--------- All right. Good morning everybody. It's 8:30. We'll call this morning's meeting of the Klay County Board of Commissioners to order for Tuesday, May 20th. Our first item is the approval of the agenda. Move for approval. I second the motion. Motion by
Commissioner Ever. Second by Commissioner Mojo. Any further discussion on the motion? Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Oppose the same sign. Motion carried. Citizens to be heard. Do we have any citizens to be
heard on items not on the agenda this morning? I see there's none in the audience. Anything online? Nothing, Mr. Chair. Thank you. All right. We'll move on then to the approval of bills and vouchers. I'll move to approve.
Second. Motion by Commissioner Krabanhoff, second by Commissioner Ebinger. Any further discussion? Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed the same. Motion
carried. Approval of minutes from May 6th. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from May 6. Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Bear, second by Commissioner Kraban. Uh com I just want to make a comment and
um the minutes are well done Sarah. I knew being kind of new in this job now but they're very thorough and and very well done. I just wanted to point that out. So with that any further
discussion? Seeing none all in favor signify by saying I. I oppose the same. Motion carried. All right. Item number two, request approval to hire two deputy auditors in a motor vehicle. Morning, Larry.
Morning. Um, I'm just looking to uh hire two new uh full-time deputy auditors in the motor vehicle department. I had two resignations recently. One's going back to school and the other one's just moving on to a different opportunity. So, requesting approval with back bill,
please. We don't see people leave very often. Not very often. No. Okay. Right. Was that a motion? Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to approve that with back fill. Is that what we said? Okay. Second. Motion by Commissioner Mojo. Second by Commissioner Ebinger. Any further discussion? Mr. Chair. Yes. Just a note,
uh there was a time in which uh we were getting lots of calls uh regarding DMV and I uh know that your staff works really hard to be as flexible as possible but to address the the needs of the community and particularly with the new facility. So um my phone does not
ring uh with complaints about DMV and that's a direct uh correlation to the work that you do. So thank you. Thank you very much. And we we actually get good compliments, compliments now rather than complaints. Yeah, I tune in to Morehead
Fantastic once in a while on Facebook and I it seems to me the Morhead DMV gets good positive comments now and for the most part they're positive. So yeah, Mr. Chair, yes, just one question since we have Lori here. Um it came to my
attention Wil County is just continuing issuing driver's licenses I believe so but I think they're still do I think they're um the tab portion I believe is privately owned I think so I think they'll continue to do that as far as I know right you're not seeing a lot of
not so far anyway we haven't seen a big uptick on that you anticipate one I suppose it'll be a moderate but I don't anticipate it being too much they weren't I think they were only open one day a week or they weren't open full time okay good commission and just a
quick Thank you. I had a citizen on the enhanced license and I know you dealt with it very very quickly. So I appreciate the effort. And um also I'm just curious is that still an issue on the enhance is there still big groups?
No. And to to be honest we didn't have those huge lines that you know you were seeing on the news. Okay. With all the lines because we required appointments. Yes. Um, so you know, people were trying to get those appointments, but they were they were pretty booked out, but we weren't seeing those pumpful uh
reception areas during that time. Okay. And is that demand kind of diminish now? It has, you know, it was kind of a panic. People thought they absolutely had to have it, but if you've got a passport and there are a number of other IDs that will work as well. And so we've seen that um demand or urgency drop.
Yeah. The one thing that I hear is that people might not understand what documentation they need to bring, right? And that is on our website. Okay. And when they when they call for an appointment, is that information given to them at that time then? Uh you can you actually make the appointment
online? Oh, okay. It's online. Okay. Yeah. But all that information is out on our website. Okay. All right. Any further comments, questions? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. I. oppose the same sign. Motion car. Thank you, Lori.
Thank you so much. Appreciate it. You bet. Next, we have our adult mental health local advisory council annual report. We have Win and we have Kirsten Bri. And we I don't see Allison here today. Allison was not able to make
it. Good morning, Mr. Chair and commissioners. Morning. Um I do have Bria Krauss and Kristen Leard here. Uh I'm going to turn it over to them. I just wanted to introduce them, but yes, Allison was not able to make it. Go ahead. I'm Bria Krauss. So, I'm with Klay County Social Services now as about
six months ago. And um I serve as a secretary on the adult lac now for a few years. And good morning, commissioners. I am just here to lend moral support to Bria. Um like Quinn said, Allison was not able to be with us today. Um and our
other co-chair is sitting up there with you. So um I am going to let Bria do the presenting and if there are any questions hopefully the three of us can answer them. All right. Good. Well, on behas on behalf of the council um we
wish to commend the county commissioners on your support and previous investments in the mental health services um and and the improvement of our mental health and well-being of those who reside in Klay County. Want to thank you for your financial support of the $2,000 from
2024. Um, your ongoing investment and personal support for providing effective mental health services across the county has allowed many previous unmet needs to become met over the past years. The investments include ongoing inquiry and problem solving um around current issues
facing adults living with mental illness in our county. Um, it's also provided or will continue to provide ongoing education related to the mental health and mental services across the community, networking with our providers and our um, community
partners. Um, our um, the members of the LACE will continue to get stipens for events that they attend, the monthly meetings they attend. um and that just um has allowed them to have a greater understanding of the ongoing um issues in in our community. So, thank
you. And just a brief introduction, we all know mental health can be both positive and um negative. You know, a lot of people have mental health crisis in our community. Um the mental health and well-being is important for all people
including individuals who do not have mental illness. The World Health Organization defines mental health as a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able
to make a contribution to his or her community. Um most of what we're going to discuss today is are the barriers, you know, the the concerns that we talk about on on a monthly basis between our uh community members, the providers um and family
members experiencing um mental health issues in our community. The first piece we're going to address are the crisis services in Klay County. Uh we have two problem statements. One is the first one is the nearest crisis stabilization units are
in Detroit Lakes and that's at Willow Tree and then our CBH unit in Fergus Falls. Transportation to these units can be very costly and time consuming. Gull Harbor in Morehead here does have um four licensed crisis beds, but the high
demand of the Earth um program statewide has not allowed them to be utilized in this way. they're being the beds are being utilized for people needing that intensive residential treatment um service versus
utilizing it for crisis beds. And so um our recommendation is to streamline the networking and addressing the barriers for admission with G Harbor crisis beds that are available as well as other crisis beds available in DL and Fergus Falls.
Um the expected outcome is to reduce the costly inpatient psychiatric costs in in Fargo at Prairie at Sanford psychiatric units. Utilizing this unit could also encourage the individual to seek help before hospitalization is needed. And so Gull Harbor does come to
our meetings usually um but we do plan to kind of address what is the main barrier. Is it lack of staff? Is it is it truly the HR Z um program that's taking it the admission process is is it's kind of confusing sometimes to
providers how do you get into G Harbor, you know, how do you how do you access the crisis beds? So, I will add to that I did have a meeting yesterday with Gull Harbor um and their crisis beds are being utilized. They do have one opening. Um, and I did make a
recommendation. Um, their their staffing pattern has been difficult for the last probably 9 to 12 months. Um, staffing that, but I did put a plug that having a representative from G Harbor
attending our LAC meetings on a monthly basis would be beneficial. So, um, my hope is that they heard that and will start attending. um it it it is helpful when all of the community providers can attend um and just have a conversation
about some of these barriers. So that's my hope. Our next problem statement has to do with uh non-emergency medical transportation uh for people who are in crisis. It's um individuals who are in crisis and
need that non-emergency medical transportation to inpatient hospitalizations. Um most of them don't have friends, family members to transport them. You know, they're relying on the ambulances um for transport. utilizing a cab service requires individuals to have enough
funds on hand to take a cab um to where they need to get to. Um a lot of our folks have um insurance where they could set up a cab ride, but it does take a couple days and most people can't predict when they're going to have a mental health crisis um and set that up
in advance. So, uh, the LACE recommends to create an RFP, uh, for outreach for utilization of protected transportation services. Um, it's a state administered non-emergency medical transportation level of service.
Um, it does have a few requirements, but it would be, um, a provider certified by the Minnesota Department of Transportation as a protected transport provider. This would um the expected outcome would be a reduction in ambulance related expenses
for non-emergency medical transportation and leaving ambulance services available for emergency use only. Um they're short staffed as well and they're they're constantly being overworked as it is. Are these for those transports to Fergus
Falls? Is that ideally that would be part of it? and Detroit Lakes, right? Yes. Okay. Uh the next problem or problem statement has to do with the status of when a person doesn't meet medical criteria to stay in an impatient psychiatric
hospitalization. As soon as a resident no longer meets that criteria, uh the county is responsible for 100% of the costs associated with their care at the facility until another placement can be found a lower level treatment that would that would meet their needs. Costs
can be upwards $2,000 a day for an individual on, you know, that the county um will pay for. One individual in 2024 in just a two-month span um cost us over $147,000 because another placement
couldn't be found quick enough. And then in total for 2024, this cost was about $390,000 for our county. It just keeps increasing over the years. These dollars go right back into the state general fund and not back into our mental health
system. So the LACE recommendation is to advocate to the state to dedic to dedicate greater than 50% paid by counties for clients that don't meet that medical criteria to build up our current mental health system particularly in greater Minnesota
instead of putting 100% back into the general funds. Uh we would advocate to the state that this revenue stream should be invested in stabilizing existing beds and lower level of care options um or increase and or increasing our state's capacity to meet the needs
across the full mental health continuum expect. So can I can I stop there for a minute? May maybe Kristen or Quinn. So those two items where those recommendations are being made and this this is um recommendation to the state.
We're are we do we have these two um questions? How's are we presenting those to AMC? I know Maxa is aware of the concerns about the fact that the DNMC costs go right into the general fund. It is my
understanding that in years past they've attempted to do some advocacy in some legislation there. I know that in 2025 it didn't rise to match priorities. You know I if to gain the most ground on things like this if we can if we can have these
issues jointly um worked on with AMC it stands a lot greater you know option for success. And even even with that, uh, you know, those of us that serve on the different committees
with AMC, we're, you know, by the by the end of our AMC policy platform, we're kind of dwindled down to where we get to pick like three to five things. That's, you know, that's how how much demand there is at the state level. And so it's I
think it's important you know so not being part of the AMC platform I think could make it even more difficult to I mean certainly the recommendations can be made but you know we want these things to succeed and and how are we going about
that we can talk to our local legislators and maybe garner their support but still it's if we don't get the support you know from AMC I think it's going to be difficult. So, I I just I would encourage um that whether I would imagine these
both of these would go through Health and Human Services. Is that yours, Paul? Yeah. So, you know, so we might want to Yeah. Well, I appreciate your comments and Yeah. And certainly take that and we can discuss making a deeper dive into
it. And Allison does sit on the state local advisory council. Okay. Um and unfortunately she's not here to talk about that and and how they've addressed this. Um but in our meeting she has stated that this is um a problem area um
that they have discussed at the state level. Well my my guess is it's not a problem unique to Klay County. Right. So so it seems to me that it Yeah. Try to get the data how it is statewide among the counties. Yeah. and then you know try to try to get this the
best way we can I you can recommend to the Klay County Board all you want to advocate for these things but you know then we need to make sure that we take that to the next level where we where it can have the support and backing at the legislative level. So okay thank you
bring that uh feedback back to the uh meeting today in fact. So thank you. Yeah. So, you know, Paul, maybe you can, you know, when you we start the spring um platform issues, I think these should
be brought up. Okay. All right. Thank you. With those recommendations, um expected outcomes would to would be to decrease the large expenditure from the county budgets that are impossible to predict. um we just we don't know on a given year on a given day when someone's going to
be going into a psychiatric facility and then they you know thankfully they don't meet that criteria they're they're stabilized they're getting better. Um it would increase efficiency in the flow of patients out of hospitalizations in more appropriate
settings and then more residents would be able to receive the level of care closer to home hopefully. Um, housing is the next one. It's always going to be um probably a concern that every county is going to bring up, but um while navigating housing, clients are
often faced with a lot of barriers. Um, when a tenant is seeking housing, they need to fill out probably numerous applications for background checks um at different places they apply for um to the management company. Typically, an applicant applies more than one
location. And people in homeless and emergency shelters only have a timeline of about 30 to 90 days in in one of those settings before they need to exit. So waiting for multiple applications um and a background study to be completed often hinders that time limit.
