McLeod County commissioners approve road, equipment and IT purchases; accept ditch petition, schedule hearing on auditor‑treasurer
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Summary
At its Feb. 17 meeting the McLeod County Board of Commissioners approved a pavement‑marking contract, a budgeted motor grader purchase, and an RSA ID Plus IT subscription; accepted a petition related to County Ditch 63 and scheduled a March 17 public hearing on whether to make the auditor‑treasurer an appointed post.
The McLeod County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 17 approved a set of routine but budget‑sensitive items, accepted a drainage petition for further review and set a public hearing to consider whether to change the auditor‑treasurer from an elected to an appointed position.
The board voted to award state project 043070026 — a six‑inch edge‑line (fog line) pavement‑marking project — to CAMCO Inc. of Dassel, Minnesota, for $70,378.08. Public works staff said the project will be funded with $53,000 in federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funds and the remainder from the county’s highway construction budget; staff noted their engineer’s estimate had been $139,486.80 and three bids were received. "This year we got three [bids], which shows there's some competition in the market," Public Works said during the meeting.
The board also approved a budgeted purchase of a new Caterpillar 140 motor grader from Ziegler Cat at the state contract price of $441,660, to replace a 2012 unit that currently has roughly 7,400 hours. Public works staff said the expected lead time is about six to nine months and that the county will return to the board to request auctioning the old unit.
In information technology, the board approved a three‑year RSA ID Plus multifactor authentication subscription with SHI, a state contract purchase totaling $94,977.06; staff said annual payments will be $25,723 with a one‑time $17,807.44 hardware token cost and that the purchase is funded from the IT budget.
On drainage, the board accepted the findings‑in‑order and the petition from Nathan and Dean Diesterhaft to utilize County Ditch (CD) 63 as an outlet for their property and directed staff to appoint a viewer and an engineer to evaluate CD 63’s capacity and any future benefits. Janet of the auditor/treasurer office explained that, under statute, the drainage authority will appoint reviewers and that petitioners are typically responsible for associated costs.
The board received a notification from Auditor‑Treasurer Connie M. Kurtzweig that she will not file for auditor‑treasurer in the 2026 general election. County administration presented information about the statutory process for moving an office from election to appointment and scheduled a public hearing on that question for 9 a.m. on March 17, 2026.
All motions reported during the meeting were approved by voice vote unless otherwise recorded.
What happens next: staff will return with an engineer’s and viewer’s reports on CD 63 if the petition proceeds; public testimony on the auditor‑treasurer question is scheduled for March 17. The board recessed at the close of the meeting.