Get situated here. Good morning everyone. D stand for the pledgece 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. Um, agenda confirmation. Do we have any additions, subtractions, or corrections to the agenda? I don't know. Did we get the EDA? It's still on our agenda. It was pulled from the online
agenda, but it's still on ours, right? Okay. Yeah, I'll provide an up update my report. Okay. Do you want Barry, do you want to look at that claim or did you find it? Um, I think it's on I don't I want to make sure it's the
correct one, but yeah, I'm I want the highway administration. I thought it was on Is it uh Camco Kam? What is that? Who's that bill for? Swans, what page is that on? I
page 20. I don't think I page 20. It's okay. It's for 142,000 33476. Camco incorporated. I don't know. Should we pull that claim Richard or Phil? That's
for the striping project. What's that? It's for the striping project. Striping. Okay. Okay. That not the I'm not sure who the contractor is. the contractor's name. It's not any of the other ones though that are on there currently, I don't believe. I can Do you want me to send uh Jim a
message and just ask who who ask or Brian? Oh, she already did. It's That's not the It's If it's for striping, it's not the sidewalk. No. Right. Angela said it was for the striping. Okay. Thank you, Angela. Angela, could you could you uh let us know what the name of the company is?
That's um just through text to Peggy the sidewalks in Lake Park. Thank you. All right. So, we have no changes to the agenda. I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda. So, motion by Phil. We have a second. I'll second.
Second by Erica. Any more discussion? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All right. Motion carries. All right. Minutes from last meeting, August 19th. Are there any corrections or additions to the minutes? I did not have anything. I had none either.
What? I know. M Mr. Chair on Oh, I don't know. There's a There was a space that was How did I not catch that?
To approve the amendments for 19. So, we have a motion by Phil to approve. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Erica. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I right motion carries. All right, open forum. Do we have anybody on the open forum?
M on there. Okay, Mr. Chair, if it's for Fox Lake, they're on the agenda. Is is it are you guys Yes. So Steve Steven Corbin, are you speaking about the Fox Lake? I am. So you're on the agenda. So we we'll get you when you're on the agenda. Is that okay?
Okay. And then Jerry Shramm, same thing. Nope. Okay. Well, let's hear it. Jerry, let's hear it. Jerry, you got to come up to the mic. Do you need some assistance?
Yes. Maybe Barry will give you his chair. I would. If it's got wheels and a big motor, that' help. Well, so so Jerry, state your name and your address for the record, please.
I'm Jerry ShraMM and I live in Erie Township. you you approved the sale to the um DNR for for the U toad hill and dog on it we've got just
way too much public land. I know. I know. If you wouldn't have done it, they would have rolled over us anyway, but I just want you to know that's my feelings on it. Now, past that good news, we have another uh
Miss Minnesota um Emma V from uh beautiful downtown Oage and she follows uh uh some time ago we had Lori
Sarnon from Snailman and we had a couple from Detroit Lakes. I'm gonna think if if if we go through that, we'll find that uh uh Becker County has had a lot of Miss Maninnesota.
Probably a lot of them from uh over on the west side, too. Well, the the uh the current the one you mentioned, I can't remember her name, but she's Lake Park Roots, you know. Yes. Yes.
Jerry Jerry and Jerry Jans. Yeah. I go to church goes back to Lake Park. Yep. They are. They live grew up just out of town. It's down the north. I I go to church with her great grandpa. So that's how I was. Okay. Elvin Anderson. Yep.
Okay. Now we've got all these pictures up here. And one day I noticed there's no Pansford. Some of you may or may not know that one time Ponsford was a pretty pretty going
and growing city. And I would like your permission to uh put Ponzford up there as well. I'll get it blown up. Um Ponzford
was right on Highway 34. 34 used to turn at 37, go up and and go through there. There was not highway 34 through the Smokies. Can we Can we look at it? Yeah. The picture. Yes. Don't we won't touch the
Yeah. Just show it to all of them. So, like all these little towns, it had uh the bank and the crearyy and and uh well, that's a 19 supposed to be a 1930 picture, so it had uh by that time gas
stations and all kinds of other things. So, it was quite a town at one time. And then rerouting arose that uh pretty much took care of its significance. Would that be okay with you? Well, I don't you don't need our
permission. You don't need our permission. I I think we talked to Carrie and building Y, but I certainly don't see anything. We need We'll need it to match the framing though. Yeah, I was just looking. Oh, right above Mary. Maybe there's a spot right there. Yeah, right above her. We'll just have to match the framing. I think it'll look it'll look good.
There's lots It's the history of Bear County. There's lots of these small small towns that started and then all of a sudden they vanished because the road changed or the population growth. Um right on Big Corman Lake, there was a huge development on uh well it's now it's county state aid 11 on the east
side of the road. There was a plotted town already plotted there and uh uh Marley Wristland had showed me the original platin. It was it was pretty amazing and it's like it never happened but um and the name
I don't remember that if it had a name yet or not. Okay. All right. And I just want to say one more thing. Yep. Don't buy any more pickups. My gosh, you guys. I can The brand I use, I've got
250, I've got 100, and I've got the other one is just kissing three. These guys can make them longer than what they are now. Just my pet peeve. Thanks, Jerry. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Jerry.
All right, let's move on to reports and correspondence. Who would like to go first? I can go first because mine will be very short because all I really have I have just a couple. Um I had a Mahubi meeting
last Friday. Um just so everybody knows, we are they are currently 90% enrolled for Head Start for this fall. Um and they've also changed submitted a change of scope for their Head Start program and if granted um it will remove a
couple of the family childcare providers in the Mahubi area and we'll replace them with an infant and toddler center. So it it's the purpose is to um meet that that need for infant and toddler
care in the area and one will be um is proposed to be in Detroit Lakes here. So, that will be nice. How many how many kids or um I don't know. I don't know the number, but it's I believe it's um they're going to have it over at DLCCC
um where they have the current family care providers and they'll um switch to just infant and toddler, but I don't know the number of how many infant and toddlers will be a able to be in each center. But um and then just an update on I missed
the EDA meeting, but I I chatted with Cody Friday morning regarding the um we had approved the contractor for the Maple Avenue project and they contacted Cody Friday morning and realized that they had forgot part of
the project in um their estimate. Well, that it was the whole project was within their estimate but not in the dollar amount. So, they um estimated they were
about 60 to 70 $60 to $70,000 short of their um bid. So, they have withdrawn. Um so, now we um that would we would have to go back. All the other contractors had already been notified
that they weren't awarded. So now we have to go back to the drawing board, republish the RFP, and start all over again, which means the project will likely not get done this year. So they were in low quote with that
addition. They were not they with that addition it brought No. No, they weren't. And weren't there some issues too with comparable materials and different things as well? So, it really isn't
apples to apples. Yep. Well, it's tough on that type of job to get right get accurate stuff, but I mean unless you're going to architecture and I mean, even with a new construction, we in and the
was it the highway building or the jail? I can't remember. the the roof was different linings and it's like or different structure but you both meet what they were looking for but one that was better. So that was all I had.
Um I'll go I had watershed. Uh we've been talking about the Bucks Mills project for a long time. Um it was finally approved. Done a lot of engineering construction to begin. Maybe some some small stuff this this fall yet, but the majority of the work will be done next year. um still working with
on anou uh with the wershed and the county. We're hoping to have that done by September 10th. Brian's been conferring with uh Lucas over at the wershed to make sure we have that language uh appropriate and they're doing at the same time they're doing it with the city. So, want to make sure
that we all kind of align on that. Um airport uh remember a couple months ago we approved a couple projects that taxi line rehab was one. It's basically a crack seal for the airport. Um that they're going to have 10 days to finish that. How's going to do it? It should be
done sometime here. I think their deadline is the end of September. Um the other project, the apron reconstruction project with the grant money has been received. That will be done next summer between May and September. Um also doing some tree clearing
when Mr. chair with with um airport then with all this new construction that we've paid for and all the so many more planes and and revenue coming in, I would imagine we're going to be looking at reducing our our request to they're that they're going to reduce their
request for appropriation from the county so we don't have to supplement them. Are you asking me? Yeah. Um I'm I'm act asking kind of u are we are there with the was their request the same or or less than last year. Carrie,
do you remember what it was the same? Yeah. Maybe we can look at you know starting to angle that off being there's a for-profit business there. Maybe there's a way to reduce that. I can do that and I will do that. Uh start I've asked for numbers about gas
numbers. uh they can't really give me how many planes have come in, but depending on how much fuel they've sold, that kind of tells you that that is on the rise. I I I can ask that. Well, and and with all the revenue with the new new the hangers hangers out there and and the increased
price of hangers, I I just think it's something what we our allocation of them is was $45,000 a year. Yeah. $45,000 a year. So, and how for how long was that? Well, for there was no deadline on it.
We've been allocated. I'm wondering do other do other counties give the air the airport? Have to I don't know. We should look into other counties. I don't know that we've ever looked at like Manomomen County has an airport and I'm sure there's many counties that
don't have airport. County. Yeah, there's one in Morehead souththeast of Morhead. I can find that. I can find that out. Carrie can look what other counties. I have a um I can ask the county administrators in the in the state just the question in general.
Interesting Barry. So I'm I'm working out on Floyd Lake and a Larjet comes by going to go into the airport and this guy goes on his phone. It's a app tells you what the plane is, where it came from,
and who owns it. Oh, interesting. And it showed the trail back to Colorado where it came from. And I'm like, I've heard I've heard that that it's available. It was just strange. I I couldn't couldn't believe it worked that fast, too. But interesting.
I suppose they're very regulated in knowing who's coming in and where they're coming from. And yeah, bigger PL smaller ones, I'm sure, aren't Yeah. Oh, yeah. Maybe a little plane you wouldn't know then. Probably probably not a local fly around, Mr. Chair. Yeah, give me some time. I'll
I'll inquire. I'm trying to find out all that information anyway. So, um, we'll probably review it. I get budget I I'd like a budget I'd like another fi another budget meeting before we do finals, you know, because I think there's some things that we need to look at.
Um, I think we'd need to look at reducing our levy. So, um, um, the other thing we did was I I'll work on that, Barry, and Carrie will too get some surrounding um, tree clearing.
Uh they're doing some tree clearing along the fences just so that doesn't wreck those nice fences they have up around the airport. Uh reached out to Jim Olsson Ed Clem on my own and just was inquiring about wetlands credits. If you're not confused enough about the your most confusing thing on this
commissioner board. Go ask Ed Clem about wetland credits. My god, that is just incredibly complicated. Federal or state? state would like to uh bank some just for future just just to have them and uh just incredibly
expensive and the hoops you got to jump through are incredible. We don't want to we don't want to bank them because they're paid for if it's a road project. They're paid for by the state and their state their state
um pools of those. We do have a federal we do have some federal credit. Our wetlands bank is pretty much empty. There's a couple credits left. We used them on the airport which got me thinking about this how we could replenish some but we sold them to the
airport. Correct. County made a lot of money. So most c most counties do not have an air a wetland bank. We do not need a wetland bank because road projects are paid for by the state by the state. And we we didn't make a lot of money. We had
an asset that we gave up. of money. We used the resource we had to extend the airport. I don't I don't know how you can say we made money. We sold wetland credits airport. Therefore, we don't have anymore. We and we hadn't used them for many many years.
