the um croing County Committee of the whole meeting together and our first presentation is by Cara and Rachel and Tammy good morning Commissioners um Tammy lck Adult Services manager um over
at community services and um yes with me today is Rachel zida and U Rachel supervises our adult mental health um substance use disorders and our housing programs and she will be leading our presentation today because she is definitely one of our um experts in the
in the way of housing so she's going to be doing a presentation on our point in time count all right well good morning Commissioners thank you so much for taking the time to hear this information um so I'm going to share um an annual um point and time count with you guys um so
I think the first question you have is what is the point and time count so the point in time count is an annual count of individuals that are experiencing homelessness this is a nationwide count it happens every year um usually within
the 10 last um days in January which is awesome for our um State as you can imagine it gets pretty cold during that time um so like I said it happens every year and this information is the snapshot it's just trying to kind of get an A an estimate about how many
individuals may be experiencing homelessness in our community um so the purpose of this point in time count um is to kind of identify gaps and funding opportunities um and to make informed decisions about you know what a community may need to serve our unhoused um population so I just want to clarify
a couple of definitions um so as we move through the report I'll be talking about a couple different definitions um so one is our homeless counts so that is um by HUD they use the federal definition so what that means um if someone is in this category is they lack a fixed shelter so
they don't have a permanent place to stay um they may be staying in emergency shelter um they may be staying in a car on the streets in a fish house storage shed so any place that may not be considered as a permanent residence so that is the federal definition so
Minnesota takes it one step further and we also count individuals that are um doubled up or couch hopping you may have heard that term before and if someone's in that category they're basically staying with a family or friend or somebody on a temporary basis so they don't have any permanent
ties to that location they're just kind of staying there for a short period of time so those are the two definitions of homelessness that we'll work through in this report so if you go to the next slide um so our state is broken up into different um Continuum of Care so what a
Continuum of Care is it's a local planning body that consists of um individuals community providers um to kind of identify um services and our needs within our community so croing county is in our Central Continuum of Care region and that our central region
consists of 13 counties so on this chart here I have all of our counties listed out um so as you can kind of just look at this chart here um so Sterns County you know we know that's a pretty large population um they're one of the highest individuals that um or counties that had
um a high count in this year so they counted 885 individuals that were both homeless and doubled up and then when you look at the next um number it is so we're second in our Continuum so we counted a total of 215 individuals on
the night of January 24 uh 24th 24 um so in the 13 counties were're second highest and Then followed by that is Pine County with 186 um individuals that were counted on that night so moving into the Crowing County specific
data like I said um we had counted a total of 250 individuals experiencing homelessness in our County um 81 of those were staying in some form of emergency shelter or transitional housing um so the emergency shelter you know could have been the you know the
warming shelter that we have um it could be a hotel or motel voucher paid by an agency um so those are kind of you know what we classify emergency shelter transitional housing is a temporary housing option um they're only able to stay there for a short period of time so
if they're in that um residency um they are still considered um homeless and then we counted 54 individuals that were unsheltered so they were staying you know on our streets fish houses um storage sheds cars things like that and
then we had counted 80 individuals that were doubled up on that night and then you kind of have a percentage breakdown too for those that like percentages but when you kind of look at it doubled up in our Emergency Shelters are very very close in percentage wise and then our
unsheltered count is at 25% of our total number any questions you move on from that one so I guess I'm curious on how who's counting and how do you how do you know how do you know somebody's doubled
up this it's just like self reporting or I I I guess I don't know how you can come up with the numbers y if somebody in a emergency shelter yes I can do a headcount there but I don't understand and how do you know 54 people
are unsheltered yep that's a great question I know it is y well a question that a lot of people have right CU it's like like a high number yep so the annual point in time count is a coordinated effort with you know service providers
Volunteers in our community um so we have a survey that we complete so we train volunteers and providers um to administer the survey so we've done it multiple different ways so we've actually like been out on the streets you know trying to find individuals or you know trying to you know identify
