Good morning everyone. It's 9:00 a.m. We'll call the committee of the uh whole meeting to order. Our chair is running behind this morning due to some weather issues. So, you're stuck with me. Uh we'll start out with uh historical
society 2025 update and 2026 outlook is >> All right. Come on up. You guys can come up to the table if you want to or you can stand at the podium. Whichever works best for you. >> Okay. What do you think? Podium. Okay. >> Works for me. >> Okay. All right. Well, good morning
everyone. My name is Mike England. I'm on the Kling County Historical Society board of directors and uh we just want to uh take the time this morning to express our thanks and gratitude for uh receiving the funding from Crowing County. And and so this morning, uh the
purpose of our presentation here is really just to uh provide you with some information in terms of what we accomplished in 25 and what our goals are for 2026. Uh but again, really we're here this morning uh just to express our thanks and gratitude. So with that, I'll
uh hand it over to Hillary, our executive director. >> Where do I need to aim this? It should be good anywhere in the room. Let me get you over there. >> Oh, okay. There we go. Thanks. Um, I'm just going to go over a few
projects that we were able to complete in 2025. This first one is a Northern Pacific Thai plant locomotive that is at the Crowing County Fairgrounds. Um, it was in pretty rough shape. You can see the before picture at the top. Um, we
were able to, um, get a $5,000 grant for this. Um, $8,500 in designated donations and over $7,000 in inind donations from a local business. Um the image on the
left shows some of the interpretive information that we were able to accomplish that so that visitors to the Crowing County Fair can actually learn about the locomotive. Um you can see in the bottom picture what it looks like when it's finished.
So we found images of the locomotive when it was first built. So we restored the look of the original graphics and um this project was just featured in the Main Streeter which is a publication
of the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association um that actually has international distribution. Another project we were able to accomplish at the Crowing County Fairgrounds was the painting of our
district number three schoolhouse and our wool house. Um the schoolhouse is from 1887. The wool house is from 1905. Um the paint obviously just helps keep those buildings in good shape for the
future. We see a lot of visitors at the fair, so it's important to keep those buildings um in good condition. We received a $3,000 corporate donation for the paint and over $14,000 in designated donations
from community members. Um, shifting gears, this is, um, a project that we've contributed to for three or four years now, um, being part of the planning committee
for a local indigenous people's day celebration. Our major contribution this year was to host a traveling exhibit called Why Treaties Matter. that was fully grant funded through the Minnesota Humanities
Center. In the upper left, you can see the exhibit at the celebration. In the lower right, that's um we moved the exhibit over to the museum to increase the amount of people who could
see the exhibit over the month of November, which is Native American Heritage Month. So, we engaged over 300 community members and um we're proud to be part of that. Uh Brainer Ladies Band exhibit. This is
a new exhibit in the museum. Um if you get a chance, come over and take a look at it. It's pretty fun. Uh it'll be featured in Her Voice, which is part of the Brainer Dispatch. Um, we came up with a fun social media campaign that
will be um, part of Women's History Month this year called Who's That Lady? It features a little more in-depth um, information about members of the bands. And this is an example of the kind of
work we're accomplishing. If we were to have an outside exhibit company come and do a an exhibit of this quality, it would be upwards of $50,000. And we completed it in house for about $250.
>> Wow. Lastly, um I was able to connect with a retired professor of archaeology who specializes in pre-cont um Minnesota pottery and
he came to the museum several times over the year and identified over 700 items of pre-cont pottery. Um it will contribute to a a major study of
statewide pre-cont pottery. Um dates range from 500 before contact era or before common era sorry um to 1100 common era. So the piece you're looking
at there is about 2500 years old. And um all of this was done for free. Um Dr. George Holly will actually be at our annual fundraiser as the speaker which should be very interesting.
>> Hillary, what what does that mean pre-contest? I >> before Europeans came >> to America. And if I can just go back to the previous slide about the um drum and bugle corps, what were the
years of of that? >> So the there's it actually features two bands. The Brainer Ladies Band um was created in 1924 and went through the early 1930s and then the Drum and Bugle
Corps was mid 1930s through about 1970. But their heyday was 30s to 50s. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. Um general information from 2025. We currently have 160 members of the
historical society. We gained 16 new members this year. Um, I was pleased to see that our visitor amount increased about 25%. Over the past 3 years, we were pretty consistent.
Um, so it increased this year and we also increased the number of school group and group tours that we had. Um, another big step we took this year was we have new bookkeeping which is helping
us be more fiscally responsible. um new objects in our collection. We had 330 new item donations this year, which shows that people are still interested in donating items and we're very particular about what we take, making
sure that we only accept items that can help us tell the story of Crowing County. Um those items came from 62 different donors. We currently have a fantastic collections manager. She has a master's in library and information
science and she is extremely efficient and she also handled a backlog of over 1300 items that are now um in our digital catalog so they're actually searchable so it's easier to find for exhibit purposes and um if someone's
trying to donate something we can look that up and make sure we're not duplicating items. The pin that you see there is the same pin on the women in the picture. This was new this year. These nurses are were trained at the Northern Pacific
um nurses building. Goals for 2026. We'd like to continue our internship program which has been funded by Sourcewell. In the picture on the right, you can see one of our interns looking at a panel that was
created as a collaboration between two different interns. When did the research when did the graphic design? Um we're also going to complete an exhibit on the village of Old Crowing. If you're not familiar, this is um was
the first town in Crowing County. It's our namesake and um should be a fun interactive exhibit, good for children. We're also looking to update our
website. If you've been on our website, it's fantastic contentwise, but it's not real user friendly and it's definitely not up to-date. So, we're working to fix that, hoping to drive more visitors to the museum.
