- Open Forum
- ISAIAH Bethel Lutheran Church congregants attended and one gave comment about the problems with healthcare access, including medicaid coverage, and the impact on Rice County government and taxpayers.
- After recessing, commissioners informally asked one another if there was anything they can do and noted no, not really — they can only advocate up.
- Purfeerst asked about election-related public records requests from Mike Lindell. It sounded like there is a long list of counties that received this request.
- He commented that this is going to cost the counties a lot of money.
- CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
- Roll Call: All commissioners are present
- Approval of Agenda
- Approval of Minutes – Regular Meeting – August 25th, 2026
- PROPERTY TAX & ELECTIONS: Denise Anderson
- Approved: New On and Off Sale, including Sunday liquor license for Red Cabin LLC, dba The Lodge on Lake Mazaska, at 7170 153rd St W, Faribault, for the licensing period of September 8, 2026, through June 30, 2027.
- FACILITIES: Chris Kluge
- Approved: Declare Fleet Vehicle, 2020 Dodge Grand Caravan with VIN No. 2C4RDGBG2LR183880, as County Surplus
- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Allan Klug
- Approved: Adobe License Renewal: Rice County uses Adobe products across most departments. There are 196 licenses of Acrobat Pro, 2 licenses of Creative Cloud Pro Plus, and one license of Adobe AI Assistant. CIT is the vendor for our Adobe contract and has provided a quote for renewal at $53,305.80 for one year.
- Hoisington: Is this same as last year?
- A: Yes, the cost of licenses is the same as last year, and last year we reduced the number of licensed accounts we paid for, but then a good number of people found they needed it after all. It’s held steady since 2023. In 2022 there was a significant cost increase.
- Purfeerst: Explain the extra costs in the quote.
- A: Acrobat pro is the regular application. The creative cloud plus is the suite of more applications – used by administration and communications. That’s why that’s more expensive.
- COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS: Angela Brewer
- Approved: CAC Contract with Community Corrections – Treatment Court Grant: On March 12, 2026, Rice County Community Corrections entered into a contract with the Community Action Center to secure two furnished housing units for use as transitional housing for participants in the Rice County Treatment Court program. The contract was approved by the County Board. The contract has been revised to include a provision for payment of a security deposit on each unit equal to one month’s rent. Revisions to the contract were drafted and approved by the Rice County Attorney’s Office.
- Approved: Recovery Month Proclamation: National Recovery Month is observed annually every September to raise awareness and educate the public about substance-use disorders, to honor and celebrate the successes of individuals in long-term recovery, and to highlight resources, efforts, and services provided to those in recovery and their families.
- SHERIFF’S OFFICE: Jesse Thomas
- Approved: Rice County Dive Team 2026 Joint Powers Agreement: The purpose of this Joint Powers Agreement is to establish the administration and operation procedures for the Rice County Dive Team. The Rice County Dive Team consists of selected volunteers with the necessary skills to assist law enforcement in Rice County in retrieving evidence, vehicles, and victims from submerged environments.
- Underdahl: How many calls per year?
- A: 8-12, usually during early winter when ice is still forming.
- DRAINAGE AUTHORITY: Jarett Spitzak
- Approved: Joint Ditch (JD) #6 Assessment for Repairs Completed in 2026
- Hoisington: The cost to repair is what?
- A: We’re assessing a tax to the benefiting landowners because we have a negative fund balance in the budget for this ditch. Total to be assessed: $350,287.52
- Approved: County Ditch (CD) #25 Assessment for 2017 Redetermination of Benefits and Repairs: As of 2025 Fiscal Year End, CD #25 had a negative fund balance of ($525,104). Expenditures that led to this negative fund balance are made up of costs from the 2017 redetermination of benefits, assessments from LeSueur County Joint Ditch #54, interest due for loan of funds from the general fund and other repair and operational costs. Requesting Board adoption of the resolution to assess the benefiting landowners owners so that the fund can return to a positive fund balance. Assessment in the amount of $540,693.93 to be received to the CD #25 fund balance once paid by benefiting landowners.
- Public comment on Ditch 25: Curious why the last determination was done in 2017, and it’s only being assessed now. There’s gonna be a lot of unhappy campers when these tax assessments get sent out. There’s not maintenance that needs to be done beyond brush spraying. It’s been back and forth: nobody taking care of it, somebody taking care of it. What’s happening?
- A: Staff: Since June 2024, the county took over the ditch.
- Continued public comment: In some of these, the deeded acres are different from the assessed acres?
- A: Peters: You’d have to get together with a staffer to discuss.
- Continued public comment: If there were a continuous ditch across counties, but we’re always told it’s a natural water course so we can’t do anything about it.
- A: Staff: Historic assessment amounts reported. Will have to look at discrepancies in acres in documents. The deeded acres don’t impact the benefited acres.
- A: Purfeerst: Please set up a phone call with this resident.
- A: Yes.
