##VIDEO ID:_a_OmcyyBWY## call the Beltrami County Work session to order and and we are going to go into close session so um at this time I will accept a motion to go into close session pursuant to Minnesota statute 13 d05 subdivision 3B for the purposes of discussing attorney client privileged information so moved moved by commissioner Carlson second second by commissioner Gould all in favor say I I I we are over to the other room for closed session e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e accept a motion to end the closed session and return to the open meeting don't move motion by commissioner Carlson second second second by commissioner Winger all in favor say I I I any opposed all right we are back in Open Session and we have the introduction of new employees Shane I think you have a new employee thank you Commissioners I'm Shane Foley director of the natural resources management department this is our new Forester Clayton marot um he comes to us straight from the DNR but he has a bachelor's degree in biology um and then an associates degree in fire science he worked with the US Forest Service for five years um two and a half years with the DNR and he's worked for the last nine years as a smoke cherer with a DNR um on top of all these things that he didn't write down that we're very excited about in the interview process it was very clear that he is a motivated individual that wants to work um which is awesome he'll fit in great um he also has a lot of mechanical aptitude which we have snowmobiles four-wheelers all that stuff that save some money to have somebody that knows what they're doing working on them in house um and then the last thing I'd like to say is just as a shout out to the Foresters that work up in the Department training Clayton in for the last month and a half or whatever it's been um I think you guys would be very proud of the people that are working upstairs they're hardworking smart make good choices it has truly been a privilege to be the department head up there so um Clayton has anything to say yeah I'll re reiterate that about the folks upstairs is there's i' I've been on the the the boot side of this but never really been on the sale admin side of it so I do have a little bit to learn and the guys upstairs folks upstairs have been more than helpful much much more helpful than my last job that's for sure so that's that's very nice it makes me feel very welcome and if if I have any questions they're very open to to taking their time taking a little time out of their day to to help me out so that that's that's fantastic I'm really enjoying it when I worked for the forest service I did Recreation for a while engineering for a while and then got into uh doing Timber marking and and civil culture regen surveys and stuff like that and knew that's where I wanted to be eventually so I finally finally got one great Clayton where where do you H from where you originally originally from East Grand Forks and then uh family Grandpa bought a cabin up here back in the 50s and that's where I'm at now oh awesome Carlson thank you Mr chair I was just curious Shane how did we get a reversal usually the usually the state poaches from us how did you poach that was an awesome job I think that speaks loudly for you guys got kind of Switched the person's job that I took actually went only a block for me and now I'm over here welcome Clayton thank you thank you very much thank you thank you guys right identify future work meeting topics anybody have any future work meeting topics they'd like to bring up at this time being none we'll move on to Soil and Water Conservation District annual update sorry we're rolling a little bit behind you Brent good afternoon Commissioners no problem I uh I'll try to get you back on track um we are uh typically giving an annual update on sbcd activities it's that time of year so uh we're going to do the annual update to the sbcd here um kind of start out with what does the sbcd actually do I mean that's what we get that question a fair amount um the thing that most people think about when they think about the sbcd is the tree program um but there's a lot more than just the tree program um I put a listing of things here I'll call out a couple of things the wood ash program is one that we don't talk about a whole lot but that's a kind of a mutually beneficial program that West Frasier is our local lumber mill that um sort buys a lot of our local lumber and produces the product and they've got waste they've got wood ash as a waste product regulated by the Minnesota Pollution Control agency that waste product uh is suitable to be land applied on egg fields to make that land more productive it um raises the pH of that land so where we get involved is the npca regulates this waste and doesn't allow them to just give out this waste willy-nilly and there has to be a program there has to be like any good state agency they'll create a a way to regulate something so um land owners that are looking for free lime essentially um they bring us their soil samples we run a couple of models tells us based on this soil type and in this area and this depth to water table how many tons of wood ash can be applied on that field and then we that information back to the land owner and back to West Frasier and then when they have that waste that they need to dispose of West Frasier actually hauls it out to the land owner's field and dumps it for them then they just have to spread it and incorporate it into their land um rainfall monitor Network's another one you don't hear a lot about but that's actually kind of essential for um some of the activity especially for egg producers so like the the drought monitors they have drought monitors and they they get pretty specific with drawing these lines of what areas are in drought and what areas aren't most of that information is based on these this network of volunteers that are monitoring rainfall on a daily basis they've got pretty sophisticated rain gauges that are provided to them and they're in turn they're providing daily rain gauge measurements and then that that information is used on a on a national level um we do a lot of other things too to Technical and financial assistance to land owners we'll talk about most of the stuff uh again here in the um presentation but the last thing I guess is the geologic Atlas research right now we're in the middle of um compiling a bunch of data and beginning the process to develop a county geologic Atlas and then the bottom right soil Health Technical and financial assistance we just received a grant here the last year to um hire a staff person to um really do Outreach and soil Health world that's really become a um the new um I guess priority area at the state level working on soil health so um so where does the money come from um I would encourage you don't look at the bottom line and think that's our 2025 annual budget that is a you know total sum of all of the grants that we're holding right now all of those grants are are typically three-year grants so um like the bottom one is the soil health staff Grant that's about how much money is left in that Grant right now that Grant expires at the end of 2027 um our annual budget is much less than that but um just gives you an idea of the money that's funneling through and coming into the local area um the top orange um line or brown or however it shows up on your screen um that really is kind of the SD's um annual budget that that is outside of Grants um and essentially that's the equivalent of our tree program annually we we get about $26,000 in revenue from the tree program and it costs us about $26,000 to run it so um it's typically a break even Adventure there but um a lot of different miscellaneous grants going on um that's where the that's where the money comes from um here's a little bit about the tree program Every Spring we have a conservation tree program we typically buy the trees anywhere between October and December we create a tree order form create the prices put it out for public and people are submitting their tree orders immediately when we put it out there and we're basically just selling trees till they're gone so we purchase about 20,000 trees at the beginning of the season seon and then um the pre-orders come in and when they're sold out they're sold