Commissioners review Old Courthouse roof, question Justice Center debt and Veterans Memorial placement

The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday May 12. Commissioners heard agenda items including roof structure updates and clarifications on the consent agenda. 

Building Superintendent, John Rombough was present for an Old Courthouse roof structure update. Rombough introduced Robbie Veurink from Midwest Engineering, LLC to give a presentation to the commission. 

“John had us come and do an inspection of the roof and we looked back at it in 2020 and there was a valley that had some issues and at that point, you guys ended up having another architect do an inspection of the roof and provide a bunch of recommendations,” Veurink said. 

The 2020 recommendations included roof repairs which would involve taking off shingles, replacing decking, replacing secondary joists, and perform a structural analysis on all the notch members that support the roof. 

“When this building was built in the 1890’s, they had lumber that showed up and they had carpenters who just started building. There was no established building code back then. The other big difference is all of today’s lumber has been graded through different characteristics and given assigned a strength and back in the 1890’s they didn’t,” he continued. 

Veurink and his team would assess all the lumber and analyze the load strength to see how each piece will perform before making any improvements. 

“The way the structure is built now, it probably wouldn’t meet the current snow load specifications, but they are subject to increase immensely, and if we start tearing into this, we have to bring it to code,” Rombough informed the commission. 

“I know we have bats up there, and it’s kind of a mess, how do you handle going up there with that kind of a mess,” asked Chairwoman Tiffani Landeen. 

“It’s better than it was in 2020,” Veurink said. “We did a bat mitigation and a clean up since he was there last time, but we do have some bats up there and bat guano, but nothing like back in the day,” Rombough said. 

Veurink recommended the commission strongly consider a detailed structural analysis for the project. Chairwoman Landeen thanked the team for their update and presentation and asked for public comment on the item. Doug McKinney was the first to speak. 

“I can see this whole thing is geared towards tearing it down, which I hate to see happen. He mentioned a couple times that there was no building permit issued in 1890 when all this was done. In January of 2025 when I went to go check at the Auditor’s office, there was no building permit issued for the justice center either, or demo permits when that was built. So does that mean we have to tear the justice center down too because no building permit was issued?” he asked walking away from the podium. 

Linda Montgomery was the next to speak. 

“I had a lot of concerns that we did not have a structural assessment when they put in the HVAC back in 2008. What I see here is a fail in us, in the board, in staff, to actually be following the steps needed all these years and now I wonder that now that we have the new part and the justice center and I am not sure if we can trust what has been done because we admit that nothing has been done to this old courthouse to achieve standards on a basis. That ball has been dropped and to me it seriously means that the trust of the public and the citizens with the money they spend to maintenance a building and we have been proven with this old courthouse that standards have not been followed and that is very concerning to me,” she said. 

Commissioner Doug Putnam asked for clarification on the Lincoln County claims in the amount of $3,386,788.26. 

“I just wanted to talk about the $3.3 million. Right now, part of that is servicing the debt on the justice center I’m assuming,” he questioned. 

Auditor, Sheri Lund, was present to answer the question. 

“There is $1,323,689.99 for debt services for the Justice Center and that’s the first interest payment for the year,” she responded. 

Putnam asked how long the payments are set up for. 

“The payment on the Justice Center is 50 years” Lund responded. 

“No kidding,” Putnam responded. 

Motion was made to approve by Jim Schmidt, seconded by Putnam, motion carried.

Putnam also asked for Memorandum of Personnel Actions be removed from the consent agenda. 

“I’m just asking what items 5128 are,” he asked. 

“Did you read them,” Chairwoman Landeen asked. 

“No, I didn’t,” Putnam responded. 

“Did you ask HR to be present so they could answer your questions?” she asked. 

“I guess I didn’t know that was an HR deal because it has nothing to declare that,” he said. 

Motion was made to approve by Schmidt, seconded by Putnam, motion carried. 

Chairwoman Landeen asked for public comment for items not on the agenda. Scott Montgomery was the first to speak. 

“As you know, this topic of discussion of the placement of the Veterans Memorial has been talked about over the last month. These documents were presented during the meeting where you guys approved putting the  Veterans Memorial out at the Criminal Justice Center. These two documents were presented and I asked Amy Harms to take her time to put these documents together. Both these documents were presented to the commission here and the veterans that came and spoke, nobody from the public stood in favor of putting that veterans memorial out at the justice center, no one. But there’s three commissioners here that have decided they would take that upon themselves to put that veterans memorial where the veterans didn’t want it. There was a very touching testimony about how these veterans have been treated in the past and continue to be treated like outcasts by putting this memorial some place where it is not easily accessible by the public. It’s come to my attention that the placement of that memorial now will make a division between the public parking and the parking by the employees of the criminal justice center,” he said. 

Commissioner Schmidt responded to Mr. Montgomery. 

“Normally I wouldn’t say anything on this one, but I will. While you people here have every right to be here and voice your opinion. But unfortunately, there are lots more veterans than what were here in Canton. The veterans I have talked to in Sioux Falls and in Tea and in Lennox have not shared your opinion. So who is right and who is wrong? When you say that all veterans were treated badly, that is not true. Not true at all,” Schmidt said.