--------- e e e e e e e e e we'll call the belamy county work
meeting to order and first item on the agenda is Introduction of new employees don't see that we have any new employees so we'll move on to identify future work meeting topics uh anybody have any future work meeting topics i''d like to bring
up not seeing any chair yeah um I'd like to hear an update and report from hrdc and Mississippi headwaters board update and report and anything in particular you're looking for there I mean there's a lot OT stuff you just want general
information uh you know any uh news items lately uh I actually one thing on my report tonight for DC or do you want something from hrdc or you are you looking for just something from me since I I want an update and report from hrdc
on the latest and what they're working on ahead you would like to have an hrdc employee come for that okay and same with the Mississippi headquaters board yes okay we'll see if they're able to do that for
us anybody else all right we will move on to the Sanford Center update I believe Bobby is here to give us a a rundown on the Sanford Center welcome Bobby thank you appreciate you guys having me here so yeah I'm Bobby Anderson for
those of you who don't know me I know most of you but there's a few faces that I don't recognize um haven't had the pleasure of meeting you all um but I've been with the building for a very long time um well over a decade now um kind
of jump into um a little bit of my background here um for you guys like I said I've been with the building for 13 plus years now I moved to beiji Minnesota in 2011 to come here for college for the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors um that's my that was my
passion in life um was a dog trainer at the time and fell in love with BSU hockey as a student uh I was a season ticket holder the first year and then shortly thereafter I decided I wanted to work there and I thought it was a really
cool environment great people um big hub for the community obviously at that time and was great environment so I started out just working on the operation staff uh cleaning bathrooms setting up rooms things like that working on the ice crew um and I won't go through every little
position I've held but I worked my way through the operation side of the building helped in a lot of different areas maintenance for that's kind of how I familiarize myself with the operation side of it um shortly before Co was promoted to associate executive director
of the facility um oversaw pretty much all the operations from food and beverage to ticketing to kind of everything there um Co hit and happened and we made the transition shortly after out of venue Works into ASM Global um and during the transition time I was the
interim executive director kind of held the crew together got us through that um and with ASM Global coming in there was a desire for change at the facility especially at the H in the face so it made sense to bring somebody in show the
new face really show the community that it was it was changing um and then unfortunately 2023 kind of happened to us and we had some issues with some staffing and um I had the opportunity to step up into the role of general manager
full-time and when you watch things happen the wrong way for so long you can only sit by for so long right but you guys are all probably up here sitting on this commission so um it was time for me to step up the team needed it bidi needed
it the crew needed it and um I'll kind of get into a little bit of kind of my vision and my priorities for the Sanford Center and for the community um number one priority number one issue we've had for a long time is Staffing There Was
You Know eight general managers in the facility the turnover was happening about once every year and a half like full turnover of all the management staff which doesn't create cohesiveness doesn't create stability doesn't set it up for any kind of long-term success
it's just constant new idea this way bouncing back and forth and so really getting a staff that wasn't just people that could do the job from anywhere in the country to come do it we have staff in bidi that can do these
jobs so that was number one priority and I'll kind of get in these a little deeper but number two priority is the community engagement side um there's been mixed messages throughout the years inviting the community in not in not different organizations were in and then
they were out and now I'm trying to bring people back in so really creating the stability on the community engagement side too and really diving into the community because we're asking for the community support to be successful to do that we have to support
the Community First so that's where we're at right now um and then Financial Improvement and sustainability for long roll that's pretty self-explanatory but I'll get into that a little more so with the Staffing side of it you know I I believe that people of northern
mesot Minnesota the miji community should be the ones running the facility B midi is unique we all know this there's nuances that people don't know when they come in we're not a big city we're not just other locations we're different we're unique and we need
people that understand the nuances of amiji to run this facility um so we searched locally we waited significant amount of time on some of these positions to find the right people but I believe we've hired mostly the right
people and the right group of people to do the jobs now um and that's showing through into our part-time staff the commitment that they have now with our managers in the facility the dedication the diversity that we have within our staff is immense and it's wonderful to
see and um couldn't ask for anything better so you know I always say I always kind of joke about but Sanford Center needed to be run by the people of thei for bidi like that's the one thing that people don't understand and these general managers that kind of rotated in or
rotated out were just on their way up was a stepping stone it was the next step for them two years in here that're gone on to their thing so I'm here I I don't plan on leaving bidi this is my home this is where I live this is where I pay my taxes is
where I shop this is where I work and this is where I serve the community and that for me is if I could do this for 40 more years I'd be happy like I'm good I enjoy this and uh so we all have such a deep investment into the community
because of that and it's that's part of what's making us so successful right now um kind of stepping that takes us into our community engagement piece of it a little bit and in order to have the community engagement that we're Desiring
and the support that we can give to the community you have to have people that know the community so hence the reason getting the local staff um we were very successful in 2024 to bring some new events into the Sanford Center um The
Bash fishing derby it was a last minute de the ice was bad we got 350 people into the facility and like very short notice set them up on Club B during a hockey game we made it happen drove four-wheelers in up there did some crazy things to get the prizes up there it was
great I was at the event talked to a lot of people over a dozen this is the first time I've ever been in the building wow I mean I didn't think 14 years in we still had anybody that hadn't been into the building but you I hear that a lot and uh
so trying to Target those people and create community events like that the kns of Columbus W classic is another huge one for our community we're helping them grow that and it's becoming very quickly a contender for the largest W tournament in northern Minnesota and
that's again a lot of those people have never been to the Sanford Center a lot of the families the Anglers they're traveling in so we're creating an economic impact but we're also introducing people to what we can do out of that we've had some great
relationships come and we've created over a dozen events from just getting the Nights of Columbus Walle classic into the facility so it's been very fruitful to the growth for our community and exposing us to people to be able to see that we're helping and we're working
for the community rather than just working for ourselves so the next one that's kind of notable we used us to do the Women's Expo back in the day and then it kind of fell off with Co but we've reinvigorated that brought it back and we had a great
successful year last year we were able to donate over $3,500 to the battered women shelter and we gave away you know thousands and thousands of dollars worth of clothes that were donated to US during that event I personally took about three
truckloads of clothes to the Red Lake women's shelter uh Cast Lake shelters I mean all over we were able just deliver clothes like crazy people couldn't take it all because it was too much so we had a great community support system around that and it went super well and we were
able to support a group that hadn't been supported like that in the past and it was awesome um then the other one this is uh going year three of it now but B burnout car show it's kind of a reinvigoration of there used to be a car show but it kind
of was was different then and so this was a reinvigoration of that trying to create a more comprehensive inclusive car show for everyone if you like engines and motors and wheels new school old school doesn't matter we created
this event a couple days in July um free to the community free to the public to come and see 6,000 plus people last year came and attended the event wild economic driver you know the community biggest thing that we
hear it's so expensive can't buy tickets I can't afford that free event doesn't cost you a thing to get there come on down enjoy family enjoy friends we did a family night last year gave away hot dogs gave away pop
gave away chips to people so that we could support the community and give them an experience at no cost and so those are the types of things that we continue to strive to drive more of and
um we've got a couple more that we're working on building right now we're going to roll another one out this fall um so we'll be up to three we have plans to continue probably roll one more per year out over the next decade and just continuing to build the foundational
events for our community that a are good for the bottom line but also B are very good for the community and uh so we're very excited about that last year we had un con um come to town and ASM Global
was very instrumental in making that happen as a title sponsor to get that event to come to beiji and the economic impact real dollars and cents from the survey that we got back from all of the contestants with real data was over
$600,000 to beiji in the surrounding areas within 14 days when you look at that and then you look at what our bottom line number of $359,000 loss last year year you know return on investments high and so we don't really talk about
the economic impact too much because it's it's kind of a hot topic for people it's like how do you create it who says it's true or not true right I'm confident in this number because we did the survey we actually got data back from the contestants with actual
receipts actual data so I feel very confident that there's no multipliers in that number at all that's one event that we do out of 52 weeks a year so that's kind of a wrap up on the community engagement and support um make
sure I'm on time here um third one probably most important for everyone right everybody wants to hear we're not spending as much money to subsidize a Stanford center that's what I hear the most of everybody and I
understand it and I pay my taxes and I don't want to either so it just is a big bigger pitcher item that we need to address and it's going to take a little bit of time to build our platform up we've been very successful so far um
2024 our net loss ended up being 359,000 which was about 8,000 of what we had planned for the year um but it's the second best year in the Sanford Center history um short of 2022 being a
$299,000 loss so very two good years had an aity year in 2023 and I don't want to hide that had some tough times had some issues with staff and you know Unfortunately they missed it they didn't see and they they took their eyes off
the target for a bit and lost track and we kind of crashed but we were able to come back in 24 do what we said we were going to do for the community do more than we've ever done before and continue to grow this up so as we continue to
have stability and Staffing and we continue to support the community with that stability and grow these reoccurring foundational events that we call homegrown events for the Sanford Center that we can go every year here's a bucket here's a bucket like we're
starting to build and we know every year we're going to build upon that those things all put together for the community will in turn and I believe this with my heart will turn back into the community supporting us more than they ever have we've already seen it