out and we try to get more and help land owners find more when they need to so we end up selling about between 20 and 26,000 trees over the last few years last year was 24,000 is um yeah and then the water festivals we have we have two water festivals every year we reach out to the area fifth graders um one of them we do right at Gan Dylan Elementary School here in bidi that's hitting about 400 kids right on their campus at their new school West of the high school um and then the other one we do at Concordia Language villages we do that with the Red Lake DNR and that one has some uh historical um existence where they had some grants for a while where they invited schools like um North home kellier Red Lake St Mary's Mission panema um black duck I'm trying to think if I'm missing any it's it's that that whole kind of northern part of the county um and the and the reservation all to one Water Festival at Concordia Language Villages so we continue that as long as we're able to financially support that um and it's a great data to hit a whole bunch of fifth graders every year and um get reminded why we're doing this and seeing their excitement and energy level is is kind of refreshing sometimes um the forest stewardship planning part um funding sources come from a variety of different funding sources it depends on where the property is located and what they're really doing but but typically when we talk about Forest stewardship planning what we mean is we're working with a landowner to help them pay for having a private Forester write a forest stewardship plan um what that does is it allows them to enroll in a tax program called TC or sign a contract with the state of Minnesota under sfia it's a sustainable forestry incentive act and they get payments um under sfia based on the length of contract that they sign and um how many acres they enroll and the 2C they just get a property tax break on that property um so some work better for other land owners but um the idea there is essentially it makes it possible for some of these uh private forests to stay in private ownership so the property taxes don't force people to sell it or develop it or something faster than they want to and then once they have a forest Rich plan it also makes the landowner eligible for some other cost share so they can Implement some of those practices that are identified in their Forester plan some people might want to do some Wildlife Management habitat stuff and they um they can get some caser dollars to do that like a 25% landowner 75% I'm not sure what the DNR does all the time but that typically that's what it is yeah M but what it was yeah that's I know they were talking about changing the numbers to like 6040 for when there was funding reductions but I think they're back up to 75% cost share now where the land owner only pays 25% of the of it um just a kind of a summary on the forest stewardship achievements for the last year broken down by Watershed but overall it was about 2200 Acres of forest stewardship plans that were written last year in the county that we that we cost shared and helped pay for um some people are still doing this on their own and not signing up for Cas share for it for whatever reason um they want to just do it on their own time frame and not work with anybody and that's fine too but this is the ones that we C shared um getting on to a few of the projects that we worked on in the last year this is uh some pictures of the high Banks East project this is a site on the Mississippi River just just before W um Mississippi River dumps into Wolf Lake this was actually a collaboration with the natural resource management department the former land commissioner had uh had been working on trying to find a way to restore some of that Hillside from the erosion that's been happening um that's been a recreation site for quite a few years but over last 10 years the erosion has really accelerated on that site there's been a lot more people going and doing a lot more things that they probably shouldn't have been doing but um we were able to find some funding to work on um essentially we hired an engineer to design a a restoration plan the land commissioner approved the plan and then we had a contractor go out and do the work so um that's what it looked like after it was restored there um there's still a place at the bottom where people are going to come sit and hang out at the beach and swim in the river and stuff but hope that Hillside will be restored a little bit and then this is the high Banks West project um I know the high Banks get confusing because there's two of them and they're opposite ends of the county but High Banks West is over by the Clearwater county line close to it it's uh kind of by Baran Landing if anybody knows where that's at but it's a a campsite that's operated by the natural resource management department this is also on state trust land um the campsite is a gorgeous site that is sitting high up over the Mississippi River overlooks this big flood plane area the Mississippi River um and it's getting more and more popular people are going reserving it and camping out there and they're making some improvements to the site they just put in a vault toilet out there um kind of improving it a little bit but inevitably anybody that camps and can see the water they want to get to it right it was a super steep Bank going down to the river and people just started making a path over the years um that path has just caused some good erosion I don't know if you can see on the picture on the left or not very well but on the right side of that Gully there's there's kind of a funny looking tree that you see those are actually the exposed roots so that's how much soil has been lost over that on that site in the last I don't know 20 years or whatever it is at the top it's probably like six feet in elevation and it just keeps sluffing off into the river and washing away so um this project here we installed stairs people can get safely up and down and then restoring the vegetation along the sides and stopping or slowing the erosion hopefully so um and this is a project that was actually um we had funding from the Mississippi headwaters board to do this project so yeah I think we gave I think it was close to 30,000 it was $30,000 we got for this and um yeah the project came in um I know there were some cost increases over the year and a half to do it Lumber material prices went way up but um they the contractor came in did a great job at trying to control costs and came right in at just under 30,000 and so when we had the engineering costs and everything in there it was just over 30,000 so it didn't cost the county um anything we used other Grant dollars to pay for the engineering that was over so that was great um we had a couple of BSU projects that were done last year um the one on the left and actually the top one on the right of the same project that was a BSU student Le rain Garden Project it was a demonstration site that they wanted to do right next to their big BSU sign on mij Avenue um it's essentially taking storm water from the parking lot from some of the parking lot at the the rec center theung field um and running it out into that storm water basin and they planted plugs in there to get the the plants going so it didn't look Barren right away but um essentially that the goal for that is to be a pollinator habitat rain Garden so um hopefully they'll maintain that well and it'll look good in the future um and then the bottom right picture is from their BSU solar project they they took a row of parking out of their oakal parking lot um nearest the like the softball fields and baseball fields and they we we helped them pay for it but they dug it out and made a storm water sale in there so they're taking some of their storm water from that parking lot and infiltrating it into the ground there and doing a pollinator planting and installing solar panels to help the sustainability office work towards their sustainability goals at the college uh conservation easements um is another area where we spent some staff time um so far we haven't been doing any Outreach to land owners these are just land owners that are coming to us that know about conservation ement programs and they want to work with us and explore what that would look like for their