--------- work session to order and the first item on the agenda is a closed session. So at this time I will accept a motion to go into close session pursuant to Minnesota statute 13 uh D.05 05 subdivision 3 to discuss the purchase or sale of real or
personal property. Do I hear such a motion? Motion by Commissioner Carlson. Do I hear a second? Second by Commissioner Sumar. Any discussion? All in favor of going into close session say I. I. Any opposed? We're 40. We will go
into close session. Accept a motion to end the closed session and return to the open meeting. Have a motion by Commissioner Winger. Do I hear a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Carlson. All in favor of returning to the open meeting, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right,
we are in the open work session meeting. And first item on the agenda is introduction of new employees. Do we have any new employees? Not seeing any. We'll move on to identify future work meeting topics. Does anybody have any future work
meeting topics to bring up? Uh Mr. Chair, Commissioner Sar. Um maybe I was thinking about uh getting an update from the um Al Bunnyan Drug Task Force. Uh I
recently seen some information about a surveillance system that they are using and participating in. guys have some questions on um about that initiative and and would like, you know,
some some information about, you know, what are what is the data being used for? Uh you know, the the the price of of of the system. Uh this I have a lot of questions. Sure. I saw some stuff on social media about
that and and the mayor um explained some of that, but I think be good for us to get that out in in our circle as well. So, hard to miss that the other day. Yeah. Anything else, Mr. Chair? Yeah. I would like to see a joint presentation
from HRDC, the Bumiji Area Chamber, and Greater Bumiji on their ideas specifically for expanding the tax base. We need more money, resources, and most importantly, jobs around here lately.
So, um I think that would be in order if Tom or somebody could reach out to the three of them and see if you know, ideally a joint presentation, the three of them getting together and maybe Mr. Chair is uh the chair of HRDC
could help facilitate that a little bit. Uh but however, we actually have a couple of HRDC people here tonight, the executive director and so they just heard it. Oh, very good. Great. Anybody else have anything they want to bring forward?
Seeing none, we'll move on to the 2024 financial statement review by Clifton Larson Allen and take it away. Testing, testing. I think it's working. Cool. All right. Well, it is great to be here
today. I am Doug Host, the principal on your audit, and I'm uh I believe you all have a the thick book of the actual financial statements and the PowerPoint. We're just going through the PowerPoint today. this hits on the high points and
uh just kind of maybe a 40,000 level look, not getting into this invoice was for this or that. So uh just like in years past, we'll go through the PowerPoint and um so we audited 123124.
The audit's been done for about 6 weeks or no, sorry, is done six weeks earlier than last year. So, I think that that's really awesome. And as you move into budget season, probably pretty good to know where for sure the audited numbers
at the end of 24 came in. And but that didn't happen by accident. Uh the staff here at the county worked very hard and diligently to make sure that we were going to come in and be able to do our procedures
earlier than in the past and get the audit done. and communicate the results to you. So that's why we're here today. So page two on the agenda. We already went through the introduction. We're zooming through this presentation. Right. So uh there's some required communications. I I just have
to go through briefly and talk about our testing of internal controls, single audit, legal compliance, and again the highle look at the financials. So um page five required communication. So
audit standards guide the testing that we do and the reporting that we do. And one of the requirements is we need to communicate to the board uh a checklist of things. It's about okay what what's the reason we do an audit?
Well, it's to issue an opinion and we gave you a clean opinion, the best opinion we can give. If we have difficulties in performing the audit or disagreements with management, the audit standards say we have to communicate that to you. Well, happy to report there weren't any of those. Um, we also did a
single audit because the county receives and spends more than 750,000 of federal expenditures. We'll touch on the results of that testing in a little bit. But all that communication is summarized in a four-page letter. So, it's boilerplate basically from the prior years. So, now
we're on page seven. The auto standards also require us to look at the county's policies, procedures, and controls that they have in place and then just communicate the results of that testing. So, um there is one item we're required
to communicate that is called audit adjustments. When we go through and do our testing, um there's certainties to cross eyes to dot that because we deal with uh getting the financial amounts into
proper buckets all year long. There are just a couple of them where we had to move some things around or bring in some numbers from what Paris sends out or the actuarial study. Nothing major actually in comparison to the other audits that I
do. the number of tweaks that we got to make here is definitely on the low end and you want to be on the low end. You don't want to be on the high end. Okay. Um, couple other items and this one's been around for I think since the first year we audited the
county back in 2003, but segregation of duties. There's some departments that collect money andor disperse money and they don't have enough people to fully segregate the responsibilities. You know about it. the audit standards just want us to remind you so you're reminded.
Okay. Um the next item is something new that came out this year. Um the county did receive some federal grant money for some road projects. Okay. And it's important that uh the county receives
the reimbursements for federal grants that's entitled to and that we report the expenditures related to those programs. Sorry. Um well, we found some of them program
projects the work was done in October and November, but the reimbursement request for that federal money didn't happen until June. So that's kind of 8 n month lag can be significant. It can impact your other
federal grants. It can impact your timing of the audit. And so ultimately we recommend that the county when you can get reimbursements you you shorten that timeline from when you incur the expenditures to when you get
reimbursements. I believe there is sort of a new process in place that we'll look at for the 25 audit to make sure that that that window is smaller. But that that did cause a little trickiness with this year's audit.
So page nine, single audit related, no material weaknesses and internal control. That's a good thing. Hey Doug. Oh, sure. On that highway deal, did you find that that the projects were closed out in November, completely done and and and and then it was just until June that
that we asked for the reimbursement or was there an issue that might have been waiting until spring to finish up to actually complete the project before we asked for reimbursement? That's a really good question and I'm getting older and my memory is
not so good anymore. But let me think definitely a possibility on one of the two projects. Okay. And they were waiting for the last final, I think, but I can't say for sure. But just trying to give Bruce the benefit of the doubt. He's sitting behind you.
Oh, thank you. Go ahead and keep on going. But, uh, all right, let's see. So, we test single auh federal grants. And I know there's tons of acronyms in here. I'll try to spell them out once or twice, but on page nine, there's just
two items are required to communicate or yeah, to communicate. We do a bunch of testing on medical assistance, MA. And there were some old guidelines in place that expired on like January 1 of 24. there was like this waiver about not
having to do a redetermination for eligibility. Well, January 1 of 24 that waiver expired and I think the majority of the counties that I audit, they had great processes in place to do those redeterminations, but they kind of for a
couple three years with COVID didn't have to do it anymore. Right? So when January one came around, so ultimately we tested 60 and only found one where it kind of slipped through the cracks. So that's pretty good, but we're required to communicate that one. Um the other
item relates to reviewing case file eligibilities and this relates to MA TANIF and SNAP, medical assistance, temporary assistance for needy families and supplemental nutritional assistance program. The feds want counties to make
sure you got processes in place to make sure that the people that are getting the benefits are eligible. Bel Tramy County does that through some case file reviews. Sometimes it might be after the fact and there were a couple being done just not as many as probably should be.
So we just recommend more of those be done. On the bright side, last year we had a couple of these findings. Got a question. Sure. Yeah. So, with the with the reviews of MA, TANAF and SNAP and and with the uh I guess anticipation
of of having to review every 6 months now, are do you anticipate that we may have um additional uh case files that that that need to be reviewed? Yeah,
you know, I haven't actually contact contemplated that if they do require redeterminations every 6 months instead of the 12 months now. And and I suppose conceptually, uh,
it probably would increase it some, but not double, I don't think. And and would would that affect our our audit in any way if if uh if there was more than what would be considered?
Well, yeah. Um as far as the case file reviews, uh I would say it would have to get pretty bad because you're doing some. No, it's just it probably should be more. So, if you weren't doing anything and we told you
about it for eight years in a row and you still aren't doing anything, the feds might call you up and say, "Hey, come on. You got to get a control in place." Right? So, uh, for that part, I don't think so too much. But like even
in that previous finding about the redetermination, the person the one of 60 that we tested where it didn't happen was still all determined to be eligible. Okay. But if 30 of the 60 that we tested actually
were found to not be eligible, the feds are going to have a big problem. Then then your your phone won't just be read uh ringing off the hook. They'll be at your front door probably problem. I think as a state we've been not good and that's why the situation is what it is
in Minnesota. Yeah. And not Belrami County. I think we've been doing a pretty good job but other areas of the state haven't. Yep. Very stable. Yep. All right. But yeah, we did get to resolve a couple issues from that were in last year's out. So that's good.
We're also required Oh boy. Also required to uh test your the county's compliance with various state statutes. We did that. There's only one item we're required to communicate same as last year about publishing of the claims in the newspaper and I know in our
discussions it's a costbenefit thing. Next next uh page unless we got questions on any of that otherwise we're going to financial results. Keep on rolling. All right cool. So page 13 is the chart that we've had in the past. This is the
three biggies. the general fund, road and bridge and health and human services. And um this chart tells how many months of reserves you got and you went from 4.78 months in these three big funds to 6.6. So up about 1.9 months. Um many
organizations including the state auditor's office have recommended no less than five months and for the year these funds are sitting at 6.68. So, the county did have an $ 8.4 million
decrease in expenditures in 24. Kind of I I think at least half of that was related to the Sford Health project that happened in 23, but not in 24. So, that kind of counts for the big decrease. But, you know what? Fund balance reserves other than back in 2020, you
you basically been at just a teeny bit below or a little bit above that recommended minimum. So stable fund balances for Bel Tramy County. Page 14, we look at the total revenues and expenditures of all the governmental
funds for the year. Revenues were about 9 million more than expenditures. The overall expenditures decreased 4.9 million. Again, as a Sanford Health Project, revenues were up. The primary
drivers of the revenues were some additional grants received. The interest revenue was up and uh also an increase in taxes. I think 2024 is probably the first year the sales and use tax. So we definitely
saw an increase in those revenues which are on slide 15. total revenues here there was like uh 4.9 million increase in total taxes and I as I mentioned yeah sales tax was new in 24 there's a little
bump in the levy in 24 which explains that increase I mentioned the interest was up about 1.4 4 million and 24 definitely better return on investment and at the end of the year I think there was about 37 million of unspent bond
proceeds that was starting to earn some interest too so that helps a little bit there on page 16 we look at where the county's expenditures were occurring couple items to point out there is on the general government line in the table that
decreased like 4.2 2 million. That was, I believe, the Sanford project. Yet, highways and streets expenditures were down about 8 million. Definitely fewer projects in 24. And there were a couple biggies in 23 with uh no similar
expenses in Can you Yeah. Remind me what the Sanford project is because uh the people in the audience or or in the community might I think that's the the Sanford building. So, I just want to make sure that
that's a really good question. I may need some help from the audience because I just looked at my notes and I wrote it down. Friend, anybody? Sanford Behavioral Health. Yeah. Over on what is it? Anna Avenue.
