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Video-Count: 2
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=KDzyehQdi_U
Video-2: youtube.com/watch?v=INnJAQV3WO0

Part: 1

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--------- and we got introduction of new employees. Any new? All right. Identify future work topics. What do we got? Anybody

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have anything? Go ahead. >> Leading Age Minnesota. Uh, we talked about this at our last meeting. I think we're probably good to go on that. So, we've communicated, Commissioner Carlson and I and Henland and Seth and we found out more information. Should

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just be uhformational. So, good data to share. Leading Age Minnesota, >> you guys good with that one? Yep. >> You guys good? Yep. >> Uh, Mr. Chair. >> Yes. Um, I was wondering if now that

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we're kind of in the beginning stages or prior to the election season, wondering if we can get an update from the auditor treasurer about, you know, the plans and and timeline of uh this coming election with >> She just did that, didn't she?

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>> Yeah. >> Okay. I must not have been here then. >> Oh, [laughter] that was I think it was just before the filing opened that she was here and she made that point.

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>> Yeah, I'll go back to >> don't think I was here. [laughter] >> I I don't recall, but >> there given the fact that there was only three of us at that meeting, it might not be a bad idea as we did maybe closer to September. >> Well, yeah, I wouldn't agree with that.

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>> Yeah, I I'm just I don't know. Maybe we can scrap it and I'll I'll look at the uh YouTube [laughter] Okay. Anything else? Nothing. Okay. Opportunity zones.

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I'm back. Good to be back to chat again. Um couple weeks ago we presented the opportunity zone information and and suggested we'd come back and you make some decisions tonight about ranking your opportunity zones. And just real quick background

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for for everybody that the opportunity zone is 2.0. Uh it's a Trump administration effort to really uh entice investment into the most distressed areas of the nation. And what the benefits are are really deferred

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capital gains for those who have large capital gains and invest them in opportunity zones. Also discounted capital gains as well as no tax on an on investment income when it comes to investments in opportunity zones. And so

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it is a it is a it is a good um vehicle to really encourage investment from those who have investable dollars into distressed areas. Uh the the key here for you as a county is of course the process. We talked about that last couple weeks ago. Uh the go the

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difference between previous opportunity zones and the first Trump administration this one is that they're narrowing it down to 25% of eligible census tracks and are asking the governors uh to recommend to the

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federal government uh rankings of census tracks. the governor has then turned around and asked you uh to be the ones who rank your own census tracks. And so if you recall um the map I put up, it included the the tribal nations around.

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They all have the opportunity to submit directly to the governor. Um the other uh thing that the governor's requested is the opportunity for you to also work through the region. Uh so I talked to the HRDC Dan at the HRDC for lots of good reasons. uh they are going to help

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counties submit their own rankings as opposed to try and take a regional ranking uh that pits county versus county which would be a quite frankly a mistake. So they're doing the right thing um allowing you to submit uh opportunity zone uh census track

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recommendations uh at the county level. So that's the background. They'll go back and Diane, if you could throw up the the uh document I sent. If you remember last time I was here, it was very difficult

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to see uh see what the eligible zones were. This is the three zones, and it's going to be hard. If you can, you might be able to blow it up on your computer a little bit, but what I've tried to do is drive pull out these three census tracks that are eligible to be opportunity

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zones. They're all in the city of Bumiji area. Uh we talked about zone one, two, and three. And and for each of those in the document, uh you have what I did is try and pull out um what I consider developable sites. Now, there's

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obviously others uh within it, but gives you a sense of of each of the zones and really um helps you as opposed to trying to figure out, okay, why is it middle school road and 15? I mean, the the

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zones get goofy is my point. And so what what I tried to do was just simply give you an idea what what I think are developable properties in each zone that'll help you then make your recommendation this evening when you when you meet as a county board. Um so

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number one on the next page um census track number one is that airport tech park area that we talked about. Um the potential sites there first of course is the airport something that we've tried to do and are in process of trying to

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develop. It's a major asset that and quite frankly from my perspective a big opportunity and not only on the west side along county road 9 but the north side of the airport also has some space for development and I think it's Baltimore road on the north edge but

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it's up there ways and so um so I think airport area tech park area and then the the third one would be uh the Belrammy County H owns the sites around kind of west of the middle school. Uh that is also some property

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there that could be developed along Highway 2 and uh just across the street from the middle school. So that kind of gives you a sense of what's included in that census track one that we recommended um you consider uh as the lead one.

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Second one, uh, census track two is the one and Tom Brightly pointed out, uh, yesterday some opportunities within there that I hadn't thought about, which is property you own, uh, which is directly uh, south of Target. And so the

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sites within that area that I would say are potential development sites that that could uh eventually use an opportunity zone investment would be one the carne property not just the target property but the adjacent property uh to the east which I believe is owned by

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first national bank. Uh the rail corridor site of course uh is within that area. I would say the downtown core and the hard part here is the downtown is divided into two census tracks. But generally this that's the zone that or

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the census track that is about uh south of Third Street. So if you picture Third Street and South generally that's in this zone and then there's a whole bunch of property I can't really tell if if there's opportunity or not along Adams Avenue, Jefferson Avenue and uh Carl

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Lake roads are all in that area. So that would be census track two. Ultimately, I would argue your biggest opportunities of course are the county property and its adjacent site and then also the downtown core because I think uh I want

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to knock on wood but I think the rail corridor should be well beyond uh before this gets approved its full development potential. So last one is the uh third site is basically the the core of town. Um there is however one potential

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development site. Of course that's the old high school site uh that I believe the Peterson's own right now, but it's a large site that uh could eventually uh be something different than what it is today. It's vacant land. So uh that also includes the northern part of downtown,

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so north of Third Street. And so those are your uh three options. And and again, the goal is for you to identify a ranking of those three um to submit to the governor. The governor then takes all the rankings

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from all the counties and picks 25% of those uh eligible census tracks will get submitted to the federal government for approval. And so that's the next step would be for you to go ahead and decide how you would like to rank these

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three census tracks at which point I'll work with Tom and we'll submit something uh to the governor on behalf of the county. questions, thoughts. Any questions? >> We going to make a good

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We going to make a decision on that one here. >> That's all. >> Is it on? >> The only thing. All right. >> All right. >> Good. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. I would just offer I as much as I think that the site behind the

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target center which is owned by the county would be good, the idea that it's really just one parcel compared to how many opportunities there are in the in the uh technical part in the airport. Yeah, it's just it's a lot more limited

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in what we could do there. As much as it would be self- serving, I I don't know that that's the best idea. The old trailer park is a pretty good size lot, too. >> Yeah. >> But >> yeah, >> but I do think there's more up on the other one. So, I

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>> Okay, we'll discuss that when we get to that one then. Housing trust fund update. >> Hello. I think we have a PowerPoint coming up. Okay. Thank you. Uh I have an update on the

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housing trust fund really leading into uh hearing more from Northstar neighbors with Corey and Mitch here as well. We can go to the next slide. >> Oh, sorry. I can do it myself. Okay, here we go. Uh our cabinet is made up of

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uh different entities uh and based off of their uh position uh with Commissioner Gold serving along with Annith as the Health and Human Services director, myself as the director of the United Way. Our commercial banker is

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Carl Johnson. Uh our United Way board member is Megan Stigoff, landlord representative Mike Stradman, outlying representative Daryl Lunberg. uh Bel Tramy County staff representative Mercy White, construction project manager Tom

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Tessier, and our United Way liaison is Annie Butler Ricks, who was excited to present to you, but is on vacation. Uh we have not had any changes to our uh cabinet since we started. The housing trust fund has two primary

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funding sources. One is the local uh homeless prevention aid which allows governments to ensure that uh no child is homeless within the local jurisdiction of keeping families uh in housing from losing housing and helping those experiencing homelessness find

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housing and also the state affordable housing aid uh which allows local governments to develop and preserve affordable housing. And we follow both the state statute along with the county ordinance for the funding that we have. So what we can uh support is creation of

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new affordable and workforce housing along with rental assistance for low or for moderate low-income and very low-income households. In 2025, the local homeless aid uh fund

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uh had two allocations to the Society of St. Vincent Depal who was able to assist 20 families with rental assistance and then also to BCAP who was able to uh repair a duplex that they had that was

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uninhabitable prior to that. And then we also opened our first development RFP. Uh that took from the opening of the pre-application till the final approval about six months uh time

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to get through. And you'll hear shortly from Northstar Neighbors on the 10 single family homes that were approved. Uh, and the housing trust funds really help buy down the purchase price of the home, making it more affordable for

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people to get into uh, a home. We also just had a RFP open again for that homeless aid uh, fund and had three applications for that. Uh, the funding is under the $50,000 threshold. So all

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that it's awaiting now after we met last week is is United Way board approval which is for tomorrow. So you'll hear about that soon and where our fund balance is right now uh with what we've spent and then also what we've been able to add into the

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fund outside of those two primary funds is the interest earns earned because we have the funds in CDs. Uh we've been able to raise community donations. Those have been major gift asks that I've made myself. And then had a grant that we also earned through Minnesota housing