The LACE recommends that Klay County should advocate for the state to create a request for proposal for a business to develop and implement a statewide platform for the purpose of doing background and credit checks that management companies can all access. This platform would allow prospective
renters to pay just just one PE fee for adult members. background would be we thought it could be valid for about one month um in which the renter is applying could also be used by other
businesses and nonprofits that need to do background checks on prospective volunteers, employees, etc. Um and we would advocate for a change in contract law to require management companies to utilize this platform. It would eliminate the need for tenants
to pay to pay multiple management companies for the same work and it would be a quicker turnaround rate for clients to be housed um as people are often waiting at least seven to probably 10 business days for those to be completed each time. That's just one small piece of the
housing that we just tried to just what's one small thing you know um the county could advocate for. And then um the mental health workforce shortage is another um problem I think we address at every single LAC
meeting that I've been to. Um we talk about which communities have or which agencies have weight lists, how long those weight lists are, what can we, you know, the hiring process, where are we at. Um over decades in Minnesota, we've all advocated for people for mental
health awareness, attempting to eliminate stigmas, encouraging people to seek help when they need it the most. Um, our residents have been embracing this awareness and reaching out more and more every day for help with the hope and the expectation that they'll receive
the port the support in a timely manner. More people are reaching out, but our workforce shortage can't keep up. Um, and it's leading to decreases in mental health services in general. Weight lists are very long across the county. Clients are waiting six plus
months for any supports. And um I just I wanted to give a quick example of I'm in the adult and intake disability adult disability intake um world upstairs and I had a call uh just about a month ago and he was in a pretty tough state. He
was calling me from his closet and he was he was having a mental health crisis and I off I I offered to assist him just you know on a conference call trying to get a diagnostic assessment set up with him to do that piece with him. We got through and then and the first
appointment that he could make was two months out just for a diagnostic assessment and then was told six months later for his requested mental health services. So it was an eight-month span when he needed help probably within the first week or two. Um he was he was
absolutely devastated over the phone when he heard that and he I mean a grown man sobbing on the phone. I just it was just something that hit me really hard. So this this piece is pretty important to our whole group. You know, when um
when little situations come up like that, it just really hits. Um this this is another recommendation that we do think that it does need to kind of start at that state level. Reimbursement rates for two particular services that are being requested most commonly are the adult rehabilitative mental health
services and rule 79 case management. And that's mental health case management. Uh we have we have two agencies in town that can offer the rule 79 case management for adults in this county and they they have very long wait lists. Uh but those reimbursement rates
would need to be increased for these essential services in order for staff members to be paid incentivizing wages. These are these are some tough situations that you know the the practitioners the case managers are are working with every day you know and there's high turnaround rates. there's
people get burnt out. Um sometimes when they're, you know, you have that incentivizing wage, you know, it's it could help those employees remain employed with their agencies, improve efficiencies with weight lists. Um and
the expected outcomes, more professionals would be able to remain in those fields while feeling supported by DHS. Um clients would be able would be able to start the requested services in a timely manner with more staff available. Avoiding potential crisis
situations while waiting for services. Um staff retention is also really important to clients. Uh clients often have to tell their stories over and over again to new workers. um often that can trigger them and um just kind
of start that whole process over again with their mental health. Uh the next issue we talk about mental illness with co-occurring substance use disorder. So that dual diagnosis individuals who need those dual diagnosis services should be
treated as a a whole person. Our current system of separating mental health and SUD is not effective and leaves individuals bouncing back and forth between the two platforms. Our recommendation encourage providers to honor a comprehensive assessment done within the last six
months by a qualified licensed alcohol and drug counselor for outpatient or residential treatment placements unless the person's treatment needs have changed significantly. Uh we would encourage facilities to participate in programs specifically
dedicated to treating dual diagnosis as well. We do have some which is good. We do have some um expected outcomes. You know, they won't be repeatedly charged for the same assessments and get discouraged in their treatment journey. Um having to tell their story over and
over again once again. Um they'll be able to access treatment sooner by not having to wait for an assessment appointment. more appointment availability for comprehensive assessments for individuals needing assessment for the first time. Um, review the need
of review of the need for treating co-occurring substance use and mental health next to the crisis center will keep the board and local decision makers aware of the spectrum of the mental health needs in our residents. And then just for time purposes, I you can maybe read through
the last recommendation on your own if you choose. that was just something um not necessarily directly related to mental health but just how to reduce waste in the public programs through technology. And then on the back there's um a list of our memberships and
community agencies we we work with closely. Want to thank you for your time for listening. Any questions? Any questions, comments? Commissioner Mojo, I just have
a comment in regards to the work. Thank you for uh really being thoughtful about um identifying areas in which we can make a difference to help facilitate better um support for folks with mental illness.
Sometimes I really struggle with um one we do so much have so much effort to pull together the data and the facts and and and the issues regarding it but how do we make formidable change with that data? I mean that's the part we we
struggle with and so having this report is really helpful and then it's it's really on the backs of all of us to uh bring that kind of to the decision makers that can make a diff a change with that. I don't think it would be a waste of time if we were to forward this
on to the folks on the committee we've worked with in regards to human services. I know that they're, you know, with the end of session last night, timing's challenging, but I think in the off season, if you will, like Commissioner Campbell talked about is
how we make those those really meaningful partnerships on areas that might not have been addressed with their omnimous bills yesterday. Uh so you know to framework it to shift a little bit of the dialogue maybe from less of a Klay County specific ask to
more of that ask statewide I think would be really helpful and then two working with the chairs who have both been to Klay County I think are helpful but uh two thanks for having the dialogues the monthly discussions it's really helpful as we advance these issues so thank you.
So, I'm not going to lie. Two weeks ago when I sat here and listened to the children's lac present their report to you guys, um I was sitting back in the cheap seats and I was texting Bria throughout like, has the adult lac ever
done this? Um what do we think about this? So, we have some ideas that we're going to bring forth at our meeting today. So, be aware, Commissioner Krabnoff, that we're going to throw some stuff out at the at the council. Um, just I was impressed with the children's
how they had the data and the charts and graphs, which I know Quinn is a huge supporter of charts and graphs and data. Um, and so that's something that we're going to look at over the next year to be able to provide you all with even
more information um to support the work that you do. So, I just wanted you to be aware of that. Thank you. Thanks. Yeah, just just a piece on, you know, kind of a continuation on and then I'll get to you, Paul. Um a continuation of what Jenny just talked about. And I'm I'm
going back and I'm looking at at the um um business and development and the statewide platform for background checks and those types of things. And and you look at one of the expected outcomes of it. I think that's important
to, you know, you look at, okay, this might cost this to do this, but what do you gain? And and you know, the when you eliminate the need for tenants to pay multiple management companies for the same work, well, at the same point in time, I you know, I I would think
there's got to be an interest in some of these landlords. uh they would probably just assume have somebody in those buildings and have them sit empty because they're waiting for these apartments are waiting sitting there waiting for these background checks to come in. So they're um you
know I see this and I you know I always try to think outside the box in some of these things and I I could even look at see Klay County reaching out to everybody who all of our uh people that maybe accept the vouchers for for rental
units to maybe to partner with Klay County in terms of if we can't do it at a statewide level can we do it at a county level and you know and I so I I think I I don't think we should ignore that opportunity that goes
out there. And I would think it's an advantage to um those landlords to have somebody in those apartments sooner rather than having to wait. It means less vacancy time for
them and an improved time for um those residents. So I I think there's a lot of things that we can even do and maybe not even look you know what I sometimes I think going to the state it's wishful thinking u you know by what you ask for and what
what results you end up getting. So there you know some of these things if we can handle them at a local level then I think we should do it. Paul thank you again for your comments on that and we'll certainly follow up on it. I think the one I um first of all to the the
group uh that is active every month. There's normally 20 people at the LC I'd say think any given month. One thing that's unique about the adult mental one versus the children's we're about almost
5050 on consumer being there as well as uh providers. So it it creates a little different uh conversation than when it's all provider and um u uh and it's good
to hear from people in the system, you know, kind of responses and and so it's I think it gives us a more realistic view of what they're going through that I wouldn't hear otherwise because it's so much of this stuff is behind the scenes. It's private. You we don't know.
And but the the biggest one well not the biggest one but a a really really difficult one we hear every single month whether it's children's or it's adult is the reimbursement rates and especially in the way way of Medicaid uh
reimbursements and they're so low that the providers are can't uh do them without losing money and that's just wrong and so that is the piece we need to uh do on I also want to uh recognize uh
Lori in the background back there who works for the county and works on uh rule 79 uh 100% and we always ask uh Lori every single month how's it going and she always has the same thing my case load is
full so anyway um we have great participation from the county and I once again just uh am happy to be part about this and uh do take the comments uh very seriously and uh what you just mentioned mentioned Kirsten about kind of maybe
reshaping how we form things but um you know the uh rental contracting that was the thing of Allison's been kind of bringing that up for a couple years and yeah just step forward on a few things. So yeah, thank you all for your commitment and work that you do not only
for the county but uh um throughout the uh our area um you know with our all all our providers and keeping that collaboration as strong as we can keep it. All right, any further
comments? Uh we are looking for a motion to approve the adult mental health LEC membership and that's presented on page 27. Mr. Chair, are these on terms or how do these work?
My understanding it's every year similar to the children's lac membership. So under Klay County Board of Commissioners, do do we list who the commissioner is on there or It doesn't believe that we did. At least not in in this page. Okay. Because
Commissioner Krabnoff, you serve on that, right? So, correct. We can add that. Yeah. Great. I'll make a motion to approve the list. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Mojo. Second. Second by Commissioner
Abinger. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I oppose the same motion carried. Thank you for your report. Very well done. All right. Next, we have a Mises outbreak
update. Apparently, we're seeing some of that activity in I I've noticed Cass County. I don't know if we've had any in Clay County, but Kathy, Cheryl, you're not here to give us more shots today, are you, Cheryl? No
shots today. Somebody left my needles in the office. Good morning, Kathy. Do you want to do your introductions? We have somebody online, too. Mr. Chair and commissioners. To the left of me is um Cheryl. Um and you all know her. um our
extraordinary um public health clinic and multiple other things that she provides services for. And then to the right is Liz and she is our family health supervisor. And then online we
have um Isaac Treebold. He is our West Central District epidemiologist and little known fact maybe uh uh Mr. chair, you may remember, but Isaac was a Klay County public
health um employee here. And so he started out his career um in public health here and hence why he got moved to MDH because he was started with one of the top public health agencies in the
state. So I can say that he cannot. So I owe it all to you Kathy. We can't see his face because uh we we can't see remember Isaac, but is it because we have the um Okay, we have your slides um Isaac, so we can't see
you, but we can put you on after the slide presentation, but Isaac did present to our community health board um just um last week. And so he has some great information on on our measles um
outbreak and updates. So with no further ado, I'll have Isaac get started. Okay, sounds good. Well, thank you for having me, uh, commissioners. Um, so I can't quite tell who's in the room, so I apologize. Uh, but Kathy, am I able to
share my screen? Will that will that work or or do I or do you just do you just want to advance through the slides on your end? Um, either either one. What would you prefer, Isaac? Yeah, I did made a couple just tweaks. So, maybe I'll try to share and see if that sounds
great. I'll have Sarah help here for a second. There he is. I'm glad you didn't ask me to do that. Okay. Now we can see you a little bit, Isaac. So Oh, okay. Can you see my screen? Yep,
we can see your screen as well. Yes. Perfect. Okay. So, just give a quick update here of of uh you know, Kathy knew it was kind of be a gloomy day. So she said, you know, let's have a a ray of sunshine and talk about the ongoing measles outbreak uh in the country. So
uh give a little update. So you know, use this uh graphic here because we always used to say measles was just a plane flight away and typically referring to international flights, but that's really not becoming the case anymore. So I wanted to give a bit of a a 101 because a lot of folks haven't
thought about measles or know much about measles symptoms these days. Um so uh measles is an acute systemic respiratory illness caused by a virus. It causes a high fever, a maculopapular rash. So that's kind of the uh dew drops on a
rose petal. So red and raised and then the three C's which are cougha which is just a a medical term for runny nose and conjunctivitis. Luckily it is vaccinereventable and it's one of our most effective and durable vaccines. 93%
effective with one dose. uh recommended at 12 months and then 97% effective after two doses which are received at four to six years and it's one of the most infectious diseases we know. Uh it is airborne and it trans it transmits
easily. Pardon my slides are having a mind of their own. Uh transmits quite easily with a 90% attack rate in susceptible close contacts. Um but if you were just to use the analogy of the the commission room right there, if uh if you know somebody had uh was
infectious with measles at that time, um that room you know would have exposures up to two hours after they left that room. So uh it lingers in the air uh and causes a lot of exposures and subsequent
illness and it's quite serious. So, you know, I think a lot of folks tend to think that measles is just a a rash and and a kid feels somewhat ill for a little while and then they get over it. But complications occur in about 30% of cases. The most common being, you know,
diarrhea, subsequent ear infections uh and then more severely pneumonia and encphilitis. Uh and what we see in our outbreaks uh here in in the US is about one in five cases get hospitalized. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little bit less. It also can lead to uh
really quite severe outcomes including something called subacute sclerosian pain and sephilitis and this occurs in one per 100,000 cases. Uh and it occur it develops about 7 to 10 years after infection with the virus. It lays dormant and then causes this pan and
syphilitis and it's always fatal. uh normal cases uh uh do lead to death in one to three per thousand cases and there's no real tr medical treatment available. Um there's you can give medications for symptom management, things like Tylenol, antibiotics for
secondary infections and then there's been some talk about vitamin A as well. Um and but most the evidence for vitamin A comes from countries where a lot of children are vitamin A deficient and so they they have some benefit there just due to probably somewhat that that
deficiency less so in the in the developed world and it continues to cause a great disease burden throughout the world. nine million cases worldwide in 2022. 130 thou 136,000 kids died of
measles that same year. Um and children in lowincome countries have the highest risk of death. But what we've started to see uh you know after the pandemic is that we're seeing global declines in immunization. So not only are we seeing that in United States, we're seeing it in France, we're seeing it in in