people that way we've never had a good count cuz you know I mean we kind of have a large County um it takes time driving from place to place to place so what has been the most effective to get you know a more accurate count is um lots of planning efforts working with Community providers individuals that you
know they're already working with and they know that they are experiencing homelessness um so you know within the county I'll talk about specifically we work with the probation um agents um our family team our adult service team so they've already been identified you know
throughout the year because we're already working with them and we know where they're at um and then also too with other community providers you know they already have them identified and then they may know somebody too so you know when we you know do a survey with an individual who is on house like do
you know anyone else they like oh yeah I know so and so so it's a lot of word of mouth and Community organization so did that answer your question and this counts not really I think this is a complicated issue but I I got to say that I'm I'm concerned about it and I have talked to I don't know if I've
talked to you Deborah I've talked to I talked to somebody about uh people that are you know I don't know if they're homeless or what they're doing but they're camping on County Land and and especially this happening down uh below this uh
Evergreen Cemetery which is city land and county land and they're staying there and you know I I don't know if it matters if if your department goes there and says hey we'll help you some people don't want any help and they want to continue to stay there and I don't think
we can let that happen because they're they're making a mess that needs to be cleaned up and if they don't want help but they can't stay there you know and something something needs to be done I talked I I either talked to Gary or I
talked to somebody that we need we need uh an ordinance or something to make sure that um because I think there is a rule that somebody can camp on County property for 14 days but then they have to move oh no we just talked about that
at the inra committee that okay so now it's coming back to me but I I think this is something we got to look into and because I think if you make it attractive for people they're going to just they're going to come here and then we're going to have a problem I watched the city council meeting the whole in Brainard and they're trying to get ahead
of this and give the police the tools that they need to take care of this if this starts to get out of control yeah you know I think um we have been I think this is the count part of it and then that we work with other
agencies in the community so it's not just us out counting the individuals that we find and this is what creates the funding and the grant grants for um rural development you know for the house for housing for people right in our community and so you know in regards to
the encampments we have been working very closely with our local law enforcement we have our social workers that are also out there working we have our housing team Rachel they've set up a housing response to talk about the individuals that we know that are homeless experiencing homelessness during the time that our shelter is not
open um we don't have the option to have them go to the shelter during the um summer months at this time our shelter um that Bridges of Hope um offers to the community again in Community Partnership with all of us um is only open typically
from the end of September through the end of April and so I think that too has led somewhat to I think we always had some camping going on of our homeless population and I agree with you commissioner coring that there are some people that are definitely harder for us
to house or maybe aren't ready um that's one of the things that Rachel and I have been working on is we've had a number of recovery homes that have opened in our community but not everybody is ready for Recovery or wants to be in recovery and so those individuals typically won't
pick a recovery home we lost our board and Lodge that Berg dollars was running for many years that was another option for people who really truly like I said didn't want to be maybe in recovery right now and it gave them a place it gave them a roof over their head and gave them a place to stay um we are
trying to look at um providers that may have an interest in serving our long-term homeless population because as you just said our law enforcement is aware of these individuals our agency is aware of them too I think right now the housing response team has right around
seven 15 to 17 individuals that they're currently actively working with that we know are are homeless today um and those are some of the people that have some real challenges and barriers to getting into long-term housing and I would just say that I I want to be on the front end
of this in case it starts to be one of the city council people last night said I don't want to be on The Cutting Edge I want to be in the middle of the pack well no that's not how Crowing County operates we want to try to be ahead of the if there's a potential issue we want
to be ahead of that and have some ordinances or have some rules that that this doesn't get out of hand because if it gets to be a large encampment I mean all you got to do is go to these big cities there's drugs there's just a lot of bad stuff going on there and I'm not
I'm as long as I'm sitting up here I'm I we can't let that happen we can't let that start to happen and get away from us yeah and that again speaks to that housing response team and um Lighthouse Beginnings open the day Center that offers some you know day activity day um
