##VIDEO ID:8fDU8gM4Bbk## and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all roll call commissioner poring here commissioner luy here commissioner barrows here commissioner franzine commissioner hog here all members are present thank you um open form today I don't see anything here for open form correct Teresa correct okay so we will go into review and approve the minutes to approve second motion by franzine by barrows all in favor roll call commissioner coring I commissioner franzine commissioner barrows I commissioner hog I commissioner Ley I uh reprove uh review and approve the agenda so moved second motion by Barrow second by hog all in favor signify roll call commissioner franzine hi commissioner barels hi commissioner hog hi commissioner Coring I commissioner lekey I consent agenda motion to approve second we have a motion by franzine second by hog all in favor roll call commissioner barrows I commissioner hog I commissioner coring I commissioner franzine I commissioner luy I motion carried Mr chair yes if I may um just for those of you who are in the audience with regard to the extension contract the action that was just taken with the consent calendar approved the extension contract as it was submitted and recommended by the extension [Applause] [Applause] committee I'll wait till they leave step okay [Music] either one of you can do it we have a public hearing we'll wait till it clear out that a couple wait till it [Music] [Music] thank [Music] you that's right I didn't expect you have a way CLE the room D try usually try to bring folks in I suppose I can't leave huh I can't leave I have to stay too okay good idea okay yes I'm watching I watched this here on my screen so you guys [Music] uh next on the agenda if everybody's settled we have a uh public hearing so I would entertain a motion to um start the public hearing motion to open the public hearing second motion by franzine second by hog all in favor roll call we don't do a roll call commissioner hog hi commissioner coring I commissioner franzine hi commissioner barels hi commissioner ly I we are in a public hearing good morning Mr chair Commissioners uh this morning we have a public hearing to uh here about the Ruth Lake improvement district assessment calculation change uh the Ruth Lake improvement district was created in 2012 with a $90 assessment per eligible property owner uh that was increased in 2016 and they have petitioned to uh change how they are calculating their assessment each year uh that petition was received with the 86 verified signatures with the 58.5% support of the assessment calcul calculation change uh so we' just like to open the public hearing in on that okay is there anybody in the audience that or online that would want to speak to the uh public hearing for the Ruth Lake improvement district anybody here or on someone online Mr chair uh Commissioners my name is my name is Dan Brennan and I serve as the president of the Ruth Lake improvement district I think we have contained everything in our our petition contains our our basic position on it and a little bit of History I am here this morning if anybody has a question or concern uh to answer it but otherwise I don't have any general statement to make and uh unless there are questions I will stand by okay so anybody else in the audience wants to speak to the public hearing there gentlemen would you please come up front and to the podium and then name and I couldn't hear her oh okay what I couldn't hear you back there oh sure um what are we doing um the petition is to change the assessment calculation So currently it's just a set amount per eligible property owner um and they can't go above that original founding amount of the $90 or excuse me the 125 that was changed in 2016 so they want to change where the lid will come up with their budget for the year say that's $220,000 to do treatment they will then take that $220,000 and divide it by how many property owners and then that is their assessment okay thank you anybody else would like to speak to the Ruth Lake assessment District I would entertain a motion to close the public hearing so moved second motion by franzine second by hog all in favor roll call commissioner coring I commissioner franzine I commissioner barels I commissioner hog I commissioner I next item 6. two yep we'll need action on that I'll make the motion second motion made by franzine second by hog all in favor signify by saying I commissioner franzine I commissioner barels I commissioner hog I commissioner coring I commissioner ly I motion carried next on the agenda we have Minnesota Power uh Zach I was going to try to pronounce I think it's call I'll let you do it golkowski okay I like to hear people try it though thank you do we have the PowerPoint yep okay perfect I apologize I usually have some nice Maps updated maps for you guys but I uh I celebrated the the Minnesota deer hunting holiday this weekend and I was late to the game with office services and printing them so I apologize but I can get them to you all digitally if that works if that if that will help out um after the meeting today I can I can do that so uh I'm we're we're here again just to kind of give you all an update on the Northland reliability project do we have a clicker it won't work she'll have to okay okay you can go down to that next slide um this is just a little background again um the northern reliability project is a double circuited 345 KV transmission line from Iron Range substation in near Grand Rapids Minnesota down to uh Becker Minnesota approximately 180 miles with two expanded substations and uh and two brand new substations one here right in the at the kayuna series compensation station kind of by the Riverton area uh it's part of the myo approved um tranch one Regional plan uh which is the blue the blue line on that on that map want to keep going and again uh we're fulfilling the need of maintaining reliability uh getting clean energy uh efficiently and safely strengthening the resilience of our of our current system and enhancing the flexibility um for to meet the to meet the needs of decarbonizing Minnesota here two portions of the project again uh segment one that's the the line in yellow there that's from the Iron Range substation down to the Benton County substation with the cun series compensation station kind of smack dab in the middle right there and then segment two which is the um it's the replacement of an existing transmission line there so down in that section there is no there's no new right of way but in the yellow section there will be new RightWay and a new and a new line paralleling mostly existing transmission line kind of where we're at right now uh this August or last August of 2023 we submitted our our our certificate of need and Route permit uh in October of 23 we've had we held a bunch of uh public hearings and public scoping meetings um identified alternative routes as well as uh collected Public public comments and uh