Good morning. Welcome to the county board um emergency meeting. Will you please rise and um we'll say the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. I aliance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. And um do we start with a roll call? >> Commissioner Lupkkey.
>> Commissioner Lupkey. >> Yes. >> Just doing roll call. Commissioner Barrows >> here. >> Commissioner Franine >> here. Commissioner Lee >> here is absent. >> Hey, uh, first thing on the agenda is
the uh, sheriff's update on the Flanders wildfire. Good morning, Madam Chair. Clayton Bar, Crowing County Emergency Management Director. Again, wanting to give a update on the Flanders wildfire. I'll just kind of give a overview of the
fire itself to give you a perspective of how things kind of transpired. In the afternoon of the 16th of May, approximately 12:34, there was a report to our dispatch of a of smoke and a fire near the Flanders Lake.
Emergency crews and fire departments responded to that area. Uh, quickly upon arriving on scene, it was identified that uh, fire was again progressing rapidly. Local DNR arrived very shortly thereafter. They had also requested air
support uh for fighting the fire. Local law enforcement also responded to the scene and again beganing notifications for the evacuation of residents in and around that the immediate area. Emergency management arrived uh
thereafter uh unified command was established with the fire service, local fire departments and law enforcement. The again as the fire progressed uh we identified as far as where those evacuation areas should be. Working with
the forestry service uh the initial reports as far as which direction the fire was going to ensure that we had all residences within that evacuation zone. On one of the handouts that I provided shows those evacuation zones.
That's the one >> is the other one. >> We utilize the ready set go uh initiative as far as when it comes to evacuation. The ready letting re residents know that there was an incident and to uh start preparing. The
set is essentially that at that time they should be ready to go at a moment's notice and the go indicated that these residents should be uh again evacuating immediately. A wireless emergency alert was sent out to those residents in the go zone
and sometimes that uh area outside of that is also uh covered as well with that wireless emergency alert. Approximately 294 residences were located within that go zone for evacuation.
The instructions as far as where to go uh was posted on the county website to go to the Cross Lake Community Center for sheltering and additional information and public health will discuss and talk about that a little bit more in depth as well.
Once the initial evacuation was established for the wireless emergency alerts and local fire departments uh utilize resources to assist in protecting structure support for fire. Uh results that that we had gotten back
was no primary residences were destroyed and we had one secondary residence that was burnt as a result of the fire. During this process, the type three incident management team was requested and also the Minnesota inter agency fire
center responded with assets as far as coordinating uh fire activities to fight the fire. There was approximately 21 different fire agencies throughout the state, including hot shots from Manitoba, Canada, that were part of this fire
effort. As of today, the fire itself is 95% contained and approximately 689 acres have been damaged due to the fire. We have as a county have again declared
a state of emergency for that area. The governor also signed a letter of emergency for Crowing County allowing for National Guard assets to be assisted in that firefighting efforts.
As we move into the transition of the fire tomorrow, the fire will be handed over to local units. the local DNR will be taking over and our type three incident management team and the mincy minc will be uh departing the area
turning the the fire and uh incident command over to local units. Next steps when it comes to the fire itself is working on the recovery, working with residents and identifying needs. This afternoon, and public health
may touch on this a little bit more, but we'll be going to uh residents uh doortodoor checking on residents and identifying needs uh for those residents affected by the fire. We had two local agencies, organizations
that were accepting donations for those residents and emergency personnel. uh Lakes Area Heroes and approximately 17,000 in was received by them and another 5,000 in kind and the Bridges of Hope received approximately $9,800 in
donations which will be working with those agencies to ensure that those funds are uh brought back to the affected residents and fire departments and emergency personnel uh for that fire response. As we continue to do preliminary damage
assessments, again, the fire itself is not fully handed over to local units yet. So, it is still an active fire scene. And we are getting preliminary damage assessments in, but until that is completely turned over to local units,
then we'll be able to go in and do a more thorough uh damage assessment. Our threshold for requesting state disaster assistance is approximately 160,000. Right now with again the very preliminary estimates that have gotten
in, we're at around $138,674. And we're again expecting that to rise as we work with Mission Township and uh when we start figuring our debris management into that process as well. At this time, I'm open to any questions
from the board. >> Question for you, Clayton. When they get those donations, does that count against the threshold to receive state or federal funds? >> It does not. >> Does not. Okay. >> Yep. Uh, just a couple questions. The
briefing on Monday night, I believe, said that we were at 1714 acres and you said 689. Can you explain the difference? >> Correct. Uh those changes and it it may change again today. So as they bring in
uh different assets to identify uh imagery on the affected areas, those are it's going to continue to vary. And they have another imagery plane coming in today to do one more assessment of those areas. And I suspect that those numbers may change again and they may go
up or they may go down. These are preliminary preliminary numbers that are received based off of kind of best best estimates on the affected areas. >> Other questions? >> Nope. >> Thank you so much.