a place for people to go that's a healthy environment that they can be get out from the Sun and and be someplace that they can um you know have fresh water and food and you know and I think the other thing we have to remember is that Brainard and Baxter are the Hub of where our resources are that is where
our soup our soup kitchen is and um I think people will stay closer to those resources our Salvation Army and um so I think you know just keep that in mind and and we are completely aware that there's been a lot of conversations going on even with the individuals that
we know are um camping or you know are out in the community with the keeping the areas clean following rules if you're asked to leave moving on so we are um along with law enforcement uh really trying to um
stay ahead of that and I'm hopeful you know you know because I'm not afraid to say what's on my mind you know this might ignite we'll probably have a whole bunch of protesters here holding signs like they were at the brainer city council meeting last night which I don't know that just seemed kind of odd to me
like it was organized or something but um anyway I guess that's all I've got to say on that I'll I'll try to shut up and listen to the rest of the presentation okay sherff I might like to and I appreciate what you're saying commissioner coring because I think that
with this problem we need to be open to whatever the solutions might be and uh there could be costs that are associated with it but we need to be open to it if we want to address it we can't just make rules and ordinances that will address
it they need a place to stay that's the the ultimate goal is to get them into a place where they can stay we also have to acknowledge that there will be a percentage of this group that will never comply to anything and they will do whatever they're going to do and we
can't solve it 100% that's frustrating for Community Services where you want to solve everybody's problem yeah so we have to be willing to acknowledge that and that will continue to be a battle as we go on we hope to minimize that as much as we possibly can the other thing
is as a as a point in time count there's probably a lot more out there than what these numbers are reflecting correct and I think we have to acknowledge that that again this is one one nights M it's a snapshot y it
doesn't actually reflect reality in our County MH yeah thank you for that um and yeah the next slide I just kind of did historical picture and as you can see we are moving up in all areas um so you know more people are staying in emergency shelter transitional and you
know more people are are unsheltered and doubled up um but to both of your points Commissioners um yes we do have to get ahead of it and yes we do have to invest so communities um you know Across the Nation or states that have addressed this and got down to basically what's
called zero homelessness have had strong investments in housing and programming to support our individuals um establishing rules and regulations sometimes have had a negative effect in some communities I need to clarify that um but you know that investment in
housing and programming has been the most successful to reduce homelessness in their communities maybe as an example of that you know if we think and and I think too just thinking about our count and obviously we didn't have a shelter a number of years ago um and we started
that I think in 2021 I think the fall of 2021 and you know and we were talking about how even this housing response team that we have a better we're able to make um contact with these individuals where in the past we didn't always we weren't always able to do that and that
has been helpful for us to getting people housed um Lighthouse Beginnings has been very successful with um housing a number of individuals that have been um experiencing homelessness or um have been considered long-term homeless so again just having those types of
programs in our community can be really helpful to addressing this problem you know the shelter um I know there's been some resistance on that or was um but I can just tell you that our law enforcement and our agency have really appreciated
having an opt an option for people um we have people that are released late in the day from our County Jail that don't have a place to go and sometimes that is you know a very viable option for them especially when it's um winter and we're we're trying to figure out what to do um there's been individuals found in
laundromats or in our gas stations or in a car with no place to go and so this has really given our community an option a safe option for people who are experiencing homelessness and this is real in our community so um we just thank you for um letting us bring this
data to you and we welcome your questions and we know that it's um a complex tough topic and um we just want you to um feel that you can um ask us questions and we wanted to put the data in front of you so you can see it what one other comment that I have is you
know I've you know commissioner hog and I go to lunch we've talked about this housing stuff multiple multiple times you know how how do we take care of it you know I I haven't you know you know necessarily been a a fan
of the Housing Trust Fund but I've thought about different you know ideas and bounced them off a Doug but you know here's here's one idea and this might sound really stupid but I don't really care uh think so you know what about if
you had kind of visualize this if you had a a plot of land and it probably would have to be in the city of Brainard or backer or whatever have you and you you develop it in a different way so it's a whole community of small tiny
