The June 2 meeting of the Houston County Commissioners included time for a public hearing on the proposed adoption of an MS4 (Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System) ordinance. This ordinance regulates construction project stormwater, dumping of chemicals or pet waste within the MS4 boundary. For Houston County that boundary consists of the county right of way within the city of La Crescent and a small portion of La Crescent Township. The ordinance mirrors the state regulations. Sixteen hundred letters were sent out to area residents living within ½ mile to notify them of the hearing and ordinance.
During the public comment hearing, Tom Ready of La Crescent addressed the commissioners. He noted that he was surprised when the other side of his property where he had installed berms to slow down water runoff had been opened up by the county. This resulted in faster water runoff.
Ready commented that since new construction in the area, he was getting all the runoff from those properties on his property. He shared that he couldn’t even mow some areas of his property due to the standing water from the runoff.
Brian Pogodzinski explained that the county inspects storm water every year and repairs as needed. A 30” diameter culvert had 12” of sediment in it. The county crew took the sediment out and moved rock around. A rock berm was put in to slow the water 30 to 40 feet from the outlet. Ready’s berm has been diked back up by the county.
Pogodzinski assured the board that future developments will be regulated by the MS4 ordinance. The city of La Crescent has the same MS4 ordinance. The county ordinance will only regulate the right of way.
Tom Ready thanked Pogodzinski for the county coming back to fix his berm. Commissioner Eric Johnson told Ready he’d need to go to the city of La Crescent to address the water runoff from the new housing development.
Pogodzinski shared that he’d had a few calls about the ordinance. MiEnergy wanted to know how it might affect their application of herbicide. The herbicide just needs to be applied following label instructions. Other calls were asking for details on how the ordinance might affect agriculture which is beyond the MS4 limit and whether there would be any financial implications for them.
Houston County is one of the only two rural counties in Minnesota that need to have such an ordinance. This is because of La Crescent’s proximity to La Crosse with an urbanized population of 50,000 or more. The city of La Crescent and Houston County will collaborate and coordinate to enforce the ordinance.
Public Comment
Clayton Johnson of Black Hammer Township addressed the commissioners wondering why Houston County had written their shotgun firearms ordinance to state that enforcement would be done by the sheriff and had not mentioned enforcement by the DNR. Johnson was concerned that the Houston County ordinance differed from those in other counties which included enforcement by the DNR as well.
Commissioner Brent Parker explained that the DNR can indeed enforce the ordinance under state statute while the sheriff enforces it under county ordinance.
When Johnson asked why the other counties wrote their ordinances differently, he was given the answer that Houston County was not in charge of other counties. Commissioner Greg Myhre added that the DNR had a meeting on the topic and said they would enforce the state statute in Houston County just the same as in other counties.
Reminders
With no action items on the agenda, the commissioners moved on to reminders and updates after passing the consent agenda with no discussion.
They reminded the public that a hearing would be held on June 16 at 9:05 a.m. to consider amending the current peddler ordinance.
A second public hearing will be held on June 16 as well on changing the current on-sale/off-sale 3.2 beer and wine license to an on-sale liquor license/Sunday application for Pine Creek Golf Course. An addition of on-sale wine license in conjunction with the current on-sale/off-sale 3.2 beer license for La Crescent Snowmobile Club. Public notices for both hearings can be found on the county website at www.hocomn.gov/government/.
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