Legal Notices 7-7
Minutes of the Board of Ward
County Commissioners
June 18, 2019
The regular meeting of the Ward
County Commission was called to
order by Chair Weppler at 9:00 AM
with Commissioners Walter, Fjel-
dahl, Rostad, and Pietsch present.
Also present were department
heads Betty Braun, Dana Larsen,
Derrill Fick, Devra Smestad, Ellen
Bjelland, Jason Blowers, John Cros-
by, Kerrianne Boetcher, Leona
Lochthowe, Melissa Bliss, Robin
Finneseth, Ryan Kamrowski, Robert
Roed, Kris Weber and Travis
Schmit. Moved by Comm. Rostad,
seconded by Comm. Walter to ap-
prove the agenda. Roll Call; all vot-
ed yes; motion carried. Moved by
Comm. Walter, seconded by Comm.
Fjeldahl to approve the Minutes from
the Regular Commission meeting on
June 4, 2019, the special meetings
minutes on June 4, 5 & 12, 2019
and the Board of Equalization meet-
ing minutes on June 3 & 5, 2019.
Roll call; all voted yes; motion car-
ried. Moved by Comm. Rostad,
seconded by Comm. Pietsch to ap-
prove the Regular Bills totaling
$1,077,262.06 and the Social Ser-
vice Bills totaling $7,586.84. Roll
call; all voted yes; motion carried.
National Field Director from Aronnax
Public Strategies, Curtis Olafson ap-
peared before the Commission with
a presentation regarding the Opioid
Epidemic in Ward County and the
potential for litigation against the
drug manufacturers. Jonathan No-
vak, attorney from Fears Nachawati
Law Firm also was available via
phone to answer questions the com-
mission may have. After the presen-
tation Ward County Deputy State’s
Attorney Todd Schwarz asked ques-
tions of Mr. Olafson and Mr. Novak
regarding the possibility of Ward
County signed on to the litigation.
Moved by Comm. Pietsch, second-
ed by Comm. Walter to receive and
file the information presented and
get a recommendation from the
State’s Attorney regarding the
Opioid litigation. Roll call; all voted
yes; motion carried. Facilities
Management Supervisor, Leona
Lochthowe appeared with three
agenda items for Commission ap-
proval. The first being a request to
paint and repair the exterior of the
Ward County Old Morgan Building.
Ms. Lochthowe presented two bids
for this project. Moved by Comm.
Rostad, seconded by Comm. Fjel-
dahl to approve the bid for $7,750
from R & M Painting and Woodwork-
ing to paint and repair the exterior of
the Ward County Old Morgan build-
ing. Roll call; all voted yes; motion
carried. Ms. Lochthowe continued
with a request to replace the carpet
on the third floor of the Judge’s
Chambers in the Courthouse.
Moved by Comm. Pietsch, second-
ed by Comm. Walter to approve the
replacement of the Courthouse car-
pet and award the project to IKeat-
ing, Inc. in the amount of $6,256.10.
Roll call; all voted yes; motion car-
ried. Ms. Lochthowe’s final item was
regarding the Courthouse generator,
she is requesting approval to get
bids to replace the Kohler automatic
transfer switch unit and install an
ASCO automatic transfer switch.
Moved by Comm. Pietsch, second-
ed by Comm. Rostad to approve
getting bids for the replacement of
the generator transfer switch. Roll
call; all voted yes; motion carried.
Paul Olthoff of the Ward County Jail
appeared with three contracts for the
Commission approval and signature.
The first contract is the Intergovern-
mental Agreement-Housing Prison-
ers for the United States Marshall
Service. The Ward County Detention
Center will house up to twenty-four
inmates for USMS and ICE. This
also includes medical transports for
their inmates. This is an update of a
previous agreement. The monetary
compensation for housing inmates
for USMS and ICE will increase from
$60 to $75 a day. Moved by Comm.
Fjeldahl, seconded by Comm.
Walter to approve and sign the In-
tergovernmental Agreement- Hous-
ing Prisoners for USMS and ICE.
