Last week’s county board meeting was fairly brief as far as county meetings go. Other than routine business, the one notable item on the agenda was recognizing the Pipestone County Sheriff’s office (PCSO) for their work. 

The MN Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) is the occupational regulatory agency charged with maintaining education and licensing standards for the 415 law enforcement agencies in the state of Minnesota. They recently reviewed the PCSO. They passed their review and the board took a few minutes last Tuesday to recognized the department.

Of the compliance testing, Sheriff Keith Vreeman said, “It’s getting hard to do.”  Lieutenant Edison Dengler is making sure in making sure that the department stays compliant on all their training and reporting. The board thanked the department for all they do, with County Commissioner Dan Wildermuth saying, “Thank you for your diligence.” 

Vreeman also noted that the jail is back open and has several inmates. It was closed for several months because of lack of staffing. During that time, inmates were housed in Nobles County and Lyon County jails. 

Norm Van Dyke with Van Dyke Sanitation came before the board with Kyle Krier, the Environmental Administrator.  He and Van Dyke had been talking about a fuel surcharge because the price of diesel fuel is so high.  The county’s recycling contract with Van Dyke’s runs through end of 2023. They will begin negotiation on the new contract in January. 

The current contract does not allow for adjustments. Van Dyke had asked the solid waste committee to consider a fuel surcharge of 15 percent when diesel is more than $4 per gallon. 

However, when before the board, Van Dyke explained that he and his son Stephan had gone over the mileage for the recycling truck. They put on about 1900 miles per month and the truck gets 3.7 miles per gallon. So that comes to 510 gallons of fuel per month. 

“Instead of taking you guys’ time up, we decided we can live with that until we have a meeting in January,” Van Dyke said. 

So the board did not need to make any decision on that. Wildermuth asked Norm about the letter that Van Dyke had received from Millennium Recycling. They paid Van Dyke’s back for the November and December 2021 dumping fee because they were the cleanest of all of the three counties that haul into that facility. 

“It’s good for us, but it also makes the county look good.” Van Dyke said. 

“I think you guys have done a good job of reaching out and educating people,” Commissioner Chris Hollingsworth said.

Nick Bergman, the county engineer, gave an update from the highway department. He reported that the bridge project by Ihlen near the state park is going slow because of the hard bedrock that was encountered. He met onsite with the DNR because the work will not be done before the Topeka Shiner deadline. 

The DNR official were happy to see that the contractor had put a sheet coffer dam in the water and said they could keep working on the project outside that Topeka Shiner deadline. 

“We thought this was a possibility, so we have had conversations with the DNR dating back to January,” Bergman said. “So it was not a big surprise.”

The contractor is on the last row of pilings. Nick thought they would finish with that work by the beginning of June. It is a really big bridge and also has a walking space on the side. Bergman did not want to give any kind of estimate on when it would be complete. 

Administration at Split Rock State Park, which is accessed via the bridge from the north, has asked for additional signage to detour traffic. The contractor said he would pay for the signage and planned to have those up by Memorial Day weekend. The park can still be accessed from the south, and the county has been doing some additional grading on that road to get it ready for increased summer traffic.

For the gravel road that leads to the park from the south, they have been doing some additional grading. They will make sure that it is ready for park traffic. 

This same construction crew is building the bridge west of Jasper. The DNR will be meeting with the contractor on that project as well. Bergman said that it is possibly that they will be able to work there within the restricted Topeka Shinter timeframe as well. 

Bergman would like to see both projects completed before harvest. 

In other matters: 

The Board approved a five year agreement with the University of Minnesota for use of the county fairgrounds. This was a renewal of an ongoing agreement. 

Commissioner Wildermuth was approved for out-of-state travel with the Pipestone Area Coalition the third week in June. He will be going to a seminar in Montana. 

The board approved tax abatement of $890 for Mitchell and Nicole Nelson for a new home in Gray Township.

Auditor Sandy noted that she had a couple of people come to the county to request abatement but they had already begun construction. She explained that the policy states that the abatement can only be done if applied for before construction commences.

Auditor Sandy also requested that the board set a public meeting date for classifying tax forfeited property. She had a list of five properties in the county – three in Pipestone, one in Woodstock, and one in Hatfield- that have been listed as tax-forfeited. 

The public meeting will be held on July 26 at 10 a.m. At that time, the properties will be classified. In the meantime, they will establish values for the properties. Sandy said that at that meeting they will also set an auction date for selling the properties.