WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=VnEHpO38wh8

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: VnEHpO38wh8):
- 00:00:26: Meeting Opening, Pledge of Allegiance, and Open Forum Introduction
- 00:01:53: Mary Papus Lad: Concerns Regarding 287g Agreement with ICE
- 00:05:10: Mitchell Pontius: Over-the-Counter Land Purchase Policy
- 00:07:45: Doug Kern: Gratitude for Commissioners and Staff
- 00:09:39: Commissioner Outburst: Immigration and Citizen Safety
- 00:11:19: Approval of Minutes, Agenda Changes, and Consent Agenda
- 00:12:57: Questions on Consent Agenda: Theater Road and Ditch 13
- 00:23:52: Human Resources: LEALS Local 13 Labor Agreement
- 00:27:56: Land Services: Tiff District Number 16 Introduction
- 00:31:36: Explanation of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and Benefits
- 00:40:17: Waiving Review Period and Offering No Comment on TIF
- 00:43:55: Unorganized Territory: First Assessment District Contract
- 00:52:41: Awarding Contract for First Assessment District Maintenance
- 00:56:37: Second Assessment District Roadway Maintenance Contract
- 00:57:11: County Sheriff: Sheriff's Office Accomplishments and Initiatives
- 01:07:22: Comments and Questions Regarding Sheriff's Report
- 01:12:12: County Attorney: No Report, Assisted Living Update Requested
- 01:15:46: County Administrator: Coupe Plan Review and Landfill Bill
- 01:18:33: Discussion and Motion Regarding Landfill Bill Opposition
- 01:22:26: Meeting Adjournment


Part: 1

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Yeah, I can't get my computer to open, but that's okay. Oh, I've got it. All of a sudden, I got it. >> There's another one. Good morning. Welcome to the Crowing County Board meeting. Would you please stand and join me for the pledge of

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allegiance and a moment of silence to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, first thing on the agenda is open

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forum. Mary Papis Lad, you have three minutes. Please state your name and address for the records. Um, >> my name is Mary Papus Lad. Um, my address is 815 Oak Street, Apartment One, Brainer, Minnesota.

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Um my I want to talk on the 287g agreement. Um people on both sides of the aisle in Crowing County do not agree with the sheriff signing a 287 agreement with ICE. Citizens object for moral, ethical, and humanitarian reasons. They

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object to immigrants being denied due process rights and families and children being torn apart, creating long-term trauma. Many states have found that local sheriffs lack the authority to sign the agreements without the approval of the county board of commissioners. It

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has been found that politication is used to adopt anti-immigration policies and personal agendas and politics um rather than using necessary law enforcement strategies. Very little transparency was involved in

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signing this agreement with Crowing County. The board was not consulted and did not vote on the issue. Maricopa County in Arizona has paid out $ 58 million in costs up to 2017 and it is expected to rise to 350 million by mid

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2026. Masked enforcement erodess public trust and safety. Our faith in law enforcement has taken a large dip over the years and aiding ICE will not help it any. 287G agreements create an atmosphere of

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fearinduced non-ooperation and law-abiding residents and the undocumented. Citizens become less likely to call law enforcement for help because they lose trust in them and do not view them as helpers. People being

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killed and injured by ICE agents further erodess that trust. And people view local law enforcement as part of the problem when they align themselves with masked enforcers. Investigations show that most people arrested by ICE are guilty of minor infractions or none at

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all. 60 to 70 70% of those arrested by ICE have no infractions and are no threat to citizens. Counties are supposed to get paid for housing illegal immigrants in their local jails. However, many counties have not been

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reimbursed for pri providing this service. Counties may have had to hire additional personnel to handle the administrative duties and additional duties that the 287g agreement requires. ICE may provide training, but the

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day-to-day duties fall on the county, which take time away from priorities like investigating crimes and local enforcement duties. Instead, regular sheriff's duties have been diverted to federal immigration business. What is

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liability for taxpayers when civil rights have been violated and illegals are kept in our jails past their release dates because ICE has not picked them up yet. These kinds of issues are already in litigation in many counties. Counties have already borne the cost of housing

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and feeding illegals and may never be paid up. >> Thank you. Next is Mitchell Pontius. >> This is my first time. I'm not sure. This is about one of the items on the meeting. So, I don't know if I'm

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supposed to bring up comments at that point. >> You bring up comments at that point. Okay. The first stuff that's save you the time then. >> However, Madam Chair, I believe Mr. Pontius is referring to item 5.8 on the HA transfer of some tax forfeited properties. I believe so.

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>> Yeah, I believe so. >> You may want to hear him now because we will be taking action to amend the agenda to remove that item due to some timing things. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Three minutes. Name and address for the records. >> I'm uh I'll try and keep it brief. I'm

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just requesting uh so there's this is the hearing. I guess it's if it's not happening this meeting, then probably next meeting for this HA deal. And I think it would be logical for the policy to be adjusted uh such that people could at the meeting or whenever

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uh purchase the lot at the over-the-counter price uh before the deal is closed and the lots are conveyed to the HR. So currently uh you know as soon as the HA gets their deal you know if I file an

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application for several lots or in this case 30 lots um with their HA then they get put on administrative hold for no more than 6 months um and then you know nobody else can buy that even if they

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are I like in my scenario I was ready to go to the county and buy at the over- the-counter price but now I can't because it's on hold. uh it was just pulled off the list the day day before I was ready to go buy. Um which, you know, it is what it is. But I think it makes sense, I think, in in the favor of the

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state revenue, let's say, for people to still buy at that over- the-counter price. Um and maybe the time to do it would be before it passes the county board approval for that deal, whether it's six lots or five lots or 30 lots. I know I've heard of three other people who have lots they were ready to build

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on that were on the overthec counter list that are now on the hold. I think that sums it up. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, Doug Kern. >> Uh Doug Kern, uh Curling Township. I just want to say thank you to the as the

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chair of Quad the Curling Association of Townships Officers. I want to say thank you to the uh the commissioners that showed up to our meeting. Um the other ones I'd like to really really thank is Gary Griffith and uh for land services

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explaining the process of how taxes are applied. Uh it was so it was really really informative. It went a little long but it was worth it. Uh when I look at Clayton Barge explaining the FEMA, you know that whole what we're doing here locally. Um, I just want to say

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thank you for you attending and talking to the resolution. And it was so good that Paul Corin actually decided to uh start putting out videos to his constituents. I thought that was pretty awesome. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, it was very good. Uh, I would like to say too, you know, the resolution

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that you guys all paid attention to and you listened to us as far as that resolution concerning um the uh, you know, notifying us when things are going on. We really, really appreciate that. The other thing I'd like to say is thank you for hiring such good staff and the

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sheriff's department. I am so proud of them for what they're doing, for taking the stand that they stand, uh, protecting us and overseeing things. We talk about liabilities. I knew an officer not too long ago that quit because he was afraid of stopping a car

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with somebody who was belligerent and colored. And so he said, "I can't take this." He said, "You never know what you're going to find when you pull a car over." He says, "I just can't take this." And he quit. And he went into um mental health. But uh you know, I

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appreciate so much the quality staff that you guys have and everything that you guys do here. And thanks to the sheriff's department, Eric Clay, for taking his job seriously. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, that's all I have for open forum, >> Madam Chair.

