By Jill Fennema –

At the Pipestone County board meeting on Tuesday, May 26, the board approved a COVID-19 preparedness plan. It outlines plans for the county to deal with the effects of the coronavirus. The county offices remain closed but will open June 8 by appointment only.

The preparedness plan outlines social distancing, hygiene and respiratory etiquette, housekeeping, and communication related to disease control. The county has acquired a lot of hand sanitizer, soap, wipes, gloves, and other supplies. They have 250 masks for people who come into the courthouse to wear if necessary, and a local church made some colorful cloth masks for the county employees to wear.

“We want to be sure we have a comfort factor for all our people,” County Administrator Steve Ewing said.

“We are learning some new things about coronavirus,” Ewing added, sharing that now the CDC says that the virus becomes inert on surfaces once it is dry.

When the county opens for appointments, there will only be one point of entrance for the public. The only entrance will be at the east side of the building by the law enforcement building. From there the elevator can be used to access the courthouse.

All the drinking fountains will be shut off. There will only be one public bathroom at the courthouse (by the law enforcement area), with the other bathrooms labeled as “employee only.”

Visitors will be encouraged to wear a mask, but it will not be mandated.

You will need to call to make an appointment with any of the county departments that you need to do business with. They will be utilizing an application call NoWaitInside to message people when it is their turn to come into the building. An employee will meet you at the door when you enter and escort you to the door when you leave.

The county highway department purchased a used semi truck tractor a few months ago. They have been looking for used lowboy trailers, but have not found any decent used ones. “Seems like there was less life left in them than the price,” he said. They got bids for three new trailers. The board approved the purchase at the low bid of $78,064, but the trailer could not be delivered until September.

The board also approved the 2020 maintenance striping by Traffic Marking Service at a cost of $30,109.

The board approved a bid letting date of July 14 for three box culverts. One of those box culverts will be to replace the bridge on CSAH 18 south of the Diamond Corner.

The board also increased the gravel screening contract by 10 percent. The new cost will be about $75,200. This year the county has less gravel on hand because of the flooding events in the past two years.

Cathy Feste came to talk to the board about some hiring updates. They will be hiring Colton Raatz for the maintenance department over the summer.  There are two other summer jobs that the county will not be filling. They have received four applications for the maintenance supervisor position.

A tax abatement public hearing was set for Doug Gorter who is building a new home. That public hearing will take place on Tuesday, June 9, at 10 a.m.

The lease agreement with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Driver and Vehicle Services was renewed for three years. The DPS rents the community room at the courthouse for licensing tests.

Drivers license testing has opened throughout the state, but only at 16 sites. The closest is Lyon County and Auditor Treasurer Tyler Reisch commented that that site is swamped. Pipestone County will be open for renewals only, but no testing at this point. The county does not know when they will be able to do local testing.

The board denied a request by a Pipestone County land owner who currently lives in Canada. Ruth Casanova requested that the board waive the late fee of $144. The couple lives in Canada but gets mail in the United States. They were not able to cross the boarder to get their mail until after the property tax deadline. 

The board denied the request because the tax statement is also available online and is due at the same time every year. Commissioners Dan Wildermuth  and Chris Hollingsworth argued that these were extenuating circumstances, but the other board members did not agree.

Board chairman Bruce Kooiman expressed that he felt sorry for the couple, but did not want to start a trend.

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