Southeast Asia. Um and the United States may lose our elimination status that we gained in the year 2000, meaning that measles no longer circulates endemically. Um but it looks like that this year might be the year that we lose
that status because measles will again become give you an idea of what it looks like from the time of exposure. So typically about uh 10 to 12 days before any symptoms develop. those symptoms again that we're talking about the fever
um the three C's the cop cry conjunctivitis possibly after that some complex spots or spots on the inside of the cheek will develop uh and then that rash starts four to seven days someone's infectious uh 4 days before that rash starts to four days after that rash
starts so uh when we're you know figuring out who's been exposed we we kind of have to use this timetable of figuring out an infectious period period, then look at an incubation period and then follow people that have been exposed uh for 21 days after their exposure to make sure that they don't
develop symptoms and subsequently spread it to others. So, one of the challenging things that have happened over the past few years and outbreaks, we've had a few here in Minnesota, is that the rash is a little bit difficult to distinguish from other rash illnesses. So, you know, a
picture here of a few different types of rashes. Um, you can see the child in the upper leftand corner um is, you know, that's an allergy rash. And the other reason, you know, why you can probably tell that that's not measles is because that child's looks like he's relatively
or she's relatively uh happy or content even with that rash. Measles kids are are quite sick and look pretty toxic. And you can see a couple rashes there. But the typical rash always starts uh at the head and the face and then uh
transfers down to the neck of the trunk and then to the extremities. Like I said, um it's usually uh kind of got the the dew drops on rose petal. Not typically itchy and these kids are are pretty toxic and feel quite
sick. So since 2023, we've had quite a few outbreaks here in the United States. Um, currently in 2025 there's a little over a thousand cases uh including 13 cases in in our neighboring North Dakota
uh and then 733 in Texas. And that's that's the current uh largest out outbreak. The reason for this uh is uh obviously due to an introduction of of disease um but also the declining rates
in immunizations. So, the percentage of two-year-olds who received at least one dose of I'm sorry, my slides keep advancing automatically. And I don't I have a transition on them. Um, but a percentage of two-year-olds who had received at least one dose of MMR vaccine by 24 months declined about 5%
from before the pandemic to 2023. And when we look at Klay County, if we look to see the the children that were vaccinated before uh the pandemic, that's, you know, still pretty high at about 91.4%. 4% have received one dose
of MMR compared to a Minnesota average of 89. But when we look at the kids that are younger, so the the ones that are about 8 months to a year in 8 months uh behind on their schedule, that number drops to 67.3% compared to the Minnesota average
of 79.7%. So when those numbers are are thousands of kids, all of a sudden you start talking about pretty large uh portions of of a cohort that uh is susceptible to this illness when they typically wouldn't have been. So uh you know it
just provides a lot of kindling for this uh wildfire so to speak. So, one of the things that we have to do whenever we have an exposure is we have to look and determine who's immune and who's presumed immune. And that would be anybody born before 1957. Anybody who's
got uh got a blood test that's shows measles IGG. Uh anybody who's had laboratory confirmation disease. Um anybody who's been documented that has received vaccines. And then other things like you know say proxies for immunity
like being in the military um have reubella IGG or places that have required uh you know workplace vaccinations. People who aren't immune, any infant under the age of 12 months, people that that know they haven't received any doses of MMR or people who
are severely compromised are also considered not immune. So when we start talking about um you know exposures and what we have to do for exposures, so again, let's use our our county commission meeting today. Uh so let's
say Kathy again has measles. she leaves the office or she leaves the boardroom, um then we're going to have to determine everybody that enters that boardroom for the next two hours. We're going to have to determine their measel status. We're going to have to notify them. And then if they aren't presumed immune to
measles, we're going to have to follow them for three weeks to make sure that they don't develop subsequent illness. So, not only is it a severe illness, but it's also a huge burden on public health infrastructure. I want to talk a little bit about the Texas and New Mexico measles outbreak because um quite frankly this part of
Texas doesn't look that different than West Central Minnesota. Uh there's 718 cases across 19 counties, 74 cases in New Mexico and again, you know, a little under uh a little over 10% of of those kids that are hospitalized. Um most of
these cases are in Gaines County. So give you an idea of what Gaines County looks like. Uh they do have a large Menanite population and that's where some of this um disease has been circulating but certainly not all. Their population of about 20,000 have had 400
cases. Uh and of those 400 cases they've had thousands and thousands of other exposures. So it's a it's a huge burden on the public health infrastructure, a lot of uh burden on the health care infrastructure and and a real challenge
to find places to send. you know, you have over 90 hospitalizations, a challenge to find places to send all these people, mostly kids. So, that kind of gives you an idea of of what, you know, they're working with in Texas and trying to manage there. So, it's it's a
real challenge. Now, in North Dakota, um we're kind of at the very beginning of a measel situation. So, uh most of the cases are are focused out in western North Dakota and Williams County, which is is Willist. Um but there were two
cases that uh are nonrelated to the western North Dakota cases that presented at healthcare facilities and resulted in susceptible uh exposures to susceptible individuals. Uh so currently we do have two uh susceptible individuals that I'm monitoring in Klay
County. Um so it was fortunate that it's only two. Um but as you can imagine the the amount of exposures are are quite um you know vexing. Um out in Welliston they had about 180 kids in the school
district that were uh had to be excluded from school for three weeks after their exposures. So uh luckily it was you know they'll be out of exclusion by the time that um graduation rolls around uh unless they develop illness. So again, a
a huge burden on a lot of things. I did want to bring up this article. So this is uh from the American Medical Association's Journal and this just came out last month. Um but it just discusses some of the things that we're
going to start to see if we don't start to see a bit of an increase in in some of our vaccination rates. And the the modeling would suggest according to to JAMAMA uh that within the next two decades um that we'll hit somewhere
around a million measles cases every year. Uh and so um and that's you know under current situations. Uh if it gets worse we're going to start to see you know 10% decline. We're going to see many more cases than that and we're
going to start to see a resurgence in other illnesses including reubella. um dtheria and potentially even things like polio if we continue to see these decreasing in the ch uh decreases in the childhood vaccination rates. So unfortunately I don't get to paint a
very rosy picture for everybody today. Um but I just wanted to kind of give a heads up of of what we're doing uh you know for measles uh here at MDH and what we're kind of keeping our eyes on. So yeah, I can turn it over for any questions you might have.
All right. Thank you, Isaac. Questions? Yes, Commissioner Ever. Yes. Uh, Mr. Chair Isaac, uh, in the event that, uh, a child gets measles and has not been immunized, does immunization at that point serve any any
function? No. So, if a child contracts disease, there's no point in immunizing at that point. Um for their close contacts though we do have an option called post-exposure prophylaxis uh which if
given in time uh you know we have two options we can give vaccine to those you know exposures within 3 days and that should prevent illness or we can give what's called immune globulin which is just a blood product that contains measles antibodies uh and that can be
given within six days of the exposure. The difficulty with that is we frequently don't know of the cases immediately. So it takes a minute for them to work through uh the health care system, get reported to us. And so uh a lot of the time we're, you know, we're
kind of behind the eightball, so to speak, on making those post-exposure prophylaxis recommendations. Thank you. and to either Kathy or Isaac. Um, if someone wants to get their child immunized and they don't have a a
pediatrician, what steps should they take? Well, I just recently ordered um additional doses of the measles, mumps, and rebella vaccine. And so once we receive that um usually takes about 7 to 10 days because we are getting it
through the Minnesota vaccine for children program and then we will be putting the word out um on the website and um and other other media forms uh that people will be able to contact um
our public health and schedule an appointment and then we can get them vaccinated. Are there other resources? Um there's also they can get them through their primary clinics. Um a number of the urgent care if they're
connected to a clinic in the same building may be able to provide that vaccine but like for instance the uh essentia the 7-day walk-in clinic um they do not provide vaccines there. uh
pharmacies are providing the um measles ms and reubella vaccine for 19 years of age and older. They are not vaccinating children. Thank you. You're welcome. Yes, Commissioner Kraboff.
Thank you uh Isaac for your uh education and awareness. Um just curious with the two C um cases over in Cass um uh maybe locally here or if you have knowledge do you know uh what protocol or what steps
they're taking now that they've identified those two cases and uh what they might be doing with some uh prevention if you will or how are they tracking the exposure?
Yeah. Yep. So, um, both of those cases were, so this is to the best of my knowledge, again, I can't speak fully to what North Dakota, um, you know, did, but both cases were interviewed. Um, they gathered their, you know, their, um, kind of their information while they
were infectious, uh, and then, you know, looked to see where there would be potential exposures for folks. Um they did determine that um you know both of these cases in in Cass County did go to a clinic over in the Fargo side um where
you know our exposures occurred and then so those are the ones that we're following up on. They have a larger pool that they're also monitoring um and making sure you know don't develop illness too. And commissioner uh Mr. chair and
Commissioner Kavanagh. Uh Fargo Cast Public Health also set up a um vaccine clinic for the public. Uh the initial one they received only 30 people. They were expecting quite a bit more. Um and
I'm not sure if they have any others planned, but that's what they initially started. Since there was originated two cases were in Cass County. And one followup, do we know when they were identified how long ago? Uh they were in the healthc care on the
7th. So um of yeah of May so they were diagnosed Yeah. seventh or eth. Thank you. Yep. Yeah. I just kind of, you know, want to I'm not I'll be around for more
questions, but I I think it's just kind of wanting to note that, you know, kind of what's old is new again. And, you know, we're kind of coming full circle on some of these uh diseases that we didn't typically see. And it's just a huge burden. And um you know, I cover
West Central Minnesota, which is 16 counties and about half a million people. So, I rely heavily on our local public health partners, too. So Kathy and Cheryl and Liz um you know and if continue to see cases like you know the Journal of the American Medical
Association thinks we will we're going to rely heavily on local public health to assist with some of this monitoring and that's going to become labor intensive. So Isaac um I have a couple questions. The first one and I'll just ask them both and and the first one I have is why
are people be born before 1957 immune and secondly um for young people today that uh are having children and they go through this pro how do you know I mean
there I don't think I've seen in today's age more than ever the the concerns and questions and uncertainty of vaccines. It's it's just a it's just a public debate. And so for the for these young people, I have grandkids. I don't know
if they've been vaccinated for measles, you know? So, and I, you know, I don't know uh what what is the process in involved for those? How are they notified of should they shouldn't they and and where can they get information to find out if it's a legitimate deal?
So the first one might be really easy to answer but yeah the first one is much easier to answer. So uh measles is so infectious that uh before the vaccine was uh invented and approved basically everybody that was born before 1957 had
natural disease and so um they have lifelong what we consider to be lifelong immunity to that. Um and then so that's the first one. The second one is like a multiffactorial complex answer. And I'll
just I'll give you my my two cents. Again, this is me talking, not MDH per se, but I don't you know, I think the risk perception is changed. So, a lot of folks, you know, we I showed you that picture of measles rashes. A lot of providers haven't seen those measel rashes. Well, same with a lot of
parents. they haven't seen a lot of measles cases and they don't realize how sick people actually get with measles and and the potential complications for it. So, the risk perception of vaccinating their child versus dealing with a disease that seems non-existent
um you know is is uh is skewed and so that gets to be a bit of a you know bit of a challenge there. Um I think social media uh you know circles you know I think um we see and
what we've seen in subsequent you know outbreaks here in Minnesota and outbreaks in Texas is that you know we talk about these vaccination rates of you know 80 or 70% of kids are vaccinated. Um, but that's throughout the the population that you're looking at. And
the population isn't uh homogeneously distributed, right? So, it's kind of birds of a feather flock together. So, you might have 80% of people in Klay County um who are vaccinated, but you might have 20% of a particular school.
And I'm not using actual numbers there, but I'm just saying what we see, you know, anecdotally. Um, you know, so I think people kind of have some self- selection bias and they they talk with people who think alike and they get fed things on an algorithm on social media
that kind of suits what they're already thinking. And and I think it just kind of is a compounding issue. you know, and I I I think it's it's hard when we have uh the leader of a our largest scientific agency in the
country, you know, as a antivaxer, too. So, I think that's just, you know, makes it a real challenge. Well, I think all those things and then about 25 others. So, the good news is uh I do think, you know, I showed you some rates earlier with people that are eight months to a
year and eight months behind. Some of those folks will get caught up. Um, some of them will see some of this news and change their mind. Some of them were just maybe missed a few appointments. Some of them are maybe going on kind of their own vaccine schedule, even though we certainly don't recommend doing that.
Um, but, you know, it's it's really just, you know, it's kind of setting the seeds for, you know, large outbreaks and a bit of a a wildfire of a super infectious disease. If a person and Cheryl you want to comment on this too, but if a person
would have received the first shot and then apparently there's a second shot that you're supposed to follow up if they've had the first one and not the second one, does that does that change the severity of of if they do get it? Is there any science to that or
um Yeah. So typically, uh they would have if they were to contract it, it's still 93% effective against disease. Um, so it's still highly effective. We consider someone with one dose to be immune. Um, but if they were to be one
of the the folks who do develop illness after being vaccinated, they typically have a milder case and they're less infectious to others as well. Thank you. Cheryl, did you have a comment? Yes. I was also going to mention, you know, talking about um the lower vaccination
rates that there's still a fairly large population out there that um when it comes to vaccine hesitancy, especially uh regarding the measles, mumps, and rebella vaccine believe that if they get their child vaccinated with that vaccine
that they will develop autism. And there is no absolutely no scientific proof um that they will develop autism from that vaccine. But they are still a huge belief out there. Um and so
um I'm hoping that the clinics are doing the same that we do at public health, but we do constant education on that. Um both in the schools and within our clinic and within uh the clients through home visiting programs, all of those things. And um aside from that, I'm not
sure besides education what else we can do um to avert that. And then I was also going to comment um your uh your comment uh ch Mr. Chair about how people are notified if their child
needs that vaccine. So any child that's been vaccinated in the state of Minnesota is registered in the immunization registry called Mick. It's the Minnesota Immunization Information Connection and they send out uh text
messages to parents um not just for the MMR vaccine but for any vaccine that the child is due for. Um and also they have sent postcards uh to people. So it's very important that we try to keep that information in there up to date so that
these parents can be notified um that their child is due for vaccines. Thank you. Yes. And Mr. Chair and commissioners, um the um anyone that goes into their providers, their providers certainly provide the vaccine schedule. Um so parents that are
bringing their children in for their regular um checkups, they will get the vaccine schedule and when everything is due. We also have a child and teen checkup outreach program that public health provides. And like Cheryl described, calling, texting. We have
families that um a lot are underinsured or uninsured. And we're calling them to remind them about um getting their children in for their appointments, um getting to dental appointments if at a certain age, um getting their vaccine.
