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e e e e all right at this time I'll accept a motion to end the closed session and return to the open meeting we hear a motion motion by commissioner suar I hear a
second second second by commissioner G we'll call roll call vote commissioner Carlson you're on mute if you yes we're voting to come back into Open
Session I said yes okay thank you commissioner G yes commissioner Winger yes commissioner suar yes and I vote Yes so we are back in open session so the next thing on the on the agenda is is Introduction of new employees do we have
any new employees does not look like it so we'll move on to identify future work meeting topics does anybody have anything that they would like to consider for a future work meeting topic Mion Carlson do you have anything
that you want to bring up for a future work meeting topic not at this time okay anybody else Mr chair yes commissioner gold um couple ideas black duck Library update and Report they got some things
going on there that are pretty uh noteworthy uh and Cast Lake fire update and Report um I don't think I've seen them in our boardroom since being on board here and um just would like to
hear from them okay I can check on that or else I can give an update on that okay anybody else I would still like to see even npe uh from the
uh from the uh Commish count or the uh 4 area over there uh come and talk about their supershelf stuff that they had talked about um I would like to have heard them or like to hear them come and and give a presentation see if
everything's still in existence with some of the cuts but uh I think that would be a from the ex uh extension agent over there okay anybody else we move on to county assessor
update Caleb good afternoon Commissioners thank you for the opportunity to update you um let's go with what's going on in our office um and I'd also just like to thank publicly thank our staff for the hard
work that they've done this past few weeks or past couple of months it's been a lot but it's been good and I appreciate their help a lot so with that out of the way valuation and classification notices are set are scheduled to be hitting the mail uh March 25th and so with that being said
um you guys will likely hear from some taxpayers if there's any questions or concerns that can be directed towards us at that time um it's a good time for us to get to make sure we get we know their property and address any of their concerns or issues so you can feel free to send them
our way um and then as you as Diane passed out to you there you see our our local Board of local Board of appeal and Equalization schedule and so if if we can't resolve an issue in our office at
that first level then we would um look at we would look at sending them to the local Board of appealing Equalization so that's what you have in front of you there I have a little um Power Point put together for you guys just to review
some of the processes that we go through in valueing real estate uh the mass appraisal process is um systematic appraisal of groups of properties as a given as of a of a given date using standard procedures and statistics um
for testing so that's the way we value property in Minnesota um Minnesota is an ad vorum real estate tax system which just means that tax is based off of value and you guys are well aware of that um we value property annually but
we review taxable properties every fifth year and exempt properties every sixth year um we then review every every sale that happens in the county and determine whether or not it is good for our sales study the uh study helps us see what is
happening uh in the market and then make adjustments as we need to that sales study time period is between October 1st and September 30th I just realized I'm not pushing the button here so let me just catch this up real
quick and then uh we review our sales ratios and make sales-driven adjustments um as of again as of January 2nd that's our our valuation date um next uh just want to make mention of
the difference between valuation and classification again valuation is always B based off of the highest and best use classification is always based off of how a property is currently being used and that's important because it can
affect how uh the tax is calculated so we value land and there's a land value and a building value that we must come up with or calculate here are some of the different um features that we use to determine building value
type of construction square footage age condition obsolesence um and then next we analyze our the sales data that we have we come up with a sales ratio which is just our estimated market value divided by the sale price and our median r itio has to
be between 90 and 105% if we don't have a median ratio of 100 between 90 and 105% then that's where our adjustments come into play on this next slide you'll see that uh here's just some of the the sales data that we might get and a
sample of it and you can see oops look like I my numbers off on one of those but you can see the ratios on the right hand side um and then we we'll stratify those that data from smallest to largest
to pick the median ratio and you can see beforehand the ratio was 72% and afterwards the ratio is 90% so that's what we're looking at when I talk about adjusting values we're looking at getting that median ratio between the 90 and 105% if that's not if it's not between
90 and 105% the State Board of Equalization has the power to administer a state board order and uh typically the State Board order it's in 5% increments and they try to be right at 100% on that median ratio
um the downside to a state board order and why we want to avoid that and why we make adjustments in our office first is because we don't want when there is a state board order we send out the valuation classification notices that state board order happens and then taxpayers don't know that that change
has occurred until they receive their TNT notice in the fall or in December so we try to really make sure we stay away from a state ordered uh what a state ordered change so before you now is some of our sales for the
2025 uh assessment for taxes payable in 2026 and as you can see um I'll let you look at the data yourself but some of the the larger increases this year in value came from commercial started out with a 60% ratio and now we're at 92%
and then our egg and rvl Sals sales were low again this year not as bad as last year last year I believe they were around 60% this year they they were at 8% to start with and we are now sitting around 93% 92 93% on those that is that is all I have for
presentation um do you guys have any questions Caleb what you know the acronyms of course srr and rvl you know what are what are those so srr would be seasonal residential recreational properties that would be like your a second home not someone's Homestead rvl
stands for rur vacant land okay that would be usually larger tracks of land that uh are typically more remote but not always okay any other ones anybody else have any questions
no so the um overall look this year compared to last year I mean people have been getting sticker shocked I think by how much they've gone up um is are have we did we catch up enough last year so it's not going to be as as much this year or we
caught up some last year I think the land sales are still high we're still higher than we would really than I would really like to see uh we made somewhere around a 20% uh I think it was or 10 10 to 12% adjustment yeah not not crazy high compared to the last few years last
year was around 40% right on land and um a few years before that it was around 30% 20 to 25 to 30% on residential residential you can see is not really moved this year um not much I think
there's I think that market is has stabilized to some degree but I've talked to some realtor friends that have said they've had a busy spring already so we'll see how that pans out in our next salale study okay um commercial we did a fair amount of reassessing in the commercial industry or commercial
Parcels um some of those were non-compliant so we we caught those up and mostly in our land on the commercial we made a lot of adjustment there so that's kind of what helped that helped us get that ratio from 60 to 92 so that's going to be our probably one of
our biggest changes this year okay thank you commer Carlson do you have any questions for Caleb nope we're good okay anybody else thanks Caleb thank you very much Mr chair Mr
chair what's that Mr chair yeah uh if I could Caleb do you want to mention to the board your recent accomplishment oh I think it's noteworthy for everyone uh given the significance of it the land codes well no you're like yes I did I
did accomplish the uh getting my S license as of last last Tuesday I think it was the 11th so um yeah that was that was good and that allows you to be County Assessor the the actual official
you had to do that within two years of being my appointment was based off of one year oh okay but but yeah typically it's required two years it's just an interview before uh eight or 10 people at the State Board level and and uh so it's good to have that out of my way
good good learning experience though great well congratulations thank you thank you thank you chman thank you thanks Tom all right next up we've got the carbon credit marketing opportunity followup with
uh Shane I think is here yeah hello Commissioners um thanks for having me this is kind of uh the last time I was here month or so ago we are running short on time and there wasn't really very much time for any discussion at all let alone a presentation but um I
kind of narrowed down the presentation just a little bit so that we don't rehash stuff that we've already that we already know um but the intent of these next 20 minutes is to provide time for questions and discussion if we have any um about spec specifics of the marketing
opportunity [Music] is this 's over I feel like that's a oh are you doing it oh okay well there's only a couple slides
so okay the first um so I just had a couple key facts here um the first thing is is always the question of why do we have carbon credit or how how are we going to provide carbon credits without impacting
Harvest um and the key thing to remember here is that we have unutilized carbon that we have no way of harvesting um think of biomass in a way
there's um there's areas that that we just can't get into because they're either cut off by wet um they're in reparan zones so there's trees that are required to be left around those areas um and then also just some unmerchantable
stands that um allow for there to be excess carbon out on the landscape and their estimate is that we're harvesting about 35% of our available carbon um so there's there's a bunch of it that's left out on the landscape that we don't
