--------- Call the meeting to order. Uh, introduction of new employees. Any new employees? None. All right. Identify future work topics. Anybody have anything they would want specifically brought up?
I guess I'm wondering about the uh presentation from the group last time about the crosswalk safety signal the north side of the state park county road 20
>> this group see if we should uh have Bruce come talk to us all about that and have Bruce explain what they can and can't do. >> Yeah. Um, but also give them an opportunity to, you know, just quickly reiterate what
they want and why and stuff. I know you're right. Bruce said there was criteria that has to be made in order to have certain signage on the road. So would be >> if nothing else even if we couldn't do
it that would give them clarity of what we can do. >> Right. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> Tom. >> Yeah. Mr. Chair, just I I don't know if this will change your minds on that. I think it's a very good idea to get um this conversation um get back to them on what the board
would like to do on this conversation. I do know that uh Mr. Hasbar has communicated with them and given them information. I could either send that to you in email so you had what he sent or if you'd like we can take Commissioner Gould's recommendation and just give
some time and space on the agenda for you to discuss that as a group. Um it just depends on whether you feel like you want to do that or just take the information that's already been shared from Mr. Hasbargain or or whatnot. So, >> okay.
>> I think we should discuss it as a group and see if we want to do it or not. Uh, see what the recommendations are, see what MDOT says, and Bruce see what he thinks and um decide what to do. >> That would be easy enough to do as well.
So, okay. Any other topics? No. Okay. Biji Regional Airport Authority update. >> Good afternoon. Uh for those that don't
know me, I'm Kyle uh with Kyle Christensen with the Bumiji Regional Airport Authority. Uh, I'm the executive director with me today. Aaron Ankle, he's our director of operations. Um, Craig and John are on on the airport board and I think John brought it up
that it's been a while since the airport's been out at a work session and might be good to come out and give an update on what we've been up to the last couple years and allow for any Q&A. So, um, I'll jump right into a little PowerPoint I have prepared.
[clears throat] I'll skip some of the fluff in here. We use this for uh anybody that comes to town, elected officials or otherwise. So, this is more of a 30 minute presentation. I'll try to shorten it up. So, uh just at a quick glance, uh Baiji
we have uh depending on who you ask, we have the fourth busiest airport in the state. Um that's going by passenger in planements, so commercial passengers. Um, there are some airports down in the metro area that that might be busier than us, you know, operations wise or
number of aircraft wise, but we like to brag that we're fourth busiest for passenger numbers. You can see our uh 2025 passenger numbers, 57,701. That's arriving and departing passengers. Uh, a little bit of a dip
from 2024. uh 2024 was a bit higher because we actually had a a 70 seat aircraft serving us for for a good chunk of that time frame. Um for those that aren't aware, Del uh Sky West uh they fly the
under the Delta name. They were temporarily bringing in a 70seater because they wanted to do away with the 50 seat jets that were coming in because they wanted to offer first class on every flight. Um, and what they did since then is they've they've taken that 70 seater and they've trimmed it back
down to 50 seats and it now has a first class option on there. So, we're back down to 50 seat planes, but they are a bigger airframe. Uh, we average about 60 operations a day. Uh, when I say operations, that's takeoffs or landings. We have about 72
based aircraft, both fixedwing and helicopters at the airport. two runways, uh, 1,700 acres. Field elevation is 1391. Uh, if you care about that, I know the pilots, they sure do. um economic
impact. Uh I believe these are the numbers from a a study that Mindot Aeronautics did back in uh I want to say 2019, but 57.7 million in total economic impact and uh area employment of 459
jobs that are um somewhat supported by the airport. By the way, if you have any questions, feel free to interrupt, jump in. There we go. a number of businesses out at the airport that I think some folks maybe don't realize uh all that does go on out
there. I won't list them all, but um kind of the the better known ones are the airport authority ourselves. We have got 13 or 14 staff right now. Um you've got Unifi, they they service the airline flights. Um Bumiji Avi Bumiji Aviation
Services, I'm sure you're all familiar with them. Uh, we got our government or government government partners in FAA, TSA, um, BIA and DNR. They partner on the the fire tanker base down there. Um, Airore Aviation, um, they've been
blowing up a lot lately, growing a lot. Um, the, uh, airport authority, as a reminder, was created in 2008. Uh, joint powers agreement between the county and the city. Uh we did renew that joint powers agreement is that a couple years
ago now I want to say uh just did some updates kind of reflect how we were actually operating at the airport. Just changes to staff review and stuff like that. Um, and as I mentioned before, we got sorry, John and Craig on our board,
as well as uh George and Lynn from from the city. And then uh John Canor is uh our chairman uh lay member. Uh some stuff that we as airport authority staff do. Um, we got me, Aaron, and uh, we've got Angela that
work in the front office, but we've also got uh, actually majority of our staff are in field maintenance. And here's an idea of kind of some of the stuff they do. Uh, we do aircraft rescue and firefighting. Uh, it's it's a requirement to have commercial flights
come in is that we have somebody man the fire station. Uh, as long as that flight's on the ground or 15 minutes before they arrive, 15 minutes after they depart. Uh we're also there if if any uh general aviation aircraft have any issues. We're not we're not there around the clock, but um if something
were to happen while we're there, we'd support or else we'd get called in if if something were to happen. Uh we do snow removal, uh grass mowing, just general maintenance on the terminal and other facilities. >> Maybe you want to explain fire.
>> Yeah. What about it? Yes. Yeah, I should uh these these pictures in here were from uh Thanks, John. from our we call it the trienal exercise. Every every 3 years we are required by FAA regulations to have a live fire exercise on the airport,
basically a a simulated plane crash so we can demonstrate that we're capable of of responding to such an event. And then it's also an opportunity to bring in our mutual aid partners and um kind of see out what our airport emergency plan how that would play out in a real life an
emergency. So we last did that in >> September was that all okay September 2025. So we'll be due again in 2028. So, uh, major partners there, uh, the city of Bumiji Fire Department, police department, uh, Bel Tramy Sheriff's
Department, uh, ambulance service, um, the airline, TSA. Uh, we try to bring in as many folks as we can because we've got a lot of different partners listed in our airport emergency plan. And it's not very often, to be honest, that they come out to the airport and
get familiar with with what's going on. So, it's a really useful event. uh airport funding at a glance. Um we're funded by user fees which include landing fees, fuel flowage fees, uh
terminal use fees. We've got lease and rent payments. That's that's both for uh hanger rent as well as terminal rent. Uh property tax levy. Passenger facility charges are are fees charged to airline
passengers. So, anybody that leaves Bumiji on a commercial flight, they pay $4.50 um that gets tacked right onto their ticket and uh we we keep $4.39 of that. So, uh that's
limited on what we can use that funding for. We have to send in basically justification of projects we want to do to the FA and then they allow us to continue collecting that that fee. Uh we've got federal grants. So uh those
kind of go along with the state grants. Most of our big projects like if you've seen the the we had our taxiway under construction. Uh just about wrapped up with that. But uh big project like that is actually majority funded by by
federal and state grants. Um for example, that project was 95% federal funds, 2 and a half% state and two and a half% local funds. Um, not all projects have the same eligibilities. We do we do some state grants. Those would be like equipment
purchases and that might have a bigger local share. Those are you usually a 7030 split. 70 to state, 30 local. Um, and uh, FA and Mindot Aeronautics continue to invest in Baiji. Um,
starting last year, our annual entitlement dollars from FA actually went up from from 1 million to 1.3 every year. So, that's uh the money we use towards keeping things at the airport in in good shape.
I'm going to skip all this because it's all history of the airport and it goes on for a little bit. Uh, as I mentioned before, we have uh Sky West Airlines that serves Baiji. They they have a partnership with Delta Airlines. So, it's why most of the aircraft that come in are are painted
with the Delta logo. Uh, two two arrivals and departures daily to and from Minneapolis St. Paul. And those are essential air service flights. So, uh, if anybody's not familiar, essential air service is a federal DOT program that subsidizes
commercial air service to communities like ours. So, uh, we're on, I believe, year two of a 4-year agreement that Sky West has directly with DOT to to serve Bamiji. So when that comes around, uh DOT puts out a request for proposals to
to airlines to that want to potentially serve here and they they lay out what they think it will cost to serve our community and then uh at the time we we voiced community support for Sky West. They were the only ones that did put a proposal in this time. Um and then DOT
ultimately makes that decision. So we've got Sky West through 2028, I believe. We also get Sunountry Boeing 737 charter flights. Uh those operate usually October through
March or April. Uh they go to Bullhead City across the river from Laughlin, Nevada. Uh the casino down there Laughlin's Riverside Resort organizes those charter flights directly with Sun Country. Um recently you may have heard that Sunount and Allegian Airlines are
are merging. um kind of left it up in the air if these casino charters would continue, but uh did hear from another airport that met directly with Sun Country that they're going to continue. They signed another three-year agreement. Um it's a really good deal. It's good business for the airport.
