--------- call the def county work session to order. Are we good to go? >> First item on the agenda is the introduction of new employees. Do we have any new employees? Doesn't look like it. We move on to identify future work
meeting topics. Does anybody have any future work meeting topics? I do. >> Go ahead, Commissioner Gold. >> RLS budget update. >> KRLS budget. >> We can get Melissa in here at the next
meeting in November. >> Okay. like us to send an invite to uh Paul Bunan Transit and the Bel Tramy County Historical Society
as well to have them come in for an update. And then I'm just pulling up my notes. I have one other thing here. Um, one thing for sure is the uh jail roster website. I've been getting some
uh comments from constituents on just the uh clunkiness and there's been some changes and it's been down and then it's been up again and down. wondering if we can have uh someone from the sheriff's
department uh or jail administration come in and talk to us about uh that website. I think the only other thing I had was uh I think there's a state statute that says we have to publish the top three
salaries for county officials. And I clicked around. and I didn't see it anywhere on there and I just want to make sure that we're in compliance and what what the deal is with that. >> That's probably the form 990 um and that
so it's not really like we have to publish it. It's we have to file it as as part of a the you know I know I do that other organizations. Um we have to file a form form90 and then that gets posted on a on a website
>> not on our website necessarily but on a um I think it's like guidear or something like that. I wonder if this is a different thing because it's usually the county administrator, the county auditor, sometimes it's the sheriff, but usually
the county attorney salary is on there. Um, it's always been on there, but it's not on there now. So, >> Mr. Chair, >> yep. Go ahead. >> I can I can explain that one. So, uh, there is a state statute that does require the top three employee salaries be published. There's two ways to do
that and to comply with the statute. The first one is to publish it in the newspaper along with your budget, which the county hasn't historically done. The second way is to publish it on the website under a salary compliance notice, which the county has done. It's only required to be published for 90
days. And so we publish that the first of the year from January 1 through I think it's April 1. And uh it does include everything that's needed in order to be compliant. >> Oh. Okay. >> Okay. Yep. And Tom, um, you I don't know if you
were in here. Did you catch it that he would like to have at a future work session to have a a KRLS budget update? >> Um, I didn't catch that one, but I know that Diane did. So, we'll make sure that we get that and and anything else that was requested.
>> Okay. Yeah. Um, and are others in in agreement that of all the requests that Commissioner Gold made to have updates? Any issues with those? So, okay. Um, anybody else have any future work meeting topics?
Uh, Commissioner Carlson, >> Mr. Chair, and I don't know anytime soon. I was just up talking with it because of this. Sometimes they do these fishing tests. >> Yep. >> And um, so I was talking to Jared about it and I
said and I asked him, I said, "Are would you want to come to?" And I don't want to make them come if they don't want to. But I just I I kind of an open invitation if they ever we have time in a schedule if they'd like to update us about what they do just to kind of make us safe from the fishing things that go
on and just uh >> Yeah. >> You're referring to the IT IT effort. Yeah. We have >> and no rush or anything, but just if we have an opening in a schedule and if they would like to give us an update to >> Yeah, you bet. >> We could do that. >> Okay. Commissioner Winger,
>> I I do have one thing and I I don't know if there is this I didn't see it, but um if there's a policy on road name stuff or road designation. >> Oh, yeah. >> Um if somebody were to want to
name a road, like I know there are some that have a special sign like the Lady Slipper one out on the scenic. Um, and then some are named for particular reasons. And I'm just wondering if we have a policy on that and if we don't, if we could have something so that
people know what they can and can't do with that. >> I recall we had a discussion last year, the year before about and I don't remember if we actually had a policy or if we talked about one or >> um, Mr. Chair and members of the commission, we did talk about it
briefly. The focus of the conversation as I recall at that time was mostly on adoption of roundabouts. And then that drifted sort of into what do we do about removal of say crosses and other memoriam that were on roadsides and comparing that to the state and and some
of that sort of stuff. We also talked about adopting a highway. Um but we didn't I don't think ever get specific to talk about how to name say a certain section of road or that kind of that kind of thing. So, uh, we can look into that and bring something back for your consideration or at least information at
this point in time. I don't think I mean unless you're directing us to put a policy together, we can just come and talk to you about uh, generalities about that and then you can make a decision if you want to have us pursue a policy and we can bring something at that time later. >> That sounds good to me. I know there's um some sort of a policy or maybe even a
state statute regarding unnamed lakes and and being able and we did we did address that at one point um with the and that was like a I think it was required a petition of land owners or something. >> Yeah. And then the DNR was involved but um it's probably a different process or
different rules for doing names of roads. seem to recall that there was an issue with um when they did the 911 addressing or something that they they wanted to get away from having like individual names on roads um if I recall. Um so
it'd be good it'd be good to get an update or and figure out what the what the um situation is with road naming. I have one thing that uh I want to um plug in for a future work work session. That's the MREA, the Minnesota Rural
Electric Alliance or Association, um is been working with several counties to uh um they've got a Minnesota Nuclear Energy Alliance. um uh coordination or whatever that they're
doing to to um get more emphasis on base load power for um the with the 2023 passing of the carbon-f free by 2040 without any any real solution. um
they're trying to the MEA is a statewide organization for Minnesota Rural Electric Association um that gets support for trying to come up with a solution to the situation that they're putting us in. So like to have that as a
um future and I'll get you some information Tom on the contact for that um so we can tee up to have have the u executive director of that organization do a presentation for us. >> That's good. Anybody else have any others?
Okay. Well, we'll move on to our update on chronic wasting disease study site. Uh we've got somebody coming forward here. >> Good afternoon, commissioners, everybody.
My name is Mark Schwablander. I'm from the University of Minnesota um Center for PON Research and Outreach or Minpro for short. It's a lot easier to say MPro than the rest of that. So, I'm here um with Dr. Peter Larson who is the
director co-director of that center. I am associate director and we are here to give you an update on the work that we've been able to do at that site. Excellent. So, a little bit about our research
center. Um, we're a team of 30 plus students, staff, and faculty that has come together since 2019 to study chronic wasting disease. um largely funded by the state and started by a state funding to help understand chronic
wasting disease and to uh just be a research center that advances knowledge and management of that disease. We've been an incubator for cutting edge diagnostics so testing ability for that disease and that plays into that the
property in the county here. So, a little bit uh about chronic wasting disease. Um it's spreading across North America. It was it was first identified in the Colorado area in the 1960s. So, we've known about it for
about 85 years. And as you can see this map play out, it's been detected more and more across North America in uh whitetail deer, elk, moose, um mu deer, the servid family.
it is 100% fatal to these animals. So once an animal contracts that disease, they will die from that eventually or the the um be more likely to die from something else that will kill them because of that disease. It it's caused
by a misfolded protein called the pron. Um it's not a bacteria, it's not a virus. It's it's kind of odd in that it's a normal protein in the deer's body that changes shape and then ultimately causes that disease. And so our
detection and our our testing largely relies on um the detection of that protein in a sample. U as a deer is infected. It takes about two years for the progression of that disease. And during that time that
animal is shedding those infectious proteins in their saliva, in their urine, in their feces. And then ultimately when that animal dies, there are many, many of those proteins in that animal's carcass, which then are in to
the environment and can be in the environment for many years. So, a little bit of background on this site in Belrami County. Um, in October of 2020, there was a captive herd that was quarantined because they were
connected to another CWD positive farm. In April of 2021, there was confirmation of chronic wasting disease in an animal in that herd. During that uh herd owner interview um he had stated that um
carcasses were dumped uh on the public land. So this first block here on the PowerPoint is is showing where that farm is. And then um the public land area that where our study site is is this
this second area that's on that map. So he he had admitted to taking carcasses of of deceased deer from his farm to that public land for disposal. At that time the state agencies, the board of animal and the department of
natural resources reached out to us because they knew of our research and our potential testing capabilities to help understand uh what's happening at that dump site. So in May of 2021, um the the farm itself was depopulated.
So all the animals on the farm um were killed and it turned out about 22% of those animals were positive for the disease. Also then during the summer of 2021, the Minnesota DNR led a construction of an exclusionary fence on the public
property largely to protect the wild herd. So uh we we knew roughly where those animals, the carcasses were being deposited and a fence was built and has been there since summer of 2021.
So this is where our team came in and this is some of the work that we have done there and the findings that we've had uh in relation to that site. First is um just looking at the deer remains. So we we had the opportunity to go there search for deer remains and collect
those remains in five different visits in 2021 from April through September. Um we took biocurity steps. We we wear uh personal protective equipment. So, we'll wear Tyveck suits and rubber boots. So,
we're trying to reduce the amount of prons that we could take out of that site. So, just trying to make sure that those prons stay in that site as much as possible. When we find those remains, uh we flagged and staked those areas, took GPS
points. We have maps uh that identify where those remains were found on that site which help us in our research as you'll see moving forward. So as we as we were uh scouring this site, we found over 200 specimens of hair, skin, bones,
and partial carcasses. You can imagine as these carcasses got brought into that site, scavengers and whatnot were moving those remains around. Ultimately, what we found in our testing of those remains was at least six CW
positive deer carcasses were disposed at that site. How we did that? Uh so the testing that we have been working on at the University of Minnesota, it's called RTQU quick and it's a highly sensitive pre-on detection test. It can be used
for biological materials, you know, part uh tissues or fluids from an animal, but also environmental samples, soil, water, etc. From those remains, uh we had 56 samples from 40 different specimens. So,
sometimes it was a bone that we could get bone marrow from, but also there was muscle on it. So, that's one specimen with two samples. And we found those at 32 different locations across that 11 acre site. Ultimately, there were 14 of
those samples that were positive for CBD by RTQ quick, a number of different sample types. And that that led us first to understand um that that we did have positive results from those samples, but then we
also took it to the level of trying to identify those specimens. So two different ways we did that. One was using anatomy essentially looking at those bones and characterizing the age of those animals based on tooth
replacements, tooth wear, um how the growth plates uh looked b that we can tell the age from that. So we determined there was three adults, one yearling, six fawns and one unknown aged animal at least.
