you know, number of years ago. So, I want to I just want to mute the pencils. Okay. And they can't. So, okay. Call the county board to meeting to order. We'll begin with the flag pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Welcome everybody on this rainy morning. Um, roll call Beth. Sure. Commissioner Benoy, Commissioner Heinen here. Commissioner
Pop here. Commissioner Johnson here. Commissioner Gapinsky here. Approve or amend the agenda. Anything to add? We have no changes, sir. So moved. Second. It's been motion or made. Motion's been made and seconded to
approve the agenda. Any comments? All in favor? I opposed. Carried. County board meetings are broadcast live and video recorded on YouTube. Please restrain from speaking from the audience area and come to the podium so that viewers can hear you. The county board
observes the Robert's rules of order for its meeting. So, please obtain the county the board chair for consent before addressing the county board. Public comments are generally reserved for open form segments or public hearing. However, um public comment on
the agenda may be allowed at the discretion of the board chair. As we begin today, please turn off your cell phones or turn them to silent. Open form. Anybody back there? No one signed up. Nope. Nobody signed up.
Consent agenda items one and two. Move for approval. Mr. Chair, I'll second. Motion been made and seconded to approve the consent agenda. All in favor? I I opposed. Carried. Roxan. Good morning, commissioners.
Good morning. Before you, we have an ordinance amending uh our our Benton County Development Code. And the ordinance adds provisions for the regulation of campgrounds and resorts within uh Benton County. Right now we we
do list campgrounds and resorts as uses allowed but the regulations with them are very very unclear. And so what I wanted to do was go through this and make sure that it's clear not only to staff but to the public, to the planning
commission, the county board, what it is that's required with campgrounds and resorts. Um, the ordinance was crafted through a lot of research with the Minnesota Department of Health regulations, uh, statutory regulations in the Shoreland District, um, and then,
uh, a review of other surrounding counties and what they require for campgrounds and resorts. And so I just want to preface this by saying that what I have crafted in here and what has been reviewed with the planning commission is
no more strict than what is required by the Minnesota Department of Health. And so we're just asking that it be brought to us prior to being presented to the Department of Health for their licensing. Um we have worked on this for several months starting I believe in
January of this year but prior to that we actually had discussed it I believe the year prior for a couple of months and then brought this back um again for further discussion. We do have a couple of uh property owners who are interested in doing something like this and so I
think it was in our best interest to make sure that we have a good outline for them to to go off of for basing their um I provided you with a really brief outline just to give you the topics that are covered within this ordinance.
Otherwise, it's it's fairly lengthy. Um but what I did required a little bit of amendments to some of the definitions throughout the code and then um the addition of uh some definitions. So for example, we added the definition of
recreational campground which required a modification of commercial recreation outdoor because that's where we had campgrounds. The the problem with having campgrounds listed in our commercial recreation outdoor is that that doesn't allow for overnight stays. So you can
see how that could be an issue. So we've added that definition. We've added the definition of camp uh recreational camping vehicle. Um otherwise we just had camp trailer and um I I forget what the other definition was, but it it it wasn't common terminology that we now
use today. So RV vehicle and then resort. We've pulled that definition out just so that it's much easier to read. and then modifying commercial MUD uh MUD and then residential PUD MUD. The reason for that is that in statute in the
shoreland regulations, they refer to resorts and campgrounds as planned unit developments. They are required by statute through a conditional use permit. However, Benton County a number of years ago required that planned unit
developments be a reszoning. And so to differentiate between the cup that's required in our shoreland for campgrounds and the planned unit in Benton County that requires a resoning, we have come up with the term multiple unit development. That has been in our um in our development code since I I
want to say around 2008 or so. So, I just needed to make sure that our terms were consistent throughout the code. There's no actual change that has any effect other than to make that um consistent throughout code. Uh we did add that the areas in which campgrounds
and resorts would be allowed by a conditional use permit are the egg rural egg commercial. So it's the B1 and B2. So commercial and then commercial enterprise. Um and this is consistent with areas um other areas throughout uh the state where they would allow it.
Other states or excuse me, other counties do have more shoreland commercial areas, a lot more business areas. Benton County has a lot of egg area. If we only allowed them in our business, we'd be restricted to uh a handful of lots along Highway
10. So, um and then to correct that MUD PUB uh terminology, we we made changes throughout the Shorland district. Again, no actual change to that section of code. Just making sure that that was
consistent. And then section 9 9.28 will be our uh specific use standards for campgrounds and resorts adding again provisions that are already required by the Minnesota Department of Health. So that licensing um seasonal use it which
is April 1st through October 31st um consistent with a lot of other counties um because of and generally speaking that's because of the winterizing and the use of um water and septics on those sites
um making sure that the RVs are ready to move and that's primarily in our shoreland district because of the potential for flooding. And then we allow for related facilities. So you've got um your shower houses, your laundry facilities, things like
that. Site plan and design criteria requiring requiring grading and drainage, site survey. Uh we've outlined setbacks, campsite minimums which are no less than what's required by the state. um the allowance of accessory structures, parking spaces will be will
follow um our development code which is essentially making sure that there's enough provided and that's determined by the planning commission as long as that plan that's presented seems to indicate that there's enough sufficient parking on site. Screening, making sure we're
screening from roadways and other residential dwellings. sewage disposal, toilet, shower facilities, meeting building code, having a severe weather shelter, and then making sure that we have uh site operations or some sort of
development organization how that site's going to function. Providing us an operational plan. Um making sure that they have a list of overnight guests, that there is a the ability to contact a caretaker or attendant or have to have someone on site. um refu garbage
evacuation plan uh making sure emergency vehicles have the ability to maneuver through the site and then the allowance of pets on site. Uh so with that um the planning commission did act on this. They held a public hearing on May 8th
that was recommended for approval and to be presented to the county board. Okay. So then we need a public hearing on this. Yes. Um, so we will now open the public hearing and we've heard that I'll have to wing this kind of um we
open Oh, we'll open up the public hearing. We already heard from staff. Um, is there any emails? No emails that I've not received any emails. I have not um excuse me, I have not heard from any townships or cities. This would be of
this would have been sent out to them. Um, I have not heard any uh concerns. The DNR is aware of the changes to the shoreland district. They're required to be notified. Um because it's not a substantial change. It's just a correction. Uh there were no concerns
from the DNR. Okay. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to speak in favor of this or oppos or against it? Well, we'll do in favor first. She's open. Anyone in the audience
that is in favor wants to speak in favor of this? Anybody that wants to speak opposed of it? Anybody online? Final call for anybody online or in the audience that wants to speak in favor or against this. And you said there was no emails,
letters, or communications. No. Has the department department received anything from state agency? You said the DNR. Yes, they were okay with the changes. Okay. Cities, townships, no communication from them.
Okay. Um, no official action was taken by any townships then? No. Um, now the county board will have time for questions of the staff and discuss it from the audience. Anything? Anything that Mr. shared. The only thing I'm
asking is about the campground uh down I don't remember Two Rivers Campground, I guess. Oh, yeah. Is that what it is? Are they notified of this or they had anything to say about this? Uh they were not notified. Uh that would not be required to be notified, but um
the way that they've been operating is that they're not supposed to have overnight guests. So um but I haven't heard anything from them. Okay. So that would be the only effect they'd actually be within the Yes. within the law or whatever you want to call it, right?
Okay. So in a sense, this is just clarification on a lot of other things. Uh thanks for uh having this conversation with me yesterday to clarify this. I looked way too in in depth in this, you know. So move for
approval, Mr. Chair. I'll second. So, it's been made and seconded to approve the new ordinance. Any other discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Thanks. Thank you.
You have to close that. Yeah, you Yeah, you're supposed to close public hearing. Okay, I'll close the public hearing at this time. Um Monty March members of the county 2026 budget
it's budget time is almost upon us. So the first thing we use to do is is review a budget calendar and budget development guidelines and of course what you have in your packet is absolutely subject to change based upon your schedules and so on. So it just kind of gets us started.
Here we are today, May 20th. Probably the next big date to focus on would be uh the week of August 11th for budget presentations. This varied. Sometimes we've done three half days. I think last year we did one full day and then one
half day. Totally up to you and your schedules. Um if you want to go ahead and decide those dates today, that's great. Uh if you want to wait, we can do that. We can certainly do that later. Just want to make sure the week of August 11th is okay for you
all at some point that week. Okay. Okay. All right. Fair is over by the third looks like. So we're good to go. No overlap with the Bent County
Fair. All right. Uh the next big date would be as I have on here adoption of the proposed budget levy. I show it as the second regular meeting of the month. And so my question is that okay with you all or should we find a special board meeting date to adopt the proposed
budget levy? That's my question. I will I will know in a month what my September dates are. Okay. But we might change that then. And that's totally okay if you all want to have a special meeting and I think it's great if all board members can be there for adoption of the proposed budget levy. Totally
fine to have a short special meeting later in the month. So maybe leave it for now and then we can come back and change. Okay. And we would have the option to be online to them if we're not here. Uh yeah. Uh that's true. From a
publicly accessible location um as we posted three days prior. Absolutely. Yes. You could do it from a remote location. Yes. Okay. Good luck. Right. Good luck. I understand there's going to be there's some changes to that remote law. I need to study and let you know what those changes are. I believe it's
become more expansive. So, and I don't know when that law is effective, too. I have to check. So, I just saw that in AMC update this morning. There's some changes to the remote remote uh meeting law. They're probably still working on it.
I I well that AMC update said the the the general government bill had been approved by the House and Senate was on its way to the governor for signature. So that might be law. It's just an issue when it's effective. So So looks like and then final budget and levy adoption would be the last meeting December the
16th. Oh, I should jump back. There'd be a your TNT hearing would be the night of December 2nd at 6:00 p.m. We usually combine that with a regular board meeting. Um, so I don't remember if we had to move it because of AMC or not. Um, is that we did one year? We did one
year. Wasn't last year, the year before. AMC seems like it's later. So So looks So it looks like the calendar is okay for now. We might make some adjustments. AMC's the 7th through the 10th. Excuse me. AMC is the 7th through the 10th. Okay. Yeah, it kind of pushed it later
in the month of December, so it's not colliding with our first mean of the month. All right. Oh, that if we man let's move on to the budget guidelines. Really not a whole lot different than last year. It does state a policy objective of trying to get a levy increase not more than 5%.
That's been the board's goal the last few years and you've you've pretty much kept that pretty pretty darn close of keeping it to at or below 5%. So, this policy basically repeats that goal and um it lets it lets folks know that after
you've funded the general wage increases, step increases, health insurance, and so on, usually right out of the gate, you're at about a five or six, five to six% le. So, it doesn't really leave a lot of room for new stuff, stuff we call policy issues. So,
new positions, increased spending, and so on for other things. So it does let folks know that, but it does say that it's important for you to articulate your needs to the county board. So they so you know, in other words, the department needs more positions. They should let
you know that. And of course, then you as policy makers can decide if it gets approved. So uh we kind of follow the same process as the past. We have what we call the base budget and we work with the departments on their revenue estimates and their base budgets and we
do the payroll projections here in the administrator's office that comes together as a base budget. It's kind of a starting point for the board. It kind of it answers the question what's it going to take to fund our current operations the status quo all of our existing positions and so on so forth. It's a starting point and then the board
can go from there. You can either reduce or go up or leave it the same. And then again, we've got the last phase is policy issues. So that's anything that's not provided for in the base budget. So again, it might be a new position or some increased funding for some
operating operating program. And we let we let our elected officials know that the budget presentations are their opportunity to present their salary requests to you all in August. That's their opportunity to do that. We ask departments to try and link their
buds request to our vision, our mission, vision, and values to try and create some kind of linkage and explain that to you. That's ideal if they can do that. Um, and that's about it this year. Again, not substantially different from last year. So, thoughts, questions,
changes? I guess we'll see. Uh, yeah. So the week of August 11th, I will be gone the 13th, 14th, and 15th, but doesn't matter. Everyone just comes and requests what they want. Just to let the commissioners know. So
possibly you could we could we could uh do the meetings the 11th and the 12th. Yeah. You have you have on the 11th we have career solutions at 11:00 a.m. Yeah, that's Yeah, that Yeah, we have a career. Who's who's chairing it? Me. Can
you reschedule it? Yeah. Uh we're having our uh annual cookout for the employees that day. Okay. What day is that? The 11th. 11th. Yeah. At what time? 11. 11:00. Oh. And then a
special meeting after that. But the 12th is wide open. Uh the 13th I have Wednesday I have I can be here in the morning on the 13th. So we can do all day Tuesday and half day Wednesday. I
can do all Yes, I can do that. Just to give you guys a heads up. That'll actually be Micah. Yeah. As long as we're as long as we're done so that we I can zoom in to Micah. So So am I hearing maybe all day on the 12th and half day on the 13th? Yep. Yep.
