The Polk County Board of Commissioners met at the Government Center on Tuesday morning at 8:00 a.m.
James Tadman – Sheriff
The board heard from Sheriff Tadman. Tadman gave a brief report on transports and Calls For Service during the month of September. Some of the top Calls for Service were Civil Process, Traffic Stops, School Patrol, Motorist Assist, and Transports. There were a total of 772 calls for service. Sheriff Tadman also mentioned that the Harvest Season was very successful and that there were just a few crashes during this year’s harvest.
Next, Sheriff Tadman appointed three new sheriff’s Deputies. Chase Olderbak, Alyssa Lang, and Titan Engen took the Oath of Office as Polk County Sheriff’s Deputies. We caught up with Tadman after the meeting. “Today was a very great day,” said Tadman. “We had the Oath of Office for our three new patrol deputies,” Tadman explains, saying that the three young deputies are coming to the end of their training or have just finished. “Two of them are still finishing up on training, and Deputy Titan Engen just got done with his training just last week,” says Tadman. “It’s very nice. They are, I say, nice kids because they are so young, but it’s great to have them. They are full of energy and ready to go, and they will be a big asset to our office.”
When we asked Sheriff Tadman about today’s full board room, he explained the support these new deputies have behind them. “Their families were all in attendance,” says Tadman. “Deputy Engen’s parents, sister, and girlfriend, Chase Olderbaks’s Mom and Dad and his girlfriend, and then Alyssa had her parents there today.” There were family members, yes, but new family members also showed up for these new Deputies. Sheriff Tadman explains. “I sent it out to everybody that there would be an Oath of Office today, and they showed up,” said Tadman. “The rest of our deputies, investigators, and our Chief Deputy Sergeant, so it was kind of nice.” There was a lot of support for these young deputies today.
Jon Steiner – Environmental Services
Environmental Services Administrator Jon Steiner attended today’s board meeting with the 2025 Solid Waste Fee Assessment/Proposed Fee Schedule. Steiner also brought the Proposed Solid Waste Tip Fees to the board for approval. The Tip Fee hikes, as Steiner explained, are necessary to continue digging us out of a deficit we have been in. “We had to raise Tip Fees, and we did that in July of this year, partially, we knew we had to stop the bleeding, quit digging the hole deeper, but that didn’t get us out,” says Steiner. “We did a financial assessment, and they recommend we do a 15% increase on our fees, so what they did is they raised the Tip fees from $85/ton to $92/ton starting January 2025.” The Board approved the motion unanimously.
For the 2025 Solid Waste Fee, it wasn’t quite as easy to get approval, says Steiner. “The solid waste program is run off of a fee assessment; it’s a line item on the tax statement,” says Steiner. “We have to pay for the Tip Fees and all the cost increases we have had in the last few years, hauling costs have gone through the roof, and we’ve had supply costs go through the roof.” With this being the case, Steiner tells us that it ends up being an assessment adjustment. Across the board, Steiner says there is about a 17% rate increase. This changes between residential and commercial depending on where you fall into a category, so it does fluctuate. The board voted 4-1 to approve the motion for the rate increase, with Commissioner Gary Willhite voting no because he did not want to see an increase at that high of a rate. Willhite wanted to see the rate somewhere in the 10-12% zone, if not lower.
Sarah Reese – Public Health
Polk County Public Health Director Sarah Reese came to the board today to get two out-of-state travel requests approved by the board. The first is for Jason Flores, the Emergency Preparedness and Response Coordinator for Public Health, to attend the National NACCHO Conference in the spring. The other travel request is for Contraceptive Technology Conference in March. Amy Van Den Einde, RN, PHN, and Ariel Netland, RN, will be attending. The board voted unanimously to approve both travel requests.
Also on the agenda for Reese was an informational update to the Board on Measles. Reese tells us why this is important right now. “Across the media, we know that there is a National and State, of course, Minnesota, Measles Outbreak,” says Reese. “I believe as of last week there was something like 52 cases in Minnesota, all of them being in the twin cities/metropolitan area,” Reese says most of those cases are in unvaccinated children, and unfortunately, those resulted in hospitalizations. Reese explains that a few weeks back, the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota Department of Health sent a notice to health departments and schools about the measles outbreak and asked health officials to contact families to ensure they are informed. Reese says they have been getting the word out. “We have been meeting with the schools, and we will be meeting with the school nurses this week and then putting out a letter to Polk County parents and guardians if their children 2-18 do not have full vaccination for MMR,” says Reese. “Which is the vaccine used for Measles.”
Lastly, Reese shared the Polk County Public Health Communications Report for Q3 2024. Reese says it has lots of great information and shows what Polk County Health is up to. “It just shows our engagement on social media, our community outreach and I’m always really proud to show our Communications Report,” says Reese. “It’s looking internally, how do we provide health education, but perhaps more importantly, it is the work that we do in our community.”
Karen Warmack – Social Services
Karen sought approval from the board today to fill an Eligibility Worker Team Leader position in Social Services. The board unanimously approved the motion to fill the position.
Chuck Whiting – Administration
Chuck Whiting brought to the board a motion to reappoint Kurt Ellefson for another four-year term as County Veterans Services Officer. By statute, the term for this position is four years, so the board reappoints every four years. Whiting says Kurt is doing an excellent job, and the board unanimously approved the motion to reappoint Kurt Ellefson.
