e good morning I'm Scott arnison the County Administrator I'd like to call the 2025 County board meeting to order our first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance our second item is the oath of office and i' I'd like judge Stewart to uh join
us up front here and we'll have you come back here if that's all right thank you first time think we can stand so we can get pictures that'd be great please raise your right hand I Todd grff having been elected to the
office of county commissioner I Todd gresset having been elected to the office of county commissioner do hereby solemnly promise and affirm do hereby solemnly promise and affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United
States of America that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the state of Minnesota and the state of Minnesota and will Faithfully discharge the discharge the duties of county commissioner to the best of my judgment and ability and will
Faithfully discharge the duties of county commissioner to the best of my judgment and ability all right congratulations thank you thank you who do you have next Linda I think all right please raise your right hand I Linda Flanders do solemnly swear
or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States I Linda Flanders do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota and the constitution of the
state of Minnesota and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the office of good Hue County Commissioner and that I will faithfully and partially discharge the duties of the office of Goodhue County Commissioner for the county of Goodhue
for the county of Goodhue state of Minnesota state of Minnesota to which I have been elected to which I've have been elected to the best of my knowledge and ability so help me God to the best of my knowledge and ability so help me God all right congratulations thank you so
[Applause] same sure all right please raise your right hand I Susan beter having been elected to the office of county commissioner I Susan beter having been elected to the office of county commissioner do hereby
solemnly promise and affirm do hereby solemnly promise and affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the the state of Minnesota and the state of Minnesota and will Faithfully discharge the duties of
county commissioner and will Faithfully discharge the duties of county commissioner to the best of my judgment and ability to the best of my judgment and ability all right thank you congratulations thank you uh thank thank you judge Stewart and if we could have you and the Commissioners sign the oath of offices
as well I'd appreciate that thank you I thank you thank you again judge Stewart our next order of business is to select a chair for 2025 I'd ask at this point if the board has any nominations question marks so we don't
run into problems so typically Brad would have been a natural progression is he online or is he he's not online today it did he did let us know that he was going to be absent today but um I think he wouldd have no problem if he was nominated and then we'd have to go have the vice chair do today's meeting but so
typically he would take over and then he would take nominations for the vice chair which he's not here to take nominations for the vice chair so so I would you can statutorily do that okay so I will make a mo or nominate Brad Anderson for County Board chair and also make a motion that we cease nominations
and cast unanimous ballot in support of Brad Anderson for County Board chair second okay it's been moved and seconded by commissioner Majerus and seconded by commissioner Flanders uh to nominate commissioner Anderson for 2025 chair of
the County Board all those in favor I opposed congratulations Mr Anderson so at this time we will uh take nominations for a 2025 Vice chair of the County Board are there any nominations I'd like to nominate commissioner Susan beter for
vice chair okay is there a second to that I will second that okay and are there any other nominations are there any other nominations I'll make a motion that we cease nominations and cast unanimous
balance support of commissioner Susan bestard for vice chair okay or second second that it's been moved in second in to for commissioner Susan berer to be Vice chair of the County board for 2025 all those in favor I I all those opposed
congratulations commissioner berer I'll now hand the meeting over to you I do want to note that uh uh commissioner grth had like one minute of their time before we get on with the rest of the agenda right as the uh leaving board chair we did receive a really cool award
up at our convention mention from Bowser and uh so we had another plaque made up a special one to give to Linda herself since she has spearheaded this uh the mighty Mississippi cleanup challenge so we want to present this to you and thank you for what you've done for this well
that is really really nice thank you so much thank you okay so I wasn't thinking that I'd be chairing a meeting today not uh not not planning ahead so we'll see how it goes so uh next on the list I believe is disclosures of Interest are there any
disclosures of Interest hearing none I'll move on next is the previous board minutes from December 17 2024 move approval second any
discussion all in favor I I anybody opposed motion carries next is to review and approve the agenda are there any additions or Corrections there are no changes chair thank you any motion to approve the agenda
I'll make a motion we approve the agenda agress it second any discussion all in favor I I anybody opposed motion carries um next is the uh consent agenda
there's 10 items on the consent agenda is there a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved is there a second I'll second all in favor I I opposed just one comment I'd
