Sara Hauskins, the Faribault County Planning and Zoning administrator, and Allen Miller of Prairieview Swine, LLC, were at the County Board meeting on Tuesday to answer questions about a proposed Conditional Use Permit.

In a whirlwind of activity, the Faribault County Board of Commissioners took action at their meeting on Tuesday, June 20 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Darren Esser as the county auditor/treasurer/coordinator and appointed Jessica Blair as the new county auditor/treasurer. Esser’s resignation takes effect on June 24.

“The Personnel Committee met on June 15 and came away with the recommendation that the roles, responsibilities and duties of the county coordinator be temporarily assigned to the county engineer, Mark Daly,” Central Services director Pam Krill told the board members.

Daly had accepted the offer and the board voted to approve the action.

With that step completed, the board then granted Blair’s request for an unpaid leave of absence from her current position as auditor chief deputy accountant.

“This will allow Jessica to return to her previous position should she vacate her position as the county auditor/treasurer,” Krill explained.

Next, the board voted to appoint Blair as the county auditor/treasurer. In another motion Blair was also appointed as the deputy registrar of motor vehicles.

Krill then asked the board to pass a motion stating they would take no further action to make the auditor/treasurer an appointed position.

“Once you fill the position you cannot change it to an appointed position unless the person in the office provides written notice that they do not intend to run to be elected to the position,” county attorney Cameron Davis explained.

The commissioners unanimously passed the motion saying they would take no further action. However, at Krill’s suggestion, they did schedule a work session for July 25 at 1 p.m. to discuss the way forward and evaluate the needs of the county for now and into the future.

The discussion then turned to road construction updates and Daly told the board he had received two bids for the cured-in-place culvert lining projects.

“Subservice out of North Dakota had the low bid. They have been involved on the Highway 22 project so they are in the area,” Daly explained.

The board approved the bid in the amount of $396,313 which was less than the engineer’s estimate of $432,700.

Daly also provided the board with a recommendation on how to proceed with fixing County Road 11 from 150th Street to County Road 16.

“We would like to do a full-depth reclamation late this fall and pave the road next spring,” Daly said. “It will end up with five new inches of blacktop.”

The board agreed and voted to approve the project.

“I think it is important for the public to understand that by leaving the road unpaved through the winter, it gives the road the opportunity to stabilize and you end up with a better road in the end,” commissioner Bill Groskreutz commented. “I know it is not as convenient but it does make for a better road.”

Daly said that is why County Road 13 has not yet been paved from the bridge over Interstate 90 north to County Road 16.

“There are some soft spots in that part of the road,” Daly explained. “We need to fix those areas before we pave.”

Two Conditional Use Permit (CUP) applications were also considered by the County Board.

Faribault County Planning and Zoning administrator Sara Hauskins presented the first one, which was for the construction of a Solar Monitoring System tower on land owned by John and Georgiann Pfaffinger.

“This is a testing tower for the Invenergy Solar Development project,” Hauskins explained. “It is a temporary tower which will be in place for 14-18 months.”

The board approved the CUP on a 4-0 vote with commissioner Tom Loveall abstaining because he is an investor in the project.

The process for approving a CUP for a swine operation in Clark Township generated more discussion before finally passing by a 3-2 margin. The matter had come to the County Board after the Planning and Zoning Board had split on the matter in a 3-3 vote.

The application came from Allen Miller, owner of Prairieview Swine, LLC.

His site was originally permitted for 1,200 animal units. The changes he is making to his operation would necessitate bumping the animal unit number up to 1,380. No new buildings are being added.

The site was originally permitted in 1995. In 1997, an update to the Faribault County Feedlot Ordinance added a requirement that all new sites be built on lots that are at least 10 acres in size if they exceed 1,000 animal units.

“I have reviewed the ordinance and my conclusion is the 10-acre rule does not apply in this situation, which is an existing permitted feedlot,” Davis commented. “The 10-acre requirement applies only to new feedlots. I believe this can be allowed as long as it is under 2,000 animal units and a CUP is obtained.”

The first motion came from commissioner Tom Loveall to keep the allowed animal units at 1,200, to remove a maintenance fee which is no longer required and to change the name of the operation on the permit.

That motion failed on a 3-2 vote with Loveall and commissioner Greg Young voting in favor of the motion and commissioners Groskreutz and John Roper along with chairperson Bruce Anderson voting against the motion.

Groskreutz then made a motion to approve the CUP for up to 1,380 animal units along with removing the maintenance fee and changing the name. Groskreutz, Roper and Anderson voted in favor of the motion while Loveall and Young voted against it, so the motion passed.

The board also:

• Approved the request of Barb Ziegler of the Faribault County Attorney’s Office to attend a training conference on Intimate Partner Violence.

• Voted to approve the request of Lisa Frommie of the Faribault County Sheriff’s Department to attend the Association of Minnesota Emergency Managers Conference.

• Approved the request of Vincent Do of the Sheriff’s Department to attend training concerning legal issues with body worn cameras.