I'll run through some of the projects we've we've done in the last suppose this is probably four or five years. Um our GA apron rehabilitation. This is around our our oldest hangers. Um the ones that are that are mostly white with
the red trim, those are those are airport owned hangers. Um there are also some private hangers in there too. So we did that because the pavement was in really poor shape. Uh we had a John Deere loader purchase
in 2022. mostly snow removal, but can be used for for moving dirt, anything else that comes up. I think they use it for putting in fence posts, stuff like that. Uh 2023 big project. We had our runway 1331 rehab. That's our our main longest
runway. Uh it the pavement itself was about 20 years old. Um we did a a strengthening with it, too. So it was previously four 4 in of batuminous pavement and we were able to put another 2 in. So now it's 6
in deep. There's a lot of subbase there that adds to the strength too. But um should keep our runway in good shape for another 20 years hopefully. There's a nice aerial shot of the the intersection of the two runways when it was under construction. Uh we actually
did have the entire airport shut down for seven days when they were working on the intersection. It was a interesting project. And there's the final product. uh 2024 we expanded our planning area three um development with addition of a
taxi lane. Uh so the portion that I'm talking about is this. I suppose you guys can't even see my pointer. Uh where it says taxi lane and perimeter road to be constructed in 2023. Um it added on to went off the side of that concrete
apron just basically to add more spots for uh future aircraft hangers. Uh with along with the taxi lane, we also completed a perimeter road that will allow uh fuel trucks to drive all the way around along the fence over to hangers there. Um because they they
aren't allowed to cross the runway by their insurance company. So there is the taxi lane. Also 2024 we uh went through the custom well I should say we finished the custom zoning process. Um
it's a fairly new process. We were the second airport in the state to complete it. So whereas before uh the state basically took an overlay of what they thought airport zoning should look like and slapped sorry slapped it on all the communities in the
state. Um recently they made it gave airports the option of doing custom zoning. So we formed what was called the joint airport zoning board I believe. Um Craig and John helped a lot with that
and we we met over the course of probably six eight months. >> Yeah. Um in partnership with with the city and neighboring townships and we were able to get this the custom zoning passed the first time through which was
kind of a polite or a a pleasant surprise. So what this did uh we sat down and basically redrew the the boundaries for what we thought would work for our community. So whereas before the the zoning boundary might cut directly
through someone's property, uh we tried to follow property lines uh add in public land um and take out private land as much as feasible. Uh we also added a we called it zone H. It's a helicopter corridor
between the airport and Sanford Health uh just to help protect the helicopter traffic that frequently drives between us and the hospital. Um I did also bring a map. Maybe I can leave it with Tom if he wants it. I have a blown up size map
of our zoning. Uh basically this image here. So uh 2024 to 2025 T hanger and fuel system. Uh if you recall, we came in front of you folks um for that fuel system. It is complete now in operation.
Um we've got three fail safes as far as uh spill protection. So we're well protected there and it's been a it's been a big success so far as well as five new tea hanger stalls. >> What what kind of money is that bringing in to you? It
>> Well, we we basically charge a dollar a gallon. Um I I haven't quite run the numbers on what exactly that's going to bring in in a year, but we've sold How many gallons do you say we've sold?
>> 15,000 gallons and it's been in operation almost a year. Um that's including winter, which was pretty slow and just trying to get the word out about the system. Um we haven't had any maintenance c well minimal maintenance costs with it so far. So that that'll
ultimately come out of there, but we're basically looking at $15,000 in profit there so far. >> People like normally would have flown right over us now in refuel and possibly other >> Yeah, it's a big draw. Um, this is
really aimed towards the smaller aircraft operators and for them convenience and pricing is a big factor. So if if somebody is flying in at 8 o'clock at night, uh our FBO Biji Aviation might not be open, they charge
an after hours fee. Um this just allows them the possibility to fuel up themselves, which was not available here before. So it is bringing in new traffic um as well as our current tenants are really really enjoying it. There's another picture of our emergency
exercise. Uh in 2025, we acquired a new deicing truck and a service vehicle. And just uh a few months ago, our taxiway alpha project uh similar to the runway project, but we did not uh did we
add two inches on? No, we didn't. >> We did. We had a few. >> Okay. Uh we also had to change the the geometry on one end of the taxi way. It was an old FA design. So where we used to have two 45deree turns, it became a 90 degree turn. That added a bit of
cost. But this is one one of those projects that was 95% federal, two and a half state. So local share was was pretty minimal. Um and then something I always like to stress, you know, we get calls all the time. I I don't fly anywhere. I don't
use the airport. So So why why should I care that it's there? Um this is just a number of of benefits of having the airport here. Specialty doctors fly in each week from Fargo uh to Sanford. traveling doctors and
nurses. Uh blood or specimens are flown out, blood for patients. Um it's a key connection for local businesses. A lot of campers uh fly in for the the language village camps over the summer.
Entertainers at the Sanford Center or casinos. Uh people fly in for hunting and fishing, stay at resorts, specialty instructors for sports camps, as well as uh next day or two-day shipping. Most likely, if you're getting
that, it's coming through the airport. Um like I said, there are countless benefits of of the airport. Uh I mentioned before, the economic impact. Um yeah, anybody have any questions? the 60 uh Mr. Chair, the 60 uh
operations a day or what was the term again? >> Operations. Yeah. >> Okay. Um do you see that going up or down over the next few years? Um slightly either way. >> I don't see it going down. Um it's hard
to say that we we have a new tracking software. Before we we weren't really able to keep track because we don't have a control tower. uh just what a little over a year ago we started actually tracking with it's called ADSB. So it's hard to say if it's actually more or
less than previous years but I I think it's trending up from what I've seen. Uh there are a lot of external factors. There's some uh movement going on with the the leaded uh AG gas. Um I know some some folks are trying to get rid of
that. That'll obviously have a big effect on traffic because that's what a lot of the smaller planes use. Um, electric aircraft are becoming a thing. Um, if if they're able to use Baiji, that'll be a big big benefit, but as of now, we don't have a charging system. A lot of factors there.
>> How about the free parking for up to a week? Is that staying as is going to charge for that anytime? >> That is staying indefinitely because that was that parking lot was paid for by a grant. So, yeah, we are not allowed to charge for parking. It'll remain that way. Yeah, >> it's a nice incentive to out of
>> Biji. Yeah, thanks. I forgot to mention that. Yep. >> Mr. Chair, Kyle, you maybe briefly touch on the um the convention conference or whatever that's coming up. >> Uh Minnesota Council of Airports every year puts on the um Minnesota airports
conference. Uh 2028 it will be here in Baiji. Uh finalizing the details with the Sanford Center, but uh every year we kind of bounce all over the state. We try to go north one year, south the next year. So past couple years we've been in
Nisa, Mano, uh Brainer, Rochester. Um so 2028 will be here. It'll be uh late April. So should see a bit of activity around that. Yes. Yep. Absolutely.
