The Meade County Commission met February 8, 2017 and the highway department dominated the discussion. At a special meeting on January 30, we voted to buy a snowblower to mount on one of our loaders. The snowblower was delivered and should be in service by the end of the week. This will be used to blow back many of the huge piles of snow along many of our northern and eastern county roads. Lincoln Shuck, our highway superintendent, borrowed a city type snowblower from Sturgis. This blower only blows windowed snow, so a blade is used to pull snow back onto the road and then blown away. Between the two blowers and the help of Mother Nature, maybe we can be ready for the next round of snow. We are only one week past halfway through winter.
We are still discussing the scope of the Elk Vale / Elk Creek project. Funding is always a concern.
Crews will be working on tree removal from right-of-ways in the parts of the county not covered in snow. If adjoining land owners need some wood chips for bedding ask the tree crew when they are on-site.
The Commission voted to send a letter of opposition to HB 1163. This bill is An Act to revise certain provisions regarding the board of county commissioners. The bill states “If any commissioner is physically absent more than two meetings per calendar year without permission of the majority of the members of the board of county commissioners, exclusive of the commissioner in violation of this section, the office shall be declared vacant and such a vacancy shall be filled pursuant to chapter 3-4.” There are many questions we have as to how this would work.
The Commission motioned to approve the Memorandum of Understanding between Summerset and Meade County for on-site wastewater inspections. We authorized the Chairman to sign the same with the amendment to the second paragraph to include the re-inspection per Meade County Ordinance #33. Summerset does not have anyone certified to do these inspections.
We also made a motion to accept the professional appraisal and set the hearing for sealed bids for April 12th at 1:00 p.m. for a permeant Cell Tower Easement at the northeast corner of the county shop lot.
Interest in the 4H shooting sports and other programs has convinced the Meade County Fair Board to vote to build a new building at the High School location. The Fair Board does not yet have a non-profit corporation status. We suggested to Jenny Voigt, the SDSU 4H advisor, that she contact Black Hills Resource Conservation & Development (BHRC&D) to see if they could use their non-profit status to pass-through funds for this worthwhile project.
