FAIRMONT–The Martin County Board of Commissioners began its meeting on Tuesday with a moment of silence for County Assessor, Mike Sheplee, who passed away suddenly last Tuesday. Sheplee had worked in the assessor’s office since 2006.

Later in the meeting, the board had to move on filling the vacancy. Human Resources Director, Leigha Johnson, said that according to state statute, the board has 90 days from the day of vacancy to appoint a new county assessor and without the presence of a deputy assessor, the county auditor/treasurer needs to designate a person to perform the duties until a new hire is found and an appointment made.

Johnson said that there is currently a person in the office, Deb Eversman, who meets the requirements to fill the roll in the interim. The board approved and authorized the recruitment for the county assessor position.

The board on Tuesday also heard from the county’s new IT director, Jeramie Jones, regarding a new county domain name.

“Because of the fact that we are a polling location, it is required… that we have a .gov on the end of our URL now instead of a co.us,” Jones explained.

He said it’s recommended that the county website be changed to www.martincountymn.gov. Currently the website is www.co.martin.mn.us.

“We’re spelling out county instead of ‘co’ because it makes more sense. It keeps it under the 15 characters that’s required for search engine optimization,” Jones said.

The board was in favor of the change and especially liked ‘mn’ being added as it was pointed out that there is a Martin County, Florida.

Commissioner Billeye Rabbe asked if emails addresses will change and Jones said it will moving forward, but wouldn’t have to as both the new and old email addresses will work, as will the old domain name for the website.

“Everything moving forward from this we’ll be using the martincountymn.gov. It could take six to eight months to get this name through and get it ready for 2026 so it is our recommendation to move forward with this,” Jones said.

The board approved moving forward with the new domain name.

In other news, Granada-Huntley-East Chain (GHEC) Superintendent Doug Storbeck was present to give the board an update on the district’s School Resource Officer (SRO), Chris Gerhardt, who is also a member of the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.

Back in 2019 the board approved of a 66/33 cost split for the position with the school covering the bulk of it.

Storbeck first touched on the criminal justice program at GHEC, which Gerhardt teaches.

“Over the last two years we’ve averaged in the mid-teens as far as enrollment totals in those classes,” Storbeck said.

He said the district plans to continue the program and as the board previously suggested, Storbeck has reached out to other schools in the county to see if they would be interested in having students enroll in the program as well.

“Those discussions are taking place but nothing’s been formally agreed upon,” Storbeck said.

Commissioner Joe Loughmiler asked about his time spent in the district and Storbeck said that Gerhardt is contracted for three days a week with the school and that the district pays the prorated amount for his teaching time.

In other business:

— The County’s 4H Coordinator, Laura Pilarski, provided a program update to the board.

— The board set a work session to discuss future plans for the Law Enforcement Center at 1 p.m. on June 3.

— County Engineer Kevin Peyman presented the board with the county’s five year construction plan.

— The board set a public hearing time and date of 10:05 a.m. on June 17 for a single family home tax abatement request from David and Anette Sult of Granada.

— The board approved the hire of a full-time account technician in the county recorder’s office. The position replaces Joann McGowan, who has taken on a new role in the county coordinator’s office.

–The board approved the hire Jacob Singleton as a seasonal water patrol deputy for the summer of 2025.