Yeah, it's been a long day already for me. So, but yeah, good point though. Um so the next pages we kind of look at the the main funds more uh the general fund revenues
uh for the year general fund fund balance was up 6.3 million and the reserves in the general fund are about 11.5 months. So definitely a strong financial position for the general fund. Page 18.
The road and bridge fund is also very sound financially. Its fund balance increased about 5.7 million in the year. But I do want to point out the road and bridge fund and it's in every county. It's like a roller coaster and it's when the timing of when
the reimbursements are received compared to when the projects are paid for. It it just it's definitely an up and down thing as you can see from the chart. Uh it definitely fluctuates from year to year.
Page 19, the Health and Human Services Fund. This fund historically has been running a little bit thinner than the other funds. And for the year, it's fund balance decreased to about 638,000. It's got a just shy of a half a month of
reserves. And I'm pretty sure we talked about this last year too, but like the Health and Human Services fund's different because they tend to be getting those reimbursements in every month, whereas like the general fund, the big chunk of their revenues are
taxes. Well, they come in primarily twice a year. So even it it's definitely a little light yet on the reserves for the Health and Human Services Fund. Next page, forfeited tax fund. The fund balance here increased a little over
80,000 for the year. Uh it's very dependent on the amount of sales or forefeitures that occur for the year. Revenues were down I think it was a $400,000 decrease in in sales and that's related to the timberwool timber wolf no
timber sales which if you don't have any uh actual sales that you won't be money timber. Yeah. Yeah. Uh but yeah, there wouldn't be any timber sales that occur or not. There'd be less timber sales
that occur. All right. Solid waste fund page 21 fund balance was up about 668,000 for the year. If you look at the chart, you can see historically the the revenues have been exceeding the expenditures here, which is building up a pretty solid fund balance reserve. And
at the end of 24 it was about 6 and a3 months of reserve. So healthy fund balance level there. The revenues did decrease. There was less uh shingles and tear down type projects that happened from what we uh
were obtained and they in in 24. Now in 25 might there be a lot more? Could be with uh everything the counties had to deal with here. So with that page 23, overall the general fund's fund
balance is healthy. Road and bridge was up 1.7 months of reserve. So it's pretty healthy. Health and human services fund is still a little bit low. Solid waste is is solid financially and overall fun levels
were up about 1.9 months uh for the year. There was a new accounting standard get gazsby 101 which is governmental accounting standards board number 101. It was just uh how the calculation of unused vacation sick
leave comp time gets reported. Pretty minimal issue for the county. Um but yeah, your fund balances improve for the year. So financially pretty solid year for the county.
uh 25 and 26. Who knows what's going to happen, right? I I've been on I don't know. I would say it's not an exaggeration that I've been on five different
seminars, conference calls, and webinars about the one big beautiful bill and how it impacts us. So, I guess we'll see. Right. Mr. Commission, uh, is that does that apply to all the counties or are the counties
that you work with or are you that optimistic? You know, I've been doing this a long time. I've seen the real estate bubble burst. I've seen I forget what some of the other
dips in the economy have been. And for 34 years, counties have always done a great job of dealing with the what would you call it? the challenges in front of them and
maintaining reserves to sort of weather the storm through some tough economic conditions or changes in financial policy at the federal level, maybe state mandates from the state level, whatever.
Um, so the fact that you're going into 25 and you sort of bumped up a little bit on those fund balance reserves, I think that's good. I think a big chunk of that is also tied up in the unspent bond proceeds, but right, there are some counties
that don't quite have the reserves that I think we're seeing here. Doug, is this, you know, I mean, this is a snapshot in time and you were doing it after we pretty much had just received our first half taxes, which I think we get a little bit more than half on the
first half taxes. So, doesn't that kind of artificially inflate what our reserves are at that point? No, because those those dollars aren't aren't showing up in this book yet. We can't really count that. Okay. As your reserves. Oh, because this is the previous year. So,
yeah. So, it's looking at the entire at the end of the year is what it was. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Great. Well, we're about the time if anybody else has any questions. All right. Thank you, Doug. Appreciate it. Great work.
And that moves us on to the Belrammy HR update. I think Jeff or Sandy, whoever's coming up, got about 15 minutes. Andy, thank you. Well, thank you for the opportunity to come and talk to you about uh Belmy H. I
just talked with the board about um calling Tom and asking if I could come and and talk with you and then he beat me to it. So, um he's one step ahead of me. Um so um I have given you it's hard to talk about Bel Tramy HR without
talking about Headwaters Regional Development Commission of which I'm an employee. the Belt Tremy Hires the Headarters Regional Development Commission to to staff and kind of provide the oversee and um that I have
the honor of being the person that actually is able to uh work with your board at Belrammy H. I've really um enjoyed the opportunity to do that. So that is our annual report um that we
it's hot off the presses. So, um, there's some really good information in there. We really worked hard to make it a tool that you could, um, use. So, if you have any questions,
um, you can, uh, Cal Larson is here. Um, you can reach out to him later or, um, you can actually talk with me, too. So, um, I've also included some things um, just for your review.
um because they don't when you PowerPoint them, they don't always turn out as well as you'd like them to. And I wanted you to have them um I wanted you to have them for um There's the clicker. I wanted you to
have them for reference. Um so the mission is to promote and ensure affordable, decent and quality housing and to enhance community development through the administrative of effective housing programs and redevelopment initiatives in Belrammy County. So that is um what Belrammy
County Board works on. So, I've given you the full layout of region 2 um A and 2B in your districts. Um but just wanted to give you some highlights. Um in 2A, renters are 34%
and homeowners are 66 and cost burn burden renters are at 57% for seniors. So the percentage of cost burden out of 100% 57% of them are seniors and then
cost um burdened homeowners of low income is 54%. So they're pretty um in 2 A they're they're very close to each other. In 2B renters are um 18% and homeowners are 82%.
Cost burden renters are 41% and cost burden home owners 62% are low income. So, house housing developments um Headwaters re um housing Headwaters Regional Housing Development
um commission and the high school continue to partner and they just recently got a grant which they were the only outstate um high school and HHDC that actually received
um a grant. So, we're very proud of the work um that the high school and that the Headwaters Commission does for them. Um the other ones that I've been um hearing about and been looking at are the
Mitradio development, um the Whiting Road, there's the Lakeshore Drive, there's pre-sale condos, um there's Waldo Road in Kellier. Um there's 56 duplexes on um Red Lake.
They're they're in 28 and 28. Um um Sanford campus land is um thinking about being developed. And then of course our own conifer campus land as well, which we'll kind of I'll talk
about later. And then central school um is also one that I didn't put up here, but central school is also something that is um very much usable and um kind of on the minds
of developers. This is the conifer land. Um so um it goes from the middle school drive um to Conifer Avenue um as you're looking at it. I did put it
in your packet because again sometimes PowerPoints aren't very um aren't very good. And so this is the um rendering that we just submitted to the state. Um so this was the beginning of our con our
Kifer campus development in um we had the opportunity to apply to a greater Minnesota infrastructure grant which is very unique because for many many year for all of the years we've had
to work with the cities or we've had to go up against developments in the cities and we just can't score high enough in greater Minnesota because of the infrastructure that's attached to it because of transportation, because of
all the things that they have that that we don't necessarily have. So, we have been working on the legislature for about seven years to get them to just let us um be competitive with people in greater Minnesota, and this is the first
bianium that they've let us do that. So, we're super excited that we had that opportunity. So, we worked with the city um they committed $500,000 with a $500,000 match from uh the state of Minnesota. Uh
Belmy H put in 100,000 as well. And so, um along with that, you needed to have a housing development. And one of the things that we had been talking about at
um the com the um board had been talking about was again workforce development kind of those Alice um you know the asset limited um and so we attached um a
39 unit apartment to that land um knowing that um it would be on the road, but that it needed to they needed to kind of go in together. You just couldn't build a land, you couldn't put in
the land, the road, the infrastructure without a development attached. And we've been working on that development for quite some time. Um, so along with that on September 20th, uh, Bel Tramy County,
um, I do have to say that I've worked with the staff at Bel Tramy County for many, many years, and they just continue to to just be some of the best people that I've ever had the opportunity to work with. um they know their job. They're good at what they do. They're
collaborative. And so um Ben Hine and um Laura Robertson from um BCAP and kind of a collaboration we're putting together a uh workshop on September 20th. And one of the things that we um we're going to
do at HRDC is provide rental um we call rentwise. And so we do we're going to offer that for free um to anybody that comes to that to that um seminar.
Um, so master planning, we're going to the the board is going to be working on some master planning in January and February um with partners and then um December 2nd, we've been working with
um Nate Door on a plan to to have a big housing summit in on December 2nd um to review the housing study with Greater Minnesota Finance and Sanford. and we've been kind of working on some other things there too. Um the other thing that's exciting
for um the county is the connected communities. Um connected communities is an agefriendly grant that um HRDC received from the state of
Minnesota. And in the very front page of your packet, you kind of have um an outline that talks about some of the goals that we're looking at. um they hired HRDC to work on age friendly housing across the lifespan, universal design, things like
that, which kind of goes perfectly with um what happens at Bel Tramy H. So um we were excited to be able to have that opportunity um to do that within our five region area. So connected communities talks about affordable
housing in the lifespan um multimodal transportation op options public space for all ages and for all seasons and some digital engagement. Um our goal is that the communities are going to be will include housing,
transportation and public spaces that foster well-being and social connection as we age. We need social con connection at any at any age. And and I think we're seeing that as we're we're doing different kinds of picnics and we're
doing how much people want to be together and they really want to be they want to be in community. So, um the project I um activities are we're going to build knowledge about aging and universal design across the
lifespan, networking and gathering community input, community education and advocacy, and then strategic partnerships and collaboration. We're hoping that everybody that's doing things separately,
we can start to do things together and then um conduct a listening session, focus group, community engagement session, utilize the needs assessment. We do already have a vetted needs assessment, partner with others doing the same work, assist in planning and
hosting. Um we're going to have three strategic housing um summits, develop strategies, and then create and host educational workshops. Um again, I included that in your packet because it didn't um turn out really
well, but I I really wanted to um point out that this is the continuum. These are some solutions, but this is the continuum that Minnesota Housing Partnership talks about. So, at the top, they talk about the income level and
then it it talks about the housing continuum. But it talks I want to really focus your attention on the strategies and um so in Bel Tramy County, we do harm reduction and housing first. Our partners do that. Um, Bel Tramy HR
works with um, housing, permanent supportive housing. We have Belcap does transitional housing and rapid rehousing. We do harm reduction again. Um, we're looking at production, lowinccome
tax credits. We have done that. Um, and then if you look down at the green, we're also we have we use TIFF. We have used TIFF to do that. It's so small we can't read it. It's so blurry and small. Yeah, you have it. I I included it in in your packet. Yeah, that's the same way.
