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 the board minutes from their meetings on September 20 and 21. The Consent Agenda also included approving payments to 13 Towns Newspaper in Fosston in the amount of $35 for a one-year subscription for the Incinerator and to Mohamed-Mohamed in East Grand Forks in the amount of $240 for a Community Language Interpreter for CHA/Polk County Public Health. The board approved the agenda unanimously.
PUBLIC HEALTH-SARAH REESE
The board first heard from Public Health Director Sarah Reese, who requested the approval of the advertisement and the replacement of a Nurse Practitioner and a Clerk Typist, Cashier III. She noted that some Practitioners are currently not searching for full-time jobs, so they elected to make it a .8 FTE for the Department. For the Clerk Typist Cashier, this position had been open for about three months, and in response to the recent budget revision and organizational assessment of future needs, they had delayed the hiring of this position until now. The board approved both motions unanimously.
POLK COUNTY SHERIFF-JAMES TADMAN
The board then heard from Polk County Sheriff James Tadman, who came forward with the Monthly Sheriff Reports for August. He reported that the Department received $9,217.02 in Paid Services for the month. For their Transport Log, the Department drove about 8,186 miles for the month, giving them a total of 59,693 miles for the year. They had also received 2,763 calls, with 700 being for emergencies and the other 2,063 for non-emergency calls. They had also made 793 calls for service, with 226 being for Traffic Stops and 244 for Civil Process. They also had six gas Drive Off Thefts, which was still a continuing problem for the county.
Lightbar request
Tadman then reported that the Fertile Fire Department had requested lightbars from Polk County for their fire trucks, so he requested the board if they could gift older lightbars to them. The board approved the gifting unanimously.
Emergency Management Trailer
Tadman then began a walk-through of the Department’s Emergency Management Trailer that had parked outside of the Center and invited the board members to see the inside of the trailer and how they used all of its additions to help them on various tasks. Pictures of the trailer can be seen below-
EAST POLK SOIL & WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT-RACHEL KLEIN
The board then heard from Rachel Klein of the Clearwater River Headwaters One Watershed One Plan Policy Committee, of which Polk County is a partner of. She requested that the county approve their submission of the Clearwater River Headwaters Watershed Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan to the Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) Northern Committee and begin implementing the plan for the area the county identified within it. The board approved the submission unanimously. With the board’s approval, Klein revealed that she would bring the agreements from all of the partnered counties as a part of the plan to the next BWSR meeting. “The next step is it goes to the Board of Water and Soil Resources for approval,” Rachel Klein explained. “There’s a meeting next week with the committee, and they’ll bring it to the board, so it’s anticipated that it’ll be approved in October, and then our funding will come out after that.” Klein revealed that once they get the funding, outreach for this and other projects will begin in 2023.
COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR-CHUCK WHITING
The board finished the meeting hearing from County Administrator Chuck Whiting, who came forward with a resolution from Environmental Services Administrator Jon Steiner, to set Polk County’s Market Price for remittal of the Solid Waste Management Tax for the county properties that have their solid waste go to the Fosston Incinerator. Whiting requested that the rate be the same as it was in 2022, about $28.50 per ton of waste, which will be submitted to the MPCA by October 31. The board approved the motion unanimously.
Setting Preliminary 2023 Property Tax Levy
The board finished the meeting with a resolution to set the 2023 Preliminary Levy. The board had set the 2023 levy to be $1,423,125 over the 2022 levy of $25,875,000 after their special meeting on Wednesday, September 21. Commissioner Joan Lee also noted that there were too many unknown factors in the levy and requests right now that made it so they couldn’t afford to lower it below a 5.5% increase. After some discussion, the board decided on a preliminary levy of a 5.5% ($1,423,125) increase on the 2022 budget, making a preliminary levy of $27,298,125. Commissioner Gary Willhite suggested that for the final tax levy, Whiting make three options for the levy between a 3 to 4% increase between now and the end of the year, which the board agreed was a good goal to try and reach. “The goal is to be under 4% and closer to 3%. 5.5% is about $1.4 million relative to the 2022 levy increase that was finalized last year. My guess is that we’re going to end 3 to 3.5%, which will be about another $1 million on the levy,” Whiting explained. “We’ll see how that develops. As we get closer, there’ll be some choices for the board to consider as they try to finalize the budget and the levy in December.” The board set the public hearing date for the final levy to be on December 13 at 6:00 p.m., with their meeting on December 20 being their last meeting to adopt all related budget resolutions.
The Polk County Board of Commissioners will next meet on Tuesday, October 4, in the Polk County Government Center at 8:00 a.m. Pictures of the Commissioner’s inspecting the Polk County Sheriff’s Emergency Management Vehicle can be seen below-