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putting our fund balance at 1.2 million. And then we have another allocation coming this summer into the fund. Any questions on my portion right here from Northstar Neighbors? >> Mr. Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh

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the three applications that you had uh for agency that was more for the the rental stuff, right? >> Yep. And do you have a current RFP out for some major funding that like like you had last year? >> Not for development yet. No. Okay. We've been waiting on Well, we waited for the um assessment that was just recently

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done, communitywide assessment, and then the the um opportunity zones as well. So, we'll start looking at the development RFP opening up too. >> What's the amount that you anticipate that you'll award this year for whoever >> for development? I think that would

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that's going to come to you. It'll be over the 50,000 mark, I I assume. But >> but I mean, is there a target is is there a target amount that you're kind of thinking that that would be nice if we had projects that totaled x number of dollars? >> I think it depends on how big the projects are that others, you know, we're not you know this, but we're not

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the developer or the funer. So what product projects come our way will be based on the size of the project. Um so I I don't have a number for you on on that. As far as I know, we don't have a number that we need to I'm Ann and Ann and Ann and Ann and Ann and Ann and Ann and Ann and Ann and Ann and Ann looking at you that we need to spend in development where we do for the homeless

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aid. We have to we have to utilize some dollars each year there. So that's why that was easy for us to open and make happen. >> So knowing that there's about 1.2 million there, we also anticipate annually from the state uh a certain amount of money for the next so many years, >> right? But that has changed from what it

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originally was. It's less than it was. >> So that'll be taken into consideration when you decide how much to give out. >> Yeah. Yep, definitely. >> Okay, >> thank you. Any other questions? >> Okay, thank you. [clears throat]

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>> Okay. Uh, Northstar neighbors update. Hey, good afternoon everyone. Um, thank you for the opportunity to come and chat with you guys today about our progress with Northstar neighbors. Um, I'm going to try to keep things as tight as I can so we can um, have time for questions as

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well if you guys have any. Um and then also just really trying to first focus on really the housing trust fund and the work and what we've done with the investment from Belrammy County and then we can do um a little bit more into how the community land trust works as well

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um if you guys would like to to learn more about that. So um and I'm also planning to call Mitch up too as he's been a partner in this um endeavor. So, the progress towards 10 homes in Baiji from the $520,000

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in funding. So, um home one and two have been completed and sold. We should we're scheduling closings here for um middle of June. We'll have people starting to move into those homes. Um we have

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secured funding um and starting to build homes three, four, five, and six. So that's um you know what I'm trying to highlight here sorry is the the initial investment was large on these first two

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homes the $300,000 and now be taking that momentum and you can see the 110,000 is going towards three four five and six and then in July here we'll apply for more funding from Minnesota housing to try build home 7 8

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9 and 10 with completion in 2027 with that uh additional 110,000. So um yes, the first two homes um were a larger investment um because we didn't have the other matching dollars from Minnesota

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housing, but if we look at this holistically, you know, we're we took that investment and we're we're gaining momentum and we were able to turn that into additional dollars with Minnesota housing um with our next ask. So, um,

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so this is kind of what the investment, you know, actually looks like and the investment impact of what we've done. So, with the $520,000 from Belrammy County and and just to, you know, I think we've we're at $300,000 spent. Um, so we still have to

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access the the remainder as we as we start construction. Um, we were able to secure an additional one 1.25 25 million um for two for homes two through six from Minnesota Housing. Um that's a that's additional grant dollars that we'll use to build the homes and make

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them affordable. And we'll be applying for an additional um you know estimated around that 1.25 million for homes 7 through 10 for Minnesota housing. So that, you know, $520,000 investment, you know, we're turning

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into, you know, $4.5 million in total investment into these homes. Um, and that includes, you know, uh, labor material. So that's really that kind of near-term investment that I wanted to share with you guys. and really just think about, you know, when we were

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here, uh, you know, we talked about when I was here the night that uh, you know, we you guys approved this investment, we talked a lot about just getting the momentum going and, um, you know, using this as as a leverage to get to make things happen. And I think um, we've

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been able to prove that with um, the money we've already raised for homes 2 through six. and I I hope we're successful in raising money for homes um 7 through 10. And then just kind of diving a little

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bit more into the kind of proof point, I guess, and just wanting to share with you guys how this went. And I'm going to ask Mitch to come up and and share his community experience as well. Um, you know, as we as we began constructing these homes

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and, uh, we got them done and we were trying to figure out when should we market these, when, well, when do we put them on the market, when do we make this happen? Um, working with the realtor. We put the homes in the market on a Friday afternoon. By Monday afternoon, we were turning people away saying there's we

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got way too much interest. Um, so I think within within about three days we had 10 qualified nine or 10 qualified applicants that we were trying to work through. Um, right now we work on a first come first- serve basis. So it was the first first two households that got

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all their stuff together. Um, you know, approved financing, all those things to be able to purchase the home. um we're awarded the the homes and um you know really this this matching funding has accelerated this to um you know keep our

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plans here. So I think what I'm trying to say on that last sentence is just the by having this investment we've really prioritized developing in Belrammy County. Um, we've actually used it to even set the standard across other parts of the region where we've been trying to

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kind of keep a 25,000 per unit is kind of a, you know, hey community, if you guys can come up with about this much, we might be able to go to Minnesota housing and get the rest. Um, and because of this investment, you know, we're planning on building three years in a row in Belrammy County. Um, without

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that, we would like, you know, is an organization that serves 12 counties. Um, you know, we got to go where there's matching dollars available as well. So, by putting this investment in, it's really uh helped us focus in on on doing this development. And Mitch, if you want to share your kind of community

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experience of what you've been hearing and um thoughts on our partnership. >> Sure, absolutely. Mitch Rodio, and uh thank you for for uh the first application and and the homes in a development on the south end of town here in the city limits. That's uh

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Mountain View Meadows. Um, when Corey first brought this to me, I kind of thought he was crazy. I'm like, really? We're not going to own the A homeowner is not going to own the land. And uh, I have to admit, after hearing and

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understanding and seeing the process, it is truly when people talk about affordable homes, that word gets thrown out a lot and this is truly one of them. Right? when you can take a $350,000

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house and be able to sell it to those folks that are eligible qualified candidates and they're paying I don't remember what it was if it was 215 >> under 200 at the end of the day they're paying under 200 so that's pretty

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impressive that they can have the homeownership the pride the everything that goes along with it and you know to be honest if they don't own the land under it for they will it'll never change the way that they own that home,

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right? They're going to own that home the same way no matter what. They're going to be proud and and upkeep it and it's theirs, right? Just when time comes to sell, that's when they will be able to uh the the equity that is raised over

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time and that sale. um they will be able to to earn some of that equity, but then the rest of the equity will go back to No, our neighbors to make sure this is generational. That's kind of cool that it'll be, you know, for generations longer than I'm here. It'll be an

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affordable home. It'll be upkept uh every time these guys every time it's sold, it'll be, you know, potentially looked at. Make sure that if there's any improvements need to be made, they're going to take care of that. So, pretty impressive that there's a house that can

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be affordable home forever. So, um I think it's a great program. Um the other thing that I think uh in one of the meetings that I heard that was kind of unique that I didn't get a gut feeling for right away was money that that the

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county, city, someone would invest, how Minnesota housing, right, would invest into a single house for affordable housing. um usually goes to that first homeowner, reaps the benefits of it, right? And and then it's gone. It's a

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one and done, right? This this continues on forever. So, pretty impressive. I have to admit, when I went on the market, I've never had so many phone calls, and I'm not the realtor. They just happen to know it's my development. And so, I probably had six phone calls within, I don't know, pretty an

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afternoon of him putting it on the market. So, it was impressive. [clears throat] >> Yeah. Thanks, Mitch. I I think the other p piece I'd highlight is um Mitch mentioned before in that in the Mountain View Meadows development that he has, it is it's a restricted development where

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you have to serve under 115% AMI. So, with that development, by us creating a partnership and us bringing these funds in, it's been it's made it possible to serve the demographic that um Mitch has always intended to serve, which is low to moderate income households and families. And um with this addition of

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this the CLT homes, it'll really turn into a beautiful little neighborhood. Um any questions on the investment and what we've accomplished so far? And then I can talk more about the >> I have the model. >> Is this location is this in the city or is it in the county? It is in the city.

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Okay. >> Y >> and then do you have enough room there for the number of homes that you're talking about? >> Yeah. So we actually right now have phase one. So the the whole development as a whole is 48 acres. >> Okay. Uh it's 112 single family home

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sites and 212 multifamily sites. So we are just in phase one uh onethird of that and so these current ones will fit in phase one. >> Next year phase two will start and that'll be another third. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions?

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>> Go to some of more the >> Yeah. Yep. I can share kind of how the program works if if you guys don't have any questions on on the the investment or what we've been accomplishing uh since we were awarded the funds. >> We'll see.