And it's the Yeah, it is small. Yeah. Yeah. But uh anyhow, um um well, we include tax increment financing. We do local housing trust fund. Um Bel Charmy County um did that.
And then we have community land trusts. So, we're really looking at all of the strategies that Minnesota Housing Partnership says works for um building housing.
Um we also have down payment assistance through build term H. In 2024, we helped 18 families. Um Brooke Jenkins works with the board on that. Uh we have first generation home buyer and I did include
um an article um from that on the back and then we have small cities grant too. And um one of the things that that um we're also working on is applying for a grant.
We've had a three-year grant um that has subsidi that subsidizes the work for Belrammy HR and we've just reapplied for another three years of um that on Belrammy H's behalf to um
subsidize the work that we do for them through HA. I think that's everything. Does anybody have any questions for Sandy? Commissioner Summer. Sure. Yeah.
So, looking you write a good letter in your opening. I just want to commend you for that. But but I I noticed that it said one of the top items moving forward uh will to be uh reach out to other local boards.
So, I appreciate you coming forward and and giving us an update, but I'm also curious. It goes on to say uh uh you also reach out to to uh tribal communities. Have Have you presented to any
We haven't No. Okay. Well, um another part of our team has been working with um a tribal organi the tribal organization on um housing and I we have another team member okay that works on
housing that has worked on that. I personally haven't but other team members um have spent time in Manomomen um Leech Lake White Earth and Red Lake. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. Great. Mhm. That looks like it. Thank you, Sandy. Thank you.
That brings us up to the child care licensing update. I'm not sure uh Jeff coming forward for that. Good afternoon, commissioners. Uh you all know me. I'm Jeff Lynn. I'm the social services division director of
Belrana County. Um, with me today I have Chrisa Golden and I have Michelle Vorhees. Uh, they are our actual experts. So, I'm going to let them do most of the talking. But before we do that, I'm going to tell you that Carissa is is our our supervisor for our um
intake investigations and licensing unit. We've been doing that for about 5 years. And then we had to do some advanced math today to try and figure out how many years Michelle has been doing our childcare licensing. and we came up with 28 years she's been pro providing that service here in Belrammy
County. Uh and although I have had some experience as a licenser in the county, I've been away for for a long time. So I am not the expert. I'm going to let these guys do the speaking and I might chime in here or there. If you have questions as we go, please feel free to to ask away. So
thank you, Jeff. I I should note that Michelle has been doing licensing for 28 years, but she has um been a social worker with Belrammy County longer than that. She's our most veteraned social worker, so I'm very proud to have her on my team.
Yeah, that's awesome. Um and I understand that I think it was Commissioner Sumar that asked for a brief update on how um childcare licensing is going. Yeah. Well, you know, childcare licensing, how uh um how we are, you
know, trying to recruit people. Um how the the licensing um you know, I know we we we're need child care. We need and I'm wondering, you know, where where we're at in the county with with trying to uh provide uh the these
uh licensing, the the the child care daycarees, uh things like that. just kind of a a brief update and and then you know I know that uh you guys are separate from the the child care centers and and how you know how how do you guys
you know work together or there are things that we can do to work together to maybe uh improve some some laws or or some policies and regulations to you know provide a better service for for
our you know folks that that uh you know rely on on the child care. We'll try to answer some of that. I know there's a slide in here that actually talks about what you don't do and some of those things you just mentioned are some of those things that they don't do but uh we've got about 10
minutes or so. If we can try to hustle through it that'd be great. Is this the clicker to move forward? Sorry. Okay. What we do do We act as the commissioner of the state under department of children, youth and
families. Um through the state of Minnesota, we recruit, train, and retain family licensed child care programs. Um, I do want to take a minute to say that at this point in time, we are mainly or
we have mainly relied on the state of Minnesota for the rec recruiting of um, daycare providers. They are putting efforts into that right now. In the past, we have done more with um, ads in the paper and that type of thing. We
have gone away from that, but that is something that we can get back to. Um we did determine that it did not um it wasn't fruitful to do that in the past. Um we do licensing vis visits for the initial visits to determine whether a
home and a provider meets the qualifications. We do annual visits to uh relicens or keep that license going. And then we which are always unannounced and then we also do the monitor checks. Um, some of those have to do if we get
complaints or reports about daycare providers. Um, Michelle goes out and checks and investigates those reports. Um, which leads us to the next one. We investigate reports. Um, and then we make recommendations to the
state of what should happen based on the results of that investigation and we initiate background studies. The state of Minnesota does the actual background study, but Michelle does the work um to get that moving along and get
the fingerprints of the the people that are interested in doing child care and our current childare providers. I didn't press. There we go. What we don't do, we don't make up the rules. I wish that we could
do that. um the rules for child care providers have increased over the years which I think is a contributing factor to um less people being interested in providing that service. Right now Michelle has a list of 268 items that
she has to uh check on not only at the time of licensing but also each year. Um there's 17 categories in that checklist. um we don't make final decisions on negative actions. So if there's been a
report um of something happening in a daycare, we investigate. We re make recommendations to the state whether that be um nothing if we didn't find anything, a fine, a conditional license, or um taking the license away, but it's
the state that makes that final decision. Um we also don't make the final decisions on the background studies. Anybody who lives or works in a daycare um a home or a place where daycare is being provided, 13 and older have to do
that background check study. Um so for instance, if uh the maybe the female in the home is wanting to do the child care and the person they're married to had um something on their record from 15 years ago, that might stop somebody from being
able to have child care in their home. Um, we do not license daycare centers, but I think a interesting um, piece of information is we have places in our community that look like daycare centers that we do license and those are called
special child specially special family child care. Um, for instance, St. Phillips has um three three rooms of child care and those look like a center but actually Michelle
licenses those and um they fall under different rules than the centers do. We have some other ones in town also. We do not um but we don't license the actual daycare centers who have different rules. Um they have to have um some
licensed teachers. uh their adult to child ratio is different than our um child care the child care facilities we license. Uh we don't work with unlicensed providers. Um but we do need to respond
if we hear that there's unlicensed providers out there that aren't following the regulations of doing so. And we don't develop business plans for providers, nor do we offer advice on running small businesses. I think that
is another thing that really stops some people from um having child care in their home. They might really love little children and like working with them. Um but the running a business might be something they're either not interested in or that scares them away.
uh the licensing pro process. Um there's inquiry packets that Michelle sends out to people who are interested. Um she meets with those people and hopefully um together they decide that that's something that the person wants
to move forward with and then um I'll let Michelle talk about then next steps if they are interested. Right. Then they applied, process the application, references, background studies. Um, they have to get training. Uh, sometimes we need a fire marshal,
and uh, then I do like an initial home visit to see where they're at. I leave them with a to-do list, and then I will go back once, maybe twice to see if they're all ready, up to snuff. And that's where the 268 question
u checklist comes in. And we go through everything. from safety to training to many things that we talk about. So the licensing process can take you know 30 up to 120 days depending on what we wait for. Sometimes people aren't ready but they need toys equipment or we wait for
the fire marshal or sometimes we wait for background studies to clear. But so that's and then we're not going to go over this, but it's just a list of the statutes and the rules um that we must
follow when we're licensing childcare providers. Um barriers, I think we talked about a few of those. Um I think a huge one also is those initial startup costs. Um the amount of toys and equipment it takes to
be licensed for child care is quite a bit. Um so for somebody to put that initial investment in is sometimes difficult. The the background checks um can be an issue as we talked about. Meeting the
licensing requirements um as I said those requirements continue to increase. Uh we just in the last year had a proposal of the new requirements. Um and they they were very very strict. Um
things like even the outside player a play areas for uh child care centers or ch home child care had to have certain material underneath all of the play equipment. It's not what we want for most of our kids in northern Minnesota. And if
parents do want that, some of the centers do offer those things. I think that there was enough push back that the state pulled that back and they're reconsidering and um and then are now working on something to move forward
with, which we were really happy to see because I think some of our current providers would have shut down and learning how to operate a small business. Um we many of us know that is very complicated and over could be overwhelming.
Just want to add you know the the small business piece when you think about it the the days of someone who just loves children and wants to take care of them and offer that service. Those days are kind of gone because people really do have to develop full business plans. They have to understand the taxes and
how they work. And then when a person if they decide they want to do it the fire marshall has to come out. The windows all have to be all the right size. All these different things that have to play into that. All of them can be barriers to somebody starting this small business. And it is a complex small
business. It's not it's not just that's the oldtime grandma who wanted to take care of kids anymore. It's a lot more than that. And I think that's one of the biggest challenges that our our individuals who want to provide the service run into. So, and then the other things like when my
kids were in sports, I had the luxury of oftentimes being able to leave work to go watch them compete. That is very difficult if you're running a daycare out of your home. Um, and you know, having your employer pay part of your insurance, there's just the wear and tear on your home, your sheetrock is
getting ruined, um, stuff like that. So, we have a list of barriers. I do want to say for people who have a heart for kids, it can be very rewarding, too. and I'm glad that there are people that are willing to do the work um to make this happen for our community.
