--------- start the uh work session for Bel County. And the first thing on the agenda is actually a close session for property negotiations. Um at this time, I'll accept a motion to go into close session
pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D.05 subdivision 3 to discuss the purchase or sale of real or personal property. I hear a motion to go into close session. So move. Motion by Commissioner Carlson. Aar second.
Second by Commissioner Sumar. All in favor say I. I. We will go into close session next Sure. I'll accept a motion to end the closed session and return to the open meeting. So moved. Motion by Commissioner
Carlson. Second by Commissioner Sumar. All in favor say I. I. We. We. We. We. We. We. We. We. We. We. We are back in the open session work meeting. Introduction of new employees. Do we have any new employees tonight? Jody has a new employee or Jod's
department. Good afternoon, commissioners. I am Leah Opus with the real estate and tax department and I'd like to introduce Aubrey Meyer. She is a new employee in our department and she we're very excited to have her. She has some real estate knowledge and she's a great fit.
Welcome aboard, Aubrey. Thank you. It's great to be here. Thank you. Um can you tell us a little bit about your background? Yeah, sure. So, I'm actually not originally from Bumiji. Um, I grew up near PUM. Uh, went to grade school there, got a two-year marketing and
business degree from Detroit Lakes, Mate. Um, I hopped right into real estate. Um, after that, I um worked for Jack Chivers Realy out of Detroit Lakes for almost seven years. Um, and then I relocated to Baiji. started off at First
National as a loan processor and then recently moved over here. So, yeah, I'm excited. Thank you. Thank you. Any other new employees? No. All right, we'll move on
to the identify future work meeting topics. Anybody have any future work meeting topics they'd like to bring up, Mr. Chair? Yes. Um, I don't recall ever seeing a representative from Prime Health or
Prime West. I was wondering if uh they could come in um a representative from each entity and just kind of uh explain their organization a little bit. Uh I'm still um not 100% on uh both organizations. uh
you know who who they are, what they do, what what services they provide, their relationship to the county, etc. And I I've talked to a few people that um you know, mix up Prime Health and Prime West on a regular basis. Uh so um I think
just kind of educational piece from those two folks would be great. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Gold. Anybody else? All right, we'll move on to the Mississippi Headarters Board update. Got Tim here and we're running a little
behind Tim. So appreciate if you can can cognizant of that. It took a little while. You bet. I only made it. This I'm Tim Terrell, executive director of the Mississippi Headquarters Board. Um I only got 11 slides. Um but as I was going through the counties in eight counties, I noticed there's at least one
or two commissioners I haven't met before. So this is pretty good timing. And I want to officially invite all of you. You probably got the email out few days ago to the biionial conference on u October 31st this year in Breezy Point,
Minnesota, but uh definitely I'll be hitting you back and I give a short review of that. So, you know, basically who is the MHB, the Mississippi Headarters Board? We're quite unique. We're a regulatory agency, but we have we do voluntary actions and get grants
to do water quality, recreational stuff. Um, the counties perceive us as regulatory, but they appreciate our non-regulatory grants we receive as well to help them. And I've got some examples that we've done in Baiji. And then, but the average citizen, they always think we're a nonprofit. It just, you know,
Mississippi headarters, you guys got, you must be a nonprofit. Well, some of the regulatory powers were actually governmental and we possess planning and zoning authority on the first 400 miles of the Mississippi River that goes through eight counties. And everybody
asked me what is that? Okay, so it starts at Itasca State Park and follows the river through eight counties all the way to Royalton, Minnesota. If you know where Treasure City is on 371, that's kind of where it is. It's really the bottom of Morrison County, but it goes through all those counties and then uh
we have a comprehensive plan so your environmental service director can follow that. And we're formed from eight county commissioners from eight different counties. What's unique is we're in your zoning ordinance, but we're also in your one watershed, one plan. So, we're working very closely
with you on some of that stuff, but there's nothing like the Mississippi Headarters Board in the entire United States to have planning and zoning authority. It's pretty unique to to have that. So, next is um we're just going to go
over some of our programs really quick here. Minnesota Traditions, this is our social media program. We have around 55,000 followers. I mean, we started with aquatic invasive species and it just ballooned. And what's good? I asked
my marketer. I said, "Well, what's good?" And he goes, "If you can get over 10,000 followers on a page, you're doing really well because there's millions of pages out there in social media." So, it just took off really good. And we experienced a 60% increase in
engagement. So, there's just some numbers. we do, you know, how many impressions we sent out, how many people we reached, and we actually created a YouTube page. So, for six years, we've been creating content or 30 second videos. We put it all on YouTube and we
let everybody know it's there for free. So, you're able and what's really cool, you can go to the search and you can type in zebra muscles and every single video that we have on zebra pops up. So, we made it really handy for your AIS coordinator for that way. Okay. And
these are professional uh ones as well. Our easement and acquisition program. Just real quick, an easement is where the land owner retains ownership of the land but sells their development rights. A land acquisition is when you're selling it. And it's either going to go to the county or the DNR. And there's a
lot of uh facilitation that goes on before there. This was actually started before the board. This is Aken County growth. This is one of our first easements back in 2016. But it because it was by a city and by an airport, the airport actually said, "Wait a second, you can't just necessarily take that
land." There's certain rules that when an airplane takes off, it has to have so much room past it. So, we worked with the county and yeah, we cut out some of that stuff and it the landowner thought it was a good idea and it worked really well. Plus, the rest of it's protected,
so it's pretty good. And then, you know, we have some easements as well, too, where we uh uh fill in holes right there. And we make sure that we're not creating more problems. You know, a lot of times when it comes to management, you got county land, DNR, and you got to get entrance agreements. We're always
talking with the county when it comes to acquisition. So, that who who would it best fit, you know, would this bet fit with the DNR or and you can kind of look at the land use around it and say, "Okay, yeah, that would go with the county or something." counties get a lot of from the acquisition they a lot of
times just from the timber harvest that they get it's enough to offset any taxes and we're giving all that information right up front to make an informed decision. So it's kind of the the way to sum it up is early notification at the beginning and um early and this county
has final decision authority at the end and that's worked out pretty good. Um, next, um, the Lake Irving project was something we, the MHB donated $50,000 through through an opportunity. We got some funding through Enbridge. And you
know, there's just kind of the picture on the Ratcliffe property. And I'm not sure how this works. Oh, there's my thing. But, uh, I can't really show it. I had a video right there, but it was just a fly over of a drone and something. But we played that at the banial conference and people were really
seeing you know how can we do that and then two years later we worked with the city of Baxter and got one there as well. So but you guys were kind of one of the middle or first kickoffs of this idea of creating storm we got storm water retention um to help keep the mid
Mississippi or Lake Irving which is a headarters lake clean but we also got some oil spill protection as well just in case. So it worked out pretty good there. um a signage project. This is something that relates directly to you. We created signs on the Mississippi
River. Enjoy. So the average person could enjoyed a three or four hour day trip. Um and we put them in tried to put them in high visibility spots and we got a QR code. So there's the one at that picture right there is uh 25 County Road
25. There's a beautiful DNR access there. Lots of parking and stuff. Um this is a map of where we've done it in red. You can click on those on our website and it will bring up the map. And then lastly, so there's a blown up picture. We basically
um is this my pointer? Um oops. See, I knew I'd do that. There we go. It's not that. But um where's my pointer? Oops, that's not it. I Oh, here it
is. Well, never mind. But anyway, I'll just go through that real quick. Um, it basically says on here, if you didn't know this, where you can come to an access, but where does it end up? Well, you're not going to take time on your phone to figure that out. So, we put it right at the access and this says you
are here, exit here, and then it says at the bottom there, um, it's about, it tells you how many miles, but it really tells you how long it will take you to paddle it, cuz that's really all you care about. Is it going to take me three? Is it going to take me 10 hours? I don't know, you know. So, that's what we did there. We did that. And then
lastly, if you look at that QR code, you can scan that and it will follow you down the river just like Google Maps. You don't need Wi-Fi or anything. So, it's a pretty slick uh app that they they got there. And so, those are some of the things we're doing. And then lastly, I kind of coined the word
resource tamement. It's a fancy word to say we paddle the river and then we have a social hour afterwards. Um here's from Aken. It's paddle your glass off and we have over a hundred people that show up to that and uh it's just a great way we
we go down the river, we have a social hour and then a lot of people will go out to eat and uh it's just really a great opportunity there. And then we decided to stick economic development because remember when you scan that QR code or download it, we actually get a
number on that. So we can track recreation or at least people that have scanned that sign. So if you look at, let's say, you know, a map there and you scan that QR code, I get a time stamp like that and it says on this date at this time, somebody in the United States
using an Android or iPhone scanned it and at what time? So, I just count those up and I email it to your administrator or to a city or something like that and just say, "Hey, if you want to use it, go ahead, but I have some data there for you." But it it allows us to know, you
know, who's using what. And in 2022 and 2023, we did a little simple conservative estimate and the Mississippi River generated about $42,000 worth of e, you know, economic development or so because, you know, when you get off the river, you're not
just going to go home. you're going to eat, you know, you're going to go somewhere, you're kind of hungry. So, that's kind of what we did in a nutshell. And because we did that, uh, you might have mentioned about seen us about two years ago, us and Aken, I myself and Aken County walked up before
at the AMC conference and we received award for resource tamement and econ outstanding economic development. So, that was kind of what because we had the numbers. That's what it came down to. And so we're going to be talking about that at bianual conference. We're going
to be talking about new opportunities that we've done with social media because I really believe if we don't band together and work together, social media, big tech is going to kind of start taking control and stuff. I just have that feeling if you look at human
nature. And so, you know, it's just an opportunity where we can work together. we can promote recreation in your area through our website or through our social media. With 55,000 followers, we're reaching a lot of motans. So, we're starting to see at those events, people from St. Louis and also the Twin
Cities come to these events and we're we're getting a so think of it as a distribution center, but we're also with all those other programs as well, ements and acquisitions. We're working with you. So, any questions that you have for me? Is there a costume contest on Halloween?