property um so far there's been four land owners that we've worked with um on conservation easements uh just a quick kind of update one on Moose Lake has been completed uh staff just completed put out the signage out there this year there's another one that's in progress on the Mississippi River that's about 74 Acres of undeveloped land on the on the Mississippi River just north of Wolf Lake um and then near the headwaters of Grant Creek there's about 28 and a half acres in progress and then there's a pretty large Rim wild rice conservation easement working on um on on little tur Lake and the picture on the left is actually a heron Rookery that's um part of that 104 Acres that's not on Little Turtle Lake that's just off the lake that the wild race conservation even that would protect the the land from development around that Rookery and the wild race beds on Little Turtle Lake uh moving on to onew sh one plan information um just kind of basic background historically State Minnesota requires County to have a local Water Management plan in the past those were all County Water Management plans uh that it's all transitioned to Watershed base plans now we are a week away from getting approval from the state on our final Watershed base plan that's the upper and lower Red Lake one um just highlighting that our main priorities are the upper and lower Red Lake and the Mississippi River Headwaters we're active participants with the Thief River and clear waterer River plans we are not so active we're assisting as requested in three other ones Leech Lake rainy rapid and the Rosal River plans and then the Red Lake River one doesn't include any private property in belamy County so we're not really involved in that one much at all um the Mississippi Headquarters 1 wmp implementation we just received the next round of implementation there's just over a million dollars um it's actually a three-year Grant but we get a a grant every two years so it's hard to keep those straight and identify those for people but um essentially what that is is to implement practices identified as priorities in the Watershed management plan this plan covers five different counties um focus areas are forestry egg Lakes urban areas things like that um we're the Fiscal Agent and the coordinator of Grant um here's just a couple of examples of activities that the Mississippi 1 wnp we've done um last year the the no till drill and cover cops program in the egg activities we um worked with land land owners in belamy County to install 170 Acres of cover crops and pasture seating so so essentially uh reducing the need for tillage on 170 Acres um what that's intended to do it doesn't sound like a lot to me 170 acres is kind of a drop in the bucket but what we're really trying to do is work with these land owners to be early adopters of the whole noal concept we're making it possible they don't have to go buy a drill they don't have to do all these other things they sign up for a program they get paid some compensation for converting into noil and we rent them the drill for you know the first three years to do it and then get to decide if it worked well for them if they liked it they want to continue doing it on their own um and then we're doing educational events too across the wed step it up a little bit Brent we're running short on time to get the other guys in here I will promise the next next two slides are just examples of Charline stabilization projects this one was on Cast Lake here was on Gull Lake um pretty typical of Lake Shore restoration sites um upper and lower Watershed planning I just said next week should be Bowser approval um should be working on implementation funding sometime this spring and uh we just finished up with our help grants um we had pollinator plantings was the focus of these help grants the last two years couple of the big projects were CER landfill and then working with the city of amiji the belamy county fairgrounds one here there's a picture on the right um we do some dormant seating after the frost was in place on that one one the fairgrounds wants to have a a pollinator plot as an example right up by the entrance to the fairgrounds when you drive in um here's some pictures showing some of the work we did with the city of bidi there's like Brinkman Park had a seven Acre Site um Lake Boulevard between the Lake Boulevard and Lake bidi there was two acres of Buckthorn removed and planting native plants to hopefully out compete that Buckthorn here's just kind of a summary keep it clean program the big thing here is um got dumpsters out again this year on upper Red Lake collecting human waste two new Billboards went up and we're just uh in the process of getting a u basically a small enclosed trailer to be used as a traveling billboard um put it different areas and then um mostly it's the volunteers not us as staff but we're helping to answer questions but they're working with um the state agencies trying to get the state to um figure out what they want to do Statewide for keep it clean we we've gotten a grant and we've been doing some Statewide activities the last couple years and that's going to come to a close here in 20 25 our Grant's going to run out and we're not going to be super excited about applying for more grants to do Statewide work activity on that so that's the S CD update if you have any questions anybody we to fly right into theate all right um I'll go quick through this one the here's kind of the slide I shared with the new commission orientation um and some of our other stuff it's just a um showing a big list there's a lot of stuff that the environmental services department does um here's just an update on a few of the interesting things to me I think um one is about funding and staff this chart just essentially shows that all of our staff in the office are paid at least in part by grants uh 67% of our total staff expenses are non-levy dollars uh it's kind of a summary in the last 13 years of permits issued I just I keep this trend going um really to show that the the septic system permits that we're issuing the number keeps increasing the building permit numbers is just a slow slow steady growth it's not a negative um Trend it's but it's not really growing that much but keep in mind we don't issue building permits outside of the charland area in the county where this is just in the charland so um you know we're talking at Kevin our GIS director with 911 addressing say that's kind of in line with what 911 addresses have been doing the last five two years as well just like a slow steady growth pretty consistent um and then the Planning Commission and board of adjustment numbers the number of variances has gone up every year over the last 13 years conditional use numbers have stayed pretty flat the interesting thing on this slide to me is the number of plats that we're getting seems to be increasing we're getting more and more people asking about platting so that tells me that some of the existing stocks of properties out in the county have been exhausted and they're developers are looking and there's a market to create new ones out there um short-term rental so we adopted an ordinance a few people have asked how's it going just kind of here's the permit numbers uh starting in 22 we had 28 applications 13 of those initial ones are still permitted in the county um some of them sold some stopped doing short-term rental some are still renting it out illegally I'm quite sure some have converted it to long-term rental some have just moved into it and living there full-time and there's lots of reasons why those continue and then some of them just sold in the new owner applied in the next year but um as you can the big thing there is the numbers keep dropping I anticipate is going to happen over time it's not going to be a big number every year from here on out um and then two other things uh Charline management ordinance just um for those that don't know or haven't heard this already we hope to have an updated ordinance for the County Board to consider for adoption later this spring and then the Cannabis kind of update um they're saying the state rule should be finalized pretty soon um I'm not sure exactly what means but I know they're talking early February as their target I don't know if they're on track or not um but they've got an