We also looked at DNA. So, we had DNA extracted from those remains at that dump site. We also had the ability to um get samples from the captive herd where those remains were likely coming from.
Ultimately, we were able to match that CBD positive remains at the dump site matched to that captive herd, aligning with the story that that we heard that there were remains going from that herd
to that dump site. Additionally, then that took us into environmental investigation. Um so after we collected those remains, tested those remains, a lot of questions remained about the environment and that's still where we are today. Uh doing this
environmental investig investigation, mostly water and soil testing. Importantly, um why we're looking at this in the environment, what we know about those prons is that they can be in the environment for many years in in
soil, in water. um scrapey prons. Scrapey is a disease of sheep that is ve very much like CWD in deer and based on research we know that these uh prons can be detectable in the environment for 16
years. For CWD prons we know it's at least two up to 16 years minimum. So the 16ear study is ongoing. Um it's probably longer than that. So that environmental persistence um can
be leveraged to understand understand disease spread and risk and that is what we are doing in the research in that area right now. First thing that we looked at is soil samples from that site. This uh picture
here shows a depiction of those 32 spots where we found remains. We would lay out a grid like this. The center of that grid is where we would f where we found a positive remain. And
then we put in posts in the cardinal directions 1 meter and 2 m out. From there we collected those nine soil samples. So the one in the middle, the one at north 1 meter, north 2 meter,
etc., etc. We use disposable um sample methods to to reduce crosscontamination between sites, collected those nine soil samples at each of the spots where we had positive deer remains and brought them to the lab
to test. What we found um from our 2021 soil collections was 124 soil samples that we tested in and around this site. This is the depiction of that dump site. The
line that you see in here is the exclusionary fence. Out of those 124 samples we tested, 25 were positive for CWD. Importantly, um, soil detections at 64% of the spots
where we had positive carcass remains were positive. So we had more positive soil at spots where we knew there were positive carcass remains than areas where we did not have positive carcass remains. So what what is the effects of that on the landscape?
Well, one thing that we learned um it it was pretty clear that there was a concentration of remains inside of the circle. Um what you can what you can't necessarily appreciate here is at the top of this picture. So at the north side is where that field edge is and
that's where those remains would have been would have been brought in dumped at a pretty central site here. The other thing that we learned in this testing is we took these five soil samples around the perimeter at spots
where it was more likely for water to be running out and those samples were all negative. So at this time in 2021, we were seeing that there were detections in the soil inside the fence but not outside of the fence. So that brings also brings up the question about what
about water runoff. In this scenario, you can can see these contour lines. This spot where the carcasses were dumped is a relative high spot and water runs off in three main areas here to the northwest down. I
>> see your laser pointer on our screen. So, um I can >> Sorry. I'm sorry. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um so it runs off to the northwest to the southeast and then um to the southwest also.
So we also had project looking at the water on that site. It is a a a pretty wet site, but mostly in the spring when we have snow melt and runoff. Um, this time of year there is is little to to no water.
Um, so there's water flowing out of that explosure that we sampled that during spring melt season. Um, and then we also tested and collected channel bed sediment. So when it's dry, we can we can collect those channel bed sediments
like we're testing soil samples. >> Back. >> Yes, of course. >> That red dot maybe didn't catch you. Say the one that's outside the area quite a ways to to the to the upper right there. >> Yep. Yep. >> What was that from? Or was that a
hunting sample or >> That was uh some remains that were found on the private property and that were tested and that were positive. >> Was that separate from the the deer river or the the deer farm or was that far on the deer farm? >> That that was outside of the deer farm.
So this that was outside of this disclosure >> outside of the public property on the adjacent private property. >> Was the DNA there matched up with anything? I don't know specifically about that that single sample,
but the the the rema the remains that we were found were tested and that was positive CWD positive. So detecting um the prons in the water, we had to do a lot of laboratory work to develop this this test. And what we did
find which was very important for the pron field was that the prons partition to the fine sediments in the water. Meaning that those prons those misfolded proteins are connecting to the sediment
in that water and not so much just free floating in water. So a lot of our laboratory work looked at separating the sediments in the water and the water itself and testing both. And what you see in the figures on the left side um
the top figure is the water testing essentially testing just the water. We're not getting any positive detections. Down below is the sediment itself. Um the one that is boxed in blue
was that was a field sample. So directly from this site that was that sediment that we detected prons in. The remaining boxes are um spiked samples that we looked at over days to understand if prons are put into water with sediment,
how long can we detect those afterward. So largely what we found with that um all of these water samples that I'm talking about were collected in 2022. The water that we tested straight water that was all negative. We did find sediment that had CWD detection that
came from the water. We also collected water in 2025. To date, the water has been negative and the sediment testing is still under analysis. What does that mean moving forward? I guess for us as researchers and for the
site itself, we continue to do work there. In fact, we're going there tomorrow to collect more samples. Um, and what are we looking at moving forward? One is looking at that PPE, looking at that those boots and the Tyveck and can can we detect the prons
on those boots coming out of there? Do our disinfection methods of those boots function? Learning a little bit more about the utility of that those protective methods for a site like this. continuing to uh collect and test the
sediment and water over time. So what did we looked at 2022, we collected in 2025. What is it? What happens over time and distance um with that water and that sediment continuing assay optimization. So the test that we are using for this,
we continue to advance that. The more that we learn about it in the laboratory, the better we're going to be able to detect um these prons in in nature. And then like I said, we're collecting more soil tomorrow. Um, we have soil
samples from that site from 2022. We'll be now through this year and we're going to go back and test those at those same sites where I showed you the data from 2021 understanding what happens over the five years. Uh, and moving forward to the PON
detection in the soil at that site. So that's all I have. Happy to answer questions. Um to thank the county and the commissioners for allowing us to do the research on that site and the collaborations that we've had with uh state agencies and the private land
owners around there um to be able to do this work. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I um I really appreciate this. I It's really informative. but know a lot of this. What's the uh how does a deer
end up with this from a dead deer? I mean, obviously they're not eating it. Um how does it get into the other animals in the area? >> Yeah. So, if it if it's a lot of times when a deer is going to contract a disease, it's live deer to live deer
passing it, but it can be from dead deer. So, um, the carcass, if they're coming around that carcass, uh, if they're drinking water by that, surprisingly, deer do eat other dead deer. There is there is some, um, camera
studies showing that does happen. It's rare, but it can happen. So, largely, it's just the contact of that live deer with the environment where the pirons are from the carcass or from saliva or feces into that environment. So they'll
ingest that u those prons from the environment and start that process of the disease. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Y >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um how long does it take to test? So in other words, you come across a carcass, how soon can you get a test to find out if it has the
prown? >> Yeah, that's a great question. And so that the test that we run in our laboratory um by the time that we have that sample to the time that we have results, let's say it's so it does depend on the sample type. If it's a deer sample, uh we can have those
results within 24 hours. Um if it's environmental sample, takes a little bit longer. There's just more processing that comes along with that. >> Um Oh, go ahead, Commissioner Winger. Um, if a person finds a deer in the woods, I
mean, in the area I hunt, there's a lot of wolves and so there's we find wolf kills every year. Is that something that we should be notifying somebody about in case it's something other than a because obviously a wolf if they find the down deer, they're going to do something with
it anyway, right? Um, what do you what are your recommendations on those things? >> That's a great question for the Department of Natural Resources. Um >> yeah, and we do have a representative from the DNR here today. >> Mark, I had a question before we have
him come up. um just as far as the public goes and you know there isn't any um any direct correlation to people eating the meat from a deer and it being harmful to
humans eating meat that of a even if it is a CWD um deer there any any issue with people eating the meat from a deer that has CWD >> from a scientific p perception the the oneliner is uh it's a nonzero chance
that it can cause disease in humans. So, it is possible. There has been no known link to it. Um, we liken it to the mad cow disease outbreak in the '9s. It's the same type of disease. It could go
from deer to humans. Um it it is recommended that if a deer is positive not to eat it. >> Yeah. But there no actual scientific proof that anybody has gotten sick from eating a diseased deer. >> There's no direct link
>> yet. Not not that it's necessarily a good idea, but just want to get that out there. So, okay. And then DNR want to come up and answer Commissioner Winger's question. >> Yes. So, I'm Eric Lorson, the area wildlife supervisor in Park Rapids that kind of handles this area. Um, and as
far as finding carcasses in the woods that are, you know, if if it's obvious wolf kill or something like that, you know, there's a lot of deer that die in the woods or maybe they were mortally wounded by hunter and unreovered. Um, but if there's reason to be suspicious about how it died or if we actually
observe the deer before it died and had unusual symptoms, we want to hear about those deer. Um, you know, we call them suspect deer. um and we will come and do an investigation, potentially take samples, we transfer a carcass down to the vet diagnostic lab at the U of M um to determine what the cause of death was
and then test for CWD. So, we do have a site spot on our DNR website deer under our CWD management and we get those reports or they can call our DNR office directly and we will we'll follow up and uh determine what what caused the issue.
So there's actually a a link or something on on the DNR website. >> Yeah. Yep. So under our CWD management uh web page, um there's a site there to or a link to report a sick deer. Otherwise, they can call the DNR wildlife office here in Bumiji or down in Park Rapids.
>> Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. I for some reason I remember thinking or that I thought I heard that the only way you could test that at least in the past was they had you had to have a dead deer in their brain but evidently there's way
more sophisticated testing beyond that I mean was that originally the way I mean that's I don't know where I heard that. Yeah, I mean you're not wrong. The the st the standard test for CWD is a brain stem or lymph node. A
lymph node in in the neck is the best lymph node test of a of a dead deer. Um but the types of testing that we have that I was explaining and that has been around for about 15 years is advancing that where um can be uh tested in live
animals. So, um, samples like saliva, blood, ear punches, those type of things are getting more and more readily available to be able to test. >> Y, anybody else have any further questions. >> All right. Thank you very much, Mark.
>> Appreciate the update. >> And that moves us on to their veteran service office update. I think Shane's here to give us an update. Afternoon, commissioners. Diane, do I have
There we go. All right. County Veteran Services. I'm Shane Gustoson, your CVSO. Um, I'm here to give you an update on our current office report here. Uh, so we're going to cover the 2024 GDX report. That's the federal government's report
on the numbers of dollars and the type of claims and things that we use here in uh, Belch Tramy County. and actually it's for every county in the United States. Some office highlights. We're going to cover the state grants, the disaster grants specifically, and update on mobile claims unit and a little bit
on the veterans home. So, the 2024 GDX just came out for us. Uh it's very late compared to previous years, but uh we just received it in the last couple weeks. Uh primarily the number that we look at is the $48 million that was paid out to the veteran
and surviving spouse community. These are dollars that go directly to them. They don't come to the county. They don't come to the BSO. They go straight to the families uh through the claim process. So that's a $3 million increase over the previous year of 23. >> Is that just Bel Tramy County?
>> That's just Bel Tramy County. >> Wow. >> So uh that's a lot of claims, a lot of Yes, there are some coal increases there, but there's a lot of claims um that are done in order to raise that amount up. Disabilities get worse. Other people are eligible for different type of benefits, and that increases those
numbers. Um right now based on the census we're showing about 2,700 veterans within Belrammy County alone. It's a it's a we've had a loss of 53 veterans over the previous year. We have some veterans that leave state. We have some veterans who has passed of course as well. Uh
with that we've also had an increase in the number of veterans that are now coming to us for benefits and education on on services primarily from the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan. We're seeing a more increase of those veterans starting to come in. Um, our current activity,
we're a small office, but we're extremely busy. Um, year to date, we've already had over 2,000 face-to-face appointments in the office and with our increase with the mobile claims unit as well. Been very successful. Uh, overall, that's a 69% increase over the previous
year. So, that's that's a lot. And you throw the disaster grant in there, it's been it's been a busy year. Um, our DAV is our chapter that we use to do direct support to our veteran community here in the Baiji area. Uh, we've sent in 28 requests to them and received nearly
$17,000. This is for veterans that can't afford an oil change. They can't put tires on the car. They need groceries. It's it's a holiday. They have a family. They can't put turkey on the table. um based on some of the need, we'll take it right to the DAV and as long as it's it's good to go on their end, they'll
support that request. So, it's been very successful for that organization and for our veteran community as well. Uh the retre active payments. So we just started tracking a new number here in fiscal year 25 looking at all the claims that we've sent in and all the dollar
amount that comes in at the first of the year and ongoing still we're going to track to the end of the year but a million and three of claim development and things that we've done specifically for the veterans has has reached that threshold which is quite impressive. Now those again are dollars that go directly
to the veteran or the spouse or the family members. Uh but those are dollars that are used here within the county in most cases and you know pay their taxes, put gas in the car, all of that. So that's a lot of work um and a lot of trust from the veteran community to come in to allow us to work their claims and
help them out. Uh part of that success that we have we have Tyler Technologies which is our data recording software where we work in the office but we can also use it in the mobile claims unit because of this new innovative way that we are reaching veterans. we put in for the award for the VSO excellence award
because of that type of work that we're doing. We haven't heard from them yet, but we're hopeful. I'll give you an update if uh we end up moving forward with that. Uh little bit of year to date. There wasn't a lot of historical data in the office. Uh I started in 21. I started
creating some numbers in 21. There wasn't enough. So 22 is where we really kick off with the full spectrum. Just giving you a few numbers. The light green is the inoff visits that we schedule per year and then the walk-ins are the ones that the in the darker
green. It just shows that we can schedule a lot of different veterans for their daily appointments, do a lot of routine triage, medical um access and a lot of those things, but we have a lot of veterans coming in just unannounced and we're still serving them and helping them throughout this whole process as
well. Uh the yellow which is a very small line at the bottom that is our SSAP grants the state soldiers assistance program grants and through the years we've struggled because it's a whole state program to do on top of all the federal knowledge that we have to have. So it hasn't been widely used but
we're getting into it more specifically because of the disaster grant uh that we use this year. Uh and then the 9006 in 2025, that is the number of face-to-face visits that we've had out of 18 events with the mobile claims unit. That's
people from different states, different counties, a lot from Belrammy County. But that number is is pretty incredible. We're meeting a lot of new people. They really love the program and the outreach has been immense just because of one change in what we do by offering a
different way to get information. A little bit more on the SSAP um grants. Belmy County after the disaster was awarded $50,000 to the veteran community and we went through that relatively quick and there was a lot of need for it. These are $500 max grants to
veterans who were eligible for them. uh we hit that target early and I requested additional funding and which was not denied but they just said to continue to write the grants until September 5th which was the cuto off date which we did and we actually received you know
additional funding over that by $5,742 to the veteran community and there were some denials on that there there are some veterans that just weren't eligible but we wanted the state to be the ones that make that determination on that uh for any number of reasons you know the dollar amount wasn't or or the the
invoices weren't correct or it was too hard to determine what they spent the money on or they just weren't actually a veteran in state statute. Uh we've also do a lot of other grants through that same SSAP portal optical dental uh for
veterans who just cannot afford their dental service or their eye care or dentures. Uh we've already put together 25 grants in that category almost hitting $28,000 which that dollar amount goes directly to the dentist or the eye doctor or whoever's performing those
those procedures. Veterans relief and special needs and subsistence. Lump them all together because we've done a few of those in different capacities. Um but 13 applications. So we have say a an elderly surviving spouse
90 plus years old still capable of living in their home. Heater goes out. There's no dollars for that. So we go through the whole application process and we determine you know are we eligible or not? Can we do this? Then we move forward with the application. And
in some cases in scenarios similar to that um they're granted the funds and now that person can remain in their home. they can still have their heat and still function and go on about their life. So, the state comes through in a lot of ways for that. Uh we've had 13 denied claims in those categories as
well. That isn't including the disaster grant. So, there's a lot of work that goes into those and sometimes it just can't get across the line for one reason or another. Uh some of this is because they're under reportporting the dollar amounts that they have saved. That's what we see typically the largest they they they're not reporting certain
dollars. So, then the the grant will be denied. But in total this year is the highest number that I know that we've ever had since I've been working here. And you know, just from previous conversations, it's over $100,000 in direct support. A lot of that is, of course, directly related to the disaster
grant. Now, here's the big one. This is the project we started a little over a year ago with the grant and the support from the county board uh with the mobile claims unit and taking the trailer out and getting to to meet veterans. whole new program for us. Um we kicked it off
in May once the whole unit was complete and and ready to go and get it out to the community. Uh and and since then we've had 18 events. Now we had to dial it back during the disaster just because we couldn't support the disaster grants. We couldn't do all that. Um so we pulled it back to the office. So we are now
re-engaging with that program over the last couple weeks. We're back out there. um if this would have been in a different county or a different location within our own county, if we could have set up and we could have did the disaster grants right on site. So in the
future, we'd have that tool in order to do that, which would be incredible. And talking to our state counterparts, they said with because we have something of this nature that they could have sent somebody up to actually approve those grants as we were completing them. So in the future, we know that there's a a
different way to use this tool that we have. Um, we're primarily using this to interview our our veterans, get veterans in that have never talked to a CVSO before and talk about the health care options, the disability compensation, the type of claims, survivors benefits,
everything that we do in the office, we can do in the trailer. And we've had a a lot of fun doing it. It it's very informal for the veterans. So, there's not this big scary office to go into. And often it's that first conversation which leads to a more, you know, robust
conversation sometimes in the office when we're talking about PTSD or military sexual trauma cases and we'll take those to the office and we'll do more research in there. Um, I recently took this to the Faul Well, let me back that up one more. Um, so our current
locations that we're going to is we go every Friday of the month. The first Friday we go here. We set it up in Baiji usually at Lucans North. We had a lot of folks stopping in. Last Friday, we had 28 people stop in. Plus, we are launching claims from there as well. It was it was a really good event. Um the
second Friday of every month, we go to Blackduck. We set up there and that's starting to gain momentum as well. We get a lot of veterans swing in. We talk about claims. We schedule folks as well during that time frame. And then the third Friday, we go to Kellier and smaller group, but we're still getting veterans there. So, it's still worth us
going and setting up. We want to be consistent and give it some more time. So, we'll continue to to go there and and do that service. Uh the area where we are just not into yet is Red Lake. We had planned on on getting into Red Lake, but they have a tribal veteran service
officer that was in place after this program was developed, and they didn't want to confuse the uh tribal community by having us in there. So, uh we let the TVSO handle that part of it. Well, the TVSO is now no longer there. And so they
went without for several weeks or actually several months. Apologize. Uh they have now a new TVSO that's in place. We're going to step back and let them get what they need to do done, get known in the community, start working their claims, and if there's a way that we can partner and help, then we'll make
that. So, it's it's ongoing effort. We'll work on it in the future and still continue to build that relationship. uh moving into our fall conference we had uh just a few weeks ago. Um the state wanted to see what they invested into and they wanted to see how this
turned out. So we were a little apprehensive to take it to the fall conference because we didn't want our peers to think that we're just thumbing our nose at them that we got this big grant and we we have all these things now that we're using. But it wasn't wasn't looked at that way. Uh a lot of the counties were very impressed. The
state was impressed with the whole project, how it turned out, how we're utilizing it, and other counties now want to model that exact program all the way down to the logo, um the style of trailer, the truck, they want to model the whole thing. So, we may see these in
the future, you know, next year when the new grant cycle opens up um in other counties. And it'd be a pretty neat thing that Belrammy started this and it's been a very positive program. The only thing that we see that we need in there right now, we need a cell phone.
