County approves United Valley Bank bid for temporary bond

By Anna Jauhola
The Kittson County Commissioners approved a temporary bond sale during the regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 4. They sold the $5,038,000 bond to United Valley Bank at 3.35% interest. This bond will cover the costs of courthouse renovations.
George Eilertson, of Northland Securities, attended the meeting. He said they sent information to the four banks in Kittson County and one submitted a bid.
“It was actually a good bid,” Eilertson said. “So it’s 3.35% for three-year financing, callable at any date, meaning there’s no penalty, for example, after a year or two – if your audits are all caught up – to convert this to long-term financing. So that’s really nice – a lot of flexibility for the county.”
One other bank in the county asked a lot of good questions, Eilertson said, but couldn’t make a bid as the county is not up to date on its audits. The county finance department is working with the auditing firm, BradyMartz, to complete the 2022 and 2023 audits. Eilertson noted that should the county not complete its audits before the three-year term is up, they can roll over the bond for one more three-year term.
“Hopefully, by then, we would have audits and we can get a bond rating and go out for a 10-year bond,” Eilertson said.
County Administrator Aimee Sugden said the plan is to have all audits caught up so the county can acquire long-term financing. She added the board included a bond payment in the budget. CFO Shirley Swenson said the Truth in Taxation statements should be mailed to taxpayers this month.
With approval of the bond resolution, the commission locked in a 3.35% interest rate with United Valley Bank for the bond. The county will receive the money on Wednesday, Dec. 3.
Sugden noted the commission chose to seek out funding from local banks to ensure as much money as possible from the project remained local. When the time comes for the county to seek out a long-term bond, United Valley and other local banks are also eligible to bid.
In line with the bonding, the board also approved post-issuance policies for holding a bond, which is something the bond attorney required, Eilertson said.
In other business, the board:
• Approved the annual joint powers agreement with Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP). This funding pays for Ken Peterson’s position, which is to assist families in finding employment.
• Approved a quote from Anderson Bros. Construction to clean out 1 mile of Judicial Ditch 31 in Poppleton Township for $7,750. That ditch fund has $22,000.
• Approved final payments for five summer construction projects totalling $183,233.70.
• Approved applications from two people who wanted to repurchase tax forfeited lands. Cody Slaathaug paid $8,208.49 in back taxes to reacquire his property in Arveson Township and Amy Norberg paid $3,788.16 to reacquire her Lake Bronson property.
• Approved a resubmitted cancellation of forfeiture for the Byron Olsen Estate.
• Approved the temporary move of the Driver and Vehicle Services office to the downstairs meeting room during the courthouse renovation. The state wanted the approval on the record in the board’s minutes, Swenson said.
• Approved the reappointment of Gerald Olsonawski and Daryl Klegstad to the board of managers for the Two Rivers Watershed.
• Approved a memorandum of understanding and agreement with Marshall County to share the Veterans Service Officer Brett Brandon and the VSO Assistant Domita Mack. Kittson County will make an annual payment of $65,000 to Marshall County for this agreement. The VSO will be in the Kittson County office for the allotted 20 hours per week as before.
The next regular meeting is on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 9 a.m.