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[Music] All right, we will uh reconvene our meeting. We had a closed session for union uh contract uh discussions and negotiations. We are now
back uh in an open session and we will start with the pledge of allegiance. Pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one
nation indivisible. Uh next item is disclosures of interest. Are there any hearing? None. Previous board meeting minutes. Any changes? So is there a motion to approve? I'll move approval.
Aggress it. Second. Better. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Oppos the same. Motion carries. Uh review the agenda. Are there any changes? There are no changes. The only one I will note is
we have an updated um conditions for the conditional use for uh the application from Lesie Kylo for the mining request. Hopefully everybody got a copy of that. Um, so that will be part of that.
There a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. It's been moved and seconded. We approve the agenda. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. The same. Motion carry.
Consent agenda. There's four items on it. Move approval of items three and four. there a second to that. Well, I'll second approving them. Um, any further dis no discussion? All
those in favor say I. I. The same. Motion carries. Uh, we'll go back to item one. Approve the stonebook contract for design of County Run County 66 roundabout. You want looking at me first? Yeah about that. You bet. I If we're going to
approve, I think it takes a lot more discussion. Obviously, if we approve to have this looked at or consulted or designed, then we're going to get brought to say, well, let's do it. So, if you guys are in agreement that we need a whatever it is, a million, $2
million uh roundabout there. think it takes more than a consent agenda item just to get the fee to get it looked at because we're still going to be consenting to spending $200,000 from the taxpayer. Correct. So, I think it deserves more of a
discussion to step into even spending $200,000 about the need and why we're doing a roundabout there, even looking at putting a roundabout there before we spend $200,000 to do that. So, it was part of our 5-year capital plan. You and you did in the road plan. Y you bring it
up then. So, why why didn't you bring it up then when we were talking about our fiveyear um lot of things on the five plan improvement? I had some concerns. So, Jess and I went back and forth and he was very patient with my many many questions and he um as
I understood it and you correct anything I'm wrong is that there's going to be a paving project. I don't remember if it's on 66 or on one or both and bec that makes it a good time to do the roundabout and that has been on the list as I understand it for a number of years
and I also understood I believe the 200,000 would be the county's expense but the roundabout is covered by state and federal funds. Is that correct or not correct? Uh the cost of construction currently I have planned utilizing state aid funds. I see. And and am I right
about the construction project that there's already a construction project there or going to be? Yes, the paving project. Yep. Yep. And my question had to do with how unsafe were those accidents. So you and I went back and forth about that a lot.
And you know it it looked like there might be some other intersections that were even more of an issue than that particular intersection, but that one is where the paving is occurring now. Yes. Yep. Any other discussion? What's board's
wishes? Are we going to take one and two? Just it item one. Well, I I motion to approve the roundabout uh contract for design on the roundabout. Second. I'll second it. Move and seconded. We uh
approve Stoneberg contract for design of County Run County 66 roundabout. Any further discussion? I have a question on the the safety on some other intersections. Are you also looking at those to be brought up in the future too? Is this something that we
maybe should wait on and and address? Yeah, I can understand there's some savings with the county 66 going on, but safety I think does that make it more important in another spot?
Uh we we identified four um intersections throughout Goody County that have had historic issues and we had a study performed uh by SRF consulting and we have um projects identified to
solve issues at each of those. Um this one just so happened to fit well with our paving project. Um is any one of them more problematic than the other. The the study didn't necessarily identify a
prioritized listing of which one should be done, but we are looking at um uh doing construction at County Road 1 and 66 um in the 5-year plan as well as the
County 11 and County Road 62 intersection in Pine Island. Um, another intersection that we looked at, uh, was CASA 18, uh, and Sturgeon Lake Boulevard,
um, near Prairie Island. Um, that one we do not have planned at this point because we need to work on discussions with the city of Redwing uh, and and the, uh, tribal nation as well. And the other intersection is Casaw 6 and CASA
1. And um I don't believe we have that in our 5-year plan presently, but it is something that is on our radar and we would like to accomplish something there in the near future. Okay, it's been moved and seconded that we move forward with this. Any further
discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. I. Oppos? No. Okay. And item two, approve tuition request for Alex Dicki at public works. Again, I had questions on it. I didn't
get all the questions answered, but I have trouble looking at this understanding what we're I get it that we want to prove management training, but looking at the description of what it is, ethical leadership, I honestly can't identify what what I'm going to learn in that class.
So, though I don't approve it, so you folks can if you want to pay for it. Okay. Two wish issues. I'll make a motion to approve the Alex Dicki tuition reimbursement. Second. I'll second it. Been moved and seconded.
We approve item two. Um, Alex Dicki public works tuition reimbursement. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. Question. You got a question? No. We'll back up. We'll back up. Well, no, I'm fast. Second part real quick. We got
a full day. We're gonna move. We do. Okay. Go ahead. Um I was just wondering if perhaps Jess could give us a little bit more explanation. So, um ethical leadership from the
perspective of design manager. Can you just explain a little bit where those would overlap? Well, in in terms of uh uh the the position that Alex Dicki holds in the department, he is a manager and has several
staff works um you know exclusively in the public eye as our primary right-of-way purchasing agent. Um, so in terms of uh utilizing ethics, I I would imagine that as a manager and someone
that is so forward- facing, uh, ethics would be of of high concern to uh, not just Good County, but our department as a whole. Thank you very much. Okay, any further? just based on that comment and just again a curiosity is what am I
going to learn in a college class about ethics that I don't already know and haven't achieved in my 20 25 30 years. So that's the basic question I got. So again it's why I don't look at it. It'd be interesting to read the syllabus on that. I didn't look and didn't get it. But so
again questions. So again you folks can approve paying for it. I don't think the taxpayers should be on the hook for paying for this one. Got whatever. A lot of our uh employees get involved in numerous ethical decisions throughout their careers. Um I just anecdotally
I'll say that you know every single program I've ever been I had to take an ethics course. I had to take it in college. I took one in my first master's degree. I took one in my second master's degree and I also took one in my doctorate. So it's very common that you take an ethics class. Yeah. It might not
be an elective. It might be part of the program that he's trying to complete. Correct. Go ahead. Well, in the retention committee, I mean, um, manager managerial training
was something that came up quite a bit. So, from that standpoint, I would support any training that managers are going to get on how to manage better. Okay.
Hearing no other discussion, all those in favor say I. I oppose the same. No. Motion carries. Finance taxpayer servant. We are going to hear from our finance director and our
auditor or one of the auditors. I don't think he does it all. Morning, commissioners. Morning. The uh county's auditor, this is Doug Host with Clifton Larson Allen, will be presenting summary financial information about the
audited financial statement report. The audit is not yet complete. However, both management and the auditors felt the status of the project was sufficient to discuss the 2024 financial results. Discussing the results now rather than waiting until the project completion and the issuance of the annual comprehensive
financial report allows for a timelier discussion leading into the budgetary process for next year. Uh board members will also be given the opportunity to discuss the financial information and ask questions of the auditors. Uh the county's overall financial position remains stable as of December 31st,
2024. Revenues were down slightly which was driven by the recognition of remaining state and local fiscal recovery funds. That's the ARPA money that we had received from the federal government. Um we had uh recognized the remaining portion of that during the previous fiscal year of
2023. The county remains focused on controlling expenditures and paying down debt. Unrestricted fund balance which is categories other than non-spendable and restricted has increased over the prior year and unassigned fund balance remains above the minimum amount as required by the county's fund balance balance
policy. And with that, we'll let Doug go into his presentation. All right. Thank you, Lucas. And the green lights on, so I think we're ready to go. Uh, pull it just a little bit closer to you. How's this? Pull the whole thing.