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>> Yeah, sounds good. All right. So, I tried to keep this um you know, knowing so you guys are busy, I tried to keep this short as well. So, feel free to jump in and ask questions. Uh that that usually works best as they come up. Um so uh Northstar neighbors is

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a community land trust. Community land trusts have been around oh I some people say the 70s some people say the 60s few different trains of thought on that but uh essentially they've been around the country for a long time. They've been in Minnesota I believe since the 90 like

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early 90s. Um there's, I believe, 1,800 land trust, community land trust, single family home units, um across uh um the state. It's it's becoming more popular to be in in more rural areas rather than

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just metro. Um so seeing more development um in southern vi or southern Minnesota and then um a partner uh in Grand Rapids has been really successful recently. I think they've sold about 12 units recently um using

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the same model that they've created. So um it's uh it's new to the Northwest region. It's not new uh in uh in theory. So the the two tools we use to create maintain affordability is that first mortgage principle reduction gap

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subsidy. So that's that's that subsidy that Mitch mentioned. It's kind of, you know, in a traditional sense, if this wasn't a community land trust, you'd give somebody a first mortgage reduction, whether that's a forgivable loan over time or a grant or something like that, so that they can afford the

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home um in the first place. In the CLT model, we have another tool where we retain the land. So, the land ownership is maintained by the community land trust. And then we use a ground lease. Um, and that ground lease, which

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essentially I like to explain that we lease the grass and everything above it to the homeowner. So, they own it all or I mean we lease the ground, they own the grass and the and everything else on top of the ground, right? Um, and in that ground lease, uh, we have a shared

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equity resale formula. And that's the tool that I'll go through that really creates that generational affordability. Um, and and creates the affordability from one buyer to the next. >> Hey, Corey. >> Yeah. >> What, uh, the community land trust, who

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how did that start or who funded the the purchase of the the property to do this whole project on? Um, >> did any of our county funds go towards that land acquisition or or was the county funds strictly for the actual housing construction?

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>> You know, I guess I in a in in some sense. So, in these so in these um in these first two homes, uh the the the money goes into it's um it doesn't necessarily I guess I'm

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trying to figure out the best way to answer your question. It's a it's a piece of the bigger puzzle that creates the affordability. So, it it didn't necessarily say it only paid for the land or only paid for the development. It kind of it it's it's subsidy that

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cover that just reduces the total cost of construction down to what the what the buyer can afford. So, there's a few ways we can do that, but definitely pieces of like we purchase the land, but we also have to pay for that gap in what it costs to build the house, right?

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>> So, it covers both. It can cover both of those things. >> Um, >> so who actually retains o ownership of the the CLT? >> The Northstar Neighbors is Northstar Neighbors is a subsidiary organization of the Northwest Minnesota Foundation.

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Right. So Northstar Neighbors, we have our own nonprofit, our own >> whole legal entity, right? So that that >> that's what I was wondering. Super So the CLT is owned by Northstar Neighbors. Okay. >> Yep. Yep. So the the land is owned by Northstar Neighbors. Yep.

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>> This the CLT is, I guess, the model, right? That So, Yep. So, the Northstar Neighbors is that nonprofit entity that's, you know, governed by a board of directors, all those things. Um, that will that will maintain the ownership of the land. >> Okay. Thank you.

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>> Yep. Sorry. Thank you for clarifying the question. Um so again that you know going into I think the pieces people are most interested in of that ground lease is the appraisal based share shared equity

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uh resale formula. So all the CLTs that I'm aware of in Minnesota use a 25% of appreciation uh shared equity resale formula. So, what that means is, let's just say in in this case, in this example, the initial fee simple home

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value is $300,000. We probably should up this because we don't build homes at $300,000, but that's the that's the traditional market value is at $300,000. Um, we sell this home to our initial CLT buyer for

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$180,000. Um, so that that creates that first sale. They bought it for $180,000. Now time has passed and they want to sell and it's it's their they they come to us and say we want to sell can you help us

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find a eligible buyer and we absolutely do that. We we will help them find a buyer and transfer the lease. Um and that at that time we go and get a new appraisal and that fee simple value is now set at $340,000. So it that that home the value

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appreciated by $40,000. So, we do a resale calculation to figure out the the initial invest the initial cost or the initial appraised value versus the new appraised value leaves $40,000 in appreciation and $10,000 goes to the

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initial buyer and they get, you know, obviously they get if they paid their mortgage off, they get their full $180,000 plus the plus the$10,000. If they didn't pay their mortgage off, they pay their mortgage off and keep whatever cash is left just like anybody else, right? So, so what so at that what we

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what we set is the next sales price in simplest form is we sell that house again let's say it was 5 years later for $190,000 and we don't ever take any of that equity out of it. So there's that so there's that $30,000 that remained in

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equity that stays in the home forever. I call that the pay it forward equity that's just going to that was the grant investments. Those are the investments that are going to keep it affordable so we can we can continue to sell it at these low prices for generations to come. Now things change, right? Because

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they're over time AMI area median incomes are going to change. So costs are going to change a little bit. We also have the ability to in in uh in many cases, let's say it's 20 years and we're like, you know what, this house could really use some new windows or a new roof before we put somebody else in

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it. we have the option to buy it back. And now we don't take any money out of the house, per se, but we could say instead of selling it for$1 190, we could take $40,000 and put new windows and a new roof and really update that house. And now we sell it to the next

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buyer for 240,000 instead of 190. But you're using that pay it forward equity that stays in the house to keep it maintained and up to date and and uh in good shape so it's an affordable home for generations. Um, I have another,

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this is kind of explains it the same way. And then I'm sure you guys have questions. Um, but this kind of just shows that same same process, right? Uh, a market rail rate sales price at $340,000 on the right and then on the left you can see that ongoing subsidy,

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right? So, so in in this case, we put, you know, uh $20,000 into it to make it affordable at $180,000. Um, and now by that $30,000 that that

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was left over after the um sale, we now have $150,000 in this home of ongoing affordable affordability without any additional investment. So that I guess what that's trying to show is that when you put the public investment in, as long as the market continues to grow as

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it has, that public investment grows along with it, right? Um, uh, questions. >> Is there a time limit for them to stay in that home? >> Nope. They can stay in the they can own the home as long as they'd like to, and

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they can even pass it down to a designated heir like a family member. The only caveat on that is the the family member would have to want to live in the house, right? >> Like they couldn't pass it down and, you know, pass it down to son and son wants to VBO it or something, right? They'd have to live in it otherwise we'd help

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them sell it. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Okay. Minnesota AfricanAmerican Family

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Preservation Child Welfare Disproportionality Act. I read that. Good afternoon, commissioners. As you already noted, we're here to talk to you about the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation Child Welfare Disproportionality Act. Some people call

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it the Alphabet Soup Act. So, you can kind of call it what you want. It is it is an act that was put together um and enacted in 2024. Uh the legislation see there.

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Uh the legislation was enacted in 2024. Uh in 25 the state began to phase in um the program where Henipin and Henipin and Ramsey counties uh phased it in in 25 and they were given 2.5 million to

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move this forward. Each each were given 2.5 million to move this forward. I should have started. I'm Jeff Lyn, social services division director and with me is Lisa Monzoud, our program manager uh with children's services. Um so the imple implementation statewide

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begins on January 1st of 2027. Uh the state developed a uh statewide implementation workg group. Uh and Bel Tramy County is represented on that workg group by Lisa Mard. Uh we had to apply for her to be a part of it. And uh

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so we are involved in the implementation from I think you've been on the for probably close to a year now. Correct. >> Like 3 to four months I think. >> Oh, that's it. Yeah. All right. >> So now Lisa is going to go ahead and talk about the duties that are involved

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in implementation because she has been a part of developing or at least working on the development of these. So >> um I actually know how to say it. It's math plus CWDA because I have been on the committee long enough and I've practiced. So that that is the act. Um,

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so, uh, it's been a really interesting, this is my first state committee and it's been an interesting process. I have learned a lot and then I feel like maybe I need a lot more to learn, but I'm going to talk about the added duties. Um, there is um, training, extra

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training that is required for all child protection workers and supervisors. We just were notified, it started this month. It's a two-day virtual training and all of our workers are signing up right now. So no one has attended yet because it is just rolling out now. Um there are extra case reviews and legal

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processes that workers will be involved in. They are still not quite sure how the case reviews are going. I think um counties are pushing for the state to do the reviews of all of our cases and I think DCYF is pushing for the counties to do them. So that is still not

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determined. Um the enhanced data collection is going to impact workers greatly. Our SSIS computer system is extremely old and it does not have the capacity to do all of the documentation that is going to be required. So there will be some processes that are going to

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have to be a new plan is going to have to be per county because we don't have a way for it to draw in the collection that we need at this point. Um and then compliance with DCF that that is a big part of the committee I'm on right now is we are reviewing the process. They

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have set up a portal for people to families to call in if they have compliance complaints, but to be honest, there is a lot of work left to be done on that portal. Um, I think they have one person right now that is assigned to handle all of those calls and

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complaints, and I don't expect that that will be able to be handled by one person. So, I do think there's a lot of work left to be done on the compliance part. um our added duties. Um I think most we've talked about delivering active efforts that is a huge part of our equa cases um and workers are

