The Polk County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday morning at the Polk County Government Center.
MARSHALL & POLK RURAL WATER SYSTEM APPOINTMENTS
The board began the meeting with County Administrator Chuck Whiting bringing forward a letter from the Marshall & Polk Rural Water System that requested that Wayne Nelson be reappointed to another four-year term to the Water System’s Board of Directors. The board approved the appointment unanimously.
PROPERTY RECORDS-SAMUEL MELBYE
The board was next approached by Property Records Director Sam Melbye, who came forward with a Waiver Request for the Municipal Development District No. 1, a redevelopment district in the City of Fosston. Melbye explained that the new district would assist with the renovation of an old grocery store into a multi-family apartment complex with 14 units. He explained that the city had scheduled a public hearing about the district on December 12 and requested for the board to waive their rights for the 30-day notice before the public hearing to allow them to have it and hold any other necessary meetings for it. The board approved the request unanimously.
EMERGENCY FLEET & PROPERTY TECHNICIAN-JODY BEAUCHANE
The board was then approached by Polk County Emergency Management Director Jody Beauchane, who presented a draft for a new Emergency Operation Plan. Beauchane explained that every county needed a plan, and the current plan was very outdated, and they had begun working on a new one three years ago. “We met with all of the county department heads in the lead departments. We went word by word, paragraph by paragraph, and drafted up our annexes. They and Minnesota Homeland Security approved it, and today we were asking for the board to adopt it so we could move forward and start on tabletops and exercises.” Beauchane explained that he had partnered with retired Border States Electric IT Lead and Emergency Management worker Dave Hinkley, who had volunteered over 300 hours to help Beauchane create the new plan. Jody Beauchane then went into some of the major differences they had made to the plan in certain situations. “Before, we didn’t have a lot of annexes that deal with, for example, family assistance centers. So, it explains how to develop one of those and put everything together so if we have to open or activate one of them. The annex spells out who’s doing what and creates a team to open up that family assistance center,” Jody Beauchane explained. “Another would be an update to our sheltering plan and our hazardous material plan on who’s going to be doing what. If there’s going to be a hazardous material spill, it’s going to be the local Fire Department who will take the lead on that, but we have a plan on how the county’s going to contribute.” Beauchane then requested the board to adopt the new plan, which they approved unanimously.
ADMINISTRATION-CHUCK WHITING
The board was then approached by County Administrator Chuck Whiting, who came forward with a draft resolution approving the establishment of the West Central Regional Water District & Commencement of Water System Establishment Proceedings. Whiting reported that Norman County had worked with Flaherty & Hood to start the legal process to form the regional water system, which included the southwest portion of Polk County, and Norman had passed a resolution regarding its actions to create the regional water system. Whiting reported that he had heard that Clay County was expected to act on the same resolution on December 13 and was working with the attorneys to ensure their resolution was properly written for Polk County. He explained that the board has to date $584,674 of committed American Plan Act funds towards the project when the final draft of the resolution would be ready for them to approve in their meeting on December 13.
2023 Budget
Whiting then gave the board another report of the 2023 Budget, where he said he hadn’t made much progress on it with the short week but noted that he would work with the departments to lower the levy to 4% by the Public Budget Hearing scheduled for December 13 at 6:00 p.m.
HIGHWAY-RICHARD SANDERS
County Engineer Richard Sanders then approached the board for a request for a series of out-of-state traveling requests for 2023 that would take him out of state to allow him to begin making travel and hotel plans. Some of these included traveling to the NACo Legislative Conference in Washington, DC, from February 9-15 and the NACE in Orange Beach, Alabama, from April 14-20. Another was to the Western Interstate Conference NACO BOD from May 17-19 and the NACo Annual Conference in Austin, Texas, from July 21-24.
Karen Seibel Retirement
Sanders then came forward with a resolution of Polk County Highway Department Accounting Clerk III Karen Seibel, saying she would officially retire on December 16.
Agassiz Trail
Sanders then came forward with a grant request for continued maintenance and other proposed expenditures for the trail between Crookston and Fertile and Beltrami and Ada for the 2023 Fiscal Year.
Fosston Application Sponsor
Sanders final item was a sponsorship grant that Fosston would be applying for. He reported they were requesting to use the ATP and Act of Transportation federal grants for the expansion of their trail system. “Because they’re a city of less than 5000, Polk County has to sponsor them,” Richard Sanders explained. “So the County Board approved both resolutions stating that we would sponsor their applications, which means that if they get the funding, all the federal funding would come through and be paid for through my office. So, we’d be helping the city of Fosston with that type of financing.” He explained that due to Fosston’s population size, the county needs to sponsor their application for funding for Active Transportation for $3.5 million to start the first phase of a FIT Trail expansion, which consists of an additional 1,630 feet of trail in northeast Fosston. He explained Fosston would be responsible for all costs not covered under Active Transportation, including construction administration and inspection, utility construction, and construction costs above the grant award, while also maintaining improvements. The board approved all motions unanimously.
The Board of Commissioners will next meet on Tuesday, December 13, at the Polk County Government Center.
The post POLK COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ADOPT NEW UPDATED EMERGENCY OPERATION PLAN appeared first on KROX.
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