payments of four Lost Warrants ranging from $25 to $500. They also approved a payment of $30,431.50 to Motorola for the 2021 Year & Vetsta NRC 911 for the Sheriff’s Office. The final item on the Consent Agenda was the approval of a $105 payment to the Department of Health for Asbestos Inspector License Renewal for Jacob Snyder.
The Board approved all motions unanimously.
PUBLIC HEALTH
The Board then heard from Public Health Director Sarah Resse on a motion for a Resolution for approval for a donation of $50 to the Polk County Public Health from the family of Therese Streng Halvorson in the memory of their loved one, Kathleen Twite, to support services and programming. She then requested the motion to approve the ability to start a job search with advertising to replace Stephanie Olson, who is resigning as a Registered Dietitian of the Women’s, Infant’s, and Children’s (WIC) Program.
The Board approved both motions unanimously.
TAXPAYER SERVICE CENTER
Tax Administrative Assistant Sam Melbye approached the Board next on behalf of Tax Administrative Michelle Cote to request setting an information review and redistricting hearing date due to the changes in Crookston’s and East Grand Forks County Boundaries. As some counties had shifted their boundaries, their populations changed by more than 5%, which was enough to be considered a significant alteration in the constituency represented by the commissioners. Melbye requested that the meeting be moved to Tuesday, April 19th, so the Tax Administrators could plan and present a new plan to be approved by the Board. He continued with a request to the Board to post and advertise for two Temporary Election Workers, as the 2022 budget contains funds to fill the positions. He then approached the Board with an application that they received from Jay C. Etienne for land parcel 82.02254.00, which is two Land Lots in the Townsite of Carman for a total of $2,518.89 that he is willing to pay.
The Board approved all motions unanimously.
FINANCE
Finance Director Ron Denison then joined Sam Melbye to review a recommendation for the County Ditch Levy Assessments Payable to pay $149,600 for all of their assessments. The Board approved the payments unanimously.
COUNTY ATTORNEY-GREG WIDESETH
The Board then granted a request made by County Attorney Greg Wideseth for the Board to pass a motion authorizing him to begin the process of hiring a new Office Manager to fill the position of the retiring Norma Johnson, who will retire effectively on July 1st.
The Board approved the motion unanimously.
ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES
The Board then heard from Environmental Services Administrator Jon Steiner on constructing Phase 14 of the MSW Landfill in the Spring. He stated that they needed to order a 40,000-gallon tank for the new leachate collection system as soon as possible as there is a long lead time of 16 to 18 weeks (4 to 5 months) with price adjustments. “We’re purchasing some of the components for the project ahead of time. The big one today was the purchase of the leachate tank, which collects the water that comes in contact with the garbage. And the price has been climbing as we’ve gone along,” Environmental administrator Steiner explained, “We got a revised quote the other day and pulled the trigger on purchasing it ahead of time. Which has about a four to five-month lead time, so if we want to install it this summer, we need to order it now.” Steiner had chosen to accept the quote from Harrington Industrial Plastics for $156,020 with $13,000 for Shipping and would bring in the full bids next week. The providers will also test and inspect the pump and tank to ensure it properly works.
He then went on about purchases of fine material from the Resource Recovery Facility to utilize for Alternative Daily Covers (ADC), which is mixed with other soil materials to be used each day to cover the solid waste received each day at the MSW Landfill. Its price has varied over time and adjusted on the needs between departments. He asked the Board to set the price at $65 per ton, which he believed was a reasonable price before it changed any further.
The Board approved both motions.
EVAN BRUGGEMAN
The Board then heard from IT Director Evan Bruggeman, who requested a motion and action by the Board approving a Lease payment of $53,211.32 to Hewlett-Packard Financial Services Company’s HPE SimpliVity infrastructure.
The Board approved unanimously.
HIGHWAY
The Board then heard from County Engineer Richard Sanders, who had received three quotes for sweeping streets in small cities from three different contractors and gave his recommendations for which company they should hire. “Every spring, we hire a contractor to come in and sweep our streets within the small cities,” Sanders explained, “Today, the Board approved contracting with Pro Sweep out of Fargo to do that for $150 an hour. So when all the snow and ice has gone off around the roadways, we’ll be able to get out there and start sweeping up the sand and dirt from along those roads,” He recommended them over the others even though there was a cheaper option, Pro Sweep had the better equipment and more efficient work methods that would get the job done quicker and more efficiently.
He then asked the Board to approve contracts for three Box Culverts in the City of Mentor’s, with two of them going down Main Street and Old Trunk Highway 2. He asked the Board to approve the Agreements with the State to have Bonding dollars flow from the State to Polk County, and have the Administrator and Board Chair sign and approve the Resolutions to fund two Bridge Replacement projects. Lastly, he requested the Board to award equipment rental bids that were opened on February 25th to all of their contractors.
The Board approved all motions unanimously and signed all Agreements for Funds on Bridge Replacement.
SHERIFF JAMES TADMAN
Sheriff James Tadman approached the Board next with Sgt. Jesse Haugen and Deputy Mark Hudon to tell the Board of the purchases of 24 APX 6000 Portable Radios, Chargers and Wireless Mics and 26 Motorola APX 6500 In-car Mobile Radios for a total cost of $135,877.68 and $5731 respectively and asked for the Board to Approve them, as they have new features and are programmed to communicate with North Dakota Law Enforcement radios, which is extremely important for emergency responses to critical incidents. “The biggest difference for North Dakota’s system is that they’re switching over to an 800 MegaHertz system. Since theirs is a new system, they are utilizing Phase two trunking, while the State of Minnesota has an older system utilizing Phase One trunking. So the biggest issue is that Phase One is not compatible with Phase Two, but Phase Two is compatible with Phase One, so we can hear them, but we can’t respond,” Deputy Hudon explained, “These new radios will be Phase Two compliance, so they’ll be able to work on both systems. The other new feature they have is they will be able to handle both AES and DES encryptions.”
Following that, Tadman mentioned that to replace the affected radios listed on Lifecycle Support Notice, they created a budget so they could all be replaced within three years. The budget currently plans for them to purchase five Motorola APX 6500 for the year plus an additional five Motorola APX 6500 radios at a cost of $28,655 for a total of 10 In-Car Radios. Each year, they can add another 10 or more to the force with the budget plan for a projected cost of $57,310. As for their old radios, they have found a company willing to buy them, with the prices depending on the radio’s age and conditions. “We budgeted for 2022 already, and we had our guidelines and our means that we were trying to stay within,” Sgt. Jesse Haugen explained, “The Board knows our direction and how we’re trying to budget for the next upcoming years to get in compliance with all our radios that we have.”
The Board approved the new purchases and agreed to the budget plan, with them saying they would go into further discussion with funding in the future.
The next meeting will take place on March 22nd, at 8:00 a.m., inside the Polk County Government Center.
