On Tuesday, the Polk County Commissioners met at the Polk County Government Center in Crookston.
POLK COUNTY SHERIFF REPORT
Polk County Sheriff James Tadman gave his monthly report to the commissioner, and he said they had 840 calls in July. There were 287 traffic stops, 179 civil process, 32 motor assists, 28 assisting other agency calls, and rounding out the top five was 27 public assists. Tadman was asked why there was a large number of traffic stops by the commissioners. “We have three of our deputies in PTO training right now. So some of their PTO training is making traffic stops properly and making sure they do that. So that’s why traffic’s up. I guess usually it’s in the 100s, a little bit over 100s, but when you have three out there, it gets to be a lot busier for them,” said Tadman. “It’s the summertime. People are, you know, trying to get places and, you know, they’re always out there. I think they’re picking off the ones that are really extremely high, but, you know, just trying to make sure that the roads are safe for everyone to be out there.”
EAST POLK HERITAGE CENTER
Bonnie Stewart, East Polk Heritage Center Executive Director, and Stephenie Anderson, East Polk Heritage Center President, came before the board for its annual funding request. The EPHC is looking at building a new museum that would be 60 60-foot by 84-foot metal structure with a front entrance of 30 feet by 24 feet. The EPHC was asking for $25,000 to be designated for the building and include a named permanent gallery. “We’re here as another step in our progress of raising funding for our new museum building in Foston, and we have developed a plan for galleries within the museum that people can make a donation to. Toward that gallery cost, which, again, will support the construction of the building. We have two $50,000 donors for a gallery and a $10,000 donor for an exhibit case,” said Stewart. “And with the building, you said it also might be a multi-use type of facility. Yes, we’re really happy to be able to offer a space to the area over in East Polk County that will give room for events. And we don’t have a lot over at that end of the county that… allows hosting large crowds, and this building would provide that opportunity.”
If your interested in donating to the new museum building call Bonnie Stewart at 218-280-9176, or checks can be mailed to the East Polk Heritage Center, Post Office Box 4, Foston, Minnesota, 56542; or go to www.eastpolkheritage.org.
NW MULTI-COUNTY HRA
Charity Brault of the Northwest Minnesota Multi-county HRA came before the board and gave the commissioners a review of what they have done over the past year and asked to keep the HRA levy the same as last year. “We want to make sure they understand what we do with the levy that we do in Polk County. So as far as community development, rehab on housing, we do down payment assistance. We do small cities in these communities, and we use that money to help get those grants and rehab activities that can work for homeowners, commercial owners, and rental landlords,” said Brault. “We’ve had small cities. We have five of them going on. In Polk County, we have two right now, and that’s in the city of Erskine and the city of Faustin. Erskine is a comprehensive grant for rental, homeowner, and commercial purposes. We do rehab, so we have different projects than those. And then also in the city of Fosston, it’s just owner-occupied, so homeowners. And we just signed on our last home, which brings our total to 21. So we have almost a year, and our community development team has done a wonderful job in getting those projects underway.”
POLK COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Polk County Historical Society’s Gerald Amiot, Steve Hannah, and Jerold Wentzel came before the board for the 2026 appropriation request. They were asking for $15,000 again this year to help the all-volunteer organization. Every year we come to the County Board here to give our annual report on our finances and how we’re doing in the management of the museum, and also we ask for money to assist us with the ongoing operating expenses, such as insurance at a little over $8,000, and also the utilities and so on,” said Gerald Amiot. “And of course, we work without salaried staff, and many museums in the area do have salaried staff, so we do the best we can with some great volunteers.”
The museum has great board members and volunteers who make things work, but they can always use donations. “The board members help man the museum during the summer, Polk
POLK COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH
Polk County Public Health Director Sarah Reese came before the board and asked for approval to end the contractual relationship with UCARE for Care Coordination Services for the MSHO/MSC+ products effective December 31, 2025. “We have had a contract with UCARE for care coordination. It’s called MSC Plus and MSHO, so it’s products for seniors. And we get a per-member per-month rate, which is a very different payment model than most care coordination models have moved to. Over time, we visited with them about a change in the payment model and the administrative tasks that are now being asked of us. And those are no longer in alignment,” said Reese. “We have looked at our current needs, our staffing, and are looking into the future. And so we made the recommendation and were approved to end our contract with UCARE. Of course, our residents’ needs are of the utmost importance, so we wanna give UCARE, and we’re required to give them timely notifications so that the contract will end at the end of December. This is not a government-required service, so this is something that we’ve just done over the years. And so we’ll give them the timely filing of our notification. And then we want to make sure our residents, of course, either can continue with UCARE in the way that they want or that we can provide them with a different care coordinator under a different provider.”
The commissioners approved ending the contract unanimously.
Reese also asked the commissioners to approve the Department of Human Services – Behavioral Health Administration contract to provide primary prevention substance misuse services for Region One, which includes Becker, Beltrami, Clearwater, Hubbard, Kittson, Lake of the Woods, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, and Roseau counties.
“For the last several years, we have partnered with the Department of Human Services, or DHS, with their behavioral health unit. And one of the areas is around primary prevention, which is really about helping our communities be strong and support initiatives that prevent substance use and misuse, specifically among youth, but really the whole community overall,” explained Reese. “Region one includes multiple counties in Northwestern Minnesota, and Melissa Peralt has held this position for quite some time. And her knowledge and expertise is just fantastic. And so we are looking forward to, we went through a competitive process and were awarded the regional prevention coordinator role. Again, that is a five-year contract, just over $800,000 for the five-year period. And so we are looking forward to have Melissa serving in that capacity as we move forward.”
The board unanimously approved the contract.
FACILITIES
Richard Langlois came before the board to ask approval to upgrade the Water Heater at the jail. “The meeting today was to move forward with architectural, engineering, mechanical, all the engineering stuff up front, obviously before they can let bids,” said Langlois.
The next Polk County Commissioners meeting will be on Tuesday, September 2 at the Polk County Transfer Station.