Good morning everyone. Um, nice to see everybody here. We will start the meeting with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. All right. Do we have any additions or to the agenda? Um, Mr. Chair. Yes. A question. We have a couple things on our agenda. Um, discussing a building building rent or building purchase
option. Should they be in close session? I was going to speak to that. Yeah. Okay. Carrie's going to speak. Yeah. So, go ahead. Oh, or do you want to or do we want we can speak it now or do we want to wait till it comes up on? Well, I just think you should go in close sessions about renting or I mean if
you're trying to negotiate or Yeah, correct. And I was going to to speak to that in a special session that I was hoping to have um with a work session as well in a week. So, um I would suggest that we look at doing a close session. You want to pull those off? Should we Should we pull them off the agenda? All
right. So, we will be pulling um if you go to page two under the administrator report um we will be pulling off and f uh I believe five and six. Yes. I I will say
that um with rental under the statute, it's a I've asked Brian for an opinion about leasing and whether or not you can speak about that specifically in close session. leasing you can about purchasing. Yeah. But if it's a bid process, I mean we
certainly can discuss. I was hoping that we could certainly go into that. That's we I mean we had we had discussed that in finance yesterday too. Yes. So but we can certainly pull them off for now. And then Carrie, do you have any um the other additions that I had um you would have gotten an email uh to request to
add the resolution to H for a gambling permit by Holy Rosary. So it asked to add that. Then I also wanted to make a note yesterday in uh finance committee um there was an addition on our agenda just to note that we did uh speak with
uh Becky Mitchell from the museum with regards to the budget on the museum and she'll be coming late at a later time. I just wanted to note that that that was not included on our original agenda for finance. Is there something an action item today? There is no action. I just you was just added to the finance
agenda. Um, would you would we like to put resolution 2H into the consent agenda or would we like to put it into your under administrator? Well, I think you should put it under administrator or or Yep. I I was thinking since it was an ad. Sure. Yep.
We'll put it we'll put it as number nine then under under our administrator. Then my only other suggestion would be I I believe we have uh several uh potential individuals here that may be speaking to the watershed district and perhaps they want to sign up for open form and then
they could speak closer to where we're are right before we're going to do the appointments. So So what we would what we would like to do is all of you that are going to speak towards the watershed appointments, we will give time for public comment during the appointment time. So we don't need you to speak for
in open form. Um so if you signed up for open form you can defer to that time. Is there is there anybody let's just raise your hand see raise your hand if you are going to speak you signed up for the open form and you are going to speak in the for
the public uh or for the appointment. So what is there any of you that would prefer to speak in the open form or would you like to do it during the public comment time that we're going to have for the appointment time? Mr. Chair, if I could offer question, could I could we just put open form and then go right into the appointment? I mean,
so and then do reports and scores correspondence after that. Yeah, we could that was the other option because a lot of people are here. It's going to that's what they're here for and they I'm sure they have busy days too. So, okay. So, let let's is is that okay with let's move then we will move the appointments to right after the open
form. So, you guys you all of you can speak during the open form then if that is okay. And if there's anybody after that that did not get signed up on the open form, we will give you time to speak for the appointments. Is there any other
additions or corrections to the agenda? All right. Hearing none, do we have entertain a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Motion motion by Barry, second by Phil. Do we have any further discussion? All right. All in favor signify by
saying I. I. All right. Motion carries. All right. Minutes from May 6th meeting. Do we have any additions or sub corrections to the minutes? I had a couple on page three of five under um sheriff number
three where it says administrator will look at properties owned by the city of Detroit Lakes to purchase. I just wonder if we should put for what? Like I like just what are we going to purchase it for? Just a little bit more information in there. Yep. And then
on number four under the zoning for the FUM trust, it says it was tabled. I think we should make sure that we note that it was tabled at the planning commission and not not at we Yeah, we didn't table it.
It was tabled at the planning commission because that can make a difference on um where is that? Planning and zoning. Planning and zoning the FUM trust. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Third bullet. Okay. Yep. Yep. And then under same thing with
the second and third bullet under zoning ordinance amendments that those were also tabled at the planning commission. We didn't discuss them at all. So I don't know if that that one I don't know that it makes that much of a difference. But tabled by the applicant would be
Yeah, tabled by the applicant. Well, these are the zoning ordinance amendments, right? But the first one Yeah, the first one should be zone uh tabled by applicant. Yeah, the first one was tabled by applicant. That was all I had. Uh does anybody else have any
corrections or additions? All right, hearing none. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes? I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Motion by Erica. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Phil. Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I.
I. All right, motion carries. All right, let's move on to the consent agenda. Is there any um additions? Anything that anybody would like to pull out of the consent agenda? Mr. Chair, I'd like to pull number 8, 9, and 13. 8
9 and 13. And we have Denise coming in. I don't think she will. Oh, she's not coming in. She's online. Um, let let's move those to under me.
That'd be fine. Um, yeah. Or we could move them to after the break because we Denise should come in and explain these. Yep. Let's move them to right right before human question. Yes, Mr. Chair. The question I had between 8 and nine, is that the same agreement in in the packet?
I didn't I didn't understand the difference of the Oh, 14. I talked to Denise about those two. Um she said no, they're different. Um they need to be in place for separate reasons. A one time gift of 5,000. Other than that, it's
just a organizational agreement. There's no money. There was there was no money in the second one. I don't think it showed 5,000. Both of them showed the Oh, yeah, it does show. It's a one time thing, too. But there's two of them and they're the same. They are the Well, that's why I was wondering if one was so
I I didn't notice that they were exactly the same, but she's online. We can discuss that. Clarify it now. Yeah. Is she Can she clarify? Denise, are you can you hear us or can you clarify? Yes, I can hear you. Can you clarify that? Certainly.
I can look at the packet because they should be two separate agreements that are in the packet, although I didn't enter those. So, I'll check follow up on that. But the first agreement should be our partnership agreement with them, which there are no funds involved. That's just uh we agree to work with
them and do referrals and and things like that. The second one, the cornerstone agreement is for a one-time $5,000 allocation um from our FFPSA grant. They appear to me to me to be both the same. They are. They are. Yeah,
we were just looking. It appears that when you when they were sent to us, they were two I apologize for that and didn't realize it. We'll um how would you like me to can you just send out the agreement and and get it to get it to um
Peggy before the administrative report? And so I mean I it's just an agreement but they were the same. Yeah. Yeah. And I just general discussion on the theou with the elder abuse. just wanted I mean that entering into is significant
and I would like some just I think it's a renewal renewal it's a renewal it is not newies yeah theou is a renewal and it's just a change of the parties involved there's no change in the discuss it at late then
when we come back just to see who y so we are going so Denise we're going to add number 13 to the end of car's report or car's to administrator so Um 8 9 and 13. 8 9 and 13. We're going to add them all right at the end. All right. All right. Thank you, Denise. You're
welcome. Is there anything else that anybody would like to remove from the consent agenda? All right. Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll make that motion. All right. Motion by Phil. Do we have a second? With the
exception. With the exception. We motion by Phil. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Barry. Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All right. Motion carries. All right. We'll move on to the open form. Uh remember that if you we
have I'm sure we have a number of people that are going to speak. Uh I need somebody could get the clipboard. Um I'm going to apologize right away because I might mispronounce your name. So if I do, I'm sorry. I
don't intend to. Uh Richard's really good at names so he can help. Yeah, I'll look it up. Um and then and then also uh if you are if if somebody is speaking and you are going to say the same things, you can you do not have you do
not have to repeat anything. There's something new. Um if you want to reaffirm that's fine, but does that make sense to everybody? And then the last thing, if we can limit everybody's comments to three three to four minutes because there's a lot of us, that would be very helpful to for us to continue
moving on with the meeting. And then right after and again remember right after this open form, we're going to go right into the the appointments. So we'll do it fresh in our minds. Is there anybody here that has not signed up for the open form that would like to speak about the
appointments? Anybody? Okay. All right. So, first on the on the agenda is Chris Jasken. So, when you come up here, please state your name and your address. And if you want to defer and not speak in the open form, just tell
me. That's fine. I defer later. We're going we're going to do the appointments right after the open form. So, you might as well do it now. Okay. So remember, please state your name and your and where you live. My name is Chris Jaskin, 864 Lake Forest Circle. Uh
I've been on the watershed board for about four years now and um in my opinion the watershed has become complacent and the effort to bring about change there is extremely
difficult and and and I think you're all aware of that. it's it's in our community. And so I think it's frustrating for me to try to get something done there that takes 10 times
longer than it needs to. And because of opposition, even though we get it done, we've gotten some good things done. And but it's been with just a fight. And so, uh, we we we wanted a stakeholders
meeting to bring in the community to get the views of of the county, the city, um, people from the community. It was fought every step of the way just to simply hear them. Um, we've made a couple changes. Uh, one is our a new
attorney, a new engineering firm, both of which to me can bring the watershed to a whole another level, fought every step of the way. And so what I'm here to say is I think it's imperative that you reappoint Scott Busker to our board.
He's a visionary. He's embedded in this community and he just has the insight that this board needs to bring it to the next level. I also encourage you to rather than appoint old members, existing members, I encourage you to
appoint new members. We've got some very qualified people that have applied. Uh Mr. Scary, uh Mr. Lee, both of which have great resumes. So, you're going to hear two sides of the story today. I'm here to encourage you to give us some
new blood so we can get some things done there and bring the watershed into into another level, which I think it is fully capable of doing. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jaskin. All right. Next we have uh John
Olansson. Good morning. A little different sitting on this side. Morning John and facing you, but I'm John Okasen 13167 West Lake Sally Drive. uh past the 14 years on the watershed
advisory between the county board and the Pelican River wershed. Just a few things I want to bring up that has bothered me. You know, the present board of managers on the watershed spent about a year going
through these rules and my understanding they rew worked a lot of them and they're all in agreement. the three, at least three of them were in agreement with the rest of the board. All of a sudden, they bring it to a vote. At the final minute, they vote
it down. And what really is upsetting as a past county commissioner that they wasted $100,000 roughly of taxpayer money of the watershed. That's should not have been they should have pretty much canned it right from
the beginning instead of spending all that money. Is there going to be payback for the residents in Pelican River wershed? I imagine not. So, you know, again, it's what a small majority wanted
on on that board. We got a lot of good people that have spent a lot of time reworking these rules. I think all the applicants are qualified. No question about it. But which ones are going to
really look at lake water quality so we can protect our lakes? I just spent about a week over in Wisconsin next lakes. They're already turning green. And when I first moved on Lake Sally 35 years ago, there was an issue there. But
I think through tightening up some of our regulations, things have improved. I think my personal recommendations for your appointment is reappoint Dennis Brawl. There's a lot of experience. They're still dealing with
Rice Lake project, Camel Creek project, and some issues on Floyd Lake. And also I would recommend either Jeff Lewis or John Scary. Thank you for this time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. It's my
understanding that Jeff Lewis has pulled his application. Okay. Okay. Sorry. I'm uh next next we have Scott Walls. Good morning, commissioners. Mr. Chair, uh my name is Scott Walls. I live at 1
1976 190th Avenue. I have uh in my business, I I own Meadowland Surveying. I've worked alongside the wershed district for uh going on 24 years now. Um have great respect for what their mission is and everybody that's lived here their whole life knows how
important the lakes are. Um, as as far as the rules, I said in every single meeting they had for the rules revision, um, there was there was no blindsiding concerns about different sections of the rules were brought up at every single one of those meetings. Um,
um, some board members may have listened, some didn't. Um, and they weren't completely gutted. There was one section that was asked to be removed, and that was the section uh, related to shoreland alterations and vegetation alterations. all of the storm water management that the watershed districts
had control over, all of the other things that actually have in my opinion large impact on water quality are still there. Um it is my opinion that the wershed has spent way too much time helping people decide what the retaining wall should look like and how many branches they should trim trim off their
tree rather than working on projects like the Campbell Creek and and the Rice Lake project. U those things have been funded for in excess of 20 years for some of them and they're still not done. Um I I I agree with the direction that the board is going that they're trying to get the uh the wershed district to
handle the projects that they're uniquely qualified to handle. They're the only governmental entity that can get the grants and the funding to do these large projects to help stop the contaminants from even getting into the lake well upstream. The the major contaminants are coming from upstream.
Um and that's what those projects can do. So I would support Scott Busker and either of the new two new candidates. I think uh pushing that directive is is imperative for cleaning up our lakes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Walls.
Next, we have Scott Busker. Good morning. My name is Scott Busker, 2264 Long Lake Road. Um, first I'd like to thank you guys for appointing me to fill out the the balance of Phil's term from January through today. So,
appreciate that. Um, yesterday I had the chance to to go out and do a a watershed field trip with uh with administrator Tara Getter and manager Rick Michaelelsson. And um we got to see the
the projects that can truly move water quality in Detroit or in Becker County. And um we got to see the Rice Lake project, Campbell Creek, Sinclair Lake um and um Pelican River, and we um Bucks
Mills, and it was really really fun to to visit and and just see the progress that's been made. But as Scott mentioned, there's there's a lot of work to do left on on these projects. Some are further along than others, but these are these are meaningful projects that
we are now in a position to focus on and make a move. And um I feel with my engineering background and leadership experience that that I can be a strong player on the watershed board and to
represent you people and the constituents of of Becker County in a great way. So I I would um respectfully ask for your consideration for my reappoint as a manager on the board of managers for the Pelican River Wershed.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um as a candidate. Um I I'd like to ask a question or two for the candidates when they come up. But um on Campbell Creek, what what do you see as the funding source under finishing that to moving forward and finishing that? Who who is going to be
responsible for paying for some of that? you know, honestly that I'm I'm new to this board and so the the funding sources I'm I can't speak to that to the depth of it, but I do know that that um we do have funding in place and I don't at this point I don't believe that
that's a hindrance for us. Um but I I don't know exactly how that looks. Where do you see the contaminants coming from on on that? You know, it's it's been a it's been a process for me to understand what that looks like. I don't know that
that we know for sure. There's there's been some different proactive, you know, best management practices put in place. Um, and I I got to see a bunch of that yesterday, but that was one of my questions. I happened to happen to run the reason why I'm kind of specific to this. I happen to run across a landowner
from up there. Um, and they have mostly wooded land. And as you know, um, a majority of, in my opinion, a majority of that problem comes from sloughing off from the the channel itself. And it, to no fault of anyone's, this is a natural occurrence that happens. Uh, um, and I
think we've heard this before that sloughing or erosion on the stream bank itself is a major contributor. Um, so they had concerns about this. They had long stretches of undeveloped un natural area. So they were worried about the the who's paying for it. And then I think
some of the one of part of the project is rocking some of that and they were concerned about so many trucks coming in rocking their through their property and and what what that would mean to them. So Yep. And I'm and honestly Barry I'm excited to to dig in and understand that
a bit more because there there is some real meaningful work that can be done there. And so it's going to be exciting. Our neighbors to the north in the red uh the red buffalo red um up at Callaway have a big project going a $5 million project and and the maintenance was was
um who pays for this maintenance on on some of these projects is a big concern a big concern to me representing those people and um obviously Pel in the water in Pelican wershed I don't have as much but um what's fair what's fair and not and and in the water world if you put a pale of water in front of two especially
farmers you're going to have a fight over it. So, um it's it's uh it's a delicate and as as you can see today um these rules and regulations are very sensitive. So, so thank you. Great points. Thank you. Any other questions? Yeah. Does anybody else have questions for Mr. Busker?