Um, that's the only hiccup that we have. We have to constantly go back and forth to the to the office uh with communications with Darren back in the office, but it's a small thing. Overall, it would just make things more efficient for us to have our own mobile phone for the unit.
Uh, as far as the veteran home or at this point, anybody have any questions about anything? >> Um, yeah, I have one uh for you, Shane. Um, with regard to the the TVSO up in Red Lake, is there any way that you you know, have you offered to have them come the new person come and work with you in
the trailer or something? So, you know, you could build that relationship. >> I haven't yet. I talked to their director from the Minnesota Department of Veteran Affairs and he said that right now they're going to operate that piece and to not create any confusion. They want the the TBSO who's been
directed to that area to just operate. So, um, emails have gone out. it just we haven't linked up and you know now that we're on the other side of the disaster we can make that more of a focus for the office to build that which you know part of this plan with the mobile unit was to reach everybody
>> so we're not done we just I wanted to give an update that we're not there yet >> okay thank you >> you bet uh veterans home uh loop just received an update from the veterans home um just last week currently there's 33 residents in the home 115 employees
currently working They're getting ready to expand into the other household in November, which is a good sign that more veterans are coming in, that the staff they're retaining, and that whole design for them, it's all based on staff. They can't open up to the 72 capacity until
they have the staff to do it. The report was that as long as staffing numbers continue to increase the way they are, that maybe November of next year, they will be at full capacity with the veterans. So, it it's it's good to see and good to hear. Uh currently the revenue fund is 240,000 plus. That's
dollars that are donated to the veterans home. That those funding dollars go to purchase things for the veterans living in the home. It could be socks. It could be movies. In this case, it's going to be new TVs. Some of the TVs that they put in at the onset, no longer work. They took some TVs from the other
location, put them in there to try to stretch that out a little bit, but now as they get ready to expand, they need to put them back in there. And then they want to offer cable to the veterans in the home as well. and they're looking at $1,000 a month for the cable bill and that will come out of the revenue fund. Not to mention some of the benches, chairs, pool tables, and all the things
that they do for programs, wood, tools, all that comes out of there. There are a couple major changes, well, one major change, and that's the durable medical equipment. So, that's your your mobile um your little wheel electric wheelchairs and your scooters. They're
not going to be provided by the federal government for that. It's going to be a state um program. Now, they don't have the money for that. So, now the veterans living in the home aren't going to have access to those type of of mobile devices. And but if you're in a VA contracted facility, you're still
eligible. So, it's all depends on where you're located and and if you're in a veterans home or in a VA contracted facility. To remedy this problem, the state is discussing having a stateide warehouse where they can have donated equipment just like our local DAV
chapter does for consolidate all those wheelchairs and those uh scooters so that they can put them out to the veterans homes throughout the state which is a phenomenal idea so that they can still have that mobility that they need. That is all I have on on the
presentation. There's one more piece if I can cover real quick. And I know with the with the federal, you know, issues that are going on right now and cutting back on services, there's just a few services that are being cut back right now. Um VA is not no longer um going to
handle career counseling transition assistance. GI Bill hotline is closed. VA regional benefits offices are closed. The VA will cease public affairs and outreach to veterans. BA will not permanently place headstones or maintain the grounds at BA National Cemeteries.
VA will not produce applications for pre-needed burials and they will not print new presidential memorial certificates. But what they are doing is all the heavy hitter things that they need to do. They're still offering all the health care. It's not impacted at this point. Veterans can still go to the VA clinics,
the VA hospitals, and receive all their care. Um, all VA benefits will be continued to be processed. So like what we do with the disability compensation and VA medical applications and everything else that's still moving forward that's not stopped. Uh burials will continue at national cemeteries and application for headstones markers and
burial benefits will continue to be processed. Uh the board of veteran appeals which handles a higher level appeals that we sometimes have to send in. That's going to continue to move forward. They're not going to stop that as well. And then any of the phone numbers, VA contract centers, and one very important one, the VA crisis line,
that's going to continue to to remain in operation. So if there's any major changes, I'll definitely provide an additional update. >> Questions? Commissioner Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh Shane, just want to thank you and Luke. Luke especially is helping me, my 99year-old
mother who's the widow of a combat uh injured veteran. And uh so thanks. appreciate the time on that and it's really kind of interesting to go through that process. You know, you don't know what it's like. We don't know what our departments always do unless you're in
intricately involved in it. Um, so appreciate that. Thanks, Luke. Thanks, Jane. >> You bet. >> Thanks for sharing that, Commissioner Carlson. Anybody else? Commissioner Winger, >> I just have one comment that, you know, guys are doing a great job. Um, >> thank you. It's nice when I'm driving around to see
that trailer set up in different areas and and the visibility that brings. It's outstanding. >> Thank you. It's been very positive for the county and you know the veterans really seem to enjoy it. >> It's been good. It's been u been great to have you be leading leading and
charging ahead and coming up with that idea being the first in the state and and other counties wanting to copy what you've done here and and commend you for doing all the great work for our local veterans here. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Shane. >> Thank you. >> All right, that moves us on to the
United Way Alice Project update. Go ahead. >> Hi. >> Your name? >> Yeah, my name is Annie Butler Ricks and I work at United Way and Community Development. D Almano is here with me and she was going to speak. However, she has lost her voice.
>> So, I have uh run through the presentation uh with her and I hope that I can uh do it to uh give it justice it deserves. So this is anformational um update to let you know um about Alice
and Alice um stands for asset limited income constrained employed. So these are families that are that live above the poverty line. They they have assets but they're limited. They have income but it's also you know it's constrained
and they are employed. They are working hard. Um, another way to think about it is they aren't able to meet those household basics um to uh survive. Um, Alice is a data set which might not
sound very exciting but is a really important data set that tells us about that population of those that live above the poverty line. It's information we haven't had a lot of um data on before. Alice is um started uh is in 35 states
in the United States. Um this is something that the United Ways across Minnesota came together and chose to bring to our state. So this is not something that's automatically done by United Way worldwide. The men uh the United Ways and Minnesota said this was important and we need to know about
these families about these households and they brought it to our state for anyone to use including all of you. Um, I didn't print off the methodology for how this is done, but I'll show you in a little bit where you can find it online, but there is methodology that um goes
into this um into all of the research that is used to pull these numbers together. In addition, there is a research team and there are state sponsors that brought this um to our state. This is the research committee um the research team for the state of
Minnesota specifically that made sure that um the right data was being utilized whether it was coming from census from other places to make sure we had that information. So, um, most of what you'll be seeing today are screenshots from the website,
but Alice, as I mentioned, it is a data set. Um, and we will be showing you, there's lots of different tools on the website, lots of things that you can use to look at the data so that it's not just looking like a big data set. Um, we can look at it from a national overview, then we can go down to the state level.
