Meeker County Board of Commissioners selected new leadership as part of its annual reorganizational meeting Tuesday.
New chairman of the board will be Steve Schmitt. The District 5 commissioner was nominated by Commissioner Paul Johnson and received unanimous approval.
District 4 Commissioner Danny Schiefelbein was appointed as vice chairman, and Johnson was appointed reading clerk.
In addition to leadership positions, the County Board approved assignments to various committees, with a few modifications from the previous year’s list.
Among the changes was elimination of the COVID Policy Committee, and the addition of Public Works Director Phil Schmalz to the Compensation/Classification Committee.
Two other minor changes approved included Commissioner Beth Oberg being named as representative to the Central Minnesota Jobs & Training joint powers board, replacing Schmitt, who will serve as an alternate.
Oberg also requested to be moved to an alternate on the Housing Redevelopment Authority, with County Administrator Andrew Letson being the county’s primary representative.
“It’s important that we know what’s going on” with the HRA, Oberg said, but many times, she has to bring questions back to Letson anyway. The regular meeting time of the HRA board also conflicts with her other commitments, Oberg said.
Letson said he could take on the responsibility, adding that “it is important for us to have some connection there.”
As part of its consent agenda, the board also:
- Approved reappointment of Dianne Barka and Kari Olson to the Meeker County Public Health Advisory Committee. Barka is a representative of the agricultural community, while Olson is a nursing professor, according to the board packet. The advisory committee has eight members — six from throughout the county, one medical consultant and one county commissioner. Other committee members include Susan Steuck, a retired long-term care nurse; Louise Brooks, a retired acute care nurse; Katie Klitzke, a clinical psychologist; and community-at-large representative Miranda Gohn.
- Designated the Meeker County website as the official publication for transportation projects, and the Litchfield Independent Review as newspaper for official publications.
- Appointed Doug Huhn as county surveyor.
Approval to set bid letting
The County Board gave approval to the Public Works Department to set dates for bid letting for 2023 highway construction projects, a list that includes eight separate projects with a total cost of about $6 million.
Half of the funding will come from local state aid allotment, with the other half coming from “various state funds we have been able to access,” Public Works Director Phil Schmalz told the board.
“I’d call it pretty much average,” Schmalz said of the project list. “It’s a higher use of our state aid funds than what we might see other years, because a lot of years that $6 million will have federal dollars included.”
Among the projects on the list are:
- A reclaim and pave of 8 miles of County State Aid Highway 14 from Common Street on the McLeod County border to Curran Street in Darwin;
- A widen and overlay of existing pavement of 2 miles on CSAH 4 from Dassel to 255th Street;
- Paving of 1.8 miles of 64oth Avenue from Greenleaf Lake to 198th Street;
- Replacing a bridge on 592nd Avenue over the North Fork of the Crow River in Manannah Township;
- Replacing a bridge on 287th Street over the outlet of Dunns Lake in Forest City Township;
- A countywide pavement marking project, including both centerline and edge line markings on various county state aid roads; and
- Asphalt pavement chip seal on portions of CSAH 21, CSAH 23 and CSAH 28, as well as various crack-sealed routes totalling about 15 miles.
Hearing set for ditch petition
Commissioners set a hearing for 9 a.m. March 21 for a petition from Smith Investment Group seeking removal of property in Darwin Township from County 35 drainage system.
As part of the action, the board also approved hiring a “disinterested” drainage viewer to provide input on the petition. Cost of hiring a viewer, conducting the hearing and the petitioner having evidence prepared is the responsibility of Smith Investment Group.
Administrator evaluation
The County Board went into closed session for the purpose of a performance evaluation for the county administrator.
