Todd County Board of Commissioners—Work Session
Board reviews septic ordinance
by Karin L. Nauber
karin@inhnews.com
Soil, Water, Conservation and Development Director Tim Steiber and Planner Chris Arens presented the updated draft septic ordinance.
As many are aware, counties are required to update their septic ordinances by February 2014.
According to Steiber, the Pollution Control Agency’s requirements have softened a bit since the beginning of all of the proposed changes were discussed a couple of years ago.
Arens undertook the rewrite of the ordinance. He and fellow Planner Galen Gruber sat through the PCA conference as the plan was reviewed.
Arens said there were only a few changes they needed to make on the checklist provided by the PCA.
Arens said that Type I and Type III systems will impact the county the most.
Type I systems are the standard systems for homes with domestic strength waste designed to treat less than 2500 gallons per day.
Type III systems are those that are built on fill or disturbed soil designed to treat less than 2500 gallons per day.
Arens said the PCA gave counties the option to stick with the old rules regarding Type I systems as long as they did not become less restrictive.
The county did adopt the new rule, but stuck with the old rule on systems that would cause financial or other burdens for homeowners.
Kircher asked if under the new requirements everything had to be a pressurized system with no more drainfields?
Arens said that it can be either/or.
He said that if a property can meet the requirements they could use a gravity system in any soil type.
Kircher asked if the installers were okay with the updated ordinance?
Arens said they shaped the ordinance so that owners and installers would really see no difference in Type I or Type III systems.
It was explained that Type II systems which refer to holding tanks and privies will remain the same, but if they are located in floodplain areas, will have to follow different rules.
It was noted that there were no changes in the setbacks.
Arens said that Todd County was the first county to do the hybrid version of the ordinance and have the PCA in basic agreement.
As always, the ordinance can be made stricter, if needed.
Kircher asked about compliance inspections and when those would be required when building or adding on.
This ordinance was changed previously by the county so that a compliance inspection would not be required for certain types of additions.
Kircher said he also had concerns about the feedlot issues.
Arens said that the application shows a pathway so that new owners can come into compliance.
Kircher said that in the past it has been a hold up for development because if owners or potential owners had to borrow the money for the feedlot and then had to upgrade the septic, too, it was just too much.
The next steps are to submit the plan to the Planning Commission where it can be further reviewed. This will happen at the May meeting of the commission.
The June meeting of the commission will be open for public comment.
Steiber thought they could easily pass it and have it in effect for January 1, 2014.
Auditor/Treasurer
The board discussed the credit card policy. Auditor/Treasurer Karen Busch said that because of the change it would be easier to do the accounting. She said that the turnaround time for billing now was about a week. With the new system, social services, public health and the sheriff’s department can pull their receipts and have the billing ready in a day or two. Busch said it saves a lot of time by having those departments handle the credit cards and receipts in their departments. It also saves time for employees in those departments so they don’t have to go to Busch to get the cards, they can go directly to their supervisor.
A question was raised about the $500 daily limit. Apparently, this has led to some embarrassment for county employees who have gone to conferences that are several days long. When they go to pay the bill at the end, the $500 limit is too little.
The way they have decided to handle this is that employees who will be staying multiple days at a conference, need to pay their room charges daily. There is a $1000 limit per billing cycle on these cards.
Commissioner David Kircher said that he had brought this back to the work session because he felt these things should be discussed amongst the board first before passing policy changes.
The board discussed amending the budget for publishing health and human services minutes in the newspaper. The charge is $600 per month now. As the Health and Human Services Committee had discussed at their meeting just prior to the work session, they plan to go down to one meeting per month and that should cut the cost of publishing in half. They currently meet two times a month.
According to Administrative Assistant Lori Jorgensen, there are several cars in the county motor pool that are no longer reliable.
Apparently, a “junk dealer” has made an offer on two of the least reliable that have very high miles (200,000 to 250,000) and Kircher asked if they could sell them to the dealer for $550 for both.
This will be explored further.
Jorgensen also said there was another vehicle that she is not comfortable leaving the county with because of high miles.
