The Polk County Commissioners met on Tuesday at the Polk County Government Center.
The board reviewed requests from Polk County Health Director Sarah Reese. Reese brought a Site Affiliation Agreement regarding Walden University, which currently has a Polk County resident enrolled and is interested in participating in the Polk County Clinical program. For this to take place, the commissioners needed to approve the renewal of the Site Affiliation Agreement. The commissioners approved this agreement.
Reese also announced to the board that Polk-Norman-Mahnomen Community Health board member Mary Holz Clause has resigned from her duties as a board member. Clause is the Chancellor at UMC and had to leave her board member position due to a work conflict. Reese recommended to the board to appoint Suraya Driscoll to fill the vacant board position. The board approved the appointment of Suraya Driscoll to the Community Health Board.
“Our Community Health Board is made up of both Polk County Public Health and Norman-Mahnomen Public Health,” said Reese, “We have a joint powers agreement among the three counties that have been in existence since 2013.” Reese also explained that each health department on the board has one community member as a representative, and other members are elected officials from each of the three counties.
Jacob Snyder of Planning and Zoning approached the board with the resolution to award a conditional use permit to Paula Kurtz regarding an accessory structure that exceeded 800 feet on a riparian ted on Maple Lake. Minnesota State Statute states that any accessory building that exceeds 800 feet on a riparian lot (area that touches a lake) requires a conditional use permit.
“There was a shed a little under 1300 square feet existing on the site already, so in a zoning ordinance, it’s either one building or a combined total over 800 feet,” said Snyder, “This scenario, there is 2.3 total acres, and they would be allowed to have 1600 square feet in total by going toward a conditional use process.” The additional shed that is requested to be built would be used for personal storage, according to Snyder. The board approved to award Paula Kurtz the conditional use permit.
The next item Snyder brought to the board was Preliminary Planned Unit Development for the “Forgotten 2nd Bay Addition,” which includes 23 storage structures to be built, and each structure would be up for sale. “It is a development where 23 buildings would be constructed where you would have the option to buy the building and use it for storage purposes only,” said Snyder, “The conversation today was how do we ensure that these are storage units only and not turn it in for someone to say ‘hey I’m going to renovate the back half of this and half of it is going to be my loft area and I’m going to live out of it’ that was much of the discussion today.”
This project takes place less than 1,000 feet from Union Lake, and the commissioners showed concern that these units could be used more as residential or vacation destinations rather than storage.
The board approved the preliminary planned unit development in regard to the “Forgotten Bay 2nd Addition” under the conditions of the drainage areas being established, the construction of gravel roads for access to each unit, and the fact that owners of teams cannot conduct living operations inside the units.
The final item Snyder presented to the board was the recommendation to appoint Paul Jore to the Planning and Zoning board. Rolland Gagner announced his resignation from the Planning and Zoning Board after serving on the board for over 26 years. The commissioners approved Snyder’s recommendation to appoint Paul Jore.
The meeting concluded with the commissioners hearing from Polk County Administrator Chuck Whiting, where he first presented the memorandum of understanding regarding the district formation costs for legal and engineering services for the West Regional Water District.
“This was regarding Clay and Norman Counties. This was to pay for the upfront cost of the form water district, which he has talked about for a couple of years,” said Whiting, “We’ll talk to those two counties, and we’ll bring this back in a couple of weeks.” There is no set cost for the legal and engineering services yet put in place, but it will not exceed $300,000.
Recently, Polk County contributed ARPA funds to help fund the project of enlarging the water pipe from North Dakota to Climax. The East Central Rural Water District out of North Dakota has taken on the project.
Whiting also gave the board updates on the revised preliminary levy, and it was announced that Polk County Departments have already made various cuts to their budgets. “Whether departments have been not filling vacant positions or delaying starts of positions,” said Whiting, “We have a couple of minor capital things as well. What’s left for me to figure out is some of our building stuff because we have been coming in under for some of the projects we’ve bonded for.”
Whiting announced to the board that the preliminary levy is at an increase of below 3%, and right now is a time to revise all of the numbers and make sure the checks and balances are correct before the levy is set in December.
