Commission approves bid to replace highway shop roof

By Anna Jauhola
The highway department building in Hallock will be getting a new roof this year after the Kittson County Commission approved moving forward with a quote from MP Inc. at its Tuesday, May 21 meeting. The quote of $145,000 from the contractor, Mark Przekwas of Lancaster, will reroof the main county highway shop building, which has been leaking.
The building has computer systems as well as physical records in storage that could be permanently damaged should the roof continue to be in disrepair.
The main issue Tuesday was finding the money to pay for the project. Originally the replacement was going to be a part of the proposed bonding, but to cut costs, the commission asked Assistant County Engineer Keith Klegstad to get alternate quotes from local contractors. Johnson Controls bid the project at $186,000, which included new soffit and facia, which isn’t needed.
“You tabled this at the last meeting. I’d still like to pursue doing that project,” Klegstad said.
County Administrator Aimee Sugden said they looked into reserve funding that they could use to replace the roof – $2.3 million in the courthouse reserves and $850,000 in the highway reserves. The commission also budgeted $300,000 for a bond payment, prior to the $8 million bond issue being petitioned to be on the November ballot. They need to save some of that money to patch the HVAC system – which is what the bond issue is for – but can use some of the funding to pay for the highway shop roof.
“It just has to get done or we’re going to spend another year with more problems,” said Commissioner Loren Younggren. “If you get the insulation wet, we’re going to go way over either proposal if we have to start replacing the insulation.”
Commissioner Theresia Gillie proposed using some of the bond payment budget amount to pay for the project, and anything above and beyond should be taken out of highway department funding. CFO Shirley Swenson said they can pay some out of one fund now and later do a transfer from reserves or general revenue, if need be.
Street Closing Permits
Klegstad also approached the commission for guidance on special event permits submitted to close county state aid roads. He said his department has already received 11 requests for the summer, two of which are in Hallock for private events.
“I’d like some guidance on what to do here. I don’t feel comfortable signing those permits,” Klegstad said.
When someone wants to close off a state aid highway for an event within a city in the county, they must submit a permit request to the county. For example, the city of Lancaster requests to close CSAH 6 and CSAH 27 for its annual Heritage Days celebration – these two streets run through the heart of downtown. In Hallock, CSAH 1 runs along Second Street South, the street for which a few people have asked permission to close for private events.
“The permit requires them to have a commercial general liability insurance that names Kittson County as being insured for that policy,” Klegstad said. “So there is no liability on us. I have yet to receive that. They want a road closure this weekend. I do not have that in my hand.”
The commission agreed that private events such as graduation parties that are not open houses and groom’s suppers do not qualify to close a public roadway. Should something adverse happen, that can affect the county’s state aid funding. There are also state laws governing road closures the county has to cover.
“That is my main purpose of this whole thing is protecting our funding and any liability against Kittson County. That is my whole concern and I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t have concern for it,” Klegstad said.
The commission directed him to proceed with not allowing closed roadways for private events. The commission will also work on a more comprehensive road closure policy for public roads.
In other business, the commission:
• Approved a quote from C&M Ford in Hallock for a new F-250 truck for $56,990 to replace the aging 2017 F-150 4×4. The cost is a little higher than the state low bid of $54,541.64, but the cost of retrieving the state bid truck from Roseville, Minn., evens out the final cost of buying locally. The truck will be ready in four or five months.
• Made two separate motions to retroactively approve initiation of redetermining benefits for ditches across Kittson County. In October 2023, the commission approved a contract with H2Overview-ers to do this work, but recent discussion with the county’s water attorney, Rinke Noonan, found they needed to make these specific motions for redeterminations for two different groups of ditches. Group one will redetermine benefits for County Ditches 1, 4, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31 and 33, and State Ditches 1 and 48. Group two will redetermine benefits for County Ditches 11, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23 and 30; Judicial Ditches 31 and 32; and State Ditch 84.
• Heard the 2023 annual report from Kittson County Hospice Director Macyn Lofstrom and President Patti Swanson. They thanked the commission for allocating $15,000 to hospice in 2024. The commission asked for hospice’s 2025 budget to take into consideration when the county starts its budgeting process.
• Approved spending $400 out of the custodial fund to purchase flowers to plant in pots outside the courthouse. Employees have volunteered to do the planting.
The next regular meeting is set for Tuesday, June 4 at 9 a.m. in the courthouse upstairs meeting room.