Lincoln County Commissioners approve Fairground fundraiser licenses, discuss transparency in nonprofit events

The Lincoln County Commissioners met Tuesday, February 13 in the Lincoln County Boardroom. Commissioners heard agenda items. 

The first order of business before the commission was a public hearing to consider the following application for a temporary on-sale malt beverage license to operate outside of a municipality for the Lincoln County Fairgrounds Foundation for a fundraiser on March 23. The applicant, Wendy Sweeter, was present to answer any questions the Commission had. 

“I am the Board Liaison for the Lincoln County Fairgrounds Foundation. This is for the fundraiser that we have held every March. This is our fifth annual Raising the Roof Fundraiser,” Sweeter said. 

Motion approved.

The board was asked for action to consider an application for a temporary on-sale liquor license to operate outside the municipality for The Good Earth Farm, LLC for a special event to occur on April 26. The applicant was not present as there was no public hearing. Commission Jim Schmidt asked if the event was for a fundraiser and was told it is for a private event for a nonprofit Education Association event. 

“Personally, I would like to know always the nonprofit. I’m not saying anything against them, but in our political environment today, you never know what that group may be and it may be that they could have some controversial situations and I certainly don’t want to get the county embroiled in something like that. So I would ask before we vote on this thing, to find out what it is that this nonprofit does and then we can vote on it,” Schmidt said. 

“We’re going down a slippery slope if we’re going to approve or disapprove these applications on the basis of who the organization is. However, I would support tabling it because the applicant isn’t here and also, the other reason it should be tabled is because they didn’t properly fill out the application. They left the box open on the application as to whether or not they have ever been convicted of a felony, they didn’t check the yes or no box. I’m sure they’re probably people all in good standing, but you have to fill the application out,” Commissioner Joel Arends responded. Motion tabled.

4-H Advisor, Sweeter joined the meeting again to get board action to approve and authorize the chair to execute a Memorandum of Understanding between Lincoln County and South Dakota State University (SDSU) in furtherance of Extension educational programs in Ag and Natural Resources, Family and Consumer Sciences, Community Development and 4-H Positive Youth Development. 

“This is an annual memorandum of understanding, all the counties do this with SDSU and as far back as I can see on my computer, we have done this as far back as 2014,” she said. With no public comment, motion approved.

Highway Superintendent, Terry Fluit joined the meeting for board action to award the bid for the 2024 striping project. 

“When we bid this, we went together as a regional group of counties, and we bid this striping project. I am looking to get that awarded today. We had two bidders for the project, Dakota Traffic Services and Traffic Solutions. It was a very close bid, I think they were like $80,000 apart and my recommendation is to award the bid to Dakota Traffic Services in the amount of $128,821.30,” he said. 

Motion approved.