Lincoln County revisits Airport Board; approves bridge and election updates

With all members present, the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday, Oct. 7 in the Lincoln County Boardroom to discuss agenda items including a public hearing, bridge plans, and election precinct boundary changes. 

Chairwoman Tiffani Landeen started the meeting with a second reading and public hearing for an Ordinance of Lincoln County, SD, amending Section 1 of Ordinance 0904-06, Section 1: Organization; The Airport Board shall consist of seven (7) individuals as follows: two (2) voting members of the Board of County Commissioners; three (3) voting members that are leasing airport property from Lincoln County; and (2) voting members that are residents of Lincoln County. 

“I have a proposal to amend the current board to give this board more direction and more insight and help us manage the airport so that it will come to be revenue neutral. So I’m proposing that we have a new board composed of four members of the user group. This would be our advisory group that we have now are all users, they all have planes there, and either own a hangar or have lease space there, four members that would be selected, two commissioners, and one public member, and that board would operate with our manager and would like to make a motion to amend what we read last week,” said Commissioner Jim Schmidt. 

Chairwoman Landeen asked for proponents and opponents to Schmidt’s motion. Linda Montgomery weighed in with her thoughts. 

“With all due respect, Commissioner Schmidt, I understand your reasoning, but this proposal that we are currently looking at that was published is the most fair way to go. The two commissioners on the board, three voting members that are leasing the airport, and I would like the amendment that they actually do live in South Dakota, preferably in Lincoln County and that there are two residents of Lincoln County,” she said. 

Chairwoman Landeen asked for more clarity on the matter. 

“I think just for clarity sake, it looks like there was a mess up on the front end or on the way this was noticed for second reading and public hearing, so I would like to take a second stab at this and start over with another first reading and second reading. So for purposes of this, I’d like to make a motion and get rid of this and start over,” Chairwoman Landeen said. 

Motion to deny the second reading and public hearing by Joel Arends, seconded by Betty Otten, motion carried unanimously.

Assistant Highway Superintendent, Jared Narum was present to ask the commission to consider a motion to approve the 2026-2030 Road and Bridge Plan from the Highway Department. 

“This is a formality that we do every year, we present a five-year plan that gets approved by the commission and sent off to the DOT for their approval. With this is what grants us the right to apply for big grant money for bridges. Without a five-year plan, we don’t qualify to do that,” he said. 

Bridge replacement, mill overlay and a roundabout North of Lennox are in the plans for fiscal year 2026. Motion to approve by Arends, seconded by Otten, motion carried.

Narum also asked the board to consider a motion to authorize the chair to execute a resolution removing structure 42-050-287 from the National Bridge Inventory. 

“Last year we had a structure that qualified for big grant money through the state. That was replaced and in its place was a cast in place concrete box. Through the engineering that structure does not qualify for the 20ft rule through the state, so it does not qualify for big grant money through the state and we are removing it from that list,” he said. 

Motion to approve by Arends, seconded by Otten, motion carried.

Auditor, Sheri Lund was present to ask the commission to consider a motion to approve the Auditors’ proposed election precinct boundary changes. 

“I’m coming today for two precinct changes are requested. One is due to HB 1130 that takes effect January 2026, which forces cities and schools to have elections on Primary or General election day. They will have the choice to combine with the county. This precinct change will allow the Auditor’s office to better facilitate combined elections. The second requested change is due to growth and precinct size. The precincts that will see changes are Sioux Falls 2-11, Sioux Falls 2-12, Sioux Falls 2-16 and a new Sioux Falls 2-19 precinct. With all the combined changes, approximately 4,000 voters will need to be notified of a polling location change at an approximate cost of $2,500,” Lund said. 

Motion to approve by Schmidt, seconded by Otten, motion carried.

Building Superintendent, John Rombough requested the commission consider a motion to allow the Building Superintendent to advertise an invitation to bid for the Lincoln County Administration Building lighting upgrade. This currently has budget authority for the amount of $190,000 in 101-4161-432 of the 2025 budget year. 

“We were looking at replacing all of these fixtures that are currently fluorescent into an LED fixture. We were given about $75,000 in grant money to perform this project, and at the time of the budget process last year it was estimated that it might cost close to $190,000 to do all of the fixtures on the Admin side of the building,” he said. 

Commissioner Putnam asked what the cost savings would be to the county with the new lightbulbs. 

“Typically it should pay for itself in electrical savings in about eight years,” Rombough responded. 

Motion to approve by Schmidt, seconded by Arends, motion carried.