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>> Yeah. Yeah, I know. Don't look at me. I I got to say something. I This This whole 287g is it just is just I'm I'm just shaking inside because I can't believe people

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Have you ever heard of Lake and Riley? Raped and murdered by an illegal person here in this country. Maybe you should talk to her mom about how you feel about people being

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here illegally. Have you ever heard of Sharon Gorman? Sheridan Gorman, the 18-year-old girl shot in Chicago just recently. I mean, really, I can't believe it. I just cannot

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believe this that people are putting more are are are more in favor of people that are here illegally than our citizens and protecting our citizens. I cannot believe it.

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I I I'm going to get I'm going to get um I'm going to get Lake and Riley's mother's phone number and I'm going to give it to you so that you can talk to her and you can explain her why you feel the way you do. I I I just can't believe

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it. I I can't believe it. So, I know I know you looked at me like I shouldn't say anything. I probably shouldn't have, but this is just really just too much for me. That's all. Sorry about that. It will be three minutes. Next thing on

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the agenda is the review and approval of the April 28th uh county board minutes. >> Motion to approve. >> Do we have a second? >> A second. >> Motion by Commissioner Coring, second by Commissioner Lee. All those in favor?

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>> I >> motion carries. Review and approve the agenda. Madam chair, as I mentioned, uh we would like to remove item number 5.8. This is the application or to withdraw tax tracks available on the land sale

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list and transferred to the HR. There's a little bit of a timing mismatch in this process. We were assuming this had already gone to the HR board, but it has not yet at this point. So, it needs to be reviewed by the HR board before it becomes before you. So, this is a little

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bit out of whack with the timing. So, I would just like to have you remove that item from the agenda today. >> Motion to approve with the change. >> Do we have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Motion by Commissioner Curring, second by Commissioner Lee. Is there any

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discussion on anything else? >> Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. Human resources labor agreement. >> Madam Chair, we need to approve the consent agenda. Oh,

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>> approve the agenda. >> Okay. Now, we are going to approve the consent agenda. Madam >> Chair, I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Madam Chair, I've got a couple questions. >> Okay. >> Um, do you want to get a second?

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>> Get a second first. >> I'll second that. >> Okay. >> With a couple of questions. >> Okay. >> So, for the county engineer, just a couple of just questions. the property acquisition of the future of uh theater road.

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Um I just think an explanation of that I know when that was being tred there was some controversy and just want to know what what's happening with that if you don't mind explaining that. >> Sure. I think it'd be helpful to point at the map. Amber, can you bring up the

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uh the plat I think the background really starts uh I don't have the years quite a few years ago maybe five years ago probably less than that even when MIDOT was doing some improvements on 371 between Gulldam Road and Green Gate Ables Road. Uh they were

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putting in some restricted intersection movements on 371 to improve safety and that included the development of a frontage road called theater road. This is the one that leads from Arkansas 70 up to the old

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drive-in theater. And at the time, Mindot did not purchase. They purchased that theater road runs down this way towards to the south. And at the time, they did not

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approach uh this property owner. I believe his name is Mr. Anderson, but I'm not positive. he was the one that developed the large um storage unit on on the movie theater property and did not uh approach them because

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that theater road did not go far enough uh into their property because the entrance to theater is like right here and for many years we've been talking about the safety of 371. We just finished up the 371 corridor and there was an

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opportunity to connect this frontage road with what is a private property up here now. And can you Amber, can you flip to the next one? Uh be next plat next. This one if you

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This is the front row that goes up to Green Gables. And so it's always good to get traffic off of 371 and utilize frontage roads particularly in that area. And uh we saw an opportunity to connect the new

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frontage road that MDOT built and this was private right now but it is an opportunity to someday connect them so we can have a frontage road between those two busy roadways. And when Mr. Anderson, again, I believe that's his

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name, came forward um with that flat to do that storage unit. We had uh approached him to purchase some properties so we could eventually do that someday. There is no plan to connect that. It was just an

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opportunity. We asked him to uh amend his plat. Banner, can you go back a little bit? when he was developing this this plat for the storage units looking oops looking to the future. We

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had approached him and ask if we could purchase this property for that future connection because if he had built uh built it utilizing this roadway, we would never be able to make that connection. And so I know I remember a conversation we had

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at the time at at the board to uh enter into negotiations with Minister Anderson to to get that done. So we we could make that connection someday. It's taken a couple years to get to that negotiation and we've come to an agreement and we're

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just uh based on the direction from the board at the time. This resolution just solidifies that we have the authority to actually purchase that property from him. So, Madam Chair, uh Tim, this is this is working this is us working as

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the town board of unorganized territory, correct? Or >> Well, it's yes and no. >> Thank you for the question. It's interesting because I think the safety of 371 there's an implication for all of the county and in the resolution it talks about splitting the cost to

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purchase this property between the first assessment district because it will be a first assessment okay assessment district road someday but it also uh the county has some responsibility in being in the planning of the safety of 371. And so that's our proposal that we

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rather than put it all on the first assessment district um to pay for this property uh for the extension that Crowing County as a whole splits it too because it it benefits us all not just the FAB. >> Makes total sense. Thank you. And then

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just one other question. I know we've talked about this multiple times but just the service agreement or maintenance services for ditch 13. Can you just explain I think some we've it seemed like we talked about another ditch recently. I can't remember >> that was ditch 10

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>> ditch 10 >> ditch 10 and backster >> but this is the only one I think that we have on maintenance group. Should you can you just explain just for >> sure >> people's >> the uh ditch 13 is the only county ditch of 15 that we have that actually has

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an active assessment where we're collecting uh revenue from the benefiting property owners and back again my dates escape me 2017 I believe that the county board went through the

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process to officially start collecting that assessment. It was $14,000 210 something at the time and the direction was to

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utilize that money to keep the ditch flowing. there was an option on the table to do some expansion for hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the board direction was to just keep it flowing because that was the concern of the lake levels, particularly in Lake Edward. And

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so, Madam Chair, I think just correct me if I'm wrong, I you know, ditch law in Minnesota is like a hundred years old. I don't think it's ever been changed. And and so when somebody comes forward with a petition, which they did on Lake Edward, the county board had no option

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but to assess these people for ditch 13. And I think the petition only had to be how many people? One person. So yeah, anyway, just point that out. So, this contract, uh, Commissioner Coring,

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is to, uh, we hire a contractor to do that. You know, they'll walk the ditch, they'll cut out deadfall, they'll remove beaver dams, any kind of sedimentation that affects >> Sure. >> the flow of it. >> And so, this is the next three-year contract

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to to award that to Okay. >> Home Big Excavating. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks for letting me ask a couple questions on the consent agenda. Madame Chair, um Paul, uh Commissioner Coring brought up an item on this on the storage one. Uh stay

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up here, please. Tim, now on that frontage road you're looking at right according to this drawing here, it's showing only a 50ft frontage road. Now, I thought if we're going to be involved in roads, there's 66. Is there Am I missing something there?