Alternatives from the public June of this year we they the Department of Commerce published the the environmental assessment and in July we we held uh public hearings with the administrative law judge uh throughout all the counties and I think eight or nine different locations throughout the route um uh on the EA and collected more Public public responses and in September we submitted respon or the applicant submitted responses to the public comments and in November uh just actually Friday the administrative law judge uh sent in her report for for the the the line itself um and then we're anticipating in early 2025 we were hoping by the end of this year probably unlikely but in the early stages of 20 2025 we will have a pu decision on the route some of the some of the general comments here um that that we that we heard throughout the public process the public hearing process was common common corridors maximizing distances to residences uh reducing the effects to Center um pivot systems uh irrigation systems route clarify the route versus the RightWay people were having a little bit of misconception on that on that the yellow the yellow route width which was potentially between a 1,500 to 3,000 ft wide but that is just the that is just the route and where we have areas to work and not the actual 150t RightWay that will be the Impact Zone for those folks so that was a a lot of misconceptions there uh which which was easily remedied and and actually actually nice to hear uh and then clarify the access and construction and easement types people were uh not understanding what their easements would look like how that process would look like through our real estate team and acquiring easements and right of Entry so uh a lot of a lot of just answering and education um helping people out and and guiding them to to help them better understand that here in Crowing County uh this this was the the the most highly contested area I would say not not necessarily contested but um uh people people's voices were were strong here in in larger groups which is great um had the largest amount of comment landowner comments here in in Crowing County and we had preferences for both of the alternative routes that were proposed to the Pu uh some people liked one some people didn't like others so it was kind of a tossup toss up there and and what was the least impactful and and the for the greater good here um we maximize use of tax forfeit lands to avoid impacts to private land owners we we took a hard look at that there will be some uh we did propose some other Alternatives that would not um impact residences as much and utilize some tax forfeit lands with the uh particularly the H1 and H7 Alternatives or H4 H7 Alternatives and we kind of modified that to to sneak away from other residences and impact zones there uh and then uh the the avoidance of impacts to Recreation small business we we understand that the Cuna the kayuna recreation area is a is a very important aspect to this region and um we're we're very in close proximity but we're doing our best to to try to mitigate that and working with the Minnesota DNR as well as the County Commissioners here and land owners to to alleviate any any stress on that um Mr chair if I could just interrupt what's H4 and H7 I don't those were Alternatives that that we that the public put forth as well as the DNR so those were in that public hearing process and and EA scoping process people were able to kind of draw lines on map and say hey why don't you go here instead of here so they proposed it and that's how we numbered them um H we a B CD and then down to H and in this area they were called H4 there was H1 through H7 and with also e Alternatives G Alternatives things like that so those are just the names of the Alternatives that we put on them so to help us better understand instead of the the Anderson alternative and the the Johnson alternative you know things like that so we it it's our numbering system on how we manage that thanks so yep good question any other questions uh you can go to the next slide please uh we already covered this the route permit application of August 2023 that's that's what it looked like at the at the beginning of this and um throughout our scoping and hearing process and understanding public comments we've created and submitted to the to the Pu after the alj um had had the hearings we we submitted two two different route two different different types of routes and with modifications one called the um collocation maximization route which Incorporated uh a lot of the Alternatives that folks put through and as well as the DNR and other agencies and then we have the modified proposed route which is our propo Pro proposed route with some of the Alternatives and modifications to to what we submitted back in 2023 um and if you want I mean you could kind of toggle back and forth and see the differences here but this is the modified proposed rout and that is the collocation maximization route um which once again I I'll give you guys some more zoomed in maps here I'll send them digitally so you can have them at your at your convenience uh but the collocation maximization route was a um there was a recommendation U from the Pu to utilize the existing transmission line corridors or parallel existing line corridors uh more or to the to the greatest extent possible so this was our attempt to to utilize that and and create a create a line that paralleled more in certain areas which again raised some raised some concerns with land owners as well as uh the the DNR uh it Al alleviated a lot uh within the Cuna recreation area using this collocation maximization route the modern um the proposed modified route is a is a little bit more impactful to the Cuna Recreation Area area but uh this this would be one of the one of the ones that would alleviate a lot of concerns there and it and it Incorporated a lot more of the Alternatives that the public put forth so as of right now this this last summer was filled with surveys rare plant surveys cultural resource surveys uh Wetland delineations we had uh we had bad acoustic monitoring surveys throughout the entire line uh we we had enough uh right of Entry to to complete oh I would say 90% of our surveys we did not do any surveys on uh a lot of the Alternatives that were put for so next year there will be another round of surveys that will happen depending on which um which route is approved by the puc so uh a lot more to come but uh this year we'll also be doing since in segment two which doesn't really affect croing County in segment two we will be doing some soil borings once the once the Public Utilities Commission proposes the route and we will be getting uh we H hitting the ground running in that section since we don't have to create new RightWay it's going to be wrecking out an old line replacing it with the with the new 345 Northern reliability project um so again we'll be continuing we'll be continuing these these