H Yeah. Well, day 12. Bring your lunches. That's usually best. Lots of sugar, snacks, caffeine. Yeah. Yeah. Etc. Yeah. Etc. So, Mr. Chair, uh
have you are you inclined perhaps have a motion to adopt the calendar and budget guidelines? So, moved. Second motion been made and second to adopt the budget calendar and the timeline timelines. Any other discussion? All in favor? I opposed.
Carried. All righty. Uh, all right. Moving on, Mr. Chair. So, we recently had a conversation with a company called Employee Integrity Employee Benefits. And as you see in the packet, they are serve as a broker for many Minnesota counties and cities. And what they do is
they help bring to your organization optional benefits. Uh for example, short and long-term disability, cancer coverage, supplemental dental coverage, supplemental vision coverage. We we obtain a lot of those right now through AFLAC or other sources. And uh they've
approached us and and want to talk to us about the services that they offer. And I think we're going to continue that conversation with them about possibly and through the benefits advisory committee and the culture team benefits committee about possibly using them as our broker for optional services. Well,
anyway, during the course of that conversation, they said, you know, we're going to do an RFP for all of our members to look at private paid leave plans. As you may know, in the Minnesota paid leave program, an employer can go with a private plan uh as an option to
the state. It must be as good or better than the state plan. And the these folks believe that possibly they can get better rates than you can get through the state plan. We don't know. I guess
time will tell. So they invited us to participate in their RP at no obligation. simply we send them our our our our data in terms of our you know the characteristics of our employees and so on and they plug that into their RFP and they give us a sense of what that
could cost us. I guess my thought is I don't see any harm in doing this. It's at no cost. It's no obligation. It's an issue that we can explore uh uh going with the private plans. They seem to believe that their contention is that
the private market is going to sweep up a lot of employers and what's going to be left at the state is high utilizers, the high utilizer type, you know, uh employers and that's going to drive the the state's uh rate up. Again, that's
that's their that's their projection. We're not sure. So, um, anyway, I I I thought I I I didn't feel comfortable committing us on my own that we'd be part of this RFP. So, I wanted to make sure you were all comfortable with us being a part of it. Again, there's no
obligation or commitment to be to go with a private plan. I think we have, Mr. Chair, I think we have to look at all our options right now and no harm in looking. That is correct. Okay. I think consent. So, you're good. You're good. Okay. Thank you. Just want to make sure that was you
all were okay with that. Uh again, you can see their list. They do business with a lot of counties and they have a very close relationship with MMA and the the collaborative that we're a part of. I think that's kind of how we kind of got connected was through MMA and their collaborative. So, all right.
Uh at the last meeting, uh I was uh my instructions were to follow up on the retirey dental issue. So, here's what we did. Uh we contacted our broker Marsh McClennon and Associates and they replied this I'm just taking this from
our agenda and they said we can pay postemployment benefits if the cost of such benefits was provided for in a collective bargain agreement that previously covered now retired employees and uh none of our current CBAs provide for retirey health
insurance or dental. That's not included in any. So again, based upon the MMA opinion, uh we may not cover dental premiums for most retirees and four of the five folks in this group were previously in were
covered by collective bargaining agreements in the sheriff's office. Excuse me. You also asked me is what would be the cost if we covered these folks through age 65. And you can see that the cost is is estimated at $7,247.
that makes the assumption that these these five folks would stay on single coverage and I assume that the rate wouldn't change. So possibly over the next few years that monthly rate might go up. So I suppose my number might be a
little low uh because I've assumed the same $29 is it 34? Yeah. Um lastly, we um we asked Guardian if could they make available a preventative only plan for these folks and we haven't
gotten a response back yet. As I understand that, you know, they were concerned about we've we've lost our preventative. So, I was wanted to pose a question, well, can we make available a preventative plan for them? And we haven't heard yet. Beth has been following with them. most likely they've got to refer it to their actuaries and
they've got to cost it out of what would that be for uh pre65 retirees for preventative only. So that's my information for you all questions or concerns. Mr. Chair, Monty, um can you just give me a review
of the history because there's four of the five employees here that were covered under CBAs when they left. That's the way I'm reading this. Four of the five. Yes. When is when was the time you employ bargaining agreements included that? It did not. No. No. It did not provide for postmployment uh
healthcare or dental benefits. No. Okay. But it says four of the five retired employees were previously covered by CBAs, right? While they were working. While they were working, but there was no retirement in the CBA. Sorry. There was while they were working
they were covered but there was no retirement benefit in the CBA at the time. That is correct. Yes, that is correct. Yep. And was Marge Mlennon saying that we we can't in your first uh in your first statement
you talked about Marge Mlennon saying it wasn't covered in there so therefore extending it wouldn't be an option. That's what they said. Yeah. Yeah. So realistically, we can't do it anyway if that's what I mean, if that's I I I there, you know, we trust their opinion on MERS. I mean, they obviously, you
know, are broker for around the state and they've got substantial experience in this field. So So just to clarify though, they don't make the decision on what the county is spending money on. Oh, of course not. No. So their opinion is that we shouldn't do it. Well, they
they've said that we can't. I I would put it that way. Based off what? If you can't based off what? Because the CBA did not provide for it. That's what they've said. Oh, the the labor agreement didn't provide for it. So, I thought we were back to discussing
like the months from January through June. So, you already you previously approved us, you know, that's kind of wired on the bridge, I guess. You know, those folks got the benefit of that coverage at no cost. Okay. And we essentially absorbed that. Yeah. So,
yeah. So, this is just being an additional right. I think I again my direction was to give you the cost to cover these folks through age 65. Okay. And it would be at least the 7247 per year. And I made the assumption that the rate wouldn't change, but it
probably will. So, Mr. Mr. Chair, the question I have is does this open the floodgates for the future and in union negotiations and everything too? I mean, that's my biggest concern is that that they want
to try throwing all this stuff in when we start union negotiations, you know, if they retire early that they're going to be covered until they're 65. Well, and my concern is that if we made a if we did, and I'm trying to get the history, if we made a
commitment to do this, we need to follow through on that. If we didn't, that's a different story. Correct. Yep. Mr. Chair, my concern is if Marsh McClennon saying we can't do it, what's what what happens to us if we go ahead
and just say, "Oh, well, willy-nilly." And and we we approve it. We're putting ourselves out there individually. And Mr. Chair, and I take it that way, too. We just opened up ourselves for another litigation
probably. Well, and I look at it like we'll probably have more people then instead of the the few that you know would be right now that would it would probably explode or not explode, but gradually increase. Then this I want to emphasize that we will follow up with
Guardian and make sure that they give us some number on what a preventative only plan would cost. Okay, I understand their concern is is folks that said, "Hey, we had preventative coverage. We like to continue that." So hopefully we can make available to these folks a
preventative plan. Well, with that, Mr. Chair, then maybe it's appropriate we table this until we make a decision and get the information we need. So, I'll make a motion to table it. Um, Mr. Mr. Chair. Well, I'll second that and we can Okay. Okay. Now discussion. Okay. My only concern is we only approved it
through May the end of May. Correct. Yeah. So, we almost got to do some or but I we don't have the information we and I agree and I agree. We only approved it to the end of May. I will not approve it to the end of June. So,
one one thing that you may think about is this. Let's just say for example, Guardian can make available a preventative plan for these folks. What is your position on who pays for it? Well, who paid for it before? The employees did then. I'm sorry, the
retirees did. Excuse me. The retirees did. I think that's where it would go back to back to the same thing then. Yeah. Yeah. So, one way you could leave this is if Guardian can provide a preventative, we can offer to these folks at their cost. That's one possibility.
You want to include that in your motion? Well, first of all, we shouldn't be having discussion with a table in a second. So, that's my first issue. Um, but I will resend it. You will resend mine. And if you want to get consensus on what to do, if that's the plan going
forward, that if they can provide a an opportunity for the retirees at their own cost, then you've got your consensus today and you can move on. If you don't, then So maybe you want to have that discussion, Mr. Chair, if there's if there's consensus on that.
I'm fine with that if they pay if it's paid for on their own. If Guardian says we can. I'm I'm in the same boat. Yep. So am I. We're good with that. Okay. Do you need action on it, Monty, or you just consensus? I'm good. Yeah. Thank you.
All right. All right. We'll we'll keep on guarding. Give us the number. So, all right. Now, Jeff would like to cover the Great River Green Agreement. All right. Morning. Good morning. So, uh today I'm just uh coming forth with an agreement
uh which uh I think is very beneficial to the county. Um it's a it's a continuation of what we started last year with the uh um the cleanup of logging with Great River Greening. Great River Greening is a nonprofit organization that specializes in uh
forest and prairie restorations. Um they do a wonderful job in there. Um well renowned in this area. Um the agreement would be them proposing bringing $1.1 million of grant money through the uh
outdoor heritage fund as part of the clear water land and legacy amendment uh through the DNR, I believe. in exchange for a matching grant from us for uh $34,000.
Um so a lot like our agreement we had last year with them what they would bring to the table is their expertise in in uh in the area and also um doing the RFPs subcontracting and a lot of the working
with us uh as far as coming up with the best solutions to to take care of a lot of the uh invasive species we have out there. the Siberian elm, uh the honeysuckle and
buckthornne. Um this this agreement would extend all the way through June 30th of 29 and it would be a lot of different um parts to it as far as uh controlled burns um removal of buckthornne by equipment
and stuff like um receding um patching areas and stuff like that. getting the prairies back to their natural condition and also um thinning out and controlling the invasive species in the wooded areas over there and it
pretty much take in account what' be 199 acres that we have out there. So it'd be everything at Ben in the river excluding the area that we took care of with the logging and the homestead area which is on the map there. So,
um, Mr. Chair, Jeff, this would finish the project up then. What's that? This would finish the project then, correct? Well, it would take care of us through 29. Um, and then at that time, we'd have to see. Uh, buckthornne and a lot of invasious species are tough to manage
and control. So, um, they they are a great partner on this. They bring a lot of knowledge about the different aspects to to the table and uh and do they do a lot of leg work with our oversight and uh agreement all the
way along the way. Mr. Chair, Monty, you've got in your memo here 32,000 remaining in CIP fund from timber sales. Was that the total sales amount? No, it was it was a bit more than that. We've used we used some for the first local match for the first grant and I don't remember how much. You remember how
much, Jeff? I think it was around 8,000. Yeah. So add 8,000 to this number. So about 40 was what we had originally. So there again, you've got 32 left and you're looking for an additional two out of the CIP to cover Yep. The 34 for approval. Mr. Chair, I'll second. Motion's been made and
seconded to approve the grant with Minnesota greenery um and take 2,000 or the 32,000 out of the sales for timber and add 2,000 from CIP. Mr. Mr. Chair, I I think we got to do
our due diligence to do this being we started this project and and see it through, you know, for the first couple years at least till 29. Well, especially with 1.1 million in grants. Correct.
