Fillmore County Annual Meeting

County Administrator Bobbie Hillery called the January 2 annual meeting to order and presided over the election of officers for 2024. Duane Bakke was elected chairman and Marc Prestby was elected vice-chairman.
Bakke highlighted county ongoing projects: the veterans home, jail construction with the first phase to be completed in the fall, work on extending the five-year plan, the newly created Land Use Department, and the upcoming elections including leadership elections at the Association of Minnesota Counties.
2023 Chronic Wasting Disease
Erik Hildebrand, DNR wildlife health supervisor, reviewed efforts to control CWD in Minnesota. There are six management zones and four surveillance zones. The core area of infection remains in the Preston/Lanesboro area. Nearly 3,000 samples were collected in the fall of 2023 identifying 39 new cases of CWD.
There will be a special hunt again this year targeting certain areas for culling. The goal is to keep the prevalence of disease at around 1%. In southeast Minnesota the USDA will begin a special hunt at the end of January until the first week of April on state owned and agreeable landowner properties. All deer are tested for CWD. Venison with undetected disease from agency culling will go back to participating landowners and local food shelves.
Approval was granted for the DNR and USDA wildlife service to cull and test deer from county fields numbers eight and nine again this year.
Other Business in Brief
• After the meeting, the board was invited to tour the 60,000-square-foot veterans home. Gabby Kinneberg, public relations and volunteer coordinator, conducted the tour. Seventy employees are on staff at this point. More employees will be hired during phase two. Twenty-four residents will be brought into the home starting on January 3 over about three weeks. After the home completes three surveys, more residents will be admitted. About 200 are on the waiting list.
• Jake and Ashley Housley, owners of Grandma’s Trail House in Lanesboro, appealed the property status from commercial to 4c (1), seasonal recreational. The application to maintain the status at 4c (1) was sent to an old address and not received by the owners. The property tax abatement was approved as requested due to the fact that notice was not received.
• Auditor/Treasurer Heather Broadwater noted Public Health and law enforcement found the Low-Dose Hemp retail sites to be in compliance. Registrations were renewed for 2024.
The 2024 fee schedule was approved with changes. Changes included, but were not limited to, increases in permit and variance fees for Land Use and fees associated with the attorney’s office.
Fillmore County Journal will be the official newspaper in 2024.
• Prosecutor agreements were approved for the cities of Fountain, Mabel, and Canton.
• Land use director, Blake Lea presented an access permit for the Sumner Cemetery, section 13 of Sumner Township, to allow access from the east side. The access permit was approved.
Buell Consulting, Inc. requested an extension for one more year of their conditional use permit for a telecommunications tower project in section 20 of Bloomfield Township, which was scheduled to expire on June 27. The extension was approved.
Two amendments to the county’s zoning ordinance were approved as recommended by the Planning Commission. One was an amendment to the Rural Home-Based Business ordinance, section 734, which removes the crop equivalency rating restriction. The second amendment was to the SSTS ordinance, section 802, Compliance Inspection Program. This additional language requires verification by two independent licensed inspectors for existing systems where the soils have not been previously verified.
A $15,000 noxious weed 2024 grant was accepted from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture for the control of Japanese hops along 37.5 river miles in the county.
• Approval was granted for four social service contracts: the Zumbro Valley Mental Health contract, the Workforce Development Center contract, the Semcac contract for transportation, and the Hiawatha Valley Mental Health contract.
• Lindsi Engle, human resources, received approval for the following hires: replacement social worker Carissa Dachel, adult mental health social worker Alexis Burt (lateral transfer), adult mental health social worker Kiah Halvorson, part-time dispatcher Patricia Goetzinger-Krall, part-time dispatcher Dakotah McIntyre, and part-time dispatcher Courtney Nelson.
Approval was granted to advertise for a replacement RN/social worker.
The three-year contract with International Union of Operating Engineers Local #49 was approved.
• Hillery noted the Bluff Country IRA was awarded $390,000 of the $408,000 that was applied for through the Minnesota Housing’s Impact Fund. Approval of a contribution to Semcac based on a prior motion for the grant was approved in the amount of $20,000.
Approval was granted for paybook number 8 for the jail project in the total amount of $502,064.65 per Construction Manager, Contegrity Group.
Total appropriations in the amount of $17,561.40 for 2024 were approved. Agencies include Root River Trails, SE Minnesota EMS, Southern MN Tourism Association, SE MN Initiative Fund, Bluff Country Collaborative, and Semcac. Budgeted agencies include SELCO, Historical Society, Memorial Day, Ag Society, and SWCD; the total expended for these agencies is $576,909.
• A $45 per diem rate was approved. The 2024 mileage reimbursement rate is set at the IRS rate which is currently 67 cents per mile. The hourly pay rate for entry-level appointed staff is $14.76.
• Elected official salaries were set for 2024. Commissioner salaries are $28,058.73, or a 3.5% increase. Attorney Brett Corson’s salary was set at $140,000, or a 6% increase. Sheriff John DeGeorge’s salary was set at $127,920, or a 4% increase. Chief Deputy Lance Boyum’s salary was set at $110,942, or a 6% increase. DeGeorge took a lower percent increase to keep within budget and allow the chief deputy salary to have a reasonable separation from the captain’s salary.
• Approval was given to use the county website as an alternative method to advertise for bids.
• F&M Community Bank and the Magic Fund were the two accounts approved as bank depositories for 2024 where funds are held to earn the highest interest rates.
• The board meets next on January 9.