We'll be showing you quite a bit of that today. Going to be showing you some of our favorites at the United Way. How are we liking to use this? Um, I'll point out some other things. So, uh, the methodology is shown there in one of the boxes. So, if you're interested in learning more about how they do it, that's if you were on the website, you
would go click there. Um, as I mentioned, this these are people who are not able to uh have uh make that household survival budget. And those items listed there are the eight items that go into when they calculate the household budget. We'll talk about that
a little bit more down the road. So as mentioned this was brought to uh the state of Minnesota uh that was it was just over a year ago and we can look at it from a whole state perspective. One of the great things is that we can look at it then on a county perspective. We'll also talk about other ways that we
can break down that data that you might be interested in. But since we're here at this meeting we're talking about it from a county perspective. So we selected the county there. Um you can see it says Bel Tramy County and it gives just a little bit of a screen a point in time um information. So it
shows that the households in poverty in Belrammy County, this is from 2023 data. It's a little bit behind but that is very typical. It'll update every two years. Um households in poverty are um 14%. That's a number I think probably everyone in the room knows and is not surprised by. However, if we look at
Alice households in Belrammy County, we're at almost double that. Means 27% um of households in our county live above poverty but are unable to make that household survival budget. So, how else can we look at this? I
mentioned state, county. We can look at it um multi-county. So if you want to compare counties around us, do a comparison, can look at zip code and legislative areas, you can also look at subdivisions, which is very useful because our county is very large. So um I know this is a little small, but in
that um table on the right hand side, you'll see in the city of Baiji, the the right column shows that the number of households living below that Alice threshold threshold is at 52%. So I want to point out that's below the threshold. So that's going to include poverty in
that. If you then look at Biji Township for example, that number is still high, but it's much lower. It's at 38%. Um we'll also point out Blackduck um which has 68% of res of households living below the Alice threshold. So be
below that basic survival household budget. Um so that is a way to look at it in that smaller townships or cities um perspective. Can also look at um Alice by race and ethnicity. So these two there's two charts. They're really the same. We've
just um we're hovering over different things to show the data. So, I think the bars are a little confusing, but if you look, the one on the left is for um American Indian and it shows the number of households that um live in poverty um
who are Alice and then who live above Alice and you can compare that then to those um uh shown there on the right um who are white. So, you can look at it from race and ethnicity. There are other races and ethnicities shown there also. We just chose to
highlight those two. um also showing that um we can look at this from um those living on a reservation. So um we talked about counties, cities, townships, but also looking at reservations. So if you want to look at Red Lake reservation, it
shows the total number of households uh shows that 29% and Red Lake um reservation live in poverty with 26% living in Alice. So I mentioned this I've mentioned this household survival budget a few different times um and that it takes
took into account those those eight categories. So this household survival budget reflects the minimum cost to live and work in the current economy and it's for our area. It's for Bel Tramy County. However, they don't just look at that
say on average in Bel Tramy County, what is that needed? They look at how many people do you have in your household and additionally are those if you have children in the household are those children needing child care because household costs if you have child care needed are different. So if you look at
in the um second column which shows um the household survival budget for a single adult uh the total that annual total there is $28,296. That is what according to these calculations would be the minimum cost
to live and work for one person. However, if we want to contrast that to two adults with two in child care, a very typical scenario, we're looking at over $79,000 to um need to live make above that to
not be considered Alice. And the numbers are very conservative. Also, when we're looking at housing, you'll see that housing number is not um at all unheard of in our community. It also looks at ages, right? So, we're talking as we talk about um single
adults over 65 plus, looking at different families when they're in different stages. There's also a household survival budget calculator. Um this again was presented for DA being up here. So this is her family in 2023 if she wanted she wanted
to see how her family would be. So in 2023 she had two adults living in her household. She had one preschooler and two school age children. And based on that you'd see the calculator um shows that her family would need to make
$85,968 as that minimum to survive here in Belrammy County. Um, one of the online tools that, uh, I think is really great, one of my favorite places to go is called Alice in Action. And this is part of the website
where you're able to see what other communities, not just United Ways, but communities, how they have used Alice data to create change in their communities. So, in the search bar, we type child care, which is an issue in Belrammy County, but also all across America. And you can see there are just
two options shown here, but there was a whole list of um ways that communities have used AL's data to help provide child care resources for their community. It's a great way to not reinvent the wheel, to learn what other
communities are doing, um and to get new ideas. Um how is our United Way doing it? How is our United Way using this information? this data we have created an Alice fund um and this fund is designed for
employers to apply to on behalf of their employees who are experiencing temporary financial hardship. Um so this is a pilot program. It was started by a private donor in our community who wanted to help Alice families. Recognizing that often these families,
these Alice families are one crisis or two crisises away from potentially slipping back down into poverty if something goes wrong, if multiple things goes wrong. This is a great way also for families who've not been eligible for other assistance and still aren't
eligible for other assistance to um and might not know of other resources in our community. We're able to help connect. So, an example would be if someone an employer asks for $5,000 um for their one of their employees whose furnace broke, um we might be able to find other
resources, other agencies in the community that help with those resources. Um be able to still help solve the problem and use less dollars from our fund, but use resources that they didn't know existed. Um
to date, uh four families have been helped by this pilot program. It is brand new, but we just wanted to share one opportunity. Um, very interesting just listening to the uh the presentation on the veterans program and can't wait to connect with them on how potentially for some of their uh for
some of their vets that this program could potentially help them. So, what does the Alice data offer? I'm the grant writer at United Way. So that's my top thing is I think this is great for anyone in our area in our community who's interested in writing
grants who wants to be able to tell the story um of families in our community and um what's going on um not just at the poverty level which is incredibly important but those who are living in Alice who are working hard struggling to survive. Additionally, community issues.
This is a way for us to come together and talk about some of the big issues and figure out how we can help solve them. Whether it's housing, child care, transportation, workforce stability. This could provide information um to colleges and universities on what kind of programming
they need to offer um and potentially talking about scholarships for Alice families. And then, sorry about the formatting on this. it got a little bit messed up. But um also there's lots of opportunities for advocacy to tell the stories and talk about a group of people that we maybe haven't had the
information on before and talk about how hard people are working and really um wanting to thrive and survive um and work to tell their story. Um so this uh this Alice information came out just over a year ago actually
on September 10th. So sorry about that. Um, and we updated the data updated uh just in the last couple months. I'm happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability. Um, and yeah, thank you. >> Great. I have questions for
>> No, no, I guess not. But I really appreciate that this is such a important area. you know, people that are out there working hard trying to trying to make it without just, you know, getting handouts and and
this is a hand up, I think, and I really appreciate the the effort that's going into it. So, thank you for all you're doing. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, that brings us to the upcoming adjustments to public assistance.
Looks like Kurt's going to present. >> Mr. Chair, commissioners. Good afternoon. Kurt Anderson. Um I'm one of Ann's team and luckily for me, Ann is here and she does have her voice. So if uh she needs to jump in, I'm sure she will. >> Um I appreciate the opportunity uh to
provide you information on how federal uh House Resolution One, that bill passed this summer, may affect two of the programs within your economic assistance team. There has been a lot of effort at multiple levels to review this comprehensive piece of legislation and
this presentation is an attempt to synthesize those efforts with a focus on Bel Tramy County. I got it wrong. Not that one and that one. Okay. Sorry about that. So, um, again, HR1 was a
very large piece of federal legislation that included tax cuts, enhanced paid family medical leave credits, increases in child care tax credits, significant and significant changes to two of the programs your economic assistance teams administer on behalf of the state and
federal government. Those are the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, and Medicaid, which is also known as medical assistance. Now, I've got a few caveats uh with this brief um that I want to highlight. This
presentation that I'm providing is information that our Department of Children, Youth, and Families, and Department of Human Services have provided to the counties throughout the period of HR1's introduction, passage up until now. There are still some areas of
that bill that are in dispute or in interpretation of the law that is not clear for our state partners or needs additional clarification from the federal agencies that administer it. So that means that the guidance we at the county are receiving can and I will say
for sure will change as legislation and policy are developed around the requirements at the state level. That stated, what I'm focused on are those things that are currently provided in the law and how they impact our residents that the economic assistance
teams work with. So with that, the first thing I want to cover is Medicaid and the affordable care act. Some change the changes that HR1 made are primarily directed uh directly impact the Medicaid expansion
population. Now, this population as a definition are low-income adults under the age of 65 whose income is below 138% federal poverty guideline, which as you can see there is a little over 21,000
annually for a single individual. They are not covered by any other type of exemptions or categories like having a disability, being pregnant, or parenthood. This population is distinct from the traditional Medicaid population
which covers our children, parents, elderly, and those with disabilities. So again, that's the traditional Medicaid population. This bill affects the expansion population. This population will become subject to six-month renewals as opposed to yearly
renewals. It also um the bill limited immigrant eligibility to lawfully permanent residents or green card holders, certain Cuban immigrants, and then the Pacific territories that the US held in trusteeship like uh the US
Marshall Islands with this expansion population in order to become eligible in the future. Um, and I'll get into the date that this becomes effective. Expansion population individuals will have to establish a work or community engagement requirement
of at least 80 hours a month prior to being eligible for Medicaid. Um, what exactly the definition of that community engagement is still being defined by both the state and federal government.
Also, for this expansion population, for certain services that they expect uh to be covered by Medicaid, there could be a co-pay that that individual would be responsible for. However, services such as primary care, prenatal
care, pediatric care, and emergency room care are exempt from that co-pay. Also, the biggest change for the entire Medicaid population has to do what with what is called retroactive coverage. Retroactive coverage is when an
applicant applies from that date they can request reimbursement for medical expenses up to three months currently uh from the date that they applied going forward and uh that gets into the date and I'll talk about that date that is
changing from three months for everyone to two months for the traditional Medicaid uh population and then for this expansion population. Uh that is only a one month retroactive eligibility. So
for those individuals, it's imperative to get the application in early. Now I'll go into the SNAP program. One of the biggest changes within the SNAP program had to do with the age in which work requirements uh for individuals uh
to receive SNAP are are set. uh currently um or prior to the passage of this bill that work requirement age was the age of 54 and up. Um now now you
have to be for anyone who is age 64 or lower and are adults without dependence i.e. children age 13 or below are now going to be responsible for work requirements. It also eliminated exemptions for work requirements for
people who were previously veterans, um, homeless individuals, or individuals who were former foster youth. And if, um, I know I had to look it up, former foster youth are young people who have aged out of foster care system, basically have turned age 18.
Um, also, and you probably have saw this, the SNAPED program was eliminated as of 1 October 2025. The other change within SNAP is that if your household does not have an elderly or disabled individual that makes up
your household, previously if you were on the energy assistance program, you could get a standard utility deduction or basically a full deduction for your your utilities if you qualified for energy assistance. Now, if you are not if you do not have
an elderly or disabled member in your household, that is not an automatic deduction and you have to show your utility expenses in order to get that full deduction even if you are receiving energy assistance. Besides those individual changes, there
is also costs between the state and federal government. And those are the last two bullets below. There's an administrative cost shift that is occurring between the federal and the state. And there's also benefit cost shifts based on error rate and payments.