>> Great job though. Great job out there. >> Appreciate everybody that showed up, the volunteers, the people that donated. Um it was an amazing effort. I was at source last night. There was people that came from the Managa area to assist. You
talk about people from Canada. It's just amazing how quickly those resources came together and >> just the over overall response for our fire departments and the fact that we
have again no primary residences that were destroyed as a as a result of their efforts is extraordinary. It's amazing. >> Thank you. >> One one quick thing though, and this might be for chief deputy. Have we contacted the
people of interest >> or sheriff? I'm sorry. I didn't see you in the audience. >> Amber, I'm a law enforcement officer. I'm not a fire guy, so I'm not going to be using vernacular that they want me to use. I'm just a I'm just a cop here today. So,
this uh um as I've looked at fires before in the past over 30 years, you can see right here, this is this is basically where the fire started. So when I walked over there to look at that area, there was, you know, uh there was three different
uh possibilities where there were fires >> and there was one uh campfires. There was one particularly of interest that was little smaller than a normal campfire. And uh I think the reason that was smaller than a normal campfire was
because of the concern of this because it was very windy that day and it would have got out of hand. So um the correction or the uh cos are along with some uh fire folks um are doing the
investigation on that and uh they have identified some folks of interest and again we'll be uh probably doing some social media posts uh about that area to see if people recognize uh that area through social media or they were
snapping through snaps or Instagram or something like that that would help uh other people who have seen those photos uh may or may have seen those photos uh bring that to us. So, we are, you know,
we're we're close. >> Okay. >> And we don't know if it was a fire that was the night before or a fire of that day. You know, the fire started around noon and um so it uh but it could have been the night before and then just, you
know, spooled up because of the wind. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so very much. You want to come and sit at the table? >> Sure. >> Good morning, Madam Chair, commissioners. I'm Gina Hire, public
health manager. >> Good morning. Jaclyn Stiggy, public health emergency preparedness. >> We're going to talk to you about the emergency shelter that we set up at the Cross Lake Community Center starting on Saturday.
