The Polk County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday, March 18, at 9:30 a.m. at the Polk County Government Center in the County Board Room.

The regular agenda for the meeting started with the Monthly Sheriff’s Report. Sheriff James Tadman gave the board some statistics for the month of February, including the 633 Calls for Services. Some of the top call categories were School Patrol (102), Civil Process (98), Assist to other Agencies (21), and traffic stops (170). Sheriff Tadman said that, overall, February was a quiet month.

Jody Beauchane from Polk County Emergency Management joined Sheriff Tadman Tuesday morning to present the board with the 2023-2025 EMPG Agreement. “Today, I came to present the 2023 EMPG Grant Agreement, looking for the board to sign the agreement,” says Beauchane. “It’s for 2023, and the state is always two years behind. I’m looking for the signature for the agreement for $24,786. It requires a match from the county, and we use these funds for salary and benefits for two of us at the Sheriff’s office for Emergency Management duties.” The board unanimously approved the EMPG Agreement.

The board heard from the Northwest Regional Development Commission Director Darla Walder Tuesday as she gave her 2024 Annual Report with the help of co-worker Tim Finseth. “We are a local unit of government; we serve seven counties in Northwest Minnesota, and one of our divisions serves 21 counties across the state,” says Walder. “We always do this time of year, a round of meetings and present our 2024 Annual Report that talks about all the programs and services that we have engaged in.” Walder says the report also includes projects that the NWRDC has been working on, and today, she spoke specifically about Polk County. “In Polk County, we had a lot of success this year with facilitating and providing technical assistance to get a lot of federal and state funding back into Polk County,” says Walder. “So, we were here to celebrate that as well.”

At 10:30 a.m., there was a Public Hearing led by Jacob Snyder of Polk County Planning & Zoning.  The public hearing was to present a Land Use Zoning Ordinance Amendment – Section 26, Cannabis Zoning and Land Use. “So, our open hearing was to establish cannabis business standards in our Polk County Zoning Ordinance.  Been working on those for about four or five months now,” says Snyder. “We had two separate public hearings on our Planning Commission level, which is pretty typical for zoning ordinance amendments. The only thing that’s different is this is a brand new establishment of a section of our ordinance.” Snyder says the last time they did a brand new section of our zoning ordinance was back in 2021.

Right now, the Office of Cannabis Management is managing these new businesses on a state level; the county is working to get some local control in place. “It really just gives us a check and balance of the time and place and manner of how they operate,” says Snyder. “The zoning ordinance was not to block anybody from establishing businesses in Polk County; it was simply just a necessity for us to help our cities govern these businesses.” With no public comment, the hearing was closed, and the board moved on to unanimously approve the resolution amending the zoning ordinance.

Snyder also had a couple of 2025 Polk County Haulers Licenses he asked the board to approve on Tuesday. “We had two haulers licenses. One was for Waste Management of Minnesota, they collect MSW Waste and collection services at residences typically in the Bemidji area is this entity,” says Snyder. “Our next waste hauler is a demolition contractor in the Beltrami County area, and he is just planning some projects to bring over some material here later in the summer.” The board unanimously approved both Haulers Licenses.

Karen Warmack from Polk County Social Services came to the board to ask for approval to fill a Social Worker – CPS position and to fill any internal subsequent position vacancies occurring because of this action. The board approved unanimously. Warmack was also seeking approval for Victoria Ramirez to attend the National Family Resource Center Conference on May 5-8, 2025, in Washington, DC. Grant funds will cover the cost of Ramirez’s travel.  The board unanimously approved the out-of-state travel. Lastly, Warmack asked the board to approve the contract with Anna Corona to provide Cultural Navigation Services in the amount of $6,200 from April 1, 2025 – to December 31, 2025. This contract provides cultural navigation services to Polk County residents based out of the Family Resource Center in East Grand Forks. It is funded using Family First Preservation Services Act (FFPSA) dollars. The board approved unanimously of the contract.

