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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=N2cbiiMeOE4
Video-2: youtube.com/watch?v=MBELtILpL3E

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--------- I'll just continue order. Introduction of new employees. Any new employees? No. >> No.

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Identify future work meeting topics. Anybody have anything? Commissioner Carlson? >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um after the last airport meeting we had our executive director said he'd love to come and talk about airplanes with us.

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>> Okay. >> Actually just kind of give us an update as long as we are joint powers with the city. Uh probably an annual uh I don't know if it's a report but just an annual update on what's going on at the airport is probably you know would be appropriate. Okay.

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>> U no rush just anytime that Tom can fit it in a schedule. have anything else. Okay. Guardianship discussion >> walking better. >> That's been a long time. Uh good

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afternoon gentlemen. This is more just a for your information session. Um potentially also seeking guidance. It's it's not really per se in your realm, but there are

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decisions that I make that affect long-term budget strategies. And so I want to make sure you're apprised of it. Um, I have Jeff Linds in the back as well, my assistant county attorney, Andrea Daly, who handles the guardianship. So, if we have spec

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specified questions, we can ask them, but it's more of a I want to give you guys a little precursor on what guardianships are, how they're conducted, why they're conducted, and how it affects the

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county. Uh, you can ask questions at any time throughout. It's just me going to be speaking a little bit and then questions at the end or if you want to ask questions while I'm talking that's fine too. Um, in Minnesota when a person

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loses either mental capacity or honestly just decision making capacity um that affects their livelihood, any interested person can file for a guardianship on their behalf.

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If it has to do with their finances, we can call it a conservatorship. So, we usually use the two words fairly interchangeable. Guardianship, conservatorship. Guardianship is only, you know, where do they live? Medical decisions, you know,

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their life. Conservatorship is finances. I'll just use the word guardianship to kind of cover the concept of both of them. When the county gets involved, we very rarely get involved in conservatorships. We do. We have maybe one or two at any given time.

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Usually people have resources. If they need a conservatorship, you wouldn't do a conservatorship over someone's finances if they have the resources to to um to spend on professional services. So again, all anytime I'm saying guardianship, you just think it might

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also be conservatorship. Again, the concept in the law is that any interested party can petition the court to establish a guardianship over another person if that person is in um

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you know dire mental straits or just doesn't have the capacity to care for themselves. That is a judicial determination whether it's granted or not. often most often what we see is

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family members looking after their elderly parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. Someone's started the onset of dementia or started the onset of Alzheimer's and they can't conduct their affairs. You go seek to get guardianship

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over a person. So, you can, you know, stand in their shoes. It's stronger than power of attorney. You actually can make decisions for them. You also see it sometimes with uh parents of children who have a you know genetic disease or a

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um a situation where they're not going to function fully in society once they turn 18. The parents might then also establish a guardianship over somebody. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Um just wondering how does it differ from if you have power of attorney that with all the boxes checked for finance,

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for medical decisions, everything. How does guardianship, conservatorship differ? How is it more than power of attorney? >> Yeah. Well, good question. Power of attorney, I'm simply giving you permission to sign on my behalf. I've

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given it to you. I can take it back. Okay. Um if if I'm gone, if I'm out of town or something like that and I need the document signed, my power of attorney can come in, stand in my shoes, and sign for me. >> I can then undo that decision when I get home. I can also retract that that power

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of attorney. A guardian is appointed by the court and makes the decision for you. So if you're appointed by guardian, I don't get to make a decision. You get to make decision on my behalf and I can't change that decision and I can't pull it back. So the durable power of attorney is still

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>> still weaker than a guardianship. Yeah. Durable power of attorney just means if >> um if I grant you power of attorney and then I lose my mental capacity while that power of attorney is pending or still still in existence, it it lasts

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past my um my in incapacity. You still can't make decisions for my well-being. you can just sign documents on my behalf, you know. >> Okay. >> So, >> okay. Thank you. >> Very good question. Um, the county does not do a lot of

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guardianships. They are incredibly expensive. Um, to both ma case manage and to be guardian of somebody is a is a time sync and a cost sync, right? The vast majority of

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guardianships are private party guardianships. You can go uh petition the court yourself. You can hire an attorney to do it for you. Uh the vast majority are private. However,

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when a person is indigent, uh you'll notice we we have four contract attorneys that do the child protection work, the civil commitments. They also get appointed to represent the ind the um the person

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who is receiving the guardian or the ward you know. So if someone is petitions the court to be guarding over another person that they're the ward that ward then gets appointed an attorney to represent their interests. That's are for contract attorneys. Okay.

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And every single case they're going to get a contract attorney and that's just covered by us. Um, occasionally Bel Tramy County is also the petitioner for guardianships. That happens when we have an individual

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who has very low resources and very few responsible family members or no responsible family members that are able to step up to the plate. First what what we will do is our you know Jeff Lind's crew health and

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human services will try to identify anybody that will do it on their behalf you know like and we'll walk them through the process. If we've got a a cousin or a brother or a sister or whatnot and and we've got a person who is needing guardianship, we have a

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relative or a friend or a friend of the family or something like that, we'll do everything we can in our power to convince somebody else to be the petitioner and do the work. We'll walk them through it. Still work on our and kind of educating, but occasionally we

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have the need to do that petition ourselves. So there's both the petition, you know, of just asking the court to actually grant a guardianship and then there's the who's going to be guardian. Even

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more rare, do does the county seek to be the guardian ourselves? Like you know, um the that practice however was different years ago. Uh Bel Trammy County, this would have been decades

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ago. uh Bel Tramy County was in the practice of taking in-house a lot of guardianships where we would both petition the guard for guardianship for an indigent person and then we would also recommend to the court that the court appoint a Bel Tramy County

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employee to be the guardian over that ward. Uh Jeff Lynn is still guarding over probably a couple dozen, aren't you? >> As a as a agency. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um, when I took over as county attorney eight years ago, I found that practice would be problematic. They

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had already started switching away from it, but I put a pretty big line in the sand that, you know, I I really don't like this policy both from a just a cost perspective and a assumption of liability perspective. Uh, we were at the time one of maybe a