application period after the court rulings and everything they've got an application period open till March 14th they anticipate holding a lottery in May or June for the for the license categories that have statutory caps placed on them and then um we should be getting registration notifications shortly after that or for some of those businesses that don't have caps placed on that we might get um registration applications before May or June but we'll see how that works for sure and then we're starting to see delegation agreement resolutions trickling from townships and cities they're not required to send them to us but we're starting to see some so and that's all I have you have any questions looks like we're good thanks Brent thank you Commissioners all right move us on to the veteran service office update Shane afternoon Commissioners this going uh Shane gusterson County vet services um just going to provide an update today on the office apologize I don't have a PowerPoint ready to go but I'll work through this pretty quick uh first thing we're going to talk about is the 2024 closeout numbers some office challenges what we're looking at what we're doing right now in 2025 uh the nor Northern Warriors outreach program and a Veterans Home update so I'll jump right in um right now within our office well in the close out of 2024 we had 1,400 veterans come to the office uh to do any type of claims or surviving spouses is a significant increase over the previous year um which which is phenomenal for us um with that we also did significant amount of State soldiers assistance grants that we write in the office and almost $38,000 in state grants to our veteran community to do anything from Optical Dental replace sighting on a home or replace a septic unit and we write those grants and help those lower income veterans uh get that issue taken care of quite quick uh another one that we use is our DAV chapter 7 and that's direct support to Veterans who are also U having some Financial challenges and that was nearly $20,000 in 2024 uh directly from the DAV to help our veteran community and that's to pay for things like tires or brakes or groceries uh there was a veteran that or an active duty service member that just recently went through a fire and we were able to work with the da to get him some direct support to pay for some boots and a new jacket and some other items that he needed for that just to get him going right away and so he's very grateful for that $500 um assistance to help him out uh we also closed out the post 911 bonus program uh that the state had we were able to grab the last remaining veterans that we could find within our files uh and that INX of $14,000 to the veterans U that were able to locate so before the program closed and there wasn't any more funding available um the reason why I'm even mention all of this it's it's because of your your support with our office the veteran service office it's it's completely different um unit than it was previously uh the support for the acso position changed everything for me uh to have an additional partner in the office to work claims and then just most recently in April of last year the um new position for the case8 uh it's just changed what we can do we can focus on claims and development and appeals if necessary and uh without your support on that we wouldn't be serving our community as we are now so thank you uh some of the challenges that we see in 2025 uh the VA um after the elections and our candidates that running for president vice president internal issues with the VA somebody was looking at their records and so they across the board for anybody who works at VA records uh they wanted to remind us that we can't do certain things um so the big one that I'm bringing up in our office is we just can no longer print all of the documents from the VA portal and provide them directly to a veteran it's it's part of it it limits us from doing that and kind of puts a roadblock in there when we're trying to get veterans set up for um other services where we can print them out pass them to the veteran they take them where they need to for the next step now we've just changed now we take them to that next step and hand them off um the other part of what we've done just last week is we created a kios in our office working with our Mis group here uh to create a computer system that the veterans can sit down access certain websites they can start to print off their medical records it's all secure it's not on our Network so it's a standalone portal when they enter the information when they log off it all it's all done it just goes away there's it doesn't have a memory to hold on to their information so it's it's good for them as well um they can create their login and IDs through the VA they can access their VA medical records or even their um local Sanford my chart for records that we need for their claim or if necessary they can sit down and write their statement right there and hopefully we can expedite what we're doing with the claim process so that's new and there's other veteran service officers that are interested in how that process is going to work so they're be looking to us for some information on that the next piece is of this which is the big one is the northern Warriors outreach program that you have heard a lot about probably since November and kind of wondering where we're at with that the grant has gone through we received the funding the $180,000 to move forward uh we purchased the mobile claims unit which is the ice castle fish house which is a custom build for us they've already started that process I believe it's last week or just the week before so we're looking at a month to a month and a half before that unit is completed completely custom it'll have starlink in it so when we go to these remote areas we'll be able to access you know what we need to help a veteran with a claim or just do some Outreach so it's going to be a great oneoff unit for us to be able to reach them uh handicap accessible with a ramp lowers right to the ground that's why the that we chose that ice castle style to do that uh we just purchased the truck today and so we got a black uh 20 2500 Dodge Ram pickup uh to pull that unit just fine and uh so that's in place today and we'll be moving it out tomorrow to the next step to get it updated with some storage a topper and some of the other items that we had labeled in the grant as well so we're we're excited for that and I'm just trying to speed it up so if there's any questions at anytime just let me know um and lastly the better home update uh right now toward the end of January I had a meeting with them last week they have roughly 100 employees that are going to be in place now at the end of this month so with that they're going to expand the veteran community living there to 29 to 30 which is it's been good it's been hovering around right around 21 to 22 for quite some time as we all know it's a 72 bed facility and we're we need to get veterans in there uh the there's currently 360 veterans and spouses on the list well there's 205 that need that home today so they're hoping to get this thing moving but it all based on people who want a job and if anybody's interested in working for the veterans home it just be a matter of reaching out to us and we can direct them where they need to go if anybody's interested or you know of anybody that's interested um the last little piece of this they have a half mile Loop that they didn't prepare for this part they have a half mile walking trail at the veterans home and they didn't put any benches there so as spring comes around and veterans are starting to get outside and get that warm air they're going to have benches that will be installed so a veteran can actually sit down during that Loop and not have to have a wheelchair until um to take that break they have some new exercise equipment that has been purchased as well and the other part is the Theater seating they have Theater seating so they're not just sitting on your standard chair that they're doing now it' be hard for anybody to sit there for two hours to watch a movie so the veterans are going to get a little bit more upgraded uh seating option in a very near future so but that's that's it in a nutshell for right now G you go ahead um I went on the uh