Haakon Co. Commissioners meet to start planning the 2023 fiscal year budget

The Haakon County Commissioners met in special session for the purpose of 2023 budget planning, on Tuesday, July 19.
Before the commissioners started going through the proposed budget, they heard a request from the Milesville Fire Department for the county to cosign a West Central Electric loan for a portion of the cost of a new fire hall. Matt Arthur and Tim Quinn, representing the department, said that the fire department will cover $30,000 of the cost of the 40’ x 40’ building and estimates that an additional $60,000 will be needed. After some discussion the commissioners approved the request for the county to be a cosigner on the loan.
The commissioner started with the highway department. Highway Superintendent Val Williams was in attendance to answer questions. Former auditor, Carla Smith was also available to help clarify several budget items throughout the meeting.
Auditor Stacy Pinney pointed out that the proposed budget that the commissioners were reviewing shows a ten percent across the board raise for all employees of the county.
Emergency Manager Lori Quinn was also in attendance. Quinn had several items that she talked about pertaining to the budget. One of the items that she talked about was cyber security. A cyber security assessment was recently done in the courthouse. Quinn explained some of the concerns noted in the report and some possible consequences of not taking this seriously. There are some precautions that can be done at no cost to the county. Quinn has been in contact with Ron Larson for some ideas on how to deal with the other weaknesses listed.
Sheriff Fred Koester met with the commissioners to discuss the sheriff’s department budget.
Each of the other departments’ proposed budgets were reviewed and discussed.
The Haakon County Commissioners will meet in regular session on Tuesday, August 2. Auditor Pinney will make updates and corrections to the proposed budget and will have revenue projections at the August meeting. The commissioners will then look at a more complete proposed budget and determine if changes need to be made.
The July 19, 2022, meeting can be watched in its entirety on the Ravellette Publications Inc Facebook page. You can also read the auditor’s unapproved minutes within the legal notices pages of this week’s Pioneer Review.

The Pioneer Review

221 E. Oak Street
Philip, SD 57567
Telephone: (605) 859-2516
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