Roll call; all voted yes; motion ap-
proved. The seconded contract Mr.
Olthoff presented for approval is the
Maintenance and Support agree-
ment for 2020 with Idemia for a total
of $4,904.00 to be paid out of the
2020 budget. This is a yearly con-
tract for maintenance on the Mor-
photrac Livescan machine. This is
the fingerprint machine that is linked
to the ND Bureau of Criminal inves-
tigations. Moved by Comm. Rostad,
seconded by Comm. Pietsch to ap-
prove and sign the Maintenance and
Support agreement with Idemia. Roll
call; all voted yes; motion carried.
The final contracted presented for
approval is the Contract with Sandra
Reinhardt for teaching the Correc-
tional Medical Training 1 & 2
Course. This is an update of a previ-
ous contract. The momentary com-
pensation for the CMT 2 & 2 classes
will increase from $40 to $45 per
hour. Moved by Comm. Walter,
seconded by Comm. Fjeldahl to ap-
prove and sign the contract with
Sandra Reinhardt. Roll call; all voted
yes; motion carried. Ryan Kam-
rowski, Director of Tax Equalization
appeared regarding the formation of
a Building Official Board of Appeals
that the County Board of Commis-
sioners approved in 2015. Ward
County has not had to convene a
board of appeals hearing nor does
Mr. Kamrowski expect to in the near
future. Mr. Kamrowski is recom-
mending that Ward County have in
place the Board of Appeals prior to
any possible appeals. He presented
the Commission with general rules,
policies and procedures of the
board, conforming to the Interna-
tional Code Council and State of
North Dakota Building Codes for
their approval. Moved by Comm.
Walter, seconded by Comm. Pietsch
to approve the Board of Appeals
Procedures and Policies and to seek
out individuals that meet the qualifi-
cations to be appointed to the board.
Roll call; all voted yes; motion car-
ried. Robin Finneseth, Human
Resource Director gave the Com-
mission interview point totals and
references for the candidates that
were interviewed for the Emergency
Management Director. Ms. Fin-
neseth recommended that they re-
view this information for a few days
and make their decision at the spe-
cial meeting on June 20, 2019.
Moved by Comm. Rostad, seconded
by Comm. Fjeldahl, to appoint Jen-
nifer Wiechmann to the position of
Emergency Management Director.
Moved Comm. Walter, seconded by
Comm. Pietsch to table the appoint-
ment of the Emergency Manage-
ment Director position as recom-
mended by HR Director, Robin Fin-
neseth. Roll call; Commissioners
Walter, Pietsch and Fjeldahl voted
yes and Commissioners Rostad and
Weppler voted no. Motion carried.
Ms. Finneseth continued with payroll
amendments for A.Howard- Juvenile
Detention (level 18); A.Sims-Weed
Control (level 15); O.Osteroos-
Weed Control (level 15); M.Olson-
State’s Attorney (level29) and Social
Service Director Melissa Bliss re-
viewed the payroll amendments for
Social Services for J.White (level
23); M.Miller (level 25); B. Schriock
(level 25). Moved by Comm. Walter,
seconded by Comm. Rostad to ap-
prove the payroll amendments as
presented. Roll call; all voted yes;
motion carried. Ms. Finneseth con-
tinued with her final agenda item re-
garding IVEE Human Resources
and iVisions Implementation and
training. The total cost of the
software, implementation and train-
ing for these programs is $29,700.
Moved by Comm. Rostad, seconded
by Comm. Walter to approve the
IVEE Human Resources and iVi-
sions implementation and training.
Roll call; all voted yes, except
Comm. Pietsch who voted no; mo-
tion carried. The meeting was
recesses at 11:00 AM. Meeting
reconvened at 12:40 by Chairman
Weppler, with Commissioners
Walter, Fjeldahl, Rostad, and
Pietsch present. Comm. Walter stat-
ed that he has not been able to
make contact with Gaylen Schmidt
regarding renting his parking lot for
employees. Moved by Comm.