We um will continue with collection inventories making items digitally accessible. Um we are looking to our 100th anniversary in 2027. So this year we will promote a membership drive hoping
to get new members um so that they can be interested in the things that we do for our 100th anniversary. and I am currently working on writing a grant through legacy funds through the
Minnesota Historical Society. um a heritage partnership grant that will form a new partnership between um Brainer Public Schools Indigenous Education and the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee that eventually will
um have new educational materials and create a new indigenous history exhibit at the museum. >> You want to take over? Um financialwise, you can see we um successfully balanced our expenses and
our revenue this year. Um revenue-wise, you can see county support is still a very important part of our budget, but we are um successfully seeking funds elsewhere.
expense-wise, staff is still the major part of our expenses, but again, without staff to do these tasks, um that's really what keeps us going. So, thank you,
>> Hillary. >> Yes. >> Where do you put your um when you receive monies through grants or like you said source, where do you put that on your pie chart? Where does that go? Um >> um >> does that go under fundraising or does that go under undesated donations or
>> that would be one of the un unnamed slices there? >> Okay. One of those other three on the top. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um at our last meeting you had talked about revenue from memberships and admission.
We did a little work to see what um we would gain from increases in admission and membership. So you can see the difference between a $3 admission and a $5 admission.
It's not significant. We would gain about $1,100 annually. We do see about $1,100 annually just from donations in our admissions area. We have a
donation box. Um, I don't know if that would prevent people from wanting to make those donations if our admission was higher. Um, still up for debate. Um, increasing our individual membership, $20 to 25, we'd
see about an additional $285 a year. Um, family membership going from 40 to 50, we'd see about $380. So, um, >> yeah. Just one thing to note. So this
slide is important because it is um we did hear you and and we listen to that input and advice at our last meeting and so we as a board of directors are considering those those rate increases and so we understand that uh that is certainly a way to offset our expenses.
So as an organization we are dedicated to looking into this. So my question follow-up question on that then have you considered what the impact would be whether there'd be some drop off in whether it's the admissions or the membership side if you raise those prices.
>> Yeah. So we are looking at that and we're we're taking that in consideration. We're also looking at other historical societies with their museums too just to try to see what's out there, what are people doing, what's been successful and we're really stepping up our efforts in terms of fundraising opportunities throughout the community. There's a lot of great
organizations that allow us to be uh the nonprofit that will be the beneficiary of certain nights like Pines for a purpose and those things. So we are looking at multiple ways uh to raise some additional revenue and u so again this slide we just felt was important because it was input again that we
received from you uh all at our last meeting and so we we did hear that and we are following up on that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um just one Hillary. Um as far as the education you talk about you have tours or schools come down. How how many I
mean you know I think it's a big message for you know especially kids that you know maybe didn't even grow up in here and have moved in here to know the history of Crowing. I mean are the all the school districts do they send is there like all fifth graders come in or how did they do that? Um
there was a huge shift in how many kids we saw for field trips after COVID >> districts have or mainly the Brainer district doesn't have very much funding for busing kids. Um and they've
shifted field trips from being kind of educational versus a fun day at the end of the year. Um, we're looking at ways to get funding for busing kids because we don't see a whole lot of SC school
groups anymore. But it is important. We'd like to see um first graders have a history curriculum where they study simply then and now, which what better example than walking through our historic sheriff's residence and looking
at an ice box and talking about a refrigerator. So, we'd love to see first graders, sixth graders do Minnesota history. Again, they can see locally that fur trade was big in this area. We
have all of the examples from their textbook right there for kids to see in real life, which I think is more engaging than reading their book. And then with the high school, they're close
enough to walk. They really should at least one time throughout their high school um career be able to come over and just be proud of local history and see why this was a great place for
people to live. >> I I think that that's something that maybe could be pushed a little more because I think that's really important. >> Yeah. Um, you know, when you were up here making this presentation, I I just kind of do a flashback and remembering going through through the Sterns County Historical Museum back and I don't know
what grade that was, but then on sixth grade, we'd go down to the capital and take a tour of the capital just to see how it works. Otherwise, we get so disconnected with it, especially with all the devices we have that are taking our attention away. So, I think just to, you know, just to see it >> and and and figure out a way of making
that happen, I think that's pretty important. >> Yep. Thank you. This last slide shows a donation that we received this year. Um, it's a penny scale that gives you your weight and your fate. So, it gives you a little um,
fortune with that. And it used to be in the O'Brien Merkantile downtown Brainard. Um, but thank you again for your time. Please take the time to come over and visit. I'd be happy to schedule something outside of our regular hours
and give you a personal tour. It's it's impressive and worth seeing. >> When is your uh annual meeting, annual fundraiser? When is that date? >> Um, it'll be April 28th this year. >> Okay. And that'll be at where? >> It'll be at Gather on 3.
