sound like it's hard. Good morning everyone. At this time, I'll call the Crowing County Committee of the Whole meeting for August 19th, 2025 to order. First up today, we have the Crowing Master Gardener Program. So, if you folks would like to come up and
give us your presentation. Tony, no. Who's leading it? Britney, Dan, Jennifer, one of you. Let Tony get started. Just a few uh remarks before I turn it over to my colleagues. Good morning, Mr. Chair and Commissioners, Tony Hansen,
Regional Director with the University of Minnesota Extension. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today with the master gardeners here in Crowing County. The mission of the University of Minnesota Extension is to make a difference by connecting community needs and university resources
to address critical issues here in Minnesota. The Crowing County Master Gardener Program has continued to have a significant impact across Crowing County, serving county residents and providing many educational programs and resources.
As you hear the update from this team today, I encourage you to consider if there are other ways that the University of Minnesota Extension can be of service to Crowing County residents, either through the Master Gardener program or our other extension programs. I sincerely appreciate the board's
continued support and engagement with the Master Gardener program. Without your support, all of the good things that you're hearing today would not be possible. So, thank you very much for that. Any questions before I turn it over to my colleagues? Questions? Thank you, Tony.
Dan, welcome. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and commissioners uh for the time today. Um, as master gardeners, uh, as Tony outlined, uh, we're here to serve the people of Crowing County, and we could
not do that without the support that we receive from the county, and in particular this body. uh the support you've given us by providing us with Britney over the last few years has been instrumental in our ability to do many
of the programs and have the impact that we have been having over uh the last few years. Uh so I'm going to talk to you about what really was sort of the start of our growth trajectory. Uh in 2019 we had
about 40 master gardeners in the county. Today we have 80 active master gardeners. We've been growing anywhere between 8 and 10 master gardeners every single year since then. And in large part that's because of the volunteerism
that we're doing within the county that resonates with the people who are are joining the program. And the other thing that's happening within the county in our particular program is the average age of our master gardeners has been
dropping precipitously. As we're doing more volunteer work, we're getting younger and younger people joining the program, many of whom are still working, but they like what we're doing for the people of the county because it's their
neighbors, their friends that are being impacted by by what we're doing. First program we're going to talk about is the community giving project started at the Northland Arboritum which you're all aware of. We have a large garden there and in fact we hope that uh some
or all of you can come out and see us tomorrow at our annual open house. Um at that uh space we have a number of projects that are all uh sort of the nexus is there. The first is we have
bedding plants that we start each year for projects across projects across the county. Uh so far we've done about 2,300 uh bedding plants that our master gardeners have started in their own homes and then delivered to us at the
Northland Arboritum. We've done 975 patio gardens, which is the second prong of our uh community giving project. And my wife Jennifer is going to talk to you about that one. That's her passion. Uh we do youth gardening classes. We've so
far taught 61 youth uh basic horicultural skills, setting them off on a path toward uh being able to sustain themselves through gardening. Then we also teach adult gardening classes. Uh
so far 91 students over the years. Uh we have 26 gardeners for example this year uh that are learning horicultural skills and frankly a number of them each year join our program because they see what
we're doing uh at the rest of the gardens and they learn to love gardening. Uh and then the highlight where where it all really started was our giving garden project which is about a third of the gardens uh at the
Northland Arboritum we devote to growing food for uh people in Crowing County. Since we started this project, we've done over 16,000 or 8 tons of fresh produce that's been delivered across the
county to various food shelves. Okay, this does not want to advance. If you could help me. Okay, so here's a picture of our youth gardening. Uh, as you can see, uh, very young students all the way up to 15 years old that we teach
there. Um, some of these students actually go on to join our adult gardening classes and learn different skills as they're going along. Uh, here's the adult program. Uh, in
this program, we have people from 16 to I think the oldest member we've ever had is 83 years old. Uh, that's come and learned how to garden. Uh, I point out the the picture of the young woman in the middle with the big smile holding a
zucchini. She started this year saying, "I don't care if you have to go to the grocery store and buy a zucchini and tape it on to a zucchini plant. I just want to grow a zucchini." Well, at this point, she's getting so much zucchini,