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required to do rigorous um efforts. I I feel like we do a lot of active efforts on all of our cases. But I thought maybe it'd be helpful just to give a couple examples of what the difference is. So a reasonable efforts on a case for example transportation. A reasonable effort would be the worker would give uh a

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phone number for public transportation. that would be the reasonable effort. When we're talking active efforts, which will be required um for these cases, we provide bus passes. We provide the schedules, we give them a ride. Um so it's it's way more efforts needed. Um

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and then I thought maybe I'd do one more. The housing the reasonable effort, we provide the family with a housing resource, a list. Um if we're doing an active effort, we're helping them fill out applications. We're taking them to their housing appointments. We might even be assisting them with deposits. So

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it is much more intensive work when we're doing active efforts. Um the other added duties there is a lot more engagement with non-involved or non-custodial parents. We already do some of that but this act um makes us do a lot more including documenting that um

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placement prioritization. That's where we have a heightened scrutiny um to place with relatives and non-custodial parents. I do feel as a county we do a great job of that, but we will be having to document and it will be looked at closer. Um, and then safety planning. This will greatly impact our

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um Chris's unit, our investigation unit, because they are going to be required to do safety planning almost immediately. I think it's within 3 days. So, we are going to have to figure out um how to get that as a part of those that very initial case opening which will take a

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lot of time. I I would also say that that case planning really or that the safety planning also really includes a lot of the active efforts. It's really safety planning is taking a look at the situation and figuring what are the things that what are the what is in the

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way of this family being able to move forward and be able to keep that child in their in their home. Right? So the our our investigators are going to be developing these plans and they're going to be pretty exhaustive and

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they're going to it's going to mean that the investigators and assessors are actually going to be providing a lot of these active efforts as they move forward and it'll take a lot of time. Uh and and frankly as we as we look at at MAPA um it really it can't come without

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cost. There's a lot more work involved for our staff. And when you look at the duties that our are particularly right now, our intake and investigation staff are doing, they're already overt taxed with a number of investigations and assessments that they're that they have

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to do. So these added duties, we will not be able to accomplish them and continue to provide safety for these youth and these families. and we won't be able to work to keep them together without added cost to the county and or

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the state. Um, so and then there's the active efforts. Active efforts, Lisa talked about the active efforts and active efforts that she was talking about are a lot of our time directly spent with with individuals. Some of the other things

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that are covered when we talk about for housing, it's damage deposits. Um, it is that time spent. It may be it may be providing providing the bus passes. It may be actually driving people to and from appointments. It might be setting

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up uh uh counseling and therapy and assessments and bringing them directly to them. Our staff using their own vehicles and the costs come along with that. Staff using county cars. All those different things that it all adds cost to the work that we do. And it's all

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extremely important because by doing these things we are hoping to eventually reduce costs right uh statewide that would be part of the reason for this I mean the main reason was the disproportionate number of African-American youth that were

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entering the system right so at this point um the hope is over the long term that there'll be there'll be fewer placements because of the active efforts on the front end that there'll be less childhood trauma. If there's less

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childhood trauma, the it's anticipated that there will be less trauma going forward and fewer families continuing in the system. And we're looking at fewer and shorter interventions from children's services. Um, and then the increased preventative services that

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comes with the safety plan. So, we were given 20 minutes. We've pretty much gone through our our presentation. Um I would ask for questions. >> Mr.

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>> Uh Mr. Chair, so whether we want to call it, you know, an alphabet soup or whatever we want to call it, I think it's important that we really call it what it what it is, you know, the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation Act.

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>> Absolutely. you know, uh so let's not get it mixed up and and and let's uh let's start there. >> Absolutely. >> Um and part of this um presentation I was kind of going back and forth

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um in my mind about what's the difference between this and my because it almost sounds pretty similar. Um, which led me to to wonder how many cases do we have of the Minnesota

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African-American family. >> Sure. >> And currently in the county, >> Jeff had invited me to be prepared for questions on this as well. Uh, I can shed some light on that. It is called the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation Act. However, that

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definition of African-American that they use in the statute is incredibly broad [snorts] such that because it includes all uh children who are families that have any sort of disperate um effect to

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their life, you know. So, it's it isn't just someone who is what you consider a black person, you know, or you know that an African-American. It it's going to cover a lot more than that. It's honestly the individuals who have looked at it in

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both my organization and and Jeff's organization, we're making the legal determination that it is going to probably cover 100% of our cases, you know, so every single case we have. And uh when you bring up MIFPA and IQUA, the standard in the African-American Family

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Preservation Act is a higher standard than even IQUA. It's like a equal to but different you know like both are higher than the reasonable efforts right but um IQUA and

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NIFPA have active efforts the African family African-American family preservation act has active efforts but different they're they're they're same level but they're different so it's going to affect every single case that we have to a different standard we're

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going to have to apply standard every single which I think is where Jeff was going to on the, you know, this is going to be a massive taxation on not just his staff, but my staff because it's going to probably not increase court time too

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much, but it's going to increase all the staffing time, all that stuff you don't see on the, you know, in the in the courtroom, the behindthe-scenes stuff. And that's where my staff is going to get really overburdened because, you know, it's it's going to be all the questions, all the legal research, all

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the legal advice, all the staffing, you know, you know, ad nauseium. Um, but to succinctly answer your question, it is going to affect every single case in Belrammy County or at least 99.9% of them.

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>> Okay. So the question is how many cases do we have in the county? Are you currently working on you know active efforts in regards to to this act or but I I'd have to get back to you on

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that because I don't I don't have those numbers in front of me. >> Okay. We have generally we're roughly running a hundred open chips cases at any given time. [clears throat] But the ones that are open and in court

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are, you know, the tip of the iceberg to the work that both their office and my office do. you know, because we um you know, we do everything we can to prevent a case from having to go to court if we can. If

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there's any way we can do voluntary services, if there's any way we can do some sort of intervention that doesn't lead to a court file being opened, we are going to do that. Uh their their staff is amazing at that. My staff works

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with them on that every single day. Uh so I couldn't tell you the total number of cases we work on but in court at any given time it's around 100 of them. >> Okay. Uh so Mr. Chair um so you you don't know that the current

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amount of cases. So uh but you are telling us that it's going to cost a lot of money. So, how do we know that it's going to cost a lot of money without knowing how many cases we're we're dealing with? And is there how do you

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what's what's going to be that financial impact, you know, to the county that we have to to think about, you know, as as we're, you know, um going through the budget process and and things like that? >> It's a soft cost in the sense that it's it's going to increase staff time. And

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if you increase staff time, you do do one of two things. You can expand staff to uh accommodate that increase in staff time. Now, it's going to be very hard to quantify how much staff time is going to be increased, but

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they're going to tell you every single case is going to have a different standard that they now have to abide by. So, it's going to be just more time. 10 minutes, a half hour, an hour per case per day or something like that. I'm not going to be able to tell you that specifically, but I know it's going to

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be more and it's going to be a lot more of my staff's time interacting with the agency to, you know, every because we want to get everything right. We don't want to do it, you know, um, we don't want to the law is there. We're going to follow it. We're going to follow it to the team. We're going to do it right.

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We're going to do what the legislature wants us to do. Okay? So, we can either increase the staff time to accommodate that or we can use the same step we have and try and crush it in, but then we're then we're either risking

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not following the law or we're going to end up not doing something else. We're going to have to put something else on the back burner, you know, which is probably also statuto. So, like you're, you know, stealing computer to pay Paul, you know, kind of thing.

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>> Uh, Mr. Mr. Chair, is is there um a way, you know, maybe 6 months from now or a year from now to to see how much of a financial uh cost this is to the county? >> I mean, because we heard a lot of

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numbers prior to the implementation. So, you know, >> yeah, I mean, we >> through through SSIS, we log we log out all the hours that we do. I I'll tell you right now, our intake and investigation unit, they log more than already each of the staff, shouldn't say

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each, most staff are logging more than 40 hours in a in a regular week, work week. This added time is just going to continue to add to that. If we don't if we don't um if we're not able to staff appropriately

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for this, what will end up happening is we'll end up with more overtime. We'll end up with more burnout. We'll end up losing more staff. when you lose more staff, more training, there's more costs that go along with all those types of things. So, we're we're we are going to

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be asking for a staffing ask as we come into the budget season. We will also be asking for dollars uh for the active efforts because those are we have to do those things. Now, the state has allocated $15 million statewide for

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implementation. Okay? every county will get at least $100,000. Now, that's not nothing. That's not nothing. That's a that's a decent amount of money. The question is, we don't know how much we're going to get. I would assume the lion share will end up in the

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metro area, but I suspect that we will get more than $100,000, but we don't know what that looks like as of yet. So, I think that will that will assist us as we move forward with our asks. It will not cover everything that we're

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going to be asking. It It just can't. And I I just also want to reiterate that this is important legislation. This is this the what I stated about the what the hopes are those those are real anticipated outcomes, right? That we

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will have lower costs in the long run. We will have less trauma. We will have more kids in their own homes. more kids that um come from disproportionate backgrounds. Right? So, I think it I just really want to reiterate that that is important and the long run the long

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the long look is that we'll be in a better place in the future because of this. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Jeff, I I think if I'm hearing you right, the goal is laudable.