All right. >> Yeah. Thank you. All right. Petland Restoration Northshore of Red Lake. [clears throat] >> I'll just quickly tee this up for the guys that'll give the presentation here,
but uh we're looking at a potential petland restoration project. The county board's involvement is as the drainage authority. This project would look at uh potentially abandoning some judicial ditch sections on the north side of Red
Lake. Um, and for the project details, I'll let the the next group here kind of walk through that with you. >> Great. Thanks for cutting right to it, Bruce. Uh, so my name is Charlie Tucker. I work for DNR wildlife at Red Lake BMA Morris Camp. And some of my colleagues
are here, too. >> Yeah. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Tyler Orgon. I'm a biologist with the Red Lake DNR. and Jim Graham, refuge manager at Agassi National Wildlife Refuge and oversee the land utilization project acres that we
have north of of Red Lake. >> So, we wanted to uh kind of give you an oversight of a project or maybe a series of projects that uh we're looking at doing uh kind of run you through some of the basics and then uh ask you for
feedback at the end. And I think Tyler was gonna uh there's a few topics that uh we're going to try and hit on, but I think we're going to try and go pretty quick so that uh we can hear from you at the end here. So, so back in uh 2018, I attended BSU as a
grad student and completed the project in 2020 looking at fish mercury levels in upper and lower Red Lake. So, that's the graphic there on the left. And what that project found was that there's a significantly higher mercury level in upper red lake walleye in comparison to
to lower red lake walleye. And that led into this petland project that we conducted in 2022 um looking at the the drainages coming out of the petlands in comparison to upland forest driven systems. And the
graphic in red is all the petland influences that we monitored. um and they're anywhere from four to eight times higher in mercury levels in comparison to those non-PETland areas. And so the state has always wanted to uh
restore these ditch systems up there, but they didn't really have a reason why. And so that's one of the reasons why we conducted this project as like a driving force to help protect [clears throat] that um the tribal resources up there, especially in terms of the walleye.
So, we have a bunch of ditches uh north of Upper Red Lake that are draining into Upper Red Lake, and they were originally put there for agriculture, but there's no agriculture up there now. Uh they're not really doing anything for anyone. But, as Tyler said, they're taking uh
atmospherically deposited mercury and shunting it into Upper Red Lake where it's getting into our walley. uh the ditches are contributing probably very slightly to flooding. Uh so we would like to uh restore some of those areas
and get those uh water quality and quantity uh benefits as well as habitat benefits and then of course uh keep mercury out of our wallets. Uh so looking at the one watershed one plan uh we see that some of these wetland
restoration projects uh could help um meet some of the goals that were identified in the plan. So uh you can see some of them there on the right. I'm not going to go through all of them. uh keeping with the plan uh looking at some of the specifics here in the short term
the the 10-year uh span of the plan uh the plan uh outlines completing one feasibility study and imple implementing a project and the desired long-term future condition is to work towards
restoring the natural hydraology of the red lake patterned petlands and so uh we were able to implement a project uh it would be one small step uh towards that larger goal. Uh so here's another slide from the [clears throat]
uh water plan and if you look uh the north on the north side of Upper Red Lake there you see that big green area uh that is an area that was identified in the watershed plan as being an opportunity for ditch abandonment. And
then you see on the west side of that green area there's a yellow area. That's our proposed project area where we are um looking at abandoning some ditches so that we could do a project.
Um another uh slide from the plan here um with some dollar amounts here. But I think really what I would like to you to take away from this slide is there are dollar amounts on here. But uh this project would not cost the county a
dollar. Uh the state and federal governments have uh some project funds earmarked for this. So wouldn't cost the county anything. Um here's a kind of a zoom out view of the ditch systems in uh
the northern part of the county. And so you see in the far northeast you can see those yellow ditches. And those were abandoned uh in a I believe 2015 cooperative project between the county uh and the state to just like these
ditches we're looking at here, ditches that aren't really doing anything. Uh just get them off the books. The difference there was that those ditches were abandoned, just an administrative exercise, and they're they're still there. Nothing happened. There was no project. They're just off the books. Um
if you look just southwest of those yellow ditches in that orange square, uh we would like to abandon those ditches eventually and then also uh do uh some restoration activities in that area. Uh nailing things down further, here's more
of a zoom in on our project area. Uh kind of just highlighting that it's pretty much all public land there. uh there's federal land obviously tribal land and then there are just two parcels of prival private land there. So obviously we need to do some
coordination with uh those private land owners so that we don't impact them. Um but we don't expect there will be much impacts. We've already talked to one landowner who uh supports the project and the other one uh who I've also
talked to is a absentee land owner uh who lives in Atlanta I believe. Uh so some other issues that you know have come up when we talk about these projects in the past. Uh you know we want to have we we want to gain we don't want to lose anything with these projects. So uh simple things come up
like snowmobile trails. Uh there are snowmobile trails uh that connect uh the Wasish to Thorhalt area that run through this area, but uh we would reach out to the clubs and DNR parks and trails. We don't anticipate uh or desire to have any impacts on trails. Um will there be
fisheries impacts? There's been discussions about whether fish are using some of those ditches uh for spawning and uh tribal fisheries experts don't believe that's the case. uh they actually believe it might be a source uh or I'm sorry, a sink population. So,
it's actually not good spawning habitat, but fish are trying to use it anyway. Those fish might be better off uh spawning somewhere else. So, we don't expect any uh negative impacts on fisheries at all. Um and then of course, timber always comes up. Uh so this is
kind of busy here but um inside our area of interest um the only the productive uh timber stands according to the DNR database are highlighted here. Those are the colored ones. Everything else you can see through because it's not productive. Uh but there really are very
few stands here that I don't expect impact to any of these. Um perhaps this one um because it is right along uh ditch corridor where we would like to work. Um but uh that is I think about a
15year-old tamarak stand. Uh so it wouldn't come up for harvest again for another 65 or 75 years. And if there were losses in productivity to that stand, uh I would expect them to be at least partially offset by increases in productivity as a result of our project
on the other side of the ditch. Um not to mention that it's hard to sell any wood in this area anyways. So not expecting much impact. uh to timber resources. And uh here's kind of a schematic of uh some like early conceptual design plans that uh Tyler,
do you want to talk about? >> Yeah, I can just run through this really quick. So part of the the grant funding that we have for this project required us to work with the engineer. This this particular outfit is WSB and um this is the furthest west ditch system and they
want to their their model suggests that we every two feet of drop there's like a beaver analog and I think we have a slide of what that might look like in in the in the next slide but essentially there's uh about seven to 10 different beaver analoges to help slow down that
flow entering upper red lake. >> Yeah. So grand scheme um if we get some design plans and they support kind of what we have in our heads um what we would do is uh take the old so they went
down the ditch, right? And they scooped out and they threw the the spoil pile all onto one side where that spoil pile is still there. We would scrape it off and push it back into the ditch with uh more vegetation, brush, and perhaps some trees from the area. And then like Tyler
said, uh we'd use uh what they sometimes call these beaver dam analoges to slow down the water on the landscape. So we're not trying to create ponding or flood out any forests. Um that wouldn't make sense because this is an ecological restoration, right? We don't want to do
anything completely unnatural. We want to use mostly natural materials to do this work. And so the idea is that you use wood and fiber uh to to to create those barriers to water movement. And by the time those things decompose, the system has healed itself and you don't
have to come back and ever maintain these things ever again. Um, anything else there, Tyler? >> You got it. >> Uh, so uh the next step um if we uh get the sense there might be um some
enthusiasm for this project would be to commission a feasibility study and uh in support of that we've already collected high resolution LAR data. so that you know you can pass it off to engineers and they can model where the water will actually go if you do certain things. Uh
we've done a bunch of baseline monitoring out there and uh here's a picture of us doing some of that stuff. We have monitoring models in the water. We're looking at um mercury levels uh like Tyler talked about uh plant surveys before we do a restoration project so we
can verify if it works. and um some of those areas where we're doing those activities are in yellow on [clears throat] the left side of the slide there. So uh just some of the partners here that's kind of all we have but I think it's fair to say that we
would like to do a project in that area identified on the slides uh would require uh digit management and uh we'd like your feedback on that and we also perhaps would like your feedback on an
idea of a grander abandonment um uh proposal that would allow uh county to abandon ditches that aren't being used and that would mean that when we want to do this kind of work in the future, we don't have to keep coming back and
bothering about. So, uh I will stop there questions. What's your thought? >> Well, I was hoping to limit my speaking today. Um, but it it does sound like, you know,
a great plan. You know, I know that, uh, uh, Brent and his crew, uh, Bruce and his crew, you know, have been working on, you know, the ditch abandonment. you know, I I like the idea of, you know, coming up with some sort of plan where um
you wouldn't have to come, you know, to to the county board and and to inform us or or ask for permission or or whatnot. But I think it's also a good thing, you know, that you guys are here because it's been quite quite some time and and it might be beneficial for future
boards, you know, to to learn about, you know, ditches because when I first uh became commissioner and I've heard other commissioners throughout the state say, you know, well, you know, I didn't know anything about ditches or or it was I I didn't know it was part of the job. So, I think uh some education about, you
know, ditches, you know, is important. Um, >> we're learning too. [laughter] I see. >> I mean, it it makes sense, you know, to abandon ditches if if they're no longer, you know, serving a purpose. Uh, but what is the uh right way to go about it
is I I'll leave it to the experts that that um, you know, can inform, you know, us. So, that's my thoughts. Um the so I do appreciate you, you know, coming to to the board today and letting
us know. Um I guess I I take my my direction from, you know, Bruce and Brent and and and the folks that, you know, work day in and day out, you know, on this type of thing. So um so thank you.
