By Gary Dickson, Editor 

I dropped my lovely passenger off behind the Baxter Building at the corner of 5th and Jones Streets in downtown Sioux City — a city that’s not as bad as it sometimes smells. My wife waved goodbye as I let our 2021 Hyundai Venue coast down the driveway to the alley where I turned right and half a block later I dodged a homeless fellow looking for cans then I turned left onto Jones. I drove to 3rd Street and hung a right going by the post office, a parking ramp, the cancer center, Milwaukee Weiners, and the Hard Rock Hotel. I caught Wesley Parkway to the service road which brought me to the I-29 north entrance ramp.

In six minutes I was free of Sioux City, out of Iowa, and back into the Land of Infinite Variety, South Dakota. Tourism folks call South Dakota the Rushmore State now, but I prefer to call it by its old nickname. I think it’s far more accurate.

But I digress.

It was 8:07 a.m. Tuesday, December 12th and I was headed for Elk Point, the County Seat of Union County, South Dakota for the regular meeting of the County Board of Commissioners. As I went past the McCook Lake exit, I glanced to my right over past the ditch beside the Interstate to the alleged medical marijuana farm of Dakota Health and Wellness. Nothing appeared to have been planted there since the last time I drove by a week ago. And no activity was taking place at the building at the south end of the property, either.

I hoped to find out the future of their dispensary license at today’s commissioners’ meeting. There was supposed to have been a final hearing on the license on Friday, Dec. 8th at 10 a.m. where a group called Dune Budz, LLC wanted the commissioners to revoke the license. There had never been any agenda for the meeting posted online, but I learned that there had been one posted in the courthouse starting on Wednesday. I decided not to attend the meeting, that I’d find out later about it.

Of course, there were never any minutes posted for the meeting, which didn’t really surprise me, given the board’s penchant for secrecy. But you’d think they would have at least acknowledged they had a meeting — if there was one. I guess I will find out later, I figured.

I motored on north, passing a portable parking lot just before the first Elk Point exit, which is where I got off the Interstate. I slowed down to 35 mph and then at the speed camera, down to 25 mph before finally pulling up in front of the hall of county government — the Union County Courthouse. The weather was still relatively clear and sunny. “A four paws day” according to Channel 4 meteorologist Jacob Howard in his “Dog Walk Forecast”. I gathered my reporter’s tools and walked towards the ribbed concrete courthouse — an architectural embarrassment, the thing looks like a World War Two battlefield pillbox.

I pushed through the metal and glass doors into the entryway and past the moose on the wall. Wait! That’s no moose, that’s an elk. Of course, it’s an elk. In Elk Point. How could I have misidentified that furry brown thing with two marble eyes? I must return and have a conversation with it and take a photo later. Still, I wonder how fast that critter was running when it hit the wall above the hallway?

But first, I have to go to the County Commissioners’ meeting.

I walked down the hallway toward the Commissioners’ meeting space at the west end of the county auditors’ office. Beside the doorway is a big map of Union County from 1892, I think. It’s really interesting — more interesting than many of the county commissioners’ meetings I’m told. Anyway, instead of stopping and looking at the map, I looked into the room. There was just one spectator there: Robin Schivo, an Elk Point citizen who has been to several previous meetings with several complaints for the county fathers. Today she sat there all alone.

It wasn’t like that two weeks ago when all the chairs but one were filled. At the far end of the row that day was a woman with a Minnesota Vikings sweatshirt on. It turned out she was a reporter from the Brand X newspaper, the one from Elk Point/North Sioux City. As usual, today she couldn’t be found.

Besides Schivo, it was just the commissioners, County Auditor (aka the Queen Bee) Jackie Sieverding and Deputy Auditor Traci Torrez. I guessed there might soon be a few more stragglers.

I sat down beside citizen Schivo and shrugged off my coat, sat my cell phone down and got my notebook out. I then got up and wandered over to the desk by the door and scooped up what little paperwork the Queen Bee figured she and the commissioners would share with the public. This included an agenda that looked as if it had been typed on someone’s Daytimer; bare bones minutes of the last meeting, typed notes from the highway superintendent’s presentation, and a list of bills. I glanced down at the list of visitors and noted Schivo had written her name and her topic: “utilities”. Then I walked back to my chair, sat down, and looked at my watch. It was 8:42 a.m.