So, where we're at, we currently have 76 licensed programs. Um last year we had 80 and the year before that 78. That kind of makes it looks like we're um kind of stable right now, which unfortunately we're stable at those
numbers. But I want to point out that in 2003, we had 135 licensed providers in in our county. From 1997 to 2017, we never dipped below a 100 uh licensed
providers. So, we are far from that. And that's not unique to Belrammy County. That's nationwide right now. Um we have 866 total slots for children. Um when we think about the number of
workers and families we have in Bel Tramy County, we can see that there is an issue and out of those there's u at max 132 infant slots, but we have some providers choosing not to um have
infants in their home. Instead are filling them with older children. Um right now Michelle is working on um developing three new programs. Oh, and right now nobody has um let her know that they're going to be closing soon.
Why don't you take the summary? All right. Summary. Nationwide trend in decline of family childcare license holders and it started about two year 2000. Um there are many rules and regulations to follow. Um as you saw by the eight different rules and
regulations we have and it is expensive. I don't make them have a ton of toys to start. They have to have some. But when you're doing your smoke detection, carbon monoxide, fire extinguisher, just basic cribs, high chairs, that kind of
thing, it does get expensive. There are grants and things out there available to providers, so that does really help. Um, and maintaining your home to licensing standard adds up. Um, she mentioned your sheetrock or your toilet gets plugged or
whatever. There's so many things that can go wrong. Um, but you know, I think you really have to have a heart for this and you have to really want to do it and we we try to make it easy even though there's 268 questions. Um,
I also just want to state although it sounds like it it we're talking about the barriers, um, it is also a a a job that people have that they love. They love these kids. They get to see them
grow in their homes. They get to know that when they're seniors and they're graduating, they had a part in in helping them get there. Um, I can imagine that as a as a uh licensed provider, a person looks can
you look at all the kids that come through your home and you see them playing football and wrestling and and doing all the different sports and activities that are available in our community. And it gives you a reason to go to those sports to see those things
and because you had relationships with these kids and again you help them get where they're at. So although we talk about the challenges, I want to encourage anybody out there who has any interest in in learning more um and in visiting with Michelle. And
it's it's a very rewarding job for those that do it. And there are some financial um positives. I mean, you don't do a job for no reason, right? You need to need to earn some money doing it. And there are opportunities for that as well. So, I would really encourage anybody who's
ever had any thoughts or interest in in providing um daycare in our community and helping support the individuals who are working and and helping these kids grow into the people we want them to be that they contact Michelle and uh Bel
County Health and Human Services. Thank you, Joe. Commissioner Summer, uh I'll try to be brief here. So is is there still a huge need for child care in Bel Tramy County? I the need still is in infant care. Many
of my providers have openings for toddler and preschool because many of the schools around or the other programs offer free preschool. So some of those are not going to daycare. So I feel the need still is for infant care. So the
county doesn't have any responsibility of trying to provide uh assistance to fill those needs because I I think that if you don't have child care, you don't have people going to work and if you don't got people going to work, you got
people uh applying for for SNAP and MIP and and and things like that, you know. So, it's a it's a cycle and and child care, transportation, housing are all part of that cycle. And if if we're not addressing the child care needs,
the there there's I I would suggest that there's always going to be need for more uh more providers. Um if you So, how how can we get those providers, right? you know, it's what I I would like to, you know, try to find out and know because,
you know, I know down in uh Stevens County, uh they provided uh some funding from the county, maybe a tri county effort where they where they built, you know, and is is that something we can't
do or what what's the barrier to that? You know, I I there there are grants available as Michelle had mentioned through the state of Minnesota and I'm thankful for those. So that is one way that people who are
interested in this but need some help they can apply for those grants and whether they get them or not is up to a committee of people that with I think with most licensing what you find is word of mouth is is really
where where we find people coming forward whether it's child foster care or whether it's child care it's those people that are doing it and talking about the benefits that they receive by providing that service, talking to their friends and neighbors and and
relatives. That's really where I think most of the of the um most of our providers come from. They've seen it. They've experienced it. Uh and and sometimes it's people that are have have their own children at home and they want to be able to provide for their own
children and then while they're doing it, they want to earn some money caring for other people's children as well. Yeah. Well, uh, thank you for for coming. You know, I don't want to question the experts. I just want to learn and and do my part and and trying to provide, you know, uh, uh, some some
solutions to, you know, the child care. So, thank you, Mr. P. Mr. Carlson. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Michelle, I just wanted you to know that I've had a number of conversations with local daycare providers. We had one at the VOTE school. Uh, and I had another one
at um, another conversation. And I just want you to know how how highly regarded you are in what you do and and they everybody says I don't know what we I don't know what the county do if Michelle ever retires. So I wanted you to know thank that you that you're held
in high regard. So thank you. Thank you. Ditto that. Thank you very much for the presentation. We appreciate it. Yep. All right. That moves us on to the the dust control on county roads. And
I think Bruce is gonna give us some options here hopefully. Yeah. First a little bit of information. Uh Bel Tramy County, we put uh dust control on roughly about 150 miles. We spend just about $650,000
on those 150 miles. So this is a significant amount of money that we uh spend. However, it's a cost savings for us. Uh dust control for us is not worrying about the dust uh that people are complaining about, but the dust trying to keep it in the road itself. Uh
keeping the dust in the road uh means less regraveling, less maintenance, uh less labor and equipment uh out there on the roads. And so it's a cost savings for us to to use the uh dust control. Uh calcium chloride, and I'll use calcium
chloride kind of as the common a dust control product. We do use magnesium chloride sometimes when it's cheaper. This year we use magnesium, but most normally we're using calcium chloride for our dust control product. Uh calcium chloride is the most common dust control
product across that is used across the nation, not just Belrammy County, Minnesota, but across the nation. Calcium chloride is the number one product used. It's because it's most effective and cost effective uh for for agencies to use. However,
uh to make that case, uh I I did provide a document in the the packet there, the case for calcium chloride. It kind of outlines those points of keeping the dust in the road, uh keeping the the road firm, not having to regravel, less maintenance, and so kind of making the
case of it. But, uh chloride, calcium chloride is a chloride, and chlorides are corrosive. Um it is uh just like uh road salt in the winter time, the calcium chloride in the summertime also
is is corrosive. It's a known issue. Um the concerns that we hear from the public is about the corrosiveness or the environmental concerns that uh come from calcium chloride. I provided another document in the the packet there, the
best practices. Um if you look close you would actually see my name in that packet. I was the chair of the committee that uh oversaw this uh project. Um years ago I had actually been on the local road research board. The local road research board is made up of county
engineers and city engineers. Uh they get allocation of money to to put towards research on that are local issues. Uh part of the local research board is a research impleation implementation committee and that's who did this work here. There wasn't actually no actually new research done
with this project. It was just implementing research that's been out there. Um gathering information and putting it together. Um and this was in response to uh questions that I was receiving but also other county engineers were receiving about the
using, you know, calcium chloride for dust control, the corrosiveness, um the environmental issues, um the different questions that we were receiving out there. And so, um, again, no new research was done, but putting information together to help answer
those questions. So, on the corrosiveness, um, if you look at page nine in that document, there's a pie chart. Um that pie chart shows uh how much chloride is
used across the state of Minnesota because this again it's been looked at and researched a lot but across Minnesota uh the majority of the chlorides are from road salt in the wintertime. Uh 42% of the chlorides across the state are
are used in the wintertime. Dust control is a very small sliver. It's 1%. Um and so I mean just looking at those numbers uh there are 42 times more chlorides uh across the state in the
winter time than than there is what is we're using in the summertime. uh Bel Tramy County numbers ourselves just the county um we can do the math it is just the county itself is six times we put six times more chlorides down in the
winter time than the summertime and that's not taken into account I don't have the numbers from mind dot or townships what they're putting down but just county on county roads were putting down six times more chlorides in the winter time so there is a lot more chlorides being put down in the winter
time so one of the concerns concerns we hear is it's the calcium chloride that's rusting my cars. Well, it's not just I mean I'm not going to say it doesn't. It's uh definitely a fact that it does, but there are a lot more again chlorides being put down in the winter time. Um on
the health side, environmental side on page eight, um it kind of answers that question uh helps answer that question. Again, there are a lot of studies that have been done out there on the environmental concerns. Um, the one is,
uh, you know, in there, the department of egg, US Department of A went out there and looked along roadsides that had calcium chloride use and there was no concerns about, you know, off the roadside of the the level of the chloride that was there. Um, the big
thing is chlorides are safe to use if they're used properly. Um, you use the right amount. um this the right solution handled properly everything then it's not a concern. Um, in Bel Tramy County, we've actually gone um further with
trying to limit our use of chlorides. Um, instead of putting down a lot of counties, most counties will put down one application a summer. Um, a full rate they'll put down once a summer. Um, to help with our concerns is we split
that rate in half and put it down twice a summer. And so, we're not doing a heavy dose, we're doing two lighter doses. So we are trying to do some things to again to help alleviate these concerns and follow the you know best standard practices or even better than
the best practices. Um but there's still concerns uh there are individuals and townships you received a letter from a bunch of townships with the concerns about the corrosiveness um and and health concerns. So, what do
we do? Uh, for us, the again the dust control is cost-effective. It's proven. It helps us maintain our county roads, but there are individuals and townships, local stakeholders that have a concern with its use. Um, so the last document
that I gave you is some options to consider. Um, there are some options. One of the questions that we get, you know, from a township is what can we do? uh what are our options? Can we can we you know go to the county
board or can we what can we do to to get the use of chlorides to stop? So we haven't had anything in place before. Um but here are some options that the board can consider and there's the range of them from um do nothing continue as we
are all the way to turn the road over to the to the township. Um so addressing the concerns uh from using chloride that is kind of the level that you would start at is uh the township could take over the road. They don't like the
chloride use on that road. Uh it can become a township road and they can maintain it and do whatever they'd like with that road. So that's one option at the far end is the township takes full ownership of that road. Um the next level down would be the township could maintain the road. It would still be a
county road, but the township could maintain it. That would take uh pretty aggressive agreement with them to make sure that they're maintaining it and continue to maintain it to our standards. Um and what happens at the end, you know, if they stop putting
chloride on there, at some point it's going to have to have regra, you know, more gravel put on it. Can't have the township turn it back to us at that point. you know, it's going to have to have some type of uh um maintenance um in that agreement to make sure that that road is being maintained and and if they
stop, it's at a at the same condition that we gave it over. Another option would be uh the township could uh pay for the additional costs. So, we stop putting chloride on there, but there's
going to be additional cost to the county to to regravel, blade it more often. Um, and so we could have a cost per mile that the township would pay um that uh to have the no chloride use on
that road. Uh, the fourth option for a township would be they could pay the additional cost for a a different product. There are non chloride products out there. However, they're not as effective and they cost more. And so
there is a uh would be additional cost to use a non-chloride type of product. And so the township could pay that increase in cost. Uh if the chloride costs 5,000 and the product a different product costs 10, you know, they could
pay the 5,000 per per mile to use that alternative product. Um those would be costs to the township or the county could go to um increasing its own costs. Um we're going to start using some
alternative products and pay for it on the county dime. Um or we could say nope, we're going to stop using chlorides and we're going to have the increased cost. And again, that would be a increased cost to the highway department uh budget-wise for increased maintenance, increased gravel use,
increased equipment. Um lastly, last option as continue as we are. Um we are trying to do the best uh maintaining our roads using the dust control in the best manner on the roads that need it um to
help uh reduce our cost, be most efficient with it. And so I I guess there there's a wide variety of options there for you um for you to consider and discuss. open up for for discussion. No, Mr. Chair. Yep. Go ahead, Commissioner Summer.