Right. Correct. '90s. Yep. So, but anyway, I just wanted to learn about them a little bit and and I did and I you know, I don't want to get into an argument about I've had wetland credit, so I'm very familiar with that. Okay. Uh so I did that uh wetland credit thing and then on the 26th uh went out
and looked at the forestry trails with Jonah and Mitch. This gets into a weird area because I'm not on NRM, but I'm on the rack committee. So I don't want to step on NRM's toes here. But uh you know I just I think we got to take care of these
forestry trails. Um I I don't know what this means. Maybe it's a work session. Um, I think we got to re reook at our organizational chart, what that looks like. Um, just and I think we need to fund uh
we need to put some money into our forestry trails. Um, the foresters come in there, they leave, the trails get all grown in, and 20 years later when they come back to reforest or something, it just uh the trails are just a mess. Um, I don't know what that looks like, but
I'd like to have a bigger conversation on that someday. How to fund it and actually look at our organizational chart. Well, Barry, aren't we do we're doing we're putting money into them? So, there's there's there's some maintenance. I think I think maybe what Phil's kind of referring to is we should
probably have we should probably have a chart that says which trails are going to be annually maintained. I mean, we don't we're not going to go and clean every trail every year, but there should be a it'd be like the five-year road plan with highway. You'd kind of look at something like that, but we got to fund it. These trails are main trails that should
be annual maintenance or brushing back to make sure they're staying open. And these are secondary that you go back every 5 years. And these are these are min no improvement trailers. I mean, I I think you identify those and can have Well, we're having trouble spending that
money. Remember, we couldn't get people to do it last year. I mean, we there was a couple contractors. Well, I think you can get them to do it, but I don't know if you can afford to do it that in and I think what what Mitch is looking at and Steve are looking at purchasing some of their own equipment so we can do
it ourselves because you it is difficult to find someone to do brushing and side brushing on on some of these trails because that's everyone's busy at that time, you know, when you can do it. Um there is I think they were talking with um highway to see if there was you know in any of those times when it
you know late fall if it happens to be not a lot of snow or something but I mean I don't know what that would if that's possible or but there are some discussions on that but yeah and I think maybe the thing is to have our own you know some maybe we look at it maybe when we do a road tour this fall we go
looking at some of these well we certainly won't go drive through someone with the bus we'll take Jerry's When you go on that road, sneak across 113, go up Clear Water uh trails, go up uh the two poor counties
in Minnesota, go up their trails and see how they take care of them. And then you'll say, "You you'd be just ashamed at the shape our trails are in." Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think Jerry had something to say. Yeah. Once again, I I I really believe
this is a work session on a lot of different levels. If if you guys don't, then we won't. But this is going to keep rearing its head. We've got Boyd out there uh redoing a road right now. Um and he he looks like he's doing a good job. But I I I think to bring Mitch in
and I don't know. I I went out and looked at some of the trails, not all of them. I just I think it's a work session. I really do with some of the things that you guys just brought up and that that I don't have a problem doing a little work session to bring highway in and seeing what their capacities are and if they if they do maintenance on them. They're aware.
I mean, so Yep. Um had the Prairie Lakes meeting, the incinerator, uh had a pinhole in the in the burner down there. So, they had to shut it down for a couple days. um had a bigger discussion on just sending drier
garbage over there so we can we can do a better job of burning. Obviously drier garbage burns better than the wet stuff. Um we the incinerator is scheduled or can supposedly do 62,000 ton. We've never done 62,000 ton a year. We've been
at 55. This year we're only going to do 52. So we're trying to get drier garbage over there. And also these compactor trucks, these ones, these new ones are coming out with augers. It grinds up the material and you we have to send the material through the MURF, the recycling
facility before we burn it. It's part of the contract to get all the money to do that. We have to send it through the MURF. There's nothing. It's ground up. It's like hamburger going through there. You can't you can't do it. So, we've got some issues we've got to get ahead of over there. And these guys have spent half million dollars on these augur
trucks so that it compacts it carries more so or they can carry more tonnage. So some issues there. And for as far as wet garbage, do you know where that where that's come or where the source of that worst stuff is? All of the when it rains it's wetter. This summer's been wet. There's been a
lot of garbage coming. But is there some places that are storing their garbage outside and then delivering it or or is it mostly Well, and we've talked with that. Ours aren't. We're trying to get them inside where it's the compactor trucks that go out and collect and and direct haul for us. And the problem is they,
you know, a lot of times there's there's holes in the bottom so that the water leaks, it can't do that. So you're delivering garbage. Let's say let's say you leave a truck out, you're delivering garbage, it rains over the weekend, you're when you get on that scale, you're paying for that water that's as
tonnage to your county. Then you dump it on the floor and the water makes everything wet. So, it's just it's some things we're just trying to trying to work through and figure out. And this organics program now, it will help us with that get some of that out of there also.
Yep. But, so there's a couple issues that that com compactor truck is a big issue to to to to get dryer garbage and to get garbage that isn't mutilated by the time it gets there. Um, we had planning and zoning,
Eric and I did. Uh we talked about rain retaining walls. Uh lots of people interjected about that. Um not on the agenda today, but we'll need to talk about that a little bit some more. Um environmental um the new compactor truck
we approved uh is up and we've already it was we've got it already and it's out working. Um uh October roll out of a e-waste drop off. This is something I kind of came up with. It's on the agenda. we'll talk about a little later. We're still kind of rolling out the
organics. This is the slowest roll out of organics I've ever seen, but uh uh it's it's happening. It's just taking a lot longer than we expected. Um Richard and I, we talked about in environmental talked about an expansion of our facility, solid waste facility up there just to improve it and expand it. We
talked about how we can be ready for that if we do get a grant for it. Um we talked about the IQwick staffing up there for the MURF. um had a long discussion about that and that those were my meetings. Um we had benefits committee and that's
on the agenda before us so I won't go into that but it was some some positive news on where we're where we're at with with with um our health insurance. Um Dave and I also had um courthouse committee, didn't we? Yep.
Um first thing was on our agenda was the UKG discussion. that's payroll and human um service human resource um there's some issues there's been ongoing issues so and to change would not cost us any would actually I think be a little bit cheaper but the problem
is it it's difficult for people to change that whole system in any timely manner and it's a lot of learn new learning curve so there's a lot of there's a lot of negative to change but then what would the positive upside the product might be better once you get through it so um that discussion is ongoing
and then one of the issues if we do change we h we have to have access to year-end data so that we can do our taxes basically audits. Yeah. So yeah um we talked about some some CRP and AED training. Um Richard's going to be the
lead dummy on that. CPR CPR or C CRP like CRP CRP and CPR had I yeah changed my So anyway, Richard is he practiced it all day yesterday I think being the um went through a couple of the career
ladders and policies. [Music] We will be implementing our new email addresses. Um all we're required to go to the.gov gov. So, we'll all get new email addresses. And Judy's uh already changed some of them and some of them have been changing. And
then I think final thing was we're looking at um the air conditioning um how to keep the servers cool. Um the there's a if we do an alarm system because now twice we've had that air conditioner unit fail and it it
takes out um all computer use in the county for until you get that fixed. And um Judy threw some numbers out saying if it if you lose x amount of hours at x amount of dollars, this will be paid for. So adding another unit, I think she
was talking about eight or 9,000 um uh control or an alarm system alarm was $500 and then but a month $46 monthly fee and we were wondering well if you we could just get in and so we're going to bring in Brent for some discussions on that and um that
room heats up in the middle of winter. I mean it's not a um so it's so it's not fun. um also had um Lakeland mental health and um with there's there's some revenue
we broke even but there's revenue concerns of course the state has or state and federal have reduced some payments with uh Medicare Medicaid okay um for them also so they're they're going through that but the big big one is the Alexandria office and they have
some serious road construction now it's getting towards the end of it but they've um but they have been down in revenue and in the red for for quite some time. Um and if we're looking at how that's going to respond now when the road's done if that you know there we
are look being very carefully but uh we're very cautious in what how we're you know cuz that's an industry where you can you can lose a lot of money very quickly. So um
what else? I think that was Lakeland Mental Health. I think that's it. Mr. Chair, uh, Commissioner Nelson, uh, those email addresses, uh, are are we going to roll that out as you ask to update yours? Are we going to do it as a countywide thing or So,
Carrie, did you have a She's doing department by department. By department, the roll out of the email addresses. Are we how how are we doing that? And when are we going to do it? It's it's uh starting and what I recall Judy saying was it was going to be by departments and and so also too
they were doing some test ones. Sorry. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. Um and I think one of like my email was one of the test ones. So we'll all be updated as to when you think Okay. And you and you will still have access to your old email. They'll be attached like for quite a while. It'll be attached to it. So and if just people send it to the
wrong email or to the old email, you'll still get it for a period of time. Right. All right. Thank you. This is the second email change since I've Well, I mean, when I was a a Per County employee, it was your first initial, middle initial, and then the first five letters of your last name, and then it
changed to a minus. They never changed. I don't know why they didn't, Mr. Chair. What What was the impetus for this move? What What was this choice by? And this is I I don't know. Gov is required by state requiring us to have the
They want all state. They want to be all state emails. Okay. Well, state emails aren't that bad, but they are. Somebody's required them to Somebody is. Yeah. Uh I had EDA and just to say it's really
sad about those bids on Maple Avenue because we've been trying for so long and it's so needed. Yes. And it's so that's very disappointing. Um but so I don't have anything to add other than that. And then I had environmental with
Phil. And I was just thinking that if we could get, you know, so all those garbage trailers have tarps that let water in. They're like a screen. And so I don't know what we would do. I hate to replace all the tarps on
everything, but it it'd be nice to to get it dryer. You mean? Yeah. Or try and get them in under somewhere, you know, maybe a carport or something. But everything costs money. So now, Mr. chair, you know, keeping them in. We had talked about, I mean, we don't want those trucks in and that that we don't want that spontaneous
combustion of garbage if it's in over a weekend. Um, the tarps. Yeah, we we talked about poss and I think John up there and and Steve, I think they can they can they can send drier garbage because it cost us more. We're paying for the weight of the water when we've delivered over there. So, uh,
they're working on it. There's just little things that we're working on and I think we can overcome it. I want to make sure all the other counties are delivering drier garbage, too. I mean, that's is like for my garbage or is are they part of the problem, too? I mean, I had my covers were on last night, but a
reminder to keep it covered, too. We talked about that. A lot of it's coming from the dumpsters, too. Uh I have a dumpster. Yeah, a lot of it's coming from that. Uh I I suggested maybe, you know, at grain elevators, you do a premium or discount for the for the grain you bring in. You get a premium or discount. I I suggested
that, you know, if they're bringing in wet loads, they should be paying more for you. Bring up the markets, didn't you? You see the markets are down today. It's not But anyway, that that was kind of shot down, but we might be working on that. We need to get drier garbage. We're trying to find ways to do it.