State's website for the job openings at the veterans home and it doesn't say how many are open but it it says part-time or full-time they were all part positions there wasn't one there was maybe one that was full-time so uh my suggestion my wondering is you know if they converted a lot of those to part-time from part-time to full-time I'm guessing they'd see a lot more applicants because you know people need a full-time job before they need a part-time job um and those are those are uh good salaries good benefits uh those full-time positions so that would be my suggestion to run up the flag pull is see how many of those part-time you can convert to full-time and they'll probably have some more success finding people certainly and as always the housing is also an issue here locally but commissioner Carlson did you have something a quick question yes sir the mobile unit that you're almost almost have for the for the Outreach will that be used every single day every week of the month no no the reason for the question is because when Amy was here talking about some Public Health stuff the there I don't know if it's if it's even a possibility but we did ask Amy to talk to you about uh some kind of a combined use of that vehicle if it's if that even is possible I don't know Carlson and I might have accidentally kind of volunteered you and if if we can coordinate around veterans we definitely can for the first two years it has to be for the veteran Community um if we can make something happen in that sense then absolutely absolutely um we can consider it it's going to be out right now we're looking it's going to be me taking out to figure this whole program get it set up develop the policy and procedure and how we're going to do this roughly three times a month on Thursdays it's our lighter Day within the office and we'll expand as things change in the office um if we show that there's a a great need for this as we get farther down the road maybe it's determining whether or not we need to uh change our office structure by converting you know the case a position to an acbo position in down the Road um but that's too early to tell maybe initially it could be used to to use the public health needs for the veterans absolutely you know so it's not so it's not exclusive you know but it but it gets them introduced to using it with you but it's for veterans until the time period expires whatever but it'd be good for you to talk to Amy about it yeah absolutely great anybody have any other questions for Shane all right thanks Shane appreciate the updates thank you have a good day all right and we're on to the 2025 County Development Fund the other Shane Shane squared hello gentlemen um again I'm Shane Foley the director of the nrm department um just want to talk quickly about the county Development Fund I was here a month or so ago and we talked about what the expectation was um it turns out that we had some extra Revenue come in from Timber sales that opened up that we weren't necessarily counting on before the end of the year so it actually looks a little more flowery than it did before um our it looks like in talking with Randy from my office um and then jod as well going through um kind of preliminary apportionment that $780,000 will be our um our Revenue that can be apportioned off of this year if you recall from the last um time I talked with you 30% of our apportionment um goes towards Forest development activities um which ends up being $234,000 um we actually spent in 2024 $180,000 which um gives a balance of $54,000 so I didn't know where this County Development Fund came from so I did a little bit of looking and it turns out the Beltrami County is the only county in the state that has this and it was developed in either 1967 or 1969 by special legislation solely for belamy County which was interesting U maybe I'll do a little history talk at some point when things are more boring but um so how we've always done it here or for Mo for the most part we've taken the amount of money out of forest development that wasn't used in the previous year and we've allocated that towards this County development um fund so if we continue that forward there's this $54,000 that would be available at my last presentation I suggested that $24,000 was for sure available so it's significantly higher than that which is exciting for the county um but I also suggested at that last discussion that um having a little bit of a balance in our forest Development Fund is is wise um we we' never know what disease outbreaks are there and everything so I'd suggest that $25,000 to $30,000 um balance would be would make me a lot more comfortable in our office um and so if we if we allocate $445,000 towards that County Development Fund um for those grants there would be $99,000 left over which in addition to the $119,000 that we currently have as a fund balance that would bring us up to $28,000 as a revolving fund balance that would stick with in case we need that for some Forest development activities so that's the information I have there's an agenda Bill item in the consent agenda that would be approving um $45,000 being the maximum amount it'll actually be about $100 less than that because of Jody's percentages that you use but it'll be very close to $45,000 if that's how you guys would like to move forward with it so questions forane questions all right thanks Shane all right thanks back on schedule welcome than chair administrator update oh thank you uh I just going to mention based on the last topic uh by Mr Foley uh if you do approve the agenda item that's on the consent agenda for the $45,000 to the Community Development Fund uh I will go ahead then and immediately issue the request for proposals for that I'm assuming that will be okay with you since it's on consent we don't get an opportunity to talk about it so because it's part of the agenda now I figured we'd bring that up uh if you want any deviation to that or any caveats uh to the program you of course want to pull that item off the consent and then we can talk talk about those but that would be the intention is if it's approved on consent in that amount we'll just go ahead tomorrow the next day sometime this week issue the request for proposals for Grant applications all right very good so uh just a couple updates for you um You probably some of you at least are aware of this that Bel try County Solid Waste Department has been selected for a greater Minnesota waste reduction reuse and Recycling and composting Grant uh pretty significant uh amount of about over $162,000 and of course that's going to be used to develop um the new recycling facility over at the airport on Fern Street so um that's going to be helpful uh also the sheriff and I did get an opportunity to go down to uh the young professionals uh network with the chamber uh last week I want to say it was or no two weeks ago and we presented there on various issues and topics uh whatnot around the county which was uh interesting uh quite a bit of interest in fact we keep getting feedback that the city presentation and County's presentation are two of the most uh uh appreciated or liked um presentations which is good news um the jail project just a couple updates for you permitting is going pretty well at this point in time as as you are pretty well aware of we have the Department of Health and Corrections uh and plumbing inspection approval so far so that's good news uh we're close on the building code we're going back on our second draft of of questions and answers at this point in time we expect to have that wrapped up here hopefully in the next couple of weeks uh we did finally get the city of buiji um draft development agreement so we'll be looking at that over the next week or so and hopefully getting comments back to the city on that agreement um also we're uh picking back up on the building condition assessment for the old jail that was work that we started having some conversation about and it was kind of during the time when we were bidding the project and we were finalizing design we said well we just need to wait on that for right now let's get those other aspects of the project for the new jail done before we come back and focus on the old jail so now that that's pretty well underway we've got our GMP we've got those contracts secured uh