Yeah, right. I was thinking about it. I was going to tell somebody dress up like a zebra muscle or something. We actually we actually had an event where we said you can bring a costume and make it kid-friendly. This guy came up as a puffer fish on his paddle board. So, he won. It was kind of funny. It was a
great time. The guy was hilarious. Commissioner Sar, did you have a question? Did you say the the uh bianual conference is is cost free or It's cost free. Yes. Yeah. We just invite you and as we go throughout the year, I'll be sending out even more announcements with
an agenda. Thank you. And that Yep. Any other questions for Tim? All right. Thank you, Tim. Appreciate your pres. All right. Thank you. All right. That takes us to the extension office update. I think Tony is here. And good afternoon, Mr. your chair and
commissioners. Tony Hansen, regional director on behalf of the Belchammy County Extension Office. Uh just with some brief updates with you about general extension office business. Uh the report I've submitted to the board as part of the packet includes an overview of our staff which now includes
two SNAPED health and wellness coordinators, Eva and Nate. Uh we also have Ashley who joined as our 4 extension educator here in March of this year and she'll be sharing some other updates about the 4 program shortly. Uh
we also have Kim who is our part-time support staff out at the office and I am also with the team. So just a few updates that I'd like to share with you all this afternoon. Uh the Belrammy County Master Gardeners program
continues to be very active. They are a completely volunteer-led organization operating here in the county. Uh we're lucky enough to continue to have uh a representative of that group uh join in and participate in the extension committee. So we have updates from their
programming. They held their spring garden party uh in April. That's usually one of their larger events. Uh May 17th they have a plant sale coming up out at the 4 building on the fairgrounds and they'll also be out on Ace on the Lake here
coming up this weekend too. They have a some programming presentations going on I want to say at 10 o'clock on Saturday morning. Um their Facebook page is their primary way for promoting their events and sharing up all the updates that they do. a lot offormational posts that they
do in local newspapers and other outlets uh along with other programming across the county. So, encourage you to keep up with the business that they're doing. Uh you may have already heard from the fair board already, but we are anticipating
well a road pavement project that's already underway actually for Fairgrounds Road Northwest. Uh that will uh shift around some access to the fairgrounds throughout the summer set to be completed before the county fair, which is the number one question everybody's been asking. Uh Burl with
the the fair board has done a fantastic job of keeping the many different interested parties in the loop on a weekly basis uh with that project, but excited about that coming along. Oh, some of the other tasky stuff. Uh, we have a security system out at the
extension office that's shared with the the fair board office as well. Uh, we're looking at some eventual need for some components to be updated with that security system. we were able to identify a short-term fix that saved us from any current year pieces. But I'll
be talking with the fair board a little more about long-term goals for that, making sure that we invest and keep that system up and running as needed out there. Uh Anna and Mike Lowour of Wildflower Farm were selected as the
2025 farm family of the year for Belrammy County by the extension committee earlier this spring. will be recognizing them at the county fair uh as one of our annual programs for the farm family of the year. Other extension committee business. Oh gosh, we just had a meeting
here a couple of weeks ago. Uh we had Tara Young who is a egg horiculture and natural resources educator from Hubard County join us to share a little bit about her role. uh she's been with Hubard for a few years. Um and as a
educator who specializes in a lot of work related to egg, forestry, gardening, she's fielded some questions from Bel Tramy County residents from time to time. Um she has also participated in some regional events that Bel Tramy County residents have
been able to take uh take advantage of or participate in. Uh most recently she had actually been up here with the S SWCD team just to give a little more instruction on the soil testing kits that extension provides as well. So uh
she's been active within the region, not just in her county. So felt like that was a a good visit try to bring things to the committee that are beneficial for them to see just from the greater world of extension. Oh gosh. Otherwise, uh I've
in my report I've submitted to the board here today, I've got a a report from Eve and Nate with SNAPED. They have been very active in getting up and running. Uh they both have started their positions only within the last year here in the county and
they both serve specifically in Bel Tramy County. So, they've been working to uh connect with other communities and they have made a lot of progress, I'll say. And so the report that I enclosed for the board today is what they shared at the extension committee meeting
recently. Uh and it outlines a lot of the programming that they've set up and their plans for the summer ahead. I'll plan to have them back in front of the board uh probably this fall to to share an update with you all directly. One other quick piece that I'd like to
highlight for the commissioners this afternoon uh is to talk just a moment about the master naturalist program with University of Minnesota Extension. Um so you may all be a little bit more familiar with the master gardener program that operates here in Belchammy County. Extension also has a master
naturalist program that's perhaps similar. Uh it's a volunteer uh based program. Uh people who want to be certified as a master naturalist have to complete a 40-hour course that teaches them about natural resources and cultural history of the state. Uh after
they have completed the certification, they have to com uh participate in volunteer service annually of another 40 hours a year. Uh and that type of volunteer work can mean stewardship. So working on some of extensions invasive
species removal events uh seed collection initiatives uh participating in educational programming uh providing programming support not only to extension events but other natural resource focused events there's a lot of partnership within the mat
master naturalist program uh work with SWCDs the DNR uh and other organizations um the master naturalist program is a little less focused on like county membership compared to what we'll see with the Master Gardener program.
They're very much centered around county. Master Naturalist operates in more of a regional basis. And yet, I was appreciative that they spent the time to put together a little flyer that I also included in the board packet uh outlining the county bycounty membership
uh for the master naturalist program. So for 2024, uh, Belrammy County had 20 active master naturalist residents. Uh, seven of them reported volunteer service hours within the county, uh, totaling
1,694 service hours. Um, which had an estimated cash value of about $61,000. Um and the attachment that I included in that board report shows uh program participation in Bel Tramy County estimated over the past 5 years.
So uh a lot of what I do as a regional director is try to represent some of those other extension programs that are active in the region or county but aren't necessarily part of that county funded piece such as our 4 educator position. So talked a little bit about that with the extension committee as
well at our most recent meeting. Um, and yeah, with that, I'm gonna pause to take any questions you all might have for me before I turn it over to my colleagues here. You have any questions? Anybody? No. Thank you very much. If we can try
to mine the clock a little too, we got got behind right off the bat here. So, thank you. Hello, commissioners. Hello. My name is Ashley Roar. I am the new 4 extension educator for Belrami County. And, um, this is my colleague, Jenna Clayool. She'll talk a little bit about some of
the other stuff, but just kind of wanted to give a brief intro. This is in your work packet as well, but I kind of gave a brief intro about kind of where I came from. Um, what led me to this position. So, I am not from Bill Bumiji area, but I've lived here for seven years now roughly and have been a forer all my
life. Uh, grew up in Todd County, so central Minnesota. And I've always been interested in the 4 program, what it offers for youth, how they can grow, how they can find their own interests and excel in those, especially at the county fair. It's one of their favorite events of the year coming up August 6th through
10th. So, obviously, we want to see you all there. Um, but besides the fair, obviously, we do a lot of events outside of it with programming. Um, clubs take initiative and help out our community in several ways. There was one this last
fall where one of our clubs did a community pride project where they donated turkeys to the local food shelf. So, and they were the only people that donated turkeys for that time. So, that was pretty nice of them. And so, just I'm kind of I've only been here since March, but getting my bearings and I'm
super excited to be involved and grow this program. So, thank you for Thank you for all you guys do. Do you have any questions for me specifically? Have any questions for Ashley? No. Thank you. Appreciate the intro. Yes. Thank you. Good afternoon,
commissioners. I'm Jenna Clayool. Um I was recently hired as a regional extension educator in northeast Minnesota in charge of volunteer systems. So, um I just want to point out that we are all very grateful for Ashley's work. She's doing a great job.