>> Okay. you'll get a an invitation. >> Well, thank you. Thank you. >> I get a few of them now. >> Any other board questions? >> Oh, Commissioner Coring.
>> I've got one last question for you. >> Nope. Nothing from me. >> Okay. One last question for you. Can you tell us what your business hours are? Open hours are >> we are there Tuesday through Saturday from 10 until 3. >> Okay. Perfect. We are closed for the month of January, but we'll reopen the
first Tuesday in February. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Now, we will have Mr. Danielson, Mr. Pence discussing our updated 2026 fee schedule.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, I'm Jory Danielson, administrative services director. I'd also like to highlight the great work that Hillary, her staff, and the board uh does at the historical society. Uh they allow me to uh sit in under meetings uh monthly uh and I get
to see the great work they're doing on a shoestring budget. Uh not only do they do a good job of preserving and telling the story of Crowing County over the last 150 175 years, but obviously as you can see it goes back much further than that. Uh they also do have the display case down on the first floor. Right now
it's the and I'm forgetting the name of it, Hillary, but the hotel. Um, and some pretty cool artifacts in there that help tell the story. So, >> very cool. >> Uh, Chris and I are here to talk about uh next Tuesday we will be presenting and asking the county board uh to
consider uh having a holding a public hearing to make an amendment to the fee schedule. uh last week or maybe the week before uh Chris was notified of a license that was issued for low potency hemp in Crowing County and this is
outside of uh the cannabis ordinance uh that was established the year prior. So we are um we do have a license that was issued by the state of Minnesota and the office of cannabis uh and under Minnesota statute um I believe it's 3 uh
342.22 22. Uh the county has to register that license and uh comply with the enforcement and underage compliance checks uh similar to tobacco and under uh age liquor. So, um I guess I can if
you have any more to add on that, Chris, and what you were >> uh No, you remember we updated the ordinance uh to regulate um how we're handling uh cannabis uses. And so we regulate through an intermuse permit, you know, with the retail, grow, manufacturing, and wholesaling of of
cannabis products. This is outside of that. This is a route that we chose to not regulate from a county standpoint as far as requiring a permit for it. Uh, and so we have a situation now where we have a a low potency hemp um has been approved by the state and they we just simply need to go through that local
process to get it um to get it registered and licensed and there's a there's a fee that is set in statute. So it's it's a set fee just like it is for so for cannabis uh if your initial registration is $500 and your renewal every year is a,000 and then the fee for
this one if I remember right is 12125 $125 for that registration. So, it's just simply um going through the process of updating the fee schedule so that we can get that information out there and then we can get that um taken care of locally. And this won't be the only, you know, business that will be needing to
get this uh this taken care of. >> And if you do decide to um amend the fee schedule and allow uh the administrative services office to issue the registration, the state issues a license. We only register the license in
Crowing County. Uh that we would be able to process it just like we do for the tobacco and alcohol um permits now. >> Okay. >> Think we're required, are we? >> If you can choose to do nothing, but we still have to do the administrative work
and we still have to do the compliance checks per state statute. We just would not be able to collect any fees to help offset those costs. >> Well, that makes no sense. >> Correct. All right. I think it's a go. >> Um Oh,
>> Madam Chair, I will yield back to you. Then I'll ask a question if you don't mind. >> Why don't you finish this? Because I wasn't in here. >> That's just fine. So, what are what are you I'm assuming you're not looking for anything from us today. You're just bringing this to our attention. Correct. Okay. >> Yes. >> So, and this will be on the next
meeting. >> Yes. on Tuesday's meeting uh where you will get to decide if you want to call a public hearing to amend the the fee schedule for the county. We will have to publish that notice for 10 days and then have the public hearing if you so choose on February 10th's board meeting where
the public can come in and comment um and then the county board can decide whether to uh amend the fee schedule um or not. >> Okay. Thank you. Could you give us an update on how many um I know it's a little it's a little off the subject,
but how many dispensaries do we have actually registered or licensed in Crowing County right now? >> Right. So, in the county, we have one uh that's in the county's jurisdiction. It's up uh uh up in the first assessment district on 371 just south of BIR. It's it's south of that gas station on that
west side. And so, um they're they've received their interviews permit to operate there. They're going to get what's called the micro business, which allows them to dispense and to cultivate up to 5,000 square feet of flowering product, flowering cannabis. They can also manufacture and wholesale out of that. And so they're in the process
right now, they have there's once they got their inter sprint from the county, then they have to go through a process of getting their uh license from the state. And so they're in the process of getting all those inspections done and verifying that they have all the check all those boxes for the state. And then they're going to circle back to the county and then we'll have to do that local registration for them as well for
2026. Now there's one in Jenkins, right, that I has that got its license? Is that open? >> I drove by there yesterday and I saw a sign up. So So we don't get involved in the city. So the cities >> Oh, that's that's all in city that this is only in areas that are outside of >> Right. So for what for our jurisdiction
is only in those areas in the townships excluding you know not including crowing and Irondale since they do their own right but the they the townships there are some townships that have um if if they don't if a township chooses to not delegate their that registration piece
to the county and the township has to do the registration. So some townships have sent us a resolution delegating that to the county to do the registration for them. We still will do their planning and zoning permitting for them, but if uh if they don't give us that delegation, they're required to do the registration as a township themselves.
