By Gary Dickson, Editor garydickson@siouxlandobserver.com

The Union County Board of Commissioners met for its regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at the Union County Courthouse in Elk Point. The meeting lasted from 8:30 to 11:13 a.m., or two hours and 43 minutes. All five commissioners and the county auditor were present.

During that time span, the commissioners went into executive session three different times. The first one was for a personnel matter and lasted 22 minutes. The second one was for a legal matter and lasted eight minutes. The third executive session was also to discuss a legal matter and it lasted 57 minutes. The total time the commissioners spent in executive sessions which are closed to the public was 65 minutes.

The commissioners also spent a considerable amount of time taking recess during that morning. Three recesses were taken with the longest being 30 minutes, for a total of 37 minutes for all three.

The commissioners did manage to get some business done in public during the 61 minutes remaining the time for executive sessions and breaks were accounted for.

The very first item on their agenda after taking roll and approving the previous meeting’s minutes and the current meeting’s agenda was paying the county’s bills. Claims that have been audited, approved and warrants drawn amounted to a total of over $400 thousand. Some of the selected claims include:

• $88,591.13 for payroll
• $20,010.78 for jail expenses
• $27,344.98 for the county highway department
• $144.00 to Alcohol Monitoring Systems (SCRAM)
• $709.10 to Carlson Body Shop for repairs
• $85.01 to the City of Alcester for utilities
• $80.00 to the Dakota Dunes/North Sioux City Times for publishing legal advertising
• $2,288.65 to Horizon Health Center for doctor services
• $6,202.67 to Jeffery T. Myers, Public Defender
• $351.00 to Ramkota Hotel for travel
• $1,308.46 to Sioux Laundry for laundry
• $46,821.00 to Thermo Bond for building
• $80.00 to the Union County Leader Courier for publishing legal advertising
• $57.00 to the Akron Hometowner for publishing
• $77.09 to the New Century Press for publishing
• $25.00 to Tri-View Communications for repair
• $13,347.36 to Minnehaha County Regional for housing
• $2,333 to Stockton Towing for vehicle towing
• $325.34 to Vast Broadband/Bluepeak for Internet

The commissioners then reviewed budget reports from the different department heads, including the sheriff, register of deeds, clerk of courts, veteran’s service and county nurse. Regarding personnel payroll, the board determined that longevity pay would be distributed the first week of December this year.

Things got somewhat interesting when it came to the new business segment of the meeting. That’s when it came time for citizen input. Elk Point resident Robin Schiro confronted the commissioners and Sheriff Dan Limoges with issues she has about possible break-ins and alleged personal assaults to herself. Shiro, a degreed engineer and certified water specialist who currently works in another field, said they all were aware of what had happened and they or county employees may possibly be complicit in the alleged goings-on. After several minutes of verbally dwelling informally on the board members and law enforcement, Schiro left the meeting.

Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, no mention of the above citizen input was made in the official minutes of today’s commissioners’ meeting.

Highway superintendent Jerry Buum met with the commissioners saying he wanted to hire Nathan Willms at $18.00 per hour as Highway Maint 3. He will start on Nov. 3. Buum also informed the board that another employee is retiring at the end of December and he plans on completing interviews before Thanksgiving.

The highway superintendent showed photos to the commissioners of a concrete box culvert on Union County Rd 21. Buum stated his workers will be removing the culvert the week of Nov. 13 and installing a replacement with headwalls. He said the crew cut the asphalt, set up barricades and notified residents of the project.

“We also hauled the desks that were not sold at the county auction,” Buum told the commissioners. “And we hauled the scrap steel we had in the culvert yard down to the scrap yard.”

The commissioners also heard a detailed report from county assessor Sherri Bousquet on county home improvement building permits. She also reported on home sales ratio trends across the various communities in the county.

“There’s not as many [houses] for sale,” Bousquet told the commissioners. “And they’re taking longer to sell. But they’re still selling for way too much.”

Board looks to amend Ordinance UCC #2023-003

Noreen Jorgensen, owner of Blue Tin Ranch west of Elk Point on Burbank Road spoke to the commissioners about how she’d like to have a county ordinance amended to increase event capacity from 150 to 200. Jorgensen co-owns what she calls an agritourism business with her daughter Kelley.

Jorgensen and her attorney, Mitch Peterson presented their ideas about the ranch which consists of a main house, lodge, 114-year-old barn that the owners rescued from being burned down and now has been turned into an event center, a guest house that can sleep eight people, a five-acre grove of trees, a large front lawn, a corncrib built in the early 1900s that has six hanging wicker chairs, a former chicken coop that’s been refurbished into a two bedroom tiny house with a kitchenette and living area and a covered open-air pavilion with benches lining the perimeter.

Union County resident Andrew Cronin, who said he didn’t know Jorgensen but was impressed with her business and her entrepreneurial drive, said he came to the meeting to support her and the business as well as the idea of amending the county ordinance. He encouraged the commissioners not to place any limits on the number of days that Jorgensen’s event center can be open. He also said they shouldn’t limit the parking there, either.

Photos above, clockwise from upper left: 1. The machine shed which can be set up for a dinner or dance. 2. Outdoors looking at the machine shed and the parking lot, which would be expanded, said Jorgensen. 3. Part of the grove of trees with the gazebo. 4. Jorgensen stands in the great room and part of the gourmet kitchen of the guest house. 5. The upper portion of the 114-year-old barn. The entire interior of the structure has been renovated into event space. — Photos by Gary Dickson

County planning and zoning director Dennis Henze said he didn’t really have any objections to the facility. “We can discuss changing that [event capacity number],” Henze told the commissioners. “I can do some research and get back to you.”

Commissioner Rich Headid said that the opinions of neighbors had to be taken into consideration.

When reached by phone several days after the commissioners’ meeting, Jorgensen said she’d talked to the neighbors in the vicinity and none of them had any objection to her business or if she were allowed to increase the number of people who attended events there.

The board said they would make a decision about amending the ordinance in two weeks at their next meeting.

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