All right. Thank you. Thank you. Uh next we have Rick Michaelelsson. Good morning, commissioners, and thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning. Uh, my name is Rick Michaelelsson. My address is 13125 West Lake Sally Drive, and uh, I am on the
board of managers. Um, I happen to be at this point in time sitting as in a position of being a president or chairman of that board and pretty much involved on on their activities and what they've done. Um, I'm going to start off
by by disagreeing what Mr. Jaskin has said about fighting. I mean, it he made it sound like all we do is come to our meetings every month and sit and bicker and fight and and that has not been the case at all. Um, as John pointed out, we
embarked on this rules revision uh process with our new uh new attorney and our new um uh engineering firm. And those guys are are wonderful. Uh the new engineering firm that we have hired is
very well-versed in water law and and has worked with wersheds all over the state and they're just very knowledgeable on what we need to do and have been very helpful in the in the rules process. Um, as we went through this process,
um, from the stakeholders meeting to the hiring of the new adviserss, the engineer and our and our attorney, um, it sounded like everything was a fight fight. Well, you know, when you discuss
and and ask questions and, uh, represent your opinions, that doesn't mean it's a fight. That means it's a discussion. And we had a lot of those discussions along the way. Um there was questions and I have to I have to say Chris had a lot of questions when we were going through
this this process and he had good questions. Um he's a smart guy. He's been in the construction business. He kind of knows, you know, what happens when you put a shovel in the ground and what you have to do and all those kinds of things. He had really good questions and a lot of the things that that uh
were proposed in our new rules or revised rules I should say uh by our engineering firm Chris had questions and a lot of them he didn't disagree and as our engineer would explain it and why they recommended these things um and the
reasons for them and many many times Chris said okay I understand I can live with that and so you know we thought like John said this was this our the biggest change in our rules was a lastm minute deal and and uh we everybody
thought that we were in agreement as a result of our discussions not as a result of any fighting. Um so that was a big surprise and however it rolls we're going to accept those rules and that's what we operate under right now. They're they're official. all the the postings
have been done and all the the information has been given out to all the agencies um counties, cities, uh road authorities, etc., you know, so they're they're in the books right now and that's the rules we have to play with and we're going to play with them and we're going to continue to do a lot
of good things. Um kind of lost my train of thought here. Um, another thing that was brought up is that we move so slowly and what the reality of the situation is is if we
could just make a decision on our own, we would move at lightning speed because we can make up our minds. But we have so many other agencies uh that we have to deal with. We have to deal with um Minnesota Pollution Control. We have
to deal with DNR. We have to deal with all kind of other regula regulatory agencies and and we have to u work with all the rules that besides our own rules, all the rules that they present to us and that takes a time and we we're
dealing with with um property owners and they need some time to digest what's going on as well. So, even though we don't move as things don't move as fast as a lot of us would like to, I think we're getting things done and we've done
a lot of good things and we've got a lot of good projects uh that we're continuing to work on and there's some new ones um in the foreground and that we're going to that we're going to embark on and we're going to do a lot of good work. Um Rick Rick, you're getting close to time because if you All right,
I'll I'll wrap it up. Thank you, Rick. In terms of of uh managers, I would um hopefully recommend that you guys reinstate Dennis. He has, you know, you need new blood, you need new ideas. In the past years, I think we've gotten
some new managers and we've got a lot of new blood and a lot of new ideas, but we need people like Dennis on our board that has worked on these projects for a long time. He understands what we do, how we do it, why we need to do it. Um, I'm going to kind of compare uh Dennis's
appointment to if you want somebody to, for an example, uh, be on a school board, you want to have somebody that cares about the kids. So, we want to have somebody like Dennis on our board that cares about water quality. That's our biggest thing for the Pelican River Wershed District. So, I would really
recommend and hopefully that you guys will reappoint Dennis. He's done a lot of good for our watershed district and and he's got um a lot of good time ahead of him. So, thank you very much. Rick, I got I got a question for you. Sure. So, it's my
experience in the Pelican River wershed of years and years of abuse um by abuse of power, punishment. I I myself have received that punishment from the watershed for doing nothing wrong and it actually cost me a lot of money. So, I'm
I'm not going to go, but we overflowed your your office over there out into the lobby with people who had been recently abused by the watershed for for just minor things and huge $40,000 shity
bonds. So, I'm not going to get into all those. You dismissed all those. In fact, you made a comment that there was some false truths there or half-truths. That's what the other board member told me. And so, I didn't have any halftruths. I'm not like that. And so mine was disregarded. But I just want to
bring one that that what happened with to Raymond Reading out on Floyd Lake because Raymond got in touch with me because he had done some landscaping. Um maybe right not right to the permit, but
he done a really good job of of preventing runoff in his yard. Excellent. And the wershed made him they didn't like it and they made him take it out. Then I talked to some board members and I'm like, "Look at the slope that we got now straight to the lake." And so
then they allowed him to put it back in, but it was a huge job. And this is what really kills me is the money it cost him. But not only that, they made him get a $40,000 shy bond and would not give it back to him because the plants
weren't growing yet. How do you answer when you when you make somebody take a huge project and take it all apart and then let them put it back together? How how does that Mr. Chair Mr. Chair, I think we're deviating from from appointments. Well, what I want to do is
is say that we need new people here because that doesn't clean up the lake. I I think we can talk. You can respond to I just have a quick response and thanks for your question, Richard. And I'm very well well aware what happened with Mr. readings project and and there
were some problems but again um they were worked out and I just want to say you know with our new attorney and our new our new um engineering firm we did have a very um cumbersome way of
enforcing rules before and that was a part what you talked you know that was a part of it and with our rules and not only rules but policy changes that we've made we don't do that anymore So, um, we have a very clear-cut and, uh,
precise way of of handling, um, problems with our rules and, uh, it's it's that doesn't happen anymore. So, I I I apologize for what happened to you. I guess I'll apologize for Mr. Reading, although there was some things that that he was in violation for, and
we had rules that we had to to work with. But, at any rate, things are moving along. Things are getting better. So, I guess that's all I have to say. Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Michaelelsson. Thank you for your time. Yeah. How do you say that? Right.
Jim Bond. Bond. Jim Bond. Okay. Jim Bond. Okay. Next, we have Jim Bond. Um, I'll be happy if I didn't realize I had signed up to speak. I don't really have anything. Okay. Uh, to to say that's any different
than John and Rick. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bond. Uh Dennis Crawl. Good morning, commissioners. Morning. I am here to uh seek reappointment to another term on the Pelican River watershed district.
I think uh in my letter I mentioned my experience and I have 38 years of experience and I was president for a long period of that time. You can look
to every major initiative that we did at the watershed and I was a part of it. I know this district. I know the watershed district very very
well and I just want to say that some of those projects were difficult. I worked with several different administrators including Dick Peacock who put in place a streamlining of many of the aspects of the watershed
work. I might just bring up two things on the projects that I worked on. One is the Rice Lake project which is nearing it. The phase one is completed. Phase two
should be completed yet this year. That project has the most potential to save Big Detroit Lake. It took administrators and managers with insight
and guts to take that on. There were 60 land owners that had to have easements signed. I worked on I would guess 90% of those. The second one that I would like
to everyone to be reminded of is do you remember the flowering rush crisis in this town? We had the mayor. We had people wanting to pull every piece. Tara Getter came to me and said, "Dennis, what we're doing
and what the DNR is telling us to do is not working. Through scientific research, we will never eliminate the flowering rush, but it no longer ceases or no longer is a threat to the very the swimming beach
and all the amenities." Now, when it comes to Campbell Creek, I have land the backside of my lot fronts onto what used to be called Mud Lake, but is now called either uh Big Floyd
North Bay or I don't know, North Floyd. I've heard many things. I worked with the scary family among the first years I was on the watershed district probably 35 36 years ago recognizing the sloughing of that bank
and the damage that Campbell Creek has done not just to the north portions of Big Floyd but its effects on Little Floyd Lake. I worked with that. We're moving forward with that. I'd like to be a part
of that. I have one outstanding characteristic that I think has been demonstrated and is demonstrable. I am not beholden to special interests. I am not a developer.
I do not seek to make money off of landscaping or any other aspect of the water quality picture in this county. I have maintained my faithfulness to the mission of the watershed district and
would like to continue to do that. Yes, this is a time of huge change for the watershed district. I was not on the side of that change. Anyone can know that by reading the paper.
However, having maybe lost a political battle, I am now ready to look for the positive side of those changes. Much has been made of the watershed can now move forward with other larger projects. Again, I want to make sure that can
occur. Please reappoint me. Thank you. And I'll ask answer any questions you have. Dennis Rick mentioned that there were a bunch of good changes now that happened, but you were you were against those changes. Is that Yes. Why? That's
no secret. Okay. All right. That's what I wanted to know. I just wanted to know because you mentioned that these things were good. So, well, let me clarify that since you asked. I'm all for a streamlining of the process. All those things I worked directly with the engineering firm and the attorneys and
had no objection to any of that. the last minute deletion of huge pieces as Rick Michaelelsson and others have talked about from that plan that have been worked out with a highly respected used by many other watershed districts
uh engineering firm to simply have that tossed under the under the table out the window at the last minute. No, I don't think that was what was intended and that was a surprise. Do I want to work with this?
Yes. I've suffered political defeats before and I can handle them. I want to make sure it's done right. I can provide that continuity. Any other questions? I just have a question. So would just so I understand what you're saying correctly,
the the changes that were made aren't necessarily what you disagree with. It was how they were done. That again is not necessarily completely accurate. Okay. The changes that were made into procedure, how we handle
everything from the uh bonding a project that is not meeting its permit and all those sorts of things. Yes, I support that needed all of it. I do think the watershed district needed to keep a hand in some of the shoreline management
things that were deleted in that last minute amendment to what we had worked on for a year. But having had that happen, I seek to work to make sure this works and does the good work that everybody seems to
want to have happen. So that is the best answer I can provide. Thank you, Mr. Chair. kind of back on the same question that I I brought to um Mr. Busker. Um the Campbell Creek, how do you how do you intend to to reduce shore shore
sloughing and and who would be uh or bank sloughing and then who was responsible for paying that long-term maintenance on that? I can't be sure of of of the what the maintenance would be long term. However, that bank sloughing has been a concern and a
concern of mine and I'm on record. You can look it up. That that had to be stabilized. The engineering firm we're working with is going to work out that hopefully and we are engaged in the first stage of that process. In terms
of why the sloughing has become so bad in the last hundred and some years, engineers tell me that it is because of the change in the dynamics of the hydraulics of Campbell Creek. As you're well aware, a large county ditch was
punched through Campbell Lake in that whole upper area which increased the volume of flow through Campbell Creek and it may have been eroding for hundreds of years before that but not to the extent that it is now. So the plan
will be to try to get that stabilized. I do not know exactly what the long the sources of funding are good to get this done and basic landowner agreement from the meetings I attended is good to get
this done. I am not clear and cannot speak completely to maintenance. Hopefully there isn't a great deal of maintenance on what's going to be changed engineering wise. It would be an attempt to stabilize
So, um, you'd have to probably talk to our administrator, Terum, to get the fine details of that. Thank you. Does anybody else have any questions for Mr. Crawl? All right. Thank you. U Thank you very
much. All right. Thank you. Uh, next we have John Scary. Good morning. Um, my name is John Scary. I live at 25681 County Road 149. Um, and I grew up on the northshore of Mud Lake.
I will call it that cuz that's what I grew up calling it. Um, I'm a township supervisor in Detroit Township. I have been for about 10 years. Um, I'm I'm very familiar with that watershed with the Campbell Creek area,
the Rice Lake area. um not so much at the Sinclair project that they mentioned, but I got to agree with some of the comments reiterated before by by Scott and Scott. Some of these things have taken a long long time. You know, Mr. Carl just mentioned 35 years ago working with our
family. Well, that was 35 years ago and and I realize projects are big and maybe there's a lot of lot of eyes to dot and tees to cross, but something's got to change. I don't know if that means we need new people in there to change it or what exactly the answer is, but uh but
I'm willing to be one of those people. I work well with people. I I want the watershed to work well with the county to work well with developers and to be approachable. Um I agree with Mr. Varberg's assertion. They have been heavy-handed in the past. Um, I think
there were some overregulations on a lot of plots that went on and I think those changes it sounds like are those changes are happening but I would just like to be a part of that myself. Um, I I don't know if I if there are questions people have. I'm kind of
not really sure what the you know I gave you guys my bio and so one of the issues it it appears is um conflict among the board and how how do you think a new person coming
in not having been a part of that how how well I I can't address conflict or not conflict on the board I've never been in any of those meetings I I don't know what that means or doesn't mean all I know is I have been on many boards in the past. I work well with people. I
don't get angry with people that don't agree with me. I think everybody has a viewpoint. I don't think it's as simple as you love the water or you love development. I think these things got to come together. I think there's a place to do that. Okay. Thank you.
Does anybody else have any questions? Uh do you have any thoughts on the Campbell Creek? Uh um I do have some thoughts on that. No, I'm not familiar with the proposed project, but I think there are a lot of things that could be can and should be done along that watershed.
Now, as far as I know they're talking about streamside, um I guess building it up so it doesn't, you know, erode with rock walls or or whatever they come up with. That sounds like a very expensive project and one
that's going to involve a lot of land owners. Um, I think there are some things we can do in the short term that'll be much more inexpensive and could help right now. In the meantime, I don't know if this project has to be something that goes in phases or is all done at once, but but I
think we need to look at some ideas. Do you think uh upstream or downstream is responsible for paying for most of that for paying? Well, I I I don't know. No, I I think I think if this is a benefit for everybody, everybody should have a stake in paying for it.
Shouldn't it shouldn't be on the land owners. I'll say that. Um it shouldn't be on the land owner. Well, I mean I I mean the land owners that are having the work done on their property, it shouldn't be their bill and it should it be their bill to maintain it? I I don't think so. This is for the benefit of the
community. So, we got to find a way for everybody to help. Does anybody else have any questions for Mr. Scary? All right. Uh, thank you very much. Uh, next we have, uh, Bill Hanky.
Good morning, commissioners. I appreciate the uh uh the ability to speak before you. Um uh I'm Bill Hanky and I live on 962 Southshore Drive here in DL. Um I uh would like to uh first of all express my disappointment uh with
the um loss of jurisdiction by the Pelican River Wershed District due to their actions um of the uh shoreline and um bank alteration management related issues.
Um I have benefited from it uh personally and the involvement of the uh Pelican River wershed district particularly with regards to the education piece of it. Uh we had significant shoreline damage a number of
years ago with high water um ice pushes those types of things. uh they worked us through um very diligently um uh a nice management process where we restored natives with it. Um the uh bank sloughing has not
occurred at all. Um I think to remove this piece or tool from the toolbox is a bit misguided. Um I think that um the Pelican River Wershed District maintaining jurisdiction over this uh
complements you know the bigger projects uh that have come into focus and I don't think that u removing you know that aspect of it um is a solid solution. I think a lot of times we tend to um
disregard the amount of non-point pollution um bank sloughing, erosion, etc. that occurs in multiple sources. I think we're all aware, you know, of the continued development, redevelopment, housing changes around all of our lakes
that are within the jurisdiction of this. And so I think that uh um you know that just needs to be a thoughtful portion of what the uh Pelican River wershed district does. Now I know that there's a move to probably delegate it to the county as well as to the uh city.
Um I think that the watershed district is well positioned to at least take on the education piece of this. And I think too often what happens is because that education piece is not out there front and center and is a part of a decision-making process whether it's at
the realtor level contractor that uh comes in or certainly a landowner that comes in with preconceived notions of what we may want to do with our shoreline. Uh you know much better solution is to be really out in front uh
with with that education piece. And so, um, again, if the overall regulatory aspect of it is removed from the watershed district, I really hope that the county and the other um the city and
the others that might be a part of this are really due diligent uh in airing on the site of the resource. Too often we don't do that and um sometimes we fall prey to the whims of uh the alterations
that people want to to to do. Um we have to take into account the societal costs and the cost to the whole watershed. So please if nothing else as we do our appointments um and and I certainly that should be common knowledge support
Dennis's call you know to continue with this. Let's let's just please continue to air on the side of the resource and and do our due diligence with this and I think we can do it with all these tools in the toolbox and and let's not throw out essential ones. So, thank you you
guys. Thank you, Mr. Rank. Yeah, not quite yet. Is there anybody here that would like to speak towards the appointments? Anybody else? So, this is this would be your chance to do that. All right. Oh, go ahead. Yes, please
come. Please come up. State your name and your address. I'm Lori Olsen. I live at 280 Shorewood Drive here in Detroit Lakes. Um, I'm one of the board managers uh right now. Um, and uh I' I've listened to a lot of
what's been said. Um, and I I think as far as the appointments go, um, Scott Busker has done a great job in the short time he's been on. I would encourage you to reappoint him. And um Dick Lee is also a very good candidate. So that's my
input. Thank you. Thank you, Lori. Just a reminder, Mr. Lee has pulled his name from the Mr. Lewis did. Mr. Lewis. Okay. Okay. Okay. That's I Okay. I was I was confused. All right. Anybody else want to give any everybody a chance to speak
if they would like? Okay. So, we are no longer going to take any more public comment on the watershed appointments. Okay. So, I have a So, I have an issue. Um, would I would like to ask the board
members, we currently have a public hearing scheduled for 9:00 for the offsale license at La Labella Restaurant LLC. Um, do we want to move to that right away or do we want to finish with the watershed appointments? Uh, public hearing will only take a minute. I think
that if it's scheduled at 9, we should we should get rid of that. And I see the gentleman's here for Yes. for uh I think it was free Italian food down at Swanies if we approve it. So So come on. Come on up. Do we We have to open the hearing though, don't we? With the motion, Mr.
Chair, I'll make a motion to open the hearing for for the Do we got to close? No. No, it was just open for All right. So, we have a motion by Barry to open a public hearing for the La Labella Restaurant LLC um doing business as Soft
and Swanies um for their uh new offsale liquor license. We have a second. I'll second. Okay. Motion by Barry, second by Erica. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All right. Motion carries. All right. Please uh state your name and my name is
James C. Herman. Uh, I live on Gazley Beach on Pelican Lake. Uh, my family came here from Norway in 1850. I grew up in New York and, uh, spent all my summers here and now a few winters, which I'm not
sure that was such a great idea. So, I decided, why not buy a restaurant? Sounds brilliant. So, we're going to try to bring a little New York Italian flavor. Keep keep the pub concept, but with some Italian variations, and maybe give the region something it doesn't
really have right now. So that's the plan. So brought a chef from New York who's Italian. I'm not ready to kill him just yet, but we're close. I'll see how it works out. But thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Do you have anything to add? Okay.
We did notify um we published the notice in the paper. We notified um all of the local bars within three miles. We got no comment in opposition or in support of the application, but we are requesting that you approve the county onoff sale
liquor license for a Lavella restaurant. Okay. And we'll do that after do it after we close the public. Is is there anybody here that would like to speak uh for or against this issue in the public hearing? All right. Hearing none, do we
have a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. Second by motion by Barry, second by Phil. Um, any further discussion? All right. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All right. Motion carries. All right. We're now closed in the public hearing.
Yeah. Do we have a motion to Mr. Chair, I make a motion to approve. Second. All right. We have a motion to approve the uh offsale liquor license and we have a second by Phil. Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All right. Motion carries.
