Before the Polk County Board of Commissioners’ first meeting of the year convened Tuesday morning, three members – one new, two returning – had to be sworn so that a quorum could be established. Judge Tamara Yon administered the oath of office to Craig Buness, newly elected in November, and Bill Montague and Don Dietrich, who were re-elected. The board elected Dietrich to serve as chair for the first time in his four years of service, with Warren Strandell elected vice-chair.
   
Buness was quickly initiated into his new role, as numerous business items were taken care of along with in-depth discussions on timely matters during the full-day meeting that briefly broke for lunch. The state’s mounting budget deficit hovered over much of the discussions, as the board is grappling with the uncertainty of future funds.   
   
County Coordinator Jack Schmalenberg informed commissioners that the county has the second half of last year’s County Program Aid and credit payments due from the state, $326,000 short of what the county was originally alloted.
   
"With the governor’s unallotment, the check came to $1.8 million," he explained. "We got everything we were supposed to get, including program aid and block grants, after the unallotment."
   
While these funds take care of the 2008 expenditures, with a little help from the general fund to cover the rest, where all the funds to cover the 2009 budget – and beyond – will come from is currently up in the air.
   
"We’ve got to be very careful what we do at this point," Commissioner Warren Affeldt explained. "Things have changed a lot in the last few months and our dollars are tight."

Loader update
Highway Engineer Richard Sanders brought the board up to speed on the Dec. 29 incident in which county employee Mike Raymond landed a John Deere 544 loader used to clear snow in the Red Lake River at Central Park. The county purchased the loader in December 2007 for $127,000.
   
RDO Equipment in Grand Forks currently has the loader, he said, and is coming up with a to-do list to get it up and running again. The equipment spent last week thawing out in the county shop, where a technician from RDO and the shop foreman gave it a thorough inspection. The alternator, starter and battery had to be replaced due to corrosion. The transmission was drained three times "and there was still water coming out," he said.
   
After letting out an initial puff of blue smoke, it seemed to run fine on Friday, Sanders noted. Then "we took it out Monday, used it for about an hour and all of sudden all the power to the cab went out," he said. "That’s when we called RDO."
   
Part of the problem, he added, is that "it’s not just clean water running through. River water can do wonders to gaskets and such."
   
"Right now, our time and materials have cost at least $5,000 and it’s only going to get higher," he said. This does not include the $3,600 bill from the divers or the one from Bertils Gravel and Excavation that the county has not yet received.
   
Sanders said he hasn’t talked to the insurance company personally, although an adjuster did take a look at the loader. If the county is not able to get the loader back in a reasonable amount of time, the way the snow has been coming it will need to rent one, which the insurance would hopefully cover, he said.
   
Another piece of bad news Sanders reported: the 84-month extended warranty purchased for $1,800 with the loader was no longer valid.
   
"John Deere let us know we no longer have one," he said.
   
The county will likely be due a refund once it determines what the remaining warranty would have been worth, he added.
   
Extension agreement
The board approved a one-year agreement with the University of Minnesota Extension for a .8 full-time equivalent 4-H program coordinator and .4 FTE extension educator in Polk County. The county will pay a total of $85,280 in quarterly payments to the U of M for these services. This payment includes salary and fringe benefits for the positions, travel, and programming/training.
   
As per the agreement, the county provides support staff as well as the office and supplies in McIntosh.
   
The agreement stipulates that either the county or the U of M can request a modification of the county’s extension program, with a minimum of six months notice. However, another provision allows for termination of the whole agreement with a minimum of 90 days notice if either party determines that funding is no longer available to support the programs or positions.
   
"I make a presumption this isn’t going to be affected by the $40 million the University has to take off (its budget)," said Schmalenberg. "If it is, I imagine we’ll revisit this sooner."