houses so that it's it's when you come in the door it's kind of like a studio where it I mean it's so small where you could it's uh not that expensive to build not like building a giant house or a big giant apartment building with
elevators and everything it's tiny little houses so every person has their own individual little house but it's like a studio apartment and it's just like a small little community of those little houses there and where either
somebody I don't know if it would be ownership or if they would rent them because you know the rents are getting absolutely insane I don't know how anybody can afford to pay rent I mean I talked to somebody they were paying $1800 a month that's absolutely
insane where where you could find some rents that would be like5 or $600 or something like that I don't know I I just think that would be an idea that and and and we talk about home ownership it's so important for somebody to own
their own home and let's say this is in this is in some plot where you have it and they actually own their house they own that little tiny house you know it isn't it isn't much but it's a starter place you know so I I don't know that's just an idea that i' I've floated it by
Doug and and uh you know and I think that's what um we have had some providers in our community that have um definitely been interested in that and have really the Creekside Community is an example of that um where they really did focus on those that had been
experiencing long-term homelessness and you know I think the go the idea there originally was to have more homes um you can maybe speak to how many homes they have over there and MH yep so commissioner coring I have to say you made me smile did I you did yes you know
if you go down and even to expand on it what's the name of that on Oak Street down there where you turn down there the development that we that kind of went broken brainer oak oak if you drive into Brainard Oaks it kind of reminds me of that but it would even actually be a
smaller version you know those are kind of like big three-bedroom houses but they're really close together and I just Envision it like that except sized down yes so you you get a lot of those little houses on a plot of land M anyway just
it's just yeah no that's a actually a fabulous idea and we do have a lot of developers or um agencies that are interested in doing that and we do have individuals who are experiencing homelessness that want that our challenge has been kind of the zoning so that would be a wonderful opportunity
if I can do an ask like maybe that's something that you know we could use your help on to you know approve resoning so that that project would be allowed because we do have interest to develop something like that but I think it some it would have to be somewhere where there's water and swer I mean the
county you know I know that some people that are running for office are saying develop all the county land no that's that doesn't necessarily it has to be somewhere in the right spot because CU I'm visiting these places really they wouldn't have their own septic system
and they wouldn't have their own well they'd have City water and city sewer so anyway we do have a that was um Vicky Kenny's original Dream but it with the zoning on the property she wasn't allowed to do that um yep it would be um but I can tell you
I have had um individuals in our northern part of the county and Emily and Pat area that have expressed interest in in doing something like that so I mean it would be outside of you know it would be in the County area MH
so there's interest so I have a question here in regards to if everybody else are you done just make you're not interrupting me okay just want to make sure um so in the double UPS you know that you that you should have a pretty good number of
what those double ups are because people are reporting that somebody either HS a home and somebody's you know using some rooms not not an apartment per se it just they're doubling up in the person's house it could be an apartment too it could be in an apartment too they're
doubling up in that is it is in those cases it's not a homelessness per se is it because they can't find a place to stay is that what maybe is is what's happening in the double UPS it's still a form of homelessness um the state
recognized it way back in the they had recognized doubled up as being homeless but now they've kind of just you know classified those who are you know unsheltered Street Homeless um but it is a form of homeless and one of the main reasons you know they're in that situation is one the affordability and
two not able to find something we have you know pretty low vacancy rates you know in our County it's a nationwide problem but just the lack of available housing um is a main contributor to and these people aren't looking for a home they're even looking for an apartment an affordable apartment or something to be
in yep any thing yeah and so what Paul was talking about you know the mini home or the tiny home in a development type situation would fit kind of fit into that role it would MH okay okay absolutely okay thank you yep I didn't have anything else is there anybody else
wouldd like to I I would only say that commissioner corings made me smile also uhoh well I just would say that you know Doug and I have been talking about it and I just
mhm um you know I know I'm seem like I'm coldhearted but I'm not I I'm just trying we're all trying to I will say the whole board um I think we well you don't run for office if you don't care about the people and we do and you know
