Commissioner Proceedings

June 23, 2020

The Lake of the Woods County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Tuesday, June 23, 2020 at Lake of the Woods County Government Center in the Commissioners’ Room. 

CALL TO ORDER

Chair Jon Waibel called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. and the Pledge of Allegiance was recited with the following members present: Commissioners: Joe Grund, Jon Waibel, Buck Nordlof, Cody Hasbargen and Ed Arnesen. Also present were: County Auditor/Treasurer Lorene Hanson and County Attorney James Austad.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Ed Arnesen, seconded by Commissioner Buck Nordlof and carried unanimously to approve the agenda with the following changes: add Event Ordinance and Correspondence, remove Louis Taylor.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Cody Hasbargen, seconded by Commissioner Buck Nordlof and carried unanimously to approve the official and summarized minutes of May 26, 2020.

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Joe Grund, seconded by Commissioner Cody Hasbargen and carried unanimously to approve the official and summarized minutes of June 8, 2020.

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Buck Nordlof, seconded by Commissioner Joe Grund and carried unanimously to approve the official and summarized minutes of June 9, 2020.

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Cody Hasbargen, seconded by Commissioner Buck Nordlof and carried unanimously to approve the official and summarized minutes of June 15, 2020.

SOCIAL SERVICES

Claims

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Joe Grund, seconded by Commissioner Ed Arnesen and carried unanimously to approve the following claims: Commissioners Warrant’s $7,446.20, Commissioners Warrant’s $816.82, Commissioners Warrant’s $19,268.09.

Approval of Contract with Tri-Valley RTC

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Buck Nordlof, seconded by Commissioner Cody Hasbargen and carried unanimously to approve the contract with Tri-Valley RTC.

AUDITOR/TREASURER

Claims

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Ed Arnesen, seconded by Commissioner Joe Grund and carried unanimously to approve the claims against the County as follows: Revenue $20,959.43; Road & Bridge $82,067.24; County Development $200; Solid Waste $24,188.02; EDA $750.15.

WARRANTS FOR PUBLICATION

Warrants Approved On 6/23/2020 For Payment 6/26/202

Vendor Name Amount

CARRIFF Engineered Fabrics Corporation 2,425.66

Contech Engineered Solutions LLC 54,013.10

Counties Providing Technology 3,751.00

North East Technical Service,Inc 5,368.95

Nutrien Ag Solutions Inc 22,527.84

R & Q Trucking, Inc 2,060.00

U.S. Bank Equipment Finance 12,998.21

University Of Mn 9,407.01

31 Payments less than 2000   15,613.07

Final Total: 128,164.84

Further moved to authorize the payment of the following auditor warrants: June 10, 2020 for $587,873.40; June 17, 2020 for $11,221.49.

Deferred Compensation Plan Amendment

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Buck Nordlof, seconded by Commissioner Cody Hasbargen and carried unanimously to approve an amendment to the Nationwide deferred compensation plan to allow employees to apply for a loan from their plan account with the plan provider.

RECORDER

Final Approval of CIC Number 4 Eagle Ridge First Supplemental Plat

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Cody Hasbargen, seconded by Commissioner Ed Arnesen and carried unanimously to approve CIC Number 4 Eagle Ridge First Supplemental Plat and for Commissioner Jon Waibel and County Auditor/ Treasurer Lorene Hanson to sign the same.

NORTHERLY PARK

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Ed Arnesen, seconded by Commissioner Joe Grund and carried unanimously to approve payment of the invoice from Whitt Environmental Services, for work on the wetland permit for the Northerly Park Project, dated May 5, 2020 in the amount of $1,000.

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Joe Grund, seconded by Commissioner Buck Nordlof and carried unanimously to approve payment of the invoice from Northwest Angle and Island Freight, Inc., for the placement of two culverts for the Northerly Park Project, dated June 2020 in the amount of $9,237.

DITCH AUTHORITY

Motion 

Motion was made by Commissioner Ed Arnesen, seconded by Commissioner Cody Hasbargen and carried unanimously to close the regular meeting and open the Ditch Authority Meeting at 10:15 a.m.