Uh, Bruce, thank you for for putting this presentation together and and uh I I received uh some communications from the townships uh over the past couple of months and and I thought it was important that uh that we brought this
forward to, you know, discuss this and and see what our options are. Um, Mr. I think a couple of years ago in the past I was trying to think of how you know we can get uh information from townships and and
try to uh figure out a solution uh because I understand you know the importance of uh you know the dust control and and it's cost savings for the county and that's what you know we try to do is save the
money save the county money and a often times uh well for me uh one of the the issues that I I hear is is you know our roads uh maybe because a lot of a lot of the county roads are in my district. So, I
think it's important that we try to, you know, listen to both sides. Um, and and it's difficult for me because, you know, I I have townships that that, you know, love the the dust control, the calcium chloride, but I have also have
townships that that, you know, don't like it. So, you know, trying to find that that happy medium, you know, is difficult. And if I can make a suggestion, um, and I know we we've done it in the past is we went out to, you know, the
townships had a meeting, you know, at the township, you know, county board meeting, uh, and if townships had any questions or concerns, you know, they can, you know, address the board there because, uh, unless we we ask, you know, the town a township representative to,
you know, speak to us. I'm I'm not too sure. trying to figure out how we can find a a solution to um you know because I I wouldn't want to make any type of of action without hearing you know from
you know the township you know now that they have you know some options or you know we were presented with some proposals you know should we turn it over to the townships for full responsibility you know I don't know I agree with you commissioner Summer
that I now that we have have presented some options. For one, I wanted to give our townships options um and not just say take it or leave it. You have to have to just accept that we're going to calcium chloride. Give them some options and I'd like to I'd like to hear from
the townships. What what options are they, you know, are they all focused on on one that they feel is is reasonable or or are they all across the boards? And you know, do we as a as a county just say that any of these options are okay and we get and we direct Bruce to
to you know just work with any individual townships to do whichever option they choose or do we say that we're only going to allow option four which is if they want to do something different then in fairness to the other townships that they pay the difference you know um to what they want to do. I I
don't I don't know what that answer is, but I would be inclined to to say that it would be fine. Um, at first glance, I mean, my my initial thought would be what I just said was that if the townships want to do something different, then as long as they're okay with paying that incremental difference, if it's 500 bucks or 3,500 bucks or
whatever, um, then they, you know, they should be allowed to do that. Um, but maybe there are some of them that that uh um we come to a mutual agreement or Bruce uh agrees with the township board and they want to take over the entire road. You know, I I think it uh I'd be
okay with with any of the options um that are okay with our our highway engineer and the and the township. Anybody else have anything they would like to add? Um just that I think it's nice that we have some options here. So,
I don't see why we can't figure out at least a compromise, meet in the middle somewhere. I think maybe a temporary working group with Bruce, two commissioners, bunch of township officials. Um, have a couple meetings, figure out the pros and cons of each of
these options, bring it back to us. Um, I think we got to get all the key stakeholders together and meet a few times and go over these options. Bruce or Tom, do you have any suggestion on how we would would be have like a public hearing on it or something to to get
public input? We normally like in this type of an environment, we don't we don't have public input on a work session topic like this. So, I appreciate all those that are here. I see some familiar faces in the audience here that are interested in this topic and and I just want to, you know, bring
forth some. So, we're moving the this forward. Obviously this year it's kind of a moot point probably but uh for the you know so we get something accomplished for next year for sure. If I could jump in. Go ahead Bruce. Um I do think like you said Commissioner
Gossig that it's a menu you allow the townships to choose. If there was one I would say scratch off it would be number two. Um because that is going to be most complicated far as coming up with agreement to make sure that township is maintaining our road to our conditions when we're done. Um, so you know, I
might shy away from that one. But all of the other ones, I I think you do leave it as a menu of an option for those townships. And each township might have a different idea or different situation. You know, one road they might have interest in and and the rest of the
townships don't have any interest in, but there might be a road out there that a township might want to take over. But I do think again, there are different products out there and they're coming. They're new products all the time. And so one one year, you know, it might be
the maintain and future year it might be that they want to use a different product on there. So I I do think maybe allowing or keeping all the different options out there uh as an as an option for the townships. The the work on my part or the county's part is
coming up with that agreement. um putting something in place and having a here's some list of products and costs and you know I I did look up and reach out for a few but again there there are a lot of different things out there and but um so I think if the board is open
to the options then it's just it's more work on our part to kind of come forward um with some more details and and and you know uh something to hand over to the township to hey here's our here's our policy policy, here's the options.
Here's um here's what you know, it's up for you to take it from there, I guess, is my in my opinion. But, uh, Commissioner Carlson, uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. I just I just want to echo I think it'd be great to have options. I'm any rather than us
acting like the state and giving the counties all these mandates and all that crap that we have to put up with. I I like the idea of having the townships have options and then they can make that decision. Um and then we would have to have some costs show what the costs would be and and so they know the full
extent of everything. But um I I think that would be best. Yeah. Anybody opposed to to just letting Bruce work with the townships with the options that we're presented tonight except for option two.
Yeah. Commissioner Winger. Yeah, Mr. Chair. I just I just have one thing just to make sure this is going to be separate for each township. Correct. This is not going to be across the board. Okay. Right. Yeah. That's the way that's the way I would see this is. It's not a one-sizefits-all. If you know, Hornet
Township wants to do it this way and Taylor Township wants to do it a different way. Let them choose which way they want to do it. And and you know, some townships may elect us to leave it. Other townships may choose that they want to try a new product. depends on how how um how much they you know would
like to potentially spend on it. So if every everybody's in agreement then let's just give give Bruce the headnot to work with with options that with the exception of number two the options that you presented. Yeah I would bring some type of again
policy more policy document and uh that the county board can approve with the options and go as Tom had. Tom, you have something that you want to add? Well, I mean, I I think when you asked me the question earlier if you should have a public hearing and do all that stuff, that's only if you want to make
things uniform, right? Then, okay, if you're going to standardize something, then get everybody's input and make one single standard. But it doesn't sound like the board wants to go that way. And I think the option that you've chosen by allowing Bruce to negotiate directly with the townships is perfect. Uh, one of the things I would caution the board about is having too many options because
the more options we offer, the more expensive it gets for us and for the township for that matter, especially if we're passing on cost to the townships. For example, if you say we're not going to, you know, you can you can choose something else other than calcium chloride and they choose, you know, some other type of product like, you know,
one township chooses this product, another township chooses that product, another township chooses this product, another township chooses another product. We may have four different products with four different storage requirements, different um SDS's, different protocols, different time requirements. I mean, this could get out
of hand. So, I just caution you that there needs to probably be some parameters around how many options you would like to offer. I think that's going to be up to Bruce to, you know, to to rein that in and, you know, um, hopefully work with the townships to be
reasonable about how many different options we have and not trying everything under the sun necessarily, right? Okay. One thing I thought of, and this is more from the township side, you know, we're doing x amount of gallons of chloride, and the township says, "Well, we don't
want it on this road. We're going to pay for this different product." Um, you know, one of our we get requests for it, we want dust control on all these other different roads. You know, I I don't think we should just go put it on another road in that township. And so, we're, you know, we're still putting
down the same amount of chloride in that township. We'll take it up at Porttown in in Wish there. There are other roads and other places that need it, but I mean, again, from the town township standpoint, stop it on this road and you just go put it on another road, you know. So there's
also got to be some parameters to keep us the county kind of I don't want to say in check but you know so that we're well the equipment that we use too. If you've got calcium chloride in a vehicle that you're using for a certain roadway now you've got to drain that out or use
it all up go back put a different different um uh solution into a different vehicle. I mean there's those types of things to just consider too. So, it's not quite as easy as, hey, pick whatever you want and let's just get to it. We don't have the storage and we don't have the spreading equipment. It
could be a situation where if they want some odd new thing to try that they we might have to have them contract that out to some some other company to to do that and coordinate with Bruce as far as the application time frame to make sure the road is prepped. But uh I think that
we're in we're in agreement that we'll let let Bruce uh get something fleshed out here and talk to the townships and and the townships that are here tonight um are hearing this. So, they should be able to to get together with Bruce on um give them their input on what they think of it and go from there.
Thank you. Thanks, Bruce. We'll move on. Let's see. We got Woodland Property Peace Resolution. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, commissioners. I mean before you have an application and a request as well as a
resolution uh to facilitate a financing mechanism that the county board has agreed by joint powers agreement uh back in 2016 to facilitate on behalf of the Minnesota PACE program. So u this is only the third application or request that we've received since the year 2016
when the county decided to participate in the program. So, I thought maybe a refresher on the program and its benefits and what it does uh might be in order. So, um the Minnesota PACE program essentially is a is a a benefit to commercial property owners that voluntarily participate in the program
uh in order to make their business more energy efficient. Essentially, uh the program does allow for 100% financing of um those energy efficiency improvements um including both hard costs and soft costs. uh and the costs themselves are
rolled in to the property tax assessment as a special assessment. So essentially there's really no cost to the county here uh for the program other than the administrative cost that comes with you know facilitating uh the the placement of the special collection and the
collection or the special assessment rather and the collection of that assessment and remittance to um the St. Paul Port Authority. What's really kind of weird here is that the St. Paul Port Authority has been the agency statewide that is uh essentially managing or
administering this and um sort of you wonder why is it that organization is doing this work? I'm I'm not really sure I know the answer to that other than to say they are state designated u facilitator of the program on behalf of the state. So essentially the uh St.
