By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – Minnehaha County Commissioners declared October as Domestic Violence Awareness month at the Tuesday, Oct. 1 meeting. Their official proclamation also highlighted the “Take Back the Night” awareness walk and dinner.
Those events will be held on Thursday, Oct. 10, at the Multi-Cultural Center at 515 N. Main Ave. in Sioux Falls. The walk is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. and the dinner follows at 6 p.m.
Also, at this meeting, commissioners gave final approval to a plan that county offices have been working on with GovTech to accept online payments for property taxes.
Prior to this, people who didn’t have taxes escrowed, had to make payments by sending a check and the appropriate stub through the mail or dropping them off at the administration building.
Without the payment stub, people would need to take their payments to the County Treasurer’s Office, where they might have to wait in line to make sure the correct account was credited.
The new system allows for an ACH check draft through an online account. People from GovTech said in the past that those accounts are very easy to set up online.
The system will also allow for payments on multiple parcels at the same time, according to county I.T. specialist Monte Watembach, which is something that isn’t available now.
Currently, different parcels of land have to all be entered in separately, even if they are all owned by the same person or company.
The last of the major business came from county auditor Bob Litz, who presented commissioners with documentation on several parcels of land that were either to be auctioned off, gifted to the City of Sioux Falls, or deeded to a neighboring landowner.
As Litz explained, seven parcels of land will be sold at public auction on Saturday, Oct. 26, at 10 a.m. at the county administration building for “taxes due or better.”
Three other parcels would be gifted to Sioux Falls. Those plots are listed as “unbuildable” and used for drainage.
More of a complete description and the exact location for the auction can be found in the legal section of this newspaper.
The Minnehaha County Commission has its regular meetings each Tuesday at 9 a.m. on the second floor of the county administration building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
These meetings are open to the all, and public comment is always encouraged.