>> Um so just a little bit of the timeline from our perspective. Um started about 2:00 for me. Um just by coincidence, I happened to be working as a smokech chaser with the DNR that day. So, I was listening to the radio traffic come in and could hear that the fire was getting
larger, not smaller. Um, so about 2:30, I contacted my leadership. I contacted Gina um to start some pre-mobilization of our staff and see um who was available that day to help if something um was needed. Uh about 2:45 or so, um I
hadn't heard anything, but again, I could hear the radio traffic. So, I got a hold of Clayton who just said, "How quickly can you get here?" And um after that I made a few calls. We started mobilizing. Um figured out a place to meet. I got a hold of the Red Cross to
request their assistance and their mobilization. Um as we go through they um did have a few volunteers there, but due to all of the wildfires and everything happening across the state, they were pretty maxed at their capacity. Um which really had
public health leading the charge in this. Um we decided to um as soon as we could get to Cross Lake open up a temporary evacuation point or a TE um just to uh start um become a place for
folks to uh come if they were evacuated to get information. We just started with snacks and an evening meal. Um we about 8:30 decided um with the folks that were there and with the unknowns to
pivot the TEP to a full o overnight shelter. Um after attending the evening debrief um or briefing at the EOC uh we realized that we had about 20 or so residents at the the shelter that were
waiting for information. Um, so I came back with the information that we had at the time and um, we were lucky enough to have Sheriff Clang come and give um, some information that he knew as well to those residents. Um, after that update
we had um, at that time, so it was later in the evening about 9:00 or so, we ended up with three residents in the overnight shelter. uh they had pets and eight that we were able to um send to Camp Canudson who had offered up space
in their in their camp for folks that were displaced. Um so we were there for the overnight. We provided breakfast and um meals and snacks the following day. Uh again that morning we had residents come back and then we're waiting for another update on
on the situation. And um fast forward, we were open all day. About 700 p.m. Sunday night, we didn't have any residences residents there that were going to stay. Uh we did stay open just in case something changed
and folks showed up and wanted to stay. Uh but we did decide um that evening that that would be our last night of sheltering and we would stay open till 5:00 the next day just to still be that place of information and snacks just for people to to check in. Um,
as Clayton mentioned, today we are going out, we have four teams of two going out to do hometoome wellness checks on everyone and help with some of that preliminary damage assessment. Um, and really uh just want to mention one of the things we were able to do this so
quickly um and have stuff on hand because of this preparedness trailer that we had. Um, you've probably heard it mentioned uh at different board meetings, but it really did um come in uh as an asset as we thought it would.
We had it stocked with CS and blankets and um all of the stuff we needed to go from an evacuation point to a shelter and everything in between. >> So, we thank you for your approval of that purchase because it was very assistive in the community. We would not have been able to rally and get there as
quickly as we did without that. questions. >> No questions. But again, I'll just say it's remarkable how quickly it came together and all the agencies collaborating and not beating each other up, but actually knowing what their
place was in the mission that to save to uh address these individuals that were being displaced and that. So, thank you very much for the team and everything they did. >> Definitely was a a joint um effort. We had many volunteers um from the
community, churches, people that were donating. Um we >> huge outpouring of support from the Cross Lake and Crowing County as a whole. Um bringing everything from, you know, food to bodies to help people there to help. It was it was
>> pretty heartwarming actually. >> It was very heartwarming. Yes. >> And again, I just like to echo my support from emergency management side of house. just phenomenal the work that these uh ladies did and the organizations hall from community
services and public health. Um again I got that call and I just knew it was off my plate. One less thing to have to worry about and they did a phenomenal phenomenal job. So I cannot thank them enough for all their support. Thank you. >> Jacqueline is our public health
emergency preparedness coordinator. >> Thank you Jacqueline. >> Thank you so much. >> Before Before you leave, I just want to say one thing. I I was up there um for most of this event at different times. You and I never crossed paths,
Jacqueline, but I heard uh multiple compliments about you and and the work that you're doing up there and very much appreciative. So, >> thank you. I appreciate that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good morning. >> Morning,
>> Madam Chair. Commissioners, uh, just a quick day the from the highway department, update from the highway department. Um, kind of in a little tough spot with our county road or CASA 11 construction project. I provided a
little summary for your board packet. I believe you've seen that. In 2026 here, we started on Cassaw 11 on May 4th. Our contractor was out there doing some prep work in advance of about 11 miles of paving. And if you went out
there today, you'll see a couple areas where they had to dig up and um we were building a left turn lane. We're doing some bridge approach work and then correcting some subgrade stuff. So, we have a couple areas out there. You'll see be best areas of the old
pavement and these areas of new pavement with just a thin layer over them where they covered up their uh excavation. And so when the fire happened um this weekend or this past weekend came in Monday and made uh the decision to stop
uh the contractor from going in there. They're about ready to do the milling operation uh to peel off the existing pavement and then uh come right back and pave it. We called them off. It's still an active fire scene. We wanted to make sure that we were staying out of the way of the
fire crews and other uh public safety things. So, they are currently not working. Um and we're still kind of pending on a decision when to get them back to to working. And some of the information that Tom will come up and
talk about a little bit later plays into that decision. It sounds like there's going to be a very large uh logging operation. We're going to have a lot of trucks and a lot of traffic out there. And we're concerned that some of those areas that are vulnerable now because they just have a thin layer of pavement
could be destroyed causing us to do rework. It's estimated potentially if it completely was destroyed uh a quarter million. So about 250,000 and on top of that some other expenditures that the contractor would have to incur to move equipment off
site, mobilize and remobilize an asphalt plant that they have set up specifically for this or primarily for this. And so there's some potential costs with stopping them um from work uh too long.