Um she's eager to learn. Um and you know, our Belt Trammy County 4 program is strong. uh as are other counties in the northeast of course which I represent everybody. It's hard to remember that when I grew up here in Belrammy and this is where I love to
live but um there are several uh other regional staff um that support the county level 4 programs. So, we just want to make you aware of that that as you hire Ashley, you're actually hiring
a package of of staff that you might not be able to see or you might not be aware of. But we have um of course we've got our Northeast program leader, Jan Dradowski, and our other regional extension educators include myself in
charge of volunteer systems. As I said, we've got David Foley in charge of animal science. Um, Cassie Gerling, uh, she's over civic engagement and leadership. Lori Hall is our operations specialist, and Kate Prryiner is over
quality programs and systems. So, um, we are there to support each of the educators in all of the counties. And as it happens, two of those regional staff live right here in Bumiji. So, it's a great place to live. Um, so Cassie
Gerling and I both live here. So, um, yeah, we just wanted to thank you for your support and let you know that, uh, things are are going well and going strong. Um, yeah, we've got a lot of opportunities that we continue to offer for the 4ers in the area. And, uh, we've
got a strong program here. Uh, one thing I want to point out is that state fair is the largest, um, Minnesota 4 event that happens in the state. The second largest is called uh, project bowl. So, it's a knowledge bowl type of uh program
and they have teams that uh that compete against one another in different counties and we had um oh how many like seven team seven teams from Bel Tramy County this year that participated in the
knowledge bowl and that is uh forers learning about um the project areas that we represented this year were poultry, dog and general livestock and rabbit. So, a lot of a lot of learning is is happening um due to age. So, thank you for your support. Are there any
questions before we Anybody have any questions for China? Great. Doesn't look like it. Thank you very much. Next up, we have HRDC update. Good afternoon. Um, I brought a little bit of the staff along today just so you had to have an idea of what we uh want
you to know is uh we want to serve in any we can within project that you guys might have that you need a little additional help on. Um, I've got um each one of them are going to present for Craig told me 37 and a half minutes each. So, I'm not sure what the deal is.
Um, pretty much a lifelong resident. I spent a couple of years out of state which was a mistake of mine and I won't make that again. Um we would like to meet with each one of you individually. We have we're doing the Bumiji city comp plan and one of the
things we've noticed is we want to have the whole community not just the city of Biji, not BSU, not some of the citizens. We want everybody. So we would like to have the opportunity to meet with each one of you individually at some point in the next couple three weeks. So, if you
could uh allow Tom to give us your information um contact information, we'd appreciate that. And with that, I'm going to take up well, I'm going to give Craig back 35 and a half minutes. And Tony, if you'd like to start the
presentation or Sean, I'm sorry, Sean. Hi there, Commissioner. Sean Moran. So, HRDC has a nonprofit subsidiary called Headwaters Regional Finance Corporation, and that houses a revolving loan fund that has a capital base of around $6.8
million, of which $2.5 million is available for loans. And so, I'll keep my comments brief here today. Um, the overarching goal of the loans that we do is economic development and job creation. Um, it's a gap lending program. So, we seek to leverage bank
financing and help good projects happen that otherwise might not happen. Um, I guess the key takeaways for your group is if there's a business that wants to come to Belrammy County, expand in Belrammy County, or is even struggling in Belrammy County, you can send them my way and we can see if we can assist with
a loan. Um, so that's the gist of it. And I can pick on Craig a little bit. He's on the HRC's board here just recently. So, might be a good source if you have questions on different days, but um otherwise you have any questions, I take that an hour. I'll hand it off to my fellow co-workers. Anybody have any
questions for Sean and the HRFC? No. All right. Thanks, Sean. You bet. Good afternoon, commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity. Tony Claire's uh community development planner for HRDC. And this is Tammy Hagen, mobility
manager. and we we uh compile up the transportation department. So, in your packets, there's a one-page flyer about transportation resources. Just wanted to go real quickly over some of these. Most of the work I do is active living work uh through Mindot. Um there's a few
programs that the county has been very successful with recently. Um I'll start with the transportation alternatives program. Um that has a 20% match and your projects are scored regionally against other projects. Currently, there's a project being constructed on Fifth Street from the city of Baiji.
That's one of the more local transportation alternative projects. Um, as we move across the active transportation, um, working with the county engineer, we were able to get a $770,000 project that's going to be the fifth street trail that's going to go from Jefferson out to the high school.
And we also recently just found out that the last phase has also been funded. The great part about that program is 100% funded, so there's no match dollars. So congratulations to you. We like that. Another another program is the carbon reduction program. Um the county
engineer was successful in an application to utilize recycled uh asphalt on CASA 32. So to the tune of about 700,000 that was just recently awarded. Um safe routes to school planning is something we do a really
great job with. Uh we've done some projects for Voyager and Aurora schools recently. This year we're doing a project in Leaport and then next year we were approved to go up to Red Lake. So we're really excited about that. So we'll be doing a safe route to school plan for Red Lake High School and Red
Lake Elementary. Um then the last thing I'll talk about is our statewide health improvement partnership or ship. Um through that we do a lot of active living promotion. Last week Tammy and I were up at Red Lake schools con putting together ebikes. 10 of them are going to
be at the Red Lake school and the other 10 are going to Oki and Red Lake. So, a great program to just promote active living in the communities. Hello, commissioners. Um, I am the mobility manager at HRDC and I am the
one who helps complement other transit options in Belrammy County and that's really overcoming barriers in um how people get from one place to another. And let's see, what else can I say? Um, one of the projects that we are doing,
Craig has heard it many, many times, is kind of for transit and we saw Pulbanian transit struggling a little bit and so we came up with an alternative uh, complimentary I should say option for individuals that live at Conifer Estates, Countifer Villas and East
Conifer and they now have their own exclusive um, transportation option that is just for them. And we just were awarded a grant actually today to expand Catifer Transit for the next two years
and that will extend our hours, our scope of who we are serving and um the vehicles. So that's really exciting. So really it's just really complimenting what we have already. Any questions? Mr.
Chair. Yeah, go ahead. Commissioner G. I'm really glad to hear about the partnership with Paul Bunion Transit because my question was going to be uh can you work with them to help them get uh another bus and another route and
help them recruit drivers um because like you said the struggles are real and uh I think with your guys's experience uh you could be a real asset there. So if you could talk a little more about that. Yes, I can. So Paul Bunnian Transit
first of all was very involved before we even got going with Conifer Transit because you know they are public transit in this area. I know that at one point they were really struggling with drivers. I do believe that they have um remedied quite a bit of that and plus
now they're getting brand new vehicles. So they are going to be getting more vehicles. They have more drivers. The the thing is is with public transit um you can't just expand your area. It has to be something that is um an
application through MDOT and MDOT has not opened up that application since CO. So until MDOT opens up that application then they can revamp what their routes are their areas of service but until
that point they are sort of hand tied on that. So that's where we come in as HRDC and the mobility management and transportation team is how can we complement them and give them other options for individuals within the
community. So how do we get Mindot to open that back up? If if I knew that question I wouldn't be working. No. Well, there's got there's got to be some options. There's got to be there are advocacy. There's got to be, you know, you guys have relationships with
Mandat, you know, lean on those. Like, I'm open to ideas. So, one of the things that is an option now, too, with this new funding and the expanding of service. Um the second phase of this is now we're going to be able to add Ridgeway and once we have that second vehicle we would have the ability to
potentially run some spur routes uh over time once we get enough drivers potentially up to Blackduck possibly Baggley um towards Leaport if we wanted as well too. Um so that's something we're looking at trying to do but just trying to find drivers and scale that program sensibly to make sure we're
meeting the needs of the the people it was designed for. One thing we are proud of with the Conifer transit is we in 75 days with one vehicle and one driver. We
gave 1344 rides and we moved over 2,000 people. So, it's helping Paul Bunion Transit. It's helping our community and we're ready to scale it. Anybody else? Commissioner Summer. Uh,
Mr. Chair, I just want to say thank you for uh for the kind gesture, you know, to the school and the community up in Red Lake with the bikes. I was uh seen that in the news recently and I thought that was pretty pretty awesome. So, I just want to say uh kudos and uh keep up
the good work. Thanks. And thank you for representing Red Lake because without Oshki, we wouldn't have a driver right now. So, thank you. And he's been awesome. He's been He is awesome. I hope we never lose them because our option is
that we work with workforce agencies and their programming to give us our drivers and then we in turn train them with CDLs or passenger endorsements or whatever so they can move on to a better job and then we would just keep cycling
individuals through. So, thank you Tammy and Tony. Hi, I'm Brick Jenkins. I'm letting accounting specialist. I'm just part of the housing team at HRDC. Um, so things I cover under the housing team, we have three down payment assistance loans for
the Belrammy area. So we have one spec specifically for Belrammy County, one for that covers our 5count region and we recently took on a first generation down payment assistance program. Um, that one actually offers up to $32,000 that's forgiven after 5 years. So that one's
pretty neat. And then I also have two other programs um both through Minnesota housing called the rehabilitation loan program. There's an emergency version to that as well and then the fix up loan which helps um lowincome homeowners fix up their home so they can stay in their
homes longer. So any questions about those programs? Anybody have any questions on the housing? Thank you. Hello, commissioners. My name is Sammy Trana. I'm a community development specialist at HRDC. Um, I have roles
within transportation and energy, but my main role is working with local foods. Um, over the last two years, we've had a contract for local foods and the main um goal of that has been to strengthen our local food supply chain um and make
it more resilient. So basically we've been working over the last two years to bridge the gap between growers and market access points. Um we were just awarded a new contract to support these initiatives also um this week. So that's been exciting. Um so we'll continue to
build relationships within the region. Um we do also within that host monthly meetings for young and emerging farmers. We support community gardens with this. Um we do provide technical assistance for grant writing and we work with the local schools um and colleges to develop
career pathways. Along with Tony's ship program, we also this summer and this over this next year, one of our main focuses is healthy foods in schools. So we have a regional group made up of key local growers, food service directors,
um agricultural and health and wellness teachers, BSU grad students, um and other champions in our region. and we are working to do trainings for the food service directors and get them accompanied with local growers who's in
their area to learn what they're growing and how to start incorporating more um fruits and vegetables, healthy foods into their school cafeterias. Um and then with all of this, so not only are we asset mapping our region, we are also creating a local foods directory. And
that's starting with being specifically for schools and local growers, but it'll branch off from there. There's a lot of directories everywhere, but we want to make sure our northern region is covered and expand upon that. Any questions for Shannon?