So, we are sending regular reminders to all the families that may not get to their regular provider. Yes, Commissioner Krava. Yeah, just one last question for me. Just curious on a local level through our public health.
So, what information and uh if any has been given to our school districts knowing um you know the current status of our you know um especially within CAPS or just what the potential is
awareness um Mr. Mr. Chair and commissioners, we we have school nurses in three of the school districts or two two of the school districts. So, Cheryl is one of the school nurses um that goes
out and then we have um the nurses in another large school district. Um, so that information goes through the um the school nursing, but I believe the schools that do not have a public health nurse as their school nurse is also getting that information out through
their to their schools. I'm in contact with those other school nurses that are not public health nurses. Okay. Thank you. Yes, Commissioner. Just looking at in in West Texas is probably the counties affected there. It sounds like it may be
comparable demographically to us. What was their pre uh outbreak uh immunization uh numbers? Uh how does that compare to ours? Are we better prepared, least
prepared? How how do we look? So it's it's a little bit difficult to give you an exact uh because you know obviously I have access to our our rates in real time. I can only take what they you know what they report uh with
certain segments. Uh but what I can compare uh it's pretty comparable if they're not and they might actually be have a little higher overall rates than what Klay County does. Immunization rates. Yeah. Yep. So they were better
possibly better prepared than we would be right now. Yeah. I think I think what you know but again that's an overall rate and I think in West Texas they particularly ran into the issue where um you know it's not homogeneously
distributed. So you know they had those pockets of the population that had really really low rates and that's where it started. And so you know then the then everything kind of snowballs. you get more and more cases, more and more exposures, and then the disease kind of finds a way to continue to progress and
and spread. And so, um, that's why we do so much work right away with really trying to get on top of these outbreaks before, you know, before they spread because at at a certain point then they become, you know, untenable and unmanageable.
Thank you. All right. Any anything else? Any other good news? Well, I put fertilizer down and it's raining. So, there you go.
All right. Well, thank you Kathy and everyone. Isaac, thank you for sharing information. Oh, I have one one thing for Kathy. It's not for Isaac, but Okay. If Kathy could stay and give us an update on public uh partnership for health, that'd be great. Yeah, I've
got that report. But she can give a report right if she has time. Just one more observation here. Okay. We we had Isaac on at the at the meeting with public health uh that we had this week. And I asked Kathy to see if he could
join us today. um is a concern and I don't know if we're staff-wise or anything else prepared for it if we get another pandemic. And I know the the frustrating
thing about it is the parents that are not vaccinating their children, I think in many many instances are doing so because they think it's the best thing for the child. And I don't think they're prone to listen to elected
officials. I don't I think they're probably more inclined to listen to public health, but that may not be enough. If parents are out there and their kids aren't vaci vaccinated, find a third party you can talk to who's got some some
qualifications, go to your physician if you've got one. Go to your pediatrician if you've got one. And and ask them hard questions. Don't say should I, I shouldn't I. Say why should I not? Why should I? What can I do to gain
the information I need to make this decision? I think if you go to somebody who's qualified um and get off the internet and go find somebody who has got medical experience and somebody you
trust, you're going to get the answer you need to hear. But this is a horrible thing to have break it. It focuses on children and this is I'm one of these I'm old enough to be apparently and it
was a surprise to me Mr. chair that I know you're in the same boat. Uh we have have an immunity and now I think I've had measles vaccine but apparently you people born when I was born got the her immunity or got exposed
to it and had the the resistance to it. But at what cost? How many kids that were born in my generation died? we've forgotten that or were were impaired for their entire life because of of
measles. Um there's a reason everybody wanted to get immunized when they first brought the uh the immunization out was because everybody knew somebody that was that lost someone in their family. We don't need to get to that point again.
If parents are resisting this, please seek out qualified medical advice and ask them the hard questions you're concerned over uh for the safety of your child. Thanks. All right. Thank you. I was just going to make one more comment. We've
been really focusing on children this morning um which is important, but it is not just a childhood disease. Um this is obviously affecting adults as there were the adults in uh cases in Cass County and that. So um and I also wanted to
mention um that when we as a school nurse when we have parents that are choosing not to vaccinate their children and that is their choice that that they're required to sign a non-medical exemption form. But I also inform them that if we were to have an outbreak of
chickenpox, measles, whatever, that your your child is going to be one of the first um that are going to be removed from school and that is purely for their protection because they are not protected by the vaccine. Are there any are there any measures
being taken with child care facilities to monitor this? It's summer and school's out pretty soon, but I think child care would probably be a place where it would be a real risk. So, the childc cares do follow a lot of the same
um recommendations for the schools um as far as exclusion and um you know vaccination. Each child care center can determine whether all of their children are vaccinated or not. they can determine that or they can also allow
the exemption letters. Um but they do keep um updated records at their site so they would know the same as the schools who would need to be excluded if there was um you know a case identified and
there was exposure. Um Mr. Chair and Commissioner Ebinger, we also provide um the nurse consultation for child care sites. So we have seven child care sites that we
provide consultation for if they have infants where they're monthly. So we're looking at all of their everything that's going on infectious disease-wise or you know just to make sure that they're following all the all the requirements that they are in um
required to do for their lensure. Um we would report something if if something was a real huge problem to the state lure but the nurse consultation gives them um all the information that they would need to um um what they need for
all of their children. summer from infants through school age. So, so it's a great um we have a great process here in Klay County working with those childcare centers. That's reassuring. It is relevant that I understand North
Dakota allows unlicensed child care facilities and uh we're right across the river. All right. Well, thank you. Um Kathy, I guess if you can stay for a minute. I think Thank you, Isaac, if you're still on.
You're welcome. Good talking to you all. Yeah. Thank you. Ezra, do you want to Yeah. Could you give the rest of the commission an update on Partnership for Health? We had a meeting on Friday. I didn't attend attended it virtually, but you could give us an update on how the split is
going with how that is breaking up. Sure. Um yeah, Mr. Ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch and commissioners. Um and I think um Commissioner Ebinger was probably going to have most of this information um as well, but we talked previously about um
two counties that were um leaving our CHB. So it's Clay, Wilin, Ottertale, and Becker. and two of the counties have determined that they are going to start their own CHB that begins in they needed to give a year notification. Um and that
begins in January 1st of 2026. So Partnership for Health um we're considered the injured parties because we aren't the ones leaving. The parties that are leaving um have to begin a whole new CHB. They
have to do all of the initial the ones considered leaving. Pardon me. We are the ones staying. We're we're staying. So we're the injured party. So it's Clay and Becker. Okay. Um that's a term that the state uses. Okay. So we don't have to start a whole new CHB. We can use the
partnership for health name that we have. Um we just have to we have all of our documents, our joint powers agreement, our other other um documents for order of business. um we'll have to adjust those to make it um for just two
counties versus four. So, I'll be working with our county attorney who doesn't know that yet, but uh thought I'd announce that just in public. So now he's obligated to work with me um just to review all those legal documents because they're all um
we'll have to what we'll have to do is edit those documents um and to to determine the you know the two counties that are staying. So our our community um our board will look different. Um we
obviously um need a CHS administrator. So that's either the public health supervisor from Becker or myself. Um Klay County will still provide all the financial um work. That's what we've done forever um with the CHB. So that
will remain um we have a Is that like the fiscal host? Is that Yeah, we're the fiscal manager of all the grants. There's a lot of grants that go through the CHB. So we'll be the fiscal manager of that and I have a a financial person that does that currently for the four
counties. So it will be just for two counties. the amount of work. Um, so there's a lot of state meetings that we're required to be a part of. So now we'll only have two public health um, director and supervisor to attend all of those meetings. So there will be a bit
more um, on our plates to have to manage. Uh, we could spread it out before with the four um, directors um because there's monthly meetings that we have to regularly attend and other meetings. So that will be a bit more work for public health locally for both
Becker and um and for us. Mr. Chair, yes. Um we did have a meeting after the uh public health meeting with with some state officials and I I want to give a shout out to Brandon who's on Kathy's
staff and handles the financials on this. uh he has done a remarkable job of making it clear, documenting it. There's really no acrimony among the parties, the four counties. This is a decision
honor tale and Wilin made and this is not an affront to us. The money is being divided up and and we're identifying how it needs to be spent and what we need to do. Uh, everybody has total faith in in how Klay County has handled the fiscal
responsibilities on this. Nobody questioned any of the numbers. Um, you know, it's going smoothly. I regret that it's happening. I think all of us do, but u this is going to be a smooth transition from what I can see just
listening to the staff, looking at the numbers. Our big concerns are the same concerns everybody's got everywhere is is our funding going to remain intact and uh simply because of external issues. But um as far as keeping our
partnership with Becker County that's sound u everybody's comfortable that that's going to continue. So it was a good meeting afterwards. I I feel very confident that we're on top of things, keeping track of the money, keeping track of the grants, and keeping track
of the needs of all four counties as we go into a new phase. And Mr. Chair and commissioners, um there was a lot of latitude um in regards to the division of funds for the
four counties. So as we were working together, um I ensured that we have um the amount of money that we would need. So when we talk about the four counties, we had two
large counties that was Clay and Ottertale. And there was some discussion about dividing some of the grant funds equally. So I'll just give an example. Well, if we had a $200,000 grant, there was some um discussion about let's just divide it
50,000 a piece. And I really push back on that because I think it's important to note that the size of our counties and the population we serve warrants um that we get a larger portion. I'm just going to use as Wilin than Wilin does
because they are a very small county um which much less population to serve. So um just just so you know I I made it very clear that we wanted to go by population um a formula. So population
and um social vulnerability index those are two um those are two things that the state used to use for every grant. um to make it equitable. Um and I've received those numbers from MDH who also works
with CDC on getting those numbers. So they're very accurate in regards to the division. So that was a little bit of a I would say a little push with the four counties that um we would not accept, you know, an
equal split based on population. So I advised our financial person in public health that the population formula I expect that will be used for all of the grants unless there is um unless the state had dictated otherwise. So we had
some latitude in how that divided. Um so that was the division we're going to use. So looking forward to 2026, any grants that are applied for in 2026, the the amount of the grants that we
might receive might look different than had we had four counties, but then the distribution will be totally different as you talked about between what Clay might get and what Pecker might get.
Yes, that's correct. So, as as um um Brandon, our financial person, worked on that, he used the population formula. Some of our grants go from June to July. So, a lot of them carry over into the next year in 2026. So, I wanted to
ensure that that was population and SVI. Um and then the other grants, the state will be working with us, all the grant managers will be working with us to ensure that there's some equitable process. Well, just historically speaking from being on here, I remember
I remember when our partnership was Clay Wilin. Yes. And then it then it went from that to the four counties. And I, you know, during the whole time I didn't hear any, you know, I thought, okay, boys, this is going great. we all agreed
to join in and and just maybe a comment on on Commissioner Ed some to me something something had to happen to all of a sudden have two of them not want to be part of the four and I I think maybe you just addressed that and you know so
hopefully you know moving forward we can we can still make things work. I think there will be more questions down the road as far as um I I don't I don't know that there's going to be a cost, you know, a cost
change to Klay County in all of this process forward. Mr. chair for and commissioners. Um some transparency is there was really a push um for the four counties to look
at a standalone public health agency. Now I'll say there are a couple in the state um Horizon um in Alexandria is a standalone. So in other words they are not part of the county system. So they
they leave that county system and become their own independent entity. I fought against that. I I said there's no way we are leaving our county systems. Just absolutely a no from me. So there may have been a little contention on that
part as well. All right. Well, all right. Well, thank you for that uh update. Is that does that Okay. All right. Thank you so much. We might hear a little bit more from Commissioner Ever in his committee report. or you. But thank you, Kathy.
All right. Next, we have an approved letter of to legislators identifying Klay Countyy's concerns with the implementation of the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation Act, known as MAFPA, as proposed.
Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the commission. Uh over the last several legislative sessions, uh this commission has taken an active role uh in St. Paul whether that's through uh participation at different committee hearings meetings in St. Paul or through letters of
support uh as uh as you're certainly aware uh Minnesota is facing some uh challenging financial times over the next bianium and one of the areas uh that has been most impacted through some of the suggested legislation is is uh social services and public health. Uh
and so uh today we we have a uh a letter of support specifically focusing on the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation Act. Uh we're fortunate to have uh Quinn who's uh who's been able to keep this board up to date on multiple multiple occasions about uh
many of the changes that are being recommended uh through through legislation. Uh and uh today before you for your consideration is a letter uh that uh was asked for uh on behalf of our legislative local legislators. We've been fortunate from the standpoint from
from when this legislation has come out. Our legislators have been asking us what the impacts impacts are going to be or would be for for Klay County and for our region. And so uh Quinn was able to put together some information uh last week.
representative uh Commissioner Mojo was down in St. Paul arguing uh and sharing information on several areas including this uh Commissioner Bayer has had conversations with with Representative Joy and looking for additional
information and so that letter is here before you and with that I'd yield for any questions. Any comments questions? Commissioner Mojo. Thank you. Maybe just a background uh in regards to this. Um as you all know, the legislative session runs
really quickly as we've all um been kind of challenged to um address issues really swiftly and I apologize for this not uh coming before this board ahead of time. However, I think the size and scope
really runs parallel to the veins of support that we've had along this board for a long time, understanding and appreciating the historic nature of what the intention is of this, but particularly uh Representative Keeler
and Representative Joy really wanted the county to um act boldly and identify some of those areas for concern and understand in the conference committee there wasn't a whole lot of support for what this um you know I hate to make a motion on something that's really
already dated with the uh with the legislature but you know because it's a delayed implementation for 27 these points are still going to be very very valid for next session and so for us to continue that dialogue uh the SSIS
funding for implementation is really going to help with this but further how do we as a framework work deal with the rules if there's not a course of action for counties being in violation. I mean, that that's that's the hard part is
we're already doing the best we can to address what the rules are, but if there's not a framework to support it happening correctly, then what? Uh, so this will continue to be really important. And again, I, you know, I appreciate the chair for um being open
to signing a letter. Um and he really did feel because we've had these discussions around this table a lot uh it wasn't anything new as a point of reference. Yeah. there.