And they've been a good partner. Absolutely. Yeah. Excellent. Any other discussion on it? All in favor? I opposed. Carried. Thanks, Jeff. Thank you, Jeff. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks, Jeff. Chris Bird.
Good morning, Mr. Chair. Good morning, commissioners. Morning. Morning. If you will just uh allow me to bring up my items that way anybody playing county engineer bingo at home can follow along. Um all right. And then I should
probably make sure I am sharing this. All right. Very good. So the first item I bring before you today is a contract for our county surveyor services. Mr. Chair. Yes. I just want to make sure. Did we call the vote on the last one?
Yep. Did I call on I I should Okay. All right. All right. I just wanted to make sure cuz I don't Okay. Very good. Okay. So, uh the first item I bring before you is the contract for
county surveyor services. So, uh as you all know, we contract that surveyor function. and that surveyor function primarily is responsible for the maintenance of the section corner monuments in our county. Um, and then when there's any discrepancies with
private surveyors and lot surveys, the the county surveyor gets called in to to find out where the error if there is any errors or where the discrepancy comes into. We also use our county surveyor to do a lot of our ride-of-way platting when we have road reconstruction
projects. Uh they also review plats, development plat um and that's a critical function in our county. We are starting to see it seems like in my office we're starting to see an uptick on rightway plat coming in in the last couple weeks. So our county surveyor does things where they check the other
surveyor's math, make sure that their survey closes and all those kind of things. So uh once again we chosen to contract with Jay Witstock who has in my opinion provided phenomenal service for uh a lot of years. He was with uh
different firms throughout the years and in the last couple uh contract rounds has kind of done he's on his own. He's started his own surveying company. So it's my recommendation to once again contract with uh Jay Witstock. this
current contract would um would start retroactively from January 1st of this year and go through uh December 31st of 2026. So essentially it's a two-year contract. It is something that's in the current uh budget. That budget line item
has remained at the same amount about $68,000 per year for quite a few years. I can't remember the last time that that budget was adjusted, but uh it is a budgeted uh item. Um, and don't anticipate those fees or or the that budget
increasing any in the next couple years. So, Mr. Chair, Chris, is the $2,000 bond sufficient on that? I mean, that stayed the same forever. Also, uh, yeah, seems a little a little light. We do uh have
them maintain in this section 9.3.4 a professional technical errors and omissions insurance, which is $1.5 million per claim. Uh so and $3 million aggregate. So to answer your question, yes, that that dollar amount has
remained the same amount for a number of years. Uh but if there is an error that they have created themselves, we do have this make them maintain this professional liability insurance as well. I see their certified evidence of license gets recorded also then. Yes,
correct. Yep. Okay, Chris, through the years with this contract, have they created the amount of hours to reach that
68,000? Uh, it varies. Uh, not always, not every year have we used that ex that full budgeted amount. Um there's been years, it's been quite a few years. I think we probably went over back when we were uh when when they were actively
finding section corner monuments um which involves excavating that finding the original monument set in the late 1880s. Uh then reertifying that. I think there might have been a year or two that we might have overran that. now that they're just mostly in a a maintaining
mode, it seems more often than not we underrun that line item, which I mean, as time has progressed, the the hourly fee has also increased just like every other surveyor. But because it's more of a maintenance mode as opposed to an
active remmonumentation mode, our budget has been able to manage that and not ask for increases in that budget line item. And Mr. Chair, at what time are we going to be able to do this ourselves? We would have to hire a professional
licensed surveyor. That That's the key. That's the key. Okay. To do the re the the section corner certification. Um it does require somebody with a professional land surveying license. I don't think we're going to hire him for I don't think so either. I was just asking questions. So Chris, if somebody
if the public has a question on a corner quarter section or section marker, can they call and they and this will be a service that we offer then? Yeah. Yeah, that would and that would come out of that. Yeah, it would come out of the 68,000. Correct. So I mentioned uh plat
reviews that is directly offset by the fees collected uh at the land services desk. There is a uh county surveyor uh plat review fee. So that's those costs are directly offset by those fees that are listed in our fee schedule and are
collected at the time a developer files a plat. Do you know was Wood was Woodstone was Woodtock was he the surveyor when we had all the trouble down uh by the lake there? Yeah he was he was the same surveyor
a lot of hours on that one. Uh yeah and that was entirely different what I because I was involved very little with that. I think what there was some kind of committee or commission that was the boundary the boundary line the boundary commission and that was collected through assessments. Okay. Correct. So that was addition that would have been
additional above budgeted and collected through that means Mr. Chair Chris I don't know if I missed it in here or not but what's in place for if we meet the 68,000 there needs to be additional work done. Well it would be like any other item. uh probably come
to the board discuss that see if we have underrun other items in our budget to uh accommodate that or maybe we get to a point unlikely but maybe we get to a point and we just have to say that's all the service we can provide for this this
budget year because I was I didn't see any additional if service is provided at an additional hourly rate. Yeah. And we've been it's a flat fee. Uh, no. No. Um, there is an hourly rate that he charges us and so he's not
guaranteed $68,000 a year from us for Right. But if he goes over, we don't have anything in the contract that says it's X number of dollars per hour. He would submit billing and we would have to approve it. Correct. Yep. That's how it is. Yeah. Up until that point as
well, he submits monthly billings. We review it. Yep. We pay for the plat fees from the fees collected. We play for any work that he would have done on a construction project from the construction project budget and then any of those uh services that we provide to
the public gets collected at that $68,000 line. Mr. Johnson, you're you're saying that you would like to see something that it would be like 50 bucks an hour or Well, I'm I don't know that has to be in here. I just didn't see it. And if we do go over, he's going to have to provide something to us ahead of time
before, oh, here's a bill for 10 grand, right? Yeah, you're right. Um, and I apologize that that's not collected. We do have a list of his services and and fees uh that's separate. I just I did not I failed to attach it to the the document, but in that particular case, again, if we burn through the budget,
there's going to need to be preapproval, not an invoice to pay. Yeah. Correct. Yes. And our relationship with Mr. Woodstock has been really well. uh has gone really well. I think that we could if we get to that budget line item, we'll have those discussions that I
trust that he would call me and say, "Chris, I'm getting calls from a lot of private surveyors. We're at our budget. Yep. This is this is" He would provide me a quote of how much time and hourly fee that would cost and we could have those discussions at that that Perfect. I'm fine with that. I just don't want to
come react. No, that's a good point. I'm glad you brought that up. Okay. Motion to approve the contract. Second. Motion been made and seconded to approve the contract. All in favor? Opposed? Carried.
Okay. Uh the next item I have for you is in regards to our Casaw 29 extension project. As you know, we're deep into design with uh WSB and Associates. uh navigating that process since we do have that federal uh grant that federal
earmark for it that does subject to the federal review process of planes. As we've got into design and shared with them all the environmental and historical work that we've done previously, we were informed by the cultural resources unit at the state
that we need to do quite a bit of work to update that due to the age of those documents. um some of those documents were completed in 2007. One of those things that needs to be completed is an architectural history
review and an archaeological study. Um they need to review structures that may have existed for greater than 50 years from today uh and see if they have any historical significance. There are a couple
properties uh that were reviewed previously that now have reached that age where they're more than 50 years old. And so they got to do that. They also need to do an archaeological survey where they're going to have to dig some some test pits and see if they find any
artifacts that may have historical significance. This involves contracting with consultants that are certified by the state to do this kind of work. The the positive news is that there is a
cost share available uh through state aid. Uh state aid for local projects will pay up to 80% of those costs and we would need to come up with 20% of those. Um they went through their process to get proposals from consultants uh and
recently informed me that they have selected a couple consultants. Long story short, our 20% match for those additional services is $17,16340. And and they're requesting that we consider adopting a resolution
committing to that that 20% match um of 17,16340. Um, if this is adopted today, it's anticipated, you know, within the next month, as early as the next month, uh, a consultant could be on site doing doing that archaeological work. Mr. Chair, is
this something that ended up being done on Casatu also with the Graham? Is it Graham or whose cemetery is there? Uh yeah, we did have to do it on Casatu, not necessarily because of the cemetery, but because of the proximity to water
and uh land formations that may be indicative of ancient burial grounds. So back to this project, were these was this budgeted or was this a surprise? Um, it is uh a bit of an anticipated co
unanticipated cost because this is a I mean basically this is just shy of 100 grand for the whole thing. If we're going to be at 20%, right? The state's putting in 80. Yeah. That means this is just shy of a $100,000 deal if my math serves me
right. Mhm. Yeah. We're putting in the 17 and we're putting in the 80. Absolutely. But I'm just saying this isn't just a $17,000 project. That's just our portion. This is we're our own worst nightmare on all this stuff. Look at all the money we spend for when it
comes to federal funds that that we received. Is this federal or state? This is federal. So, okay. It's because we got federal money for the actual construction project that we're going to have to go through these steps. This 80%
is state funds um that comes out of the highway user tax distribution fund. Um that money gets set aside through there and some other sources. It was an unanticipated cost but we had money set aside for
engineering in our capital projects fund that was paying the invoices uh for WSB that we had hired. Um there there was a little bit after that contract was approved. There was a little bit remaining in that that
budget. I believe this 17,000 would eat up the remainder of that. So um well once again have no choice. Yep. Take our federal money but then you can spend some here. That is correct. We've learned a lot
when we received that federal money. Right, Commissioner Gabenski? That is correct. With that, I'll adopt the resolution committee Benton County to 20% cost share with MDOT for the work. I'll second. Motion been made and seconded to approve the resolution for
the Benton County's 20% share with Mandot for the work. Any other discussion? All in favor? I. Opposed? Carried. All right, we're just moving right along with agreements.
The next item I bring before you is u a fund exchange agreement between uh Benton County, the state of Minnesota and Wright County. What has happened is Wright County received some HSIP funding very similar to what we received for our
roundabout project uh on uh at 29 and1. Wright County and through their process and progress in the project are not going to be able to use the the federal funds uh before the end of the state fiscal year as as required for for that
source of funds. So they approached me and said we we see that you have a federal project for this current year same source of funds highway safety improvement program. Would you be interested in a fund exchange? And what that would be is we would accept their
additional federal funds, but then we would transfer some of our state aid funds to them dollar for dollar. So they still have to meet a commitment to construct that project in which they received that federal grant for, but
this does give them some allowance to take more time to develop that project and not lose that that federal funding. For us, it has a zero fiscal impact. We were going to use some state aid funds to come up with the local match uh for
the project and a little bit of sales tax for it. So, we will receive additional federal funds to go towards our roundabout project. In turn, we would transfer our state aid funds once again dollar for dollar. So, it's a net zero change.
um uh it really benefits more or Wrights County uh to allow them more time to develop their project and not lose their their project funding. So, Mr. Chair, Chris, aren't we shooting ourselves in the foot because we're not technically
ready with the with the poll and everything like that. Um not necessarily. We're still committed to get that project uh out for bid. um uh but in June and we're going to do
some construction this year. What we what we going to do is build a bypass road which is part of the plans. So when that intersection becomes closed, the villages of Creekide still have ingress and egress. That's what we will get accomplished this summer and then the
project will be suspended until Excel gets their their pole uh out of the way. So, we we have a commitment to to do some work still this this summer to keep that actually $1.1 million of federal
funds we already have and that that will supplier our agreement will be okay with that that yeah then we meet those requirements to get the project authorized and incur some project costs. Um it gets kind of goofy because the state fiscal year is a different ending
date than the federal fiscal year. So, we have to get our project authorized before June 30th, which means we get approval from St. Paul to go out for bids. We need that approval before June 30th. Then we need to incur some costs
before the end of the federal fiscal year, September 30th, to show that yeah, we we are using those federal funds and we need to keep them, not to sweep those away to some other some other agency. Mr. chair. So, Chris, just to be clear,
no issue taking federal funds from right and swapping our state aid money. How will the state look at our use of state aid going forward if that money gets swapped out? Uh, to them, it's no no difference. State aid gets
allocated to Benton County just like it normally would. Um, they're the ones that actually drafted this this agreement. Um the state agency agreement has no impact to our future allocations because it essentially went to uh a
state aid project just happened to be in in Wright County. Okay. As opposed to to Benton County. Okay. Chris, if we do this swap, is there a a time frame commitment for Wright County for their project then?