All right. Well, thank you. Thank you. Just in wrapping up, um, you guys have contact points in the pamphlet. reach out because we're hoping you all have questions and you all have things that you might want to bring to us and see what we can do with it. So, we
appreciate uh your time here today and we hope that you reach out to us. Thank you. Thank you, Cal. Thanks for bringing the team to enlighten us on what you have to offer. Appreciate it. Right. Move on to West West Frasier JCF
resolution. Good afternoon, commissioners. Uh, thanks for having me. Uh, and I want to introduce Jeremy Buck. We have some good news today, I think. And, and, uh, a company that obviously is a big part of our history and future, uh, in what used to be Norboard West Frasier is looking
to do a pretty significant development. And I'm going to let Jeremy share a little bit about that. For those of you who aren't really familiar with us, uh, our mill started construction in 1979. Uh, began production in, uh,
1981. And what a lot of people don't realize is we're still running a lot of original equipment, which means it's getting very old and worn out. Um, the mill is proposed to West Frasier um, that we make a substantial investment
about 137 million to renew about a third of the mill. And that really is a stake in the ground for the mill and for the community that we're going to be around to stay uh and support the community as we have in the past. Uh we directly employ 132 people. Uh if you include the
indirect, it's estimated around 500. Uh we take in 30,000 truckloads of lumber a year or I should say of wood a year. Um and we're, you know, a big customer of Belrammy County for that. Um we ship out
275 truckloads a week of of wood. So we're a really significant cash generator for for the county and for the state. And uh we've applied for uh with deed for the job creation fund to get a
little bit of assistance to help us get this uh job or this project approved uh by West Frasier and uh move forward. So Okay. Let me just uh share a few uh details about the job creation fund that you're
being asked to to sponsor on behalf of West Frasier. Um as Jeremy mentioned, the company has what 29 production facilities. I believe it's more than that. More than that. So they're essentially competing within their own company for capital, right? And and so
most of their of course uh plants are not in Minnesota. In fact, I think it's the only one in Minnesota if I recall. And so we're working hard with the state to try and make sure that that that the M this plant, our plant uh gets upgraded. And that's really important.
As Jeremy said, it's the oldest plant in their in their uh portfolio of plants. And so it's really critical that we make this investment and help them make the investment. And in summary of what Jeremy said, they're looking at about $137 million of renovation on their
facility, particularly in energy efficiency, environmental uh work, that type of thing. 137 million. They employ 132 people. Uh uh one thing to think about, their average wage is 37 bucks an hour. And math is hard for me, but that's about $10
million annually in wages. Uh that doesn't even count benefits. And that's just direct employment here uh in Bel Tramy County. And as you know, you saw in my article and paper, this is the type of jobs we need here, right? And so, we're doing everything we can to support them. The job creation fund is
one of the uh incentive programs that the state of Minnesota has to support businesses that are expanding or renovating, including this one. Uh, and the state's offering um the potential of $1.25 million to West Frasier to as an
encouragement to do this project here in Minnesota. that requires a uh a resolution of support from you uh to move it forward. Now, let me uh talk a little about a little bit about that because poor Tom and I have been uh through this. Uh you there was a
resolution in your packet that we're hoping you are willing to make it a bit of an addition to it uh because there's findings of facts that the state wants to include in the resolution. Tom is uh handing around uh a new version. And I'll just walk real quickly through the findings of facts that are different
than or that are added to the previous resolution. The first is the finding that the project is in the public interest and it'll grow commerce and industry, prevent the movement of current and future operation locations outside Minnesota, preserve employment base in Minnesota, and maintain and
enhance the local tax base. That's one. And then it explains how what how they do that. The second is uh finding that the proposed project would not reasonably be expected to occur solely by private investment. It's it's essentially what we in in economic call
economic development call the but for test. Uh that in when it comes to public funds for economic development uh they ought to be used only but for that uh the investment wouldn't occur without that. The third is that the finding that the proposed project conforms with the
general plan for development to the community, reduces CO2 emissions, uh uses significantly less energy, and then finally finding that the proposed project will afford maximum opportunity for redevelopment, development of the project and the enterprise. And again,
$137 million of investment um significant work by West Frasier over the next couple years. And again, as Jeremy mentioned, this is phase one. This isn't the entire plan. And but once
you get phase one done, that's certainly hopeful that the next phase and the next phase will occur once you've made that investment. Your role here is to be the sponsoring organization. Typically, this is done by cities, right? But the county uh is the uh is the body that there is
no city. They don't they're in a a township. So, you were being asked to sponsor it with this resolution. Beyond this resolution, the job creation fund is a I like the program only because it's a it's basically you get paid when you perform. Uh there's no uh you don't
in in in the past companies will make promises uh they get the investment and they may or may not do what they said they do. Right? In this case at the state program uh the company will have to do the things and then they get paid and they get audited by the state on that on two for two full years. There's
no role for the county in in in uh reporting. There's no role for any the financial part of it. That is done strictly between the state and and the company. The only role that the county could play is if for some reason Jeremy ignores us at the state level and
ignores me, we may ask your help to get out and and visit with West Frasier, but again, that's where my role is uh to help you do that. So, so I'm here hoping that you will consider supporting this resolution on behalf of West Frasier.
Dave, um they it's called the job creation fund and this is more of a job retention situation. Is it is DED okay with that? It is. uh and DA started to shift their programs a little bit and part of that came from conversations I've had where you know some of the
programs that were started at the state are still back in the 1990s unfortunately in terms of how they think we all know the job market here we also know that an investment that they're proposing is as important as 10 or 15 jobs for sure right and so they've made those adjustments this has gone through
the state the state's new program is he can we submit the application parameters they a preliminary estimate of what the incentive will be. So, they're all in on this. Okay. Thank you. Any other commissioners have any questions for Dave or Jeremy?
Commissioner Wer um what kinds of things are you talking about upgrading? I mean, presses, dryers, what's that? It's the dryers and the heat energy. Okay. Uh so, in its entirety, uh we're taking out five old antiquated burners. Uh we're
putting in one new burner and it'll all run on residuals and uh no natural gas usage for that. Uh state-of-the-art um pollution prevention or pollution control, I should say. Um and one large
rotary dryer uh that will handle the entire volume of the mill. Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Say it sounds like a no-brainer. Yeah, I agree. Thank you, Dave and Jeremy. Appreciate it. One last comment
if I could. First off, thanks to the company. I mean, this is a major investment in our county and we all know we need it. Yes. Right. So, thank you to that. And then I also want to thank Tom on this. I I can't stand here and explain it, but we have taken the scenic route on this project somehow, and it's
it has not gone as typical, and without his flexibility, and Dian's too over the last few days, uh we we wouldn't be standing here. So thank you Tom for your help on that. Great. Thank you. Great fiscal year 26 budget discussion.
Tom, you want to facilitate that? All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Dave. All right. Uh we're starting our process for the FY26 budget or our budget year a little bit early given the challenges that we've been talking about the last couple of weeks and months. And
so I wanted to get a couple questions in front of you and also get some policy direction as we begin to put those budgets together earlier. But again, just to remind us and and mostly to folks watching uh about the challenges that we're preparing for. Uh there there are several. First of all, um you know,
you already know this that essentially the county's budget is comprised of nearly half of revenues that come in that aren't derived from the county. They're from state and federal sources. So, of course, the challenge is that when those federal and state sources of funding get reduced, they have a much
more amplified impact on our budget. In fact, only about onethird of our entire budget is comprised of property taxes. A lot of people are surprised to learn that. So, property taxes is really only one of the remaining sources of funding that we have available to uh make
adjustments when reductions in federal and state funding occur. uh want to talk about some of those impacts that are influencing our budget this year uh maybe more than they have uh in recent history and those are federal impacts. We're seeing adjustments at the federal level
continue to occur as the federal government gets um more efficient and streamlined the loss of uh programs and funding grants and other sorts of things that has an impact on trickle down onto the county's budget as well. Uh but
probably more influential this year is what's going on at the state level and that is um significant cost shifts from the state government onto counties and other local jurisdictions and governments and we're seeing massive proposals right now that have gone out.
We've talked about them in the past. Uh but essentially with the state of Minnesota projecting a $6 billion deficit over the next two bienium uh this will be a period of time uh whereby counties and cities across the state
will have to find ways to become even more efficient and do even more with even less. Um we have seen massive proposals uh for reductions particularly in the health and human services side of things for our county. We'll talk about that a little bit, but that's definitely
influencing our budget. Tariffs and other inflation related issues um associated uh in the budget are going to also be something that we're going to have to contend with. We're hopeful that the tariff issue kind of goes away hopefully sooner than later, but we're not certain and we've already seen price increases in things that we already
currently purchase. Uh and then there's of course the uncontrollable costs like utilities, uh you know, paying for electricity or gas or those sorts of things and insurance increases. uh there's this everchurning increase in workers compensation or health insurance
or property insurance or those types of things as well. Um most of the focus at the state legislature has been on um shifting costs to balance budget as opposed to making adjustments in mandates or providing mandate relief. And of course that's where we believe
and that's where we have been strongly opinionated about encouraging movement at the state level. Um but unfortunately that hasn't happened. Um, we did an exercise recently to sort of help legislators understand the massive impacts that are amplified on Belrammy
County when the state shifts or proposes to shift its uh costs onto counties. When we look at the entirety of Bel Tramy County, we know that we are the third largest county in geographic area of all the counties in Minnesota. Yet
less than one quarter, less than 25% of our county area is taxable. That means when there's a cost shift from the state government onto our county, our local taxpayers, our property taxpayers are essentially paying four times the impact
because 75% of our geographic area is not taxable. This is massive. And there's virtually no other county that has this kind of statistic. So, um, that is something we've been really trying hard to communicate with legislators.