surveys and these studies moving forward into 2025 uh with an anticipated construction start date and segment two in the winter of uh potentially the winter of 2025 and the fall uh starting fall for actual wreck out of the old lines uh in 2025 down there with and I I think there will be some potentially some things going on in the winter of or the fall of 25 here uh pending pending the results you can move forward or is that it okay uh some of the things for the the right of way and right of Entry process here and what land owners should expect so 20 like I said in 2023 we were we were going door too and and talking to the land owners that were affected by the project and actually had uh assets within the project area and uh potentially potentially uh easement um Acquisitions as well but that's not quite there yet there are some easements that were required so yeah we are moving forward with that and land owners are being are being notified and chatted with so uh that that continues to be a large part of what's going on right now um and 2024 to 2026 that's when we'll that's when we'll be acquiring the the actual easements with construction starting in 2025 to 2030 uh and then the restoration process obviously 27 to uh 2031 uh but again yeah land owners are contacted and to begin the RightWay acquisition process that includes right of right of entry and potential easements um an easement is then in easement will be presented to the landowner and an offer based on market value and then we'll continually work closely with the landowner to resolve any concerns and um reach an agreement and then the utilities construct and operate maintain the transmission line with that easement in place so kind of the sequence of events and that that is all ongoing and actually happening as we speak go ahead uh some of the project Milestones here obviously Engineering in is a is a big one we're focusing on the substations right now as well as the transmission line uh it's it's it's really hard to do with without an actual route permit in place to you don't want to put a lot of time and effort into into doing something that might not even happen so uh a lot of a lot of thought is going into that but right now the the substations are really being looked at from an engineering standpoint uh then once we get this route permit in place we'll we'll begin the the real hard work of of doing the state and and federal permitting uh that's Army corpe of Engineers fish and wildlife uh wetlands and um the utility uh the utility Crossing licenses with the DNR and Minnesota Department of Transportation and then some potential conditional use permits with the at the county level for lay down yards and things like that uh soil borings again uh this segment two will start in the fall of 20 probably 2025 uh with maybe potential soil borings at some of the substation sites and uh for sure hopefully we can get the the the exploratory borings done in segment two this winter yet we have to do a lot of so with the new uh Northern longard bat being listed as well as the tricolored bat uh everything will be most most everything uh including the tree clearing will be done in the winter months to to not disturb their uh habitat during the time that they're here so we have a they just the fish and wildlife service just put out a report that we we can do tree clearing and the bats are no longer present from November 15th through or November 1st through April 15th so that's the time period in which we can clear these clear the trees so it's not a it's not a huge window and it might happen in segments but um that's kind of the timeline we're working in as well as a lot of this a lot of the Wetland work and and agricultural Fields have to be done in in those those that time frame as well so most if not all of the construction especially the clearing will be done during the winter months and uh again anticipate constructions starting in segment two in 2025 so it's coming up uh so we again we can we continue to communicate and we we're we're here to answer any questions anybody can submit anything to the Pu uh and the docket on those docket numbers at any time which is seen by us as well as the Pu and Department of Commerce and er um we we have our we have our website which is a great resource Northern reliability project.com it's got an interactive map that we can look at and follow the route and look you can you can look at the modified proposed as well as the the collocation maximization route and kind of toggle back and forth and see which one and and zoom into your affected properties and actually submit comments there as well so land land agent updates and notifications that is that is also continuing and and is going to be ongoing uh newsletter and postcard updates as we receive information especially when the route permit comes out there will be notifications and mailings to agencies and land owners uh and then local local leader project update presentations such as this one uh we have monthly standing meetings with the Minnesota DNR we have meetings with the Minnesota Department of Transportation um standing meetings with the fish and wildlife Service as well as monthly meetings with the Army Corps of Engineers so those will probably r up here probably be by by monthly uh moving forward especially once the route permit gets issued um again pu decision and on the certificate of need is should be hopefully we're we're anticipating January January of 2025 we were hoping December of this year but I do not see that happening again here's our uh contact you can connect with us at Northern reliability project.com you can send us Anil email at connect Northland reliability pro.com or you can call our hotline at 28864 6059 and those are available at any time or you can reach me directly any questions from the board for Zach Mr chair yes yeah Mr chair I just want to publicly thank Zach a couple of weeks ago commissioner hog and myself uh had a meeting with Zach they got an office in town and I thought maybe it'd be a 10 or 15 minute meeting but we I think we were there about two hours went through the whole route it's actually going through commissioner Hog's district and myself and I just want to commend Zach and everybody working on this project I think they're trying to do it without having to hurt anybody's property and um I appreciate that because you know people's property is pretty darn important to them and um I just want to publicly say I appreciate you it seems like you guys are really trying extra hard not to have to go the eminent domain process so thanks Zach yeah that is that is definitely that is definitely a goal Mr caring and and we we are striving for that and and I think communication is is huge and it's not only communication it's just a a education you know people people don't understand I mean it's hard enough for me to follow along with what's happening and all the processes and I mean I I can't imagine imag being a a member of