The Houston County Board of Commissioners declared a state of emergency for damage resulting from the September 19 severe storms at the September 22 regular commission meeting.
Sheriff Brian Swedberg, filling in for Emergency Management Director Mark Olson, said, “On Friday night, we had a considerable amount of damage throughout the county, with only six townships and the highway department reporting. We’re at roughly $470,000 for the damage so far from Friday’s rainfall, and those are really preliminary numbers.”
Swedberg said he talked to Hokah and they confirmed that they had damage to the park.
The regularly scheduled meeting was called to order at 9 a.m. followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. The board unanimously approved the agenda and the minutes from the September 15 meeting.
Commissioners in attendance included Cindy Wright, Eric Johnson, Kurt Zehnder, Bob Schuldt, and Chairman Greg Myhre.
Bri Ceaser, Houston County health educator, gave an informative presentation on the Houston County Community Health Assessment. Residents are reminded to take the 20-minute, anonymous community health survey before October 31 at www.compassnow.org.
The data collected from the survey is used to identify the critical needs in Houston County, identify the county’s assets, and determine health improvement initiatives.
The priorities identified in 2024 when the last survey was administered included mental health; healthy eating; active living; access to health services; and environmental health.
Ceaser highlighted a number of successful outcomes including mental health checkups for children and teens, WIC nutrition education, community gardens, the annual bike rodeo, walk and bike to school days, bike safety education, Bridges Health foot and nail clinics, children’s mobile dental clinic, flu clinics, blood pressure checks, water testing at the fair, free well test kits, free short-term radon test kits, and emergency preparedness education.
Commission Wright highlighted the county’s mobile dental program for children, emphasizing that others in the state have implemented the program.
The board unanimously approved the consent agenda, which included hiring James Yohe as a Veterans Services Driver 67-day employee at the rate of $17.50 per hour; hiring Danny O’Heron as a recycling lead 67-day employee; accepting the resignation of Amy Sylling, deputy auditor-treasurer; and approving payment of the bills totaling $388,661.93 as presented by Finance Director Carol Lapham.
In other business, the board:
•Discussed the preliminary levy for taxes payable in 2027 and the 2027 proposed operating budget. Brent Parker shared a spreadsheet, which he reviewed in detail, and used it to illustrate “what if” scenarios. Commissioners expressed that they would like to see the levy go down.
•Approved setting the preliminary levy at 7.72%. It was emphasized that the levy cannot go up, but it can go down when it is finalized in December. Commissioners were all in agreement that they would like to see it under 7% and expressed their frustration over the cost shifts from the state.
•Approved the proposed 2027 operating budget.
•Scheduled the Truth in Taxation hearing for Tuesday, December 1, at 6 p.m. in County Board Room 22 in the Historic Courthouse in Caledonia.
Due to the resignation of the deputy auditor-treasurer effective October 2, the licensing office will probably close on October 3.
There was only one public comment. Wilmington Township resident Karl Sylling expressed his opinion regarding the licensing office, saying, “I want to compliment you all on doing a wonderful job of hiding your incompetence on the license center without making it public. Now, you cannot have a license center open without staffing it. But here you decide, you’re gonna have it open, but you’re not gonna staff it. You have two choices as far as I was concerned: Close it or staff it. Now the state has pretty much decided for you. But that’s not doing your jobs in my book.”
The meeting was adjourned at 10:02 a.m.
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