The Polk County Commissioners met on Tuesday at the Polk County Government Center in Crookston.
Polk County Administrator Chuck Whiting told the board Enbridge Line 3 won’t start construction of the new line until 2020. “We just wanted to brief the board on a couple of things,” said Whiting. “One, Enbridge on their construction of Line 3 informed us of the taxes they see themselves paying to the counties in the State of Minnesota. I had a conversation with them reminding them that what we see in counties isn’t how much they pay in taxes we see more in valuation to spread the tax levy against. A fine point but one that matters in terms of the tax appeal that they have filed. That’s a check that we have to write if they prevail. We don’t necessarily make it up by having additional valuation but that being said the board is on record and strongly favors the construction of Line 3.”
There are currently bills in the Minnesota House (File 424) and Senate (File 1708) that would have the State of Minnesota paying the tax refund should Enbridge win in court. “Our Senator Johnson signed on to the Senate version that would have the State of Minnesota paying the tax refund to Enbridge and other utilities or entities if the state’s valuation doesn’t prevail,” said Whiting. “Counties have nothing to with it other than we collect the taxes. To suddenly have the counties have to pay back taxes that were collected in 2013, ’14, ’15 is problematic and those bills seem to recognize that.”
approved a service contract Huelife to facilitate a future team building session at Tuesday’s Polk County Commissioner’s meeting. The base cost is $3,000 with an anticipated final bill around $6,500 with full participation, including 15 to 20 individual assessments, and travel expenses. “The board agreed to utilize a consultant to come in and do teambuilding exercises,” said Polk County Administrator Chuck Whiting. “We haven’t had one of those in the six and a half years I’ve been here. We’ve had some informal type things, this will be a little more structured. A lot of our leadership is within reach of retirement, so we’ll be seeing some transitioning. We have some new people on board who are new to the public sector. I think it’s a good opportunity for us to assess who we are and where we are going.”
The teambuilding is scheduled for April.
The commissioners also approved their consent agenda Tuesday which included the Auditor Warrants, and payment of two lost warrants to Fengestad-Solie Post #200. The first was issued May 2, 2017, for $40 and the second was issued May 10, 2016, for $40.
The board approved the purchase of five Getac laptops for the sheriff’s office to replace old computers that are due to be cycled out on the department’s four-year rotation plan. Each computer costs $3,238.17, totaling $16,190.85 for all five. They also approved filing a vacated custodial position in the facilities management department.
Jon Steiner, Environmental Services Administrator, brought the 2019 Trailer Hauling Contract surcharge to the board for approval. The contract was awarded by Beltrami County to Anderson Trucking of Bemidji with a $.07/mile surcharge. The contract changed from $1.00/ton in 2018 and would result in approximately a two-thirds cost savings for the same amount of hauling or allow nearly three times the garbage, recycling, and organics to be hauled between Fosston and Crookston without adding extra money to the budget. “Part of our projects we did, not just in Polk but in Hubbard and Beltrami County on their transfer stations was to have them built similarly allowing us to share contracts,” said Steiner. “In this case, it’s a hauling contract. Beltrami County purchased a bunch of live floor trailers for their fleet. New trailers are about $80,000 each and they are managing those and charging Hubbard County and us to maintain them. They were charging $1.00/ton or about $8,000 a year. With Hubbard County coming in with their two new Transfer Stations, Beltrami looked at their formula and decided to do a per mile system which will save us a couple of thousand dollars a year that way.”
The board passed a resolution (2019-13) to accept two donations to support the services and programming of Polk County Coordinated Victim Services. Each donation is for $100, one from Trinity Lutheran Church in Crookston and the second from Sandhill Lutheran Church in Climax.
