The Lincoln County Commissioners met Tuesday, April 4, in the Lincoln County Boardroom. Commissioner Tiffani Landeen and Michael Poppens were in the Boardroom with Commissioner Jim Schmidt and Commissioner Joel Arends joining via Zoom.
Director of Equalization, Karla Goossen joined the meeting for the annual conference with the Commission and the Director of Equalization.
“Traditionally, we have discussed office statistic, appeal numbers and then opened it up for any questions,” Goossen said.
Changes in assessments for the 2022 versus 2023 include another strong market year.
“County wide we increased assessments percent; some locations saw a larger increase, a few things that effect values were materials and labor increased, so we increased our cost manual by 10 percent,” she said.
Commissioner Schmidt asked Goossen if she could elaborate on an article that was released in the past week.
“There was an article in Sunday’s paper that paralleled Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties but what stuck out for me was that Minnehaha County anticipated under 100 appeals and we were at three or four hundred, can you explain that to us, I have had people calling wanting to know why,” Schmidt said.
“I had the opportunity to be at the local Boards of Equalization in Sioux Falls Monday, March 20 and that’s where we presented to the board any corrections or administrative changes. Lincoln County presented five corrections or administrative changes and Minnehaha County had 700,” Goossen said.
In the past year, Lincoln County has 3,619 property transfers, which is a seven percent decrease from 2021.
“The median ratio for agricultural properties, the assessment versus the sale price is at 20.90 percent, so what that means is that agricultural land is only being assessed at 20.90 percent of its market value, which is typical because farmland is valued on productivity,” she said.
The Board thanked Goossen for her report.
A County representative spoke on behalf of Building Superintendent, John Rombough to address with the board getting approval for the purchase of office equipment for the Commission Administrative Officer and the Director of Equalization suite. The request to purchase a glass wall costing $6,160.72 and $2,040 for installation. A desk and chair costing $3,9009.27 with installation totaling $12,109.99, the Director of Equalization Suite stained glass wall costing $5,405.47 for materials and $1,700 for installation, totaling $7,105.47.
“The glass walls will help us make a consolidated Director of Equalization Suite by creating different office spaces and we also need desks and chairs for that additional office as well,” the representative stated. With no opposition, motion passed.
Highway Superintendent, Terry Fluit joined the meeting to get Board approval to purchase a used mastic machine for $35,000.
“The machine will be coming from Brock White, a new one costs around $70,000. A mastic machine is a patching machine that when we get blocks of material that are cold, we put them inside and it heats them up, comes out as a liquid and we can pour it out on the road to patch larger holes in the roadway,” Fluit said.
Motion approved.