uh they're kind of just they're wait I'm sure they're watching right now just trying to figure out how they can um move forward with this project or what they'll have to do if they can't that this week-long delay has already cost uh us
uh $12,000 or so because they had their equipment sitting there waiting to start work on Monday. they could not do that and these companies don't sit idle that that if that equipment is sitting there they're not making money and so they moved it off site as soon as I made the decision on Monday they will be at least
this week they will not be in there and so that is a cost that we will have to incur um to recoup so we can reimburse them for that if it goes into more weeks months then we're looking at
much larger mobilization most expensive is probably all of it associated with their patuminous plant. Uh they would have to pick up and move that um reshuffle a lot of their
schedule. So, my initial thought was to keep the old pavement on there and and you haven't heard about the logging operation yet, but I've tal I've been talking with Tom. It's sounds like thousands of trucks loaded, fully loaded with the timber
that's going to come out of there. And my initial thought is was to leave the pavement on there, let them consume what we have out there, and then come back in the fall and make the continue operations and make the road new again.
But if you went out there and saw those vulnerable areas, there's, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars of work that they've already done. Uh my initial my other thought was to if those trucks go across it'll cause
damage and we'll definitely be doing rework on those areas um to the tune of you know quarter million plus the remobilization another close to $100,000.
And so in my write up, I I suggested that we continue on, allow our contractor to get back in there, make the pavement new, and then uh allow the trucks on there, and run the risk of the
damage that they will cause just by using it. Um it's almost a lesser of two evils. There's no real great solution. Um, and so my recommendation is to
allow the contractor to continue on with the work beginning next week and then react to the logging operation and any damage that it might done. As I've sat here and just talked about it this morning, more conversations with
Tom just even a few minutes ago, there may be some other options where we can do a portion of the road and still potentially allow our contractor to move forward while also protecting those most cover up those vulnerable areas.
The logging operation, the access points that Tom has been talking to me about are fairly limited to about a mile and a half. It's 11. It's a the total length is 11 miles or so. So, I guess we're still recommendation
is to move forward with with allowing a contractor to button that up um and then react to any damage that happens from the logging trucks. >> So, question Tim, this would be for Clayton. Are any of those costs
recoverable under the emergency? >> Think potentially. I'll have to go I'll take what we have here and go forward with the state and to see what category if it would fall under category C for roads and bridges and see where we what they come back with as far as eligibility. >> Okay.