we've already had the community defending us arguing for us in our Direction and better around a long time there's been times where I've been ashamed to wear my badge that says Sanford Center out to lunch back in the day you know
way back before ASM was around I'm extremely proud of what I do and and the facility that we run and and how we do our job and I can say that I don't have those same feelings I don't get the same comments anymore I think overall the general feel has turned the
tide has turned a bit and you know I think we're going to continue to grow that and I appreciate you guys giving me the opportunity to come up here and kind of talk a little bit about where we're heading and what we're doing so um as I tell my staff all the time it is the
little things that make the biggest difference so with that being said any questions from yourselves I will field them commissioner Carlson thank you Mr chair uh Bobby do you remember how many folks attended the walleye Classic this
year did you get a count on that at all so we didn't get an exact count but it was it was well over a th probably closer to that 1500 person range so I think what's amazing to me now the Unicon obviously was a one-off situation but yeah uh being a KN um and being
involved with the kns at Columbus while I classic I can tell you that that event I'm not sure how you did what you did did there but the Ingenuity that you put into how do we do a parade um and all of that and it just it
was phenomenal and every hour on the hour a $100 gift certificate was given out to folks that did not have to pay to come in and so there again people got to come in there was there was food available at very reasonable prices and
every every hour on the hour $100 gift certificate for like eight hours yeah um and it was it was a pleasure to be a part of it and I'm just thank you for the flexibility and the imagination that you Ed to put that on because I know the knights are pretty excited about that
and I think that's going to be there for a long time to come yes so thank you for that yeah no problem I'd say that that's one of our biggest successes last year was getting that done we had talked about it for three years and I didn't have enough poll to make it happen I just couldn't get
everybody to buy in on it but as soon as I got the opportunity it was like doing this but you know he also he also fishes in that every year too I I do so yeah I I I enjoy it I've never been never been in the top 10 maybe someday but that'd
be kind of a dream but yeah anybody else have questions Scott go um I actually have two sure uh how many events do you host there like in a year or a week or sure yeah so great example we'll talk about let's talk about April this month
uh we have four days in this month where we don't have an event in the building okay um we do between 250 and 300 events a year um specifically I have the exact number off top my head but it's in that range we you know we do about 36 to 40
hockey games between BSU every year with the men's and women's um we host close to 2,000 hours of ice time for the community outside of BSU hockey with BSU we host practice every single
day on our ice from noon to six o'clock and then from 6 to 11 it's booked every single day during the season um you know convention center- wise between September and may it's like our busiest time of the year um we have
seen an uptick in our event season this summer um June's a little slower July picks up again and then August we're really busy we're doing some hockey camps this year to try to just utilize that free time as well as we're doing bringing back the roller skating that we kind of started a couple years ago we've
done a few of them but we haven't had enough haven't have enough stability with supply for the roller skates themselves to do it on a regular basis but this year we're bringing it back once a month starting in May so okay yeah one other question are are you
still doing for the some of the nonprofits in town being able to work in sessions yep yeah so that's actually a great great Point um last year we gave we gave back in in earnings to nonprofits that worked in our concession
stands just shy of $50,000 for the year that's all fundraising that goes directly back to them um so that's pretty amazing opportunity for our community as well and we also for nonprofits we have a rent discount of 30% for any nonprofit that wants to
utilize the facility um and speaking towards accommodating and working with the community it's not a one-size fits-all model with us and I think there's a misconception in the community about the cost to utilize the facility
probably because it was an issue in the past I believe heavily if there is a opportunity we will find a way to make it work nomus is a perfect example of that that's not your typical rent model we went in and partnered with them on
that event to make it a success for both ways so my biggest encouragement would be if anybody wants to try to do an event and they've had an unsuccessful run at it in the past give me a call my phone number is on the website I'm pretty much accessible all the time and
I'll talk to anybody about it and I want to get everybody an opportunity to come back perfect thank you thank you CH Su uh not a question but a comment first I just want to say thank you for coming to uh uh give a presentation to the board uh I've been
around for quite a while and I think this is the first time that that uh I have heard you know a presentation from the Sanford CER so I just want to you know let you know that I appreciate you know the information that you provided uh often times you know throughout the
year uh you know our constituents ask us you know what's going on at the Sanford Center or you know what's the County's involvement and and uh you know the county doesn't have an involvement so that's why you know I just want to express my appreciation uh uh to you and
and the Sanford Center um for for coming you know to the board and giving us a an update I appreciate the invite to come and Tom reaching out to me to ask me to stop by and do this with you guys and I I like that we're having these conversations because I've been introduced to a lot of people that have
said the exact same thing but they've never heard from Sanford Center we've been quiet we've been kind of tucked away down there we really don't share our message or our story and I said not all of it's great right there's been some issues I get that it's tough but
we're here and we're doing the best we can right now and I can assure that as long as I'm sitting there in the driver's seat that we will do what's right for beiji first so I'll actually be there in the next few days here for The Mason Brothers Warehouse show which is another one that you added that has gone over well and they came back again
this year and and for my real job and uh so commissioner G did you have anything that you wanted to comment on or yeah I just want to thank you for coming in Bobby accepting the invitation um it's true the county doesn't have a uh
100% direct involvement with the Sanford Center but um it does have a Tens of millions of dollars economic impact every year that supports many businesses throughout pedi and Bel tramy County um so I'm a proud supporter of the Sanford
Center I think uh you know we'd be in a much Bleaker economic situation if if it was never built in the first place um so take a lot of pride in the building because I helped initially with getting that going and and everything back in
the day and um you know I think it's okay that you know there's uh there's an operating loss every year you know the city of buiji is not a for-profit business um and I think a lot of people don't realize that um
you know you you don't have to be Millions uh um profitable in the in the city's line item budget for the Sanford for the Sanford Center to be successful I think you have been um appreciate the efforts of uh the staff there um
especially these last few years and and getting some recurring events I'm happy to hear the roller skating's coming back I think that was a hit so um appreciate seeing more of that um my wife and I are proud uh season ticket holders for BSU
uh so we're there every weekend and uh um just would like to put a plugin for uh perhaps uh using the the replay on the Jumbotron a little more often uh during reviews uh you know that does happen at other Arenas I'm not sure why
it doesn't here if it's a staff capacity thing or something but appreciate you um doing what you can on that front um there was a few times in the winter that we noticed there wasn't hot water going on in the in the bathroom SNS um so you
know I don't know what the deal was there but just so you're is that this year that was uh yeah that was this year and last year um couple of the different bathrooms so I'm I you know if you could look we did replace some hot water heaters last fall um but we do have one
more that we have to replace right now so that might be the one you're talking about okay um so hopefully that's addressed by NE next hockey season for you guys how much uh do they make uh on the concessions each night if a a sports
team or somebody comes in for like for like the nonprofit yeah um it does depend on the night I mean it's a guarantee of $300 no matter what happens but it's 10% of the net profit for that concession stand so bigger hockey games like UND hockey it
could be couple thousand dollars pretty easily um probably average is $8 $900 I would say okay so thank you yeah and then uh just two more quick ideas I'd love to see more concerts more often especially in the summertime yeah and
then uh I know this is also a BSU Athletics thing and I'm talking to them too but maybe like a $ five family night once a month during the hockey season you know it's kind of uh depressing not seeing all the seats filled uh uh many weekends
throughout the um hockey season and and so if we can get people there they'll be spending money on on concessions and and supporting our local clubs at least so um appreciate you looking into that and just keep up the good work yeah I appreciate that thank you we'll continue
those conversation with BSU on ticket pricing to try to continue to make more opportunities for the community to utilize it and fill the building up for hockey games because you're not wrong it is top watching the buildings sit you know at, 1500 1,600 for hockey game it's
2200 feels great but 1600 feels a little light so um yeah I definitely appreciate that thank you did you have something else you have to keep in mind though that when we had 1600 in the John glass Fieldhouse it was standing room only so yeah I try to remind people of that oh
yeah no 100% I mean our hockey community that really comes out all the time is is that 15,600 fans that are always there and then on the bigger game nights we get travel people in and and there's a little more buzzer on some of the bigger games and you know like I said it's it's
fun uh we got a lot of great ideas what we can do to grow it as far as the event stuff too with concerts um that is something that you know we are actively pursuing right now and with with the World Cup coming you know in the in the near future to to our country it's taking a lot of the stadiums out of
place so a lot of these artists that are touring right now are focusing heavy on stadiums and large Arenas because a lot of those facilities are going to be utilized during the World Cup and 2025 Even in our meetings at in Nashville last fall at IBA which is the International Association for
entertainment buyers um they T they said small Arenas are tough in 25 they're tough in general right now because ticket pricing you know I mean if all these artists are playing fewer dates because of mental health concerns and me there's more now than there ever has
been on trying to have that work life balance for these artists and so they're playing fewer shows and they're focusing in on a larger venue like a venue like our size 4,000 cap our ticket prices for to do what you
know the deck could do for the nergi show would have to be almost triple just to keep up with what he can earn at the deck and I could say pretty much every show that they've had on sale recently has was on our calendar as a whole in the
last couple of months it's just it's tough to compete with them right now financially and these artists are choosing very heavily where they're playing and um I do feel really good about the future though we've built a lot of great relationships over the last you know 12 months that I've been doing
this and that's definitely the side that I will be 100% honest I the booking side of it was newer to me and we we knew that going into it and I've got a regional booking person that works with me we meet weekly and we talk and we we're always on threads together and
