The Polk County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday morning at the Polk County Government Center. They heard from Planning and Zoning Director Jacob Snyder on another Low-income Septic fix-up program and Environmental Supervisor Administrator Jon Steiner on updates to the program.
DIRECTOR OF MIS- EVAN BRUGGEMAN
MIS Director Evan Bruggeman first approached the board with a review of the MIS Department’s budget for 2023. County Administrator Chuck Whiting explained that the budget was set but still was subject to change. Bruggeman said there was an increase in their compensation and benefits as they were looking to add a few positions in April of 2023. He said the total changes were close to what they were last year, with an increase from $954,856 to $1,110,922 due to them having to start a new contract with Microsoft for 2023 to cover every computer in the MIS and adding antivirus and backup cloud programs for $264,181. The final additions would be purchasing an email archiver and backup server to keep them refreshed and prevent issues for $264,181 and some replacement chairs for the offices as some were beginning to break for just under $300,000.
PLANNING AND ZONING- JACOB SNYDER
The board then heard from Assistant Environmental Supervisors Administrator Jacob Snyder on awarding a grant for the low-income septic fix-up program for Richard and Diann Pesch of East Grand Forks to Great Northern Septic, Brandon Maygra, in the amount of $14,100 to upgrade their failing septic system. Snyder explained that the Peschs had met the qualification criteria to receive the 80% grant payment allocation of the program as the system is failing to meet soil separation and being near surface waters, which could lead to it leaking into them. Snyder said they would utilize all their fund sources to cover the program. “We’re going to utilize all of our MPCA (Minnesota Personal Care Assistance) funds this year. We’ll carry over the new BWSR (Board of Water & Soil Resources) funds that were gifted to us this year. That wasn’t an application that we submitted. It was something that piggybacked off the MPCA funding, which we put in a grant application for,” Snyder explained. “Then, we will also couple a small amount of the ARP funds to get to our maximum allocation for this project. So that we’ll fit the goals of our program to help people fix septic systems and our low-income program and get this one fixed.” The board approved the motion unanimously.
HIGHWAY- RICHARD SANDERS
County Engineer Richard Sanders approached the board next with quotes from DKO and Ziegler to provide a packer for a behind motor grader. He noted that the equipment won’t arrive until late December and the payment would be made in January but noted that the costs would go up by 10-15% after September 20, so he recommended paying RDO in the amount of $26,543 before the cost rise using their 2023 budget. The board approved the motion unanimously.
ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES- JON STEINER
The board then heard from Environmental Supervisor Administrator Jon Steiner, who explained that Polk, Beltrami, and Hubbard County shared a contract for hauling waste and recyclables between facilities and was in the process of being bid for 2023-25. Beltrami proposed to increase the Trailer Rental Rate (which is paid by all three counties to ensure the continuation of the service) and the number of trailers they had. Steiner explained that the current contract’s rate is calculated on a per-mile basis. However, repairs and maintenance are based on loading/unloading materials. “We anticipated that a lot of the repair would be based on the number of miles, and we found out that it’s more about how many times we load it. We’re not wearing tires out by mileage, but we are by destroying them, so effective September 1, and for the next contract as well, we’ll go to a per load basis instead of a per mile basis,” Steiner said. “Especially for Polk, we were getting off very cheap because our hauling wasn’t very far, and with splitting up per load, our costs would go up a bit. It’s still going to be a relatively minor increase compared to what we paid for hauling.” Steiner proposed that the rental rate which sustains this service be a flat rate incurred each time the trailer is loaded and requested for the board to approve the rental rate to be $31 per load effective on September 1 and continuing through 2023-25. The board approved the motion unanimously.
General Program Updates
Snyder then gave an update on the General Program. Mainly on the Stenberg Building’s Roof in the Resource Recovery Facility in Fosston. He noted that they were looking at getting Quality Control Robotic Sorters from various vendors to automate the sorting and cleaning of the garbage out of the recyclables. “We’ve had a horrible time for the past two and a half to three years hiring people to do that quality control work for us. We’re always going to have certain people sorting in certain areas, but we can’t automate some of those areas, or we can’t fill them with actual people,” Steiner explained. “That’s what we’re looking at. We’ve looked at a couple of different equipment vendors that make robots and do that work for us. We just met with a company out of California that makes one that wouldn’t require extensive modifications to the plant to use, so they look very promising.” Steiner explained that he would look at a few facilities that had purchased these robots and see if they could find ways to replicate them in a way that would work for the plant and potentially purchase them to take the place of positions they are unable to fill.
The Polk County Board of Commissioners will have their next meeting on Tuesday, September 6, at 8:00 a.m. in the Polk County Government.