Walter, seconded by Comm. Rostad
to table the decision of the parking
lot for employees. Roll call; all voted
yes; motion carried. Facilities
Management Supervisor, Leona
Lochthowe informed the Commis-
sion that she is still working on get-
ting bids for sound proofing the first
floor meeting rooms and the south
wall of the Commissioner’s
Chambers. Moved by Comm. Ros-
tad, seconded by Comm. Pietsch to
table the soundproofing decision.
Roll call; all voted yes; motion car-
ried. Auditor/Treasurer Devra Smes-
tad appeared. Moved by Comm.
Rostad, seconded by Comm.
Pietsch to receive and file the fol-
lowing correspondence: Tax Equali-
zation-2019 Valuation & New
Growth; Facilities Management – An-
nual Compliance Report; Minot
Chamber-Economy at a Glance; At-
mospheric Resource Board-Flight
logs; Rath & Mehrer-Annual Audit
Report. Roll call; all voted yes; mo-
tion carried. Moved by Comm. Ros-
tad, seconded by Comm. Walter to
receive and file the monthly finan-
cials and monthly reports for the
Recorder, Sheriff’s Office and Tax
Equalization. Roll call; all voted yes;
motion carried. Moved by Comm.
Walter, seconded by Comm. Fjel-
dahl to approve the five quit claim
deeds for foreclosed property sold
by realtor. Roll call; all voted yes;
motion carried. Moved by Comm.
Rostad, seconded by Comm. Fjel-
dahl to approve duplicate warrant re-
quests for Bad Investments and
BRU-DAL LLP. Roll call; all voted
yes; motion carried. Moved by
Comm. Walter, seconded by Comm.
Pietsch to approve the raffle permit
for Minot Symphony Association.
Roll call; all voted yes; motion car-
ried. Moved by Comm. Fjeldahl,
seconded by Comm. Pietsch to ap-
prove and sign the contract with the
Office of State Tax Commissioner to
administer Ward County’s local
sales, use and gross taxes for the
2019-2021 biennium. Roll call; all
voted yes; motion carried. Moved by
Comm. Rostad, seconded by
Comm. Walter to approve closing
County offices on Friday, July 5,
2019 for the long weekend for the
Fourth of July holiday. Roll call; all
voted yes; motion carried. Larry
Haug, 9-1-1 Coordinator appeared
and update for the SIRN- Central
Dispatch Council. He stated a state-
wide radio network is being created
to enable agency to agency contact.
This will be a $2.9 million project
statewide with Ward County and
Minot being the first to transition.
The state will provide $1,500 toward
the purchase of new radios. Mr.
Haug is requesting to use
$493,442.82 from the 9-1-1 Depreci-
ation fund to purchase five position
consoles for Minot Central Dispatch.
Moved by Comm. Walter, seconded
by Comm. Fjeldahl to approve the
request to purchase five position
consoles for Minot Central Dispatch.
Roll call; all voted yes; motion car-
ried. At 1:10 PM with no further busi-
ness, the meeting was adjourned.
(July 7, 2019)
Minutes of the Special Meeting of
the Board of Ward County
Commissioners
June 21, 2019
The special meeting of the Ward
County Commission was called to
order by Chair Weppler at 5:45 PM
with Commissioners Walter, Fjel-
dahl, Rostad and Pietsch present.
Also present were department
heads Devra Smestad, Robin Fin-
neseth, Robert Roed, Roza Larson,
and Travis Schmit. Moved by
Comm. Rostad, seconded Comm.
Walter to move into Executive Ses-
sion at 5:46 PM. Roll call; all voted
yes; motion carried. In attendance
was Chair Weppler, Commissioners
Fjeldahl, Rostad, Walter and
Pietsch, Roza Larsen, Devra Smes-
tad, Robin Finneseth and Travis
Schmit. Moved by Comm. Fjeldahl,
seconded by Comm. Walter to close
Executive Session at 5:51 PM. Roll
call; all voted yes; motion carried.
