The old SuperValu building in downtown Winnebago is just one of the many tax forfeited buildings in Faribault County that the County Board wants addressed in the it’s demolition/cleanup policy.

The Faribault County Board hopes to clean up their policy especially since another request for cleanup has come to their attention.

Over the past year, the county has been faced with more than one tax forfeited property which needed to be demolished and cleaned up.

These requests, coming from towns and cities in the county, are usually for half of the cost or some cost share for the demolition and cleanup process.

The recent demolition issues have prompted a desire for the County Board to have a policy in place for how they will handle these requests fairly and equally in the future.

However, at their meeting last Tuesday, the county commissioners received a different type of cleanup proposal which left them wondering if they might want to include more than demolition in their policy.

“The city of Elmore asked if the county would participate in the cost of a property cleanup on a tax forfeited lot,”?county auditor/treasurer/coordinator John Thompson said.

Thompson explained that the property contained various waste which made it difficult for the city to even mow the lawn.

“It was indicated that the garbage was tires, containers and things like that,” commissioner John Roper added.

Commissioner Tom Loveall wondered if the county helps clean it, what would stop someone from doing it again and Roper informed him that the police were looking into it.

Some commissioners felt it was a good idea to help, while others questioned it.

“I believe this will be setting a precedent,”?commissioner Bill Groskreutz said. “Other cities have been responsible for cleaning properties whether it’s tax forfeited or not.”

Commissioner Greg Young asked if this is a situation where the county could utilize specific county funds to cost share.

“Could we use the Sentence to Serve (STS) crew and use our solid waste funds?” he asked.

“Well, what exactly are we dealing with here??There is a difference between garbage and solid waste,” commissioner Tom Warmka added.

However, the commissioners thought that overall it would be a good idea to involve STS?to help with any of the cleanup they could.

“We have all of this money for solid waste, this would be a way to put that to use in a good fashion,”?Young said.

The board voted in favor of contacting the solid waste coordinator, Billeye Rabbe, to set up an STS?crew to do some of the clean up work.

“We have these resources and people to do this and abandoned buildings and solid waste go hand in hand,”?Loveall said.

He suggested they look into adding something in the demolition policy about property cleanup, as well.

“I think we need to set up a work session about the demolition of buildings,”?Loveall said. “And I think this falls into the same thing.”

The County Board agreed and decided to hold a work session in regard to the policy after their next regular board meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 15.