Paul Port Authority collects these applications on behalf of the counties and the cities. uh they review the applications, they they work up the uh scenarios uh and the financing mechanisms with the property owners, they get everything in order, they package it up, and then they send it to
the jurisdiction that that particular property owner uh resides in or their business is is located in. Uh in this particular case, we have an application from Woodland Property LLP. Um and uh like I say, this is only the
third one in since 2016, almost 10 years that we've received. Um the information in regards to the details of the application uh and the financing are included in your packet. I won't go through all those details other than to say that uh the assessment amount is about close to $62,000.
The assessment start date is contemplated on June 1st, 2026. Uh it's amaturized over a 20-year time period and the interest rate that's been negotiated is 5.5%. Um essentially the county doesn't get anything for doing this other than you know energy efficiency improvements that
promote businesses uh um you know utilization of energy efficiency and that sort of stuff. Um the program benefits to the c to the commercial property owners. you know, they're investing in these projects essentially upfront at zero cost and uh they're paying over time uh for those
improvements as a special assessment onto their tax role. Um typically uh the St. Paul Port Authority and the program will suggest that um the utility savings that come by making the improvements uh eventually outweigh the cost of the
improvements themselves. So there's a perceived benefit there, potentially a real benefit to some commercial property um owners as well. Uh so essentially all the county has to do is is um make the presentation, present the package in a
resolution format, which is what you have in your packet. Uh and then if the county board authorizes it through resolution, which is on the consent agenda for this afternoon, uh then essentially all we do is we direct the county auditor treasurer to place the special assessment onto the property. We
send them the information right back to St. Paul Port Authority and they go ahead and process everything and then the special assessment gets tacked on and eventually we just collect and then we remit on behalf of the Port Authority. uh as I say, you know, other than the the small amount of administrative, uh activity that we have
associated with, you know, there's really not a burden to the county. Um and there's a benefit certainly to property owners. So, uh that's a little bit about the program and just a very little bit about um the application. Didn't go into any details um about the
application itself. It is a voluntary program. So, you know, this is something that the applicant has brought to um the state of Minnesota and the PACE program. So, it's it's nothing that we're going after and we're not soliciting uh these
types of projects. We're not soliciting property owners. We're not just, you know, voluntarily um placing special assessments on people's properties. This is a program that the property owner initiates. And so uh so this is and and there is an application that has their signature on it that's been notorized
that attests that they do want the special assessment for the reasons that we've just talked about. So uh that's in your packet for consideration uh resolution form on the consent agenda but I'll stand for any questions you might have. Yeah Tom that since this is in the city limits of Biji how how does the city play into it or
don't they somehow play into it even though it's in the city limits? Yeah, my guess is that the city does not have a joint powers agreement with the state to for this particular program. And so because the county does, they just, you know, having the county remmit it. Okay. Um, so I I don't know that for sure, but
I believe that's probably what's happened because it is in the city limits. If they did have a joint powers agreement, it would make more sense for them to do it because they assess properties as well, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I it uh So we aren't are we or are we not fronting the money for this project? We do not
actually the port authority fronts the money. They have three different sources that they use. Um there's the trillium BTU loan program. The local credit unions sometimes will also sponsor this or they have a national funding sources, a variety of national funding sources. And so the St. Paul authorities actually
grabbing the money. They're financing it and then they're paying themselves back through the special collection. We're just sort of helping admin. We're just the facilitators of it. That's it. There's no cost to us. Okay. Yeah. other than a little administrative cost that we're eating, but uh all in all, not uh not much.
Correct. Okay. Anybody else have any other questions on this? No. All right. You want to hop into your administrator's report? Thank you. I have to give that to you from over here because it's on my computer. I apologize. I didn't print it out today. Um
okay. So, just a brief update for you. It's been kind of a busy week so far. It's only Tuesday, but um as you know, our human resources director has given her notice. Uh so it's sad that we're, you know, going to she's going to leave the organization, but she's given us 30 days, which is great. Um we did open the
position last uh week, and so it's only been open for just a few days. We've already received nine applications, which is great. Uh I haven't gone through those applications so I can't tell you you know what the caliber of the the candidates are at this point in time but we are leaving the position open for three actually it's going to
stay open until filled but um we will uh do a first review in essentially 3 weeks from last week so another two and a half weeks or so. Um so uh in addition we're working on a transition plan uh with some internal staff that will allow us
to essentially bridge the time period where um our HR director, you know, will vacate the position and the time until our new HR director, you know, takes the position. So we're working on that transition plan right now. Um and so
more to come on that, I guess, in in the future here as uh we move through the remainder of the month. Uh just update on the jail project. Uh there's, you know, obviously two components to this, the new jail and the old jail. The new jail is um proceeding very nicely. Pre-cast walls are all installed on area
A, which is a southwest uh corner. Uh and also, uh the pre-cast uh contractors also set the panels in the gym area. So now you can see sort of the differences in elevation and such too. Uh and then detailing and grouting is also taking place currently. And now they've moved
the crane and they're moving um to work uh set setting panels in area B uh which is northwest section there. Uh the steel folks are going to be on site as well. So they're going to be uh erecting steel on site and setting skylight steels and and other sorts of uh uh steel supports.
The plumbers are starting shallow plumbing in the west bay of area A, the southwest corner. Everything at this point in time is on schedule and on budget. love to say that every time I give an update, especially on a capital construction project of this size and complexity. Um, I'm hopeful that we can
say that every single time we give you the update. Um any event uh some exciting news will be also presented uh with a full update on August 19th. So our next board meeting because that's where we'll share um the uh finalized
designs and cost estimates for the three scenarios that we've studied for what to do with the old jail, right? And uh just a reminder, you know, there's a full rehab option, a partial rehab with a partial tearown option, and then certainly a full tear down option. Each of those options does require some
adjustment to the Sally port as we've talked about in the past. Um anyway, all of those options uh will be provided along with cost uh high level cost estimates. Um we're not anticipating that the board needs to make a decision uh at that evening. It's just
information we're going to give to you and then uh we'll probably even ask that you take a month or so to to talk with constituents, look at the information. You may even want to collect some public comments from the community members. uh or others uh to help you deliberate on,
you know, which option you'd like to choose. But at some point uh before the end of this year and hopefully uh in the not too distant future, uh we will ask for some direction in regards to a formalized decision so that we can then begin to work on the architectural uh
design for whatever option is that you we you choose. Um budget committee started its work today. We had a a good meeting. We met I don't know how many folks we had come through the the conference room today. Probably
dozen or so or 14 something like that. Um a lot of good dialogue, a lot of good information and exceptional work so far by the by the department heads in my opinion. Um the budget committee will continue his work tomorrow and then uh for three more days potentially uh the
following week. Uh we're hopeful that we may not need those three days, but uh we'll just have to see sort of how things go and and what what level of effort we still have ahead of us in regard to kind of getting a a good recommendation uh for the for the county
board. So, um as I mentioned before, the the starting preliminary levy is is close to 13.5% right now. Um, and that's after quite a bit of work to get it down from what was initially around a 16% uh
levy. So, as I mentioned to the budget committee today, you know, we have enjoyed uh days where or years I should say where we've had a preliminary levy uh that the staff, you know, when they put their budgets together, we had this really high number that was, you know,
17, 18, 19%. And then administratively behind the scenes we work that down to like 11 or 12%. Then we go into the budget committee and then it gets whittleled down to you know 8 6 5% whatever it is. Um those big swings are
not really uh easy to achieve any longer because we have been in a cost cutting mode for years and um you know it's it's it's getting more there's really no more lowhanging fruit if you will. Um, there are things we can do to reduce the budget, but they're going to have
service level, they're going to have staff impacts, they're going to have program impacts, they're going to have state mandate impacts. I mean, that's where it gets difficult. And I think that's where the work of the budget committee probably this year and into the several next future years is going
is going to be really tough. Um, but we are confident that we can uh get to uh you know, a budget that everybody hates. Um, no, I'm kidding. But I think we can get to a budget that um will meet at least the preliminary target that the
board has set for us. Um so we we'll we'll have to just do the best we can to get there. Uh we have a couple weeks to do that. Uh we'll present the preliminary budget and preliminary levy to the county board uh at the September 3rd meeting. Uh then you'll have a couple weeks to sort of mle that over
and then um and then hopefully the second meeting in September uh you'll make a decision on that or make any adjustments and then a that decision. Uh just want to give you a reminder that uh the Belchammy County Health and Human Services offices are going to have limited service on Wednesday. Will not
be closed, but they'll have limited service on Wednesday, August 6th, starting at about 1:00 p.m. for an employee inservice event. Uh the uh second floor lobby is going to remain open for regular hours. Uh the public health lobby will be closed at 1:00 p.m. and then reopened the following day at 8
a.m. So um other than public health, there should be limited access um during that day. So I just want to give you that, but I'll stand for any questions you might have. I I have one question, Tom. Does the three options, do any of them include child care? Oh, you know, we've actually talked about
that. uh you know what we might be able to do uh you know some joke that it's probably not great to put a bunch of youngsters in an ex prison you know off to a great start kind of thing no the real problem comes with the licensed providers right yeah so yeah
I was saying it somewhat faciciously but uh anyhow anybody have anything for your time otherwise we'll adjourn good we'll adjourn until 5 o'clock Part: 2
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right.
I have uh no general comments, I guess, other than the fact that uh seeing on social media anyways that they're saying we had 9 million trees down. That uh doesn't seem possible, but that uh that's the official numbers I think from somewhere. Um
quite the devastation in our area. Citizens addressing the board. Anyone wishing to address the county board on an item not on the agenda may come forward at this time to be recognized by the board chair. Please state your name and address for the record. Comments are limited to 5 minutes. A personnel
complaint against an individual county employee may not be heard initially at a board meeting. Personnel complaints may be submitted to the board in writing through the county administrator's office. A person addressing the board may not use profanity or vulgar language. Is there anybody wishing to address the board tonight?