So >> So do we have even though it's not in our jurisdiction, it's in the cities. Do we know how many dispensaries we have actually open? >> I was, you know, as I'm thinking now, I I have a little sticky on my computer. So give me a chance to see if I can recall, but I should have brought it with me. So um >> you want to run down and look.
>> My understanding is that there is one in Cross Lake. Uh Brainer has two. Baxter has possibly two or three. Peekquat has one and then it sounds like the Jenkins has has one as well. So I so we have
exceeded the threshold in our ordinance countywide for dispensaries. So we are no longer accepting um intermuse permit applications for dispensaries. There is no cap on the cultivation manufacturing wholesaling and so we've issued um a intermuse permit up in Mission Township
for a just for a cultivation only. We've issued a interuse permit in Garrison Township for a cultivation only. Uh and those so we've had a couple of those and there's no cap on the on the cultivation and we don't have the ability to cap that. We only have the ability to cap dispensaries and retail locations.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you gentlemen. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Morning, Madam Chair, commissioners. Cara Terry with community services and Victor Gretner, licensed alcohound counselor and uh chemical health and housing team
lead. >> So, I'm going to share my screen with you because we have a PowerPoint. Uh you might remember a while back we adjusted the um structure of blade and um it now
consists of four task groups and a steering committee. The steering committee is um manned I don't know the membership is commissioner Lubkkey and commissioner Barrows um representing the county board
and during our meeting last week we talked about um some potential funding needs um or funding opportunities for our um treatment support funds. Richard's going to present on that today. You did approve a year or so ago
$50,000 to be allocated to the treatment fund and Richard will walk through where those dollars have gone and then we're looking for potentially an additional 50,000 for this year's expenses. I am in charge of the PowerPoint um which is a
really important job uh and so get this up and running and Richard take it away. >> Perfect. Go to the next slide. Um, in 2024, I we actually got approval summer of 2024 and first uh check from this
fund um went out August of 2024. There was about $12,000 worth of um costs that we had covered. um we use a model that's basically the application process is very similar to what's called
a flex request um for the adult mental health initiative um funding that provides supports. So we have a application process that kind of just lists out okay what is the need why are we needing this um what other sources
have you attempted to get funding for um to provide for this and also um sustainability. So those are the things we're kind of looking at when we look at those applications. So the first year as you can see in the
pie chart there was a lot of medication expenses. There wasn't particularly one or two very expensive medications for incarcerated individual that um we were working with at that time. Housing costs is a big one. Counseling
services. Um just kind of looking at if you want to go to the next slide 2025 that tipped a little bit more towards housing utilities that would include electric phone housing. Um housing's a big one and we typically try to run this
through what's called ARC. It's a min It's a program, federal program that uh can provide housing costs coverage for up to 90 days while an individual is in an adult mental health hospital or a
treatment program. Um and it covers also utilities. So we try to run those through that first. um a big portion of what we spent on the housing or like deposits for getting into sober housing from treatment and
getting into independent housing from that sober house. So, couple different steps in that process. Um just kind of providing that support, removing those hurdles along the entire continuum of care from the first time we meet with the individual to the time they go to treatment.
So, how we're breaking down the barriers for our participants? Um, often times there's additional costs, right? We got uh individuals that uh can't get back into counseling or therapy because of past bills um when
their life was a lot more unstable. Um, so when they've gone to treatment and we start working with them, either case management or another partner agency in the community is working with these individuals. Um then we provide a way for them to get that therapy and
covering uh bills or for gaps in coverage or like I said past bills that hadn't been paid so they can really dig in and start engaging that animal boarding is another thing. Um oftentimes a hurdle for individuals. Um, we do
encourage and ask and and and try to see if they have family members that can take the pet or watch check on the animals while they're gone, but um sometimes there's just nobody left. So, uh, storage fees for clients that don't
so they don't lose their belongings while they're in treatment. Many of the individuals that we've been getting in treatment and then housing from that um have been homeless and are very concerned about their belongings. Uh it's amazing just the capacity of these
individuals to be able to survive out there in this kind of weather. And a big hurdle for them is just letting go what little bit they have, right? Um if they don't know they have a safe place for that. Medication cost is another big area. Um
for individuals that don't have insurance and uh or they're incarcerated. >> Excuse me on that one. when they're incarcerated. I thought the county took care of that. It wasn't our our responsibility, but I understand the
lapse between the time they leave incarceration and get back on their insurance. I see there there could be a window there that they might be not covered. >> Yes, there may be a small window there. Um for individuals that already had MA when they went into custody, um
oftentimes we can reinitiate that. Um it's the individuals that come in incarcerated that don't have an MA. >> And then and then there are some things that are not covered by um by the county or if they are let me take that back. There are things that are very expensive