Um, and we're hopeful that that message gets through because it does make our county truly unique. Um, and it shows clearly how we are impacted when those kind of shifts occur on our county. Uh, I you've seen this graphic before. This
talks a little bit in summary. I'll speed through it about the number of mandates that we've had to overcome in just the last several years. We've had over 30 different mandates that we've had to absorb or are about to absorb based on legislation that's already been
passed to the tune of $92 million that's impacting our county budget. The largest of course is the county jail right through regulatory uh changes, strokes of pens down at the state house. Uh our county jail has been rendered uh
ineffective and required to be replaced. So, that's that's big money. And we passed, of course, as you know, through a referendum an enormous um sales tax uh uh increase for our county because of the needs to come up with revenue for
the county jail. And so, that's um that's already something that we're burdened with right now for the next 30 years. Additionally, we've increased property taxes over the last several years up to the tune of 15% just to accommodate these new mandates and new requirements and stuff that the that the state continues to pass on to us. Um, so
we've already been impacted. We've already been navigating and accommodating those impacts. But what we're about to see is going to be so much more uh on an ongoing operational basis. And that sort of requires us to essentially look at how we should approach the budget this year. First of
all, um, absent of any regulatory or mandate reform, uh, we're going to see local governments be forced to absorb the costs that the state's going to move on to us. for Bel Tramy County. We've already estimated I've shared some of these numbers with you and this is just health and human services programming
alone because the the the tax bills haven't come out yet. The House did come out just recently. We haven't had a chance to go through it. I'll talk just briefly about that a little bit later, but the Senate tax bill has not come out. Um but essentially just for health and human services we're anticipating
anywhere in the next bianium of having to uh absorb reduce a combination of the two anywhere from $700,000 to $1.7 million and then in the following bianium add an additional reduction or levy adjustment or whatever to the tune
of another 2 million uh to $3 million. So what that means in actual levy percentages are are right here on your page. The first bianium anywhere from between two and a half to 6% and then uh the next bianium an additional seven to 10% and of course those numbers do not
include uh what may be coming in the tax bills and they certainly don't include any of our operational increases that we churn every single year. We typically have anywhere between a four to 7% ongoing operational increase just from the cost of living. Um so that doesn't
include those numbers either. just wanted to share with you because of these um reasons, we're going to spend significantly more time putting the budget together and vetting it and all of those sorts of things. So, we've come up with the budget calendar. I know it's a little bit hard to read here. The only thing I wanted to point out with is in
August, we wanted to get this on your calendars right away. August 5th and 6th and then 11, 12, and 13 is when we're planning to have the budget committee meet. Uh we'll need pretty much every hour of those days in order to get through this on time. And uh I just
wanted to just let you know that because we're going to be looking for volunteers from the board to serve on that budget committee. So now you'll know kind of what we'll need in regards to uh schedule. Next, I also wanted to um get
information from the board and that information is really in the form of some policy directives and um just policy guidance as we put the put the um put the budget together. The first thing we're looking for is we think it would be helpful for this year. We haven't
done this before, but to have the board give the staff and the budget committee a policy direction in the form of principles and priorities like where should we be putting our fiscal resources and how should we be developing the budget? Typically, that work falls to the budget committee and the budget committee makes a
recommendation, brings it back to the board. Um, but we haven't had this kind of uh significant kind of challenges where we're going to need to be looking at a lot of different areas. uh and so we thought it'd be better to have the board provide us that guidance from the very beginning so that we can not waste
time putting the budget together and bringing it back for deliberation the board and maybe missing the target of the board at that point in time. Additionally, we also wanted some target directives. You know, what are you thinking about in relation to uh target reductions or levy or those types of
things. So to do that, I wanted to just burn through um the budget principles and priorities. The first one is to essentially and these are our policy recommendations. And the way we came up with this is Jod and I kind of sat down and said, "Well, what are some things we already do and what are some things we should expand on or some new things that
we should be doing to um to kind of overcome the challenges that we're seeing?" We took that list and we shared it with the management team and the management team reviewed it and vetted it out, gave us a lot of uh suggestions as well. And so that's what you see here is the work of the management team and the auditor, treasurer and myself. Uh so
we think that um in no particular order um these are the policy directives we think that the board should consider and if you have a different idea let us know if you have your own policy directives you want to add to it or modify or anything that's kind of what we're looking for but essentially the first one is focusing efforts on avoicing and
reducing ongoing operational overhead. So continue to drive down overhead. We've done that to the tune of over $5 million in the last four years. Um maybe there's more we could be doing there. Uh the second one is fully financed mission focused uh operations before outside
organizations. This could be kind of controversial because we rely on outside organizations pretty significantly for a lot of the things that we do. Um and then redirect the county funding to cover those mission critical operations. Um the third one is identify new or
enhance existing revenue sources and update rates and fees to improve cost recovery efforts and also reduce property tax subsidies for services that maybe should be standalone. Um the fourth one is if any program project or service is targeted for reduction by the
state then we should in this order as a county evaluate that activity for reduction or elimination first. Secondly, identify any new revenue streams to offset that reduction. And third, evaluate the potential to transfer that reduction to the levy if
warranted. Um or fourth, really any combination of those. Uh and then number five is finance anticipated state reductions over time to minimize any one-time impacts. As you know, the county or the state budgets in uh
bianium. So you're going to see big hits every two years. should we smooth that over a 4-year period as an example. So, that's what we're recommending there. Uh the next one is attempt to meet but do not exceed mandated service levels
um unless those service levels add net revenue or preventively avoid higher net costs elsewhere. There are some things that maybe we should do because we're going to offset a massive cost someplace else. So, it might cost $100,000 to run this program, but we're going to save
$300,000 because of what that program's goals achieve. Right? The next one, number seven, is focus on preserving existing assets and prioritize the maintenance of and upgrading of antiquated infrastructure before adding new infrastructure. So, this means, you know, run the equipment maybe a little
bit longer than we otherwise would um because we may not have the funding to replace it when we would like to. So, it might cost us a little bit more to keep that vehicle running or that HVAC system running a little bit longer, but if we can do that, maybe we can help smooth
some things um uh in the budget. That leads us to number eight, review and modify capital replacement schedules to maximize uh the useful life of our equipment. Certainly, we have targets when we want to replace equipment. Just as I mentioned, should we be looking at those targets and
making adjustments to improve useful life? We also don't want to go backwards when it comes to the staff. We feel like we've we've saved for four years. We've worked really hard to get the staff where they are. We've we've driven down the um the turnover rates from around
19% to around 14% right now. Um we've got good staff and where we can we want to try to see if we can't maintain and stabilize um the staff by having a highly qualified and competitively compensated workforce and also continue
to focus our efforts on strategies that improve uh employee retention and also reduce turnover. And then lastly want to maximize operational efficiencies. We kind of do this. The the the staff are well familiar with this. Um cost avoidance strategies, maximize
efficiencies, invest in technologies, these types of things which really help uh try to allow us to be more productive at a lower cost. So those are the policy directives that I've shared with you. And then these are the kind of general questions. I won't read them all to you. You've seen them. They're in your packet. But essentially, we could use
some guidance on kind of what are you thinking as it relates to these policies and how exactly do you what what guidance do you want to give us in the generation of or the beginning stages of generating um the budget? Now, we don't
need 100%, you know, definitive direction today. Uh we just need some guidance to get us started. Uh we're going to be starting to put the budgets together at the end of this month. Um, and so we can revisit on this as we move through the budget process, but to get
your insight sooner than later is going to be much more important uh than trying to guess and get it wrong and then have to go through an iterative process later to eventually resolve those those differences. So with that, I'll pause. Um, we do have this scheduled on the
regular work session because the idea was we wanted there to be a formal approval or direction from the board to our teams so that we can begin this work. Um, I think we have a few minutes to continue to talk about this, but if you don't get through it all, you'll have time on the regular session is all
I'm suggesting. Questions for Tom? Commissioner Carlson. Um, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um Tom, I just want to commend you and the staff for putting this these directives together. Um and I think that you've really encapsulated what we
really need to do. As I looked at that, I kept trying to think, what else are we missing? And I I didn't think of anything. So, I mean, I'm used to doing this sort of thing all the time. And it's like, boy, that was a pretty good list. So, thanks to you and Jod and the
staff. I think that's this is something that and I also especially like the idea that we don't want to go backwards on the staff compensation that we finally achieved and I think that's important. So I think that's I I think this is a great starting point. Thank you.