And so the administrative cost shift uh you heard last board meeting uh administrator Barry talk about how we're working that into the the budget and how that affects health and human services. So, the bottom line on this, and I
probably should have put this slide up front, is that for our county residents, there are increased work requirements for SNAP. That includes as far far as the age uh up to age 64. And for our Medicaid individuals, it's that
expansion population. In within both uh SNAP and Medicaid, there are changes in immigrant eligibility to ensure that US citizens or certain immigrants are the only ones that are receiving these benefits. There have been increases in renewals uh that will be for recipients
of Medicaid who are in the expansion population. Uh there are Medicaid co-pays for that expansion population for some services uh as you go forward. And there are also the changes that I mentioned in retroactive enrollment
periods. Now for the county, there is of course uh potential increased workload. When you have increased renewals, you're getting paperwork. You're looking at a case more often. So that's increased workload as opposed to a yearly workload. With that, you also have
changes to retroactive enrollment, which may affect some of the services that our county is currently getting reimbursed for as they provide services to Medicaid individuals, uh, Medicaid eligible individuals. Um, so there could be some
changes with that. And then potential funding implications from the cost share and benefit error rate. Now, right now, the law says that these cost shares and these benefits are from the federal to the state. But since Minnesota is county administered with these programs and
state supervised, the question that is outstanding is how the state plans to absorb and or distribute those cost shifts to the county. So, here is the timeline with that. Again, the ones that are currently already in effect are the SNAP work
requirements, the SNAP immigrant eligibility, the SNAP ed program being eliminated, and the utility deduction that I mentioned. In 2026 and October, the SNAP administrative cost shares will go into effect. And in one October of
2026, changes to the immigrant Medicaid eligibility is so who um can qualify for Medicaid goes into effect. In 2027 at the beginning of the year, you have the renewals for the expansion
population that uh then occur every six months as opposed to yearly. The retroactive Medicaid enrollment change happens at that point. work requirements go into effect for that Medicaid expansion population. And then the SNAP benefit cost share for payment error rates for the state goes into effect one
October of 2027. Then finally in 2028, the Medicaid uh co-ayment for the expansion population for those certain services would go into effect going forward. We're going to continue to engage with our state partners, both
Department of Children, Youth, and Families, and uh Department of Human Services, as they make adjustments to the policy and systems that we work with to ensure that those items that affect our residents are communicated. Um, and I will work to make sure that I
communicate those to with you uh commissioners as they affect our residents. Penny, your questions. This concludes my presentation. >> Questions? Kurt, currently I believe our state is over that 6% error rate. Is that
correct? >> That is correct. >> And so if we are fortunate and they get by 2027, if they get down below the 6%. Would that affect or does it go by what we are right now? >> Um they are going to
the the state had the ability to either take the current or look at future. We are trying to look at future because we already know that our our error rate is is above. So um there's a lot of training uh that's going on. Uh there's
a lot of discussion about what we can do uh to help our workers reduce that error rate and we are trying to take the next year as our error rate when that goes forward and reduce that down so that there is no benefit uh cost to the
state. I I think that it's error rate isn't necessarily it's looked at collectively. So the fraud and things down the metro area. Um it's not you know that's negatively affecting us up here. We don't necessarily have over a 6% error
rate in Belrammy County. Right. >> The well there's a couple things with the error rate. The error rate is not just worker failing or inputting something incorrectly. It also has to do with information that we receive. that's
not correct. So an error rate is not just on the county, but if there is an inadvertent, you know, if there's a mistake in reporting by our resident and that causes an error, that is all part of that error rate, too. So both positive and negative uh effects with
that. Currently with Bel Tramy County, we were at um we were at 6% uh but then we bumped up to 8%. uh >> as a county we did >> as a as a county. >> Oh. >> Um what influences that error rate for
us is they take a small sample size. We are a small county. So when you only have three cases looked at, if you have an error in those three cases, you get it it amplifies what may be a oneoff. If
you're a big county like Henipin, they get more cases looked at. That can be good or bad, but the but with that you you get a better feel of what's maybe truly an error as opposed to what is a oneoff. >> Okay. Thanks for that clarification. Any >> Yes, sir.
>> Any other questions? All right. Thank you, Kurt. Appreciate it. >> Thanks. >> And that brings us to administrator Barry's update. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh commissioners, just a few updates for your consideration this afternoon. Uh first of all, start with the human resources
director update. Uh as you know we have lost our human resources director last month and so we started a recruitment and been going through that process. We were unsuccessful in the first round of interviews to uh to have a candidate
accept the position. So we went to a second round and uh interviewed three more folks actually just yesterday and uh the hiring committee has I believe identified a candidate that uh we we'd like to pursue. uh we are talking about
potentially holding a second interview uh with that candidate uh here in the near future. So I don't have a whole lot to update you on exactly where we are other than that in the process at this point in time. Um but I hope to have more information for you here um maybe by end of week or first of next week. Uh
next uh I wanted to just update you about the jail project. Uh we are continuing to make good project at the county the new county jail. Uh we have 100% of the roof on in area A as well as the high roof on in area B. So that would be the west sides of the facility.
Uh which is great. Um we also have mechanical curbs in at the rooftop. Uh and concrete floor slabs are complete in area A and we've been doing slab roughins as well. Uh we have about 9 miles of underground conduit that's been
installed so far. If you could imagine that, that's pretty impressive number. uh Ottertale's also uh and other utilities are also uh successful in helping to bring um uh infrastructure into the facility as well. So essentially again it's a good news story
this time uh as it has been which we're fortunate that we are on schedule and on budget uh we want to continue to encourage that of course uh but it's so far so good. If you haven't been by the site um it's pretty impressive. I mean it's really taking shape. I was just
there yesterday. Um it it looks better every day. Um I did want to mention, you know, we had had you scheduled for a tour on October 21st and as you know that would have been open to the public because it would have been an open meeting. Uh we've talked about that at
design and operations team. Uh and the site foreman was concerned about the current state of the site not being quite safe enough for a tour like that. So, um it was highly recommended by our construction manager to cancel the tour. Uh and so in exchange for that, I
bartered a video tour. Uh so we are expecting that they'll be able to uh provide video of the interior as well as the exterior so far and then um and then present that on October 21st at the meeting. Uh so we expect that to be the
case and uh we'll plan accordingly. Uh however, if any one of you individually wants to go through the facility, you know, uh because you feel like it's just something of interest to you, um I can connect you with the site foreman and you can get that scheduled uh and do that. We will when the site gets more
safe, if you will, uh we will plan to have a tour and of course we will have several public tours probably as well. Um, but it's just not quite in the condition we thought it would be to be conducive of a of a safe tour at this
point in time. Um, moving on, this sort of seems to be an all jail update here, but I wanted to just briefly remind you that we are scheduled on the 21st of October to pick up the conversation again about what to do with the old or existing jail, right? uh we put some
time between um you know the first presentation and then hopefully what we expect will be a decision maybe on the 21st of October. Uh we have been collecting comments uh at the board's request which I think is great. We don't have a ton but we have some that we will share that uh I'll probably put that in
the board packet actually uh just so you can read them in advance. Uh we've also uh included a internal analysis of what would be the ongoing operational costs in each of those three scenarios which was requested by the board. So we'll also put that in the packet as well and
have that for you. Um, and so we'll also probably make the same presentation that was done 2 months ago or so just to kind of kickstart the thinking and remind you about what we looked at and how it came out and all of that sort of thing so that it can refresh your memory and and
help you maybe get to a decision that evening. Uh, if that's not the case, you're not able to make a decision, that's fine. You just direct us, you know, what you'd like us to do and we'll we'll make adjustments accordingly. But that's that's kind of the been the plan at least at this point. Um,
as you know, we are constructing a small building, a storage building over near the highway department for uh shared facility between natural resources management, environmental services. Um, and we're doing it in coordination with
the ski club uh or the the um yeah, that's what it is, the ski club. I want to say snowmobile club, but they use snowmobiles. So, yeah, it's a ski club. In any event, um that's coming along nicely, too. If you haven't been by uh lately, um there's quite a bit of work
that's gone on. We pulled the water line from the highway. Well, we boarded that over um last week or so. And um the hydronulic tubing and underground electrical went in as well. Uh concrete slab was poured. Uh the walls are going up. U CMU block for that as well is
being laid out. Uh we do need to still pick some colors. Uh we're trying to match it with the existing highway department building. Uh and maybe even see if we can't color code with the new ski club building that will be uh adjacent to it as well. But uh what's
good news there as well is that we're on schedule and on budget uh for that project. Uh should be wrapped up before end of year for sure as long as you know we continue the schedule that we have been on. Uh lastly, I will just uh remind you that uh we are beginning our
2026 legislative agenda work. And um so we'll be putting together our leg our legislative agenda uh priorities. And if you have anything that you'd like us to consider to include in the first draft, if you just wouldn't mind letting me know, uh I can get that included uh and
researched and and then uh drafted up for you. Uh the hope at this point in time is to be able to present to you an initial draft by November 4th meeting. It's about two weeks earlier than we typically would do. Um I have had conversations um with Representative um
uh Duran and uh we already have some legislation teed up ready to go right now. Um I just feel like I need to get your approval that you know some of this stuff we're going to stand behind are are things that the board has sanctioned to to stand behind on. So, um, but we're
we're in a good spot and I think, um, Representative, um, Duran is is a huge advocate for our community and what's going on here and and, uh, we felt like the more time we could give him to sort of socialize and network and build relationships and synergies around these
issues, uh, probably the better. And, and also the same is true with, um, our, uh, senator and, uh, Representative Bliss as well. So, um, anyway, that's what I have for you, but I'll stand for any questions you might have. >> Any questions for Tom?
