Tuesday morning the Codington County Board of Commissioners approved a 2025 budget of $26,753,397, a drop of 4.87% from 2024’s budget of $28,125,426.
Property taxes next year are expected to generate $10,183,703, an increase of $382,900 compared to 2024’s total of $9,800,830, an increase of 3.76%. The remaining dollars will come from a variety of sources.
Last-minute additions to the budget included $17,000 for an overlap salary of a new Treasurer’s Office employee, and $4,280 to Connecting Point of Watertown for a backup email fileserver and installation.
The county did earn a little pocket change Tuesday with the sale of 2 tax lien properties.
Scott Jackson of Milbank won the bidding for property and a trailer home located near Punished Woman Lake. He paid $1,700, $200 more than the appraised price. David and Charlotte McElhany of Watertown paid $450 for a one-story home in Henry appraised at $15,000.
A third property, only 2.5 feet wide and 125 feet long situated between two Watertown residential lots, received no bids.
The winning bids will be reviewed at next week’s commission meeting. If approved the new owners will be issued quit claim deeds.
The commissioners approved an $8,700 change order related to the parking lot excavation and repair along the west and north sides of the Extension Complex. Contractors discovered rotting wooden beams under the west side of the barn lean-to, and new 2×10 green-treated, ground-contact boards will be installed as replacements.
Waylon Blasius of the Brookings engineering firm Banner Associates also showed commissioners photos of rotting posts in the same area. They will also need to be replaced or the lean-to could collapse under heavy snow.
A state Women Infants Children (WIC) representative will be located in the county’s Health Nurse Office thanks to action taken by the commission. Rhonda Buntrock, state WIC director, and Kayla Aman, northeast WIC dietitian manager, were on hand to answer commissioner’s questions about merging a state official into a county office.
Buntrock agreed to the commissioners’ request of raising the proposed rent from $300 to $500 per month. She said the state employee will start work Oct. 1.
Steve Mohlengraaf, county facilities manager, updated the commissioners on ongoing projects. The new air handling units at the detention center are now operational, and new boilers will be ready for testing at week’s end. Installation of a fire suppression system at the Extension Center Complex will begin Monday, and a new generator at the courthouse could be in place by the end of the month.
August’s average daily population at the detention center rose above 60 inmates (60.68) for the first time since November of last year, according to statistics provided by Sheriff Brad Howell. The highest daily number was 68 and the lowest 55.
Another 101 low-risk felons avoided incarceration by purchasing one of the five types of monitoring offered by the county.
Howell said his office received 679 cases and calls in August, including filing state reports on 15 vehicle accidents, serving 85 arrest warrants and 268 civil papers.
Expect to see many law enforcement vehicles next week. Howell said a state training event is being hosted by Watertown.
Members of the county’s maintenance and highway departments received recognition at last week’s gathering of county officials in Rapid City. Both departments received gold and platinum awards for safety and loss control, which helps lower the county’s insurance costs.
Also recognized in Rapid City were all county employees who had passed away since the 2023 state meeting. Those in Codington County included former commissioner George Heller, former assistant states attorney Thomas Burns, Laurie Hastings, Jeffrey Hirschman and Denise Sotka, who worked 37 years at the courthouse in the Register of Deeds Office and as leader of what is now the Community Service Department.
Following the public meeting, commissioners entered into executive session for discussion of personnel issues and for consulting with legal counsel regarding proposed or pending litigation or contractual matters.
Questions about South Dakota’s ballot issues and the proposed new Codington County Detention Center, and a candidates forum will start at 5:30 p.m., Oct. 1 in the Heritage Theater inside the Watertown Event Center on West U.S. Highway 212.
(J.T. Fey is a freelance reporter filing stories for the Watertown Current)