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The problem I've seen with state programs that have laudable goals is they don't always monitor to see if they've actually achieved those. Is there a monitoring component that will go into this program so that five years from now they can come back and measure that and say we

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really did make progress or are we just going to do the same thing we've always done throw more money at something and and don't know don't know if it did any good? >> That that's that's an interesting point. Now they're they are going to be monitoring but they're going to be

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monitoring monitoring for compliance with all the things that are required within the act compliance with active efforts compliance with with notifying and involving uh parents whether they will be doing the long-term monitoring

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of whether there was a a tangible outcome that I don't know. Can I piggyback on that? Just to um praise the agency a little bit here.

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We already get monitored on our equa performance and Bel Trammy County uh through the health human services agency generally gets a 100% every single year on that. We're one of you know the few counties in the state that do that consistently. So we already know how to

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do the work. Again, that's going to be a subset of cases that we do. Now, it's going to be expanded to the whole and it's going to be a slightly different standard. So, we're good at doing the work. Um, and so the monitoring, you know, we monitor ourselves because um

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with several funding sources are based on there there's equa money that is based on our performance. And so, we're very good at that. We I would imagine we would impose the same internal standards to

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ourselves to make sure we're doing well. Now, statewide, I don't know if there's going to be the monitoring that we do here in Belrammy. >> I do need to clarify the last couple of audits, we did not meet the 100% mark. >> We get close, you know, we're we're we're over 95% in in almost all of

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these. So we but there there are a lot of pieces that are very easy to miss and some of them are not things that we even have control over. Um one I I'll speak just for a second about that one time we missed because um one of the local

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tribes during COVID did not receive um the the notices that they needed to receive. Although we sent them when they were supposed to, they didn't physically have them in the time frame that they needed to have them. We had another instance where there was just a a a mess

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up in the court um not notices that went out. Uh that was early on. So, there's been there's been some things that we have limited I won't say we have no control over, but very limited control over certain things. >> And all that clerical stuff falls on the agency for funding purposes. And so

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that's why appropriate staffing is so critical because if you don't have the appropriate staffing, you're going to miss more of those little things that you just have no control over. It's another agency making a mistake, but we're still the ones responsible for it. So we we can always go back and fix it if we're if we're able to catch it, but

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we have to have the the appropriate staffing levels to catch this thing. So, because I know Bel Tramy County is um um I know our department is really really good at what you guys are really good at what you do and I probably heads and

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shoulders maybe above other counties so I appreciate that. Is there a way that even if the state's not monitoring, is there a mechanism or some measurements, benchmarks that you guys know of that as we go forward, we go, guess what? We

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know we can prove that we have less dependency going forward because we've done these things. Now, it may take 10 years. I mean I I mean realistically just because you saved three kids today that's not going to turn into a savings

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next week or next year. It's going to be years down the road. But I would like to think that there's some way that we can monitor that. I don't know what the mechanism would be, but you guys probably already know what it is. >> We've we've been monitoring placement rate. You know, the number of kids in

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placement. Uh I I came in as a supervisor in 2006, so I've been monitoring that for 20 years. Um, so we can I mean I can see the eb and flow of how things some how that has gone and I think that might be one of our better

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indications as we move into the future. Um, of course there are things that change that. You know, methamphetamine when it when it became popular, placements went up, you know, so there's there's always going to be that eb and flow. But I I do believe that that might

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be one of the better ways to look at um now our and our placement costs are still high. That's because the cost of the placements are rising. The number of kids we have have have kind of come down to a what I'm not there's no reasonable

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rate, right? zero should be what we should be shooting for. But it's come down to a rate that is um understandable anyhow. Um and I think that as we move forward with this, as we're funding it, as we are working on it, we hopefully

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we'll be able to see whether or not there is a difference in the number of kids that go into placement. That might might be one of our because it's already in place. We already checked that on a quarterly basis. Um, and we've [clears throat] been doing it long

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enough that it it really does show some good trends, [clears throat] >> but Jeff and and group there wondering my recollection, maybe Tom can clarify for me. I I was thinking that it was like

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1.3 million that we were estimating this was going to cost. And so 100,000 is a drop in the bucket for that. That's I mean we're looking at you know well over a 3% tax increase just for this one program. Um which is killer for our

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community as a as an impoverished area and and overtaxed area to begin with. So, um, you know, just to make sure that that's out there and on the record that the state is by giving Ramsey County 2.5 million and and Hunen County 2 and a half million and then giving the rest of

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the state 15 million to to divvy up. That's just pathetic. So, I I just not happy with the, you know, the shoving this down our throats with at that high of an expense. I'll say that with that understanding,

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um, I've started putting together what I'm anticipating asking for. We will not be near that ask. We will be quite a bit lower because we are doing everything we can to keep this as as reasonable as possible for the taxpayers of Belrami

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County. Um, I would love to ask for all the things that we were looking at when this initially came out. uh and we don't know what the future will hold. Um but our our ask will be significantly less than that from social services. I can't

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really speak to what [snorts] what we may see from the county attorney's office or if there are if there are unforeseen costs that could happen with the sheriff's department. So there there are some other pieces to it as well. Uh, but our ask I've paired that down as to

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what I think is what I hope is a reasonable ask. >> Any idea? You mentioned staff. Do you have any idea how many you're going to be looking for? >> I'm the ask I'm going to have is for three um um child protection

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investigation staff, a lead worker, and two two line staff. That would be my ask. >> And I and I'll be honest with you, I understand the finances of the county. I understand the challenges that we that we face here. Um that's part of the reason that I've really tried to pair it

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down as much as I can. Uh but you know what we we will accept what what is handed to us and we'll make our best. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. Any other questions? No. [clears throat] >> Thanks a lot, guys. Really appreciate

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it. We do. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. County State Aid Highway One speed study. Good afternoon, commissioners. The item I have for you is uh the potential to request Mindot to do a

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speed study for us on our county state highway 1. Uh this is different than other speed studies that uh we have asked Mindot to do for us. In this one, we're actually asking for the speed limit to go from 55 up to 60 miles per hour. That is an option that was uh

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allowed here a few years ago. A few counties have done that on their road segments. Um but this would be the definitely the first for us. Uh our stated uh highway one is on the county line with Marshall County. It is part of

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the corridor the Greg to Gully and up towards Roso on Highway 11. Uh that corridor is uh frequently used by trucks coming from the north um and also other travelers, but it's kind of that long

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corridor um missing part of 89. Um all of the other counties, there's quite a few there that uh own parts of that corridor um ha have all passed resolutions in support of doing the study and asking Mandot to consider this

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60 mph uh speed limit. So I guess for the big thing for consistency I guess uh I would request that the county board uh do the same request MDOT to do the study and see what comes out of it if it's 55 or 60.

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>> Any questions for him first? No. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. It's on the consent agenda as the with the resolution to approve if if supported. >> No questions, it looks like.

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>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Environmental services department update. [clears throat] Good afternoon. I'm Brent Rude, environmental services director. Uh just thought we'd come and give you a a brief

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update on permits um issued in the county. Kind of try to do this um on a regular basis throughout the years just so you uh are up to speed on what trends might be building. Is it up, down, is it sideways or what it's looking like. So just giving you sharing some

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information. Um this chart I don't have too many slides. This is one of three. So, this chart is crazy busy, but the the main goal that I want to really show and point out, the blue, the dark blue is all of our septic permits over the last 14 years. Um, so septic permits,

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the number we issue keeps increasing. Uh, it's on an upward trend, has been for quite a while. Um, one, so a couple of different events that have happened over the course of this time period. one is a ordinance changed back in 2015 that required

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compliance inspections on transfer of properties and that identified that act alone identified a bunch of non-compliant septic systems annually that need to be replaced and then also um in 2024 we started issuing permits for septics in the joint planning board

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area. They no longer did that on their own so our permit numbers went up. But if you look, if we were to look at these on a countywide basis, that really doesn't change. It's just went from us permitting them instead of the greater Miji area JPB. The orange or red, I'm

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not sure what color that looks like on your screens, the next tallest lines is the building permits that we issue. Um, and that is on a slight downward trajectory. And um one thing that has happened early I think it was 2014 or

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2015 um Frone Township started issuing their own building permits in the Shorland area in Frone Township. So that took away um I didn't look too hard to figure out what the numbers of that would be. But say it was 10 a year. Um if you

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increase our numbers 10 a year after that it would probably be a fairly linear line. Um, I remember looking back at a building permit um, issuance and it seemed pretty steady. It wasn't up a lot. It wasn't down a lot. It was just every year was a little bit up, a little

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bit down, but continuing that same kind of straightforward trend. Um, so I give you the building permit information with um, couple of caveats. We don't issue building permits for the entirety of Bel Tramy County. We only issue permits in the shoreland area within 1,000 ft of a

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lake or 300 ft of a river. And we don't issue permits in all of the townships in Belrammy County. There are several townships that issue their own permits even in the Shorland area. So, um we're just getting a small fairly consistent snapshot over time for that. And then