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>> No, you're not missing something. Again, this was a negotiation with Mr. Anderson and uh at the at the time this without affecting the rest of his plat I believe that's why we we're getting what we can the rest of it to get 66 ft we would

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work with mindot to try to acquire >> okay >> plus it's all MDOT rightway so it's not >> the question I have is do we want to expend county dollars or or in this case unorganized territory dollars on a road

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that's not 66 ft feet. >> Well, the rightway the the total width is 50 ft, but you have to remember this is state highway. So, this is actually right of right away. >> I mean, is it our right way to be able to

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>> it's it's mind state right of way. Does that mean we get we can if we get to the point where where we pave it all the way out to Jones or if this what is it Joan Jones Drive or whatever it is that that is 66 ft that is platted at

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66T. >> That's correct. >> We would want to make that a road going all the way through. Correct. And if the plat if the person does the plat properly, the person then would ask us to take over that road in the plat or unorganized territory to take over >> potentially if they build it to our

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standard >> somewhere down the road. Right now the way it looks unless we have 66 ft going to it. I know you say it's MDOT's rightway. Can we get that 6 ft from MDOT in order to make it a 60 ft 66 ft road

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>> potentially or or utilize their rideway as the rightway? If you could view it as the rightway is 200 ft or something like that. So it is similarly situated as Theater Road is today to the south. >> Okay. and theater road isn't is part of

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we're using part of mindot's rightway or mindot's allowing us to use correct part of the rightway to make that work. So it wouldn't it would make sense it would continue on that way. >> Correct. >> Okay. Okay. Just what is drawn on the map doesn't show that >> plus correct plus

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um again where it was on this area of Mr. Anderson's plat. he was needing the area to to be able to do accomplish what he did. So, it was it was a negotiated. He didn't have to. >> He didn't have to do that and then we'd be stuck with these two deadend frontage

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roads and we would not be able to address safety as as much as we could. >> Well, and I know on the 371 as I drive it pretty much every day, it's it is a it is getting busier and busier. So, anything we can do to get traffic off of that and get it onto a side street. So,

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okay. Thank you. That's all I have. >> Are there any more questions? >> Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Lubkkey, a second by Commissioner Coring. All those in favor? >> I >> I motion carries. Human resources labor

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agreement. Good morning, Madame Chair and commissioners. I'm going to give Amber a minute here to get the PowerPoint up, but I'm bringing forward today an agreement with LEALS, Local 13, that represents our 911 telecommunicators,

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also previously known as our 911 dispatchers. This agreement covers 10 employees and it comes with our market aligned pay plan that has our ranges that's just the min and max of the salary schedule

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changing 3% in 2026 3% in 2027 and 2.75% in 2028 providing the general adjustment and a meeting expectations increase as well as the opportunity for the advancing crowing county incentive. of

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the 911 telecommunicators are on the county health plans. Some of the key recognitions in the agreement include the Minnesota paid leave and the language to have a 50/50 premium split, ability to use PTO to

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remain whole, and running concurrent with other leaves such as FMLA, removing our short-term disability plan and providing a voluntary short-term disability plan, and then removing our PTO donation program. We have also agreed to be able to use

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the full PTO acral table when hiring. So if we hire somebody with previous dispatch experience, we could start their PTO acral at a higher rate. Um seniority previously in the contract was based on seniority within the department and this is changing it to

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seniority based on classification. The healthcare savings plan increased from $35 per month to $40 per month. And that is employee and employer contributions. There's an annual uniform allowance of

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$720 which will be paid $60 a month throughout the year instead of one lump sum in February. Uh providing a weekend differential of $1 per hour for hours worked on Saturday and Sundays. Double time when covering

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holidays. This provides the opportunity to fill holiday shifts more timely versus waiting until the last minute to get them filled. Uh deferred comp match to align with what we have offered to other groups as well since this is the first year of

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them getting the match. It is $100 up to $100 match a month in 2026 and then $50 per month for 27 and 28. And then as with any link contract, we continue to clean up some language and

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provide more clarification on language as well. And they did agree to a three-year contract. And on the next slide, um, in addition to the market aligned pay plan, we did also offer an

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adjustment of $1,000 on January of 2026 and $1,000 on January of 2027. This is a group. They did have a bunch of turnover just in the last three years. So to provide and hope for a little bit more retention and

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stability within the group, this additional $1,000 was offered for those two years. And if there aren't any questions, I'm just looking for a motion to authorize entering into a labor agreement between Crowing County and Law Enforcement Labor

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Services Local 13 representing the 911 telecommunicators effective January 1st, 2026 through December 31st, 2028. And the chair, HR manager, and county administrator are authorized to sign set agreement.

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>> I will make that motion. >> Second. >> Motion by Commissioner Lee, second by Commissioner Corring. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I >> I >> opposed. Motion carries.

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>> Thank you. Commissioners, >> land services. >> Good morning, Madam Chair, commissioners. What we have before you today is a proposed tiff district number 16. This is a housing district located

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in the city of Baxter at the corner of Lake Forest Road and Noatne Road. This is consisting of one parcel. The district is being created to facilitate the construction of um 80unit mixed income senior housing apartment with the

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construction expected to begin this summer. The full tiff plan has enclosed today for your review and a public hearing is scheduled for a 700 p.m. June 2nd at the Baxter city hall. Would you jump to page 96, please?

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Uh we just wanted to give you a little bit of information regarding what tax increment financing or tiff is today. Um, tax increment financing is a financing tool used to capture and use property tax revenues from new

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development to finance qualifying costs. TIFF is highly governed by complex statutes and that does limit the uses of the TIFF money for things such as demolition of structurally sub um structurally substandard buildings,

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utilities, road improvements, or the acquisition of land and buildings. TIF does not require county or school approval. TIF is also not a tax break. It is the property owners do pay their full tax bill every year.

