OTC awards bid for final cover of landfill in northeast Otter Tail County

Contributed photo
District 3 Commissioner Kurt Mortenson was elected as the 2024 Chairman of the Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners at the first meeting of the year Tuesday, Jan. 2.

By Robert Williams

Editor

Otter Tail District 3 Commissioner Kurt Mortenson was elected as the chairman for 2024, replacing Wayne Johnson. Mortenson was the Vice Chair in 2023. The board also assigned committee assignments for the coming year, which are available on the county website.

Mortenson worked as a prosecutor with the Otter Tail County Attorney’s Office for nearly three decades prior to becoming the District 3 County Commissioner in 2021. 

Absentee ballot board

The rate of pay for absentee ballot board members was raised from $19 to $21 per hour. Those interested in being on the ballot board for the upcoming election this fall should contact county auditor Wayne Stein.

Bids, requests

The county will continue to use the county website www.ottertailcounty.gov as the official publication to disseminate information regarding project bids and requests for proposals. The site will also be used specifically for highway project advertisements for bids.

Board of Appeal, Equalization

The County Board of Appeal and Equalization dates were scheduled for Monday, June 17, at 9 a.m. and to reconvene the County Board of Equalization for final action on Tuesday, June 25. A start time for the second meeting will be set at the conclusion of the first meeting.

Landfill 

The board awarded a bid of $1,178,787 to Burski Excavating, Inc., for final cover construction at the Northeast Otter Tail Phase II Ash and Demolition Landfill.

“These are covers we are putting on for permanent closure of portions of each of those landfills,” Solid Waste Director Chris McConn said. “There are about six acres that we are covering. The idea with this is all of this land that we’re covering this with will have a synthetic element to it so we’re reducing the water that travels through the landfill and that reduces the chance of any chemicals getting out of the landfill. The ash landfill is already lined. The demolition is currently unlined. Burski’s bid was the low of six bids.

Pocket Gopher Bounty

The county reimburses townships for bounties on pocket gophers. Last year, the bounty was increased from 50 to 75 cents. The board approved to raise the bounty to $1 per gopher killed.

Tax forfeited parcels

The city of Pelican Rapids has requested to reconvey the tax forfeited parcels (Parcel No. 76-000-99-0791-000), Lot 11 Block 1 of Haugen’s Rolling Acres. The city acquired the property in 2007 to use for drainage, but it is not currently being used for drainage, according to Stein.

“They do want to retain the parcel for other things they are legally able to do; they want to purchase it, in essence, is what they want to do,” Stein said.

Wayne D. Johnson, District 2 Commissioner, will make a site visit to discuss the parcel with the city administrator and will bring the request back to the board.

Stein requested Commissioner Robert Lahman, District 4, to meet with the city of Henning regarding the purchase price of Lots 12 and 13 of Block 1. Lahman will bring back a recommendation to the board.

The board approved Scott D. Bauck’s request to repurchase two tax forfeited parcels in Otto Township at 49225 390th Street in New York Mills. Said properties were forfeited to the State of Minnesota on August 7, 2023, for nonpayment of the 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 property taxes.

The commissioners classified the properties as non-conservation lands, and an application to repurchase the above-described properties was submitted on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023.

The sum of $24,868.73 represents the aggregate of all delinquent and current taxes, penalties, costs, assessments, and fees as of December 31, 2023, that would have been due and payable had the above-described parcel not forfeited to the State of Minnesota, and the applicant submitted on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023, $24,562.67 to cover all delinquent and current taxes, penalties, costs, assessments, and fees as of December 31, 2023, as well as the fees required to repurchase the properties in the amount of $306.06.