Lincoln County discusses Poet waste, Courthouse future
The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday, Sept. 8. With all members present, the commission heard agenda items including a first reading for an ordinance change, provisional budget discussion, and more.
A first reading was held for an Ordinance of Lincoln County, SD, amending the Code of Ordinances of the County by changing the zone of the property described as the North half of the Northwest Quarter (N1/2NW1/4) (except the North 507.22 feet of the West 1030.50 feet, and except Lot B of Lot H-1, and except Lot H-1, and except lots 1-15, 22-26, 29-34, 41-44, 51, 52, 55, 56, 62, and 63 pf Springdale Estates) of Section 26, Township 100 North, Range 50 West of the 5th P.M., Lincoln County, South Dakota, From the A-1 Agricultural District and the RR Rural Residential District to the RR Rural Residential District and amending the Official Zoning Map of Lincoln County. The second hearing and public hearing on the ordinance will be held Tuesday, Sept. 22.
Environmental Engineer, Spencer Moore requested the Commission consider a resolution approving the proposed facility for the transportation, storage, treatment, or disposal of solid waste for Poet Biorefining-Hudson.
“We are applying to land apply some of our solid waste that we have at our site on our own property next to our plant. We have a permit that we are filing with the department of agriculture and natural resources and as part of that we need to get approval from the County Commission and Planning and Zoning,” he said.
Up to 5,000 tons of dry distiller grains would be used in the process.
“We have done this once before under a one-time approval from the state, but to do it ongoing, you need a permit,” he continued.
Chairwoman Tiffani Landeen asked if there had been any objections or concerns brought up to Moore about the process.
“No, I think the person who is helping us is one of the landowners we have to notify,” Moore responded.
“When will it be applied?” questioned Doug Putnam.
“It will be seasonal, so it will depend on the crop,” Moore answered.
Chairwoman Landeen asked for public input and Linda Montgomery was the first to speak.
“Some of this is very close to homes, one is a quarter mile and one is .5 miles from a home and I don’t know if it goes from you to Planning and Zoning but I think that this has to be looked at for the location and what chemicals and waste products are going to be used at this site,” she said.
Motion was made to approve by Joel Arends, seconded by Putnam, motion carried unanimously.
Commissioner Arends requested board discussion and possible action on a Request for Proposal for the Old Courthouse.
“Essentially,, the discussion really is if you have any issues with the RFP or with regard to any of the timelines that are set forth in it, if not, I’d ask for approval,” Arends said.
Commissioner Herman Otten asked if the timelines were reasonable for the people to put them together.
“There were some suggested timelines that were provided to me, I don’t know if they came from Drew,” Arends said.
“Those were just place holders as examples,” Chief Civil Deputy States Attorney, Drew DeGroot said.
“I believe with it starting at the beginning of the year, those are fair timelines,” said Building Inspector, John Rombough.
“Haven’t we done a study to examine the structural integrity and the upgrades? I feel like we’re circling back and spending money and doing the same thing over again,” said Chairwoman Landeen.
“The way I was reading it was to determine whether or not to do the full-fledged structural analysis,” Rombough responded.
Commissioner Putnam asked Chad Skiles from the audience if any Gofundme or other fundraising efforts had been made to preserve the old courthouse.
“I have not personally, but ironically I was going to get up and speak about this at public comment because two or three months ago I had an individual from rural Beresford who has background and knowledge on submitting for grants and historical things. It sounded like he has done a few historical buildings down in the City of Beresford and is willing to work with me and the commission to explore those things,” he said.
Commissioner Putnam asked if Skiles would get the commission in contact with him.
“Yes, I would be more than happy to as a member of the old courthouse committee I would be more than happy to reach back out to that individual to get the process back started,” Skiles responded.
“This may not be popular, but I understand we are going to do the study, I’m fully supportive of that. But by the same token for the Lincoln County taxpayers, I think to really understand, if you look at the square feet that this facility currently has and you compare that to what it would cost to replace that with the same square footage so that you have some kind of comparison money wise as what it is. Is it cheaper to do that? Is it cheaper to put up a new one? I think those are the kinds of things that the public has to see so that if this does come to a vote or your future commissions are going to have to make a vote, they have that kind of information available to them,” said Commissioner Jim Schmidt.
Motion to approve was made by Arends, seconded by Putnam, motion carried.
DeGroot was present for board discussion with possible action to approve and adopt the 2027 Provisional Budget as the annual budget of appropriations and expenditures for Lincoln County, its institutions, and agencies for 2027.
“States Attorney Wollman had made the decision to cut that paralegal position and move the request for the attorney position actually half the salary of the attorney position and the reason why is exploring specialty courts for Lincoln County, DUI court, drug court, things like that,” he said.
Commissioner Arends asked how specialty courts are being handled now.
“We don’t. we’re not engaged in specialty courts,” DeGroot responded.
Motion was made to approve by Schmidt, seconded by Arends, motion carried.
Kate Feilmeier, Program Director for Children’s Inn was present to discuss the economic assistance given to them by the Commission.
“We provide domestic violence services to victims of Minnehaha, Lincoln, Turner, McCook, and Union Counties. Our program serves individuals and families who are fleeing abuse and seeking safety during the most dangerous moments of their lives. Over the last year we provided just shelter services to 108 residents of Lincoln County,” she said. The average length of stay for someone using the services is 23.4 days with a cost per day of $153.63 per person. “Lincoln County provides $15,000 to Children’s Home Shelter for Family Safety in the budget and that means providing a shelter stay for an average of four of your residents,” she continued.
Chairwoman Landeen asked for public comment on the matter and Sara Steever stood to speak.
“I think these are great organizations, there’s others I would add to this list too, that my husband and I personally give to. I think they do really good work in the community. I just don’t think it’s the role of the government to make those decisions with taxpayer money, period. I think it’s the role of taxpayers to write personal checks and support these organizations because they do do great work and when you take the charity away from the individual, you also take the blessing away from them. So it’s not your role to pay this for taxpayers, it’s taxpayers as individuals role to support these organizations and the work they do,” she said.
Motion was made to return the original request by Schmidt, motion failed due to lack of a second.
DeGroot asked the commission to consider a motion to approve an agreement between Myers Billion LLC and Griese Law Firm PC for indigent counsel services.
“We’ve been having discussions after an RFP was sent out. With an RFP you can take the most advantageous to the county, it was two RFP’s joined into one. As a result of the ongoing negotiations, this is the contract we have before you. If you have any questions from a general public stand point, you might ask we’re opening a PDO office why do we have an indigent services contract as well where there’s going to be an offloading where we’re going to need to get that public defender’s office up to speed. We’re going to have to provide services for indigent defendants during that time, so this is the thought process,” he said.
Motion to approve was made by Arends, seconded by Otten, motion carried.