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handful of counties in the state of Minnesota that that did that practice still. Uh, and so we've really steered away from it. the problem becomes there are still the needs right those needs still exist our solution to work away from that when we can't find a

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family member or responsible uh disinterested third party what we will do is then contract with a uh service provider Lutheran social services is one entity that does it for us there are a variety of professional guardianship

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services out there that exist and We currently contract with them on on several. Um, as a case load es and flows, that cost that line item can can increase or decrease. You know, realistically, I don't see it decreasing

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anytime soon. Um, especially if we're going to move away from the u the practice of doing in-house guardianship because again, that's my advice to the agency. why I'm bringing this up to you guys is that's a long-term forecast, you know,

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thing you got to keep in the back of your mind, right? It's not something that's going to be um addressed in this budget year, maybe even next budget year, but it's a it's a practice that from a liability perspective, I want to steer Belrammy County away from. There's

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going to be a collateral consequence to that is is still got the service still has to be provided. How does it get provided? Does that make sense? Anything you want to add, Jeff? >> We have we have 24 ws that we are guardians for. Um we have a contract

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with Lutheran Social Services that does six uh six of these for us. It is rather costly. Um it's not a giant contract, but if we had 24 of them, it would be a would be a more um significant uh dollar

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value. Um we have worked very hard to get rid of um to to either help people become their own guardian again or to locate other people that would be willing to be guardians. I think we in the last year and a half, I think we've

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uh removed nine from our roles. We're about as we can't really go any further. The the people that we have right now, they don't have anybody and they are not in a place where they are able to be guardian for themselves. Just an example of some of the things we do as guardians. Um we end up going to

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doctor's appointments with with our wards. uh in a couple of weeks we have an individual that's going to have to go to Fargo and one of my program managers is going to have she's going to be the person who takes them. Um that's a full

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day out of the office doing doing guardian work. Um I've taken phone calls at home. Um all of our all of our case managers if emergencies come up in the middle of the night, who do they call? They call the guardian. So, I mean, we

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really would prefer not to have any because we're kind of on call 24/7 um year round. Doesn't happen very often, but these calls do come in. Uh and they do take time when we have to take people to doctors and we also have

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to at times make decisions that are problematic. Sometimes there are end of life decisions that end up being made because of e situations. Now, in those cases, we're running through his office and we try and go through the the the courts to

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to get the backing in order to move that forward. I'm less familiar with that process than I'm sure David is. >> Yeah, it's uh I have had to make the decision of whether or not to take someone off of life support on several occasions because anytime we're guardian

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and I'm legal adviser to the county. So, the decision falls on me to make that that decision. So, it's a tough one, but >> so there's there's a lot that goes into it. Um, aside from just the time because and our and our I don't I don't do much of the guardianship work myself. Jerry

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has a bunch of them. Um, and that then they're supposed to meet that person in in person once a month. So, again, it takes them out of the office. It's almost like doing case management. And in some cases without the paperwork there are big

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decisions that go along. >> There any reimbursement from state or anything for doing this guardianship or that beyond the the levy? >> If if a you have to correct me if I'm wrong. Um if a person has um social

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security we're able or SSI we're able to I think charge about $50 a month. That's what this fees when we did the fee schedule re is that >> that's just that's part of it >> uh we the agency had brought uh a fee schedule change to you guys a few months

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ago that was to capture back a very small amount like again 50 bucks a month kind of thing it is it is a >> it's a cost of doing business to be a county in the state of Minnesota just like law enforcement and prosecution I mean it is it is a you know

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every county has to deal with that um we want to keep our citizens healthy. That's the best way to um avoid those costs, but it's a inevitability eventually. Any other questions?

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>> All right. >> Okay. Thank you. here. >> Public infrastructure memorial designation policy. Here we go again. Right. This is the new policy that was drawn

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up. Is that correct? >> Mr. Chair, the you might recall the board had asked at our last meeting to uh bring back the policy that was provided to you at the last meeting and then also to develop an additional

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policy which was to essentially state that the board was not going to allow for the naming of memorial and designated um uh features of public public infrastructure. So, that's what we've done for you this afternoon is

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brought back uh the original policy that allows for the naming and the secondary policy now that does not allow for the naming. Uh both the public works director and I are ready to answer questions or stand for any uh additional

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or provide any additional data or any of that sort of thing that you may have in regard to these two policies. Um but that's what was in your packet. Uh the second policy, the one that uh discusses the not naming uh would be more of an in resolution

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form. So it would be the intention that if that one was to be passed, it would be more of a resolution where the other one would actually be a permissible policy. So really makes no difference administratively. They both carry the same weight, but that's how they were written at least. So you kind of knew the difference.

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>> Chair. >> Yeah. I'll just reiterate my support for the initial one we looked at that allows for the process of uh naming a building, bridge or road after an individual. Um,

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I think it's a a very nice thing uh that the county could do for we certainly have worthy individuals uh in the community that this would be a you know a no cost thing to do other than the time uh uh maintenance worker putting up

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the sign. And um I do think the the policy of not allowing the process or or just kind of outlawing the the um possibility uh is u

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really well written but um not supportive of it. So, um yeah, I just think uh the gentleman that came forth uh two months ago um had some really solid

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arguments for for naming that stretch of road after the individual. And um and I'm pretty sure there's at least one other uh group out there that is interested in naming I think a bridge

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after a person. Um so I I think it makes sense to have a a policy in place to allow for a process and uh you know that initial proposal allows for that. So, just want to

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reiterate my support for the first one. >> Mr. Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I I think it's important that we for the record talk about the reasons why we wouldn't want to have a naming policy. And I

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think just for the public information, I want to read the where's in this second proposal. Whereas Belramby County holds its public property in trust for the benefit of all residents and future generations. And whereas the naming of county owned

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property should remain consistent, objective, and free from subjective decisions regarding individuals or organizations. And whereas requests to honor individuals or organizations through the naming or renaming of public property

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can become difficult to evaluate fairly and may result in differing standards or unintended controversy. And whereas the county board believes that maintaining a policy prohibiting honorary naming protects future county boards from the difficult task of

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comparing the merits of individuals or organizations and ensures that all requests are treated equally. And whereas the county board desires to establish a clear, consistent, and equitable policy that applies uniformly to all county owned property.