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How tax increment works is when the tiff is certified to the county the t the base value or the original net tax capacity is established at that point as development occurs that new value is captured and then that new captured

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value is um or tax capacity is multiplied by the tax rate to get your tax increment. The tax increments go to the tiff authority, in this case, city of Baxter, and then the tax on the base

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value goes to your normal local taxing authorities. As far as the county board's role, um you receive notification at least 30 days before the public hearing. You have a chance to review the TIFF plan prior to that public hearing. you have the

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opportunity to submit comment for to the proposal to the authority. Um the county board cannot deny the tiff district. Only those local jurisdictions can do that. Also, if county roads are impacted, you may require the authority

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to help pay the cost of road improvements from the tax increment. In Crowing County, we have a total of 20 tiff districts totaling 51 parcels. Um, currently those are located in the city of Baxter, city of Brainard, Breezy

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Point, Crosby, Nisa, and Pekqua Lakes. Are there any questions? >> Madam Chair, so can you just give me an example? I mean, I we haven't done anything like this for a long time, and so I guess I'm just trying to refresh my

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memory of like an example of not only for me, but the people that listen to these meetings. I think it'd be probably a good idea. >> Madam Chair, this is part of why I asked Michelle and Melanie to give you a little bit of a broader update because we have not been asked to comment on a TIFF district in a number of years. This

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is the first one I think that has come before us since Commissioner Lubkkey was on the board and Commissioner Lee hasn't had an opportunity to see one yet either. So, just to kind of give you a little bit of an update around what TIF is as well as what's the county's role in it. Um, can you talk a little bit

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about the one that's in front of you maybe is what we can talk about. This is a a housing project that is being proposed to be built and the developer is approaching the city of Baxter to ask for this tool, if you will, this development tool to assist in what that

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process is. Can you talk a little bit further about that, Michelle, >> or maybe some examples of other tiff districts that we have in the county? >> Yep. So, some of the other tiff districts that we have in the county,

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there's the city of Baxter's has the most um most of theirs are housing. So, the Arbor Glenn and our um the Arbor Glenn senior apartments by the movie theater is one of those. And what

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they're trying a lot of times what the TIFF plans are trying to do is provide lower income housing. Some of their requirements are to ensure that there's mixed income. Um, >> Madame Chair, just maybe this will help. So,

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>> how does it how does this a tiff district, how does that help the developer? What benefit do they have by this being a TIFF district? Um, so how this helps the developers, typically they're doing a

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pay as you go loan from the city. So the city is helping to with these tax increments is helping to fund this development >> um which helps them to bring that developer in and create the additional development um over there and offer this

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housing unit. without it they there has to be a but for in the plan where basically what they're stating is if without the tiff increments to help fund this but for the

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tiff this development would not happen. So, Madam Chair, it is a way for as as Michelle was saying with a pay as you go model, which is what we see most of the TI districts in our area referencing. Every year, a portion of this increment is captured. So if you think of what the

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value of a piece of bare land would be compared to the value of that same land once a building is constructed on it, that gap or whatever that difference is helps to generate some of the incentive that that business can pay back to the

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city of Brainer or the city of Baxter in this particular instance. So, the business is getting the agreement from the city council to allow them to pay over time to be able to afford to build this facility, which will allow them to

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more quickly construct it. And it's a financing tool that instead of having to go to perhaps a bank and get a loan to pay off whatever that amount would be, they're agreeing to pay the city what that portion amount would be over a course of years. oftentimes it deals

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with some of the infrastructure things as far as what it would cost to put in sewer and water. In many cases, it also just helps to allow them to redevelop in some cases. If you don't see it for housing, you're also seeing it to correct blight or to redevelop

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economically depressed areas to help to spur new business building growth in that in that way. Does that help? Uh, >> confuse it more. Kind of confuses it more. Kind of confuses it more. I just I

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just want I that how how does it does it have any negative effect on all the other people that are paying their property taxes and they're not getting any tiff district to how does it affect them? Can you?

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>> So, um, Commissioner Coring, essentially for the length of the TIFF district, the any any tax on that new value, so that con new construction value is going directly to the TIF

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district and not to those taxing authorities. So that new construction unfortunately is not reducing potentially reducing the local tax rate >> right >> for that area. Um

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economic development districts are usually eight years in duration if they're doing it from a business standpoint from an economic development standpoint. It's a eight-year duration of what that tiff plan usually can be. Uh housing projects are 20 years. So there's a little bit longer time frame

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of what's involved there. Typically when a municipality establishes a district, a tiff district, there may be multiple projects that could occur within that district. And each project would be dependent on how much increment is

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captured by that particular district or by that particular project. The city is essentially agreeing to shift whatever captured tax would happen over that 8 or 20 year period. And what what

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tiff really comes down to what it boils down to is a tax shift. It boils down to this growth is happening. >> The growth is happening. We are >> we are spurring economic development, if you will. We are spurring growth, but you're not going to realize the full

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potential of that for the full duration of what that tiff time frame is because everybody else is helping to offset what that is. It just shifts the tax burden a little bit over that duration. >> Madam Chair, I would assume that this is they look at it like if this is for

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elderly people or lowincome people, this is kind of where it's more geared. I would absolutely I would think. Usually, you're going to see a housing district, like Michelle said, it's going to be something that is without being able to do that. The cost of construction would

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be higher. The cost of the rents would be higher. This is a way to help allow for some of that more affordable senior housing, other areas of what would be able to be developed in those areas. >> I got it. Thank you, >> Madam Chair. Um, I was familiar with the

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tiff district as as I served as mayor in Jenkins and we had three tiff districts. None of them were housing. They were all for economic development. And and it was as the city when we sat there as a city looked at it and looked at that but four agreement. That but four agreement was

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very important but for without this it wouldn't be built in Jenkins. And when you look at long range down the road, we were going to, if you want to say that, give up that increased value for so many years. But after that tiff district was done, that value went right back on then

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to the tax roles of the of the city. And in the threes three of them that we had, one actually defaulted, one actually didn't complete it, and that and that developers agreement and everything went away and that property went right up to market value right away. So, so if they don't do their job, if they don't meet

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the butt for agreement, that tiff goes away. But in the cases where we did it, it was it was the only way in the city of Jenkins we could see getting any development in our industrial park was by offering or the the person asking for and us getting involved in the tiff. We

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understand the fact that the county doesn't get its full share, the school doesn't get its full share until that district is done, but after it's done, it's business as normal. So it it was a great tool. It was about the only tool we really had in Jenkins. We didn't have anything else to offer as far as water,

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sewer, road, or anything like that. So it worked out very well for our city. So thank you. I I don't know if that helps at all, but more in the economic development than the housing. >> So >> and madam chair, as was mentioned, the county does not have any say yay or nay.

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Essentially, you are afforded the opportunity to provide comment on the project that is being proposed. Um, so the action that you are asking for is what, Michelle? >> So, the standard action in the past has been to um wave the 30-day review period

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and provide no comment. However, note our concerns about the potential impact on the individual taxpayers in that area. And madame chair, that particular portion of the comment was added courtesy of Commissioner Dwey Touches at the time, who we had several

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TIFF projects in front of us over a course of a few years. And while our standard action previously was to wave the 30-day comment period and have no comment, he did want to make it known and the board agreed, the the full board wanted to make it known that TIFF does

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shift. It is a tax shift and it does have implications. So while there's nothing that is required of you to make that statement, it is just something to continue to bring it to light when that happens. >> Madam Chair, I got a question.

