Noxious weed control, staff benefits on agenda for county commission

Eddy County State’s Attorney Ashley Lies has been researching state law regarding responsibility for spraying road right-of-ways. What she has learned is that the law is not clear. Whereas, N.D. Century Code language explicitly states that townships are responsible for mowing right-of-ways, the text is a bit muddier when it comes to spraying noxious weeds. As a result, all 53 counties in the state are doing things a bit differently.

Commissioner Glenda Collier referenced N.D.C.C. 4.1-47-09, which lays out the duties of the county weed board, an entity she believes bears responsibility for controlling noxious weeds. She specifically noted item two, which states that the county weed board must “provide for the control of noxious weeds along county and township roads, and along county highways.” In Superior Township, where Collier resides, the township does not spray the right-of-ways. Some landowners pay qualified professionals to spray the right-of-ways on their property, while others do not. The result is that some right-of-ways are clean of noxious weeds, while others are inundated by them.

Lies replied that in Munster Township, where she resides, township officials have hired someone to spray all of their township road right-of-ways. Lies said that although she believes the legislative intent is to have townships take responsibility for controlling noxious weeds in the right-of-ways, she will request an opinion from N.D. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem to seek clarification on the matter.

Commissioners also discussed employee benefit cost sharing at length. Williams explained that a staff member who had been employed by the county for five years was receiving less take-home pay than someone who started working for the county just five months ago. The difference is in the county’s policy for payment of health insurance. The employee with five years of service needs to purchase a family policy, while the new employee only needs a single policy. Eddy County’s policy is that the county pays 100% of a single plan, but an employee who needs a family plan must pay 35% of the cost. Neighboring Nelson and Ramsey counties pay 100% of family insurance for full-time employees, and Wells County pays 92.25%.

In addition, 15.26% of each employee’s salary must be set aside for retirement. Currently the county pays 8.26%, so the employees must have at least 7% deducted from their paychecks. The average paid by other surrounding counties is 11.88%, according to Williams.

“I personally think we need to up both (our insurance and retirement cost share),” Williams said. “We don’t want to lose employees because other counties are paying better.”

Lies noted that the five-year employee impacted was a member of the sheriff’s department, and encouraged the commissioners to make an effort to make the benefits more equitable. “One of our deputies was assaulted a week ago in a case,” Lies said. “They literally are risking their lives.”

“I’m in total agreement that we need to do something here,” replied Gehrtz. “Our employees are the number one asset that we have.”

Williams advocated for increasing the county’s cost share of family insurance from 65% to 80%, the average of all counties in the state. She said that since the large health insurance cost increases they had budgeted for in 2021 hadn’t come to fruition, there was room in the budget to make a change in the policy effective immediately. She calculated that for each 5% increase in cost share, the cost to the county would be $627 per month, or $7,500 per year. Upon a roll call vote, the commissioners voted in favor of paying 80% of the cost of family insurance, effective immediately.

Commissioners also agreed to increase the county’s cost share for retirement to 10.26%, which results in an $18,000 hit to budget over the course of a year. Therefore, the employees’ required share will decrease to 5%.

Lies has yet to finalize her budget request for 2021, as she still has a few items to decide. One is to determine how the salary for assistant Tia Davis will be split between her office and the sheriff’s department. Davis is full-time, and is performing duties for both departments. Lies had high praise for Davis, who just recently joined the county staff. “She is self-motivated, and if she doesn’t have something to do she’s found projects,” Lies said. Sharing a staff member is also a positive, as it’s good for access to information that is typically shared by the two departments. Lies is also looking at a couple of other tools that could make prosecuting cases easier, such as a software program that transcribes video/audio admissions into written documents that are admissible in court.

Other budget reviews included the following:

• NDSU Extension, for which Agent Chandy Howard requested an increase in the office supply category to purchase extra plastic folding tables to use for meetings and events. Howard gave the commissioners an overview of Achievement Days, and noted how successful the sheep lease program was this year. This is the first year that Eddy County has offered 4-Hers the opportunity to lease an animal, and 10 enrolled. She purchased new clippers and a sheep stand so the 4-Hers could shear their sheep to prepare them for showing. “It sounds like it’s really improving,” Gehrtz said of the program.

• Treasurer and Superintendent of Schools - Kathy Anderson reduced a few minor items in the treasurer’s budget, including office expenses and travel by $100 each, and dues by $200, as the N.D. Treasurer’s Association reduced member dues. She noted that tax collections are really slow right now. There are still seven parcels with unpaid 2018 taxes, which will go into tax foreclosure, if not paid by Oct. 1. The Superintendent of Schools budget is unchanged for 2022.

• Auditor Patty Williams will increase the election budget to hire temporary help for the 2022 midterm election. She said there are several changes coming that resulted from legislation passed during this session.

A special 2022 budget review meeting is set for Tuesday, July 27 at 8:30 a.m. At the meeting, the remaining departments will present their 2022 budget requests for approval.

Now that the basement remodel is complete, commissioners strategized how to best use the space and what furniture should be purchased to make it functional.

“Let’s make it modern like we intended when we committed to doing the extra work,” Gehrtz said.

Lies inquired about the possibility of moving the jury upstairs, as handicapped accessibility is an issue having them in the basement. Right now, the jury is asked to leave the courtroom at different times throughout a trial, and each time they have to go up and down two flights of stairs.

Commissioners discussed moving the Housing Authority Director/Veterans Service Officer, Kathy Steinbach, to the main floor and repurposing her large office into a jury/meeting room. This would allow the jury to stay on the same floor throughout a trial, rather than go up and down stairs from the courthouse to the basement jury overflow room and back. A suitable space for Steinbach on the main floor would be the current commission room, commissioners thought. In this scenario, the commission room could move to the basement, and the county would purchase a new conference table for the space. Williams said she will discuss the matter with Steinbach.

County Road Superintendent Todd Weber reported that his crew has done a fair amount of gravel work. Eddy County 6 from Eddy County 1, to the bridge by Allmarases, recently got new gravel. Eddy County 7 is next.

Weber said he wants to demo a Road Groom, an implement made in Iowa that can be pulled by a 3/4-ton truck or tractor. It reclaims the materials that have been washed to the road edge and cuts out ruts and washboards, naturally rebuilding the center crown in the process.

The cost of the implement is $20,000, which Weber said he plans to demo at the junction of Eddy County 12 and 7. He will invite city public works staff to also see the Road Groom in action, to help decide if it will be beneficial to the county. If so, the cost of the equipment will be added to the 2022 budget.

The commission discussed rates paid for GA, or indigent, burials. Foster and Wells counties both pay $2,400 for indigent burials; Eddy County’s current rate is $2,000. Since Eddy County is part of the Central Prairie Human Service Zone, with Foster and Wells, the commission voted to increase Eddy County’s rate to $2,400, so the funeral director receives the same rate for conducting indigent burials in all three counties.