County Commission approve speed reductions

The Lincoln County Commission met Tuesday, May 6 in the Lincoln County boardroom. All members were present. 

The first order of business was a public hearing to consider an application for a temporary on-sale liquor license to operate outside the municipality for The Good Earth Farm Animal Sanctuary for events to occur on June 7, 2025, July 4, 2025 and August 16, 2025. Located at The Good Earth Farm Animal Sanctuary, 28318 466th Avenue, Lennox, SD 57039, legally described as Krogers Addition - Tract 2C NW1/4 – 28 – 98 – 51. The applicant, Nancy Kirstein, was present to answer any questions the commission or public had.

“We are requesting a temporary liquor license to hold events as fundraisers for our animal sanctuary,” Kirstein said. 

Motion for approval by Jim Schmidt, seconded by Joel Arends, motion carried.

The Commission next heard a public hearing pursuant to SDCL 7-21-22, for the purpose of adopting the following supplements to the 2025 Budget: A supplement adding to the Emergency Management Fund $21,000.00 because of a reduction of funding from the state, a supplement adding to the Legal Aide Catastrophic in the general fund account 101-4130-422110 for a increase premium for CLERP, a supplement adding to the Probation and Juvenile Fees in the general fund account 101-4214-422200 for $320,000.00 per resolution 2412-16 passed on 12.10.2024, a supplement adding to the Highway Fund Road Construction account 201-4311-429200 in the amount of $2,492,250.00 per resolution 2412-16 passed on 05.07.2024, a supplement adding to account 201-4311-436200 in the amount of $117,925.00 per resolution 2405-20 passed on 05.07.2024, a supplement adding to 201-4311-33400 $3,766,700.00 for awarded state grants, a supplement adding to 201-4311-33199 $75,000.00 for awarded federal grants. 

Auditor Sheri Lund was present to discuss where the supplements originated. Chairwoman Tiffani Landeen opened the floor for public comment on the supplements. Linda Montgomery voiced her opinion. 

“I am speaking as an opponent to this budget, as just a number of weeks ago, we had our first supplement which amounted to $203,000 and now coming back here in May we are up to another $3 million for supplemental budget. I did my due diligence, and for days I’ve looked at this and spent hours, looking back at the minutes and looking at where these items were approved in and for a simple budget, I found it very complicated, and I had to do a lot of looking. The five items I looked over, the emergency management fund with the adjusted amount of $21,000, I believe that is per quarter, and my question is, does the funding need to be done at this time, or can it wait for the 2026 budget?” Montgomery asked. 

Beth Quail also stood to speak on the matter. 

“It seems like in the beginning you went through the departments with their budgets and then as we go forward in other meetings, somebody comes and wants more money, so they’re given more money when they’re asking to buy something. If I have a budget at home, and I want to buy some bright shiny object and I don’t have the money, I have to wait until I get the money, I can’t just ask the banker for more money. We talk so much about a tax issue, but maybe that’s because we have a spending issue, and I just feel like if someone has a budget, they need to follow it,” she said.

 Emergency Management Director, Harlod Timmerman was present to answer the questions on his salary. 

“When we planned our ’25 budget, we were told to cut 10 percent, which we did. Now we get told that the state is getting cut from the federal dollars in ’25, so they’re scrambling in Pierre, they’ve readjusted some things in the sate office and one person has left, but not every county participates in Emergency Management planning grants. There are a lot of counties that choose not to because they have part-time Emergency Managers and this only covers administrative expenses,” Timmerman said. 

A motion to adopt the supplements made by Schmidt, seconded by Betty Otten, motion carried. 

Highway Superintendent, Terry Fluit and Sam Trebilcock of Houston Engineering were present to give a Safe Streets for All progress report. 

“In late 2022, we were awarded a federal grant, and it took us a while to get a lot of information together with the feds. We’re getting a comprehensive safety action plan done for Lincoln County and that kicked off earlier this year in January,” Fluit said. 

Being four months into the project, Trebilcock wanted to provide an update to the commission. 

“The comprehensive action plan is aimed at reducing and eliminating serious injury and fatal crashes affecting all roadway users in Lincoln County,” Trebilcock said. 

Draft safety analysis should be completed by the company soon which will provide data on existing conditions and historical crash trends of the area. The next step for the team is to put together a survey for all Lincoln County residents and encourage residents to visit their website to learn of the timeline of the project and an interactive map for residents to pinpoint problems in the county.

 “We have had 301 pinpoints dropped so far, and another 300 surveys have been completed, and we are hoping for quite a bit more though the summer,” he said. The project is on course to be last through next year and Trebilcock hopes to have the adoption of a plan by the end of next year.

 The commission thanked Trebilcock for the update.

Fluit asked the commission to consider a motion to reduce the speed limit of designated County roads. 

“I have three road sections that I am recommending that we lower speed limits on. On Cliff Avenue, there’s a half a mile North on County Road 106 and a half a mile South, both of those abut to the City of Sioux Falls from the North and the other is the City of Harrisburg to the South,” Fluit said. 

The second section will be from 57th street to 85th street, and the third will be from LC111 to I-29 from 471st Avenue to 473rd Avenue. 

Commissioner Otten asked if the 45 is still too fast to help reduce noise from the school speed bumps. 

“Typically, we determine speeds based on the 85th percentile of what the traffic is, dropping it down ten below is a reach and will be stretching it a little bit to keep the flow of traffic going,” Fluit responded. 

Fluit reminded Otten that he is not reducing the speed limit in the area for noise control; he is reducing the speed in those areas for the safety of the public. A motion to approve the reductions made by Otten, seconded by Arends, motion passed 4-1 with Doug Putnam sustaining. 

Chairwoman Landeen requested the commission to consider a motion to approve and authorize the chair to execute an easement agreement between the City of Canton and Lincoln County for an easement at the Justice Center location. Before discussing the agenda item, Chairwoman Landeen requested the Commission go into executive session under SDCL 1252 sub 3. Returning from session, Chairwoman Landeen gave an update on the easement proposal. 

“The easement agreement is a sanitary sewer easement agreement that’s being drafted. It needs to get vetted by legal, we just want to move that forward. We need to do this to kind of get over some hurdles that we’re having with timing of getting the order in for parking lots and getting the sanitary figured out on what we’re going to do,” she said. 

A motion to approve and authorize the chair to execute a purchase agreement between the City of Canton and Lincoln County for an easement at the Justice Center location by Otten, seconded by Arends, motion carried.