we essentially are going back to the building condition assessment and um the way we contemplate this is doing the assessment in two phases the first will be done by Ka to essentially evaluate the systems and the infrastructure of the existing building then we'll use K our existing architect to then take that information and determine what possibilities there are surrounding uh potential reprogramming or reuse or or reconditioning of that space we are focused on three main options right now one of them is just a complete demo uh the other one is a partial demo partial reconstruction or Rehabilitation and then the third is a full Rehabilitation so those are the three three primary options we're looking at as far as uses and that sort of stuff we haven't gotten to that extent yet we don't know till after the build building condition assessments done and after we know what the architect says can be done internally you know whether we're going to have a bunch of small spaces maybe a couple large spaces you know realistically maybe no cost effective spaces at all uh depending upon what has to happen um architecturally uh to and constructionwise to the facility so we'll hopefully get that underway with uh hopefully some results we expect maybe late spring early summer um just so you know because you sign all the bills for the county uh you'll start seeing the jail project costs going up that's to be expected we're just finished with the well we're not quite finished but we're finished with the billing for the preconstruction phase that preconstruction phase will continue on to uh April but we have exceeded the uh not to we have not we have reached the not to exceed amount that's how I should say it uh so essentially we are capped on that expense which is good for us um even though there's some activities still needs to take place uh additionally uh we reviewed and revised the spend rate sheet calculation this was the one that we were using to identify how quickly we would need to uh identify revenue and how quickly we would spend that revenue on activities supporting the construction of the jail and the rehabilitation or demolition of the existing jail we had anticipated as you we might recall we talked about the potentiality of issuing two separate bonds at lower amounts that we would need as the second Bond the first one of course is issued but the second one we were contemplating possibly needing by April of this year based on the new calculation it doesn't look like we'll need that second Bond until very late this year so that's some good news for us because uh we won't of course have to bear that additional interest cost uh and additionally we're collecting more currently in sales taxes than we are paying on the bonds because we only issued the first half of the total amount of the bonds so that addition that we are collecting in sales tax which is what's going to be needed needed to pay both bonds we'll have a little bit of a surplus and we might be able to buy the bond the second Bond issuance down uh in principal so that too should help save some money on the project as well so we're we're excited about that uh and then lastly I just want to let you know that bid of the capital looks like a shaping up to be on or around uh March 4th uh with a backup date of March the 12th I think there's couple of things that are still being worked on there uh but that is the latest tentative date I think I initially told you late February but it looks like uh it's shaping up to be more like very early March so that's all I have for you but I'll stand for any questions you might have anybody have any questions for administrator Barry no um that sounds good then um anybody have any items that they want to take off of the consent agenda for review are we okay with the Development Fund and everything else all right then we are adjourned until 5 o'clock thank you --------- ##VIDEO ID:1ZibHYq8EIE## e e e e e e meeting to ordered to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all go the general comments tonight for any citizens that want to address the board anyone wishing to address the County Board on an item not on the agenda may come forward at this time to be recognized by the board chair please state your name and address for the record comments are limited to five minutes and a personel comp personal complaint against individual County employee may not be heard at initially initially at a board meeting Personnel complaints may be submitted to the board and writing through the county administrator's office a person addressing the board may not use profanity or vulgar language anybody want to come and address the board I see former commissioner lukic come on up Jim lukach uh 13318 Wildwood Road Northeast bidi Minnesota um here again to request a special request to the County Board um I've basically been turned down to put an an un what's called an unsolicited article in the newsletter the newsletter committee came up with some requirement that said they don't take unsolicited newsletters or but I'll I'll cut right to the chase um this is a very serious matter more people I talk to in the county constituents general public very very very little information very little knowledge about the redistricting issue the redistricting vote the redistricting lawsuit the the undo of that lawsuit the undo of the redistrict the bad redistricting plan that was adopted by the County Board by a vote of 3 to2 that was reversed the judge basically acted completely against that action and said that it should never have happened it was against State Statute the County Board needs to do their homework better on serious matters like that um I don't know where the restrictions came that said they can only have a 500w article this matter needs more than 500 words to the constituents and in 2030 if any of you are still sitting on the board um you can give me a call and say thank you because your redistricting matter is going to go really quick it's going to it was done with great foresight as to what the next redistricting issue was going to do so my request is to put the matter to a board vote to allow and if you won't take the letter that I put together I tried to write an article that was very un Trump very diplomatic I didn't name names I wanted to but I didn't call anybody out I I thought the article was well written it needs more than 500 Words it's a very important matter I want to make sure that the people know that in the state of Minnesota when a plaintiff brings suit and is successful you do not get reimbursed any of your charges me and my co-plaintiff spent $50,000 fighting what we felt was a bad decision by the County Board the judge found in our favor we got nothing back I asked for $4,000 in transcription charges that both you and your attorney used and it was a very critical in that whole lawsuit we transcribed County board meetings they didn't even give us transcription expenses back so the cop plan of spent $50,000 never got a nickel back the County Commissioners that voted three to two did not lose one nickel the only people that were out was the county constituents that had to pay for attorney to defend the county board's bad decision so I ask respectfully if you would consider allowing a letter newsletter news article whatever you want to call it to be put in the Beltrami County newsletter it needs to be more than 500 Words I have submitted that uh the uh the response to that was from a couple of Commissioners is that it was kind of long would you be okay with pairing it down a bit yeah I'll I'll compromise but again it's a very serious matter it's very straightforward it mentions statutes it's it's not an opinion it is a judge's action it's a very serious it's very serious case law and I believe that it will put uh put forth to Future County boards to really do your homework on redistricting because it was a serious matter and it ended up getting reversed and and undone so I ask that in all due respect if you would take that matter forward let me know what else I can do I have submitted that article to you folks and uh would appreciate that if for nothing else uh 14 years as a past County Commissioner um I sat back there I know what that seat feels like and I've had people come up and address me and ask for things and H I didn't do everything