Haakon County Commissioners begin new year, elect officiers

The Haakon County Commissioners met on January 4 for their first monthly meeting of 2022. First order of business on the agenda were public comments from three representatives from Butler Machine. Jerry Heiser of Butler Machine is retiring, and he introduced two representatives that the county will be able to contact if needed.

Nancy Thorson, president of the Haakon County Library Board president introduced the newly hired librarian, Baily Brock. County Auditor Carla Smith went over the annual report from Register of Deeds Tracy Radway which was in the monthly packet.

Deputy Auditor Stacy Pinney reported on some questions that she had presented to States Attorney Marty Jackley. There are requirement changes to obtaining a CDL. Anyone that already has a CDL is grandfathered in unless they seek an upgrade. The new requirements will go into effect on February 7, 2022 and make it much more difficult to obtain a CDL due to the new time and financial requirements. Also discussed was the Keystone Pipeline exit. SA Jackley advised the commissioners to not sign off on the agreements with Keystone until they know that all the exit requirements have been met. He also suggested that the commissioners not sign off until there are no disputes with landowners in the county. President Mike Gebes stated that he had not heard of any disputes with landowners and the county highway department is satisfied with the condition of the roads that the pipeline crews had been using.

A discussion was held concerning the CDL requirements. It was stated that it will be a hardship for our county. Gebes has requested that a letter be constructed and sent to several people stating the county’s concerns with these new requirements.

Director of Equalization met with the commissions. She has been working on assessing growth in the city of Philip based on building permits. This is required of the DOE on a yearly basis.

Auditor Smith reported that the roofing company will not be here to repair the roof until the spring of 2022, but they did not give any definite time frame.

Val Williams met with the commissioners on behalf of the highway department. One of the trucks is burning antifreeze. This is one of the trucks that she had applied to have replaced but that application was not approved. She has the paperwork done to apply again for a replacement truck and will submit it. Rudy Reimann has been hauling for the county in the interim. The CDL issue was discussed again during the highway department report.

At this point the meeting was adjourned to reopen the meeting for new 2022 business.

First on the agenda was the election of officers. Steve Daly was elected as commission chairman. Elected vice chair was Lincoln Smith. Following the election of officers, the commissioners went through a list of formalities (meeting dates, holiday schedules, official depositories, polling places and procedures, salaries and wages, travel, approved meetings, mileage rates, official newspaper, and several other items).

Following this portion of the meeting, the commissioners went into executive session for 45 minutes with acting highway superintendent Val Williams, auditor Carla Smith, and deputy auditor Stacy Pinney. No action was taken following the executive session.

Warrants were approved and the meeting was adjourned. The commissioners will meet for their next regular meeting on Tuesday, February 1.

The complete proceedings can be read in the legal section of the Pioneer Review. The live stream of the meeting can be found on the Ravellette Publications, Inc. Facebook page.