like to make on that sorry I forgot to ask for discussion on the uh uh planning advisory commission and the board of adjustment just want to appreciate that we have people in our County that are willing to step up for those positions cuz they're uh sometimes they get put into a situation where they choose not
to with their neighbors but we just want to I just want to say thank you to them so it can be very stressful indeed and thank you so uh we're on to reports from departments and officials Administration is
first thank you uh chair uh the first item of business I'd like to introduce our newly hired uh Outreach and communication specialist Nick lemmer he comes to us from the city of Rochester and I've asked him to give him a brief bu on himself and a little introduction um thanks Scott um Madam
chair members of the commission um uh Commissioners at the risk of being the longest agenda item allow me here to introduce myself a little bit this morning uh my name is Nick lemmer um I was born and raised in uh southeast Minnesota this is an area that I love
I'm well familiar with the abundance of resources and the character of the people here and um the opportunity to work in local government is something that's really uh special to me my background is uh I was I have a bachelor's in English from St Mary's University spent the early part of my career in uh Minneapolis in the
advertising industry um I earned a master's degree in Business from the University of Minnesota after which I've had some leadership positions in marketing and Communications in higher education before I joined the team at the city of Rochester and really developed a passion for local government
and the importance of communications and seeing that uh you know this the people whom we serve have access to our important services and um are uh stay informed and and the stories are told that um we know uh are out there in our
communities and so uh I'm on my third day um but um thanks to Scott and everybody who's been so kind uh to welcome me here it's clearly a team of talented and dedicated people here at good Hugh County and I really am looking forward to the opportunity uh it's
really a great privilege to uh work with you and the team here at the county to uh Serve the People good Hugh County so thank you thank you you're welcome thank you Nick the uh second item is uh under statute the the County Board needs to set its times and
locations for County board meetings for the year um and uh I have noted um that uh there are a few uh times and places that are not necessarily this at 9:00 a.m. uh on a Tuesday in this location so
typically um the Kenyon uh first meeting in may we we uh have that at City Hall in Canyon uh during the Canon Valley Fair we typically meet there um and we also have the goody hu County Fair uh we typically meet there so those times uh and locations are
noted there additionally we we P publicly notice the other AMC events which those are itemized there and as well uh the truth and Taxation meeting is typically held at uh 6:00 p.m. uh and it it is actually scheduled usually around the AMC meeting so with that I'd
uh accept a motion to set the regular scheduled meetings uh and typically that would be the first and third Tuesdays of the month and the location would be this County boardroom at 9:00 a.m. really recently we've been doing 9:00 a.m. uh
historically there was times where it was uh set for uh the third meeting would be 9:00 a.m. third Tuesday of the month would be 9:00 a.m. and the first uh Tuesday of the month would be 5:00 p.m. so but his recently for about the last 4 years I think it's been 9:00 a.m.
on uh the 1 and third Tuesdays thank you and is there a motion to approve Scott's proposal yep I'll move that forward second is there any discussion um all in favor I say respond
by saying I I I opposed motion carries thank you uh the third item today uh is to uh open bids uh for our annual uh newspaper contract official publication of the County uh and that is required by Minnesota statute and at this time we go
ahead and open the bids first one is from the Kenyon leader and their bid is $3 per standard uh advertising unit uh for both the first and second publication uh the second uh one is from
the Republican Eagle and there is is for uh $5 per column inch uh per in uh per insertion uh doesn't look like the differ differentiate between the first and second publication so I'm assuming it's
both $5 per column inch uh so staff's recommendation would be go to with the lowest bid which is the Kenyon leader at $3 uh per uh for per sa um and that's for both the first and second publication is there a motion to approve
the staff recommendation sove discussion just a comment I mean obviously like the news record didn't submit and I've talked with Pete Grooms are the owner different times and um you know Kenyon is the cheapest we question we've had this discussion before they probably have the lowest um circulation
rate but I don't know I'm sure I'll get a call later he'll tell me some next time I talk to him about why they the costs and kind of ridiculous the money we spend in such poor circulation but he didn't and I told him submit it is what it is if you you know but and we haven't had any change from
the state level we're still required to utilize a paper as opposed to internet or anything else like that so for the most part I will say that there are some things that they allow us to put on the uh website and say basically here it is yeah okay well if we utilize that as
much as we can it's and of course all newspapers have a lot lower readership than they used to so that's sign of the times sign of the times any other discussion are we required by law to take the lowest bid
I'm going to let Steve answer that and he's GNA somewhere he's going to say it depends in there but that's right no I don't think so if the if the board feels that uh that the information will get out better using a different paper they can
