Stark County board authorizes training funds to certify parks employee to spray fairgrounds

The Stark County Parks Board authorized staff to use existing training funds to pay for commercial pesticide certification for a newly hired parks employee so she may operate bare-ground spraying equipment at the fairgrounds and other county properties.

At the meeting, staff said Bailey Elkins (part-time parks employee) could become certified to use the county/weed-board spraying equipment if she completed the required commercial certification tests. Kurt Frelick, NDSU Extension Agent for Stark and Billings counties, described the North Dakota commercial-pesticide certification process: a $75 base registration fee plus roughly $25 per category, training materials sent by NDSU, and testing administered locally but scored by NDSU in Fargo. Frelick estimated the likely categories for the parks work (ag-pest or right-of-way), suggesting the cost and time would probably amount to roughly $125 and one to two hours of testing time for a typical candidate.

Board members said manpower had recently diminished on regional spray crews, leaving the county with equipment available at the weed-board but fewer certified applicators. Staff proposed that if Bailey agrees to pursue certification, she could borrow the bare-ground sprayer and a side-by-side to treat fairgrounds areas and, when time allowed, other county properties. Staff said the park department has some training money in its budget and that funding the certification now could avoid paying third-party contractors later.

The board voted to authorize Lisa (staff) to allocate training funds if Bailey chooses to pursue certification and testing; board members supported paying the certification fees and covering associated costs. The motion passed by voice vote at the meeting.

Quotes in this article are verbatim excerpts from the meeting.