she doesn't know quite what to do with it all. So, I think we've been successful in getting her her first zucchini. Uh and then the rest of the gardeners you can see there are having a good time. Uh when you when you see people learning and smiling like that,
you know that you're having an impact on their lives. Next slide. So this is at the Northland Arboritum. We also have a giving garden at CLC in one of the uh enclosed atriums that they
have there. It's a relatively small one, but it serves the students at CLC. Uh it's run by a master gardener. We also have one registered uh master gardener uh giving garden in the the state or in
the county. Um although many of our master gardeners in their personal gardens will grow excess produce and they'll bring it into the Northwindland arburidum for us to distribute to the rest of the food shelves and the partner organizations where we deliver this is
is broad across the county. It's the Salvation Ar army, Garrison, Cailluna, Cross Lake food shelves, Pequat, Emily, CWC, CLC, the Relationship Alliance. As
you can see, we try to touch everybody that we possibly can within the county. At this next slide, at this point, our totals for 2024 so far, uh, last year were 4,500 lb. It's
been building up over time. Uh, that's about 9,000 servings of fresh vegetables that were delivered. Uh we used the uh average cost from last year for a pound of food purchased at by food shelves,
which is $2 a pound of food. So we think that we contributed about $9,000 worth of fresh produce to the people of the county. Since 2020, as you can see, the numbers are substantially bigger. 16,000 lbs of
food, 32,000 uh servings, and over 3 uh2,000 worth of fresh produce that we delivered that the food shelves didn't have to divert funds to buy for the people in Crowing County. At this point,
I'm going to turn it over to Jennifer. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. So, as Dan alluded to, we have a patio garden. So rather than having um our residents go to the food shelf etc. we have the organizations that we
partnership or have a partnership with to deliver these patio gardens to people who can't garden whether they are incapable because of space uh physical limitations um or just they didn't know how to
garden. They didn't have that expertise, but they get a small patio garden. And this last year, we donated or distributed 246 patio gardens, whether they were pepper, eggplant, uh tomato. We do lettuce bowls that once the lettuce is done, they get
I know this is kind of funny, five beans. They're magic beans. And they can plant those, their green beans, and then they can grow a second crop. And it's kind of fun because when we hear the stories that come back, which I'll share in a minute, a couple of them, that's
what's exciting to us. The average commercial value last year, I had quoted it as $18. You know, we did find that at one of the local stores. I brought it down to $15 cuz $15 is a pretty good
pretty nice size tomato plant, etc. That's a total of over $3,000 just in the patio gardens that we've been able to distribute across the county to recipients of uh Hartwood or Cailluna Medical. Um it's the senior living home
instead Garrison both the senior center and the food shelf Peekquat Lakes and Cross Lake food shelf. Cailluna Social Workers, uh, uh, Crowing County, uh, Women, Infant, Children, and Social Services, who, you know, I mean, it's th
that's a story to tell, um, in a minute. Veterans Administration, Emily Food shelf, and Habitat for Humanity. One of the stories about our relationship with Crowing County with the social services or with um women
infant children is there is a group um that are young mothers. It's a small group within the social services realm who last year received um patio gardens and apparently they have a private Facebook page and they share their
growth of their tomato, pepper, whatever plants that they're growing along with their children. They show these pictures within that group. And so their representative contacted me and said, "Is it possible they could get two?" Because they got so excited last year um
to grow salsa, you know, tomatoes and peppers. And I said, "I think we can make that happen for you." And she said, "You know, last year it was really fun because I actually got like a standing ovation from this group of seven women. Our hope is maybe we've got some future
gardeners in the in in the 2026 2027 whether it's youth or whether it's the parent coming to join us those are the stories we love. Uh, next slide. And you can see the pictures from all of
our various um partners coming to get. And I tell you, it's a it's a troop. When they come in, we are loading up those trucks and uh cars with multiple um patio gardens and and containers, and
they get pretty pretty uh close with their plants. Next slide. again showing just some more of the recipients. Um they get uh instructions to pass off to the recipients um so that
they know how to garden them, how to water them, etc. And then the next slide. So from Habitat from Humanity, we we provide uh the gardens to the new residents that we were built last year because we know that they're not in the
construction mode right now, but they maybe don't have a garden. They maybe don't even have a yard at this point. But to be able to give a patio garden so that they can start understanding how that garden works and love their house even more is rewarding.