Right. Oh, the whole thing. God. Yeah. There you go. All right. Now, if this was a Karoki microphone, I'd feel a lot more comfortable with it. Um, one other thing I'd like to add. I just happen to be in the area, too. So the I really want to thank you for allowing me to
come and present the audit the with the draft results because I travel a lot. So anytime I can minimize that travel a little bit, which today allowed me to do, I really appreciate it. So thank you. But I'm super excited to be here on May
20th, 2025. A memorable day for me for two reasons. One is I'm presenting the audit to you. And the other is it's my 10,957th day of being married, also known as 30 years. So, it's my 30-year
anniversary today. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Um, super excited about that, too. Um, so, um, Lucas will drive for me. Um, like in previous years, we put together a PowerPoint, uh, with the highlights. And on this slide,
there are certain things when we do an audit we're required to do by audit standards and that is to communicate certain things to the board uh including uh the results of our testing of internal controls. You receive a lot of federal grants and and the federal
government requires us to do certain testing uh regarding those expenditures. you're required to uh follow a lot of state statutes uh and how the county operates. The state auditor's office requires us to do certain testing of
that. I'll go over those results. Then take a highle look at your financials and how 2024 went. Lucas already gave you a little bit of insight into how 24 turned out and then we'll wrap it up. So with that, one of the required
communications we do or that we are required to do to the board is it's a boilerplate letter. The one that the board will receive this year is basically the same thing as the prior year. I'll just touch on the high high points,
sir. Um when we do an audit, we need to give an opinion on your financial statements. and we give what's technically called an unmodified opinion, but it's a clean opinion. It means that your financial statements are materially correct as
presented. Uh if we have difficulties in performing the audit or disagreements with management, we're required to communicate that to you in your letter and here today. I'm happy to report none of those situations uh arose.
Um, your audit is getting done much earlier this year and uh that is possible because the staff that are involved with the audit got everything ready for us or to be audited uh early
and uh it just we really appreciate that. So your final issued report will be coming sooner this year than last year. So that's great. Um, again, thanks to the staff, though, because I know getting ready for an
audit's probably a little bit of a pain in the neck. It's got to be. So, uh, we just appreciate it. All right. Um, when we do an audit, we obtain an understanding of all the controls the county has in place
and then we test them and then the standards say we got to communicate them to you. And the only item we're required to communicate is one that's been there for a while. It's called segregation of duties. There are certain areas that do not have full separation of the
accounting functions. It's the smaller areas. Your centralized system uh does have segregation duties, but we're required to communicate it to you when we do come across certain areas. Uh the next slide, there's a category of
communications called significant deficiencies. And as you can see on the slide, uh for the last three years, we didn't have any to communicate to you. So, uh that's honestly pretty unusual for there not to be any of them. And
I've been doing this for 34 years and it's unusual. So, great job. mentioned you receive and spend federal grant money. Uh we test the controls and compliance over those areas. And this year there is one item
we're required to communicate uh regarding the federal grants and that was in the medical assistance program. people apply for medical assistance and there's all these different re requirements they got to meet and um
there's a control in place where a supervisor will do periodic case file reviews and in prior years we've tested it and there was a really good number of those case file reviews being done in 24
those there were just a few and uh the once we or when we were performing the audit. Um there is a new process in place to get the number of reviews back up to to where they are to ensure that the people that are on the program uh
meet all the requirements. So um we have had discussions about the the new process in place and assuming that is implemented um we shouldn't have uh the same issue next year. So, we'll resolve it then, but we will look into it. Um,
as far as your compliance with state statutes, we test areas in cash investments and dispersements, conflicts of interest. We do a lot of testing in this area and I'm happy to report there are no items that we have to compliance items that we're required to
communicate. Any questions so far? Otherwise, we'll look just a question on the MA. Mh. Um, is do you think part of that had to do with the redetermination of so many people or is it is it just or
was it turnover in staff or was it do you have any Yep. I think it might have been both honestly. I mean because there was like a two or three year sort of pause on the whole redetermination thing and yeah all of a sudden that pause was relieved lifted
and I do thought think there was a little bit of turnover. Does that ring a bell too? So I think it would it was maybe some of both probably a combination. Yeah. And there was some some turnover and then there's the additional um hurdle on that where the staff member actually has to be certified um as well.
So you know it takes a little bit longer where we get a staff person in there to to work on this but they actually need that certification before they can um fully do that position and then also get to the point where they can review the case files. I also will add that this is something that um staff in the HHS
department did identify before the auditors brought it up and they did put in place this new process and this plan going forward before we had the meeting with the auditors to to discuss this issue. Um so it should be resolved going forward.
Yeah. And and I know some of that training that HHS staff gets is through DHS at the state. Some of it's it's all required, but sometimes it's not available more than this time, this time, this time. And sometimes that
doesn't match up with when we hire people. So, I can see where there's gaps in that whole system that could cause some of that. But I will say this situation is something that we're seeing in a number of the
counties that I audit. Um, I kind of figured you did. Yeah. Are any other questions on that? Otherwise, we'll switch gears to the financial portion of the presentation.
Um, page eight or slide eight, this is a chart that we've included over the prior years. And, uh, we're looking at the number of months of expenditures you have in reserve. in for 2024. And this takes a look at the county countywide,
not just one fund, right? Um for the year uh or at the end of the year, the fund balance reserves was up one quarter of one month. So that's basically the same uh like 10 days or so. Well,
78 days, seven eight days. Um based on the table, I would say you have a strong financial position. If you look at the column on the right, the number of months of reserves in fund balance has been between 8.1 and and
10.18. That's pretty consistent over a 5year period. Um it's very important to have sufficient reserves. Um just like it's important to have reserves for your own personal finances, the state and federal
governments um the funding that they provide does fluctuate from year to year and there is no state budget passed yet. I I don't think they passed it. So um it's good to have reserves. Now, one thing I will
point out is the number of months of reserves and fund balance at the end of 24 is, and again, this is all draft information, but I don't envision these numbers are going to change, but it's at 10.18. And in that
number is your unrestricted fund balance. And there's three components to that number. There's, and these are all accounting terminology things, but there's three buckets. There's a committed bucket, an assigned bucket, and an unassigned bucket. Included in those reserves, the
committed fund balance are things that the board has approved of spending for certain projects in the future. So though there's a portion of that 10.18 months is committed by the board already. The second bucket assigned are
additional uh ear markings of some of the reserves that you have uh on hand done uh through management. And then there's a bucket left called unassigned. No strings attached to it at this point. You can
spend it and generally gets used to cover expenses in January, February, March, April to when the tax collections come in. That unassigned piece is about 3.2 months. And the state auditor's office
and various national organizations have uh recommended that governments have no less than 3 to five months of reserves. You're right at the bottom. If you just look at the unassigned, but if
you throw in the assigned and committed, yeah, you're at 10. there there's plans for seven of those seven months worth of those expenditures for various projects. So in the end your financial position is
strong and it's important to have stability because you are very dependent on the federal and state government funding and as we watch the news we know that can can change uh very quickly. Uh,
one other thing I point out there is expenses. Expenditures for the year were up 1%. So that's pretty minor as far as an increase of expenditures. On page nine, we look at the revenue trends and you can see
um overall there's, as Lucas mentioned, a $4.6 million decrease in intergovernmental revenues. That primary driver was in 23 recognizing all the ARPA revenues and in 24 there were those
had all been spent. So that explains that difference. Tax revenues were up I think about 3% which was as expected because there was a a small increase in the levy. The rest of the revenue accounts were changes were pretty minor.
On page 10, we look at the other side of the coin where the county spent its money. I gota be honest, it was pretty um pretty stable for sure. Um total
expenditures were actually up about 850,000 which is about 1%. The biggest increase was public safety and that was there's a lot of equipment purchases that occurred in there in 24 and there was some payroll increases as well. Um
highways and streets fluctuates from year to year depend upon the amount of state aid and the financing provided uh by the state there and um yeah it's just very dependent on the number of projects each year. Page 11,
we also verified that uh the county made all the debt payments that were due in 2024 for the year. That was about 1 point there's a $ 1.5 million decrease in the general obligation bonds. the compensated absences which is like the
accumulated unused vacation, sick leave, comp time, uh that did increase about 550,000 uh for the year and some of that was due to the implementation of a new accounting standard which required
another little piece to be added in there regarding sick leaves. So, um, with that, uh, summarize everything. Your governmental funds unofficially at this point yet had
an overall increase of about 2.8 million in total. Uh, that was mostly, you'll see it mostly in the general fund. The road and bridge fund is down about 680,000. Human services was up for the year about 766,000.
