The Polk County Commissioners met on Tuesday about proposed 2019 budgets, early voting and received an update on the new Minnesota IDs. The West Polk Soil and Water Conservation District requested the largest budget increase at 20 percent, followed by the East Polk Soil and Water Conservation District’s request of a 10 percent increase. The Northwest Regional Corrections Center requested a 1.6 percent increase to their budget for 2019.
The West Polk Conservation District request for a 20 percent increase from their current allocation of $39,200 results mainly from an increased workload and a deficit in the budget program explains District Manager Nicole Bernd. “The main reason for the increase is to help with our capacity and operations workload increase. We also have a deficit of more than $30,000 for the buffer program that we are using district and reserve funds to cover expenses for, as the state grant money was gone in May.”
The Northwest Regional Corrections Center was requesting a 1.6 percent increase in their budget. “We are losing a contract with Clay County to house prisoners in our facility, but we are offering an increase to Mahnomen County to 25 or 30 prisoners a day to place the lost contract,” said Commissioner Warren Strandell. “We also received notification today that we got a grant from the Office of Justice Programs from recidivism reduction for $300,000.” Recidivism is the tendency of a convicted criminal to re-offend, so the grant will be used on programs aimed to decrease that tendency.
Absentee voting opens on Friday, September 21 at 8:00 a.m. at the Government Center’s Taxpayer Service Center. For those who live in a mail ballot district, ballots will be mailed out in two weeks. Director of Property Records Michelle Cote also provided an update on the Real ID program, “There has been a lot of chatter about the Real ID that becomes available on October 1, it will not be a requirement until October of 2020, so people can still use their current ID to get through security at the airport.”
Additionally, Steve Vesledahl was given approval on a preliminary plan for the creation of Paradise Point Estates utilizing seven lots on Union Lake.
