Murray County Commissioners Tempers flare during commissioners meeting

Heidi Winter, auditor/treasurer brought forward ditch bills for approval. The ditches had been inspected and approval was given to pay the bills pertaining to the work done.

Kluis updated the commissioners regarding the request for Murray County Central to create an accessible route from the south parking lot to the east accessible door. They want to extend the sidewalk up along the exterior of the building on the east side and connect with the existing door. Approval was given by the commissioners.

Attorney Smith prepared an updated parking lease for Murray County Central in regards to use of the parking lot between the two buildings after 5:00 p.m. The prior lease had expired in 2010. Smith corrected a couple of errors in the legal description and updated according to the terms in the purchase agreement. The board  was requested to make a couple of additional changes and bring the final copy back before the board next week.

Jean Christoffels was next on the agenda. She presented the Board with two different conditional use permits. First was a permit for EDF Renewable Development, Inc., they are requesting to put a switching substation in Chanarambie Township. This will be for a wind farm that will cover Pipestone County and a small portion of Murray County. There will be 39 total wind turbines with only 4 in Murray County. The recommendation to the Board was to approve this CUP with the special conditions, including a plan for dust control on the road. The next CUP was for Great River Energy who is planning to put a Solar Field in Leeds Township and they would like to construct a 69kV Transmission Breaker Station and would like to replace the existing 1 mile single line to a double line. They feel this will improve the reliability on the system. The Board approved both of these requests.

Aurora Heard, county coordinator, brought forth the invoice for United Community Action Partnership – Community Transit Services. The board approved the payment of $30,000 for the new bus and local share.

Heard also asked the board to appoint a license deputy registrar interim now as a result of Connie Wieneke’s resignation.   The board approved taking the necessary steps to approve Annette Sievert as the interim license deputy registrar.

Heard also requested increasing Lori Hill’s hours going from 20 to 28 so she can do some cross training with the license center. This will allow for someone to be in the license center should one of the current employees need to be gone. Currently the license will be closed from 11:20 til noon daily due to only one person in the license center. The board approved the cross training.

To read the rest of this article – pick up a copy of this weeks Fulda Free Press or subscribe to our e-edition at http://eedition.fuldafreepress.net/sub/account_login.a