It was a short agenda and a short meeting for the Faribault County Board of Commissioners when they met on Tuesday morning, June 7.

A motion was made to close the meeting due to attorney client privilege regarding pending employ- ment litigation of a joint powers organization.

When the meeting returned to an open session, county auditor/treasurer/coordinator Darren Esser announced discussion was held on a personnel litigation matter concerning Prairieland Solid Waste Facility, which is jointly operated by Martin and Faribault counties, and a former employee, James Leiffring.

With the meeting back in open session, a motion was made and seconded to authorize the settlement in the Lieffring case and for board chair, Greg Young, to sign the appropriate document.

Details of the proposed settlement are unknown at this time.

The board also took action to approve one of the final contracts for the courthouse HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) project.

The electrical portion of the project was awarded to Laketown Electric Corporation of Waconia in the amount of $170,100.

Public Works director Mark Daly attended the meeting to give the commissioners an update on the road construction progress in the county.

“The centerline culverts have all been installed on County State Aid Highway (CSAH) 29,” Daly commented. “The overlay is complete on CSAH 31 south and the county forces are working on shouldering. The full-depth reclamation is complete on CSAH 21. All work except striping on CSAHs 28 and 30 is complete.”

Daly mentioned full-depth reclamation will begin on CSAH 29 in three or four weeks and work is ongoing on CSAH 31.

When asked about the Unity Trail in Blue Earth, Daly responded no work has been performed on it yet.

“There was some talk of work beginning sooner than originally scheduled, but I have not heard anything lately,” he said.

Crack sealing is still scheduled for late June and seal coating is set to begin on July 18.

During his committee report, commissioner Bill Groskreutz updated the board on the Towards Zero Deaths (TZD) program sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

“At our meeting in early June, we were told the leading cause of fatalities on our roads is due to lack of attentiveness,” Groskreutz explained. “It leads to people drifting over the center line, going through stop signs and not yielding when they are supposed to.”

The goal of TZD is to have fewer than 225 traffic deaths on Minnesota roads by 2025.

Currently, in 2022, there have been 135 fatalities on Minnesota roads compared to 168 at the same time last year. According to TZD’s website, the unofficial total number of highway fatalities in Minnesota last year was 488.

Central Services director Lexi Scholten had three hires for the board to approve.

“The first one is Vincent Do as a full-time deputy for the Sheriff’s Department,” Scholten shared. “Next, we would like to hire Mark Braunshausen for six months as a temporary maintenance man for the Public Works Department. The last one for approval is Meagan Cook as a full-time secretary in the Extension office.”

The board approved the hiring of all three people.

In other business:

• The County Board approved a training request, retroactive to early May, for Public Works employees Dennis Wick and Brady Hanevik to attend a Caterpillar Government Training and Safety Days conference held in Illinois. The board approved the request but stated any future requests need to come before the board prior to the event occurring.

• A request by Sarah Van Moer of Central Services to receive further education on data practices was approved.