The Polk County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday morning at the Polk County Government Center.
CONSENT ITEMS
The board began the meeting by approving a payment to the Minnesota State Bar Association in Minneapolis of $352 for dues for the Polk County Attorney’s office. It also included approving a payment to Harlan’s Boat’s-R-Us in Mentor of $13,400 for a boat, dock, and lift for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. The final item on the Consent Agenda was a payment to Sarah Shimek of Polk County Public Health in the amount of $239.85 for mileage expenses.
The board approved the motions unanimously.
POLK COUNTY SHERIFF JAMES TADMAN
The board heard from Polk County Sheriff James Tadman, who came forward with the monthly sheriff report for May. He reported that the department had paid $4,377.64 on their paid services and had 784 calls for service, with 224 for traffic stops, 167 for civil process, and 56 for school patrol. There were nine thefts in May, with five driving off after taking gas, 10 suspicious vehicle arrests, and five suspicious activity arrests. He also reported that they had driven their transports for about 173.75 hours and 6,731 miles for the month, which accumulated to 36,060 miles so far throughout the year, which is a little lower than where they were last year, which he noted is good with the rising gas prices. He also reported that they had received over 2,970, with 2,225 being non-emergency calls. He also explained that the office was preparing for the upcoming county fair.
PUBLIC HEALTH
The board heard from Polk County Public Health Director Sarah Reese, who first requested the board approve advertising and posting for a new wellness coordinator. Currently, the job serves many counties around the area like Polk, Norman, Pennington, and Red Lake. The board approved the motion unanimously.
She then reported that the Polk County Public Health Department would be beginning a Community Health Assessment (CHA), which is scheduled to happen every five years and will begin in July and last into the fall and winter. She explained that they are in the process of finalizing the assessment and will put the survey out in a couple of weeks for community members to complete. “Once we get the results from the assessment, we also look at what, in Public Health, we call secondary data, so data that’s available from other sources, for example, from the Minnesota Student Survey, the Minnesota Department of Health, from the census, or other data that’s available to us. We then look at the community’s health across the whole county,” Reese explained. “We look at the data that we’ve received directly from Community residents as well as the data that we have available from other sources.” After the survey is completed, they will talk with residents in the county to learn where the strengths and weaknesses are throughout the community and complete a planning process with a group of community members to identify the priorities for the county going forward.
The final item she brought before the board was to explain that the Polk County Public Health Department will serve as the lead agency and chief strategist to identify, collaborate, and respond to local issues as the board decides on how to leverage and disburse opioid settlement funds. The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office recently had a press release about the opioid settlement. This multi-district litigation will bring about $26 million into the State of Minnesota over the next 18 years, with Polk County’s share being $1.92 million. However, she noted that it could get larger. “We have a role in recommending to the board how those funds should be used in Polk County. So, all of the funds must be used for Opioid mitigation activities, such as treatment, prevention, recovery, harm reduction, training, etc., so there’s a variety of ways the funds can be used,” Reese explained. “Polk County Public Health will be working with a variety of partners, like people with lived experience and relevant professional experience, to come together and look at the data to tell us what the data is telling us and look at evidence-based strategies to agree on how we want to utilize the funding in Polk County.” She told the board the Polk County Health Department would stay in contact about any progress and that they welcome the community to participate in the process.
RICHARD SANDERS- HIGHWAY
The board was then approached by Polk County Engineer Richard Sanders, who first requested the board approve an agency agreement for the City of Mentor to build and design another culvert to replace another bridge box culvert on the south end of Mentor on Stevens Drive.
Sanders requested three maintenance requests for the board to approve, the first being for County Ditch 90 to replace the culvert in Section 33 of Hammond Township, which they will install in the future under the same contract with a metal culvert. The second was to request cleaning for County Ditch 56 in Sections 35 and 36 in Huntsville Township. The final was for County Ditch 58 to request the cleaning of a ditch in Section 27 in Huntsville Township.
The final item he brought forward was a request to have Donarski Brothers Inc. finish crushing 25,000 tons of gravel left from the Liberty Pit last year. “We had the Donarski Brothers crushing the gravel last year to try and clear out this pit,” Sanders explained. “My assistant Darin Carlstrom and the Donarski brothers realized that there was still some more gravel in there to get, so the County Board approved having the Donarski brothers crush some more gravel for us at the cost of $3 per ton.” The process would begin sometime this summer and take about one month to complete.
The board approved all motions unanimously.
PUBLIC HEARING
After a short break, the board opened a Public Hearing on the redevelopment plan for Fosston Redevelopment Project 1. They had discussed back in their meeting on June 7, which helps facilitate redevelopment within the City of Fosston in cooperation with The Northwest Minnesota Multi-County Housing and Redevelopment Authority.
Hearing from no one, the board closed the public hearing and approved the motion on the project unanimously.
The next meeting will take place on Tuesday, July 5, at 8:00 a.m. in the Polk County Government Center.
