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FAIRMONT-- On Tuesday the Martin County Board of Commissioners considered setting another work session to discuss the transfer request from Lakeside Cemetery, which first came before the board in early July.
Commissioner Kathy Smith said that before anything moves forward, she thought the board needed to ask for an outside audit of the Lakeside Cemetery Association's books.
"We wouldn't take over a private business without having an outside auditor come in and look at what's going on with their books. I think that's a step we need to take," Smith said.
Her recommendation was initially met with silence from the board. County Coordinator Scott Higgins asked whether the board wanted to move forward with that.
Commissioner Richard Koons pointed out that the association is already having financial troubles, which is why it requested the transfer. He asked whether the board wanted to put the burden of the audit on the association.
"We have to," Smith said.
Commissioner Elliot Belgard and Steve Flohrs agreed that it was probably the best route.
"This thing has a long ways to go. I understand the work session. We have a lot of questions that need to be answered but this isn't going to happen in the next couple of months," Belgard said.
"It's a huge decision," added Flohrs.
He made a motion to request an audit, which Smith seconded. The board then considered how far back it would like the audit to go and talked about how Covid affected funerals and thus burials.
Ultimately, the board approved to request a three to five year independent audit of the Lakeside Cemetery Association. It decided to hold off on another work session until it gets the information from the audit.
The board also heard from both Bob Mickelson of ISG and Lon Gorsch of Renaissance Roofing regarding some matters dealing with the courthouse's roof.
First, Mickelson said that Renaissance had put in a deduct change order in the amount of $93,105.
"When we ran into an issue with the roof deck, we did some work as a time and material option and Lon has gone through and reconciled his books there and basically there was $93,000 that wasn't utilized and corrected bak to the project," Mickelson explained.
The board gratefully accepted the change order.
Mickelson also spoke about two proposals, one from Renaissance Roofing and one from Patten Roofing, on the installation of a snow guard rail and ice melting system for the courthouse roof.
County Coordinator Scott Higgins said that the board wouldn't be considering quotes during Tuesday's meeting, but that it needed to hear information about the project.
"The two proposals, they're both an Alpine system so they're the same manufacturer," Mickelson said.
He went on to explain that the way in which the systems would be installed by each company would be different and thus would have different costs.
The board asked several questions about the installation process and the difference between a one pipe and two pipe system, which Mickelson answered.
Smith pointed out that the county has spent a lot of money on the cooper dome on the courthouse's roof, which Renaissance Roofing worked on so they are familiar with it.
"I'd like to see us go with renaissance on the last bit of this project," Smith said.
The board also spoke about the importance of quickly moving forward with the project considering it's already September.
"Even if we get into late fall, we'll still follow through get it done before the winter," Gorsch said.
In other news, Courtney Logwood and Katie Gonzalez, directors of Kinship of Martin County, provided a program update to the board. They spoke about some new programs that Kinship is engaged with, such as the monthly community resiliency courses.
"Our first one in April, we did adverse childhood experiences and trauma responses. We partnered with human services and they came and did a presentation," Logwood said.
In May the course was on handling crisis and strategies for deescalation. In June there was a community summer fun day where children were taught how to break out of trunks, zip ties and duct tape.
"We had about 300 people attend that event," Logwood said.
In July Kinship partnered with MCSAP to hold an informational session on marijuana in Minnesota. Last month Kinship partnered with US Bank to go over money matters and financial literacy.
"This month we're doing a run-through for the ambassador program. We'll have volunteers and people in the community run through the program that the kids will run through" Logwood said.
Gonzalez said that there are currently 31 mentees on the waiting list, soon to be 34.
"We're always looking for mentors. We have a bunch (of mentees) from Truman that just applied so if you know of anyone in the Truman area and can give us tips on who to call, we'd love to get all of these kids matched with mentors," Gonzales told the board.
Bleess asked how they're going to get all of the children matched. Gonzalez said that unfortunately there's always been a waiting list at Kinship, but that they just work on getting the word out about Kinship and especially the Rent-A-Ment program, which allows a mentor to temporarily try out the program before fully committing.
It was also said that currently 33 percent outside of mentees are outside of Fairmont and in other cities in the county. Logwood also noted that they're trying to branch out and do more outside of Fairmont and in the other communities.
In other news, the board approved:
-- The hire of Brandon Adams as a full-time correctional officer in the Martin County Sheriff's Office.
-- The hire of Nery Garcia as a part time sheriff deputy in the Martin County Sheriff's Office.
-- The hire of Michael Sharp as a part-time sheriff deputy in the Martin County Sheriff's Office.
-- The resignation of Michelle Bell, full-time correctional officer in the Martin County Sheriff's Office.
-- Grant funds in the amount of $70,000 for the Crime Victim Services Prosecutorial Contract.
-- The Martin County MIS Department to move forward with MIDCO for internet connection, for the purpose of security camera monitoring, to the Martin County Veterans Memorial site in the amount of $93.59 per month.
--A quote from Day Plumbing Heating & Cooling in the amount of $69,497 for the purchase and installation of a ground mount air conditioning unit for the iT Office in the Human Resources Building.
-- A quote from Plunketts Pest Control in the amount of $186.25 per month for pest control services to the Human Resources Building, Law Enforcement Center and courthouse.
-- A quote from Lawn Solutions Irrigation in the amount of $16,062 for courthouse lawn sprinkler system.