By Joanne Bergman The Murray County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday, September 20, 2022. Payment was approved for improvements on County Ditch 22. $20,424.63 covered the cost of construction management. $356,860.81 was paid for construction with $17,843.04 retained of the contract that totaled $377,521.52. Repair costs on Judicial Ditch 12 amounted to $3,896.70. The cost for Redetermination of benefits on numerous ditches in this payment was $7,221. The only new ditch repair petition was on County Ditch 34 in Ellsborough Township, Section 23.
Maureen Reed was present to discuss a resolution to allow Rank Choice Voting within the county, if desired, at some future date. RVC will eliminate the need for both primary and general elections. One ballot would be cast with all candidates listed with the voter ranking a choice of 1-3. There is a process of determining the winning candidate if no one person receives 50% of the votes.
Employee benefits were discussed with changes made. The dental insurance will come from a new vendor with a lower cost to the employees while providing a larger benefit. Short term disability will be shortened to a three month period with long term disability to become available in the fourth month. LTD will be paid by the employer, either county or hospital, as an additional benefit of employment. The LTD change was controversial with Commissioners Thiner and Kluis voting no. They would have liked this new benefit to have been discussed at contract negotiations in 2023.
