The Polk County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday morning at the Polk County Government Center and heard from County Administrator Chuck Whiting and Sarah Sesselman on multiple requests for American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds.
County Administrator Chuck Whiting approached with new County Job Descriptions that were put on their internal system last week and wished for the board to approve the new descriptions as the benchmarked job descriptions going forward. The board approved the new descriptions unanimously.
Whiting then brought forward new requests for the American Rescue Plan funds. The first was from the Agassiz Environmental Learning Center in the City of Fertile, asking for $244,000 to add an ADA/family restroom large enough to meet ADA requirements with an adult-size changing table, regular size toilet, and child-size toilet to the building. The second was from the City of Crookston, which asked for $137,216.70 for lift station control system improvements and remote monitoring to the Centralized Wastewater Collection and Conveyance. The third was from the Polk County Fair Association, which requested $152,759 for various fairgrounds improvements such as adding railings to the grandstands, replacing the seats in the grandstands, and renovating the Horse Barn. The next request was from the City of McIntosh for $248,575.75 for revenue losses at Poplar Meadows. “The City of McIntosh owns Poplar Meadows, and they had significant revenue losses during the pandemic, and the County Board agreed to just under $250,000 to assist their facility,” Administrator Whiting explained. The board approved all requests unanimously.
The board then went back to the Long-Term Water Supply Project, where they heard from project manager Sarah Sesselman of Advanced Engineering and Environmental Services (AE2S) on new updates and requests about the project in Southwest Polk County. Sesselman explained that they were choosing to allocate the money they asked for from the board for a 12” pipe to service residents of Polk and neighboring Counties, which would deliver water at the same magnitude as the City of Climax would get with an 8” pipeline. Which would give 870 gallons per minute and help the industrial districts of the counties grow. Sesselman reported that the project would cost a total of $2,287,550 and requested a commitment of $585,000 for the 12” pipe. “What it means is that an 8” water pipe would serve the City of Climax, and Climax has committed to that,” Whiting explained. “Three weeks ago, the county bard committed $250,000 to that project, and the City of Climax said, “Thank you, but we would like to see it applied to a larger pipe so that there could be a rural water system outside of Climax and go to perhaps Beltrami, Neilsville, and other places in Polk County.” So, the discussion was, would the board be interested in doing that?” Sesselman reported that Nielsville had signed the agreement and gave $15,000 in rural funding for the project. Commissioner Holy declared that the board understood that costs for materials are going up and the rush of completing the project as quickly as possible, but that the board’s compliance for giving funds for concept ideas wasn’t a strong idea to them. As they have to take other requests into account for the funds as well as this project, as the new pipe was $334,000 more than what they had already committed. The board pointed out that while there was a Regional Water District for North Dakota, there isn’t one formed in Southwest Polk County. After much discussion, the board agreed to commit the funds only if certain conditions were made. “The board agreed that they would commit $584,000, which would include the $250,000 that they allocated for Climax to this project, pending the purchase of the pipe but, more importantly, the formation of what they will call the West Central Regional Water District,” Administrator Whiting explained. “Which has to be formed, it’s a legal entity and ends up that there’s a role in the county board and the district court to set something like that up.” After some discussion, Sesselman and other members of the City of Climax reported that they are underway in forming the district, and Whiting will work with the County Attorney to put together a legal agreement to bring back to the board to send everyone involved with the water system. The board amended the motion and approved it unanimously.
Administrator Whiting then came forward with a Joint Powers Agreement for the board that will begin on July 1, which appoints Commissioner Strandell to re-enter the agreement of a Commission Board with other Commissioners from other counties such as Kittson, Norman, and Red Lake. The board approved the motion unanimously.
Whiting finished the meeting by discussing the budget for 2023 with the board. Where he discussed that they are working on getting a new Market Study employee, and had more audits planned for the meeting next week. He noted that with the rising gas and interest prices, the budget will be difficult to put together as prices will constantly change, but they didn’t want to be over-reliant on fund balance.
The next meeting will take place on Tuesday, July 5, at 8:00 a.m. in the Polk County Government Center.