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Uh did I understand it correctly that there is some economic impact to the county as far as roads? What you stated? if the development would affect uh a county road, meaning that there would be potentially a lot more traffic um on

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that road and there was no plan to repair it, I believe, in within the next 5 years, the commissioner, you commissioners could request that improvements to that county road be paid out of tax increment. Okay?

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>> And that is not the case in this particular one. This is there's no county roads impacted. Okay. Any more questions? Do we have a motion to provide no comment? >> I'd make the motion to uh forgo the

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30-day um what did you call it? 30-day period >> review and to offer no comment. >> We have a second. >> Do we have a second? I've got a question before if we want if you want a second, I'll give you the

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second, but I got a question before we go any further. This June 2nd um is when the city of Baxter has their hearing on it. Correct. >> Correct. >> And this if we wave this 30-day, that's uh

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waving residents option to come and speak with us. Correct. Madame Chair, Commissioner Lee, there's no option for residents to come to speak to you about this. >> Okay. >> The county board has no authority to hold a public hearing or to take public input or to do anything other than

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provide comment to the city of Baxter. >> All we're doing then would be uh waving the 30 so that they can >> so that they can hold their public hearing on June 2nd. >> Okay. >> Telling them that we're concerned about the impact on individual taxpayers. >> Correct. >> Yeah. And that that was why I asked the

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question because I'm sure there's going to be input that's needed on this. So you have my second. >> Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Lubkkey, second by Commissioner Lee. Any more discussion?

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Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. unorganized territory. >> Good morning again. I have two items for you. It's the uh award of two contracts.

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We'll start with the first assessment district first. Over the last, I think it's seven years or so, we have contracted for maintenance in the first assessment district. And this was a shift from when the county

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did it with its own forces. And uh back then it was discovered that we could actually increase the level of service not only for the first assessment district, but also for the county as we divide uh the responsibilities. think about the county going to the

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county roads first and a contractor going to the fed roads first um rather than the faded roads getting done at the end of our shift when they're we're plowing our county roads. And so that's the beginning of these both contracts

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that are before you. First assessment district contract for 2023 through 2026 uh is expiring and this is a not a renewal of that contract but rebidding it. We we revised the

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the bidding documents and really inserted a lot of the things that we learned over the last few uh few years working with the contractor and uh we put it out for bids and opened the bids.

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Um I forget I don't have the date on here. Uh we opened the bids recently and we had one bidder. It was home big excavating for the first assessment district and it's a for a three-year contract between 20 26 the remainder of this year and

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through June 30th 2029 and it like I said it was the only bidder and we're looking to authorize looking for authorization to enter into contract with homeig excavating for the period of

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uh 2026 through 2029. 9. There is a bid summary uh uh in your packet. The thing to note about this is that this is this number is used for bidding only. This is not a guaranteed amount. It's

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not a construction contract. It's a as needed. One of the things that we entered into this contract is a lot of uh authority by the maintenance manager to direct the work of the contractor. So we can uh they're only out there

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working when we ask them to snow plowing even to some to some degree. We're helping call them out and things like that. The bidding process really just established the bid prices, the per hour, the per

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ton, the per square yard prices. And it we could there's no maximum or minimums in the contract because we're we want to go and provide the services when we need them for the public. And so the the number you see on

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the bid sheet was just the number that we felt that uh through our research and our data that we've gathered over the years with his contracts what those hourly how many hours or how many of those unit prices would be each year. And so we use that

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to establish how we would award the bid. We had an engineer's estimate and and and engineer and quantities and the and the contractor submitted their bids for those quantities and we match it up against our engineers estimate and that's the two numbers that you see on

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the back. This is not we're not awarding a necessarily a contract for 959,959. It actually could be much lower than that. It's just the combination of those bid prices in our engineer's estimate

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compared to the contractor's bid. Madame chair, may I ask a question? So, Tim, the couple of questions. um when this bid 959

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959 >> So let's say throughout this contract homevig there's there's like the worst three winters ever in a row and he's using a lot of sand and salt and and

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everything else. Does he have to pay for all that inside the contract or is that over and above? Do you know what I'm saying? I mean, if he if obviously if it if it's a mild winter, I mean, his trucks aren't going to be out as much

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or, you know, or not using as much material. Am I making sense with that? >> Yes. So, there is a there is a line item in the contract for the the sand that he uses. And so he only charges us for the amount of sand that he uses. So if it's

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a light winter, he will charge us less at that bid price. >> Conversely, if it's a very uh heavy winter, he will charge more uh more units, not the unit price, won't change.

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>> Sure. >> And so it's a it weighs it allows us to only get charged for the services that he provides. and we're locking in that bid price that he uh or the contractor has provided us

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through this bidding process. >> And then, Madam Chair, just a curiosity question. So, I know that when we're bidding roads or bidding this, there's always an engineer's estimate. When somebody's bidding this or Anderson's

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Brothers is bidding something, do they know what the engineers estimate is? >> We don't we don't let them know. Okay. >> No, it it increases competition. It just it >> we will tell them obviously it's published right here, but we we don't

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publish that prior to to give anybody uh unfair advantage, right? >> We've had contracts that had come in under our engineers estimate at 600, you know, 600,000, >> right? >> And if the contractors knew that, uh they would be bid right around the

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engineers estimate. everybody on there. It it it increases their I say how they sharpen their pencil. >> Yeah, >> we will tell them afterwards, but up front we don't want to let them know. >> So then, Madam Chair, just another question. How how how is how would you

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estimate that this is working from the way we did it before where you know the the county highway department guys and gals would get all the county roads done and and then they would move on to unorganized territory and then of course

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unorganized territory taxpayers would have to reimburse the county for that services. How do you think this is working? Is it working better? Are they getting served quicker? Uh is it you think it's saving us money?

