The Polk County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday to discuss a budget request from Lake Agassiz Regional Library, hear a proclamation for National 4-H Week, and approval of two new county funds.
LAKE AGASSIZ REGIONAL LIBRARY BUDGET REQUEST
Liz Lynch and Jamie Sprynczynatyk from the Lake Agassiz Regional Library (LARL) met with the county board to discuss their 2027 budget request of $357,860, a 14.7% increase over 2026. The increase was calculated using LARL’s direct cost-of-service model, which factors in the service area population and facility usage in Fertile, Fosston, McIntosh, and Climax. Sprynczynatyk suggested that the county could pay for the increase over a four-year period to help their costs, but hours could be cut from these rural libraries if the increase isn’t provided. The board suggested that LARL consider asking Climax, Fertile, Fosston, and McIntosh to become their own signatories, which would lower the county’s obligation for funding. Lynch appreciated the board’s feedback and is open to some of their suggestions. “I think it went pretty well. I think that all the commissioners understand that libraries are important to all the communities in Polk County and to the residents of Polk County. We’re always willing to look at new models for funding or for services. Libraries are always evolving, so yeah, it’s something that we could look into.”
WATERSHED/TAX AUTHORITY REQUESTS
Polk County Auditor Annalee Jones brought multiple resolutions to the board, including watershed levy requests for 2027 in the amount of $3,418,667.71, the NWRDC and HRA levy requests for 2027 in the amount of $474,428.00, the Maple Lake Improvement District budget of $75,950.00, and the Union Lake Sarah Improvement District budget of $12,500.00 for 2027. Jones told the board that most of these levy amounts are steady from last year or slightly lower. “The county essentially is a pass-through for them, so we apply the levies to the tax statements, and then the money gets collected and distributed to each of these taxing authorities. Overall, there were very minimal changes this year in comparison to prior years.”
Jones also presented a resolution approving the ambulance special assessment requests from Crookston, Fertile, and Fosston. Crookston’s services stayed level with 2026, while Fertile went up by $10 per household, and Fosston went up by $2 per household, which is steady compared to previous years. “Those seem to be holding pretty steady. I know that the different ambulance districts; these fees actually are applied as special assessments to each household. They do a lot of statewide research to help determine their fees per household.”
SHERIFF’S REPORT
Polk County Sheriff James Tadman presented the September sheriff’s report to the county board. There were 829 calls for service in September, down slightly from 850 in August. While most call types were steady or decreased, Tadman noticed that multiple vehicle-related calls increased, including vehicle accidents and thefts. “All in all, it was kind of mixed and mingled this time, so a lot of different ones that we haven’t had in the past. Our motor vehicle crashes were a total of 10 with one injury crash. Then we had nine reckless drivers. We had one pursuit, and then we had three DWI arrests, and then we had two stolen vehicles in Polk County for the month of September.”
Tadman also brought a resolution forward that would authorize the execution of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (MnDPS) grant agreement on behalf of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Previously, one designee from the three departments was chosen to sign off on the grant for everyone, but now, each department must have its own designee to sign off on the grant. The change allows each department to receive its own funding from the grant instead of being combined. “Each time that we’ve had this, we’ve had one designee that would take over the grant, and now the state has moved that each agency has to apply for that grant. So our Chief Deputy Mike Norland is going to be taking care of that duty right now, and then we apply for the grants and it just goes through our office. But we’ll still be working together with those other agencies, but the funding just comes into each individual department.”
NATIONAL 4-H WEEK RECOGNITION
Katie Becker from the University of Minnesota Extension and Polk County 4-H Federation President Ben Capistran spoke to the county board about the Polk County 4-H program, as they celebrate National 4-H Week. Capistran shared his 4-H story, which began in third grade, and how the club has shaped his life. He encourages any kids from kindergarten to high school to give 4-H a chance, as the opportunities and experiences are incredible. “As you get older, the opportunities ramp up. You have statewide things and even national opportunities.. I was able to actually go to Washington D.C. as a part of 4-H last spring for statewide leadership opportunities, so there’s definitely something for everybody in 4-H. Whether you have an animal, whether you want to show projects, whether you want to lead a meeting, there’s something for everyone. Don’t think it’s just limited to agriculture.”
