-
L to R: Jessica Laleman, Rose Schmitt, Heidi Winter, Jody Penoyer, Commissioner Molly Malone, Dawn Butler, Jon Bloemendaal and Della Bennett.
By Joanne Bergman The regular meeting of the Murray County Board of Commissioners was held on Tuesday, January 24, 2023.
Commissioner Lori Gunnink was not in attendance at this meeting. The first item of business was the recognition of employees for length of employment.
Jon Bloemendaal was recognized for longest employment at 30 years. Heidi Winter and Jody Penoyer were recognized for Twenty-Five years. Janette Engels and Heath Landsman were recognized for Twenty years; by Auditor Treasurer Heidi Winter included $11,130.50 for engineering of JD 6, JD 20A,CD 20,CD 41 and JD14. Construction costs approved by Ditch Inspector Travis Radke brought the total to $27,704.32. Hearing dates were set for several ditch systems on March 7 and March 14. These included CD 22, CD 76, CD 18, JD 14, JD 15 and JC 6.
Justin Hoffman, Parks Director, asked for approval of a change order of $672.10. This amount will allow for a door to a storage area under the stairway in the newly constructed Parks Maintenance Building. Move in will possibly occur later in the week.
County Administrator Carolyn McDonald asked for approval of the Fiscal Agent Master Agreement that allows the Des Moines Valley Health & Human Service to continue as fiscal agent for the SW MN Mental Health Consortium.
The request to allow Chief Deputy Bryan Bose to hold a credit card was approved. Sheriff Heath Landsman also holds a card with Steve Telkamp’s discontinued.
All Commissioners were approved for attendance at the AMC Legislative Conference in February.
Highway Engineer Randy Groves was present to open bids for bridge replacement project SAP 051-599-104 in Lowville Township. Three bids were received with that of Structural Specialties, Inc. at $787,717 being accepted as the lowest. Groves explained that there are no plans to raise the level of the county road in Ellsborough Township as it falls into the responsibility of that township.
Representatives of SW MN Health and Human Services presented financial information indicating an increase in reserve funds to three months since the 2017 report that had shown no reserves. Essential and non-essential services are evaluated in an effort to continue increasing the reserves. Each County is assessed for costs not covered by grants and state funding with a 5% increase in 2023. Monies received through the Opiate Settlement are restricted to expenses approved by the entities involved. The program will continue for nineteen years.