Um, you know, at the start of this whole legislative session, we we understood there could be some significant issues related to Klay County and and you know, I think we um pretty much agreed that Commissioner Mojo and Commissioner Krabnoff would be the two acting on
behalf of Klay County being in St. Paul as much as possible and and there was times where immediate reactions need to be u be done and in this particular instance we had we've had significant conversations
um regarding all of these things that are addressed at Quinn did a really nice job in the start of it and then I think modified a little bit by commissioner Mojo u but the letter really spoke to things that We collectively here have
talked about um during the entire legislative session and you know the request we received a request for this letter and um you know and they wanted that letter in their hand while the session immediately
in place right like in 20 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, our administrator reached out to me and I said, you know, all of these things that that are in this letter, we have collectively agreed upon as as a
commission that we should be supporting. And so with that, the, you know, the letter is in their hands. And this is kind of the action today is really reaffirming from a from a public record standpoint those our position on that.
So I see two hands up. So I'll go with Commissioner Ebinger first. And Mr. Chair, um just an observation that's all of us I think agree on but the the public should know. Number one, the
decision that the the the tools we had in making a decision to send a letter like this were supplied by Quinn and his staff. We had plenty of information, good information that has guided us. The
second part of that is we put Commissioner Mojo and Commission Commissioner Krabangh in a position to where they have to go in and deal with these things with the legislature and do so in a timely manner. And I have no problem at all with the the way this uh
letter was put through as as chair put it and he's the one that signed it. Um but this is information we all had. It's a position that we've all taken uh in the past and through this session. And I
I think to support our social service staff, to support our fellow commissioners that we've put in a position of working with the legislature, uh sometimes you've got to do things in a timely manner. Having said that, I'd like to make a motion that we uh approve the letter to
legislators identifying identifying Klay Countyy's concerns with the implementation of the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation Act. I'll second that. Have a motion by Commissioner Einger, second by Commissioner Bear. And I know Commissioner Krabnoff has a comment or
question. Just more of a background update. So, when I was down uh to Capitol on Thursday, uh I had a a very nice one-on-one visit with Senator Coop. Uh he had this even laying on his desk,
so uh we went in detail on it. So, Okay. All right. Yes, Commissioner Bear. I just like to thank Quinn and staff for getting that letter out very quickly. Thank you. I would say the letter might have been done quickly, but the research behind it took Yes. Thank you to
Commissioner Mojo for making it less work. Well, I mean again I think you know we know now that the session uh has come to an end and there's going to be a special session and you know ultimately we don't know uh how the end result is
still going to be for Klay County. Um, but I have to admit, um, we've had two members of our board willing to be down there at a moment's notice, and kudos to both of you for, um, that that service
on behalf of Klay County for, um, being there. I know Commissioner Mojo has missed several county board meetings u you know for that purpose but at the same point in time the that that work was critical and that voice needed to be
heard in St. Paul. So uh if there's no further comments or questions on the motion all in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign. Motion carried. Thank you Quinn. Thank you. All right.
Yes. You want a break before committee reports? I was just I was thinking if we didn't take a break, the committee reports would have to be faster. We'll take we'll take three minutes. Three minutes. We're down to our committee
reports and today we'll start with Commissioner Ebinger. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh last Wednesday uh the 14th um I I virtually attended the joint Northwest Mercy Communication Board
meeting that we held with the uh uh technical advisors on that. uh talked about uh some of the pressure it's been on Red River Regional Dispatch
Center that PAP uh due to encryption uh that we're underway uh installer or implementing on the whole system and put a patch in place and it's keeping the the system from
being overwhelmed until the transition could be made for everything to be uh operating at once. Um, we also had a motion before the the ECB uh to approve uh triple RDC's new center
to add 15 consoles at the new site that we're building and uh the con and maintain consoles at the current site that we're using. That's going to be our backup site for the time being.
Um there's also some uh computer systems and records systems that are going to be implemented too that need to be approved and all that was passed uh by the board and uh also in order to make these
transitions we are working with Mandot Motorola and Armor to get everything up and running. Uh, and again, the transition from our current location to the new site will probably take place over a month or two. We're going to do
it a console at a time to make sure everything's operable before we put all our eggs in one basket. Okay. Thursday the 16th attended Lake Agassy Regional Library Board of Trustees.
Um, probably the main issue that we've got is uh the Morehead Community Center and Library building project update. We are still negotiating with the city of Morhead trying to get uh a lease
agreement with our uh for our offices for Lake Ay regional library. Uh we have not come to an agreement yet and that work will continue. Uh we are also going to look at al alternate locations
uh should we not be able to work out uh something that the budget for lake eggs can afford. Uh then as we discussed earlier on Friday attended the uh partnership for health community health board meeting.
Uh we had it in Wilin County in Breen Ridge. Um, we passed a formula breakdown that Kathy described based on basically its community use and
population and we put that to a vote and it passed unanimously. I had some legislative updates, none of which were very sunny and mostly it was just an update and not an idea of exactly what was going to happen. I think we're still kind of in
that general uh discussion of that. Uh we had the presentation which we saw with Isaac uh on the on the flu issue. Um measles or measles. I'm sorry. I wish it was flu. Measles a lot
nastier. Um, looking at this, just some of the notes I I looked at, immunization is down 74% for infants now in this for kids under two in this county. And uh,
her immunity is 94%. So, we're we're we've got a little bit of a message to get out and hope that we can do that. And again, I I indicated after the partnership for health community meeting, uh, Ottertale
and Becker went into one room and they had to discuss, I'm sorry, Wilin, I'm sorry, um, went into one room and they discussed some of the transition they're working on. and we had a couple of people from Minnesota Health uh remotely
and uh Becker County and and Clay met and looked at the transition and it is really going well. It's there's no major issues. There's no argument over how the formula is going to work and at this point I'm very very pleased with the the
work staff has put into it to make it happen. Um yesterday I had a meeting on restorative practices advisory committee. Find my notes
here. Uh we have the $500,000 grant that we are still waiting on word on and I I'll defer to Mr. uh Mr. Melton. We were supposed to get the word on that in April
originally April and obviously thought at least by May and now we're getting more here towards the end of May. So yeah, we're still waiting. He's behind. I think they're waiting to see how the money flows for for them before they commit anything. But there were a couple other grant opportunities that Michelle
identified for us that uh we're going to go after. And then we we discussed uh frequency of meetings. And at this point, we're settling on uh it was it's not just between quarterly or monthly. We're settling on
quarterly, but if there are meetings that we need for the community and to bring people in, uh they can be called, but no use setting a monthly meeting and then not having any business take care of. So, we're going to play it by ear. And that completes my report. Thank you,
Commissioner Kabinoff. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh so going back to uh Wednesday the 14th, um we had the Cast Lake Food Commission. Uh well attended uh by the commissioners. Um kind of five areas
here we touched on. Um under our new strategic plan that was developed over last summer, we now have a U program called uh Catholic Connect. Uh this involves education and outreach. Uh some
people um as far as those two pieces uh might have known this in the past as uh first Fridays uh but it's much more than that now. Uh but it kind of some of the features still emulate what that was. Um
then also we had a presentation by um uh Janice who was with Great Plains uh food bank. She brought the awareness of some of the u uh cuts uh in um food um
delivery uh that has been taken out by USDA and the effect it may have on places like Great Plains and other food pantries throughout uh North Dakota and western Minnesota. Um uh there are some grants I think the
state of North Dakota is going to be stepping up with. Um so hopefully not too much of a disruption, but um more things will we'll just see how things play out uh with the um uh federal budget, you know, as they move forward
through the summer and how that affects USDA and and the programs. But uh certainly in my view and many others um man these are just really uh a vulnerable population that's been so well served by such efficient places as
great plains and and uh we'd sure hate to see them go. Uh then there was uh uh along with that kind of uh not so much what the legislative issues were but uh more on on how food pantries locally are
uh giving us some experience of how their food pantries run and who they serve and whatnot. So we had three people that represented three different ones. West Fargo Eats Peace Lutheran Church uh food pantry and then reach out
of Holly. All three gave the um types of uh programs that they worked with in their communities in their areas and uh really impressed or just learn new things about reach out in Holly how effective they are in so many areas in
that in that community um uh that go well beyond food but uh certainly it's a big piece. Uh then we were given a presentation by Chandler Eisinger. She's the uh kind of the spokesperson for the or the leader of the
FM coalition in homelessness and she gave a quick presentation of of a presentation he gives quite often regarding the homelessness and hunger issues in the uh Fargo Morehead area. So it was uh good to hear that
presentation. Um and then at the very end there was a big thank you to Janice Tweet once again from Great Plains Food Bank. She's been integral for years with the uh steering committee and the work that's done through the Cascade Food Commission. Uh Janice is going to be
taking on a professional opportunity uh job uh that will take her off this u um the steering committee work that she's been part of. So she'll be missed but uh just a big shout out and thank you to her for all the um work in policy
development that uh of which many programs are now being implemented throughout our our municipalities. So her work was uh well done and uh it will be missed and uh certainly we have good people in good places to kind of pick up
the pick up the work but uh again Janice was just a real motivator and uh always good with data and information. So anyway that's on the food commission. Uh later that day I had the historical and
cultural society uh finance committee. uh uh everything is in good shape with the um uh historical societ society's balance sheets and profit losses, cash flows, all that. Uh it's going in good order for now. And then also I want to
mention as part of that um once again our executive uh director um Marine Kelly uh Johnson will be retiring after 17 years of service. Her last month's going to be in July. Uh so
anyway, we've been doing executive director search uh for a couple months and we have it finally down to three finalists. Uh they're all being interviewed this week. Um so we may have a decision by our board meeting on um on
next Wednesday as to who that uh replacement may may be. um on yesterday or Thursday, I'm sorry, on the 15th uh was my day to go down to the the hill. So, we had a AMC day on the hill. Uh the the whole purpose of
that was um uh AMC was trying to pull together one last effort while the the the Senate was going to be in the chambers and the House is going to be in the chambers that morning that we would be there at the doors meeting our legislators making
sure that the effect of uh excuse me our presence uh around those uh chamber doors was known how these some of the shifts some of the things that are being budgeted are going to be um we feel very
unequitable toward um counties and um that it was very well planned. We were over there and we were in our place and all of a sudden things were being cancelled and the next thing within an hour we had a we have uh we had the uh
governor and the the state leaders of the senate and the house uh given their global um uh global budget target targets and one of the areas being affected was um um potentially um uh
having um no menure available for adults within the undocumented community and there was a a bit of a revolt in the hallways and they were banging on the doors of the governor's office and it got very loud
in the capital. So anyway, long short of it, most of the things that we were doing uh really got disjointed. Um it was weird. That's all I'll say. And uh um anyway, that's democracy. And
uh uh so anyway uh about 1:00 there was kind of a things had settled down, but um I mean our our reps and our uh reps in particular were in cauus in caucus trying to figure things out. Um but uh I
did um really have a good one-on-one visit with Senator Coopek. he was available and went up to his office and we went through um you know the the African-American act that we just spoke of and and the other issues and it was
good to talk with uh uh Senator Koop uh Koopa, excuse me, a little more detail uh kind of what our thoughts were. thanked him for the work that the Senate was doing to mitigate some of the uh uh some of the amounts being put toward the
counties on the disability waiverss. Again, we talked about the preservation act and then we even had a nice little heartto-heart about the uh uh um paid family medical leave and uh he's a very much a proponent of it. uh but uh it was
good to have that conversation to you know again continue uh his point of view and and from county standpoint the programs may benefit some but they're they're hard hits on the county. So with that, uh that's my report of that day.
And and I again I just want to uh shout out I know how many times and the hours that you spend Commissioner Mojo doing what we do and it's so far beyond uh I know my name gets mentioned in this but almost everything I'm doing in
conjunction with Commissioner Mono is or Mojo is follow following her lead. So, I just want to express the thanks to you. You done? Yeah. All right. Thank you, Commissioner Mojo. Thank you. Um, as I'm
scrambling to write a letter to Senator Johnson about the cost shifts to get out in the next 10 minutes. So, I appreciate that. Uh, one, uh, thank you to my colleagues for those comments. Uh certainly the work at the capital is not
only mine, but it's the work of this entire board and the conversations that we've had leading up to the legislative session is why we're able to articulate our position so strongly. So, thank you. Again, I apologize for being gone last week, but uh got a call late Monday uh
asking for uh presence down there. So, I do have two weeks of reports. On Tuesday the 6th, I attended the highway tracking committee meeting that I believe was uh most of the issues were identified and mitigated at the board meeting last week. Uh we did have further discussion
with the diversion authorities stance on delaying road construction in Comtock. We've pushed uh fairly hard for them to have that dialogue with Comtock. Uh certainly from Comtock in Holy Cross Township, there's some concern there.
