1 week Ago By Matthew Voigt
POLK COUNTY, Minn. – As the Nov. 5 general election nears and with voting already underway across Polk County, commissioners running for reelection say they hope to continue to serve their communities.
Three seats on the commission — Districts 1, 3 and 5 — are on the ballot. The commission has five seats split between five districts; commissioners Warren Strandell and Joan Lee are not up for election this year. ADVERTISEMENT District 1 Commissioner Paul Reese is seeking his first full term.
He was first elected in an August 2023 special election after Commissioner Jerry Jacobson died. Reese lives in Fertile. District 1 is central Polk County and includes the cities of Fertile, Beltrami and Mentor and southern and western parts of Crookston.
District 3 Commissioner Gary Willhite is seeking a third term. Currently chairman of the commission, Willhite is a retired administrator from the University of Minnesota Crookston and has served both on the Crookston City Council and as mayor of Crookston. District 3 includes northeast parts of Crookston and parts of the county northeast of U.
S. Highway 2 and U.S.
Highway 75. District 5 Commissioner Mark Holy is seeking a second term. Holy currently serves as vice chairman on the board and farms and lives northeast of East Grand Forks.
District 5 includes much of northern and northwestern Polk County, including Wards 3, 4 and 5 of East Grand Forks. In their next terms, helping the smaller communities in the county with their water infrastructure will likely be a continual point of conversation. Willhite said Climax recently received a pipeline to bring fresh water through the city with the help of COVID/American Rescue Plan funding.
The county is looking to expand the pipeline. “It’s costly, no question about that,” he said. “But we’re looking at some federal and some state dollars that would help expand that pipeline then to rural countryside to new cities nearby.
(It's) probably a long-term project, but we need to continue with that.” Clay, Polk and Norman counties are in the process of creating the West Central Regional Water District to band together as private wells increasingly see contaminants and as infrastructure ages . According to the West Central Regional Water District, 21% of private wells in Polk County have higher levels of arsenic than allowed.
Long-term exposure to arsenic increases risks of nervous system issues, high blood pressure and cancer. ADVERTISEMENT Also likely upcoming for the commission is how the county may address cannabis regulation. Minnesota legalized cannabis in 2023 and cities across the state have been deciding zoning regulations.
While rules and zoning requirements mainly affect incorporated areas, counties still have a say in many of the matters. “The (incorporated) cities have to adopt cannabis rules and ordinances, but for those incorporated cities, the county is going to have to come up with some ordinances, and implement and monitor,” Holy told the Herald. When it comes to budget, keeping the budget in line with inflation is also on the mind of the commission.
“We do a pretty good job providing services, but maybe there’s a different way of providing services to keep costs down,” Holy said. “We need to control the budget and tax a little bit better and more efficiently in the county.” Willhite said inflation has been one of the most difficult issues for the county, with costs of gasoline and insurance being top issues.
Finding balance and providing the best services and personnel for the county, as well as keeping the county safe and affordable, “that’s very important work for me,” he said. The county preliminary budget for 2025 was passed with a 5% levy increase over 2024. “I’ve spent the last two months dealing with our unions, negotiations, and that seems to be going well, but matching money with the county’s needs,” Willhite said.
“There’s certainly a lot to do.” ADVERTISEMENT Reese did not respond to messages seeking comment for this report. Early voting began Sept.
20 in Minnesota. Voters have between now and Nov. 5 to cast a ballot; more information on where voting is occurring, how to register and ballot information can be fore on www.
mnvotes.org ..