have a a good market for um the other key fact is I'm sure you remember is this is a 40-year commitment so this is a a long-term deal um with whatever company we would go to go with if we choose to move forward with it um
the first 20 years is um it's all managed by a consultant the second 20 years the consultant steps back and then we um we monitor our own progress basically to assure the people that purchased the credits in the first 20
years that they're still getting what they paid for Diane can you click the next one so the benefits and really all the benefits could be summed up to say Revenue it's it's money in the in the
county funds um so there's also a diversification of Revenue uh which is always nice that um anytime you can get revenue from other sources it protects you against unforeseen circumstan is arising um it aligns with our values of
sustainable Forest management which is kind of a um it aligns with our sustainable Forest incentives program um and then it monetizes these currently unused Forest Products the next
slide and so here's kind of probably the slide that we'll talk a little bit more about or that you may have questions about is the risks so okay we get money for not doing too much differently on our landscape certainly there has to be some risks
involved um the first one that's really hard to predict is changing economic and social climate so all of these credits are a voluntary Market it's voluntary for us to provide credits it's voluntary for people to purchase the for companies
to purchase them from us um States like California have legal requirements for um carbon neutral um business operations but Minnesota does not the federal government does not um as we can see in
the last few months that um social climates can can change pretty rapidly so it's it's just a it's an unknown um changing Timber markets um the biggest risk for us here is that it
limits our about our ability to respond to different market conditions so one of the things that come came up was tariffs on Canadian Lumber um which may then require more Timber to be harvested in
the lower 48 in Alaska um and so if we have locked in that our Harvest is going to be X chords a year it does eliminate that possibility from us from moving much off of that um another one is
biomass has become a a bigger talk Talking Point in the last year or so um they're talking about making sustainable jet fuel out of Forest Products um I believe they're talking about putting a plant in Morehead to start with agricultural residue and then something
in northern Minnesota to use um Forest product residue um and so as I mentioned before we have we have carbon that's out on the landscape that we don't have a market for but we don't have a market for it yet it's unknown that five years
from now if a new market develops that we're unable to sell these products that are currently laying on the ground or or um standing up so that's another risk um large scale disasters is one Wind and Fire is a possibility um but something
like the emerald ashbo which wipes out something like 95% of the ash trees once it takes hold um I looked I talked to the Foresters in an office the other day and we have about 4% black ash swamps as part of our
Forest Holdings and if 95% of those die off I contacted the um the company that has been pursuing us and just ask what is what is that how does that change because what happens if you have a wind
or fire event or trees die naturally um that actually counts against you it counts as a Harvest on the landscape because these are no longer actively growing trees storing carbon um so that's a risk land transactions as you know we've done a
couple land transactions in this last year or at least working through them those become more challenging because now this land is locked up into a contractual agreement um and you are allowed to sell
off some of the property but um it comes with a few strings attached then there's this potential negative impact to the local Tim Timber industry because it's always everyone's first thought is well we're going to have to stop cutting the trees that's just something that we'll
we would have to get over um it it isn't going to change the the harvest recommendations for our um from what we currently do today um and then I just added in here that diversification of those risks is really challenging because one of the thoughts was well
maybe we can R enroll half of our land or we can partner with another County um to kind of spread out the risk among um either a smaller area or a bigger group of people unfortunately it just doesn't work that way because even if you only enroll half your Acres you still have to
account for the other half so you basically don't get any of the benefit and all the cost because of course if you enroll half the half the acres for 40 years cut the other half enroll that one for 40 years you're kind of I mean playing the the back door game of not
really doing what you say you're going to do um and so that's really all I have for right now um I know I was interested if you guys have any questions or thoughts or direction for me moving forward and as I had said I guess one
last thing um in my presentation a month ago I did say that I'm in favor of going forward with it um if you look at it just from a Strictly Business standpoint um it is revenue at very little risk and very little cost to the
county and it's a significant amount of Revenue um I think I have here that it'd be a 30% increase if it was averaged over that um 20year period it'd be a 30% increase in our revenue and a 50% increase in our profit because that
Revenue comes at such a small expense to us um so it is something to strongly consider at least any questions thank you Shane questions for Shane commissioner Winger um you say it's
voluntary to some level but it's a contract locked in on if they if they don't pay us we're still stuck on not being able to do anything with this with any of the county lands correct yeah so the the management that we agree at the
beginning of the contract would carry through that 40-year term it's voluntary in that um we are signing up voluntarily with a set of guidelines that we agree to so yes we'd be stuck with those um and then it's voluntary on the side of
the purchasers that it may be that nobody purchases credits from us um because it falls out of favor or whatever the case may be in society um that risk is pretty minimal as well because if it falls out of favor the
credits that have been developed have lost so much value that for us to buy ourself back out of what we've already established would be at little to no cost because we'd be purchasing credits we already hold that we are unable to
sell for the small investment that was um put forward up front and so the only thing that we the only dollars that we really risk in how the contract is developed would be it the the contractor estimates to cost about
$200,000 to get the program up and running um to do all the monitoring up front to develop the credits and to enroll those credits in The Exchange they front all of that money we are not liable for any of that but depending on
how the contract would be written at the end of 20 years they may need that money to be made whole if no credits are sold I would contend that we should be able to drop a contract with them that says you know this is a risk you're taking
with us and if you're unable to fulfill any sales of these credits over a 20year period That's too bad for you and I I can't imagine they would argue with that up front you know because they're investing that money feeling pretty
confidently that they're going to be able to recoup that plus the percentage that they take of the credits that are sold so it is a risk but I I do think it's pretty minimal Mr chair yep commissioner gold
um I would certainly be interested in and looking at uh um the numbers a proposal contract language and such um you know the the risk is low and we hear
every year from the public how property taxes are going up and up and up we need to diversify our Revenue um sources and for us to just not uh pursue this because it's
different and new um I think we would be doing a disservice to the taxpayers when this could bring in a million dollar or or $2 million um over the next 20 years so um yeah I would definitely like to see uh
some potential numbers and and what uh a proposal would potentially look like thank you commissioner G commissioner Shar uh Mr chair so uh maybe with with uh part of those numbers is um it's kind of curious are there
other counties uh participating in in something like this and what are there how was that working out for them good question yep it's it it is pretty new there's no counties in Minnesota that
have signed up to do it yet Wisconsin has um almost all of the counties across Northern Wisconsin are enrolled in this program now um some have sold credits some have not sold any credits I've talked with a few of them to see oh um
because I've been pretty skeptical all along saying that well certainly there has to be more to this that I need to worry about and they've all said it's been smooth if they haven't sold any credits they are waiting to sell credits so they can actually monetize the effort
that was put in um one County made the comment that yeah just a couple months ago the county just north of me they sold a million dollars worth of credits and that was a boom for them but for us it did nothing so there's kind of that um wishy-washy part of when does the
money come in um I will say that um in Minnesota both um what is it mulus is a real estate investment company um that holds the lands um for Boise paper so up
in the coching region they've enrolled a few years years ago their lands in this um and then also um Blandon over in Grand Rapids they've also enrolled their land so there is private companies that are going the same route and which for
the timber industry being kind of scared of it that gives me a little more comfort that if these private Timber companies are doing it that that's something that they can work through so good thank you commissioner Carlson do you have any questions you'd like to
bring up uh no I at this time I I'm would just like to see more information I um it's hard to imagine um at first I thought we could just take some swamp lands and throw it
in there and we're good but it's I'm starting to sound like we have to enroll all of our lands um so I there's just a lot of information that still needs to come out I believe the other thing is if we did have a we had a major wind incident back
in what was it 2014 or 16 whenever it was and then and then what happens then do we have to if if it wipes out a bunch of our sellable carbon uh lands do we have to fork money
over I mean there's just a lot of questions in my mind still I mean anything anytime something sounds too good to be true it usually is so I'm a little bit skeptical I'm sorry thank you commissioner Carlson and that's those are my sentiments exactly