No, not seeing any. We'll move on to the next item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. There any we didn't ask in the previous meeting if there was anything that needed to be pulled from the consent agenda. Otherwise, I'll look for a motion to approve the agenda as
presented. I move to approve the agenda as presented. Motion by Commissioner Winger to approve the agenda as presented. Do I hear a second? I'll second. Second by Commissioner Carlson. Any further discussion on approving the agenda?
Hearing none. All in favor of approving the agenda say I. I. Any opposed? Motion approved. Five to zero. Approval of the consent agenda. Motion by Commissioner Sumar to approve the consent agenda. Do I hear a second? Second.
Second by Commissioner Gould. Any further discussion on the consent agenda? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Consent agenda is approved. Five to nothing. Now we are to a public hearing for
judicial ditch two. And get my know if I get my my uh stuff out for public hearing. We'll look for a a motion to open a public hearing for judicial ditch number
two. So moved. Motion by Commissioner Sum. Do I hear a second? I'll second Carl or Carlson. Sorry. Thank you, Commissioner Sher. All in favor say I.
I. Any opposed? All right, we are in our public hearing and uh we've got Bruce to give us a lowdown on it, I guess, or Yeah, I'll give a I think there are some people here that are interested, so I'll kind of give a a summary first. Yep. Before you
and then we'll take public comment after that. Yep. Yeah. So, Juic Ditch 2, um JD2 is a legal ditch system. Uh there are separate statutes out there for the ditches. Um the county is involvement is
you're the ditch authority. The county board is the ditch authority. Um otherwise uh that judicial ditch is a private system. Um there are no county tax dollars that go into the ditch. It is all the maintenance uh of inspection of it. Everything would be handled
through ditch assessments that the owners or the beneficiaries of that ditch um have. Yes. Diane, if you could pull up the map just so we know what we're talking about. Um, JD2 was built back in 1910, so it's been around a
while. Um, it is what we call uh an active system. If you could zoom out a little bit, Dan, but um the ditch is located uh it is all
within the city of Biji. Uh it starts up by the city park, the softball fields, uh goes southerntherly, across our number six, uh kind of southeast and it crosses Division Street and then empties into Lake Urban. Um there are some other
branches or legs to it um along six along Division Street. Um but it is pretty much to drain that it was put in there to drain that area back in 1910. Um it is if you can see there is a line blue line that kind of goes down through
the through the middle there. Yes. Thanks Diane. Now the areas highlighted in red or pink those are the areas that are that would that were determined to benefit from that ditch again back in 1910. Uh and so those properties uh in pink are the ones
that would be paying for that ditch system. All of the cost for that ditch system. Um, again, the county's involvement is the drainage authority. You set the assessments, we inspect those ditches, we maintain those
ditches. Um, we're actually, you know, that's our responsibility is to do that with this system here. Um, no work has been done on it. No assessments have been collected on it for again ever long time. Um and so it is sitting out there as an inactive system and we've been
trying to address these inactive systems. Um there are options. Um one start collecting assessments, do the inspections, maintain them. Uh or you can abandon them. We know the county board has done that a few times. You can even partially abandon. You can get rid
of segments of it and keep a small portion of it and then you're assessing for the the maintenance of that small remainder. Um but this ditch here had a another option that uh is not normally uh seen with the other ditch systems we have across the county. Uh this one
being all within the city of Biji. Um we have the ability to transfer jurisdiction to the city. Um we had the county board held a joint meeting with the city of Biji uh reviewed this topic. uh the city took it under consideration
and they have passed a resolution um asking to take over JD2. Um so that's this public hearing is then in response to that request from the city of Biji to take over jurisdiction of JD2. Uh what that would entail if that transfer
happens is it would no longer be a judicial ditch underneath that statute. it would become a city uh ditch that they would maintain as they see fit, but they have their um storm water management tax, storm water management
program. Um so they have some funds for drainage that uh they would be able to utilize to to do whatever maintenance they would want on here. And so it would no longer just be the areas in pink paying for the maintenance of that ditch. the city as a whole um would use
their storm water management or whatever dollars they'd want to maintain that ditch. Um if we were to transfer it, there's some requirements on us. I mean, we got to transfer the rightway to properly do that. And uh so none of that is, I guess, being recommended or being
done tonight. This is just the public hearing to um take comments or questions from the public and then uh then decide from there. So, okay. Thank you, Bruce. So, now at this time, we'll open up for public comment. If
there's anybody here that would like to comment on this, please step forward to the microphone, state your name and address, and you have a few minutes to state public comment. Come go ahead, sir, if you want to come up. Thank you. I'm Wesley Halverson. I'm
here on behalf of my mother who owns property in the area and I wasn't quite able to hear um what all the agenda or purpose was in the transfer of judicial ditch 2.
We're curious to know about who is actually paying for that area. Is it the people living in the pink area if this is accomplished? and that that the way that it would be if we
retained if the county retained it as a judicial ditch, then those people would be the ones that would be assessed. Um that's what Bruce just mentioned. Um if it gets reverted to the t to the city, which which is what they've requested, then the city would collect their taxes
from everybody, not just the people in or not just the properties in pink. So it would be to your benefit I would think to have this go through. Yes. Thank you. And the other question I have is there an estimate on uh what the percent of
taxes would be needed. I I don't believe that you know any no work has been done on this ditch for as long as we are aware of and we don't know what the city that would be up to the city as to what work they would or wouldn't do and how much that would cost. That would be something you'd have
to ask the city um once this goes through. In in my opinion, living in that area and being from Baiji, um I've never experienced a problem with drainage in that area. Mhm.
So that is my comment that I'd make. Uh it seems like it's a pretty well functioning drainage field as it is. So thank you. Thank you, Wesley. Commissioner Carlson. Thank you, Mr. chair. So, um I think the
city has done it does a really good job of managing their storm water. Mhm. And of course, they have storm water funds. I don't know that there's necessarily any need for increase in taxes. Uh with regard to that, it would just be part of
their storm water uh system. And obviously if it's already working, maybe they just need to they might want to tweak it here or there, maybe mow a little, whatever they but but uh I definitely think it would be to the advantage of the citizens in the city limits for that.
I would agree. Commissioner Winger, I just have one one comment. I don't know, Bruce, if you have the answer to this, but I know that in living on that on division, I've seen several times people out there dealing with beaver
problems that have damned that up and things like that. Is that the city that's been doing that or is the county the one that's been maintaining that drainage from from the north to the south on on division? So, with no ditch funds, we would be just using road funds. So, if the
water's backing up against the road, I mean, it's a road issue. And so we've been taking care of it and so it's been that's how we've been addressing those. But those have been uh county. Okay. Thank you. Any other public that would like to come
forward and comment on this? I'll ask a second time. Any other public comments? Seeing none, I'll ask a third time for public comment. Not seeing any. Then we'll close the
public comment portion of this and um look for a motion to to well actually we'll see if there's any other questions from the board first. Any any questions? Oh, Bruce, did you have something else you to contribute?
No. Okay. Any other questions of Bruce or anything for the board before we close the public comment portion? Okay. Okay, I'll look for a motion to close the public comment of the public hearing. Motion by Commissioner Carlson to close the public hearing. Do I hear a second?
Second by Commissioner Sumar. All in favor of closing the public hearing say I. I. Any opposed? Public hearing is closed. And um look for um debate on the the issue. Any anything anybody
opposed to doing this? Not not seeing anything there. Um then we have believe we have a resolution in in our pack. Oh, no we don't. Okay. We we don't have a resolution. So you're just just a public hearing tonight. We're not looking to vote on anything at
this point. Okay. Correct. The so the intent from the board or I guess direction from the board that I would be looking for is yes. Is there any objections to the transfer? Um really what you're answering is is it is the ditch better
to be u managed by the city than as a judicial ditch. Yes, that's the that's the question that's supposed to be answered with the public hearing. And so with the consensus of the board, I guess I will take that back and then come up with the the documents to transfer it
over to the to the city of Biji. Um it's going to take some work because uh we have to transfer the rightway just like a road Yeah. uh issue. We got the, you know, the we got the easement for that ditch there. Um and so we need to make sure we're transferring the rightway so that
they have the ability to maintain that ditch. So there's some paperwork that will take some time. The ditch isn't going anywhere and and again is kind of functioning fine as is. We just want to get it off our off our hands and we'll work towards that and bring that back to the board later for consideration.
Great. Thank you, Bruce. Back agenda item. Yeah, I would think so at some point. Um, great. Thanks, Bruce. The only question I would have I mean, it's a
Yep. Never mind. I answer it myself. All right. So, that moves us on with to item number nine, which is a notice of feed lot permit application to MPCA. And looks like Brent is coming up to talk to us about the feed lot.
I have an interesting agenda item for you tonight. Uh I say interesting because it's not a routine normal agenda item typically for this county board. Yeah. Um this is an agenda item that doesn't need any discussion. It doesn't need any approval or denial or any opinion of any
sorts from the county board. I just want to make it clear. Um it so it's it's a there's a land owner in Belrammy County who has an application submitted to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for a new feed lot in Belrammy County. Part of the applicant's requirements of from the
MPCA is that they have to notify the county board of their application. And I I believe the MPCA's uh background or information on that is by notifying the county board of the um application, they're also notifying some residents and some people who might otherwise be
interested to know that there's a feed lot being proposed in their neighborhood. So um with that being said, I'm going to just read to you the notice of application. This is what the MPCA uh staff gave me as a template to use that would satisfy the requirements for their
notice. So it just says notice of application for a livestock feed lot permit. Notice is hereby given per Minnesota statutes chapter 116 that weman number one has made application to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for a permit to construct a feed lot with a capacity of 500 animal units or
more. The proposed feed lot is located in Nebish Township at 3129 Lumberjack Road Northwest in section 30 township 150 range 33 in Belrammy County. The proposed facility consists of 2400 head of finishing pigs, which is equivalent
of 720 animal units in a tunnel barn with concrete pit manure storage under the slatted floor in the barn. So that's the information that we have at this time. Uh it's up in Commissioner Carlson's district, the northern reaches of his district, uh directly across the
road from Commissioner Sumar's district. Yeah. So, if anybody has any questions or wants more information, um I know the the applicant is here tonight in the room and I have a little bit of information, but not much. So, that's all we need at this point if if that's all you care for.
