The Polk County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday, December 3, at 1:00 p.m. The Board met at the Polk County Transfer Station as the Government Center was closed Monday due to a water main break.
The Consent Agenda today included approval of the following: the November 19 Board minutes, the Auditor Warrants, a payment to Abentroth Brothers Construction, Caledonia, ND, in the amount of $2,500.00 for Sidewalk Repairs from tax forfeit demolition in Nielsville for the Environmental Services Department as well as a payment to Johnson Controls, Fargo, ND, in the amount of $456.77 for Service of Rooftop Unit at the EGF Human Services Building for the Facilities Department and Appointing the Commissioner to the Northwest Minnesota Multi-County Housing and Redevelopment Authority. The Consent Agenda was approved unanimously by the board.
The Regular Agenda for today was as follows:
Richard Sanders – Highway Department.
Sander’s first four items were Certificate of Performance and Final Acceptance of work done, which included:
Box Culvert Contract for SAP 060-609-022 (CSAH 9) and SAP 060-621-015 (CSAH 21), completed by Knife River Materials out of Bemidji, MN, with the final contract amount being $2,009,960.70
Overlay Contract for SAP 060-614-023 (CSAH 14), and SAP 060-645-025 (CSAH 45), completed by Knife River Materials out of Bemidji, MN with the final contract amount being $1,863,033.35.
Crackfill Contract for CP 124-03-1429, CP 124-206-1433, CP 124-36-1430, CP 124-41-1431, and CP 124-42-1432, completed by Asphalt Surface Technologies Corp. of St.Cloud, MN, with the final contract amount being $147,876.90.
Gordon Construction of Mahnomen, Inc. of Mahnomen, MN, completed the Fosston Ramp/Sidewalk work, which cost $241,453.00 in the final amount.
Sanders then brought to the board a ditch maintenance request. “I came to the board today to discuss a county ditch maintenance request on County Ditch 161, in Sections 11, 12, and 1 of Small Vineland Township. We have a petition to survey and clean as needed, and the County Board approved that petition today.”
Next up for Sanders was a motion to approve setting a hearing date for adding lands to County Ditch 11. Sanders explains why this hearing is necessary. “We have some land owners in the South West quarter of Section 7 of Badger Township, Earl and Neal Pederson, are going to be doing some tiling on their property on the full quarter,” says Sanders. “We realize that the North half of that South West quarter doesn’t pay into County Ditch 111, and so the county board approved setting a public hearing date of February 4, at 10:00 a.m., to review their petition to add lands to County Ditch 111.”
Looking ahead to spring, Sanders brought the board a motion to approve the 2025 Tractor Rental for mowing county roads. “Every year, we rent tractors so that we can do the mowing of our county roads,” says Sanders. “And so we sent out for quotes on tractor rental rates, and Valley Plains Equipment of Crookston, MN was the lowest quote at $18/hr., for up to 500 hours for three tractors.” The board approved the motion unanimously.
Sanders then brought Reed Hudmun, the East Grand Forks, MN, City Administrator, before the board to discuss getting approval to reapply for the RAISE Planning Grant. This Grant would make it possible to examine the corridor between the Merrifield Bridge Crossing and the Inner City Bridges of East Grand Forks and Grand Forks. The board approved spending an extra $10,000 in the budget to help with this application. Sanders says the deadline for the grant application is approaching. “That RAISE Grant could be applied for by January 31,” says Sanders. “We are requesting from the Federal Highway to get $7.5 Million for a planning grant, so Polk County’s total contributions after the $10,000 will be around $37,000.” That means Polk County will have contributed $37,000, along with contributions from East Grand Forks, Grand Forks County, and Grand Forks to apply for the $7.5 million grant.
The last thing for Sanders today was to ask for approval of his out-of-state travels for 2025, which the board unanimously approved.
Alecia Helms – Human Resources Director
Alecia had two motions seeking approval today. The first was for the Approval of the Collective Bargaining Agreement for Teamsters Sheriff’s Department/Dispatchers. The motion to approve the agreement was unanimously approved by the board.
The second was seeking approval of Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Local 49r’s. The agreement was approved unanimously by the board.
Jon Steiner – Environmental Services Administrator
Steiner’s first item on the agenda was a motion to approve extending the 2024 Steam Sales Contract through 2025. Steiner explains the contract goes unchanged this year. “We sell steam in Fosston to three local businesses that use it as an energy source for food production plants,” says Steiner. “The contract expired, actually at the end of 2023, we extended it, we made a change that was just an across-the-board increase on the price,” Steiners says the intent was to go back and revisit the contract for 2025 and try to come up with a formula that would be more equitable to everybody. “That’s what we wanted to do, but we are basically running out of time, and we need information from them, and once we formulate, they have to have some time to look at it,” says Steiner. “It was more of a given that we are going to have to extend the existing contract.” The board approved the motion to extend the contract.