but I just I know that we probably can't I don't know what we can do we could probably try to help give some direction of the H and maybe they come up with some proposal of the city of Brainard or Baxter or whatever have you but I I I just I just I know that building stuff
is so expensive and I just think a just a tiny home that just makes total sense to me but good anyway okay thank you so much thank you thank you next we have cro uh croing County 4
programs update from Tony and I'll never get your name right but Lori s shash shashana thank you shashana I've met you a few a few times but I can't never get that name just in my coming
out right I'll help you out keep keep working with me please I'll you that good morning uh Tony Hansen Regional director with extension just wanted to share a few comments quickly before my colleagues here uh share an
update on the croing county for program uh just wanted to thank all the Commissioners for their continued support of extension I've been I'm in the position now over a year and I've had a lot of fun working with uh our stakeholders here in the county we have
a very engaged extension committee uh and they're very interested in all of the Investments That Crowing County has had in extension programming inclusive of 4 which we'll be talking about today and the Master Gardener program as well
and our snaped Educators who are operating in the county and so I thank you all for your continued engagement uh we'll be recognizing the farm Family of the Year at the croing county fair on August 1st brambling Rose farm is
recognized this year by the extension committee so you're welcome to join us at that at 11:00 a.m. in the Memorial Gardens at the county fair otherwise uh I'll turn over to my colleagues thank you very much thank you Tony good morning Commissioners I'm sashana
oay growing County for extension educator I'm here presenting with my colleague thank you for giving us some time today my name is Lori Hall I'm an operations educator um I work throughout the whole region not just in croing County um we're going to talk a little
bit about if we could go to the next slide this is um sash's Team it's the whole region but she gets access to all of these individuals um they um support her in a lot of different ways sashan is what most of everybody in the community sees the stakeholders the volunteers
they work with her but sashan has access to I'm going to use the word experts slightly of this team because I'm in this team and so I'm going to go through them a little bit and just kind of explain what we we do so jand rowski is the Northeast program leader and she really makes sure that the Educators
have all the resources um and people surrounding them um to do their job well uh she also makes sure that quality programming is happening and that quality program really is focused on um the research based practices that the
University of Minnesota has extension has Jeremy up on the top he's volunteer systems this is volunteers are an important part of our programming if without them we wouldn't have a programming so Jeremy helps uh make sure that the our practices and policies are
um implemented volunteers have the training and the knowledge that they need to be volunteers and really help with shashana on making sure that they have the roles so that they know what they're doing next uh the next two Rebecca and David really focus on
programming specifics um Rebecca is our stem educator and she just makes sure that every county has stem opportunities for youth to learn David is our animal science and he um focuses on that animal science which a lot of people kind of
Cor at with 4 is thinking that all of that showcasing that happens at the county fair he ensures that it's done appropriately that youth are doing safe things that we are following the animal um Department the Minnesota animals
Department of having them um registered making sure that the um policies for health and wellness is is taken into consideration Cassie gurling which I think most of you know is um our cfic engagement and Leadership she makes
sure those kids have an opportunity to become leaders and that leadership could be they could be a state of they could be a local Ambassador and just share that um their for experience within the county they could have a subject area that they want to learn a lot about and be a leader in that area and she helps
um make sure that there's that path she also looks at that Civic engagement and making sure that they're um engaged into their communities into their state even into the uh the whole nation lots of opportunities and forage for youth to um go to Washington and and learn stuff
from that perspective too and then last is me I do operations and operations is uh risk management and financial management so the risk management just making sure that we have policies in place to ensure that the kids are safe physically and emotionally and then that
finances is just making sure that the funds that are raised by the Federation and the clubs are used appropriately according to our um uh nonprofit status and also making sure that those youth get the opportunity to learn all of that they learn the budgets they learn how to
manage the money they learn to know what that nonprofit means and that they have that opportunity as well right we can go on to the next slide and so positive Youth Development really is um our philosophy um and we want to see all youth Sur thrive in that and so we look
at four different areas when we think about that to make sure that they have that long-term success we uphold and validate a unique um individual youth spark or interest so a youth might um come to shashana and say I want to learn about Aerospace and she's like I don't have an aerospace but she's going to try
