by April Scheinoha
Reporter
The Pennington County Board approved the 2022 county feedlot officer report at its meeting Tuesday, April 11.
County Feedlot Officer Bryanna Grefthen, who is employed with the Pennington Soil and Water Conservation District, inspected five feedlots in 2022. She was required to inspect 7% or 3.5 feedlots of the 43 feedlots registered in the county in 2020.
Feedlots are required to register if they have 50 animal units or more outside of shoreland and 10 animal units or more inside shoreland.
Grefthen met her five goals for 2022 to:
• Inspect four feedlots
• Inspect a feedlot that hadn’t been inspected in the past (all five had never been inspected)
• Inspect a feedlot within the Middle Clearwater River Watershed (one was inspected)
• Inspect a feedlot in the Thief River Falls Source Water Assessment Area (two were inspected)
• Inspect sites within 1,000 feet of a county ditch (two were inspected)
The county met or exceeded all of the non-inspection minimum program requirements.
This year is a re-registration year for feedlots. The county now has 32 feedlots. Grefthen noted that some feedlot owners decided to decrease the size of their herds and fell below the threshold for feedlot registration.
County Board approved purchasing a pickup truck for the Highway Department. The county accepted Thief River Ford’s quote of $52,770 for a 2023 Ford 3/4-ton crew cab.
Commissioners approved seeking a bid off of the state bid list for a plow truck and related equipment for 2024. County Engineer Mike Flaagan said he has been told there continues to be an 18-month wait. In fact, the county continues to wait for another plow truck that it purchased for this past winter season. It expects to officially take over ownership later this year. Funding for the latest purchase will be taken out of the 2024 budget.
Commissioners scheduled a joint ditch authority meeting for Joint Ditch 30. The joint ditch authority, which also includes representatives of Marshall County, will consider plans to repair the slopes at the outlet of JD 30 and the slopes for the last couple miles of the ditch. The meeting will be held Monday, May 8 at 8 a.m. at the Justice Center.
County Board approved a letter of support for Tri-Valley Opportunity Council’s grant application to the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Tri-Valley would like to replace its gasoline buses with propane buses.
Commissioners approved a quote to add glycol to the boiler system at the Justice Center. Lee Plumbing and Heating provided the quote of $11,500 for 600 gallons.
The next County Board meeting is scheduled Tuesday, April 25 at 10 a.m. at the Justice Center. A public hearing for the Five-Year Road and Bridge Plan will be held an hour prior to the meeting.