the underne the microscope now you talk just a note for those if if you're looking at this uh we just begin the recording not much has transpired in the meeting and we're at the point where West Central initiative funds going to begin their
presentation okay go ahead good morning I'm Jill Amon resident of Ashby also the impact evaluator for West Central initiative have a giant folder in front of you and Camille is going to go through a lot of the uh the information inside and what's new um I just wanted
to State uh we've been expanding but it doesn't mean we're not doing all of the great things we used to be doing so in your folder right away there's the lifetime impact sheet uh that goes through the grants and Loans uh we still host Community funds we're proud to do that you have Community funds in Grant
County have granted out $100,000 in the last two years uh We've also been able to give out grants from the West Central um endowment fund totaling approximately 130,000 and then business loans of 70
almost 74,000 in the last two years um we serve as both your Community Foundation and your Economic Development District thank you uh commissioner W bney for sitting on that board for us we sure appreciate it um one of the new things is the state has granted us funds
from the state competitiveness fund to assist municipalities in applying for clean energy and infrastructure grants we have a new staff person we're sharing with the University of Minnesota to make sure that we can make the most of that Grant get those federal and state funds into the communities that need them the
most so if you have projects that are eligible please uh go to our website fill out the form so that we can get researching on the grants that might be available for the issues you're having and I'll pass to you excellent I got a question you mentioned loans
yes uh would you give us an overview or if someone as an example or what how impactful and what's the some of the outcomes of the Loan program sure so we have a couple of loans in Mirror sheet on the right no they moved it left side
I think there's a loan sheet in here looks like this just talks about the different programs that we offer in most cases we serve as a gap financer so the bank is lending the majority of the funds but there needs to be more Equity built in so we step in as kind of the partner in that with the business owner
to make sure that loan can come to fruition um I'm not we have impact as far as what other loans um the matching loan funds but I don't know that I have that dollar I can send that to you after this meeting as well uh we also have Micro financing
available especially for new businesses or small businesses that want to do an expansion uh so we have three loan officers in house Greg Wagner who's been with us for 15 16 years now Kate Mudge also from Ashby she's been there three
years now and then Bill uh hints who was hired this year were there any specifics that I can attempt to give you sorry I think that was Point okay thank
you my name is Camille Pearson walls and I work with West Central initiative on our development team and in your packet I just wanted to go through a couple of things um you most likely uh would have received this for sure last time when we
um were here it talks about the six initiative foundations that are um located across the state of Minnesota so that all counties are represented um we began about 40 years ago with seed money from the mcnight foundation and um it's it's a true gem
that an organization like West Central initiative is in this region and representing the nine counties in 82 cities um I grew up in North Dakota we don't have such luxury to have a group of people looking out for us and trying to build what communities are hoping to
see that um our services and programs that are available for the people who live here and then for the next Generations to have opportunities for those folks to come back to the community in which they were raised um so this is a great um overview of the
initiatives and then how the regional development organizations overlap uh for which We Are One um in this uh packet this is our recent um annual report that was just released oh maybe about a month ago and it talks
a lot about the programs we're doing um how we're impacting the region and um technology is really cool you will see QR codes throughout the brochure and when you scan them with your phone um it's a video short videos that talk about um the work and the
impact so I encourage you to um give it a a look on the left side you will see the demographics um that we pulled for the region um talking anywhere from the makeup of the people living here the age
um and talks a little bit also about incomes and it's just a great tool to use as you're thinking about other planning that will occur in your area um Jill did talk about the Loan program um another thing that we are
really proud of and it's a newer program in the past year uh rural democracy so we know in communities such as Grant County that um we need a lot of our citizens to step up and hold Civic positions such as yourselves um I think
there's over 400 positions in the nine counties and so in order to help people better understand what these roles look like and how to be really effective um leaders we provide several different programs throughout the year so um we really want to make sure that
citizens know um that we value um what they bring to the community and so we want to prepare them as best we can so if anybody has questions about that please um direct them to West Central initiative I just want to add to that uh the the latest research from um Ben
Winchester he's a rural sociologist Grant County needs uh one in every eight of us to step up to be either a commissioner city council member board member for a non nonprofit we've often joked like the same 10 people have to do all of the things and this program is trying to help spread that workload
among more of us exactly interject something here can you address whether you're involved in all in the the Emergency Management Services which we know is not considered an essential service it's a
huge issue in the state of Minnesota and in our local area are your efforts involved in that area we're doing our best to do that so one of the reasons uh that we've gotten into climate action is there's a lot of Emergency Management repercussions for
what may be coming in the next 10 or 20 years so we've been searching for Grants from uh federal government uh EPA and PCA to make sure that we have uh those resources coming to emergency managers um we've I've been in contact with them actually last month on a grant