Anybody else? these uh what are you going to want answers on specific ones of these tonight or not necessarily tonight just uh getting in front of us or I would love answers tonight if possible which is why I tried to send it out as early as I could. Um I know it can be hard
because we don't know exactly where the state budget's going to be. We don't know exactly what the cuts are going to look like. Even at the best case scenario, we know we're going to be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars that are going to have to be dealt with and maybe
millions. Um, so yeah, if you if you have were able to tell us, for example, look, we don't want the levy to be any more than 10% this year, that would be helpful for us because and then we can go back and start turning the budget and and try to come up with if you said, you know, keep it as low as you can, we always do that, right? But as low as you
can doesn't give us much direction in regard to okay what should we slash or what should we postpone or what should you know so the more the more information you could provide to us the more the more we can be informed and develop a budget that closely ties to
your goals and objectives uh sooner and then allow us the back end to then negotiate any minor differences instead of major issues if that makes sense. Uh, Mr. Chair. Yep. Go ahead, Commissioner Zmer. So,
um, number six, um, I would be willing to put forward the the board chair and the newest member of the board as as members of the committee. I I think we can That's what I would term a preemptive strike.
Right. Right. I think it's Commissioner Sumar's turn. Thanks for the levity there, Chris. Yeah. No. Yeah, we could use more of that. Good plan. Humor is the best. Uh or laughter is the best medicine. So,
um traditionally it would be the the new commissioner winger typically would be on the budget committee. um and at the and then we usually have somewhat gone in a rotation on for the others, but uh if there's anybody else that would want
to volunteer for it, I know I think it is Commissioner Sum's turn, but if he doesn't want to um you know, anybody else wants to volunteer for the budget committee, but um chair. Yeah. Um I just when you talked
about what's your appetite for a levy increase, I've never ever been in favor of anything over 5%. I just I But knowing that, so there you go. 5%. I I understand that that's probably
not going to be possible, but but at least every attempt should be made to keep it to that. Mhm. I wonder um not knowing where we are sitting right now just with the operational increases let alone all
these cost shifts where we'll be in line with that you know with that I mean if we'll have 3% that we are automatically just based on our our normal so to speak operational increases that I mean are you talking 5% in addition to
operational or just 5% period because we might be at 5% just on normal operational, right? So, let me clarify that. That's a that's a good point. So, I think when we develop this budget, and I don't know how hard this would be, and maybe Jody could answer that. I think
it's imperative that we identify the difference between what our normal budget would be and what the additional levy has to be because the state has done what they did andor the federal government. Um I I think that so
that when we with whatever budget we end up with, we can clearly tell our taxpayers this is the increase in your levy based on our operations that we normally would have to increase whether it's wages, insurance, whatever it is.
Uh and this is the increase that has been put upon us by the state. I to the extent that that's possible, I think that that's absolutely essential that we do that. I think it'd be essential to have the the accounting person on the budget
committee. Better to have better better to have the accounting person audit the Oh, there we go. So, uh, Commissioner Carlson, so are you what are you saying as far as the 5% then? Are you talking 5% period or 5% in
addition to the operating expenses? If they be 3% or 4%, then you'd be at 8 or 9% or what are you what are you saying? Well, what I'm saying is that we we aren't going to have any control over some of these reductions and the cost shifts. Uh what I would say is we should never ever be over 5% just in a normal
year-to-year budget increase to to handle uh inflation and and and all that stuff. And that's why that that's kind of my we have to keep it under 5% for that purpose. But all these other cost shifts that we don't have any control over, we just need to identify what
those are. And if that means we end up with an 8% levy increase that we clearly are this is out of our control. 3% is thank you very much state government. So that's why I think it's important
that we but so yeah Mr. winger. Well, I just have a couple of comments. First one, I'm sorry I had to leave. I got a nasty Charlie horse and I didn't want to sit here and scream. So, um anyway, I I understand what what he's saying, but it could be, you know, substantially more than that. We're
going to have What you want is how much are we going to how much do you want us to say you want the the county to come in under, right? Is that more what you're It It'd be helpful. And I know that's really tough. And we know, I mean, there
has to be some trust here, right? That if you tell me 15%, we're not going to take it right up to 15%. If you tell me 10%, we're going to take it right up to 10. Like, whatever it is, we're going to do everything we can to get it under that. But I I fear that we'll be in the double digits. I mean based on what
we're seeing from the state um that would include uh what Commissioner Carlson was saying our standard operating churn plus um you know the whatever the state throws at us as I mentioned in one of the slides for just the health and human services pieces
alone we're looking at a minimum of about $700,000 that's about a little over 2% right there so if you had 5% you're already at seven and that's the best case scenario we haven't even gotten coming from the tax bills and other mandates that may be passed this year
and so on and so forth. So when I look at this and I'm like best case scenario seven seven and a half percent um I don't know I mean it's tough and we're not going to hold you to it right because you can always come down right all the way up through December you can
always come down and so if we find ways to bring it down we'll do exactly that. Um, but if I'm just looking for a way that I can go to the staff and say, "Okay, the board says nothing more than 5%." We've got a big lift ahead of us here. Um, we're going to be cutting programs. We're going to be cutting
services. We're going to be delaying projects. We're going to be delaying capital purchases. I mean, all of that's on the table. I mean, 5%'s not going to in at least from my viewpoint at this point in time, that's not going to be enough. Mhm. 10% maybe maybe there's uh
opportunity for us to to get around that. I mean certainly my goal is to be under 10%. But um I I just I don't know. I don't know where it's going to be. I think what would be more important is if you gave us sort of a target this but
definitely don't exceed that. That could give us a range that would be helpful. And then the other thing which is probably more important uh for tonight's conversation is those 10 budget priorities and principles. That's going to give us a lot of guidance on how we approach the budget. So that way we
know, you know, we are going to have to put the county first in the way that we fund our operations, right? But we're going to be sensitive, right? We are going to look at ways that we can delay projects that don't compromise, you know, quality or or safety or those types of things, but may cost us a
little more to keep something moving. You know, if it cost me $5,000 more to keep a car running for an extra year, is that better than the $50,000 it cost me to replace it? You know, a normal person would say, you get to a certain return on investment, like it's time to replace
it. we may not be able to um operate that way uh cost-effectively. And so there may be uh some strategy variances that we're going to have to entertain. And that's kind of what that budget principles and priorities document gets at is are you
guys okay with some of that flexibility with some of the modification of maybe the way that we've approached our budgets in the past and in prioritizing our mission critical activities first um and mandated services levels that are you know not being we're not being
relieved of. So that that that principle and priorities budget is real or document is really the the key to and and that's what I would want to have an approval of or modification of and if you need to table that to come back and you know we have different ideas and stuff we can do that. Um you know it'll
probably be good to have that conversation at the very next meeting if need be. Um but uh we we are intending to start putting budgets together shortly right after that. So, Commissioner Winger. Thank you, Mr.
Chair. Um, I have another um so if we if if we do discuss a number here, can we still go up from that? Yep. Okay. Okay. So, we can fluctuate. Okay. Good. And um I like
these 10 for sure. So, um that's my opinion. Go ahead, Commissioner Carlson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um it's just so hard to give you a number, Tom, because again, and I'm looking at just it without this having gone on, you know,
we we just shouldn't go over 5%. If the state forces us to increase everything at a cost of 10% levy, plus we have a 5%. Then we're looking at 15%. We don't know that until after it
probably won't even be May 19th. you know, at that they're not going to get done by May 19. You wouldn't you don't buy yourself any time by putting this off two weeks and by that time we're already developing the budget. So, so I it's I I think it's impossible for us to give you a number without knowing what they're going to hit us with. Well, you
could. I mean, we have a good team and I will I will say this, you know, um I know the auditor well and she knows me well and I think you know us both well and we will do the absolute best we can do for the county. So, we're not going
to allow, you know, stuff to come in and, you know, people will grow their budgets and all that kind of stuff, but we're going to need your backing to do that. I mean, there's resistance, you know, in contracting our budget. And that's why the principles really are probably the most important thing because that's your directive to
all of our staff that this is where we want you to focus uh the budget and we want to drive the levy down as far as we can. I mean, if you can tell me that, then the auditor and I walk into our conversations with the team with the
backing of the board and the directives of the board and that that's really what we're going to need because this some areas aren't going to be comfortable. I mean, this Well, Tom, I when I was reviewing this stuff for the packet here, I was I wrote down absolutely not
double digits. Um, you know, ideally depending upon what we get stuck with from the state, I would I would love to see it, you know, like Commissioner Carlson mentioned, you know, 5% or less. If if but realistically, I think that it's going to be a challenge just to keep it out of double digits. You know,
I think what you said earlier, um, you know, I think if we can hopefully get it under 8% like like it was last year, um, you know, but well, we just got to see what what hand we're dealt after the state finishes their their work. Um, I
also had circled the ones that were the highest priority to me were 1 2 4 6 8 and 10 um on the on the list that you provided. um as far as the the numbers of the ones that I thought were the highest
priority. Um about half of them, but but uh um that's some of my thoughts on it. Sure. Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Well, in in fairness to the chair, who had to be on the budget committee last year because it was his rotated turn. If Commissioner Sumar's unwilling to take
his turn on the budget committee, I would volunteer to be on with Commissioner Winger. Y would be appreciated. And you have to be the auditor. So it looks like that will be our budget committee then for board representation.