>> Thank you. Well, if we uh if it makes sense, then we might just keep working with Bruce and Brent and uh report back to you guys when when we have something more substantive to report. That does that make sense,
>> Mr. Chair? Did were you guys just looking for kind of a consensus that the board is not opposed to the abandonment process? Is that what you're looking for today? >> Anything like that? Yeah, >> I certainly am not. I mean, it everything that I read through it certainly made sense that we would move
forward with abandoning stuff that um that isn't isn't hasn't been needed, isn't being used, and if you can then take that and and run with it to restore some pet lands to help filter the water prior to getting into Red Lake, it should be a win-win for everybody as long as it doesn't cost us anything.
[clears throat] So, thank you. >> Okay, thanks. Thank you. If I could just kind of close on that topic, going through that other abandonment process a few years back really helped um because we had public
hearings kind of come up with that FAQ and so kind of going through this process again. We kind of already knew what some of those hurdles or questions to already have answered were. And so I think that was a a good project and and will help going forward with other
projects. for the initial one that they were looking at here that would be in a ditch system that would just be the Belrammy County Board. Um the other ditches up there are a joint system. So it might include Cooch County, Lake of the Woods County or just to a varying degree of how many um board members
would sit on those. So those other projects that get bigger kind of get bigger with other county boards too. So but I think again we've kind of got a good process in place to move forward. Thank you. >> Okay. County safety action plan.
>> Uh I get to tee up another group again. Um we've been working on our county road safety plan. Uh safety action plan. Uh not quite a year yet, but uh we've spent quite a bit of time working on it. Um the consultants have been doing the work
but uh we've been using uh our what are we called tap meetings or are our uh >> there you go >> task force and uh which included a couple of commissioners and we've been going through it. We now have a draft some draft results and so we're going to
go through those with you. Thank you. >> Yeah, it's hot off the press. >> All right. Well, good afternoon. Uh we appreciate you carving out some time for us again. Uh this is obviously the second time that a couple of us have been here to give you the uh an update
on where we're at. Um again, I'm Jed Nordine with More Engineering and I've got uh Lauren Victor also with More Engineering and Kristen Foster with Stone Brook today and so we'll we'll each give you a little bit of information. And what you're going to see in your packets, it's a lot of information. So we're not expecting you
know much much for feedback today but what we ask is that you take this information you you start to digest it see uh you know what the process was you know whether you agree with it whether you've had input from external but uh just to kind of touch on the safety action plan you'll see on the first
couple sheets uh the uh the project overview that's what we went through last time with you on what the what the approach would be and what we use for information on uh on putting this together. You got the crash data and crash uh trends analysis. And we'll get
into each of these uh a little bit more. Um using a proactive uh systemic risk assessment, strategic priority setting with the task force and then developing the decision trees and uh the safety project list. So um the project overview
maybe I I went one slide too fast. Oh. Oh, there it is. Yes, that first uh slide. So, as you see that safe system approach that I kind of walked through you with you already. Um followed by um Lauren's going to touch on the public engagement piece. uh primarily she was able to
attend the winter carnival up in Kellier where uh we had some good input um and probably talk about the online surveys and whatnot. Then we get into the crash analysis. That's kind of the the the guts of putting this entire plan together um followed by the safety
strategies that are developed through the decision trees and different metrics that we use and then you come up with the recommended projects. So, um, with that, I will turn it over to Lauren to get into the public engagement piece. >> You please go to the next one.
>> Um, well, public engagement was an important component of this effort. We really wanted to ensure that we were receiving feedback from diverse users of the transportation system. So we did our public engagement in two phases with the first phase really focusing on creating
awareness of this effort and identifying the actual issues. Um so I did attend the winter festival at Kellier Public School where we had 82 attendees stop by our table, check out the crash data, participate in our table activity. We
also had 185 survey responses to our online survey and we also received 450 comments from our interactive comment map. The second phase focused on strategy development and validation with our five focus groups. So our first one was active transportation. So people
walking, biking, rolling. Our second was EMS, transit and freight. Our third group was aging and disabled populations. Our fourth group was ATV, UTV and snowmobile. And our fifth group was general safety. So throughout all of
that um public engagement and feedback, we received some major themes started to emerge. So looking at um we heard a lot about bicycle and pedestrian safety. So missing sidewalks, unsafe crossing and intersections, limited bicycle infrastructure.
um looking at traffic operations and driver behavior, speeding, aggressive driving, aggressive passing, tailgating, etc., looking at drivers failing to yield to pedestrians, um and signal timing. Then looking at intersection safety, we heard a lot
about poor visibility, um near misses and crashes, driver confusion, difficulties navigating roundabouts, and things of that nature. And then some of the themes that continued were roadway maintenance and surface conditions. So
we heard a lot about potholes, uh rough pavement, poor gravel, road grading, uh faded pavement markings, snow and ice removal practices, and then finally we heard a very strong desire to have safe walking and biking routes uh to schools,
better crosswalk visibility, fewer traffic conflicts near school zones, and safer connections to park trails and after school programs. So, all of the feedback that we heard was reviewed and considered as um as we kind of continued on through this effort. So, I'll pass it
over to Kristen. >> Good afternoon, commissioners. Good to be back again. Thanks for your time. Um in conjunction with the engagement that we did throughout the county through during the winter and the spring in parallel, we also did a data-driven
safety analysis for all of you. Uh, one of the requirements of the federal grant that Belchami County received is that we do this data-driven safety analysis. So, as we consider the engagement feedback, sometimes constituents will bring up locations that haven't had a crash yet,
but could be a risk, and we we take a look at the actual risk of those intersections through this systemic risk assessment process. So, we spent um our team in the month of March spent a fair amount of time looking at over 1,000
intersections in both urban and rural areas of the county. Uh we divided each of your county roads and county state aid highways into a segment. Some of them were shorter segments, especially in the urban areas. Some of the lower traffic rural areas were longer
segments. And we also took a look at the 380 curves on your paved highway system through the risk assessment. Uh we took a look at a variety of factors. It could be the degree of the curve. In other words, how sharp is a curve or how much
traffic a road carries, what is that crash history? And some there are some cases where we can identify risk because of the crash history that does exist there. Um, so we put quite a bit of effort into taking a look at um, both a
proactive and a reactive crash analysis that was informed by that engagement feedback. Next slide, please. Uh, from there we open up our book of engineering strategies uh, to take a look at how we could reduce the risk for
drivers and pedestrians and cyclists or transit users or other users across your system. And the strategies that we came up with that you will see in your project sheets at the end of your packet um are shown here on the screen. Uh
again, we divided them by category. Safety strategies that you could consider for curves in the future. Uh safety strategies that you can could consider along a longer segment of a rural highway or a shorter segment of an urban highway. And and also intersection
strategies. And those are those are targeted towards all users. Next slide please. >> Or no to the center buffers if you not buffers the one experiment that was not well received in our county.
