The Brown County Commission has formally set the total of tax increment finance bonds that can be sold to benefit construction at Northern Beef Packers.
Commissioners on Tuesday set the total at $6.95 million.
“We’re basically just ratifying what we’ve already done,” said Commissioner Duane Sutton.
Upon advice from an attorney who specializes in TIF bonds, county commissioners gave the beef plant more time to sell TIF, bonds but reduced from $8.51 million the overall amount of bonds that could be sold.
In other action Tuesday, the commission:
¿ Decided not to apply for a state grant to help fund a walking trail at Richmond Lake. The lack of grant money won’t hinder the project on county-owned property.
Instead, the county will donate about $2,000 to pay for gravel and a culvert needed for the trail, which is being built by Joseph Dulik of Aberdeen as an Eagle Scout project. Kurt Smith, who oversees the fairgrounds and county property at the lake, said money can come from the youth camp budget.
Grant funds cannot be used to reimburse costs, Smith said. And the money wouldn’t be available until late summer, too late for Dulik and other scouts to do the work, he said. Getting the grant would require hiring a trail architect, so it likely wouldn’t have saved money, anyhow, he said.
The 1,000-foot path will start at the south end of West Shore Drive across the lake to southwest of Richmond Lake Youth Camp.
¿ Approved a request from Kyle Oswald of Aberdeen BMX to build a new concession stand at the track. The track is on county-owned property north of First Avenue Southeast near the former Extension building.
Oswald said the new concession stand will be no larger than 12 feet by 36 feet.
¿ Learned that some residents of Cattail Drive would like to create a road improvement district. That would allow them to charge an assessment with the money to be used to improve the road, which leads to homes, but has been damaged by water in recent years.
Cattail Drive is east of U.S. Highway 281 and north of 129th Street.
Commissioners would have to approve the lots included in the district. The district would then appoint a board of directors that would determine the amount of the assessment.
Commissioners tabled the issue for a week because no representatives from Cattail Driver were at Tuesday’s meeting.
¿ Set May 29 as the date to discuss how to upgrade the county’s website. Commissioners have discussed, in the past couple of months, hiring somebody to redesign brown.sd.us so that it can be the county’s primary site from which departmental sites can be accessed.
Sutton said he would like to start posting commission agenda agendas on the website soon.
¿ Heard a request from Ron Wieczoiek, who wanted commissioners to approve a resolution supporting what’s called the North American Water and Power Alliance, a 1950s idea to develop more water sources in the United States.
Wieczoiek also discussed restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, a series of banking reforms that have been repealed in more recent years. Wieczoiek and Commissioner Tom Fischbach exchanged barbs about political activist Lyndon LaRouche, whom Wieczoiek said he supports.
Commissioners took no action on Wieczoiek’s request.
¿ Met in closed session to discuss contracts.
¿ Approved previous meeting minutes, claims, payroll, lease agreements, abatements, a special malt beverage license for the A-Town Roller Girlz roller derby on June 9 and the auditor’s report of account.
Commissioners on Tuesday set the total at $6.95 million.
“We’re basically just ratifying what we’ve already done,” said Commissioner Duane Sutton.
Upon advice from an attorney who specializes in TIF bonds, county commissioners gave the beef plant more time to sell TIF, bonds but reduced from $8.51 million the overall amount of bonds that could be sold.
In other action Tuesday, the commission:
¿ Decided not to apply for a state grant to help fund a walking trail at Richmond Lake. The lack of grant money won’t hinder the project on county-owned property.
Instead, the county will donate about $2,000 to pay for gravel and a culvert needed for the trail, which is being built by Joseph Dulik of Aberdeen as an Eagle Scout project. Kurt Smith, who oversees the fairgrounds and county property at the lake, said money can come from the youth camp budget.
Grant funds cannot be used to reimburse costs, Smith said. And the money wouldn’t be available until late summer, too late for Dulik and other scouts to do the work, he said. Getting the grant would require hiring a trail architect, so it likely wouldn’t have saved money, anyhow, he said.
The 1,000-foot path will start at the south end of West Shore Drive across the lake to southwest of Richmond Lake Youth Camp.
¿ Approved a request from Kyle Oswald of Aberdeen BMX to build a new concession stand at the track. The track is on county-owned property north of First Avenue Southeast near the former Extension building.
Oswald said the new concession stand will be no larger than 12 feet by 36 feet.
¿ Learned that some residents of Cattail Drive would like to create a road improvement district. That would allow them to charge an assessment with the money to be used to improve the road, which leads to homes, but has been damaged by water in recent years.
Cattail Drive is east of U.S. Highway 281 and north of 129th Street.
Commissioners would have to approve the lots included in the district. The district would then appoint a board of directors that would determine the amount of the assessment.
Commissioners tabled the issue for a week because no representatives from Cattail Driver were at Tuesday’s meeting.
¿ Set May 29 as the date to discuss how to upgrade the county’s website. Commissioners have discussed, in the past couple of months, hiring somebody to redesign brown.sd.us so that it can be the county’s primary site from which departmental sites can be accessed.
Sutton said he would like to start posting commission agenda agendas on the website soon.
¿ Heard a request from Ron Wieczoiek, who wanted commissioners to approve a resolution supporting what’s called the North American Water and Power Alliance, a 1950s idea to develop more water sources in the United States.
Wieczoiek also discussed restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, a series of banking reforms that have been repealed in more recent years. Wieczoiek and Commissioner Tom Fischbach exchanged barbs about political activist Lyndon LaRouche, whom Wieczoiek said he supports.
Commissioners took no action on Wieczoiek’s request.
¿ Met in closed session to discuss contracts.
¿ Approved previous meeting minutes, claims, payroll, lease agreements, abatements, a special malt beverage license for the A-Town Roller Girlz roller derby on June 9 and the auditor’s report of account.