The Veterans Administration, they provide the plants to their volunteer drivers and the veterans who really appreciate it. And what a great thing because we all know that growing something gives you that that sense of pride,
sense of satisfaction and just the sense of calmness that gardening and loving something can do. So to be able to pass that on to others so that they can appreciate it is something that we love to do and we are
honored to be here with you and have your support in our mission. So with that I'm going to turn it over to our superpower Brittney Gorgus. Thank you commissioners and thank you Dan and Jennifer. Um really I Dan and
Jennifer exemplify what it is to be a master gardener volunteer. Uh they go clearly go above and beyond in their endeavors and really with the community giving project focus on their passion which is uh access to local food in
Crowing County and we have 78 volunteers um maybe not quite as devoted as them but nearly as devoted as them in the county. uh they touched on our growth over the past years uh from just 40 in
2019 to now 80 active volunteers doing uh projects at 33 locations countywide. Um next slide. And it really shows the mission of the program is to have volunteers that take the knowledge from the University of
Minnesota and the direction from the county extension committee and address needs in their community. Uh so we have a breakdown of uh the number of master gardener volunteers per district and really volunteers want to do
projects that are close to home and make a difference in their community. One example is we have an intern this year who just moved here from Illinois and is living in Dearwood and on her own got involved in feeding at the community
table at St. Joseph's in Crosby and then also joined the master gardener volunteer program and is doing the giving garden and has been bringing food, harvesting on Monday mornings and then going and feeding people Monday night with the fresh foods from the
gardens. Uh so that's just one example of a volunteer taking their passion, seeing a need and leveraging the knowledge of the U. Uh next slide please. A few other examples of projects outside
of food access. This was in 2024. We funded $1,000 worth of plants and assisted with the installation at the new roundabout in Crosby. Next slide. Uh a lot of our projects are, you know,
we have the community giving gardens where we're always involved, always maintaining, but part of my job is to serve as a point, you know, not only coordinate the efforts of the volunteers, but also manage our communication channels and be a point of contact for organizations. Uh so this
past year, we oversaw some installation of new gardens, including at the women's center at Teen Challenge. Uh we've continued our strong partnership with my neighbor to love and installed gardens and provided the plants for their new um
12plex uh lighthouse beginnings, the breezy point community gardens and port group homes are all examples of projects where the organization reached out and said we're not quite sure how to get this off the ground or how to get this garden started for our residents. So we give them the knowledge to get the
garden started and then they take it from there. Next slide, please. Uh water quality is another important thing in Crowing County. Of course, we partner with uh soil and water. Uh had them speak at our library series. We
also put forward any plantings that WAOA does to our volunteers so they can go assist with um shoreline restorations. And then we also have a couple volunteers that are very involved with lake associations and do educ educational presentations to lake
associations. Next slide, please. Another project I just wanted to highlight from this past year was we did a planting at Eagle View with their summer library reading program. So we had 144 youth do plantings at Eagle View
this past summer. Next slide. Uh we're also here to provide answers to the public whenever they have horiculture questions. We've continued our library presentation series at Brainer. We had 459 attendees in 2024.
Our helpline is always available to citizens. We had 45 calls in um 2024. So with, you know, I think with Google available to people, it's still amazing that they call and get those answers that are specific to our area and our
community. Uh we just launched a quarterly newsletter. We had uh like 98% views of the first newsletter that we sent out. So 1488, which I was pretty excited about, and we're looking forward to continuing that educational
andformational um subscription. And then ask the master gardener booth. I know along with a lot of the commissioners, we were at the fair this past year and we had uh 800 contacts or conversations with people that we recorded about their gardening or their
yard questions. Um probably the most common this year was blight on tomatoes with all the rain. So next slide. Uh just a couple picture other projects to highlight and end with. There's Dan
and Jennifer presenting to um CRMC senior living. We have a new project launching at CLC which is um going to be an indigenous garden and in partnership with Mary Sam, the wellness and equity director there uh which will be
maintained by students. And we uh also sit on the food shelf coalition. So we have, you know, we want to help address food access, but we really need to know from organizations what would be most helpful helpful for them. Uh, next
slide, please. So then to wrap up, uh, I'd like to invite you all to our open house, I think, uh, tomorrow 11 to 1. The children will just be getting out of the garden. So you, if you come at 11:00, you'll be seeing them leaving with their harvest bags full of produce.