opportunity just trying to make sure that we can do as much as we possibly can so we're not directly uh related but we try to be as a good partner to the people you have in office there are you at the table with the people in St Paul and the what's going on uh we support
the league of Minnesota cities um and their work as far as lobbying efforts go um but and we have strong relationships with our uh representatives and Senators to make sure we can be doing um anything they ask of us really so as you probably know the legislature in the last couple
of years have asked have named specifically what Central Initiative for some of those Grant funds and we want to make sure that we are advocating for that use of which Emergency Management I agree is one of the the top needs for our area thank
you um in addition to some of that work um we also have an early childhood initiative coordinator that represents um this region Kari CFT um and some of the work that we've done in Food Systems and agriculture are with growing Grant
County um so West Central Area Schools and you see the greenhouse and other mobile uh food processing trailer which is really exciting we've been a lovely partner with uh those folks and Bill was at our um start a ripple event at um
Roosevelt Hall in the last couple of months so we brought citizens together to talk about the vast programs that we're working on and the Partnerships and the impact um that's being made so really a lot of Outreach to let people know that we're here make sure people who are looking to start businesses know
about loan programs so just a a pretty good uh awareness campaign um and it also ties into um what we have in here um we're running um a star a ripple campaign um that's not only to create awareness to the uh broad
programs but it talks about four areas in which we are also um you know asking cities um and community members to help support us in our work and our expanding programs as it pertains to climate as it pertains to Early Childhood um matching
Grant programs and also our rural belonging and uh rural um democracy programs so any questions I want to point out a couple things I'm just not here just for my
looks um I just um you know Ken you know it's a good question about Emergency Management Services you I know it's in the news and that and I think um you know invite us to the table if you're getting into some of those conversations and you're uh as and and
commissioner wani you know as a member of our Ed board you know bring those could be brought up and uh maybe there's something else I mean we're always like Jill says we're always open to uh to having a cup of coffee and say what can we do with somebody and maybe you know
who knows where some of those conversations lead that's what I've found a lot in my work uh on page 14 of the um of the annual report there's kind of a snapshot of our planning servic Services
Services whereas we talk about Small Business Development support housing plan sustainable food um we help navigate some grant writing and Community Economic Development I think there's a new grant writing uh some um
that we don't have in here yet I think it's a state competitiveness F State competitive okay so some of that help and U anyway that was a nice little snapshot page 14 the other thing that's kind of cool I was looking at you know I used to work for deed in the
region on this uh on this uh data sheet now if you ask somebody in 10e 10e increments what's the highest percent of population in Grant County agewise
and I'll just say it's 55 to 64 the second highest population age-wise 5 to 14 so you have and when you're doing things like building a splash pad here in elbow and um some of the other parks
and things these uh that the young families they want those are it's a big group of uh population coming up so that that uh prends to a pretty good uh future for your county so couple just a couple things I
wanted to point out and questions any comments All complaints direct them to R yeah that's why yeah that's why that's why my card's on top I entertain a lot of these Economic
Development authorities they got to get more involved and then we got to do it as instead of a city by city and things like that everybody get in the same room and you know and those conversations will compound and everything else you know when we work together for a common goal I think it's a better fit right
instead of just being you know Al bars doing this and pofin doing this and El doing this it's got to be a well-rounded Mission if you want to call it that right and commissioner we also present to city councils and that's one
thing I presented to 20 25 City Council meetings a couple years ago we did 80 of our 82 City councils we have 82 cities in our nine counties we uh gave a pres similar presentation asking for support asking for uh you know what's the issues
and I remember one of the takeaways from that is the sharing of you know the city got this done the city's looking to do that can can they talk can they get together and this this a collaborative effort and and sometimes I'm a you know my my my the
way I work a lot of times just like I like to brainstorm I just like to you know because and people say well you got to have an agenda talk and sometimes I don't and um and Jill's smiling because she knows it's right but you know these things sometimes Bubble Up and you play
off each other's ideas and and you do get things without sometimes without an agenda is just almost as power having me we're going to uh get this uh built or we're going to address this issue uh yeah but there might be other peripheral things and that's why when we talk about
even the um when we have these uh we just had a 17 rooms event it was called and it was in Morris last week and we we divided up in groups and talked about all these components of a healthy life
in our in our uh communities uh and got to together small group so what little things can we do in next 12 to 18 months that report should be coming out here uh probably next month even but but getting together and
and just having that freedom to say how can we how can we be better how can we help how can we this issue is out there so and we need to Foster recruitment at the same time because we're all getting older okay so the next round of people
whether it be on you guys' board or any of these other know Adventures that are going on you know I I like to see people get involved whether they're you know on these boards or not that's the best thing because then they they kind of get wrapped up into it get their head around it and get involved yeah but they got to