the public and just not you know not having all that information at your fingertips so it's it's really easy to sit down with people and and chat with them and and it usually ends up being a great conversation and it's just a little bit of confusion or not understanding the process and how things work so um we're we're more than able to to do that and if any of your constituents have any um any questions or or anything we we'll we'll gladly come to their house or or meet at a at a coffee shop and have a cup of coffee with them and and chat about the project and and what they what they have concerns about or or if they just have questions we're we're more than willing to do that especially in this area like like Paul said we have a a field office and it's it's easily it's easily accessible and and we can meet with anybody at any time so we have a great staff great great group of real estate folks that are that are really working hard to to educate and and and keep this keep this process flowing uh smoothly so proper preparation I think it's it's going a long way and I I think we're seeing it here so I have uh uh one question or a couple questions when do you plan to you know if everything goes through and I know you're you're already being pushed a little bit further out than you'd like when do you look at actually energizing that line uh commission would be 2030 that's that's the goal really it's that long out yep yep it's it's it's 180 M that's it's a big it's a big process um so that that's the goal uh things things could happen sooner that would be great but uh it it is it's a huge project and estimated cost oh what are we at right now 1 five we're around 1.5 billion that's a that's a lawful lot of money for a big long extension Court it started out at one it started out close to one and now we're yeah I know I remember it was 1 billion I heard it was going up so yep and it's it's going up so yeah any other questions from the board comments just just a quick comment Zach I I know that uh the the public hearings were well attended the maps you know that we had in the Crosby area yeah and throughout growing County but uh uh the maps that were present there uh there was some some uh obviously some controversy and stuff and when we met a couple weeks ago uh it was it was uh it was nice to see that that the people uh that they were listened to uh because a lot of those hot areas uh couple in in indeed uh were addressed with with alternate routes and stuff so I appreciate that um I also look forward to seeing what uh what the Pu uh lays out as far as the final routes but yeah yep yep and so are we and and yes it it it is a it it it is an involved process and and we do take people's concerns into considerations and and if there's a there's a group or um you know folks that get affected in certain ways we we did look at that and and made modifications as you can tell I mean that that route has changed significantly uh especially in this area uh and voices voices were heard we had great turnout at at in Brainard we had great turnout in ironon and I mean this and people people are hurt so um it it goes a long way and it actually it actually helps and and we you know we we can make those modifications and and try our best to to do our job and and make it as painless as possible so but but it goes a long way for you know having having these types of conversations and making sure that your constituents are are are heard along the Route and I do appreciate you uh looking at that kayuna Rec area route there so yeah that still got a little bit of some people nervous on that yeah I I did notice that the um that they did file another comment letter about that supporting uh they they supported the E the E alternative as well this is the Minnesota DNR and um they they didn't want uh aa9 I think which would but we had some clarifi clarifying um phone calls on that too and and the DNR was still not aware of of the differences between the Alternatives and and how it would be affected um so so that some good conversations happened because of that as well so I appreciate that no nothing else than thank you Zach for your presentation thank you very much I appreciate it yep thank you uh next on the agenda we have Community Services good morning Mr chair County Board car ter Community Services you might remember back in February of this year I came before you asking for a Clay County resolution of support for their psychiatric Regional treatment facility or a prtf psychiatric resid okay yeah I got that right um Clay County continues to work towards um solutions for our lack of bed availability for juveniles um there was a bit of a change in terms of the letter of support that you had um approved in February uh in terms of the location Klay county is looking to revamp an existing facility as opposed to building a new facility continue to work with Solutions the vendor that was in place at the previous uh during the previous um request um the representative Heather Keeler Senator kupek and the Clay County Board of Commissioners are all on board and they've asked for letters of support from surrounding counties um the prior letter as I said was approved on 29 um the prior plan requested has changed as I mentioned it's still an 18 bed facility um they're hoping to build a new non-secure in order to bring the prtf to fruition uh I had attached a um informational sheet for your reference it's the same information that I had provided in the past um so today I'm asking for you to approve the resolution um for the prtf Clay County resolution of support Mr chair if I might ask one question yes being a psychiatric facility and it's not going to be locked how will they control these underage individuals because there's different parameters for handling underage individuals than there are for adults in terms of Hands-On um that is a question that the Clay County is going to have to Grapple with and follow all of the um requirements that are laid out by the state and the FEDS so um I do not have an answer for you at this time commissioner that's something I could explore though if you'd like me to I will follow up with them okay all right thank you any other questions so if there's no other questions I would make the motion to approve the resolution that's attached for the prtf Clay County resolution of support Second we have a motion from Barrow second from hog all in favor signify by saying I commissioner barrows I commissioner hog I commissioner Coring I commissioner franzine right commissioner ly I thank you do I have to say motion carried even after the motion carried um A2 Public Health nuisance good morning Mr chair and Commissioners I'm Gina H public health manager for Crowing County and I would like to introduce to you today Taylor lesmeister who is our new Public Health educator and his focus is on uh abating Public Health nuisances go forward thank you good morning Mr chair members of the board uh we are bringing forward two