right in 14 years there was a lot of things that had to be rethought redone um the best thing you can ever do is look yourself in the mirror and say uh maybe we better think about this a little longer and it made me review and try to do homework before I made every vote you folks make is an important vote and it all has some consequences and it all has to do with a County that's uh 45,000 people you're you're representing a lot of folks so if you would do that I would appreciate it let me know what else I can do um I made offer that uh Laura uh Hansen um she has a married name but I always go by what she was the real name she was the chair of the redistricting committee um if you would rather that article come from her a more neutral source so to speak I've talked to her and asked her if she would review and put together facts that would uh reflect that and it might it might send better when it's not coming from the lead plaintiff on a lawsuit might come better from her uh because she was voted by a committee of five to be the chair of that uh redistricting Mission so whatever you can do there I would appreciate apprciate it I I will give you my word that I'm going to come back to you as much as I can if I don't get action I want something published countywide newspapers aren't doing it um it it should come from it should come from the source it should come from the county uh so with that thank you thank you Jim there anybody else uh wanting to speak to the board does not look like it so we will move move on to approval of the agenda look for a motion to approve the agenda I'll make a motion motion by commissioner Winger second second by commissioner Carlson any discussion all in favor of approving the agenda as as submitted say I I I any opposed the agenda is approved 5 for approve motion to approve the consent agenda motion by commissioner suar the second second by commissioner Winger any discussion on the consent agenda hearing none all in favor say I I I any opposed all right we have five to zero approval of the consent agenda thank you and uh moving on to our regular agenda we have dispatch overtime pay resolution I believe our sheriff is here to briefly talk to us about that situation good evening Commissioners I hope you guys are all staying warm the last couple days uh Sheriff rigs talking to you today um here recently through December and the first part of January our emergency Communication Center has found itself uh struggling with Staffing we've re that we had uh two of our staff members in the p app uh resign uh due to moving on with uh careers and uh Family Matters and then uh we've had uh another individual who is in training that has moved on and a fourth that has moved on just because of uh not making requirements for being able to complete the job uh that's put us at a staffing ratio of about 61% which is critical um I'm here tonight to talk to you about um our peap manager Janna siga has been working feverishly uh through overtime measures that she's not being compensated for um and as of County Personnel policy 8.1 uh some exempt employees can receive overtime in uh critical uh Staffing requirements or Staffing uh situations and I feel that we're currently at that current situation right now uh this would have very little impact on my budget due to salary savings uh as it stands uh being down we're we're currently down five positions in the psap we were at the at the process of hiring one um but it takes anywhere from six to nine months as commissioner Winger NOS to train these folks um so it's not just an overnight fix of hiring people and having them capable of uh sitting in chair and and and answering our 911s and and dispatching calls so what I'm here to ask you tonight is uh to approve Janice for the overtime there's going to be some caveats with it uh administrator Barry and I have uh drafted a resolution that would be authorizing her to do so under those caveats um I don't have them exactly word for word but basically at the approval of uh the chief Deputy or myself uh within a certain time period of filling the shifts and her shift is already um spelled out in in the County Personnel policy as being from 88: am to 4m and so anything outside of those hours that she would have to work would be overtime um and I guess that's kind of what I'm looking for as of right now if anybody has any questions I would certainly answer any of those questions Mr chair yeah go ahead commissioner G um in the resolution it says uh that's just one sentence I'll read it it says the emergency communication supervisor shall not accept any overtime shifts until and unless all other telec communicators have rejected such shifts or are scheduled to do so within three days of the shift could you talk about the uh the three days of the shift is that like if there's still that shift that needs to be filled tomorrow or two days from now she couldn't do that she can't she I'm sorry she can't uh sign herself up for that shift until us we're inside of that three days okay yeah so she she couldn't like five days out take a shift ahead of a a a a union employee so thank you yeah Mr chair yep go ahead commissioner uh for the sake of discussion I'll make a motion to approve the uh overtime pay exempt dispatch uh now I'll second that okay we have a motion by commissioner suar and a second by commissioner Carlson further discussion or questions for our Sheriff uh Mr chair y go ahead commission um Sheriff I'm just kind of curious uh I know this is a you're anticipating a 9month period for this uh to be in place but I'm kind of wondering how this might you know affect um Janice and and her potential burnout um do you have something in place we're going to really monitor the amount of of shifts like they've already been making arrangements for like really limiting time off that's not 100% emergency and so that's in an effort to obviously try to keep her from from burning out um we do have a current uh trainy that is like she's a rockar when it comes to this job and so her training period of time is almost up and we're hoping that that'll help alleviate some of that as well but we can only train two people at a time effectively in there um and it takes six to nine months and so as people transition through we're hoping that in a few months we can get the next set of people hired to start that training process with their first phases as well so but we are monitoring that and that is a very much a big concern of mine uh We've we've gone through this issue with the the jail uh a few years back um where we kind of reached that I think we were at Tom correct me if I'm wrong I think we were like at 48% yeah yeah 38% I think it yeah maybe maybe some of you guys might have actually been on that that study um and so you know 61 that's a little over half of the Staffing um thankfully we're not below that we don't anticipate in the near future anybody being that and we're hoping that within a few months having a couple people trained up that that will even alleviate Janice having to work that much less uh um are you are you recruiting from other agencies or or what what's your plan you know coing as as much as that's highly discouraged from my counterparts yes we are well I me every other department does it so you know I just want to make sure that you know uh your department is is you're doing everything that they can uh to ensure that your your your staff because I understand that you know the the uh dispatchers or telecommunicators are are the first line and and the stress that they deal with you know I want to make sure that we we offer are are able to help you in any way that we can so yeah they are very important to us for sure sir thank you Mr chair yep thank you other questions for Sheri wi U you have anybody working anywhere else that that started it dispatch so they're trained that could also help fill in um we do have a couple of bayts um that during uh covid uh Sheriff Bal actually was that realized that we might find ourselves in a pickle with with the 10day quarantine that we might we've actually considered that as an option but since moving from LG to Pro Phoenix we would be starting back at square one with those folks um so we almost better like we can probably get people hired relatively quickly in comparison it's just a matter of getting them