Um, yeah, the the timelines are a little bit more more loose, but yeah, they still have to build that same project that they were going to use these federal funds on. So, two years, three years. I I didn't read it in the contract, so I'm just asking this question. Correct. I I do not know the
answer to that. And you're correct. It does not say that in our agreement. Um, at that point in time, shouldn't we have that in our agreement, too? Well, it has swapping funds. We have to make sure we're committed to use this HIPP grant.
Okay. And now we're just telling them, well, we'll give you our state aid money with no time frame. But the risk is on right county. Um, at this point, yeah, you're right. Our agreement says that we have timelines to still build our project that we're
accepting those federal funds on. And and that's why I think there's little risk to us because if we didn't have those additional federal funds, we'd be using our state aid funds at this time. If we give Wright County state aid funds and they don't build the project,
they're assuming all that risk and any implications from the state for not meeting their commitments. As long as we meet our commitments, we're good. We're good. We should be good. That doesn't preclude us from applying for HSIP again in the future and shouldn't affect our I
shouldn't say shouldn't it will not affect our future annual allocations of state aid funds. So So accepting this HUP grant like you just said we in turn if we want to apply for
another HUP grant in a year or two it won't affect us. It it would not. No, actually it it would actually maybe look beneficial to us because we were able to actually accept more a and actually delivered the project as promised. Okay.
So I think the risk once again the risk is on right county because they now you could argue well they they accepted a grant that was supposed to be constructed in 2025 and they end up having to swap it away. It actually in a way kind of makes us look better that we took on others and still delivered the
project. Right. on you know a couple of things is one we got the blessing from men not to do this right. Yeah. Other part is it kind of keeps that county coordination going. Sure. You know I mean from a state aid level they they
actually encourage this because it lessens the workload on them. That's now we've taken away one federal project that they have to provide oversight on. Okay. We we've done things in the past. It's been several years that we've done this, but we've actually done a fund
swap between ourselves uh where we've swapped funds from like CASH 3 to CASA 2 or vice versa where we and they like that because then we're combining federal projects that reduces the little bit of oversight work that they have to do. Um and as long as long as it's a
zero fiscal impact, uh it's kind of a win-win for folks. How many dollars I don't know if you said how many dollars are we talking about? So it would be 750,000. They were they're building a roundabout just like us that they had got an HIPP grant. So
they got the max 750,000 and then we would give them once it's ex once a grant is executed or the I mean grant the contract or agreement is executed state aid finance takes care of all the funding and then our account Missy will track those costs and make sure we get
what's owed to us. Okay. Do they have Excel Energy in their way too or not? No. No. They had some rightway issues though as well. So, uh, yeah, sure. Yes. So, here's my question that I want just a little clarification on. So, we're
giving them state aid in in swap for federal. Mhm. And with that federal, we would be on a timeline with our state that we're giving them. They are not on a timeline. They are on a timeline. I just don't
know what those deadlines are. So, their agreement has probably some different language. It says that they are giving up their federal funds in exchange for state aid and um they will have some sort of commitment to still build that project within a certain time frame. I'm
just not sure what that is. Um but you're right, if they don't bid that build that project because when we've been in similar situations where we've swapped away federal funds and and this is probably 10 years ago that we did that. we gave our federal funds to somebody
else. Uh our state aid engineers were on me to say, "Chris, you gota we we want to see plans for this project and know that you're going to do it." I just don't at this time don't know what that deadline is. But that's something I can certainly find out and bring that that back if that's what what is our deadline
on the federal funds. Well, still uh before June 30th, get that approval uh to author and we're already on that track. We just haven't got the the um the final stamped signature on our plan set to to do that. So, we're really
close to getting that. Uh we don't Well, if we don't, then we're risking almost $2 million of federal funds at this this point. And so, we're not going to let that that happen. Just say so. We're too far in the process at this
point to not Yeah. not get that. Let's let's say so. And do we have a deadline as to when those federal funds need to be depleted? Yes. So we have a a deadline in in this in this agreement uh five years. So, uh, well, the
agreement stays in place within 5 years, but, um, uh, in our normal, uh, agency agreement with MDOT for federal funds, once a project is authorized to go to a biding, we normally have a timeline of like two
years to get those projects funds spent from the date of authorization. Okay? So even before accepting these federal funds, we we were on the clock to to get something done, which is even with the Excel Energy uh roadblock, let's say. We
were going to we were committed to do some construction this this summer. Okay. No issue with the 400 grand grant from No. Okay. Nope. No issues with the APL grant.
Okay. Oh, sorry, Mr. Chair. I'll adopt the attach attached resolution entered into state of Minnesota agreement number 1060045 and authorize the board chair to sign
it. Is there a second? I'll second. Motion been made and second to accept the exchange agreement. Any other discussion? All in favor? I oppose. Carried. Very good. Good discussion. Good questions. I appreciate that. Thank you.
All right. Uh how about some good news? Um so as you know, we have two bridges that are that are actually out for bids right now uh to be replaced. County Road 51 southeast of town here and then County Road uh 22 up on the west branch of the the Rum River. We had received
federal money uh to construct those and as most federal grants go, they were capped at a maximum of 80% of the construction project. Well, we were recently informed. We received this this letter uh from state aid saying that our
projects were eligible and that we received uh state local bridge replacement program money to come up with that local match. So, um now on County Road 51, uh we were getting
$585,200 of federal money. Now, we're getting additional $397,928 of state money to go towards that local match. That only leaves us about $175,000 now uh that we need to come up with local match to get that bridge completely built. Um as opposed to
almost a half a million dollars that we were just for that one bridge. Likewise, on 22, bridge 22, um we were getting about 603,000 almost $64,000 of federal money. Um, now we're getting another
$433,000 of state money to go towards that bridge, leaving only about $92,000 of CASA money that we need to come up with that that project. So, um, in the great circle of life, it seems like money is going in a circle. We're given, we just approved $17,000 to state
aid to go do some additional work, but here we are. We're getting almost $800,000 of state money to go towards I'm wondering why there was such a smile on your face when I'm sucking you. That's almost another bridge. Uh exactly that. That's what I look at it. Uh we're in a mode now where we've got some
structures that are needing to be replaced that are now actual bridges where up to this year we were doing just a lot of box culbert replacement. So, now we're getting into some larger structures that are going to require actual bridge placements, which are as you look at these costs, they're running
about a million dollars a pop. So, um yeah, so that was that was some good news. No additional work that this time that we needed. Those projects are advertised on our online bidding system. We should be opening bids in June for
those. Hopefully doing some construction um the end of this this summer. So nice getting those those built. So oh then there's just a a map showing those just to refresh where those those structures are. They're load posted and restricted
right now. So they they needed to be replaced due to their condition and things. So all right. What's the schedule for those Chris? This would be this summer. Uh we open bids in June. Um, I think we got a times it's we should be able to
hit the second board meeting in June for approval of those bids, contracts approved and get the contracts signed in July, maybe into July. We're closing it down and starting to remove the the old structures. So, but there will become a time when those roads are closed and we
have uh detours in place to to detour around those. And about how long are the projects? Um, they're about 60 days a piece. So some of that working can happen concurrently. You know, once you get one structure removed, that crew
could go up to the next structure, they're going to be tied together, start removing it while there's another crew on the other bridge starting to do the um you know, the other prep work, driving piling, and those kind of things. So, we're hoping that maybe we're down to about maybe a 100 days or
just under to get both of them uh completed. No rightway issues in either area? Nope. That's already been taken care of. We've got all the rightway acquired and and we've met all the other federal uh requirements for for those structures. So, um we have stream mitigation that we already got approved
from taking those from the local road wetland replacement bank. So, we're clear of that. They found some credits, huh? Yeah, we Yeah, they find them. Um in a piggy bank. Well, I think we fortunate that we we were able to pick up some scraps because we had very low
replacements uh needed. So, I like we're talking about t of an acre on each one that we were needing to mitigate the stream impacts. So, wow. Is that two to one also? That is 2 to1. So, you impact $100,000 an acre. You're going to use
two tents, you said. Yeah. But because we were able to find, you know, a few tenths of acres in that in our bank service area, that's no out of pocket expense for us. Okay. So,
right. Right. Thanks for the good news for once. Yeah. Nice ending. Yeah. Very good ending. Well, if you would allow me a few more minutes uh for an engineer update. Um couple things. Um one of them uh I want to talk about uh our highway department
parking lot. You know, we've opened bids on batuminous projects recently and got some really good prices. Um, we got some scoping estimates from those contractors and we would we would do a lot of the work ourselves uh with our maintenance
crew as far as grading and stuff, but to get that paved, we would need to go out for sealed bids, but we got some scoping estimates in the range of $275,000 to $300,000 to repave our whole our parking lot. And I just wanted to mention that
to the the board to see if there's any uh support to maybe going ahead and moving forward with that. Like I said, it's over the municipal contracting law of $175,000. So, we'd have to do a sealed bid process to actually get actual bids to do that. Um what we're
hearing from our bidders though is they're still hungry. there's there's not a lot of work maybe on the commercial side that they were once picking up and they're still looking for opportunities to pick up work for their crews and stuff. So, Mr. Chair, a couple questions. Chris, we originally had
talked about that through capital improvement dollars. Um, and is there any opportunity for a change order on existing road project in that paving quantities to that? I know we got pretty favorable numbers. flood from Knife
River for I think 66. We we probably could it would be a different unit price. Um as paving contractors uh tell us, you know, long strong straight roads is a different uh unit price than paving parking lots where you get a lot of back
and forth and usually a lot more hand work and stuff. So, um I think best to keep it clear, we would look for one of our uh local project uh like our County Road 66 bids that we just opened up. Uh if you want
to go with the change order route of adding that to that that current contract. So, I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with asking them what that unit price would be. Sure, we could we could certainly do that. So, we asked them to look at the project as a standalone project. a couple of them. That's where we got we got a range of
about 275 to 300,000. So, and do you recall what was it a couple years ago when we looked at doing parking lots through capital improvement? Do you remember what our estimates were at that time? So, we had planned well in 2020 we had let a project um to do all that and
I think there was more work in there. Um the the cost was a little bit higher. I think we were closer to maybe about half a million dollars, but I think that's correct. Yeah. at 500,00 I think to make it work and to capitalize on just these these really
good batuminous prices our maintenance crews are willing to do a lot of that that prep work with our equipment and our trucks and stuff. So So are we looking at capital improvement or do we have budget dollars for some of this? Well, if that's something we have considerable savings in our
annual patching budget. So, we have about $400,000 in just savings from our our road patching budget. And in the past, it had been uh expressed that that budget should be reserved for doing, you know, our roads out there that the
public uses. And um that is an option. Um uh if the board is supportive of that, we could probably use that from our um our patching budget this year. So, Monty, is it Monty? Is it an option hypothetically that we could use some of
those budget dollars and capital improvement dollars mix them? Sure. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Cash and cap is essentially unrestricted at the Mr. Chair. The only thing I would say is is we've heard from the public
before is if we're taking these dollars for certain things, we should keep them for certain things. Sure. I'm just trying to come up with options. No, exactly. And and I look at it this way. I think Chris and and them guys came up with a great plan. We know it needs to be done and it's like anything. If we
don't do something, it's going to completely deteriorate to the point where it's going to hurt impair our own equipment by plowing snow and everything like that. Well, that's this last winter just even clearing our own parking lot. We we were pulling up chunks of our but
our pay our parking lot and we've got pretty sizable puddles now of potholes uh where water stands and sits there. Just from a dollar perspective though, what I'm hearing is we're about 200 grand back from what we originally thought it was going to be our capital improvement.