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the um the other the gray bars are Shorland alteration permits and then the really small ones at the bottom we have conditional use permits, variances, plats. If anybody's interested in any of the details of that, I can get that to you. The the only thing I would really point out or say about um conditional

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uses and variances is they're they're pretty unpredictable and don't follow a real trend. I mean, some years we might have a bunch, some the next year we don't have as many. And it's just based on the the uniqueness of each property and what the land owners want to do and need. um plat I will say if you look

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back at the beginning um after the housing bust in the late 2000s there was a surplus of of lots that had been created in Belrammy County and we didn't see a lot of plats um for quite a few years we saw none and now we're at the

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point where if you look back it's um we're seeing a few plats every year I mean you guys probably noticed you're seeing them on the consent agenda more often than you ever have in the past too So plats are coming and happening. Um and then I look at these for budget

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purposes every year, but I thought it it's kind of interesting to share with you. This is just comparing the last four years, the permits that have been issued between January 1st and June 1st of each of those years. Just so we're comparing apples to apples from a time

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frame perspective. Um, I I expected 2026 numbers to be slightly down from 2025 in part because I know we weren't issuing permits a lot early this winter and our 911 addressing talking to our GIS director was down um almost 25% so

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far this year, but we've been issuing a lot of permits and I know majority of those have come in the last few weeks. It's been really busy, but um we issue most of our permits in late summer and early fall. Um I think the the

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timeliness of how late does our winter go really affects how many permits are issued in the spring of that year. And then uh it was interesting to look back 2023 I think was the first year that we really saw the um pause of construction

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activities in Belrammy County at least for us because of building material prices spiking so high. People really sat back and waited to see if prices would come down at all and then when they realized they weren't they went ahead and started building the things they were going to build anyways. So,

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um, and then I guess the last slide I just have a couple of other, um, updates. One is just to make sure you're aware of that we've been working with the city of Wilton. The city of Wilton is the last place in Belrammy County that issues their own septic permits and, um, they're going through a process

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right now and trying to figure how to discontin doing that. Um, we'll be at some point, I assume, we'll be issuing septic permits in the city of Wilton again here shortly. um they need to hold a public hearing and repeal their septic ordinance and um turn everything back

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over to us. And then um just a update for everybody, the AIS decontamination station unit is out at our new location and up and running out at the new storage building at highway now. Um that's been fantastic and working great. And then um we have a noxious weed

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meeting coming up. the the notifications just went out here recently within the last day or two. Um may maybe even this morning went out I but June 16th here in this room 10:00 a.m. to noon is the annual noxious weed meeting. We haven't

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hosted one for several years now. So if you know any township officers or anybody who have been asking or anything, you can let them know, but we sent that out to the townships as well. And that's all I have for you. If you have any questions or want more information, let me know.

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>> Mr. Chair, I was I've been meaning to ask about maybe an update for the cannabis license. Um, how that's coming along and have we issued >> we have issued one conditional use

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permit for a cannabis business outside it's it's really outside the city of Biji. Um, we issued one for the the business. Um, sorry, I can't think of the name of what they opened up as, but they're open just north of Baiji on Urban Avenue. Um, the Old Newbies Lake

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Lakes Market Coconut cannabis. Any sort of >> How do you know that? >> How do you know? [laughter] >> Yeah, we issu So, that's the only conditional use permit we've issued for a cannabis retail facility. Okay. And and do you know if the city or or any other cities in the county have have

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issued >> um I don't know of any other cities. I know this uh city of Biji was battling with one over south of town and by South Lucan store. I don't know for sure if that one was ever approved or not. I think it was.

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>> It was. >> It was. Okay. >> Um that's the only one I know of for sure. >> Okay. All right. Yeah. I was just kind of curious to know um because when I go to meetings and and such, people ask, well, you know, has the county issued

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any, you know, uh permits cannabis? So, >> yeah, a few people have reached out and asked questions, but really the interest is almost dropped off entirely um in the whole cannabis world. I I have a feeling that the the people that were early

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involved in getting their licenses in the lottery were sticking it out and staying through it and other people are slow to dip their toes in that investment. I I I think it's going to reach a saturation point at some point and people are nervous about not getting a return on their investment.

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>> So, um the county can issue or the county is allowed one license per 12,000 10,000 >> 12,000. Yeah. So, the Minnesota state statute, um, it's kind of a weird way to say it, but they limited the counties to

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being able to restrict the number of licenses to no less than one for every 12,500 residents of the county. So, our our cannabis ordinance says that we have to issue four or we have to issue up to four. After that, we would say no more

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unless we revise the ordinance. >> Okay. Those four can include the ones that are in >> they can y >> anything in >> city we could say we're done no more >> correct

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>> if we want >> and I would say it's anything within the county's geographic boundary. So on the reservation as well could count. Yep. But >> I have a question. Uh Brent, uh you

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think that the numbers on your permits for because they're all lakes shore or >> Yeah. >> river access, you you think a big part of the reason that they're down is that they we're limited on how much of that there is land to build?

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>> Yeah, I I think there's a lot of factors that go into it. I mean, it's just the cost of building has gone up so much, too. Um, and there's less and less vacant lake lots or just land only to develop. The the good stuff, the easy stuff has already been developed.

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>> Yeah, >> there's a lot of stuff that's um, frankly, it's tough to develop some of it. A lot of wetland um Yeah, the less than desirable lots are still out there and they're still less than desirable. >> Yeah. >> So, yeah, there's some really nice ones out there, but Right.

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>> Um, less and less. Yeah, >> I get you. Any others? Yes. >> Little bit different topic, but on our on the AIS front. I know you you touched on that with the decon unit, but did the legislature cut back some of the AIS

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funding? How's that going to affect your department? >> So, the last B the last banial budget that was approved kept the funding at the current level for this bianium and has a proposal to cut it in half in the next bianium. Um

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I I think that's the way it's going to stay, but there's never a guarantee, right? Leg the next legislature will have to adopt that budget. And so we'll um the the good thing I would tell you about the AIS program at the Belrammy County level is um we have we have

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operated that program as kind of a standalone. Here's the money coming in. We're not spending any more than that money. And um we've kind of built up a small reserve for emergency response and for contingency fund stuff. Um and we're like last year we really cut back on

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inspection hours trying to anticipate we anticipated a 50% reduction in funding last year. So, um, we're we're still kind of keep on top of it, budgeting from a year-to-year standpoint so that we can budget wisely and and make that

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stretch out as long as we can, even if the legislature drops it to zero. >> Thank you, Brett. >> Thank you, guys. Cloud backup budget. >> We need a camera over there.

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>> The reason for that. Good afternoon, commissioners. Kevin Warren, IT director. I'm here today to talk about our cloud backup budget. Uh last year during the budget process, I had a budget enhancement for 2026 and moving forward to add cloud backups to the

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budget which was approved a few months ago when I contacted the vendor to get it set up. They said, "Sorry, the product you were quoted last year is end of life and no longer supported." So they sent me quotes for the new product

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that's supposed to replace it. Uh the price difference is about $21,000 a year from what it would have been last year, what that was quoted last year, what it is going to be moving forward. So I'm here today to hopefully get that approved so I can move forward so we can

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get our backups in the cloud as well. >> What are you doing for backup right now? >> I don't want to get too far into the weeds in a plug form, but we have uh onrem backup servers. Okay. >> Um Kevin, so the um you looked at other

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options, other companies, or is this are you staying with the same company and it's just adding the the cloud backup with that same company? >> With the same company. >> Okay. And I mean I know there's a couple of different ones available and I know you don't want to talk in as far as specifics on you know because of

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security reasons and and that but uh maybe maybe I can touch base with the offline just to curiosity boys. >> The other the other caveat is the quote I have is only good for two weeks >> right >> just with the cost of hardware being pretty volatile they won't guarantee the

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quote longer than two weeks. How about uh recovery solutions and and that and time um does the does this product have the ability to to get you know so say you get ransomware and and you need to get your data down from the

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cloud is there any quick way to do that? >> Not from this cloud option. No. Okay. >> This is just a repository that gets it back to our onrem device. >> Okay. >> So this would this would be helpful to fire anything like that. our our backups

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are still safe in the cloud. We can get them back after we replace our equipment, >> right? And if even if it's ransomware, we replace the equipment, we takes a day or or so for us to be able to get our data out of the cloud. >> Yeah. Um it's a lot of data. So, it's

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going to be more than a day, but >> it would be okay. That's just wondering what what our expectation level is is that you know the for the board and everybody watching that you know just because we have cloud backup doesn't mean that we wouldn't be down for a day or more. >> We're not going to be up and running the

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next day. >> Yeah. It's a it's keeping us from being down for a month or more um instead of >> being uh this enables us to not keep all of our eggs in one basket here. So >> Okay. Thank you,

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>> Mr. Chair. >> So, this is going to be a a $21,000 annual >> increase >> increase. And so, the total cost would be 50 55

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>> 55,600 roughly. >> So, you're going to do a payroll deduction program for that? [laughter] >> Sure. >> I was joking. Um, well, I mean, with with technology and and the importance of uh, you know, the the backup, you

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know, having to to back up our systems, you know, I think I would be in support of it. Um, but I also have a question about the we got an email the other day, you know, transitioning from us to.go, >> the old domain to the new domain. Yep.