trained and so the training environment would probably be close to the same thank you yeah a good thought though Mr very good thought any other questions for the sheriff I'll call for the question then no further discussion all those in favor of approving the the request for the the overtime pay resolution dispatch say I I any opposed right thank you 5 to zero thank you stay warm please yeah we're moving in the right direction that way so all right we'll go on to the commissioner business items the legislative lobbying issues and we'll combine that with commissioner reports and commissioner suar uh thank you Mr chair so I did attend the black duck ambulance um committee the last last week sometime um it was good to be back uh there's a lot of discussion about you know the the emergency uh I think grant that they received which uh has been really helpful um so could be back uh I believe I have a extension um meeting next Monday uh and I will be at the AMC board of directors meeting this Friday uh that's in conjunction with the new commissioner's training uh so yeah that's it's my report thank you thank you commissioner suer commissioner Winger I went to the solid waste meeting this morning I'll kind let you fill everybody in on that one well more versed in that that was my first meeting and I learned a lot uh and I'm going to the new commissioner training down the cities for the next few days so great that u'll be a very enlightening thing for you that I don't get the fire hose drinking there so commissioner G thank you uh kls met last Thursday I attended that um we got a Northwest juvenile center meeting coming up on Thursday I'm doing chat about tomorrow um next week I have a AMC legislative meeting over zoom and then uh joint Powers board uh for natural resources uh next month as well that's it great thank you commissioner gold commissioner Carlson yeah thank you Mr chair um last couple almost two weeks ago now we had the AMC lunch and learn about Naran and commissioner govig and I were there along with Chris meller um thanks to Chris for opening that up for us um had a Liberty Township visit just to get familiar with those folks uh that's in my new District uh I had an airport Affairs council meeting I had a prime West meeting had uh be Clara which is the Bel tramy County lakes and rivers Association quarterly meeting uh we had the jail DNL committee and you've already heard from administrator Barry about some of the updates there about what we're want proposing to get to bring to the board um a proposal to uh initiate that study on the on the building I think that will be maybe come to force next meeting is that possible that's the intention yes sir okay um and uh and then we had the airport Authority board meeting last Wednesday um and then I filled in for Craig at the Tri County emergency medical joint Powers board and had a greater buiji meeting and so we're moving the U out of the greater buiji thing I think the thing that might be important that you might want to know about is is where we at with the the uh YMCA um and and they're moving along there's a couple questions that have to be s by the city of amiji um and depending on how that gets settled that will kind of determine the movement forward I think it looks favorable um but um you know that's it's a big it's a big ask on a city's part uh with re with regard to the cleanup of the site and the infrastructure and how they and how they do the infrastructure so um big big question for them um not easy questions but uh once they finally make their decision then we'll have a more clear understanding of what will happen with the why but that's all I have great thank you commissioner Carlson I had a couple things one I thought that the I went did the first chat about session after our meeting I thought that went well um it just seems a flow good to you know to have the information um about our work session topics that we normally wouldn't know much about because we haven't had it yet and so I thought that was a good good move by Kev Jackson to switch that um you mentioned the airport Authority meeting that we had um and thank you for filling in for me on the black duck EMS board I I uh had a continuing education training I would have much rather been at the black board for my electrical license but uh sitting through eight hours of continuing it that day instead so I couldn't make it there um our Solid Waste committee meeting this morning probably the biggest topic there is our our demo landfill situation and um administrator Barry and and it brought up group you know the we're concerned about whether or not we you know the focus on the The ount Hub and spoke thing and the funding situation at the State uh just concerned about that the likelihood of us getting that you know being pretty tough since we didn't get it when they had a huge Surplus um and so we're looking at the uh um what is the real future capability of our demo landfill and we've tasked Brian to to come back to us and let us know know um if there wasn't a permit time frame involved the current situation that we have with the land and the and the The Fill capabilities of it how long could that take us and you know to 2034 what what's the year on that and look at maybe going another angle with the with the legislators to to see if we can get um an extension or whatever to not stop the rule making and and give us an extension so we're not up against the wall of not having place for our demo landfill stuff to go so that's it for me um you mentioned you got chat about tomorrow um I'm not sure who's got management team but they can look at the uh Mr chair yep you have something well looking at the management team it looks it appears that I missed January 15th I guess I wasn't aware uh usually they send out an email reminding of of the meeting so I'm not too sure what happened there I would have been there but okay didn't receive notification okay you get the next one all right great anything else to bring before the board otherwi we look for a motion to adjourn yep go ahead M Comm Carl um I'm gonna ask that uh we add a discussion at our next meeting regarding the request from um commissioner Luc that we have a discussion about that can we add that to the work session topics uh I don't I know if it's work session I think maybe it'll be a board meeting well we could talk about it the work session and then bring it to the board meeting if there's consensus okay okay that would be a typical way of doing it sure how much how much time would the board like on the agenda for that item I would think it wouldn't be more than 10 minutes or whatever okay yeah sounds good we make sure Mr chair yep um Tom can you remind me what our policy states about bringing items forward okay so if it's non-controversial then the administrator has authority to bring it forward and put it on the agenda if it's something that appears to be controversial uh or it's from an outside entity or organization or something that doesn't have business with the county or that sort of stuff um then it would uh come to the board and it would come under the um future agenda item section of the work section of the of the you know work meeting and then uh the board can talk about it at that point in time and then they would essentially uh need to agree three to two or more like there have to be a quorum that agreed to put it on the agenda uh in order to be Advanced that cannot be discussed at that particular meeting it would go on the meeting following so uh that's how that's been addressed in the the most recent policy for agenda setting that's why I thought we bring it to the work session discuss it what what find out what I'm not on the the the newsletter committee so find out what what has been discussed in the newsletter committee and and what the what the consensus of the board is if we have enough consensus to bring it to an agenda item then we'll put it on the the next board meeting's agenda as a for us to to vote on potentially the February 19th the 2nd February with me whatever it is 18th 19th that sound fair I'm sure that we have enough time to Y to go through it okay all right nothing else I will ask for a motion to adjourn so moved motion by commissioner G second by commissioner Carlson all in favor of adjourning say I I any opposed and state thanks