I understand that's because they're going to do some of the work yourselves. That's right. I think earlier quotes and estimates was the contractor was doing a lot of the shaping and things like that. Um there's things like our fence. Uh we would need to replace that. The the
posts have pushed out of the ground because of the frost and it makes it easier for paving too if that's just those are clear and then the the paver can make our guys can bring in our own material that we own out of the pit. Right. Correct. That's if we need to bring in material. We've got our own source of material that we can bring in. Our operators could use our motorgraders
to shape it and get that to drain hopefully a little bit better. We may have to cut some swailes in through the grass to get the water to get to the the the storm water ponds a little easier. They looking at putting some fabric down, too. We may. Yeah. Um uh because we have poor soils
underneath, but then gravel we do have out there. So, um is there anything in the county that would take a step back while we're doing this? Well, I want to bring it up because you brought up a good point, Commissioner Kitsky, about the the capital funds and staying true to what
we've committed to the public and stuff. So, uh, I don't want it to perceive as a diversion of funds by any means or anything like that. So, that would be the concerns. I just want to vet out and and make sure we address. I'm talking more on the labor standpoint right now. Like, is there anything that what they
should be doing? Oh, I see what you're saying. Uh, and that's where our maintenance superintendent is telling me now's a good year to do that. So, with our current workload, the current list of like pipes he needs to replace, roads that need to be graveled, uh, we believe
that we could we could still manage manage all that. So, w without overtime and everything involved in it. Sure. Certainly. Yeah, that is always a concern of ours to to manage that. So, that's my concern, right? And to be truthful though, I mean, there wasn't a lot of overtime paid out or earned this
winter. Mhm. Like we normally would in a typical uh winter. When you say be truthful, you weren't lying before, were you? Okay. True. Do you do you have enough projects available to use up to 400,000 in the budget for patching? I mean, we've got roads that obviously
need the work. Um, what's going to happen to those dollars? Roll over. Are they going to go to the fund reserves or are they going to be unspent. They would remain in fund 13, the highway fund, if they were if they're unspent. They will get spent at some point. Yep. I just don't want them
to magically disappear. No, no, that would not occur. No, Mr. Chair, I I think we got we got a need. We got funding avenues. I think I think we let good prices and and our employees are willing to do the grading and everything
else to fix all of that. We we ask people to come to us with solutions and that's exactly what they did. Y y they came with a solution to get it cheaper. Y so uh okay we'll explore a change order route. Um certainly before any
commitments are made I'll bring that back to the board for so you get some hard numbers and things like that. So um Mr. Sure. I think it's is it the consensus that we'd use capital improvement money then? We can figure out that mechanism later
on. Maybe it might be a mix. Yeah, maybe a Yeah, mix might not be bad because we got good bids. All right. Okay. Well, good. Uh, expect more in future. Quickly before I go, when we get to committees as the whole, just wanted to throw out an idea and we
can discuss it later at that time too about a possible road tour if that's something the board would like to do uh in the coming months. So when it comes time to setting committee of the whole, we can discuss that at that time. Okay. And then if you think I've talked
enough, I will gladly. Okay. Thanks, Chris. Commissioner meeting updates. Mr. Chair, maybe could I could we ask you to recess and go to ditch authority? Sure, we can do that. That'd be great. Let's recess and go to ditch authority. Turn it over to Commissioner Johnson. All right. I'll call our ditch authority meeting to order. Uh we've been through our roll
call if everyone's present. Approval amendments to the agenda. Chris, do you have any changes? I have no changes. Okay. So move. Motion second. Second. Uh to approve the agenda as presented. All those in favor? Opposes carried. Move on to consent agenda. approve or amend the
ditch authority meeting minutes of May 625. Move approval. I'll second. Motion a second to approve those minutes. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I opposed. It's carried. Chris, presentation of recent inspections of
CD9 and CD14. Yeah. Well, thank you, uh, Mr. Chair. So, I bet you didn't know that when we hired a ditch inspector that we hired a pilot as well. So, you know, uh if for those of you that haven't met, uh Adam Richie is our new environmental technician/inditch
inspector. So, congratulations. Um can't wait to see you at all the meetings. Roll up your sleeves. But, uh I I kid about the pilot's license. He was not a pilot before coming here, but in about a week's time, he studied up and took the test and is
now a licensed drone uh pilot, right? Or what do they call them? unmanned aerial, whatever. I don't know. But he does have uh his license and certified. Um there's actually quite a few regulations because of the St. Cloud airport. Um we are
limited to how close we fly. So that does impact ditches like county ditch 10 and county ditch 11. Um Adam was just informing me this morning that he did the approvals through was it through the FAA actually? Yeah, the FFA. um they
created this online um database that allows you to apply for um approval to fly in the designated airspaces. Um if you're below 400 ft, it's kind of an automatic approval um that gets sent to us. But if you go
above 400 ft um above ground level, then then the St. Cloud Airport then kind of kind of has their say. Yeah. So, uh just something to be aware of that we not supposed to just fly it everywhere and whenever and uh at all locations. But
recently, Adam has completed a drone inspection of ditches 9 and 14. And that's what uh he collected that uh video um on our drone um and then brought the videos back and edited them
um on his computer. I'm hoping to pause this till we're ready to talk about it. Um, and we've pieced together just uh some videos here. And so that's what this is, just anformational uh video of our our ditches that we
recently repaired. So the first one we're going to look at here is CD14. And we're going to start at the upper uh end, the very upstream point of that. Oh man, once again, let me make sure I'm sharing this.
I don't know how to share this. If that is up, if it's over here, is it means being shared? Go back. Oh, there we go. Very good. Now we're
sharing it for those following along at home. Okay, CD14. We're going to start at the upper end of it. Um, now this is we are at We're going to probably go faster than what it this video player is a
little bit. It's just going to be the main trunk or you doing branches, too? We we did all of it. So, um I was going to try to play it at like one and a half speed. So, but um yeah, Adam's kind of highlighted
some things that you could tell from the air. Like we just pointed out that there was a log in there. Is that obstructing flow or something? Maybe that's something that we need to go out and actually get boots on the ground to inspect further. So, we we are kind of following the flow of water. We're going
downstream with it. Um 175th Avenue is where that that Township Road is. Um, from here you can kind of see spoil piles. Um, you get a good indication of the the condition of the
ditch. This was my first time flying the drone, too. Um, so it might be a little choppy. We had a little bit of technical uh difficulties um with kind of the recording. So, it may look a little choppy, but um I promise you that future inspections will be even better. So, I
tell you, it looks a lot better than anything we had before. Sure does. Things like this. Well, that's a tree in a buffer strip. That's the one you've been saying things go. Yeah, I know. I remember hearing at least Chris talk about how you guys um talk about the
buffer strip and preferring no trees in there. So whenever I saw one, I I tried to highlight it on the inspection video. Get rid of those lines. Electrical. So this is in that area that one of the concerns that we heard was
that there was a belief that water was flowing the wrong direction. Um now we can see that there's water in the ditch. Um but I don't believe it's flowing in the wrong direction. I think we see water where we didn't see before. This
area right here was the we're about ready to come on. This was the vegetation management area that we first did skipped. Uh and that's why you don't see as much vegetation established on that spoil pile as you do in other locations. So now we can see that that's
clear and open. Um water is flowing through it like it should. Here we are at the the next township township road where we start and and then continue. Is that 90th right there? I think that is 90th. Yeah.
So, things like that, which is what I'm hearing from other ditch authorities. That's sometimes common with new repairs. You see some erosion. Here we're getting to that next vegetation management area where we had skipped first to avoid uh wetland
impacts. But now we see that that's open and the spoils are placed there on the right side of the the video. So up other than some erosion, we saw a log in there. Haven't seen, in my opinion, seen anything that's really
restricting flow. There's that other uh vegetation management area. Seems to be open. That tree's got to go. Yeah, we got another tree there. I could see here it looks like there might be a deer stand or something or something else in that tree, a ladder or something. So, a
lot of that's what we heard from the contractor during construction was like, "Chris, do you want me to remove trees with deer stands in them?" So, we do need to go back to land. Is that the one we left because it was deer season? Uh, that might have been one of them. Yeah. So,
here's Highway 23 where we cross under. Now, we're kind of going backwards. We just saw the old railroad grade with the pipe under that. So, we're still traveling downstream, but now we're looking upstream as opposed to looking downstream. So, I'm
not traveling the drone backwards. Um, it's just the way I recorded it. I just reversed the video, so it kind of stays, you know, kind of the same. So, now you stayed on the gravel road and just went the whole mile, right? Or a
mile. So, it depends kind of on the the vegetation of the spot. Um the drone can get about a quarter to half a mile um until it starts to lose signal and then the video gets all choppy. Um so what I
do previous is I look at that overview map and kind of spot kind of areas where I think the drone would be able to reach. Um and all of CD14 I was able to reach without having to go go off the the roads. So So here we are. We're on
branch six of 14. So we're branch six. uh starts um which yeah traveling backwards but following downstream you know uh appears the channel seems to be open. Uh this was
about two weeks ago right? Yeah and and we had received some rain and it was a good quarter inch of rain probably a day or two prior to these videos. So, um, I think this is great to maybe pass on
to townships and show that, hey, we we are watching this stuff. One of the things we've discussed, too, is that, you know, probably we haven't yet, but been posting this on our ditch page on the the county website. So, does this go into the DB system?
Um, we haven't uploaded this or know how to upload videos into the drainage DB system, but um, you know, I've uploaded my inspection reports, which is just a word do or a PDF that says this is what I did um, today and those are in drainage DB. Um, we haven't I haven't
talked to Chris yet about putting the videos there yet. But well, the other area this is going to be helpful is in August when we do annual ditch assessments, maintenance assessments. Yeah. Um, and Adam has been systematically
going through ditches. Uh, you said you've got about all of 10 flown now. 10 is done and the video is done. I just obviously the videos get kind of long, so I didn't want to make you guys sit here for too long, but and obviously we don't have to watch this whole thing, but it's just a good example. Obviously,
we'll have this in our documents for future inspections. Um, I hope to do this maybe every year or if there's a citizen complaint, obviously could do that as just a nice reference point for us in the future to see if see if anything is changing. See if maybe
there's some more erosion in 2026 or it's better or worse. You seeing some clumps in the middle of the ditch back there? Mhm. Do we go and get those and take them out or I think
that's a that's a policy decision. Um uh we can. Nothing says that we have to. Nothing says that we we can't. I mean it's all part of our maintenance policy for maintaining that ditch. Um you know well we'll see as the as
time progresses through the summer. I wouldn't expect to ever see the ditches dry. I mean they are ditches. Um I think one thing that we need to be cognizant of is like are we able to contain the water within the ditch or do we have some kind of obstruction? What is that vehicle doing? They were flying
backwards. I don't know what they were doing. But if we get to a point where that obstruction is backing up water and the water is escaping the banks of the ditch, then I think there's something we certainly should be addressing. And the reason why I say that is because we've heard a lot of concerns with costs
lately. These are ones that we just repaired. Um, uh, more actions or additional actions, um, most likely will result in additional cost. So, that's 90th Street. That's the the the one
where we've had Oh, yeah. Right there is where you dump the UTV in by the piles. That's right. That is exactly right. Where Representative Schultz was able to visit with us for Now I'm familiar with where we were at trying to get It wasn't muddy, though. Still trying to get the mud off. Yeah. Weren't you in there, too?