Next on the agenda for Steiner were motions for two change orders for the MSW Landfill Phase 15. This project had been broken down into two contracts (Materials and Installation) with a total sum of $2,074,430.35. The two change orders were as follows
-Materials Contract – Change Order #1 in the amount of $94.92 for R.J. Zavoral & Sons of East Grand Forks, MN
-Installation Contact Change Order #1 I the about of $2,335.48 for R.J. Zavoal & Sons of East Grand Forks, MN
The board approved the change orders.
Steiner also brought a motion to the board asking for approval of the corrected 2025 Residential Solid Waste Fee Assessment schedule. At the October 22 board meeting, the commissioners approved the 2025 Solid Waste Fee Assessment schedule, but Steiner says it contained an error. The fee for multiple residential was incorrect. The residential rate for 2025 was approved at $170, and all 61102 assessments should be multiples of $170. The board approved of the correction unanimously.
Steiner also had a motion to approve the Out of State Travel Request for Landfill Supervisor Wade Farrell to participate in the U.S. Compost Council 2025 conference in Phoenix in January. The board unanimously approved the motion.
Next for Steiner was Resolution 2024-81, EPA Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Grant Program Polk County Support for Hubbard County Hub & Spoke Region Hub & Spoke Project. “Polk is one of nine counties that have formed this unofficial group,” says Steiner. “We wrote a grant, we did a study, to figure out how to deal with the MPCA changing the construction/demolition/debris landfill rules,” Steiner says they call the system they came up with the Hub & Spoke System. They applied last legislative session for funding which he says they did not get. Steiner says they also applied for a federal grant called a SWIFR Grant to help pay for the local share if they got the state project, but they did not get that either. “There is another round of that coming up for the federal and we are applying for that again and that application is due on the 20th of this month.” says Steiner. “The counties, the three tribal entities we work with, the MPCA, they are all offering letters of support, or resolutions of support, pledging their involvement to be part of this project.” The resolution of support by the board was approved unanimously.
Steiner also brought a motion to approve the Professional Services Agreement for Up North Engineering of Fargo, ND. Steiner explains that Polk County was awarded two MPCA Grants in 2024 for about $2.8 million in value that we are going to be doing over the course of the winter and next spring. “Part of the grant requirements is doing the certified payroll,” says Steiner. “So they, what they refer to as prevailing wage, it’s usually associated with their big grants, the capital project grants that we did back in 2018. So I just went to the board with a Professional Services Agreement to hire the same person to manage that for us.” Steiner says a project can get bogged down worrying about the paperwork so allowing a consultant to handle that is how they want to do it. The motion to approve the Professional Services Agreement for Up North Engineering of Fargo, ND in the amount of $30,240.00 was approved unanimously by the board.
Sam Melbye – Property Records
Melbye gave the board a summary of statistics of the 2024 General Election, Canvassing, and Post Election Review. Polk County had 17,758 registered voters at 7:00 a.m. on Election Day, and 15,540 total ballots were cast. That is an 87.51% voter turnout. Also worth noting was that 47.39% of ballots were absentee/mail-in.
Melbye also provided the board with an update on hourly rates for Rinke Noonan, Attorneys at Law who provide legal services to Polk County. The discussion led to some concerns from Commissioner Mark Holy. Holy feels there are some conflict of interest issues that need to be addressed. Melbye said he will do some homework and look into past contracts and more discussion will take place at a future meeting.
Chuck Whiting – Polk County Administrator
First item for Whiting was to set the 2025 Board Meeting Dates. The board was happy with all dates except for December. The dates were December 2, 16 (budget hearing), and 23. The board chose to move the budget hearing to December 2, with the 16th being a regular meeting and removing December 23.
Whiting moved on to the 2025 Budget. The items Whiting brought up were for discussion only, and no actions were taken. Whiting says there are several resolutions for the Board to adopt upon budget approval. He brought some early versions for the Board to review. It was discussed that the 2025 summary budget is showing a levy increase of 3% over the 2024 levy, which is down from when budget talks started. The board reviewed wage resolutions for staff and a resolution for the Commissioner’s wages, benefits, and per diems.
The Board then went through the budget presentations as it was to be given at this Tuesday evenings 2025 Budget Public Hearing.
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