Lincoln County Commission approves airport leases, budget supplements

The Lincoln County Commission met Tuesday, May 26. 

A public hearing regarding the termination of hangar leases for Sites K-5, K-6, & D and intent to enter into lease agreements for Sites K-5, K-6, & D, for a term exceeding 120 days and an amount exceeding $500 at the Marv Skie/ Lincoln County Airport was the first order of business. 

“This is another round of leases here that are being updated to the new term with 40 cents. One would be a termination and a transfer of the least to a new owner,” said Chief Civil Deputy State’s Attorney, Drew DeGroot. With no commission questions or public input, a motion was made to approve by Jim Schmidt, seconded by Joel Arends; the motion carried unanimously.

Auditor, Sheri Lund was present introducing the public hearing pursuant to SDCL 7-21-22, for the purpose of adopting the following supplements to the 2026 Budget: A supplement adding to the Highway Fund Road Construction account 201-4311-429200 in the amount of $3,926,524.00 per resolution 2405-20 passed on 05/7/2024, a supplement adding to account 201-4311-37100 in the amount of $3,926,524.00 per resolution 2405-20 passed on 05.07.2024, a supplement increasing 101-4911-000000 in the amount of 3,926,524.00, a supplement increasing 295-4311-422000 by 600,000.00 for grant funding that was approved the Rural Access Infrastructure (RAIF) process. 

“The supplements tonight, the first ones for the Highway Department are the same thing as we did last year and the year before. They go out for bid when they get the actual numbers, then we do the supplement to the budget to get the numbers to where they need to be,” Lund said. 

Chairwoman Tiffani Landeen asked for proponents and opponents on the public hearing. Hearing none, a motion was made to approve by Schmidt, seconded by Arends; the motion carried unanimously.

Highway Assistant Superintendent, Jared Narum requested the commission consider a motion to approve a change order for the roundabout project on CR116 & CR105 in the amount of $26,489.47. 

“We had a couple changes in a few areas. We had more asphalt removal than was anticipated which brought our quantities up for material that had to be moved back in. We removed some footage on the culvert that was replaced and the silt fence was adjusted to reflect that. We are also making some concrete joint changes up there, as far as going around in a circle, how we can alleviate some of those cracks by doing a monolithic pour, which is a one piece pour for the whole thing, less cracking. The other big one that we have is that we’re using thermoplastics for our paint markings so they grind the concrete, heat a thermoplastic tape to a really high temperature, and then it adheres to the concrete, so that’s going to give us five or six years of life,” Narum said.  

A motion was made to approve by Arends, seconded by Schmidt; the motion carried unanimously.

Commissioner Doug Putnam requested board discussion on communication and speech. 

“I wanted to talk about the commissioner’s meeting about how we’re not talking and I’m hoping we can get things to where we can sit there and talk about anything here unlike the veteran’s memorial at the justice center that we never talked about at all, or at least I didn’t get to hear about it. That has to stop. The only time I found out about that little project is when it got dropped in front of me. So if that keeps happening I guess I’ll just be the bull in the china shop and make more problems. We have to talk about all this stuff,” Commissioner Putnam said. 

“Anytime you can have more discussion amongst commissioners, I think it serves for better decisions on all of this, so I would concur,” said commissioner Schmidt. 

“Well, you and I and Joel had a good time and even the audience laughed, so that was a good discussion, good time. Now we have to keep doing that,” Putnam responded.