to find it she's going to give them a path to learn that a path to Showcase that a path to bring a project to the county fair to um share that that knowledge with everyone else so she's going to encourage and support that engagement giving them that scaffolding learning and Leadership opportunity make
sure that they have a sense of belonging not just to their 4 club or their 4 Community but to the community as a whole the the city the county the state that they belong and that they feel like they have a place in that area and then probably one of the most important on is is to have that supportive relationships
with caring adults um that um that um hopefully will last a lifetime and and have that mentorship and so now the next slide talks about what makes us unique um we engage with youth um sometimes from kindergarten all
the way up to 13 so sometimes a Whole Decade that we're engaging in these youth lives and we give and we have a great depth of contact with how that youth is engaged in their club and their project area their C they have the opportunities for camps and Leadership
treats and really that culmination that showcase that happens at County and state fair where they really get to take what they learn and share it with others and then we also leverage all of these resources of extension to support that 4 staff so that whole team I talked
about earlier those are the experts that walk alongside sashana really to get that programming here in this County right and I think I'll hand it over to sash now so Minnesota 4 reaches more than
41,500 youth around the state our team consisting of program staff and volunteers as well as state program leaders work together to deliver Youth Development programs that give opportunities for youth to learn by developing a passion in their areas of
interest and Lead as innovators and agents of change in this presentation we'll share some recent Local 4 events that show that when we provide safe and supportive spaces for youth to learn and lead 4 is helping youth to thrive so in
croing County we have 84 adult screen volunteers and we have 296 youth currently registered to the next okay um this past year we partnered with a local after school program fun and
friends to deliver 4 curriculum to youth in grades K through 4 through this partnership we were able to offer programming to 38 new youth so our program is growing um this past spring croing
County 4 provided an opportunity for the community to learn more about 4 and how they can get get involved in our program with or without an animal croing County for youth and adult volunteers brought their animals to the event allowing attendees to interact with the animals
and learn more about each species through educational displays by providing this opportunity 4 is reaching potential me members and making sure that everyone has the opportunity to participate and benefit from our program
so we are empowering youth to lead today Crowing County ambassadors are made up of 15 youth in grades 6 through 13 the ambassadors this past winter wanted to teach other for each youth new skills that they themselves were passionate
about the ambassadors along with a few adult leaders planned and facilitated a project day that taught 13 for each youth projects in stem needle felting cooking and baking and art through this process of planning the ambassadors are
learning new skills in leadership teamwork and speaking that they will use throughout their lives looks like it's back to me now and so why do we do showcases and I talked a little bit about earlier that it's really that culmination after all the learning but in this case I'm going to
use a correlation we do a uh cloverbud project day once a month throughout the whole winter through their program um year and and Crowing County has a pretty good number of Youth it could be hybrid it could be fully online we've got a lot of different options that happen with this but for this program the we're
going to I'm going to talk about the do reflect and apply in this in this diagram here and so the the youth learn the doing is the youth learn about a specific um topic during this program they will be building skills such as active listening to hear specific
vocabulary words throughout while also doing Hands-On activity there will be opportunity for them to reflect so the youth will be able to reflect on their learning with the help of adults asking what they learned and how they might change might have changed and what they
liked about the activity this allows that youth to continue to apply their communication skills in a comfortable setting and then the last thing is we really apply so the youth who attend they can take that project home and share it with their family and share what they learned there they also have
the opportunity to bring it to the county fair and have as a project area there and then there is a handout that correlates with that that gives a little more detail if you're interested and then the next thing is the Crowing County the long-term outcomes for youth
there also is we handed a little brochure that kind of reflects this too and so really long term we really want the what the youth learn to be lifelong we don't want it to stay in 4H we want to give them skills that they can take into their vocation or their academic
career that we wanted to be able ble to bring it into their community and that Civic engagement and making sure that they're tomorrow's leaders even thinking about that employability helping the youth see a career for themselves helping them give them paths to learn about different areas of careers we do