>> That's good to know. We'll we'll provide a little bit more information on those project recommendations. It's not a uh when it comes to the engineering strategies, it's definitely not a one-sizefits-all. There are some segments where you already have rumble strips. So, we don't want to recommend
something that you've already done. Uh there are some curves where lighting might might make sense or might not make sense. And there are some other areas where where STR where signage strategies come into play. So, um all of the strategies that we took a look at are
proven from from the book of engineering options that you have to choose from. Next slide, please. Uh, and here are your more urban strategies. Especially in the urban area, we took a a close look at bicycle and pedestrian risks and uh different
ways that you could consider reducing those risk for uh non-motorized users. Next slide. Some of the new information that was not included in your packet that we handed out here this evening. As Jed said, take a look at it. We're not
expecting a response right away. Um but you will see not only the project level recommendations uh that are preliminary but you'll also see a group of charts uh at at um on the final few sheets of your your packet and that is how we came up
with the projects. So, just to take a look at the last page for example, um that would be your gravel roads. And for a lower traffic gravel road, we might recommend spot grading or spot vegetation clearing. For a higher
traffic gravel road, uh we we might recommend clear zone enhancements or consideration of dust control strategies. and all of the strategies or the project recommendations that we'll bring to you for adoption this fall um
do qualify for grants too. So the benefit of completing this safe streets for all plan and moving ahead with adoption this fall is that it will qualify you for uh outside funding to pursue to do more than what you're already doing on your system.
Next slide please. >> [clears throat] >> Uh so the recommended project handouts uh we came up with 20 projects along curves thing. There are some higher risk risk curves where you've already done something. I
mentioned rumble strips earlier. A large majority of your system already has rumble strips. That's a great strategy. It's a proven strategy especially in rural areas. So, there were some locations, curves, segments, and intersections that were eliminated because you've already done something
there. There are some higher risk intersections where you've already installed roundabouts throughout the county. Uh, so that's great. We wouldn't have anything to recommend for intersections beyond a roundabout. Um, and there so the the list that you see here and the numbers of project
recommendations that you see on your screen are those locations where you haven't already done something. So, what you can expect next from us is publication of the draft final plan in addition to the project level
recommendations and the strategies that uh we're bringing here tonight for for you to weigh or reach out with questions about. There are behavioral strategies that we heard about. The task force that was assembled for your project included representatives from the sheriff's
office and health and human services as well as the school district and emergency management was well represented too. So you did have a cross-section of of professionals in addition to engineers around the table and there are some non-engineering
strategies uh such as enforcement or driver education that you could consider. those will come together in the final report that we'll present to you at the end of the project. So, we'll give you some time to look at this. We're not going to come back at your next board meeting and ask you to
adopt a draft plan quite yet. Um, but as Jed said, please do reach out to Bruce or Jed or myself with any questions or comments. Thanks again to Commissioner Carlson, Commissioner Winganger, and Administrator Barry for sitting on the task force. uh for those who weren't
intimately involved in the details of the process, if you have questions about the engagement that we did or how the strategies came to be, um wanted to point out th those individuals who gave extra time to serve on the task force as well.
So, I think now we'll we'll pause for questions. We wanted to leave a little bit of time for questions and discussion or something else. >> Um, Mr. Chair, uh, Commissioner, that is a relatively newer strategy. It's similar to a chip seal u, but it's a
little bit different material and different application rate and it's just that's a strategy that we use around curves to improve friction. I know it's been tried in St. Louisis County for one, possibly other counties, but I I know St. Louis County has been using it.
>> Just curious, Bruce, if we use any of that on any of our curves yet, or have we done that at all? >> Not purposely. Okay. >> Um, so it's just a different material. It's a chip seal, but it's got a uh what is it? boxite
something. It's a different chip that's got more friction to it, so you're not losing it when you're going around a curve. Um, but that material is I think it's brought in internationally. I don't think there's anything in the US, um,
St. Louisis County and I've kind of seen a couple of presentations on it, but uh they were looking at using tachite tailings as chips because that's got a similar uh texture to it. Not quite as much, but they were doing some tests to
see if it would work and uh it comes close. And so they're actually going to do some more projects and I volunteered us if uh they needed a place to try it out. But we have used tachinite tailings as our chips on a chip seal project a few years back early on when we first
started out when our chips were being trucked up from Little Falls St. Cloud area. One of the contractors asked if we would allow Takenite tailings uh for some competition and we said yep. And so that one year they came from over there. So, we would have had some curves that
were not purposely done as a high friction treatment surface, but uh we did >> nice and it worked good for us. It just was a little more expensive in the end for us, but >> thank you. >> Kind of a long answer for that question. >> Thank you.
>> I I have a question that you probably can't answer, but I'm going to ask it anyway. on the roundabouts where the crosswalks are going in, especially like on middle school road. Um, it's great as you're coming into the roundabout, but going out of the roundabout, they're
right there. Especially on that one, and you don't see the people crossing. You're coming around the corner, you got people here. If somebody steps out in that crosswalk, it's a real danger. I mean, really bad in my opinion, especially that one because it's not I
noticed the ones like on Division Street are at least a car length away from the circle itself, but the one on Middle School Road is right at the circle. You're not even coming out of it yet. So, it seems kind of it's kind of
dangerous to me. Is there a reason why they're put so close? >> Recent one built by the city. I thought >> um [clears throat] there Stone Brook has helped us with all of our roundabouts,
but it hasn't been Kristen's projects. [laughter] Um roundabouts, uh you get vehicles to slow down. That's key. But yes, the vehicles are supposed to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk coming in or going out. They're supposed to yield to that pedestrian. And so there is
should be >> room and the ability there for the vehicles to to slow down and and and stop for those pedestrians. But yeah, it's you are coming around, you know, a slight curve when you're coming up to it. But >> yeah, and a lot of traffic in the
mornings and afternoons by the schools over there at the high school and Jefferson Middle School. So >> yeah, with our trail project where we've got the dedicated trail, we [clears throat] actually are putting up a couple of the warning warning beacons. So, that's a a new new product for us that we're going to try out on that
trail that was part of that trail grant. >> Commissioner, I would just acknowledge that roundabouts are relatively new in our engineering toolbox. Of course, we've been paving roads for at least a hundred years, and we still get better and better at at paving roads each year. When it comes to roundabouts, we get
better at those, too. Uh, so the ones that you might consider building on the future are going to have different design details and more effective features than even something you built last year. >> Thank you. Anybody else? All right. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. Thank you. I guess if again if I could close up and maybe hit that hornets's nest a little bit but uh >> center buffers [laughter] >> since we have uh others that are kind of
working on it. uh we don't have uh when we sat in on those task force meetings we had some real experts that are you know part of u safety traffic safety not just nationwide or you know in Minnesota
but nationwide and they kind of walked us through the different solutions and were I'm going to say a lot smarter on the value of of doing the center buffers but I guess the one thing with the center buffers as I guess I
I'm requesting that the board do consider them. Um the one project that we did uh in in hindsight could have been done differently. I still think the center buffer itself, the idea itself was good. It's just how we allocated the
the existing shoulder to where uh to where we put it on that project in hindsight could have been done differently. the center buffer. Um, again to kind of explain that is you're going to take some of your shoulder or put some kind of additional buffer in
the middle. And that buffer could just be uh rumble strips and two yellow lines, you know, so you're only taking up, you know, maybe another foot in the middle. Um, you still could have wider shoulders. And so that is still the definition of a center buffer. you've
got a spot where again no passing and you got the rumbles and so you're not you're not really trying to allow that traffic to go across there. Um and it can get wider and wider. You know that buffer that center buffer can get uh have additional feet wider and wider uh
you get out to like our number nine project. We put eight feet there because we were trying to allow a left turn lane uh with that center buffer. Um the picture that they have uh when they show a center buffer actually has uh white delineators down the middle of the road
because they don't want that. It's just another thing to try to prevent that traffic from going across. So again, that center buffer uh does not have to be exactly like our number nine project out there. It can come in a variety of uh sizes and and and
materials and methods that we have for it. Um the reason behind it again maybe they can help me answer the the question but it's where we are using it in our decision trees is for the very top hightraic
roads with high density um and where we already have uh we're putting in the the rumbles and the ground in centerline paint and everything. It's it's kind of the ultimate section for us.
um for just for those again higher traffic, higher density roads. When you get up to that level, um the next step is going to be a center left turn lane. You're going to come in and completely reconstruct the road, give you that center left turn lane, lanes, and
shoulders. Um but this center buffer is the cheap fix in the meantime. instead of coming in and rebuilding that road to that that grand section, it's you're going to do something with that with that middle and really it is it is
providing that same right hand shoulder on the left hand shoulder in the center. Um vehicles not only go off the road to the right, they go off the road to the left. So you try to provide that buffer on both sides uh for that traffic to try to keep them in the lane. Um,
I'm not sure if I missed anything or they could highlight anything more, but I guess in the end I still hope that uh the board would reconsider and and keep center buffers as a potential safety project. >> Would bypass lanes be an option in those
some of those cases or >> uh like a right-handpass? But >> yeah, I mean that that's a specific short location more where you just have a just have a lot of left turns at an intersection that only goes, you know,
to the one way. If you're at a T intersection, you're not going to put that in. And a lot of it is is you're trying to again prevent the where you're getting that high density of traffic, high density of driveways of uh kind of
that situation. So what just a one single um bypass lane isn't quite this quite the same or the answer. I mean that's it's answers at intersections or you know that specific intersection but not on a not on a long stretch of road.