Not seeing any that the video tour that'll happen at our regular work session time, not the earlier time frame that we had, right? >> Yes. Thank you for the clarification. The intention is to include it as part of the regular work session meeting. >> So, at 3:00. >> At 3:00. Now, of course, sometimes we we
get heavy in our meetings and we have to start a little bit early or whatnot. At this point in time, I'm expecting us to start at a normal time at 3:00. If we have to change that, I'll let you know as soon as we know. Um, but I there's a lot to discuss at this next meeting, but I think we can get it all in within the time frame that we've allotted um within
the normal schedule. >> Yeah. And the the uh existing jail facility, we're not actually going to be able to do anything with that. I mean, we if we make the decision at our next meeting, that's basically just for decision-m. We're not
It's not really going to uh affect any any action, is it? At at this point, >> it definitely does because what we would do is based upon uh your selection of an option, we depending upon how much guidance you give to us that evening,
like if you said we'd like the option as presented, then that that's one answer. Another opt another option is you could say, well, we like the option you presented, but make these tweaks and then we would have to come back, right? We could do that, too. But the idea is that we want to take the time that we have between now and essentially the end
of the year to develop the actual architectural plans um the design if you will and then bid that out as soon as we can early next year. We get better bid prices the sooner we bid out uh earlier in the year. Uh now of course we we may
not be able to do a whole lot on that facility um like next year, right? But um we still need to have the facility functioning >> because that would be like a year in advance of when we'd actually be able to do really anything. You know, like if if
we take the the option that was recommended by the design and operations committee um to demo it basically and build a a sallyport. We need our jail all of next year. So, we wouldn't be able to do any of that
demo until 20 2027 when the new facility is ready. So, that's what I was getting at is is what what you know, I mean, there's not really a huge sense of urgency. Um, and we wouldn't bid it out this spring if we weren't going to do it until the following year. Right. >> Right. Yeah. No, that's true. So, we do
have time to do the design and we do have time to sort of consider the options and that sort of. There is not a rush on this >> uh because we do need to have the facility occupied, right? Um, and our expectation is we're hopeful that the new jail will be up and running in the spring or maybe early summer of 2027.
And of course, then that would be when we would want to immediately go and and do what it is that we plan to with the existing facility. So, um, so yeah, there is some time for sure. If we were to choose one of the options other than the complete demo and rebuild, then I
could see us maybe wanting a little bit more time ahead of time to to go through iterations on exactly what we would build or whatever, but um I don't know. But uh we'll I guess we'll find out at the next meeting. >> Commissioner Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I think to
just to add to what Commissioner or to administrator Barry said, just it really is to just give us a sense. So if we don't have a sense that all five commissioners are in favor of a certain direction, it does buy us a lot more
time to try to work through that. Um it would be I think from my perspective great if we had uh consensus from the board for a specific direction and if that takes a couple months that's fine. Um because that gives us that kind of time. Um, but I think by at least by the
early January, early part of the year, even February maybe at the latest, we would want to have the design started so that we could start, I guess, from my perspective, we would want to start being able to bid. Um, we'd also we'd
have to we'd have to choose um a construction um company because it's not a guarantee that it would go to Carl Anderson. Mhm. >> We would have to discuss whether we want um Clyde McCarthy to continue to do the architectural work. I suspect that we
would, but that's still a discussion we have to have. So, there's those moving parts that we need to finalize so that we can move forward with the actual architectural drawings so that by late summer, we could get um an engineering
or an a building firm on board so that we can get those bids out just like we did with existing jail in the fall so that by spring when when it's vacated, we're ready to roll. That >> Yep. That's exactly right, Commissioner Car. >> Sounds good. Just wanted to kind of walk through that and and that's so people
know, you know, where where we're at and where what our plans are. So, anybody else have anything or we'll >> I just had sorry maybe two reminders for you just so you're aware. Uh since we're talking about next week's or the the next meeting on October 21st. Um we will
have the community health board meeting that we're planning for at 2:00. So, um, even though I say we are going to start the work session at 3, I just wanted you to be aware that the plan is also now to then integrate back in the community health board meeting since we won't have that tour. Um, so you probably should
expect to maybe start your afternoon at 2:00. Okay. >> And then at 6:00, just for your information, um, there is the opioid steering committee uh, is it the annual meeting that we have to go through the um, recommendations and information.
um that will be shared with the community at that point in time just just for information at 600. So uh we would hope to wrap up the regular meeting by 6 so we can keep that meeting on schedule as well. >> Great. That's
>> Thank you. >> And I guess that's it. We will adjourn until 5 o'clock. Thank you. Part: 2
5:00. Please rise. 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. I will forgo the board comments from the board chair and we will go into our citizens addressing the board. Anyone wishing to address the county board on an item not on the agenda may come forward at this time. Have my microphone
on. Um 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. Anybody wishing to address the board, please come forward and to the microphone and state your name and address. Good evening. I'm uh my name is Randall Berg. I live at 1826 Monroe Avenue
Southwest in Baiji Township. I am 74 years old and moved to Baiji when I was 30. I have spent 44 years of my adult life here in Bel Tramy County. For over 40 for over 20 of those years, I worked as an assistant Bel Tramy
County Attorney. I believe I've got a good understanding of the county, its people, and its government. And I want to thank you all for this opportunity to address my concern to you. I'm here to specifically voice a concern as a Belrammy County citizen regarding a
subject not on the board's agenda but which was addressed at your earlier work session. Specifically, I want to talk generally about the dire effects on Bel Tramy County Finances of the Federal Budget Reconciliation Act which became
law on July 4th. Some have called the act one big beautiful bill. I expect that you who will be responsible for dealing with its consequences for the Medicaid and SNAP programs administered by the county may
or will have a different and less flattering name for this particular piece of legislation. The impact of the federal reconciliation legislation on bu on Minnesota's rural counties was succinctly summarized in the Minnesota Department of Health's
official summary which stated that the acts or that the cuts to the health care and nutrition programs and I quote represent an historic disinvestment in motans's health well-being and
infrastructure increasing costs reducing coverage and destabilizing critical services. I will not burden the record with the detailed statistics of the irreparable damage this bill will do to the health
care and food security programs which are critical to the lives of hundreds of thousands of motans and thousands of Belrammy County residents. They are summarized in the materials submitted and displayed to you by the Belrammy
County Department of Human Services earlier, but I would draw your attention to them as well as to the one-page summary from the Minnesota Department of Health and Human Services that I uh provided copies to Miss Mo of which I think she will
either have distributed or or will distribute to you. Um Suffice to say that as a result of HR1,
more people in Belrammy County will experience food insecurity. More people will go without essential medical care and the administrative and financial burdens on Bel Tramy County will increase
precisely at a time and in areas where they are already overwhelming available resources. It is true that the precise extent of the extraordinary damage HR1 will do in Belrammy County is in part contingent upon what portion of the burden the cut
of the cuts will be absorbed by the government of the state of Minnesota as a whole. However, I infer from the recently published comments from the county administrator that he for one has little confidence based on painful experience
that the legislature in St. Paul will offset all the adverse impacts of the federal cuts. So you may be asking, what are we as a county board supposed to do about this impending catastrophe? What can we do? Our financial capacity to tax is already
stretched to and beyond any reasonable limit. Well, I'm here to suggest a no cost action that you may wish to consider if not now in the future. As the impact of these cuts become more
evident, the cuts, as you heard at the work session, have been deliberately delayed um or the impact of the cuts deliberately delayed past the next midterm election while the tax cuts
contained in the bill uh are in immediate effect. As I say, the time is coming, if it is not already here, for the Bel Tramy County Board of Commissioners to condemn by formal resolution, not
only HR1, but also elect all elected federal officials who purport to represent Bel Tramy County citizens who sponsored, supported, or endorsed its enactment and to condemn it as enimical as Having
represented an act enimical to the general welfare of Belrammy County and its citizens, I would recommend that before the board consider adoption of such a resolution to consult Mr. Hansen's office for an opinion on the particular language to be
employed that should be employed to avoid any retaliatory action by the federal department of justice or the federal department of health and human services for any alleged violation of the Hatch Act. But again, I want to thank you for
hearing my concern. I know in months in the weeks and months to come, the effects of this legislation will become more and more evident and more and more ownorous and you will be forced to make more and
more difficult decisions. Decisions that find their roots not here but in Washington DC. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Berg. Next, next citizen that wants to address
the board, please come forward. Good evening, chair, commissioners, administrator, and attendees. My name is Emily Thieves, and I am the executive director of the Bel Tramy County Historical Society, 130 Minnesota Avenue Southwest, Baiji. The countyy's
historical society of record since 1952. Thank you for allowing me to share some updates about the historical society. First, I want to express our gratitude for your ongoing supports for the North Country Journal through the county's
tourism development grant. Originally published as North Country by resident historian Hilda Rcher in the 70s and 80s, this revived publication continues to preserve and share the rich histories of our community. and we're proud of the
meaningful connection it creates between residents and their local history. Since physical publication, we have applied now for an international standard serial number, that's ISSN, uh via the Library of Congress, and we intend to seek state
and national recognition for this inaugural publication. So, thank you again for your support, and we hope you enjoy reading it. Um, and I'm particularly excited to highlight two upcoming events that showcase exactly why historical programming matters to our community. On October 23rd at the
Baiji Library, we're hosting a special reading that features stories from this North Country Journal, including the fascinating account of Emma Davids. This leads directly into our signature fall event, History Mystery, The Suspicious Death of Emma Davids, on October 24th
and 25th at 5:30 p.m. History Mystery is an interactive mystery drama set in 1906 Baiji, where our audience will become the detectives. This isn't passive entertainment. It engages with history, solving puzzles, and competing for costume and prizes. So, what makes this
year's history mystery particularly relevant is that this is a real story. Um, Emma Davids was a real Biji resident and her death was attributed to Ladum, the primary means of opium intake of her day. This historical connection gives us
an opportunity to bid past and present. We look forward to working with local addiction centers to provide information to community members attending history about how we can contribute to the current fight against opioid addiction in our county. History isn't just about
the past. It helps us understand and address the challenges we face today, even when we can do it in a fun way. Beyond history, we have a full slate of fall programming that serves diverse community needs. Our art as her story series made possible by Minnesota voters
through the region 2 arts council, includes free workshops from copper bracelet weaving to watercolor painting at locations throughout the county, including Blackduck and Killer. We're also hosting Designing the Future: Women in Engineering on October 18th and In
Boots, Women in Service on November 8th. Panels that connect historical perspectives with contemporary role models for young people in our community. Our capture capturing memories writing workshops continue to help seniors preserve their personal stories. And the Lon Country Arts
Creative Cafe provides free creative space for residents ages 12 and up, while Lon Country does not have a space of their own. These programs demonstrate our commitment to being more than a museum. We are a community hub that makes history accessible, relevant, and
engaging for all ages and backgrounds across Belrammy County. The response we've seen to these programs shows that our community values this connection to their heritage. History mystery tickets are already generating interest. Art is our her art is her story workshops have filled their 10-seat capacities quickly
for most of those workshops already and we continue to see strong attendance across our programming. Thank you for your continued partnership in making these programs possible. As you deliberate on funding priorities ahead of the December 2nd meeting, we hope
you'll consider the broad reach and impact of our programming. We invite you to join us at any of these events and I think you'll see firsthand the value that they bring to our community. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Emily. Anyone else wanting to address the
board? My name is Cheryl Schaeel. I am a resident of Belrami County. I live in Joe Gul's district. I don't plan on giving you my address because I don't give that out in public. If you would like it privately, I will
do that. That's fine. And I am here to speak once again about the library. The library is such an important part of this community. I moved here in December. I was here December 2nd. I didn't know anybody in
town except my daughter and her family. And by the second Monday of the month, I was in a book discussion club and I got community. Do you have any idea how important community is to people out of co? The other thing I go there is
I see people who use the facilities um that are just absolutely imperatively important to their lives. You know, I see people who go there to use the internet because they don't have access to it any place else. They do
resumeumés, they apply for positions there because almost every place now, if you want to apply for a job, it needs to be done online. And most people who are unemployed, they probably don't have the money to have internet services. If you want to sign
up for Medicaid, I believe you have to do most of that online unless you go in person. Um, they need that social security. Social Security, if you want an appointment for the Social Security office, you have to do that online. They don't even accept
phone calls anymore. The people in this community who need the services from the library are the people who don't have access any place else. I had a discussion today about this and I had someone say, you know,
that they could just go to a coffee shop and access the internet there. Well, you know, on my phone I can do that. I have a phone where I pay for unlimited data and unlimited minutes. Many of the people in this community don't have
that. You know, they have phones where they buy minutes. They don't have access to the internet on there. Now, maybe you don't relate to that. You know, I probably wouldn't relate to it if I didn't know people who did, but
there are many people who are so removed from the people who need those services that they don't have a clue. So, they have no empathy. They have no compassion and they just don't care.
