The Polk County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday morning at the Polk County Government Center for a regular meeting.
ADMINISTRATION OF OATH OF OFFICE FOR COMMISSIONERS
Before the Call to Order, the board invited Ninth Judicial District Judge Jeffrey Remick to swear-in Mark Holy, Joan Lee, and Warren Strandell back into their positions as Commissioners of their districts for another four years. A picture of the ceremony can be seen below-
ELECTION OF OFFICERS
After the Call to Order, the board began an election process for a new Chair and Vice Chair. Commissioner Gary Willhite and Gerald Jacobson nominated Vice Chair Commissioner Warren Strandell to be promoted to the new Chair of the board. While he was delighted to receive the nomination to become the next chairperson, Commissioner Strandell explained that he planned to continue working with his fellow commissioners as a team to help the county grow. “County government is a team effort, and the county board is a team,” Commissioner Chair Warren Strandell explained. “There’re not many times where we have split votes or anything like that, so we try to do things together for the best interest of everybody involved.”
For the Vice Chair election, Commissioner Joan Lee nominated third District Commissioner Gary Willhite to become the board’s vice chair. The board approved both nominations unanimously.
CONSENT ITEMS
The board’s Consent items included approving the board minutes from their meeting on December 20, 2022, and the auditor warrants. The board approved the Consent Items unanimously.
ADMINISTRATION-CHUCK WHITING
The board was then approached by County Administrator Chuck Whiting, who came forward with a review of the Polk County Justice Center’s Projects. He was joined by their Architect, Todd Blixt of ICON, via a web meeting and Facilities Director Rick Langlois to review options they could use to go ahead with the Center’s roof replacement, boiler replacement, and glycol heating couplers replacement projects.
Architect Blixt had a few thoughts on how they could complete the projects. Blixt explained that they would split the roof replacements into three sections and use the same material as the previous one. They would also replace the skylights, as many of them were leaking. For the Boiler replacement, a lot of the piping seemed to be failing in multiple locations, and some may not have been appropriately grouped or added with the wrong type of couplers. Langlois reported that there were a few leaks in a certain area, but he could not find any specific area that caused the problem but noted they mainly happened when there was a dramatic drop in temperature. Langlois reported that they wished to pull a sampling test to check if all the couplers were put in correctly and ensure they all worked before they get a full assessment on the rest of the project. “The couplers have been a chronic issue with leakage, so we need to look into an assessment in the spring where we can shut our system down to determine how much we really need to do to get this system to make sure that we can eliminate this chronic issue of couplers starting to leak in the future,” Rick Langlois explained. “It’s one of those things that’s difficult to get a handle on until we can assess how big the project will be. It’s all going to depend on the assessment that we go forward with in May.”
Blixt reported that the roofing and boiler replacement project’s plans and specifications would be finished by the last week of February, and they would open bids by March 17. During bidding, they would submit drawings to the state for building plan reviews and permitting, which could range anywhere from one to three months, depending on the workload, so they could get the building permit by the middle of May. Then in May, they would shut down the steam to the Justice Center and do exploratory work verifying the condition of multiple couplers and piping the determine the next steps in its replacement. Once those would be determined, more plans and speculations would be created, though he noted he was unsure of the timeline for when this would be completed as it depended on the scope of work, though he believed they would be ready for bidding by the fall or winter of 2023 and have repairs done by the summer of 2024. Langlois explained that the uncertainty of getting construction materials on a timely basis would be one of the main reasons it would take so long to complete but would allow them to have plenty of time to do the project properly and get the materials as needed.
Blixt explained they would have to discuss adjusting the fees with the consultants for the projects, but the roof work was contracted at $49,500. Blixt explained they would need mechanical and electrical consultants to replace the boilers and would ask for the approval of the design work once the costs from the consultants came in. County Administrator Whiting explained that they would amend their Capital Improvement Plan with the Capital Improvement Bonds so they could use them for the project and open a public hearing to continue with it. “They’re Capital Improvement Bonds, which requires a five-year Capital Improvement Plan, which when adopted, requires a public hearing, and if you amend the plan, which we’re going to, then you have to have a second public hearing to amend the plan,” Chuck Whiting explained. “It’s relatively minor, but it’s a legal requirement of the use of those bonds, so we’ll do that when we’ve got our plans firmed up, and we’ll set up the hearing.”
2023 OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER & PUBLISHING BIDS
Property Records Director Sam Melbye then approached the board with the opening of publication bids. Sam reported they had sent out bid invitation ads and official bid forms for the Official Publishing for the County of Polk for 2023, with bids opening today. He reported they had sent requests out to The Crookston Daily Times, The Erskine Echo, The Exponent, The Fertile Journal, the McIntosh Times, and The Thirteen Towns. The first bid they had received was from The Exponent for $5 per column with $6 per column for the Delinquent tax list. The McIntosh times bid for $2.45 per column for the official newspaper and delinquent tax list. The final bid they received was from the Fertile Journal for $2.45 per column for the official newspaper and $4 per column for the Delinquent tax list.
Designating Publication of the Delinquent Tax List Statement of Polk County
After much discussion, the board chose to designate The Fertile Journal as the official newspaper with a bid of $2.45 per column and The McIntosh Times for the Publication of the Delinquent Tax List Statement with a bid of $2.45. The board approved both motions unanimously.
COUNTY BOARD MEMBERS ISSUE FORUM
The board’s issue forum consisted of reviewing their Board Committee Assignments for 2023. They reported the delegates and alternates they had set for each committee. The board approved the assignments unanimously. The full table of assignments can be seen below.
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Open in new tab AMC 2023 Policy Committee & Voting Delegate Appointments
The board then began appointing the voting delegates for the 2023 Policy Committee. After much discussion, the board selected Commissioner Gerald Jacobson for the Environment & Nature Resources Policy Committee, Commissioner Gary Willhite for the General Government Policy Committee, Commissioner Joan Lee for the Health & Human Services Policy Committee, Commissioner Warren Strandell for the Public Safety Policy Committee, and Commissioner Mark Holy for the Transportation & Infrastructure Policy Committee. The board approved the appointments unanimously.
The Board of Commissioners will next meet on Tuesday, January 17, at the Polk County Government Center.