show up to be able to do that right you just can't sit and read brochures and then that's the end of it you know we we should start inviting our young people to these meetings so they start to hear what's going on around them because this this is their future it is
I got a question on your 17 sustainable development goal so on number six you got clean water and sanitation and you got life low water and life on the land there this huge amount of money uh we watersheds one Watershed one
plan and maybe grg can help me a little bit but there's a lot of funding to address what's going on with water now I see you're addressing it are you working in conjunction then with what's happening in those organizations and the
funding that's coming through yep our colleague Mark kelky was the facilitator in the one Watershed one plan uh for the otel county and East otel County um we were invited to do that and we're always um happy to be partners in that way um
Rick mentioned the 17 rooms I got to oversee the clean water and sanitation there's there is a lot of work that our some some of our smaller communities need as far as far as infrastructure and so we're we as a West Central initiative are working to find the best way possible for um for example Norcross who
who doesn't have the tax base to take a loan what are the ways that we might be able to stack some grants to help them with uh maintaining that water and wastewater treatment lead pipes and that that came up right away too yeah and the they old landfills that are leeching and
some of that water is being contaminated because we back in the day you know when I was a kid took things of the dump and threw it in there it's like open right you know and the sink holes were the dumps a lot of times and where the sink holes do but
anyway it's it's h issues that we uh like Jo says we're we're looking we can be at the table at those too so we're doing our best to be good partners and and where you see opportunity for us please do invite us in we we'd love to be of assistant Jill you brought up
Norcross now you know have they have you met with this city council over there yes okay and they know how old their infrastructure is they do well they want they want you know a street or road or County Road to be able to be upgraded and I took a snapshot of the hydrant
that was over there and it's a 1959 hydrant so that tells you that the main underneath that road is 1959 correct okay and a lot of the Saddles and a lot of the services you know what I mean that feed those houses and stuff like that you know you put a brand new road over the top of it you're going to be
digging through it so that they would really really entertain some type of an improvement over there if we can get something done there yes but that's got to be on they got to take the lead okay and then you know there's you know Partners out here USDA revolving funds
things like that you know they got to step up if they want you know they if they want to to them stay you know somewhat by those real estate you know tracks of land and things like that and people want to live there and things like that so when you got a l population and you got that kind of infrastructure
cost right is pretty much unsustainable right that's why we're working with them glad to hear you can almost say you know that same scenario on how many towns and we start even our region then State and you know like the there's not enough
money to go around to get it all done but we're going to be fighting for our share anyway great and I'll Echo this you know the city B Lake when I was working for them we improved this town you know so there's all you know brand new water man and and storm SE and you
know catch basins and curv lines and things like that you know so the Improvement that started 20 20 30 years ago when we first started we had a dozen waterm braks every year okay well now they don't even have any you know and of course the tower come online and it got
closer to the plant and things like that so there's been a lot of infrastructure that's been put in this town and this town is light years ahead of the Nation on services and streets and you know improvements so yeah good job need to you got one minute for your closing
argument I think we caught you up thank you so much appreciate it and familiar faces thank you guys appreciate all your support and help and I say my cards on top I'm ready
for talk any time and by bye sounds good okay it's now 9:30 in the highway department County ditch petition Aaron [Music] [Music]
okay so what date uh 8th of April I received uh two petitions separately to use B County d8 as an outlet um the reason
it's two is because Daniel Oaks owns one parcel and Ronald McRoberts owns another but Daniel Farms both of them so we received those petitions and I looked at the parcels and the water does in fact drain into
Grant County ditch 8 they are not paying benefit on Ditch 8 and could I interrupt you quick yeah so we got the email from Chad are we addressing the McRoberts petition or the Oaks or both both so should we focus on one or the other it's
it's hand in hand so if did he send you this yeah yes yeah so he's doing a tiling project that's why this is coming up is I received this uh permit from the boy
to and he's going to outlet right into just before where ditch J starts so um and then I looked at the numbers and looked at uh the parcel that we also petitioned into d a last year
the year before um using the same numbers uh so parcel 919- 0000 is 140. 72 acres and at $130
per acre so the benefit amount for that parcel will be $1 18294 with a $500 Outlet fee and parcel 09-11 0-500
it's 148.9a acres at130 per acre equals 93.6 7 for benefit amount and then with a $500 Fe and it's my recommendation that the board approve these petitions at those
amounts um that's all I got unless you guys got any questions for me currently all the water from both of these would be going into ditch eight yep the South End wouldn't go down to
Five Mile no uh no they both go north and even if I see you're probably looking at that a Watershed line there even if they don't or even if the South parcel does go south which I don't think
it does just looking at liar it doesn't matter because the boy to Su is approving that and they're they're ultimately the permitting authority to cross subwater shed lines well all wind up in five mile anyway it's just how quick it gets we go
this way or that way so The Bu suit have is given the blessing it's correct yeah and they're just waiting for us to approve this and then they'll I'll tell him if you guys approved it and then he can go ahead and do his tiling
