The Polk County Commissioners continued meeting at the Polk County Government Center and opened the 2024 publication biddings for the Polk County Official Newspaper.
BIDDING FOR THE OFFICIAL POLK COUNTY NEWSPAPER
Each year, Polk County opens up bidding for city publications within Polk County. Polk County Director of Property Records Sam Melbye presented each designation and bid for the 2024 Polk County News Paper and publication of Polk County’s delinquent tax list statement. “This was for the publication for the county board meetings and the publication for all legal notices,” said Melbye, “This includes bid notices, sample ballots, and all other publishing requests presented by the county. We opened The second one for publication of the delinquent tax list.”
Every year, on January 2, any individual who has not paid their taxes for the prior year becomes delinquent. Polk County will now begin notifying everyone who is deemed to be outstanding. By March of this year, anyone who has not paid taxes will have their name published in the Polk County Newspaper.
Publications that bid for the 2024 Polk County Newspaper were the Crookston Times, The Exponent (East Grand Forks), The Fertile Journal, The 13 Towns, and The McIntosh Times (Richard Publishing). The official county paper was awarded to Richards Publishing/ McIntosh Times for $2.50 per column inch, and the delinquent tax list was awarded to the Fertile Journal for $4.00 per column inch.
“Any publication or any notification that has to go to the public has to be in that paper,” said Melbye, “We usually still send them out to all of the regional newspapers as well so we can make as many people (as possible) in the county aware of what’s going on. But this is where we are now required to publish it.” The Fertile Journal was awarded the publication of the Polk County Newspaper in 2023, in which they published all of the board minutes and agendas for the Polk County board meetings.
POLK COUNTY PROPERTY RECORDS AGENDA ITEMS
Melbye presented to the board a lease for extension regarding a McIntosh building used as a UMC extension office. “This was just to renew the lease for another year,” said Melbye, “Nothing has changed as far as the terms of it. But every year, we remind the board we intend to extend the lease to that building as a UMC extension office.” Polk County will receive $1,562 quarterly for the lease cost, which equates to an annual revenue of $6,248.
The board also approved for the Polk County Property Records Department to fill the vacancy of a Filing Appraiser Vacancy.
The board concluded the meeting by reviewing the county board issue forum, where the board ultimately made a motion to re-appoint Jason Stordahl to the Marshall and Polk Rural Water System Board for a four-year term. The term is set to expire on December 31, 2027.