The EDA fund down about 212,000. Debt service fund up about 230,000. The ditch up about 35,000. And waste management up about 171,000. So you roll that all together,
it's up about 2.8 million. Again, you have about 2 10.2 months of reserves in unrestricted fund balance. That's at a healthy level. Um, your fund balance has increased each of the last six years. Sometimes a
little bit, sometimes a little more. Um, there's a little typo here. The American Rescue Recovery Plan ARPA that that 2024 should have actually just said 2023. So, I apologize for that typo. And then as I
mentioned, there was a new standard that the county uh put together the calculations for compensated absences that uh needed to be done for 2024. So is there one more page? Again, thank you for uh allowing me to present
the unofficial results so far, but uh I got time for questions if there are any. You have any closing comments, Lucas? Really? The only other thing I was going to say is that um no action is requested at this time. Once the project is fully
completed, then I'll bring it back and I'll present the results again. That'll be later on this year. Questions? Go ahead, Linda. Guess I don't have a question, but I had a comment. But but that was um thank you very much, Lucas, to you and your team
for being able to each year since I've been here um get a very nice audit report back. So, I appreciate it very much. I'll just say um thank you for that. Um at this point, I play a small role in
that. It's certainly it's the uh the accountants in our department as well as the staff members throughout the entire county. Um and HR in particular, they help out quite a bit. So, department heads, staff members throughout the entire county, they play a large role in this. Thank you. True. But the buck will stop with you.
And then Scott, but thank you very much, Susan. So, I just am a little confused about the 10.2 unrestricted. So, we get a a sheet each month that has restrictions, commitments, and assignments. And then at the bottom,
there's sort of the unassigned. And unrestricted and unassigned are not the same thing. Is that correct? Unrestricted includes unassigned, assigned, and committed. It is kind of confusing. So it in in my mind it's
restricted but uh that's not but from a uh an accounting terminology thing it's a jargon thing that we use in accounting it I totally understand that it's so when I look at the unassigned balance that's what's 3.1 months or something
like that y yeah okay thank you I think you know part of it is some of those funds that we've are are uh assigned or restricted or whatever the terminology you use. We can move those. Yes. Just
takes board action to move them. It's not like you can't they're stuck there and you can never use them for something else. You just have to take action to move them and then some of those you some of them are the ones that if in that report there's a restricted line. I
haven't seen that report, but I'm pretty sure if that's Yeah. You can't move those. Not the restricted by state statute and stuff. So, you can't move the restricted, but the committed ones, right? And the assigned, I believe, as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you. That's good. That was really good question. Anybody else? Doug, thank you. Uh, you've been here several times. you do an excellent job and getting here early um is really nice for us. I'm glad it's
nice for you. Go home. Go home and celebrate with your wife. Congratulations. Thank you. Next, we have administration. Yes. Uh the first item, it's my pleasure to uh introduce Bill Hodson who's recently been hired as our next human
resources manager in the team of three. Uh Bill comes to us from the Rochester Community and Technical College where he was the vice president of human resources and equity. Uh Bill has a long background in human resources, has numerous certifications, and has a
degree in public affairs from Indiana University. So welcome, Bill. And if you want to say a few words and introduce yourself to the board, that'd be great. Good morning, commissioners. Thank you, Scott. I'll keep this under an hour for sure. Perfect. They expect a PowerPoint,
too. Oh my. I'll use the last one. That was so Well, my name is Bill Hodson. It is truly an honor and a privilege to be serving my county, Good Hugh County, as your newest HR manager. I want to talk a little bit about the departments I support. Um, administration and HR is
certainly one under Scott. I support facilities maintenance, finance and taxpayer services, IT, land use management, public works, survey recorder at GIS and veteran services. So, pretty much everybody in this building and one more. Um, I also serve
on the county safety committee as safety officer and a new role data practices compliance official as well uh supporting the county's data practices, records management and compliance reporting. Um, I will certainly be working with legal counsel um and the
county administrator on contracts negotiation specifically assigned to the ASME local 737 contract and Teamsters Local 120. Um, and I will also oversee the county performance evaluation and management system as well. That's a
little bit about what I'll be doing. Um, it's, as uh, we heard just a minute ago. Uh, my background includes a bachelor's degree in psychology from California State uh, college at Northridge. Uh, since graduation and my professional certification in HR from UCLA and Sherm
and HRCI and other organizations, my career has spanned, and I hate to say this, over four decades now. uh beginning with an offshoot of the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica called the System Development Corporation. Um and so my first half of my career was spent
primarily in Southern California and Central California supporting aerospace defense contractors, companies, names that have some disappeared and changed. Burroughs Corporation, Unicus, Whitaker Corporation, North Grumman, organizations like that. Very different
than working for our county. Um I my role primarily at the start was recruiting and hiring people such as computer operators, programmers, engineers, systems analysts and those are even before they had those professions in colleges. So that was kind of
fun. So some of our role some of my role early on was doing training for some of those individuals. Um, so mid-career my wife and I, uh, Nancy as a registered nurse, we were sitting on a beach in California and we said,
we said, we were listening to She's calling, she's calling, she's calling me right now. We were sitting on a beach and said, you know, uh, raising a family in Southern California is tough. Um, crime, cost of living, um, and as native Californians, we said, let's move closer
to her side of the family. And so we picked up uh from Southern California, brought our two boys, Dan and Mike, and we moved to Bloomington, Indiana. That would give me the opportunity to expand my work working um in the nonprofit in public sector, as well as Scott
mentioned, attaining a degree, a master's degree in public affairs at Indiana University. Go Hoosiers. Uh with the number one ranked school of public and environmental affairs. Um, I also had a chance to serve as director for the university for HR and adjunct
instructor. That was a lot of fun teaching both human resource management and collective bargaining, labor relations. So, that was great. Uh, well, but then our kids who grew up in this wonderful environment left us as empty nesters. And you wonder, well, how did
he get here to Indiana? Well, the recruiter that brought both my wife and myself here to IND to Minnesota said, "Oh, the weather's about the same as southern Indiana and we knew better because my my mother-in-law was from Ottertale County, so we knew." But we
made the move to Rochester and both of us worked for Mayo Clinic for about 10 years. My wife just retired a couple months ago. Um, and as you heard a little bit, also had work in higher education, working for Northern Illinois University as a state employee in Illinois and DALB and then Rochester
Community Technical College. So now with six-year residents of Good Hugh County, the Lake City, uh, my wife and I feel like we've really found our forever home. People say, "How could you adjust to the cold?" It's great. We we we don't we don't see
California as a place to retire. This is where we will retire. Uh now in my fifth week as HR manager, I'm just thrilled to be on this positive and dynamic team with really smart colleagues. I've been so impressed with all the folks that I've met. Um I no doubt are really
living the dream. People say that in a funny way, but I feel that way. I'm really excited to bring my good to this role and helping good Hugh County best serve its citizens. So thank you for having me as your next HR manager. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. And with
all your work in aerospace, just know that county government isn't rocket sciences. Okay, that's good. That's good. Just peeling potatoes. Okay, peeling potatoes. That's good. Good for me. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome
aboard. Next, we'll hear from uh Buffy Baronic on housing trust fund recommendations. Good morning. I'm Bren, executive director for SERA and with me online I have Patrick Mitchner um who is our grant writer u
from our community development department. Um I too am happy to be here today um to request f funds um from based on the recommendation from both the goodw county housing trust fund committee and the sumptura board um for um
construction and or preservation of affordable housing units. Um I am 6,935 days on the job. Today is my 19th anniversary. had a chuckle when um when Doug said that. So um 19 years um hard
to believe we did not have housing trust funds 19 years ago. So um really excited today to be here um uh bringing this forward. Um the good Hugh County Housing Trust Fund is funded through um the H levy on an annual basis. That's part of
our levy. Um in some other counties the Saha dollars are combined in in Goodw County. They're separate. Um the county manages those and we jointly um um are building homes um through a um a process um um and a private developer um and
jointly done with SRA and the county. So um outside of this request, just note that there's there's other work being done in terms of construction that the county is is working on as well. Um this year the goodwill housing trust fund committee earmarked $175,000
um to um put out for RFP. Uh we were out for RFP for January, February, and March. Uh we had um direct emails going out. We uh solicited nonprofits, developers, builders um posted on our website. Um did a lot of direct
mailings. We had three applications. uh one from a p a public entity um and two nonprofits. The recommendation really focused on uh construction andor preservation. The third request though it was for affordable housing, it did
not directly relate to construction or preservation of units. So um both the Sumptra board and the GDU county um housing trustment committee did not bring that recommend bringing that forward for you today. So, out of those three um applications, we were able to
use um or recommend use for all but $20,000 of those funds. Um uh the first one is for um Habitat for Humanity. It's a $40,000 grant for the construction of a home um in Kenyon.