properties today in which upon investigation was determined that a public health nuisance does exist for both the first property is located on the 10,000 block of Crescent Drive in nisah uh this property was found to be burning garbage and utilizing a fail failing septic tank back in July um a cease and assist was issued at that time for both concerns and we were working with the property owner to address any ongoing public health issues which involved household waste um improperly stored um an accumulation of household items buried waste Vehicles trailers and appliances which all act as an attractant to insects and Vermin on October 28th we completed a site visit after after receiving an additional report that uh septic waste was actually being pumped across the roadway and into a nearby Wetland by the tenants due to the imminent threat to this uh uh the imminent threat to Public Health we contracted with a septic provider to have the tanks pumped and have a compliance in inspection conducted uh we requested a emergency use of solid waste funds at that time to ensure that the abatement occurred uh and we continue to work with the property owner to Abate the household waste and other issues uh which provide attractant to nuisance Critters however we would like to request that the board approves us to utilize additional Solid Waste funds uh if the property owner is unable to make adequate progress moving forward um just a question are those funds then being uh put back against the property yes they will okay so will be reimbursed for them somehow some where yep so they would be uh tax assessed to the property okay um if the uh person is unable to pay up front any other questions from the board Mr chair if there are no other questions I would make the motion to approve the attached resolution declaring a public health nuisance at 10941 Crescent Drive nissah Minnesota second we have motion from Barrow second from franzine all in favor roll call commissioner hog hi commissioner coring I commissioner franzine hi commissioner barrows hi commissioner lekey I motion carried thank you thank you um the second property that we are looking at is located on the 11,000 block of Sorenson Lake Lane in marafield this property has similar issues so we're seeing an accumulation of household waste uh improperly stored along with softsided materials again providing and attracting to those nuisance Critters the property owner was provided a notice to Abate the concerns and progress by the property owner has started uh however it is not abated in its entirety and the public health nuisances remain um Land Services and public health have both worked with this property back in the past in 2023 to successfully Abate similar concerns um again we received an additional complaint and um upon investigating were able to confirm that that nuisance still exists um so again we are asking permission of the board to utilize Solid Waste funds if the property owner is unable to continue making adequate progress this would also again be tax assessed against their property if they're unable to pay any questions Mr chair if there are no questions or concerns I would make the motion to approve the attached resolution declaring a public health nuisance at 11216 senson Lake Lane Mayfield Minnesota second motion by baros second by hog all in favor roll call commissioner coring I commissioner franzine I commissioner barrows I commissioner hog hi commissioner ly I motion carried thank you thank you thank you uh next on the agenda we have some Land Services good morning we have three items for you for your consideration this morning uh the first we have is uh item 9.2 let me make sure I'm on the right part of my agenda here 9.1 excuse me and uh it is the uh preliminary plat of the baker Event Center uh so this uh is the prary plat of the baker vent center located in section 34 of Long Lake Township the request is for three lots is located on the nokasippi river it is located off of Church Road uh which is south of town office State Highway 25 trees could you turn to page 214 so there's the parcel there you can see that uh you got uh 25 why can't I ever find the there we go there it is so we got State 25 here we come down church so it's it's it's at the south end of Church Road and they're basically wanting to um create three lots here if we can go back up to the page before this is a better you can kind of get an idea now what it kind of looks like there with the with the way the parcel sits and then if we can go back to the plat which is on 212 so these are the the is the way that the three lots would lay out um just to be clear this application also included a conditional use permit for an event center which was uh approved by the uh Planning Commission Board of adjustment at well at that meeting on October 17th uh again just to be clear that the um that conditional use permit was approved at the Planning Commission it does not come to the county board for your action that's that action has been delegated to the Planning Commission by the board so today all that you are reviewing is uh the plinary plat of the bakery Event Center uh this uh the plan commission Board of adjustment held a public Hearing in October 17th for the plary plat of the baker Event Center consisting of three lots uh the board recommended anally to the County Board to approve the plary plat based on the finding of the fact that you find in your packet this morning staff have also reviewed the packet the application finding a fact and all the information provided and recommend approval as well i' be happy to answer any questions commissioner coring if that's in your District do you have any questions in regards to that no I I do not have any questions I do have some quite a few constituents actually Chris was nice enough to meet with one uh at the Wings Cafe a week or so ago um they the township was opposed to this event center the all the people on Church Road were opposed to it but it was approved anyway um obviously Chris said we don't have anything to say about that but I will be voting no on this just uh as a protest vote uh obviously it meets all our requirements but uh there's a lot of constituents that are not happy about this event center thanks for asking you're welcome any other questions from the board in regards to this Mr chair if there are no other questions I would make the motion to approve the action presented to us I got to catch up here preliminary PL prelim for the preliminary plat for the baker Event Center second motion by barel second by hog roll call commissioner franzine hi commissioner barels I commissioner hog I commissioner coring no commissioner ly I motion carried now I think number two is your next item on there yes okay uh so the next item on the agenda is another plat um today uh what we're asking to look at is to approve both the plinary plat and the final plat uh this will take two separate motions um to for this uh um review today um