injectables for example that are covered by the county. You might remember the jail brought forward um a program that they're working on um with the Department of Human Services for um injectables. That's around 1,500 bucks a shot. And so, um, Ron from the jail did
come and ask for blade funding to cover those expenses, which you did approve, but before we did that, we had a couple of injectables that the this fund covered before the other fund was put into place. >> So, kind of like it gapped it over or at
least kept that person medicated or whatever that >> correct >> injectable is. >> Yes. >> So, they didn't all of a sudden just be on medication all of a sudden go off. Right. >> Because that could create some real challenges, I bet. >> Yes, >> it is. Often times programs that we
refer to and try to get the individual into from being in custody um need them to be medically stable and many different areas. That could be their physical health. So, one individual, for example, that we're working with in drug court was incarcerated. The program was
ready to take them, but they had uh they needed a glucose monitor to be able to go with them because they didn't have that at the facility. Other individuals, they just needed to be stabilizing their mental health before a program would take them and some of those adult mental health medications can be very
expensive. >> Yeah. Thank you. So, some additional things that we've been utilizing these funds for and supporting our individuals is um deposits transmission in from treatment or recovery homes. Um, as I already
mentioned, repair, rent costs to prevent clients from losing their housing while they're in treatment, vehicle repair insurance to support treatment activities, outpatient employment. Um, I recently did one just for a pair of work
boots. The individual was in one of our silver homes, just come out of treatment and he was ready to take that next step. He had gotten a job um but needed work boots. So, we provided that and I and I believe he's like a month away from being able to get into his own housing
again. Now, uh child care costs so clients can reenroll their children in child care programs. We had one particular individual needed to be in treatment. Uh the family took the children. The parents did. Uh but they were about to lose their
daycare spot because they hadn't been making payments. The grandparents couldn't afford those payments. Um and so far as I know, this woman's been reunited with her children and working a good recovery plan. Relapse prevention costs not covered by
insurance. um that for individuals without insurance, may not have had insurance um or had private insurance that didn't cover very much. Mad panels, transportation, recovery activities are another big area.
I think that's it. >> Oh my god. That's supposed to say questions. um a gentleman that you were talking about that uh um you bought the boots for, what's the time frame on something like that where you're um from the time
that they come into your program until the time they're on their owning their own house? >> Uh that can vary quite a bit >> um depending on what they got for recover, you know, whether they got housing or employment opportunities or they can get a working wage job. Um, so
it can be anywhere from, you know, I've seen some people be able to pick it up and start to run with it >> when they come straight out of treatment, but they usually have housing or a lot of support in the community that can provide them transportation or or assistance and accessing those resources or jobs.
>> How about that gentleman in particular? How long did it take him from >> uh he was in the silver housing for six months when he started to go to work. um his outpatient requirements started to diminish. So he was getting stepped down from four days a week to one day a week
and then he was able to do that in about yeah 6 months. >> Okay. >> Um so when when people come and apply for these funds, >> who is there who oversees that? Who at the your office oversees it? Is it just
you, Richard, or is it a group or how do you how do you guys because you've got to kind of sort it out because you only got a limited amount of money and and >> Yes. Um, so myself and Rachel Zeta, my supervisor, those applications. Yeah. >> We make sure first of all that we've
tried to utilize other resources. Um, sometimes we'll partner with uh TCC or another agency in the community. Um, Lark has a meeting, Lakes Area Resource
Group Committee. Um, and also we might, you know, pay a portion like $500 towards a vehicle repair or rent where TCC or one of the other lock agents um, will pick that up, the other additional costs. And that's a group that started,
you might remember during COVID when all of the CO dollars were being allocated and you asked for um verification or information on how all of the different nonprofits across the county were coordinating their funds. And so this group was started um because of that
mainly around the um evictions and housing costs. And now it's broadened to include all sorts of other costs, but it continues to run um since back in the COVID days to ensure that coordination. >> And these these dollars, this $50,000 I
guess you call it um petty cash fund or fund that you're using. That all comes through co dollars. >> Now it's through the blade dollars. >> Blade dollars, excuse me, through the blade dollars. And I should I didn't mean co I meant the opiate dollars. >> Thank you for correcting. and you receive report outs uh each month when
we share the blade meeting minutes or the blade steering committee meeting minutes. Um part of that includes the revenues and expenditures for the opioid funding and the report on where these dollars go is included in that information so you can see um where
those dollars are going. So, we're not asking for approval today because this is Cow, but we're looking to potentially put this on the agenda with your approval for the county board meeting, the next county board meeting. And if you do approve, we're wondering if it could go on the consent or if you
would like us to present. >> So, you're you're that $50,000 that you started with. >> You're you've run that down over what period of time to where is it where is it at right now? >> Uh >> I mean, just I'm not asking for to >> There's about $6,000 left.