as well um and uh I pretty leery of of tying up our land for 40 years and future boards uh at being hamstrung by this board um potentially um gives me pause also as well as the
the um changes in like you said the landscape has changed dramatically in the last couple months as far as uh is there going to be a demand for these carbon credits like there used to be or not and um with these other other counties in Wisconsin you know already
being there what's the likelihood that we would actually sell any and then we'd have our land tied up so yeah I I'd have to see have to see more information to uh to even consider it um but so what what are you looking for today or what do you need today this was strictly
informational answering questions um to the commissioner's question about um if a wind storm comes through so that was a big hesitation for me too of what do we do well one good thing about us is we have a huge geographic region and our land is spread out pretty widely across
that whole area um and so that mitigates a lot of that risk for us to lose a significant portion of of Timber across that whole regions very small um but they also build in a buffer at the beginning there's a buffer of credits
just to eliminate some of the the risk involved with that and those buffer credits are held through the entire term um to mitigate that risk okay um I guess what I would the additional information that
you um all are looking for so to get additional information like dollars and what is a contract look like we need to get to the point where we're actually establishing a relationship ship with
these different potential exchange um contractors and so I guess I'm a little unsure of how that additional information would come in outside of moving forward with initiating some of those
relationships are there more than one contractor you've only talked with this one particular one and are there others out there that are doing the exact same thing I was I was just contacted by another individual who's just a couple weeks ago who's now been on vacation
that I've been reaching out to that does the same the same work with the same exchanges um so there is three to four different options that are out there um the climate trust has been the most vocal and has pursued us the most for
sure and probably all else being equal the one I would feel most comfortable working with um the the gentlemen that were working with there he was a land commissioner in Wisconsin prior to him going to the climate trust and so he's been very helpful in sorting some
through some of the things that he knows are issues that the board will have and that I will have as a land commissioner so it's been helpful but so they've already given us a proposal and that could be worked through um if it needs to be sent out for a request for other
proposals that would be um that would be another another thing that we need to move forward with Mr shair yes commissioner Carlson uh one of the questions I had is let's say we were to go through with this and
we get a million dollars does that money have to go through the Economic Development Fund and if that's the case how does that end up actually getting back to taxpayers property taxes this just more money that we give out in the economic development I that I need that
I guess I that's a question I so if did you understand that question yep if the revenue does go through a portion which I've talked with jod a little bit about that we're not quite sure yet um if it does go through
a portion Min I believe it's 40% of the money that's a portion goes directly to the General Revenue fund um and the rest Goes to Town chips school districts um and then some to that County Development Fund so so and then it Parks as well
which is in need of funding um so it does get spread out back to the tax base for sure but not 100% it's if if it goes through the aort apportionment yeah just like our Timber
would okay that's another good question Carlson so um at this point are you wanting to get a a consensus or not as to whether we want you to do any more work on it or is that what you're looking for or um I
yeah I would love to know that because I don't want to waste people's time either you know if this is something that's and that's fine with me if it's if it's a dead end here then let's just say that now and then not waste people's time not string along these other companies or
whatever sure yeah but if it's something that we realistically are are looking at doing which again I I really think we should um then yeah just some board consensus to say that yeah this is something we're serious about and get
some hard numbers that we can then talk about and compare and move forward with Mr chair y go ahead commissioner oftentimes you know most of the time we always uh try to be supportive of our um department heads and um know listen to
their recommendations and and I think you know if we if we stop now I think we're going to be uh maybe stopping too soon or too quick before he can pursue
any um able to provide any answers you know to our questions whe whether this is a uh you know and uh something that we want to pursue you
know if it's going to make a a million dollars or $2 million I think uh it's a it's worth you know asking that um and if it's not you know then maybe then maybe pull out you know but I think if we if we don't pursue it we're we're
just going to be uh show change in ourselves so I would be in support of at least another conversation or two uh before we decide to to not go any further because I wouldn't want to waste time either but I mean if if the opportunity is there I think you know we
got to fully bet it well thank you commissioner Su I think that's part of the part of their job they're they're basically salespeople and trying to sell us on this idea and if they don't get anything out of it then that's you know that's up to them as to whether they want to pursue us on this type of thing
or not so um know commissioner Winger what's your thought on it are you wanting to to pursue it any further or not I you know I like having numbers that are some kind of guarantee that we have something here especially when
we're tying up all the county land for 40 years that we have no idea what tomorrow's going to bring we have no idea what five years from now is going to look like with what's happening with our budgets with everything else if if we knew that we were going to get a million or2 million dollars a year it's
it's worth you know bringing in that Revenue but if there's no more land okay and if the county has land that can be utilized for new schools or other things and all of a sudden we can't even utilize it or even development areas
that we can make that kind of money on but we can't sell it or do anything with it because of this contract for 40 years that's 40 years a long time in my opinion it scares the heck out of me you know to to tie up every bit of County Land for that long is really tough and I
know there's some leeway and some of that stuff but a majority of it is definitely going to be tied up for a long time and that's to me is scary without having real hard numbers Mr chair so is that a you just
assume not pursue it or is that a you want to pursue it only get number yeah I'd have to have hard numbers I mean you're okay with him pursuing to try to get hard numbers then or he wants to find hard numbers that's
that's f with me I if you're not going to get hard numbers because they're just going to say well you're going to get what you're going to get um then I think you're wasting your time but um that's just my opinion I I just really would like to
see something that shows us that we're secure in tying up for that long because it's a long time ultimately it sounds like they're not guaranteeing that they're going to sell any no there's no guarantees on it there be no way they
could do that yeah so um I'm I'm not too excited about it I think it'll end up ultimately being a waste of your time in everybody's time but miss commissioner gold you had a question or concern yeah um I I think it would be okay to uh look
at a piece of paper uh with some numbers in front of us I don't think it would take a lot of time um and uh you know we uh now is the time uh to to look at such a proposal um there's other counties that are
making millions of dollars off of this right now and and if you look at the data the the trend is continuing upward as far as the amount of individuals and businesses that are purchasing these credits so um the risk is low there's
flexibility we're not tying up all the timber lands with this um so I I just really don't see the harm in in continuing to look at um uh a proposal or some hard numbers here so that's my
two cents commissioner Carson yeah well I would agree with commissioner suar that it's it's at least worth I mean if if if um Shane's not opposed to spending a little extra time um I have to say I'm generally not in favor however I don't
want to have a closed mind if something were to come up that just absolutely looks like a great deal so you know going forward I I I don't want this to sound like it's a yes at the end of the project but it's definitely I guess I agree with commissioner summer that we would be remissed to not at least look
at it a little further so so it sounds like I'll try to get some hard numbers from more than one company bring them back in a way that I can actually talk about the real numbers and then I'll make special note to ask
them and to clarify how tied up Is Our Land what what does that mean longterm for transactions for a specific example could be the situation that we just had with Northern Township and we had that you know that big parcel there that we you know we were able to sell to them
how difficult would that have been if we had tied up all of our land would we have been able to do it would we not what would we had to pay them something to be able to sell that or not you know what how H hamstring would we have been in that scenario yeah and that's a that's a good question it I did
specifically ask about that one because it was so fresh in my mind and that one was way small enough to fit within that buffer Kitty so to speak of extra credits yeah and so that's the kind of stuff we need to know how much is the buffer is it a thousand acres is you
know what what how much is that and what you know what are those details if you could get those and and uh and play a couple companies against each other to maybe one of them is more forgiving than the other you know whatever you can come up with but okay go ahead commissioner
Winger I have one more thing you said that you know there's a couple of private companies that are involved in this obviously they don't have the amount of land that we have in Bel tramy County that's tag forfeited land um would one of these be willing to do a