There is about $40,000 in the vehicle purchase budget and they could possibly purchase two cars.
Jorgensen said, “It’s tight right now. The vehicles are out everyday so if we are down one…”
There are 18 cars in the motor pool.
In a related topic, it was brought up that cars being used by employees are not always returned clean. There is garbage in the cars, spilled drinks, food crumbs and other trash.
Busch said that Woeste Auto will do cleaning of the cars on Saturdays for $10 per car. It would cost $20 per car for a more detailed cleaning.
Commissioner Mark Blessing said that employees need to take responsibility for the vehicles and take the trash out with them.
“Lori [Jorgensen] can’t be running around [cleaning them]. They need to have enough initiative to take care of it,” said Blessing.
It was suggested that it would be nice to have a trash can near where the cars are parked.
Someone will talk to Maintenance Chief Pete Bleess about putting the garbage cans out.
Another item with the cars is that the journals are not being filled out completely.
Blessing suggested the employees checking out the cars print and sign their names along with printing the starting and ending mileage.
“Lori shouldn’t have to decipher it,” said Blessing.
Jorgensen suggested sending out a memo to be discussed at department head meetings about keeping the cars cleaned up.
Board Chair Randy Neumann said that taxpayers are paying for those vehicles and they should take [discipline] to the next step.
“We can’t pay someone else to clean them up,” said Neumann.
Commissioner Gary Kneisl said they could put a ban in the vehicles just like the smoking ban. He said they could put a no eating or drinking ban in the cars, too.
“If they are going to act like little kids, treat them like it,” said Kneisl.
Kircher said he agreed with Kneisl.
Blessing added the employees using the cars needed to be responsible.
Kircher said they will start with the stern memo.
Discussion Items
Discussed putting lights in the parking lot at the Main Street Government Center.
Neumann commented that if they install the lights they can get the garbage out of the county cars and put it in the garbage cans.
There was discussion on where to install the lights.
They thought by the building since that is where the majority of the county cars are parked.
The city of Long Prairie will not require a permit for the county to put the lights up.
Busch asked if they should ask if the city of Long Prairie will put in street lights by the lot?
The board will research it and bring back a cost estimate.
The board discussed touring the incubator building where the county has stored a lot of materials from the historic courthouse and the annexes during the renovation.
They discussed what could be sorted out and auctioned or used again, but would not know fully until the renovation was completed and the things were moved back to the annex.
Blessing said they probably would not be done with the renovation until October so they could plan for a county auction in the spring of 2014.
The board also discussed storage needs for records.
It is quite expensive (no numbers were quoted) to image all the old tax and recorder documents.
Kircher asked if they could slowly start scanning the records by perhaps doing a few each year. They could do this over a five year period to spread the cost out.
Blessing said that Region 5 would be completing a county aggregate resource mapping task in the five county region.
An application is waiting to be sent in if the counties approve of it. If the funds are awarded, the work would begin in 2015 and take approximately five years.
The request was for $900,000 and each county that committed to have it done would pay a small portion of a “match” type money. It appeared that Todd County’s commitment would be $2500.
There is a letter of resolution to get the application sent.
Blessing said that counties are running low on resources and this project will help research and map out where things like gravel sources are.
He said that at one time the county had 75 gravel pits and now there are about 20.
The last item of discussion was on the public comment that takes place during board meetings.
Kircher said that he has listened to the recordings of the meetings and when a person speaks from their seat it doesn’t get on the recording.
“You can hear some light mumbling, but for clarity for the board I think they need to come up and speak into a microphone,” said Kircher.
He said that it has caused him some issues because he can’t defend himself on things that were said from the audience.
They discussed following Robert’s Rules of Order and when conducting a meeting, commissioners should have priority in speaking.
They discussed different ways they could address the microphone issue.
Recorder Cheryl Perish said that she has seen in other counties that they have a standing mike on the side of the board room and then one at the media table.
Kircher said he would like to see a podium for the public to be able to use and would like to see one at the media table as well.