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>> I as I mentioned before, Commissioner Coring, is that uh I believe it's creating a better level service. Now, there's different opinions about that. Um from the folks that live in the first assessment district, there's just something people feel they see a county truck out

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there with a crowing county on the side. And one of the things we discovered back in 2017 or so when we started that is that we were diverting from the county road system to take care of these roads. So county road 3 would not be plowed as

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soon as it could be. But a first assessment district deadend road would get it done first. And that didn't seem right at at the time. It's it doesn't sound like we should be taken away from their county road system. And so the

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solution was to have the county focus on our own. Our c our trucks go on the county roads and this contractor goes to that road uh much sooner. Ideally, they would have been being hit at the end of the day, but it didn't

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always work out that way for for convenience. So, I believe it's created a better level of service. When we go out at 2:00 a.m., this contractor sometimes goes out at 2 am, too. And sometimes maybe an hour later and we can get there or they can get

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there a lot faster. Now, that road system at 60 mi gets done sooner. Madam Chair, I would move to award the contract for 2026 2022 for the first assessment district roadway maintenance

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services contract number 8830064. >> I will I will second it after I ask a question >> or two. Uh Tim, I I somehow managed to lock myself out of my computer until this morning. So, is there any major changes over last year? Um any big

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surprises or anything that uh vastly different given fuel prices and >> No. Uh Commissioner Lee, the the only changes that we had to the previous contract is that we've cleaned up some of the

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language. To be more specific, we introduced liquidated damages if they don't meet specific timelines. was very uh overt uh spelled it out. We provided an opportunity to provide a bid for each of the four contract periods the

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remainder of this year 27 28 29 and provided an opportunity to increase their bid instead of locking it in today and then the contractor um having to deal with fuel increases and that stuff. we provided that

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opportunity and uh this particular contractor did not take that opportunity. So the bid price we're going to pay for the reindeer this year for um mowing for example is the same bid price that we're going to be charged in 2029

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which we provided opportunity they just didn't take it. They had an opportunity to increase by you three 5% but they did not take that. So, um, that's how they deal with the the fuel to be able they had the opportunity, but they didn't do it for some reason.

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>> Okay. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Another question. Um, so on some of the first assessment districts, I know we're talking about dust control. Is that at all involving HomeVig at all or the in the dust control or is that a separate

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contract with somebody else? Commissioner Lupkey, that's that is a separate contract and that already has been let and we're getting really close to that first application. >> But in in those cases a lot of time before the dust control, they want that road, you know, brought up to and crowned and really nice and so the dust

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control does a does a better job than just putting it over a bunch of rock. So does this also include any um roads that you're looking at graveling at all in the first assessment district from home big? Does he supply the gravel? provides that's all laid out in your documents

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and I know the way you do documents Tim I'm sure it's laid out in the documents so I'm just asking that question uh to your first question there is court this is the contractor that would shape up the road pri prior to the application of dust control

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uh and there are line items in the contract for graveling both supplying shaping and then simply just blading this is the contractor that uh we'll do that and there 15 I believe 15 line items. We tried to be specific.

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We really uh wanted to increase our ability to analyze what this costs what costs the residents of the fed every year. So we kind of broke it down um into stuff that's easier to analyze. What's costing us more? Graveling or snow

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plowing or mowing or those things. And with everything you have in there, that's what you your engineers's estimate is what you think all of that in there would be all in. And that's >> that's correct. And in a in a typical year, obviously there's going to be es and flows. We've locked in the bid price. That's the most important thing.

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>> You've locked Yep. >> And uh >> per unit >> per unit. There could be more quantity one year and less the next year. >> Thank you. That's all I had. >> I'll second the motion. >> Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner

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Coring, second by Commissioner Lee. Any more discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. >> Madam Chair, I would so move to award the contract for the 2026 to 2029

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second assessment district roadway maintenance contract 184007. >> I'll second it. >> Okay. Motion by Commissioner Carring. Second by Commissioner Lee. Any discussion on this one? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I

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>> I >> Motion carries. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> County Sheriff. >> Good morning, Madame Chair and Commissioners, distinguished guest. It's good to be before you today. Um I you'll be seeing some stuff coming out in the

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paper today. I am uh running for uh second term as uh your sheriff. I'm looking forward to that. I also realize as the chief law enforcement officer of the county that not every decision that I make is uh everybody's pleased with,

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but I want you to know that every decision that I do make is definitely in the best interest of Crowing County. and uh those uh decisions are sometimes um not everybody ex is exactly uh pleased

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with them, but we've done some really good things over the the past uh three years going on in the four years. And I just wanted to highlight a couple of those things with you. Um you know, one of the things that we've been working on is our records management system. We've had a uh a long uh time with our current

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uh records management system, our LG is what it was called. Uh typical software program lasts about seven years typically. This one's been going on for 20 years. So it's uh um definitely time. It's uh o overdue that we uh look at

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this new records management system. Things are going as uh scheduled as planned and definitely excited about that. Uh the other uh other thing I wanted to mention was uh that we've really worked hard at building relationships with our our local and

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state uh law enforcement partners and uh they they had been strained uh kind of in the past. So we have uh definitely uh done our a good part in uh building those relationships back and again that's what it's all about is relationships.

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Um, we've opened up the office to all law enforcement so they can come in at any time into our facility um, and feel welcomed and and uh, we're we're very thankful for that. We're thankful for our local our city uh, partners out there uh, uh, because we do really do

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uh, want to work together at trying to um, you know, make our community as safe as uh, we can. And another thing I I talked to uh, Dr. Tim Timothy HooL uh when he was leaving on his way out and I

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told him that one of the things that I'd really be working and pushing really hard on is the pay for performance and that is one of the things that we together have worked on and uh we did get rid of that and I'm uh um very uh pleased about that and so obviously is

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my staff. Um another thing we did is we've cleaned up the policy book. We've had a lot we had policies to uh go to the lunchroom for crying out loud. So, there was a lot of unnecessary policies that were kind of just, you know, making this book heavier and heavier. So, we've

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uh we've we've cleaned that up. We've uh we added an additional K-9 unit to help uh uh augment the uh K-9 units that we have in in Crowing County. and it has been a very uh very helpful in uh

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tracking and locating narcotics and also people as well. Um we have a mental health uh deputy that we've uh instituted into our our ranks to help us navigate those mental health calls that we go on on a regular basis. And we uh

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uh that that program itself has been very successful as well. Uh it's kind of tampered down a little bit. Doesn't look like a fully marked squad. doesn't have a fully marked uniform on. So, it's been really helpful with that. We've also done the social embedded social worker in our uh office as well, and that's

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been a really big help to help us navigate, make sure that we get the the right resources to this person that's um in in crisis. And generally, if we can catch them early enough, uh we have less time uh that we'll have to deal with them on the back end. Usually it takes a

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uh you know this goes on and on and on before we can actually get the help that they need. Um and this and this embedded social worker along with our mental health deputy has uh you know sped that up. So uh pretty uh great great stuff uh

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going on over there. We created our own medical unit over in the jail. something that we didn't think that we were going to be that was going to be possible um after we had lost one of the uh health uh providers uh for our jail. Uh we're actually we got a really good

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thing going on right now. People from all over the uh state are coming to us and asking us how we do this and how how does this thing work and um they're trying to figure out uh their own their own way as well. Um the uh um we've also

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robusted our chaplain program and uh it's all part of our health and wellness for our deputies. We have uh spiritual health, mental health, physical health, and financial health. And if you can think about those four things, if you had all four of those things going great

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in your life, um how what a you know great spouse you would be, what a great employee you would be, what a great uh uh friend you would be. So, uh, we're excited that we're constantly building on that. We're giving them the tools that they need to get those, uh, four

