Welcome to the first uh county board meeting of 2026. I'm Scott Erneson, the county administrator, and our first order of business is to uh uh nominate uh a chair for 2026. And so I'd like to ask if there are any nominations.
>> I'd like to nominate Vice Chair Susan Bcher to be chair for 2026. Second the nomination and move that nomination cease and we cast the unanimous ballot for Susan Bcher. >> Okay. All those in favor of Susan Bcher
for chair of 20 of the county board for 2026. >> I >> I >> opposed. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Thank you. So uh I believe next is to elect the vice chair. Are there any nominations for the vice
chair? I will nominate Todd Gresith and I also make a motion to cease nominations and cast unanimous ballot in support of Todd Gresith for vice chair. >> Second. >> Um all in favor
>> I >> I opposed. Congratulations Todd. >> Thank you. >> Next is the pledge of allegiance. [clears throat] 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. >> Next up is are there any disclosures of interest? Hearing none, um the next thing on the agenda is to approve the previous board
minutes. Move approval as presented. Anderson >> second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I >> I >> opposed. A motion carries. Next is to review the
agenda. Any additions or changes? >> There are no changes. >> Is there a motion to approve? >> Move approval of the agenda. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Um there's a motion and a second. All
those in favor uh say I. >> I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. Next item on the agenda is to review and approve the consent agenda. There's 15 items on the consent agenda.
>> Move approval as presented. Anderson. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? There's a motion and a second. All those in favor uh signify by saying I >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. Next is reports
from uh departments and officials. First up is administration. >> Okay. Our first item is to establish a regular uh time and dates for our regular public meetings under which is required by Minnesota statute 13D.04.
Um, in this what you set up with would be our regular meetings with the exception of the three that we typically uh have offsite. And those those are outlined in the memo, but I will just go ahead and state them. Tuesday, May 5th at 9:00 a.m. at Kenyon City Hall in
Kenyon. Uh, Wednesday, July 1st at 10:00 a.m. at the Canon Valley Fair in Canon Falls. And Thursday, August 13th at uh 10:00 a.m. in Good Hugh County at the Goodyu County Fair in Zambroa. In addition to that, we've noted uh about five other times where we believe a
majority of the county board would be in attendance. So, with that, uh we'd accept entertain a motion to set our regular uh uh uh date and time as the first and third Tuesdays of uh at 9:00 a.m. in Redwing, Minnesota at the Good
County Government Center. >> Thank you. Um Brad, you look like you wanted to say something. >> I I do. The only thing I would to the other known scheduled events, the annual township meeting on February 7th, there could be a quorum
there and we should list that as another um scheduled event. >> And I Yes. And I think we have that on the website as well already. >> It's not on here. Not on this list. >> Okay. >> Okay. I didn't unless I read Brown. But
so with that addition, I would move approval. >> Is there any further discussion? There's a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? >> Motion carries.
Um I believe the next thing is the um uh official publication. >> Yes. And we have received it looks like uh three bids. I'll go ahead and uh read those here. The first one is from Grimsroot Publishing, uh the news record, and it's
650 per inch. Um and it doesn't uh say what the second insertion is, so I'm assuming that is the same. Second is the Kenyon leader. Um first insertion is uh 33 per 33 333
cents per line or $3 per inch. Uh second is 3333 cents per line or uh $3 per inch. The third bid is from the Republican Eagle and their first insurance insertion is $5 per column inch. Second
insertion is $5 per column inch. So, the low uh uh bid is the Kenyon leader at $3 per uh column inch for the first and and second uh uh insertions. >> Okay. Are there any questions?
I have had some comments uh brought to me regarding the uh circulation, you know, from that side of the district, but I don't know if we've ever had any real problems by having leader in the past. I don't know. Has
there been complaints or issues? We haven't had any specific uh complaints and I do know that if there's ever something that is really very specific to another area of the county, uh we can always advertise additionally beyond this, but for our legal
publications, I'm not aware of any complaints we've had. Obviously, circulation is a is a concern, but it's not something that's highlighted in statute that you is a reason to to uh accept or not accept a bid. >> Thank you. I'll move forward with the
Kenyan leader to make a motion. >> Second. >> Uh there's a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion? >> And you know what we put in the official publication. This is also on our website. So it's like it's not like it's
not available. It's available free for anybody. So um you don't have to buy a paper to get it. You can get it off our website. And you know, for years AMC and counties have argued that we shouldn't have to put stuff in the paper when we
got it on our websites. Obviously, that's not gone anywhere yet, but um as far as I'm concerned, this is one place where the lowest bid is justified because it is still available to everybody.