Busch said she will talk to MIS Director Chris Pelzer about getting this done.
karin@inhnews.com
Soil, Water, Conservation and Development Director Tim Steiber and Planner Chris Arens presented the updated draft septic ordinance.
As many are aware, counties are required to update their septic ordinances by February 2014.
According to Steiber, the Pollution Control Agency’s requirements have softened a bit since the beginning of all of the proposed changes were discussed a couple of years ago.
Arens undertook the rewrite of the ordinance. He and fellow Planner Galen Gruber sat through the PCA conference as the plan was reviewed.
Arens said there were only a few changes they needed to make on the checklist provided by the PCA.
Arens said that Type I and Type III systems will impact the county the most.
Type I systems are the standard systems for homes with domestic strength waste designed to treat less than 2500 gallons per day.
Type III systems are those that are built on fill or disturbed soil designed to treat less than 2500 gallons per day.
Arens said the PCA gave counties the option to stick with the old rules regarding Type I systems as long as they did not become less restrictive.
The county did adopt the new rule, but stuck with the old rule on systems that would cause financial or other burdens for homeowners.
Kircher asked if under the new requirements everything had to be a pressurized system with no more drainfields?
Arens said that it can be either/or.
He said that if a property can meet the requirements they could use a gravity system in any soil type.
Kircher asked if the installers were okay with the updated ordinance?
Arens said they shaped the ordinance so that owners and installers would really see no difference in Type I or Type III systems.
It was explained that Type II systems which refer to holding tanks and privies will remain the same, but if they are located in floodplain areas, will have to follow different rules.
It was noted that there were no changes in the setbacks.
Arens said that Todd County was the first county to do the hybrid version of the ordinance and have the PCA in basic agreement.
As always, the ordinance can be made stricter, if needed.
Kircher asked about compliance inspections and when those would be required when building or adding on.
This ordinance was changed previously by the county so that a compliance inspection would not be required for certain types of additions.
Kircher said he also had concerns about the feedlot issues.
Arens said that the application shows a pathway so that new owners can come into compliance.
Kircher said that in the past it has been a hold up for development because if owners or potential owners had to borrow the money for the feedlot and then had to upgrade the septic, too, it was just too much.
The next steps are to submit the plan to the Planning Commission where it can be further reviewed. This will happen at the May meeting of the commission.
The June meeting of the commission will be open for public comment.
Steiber thought they could easily pass it and have it in effect for January 1, 2014.
Auditor/Treasurer
The board discussed the credit card policy. Auditor/Treasurer Karen Busch said that because of the change it would be easier to do the accounting. She said that the turnaround time for billing now was about a week. With the new system, social services, public health and the sheriff’s department can pull their receipts and have the billing ready in a day or two. Busch said it saves a lot of time by having those departments handle the credit cards and receipts in their departments. It also saves time for employees in those departments so they don’t have to go to Busch to get the cards, they can go directly to their supervisor.
A question was raised about the $500 daily limit. Apparently, this has led to some embarrassment for county employees who have gone to conferences that are several days long. When they go to pay the bill at the end, the $500 limit is too little.
The way they have decided to handle this is that employees who will be staying multiple days at a conference, need to pay their room charges daily. There is a $1000 limit per billing cycle on these cards.
Commissioner David Kircher said that he had brought this back to the work session because he felt these things should be discussed amongst the board first before passing policy changes.
The board discussed amending the budget for publishing health and human services minutes in the newspaper. The charge is $600 per month now. As the Health and Human Services Committee had discussed at their meeting just prior to the work session, they plan to go down to one meeting per month and that should cut the cost of publishing in half. They currently meet two times a month.
According to Administrative Assistant Lori Jorgensen, there are several cars in the county motor pool that are no longer reliable.
Apparently, a “junk dealer” has made an offer on two of the least reliable that have very high miles (200,000 to 250,000) and Kircher asked if they could sell them to the dealer for $550 for both.
This will be explored further.
Jorgensen also said there was another vehicle that she is not comfortable leaving the county with because of high miles.