Oh yeah. So there's things that Yeah. It's amazing what you can see just from the air uh without even just being on the ground. But um was this about 100 feet up? Yeah. Um depending how far away I was um
from the drone, I had That's a field crossing. Um so I try to Doesn't look like it's huge though, does it? And then kind of when I'm far on CD9, it was kind of harder to reach some of the ditch areas. So I did get closer to the
300 400 foot, but but this one was nice and I was able to stay pretty low. You did a nice job. These drones are not easy to run. No, I appreciate that. It was Chris allowed me to test it kind of around the
around the highway department building just for a while and then I kind of watched some videos on people who have the same drone. Um the test kind of that Chris was talking about it was kind of intense. Um you have to know a lot about airplanes and um airports um for the
test but um I passed that. What what airport did you have to go to? I went to Rush City because our St. Cloud airport could not proctor the exam and those cows. It was kind of funny going by those cows because they looked up like a UFO was about to come get
them. So, is this the branch going back through Shoemockers back to 90th? We're about to reach property which is right to the right of this. Okay. Well, it's definitely a different perspective from because Chris and I actually used the the ATV and did a
little bit of by Mark Ratka's property. We we drove a little bit and it's just there's just two different perspectives. The on ground and then the air. And this is this I remember distinctly this branch. You didn't even know that branch existed until we cleared those
trees out there. So, so now back on the main um Yeah, this is actually where Chris and I walked this to see the that culvert that's about to come up. You remember that walk? It's a very
muddy walk. Yeah, we were I was Let's say I'm a little more cautious on where I take the side by side now into the mud or not. So, and you can kind of see some increased sediment flow on the bottom. Whether that just be different types of soil or there's some more runoff of sediment.
That's the one that was left in deer hunting. Yeah, that's the one that the land owner was very resistant and and came here and spoke and pleaded to have re remain. So, yeah, most of these I'm not saying they need to be fixed. Um, it's just kind of
more of a reference points for for future inspections to see if the erosion gets worse or if it kind of stays the same, then we can determine it from there. Yeah, we're getting almost to the bottom
of 14 now. not too far from it, but this is the section where the land owner, you know, was maintaining it themselves all those years and I think was, you know, upset that now we come through and do a repair and they're still subject to the assessments
just like everybody else. So, I mean, and that's reflected in our repair plans when you look at the amount of sediment that would need to be removed through this section. Very little needed to be removed to get it back to the correct uh uh grade. So, um, and then this is our
our county road 52. So, I like where it shows us discoloration, too, though, with sediment moving. Yeah, if we watched the CD9 video after that, you notice kind of a lot more of that that issue. So, that might have to
be taken into consideration. Yeah, I'm not sure if you all know, but the numbers on top, um, we didn't really explain it too well, but that just shows the kind of feet, how far it is away from starting point. Um, so branch one,
this is, um, basically 112,000 feet away from the start of branch one. just kind of it just kind of shows and helps Chris and I when we look at the profiles we can kind of see where exactly this this video was
taken. So, it's one of those things. We do have asbuilt um survey. So, we have elevation shots. Uh they might be every 200 feet uh or so. So, we know once again if we see something on an aerial, we can approximate this station number
as we call it as engineers and go to the plans and find out what that elevation should be at that point. We could take our surveying equipment out there in the future uh and see if it, you know, if it's at that if it's deeper. Has it eroded deeper or has sediment
accumulated and um the the bottom elevation is not where Was there really only one spot where there was erosion off the outlet? Yeah. Um at least for CD14. Yeah. Um, CD14 was the first one I did and I I
noticed it was um, obviously I don't want to say perfect, but it was actually pretty pretty good. Um, CD9 on the other hand, you'll see that there is a little bit more erosion around the outlets at at that point in time. Do we
just go in and put rocks and everything around that? Because that's going to that erosion's going to keep going. I think we have to have a discussion in the future about if we're just going to put rock on just do it. I know we had a lot of discussion about that early early on.
But the problem is is we can't even the the nobody wants to pay for the ditches the way it is. That's adding costs again. I I I get that. Yeah, I I get that. Unless we're in the rightway of the highway, then it goes back to the highway.
Uh that's true. That's something that yeah goes back to the highway whether it's the township or the county. Um we would do that but these one of those erosion spots was a private field crossing. Yeah. Where we saw that and that could be something scour hole in
the we recommend that they do or we make it you know a private crossing. Well, you're either going to pay for it then or you're going to pay for it when you go back to fix it. So yeah. So yeah, we're still in branch one's a pretty long branch. I don't think there's anything else. If
we want to skip to the CD9, we can. All right. So Chris, is this something we should we should go back and do 13 and 15 to see how bad we are there after these years. Well, for sure. I I I completely agree with that. Uh I've just instructed Adam to kind of go in order
of which we've uh been working on those. Nine and 14 are of concern right now since we have the contracts open. Um 10 was next because we have that repair petition um out there that we need to eventually respond to with a
finalized repair report. That's just kind of how we've been prioritizing it. But I certainly think yeah, maybe over the course this summer we go look at 13. Can you imagine what we're going to be amazed at if we go out there and fly them the way it's going to look today versus Yeah. Mhm. It's going to be just
a disaster. Is 10 in front of 12? Corre. Yes, we received it. Yeah. And in the order of which we received repair petitions, 10, we received that repair petition first. So, yeah, you guys will notice a lot on this one. It it stops a lot more. I noticed a
lot more erosion of of the banks, and that might be because obviously CD14 drains into this one, so it's going to have more water. Um, maybe after this one was cleaned. Um, It could have been a heavy rainfall that that caused some erosion. Um there's just a lot of
different variables that may have caused this, but here, you know, there's some erosion on that culvert. Um not as bad as some, but there's I still pointed it out for future reference. This is is this a site where we took about six feet of sediment out? Correct.
Yeah, that's coming up here on the right side of the ditch up here. Um where we had this the the large spoil piles that we came back in. And on the left there was where all the rock were. Correct. Yep. Mhm. Oh. Where they put a rock pile. That's
right. Great great grandfather did that. Yeah. Um things I I do like to I mean yeah we see it's got a name. But he does. We do see you know at least there's vegetation growing. Um that's
all that sediment flow goes a long ways. Wow. Yeah. And you see it kind of pretty bad at the end of this ditch when it goes into the St. Francis River, I believe. Um, where you'll see So, in this particular spot, Chris, if you could stop it for a second, this is the
same issue we have over on CD12 and County Road 85 where the culvert runs perpendicular to the road and then it causes wash outs on that side just like it did there. Mhm. because the center line
cover wasn't put in with the ditch system. Correct. Yeah. Um, now this is something that we'll probably have to take ownership as a highway department and reinforce that because at this point we're not going to tear up this road.
This because this is this is a concrete coververt. It's a large concrete coververt. It's in really good shape. years ago, probably better suited to line this up, which obviously results in a lot longer culvert, a lot larger
excavation. Historically, we come across that a lot. Uh the more economical route was to do the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, so do it 90°. Um but what happened on County 85 is then you had to come back with rip wrap and keep adding rock to the wash
out area on the east side of 85. Oh, on CD6. CD12. Oh, okay. 85. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Because that's the same problem. Actually, worse. It takes a very hard right hook. You're right. So,
at this point though, in this particular location, it's probably more cost effective for us right now is to just put right uh rip wrap here along that. Um I would agree. things that like maybe we can use uh screen some pit run from our own pit as opposed to buying shot,
you know, blasted rip wrap. I think my point is when we get to CD12's repair, we're going to need to look at that culvert. Mhm. Oh, yeah. And look at we need to align it with the ditch. Sure. That was the location right there that Yeah. We we noticed that there was no um
side inlets cut into the the spoil piles. Is this the one you're waiting for the land owners? Yeah. Okay. Right at that corner is right there is landowner who we got a complaint from. I mean when you're out on the one thing you it's hard to tell from the air is
the height of those uh spoil piles at that particular location spoil piles relatively uh short one maybe two feet max at it its heights where some of these like you like we we know we had six foot tall spoil piles. So,
we're going to get to a point in this video um where I wasn't able to drone the entire um ditch um just because of the drone limitations. So, it's going to say I cut I cut ahead like 400 ft. So, um I just wasn't able to reach it from
one of the roads, but over time as as streams meander and stuff, some of this is not too surprising. I'm actually kind of surprised that we don't see more in there as it comes around the corner. Um Oh, yeah. Because now you can see our
road construction project on CAS 7 there. This is coming up to 7 and 51 is that area right there where we did that had to do that mitigation, right? Then your box covers. Yep. And so we extended these
like Chris said, it is a lot of starts to do the sharp turns obviously, but So you don't get all the way to the St. Francis on this one? I do. I do. You do? Okay. I just I just had to skip um I
think it might be coming up here shortly. And I think yeah, we obviously we had a survey done before we did the repair. Here you see some meandering. I think and a lot of times though we tried to follow what
existing channel there there may have been as opposed to straightening it out too much which um but yeah now we're we're getting kind of downstream of nine. was collecting a lot of flow that we've opened up that had not been opened for 80 plus years and 12's not dumping into there yet.
Correct. Cuz it's not cleaned out. So some of these I mean talking to other engineers that have ditches under their purview uh this is what happens a lot of times when they open up a ditch that hasn't been open for a while. You inevitably find or see erosion um in
places that most likely may need to be addressed at some point in the future. So yeah, coming up towards the end of this ditch is where you do see the increased sediment flow. Obviously, it doesn't help with
all the erosion, all that sediment going back into the ditch. But like Chris said, it's inevitable because it's never the ditches are never rarely dry, so it's hard to get vegetation in there after it's after it's taken out. Well, that's a funny You can see why meander that.
Yeah. Yeah. How long is it going to be before we have to clean that out? Yeah, that was the branches of nine. So, turn it back. Kind of like a road turn back. As soon as they're clean, turn it back.
