Commissioners tackle Justice Center access, flooding solutions, and road repairs

With all members present, the Lincoln County Commissioners met Tuesday, August 6 in the Lincoln County Boardroom. Commissioners heard agenda items including cost sharing agreements, access to the Justice Center, road repairs and more.

Commission Recorder, Alicia Cafaro read to the commission a public hearing to consider an application for a temporary on-sale liquor license to operate outside the municipality for David Derschan, 57015 Bar LLC, Chancellor Bar, for a special event to occur on August 17 and 31, 2024, located at Prosper Country Warehouse & Event Hall, 46620 278th St., Lennox, SD 57039. 

Mr. Derschan was not in attendance, but with no proponents or opponents to the request, the motion was approved.

Commissioner, Joel Arends asked for board discussion with the City of Canton regarding possible cost sharing for engineering to study flooding of Cedar Street in Canton. Paul Garbers from the City of Canton Commission was present to speak with the board. 

“I’m here on behalf of the city and as we are all well aware of the water that came in during the flood that Friday night at about 10:30 p.m. I was up on the end of Cedar Street and there was probably a four-foot wave of water coming through the schools’ chain link fence. After the flood subsided, I took a walk to see where the grass was laying down because of the water. The track field sand was all washed out and for a while you could see how far up the fence the water was because of the corn stalks,” he said. 

The City of Canton agreed at their latest meeting in a 5-0 vote to look into hiring an engineering firm to find out where the water is coming from. With no action requested Commissioner Tiffani Landeen stated the board would be interested, and proposals could be sent out and a cost share conversation could take place at a later date. 

The group as a whole agreed to consult the railroad and the school to see if they would be interested in taking part in and paying for part of the process. 

Chief Civil Deputy State’s Attorney, Drew DeGroot was present to discuss a previously tabled item get possible board action regarding road access to the Lincoln County Justice Center. 

“This has been kind of a long time coming of the commission’s decision as to which direction the access point to the Justice Center for road access and our sanitary sewer system,” he said. 

Commissioner Landeen, as a project leader for the Justice Center, has attended meetings with the city to find the best option for road access. 

“We talked about options to put in sanitary and access to the courthouse and the discussions were very productive, the city voted unanimously to cost share in putting in the sanitary and taking that road on West and going all the way to the North of our property with it and then possibly going to work together to see if we can get some extra funding whether through the state or feds to see if we can fully urbanize that section,” she said. 

The cost share to move forward on that option was $725,000 with an additional cost share needed at a later date. 

Chairman Jim Jibben opened the floor for public comment, Linda Montgomery stood to voice her opinion. 

“After what we just heard from the city about needing help with all the engineering and what’s happening with the flooding here in Canton, I know you’re probably all going to vote on this, but I’m surprised that the city actually was unanimous with this, just because of the money they’re probably going to have to spend on fixing the sewer and the water thing.  Was surprised when they unanimously said that, but we’re up to $725,000 and you said that there might be more, and the $84,000 for the Justice Center will probably be more. I was looking at the expenses under consent agenda and the regular agenda, we’re spending a lot of money and then the city being here and the citizen talking about that’s not going to be an easy fix. It’s a lot of money and I was totally surprised that they said it unanimously,” she said. 

Chairman Jibben asked for the commissioner’s thoughts and while Arends did not originally support the site location, he wants to make the best decisions within the construct moving forward. 

“Of all the options we were presented with, this is probably the most cost-conscious decision that saves taxpayers the most money and gives access to the site,” Arends said. 

With this option, the use of eminent domain will not be necessary when it comes to road access to the new Justice Center. The motion was approved unanimously.

Highway Superintendent, Terry Fluit joined the meeting for board action to approve the Highway Superintendent to send a Request for Proposals from consultants for a comprehensive safety action plan for Lincoln County. 

“This is part of the Safe Streets for All grant that we were awarded last year. Contracts are signed and ready to go, we have this proposal ready to send out, we’ll be getting ads out in the paper so it should be open for about four weeks,” he said. 

The total cost of the project will be $100,000 from the Federal grant and $25,000 from local funds. Motion approved. 

Fluit next requested board action to authorize the highway superintendent to receive quotes and move forward with an emergency repair to structure #42-160-044, located near Lake Alvin. 

“We sent out requests to four different contractors trying to get some quotes back for doing this work. We received quotes back from two, one was unresponsive, and one sent back an email that said we’re not interested, we’re too busy. We are looking to do this under codified law 5-18A-9 under the emergency procurement,” he said. 

The road is currently closed due to the shoulder of the road being washed out from the flooding causing a 10-15 foot deep drop off. 

Soukup Construction gave a bid of $212,212 and the engineers’ cost estimate was $415,762.50. Motion approved.