The Polk County Commissioners met Tuesday morning at the Polk County Government Center.
ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES
Polk County Environmental Services Director Jon Steiner had possible bad news for the commissioners when he told them there could be a tariff charge on equipment they had delivered up to $230,530, which would be 50 percent of the cost. Polk County Solid Waste was awarded two Minnesota Pollution Control Agency grants in 2024 (Enhanced Recycling and Glass Project) and (Co-collected SSOM Compost and Aerated Static Pile Composting project). The organics grant included the purchase of the robotic sorters from Waste Robotic Inc. of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada. The two robotic sorters, a vision system, a control panel, and on-site technical support are $550,000. The tariff amount billed by US Customs is $230,530, which is 50 percent of the cost. Steiner told the board, This has been a headache. “Once it finally got across the border, we had an unsuccessful attempt getting across the border. But once we got across the border, we just received the tariff from the customs, and it was basically 50% of the cost of the equipment, so a little over $230,000 is what they were going to sign us for tariffs,” said Steiner. “We’ve been contesting that. And as I shared with the board, the CFO for the waste robotics, the robotics ring equipment that we’re talking about, basically just sent them a thing asking them how they’re coming up with that because their previous attempts have had a zero tariff on them.”
Steiner said the situation is unfortunate but he had to bring it to the board for approval. “So it’s an unfortunate, bad situation, but that’s what we had to do today to ensure we’re covered legally anyway. And obviously, you’re sort of at the mercy of what they decide at this point,” said Steiner. “They’re not really asking our opinion on it. So it’s basically, here’s your bill, no, by the way, it’s due. And they make you post a bond to cover it, which is another reason it’s kind of weird. Our bond had to be in the amount of $50,000 to cover the possible tariffs.”
LANDFILL PERMIT
Polk County finally got its landfill permit many years after they applied for it. “So our application was in 2015. It was issued in February 2017 with a bunch of conditions on it, meaning the permit wasn’t issued because the required plans are part of the permit,” said Steiner. “We’ve been operating basically with one arm tied behind our back, especially regarding compost. We haven’t been able to use it off-site. We can’t certify it, so it doesn’t have any value to anybody if we could. They were contesting the things that we were going to put in there, which ironically, after all this fighting, are things they readily admit can go in there and anyone can walk in and get approval for.”
Polk County received the 2015 permit in the mail last week. “So that ends our saga on the 2015 permit application just in time to apply for our next 10-year permit, which is due next summer. So we’ll get a little reprieve, catch our breath, but really not so much because we have to do a lot of design engineering work to update our application,” said Steiner. “We’re basically going to go from the last permit, completing it, to applying for the next one. So hopefully this one, with some changes in personnel involved, fresh start, we’ll have a lot better permitting process, hopefully.”
CONNER ADDITION PLAT
The commissioners were asked to approve the re-plat of the Conner Addition, which would allow additional property added to a backlot on Maple Lake in section 13 of Godfrey Township. The request would add square footage to the backlot of Chris and Brad Conner’s land. “He had some property lot line adjustments on Maple Lake, a couple of lots. One was a part of a plat, so to get the legal descriptions up to snuff and ensure that everything’s not a mess for our recorder’s office, we ran that through a plat,” said Polk County Assistant Environmental Services Administrator Jacob Snyder. “We just seek preliminary approval, got to adjust a few things on the language of one of those lots so that it is shed use only and not used for anything other than shed use. And then we’ll have a final plat that we’ll bring to the board.”
2026 BUDGET UPDATE
Polk County Administrator Chuck Whiting gave the commissioners an update on the 2026 budget. The commissioners approved a preliminary levy increase of 4.5 percent at the last meeting. “That gives the ceiling on what we should be doing with the levy, or could be doing with the levy. Still grinding through department by department, looking at even individual line items,” said Whiting. “I’ve removed a few things. Trying to get the overall budget down a bit and will look at fund balances and some of our capital expenses coming up.”
Whiting had some bad news on the Corrections Center’s healthcare costs. “We have a large increase in our share of the Tri-County Community Corrections budget. They had a change of a healthcare provider there. It was kind of a statewide thing, but that one’s going to sting a bit,” said Whiting. “That’s going to push the levy on us pretty good. But the objective is still to get down into that three percent area. We’ll see what we can do. Maybe we have harder decisions to make here at the end of this month and in November.”
Polk County will have the Truth in Taxation hearing on Tuesday, December 2, at 6:00 p.m.