Yep. Great. Okay, perfect. There is more time to sort of talk about this as we get to the next meeting. So, if you'd like, I can go on to the administrator's report. You want to skim through your administrator report? Perfect. Yeah. Thank you. Let me grab it. Great.
All right. We'll try to shorten this up just a little bit. Most of it was on the legislative stuff, but we kind of been getting that from all sorts of angles. Um, as you know, the human services bills have already come out and those were the ones that I just shared a little bit earlier that are really,
really driving our budget concerns at the moment. Um, the Senate omnibus bill for human services is much more favorable to counties because it has about 60% less shifting of state costs to counties.
that could be good in the short term uh when they negotiate in their conference committees uh could be bad in the long term if we still need to get to a target that's much greater that we didn't take a big enough step in that first year. So I don't I don't know how that's going to play out but those conference committees
are where we're going to see uh movement uh one way or the other. Uh transportation bills at the state legislative level um are essentially out there. Nothing nothing really big for us on this. Um they're awaiting conference committee. There is a provision uh that
we had hoped that would get included in the Senate bill that addresses the speed limit on uh on Birchmont Beach Road. Um but that's not in the House uh bill at this point in time. So we're not sure if that's even going to get moved forward or not. Uh there are some uh
environmental policy bills that are floating out there that we're watching. One of them that we've been working really hard to try to stave off is the MPCA rule making process around landfills. Um we're not getting much traction there. I know that Senator
Green is working hard with others uh to try to um get that particular issue taken care of because of course it results in the early closure uh and uh the wasting of essentially up to 12 years of lifespan of our existing demolition landfill. So we're still
watching that. The House has no policy vehicle on that particularly yet. Um tax bills, I did mention that the House tax bill came out. Uh the good news there uh especially since it is the house tax bill is that there's been no proposed reduction in PILT payment in L of taxes
or CPA county program aid. So that's a big sigh of relief because we were told at one point you know the governor had it in his budget to reduce that by 34%. That would have been a direct hit to Bel Tramy County of $1.1 million. So in addition to all the stuff that I shared with you earlier this afternoon add 1.1
million if that was to be the case. Now, again, we don't have um the tax bill from the Senate um just yet. Um but they also have a much larger target that they're dealing with. So, we may see Tilt and CPA creep back in. We just
don't know yet. Uh in general, May 19th is a constitutional deadline for them to adjourn. The way things are going, word down at the capital is that they may not finish on time and there may be a special session that needs to be called. So, we'll just have to see about that. Uh, the end of the fiscal year for the
state is June 30th and so the next fiscal year starts July 1st. Of course, counties are on a different fiscal year. So, when the state has their implementation of their budget reductions, it starts mid year through a county year that's already those budgets have already been set. So, we could find
ourselves being influenced or impacted in the latter half of this year by uh initiatives that are set in the in the budget by the state uh and that go into effect on July 1st. Uh moving on to the jail project. I just want to say that the jail project's proceeding
nicely. If you haven't been by the site, you should. It's definitely a lot of activity going on there. Uh we had our jail construction u DNO construction meeting last week um over at that facility. Um, and there's it's pretty active. Uh, you're seeing footings go in. Uh, there's a lot of utility work
that's going in, that sort of stuff. We those couple of big rain delays that we had last week that kind of, you know, causes a couple days of delay, but um, the utilities are tied into Pioneer right now. So, um, they're going to they're waiting to do the patch um because the asphalt plants aren't really
open right now. So, once the asphalt plants get open, they'll come back and they'll do the patching uh, and get that tidied up. But foundations are kind of the name of the game right now. uh footings, foundations, uh and utilities is kind of what we've been focused on for this period of time. Um union
negotiations, I just going to let you know, um we did receive a few more notices from unions that they're preparing to negotiate with us. We imagine that this work might pick up somewhere we probably get to this process maybe in late May, early June.
Our focus at the moment is getting budget directives. It's difficult to negotiate with the unions if we don't have some sense of like budget, you know, like where we're going to be on the budget, how much we're going to have to deal with, you know, those sorts of things. So, we just need a little bit more information before we can uh on a
more informative basis engage with the unions. And so, uh we expect to be able to do that, like I say, hopefully end of May, sometime early to mid June. Um, and then I was going to mention, I was talked about at the beginning of the meeting, uh, Northern Township does have an incorporation meeting, just a general
information meeting in case you were interested in going, uh, on Wednesday, May 7th, at 6:30 in the 4 building of the fairgrounds. So, that's all I have for you. I'll stand for any questions you might have, though. Anybody have any questions for administrator Barry? And we will break and have until
five o'clock. Quick break. Thank you. Part: 2
order and stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Right. Uh, no general comments from me. Um, there's anyone wishing to address the county board on an item not on the agenda, they may come forward at this time to be recognized by the board chair. Please state your name, 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. Uh, 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 word? I see Patricia is here. Looks like it.
Yep. Yeah. Patricia Hart 22076 Pine Breeze Trail Northeast Cast Lake. Gentlemen, I am so impressed with how much you have to learn. I never see the size of all your packets, but I've seen some of them. I hear a lot of the stuff that you hear, all this information you
have to deal with. I know you have to drive to different places and deal with other people, all these committees and Tom, everything you know and remember and put together and help them with. So, uh, Commissioner Winger,
welcome to my style of thank you. Y'all get to pick flowers, okay? It's just to thank you for your work. Thank you so much, Patricia. Anybody else that would like to address the board? All right. Seeing none, we will move on to approval of the
agenda. Look for a motion to approve the agenda as presented. I move to approve the agenda. Motion by Commissioner Winger. A second. Second by Commissioner Carlson. Any discussion? All in favor of approving
the agenda as presented, say I. I. I. Any opposed? All right. Passes 5-0. Approval of the consent agenda. Do I have a motion for the consent agenda? I'll move con approval of the consent agenda. Motion by Commissioner Carlson. We hear a second. Second. Second by
Commissioner Gold. Any discussion on the consent agenda? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Passes. 5 Z. Thank you. On to our regular agenda. We have the West
Frasier JCF resolution. Mr. Chair. Yes. M. I move that we approve the West Fraser Job Creation Fund Application Resolution. All right, we have a motion by Commissioner Carlson. Do I hear a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Winger. Any
discussion on the resolution? Hearing none, I'll call a question. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? That passes. Five to nothing. Shorland management ordinance. I think Brent is uh going to come up and give a quick
talk about that. Good afternoon, commissioners. Um, I'm here today uh to give you kind of the quick update for next steps and um if you're ready and willing to schedule a public hearing. So, um as you recall the
um last board meeting, we went over the kind of draft ordinance. Since then, the planning commission has voted to recommend approval to the county board. Um did that on April 28th and um I'm suggesting setting a public hearing date for the next county board meeting on May
20th. we can get that advertised. Um, so the the two next steps that need to happen in this process is we need to hold a public hearing and we need to get conditional approval from the DNR. The conditional approval is in the works right now at the DNR. They've got a few a couple weeks left yet to before they
meet their timeline deadline to get that done and then um we hold the public hearing and then after that sometime the board could take action if they so choose. So, I didn't have anything else I really needed to talk about or what if you any questions I could answer those, but really it's just getting a public hearing set.
Anybody have any questions for Brent or on the with regard to the Shorland ordinance and setting a public hearing? Tom, how's our next meeting looking? Would that work? Okay. For our next meeting or have any ideas on but or on uh we we can make it work. you know, public
hearing typically um as long as you announce it in time, you could do it at your 5:00 t time frame because it's not one of the statutory man mandated um time frames. Mh. Uh as it relates to your next meeting, you would have time to do that. I mean, of course, depending on how many people came out, but um you
should be able to accommodate that. Okay. Wishes of the board, you want to move forward with the next next board meeting for a public hearing? And then we don't we don't have and obviously I don't think we would necessarily vote on it that evening. we would have the public hearing and then um depending
upon what kind of information we receive at the public hearing, we could then bring it forward at a a future meeting for for voting if we want. So, we good with doing it on the May 20th meeting here? Looking consensus, let's set it for May 20th. Do
we need board action to set a public hearing date or is consensus good enough so we can get the advertisement out? Yeah, consensus is good enough, but you could also do a motion if you'd like. Perfect. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks, Brent. All right. So, we will move on to
the continue our fiscal 2026 budget discussion and we've already got the um a lot of that fleshed out, I think. I don't know, Tom, what uh what else do do you need there or Okay. So, um yeah, we did have a good
discussion about that. I think we're clear on the levy. I think we're clear on the budget uh committee. Those are those are good things. Um the only other thing I would say that we could um hopefully receive is your approval of the budget principles and priorities
that I just handed out to you. I know they were on the screen earlier. We went through them, but since the screen's not up, I just handed them out in hard copy. Does anybody need one? Do you need one? Oh, yeah. No worries. You can do it for the audience if you wanted. But Mr. Chair, I would move that we adopt the
fiscal year 26 budget principles and priorities as established in the draft that was handed out. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Carlson. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Second by Commissioner Winger. Any discussion
about the the proposed budget um guidelines? Yes, M. Commissioner Gold. Thank you. Um, I just want to thank Tom and Jody for putting together these uh draft budget principle and priorities. Um, I
don't necessarily disagree with any of them. I think it's a a smart, healthy list. Um, that being said, um, you know, I would hate to see massive staff layoffs. I could understand one or two positions,
you know, uh, at the end of the day. Um but um I would hate to see significant staff layoffs. Whatever significant means it to me it means more than you know uh one or two people maybe three maximum. Um I could live with a a
9.44% increase. Um because that way rounded up it's not even double digits. Um rounded down it's 9%. Um, I would hate to see us uh use this as an opportunity to take
the KRLS library funding down to the state minimum guidelines because I'm pretty confident they're going to be losing out on uh state funding as well. Um, so hate to double whack them there, especially when um we didn't give them
an increase last year. Um, regarding the rates and fees, you know, I I could live with a a small percentage increase across the board for for u for the fee schedule. Um, you know, minimum of 3%,
but I would still like us to see us wave those fees for any new construction for homes. And, uh, you know, one of the main priorities for me running for county commissioner was mental health.
whatever we can do to preserve mental health services to the maximum extent possible. Um for me that's children's mental health program and substance use disorder services um from
HHS um the sheriff's ember program you know and uh and regarding uh and also BAS and stellar services um new revenue sources I think is uh something we need to be looking at here.
