County proceeds with new Aerial Imagery System
Tue, 11/27/2018 - 3:17pm
admin
By:
Karen Edelbach
The Clearwater County Board of Commissioners met on November 20, 2018 to discuss agenda items from the Soil & Water Conservation District, new campground rates, Public Utilities Commission meeting regarding support for the Enbridge pipeline, and a future visit to the County by Amy Klobuchar.
Lori Buell, District Manager of Soil and Water Conservation District came to the meeting to further discuss implementation of a new Aerial Imaging system in Clearwater County, to see if the Commissioners wished to proceed.
The Land Department is in favor of the new Aerial Imagery System. Stuart Lien, from IT, and County Surveyor Bob Murray were present, and also expressed agreement that it would be very useful and would like to see the Commissioners proceed. The Highway Department previously expressed support of a new system.
“This is very beneficial, and is a whole different system,” Bob Murray stated. “It's pretty important. Yes, we would use it a lot.”
Environmental Services Director, Dan Hecht said he is supportive of the new system.
“My needs are not double anyone else's,” he said, in comparison to the Assessor, Information Technology (IT) office and Land Department.
Departments would share the cost to the County of matching BWSR funds of $18,200, with additional AIS funds and support from Red Lake and Wild Rice Watershed Districts.
A motion by Commissioner Neal Illies to match funds for Aerial Imagery, and seconded by Commissioner John Nelson, was approved to go forward with the new Aerial Imagery System.
Commissioner Bruce Cox and Kim Christenson from the Land Department received approval to increase the nightly campground rates for 2020. Other Land Department issues involved the cost for Enbridge Easement of $115,000, and $100,000 in sales from harvested timber. A motion was approved to transfer the amount totaling $215,000 from the 2018 Tax Forfeit fund to the Memorial Forest fund.
Commissioner Cox said by having this in the budget it will help to cover the cost of a survey and some demolition work coming up.
“We try to keep the costs down as much as we can,” he said.
The Board also approved the 2019 Forfeited Tax Sale Fund Budget for the Land Department. It includes Forfeited Tax Sales, Timber Development, Payments In Lieu of Taxes, and County Forest Roads. Revenues total $471,850, and expenditures total $711,746.
Commissioner Neal Illies attended the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
“The PUC passed regarding the (Enbridge) Certificate of Need, with some last minute adjustments and Enbridge agreed. Neal Peterson from Pennington County, myself, and some union members went to see Governor Waltz to let him know there are a lot of supporters for the pipeline, (not just protestors),” Neal said.
Commissioner Dan Stenseng thanked him for going to the meeting.
Commissioner Dean Newland discussed making an invitation to Amy Klobuchar, who has stated she has been to all 87 counties in the state.
“I'm going to invite her,” he stated. “She's never been here except when running for the first time.”
County Auditor-Treasurer Allen Paulson was authorized to pay the submitted invoices of $27,213 for the County Revenue Fund and $3,256 for the Nursing Service Fund.
Commissioners present at the meeting were Daniel Stenseng, Dean Newland, John Nelson, Neal Illies and Arlen Syverson.