Before I arrived, apparently all stood to utter the loyalty oath. Surely there were no conflicts of interest to be discussed — there never is. The roll was called — all were present. Around the horseshoe sat County Commissioners Rich Headid and Michael Dailey; Deputy County Auditor, Torrez, County Commissioner and Chairperson Milton Ustad, County Auditor Sieverding, County Commissioners Tom Kimmel and Kevin Joffer. The agenda was approved and the last meeting’s minutes were ayed. Bank account balances were pondered and reports on various fees collected were made. Some of the fees included:

• The Register of Deeds reported $8,263.50 in transfer tax and $8,726.00 in fees
• Sheriff’s Office Federal Prisoner and INS room and board fees-$24,636.25
• Clerk of Courts reported $28,774.81.

The board paid their bills again. With a motion by Commissioner Headid that was seconded by Commissioner Joffer, the board moved ahead and approved the claims that had been presented. An interesting representative and selected sample of these claims includes:

• 3-D Digging & Trucking – Repair – 4,006.92
• Aramark – Repair – $203.75
• Brian’s Repair – Maintenance – $85.54
• Cass Pierce – Trapping – $25.00
• Dakota Dunes Times – Publishing – $533.49
• Department of Health – Labs – $935.00
• EMC Insurance Companies – Services – $10,000.00
• Fast Signs – Supplies – $74.28
• Jackie Sieverding – Cell Phone – $300.00
• Jeffrey T. Myers – Public Defender – $6,202.67
• Jerry Miller – Per Diem – $175.84
• Katie Johnson PLLC – Public Defender – $6,202.67
• Kimora Cross – Per Diem – $126.00
• Lauren Hollenbeck – Supplies – $42.06
• Elk Point Leader Courier – Publishing – $533.49
• Mid-Continental Restoration – Repair – $3,664.00
• New Century Press – Publishing – $98.10
• Ollies Drive-Inn – Meals – $16,807.50
• Pheasantland Industries – Supplies – $4,125.00
• Scott Sexton – Cell Phone/Mileage – $433.23
• The Fillin’ Station – Supplies – $3,040.00
• Total Stop Food Store – Supplies – $43.24
• Ulteig Engineers – Services – $4,937.50
• Verizon Wireless – Utilities – $210.78

They also voted to follow the state’s lead and close the courthouse on Dec. 25 and 26. The commissioners will hold their next regular meeting on Dec. 27 at 8:30 a.m.

The commissioners gave themselves and other elected county officials a raise as has been set in the 2024 budget. That budget was approved by the commissioners at its Sept. 19, 2023 meeting. Of course, the budget is not posted online, which would be handy for citizens of the county to inspect. Instead, one must go to the county assessor’s office during business hours and ask to see the budget. Then, I suppose you would have to look at the budget under the watchful eye of the auditor’s staff. Or perhaps a person could make a copy of the budget at their own cost to take home. However, it would be immensely more convenient for citizens and interested parties if the auditor took the time to convert the document to one easily accessible on the county’s website.

Perhaps because they felt guilty about giving themselves and other elected officials a raise for the new fiscal year (but I doubt it) the commissioners almost in the same breath removed $20,000 from the Road and Bridge Opt out. It will likely make the board look frugal to the casual viewer.

County Highway Superintendent Jerry Buum met with the board to discuss ditch cleaning along Union County Highway: CR #9, Cloverleaf Farms Inc. and County Highway
CR #23, Douglas Brusseau’s property. Brusseau would like to hire a contractor to clean the ditch along his property. Both requests were approved.

Next up was the HD 2023-08 Bridge Improvement Grant Program resolution authorizing the submission of applications for 10 bridges in the county. The bridges submitted are:

• 64-140-003, 0.3 miles South and 12.0 miles East of Beresford, SD over Un-named Creek
• 64-060-137, 12.7 miles South and 4.0 miles East of Beresford, SD over Un-named Creek
• 64-070-130, 2.0 miles West & 9.0 miles South of Alcester, SD over Un-named Creek
• 64-034-090, 1.4 miles East & 8.0 miles South of Beresford, SD over Un-named Creek
• 64-020-063, 5.3 miles South of Beresford, SD over Un-named Creek
• 64-023-080, 7.0 miles South and 0.3 miles East of Beresford, SD over Un-named Creek
• 64-060-090, 8.0 miles South and 4.0 miles East of Beresford, SD over Un-named Creek
• 64-080-034, 0.5 miles West and 0.6 miles North of Alcester, SD over Drainage Ditch
• 64-080-251, 2.0 miles East and 1.9 miles North of Elk Point, SD over Lewis Ditch
• 64-023-090, 8.0 Miles South and 0.3 miles East of Beresford, SD over Brule Creek

The bridges are part of the county’s five-year highway and bridge improvement plan. For its part of the grant, the county will pay a 30 percent match on the bridge improvement grant funds.