It's a um I mean, when it comes to erosion, it's a it's a give and take. To get the the water to move equals velocity. Velocity is what causes erosion, though. Um, so now we're
really really moving now. So, so yeah, just wanted to share just the information to know that we have tools and the abilities to um look at this and see a lot of the ditch in a short amount of time and then um sometimes it causes us to we see
things in the aerial that we may have to go out and let's say ground truth if you will and go get boots on the ground to look at it. But that's just what we had prepared for um 9 and 14 day. We've got more to come, more videos to to come. And hopefully
we'll have a whole inventory video inventory of all of our ditches before too much longer now that we have Adam on board. Great. Something honestly commissioners I just did not have the time to to get accomplished and I'm I'm happy that we're able to get that done now. So, good job. Yep. Great great
information. Thank you, Adam. Thank you. Members, anything else on ditch authority? Chris, that's all I have. Adam, you have anything? No, I appreciate you guys' time. All right, that's cool. That was really good. That was good. All right, with that, we'll adjourn the ditch authority meeting at 10:43 and turn it back to the
board chair. Go back to commissioner meeting updates. Who wants to start? I can. Um, I had a well, we had our CIP board meeting, which you all were at. We
had our cow on the 12th. Um, we I went with um with uh Steve and Chris to the Capitol on May 13th. We met with six House of Representatives, six senators, and we actually also met with the uh
Senate Tax Committee administrator. I thought it was a very good um uh thing. And then I had a Minden Township meeting that night when I got back. And I attended a Zoom meeting for
Micah on 5:14. And then I had city council meeting last night. Okay. Uh I had that W interview. We had career solutions. Let's see. Oops. I got to get back to my calendar here. Oh, I
guess I left. Yeah, we had and we had criminal justice meeting. Uh, I think I hopefully I brought the right notes. Two different meetings. One was on Zoom and one was on GoTo. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Nobody was on mine.
No. 41 inmates, five on Humor. Six of the 41 inmates were females. Uh, they're doing speedy hearings. 28 days for in person. In person. Yeah. Um, so we're up about 10 inmates. Is
that what you're saying? That's what it says. Yep. Uh, let's see. That's about all for that. And if I miss something, I know Jarrett will I I going back to the inmates, maybe what we should have them do is give us because that's a snapshot
of that day. Correct. So if Yep. Give an average average for the month or whatever. Yeah. Which was really nice. Uh let's see here. Yeah, we had human services meeting. Uh went to the cap. That was a
great day, man. We ran into everybody and everything worked. Thank you guys for coming. Appreciate that. Very good, especially with transportation. That was very good of funding. Uh let's see. What did I have
yesterday? I don't remember what I had yesterday. I'm sorry. But that's about all. Thank you. Okay, Jared. Okay, I had the APO meeting. We are going to uh we got to talk about the um and I'll put
this on the next agenda. Monty is the um uh agreement for the APO. Uh basically for the belt line. So, it's what we've all talked about. I've I think I've brought it up in the past on comm
committee updates, but it's just the the cost share of the first phase of the um environmentals. So, um let's see. Uh I had the AMC finance committee meeting. I had the AMC
futures. Um the cow, uh we had our airport meeting, which I don't think that's going to be as easy as we think. So, good information, but they're coming with a
levy. They said that that day. So, they said that at the city council meeting last night, too. Brought up at the St. Cloud City Council. Yeah. Except St. Cloud isn't going to pay any of it, right? Correct. And he told them that. Yeah.
And that's what I got. Uh, as Roxan mentioned, we did have a planning commission meeting on May 8th, and that was the only item on our agenda was the um campground information you guys received today. And we acted on, of course, our human services cow. Uh, I was in attendance at Granite Ledge
Township. They're looking at moving their town hall, potentially uh picking it up, creating a new slab, and setting the building on a new area. They had gone through some preliminary information already and I just kind of highly suggested to them that they get
David Barot involved as the building inspector to make sure that they're not missing something. They're going to go through all this work and then have some red flags thrown at them. So then they asked if I'd come up and meet with that too, which I did, but I just was there to listen. Um they may be uh he uh Arie
even said did ask me if the board would consider um waving uh their permit fees. Um, and I said, "You can always appeal that to the board. I can't answer that for you." Um, but at the end of the day, the permit still has to be paid for somehow, shape, or form. So, if they
decide to approach us, you're not surprised by that. Um, I did attend the pre-bid conference uh here in the boardroom on the 13th. Monty, maybe 12 to 15 contractors here. Took about 30 40 minutes. Good general questions. Was
pretty simple and straightforward. So, um, and that's all I had. Well, I had the cow and then, um, I skipped Mike. I was busy. And then the airport. Um, you got the email from the airport. I didn't think he had two
general questions that we asked. I thought we asked a lot more than two general questions. Well, I think they were the two main ones, but there was a lot of a lot of conversation. It's just it's going to be going to be very tough. Do you have another meeting set? Not yet. Not yet. But they're going to meet
again. Uh hopefully we can maybe get Sherburn County to meet with us at the end of it. St. Cloud is out. Yeah. I mean, it takes four people to get us out of this agreement. They'll never let us out. St. Cloud has nothing to gain by getting
out. Y and the the only good thing we got is I think the the regime has changed in St. Cloud. So they at least we got we got an ability to talk to them about because it's going to take everybody to make this airport work. I think they did get a little bit
of the clue that, you know, if things don't go the right way, we can stack that board with people that don't agree with what the airport wants to see. And we want the airport to succeed. We just don't want them to be what they the way they want to go about it. Did they
commit to a million dollar levy this year? They said when I was leaving they said they were bringing that forward. Benton County's portion is 135,000. Do we know that? We have no idea what our portion is right now. It's somewhere
since I saw those numbers. And when do they have to have that to us by? they would call the state in September more or less unless we get all the parties to the table and renegotiate
this deal when after five years I think it is when St. cloud is is completely off. We lose all police support, all fire support, all everything. And the airport has to pay for and the 600 grand and the 600 grand that they're giving
now. Now their people do come back on the levies, the city of St. Cloud does at that point come back on the leveies, but it it's a tough scenario. So who's going to make the decision how the St. Cloud
Airport Authority levy is going to show up on property tax statements. Auditor treasures, are we going to make that decision? Because the people in the county are going to want to know what that line item's for. I'll have to ask because I foresee it. In my
opinion, it should say STC airport authority. I don't think we should hide it in the That's a good point. in the total levy dollars. That's a good point. County residents need to see what that airport authority levy is going to cost. It's got to be separated out. your own
tax or solid waste, sir. It's going to be similar because it's a special taxing district. So, it would be separate. The issues, how is it labeled? And I'll ask Christine. Well, and the reason I asked that because I understand after talking to some other commissioners and other counties that their auditor treasur is
not going to do a line item with it. And I think if we have a choice, that's the wrong way to go. Yeah. Because then it looks like we're just levying from the county again. Once again, 1.6 million in in total debt to this county and with everybody else
levying we're the ones taking the beating if we can give Christine any thoughts it might be you'd like to see it listed and specific I would I don't know how everybody else feels. Yeah. No listed say regional region. Yes. The other part the FBO I think has got
some you know they got what seven years left. They had a 20-year lease with the FBO and he would never answer how much they're actually making the what they saying called aviation I think for fuel you mean for there's more
than that there's like maintenance there's maintenance there's a lot of things that they're doing storage and it it sounds like well they've made an offer to buy them out but they haven't he hasn't accepted or even listen to their proposal yet but if they buy them
out I think there's money. There's probably a fair amount of money there that can help the airport. And as they get down until St. Cloud dissipates from the agreement. Yeah. Then we're back to square one because you look at what they're giving. Let's just say it's 620,000
with no escalator. Then you got then you got the police and fire and all that stuff that I mean all that stuff is probably 300 grand. Call it a million bucks. Even if that FBO is making a million bucks, that just takes care of that. Mhm. This this is an example that
he gave with his presentation yesterday. He said that they're looking at a $1 million tax levy. 415 would go into operating expenses and 585 would go into
capital. And then he said on a $200,000 home um there would be uh 4.41 um annual tax increase. So, $441 or 40 a month. And on a $300 home,
it would be $7.21 annual tax, which would be 55 cents a month per homeowner. But that's what he gave for But Monty, when they get that formula figured out, it's based off each countyy's tax capacity, isn't
it? Yeah. So, ours is roughly 55 million plus or minus, right? Yeah, we should be the smaller portion of that. We should we are we are the smallest portion, but the fact of the matter is it's still additional levy.
Yeah. And then they don't set the other part that they were negotiating is that this this lease runs out in seven years and they would like to buy them out and the St. Cloud Aviation, whoever
owns that at the end of seven years gets nothing for their their buildings, their you know the equipment and that they have all their all goes to the airport. So they anything that can't be removed anything that can't be removed. So that might be one of the things that'll be a little bit of
a savings there, but no. So anyway, it was interesting and we only had two counties that participated. So, how many from the airport? Two. Two. You didn't get all three counties to Sherburn went because St. Cloud there
comments, general comments, topics not required. Board action. I've got some stuff, Mr. Chair. Yep. I think it's it's very important that we stay true to our votes. we stay true to our actions up
here. I think people are looking for honesty. People are looking for us to do the best for the county. It's been a for me it's been a a tough few weeks. I mean, you know, I'm never going
to disagree with somebody else's opinion or vote or anything like that because everybody's got their own reason they're doing it. But but where I mean being true to our vote or being true to our opinion is giving some background on how
we got to that point. And that's got to be that that that that is so key in this whole deal. And Mr. chair. This may seem kind of tough on you, but I'm going to tell you, you just with the building side of things, you were with us on the
whole way through and there was never a no vote, right? Except I wanted the posit like two months ago whenever all the But you didn't vote no at that point. No, we never had a vote after that. Yeah, we did. We most certainly did. We voted to
approve the extended contract with GLT to extend it. Yes. And and I I 100% ag I'm I'm fine with the no vote. It's how we got to that point. And that's what bothers me is we sit up here and
and there's no more money to be spent on getting the numbers and we we we said that night. Matter of fact, Mr. Chair, I asked you, I said, "So, are you saying this is pretty much done?" And you said, "Yeah." And I'm like I said, all we're doing is
is voting for a funding mechanism. The vote comes later on, you know, and and I'm sitting here going this board and I'm I'm going to speak for for the the three newest people and and Steve, you're not too far behind us. You're
only two years behind us. Can we agree that you're the most tenured 11 11 years? You got to answer a lot of these questions that your own constituents have. Why are the buildings falling apart? Why? What happened to the airport
authority? Hold on here. What happened to the airport authority? Yeah, the ditches. The ditches. The ditches are never on the current board. There was never a petition. There was never anything
brought up. 2017 Yeah. is the first time they this is goes way beyond when I even got here. But but you you look at it. This board has been tasked. All we hear is for the last how many years we've been saving taxes. We've
been saving taxes. We've been saving this board is being absolutely punished by things that that people have done six and eight years and 10 years before us. Punished. Colass and Comp was started before we
got in, right? You know, um the H2O overviewers were started before we got in. Yes. There was there was a lot of things down that down that the airport authority, which I've been very vocal
on, has was was voted on before I got in and before, you know, so I mean there's there there's so many things that, you know, and even even Mr. Sure. You brought up the resolution about, you know, get back to work, right? I took a
beating down at the AMC board when and you sat up on a panel and said, "Hindsight, we should have stayed in our own lane." That's not being true to your vote. I mean, I to this day stand by my vote and says, "I will do that against red, blue, purple, green, white,
everything because I I truly believe Look at where we're at today. they didn't get the job done, you know. You know, now not saying they would have got it done or anything like that, but there's there's battles that are way beyond way beyond us. I I think
and and and you know, you look at we got absolutely punished by trying to get actual numbers for this building. Oh, that's brutal. Well, we got punished on the opposite side for ditches for not having the numbers.
Yeah, because we sent out estimates. Yeah. So, we got punished on both sides. Ditches. Ditches are individually. I mean, the ditch authority has to deal with them, but these are individual which is this
board, you know, and you know, individual people have to realize that not everybody not every portion of the county has to deal with ditches. Well, there's there's a lot of uh there's a lot of people uh dealing with them. So,
I I I'm going to keep going because there's there's been a lot weighing on my mind on this. And, you know, you look at uh you look at people talking about, you know, the levies and we can't afford this, we can't. Nobody showed up to the very few people showed up to any of the
school district stuff. And we're getting absolutely killed on all that. Sock Rapids, they they have a shortfall of I think $700,000 after just passing a 50some million dollar levy. You know, all of this rides on us.