There is about $40,000 in the vehicle purchase budget and they could possibly purchase two cars.
Jorgensen said, “It’s tight right now. The vehicles are out everyday so if we are down one…”
There are 18 cars in the motor pool.
In a related topic, it was brought up that cars being used by employees are not always returned clean. There is garbage in the cars, spilled drinks, food crumbs and other trash.
Busch said that Woeste Auto will do cleaning of the cars on Saturdays for $10 per car. It would cost $20 per car for a more detailed cleaning.
Commissioner Mark Blessing said that employees need to take responsibility for the vehicles and take the trash out with them.
“Lori [Jorgensen] can’t be running around [cleaning them]. They need to have enough initiative to take care of it,” said Blessing.
It was suggested that it would be nice to have a trash can near where the cars are parked.
Someone will talk to Maintenance Chief Pete Bleess about putting the garbage cans out.
Another item with the cars is that the journals are not being filled out completely.
Blessing suggested the employees checking out the cars print and sign their names along with printing the starting and ending mileage.
“Lori shouldn’t have to decipher it,” said Blessing.
Jorgensen suggested sending out a memo to be discussed at department head meetings about keeping the cars cleaned up.
Board Chair Randy Neumann said that taxpayers are paying for those vehicles and they should take [discipline] to the next step.
“We can’t pay someone else to clean them up,” said Neumann.
Commissioner Gary Kneisl said they could put a ban in the vehicles just like the smoking ban. He said they could put a no eating or drinking ban in the cars, too.
“If they are going to act like little kids, treat them like it,” said Kneisl.
Kircher said he agreed with Kneisl.
Blessing added the employees using the cars needed to be responsible.
Kircher said they will start with the stern memo.
Discussion Items
Discussed putting lights in the parking lot at the Main Street Government Center.
Neumann commented that if they install the lights they can get the garbage out of the county cars and put it in the garbage cans.
There was discussion on where to install the lights.
They thought by the building since that is where the majority of the county cars are parked.
The city of Long Prairie will not require a permit for the county to put the lights up.
Busch asked if they should ask if the city of Long Prairie will put in street lights by the lot?
The board will research it and bring back a cost estimate.
The board discussed touring the incubator building where the county has stored a lot of materials from the historic courthouse and the annexes during the renovation.
They discussed what could be sorted out and auctioned or used again, but would not know fully until the renovation was completed and the things were moved back to the annex.
Blessing said they probably would not be done with the renovation until October so they could plan for a county auction in the spring of 2014.
The board also discussed storage needs for records.
It is quite expensive (no numbers were quoted) to image all the old tax and recorder documents.
Kircher asked if they could slowly start scanning the records by perhaps doing a few each year. They could do this over a five year period to spread the cost out.
Blessing said that Region 5 would be completing a county aggregate resource mapping task in the five county region.
An application is waiting to be sent in if the counties approve of it. If the funds are awarded, the work would begin in 2015 and take approximately five years.
The request was for $900,000 and each county that committed to have it done would pay a small portion of a “match” type money. It appeared that Todd County’s commitment would be $2500.
There is a letter of resolution to get the application sent.
Blessing said that counties are running low on resources and this project will help research and map out where things like gravel sources are.
He said that at one time the county had 75 gravel pits and now there are about 20.
The last item of discussion was on the public comment that takes place during board meetings.
Kircher said that he has listened to the recordings of the meetings and when a person speaks from their seat it doesn’t get on the recording.
“You can hear some light mumbling, but for clarity for the board I think they need to come up and speak into a microphone,” said Kircher.
He said that it has caused him some issues because he can’t defend himself on things that were said from the audience.
They discussed following Robert’s Rules of Order and when conducting a meeting, commissioners should have priority in speaking.
They discussed different ways they could address the microphone issue.
Recorder Cheryl Perish said that she has seen in other counties that they have a standing mike on the side of the board room and then one at the media table.
Kircher said he would like to see a podium for the public to be able to use and would like to see one at the media table as well.
Busch said she will talk to MIS Director Chris Pelzer about getting this done.
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