I don't have anything else. I had I had courses bury. We covered that. And then I also had a DAC meeting. Um, so normally when we have a DAC meeting, we either go at noon or we go at the end of the day. So we don't get to see how the clients are leave and
it's a process. So we had our meeting at 2 I think it was at 2:00 in our our last meeting and the clients leave at about 2:30 um 2:30 quart to 3. It's it's a big there's a there's quite a few of them in there. So it's a big process and how they how they get them to leave. They leave they they have them in groups and
then they leave in in their groups of three four two one some. It just depends on how how they some of them ride the some of them ride the bus, some of them are picked up, some of them are but they have a scheduled time. So, it's actually it actually runs really smoothly and really well. And then of course then
they're all sitting there with all the staff and so then they have their banter time. So, it's really it's really kind of cool. It's really it was it was interesting. I've never seen seen that before. Um the the grant that we uh for the swings that we supported,
they got it. So the grant they requested was for 35,000 and they got 42,000. So that's not normally happens. So you get more than you request. Anyway, so that that project is going to be on the norththeast east portion of the property
um not too far from the current building and it's they're going to it's going to be really cool. There's going to be a whole area. It'll be it's going to be a awesome thing. So that's really a good thing to happen. Then the last thing that we looked at, um, we have a lot of
ceiling tiles in the DAC that are old. So, we we're looking at replacing probably probably I would say all of them. There's a couple areas where they're not too bad that have been that had been replaced previously, but some of them have probably been there since the DAC had been remodeled or built or
something. I don't there. Not all of them are like stained. Some of them are stained, but mo a lot of them are sagging because they're so old. So, and and ceiling tiles is a minimal expense. It's not a they're just like the the 2 by two squares. So, we're looking at that. So, that's all I have.
Does anybody else have any Well, Mr. I just if anyone gets a chance to drive through Lake Park today, first day of school um on just Main Street and then the around um I'm just concerned about how how our sidewalks are so incomplete at at at the
first day of school and they it's been a mess all summer long. Um I'm going to go there and and look to see what's how how good or bad it is and I'll share pictures with you if I find any more. But um it they left they left completely
left Lake Park so they could go do another project so because there was a school that had the sidewalk. So um we're going to have to put more res more goals or more more uh
penalties if they don't finish projects like this. And and now we're now the people are worried about what about Pumpkinfest is coming up and is that road going to be tore up? Um, can you tell me when construction's I mean, Lake Park's been been treated not well in
this whole by the by contractors in this project. So, um, I'm very concerned about in the next month what's going to happen to Main Street there when they're having their annual um, it's just going to be starting up, start rolling up unless they can finish it before in the next 20 days.
So, Mr. Chair, uh, Jim walked in. Do you have an update on that? And by the way, this isn't Jim's project. This is subcontract. So, it's not not his fault. Yeah, I know. I gave you an update uh last time and um uh that the contractor
did or the subcontractor doing the concrete work arrived. Uh they did some preliminary setup work Tuesday and then they did three days of pouring. You know, it would have been nice if they could have got there Monday and had a whole week. Um they've uh completed some of the curb
and gutter along First Street, which is the street uh one block east of uh seven. And they finished uh some sidewalk areas, the one area in when we when you say they finished a sidewalk area, you're talking about a 20ft stretch.
Yeah. It wasn't they didn't finish anything? No. But um yeah, we're we're concerned too. and we're we do have uh a completion date of September 24th. Uh they still
don't feel they can make that. So, uh we're holding them to that as long as they can keep their concrete guy here. Uh I know he's got another job, too. He hasn't started. He wants to leave for that. But, um we're using all the inefficiencies are not our problem.
I know. I know. Jim, did you say they do think they could finish it by September 24th or they don't think? Uh, the concrete work and the sidewalk and restoration, we want to get that all done. We want to get uh front street paved with at least one layer. Um, at
this point, if they can't complete all the the paving work, uh, we might just leave the old pavement there for for Pumpkin Fest and and clean it all up and make sure everything else is all cleaned and ready to go. and then we could do the paving work afterwards so we're not
caught halfway in the middle of a paving job during pumpkin fest. But we're we're working to hold them to their schedule and uh you know make it as convenient and nice as possible for pumpkin fest
out there. Well, there's been no convenience or niceness there all summer. No, there hasn't. This is ridiculous. They That's such a hodgepodgeed piles of dirt everywhere. piles of gravel every every cones everywhere. No rhyme or reason to
anything. It's been the poorest project I've ever seen in this county. Thanks, Jim. Yep. You're welcome. They also are going to be contacting you about crosswalks. What's the procedure through through the city and and county for there's there's people are starting
to get organized how bad it is. They're starting to get organized to start letterw writing campaign to you. I said I I encourage it. So I said, "Write write letters and tell them how I it doesn't do me any good to sit here if I'm just by myself." So no, we can uh put up temporary qu
crosswalks uh if there's areas that they want them and then put in the permanent ones after the paving. Did you see they have a sidewalk closed on the south side of the bridge? So between the bridge and the school, the sidewalk is closed. Where are they? Where do you want the Today's the first day of school. Where are they going to walk? on the on the
road or they just walk around the signs. Get the signs off anyway so they can cross the cross the gravel. Well, today and they're they're not walking in the mud. So, yeah, then it's mud, too. They left our job to go to where? To go to another school because they had
sidewalks for school. They had to get those finished before the school started. Well, they went to another school to finish sidewalks and they they're leaving ours closed. Thanks for the update, Jim. Yeah, thanks, Jim. Thanks, Jim. Do we have any other uh further um reports or correspondence?
All right. Do we have any appointments? All right. Let's move on to the consent agenda. Do we have any items in the consent agenda that we would like to uh remove, pull out? All right. Hearing none, I'll entertain
a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. We have a motion by Erica. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Barry. Any more discussion? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All right. Motion carries.
So, we're now to our county administrator. Should Carrie, should we go right to the Becker County? You can if you'd like. Yes. So, if you would come up and please talk about the Becker County food pantry update. We're excited. So,
I'm glad you're excited. I just I just love that facility. I just think it's a awesome Thank you. place for people to feel welcome. Do you guys need any Are you I know I brought squash there a couple
years ago. Do you guys think that squash is a item that that is used much? I I Yes, it is. Cuz that that year there you had so much of it or people weren't taking it that Well, there sometimes we it depends upon the crop. You know, there's some guys
that bring a lot in and and uh we do eventually. It it does go. Well, I didn't leave it all because you didn't want they didn't want it. Yeah. Yeah. But there are times where if it sits too long, well, you know, it it squash can take a taste a long time. Yeah. So, we we do take everything
though that we can and sometimes we are over stocked on certain items, but lately very seldom with the number of people we have. So, it it's we'll take everything. So, it goes. It definitely goes. Yeah. Yep.
I'll get Jerry out there and we can pick a pallet load of squash. Oh, that'd be great. Um, so my name is Liz and I'm the manager slashdirector of the food pantry. I've been there for about a year and a half almost now.
And um I really love it. I learn things every day. I have seen I'm I was never at the old building, but since I've started, I have seen this building grow and grow and grow. Uh the need for it, especially
this year. This year we're seeing well I have I have numbers all over the place but this year so far we've had 28 new households come to us and we're hearing because of the cuts to
the SNAP program. So people were worried about not having food insecurities. Uh we're also seeing some cuts the farmtotable program got cut as well. So for us that was all summer long we got
produce drops from the North Country Food Bank. Totes and totes and totes of apples and watermelons and all kinds of fruit and vegetables. Well, they cut that program. But North Country Food Bank thought it was so important that they actually funded it, but we had to
pay freight and we had to pay 5 cents a pound, which you know that was fine, but before it was free to us. So we're seeing these changes. We're also seeing I do the ordering and on the order forms, you know, we have we had choices
of things that are free, things that are low cost, and things that are regular price. Well, the free things were mostly the proteins, the uh ground beef, chicken, pork, turkey. We haven't seen that. The last two orders, there's not been protein on
that, which makes us, thankfully, our freezer stocked, right? But we're going to have to start going to buy that. So, I was going to buy ground beef this past week and I we get it from Central Market and it was $7 a pound. Mhm.
And I thought I I can't do that. $7 a pound. I can get chicken for less than that. So, we're coming up on these things that we're not sure and the food bank's not sure what's happening. They That's what they tell us. They're not sure. They're
trying. They're trying to get more grants for these proteins, but we don't know yet. So, that's something that's been cut and it's really affecting us. And the fact that we're our numbers are growing. July
was our busiest month ever. We had 2,181 people and that made 653 households for the month. Liz Liz, Liz, I'm sorry, I have a question for you. Sure. So, can you order food from
vendors or do you have to go like I have reached out to Cisco? Okay. I have a few contacts there. Um, they don't it's not really it's not really cost effective actually, but it would be cheaper than purchasing
at Central Market. Yeah, it would be. Yeah. But yeah, I know it's not probably cost effective, right? Yeah. And then the ground beef from them is a special order, so I have to order it a month ahead. Oh. cuz we need it in one pound packages which I can do that but it's just you know we've been and the meat manager at
Central Market has been really trying to work with us but there's a lot of weeks he cannot he has to charge us I'm sure am yeah the full price um yeah go I didn't mean to No that's okay. So just in July I
started thinking like okay how much are we paying for food right from the food bank and the markets. Now we do a lot of food rescue. Aldi's Walmart Central Market they're great to us. They are very generous and really really uh
helpful for us. But in July we gave away 51,000 lbs of food. We rescued almost 20,000. So that meant that we purchased 31,000 lb of food. So calculating it'll always change because the food bank's
prices are always changing. But in July, we paid 45 cents a pound for our food. And then if I added the meat to it, cuz I did buy meat from them, it was 63 cents per pound. So I spent around $20,000 on food just
in July. So it's it's just really growing. and we we're talking about cutting back the choices that people get uh the amount of food they're getting cuz we just it's just growing. I don't know how we're
going to sustain this and especially not knowing the cuts that are coming. Mr. Chair, Liz, when you say you rescue food, I think I know what that means. Will you explain that exactly what that means? Yeah. So, three times a week, we have drivers that take our truck and they go to Walmart and Aldi's and they Aldi's
and Walmart, they put food away for us. So, say it expired today. Well, they take it and they freeze it for us. So, then our drivers go and rescue it so it doesn't get thrown away. Otherwise, they throw it away. Thank you. And then we go every day to Central Market.
And there's milk that they give us that is close to the expiration date. We get it because we know we can get rid of it. I mean, you know, because our numbers are high enough that we never have to go too long without that kind of stuff. So, it it has helped. There's days where it really has helped, you know, that we go
through. So, yeah. Has the elimination of the SNAP program affected you guys or how has it affected you? I guess maybe I'm sure it's affected you, but how has it affected? It has. Well, the SNAP ed um those people lost their jobs, right?
So, this whole SNAP program uh that's where the seniors are getting insecure about their food, right? They think they're not going to get their food and so that's they're coming to us now and they want us to make that up, make that difference up or they were our clients and they think we can give them
more to make up for that because the SNAP changes don't happen until 2027, right? I'm not sure. I know that I thought it was 2027 was I know that the the educators there they
lost their jobs in the SNAP Yes. the SNAP ed program was was cut but I think the SNAP changes to to you know the people don't happen until but I I think people are scared. They hear that. I'm sure they are. Yeah. They hear that.
Can you can you give me a little knowledge on the lake in July? He had 2181 people and 653 families. So, how do you calculate I mean when someone comes in for food is I mean if you have how is
how are your numbers if you have you're allowed one per family? One one you're allowed there once a month, right? Once a month. So is every child allowed once a month or every adult allowed once a month? Yes. Every household. So when they
It's a household. Okay. So the how do how do you what is the calculation of families then? I'm not if you have 2100 people is that just are they all with then 653 families. So you've then 653 units out basically
right. We call families households. So the total number of people doesn't there's that many people but you're only it's only 653 um units of food that went out. Is that well that for families. So within those
families, there were 2,181 people in those families. Does your Does what you send out change according to the size of the family? So if you have a Oh, yeah. six person family versus a two person. That's kind of where I was going with Oh, yes. Yes.
