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County receives $77,000 state grant
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
Houston County will receive nearly $77,000 from the state in the form of a water and soil resources block grant. Root River Soil and Water Conservation District Manager Ralph Tuck informed the county board of the water plan grant during the Dec. 29 board meeting.
When Commissioner Dave Corcoran asked by if the county would be receiving the $76,959 grant if they didn’t have state-mandated ordinances in place, Environmental Services Officer Rick Frank said it certainly would have put it in jeopardy. The question was prompted from an earlier exchange during the board meeting when a county resident who appeared to be against all county zoning ordinances asked why the county just could do away with all zoning ordinances.
“Most of the amounts we received this year are the same as last year, although there are a couple that were reduced slightly,” he noted.
The grant was broken down in the following manner:
• Comprehensive local water management- $20,127;
• Wetland Conservation Act- $14,793;
• DNR Shoreland Management- $3,105;
• MPCA county feedlot- $38,934.
In other board action:
HR issues
Human Resources Director Tess Arrick-Kruger brought a number of different issues to the board.
• The first was the code of ethics and conflict of interest review. All counties in the state are required to establish ethical standards of conduct for all employees and public officials. The State Auditors Office checks to make sure Houston County reviews their code of ethics and conflict of interest policy with all employees and public officials annually.
All employees and public officials are required to sign a contract that they have reviewed the ethical standards and conflict of interest policy.
• Arrick-Kruger then reviewed the county’s energy control lockout-tagout policy, which is a safety procedure that establishes minimum performance requirements for the control of potentially hazardous conditions. This is accomplished by locking out and tagging out energy isolated devices and otherwise disabling machines or equipment to prevent unexpected energizing, start-up or release of stored energy.
• Arrick-Kruger informed the board the county had received $2,062.50 from the State Occupational Safety and Health Division. The money was a claims reduction in workers’ compensation claims during the past year.
• Arrick-Kruger asked for permission to apply for a 50-50 matching grant through the state to purchase two automatic external defibrillators (AED). The cost to the county will be $1,300. One of the ADEs will be placed in the County Community Services building and the other in the county jail.
The board unanimously passed a motion to apply for the state grant.
Hauler contracts
The board approved nine different trash and waste hauling contracts and transportation license applications. This is an annual procedure.
The contracts are with Hilltopper Refuse & Recycling, Shirley Giblin, Houston County Recycling Center, Waste Management, Midwest Roll-off, Harter’s Quick Clean-up, Richard’s Sanitation and Generation X Construction.
The board also approved the annual contract with ABC Recycling Center/Woodland Industries.
CUP approved
A conditional use permit (CUP) was approved for Thomas and Constance Harnack of Sheldon Township to build a cabin in an agricultural district.
According to County Zoning Administrator Bob Scanlan, the Harnacks have met all the requirements as far as square footage, the type of foundation and no utility hook-ups.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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