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And whereas the county board recognizes that individuals or organizations may be honored in many appropriate ways other than the naming of countyowned property. Now therefore be it resolved and goes on to say and that I think is for me

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I think the arguments that u um that Mr. Aken had I think some of the arguments that you had for the bridge a couple years ago, they're all great arguments and and I don't doubt that these people are worthy of some sort of something.

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But I just feel that as a at a board level and in a naming policy again reiterating the fairness, the equitable, the controversy that could ensue. Well, why didn't this person get it and why did that person get it? It just eliminates all of that. Um so

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that's why I'd be in favor of the new proposal the resolution number two >> there there are also as mentioned there other methodologies of you know the adopt a highway type program I've seen memorials to to people on on that and

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and I believe we can do that same type of thing on a on a county road too so pretty close to the same type of thing but but would involve them actually doing some work to keep the roadside clean and stuff. So, other other

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opportunities for that. >> And do you have the adopt a highway in the county now? >> We do. >> Okay. Uh Mr. Chair, >> yes. >> Uh Bruce, do we have any current county roads that have the have taken advantage

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of the adopt a highway adopter road? Sorry. >> Yeah, we have a pretty extensive adopt a highway program. Um quite a few of our miles are adopted and by uh groups or individuals and and get picked up or

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cleaned up through that adopt a highway program. And yeah, there's there's a bunch of them out there that might do it in honor of >> which would be a great way to do a naming without us having a naming policy. and get roads cleaned up at the same time.

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>> There you go. >> Thanks, Bruce. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Bruce. >> Yeah. And and and just to reiterate that this proposal of not naming does not preclude that. >> Commissioner Summer. >> I think it does. [laughter]

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Yeah. What? >> All right. >> Oh, >> my feeling is that we're not naming anything on on a road designation. It's simply a little sign that just says that this is recognizing something. Whether

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it be veterans memorial, whether it be law enforcement memorial, whether it be whatever memorialization it is, it's a small sign that just says it's in recognition of this, which is altogether different than naming a road, naming a

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building. So, in my opinion, so so how much better, Mr. Chair, would it be that that sign went along with that group that wanted that sign to clean up the road on a twice a year basis? That would awesome. That would be just totally awesome.

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Um, those go away in time. >> Oh, the other one has >> is it? Yeah, there was a time frame. >> I thought that was just a replacement of signs that they somebody would have to pay for, but okay.

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>> Yeah, I guess my my thoughts are if they're not going to pay for that sign, >> right? >> Right. comes down and it's done. >> Probably going to go away, right? All right. Well, we'll this one comes up at the

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actual work session to finalize. So we will we will finish it up at the agenda as we did on the regular meeting. >> Thank you Bruce. Okay. Hold on just long enough. Brian. So uh

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the 2006 solid waste division CIP project bid award. Good afternoon. I am here to present uh where the project came in on the bid process. It came in a little higher than what we

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expected, but we did have a couple additions to the project or at least one addition and and uh we had a some in or a discovery this spring that uh the storm water um

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pipe was only 4 in when we uh when we um did we actually took a camera this spring or the engineer took a camera and went through that and seen that it was 4 in and that that all needs to be replaced and there's probably 100 ft of

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that that needs to get replaced and and then put into the city storm water and that's what connects our um loading dock and that's why we get it gets frozen in the winter and we get swimming pools sometimes in the summer because it

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doesn't have the capacity to uh to drain. So, with that being said, we're at 106,000 over, I think it was on the uh 107,

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basically 108 when you round up on that. And um then we have a 30x34 section of the tipping floor that uh this spring it was January, February, I

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don't remember the exact date, but we actually had some um bad rebar that was starting to protrude out of the concrete. And we've been cutting the rebar so it doesn't uh puncture tires

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and stuff. And we've already replaced a section of it I think two years ago. I'm asking I wanted to I had it put into this project because I figured it'd be a better price to have it in a bigger project. So otherwise we would have to

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basically do it anyway because it just needs to get done and it's usually underneath garbage. So that's why it's one of those things that you don't normally see all the time and it the garbage eats at it and it's just one of those maintenance type activities that

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needs to get done. So um the extra money would come out of our reserves. We uh I believe we we did better than where I thought we were going to end up last year. So, um, that's what I'm asking the board to

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consider this evening is to approve, uh, the low bidder on the, uh, on this project. And I entertain any questions. >> That's Johnson Construction. >> That's correct. >> The money's in reserves,

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right? To me, >> I agree. Pull it off. Think >> we're good. >> Thank you, Brian. >> Thanks, Brian. >> Administrator's update. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, just provide a

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couple brief updates for you this afternoon. Now, first of all, wanted to um thank those commissioners that attended the staff appreciation event which we held last Thursday, uh July the 9th, uh or the preceding Thursday, I should say. We had, you know, good food and games for the staff, a great

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opportunity for staff to network and socialize. Uh the division storm awards were very wellreceived and appreciated. Uh so, thank you very much for your leadership on that. Uh we also had good feedback from the vent as well. Uh moving on to the jail project update. Uh construction activities remain on

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schedule uh as they have been for some time with an average on-site workforce now of around 50 workers. So you can see that's been reduced by about 40 to 45 workers uh over the initial uh big push uh for um the primary construction.