The special meeting reconvened at
5:53 PM. Kris Weber was now in at-
tendance. Chair Weppler state that
during the Executive Session they
discussed possible misuse of Coun-
ty credit card by an employee.
Moved by Comm. Fjeldahl, second-
ed by Comm. Walter to approve
placing Emergency Management In-
terim Co-Director Kris Weber on ad-
ministrative leave with her salary be-
ing placed in escrow until investiga-
tion has been complete. Kris Weber
appeared before the Commission
questioning what this was referring
to. Chair Weppler informed her that
she can address the Commission
but this situation will be turned over
to the City of Minot Police Depart-
ment for further investigation. At that
time Ms. Weber asked to seek coun-
sel and for the conversation to end.
Roll call; all voted yes; motion car-
ried. At 5:56 PM with no further
business, the meeting was ad-
journed.
(July 7, 2019)
Minutes of the Special Meeting of
the Board of Ward County
Commissioners
June 24, 2019
The special meeting of the Ward
County Commission was called to
order by Chair Weppler at 9:00 AM
with Commissioners Walter, Rostad
and Pietsch present. Also present
were department heads Betty Braun,
Devra Smestad, Ellen Bjelland, Ja-
son Blowers, John Crosby, Kerri-
anne Boetcher, Leona Lochthowe,
Kristen Holte, Roza Larson, Robin
Finneseth, Ryan Kamrowski, Robert
Roed and Travis Schmit. Moved by
Comm. Rostad, seconded by
Comm. Pietsch to approve the agen-
da. Roll call; all voted yes; motion
carried. Director of Tax Equalization,
Ryan Kamrowski appeared with a
request to reduce the sale price of
foreclosed property located at 204
7th St SE, Minot. He stated that the
new appraised value came in at
$106,000. The original value that
was received from the City of Minot
Assessors office was $278,000. The
original valuation was estimated due
to not being give assess to perform
a complete appraisal. Mr. Kam-
rowski would like to reduce the sale
price from $129,000 to $53,000.
Taxes owed on this property through
September 30, 2019 is $17,294.39.
Comm. Fjeldahl arrived at 9:02 AM.
Moved by Comm. Walter, seconded
by Comm. Pietsch to approve the re-
quest to reduce the sale price of
foreclosed property located at 204
7th St SE Minot to $53,000. Roll call
all voted yes motion carried. Robin
Finneseth, HR Director and Travis
Schmit, Assistant County Engineer
appeared before the Commission to
review job descriptions and salary
study. They presented the Commis-
sion with a chart reflecting position
titles currently and proposed title
changes for a variety of positions.
The proposed title changes are to be
more consistent with all departments
and with other counties in the state.
Moved by Comm. Rostad, seconded
by Comm. Fjeldahl to adopt the
recommended job title changes. Roll
call; all voted yes; motion carried.
The discussion continued regarding
how the salary study was conducted
and current job descriptions. Ms.
Finneseth informed the Commission
that she will be reviewing and
recommending changes, if needed,
to job descriptions. The Commission
requested that Ms. Finneseth and
Mr. Schmit reach out to Gallagher
Consulting for comment on the
Counties response to Gallagher’s
recommendations. At 9:59 AM with
no further business, the meeting
was adjourned.
(July 7, 2019)
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
A public hearing of an application by
Municipal Communications for a
special use permit will be held dur-
ing the Ward County Planning Com-
mission meeting on Thursday, July
18, 2019 at 7:00 pm in Room 106 &
108 of the Ward County Adminis-
tration Building. The Special Use is
to construct a 195 foot tall cellular
communications tower on the follow-
ing described property:
NE 1/4 NE 1/4, 8-153-85,
Vang Township
Persons wishing to be heard on the
proposed special use permit will
have the opportunity to address the
Planning Commission during the
hearing. Information and input may
also be presented in writing by ad-
dressing the Ward County Planning
Commission, PO Box 5005, Minot,
ND 58702-5005. All written materials
must reach the Planning Commis-
sion before the end of the hearing.