>> Left. Okay. And that's over what period of time? >> Uh since August of 2024. >> 2024. >> Yep. >> Okay. So, you've been very judicial, I guess, of you with the how many funds you're having on. So, now you're looking at us putting or putting
more money from the opiate back into it and bringing that back up again. Okay. Thank you, >> Madam Chair, >> Madam Chair. >> Yes. Um, question. How long can somebody stay
in a uh sober house? >> Well, I would like love to see them get out within a year. I've seen individuals in there up to two years. I think the average last stat I got from Burlington
was right around the 78 month mark. Um, with some individuals been staying there in a self-paid capacity for multiple years. So there's no time limit. >> There's no time limit at this time. I I do have one of my team members on the
DHC DHS work group that's taking a look at recovery residences will be the new term um rather than silver homes. Uh just how much oversight and what that's going to look like and some guidelines and they're going to have two different level
tiers so to speak of those sober home or recovery residences. So I I anticipate there's going to be a little bit more oversight moving forward because DHS is really pushing for it and they have already started the work group on that. So that that leads me to my next
question. Who has the oversight over sober houses? because I've had somebody complain to me multiple times about a I won't say where it is, but it's a it's a sober house and the cops have been called there multiple multiple multiple
times and nobody seems to ever it just who has oversight or who's going to tell the owner of this sober house that you need to get your stuff together otherwise we're going to be shutting it
down, >> right? Um that yeah, I I I strongly feel that we do need a little bit more oversight. Not too much, but some um Department of Health is one that kind of oversees complaints and that kind of
sort of thing. But for the most part, there really isn't. And that's why the big push for um this work group and and this recovery residents model from the state is to be better better equipped to
handle this this population and pro provide a safe environment for them to reside but also with an end goal in mind of self-reliance. So, >> here's a here's a >> par here's a perfect example in my mind
of DHS student being um inept or just is not able to, you know, they they're they're good at just dishing out the money, but there's never over any oversight. I just recently went
to the Minnesota breakfast. I had Joe Thompson who was the United States attorney who uh handled the case for feeding our children. He explained how the money was stolen and he he told this group that I was with that this is just
the tip of the iceberg and there's just there's no oversight and that's why as I mentioned at one of our I don't know if it was at personnel I think the county board here uh we have over oversight responsibilities also and we need to
step up um our an asking questions and our oversight of what what we can handle on our end here because I I just think uh the state is just it it just they just don't really give a I don't
think. And it just it really just troubling to me after I heard this United States attorney tell what's happening and now it's in uh autism and now it's in medical transportation and it just and it's just it's like a
cancer that's stealing the taxpayers money of Minnesota and and and you know God bless the people that are trying to get recovery at these at these sober houses but you know we've got to be concerned erned about the neighbors that live by them and if the police are
called a couple of times a week somehow there has to be some oversight on that and um anyway I'll leave it there. >> I totally agree commissioner and that's one of the reasons why we dedicated one of my team members to visit these sober
homes on a regular basis. Uh, and Rachel at times is stepping in and meeting with these individuals and local PDs such as the Jenkins House, for example, um, as they went through some rough patches and and they're kind of changing management. Um, so I I totally
agree with you. Um, we've been able to provide some support and helping the managers of those homes um, address issues as they come up. Um and when when our when we hear about any issues happening in the community, we we really
want to hear those um because then we can directly address those specific items um with the house managers when we do those home visits. >> Yeah. Unfortunately, also um Commissioner Carring, Madam Chair, um we have very little oversight. there's not
a lot we can do um in terms of removing any sort of agreements that's done through um DHS. You might remember we brought those we would bring some forward to you and say they're looking at putting in a home at XYZ property and do you guys approve and if you approve
great if you didn't approve well tough baloney they still got it kind of thing. Um they don't necessarily do any of that anymore. Um, and so the the oversight is lacking. We, as Richard mentioned, have provided someone to sit on the state
committee to develop now some of that oversight, some of the rules and regulations. One thing I will point out, though, is our team um, with Richard and Rachel and Tammy and the other social workers have built pretty amazing relationships with our sober homes to the point where we can go in and have
those conversations about what we're hearing and what needs to be done differently. We've had conversations around, you know, trying to limit the um folks who um are in our sober homes to Crowing County as much as possible residents um which they are working
towards as well. And the only other thing I'll point out um Commissioner Coring and county board is um related to our fraud prevention and um as you know, we have a pretty outstanding team. um the cost benefit ratio calculation that
we just got last week. I don't know Debbie if you had a chance to share that report with them yet, but it was about $1.5 million that we were able to um save the county taxpayers uh regarding
um fraud claims. One of those commissioner to your point was med medical transportation and so that we are hoping will go through the criminal justice system because the amount of money related to mileage claims for u medical transportation is pretty significant. Our fraud team is working
on a report that will be sent to you quarterly. Um we are looking forward to coming explaining it the first time around um so you understand the story behind the numbers and then we'll see from there if you want us to come quarterly to explain the numbers or or what your preference is but uh we are
working actively um on that side of the world as well unfortunately >> madam chair um Richard you know you said there's an average of uh you're saying seven eight months as I think you mentioned that earlier it would be
really interesting to see, you know, I mean, we don't need names or anything and we don't need even really locations. I'm just looking at a overall picture of saying in our in our recovery homes, there are this many residents and and and
some are staying and and have that number. I mean, some are some are almost hate this is only the only place that they can stay at and they can get the money. We're the conduit for that money that comes through the state. Correct. >> Yes. you know, we it's not our money, but it is our money, but it comes
through this just to make sure that those recovery homes are kind of it's a recovery home. It's not a place to hide out because you got you want to you get three meals a day and you got a warm place to sleep, you know? I mean, it should move on. If not, you're not really helping. >> Yeah, totally agree.
