BROOKINGS CO2 pipelines were on officials minds at Tuesdays Brookings County Commission meeting, so much so that commissioners gave the go-ahead on a 5-0 vote to formally establish an advisory committee.
The panel will be comprised of 15 members all appointed by the county commission including two from the public. Other representatives will come from a variety of entities, such as four from the affected townships along Summit Carbon Solutions proposed route in the county, along with the sheriffs office, states attorneys office, firefighters, ambulance services and more.
Theres going to be a lot of reading. This is not a pencil subcommittee, County Development/Emergency Management Director Bob Hill said. Were going to have documentation at the federal level, state level and then, of course, do some local ordinances we want to look at.
With that in mind, Hill also had a simple request: He wants anyone assigned to the committee to have access to a computer that can read PDFs.
Some of the documents that were going to be reviewing are quite large, and I would kill two or three Redwood trees if I had to print documents off, Hill said.
People who want to apply for the two public spots on the panel will need to have their applications in no later than 5 p.m. on March 11, Commission Department Director Stacy Steffensen said.
The new CO2 pipeline panel isnt for those with questionable commitment, though, a point made more than once Tuesday morning.
I think its important to note that the commission is looking for people that are committed to this, Commissioner Kelly VanderWal said. We want people to show up to most of the meetings, not just show up once in a while. Were looking for individuals, who are willing to, like Bob said, do the background reading, to be educated in this. Those are the kinds of people that were looking for.
Commissioner Doug Post offered his thoughts as well, noting that if a member misses two consecutive meetings, theyll have to be replaced.
Its going to be a lot of work and you need to show up, he said.
Application materials can be found on the countys website https://www.brookingscountysd.gov/ or by visiting the office at 520 Third St. in Brookings.
Project plans in White
Commissioners learned from Cedric Hay of Banner Associates that additional water and sewer upgrades are coming in White, but that it will also mean the inconveniences of closed intersections and detours.
He said there were some savings from the bids used to complete last years phases of the water/sewer project. As such, the decision was made by the city of White to do some additional work this year, which will affect:
- Main Street from Lincoln Avenue east to the intersection of Main Street and Hooker Avenue.
- Fifth Street, from approximately 100 feet west of Hooker Avenue going east toward Sherwood Avenue.
Both will include water/sewer replacement through the intersections, along with full street reconstruction through the intersections, Hay noted.
The plan includes 45-day intersection closings that would affect two locations: Main Street and Hooker Avenue, along with Fifth Street and Hooker Avenue. Detours will be appropriately signed, he said.
Hay added that contractors will likely begin work in mid- to late April and will have two crews. The work in White is being done with the countys asphalt overlay project in mind, which has its own plans for Hooker Avenue, also known as county Road 25.
TIF fees
The issue of TIF administration fees also came up for discussion at Tuesdays meeting. No action was taken, since it was mainly aimed at giving direction to county staffers regarding possible future changes.
Finance Director Lori Schultz said the idea of possibly recouping some of expenses the county has incurred while overseeing TIFs came from state officials with legislative audit.
They said You might want to consider doing a charge for these because counties are going to start doing that because of, No. 1, the time thats put into it, but also the liability of doing things wrong or forgetting or not having a process in place, she said.
Recent legislative action in Pierre has eased the way for the possible implementation of fees, according to Post and Schultz.
Were not looking to get rich off of this or anything, but just cover some of the costs that the county is incurring in order to provide this service, Post pointed out.
Commissioner Larry Jensen asked if TIF fees were charged, would they apply to existing TIFs of which there are 18, according to Equalization Director Jacob Brehmer or only to future TIFs. The consensus was it wouldnt affecting existing TIFs.
We dont want to complicate the process even further and confuse all parties involved, VanderWal said. Thats not our intent here. Our intent is to just recoup some of the time and effort. This is all done in the name of economic development, which has been great for our county, fabulous.
Commissioners suggested that the countys finance and equalization offices work together to come up with a proposal for officials to consider. The issue will come before the commission again at some point in the weeks and months ahead.
Other business
Tuesdays meeting, which ran for roughly 2 1/2 hours, dealt with other issues as well, including approval, on 5-0 votes, for:
- A juvenile services contract with Beadle County. Sheriff Marty Stanwick said the facility will be a backup to Minnehaha County, and is considerably cheaper as well at $325 per day per juvenile. The facility has a total of eight beds.
- Annual weed chemical bids.
- Highway bids, including agreements and materials such as gravel, aggregate, road oil and asphalt.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
Leave a Reply