and so what you have is again is it's the plat of King Shores this is located in section 26 of bake Township the request is for four individual Lots on Partridge Lake it is located directly off of County Road 10 if we can look at packet page 247 you can see here that uh uh 10 runs north and south um here on Partridge and so if we go back one more page now 246 again you can see the where the 10 runs and this is Partridge Lake over here and basically the if we go back to 245 now excuse me oh very big there's no New Roads plan here is coming off of uh off of K Ro 10 there will be a joint access for these two lots here as you can see I'm trying to minimize the access off of C 10 uh so the Planning Commission held a uh a public hearing on October 17th for the plat of King Shores consisting of uh the four Lots the Planning Commission recommended annely to the County Board to approve the plary plat based on the finding of fact and the packet staff have also reviewed the packet the application all the information provided including the finding of fact and recommend approval as well so if if uh if it pleases the board the first action would be to approve the plenary plat and then a second motion to approve the final plat I be happy to answer any questions any questions not I would make the motion to approve the the pl P plat of King Shores second motion by hog seconded by barrows roll call commissioner barels hi commissioner hog hi commissioner coring hi commissioner franzine I commissioner Ley I motion carried Mr chair I would make the motion to approve the uh final plat for the king's Shores plat plat second motion by Barrow second by hog roll call commissioner hog hi commissioner coring I commissioner franzine hi I commissioner barels I commissioner luy I motion carried thank you thank you thank you Chris thanks Chris next on the the agenda we have the county sheriff I see he is sitting in the back yes would you like to come forward sir good morning Commissioners I don't have anything for you today but I certainly entertain any questions that you might have for me this is obviously our a busy time of the uh year with uh hunting national holiday it seems like nobody wants to work everybody's out honey anybody anybody have any questions for the concerns at all Mr chair yes Mr chair I I do have a comment uh if you remember at Personnel Sheriff playing uh I mentioned we were talking about dogs and uh I believe the sheriff's department has couple of dogs they're not really drug dogs I think they're search dogs is that correct uh they're they're both search and oh they're both y perfect yep so anyway we were talking about that and you know like like this 4 and Master Gardener I think we we the board looks at every detail and we were looking at the expense that the do the dogs cost because the county taxpayers pay for the dog food and I mentioned that maybe we should reach out to Sarah Barrett of Barrett Pet Foods well I actually did reach out to Sarah Barrett and she was very enthusiastic about providing she says you tell us where you want a pallet of food dog food and we'll bring a pallet of dog food they more than happy to donate uh to the uh sheriff's department for those two dogs wow so uh I will Sheriff clang I will send you Sarah's number and you can kind of coordinate with her but they're uh they're really excited about donating and helping out in any way they can great great people commissioner cor I really appreciate that and that that really problem that is the example of uh our community support for uh for our law enforcement here and it's I'm it it amazes me every single day you hear stories like this that's pretty cool if there isn't anything else Sheriff thank you very much appreciate it thank you for being here today absolutely uh County attorney no one is present for the county no one's present okay we'll go on to County Administrator Mr chair Commissioners we did not have a senior management team yesterday because of it being a holiday so we have nothing nothing to report from the senior management team however I do have a couple of items um first of all I have some rather sad news you may have heard that one of our Highway employees passed away last Monday or excuse me Tuesday evening um unexpectedly after having shown some improvement with his health condition so it was quite a shock I believe to all of our staff there we did have some EAP employee assistance opportunities out for the employees at the highway department just to kind of help them talk through some of those issues that were there we do want to send our condolences to the family of Cody Smith um services are coming up yet this week for him so if anyone is interested in that you can get that information as well um and then I see Jory is in the audience and I'm wondering if he would be willing I know it's not on the agenda but if he would be willing to give us a little recap of the election from last Tuesday I have to preface it by saying I told Jory Tuesday night when he was all wrapped up and done by shortly after midnight it was a little too early and too easy for his first election cycle but it was well done so Jory if you want to give us a little update yes thank you uh thank you Commissioners uh we had a very strong voter turnout in Crowing County we had a little over 47,000 uh registered voters that pre-registered before we had a little over 3,400 that registered uh when they came to the polls we had about 15,600 and some absent T in um direct balloting uh votes cast which accounted for about 36% of all uh votes cast in croan County wow so um the um staff did a tremendous job uh administering uh the election all the way through and including after the election we still have some work to do um as uh canvas board meets today at 1:00 and then also the post elction audit on Friday but uh the elections team worked 15 out of 16 days leading up to the election with the SAT two Saturdays before uh and the Saturday and Sunday before the election plus some extended nights so uh Kudos goes out to the elections team uh the finance team for uh stepping in and helping them and we all still got paid and the bills were still paid uh on top of all that work Our IT staff that did a tremendous job uh working all hours of the night to make sure our systems are up and running and protecting us from cyber attacks and our facil ities Department uh that helped uh facilitate getting the election judges from all the precincts that we have uh their equipment and then checking them back in on Election night so um very good effort uh by all and I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have Mr chair if I might I I would just like to compliment all of the judges across the county all of the staff that participated and all of the volunteers that gave time to our election cycle I don't think we can say thank you enough to that group I think it came off done professionally it was done expeditiously I think that's a word it is a word nice