County Commissioners greenlight road projects

With all members present, the Lincoln County Commissioners met Tuesday, April 1 in the Lincoln County Boardroom. Commissioners heard agenda items including highway department bids, sheriff contracts, and reducing the budget.

Highway Superintendent, Terry Fluit requested board action to purchase from a Harding County bid for road construction machinery work from Loiseau Construction Inc. for milling and reclaiming work. 

“We’re going to be reutilizing them to do full reclamation on County Road 134, bay stabilization, additive injection, and we’ll be doing some mill work out there as well. The FDR is $1.28 a square yard, additive injection is $1.28 a square yard and the project is approximately 103,000 square yards,” Fluit said. 

Motion to approve by Jim Schmidt, seconded by Betty Otten. Motion carried unanimously.

Fluit also asked for board action to purchase from a Turner County bid for crane and other heavy equipment work from Hollaway Construction Bridge and Culvert Inc. 

“We’re going to be setting three new girders on two different bridges, and we’re also going to be using them to set a pre-cast box culvert that we’re going to be installing this year on County Road 134,” he said.  

Motion to approve the purchase by Joel Arends, seconded by Schmidt, motion carried.

Sheriff Steve Swenson was present to request board action to approve and authorize execution of the Harrisburg Law Enforcement contract. 

“There’s really no big changes other than the population increase by about 30 per cent so from $1 million to $1,379,798, we also added a $4 per capita for dispatch services which is an additional $41,188, this is a three year contract with three per cent increase annually,” he said. 

Motion to approve by Arends, seconded by Schmidt, motion carried. 

Swenson next asked for board discussion with action to follow to allow the Sheriff to recruit for a full-time position to replace the budgeted part-time position opening. 

“We would like to start advertising for a position that we have. We have a retirement in the jail courthouse security division that’s currently a part-time position and I’d like to at least have the option to fill it with a full-time position for better coverage once we move out to the new courthouse,” Swenson said. 

Motion to approve by Schmidt, seconded by Arends, motion carried.

Treasurer, Francene Hofer requested board discussion with possible action to allow for an over hire in the Treasurer’s office. 

“I have an employee who will be retiring in June, so I just want to kind of get into the hiring option now, I am currently hiring for an open position, so I thought if I could do it all in one with the new motor vehicle system they now have to do two weeks of training before they can learn on our side,” she said. A motion to approve by Otten, seconded by Arends, motion carried.

Auditor, Sheri Lund requested board discussion with possible action to follow to reduce the budget authority in the Treasurer and General Building and Ground budget. “We originally had $15,500 budgeted in the Treasurer’s budget for furniture and minor equipment and we had $342,500 in the general building for the satellite office in Harrisburg. I haven’t heard any discussion about it moving forward, I don’t even know if the building would be available if the numbers are good. I think we should probably start the process over if they’re not, but I think right now we should remove the authority for the budget,” she said. 

Commissioner Schmidt shared with Lund that the project is on hold due to the Harrisburg School District deciding whether or not they want to sell the building and an answer may come from the Superintendent before summer. A motion to reduce the budget was made by Otten, seconded by Schmidt, motion carried.

Lund stayed at the podium to give her department head presentation for the Auditor Department. 

“Like most Auditors around the state, I do a lot of hands-on work, but I am very fortunate to have give outstanding deputies working for me,” Lund said. 

Lund and her team work together to pay all the county bills, employee payroll, finance reconciliation, and handling orders from both state and county officials. After helping implement new payroll software, running a successful primary and general election, assisting with post election audits, and working with the Budget Committee to give guidelines for the budget process in 2024, Lund is looking forward to another successful year. 

“In 2025 we are going to be implementing software that will help the budget process be more transparent, continue to work with the Budget Committee to improve the budget process, improve the look of the financial statements, process list maintenance for voter registration, look for a new polling location for Delapre Township, and send out old invoices for county lien aids,” she said.