Ditch 28 Petition for Repair of a Drainage System

The part of the ditch located by the Wabanica School is on the schedule for repair this year.  A large portion of this ditch is within the MNDOT right of way, MNDOT will be installing cross pipes and the hope is that will remedy the drainage system.

Approval of Judicial Ditch 26 Cleaning Contract
The Commissioners discussed the cleaning of Judicial Ditch 26 and reached a consensus on the contract.

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Joe Grund, seconded by Commissioner Ed Arnesen and carried unanimously to close the Ditch Authority meeting and open the regular meeting at 11:00 a.m.

Approval of Judicial Ditch 26 Cleaning Contract

Motion
Motion was made by Commissioner Joe Grund, seconded by Commissioner Cody Hasbargen and carried unanimously to award the cleaning contract for Judicial Ditch 26 to Earthworks Contracting Inc. with a bid of $18,744.

COUNTY HIGHWAY/LANDFILL

Highway Update

The County needs to sign the contract with Davidson Construction for the 1^st Ave Project.  Gravel work was done at the Northwest Angle on June 22, 2020.  The next projects at the Northwest Angle will be permitted dredging on Crow Creek and application of magnesium chloride on the roads.  The CSAH 31 project is going well.  Bids will go out on July 20^th for the culvert project near Birch Beach.  Soil borings have started, an inadequate layer of soil was found under County Rd 51/52, Pirkl will research solutions.  

Approval of Gravel Quotes

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Cody Hasbargen, seconded by Commissioner Joe Grund and carried unanimously to award the gravel contract to Mark Sand and Gravel at $8.75 per ton for 33,000 tons.

County Engineer Grade/Step/Vacation

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Joe Grund, seconded by Commissioner Cody Hasbargen and carried unanimously to approve three weeks of vacation time and step increase for County Engineer, AJ Pirkl, to Grade 24, Step 6, $47.23 per hour, effective the next full pay period starting 6/29/2020.  

Landfill Update

One of the trucks is in for clutch repair.  The graduate student from the U of M continues to review landfill policy and participates in weekly Zoom meetings with area businesses and professionals.  Pirkl will check in with MPCA on the landfill application status.

COVID-19

Update
Kay M. Schell, CHI LakeWood Health Public Health Manager, provided a COVID-19 update. The Minnesota Department of Health has updated their weekly report and it now includes the number of tests conducted in each county.  As of Thursday, June 18, 2020, 82 tests had been completed in Lake of the Woods County.  Lake of the Woods County is still at zero confirmed cases of COVID-19.  The National Guard COVID-19 testing unit was redirected to other priority areas.  

Jill Hasbargen Olson, Emergency Management Director, has requested a meeting with the Lake of the Woods County Fair Board and the Baudette-Lake of the Woods Chamber of Commerce/4^th of July Fireworks Committee to discuss plans for keeping events at a maximum of 250 people, which is the current guideline from the state. 

Hasbargen Olson also discussed the reopening of the Government Center.

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Joe Grund, seconded by Commissioner Ed Arnesen and carried unanimously to approve the Government Center to be open to the public, no appointment needed, starting on Monday, June 29, 2020.  The Board reserved the right to revisit the decision if the need would arise.

Recess
The meeting was recessed at 11:45 a.m. and reconvened at 11:50 a.m.

911 EQUIPMENT

Motion

Motion was made by Commissioner Ed Arnesen, seconded by Commissioner Joe Grund and carried unanimously to approve the contract with Motorola Solutions for VESTA 9-1-1 As-A-Service, a five-year contract for $103,402.

EVENT ORDINANCE

The event ordinance committee will meet to finalize the proposed event ordinance. 

CORRESPONDENCE

Reviewed correspondence form Jerry’s Therapy Safe Place regarding contributions to fund A Caring Place (for Kids), to be located in Minneota, Minnesota.

RECESS

With no further business before the Board, Chairman Jon Waibel called the meeting to recess at 12:08 p.m.

Attest: July 14, 2020

______________________________ _________________________________

County Auditor/Treasurer, Lorene Hanson Chairman of the Board, Jon Waibel