>> Okay. I be but I don't need any I would just like an overall where we're at. And you I'm sure you sit with other counties doing kind of the same thing. It'd be interesting to see where we sit there. So, I mean, >> yeah, I'm not sure about other counties, Commissioner, but I can say we can do that.
>> Okay. Well, you know, as a comparison, but I know I know I I Yes, I would love to see those numbers. >> Okay, cool. >> Awesome. >> You're on that? >> Yep. >> Um, so would you like if you um are interested in having it on
the board agenda, would you like it as a separate item or on the consent consent agenda? present. >> I'm wondering about support for this measure. >> I'm comfortable with consent. >> I'd like to see it presented.
>> Since I sit on that board and and have seen your numbers and I've seen what you've done, I'm okay with it being on consent. >> I I guess I'm okay with whatever the chair decides. Let's have it presented. >> Okay, we will have it presented and
we'll just do the same information that we shared today. >> Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Richard. >> Now, we're going to move on to the exciting topic of burial policy. So, Tina Abbertski is the expert in this.
It is not. Okay, there we go. All right, madam chair, members of the board, um my name is Tina Iberowski and I'm supervisor in income maintenance and I supervise the adult and long-term care teams.
So today um bringing some information forward about our county funded burial and um requesting one ask in here. So, as you guys are aware, under Minnesota state statute, the we're required to
provide final disposition of deceased persons without apparent means. In our current policy, we have um approval for earth burials or the cremation with the county's preference
being the cremation. Um the cost for the that we pay max amount for earth burial is 3,900 plus the transportation and then for the cremation it's 2900. Um and last year we
were here talked about the medical examiner's fee that is charged to all um funerals funeral homes for the um signing off of the cremation and that's a $50 fee. And
what is uh just to give you a little bit history of what our applications in 2025 were. We had um 77 burial applications approving 51 of those. And those uh b
the ones that are um not approved that would be for reasons like they had assets that available to cover that cost. It could be property. It could be um money in their bank account yet or um if they had a vehicle, something such as
that. Um also sometimes it's a lack of follow through on the family of providing those such um verifications of those assets. Um of the applications that we received, 62 of those applications were from funeral
homes within Crowing County and 15 were outside Cro Crowing County. In 2025, we had budgeted $150,000 and um what we expended was 137691.
So what we are requesting for a change in the policy is there's been an increase in the fee that the medical examiner's fee is now um charging to each of the funeral homes. They've increased that fee the 1st of January of
2026 to $75. And that was brought to my attention by one of the funeral homes in Cing County. So, I did contact the um Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office to verify that
that fee had increased. So, that's what I would like to do is update that policy to include that fee going from the $50 to the 75. Madam Chair, so but only for cremations that that's in there. It's not for an
earth burial. They don't have that fee. >> Correct. >> I don't understand that. >> So my understanding is anytime that there is a cremation, um the medical examiner's office has to sign off on that cremation before it can
be done. So if they charge a $75 fee to the funeral homes for completing that paperwork, >> but they don't have to sign off on something if it's an earth burial. It >> correct? Because they're not doing they're not signing off um the cremation.
>> Okay. I'm confused, >> Madam Chair. Commissioner, I think it's more just a case to make sure that a body isn't being cremated before any other >> Oh, if they wanted to do something, they just want to look over and say, "Maybe this is one we want to." >> Okay.
>> They just need to make sure that the medical examiner has to sign off on those cremations prior to the cremation happening versus a burial where the body would still be present. >> So, when they do a cremation like that, if there isn't family members around or somebody to get an urn with the ashes
in, what is done with those. What is the do they just spread them out somewhere or what happens to that earn? >> So, um I know in Crowing County over the past um few years that I've oversaw the
burials and um when we get those applications, if there's no next of ken, then the county would we would sign off for that cremation to happen. And then um I don't we've done very few of those.
>> And the ashes just stay at the funeral stay at the funeral home. >> It just stays at the funeral home. >> Yep. Um so no real big changes here. The rest of the policy remains the same. This is one area that we do go around to our um fellow counties to see what it is
that they are um charging, what they have included in their policy. Um all of that. We're not bringing forward any other changes except for the examiner's fee um from $50 to $75. >> Madam Chair, >> yes.
>> Go ahead, Paul. >> Madam Chair, pardon me. >> Go ahead. >> Oh, okay. So So we're we're paying for uh the $75 if it's a county cremation, right?
So, anytime an uh there's an application for a burial, if >> right >> they meet that. Yes. Then we are paying >> So, we're paying the $2,900 plus the 75. >> Correct.
>> Or we would and we would be paying with the 75. Okay. Okay. Um Yeah. Okay. I guess I don't have any other questions. >> Anyone else?