Assessor Sherri Bousquet told the commissioners that lots on Firethorn in Dakota Dunes “are selling for outrageous amounts of money.” Someone remarked – a commissioner or Bousquet — that it was crazy what people were paying: $350,000 to $400,000 a lot.

Public Building Supt. Scott Sexton gave his monthly report. Planning and Zoning
Director Dennis Henze presented his yearly report to the board, saying “It was a pretty darn good year. This was the lowest number of building permits in the last 15 years, but the highest amount of dollars [in terms of construction amounts]. Southeast Farmer’s cost $15 million alone.”

The commissioners were asked by this reporter if a decision was reached on the outcome of the medical marijuana license. The answer was that a special/emergency meeting had been set for next Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 10 a.m. The next regular meeting will take place on Dec. 27.

With that bit of news out of the way, the board members delved into an earlier agenda item: the sale of the former Alcester Steakhouse. Chairperson Ustad stated, “I thought I had more information but I didn’t.” This obviously disappointed his fellow commissioners who had been holding out hope for several months that the former Alcester eatery building could be pushed off on some other party for a profit.

“I talked to [realtor Jim] Weber,” Ustad reported, “And he talked to two people who might be very interested. He’s trying to push them to something to us by the end of the year.”

Sometime about now the board decided they needed to go into executive session. This surprised me a bit because, on the Daytimer agenda, it said the secret session was scheduled for the end of the meeting. Of course, it always says there is an executive session planned for the end of the meeting on the commission’s agendas. They love to do the county’s business out of the public eye so much, that they’ve just gone ahead and made it a regularly occurring item, just like the pledge of allegiance. I’ve never seen another government body that goes into hiding as much as this one does. Sheesh. This was a comparatively short secret session, just 10 minutes or so, for a “personnel” topic.

By then it was time for an intermission. People’s bladders can only hold out so long. Especially when we’re talking about middle-aged and senior males.

Ten minutes later the crew is back in business and ready to talk about legal stuff. That’s all well and good, but they needed the county’s Legal Eagle to do that. You know, county attorney Jerry Miller.

Inconveniently, he wasn’t in the meeting.

“Now where the hell is that state’s attorney?” one of the commissioners grumbled.

No one was sure. The Queen Bee decided she’d check with his office to see where he was. And sure enough, the auditor provided something of a solution.

“He’s in a meeting for 20 minutes or so,” Sieverding said.

Eyes rolled. Voices sighed. Then somebody started looking for Union County Sheriff Dan Limoges because apparently he was needed for the conversation with the state’s attorney. Because things are never simple when it comes to county commissioning.

Another intermission in the meeting was officially called. Papers were shuffled. Cellphones were looked at. Pretty soon the talk began about used cars in South Sioux City. “Sometimes there’s nothing on the lot,” somebody, I don’t remember who said. “The next time you drive by there’s a bunch of ’em.” A couple of board members said “Yup” in agreement. Commissioners Headid and Joffer were discussing a person they knew who purchased a car from a used car lot that had a cracked block. “I wonder how many [damaged vehicles] are coming up here? somebody pondered aloud.

Sheriff Limoges had now entered the room during the above conversation, sat next to me, and was listening intently to the car talk.

About then, the door opened, and a balding guy with a green short-sleeved shirt and tan chinos walked in. He plopped down in the corner chair and sighed. His face was red as if he had run all the way up from his office a floor below. It was State’s Attorney Jerry Miller at our service.

Chairperson Ulstad looked to his right noticing Miller and acknowledging the sheriff in front of him and cleared his throat. “Alright, if everyone is now here, let’s get started again,” he said.

Miller started to talk about the Alcester Police Department having dwindled to about nothing and that the Alcester City Council had asked the county to take over law enforcement for it.

“Shouldn’t we move into executive session for this?” asked Limoges.

But Miller ignored or didn’t hear the sheriff’s question, and continued to talk about Alcester’s current lack of police officers. “They have proposed a five-year contract with us,” Miller said about the law enforcement agreement.

Joffer stated that right now there is only one officer in Alcester — the chief of police.

More on the contract and other Union County Commission doings will be presented for your reading and dancing pleasure at a later date. I guess. Because they decided to vote to adjourn this meeting.