FAIRMONT — Martin County commissioners again discussed the topic of refugee resettlement consent Tuesday.

On Sept. 26, President Trump issued an executive order requiring state and local governments to provide written consent to the federal government before refugees can be resettled in their jurisdictions. Beginning June 1, the order will generally apply to all arriving refugees, including those with family members already living in Minnesota.

At a previous meeting, the board heard from Racheal King, refugee coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Human Services, who explained the federal process and noted that Gov. Tim Walz previously gave consent to refugee resettlement. Commissioners tabled the issue at the time, making positive statements regarding the giving of consent.

After discussion Tuesday, commissioners again tabled the issue, saying they had not heard from many constituents.

The board also heard from County Attorney Terry Viesselman concerning the matter.

“Basically, local governing bodies have been asked to consent, and if you don’t consent then you won’t get on the list to get a placement,” he said. “Though they could still place refugees here if you haven’t consented, to do that they’d have to give notice to the federal executive branch. But in the letter from the Department of Human Services, they said that if you get refugees placed here and you hadn’t been on the consent list that, you might lose certain federal funding assistance programs for that because you weren’t on the list.

“So if you don’t give your consent now and you end up getting some refugees, you might be out some federal dollars. But I don’t know if we’re going to be a prime location for placement anyway; our communities don’t really have a lot of minorities here or systems to support them. I don’t think this is a big concern one way or the other, you just have to decide.

“I think they stated at this point they do have to have a family member here, so if there are no family members here, it’s a moot point. But once they’re here, they’re free to move anywhere they want anyway, so it really wouldn’t matter.

“I’ve had a real small amount of feedback on it, about half and half,” said Commissioner Elliott Belgard. “Some say we can’t take care of what we’ve got and we don’t need anymore, and some saying that we’re compassionate people and we need to do what’s morally right. Like Terry said, it’s probably a moot point because nobody’s coming here anyway.”

“I’ve gotten a few emails on it too,” said Commissioner Steve Flohrs. “Very few don’t think we should do this.”

“I’ve had support too, that thinks we need to be welcoming and compassionate to these people that have nowhere else to go,” said Commissioner Kathy Smith.

Commissioner Richard Koons said feedback he has received on the issue has been evenly split, but he also noted he has only heard from a handful of people.

Commissioners passed a motion to table the matter until they had another chance to hear from constituents.

In other business, the board heard a brief update from County Engineer Kevin Peyman.

“We actually had nobody work on Christmas or New Year’s, which hasn’t happened in a few years, so that was a good thing,” he said. “We’re caught up on a lot of tree trimming that we wanted to get done, which is normally what we do when we get down time in winter.

“This week, with some of the nice weather, we’re actually out doing a little bit of crack filling. The gravels have been flopping back and forth between frozen and unfrozen, so plowing has been a little bit of a challenge, but we’ll take it from what we’ve had in the past.”

In other action, the board:

o Approved an agreement with Brodin Studios for a $20,000 down payment to design and construct an original bronze work of art to be installed and displayed at the Martin County Veterans Memorial site. The Martin County Veterans Memorial Committee will reimburse the county for the down payment.

o Approved the purchase of a $52,969 tar kettle from Stepp Mfg. for the highway department.