>> Would you like this on consent or as a a discussion item? >> Consent. >> Consent. >> Consent. >> That's all we have for you today. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Madam Chair. >> Yes. >> Uh this isn't related to the burial
policy, but uh I did get an email this morning from if you'll if you're okay with this. I did get an email this morning from one of my constituents who uh she's just a really nice lady and she had a question. As long as Cara is sitting
there, I'll just read part of it. It says, "Paul, if Cara is at the meeting this AM, could you ask her for an update on the closure of the assisted living place that closed and in her and her department helping out with that?" and
it went on to a long email, but I guess if Cara, if you don't mind a little update, you know, there is a lot of people that watch these meetings and and you know, they're quite concerned. This has concern for their loved ones that
might be at a facility and so um I think that's what maybe prompted this, but if you could give a little update, that would be great. >> Yeah. So, this is for Carefree Assisted Living in Brainer. Um, our staff have been doing amazing work um, both in
helping to hold the facility accountable as well as getting residents placed. We currently have eight individuals still left at Carefree. Five of those individuals have tenative placement dates. Um, one has been accepted to a
placement. We're just trying to figure out the logistics. So hopefully um, that person will be placed soon. And one is a bit difficult. Um, so we're working through um not only our agency but also um with the courts to work on maybe um
appointing a guardian um to that individual to help find uh easier placement. So um we're shooting for um closure date at the end of this month. That's kind of a soft date because might take a little bit to get a couple of the
individuals placed. Um we have been popping over to um ensure staffing levels and um things are being taken care of. Um did have another bout of COVID. So making sure that supplies and um requirements are um being taken care
of um through that bout as well. And then uh we just had a meeting, gosh, I think it was last week for our leadership staff to talk about um billing the uh organization for all of our staff time because the facility is
statutoily required to do a number of things including making placement plans or case plans for placement. Um and our our staff um while that is a part of the social worker's job to assist in that placement, it is not the social worker's
job or administrative administration's job to um ensure that those placements are are actually happening or being coordinated and that is a role that uh a number of our administrative staff have done um as well as um ensuring staffing
and like I said co so we landed on because there have been a number of staff myself some supervisor advisors. We've had um case aids um who have covered some of that uh work. We've landed on an average salary of $100 per hour um that we will be building the
facility. We're tracking all of the hours of um coverage that we have provided since the date we learned about um this um happening. And I don't have a total for you yet because we're not through this yet. But as soon as we do,
I will let you know. there's been some concern that um maybe the company that runs it could file bankruptcy or something to get out of the invoice. And um what I do know is that they have uh several other facilities uh within the
state that they're working really hard to keep their licenses for. And so we are one of uh several. And so I don't know the ins and outs. not an attorney in the realm of bankruptcy, but um we will still move ahead regardless of what their decisions are with uh invoicing
for the time. We have believe we have a really strong case. We've notified MDH of our intention um and we continue to support the individuals in the facility as best we can. >> Thank you for that update
>> and I'll follow up on the email as well, Commissioner. >> That would be great. Thank you, >> Sarah. Yes. Are were most of the residents able to be put in other facilities within Crowing County or was it a farther reach of having to find other locations for them?
Um, I will get that percentage because I do know we have individuals who have been placed uh in Duth and in southern Minnesota um >> at their choice or because of the fact that we had to find locations. >> Um, as much of their choice as could be,
right? Because we're limited in the Is that a good political answer? Um, because individuals have a choice of where they're placed. Um if we're really struggling to find placement and DUTH is the only possible option that we can find and the individual is okay with
going there, then we'll sure um do our darnest to try and figure it out. But if DUTH is is it, then that's it. We do have one individual that is one of our um folks that we're having a little difficulty in placing. She wants to stay in the Duth area. I mean, sorry, the
Brainer area and boy oh boy, we're really working to to make that happen. Not sure if it will. Um, but I can get a percentage of in county versus uh out of county if you would like. >> Madam Chair, um, Cara, is there a lot
of, you know, when you start looking to find places for these people, are the places that are out there that we have licensed in our county pretty full? >> Um, we've been able to place a number of folks in um, facilities in Crowing
County. So, we've been really fortunate that way. um the facilities have really stepped up, let us know of their availability and hurried the um applications along into their facilities. Um so we've been really fortunate that way. Where it gets sticky is some of these higher need uh
individuals or of different needs um individuals that um sometimes aren't the best oh boy to place in facilities. It's just more difficult to find placements. So sometimes it's not a matter of if there are openings, but if the openings
are appropriate for the individuals who need placement. >> Thank you. Well said. >> Thanks, >> Cara. Are all of the people who were in Carefree from Crowing County or are they from other counties also? >> Uh we do have a couple of individuals
who we've worked with other counties to get placed. um that was taken on by our Crowing County staff to work with other county staff on those individuals and they have been um quite helpful. But it's it's easier for us to coordinate
that um movement within the county because we are the county, right? As opposed to other counties coming up and and doing their work. show up here. So, we've worked closely with. Now, that doesn't mean that the other counties haven't called to try and find the
placements, which um some of the individuals who don't have Crowing County case managers have been really responsive. Um, Esentia also holds some of the case management duties for some of the individuals and I will just say we're darn lucky to have our Crowing
County staff working on this. Um, that's my politically correct answer and I'm sticking to it. Um, yeah, we're just really fortunate to have the Crowing County staff on all of the individuals. Other individuals are private pay and so they don't have case
managers. Some have families, some do not. So, we assigned a social worker to be able to help place um those individuals as well or work with them or and or their families to place um too. So happy to have on offline conversations at any time if you have
further questions. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Okay.