portion of the county instead of the entire County I mean I think that would be a good question to ask these people instead of tying up all of it but I mean we have some lands that are pretty definitely going to stay what they are yeah and would certainly be make some
more sense and give us if something did happen in those areas give us some other County lands to possibly put into it to cover the damage that could happen like could we do all of our pilt land and that that's specifically what I asked as
well okay and it it's they're worried about the back doorway so in their policy of how you can develop these Forest credits it specifically says all land has to be enrolled just so you can't say oh well these are 150 acres that are need to be harvested next year
we're going to hold those back because you know we're going to harvest them play play one company against the other and say Hey you know here's here's what we potentially be willing to do all pilt land would be able to be um put into this program but not our other land and
see if that's feasible or not maybe if it isn't then we aren't we aren't a player sure but uh see what you can find out okay thanks Shane yeah I appreciate it thank you thank you and next up we've got our quarterly jail project update looks like we got some of the K Anderson
team here welcome guys welcome welcome afternoon commissioners is this the gotcha
gotcha uh we should confirm if Danielle Reed is is online oh yeah H hi can you hear me yes we can fantastic welcome good afternoon Danielle good afternoon thank
you so we're here just to give you a brief update uh on the the new jail project and answer any questions that you might have we thought we'd give you a little bit of an update from our perspective CR Anderson what were you know anticipating coming up what we've
been up to the last few months and then Danielle uh I think you did you have some updates as well Danielle just um you're at with building design and exactly process great did did you want to dive
in anything initially Danielle or yeah yeah I certainly can I think it's worth mentioning that we have completed the uh plan review process and so I think at the last update we had a few um in our
um hands but we have completed all of them so to date we have the approvals from the State Department of Corrections we have approval from the Department of Health uh they're reviewing uh they had reviewed the kitchen uh portion of the
jail we have have a completed plan review for the plumbing portion of the project and we just most recently review or got the approvals from the state plan review so they're the ones that were reviewing all of the uh building code
items for the entire building um and they have um approved the plan review so then um I believe we just got the permit um to move forward with construction so that's that's really big news
um the other piece of the puzzle we got uh was the city development agreement was signed and so that was the last um of the overall plan review process um approvals that we needed um to do from the design team's perspective before we
got moving from CR Anderson's perspective on on site and and construction that's great news Danielle yeah yeah that was the the uh the big news this week we were really happy to see sort of finality if you will on the
plan review process and the ability for us to finally secure our last piece of the puzzle in permitting uh from the state level which we did um we sent that in I think last Friday on payment and they they gave us a quick email yesterday morning saying it's
now it's it's ready here's our permit so that's great we are we are teed up when we were getting a little anxious because the of this month is coming fast and that is still March Madness let's hope that's stalled out for a while now but
we are still teed up to uh weather permitting get going at the end of March that March 31 first week of April if you've driven by the site I don't know I did a quick little snapshot maybe on one of the slides but uh we have actually mobilized some equipment already getting
ready uh road restrictions I'm not sure if they actually went on last Friday if we we heard yet or not P little Larry but uh want to be sure that we could get the equipment there so there's a roller a dozer two rollers of Dozer and uh back getting ready to to get started we'll
scrape some snow away if it doesn't melt 45 degrees outside right now so that's good news um but yeah we've been busy um since the last time we met and gave you an update uh behind the scenes I'll say kind of getting ready getting teed up uh
lots of meetings coordination with the detention folks pre-cast some of the primary pieces of the puzzle that we need to get in place and get those folks under production uh dial them in Danielle's had a few revisions minor that we been betting
out from a detention side we've got some identified from a budget standpoint there's really been no no changes to the budget other than we initially found about $300,000 in value management ideas and items that have been accepted we're
pushing forward with those which is good because there's been about 300 roughly to date done plan review revisions and attentional systems was there an issue with the skylights or something did that get resolved part of the plan review process
confirmation they were breakable easily breakable or readily breakable I can't remember what the term was but readily y accept that so we didn't have to change them we did have to change them so uh they were going to be a vux Danielle a
trip acrylic yeah triple doome acrylic was what we had specified which were go ahead yeah no I was just going to clarify that yes the um plan reviewer um had noted that the the difficulty was
on paper proving that they were readily breakable um so the the code that's the way the code exception is written um and so we did change them to uh glass insulated glass units um which we've
reviewed with the local uh fire department as well to confirm that we all agree that the glass units are readily breakable was there a cost involved with that change there is yeah so was that
part of that was that part of that 300,000 you were talking about yeah that portion we're thinking is about could be 100 to 150 maybe 125,000 somewhere in there between the it's about a ,000 roughly per Skylight to increase to the glass versus the
plastic uh they've actually then said well now that it's glass we need you to put in a catch screen within 4 inch of the glass so the shards of glass don't fall down be about one inch by one inch mesh catching that um so yeah just start
adding those little parts and pieces and have them painted and put them up there and secured but even though the polycarbonate ones had been used at other jail facilities and had been approved before they they just for some reason picked on this project we have iny yeah that you just finished doing
which ridiculous Danielle can give you maybe a little bit better snapshot of what what she's been hearing from them that it sounds like oh yeah and yeah Mo moving forward what I'm hearing is that the state um exception the ex ex
exception in the in the code um basically has has allowed us to use the breakable skylights as the smoke management system um in future what they're looking to do is remove this exception so I think we're looking at
next year any jails that are designed next year will will be required to have an engineered smoke management system which basically means you need a whole new U mechanical um venting and and
exhaust system to to get the smoke out um and from what I'm hearing from the mechanical engineer he was thinking that it was closer to $3 million that it would add um if we had to go that route so that's what we were really ultimately
trying to avoid in this instance is trying to meet that exception in their minds um before having to jump through hoops to do uh any sort of engineered
system sounds good thank you Daniel have a presentation you need to go through here want to go through or no no that's really it I mean Diane if you clicked forward can you click forward um I know we just sent it in PDF but again on the budget side there really
been no no changes to date so we'll we'll give you this quarterly um as a snapshot with the yellow box always sort of being the watchful eye of you know how are how are you sitting on contingency dollars um so we'll give you updates on
where change orders are at as we process them as these things come up uh get through this initial Valley from the state and you know we should D those down a little bit and dial it in a little bit better we have as you noticed uh previously and shown there again we
have set aside about 8.5 million to do something with the old jail facility which quick update on that we we have begun doing some research we did a week all a facility assessment about a week and a half two weeks go just going
through the existing jail understanding what's there helping identify what it it's capable of um the next piece of that that you'll be considering are some design option studies to decide what to do you know keep it tear it down keep
part of it how's the transport going to happen once we get to the tail end of the new facilities you can make sure we've got good transport access so that's teed up and started I think we're we're hoping by Midsummer to have or certainly by Fall um some
recommendations on what those options look like along with some you know high level cost forers great yeah uh again we're we're ready to get started on site at the end of the month um we've got through the city plan
review process which was great we've got through the state finally we were chuckling a little bit earlier in our office that that took s and a half months with the state so we are glad we chose the path that we did waiting until spring and not stalled out all winter
had we decided to try to get started in the fall uh still identifying a two-year build mobilize at the end of the month we should be pouring again weather permitting course some cement by mid April um the main
pre-cast wall padels that really are most of what this building will be from the exterior side try to get those to the site approximately mid July mid to late July is what we're earmarking right now um structural steel weing to follow
so by Fall early winter being closed and keep working through the winter months then on the inside guts of the building and start fitting it up with all the security electronics and plumbing mechanical detention cell systems so it's it's exciting we're uh we're ready
to go that's great chair yeah yes commissioner suar so um you mentioned steel and and recently there's on again off again uh tariffs and uh had a person uh reach out to me and ask me if that