word yeah I have but I think I think it was amazing what you folks did so thank you very much um I have a couple comments one is that this is the first time I've been in this position you know Ed here as a county commissioner through a presidential election held here and it was pretty much holy Mar where are these people coming from and and it was really well done and I a friend of mine told me he was here with his wife and he said you know instead of him waiting for breezy he had to go back to the cities and and stuff so he did it right here he said it was he says it was just slick he says he went in there came in and got it done on a personal note my mother-in-law who's 90 years old who can't hardly get out of her house my brother-in-law picked her up brought her over here she he went up and a little bit later couple people come down she was able to vote right from the car and she shared that story with me this weekend and I was thinking like hey cool we're doing it right here in Crowing County so I just want to let you know that really appreciate everything you've done yeah yeah that's great and uh I know our staff appreciates being able uh to help uh Mobility uh people with mobility issues to go and do the curbside voting and allow them to cast their vote uh um we also had uh about 76.3% of the eligible voters in grro turned out and unofficially but uh comparing that to the state it was 75.9% so we were higher than the state average for voter turnout too and hopefully uh along those same lines we even had folks that came into the counter and voted one was a 91-year-old gentleman voting for his first time so first time ever first time ever wow we also heard stories of people that were voting um that had never voted before so we had a lot of first time and and not just the the late teenagers or early 20s uh these were people retirement age that were voting for the first time in this election pretty cool Joy what was the total number of votes um 42 a little over 42,000 I can get that screen up so had highest number of people who have ever voted um the percentage is a little bit less than what the highest percentage was I believe the 2020 percentage was a little bit higher yeah so uh in 2020 comparing the 42612 in uh 2024 compared to 40323 in 2020 good work pretty impressive yeah thank you Jord thank you thank you Mr chair yes could I also uh thank all the staff up there I actually asked Deb for their emails I was going to send them a personal email I I haven't done it yet I'm going to but uh I actually brought Murda up there and myself and we voted and it was just worked really slick and um it just uh they really really worked hard I thought I thought the election went really well um not lot of new voters I you know it's amazing I don't know if it was Kamala Harris or Trump or whatever but Trump carried cro County by just shy of 65% wow that's huge they say 60% is a landslide it was even more than that so it's h huge huge huge thank you thank you Paul Mr chair the other item I have for you today is the petition to vacate part of heartley drive if you recall at your last meeting this was an agenda item that you had and you had asked for some additional information with regard to the uh feedback that came from the highway engineers recommendation to deny the petition you did get some copies of some photos after a site visit that was made and if you have any questions of the highway engineer who went out and did that site visit he is here to answer those questions otherwise we do need some action either to approve or deny the petition do we have that any of that we can bring up on the screen if we could just a little bit um large a little bit I I don't know I know when we talked about it the last time we were asking we were talking even about going out there and making a trip out there um I talked to Rosemary it's in her District I did go out there and do some driving around and then I also um did some homework and went over to Land Services and talked to them about it so if somebody else do you have anything you want to add or bring into it at all no I just like to okay so I'll let you Tee It Up um so uh Mr chair and Commissioners thanks for bringing this up again um since the last County board meeting I did put together a packet for you of information that I I shared with each of you and answered any questions that you may have may have had at the time um just quickly reviewing this these are the two properties the property owner is Mr and Mrs titsy um in unorganized area this is heartley Lake I hope I pronounced that correctly it sound like somebody didn't think I pronounced that correctly uh next slide please uh I'm sorry uh these are the two properties owned uh by the petitioner and this is the area that they identified as uh requesting to be vacated that is includes a portion of a PL added Road and you'll see that on the next slide so I went out and I I looked I went out there also but I also looked at our records and uh the GIS mapping and things like that to determine and come up with this summary of what's going on out there um the two green areas are public roads that are maintained by the first assessment District these are ones that are authorized by this board at at some point uh to receive Public Funding the area in red is a platted area that is not uh there's no Public Road on it and it is privately maintained again this is in contrast to the green this is an area that the Township board or the County board at the time did not accept and that's why no snow plows go out here or anything like that it's not public of maintain but it is a roadway ploted to the public hence the request to vacate I also took an opportunity to try to determine which roads the existing property owners in this area were accessing which primary Road and that is signalized by this um the only one that was um kind of a surprise to me was uh Mr Pio here he does actually come down this private road and utilize this portion of uh heartly Circle to get into these two properties but we don't maintain that at all that's just private I mean it's a dedicated road but we aren't maintaining that red area at all essentially it's acting like a driveway on public property okay similar to What's Happening Here Right in this area um there was uh some discussion about the fence and I don't know if that impacts your decision at all but this is the location the fence and in the photos that follow you should see both sides of it um any questions about this I thought that it was important to at least some of you to know how people were accessing this area as a potential presumably as a potential will this ever Road ever be uh publicly accepted or Advanced to something that becomes uh public ownership the actual roadway itself another thing and I know this is important to someone we've had some discussions about it I mentioned and put on here you it's very tiny but it's a 20 foot easement so on the 20 foot easement is really important