Yeah. We have it on our shelves range from a family of one and two up to over 10. It isn't. Yeah. and and in that range you get different amounts of off the shelf. Okay. Yeah, that's that's what I was asking because if it's the same unit for
every family then the number of people would really make a difference but yeah no it it goes according to how many Thank you. Um, one thing that we we talked about at Mahubi at our last meeting is um, educating the public more
on food preservation. Um, because, you know, food needs is becoming such such an issue in um, our the community assessment. Um, so do you provide any information on like canning, freezing,
especially now this time of year when we have a lot of that produce? Uh, no, not so much canning and freezing. Um, if they ask about it or if we have someone come in and we've had just so many apples, so many apples. It's a banner year for apples, I hear.
Um, oh, they're canning. They'll tell us, well, we just give them, well, take more. You know, if you want to can, go ahead and take that. But we don't really educate them. Okay. University of Minnesota through extension has has a lot of courses. But that would be maybe where a spot you
could tell them, refer them to maybe the university. We do have a lot of referral papers up and a lot of um uh that kind of stuff. And then the University of Minnesota, they were coming. They would visit us like probably twice twice a month and let people know and just
that was through SNAPED I suppose. Yeah. Sit and talk to the clients and it was a snap. Um, so you know, one thing too is is refri I mean I don't make them, but my wife makes refrigerator pickles and they're so easy to make and they but you have to keep them refrigerated and they're so good. Y
I mean and pickles at the store are very expensive too. Yes. Um and we've been really really uh thankful because the farmers I mean we get pic we get cucumbers every day. Yeah. And we were for a while. We
haven't done it for a little bit, but we were like giving uh what am I trying to say? Recipes. Oh, yeah. Here's here's a what you can use with this and this and this and this. We were doing that for a while. But the food preservation, you know,
we've been working with Mahooi over there. Uh the public health has been coming in because that was one of our thoughts of when we moved here is to get the entities in to help us. And so we've been moving on that project too to let people know what's available to them.
And uh we're still trying to work with like the U workforce center to get them in there to kind of promote where jobs are at, you know, just and that's our area is a lot how would I say safer area for a lot of these people to have that
that experience than it is in other areas. So that's stuff we are working on and uh we're also working on uh our budget uh getting it uh we actually got a program and and a a lady that's
working on it where we are identifying finer areas where our money is going. So that'll give us a chance to look at is that a necessary item or can we reduce it to keep our cost down. So we are doing a lot of things internally with
our budget and our board trying to figure out where can we cut where can we you know without taking food away from the people. So we're looking at stuff like that how we can do that. And then we're also working on we have a
lady Alyssa that's on board with us and we're doing a lot with uh grants. We're trying to get as many grants as we can no matter what. Some of them we just only can buy stuff for the pantry. It isn't food related, but at least we can get the equipment that we need and stuff
like that. So, if someone wants to donate food, what or what's what's or or maybe money? What's what's better? Money is better. Money's better. That's what I thought. Cuz then you can better money is better, but we'll take it. No, I'm sure we'll take Yeah.
Well, like with the cost that Liz said, you know, with money, we can get a better cost. Yes. where you know that's a buck 29 or something at the store. We can get it cheaper so we can get more with that if we with the money. Does anybody have any questions for
Dale? I don't just Thank you for Yeah. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thanks for having us. Appreciate you guys all you all that you guys do for Thank you. Thank you. Becker County people. So thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you. All right.
And Yeah. Do you want to touch base on Becker Bay? Maybe we can promote our own donations to the food pantry. You know, we've had we have Becker Bay and we we donate items every employees and commissioners donate items and we
auction that off internally and and uh usually present a check. I think last year our goal was 2500 and we thou 2,000,000. We did like 2500, didn't we? So we exceeded that. So, um I'm sure they can they have volunteer
hours we can go out there and help. And I think the month we do it, don't we get a match? Yes. Usually do it in March. March. Yeah. They need to check by I think the middle of April to get some. All right. All right. Let's move on to our Fox Lake
Association. Wait. Carrie, are you done with your report? No, she hasn't started a report yet. Oh, okay. All right. But we will go back. So, please ste uh please Stephen state your name and your address for the record and then Kyle, you're coming. Okay.
Uh I'm Steven Corbin and uh I reside at uh 14447 um Westlake Sally Drive. Uh it's Lake View Township. My family has had a property there since 1965. So, I've got about 60 years of
experience in the bucket that I will call on today a little bit. Um, our association, which has been around since the early 60s, uh, the last several years has become quite concerned with the prospect of wakeboats showing
up possibly on Fox Lake. Uh, we've tracked what's going on nationally, uh, in the state, in the county, and even in our neighboring lakes. and we've tried to pay it. We uh had discussions about it at our meetings uh for the last
several years and uh recently at our meeting in May, we decided that we need to step forward and do more than just have discussions. Uh we became aware of a very uh comprehensive set of studies that have been conducted by the St.
Anony's Falls Labs at the University of Minnesota on uh wakeboats and their impact on the environment and the community uh health of the lake qual water quality and that that type of thing. Um that evidence had not been available up until the last two or three
years and I have provided to the chairman a a packet of materials. I hope it got back to you. About 35 pages long with a lot of different documentation. And uh our association decided that we would like to avail ourselves of the
process available to us under Minnesota law for petitioning for a local surface water ordinance for Fox Lake. Why? Why Fox Lake? We're an extremely small lake. We're only 143 acres. We're an extremely
shallow lake. We don't really get to 20 ft deep. We have extensive uh sensitive areas on the lake of of multiple acres that are basically uh kind of like almost watershed uh flora and fauna
areas that are super shallow and they don't they don't afford the ability to do anything. We're pretty developed lake, you know, probably 99% developed. I don't think there's any more uh developable developable uh lots unless
somebody were to subdivide a parcel or do something like that. But the thing that really flipped our switch was the evidence from the studies from uh uh the labs down there at St. Anony's Falls was so comprehensive,
so explicit, so scientifically sound that it converted our subjective concerns into our feeling that we we need to act. Now, there are no wakeboats on Fox Lake at this time. And quite frankly, we feel that that's the way it should be going
forward. If you look at the array of lakes within Becker County that are above like 10 acres, the vast majority 550 of them just are are super small lakes. They're never going to be appropriate for wake boating. And the
ones that are uh the larger lakes and the medium-sized lakes, there will be areas on those lakes that are appropriate for wake boating where wakeboats if properly operated can operate recreationally with other users and not do undue damage to the lake. But
when the science shows that wakeboats in wake mode cannot operate in shallower than 20 foot of water without doing damage. when the science shows that you need to have a wakebo 500 feet from
shore and other boats and buoys and docks and all that to prevent uh damage to to those areas because the wake is which you're intentionally creating and they the boats do it very successfully. Uh if you've ever seen them operating,
you'd have to have a wakebo 500 ft out from shore so that when their wake got to 200 feet out where you would be running a standard speedboat, ski boat, runabout, whatever they call them these days to dissipate it down to that level.
So this the science and it's hundreds of pages of findings. I gave you about 15 pages of summary. way too much detail, way too much discussion about survey design, analysis of data and all that, which by the way, I spent 40 years of my
life at in the in public health field, public health research and all that. So, I'm not a lay person on that side of it. I've administered this kind of research. I know what quality research is and I know that's quality research. So the bottom line is we feel like um a
priority our lake is just will never be an appropriate place for wakeboat operation. So we have I've noted that this board has in the past u created surface water ordinances in at least a
couple of instances. one out at Straight Lake in 1993 where you put out an ordinance about the narrows there having uh not able to have boats go faster than 10 miles per hour. Then in 2004, I believe you declared
that there would be no motor boat activity of any type allowed on St. Clair Lake. Of course, we know it's regulations on on big and little Detroit Lake, which is not your primary responsibility. adjacent uh uh counties have also uh
there are hundreds and hundreds of local ordinances for water service regulation. But very specifically and germaine to our situation. Uh last year Caribou Lake up at Cook County um got a regulation of surface water ordin uh ordinance passed
through local government and county government and then signed off on by the Department of Natural Resources at St. Paul. And that ordinance is now in place. and that regulates areas of uh
Caribou Lake where it's believed that wake surf boats can operate safely and areas where they cannot work safely and there is public signage and and other kind of communication that's gone out and the sheriff's department is
ultimately responsible for dealing uh with any violations. Now, we have been to the Lake View Township and uh at their August meeting, they voted unanimously to support our proposal for this local ordinance. Uh and they
advised us to take our our next step, which we'd be bringing it for the Becker County Board of Commissioners to review our proposal. I'm not trying to deal with the universal issue of wakeboats. I'm not opposed to wakeboats. We're not
opposed to wake boats. We think they need to operate in the proper places just like all boats have the potential to damage uh our our public waterways if used improperly. So, sure, we need courtesies, but in some ways, if we can
take take care of places like Fox Lake, it's just not appropriate on Fox Lake, let's get that part of the work done. the sheriff is not going to need to come out there and sit there with a pair of binoculars and see if a boat is
violating the safe wakeboating area. It's just not going to be appropriate there. Um the only thing I would add is that uh at our annual meeting there was unanimous vote to instruct our leadership of our association to go through the process. We then initiated a
petition process at that meeting. We followed up with as much door-todoor stuff as we can do. you have a copy of the ordinance that we've come up with which does follow on the one at Caribou Lake except it's it's simpler because we're not trying to regulate um
appropriate inappropriate areas on Fox Lake. Um without going into much more detail, I did have a personal experience with wakeboats. Three summers ago, I was on a a fishing trip out on Lake Pelican guided by your local guide here in
Detroit Lakes. And it's a beautiful day. There's a light breeze. Pelican Lake's a beautiful big lake. And we're sitting in his boat like this. And I'm having to put my rod down and hold on because I'm frankly getting a little concerned about what's going on. I said, "Where in the
hell is this coming from?" Said, "Look out there." And I'm saying, "Out there is the middle of Pelican Lake." And the middle of Pelican Lake is a long way from the shoreline at Pelican Lake. And these waves were rolling in at quai white cap level. and rocking the hell
out of us to where we had to stop what we were doing. But they went past us and they hit the shore. And when they hit the shore, it was a bank shore. And that wave hit that shore and flew up in the air. I swear I thought I was up by the Great Lakes or the Chesapeake Bay watching waves roll in. And I know that
the natural wave patterns there are not to throw uh these waves way up 68 feet in the air onto uh basically vegetated areas of a point. So I'm going to stop there. Hopefully, you'll have some questions or maybe I can provide some clarifications.
Again, we think this is a reason approach. It's a preventive approach. It's a a future-looking approach. It's not an after the fact approach when people pro people's properties have been damaged. They're angry. They're hiring lawyers. We're getting in a combative
situation in a judicial system. We don't need that. But we have a process that we can, I think, move forward with this. So with that, I would thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning and advocate on behalf of uh Fox Lake Association. Carrie, I think you can add.