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things in line with their, uh, with their life. So, um, that's been some really good, really good stuff. We've also been very forward thinking in the jail as far as safety goes. We've looked at, uh, um, different ways that we can

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not only protect our employees, but also protect the uh, inmates. Uh we we're doing a health monitoring system where we can uh see uh their uh breathing rate in there if you will and uh uh we can see if there's something that goes ary

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uh quite immediately. Uh so we've uh we're always looking at ways that we can do better um in the jail because we know that being in jail is you know obviously a tough thing and of course people die in jail too. So we want to try to uh

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prevent that uh completely. So um another thing that we started was employee recognition monthly employee recognition day and uh we we gave out these little cards to everybody. They're all around the office and people fill them out and they say, "Hey, thanks a lot for a good job." It just might be

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something simple like that or thanks for covering for me. And then we do that recognition uh every month and uh it's amazing the number of people that show up at that uh in our EOCC um and uh that come to that and our um

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we applaud them and thank them for the good work that they do and we have a lot of people in our in our staff with our staff that do great work as you can see of the folks behind me. I'll mention quickly that uh Chief Deputy Annie Bradley has been great uh as a chief

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deputy. It's also his birthday today. So, a shout out to him. And then our jail staff over there, Troy and Miranda and Bo. Bo is our program uh guy. Does takes care of all the programming that we offer to our inmates in there and

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does a fantastic job. There's over a hundred volunteers that we have coming in that jail. So, it's quite a pro project uh process for him to uh to align all that stuff up. But it's also part of our mission and vision and our mantra uh at the sheriff's office. We uh

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we want to do we want to provide the best service through leadership, visibility, and preparation. And part of that leadership is every one of us in whether you're a support staff or uh you're working the road or you're in leaders in leadership position. Every

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one of us is a leader on every call, every phone call, every contact that we have with people. Um in our visibility, we want to be visible in the community as well. So be visible on the streets. That's why people are constantly saying, "Man, I you see you guys all over the

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place." But we're also in involved in the community through in the chamber events in other events where people are are are gathering and we uh we want to be part of the community. We want them to see us. We want them to know us. We want them to know Troy, our jail administrator. Uh so those guys have

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been also um being very active in the uh in there as well uh in our community. Um just a couple more things to note. I had a whole ton of them. Uh and I was just we were just sitting down this morning. I was just typing out a few of them and there's obviously quite a few

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of things that we've done and uh another thing is increase social media. We've really trying to be as transparent as we can and we've you know some people don't like all that transparency on the social media part but uh I uh think people are very interested in law enforcement and

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what we do and uh the good work that we do should be highlighted to our uh community members as well. So uh also with uh with that uh we've uh also uh did a robust uh increase in the number

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of uh security staff that we have over in the in the uh court administration and uh hopefully um we have a very good uh program uh with our staff over there that are providing the security and campus security as well. So you'll see

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them walking around the campus and uh they're uh doing a great job. But so we're uh with all that said, I think we're always looking to uh improve what we do. We don't want to get um back on our laurels. We want to be continuing looking how we can do a better job,

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provide better service, and uh be something that uh the citizens would be proud of at the Crowing County Sheriff's Office. With that, um I would certainly take any questions or concerns, compliments, >> madam chair. So, a comment and then a

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question. You know, my comment is uh to me, not only in law enforcement, your your brethren, your the Baxter police, the Brainer police, the state patrol, those are your brothers. >> Amen.

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>> And sisters in law enforcement. and and you have to support your, you know, and I and what made me as I was sitting here, I was thinking about when I was a state senator, I was up at funeral up for um up in um up by Duth. I was up

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there and I got a call and they said, "The county board in Morrison County is being held hostage." Now, I would bet you that Little Falls and every surrounding agency was there to support their brothers.

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>> That's right. >> You know, and so that's what it's all about. And it's the same thing with this county board. We're working with our state officials. We're talking with Congressman Stabber, Amy Kolachar. Doesn't matter what part. Our job is to get the job done for our

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constituents. And I think that's what you're doing. And uh I really appreciate it. Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you. >> And then I will say that um this this points out I can remember when you guys came to us, the county board, to authorize paying for the flock cameras.

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And I was kind of hesitant at that time. And and Andy explained, all he had to do was give me one story about a a lady from Detroit Lakes that had dementia and her husband came back home and their car was gone and didn't know where she was.

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They eventually found her because of these cameras. >> Yep. And so I have an email from one of my great constituents down in southern Crowing County, which I think all my constituents are the best in the whole world. Paul, if the sheriff is at the meeting

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tomorrow, could you please ask for an update on the investigation and the shooting that was out this way, County Road 2, Roosevelt Township, is only two or three miles away from my house. I'm really concerned about what's

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happening. >> I don't know if you can give an update. >> Yeah. Well, that that uh we've we've had a couple of shootings. Obviously, they're still under investigation and we're uh working to uh to wrap those up. But I will say that uh the you know the

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um one of the flock cameras was instrumental in us identifying a uh person of interest. M >> so without that uh without that camera without that vlog camera we would have been kind of at a stalemate I I think I

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don't you know we would have been working on other things but that one brought it to the forefront very quickly. >> Yeah. >> I don't want to give away all our secrets but uh but that's been >> well I I appreciate it very much and this is you know this is people that are concerned you know that are we're you

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and I are representing and they they're asking for answers. So >> Yep. Thanks for what you can tell. >> Yeah. And it and again, it's really it's not just me um that's leading your sheriff's office, but it's these fine folks that are behind me that are helping to uh to um bring the level of

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service that you guys are receiving. So, >> and then one other thing, there was another there was another thing that I know I've asked Andy a couple of times and I think it's still under investigation about some drug stuff that was happening out in in um down in our

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area. And I I don't think you guys can comment it on yet, but when it is completed, I think my constituents because they keep asking me about it and >> I'm I'm I will tell that story. >> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Sheriff.

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Thank you, >> Madam Chair. Sheriff, I just want to say thank you for the job that you and your staff do. Um, obviously the two of you back there and I have have worked together years ago and uh I know what you guys are

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going through. you're you're the hero to the victims and you're the most hated person to the suspect and you can't please everybody every time and um that's hard for a lot of people to understand and uh I'm just very appreciative of the work you guys are

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doing and glad you do it. So, thank you. >> County attorney. >> Good morning, Madam Chair, commissioners. I don't have anything for you this morning, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you have of me. Madame Chair and this is to Debbie. Would this be the appropriate time I've And also in my email?

