The Ramsey County Commission met in regular session on Tuesday, April 7 at 8 a.m. in the council chambers of the Ramsey County Courthouse, Devils Lake, N.D., with all the commissioners in attendance.
Following the Call to Order, Pledge of Allegiance, minutes of the prior meeting were approved with one correction, the bills were approved by roll call. Comissioner Bill Hodous questioned one item on the list of bills and received an explanation from the Auditor. The agenda was approved after adding the LEC and 911 to New Business.
First up was Veteran Service Officer, Bryce Crosby, who thanked the commission for their support through the years and offered his recommendations for whoever they will hire for the VSO position. His last day will be April 13, but he offered to help out on a consultant basis until they find someone to take the position and even after that he said he was willing to help train the new VSO.
The County Water Resource District Board reported about the highlights of their April meeting, which was in progress across the hall.
Then Jason Kraft, County Highway Superintendent, presented his report. Top of his agenda were blading contracts. He asked the commission chair Blaine Volk to sign the ones they had received, more should be coming in by next meeting. Kraft went through a list of other items the Highway Department needed or was in the process of ordering. Then the discussion turned to the cost of blading and whether the City would be doing its own blading or having the County do the perimeter roads for the City. Commissioner Ed Brown moved to table any decision on this until they heard from the City and determined what their plans would be. The motion passed unanimously.
Next Kraft discussed help he had been receiving from States Attorney Daniel Howell as they look at the language in some of the agreements the County has with other political entities from neighboring counties, for example. These will be finalized at the next meeting.
Finally he reported that a citizen had complained about the signs along Ramsey County #4 South. Kraft was told the signs should be facing the traffic and have a sign at both ends of the reduced speed section facing traffic, rather than parallel to the road. He will make those changes for the safety of those who use that road.
Fenster’s Slough apparently is now designated as a lake and the commission discussed how that could change the hope some neighboring farmers had for taking water off the slough/lake.
An inundated bridge south of Churchs Ferry was the next topic of discussion as it still has a “good” rating although it was built in 1988 and it has been inundated for a number of years, in fact they were told that in 2021 a local farmer used it to transport thousands of pounds of freshly harvested grain over that bridge without incident. If they don’t take the bridge out, each three years the County must pay for the costs and evaluation of its condition. The roads above and below the bridge are also inundated, too, but not officially signed as “Closed” so local folks do use them. The dilemma is that if they take the bridge out they will never be able to replace it and what if someone is injured and/or loses a semi-load of harvested grain if they don’t take it out now that they have the opportunity to remove it. They have the money now to remove it during the construction season of 2026. Following this round of discussion it was decided to sign the bridge as “Closed” but to allow people who are fishing to use it but not drive on it.
The final issues discussed were the Lake Region Law Enforcement Center and 911 and how two counties that had previously been part of the regional center have pulled out, Nelson County and Eddy County. It was discussed that the counties wanting out should have a 60 day grace period to renegotiate, but it was apparent that they wanted out. That would mean a huge hit for the plans for the LEC going forward, because it means the loss of the financial support those two counties paid for their part of the agreement. They had said the action was a purely financial decision, thinking they would be saving the money they would have paid for being involved with the LEC. State Radio will be used for their dispatching but both counties will have to provide their own 911 Coordinator and someone to be their own records manager.
Note: On April 13 there will be a public information meeting regarding the Devils Lake outlets operations in the Chautauqua Gallery at LRSC at 1:30 p.m.
The next meeting of the Ramsey County Commission will be Tuesday, April 21 at 5:30 p.m.
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