Um yes, myself or Kyle. Um basically I had just um originally this was going to be an action item, but there's steps that need to be taken and I believe you've had some communication with Yeah. So in order to create a surface water ordinance is is what this would be enforced um by the sheriff as this
gentleman mentioned. Um, it has to be approved by the DNR. Um, I spoke with their voting law administrator who is Captain Adam Block last week and um, he sent me a packet that is required to be filled out um, and returned to them for consideration and then they have 120
days to respond to that. Um, if they were to deem that ordinance um, acceptable, then we would put it out for public hearing and public notice. And so it goes to the DNR before it comes to us. That was not my understanding. I understood that to be the last step in
this process at Lake Caribou. Um he sent me a packet that we that we're required to fill out. Um I I don't believe we could move forward with adopting it without their approval. That was that was my understanding also was
they they won't approve it unless you approve it. Mr. and their letter that they would provide to your clerk. It would demonstrate that they acknowledge that both the local government and the county government have gone through the full process and have fully endorsed the
establishment of the ordinance. By the way, the information for that packet is in your packet. I developed the spec sheet that's required of the DNR about uh my lake based on DNR sources and other information that we have. Um, now
have we you and I have not been in a discussion about this. Um, but I'm trying to I tried to follow the process that was used up at Cook County. I think the I think the process would be very similar though to when we amend our shoreland ordinance, we have to provide
the DNR the proposed language and they give us a letter of basically approval to move forward with that. Um, I think this would be this a similar process from what I gathered from from Adam was
basically you you fill out that packet of information. You provide that to them. Then they respond to you within 120 days is what I got and then it comes to us and then goes back to them for final approval. That's not my understanding. Mr. Mr. I don't think we need to discuss
this at all today because there's there's we don't have this should not be an action item. No, it's not an in any way, shape or form today. This is information to give to us. Correct. Um for that seeing the favor of moving forward or
not. Um I I do want to comment on the study that you said. I I believe I read part of that study it said there should be no no motor activity in 10t of water below. So take that study for what what it is. No motor activity. Yes, that's what the that's what I read.
No motor activity in 10 ft of water. No, that's not correct. So obviously you have motor activity because people have to get from their docks have to get up. I go back. Yeah, I think yeah we we have we've got some advice from Yes. that we will follow and then we will go
from there. Look at putting it back on the agenda was my intent. And what advice can you provide to that can I bring back to my association that we need to follow our advice of we want to we want to if I may um we basically want to clarify the process
and I left this on the agenda today just so you had an opportunity to provide some background information information only and then we will ensure that we've got the process down and then it'll be up for consideration for this board again before this group
well depending on um once we clarify the process chair the process go through planning and zoning I um public hearings can you answer that um I don't it wouldn't necessarily have to um it's been that done that way in
the past there was a um I it was either a no wake or a speed limit proposed on Blueberry uh lake out in uh Commissioner Jeff's district okay we could certainly hold the public hearing I but I you could you could hold it here you could I don't necessarily
think it has to go through us, but I'm more than willing to facilitate that process. I just I'll need some direction from you if you want to proceed with, you know, filling out the packet and submitting them in DNR. The the Blueberry Lake one that you
referred to. I feel like that was that was before I became commissioner. Yeah, I think it was even before me, honestly. Yeah, it was. And I think that had something to do with wake voting also, but it wasn't I don't remember what it was. Basically, the county is just
responsible to hold a public hearing and we could certainly do that and no issue. So, the county has to sponsor a public hearing because we had a public hearing at our association level. We notified all property owners and residents and uh
they had the opportunity to come to a public meeting, but I didn't know that the county had K's got a comment. For any ordinance that the county would impose, we'd be obligated to. This is public waters. So just the land owners on that lake aren't aren't public. Yeah. Yeah. So as I'm looking at the rules
here, it says we must have a public hearing by the local government, but we can have a discussion of where it would be appropriate to have that hearing. Yep. All right. So we will find more information out and then we will follow the procedure and then so you can bring that back to your association that once
we know that then we'll we'll move forward. All right. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Um Kyle, could you stay there? Am I up? Yep, you're up. Yes. Um the reason I asked you to stay there, Kyle, is because I'm just going to give an update to the board on the blight properties.
Okay. In case there's anything additional that I'm missing. Sure. Okay. So um we met as a team internally here as a multid-disciplinary team, sheriff's department, human services, planning and zoning and environmental services to start some discussion with
regards to blight properties. And so we had some highlighted properties that we did have some further discussions on and some next steps. Um really the focus of this group was really to look at these individual properties and not just take
a um a unified, you know, going forward and and do everything the same because we really wanted to look at success and sustainability. So some of those properties and there were supposed to be some additional meetings on some of those and I don't know if you have any updates on that versus what I know.
I don't. Um, I did speak with the sheriff again and we're going to make one more effort to go through those ones we identified individually um just to have those initial discussions with those folks. Okay. Okay. So, that's the update that I have
for you, Mr. Chair. Um, I I did happen to be at a Detroit Lake City Council meeting and they were going through Nuisance Properties. I think it's the same procedure. Um I did tell Kyle about that and then if their procedure is correct and we have to follow the same one that
might be a model to follow. Correct. And I I think we again we were just really looking at what is the best approach here. You can you know modify ordinances and then you have to enforce those and then on the back end of that how do you enforce those and how do you go about that and is that really the best way to go about addressing this?
So we're still trying to figure that out. Well, the ordinance I think will need to be updated, but again addressing some of these properties and again um we have a lot of knowledge in house with different departments having worked with some of these individuals on these
properties and and have perhaps more of the details of what may lead to success. But I think it I think it's clear that this whole I mean that we're in favor of doing some we have to update our policy to absolutely to do it
to to curb some of these properties. Um and I don't know I don't know if I've ever given off the impression that I wasn't in favor of that. I don't know. Have I? I haven't. Well, I think so. I don't know. I I I am very much in
favor of of doing it and I'm being contacted continually about it and I'm watching it and it's very Well, have you stated Have you stated that other board members aren't in support of this to any individuals? No. You've never stated that I'm not in favor? I mean,
I don't know whether I have or not. Um Well, and I think I need to clarify. It's not that that process isn't going to happen. We're just um doing that dually with some of the other things. You're doing two things, correct? I know there has I I know there has been discussion about this and and I know
there has been board there has been comments made that people aren't ready to take people's property. Um I' I've heard that comment. No one taking no one taking property. Well, so if you if you clean up a
property and then put the charges of that on their taxes and then they can't don't pay that, then you end up taking their property. And and I know we've discussed that here. Yep, we have. And and you know, I I'm in favor of doing whatever we have to do to protect
the neighbors of these properties. That's whatever it takes. uh because some of them are so bad that so I think what was referenced prior to is this is a difficult as carries finding out this is a difficult process it's not something you take lightly
but it's nothing that you take lightly you're correct that's something that needs to be done because there are extreme cases where there has to take action well and I and I think one of the things why we want to take a multi-ep department approach is because just us
hiring somebody to go in there and clean even if they have the money to pay for it isn't going to solve the problem. Many times, you know, that mental health or there's some something else um you know, going on. I think we need to look at it at from a multi-EP department
approach to make sure that we are setting these these property owners up for success. So, we're not taking them taking their property away and we're providing them every opportunity that they have and that we can provide to help them to get the property cleaned
up. Um, I'm with Richard. I here since I became commissioner several times a year of of the one particular property in my area and you know it it one time I go by there's
garbage cleaned up and then it's worse the next time I go by. So, um I agree we need to figure something out and and some of the I know not some of them that place specifically we've been to multiple times as the sheriff's office and so is Steve,
right? And we're kind of at lack of a better ter you're almost like either we're going to clean it up or there's really nothing left to do. We had some of those discussions with health and human services. Basically, unless there is an unhealthy living
situation inside, the outside stuff really didn't pertain to them so much. They're not going to get involved with a bunch of cars and things like that. Um, and I think that's where going back to the discussion of
making that decision is where it was it gets difficult cuz it's not that we haven't been in contact with these folks or been to their places or sent them letters. That's all occurred. It just Now you're at a kind of a standill of nothing else to do
kind of um Mr. Chair because the ordinance our organizes our ordinances don't can't move us to the next level or why are we at a standstill? Absolutely. It would just be I don't I don't think you're going to get a judge to probably put someone like
this in jail for violating our ordinance. Um we've kind of been there before and it didn't really go anywhere. one specifically on Anderson Road that was really really bad. Um I I I think and in the past the county
has done it and one instance for sure I know of that they clean they just cleaned it up because that's really your only I mean and assess back on the taxes. Yes. I think that's I mean you could you
could throw a fine at somebody you know in this position but I don't Is there a is there a time when the house becomes un uninhabitable? Is that hard? We wouldn't have something for that. Um that that could be something that we could look at if I mean I'm I'm just
condemn it. You mean? Yeah. I know the city of Fargo condemned one and that was a you know a that's a big deal. A gentleman was still living there and Right. Um, but he was well I know specifically the property in my district there is no livable I mean they were living in boats in the winter
time and I believe there was a fire in that home. Mhm. Yeah. There's been two fires in that home and they're still living in it. Nothing has been done right and I I mean I think you know when I talk to anybody the neighbors or what have you that's kind of how what I I
explain it. You know it's not like we haven't tried. There's been the MPCA has been to some of these places. I mean, the sheriff's office multiple times. You just you're kind of up against that wall where you know what's next. People have the right to live.
If if if it's not negatively affecting the adjoining property owners, then it's not as significant to for our for my concern. you know, if it's um I'm just thinking of a case where it's probably not good living conditions, but they're
not they're not bothering anyone. They're not and the neighbors, you know, they accept accept it for, you know, things for the way they are. And and that in that case, I mean, I I think we're I I think the discussion should be too is like we're not going out
searching for these places. I mean, we're not we're not giving but if the neighbors and this is a fine line where you go from nitpicking to serious concerns is and that's the problem that we have for our office is is this just two neighbors fighting or is it or is it
and I think it's obvious to us but I mean yeah I think what we came up with was about maybe seven to 10 properties total that we actually get you know maybe active complaints on or where it's not just that feuding or it's not just a couple cars like It's it's a lot of
waste and other things. Um, so I definitely get what you're saying cuz we don't want to go chasing, you know, a farmard here or there. I mean, these ones are pretty significant. And I don't have a problem either with people living that way from other
people, but right next door to them. And it's some of these are so there's so much garbage and there's so they're blocking roads and and near waterways, you know, like mine is right the one in my district is right on I think it's the red eye.
