By Melanie Stegner

Reporter 

Otter Tail Power Company representative Jason Weiers attended last week’s work session of the Pope County Board of Commissioners to provide an overview of the updated plans for the Big Stone South to Alexandria Powerline project. Another series of open houses will be held in June of this year for residents to attend to view the proposed routes for the project. 

Since April of 2023, Otter Tail Power has been narrowing down the proposed route and have whittled down to two preliminary route corridors. The final public open houses will be held in Alexandria on Monday, June 25, from 3-6 p.m. at the Broadway Ballroom, on Tuesday, June 25, from 3-6 p.m. at Central Square in Glenwood, Wednesday, June 26, from 3-6 p.m. at the high school in Benson and Thursday, June 27 from 3-6 p.m. at Sioux Historic Pavilion in Ortonville. Everyone is invited to attend the open houses. There will be representatives of Otter Tail Power and Missouri River Energy Services available to answer any and all questions.

A series of Environmental Assessment Public Hearings will also be hosted by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to take comments on the need for the project. On Thursday, June 13 the MN PUC will be at the Ally Cat in Ortonville from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and at Northside Elementary from 6 to 8:30 p.m. On Monday, June 17, they will be at the Broadway Ballroom in Alexandria from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and at the Community Center in Monticello from 6 to 8:30 p.m. On Tuesday, June 18, the commission will hold a public hearing at the College of St. Benedict Gorecki Hall from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and then a virtual hearing will take place from 6 to8:30 p.m. with the link provided on the MN PUC website.

Brian Giese, County Engineer, presented the Highway Department’s annual report and 5-year road improvement plan. About 7 miles of state-aid highways in the county had some form of regular construction completed (grading, base, bituminous resurfacing, mill and overlay, reclamation, etc.) during 2023 at a cost of $3,840,687.15. County projects that were completed included about 13.5 miles of tree and stump removal, paving and patching, sealcoating, striping and culvert washout. Regular maintenance, municipal maintenance and county road maintenance over 369.1 miles was completed at a cost of $3,640,567.73. 

The 5-year plan includes several projects for 2024-2028. Projects planned for 2024 are bituminous paving on CSAH 15 for 3.5 miles, culvert replacements over 3.88 miles on CSAH 8, reconstruction of 1.75 miles of CSAH 17 and Bituminous overlay on 7 miles of CSAH 18. A public hearing to review the 5-year road plan will be held on Tuesday, May 21 at the regular board meeting starting at 9 a.m. 

An annual assessment information report was presented from Mike Wacker, County Assessor that included several statistics for Pope County. The total estimated market value of Pope County is $3,895,020,700 with the total land value at $2,382,463,800. Tillable acres in the county were down this year by 1,506 acres to 246,269. 

The commissioners discussed a review of proposed land use controls ordinance amendments on renewable energy systems. The proposed changes are in the decommissioning plan and escrow section of the ordinance and would remove the financial surety by bond or letter of credit as options for securing funding for decommissioning of a solar garden or farm. It adds that any alternative in the amount or form of assurance must be approved by the board.

The Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office sent an annual report of activities as the Pope County Coroner’s report. MMEO currently serves 37 of the 87 counties in Minnesota. This equates to roughly 32 percent of the state’s population. The medical examiner’s office took on 10 cases for the county including two homicides, four accidental deaths, three natural deaths and one suicide. The four accidental deaths were determined to be blunt force injuries, two from motor vehicle accidents and two from non-motor vehicle accidents. There were zero deaths in the county due to drug abuse.

Following the reviews, the board adjourned and will meet again in regular session on Tuesday, May 21 at 9 a.m.