chatting who we can get and talking with promoters and meeting with them and we're working through it and there's they all recognize the need right now and it's just finding the right the right acts at the right times and moving into the end of 25 and into 26 looks
pretty solid right now for holds and for actuals that are coming through so we're excited about what that's going to look like moving forward and there's been a little bit of a lag time in this transitional process um and that's unfortunate but kind of is what it is but we do realize that that's a need
that's what the community wants and we're doing everything we can to push that agenda so well thank you Bobby thank you guys reached our time here and uh thanks for all the good work and we'll look forward to see you in the next couple days too probably yeah I'll see you there anybody needs anything
give me a hard thank you Bruce up next for the couple of things with the public works department Highway projects and such if I can I'd like to take them in reverse order agenda there just to make sure I get through the important ones
and yep feel the time properly uh the first item is uh some quit claim deeds um on our project on cassad 20 uh that we are planning for we've been researching our RightWay and found an
issue that uh happened back in 1984 when the intersection with 20 and 21 was realigned uh there was and when they were putting our rightaway plat together there was a issue with the description of the rightaway that we
bought um didn't um exactly match what we did out there and so to correct that uh what we are proposing what we've done is we would do quit claim deeds with a rning
land owners um where they would grant us the correct description and we would Grant everything outside of that correct description and so it's kind of just a swap and to get the to to get the right away to match what uh was originally
intended out there and so I have uh the quick claim deeds uh the drafts here in front of you and I'll so they would be on the consent agenda as long as that uh works with the board anybody have any concerns or questions
about that piece it see seems pretty straightforward to me y okay keep on rolling so that's the quick claim deed so we took care of item eight okay item number seven uh the C 10 strike we've been working with the the city at 10
strike for quite a few years here to uh do an exchange of routes uh We've um reviewed them a few times on different Road tours but we would be taking over the their Main Avenue it actually connects a County Road and a county state aid road we would take that over
and then we would give them two blocks of 91 county state 91 that is ours um we had theu that both the county and the city approved the big issue for the city was they were to acquire the needed
rightaway for our uh Main Avenue our future project and they did that here uh earlier this uh spring and we have uh prepared the plans we've actually got it uh uh to be awarded under the consent agenda to be part of
our big Paving contract um so everything is in place for that to happen now we just need the formal uh resolutions that the city would approve and the county would approve I just wanted to put those drafts in front of you there's nothing for you to approve at this point I just
wanted to kind of go over that uh situation with you that status update um so after today I would forward those resolutions to the city of 10 strike for them to approve again there's quite a few of them that uh that ends up being
done one when you remove a state egg designation within a city the city has to concur or agree with it uh the second would actually um they would accept the road from us and the third is that they would they're okay with us taking over
Main Avenue so they got um three resolutions that they would pass they would also approve a quit claim deed to grant us the right away for on Main Avenue um so then once they approve all those I would put on the the board's
future agenda the resolutions um removing the state aid designation uh accepting the road giving them the road and then also the quick claim deed to grant them the right away for the road that we're giving them so in the and there's quite a few uh
resolutions that are being done the one thing that has not been discussed with the board prior is once once we remove that state a designation off of 91 we have those that mileage that we can put on a different Road and actually we've
got some mileage sitting in a bank unused right now but with the bank and that mileage from 91 uh I'm proposing that we designate a different County Road as a state aid route uh so we can utilize again that mileage and utilize
our state aid dollars for that for that uh proposed road which I am proposing is County Road 305 it was a misprint in the in the uh agenda bill here but County Road 305 it's Wildwood Road and it would
be between County 21 and State Highway 71 it's roughly a what is it a half a mile six t0 of a mile or something like that uh stretch there that is currently a County Road um it meets the criteria you have to meet certain criteria of
connecting state aid routes can't have a dead end route um so connecting 21 and 71 meets that criteria I initially tried to talk the state into allowing us to to put it on to our Main Avenue and T strike you know going east over to our
County Road Three culverts Road 307 but again they it dead ends and so they don't like those situations so this is the kind of the best route that I I can see where we could utilize uh our state egg designation and so that would be if
that uh kind of meets the board's approval I would have that on a future future agenda item when all those transactions or resolutions happen with the c0 strike Bruce would it still be able to be called Wildwood Road even though you're I think you C saw 49 is that what you were going to Rum it yep
the names the names of the road still stay the same it would just change from County Road 305 to County State a highway 49 and so the the residents along there wouldn't have to worry about changing their addresses or anything like that okay cor good anybody have any questions about
the 10 strike Road transfer I we talked about it on the road tour and stuff so looks like we're good there too Bruce okay moving right along here yeah uh the next you wanted to finish with the good news
well the the next item here is the grant updates um one bad news two good news on here um I hadn't uh brought this to the board yet uh but the first one is we got a grant last year and now they took it
away um we got the it was a new Grant opportunity a new kind of program that was put into place or a an entity that was put into place last legislative session it is the ax advisory Council on traffic safety um
and they came out once they were formed they came out with this grant opportunity and we jumped on it and got two projects in there uh the highway department and sheriff's department and for the highway department it was some traffic control uh for a work Zone to help with
some buying some equipment to help with those uh the sheriff was going to get a a speed FL flashing portable trailer while that acts that committee was not given granting Authority in the
legislation so they gave us the Grant and then found out that they couldn't do it and so we we lost that uh Grant they they couldn't give out the grants so kind of a kind of a bummer I was all excited we got that one because we you know we were on the ball one of the few
to apply and got some got some it was going to be a good good program for us to to get some equipment but so that was a bummer that they we've lost that but on the good news we were recently awarded two different grants uh these are uh federal grants these are dollars
that are allocated every year to the state and then they allocated out to the different districts and so we're just competing within our district for these dollars um two different programs um one is the carbon Reduction Program and this was a project we had in
place uh but it met the grant criteria and so we applied and we were given the $700,000 towards our current project or plan project on 32 um it meets this carbon reduction Grant because we are recycling the materials on site not
hauling them away or having to haul new materials on site and so it meets the meets the grant criteria it was already a federal project because we had received some additional or some initial federal dollars um so really it's just
kind of adding some additional federal dollars to that to that project so that was a a good one for us to get Mr yeah commissioner T Bruce what's the portion of 32 what portion of 32 this is
the I got to double check myself the first one in 27 is from the county line to 89 we had two we had two different projects there um this is this is the
first project in 27 is from the county line to 89 where we're going to grind up and replace from 89 to 89 to 30 is the year after in 28 and that's a Mill and overlay um this one's in
2027 and again we had already received uh $2.5 million in federal funds on towards that project uh those dollars are again Federal come to the state allocated out to the districts and they are for County
County counties only uh to apply for and so we we had received that one uh two or three years ago we were awarded that one so just some additional federal dollars to go towards that project uh the second one is for our uh
project that we had just put into our Five-Year Plan for 42 which is Lakewood Avenue um this is for the section from irin Avenue over to 21 um we just put that into the uh
fiveyear plan and really it was for this opportunity right here is to start applying for Grants uh this grant came along and and uh we made it fit I'm going to say we made our project fit this grant requirement um the grant was
to address um it's called protect but it's to to address like erosion control issues or storm water issues which we do have along that section of Road uh no ditches and then we get the that um in
decline or incline on the very East End down to 21 that washes out and so we made the case with that and we're successful in getting this uh Grant this grant will cover about half of that project so it's
kind of covering the storm water um I me we're going to put in cbon gutter storm water and storm water treatment and so it's covering that aspect of the project and so it's again I'll help cover about half that project so that uh um the one change with this project though is they
would move it up a year to meet that grant funding um but we do have that flexibility in our fiveyear plan so again it's a a positive it'll help help cover about half of that half of that project what year are you scheduling that for Bruce it changed it
from it it would change it from 29 up to 28 okay so it's still it's still out a few years but that going be a curbing gutter thing and and a a walking path two or no yep okay yep yeah we had
uh um had done the initial kind of preliminary design on it and we'll have some work to do to try to figure out the storm water treatment and and RightWay issues but with getting the Grant and having some time there we should we
should be able to get that going but yeah so it's a again was a positive kind of there's so many pots of different pots of money out there um that you kind of need to look for a project or kind of
think through your projects and say hey how can I how can I apply for this pot or that pot and that was the case here you know we we were we were up against one other project in the district um they were funded in a different year and we got the funding in in this year here
the the CRP or the project up on 32 we were the only one that applied for that uh but again it's just kind of having that having a project there that fits that Grant criteria and kind of being right place at the right time with that great projects so that was the situation
here on these on these two great go ahead and move on great the last item I have for you is just an update on our construction projects um in this consent agenda you
have a a results of a couple of our bidding uh bid results couple to award a couple of contracts uh the largest is uh the big chunk of our Paving projects that we have um this year we lumped them all underneath one contract similar to
last year and sorry thankfully we had uh kind of similar results you get a big project out there you get lots of contractors interested in it and uh we have U uh ainson construction on of Grand Rapids is a little bitter on that project they did the same kind of the
same project for us last year and so it uh it's we got some good favorable favorable bids and uh kind of save some save some dollars from what we originally planned there um we've had a couple other um contracts
that you awarded at the last meeting but we're doing pretty good of getting our projects our planned projects out um to bid and under contract and so we're doing pretty good here this spring so we have our big Paving projects uh we have our Paving project on 15 on