would uh have any impact on the construction of of the jail shouldn't it's a lumpsum contract so it's a fixed and so any purchase orders and stuff would have been secured and and in the mix already so okay
sounds good thank you we're uh we're focusing and FASTT tracking the items that we can that we can help with uh from an approval submittal you know let's submit the product to the design team so they can uh even as early as today uh they are jumping on some
lighting because the electrician is hearing about some whether it's tariff related or not but some lighting increases that they're trying to get ahead of so they can lock in and make that order knowing that it's secured so yeah we're doing everything we can to to help them but Larry is correct this is
still a a lum sum and it it's part of their process and locking in their materials contractors do have the ability to store material offsite could be in some cases they could store stuff for 18 months before we need it and they can build for it as long as they provide the insurance and the evidence that it's
there it's it's it's in their perview to do so okay good question commissioner Su Mr G Winger no okay go okay go ahead okay I just have one question on the on the smoke
situation that she talked about earlier no when the last jail was built a lot of stuff was obsolete right away and they were hitting us is that a possibility with this one is it going to be that they're still going to make us do that later at a higher cost or do you
think that this is going to be sufficient and they're going to leave us alone no the approval they've given is to date and they will not go back um on any additional requirements moving
forward okay thank you you're welcome yeah I would add the Department of Corrections have been pretty good about working with the team all along at any time a project is reviewed it's red to a set of codes at that time it can't be Rector after of you know two years from now when we go to look for occupancy and
say wow because it was reviewed under a certain specific code and that's all they can review and inspect too as we build and the skylights for the building Cod side of them not the Department of Corrections per se so good commissioner Carlson do you have
any questions of the team I know you worked on the on the design and operation side so you probably are a little more up on it than some the rest of us you're on mute uh yeah no we're uh we're just grateful that we that we paused until this time and now
everything's fall into place sounds good well doesn't look like anybody else has any questions so thank you guys we really appreciate the update and looking forward to seeing the groundbreaking and getting going on it you're very welcome welcome thank you for your
time thanks Danielle bye all right that brings us to the administrator update all right thank you Mr chair just a couple of brief updates for the commission at this time uh just to let you know I did participate in bid day at the capital uh last is it last
week or the week prior my goodness Blends together in any event I met with several uh legislators and shared our story about our concerns regarding growing property taxes and of course sales tax we had to do for the jail um in regard to State mandates and
whatnot uh the mood there at least um in talking with various legislators was a bit solemn and sympathetic uh but unfortunately there weren't really any solutions that were identified um there's just a lot of uncertainty uh that was expressed at the
time uh there does seem to be a general agreement that you know something should be done but uh what that is is is not clear um continue on the legislative front was just going to let you know that um we have continued to evaluate the impacts and of course those impacts
you know are being adjusted as the state legislature does its work and as the B the governor's budget does get more scrutinized and relooked at and some different proposals put together and that sort of stuff so we're spending time on that we're also working to educate on the Health and Human Services
impacts particularly associated with some of the cost shifts that have occurred um or being proposed I should say rather um and then lastly we're also working on Advanced legisl or on legislation to advance uh some of our proposals on the landfill as you know the the demolition landfills under again
one more mandate to which will essentially close it uh about 10 years early maybe 12 uh by that by that token uh so taking off valuable time off an existing piece of infrastructure we've already invested in so we're we continue to try to educate on that there are two bills that have been developed and
co-authored we're waiting for hearings on those uh if those were to be able to be passed then we would potentially be able to see the full longevity of the demolition landfill re re um uh um what am I trying to
say re return Yes returned thank you Diane all right on the Jael project you did hear that the the city's development agreement was signed we appreciate that um the state permits are done uh was going to mention also the smoke thing
but you got that update uh on the jail property as well uh the adjacent Southeast Corner the lot line adjustment that we had uh with seagert is uh that purchase and sale agreement the transfer and all that stuff has been developed uh secret did sign that just the other day
earnest money check has been delivered um it's a little bit premature and I mentioned that to him I said we have to get our board to approve that you know of course you know we have looked at the preliminary terms and all of that uh so I'll be bringing that to you on the April 1st meeting and then um we can
review it at that point in time at which point uh if you do agree with those uh with with the with the contract uh you know he's ready to go right right after and uh and he's got some work to do that he needs to get done uh so more work to
come on that but that uh is continuing uh in the background also since we're talking about property transactions the uh Northern Township sewer project uh the purchase and sale agreement has been developed their attorney did develop that we're reviewing it right now and uh have a couple adjustments uh given the
conversations that have occurred back and forth and uh so expect to potentially bring that back to you sometime in April uh provided that their board agrees with adjustments which I think are in alignment with what the conversations have been to date no surprises there
so um lastly uh we do have um a vacancy for a public defender uh contract as you know unfortunately uh Mr George duranski did pass away he was one of our public defenders worked for the county for a very very long time we're sorry for his loss uh but that did create some strain
on the remaining two that do the work for us and so we opened that up on our RFP process we got two uh qualified candidates that are interested in the position which actually would uh potentially be able to return our a public defender team to a four-person
team which it had been for a very long time uh so the county attorney and I are going to be meeting on that later this week to evaluate their credentials and also uh the contract and to see if maybe there is an adjustment that could be made there um and so we'll have more for
you on that and I'll bring that recommendation and the proposed contract or contracts to you um as soon as I can in the April meetings uh absent of that uh I don't have anything else for you question um potentially hiring both of
them that is a possibility yes okay yep we're gonna we're going to look at that um it would make it we would have to do an adjustment which is already contemplated inside the existing contracts where there be some monetary monetary adjustments to existing contracts since we' be lightening workloads we'd also be making
adjustments and compensation too but that is a possibility that if it's possible when we went from four to three we basically split up that fourth persons and put a third on each of the others correct correct and so yeah we would have to reverse that and they would have to the two that are left would have to agree to that I would
assume well they have already agreed to it because I did put that in the contract the last time so they're they're obligated to that um those two contracts uh uh will continue through the end of this year and so uh we'll
probably update all the contracts after that there's some adjustments we need to make given the circumstances that we've kind of gone through over the last couple years some strengthening of language and terms and uh some accountability and hours and work and that kind of stuff and then you know they there should be some adjustments on
um pay as well as as it relates to cost of living adjustments those types of things so there we' we've talked about a number of those things which I think will um be sitting down to work through here in the next little while sounds good you bet any have any questions of administrator
Barry for the administrator's report commissioner Carlson have any questions no okay no okay well well let's recess until 5 o'clock for the regular session Part: 2
e e e call the County Board to order and stand for the Pledge of Allegiance a pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I don't have any general comments for tonight uh do we have any citizens that would like to address the board if anyone wishing to address the 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 5 minutes a person complaint against an individual County employee may not be initially heard at a board meeting Personnel complaints may be submitted to the board and writing through the county administrator's
office and a person addressing the board may not use profanity or vulgar language I see we have a person that would like to address the board thank you uh my name is Annette tho I live at 7315 Tall Pines Road on the northeast side of Big
Bass Lake in Turtle River Township I'm here as a representative of the Big Bass Lake Association steering committee and the residents of Big Bass Lake and we are concerned about the impact of the northern Township's wastewater treatment plant on the water
quality the air quality and the property values of Big Bass Lake I have two letters that I gave to Mr Barry one is a letter to the Commissioners detailing some of the concerns we have and the second letter is a copy of a letter that the Big Bass
Lake Association sent to the Minnesota pollu control agency in February addressing the wastewater treatment plants um to their compliance and enforcement officer uh there are three different areas I want to talk about um these are
all covered in the northern Township Wastewater project overview the first one is about Environmental Protection so Northern Township is saying that the wastewater treatment plant will protect Lake buiji as as an environment um they're saying that the effluent deposit
