The Murray County Board spent much of Tuesday’s meeting taking actions that will become responses to the 2018 flood disaster.

Commissioners voted to approve the hiring of Heath Landsman as the county’s chief deputy sheriff pending a final job description. Landsman is currently a Murray County sheriff’s deputy and the county’s emergency response manager.

As part of Tuesday’s discussion a consensus among Landsman and the board was reached to expand the emergency response job to full-time.

Landsman was credited at the meeting for how he completed his emergency response training program in eight months rather than the standard two years, putting in more than his required amount of hours when the flood disaster occurred, and coming back early from a vacation to help in leading disaster response efforts.

“I did the best I could treading water,” Landsman said. “Realistically I can’t do both the chief deputy job and emergency response on a permanent basis. I’ll help with emergency response as long as that’s needed. The new person can work right with me to learn the job as fast as possible.”

In addition to finalizing the chief deputy job description, commissioners authorized County Coordinator Aurora Heard to begin the process of developing a job description for an emergency response coordinator. Landsman recommended keeping the position within the sheriff’s office.

The board also requested a recommendation from Murray County Sheriff Steve Telkamp about emergency response expansion. Telkamp, who was re-elected this month by Murray County voters, was not in attendance at Tuesday’s discussion.

Commissioner Dave Thiner of Fulda said it will be important to look for disaster support funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other sources. He added that at least several southwestern Minnesota counties, including Lyon County and Lincoln County, employ full-time staff members whose highest priority is emergency response.

“With the zebra mussel issue at Lake Sarah, we might be able to get some water management flood mitigation funds from there,” Thiner said. “I like the idea of expanding the job. We’ll have to find the best way to budget for it.”

The board also discussed eight different ditch repair proposals with Murray County Ditch Inspector Howard Konkol. At least two of the improvement plans involve ditch blow outs that appeared to have been direct results of 2018 flooding. Locations with apparent flood impacts include an area along Joint Ditch 5 near the Talcot Lake Wildlife Management Area in Belfast Township east of Fulda and a location on County Ditch 81 in the southwest corner of Lake Sarah Township south of the lake.

“Hopefully we’ll get some flood damage funding,” Konkol said. “Some of the sites are likely to become gray areas, where it’s not definite as to whether the damage is the result of flooding or a routine maintenance issue because the tile was old. FEMA will make the decisions. We’ll see how it goes.”

Konkol and Murray County highway department officials will meet next week on Wednesday with FEMA disaster response representatives. Konkol has photographs of ditch repair sites on computer files but will organize site tours if needed.

“Wednesday’s meeting is the next step,” Konkol said. “We’d be happy to host them for site visits.”

In other business, the board voted to approve a proposal from Murray County Solid Waste Administrator John Bloemendaal to participate in a Christmas lights recycling effort organized by the Developmental Achievement Center in Canby.

DAC clients take the lights apart and recycle lighting components as much as possible. A Canby DAC coordinator who visits Slayton monthly for regional meetings will pick up donated lights at no cost to Murray County.

“It sounds like a good project,” said Commissioner Lori Gunnink. “We’ll have a chance to keep old light decorations out of landfills.”

The board also heard a report from Murray County Highway Engineer Randy Groves about a county owned parcel of land next to Pete’s Corner southwest of Lake Shetek.

Pete’s Corner has a long history as one of the Lake Shetek area’s convenience stores and gas stations. The Minnesota Department of Transportation recently redesigned the highway corner to create better safety for motorists along U.S. Highway 59 and Minnesota Highway 30.

The portion of Highway 30 that intersected with Highway 59 has been shortened to serve only as an entrance to Pete’s Corner. Mason Township farmer David Schwartz, who owns nearby cropland, has expressed interest in buying the abandoned right of way.

“Under state law, a right of way abandoned by MnDOT has to be given to the county,” Groves said. “It’s not in our best interest to keep owning it. We don’t want the long term maintenance expense or the legal liability.”

Commissioners authorized Groves to continue working toward the best possible plan for private ownership.

“We could choose to vacate the right of way without charging a purchase price,” Groves said. “Normally it would go to a neighboring landowner, but in this case the entrance road is owned by both Schwartz and Pete’s Corner. It doesn’t make sense for them to each keep ownership of half the road. We have the option of working toward a land swap. That’s likely to be the best solution.”