Iran Avenue um that was done last time again that came in under estimate so that was favorable uh another project is a joint project we're doing with Clearwater County over on the county line they're handling the Contracting and everything with that and kind of the
same thing those bids came in you know 30% under so that that was again another favorable project to get under underway Bruce what do you attribute the the much lower costs on the bids I mean this between the paving and the seal coating
we're almost 2 million less than what was estimated so were you overestimating to to make it look good we we use the price that we had last year um like on our seal coat project
and I guess I have not inquired with them to see why the prices are down um usually the big is the price of oil you know with the seal coat and our Paving projects it's just whatever price that they're having to pay for the that's the big I mean that's the big dollar item
for them and so and we don't see or know exactly what they're paying for the you know the price of vinist oil but uh I'm suspecting that's the big part of it the other part of it a lot of times is the cost of fuel but that really hasn't
changed changed that dollar amount and so I mean my first thought is just that price of the pulus that they're they're able to get out there because it's not like it's just one one of them that's way low it's all of them yep yep and
it's yeah I said we're seeing it clear water County got it and other counties are are are seeing the same thing and so it's got to be a you know it's not a belamy thing it's a kind of industrywide thing so that's uh kudos to you for
getting the bids and stuff out there early too where they're hungry too and and that's I think that has something to do with it probably too that that definitely does have a part of it um putting our Paving contracts a bigger again a
bigger uh quantity helps bring in interest and from those Auto from a whole bunch of contractors and so that those are a big part of part of that um other projects that we're continuing to work on uh the biggest
would be the project on on the north side of the lake um again still working with Northern Township uh kind of on their timing they're kind of their timeline is what's kind of running that project but we're we're still pushing ahead with that project uh the intent would be um
potentially that the utilities could relocate their their stuff this year and so when we get to next year the contractor would have free rain and the utilities would be out of the way and be any delays so that's kind of the uh 10 of what we're hoping for there yet is so
we could still see some work on 20 this year uh the next project on the list is our pedestrian bicycling bridge out on the scenic highway on 39 um that one kind of just keeps they keep saying the funding is there for us it is being
delayed right now with the historical um issues that we've had out there and uh but we're still trying to push ahead with with getting that underway at some point so again they keep saying the funding is there for for us so we keep we're going to keep keep
trying uh the other projects we have that we're still working on is a districtwide edge striping and center line striping hubard county is handling that one and it's out forbid right now and so that that'll be it's a Safety project we get covered with some federal
safety dollars on that um the next project on the list is our bike trail out uh to the high school from Jefferson Avenue um to the high school uh that one was uh a grant that we received and we
are um the plans are being reviewed by the state and looks like everything is kind of coming into to place far as permitting and right away and everything out there and so that we're still looking for like a uh July
to um before school starts kind of a time frame of doing that project and so so that is uh kind of that summer season when school's out so we're still um should be moving head good with that
project and then the the last item that we have on the the tip our fiveyear plan was a project that did have Federal funding that was delayed and that is our County Road Safety plan or an action plan um we received some federal dollars
the reason that one was delayed or or on hold is those that was a direct appropriation from fhwa federal highways and so they got um all those projects that similar projects with that funding
source are put on hold we were in the waiting for our agreement to be approved those that are underway or have their agreement in place are continuing but those that are weren't under contract
are on hold and so that was a 2 $200,000 in federal funds and 50 in state funds but uh we are hopeful that it will continue once uh once those types of projects kind of are approved
but that's the only delay or issue that we've we've had with the the federal projects but so then that would be our our overall our our uh our projects for this coming summer we will be doing a
lot of work across the county I had that on the the agenda bill here we're doing 31 miles of Paving and then 60 miles of Chip seal so we're going across 90 miles we have just over 400 miles of of paved roads out there so we're getting across
to just about you know 20 to 25% of our paved roads out there so the the public will see a lot a lot going on out there this summer overall we were originally looking at a $20 million construction program like
you pointed out we've had quite a few projects come in under and so we're with bids we're down to about that 18 million right now um in here but then with the delays on the different projects the bridge and 20 and uh those those you
that project on 20 is a big project so we're we're down more like around a $14 million construction program for summer and that's that's still above average for us um so it'll be a a busy year for us so with the savings that we have um
are you planning on bumping any other projects in future years up or not haven't gotten that far yet with the do we have you know the County state highway funds or whatever that we saved by having the bids come in better you know any can you talk to anything like that as far as uh project to additional
projects we might be able to get done in the in the fiveyear plan because of that or yeah right now um again the the savings are if we had the opposite if there was a higher than than estimated those savings or increase in costs
really do kind of impact the the future projects uh what we can do either you're adding projects or reducing projects at this point um the dollars we have uh one new project that
I will be proposing uh would be a joint project with the county of Marshall Marshall County handles our County state highway number one up by gria uh they handle the construction and maintenance of it and they are proposing a a
project uh sorry I forget one or two years out and so it's roughly a million dollar cost to us and so that right now that is the the one project that I'm kind of tentatively uh would be adding to our future fiveyear plan is that
proposed project with Marshall County um otherwise uh everything else just kind of filters down through and I at this point I I'm I'm more comfortable with with staying that just to kind of see where our we got a couple of big projects
coming up with our project on 20 and our project on 22 that seven mile reconstruction project will be a you know a big expensive project for us and and so kind of want to wait and see how those two projects go yeah before we add
too much more into that fiveyear plan but yes there is the with the savings there is the potential of adding or moving some projects around great any other questions for Bruce on the projects or any of these agenda items doesn't look like it thanks Bruce
great job thank you yeah that moves us on to the current jail facility project design proposal Tom's going to take that one yes sir good after good afternoon Commissioners um have a couple items
before you this evening or afternoon I should say the first one is the current jail facility design proposal that's in front of you this is uh something I promised about a month or so ago that would come to you as a second phase of the building condition assessment of the
existing jail you might recall that um we are attempting to try to figure out what to do with the existing facility and of course that work in involves having to analyze the existing systems and infrastructure the footings Foundation the roof all of that sort of stuff to find out if it's worth trying
to rehabilitate or repurpose that particular facility that project is underway right now um that was Krauss Anderson's uh proposal that you approved maybe four or five weeks or so ago uh and so we will be getting information about those systems and the
infrastructure and condition and all of that stuff which will then inform the secondary phase which is the architectural and design phase so um there are three different through this potential contract here there's three different design options that we're going to be pursuing and this is
something that's been talked about at Great length with the design and operations uh Team uh and that includes option one leaving the building kind of as it is and trying to gut or repurpose whatever we can in the facility uh and
then also attempting to figure out how to make the the sallyport work for us when we bring inmates to uh the judicial center from the new jail and then vice versa so we do know in each of these options that something's got to be done with the sallyport we do have to have a
way to get those inmates that are required or wish to be heard in court in person uh to and from the judicial Center um so that's the first option is how can we leave the facility if we can
um and improve it and repurpose it and also deal with the sally port uh if the building condition assessment comes back and says the building's kind of toast then of course we wouldn't put time into that option right so these are all kind of contingent on what we find in the
building condition assessment um the second option under this uh proposed design contract is um a partial tear down uh and then a partial reutilization of the existing uh Jail uh
for example it might be that we can reuse the kitchen area some of the office building space um and then have to repurpose the sally port to do the things that I just mentioned um while at the same time kind of tearing down or removing or or whatnot uh other portions
of the of the jail facility so this is kind of a you know partial tear down partial Rehabilitation option uh the third option would be we can't use anything in the the current facility and uh so it it's probably more cost
effective to just tear the thing down and that option is number three um if that option were to be pursued then uh we still would have to do something with the sally port right we have to figure a way again how to get inmates in and out of the uh the judicial uh Center to be
heard in court so those are the specific three options that will be looking at of course we won't go um putting a ton of time into options that just don't seem fruit uh and then of course you will be given these options with that information a presentation will be made
recommendations will come with that and then you'll be making the decision of how to proceed uh at some point in the future I imagine this timetable will probably stretch into maybe mid to late summer uh once we get all of this information kind of put together and
these Design Concepts and feasibil kind of all worked out uh so probably won't hear from the team except maybe through the regular updates that we already provide you on the jail until probably mid to late summer uh this contract would run about
$4,440 uh this uh funding is already uh been set aside in the jail budget uh and is uh is currently contemplated there so there's no additional cost above what we've already budgeted for this this
type of work um and then the contract it appears uh at as an exhibit to your documents here and I've placed that in the uh consent agenda uh if that's something you want to speak more about or have different uh direction we can
pull that off the consent agenda and put on the regular agenda but that's where it is at this point in time so um maybe just a quick update also on the jail itself the new Jail uh you probably seen some equipment that's already been mobilized and sitting on site and uh I think if it weren't for this weather
system that we were getting now and into the next couple of days uh we probably would have saw activity uh probably this week uh so that might be delayed a week or so uh but I know they're excited to get started uh things are aligning very well
and uh I know the team is is ready to go so that's what I had for you there uh but I'll take any questions you might have on that design contract anybody have any questions for Tom I I just have one when you're when they're looking at the repurposing of facility I I would assume and hopefully