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>> Yeah. Um, why why is that? It's required under Minnesota statute or 70 something local than that. But okay, >> any government agency whether it's local, tribal, municipal that hosts

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absentee ballots are required to have a go.gov domain. >> Okay. Okay. And and that will be taking place soon. >> Uh we switched over finalized it actually this morning. All of the updates were made this morning.

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>> Okay. And thanks, Mr. Chair. I know that wasn't part of the the packet, but I want to get a little bit clarification. Thank you. >> That uh I know I tried to look something up this morning and and co-pilot, I think, was or one of those wouldn't

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allow forward to the website. >> Co-pilot wouldn't, >> right? Yeah. You had to go through a different system to get to it. >> I said we didn't test co-pilot. We tested all the other browsers, Bing, Chrome, and all those. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know why it did that, but it was it wouldn't let me

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do anything there. It just kept its little thing going that they couldn't detach or couldn't connect right now or something. So, cuz it's going to take a while for all of that to propagate anyway. Um because right now when you Google Belt Tramy County, it's still showing our old co.beltra.

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But once Google and Bing and all those have a chance to crawl the website, then that'll eventually update too. But it's going to take time. Okay. Thank you. Anything else, Mr. C? >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Kevin, at what point should we start

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using the new email address? >> Not yet. We're still testing out. You'll let us know. >> Yep. I will send emails letting you know that testing. Next stage will be we've added the aliases and then you guys can start testing. And then once all that is proven to work the way it should, then

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we'll make those the default email addresses. >> And they will still forward the old one. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> We don't have an exact time frame, but I'm at least a year. We're going to keep the old ones around. >> Okay. Perfect. >> Anything else? All right. Thank you, Kevin.

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>> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. Administrator's update. You actually have time for today, Tom. Look at that. >> All right. Well, thank you. I put 14 items on your agenda today and you guys are very efficient in moving through the agenda. Um we'll start as we usually do

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with a jail project update. Uh just to let you know where a couple of the trades are. Uh the masons are working on the stone around the front entry. So it's starting to take shape, looking nice. Um and mechanical crews are still working in various areas of the building but also uh focusing predominantly on

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the exhaust fans uh and the roof curbs and the tile crews working in the restrooms of the administration building which is good. Uh electrical crew is also pulling wires again throughout all the conduits that have been laid. And I don't know if folks know but there's 20

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miles of conduit that's inside the jail building. So it's a lot of wire to pull. They'll be busy for some time. uh existing door frames and the doors are also being installed uh throughout the perimeter and and also through the facility as well. So, it's starting to take shape and uh there's a lot more

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activity occurring outside on the grounds as well uh shaping the the ground and moving earth around and uh installing sleeves for sprinkler systems and those types of things. Uh we have been down a little bit in manpower, not that's been intentional, it's not by

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accident. uh to uh typically we run about 90 uh as a crew or consolidated crew. Uh we have about 70 that have we've been running this last week and uh into this week as well. So that's kind of what's going on at the jail. I was going to bring up the website domain

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change. So I'm glad we talked about that already. So we don't need to bring that up and have that conversation. But yeah, again as as it relates to email addresses, that will be separate. Right now we're doing just the website. So the email stuff will come probably a couple weeks or so. So you can continue to use everything kind of as you have.

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Um just a quick update on housing and tax base discussion. You know, we've kind of been talking about this every so often. Uh you know, there's just a few of us working on this kind of behind the scenes trying to pull together. Uh you know, essentially right now we're working on a strategic action plan that

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would be um Greater Bumiji, Dave Hangel, and myself. We're also involving the um city of Baiji city manager and Sanford uh and uh putting that plan together which is just starting to take shape which is which is good and um because

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those are the partners we want to make sure everybody's kind of in good shape and when we have that kind of ready to go uh we'll probably start formalizing uh that document and then bringing it to the elected bodies and getting your opinion about sort of what we're

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thinking and uh hopefully get your blessing ing or modifications to that and then uh allow us to then start implementation of that. So, we're still a little ways off. Um there's, you know, this is one of those things that's occurring behind the scenes with everything else that's been going on. Um but it is something that's important

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that we're dedicating our time to as well. Um you're also aware the budget kickoff meeting uh well maybe not about the meeting, but the budget's kicking off now. Uh the official kickoff meeting is on the 10th of uh June. So next week,

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uh, Commissioner Gould will actually, typically we don't have a commissioner at that meeting, but, uh, it just so happened that it worked into the schedule. So he'll be a part of the meeting where we, uh, talk with the staff about, uh, the budget calendar, the projections, the worksheets, enhancement, capital requests, you know,

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and so on. Um, and then the budget committee, uh, for those of you on that, again, just a reminder to hopefully have your calendars cleared for the week of July 27th. Uh typically we've been using three to four days. Um and it's

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not necessarily the entire day. So it might not be an 8 to 5 kind of thing. Uh but it could be like a 8 to noon and then you know a noon to 4 the next day or something like that. It just sort of varies depending upon everybody's schedule. But if you could kind of keep that week fairly clear, that would be

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helpful uh in scheduling. Uh lastly, just a couple reminders. Uh for those of you interested, the AMC District 2 meeting is going to be held tomorrow uh in this room. Uh typically starts around 8:00. Lunch is provided if you're interested in attending that. Uh I know

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I'm a little bit early on this announcement, but just kind of putting it out there. Uh the county offices will be closed on Friday, June 19th in observance of Junth holiday since that's a fairly new holiday. Uh I think it's only its second maybe third year uh as a

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state holiday. Uh and then uh I know I'm well in advance of this, but I want to get this on your calendars early. We're going to have the all staff appreciation uh fiesta. Uh this is the, you know, sort of annual summer picnic, if you will. Uh on Thursday, July 9th, uh from

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3 until 4:30 in the courtyard of the county courthouse building. So, you're all welcome to attend that. We'd love to see you there. Uh, that's all I have for you in the form of updates, but I'll stand for any questions you might have. >> Any questions for Tom?

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>> All right. Thank you, Tom. >> Thank you. >> All right. Where are we next up to Okay, review the agenda. Anything that you see that

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on the consent? Nothing. Everything good? No changes then, Tim? All right. Well, we will take a break for a half hour.

Part: 2

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First reading >> to the flag. >> 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. >> [clears throat]

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>> Okay. I have no general comments at this time, so we'll go down to Okay, anyone wishing to address the County Board on an item not on the agenda may come forward at this time to be recognized by the Board Chair. Please

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state your name and address for the record. Comments are limited to 5 minutes. A personnel complaint against an individual county employee may not be heard initially at a board meeting. Personnel complaints may be submitted to the board in writing through the County Administrator's office.

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Person addressing the board may not use profanity or vulgar language. Do we have anybody who would like to address the board? Joe, come on up. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. My name is Joe Aiken.

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Uh my address is 418 Irving Beach Drive, Bemidji, Minnesota, 56601. Um I've lived in this community since 1967, uninterrupted, uh except for a brief military hitch.

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The reason I'm here tonight is that I'm requesting a no-cost I repeat a no-cost proposal to the commissioners to you tonight

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that I am requesting that two moderate-size signs be placed at two different locations. One at County Road 20 intersects with Big Bass Lake Road.

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And then a mile down the road is the bridge that crosses the bike trail. The other the second one there. Which is is basically going through the state park there. And this one-mile stretch would be designated or

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signed the Jim Wooster Parkway. For the lack of a better term. You you might come up with something better than that. Um The reason I'm requesting this and I and I apologize to the the county as a whole

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and Jim Wooster and his family, I should have been here 20 years ago. This issue of establishing a road around the east side of Lake Bemidji was an issue if some of you are old enough to remember from 1980

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to to 2000. In 2000, Jim Wooster was hired to be the interim county engineer with the sudden resignation of um I've got his name here.

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Uh and he ended up staying for two eight years. He he he he he resigned he retired in 2008. Um At that time, if you're old enough to remember, the headlines and almost daily or weekly

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in the Bemidji Pioneer, the the controversy, the the turmoil, the disruption that the DNR created when they legitimately shut down the swamp road, we called it. The swamp road at the end

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of Lavinia that connected with County Road 20. And it It was like this every year. It needed to be shut down. But the DNR uh I don't want to say fighting. Find a better adjective. The DNR was uh wrestling

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with Northern Township, Northern Township, with Turtle River Township, the city, and I'm I'm I'm sure the uh Beltrami County Commissioners at the time were in in involved in that. I don't remember the headlines, but uh

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when Jim Wooster arrived in 2000, he basically solved what was an unsolvable situation or issue. And I just feel

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uh personally, and my family, and I know a lot of people I talked to are are are are with me. He did walk into a hornet's nest unbeknown, but welcome to the real world, I guess, huh? Uh when he resolved this unresolvable situation,

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he in a sense saved a lot of people, a lot of organizations, a lot of money. For 20 years, if you go to a special meeting once a week or every other week, as a as an elected official from well, I

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was in Turtle River Township at the time living on Big Bass, west side of Big Bass Lake. I think we paid uh I won't use his name, but I think we paid him $250 a meeting. Well, you you you you you do the math and you you stretch that out 12 months,

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you stretch it out 20 years, and you got guys going from Northern Township to these special meetings. There's a lot of revenue, and I'm I'm a fiscal conservative myself, and I I I just I and I and I don't have

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that in the bullets and the handouts I gave you guys. That's uh I don't think it's in there. But respectfully, I'm asking that this board approve a one-time designated road to a loyal,

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dedicated, devoted employee who solved a a situation that was unbearable for 20 years. And I just found out Jim Wooster served in the United States Air Force from 1951

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to 1955. And he's uh he wasn't uh he was an aviation and he survived two life I don't know if they're plane crashes or what, but he he was awarded uh

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uh Air Force medals for that. I I can get more of that information for you if you need it. But I I truly in my heart, guys, uh feel this is the right thing to do. I'm sorry I'm 20 years late. Uh

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I I wish I was 20 years earlier. Uh but the entities involved uh he eliminated a lot of a lot of a hardship, ongoing hardship, and I'm 3 minutes over my presentation.