So, I'll attend a meeting this evening in Comtock about that uh dialogue. On Wednesday the 7th, I attended all day extension interviews. Uh currently they're um in the process of hiring a replacement for Mindy Grant who was
hired by the regional office, hoping that they are able to fill that position before summer programming ensues. Uh the the ETH I was at the state capital. I was asked to attend the capital investment committee workg group
meeting. They did propose and walk through the spreadsheet but only um only identified their internal capital investment needs. You know if if they go with that 700 million which I think is the target um you know that's going to
be agency only. There won't be any additional community projects included if they go with that$ 1.2 two or3 billion dollar uh we do have a good chance of getting in that uh you know but then that goes to the framework of the dialogue with the diversion
authority then there would be no budget uh um capital investment bonding bill next year so I think it's important that we communicate that there um and so that day I also uh they had proposed the CPA
cuts earlier in the week which I think equates to about 158,00 000 cut to clay. All of our cities had a huge cut as well. I think uh Dworth and Barnesville it's upwards of 30,000. Morehead is 258,000. So um any anytime we can
cauterize that bleed that will be great. Uh but again that was a really great opportunity. I had a long long dialogue with the house capital investment uh working group chairs on that. Friday, I attended the legislative coordinating uh
for both of our infrastructure um requests. Um you know, it's a very fluid nature. So, right now the the meeting on the 9th kind of the report seems quite dated since here we are on the 12th. I attended the ROG seniors meeting was
invited by Joe Peterson to have members of from the county come out to speak to that group. The sheriff and his deputies were there. We did have Justin from the highway department there to partake in the conversation with the rollog group. On the 13th, as noted, I went
back to the capitol at the request of um the capital investment chair. I was included joined by Kale Duny from the chamber. We had really great conversations with all of our local leaders. Um not only at that Thursday meeting, but the Tuesday meeting. This
one particularly, we talked about some of the paid family uh the tax decrease that was proposed for businesses. I know it was a small small amount, but made sure that we um advocated that position. That tax bill has not gone through conference. So, that's one of the ones
that we're waiting on. As if you watched last night, the House um policy bill did or the Health and Human Service policy bill did advance, but our uh allocation for the PRTF is in the finance bill, and that's not that's being held up right
now, too. On the 15th, I attended Metrocog. We had a public comment opportunity on two different modifications. One was the 2025 2028 tip amendment number six that
was passed and then the 2025 2026 UPWP modification number one. I appreciate the work the vast work that's gone into that. On the 16th I was invited to attend a um a breakfast
admirable admiral Munch was in town. The admiral commands 20 million nautical miles of sea and is from North Dakota and was in town receiving an honorary doctorate. That was an opportunity for
President Cook from NDSU to talk about um all of the different uh arms of regional commands locally. Uh so we did have all of the different updates. uh there are so many people in our community that uh serve in those capacities and it is just really a
wonderful opportunity to hear different perspectives from around the world. Then I attended the CAP LP SENA. I was invited to present to their emerging leaders training on behalf of CAPLP's
board on um on the processes of boards and the like. After that, I had a brief conversation with Senator I mean administrator Larson and Quinn in regards to the
letter that we' sent and working forward. I had to give you since you did it, I had to give it back to you. Um the letter that was sent yesterday. I attend the LMHC collaborative or we had uh updates from the collaboratives. exciting to note that the Clay Collaborative was able to award those
grants upwards of in more amounts than they'd been able to in years past. Uh really great opport options there. Lakeland also, I think, received a grant in the amount of $25,000. And yesterday I also attended the
Metrocog TDP meeting that um kind of highlights the the tracking routes for Matt bus. Uh really exciting that our conversations regarding the DMV have um initially been
heard. They're including that as part of their uh vision for uh service going forward. So, we'll continue to keep on that. And then, um, just as you, as we've said, also, the legislative session closed yesterday. There's still
a lot a lot of work going forward. One item that really does affect county boards. Uh, the new uh virtual reporting requirement has been changed. So, once the governor signs that, we will no longer need to provide an address if we're attending remotely on that ahead
of time. I know that's been a challenge for some of our smaller joint powers groups in getting quorums. So, um, interesting to see that. And I believe that concludes my reports. Thank you, Commissioner Bearer. Last Tuesday after board, we had
the county owned lands committee where we discussed receiving a a FEMA hazardous mitigation grant for a rural Glendon house. We we have four years to access that grant. right now would be a 7525 split with the local share
hopefully comes from the land owner, but we're going to look at going after helping helping the land owner go with the DNR and see if they can get another chunk of money from them. We also had a solar company reach out and wanting to put a solar in a
reach out and put put solar on one of our county own lands. that is being discussed further. So, no action was taken on that. And then that's we also had an update on the
county owned lands online inventory for staff to be able to access all the all the county owned lands on the Pacific website. That's what we discussed there. And then on Wednesday the 14th, I was at the Wilders wershed
district where they passed 18 permits and tabled five. And we also got a list of district-owned lands in the district finding out how many own lands the district owns and how many acres. There's no action done on that, but we tabled discussion. They tabled
discussion on that for next month. And then on the 16th, I uh attended virtually the partnership for health meeting which commissioner Ebinger and Kathy McKay already addressed during this meeting. That was all
my committees. Right. Thank you. All right. on uh Tuesday, May 13th, in the afternoon, we did have a um meeting where we had some um discussion and preparations for discussions with
Commtock regarding the um Highway 2 road that goes through Comtock. Um it's my understanding that there is a meeting tonight. Commissioner Mojo is planning on attending. Uh I I may try to pop in as well for that one.
Um, I'd like to kind of hear their concerns as we move forward. That's that's uh I know our highway highway engineer has some real concerns about u how these all these delays could be lining up for chaos in southern Klay
County. And that that's a real concern uh when it comes to all these projects at ending ending up at the very end and and the last thing we need is miles and miles of detours that um would not need
to be done if it wasn't for these delays. So um we'll be monitoring that. And then uh yesterday I attended the or excuse me, Wednesday the 14th I attended the trip budget and finance committee
meeting. And I got to I got to go to my phone here for for this one. I apologize. Um there were two issues that came before the budget and finance committee and one was on the UPS battery placement. Uh I reported on
that before and I think Commissioner Ebinger did as well. And we had uh we had originally approved external battery cabinet exper um but due to a misread uh by the field report, the UPS vendor
mistakenly replaced the internal UPS batteries instead of the external. And so you know and they they both of those have different lifespans. the external ones were needed now and the internal ones were like on year
three of five. So um what happened there is that um you know we agreed to pay something towards those internal ones for the value that were there and then they assured us that that in the on the quote
for the external ones we would get a a reduction in that price and but that's so that was recommended by excuse me by our finance committee uh to move forward to the full
board. The next uh major issue was the um the fire records. Um and this these were both uh or this was brought before through the executive committee and what happens is the current company
that we use was Tyler Technologies. They are discontinuing its fire record solution. uh and proposed transition from Tyler Technologies fire record system to to the cloud-based first do
platform. So because the one entity is no longer providing the service that which is Tyler Technologies, we need to move those um to that cloud-based first due platform
uh which Metro Fire agencies aim to implement by the end of 2025. And then it's um um that that one there's there's a cost savings through the old one, but then there's going to be a cost increase
going to the new one. So there's going to there's going to be there there is going to have a 2026 um probably budget increase because of that transition from Tyler to first two
platform and then we also then we uh reviewed the uh budget draft for 2026 and the proposal that came through I believe showed an an increase of 6% % I know that and then um members from
Cass County had indicated that I think they're taking the position they want everything to try to stay within 3%. And so um there was no action uh from a time period standpoint. There was no action for recommendation by the
budget and finance committee on the budget. Again, we're we're going to review it again next month in June. Uh because ultimately the recommendation and the final decision by the full board uh triple RDC board needs to be done by
July according to our um GPA. So then I'll go back. So then on Thursday, uh then I attended the Lakes Country Service Cooperative meeting. That's independent of Klay County. I serve as an elected board member on
that, but I do represent counties as a county representative. And the the one thing of real significance there that that they do is they have the cooperative purchasing. And it's it's big throughout all of Minnesota, North Dakota, and
South Dakota. And they do they end up with contracts with vendors that really allow for um reduced pricing, sometimes 5 to 10%. I did bring this. I'll give it to you, Steve, and we can put on to whoever. Uh I know that Klay County does
take advantage of that. And in the past, we've also used them as a um you know, when we were dealing with health insurance until we went out on our own. Um you know, I think there's always the option. And I we did get an update on
health insurance renewals that are going on there. They've they always seem to add new ones and a few drop out. It's very typical. And there's some that they don't even want to quote because the claims are so high. So, uh, so that was that. And then on
Friday, uh, this the 16th, uh, the we we hold that every Friday morning. We have that through the chamber. We have the public policy and it's basically an update on where things are sitting with um the legislature on
our legislative asks for for the primarily for the diversion stuff and that one. Commissioner Mojo, you know, and Kale were both at the meeting that she talked about uh in Fargo, but obviously there was really
not much going on other than we we still stand by what we're we're hoping for and we're just in a waiting mode now. So, that concludes my report. Steve, uh thank you, Mr. Chair.
Last Tuesday, I participated in the county owned lands uh meeting that was previously discussed. I also was able to catch the tail end of the county road 2 uh comtock discussion uh that has also been uh spoken on. I met with Mr. Melton
on a series of county issues uh that afternoon. On the 14th, we had county management. Uh we talked about uh the legislative session budget timelines that this board approved. Uh we heard updates from IT and risk
management and HR. Uh we also spoke uh we're looking at a county appreciation uh picnic on June 24th. Uh and uh also talked about this year uh at the Klay County Fair, Klay County government days
uh day is going to be July 11th uh again from that noon to noon to 4 time frame. Uh that afternoon I I met with uh Richard Hanks, a government relations uh staff member from White Earth Nation. He
was there to learn more about Klay County. Uh and so we talked uh talked about Klay County and some of the ideas discussion with the casino. That afternoon I met with Dan Molly Payton uh Payton Master from Dworth and also Derek
Le Point uh again with on the discussion with the casino. We've been having initial discussions of putting together framework information for the committee that's uh going to be established uh in discussion with the casino and so starting next week uh our next meeting
next week we've engaged legal council Mr. Melton and also representatives from city of uh city of Morhead and Dworth as we put that framework together prior to bringing the group together. Uh and so um on the 15th part participate in MCC
JPA prep meeting that the meeting is going to be held this week. Um on the 15th also met with Joe and Mark Sloan in regards to our capital improvement documents that we were going to be bringing forward to building committee here in the coming weeks. uh on the 16th
uh met uh met with uh had a flood mitigation our weekly flood mitigation meeting with just Jason Jason Benson Commissioner Mojo Lisa Bod u were present. Uh not a lot of movement again uh that day but we did meet also
met with non-scared detention uh with Quinn uh and uh Commissioner Mojo on the 19th uh participated in the Metrocog transportation plan meeting again as we as was shared uh they had come up with two draft two different scenarios and
they went back to the public uh for their input uh which ultimately came to the the the draft uh the draft document that Commissioner Mojo talked about they're still working through through a series of issues in in including how
they're going to what that's going to look like around our 15th Avenue uh DMV withdrawal management, but hope to have something out soon. Um on Friday, met with Darren uh and the sheriff on a
series of different things. Uh and also on a day of maybe not super great news, I did talk with James uh yesterday uh and he received uh received notification from the state of Minnesota that they were extended for their brin
justice grant. Uh and uh if you recall that was uh that's uh essentially it's 125,000 for the next year. Uh he's received that grant since I think going back to 2018. uh that pays for two positions or parts of two positions in
the non-secure department. Uh and so he's going to be before this board requesting your permission to accept that extension. Uh if you recall going back to the 2025 budget, he had anticipated not receiving any funding uh from that. And so uh again, that will be a positive impact for Wait, I thought
you said not so good news. Oh, did I say not so good? I did. I meant to say Oh, sorry. I meant to say in a day of not so good news, here's some good news. So, okay. Just want to clarify that. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Yeah. And so, so that was great. The grant the grant goes
through the extension goes through June 30th of actually next year. And so, not only is there a positive impact uh for for 2025 budget, but also the 2026 budget. Uh and that concludes Oh, just the last thing. We do have uh upcoming meetings this evening. Mindot is going
to be having the Highway 10 pre-esign open house at the at the DGF elementary school. Uh there's not going to be a presentation, but uh uh but the Mandot officials will be there to ask ask any questions about what that pre-esign uh will excuse me, the design will look
like. So that concludes my report in in Dworth. Yes. All right. That Are you finished? That concludes the report. Brian, anything for us? Darren. Uh, most of that's been covered already.
I attended the Lance County own um committee meeting on the 13th. On the 14th, I was a part of the management meeting as well. On the 15th, I present u participated in the MC HR payroll group. And then uh was working on the
Department of Labor investigation that we have ongoing right now. That's been taking a lot of time. Uh on Friday the 16th I did the IT director's evaluation and was uh had a meeting with the sheriff as well on a personnel issue and
on Monday I worked with the more on the do investigation and attended a RFP meeting with MC. Uh so that concludes my Sarah. Anything for us? All right, we're Part: 2
Roll call has been taken. So, and we have a quorum. Um, so hopefully everybody received the packet ahead of the meeting this month. And if you've had a chance to
review it, I look for a motion to approve the agenda as printed. So moved. Second. Motion by Sebastian, second by Brad. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion is carried.
Second item, approval of minutes from last month. Mr. Chair, I have a couple of corrections that I cut or that were caught with the minutes. Um, I did correct them in your packet, but just want to point them out. Um, the first
one on page two, uh, this was for the wholesome hearing recommended minimum conditions, and I have it up on the screen here, but, um, where it says IUP, that was in the minutes was CUP.