>> There are some other mitigation uh strategies that we've talked about is paving some of those access points that Tom identified to help prevent some of the damage that could happen from the turning vehicles or the trucks turning onto the road. And that may be an
expense, Clayton, that we we're working to quantify right now. And we'll see if that's eligible. It's going to be an expenditure. Think about we would pay back maybe 10 ft off the existing roadway, but then because we're going to know, we know that these trucks are
going to be coming out of there in large volumes, we maybe pay back 50 feet, so they're not transitioning to gravel to breaking up that 10-ft patuminous right at the edge of the roadway. So, we're we're thinking about some mitigation strategies to prevent some of the damage that might be done by some of these
heavy trucks. >> Good. >> Thank you very much. >> We're going to continue to we're going to continue to look at some of those other options where portion of the road and see if and work with the contractor and see if that's going to trigger some
of those expenditures for remob and that kind of stuff. >> Okay. Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you. Madame Chair, before Tom speaks, uh, uh, John Lupky here, just want to let you know that I'm not on their system. I'm
only on the Wi-Fi or only on my phone. So, I'm going to stay in the background. So when it you have three commissioners there. So when it comes to a vote, I will just stay in the background. Um but I do want to listen to what's going on. So just to let you know, my signal here isn't the greatest and I'm getting it ch
kind of chopped up. So um if that's okay, I would just like to u sit in the background and listen. >> Good morning, Madam Chair and commissioners. Uh thank you for your time today. We have uh one agenda item on for your discussion today and that is
um to authorize a special timber auction for June 1st, 2026 at 8:00 in the land services meeting room uh meeting rooms 1 and two. Um as the result of the Flanders Lake fire, uh staff has gone out and prepared some salvage timber
harvest. Uh you'll see up on the map here uh this morning um we've identified eight different timber sails to try and salvage and clean up some of the uh damaged uh red pine that is out there. Um these eight timber sails
approximately represent 868 acres of county fee and tax forfeited properties. Um there is considerably more areas that burned, but these are the areas where the trees have died or will die in the coming weeks and months. Um we, like I
said, we have eight timber sales. Uh we've been coordinating with our local loggers, our local mills trying to find uh homes for this wood. Um you know, we're looking at approximately about what 25,000 uh cords of wood. Um, most
of that is at a fairly significantly reduced price. Um, you know, the the current value of that wood as it stands today is about uh $370,000. Um, because it uh because it burned, it's worth about a tenth of that. Uh, if
if we were to be able to hold that wood until maturity, that would have represented about $4.6 million of timber that would have came off county land. Um, as part of the as part of the timber harvest and the special auction that we're asking for today, um, our hope is
to clear that material, um, get the material that is unusable stacked and and burned safely in the winter time and then return back in spring of 27 and plant what trees we can obtain. Um, we have been calling around to the DNR and
our uh local or our vendor where we get most of our trees PRT in Canada in Michigan to obtain red pine seedlings. Um, we're going to plant everything we can in 27, mostly focusing along the counter 11 corridor trying to get that greened up and looking nice again. And
then we'll come back in 2028 and plant the rest of the area. Um, yeah, that's excuse me, that's uh it in a nutshell. Um, you know, Tim did mention there'd be quite a few trucks coming out of here. Uh, you know, if if everything sells, which is not a
guarantee, um, anywhere from a,000 to 2500 trucks could come out of this area. Um, you know, the the timber sails are all unique. Uh, some of them are very heavily damaged. Um, some of them are just just charred enough that the pines
will die even though they may only be burned a foot or two up the tree. uh red pine are not the hardiest when it comes to a fire. So that that sap inside the bark has cooked and basically has cut off any ability for that tree to pull nutrients or water up into the canopy
and and they'll slowly die. Um without a salvage harvest, we do we do have some risk of of beetle outbreaks. Uh you know, a secondary issue um you know that could continue to affect other surrounding properties and other county lands. So, it is it is a high priority
for us to get in there uh start to uh remove some of this material. Um hopefully try to capture some value um but also for a public safety aspect as well, getting those damaged trees down and and out of the way. Um so, with that, uh I'll pause if there's any questions that the board may have.
>> Questions? >> I would assume we need a um vote to move forward on this today. Correct. Madam Chair, Commissioner. Yes, you will need a motion to move forward with authorizing the timber sale. >> Okay, I'll make that motion. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion in a second. All those in
favor? >> Commissioner Franine. >> I. >> Commissioner Lee. >> I. >> Commissioner Barrows. >> I passes. >> Yep. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you, >> Tom. Before you leave, just for
clarification on this map, the pieces in red, is that all county land? >> Oh, yeah. I should clarify. Thank you, U, Madam Administrator. So, what you see up there, um, the areas in red are private property that are shaded red. The blue areas are DNR managed lands, and then everything that's unshaded is
county managed lands. Some of that's a mix of tax forfeite. Some of that is a mix of county fee. Um, most of what burned up here uh was that mission property we uh just acquired back in October. unfortunately. >> Thanks. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you so much. >> Now, the next thing on the agenda is the resolution um renewing declaration of local emergency and local disaster related to the Flanders wildfire. >> Correct. Madame Chair, commissioners, as
you recall, Chair Franzine did declare a local emergency. However, because it needs full board action to renew that, that emergency declaration was only good for 3 days, which is why you are here today in this emergency session to renew that declaration of emergency, which
allows Clayton and his team to continue to do that work to capture what those potential costs will be. >> Do I have a motion? >> Madam Chair, I'll make the motion to approve the resolution to renew the declaration of local emergency and local disaster related to the Flanders wildfire.
