The Bennett County Commissioners gathered Jan. 17, for a regular commission meeting.
The agenda was amended to add discussion on the Voyager gas card under claims.
Before approving the claims, commissioner Susan Williams questioned the bill of $12,677.24 from Avera McKennan Hospital. She said she would like to know if there is medicaid, medicare, veterans benefits, or other things available to the person the charges are for. She said that amount for one person is over half the budget for 2024.
Williams asked if the charges were for an inmate and was told by auditor Konotopka she did not know.
Williams suggested they put that payment on hold until they can look into the laws that may apply to that bill and try to negotiate a lower payment.
Discussion was also held on Voyager - who the county’s gas cards are through. Williams said they have not paid them since November and the credit amount they have is about up. The board moved to add Voyager to the claims to be paid and approved holding the payment to Avera McKennan Hospital. The Voyager payment amount was $7,682.04.
Bennett County Sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Curtis informed the board they received two highway safety grants for 2024.
He said one of the grants he wanted to discuss is the Impaired Driving Grant.
Curtis said this grant gives them some new equipment including three new dash cams. He said they can surplus the current dash cams and already has some interest from another sheriff’s office.
The total cost of the equipment is $23,014 with $14,400 covered and the county’s cost at $8,614.
Curtis said that amount was budgeted for.
The board approved the purchase of the equipment.
County Emergency Management director Jeff Siscoe told the commissioners that during the blizzard after Christmas, they put out information about the storm on some local Facebook pages that was helpful and said he felt it was time the county looked at having a Facebook page of their own.
County Treasurer Jolene Donovan said they did have one in the past and a concern is that once it’s out there, it becomes a matter of public record and the county would have to hire an outside company to check it constantly and download everything.
Donovan said she chose to get rid of the Bennett County Facebook page because she was not going to pay someone hundreds of dollars each month to have them monitor it. She said if she posts anything now, it’s off her personal page and then they can’t do anything.
Commissioner Keeley Clausen said Siscoe could contact the tribes emergency management person and see how they are doing theirs.
Some possible options were discussed in getting around the issues and Siscoe said he would research it more and get back to them.
The board approved purchasing 55,000 ton of gravel from Whipple Trucking at $5.65 per ton off the bid from June of 2023.
The board held a telephone conference with Al Schaefer of the South Dakota Dept. of Legislative Audit.
Auditor Konotopka sent documents for Schaefer to review regarding transfers of funds and budgets.
Schaefer addressed how they should be doing cash transfers, what to do when they are going to go over budget and other things they need to do.
Williams said all they can do now is do fund transfers to the negative fund balances.
He said he will be coming to Bennett County in March to audit the years 2021 and 2022 and will provide what assistance he can.
Judd Schomp asked if he could ask some questions of Schaefer.
Schomp said the commissioners just approved the purchase of $311,000 of gravel and said he understands they can’t do that based on what Schaefer just said, that they don’t have the budget authority because they are not the hwy superintendent, asking, is that correct?
Schaefer said, that is not correct, the commissioners control the budget. The commissioners have the final say on all budgets.
The board went into executive session and after coming back out, Blu Donovan said he wanted to clarify the gravel purchase approval was based off the Whipple Trucking bid from the June 23 bids.
The board allowed public comment with Judd Schomp addressing the board with several questions.
Schomp asked what the seating capacity was for the room they were in with commission chairman Dave Bakley responding, no comment. Schomp then asked what caused the meeting to get moved to the room it is in now instead of the courthouse courtroom and was again told, no comment.
Schomp said regarding the hwy budget, as of today’s date, the county has spent $521,750, nearly half the hwy budget by Jan. 17.
He said the county currently has 40,000 tons of crushed gravel sitting at the Whipple Pit already purchased. He said they just bought an additional 55,000 tons for a total of 95,000 tons, adding, Bennett County has never had that much gravel stockpiled.
He asked if other commissioners are not concerned about that.
He asked what projects the gravel is slated for and was told, no comment.
Schomp questioned the expiration dates for bids used for the gravel purchase, saying they just used the June 23, 24 bids. He said he felt there should be new bids for a new fiscal year.
Bennett County States Attorney Sarah Harris said she believes that was a June 2023 bid, good until June 2024 and was told it was.
Schomp asked if that was listed on that bid and was told it was.
Schomp asked if the $5.65 per ton gravel they just approved was coming out of the May pit and was told, no comment.
Schomp asked if Whipple Trucking was paying a mining permit at the May Pit and was told, no comment. Schomp said Whipple does not - and neither does Bud May - have a permit to dig out of his own pit.
Schomp said he heard the county had issues with blades jelling up Tuesday causing them to get contract help to open roads and said he heard they used contractors who did not have the lowest bid on the bid list, asking if there was any truth to that rumor. He was told, no comment.
The next regular board meeting will be Feb. 7, at 9:30 a.m.