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Concrete placement resumed for the trash enclosures uh or the clash trash enclosure drive as well as the receiving and maintenance approaches. Uh the parking lots and the drive lanes were also graded and compaction testing was completed. The

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final grading is scheduled for this week uh followed by base asphalt paving. So it'll look very different here really soon. Uh which is kind of exciting. Uh the build >> they doing some of that today. >> Yeah, that's good. That's good. Uh so the building envelope work uh is going

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to continue uh and the exterior door and window frame cocking is continuing. Painting has continued to progress throughout the building particularly in area A west uh in the upper level cell doors uh and then continuing eastward. The tile crews are prep um have prepped

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the staff restroom floors throughout the building for the upcoming tile installation. And then the skylight framing which as you have heard we've sort of been spending almost like months on this. The skylights that are in the facility are extensive and they're very complex. So there's still a lot of work

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still being done on the framing, excuse me, the drywalling and the finishing associated with those hard lit ceilings. Uh particularly in the area B multi-purpose room right now. And then the electrical tr crews uh continuing to pull wire. Seems like that's all they've been doing for months as well. There's a

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lot of wire in this building. Um, and then, uh, trimming devices and areas as they become available. Uh, the plumbers, uh, did make advancements in the boiler room, uh, and particularly with the piping and the water heaters and softeners. Uh, and they're also continuing their domestic system water

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testing as well. Uh, so things just continue to go pretty well uh, on the on the ex on the new jail site. as it relates to the um existing jail site. We are continuing in that design phase right now. Um you saw in the presentation that was made not too long

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ago kind of the concept being fed out a little bit more. Uh what's happening now is we're just getting going from you know uh those initial what we call maybe 60% designs and moving those now to 90 or 95% designs. A lot of that is tedious work and so it does take some time

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particularly on a on essentially what is going to be a tear down uh not really tear down but a a a new construction to an existing facility I should say. Uh so finding out where all the um HVAC and plumbing and um entry and foundation,

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all these other sorts of things tie in to the new building that's going to be adjacent to Sally Port, adjacent to the existing structure. Um just takes a lot more time because you're not building it from scratch and putting things where you want them necessarily to be. You're having to adapt and and move infrastructure to um to fit within what

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is already existing on that existing facility. Um, I think I mentioned this in my Friday up to update to you, but uh, just wanted to have a little bit of space here to talk this through with you, but uh, Embridge, as you know, has filed additional property tax appeals. You

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might recall, um, several years ago, they filed some property tax appeals that had the count, our county, as well as many neighboring counties that Embridge Infrastructure is located in, uh, very concerned about. Um, for those who don't know, essentially the county has no

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responsibility or authority when it comes to valuing the infrastructure of utility companies uh in the state of Minnesota. That falls uh to the state of Minnesota. And when the state creates a value for that

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infrastructure and passes it along to the counties, the counties essentially put that value in for those properties, assess the tax amount, and then go to collect it. And then that becomes part of the revenues that the counties or in this case, you know, townships or cities

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or other local government units collect and then they use that money for their operations. So when years go by, right, and that money has already been expended by those jurisdictions and then an entity comes to challenge essentially

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their tax uh assessment or their tax bill. Um particularly in this case where the state's the one that came up with the n the numbers uh there's a huge risk that if they win their appeal or there's some settlement or whatever uh that

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local governments could be on the hook for refunding those collected taxes uh even though the juris local jurisdictions as I said already didn't have any responsibility or control or influence at all over setting those

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values. Um, you know that we spent a lot of time uh around 2020 2021 uh working with the state and fortunately we found a legislative fix which was essentially that the legislature backed the errors of the state and came up with $30

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million to hold um counties and local jurisdictions harmless from uh those tax appeals. So we we were able to kind of move forward in a way that sort of kept the counties and townships and cities whole. This new tax appeal is

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significant and um has the same potential to create the same problems for local governments. What's particularly concerning is that the state's not in the financial position it was back in 2020 2021 when it had those

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those revenues to sort of back up its um valuations that it created. And so we end up in a situation where local governments are a lot more concerned now about the potential under some court order or something that we would have to

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essentially refund those dollars. um and that our townships and our cities and and other local government entities would also have to do the same. So, um this is starting to get a lot more attention um as this this case moves forward. Um I did send to you an op-ed

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that was uh written um by the consortium working on this. We're sort of peripherally involved. Um, and I I guess the question I have for you is, do you want to be a part of a signatory essentially of that op-ed or something similar to that or put a

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statement out that's similar to that op-ed? Does the does the county want to be vocal about this uh or take a position uh in regards to, you know, sort of pressuring the state to to essentially back up its own work and

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keep the counties and townships and cities from having to pay the price for those potential errors should a settlement or some court order come out. So, I'll pause there. It's complicated, right? Um but but this is a potential

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reality that you know we we could be on the hook for significant dollars for uh for this particular situation. >> Mr. Chair, >> I'm open to that uh if it helps uh legally with the case. I don't know

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if it would would hurt or help uh with the um lawsuit, but um I'm I'm open to that. Uh do we have an estimate on on how much uh we would have to back pay if if it comes to that.

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>> We don't have a good estimate, but the belief is it'll be several hundred,000. Um it sort of depends on what grounds they win on. This is a little unique in that their arguments tend to be more

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around um pollution control devices and protections and that sort of stuff as opposed to valuations of infrastructure. So, uh, so it's a little bit more difficult to get at what the exact amount's going to be. Um, so that is a little bit of a of a guess at this point

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in time. Wish I had better numbers for you, Commissioner Gold. >> Commissioner, >> that was the same question. How much what we thought potential impact might be? >> Okay. >> So, if it's pollution control devices, we don't have any skin in that game. If it's property taxes, we certainly do,

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but why would we for pollution control devices? My understanding is that there's deductions for those um and that those deductions may not have been applied properly. >> Oh. >> Um and so that >> I was until you brought that up. I was like didn't you know how can they go

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back to the well again? I mean I I I want it to be accurate and them to be treated fairly and not you know abused in the tax world. But I also, you know, think that if if they win, then definitely the state and our our lobbyist or whoever should should, you

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know, go to bat for getting it taken care of the way it did last time because otherwise we get kind of double whammedi. We not only pay it back, but you know, that took a piece of the pie away from how much we would have charged the the rest of the the county and and we we can't go back to them and say,

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"Hey, you got to pay up for for what we have to now pay for this." So it'd be a mess if the state doesn't back their screw up. >> Yeah. So anyhow, that's my two cents. >> I agree. I think I think something of supporting that is a good idea.