Yeah, it's pretty close. Well, the one on Brandy Lake is right on the lake and they've taken the commons area that belongs to everybody and filled it with cars and junk. And if that's public property, then that all
should be removed. It should be. I mean, but they're also blocking the road. And then I mean, if there's cars on public property that are are not licensed, just to them. Well, and that's what I'd like to see done with that out there. Um,
Mr. Chair, Carrie, Kyle, what what is the next step for this board or do we got to what do we do after, you know, having that meeting again? I mean, I think there's they they brought up a few points where there was an individual that was living inside a
unhealthy situation and they were able to offer some grants and things like that to go in and help clean up inside. I just I don't think there's a lot of grants to help clean up outside is kind of what I was gathering. Yeah. Um cuz it has to be
the health and everything has to be inside the home. So, as I mentioned earlier and as I mentioned to Todd, I mean, we can make one more ditch effort. I'm hoping that, you know, by coming here, we and I've been here before, having this open conversation that the
public will acknowledge that, you know, the board is moving in a direction to do something, no matter what that is. Um, so I guess we'll go back to him one more time and probably advise No, I Mr. chair. No, I I I mean, we've
done that. We talk about different dis different department heads are going. I mean, we've done that. We're we're to we're to the next step, right? Are we going to do that? You said there was I'd like to see something. I I mean, Rich has been taking calls for I
So, and and I'm probably the one that's the you know, I I start backing off when we we take people's property because they won't clean it up. I I you know, I don't know what I think about that. uh putting kids out on the street. I mean, I'm not I I don't know if that could happen, but you know, I
I I don't want to do those kind of things, but but I'm ready to move to the next level, too. I want to clean up the bladed property. So, I I I don't know where everybody else is. I But I don't know what to do next, what the next step is. I can certainly bring, you know, um we can we can certainly get it through the
the court level. Um I don't think that's very difficult at all. I don't know if the total timeline would be normally like 90 days. Um, and that could be the next step. And if you don't get the answers there, then you could move to do something. So, so if it goes to court level, then
they the court can mandate you have 90 days to clean this up. If they don't do it, then we clean it up and and put and then assess. I mean, we just I'd probably talk to Brian a little bit on what some of these timelines are, but I mean, we we can certainly get it to
that level. We can do that. We're already I'd like to see I think we're there on some of them. I think we really are. Mr. Chair, good, Mr. Chair. We're already expending county resources. The sheriff's been out there. Kyle's been the mental health. We We've already been out there. We're expending resources. It's ready to move
to the next level. Yeah. I I I think I would agree. I don't know if we Yeah. Yes. Yes. All right. We can we can proceed with that. Do you have direction? Yep. Do you have direction, Carrie? I do. Okay.
Thank you. Tough situation. I just Yeah, it's And and that's really what I was trying to I mean, not each of these properties has the same circumstances. No, there may be children. The inside may be unsanitary where it's not a livable situation or it's a nuisance outside to
the neighbors. So, that's what I was trying to impress upon the board. It's not every situation is exactly the same. But I do going back to the one that Richard was talking about. If if the property does is now starting to put their personal property on public
land, like I think that's should be something we wouldn't need a court order to address, right? No, I don't think so. Absolutely not. Or or if they're blocking a township or county road, I you would certainly have the means to tow those vehicles. The one in Brandy Lake that that is basically a common
area that they're parking on. Brandy Lake is a common interest community. So all the area outside their homes is commonly owned and they're parking. But the road issue, you could certainly tow that vehicle. I wouldn't think.
So they're just overtaking the commons area, right? It's not necessarily public. It's it's so I wonder if there's any rules with regards to the common area that and how But then is that still still a civil like common areas are county owned and
managed? No, they're not. Not Not in Lake View Township. They're not the commons around the lake. Are they in your name? Lake View Township's name. The township is responsible for them and the county released that responsibility to the township many years ago. Released the the responsibility.
Responsibility. Who's the owner of that property? The public, as far as I could tell, I did a lot of research. Well, no, the county released the released the the oversight to to the township. Correct. The underlying ownership I believe is county because we record
them. These are they're they're all over the county. They're recorded at the recorder's office as public property and I believe they're that the county is the manager of those properties. I mean, I know there's Leaf Lake and Upper Corant and um the neighbors tried to buy the one on
Upper Cor that got because that was a lake that was a lake access in the winter time for people to drive across. But maybe with with those properties, the county is the one that manages those. If we could give them a notice of you have Yeah. What I'm getting to is this is
county public. This is county managed or in this case township managed and we have the authority to clean this property up and allow no overnight parking and no no nothing left on site. And if something is there, we'll we'll confiscate it. Mhm. I don't think we need any ordinance. I
mean, if that's our property, it's if we could do that, I'd like to see that. Well, this one is different. I just pulled it out. Yeah, I think there is some that would be, you know, if it's public property, I think that would be easy. But this is known as an out outlot A. And in the plat outlot A
is dedicated to the respective lot owners of Brandy Lake Estates for their use and benefits and the use and benefit of their respective hairs successors or assigns. So I don't So that one is Yeah, I think they own that
specifically says and not to the public at large. Yeah. Mhm. So, but not to the public at large, but who's who's managing that? Do they have a lake association that manages them? Well, I think it would be like an HOA. I mean, if they if they have one, if
they form one, they can they can remove the stuff themselves. So, that would be something that you could tell them, Richard, when they call like they need to maybe develop a HOA to manage that. It's for that development, right?
Yeah. they so if you want to fish that you can't I can't get on there and fish because I according to them then I that's what it's always I've been understanding that well and I would agree with them that that's a private access just for sounds like according to what you
community but that was the intent of most of those for access for I I imagine there's about 100 legal experts that would give you 100 different opinions on Mhm. Maybe even 101. Yeah. All right, Carrie, do you
All right. Thank you, Kyle. Thanks, Kyle. Thanks, Kyle. Um, I'll just try to run through the rest of my updates here. Um, we had a meeting or there was a meeting with us with the state regarding the 4E funding uh for the attorneys. I think I maybe talked about this before and the estimate of our reimbursement. This is
for our reimbursements for our our retainers that we pay for parent attorneys and chips cases. um what they were estimating is about $11,000 a year and they were estimating I think roughly four hours of administrative time per month. So really uh need to take a look
at whether or not it's cost-effective to move forward with that reimbursement. Um there was a safeure walkthrough with our building. We really there hadn't been one since 2023 and so there was many suggestions made. do they do this on our behalf um and
point out deficiencies in all of our buildings. So, um, several of those reports on buildings were provided and we are working on, um, fixes for, uh, several of those and I've had some meetings with, um, Brent,
facilities manager, and then, uh, a few of the respective department heads as well, really defining and, um, ensuring that people are aware of what needs to happen and who is going to be responsible for the modifications. Um there was briefly some discussion
with regards to the UKG system and that's been reviewed through courthouse a few different times and we've been working on that for a few months now really uh steadily um having some meetings with UKG and really just trying
to get um some fixes that we were looking for and uh a a functioning HR his system really from with The goal has been since 2022 to have a functioning system from hire to retire and all the
way through payroll. Um there's been a lot of uh effort and time put into this and uh I'll uh come up with some final figures and a formal recommendation for the next meeting safety committee. We already talked briefly about the um recommendation from
the safety committee to purchase and upgrade AED machines 10 through the buildings and that was really um recommended recommended with regards to response time. So we were able to um identify buildings that perhaps don't have them that are too far from the next
building specifically out in environmental campus and so I will put together some final figures and bring that through finance the next board meeting as well probably piggybacked with that. Um, we've also talked about the need in the county and apparently in
the past we did have a CPR trainer, a AED trainer. Um, but that has since we don't have a dedicated safety person that really has we've outsourced that which is quite costly. So, uh, an employee in human services has agreed to become a trainer for the county and they
do have funding in their uh, training dollar. So, that will begin this fall and then we'll probably need to look for a second employee that will agree to perhaps be trained as well because I don't know that that individual will be able to take on all of those duties through the county, you know, with with
their other assigned county duties as well. Um, there was an additional opioid settlement in Minnesota that I did get paperwork right before I left on vacation that I did sign the paperwork. I'm not I haven't heard um yet an actual dollar amount. Um but that I just wanted
to share that that's also coming through. Um lastly, I know this came up just briefly and I know we've talked about work session and budgetary questions. Um you know, some of that we've talked about different things that perhaps we
want to do on these work sessions and I can certainly schedule that, but I'm just really looking for direction from this board of what you want to do. I've heard after we set the preliminary levy. I've heard before. Um so I'm a little bit unclear what the board wishes are and I certainly will um schedule what
you would like or what you think would be helpful. My my I think we need one before we do our final levy. Okay. For sure. Yeah. As far as budgeting. Yeah. I don't think we need one before. I don't think we need the preliminary, but we need one before the final.
Okay. Yeah. I've heard both. So, Mr. Chair, I I think we need several and sever several different topics and I suggest the only suggestion I have is not to do them after this meeting. I know Erica doesn't want because he wants to spend the time here, but I these
meetings go too long and I think we need a break between them. I don't care if they're the same day, but not immediately after. That's my only suggestion. Your work sessions though specific to the budget? Well, any of them. Is that what you're wondering though? a specific
I'm I'm specifically to the budget, but it it links back to some of the things that have been talked about. You know, funding for uh recreation. I think we need to have some discussion about staffing out at the Murf and back up with the IQ crew leader and whether or
not we're going to fund something or how um there's been several topics that intertwine with our budget. Sure. This bladed property might be could possibly be work. Well, that'll be a work session when it comes for us for ordinance review and how we you know
that will be that's that's inevitable that that's going to be a work session and it will be because there's a lot of you know any of these ordinance things will be work sessions but I I I don't I don't have a problem with I mean our next le our preliminary levy set next
next meeting. So um but I I think we have to dive in a little we have to dive in deeper. I mean this I mean I look at the sheriff's budget and that that thing has grown so much in the last 15 years. I I don't know where I don't know why that incre
that that has increased so much more than every other department. Why why that this even this year? Um so I mean I think we need to dig go a little deeper and and maybe set some goals on reducing that on the budget for
each each department especially those that have a higher percentage increase. Mr. Chair Carrie, do you have direction? I'm still unclear if you want it prior to the preliminary or I I'm going to say after the preliminary after. Okay. Is that good with everybody else?
It's either either one. Yeah, it works for me. I We can do it before, too, but it we're going to we we we have our preliminary. We're okay. And then we can we but we need to do some We need We can always lower it. We can always lower it. That That's correct. Historically, we
have Why I'm fine with after and that's that's fine. I'm just saying historically this board has really worked on the preliminary uh levy and it's stayed the same for the final. Well, let's just agree to this. Instead of having one prior to the preliminary, we will work on seeing what that is
reduction and setting that and we will work on lowering it after if possible after the preliminary. Yep. Okay. And if we want to do it on a day that is not a a board meeting day, the Tuesdays of non-boarding board
meeting days typically work for me just at the same time that we normally would have a board meeting like 8:15 8:30. Okay. you know, and looking at later, we can maybe find some more information on next year's I mean, we we'll have more
information on some of the reductions in our from state and federal spendings, too, or fundings and grant, you know, loss of grant revenues and Well, I think I think we're probably going to for sure once the federal budget is set, you know, that's
have some discussions, you know, we're going to know more about how that's going to affect counties because there's potential for it to have some pretty big impact on us. So, correct.
Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Thanks, Carrie. All right. Thanks, K. Mr. Chair, Carrie, there a couple things for outstanding from last. We were going to get Liz Lynch possibly in here from the library. Did she has she contacted? She's right. No. Okay. We were going to have some fairboard numbers. Is that still to come
here? in September. I don't know. September. We have our fair board meeting the end of September. Yes. Okay. All right. The last Monday. Okay. Yeah. All right. Um we were we all got that email from Fishbach. Were we going to reply? We thought replying as a group. Thank you. I do have an update on that.