Uh so we we have invited all of our stakeholders and partner organizations to join us that day. Uh so I know Commissioner Barrow said he can make it. Commissioner Lovekkey said he has a conflict. So thank you guys for your responses and for your support. Uh any
questions? No questions. I just a remark couple things. First of all, the map where you show what you've done in the county and how you've expanded services since I came on board as a commissioner, that's impressive and it continues to grow and the partnerships continue to
grow. So, I appreciate that very much because that was a directive that I thought was missing at the time and you guys have taken that and embraced it. So, I appreciate that. I can't say enough about those kids. When I go out there and I see them and their faces and you know, initially they're a little bit
bashful, but the minute you ask them to show you what they've grown in that, they just go like ducks. I'll stop there. But they are so proud of what they have and what they've accomplished. And so it's just rewarding to to see the
impact that that has on those kids. So, thank you very much for all you folks do. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. We're going to move on to
number three. Um, is Kathy online or should be the Crowing County Fair Association? Is Kathy Stevens online? Okay, we'll move on then to number four,
which would be Carrie. Good morning, Mr. Chair and Commissioners. I'm here today to discuss the uh Blade opioid uh grant funding.
We recently completed our round two of grant funding. Um this occurred two weeks ago I believe um in which we reviewed we being um many members of the blade opioid coalition reviewed um grant
applications and the grantees made their presentations uh to the group. um we each person or entity uh scored the grant applications and so what's in front of you today are those that are approved um by the coalition or
scored highly by the coalition. You'll see there are um 11 grants that are uh submitted for your potential approval and uh the Blade Opioid Coalition is asking for your review today and
hopefully approval at the board meeting next week. I recently sent just this morning additional scoring information. Um so you have that in front of you as well as the total grant amount. Um, with these
11 grants, it totals $23,000. I know you had approved $200,000. So, that's also up for your consideration. And I am here for any questions. Okay. Just for clarification, so the other board members, there's a 20 there
was a $20,000 cap per application. Correct. Correct. Yes. And then there was a $200,000 limit limit for all of them. Correct. Correct. And we're at 203 for the top 10 vote getters. Correct. Top. Yeah. 11. I think it is. Is it 11?
Right. Thought it was 10. It's 11. 11. Okay. So, just so that all the board knows that that's what was how the scoring went, I guess, is how I would say it.
Um, so is if there's any questions from my perspective. I I'll just say this upfront. I'm not going to change the goalpost in the middle of the process. So the 200,203 doesn't bother me, but um I don't want
to change the goalpost at this point. So I'm going to for from my perspective, I'm leaving my consideration at that 203 number. Um, I don't know how the others feel, but I don't like changing the game plan in
the middle when everybody use that as their starting point. So, any questions for Cara? U, Mr. Chair, um, the only question I have is you have Breezy Point listed as
number one and is that still in play there? So that is for the um emergency equipment request that Breezy Point made um as a part of the grant funding. It's not the community they made. Okay, good.
Thank you for clarification on that, Karen. I have a question for you. Would you like it on the regular agenda or consent agenda? Reference. Consent. consent.
Think that's it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you, Kathy. Come up. I think we scared them all.