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>> Okay. So that that's two. I'd feel more comfortable if we had three outspoken in favor of that. Then I can work with our cohorts to refine and maybe be a signatory to that. Uh it sounds like Well, I'm looking at all four nods now. So yeah. Okay. I'll let um I'll let them

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know. I appreciate your support on that. Um you know, obviously we're looking for some sort of like diplomatic solution here and and we don't want to ruffle feathers or create a lot of problems that are unnecessary. At the same time, we we need to protect our interests as well. So, appreciate your leadership on

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that. Uh just continuing wanted to touch a little bit more on the housing and tax base discussion. And uh I'd mentioned to you before we're working in a local group to try to advance this concept of putting a housing expansion and and tax

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base um expansion strategy together. Uh the strategyy's been developed. I mentioned that to you. Uh we've also been uh reaffirming with those uh strategic partners that are involved um which has been great. And we also made a presentation to the greater Biji board

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uh collectively uh last Friday. Okay. So, that would be the city manager, uh, myself and, uh, the executive director for Greater Baiji. Um, I'll leave it to Commissioner Carlson maybe in his reports to or even now to opine about how the board sort of took it, but our

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impression was that the board seemed supportive of the concepts. um which essentially would be um adding a resource uh that would be jointly paid for by multiple organizations and

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housing it in greater Biji to help make progress on this front. Um so that's exciting and um essentially what's happening now is feedback from that meeting will be integrated into a revision of that strategic plan and

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presentation. And right now the plan is to jointly again um take that information in those plans uh and present that to the city council on August the 17th and then to the county board on August the 18th so we can get

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the city and the county together in their established meetings the same information and see what each of those um elected bodies feels about the plan and and if things go well from those two meetings then then maybe we'll have um

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some synergy and and can start moving this forward and the idea is that we could officially sort of begin this work by quarter 4 of this year. So um that's the plan and uh more details will come um you'll see the the uh the strategic

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plan inside your packet at that you know for that meeting as well and and the presentation and stuff. So um that's that's pretty exciting at least at this point. Um, so that's what I have for you, but I'll stand for any questions you might have in regard to updates. >> Just kind of curious, the school

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district is still not super interested in being part of those talks. I mean, they would benefit uh from taxbased exp uh expansion as well. >> They would and um and they are involved. Um they're just not in the leadership role right now. So, we involved um the

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superintendent early on and he was um very supportive of all of these concepts. Um the the problem is the school district's in a world of hurt and they can't bring a financial contribution. However, we've encouraged other contributions like okay um can we

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do a land inventory as an example because there's lots of land that the school district owns that maybe we could put into more productive use as an example. Um my understanding is is that some of that thinking is starting to at the school district is is starting to

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transpire. Um I' I've heard there may be some properties that might be in play now that weren't previously. Um but you know that would be of course for the school district kind of. But yes, the school district's involved. They're just they're just not in the leadership role

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unfortunately uh because of a number of different factors but they're definitely supportive and uh the superintendent was at the meeting uh at Greater Baiji as well to to hear and and listen and opine about uh the strategy going forward. Can you send us all that presentation that was given?

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>> I sure could. It will be in your packet, too. But if you want an advanced copy, there's no problem. I can send that to you. >> Just curious. >> Yeah, you bet. I'll get it to you soon, >> Charles. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would just um follow up with what uh Tom talked about.

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Excuse [clears throat] me. Um, I think generally no vote was taken by the greater Bumiji board with regards to this and so I don't want to speak for that board, but I think generally the reception was good and I think that

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there was a general feeling that there's a strong nexus of the housing and economic development and that's why there wasn't push back um from the greater Bumiji board because of the importance of having housing. It's kind

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of hard to grow industry and [clears throat] other things in our community if you don't have a place to put employees, right? And so knowing that that's important, I think there's uh again, no vote has been taken there, but I I felt like there was a pretty

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good reception for this idea of housing. um that component for housing that that office that can really be the one to go out and I there's you can imagine there's there's millions and millions of dollars

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out there available and no one's out there applying for these funds uh because no one knows who they what they are. So we just if we just get a person that they're that's their job. You think about what Amy does in the public uh health realm and the kind of dollars that she gets. You think about the

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dollars available in the road fund and what Bruce does to bring in millions of dollars. What can you imagine? We have a person that that that's that's what they do. They they go out and they find these funds uh so that we can have seed money for these housing projects so that we

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can expand the housing. It it's kind of exciting. It really is. I uh I look forward to us working with the city and all the other partners to be able to to increase our housing stock and it'll be all up and down the line. And I mean anywhere from I I mean from starter

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homes for folks to midlevel to you know whatever it is. We also need a a tremendous amount of housing for folks as they move from now I have to move out of my house cuz I just can't I can't take care of my place anymore, you know,

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and so into whether assisted living or similar facilities like that. We need more of those and affordable ones. So anyway, that's Okay, thanks. >> That

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has we'll address that in a minute. >> Yeah, I was going to put it on our agenda for today. >> Oh, >> and add it. Yeah, add it to that. Yeah. Well, >> did Tom have anything else? So, >> uh I I was >> No, sir. I I I don't but thank you.

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>> So, reviewing the agenda, that's one of the things that I did get an email from Tim, Commissioner Sar. He is stepping down from the U budget committee and so I want to add that to our agenda so that

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we can discuss that. I know that's a little bit of an issue to make things happen real quick uh and put it on fast, but we don't really have a choice. We got to get it done. So, um, >> 98 98

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>> 98. Yep. >> Correct. Okay. All right. Did we have any other no other changes?

Part: 2

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The flag 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. Okay. I have no comments at this time.

