By Jill Fennema –

At last week’s county board meeting, County Administrator Steve Ewing reported that the City of Pipestone had voted on whether to cost share with the county on the engineering study for the Pipestone County Judicial Ditch.  The Pipestone City Council voted not to join in paying for that engineering study. It remains to be seen what the landowners and private citizens affected by the flooding will say regarding the study. Steve Weets planned to talk to the citizens that are involved as private landowners.

County Auditor/Treasurer Tyler Reisch presented the 2019 county audit report. Revenue for 2019 exceeded expenditures by about $367,000.

The state auditor recommends that the county have 5 months of expenditures on hand. Pipestone County has about 6 months worth of expenditures sitting in the general fund. Road and Bridge has 5 months of reserves.

“We are sitting well,” Reisch said. “The board has done a great job for the last decade making sure we have funds so that we do not have to borrow.”

The board approved the audit; they also approved a five-year audit contract with Eide Bailey, the firm that has done the county audit for the past three years. The cost for 2020 will be about $27,800 and it will increase by roughly 3 percent each year thereafter.

Sheriff Keith Vreeman came to present the contract between the Pipestone County Sheriff’s Department and Pipestone Area Schools. The PCSO works as a liaison officer in the school district. The contract is the same this year as last year. Cost to PAS is $45,000 for the school year.

“It’s been a really good program,” said Commissioner Luke Johnson, and Sheriff Vreeman agreed.

The 2021 law enforcement contracts with all the towns in the county were also approved. All the contract amounts were the same for 2021 as they were for 2020. Hatfield, Woodstock, Trosky, and Ihlen each pay $39.35 per person for law enforcement coverage. Edgerton and Jasper pay $59 per person, but have a deputy living in town. The City of Pipestone pays a different rate than the other towns. Rather than per capita, Pipestone pays 50 percent of the dispatch and sheriff’s office budget.