I did respond to that and they did um give some uh preliminary dates to do a meeting. I sent another question back because I wanted to clarify whether or not it was um the uh I can't think of the term um her she herself or her
associate. You want me to give you the answer? Yeah, I think we know the answer. Okay. All right. I was hoping so. I I Yes. Thank you for bringing that. So, they did give some potential dates where they could come on site and I can certainly share that with the board and see if it works for
whomever. Um but knowing knowing what I know today then um you know you can make the decision whether or not you want to use that time to speak to you know one thing that would be possible if we could we could um well I think you know like Klay County I think
they do a lot of things but I I was thinking regionally we could get together with you know a few different counties and and for county boards and and u reach out to our national or you know um Miss Fish And I mean, if we could get
Clay Otter, I mean, if we could get a bunch, then maybe she would attend, then she might rather. Yeah, that's true. But I mean, I I just thought, but if she I mean, their schedules are just so crazy. I mean, yeah. So, I Yeah, I had Especially with the the Yeah. You know, I mean, we we certainly they're not going to come fly home for a
meeting for But I'm sure this is just a local, you know, the local communicator or liaison for local. Yes. I couldn't think of the right word. Yes. But so, I mean, I think that's fair. So, I can certainly move forward with scheduling that if if it's informal and we can certainly start there.
Would that be that representative at one of our board meetings? Would that be a standalone because we'd have to notice it, right? Well, I think we would notice it no matter what, but I think it would probably be better and they gave some potential dates and they didn't necessarily line up with our board meeting. So, it would be outside of the
board meeting. It would be I I think you would out be outside the board meeting and maybe we could, you know, show show them Becker County a little bit. I mean, you know, traveling, you know, a little tour. Yeah. I mean, go to Dun Locks and say, you know, go to the beach here. Go to I
mean, the highway. Yep. Building. So, again, they gave some potential dates to me and I can certainly look to see what maybe would fit most schedules and then get it scheduled. Okay. Yep, that works. And then the last thing that I Sorry, I thought it was done, but I forgot. Um,
just as a reminder, the AMC annual conference registration is opening. That's in December. Yep. I'm moving. Oh, yeah. I plan on going. I'll go too. Okay. Mr. Chair, I'll go. Yeah. He He I prepped him from last year. He
said he's going this year. So, Mr. Chair Carrie, the last thing, that leading with light thing. There were three of us together that were interested. Yeah, that'd be great. Oh, thank go ahead. So, the leading with light thing we talked about last week. There were three of us interested. It is. It's 500 bucks.
I don't know if we all three need to go, but maybe one of us can go and report back or weeks of Yeah, I was going to look at the Did we get the dates? We didn't get the dates. I think they wanted to get the people together. You're trying to get the counts and then decide your group would not knowing the dates. I'm going to say no. Yeah. Meet me also. Without knowing the
dates, I But Phil, but I would like to know the dates, but we also have the conference coming up in September for Yes. Next week, Alexander. So, I don't know what what what is your thoughts, Phil? I Well, I I just I didn't want to miss the
opportunity, but I didn't think we should send three people to it and spend 1,500 bucks. But can we can we uh could we both could we have no two people spot like share a spot? Is that what you're asking? Share a spot so that we both would
Well, there's homework in between. So then you'd be sharing homework. Well, then I'm definitely out homework. So, do you want me to pursue it? Does this board want me to pursue that then and see what I think I think that would be good, Phil, for you?
I'll pursue it. I'm kind of interested in it. See what it's about. So, yeah. And I I may also I'll take a look and see if I can squeeze that in as well. So, okay. Okay. Thank you. Now, that's all all I have. All right. So, we will move on to human resources. Is Tiara
Oh, sorry. That I'm um Ti's out on an emergency leave. She'll be out for a period of time. Okay. So, I'm going to cover her items for her. Okay. Um so the first item that she has is 1B. This is a recommendation for it comes through the benefits committee uh for
the medical insurance. What the um we went out for the benefits committee through our uh broker went out initially. Let me back up. Medicica, our current provider when we got the rate increase it was above 18%. We were
anticipating even higher. So the decision of the benefits committee was to go out for an RFP to see if we could get better rates because 18% is quite a hike. And so the recommendation coming from the benefits committee and there was quite a bit of discussion was to go
with uh Minnesota Blue Cross Blue Shield and that rate increases at 8 and a half%. So I would certainly recommend um approval of 1B and in and the the So what's ju can you just explain what the difference is
between just so everybody knows Blue Cross Blue Shield and Minnesota Blue Cross Blue Shield um comparable plans? Um probably the highlighted difference is if you recall on Medicica the primary clinic on the high deductible plan was linked to
Essentia clinic. now where this one um their primary clinic would be uh Sanford. That's probably the highlight. And did I miss something? Barry, I think I think that's that's accurate. So now if you want the cheapest plan, you have to you'll have to if you were
on the cheapest plan, you want to stay on the cheapest plan, you'd have to switch over to to Sanford. But the kicker on this though is that Blue Cross Blue Shield has the aware aware network package. Mhm. So their cheapest package before is only
slightly lower than the aware package that Blue Cross Blue Shield had. So there's only there's only the very few and that savings would be minimum to stay. So what what this switch is really good for potentially is family coverage.
Um the families could see significant savings significant savings on with this with this plan with the premiums that they pay. So there was people there that were taking that they would actually experience they have they will pay more but the one case
was $15 a month that's the low you know $15 a month and they said I we this minimal expense for us is saving on the other end. So the there was like a few examples of this would cost more for those that wanted to stay at Essentia
but the bottom part was huge savings huge savings. I mean, was it 250 a month for family in in the one? I thought it was higher than that. I mean, I mean, it's significant. So, there will be some people that will it will cost more if they want to stay with essential because
they'll have to go to the aware care. Yep, it's up here. Yeah, she she did include that chart. Oh, I got my pointer. Finally, I can use my pointer. All right. Oh, where are we? See, these are the these are the ones. Make it big. This isn't the sheet I was looking for.
Um, it's a good deal. The cost. Yes. I This isn't the one. It's essenti. Oh, the Blue Cross Blue Shield. See, these are savings, but but there's another one that shows where it would
cost it would cost people to switch on. This isn't the same sheet that I had. Maybe I Well, here's this one. 2026 was 3,400. This one was 29.51. I thought it was closer to 500. Cost comparison. All Blue Cross Blue
Shield aware plans. So, could you put put this one up? Do you have this? No, that one's That is the one that we This is the one. This is the high. This is the one that shows the difference between Medicica and Blue
Cross Blue. So, this is this is the ones where they will pay more money. So, this will be a worse worse deal. So this I don't know if I can but it's not a lot. No. And if and if you take the highest price one which is family that's it would increase 193 a
month but when you do the math and you figure out that's not the plan you'd take then even if you wanted to say you would take with a different plan. So this is the sheet. Carrie, do we know what the savings is going? You know, when we initially had looked at it, we were
looking at a 18 20% increase, but but um when I when I set the budget, I was preparing for the worst case scenario. So in the budget currently, we have not modified that. I um did a 25% increase. Yep. So that so dollar wise
this might be maybe a at most half a percent difference in the levy. Is that kind of what we're thinking somewhere in there? Well, there's there's so many depending how much you drop down. And yes, there are so many different variables on that it won't we won't know exactly till everyone but it'll be a cost savings for sure.
It'll be a cost savings from the original budget proposal. Yes. Yes. Yes. And I I think the other thing that's worth mentioning on the insurance is that if you can bring family coverage more in more affordable to people, you know, what drives our cost up is our
usage. And so when you have high claims, it drives the usage up and then they have to recover insurance companies for what they're paying out. So if you can uh bring in a more affordable family coverage for employees and they take that out then potentially the what you
the payback on that is that you have more healthy kids and and healthier people on the plans and that maybe don't use insurance or don't you know other than their yearly appointments well child and some of those kinds of things. So that is the hope. So
okay that that answered my question. I just wanted to make sure everybody knew. So, do we have a motion to approve 1B? So, moved. Second. So, we have a motion by Eric, a second by Barry. Do we have any more discussion? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I.
I. All right. So, the next item is resolution 1C. This is a career ladder that was discussed through a committee in the assessor's office. This is relatively a new opportunity for an internal employee who
did some additional training and it was recommended by DDA that with this particular ladder be implemented for assessment tech 2. Motion to approve. All right, we have a motion by Barry to approve 1C. Do we have a second? Second.
Second by Phil. Any more discussion? All right. All in favor signify by saying I. I I I motion carries. The third item is the PFML A not a PM PFML policy. Let me get my words down right here. And this is a a policy with
regards to, as you all recall, in 2026 in January, we'll have the paid family medical leave that will be going into effect. And this is a policy that was uh reviewed again in courthouse. Um I don't recall I guess I don't know if it went through finance or not but um my
recommendation would be for approval. So basically this is just the uh this is just the policy policy that we have changed and put in Yep. So move. All right. So we have motion by Erica to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Barry. Any more discussion?
Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All right. Motion carries. Then the last item. These are addendums that are in um your packet. These are union uh contract addendums with regards to the split cost for the PFMLA the the
contribution so that it continues to be a 50/50 split. Can we move all of them? I was just going to I I would think you could probably make a motion to approve the LE supervisors essential administrators, human service supervisor, less deputies, less
dispatchers and jailers. Approval of the addendum. So, do we have a motion by Barry? Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Erica. Any more discussion? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries. Do we just have what two reason asked me?
I believe uh Tiara had said that yes, we have two outstanding still that she was waiting for those to come back and they'll probably come before you next. Team we have actually three. Courthouse, human services and yeah, the two teams. Oh, the two teams. Yeah, it would be three. Yes. All right. So, let's move on to Judy for
information technology. [Music] Carrie, what's our agenda like for next meeting? Is it full? Next meeting? Yeah. Um, not sure. Would we have a folder? I was I was What? Phil won't be here.
I was I was going to buy lunch. That's Oh, yeah. I want to buy I wanted to go out and buy lunch. preliminary levy. That's a stab in the back. Okay. Well, I'll touch base. I I mean, I think I'd like a lunch bunch potentially the retaining wall. Oh, that
ordinance. Well, but I wonder if we want to do that without Phil being here would be my only thought, but Okay. Good morning. Yes. Morning Judy. Good morning. Phil could I am bringing before you guys uh um I would like to re
re I guess it would be purchase no uh renew re renew thank you renew the um VPN software that we use for the multifactor authentication we started doing this in 2023 we added to it in 2024 and this is
to to uh would be for the next two years the cost to us is $8,57 7361. Um, do you have any questions on it? No questions other than just it's very important for us to have I would think so. Yes. Otherwise, I
wouldn't bring it forward. Mhm. Thank you. Oh, let's have a motion. I'll move. I'm already halfway up the stairs by the time you get to that. So, you'll make a motion to approve the $80,572.61 for two years. For two years. Second.
Okay. We have a motion by Barry and a second by Erica. Do we have any more discussion, Mr. Chair? Judy, where does that 80,000 come from? Was that in budget? Did we That was in budget for the IT budget. Um, it was originally paid for by um CARES,
whatever we called that money at the time, special general. And then knowing it was coming this year, I budgeted for it the previous year. And we do have um so this was budgeted for this year, all 80,000. It's a two-year deal. So she she will have room
and and she did say she has lots of other areas to spend it. So yes I do. You did say that. So it won't won't save us budgetary wise because she is and I and unfortunately in today's world the the IT budget is growing exponentially because of the threats
that are continually out there and and changing and it's everything's getting more expensive and we and we do save 10% by paying the two years. Yes, we do. Better it's better than not getting lunch. But we we're you know I do have to say
one thing is good about Becker County. If we did crash and burn, we still Mary still is all doing things by paper and pencil. So we will have all the documents. All right. So we have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries. Thank you. Thanks Judy.
Thanks Judy. Mary I swear we're coming back to you Steve. Full circle. We're going to come back to paper and pencil on land use and environmental services. Morning. Mary will be instructing all these young kids coming on.