No, not Eric. He's back. Good morning, Kathy. Morning. Thank you for seeing me this morning. I'm here for two reasons. One is to ask for permission to add on to our livestock arena. according to our lease, we have to have uh written permission from the from the uh county
board to add on to it. The second one is to show you some of the positive things that have been going on at the fair. I know some of you have had conversations with some of the board members that haven't been exactly positive. So, I
wanted to show you what we've been doing first of all. And I've had unbeliev unbelievable support from the community and we've uh when I've asked for donations, they've been designated donations. So if I need money for for ventilation, that's what the money goes
for. And they've been pretty pleased to know that the money just doesn't go into a pot. So it might be hard to see, but the ones in green are the things that have been totally funded like new pens in the livestock arena. That was 13,600
fully funded. Uh this is the ventilation. That's over 5,000. That's fully funded. And two AEDs. The townships are very helpful on those. And uh so is Crosby Hospital. Uh this one is uh new picnic tables for the veterans
garden. We need to widen the doors on the barns so we can get the manure spreader through there. We've got 30 new rabbit cages funded. a man cage or it's man basket. I call the cage a man basket because we did have one of our workers
fall out of the bucket and end up on his head on the ground. So right away we got a man cage customuilt and then curtains to put up on one side of the building. Now the unfunded would be the addition and this is the addition. It' be a 10 by
80 that will go between the livestose barn and the arena. we ran out of space and that's one thing that most fairs don't have a problem with. So, um, those two have not been. Then we also want new picnic tables because ours
are pretty heavy and they're hard to move around. And then we are threeear planned. We need new asphalt in the entire fairground. It's cracked. It's it's a hazard to even walk on. Okay. Then, um,
we want to replace the windows. is the administration building. It's totally totally full of flies every spring. It's terrible because the windows are old. That building's been there since 1962. Does that keep them out of the other building though? Yeah, if they're in your building.
Yeah, the arena is a little problem. We use a lot of flats there. Okay. Then we need to build a new workshop so the guys don't have to wait until it's not raining to change lawnmower blades and work on equipment and things like that. And then a heavy duty trailer to haul the tractor when it needs repair or the
other heavy equipment. So we don't have to drive it clear through town or backs through the Midwest machinery. And it usually breaks down during the IR weekends. So those are basically what um we have going on. This is
supposed to be fun the addition. Any questions? So, you're asking for permission, Kathy? Yes, we have some written permission according to our lease. So, do you have a document that we would sign off on?
No. Well, I thought maybe you just send us a letter grant information. I I don't know how this works, right? So before we get to that, is there any concerns about giving permission to make that addition?
Go ahead, Commissioner. What would it Kathy? What would it entail? I mean, it's not building a building, is it? Or is it is it It's a lean to take addition onto what? on onto the uh livestock arena on the side where the the goats and the sheep or the pigs usually are.
Oh, okay. Okay. So, it'll it'll have a 10 by 80 cement pad and then the tends to be on and then there'll be a 4ft walkway so they can take their animals out. Yeah, I don't I don't see anything wrong with it. You know, I will say the fair
association. Uh well, I I call it the agricultural society because that's I believe what the proper term is they have maintained this. I used to be on the fair board way back in the 80s and the the fair board
has maintained all those facilities. I can remember when they used to be uh um his last name was Gilbertson Ruth was his wife's name. She was involved with the fair and we used to
shingle the roofs every 20 years. Now they're all everything's tin and they used to I I I did a lot of painting out there because it used to be just tongue and groove and uh now they've done a great job I think in maintaining those buildings and uh I don't I don't see any
issue with this. I think we've got a really nice fairgrounds. Okay. So there's no objections. Amber, if you would ask Debbie when she gets back or somebody to help with putting together that permission letter.
Yeah. And um put that on consent. Yes. And and we have this is what you're asking for permission of. So we have a pretty clear definite what you're asking for. Okay. So that's all good.
Very good, Kathy. Thank you. That was short and sweet. And thank you. find the for the financial statements. I've never really seen one from the fair board. So, yes, I will be previewing that. Thank you.
He's he's a numbers guy. Really? Maybe in front of I did the budget, so we'll see. Number four. Yeah, I'm number That's number five. Yeah. Oh, and Paul. No, no, I'm actually number two. I'm number one. He's number two.
Talking about longevity. Forget what they're saying. It's about longevity. All right. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you. Yep. Sheriff, what do you got to say today? I I had nothing for you today. Was a quiet weekend. Funny games. It was relatively quiet,
was it? Yeah. Nothing. Lot of action with the uh Vort, but yeah. Did anybody take you up on the ride to go riding around the fair to the No, you did. You should have. But if you've never been out there, it's it's
impressive to see all those campers and motor homes that are just packed in there. I've been out there numerous times. So, yeah. Well, we're glad they were full and that it was event free. Yes.
I guess so. If there's nothing else, I will quick call the adjournment. You probably have PTSD. You want me to go back in there? That's exactly what he brought that up.
I were just wondering about it cuz I've seen plenty out there. I'm good for a while. other.