Sheriff John DeGeorge pointed out the benefits of subscribing to a CodeRed Emergency Public Notification System at the county board’s October 8 meeting. He acknowledged that the county had first subscribed to a CodeRed system when Daryl Jensen was sheriff. At some point the sheriff’s office stopped using it and the subscription was not renewed in 2018. DeGeorge said paying … [Read more...]

Savion, headquartered in Lenexa, Kans., is proposing the development of a utility-scale solar project in Beaver Township, Section 14. Fillmore County Solar Project, LLC is expected to be a 45 MW solar energy facility. Local residents were invited to a meeting held at the United Methodist Church in Spring Valley on October 9 to learn more about the project and to get their … [Read more...]

Nathan Barker, Fraud Prevention Investigator for a five county region, updated the Fillmore County Board on dollars saved due to fraud prevention efforts, regarding public assistance programs. Commissioner Randy Dahl was absent. Barker is the fraud investigator for Fillmore, Goodhue, Houston, Wabasha, and Winona Counties. He noted 10 cases were referred to him from Fillmore … [Read more...]

At the September 24 meeting of the Fillmore County Board, County Coordinator Bobbie Vickerman reviewed 2020 budget and levy numbers. The county recorder and the auditor/treasurer had included in their budgets funding for one full-time position in each department. The final levy numbers did not include funding for either of these full-time positions. It did, however, include … [Read more...]

At the September 19 meeting of the Fillmore County Planning Commission a public hearing was held on a zoning ordinance amendment to Section 604.05, Performance Standards in the Ag District.  Zoning Administrator Cristal Adkins stated the current requirement, that new dwellings can not be constructed on land with a Crop Equivalency Rating (CER) of greater than 65, has been … [Read more...]

R. Ross Reichard, D.D., Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner, presented 2018 data for Fillmore County at the September 10 county board meeting. Chairman Duane Bakke was absent. Reichard’s office serves eight counties in southeast Minnesota. He emphasized the importance of the medical examiner’s staff including investigators throughout the region. In 2018, 136 … [Read more...]

The county board reviewed budget proposals from several departments at their September 3 meeting. County Coordinator Bobbie Vickerman produced a very preliminary 2020 budget with a levy increase of over 6%. Vickerman made it clear that she already could take about 1% of the increase off the top. Part of the reduction is a savings of $42,000 because the health insurance … [Read more...]

All districts were again represented at the August 27 meeting of the Fillmore County board of commissioners. Newly elected Larry Hindt, representing the third district, was sworn in last week by Judge Matthew Opat. More budget proposals for 2020 were reviewed. Departmental budgets reflect salary increases of 2.5% and health insurance increases of 7.5%. The preliminary 2020 … [Read more...]

Policies and procedures were approved and put into place for the recently created Finance Department at the August 13 county board meeting. Statutory issues which have been analyzed in detail concerning legalities over the creation of the department were resolved. The board sought verification that they would be within statutory requirements with the creation of the finance … [Read more...]