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Did you want me to do this resolution? H that was the motion. We That was the motion to approve the res. This is added. This was that chair of Oh, that was the extra. Oh, that was added. Oh, we'll do that after we'll do it at the
end of car's. Okay. Thanks, Mary. Thanks, Mary. Thank you very much. Yep. All right. We are now moving on to appointments. Did we close it? Did we vote to close it? Oh, yeah. We did close it. Yep. We closed the public meeting. Y we voted approve. We voted to approve. Y
did we? Yep. Oh, okay. We did. It's been a long morning already. We did vote on both. Correct. We did motion. Second. Yep. Yep. I got it. Okay. Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to reappoint Scott Busker to the Pelican River Wershed.
I'll second. So, we have a motion by Richard and a second by Phil to reappoint Scott Busker to the Pelican River Wershed. Do we have any discussion? Mr. Chair, I I I think um I think it
would be I mean I think the board is is got a new direction now and I think Scott can and help lead that way. Um I think his experience and and community support will will do well. Um, and no matter who gets on this board though, I
I want to reiterate a a board can be different opinions and strong different opinions and you can argue as hard as you want during the meetings. Um, but when that vote comes, you you have to put that vote behind you and move forward with the common good of that
decision. And whichever way whether you win it or lose it I think and and today I think this board your board should move forward as a board not as as individuals and start and work together well. I I hope and I and I think you all are professional enough
you can do that. So I I just really hope that the direction that we're that you're getting here will will do that. So um I just think it's important for you to put everything all the past behind. I I know there's the issues and start working forward and and make this
the best best possible. So, and I I would just like to piggy back on Miss Commissioner Nelson's comments. When I became a commissioner, um what three years ago was it? Yeah. We went to a commissioner 101 training and one of the one of the aspects that they discussed
with us is when there's a vote that is when there's a vote on an on an issue from your board and whether no matter what if you voted for or against it doesn't matter if it passes you support it as an entire board and that is something that I believe in very
strongly and the reason why you are a member of a board is because you want to make things better for what that board does and you're not not not everybody's going to agree and that's why we vote and that's why we have the have the democracy that we have. So just please
take that to heart if when you are on whoever we you know whatever happens with these appointments that that is the the goal of your your uh board and our board too. And Mr. Chair, I just want to mention too I think it's okay to have disagreements. You you don't want a
board that all feels the same way. So, I think I think having differing opinions on a board is okay and and should happen. That's how that's when good work happens. Um, but I
but I'm going to echo what what both um Barry and Dave say is you have to get along. We've we this board with the exception of Phil knows how it can be bumpy, right? and and we get through it and for only a couple for the most part
we still get along. Um, so just it it is important for you just to to be behind the the vote that's made whether you agree with it or feel like it shouldn't how it happened maybe wasn't appropriate, but
support the mission. And one thing I also want to say, this isn't with the appointment, but I I appreciate, I think all of us appreciate everybody that spoke here, everybody that's come here to express your opinion because that's important to us as Becker County Commissioners that we hear the opinions
of our citizens. So, thank you all for we appreciate it. We really do. So, we have any further discussion? So, we have a motion and a second to appoint. Just before we do, I mean, we're going to pick pick one now and and
one in a few minutes. And I'm not sure who we're going to go with, but just thank you all for putting your name in there and applying cuz this these aren't these aren't glamorous and fun jobs. This is these are hardworking jobs that that take a lot of commitment and
dedication. Um, again, for you to put your name in is significant and it I really appreciate it and unfortunately we I mean I wish I had this problem at Buffalo Redwater said because we can't find anyone to be on that board for for that one. So, um, thanks again and and
also too all of you are super qualified that that I have to say that that so it makes that's a a great thing to have too. So, any further discussion? Okay, we have a motion and a second to appoint reappoint Scott Busker to the Pelican WHED. All in favor signify by saying I.
I. Any opposed? All right, motion carries. So are besides Scott are our other slate of candidates are Dennis Crawl, John Scar, Richard Lee, and Raymond Reading. Is that true, Carrie? Are those We've had a lot of people pull their names and
add just the one. So So Jeff Lewis is the one. So Crawl, Scari, Richard Lee, and Raymond Reading are the M. Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to reappoint Dennis Crawl. I'll second. Do we have a motion
by Barry and a and a second by Phil to reappoint Dennis Crawl to the Pelican Wershed? Do we have any further discussion? Uh, yes. I would uh say that I've been on both boards, this board and I've been on the wershed board for almost three years. Um, you guys say how
a board should work and I have to say, uh, our board did go through some tough times when I was on it, but I always felt like we came around. And one of the lynch pins in helping us come around, I want to give him a shout out now, is Rick Michaelelsson. I really thought he he he was strongly opinionated, but when
it was over, it was over and he moved on. Um, and I think that is a great quality, and I think he did a great job as uh as leader of that of that board. Do we have any further discussion? Okay, we have a motion and a
second. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. All right. Mo, we have one. All right, motion carries. Um, Dennis Crawl has been appointed also. All right, we are moving on to our
county administrator. Oh, we have open our reports. Oh. Oh my gosh. We are not moving on to our county administrator. We were doing our reports and correspondence. Thank everyone for coming. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Yeah. All
right. Who would like to go first? I'll go first. Thanks, John. Come back again. I will. I didn't have much. U We did a zoting ordinance review. We're having weekly meetings. However, we've kind of hit a snag and we're going to talk about it towards the end of the
meeting. Uh Barry and I are on that. We'll talk about that. Um I also had a joint powers meeting yesterday with the county, the city, and Lake View Township about uh to do with the extr territorial stuff. It's at the lawyer phase right now, but I think we're going to come up
with an agreement so we don't have to do the joint powers. Those are the only two things that I said. I just had a couple also. Um I had human service Richard and I had human services. There's a couple shout outs I want to give. Um the income
maintenance unit met the required measure um which is 75% for timely processed applications for SNAP and cash assistance. Um the county was at 98% which was far above the required measure but um better than even what the state
is. The state is at 82%. So just a shout out to them. Um, also our public health was 100% compliant in February 2025 for completing health risk assessments. And then the final um shout out is just to
the overall um human services department their 2024 um they had a perfect performance for meeting the DCYF financial reporting which includes 32 major reports. All reports were submitted on time and in perfect order.
the closing of the letter. I just want to read what the the letter states just so everybody can know how big of an accomplishment it is. It says, "I know this accomplishment requires planning and efficient operation and teamwork within your county human services department. The result is timely revenue
for your county and compliance with federal reporting for us at the state. Please congratulate your management and staff on this superb effort." So, shout out to the whole human services department. Uh then just a couple funding updates that we discussed at the human services
committee. The f federal government cut funding for America um which typically helps with public health duties. They've we do not currently have one, but we have had one in the past um that they they um assist with the public health
duties. Really all that means is just duties that were previously done by the Americanore will be done by current public health staff. And then the other one which is a little bit of a bigger issue um and could have some fiscal impact on us is the RSVP program which
is a program under the Americanore umbrella. Um Mahubi was the the funer for that. Um and they were informed in March that they will no longer be funded. Um, uh, Shannon and Christy over at
Human Services reached out to Krookton to see if they could take it on. Um, they were going to take it on and then they found out their funding was also ceased. Um, so what the what this means is with RSVP allowed
for um us to pay drivers without having to submit a 1099 form for all mileage reimbursement in excess of 14 cents per mile. Um, so there's major concern that this will cause us to lose some drivers.
Um, many of our drivers are retired. Um we as a county are required to provide rides to medical assistance participants. Um we're also um provide many rides in our child protection unit for kids, parents, um medical
appointments, um different appointments, visitation. um if we don't have this resource, Becker County has a very robust volunteer driver program and this um Glossen funding could could really
hinder that. Um which what is the reimbursement per mile? Seven. Do you remember? Oh, the the federal the IRS reimbursement. I believe it's No, it's more It's 85. 85. You said 14 cents. Was it 14 cents? No, it's more
than that. Anything over 14,000 miles from that 585 would be what's 585 85 cents 58 585 is 5 58 and a half or 58 and a half. Sorry. Well, the IRS rates 770
cents. I'm just Yeah, I just doesn't matter. But I was just curious if it's if it's considered income then after the 70 cents. Afford anything over 14 cents. Really? That's the problem. Wow. Yeah. So it's
considered income anything over and it's not even fair at all. And we're many of these drivers are driving to Rochester, driving to Fargo daily, driving to Brainer daily. So that we're it it is a significant amount of miles that they
put on. um with they Christy and Shannon have a plan to you know reach out to the volunteers see what we can do but the reality is is if we don't have them we may be hiring drivers you know we may have to we don't know what we don't know
what to be continued to figure out what we um will have to do but we it's it could potentially be a big issue we need to do some thinking about and then it's not only that we've had the same drivers for a long time they're driving the same people, you know. So, I mean, if you're
going to the relationship for cancer treatment or whatever it is, it it's nice to be riding with somebody that you know and care about. And so, there's relationships there, too. And I don't I I guess I don't understand because it
shouldn't be $10.99. It's an expense. Barry, you can write off your expenses. I can write off my expenses. I don't understand why it's only 14 cents. Something something's not right there. Something's not right. And I don't know who to talk to about it. But it it's not
only it's going to be bad for for these people, but it's also going to cost us a lot of money. If you can imagine taking somebody to the mail, can't we just call them tips now? Well, that's I don't know. But we somebody's got to we we got to we're going to have to think about
this. And if anybody can come up with an idea or somebody knows something better. Um I I thought maybe we could give them a chainsaw or something like that, but that's a that's got to claim that too. So or a clean rain coat. Yeah, clean rain coat.
Something a sandwich. I then I found out we give them sandwiches. So and then they're going to have to claim the sandwiches now. So I don't know. I hope a bologn sandwich. Woohoo. So that was my human services. The only other meeting I had was our housing subcommittee. We discussed
um that just the housing management in general would be looking to set up a meeting with MMCDC and members of that subcommittee to discuss our contract which is due at the end of the year. Um and then we just discussed some need for some strategic planning for housing um starting at the EDO EDA board level to
better understand really what our goals at at the county are as far as housing goes. And that's all I had. Mr. Chair, we had uh NRM, but the only item was the Pelican Wershed building that we're considering uh bring up for
consideration later. Um had Lakeland Mental Health yesterday. They are going to ask for a 0% increase for 26. They realize the scrunch on counties. Um they are also going to be experience a a cut from MA um MA additional fees. They've
been they've been on for years that it's a 26 additional fee. So, I don't know why you call it additional fee, but they've been receiving for MA um cases. That's down to 11 this year, 5.9 next year, and zero the next year. Um so, that will be a burden on them.
Commissioner MA medical assistance medical assistance. Um so, they're eating that this year. Um they don't know the full extent of how much that is and and at our next meeting, we're going to get a report on how many dollars that that is for that. But um we had a early
meeting because of the memorial holiday next week, so we didn't have a lot of the financials, but we're still a a very strong financial. Um I think the only other meetings I had a couple uh Lake Agassy Regional Library meetings, and I wish Nate was in here,
but um we're discussing lease agreements. As you know, Morehead is building a new public um facility um event I don't know, it's not an event center, but green a walking they're calling it the loop. They have a big walking loop around it. The library is
going to be there. Um an entrepreneur place uh um just a public meeting space for for Morehead. It's a very very huge project. Um there Nate, I'm talking about a more the Morehead uh library. So the take notes. Um I wouldn't mind
seeing this in the paper. We are we are so they are asking us to um we lease space in the current Morhead building in downstairs in the basement of the Morehead Library. Very reasonable. Morehead's been very generous on their square foot um lease
rate. Um but we are in the basement of a of a of a old building. Um, so with Morehead building this new facility, the library, the Morhead library is going to be included. As you know, the libraries in the cities are paid for by the cities themselves. Detroit library is a Detroit
building and Detroit has to maintain and have ownership of that building and maintenance costs. Um, so when they built this, they they they have tax money from they have a sales tax money. Um, so there's a sales I think it's a
half cent sales tax that's going to pay for this building in the city of Morhead. Um, so now they're coming to us and saying they, you know, we were planning on moving going with them if they had space and they designed it for space with the Lake Ay regional library system in, but we never negotiated a
lease rate with us. They never negotiated and but they've been working with the with the Lake Agassy Regional Library supervisors to to get input. Um but now we're we uh two years ago they wanted us to commit to some money to well $250,000 for furnishings inside
said well we realize that we have to have f you know our own furnishings but we're not committing till we come down to a lease agreement. We're not going to blindly give you money and then hopefully we can negotiate a lease. Um and that lease agreement right now is is not um we are not settled on it. They
came in, they wanted $25 a square foot, which is the cost of um the highest retail space you can almost get if you're full retail. I mean, retail site at West Acres is pro, you know, a new facility with really good visibility for retail. That's probably where you'd be
on new construction. Um that we were paying between5 and $6 a square foot. Um and we're and the new building is 3,98 square ft. I'm on the negotiating team if you can't get get this. Um, so the increase, well, it's it's a significant
increase in in um, we've negotiated, they've come down to $19 a square foot. Um, I was I was thinking $15 a square foot would be adequate. Currently, Morehead, City of Morehead is renting space from Klay County for $15 a square
foot in the law enforcement center and there's no increase for till 2036 or 2038. So that's kind of where I'm saying we should be paying the same rate as and and especially in a building that's being funded by sales tax and grant money using the Lake A Regional Library
as a leg to get that funding. So um I don't know where that's going to go. We're we're still negotiating, but I suggested that we look now we're looking out for buying our own building. Um I think if you can find a a reasonable building for less money, you know, for
you your payments would be less in that lease space. So we're we're looking into other options now. How would that work for their funding you think? Well, we have nothing to do with Morhead, but the you said it's already passed. The legislators might be upset with it, but there's nothing that can be done. I mean, it's a sales tax. Um, so I I did
suggest and tried to work with the city of DL because they have space available, but the the rest of the board didn't thought that was too far away because the employees would employees mostly live in Fargo Morhead, so it would be a big ask for the employees. So we are limiting our our look space more towards
the Dworth Morehead area in coast surrounding for purchase or lease agreements to try to see what other options. I I don't think it's fair for constituents not to be provided other options if you're in your opinion not being a a good deal. Now I'm not saying
the city's not offering a fair deal because there are some services included in that that that aren't just your square footage. Oh, such as uh man or janitorial services, um snow removal. I mean, but those things haven't been worked out either. They um it wasn't.
So, there's lots of details. So, I just wanted to give you a heads up and and um the the ask this year from the ask is a general an 8% increase of our levy over our request and Becker counties would be about a
9% increase on what we're giving. Um so, it's significant. Um, so when we this all pans out and we're in budget, we'll have to look at those numbers a little closer. So all right. Uh, Richard, you have uh I had um
human services and the only other thing I had was safety committee. Um, so if some of you guys notice our outside doors are now numbered, big numbers on them for emergencies. Um, we're going to look at, you know,
the highway department and the jail were done when they were built, but we're going to look at at the transfer station and the MURF for numbering those doors. Um, we did have a fire, small fire. It didn't go very good. The fire is fine,
but some people didn't leave. So, now we need we need to have a fire drill. Not today, but we need to have a fire drill and and see if we can get people. But we actually it's a it's a new committee and it and actually the members on it are doing a really good job. Everybody's
contributing and and we are getting you know I think Carrie you were at the AMC meeting when we had that speaker about recon re every incident you have to analyze and redo. I mean that I I think that's I think that's very Yeah. And I
heard that. So I think I appreciate that. Um I think in the sheriff's department too and any accidents I mean to to analyze what what happened and what could be done and and to I mean to prevent Yeah. And and I think those are and he did a really nice presentation on that. So I think it's critical that we
do that. Yes. Yeah. Right down to a wood tick. We had a wood tick. Well you get Lyme disease that's Well actually it is. you know. Yeah. Well, and the other thing I would add with the with regards to the safety committee as well is we're also taking a look at our old workplace
accident injury reduction program which is required. Denise phoned the old um document was it 10 years ago, 11 years ago, something like that. We also have some other um examples from other counties. So, we are taking a look at that and updating that as well.