>> Any other discussion? There's a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> I opposed. Okay. Motion carries. Um, next is the committee assignments and uh I think there were four without anybody
assigned. I was sent a note to Andrea saying that I've been the uh alternate on on uh uh South Country for a long time and I'm quite willing to be the alternate. So that I'm fine with that. Um, I'm also the one who's been on the shack committee and uh, one of the
reasons that I was a little bit hesitant is they have a 48 hour meeting. It's an overnight stay and um, it's never worked for me to go. So, I've been on this committee for three years and I've never once attended that. So, I feel a little
bit like, okay, if I can't commit to all their meetings, am I really the right person to continue on that? Um, so that that's where that was coming from for me. So what that typically is is uh four meetings a year, including the one that
I just mentioned, but the meetings are fairly lengthy. They um are in St. Paul. Some of them they do remotely and some not, but they're at the Minnesota Department of Health and they typically run from like 9:30 to 3:30. So it's an all day commitment those four days out
of the year. And then if you're willing to do the overnight, it would be another two full days. They are interesting. They have a lot of good speakers and there's a lot of good commissioners there. Anybody want to bite on that one?
>> I would go on the revolving loan fund committee. You can add me onto that. >> And how about the uh rural ID and E911? I've been on that forever. You can put me back on it. >> All right. >> Um,
>> so, so I I am willing to stay on Shaq, but I probably won't be attending the uh 48 hour meeting. And if that's a problem, then I'm not the right person for for this position. >> I I do believe the director attends that as well most of the time. >> Yeah. She she asks me if I'm going and
then when I say I'm not, then she becomes the voting member. All right. So, I believe uh we have uh figured out who could do these things. Is there a motion to accept the >> another comment? >> Okay. >> Um
we have a housing trust fund committee which isn't listed here, which should be listed here because we have to have a housing trust fund committee. So, it really is a standing committee and I've been on that since its inception and I will continue but it
really should be listed in here. >> We can add that. >> And with that, I would move approval. >> Second. >> Is there any further discussion? Okay, we have a motion and a second. All
those in favor signify by saying I >> I >> I opposed. Uh motion carries. Next is a land use management to review the uh preliminary plat. >> Good morning. The [clears throat] first item on your agenda from land use is to
consider a preliminary plat for the subdivision of 280 acres of land um for the purpose of creating four lots from one tax parcel. The property is located at 32400 Highway 56 Boulevard, Dennis,
Minnesota. Included in your packet is a copy of the application that was submitted by the applicant, the McKe family. um a copy of the actual preliminary plat as proposed, site maps of the general uh vicinity and area prepared by staff, and then a copy of
the meeting minutes from the planning commission meeting in December. Um the planning commission did hold a hearing on December 15th to consider the subdivision of land. They are forwarding a recommendation of approval to the county board. Um for some background,
the property is currently owned by Audrey McKe. Um, and as I mentioned, it is 280 acres of land. The property is zoned A1, which is the county's agricultural protection district. It is located in Stanton Township. Um, the
township will also have to approve um and sign off on the plat as it gets closer to the final platting stages. Just some things to note on the property. Um, the property is predominantly used for agricultural purposes right now and as in crop
production. But there are two houses on the property. Um, with the subdivision of land, there will be one of the lots will have a house, the other lot will have a house, but the there will be no additional homes constructed because
this section of A1 land is already at its maximum density limit of four houses. Um so again the I stated in the staff report the purpose here really is to split the land in order to convey the
land to family. It's not to develop property. Um just some information about the lot sizes. Um lot one is proposed to be 70 acres. Um lot two is proposed to be 78
acres and does have one of the existing houses on it. Um, lot three is 70 proposed to be 76 acres and lot four is proposed to be 35 acres and has the second existing home on it.
Um, the only other point I will make is that this site is a neighbor to the Stanton airport. Um the only item that did come in during the public hearing as testimony was some concerns over the airspace um around the Stanton airport.
Just wanting to the the comment that was [clears throat] submitted just wanted to remind the county essentially that the FAA has regulations on protecting the airspace coming in and out of the runways. Um that usually is only a problem when trees grow up to be very very tall. Um
or structures get built. Um but the county has a limit of 35 ft for structures. So that's typically not too much of an issue, but it was more of anformational correspondence um from from one someone in the neighborhood. Um
so with that, the planning commission is recommending approval of the preliminary plat. If the board does approve this, the next step for the property owner would be to greenlight their surveying company to prepare a final plat. That final plat is the document that has the
official signatures on it. Um that [clears throat] does come back again to the county board for final approval. So with that, are there any questions? >> Uh go ahead, Linda. >> Sorry, Brad.