Again the answer is is widen it out and put in a center left or two lane road, you know, four-lane road or something. Okay, thank you. >> Commission commissioners expanding on the center buffer idea a little bit. Some of the areas where we have seen
them used include Pulk County and uh the highway that goes from St. Cloud to Isani County. I couldn't tell you if that's 23 or 95, but we have seen the use of them expand uh through the state in the past 5 to 10 years. Um, as Bruce
mentioned, they are varying designs. They can be narrow, they can be wider. Uh, one way that I think about them is different from a concrete median, for example. Uh, if the idea is to prevent drivers from going into the other lane and risking a head-on crash, another
option is a concrete median. However, that's more costly and it comes with potential winter maintenance issues. Uh, and also those center medians don't allow turning. Now, if you have a have a buffer that's striped with or without rumble strips, most of them have rumble
strips. That does still allow the turning traffic to driveways um and without the expense of a concrete median or the winter maintenance risks. So, those are some things that we think about as as engineers. uh we're careful to where where where we where where we
recommend what we do recommend. Um and we did reserve those for some of the highest risk highways throughout the county. If you would like to if you would like to uh see some of the specific areas that we're recommending, that's included in today's handouts. And
again, this is all draft form for the purposes of being here for comment today. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Administrator's update. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. [clears throat]
Just do a brief update today. I think what I'd like to do is start off with the county safety action plan. Just provide a little bit more maybe my personal perspective on this and invite the board's um involvement in the finalization of the safety action plan.
So as we went through this information and the materials um I just wanted to point out that the plan is very crash analytics focused. So as any any safety plan would be you look look at that the last analytics and and identify where are the major problems interception
curves you know all of that sort of stuff and you use those analytics to essentially drive you know what is the potential improvement. Is it education? Is it is it some kind of hard engineering? Is it signage? Is it you know all of these different things but one of the things that I have observed
and opined about through the process is that um while many of the projects have most of the projects have been identified by these crash analytics we've kind of missed the opportunity to uh incorporate potential future uh
safety incursions or crashes or things like that. You know just because we haven't had an accident at a certain location but we've seen many near misses or something like that. we're sort of missing some of that information. So, essentially what I wanted to do is just ask that the board um based on what you hear from constituents, what you see
yourself driving around town and the county, um if you're aware of an area or have a concern about a particular area that isn't in the plan, we would like to invite that information. We'll be putting that into a separate project list. Uh so we had a lot of conversation
about that at the last um uh county safety action plan meeting and uh felt like that would be a good way to identify and to capture those potential future concerns uh and then evaluate them at some point to see if maybe a
project uh or some other improvement might be necessary or needed for that. So that's one thing I just wanted to mention. um it's just a little bit um more opportunistic I think if we can focus on potential and not just what
actually ended up in the crash statistics from the safety planning standpoint. Um next thing I just wanted to give you a brief update on the jail project. You know construction continues on uh on progress. Uh we are still within budget
and on time uh maybe just a slightly ahead of time which is great. Uh every time you go into the jail now, it's it's definitely still looking different. Uh we have paint on walls now. We have cabinets being delivered in certain areas. Um yet we still have, you know,
construction active in other areas like the holding cells and things like that as well. Uh the outside of the jail is taking shape uh pretty considerably now. I mean, you've got sidewalks, uh we've got pavement, uh curbon gutter, uh dirt, those types of things. So um it's it's
looking pretty good. Um, our hope is that we'll be able to provide a tour uh actually in-person tour to the to the board. Uh, maybe sometime in October. There's a couple milestones we're trying to meet. We want to make it worth your while, but also make sure that it's a
safe place for when you visit. Uh, and so we're still working at the design and operations team level to identify kind of the best time that would make sense for everyone to kind of come in and and have a look at that. But uh we are planning for that here uh as part of the
next update. Uh it would likely be something like you know meet on site at say 2 o'clock do an hour and a half um tour uh to go to 3:30 and then uh maybe take a break from 3:30 to 4 to kind of
get back here bathroom refresh that sort of stuff and then and then start the remainder of our meeting at 4:00. So, um, we're looking at October. Of course, we have two, uh, commission dates in October. If there's one that works better for you based on that schedule,
uh, it'd be great to know so we can sort of start planning. Um, otherwise, that's kind of what we'll be thinking about at this point. So, wanted to just throw that out there for you. Um, and I don't need answers anytime real soon. You'll just wanted to kind of put that on your radar for right now.
>> Just a point on that. Our second one in October is >> Sounds good. Uh I don't know. I didn't mean to catch you on off guard, but uh if anyone finds out in the next week or so that that might not work for you, if you just let me know, I can carry that
to the design and operations team and we can try to look for some other time as well. But we'll we'll tentatively pencil in October 6. Um we do want to make sure that everyone can make that because I think you'll all appreciate, you know, seeing that together and and there'll be
some questions that we'll want to run by you as well. Um that makes sense to have the full board sort of there to to help opine on. Um next thing I just wanted to mention is that uh as you know we continue to work with Northern Township on their wastewater project. As you
might recall we did enter into a purchase and sale agreement to sell some county land to them uh for their wastewater treatment facility. Um, some time has gone by and I think I mentioned this not too many meetings ago that the township was exploring an alternative uh
that would allow them to shrink the infrastructure they'd need for the processing of the waste treatment. Um and they have concluded that work and approached the county about uh amending the agreement that we had, the original purchase and sale agreement to
essentially purchase a smaller parcel because they were able to successfully uh design the infrastructure to to fit on a smaller piece of land. Um they have expressed interest in purchasing now instead of the east side of the trail,
the property we've been talking about, they'd like to purchase the land on the west side of the trail. um that's around 26 acres or so and uh it's in a triangle and it's a little more inaccessible and maybe protected if you will from roadway and that sort of
stuff. They have an ingress egress um location that they'll be uh pursuing to access the site. Um and so, you know, we looked at it, they've approached us, and we feel pretty good about the new plan. actually uh benefits the county in a
couple of ways. Uh one is it allows the property to the east of the trail um which is about 56 acres uh to remain in county uh custody if you will and of course that allows easy access to the road um and it's a little bit maybe more
developable although there is some terrain on the location as well. Um the potential downside is that um by purchasing a smaller area on the west side, of course, at the purchase price we negotiated, it reduces the total um
sale price, if you will. That's to be expected. I mean, if you're going to buy less land, you know, you'd pay less for it. So, um we have worked internally to develop an amendment to the agreement and uh I've been talking with the township administrator. looks like um
they're agreeable with the amendment and may be trying to move that through their approval process here in the next week or two. So I may have that agreement for you um as well uh at the next board meeting. So I just want to let you know
that that's all gone pretty well. Um the next thing I was going to touch base on is the housing and tax base discussion. Not much has changed from the last briefing I provided to you. Uh just a reminder really here that at the next meeting we do plan to uh do a joint
presentation between the city, the Belrami County HR uh greater Baiji uh and the county to discuss sort of that strategy plan and approach that will also go to um the city council just the evening before. So it just so happens that it works out that way with the
meeting schedules. And then lastly, um I believe you are all aware, but tonight is national night out uh this afternoon and evening. if that has any bearing on the time you want to spend at your regular session. I just throw that out there for you. Um, of course there's several events. The Boys and Girls Club
hosts a pretty fantastic National Night Out as well as the many neighborhoods around town and stuff. So, that's all I have for you, but I'll stand for any questions you might have. >> Questions for Tom? >> Go ahead. Just a quick question on the so if that goes through with the the
triangular shaped piece for Northern Township on the on the west side of would we have the ability to have access to their their sewer system if we were able to to sell and develop that 56 acres to the east because that would be very beneficial. >> Yes,
>> that would be a perfect spot for a housing development. >> Absolutely, Commissioner Gossig. That's exactly what is intended and and we negotiated or kept I should say the same terms that contemplated that possibility on the west side when that was going to be the property we're going to retain. So all of that's been improved. In fact,
I think we've modified it in just a little better way for the county um to maximize the zoning potential. Uh and I think that helps the township out as well. So when we sat and talked about all of that um I think the township saw the benefit, the county certainly sees
the benefit. Um, of course, uh, just because so the county would get a free connection if we needed it. Uh, we contemplated that because, you know, if we wanted to put a park there, if we wanted to put some kind of infrastructure, um, but if we sell the property um to
develop or develop it ourselves and then sell it or whatnot, uh, anyone else will have to pay those connection fees to the township. So, that kept the count township whole on all of that as well. But yeah, and and that but it does require access for the entire parcel to the treatment facility that the the
township's going to put in. >> Yeah, we we we were looking at that and sort of depending on how that goes out and how you lay things out, it could be anywhere from 150 to maybe 225 units possibly. Um but again, that's potential, not necessarily actual. Could
be significantly less. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Review the agenda. Any changes or
modifications there? Nothing. Okay. All right. Well, we are we don't monitoring system anywhere else in the I have a couple of questions on that health monitoring system. Okay.