Polk County Engineer Richard Sanders had several items Tuesday that he brought to the board for approval. “The first item I brought to the board is a transfer of our county municipal state aid highway funds from our municipal account to our regular account,” says Sanders. “Our municipal account can only be used within the small cities, within Polk County, on our state aid highways within those small cities.” Polk County does not have any large-scale construction projects planned on any of those roads within the small cities this year. “We didn’t need $1.8 million dollars in that account, so the board approved transferring $1.2 million from the municipal account to our regular account so we can use those on our five-year plan for our construction projects out in the rural parts of Polk County.” The board unanimously approved the transfer from municipal to regular funds.

Sanders also brought to the board the 2025 Stabilized Aggregate Base (BASE 1) bids and asked that they approve awarding the bid to the lowest responsible bidder. “The second item that we brought forward was our Stabilized Aggregate Base Contract,” says Sanders. “We awarded that to WmD Scepaniak, Inc. out of Holdingford, MN, for $937, 860,” says Sanders. “They have done projects for us in the past.” The board unanimously approved the contract with WmD Scepaniak.

The third item on Sanders’ agenda consisted of two motions.  The first motion was to approve moving forward with the preparation of findings and orders initiating redeterminations of benefits for the Polk County drainage systems within the Sandhill River Watershed District.  The second was a motion to approve contracting with H2Over Viewers LLC to provide viewing services for Polk County Drainage Systems.  “Polk County’s board has been working with the Sandhill River Watershed Districts Board on what to do with the Sandhill ditch and its contributaries, which include our county ditches,” says Sanders. “The Watershed Board approved going ahead with the redetermination of benefits a couple of weeks ago, and so the Polk County board today approved moving forward with the redetermination of benefits for all the ditches within the Sandhill River Watershed District that are owned by Polk County.” The board then also approved that it would be H2Over Viewers LLC that would be the viewers of the project. Sanders says he hopes to have the Redetermination of benefits completed by mid-2027.

Sanders’s final item for the board Tuesday was much like the previous item, as he was asking the board to consider contracting H2Over Viewers LLC to initiate the redetermination of benefits for the Red Lake River and Middle River Snake River Watershed Districts. “The county board didn’t take any actions today; it was just more of an informational thing,” says Sanders. “We are going to put together a small committee and come back on June 3 with a recommendation on what we should do with our ditches within the rest of the county.”

Levi Webster, Polk County MIS Director brought a motion to the board to approve the SHI quote for $62,038.60 to replace existing network equipment at EGF HSS, Government Center, McIntosh, and the Transfer Station.  This item was in the current year’s budget, and the board approved the purchase from SHI.

Closing out Tuesday’s meeting were a few items from Polk County Administrator Chuck Whiting.  Whiting brought forward a resolution amending a resolution Designating American Rescue Plan Act Funds for Eligible Expenses.  The City of Fertile did not use its designated ARPA funds by the end of 2024 and is to be re-designated to comply with ARPA requirements.  The board unanimously approved the funds being re-designated as 2024 Polk County Sheriff’s Department wages.

Whiting also asked that the board consider the request to fill the long-vacant position of county Finance Director. The board discussed this at length and agreed it is time, but they also agreed that it needed to be a thorough and complete process and that if it takes some time to fill, that is okay; they just want to find the right person for the challenging job. The board unanimously approved Whiting’s request to seek a Finance Director for Polk County.

Tags: Anna Corona, ARPA, Beltrami County, cannabis, City of Fertile, County Administrator Chuck Whiting, County Engineer Richard Sanders, Cultural Navigation Services, Darla Walder, EMPG Grant Agreement, Family First Preservation Services Act, Finance Diretor, H2Oover Viewers LLC, Haulers Licenses, Jake Snyder, Jody Beauchane, Levi Webster, Middle River Snake River Watershed District, Monthly Sheriff’s Report, National Family Resource Center Conference, news, Northwest Regional Development Commission Director, Office of Cannabis Management, Ordinance, Planning and Zoning, Polk County Board of Commissioners, Polk County Drainage Systems, Polk County Emergency Management, Polk County Sheriff’s Department, Red Lake River, Sandhill River Watershed District, Sheriff Tadman, Social worker – CPS, Stabilized Aggregate Base, Tim Finseth, Waste Management, Watershed board, WmD Scepaniak