some um campus uh immersion opportunities for them as well that they can take it and then at the end really that full happiness that that wholeness of the happiness and well well-being build relationships self-confidence and the direction for the future and sash
has done a really good um this brochure is a uh reflection of some of our adults that used to be in 4 and what they're using it and how they're using it today I encourage you to read it because it's got some really good it really is good to see that it's not just staying in 4
that it it affects them for a lifetime and back to sash yes so we just want to thank you for your time and your support of 4 thank you Paul we may I may you I was just going to ask
Paul were you a member of 4 when you were growing up no you weren't Future Farmers Future Farmers were you in that pardon me FFA no I was not I okay just just a question yes as a former 4er
myself I do want to applaud the work that extension does around the 4 program we we talk about all the life skills and often times people think that 4 is just one time at the county fair that they provide their animals their vegetables whatever it might be as someone who is a
forer that did participate in the county fair never had any animals I had all a lot of other different project areas but 4 is where I learned parliamentary procedure 4 is where I learned public speaking these were things that were Community involvement life skills that
really prepare youth for the next steps in their lives and the work that our extension educators are doing in that regard is really great and it's really interesting to see the different types of folks that they're reaching out to and those that they are providing that
opportunity for thank you um and just on from my part I have a a granddaughter that lives in downtown Woodburry and for the last uh I think when I first got this role here it was like you're doing what with 4 baking something and doing
it with how can you do that you live downtown Woodbury but 4 does reach out into the communities a lot more than I had actually thought so I think that was pretty cool in the bigger cities we do have some really good Urban forage projects and she get a blue ribbon so we're really proud of her for that so
thank you thank you very much for your presentation thank you thank you for having us thank you and I think next on the agenda we have Gary smile look excited we're all happy up here today first for
everything good morning Mr chair uh Commissioners uh today we have again in front of you um another updated draft of the ongoing com County comprehensive plan um just a couple of highlights we
completed uh the public comment period um it ran from June 4th to July 5th um we had quite a few uh comments related to aquatic invasive species we had um comments from
Mississippi headquarters um comment uh a couple of comments on how we coordinate with municipalities and um some other comments related to the environment uh we have our consultant Robin on uh she has a a small PowerPoint that she'll
walk you through and show you some of the changes we did to the uh uh plan to address maybe some of the comments and and have some discussion uh with your feedback any questions before Robin starts okay
Rob it's all you Robin take it over Robin great good morning Commissioners thank you for having us um having me here today I'm excited that we're to this point and getting close to um final um going through the adoption process
for your new comprehensive plan so uh as Gary mentioned let's see if I can advance my next slide uh we did have a uh 30-day comment period um we provided uh opportunities for people to comment in a variety of ways and we um really um
uh did uh push out um information um in kind of a um in a variety of ways so we did have the um the updated plan posted on the website uh we issued a press release uh the county issued a press release that was picked up by uh at
least three of the local papers those are the three that we know about we're not sure if there there might have been some other was um of course County Administrator thank you for um doing a um a conversation on wjjy those have um been well received and um then we also
post uh we did some social media posts but we also actually posted a little link um to that show on on the social media page as well so people would be able to um listen to it if they didn't catch it live um we sent out an email we
have an email list where people could sign up and we actually have almost a thousand people on that email list so every time we have an update um we've had um we've had you know at least a thousand people receive those updates and we also have some targeted groups
that we send directly to um namely the um some of the Shoreland um and Lake associations and the uh local Chambers um we did allow people to post comments on the social media on the um
on the website so we had like a little survey online uh survey form that people could submit comments to and then they could also submit them directly via email or in writing to the county so um and then um I know this is in the coming up in the future but on Thursday we're
going to be uh doing a little workshop with the Planning Commission and we be holding um a public hearing on yeah coming up this Thursday and see uh so what we heard um as as Gary mentioned we did receive
comments from about 63 individuals and organizations um um the probably the the main ones were the main themes that we heard was um adding some reference to the Mississippi headquarters their you know organization similar to some of the