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>> Yeah, you could ask that question. >> So, and also in the email that I received is uh also if Cara um our um community services director, she's not here. Is there an update on the assisted

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living business that the state closed up and have we been paid the bill for what county staff has done? >> Madam Chair, Commissioner Coring, um I did check this morning. As of today, we

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have not received payment on that amount as of yet. We had invoiced them for $42,550 which was the cost of our staff providing the services to that facility during that crisis time frame. We did

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resend the invoice to them back on April 17th. County attorney and I had had some conversation around that at that point in time. Um I don't think she's I won't speak for her, but I don't know that she's super confident we will receive payment in that regard. But we did send

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that invoice again by certified mail. I did check with our staff this morning and we've not received back the signed um what do you want to call it? The certified mail card that refers or shows that they did receive that invoice. So, we've not received that back yet either, but the payment has not been made on

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that account yet at this point. As far as I am aware and according to our staff, um there's been no no change in the status of that facility. It is not currently open. I do believe that they had appealed the revocation of their

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license and did come to an a settlement agreement with the state of Minnesota, but that there were some stipulations and restrictions placed around if they were going to reopen the Brainer facility. And as of now, we've not heard of anything that would indicate that that is happening anytime in the future.

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>> Well, Madam Chair, I >> I'm sorry, >> Madam Chair. I I I think that we should be pursuing something when when this company was not treating people right and we had to step in. And I'm really um you know, if Steve was here, if

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Commissioner Barrows was here, he would he would be furious because the state of Minnesota was not doing their job and Crowing County had to step in and protect these people. And so I think the taxpayers shouldn't be foot f foot fitting the bill for what we had to do

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over there. So, I think we should pursue that. Letting you know that >> it's still under investigation at this point and our office is talking with the attorney that's working with that facility. So, we're working through it and we're we're pursuing that money as much as we can and at this point it remains under investigation. >> Thank you.

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>> And Madame Chair, Commissioner Coring Cara is online. So, if she has anything to add to that as well, she may have more information. >> Uh, the only thing I would add is that we asked the state >> Go ahead, Cara. Okay. We've asked the

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state to keep us informed. If they hear of that facility selling or of the of the company reopening that facility, we've asked them to let us know uh right away so we can notify you and the constituents um of the county.

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>> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Okay. County Administrator. >> Madame Chair, commissioners, a couple things for you today. First of all, we had a senior management team meeting yesterday. However, it wasn't one of our regular type of meetings. Rather, we

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participated in a countywide review of our coupe plan, our continuous or continuity of operations plan. Our emergency management director, Clayton Bar, and his team, as well as our consultants who have been helping us with this particular plan, were present.

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We reviewed the the things that might trigger a countywide plan. We also reviewed the fact that each of our departments has a department specific plan. So if something were to occur within a particular department area, what would we need to do to make sure that we can continue to serve the public

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in the way that we need to do? So uh we are kind of getting to the last stage of that final refinement. We did talk about a couple of scenarios yesterday and we'll have a final product available for your review coming up in I would guess within the next couple of months as well

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around that. One other item that I have for you. Uh we did receive notice last week from our landfill consultant engineers that there was a bill introduced in the Senate uh the middle of April I believe for Senate

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File 5166 which would establish a working group on reviewing the opportunity to end land disposal of mixed municipal solid waste effectively banning landfills in the

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state of Minnesota for the most part that would be effective as of 2040. Obviously, this would have some impact in our area. Um, the bill was introduced and referred to the Environment, Climate, and Legacy Committee, but it's not had a hearing there yet. There was

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no House Companion Bill at this point, and it only has one author so far. Um, given the fact that this is the last week of session and it hasn't moved anywhere in the process, I really don't believe that it will be brought forward any further this year. But I did want to

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bring it to your attention just in case you wanted to weigh in with our legislators on this particular topic since it wasn't in front of us when we went met with them prior to the legislative session beginning. So just bringing it forward for your information or if you wanted to direct us to send

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any kind of notice to our local legislators with regard to this proposal. >> Madam Chair, question. Did they uh have any suggestions on what we're supposed to do with our refues? >> The bill did not include any requirement

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that would recommend any changes of how we would dispose of any of that materials. >> Okay. So, I'm assuming they probably aren't aware that the ocean isn't an option anymore. >> Probably not in in >> I This is absurd. Absolutely absurd. I

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can't imagine anybody would produce something, excuse me, produce something like that, but um I would be in favor of us drafting a letter to them. I would make that motion.

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I would second that motion. I guess it' probably be a good idea to, Madam Chair, be a good idea to inform them. There are a lot of, you know, as I said, I served in the legislature.

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There's some different people, to try to be polite, different people that get elected there and they have some crazy ideas that are not thought out at all. And this obviously is not thought out at all. I don't know how I don't I don't know I

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the the citizens of Crowing County I don't know how if they realize how lucky they are to have a landfill here. If we didn't have a landfill here your garbage bills, I would assume probably be double because there'd have to be a transfer

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station and that solid waste would have to be taken somewhere. Elk River, it would have to be trucked somewhere. would cost more money. And so, you know, we've got we've got a a beautiful recycling facility where people can bring their mattresses,

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their TVs, their electronics. It's a one-stop shop. I mean, it's this is a a a good benefit to the the citizens of Crowing County to have our own landfill. Madame Chair, um I sit on the AMC has a

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um environmental natural resource committee and we also have a subgroup that kind of spun off of that to just to discuss uh solid waste in Minnesota. Um it's co-chared by a um commissioner down in the metro area and it's also

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co-chared by a commissioner up in Itasa County. Um, I think this uh this proposal that is being put out there for whatever those people do down there at the legislature, and that's a good guess. Um, uh, would be laughable in

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Cro, you know, in in Minnesota. I think I can't remember if there's about eight counties, I think, that that still do like we do with the leech eight and everything like that. And we have our own problems with leech eight. They also have a problem with the counties that have pulled together to do to burn the garbage, you know, and they're also

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sitting with their situations down in the city with the herk where where there's a lot of people that are against the burning of the garbage down there. So, I don't know what this legislator is doing by putting out something like this, but I don't know if it's been filed or if they don't have anybody on

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the other side even looking at it. It's almost a non-issue. And you would know that too, Paul. I mean, it's is it just somebody reaching out you know, I mean, is it even if it's almost laughable enough to wonder, should we even respond to it? >> You know,

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>> a lot of crazy ideas. I don't know what they're thinking. I really don't understand it. I don't understand from when I grew up in the 80s and way the way the world is now. I guess I just don't I I just don't fathom what people are thinking. It just the world is seems

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like it's upside down to me. My opinion would be not to even to send a letter back, but I'll go by the by the will of the board, you know, because I think it's almost laughable to send a letter down. >> Well, that just my opinion, but I'll go

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by the will of the coun by the board. >> Well, we have any more discussion? >> We do have a motion and a second to send a letter. All those in favor? >> I >> I >> opposed. Motion carries.

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>> I >> I opposed it. >> Madam Chair, that's all I have for you today, but happy to answer any questions you may have of me. >> Oh, any additional business hearing? None. Can I have a motion to

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adjurnn? >> So move. Second. >> Motion by Commissioner Coring, second by Commissioner Lubkkey. All those in favor? >> I. motion.