that they are also looking at like we did with the new jail the total cost of ownership of if we were to re repurpose and keep it in its in existing full sized everything all the heating and and maintenance and all the stuff that's old
in there currently how much that would cost to maintain and and so on and so forth so if we were getting to remodeling it so we could get some Revenue out of it to help offset that all those kinds of pieces of the puzzle I I would hope that they're looking at that way not just strictly construction
cost right I think that's a great um a great reminder and that is certainly that that is the attempt um Mr chair and so the the way that we have designed these Scopes is to start at the high level and um I think some of us most of
us probably have a suspicion that we're probably not going to be able to reutilize a good portion of the jail and so either the option two or the option three is probably going to be more likely um when we get to those options and we know more uh we'll probably look
for guidance um from both the design and operations team and also from the county board on what level of detail you'd like us to continue that work so right now all that's been contemplated under these two contracts is kind of a high level here's kind of what it looks like with brackets of ranges for estimates and
types of things that need to be done some concept drawings and that sort of stuff if we really like a design concept or um an alternative we can certainly roll up our sleeves and do more work to get at that level of analysis but initially at a high level it'll be
broadly considered um but but certainly there'll be time for us to get more specific uh if if if that requires so yeah great great well thanks for that Tom what do we have next on the agenda Jill property purchase agreement are you
handling that one as well yes sir I can handle this one so as you know um as we have developed and well I shouldn't say developed but designed the current uh or shouldn't say current the new Jail uh we have had some property
boundary issues that had to be addressed uh you might recall late last year I brought to you some easements for autter tail power that we got finalized and resolved I'm currently working on some other easements uh with the Westerly property owner that has a water line
that uh exists on the the jail proper proper that is out of an easement and also the city of amiji has infrastructure uh both Water and Sewer lines that are out of easement as well so I'm working on those um but we also had another private easan on the Southeast corner of the jail site uh Mr
Rich seagert has um and that private easement is a legitimate easement he's a water line that runs through that but he also has uh electric and I believe telephone that runs out there's no easement on that at all and that runs right under our storm pond that's what's planned for the facility uh so we've
been working with Mr seagert and um uh in order to make better productive use of both our property and his property uh we have negotiated a lot line adjustment um and that lot line adjustment would take the Southeastern North South
Boundary and move it uh to the west and that is pictured in your packet on the second page of this uh item you'll notice that the red line which outlines the current property uh is being shifted in that
Southeast section to the Blue Line it essentially is a very small sliver of land represents less than 8,000 square feet um but what this will do is it'll actually change that boundary and through what's being contemplated in
this agreement that Mr secret has already signed uh is that he will extinguish his easement and um also remove those utilities and then we will move that um easterly property boundary and have an unencumbered Southeast
section so uh it kind of benefits both of us to do this um we have valued the uh property at $1 15,552 uh and that price has been agreed to by
Mr seagert uh the purchase agreement is included also in your packet and uh does require as a condition that Mr seagert uh successfully achieve a lot line adjustment through the city of bichi and if he's unable to do that then this all
kind of falls apart um if it does fall apart there's really no impact to the county uh he would still be required to remove the electrical line that's out of easement um our storm Pond is already designed contemplating initially when we
did this work that we wouldn't get we wouldn't encroach too close to the existing private easement anyway so there really isn't going to be an impact if this doesn't happen so there's no pressure on the County's part here to have to do this um but it does benefit us uh in the future especially if we
want to expand the storm Pond a little bit uh but again as like I say it doesn't have any impact currently uh to us so um it is a little bit more complicated of a transaction and in some cases a little more simplified uh we're not contemplating to use a title company because we can handle all this through
the county reporter's office so we won't have title costs or any of that kind of thing um but we do have to do this uh the county attorney's office is recommending through two quick claim deeds um the first is US quit claiming uh property over to searet and
then having him extinguish the private easement do the lot line adjustment and then quit claiming back uh that portion that will come back to the county so those documents probably look unusual from other transactions that you've seen because there's quite a few documents in
here uh a couple certificates of survey and legal descriptions and that sort of stuff but that's essentially what's going on uh for the most part it is a pretty straightforward transaction uh this would require the board chair to attend closing and sign the Deeds um at uh here at the County office for the
recorder um but essentially it's other than that it's pretty straightforward um I know Mr Seager is anxious to get moving this has taken a little longer on our part to try to get all the pieces put together um he's uh told me he's already been down to the city and is uh going to be
knocking on their doors tomorrow if you guys approve this so and any I'll stand for any questions you might have um on that particular item anybody have any questions for Tom commissioner Carlson thank you Mr chair I just want to thank Tom for him all the attention that he's
paying to these specific lot lines and everything else we could have just gone Willy nearly into this like evidently some things have gone in the past so I appreciate you're getting those cleared up so that they're very very neat thank you commissioner Carlson maybe one last
thing to add if I can um You Might Recall because the property was donated to us uh by the by uh Mr fank cannel um the agreement the donation agreement that we signed and he he executed uh does not allow for this without his
Express written consent just as an aside we did receive that so he's he's bless this and we have an agreement with him that amends the uh the other agreement so everything's in order on this too great thanks thank you administrator
Barry and policy committee discussion is next uh Who's lead on that one I can take this Mr chair if you'd like okay um so I think we're all pretty familiar with this uh concept this idea
um that I put together a few months back last November December is um with uh with some input from administrator Barry um basically the idea behind this policy Review Committee is
to I'll just share a line or two from the draft scope of work uh the purpose is to oversee systematic review revision and creation of policies related to County Business and operational procedur
excluding the Sheriff's Office and Personnel policies found in the employee handbook this will ensure that policies are clear relevant and reflective of the County's current needs and legal obligations uh so basically it'd be a
committee of five people that would meet as needed or quarterly um to just kind of take a look at current policies and one of the main goals is to um compile a comprehensive policy booklet um or
resource um with the goal of that happening by the end of next year um because there's been times um throughout the years where um either a commissioner or uh an administrator department head needs to know what the policy is and
instead of digging into previous meeting minutes um and and searching for hours um we would compile an actual um policy uh handbook so it would be uh easily searchable um by topic um and the
whole idea behind this um is to um you know it it's it's not uh it's not what I would describe as a problem in search of a solution um you know we have
had some kind of um Lucy goosey policies uh um throughout the decades here and and uh um I want to say commissioner Carlson was actually uh part of my inspiration for bringing this forward with the uh perdum committee uh
that we uh established uh this would be kind of a a more of a general um committee that could take a look at several different um County related policies there's no cost to it um you know we already have 50 committees what's one more
um so I guess with that I don't have any issues I'm uh with any of our department heads or anything like that it's not an attempt to be microm managerial um it's just a uh this is something that's been
um talked about at different AMC conferences and and some counties around the state are are kind of um taking a look at this to have kind of just a a Clearing House of a go-to s do for policies and um you know wouldn't have
to be a a a committee that come up that comes up with new policies all the time that's certainly a a possible um scope of activity um but it's mostly to just kind of get together and look at our
current policies and compile them all into one document so um with that uh I I think it's come time for us to just kind of um either decide to forge ahead with this or or not so um with that I'll I'll end
my comments there thank you commissioner G yeah any of the other Commissioners like to to comment on it Comm Sumer well Mr chair uh I I think you know looking at you know what we do as
Commissioners and and part of our our duties is to set policy uh for the county and I think you know this would allow an opportunity for us to
exercise our duties as Commissioners to review uh and kind of update some of the policies I mean in past couple of years I think we've um referenced the unknown written policy
polies I think that would would be helpful in creating them if they are not in place I know times change um and they certainly have in in the time that I've been here and I'm not
going to be around you know another 20 years and and I don't know who who's going to remember what happened you know today if we don't you know Tom will beard if we don't
keep if we don't keep uh clear and current records so I mean it it it it I would say you maybe try it for a year I mean I what what's the harm and trying it for year if it works it works
and if it doesn't you know we can scrap it and say you know move on um but I would just say to to not try uh something new um just because uh we we don't feel that
it's the right time so I would support uh uh this Review Committee thank you Mr chair thank you commissioner suar commissioner Winger um I have when I worked for the sheriff's office I did write some
policies I will tell you that a policy is not as simple as something like this and just saying well let's make this a policy policy it's hours and hours of digging through state federal guidelines
uh whether the contract has said that we can't do it a certain way because we agreed with the unions uh there's all kinds of stuff that that you got to dig into if you're going to do this and I would certainly hope well and I I pretty
confident in the leadership that we have within the Departments and everything else to keep up on their policies I agree that new policies or new items if they need to be added there needs to be some policies written but to go over the
policies that exist within the county already um and go through each department other than those two um you get over into Human Services it's that it would just be ridiculous to even try in my opinion because there just so much
and everything's mandated by the state you know so then we have to go and sit there and try to figure out what's mandated and what isn't and from my understanding just about everything is in almost every Department here so um there's policy and there's procedure
which are two completely different things too and you know how much do we want to get into telling each department head how what their procedures going to be we have no clue we don't do that job you know I'm certainly not trained to do the
jobs of any department head here for the most part you know and so I wouldn't even know where to start and uh and it'd be tough to get a committee together of people who would know those things unless it's right from those departments but they should already be looking at it