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Uh, anyone wishing to address the county board on an item not on the agenda may come forward at this time and be recognized by the board chair. Please state your name and address for the record. Comments are limited to 5 minutes. A personnel complaint against an individual county employee may not be

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heard initially at a county board meeting. Uh, personnel complaints may be submitted to the board in writing through the county administrator's office. A person addressing the board may not use profanity or vulgar language. >> All right. Good evening. My name is

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Karen Snortland and my whole address 13755 Hawkeye Point Northeast in Baiji. and we're here tonight um to give you an important opportunity to help the the

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friends of Lake Bamiji State Park help our park visitors. Uh here tonight with me is my wife Donna Zalinski and Peg and Mike Granlin, also members of Friends of Lake Bamiji Park Group. And we're asking tonight for county support in keeping

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park visitors safe as they cross County Road 20, the Birchmont Beach Drive going from the state one side of the state park into the other side of the state park across the highway into the bogwalk area. Uh the state park spans this highway and

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many people walk, bike, snowshoe, ski, whatever on the other side. As you may know, the bog is one of the major attractions of Lake Bamiji State Park. Uh it hosts naturalist programs, day camps, school groups. Uh they all

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frequent the bog throughout the entire year. It's estimated by a study that was conducted by Belrammy County Highway Department that 2700 cars travel this corridor each day. Additionally,

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approximately 200 pedest pedestrian crossings occur daily. I'm not exactly sure the time or the date of that uh study that Belrammy County did u but with the speed limit of 55 miles per hour at the crossing, we feel this is a

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fatality waiting to happen. The park conducted an independent study from September 24th to April 25, counting 6,000 pedestrian crossing crossings during those seven months, which is the

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shoulder season. It's not even the busiest season of park visitation. The Draco knocked out the counter, but it's back up and running now, so we'll have new data soon. Although warning signs are posted on both sides of the

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crossing, we have not observed drivers slowing down or even looking for pedestrians in this area. As someone who uses this crossing, I'm always cautious whether I'm biking, walking, or snowshoeing across the highway. There is

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a hill coming from the east. I can't even imagine pushing our granddaughter in a stroller across that road. Since we've already witnessed how distracted drivers can be, we feel the best solution is some type of push button or

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sensor on either side uh of the state park pedestrian walkway. This would allow the park visitors to take charge of their own safety by alerting drivers to their presence. Uh we did pass around what we're proposing.

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Um please note some features of this sign. It installs on standard posts, which the highway department likely already owns. It is solar powered, so the operating expense would be basically nothing. It's got a batteryfree push

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button for the pedestrian to push, which would activate the caution light for which would be very noticeable for cars, and it's visible from over 1,000 ft. Our request today is that Bela Bel belt Tramy County install additional safety

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equipment to hopefully prevent a future tragedy. We're more than happy to work together for a solution to this. Uh if this is something that doesn't look feasible, we'd love to come to the table and talk about a solution that would help.

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Any questions regarding this? Is it I don't know if it's appropriate to ask for when we may hear some feedback um on this or followup. >> We generally we generally don't

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>> Okay. Okay. >> It's bringing it to our attention and we >> you may hear hear from somebody at some point. >> Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much for your time. We all appreciate it. Have a good night. >> Thank you.

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>> It is well done. Okay. Okay. We need approval of the agenda. Mr. Chair, I'd make a motion that we approve the agenda with the following addition. Adding item 9A for the budget

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committee reappointment. Okay. We have a second. Okay. Any other discussion on it? Okay. Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Approval of the consent agenda. Do we

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have a motion? >> Mr. Chair, I would move that we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> We have a second. I'll second it. Seconded by Commissioner Gazbe. All in favor say I. I. Opposed.

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And that carries. Okay. All right. We have public infrastructure memorial designation policy. >> Mr. Chair Carlson.

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>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would move that we approve the resolution which is proposal two of the policy prohibiting public infrastructure naming and memorial designations as presented in the packet.

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>> I'll second that. >> Okay, we have a first and a second on the number two policy. Do we have any discussion? >> So, Mr. Chair, I will reiterate what I mentioned in the

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work session with regard to the reasons for not naming which uh include I don't know if I want to read all this again. I've read this in the work session.

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>> Yeah. Um, is it important to read this again, do you think, for anyone listening in to this as opposed to not working listening to the work session? >> Commissioner Carlson, that's up to you. Uh, you could just refer anyone who might be listening to this meeting and

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didn't catch the previous meeting to go to that previous meeting to hear that if they were interested or to consult the packet. >> Yeah. Look at the agenda packet in the >> correct. >> Yeah. I I don't want to take all that time to to read it again. So, I there's there's many I understand that there's

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many good reasons or many well-intentioned ideas to name buildings and roads and bridges, but it it just it creates a situation where it's up to five people that sit here

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month after month, year after year, decade after decade that have the ability to say no or yes. and why is this person worthy and this person is not? Um, the boards change. All of us members change from time to time. It

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just seems like to be the most consistent, we'd be better served to not do any naming like that. Now, that does not impact um the adopt a highway or adopt a county road situation. So, I think for those folks that really feel

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strongly about wanting to name a section of road or even a bridge, maybe they could go a half mile on either side of the bridge and put something up that says this roadway, uh, this adopt a roadway is in honor of

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whoever the person or organization. Uh, and then they're obligated two times a year to clean up that stretch of road. That gives that gives us it's a it's really a it's a double extra benefit because now that organization or those

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folks get to name that section of road. It's on an adopt a highway sign and the road gets cleaned up twice a year. I just think that that's the way that we should approach this. >> Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. I I I want to say this that

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I I understand what you're saying. I I agree with the adopt a highway. I think it's a great thing. Um, but I will say that it doesn't matter in my opinion whether we say no or not. It's still

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going to come down to the board at any one point because something will happen and somebody's going to want this and it's going to come up to a board meeting again and the board is going to have to decide whether something's going to happen whether because the policies are

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going to change like they always do with everything and at some point somebody's going to bring it to our attention again. So that's my opinion, but you know, we do have a policy then what would say we're not going to do it, [clears throat] but I think people are going to are still going to want to push

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it at some point. Just my opinion, >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes, >> I I get that. But I think it'll be a lot less people that will come forward if you already have a policy that says that it's not allowed and you would have to have a majority of the board to overturn

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that policy if there's actually a policy in place. >> And that's not always easy to to come by. Um, and the the fact that we already have an active practice with the adopt a highway program that gives the the one

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guy that came in recently asking to do this sort of thing. Actually, probably a arguably a better solution cuz he was going to have to fund that sign himself. Now, I don't believe that they have to pay for the if they do the adapt a highway program, they don't have to pay for the sign or the putting up. And I'm

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getting a nod from our highway engineer. So, so it's less expensive for them to still accomplish the thing other than having a little bit of time to clean up the roadway. >> Okay. Let me ask you this then. If we get another situation where somebody, some company or some group comes in and

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wants to fix a particular section of roadway and pay for it like the scenic highway that's called Lady Slipper. Are we going to say they cannot put their name on that road then even though they're willing to pay for all this stuff to have this road improved?