Right. Richard, do you have any It's all right. Richard, on your on your work, your personal workspace, what does your safety committee do for um Well, that's why I'm not sure why I'm on the safety committee, but I do have
experience on what not to do, accidents, you know. Thank you. I'm not Tim the Toolman Taylor, but I have had a few. So, Tim the Toolman Taylor. All right. I have I have a I have a few. I'll go really fast here. Um, first I have a DAC I had a DAC meeting and on July 10th
they are having their first annual DAC bean bag turn and it's going to be in the park. Um, the the first prize is a set of bean bag boards that have say the DAC on them. Um, if you want to check out more of the information, just go on the Facebook page of the DAC or the
website. They have pictures of the clients holding the beanag boards. And anyway, the entry fee is, I believe, $60 a team. So I they're expecting to be lot they have some they have some sponsors too that are sponsoring the event and everything. So it should be pretty good deal. The other big thing that's
happening at the DAC is we hired Hammers Construction to give us a preliminary design for an an adding on an addition. So the addition if you've ever been to the DAC will go from the south side of the building all the way across to where
the the horseshoe circle drop off is. And it'll go out I believe I don't know how big I can't remember the footage but it's going to be out to like whatever the setback is from the middle of the street 15 ft or 20 ft or something. So it's going to be a relatively large size
distance. What the addition is going to have is going to have smaller rooms, client rooms for educ, you know, teaching and educating. And then they're going to move the offices to that area also. And then the off as you could, then the then the entrance will be moved
to the west side of the building. And as you come in, you'll walk right by the offices. So if you need to see someone, you can just go right to them. Because right now, the offices are not in an ideal spot. They're kind of in a spot where you have to walk around and find a trail to get to them. And so anyway, so
that's one thing they're doing. And then also, Mr. Chair, the DAC, that's a developmental achievement center across from the middle school. Correct. Um, do we provide assistance, county assistance? So all what we do is we have some clients, correct me if I'm wrong, Denise, we have clients that are on
waiverss and then they pay we pay DAC a certain amount of money per per person per day. So, as far as the adding on, that would be that there would be no county. No, there's no county funding at all. No. No. Not at all. No. Um, and
then they did one more thing at DAC. They that we had talked about that arts grant they had applied for. They got it. So, now they're going to have an art teacher come in and and we're doing art projects with clients. And also on May 30th, the Laker Prep is coming into the DAC and they're going to do art projects together. So, that should be kind of
cool. Um, I had a partnership for health meeting. Uh, I'm not going to go into the measles portion right now because I believe it's going to be on the agenda for the next board meeting. Yeah. Okay. So, legislative, they showed us a chart of
all the legislative um updates and there could be some effects towards funding for the partnership of health. Um, they don't know right now exactly how drastic they could be. I guess we'll all find out
when they're approved, but they had the governor's report, the Senate's report, and the House report, and they had them all lined up next to each other, so you could see what was some were similar, some were not similar. And so, I guess we'll just have to find out. Um and then after the meeting, um uh Klay County and
and and Becker County met together on what we need to do because we remember that Undertale and Wilin are leaving the CHB effective the end of this year. Um so we just kind of came just talked about what we need to do. We're going to look the the the um two counties are
going to look at uh bylaws and see if there need to be any adjustments to bylaws and so forth. Then when that's all done, they're going to they're going to come to us as a committee um Becker Wilin committee or Becker County and Klay County Committee and then we're going to look at them. Then they'll go to our respective attorneys or maybe
they'll go to the attorneys first. I don't know. Then then eventually they'll come to our board for approval. We we decided we're going to keep the name the same. We don't have to change anything like that. We're just we're just two members are leaving. So it should be it should be very painless actually. Then
we did go through all of the grants and how they're going to be split when we do split because some of the grants end in the middle of the year, some end at the end of the year, some end in the the third way through the year, half or quarter, you know. So, they're all different. The are the the person that was doing all this, the the financial
guy from Klay County is amazing. He does a heck of a job. He can keep track of all that. So, um is he an accountant that says, um, what do you want the numbers to say? No, no, he cuz that's what a good accountant can do. Make it look like
whatever you want it to sell as. So, so we al I also had a historical society meeting um and October 23rd to October 26th, the museum is going to host the haunted house. Um, they also are looking at possibly having a uh what do they
call it when they uh not a reprise but a I don't know what they call it in the show business thing where you have another performance encore performance on the 30th. Uh possibly it's like playing charades up here. Yeah, I know. What are they having on encore of uh the
the the haunted house of the haunted house? Yeah, they aren't they aren't 100% sure. So they're look at um the one thing that what did interesting that happened at the last meeting is they've been having a very difficult time getting a quorum for board meetings. So there there were Dick, some of you may
remember Dick Ecock passed away. So his position was open and then there was another one that went off the board. They they only they're only on for I think can be on for two or three year terms. Um so the board decided to uh reduce the board membership from nine members to seven members. So now the
quorum would be four instead of five. So cuz usually there's four people there all the time. This last meeting there happened to be six. But they hadn't had a quorum since January. So you can't really vote on you can give information but you can't vote. So they decided to do that. And then another interesting
thing um Dick Hock they're going to do a Dick Hock memorial someplace in in Detroit Lakes. One of the I really cool ideas was when the Westlake project is, you know, work they're working on and the city is going when their city is doing the beach part with those little pods that they're going to have for uh
like benches and and and so forth at the crossings. They thought it would be a really cool idea to have a Dick heock heck bench out there. So, and it would be and he loved it. He actually loved to sit in the water. Maybe not necessarily in Detroit Lake, but where he he lived
on Figuro Lake, but yeah. And then also the American Adventure exhibit is done May 24th. So if you have not gone, go do it. Okay. The last thing I I guess I have two more. I'm going to go fast. I'm sorry. You said that to start with. I know. I'm bad. I I attended an AMC
managing difficult conversations with constituents. Uh it was a Zoom meeting and four things that I got from that. when you're talking to having a difficult conversation, the first thing you want to they suggested you do is acknowledge the concern. Um, and what we
did on these on all four of these parts, they they discuss we discussed as a whole group. Then they sent us in the in the little breakout rooms and then we practiced the scenario and it was actually really it actually was really good. Um, so you have to acknowledge their concern like I I understand what
you're saying. I hear you or or whatever. How I'm sorry that affects you that way. just and then appreciate what they say. So like I appreciate your opinion and your concern. Um and then try if if possible try to find something to agree
with. It can be the smallest thing like I had a I had a conversation with a consistent the other day. I didn't agree with what they were saying but I they we both knew I knew his mother and I agreed with his mother that or agreed with him that his mother that he had a mother. Well, no, that his mother mother was
just, you know, just something to talk to him about so that you can have a develop a little relationship with him. Yeah. I don't know if that's agreeing to agree that you have a mother. Yeah. And then after you do all of that, then you give them your perspective and and then all then if if that doesn't go well
after that, u make sure you stay calm, you're firm on your perspective. Um don't let yourself be a victim and don't counterattack them. If if it gets to the point where no and and and and they also said don't stoop to defending your character or your integrity if it gets
to that point just say I'm not going to stay in this conversation with the way it's going. Um if it doesn't change I'm going to leave and then they'll either they'll respond to that. They'll apologize or they'll say okay we'll keep it professional or they'll continue and then say well that's conversation's over. Thank you for your comments and
then just leave or hang up or walk away or whatever. So, that was the kind of the gist of the thing. Don't get into an argument with them. Last thing, then I'm done. We had a Lakes Country Service Cooperative meeting and I'll just go through one thing that we that they do. They have a
cooperative purchasing connection and it's run by their administr. It's through their administrative services and run by their director. And what that is is one of the examples is what they do is they have a they they establish a group with vendors like let's for
example food vendors for schools like Cisco for was used word Cisco um they're a member of that vendor and they will work on contracting prices for that vendor for those schools so the prices will be cheaper for for that entity. So
in or and they will only do that for people that for organizations that are members of the cooperative. Now they work throughout the whole state for all the cooperative well eight of the nine cooperatives and they also work with South Dakota and then we also have a
joint powers agreement with North Dakota. So they do work with North Dakota also. So they don't just work with our specific co-op even though they are organized through our co-op. So that that that I didn't realize that that existed and I'd been on that board for three years or two whatever till then.
So um that is all I have. I'm done. Mr. Chair, I'd like to recommend that we move to probation at 45. Um yes. Can we Is that okay with everybody? All right. Let's go right to Brian and his crew.
Good morning, commissioners. Morning, Peggy. Good morning. So, I believe Peggy will put up the slides, and I believe each of you have the PowerPoint in our packet. In your packet. Yes, we do. So, good
morning. We are here in front of you for our six-month data report for the pre-trial supervision program that we put into place back in November. The information that we have in front of you today has a full collection of data inputs that is on page two. Um I won't
go through all of them but these are basically everything that we have measured and collected data for for the last 6 months. Um so on page number three basically what has happened is we have served approximately or we've
served 25 uh individuals on pre-trial supervision with a total amount of 32 cases. Um clients can have several cases under their name etc. Um we've had 20 male clients on uh pre-trial supervision
with five of them um being female as well. And then we also have our county breakdown. 17 of our clients have been from Becker County. One was homeless and then seven were out of county. Um, as
well on the next page, we have two uh that have successfully completed pre-trial supervision over the course of 6 months. The interesting point on this is we have 22 that are still continuing as successful. Well, you may be asking,
well, why only 22 within 6 months period? We just started it in November. So sometimes there's a transition period where we won't have clients coming on to pre-trial for first several months or so. So a chunk of these um will most
likely um barring anything unusual hopefully um complete successfully. We've had only one unsuccessful termination so far. What is an unsuccessful termination? Basically anything that what's that? So you didn't terminate them. Successful termination
be get they'd be unsuccessful. Unsuccessful termination basically means that they absconded or there was a violation. Unsuccessful. Yeah. So they were unsuccessful on pre-trial. It's like a double name. It's a double a doubleandra. Kick them out of the
program and they're unsuccessful. Yes. Exactly. That's how Jody works. And then kick them when they're down. Jody. Um, on the next one, uh, we have of all of our clients, four of them were noted as
high risk, eight were medium risk, and 13 were low risk. Of all of them placed on pre-trial, we had 16 that were eligible for the MinPAT, which is an assessment that Joe provides um to all of our clients um that are eligible for
that. In addition, we took it a step further. For those that weren't eligible for MENPAT, we decide to do a MENPAT anyways, which gave us the result in the assessment score where we would put them on pre-trial supervision to know what
level we'll be supervising them at. Okay. So, that's those uh programming. This is one of the the better slides here as well. So far, we've had 11 folks that have entered programming at the start of pre-trial
supervision, meaning that they didn't have to wait until services started with us uh after they were on supervision with us. Only one of them has not entered programming. Um the the makeup was inpatient and outpatient with that being basically
split. So, as of right now, we've got 25 clients. It's been uh 6 months of supervision with a combined total of 2015 days across all 25 clients with a per DM rate of $60. If we look at that,
that saved the county approximately a potential savings of $120,000 or so based on the fact that we didn't have pre-trial supervision in the past. And so there could have been some other correlation there as to why um the
uh bail amount or u other factors were a little bit lower knowing that the judges now have another option to use within the community for supervision. So that is a potential cost savings that uh I would like to I would like to just clarify that's that's that's a that
number is pretty much if we were being if we could charge back the count I mean if the county but that's we have the staff there so I mean it's it's a definite savings hopefully that we don't have as many staff or but our staff are there so I mean we're
really not seeing the savings but I think the benefit is if if this is working for the clients and I think um the concerns at the sheriff's, you know, office and I think Brian is coming to our committee meetings and and being very active and um addressing hopefully non-issues because I think some of the
staff were worried that this was going to be people were going to be coming in and out all the time and I don't think that's happening. So if it was I we'd be addressing that at committee level too. So and I I did I did speak with Sheriff Glander on this and you know and that's why we say a potential savings. You've
got a lot of stuff wrapped up in it. You have the jail that's that's still there, still operational. You have all the staff, all the food, etc., etc. But if you look at it, you know, there was one estimate that was higher on the PDM day. Um, it's just a whole bunch of things
that are factored into that. And the less people we can have in jail, the better for society. I mean, that's 100%. So with that being said, our next steps, the positives of pre-trial supervision, obviously keeping
individuals within the community, monitoring compliance, reduction in failure to appears, reduction of unnecessary jail stays, realizing meaningful cost savings, and supporting safety with early access to treatment before sentencing. Right now, we're at the
six-month review. We're going to do another one in a year and then another one in two years, which will give you a compiled data set of how pre-trial has been going and the continued uh efforts that are being put behind it. So, with all that being said, any questions from
you guys? I don't have any questions on this, but with the I'll I'll switch gears a little bit. with the state's budget cut of Still Water, do you see any any trickle down up in this area for any I mean where are those inmates going to go or what what's going to happen to
um the only thing that we've heard right now is with the space factors that come along with the institution um you're you've got over the next two years or so half of Stillwater clients or incarcerated persons will be placed
in other institutions um so that'll kind of factor out as to where they're going to be placed and then a slow transition um for folks to basically go into the other institutions across the state. You'll obviously have releases at that point too which will
lower that number as well. As far as a budgetary aspect though, that's not going to have a uh a factor on us out in the community. The concerning part to me is there's no no beds being replaced that I've seen. Correct. And we're I unless we see a dramatic drop in crime,
um there's still going to be those violent criminals where we want put in a safe place. And you know, I don't you know, I just do not have the violent hardcore criminals in Becker County. Um so it's just a thought where a concern in the future for where those those type
of individuals are going to be. Yep. I did hear some rumblings like a Barry Nelson foster home on that on that vacant on that vacant eggland. I might. Thanks, Jody. Maybe your taxes will go down when it's not a vacant eggland.
U Mr. Chair, did I see we have a distinguished guest back? Is there a is there a comment that Judge Fritz would like to make or Okay. Okay. Well, wake them. Welcome. Haven't seen you in the in before in the
room for quite a while. So, good to see you. You look very well. Does anybody else have any questions for Brian or Jody? Awesome. Thank you for your work. Yeah, we appreciate all of it. Thanks. That's
not my home phone number, is it? Yeah. This is your builder's number. Thank you all for the time. Thank you. We'll bring additional information at the year point too. So another six months from now. Thank you. All right. Um Carrie, let's move on to West Central
Initiative under your under you because Rebecca Peterson and Greg Wagner are here and and thank you for being very patient for waiting for us too. And Mr. Wolf, we'll get to you right after. Thank you, too. Wednesday, we're still meeting on Wednesday. Yes. Oh, I thought this was a check to me. Darn. Sorry,
guys. Just a quick reminder, we have our F5 meeting tomorrow for that kickoff. Oh, it's a check note. As many of you that can come would be awesome. 1:00, please at the police department. Yep. Thanks. Thanks, Brian. Reminds me tomorrow we have You have courthouse tomorrow? Yes. Anyone want to
go to courthouse for me? I got joint powers and I think I'm local time. Is that 8:30? 8:30. 8:30. Yes. Well, I'm talking. Yeah. All right. Go go go ahead. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the commission. Uh, pleasure to be
here joining you with our annual visit again today. I am Greg Wagner. I'm the director of business and economic development with West Central Initiative, joined by uh, Rebecca Peterson who is our director of development uh, and philanthropy. just
here to really give you an annual update of kind of what West Central Initiative has been working on in the last year since our last visit and uh kind of what we're working on into the future. I'm going to uh start out by talking about uh several several things and then I'll
pass it on to Rebecca as long as there's no questions for me. Um one of West Central Initiative's roles is an economic development district. Several of you have served on that uh board as Becker County representatives. Currently, Commissioner Meyer is newly
appointed to that board and attended our first meeting uh about a month ago. So, uh that role that we play uh as a a planning agency, a regional development organization in the absence of uh the RDC that served in the 80s. uh primarily
gives the uh counties in our nine county service area access to federal grant resources through the economic development administration and other uh uh federal funding opportunities because we do regional planning and uh that
regional planning is primarily executed through a five-year plan that we develop for the 9ount service area and uh the portion of White Earth Nation that we share. uh and that is called the comprehensive economic development strategy which lays
out goals, strategies and objectives for advancing economic development in the region. And so uh economic development is broadly defined. Uh it varies from community to community based on size of the community and uh initial goals and
uh and and things that that those communities are wanting to accomplish. But overall, you know, we're seeing the the greatest focus of economic development is not just attracting businesses and bringing new businesses into the communities, which is a very
big large role in economic development that that is still needed, but it's also addressing housing challenges for the workforce. It's uh child care uh quality and quantity of of child care. So people who want to be in the workforce can have
their kids well taken care of and also uh we work in uh just attracting workforce. So welcoming newcomers having uh able and well-trained educated workforce and entrepreneurs uh living and uh working in our our service area
in our region. And then uh not last or least by any means, but adequate infrastructure, including broadband and sewer and water. Uh th those are kind of the the four things that roll up as the top priorities for economic development that we focus on as a regional
organization and then work uh handinhand with the communities on uh their own economic development objectives as well. We also offer transportation planning as kind of a roll up with uh partnership with department of transportation here at the state uh with district 4 as part
of advancing that that uh that work as well in community. And so we are working on an update to that 5-year plan. We uh owe that to the Federal Economic Development Administration in December of 2027 to go in or December 2026 to go
in effect uh January 1st of 27. So community engagement and studying uh statistics and kind of the data uh that help drives those decisions is one of the things that we work with. But also I wanted to talk about uh before I
pause for any questions is kind of the investment that uh West Central Initiative has brought into Becker County. Primarily we like to focus on these meetings just the quick kind of financial what has uh grants and loans looked like for Becker County over the
last 18 months. So uh there's been $1.6 $6 million of grants and loans from West Central Initiative into Becker County uh nonprofits, businesses, communities uh for the again the last 17 months. Uh
those that I've uh seen directly uh working with my team on uh deploying has been uh the main street revitalization grant program along the Highway 10 corridor. There were seven businesses that uh received a total of
$434,000 for their redevelopment projects where they're uh updating buildings uh and construction related to those businesses. Uh last year we delivered our first phase of the promise act grant program. Uh eight businesses
in Becker County received that grant. That was a highly competitive grant program. 451 applications. We awarded 52. Uh so there's $155,000 that went to Becker County businesses amongst those eight grants. And then we've had one loan. Loan
activity is picking up. It was pretty quiet for a while. If you talk to the bankers uh in the last year, things at the the beginning of the last year uh were were very quiet just in general. And so we we felt that too. But we did
have one $120,000 loan for a a Detroit Lakes business that's redeveloping downtown here. So that's just kind of the highlights. I know we're kind of pushing against uh some time time limits here. So uh happy to answer any questions otherwise I will turn it over
to Rebecca for her portion. Sound like when I was at the legislature testifying the alarms went off. You done talking is musical. That that was my cue. Yeah, that was your musical cue to be done. So, good timing.