if there's updates and changes to legislation so that's my opinion sounds like you're in favor of not moving forward with this okay commissioner Carlson thank you Mr chair um first of all I wanted to thank Joe for for the
work he did on this I we did a good job on this Joe um do we have Diane or Tom do we have a sort of a catalog of existing policies that we
that are readily available we don't have like a countywide book with all the Department's policies in it but each department holds their own so it depends on the policy you know and what the policy is about as to where you would go
to find either that policy or the subject around that policy so as the administrator in the administrative assistant um would you find it helpful if there
was a database that with all the AI capabilities these days that with just a stroke of a of a keyboard you could come up and say there's our policy on that is is that something that's uh would even be helpful or not
helpful from your perspective yeah I I'll let our uh esteemed executive assistant have an opportunity at this county hisor question too but but for me of course anytime you can find efficiency in in locating a policy it's super helpful
right um the the the way that it's currently done is somebody's asked about a oh this is in the sheriff's office we send them over to the Sheriff's Office and then the Sheriff's Office does it so I mean that's efficient too it maybe isn't as efficient for the person inquiring right but it can be maybe even
more efficient than everybody goes to the County Administrator who's got to go to everybody's different department manuals and and find them in a you know that's probably not effective and the way that the Departments organize their policies and their procedures may not match a
standard uh and so uh it would be much more efficient uh and probably effective for them to find their own policies than it is to try to put it into a global repository and force everyone into a convention which if you had a single person managing that
might make sense but if uh you you don't uh that that could be cumbersome as well so I guess it sort of depends and I don't know if that's a great answer or not Ian did you want to add anything your upate okay
so it it seems to me that if we have a need for a new policy when it comes up I think Joe the work that you did on this is great and I think we could utilize this format I don't think that we want to have a standing committee what you'd want to do is you'd want to have one or
two Commissioners and the department head whose policy is in play and not just a set person um and the administrator and I think um so rather than actually set up a formal committee I I we could utilize this framework
which is really good I think um and we can move that forward but I think in terms of actually setting up a committee without really having um a policy to discuss right away um probably seems like make work Mr chairman a little bit County
attorney yes go ahead D um I mean I think it's a brilliant idea but I caution as commissioner Winger said it is not a simple task I have been pushing for the concept of it on the contract management we we're all still running
independent Department contracts and we don't have a centralized contract system which I would love to see change um the administrative um bureaucratic task management that that
creates similar to um a policy initiative you're you're talking FTE time I me like you're you're it is not as simp if you're going to manage it you have to do it right if you manage it half asked it's not worth doing it
and just committee time to adding another committee is taking my staff's time taking their staff's time Etc it that does hit the bottom line you don't see it but it it does and I think if you're
going to create a centralized policy system I'd like to do it at the same time you create a centralized contract system you're going to need someone you're going to need to pay someone to manage it you know if it's if it's housed in my office I'm going to ask for
another um sport person if his host in his office he's going to ask for another sport person I mean it's you're going to need to pay for it so it's just me caution I think it's a brilliant idea from a from a Bel trammy county has grown to be
large enough where we need to kind of act our age you know so to speak we're no longer the small little you know County that can uh run purely on institutional knowledge we should probably have a best practices system in place that involves centralized
contracts and policies if you're going to do it please do it right you know and I think we might not be there from a budgetary perspective that's again that's PR the five of you to decide I'm just throwing my two thank
you so commissioner Carlson did you have anything further to add on this or what are you saying that essentially you saying that you are or not in favor of no I would not be in favor of set setting up a committee I I think we do that as as as something
comes up and as the need arises we can we can put together a temporary committee for whatever the situation is and then get the right people that have a stake in it on that committee at that time thank you and I I Echo those same
concerns or whatever the you know that uh our County attorney brought up but also um that that you and and everyone else has brought up but I think the the idea is good the structure that you have is good but I think it should be on an
as needed basis and get the people that are closest to it involved on each individual um situation that comes up or even potentially um you know you know have Tom work with the department heads
and see if there's um a a need for a particular Department to have their policy shorted up and we address that in a work session and and uh go from there but uh not to just try to blanket tackle everything and having a standing
committee I think that would be just uh just too much so sure um well it it sounds like it's not going to move forward but I'm just kind of curious um you know what what about
some of the policies that um that we you know want to review it takes a majority right it takes three three uh Commissioners to to want to you know review that that
policy and pass it um would there be opportunity uh in the future to review that or I'm just kind of curious like is it a couple years ago uh with with my with my uh tribal flag you know they
they said there was a uh a policy in place but there wasn't a policy provided so I mean I think that would have been a great opportunity for you know our administrator or uh a commissioner to reference you know someplace in in some
sort of handbook saying you know this is the policy that that says you know we we can't have these type of things um I I I guess it was my impression that the these these policies would be something that the County Board adheres to not so
much uh the department or the department department heads um separate departments I thought it was just more of you know helping us uh do you know our jobs uh a little better I could be wrong I think it it's all of the above commissioner
SAR and and that but I think that we need to prioritize and use our time as wisely as we can obvious as our County attorney brought up we we are not flushed with cash and and so we need to um make the best use of our staff and our staff time
because that does have a cost to it um if they're not if they're working on this and that then they're not working on something else that they probably should be working on that is H you know more important than our flags or whatever so I um commissioner Carlson
you have something to thank you Mr chair so to commissioner sar's point I think at when we on we're on the work session and we get to the identify future work meeting topics I think that's the appropriate place to say I have a concern about a policy I'd like us to talk about that at the next meeting I
think that would be appropriate or at a management team meeting management team they if they have an issue or administrator Barry has has spoken with a manager uh a department manager and there there some concern about a particular policy or or
thoughts that it's outdated whatever bring it to a work session we discuss it as a board we decide yeah that does sound like it needs to be addressed then we put together the key people at that time for that particular policy to address it that's the way I look at it so I thank administrator Barry I
think we got that one got that one covered if you want to move on to your administrator's update you need some more bullets on a couple items tonight um so first of all I'll start off as you know the trade St is closing and you on that not long
ago they are going to have a job resource Fair on Thursday April 10 from 10: a.m. to 2m for impa employ we were sort of thinking we might be taking the Le on this represented speak about this at the last
Bo meeting involved Serv issue requestes uh was a good event it's great to see Partners partn app
com com us for final rision comments after which I expect couple of days that will get finalized we have something that we bring forward to we're also finalizing signtific
survey on off to thatw of ofel needel for their sewer line I think we' figed out right now if all these final
divisions are made in time my plan is to bring this all back to you at but I know this project I wanted to just get your direction because the last board meeting there was a suggestion repr matter and to receive inut from the
community on S to to do the evening after I said we're going to have action on it so 15 time as I mentioned or would be the first one in May asked say we do have a different
requirement we want to make that we notice Hearing in sufficient time um again this has been talked about a lot might not be something you're interested in but commissioner Carlson uh Tom what's the date for the uh public information
session at BSU is that April 22nd y I think that would probably be a more comprehensive view of everything than anything we could do as a public hearing um I would encourage folks to attend
that and I if we could just reiterate for the Public's uh information when that date is and where and what time I think do you have that in front of you theall the Barts Ballroom on BSU
campus 7 o'cl on April 2 second I think that's going to be a very very comprehensive review of everything there's going to be I believe people from mpca there there'll be Engineers there's going to be a lot of people that
know a lot more about uh treating sewer than than any of us would um I think that would be and I think then if if there's still questions after that then I think we could entertain doing one but I think let's wait and see if that doesn't answer most of the questions
there's no sense in being duplicative Mr chair yep Mr uh I don't think that's a terrible idea but I'm not sure there's a opportunity for public comment at that event I believe there is yeah uh I don't I saw that in there did
it say that in the fly uh okay I don't recall that but if there's not then uh I would totally be in favor of a I think public he Northern Township and make sure that there that that's an option anytime there's a significant project in
the community and um you know a significant number of people see it as um concerning you know warrants of public hearing so um I'd be supportive of it anyway um and Northern Township has had
their own stuff at their own Township too as it's in their Township and the the project is their project not our project only we're totally involved in it Craig I mean this is a land exchange going on between us and them so can't we
can't wash our hands of this oh we haven't been washing our hands but I'm just pointing out that there have been other avenues for public comment so any what else do you have there administrator Barry we continue to evaluate the impact from
mandate the governor budget rised budget and now of the the governor's proposed budget was disastrous to the county as you know it included about $2 million withs back
onto the county already brief about that um despite our Communications about the impact legislator and others the governor revised budget came out recently and in addition for those um
shs there has not been a long back of our P funding for the county to the degree about 34% so entally that impact will result in the loss of another 1.1 million County our total
impact to at least what we know of equivalent of that alone is 11 at this point time um then just recently theun house and their version of their budget Target this week uh targets
actually provide committee chairs and co-chairs with critic spending information about where they want to see um constraint develop ons notably both Chambers contain