PRELIMINARY PLAT APPROVALS/MCINTOSH SCHOOL UPDATE
Jacob Snyder brought two preliminary plats to the county board for approval. The first preliminary plat would create a new lot and adjust right-of-way alleys in the Township of Maple Bay. The replat was needed following the abandonment of the alleys included in the first platting of Maple Bay in 1882. “Godfrey Township did some work this past winter and spring in abandoning some of the right of ways that they foresaw maybe they needed for alleys and things in 1882, and so a lot has changed out there. We need to assign those right-of-ways to parcels, and that all happened, but sometimes what you’re left with doesn’t align perfectly with the land uses around it. There’s a cemetery located in this re-plat, and really our goal is to ensure that all the grave sites are on the cemetery’s property because that would be a big issue. There was some cleaning up of proposed lot one, where some sheds actually need to get assigned to property that they were built on, and then some realignment of some property with including those abandoned right-of-ways and alleyways for a couple other lots.”
The second plat would create four non-riparian lots in the old Pine Ridge Estates subdivision in Knute Township. Snyder felt this preliminary plat was easier than Maple Bay and would benefit existing property owners in the subdivision. “We had another re-plat of Pine Ridge Estates on Lake Sarah. Basic, straightforward re-plat is taking two lots, making them to four, and well over acreages they needed to be, so it’s pretty basic stuff.”
An update on the work at McIntosh School was provided by Snyder, as the project’s final stages are underway. Cleanup from the demolition is ongoing, and a common wall with a nearby auto repair shop has been repaired. Snyder was surprised that the contractor completed the necessary work within the scheduled 30-day window and reported that the total project costs are expected to be at or under budget. “They had a 30 day window, and that was their decision to kind of ramrod it in 30 days. I timed it out as I thought they’d need 60 days to get it done. It was a huge project for a huge building like that. They got it done, and we’re just cleaning up some minor hiccups. There was a little bit of damage to an adjacent building, rebuilding the common wall. We knew that was going to be the case, and it seems to be we’re going to be under budget on that, or right at it. Demo tipping costs were less than anticipated, so we had a lot of things aligned that feel pretty good.”
FANNY TOWNSHIP ROAD PROJECT
Polk County Engineer Richard Sanders brought a resolution forward that would approve Polk County as the sponsoring agency for the Fanny Township Road Reconstruction Project. The project will reconstruct a portion of 190th Street SW from County Highway 75 to a nearby bean company, and the county must sponsor the project on behalf of Fanny Township because state grant funds are involved. “Whenever a township or a small city receives grant funding through the state, the county has to sponsor that project so that we can receive the state aid funding for them and guarantee to the state that it gets spent correctly, and so the county board did the resolution for an application that Fanny Township is putting in for local road improvement program funds.”
The resolution was approved unanimously. The county board also approved three maintenance requests that will survey and clean county ditches 15, 38, and 49.
SSTS/PARKS AND REC FUNDS
Finance Director Stacy Grover brought two resolutions to the board that would establish the Polk County Subsurface Sewage Treatment System (SSTS) Cost Share/Loan Program Fund and the Polk County Parks and Recreation Fund, respectively. As Grover has been working on some of the changes within the finance department, it was identified that the SSTS and Parks and Rec funds have never been established and should be moving forward. “We are reviewing all of our chart of accounts and how we are reporting financials, and we just simply came across best practice recommendation that recommended we put that into a separate fund. So that’s what we’re going to follow, and then the Parks and Rec fund really is establishing a fund for the department for Maple Lake and Cross Lake-Tilberg Park campgrounds that we should have created several years ago. So we’re just going to get that restated and put that in its own fund because those are completely self-sustaining parks.”
The next Polk County Board of Commissioners meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 20, at 9:30 a.m. in the county boardroom at the Polk County Government Center in Crookston.
