The Official Newspaper for Foster County

Snow business

New Year business consumed the Foster County Commission at their last meeting.

During the meeting held on Tuesday, January 3, Commissioner Becky Hagel reported that they held interviews for two candidates for the emergency management position.

She said that neither candidate has grant-writing experience and both candidates live out of county and would be working mostly offsite.

She said they need to discuss a contract with Nexus for the grant writing part of the EM position.

• The board discussed the problem the road department is having with phone calls for snow plowing.

Commissioner David Utke said he is working to find out if the county’s cell phone service provider FirstNet can route and filter calls for the road department.

A motion was passed to have Utke work on the issue.

• A discussion occurred about terms for water board members. Currently the term is five years, but some on the board think that is too long and should be shortened.

Commission Chairman Alan Scanson said there is a lot to learn and know about being on the water board and it probably takes five years to learn it all.

No action was taken.

• The board discussed revisions to the ambulance building agreement and suggested changes.

• Hagel reported that a new eligibility worker was hired for Social Services, and she will be based in Carrington.

• The board discussed viewing departmental budgets quarterly instead of annually.

• Road Superintendent Nate Monson reported that to date, Carrington has seen 69 inches of snow.

• The board heard from Foster County Public Health Nurse Lisa Hilbert who attended the meeting to ask approval for a state opioid response grant.

Motion passed.

• The board discussed additions to the snow removal policy that other counties have, but Foster County does not.

Specifically when residents push snow off a road, but not far enough and the county has to move it out of the right-of-way.

The board discussed adding a fine to resident’s taxes if they haven’t moved the snow after a warning period.

The board agreed to publish that part of the snow removal policy in the Independent and put it on the radio for residents.