certainly choose a different paper as the publication um based on the idea that you think it you know it serves a broader readership and and the message gets out and a broader populace I think that would be a valid reason to choose a newspaper that didn't have the lowest
bid but typically I think the board in the past has always gone with the lowest bid right and I know that the county also publishes most of the things that go into the paper will be put on our website as well so people know where to find the information and that's really the the purpose of the uh of identifying
official paper is just so that we meet our statutory requirements and uh people know where to find the information I think thank you well I guess follow going up on what um Jason said that perhaps look forward next year to which
paper has the widest readership and go with that as long as it's within a reasonable I mean within if they're within a reasonable amount of money of of each other go ahead a question on do you know
that what the kind of money we spend on this in a year I mean we talking $400 are we talking $5,000 uh I'd have to ask what our total the finance they can look that up while we're talking I do want to note that we want to make sure we keep the competitive nature of our beds because if people know that we're only going to
take the highest readership then it discourages the others from even uh putting a bit out there and I also want to note that if there's something really special going on in an area of the county that is not typically in the readership of that newspaper we will go ahead and add additional advertisement
if we need to and a example of that would have been the the ditch issue that was you know down in the Kenyon Wanamingo area we did advertise more down there on that particular topic the question I had um I understand that the newspaper that doesn't get the
bid is not happy about that but do we get feedback from constituents does anyone call and complain that it's not in their newspaper I honestly have never the only person I've ever heard from uh back on a newspaper bit is actually from
the newspapers that didn't get the B I've never once heard in 28 years uh from a citizen about that all right I I haven't either I I have not either I haven't either and I I understand your
argument that if we went with the Wiest readership then there wouldn't be any bids whatsoever and then you could bid whatever you want so yes I can see where it's a more complicated issue than I thought okay so um I think we uh had the
vote and passed I don't remember on motion well then the discuss second but I don't believe we've had a to vote I think we're in discussion good good you guys are helping me out today um all in favor of the Kenyon leader uh getting the uh bed I I
opposed motion carries next is the 2025 per DM rates I'll move that forward okay thank you I'll second go ahead Tom I think it's pretty cut and uh dried
um we've de been $100 for the last couple years and that would be a recommendation I think that's what's in the proposed budget for this year go ahead Scott I I did just want to note that I did receive a question on whether or not uh the board would want to consider doing a general adjustment
to that uh routinely as we do to some of our other uh fees and expenses so that is something that if you could do that today if you wanted to or if you wanted to direct staff for future years that we would program in a general adjustment similar to what we do with other our
other General adjustments we certainly can do that that that was my question just wondering if uh the cola was 3% if if that should go up by 3% rather than waiting a number of years and then go up by$ 25 or $50 and it really was just a
question and it seemed like it maybe would uh prevent the big jump at some point in the future um but you know I don't know what what you guys think if it makes more sense to leave it at 100 or go up by whatever the cola is for uh
um salaries that would be my question you guys have any thoughts on that I think moving forward that would be a reasonable thing to do otherwise yes then we there wasn't an adjust for
many many years and all of a sudden we dou doubled it to get up to what was reasonable for what other people were pain so I guess my suggestion would be that in the future that we go on that
direction and a question for you Tom is it any more difficult if it's $103 35 than $100 it's just a data entry all right so it doesn't make any difference whatsoever ever and maybe at our uh our
uh board uh planning meeting we can just talk about that further and if we want to do that or if we don't want to do that you have any thoughts on it Jason fine either way okay all right so is there a motion to approve the uh 2025
per DM rates as presented uh it was a motion maer but second by grth all in favor I I opposed uh motion carries next is the land use [Music]
management good morning to the County Board um the first item on the agenda today um for land use is related to a rezoning out on um Territorial Road in Lake City the applicant is Sarah Roar she is the applicant on the behalf of
the property owner her father Jeffrey Roar there's a total of just under 4 Acres 3.96 acres to be exact um there's currently one property or one ho one home on the property um the owners in conjunction with the resoning are
actually proposing a lot split so that they can create a secondary dwelling unit um included in the packet is a copy of the application that was submitted by the applicant there are some site maps showing um the C the property as it
currently stands right now there's also a map showing where the proposed prop new property line would be drawn um the property owner did go ahead and um obtain a certificate of survey showing the exact location of where they would like to have the new property lines