on the 16 Acre Site will percolate down into the aquifer well Big Bass Lake is500 feet to the Shoreline from the wastewater treatment site lake beiji is a half a mile west of the site and we are east of
the site we expect that that effluent going down into the aaers will affect our Our Lake because we are a Springfed Lake which is aquafer fed Lake we're only 350 Acres the deepest part of the lake and it's
just a small part of the lake is only 17 feet and we have limited outflow so it outflows slightly into Lake bidi State Park so any level of increased effluent that's going into the ground that goes into that aquifer will affect the water
quality of Big Bass Lake the static water level of Big Bass Lake is at 1445 ft above sea level Le level the groundwater beneath the 16 acre affluent
deposit site is 1442 feet above sea level which is basically the same so the water going down into the aquifer is coming up into Big Bass Lake what really alarms us is we went to the November meeting of the
northern township hall and talked to them about our concerns and there were written questions to them and when they were asked those questions they said that Big Bass Lake is not their concern it is not in the scope of their project again we're 1500 feet away to our
Shoreline Lake the midi is a half a mile to the other side we're less than a third of a mile away one of the things that Northern Township says is that it'll enhance the property value of Lake bidi residents because they won't have a septic they won't have to worry about having their
houses half or 100 feet away well Big Bass Lake will be affected with our water quality it will affect our property values not only that when they were asked about the odor because we are downwind of that water treatment plant when they asked about the odor they
couldn't they couldn't quantify it all they said it would be very little and when they asked about what is this compare as far as a wastewater treatment plant to another treatment plant so that we could understand what is it that they're putting there they said it compares to the city of buiji well if
you've driven by the city of buiji downwind with your windows up you know that that permeates your car as you drive by sometimes when the wind is coming from the West we're concerned about the odor that is going to be going over to to Big Bass Lake the other thing that they talk
about as a benefit is community and economic benefits so the community is that they will attract people to Lake buiji because of being able to have a w wastewater treatment plant well Big B Lake will not because our water quality be will be at risk
they are having monitoring sites at the site of the wastewater treatment plant they will not be monitoring outside of that deposit site so Big Bass Lake would have to do their own monitoring which was it's unfeasible we can't afford to do something like that to want monitor
our water to make sure that we're not getting affected also they're saying that the economic benefits are because they are going to scale up in the future they're going to get more people to deposit fluent into that 16 Acre Site because
they have more residents that they can attract well that will affect our water even more right now Big Bass Lake sits there as a mesotrophic lake on the higher side it could bounce it into UT Tropic which would which would damage
Our Lake we would never get it back we love our Lake just like Lake buiji people love their Lake as well so I'm here to ask you to schedule a public public hearing so that we can have input into your sale of property to the
northern Township for the purposes of building the wastewater treatment plant I'm going to stay after the meeting if you'd like to talk to me then but I appreciate you taking the time to listen to our comments and listen to The Big Bass Lake Association and our
concerns thank you thank you Annette is there anyone else that would like to speak come on please come forward and state your name and address good afternoon or evening I guess uhu my name is Sarah Larson and technically I live in Cast Lake I do not live in belamy County um I am a robotics coach
for the cast Lake being or Bugan nishik schools so a lot of my students that are on the teams um are all privy to um using the services with a Indian Health Service uh as well as my neighbors and my adopted parents so so I'm here
obviously to speak on on behalf of uh what's going on with the lease at the um IHS building which is due to be cancelled so um that it's my understanding there are two offices in cash lake or I'm sorry in bidi and one
the one that is due to be closed uh or the leases to be cancelled is uh the smaller of the two the larger one uh I'll get to that in a minute but I'm requesting that what your County Commissioners do is is write a letter to
uh Robert Kennedy Jr and demand a plan for how the services are going to continue forward from here um this Administration in the federal government is attempting to disrupt everything including Services IHS those are treaty
rights the health uh is guaranteed by treaty it is the highest law of the land we have an Administration who is not paying attention to any any courts uh and Court rulings and things like that and my concern is that it's going to move over into the treaty rights so um
the IHS in Cast Lake specifically is also the the ER is open to everyone my daughter-in-law last summer when the the smoke was so bad two summers ago when the smoke was so bad um and she's white she's from Barnesville um she couldn't
breathe she got Services over there so this isn't just a service that's just for Native Americans um and enrolled members it's also available there for um people who are not enrolled as well um so um right now my neighbor just
called H away he is white Earth B member it's it's not so critical he's over at IHS he's having some significant blood Pro blood pressure problems um it was just kind of like an extra little exclamation point for me uh for this uh because he got haul over there instead
of being hauled all the way to beiji where there would be probably a 4 to six hour wait uh which is kind of the common thing that's going on over there they are overloaded this is something that be taken care of more locally it's just a service that's um there for many many people I think we all recognize how
important Indian Health Service is so well they may say the services are not going to be affected by closing this one office administration healthc care requires Administration and there's lots of it with IHS no more so than Sanford or any
other system so the employees at that one office who's going to be are they going to be impacted are they going to be losing their job who's going to be doing those jobs and then moving forward on August 31st the other lease um in
this town is scheduled to be cancelled and that's the big office that's the one that does provide you know make sure provides the majority of the administration for 30 tribes all over the United States uh also when you look at that long list if you go to Minnesota
Public Radio they've got the full list of all of the closures around the country for the leases that are due to be cancelled um kind and they're staggering them out all the way all the way out through August there's a lot of Indian Health Service offices that are um being forced to uh close this is
going to have a huge economic impact on buiji and on Bel Mi County those those employees there if they it just if they lose their jobs um it's going to have a ripple effect into the community what happens with them and then if they start
shutting down the uh Indian Health Services we're also going to lose a lot of employees there and that's a and a lot of a lot of the IHS employees live in the Beltrami County area so um again I would respectfully ask you to write a
letter to uh robertt Kennedy and demand a plan from him on how the services how he can ensure that the services are going to continue so thank you very much for your time Lu Sarah
next good evening I'm Carrie Justin andk thank you Sarah it was nice meeting you a little bit and I just have a few points to add to um what Sarah explained kri what what uh where do you live oh I live out in sway 3360 Centerline Road
Northwest sway thank you sir thank you um I did a little bit of reading about this proposed closure and I hope if you haven't had a chance to you can also read this Amy cloar and Tina Smith have written a letter if you have a chance to
read that and look look at it a little bit and I learned this afternoon that the a IHS um was started in 1955 and it's in um it has to do with our federal obligation and treaty rights so it isn't
it's something that we should just go back on our obligations and wipe out um sometimes it feels like our Administration is trying to fix things that aren't broken I don't think this is broken I'm a retired nurse and I can
tell you and I worked all almost 30 years at the hospital here in ourtown and I can tell you um the IHS Services the Native American Community the they were comfortable going there for some of them that IHS was more what we would
call culturally sensitive to their needs and their feelings and their their medical heal um so for them to lose that what good is it doing anybody it just isn't and what is the alternative to
them and us if these buildings close and the other thing that I learned is that these buildings in piji are serving these communities in five states it's Minnesota I wrote them down because I'm kind of getting excited here Minnesota
Michigan Wisconsin Illinois and Indiana so that's a lot of folks so if you would please read up on this a little bit um and get together and write a letter or give a call and join myself and others
here that are concerned thank you thank you good evening I'm Cindy Luth um 673 Kennedy Avenue out west of town and I would like to challenge this board to investigate proposals that are floating
around um there's a lot of really good paying jobs that are housed here that are regionally important jobs I think we all administer something at your level I you do I do at my level um I've been responsible for partially administering
one of the local dental offices and I can tell you based on Rural Dentistry we have a shortage of providers at every level and to think that the buiji community would be able to absorb the health care needs of the three
reservations that are close to us is ludicrous we cannot do that for sure the dental Community cannot do that we're barely hanging on locally providing Dental Services we as a community I think have struggled through the years to try to
promote good paying jobs and these kinds of administrative jobs that we've pulled into the community even though they're governmental jobs um we need to look at the impacts to our business Community when we start by sitting by and watching