And then that also got translated to uh condition number six. Yep. So it said cup there. So that would be my recommended to change that to to IUP. Look for a motion to amend the
minutes from last month changing the CUP to an IUP regarding the Olsson hearing. Make that motion. Motion by Josh. Second. Second by Kurt. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in
favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion is carried. Is there anyone in the audience or online that wishes to speak on something that is not on the agenda? Is there anyone in the audience or online that wishes to speak on something
that is not on the agenda? One more time. Is there anyone in the audience or online that wishes to speak to something that is not on the agenda? Hearing none, we will move to the first public hearing. Um, Jacob Edwards, request for
interim use, home occupation permit. Um, this is an after the fact ask. Take it away, Matt. Oh, look for a motion to approve the public hearing. So move. Second. Motion by Brad, second by
Sebastian. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion is carried. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, this is a request for an interim use permit home occupation for a tree service business. Um uh the property is just south of
Holly on um County State A Highway 31. Um it's zoned agricultural general. Uh a IUP home occupation is permitted in uh the egg general zone zoning district if it meets the standards and is uh granted
an interim use permit. So there's a residence and a number of outbuildings um on the property. most of the business activity would take place in the the northwest corner of the property. Um, so that the request is to
continue operating a tree service business on the property. If you I don't know if you've driven down Highway 10 before, but the airport, that's where this business used to be located. Um, they used about four 4,300 square ft um two out buildings for the business. um
mainly used for vehicle and equipment uh parking and just for maintenance. There are three additional employees at the business other than the owner. Uh there is employee parking on site. No customers visit the property and they typically operate from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 11 months of the
year. Um the applicant does appear to meet all the standards for an intermuse home occupation. Uh the nearest residential property is about a thousand feet to the to the northeast and it's uh buffered to by trees and buildings as
well. Uh it looks like this uh would meet all of the goals and objectives relevant to this request for the comprehensive plan. Uh any questions for me at all? Can go back to the No.
Uh, does anybody on the board have any questions for Matt? Just uh, if you don't mind, uh, just a general question. Uh, did something change that there uh, this wasn't done before. What
created this situation? Oh, the pro the business used to be located on off of Highway 10. It was zoned highway commercial. Um, which you don't need a interuse or a conditional use permit for this type of business. But when you move it to a homebased
business, then that Yep. triggers the need for that and not really knowing. Yep. Yep. Pretty We probably see a handful of these every year. So, pretty common, right? No. Uh would the applicant care to speak
to his permit? If so, come up to the mic and make sure that the light is green and state your name for the record. There you go. Thank you. Uh my name is Jake Edwards. Um I guess I Matt pretty much
covered everything um fact-wise about how we run the business. Um, we're sure to keep the property clean. It doesn't look any different than uh how it did when we first moved in. And uh we don't plan on storing any big equipment or anything outside to
make it kind of an eyesore or anything like that. Well, I appreciate you uh coming forward and your business. You you're local resident and you're providing a needed service. Um, it's a good thing. And there's a lot
of ash trees out there. Yes, there is. But, uh, yeah, I think that's pretty much all I have. Does anybody else have any questions for the applicant comments? Thank you. Cool. Thank
you. I need to announce to the audience. Okay. Okay. Um, if nobody else, nobody has any other questions or comments for Matt or the applicant, I would look for a motion to close the public hearing.
So move. Second. Motion by Brad, seconded by Sebastian. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion is carried. Okay, we have the findings
of fact in granting an interimm use. The planning commission shall consider the effect of the proposed use upon the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of occupants of surrounding lands. existing
and anticipated land uses. Traffic conditions, including parking facilities on adjacent streets and land, and the effect on agricultural usage and values of property and scenic views in the surrounding areas, and the
effect of the proposed use on existing comprehensive plans, use and enjoyment of other property. The interimm use will not be injurious to the use and enjoyment of other property in the immediate vicinity for the purpose already permitted and
not substantially diminish or impair property values within the immediate immediate vicinity. Development of surrounding property. Establishment of the interimm use will not impede the normal and orderly development and improvement of
surrounding vacant property for uses predominant in the area. Utilities, access roads, drainage, off- streetet parking and loading spaces. Adequate measures have been or will be taken to provide utilities, access roads, drainage and off- streetet
parking and loading spaces. nuisance conditions. Adequate measures have been or will be taken to prevent or control offensive odor, fumes, dust, noise, vibration, water pollution, soil erosion
so that none of these will constitute a nuisance and to control lighted signs or other signs in such a manner that no disturbance to neighboring properties will result. Burden on public services. The use will not create an excessive burden
on parks, schools, streets, water supply, sanitary sewers, storm sewers, and other public facilities or utilities which serve or are proposed to serve the area. Compatibility. The use will be
sufficiently compatible or separated by distance or screening from adjacent agriculturally zoned or used land so that existing homes will not be depreciated in value and there will be no deterrence to agricultural use of said
land. Appearance of structure and site. The structure and site shall have an appearance which will not have an adverse effect on adjacent residential properties. Relationship to overall needs. The use is in the opinion of the
planning commission reasonably related to the overall needs of the district and to the existing land use. In the case of flood plane areas, the proof that the location is necessary for facility operation and that alternative sites are
not susceptible to flooding are not available. Consistency with ordinance. The use is consistent with the purposes of this ordinance and the purposes of the zoning district in which the applicant intends to locate the proposed use.
conflict with existing plans or with comprehensive plans. The use is not in conflict with the comprehensive plan if any of the township, city or county. Traffic hazards and congestion in floodplane
areas. The use will not cause traffic hazards or congestion in flood plane and in flood plane areas as access during flooding for ordinary and emergency vehicles. Existing businesses existing businesses nearby will not be adversely affected
because of curtailment of customer trade brought about by intrusion of noise, glare or general unsightliness. Matt, you have some Yeah, Mr. chair just proposed three conditions that are pretty standard for
this type of uh running of a home occupation as service type business. Um complying with our home occupation standards, permit ceasing upon property ownership change in employees limited to members of the house and 10 additional non-family employees unless plan for additional
employee parking mitigation and potential impacts are provided to the planning office. So very almost exact same as the conditions that were uh put in place on the permit that was approved in March. Same type similar type of home
occupation. How about signage? Is there is he allowed or and then if he is allowed restricted to the the 4x8? Yep. That would Yep. Go ahead, Paul. I I have a question. Um
Matt, um tell me why the limit limit the limitation of 10 um non-family employees. Why that number? I think that's one that was has just been um used on in the past for very for similar um types of businesses. And so there
really isn't like a standard in place, but it's more of like a um just a past past permit condition that's been put on similar types of businesses. Uh that could be amended if his business grows and he has ends up with three crews and
there's four people on each crew. Yep. You would just need to submit like a plan for additional employee parking essentially to our office and then that could be increased. Can you ask the question to the applicant
on that number? Is that okay? Is it uh just curious is is Kenya going to be a limitation you see in the future? I'm sorry. Say again, sir. Part of a condition coming up here is a penula of limiting 10 non-family members
in this occupation. I I guess I'm asking might that number be a limiting number as you're looking the growth of your business. As of our current plan, that would not be a limiting factor. I think we want to keep
it around, you know, max would be eight to maybe 10 employees total. Okay. I just don't want that to become problematic for you within a year or some shorter term. Yes. Yeah. I think if we did grow to the point where we needed
to get an amendment on that, it would be many years down the road yet. Thank you for that. Okay. Anybody go ahead, Mr. Stiken? Mr. Chair and uh Matt, is the applicant agreeable to the U
conditions set forth? I think that's what you'd have to ask the applicant, Mr. chair if there it's important if it's a IUP or CUP. I know last meeting we said you don't need for the cup but that's not exactly how it is. you're
supposed to ask for both IUP and CUPs that the applicant is agreeable even though you probably haven't for a cup in the past. But the whole thing is if if they're agreeable, it's more difficult for them in the
future to come with a claim that says that's not what they wanted. That's not what they agreed to. But they're on record of agreeing to whatever it is we're setting forth in conditions from here on out. I'd learned that at the
Wadina Staples. So Oh, nice. If I only learned one thing, that's it could save the county a huge court action. Not that it probably would. This is pretty simple here, but it's important to make sure the So, is the applicant agreeable to
the conditions set forth? Yes, I am. Okay, that's what I wanted to hear. Okay. Anybody else have any further comments or questions? Thank you for
affirming. Hearing none. Look for a motion to approve or disapprove. So I can approve. Motion by Dave to approve. Second. Second by Kurt. Any further
discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion is carried. IUP is granted. No further conditions. Okay. Now we are on to the major part of the
packet. Um environmental impact statement. Um hopefully everybody has had a chance to at least skim the uh information. There's a lot
of it in there. It's a lot of nice not being able to sleep reading that maybe puts you to sleep. Um there was except for the DNR. Um and it was more of a
generic response than any specific response. There was no public outcry or I mean there was just kind of a non a non-issue. Um we
uh you care to explain what we need need and really don't need to do. Yeah, absolutely, Mr. Chair. So, I can kind of go through and walk through. In the past, we've um you know, the past couple year years, we've had a couple of these environmental assessment worksheets, and
the two that we've had have received a lot of comments on them. enough comments to warrant having a public hearing for this one. We didn't we only received one comment letter for. You don't have to do a public hearing for this type of of environmental review. Um there is a
process that's that's laid out. And so um with that just without, you know, not a whole lot of public comment, just thought we' we would go this route. Uh but I can just because it is a big document walk through walk through it.
Um so essentially the the purpose of this is to evaluate if this project which is the aspllin ecri pit expansion uh if there isn't a need for an environmental impact statement. And so that's what the environmental assessment worksheet does. It's kind of a short
kind of scoping document almost to decide um if if it is needed uh for um non- metallic mineral mining which gravel mining falls under uh in Minnesota rules 4410 uh the county is
the what called the responsible government unit. So the county is responsible for determining if an environmental impact statement is needed or if the environmental assessment worksheet is adequate. And so for this um they're
looking to expand an existing gravel pit about almost they're just under doubling the size of um the pit to 104 acres. Uh the goal is to continue just the mining, storage, and distribution of sand, rock
and gravel products to market. Um this is this expansion would extend the 20 year life of the pit an additional 10 to 20 construction seasons. Uh located um right across the
street from the landfill on um County Road 23, Tasaw 23. Uh you can see there's a lot of other there's two other gravel pits uh in the area as well. And this whole area has kind of had a history of gravel mining
all the way up to to the river basically. Um it's zoned agricultural general. This use is allowed with an interim use permit. Um there is a lot of uses currently on the property. It's used for agriculture. It's residential
and then also the the gravel mining uh on the property as well. And I just wanted to, this is kind of hard to see, but we do have um goals and objectives related to um aggregate resources in our
comprehensive plan. uh one being to recognize the importance of these resources to Klay County in the region and to protect from encroachment of incompatible residential, commercial and industrial development and to ensure the sound stewardship of aggregate resources and our biotic resources because a lot
of times those two resources um occur um they coexist essentially uh to foster a balanced approach to aggregate resource extraction that is compatible with the natural resources and rural character of Klay county uh and then a number of
objectives under that goal as well. So, just some permit property history. So, in 1991, Coast Brothers, Inc. got a conditional use permit uh for a 20acre mine. Uh in 2003, the mine was taken over by Aspen. Uh and then just a couple
of years ago, they did get a variance to the 500t residential setback. That residence was the um is the property owner's residence essentially. Uh and so I'm just going to touch briefly. I know the EAW is a is a large
document. Um it was it was developed by SRF consulting. They are the the comp the consulting firm that that um developed the document. And how that works is they develop the document and then as the RGU um I review it, uh the
county engineer reviews it, uh county attorney reviews it, we make sure we're good with it and before presenting it to you, you all essentially because ultimately it is the county's environmental assessment worksheet.