- HIGHWAY: Dennis Luebbe
- Approved: Resolution #26-027, and MnDOT Agreement # 1063268: Minnowa Construction was awarded a contract for the replacement of 2 culvert structures on County Road 16 (Kanabec Ave.). Funding for this work includes the use of State bridge bond funds. Resolution #26-027, and MnDOT Agreement # 1063268 is required to secure up to $271,6563.01 of these funds. I recommend approval of the Resolution and Agreement. Construction is proposed to begin later this fall, a date has not been set at this time.
- Approved: Final Payment to Minnowa Construction: Contract # 2570 was awarded to Minnowa Construction Inc. on December 17, 2024 for the replacement of the bridge structure on CR 79 (Wall Street Road) in Northfield. All work has been completed in accordance to the plans and final payment is due. The awarded contract price was $691,349.25 and the final contract price was $668,251.30. I recommend approval of the final payment, which includes the settlement agreement reached with the contractor and the City of Northfield. This project included funding from the City of Northfield, and State bridge bonding funds. Approve Final Payment to Minnowa Construction Inc. in the amount of $6,682.51 for work completed on Project SAP 066598-025, contingent upon the submittal of final close-out documents.
- Approved: State of Minnesota, Trunk Hwy 246, Jurisdictional Transfer City of Northfield and Rice County (“Turnback”) Agreement
- This has been discussed for multiple years. This action is a pass through action. The city of Northfield will sign the same agreement tonight, and that will be the official transfer. There is no financial impact.
- OUTSIDE AGENCY:
- Outside Agency Appropriations
- Peters: Moves to cut by 10% except historical and ag society due to insurance needs.
- Malecha: This is wrong. They do work for the county. Should not cut. Eg: senior centers. The county would be paying a lot more if we didn’t have these programs. Would be for a freeze but not for cutting.
- Peters: I do see a lot of overlap. They could work more together. I have an issue with the three libraries and there’s a disproportionate amount given to Northfield over Faribault and Lonsdale. We need to back them up and do a baseline. Southern Minnesota tourism — there were seven counties that totally dropped them to zero. Some of them had money in the bank from last year.
- Underdahl: When you look at this — there’s almost $700k going to three of these agencies: Northfield and Faribault libraries and one other (inaudible). Agrees with Malecha: freeze. A lot of these amounts have been static for years — we haven’t increased them at all. A lot of these smaller agencies are ones we rely heavily on, in social services and public health. They are good partners, like HOPE Center. About libraries, I’ve advocated that Lonsdale needs a bigger share. Rice county far exceeds what the state requires us to contribute to the libraries. On the other side, the cities are looking for money, but they have the ability to levy taxes themselves. Maybe we could do a reallocation, but not a cut.
- Malecha: If we’re going to look at the libraries, that’s going to have to be a next year thing, not a here and now thing. If we’re going to reduce, we need to call them to the table and have them here. Lonsdale needs to have more, and we gave them a boost a few years ago.
- Peters: Would like to see the reallocation done this year. We could push that out to another meeting and invite them. Lonsdale gets 6.4% and they should be around 10%. $464k goes to libraries, and state says $311k is what we have to pay to libraries.
- Malecha: If you want that done this year, that you need to withdraw motion and table this.
- Peters: Withdraw motion. New motion: 10% cut to outside agencies across the board, keeping the historical and ag societies’ insurance at what they requested.
- Purfeerst seconds.
- Hoisington: We’re withdrawing 10% cut?
- Purfeerst: These people are always asking for an increase, but we have to protect the people of our county, too. We just can’t raise these issues or these companies year after year. In favor of cutting back. Next year, let’s have them come in and reset the numbers. Soil and water has a pretty good savings account down there. We don’t want to keep taxing the people for someone else to have a savings account. It’s important we move forward with something.
- Hoisington: The increase in our levies is not sustainable. It’s upwards of 25-26% over the last three years. We need to be sensitive to the levy dollars. I’m a huge fan of the libraries, but this has no reflection on how much we respect these organizations. We’re going to be making some additional hard decisions, but we have to be realistic. They’re tax and insurance is starting to be larger than their mortgage payments. I agree with Galen about the good these organizations do in our communities. We’ve been too passive about the increases that have happen. I regretfully support this decision.
- Malecha: It would be fair if we froze them for this year and sent out a notice that they’ll get a 10% budget cut next year. There’s an election this year and seats might change or not — it depends on the votes. It’s not fair to make the cut without letting them know to anticipate it.
- Underdahl: We have to have a preliminary budget in place by Sept 22. So we don’t have much time. Understands the goal of reigning in the budget. It would make sense to be more surgical about it, not 10% across the board. That’s harder to do. Soil and water and libraries are going to get the brunt of the cut, if this is the way the board goes.
- Vote:
- No: Malecha, Underdahl
- Yes: Purfeerst, Peters, Hoisington
- Motion passes.
- Peters wants libraries to come in and talk to the board.
- ADMINISTRATION: Sara Folsted
- Consent Agenda
- Extra Time/ Over Time Report 08-07-2026
- Payment of Bills
