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GRANITE FALLS -- The Yellow Medicine County Board approved three requests for property tax abatements totaling $7,602 on the recommendation of County Assessor Connie Erickson on Tuesday.
Two abatements were for house fires in Friendship Township, city of Canby and one was for an agriculture homestead correction in Minnesota Falls Township.
The board also approved a request for a permit to construct by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The request was for proposed sidewalk construction along Minnesota Highway 67 and only said the project may involve county property.
MNDOT said a representative may contact the county in the near future to explain project details and property acquisition process.
During the citizen comments part of the meeting, Wesley Erickson, weed board supervisor for Minnesota Falls township briefed the board on the situation with Kochia and Common Sunflower on land belonging to BNSF Railroad and asked the board to consider declaring them noxious weeds.
Erickson said BNSF has not been fulfilling its obligation to control weeds on land adjacent to their tracks resulting in the plants invading land under cultivation.
Kochia is a variety of amaranth which is difficult to control once the plant is mature.
The board agreed by consensus to consider the request and discussed the possibility of contracting weed spraying operations and billing BNSF.
In other business, Marti Paulson, CEO of Project Turnabout briefed the Board on the facilities and services they offer in the area for recovery from chemical dependency, compulsive gambling, domestic abuse, and community violence.
Paulson said Project Turnabout is looking for people with behavioral health, social work, and social science degrees who are willing to take two to six extra classes to prepare them to be alcohol and drug abuse counselors, and is prepared to reimburse the cost of the courses.