BROOKINGS At Tuesday mornings Brookings County Commission meeting, commissioners heard from Sheriff Marty Stanwick that hes been paying a lot of attention to the Elkton School District recently and not for positive reasons.
Weve had four students that have indicated that they were either going to shoot up the school or put a bomb in the school, Stanwick said. With the first three, we put in about 11 hours of investigations.
He hopes to get some sort of restitution for his offices time at some point, but, more importantly, he also had some stern advice.
I have two officers over there today (Tuesday) visiting a school assembly to talk about how serious it is to say that theyre going to shoot up the school or we take it serious, Stanwick said. I have zero tolerance for anything thats said. We charge it with a terroristic threat and the paperwork goes to the states attorneys office for follow through.
He concluded, I think these kids at the time we dont knowif its a prank or what theyre doing, and so we have to investigate it (as) the real thing until we find out its not.
Stanwick then switched his focus to the Brookings County Detention Center for a more numbers-focused look at how well its doing financially and, well, it could be doing better.
He said the BCDC came up short this year in jail fees earlier this year, he predicted there would be $1 million in such fees, but the actual number totaled between $700,000 and $800,000. The difference between his projections and reality is due in large part to, he said, fewer inmates being held in the facility on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service.
I dont look for inmates, but we have to help pay for the place and I have do what I can to I have raised the rate for next year from $95 to $105, which is still probably pretty reasonable for that jail space, Stanwick said.
No takers
In another bit of disconcerting news, Finance Director Lori Schultz shared with commissioners that the county is currently facing unpaid taxes estimated at $350,000 for 2024. In previous years, the county ranged between $1,400 and $1,800 in unpaid taxes at this time of the year, so the increase is significant.
A big part of the reason for that, she said, is likely due to a change in South Dakota law made by the Legislature in February. It basically affects a countys annual tax sale for certificates. One of those took place Monday in Brookings County, and no buyers attended a development that wasnt surprising to Schultz.
She said it used to be where notice of a delinquent tax would be published in November and if it wasnt paid by the third Monday in December, a tax sale would take place. The sale was strictly for the tax owed, not the property itself.
Investors would come, most of them from Nebraska and Iowa, and pay the taxes. It was a way for them to make money with getting interest on the property, Schultz explained. After they paid those for three to six years, they could do a tax deed and take the property by tax deed. This has happened maybe twice two or three times since I started way back in the (1990s), so it doesnt happen often.
Schultz said the method was one arrow the county had in its quiver to ensure it would receive tax dollars that were subsequently distributed to schools, townships and towns. She also noted that property owners are warned by the county if a tax sale has the potential to affect them, so that they wouldnt be caught unawares by it.
Up until this year, we were sitting really good with unpaid taxes, Schultz noted.
With the current law in place, Schultz doesnt think higher dollar totals will go away anytime soon.
I dont anticipate that will change. I think its going to be that way every year because investors dont want to have to take that property and then within a year, sell that property by public sale and give the proceeds back to the person who never paid their taxes to begin with.
Schultz said shes communicated her views to legislators, and that shes aware of others who have done so as well.
I dont know if thats something that will change down the road I think it was, it started with a case in Minnesota and it was to solve one problem, they created another, essentially. So hopefully theyll come up with a way to fix that.
In other business on Tuesday, commissioners:
Gave the go-ahead on 5-0 votes to a number of culvert projects in townships across the county.
Were told they needed to get the general fund surplus percentage below 40% by assigning those general fund dollars to specific projects, which commissioners did. They assigned $2 million toward the 214th Street improvement project, bring its total to $5 million, and assigning another $2 million to the project for a new highway shop, bringing it up to $10 million.
Had a discussion with Colin Zwaschka of Banner Associates regarding bridge inspections. Among the structures discussed was the one on 210th Street just west of 466th Avenue between Brookings and Volga.
Its closed and blocked off due to integrity concerns, but that hasnt prevented some people from still using the bridge. Concrete blocks will be put in place for the winter months to drive home the point that folks really need to stay off of that bridge until commissioners decide its future.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
Leave a Reply