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Slayton Fire Chief, Chris LeTendre, recognized these 5th grade students for their creative design talents on creating a poster to honor Fire Prevention Week. The Winners are L to R: 1st Gael Ortega, 2nd Casper Harms and 3rd George Haugen. Thank You to the Slayton Fire Department for taking the time to educate our youth on fire prevention.
By Joanne Bergman The Murray County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Tuesday, October 15, 2024. An additional Subordination Request for Septic Lien was given approval. Auditor Treasurer Heidi Winter assured the board of increased value to the property to back the loan.
Highway Engineer Randy Groves requested a resolution be approved for the second time. The original form contained an incorrect project number. The resolution requested reduction of speed on CSAH 13 (Valhalla Road) to 20mph from the standard 30-40 mph. Difficulties in realigning the road and the need to purchase additional right of way were cited as the reasons for the request.
Terry Nelson was approved as the newest member of the Planning Commission following the resignation of Grant Boese.
City Administrator Josh Malchow made a request for the reallocation of City of Slayton TIF monies. In 1996 the area of Lindenwood and Prairieland was put into a TIF district to finance development of the area. The district was decertified on December 31, 2023 with a balance of $228,606 remaining. Those funds have limited usage if they remain in the fund. They can be returned to taxing districts in the proportion the districts were impacted by the TIF. Murray County’s 14.3% share is $32,690.66. Malchow asked the County to use the funds to support Wonder World’s efforts to construct a new daycare facility. The economic impact of daycare for retainage of employees within the County was cited. The City of Slayton, Murray County Central Schools and the SW Regional Development Council have all approved the same distribution of TIF funds. After some discussion the Commissioners agreed also with the monies to become available for the initial planning costs of the building project.
Southwest Health & Human Services brought the cost of transferring mental health patients forward. Since 2020 Murray County has billed SWHHS for the costs of a deputy transfer to a facility, an unbudgeted expense for that organization. The Commissioners decision was to set up a separate line item for those expenses and to write an amount of $20,000 into the 2025 budget.
Two Human Resource actions were approved. Nonunion wage increases for 2025 were set at 5% COLA effective January 1. The second was the approval of the hiring of Harvey “Andy” Anderson as Highway Maintenance Worker starting October 16th at a wage of $23.70 hr.
