Two public hearings were held before the Pope County Board of Commissioners at last week’s meeting. One to discuss the fee for issuing an intoxicating liquor off-sale license and the other was the annual public drainage hearing for the county.

The auditor/treasurer, Stephanie Rust, had an inquiry into what the county charges for off-sale intoxicating liquor license. Currently, there is no fee set for this type of license. The inquiry was regarding placing a liquor store outside city limits. The board requested to set a fee and following no public comment, they left the public hearing and voted unanimously to set the amount at $800.

The public hearing for the drainage board to deliver the annual report included going through the status of the 14 county and four judicial ditches. A few of them have upcoming maintenance in the next few years. After a review of the lien recommendations, the board closed the public hearing and passed the adoption of them unanimously.

Steve Vrchota presented a fee increase from Pope Douglas Solid Waste Management after its joint board acted to raise the solid waste fee for parcels in Pope County to $129 in 2024. The fee covers solid waste facility operations and is assessed to parcels in Pope County through the tax collection process by the county through the auditor/treasurer’s office. The total fee that will appear on 2024 tax statements will be $130 with the added dollar to be retained by the county as an administrative fee to collect, process and distribute the proceeds from the fee back to PDSWM. The current fee is $100 per parcel.

The County Feedlot Officer Ariel Hughes presented the 2024-2025 delegation agreement work plan. The work plan contains strategies and goals that are planned to achieve the rule requirements set forth from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. “I want to make sure to pay careful attention to the feedlot sites that are within shoreland, drinking water supply management areas, watershed restoration and protection strategies, BWSR one watershed one plan and other prioritized impaired waters,” said Hughes.

A request for appropriation to the Pope County HRA/EDA for payment to Eagle Bank for some electrical expenses that were incurred after the demolition of the Fremad building was brought forth. After the demolition was complete, Xcel Energy came out and opted to change out several alley electrical poles including one at the corner of the development site. Xcel Energy made the decision, and the decision was not caused by the Fremad site activity, it was stated.  Xcel made the decision independently when looking at the distribution system in the area to change out several roles, including the one feeding Eagle Bank which caused the line to Eagle Bank to be replaced. The board denied the request as the Fremad redevelopment was not at fault.

A resolution was passed to support the LRIP grant application for the improvement of county road 18 and a final contract payment was approved for work done on county road 15 from county road 28 to the north county line.