signicant reduction human Serv program and of course varing amounts but either of these amounts are disas is recommending $300 million worth of reduction in FY 26 and 27 and that was for
billion of reduction in FY 28 and 29 I just imagine look at the senate senate um ESS is combin Human Services
andic Sugg about $534 million of cuts inis year 2027 with 776 million cs9 so even if we split the difference between the house
and looking Aton um if they don't do something the Mandate that on counties um this financial crisis that we're bracing for isn't going to just be a onee crisis you I've talked to the staff
already and this going to be a tough year or years unless something gra unfortunately there are no soltion being discussed to these
issues no discussion around manding manding Mand none of that all seems to be how we cut ST cost and those others so
that's everybody we're approaching last months good news at all solare want toare board and sta um next year we also on top of all of
are going to have toare the add3 to% of all these shared with you are pures and purchases on
what Al I will be very very difficult for us I don't know in my experience that ien um department on dep Alward um there are some
everyone's kind of scram right now to get their message out and I don't think that legislators are unaware of these impact folks are passing resolution stating their case and their concern I wanted to
throw that out that's something like we needed to do sort of go on the record uh alternatively you you can have host our local areic there are other ideas through out there I just I didn't know what you're
and the is I is there any recommendation from our our lobbying firm that we have down there of what they would they like to see us do a resolution have have you talked to them at all about this um what what they
would suggest us to to Doc they're interested in trying to get 10 or 15 counties to um more outward impacts that are that are being
recomended right now from and so you know about this Comm Carlson you have some yeah thank you Mr chair um Tom I believe that you have assembled quite a bit of
information already that it wouldn't probably be it wouldn't be weeks worth of work for You' have put together uh a presentation and put it I would be in favor of us doing a proposal uh um in explaining the impact
uh especially from a county that has so little tax will land and I think it'd be good you know it to hear from henpen County uh probably doesn't mean anything other than that they other than they get everything anyway so but I think they do need to hear from the Bel tramy the
iasas um because I think they're probably in the same situation there where they don't have as much taxable land I I really I would be in favor of us putting together um a resolution that has a lot of those facts in it I I would certainly be fine with that
and would you what would you recommend that we who would we send that to or would we give that to our lobbying firm for them to to work on or who would we send that to commissioner Carlson we send it to the governor and we send it to the Senate and to the house okay is there other thoughts on
that I I do I uh thank you Mr chair I the I was watching the um some of the stuff from the legislature the other day and and people from hennipen County Ramsey County they were all up and they're all in the same basic position
they're all really frustrated at the cuts and uh I kind of thought it was interesting to hear Ramsey County say how unique they were because of the low value of income um but uh it I think it
seems like everybody's facing this so I'd sure like to see us do something that says hey we we can't do this we just don't have the funds to to pick up you know three million plus probably that much more each year
after yeah to me if they're if they are going to cut the funding or put pass on the the you know the lack of funding to us then they should be also passing on a reduction and regulations to us to help
offset that we shouldn't be asked to implement new things that are going to cost us 1.3 million um when they're also dumping all the cost for everything else on us so um I think that be a good idea to get that fleshed out in a real brief
summary resolution to be able to pass on that that just spells it in layman's terms so to speak any commissioner suar or commissioner G have anything to add not at the moment no okay okay that was that that was uh got to
play the hand your delt so um does anybody have anything that they need to or want to have pulled from the consent agenda being none so you're good on the consent agenda commissioner Winger so we will adjourn until 5
o'clock Part: 2
will call the regular meeting of the county board to order please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for
all all right just um remind everybody to be careful with the weather conditions outside tonight um if you have to travel do be very careful otherwise uh stay at home and that that's my general comments
and we'll move on to if there's anyone wishing to address the county board on item not on the agenda they may come forward at this time to be recognized by the board chair please state your name and address for the record comments are limited to 5 minutes a personnel complaint against an individual county employee may not be heard initially at a
board meeting personnel complaints may be submitted to the board in writing through the county administrator's office and a person addressing the board may not use profanity or vulgar language is there anyone that wishes to address the county board not seeing anybody here and I assume nobody online all right we will
move on i'll look for an approval of the agenda i move to approve the agenda motion by Commissioner Winger i hear a second second second by Commissioner Carlson all in favor of approving the agenda as submitted say I i i any
opposed all right it passes five to zero for approval of a consent agenda so moved motion by Commissioner Carlson may I hear a second second by Commissioner Winger any discussion on the consent
agenda all in favor of the consent agenda say I i i any opposed consent agenda passes 5 to zero on to the regular agenda we have the public defender contracts
is uh administrator Barry gonna tackle that one or Thank you Mr chair before you have two contracts for brand new public defenders uh that would join our team of two now uh to represent the indigent and others
that we're required to provide counsel for uh through the hearing process um and so um as you know we had a team of four public defenders that we had under contract for years uh a couple years ago we lost one of those public defenders uh
he just decided to uh move out of the out of the region and so uh we went down to three uh public defenders for a while and then of course one of the three um unfortunately passed away a little earlier this year so that brought us down to two public defenders uh the
county attorney and I and also court administrator have uh talked this through and feel strongly that getting back to a team of four makes sense um I put out a request for qualifications uh back in February or so that ran for a
month uh trying to seek qualified candidates uh to take on this role we did have two uh attorneys apply and uh those attorneys were vetted and uh essentially contracts were developed for each of those attorneys those contracts
are essentially what would that be eight-month contracts to get us from April through 1st through uh the end of this year uh we typically do that when we bring new public defenders on so we can kind of try them out make sure they like it make sure that we like them the
courts like them and all that sort of thing uh but our intention is that if they work out and we have every indication that they will that we would be extending uh those contracts or renewing uh with a new contract um so this would potentially with your approval of these two contracts bring
our team back to four give us greater flexibility and coverage and also limit the conflict related issues we have when we have uh the need for multiple public defenders on a single case uh those contracts do uh are in your packet
they're identical essentially except for the name uh and match pretty closely the original contracts that we were under uh it is highly likely that we will be engaging with all four of these public defenders as we go through the budget process and make revisions to a couple
areas that uh we initially started conversations about last year uh but for right now these will get us through the end of this year um and I'll stand for any questions you might have on them commissioner Carlson uh Mr chair I move to approve the public defender and legal
services representation contracts for Ellen Tholan and Joshua Knuckles okay we've got a motion for Commissioner Carlson we hear a second mr chair yes um I would be interested in separating these out and voting on them one at a time i too am concerned about the budget
um I think we have plenty of funds to hire one of these individuals um perhaps hiring another person next year um I would be in support of hiring um well let's let's wait and see if we get a second first and then we can have
discussion is there a second to Commissioner Carlson's motion i'll second that we have a second by Commissioner Winger so now we can have further discussion um Commissioner Gold you want to Yeah the last sentence I was
going to say was just that looks like uh Mr nichols has more experience and so I would certainly support bringing him on board i I also had questions about the budget commissioner Gould when we went from four down to three we adjusted the salaries I believe um and basically
essentially took the salary of the fourth person and put it to a third a third a third um so I'm wondering what have we done if anything with regard to that since we're not adjusting the two current contracts is this going to cost us more where's that money coming from and so on great questions and I uh
regret I didn't cover that in my presentation but I I I do have your answers for you yes you're correct Mr chair we had four contracts uh each of those contracts was around $70,000 uh when the one left and we went down to three contracts we took the 70,000
divided by three and added a third to each of the remaining three because they were essentially getting the work of the fourth uh public defender that was agreeable to them and that was after about 2 months of us looking for a fourth to replace the the the person who
left uh we were unsuccessful at that time and so this was kind of an arrangement that worked well for the county we talked about it being temporary um and so when we made that adjustment I wrote an an amendment to the contracts that said you will get
that increase uh until such time the county reverts back to four attorneys and then you will go back to your original rate uh that has survived in those two contracts to date and so the two contracts that you're getting are at the original rate about 71,000 and the
two contracts that are in existence currently have that amendment in them that will bring them back down to the 71,000 or so so the budgets whole we're not increasing budget over this it's the same amount it's just do you want to
have three at 71,000 or I mean excuse me three at like 96,000 or whatever or four at 71 um we feel because it cost us the same four is better than three for coverage sickness illness conflicts that kind of stuff but I'm sorry I didn't
cover that earlier because I I imagine that would make a big difference in I would assume that you had conversation with the existing two and they are understanding of the reduction in in pay because of the reduction in work if this is approved well we they have that in
their contract i haven't had that specific conversation yet because I wasn't certain first of all if I would get this on the agenda for this time okay second of all if I've had two or one that was going to actually accept the contract and both ended up accepting it and three whether or not you were
going to agree to one or two so uh once you decide that my first order of business tomorrow is to let the two others know what's going to happen and you know they may be disappointed in the reduction in pay but they're getting also a third of the work reduced as well
in fact almost half because they've been double timing it now um in good faith for the county we have allowed the uh the court to appoint uh and I've done that on about 10 to 15 cases to try to lighten the load of the two remaining uh
because they have complained about having a large workload and that's reasonable to to be concerned about that uh so I think they'll be pleased to have a more I mean this is supposed to be part-time work so I think they'll be pleased to have a more reasonable work
schedule okay um but yeah my concern would be that you know if they were not happy with it and and wanted to cancel their contract um because of that then you know losing one of our seasoned people to get a new person potentially