it happen and not doing anything we need to consider the economic impact to all of our small businesses that are in town not just the big boxes but all the small businesses so from a public health standpoint any threat to IHS should be
taken seriously should be listened to looked at investigated pay attention when we start entertaining the idea of closing facilities that are providing really good wages in a
community in a county that doesn't have a very high economic threshold I think that's your job is to pay attention to stuff like that and if those investigations show that this is truly a real threat and in the environment that
we're in these threats are happening overnight and then they subside and then they come back but I think my encouragement is write letters where we think it's going to impact the livelihood and the health and well-being
of our County residents and that would be your job and all of us in the community would support having you do that work it's a heavy lift it's an unexpected lift but I think that's what we expect of our elected leaders is to pay attention and
act in whatever realm that we have the ability to and right now you potentially have the ability to write a letter would not support an action like this closing down viable lease holds in the in the
county what business is going to take up those leases now we're going to have vacant storefronts or vacant business buildings um and potentially even write a letter of support encouraging people to think carefully and at least come to the local governmental units with a plan
what is the justification for this I don't even know how many people are employed at these locations but I do know that we've got five states with reservations that are dependent upon these centralized administrative units and we
all know that when you start centralizing administrative functions you have economies of scale you have people that are really good at their jobs more than likely are hiring and firing and doing contracts or whatever I don't know but I think that's something that you should know when this is being
posed in our neighborhood thank you thank you Cindy anyone else I assume we have no one online Diane okay thank you we'll move on to the approval of the agenda look for a
motion to approve the agenda Move Motion by commissioner suar do want hear a second second second by commissioner Winger any discussion on the agenda all in favor oh actually we got to do we got John online so we'll do a roll call
vote commissioner Carlson there he is I didn't hear you if you yes okay thank you commissioner Gould yes commissioner Winger yes commissioner suar yes and I vote Yes so the agenda is approved 5 to zero on to the approval of
the consent agenda look for a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll make a motion motion by commissioner Winger we hear a second second second by commissioner
Gould any discussion on the consent agenda we'll call for the vote commissioner suar yes commissioner Winger yes commissioner Gould yes commissioner Carlson yes and I vote Yes so the consent agenda
is approved 5 to zero we have nothing on the regular agenda for this evening so we'll move on to commissioner reports and since give commissioner Carlson a first go at this since he's uh actually calling in from vacation commissioner Carlson do you have anything you'd like
to report uh just um I had the pleasure of doing chat about after our last meeting and it's really nice doing it after uh a meeting instead of before um I I told Kevin that that was a good suggestion he had and I think he appreciates it also so that was good um
I have done a couple of Zoom meetings while I was down here um and I know that commissioner G is our uh uh Delegate for the MRC but when I can I do also attend the zoom meetings and there was good information there um and then I had
dancing Sky also on Monday uh but I what I really wanted to remember to tell I think I told administrator Barry about this but with the last time I was in St Paul and was visiting um legislators I had the opportunity to visit with
Senator rest at her office uh and to personally thank her for all of her help with our getting our sales tax through um and then as I got up to leave I didn't want to take a lot of her time but as I got up to leave she said wait a minute she said I want to show you something and she cleared her desk and
underneath the glass on her desk right in the middle of her desk right at PL sight was the card that we sent her that we all signed and she said and there's your signature uh and uh so I just wanted to know that that that that was that was very touching that she had
that uh kind of in a place of of importance that uh it just reminds us of how important it is that we thank our legislators uh for the work that they do for us that's it great thank you commissioner Carlson commissioner
SAR uh Mr chair as as you know I I was uh absent from last uh uh March 4th meeting uh due to I was traveling back from the N conference um and while at that conference uh it was
a it was a good conference um you know I went last year to the ledge conference and that was my first time and I really didn't know what to do or what to expect but this time around being that it was my second time uh I got a little bit
more involved more engaged and got a better understanding of what uh the National Association of counties is working on on All Counties uh behalf when it comes to you know our our
concerns you know whether it be with uh Medicaid and and Medicare um you know our elections um and things like that so there was a lot of information that was provided I was well attended I also uh
sat on a panel uh to dis um talk about the tribal relations between counties and tribes um I went a little further and talked about the the relationship that AMC has with uh our tribal nations in in the state of Minnesota so that was
a a good U conference to attend and and oftentimes people think uh these are you know a waste of time and money but I think um you know it it's a valuable information that you can receive uh if you really put your your energy and
effort into your seeking out that information I also want to um let you know and invite uh the county to the uh Red Lake State of the band that will be taking place March 28th at 10:00 a.m. at
uh the OSI building in redby um I know the the tribe always appreciate seeing you know the county delegation attend um to to listen to um you know help you know maintain
and develop those relationships between the county and tribes you know if there's any time um it's now you know to to ensure that you know our relationships are stronger than ever uh especially with a lot of things that are
going on uh locally you know at the state level and and nationally um so uh with that uh attended the black duck ambulance meeting uh last month and they're taking
so they won't be meeting this month and the Northwest juvenile center will be meeting so I'll be attending that um Thursday and um I'm hoping that maybe you we can get some sort of update on you know
the uh lease the IHS lease agreements uh sometime in the near future um and how that may or what which building exactly it is I don't know if it's the one on the corner here or the one uh so I mean
I I think uh any information that we can get you know would be helpful um I Can Only Imagine and you know the outcry that the public would have if it was a Sanford um hospital that was uh being
closed down um so I'm hopeful that you know we can have the same support you know for local IHS systems when it comes to the possibility of closure so I know that they um employ and support a lot of
families here and and have for for several years and I I can't imagine uh the economic impact that it would have if if uh things uh were were close so uh maybe we can get an update at a future meeting uh that's my report thank
you thank you commissioner s commissioner Winger um I attended the prime West joint Powers uh as an alternate for commissioner Carlson uh not a lot to report there they're working hard trying
to keep cost down for uh everybody even though the cost of medical keeps going up uh attended the radio board meeting uh in Thief River uh one of the big things there is they want
us to do what we can to get the schools involved um so that when somebody calls in to 911 we can actually pinpoint the exact location they're in in the school what floor they're on if it's a mult
side floor building um so that we can law enforcement knows the exact door to go into for whatever whatever it's medical it's not just for something really terrible is happening if it's any medical situation or anything like that
uh but it's a it's a big task uh Chris is working on that and he'll be addressing that with the schools here over the next couple of weeks to try to get that rolling um there's no cost to the school for this thing which is a really good
thing uh and then attended to Solid Waste this morning and U not a whole lot on that agenda today so that's uh all I have thank you commissioner Winger commissioner Gould yeah thank you Mr chair I uh been attending pretty regular
uh committee meetings lately uh also went to a a chamber gathering at Ace Hardware there was an event uh last week that was well attended and good networking opportunity uh supporting our small businesses um had a bcap board meeting
uh the main thing from there was concerns about uh Federal funding not coming in uh so far so good but there are um concerns and so we're talking about uh contingency
planning uh commissioner Carlson and I were on the Minnesota Ral Caucus meeting on Monday yesterday morning variety of issues uh kls meeting coming up this week uh for libraries there was a a federal
libraries program um grant money that was uh recently discontinued which uh will have a uh an actual trickle down effect on libraries locally
unfortunately um Northwest juvenile center meeting coming up on Thursday as well um I too would be interested in uh seeing us uh submit a letter uh to Health and Human Services secretary uh
kened um addressing similar concerns uh I you should have uh received uh the letter from senators kashar and and Smith in your email that I received uh from constituents uh last week and so I
passed that on to administrator Barry uh for us all to be familiar with and uh um uh appreciate seeing people come forward tonight with concerns because there's going to be thousands of people
um locally uh affected by this if if it if it goes through and um you know uh potentially Millions Nationwide with a 30 different tribes that the IHS building uh does Administration for and these are people's lives uh and
and their Healthcare and medical needs so um I think uh we need to do our due diligence here as a board I know um I plan on submitting the letter um just as an individual uh commissioner but I think it would be more effective um