But you're the commissioners of this county. It is your job to care about the people who live here. It's your job to care about everybody who lives here, no matter how much they pay in taxes.
The people who use the library rely on it. You're also talking about people who have jobs there. You know, what are they going to do? We're looking at more unemployment. Do we need more unemployment in the county? There are so
many things. How about the children who go there? The children who go there and get a lifelong love of reading and learning. Now, I don't know if any of you up there are readers, but I became a reader because people
read to me when I was little. You know, it was empathized. And that's what we need. If we want to have well-informed people, we need readers. And what better place to get
that than the library? I can't I can't tell you all the reasons why we need to have that library in the community, why it's here, but it's for the betterment of the county
and it's your job to look out for the people in this county. So anyway, thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to address the board? and get does not see anybody else. Is
there anybody online, Diane? Okay, we will move on. Thank you. Looking we have the approval of the agenda. Look for a motion to approve the agenda. I move to approve the agenda as presented. Motion by Commissioner Winger. Do I hear a second? Second.
Second by Commissioner Carlson. Any further discussion on the agenda? Hearing none. All in favor of approving the agenda as presented say I. I. Any opposed? No. 3 to one. The agenda is approved.
Approval of the consent agenda. Your a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the consent agenda as presented. Do I hear a second? Second and second by Commissioner Winger.
Any further discussion on the consent agenda? Hearing none. All in favor of approving the consent agenda say I. I. Any opposed? Motion approved. Four to zero. There's nothing on our regular agenda for this evening. So, we'll move on to
commissioner reports. Uh, Commissioner Winger. Um, and include if you have any legislative lobbying things as well, tie those together. You want to do that first or Yeah. Legislative lobbying and commission, whatever you have. Okay. I just did uh I did chat about
last time. I uh I just want to say I did purchase some some of the trees that Soil and Water were were selling. And uh not only was it a good deal, they were really nice trees. And so I got a few of those. I know they still have some left that
they're going to be still distributing in areas. So, uh, by all means, if you get a chance to get on those, they're they're worth it. Uh, we did the road tour, Commissioner Winger, on the trees. Were they all the same price or were they different cost for different?
Yeah, the ones I bought where I bought some white spruce and some blue spruce. Um, and they were, you know, the potted ones, and they were really nice, tall, thick. Yeah, they're they're a nice tree. Were they all the same cost, though? Or do you remember what that was? I think they were $15 a piece. Okay.
Yeah. Great. which is a really good deal for the size. They were great. Um, thank you. Yep. And then, uh, we did the road tour. Um, went around. It's kind of nice to see how many of the roads are getting a lot better. Um, we still have a few of
the really unfortunate ones out there, but they're they're in the process. So, so that's good. Um, and then I was involved at the interviews for HR. Um those those went relatively well. Um and
I have a BAS meeting tomorrow. That's all I have. All right. Great. Commissioner Gold. Uh no report this week. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. I uh attended with Bruce Hazbaren the uh transportation advisory committee. It's
held once a year uh by HRDC. Um Tony Claire's heads that up. Uh we get commissioners and county engineers from all over the northwest area come together and talk about different uh ideas and uh about the roads. Um we had
I had a magic fund orientation meeting um where we talk about the duties, responsibilities, the u the job of a trustee for the magic fund. For those that aren't familiar with it, that's the fund where the counties can put excess
funds. Well, they because you can imagine in the May when they get a bunch of uh the taxes come in and then in October they come in. So then it has they have to have someplace to put it and it's a great it's a great way to for the counties to have a good return on their
money um by a professionally managed firm. Um so that's a great board to be on. Thanks for explaining that so people didn't think you were just abracadabra and creating money at the county. Thank you for that. Yeah. Um I'm trying to remember what the acronym stands for.
Um but uh maybe I'll bring that next time. Uh we had an airport committee meeting uh greater Bumiji meeting. uh JLDNO committee as you heard from that we'll be bringing forth that up on uh the next meeting to talk about see if there's general agreement about what to
do with the LJL uh I did attend the farm bureau annual meeting out at uh Belrammy electric co-op um at a prime west meeting the road tour and the HR director interviews with commissioner I did have a question Mr. Chair I know
that Tim had said he was going to be out of town That's why he wasn't. And I hadn't heard from Commissioner Goldie didn't return my email, but I was wondering who was going to go to the Minnesota rural counties because Commissioner Winger and I had the HR director interviews and I
still don't haven't heard from Commissioner Gould if he went or not. So, I'm I'm guessing maybe he didn't go and um I asked Commissioner Sum if he'd be able to go if he needed to and he was going to be out of town. So, the point is Commissioner Sumar is supposed to be
at chat about tomorrow at 8 and I don't know if he remembered that. Um, I think he's at uh AMC executive committee meetings is I think where he's at. So, I'm not sure if he was going to be back. Um, and I'm just wondering if one of us needs to if someone needs to be ready to
fill in for chat about tomorrow. Yeah, just I just wanted to make sure I Would you be available to do that or do you want one of us to one of us to volunteer for it or um I have a meeting that starts at 10 so
it' be cutting it a little bit close. I I do too actually. I I can't get out of mine at 10:00. Okay. Um, I don't know if Commissioner Winger has any. I have a BAS meeting at 8, but that's usually done by 9 9:30. So
9:30 is when we have to be there. I if if if you can do it, great. Otherwise, I can try to squeeze it in before my 10:00 because it usually only takes about 15 minutes, right? If you can, that'd be great because I know we don't get done till 9:00 and sometimes 9:30 or.
Okay. I'll just I'll I'll plan on I'll plan on being there and if Tim's there, great. Then I'll just You want to shoot Tim a text or something or you Yeah, I'll I'll I'll try to communicate with Tim. Yeah. Okay. Okay, that sounds good. Thanks for thinking ahead on that, Commissioner Carlson. That was it for your report.
Okay. Thank you. Uh had a Mississippi Headart Board meeting and it was uh we were able to ratify the uh that land. Uh, I think I brought it up a previous meeting that we it was nice to be able to actually um help um speed the
government up in a little bit and we were ratified the decision that we had given that land owner for their splitting of their lots. Um, and that should have been able to be handled by an administrative thing, but just uh the way the law was written, we had to actually formally approve it at the
Mississippi Headarters Board, even though they're not directly on the lake. But, um, the road tour, u, I I concur with Commissioner Winger that um, a lot of the roads we went on this year had been redone and we're in much better
much better shape. We didn't didn't spill as much coffee or anything this year. Um, so that was good. I attended the Northern Township public hearing at the fairgrounds for the Northern Township City of Bumiji um, deal that was extremely well attended. Um, good to
see people there. Um, you know, testifying for the judge that was there, the administrative judge that was there and then, um, been doing a lot of union negotiations and we're making some progress there. So that's it for my
report. Anybody have anything else? Otherwise, look for a motion to adjurnn. Motion by Commissioner Carlson. Do I hear a second? Well, that was I was saying to put that together with your other report. Did you have something legislative?
Oh, no. Nope. No. We're good. Do I hear a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Winger. All in favor of