drawn um a couple things to point out that are unique in this case that were brought up at the Planning Commission level that I wanted to make a point of noting at the meeting um the first is that there is a registered mining um operation within 1,000 ft of the
proposed new building site um the county does have an ordinance that restricts dwellings within a th000 ft of mining operations unless there is written consent from the mining um owner or operator to place the structure there so that is something that if this project
were to move forward the land use Department would have to receive written um Testament from the property owner owner of the mine essentially that the house could be built um the other thing that has not happened yet in this case is Township um review the Florence
Township Planning Commission does intend on holding the Planning Commission um does intend does intend on holding their public hearing upcoming here at the January meeting but they have not yet acted on this um I I had a little bit of back and forth with the chairperson of
the Florence Township Planning Commission um we didn't discussed the merits of the application but it didn't seem like there were any any concerns that were brought forward to me at this point um the Planning Commission did hold a public hearing on this um at
their December meeting um and there was a un unanimous recommendation to forward um a recommendation of approval to the County Board um so with that the recommendation today is to hold a public
hearing on this item um um and to essentially adopt the findings of fact from the Planning Commission into record and to make a motion recommending approval of the resoning um I think one one other item I wanted to just touch on
is the difference between A3 and R1 so in this case the property is currently A3 the ordinance requires 35 acres for it to be a legal A3 lot so right now it's not it's substantially
non-conforming being that it's 4 Acres um in R1 lot the minimum lot size is essentially at least 100 ft wide by 125 ft deep so R1 is a lot better of a fit for this area in that the lot sizes can
actually fit rationally and appropriately within this um 4 acre track of land um and I think the I think the Planning Commission did kind of consider a little bit of you know are we are we considering you know the entire
area because the ordinance as it reads for A3 really encourages taking these big tracks of A3 land which are 35 Acres 40 50 acres and annexing them into surrounding cities um you know and and
creating development in that way in this area I don't think they you know that wasn't really some part of the discussion um I don't think they ever intended for this small A3 site that is less than acres to really ever be part of a master development or a master
annexation into the City of Lake City for example um so with that that just provides a little context kind of on the difference between A3 and R1 does anybody have any additional questions for land use before we open
the public hearing okay make a motion to go to public hearing second it all in favor I I all right public hearing is now open is there anyone who would wish to speak on this
issue second request is there anyone who would wish to speak on this issue third time is there anyone who would like to speak on this issue is there a motion to close public hearing I move we close public hearing
second all in favor I public hearing is closed okay so commissioners you have any thoughts on this or questions I just have one question and that is I mean at first glance it just
seemed like it was backwards that perhaps the mining company in the township should first decide what they wanted before or approve or not not approve before it got to the County
Board I'm I don't know they're kind of stuck in my head because otherwise if either one of them doesn't want it then we've kind of gone spent a lot of time at the County Board level doing something that
might not move on but but of course townships can be more rest restrictive than the County Board what were you going to say Jason well we've had this discussion many many many times and usually and the county has its direction that we have to go to approve to what we're asked to do and the
townships have their Direction so we've we've not necessarily buted heads but we've had this before we're we're going our Direction townships go their Direction so we're doing what the citizen you know constituents asking us to do based on the zoning requirements so yes it might seem like we're but again why would you go to the mine and ask them for permission if you don't
know what you can do and get approved so it might seem convoluted but we've done it multiple times and we have to go and again Florence can y or a it either which way and the same with the mining owner can but yes we have to do what is set in our zoning ordinance so that's why I'm sure it'll come up again that
we're wondering why we're doing thank you but anyways it's multiple times we've done it so any any other questions or comments I will make a motion to approve the map am map Amendment request from A3 to
R1 is there a second I second all in favor I I opposed motion carries uh next is to review the interim use permit application for The Sawmill um good morning again this is an
application submitted by Titus berer um the property is located in Bell Creek Township the address of the property is 38193 County a Boulevard Goodhue Minnesota um the property owner is actually requesting what's called an interim use permit which functions like
a conditional use permit um to operate a SOL SOL business on property that is zoned A1 um what the property owner is proposing to do is a part-time Sawmill business on the property um the way that the County's zoning ordinance is broken
down into um homebased businesses is there's what's called a tier one a tier two and a tier three homebased business based on essentially how intrusive the business is going to be to the surrounding neighborhood one of the factors that is taken into consideration