My question is based on a couple things that happened in the past, do we need to add anything on there? I see the preliminary plat approval expires if the application for a final plat's not submitted with 180 days. Do we have to put anything into
documents moving forward about you can't do anything until you get the official notification from the county board or does that not necessarily fall within this one? >> So the county can't
deeds cannot be filed transferring any of the properties until the plat is recorded. So even though there are four proposed plats um nothing can actually transpire or happen until the plat is recorded >> and everybody knows that
>> every >> on the other on this family knows that >> I wouldn't be able to speak on their behalf. I don't know >> what would they do >> they can't build. But I do not want to go into the same situ I mean any kind of
a same situation that we did with um the betcher issue. >> Oh no. >> I'm just saying that something have to be >> made extremely clear. >> You want to make sure people understand they can't move forward until things are completed. >> Yeah, I do.
>> So as long as the family knows that, you know, good. >> Yeah. Is this a A2 or A4 or A2 or A1? >> It's A1. A1. >> Okay. >> Um >> so quite frankly um they can build an
egg building anywhere on the property >> if it's A1 >> with a building with a zoning permit. Right. >> Um right. >> Right. >> Yeah. We >> And can we can we restrict that during this process? The only thing that we would do is it would be customary for
our staff to look at the proposed lot lines and say, "Okay, you're proposing to put a like, for example, in the A1 district, you have to be 30 feet from a property line." Let's just say tomorrow a new building permit would come in
between, let's just say lots two and three. um we would say, "Hey, you know, if you proceed with the plat as proposed, this is going to be a non-conforming building and you're going to have to adjust that lot line." Um so, very rare would that happen. Um but it
is something that we would we would probably bring up to the property owner to say, "Hey, you know, you need to pick one or the other. Either the lot line as drawn or you got to move the building." >> In this case, I don't think we have to worry about it because it's all it's all crop land. Yes. And these are very large
lots. Um it it comes into play >> I can see it [clears throat] creating a residential subdivision where the lots are very small and there's a lot happening on a particular property. >> Um but that point is valid about just making it clear to the property owners
that until the plat is recorded nothing is official. >> Thank you. >> Brad did you have something additional? I Well, first I'll move the move the plat forward first and then I have a comment. >> All right. Is there a second?
>> I'll second. >> All right. Go ahead with your comment. So Megan and I talked yesterday about this and and I we've had a lot of plats happening in Goodyu County and I think this is a
pretty straightforward case to why we need to look at our subdivision ordinance about um when you need a plat and when you don't need a plat. This is a obviously an estate. They're trying to settle an estate. And a lot of
times when you settle an estate, you're going to split property by family members. >> And if you go through the normal process of splitting property, they could split it today, they can split another one in
six months, they can split another one six months later, and they can split another one six months later. That's how you get to four. So it's a year and a half process. M >> what our ordinance is doing is pushing people to plat it so they can finish
their estate plan and and settle this um estate in an expeditious manner. And my question is and it was to Megan yesterday. Is this really what we want them to do? because it's a it's really
from the landowner standpoint. They're going to now do this plat which is fine this time they spend a lot of money to do it >> but every time they want to change a property line in any of those four plats later they have to go all the way back through the repling process which is
really expensive. So, a shortterm gain to get it where you need to get it to to split the property ends up being a long-term expense. And I'm trying to ask in our subdivision ordinance, can we look and see if
there's a way to eliminate having to do a plat in these kinds of instances? And there may be. So, >> I wondered what your thoughts were. So, [sighs] um, as Commissioner Anderson stated, the
county's ordinance doesn't really care who the applicant is. It doesn't matter if it's an estate, if it's a single property owner, if it's a developer, if it's a residential development. Um, really what it looks at is the number of lots being created.