Exciting program where they're working with their builder's trades um uh program at the local school. Um, Habitat will be bringing about uh $277,000 to the table in terms of matching for that. Um, and then the second request is um, so that's in the
form of a grant. The second request is for preservation of 24 units of a USDA 515. That's where there's federal rental assistance coming in. Um, it is a priority within the state of Minnesota to preserve those 515s. Um that funding
request came from Sumptra for a property located in the Good Hugh side of Lake City. Um and that was for 114,000 for a deferred forgivable loan. Um there have been requests like this um from from
some of the other counties as well. I was asked the question, Buffy, why don't you just call it a grant? Isn't that really what it is? In all technicality and very simple terms, yes. However, you want that deferred forgivable um loan put on the property because that is what
secures it as affordable. It's what prevents um Sumptra from selling that and turning it into market rate property. You want to preserve that affordable concept. So um there would be a 30-year loan on that. So let's just say Sumptra did sell it. Um that 114,000
would then come back to the housing trust fund. That's what you would want and then it would be used for affordable housing. Um, as I said, um, all but 20,000, um, was, um, committed to that. Sure is bringing about $28,000 to the table from their capital fund, the
reserves to match on that as well. So, it's about $150,000 project that will be done there. Brick work, exterior work, uh, windows, um, uh, siding, some fascia, sophet work. I'm going to pause there. Patrick,
anything else you wanted to add or questions from the board? Uh, go ahead, Patrick. I have nothing to add on on that. I think you touched all the the main talking points there. Thank you,
board. What's your wishes? This went through this went through the housing trust fund board at the county here. Went through uh centur board. Now it's to us for the final piece of that. I'll move this forward. Second. Second.
Been moved and seconded. We move this forward and um expand these dollars from the housing trust fund. Any further discussion? No, I just want to comment that's why the money's there is to uh build and preserve housing. So that we we we
shouldn't set it aside if that's not what we're going to do with it. Correct. All those in favor say I. I. The same motion carries. Thank you, Buff. Next we have land use
management and we have two items under that. Good morning to the board. Um the first item is to consider a request for a conditional use permit for aggregate mining um submitted by GCubed Engineering on the behalf of the property owner, the Leslie Kylo
Trust. Um included with your agenda packet today are minutes from the April 21st Planning Advisory Commission meeting, a draft affidavit for approval of the conditional use permit. Um, that is the agenda item that I'm going to be
going over in more detail. I do have some recommended conditions to attach to that conditional use permit. Um, you should have you should have see a hard copy um on your desk. Also, I want to go over the application and kind of run
through what is required by the county in order to submit an application for a conditional use. Um, we did receive a application form with a cover letter and narrative that does explain how the application is meeting the county's
ordinance requirements which are regulated in article 14 of the zoning ordinance. We also received test borings of the site. There were three different boring sites or three different boring areas that were tested and we have the test results of those. Um we did receive
the um Minnesota DNR conservation planning report and the Minnesota DNR natural heritage review. Um we there was submitted an application or a a firmat which is essentially the FEMA map that shows the
delineation of the flood plane on the site. Um we received se uh the what are the civil engineering or the project plans. They're essentially the bulk of the the plans. They're seven pages in length. Um, and then I did not photocopy this, but it would be considered part of
the official record. It's the USDA soil resource report that essentially um details the soil in the in the surrounding area and the site specifically. Um to go over some basic information, the project is located at
an existing um 200 acre farming site at 21249460th Street, Zamroa, Minnesota. It's on parcel number 47.034.100. It's located in Zambroa Township and the property is zoned A1 agricultural protection. Um the site
itself or the request itself is to um mine 29.71 acres of land which as I mentioned earlier is part of a larger 229 acre site um that is currently used for agricultural and farming per um
purposes. The property is owned by the Leslie Kylo Trust. Um the important a couple things just to point out on what has been reviewed so far. So the planning commission did review the conditional use permit request which is required for
any new mining sites in the county. But there was also a variance that was approved and reviewed by the board of adjustment related to a setback from a um from the ordinary hall water line of essentially the north fork of the Zumbrell River. That variance did get
approved at the April 28th meeting. The primary finding for that variance is that based on the mineral mapping and what we know about soils, the actual aggregate deposits are located very very close to the north fork of the Zumbro
River. So requiring the site to be set back a thousand feet from the river would mean that there's essentially no no gravel to be mined, no mineral deposits to be found. So the board did um approve that variance request.
Um there are two specific areas of the zoning ordinance that the county needs to make findings of fact for one the first is related to its mining ordinance and the second is related to um shoreland conditional uses because this
project is in the shoreland. So you'll notice in the staff report there's conditional uh letter A is conditional use findings and letter B are conditional use findings required for shoreland uses. Um these findings of fact were reviewed by the planning
commission um and are in your in your report. I won't go through them in detail but they do cover the major findings that we look at which are is site suitability impact to the land surrounding property owner impact um and then of course environmental
concerns. The recommendation of staff mimics the planning advisory commission recommendation which is to approve the conditional use permit request um to adopt the staff report into the record
um and then to um a fixed conditions. I do want to just talk a little bit about the conditions. Um uh Commissioner Anderson and I did have a conversation last week about the fact that the affidavit that's in your report doesn't have any draft conditions. The
planning advisory commission didn't verbally affix any conditions in their motion. However, they absolutely discussed things at their meeting. And so what I did for you all was went through those meeting notes, went through the application, and I
summarized what I think would be really good conditions to put on this conditional use permit. And I'll go over those at this time. Um, and if anyone needs a copy, let me know. Um, but the first proposed condition would be that all mining operations shall comply with
the county's mineral extraction ordinance as regulated in article 14 of the zoning ordinance. Number two, that the operators must comply with all federal, state, county, and local laws and regulations applicable to the operation of mineral
extraction of the mineral extraction facility, including but not limited to flood plane management regulations, shoreland management, and zoning ordinance regulations. Um, I do want to note that the hours of operation proposed by the applicant are um more
restrictive than what the county allows. So, I did recommend that what they are proposing get put into the conditional use, which is hours of operation from 7:00 a.m. to 700 p.m. Monday through Friday and then 7:00 a.m. to noon on
Saturdays. Um, number four, the permittee must obtain a permit from the road authority for all new access points to the public road. The site does have frontage on uh 460th Street, which is in Zambroa Township. Uh, roadway dust control
operators shall be responsible for providing continuous dust control during facility operation on gravel roads that are prime the primary route to or from a mineral extraction facility. Number six, site reclamation must be completed with
within 12 months after completion of the mineral extraction or after termination of the permit. The county does have a reclamation plan submitted in the civil engineering plans. And lastly, this is something that is in the ordinance, but
it's my understanding that the county um has not been super heavy-handed at requiring it, but I am recommending it as a condition um that the county um require a reclamation security
essentially in the amount of $522,375. The county would require this financial security in the form of either a letter of credit, bond, or cash escrow. And this would be a one-year term to be submitted annually with the um with the annual site renewal that we
require. It's called the mining site registration. Um and then of course the last condition would be that they do submit annual the annual registration paperwork to the county. Um that is something that is in our ordinance as well.
With that, any questions? Just have one. Uh, as far as the dust control, I would like to add at the end, just add to the satisfaction of the road authority. So
that if you get complaints in your office, you're going to hand them over either on County Road 55 to our public works department or you're going to hand it over to the township, whether it's Pine Island Township or whether it's Zroa
Township because this comes out right on the intersection of a townline road. So I I I think having it written in there who gets to determine the satisfaction. It's really the road authority that needs that that needs that
ability. Can we add that just those that it's just a short addition on there? Okay. Any other questions? Any other comments? So we would be approving it with these seven conditions. You talked about an
eighth one, but that's really embedded in the ordinance. It is embedded um in the ordinance to do annual registration and um this is my first actually November of last year was um the first renewals and every all the mining sites are pretty good about submitting their
annual renewals. Um, and I think reasonably so because if you don't renew your site, you lose your site compliance. And wasn't doesn't um Ben Hoy do our inspections of mines?
We yeah, the land use department staff. We had um we had used Ben and then also some zoning staff to do on-site inspections. I think out out of the 40 or so registered sites, we try to do about 8 to 10 a year and just kind of
get them on a a rotation. Thank you. Board's wishes. Move approval of the pack recommendation of the following conditions that were presented. I'll second it. Moved and seconded. We approve the conditional use with the um
documentation we have in front of us. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say I. I. The same. Motion carries. Thank you. Second item, cannabis zoning ordinance
amendments. That's okay. Okay. The next item on the agenda is to consider a request submitted by Andrew John Meyer, owner of the property located at 46539 180th Avenue in Zamroa, Minnesota. Mr. John Meyer is requesting an
amendment to the Good Hugh County zoning ordinance which would allow cannabis cultivation and manufacturing associated with a cannabis mezo business or micro business as a permitted and conditional uses within the A1, A2, and A3
districts. The request is also asking to add cannabis and medical cannabis cultivation as a permitted use in the business districts and as a conditional use in the business districts. Um for background um um the application applies to all lands in Good
Hugh County, not M not only Mr. John Meyer's property. Um Mr. Mr. John Meyer is a land owner in Goh County and therefore meets the requirements to apply for a change to the zoning ordinance. For background, the county adopted two ordinances in late 2024
related to cannabis. The first ordinance was related to business regulations. That's that includes the business licensing registration um that we often hear talked about related to like limiting the number of retail registrations.
Um, and then the county also adopted changes to its zoning ordinance. One thing to point out is that the county does not have a process that allows property owners or the public to petition to change ordinances that the county has
adopted that are not excuse me that are nonzoning ordinances. So, this request did have requested changes to the business regulations, but those were not considered by the planning commission because it's not their jurisdiction. Um,
and as far as I can tell, the county doesn't really allow those to be submitted. So, although they're in the application, it's really not part of this request. Um, I focused primarily on the zoning ordinance changes. Um I did
number um Mr. John Meyer's application to sort of give some clarity to the changes that are being requested. Only number seven, eight, and nine actually pertain to the zoning ordinance. Um request number seven request to change
um the change to combine cannabis cultivation and manufacturing as one use. Um I very much believe that those are uh two different uses and do need to stay separate. Um, number eight requests the table of agricultural uses to be
amended to add micro businesses and mess businesses. Currently, these are only allowed in business districts and not allowed in agricultural districts. Um, and request number nine requests that the table of business uses
be amended to add cannabis cultivation combination licenses such as mezo business and micro businesses to the county's business districts. Um, again, I think you are all familiar, but the state law that did um allow
cannabis in in Minnesota is predominantly going to be regulated at the local level. The state will issue the license, but then the land use controls and the registrations and the enforcement will have to be handled at the local level. I did um copy and paste
into the staff report the 13 license types. These are the license types that the state of Minnesota will be issuing. These license types are mimicked in the county zoning ordinance so that our terminologies are the same. What that means is that if somebody at the state
gets a cultivation license, we call it cultivation here at the at the county as well. Um I I want to just talk about the micro business and the mezzo business. Those are essentially fancy ways of
saying you can do multiple things with one business license. So micro and mezo allows a business type to grow to manufacture and to sell. They don't necessarily have to do it all on the same site, but it allows them to
essentially have a business umbrella, as I call it, to to do multiple things with the cannabis product. A micro business is a smaller version of a mezzo business. A micro business limits the amount of um growing that you can
have. These license types again are set by the state. They're not county types, but the county's zoning ordinance only allows micro and mezo businesses in business and industrial districts and really encourages them to happen within city limits if they are going to happen.
Um we are not set up in the county really to have businesses out in these rural areas um waste disposal, storm water management, um runoff concerns, nuisance and and just the
enforcement side of it. Um so again, those two businesses are only allowed in business and industrial districts right now. Um my recommendation was would be to keep that standard to keep them in business and industrial and not to allow them in agricultural districts. Um as
you probably are aware the bulk of the county's rural areas that we have jurisdiction over is zoned agricultural and allowing them in egg districts would be opening up a a huge um business sector essentially in those egg districts.
Um so my recommendation to the planning commission was to deny the request um and to essentially with up you know essentially withhold and um hold up what the county has on the books. I would
note that um this was a difficult request to work through because the state hasn't actually listen approved any licenses yet. So, um, their timeline keeps getting pushed back and as of today,
they haven't approved any licenses. So, we ha we as staff here at the county or at any city in the city or county in the state haven't actually had an opportunity to work through this all. And based on just conversations I've had
with other counties, other county staff, um there's a lot of confusion, there's a lot of frustration, there's a lot of just um how is this all going to work? And I think one of the things, one of the messages that I want to articulate to the board that was considered here is
that applicants are being told essentially at the state level that this micro and mezo business type, you know, will have to get zoning approval before they're allowed to open. So they're being told that at the state level. Well, the challenge for cities and
counties is that this is essentially a mixed a micro and a messo business is what I call a mixed use. meaning you're doing multiple things on one property. A lot of cities and counties don't allow zoning uses to mix unless it's a mixeduse district or it's a planned unit
development. Um so I don't think we're going to be the only city or or the only county um dealing with this request essentially. Um, the other thing I want to note is that the planning
commission did wish when they when they held the public hearing, I think they understood the fact that the the investing as an entrepreneur in cannabis is a significant risk and they wanted to be
sympathetic, but they also wanted to give the county's ordinance a chance to stand on its own two feet. and respect the work that went into drafting that ordinance before changing it. Um, and so again, their
request was to recommend denial of or their recommendation was to recommend denial of the request. Um, so with that, I guess, um, I would open I would see if there's any questions that the board would have for me.
Questions? Go ahead. So is the the growing of cannabis would be considered under the agricultural regulation and would be allowed. Correct. Yes. A1, A2, and A3
cannabis cultivation and medical cannabis cultivation are permitted uses in that district. Thank you. Any other questions? Well, my only other question was thinking a little bit about people who grow grapes for wine and uh tell me a little bit about if you know
the history of how that went from just growing the grapes and making wine to having wineries. Yeah. So, um taking a grape which is an agricultural product and then processing that grape essentially converting it into another product um that is not defined as
manufacturing in our zoning ordinance. it's specifically allowed as a farm winery use. Um but it that comparison has been drawn um to the cannabis industry. Thank you. I think in our discussions
when we were talking about where manufacturing should happen, we talked about the waste. We talked about um if it's out in the rural, it doesn't have wastewater treatment. It doesn't have it does, you know, you can you burn the
waste. What what happens in rural versus what happens in within a business district, within a city are very different things. And we thought, well, we decided that it
needed to happen where it had more visibility and more uh control and and in most of our cases there's a police presence in every city. We're in rural that's just not going to happen. So
that's why I think we kind of understand steered towards that direction. So and it's still so many unknowns in this with no licenses even out there. So giving it a little bit of time to evolve and see how it works out would make some sense to me. And part of it was we'd have to
really we'd have to look at changing our ordinance plus changing our zoning ordinance. Okay. What's your wishes? Thank you. Well, I would move to follow staff's recommendation at the moment and
deny it as presented. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded that we deny the request to a change to the zoning ordinance around cannabis um manufacturing. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All the
same. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you for all your work on that and I this is not the end of questions around cannabis because they are going to continue and continue and continue. uh facilities m uh maintenance adult
detent. It's easy for me to say adult detention center safety enclosures. Tim, welcome. Good morning. I realized after I think uh the auditor said how many days he was married that I've been married longer.
So, um, so I'm here today to, um, request that the county board consider the approval of a contract with Klein Marty for, uh, the proposed design, construction, management, replacement of the existing detention center unit, uh,
railing systems. Um, the railings are being proposed for all of the mezzanine units. So, um, that'd be all of the six units that we have at the site. Um, and and Klein McCarthy would design, uh, and do the project management for all phases of
that project. Um, so background, we we did present, um, at the October 1st, 2024 committee of the whole meeting. Um and we uh addressed some safety concerns, but then Sheriff Kelly also um brought his um concerns to the board
about recent incidents and then some and risk due to the lack of those enclosures. We propose proposed some examples um of systems and then we also did some budget estimates based on um information we received from contractors
that do that type of work. um at that time or ultimately we approved $500,000 for the fund balance or from fund balance um from the general fund um for the project in 2025 or at least to begin that project. So the current recommendation would be from uh from
county staff would be to um uh contract with Klein McCarthy for the design um the bid documents and the construction management of the project. And again, they're they're proposing to oversee the entire project with this contract. Uh Klein McCarthy, they're the
subject matter. They've done multiple systems like this um and install these. So um those would comply with the DOC requirements. Um their proposed contract fee is $105,352 um with their con construction budget um
identified as 1.28 million. So, if if we proceed um upon board approval um and receipts of bids, we'd recommend starting that project in the fall of 2025 and then continuing through completion of the remaining units in
2026. So, 500,000 is now budgeted uh to begin the project in 2025. Um we're asking to move the the remaining funds into 2026, so it' be $1 million in 2026. um so that we could start and continue
and complete that project in 2026. Um I think and just I'll just add we have had meetings with Klein McCarthy um sheriff's office and we've done site surveys. So um this the proposed construction budget is based on those site surveys and and kind of the
information we've got in the past. So um so the action items just um looking for an approval on the agreement with Klein McCarthy. Uh that's 105 352 and then moving or including $1 million in
2026 capital plan if we if we approve the project and move forward would like to complete it in 2026. Questions? Go ahead. Will they be bidding that out or they have their own? Um we'll
still be it'll be um published and go out to bid. So the the construction estimates were just based on a integrity group, someone that works with client McCarthy surveying the site. I understand the importance and the
safety, but I'm really shocked by the cost of it. But well, my main issue, and I raised it with Tim, is I think this is a 2026 budget item. And so I think that we have a committee of the whole on a capital plan, I believe, on July 15th.
And to me, we'd have to consider this item against all the requests, and it may well rise to the top, but I I I don't see why we would do it out of the budget cycle since a million dollars is pretty big deal in uh the capital plan budget. So, I I think that we need to
consider it, but I think it needs to be part of the budget process and not part of a a separate board meeting where we don't know what all the requests are. So, that's my my opinion. there any part of this that's in the 26
capital plan already? Yes. So, uh, as a reminder, as Tim said, 500,000 was already budgeted for this project this year. Um, and really what this is this request is for is to move some of that money from 27 into 2026
because it'll be much more cost-effective to start this project one time, work it all the way through completion and finish it in one go rather than starting it, stopping it, starting it, stopping it, and then starting it and stopping it again over three separate years. So the ask is
really to to accelerate that budgetary item forward um to make this happen. Um, additionally, I'll just state yes, there's the committee of the whole on July 15th where we're going to go over all of the budget requests as of that time. Um, again, as a reminder,
preliminary budgets are aren't set until September. The final budget isn't set until December anyway. So, this request is not to give official final approval for the project. Um, the first action item on here really is to prove the
approve the contract so they can start the project so we can get it out to bid to find out what it's actually going to cost. And once we have those numbers, we can certainly fine-tune um that capital plan item a little bit better. So, we could approve the uh the uh agreement to
have them do a plan without approving the million dollars. or if if um someone was suggesting $500,000 we could move out of 2026 and into 2027, that would also seem like a reasonable uh thing for
us to know. Yeah, the next step here would be to approve this contract so we could get a better estimate of what the construction costs are going to be. Um, and then once we have those numbers, um, we will continue to work through the capital plan and see if there's items that we
can shift around, see if there's things that we can do more efficiently to make the budget process work for the county. Thank you. Question that I identified this the last time that we were going to get and I thought that's what this was was going to we went out for bids that we got this proposed construction now. But if I'm
maybe I'm just confused. They were saying we need to approve the contract so that they can go get a better construction. I don't know. I think the I think the contract is for the design and and um the construction management. So once if it were approved the
construction they would oversee the construction of the project, but we don't have a design right now to put out to bid. So we need to engineer. Um what's the 1.28 million? Pardon me. What's the 1.28 million? That's a that's the project budget, the construction
budget plus the 500,000 that's there already. That's the Yes. So I mean the the an estimate McCarthy is to design the system. In essence, that's an estimate aren't going to change much. Okay. So may maybe we might need the sheriff or chief deputy to identify
this, but so we got six units or inmates in all of those units. And can you update because we also had issues with this that we had uh sinks, showers, toilets that were leaking. So can you update our inmates in those units? Are
those units all fully functioning currently because we don't have leaking toilets? They are all fully they're fully functional right now. Okay. So, all of the the toilet items that were brought last year too about this issue are all resolved. No, they we we have
not updated anything. So, we are getting numbers on those updating those systems. So, as you as you know the systems are 25 years old. So, a lot of those things are obsolete. As of now, everything is functioning, but we're, you know, we're repairing as needed is what we're doing.
Okay. So, just so the board's aware, we're estimating spending 1.7 million to for structure in these six units that have outdated toilets that don't leak and may not be functional to house inmates in the future. Fair assessment. Yeah. So, that information be brought to
the board as we get it for sure to update the units. Okay. So updated safety, outdated toilets that don't work with presumed updated fixtures to make them fully functioning. So could be 1.7 million for safety plus an
additional we shouldn't guess, but hundreds millions of dollars to update everything else. So just so the board's aware where we're at. I agree. And you know, this is again once we know the design, put it out to bid, then we will get real numbers. Right now we don't. I mean, it's an estimated construction
estimate. So, it could it be less? Sure. Could it be more? Absolutely. But that's why we have that estimate of 1.2 is it's a fair assessment based on this contractor. So, we should be able to use that as a fair number to make a decision
as a board of how much money we're going to spend. So, go ahead. Are all the wings in the jail currently being used? There's one open unit and I'm sure I'm not sure if you want to comment but there's one open unit. We
are rotating between the two um probably every six months I think as well. Six months. So there's one open and one closed. Uh yeah, one would be empty um as we rotate back and forth um which gives us an opportunity to get through
those those units. And then do the enclosures include both both sides though? So we'd be putting up enclosures on a side that's empty. Is that what you're saying?
It will be empty on occasion. Yes. Right now we're rotating. Those are the two large units. So F and and E unit those are the two largest units. Right. But if they go back and forth, one's always empty, right? Correct. Okay. So, what we're able to do with with the open
unit, we haven't had an empty unit for 25 years. So, we're going to be able to pull I'll just I'll just reference the female unit been occupied 24/7 for 25 years. we're going to be able to pull them into E or F, the
bigger units, and then refurbish to mechanical or whatever we have to do in that unit to get it back up to standards that we we need and then we can just keep rotating. That's the benefit of having an open unit right now. Um,
well, I guess my biggest issue is putting a lot of money into an empty unit, even though I do understand being able to flip-flop between two. Makes sense. But we're still putting a lot of money into an empty
unit, right? Correct. Okay. Thank you. The board's wishes. Well, I guess what I would make a motion to go ahead and uh get the um study done, but to not uh set aside a million
dollars until we have the committee of the whole and know more about what all the requests are. So, I would move to approve uh the first action item, but um delay um I guess uh table the second action item.
The only comment I'll make is if we're going to go out for bids, if we we go through this process, we get the costs and we go out for bids and we're going to tell the contractor you're going to bid, but we don't know whether you're going to do one, right, or
three or all of them. And we don't know if it's going to be a piece in 25, a piece in 26, and a piece in 27. If I'm a contractor, I would run from that right away because you don't know what you're bidding on
and just just getting your equipment and everything there to do the job and then have to stop, take it all away, come back, I you are going to get a terrible price no matter how you slice it. So, I think between now and when this comes
back and we're we think about going out for a bid, we better be able to make some decisions about whether we want to do the whole project or not or we can scale it back and only do a little bit because there there's nobody that will
want to bid on a project where they don't know what that looks like, whether they're going to get one year, whether they're going to do three, or whether they're going to do two. I think the first part was just the design. Is that correct? Right. And and the second part would be having somebody bid. And I'm okay with not doing the design. I was
just trying to move some part of it forward, but I'm I'm not okay with uh committing to the million two without knowing what all the requests are going to be for the capital plan. Go ahead, chair. Two things. One, there is not a second on the motion, so there shouldn't
be discussion. Mhm. And then secondly, um a table motion is supposed to be date specific and I don't think we really know a date specific right now. So it might be easier if you just don't take action on the second item if that's what the board's wishes are.
I'm okay with that. I will give you a second on this, Brad. So the motion is just to do the first part, correct? And we have a second. Any further discussion? I have discussion. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead, Jason. Well, I'm still baffled if if we're going to approve and maybe I'm misinterpreting what you're
approving. We is the architect. We already we already have it in there. They're going to bid, but if we don't know that we're going to approve the money, I don't it doesn't make any sense to pay this architect to go out to design and bid us to get bids when they don't know what what they're going to bid on other than the three things, but they don't know if they're going to do
it one year, two year, three years, just like Brad said. So, why I don't understand why do it at all? And they have a proposed budget of 1.2 that they've already looked at this. it. I don't do anything. I So, you would just wait. You bet. The whole thing. Well, I think I kind of identified
before that we have multiple other issues in the jail. Uh would make sense in the long term. I I was big on long-term planning. Would not that make sense to figure out what we're going to have to spend because again, these are not required to be in the jail. So, you
could be looking at another million and a half dollars or whatever to refurbish the entire thing. So you're I I don't know what it would be, but let's I think we should have a overall better view of what the future is at the jail. So this $100,000 initially doesn't make any
sense. So So I think if if I'm understanding you correctly, you'd like to if we did any kind of bid, bid all of it out and to decide kind of in what order or if we're going to do things. But without have a plan without a design plan, how do you even send a bid out? I
mean, this is a ballpark estimate. They've done it before. They have an idea of what they're going to come up with, but I suppose they want something official and engineered and and can we use that some of that 500,000 that we budgeted? Why do we have to bring in another 105,000 if we do the design?
Can't we use that 500 on that? I I believe that was the intent to use that out of that 500,000. Yes, that that money was budgeted specific to this project. So, the 105,000 would be paid out of that 500. And Tim, would it make sense to do what
Jason is suggesting? Not just bid what the safety rails would cost, but but include bidding what it would cost to fix the jail up to be actually where we might want it to be. It it certainly it certainly could go that route. Um, I
think the board direction when we last year when we had met was to pursue this and get some some information and estimates together and this would just be that next step on the safety rails because it was moved um as a priority in the in the budget. And I believe that's
the priority of the sheriff's department to focus on the safety rails and not on the toilets and light fixtures first. Is that correct or okay? Okay. We have a motion, a second to contract with Klein McCarthy Architects
for 105352. All those in favor say I. I. Oppos? No. Motion carries. Thank you. Uh, do we need to touch on any of these in for your information?
Go ahead. I guess I just want to comment on emergency management and that I personally have heard many wonderful things about how um the emergency management has been functioning
and I just want to thank Earl and everybody else on his team and involved in that for doing an incredibly good job. Great. Anything else under that? new old business. I just want to touch a little
bit on um some old business. Talking with my townships, there's still some concern for cleaning up their ditches. Um one of the suggestions brought up and I did talk with Jess, I don't know how much in detail, but when the county has garbage in their ditches, they've got to
bring it back down here to Redwing. Is it possible to incorporate a small route or a contact with the townships to uh just pick theirs up at the same time that they've collected? Um Jess said that would be additional cost. That's something we would have to, you know,
take a look at and coordinate a route. You know, they just call the maintenance man or person for each township and say, "Yep, we're heading in this week or we're planning on going next week. What do you have?" And if they could coordinate that and how do we pay for that we'd have to deal with too.
Yeah. The the challenge is is the source separation. So, if we're going to pick up adopt a highway garbage, um, which we occasionally get requests to do, um, we would contact the supervisor at at, uh,
each individual township and find out if they needed something picked up and then bring it back to Redwing uh, and dispose of it. But trying to keep everything separated would be the challenging portion of that. and then billing back to the
townships for that service. Just to let everybody know, it's still out there. There's still some frustrations on our townships part. So whether we, you know, I I wonder if there's a way to find out what townships are doing in other areas of the state
and how counties are working with them. And then I, you know, there's townships that are right next to Redwing that are already hauling that in. So, you know, does it just because you're 28 miles away from Redwing, do they get extra consideration versus the close ones or
we do it for everybody or how, you know, there's some definitely some logistics in in doing all that or we just say we're sorry and uh you have to handle your own. So, maybe we need to have the solid race
committee get together and discuss it. have a committee and that would fall under see if we can in Yep. couple months figure out how to we can schedule a meeting. Yeah. Have that as as a discussion. We can do an update on
Waningo demo landfill and other things. Okay. Sounds good. Anything else under new or old business? Committee reports. Well, go ahead. Well, I'm just going to pass these out. Three Rivers does an annual report of what they've done for each county they're involved with and
it's being discussed uh tomorrow. Um so I just had some printed up and so you guys can see it and then if there's any left I'll give one to HHS too. [Applause] All right. Thank you. Yep. I have one
quick one. Go ahead. Okay. Um I'm on a state task force for incarcerated women and girls. Um and there um West Central is the juvenile facility in Minnesota.
They are starting a new program for the girls community living uh independent programming and skills. It's for adjudicated juvenile girls who are getting out of the juvenile system but have no parents or parental authorities.
So it's called the clips program. Um and I know that our uh court services director Randon Skunhav is very excited about it and thinks the program is excellent. So that's what's coming. All
right. Thank you. Anything else? The only thing I'll comment on, Scott and I went back up to the Capitol last Thursday and met with some of our uh representatives um and handed out some material that I
think you all saw about what what the shifts mean to us. Um, the letter to the editor that Linda worked on really hard and passed it through Scott and I that we passed at the last meeting um, did make it into several papers. I think it made all of them. I I don't get Red
Wings. It was in all of them that I've looked at so far. Um, I like the best tagline I saw was the one that was in Lake Lake City, uh, graphic where they said, "Goody county officials urge lawmakers to avoid burdening local governments."
And I thought that was a great tagline because I thought I thought the letter was really well written. Um, wasn't really blaming anybody, but was saying you can't keep passing this stuff down to us. And I think that tagline really hit the hit the mark that they put on
that. Anything else? If not, claims move approval, pay the bills. Second move and second we pay the bills. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All
those in favor say I. I. Oppos the same. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. Been moved and second. We adjourn. All those in favor say I. We don't pay the money if the county doesn't. All those in favor say I. I. All is the same. Motion carries. We are
adjourned. Part: 2
[Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter]
[Music] Let's get started here with uh committee the whole from our extension office. We have Ally here and Amanda here and Tammy McCulla, the regional directors here. We
got we got a full load. So, let's let's go forward. And hilariously, we did not actually plan to match, but um we did actually take a photo in our office because this is ridiculous. Well, thank you for having us. Um as
commissioner indicated, I'm Ally Kleener. I'm one of our extension educators here in the Goody County office. And I'm Amanda Gart, the other extension educator for 4. and we're here to just give our annual um impact report. We did uh do a version
of this presentation for our county extension committee last fall um and we're invited to bring it forward to the committee the whole as well. So the youth the 4 youth development program focuses on three goals. First, we aim to create a
positive uh a passion for learning in our youth and encourage them to explore their interest. Second, we empower them to lead as intervenators. Innovators innovators words I guess are going to be hard for me today, so I apologize now. Innovators and change
agents in their communities. And finally, we engage our adult volunteers in creating high quality learning environment that support our youth. So, um, Goodyu County is the third largest local 4 program in the state of
Minnesota. Um, with the, uh, youth that we are currently reaching, we are reaching just over 11% of the total eligible population in Goodw County. Um, so youth ages 5 to um, 19. Um and uh that's really a a great benchmark for um
the the the depth and breadth of our program. Um and also indicating how there's always room for growth as well. These were our enrollment numbers. Um uh our 2023 2024 programming year, we
reached 971 youth in Good Hugh County. Um, and we break out our enrollments a little bit um, in our partnership work, which is largely done through school districts and local library programs. Um, but then also our uh, community club enrollments as well, which is um, the
youth that are, I would say, enrolled in what you would consider the more traditional program. Um, and we always like to point out that we are um, our our first year or new enrollments each year. It's pretty steady. Um, our year-to- date numbers were pulled as of when we um submitted this presentation
last week. So, are slightly outdated at this point with our enrollment period having ended um on the 15th. Um, so it's more than that now. Um, as we look um an interesting data point that we uh really take, uh, emphasis on here
in Good Hugh County is our retention of the youth participants in our program. Um, and when we look at our retention rates, um, it's a little hard to see, but we compared our retention rates both statewide, including our numbers with, um, that are not involved in the school
district programs, and then the the county total. Um, and we're very proud that we do have a retention rate year-over-year of, um, significantly higher than statewide retention rates in 4 programs. um indicating a program quality here in
good hugh county. So youth learn um by doing and you can see in some of these pictures some of the different activities. So there's uh horse clinics uh day camps uh shooting sports like archery and food
review. We also have a significant emphasis on livestock education here in goodw county. Um our committees uh volunteer led and youthled committees put together educational opportunities throughout the year um as well as throughout the summer. Um we have
several youth um uh judging teams and knowledge bowl competitions um really furthering their education. Uh for example uh the photo in the upper left is uh from a tour that was done this spring. our beef project went to
Blondie's butcher shop and received a full walkthrough of um a carcass breakdown so that they could learn not only where um their livestock go for slaughter but also what that process looks like to take it from slaughter to their um to their to their dining room
tables and the meat market. Um and so think items like that are what we really emphasize when we're talking about our livestock program. of course every everyone um it's it's the most public facing is of course our county fair and our county fair um livestock programs.
Uh last year we did have um 530 total exhibitors at our fair um and those were youth exhibitors um and our uh there's a brief overview of our livestock numbers and exhibit numbers as well from last summer. Um and as we move into the
summer uh programming cycle, we're looking forward to having similar uh engagement that was um our our county fair particip participation rate is 77% of our uh youth enrollment. So um threequarters of the youth that we serve throughout the year choose to
participate in our county fair exhibition. Um we also advance youth to state fair every year. Um and we had um over a hundred livestock participants last year and about 65 that went participated in other ways. Um and that
is the largest delegation statewide um for county for programs going to the state fair. In fact, our livestock encampment has nearly 25 more youth that attend than the next largest county. Um and so our youth are well represented at that state level. Additionally, um our
membership is bringing back um year-over-year nearly $75,000 in educational grants and scholarships um between their participation at State Fair and scholarships awarded through the state fair program. Um so that's really impressive. Um our youth both
show their livestock at state fair but also participate in um consumer education opportunities. Um we had several youth participate in TV interviews um last summer which was really fun to see. So, we try our best to grow lots of
leaders. Um, and these are just a couple examples. So, Lily, who is in the green blazer, is one of our state ambassadors and a local good Hugh County 4er. Um, we also, our local ambassadors do tons of great work. Um, just last night they
were leading a clover bug connection, which is a program for our youngest kids in grades kindergarten through 2 grade. Um there also uh day camp uh counselors and regional camp which our picture disappeared on here. Yeah, we did have a
regional camp picture of a regional camp. I don't know what happened. Um but so we had eight uh counselors last summer for that and we'll have eight again this summer. So we also infor encourage lots of community service. Um all of our
clubs in Kaju County offer uh community service and 83% of our members participate in that. So we're pretty proud of that number. We also have a significantly dedicated pool of volunteers that help us do all this programming. Um and we do
utilize over 175 formally screened volunteers. That means an orientation and background check process for each of those as well as I would I would estimate close to 100 if not more um unscreened more informal volunteers that may help out on an as needed basis. Um
and those volunteers are really the only reason that we can have a program of the breadth that we do. Um I put up the um our organizational chart. um it's impossible to read and I understand that but but it really shows what our office
and what our volunteers are helping to provide to youth across the county. Um so the you know you see our names at the very very top but every other program underneath that has volunteer support to help us make this happen because it's impossible for two people to make that
many programs run for our youth and keep them engaged. Um so we're really thankful and proud of our volunteers. um and very committed to making sure that the volunteer experience and the experience for our youth is a safe and um and and uh a safe and uh educational
experience for everybody. So we also do a lot of partnership work. Um, so some of the current partners that we've have are uh Panther Pals, which is the afterchool program for Pine Island Elementary School, the Canon Falls Library,
Hispanic Outreach, and uh, Canon Kids, which is the Canon Falls school after school program. Um, and I've been working with these programs since I started in September. So, we just kind of continue to grow them and work together. Um, Canon Kids is a program we
work with primarily just during the summer, but the hope is this next school year we'll also get in there and program. And then some new program partners that we've started with, um, Kenyan Library, Zimroa Library, and the Redwing YMCA are, um, we did kind of
one-off programs this year with them. Um, some of these, especially the libraries, they have so many programs. So, I just kind of squeezed in a couple times and hope to get more consistent on their calendars for this next school year. Um, Lake City, just last month,
like two and a half weeks ago, I went and got to work with the kindergarteners there and teach an activity. So, I hope to grow that relationship along with our educator um in Wabashaw County since we split that. Um, and then Prairie Island and Rise Up are kind of we're in some
conversations of how we can work together and do things. um Prairie Island. I brought some of the members uh to one of our club visits to see what that's like. They had shown some interest in potentially starting a 4 club. We're gonna kind of just see how that goes. But it's exciting potential
partnership there. Um and Rise Up, I'm hoping this summer to work with those youth. Um they're going to teach a robotics lesson for Hispanic outreach kids. So, it's really a great all-around partnership there. And then I just have some pictures which I'm sorry they're
not the easiest to see but from programs. So the library they did circuit cars. Um did things with penguins, pumpkins this year. Uh Hispanic outreach. I was with their middle and elementary school during the
year. And this summer I'll be with elementary this summer, high school and middle school during the school year. So we did a lot of things with Legos. And last summer, the elementary school kids got to learn about pollinators from one of our regional educators. So, lots of
great work there. And panther pals. Um, they had fun learning about bats and, uh, building water towers was a very popular one this year. So, and I will just kind of note the Lake City um, you
know, is kind of from an extension coverage standpoint a little bit of a no man's land. Um there really hasn't been an emphasis to providing programming in Lake City specifically by either program Wabasha or Goodwill County for a little bit. Um and it's nice to have a
relationship with the educator in Wabasha County to try and fill that void. Um because we do have youth that are part of the Lake City School District that attend clubs elsewhere in Good Hugh County. Um but there is no formal um club opportunity or educ or or for opportunity actually within the city
limits of Lake City from either program. Um so working together with our with our partners in Wabashaw County has been um I think a a really nice way to move forward to provide those services to the youth in Lake City. Um so thank you for helping support and our our youth our
programs. Um and we welcome questions at any time. I know we're running short on time, so come visit us and we'll we'll we can talk more if you've got questions or ideas for our program and which youth you'd like us to see. Excellent. Uh Tammy, did you have
anything you'd like to share? Um maybe a little bit about the master gardener. I I think that's probably a one that we don't talk about too much, but we talk about it at the extension all the time. That microphone has to get turned on on the back side.
commissioners Tammy McCulla. I'm an extension regional director and have the privilege of working with these two fine educators and Danny Rice who is our administrative support in the extension office. And yes, in addition to the 4 youth development program, which is like
they mentioned a vibrant and robust group, uh we also have a very active extension master gardener volunteer program and that is volunteer-led with support from the statewide program at the arboritum. So the U of M extension
master gardener program is um housed out of the University of Minnesota landscape arburetum and every year a cohort class is offered for interested individuals who want to go through the core course and then while they're going through the
core course they have an obligation to do some community outreach and education. And so currently I believe we have six interns who are going through the core course and then committing back volunteer hours to the community and then in turn will become active
volunteers and will be contributing on a yearly basis uh to the program and you can see their work around the community. Uh in particular, they may be at farmers markets providing answers to community questions, yard and garden questions,
which um is really an asset to have them there. But they also do a lot of enrichment activities with community garden sites and uh educational events in partnership with the library. But yes, it's a very valuable program and the extension committee and the county
extension budget uh provides a little bit of inkind support to those volunteers if they complete the core course and then also just administrative support from the office which is excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? We appreciate this
partnership. Questions? one of my highlights to be at the extension committee because there's so many positive things happening with youth and you hear about them and I mean I did not know that we have the largest livestock encampment at the
state fair by that much. I I know we do well but I did not know it was by that much. So excellent work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. [Music]