You know me well. It's okay. All right. Thanks, Denise. At first, I was afraid it was me because my wife will do that sometimes and I'm like, I'm pretty sure I shut that off. Anyway, um well, greetings and now we know that the full house wasn't here our report, but we're
glad that you stuck around. Um, and as you know, every year we come and we like to uh thank you for your past support and talk about the return on investment which Greg has mentioned. And so the explanation of the check is something that one of our co-workers, Rick Sherah,
cooked up because we're going into our 40th year anniversary. And so every county and city we visit, we like to show you what we've reinvested in your community or your county since we were born in 1986. So
since that time, over $15 million in grants and loans. And I just want to acknowledge that a lot of those grants also come from the community funds that you have in some of your communities that we host at West Central Initiative. and they raise money and then they
reinvest it into the communities in which they live and serve. So, we do have another fairly important fund here with Becker County. It's the early childhood uh and care fund that you help set up and we help set up and also the early childhood people to help with some
of those extra expenses because it's expensive. So, um yes. So, we hope that you're seeing the return on your investment in us. And just for the record, this isn't where we ask you for a dollar amount. And I know that this is a tricky year for everybody, but we'll send that letter so you can discuss it
when we're not here. Uh that makes it more comfortable for you and for us, but then I'll send it to to city staff. And easier to say no if you're not here. Well, we're afraid of that, but but we also know that you've been very generous and so you'll do what you can, right?
Absolutely. Okay. Thanks, Barry. Um, so the document in front of you is our annual report. Lots of times we drop off a folder and you know it's got lots of papers in it and we just thought everything is pretty well described in here from the past year and then you can like when you're done with it, put it on
somebody else's coffee table to spread the good word about all the work happening. Uh, we do have a couple of board members from Becker County. Jackie Buboltz serves on our WCI board as well as our economic development district board. and Jacob MacArthur representing
White Earth Nation. We've added several new staff. I'm starting in the back of the book and flipping forward. Um, and then a list of grant grant recipients from last year. Uh, thank you to all of our contributors. These folks contribute
directly to West Central Initiative. If we had a list of all of the people who contributed to two our over 200 funds, we would have to print a separate book. But um and of course the city of Detroit Lakes is in here and the county of Becker County. Thank you for that. And
uh yeah, you mentioned Dick Peacock and he was a good supporter of our work as well. So I was sorry to hear that. Um, and then lots of ways in my work and uh the the rest of the team's work in philanthropy, encouraging generations of
generosity. We know you don't have to be a millionaire to be a philanthropist. I heard a great story last night from the mayor of Elbow Lake that for their splash pad project. One of the kids wondered, "But why can't we have a swimming pool? Why a splash pad?" Well, because we can't afford a splash pad,
let alone a swimming pool. and the kid dug in his pocket and took out all of his change and said, "Well, I hope this will help." So, that was pretty sweet. And then just a little bit about Thriving Communities. Greg talked about our early childhood work. We also do a lot of work in transportation, safe
routes to schools and in agriculture and sustainable egg, as well as economic development, which Greg spoke of quite at length. And we do rural belonging work. So we've done some activities during welcoming week in Becker County
rural democracies. So we train people for how they run for office. Not necessarily trying to put you out of a job, but we know that some of our mayors have been in office for over 25 years. So um and then we continue to work on
our strategic long range plan. So there's a one pager. If you ever need an elevator speech, it's really hard to say in 5 minutes everything that we do, but it lists about 17 or 18 programs that we offer uh in addition to grants and
loans. So, that's the sort of short sweet version of the year and review. Any questions? Does anybody have any questions for either Rebecca or Greg? Thank you very much for being patient
with us and for coming to I appreciate it. I like I like I said, I just joined the the not the Western tradition but the the other board and I was I I didn't know what to expect and I was it was it was very interesting. Well, we were very
happy with you and your participation. Yeah, I I I sometimes talk too much. No, no, no. You were great. Don't don't encourage me. Mr. chair, one touch point for these guys, their component funds, their donor advised funds. So, we did fundraising
for those uh out at Dun Locks, those uh ADA compliant tables. Well, these guys handled uh the financial funds for Melissa Sally and one other organizations. The checks came from these guys. So, to do a donor advised fund through West Central Initiative is a big deal and that's how I've been
associated with what you guys one of one of the aspects of something you do. So, thank you, Commissioner Hansen. I'm you and I played phone. Yeah, we did. We're trying to get I'll send you you all a copy through your staff of our almanac which was the event that we had on May 1st. So great. Thank you. Thank you for
coming. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you. All right. I'm on the Lake Park Ottoan leg. I was on the founding Lake Parkin legacy fund for the school for funding. So we have an account through them. Yeah. All right. Let's move on to Mr. Wolf from the I'm going to give this check to Mary so we
can give this to the bank. Yeah. Please come up. Yep. Thank you for being patient with us, too. Oh, good. Morning. Mr. Chair, commissioners, I'm here today for uh looking for a formal resolution
on the heritage funds, which uh in Becker County, it's 200 acres of land that uh the DNR has been working for a good number of years to acquire. It was originally pot latch land that was uh uh purchased by uh a conservation fund and
then the conservation fund looked at uh at trying to keep that land in public hands and and worked with the counties, tribes, state government to make that happen. I believe the county acquired the the lands that they were looking for and there were 200 acres of land that uh
that fit well uh with with the adjoining DNR lands. Um we went through the process of uh working with the townships to get their support. Then we came to to uh the board I think in 2023 and got uh
a letter of uh letter of support and uh this is the final step where we're looking for that formal resolution on that. Um, I don't know if you have any questions on it or uh I would like to see the map of where it is again, but I I tell you this conversation is going a
lot better than than it could have if the governor's proposal would have went a different way. And we all feel that. I mean, definitely. Um, very explained. Well, the governor had build payments cut. Okay. All right. So, there's uh and I'll hand hand this
up to you here. I I don't I didn't have it up there. Can you just say the Yep. So, there's uh I can scan it. No, no, no. Just pull it up on the screen for the GIS. Just put the parcel number. Okay. Do we have the parcel number? I have parcel number right here. Um so,
there's there's one parcel in uh two init. Uh are you ready for the parcel number? I'll write it down. I'll help Peggy. I guess is probably a little smarter than
All right, I'm ready. Okay. Uh, parcel number 34 01 35 1 0 0 You want to do the uh Yeah. GIS and data. Yeah. That's the one in the search. Just go
under. Anyway, that's I guess it's no and I can hand you this if you want. It shows I got all the the parcel numbers, aerial photo, um plat map, and then I also uh had on there uh the estimated land
values. This this is a little bit old. Um and the estimated pill payments on there and that was old. And then I have in case you guys were curious what the PIL payment would be estimated um in Becker County,
$986 per acre. Um so that ends up being uh it's 199.71 acres. So we'll call it 200. Um $1,969.64 64 cent bill payment uh per year. Um how
does that add up? Uh I thought it was 200 almost 200 acres times 10 is 2,000. 1,900. Oh, 900. I thought you said 1,00,900. Maybe I said either way. 1,900. So 2,000. Yep. I'm a rounder. Yep. Well, if I round it up then Yeah.
But so so that's what what we're looking at. We're looking for that uh formal resolution. And with pilot latch, what was the what was the tax? What was our tax rate? Did you have that pot latch? What was it? Pot latch ended. Well, they
got a special tax and then everything. I know that land trust was didn't have to pay, but I thought pot latch had to pay. Pot latch hasn't paid taxes. the Becker County stuff that was turned over to the
conservation fund. That would have probably just been for the last two or three years. So anyway, we can we can agree it was less than what the pill. So yeah, I have in 21 I had what the uh the taxes were
uh paid. They paid on this one parcel. They the the pill payment would have been $300 more on it because I I knew you'd be curious in that. I would be too, you know. So So the pill payment was would be more and
this was in 2021 because I can't Yeah. I mean they don't have I think um but this time I make a mo you have a question. Uh since we're going down on this pill payment we got a lot of people here. Yep. So pill payment is payment in lie of taxes. Yep.
So that is a payment that they paid but they didn't pay tax. Mary saying they didn't pay tax on the land. Payment is the state. So if the state owns it, the state pays the county a payment in lie of taxes because the state doesn't pay taxes on that land. So
they pay uh a payment that's a a a second. Okay. So Barry or Mary you said we didn't receive any tax money on that land only in the interim qualified prior to that. Yes, but it was
not tax rate. Steve, do you agree? Well, is that how that work? I'm trying to figure out how what the what the moving parts are here because I've heard a whole bunch of Well, pot latch is a the big timber forester and they they had a according
to Mary, they had a lower tax rate for must been legislative approval real estate, but they paid tax on the timber. Anyway, got it. Yeah, without getting into that because that's a whole topic that not many of us understand or know the tax rate for that. when they sold it
to the NA was it nature conservator conservation conservation group just like they were holding it in in a as a nonprofit trying to get this land in in public hands they did not pay taxes they took the timber off it and then they tried to give it to this conservatorship
to so they didn't tax well they went out of so potlatch managed the land for I I don't I'll say 50 years I don't know the number but they were managing the land they owned the land they paid the taxes and um then potlatch decided decided to get out of the land business. So, they
sold they were going to sell the wholesale sell their lands. They had 72,000 acres that they sold um and they sold it to this conservation fund. The conservation fund purchased it and uh with the plan to keep it in public hands
but to work to get it to the different counties to the state government. Um so, potlatch no longer owns the land. The conservation fund owns it and the state is in the process of purchasing their share of it and we need your support to
do that. Who funded the conservation purchase? Who who's the conservation fund is a nationwide organization. Government or individual? No, it's a it's a nonprofit profit organization. Y kind of like the land for public trust. Yeah, the land. So pot latch donated.
They got the tax pot latch sold it. It was their land. Yep. Pot sold it to the conservation group is giving it out to they're not giving it. The conservation fund's going to sell it. So the conservation fund had a goal of selling that land within 10
years and they're going to meet that goal. Then why are we accepting it without paying anything for it? This is the DNR. So the DNR is is uh is paying for it. What we're looking for from the county is a letter of support to say, "Yep, we support the DNR purchasing that
land." So every time the DNR or come is looking to buy land, they come to the county for for support because if they don't get county support, they have to go to another process to get to get this approved. Um the isn't it the the
auditor and the governor and the secretary of state in in this instance the different some of the funding is uh rim reinvest in Minnesota funding and when rim funding is used to purchase land the
count in in the county that it's purchased you need the county support or that rim funding won't Mitch is this a good thing to do for the Absolutely. Okay. I thought we were getting it. No, you didn't see that. You did. The county did get some of it. So, the county chose
the parcels they want. That was the one we did a couple months ago. Yes, we actually two two parcels I think down with you sometime. I don't want to waste time, but we will be getting pill payments for this. Y. All right. Do we have a motion to approve resolution 2D? We have a motion and a
second. We have a motion, second by Phil. Uh, any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I I All right. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Happy to talk. Will you leave your car in your office or something? I just You want to continue or do you want um I would like to get Denise done. Okay. And then we will take
a break. Okay. So Denise, please come up. We're going to talk about number eight, N 13 on the consent agenda. agreement. She did send it to me. I must have put the two Yeah. must have put the same one in twice. Yeah. This is Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you, D. I noticed that, too, but then I kind of just forgot about I started reading the second one the same. I thought it was a double. This is the partnership agreement. Is this a new brand new? It is a new
partnership agreement with the family resource center because they are brand new and just organizing. So, it's basically to enhance community services and provide resources for families and it outlines their great roles and responsibilities
and our roles and responsibilities. No. um money is changing hands. Not in this agreement. And the next one is five $5,000. $5,000. Yeah. So, one of the things that I think is important to know about family resource centers, it it is really important
for the the county to partner with um family resource centers just for them to be successful. So, what is the length of this agreement? It's continuous after the signing unless um we choose at some point to exit.
So either party can choose to exit correct with 30 days. So it's like every other with 30 days notice but it's continuous. Yeah. We don't have to revisit it every year. Start date and we continue until
end date unless terminated by either party within 30 days written. But there is no end date. There is no end date. What? You said it was reviewed. Brian, you reviewed it, right? I did. Okay. Should we put an end date on it or do you want to just re reward?
Well, then it should be rewarded. So, it does not have an end date on it. We'll continue until terminated by either party. 30-day written notice. Second. Where is that at? It's the second to last page under duration of agreement.
I'm fine with that. Yeah, the committee recommended. I can make a motion to approve the partner agreement with Cornerstone. I'll second. All right. Do we have any further discussion? All
right. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. All right. Motion carries. Then Denise, the next one would be the the cornerstone agreement is a allocation agreement for a one-time funds that we're providing to Cornerstone in the
amount of $5,000. And that's for and that's that was the same as in the packet. Y I think that just got pulled because it was doubled. Yep. So do we have a motion to approve that one? So moved. Second. Do we have any discussion? Just a
question that there is there a chance to re reapply to get another funds. The FFPSA one time. Um if yeah I think the FFPSA allocation funding is annually isn't it? We will to us or to the county. out of this allocation, it was
carryover funds that we had some extra funds to do what we wanted to do with and we determined that this was a good project and um just starting. So that's why we went this way. We could decide to fund more in the future, but th this
agreement is only for the one time. Okay. All right. So we have a motion and second. We have any more discussion? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All right. Motion carries. And then number 13, page 49. This is the Tri County Elder Abuse Multidisciplinary
Team umou. It has been in place um I tried to find a year. I couldn't find one, just more than 20 years. Um and basically the only thing that has changed from the last 20 years was that there are a few
partners who have exited and so um they changed the agreement based on that. And then also the U monthly meetings, the duration used to be 60 minutes. It's now 90 minutes. That's the only difference in the agreement at all. You don't know
what changes were to this agreement and the old one, which who entered or exited? I can tell you exactly who entered. Sure. Uh Becker County Attorney's Office has exited. Clearwater County Attorney's Office has exited. Manomomen County Sheriff's Office has exited. And White Earth Human Services
has exited. Okay. But there are still uh let's see 3 6 9 12 15 um entities for their that meet monthly for this purpose. Um did we The only other question is I'm
not familiar with it. So I'm sure Sheriff Blander is supportive of it at this time. Yeah. I'm not sure if this is the same use Becker County Sheriff's Department is on it. Sure. Yeah. Correct.
The Tri County, Becker, Clear Water, Manomomen, and White Earth Nation Elder Abuse Multi-disiplinary Team. Would you like it go to probably 17? Do you want it to go to committee or not or are you fine with it? I'm fine with
this. Okay. Okay. Um the only other question did we terminate the old agreements? Did do they need to come to us or are they terminated all the past ones? Are they terminating this a new one? I mean a new one. This takes the place of the old. Okay. Correct. Does it state that in there? Says any MDT
partner may terminate their participation with or with out cause notice will be deemed served on the date notices received by all partners. I'm just make sure we get rid of the old ones while we when we enact the new one. Yes.
Otherwise, thank you. Is there language that says this supersedes something? No problem. Shh. Bill talking. Anyway, just probably make sure that the old ones aren't aren't in effect. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'll make a motion to approve
this memorandum of understanding. So, we have a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second it. Okay. Motion by Erica, second by me. And um all in favor signify by saying I. I. I. All right. Motion carries. Thank you, Denise. All right. We will take a 6 minute break.
So, back here at 10:30. Zoom. Re re reassume. Whatever. Just we'll start our meeting again. Readjourn our meeting. I don't know if that's a word either. Where are we at? We are on Carrie administrator. She already finished her report. I think um
I just had a couple things to add. I I jumped in on uh the safety committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, just wanted to update the board. Um, I did attend several of the meetings for Jeff Ziegler. He was the speaker that was brought in that was sponsored by a few entities for his title is revitalize or
die. And we also had an on-site visit with him with some of our staff as well. Um, Adam Douglas and I were guest at the Rotary Club. Adam did most of the speaking with regards to emergency management. I think that went well and I think the rest of the things are on my
agenda here. Flip. So, the next item that I had um that is listed on here is the the Pelican River watershed storage building. I thought it might be helpful just to recap a little bit of history. We've talked about this before, but before um we were approached by the
watershed and a couple of the commissioners met through the NRM committee uh regarding their request to purchase of that building. If you recall, we've talked about some of the history of this before and there's a need for parking out at Dutton Lock. So, the history on that is in
1976 there's ACU act we acquired the 56 acres uh now known as Dutton Dutton Locks. There was a federal grant of 328 850,000 state 16,425 and a local match
from Pelican Watershed district for 16,425 on June 10th 1987 there was a permit for a storage building by the Pelican WHED so roughly is that 10 years later and then in August of 1987 is
that's when the building that we now know as the storage building for Pelican WHED went went up and what I saw on the permit was the cost of that was 5,770. Um so the committee met with again members of the Pelican WHED and um
I can certainly let the commissioners chime in, but they are looking to move from that location to a new location on County Highway 6 and are asking for financial support from the county. Um the other things that to perhaps take into consideration is that this building
was built in 1987. So probably what we would be looking at if if we did acquire that building again. I don't think there's any use for that building. It's aged. I think I did the math. I think it's about 38 years old. And there's also it was an unheated storage building
as well as utilities. From what I could find and when I spoke with Mary, I think the utilities were um covered by the county as well. And they did not pay any um lease agreements or anything for they built the they got permission to build the building on the land of utilities. There's lights in there. There's
electricity in there. Yes. I'd imagine the utility bill was probably minuscule. Yes. I just wanted There's nothing there except no heat paying for the monthly fee basically. basically beat a house.