because the platted right of way now I'm going to go down to well that's hard it's really tiny uh the platted Road in this particular area is only 46 ft wide so when the person that platted this area in the past I believe it was 1968 had the had the foresight to dedicate enough for a public road so a 20t easement plus 46 ft is 66 6 ft two rods or four rods excuse me uh Road and that is indicated here this is actually the plat of the area I have it and it is the first addition to heartley first addition to heartley Shores and this is actually we in our research this is the only place that we find it officially mentioned other other than some of the public the Deeds for some of these properties uh in this area and if I had I think I showed this last time it's actually mentioned it's not only mentioned in that drawing but it also up in the the citations in the in the top it officially uh mentions the 20 foot uh easement and that is the only so far this is the only record we have of official record of it other than it is mentioned on some deeds and some it's not I know that's what I that's what I was going to allude to when I did by homework and we still believe that it exists it was we could not find and and we have not done an exhaustive research of it uh Maggie in our GIS office in Land Services uh did a little bit of homework and was looking into it she could not find anywhere where that easement was extinguished meaning it was taken away so it was established by this plat we have yet to find anything that has removed it and that is also um it Still Remains on some of those deeds so we feel we believe it's still in place and that certainly can be researched uh much more in depth if it gets to the point where um you agree to vacate because if you do I would suggest that we make sure that it coincides with the the plaed area that's vacated because we still would not want to cut off this area from becoming a public Road in the future and having the width to have it and so in my recommendations I said if you get to that point where you're if you're willing to vacate that area we ask that the petitioner with his legal team to do the research do the proper um legal work to only limit a portion of it but of course we have to get there first so and would you state your recommendation the recommendation is toy to deny okay the the rec Commendation is based on the question that's really in our process and will it in now or in the future could be a transportation asset and that is yes it may not be for a long time but the answer is yes it could be used for a transportation asset in the future and that's the basis of my recommendation and really that's what it kind of boils down to I think on considerations I put together a number of considerations for you um can you advance that for here's some of the pictures y I think you're familiar with if you have any questions about any of those pictures no I I went and looked at it and drove up drove up and down it um let me if there isn't anybody else on the board that has any questions do you have any more questions for if not I will I will start with mine um go back to your first picture if you don't mind the one that you show the map uh right go back next one after that one when I when I was doing my research the uh the Lots above the yellow that is all heartly shores original plat okay uh the heartley shores and then the the other stuff that's been down down below there that's the first addition to heartley Shores and then to the right of that which it doesn't show on the green line that was uh Le's first edition that piece of property there um that that gentleman has has never been in any plat at all it's it's just government lot one and when I looked at his title his title is the same title it was before 65 or the property ID is the same title before 65 and on his property ID it does not show uh 20 foot easement which it would if it was in the plant I can see it but if it was never in the plat it should be on his deed showing that 20ft easement I have no problem if the road is 66 ft wide I do have a problem if we're saying it's 66t wide and it isn't and somewhere down the road we want to put a road in there and we have to buy 20 ft of easement from that gentleman there so that's my that's my homework I did on it again I'm just a I'm just a county commissioner but uh that's no but I mean I'm not I'm not a legal eagle on that but I I have dealt with this this type of situation up in the city I served because we had multiple plats some of those plats were the the roads were already put in 20 ft away from where the plat said the road should be so I've dealt with that before and I've dealt with these so I did a little more deep homework and I looked at his title the title for that property he has on this side that's in the first edition that's all fine the 46 ft is all showing there the 20ft easement on that government lot one is not showing on their title even though it shows in the plat but that plat was done way after that piece of property was done so that's my only question if it is 66 foot I have no problem if it's 46t just in that area I don't know why we would want to take it over so that's my or keep it in our thing I would think with everything we have in the unorganized territory with so many things that have been done over years I mean this is 50 years old this was done 65 first one was 65 the second one was 68 the one next to it was done in 79 that government lot one there has been there before any of that's been there so I would expected to see it on the on the gentleman's title um that easement being on there and it wasn't so that would be my only question so but I'll stand for the ruling of the board Mr chair um and Tim by not vacating this doesn't mean we're taking over this road we're just not vacating the plat so I think your question is kind of different than what we're doing today yeah yeah and and I did check and and he did improve that driveway and we are taxing him for that Improvement in his driveway that he put on supposedly not his property so that was all I had so still um um it's in front of us so ask for uh we have any questions nope okay I I would make the motion to deny the VAC this vacation for this part of hurtley Drive second motion made in second all in favor signify by saying oh roll call I commissioner coring I commissioner franzine I commissioner barrels I commissioner hog I commissioner luy no motion carries thank you thank you Mr chair that's all I had today and unless anyone has any questions for me consider do we have to to do a roll call to adjourn the meeting yes yes okay Mr Mr chair if there are no other questions I would make the motion to adjourn second motion by Barrow seconded by franzine all in favor roll call commissioner franzine I commissioner barrows absolutely commissioner hog hi commissioner coring absolutely ly before I say anything nice seeing you back here theres thank you okay I we are adjourned second