water sheds that have um a lot of guidance on on on the Watershed and and um um maintaining water and so they suggested that we add them as a reference to their plan U we received the most comments about aquatic invasive
species we had a few comments about storage facilities mostly in uh Cross Lake in the city of Cross Lake um we heard a little bit about coordination with municipalities and then there was another 21 or so comments just in general really Rel ated to different
aspects of the environment and then there were some other you know smaller comments um as well Robin uh you've worked with a lot of plans in the past did you find the amount of comments that we've got on this is this good or bad or
how does this relate to what you've worked with on plans before um commissioner this is this is probably pretty standard um I was actually pleased to see 63 you know people um did respond or did have comments it meant that we did get the word out and that there was you know
that people did have the opportunity to comment um so I think that's pretty typical um and um you know they're usually probably you pretty typical around main themes and um I guess I'm not super surprised uh these are a lot of you know some of the same comments
water quality and and preservation of of Natural Resources were really two of the main themes that we heard early in the process so um I guess I wasn't surprised to to see additional suggest questions there as well okay thank you
okay um and as far as changes you know we do um um we did make a lot of changes to the plan uh the version that you received and I think that's currently post on the website does have all those changes tracked so we did add references
to the aquatic invasive species um a lot um namely we did add the um reference to the counties annual prevention plan um but we also added references a lot of the Watershed uh watersheds um deal within their plan so we did reference
that um you know specifically call that out um in the discussion about each of those Watershed plans um we did incorporate the Mississippi headquarters um comprehensive plan into that as well similar to like what we add what we have for the watersheds we added a little
reference and a link to their website um for more different more information um we revised the climate section someone did uh call out that some of the data that we had in there was old and so we did pull out um and update that information to data from
2024 um and then one of the other things we noted was that uh the County's comp has jurisdiction uh what communities the county has jurisdiction over and what municipalities exercise their own Planning and Zoning regulation um that was um in addition
that was an addition due to first of all um we noted that that was something we we should have caught and added in the um added earlier on due to statutory requirements but then because we received some of those comments on um on um storage facilities in Cross Lake we
thought it was important to note that you know that was something that was uh that would be regulated by Cross Lake um city city ordinances and then there was some other There Was You Know minor edits people added you know suggested making some wording changes or um
um suggested making some clarifications so there were some of those changes made throughout as well and then as far as next steps as I mentioned um we're going to be doing the public hearing uh live on Thursday and then um we're currently scheduled to be
back before you in case there's any other final comments or edits um we'll report back what um the Planning Commission um says at the August 20th um Committee of the whole and then um scheduled for County Board approval on August
27th that was my uh short presentation and happy to take any questions or comments Paul no believe it or not have question okay well the only comment I made and it's one regards to um one here made in
regards to the unorganized territory because I looked at the complain that we' done back in 97 on that and and you know I see unorganized territory becoming such a a growth area for the county but it really is under the County's board because it is unorganized
and they have never organized to be a Township correct MH you know and so it does still fall under us and we have this big umbrella just to look at that area so I I thought it was interesting the comment was out there but we had we
had chosen not to as as on this board to actually do a separate comp plan for the unorganized territory was done back in 97 to include it in the whole thing because I think back in 97 unorganized territory was very unorganized territory I think now as we've seen the years go
by and and just in the last comp plan the 2003 one that we've updated I don't think anybody could have estimated that that that organized territory would have grown as much as it has so I think it is proper to have it into our plan and not try to do a separate one unless they
were a separate Township or a separate city which which I'm familiar with cities doing their own comp plans and and doing them on a regular basis so I just I just thought that commment was in there and I thought it should be addressed and I think you've addressed it so that's the only comment I really
had that I had for it anybody else have any other for Robin oh okay we'll keep moving on thank you thank you thank you and we'll see you all on Thursday thank you thank you
bye Thursday is that she won't see all of us on Thursday no I got it's the Planning Commission on Thursday that's that's being presented to okay uh get back to the agenda if I can find it here is that the last thing we
had for our agenda is there anything you anybody else has for the good of the cause as they would say nothing for me okay then uh we are Jed