Morning, Mr. Chair. Morning members, Mary Peggy. I got three items to uh present to the board today. Uh the first one is an acceptance of a donation of $1,500 from the disabled American Veterans Chapter
31 to they gave a donation that will go towards the purchase of new pick. Mr. Chair, move to approve resolution 9-251A. All right. So we have a motion by Phil to approve 1A. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Barry.
Are there Did they have a request for access of something? You know, I haven't seen that yet. I've heard they were talking about it, but I haven't seen anything. But there's no conditions on this. No. Yeah. Just just so we're clear that it's from the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 31. So,
thank you. Thank you to them. All right. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries. The second item came up in Environmental Services Committee. Uh, Commissioner Hansen would like to initiate a new Yeah, Mr. Chair, I can talk about this a little bit. I just, you know, we talk
about environmental stuff and I I just thought, you know, what can we do? Um, this is something uh, you know, this is just a template here, but I wanted to know if the board was going to be in in in favor of this before I did any work or not, any more work or not. Uh, and
I've directed Steve to do a little bit on it, but um, what would it cost to give our taxpayers some amnesty for a week or something to get rid of some of this stuff so it doesn't end up in our ditches? Um, so we just kind of came up with this electronics recycling. I was
considering, we're still throwing it out there to do it for the first five days of October. Um, you know, down the road if it works well. I mean, there will be some configuring with this, but maybe we do mattresses next year. Maybe we do tires one month. Probably wouldn't do anything
during the summer um because we're we're just super busy. But it's just a way to reach out. It it it's there's several reasons. Number one, clean up our county a little bit. Um number two, you know, u
you feel like you're getting something for your taxes. You get a a free drop off for a few days. Yeah, there might be some other people. Free electronic drop off be only Becker County residents and only li you have a limit of two per We would we would work we would work on
that. Yeah. Mattresses would probably be a mattress and a box spring if we did that. Is there what is is there a charge for phone? Like if you have an old phone, is that a charge? I don't believe so. Not for phones, but this real small screens and the big ones, there's a different charge for each one. What's happened in the
electronics recycling world in the last few years is I'm not sure if it's due to legislation or just demand for it, but the we're actually some loads that we ship out, we don't get a bill or might get a rebate a little bit. Next load, there might be some cost associated. Really, it's the the cost of the screens
and getting rid of those and the batteries. Isn't there like cell phones? I'm thinking of the batteries. Yeah. Is that where there's We don't really have a cost with that either. I mean, no, but is that where there's a concern that they are recycled or brought versus
thrown in the dumpster? So, in in committee discussion, there was a the ask was about what would it cost us? Basically, our cost right now is to ship out these a load of e-waste and then we have to pay for gaylords and and uh pallets. But, you know, it's
between, let's say, $1,000 and $1,500 per semi-load that we ship out. Uh this wouldn't be a big cost for us if we had a temporary abatement of of the tip fee for a short period of time. So, the how's the battery the battery program the free drop off battery
program is that doing? That's doing very well. is I mean do you want the little batteries the you know the AAA the doubleas's at that point? No, we really don't. I mean they throw them in the garbage. They can we could recycle them but it costs us sign. So when you get those you just throw them in the garbage.
We do. Yes. It's cheaper to put them in the waste than it is to pay somebody to recycle them those. But the rechargeable ones rechargeable ones we do. We ship those out. Those cannot go into the garbage. How about the um I mean could we just increase the size of those for phones and to incre you know to have any
anything with a lithium battery can go in here a rechargeable lithium battery? I never thought about that but we could be more changing for or appropriate place for those smaller units. There's a lot of smaller ones that that have
um but I I'm I'm fine and that this will it will encourage usage. It will encourage more recycling and Yep. and and we talked about it finance a little bit and we kind of correct me wrong. We kind of agreed that it should be just for Becker County citizens and
there should be should be a capital citizens or property owners. We're pro there's a big difference. It's it's going to be hard to police that. Um well, you're not going to unless you find someone abusing that you think is abusing. Well, and that's why I wanted to limit the days. I don't care if it if we don't
have to give a month's notice. Let's I mean consider this like a flash sale. I mean that's the kind of idea I was going on. Uh get rid of some stuff quickly. I mean we're talking about a less than 8% tax increase for I mean this is this is giving our taxpayers something
although be it small something. I mean you feel like you're getting something I guess a freebie. This would be monitors. This would be uh laptops. This would be uh printers. You know, we we'd list the things out that the e-waste things that we would take printers e-waste,
they're considered part of an e-wastist. So, right now, we don't charge for just I think I think I think if we monitors, we would I think we can say like we can say Becker County taxpayers, we're not going to maybe enforce it. Well, but we can we can kind of control that by the amount that you can bring
in. Like you can bring in two of these, one of these and two whatever. Monitors, I think, would be the thing big thing, wouldn't it, Steve? the monitors would be the thing that we'd like I I think one thing that we we talked about at finance is like you have large
entities that have yes rooms and rooms of monitors like are we going to let them bring in a truckload of monitors that that was what we talked about of why should we limit it or not? Yeah, if they had a truckload they'd probably
be taking it someplace themselves but that's something we have to talk about as limits probably. And TVs too, didn't you say, Steve? That's correct. Televisions. So, if we did this for a limited time only, the first five days, uh, the first is a is a Wednesday, the fifth is a Sunday. We're not open on Sunday. So,
it'd be three days plus Saturday, half a day. So, I my goal in this is to try to um make it for a limited time, make it important, get the word out there, but not extend it forever. on day on day six
of October it goes back to regular where would you where would the drop sites be the drop site would be the transfer station just so it's already staffed right about the Osage one yep the O what I'm getting at is you know for me I have one screen
does it pay or is it reasonable to for me to drive up 20 miles and drop off one screen for free and then drive home you're talking you know 35 hours I've spent two two gallons of gas. You know, I mean, you got Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to figure that out. You know, but you know what I'm saying?
You might be going to DL one day. You know, you want to encourage recycling, but we're not picking up. No, no. I'm just saying, would it be better to have sites be better to give a, you know, a ticket, say, here's a free ticket for the next
time you come in. I I don't know. I just I just hate seeing people drive a specific trip for recycling because you are losing all the things that you good you're doing if you're driving a specific trip and wasting that fuel that but something you guys just think about it
Mr. Chair, Commissioner Nelson, maybe down the road. I mean, I I mean, this is just this is a crapshoot. We're going to see what happens, see what kind of result we get. Uh, and then go through the winner, see if there's ways we can improve it with a different commodity. That was my thought.
You could get a little like a a booklet with all the coupons on the, you know, like the Laker cards. Yeah. When we did did this in Lake View Township, what people did with they would they would stockpile the whole year because they knew it was in July. Well, that makes that makes sense, though. Well, to them it does. Yeah, absolutely.
As a consumer that makes sense. If I know that there's going to be a week off drop off for electronics, I can save them for 6 months. But if you're just going to flash it and say, "Hey, we're going to take free a computer screen free this week. I was brought there last week. What what good does that do me?"
Okay. You know, those are some lessons we'll we'll have to learn through this process. Like I said, maybe in the spring we do mattress in a box spring. I mean, I think you I mean, we'll try. Yeah. But anyway, it's supportive and we got there's lots of ifs and buts and cherries and nuts.
So, okay. Uh, Mr. Chair, I would I would make I would move to suspend the Well, don't we want to set it all first? I'm sorry for interrupting you, but don't we want to set the dates and and figure all that out before we make a Well, we did.
Mr. Chair, can we just authorize the the administrator to Yes. move forward with this program and and suspend the rules as because we've already got a price sheet. So we would have to suspend the rules for those first five days for but I think we just authorized for a
oneweek suspension at I think that would be appropriate if you've got we'll come up with a proper term you have schematics that you lots of discussions that or discussions that you'll have to work through but we authorize it we authorize this program and suspension of rules and prices for
this program for this for these five days for this current year. Well, we don't want to go for the full year. We only want to go for the time slot that we No, I'm saying you have the to work within that year to work within this. So, if you decide you don't want to do
it the first week in October, you have flexibility to move it to this is an ongoing. This ends at the end of 25. you have one week to figure out what you want to do. And cuz I do I do think that we want to make sure that we have it all in place like what can be dropped off the times and all that so we can maybe provide
information to Nate to run an article in the newspaper. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I think the first week of October might be let's just let's just say we No, we're doing it the first week of October. November is going to get too cold. We're going to push to get it. But you could do it the second week of
October. Well, but here's Mr. Chair, let's let's let the administration and the committee decide because this is going to be a work in progress. A lot of things will probably change before. So, I'll make a motion to authorize the environmental committee
to have to suspend the the price fees for a oneweek period for electronics drop off program. um dates to be set by the signed off by the administrator. I'll second.
All right. So, we have a motion and a second. I just like to add a one thing to the motion. Can we But it has to be done before the end of this fiscal year. This calendar year in for the calendar for the one week in the calendar year 25. Is that good and no, it's going to happen October. All right. So, we have a motion and a second. Do we have any more discussion?
I just want to I want to thank you guys. I mean, we sit in these committee meetings. We come up with some ideas. I don't know how it's going to be voted down. So, I don't want to put all the work into it and and and have it shot down. So, I mean, we've got some basics here. So, thanks for doing that, Steve. I know it's going to be some extra work on your lap, but I want to help with
this. I want to make this work. I want this to happen. I want this to be successful. So, thank you for letting me vent and thank you for Okay, motion second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries. Thank you. Uh the third item is to purchase a 40 cubic yard rolloff with a
cover that we're going to be using out at Osage to store mattresses and that so be transporting them back to Mr. Chair. What what happened here was uh we had a discussion a few months ago about hey are we providing the same services at Oage that we're we're
providing here in Detroit Lakes at the transfer station. So that was the impetus for this uh we need to we we can't let those mattresses get all wet and sit out there and so we're going to put them in this container. So that was the reason for this container. What's the price for a mattress?
It's $12 and $15. We're we're going to be Mr. Chair, Commissioner, we're going to be re revisiting that soon. Um motion approved. Second. All right, we have we have a motion and
a second. I want one down corn. Do we want We'll add the Is it okay if we add the price? It's $8,67457. All right. Yep. All right. So, we have a motion, a second. Any more discussion? Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Right. Motion carries.
Thank you. Thanks, Steve. Thanks, Steve. All right. Planning and zoning. We have one item, don't we? The uh Good morning. got planning commission recommendations for your consideration this morning from August 27th. Uh the
campground itself was tabled. So it is just the after the fact conditional use permit for two retaining walls. Technically neither wall has been constructed. Um the one was torn out and then there was some excavation. So doesn't necessarily need to be an after
the fact, but uh recommendation was to approve. I'll make a motion to approve. Okay. Yeah. No, go ahead. Oh, wait. Yeah. Do we Yeah. Do we have a motion to concur with the planning and zoning commission, Richard?
I'll make a motion. Okay. We have a motion by Richard. Do we have a second? I'll second it. Second by Phil. Do we have any more discussion? Um, this wasn't really an after. The guy who was coming in was really trying to do the right thing. Um, so yeah. All right. So, all in favor signify by
saying I. I. Right. Motion carries. Thanks, Kyle. Do we have any more items for the good of the order? All right, we are adjourned. Okay. Hey, just next meeting guys. So, the rules for I'm going to try to be