coming from the entire board um since um these are all of our constituents um it's in the building is in my district but um these are all of our constituents countywide so um I wonder if we couldn't um put together a a similar
letter um that our two senators have written um and and send that and uh wondering what the willingness of the board here is to task administrator Barry with uh drafting such a letter and and then we could approve it um at our
next meeting um I would be interested in commissioner's thoughts on on uh on doing that I think it's a valid request um so um I would certainly support it I plan on doing a letter but um I think it
would be more effective as the entire board that it yeah that's my report and and my question to the board so thank you thank you commissioner gold we had quite a few meetings a Planning Commission we had a special meeting to discuss we had a work session
on the shorel ordinance and we do have on April 7th at 6: pm here in the county boardroom we'll have a public hearing on the proposed changes to the Shoreland ordinance so get that information out to the public um at our P County Solid
Waste uh meeting this pre this uh this last week and uh recycled materials uh prices are going up on aluminum paper some of that kind of stuff so that's helping uh offset some of the other increases so we're actually um actually a little bit ahead of budget right now
which is good as far as P County for those that aren't familiar that's where all of our garbage if you bring your garbage to the transfer station that's where it gets hauled and and some of it actually gets put through a a pretty cool thing called the murf material recycling facility piece of equipment
and even has some robotic pieces into it to so if somebody throws their their plastic bottle in the in the regular waist stream it actually goes through and gets popped out and goes still gets recycled so it doesn't don't want people to not recycle stuff just because of that but um we're going to be doing a
program later this year um to start doing organic bags and and have Organics waste that'll actually still be able to be thrown right in the regular garbage the bags uh will be able to be identified by the Optics and the and it's a really some pretty cool technology that that our our waist
stream goes through and then the stuff that isn't recyclable goes through the incinerator over there and the steam that's generated from the incinerator gets sold to three businesses in foston and uh so um we should be pretty proud of of how we handle our our waste around
here it's it's not just dumped in a landfill so thought I'd expound on that a little bit um had the yesterday I had my one Watershed one plan for the headwaters Watershed our Watershed for our region had that meeting I'm the chair of that board had that meeting
yesterday U for the policy committee and and uh we uh are working on finishing implementing our first year our first U uh tranch of money the we had to get an extension on that because we're kind of getting our feet under us getting all the all the um um
projects uh implemented and and getting the last of that money spent U because we've already started receiving the 2024 2025 monies and uh so we're trying to get the other money spent first and then get rolling on on the next tranch of of funding um had an affair board meeting
last night and they're very appreciative of the money from the Development Fund they very pleased with some of the projects they'll be able to get completed there um had a solid waste committee meeting this morning as commissioner um Winger mentioned um we
we have a site over um that's technically within the airport zoning over uh on Fern Street um kind of north of Paul Bing Communications that we're waiting on some FAA to approve the it's just a vacant city lot that is over
there and we're waiting on f f to approve us to be able to move forward with putting a a recycling uh transfer site there because there's going to be some changes made to the one by Dale's oil um or Dale's Northdale oil I should say um on Urban Avenue North that road
is going to be reconstructed this year and we will be losing that recycling facility so just a note to the public to to that that is going to be a change coming up here too um and I think that's that's it I got
Airport Authority John uh he'll be John commissioner Carlson will be attending remotely for our Airport Authority meeting tomorrow night and U we've got I've got a hrdc meeting the next night so pretty busy weekend Mississippi headwaters beating the third the next day so that's my
report anybody else have anything that they would like to bring up or otherwise I look for a motion to adjourn well Mr chair um just curious what the board's thoughts are on submitting a similar letter I think we can each submit them
individually as you said you were going to I don't think we in the interest of time would be better to just get that done instead of waiting to talk about it at the next meeting and then submit something then what about the fact that it would be much more
influential uh coming from the board as a whole versus just individual Commission we've submitted letters of support to things before or or opposition to things before we also don't normally do stuff
on the spur of the moment like that either um we normally talk about them in a work session first and and discuss it in a work session and then and give a direction to the administrator um whether or not we want to put together a resolution of support for something it's
not something we typically just do at the end of a board meeting Mr chair yes um I think um maybe the administrator
might have the ability to make that decision on his own um as I'm looking through my email he did send a letter to uh testimony to keep a Clean
Program um February 24th to um to that committee so I mean I maybe the administrator has that ability to take it upon himself I'm not too sure because I don't remember
um uh asking the administrator or the board uh to send a letter in support of keep of the keep it clean program so I don't know um maybe something that we can discuss I'm
not um I'm just using that as an example of administrator Barry oh yeah thank you Mr chair uh commissioner suar keep it clean is a program that the County Board has supported by resolution in the past and also helped get the initial legislation passed so was something that
the board had already taken a position on and we were being asked to reinforce that position so that wasn't something new and that wasn't something thing I did in a rogue way or any of that sort of stuff it was a position that had been taken in concert with our um our local s
SW uh our our Soil and Water Conservation District so I I would think on this matter the board would want to discuss this whether it's now or some other point in the future this is a matter of federal significance this is not a county program so it doesn't have a Nexus that way it would not be something I would feel comfortable as
your administrator take an opinion about one way or the other I think this is a board decision and and I'll do whatever it is that you as a board direct me to do but because of its significance at and it is a federal program with federal dollars with Federal agency issues and
all of that sort of stuff it it doesn't have that direct access to us although it does have an impact certainly on the county and the residents that we serve um it is a it is a wholly different organization uh which is why I would
encourage you to should you desire um take it up as a board and make a decision or recomend recation as a board thank you with that I guess with that Mr chair um you know I I I try not to you know shoot from the hip and I think you
know I support commissioner G in his his request um but I think having additional information would help um help me uh solidify my support for that letter um if the County Board uh TR
post to to pursue that I would certainly be in favor of bringing up at our next work session to find out where where these buildings are at who you know what what do they do what you know get more information about it if we have the ability to do that at our next work session and then talk about whether or
not we want to have a letter of support from the from the entire board in the meantime you're certainly welcome to as you said send one from yourself you know that's so if you want to see see how that fits for the next meeting or or the meeting after that certainly if the board would if that's the board's wishes I could putp that on I will just tell
you I I'm not in a position to know what's going on at the federal government with Federal programs and federal buildings and leases I will not be your resource for that uh what I would what I can do however is I can reach out to Indian Health Services and see if there is a spokesperson from the
local region or whatever who can come in and maybe brief the board on the services they provide the impacts that are going on in regard to the federal government changes and those types of things and then get you I think the same information from a more reliable source that would then allow you to make a
decision as to how you want to move forward that' be great if we get a you know get them to come in for 101 15 minutes to give us a a brief overview of of the situation it's not something that's entirely in our direct purview like like you said there's not a direct
Nexus but you know unfortunate when things happen when people lose their jobs like the Anderson what used to be Anderson fabrics and some of the other other you know the Jo fabrics and other areas that have we've had a significant job loss uh in the area which is
definitely affects us um but it's and we are doing something about that we we've uh offered to host a job fair so deed is you know the department of economic development is coming up to to help them
as well um but uh it's yeah so I think it sounds like a good idea and I would encourage Us in the meantime to do our own research and submit individual letters um because this this is a timely
matter so um I would encourage the board to do their own research submit a letter if you're willing and then at our next meeting we can have a presentation and then we can still decide if we want to do a letter okay um from the board so thanks commissioner
G look for a motion to adjourn I have a a granddaughter's birthday party that uh started at 5:30 she turned one years old so I'll make that motion all right thank you commissioner Sher your a second second second by commissioner G uh roll
call vote commissioner Carlson if you're still on yes commissioner G yes commissioner Winger yes commissioner suner yes and I vote Yes we are adjourned thank you