>> So, move that down or something from that reassurance thing. Maybe I don't know the over that or not. >> We have we can I think
>> so if you can just answer that not opposed to it but had a couple questions about it. >> That's the only thing I got. >> I think it's a good idea to move that. Anything else? All right.
Well, we will adjourn. Part: 2
Good. You good? >> All right. Anyone wishing to address the county board on an item not on the agenda may come forward at this time, be recognized by the board chair. Please state your name and address for the record. Comments are limited to 5 minutes. A
personnel complaint against an individual county employee may not be heard initially at a board meeting. Personnel complaint may be submitted to the board in writing through the county administrator's office. Person addressing the board may not use propanity or voler.
Do we have anyone online who's preapproved? Okay. Go ahead. She hearing me on there. >> Can you hear us? Is there anyone else that wants to
address the board? Not yet. All right. Well, thought we could maybe get get an extra one in. That happened to me in the last one. who muted me and
blurred out my I don't understand what >> come on. Hello. Can you hear me? >> There we can. >> Okay. Are you ready? >> Yes. >> Your your camera is off.
>> Oh, I don't um Okay. Here we go. Can you help me, Joe? >> We need it on our screen. >> I don't know how to get the camera to work. Joe, can you help me? >> What do you need? >> I don't know how to get the camera to work. >> It's not working.
>> It's not working. >> You have audio. >> It doesn't work. It's I have audio only. >> Yeah, that's fine. Go ahead. >> Okay. Good evening, commissioners. I'm Rebecca Low. I'm here because of administrative failures in our extradition pipeline have exposed this
county to serious civil liability. This board approved an $80 million jail project backed by sales tax and bonds. But when someone is detained on a bad warrant, it's the county, not the state, that takes the financial hit. On February 6, 2025, this county ran a
coordinated media blitz manufacturing the illusion of an airtight multi- agency fugitive pipeline. The certified record tells a very different story. I present four facts. First, a jurisdictional defect on the face of the
complaint. The Minnesota warrant raises a serious jurisdictional question before crossing state lines. The alleged events occurred on tribal land within the Woodford community of the Wo tribe, California. Yet Minnesota's filing
scrubbed the tribal jurisdiction despite law enforcement's own records showing the location was on that reservation. The California search warrant proves law enforcement explicitly knew the alleged events were anchored to the tribal address. The Alpine County Sheriff's
press release confirms a multi- agency coordination recognizing this tribal connection. This omission occurred under a judge with extensive expertise in Indian law. A complaint that conceals the tribal location of the alleged
offense raises fundamental questions about whether the court ever had jurisdiction to issue the warrant. Second, an unsigned return of service in a ghost profile. According to exhibit B1, an administrative integration file
for this case was open on April 2nd, 2024. Yet 10 months or later on January 28th, 2025, authorities pos processed a defendant fact sheet that was flawed on his face, omitting his legal suffix,
listing his weight as zero pounds, and leaving the return of service unsigned. Having an open administrative file for nearly a year leaves zero excuse for an uncertified defective warrant. Within 24 hours of the Minnesota warrant, Nevada's
own official records confirmed his true identity and residency, proving the county relied on a broken paper trail from day one. Third, a defective waiver, extradition collapse, and a warrantless hold. The extradition waiver processed
in Nevada's East Fork Justice Court is an administrative disaster. The defendant's signature date was altered by hand to February 5th with no initials. The judge's signature date says January 5th, weeks before the arrest even happened, and the court
clerk stamped it January 31st, days before the alleged February 5th signature. and the judge's entire name was scratched out and replaced without authorization. A document riddled with uninitial changes and impossible dates cannot
establish a voluntary waiver under law. The hold was void from the start. On February 7th, the Nevada court dismissed the local fugitive complaint. Normally, a signed waiver allows transfer. But because the extradition waiver in this file was invalid and tampered with on
its face, there was no lawful authority to keep holding him. Instead of releasing him or requiring a valid governor's warrant, they held him without legal authority and shipped him across state lines on a broken paper trail. Fourth, the July 20th speedy
trial date. He has now been currently detained for 552 days. He formally demanded a speedy trial with a hard deadline of July 20th. That deadline passed in total silence without a trial. The public record shows zero subpoenas
filed prior to that date, proving the state blew past the statutory deadline and was caught unprepared. Commissioners, this is a massive liability for your county. Holding someone on facially invalid uncertified process exposes the board directly to
civil liability and false imprisonment claims. When a warrant strips away a mandatory tribal jurisdiction, lacks assigned return of service and relies on a broken fact sheet that leaves basic identification blank. It's not a valid
judicial instrument. It is an uncertified unverified paper trail. On July 7th, the Nevada Attorney General officially opened its investigation ticket number 111095. The certified audit exhibits have been
delivered to your clerk. You're now officially on notice. I demand a full risk of management review and request this complete filing be made part of today's official meeting record. Thank you. >> Thank you. Have any other authorized
Okay. All right. We need a motion to >> Mr. Chair, I I didn't catch the name of the the individual >> Rebecca. Okay. With that, Mr. Chair, I'll uh make a motion to approve the agenda with the
um addition to the regular agenda removing 7E from the consent and moving it to the regular to 9A.
>> Have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Okay. All in favor? I >> I >> Okay, so we did that approval of the consent agenda. We have a motion
approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? I post carries. Okay. Regular
agenda public infrastructure memorial designation policy. >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move to approve proposal two of the public infrastructure naming and memorial
designations policies which states that Belrammy County will not consider the naming of any county owned property after an individual or organization. I appreciate the board's desire to establish a clear, consistent, and equitable policy that applies uniformly
to all county owned property. I also appreciate the time and effort, [clears throat] excuse me, that was put into the crafting of both proposals and the discussions we've had regarding them. The naming or renaming of public property can become difficult to evaluate fairly and may result in
differing standards or unintended controversy. Proposal two, which prohibits honorary naming, protects future county boards from the difficult task of comparing the merits of individuals or organizations, and ensures that our requests are treated
equally. It's important to recognize that individuals or organizations may be honored in other ways such as adopt a highway program, which serves a dual purpose, recognition of the individual or organization and a stretch of county road that gets cleaned up of litter
twice a year. I urge my fellow commissioners to vote yes for proposal two. >> Do we have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Okay. Discussion. >> Mr. Chair.