The cost shifts and and we we're sitting here $1.6 million low man on the totem pole, if you will. And we got and and we got aging buildings. So, I I'm going to stay back to what
what I said. We need to take care of these buildings so our people have something to work in so we can serve the public. That money doesn't go away. We heard it from constituents that we should have a savings plan. We don't do things without
savings or um a slush fund. We heard it from multiple people. So, I'm going to push for a $1.5 million levy this year to start building that up. I just didn't think people wanted to pay for this before they actually get it. But that's
not what we heard from the room. People would rather pay for things and have the money in pocket and go pay for it. Yes. Did we not hear that? We heard that. But so just I mean that money isn't on a tree. No, we got to levy for it on top
of everything else we're going to levy for it. So we're back to levying. Yeah. We're going to have to put five to $700,000 into these buildings next year. Now, you haven't touched on your savings account. We haven't touched on our savings account. So, we're looking at a million and a half to $2 million levy.
Well, I'd like to have somebody show me that some county that does savings accounts because I think the taxpayers would block it. Well, you go to a probably what 95% of the people that go to a car dealership don't go there with cash, right? And they they walk away with the car. I don't think they're
they're sitting there telling the dealership, "Here's here's 500 bucks a month. I'll be back in four years." You know what I mean? But but that's I mean, no matter I guess where I'm going with this is no matter what, I don't think we got it across to the taxpayers that
something's got to happen. Oh, I think so. But where's the money going to come from? I don't I don't think they think about that. But they got to they know something's going to have to happen somewhere somehow. But again, where is the money going to come from? We're
going to levy it. Yeah, that's our that's where it's coming from. We don't have savings account. I had somebody address me the other day. Well, what about the 2 million in cash again? Do it. You know where that came from, Monty? You can correct me. We spend 97% plus or minus of our budget every year.
We don't hit it exactly right. And so when there's excess funds, what do we do with it? We put it in reserves. Yes. That's where this 2 million in cash comes. Yes. Exactly. Levy extra. No. for this fund. No, there has been no explicit levy for that. No. Okay. So, lack of back to my point, where's it
coming from? The tax. We're going to levy it. But I mean, some of our excess funds comes from open positions over the years. Yep. I understand that. But if you're going to establish a savings account for a future building project, where's it coming from?
It's going to get levied. Yep. It's that simple. We have no other source of funds. No. And and and if you look at it, we wouldn't be bonding or levying for this until 27 if the building went
through. I say we start right now in 26 building that savings account because in if this goes to the tax, you know, to to the election and let's just say all stars line and it it it gets approved then we got if we do a million and a
half million and a half and by the time we build the building another million and a half we got we got you know 67 million to put down which in all honesty is probably going to eat up be eaten up a lot by the additional cost. They get to that point.
Commissioner Kinsky though, if you're talking about Monty said it before, we've got a 5% levy with our class and comp right. Right out of the gate before we do anything. Now, if you're going to put on another million and a half, you got another 7 and 12%. Yep. Yep. So, we're at 12% levy. Now, we haven't
talked about keeping up the buildings yet or or just the maintain. Yeah. I I just think we have to be a little more transparent in our discussions of how how we feel, okay, in which direction
we're going individually instead of out of the blue it happens, you know, or getting thrown under the bus certain times. We just got to do a better job individually as a board to relay all this stuff upfront
and honest. Well, and I agree, Commissioner Hine, and I just want to be clear on the transparency thing. You're you're talking about transparency on how we each feel about those things. Correct. Because we've been very transparent. Correct. About the building process. That is correct. We have Yep. No, I was just talking about the board
in general, not everything that was done. So, I didn't Yeah. And I, you know, it's it's a tough situation. I And and and Mr. chair. One of the things that really set me off last or the other week was your last comment when you walked
off the board. Mhm. When you said you can't believe that this board wants to tax raise taxes. They don't want to raise taxes. I don't want to raise taxes. I don't either. But you said that. I didn't say I can't believe this board wants to raise tax. I said I don't
believe that the county the You can't believe the county wants to raise tax can afford to have that kind of tax increase today. Yeah. Well, I I I think we can agree to disagree on on what was said. That's why I got upset and left
because I I was Nobody up here wants to raise taxes. We pay the same thing. And I'm going to tell you, everybody talks about the farmers. I get it. But the farmers are a business. Mhm. They're their own business. It's no different than somebody that owns Knife River,
something like, you know, they they got their own business and you pay business taxes. Now, I'm going to tell you right now, if my if my house I think I can get 300 grand for it, if I go sell it for 400 grand, I'm going to 100% take that
extra 100 grand because the additional taxes over the 30, 40 years I might own it is going to be peanuts compared to what I got on that same thing per acre of land. We're creating our own issue by overpaying for land. No, that's the that
was brought forth to me about that comment that you had made some other time about farmers create that most of them are are buying additional acres or additional farming because they need to spread their cost of equipment and that
over larger acres. It's not because they they want to. It's because they have to in order to survive. Well, as a business, we have to do the same thing. Any business does. Yeah. any business does. That's the cost. That's the economics of it. But part of that part
of that argument got to be is I think we said if you own if you own 100 acres and you've lived there your whole lifetime and you can sell it for 12 grand, shouldn't you be able to get Yes. Should you you should you should, right? I think everybody agrees on that. But the fact of the matter is that just creates an issue for the land that I own next
door and the neighbors and the neighbors and all of our land values go up. Yep. And then and then we got a lot of people here upset at us because taxes are are high. You know, you it's kind of hard because you want to accept the money you're provided, which you should. I'm
not going to sit here and say you shouldn't take that. If you can get 20 grand for it, so be it. But the rest of us have to realize that's an effect on everybody. Yeah. And if you don't know that, you shouldn't be. And if you got if you got certain people out there that are buying up all this
land and and then talking out of other sides of their mouth, it's like, "Holy cow, what do we do? We can't We're not here at the table with with you buying the land for $8,000 an acre when other people can only afford six." You know,
it it's a catch 22 and and we're catching all the 22 shells up here. And I'm it it gets it gets old. And that's where I'm saying we need to be true to ourselves. We are elected to be
true to everybody. And and we got to be we we got to be transparent with with everybody at these cows and and let everybody know because I'm going to tell you if there would have been some no votes along the way, you know, I I would have I would have
been like, "Okay, I seen this comment everything like that." cuz no matter what 4 to1 if we would have kept going we had the no votes but you know to get to the point where we didn't have to spend money to see the final outcome I I I'm cuz if if this
referendum goes which I I believe it will the reverse referendum it goes to the it goes to the the election election how nice would that be able to be able to say oh the bids came in at 28 million
We have a starting point for that building and we know what it should cost. If if this reverse referendum came in before that or we voted that down, we don't get to see that and we're back to square one on guessing what the numbers
are. Correct. And that to me is a disservice to a lot of people in our county that not even knowing what that is. Well, and I would say it's a disservice. I mean, this board on a five to nothing vote approved 1.3 million to get to where we're at today. Correct. It's that simple. Yep. I wasn't on the
board then, but in this particular case, you were part of the vote, right? GLT contract GLT contract. Y that's a disservice to me. Well, and that's ultimately why I voted yes was because I want to see what those final numbers
are. I want to know what possible tariffs could be doing to that. Whatever. I mean, ultimately this board before I got on spent $1.3 million to on a building. Actually, actually, I'm going to correct you. We're only about 700 grand before you showed up till you
showed up. Thank you. Okay. Sorry. But at the end of the day, I think I'm going to leave my grandstanding at this. We got to agree to disagree or agree to agree, but at the end of the day, we got to walk out because we still got to work together moving forward. And we got to
let bygones be bygones. So that's all I got. Any other comments? Set committee of the holes. All right. Well, you decided earlier to schedule uh budget presentations for all day on August 12th and half day on
August 13th. Uh if I recall correctly, the 13th would be in the morning. Be in the morning. So, let's say 8 to 4:30 on the 12th and then 8:00 a.m. to noon on the 13th. And that would cover all of our departments and outside agencies. Uh, and Chris suggested to you
a road tour. A road tour. Yeah. How about we all cram into a small van together and ride around the county? Um, traditionally we do a road tour, you know, this time of year, May or June. Um, uh, is the board interested
in doing that first? I mean, let's we can have a discussion whether we want to do that. I'd like to go. I would, too. Can could we do it? What do you think doing it when we get um County Road 7 done? Seven. We'll be uh possibly. I mean, we
have a a date uh of July. So, I mean, if the board would like to, we could push it that far out. I would expect that we'd probably have to wait till later of July before seven is completed. That's what I thought. Yeah. Have you made a decision if you're paving Casad 7 this year or not? Are you going to leave it
sit? Uh yeah, we're g Yeah, we're going to do a portion as early as next week. We probably pave in what we did last year. Okay. So all of it um won't have a a pay even a base course until July
probably. So I'm open to whenever works for everybody, but I'd like to go. So Chris, I'm sorry. Yeah. on on this tour. Are you going to show us the bad roads? Are you going to show what's in
our five-year plan? We could do What is What are your thoughts on this? All that. I mean, I think traditionally, um, probably a mix of both, you know, considering time and and not trying to eat up a too much of a day. Probably hit some roads that are on a 5-year plan.
Sometimes I like to hit some things that aren't, you know, that we're aware of and that, you know, just as time and resources and funding allows, we we are aware of that we just can't get to. I like to somehow show that. I I definitely think we should there's been a lot of discussion, for example, about
is it paving or reconstructing is it 25? Yeah, that'd be a great stretch to view and also 50. Yeah, those are these ones that have been talked about a lot past couple years. Yeah, those two in particular. I mean, I like to think of it as your tour. What would you guys
like to see? Heavily um like to see rely on your input, too. So, in the past, do you guys typically do a full tour of all roads or No, no. We'll spend Well, I'm
just three, four, three days. How about three or four hours? We'll pick out a half a day. Half a day. Yeah. You know what might be good is to see the progression of a road. So where I'm going with this is do something that's been done in the last one or two years.
Do something that's like 8 n years and something towards the end of life and you can you can start seeing like things that are happening that you know what I mean? Yeah. Maybe like Cass 7 under reconstruction and like he said Cass 25 and 50. I mean roads we've talked about
CASA 9 might be another one. You overlaid that down by the gravel pits, right? Yes. Yeah. You in the past it's been about 3 to four hours. I don't know if it's something like we could even throw out, you know,
multiple days. I mean, we do one in June, do one later the summer and break it up or you like to just, you know, hit it hard and do one long morning or something. So, I think we can do one long morning. Mhm. One long morning. Are you going to ask? Are we thinking
maybe wait till later in July or something? Later. Yeah. August would be really tough. Yeah. If we get into August, August and September. Yeah. Yeah. Or Mondays are better or Fridays better?
Mondays. Avoid the Okay. July 7th. July 7th is a good Monday. I have nothing on my calendar. But you won't have it paid by then, will you? Um, I don't know at this point. Um, but if you looked at the good progress up until this week. So,
um, could we pencil the 21st in and then just confirm it when it gets closer or we could we that's far enough out that we could for everybody. Yeah, we could set that and then certainly we have a couple meetings in June to come back to to talk about it and if we need to adjust it. So, are you talking May 21st?
No. July 21st. Maybe just as a placeholder though. We don't really want to put it on the committee of the whole yet, do we? Because if we change it, we can we can always change it. Change it. Okay. At 8 a.m. 8 a.m. roughling. Yeah.
And right. So that's all we have then really. Oh motion to set the committees of the halt. Second. It's been made and seconded. Any further discussion? All in favor? I oppose journ 116.