Dave Baumeister | Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – Distancing, telephonic input and June elections were three main concerns when the Minnehaha County Commission met earlier this week.
With the coronavirus outbreak, commissioners have been holding marathon meetings every other week, instead of their usual weekly meetings.
This week, department heads were encouraged to call in, as opposed to showing up in person.
Even Assistant County Administrator Craig Dewey, whose office is adjacent to the meeting room, and who, at times, was seen wearing a mask and bringing in different items to the room, went to his office and phoned in when his input was needed during specific agenda items.
The commission made it official to combine the postponed Sioux Falls city and school district vote with the county, state and federal primary elections to be held Tuesday, June 2.
They also enter into an agreement to combine elections for the county with the West Central, Garretson and Baltic school districts.
And to accomplish all of this, Minnehaha County Auditor Bob Litz made a plea for people to help as poll workers at that election.
Currently, Litz said he believes he will need more workers than usual, since so many area elections are being combined, but if people continue to accept South Dakota Secretary of State Steve Barnett’s offer to mail out absentee ballots, there may not be as many as expected at the polls on election day.
Last week, every registered voter in the state should have received an application for a mail-in absentee ballot that will need to be sent into their county auditor, should people want to avoid showing up for in-person voting on June 2.
After only a week, Litz said his office has received over 4,000 applications for primary election ballots, and another 3,700 have been received for Sioux Falls city and school voting.
But regardless of how many votes are mailed in, Litz still expects needing plenty of people to help separate ballots for Democrats, Republicans, Minnehaha residents living in Sioux Falls, county residents living outside of the city but still within the Sioux Falls School District and county residents residing in the West Central, Garretson or Baltic school districts.
People interested in helping as poll workers should contact Litz at (605) 367-4220.
These are paid positions.
Burn, Baby Burn… anyplace but here!
Commissioners voted 4-1 to enact a temporary burn ban in the county.
Recently, county fire departments have had to respond to 53 structure fires.
The ban was offered up by Emergency Management Director Jason Gearman on behalf of all area fire chiefs.
He said that current conditions of dealing with the coronavirus have made it even more difficult to fight fires.
Commissioner Cindy Heiberger, the lone person to vote against the measure, felt that with rain in the forecast for this week, they should hold off on any county-wide ban.
However, Commissioner Gerald Beninga felt that because there was such wide support from the firefighters and emergency management, a temporary ban would be prudent.
Three other commissioners agreed with Beninga and a temporary ban was put in place just until the next meeting on May 12, when the burn ban will come up for discussion again.
To open or not?
Commissioners also spent a great deal of time trying to decide what to do with Wall Lake.
The discussion started with Parks Director Scott Anderson informing them of possible problems with his usual group of seasonal workers.
He explained that many of those workers are over 65 years of age and subject to Gov. Kristi Noem’s “stay at home” order for vulnerable populations.
Although there was no clear direction given from the commission, they talked in depth about what to do about county parks, mainly Wall Lake, as far as opening parking lots and restroom facilities.
The consensus of the commission seemed to be that Anderson should proceed however he thinks is best.
The next meeting of the Minnehaha County Commission will be on Tuesday, May 12, at 9 a.m. on the second floor of the county administration building at 6th and Minnesota Ave. in Sioux Falls.
These meetings are open to all, and public comment is usually encouraged, although for people wanting to attend, currently, the only way into the building is at the entrance on the west side of the building, and the number of people allowed into the main commission chamber at any one time is limited.