Grants for snow removal coming from state

Governor Doug Burgum signed Senate Bill 2183, which would allot $20 million for emergency snow removal grants to eligible tribal governments, counties, cities and townships in North Dakota.

Learning this information led to a discussion at the Foster County Commission last week.

During the meeting held on Tuesday, May 2, the board learned that grants for snow removal from October 1 to December 31 could add up to $15 million for state agencies and an additional $5 million for October 1, 2022, through April 30 of this year.

The snow removal reimbursements for qualifying applicants will cover up to 60 percent of their early season snow removal costs and/or season wide snow removal costs that exceed 150 percent of average for each applicant, based on their four lowest years of snow removal expenses between 2017 and 2021.

The average cost for snow removal in Foster County over a five-year period, from 2017 to 2022 amounted to $224,791, but this past winter, from October 1 through April 30, the county actually spent just over $900,000. That total does not include townships in the county who had not submitted their totals.

In other business:

• The board learned that they will only receive one hard copy and one digital copy of the Foster County Multihazard Mitigation Plan.

• Senate Bill 2372 was approved by the Senate and signed by Gov. Burgum.

This would allow counties to create multi-county watershed districts and will be funded with up to two mills.

• The North Dakota Association of Counties (NDACo) is offering a legislative update on Monday, May 8, and this is required training for all commissioners.

• The roof of the public health building may not be as major as a total roof replacement and may just be a condensation issue.

• CHI St. Alexius Health Carrington is reviewing the documents for the ambulance building contract.

• Commissioner Pat Copenhaver reported that the Council on the Aging received a van from the state.

• A structural engineer is scheduled to look at the old shop building. He will gather data and provide recommendations on repairs with a budget and scope of work for review by the commission once their review is complete.

• There will be an LEPC (Local Emergency Planning Committee) meeting on June 1. It will be a tabletop exercise of some kind.

• Commissioner Becky Hagel reported that the Central Prairie Human Service Zone hired a new eligibility worker.

She said there are currently two more positions open.

• Hagel also said they learned of a last-minute legislative change stating that all human service zone employees become state employees. She said zone directors are upset because they have really good benefits with the counties they support and they felt blindsided by the change.

• The board heard from Kyle Schroeder of the Foster County Fair Board who attended the meeting to discuss getting the old lawn mower.

He asked the board to sell the old lawn mower to the fair board for $1 and update the responsibilities agreement of the fair board relating to mowing the fairgrounds.

Foster County State’s Attorney Kara Brinster told the board that they can transfer ownership from one public entity to another without money.

• Foster County Road Superintendent Nate Monson reported that two miles of road in Estabrook Township and the Clark/Hart Bridge are closed, due to water.

• Finally, Hagel reported that due to the upcoming building project in the courthouse basement, she called the state archives and inquired about which records to keep.

She said they told her to keep all tax and assessing books up to 1925 and then tax and assessing books for every five years after that such as 1930, 1935, 1940, etc.

She also said that the local historical society can take all the books in-between those years if they wanted.