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Uh because that policy would say they can't do that. So lady slipper could never happen. >> Maybe Bruce could address that. I think that was a state thing, not a county thing. >> Well, it doesn't matter. It's a it's a we would have to say no to it. >> No, the state can overrule us.

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>> The Lady Slipper, our county stated 39, the Lady Slipper Scenic Byway, that's a statewide scenic [clears throat] byway program and specific designation for that. And the scenic byway, the lady slipper scenic byway didn't put any money towards that project, right? They

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did help with the transplanting of the lady slippers and kind of the whole they were part of the planning pro pre-planning process, the NEPA, the whole works and continual to continue to operate as a group and try to do some

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lobby for improvements out there. But they haven't put dollars the dollars that they get are state dollars. But if that were to come up again, then they wouldn't be able to put up signs saying that they did anything then. It wouldn't be called Lady Slipper anything. >> It'd still be called Lady Slipper Scenic

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Byway because that's a state deal. >> Yeah, the scenic byway again is a a state program and you got to I guess I've never been through it, but there's hoops you got to jump to be to be named a a state scenic byway for that program.

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But >> Mr. Chair, I would just like to quickly reiterate my support for the the first proposal that would allow um the naming of buildings or road or stretch of road

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or a bridge. Um if we go if we go down this road, we're we're not allowing uh uh veterans. Uh we're not allowing uh people that are certainly worthy of uh recognition. This

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is a this is a free way for the county to recognize somebody's lifetime of accomplishments. And you know, uh I for example, Becker County has a stretch of their county road designated uh called a Veterans

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Memorial Highway. We wouldn't be able to do that with this. Um I just I see the adopt a highway program as as totally different from this. Um

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it's just uh it's totally a separate program and thing. Uh and and that that would only be for roads. It wouldn't be for um buildings. It's not uncommon for um school districts, counties, cities to

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um honor worthy individuals uh with recognition. So I just I just hate the idea of us automatically saying no and not allowing people to do this. uh it just seems like such a nice thing that we could do every once in a while and having a policy in

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place um it uh for a process is certainly going to be uh more helpful than not. So um that's where I stand. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. Um there is another naming um

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thing that wouldn't be affected by this and that which we have done before and that is a unnamed lakes are able to be named um like we renamed the one out in Wilton um after commissioner Heltzer. Um so that lake is now Heltzer Lake. Um

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that is through environmental services and is a a separate deal that is allowed. Um, so that people could name somebody or name a lake after somebody. >> He lived on that lake, but yeah, >> doesn't matter, right? >> And any unnamed lake, we've done ones where people haven't lived on them, but

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any any unnamed lake has the ability to have a memorial or change in name um done by people. So, that is another way of honoring somebody. >> All right. Any other discussion?

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All right. Well, I wish Tim was here. Uh, >> we're gonna get Don't worry, I think. >> Yeah. Uh, okay. All in favor of the motion say I. >> Oh, roll call. Let's Okay, let's do a roll call. Commissioner Carlson,

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>> yes. >> Commissioner G, >> no. >> Commissioner GIC, >> yes. >> And I say no. >> U. So, Mr. Chair, we put this on the next agenda so that when >> Mr. Chair, would you like this on the

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work and the regular or just move it to the regular since there's been a lot of discussion? >> Yeah. >> Okay. I think Yeah. >> Sorry, I just can't. I just I have my opinions. All right.

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Uh any additional? Nothing. Okay. Upcoming meeting schedule. All that >> budget. Oh, yeah. That sorry if I missed that one. Yep. 98. All right. We go to

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committee appointments. I think by policy or by not policy but past practice, it's been the people who are not up for election. Which kind of brings it down to Commissioner Carlson

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Carlson as the second commissioner on the budget? We >> have a second. >> Are you willing to do that, John? We have to have two.

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>> Yeah, I'll second. Okay. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I >> I have a question. >> Yeah. >> Um >> I'm not necessarily opposed to Commissioner Carlson, but >> I think he was on it last time, >> right?

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>> And uh for me, it just kind of makes sense if we're in a situation like this, it should kind of fall to the chair of the board. >> I was on it last night, too. >> [laughter] >> Well, yeah.

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>> So, but still I think it could be the chair if you're willing. >> I I really interested >> with work stuff. So, I don't know that I would have the time to commit to it to be honest. I I just don't

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>> Not that I wouldn't do it, but I just don't have the time right now. So, my jobs are kind of getting in the way of them and and other things. So, kind of stuck there.

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I appreciate that though. Commissioner Gosp interested. >> Just want to make sure see who's interested or not? Okay. All in favor once more. >> I opposed. Okay. So, Commissioner Carlson

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is our new budget committee with Commissioner Ghoul. Thank you, gentlemen. We appreciate that. Um, anything else we got? upcoming meeting

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commissioner reports. Yeah, let's do that. [clears throat] >> Go ahead, Mr. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, as administrator Barry mentioned earlier, um, the employee appreciation day was

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was u well attended, was fun. I appreciate uh you guys uh Commissioner Gold and Winger were able to attend um and uh and Commissioner Winger coming up with the idea of recognizing those that went above and beyond for the uh the

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storm last year um and presenting those awards. I thought Administrator Barry did a real nice job of of u uh handing those out and and um elaborating on the work that those different different people and departments did um on our

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June 21st storm last year. So, thank you all for doing that. Uh airport authority u we approved our 2027 budget. We um prior to the meeting, we took a tour of the old Roush test car facility. Uh we're looking at future expansion of the

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parking lot in that area as our parking lot a lot of times gets really crammed and so we're looking at that. um had a good discussion about AI at the management team meeting and looking forward to um that that's still in development but uh coming you know