So, maybe our carbon sequestration uh program that Shane's looking into uh will carry a little more weight because of all this being handed down from the state. So, um those are my comments and thanks again Tom and
Jody. Thanks, Commissioner Gold. Anybody else have any further discussion on uh the u approval of the budget priorities? Hearing none, I'll call for the question. All in favor of approving the fiscal year 26 budget principles and
priorities list, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? That is approved. Tom, did you get all the way through your administrative report? Uh, yes sir, I did. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And, uh, I don't believe we had any other additional items, so we'll
move on to legislative lobbying and just combine that with any commissioner reports. Commissioner Sumar, do you have anything to report? Uh, no. I was out with the strip uh the last last week, so Oh, wow. Not much to report, but I did
uh do want to mention that um AMC um part of their trying to mobilize, you know, the commissioners reaching out to the legislators. Uh they shared uh Patricia's uh letter to the editor, which was pretty good. I think uh we
need to do what we can to, you know, lobby our legislators on on on reminding them that, you know, we need uh some assistance up here that, you know, we're trying to uh do the best job that we can uh with these unfunded
mandates, but you know, it's going to be difficult to to carry through with them with, you know, if if we're going to have to increase our our levy. So, that's uh all I have for tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Sumar, and thanks for calling out Patricia on that.
She um very wisely handwrites her letters, I believe. And that garers a lot more attention instead of just the the canned stuff that you can do through an app or something like that. So, kudos to Patricia for making her voice heard.
Uh Commissioner Winger, do you have anything to report? Just a couple of things. I did go to the Prime West health the health meeting. Um I guess one of the biggest things there is because of the cost of some of the drugs
going up so much is especially the weight loss drugs. Mhm. Um and what they would be costing um us all I guess everybody in the county who has health insurance. um uh it was decided that
they won't be paying for those drugs for people just for weight loss. If there's other things, other underlying factors like heart condition, diabetes, those kinds of things, they'll still get their they can still get the medication then, but not just strictly for weight loss. I
think that's Ompic, isn't it? One of them. There's actually like three others there that are also listed. And it was just the the cost would have been in the hundreds of dollars within just the next couple of years at the rate they were going to each person that would have had
to pay more. And so it just wasn't didn't think it was worth it for for weight loss. Yeah. Or well for everybody to have to put the bill on that one. And um but again, if there's underlying conditions that are that are in need of that, then they can still get it. So,
uh, that's one. And then, uh, I went to the, uh, the Bato meeting. Um, talked just about some of the stuff that we've been talking about here with what we're getting crunched on so that the townships kind of understand a little bit more.
Um, what what's going on with that? Um, you know, there's they're frustrated, too. A little bit. They're just not feeling it quite as hard as we are just yet, I don't think. But they will sadly. Um, but that's all I got. Okay.
Thank you, Commissioner Gould. Thank you. Uh, pretty standard committee meetings lately. Uh, Shaq met over Zoom, uh, Minnesota Rural Counties, BCAP, uh, Northwest Minnesota Juvenile Center, and, uh, some AMC
um, policy committees that I'm on. Uh main thing out of those was um our executive director's performance reviews coming up um with uh Northwest Minnesota Juvenile Center. Uh Mindy um she does a
great job and uh no issues there. So um thank you Commissioner Gold. Commissioner Carlson. Thank you Mr. Chair. Um as Tom said we came home so it was a long conference but it was well worthwhile. uh good
time. Um and uh so unlike what Commissioner Winger had, he had the Prime Health Board meeting which meets about once every 3 months or so. I have the Prime West Health Board which meets every month and I'm on the finance and
operations committee. Um and so that starts usually around 9:30 in the morning and then it continues on with the with the joint powers board after that. So that was uh last Thursday. Um, and then I had my very first Magic Fund Board of Trustees meeting yesterday down
in St. Cloud uh, Weight Park actually uh, at the Sterns County um, center. Um, there was uh, I think their booklet, they don't actually print the booklet because it would be cost prohibitive, but it's it's it's hundreds of pages of
a lot of work. So, it took me a couple of days just to kind of go through that so that when I got there, I was ready um, for it. But it was good. I got to meet everybody and um that meets only four times a year. So, but it was it was good. That's it, Mr. Chair. Thank you,
Commissioner Carlson. And I one thing that I had tagged and I after looking through it in our our um consent agenda. I I think I figured out what the deal was. There must have been money left over for the um there
was a grant for the the sheriff's office and it said 2023 and it and it said through December of 2023 on the agenda bill but I it's through December of 2025 I or or something I believe. Um I don't know if I actually says that on the
resolution. It's called the 2023 EMPG. Um, but I I think I saw on on the agenda bill or something that it said that it was through December of 2025, even though it doesn't say that on the resolution page. Yeah. Expiration date 6:30 of 2025. So, we must have just
gotten in on the tail end of some grant monies to to be able to pay for for um a 50/50 or 100% match on funds for our emergency management director is what the I took that to mean. Is that
accurate, Tom? Or I believe it is. Mr. Mohler was here a little bit earlier anticipating potential questions. I forgot to ask the question. We got in the groove of just getting stuff done and forgot to ask that question, but that that's the way I read it anyways that it was good through the end of June
this year. So, he applied for it, got approved, and even though it's mostly over, we're still going to be able to get the funding. So, that's my understanding. So, it's a good good thing we get 26,000 and some dollars to help pay for his position is what it looked like to me. So, I thought that was good. Um, good work on and he's
always doing a great job with regard to to looking for looking for grants and funding for all kinds of different areas. Um, since our last meeting, uh, we had, you know, what I think it's three weeks, uh, had quite a few meetings. uh the airport authority
meeting, we found out that the FAA did approve our Fern Street site for our our uh um solid waste to put our transfer site over on the Fern Street property. Um so that was good. uh at the BlackDuck Joint Powers Board um and found out that
the the new ambulance that we got a grant for um we were actually able to get it right away instead of having to wait for like a year and a half because another um Metro ambulance group uh wasn't able to afford to they had ordered some and weren't able to take one. So, we were able to get one of
theirs that was already built and so I believe we already received it. I don't know if you've had a meeting there, Commissioner Sry. She did. Okay. Because it was supposed to be here by the end of April, I think. And so that so that was pretty awesome. Um HRDC meeting. I I had my first first HHDC and
HRFC board meeting. Now that I got elected as chair of the HRDC, I am automatically on those boards as well. So um that was interesting to uh to um to learn that. Um, one of the things on the HHDC, which is the Headwaters
Housing Development Corporation, um, we're purchasing or in the process of purchasing some more lots. Um, they are the ones that buy the lots for the the high school to be able to build their houses on. And so got over near where the most recent one was built, some some additional lots so we can um have it be
in reasonable proximity to the high school so they don't have to drive a long ways to get to to work on the project. and and u you know so that was pretty cool um at our fair board meeting and main thing there is you know they're redoing the fairboard or the fairgrounds
road and that is uh um in process right now they're going to have it drivable for that meeting coming up u tomorrow night um on for the northern township um but they're really making great progress on on that so it'll definitely be done before the fair northern township
wastewater um info session at BSU Commissioner Gold and I both attended that. Um that was informative. Um had our Cast Lake Royal Fire Association meeting. Um nothing too major. We're still working on getting funding for a
new fireh hall. Um had the HRFC semianual meeting um which was the finance arm. Uh you heard from Sean tonight about having over I think it was $2.6 million still available to lend. Um really pretty
great awesome opportunity there for all kinds of area businesses. Um I know one that's in my township that took advantage of some of that funding was the Stitzwords when they built their new plant. Um and then we had the planning commission meeting and recommended and as you know we brought forth the
recommended shoreland ordinance revision for our consideration and that was it. So, um I think people know what they have for chat about. I think Tom or Commissioner Sumar is on for chat about
tomorrow and and u I think that's about it for tonight. Anybody have anything else? Otherwise, look for a motion to adjourn. Change here, Mr. Chair. Oh, is that old? I think that was old. I was just reflecting what has already been done, wasn't it? Or
Yeah. for the bet. Oh, okay. This is from the last meeting. Oh, okay. Yeah, it works for me. Okay. Motion to adjurnn. Move to adjourn. Motion by Commissioner Carlson. Do we
hear a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Gould. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Can stay. We are adjourned.