The Murray County Board of Commissioners met on July 6th with Commissioner Molly Malone absent from the meeting. The Open Forum section of the agenda is usually without comments, however two matters were discussed at this meeting. County Ditch 22 was the subject of the first discussion. Paul Malone, one of the owners of land in the system has concerns regarding a petitioned change to enlarge the size of pipe. He declared that the upper portion of the line is “working fine”. There is no ponding of rain water or flooding, he continued. There have been on-going repairs to the system of which other landowners have not been made aware of and he asked for more communication. As is the practice of the Commissioners, no action is taken on matters brought forward to Open Forum.
Brad Pagel was on hand to request a proclamation be made declaring August 21 as Slayton American Legion Erwin March Post 64 Day. The day will mark the 100th anniversary of the organization that bears the name of the first local soldier to die in WWI. Celebration of the anniversary will coincide with the Murray County Fair.
Ditch Inspector Travis Radke had two repair requests to bring before the Board. One of those is in Belfast Township Sec. 30 and the other in Mason Township, Sec 27. Work has continued to investigate the condition of CD 43 in Belfast Township. Cameras did reveal cracks in the tiles.
Highway Engineer Randy Groves was on hand to open bids for crushing gravel for use on County roads. Wm. D. Scepaniak of Holdingford, MN presented the lowest bid at $127,008 and was awarded the work. Groves presented the costs totaling $81,000 to extend sewer and water to the new highway department complex along Highway 30 west of Slayton. This is a cost already built into the building plans. The sole vote against the project came from Commissioner Gunnink who has been adamantly against the high cost of the whole project.
Murray County Medical Center CEO Luke Schryers presented his monthly update to the Commissioners with some positive financial news. May was a busy month with many catching up on their wellness visits and tests. Sixty new patients were served during the month. Emergency Room and ambulance runs were also up for the month. Tom Bergman, PA-C has begun seeing patients Monday thru Friday. The search continues for a family practice physician with two interviews scheduled in the next months. Covid testing continues with no positive results in June. Vaccinations have also continued to be given throughout the month.
Zoning Administrator Jean Christoffels had three Conditional Use Permits to discuss. Michael Sweetman and Mark and Melissa Stoner received approval from the Board for the final plat of Woods 5th Addition. It calls for two residential lots in an area East of Deer Path Road in Sec. 29 of Shetek Township.
Scott and Sena will build a new cabin in Sherwood Estates in Sec. 36 of Lake Sarah Township. The plan to elevate the cabin to allow a crawl space underneath required a permit from the County. It was approved.
The request of Novel Energy Solutions to construct a solar farm on land owned by Larry Byers in Secs 23 & 24 of Slayton Township generated numerous concerns for landowners in the area at the earlier meetings of the Zoning Commission resulting in several conditions being placed on the approval of the construction. The concern of glare off the panels will be addressed with a six-foot opaque fence on the north and east sides, and a tenfoot high opaque fence on the west and the south side. Novel Energy Solutions will also be required to plant and maintain coniferous trees on the north and east sides of the project. The Zoning Commission and Novel Energy Solutions will address any complaints of glare quickly. The Commissioners were advised at today’s meeting that the project has been down sized from the planned 1kw to 1/2kw. The County received no tax benefits from a project of either size.
County Assessor Marcy Barritt requested expenditure of $10,000 from her office’s budget to purchase software that will automatically calculate agriculture land values. This will replace software that has reached the end of its lifetime.
Solid Waste Administrator Jon Bloemendaal received approval of his request of $2,880 to SEHto process reports quarterly and annually for the demolition landfill. This is an ongoing service provided by the firm. Bloemendaal will be hauling a load of tires at a cost of $7,000- 8,000 to have them burned in an environmentally safe manner. The cost has been recouped in the fees charged for disposal.
Parks Manager Justin Hoffman requested an adjustment in the rental rate of the 4H Building. Currently the rate charged is $120 for a day; however he has many requests for short periods of time of perhaps two hours. The decision was to charge $20 per hr. and to continue the $120 for an entire day. Hoffman felt that there is a need for some tiling to alleviate flooding in the area of the horse barn, the horse arena and parking areas of the race track. Currently basements of homes along Linden Avenue are flooded withr unoff from the area around the horse barn. The parking area south of the horse arena to 34th Street will also be addressed with the new tile line. Bids will be sought with work to be done between the dates of September 13 and October 31.
Carl Nyquist, Emergency Manager, presented a request for purchase of six AED units at a cost of $7,335.45. A donation of $6,000 was accepted from the Health Alliance to go towards this purchase. All of the units will have hard side cases. Nyquist also presented a revised copy of the Murray County Safety Plan for reviews. The Commissioners requested a work session with department heads to do the review due to the comprehensive nature of the document.
Human Resources Director Ronda Radke received approval of a change to the Preferred One Contract that will allow for a preventive colon scope at the age of 45. This is lowered from the current age of 50.
The 2021 Central Square Tech. Maintenance agreement for the Sheriff’s Department in the amount of $41,650.329 was approved. County Administrator Thomas Burke explained that this is an ongoing expense partially paid by the 911 funds and a small share by both the Slayton and Fulda Police Departments.
At the conclusion of the meeting it was determined that there would not be a quorum of the Commissioners for the scheduled July 20th meeting; thus it was cancelled. The next meeting will be on July 27th.