is how much square footage of your property is dedicated to this homebased business in this case a sawmill B his Sawmill business is he's proposing to utilize an existing 5,000 square foot detached accessory building that's
already on site for The Sawmill business because of the size of that 5,000 foot structure it puts it into the tier three category otherwise the amount of employees is really just um the owner operator and one other part-time employee um not a lot of traffic that is
going to be generated to the site um limited amona deliveries and there there's no retail at all that is going to be happening on the job site or on the homebased Business site um with that there are some um recommended findings
that are included in the um included in the staff report that the plan Planning Commission did review um specifically the things that they're looking at is hours of operation which are Rec which are being uh proposed to be allowed between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
um a requirement that no equipment that creates noise order or dust that is uncommon to the agricultural or A1 area that would be allowed to be operational at this business um the no traffic yond which is
reasonable for the Local transportation Network may occur um due to this sill business um we have some allocated space on site that we've worked with the applic to accommodate for just parking and deliveries and outside
storage um there will be a new sign that will be put up um along the driveway of the property that is something that the property owner did apply for a sign permit with the county for we don't issue a ton of sign permits but we did get one from this property owner um and
there's no additional exterior lighting that is proposed so these are things that we our staff Works through when we're reviewing home businesses um with that the Planning Commission did hear this matter at their December 16th meeting um no one from the
public nor the township was present to address any concerns on the matter and the commission is forwarding a recommendation of approval of the request with the conditions um contained in the staff report further the commission is recommending that the County Board accept the application the
staff report into record and adopt the findings of fact um and then request in a motion of approval is there a motion I'll move to approve the request from Titus berer for The Sawmill business subject to the
three the six conditions that are listed there a second I'll second that any discussion okay hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed motion
carries uh next we move on to four your information with the Staffing report project status report anyone have any comments on those the the only thing I would say when I uh looked through the Staffing report I tried to count up how many
people left and how many came and all of that and I think it would be nice to see the year-over-year numbers on that kind of thing and when I look at these Staffing reports I always think it'd be nice if they tallied up where we were year to date compared to a year ago rather than looking back and Counting
and I would think that wouldn't be too difficult to do we we certainly can do that yeah okay and uh any new or old business Linda I just wanted to bring up one thing in the this was the no
newspaper I believe but there was one um County that was having such issues with dumping out in the rural areas of their County that they increase Their fines from $500 to $2,000 and they're waiting to see
whether or not that makes a difference so I thought it was a very interesting concept mostly having to listen to my people in Welch Township of the number of people that come out there and dump along the roads though I realize it means one you've got to catch them in
act but if it was $2,000 would it be a felony yeah all right so yes I realized that there were many issues that went along with it but I thought it was an interesting idea to try to cut down on the amount of trash and and huge things that are
dumped on the county road I wondered stepen Marty do you guys know if the size of the fine decreases the uh likelihood of people doing it like for jaywalking if it was $10 it wouldn't stop me but if it was 2,000 I wouldn't cross that
street yeah I I don't know I'm assuming it does at some level if they're aware of it for one and as commissioner Flanders indicated you have to catch them in order for it to be imposed so and how often do you actually catch people dumping I
don't Sheriff why don't you come up to a microphone you can talk about your couch monitoring the only time we catch people is when they leave their their mail their mail in a garbage bag and it's
periodically but if you're talking tires and something that we can't trace we don't catch them unless someone saw it and reported it to you yeah when you're talking that enforcement you throw $2,000 fine normally they don't have the money to dispose of it correctly so how
are you going to collect and how and what's theity I mean how do you pursue them is that is what you think is why they're dumping is because they can't afford to take it to the dump I think that's a factor for
some people yeah all right anyway I thought it was a very interesting idea but yes I do I am aware of all the issues that would go along with it and I I suppose if you could bring everything for free that might decrease
it but it would create other problems so okay anything else under new and old business uh any committee reports okay uh we're moving to is there a motion to pay the bills so moved is
there a second guess you guys both were on there so is there any discussion all in favor iOS all right the motion carries is there a motion to adjourn so moved
second Linda okay all in favor I I opposed motion carries thank you did a good job