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bringing forward with the artificial intelligence u whether it's a policy or or in the handbook or or both or whatever that uh turns out to be but they're working on that. um Cast Lake Fire Association. Unfortunately, we're

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still looking to fill the fire chief or uh position because the guy that we thought was going to take it actually rescended since since then. So, um so we're going to have our quarterly meeting is coming up on the 29th. Uh and

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so we're hopefully we'll come up with u something there. Black tuck ambulance and uh I attended that in lie of commissioner sumar last Thursday and also the emergency uh the tri county emergency services board right after that. Um the uh the number

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of runs are still at their high, you know, they're matching last year which was the highest year ever and so we're doing good financially but unfortunately that means a lot of people are needing ambulance service which isn't good. Um, and we're looking at whether or not we are required to have an audit um of the

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ambulance service because we're teetering getting close to a million dollars in in uh overall revenue. So, I think that's the tipping point that we might have to have an audit done coming fairly soon. Anyways, we're looking into that cuz it's not easy to find people to

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do audits anymore as several other boards that I've been on um where the auditors that we used to have have um dropped off and finding a new one. Um one of the boards I'm on it we had to go through 48 auditing firms before we finally found one that would even take

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it, you know. So, it was it's a challenge. um HRDC. We had our annual meeting and we took a tour of the Stitzsworth meets facility out uh out my neck of the woods out in in the Turtle River area. So that was pretty awesome. I um Michael Stitzsworth gave us a a

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little um speech prior to taking us on the tour and I didn't realize that they as a fourth generation deal and that they started in Iowa. Um and that was pretty pretty cool and pretty interesting. Um the fair fair fair board meeting uh everything's on track for the

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fair the sponsorships are down slightly but the inind contributions of things are up so we're over overall of doing about the same doing good for the fair and u the fair is a little bit later than normal this year starts on the 12th I think it is um it's a like a week

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later than last year um solid waste committee we had the meeting this morning looks like the cameras are starting to come in for the the um um fire, you know, for searching for heat heat maps with the thermal imaging cameras and and hopefully those will get

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installed soon. Um we actually had a little bit of a scare in June where we got a actually it was a false alarm, but it was um the alarm system called in the middle of the night and and that and thankfully it was a false alarm. We didn't actually have a fire. Um

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glad to get those cameras installed soon. Um, and we're looking at the hours of our demo landfill and and uh whether we need to do an adjustment there, especially on the weekend. Um, and that's uh what

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um yeah, so that's about it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner God. Commissioner Go. >> Thank you. On July 8th, I participated in a

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Belrammy County Historical Society event where a group of us each took a section of the Declaration of Independence and did a public reading at Paul and Babe. So, that was kind of a fun way to commemorate America 250.

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Um, I had a library meeting that day as well and BCAP met. Uh we had a regular board meeting in Walker on the 9th. Kind of the main thing from there was that uh um we're getting less money uh a a

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little bit less money um from the federal government uh for Head Start. So we had to modify our budget slightly. Um should be all right. Um overall though, um

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I also had a AMC committee meeting. It was kind of an update on uh Minnesota rural economy. That was on the 13th. And then um I was in Washington DC last week for about six days. It was uh more

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for my regular job. Um, but I did uh meet with uh Representative Craig in her office and put a plug in for uh any and all things uh county related as far as funding um and supportive

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policies. Um so yeah, pretty regular stuff coming up including budget committee uh next week. That's my report. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Goo. Mr.

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Carl. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, the land committee met uh working on some ideas about what to do for investments of potential property sales. And so working on policies that we can

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bring forth to the board that we can discuss um about what we could potentially do to increase it, what things we can do to increase tax base um with our public land. Um jail design and operations committee, I think uh Tom

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gave you a pretty good update on what's going on there. Um airport authority, Craig did a good job of explaining what happened there. Greater Bumiji already heard that we had going on there. Um I think maybe the other thing is that the

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whole development of the rail corridor is uh proceeding nicely. Um and uh I think it's in addition to the to the to the Y there's already a hotel developer that that's going to be happening. Um another

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um local developer um is proposing another um shop main floor um residence above uh so not a hotel but but uh actually um housing. Um so a lot of the land already

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being spoken for. There's also a section of that property down there that's going to be designated as a park. Um, and I believe I want to say it was it's they're going to name it after the name that the park had originally when the

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railroad first came through. And I think I want to say gateway. Yeah, gateway. So they're they want to maintain that history. Um, and so looking for that to come. Uh, yesterday, no,

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today is Tuesday. Yeah, yesterday. Yesterday we had the Bel Tramy County safety um action plan meeting. It was the final meeting of of the and then so that goes through um Bruce, I don't know

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if you need to if we have to explain you all know what that safety action plan is. There was a grant that allowed these engineering firms to go through these um meetings to come up with uh ideas on how do we make our roads safer. Um and so

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they'll be presenting a final document on that probably before our next board meeting. Is that going to be at the next board meeting, Tom? Or work session, I suppose. Um and then I have uh August 3rd I have a magic fund board meeting

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coming up. So that's it. >> Thank you. >> Um I didn't have a lot and I went to the as Commissioner Guzik said we went to the employee appreciation. That was fun. Uh beautiful day for it.

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Um other than that, I think everything I have been to had been covered. I did try to go to a radio board meeting and normally Chris is in the uh EOC room doing it on Zoom and so I went there and there wasn't anybody there. Uh I

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couldn't I got a hold of Janice that she was out of town so I didn't get to make that meeting. >> So Chris must have been actually in for that meeting. >> He was doing it on his computer instead. So, and the last time I tried to do it on computer, they they couldn't hear me

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and my my image kept blurring out and so they weren't sure if I was there or not there and I'm waving and couldn't get their attention. So, that's why I came in to do it here instead of on my on my computer and it didn't work out. So, so I missed that one. But, uh I got Prime

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West coming up this week, so I'll be doing that one. So, that's it. I got chat about tomorrow. >> You want to do it? >> Move to adjourn. >> You'll do it. You do. >> We got a motion to adjourn. Second. All

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right. All in favor? I. We're done. Have a great