you know um is there any concern or thought along that line there is concern about that i I can I can tell you that that that could happen um and uh if it does we'll we'll have to go back out and do another request for proposals uh or have court appoint um I did actually
call as a separate subject I mean related but I did call a meeting of I think it's called the public defender committee was a committee that I think we've only had in my time met once so uh Commissioner Carlson and
Commissioner Winger were on that committee and I shared the financials behind courtappointed attorney costs and our contracted costs and in fact it's cheaper for us um at least with the data that we have which uh we need to probably look a
little bit more closely at but based on time sheets that were turned in and the data we have from the courts it's slightly cheaper to do courtappointed attorneys um so this arguably could be a little bit more expensive for us um it's already budgeted and it gives us time
with this scenario to actually study that a little bit more closely and find out if that is the case uh going forward so um but yeah we are sensitive to that u the reason I bring that up is because if we ended up having to go to courtappointed attorneys um the cost
implication isn't as uh it's it's it's actually less i thought it would be more which is why I was hustling to try to get these contracts filled but it ended up not showing that in the data okay commissioner Carlson thank you Mr chair i think it's important to that we bring
up the fact that the number of hours that were reported for someone that's already on a salary we're probably not as accurate as they would be if they're billing us by the hour i'm pretty sure that those
hours go up substantially i'm just knowing how that kind of situation works i'm I it appeared that it may be a little bit cheaper but it was close and I'm just concerned that it would exceed uh a contracted um so I
just think we know we know what our top is we don't have to worry about that um and uh so I I just that's why I made the motion because I was on the committee and we had that discussion yeah uh Commissioner Winger I just have one other comment it's you know with the
four um a little less concern is if something like this happens again where we lose another one of these that decides they don't want to do it anymore they retire or health issues you know um all those things come into play it's it's nice to have the if we have them
now since it took so long to find anybody uh I think it's it's a good idea to to go with the four because of that but and Mr chair I would still feel com more comfortable because of the costs and everything uh the time crunch and
putting the contracts together so quickly if we voted on them one at a time i have no problem with the uh Mr nichols but um because he has more experience so I think Commissioner Sum wants to chime in here yeah I think uh maybe
Commissioner Winger seen my notes i didn't I was pretty but I but I agree you know I we've been uh having issues you know fulfilling you know the poor uh public defender contracts for a number of years and I think you know we have
the opportunity to um hire you know the four or you know that the additional two I think would be you know a great benefit you know to the people that um that they serve you know our residents you know the people that
we serve uh because I don't know how well represented you know these these folks are when when they're you know having to um worry about representation that that might be overburdened or or things like
that so um I would support uh you know the two additional attorneys thank you Commissioner Sar we have a a motion and a second any further discussion hearing none I'll call for the question all in favor of uh hiring
these two additional um oh what are they public defenders public defenders thank you um say I I and opposed no we have four to one and the motion passes thank you thank you
jail property purchase agreement that uh looks like it's probably also you Tom or No I don't know if it needs any further discussion but this is what we talked about in the work session at pretty good length so it's just a Richard Seager property that we talked about the adjustment of the property didn't put on
consent because I figured it might be a little more complicated than a consent item warranted so just placed it on the regular agenda if you had more discussion i'm happy to answer questions about it uh Commissioner Carlson so Mr chair I move that we approve the jail property purchase agreement with Rich Seager thank you do I hear a second to
that second second from Commissioner Winger any further discussion on the the small property purchase all right call for the question all in favor of this please say I i i any
opposed that carries five to nothing thank you and we'll move on to the commissioner we'll combine the legislative lobbying and commissioner reports all in one commissioner Sumar
uh Mr chair I was it last week attended the um was it two weeks ago yeah two weeks ago i I attended a Northwest Minnesota juvenile uh meeting
along with Commissioner Gold i thought it was a really good meeting uh it was my first one you know since uh starting back up my committee assignments um also attended uh the red lake day at the capital uh
last Wednesday that was a good event um and the red state of the band so it's uh took up most of my uh past two weeks so um thank you thank you Commissioner
Zmer commissioner Winger um I don't have a lot i went to the land meeting committee uh and the public defender meeting and you pretty much heard everything that we discussed at those so Okay thank you Commissioner Gold
um no significant updates uh pretty standard committee meetings lately thank you Commissioner Carlson uh we had our monthly airport meeting um and we had our uh review of our executive director nine-month review
um we had uh Commissioner Winger and I attended the public defender committee uh which was a first for me and maybe a last who knows um also had the land review committee which is always really interesting um and I thought Shane Foley
did a really good job of presenting all the different lands that uh it's always interesting to note that you never really know with as big a land mass as Bel Tramy County has if anyone has actually built a building that they think is on their property and it's actually on county property and you
don't really know until the foresters go out and they start cruising the the timber and they go "Um your chicken coupe is uh Tony Land." And so then it creates a challenge and so how do we deal with that and that's what the land committee does and then uh
at some point uh we gave uh Shane some direction and then at some point he'll come back with some recommendations that we'll have to address as a board uh but those are always interesting meetings uh had jail and design operations committee meeting
um and uh things are moving along well just we were actually kind of crossing our fingers that maybe 1 of April but 1st of April is well you see what's going on out there so but it won't be long we'll be well they'll be scraping some ground and getting ready to put footings in so it's exciting uh they're
going to have a a sample of the panel um we'll be they'll bring it be bringing that up here and I'm thinking that we'll be able to see that in May is that what we heard Tom um so you know they it's all made out of pre-cast and it has colors and this and that and designs in
it um and they're going to bring one of the panels up ahead of time so we can get a chance to preview it so that'll be kind of fun and everyone will be invited to come and see that um and then last Thursday is it Thursday we had the the the sheriff's department and the
city police department put together the scam awareness program um and so I did attend that um and it's and it's I I think you know I'm at the point where I think I know what all the scams are and then you hear some new ones you go "Wow
what are they going to think of next?" And I all I would just tell people anyone that's listening in just if anything looks too good to be true it is um and just whatever you do be very careful about opening
anything replying to anything if you don't know who they are you know and if they if it's urgent enough I'm pretty sure they'll give you a call i had another one today that was from supposedly Commissioner Gosig it says "Hey can we get together this afternoon?" I know that you would have
either texted me and I know the language you would use too because I've had a text from you before that wasn't you and we've had that conversation it pe people the the scammers out there are it it's just unbelievable has anyone here not
gotten the U toll um scam i got one from him yesterday so I mean it it it is so I'll hand out deposit tickets for all of you it's I mean you just really really need to be aware because it is
just it's awful out there the whole scam business so be careful thank you Commissioner Carlson actually circled in our our you know we have a a program called No Before um and I know we use that one of the other boards that I'm on and that's a a scam awareness um
software basically they send you emails to alert you know educate people on the scams and the different types of things the the cyber crooks are always trying to do and um my my company that I work for has a a different one called Arctic
Wolf but they're um they're worth the investment in those those programs just to keep top of- mind awareness i just had had one for my real job this morning that went through and talked about how they're going through the cell phones and and because people are usually in a
hurry and they you know notifications and other things you know should take the time to to look at them before you just accept them or or open them even on your cell phone so oh yeah Commissioner Cross all right one more thing um we all got the invitation about the countywide
training and I don't know if if if we're obligated as commissioners to do that but I did do that last year and I thought it was very useful so I'd encourage the commissioners to to sign up for a session as well um yeah yeah safety training yep yeah
thank you Commissioner Carlson um I just have a couple things one on the airport authority um you mentioned the review but we also did sign the the lease agreement for the planning area three the western part if you've been by the airport you've seen dirt work and stuff having gone on there that's what we call
planning area 3 expansion of the airport and one of the hangers um we signed the lease agreement to get the first hanger built in that area so we that fulfills our our deed grant and stuff so we can get the the city water and everything
out extended uh through that that area and everything uh is on track there so that's good um HRDC we um had our elections and I I got elected as the the chair of the the HRDC board at the last
meeting and we are looking at the roof um and taking proposals for re-roofing the building over there that's uh some updates on HRDC and um we mentioned earlier about the April 7th 7:00 or no was it April no
April 22nd excuse me 7:00 meeting at BSU for the storm water project from Northern Township to remind people of that um yep oh that's April 7th yeah um next Monday
public public hearing here at six o'clock at the county boardroom for the shoreland ordinance uh draft ordinance re review um so anybody that is within 1,000 ft of one of our lakes or within 300 ft of or has property within 1,000 ft of one of our lakes or has property
within 300 ft of one of our rivers um that shoreland ordinance applies to those properties and so the public hearing is here 6:00 next Monday April 7th for that and that is it for my reports if anybody doesn't have anything
else we'll look for a motion to adjurnn chair regarding the meeting schedule coming up uh I'm supposed to do chat about tomorrow yep um we're doing an e-learning day tomorrow and now we have a a schoolwide staff meeting at 9:30
which is the uh So any of the other commissioners or Tom able to call you can call in too if you don't want to travel in tomorrow does anybody want to volunteer to take that chat about [Laughter]
session vlog tonight and do it justice but I'm happy to do it actually if you'd like do you do you have time to do it Tom or otherwise I think Commissioner Winger was also leaning towards Oh I was volunteering i was going to volunteer again i was going to make a motion to
Oh I was trying to volunteer what time is it tomorrow 9:30 9:30 yeah i'm I'm sorry we're getting a new copier tomorrow at 9:30 so we won't be able to do that no I I can do that now you can do it all right yeah I can do it thank you Tom so we'll we'll have you uh
report for Chad about duty tomorrow so uh we'll look for a motion to adjurnn so move motion by Commissioner Gold second by Commissioner Carlson all in favor of adjourning i We are adjourned thank you