>> I'll second it. We have a motion by Commissioner Barrow, second by Commissioner Lee. All those in favor? >> Commissioner Lee, >> I. >> Commissioner Barrows, >> I. >> Commissioner Franine. >> I. Motion carries. >> Madam Chair, before we adjourn, I'd like
to say a couple things. As I mentioned before, I spent a fair amount of time up there and I was able to witness some of u the most astounding work I think I've ever seen. And I' I've been in law enforcement. I've seen a lot. I've been
involved with two other wildfires that we've had in Crowing County. And it's come a long way from when I was there. a lot of the people that are sitting in this room where I I've seen up there at this event and
the work that you guys do is phenomenal. And I just I want to mention a few things that most people don't pick up on, but you know, our highway department went above and beyond just with offering the services that they did. We had um
staff from highway department that was there with water trucks that were refilling uh all of our fire crews and keeping them with the ammunition they needed to fire to fight that fire. And you know, a lot of long hours that you guys spent there, Brian and Jeff, I I
don't think they slept at all. Um, you know, Nancy, our finance director, she was up there in the middle of the weekend that she wouldn't uh necessarily be expecting to be doing that. And she was
a role that we wouldn't necessarily look at as being important, but it's instrumental in where we're headed in the future in the next six months as we deal with this. We've got two county employees that are both firefighters with different
agencies. And not only were they on ours, but before they were on our fire, they came from uh two harbors. They were up in two harbors fighting their fires. Found out that we had our fire coming down here and came down and jumped right back in the middle of it as fast as they
could. And um that's astounding. In fact, one of one of those two I know received orders from his chief to go home and go to bed cuz he just didn't want to give up. And that's very much appreciative. And Tom, the work that you are doing right now doesn't seem like
much to most people, but what you're doing now in preparation for the next six months is amazing, too. And um I've left Clayton for last on purpose because what Clayton what people don't know with Clayton
is since he started as in his role, he has been preparing for this day non-stop. Uh these table tabletop exercises that he's put together was in preparation for today or for Saturday. and what you put
together is amazing. Thank you. >> I just want to thank all of our staff for everything you've done. You've gone above and beyond what I ever expected and it's just been an amazing thing to
watch. >> Madam Chair, if I could just add one thing to Commissioner Lee's comments as well. Um, I want to also recognize the work that all of the departments did in collaborating coordinating communications to make sure that it got out to the community. Um, our public
information officer was working from the car on her way back from Iowa most of the day, coordinating with our departments that were working through getting those communications to her. Our IT team was making sure the website was the place to go to make sure folks could get the information that they needed. In
times like this, I think it's super important not just to have communication put out, but knowing the channels where people can get the right information is always extremely important. And having that ability with all of our teams working collaboratively to have that one unified message really helped residents,
citizens, making sure that the people who needed to know where to be and what was going on had the place to go to get that done. >> Excellent work all around. >> Outstanding. Yes, >> we just need to find Clayton an adrenaline adrenaline rush hobby that doesn't involve natural disasters. I
think would be a great thing to work on. So, >> thank you all. >> Madam Chair, if there's nothing else, I'll make the motion to adjourn. >> I guess since there's nobody else, I'll have to second this one.
>> We have a motion to second. All those in favor? Commissioner Baros. >> Hi, >> Commissioner Franzine. >> Hi, >> Commissioner Lee. >> Hi.