Anybody have any comments or anything? They have questions for Brent. Yeah. Yeah, it's a first for me, too. So, great. Well, thanks, Brent. Thanks, Kevin. Yep. All right, that uh takes care of that. We'll move on to legislative lobbying
and combine that with commissioner reports. Commissioner Sumar, do you have any Mr. Chair? So, um I guess I just want to apologize to the board and and uh the radio station. I missed the uh the chat about segment
that I was supposed to to interview for last uh last meeting. I I was on my way up to the uh Otown for the Pilt Con meeting and and if you you know that you
don't have really good uh cell reception up there. So I I apologize for that. Uh but the meeting went uh good. I want to thank you guys for approving the consent agenda uh which was uh part of the PILT fund
appropriations tonight. So that was in Porttown and uh Kellier, a lot of great applicants. Um the committees appreciate, you know, the ability to to voice uh their their opinions and thoughts and and uh make uh these
decisions uh for improvements in the in their community. So um other than that, it was pretty quiet couple of weeks. I I went to the Northwest meeting. It was an interesting
meeting. I didn't really realize the the storm impact that uh happened, you know, in that area as well. And and uh by the sounds of uh report from Mindy, you know, the staff really rallied uh behind each other to,
you know, clean up, you know, some of their efforts. Uh, I don't know if Mindy was aware or if uh Chris Muller was aware. Um, I believe they're part of our our our system of of insurance where we
were able to utilize their their uh expenses and and our cost. I haven't heard back from either one of them to to see what the update was that uh to see if that helped with the the state or the
federal uh uh requirements. Um so and uh last I guess I just want to uh ask Tom can or Diane to register me for the uh AMC file policy um conference
in September. got a a text message from Julie saying that uh I'm not registered and all the rooms are full, but if I register, they can reserve me a room. So, all right. Thank you. That's my report.
Thank you, Commissioner Summer. Commissioner Winger, um I don't have a whole lot. I got uh did go to the ODC ribbon cutting ceremony. Uh we did find that and get over there. It was nice to see them dedicate that to
Arla Fricki. That was really nice. Um, we had the Prime Health Board meeting. Um, that had to be extended. We ran out of time to reach an agreement on what kind of uh
um budget they're setting. Uh so what kind of premiums are going to happen this next time around? So we needed to extend that. So we're going to meet again on the 13th um to finalize where that's going to
come in. Um I I can't say where it's at at this point, but I can say that seeing the other ones in the state like Medicica, I think they're at 26% they went up. Uh Blue Cross is looking at 166.
Um, so, um, the other ones are all going up substantially. Um, you know, it looks like we're going to be under those pretty well, so that's a good thing. Um, but we do have another meeting coming up and so we'll know more
then. Uh, did have a county extension meeting. Um, Kim Tangum is leaving. Um, so she'll be missed over there. She was a big asset. Um they have uh had another couple good
programs that were on uh talking about some of the things that uh ways of uh managing your forests. So might be helpful for some of the people looking to try to replant what they had
after the storm. That's about all I got. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Winger. Commissioner Gold. Um, Commissioner Sumar mentioned Northwest Juvenile Center meeting that we had on the 17th and uh, they should
qualify for that 75% reimbursement from the state for any storm damage they had as a public entity in the county. So, um, I know Chris is working with Mindy on that. Um, had KLS board meeting and joint powers board meeting on natural
resources on the 28th. Um, congratulations to all the Dragon Boat winners. Another good event this year down at the lakefront. Um, just wanted to put a plug in for the Boys and Girls Club event tonight uh for National Night Out. Everybody's invited.
Good time to uh support our law enforcement and and uh be with community and looking forward to the fair. So, thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Ghoul. Commissioner S or Carlson. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. uh had Bumiji Regional Airport Authority meeting. Um
this time we got to tour the FBO which is the fixedbased operator which is run by Bumiji Aviation. They uh we had authorized about a $40,000 renovation. 30 30 actually. Okay. Anyway, um so they were it's a
nice renovation. It's a it's a nice upgrade for uh private pilots coming in. uh make it more appealing and for making it so that our airport's more appealing for pilots to want to come to Bumiji, buy their gas from us, etc. Um had a
greater Bumiji meeting. Um again, we talked about uh what's the the fundraising for the YMCA kind of got put on hold a little bit because of the storm damage. uh with the storm coming
through on June 21st, they were going to kick off the fundraising um for the Y for the Y starting July 1st. Um they're going to hold off till at least September 1st, I believe, at this point. Kind of let some things settle down out
of the storm. Um the uh we had jail design and operations committee meeting, our normal meeting on Tuesday. We also had a special meeting. We followed up that Friday to get uh the following Friday to get some more information from Carl Sanderson and from Klein McCarthy
um on those three main options of whether we keep the old jail and rehabilitate it uh tear part of it down um or or tear it all down and and build a new sally port. So, we're still waiting for uh some additional estimates and some we had some new information
came forward. It's always kind of interesting on these projects the it you know you don't want to wait too long but but you don't want to be too hasty either because all of a sudden somebody will come up with an idea that's like ah that's a good idea. So, so you you find out some things and so
we're going through that process and I think like Tom had alluded to um once we come up with the the three options uh at the next meeting here. Um keep in mind that they're that they're just options and um it'll be one of those things
where I think you really I like to use the word marinate, you know, so you can absorb the information, let it marinate it, and like Tom said, maybe talk to some constituents, some stakeholders. um about some of the different things so that we have some time and that we don't
make any kind of a hasty decision on what to do with that. Uh from what I can tell uh from what I can see unless Tom has some other he wants to put into that it appears that that any the opt the the different three different options any one of those would probably come in
under the budget of of what we've put aside for that. So, that's good. Again, uh on on budget, hopefully timing wise, I guess we're we're still in good shape. As long as we as a board come to a decision um by probably by the first of
the year I would say as long as we have a firm decision by the board um where we can uh let um whether it's climb McCarthy if there be the Tom do we have to go out for a new RF Q or RFP for for
the for whatever we end up with deciding on the old jail I don't believe you do because the uh initial project included under the sales tax initiative included both So, so it would be and Clay McCarthy is doing a really good job helping us through those decisions. So, um anyway, um we had
newsletter committee meeting uh that deadline is coming up uh in about a week, right, Diane? And that'll come out in September quarterly. Um I I attended with Commissioner Winger the ODC day support services grand
opening. That was nice. Um, I had yesterday I had the magic board meeting in St. Cloud and uh we started the budget process today and tomorrow and I have Prime West coming up on Thursday. I have Wednesday at the fair.
I Is anyone else coming? I'm doing a tasting do judging the meat. Are you doing it too? Is that a turkey? Well, it's that's turkey on Wednesday. That's what I got. Yeah, it said something about the meat. The great meat. Well, it was the great
meat the great meat cookoff. Yeah. So, we're So, I guess there's Yeah. So, we're judging that tomorrow. And then on um Sunday, um the farm family of the year is from my district. And so, I'll
be out presenting that award to that family on Sunday at noon. So, a competition. Yeah. So that's it for me. Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. You already mentioned the airport authority
meeting. Um Black Duck ambulance meeting. I I went to both of those uh um for Commissioner Sumar. We've had a flooding issue unfortunately at the the Black Duck Ambulance Building. And so I went up there again this last Monday and
um uh we've got an engineer looking at it and and um Julesson Flaming is going to redo the great system and the make a bigger pipe going out from right in front of the garage. But the the the biggest issue is that all the all the
city water comes rushing down and there's only one basically access or to the whoop to the sewer system. And so it um it's something that's been a problem in the past. this time was the worst that it's been and uh of course it didn't you know didn't have flood insurance so it's not covered by
insurance so we're working with HRDC possibly Northwest Minnesota Foundation looking for any assistance that we can get to you know get it back to usable space bill for rep but yeah possibly if we can get I
ideally we would get a new facility that is it's yeah So that's uh anyway. So that's so we're working on that challenge. Um HRDC we had our annual meeting over at team Industries in Bagley. That was uh pretty
pretty interesting. I took a tour of that. I didn't realize how big of a facility that is and and a huge impact to our our area. Um they have 30 I think it was 380 or so employees right in Bagley. Six buildings. I thought it was
just the one building and six big buildings and and they've got you know operations all all over. It's pretty pretty big uh like total of 1,200 or something like that employees. So really uh a lot bigger than I realized and the
work that they do is just phenomenal. The place is super organized, super clean. It's pretty impressive. Um so that was that was pretty fun. and the uh fair board meeting. Um and we've got uh looking forward to the you know the Wednesday night tomorrow night, Belrammy
Electric night at the fair and and so those that are Belrammy Electric members, if you get there in time and and register, you can have a chance of winning a door prize, a nice Milwaukee set that was donated. Um, otherwise you can you get bring your family. Um, they
have vouchers for for for the whole family for food at any of the vendors at the fair for food, $10 vouchers and and so that's pretty pretty neat. It's a win-winwin for the fair and for Belrammy Electric and for for the residents and members of Belrammy Electric to to do
that. So, um, plus a really great local band, the Bellow band will be playing there and that's free as well. So, it's a really nice nice night out at the at the fairgrounds for tomorrow night. Um hopefully the weather cooperates. It looks like it's going to going to be better this year than it was last year. Last year was kind of cold and drizzly
and windy, but we still had higher attendance even with the bad weather last year. Every year has been ratcheting up in attendance. So, it's been really well received. Um and the fair, the donations and the and sponsorships and everything been coming in really good. So, we're looking looking forward to hopefully having a
really good fair again this year. union negotiations. Uh Tom and Ann and I have been working on that and met with several of the bargaining units so far and um just uh trying to make some progress there. um Cast Lake Real Fire
Association. We had a quarterly meeting and u um just you know trying to continue to raise funds and and get ideas for the you know for the new fire hall there and um and just uh you know making making progress on um getting
more and more Robert is doing just awesome job as the fire chief there getting the um you know plans set and all the budgeting so that we have a lot better idea on when we need to replace which which trucks and and u you know making sure that we're setting aside
enough money to to be able to continue the operation as well as you know setting aside money for the for the new hall. So that's so I had a busy couple weeks, but uh that's been good. Anybody else have anything else they need to add for the good of the order? Otherwise, we'll look
for a motion to adjurnn so we can get to the na national night out. Motion to adjurnn from somebody. So move. Motion from Commissioner G. Do I hear a second? Second by Commissioner Winger. All in favor of adjourning say I. I. And we are journed. Thank you.