>> Yes. >> Just quickly uh reiterate my support for proposal one. I think it's a uh a nice thing to do that the county could do for a honorable individual
um at no cost. Um I see adopt a highway program as a totally separate different type of thing. Um you know this way we would be able to uh name a bridge or a building after
somebody not just a stretch of road. Um, we definitely have citizens that are interested in doing this. We heard from uh regarding the uh Mr. Akin proposal a couple months ago. So, I certainly think
it's a worthy thing to do. It's not uncommon for local governments to uh name a school or or a building or stretch a road. Um, for example, we have Veterans Memorial Highway down in Becker County. That
could be a possibility with this, um, as well as individuals. So, um, I do not support the motion. I would encourage us to, um, reconsider proposal number one. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Commissioner Gul. I will say that uh I was obviously in support of number one. I still think that's the right thing to do. Um I was impressed how many
people are watching. I got a lot of phone calls shortly after we were done last time. Uh, and I've heard from a lot of people over the last couple of weeks talking about uh things that I didn't consider
uh both sides that were really vehemently opposed to certain people being names put on things. And so I'm kind of reconsidering my original
stand on it only because so many people were on the opposite side that uh I didn't really hear anybody that was in support of it, which I was a little disappointed, but um
yeah, tough call. Tim, you got anything? >> Okay. Well, we will put it to a vote then do a roll call. >> Mr. Carlson, >> yes. >> Mr. G, >> no. >> Commissioner Gazig,
>> yes. >> Commissioner Sumner, >> no. >> And I will have to say yes. >> We should have been here last time. [laughter] And now on to 8A.
Is that where we're at? 98. >> 98. >> Mr. Chair, I I had asked that to be pulled because I just had a a question. Maybe uh Administrator Barry or or Commissioner Carlson might be able to tell. I know it was had three years worth of of the data monitoring built
into the reassurance solutions um package. I'm not opposed to the to the package. I think it's um something that will hopefully help us um save money actually on on the u monitoring of the health conditions of our inmates in the
jail. Um, but there's only three years included of the data access and I didn't see anywhere in there where it said beyond the three years how much they would charge us because it quits working if we don't have the data access. And um I was wondering if if um Administrator
Barry has any way of negotiating u future future cost for for that. Uh um based on what the three years are costing us up front, then it would that'd be 35,640 per year. If we could get them to agree to do that for years four and five
minimally, which is where the hardware warranty extends out to to 5 years. Um and the second thing would be are the sales tax dollars able to pay for this initial investment um and that or is it or what where is the money coming from?
>> Yeah. So Mr. Chair, Commissioner uh Commissioner Gosig rather. Um the contract was negotiated with the firm to provide three years of service since it's a new service for us. So, we wanted to make sure the service did work and because it's incorporated in the
capital outlay of um of the infrastructure itself, it can be utilized by sales tax funds. Uh after that, however, the long-term maintenance cannot. And so, that would have to be absorbed into the budget. Uh the number that you have around 323,000
is what we've been quoted for that annual maintenance going forward. >> Okay. Uh, one of the things that was in the contract that held us up in getting this contract to you initially was an exclusiv exclusivity clause, which meant that we'd be installing infrastructure
that uh should we decide not to use in the future uh would render all that infrastructure, you know, essentially a waste. So, we we got that taken care of uh to protect the county. And uh I think this is a great way for us to trial the system and make sure that it works for
us by having all of the maintenance um you know included with the upfront purchase for a certain period of time and then should we decide to continue on with the or with the company um that uh maintenance contract will be negotiated at that time but we're told will be
around the dollar amount that you'd mentioned. >> Okay. um because it's the initial thing. Would did they not did I mean if we're using sales tax dollars to pay for it and it'll be on the levy or other otherwise is there any opportunity to to have it go for 5 years instead of three
years so it's the full term of the hardware warranty. >> Um we discussed briefly that and didn't feel comfortable that it would be eligible for that length of time under the maintenance. Um, >> so we we just we we felt we could cover
the period that we did as we looked at it. Um, and couldn't go any further. >> Okay. I just trying to keep as much off the levy as we can for future years, too. So, >> understood. >> Um, and I did look at other other systems out there and this one did look like, in my opinion, looked like the the
best technology wise to to uh to do the monitoring. Um any any thoughts as far as the state um approving of this versus inerson deal and is there any issue there? We did have a little bit of conversation around that and it's one of the reasons we're recommending the
system, but I think for the specificity, I wouldn't mind inviting our jail administrator up to speak to that very issue because we did have quite a bit of conversation about it, which is why eventually they turned my mind around on this initially. I had concerns about that as well >> and they change gears on us all the
time. >> Good evening, commissioners. I apologize. I was not prepared for this. So, um, but, uh, yeah, to answer your question, Commissioner Godzig, uh, 2911 rules, we all know, are up and in draft form and, um, I am actually on a state
committee that goes down and our muscles, uh, most of the eight hours back and forth with getting different words and everything else. And one of my asks was, can we implement these types of technologies into these rules? And
there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to. However, they have not yet. Um, we've tried. Uh, I think it's so brand new. Truly, uh, Reassurance Solutions have only been in jails and prisons over the last four years, and they've had such an amazing I have case studies. I
just brought them with me real quick. Um, multiple case studies across the nation of saving lives in between those 15-minute checks that we're required to do. So, our humanism, we can only do so much. And this is real time constant. um
pretty much takes all of your vitals immediat I I would very very much bet not a betting girl but within three years we could potentially have a temperature within those single cells. So but that is a very good question and I tried my
hardest to get it on the rules. >> Well, thank you. I appreciate that and I think that answers the questions that I had for for that topic. I don't know if anybody else has any, but I it did look like they were pretty much absolving themselves of any liability in there. The the section of all capital letters
was like, you know, we're we're on our own basically. >> Yeah, that's pretty typical with anything like this. Yeah, for sure. >> But anyhow, great. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Glender. >> All right, so
>> Mr. Chair, >> yes. I would move that we approve the contract for health monitoring system in the new jail. >> Okay, >> I'll second that. >> Any other discussion? >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed.
Okay, carries. >> Commissioner reports. Commissioner Jaziked to the River Township meeting uh provided updation on several of the things happening within our our county
project all sorts of things. Um had a another couple of cast fire association meeting. We're still uh in limbo on the fire chief scenario. We're actually looking at possibly having a volunteer fire
chief and having a administrative officer that would do the all the day-to-day administrative functions. Um, and uh, so more to come on that. Um, and then Mr. Gold and I had a parks meeting and I was I had to leave early because I
also had a fire association meeting the same night. But we reviewed Grand Park and mobile maze and some of the details about those. That's it. >> Okay, Mr. Ser.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Commissioner Gosber, I thought that the chair of the fire association became the fire chief. [laughter] I have no report tonight. Thank you. Should we go? >> Uh, main thing is the
county parks and trails and budget committee. Couple of regular things coming up next week's. >> Yeah, that's it. >> Thank you, Charles. >> Uh, budget committee, jail design and operation committee ongoing. Uh, Monday
I was in St. Cloud for the Magic Fund board meeting. Um, and so I had to miss the Clara, the Bet Bel Tramy County Lakes and Rivers Association. They finally had an in-person meeting and I had to miss it because I couldn't get back from St. Cloud in time, but uh, but
otherwise, and then I have Prime West meeting coming up Thursday. Okay. Right. Thank you. I've been really busy with work, so I've been trying to get to the things I can. I did the prime help board meeting on uh
Zoom. Um were see what else did I have? I had a uh was invited to speak or actually just attend a meeting at Baiji Town Board or
Township Hall. Um it was invitation for I believe Turtle River, Eckles, um Grant Valley, uh Baiji and I think there was another one there
too, but they not many of them showed. So, um it was mostly about concerns of things that are coming up potentially uh with some of the um infrastructure
um that's happening. Not not negative necessarily, just concerns they have of where they're going to fit in. So, um Oh, Bruce, I will talk to you about one of those.
They asked if I would um I'm doing chat about tomorrow. We have a land meeting tomorrow at 10:00. Also, uh Pinewood is having an event on Saturday if anybody wants to go
out to Pinewood and see what all's going on. They're doing, I think, a trail ride with ATVs and things. And they'll have some music in the evening and kind of trying to raise some funds to help clean up the town a little bit more. They've been doing a heck of a job out there.
It's looking pretty good. So, I plan on going out to that one. And then we got the fair starting next week. So, like to encourage everybody to go check that out. August 12th is the opening night, Belrammy Electric night
at the fair. Free gate and u people that are members of Belrammy Electric can get $15 per per person that registers um for free vendor food bucks for any of the the food vendors at the fair. And uh um also a free concert, the Wington
Brothers playing at the grand stand for free. So >> perfect. >> Was it like a good time? >> Was there going to be any taste testing? They didn't get didn't get called. Didn't didn't hear anything about it. That was I was
>> Yeah, I guess I was looking forward to that, too. But >> All right, we have nothing else. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? >> Second. >> Second. >> All right, all in favor? All right. All
right, we're done.