IVANHOE — The Lincoln County Board on Tuesday approved the purchase of a new pickup from Kruse Motors of Marshall for $29,819.

Environmental Administrator Robert Olsen brought the request for approval to purchase the new pickup for his department. One of the department’s current pickups, a 2001 Ford F150 crew cab, has 154,000 miles on it. He reported two quotes on a newer model Ford F150 crew cab pickup — one from Roseville Midway Ford for $29,485 and the one from Kruse Motors of Marshall for $29,819.

“I’d like to do business locally,” Olsen said as he requested permission to deal with Kruse Motors. “There’s so little difference in their quotes.”

Olsen said he already had an interested party for the 2001 F150 pickup. He had crossed paths with the Yellow Medicine River Watershed District (YMRWD) administrator, Michelle Overholser, who said that the YMRWD may be in the market for an older pickup.

“Where would the funding come from?” Lincoln County Board Chair Mic VanDeVere asked.

“There was money left over from the 2017 Buffer Zone Enforcement funding,” Olsen said. “We get another installment in June.”

Olsen updated the board on the progress of the buffer zone enforcement saying, “There are six to eight individuals still out of compliance, but two have indicated they will comply and have gotten an extension. And two will appeal. Everybody else has waivers.”

“Are you sure you will have enough in the fund to enforce the buffer zones?” VanDeVere asked.

“Yes,” Olsen said and received full board approval.

In another environmental department matter, the county board approved a belated amendment to a previous resolution approving the salaries for ditch viewers and the apprentice ditch viewer, which rectified an oversite of policy rate for the apprentice ditch viewer. It unanimously voted to change the originally-approved rate from $10 per hour to $20 per hour required by county policy.

The previously approved $10 per hour salary was proven to be erroneous, Olsen said.

“Yes, I made the mistake,” Olsen said at Tuesday’s board meeting. “Now, I’m asking you to approve an amendment to fix it.”

The commissioners went a step further and approved the upgrade in pay to be effective by Friday’s Auditor’s warrants so that apprentice ditch viewer Karri Rupp could get the correct amount on her paycheck.

Additionally, farmer Brian Krogh had come to the county board meeting to meet with attorney Glen Petersen regarding a request to replace some tile that was not working the way it was supposed to under Minnesota Highway 71.

Olsen had assessed the situation and agreed that the installation had been done before directional boring had been employed and that the drainage was impeded by the outdated process.

“They’ve lost some farmland because of this, right?” VanDeVere asked.

“Right,” Olsen said. “Brian has taken issue with this since 1992. We’ve been out there at least twice to fix it. We need to replace it if we expect it to last another 100 years.”

However, the attorney was unable to attend, so the topic was tabled until the next meeting.