>> Um, and so that is really the def deciding factor. Um, there's two main ways to split property. uh a meets and bounds lot split, which is, you know, taking unplatted land um and essentially redrawing the parcel line. Um that
happens administratively in our office quite often as long as you're not creating more than one new parcel. Creating more than one new parcel, you have to have a a six-month waiting period. That is atypical. A lot of counties don't have that. Um, but I've
been told that that was per to prevent people from circumventing the platting process and just creating a parcel and the next week creating another parcel and creating another parcel. Um, what I am curious about and I have not
had enough time to really look into this is if the state law allows us to distinguish between what is the purpose of the plat. is it to um settle in the state to essentially take in the in this case, you know, a trust and disperse it
amongst family members. Um I I'm not familiar with that being in statute. I don't know if it's something that we can allow. I can certainly look into it. Um it does seem to me like a lot of the requests that we are dealing with with platting are not to develop land. It's
simply just to convey land from one entity to another. Um, so yeah, there might be an option to update the county's ordinance to really look at platting in sort of two buckets to develop land for a residential subdivision versus, you know, splitting
land for the purpose of just splitting up ownership. Um the problem with that is what somebody t we we're heavily relying on trust in that situation where someone's saying oh no I'm just you know
dividing this up um to keep it within the family or whatever. Well there's nothing that prevents them from going and selling it you know later down the road. So we we'll have to think through it. It's it's it's something that I think has been on the radar of the land use department. um to certainly look
into and we certainly have enough property owners and surveyors that are a little I'd say a little confused by our process. So we have a or the planning commission or
or land use is putting together a group to study density which we talked about. >> And my question was should they also take a look at our subdivision ordinance because it kind of relates to density and and take a look at these things. And maybe it's maybe it's not that same
group, but maybe maybe we should look at the subdivision ordinance and um platting just be it seems to me we're making people go through a process that shortterm fixes a problem but long-term causes
more expense to land owners than it really needs to. And that maybe concerns me a little bit too. So just a a question whether we should and we don't that's not part of this. We don't need to answer it today. We can talk about it later. But
>> I I just think this is a perfect example of somebody that's trying to do the right thing. dissolve a a a trust which is complicated in its own own manner and split it amongst a family and the only way they can do it is to have to plat
when really in 70 acre parcels it should be meats and bounds. They really shouldn't be platting. >> So I'm taking that asformational for the board and not that there's anything more than that. And we can we can talk about it after we vote on this, but I really
think we should probably direct >> to take a look at that subdivision ordinance, whether it's now or in the next year or >> set a time to actually look at it before we keep going down this path that creates
more to manage for land use, more to manage for for us at the county than maybe we need to. So, >> right. Thank you. So I believe there was a motion in a second. Um all those in favor >> I
>> opposed. Motion carries. >> Next is finance and taxpayer [clears throat] services. >> Morning commissioners. Morning. >> My uh agenda item for the day is to establish which uh county commissioners are going to be staffing the 2026
canvasing board. Um [snorts] so the county canvasing board cons uh consists of the county auditor auditor, the court administrator for the district court, the mayor of the countyy's most populous city and two members of the county board selected by the board from its members
who are not candidates on those elections. Uh so the state primary election will be August 11th and the county canvasing board must meet on the second or third day after that primary election. The state general election will be November 3rd and statute requires the county
canvasing board to meet between the 3rd and eth day following the state general election. As a reminder, commissioner districts two and four are up for election in 2026. So they cannot staff the canvasing board. Uh the county canvasing board meetings have been scheduled for the following
dates and times. The state primary election cand canvasing board will be August 13th at 1 p.m. And for the general election, it will be November 10th at 8:00 a.m. So staff recommends that the board decide which commissioners will participate in the 2026 county canvasing board.
>> Thank you. >> Do you need a motion for that? >> Um not an official motion. It's just more for us to know who's going to be staffing the meeting and we'll make note of it and make sure we send out invites um so you can attend these meetings.
>> Right. Well, it makes most sense for myself and I believe >> Yeah. And me, >> Chair Bcher, to I'm very willing to do it. Uh Todd, is is it something you'd be willing to do? >> I mean, I'm willing to do it. It doesn't matter to me. So,
>> so it makes some sense that Linda and I would be the two that would go ahead and do it and Todd would be our backup. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Next is the uh four-year information. There was the project status report and
the 2027 budget calendar. Is there anything anyone wants to say, add or comment on about either of those things? All right. And then we'll get that uh first board uh retreat scheduled before too long. I mean, not that it'll happen
right away, but it will get scheduled. >> Yes. Uh it will. Um we have been asking for different people's times when they're not in the >> we're all kind of >> it's it's looking more like February. So, >> yeah. Yeah. All right. So, that's what it is then.
Um any other new or old business? Any uh committee reports? Not much has happened in the last two weeks with the holidays. >> Uh next is the claim. Is there a motion to pay the bills?
>> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I opposed. Next is there a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Um motion the meeting is adjourned.