Now, Richard and I, you know, we've been we've wanted as NRM committee wanted this property, you know, cleared for for since for years now. And we see the um and of course as we've evolved, we found
out that they have they had money in involved in this property. So um we my my stance evolved a little bit from that we shouldn't pay them anything to not yes we do owe them and we discussed you know just previously we were going to
have them let them keep the building there and put a door and a new and some new paving or not paving but new access to it on the north end which would cost us money anyway which would cost us and then we'd still have the building there.
Um, Rich and I met with a board member Charlie Jaskin and um I think they wanted more, we wanted less and we did settle in on we thought a fair number was 30,000. Um, Richard, anything to add? It will it
will make a a lot better parking area for if people are going to use that for any kind of party, you know, it's they're going to be part they be able to park close to it and carry their stuff. Um, and they they do have money in it and have had
money in it. And I would like us I think Carrie's going to talk about a a a work session for us for building stuff. And I and I think this this bill if we acquire this, I think short-term and long-term could be different. I mean, I don't know
if we need to I mean, in our time of crunch with all our space needs, it might be a stop gap for some equipment to be stored out there for a while, but I think we need to work through that. I think we need to I whichever way we go if we use it for a while or or move it
or demo it, it's a it's property that we need to have. I mean, we we should have that availability to do what we want out there. So, is is the watershed planning on vacating the building either way or are they going to if we don't if we
don't if let's just say we don't pay for I don't know if they would at this time, they might not. They might stay. Okay. Well, the problem is that building's notep proof and nor could they would have to put a lot of money into it and
you you they have some expensive boats and they have some expensive stuff and you can't just shove it in there. Well, I think the time I mean we want them out. Yeah, we do. And they've and they and just a year ago I think they were ready to stay but now they've seen well maybe we have a better spot. I think that that some of those new storage
buildings are better fit for him. Um actually more convenient for him. on County 6. Yep. Yep. They're right there. Easy in and out. If if we're we're either going to have to put money we will have to put money into the building to to make it accessible for them or we have to pay 30,000. Why Why do we have
to put the money into the building to make it accessible for them if we block their entrance? Yeah. If we want to use it for parking, which we do, which was our you know, we're going to we want to keep Oh, you probably weren't there that day, Erica, were you? When we looked at the shelters? Oh, no. I wasn't there. So, we decided to keep the other
shelter, too, because that that's in very good. No, we did not decide to keep the other shelter. We decided that we would consider that. Oh, no. We didn't. We decided to keep that shelter. They were looking for a specific direction and I asked all of you out there and we
said we were going to keep that building. Okay. It's not what I It's not my Oh, interpretation. Okay. Well, that's what I got out of my interpreted. Um either way we we we need this parking. I think I'll I'll clarify what I'm saying is we did not have any
direction on the board agenda that we had any decision making on that site. So no we did that's we did but even you were talking about opening it up. So I said I would assume that maybe you was going to be you know
any I'm I wasn't at the the Dun Mox tour. I have a hard time paying especially $30,000 for them to move out of county money for Pelican River Watershed which
is really it's not a countywide service. That's I agree with you also. Um our other option to block that entrance because it is their building and they've utilized it and we are partners with them in many things. We will spend $20,000 to retrofit a door
on the other side and the we'll have to make an approach for that area on the north side. We can have we can have additional parking, but it won't be I mean long term we will want that building out of there. I think there's a access to a fiber optic too that would if that
building wasn't there would come through the I mean where that building is. So there's numerous benefits. I when we started this process I was exactly the same. This is a Pelican watershed issue and we aren't going to pay anything. But I was with Barry on that. But looking I
still want that parking. It's right. It's very convenient. And um where would this money come from Barry? Well, we have numerous I mean we could use it out of the parks and recck fund, but I would I would look at using the most restrictive if there was any avenue to
reclaim that as a as a spot. And I asked Carrie to see if we could qualify in the gravel tax. I don't know that we can, but maybe part of it. Um, Mary, quit laughing. I guess I guess from my perspective, I would like for us to find out how much
it's going to it would cost to make the improvements for them to stay. And I would not approve anything above what that would cost if it or I mean I I I don't I don't think we should be putting any extra money.
What was the for a building that we're just going to take down? What was the numbers? They they donated or ma grant matched 16,000 482 and then they paid for the building 57 something for the building.
And that equals what? Uh roughly three 22 one plus they had no rent for no rent years no rent and no and and and no electricities minimum um right can we go Mr. Chair uh Richard and and Barry as
far as finding the money to pay for this you feel you can do that um with NRM can be on NRM funds there's it can't be from NRM it could be it's getting skinny but parks and wreck.
Do we have money in parks and wreck? That's what I We're not Our balance is over 100, isn't it, Steve? It's it's it's balancing how important this is compared to some other things. I mean I I I don't know what are the things we got in the hopper that not
trying to spend your budget but we have some cost Mr. Chair, I I move to I'm going to make a motion to uh use $30,000 to spend uh to pay to the
watershed to um help them move out of their move off the Dun Lock site. Um second, Mr. chair. Um I I would maybe clarify that just saying uh for the for
the aband purchase and abandonment of their rights to the Dunlocks building and area. So we have a motion amended. We have a motion second. We amend. Okay. Um discussion. I just I just want to make note. Yeah. We This isn't just for the purchase. We're going to spend
$30,000 to purchase the building. And how much are we going to spend to get rid of the building? Well, we're going to try and give it away. Um, I mean, we can try, but we just got done saying this is a building that isn't in good shape. It's Well, actually, it it's it
is it's worth salvageable. It is salvageable. The rafters are good. The tin is good. Now, if you want the big thing is to keep rodents out of it, and it would cost a lot of money to keep rodents out of that old building. So, that's part of the problem. And it's in a bad spot. Um and and that would really
be a nice parking. Well, Mr. Chair, I've made some inquiries about moving that and I do have someone who is interested. Um I I would like to say that coming coming into this from finance, I I was not in support. Um but listening to
Barry and Richard because I know you guys weren't in support originally. No, we weren't. Um, and I I think I understand now what we need to do. So, I I I am in support now. I I've changed my mind. I I I don't like
paying $30,000. Well, we you can throw say $30,000, but we're paying probably an additional $10,000 to get that build to get them completely abandon their rights and any any building up. Yeah. So, and and and I and I and I know we want to you utilize that property. And I
think the key is abandon any rights or claims to the property. Yeah. In the future. Yeah. And Mr. Chair, they have to accept that as well. The wershed does. I mean, this isn't a done deal. They have to accept their end of it. Correct. And they will because they really want they really want a new building for their new boat. They, you
know, they don't want rodents in their boat. And it's just it it seems like such a change. I mean it wasn't but two three months ago we were here and they were asking us to not ask them to leave and now they were approaching us asking
us to give them money to leave. So I'm my part of it changed when I really looked at we are short of parking out there about my mother carrying a casserole down the hill cuz that's where the other parking's going to be and or
up the hill or up the hill. So I I don't know and and it's yeah I when I went out there too I I looked and I I realized that we do need that for parking pretty immensely. The other the other thing to consider is what a parking space what
the value of a parking space is. You know, like in the city limits or you know what we get charged from the city for one parking space if we can't adequately it's well when we did the courthouse it was $15,000 per spot that we were short. Um back recollection what
did what did we pay Mary for the shortcoming of this parking lot? $450,000 because we couldn't come up with enough parking spaces in the so we paid that's what we paid the city for parking spaces. So parking is a commodity. Sorry Carrie. Mr. Chair, I
just have two comments if I may. Um for the funding for this when Mary and I met on this um we do have some fund balance in the local and tribal the legacy that fund. Okay. So potentially that could come out of that fund. Um a and then there was a request by um Stephen by
Mitch with regards to if this is approved and we do move forward on this that you know obviously we put some timelines on this and we would like to do this have them vacate and we can certainly work with them moving to their new location sooner than later so because they do need the parking. Did I
capture that correctly? Okay. All right. So we have a motion and a second. Do we have any further discussion? I think I think the motion and second maybe we should clarify that this offer is good to accept for so long
and then maybe put a deadline when it should when they should close to be out of the premises maybe. Okay. What is your I mean they should they should accept on it within what's their next meeting or tomorrow. Oh well we have to give them more in tomorrow. Yeah they
would. Yeah, I you know, maybe they have it on their agenda, but give them 45 days. Maybe July one, June, the June meeting. Yeah, July um accept or denied July one and be out within 60 days. Is that okay? Well, if they're going to I mean close within or
get get out of there within 60 days after acceptance. When when is their June meeting? Is it third Wednesday? So, maybe say, "Hey, that's the day they accept or deny." And then they have to be out by 60 days after that. By their third meeting in June. I don't know why
we got to give them 60 days. I mean, pulling a boat down six. There's nothing. I mean, well, that if they get if they get a place to put it that we're being general, they have to secure they have to secure the 30 days after that. 30 days, 45 days. We just want it sooner
than We just want to have a timeline. So, it's not on just having a date, an end date finalized. They'll do it right away, I'm sure. Yeah. Okay. What are the dates? How many days are we July 1 and August one? All right. So amended. Okay. And is that good with the
second? All right. All right. So we have a motion and a second with that amendment. Do we have any further discussion? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. I. All right. Motion carries. Right. Mr. Chair, I was I was hoping
that I'd have better updates on legislative matters. However, I believe so. Yeah. No, not so much. Uh since early this morning, as you probably all know, um there was not uh a budget. Kind of sounds like they took the day off
yesterday. I know. Well, yeah, the last message I had was early early in the morning was that um yes. So, it looks as though a special session will be coming. Um so, I don't have a really a lot. There were some and I do have a list of
some bills, budget bills that did go uh that were forwarded under the governor for um consideration for signature and then budget bills that are outstanding if anybody and I can certainly send you out a list if you would like that. So that's really all I have on legislative
updates. The last item that I have is regarding um the board approving a financial planning strategy session um in a contract with Ryan Seager. Um I have
been communicating with him and he would like to come on site all day a week from today. I believe the date is May 27th. Y and I do have a tenative schedule. I haven't sent that out to department hands or to you all is I what I would
like to do is schedule a special special session uh for this board to for the kickoff at our normal time at 8:15 for 90 minutes. It would really be a work session. Now I know there was some prior discussion about potentially having a
close session for acquisition of our some property. I can certainly piggyback that on that meeting as well if that's needed. Um, so I just would like your consensus that that's that date will work. Do we know
what time? 8:15. 8:15. And how long are we thinking? Um, I suggested to him 90 minutes. Okay. And then I again I did work with him and put together a tenative schedule that I do have. I just haven't sent it out. It was really what I did was kick off with this board and
then meetings with um departments. The bigger departments obviously have some slotted time individually with him and then uh I lumped the smaller departments of courthouse um in as one and that pretty much will run us all day. I know
um there has been some I I know you were suggesting perhaps that you would like to sit through Bill as far as uh several of the sessions and I think that that would be perfect. I I really want this to work. I want this to be successful. I do not want this to be what Barry described is what you I don't want that
to happen. So I'm I'm very vested in this. I think this can really help us. So yes, I would. So what what I would suggest is that we have a special meeting on the 27th at 8:15 and then we also have a close session at the at the
towards at the end of the meeting to to discuss number five and six from Car's the the land uh purchases and leases. And I just want to or a close session. Did I say close? Yeah, close session. And I just wanted to I I started this conversation again when we're talking
about um potential lease agreements. I did briefly talk with uh Mr. McDonald's on the break and he um if I'm misstating this, please correct me is with regards to the language and closing and the ability to close meetings. I don't believe we can do it for lease
agreements, but he's going to look if we can. come out and discuss it at that time. Then same. Correct. So either way, it'll be on the agenda whether or not we can actually talk about what we're going to respond to the RFP as far as a dollar amount. If we can do that in close session, we certainly I'll take the
direction from Mr. McDonald. If not, otherwise I think at our last board meeting, we did authorize you the authority to negotiate it. And and the other the other thing that we could do is we could authorize Carrie to negotiate a It's not negotiable. It's a
written Oh, that's It's a written rate and after that meeting just for clarification I did get the response which I included is that the city made up according to their own policy um they wanted written requests they so they sent out the RFP
which I didn't have that information so the amount of the lease is in there anyway we're not hiding anything so there's no thus no need for a close session right other than we may be in competition with others the problem is is we have it's a request for proposal so we will we'll have a dollar amount with the proposal which is will be
public and then someone after that gives a dollar more dollar more and they get it. That's not public. That's Yeah, that's not public. So that's the issue. All right. So So is it Do we have Do we need a motion to have us that meeting next Tuesday or do we need a We just I
was just planning on noticing it. Um just wanted to update. We have to public it. Yes. Yes. It'll be a special meeting that we will Have you talked about any other leased property that the county owns owns to lease it out? If there are any opportunities for us to lease any I think there are some I think it just
really depends on how we um come out of that meeting. Yes. Okay. Yes. Um the last thing I just wanted to put on your radar, we do have an AMC district meeting in Fergus Falls on Friday, June 9th. 6 month three days. Um and it's in
Fergus Falls June 6. Yeah. Hopefully we'll have some legislative updates for that. I would I I hope so. Do we have to public that to it? It's already they public. Yeah, it's already out. I plan on going. Okay. You don't have the agenda as well. All right. So, is that
is that all that is all I have. Okay. Um I had one more comment for Carrie. Something that we've been working on um down in Cormand or on Big Corman Lake Wormager Beach there is a community um septic system. It's been there. I mean,
it's it's huge. Richard probably been down there and worked on it. It's it's uh they started it when they built this whole beach. It's a community lagoon system. I mean, it it's as big as some cities, but um we have found and so
they're having problems now that we we don't have our documentation that when it started, we have all the docu everyone adding in all the time and that's approved. But we don't have that that initial we can't find that initial document. Um
obviously it started and we approved it because it it um it's been approved ongoing. So I'm just wondering if there's if there's a way because now the MPCA covers those open lagoons for and and they'd be fine if they if we had that
original paperwork, but we can't seem to find it. Now they're wondering if maybe the water should had it. But I'm what I'm wondering with this board is to be aware of it and to and we'd have to work with um the attorney's office and administration, but we ob it obviously
was a county approved system and how we can because we've we've added on to it 30 times since then. Um but we can't don't have that paperwork at this time. Did you look at the attachments that were sent? Yes. Okay. Um but there's
nothing from the original approval. Right. So, we're we're going to still dig a little deeper in the minutes, but um I suggested say, well, we can acknowledge that this wasn't approved. It obviously was approved through the zoning administration at that time
because we've added on to it as approved to the system. So, every time it was added on to it was approved, right? But we can't find that. So, and there was a study that was done that was in I'm just asking or making the board aware that we are looking into how to how we can acknowledge that this was an approved
system back in 1969 or 1970 when that was going on. And I think that, you know, when I looked at all of that information and I also spoke with Kyle and we could certainly ask Kyle when he comes in, but um as it was explained to me is that there's rules today that probably perhaps weren't in existence
back then with regards to these lagoons. So the MPCA, I think that's where the issue is coming. Yes, I think they might be exempt, but we have to somehow state that this was an improved system to the to the specs that of the day, not
today's Yeah. And I and I we don't have any record of that. We don't have that record. Well, and I think that the question that's coming into play on this particular project is the original um what was approved on this particular system was a certain amount of homes and then they've continued to be added. So,
I I would assume that that opens the door. So that's what they want to know is how many were originally a start date. I don't I don't know exactly what they need to know, but they want to know that it was a approved system when when it started. They're having trouble selling homes down there now. No,
they're not. Huh. That's what I was told by them. Well, they're the ones built the home and they they can't get added on until they get something some kind of clearance that it's in compliance. So that would be maybe where the trouble that's where the trouble's coming. Okay. Well, this was last year that I
was I would I would just state that probably something different. We have to figure out what we can I mean we we've been approving these all along and and I just want to make the board aware that we might have to say while but we don't have the documentation where we are sure that it was approved at that date
because it was a big development for that day and age. It was huge um because we've added on to it. We have 30 documents showing we added that house to this. Well, there's got to be something in a newspaper that has that in it. I mean, right. And the study indicates
that the uh proposed lagoon was a better option than all those individual septics. So, anyway, okay, let's let's move on to uh number nine. We added that resolution 2H to uh Oh, yeah. So, Mary, do you want
to Motion to approve 2H? Okay. Second. All right. Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All right. Motion carries. I wasn't ready. That's right. Motion by Barry, second by Erica. All right, let's move on to human resources. We're not too late.
