The Polk County Board of Commissioners held its meeting on Tuesday morning, and they heard comments from different departments, including a monthly update from the sheriff’s office, bid proposals for highway projects, an update on the McIntosh School collapse, and a new software program for county operations.
SHERIFF’S OFFICE MONTHLY REPORT AND EQUIPMENT UPDATES
Polk County Sheriff James Tadman spoke to the Board of Commissioners at their meeting Tuesday and provided a monthly update about the department’s operations in addition to seeking action on items, including the sale of outdated equipment from retired emergency vehicles and a jet-ski recently replaced through a state grant.
Tadman said the department received 745 calls for action in April, including 201 traffic stops, 180 civil process calls, and 85 school patrols. While he noted that the calls for service only slightly increased in April compared to 732 calls in March, the amount of mileage for prison transports last month doubled for in-state and federal transports compared to March.
“I think that the regular calls for service are right around the normal average that we’ve had. I think what seemed to be up is about 2,000 on the transports,” said Tadman. “So our transports were up about 2,000 from March, and then March was up 2,000 from February, so that just bounced up. But I think that’s just when you get the busy time and the activity going on.”
Another item brought up by Tadman was the announcement that the sheriff’s department was awarded $12,900 through the 2026 State of Minnesota Federal Boating Safety Equipment Grant to purchase a 2025 Yamaha VX Cruiser HO jet-ski, which he says will replace the 2011 Sea-Doo GTI jet-ski that the department purchased in 2011 with funds from a federal grant.
“It’s going to replace a federally funded jet ski, a 2011 Yamaha that we have. So looking at that, it’s going on, what, 14 years old, and it’s very nice to receive that grant, so we’ll be replacing that.”
Tadman said the department was advised that they could either sell or trade-in the Sea-Doo to help fund a trailer and additional equipment for the new jet-ski, so the department decided to seek approval to trade in the old jet-ski. The board unanimously approved the motion.
Tadman explained, “We asked what we can do with the federally funded, older 2011 Jet Ski, and they said that you can either sell it or trade it in. And what we’re going to do is reutilize that money that we traded in for and to get a new trailer for the new jet ski. It did not come with a trailer, so we’re going to upgrade that from the 14-year-old trailer that we have. So we’ll just trade the trailer and the other old Jet Ski in at the facility where we’re purchasing it, and we’ll go from there.”
The board also unanimously approved the sale of expired our outdated equipment from retired emergency vehicles and posting two jury attendant positions for hire. Tadman said the equipment includes items like lighting, prisoner partitions, and brush guards which cannot be re-used on the current fleet of emergency vehicles. He said the department will use Resource Auctions of Grand Forks to assist in the sale of the equipment.
In addition, Tadman announced the resignation of two jury attendants and asked the board to approve posting those positions as available, which was passed unanimously. He said the resignations were voluntary and wished the individuals the best going forward.
HIGHWAY PROJECT BIDS RETURNED
County Engineer Richard Sanders provided the board with updates on bids for road projects on County State Highways 8 and 40 and the Gentilly Township Box. Sanders said the bids went out last week and were highly competitive.
“Prices came in basically where we thought they were going to come in,” Sanders said. “The box culvert project was about four percent under, the bituminous overlay on County Highway 8 was about four percent over, and the grading project on County Road 40 came in really nice.”
He aid the projects should begin within the next two to four weeks, with the goal of having them completed before the end of the summer at the latest, but it depends on contract approvals from contractors.
“We’ve awarded the contracts, they’ll go through contract approval process, and it’ll probably take two to three weeks for us to get the contracts back from them,” Sanders stated. “At that point, after the contracts are approved, then all their work on those projects become approved, and so we can pay for that work. Like if they wanted to start earlier, they could. It’s just that we wouldn’t be able to make payments until after the contracts are approved.”
Sanders also brought a quote for a standard three-year mowing contract to the board for approval. He said the contract would be with Total Lawn Care for $200 for each time mowing the Polk County Government Center and the Transfer Station.
MCINTOSH SCHOOL UPDATE
Following the partial collapse at the old Mcintosh School building on Friday, Planning and Zoning Director Jacob Snyder provided an update to the county board. He said the southeast corner of the building is where the collapse occurred, and it is believed that recent strong winds were the cause. While there were no injuries, significant property damage occurred in the area, and debris lined the road in front of the school as first responders arrived and blocked off the area to the public.
Snyder continued, “The older section that was all stripped out is what really collapsed is the southern half of that early 1900s structure. So, you know, we just don’t know. We’re moving forward and trying to seek bids and working with a structural engineer because it is connected to Auto right next to it that operates out of the old automotive shop that was attached to the school, so it’s a lot of moving parts. We knew this day was coming where we’re going to have to do a demo on it. It just was nature’s way of telling us we need to take care of it now.”
Snyder said the next steps are crucial as to ensure the rest of the structure doesn’t collapse and potentially cause more damage to homes and businesses in the area, so he plans to have an initial proposal of the demolition as soon as the next county board meeting in June.
“I’ll have something in front of them, most likely a proposal of a structural engineer evaluating and assisting us with the actual contractor bidding portion of it, because we do need to send out contractor bid packets to get a competitive bid,” said Snyder. “We do have a list of prospective companies that we’re going to be sending that bidding packet out to, some larger contracting companies that have asbestos abatement supervisors and those types of things you worry about with commercial and old buildings. That’s where we’re at. We’ll probably have a proposal for at least assistance in writing the bid specs and doing that at the next board meeting.”
NEW FINANCIAL SOFTWARE
County Administrator Chuck Whiting introduced Abdo Financial representatives Jean McGann and Annette Storm as well as Finance Director Stacy Grover, as they provided a social services process evaluation report. He said the Board approved a services agreement with Abdo for this evaluation in March as part of the preparation for acquiring new finance software, and the steps identified in the report should be taken to help make the transition to new software.
The main topic from Grover came as an ERP software agreement was brought forward between the county and BS&A Software, LLC. She said the county has been working on consolidating its financial software since 2019 and decided on BS&A as their services will help integrate systems that currently operate on separate software.
Grover said, “It’ll be an integrated system. It’ll include our general ledger, our accounts payable, purchasing, accounts receivable, all in one system instead of using multiple satellite systems to do the entire county’s business. So we will definitely gain some efficiencies with that, as well as just managing one software system versus multiple.”
The cost of the software is $213,145 and will be spread out over three different payments. McGann said there would be an additional $50,000 annual fee plus one-time staff training costs, but Grover said overall, it will provide cost savings compared to the current software programs.
The next Polk County Board of Commissioners meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 2nd.at 8:00 a.m. in the county boardroom at the Polk County Government Center in Crookston.
