County Commission addresses property reconveyance

The Lincoln County Commission met Tuesday, July 23 in the Lincoln County boardroom. Commissioners heard agenda items including reconveyance of properties, new Sheriff’s vehicles, human resources changes and more. 

Commission Recorder, Alicia Cafaro presented the commission with a public hearing to consider an application for a temporary on-sale liquor license to operate outside the municipality for The Good Earth Farm and Animal Sanctuary for an event to occur on August 7, 2024, and August 17, 2024, Located at The Good Earth Farm, 28318 466th Avenue, Lennox SD 57039, Krogers Addition-Tract 2C NW1/4-28-98-51. With no public input, the motion was approved unanimously.

Chief Civil Deputy State’s Attorney, Drew DeGroot joined the meeting for board action for the reconveyance of property legally described as The East Half (#1/2) of Outlot Seven (7), Except the West 32’ of the North 37’ thereof, of Outlots to Lennox, Lincoln County, South Dakota aka parcel 250.33.00.007. 

“This is a reconveyance by quick claim deed to the original owner of a tax deed parcel, they have become current with their taxes, they paid up $15,567.22, this would then put the ownership back in their name,” DeGroot said. 

Motion approved.

DeGroot also requested board action for the reconveyance of property legally described as N 1343.20’ of W 324.30’ NW 1/4 11-97-50 Lincoln County, South Dakota, AKA 097.50.11.2020. 

“This is also a reconveyance of a tax deed parcel by quick claim deed. They have become current in their taxes paying $16,600,” he said. 

With no public input, motion approved.

Sheriff, Steve Swenson, requested board action to authorize the Sheriff to purchase a 2024 Chevrolet Tahoe. 

“In speaking with the auditor, she preferred that we use the insurance check that we’ll be receiving for the car that was flooded out in the amount of $50,649 to purchase a vehicle this year. Karl’s Chevrolet does have a Tahoe for $51,775 and we would remove one vehicle out of next year’s budget using the insurance money that we’re getting this year for that vehicle,” he said. 

Motion approved.

DeGroot returned again for board action to authorize the Chair to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Legacy Aviation. 

“As of right now, Legacy is on a month-to-month contract out there as the airports FBO and they’d like assurances that the county is committed to moving forward with them as the FBO, we don’t have the MOU here to present in front of you, because it is just a commitment to them serving as the FBO for an additional five years,” he said.

Motion approved. 

Assistant Commission Administrative Officer, Paul Anderson requested board action to approve the 2025 provisional budget for publication. 

“Per the Statute, the county has to publish their provisional budget between the days of July 15 and July 30 for two consecutive weeks. This notifies the public of what we’re considering. Earlier we had set a date and time for our public hearing for the first Tuesday in September, this doesn’t lock in the provisional budget, it just allows us to publish it to meet the statutory requirements and we can still consider any changes up until our hearing and up until we finalize the budget,” he said. 

Motion was approved to place the provisional budget in all of the papers.

Human Resources Director, Traci Humphrey requested board action to authorize the immediate recruiting and subsequent hiring for new positions in the FY2025 provisional budget. 

“As we went through the budget hearings and went through department by department, I wanted to put in front of you the totality of the positions that are being requested. We have six new positions that are being requested, three of which are in the State’s Attorney’s Office, one is in the treasurer’s office, pending a satellite office if you choose to do that, a deputy sheriff in the jail division, a 4-H intern, and a building technician,” said Humphrey.

“So with the provisional budget, I spoke with the various department heads, especially for the time that it can take to recruit, it can be anywhere from as short at four to five week and as long as three to six months depending on the role, and so in speaking with the State’s Attorney’s Office as well as the building and grounds department, we are asking to start recruiting for the Deputy State’s Attorney position, the victim witness legal assistant, the investigator and then the building technician. The cost of these four positions would be around $142,000 if those were filled by the middle of August, which they will not be since we haven’t started recruiting,” Humphrey continued. 

Motion passed 3-2 with Mike Poppens and Joel Arends being the no votes.

Chairman Jim Jibben opened up the floor for public comment. Linda Montgomery was the first to speak. 

“Before I left 10 days ago, I received a rejection of my request for CVR’s, ballot images and cast vote records. So here we are again and after a number of years we are back at the same spot. I’ve been denied the right to audit the tabulator which I just don’t understand. I had an opportunity to speak to people all over the country and also a number of my fellow South Dakota people and when I tell them what the CVR and the ballot images and the audit logs why they were put on the machine, and they were put on for ease of audit of the tabulator and instilling confidence in our election, yet however, South Dakota continues to deny the public the right to audit a machine that has never been audited. The post-election audit, although it was fun, it was not something that’s going to audit the machine because we were not allowed to look at voter intent. We are to think like a machine and our count had to match the machine, which is bogus. One other Auditor did not present what the machine did when people counted, which is the way it should be. We should be able to have a free, fair, and transparent election and the only way to do that is to hand count. We have the most important election coming up of our life. We have things on the ballot that are so important one, abortion; two, open primaries; three, marijuana; and I forgot what the fourth one was, but the machines you’re protecting, they are owned machines by a private, for-profit company, and you are forcing the people of South Dakota to trust a machine that has never been audited. If you went to a bank and said how much is in my account and they said 820 and you have 2,500 in yours and you ask to be shown the printout that they have and they said we can’t do that, that is not public record. Is it really any difference of us putting ballots into a machine and say no the public cannot look at what is in that black box. CVR’s, audit logs, and ballot images were put on those machines before they could be sold for ease of audit by you, the Auditor, the State’s Attorney, and by the public,” she said. 

After two executive sessions, agenda item 11, discussion and possible board action regarding road access to the Lincoln County Justice Center was tabled by the commission.

Scott Montgomery also took to the podium to voice his opinion. 

“Sometimes I just think maybe you ought to wave the white flag and say you know, this is not the place. I mean I don’t know how many people have been out there and looked at that, but you got water standing everywhere, they tried to pump that retainment pond out for weeks on end now and are gaining nothing. I think it’s just something you ought to consider, maybe you made the mistake by buying that land and it’s not really panning out very well,” he said.