Solberg resigns as county auditor

The Foster County Commission passed a motion to accept auditor Brad Solberg’s resignation letter, and the discussion took an interesting turn at the commission meeting last week.

During the meeting held on Tuesday, April 19, the board discussed whether or not they can make the auditor position an appointed position instead of an elected position.

State’s Attorney Kara Brinster said that in the North Dakota Century Code 11-10.2-02 subpart 1, it states that the commission can create a resolution to redesignate the office to an appointed position, or they can keep it as an elected position and hope for write-in votes, as the deadline for petitions has expired.

Commissioner Becky Hagel said that it is getting to be more common for auditors to be appointed rather than elected, and several counties have eliminated some elected positions for county employees.

Commissioner Alan Scanson said he wants to see the board make the auditor position an appointed position.

The board agreed to wait for more information from Brinster.

A motion was passed to appoint deputy auditor Ellen Roundy as interim auditor.

The board also agreed to advertise for a deputy auditor.

In other business:

• Commission David Utke presented information on the snow removal policy.

He showed a couple policies from other counties and said he discussed what should be included in Foster County’s policy with county road superintendent Nate Monson.

Utke also brought up a discussion of the procedure of closing the courthouse because of inclement weather.

Currently, it is up to the chairman of the commission to make that decision, but many on the board believe it should be up to the sheriff and the road superintendent as it is in other counties.

• Another discussion arose on the subject of snow removal, but for township road maintenance.

Apparently there is one township that has not submitted their contract to the county for road maintenance. The county has given them several notices to submit the contract or they would be forced to pay the non-contracted rate of $125 per hour.

• Utke presented information to the board about the FirstNet cell phone service for the county road crew and commission.

Utke reported what the cost would be for the commissioners to each have a county owned cell phone and a tablet, all with unlimited data.

After much discussion, the board passed a motion to purchase the phones now and to budget for the tablets to be purchased at a later date. The cell phone cost would come out of the commission budget.

• Brinster presented information on selling the ambulance building because the county is tired of being a landlord.

She said the county would have to put the building out on bids and there is no guarantee that the hospital would come in with the highest bid. Therefore the building could fall into someone else’s hands. No action was taken on the matter as more information is needed.

• The board heard from Foster County Public Health Nurse Lisa Hilbert who attended the meeting to ask the board if she could accept a grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield in the amount of $4,000 to help with the purchase and installation of the new playground equipment for the west side park. Motion passed.

• Scanson said they are still waiting for soil samples to be taken for the community garden.

• Monson reported the county has received 94 inches of snow to date.

• Finally, Scanson said he wants to send a letter along with information about a grant program for infrastructure repairs to every township supervisor in the county.

He said this grant has no match and is free money. Scanson said the townships should pay attention to this grant. The deadline to apply for the grant is May 31. Motion passed.