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I'm sorry. Uh I will I I hope that you you give him this one act of kindness if that's the right uh And I

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I do hope that you will find this worthy to move to the next level that this might come to fruition. Okay? Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Bill. Approve >> Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to approve

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the agenda with no additions, corrections, or deletions. >> Second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> I. >> Opposed? Carries.

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Need a motion to >> Mr. Chair, I'll move to approve the consent agenda. >> I'll second that. >> [clears throat] >> Yay. All in favor? >> I. >> I. >> Opposed? Carries.

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Okay. Opportunity zone. >> Mr. Chair, to expedite discussion of the topic, I'll make a motion to start with. How's that? I will move that we prioritize the zones as presented

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from Mr. Hengel with prioritized zone number one being the northwest zone, the airport zone, uh followed by number two as labeled on our map, which would be the um

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south central west Bemidji area, and number three um to be the Excuse me. the central Bemidji tract. >> I'll second that. >> Okay.

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We have a motion. Do we have any discussion? >> Mr. Chair. I just wanted to let you know that although Mr. Hangle is not in the room, we do have him on the Zoom right now in the event you wanted to ask him additional questions or had follow up or

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any of that kind of stuff. So, he can be a resource to you. >> Any discussion on that? >> Well, Mr. Chair, I think I could live with that. My personal preference was to do 213 um, just because of the uh county property behind Target and

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adjacent sites, the rail corridor, downtown core, and properties along with Adams Avenue, I think might be a just a tiny bit more right for develop- development than uh all the way on the north end. So,

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but that's that's just my preference. Throwing it out there. >> Um I guess maybe he can answer one question cuz I that that northwest one by the airport and that, does that include out by um

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I got by Paul Bunyan and and those? >> Yes, that's the technology >> the tech park. Yeah. Okay. So, there is quite a bit of space there. Yeah. Okay. That was all I needed. All right. Any other questions? Comments? No?

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Okay, we'll vote then. Uh All those in favor, say I. >> I. >> Opposed? >> No. >> Okay. We have four to one. All right. Any additional items?

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No. Commissioners report. Mr. Gasvik. >> Uh just going through mine and and normally write them down ahead of time, but uh at an airport authority meeting um and we're working through a water supply issue for the

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planning area three um and the sword authorized a study for that um to make sure that we're going to be able to provide enough water pressure and water supply for the build-out of that area. Um

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Caslick Road Fire Association had um uh meeting there cuz we we're not able to come up with a successful candidate for the chief. However, we have now at that same meeting, we ended up having an internal candidate, which could work out really well, I think. Um and we're going to our

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executive board's going to interview him tomorrow afternoon after the MC District 2 meeting. So, um looking forward to that and um let's see. We had the HRDC meeting. Uh

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wasn't anything super eventful there. Um and I think that's about it for for me for now. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Sumner. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Um

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today I will be um reading um a a little post from the Indian Country Today in hopes of educating, you know, my colleagues and

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and uh our county. So, uh on this day in 1924, the Indian Citizenship Act also known as the Snyder Act, Snyder Act, was signed into law granting US citizenship to all

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Native Americans born within the United States. The legislation marked a historic shift after Native people had long been excluded from citizenship under both the US Constitution and the 14th

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Amendment. But while the law recognized Native Americans as citizens, it did not guarantee full civil rights. Many states continued using discriminatory practices to block Native people from voting for decades,

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including restrictions tied to reservation residency, taxation, and tribal enrollment. Even Native veterans, including code talkers returning from World War II, were denied access to the ballot box.

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More than a century later, Native communities still face barriers to equal access and political representation, making the anniversary both a reflection on progress and a reminder of the work that remains.

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So, it baffles me, uh 102 years ago, you know, we were finally granted citizenship, and it doesn't seem like that long ago. You know, especially when I hear, you know, folks talking about uh

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and they're they're you know, belonging to the colony for so long, you know, long before we were granted citizens. So, I just want to, you know, share that information. Um so, that's my report. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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>> Thank you, Commissioner Sumner. Mr. DeCarolis. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Um we had a light couple of weeks. Uh Airport Authority was Commissioner Gasvig. Uh I did attend the Cross Country Ski Club Open House that we uh granted the

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lease to uh out on Adams Avenue and uh that was well attended out there. It was It was a nice open house and got a brat, some potato salad, and and uh no it they if they they have a they've got a nice facility out there. So, I was glad that I was able to get

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out there for that. Um planning on attending the uh AMC district meeting tomorrow at least as much as I can. I have my 6-week shoulder surgery checkup with my physician tomorrow. So, I'll be gone for a little bit, but uh and then I'm

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Thursday we have Prime West meeting coming up. That's it. >> Are you getting the clearance to go golfing tomorrow? >> Keep your fingers crossed. I'll be >> Yeah. Mr. Ghoul. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple uh regular committee meetings recently and

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coming up. I think the main thing is the AMC district two uh regional meeting tomorrow here from roughly 8:00 to noon. So, um that's kind of the main thing for me. Recently, so

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happy Pride Month. >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes. >> Uh Commissioner Ghoul, do you know if there is elections tomorrow or >> so. >> Okay. >> Not this year, next year. >> Okay. And um since AMC will be in town here in

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September, I was wondering if there's been any conversation about any type of planning or events that you know, maybe >> AMC staff is on it. They're busy working, planning, booking things. >> Okay. >> So, >> All right.

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>> and there should be an update tomorrow on that. >> So, so is is there any uh swag from Visit Bemidji or anything? Or >> Oh, yeah. >> Maybe we could get uh maybe maybe we could get some of that Do you know anybody that does um you know, some of these shows that you

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know >> You could probably find somebody to do something that that >> It'd be really nice to know who's going to be who's going to be honored. >> All right. All right. >> And I am volunteering my palm too for Yeah, so

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>> Cool. All right. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Yes. All right, I didn't have a whole lot either. I didn't have any meetings or anything scheduled. So, uh you know, I did attend some memorial services last

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Monday. I did attend uh Deputy Lee Anderson's retirement party. So, he's all done now. He'll be missed over there. Um I do want to bring up one thing because of timing here. I was thinking

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about it. Um it's been a year almost a year since the storm, and I would like to see us do some kind of recognition for the county employees that went over and above and beyond. And so, I would

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I talked to Tom about it a little bit to see what it would take. Um and what we would need is a motion for him to be able to spend money to get some plaques for some of these groups of people that really did a lot. I don't really want to say who they are. I'd rather it be a surprise.

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Um I you know, I can send you all an email so that you can see what I'm I'm kind of thinking. But I'd like somebody If somebody's willing to make a motion, otherwise I will. But if somebody's willing to make a motion to allow Tom to have some

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um discretion and on that and and give me some >> Mr. Chair, I would make a motion that we authorize the county administrator um at his discretion to uh put together plaques for those

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individuals deserving. >> Okay. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. >> Mr. Chair. >> If I could >> Um >> It would probably be best if you put a budget limit number to that so that I

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don't miss your expectations. >> How much How much do you need? 500 cover it? >> Yeah. >> I amend my motion to $500 up to $500. >> Okay. I good for your second? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Any other discussion?

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>> Uh Mr. Chair, you put me in a hard place here. >> [laughter] >> It's something that I support, you know, but I also you know, feel that, you know, something coming to the board should always come in writing. Um But I know that what what what are you

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planning or when are you planning >> to do >> I was just thinking about it last night. I I thought maybe we could do it at the recognition >> And that's in July? >> Yeah. >> It'd be uh July 9th, Thursday. >> Okay, July 9th. Can we put it on the agenda next week?

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>> [laughter] >> Yeah, but you know, it >> Any other discussion? >> No. >> Okay, all in favor then say aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed? >> No. >> Okay, 4-1. You can get that done and anybody who

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would like to see that, just let me know. >> Thank you, sir. >> Um it might even Okay. Uh nothing further then? We need a motion to adjourn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Second.

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>> All right. We're done. >> Thank you, gentlemen.