Good morning. So, I have a couple of items in front of you today. The first is a settlement agreement from there was a grievance filed by LES deputies union um for some ambiguous language um from
that was added the last negotiation. So, this is to clarify the language and give a onetime lumpsum payment to the deputies that did not receive it in the first place. And that was the um emergency manager position, the deputy
investigator positions, and the positions of baleiff. Um and then I did hand out the numbers for those for that one time lump sum. We we already met in a close session about this, correct? Yeah, that's what I
thought. I'll make a motion to approve the settlement agreement. I'll second that. So, any further discussion? All right. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All right. Motion carries. The second item that I have before you are some
revisions to the benefit committee bylaws that was originally established in 2022 and has not been updated since. So since then, um, originally it was put under the county administrator and Carrie and I did have a conversation on this and felt it was better aligned
under the HR department because benefits truly do fall there. Uh, as well as adding in, we have had a new union added since then, which is the LS essential administrators. So adding that and then would like to update our appointments
that the board appoints to the committee as well. Um, I did reach out to everyone that we currently had appointed that were still here because there have been some people that have left since and it was determined that only one position wanted to stay appointed to the board and that
was um, Jessica Weedmire. Then I reached out to Tony uh, Bomb Bamer. I think he is in it. Um, he would like to be appointed as well. And then for the department head and supervisors, Brent Bristlin, Holly
Danielson, and Jonah Jacobson were the three that I reached out to there as well. Do you need motion to appoint them after the agreement or not? Correct. So these positions are supposed to be appointed by the county board. So we want to change the pol change amend the
policy and then appoint then correct then appoint the people. Yes. And then the other the representatives from each collective bargaining unit we do not appoint. Correct. I have reached out to each of the unions to clarify their
appointments because those also have not been updated since this was originally established. Um I've heard back from the majority of the unions, but there I'm waiting on a couple. Okay. So, first what we need to do is approve the Yep. revision by revisions. So, make a motion
to approve the revisions to the bylaws. Do we have a motion by Erica? Do we have a second? Second. All right. Second by Barry. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All right. Motion carries. Then we need a motion to approve appoint. So we just list those
again. Yep. So department head supervisor appointments uh Brent Bristlin, Holly Danielson, and Jonah Jacobson. Okay. And then non-supervisory non-bargaining uh Tony Bamer. I think I'm going to say Bamer. He's from my team and then
Jessica Weeder. Do we also need to add the two you two commissioners that are on that too? Yeah, Barry and I are on it. Yeah, that's already established. So, I wasn't I wasn't bringing that forward. I do. We have a motion to approve those department head appointments and supervisor. All right, we have a second. I'll second. All in
favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Uh, Steve and Mitch. Morning. Morning. Morning. Morning. Three items today. Uh, first you are
accepting donations for improvements at Clock County Park. Resolution 05252 is correction on that. We have two
donations funds for shelterations shelter Lake Region Veterans Color Guard $1500 and also here that should be included on the
following accept this donation. I'll move to accept the resolution 5252E with the with moving the Melissa Sally Association to the other resolution. So we have second. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion? Okay. All in favor signify
by saying I. I. I. All right. Motion carries. I'll move to accept the resolution 05252F with the addition of the Melissa Sally Association for the donation to the picnic tables. Second. Um a motion to second. I would
like to list off those names. So it it's from the Detroit Lakes Breakfast Rotary Club for $1,500, the Detroit Lakes Lion Club for $1,000, the Detroit Lakes Area Community Foundation for 3,000, the Rotary International for 750, and then
the Lake uh Melissa Sally Foundation for 1,500. Is that okay with the motion? All right. Any discussion? What's in the resolution? It's in the resolution. It doesn't matter. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries.
Last item is resolution changing the pay scale for the seasonal operator from $20. Mr. Chair, I'll move to increase the pay scale for the tram operator at Dunlocks County Park from $20 to $21. 2G. 2G.
Second. All right. Any further discussion? All right. All in favor signify by saying I I. Motion carries. Thank you. Um I I I I think we should clarify before you two guys leave about the old shelter there, Barry. Um I I I mean I
gave direction I thought we gave direction to these guys to look for some windows to see how to fix up the old shelter out there. I think we gave direction to bring us back some costs. Yeah. But that's all we did. Yeah. It okay I would like to further the
discussion ultimately needs to anything needs to come in committee and approved at the board level before we can make any decisions. Okay. So why are we doing this if if there's a
potential for tearing down the shelter? Why would we even do that? We're not tearing down the shelter this time. Okay. So then if we're not tearing down the shelter, are we going to leave the shelter there? I think we I think we bring back a proposal and and cost estimates on what what different options
would be and then we decide not how to rem it was my understanding when we were out there that the reason to go out there was to consider and look at that. I mean I I was under the understanding that that shelter was going to stay. I didn't
know we needed to vote on that. It was to consider and look at it, but then we need to come back and vote on it. Then then we need to vote on it here. Yeah. Okay. Well, I think there's options available and I think they were pointed out if you want to want to um
cuz how you want to open that end up, if you want to keep it open or put windows or keep it all open. I think those and that's we need to find out those costs on on on if you can take it completely apart. So, Commissioner Nelson, the shelter is
not coming down. It may be re renovated because I mean, we just approved the Veterans Color Guard to spend $1,500 on something in that shelter. We accepted a donation for for improvements on it. Yes. I I don't know
if it was for the old shelter. Did it specifically say the old shelter? New shelter's built. Yeah. I I I I really feel like I'm in the mud here because I've kind of told you guys that that shelter was going to stay. I thought we all talked about that out there except Erica. I think it's I'm
with you, but but I didn't know there was a chance that Well, I think the discussions happened very well out there and I and I think everyone saw the I think there's disagreement on how they stay. Yeah, I think we I I I think my my my
interpretation is that we all want it to stay. It's just how we going to have it stay. What does it look like? And that's what we need. We need to we need to find out and then we'll and the price I really get up in the air. I'm good with that.
All right. Um All right. Nothing else for you, too. Thank you. Um Mr. Sheriff Flander. Morning. Good morning. Morning, Mr. Chair. Two items related to the same
subject. First one is I'm requesting to sell our 2012 Yamaha EPD public auction. And with that goes into number two. But I guess I need permission to sell it first. I
would pro probably get to buy one first before you sell your old one. But I think the discussion was um with the grant monies available that have to be spent um it should be a a a should not cost us anything or very minimal with
the difference between the grant funds and the sale price of the old one. Yeah, it should be I have I have $5,61.93 and our ETV grant that we need to use by the end of June, June 30th. Um, with that, um, the average retail on
the 2012 Yamaha is 51 5,185. I also have money budgeted for an ATV. We're hoping to save money budgeted, though. That's that's why we'd like to do it. Yeah. Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to sell the 2012 Yamaha
ATV at public auction and and u request or to to bid to buy to purchase the 2025 Sportsman 570 for the low low quote uh 9909 from Okus and off. Yeah, I'll second. We have a motion second. Do we
have any more discussion? Um just to be clear, um if that those funds don't cover it to take out of the budgeted reserve, budgeted line item. Yep. Is that good for the second? Yes. Yeah. Okay. All right. As amended. All right.
Um all in favor signify by saying I. I. All right. Motion carries. Uh Commissioner Yeah. Uh or That's fine, Mr. Chair. Uh Todd, do you do you have a list of all of the items uh other than squad cars, all of the things we have? Do you got a do you got a list? Is that
easily attainable? I'd like to see the list of all the things we have, the accessories. Do we do we have that? Like the accessories for the equipment or talking inventory. Talking inventory. Not like squad cars. I'm talking about
like the things we bought trailers. No, not toys. These are not toys. These are accessories. But do we have a list to all that? I'd like to see that at some point. I know Mary sends out a list every year as far. Okay. Okay. All right. Thanks. Thank
you. Thank you, Todd. Thank you. Um, planning and zoning. Kyle, Kyle, we were just touching base earlier on that Warmoger Beach septic lagoon system. Have we found anything that original yet? I sent them a heck of a
document. I guess he's reviewed it, I think, at all. And there was only and then your office sent a couple more sheets in there. Um, um, who was it sent to? The gentleman in charge of uh the Warmonger Beach Lago septic system. They have a they have a
little board. Okay. Um but we might have we looked in the minutes from the board minutes from back in then I believe in that correspond was there some board minutes? Have to double check. There was staff put together a timeline all the way from the 70s.
I'm not I don't want to call it irrelevant what happened in the 70s, but the bottom line is the state is in charge of that and if they find that non-comp that, right? But but we all we can do is say that this this was an improved system in the day for
the day standards, right? And even if it wasn't or was or these people, some of them have hooked up illegally or some of them haven't hooked up illegally. I've had correspondence with the MPCA. Basically, what they told me is that they're going to make an exception to the current house that was built.
They're going to allow him to hook up. Then they're going to have dialogue with that beach on improving that. Okay. Upgrading it. What that upgrading the se the current sector? I'm going to guess, you know, it's 54 years old, so
it's probably run its course. I don't know the I don't know the the cycles of lagoon systems. I don't know what how they I don't know what how they operate, right? So, and I I mean I don't want to make assumptions that it's not going to pass,
but that way again they said they would make exception. Um but The state gets involved anytime you have over 10,000 gallons per day. Normally you would have that on like very large restaurant or something. So normally
that stuff is all going to be in the city. Um so where we've run into that is a community system such as this which this one I think if we average it at like three bedrooms and 39 homes is 17,000 gallons per day. Um there's only
like one there's probably about three of these that I can think of. Fern beach one. Um Ravenswood um Parkplace is probably over it. Yeah. And then a few but at the 10,000 gallon threshold
we're so again I mean I don't want to make assumptions that they're going to have to No, we just want to provide them with what information we have. We did do that. Um, we can Yeah, we'll we'll keep working.
Yeah, it's for that Warmonger Beach one. So, thanks. All right, let's go on to Okay. Um the last at the last zoning ordinance advisory committee meeting
which was uh Wednesday the 7th uh we had a discussion on how amendments get to that group. I'll explain that group to a few of you because you've never been a part of it. Um the zoning ordinance advisory committee is made up of five members, one from each of your
districts. Um they are appointed by you. Um and basically their task is to review and vet um amendments to the zoning ordinance. Um they convene at leisure. Um I didn't consider leisure. Yeah.
Right. Um but again so we we had some topics there. Obviously some topics are going to be less controversial than others. Um but basically what the group had asked or they tabled the last
conversation was was in regards to lake lot size classifications. Um what the group directed me to do was come before you and see how you would like to proceed um now and in the future with amendments um that would be more
probably significant um in nature. Um so just looking for that direction. The ordinance does say um for text amendments who may request one. Um the a petition can come from a real property owner. Doesn't say where. Um but I would
assume Becker County, but it says of actual property. A recommendation of the county planning commission or the county board. um ordinance does outline how and where those recommendations are to take place.
The planning commission is a designated um body to hold the public hearing um and their recommendation is to be sent to you and it takes four fifths of this body to enact an amendment. So it takes a super majority. Well, I think
the some of the things that are on this I felt this board has to be behind the change before we before we do all the work to bring to to bring back here. I mean because it's it's a lot of work
and I and I if you remember I told you at our last meeting this is big. This is big. This this project is significant. So, I don't know, you know, through this whole comprehensive plan and ordinance
re review, I think we've we went in a couple circles myself. I don't think we've accomplished much um with the money that we spent. We've got a comp plan that that has changed some things, I think, for the better. So, we can do some administrative things maybe. Is
that accurate to say instead of um but we have not addressed the the ordinances the ordinances now are coming before us. We wanted addressed four or five specific things specifically penalties
for um shore impact zone dis use um bed and breakfast uh feed lots was one of them and solar and wind. I mean, so those things were the things we wanted to get ahead of and and we haven't I mean, we've done a couple of them because they were right in front of us. We had to do something. I think we did
the feedback one, right? Yeah. So, so, so go ahead. Well, it's just that when we're looking I mean now we're going we're in the short the DNR standards and and uh we the first ones we went through we're trying to marry what we
have into the estab into the blueprint of the DNR's the state's minimum requirements. Um and I thought the first one we we included things that made us more restrictive which were good fits. I think everyone had a good
feeling of those. Then we came to the second meeting and now we're now we're looking at lot sizes on and specifically environmental lakes. Um but these are significant changes and these will these will
um these will be the public will have a lot of input on these. So, I wanted to I feel and I think the board members agreed that this board has has to direct that if you want these addressed or not. And Mr. Chair, um just Barry and I sit
on this committee. Barry, I I I recognize your experience. You've been through this before. Uh to me, I think it be should be coming the direction should be coming from Kyle. Hey, you guys need to consider this. These are some things I'm seeing on the front line
in the county. If we're going to make some changes, which has to be approved by four fifths, I'm thinking it should be coming from there. What what what is wrong with that? Because he's the one who's on the front line seeing all of this. Well, Kyle is certainly the zoning official from way back has always
brought things that are that are prudent to efficiencies within the office to change. So, we and we make those better. This rises to a level. This is not This is a policy. This is This is a policy. Zoning ordinance. Yeah. A zoning ordinance policy that is significant
enough that if you're going to change it, you're going to have a lot of people talking to you about it. I don't think I don't think some of these are opinions. This this lot size is an opinion. Now, you can back it by science and technology saying it's good or you can
back it by, you know, you're you're infringing on I mean property rights. These are this is not an administrator saying well this will make it you know easier for me in the office. I mean yeah this is this is policy. The the department heads are not responsible for
directing policy. This is policy. I think the difference here is typically the zoning ordinance would be Kyle bringing us something saying hey we're seeing a lot of variances for this. Can we consider this? What you're saying and he he brings those Keep going keep
going. What you're saying, Barry, is this is something we want. We've addressed in our comp plan that we need to bring forward and have Well, we're not bringing anything to Kyle. We're bringing it. How are you going to know what to bring to our boards? We I
mean, Kyle's the one on the front line that knows what's going on out there. I have one question be before we keep going. Currently, right now, the public meeting is at planning and zoning. And I think and we and we think or I or I don't know your your perspective is
the public meeting should be here. No. Well, I'm fine with pro I'm do you want to go down this road on on do you want to change the lot sizes on mostly environmental lakes if you want to have the board look or have the committees and the process to go through the
process to re to I speculate reduce the lot sizes on environmental lakes then do we say yes we we agree with this I I said it to me I said I don't know which way I feel I mean it can but this is such a significant policy change. It
should be coming. You should be aware of this before it comes on your back door and saying now you got people calling you and you don't understand what they're asking. You should. But just as I stated, the first mechanism is a petition from the public. That's one option. That's an option. That's one option, right?
But those the anybody who asks um and for uh Commissioner Jeepson has an individual in hers that's been asking for a height um deal forever. Height can be very controversial around lakes. Um I
can tell you that. But so when do we determine I can't stop him from I I can't come here and ask you because he's already asked and it should have to be considered now by ordinance. Well, if he's contacted this board, it's considered. No, I mean he sends me it
and by ordinance we have to consider it. You don't get to approve that is what where does this have to be considered? Right in the or I just read. Who has to consider it? Planning commission. Does it state the planning commission or the ordinance committee? Because we've we've exated a lot of them at ordinance committee. I just read it and it's
planning commission. who I outlined who may do it and how and where it goes and then ultimately where it ends up and what the majority is. I don't know. But the intent of that is not to have everyone being able 30,000 people submit a letter and it has to take time at
planning and zoning meeting. I think it probably is. I think your constituent should be able to probably I if I me myself if I would like something considered I'd hope somebody would. Well, you certainly hope you certainly have an avenue to come to the board or come to discuss, but you you do not have
a chance to be on the formal agenda just because one person sent puts out a saying I want I want wakeboards eliminated from all lakes. Well, the right now that's the way it is. That's all I'm saying. So, this lot size is on environmental lakes. How did this come
about? So, we looked at the the DNR model shoreline ordinance um with the chairman of the advisory committee who is Scott Wells um Roger Hempill, DNR hydraologist and Ed Clem and we I met with them in maybe January, February at the beginning
of this and um they suggested that we look at this model shoreland ordinance. Um well with the change from Pelican River um and giving us back that authority um it seemed like a good time to review our shoreline rules. Um so the DNR model
shoreline ordinance is 28 pages. So the first meeting we looked at vegetation alterations and land alterations, bluffs, bluffs. Um and then the direction of the the committee was to look at a ne the next section, have me
show them where we differ from the state and put it in a document and and that's what I did. So we're going to look at it section by section. Um and the next one just happened to be this. I think I think what was done we we
we try to incorporate and that one that one fit very well. But I just want to make sure this board's aware these are significant significant changes that will fill this room up if you want to change them and if you drastically want to change them. I mean, I don't think
these are, but we're at a time now that our rules that we're going to I mean, I think we're going to have to have more staff in planning and zoning because I I think we're going to take on more um enforcement and more checking with with Pelican wershed. And where do you think that public meeting should be then? I
mean, the public I mean the public the process is already set. That's fine. I'm just saying is this is this something how we want to go about it? Is this a a is this a subject that you want to change? Do you want to do you want to go go down from a
a 350 ft requirement on a tier three environmental lake down to 200 ft or have the committee look at that and with some restriction? I mean with changes to I mean you you should this board has to say I am I think this should be
reviewed and I'm fine with reviewing it but I just I think you you guys have to everyone has to be aware of this before we bring something back to us and now you're sitting in with a room full of people and you're like what are we what are we in what is this for? Yeah. So, so the process now is somebody can petition
or Kyle can have see something in an ordinance that technically no I can't. It's not even in the ordinance. It's by the general public by petition by the planning commission or this board. So the the advisory committee is not mentioned anywhere in our okay in our
planning. So it comes from three spots to go to the advisor. This is the comp plan is not regulatory. So it's by ordinance. So, so the so those three where does it go after it it comes from one of those three spots to the planning commission. Yes. Okay. So, it should
there should be some step the advice. Yeah. Yeah. I think we review the process cuz I don't I don't I mean we have a process that we're using. I think if if someone has a petition that wants to look at it, I think it comes I think you come to the board if the board has
an appetite for it or not. I mean, if someone wants to ban ban all boating on every lake in the county, I mean, I think this board can easily say we're not interested in looking forward. So, what I just want to clarify, I understand what you're saying, Gary, is what you think is before the zoning
ordinance committee or advisory committee looks at it, we should it should come to the board to say this is an ordinance we want to look at. Do you agree that this should be looked at? Whether it comes from the planning commission, the petition,
or it's a us saying, Kyle, the board wants you, the zoning ordinance advisory committee, to look at this ordinance. Well, I think there's two things here. One, I think the process I think is flawed. I think we I think we have to
look at that. But is that in our ordinance? How the the process that you read, is that what's written in our ordinance now? So I I I don't think one individual has a right to be to to have an audience at at any time. I mean I I I don't have
a problem and someone coming here open form and suggesting things or or working us to get that, but I think those come from from us if the planning and zoning I mean that's a different subject. But I I don't know. I I didn't want to blindside the board coming go through this process and all of a sudden Yeah.
you're you're you are going to be directing making if somebody files of their Yes. If somebody files a petition, does it does it go through your office? It would. Yeah. I've never seen one, but yes. I I just I don't know. I don't know
what's right or wrong here. I just I I want this board to be if I may offer just a tidbit of information as well. There was a memorandum that was uh written in 21 with regards to the duties this may clarify this may mudd the waters I'm not sure duties of the the
ordinance committee and it says the zoning ordinance advisory committee shall review and make recommendations to the county planning commission on their findings on the following applications text amendments to the zoning ordinance but what we're saying is the the county
board should direct the advisory committee to do that to go to the planning commission. That's that is that kind of the well in the past in the past significant things would the board board board members and I think that's where the one board member I think that's I think it was meant to be one board
member can ask for things to be considered. I don't I don't recall it being one individual one but I don't so how do how how do we address as Kyle mentioned the height buildings that well if I may the the
what I would request is and what we issued with the RFP for the comp plan was a complete rewrite that's what was set out in spring of 23 and that was the goal so I mean I don't know if you want
to look at this section by section, but that ordinance has been amended, I'm going to estimate, 40 times if you look at the front page. Um, it conflicts with each other. It's hard to interpret. Um, it's not very public
friendly and I'm not here to debate Bolton and Minkx, you know, how well they did, but the the idea was to have both, right? And we didn't get that. Um, so then we wanted to begin that process of again looking at the entire ordinance. Um, Mr.
