County goes on budget blitz

Eddy County officials held a marathon budget session during their regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 6.

One by one, various department heads approached the commission with their 2025 budget requests over the course of four hours, and nearly all of them requested additional funds to do their work in the coming year. The county’s valuation had a modest increase this year, so 1 mill is worth approximately $16,968.

Donna Young, Eddy County’s new weed control officer, was the first to present her department’s 2025 budget to commissioners.

Young and current secretary Melinda Martin prepared the budget, which Young said is “closer to reality” than the budgets presented in past years.

There is much work to be done to control the spread of noxious weeds in the county. Young said she will be working in Eddy County a minimum of 20 hours per month next year, and up to 40 hours monthly from April to September, when the ditches are sprayed.

Due to the wet conditions, Young has been unable to spray many of the ditches properly yet this year. She proposed to tackle them in the fall. Once the ditches are cut, it’s easier to see the new plants cropping up, she surmised.

At last month’s meeting, the county approved the purchase of an ATV for Young to use for spraying ditches. However, the 65-gallon tank and frame she has doesn’t fit on the new ATV. Commissioners asked that she retrofit the vehicle with the tank and all the gear she needs to spray in the fall, which will cost approximately $2,000.

With 88 miles of road right-of-way in Eddy County to spray, Young reported that she successfully negotiated $22,000 in funds from the NDDOT to keep the ditches clear of noxious weeds. This is an increase of 50 percent from the recent past, when the state provided $15,000.

“I didn’t realize Eddy was as bad as it was until I was in the townships,” Young added.

The big push this year is on the cost-share available to landowners. The weed control board receives funds from the state ag department to assist landowners in spraying for noxious weeds on their property. Cost share rates range from 50 to 80 percent of the cost. For more information, see the ad on page 9 of this newspaper.

Commissioner Glenda Collier suggested that the weed board updates the list of chemicals for which cost share is provided, as that may entice landowners. Use of state funds to assist townships in spraying their ditches for noxious weeds was also discussed.

Later in the meeting, significant discussions were also held with the Eddy County Water Resource Board and the Eddy County Sheriff’s Office regarding their budget requests.

All the members of the water resource board joined the meeting for their budget discussion, which was led by member Monty Schaefer and secretary/treasurer Travis Peterson.

The water resource board has received no tax dollars from the county for the past three years, according to Schaefer and Peterson, despite the fact that a $30,000 budget was approved for 2024.

In 2022, the water resource board did not present a budget or make a request for funds, Schaefer said, as they had ample funds and no specific projects in the works. However, they requested $25,000 for 2023 and $30,000 for 2024, yet received no tax dollars.

Commissioners explained that they had reviewed the board’s financials annually and felt that they had adequate funds to do their work. Each year, commissioners were not made aware of any projects for which the water board would need funds and decided not to levy additional tax dollars that were likely not going to be spent.

For 2024, the county approved a $30,000 budget, but did not levy any dollars. Collier noted that the budget should not have been approved for 2024, as they ultimately did not levy any taxes for the water board.

The Eddy County Water Resource Board has access to $130,000 right now, including $102,000 in a CD that matures in six months, according to Peterson. However, they often pay up to 80 percent of a given project’s costs, member Kenny Reis added, which can eat up funds quickly.

Their budget request for 2025 is $50,000, which is near the maximum that N.D. Century Code allows.

“We’ve gone three years without anything, so we would like to get back on track,” Schaefer said.

“And we want to ensure that the [water board fund] balance doesn’t keep going up and taxpayer funds aren’t sitting in an account,” Commissioner Dave Gehrtz replied.

Peterson explained that the challenge with water projects is “they don’t know they have a need until the need is sitting right in front of them.”

Although no projects are happening right now due to the wet cycle, Reis said, they do need to have funds available when projects arise.

He offered one project in Cherry Lake Township as an example. The request came in late 2023, after the budget cycle for 2024 had already ended. The board spent $20,000 on that project, which they were able to complete only because they had reserve funds available.

“We had the funds, and that was great,” Peterson said. The board wants to be able to deploy the funds just the same when projects crop up in the future, he added.

Sheriff Paul Lies inquired about salary increases for his staff and requested a comparative study on wages during his budget review.

Commissioners acknowledged that the pay plan put in place several years ago was in need of an update. They also discussed the need to conduct an annual review of all staff. Right now, the county is not conducting annual performance reviews, and all that supports the pay plan is years of service. At budget time, the county budgets an appropriate cost of living increase each year, and additionally each staff member moves up a “step” in the pay scale and receives an equivalent raise. The department heads need to make a recommendation in their budget request if they want to deviate from the pay plan.

Lies said he doesn’t agree that the plan, as currently designed, gives smaller annual raises as an employee’s length of service increases. He would like to reward long-term employees more, provided their productivity and performance warrant it.

Lies particularly noted his challenge recruiting and retraining deputies, as other areas are paying their law enforcement officers more.

In other business, commissioners approved a request from Tax Equalization Director Kristy O’Connor for the county to hold the license to the Vanguard software. This is the program used by O’Connor to assess all the property in the county.

Currently, the license is held by the City of New Rockford, although it is used exclusively by her office. She is responsible for assessing all property in the county, as well as the townships and the county’s two cities.

The cost is $7,000 per year, which will be billed to New Rockford and Sheyenne according to the number of parcels assessed in each. She also proposed to increase the fee from $150 to $250 for each township. The cost is approximately $4.74 per parcel.

A special meeting has been scheduled for Monday, Aug. 12 at 8 a.m. At that time the commission will review the remaining budgets, including a request from the City of New Rockford for the county to levy 2 mills for airport improvements, and approve all the preliminary budgets.

The public hearing for the county's 2025 budget is set for Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 9 a.m.