Um so the the plan is to just continue a kind of a phased expansion process. So starting in the northwest corner and moving clockwise. Um basically mining the exact same way that this property has been mined since 1991. Just removing top soil aggregate above the water
table. Um they'll deposit unusable material within the project area. They're not proposing any new buildings or structures at all. Um would be reclaimed per landowner specifications. uh they have reclamation ongoing in the southwest corner and they're going to
follow the mining operations in the same kind of clockwise pattern. So they have a large um phase open right now um and then they have some that's reclaimed, some that's currently under reclamation, and then this kind of
mustard color is what they're planning on on opening up um into the future. That's the expansion essentially. And then the reclamation would follow kind of that same approach um where they've got phase one 100%
reclaimed phase two they say got about 60% reclaimed and then phase three and four. Phase three is what they're in right now essentially. Uh for permits um they do have a um permit from the pollution control agency. Um they did get N uh
natural heritage inventory concurrence uh from the DNR. They may need a um groundwater or they might need may need a water appropriations permit. Um that's something that I'm working with the DNR and and uh the project proposer
Aspen on determining. um they don't withdraw any groundwater, but they do um use use it in like a closed loop system from their storm water basins, but that still could require water appropriation permit. And then they would need to get
an interim use permit from Klay County um and then an interim use permit from Holly Township as well. So, I kind of jumped ahead of myself a little bit with water resources. um really not too much within the project area or um within a
mile of the project area. There's there is some significant water resources, but they're kind of they're they're buffered quite a ways. Um, as with all of our mines, um, that are permitted or about to be
permitted, uh, it'd be important for our County Wetlands Conservation Act coordinator, uh, who's with the SWCD, uh, to do a, uh, consultation and review of this project. Um, that would be probably part of any, um, permit. It
could be it would be it's a typical permit condition essentially. Um, groundwater is scattered anywhere from 2 to 52 feet below grade. I think the the the groundwater that's I mean
there is some that's that's exposed. So, it really depends on how much they've already excavated. Um, but there is a lot of variation there. Uh, they're not planning on discharging um to any surface waters or public treatment facilities. Um they would have their
industrial waste water which is essentially their wash what they're washing the material with. Um that's under a permit. Um they are conducting all of their mining operations above the water table. So when they hit water they basically
stop mining essentially in that location. And so this um really colorful uh map kind of shows you generally the topography of the area uh as well as the direction of um uh the general direction
of the storm water flow. Um and so that would be any rain runoff and things like that. And um the the important takeaway here is all the blue arrows are pointed inwards at the property. So, the lowest that's generally flowing to the to the middle
or the center of the property. There are um some protected areas that are nearby. We have um Buffalo River State Park is 2 miles east. Blueest stem uh prairie uh just to the south of Buffalo River State Park is also nearby. Um there is one site of
moderate biodiversity significance within the project area. And then there's just several native uh plant communities present as well. You can kind of see them on this map. So, oops. So, essentially this kind of ridge right here that goes from uh the west and then
moves southeast is essentially uh an area of uh high or moderate biodiversity significance. essentially just a lot of native plant communities um along the beach ridge there. Uh with this uh proposed project
though, it's all within cropped land. So it's all farmland. So in that in that sense, it avoids natural features. Um so no direct environmental impacts would be expected. Some potential indirect impacts could be surface runoff, increased dust. the surface runoff would
be mitigated through that storm water going towards the center of the property. Uh and then increased dust um maybe fugitive dust within the pit itself. Uh but they access uh paved
county road. So um no dust really uh from transportation of the materials at all. Uh the biggest thing probably um for this pit would be just the potential spread of invasive species which is common could be you know gravel pits
especially ones that are unrelaimed are um harbingers of for they harbor a lot of invasive species or have the potential to um so they do have some um plans in terms of monitoring and then for rec reclamation as
well. Sure. They would have to be 100 ft from all the property lines. Um and they're a bit of a distance away from um some of those native plant communities already. Yep. Yep.
Yep. But the wind does blow very hard out here. So yeah, seeds can seeds can travel. Um in in terms of air noise and odor and visual impacts, um it's already located an area that's used for mining. Um
visual impacts just include the general m impacts would be associated with mining activities. A lot of that though is occurring below grade. Um and they do have it burned. Um and then just based off of the the current landscape,
they're not really anticipating any degradation of anyone's views. Uh there's not going to be a batch plant at all. um there really wouldn't be any um increase in air quality or emissions essentially because
they're even though they're expanding the operation, uh it's not growing. They're using the same equipment that's the same number of equipment that's been used, you know, for the past 20 plus years. Um dust control, I think fugitive
dust within the mine would probably be the biggest thing. Um, and also just keeping track of like large stock piles and things like that, especially during high wind days, which we've had quite a lot of. Uh, and then one thing that's would be important um for this pit in
particular because we've noticed noted in the past and asked for it to be um addressed is just removing track dust and mud um from County Road 23 where they enter. Um odors. It's I think all I'll say is it's across the street from the
landfill. Just leave it at that. They're not really expecting any noise um just because again there's not going to be a badge plant. Um they haven't had any complaints from their existing mining activities. There's not a whole lot of residential um residences
out there. Um um so really no anticipated impacts there. Uh for transportation, I think this is all is important to um really highlight is they're they're operating 26 trucks trucks that are t taking four
to five trips a day. So we got 260 truck trips per day um from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Um not really consistent at all. Um so this isn't like an everyday thing that that's happening. Um but that's the
potential to to happen. Um and then also their employee uh vehicle trips as well. So looking at about 380 daily trips and with that they're not looking they did ask you know the our county engineer we asked about if there need to
be like a traffic impact assessment or anything like that especially just on a county road and a lot of these trucks are going up to Highway 10. They're making a left-hand turn um at that that uncontrolled intersection. um didn't
seem to be an an issue just because the frequency of truck traffic is not going anticipated to increase at all. Uh the last thing is cumulative impacts. Um and that's looking at the environmental impact of a project just
from its incremental effects. So as well as the effects of other projects in the area. Um there's a you know three other pits in the air or two other pits in the area and then um the landfill um pretty similar types of land use. Um and so as
if other projects come up, I think it would be important to evaluate those pro that project. Uh just because too it's a it's a goal and an objective in our comprehensive plan when we're looking at new mines um new gravel mines um to also
consider um what the impacts would be relative to the surrounding land use and if there are other mining mines in the area and what a new mine would do would add add to that. Um so we did get a comment letter from the DNR. We didn't receive any
comments from Holly Township and we did not receive any individual public comment. Uh the main takeaways from the DNR was um loggerhead shrike nesting season. Um it's an it's a state endangered species. Um they're more common in like
Arizona but or in the southwest but they make their way up here too. And so just making sure that no trees are cut down essentially. They like shrubs. Um, it's a bird that essentially what it does is it'll catch like mice and it will impale
them on like thorny shrubs and that's how it takes them out. So, they need shrubs. Um, there really aren't any shrubs in the project area because it's all crop land. um water appropriations, which I had
touched on. Um just making sure that if they're over um basically moving through or discharging 10,000 gallons a day or more or a million gallons a year, they would likely need that water appropriations permit. And that's
something that can be addressed as part of um the the interim use permit as well. And then just other impacts, uh, dust, which we've talked about, um, any vertical walls, um, which I think there's they're just concerned about
like animals getting trapped in the in the floor of the mine. And the way that the mine's set up right now, there are escape routes um, for animals. Um and then reclamation just ensuring that um this once the mining is complete uh
and the pit is exhausted of material that it doesn't become like a um breeding grounds for um invasive species Canada thistle and all that good stuff.
Um so based on the EAW, um the staff recommendation would be to issue a negative declaration of need. Um I just kind of summarized uh our we did put together findings of fact, but it's 35 pages long. Um so
probably not going to read through all of that and I trust that you all had a chance to to look over that. Um just really what we're doing is acknowledging that we have jurisdiction over the review process. uh it met all regulatory requirements. Uh no significant
environmental impacts were identified. Uh there mitigation measures in place to in address environmental concerns and because of that a environmental impact statement would not be required for this project. Um before I
um yield for any questions, one thing I do want to state too is what we've done in the past with these EAWS is just had the planning commission um pass a resolution essentially stating either there is a declaring a no need for an
EIS or there is a need and um the planning commission in the past couple years is one for one on that. you've you've you've declared it no need for one and and you've declared a positive need for another project. Um
the resolution that I've drafted is essentially assuming that you would issue a negative declaration of need just based off of the findings um effect and conclusion. So with that, is there any
questions for me at all? Guess I've got a just a couple small questions. Um, you said uh right now the site is birmed with top soil uh partially for visual impact and and maybe for some outflow of sediment. Are
those stabilized? Are they seated? Those top soil bms or are they just open top soil that uh would be a breeding ground for invasive species? It'd be a source of uh sediment discharge from the site, I guess. What uh or is it the assumption
that everything will drain onto the site? Sure. Um I think they are stabilized. Last time we were out there, they did have vegetation on them. So, Yep. Is there an elevation of water? We've got, you know, two days of rain coming in here. Is there an elevation of water where there's concern where there
would be migration of sediment off of the site in this particular pit? just based off of um the topography I I would say no. Um then my last question I guess would be with all that uh uh stipulated the
actual conformance to their permit is that that's the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is that their jurisdiction to actually enforce that we are strictly just saying whether or not we need the additional EIS. Yeah. So, um, how it would go for this
process is, um, you determine if an EIS is needed or not, and then likely next month, the, um, applicant would apply for a interim use permit for this expansion. That's all I have.
Thank you, Josh. Paul. Commissioner, can you please use your microphone? All right. Thank you. Not used to that. Um uh anyway, is there um is there a time frame that they need to move on with this expansion? I mean,
there's their intent is there, but are there limitations of years that or does it just go on for a 20-year period no matter when they start it? You understand what I mean? Yeah. Um, that would that would be a a condition that would be placed on the interim use
permit. I mean, typically for mines, it's been either 10 or 15 years is kind of how Yep. Yep. Um and the reason I asked your question is the ES and flows of or demand on the product, right? Yep. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. So um yeah, it's
really market dependent. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And then and la last one. Um I'm I always in I I really I really appreciate the the minds that I see that have been reclaimed and the ones I'm mostly aware
of, you know, a top-notch job, really good job. Um do you know um it was interesting hearing the clockwise motion and all that type thing. Um is there a period of time
that they leave that open for the chance. I'm just saying there's a type of aggregate that's in there. They might might want to come back for it. You understand what I'm getting at? Uh yeah. So, a lot of times what mines will do is
they'll try to mine it out uh and then they'll have an area where they can stage their product. So, it's all sorted um depending on by what type of material it is and what specs that it would meet. And so, you know, in an ideal world, um
that's how it would be organized. Um so, it would it would be mined um and then it would be stockpiled for Yep. That makes sense. Yep. Okay. Thank you for that. Hey, go ahead, Dave. Mr. Chair and Matt.
So, tonight we're just focusing on if we want to if we were going to require an impact statement or just be satisfied with that's that's their action tonight. Yep. And then whatever
conditions they previously had would follow the expansion. Correct. Yeah. My recommendation would be um when they come forth with an application for an interim use permit, we would use this environmental assessment worksheet as
kind of a guide for the um uh development of conditions. Um, so the water appropriations permit from the DNR could be a condition controlling fugitive dust um within the mine and then also maybe maintaining county road
23 where they access it, keeping that clean whether they're sweeping or not. Those those are things that have been identified in this environmental assessment worksheet that we that can be leveraged as as conditions of the in the permit. So, we will be visiting this to
some degree in the future obviously. And to go along with Josh's question, I think I read in here once they reclaim, they got roughly 30 days to get it all seated in. If I remember, that's the suggestion from the from the DNR. Yeah, that's
their Okay. Yeah. And then it talked about uh you know the not supposed to move remove trees or shrubs from April to July and if they are they're supposed to verify that the loggerhead strike is
so there is some conditions they do have to continue following but if we see fit we might implement something else too but as of now we're just deciding to EI astronaut. Yep. Correct. That's the
way I understood it. Thank you. Anyone else have any questions or comments or concerns? Um I after reading through this at length and visiting with
Matt and um I personally feel that this EAW more than satisfies the concerns that an EIS is not agree with staff that it is
not I wouldn't require it and I would and now looking for a motion to as you said negatively affirm. Yeah, it would be a motion. It would be a motion to pass planning commission
resolution 2025-1 that supports the approval of the findings of facts and conclusions and negative declaration on the need for an environmental impact statement for the aspen pit expansion project in Holly Township. I so move a motion by
Josh to approve Second taken. Motion seconded by Dave. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion is
carried. The EAS is EIS is sufficient. Thanks everyone. Thank you Mr. Chair. And so next what will happen is we'll inform the project proposer and let them know that the the need to get their interim use permit application in um and then
also we would need to publish the basically the decision um in the in with the Minnesota State Environmental Quality Board which we will do. I think the deadline for publication is today. So since we can't make that we'll have
to wait a week. Okay. Update of planning and zoning violations. I think the biggest update being is we resolved two of the home occupation ones that were on there
um this month and then in March. And then there were three new um gravel pit violations. So, we're up to 14. Um, again, mainly relating to not having the appropriate state permits. Um, some
setback. I think one being over acreage potentially. Um, and so working to to resolve those. And Erica, not to put you on the spot, but of those 14, how many operators would you say or pits do you
have an idea? Like six. Six. Yeah. So, it's not 14 separate pits. It's some have multiple. And the one that has four acres over, he's actively trying to reclaim those extra four acres.
Well, that nice to see that. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else have any comments or questions regarding violations on those violations? uh they all understand they're in violation and they all understand they're going to get it taken
care of and they hopefully they do. I mean you're good about following up on those things. So correct. Yep. I think it's Mr. Chair and Mr. Stiken. It's one of those things too where if it if it keeps going on and we
have to keep pushing on the on the same violation or if it's the same violation and it's just repeated. Um that's when we get to the conversation um where we're going to likely have to maybe bring your permit to the planning
commission for a revocation hearing. Thank you. Any unfinished business? No unfinished business, Mr. Chair. New business. Um the only new business that I have is
um I know you all recommended uh the adoption of the um 2025 uh Klay County development uh and subdivision ordinance and looking to bring that to we had we brought it to um back to the consultant
just to do some formatting tweaks to it. um had to change the chapter structure a bit in order for it to fit into oop sorry fit into our um overall county code which is online um and was
recently our county code was recently recodified uh online and so that covers a wide variety it's all of the the ordinances in the county and so the land development ordinance is just one section of that and so we did have to do
some reformatting of the chapter so it would it would fit into that system neatly. Um, so we've done that and that's really the the only major change that's that's taken place since you've seen it uh or recommended it. And so I'm
looking to bring that to the board on um Tuesday, June 3rd at 9:15 a.m. Oh, we'll have we'll have a little more than 15 unless you want me to talk fast. Unless it's so great
that don't need to talk about it. So, and that's all I have. Anyone else have any points or anything that needs to be brought up? Uh, hearing none. I'd like to point out that the the June
meeting will be the 24th. It'll be the fourth Tuesday, not the third. So, if you want to put that on your literal calendars or like I have to. Yeah. Yeah. Mr.
Chair, the the third Tuesday of the month um in June every year is when um the county board of um equalization meets. So, they meet in the in the evening 6 pm. Okay. Hearing n nothing uh else uh look
for a motion to adjurnn. So move motion by Brad. Second. Second by Kurt. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion is carried. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone.