Rolling. >> All right, the time is 6:30. With us this evening is Kim Van Beck, Mike Roth, Patrick Knight, Michael Gary, myself, Bill Loves, Ben Peters, and Craig Schulty.
Uh, with that, we have time for open forum. Is anyone here for open forum? Anyone sitting in the back of the room here for open forum? This isn't church, but everyone sat in the back of the room
anyways. >> Open forum. >> Put the comfy chairs in the front row >> is complete. Oops. Um, >> consent agenda. And you had one addition to that. >> Oh, yeah.
>> A library hire agenda and an additional bill to get paid. >> Oh, okay. And a bill to get paid. Would anyone like Now, is that bill in here? Do we have to add it? >> It's not on the list in the packet, but since you got it for that,
>> let's just include it. We'll pay it. >> And the library that is the same librarian hire. It's not like we have two, >> right? >> This just one >> just the one. All right. Would anyone like to amend the consent agenda for this one additional
>> bill? I would make that amendment. >> Oh, I know which one this one is. Okay. Yes. >> Thank you. Second. >> Second that. >> All right. Any further questions or comments on the consent agenda?
>> All right. All in favor for the consent agenda? >> I >> I >> I. >> All right. That's unanimous. Next up, planning commission resolution 202513-13 [Music]
variance. Um, Michael. >> Yeah. Um, well, this one was pretty straightforward to the commissioners. Um, so wanting to have a storage container right there seemed to
make sense to all the commissioners and it I don't know, my mind it was a little bit like do we need to do this? But um, but we did. Um, and it's I don't know. To me, it just seemed pretty straightforward. There was no complaints
from North House, of course, and nothing from Angry Trout, so seemed fair enough. You need a storage space for your stuff rather than having it sit outside. That doesn't seem like a bad idea.
>> Um, and North Yeah, North Superior Fishery, they currently rent, right? >> Do we know how long they will be renting? Was that any of the information they provided? >> No, that was not provided. Um I in my
mind I just feel like well it's North Houses's deal. I mean they're renting to them so they're still the responsible party in this case. So if we were to say like we want you to remove it or whatever, it's really on them to to do that. >> Well, we can't say we want you to remove
it. >> Not if we gave him the I know. But I know just saying like who is the responsible party in this case. >> Yes, they may very well remove it if if that relationship doesn't continue. But I want to go back to what comment you
made. You you asked yourself, do we even need to do this? I just want to clarify. You mean do we even need to ask for a permit to place a storage container on the ground? Is that the question you're asking? Do we need to do this? Yeah, because it was the same question I had before because I because my thinking and
I know what your response was to this group, >> you know, it doesn't it's not actually attached to the ground. It's just a container. And so to mine, but it was kind of like, all right, >> but as you said, sometimes temporary things become permanent.
>> Often times temporary things last a long time. I mean, nothing's permanent, right? But so we call these permanent structures, but what we mean is they're going to be there long enough that we hope they follow the rules, >> which in my mind is even, you know, a few months, but this is probably going to be there for years and years. And
we've got examples of shipping container buildings where are they attached to the ground? I mean, I suppose not. It wouldn't be that hard to show up with a trailer and a truck and take the shipping container away. But as long as
it's being used as a structure, I mean, it's in place of a structure, I think it makes more sense for us to ask those to follow the structure rules, it's there's some gray area here. And so, it's more of a policy position than a really obvious clear conclusion of what our
ordinance says, but I think it's better to do to just treat them as structures. And okay, so this came in more because of a discussion about structure, but the reason they're asking for this is because they're too close to the shore
line and we would allow other structures. >> Yes, >> we have previously told North House they may not cross that line for structures. And that's really my more issue about this and why I'm asking
is this temporary and what's the expected time for this cuz I don't want a structure sitting there indefinitely and I don't want to say something contrary to what we've already told North House in the past especially if somehow this would who's who's asking
for this Northshore Fishery or North House? I mean, I get it that they're the property owners, but you know, so Northshore Fishery goes away and that just sits there. >> I mean, I guess the
Yeah, I mean, the renter did make the ask. Um, I know that I think Patrick reached out to North House and they were like, "Yeah, that's fine. That's as far as we got." >> Yeah. I mean that it's clearly not North
House that's carrying the water on this ask. >> It's their property though, so it is their officially their ask because it has to be. >> Uh but this isn't their issue. They're trying to give room to their tenant to take care of some needs.
>> Um I mean I think they they'd be fine with the idea of if that tenants's not there anymore that the shipping container has to go. So yeah, that seems like a fair requirement. >> Is that something you can add to this
variance? >> I mean, I know we've said it for other things, we can we do that for >> Well, I mean, I'm sure there's a way for us to do it. I'm not sure we want a free wheel tonight to do it, and I think rather if that was something that you were interested in, let us come back to the next meeting with an idea of how
best to do it. >> Yeah, I don't want to see this sitting there permanently. And it doesn't seem like we're using consistent logic. We've already told them no. And then this is this kind of gets into your part about being a structure well whether however it's attached or mobile or whatever and
then it sits there like no I mean the whole so >> yeah. >> Yeah. >> So they wanted to deal with that conflict the I think there are ways to write the findings that clearly differentiate this project from the one that was denied. But if that if you
don't want to differentiate if you think no the the shoreline setback is the shoreline setback then then there it is. >> Yeah. I mean and that guess >> I think we can delineate you know how this is different from from that and I
think also making the requirement to have it you know go with the user I guess or renter makes sense >> and that's why I started the whole thing asking like how much longer do they anticipate being here it's a lease it's
my understanding it's >> with their long-term goals this is not a long-term viable situation for the fisherman. So >> yeah, >> um that's really why I asked that first. >> Yeah. >> To to know.
>> So those are my thoughts. Anybody else? >> Do you want to have a different conversation later on defining that? I mean you want to have a different something different written in
the variance that defines what you're talking about. >> Okay. >> I would like to do >> the the temporary nature of the permission. That's what you want to define. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> The limitations of it.
>> Yeah. Yeah. And you know this is our own problem ordinance-wise. We don't have an interim use permit which might be a more appropriate way to deal with a situation like this where we can say you have permission as long as these things
are true and once they're not you don't uh for this use and but we don't have that mechanism in our ordinance. So we'll have to figure out a different way to do it. >> Well, there's another there's another thought about ordinance interim. Write that down.
>> Yeah, interim use. Yeah, >> we can put a pause on this and work on that. >> All right. Do we need to to make some declarative on that? >> I mean, I think it might be useful for
you all to indicate that we're moving towards approval. And even if you're not voting on it tonight, if we can figure that out, that's what we're trying to do. that maybe would be helpful to the applicants to just know that. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I think that is the idea is to
make sure that it's that it is a temporary structure here. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> All right. >> Well, for those of you that were at the planning commission meeting last week, you might notice a
missing item on the agenda. >> Yeah. Mhm. Any comment about that? >> Yeah, I did I Yeah, it's too bad. I did reach out to them just to see what they had to say and there was no response. At
least not to me. So, we received a an email from the applicants asking for their item to be withdrawn. >> Oh, okay. I was wondering why. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And I they're not they're not moving
forward with the purchase. That's all they told us. >> Oh, all right. They didn't I thought it was already purchased. Okay. >> I don't I don't have any more details than that. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um so with that, we're on to
our H report. Is this right? That's it. Okay. So joining us is HR Director Jeff Brand. Um, he and Mike have meetings, but I had a meeting with him, I don't know, two weeks ago at least, just phone catch up,
ask him what he knew about some of our projects. And I know I mentioned to him that I know he's been busy going around communicating in lots of really good ways about all the work the H has been doing for planning for their future. and I asked if he would come here and um
give us an update as well about the H and some of the projects currently in front of the council that he's working with so we could be up to speed and ask questions and learn from him as well. Thank you >> for coming this evening and in person.
>> That's right. And then I emailed the slide deck. Is that middle? Perfect. Right there. >> I'll just tell you next slide then when we want to switch. Okay. Sounds good. >> All right. [Music]
>> Yep. Give you my business cards in case you want to reach out to me afterwards by phone, text, email. It all works. But yeah, I just want to talk a little bit about the Cook County HR, the Housing and Redevelopment Authority.
Next slide. Oh, perfect. It's live, too. So, the Housing and Redevelopment Authority. Yeah, we can hit the next one. Um, is comprised of a board of directors. You know, I've got my president, Bill Gates, my vice president, Chris O'Brien, Richard Olsen,
Nick Leam Moore, he's a newer member, and then also Bill Hansen, plus two county commissioners who are also participating in a non- voting um level, Commissioners Gamble and Commissioner Sullivan. Who is the HR? Well, that's me. It's one man show. Uh they tell me
what to do all the time and I do it and I go out and we work together on some different uh projects. Well, really the real question is, hit the next slide. What does the HR do? Uh, next slide after that. I like that kid. He looks really confused.
I appreciate that sometimes. Um, oh, back one. Oh, there we go. So, we uh support housing needs in Cook County. So, we're not just focused on Grammaray or, you know, one aspect of the West End or the East End or anything like that. We're looking at all the different um
areas of Cook County. We um primarily seek out and also vet uh developers for new local projects. Um you might have heard in in recent uh news that we um kind of took a different tack when it comes to vetting local projects going forward. We want to make sure that we
gather good diligence and good information about the people that we want to work with on projects. And so we have created some new forms uh in order for them to sign. And then we've got some um um investigations that we do for criminal background background checks
and that sort of thing. Um and u it's it's very similar to what other communities and other counties are doing across Minnesota. And so we're we're getting into that um that situation just because we have to u we want to know what's going on. And unfortunately and
in the past we didn't have all the answers about uh about a particular situation that we really could have known more about. So, and there was some time to a transition between my predecessors and myself too. Um, we apply for public funding as needed to
focus on things like rehabilitation, um, new development and then the big one is redevelopment. Um, and so there'll be conversations and there'll be money and there'll be opportunities to work together on these different aspects uh, of of creating more housing in Cook
County. And um you know I think that's really unique is that Cook County is in an opportunity zone at the federal level. They've kind of readted u um opportunity zones and are leaving up to the governor to decide where these opportunity zones need to be in the
future. Um when you look at opportunity zones 1.0 0 gram isn't actually included, but when you look at uh access to utilities, well, Grammar is the only place in the county where there's utilities. And so that seems a little illogical to me. And so in iteration
2.0, I plan to make the argument that Grammar should be included in those opportunity zones discussions. And that has um implications for both economic development, but also for housing as well. Uh next year or this year, uh we're finalizing the establishment of a
local housing trust fund. It's something we really didn't do in the past because we really didn't have to. The money was flowing through ARPA dollars, the American Rescue Plan Act dollars at the federal level to the county for things like uh Gunflint View or the Heights or
Norris Scogan. And so we we had access to funding and we were able to do the easy lowhanging pieces of fruit so to speak in funding these opportunities. But as things tighten up a lot at the federal level and at the state levels respectively, it becomes more of a an
opportunity for us to look locally and to work with some uh potential unlock uh some opportunity to work with uh phil philanthropic organizations that are looking at things like housing, workforce housing. Um we definitely have some challenges in Cook County for
housing and um we think that would uh reflect favorably for some of those other organizations to participate and help us to build the housing in the future. We also do some legislative advocacy. Um um uh I serve with both members that we have now at the
legislature, both Roger Scraba and uh Grant Hostchild, and I've got good relationships with them. um we want to work towards a a place where we can build um more housing in the community that's of course affordable, that's easy to access and that sort of thing. And
that's going to take some help from the legislature too, no doubt. And also things like um the capital investment request that you guys have for the city of Grammar as well. That's really important. You can't build more housing if you don't have that infrastructure. And so we want to support that. At the county level, we want to continue to
support local roads because of course we need roads, too. That's really important. And, you know, unique to us, I I think we have a wealth of opportunities and growing and developing partnerships, but there's just a lot of people around here that are in the know that have their
particular um issue or category that they really work hard on and they're willing to partner in a lot of different ways. And one of those cross avenues is housing. One of those intersections is housing when it comes to um veteran homelessness, which we're starting to
hear a little bit of in Cook County for the first time. Uh and so working with Karen Christensen to figure out how do we solve that problem that we didn't have a few years ago even. Um and then also things like um you know assisted living or some opportunity for some
elder housing and that sort of thing in a community in our county and working with partners that are kind of have looked at that or have figured it out or have constituencies that they can ask information about what their needs are now and in the future. So it's really a
wonderful opportunity for us to work with folks in our in our county. Next slide. So, our mission is pretty simple at the array. Um, you know, we want to catalyze and advocate for the creation of safe, stable, and attainable housing
opportunities for current and future residents. And so, we want to make sure that um th those folks have access to it. You know, I I mentioned this at the groundbreaking ceremony at the Heights back in in June, but that the safe and attainable um is really important
because um it's really vital for the the wealth, but also the health of our community. And safe and stable means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and so does attainable. Attainable could be depending on what your wealth um and income is. Um
attainable could mean a lot of different price ranges for that matter. Next slide is our vision for Cook County. Our vision is to uh to create an inclusive community with attainable housing where residents and families can grow
and flourish for generations to come. Um recently we had an opportunity at some strategic planning in the fall, actually in this room no less, um to kind of re-evaluate our mission and vision and our values which is coming up in the next slide. and um they still hold true
for what our our goals are and what our mission is for the HR. So we have made no significant changes since we started in 2022. Uh next slide is our values. Uh there are three big ones, action, integrity,
and inclusion. We want to make sure that we're making datadriven decisions that are evidence-based because those will provide the longest term results um for the benefit of the community. Integrity is really important. We want to make sure that we have public trust that we are reaching out to the public to
understand what their needs are but also be transparent all throughout the process so people can understand where we got from here to there. Uh and remember my math teacher saying show your work, show your work. Well, this is a way for us to show our work and inclusion. It's really important that we
are providing opportunity for everyone uh to have access again to that safe and uh stable uh attainable housing. So the next slide here will show our updated strategic plan. Um before 2025 the top
three were the three we really focused on. So it was about building new. It was about rehabbing existing and looking at opportunities to expand and redevelop um across the county. Those are still the three primary focuses.
But in in July, we also created five new strategic planning uh points with key performance indicators that will help us p pinpoint when we actually hit the target. And so I didn't include those today, but one of them is creating that local housing trust fund so that we have
money for things like rent stabilization, which is really important, or to help with pre-development costs, so we can help folks look at uh maybe creating an ADU on on their property, or this um the next slide is the residential open space
overlay district to help them figure out they've got 40 acres out in the country and maybe they want to create new opportunities for some new neighbors. or some income by renting. And so by creating some of these shared spaces with higher density opportunities, the
you know the the Roso, we call it the residential open space overlay district is an overlay on top of existing uh zoning. And without getting too into the weeds on that, would allow for things like greater density, two times the
density, um for opportunities to share wells, to share septics, to lower the costs of production of housing, but also to cut into a little bit of that red tape in the preliminary platting and things of that nature for development.
And the last two are really important as we start looking at the future of housing. Um, number one is to increase the efficiency and lower the operational costs on the back end of the housing that we build. And the the last one is really important to us. It's developing
a comprehensive housing plan for all of Cook County. Um, I'll get to that in a minute. So, in the next slide, oh, back a slide. You might This is on the on the website you guys have on the city's website. So in 2019, there was a draft of the
Grammar housing plan and it kind of pinpointed a little bit of different shades of color where the multifamily is and where the single residential housing is and that sort of thing. And I encourage you to continue to look at housing plans and we want to be a
member of that discussion um at the HR as well. Um, you know, I think it's really important for us to look at the housing so that way when a developer comes to us and says, "I want to build 12 units in Grand Marray. where can I get access to sewer and water and
electric that we can actually pull up a map and we can have that look and we can point pinpoint those different opportunities or if they're looking at uh for instance um in toy or Luden or um you know some of these other locations where there's
some semblance of shared septic and and sewer we can start pinpointing where those locations are. We do own some property across the entire county. Uh we have about a 30 acre parcel just right behind the Birch Grove uh school that's
um targeting some more housing in that area. Uh previously it was known as Temperance Trails um uh housing plan. We're going to go back to the drawing board on that. We're going to have a request for proposals perhaps. We're going to look at some different
opportunities and really take our time, be deliberative about that. look at that as a phase one because there's another 80 acres that are right next to it. They're tax forfeit that we'd really love to see get back in the tax roles uh to provide more opportunities for people as well for housing. And so a phase one
and perhaps a phase two for that location. But in that uh vein of thinking too, it's just an opportunity for us to take a look at across the entire spectrum of our area. Where could we put senior housing someday? Or where
could we put different types of housing in the community? Uh, next slide. This is information I collected from u Mike back in June, July, somewhere in there in in um was one of the information points that the
commissioners wanted to know going into strategic planning. What do the housing permits look like in both Grammar and across the entire county? And so this is a seven-year uh look of new homes, multiomes. There was one relocate. You might remember the the building that was
next door northhouse folk school that was moved up the hill. >> And then um solar applications are going up. That's a good thing. We want to support that as well um at the as as a means of lowering that cost of of housing. Um, as you look at Cook County
for about the same period of time, homes uh and separated are homes with decks. Perhaps there's an extra permit involved. That's why that's separated out. We don't know specifically just by looking at these permits if these were completed or if they were just pulled
but never completed. But we know what types of homes they were looking for. They were looking for single family. They were looking for um vacation rentals. They were looking for second homes. Um, in that mix, 14 yurt permits were also uh uh created. That's a unique
data set for our county. There aren't a lot of counties that will say that there's double-digit amount of yurts located within the county's uh boundaries. And then also guest cabins. To me, that uh doesn't say that they're permanent housing structures, but more
comeand go guest cabin type housing. The the next slide here shows a little bit more about the county overall. There's about uh 14,800 parcels in the county. The number of
seasonal recreational homes, 2561. There are four duplexes and triplexes um and a total of 2636 units roughly of single family housing. If you look at the the short-term housing in the
county, there's 668 if you include the resort community. If you don't, it's 350 licensed single family homes that are short-term dwellings, uh, parcels with four units or more. So, we're talking about apartment complexes
and that sort of thing. There's 19 across the entire county. And the number that I think is really interesting to me is the rental versus owner occupied. Of course, they're all owned by someone, but somebody will rent 46% of the uh of
the spaces in Cook County versus owner occupied represents 54. And if you look at over the the single uh family permits issued in 2018, this is county and city all together because your system collects different
information than the county does. I added everything together. It's about 51 permits pulled per year. Um, if if you uh may have heard something about a housing needs analysis that was done at the in Cook County over the years in 2022, we did that at the
HRA and we looked at data points now, but also into the future to to the year 2027. We talked to business owners, we talked to real estate uh professionals, we interviewed housing advocates across the spectrum of Cook County, and we kind of
created a a a plan of action, so to speak, for housing in the area. The next slide shows the um the rental units portion of the housing needs analysis. I have the whole document here with me.
It's been ear tagged and earmarked and I've written a couple of notes here and there and everywhere since I started in uh February. But I I think the real big thing I want to point out is that if you're looking at market rate housing, 50 to 60 units, I would say
that between um the Gunflint View and the um um the Heights project, the first iteration of the Heights project, we've generally hit the mark uh on those market rate units. If you look at the 60
to 80% AMI, that's a subsidy at some level of either 40% or 20% coming from the HA through a variety of means. Um, sometimes it's been through ARPA dollars. Other times it's been through at the legislature in 2023, we created
what's called stabilization in housing grants. Uh, it's kind of like LGA in a way or county program aid or school aid. We created a new category for rent stabilization for the county. The county decides how that money goes into
implementation. Um the uh so Brady Powers and I now are working together on next year's 43,000 and where that will go. Right now we've got commitments with the Heights and with Gunflint View. So that's where that money will go. Um and
so that's where that 60 and 80% EMI uh is. But if you look at the number I highlighted in yellow, that 140 units, it's really hard to see up there. Sorry about that. The top number, the up to
50% AMI. That's half of market rate. That's a big and scary number to us because that's not really sustainable unless you have sustainable means of funding these projects or on the front end you've created a project that's been really subsidized to build a project
that is essentially half the cost of building. Um and so and then of course you've got the operating cost in the back end, electricity and sewer and water, all those things, maintenance and upkeep and staffing the place and and all that. But um we really haven't even
begun to hit uh the 50% EMI. So the area area mediate income for Cook County is roughly 90,000 for a family of four. And so you know we're talking about rents. We're talking about rents that are under
$750 a month. So that's something we still need to work on. And if you hit the next slide, I kind of wanted to point a little bit of information uh gathering that I did for Gunflint View Apartments. That's 51
units phase one. Uh there's potential for a phase two as well. Uh we have that property now and are willing to work with our our clients at P&R Properties if they want to expand. But they they um invested a total of $11 million. Of that
there was a 1.2 2 million public financial support investment and $400,000 of that total went to local purchasing within 30 mi of Grand Marray. So they bought items that ended up in the apartment or it was food for the
workers or it was gas for the workers or whatever the case might be lodging to. Uh the next slide shows the heights. Uh it's very similar in the numbers. Um $9.1 million in total investments. um
$875,000 in public financial support. We received a $650,000 ILR grant at the uh end of last year that that helped uh finance the the building of the structures. You might remember, it's been a couple of months, but those
things pretty much were shipped in by these modules one by one to the airport, uh the old airport, and then from there shipped to the site in about 2 and 1/2 days. They mega constructed these these Lego blocks together into housing and um
I believe next month they're already talking about opening up to the public um and having people move in of that. Again, Gary Latz gave me the number of about 230,000 and local purchasing for the area for the the Heights.
>> Just really quick, so going back your other one's 51 units for 11 million. Mhm. >> Well, you got also public financing. So, still that's still 12 million. >> So, that's 51, right? >> And then the other one is 36. I guess
maybe percentage wise is about for 9.1 almost 10 million. I mean that this one >> you think per unit like >> Yeah. Yeah. And it's really hard to compare these just because of the
construction of them. Some were built off site >> and shipped here, which means they were able to build at a larger scale quicker and uh they were able to then move on to the next project and not have to remobilize. Um they just had to mobilize the finished project to site really.
>> Um and so it's a little it's a little apples and oranges, but yeah. Yep. I I do see the numbers that total, but you know, I think at the end of the day, there's 87 units that'll be online by the end of this year. Um, and the investments were made, I I really think
that they've really hit a need in the community. I remember when I was first hired for the position in February, um, and sitting in Allison Plamer's office at HR department at Cook County, she had a whiteboard with about 10 different names of, uh, people who had been hired
but could not find housing. And that was in February of before the heights before gunflip view had even come online. And uh they were accepting applications just shortly right after that point. And um you look now and that um the opportunity
for people that live there now. I I've seen state patrol squad cars there. I've seen sheriff's deputy cars there. Um I got a a very good letter from our school superintendent, uh Chris Lynholm. He he said just a note here and it says
here thank you for the first time in over 5 years every single teaching position in Cook County schools have been filled with qualified candidates and every single new hire has found housing. It feels like an incredible miracle but it is not. It is due in large part to the diligent work over the
past 3 years to get housing for Cook County. And that was in in uh Jul June 27th on a Friday. And so before really school started uh they were able to say that and so that was with gunf online.
So teachers found some housing and were able to fit into our community. Um if you go to the next slide, single family homes also a target of ours. We want to make sure that people are also um being able to find housing
every level. Um our market rate housing so it's it's a unique situation. We've got a lot of uh if you look at the demographics for our community, it's kind of what they call an inverted pyramid. There is a larger population demographic at the top and those are
folks that represent the 65 and older category in our community. And kind of at the bottom of the pyramid are the infants to 18 year olds and really the entrance into our workforce all the way to about 30 years old. So, young families,
those numbers represent the lowest numbers in Cook County for population. And but however, um if we want to hire people to become our new teachers and and to work in our our sheriff's department and things of that nature, our hospital too, we're going to need to
find opportunities for these young families to move to Grand Marray. And the affordability, it's kind of a math problem we have right now in Cook County. um the income of 90,000 doesn't really correlate to being able to afford
a $450,000 home. And so at some level there has to be some sort of supportive funding to kind of make those two numbers work together to solve for X or to solve for Y. There has to be some extra involved.
In our housing study, we pinpointed that we need about 200 homes that are a little higher than 325,000 and uh we need some of that housing to be about 20 or 30 houses to be between 175,000 to 325,000.
So that's something we continue to work towards a goal of. Um we haven't really kind of hit the mark very often. However, the next slide, we do have some hope with a Norris Skogan project that allows us to have 12 new single family
homes to be built here in Grammaray. Um, they just received a $350,000 grant this fall. They're working on the site now. So, um, if you go over there, they're KTM's working on site removal of of brush and shrubs and things like that
and getting ready for houses to be put up there eventually. And so there's a $350,000 ITR grant. We had $100,000 set aside through the American Rescue Plan Act um for a match through for that
project. And so a total of $450,000 and the project itself, not including that home construction part, we're looking at $93,000 so far. Now once the roads being built and constructed, then next spring they're looking at building the homes.
And so eventually what we're going to have is 12 single family dwellings um that are coming online and being sold for sale. And they're still committed to a price structure that is kind of with that previous slide. We're in that $325,000 range that we really need to start
targeting. On the next slide is uh the last bit of housing I wanted to mention is the senior housing part of it. Uh right now we export our 65 and olders out of the community um to other places where they have assisted living, you know, and
sometimes to be fair, they're moving to their grandchildren. They're moving to where their kids live now and that's fine and that's great. Um, but I've also heard from people since I started at the HA and we've talked about senior housing on WTIP and in the newspaper and other
places about how people are willing to move back to Grammar if they have that opportunity to do so with senior living. And so I'm looking at the numbers for assisted living just through our study. Um, and it shows an assisted living that
could source about, you know, you add up on those numbers between 80 and 115 um, individuals or 18 100 units. And so 80 to 115. That includes things that we don't have now like um assisted living.
Um, it does require some supported senior housing. The number there is about 10 to 15. Then of course, you know, it's really hard to get discount elder care. It's all at basically at the market rate, that one rate. And so that's where our focus has to be with uh
regards to the market rate housing for seniors and to folks. And what that will do, I believe, is also shake off some additional opportunities for these homes to become available for sale for the next family to move into in our community and allow them to go to a
place where it's you know uh more functional for them with the uh you know the laundry and all that on one floor and and maybe have some assisted assisted care located close by or nearby or even in the in the building. And so that um that's the senior. So to
summarize in the next slide here, we um we have about 143 to 18 uh3 rental units that we still need to provide across the entire county. Um and that ranges from permanent to supportive um permanently supportive rather to market rate. Permanently supportive being that
50% specifically. Um and that's going to take some work and that's going to take some real investment and and opportunities to build some of that housing. We also need 210 to 230 more single family homes in our in our
county. Um 80 80 to 115 senior housing units. And according to our study, we were supposed to build all of that stuff by 2027, which realistically isn't going to happen in the next year and a half. But if we were going to do that, and
this is with that easy money flowing, so to speak, from the federal government down, 175 units per year, we haven't gotten there. And so we still have a lot of work to do and we still um we still have the ability to roll with the punches. If things change in our
community and the needs change in our community, we're able to be nimble enough to focus on that type of housing over another type of housing. And then uh the second to last slide here is just simply where do we build? You know, you look at Cook County, we're
a unique county just because of the percentage of public lands where we can't build. I can't build a a complex in the boundary waters and I can't in the Superior National Forest and I can't really do a lot of that stuff where there's, you know, that 92% or so land.
But we've got some land that's private and available. It needs to have access to services and amenities. Realistically, people are moving where there's healthcare. Thank goodness we have uh that here in our community. We have good schools and we have choices to choose from in our
community as well. Commerce, we've got a lot of commerce across the county. We've got access to EMS and fire and infrastructure, roads, sewer, water. That's the easiest uh thing to build into and hook up into. and and um you
know, you look at that map there. Um we've got the green and yellow are all public. The white is privately owned and then we've got the our neighbors to the east there with the Grand Portage Reservation as well, which is a sovereign nation. Um I want to be able to be available uh to help and and to
work with them on a lot of different issues, including our senior housing needs. And so as in the HR, we want to continue to work with all of our partners across the county. And with that, the last slide. Any questions?
>> Um, for that housing trust fund, I know there was when it first kind of hit a hot topic with the state, there was some seed money. Is that is it's all gone? >> Um, no. Uh, it's not all gone. And I kind of I kind of know a thing or two about that being that when I was in the
legislature, I carried the bill in the House side and it was Liz Bolton in the Senate that carried the bill. And there's still money out there and available through the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency. And so, you know, we've collected 1% of um the vacation rental
um collections from the Cascade Vacation Rentals and they've given it to us. We basically just set it aside and haven't spent the money yet. That's going to be the impetus for us to start with the match is we're going to bring that money over to the local housing trust fund as
that seed money get the match from the fed from the state and then start working nationally and with some of these philanth fabric organizations as well and to see where we can go with that to leverage our dollars to help start working on that seed money.
>> Okay. What are you guys um how are you guys lo I mean you kind of referenced it. I'm just curious how are you guys going to lobby as a group like the city's working with the chamber. Are you just going to work on your own or just curious how
you'll do that? I mean you have personally obviously a lot of experience so maybe for you. >> Well um to answer that question I do want to rely on working partnerships that we have in the county to support you know strength and numbers right. Um, we also belong to an organization called
the Minnesota chapter of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Organizations. And so where there's niche policy that needs to be advocated for, that's going to be with that organization. And then lastly, we just joined in with the um the uh Greater
Minnesota Partnership as well. And so there's an opportunity for us to have a voice at the legislature to work on things like opportunity zones, to work on tax policy that might help us develop more housing opportunities and that sort of thing. Try to partner with as many
people as possible, including the city and the chamber. Um, can you give us some updates on some of the key I know you've had communications with some of the key projects that are affecting the city like Deval's project and are
>> that's potential in the top of the hill. >> Um, we have some others as well. Anyways, >> yeah. Well, we'll start with Dval since you brought that one up first. Um, I talked with Alex Duval this afternoon actually and um, he really didn't have
anything new for me in terms of, you know, he doesn't have any new asks for the city or anything like that. He's still working off of the agreement you guys have in place now. Um, he still wants to build 16 units of affordable housing at workforce housing at the um, at that location where the old hotel
used to be a motel. Um he is closing the gap on some funding that he needs in order for the project to go forward. Um he's looking for some investors and some opportunity to build more of a um um a community focused and supported housing
project there. And so um one of the things he mentioned to me was an interest in having a community conversation to kind of talk about the project. There's $13 million I think that is coming from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency to support that
project. He also has another project that he's wrapping up right now in Gaylord, Minnesota. When he started that project, he had a community conversation in Gaylord with the with everybody that wanted to participate and attend. And um very recently, he said to me that he really wants to kind of focus on doing
something like that here in Grammar as well. And so more details to come on that. um we don't have a date or anything like that, but um I know that that's um being um considered right now for if not the end of this year, the
beginning of next year. Um as far as um other projects that we're working on, um Mike and I had a preliminary conversation with a developer on a site located here in the community just um pre-engineering kind of discussion about location and
that sort of thing. That would be for I believe nine single family houses. Um um um trying to think of any other ones that come to mind.
>> Um back for Deval. So he has a request though for additional monies besides his 1.3 million. >> Um no uh he's not looking for any additional money for for the project. He's looking for um some diversity of investment in that project. Um so that's
where he's looking right now. Yeah. To and he's uh he started looking at a sizable seven figure number and then he ended up uh being able to find some money already. So he's working on that right now. >> Okay. >> Yeah. He's making headway. >> Is there there's been community
conversation about one roof coming back into the county. Is there anything that way? Uh interest interesting you bring that up. Uh I do know that there has been some one roof discussion with um with uh the city recently about um that
um northstar on the west northwest part of the community where they have the land trust. uh they um they had a presentation with me a couple of weeks ago and gave me the news that they are also in um the hunt for IT R funding for
that project as well. That was kind of a surprise to me at the time. Um but they're looking to provide another seven units of housing opportunity up there. So that would be an expansion of that. Um and then preliminarily we're having conversations about working with One
Roof to do some of the bigger things like senior housing and um One Roof has a property in Ludson called Four Directions. They still own property behind that and are also interested in expanding what they have there with more units and we've got developable land
there. So that's an opportunity for us to work together too in the county. and they bring a uniqueness now. They have over 500 units of land trust housing that they either own or have sold and are in the market now. And I
think that that's unique. Um I don't know that um when I was in the legislature, land trust was kind of a big question in the air because you own the land, you own the property on top of the land, but you don't own the land. In one respect, it sure does bring down the cost of housing because you don't buy
the land, you're just buying what's on top of the land. Um, and you look at what's going on in Duth right now and they're providing some real big opportunities for people who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford a home that are now able to afford a home and still live in a rental. And I think that those
opportunities are starting to really take more consideration. I know from the lending side, they're they work with lenders that are more keyed into that and are willing to work with folks who are willing to, you know, to buy, you know, buyers and sellers. And um I think that that's really starting to take off
and they're looking at doing some more of that here in Cook County, specifically in Gary. >> Great. So, I was wondering uh if you had any ideas of funding for infrastructure because that's certainly something we
talked about today. We talked about a lot. >> Um is finding ways for us to be able to build out what we have >> and of course there are limitations. >> Yeah. Um well my thoughts about that are that you know I think when the legislator legislators were here last
week and they heard uh a number of different people talk about a number of different topics. One of the things that I wanted to bring to the table is just to keep that money flowing into the different places where money goes and so they can have opportunity to compete for those dollars. Whether it be PFA,
whether it be MPCA, they're always putting together packages for funding to create resilience in communities. And so you have a pipe that doesn't mean the the flow of water when we have these big storm events. They offer money to uh to increase the size of the pipe. Um and
different opportunities like that. I I think that small small cities development program at deed has funding for different things. Uh Mike and I talked about perhaps using that to the best advantage of our water treatment request for this year and maybe looking
in the future for some other opportunities. You know, I think that there's just a lot of opportunities out there for the state and the feds through pass through dollars to the state to provide incentives to uh to create some or not incentives, but to create more
opportunities to expand some of these um programs, sewer, water, electricity, that sort of thing. And so, you know, I think it's going to be one of those things where in tandem, you know, I think there's a role to play with the HA involved in this as well. uh not just in
in Graham Marray, but I I think that there's a lot of opportunity across the entire county for the HR to be part of the resource finding mission to provide more opportunities for that housing. You can't have a house without a place to flush and you definitely can't have a house without a place to drink the water
and those are needs, electricity as well and roads and um those all cost money these days >> and they're not making them last any longer than they last. in the process. Maybe they've looked at new techniques to make them last longer, but um you know, they still cost money and that
cost isn't going down either. It's only going up. And so, you know, if there's a role to play uh through working with uh planning and zoning or the PUC or different organizations in the county and the city, I'm happy to play that
role as the HRA to help find that funding. Right. >> That's always hard for us. limited re you we're in different than any other small town limited resources. So when you try to understand those grants even though they exist >> it's really hard to do and that's where
I think having your organization should help us um you the emails fly but who has time to read them or understand if they apply >> right right the devil's in the details and there's a level that starts out with a pre-application
then it goes to an application and so people get winnowed out throughout the different phases of the process all the way to the final sometimes you could be looking at a year before you know whether or not you've got the funding for the year and you've spent time to do it. I understand that that's, you know, that turns people off. Maybe that's part
of the reason why they do it, but I think at the end of the day, um, it it we have legitimately a great opportunity for competition value here in Cook County and in Grammaray to say, look, you know, we can compete with some of these communities and we can get those dollars. So,
that's a positive, right? till we get two months of course and then then I go somewhere else. >> Anyone else have any questions or asks about any of our projects or anything? >> Thank you. >> Okay. Well, if you do give me a call,
give me a shout. Happy to have lunch with you. Happy to have coffee with you. Um, you know, Cook County is, you know, eventually, uh, I I commute back and forth from St. Peter to Grammaray twice a week. uh Mondays and Fridays, but I I um I can't wait to live here. And
there's a real benefit to living here, and that's when you're here, you get to be part of the community, and you get that buy into the community. And I know I'm not the only one. And there are a lot of people in the in the in the state who love to move to Grammaray. We just have to provide them those opportunities. So, I'm glad to work
together to get that. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you all. And speaking of small community grants, here we go. >> You want to come up, John? >> Can sure. This is actually our I've mentioned this
before, our second crack at this idea with our second engineering firm, but all credit to MSA for saying, "Hey guys, do you want to apply for this money and try to get some help doing some planning for your wastewater
system, specifically GIS work?" And we said, "Well, yes, we do. As a matter of fact, we would love to do that." So, thanks John and and your folks at MSA for helping put this together tonight. The only action item is part of the application is we need a resolution that
approves the application. Um, we've included kind of a draft of what we might do. It's incomplete. Um, we'll be working on it with MSA in the next couple of weeks to to get it all done. But you can see the scope of work
anyway. uh the type of things that that we would do. Um and just to give you that kind of idea of how much does it cost, this is they're suggesting well maybe close to $60,000 to do the um GIS
um data collection and and analysis and get it all set up. It's not cheap um but we need it. So we're hopeful at this point. Do folks have any questions about
this would that might help uh get the resolution passed or >> and with that would anyone like to make a motion for resolution 2025-14? >> I'll make that motion. >> I'll second. >> All right. Any one more time. Any
questions or thoughts about that? >> All right. And with that, I will take a vote on that, everyone. Uh, in favor of resolution 2025-14. >> I >> I >> I thank you very much.
>> We're going to get it this time so we don't have to think about the next question, which is >> what have we done? >> Yeah. Yeah, very good. Um, we we tried this um that one time with Teresa with that other group too.
>> We've tried to find assistance to build out our GIS multiple multiple times. The last time was this same resiliency grant, but was through our electric. We were going to build out the electric GIS first. And really, GIS is GIS. Once
we're out there collecting data and we have a system that houses it, we just need that backbone and then and I think everybody's kind of in the same place where they want to be able to use it. >> It's very important. All right. Thanks
for coming. >> Yeah. >> Sitting here for this. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Um, do we need to all knock on one more time? >> No. >> Three. Is this three? Three is good. Three is a charm. >> Yeah, >> I might have lost count.
>> I don't know. All right. Thank you. >> Our last topic tonight as the donation policy, which you were gone for, Ben. I mean, that would have been the second time we talked about it. We um the the four of us took this direction with it,
but we wanted to look it over one more time with you here >> to see if you had any other thoughts and make sure um you think we're on the right track or anything you wanted to tweak on that. >> Yeah, I don't think there's anything I would add. >> Okay. Um
>> it's paired down quite a bit from two pages to one. And you'll notice the word donation isn't in there anymore. >> Mhm. I think that matches the conversation you had last time. >> Yep.
>> Okay. Is everyone else all right from this from before? >> I just wanted to make sure that Ben had a chance to make any thoughts or changes or edits or whatever. >> Thanks. I appreciate that. >> So, all right. I think that takes care
of it then. >> Unless I rush somebody through that. And with that, the main part of our topic items is complete. We'll go on to council and staff reports. Um, Mike, I'll start with you tonight. We'll go
this direction. >> Mike, me or Mike? Michael. >> Sorry. Oh, yeah. You two can't sit together anymore. >> Oh, yeah. It's too confusing. >> Well, I guess I'm Mike and you're Michael. That's how we do that. >> That's how we've been doing it. >> That is how we do that. Okay. Well,
let's see. I will go first then. We uh I was in um I wasn't in Rochester this morning attending the SIM meeting. This is our monthly meeting that we have uh 17 cities that are all members of Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Association. And we trade off which city
the meeting is going to be held in. Thankfully, technology these days makes it much easier for us to participate without traveling to the meetings, which is good because one of my goals for 2025 was to participate in more of these meetings. And I think I attended 11 of
them. Um I don't think I went to more than one in person, though. So, that's that that's good. Uh we the topics that we cover are their budget uh the rates that we're charging us a lot of kind of
in-depth analysis and what they're where the costs come from resource planning into the future uh regulatory issues that they have to deal with in terms of uh renewables. The biggest one um that it's a well-run organization. more lucky
to be a part of them and uh we I think we just learn a lot from how to operate a good organization just watching them do it. So I'm really feel fortunate to be a part of that and is continuing to be my goal next year to stay as close to
that group as I can. Our electric utility is our biggest uh entity that we have as a part of the organization. uh it is a service provider for not just the city but also a few miles in either direction of the city and it's really a crucial service
that that we provide and and for a good price and you know reliable it's a good thing >> and I'll let Craig talk about the PUC meeting I won't talk about that >> okay any highlights then in particular from this meeting
>> well from today uh there's we went through a study that Simpa participated in with kind of a nationwide group looking at battery storage and SIMPA has been thinking about battery storage
specifically in Grand Marray as a concept and so the study looks at a little bit of that Grand Marray they've applied for money to try and actually install battery storage in Grand Marray unsuccessfully but I think we're going to take that report and see if they
would be happy enough to deliver it directly to our utilities commission as well. So we could look at that battery storage concept. >> Interesting. >> It's it's interesting. It's it's not um the type of technology yet where an investor would purchase it and hope to
make money by charging it while the power is cheap and selling it while the power is expensive. Uh but when you think about the uh utility of having that storage meet minor outages rather than using our plant supplementing our plant or more
importantly just in the entire grid system having battery storage help with renewables which are not as reliable in terms of being on when you need them. Uh it's coming. We know it's coming and so it's kind of I think it's more interesting for us in Grand Marray than
in some other cities because of our isolation. So I wouldn't be surprised if we don't have serious conversation in the next 5 years about it. >> Yeah, it seems like other Well, I've read about that in New England with area topography like ours. That's where they
had they can't do it by limeark or berry whatever. >> Yeah. >> Batteries are are more efficient costwise. It wouldn't be in a flat farm field, but >> yeah, >> right here. But it has lots of potential and batteries are getting better. So,
technology. Cool. What else you got? >> I'm going to let you talk about the legislative visit. So, I'm I'm going to just go ahead and defer. >> All right. So, we had a a Y meeting, believe it or not. They've been rare.
>> Um but we did we had one. Um, and they, as you guys know, we have that meeting because we give them money every year. Um, and they just kind of give us a little heads up about what they're what they're doing, how things are going. Um, some of
the great things to know is that the staffing is stable. So, that was a big I know. I mean, he said the word stable. What does that mean? I'm not sure. But, uh, that that was good. They've uh started up an advisory council which they've been needing to do for a long
time and have been had and so that's on its way. Um the annual campaign is uh going along um the facilities which is a lot of what the county thinks about. Um they've got a new floor in there which I'm sure some
of you have seen that up in the cardio room. Um I think Susie letting us know u that the programming is, you know, they're pretty good with their programming. The dance is full. Uh gymnastics is full. The child care um is
is going along well. And they had what was it? There was a child care parent four-star rating that they received recently. So that was also good news. That was part of that Y update. Also, the library.
>> Any updates on the need for a new executive director? >> They didn't mention >> Well, that was that was earlier. This this was before Alex was >> Oh, got it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Um, no. So, that
um and then the library we basically did there wasn't a whole lot. We were talking about our coming calendar um and also looking at our annual review of the library as a whole like how are we doing? We started that conversation
last time and we're going to continue that conversation next time. Um and then you know about the new hire and yeah that's about it. What's going on there? >> I have nothing.
>> We're cleaning this up next year. Ben, >> I actually don't have anything either. Well, I guess we could talk a little bit about HR. Um, >> there really isn't a lot to report from today's meeting. Well, we're just
cleaning up a lot of little detail work um going through job uh descriptions and uh which you guys will have an opportunity to look at some of those things in the next probably next meeting. do them in batches, I think we decided, right?
>> Yeah. So, you'll be able to look at some of that stuff and see those changes and approve those. Um, and then we're working toward um the overall goal of just the review process in general. And uh um Mike made contact with the union reps.
So, we're going to start the negotiation hopefully next couple weeks. Uh everybody's anxious for that. Um Other than that, nothing. Got a North House Board meeting next Thursday and uh I wasn't able to make the last uh planning
commission meeting. So, other than that, that's it for me. >> And tonight, we did the first step of the annual review process cuz we did Kohl's. >> So, it's officially kicked off. >> It's kicked off. >> Yeah. There we go. >> Yeah.
>> Hey, Greg. Uh oh. You must have something. >> No, I just there's a lot of information of the PUC stuff, but um anyway, one item on the agenda was the new contract with Zap Energy. Um we'll have that new
uh charging highspeed charging station installed as soon as they can do it, I guess. Well, they have a deadline actually, don't they? >> I think by the end of the year it has >> by the end of the year. Yeah. So, we're hoping that gets done by the end of the year and then we'll be on line with a
new charger. Um, the other line the other item the other item on the agenda was the 26 electric graph budget. So, we went through the budget for 2026 and uh there's been some changes with SIMA as
far as uh their wholesale rates for 2026. They actually reduced the rates 10% for 2026. Um but they do have some different charges the way they charge us for transmission expenses expenses. We have
to allow for those um items. So I guess um we didn't finish the meeting with setting rates uh as of uh our meeting. We're having another meeting next month. We have to have a meeting to set the rates for next month. But ultimately, I
think we're for the 2026 budget, we uh have an increase of about 58,000. So, um we're going to circle back on what
rates we may or may not need to do. uh tenatively we set a 2% increase but we don't know if that's actually what we're going to be doing or not because we're have to have a meeting and discuss that through May could be um what factors will contribute to that
is where we're tracking um projecting um our sales of electricity. So we're project we are projecting expect to uh increase sales for 2026. We're tracking currently
level with 2024 sales for 2025. Um so I guess that's kind of in a nutshell the electrical part of it. We'll also be talking about the sewer water at our next meeting. We didn't cover that at
the last this month's meeting. Um, >> anything else you want to add to that? >> One of the big factors in their budgets that affect the levy is how much are we going to be using utility funds to pay
for this building >> because of course the city hall side is more than half used just to operate the utilities. Probably more like 70% really. So that's the math that we're trying to figure out. What's the fair allocation of that and then also what
can those budgets afford? When it comes to the electric budget, of course, they can afford quite a bit more than I think we could make a case for being a fair allocation. So Kim and I are working on that. I'm more on the board side. She's more on the fair allocation side,
which is appropriate for our roles, I think. So yeah, more to come. Okay. Um, we also had a park board meeting. Um, items on the park board meeting, the um,
soil and water conservation district relief grant program support. There's um, money available. We're going to clean up the the brush and the dead trees uh on that
Sweetheart Bluff area and the land trust has been notified about that work that we're going to do down there. So, there's money available to clean that up, which will be kind of nice. basically kind of firewise it, cut down
the dead underbrush stuff and get rid of that stuff that's not that's in there that looks bad. Um, another item that I just talked to Dave about actually that wasn't on in the the meeting, but uh we're talking
about the bath house um building out the new bath house and there's been some costs that have been put together through LHB um and different couple different routes we could go on the building of the bath
house. either a pre-cast cement type building um which would bring us in a lower uh estimated cost rather than um custom building it. But
we also have met with another develop actually Goff I think had talked to us about it which thinks that they can get us in to a better price range with a custom building rather than a pre-cast
type situation. The thing is there is coming in with a it's a huge expense to build that bath house and we don't want we want to be able to be more competitive I guess in that
ask to help finance that build that. Um, so it was interesting to see that possibly stick building it or not stick building it, but custom building it can still get
us in like perhaps 300,000 somewhere in that figure under the pre-cast, which is supposed to be the more um conservative number, the 1.5 million. So, it'd be interesting to see how this
works out. Hopefully, we can custom build it so it looks um you know, the way we want it to look since we're it's part of our park buildout. And it'd be nice to have this building be like a
shining star type thing of what our park can look like with our new bathous as we replace. We have other ones we need to replace, too, but this will be the first one that we need to do. right away on that list. >> And you said McGgoth or a different
>> Yeah, McGgoth was >> they did this. >> We're asking them about it. Okay, >> we're asking them >> not the original cost estimates, but the second look at it. >> I just wasn't sure if I heard the mug off or just Anyways, it is >> the second look at it.
um rate ch. Yeah, we did do we didn't finish we're we're having another meeting to finish our rate changes for next year, but we did do a 3% increase on the nightly uh
across the board on the seasonal and the nightly. Um so that's in our computer program. So, it's being used right now. Um the other changes we have to do that we haven't finished yet are certain um
things that don't impact the reservation system. So, we're going to discuss that at the next meeting to finalize those for the 2026 season. >> Okay.
Last uh Thursday, Mike and I went to the legislatur legislative luncheon held out at um Charlie's Alpine Beastro. Not sure I have a name, right? Only been
there multiple times now. Uh so we had our appointed 20 minutes for which I brought the stopwatch um and sped through that one. >> I had five minute slush in there too. Um
and we not only I mean they've heard about it's it's Roger Scraba and Grant Hothchild. So they have heard what we need on wastewater. But what I attempted to do last spring and got cut short on is what I added in for this was all the
various lake related projects we are working on from the ship01 to the erosion on this side of the harbor and the erosion on the over on East Bay and the the the master park plan and all that we need to do over time. And I was
setting the stage. I told them for things, letting them know about things that were coming, things that are kind of in the works, and a lot of this relates back to the Coast Guard and when it comes back, and that that's a huge project and all of all of that. They um
also mentioned they have their own little appropriations pieces. So, it's good to talk to them because they could maybe help us with some of these things like parts of the park projects or different things we're doing with more direct appropriations. So, I mean, it's
not my wheelhouse of expertise to know where always to go and sniff for money. So, every time we have conversations, I kind of learn a little bit more like, "Oh, really? Tell me more about that one." >> Yeah. >> Um, but that a lot of it was for me was
setting the stage to to let them know what our major themes have been, which for me anyways is the harbor and the lake and all these projects that are leading to bigger projects. So they're not cut unawares or if the conversation strikes they can talk about it a little
bit and then as we get more into detail about action steps like needing money for community visioning or whatever that they'll be familiar with what it was. What did I miss? >> There were a lot of other community partners there reporting on their needs
as well. >> This is true. It's amazing the stamina those gentlemen have to sit at that table and listen to those asks and that's just one small community. They've got dozens of them. >> Yeah. >> So, I really appreciate that they're willing to do that work.
>> Yeah, >> that's nice. So, yeah, they sat still and we just kept cycling >> through through the table everyone. So, and just a little comment, yesterday I went to the veterans program up at the school, >> which is something they I don't know
when they ever started doing that, but they did such a nice job. And those kids really they participated. The high school kids played with the um >> No, the b the the band of in town locally, not kids.
>> Swing band. >> Swing band. Thank you. Swing band members were playing with the kids and then the younger kids were singing all the songs and and doing some reciting and anyways very well done program and it's just very
nice. So keep it in mind for next year. Um after that we're just busy on EDA. We'll be posting the EDA director position starting December 15th and finalizing all the steps for that. and the nursery management board. We're
finishing up our edits for um chapter changes for the plan, which I'm back to planning and zoning and land use. We need to make sure that we have refreshed and looked at how those
recommendations influence our zoning along the lake too, which I don't know if we've done any series on that, but we need to. >> Okay. >> Add that through. So, that's it. >> That's it.
>> Like that's not enough. >> Thanks everyone. >> Thank you.