Mr. Chair, I think the impetus for me as a new member for some of this was with with the watershed taking over the rules, I wanted to make sure that the rules, you know, we could handle what was coming before us and you had said we could and I think that was what the the
reasoning why this kind of started. We started reviewing some of these things. Um, is that still necessary, Kyle? I think yeah, that I mean, in many ways, we're more, as I tried to explain, we're more
restrictive than than the water shed was on vegetation alterations. Um, and I think it needs to be discussed if, you know, the Pelican River, you know, just went through a big rule revision. Um, and that seemed to be some of that was
supported by many people. And if we're going to be much more restrictive than that, what that was just supported and rewrote, I think we should consider looking at it. And some of that falls in line with the shoreline ordinance. So, do you anticipate mapping every lake annually on from the shoreline from the
boat access? Do you do that currently? No. If if you'd like, uh, we certainly can. Well, I mean, that's what wersheds do. They they monitor usage. I mean they you can take a drone and fly around the lake and monitor and if there's a significant change that's not approved, that's how they catch. We are at this
time we are a complaint complaint driven checkpoint or nothing more than that. Um so I mean are we going you know we we have the rules but do we have the enforcement or the monitoring? We don't.
So, and if we do that, we need more. But that that's another topic. I know. And and I think we should address that. But so we need to address how how we go about this zoning ordinance. Do we wait for someone to come to us in petition complaint or whatever and do it or do we
start at the board level? I don't know how to start it at the board level. So unless one of my neighbors comes down and said, "Hey, you should look at this. Hey Kyle, we should look at that." That's the only way that I would know to do that. That's usually what happens. Height. The height. Can we Okay, let's take that to zoning ordinance. We added
we increased height. We took away our restrictions the process anyway. Is is this one reducing it? It's increasing it again. So what is So what I'm hearing is and maybe I'm totally wrong is we need someone to bring it to us. Maybe it's
Kyle goes through Kyle. We decide as a board if we want it to go to the ordinance review committee. They review it. They make a recommendation to the plan commission. Then it comes back to us. Then there's a public meeting and it comes back to us, right? I mean, I think we should I mean, I don't know if it has to come to the board, but I think I
think if it's significant. Now, we don't know what's I mean, yeah, we're not going to play that significant. thing the thing about what you mentioned about the complete rewrite it was a when I can when we contracted the Bolton Mang to to go through this our ordinances this
was combine understanding our ordinances and write them so we could follow our current ordinances this wasn't making up new ordinances this wasn't changing ordinance this was making a document that was good well read that we could follow and and get and anyone could
figure out what they need to do. That's what my interpretation is. When you rewrite something, it's using the current information, the current standards and we wanted to add four or five. We mentioned that and and we didn't get that. Now, I think Kyle's trying to rewrite that. Correct me if I'm wrong. You're trying to rewrite that
and we are going through the we are going through the items individually, what we want to look at, what we want to enhance. But I think this this one just rose to a top where I'm like, you know, if if this come I mean if we do this it should be it should be very open
transparent to the public that we are considering some of these changes and I think this board has to be aware of that before it gets back to us and and we're like whoa whoa whoa this this was where we I mean I would agree because I remember at the comp plan planning
commission meeting the people that were lined up to speak Many were there to speak about wakeboarding and um feed lots, but there were also a great deal that were there concerned that we were making the lots on lakes
smaller actually. Changing changing zoning zoning. Y but I mean there is a lot of there's a lot of things in here that need to be looked at. Parking is a major one. Signs are a major one. I mean there I don't want to just say it's housekeeping. Like I said, what I would
like to request is a at least a complete review. Um, and which I think will turn into a rewrite, but So, do you think Kyle that would be best done in a work session with the whole board? Sit here.
It'll be days long. Well, well, it's like I it my recommendation is it needs to happen. Yes. Maybe we should have a maybe we should if you could give the 20,000 foot view of the topics to be discussed and then then we kind of have
a consensus that Yes. Okay. I think that's a good idea. You know, not the details, but I don't mean I don't mean us as a board being the zoning ordinance review committee. I mean us going through and saying what which ones do we want to
send this to committee? Yes. Send this to the zoning committee. We need to look at this the ordinance review committee first, right? Yep. Well, but the other thing is is a lot of them when you pick one they a lot of times they will trigger another section. I mean they
they I think you need my recommendation is you should consider looking at rewriting the whole thing. If that is the case, then we'll do a some kind of public outreach immensely to say, hey, the everything's
on the table, you know, but there's a I I mean, this ordinance is effective again, but it's not user friendly. Um I I like the idea of some public notification
because we have to be transparent. This is this is a pretty big undertaking. I don't know what that looks like, you know, but and I would say we did it once because we did do it with the comp plan and that I mean the the front title says request for proposals to rewrite Becker
County comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance and those interested I think it got to them because they were here almost every board meeting. We can do it again. I think the rewrite if we we can certainly direct the committee to do a
rewrite and try to try to organize these in the with our current ordinances. Now, there will be minor changes as you move along, but if there's significant changes, I think like if we're suggesting a significant change in in density and in parking, I mean, parking
is one that we should be looking at and requiring significant parking on on when we give a conditional use permit. So, I mean there are things that we need to add. Yep. Um the one this one is um 300 and we adjusted this a few years ago and that's why you have these amendments to
your original um we lowered it to there's three tiers of environmental lakes and the highest square foot or linear footage is 350 um what is it 350 250 and three 300 250 yep so do you want
to look at that and if we don't want to do it one of the things I s if we look at reducing that then we should maybe we want to require where half of it 50 60% stays in natural state or you know and define that. So I mean it can we do this
in like one thought can we do this in stages like I don't feel like we need to redo our feed lot ordinance we just did it you sure yes positive why not so but how do we incorporate that without changing it yeah I mean how yeah
that's what I mean or I think we've we as a board aren't going to enact any wakeboarding like all the stuff that we we've addressed Yes. So, I think, you know, could we do this in stages when we're notifying the
public of saying shoreland ordinance review? Mhm. Could maybe maybe you just give a report before it goes to ordinance committee which what area this is are topics on the next two sessions any
concerns and put that out to us prior to our board meeting and we can Yeah, I mean I I do think we need to have at least one work session as a board to with Kyle to go over where our priority is as
far as zoning ordinances. What will our Mr. Chair, what what will our goals be of this? Bringing things into compliance, better compliance with our I think our number one thing would be a a better document so people can follow
it and understand it easier. Mr. Chair, what does better mean? I just went through this with the watershed for a year and a half. Um, we went from 22 23 pages to 50ome pages. that to me when I was at the end I'm
like that is not clear. Well, they said it was for clarification. I Well, what's our document now? Sometimes clarification doesn't mean shorter. Um, our document now is 162 pages and I just counted it's been amended 43 times. So, so like so
like if things have been amended and changed since 1980, 1971 things have been amended and changed. Well, the the one stuff that have been amended can be not in there, right? The the current Wow. could be remended. Well, I know, but I'm just saying that you let's say
something's amended and there's there's 10 amendments to one part. There's 10 more pages. Well, we can get rid of nine pages because we'll go No, there's no nothing we can get rid of. When it's amended, it's changed. So, it's it doesn't have the old documents left. Oh, they're gone. Yeah, they're gone. It's it's you could you could call it a brand
new document every time. It's just been amended originally. It's added. So, Mr. Chair, Kyle, what was your recommendation on this? Consider rewriting the whole zorning ordinance. What does that look like in a time frame?
Depends how fast you move. Well, we don't have any. You saw the comp plan that was Do we want this coming, Barry? You said we want this coming from this board. That way that means we have to hear it first before we send it to the zoning ordinance committee. Correct. I would say I'm it's
a suggestion. I don't know what the right answer is. I mean I there's nothing easy about this. What I'm saying is this board should be aware of the possible changes coming. So if you want to get a a bird's eye view, a 20,000 foot view of what's being considered at
the next month at I think this board can look at it. Agreed. So process, what is the process to do that? Everybody kind of agrees on that. I just have one question. Do are there any ordinances that are coming out of the comp plan because I believe any changes
that the comp plan directs have to be enacted in two years? Well, I would say the biggest thing that the comp plan did was we created some of that mixed use and things like that and the public is aware of that and there I just got a call on it the other day and we don't have that. So, one of the
biggest things we probably be should be implementing from that is that egg one, egg two, you know, that would be probably the biggest thing. Um, obviously it talks about redevelopment of lots. Um, that was one of our goals. So, I would think that's the shoreland
ordinance. Um, but those districts I would say is the biggest thing because those are the ones that are more statutoily like we have these and the comp plan but we don't have any ordinances to go along with it. Right.
So, you know, if the comp plan is is suggesting something should be mixed use, but we don't have a mixeduse district. That's Yeah. Does everybody think we should move forward with this at this level? What do you mean the move forward with this with what we're talking about have
work say right and and with Kyle coming up with hey let's review this topic and we'll get through that and then we'll go to the next one and does everybody feel we need to do that the other option would be keep our ordinances as is and add the changes again amend right now how are we going to know
how to amend them if we don't well the amendments are you know what we've done in the in the comprehensive plan what we've done in the there would be some needed amendments that we'd have to change ordinance. Yes. The mix lots and they're not uh forward to us. One of
the issues is they're not very public user friendly. They can't they're they're hard for us to interpret. Uh I just thought of one. One of our major ones is our subdivision ordinance. If you call the county surveyor right now, Josh Feffrey, he'll say it's a
nightmare. It's impossible to interpret and you need to rewrite it. Um, and that's pro that shouldn't be too controversial. Again, I mean, because that's just setting procedure on how things get done. Um, but that one is at should be at the top of the list. Um,
you know, I I think I don't know what process, but I think there are some of these things we're going to have to amend our current ordinance because we're not going to get a rewrite done in any time frame, any decent time frame. So, I think we're going to have to continue to amend the current ordinance and include and and and if you want to work towards the major the complete
rewrite, we're going to have to do that in stages and it's going to take time. But I I think we should I mean in these cases where they're pertinent immediate, I think we put them in our and just amend our court ordinance skin. Messy as it is, it's our only tool that we have
working right now. We can't just say we're going to change and not have something fully done. I mean, Mr. Chair, let's come up with a working schedule. And Kyle, you you know, you just said that we should do the subdivision or you said there should be an easy one. Let's start with that one or or start with
whatever one you want. Let's set them up. Let's It shouldn't be it shouldn't be controversial is what I'm saying. I mean, I I I agree with Barry. We need to we need to make sure that we have everything correct. So, we might have to make some amendments before we make some
revisions or at the same time, you know what I mean? Because we might we do we probably do have some things that we have in our comp plan that are not that we need to get in our ordinances right away. So, but with those do we need a
work session for like my interpretation of what the work session was going to be was to prioritize what needs to be done. Yeah. If we know we need the subdivision, the mix lot, you know, all those stuff that came out of the comp plan, I think we can those can go
straight to the Yeah. ordinance committee. Well, and I Yeah. Or even go straight to the planning commission. Yep. Because it's it's been vetted. Mhm. Yeah. Those are already, Mr. Chair. Then then let's have a work session discussing all of these issues so you
know what we're sending to the zoning or planning and zoning or the zoning ordinance committee. So you're all aware of what we're going and then we'll come back. Yeah. Me and Barry on the zoning ordinance and planning and zoning will come back with what the considerations are. We do that Kyle and that way
everybody would know which you know that that would satisfy Barry's I'm doing it for you. I I mean if I Yeah. No, I mean for No, I I get it. Kyle, can you do that? Yeah. If you want
to have it at the next meeting, that's Are you guys all okay with that? At the next meeting. Yeah. As soon as you come up with the topics and then in what order you want to do. I'm probably going to bring them all to you and just say, "Hey, this this is going to be new." Like we don't have wind and solar. So that that's
completely new. And then if I look at signs, I'm going to tell you where we're looking at being more restrictive and less restrictive. And that's the zoning ordinance. That's what we'd send them. Nothing similar. Okay. Um, but I'll probably just go over with them, you know, topic by topic. You know, I had a suggestion the other day about our
planning commission, um, our text to or our planning commission requirements. I mean, the whole thing, like I said, so it's just looking at it section by section and explaining to you, hey, this is what we're thinking. Yay or nay.
So to be clear, are we talking about a board work session to prioritize the ordinances rewrites or reviews? Is that what I'm hearing? I'm not sure at this point that then a yes or no on if we even want to look at it. So I think we we go through and say yes or no. Uh if
it's something controversial that the board doesn't want to take on, then we don't look at it and then we prioritize what we do want to look at. So I would say those two. So yes to my question. Mhm. Okay. Yes, it doesn't have to be a spe I mean just
a just on the back side of a board meeting. Yeah, it just works specific for this. Okay. Okay. Since we're all here next week, can we do it next Tuesday after our 90 minutes to two hours? Close session? We have a closed is next Tuesday enough
time for you, Kyle? Next Tuesday would be our strategic planning session at 8. We could do a couple of work sessions. Can you do one? can't handle an hour and a half of a strategic plan and a couple close sessions. Hour and a half. That might be a bit much. That's why you're
bringing it up. Considering we've been here for four hours already. I think we can. Well, okay. How much time you need, Kyle? I don't care. I want to do it sooner rather than later though. Well, and your option is to do one on the back side of a board meeting, which these are getting kind of long, or on an off
cycle. How about if we How about if we do it um our next board meeting on the 3rd? June 3rd. June 3rd. And we'll keep that in mind during the board meeting. Yes. To to help us go faster. To help us go faster. Yes. So again, just to
restate the purpose, Kyle, is to bring a list. You're as a board, you're going to prioritize. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. And I think spec I think top priority is going to be the ones that are coming out of the comp plan but
and then you'll make during and then go go the work session go through the zoning ordinance and what do we want to focus on focus on yep and I think I think even just a high level of no we don't want to touch that it's fine we
want to rewrite that next next got it not going into specifics of what it's going to be rewritten rewritten to. No, you won't have enough time. No. Yeah. I'll just tell you, you know, it's going to be how they're going to differ. I'm
going to explain it in layman's terms and then it'll go to zoning ordinance review to polish it up to bring back to this committee. They've been vetted through the comp plan. So, they can go right to the planning and zoning for public. So, if they need some work, then you would probably look at having them go to the review. Right. And I think we
could, you know, do the backside work. Is that what you're Okay. I think we could establish something amongst the five of you right now where if it's something like okay this text amendment revision you don't if you don't agree with the procedure I just call both the two members and get you're okay to go
right to the planning commission and not vet that through a five member board. Right. Something that simple. Yeah, I'm good with that. I just call and say, "Hey, the board is not okay with this procedure. Let me just take it right to the planning commission and fix it. Right. You both good with that?
Okay. You are. See, we're good. Okay. Yeah, I'm good with that. I have a problem. All right. Great. Anything else? Anything else? We have lunch up on third floor. Yes. Including pizza. Lunch.
Pizza. Lunch. Lunch. Well, it's not lunch time, man. Apartment. It isn't. I don't think I talked about it. Um, I got it. I was like, is there any any anything else for the good of
the order? We are adjourned. Right.