The Polk County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday morning at the Polk County Government Center.
CONSENT ITEMS
The board’s Consent items included approving the Commissioner Warrants and Sign Audit List and the board minutes from their meeting on January 3. It also included approving a payment to US Bank, St. Louis, MO, in the amount of $79,908.64 and to WEX Bank, Carol Stream, IL, in the amount of $321.99 for Polk County Public Health for November 2022. The board approved the Consent Items unanimously.
PUBLIC HEALTH-SARAH REESE
The board was first approached by Polk County Public Health Director Sarah Reese with a request to begin advertisement and replacement of a Clerk Typist Cashier III after their last one submitted their resignation as they were moving out of state. The board approved the motion unanimously.
HIGHWAY-RICHARD SANDERS
County Engineer Richard Sanders then approached the board with a request to renew the license for another three years for their GIS software for multiple departments. He reported the three-year contract would cost $38,500 to be sent at the end of the month.
Farmland Lease/Rent
His next item was to discuss the farmland lease, two plots of land they leased every three to five years, including the Old Angus Pit and the Old Liberty Pit between Beltrami and Fertile. For the Old Angus Pit, they had received a quote of $8,801 per year from Arlyn G. Stroble and Damon Stroble. For the Old Liberty Pit, they had received a $625 quote per year from Pat Taylor.
Basel Stabilization Chemical
His next item was a report on the order of Base One Stabilization Chemical for summer road projects. He reported that the county was planning on stabilizing 13 to 15 miles of gravel roads this summer in Erskine and was purchasing the chemical for the contractor to incorporate it into the gravel. “Every year, we do gravel road stabilization where we haul out four inches of gravel and put in a chemical called Base One from TEAM Laboratories. This year we’re doing about 13 to 15 miles of gravel road stabilization, and the chemical cost to us is going to be at $71,352.50. So, we purchased the chemical, and we have the contractor put that chemical into the gravel to stabilize the roads.” Sanders reported that this was budgeted as part of the project.
2022 Motor Grader Purchase
His final item was a request for the purchase of a new 2022 Motor Grader Purchase. He reported they had requested a new motor from Ziegler CAT in July 2021 but have not received it yet due to delivery delays, but they have been using the motor they were going to trade in the entire time, and now their motor grader engine scored one of their pistons in November and started using five quarts of oil every four hours. They had sent a motor grader to RDO (John Deere) to get it analyzed and repaired for over $50,000. He reported they had revised the buyback amount for the motor with Ziegler, who is now willing to trade the motor for $93,775 and provide Polk County a free rental until their new motor grader arrives at the Highway Department. The board approved all motions unanimously.
SOCIAL SERVICES-KAREN WARMACK
Social Services Director Karen Warmack next approached the board with a request to approve a $6,000 contract for a Wellness in the Woods Virtual Peer Support Network. She reported that Wellness in the Woods provides Virtual Peer Support Network services to several regional counties and the Adult Mental Health Initiative to provide peer support to individuals in need of mental health services and supports with funding provided by NW eight Mental Health Initiative funds.
Personal Money Management contract
Her next item was a Personal Money Management (PMM) contract to provide money management assistance to eligible individuals to help stabilize economic functioning by providing financial counseling and vendor payments of $15,000. The board approved both contracts unanimously.
Human Service Manager position request
Her final item was a request to hire a Human Service Manager Position to organize Family Resource Centers in Polk County and any internal subsequent positions vacancies that occur. The board approved the request unanimously.
FACILITIES-RICHARD LANGLOIS
The board was then approached by Facilities Management Director Richard Langlois, who came forward with a report on the cause of two power outages to the Polk County Government Center on January 9 and 11. Langlois explained that they had hired Bergstrom Electric Inc. for the first outage on Monday, who found that a transformer had burnt out. After they fixed the transformer, they discovered they did not have enough power coming into the building due to one of their two power lines shorting out. “We have two parallel lines feeding the building, and one of them had a short in the line. So, they did a temporary repair on Monday morning and figured this would take us till spring when we could better assess the lines in the conduit. But, on Wednesday morning, we came to work and had a similar situation where the power was out. We had Bergstrom on site again and realized that the one lead coming into the building was bad, more so than the repair,” Richard Langlois explained. “So, they ended up discontinuing one lead into the building and putting all of the power over to the secondary parallel. By doing this, we’re basically buying time until spring, but we will not have enough power to run our cooling system with just one of the supply lines coming in.”
Langlois reported they still had a few smaller issues from the power outages left to take care of, but everything overall was running well now. He explained that they will reassess the lines when the ground thaws in April to determine how they will replace it, with options being to dig up the parking lot to access them or having to figure out an alternate route. Their current invoice for Bergstrom’s work was at $2,401.23, and they had a proposal of about $16,500 to replace the main feed underground line in April. He also reported that they had about $2,500-$3,000 in repairs to boiler pumps that went into overtempt during the power outage.
MIS-LEVI WEBSTER
MIS Director Levi Webster then approached the board on a motion to renew a 5-year Liberty printer agreement to replace any old/outdated printers at the county for $6,215.64. The contract included any printer parts, labor, toner, and maintenance travel. The board approved the motion unanimously.
ADMINISTRATIVE-CHUCK WHITING
County Administrator Chuck Whiting finally approached the board with a report on the Pay Grade Increases/Position Reclassifications for the new 2023 wage grid. He reported that the two positions identified in the IT Department did not align with organizational needs and top-of-wage scale pay. In addition, their hiring challenges with their current vacancy that has been posted for over ten weeks. “We’ve got a vacancy since we’ve promoted Levi Webster to the Department Head Systems Administrator, so we’ve been advertising for that, and we haven’t been able to find anybody. We reviewed the position and the job description with our consultant, and we’re going to raise it one pay grade and advertise it again,” Chuck Whiting explained. “We have another one that is linked to it, the Network Administrator, so we’re increasing that grade by one as well. We’ll see what we get here when we readvertise. I hope people will look for it and if they’re interested, please send us an application.” Whiting proposed that the Systems Administrator position increased its grade from 15 to 16 and the Network Administrator position increased its grade from 14 to 15. The board approved the grade raises unanimously.
The Board of Commissioners will next meet on Tuesday, January 24, at 8:00 a.m. at the Polk County Government Center.