The text of the application is avail-
able for public inspection in the of-
fice of the Ward County Planning
and Zoning Administrator at the
Ward County Highway Department
(900 13th St. SE, Minot) during reg-
ular business hours. By orders of the
Ward County Planning Commission,
this 24th day of June, 2019.
/s/Nancy Simpson
Nancy Simpson, Ward County
Planning and Zoning Administrator
(July 7, 2019)
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
A public hearing of an application by
Kevin Cross for a zone change and
a special use permit will be held dur-
ing the Ward County Planning Com-
mission meeting on Thursday, July
18, 2019 at 7:00 pm in Room 106 &
108 of the Ward County Administra-
tion Building. The zone change re-
quest is to Change the zoning from
R-1 to C-2 to be able to run an al-
cohol tasting room and small distil-
lery. The special use for the alcohol
tasting room and small distillery on
the following described property:
Lost Creek Addition Lot 5,
13-154-82, Sundre Township
Persons wishing to be heard on the
proposed special use permit will
have the opportunity to address the
Planning Commission during the
hearing. Information and input may
also be presented in writing by ad-
dressing the Ward County Planning
Commission, PO Box 5005, Minot,
ND 58702-5005. All written materials
must reach the Planning Commis-
sion before the end of the hearing.
The text of the application is avail-
able for public inspection in the of-
fice of the Ward County Planning
and Zoning Administrator at the
Ward County Highway Department
(900 13th St. SE, Minot) during reg-
ular business hours. By orders of the
Ward County Planning Commission,
this 24th day of June, 2019.
/s/Nancy Simpson
Nancy Simpson, Ward County
Planning and Zoning Administrator
(July 7, 2019)
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
Ward County, North Dakota
Draft Comprehensive Plan
The Ward County Planning Com-
mission, will meet at 7 p.m. on
Thursday, July 18, 2019, rooms 106
& 108 of the Ward County Adminis-
tration Building to hold a public
hearing on the draft Comprehensive
Plan. Any interested person may ap-
pear and address the Planning
Commission at that time with
respect to any part of the recom-
mendation. Information and input
may also be submitted in writing by
addressing the Ward County Plan-
ning Commission, PO Box 5005,
Minot, ND 58702-5005. All written
materials must reach the Planning
Commission before the end of the
hearing. The text of the recommend-
ed amendments is available for pub-
lic inspection in the office of the
Ward County Auditor’s Office at the
Ward County Administration Build-
ing, 225 3rd St. SE, Minot, during
regular business hours. By orders of
the Ward County Planning Commis-
sion, this 24th day of June 2019.
/s/Nancy Simpson
Nancy Simpson, Ward County
Planning and Zoning Administrator
(July 7, 2019)
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
Ward County, North Dakota
Recommended Ordinance
Amendments
The Ward County Planning Com-
mission, will meet at 7 p.m. on
Thursday, July 18, 2019, rooms 106
& 108 of the Ward County Adminis-
tration Building to hold a public
hearing on recommended amend-
ments to Chapter 3, Zoning Resolu-
tion #6, ARTICLE 6: “A-1” AGRI-
CULTURAL DISTRICT AND ARTI-
CLE 24: SUBDIVISION REGULA-
TION. Any interested person may
appear and address the Planning
Commission at that time with
respect to any part of the recom-
mendation. Information and input
may also be submitted in writing by
addressing the Ward County Plan-
ning Commission, PO Box 5005,
Minot, ND 58702-5005. All written
materials must reach the Planning
Commission before the end of the
hearing. The text of the recommend-
ed amendments is available for pub-
lic inspection in the office of the
Ward County Auditor’s Office at the
Ward County Administration Build-
ing, 225 3rd St. SE, Minot, during
regular business hours. By orders of
the Ward County Planning Commis-
sion, this 24th day of June 2019.
/s/Nancy Simpson
Nancy Simpson, Ward County
Planning and Zoning Administrator
(July 7, 2019)
