By Watertown Current - May 7, 2026 in Official Proceedings
County of Codington
Codington County Court House
14 1st Ave SE
Watertown, SD 57201
April 21, 2026
The Codington County Commissioners met in regular session at 9:00 a.m., Tuesday, April 21, 2026, at the Codington County Court House. Commission members present were: Lee Gabel, Tyler McElhany, Myron Johnson, Randall Schweer, and Troy VanDusen; VanDusen, presiding. The pledge of allegiance was led by Auditor, Brenda Hanten.
CALLS FOR PUBLIC COMMENT AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST ITEMS
Chair VanDusen called for public comments to be taken up during the open portion of the meeting; none were offered. There were no conflict-of-interest items to note.
AGENDA APPROVED
Motion by Gabel, second by Schweer, to approve the agenda for April 21, 2026, as posted; all voted aye; motion carried.
MINUTES APPROVED
Motion by Johnson, second by McElhany, to approve the minutes of April 14, 2026; all voted aye; motion carried.
CODINGTON COUNTY CONSERVATION FUNDING DISCUSSION
Deanna Kunkel, District Manager of Codington County Conservation District, and Dan Kahnke, Board member of Codington County Conservation District, presented the Board with information on their annual plan of work for 2026, their 2025 progress report, and financial information. Deanna noted that the district previously received $7,500 from the county in 1996, the funding ended due to the County cut back on non-profits that were funded. Dan highlighted various services provided by the district including CRP planting, no-till drill rentals, educational programs for youth and support for 4-H and FFA activities. Dan also touched on the loss of 319 funding for the Upper Big Sioux Watershed project partly due to the district wasn’t able to fund an individual to manage this funding and the district had to deny the opportunity to take it over. Ryan Mar, with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, informed the Board of the broader benefits of the district’s conservation work, including improved water quality and improvements made to promote hunting opportunities. They mentioned that surrounding counties provide funding amounts to support their respective districts Their funding request of $25,000 is to help cover operational costs and maintain services including tree planting, CRP implementation, and educational programs. The Board requested that they submit a formal request to the Auditor, Brenda Hanten, to be included with the other non-profit requests.
MONTHLY REPORTS
Highway Superintendent, Randy Falvey, updated the Board: the department had a busy but fortunate month with minimal snow-related work, they have switched over to summer hours at the Highway Shop working 4/10’s M-T, 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Grangaard Construction, Inc. is continuing ahead of schedule on the 14th Avenue bridge project, the deck was poured ahead of schedule, the guardrails are in place, as well as the pedestrian guardrail, they are starting to backfill the ends and shortly will start rip-rapping on the south side; we continue to Crack Seal as weather permits, in between fog, mist and flurries; attended a Spring Flood Planning meeting with Emergency Management, Sheriff’s Dept., Watertown Police Dept., City Manager, Fire Dept., and engineering staff to discuss what our plan would be if spring flooding occurred, since that likely won’t happen this year it turned into a discussion of what we need to do going forward to be better prepared for both spring and seasonal flooding as well as what we can put into place to mitigate some of the issues from becoming as large of an issue as they have in the past; Lori, Lynn and I attended Crisis Track Training, which is the software program for tracking and logging damage by a natural disaster, this is the only way that FEMA will now receive this type of information; Hollaway Construction out of Mitchell finished the repair of the east wing wall on the bridge on 175th Street just west of CR 9-4/458th Ave which is the City Landfill haul road, we added gravel to the approaches as well as the deck and placed rip/rap to prevent erosion into our right of way; attended the Annual SD Assoc. of County Highway Superintendent’s Short Course Conference in Deadwood, we had speakers from LTAP and the SDDOT and a large number of vendors from around the area, it was a good conference with good presenters; held a Trenching Class put on by Safety Benefits with classroom instruction at the Extension Building and hands on training in our north yard where we assembled and utilized a couple of different types of trench safety equipment; attended the Weather Spotter Training put on by the National Weather Service out of Aberdeen; State Highway 25 is undergoing the second phase of its reconstruction which means County Highway 27 is going to be used as a bypass once again this year, so be aware of additional traffic north of Henry; Load Limits are still in effect with some of our asphalts still breaking up, possibly for another week.
HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE TECH II POSITION
Motion by Johnson, second by Gabel, to approve to hire a full-time Highway Maintenance Tech II position, $27.66/hour, to fill a vacancy, this will remain posted until filled; all voted aye; motion carried.
NOTICE TO BIDDERS CODINGTON COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT REMODEL
Motion by McElhany, second by Schweer, to authorize to advertise a notice to bidders for Codington County Highway Department Remodel (Phase 2) project; all voted aye; motion carried. Bids will be opened and announced at the Board’s meeting on Tuesday, May 12th, 2026.
AMAZON BUSINESS PRIME PUCHASE
Motion by Gabel, second by McElhany, to approve the purchase of Amazon Business Prime, for $129.00/year, Auditor, Brenda Hanten, informed the Board that currently purchases having shipping costs added to them which amounted to $584.94 in 2025, the cost of the yearly purchase of Amazon Business Prime is $129.00 which will be a saving to the County for any purchases that are placed going forward, Brenda also requested to have this amount taken from the Commissioner’s budget since it would be difficult to split it fairly amongst the offices that use it; all vote aye; motion carried.
ALTERNATIVE ANNUAL TAX ON WIND FARM PROPERTY
The Board noted payment, in the amount of $1,183,662.04, has been received from the State of South Dakota for 2025 nameplate capacity tax and production tax from Crowned Ridge Wind, LLC, Crowned Ridge 2 Wind, LLC, and Dakota Range 1 & 2 Wind LLC. The following payments will be made with monthly tax apportionment remittances in May:
Codington County $414,281.71
Watertown School $ 50,237.42
Waverly School $541,593.60
Germantown Township $ 32,056.33
Kranzburg Township $ 38,257.73
Leola Township $ 27,169.47
Rauville Township $ 4,643.73
Waverly Township $ 75,422.05
CLAIMS
Motion by Gabel, second by McElhany, to approve for payment the following list of claims; all voted aye; motion carried. BLUEPEAK 281.98 UTIL, BOYS & GIRLS CLUB 7141.25 SVC, CODINGTON TREASURER PETTY CASH 28.70 SUP, JEREMIAH HAMM 20.00 REIMB, HEALTHEQUITY 63.00 SVC, MUNICIPAL UTILITIES 14801.32 UTIL, SDACC 12423.00 SVC.
Motion by McElhany, second by Schweer, to approve for payment the following jail claims; all voted aye; motion carried. ARCHITECTURE INCORPORATED 26082.00 SVC, BECKENHAUER CONSTRUCTION INC 2094031.23 SVC, GEOTEK ENGINEERING 1021.70 SVC GEOTEK ENGINEERING 1021.70 SVC, THE TEGRA GROUP, INC 21072.25 SVC, MUNICIPAL UTILITIES 428.40.
PERSONNEL CHANGE
Motion by Johnson, second by Gabel, to approve the following personnel changes: Doug Schimmel, Seasonal new-hire Memorial Park Custodian, GAA/Step A, $18.68 per hour, effective 4-15-2026; Steve Rondell, Seasonal re-hire Memorial Park Custodian, GAA/Step D, $19.61 per hour, effective 4-15-2026; Caitlyn Brag, full-time new-hire Corrections Officer, Jail, G35/Step A, $27.66 per hour, effective 5/01/2026; all voted aye; motion carried.
TRAVEL REQUEST
Motion by Johnson, second by Schweer, to approve the following travel request: Community Service Office staff to attend conference; all voted aye; motion carried.
OLD BUSINESS
Commissioner Gabel reported there will be an owner, architect and contractors meeting this week, jail construction moving along, only lost a few days due to weather, budget looks good.
OPEN
Public Comments – James Simmons informed the Board of his concerns about the Flock Safety agreement trial period ending April 30th, urging the Board to cancel the agreement to avoid a $25,000 annual contract. The Board agreed to add this topic to next week’s agenda for discussion.
ADJOURNMENT
Upon conclusion of all business to come before the Board, a motion was made by Johnson, second by McElhany to adjourn at 9:46 a.m., all voted aye; motion carried.
ATTEST:
Brenda Hanten
Codington County Auditor
Codington County does not discriminate on the basis of color, national origin, sex, religion, age, or disability in employment or the provision of service.
Published once on May 7, 2026, at the total approximate cost of $88.92 and can be viewed free of charge at www.sdpublicnotices.com and www.watertowncurrent.com.