project so the all they have have to have Gat or anything on or because the other one we did did I was just wondering this one isn't showing a gate just a gravity out but whatever is shown on
the on the vo of su permit is what what they're going to do so is that question material and should be addressed or not I don't think so no and I Daniel is here I don't know if you you got anything to add really I guess
Greg well I guess the only thing I comment on and I've worked with woles they're the ones who were doing the project for so the you know Outlet then will be dumping toward a protected water so we'll have some setbacks we have to meet and I know the scale of these
drawings is you know it's it's pretty high level but you know you can see there's a a couple of tracks where there where there is no tiling and that's because there's Wetlands present right so there will be some uh setback
requirements for the tiling so this this drawing may not be yeah you know not s very rep it it yeah so you know it it made at this scale
it's hard to tell but there's going to be some WS involved where the tile may have to be move further we're non-perforated going through the yeah we're non yes one of yeah we just can't gr if the grade you
know you're going to have to stay on the grade A lot of times it's just do to that degree as far as as far as a comment about the gating I know um you know the way it's set up now boys the sue if it's
a pump system they' require that in the spring if there's blooding going on that the the uh pumps not be running and suppose since you guys are the ditch Authority there is the ability for you guys to require that Gates be put on if
that's something you're added about but you I don't know there may be opportunity in spring when when those when when the system's pretty full where you can you know just make it so that the gate had to be shut
until after flooding ceases or something that's not that uncommon you see those all over the place well the reason I asked is because for whatever reason across the road when s's done that there had to be one there that's the only reason I asked
okay and I can't remember did the boy to Su require him yeah I can't remember if they did or if you guys required it I mean you could you could make that a condition to you
know so what is that like a screw gat you know and you just stop and check the water is that what that is I actually haven't seen on S so I don't what that look like but I do know when it's flooding and stuff like that they got to shut these wi station so you know
it kind of stands the reason you know yeah we you know what we'll have to May to do too is just see what you know we've got the flood plane of that channel going through there and it might even be advantageous to have one on there because if the if the system is
full it might back feed and flood the fields that may be something to consider a lot of times they'll slam them Gates shut so that when the ditch gets to it doesn't back out into the field right it'll push the dirt back up
into the you know if there dirt into the pipe and things like that yeah so Erin I got a question so we we've had some comment um and we got a petition and that if you're asking us to weigh in on
it when Greg these conditions or comments we in the process do we ensure that they're addressed I would what what's worth the Chicken and the Egg here I would just so if you approve
these uh petitions to use ditch ditch eight as an outlet you could say on using this condition that you know he put a screw gate in and then I would respond to the boy su's permit saying board has approved this with this
condition so I I I'm aware of this permit request as well and I was letting it go through the process seeing where it goes so now when if if it's a if the petition is allowed
and water and the system is to be placed then I would work with the land owners to ensure that they're not violating any won laws so the check and the balance then if we let's say we commence to approve it the checks and the balance
then comes yeah you're regardless yeah I mean even if wasn't a petition to get in if this was just a project I would still work with the land owner so we don't necessarily have to have a condition that says that W rules will be followed they have to be followed that's not conditional that's here that's state law
I'll work with those guys on that part it's just uh you know if you guys feel that you need to manage this for flooding in the spring because you know three4 of this project the water kind of wants to go south and west and not North and you're going to really t ta that
system potentially maybe in the spring I don't this but so the one component that wouldn't fall under this normal procedures would that be the gate so is there anything additional that we need to address to
make sure that it's right that won't be covered later that if I said it right does that make sense permits with the one condition that a screw gate be installed say that again just approve the permits or the petition excuse me
that with the one condition that a screw gate be installed on construction yep if we let history guide us we should not be putting in a gate without an operation and maintenance plan or we're setting ourselves up to fail everybody involved will be
mad everybody so if you're going to have a gate in there you when is it open when has it closed or you're just setting yourself up for fighting for decades So Daniel you're in the room
right you're Daniel Oaks I'm Dan Oaks they call me have you the the gate issue and Troy and I agree with them because we' have had this discussion y what's your what's
your position on well you know I think there's only one one intake on the thing uh it's a little Pond there by the barn but you know I could see you know it's one thing somebody's got to say okay shut shut the thing you know and it's
one of those deals I guess but uh I don't know how much water is going to be coming out of that in the spring you know on natural flow you know versus the pump system I guess I've never been really around too much of a a bigger area
like this or how much water's coming out of there in the spring I don't think it's going to be a problem but that's so Greg weigh in on commissioner Johnson's comment will I get a cup of coffee well try a spot on and how the
reason I even referenced it is because Bo Su does have a policy right those pumps are not on during a b c and d that's how it works right they have a policy and a planet like so if some kind of a stop valve or a gate was to be even considered or put on
there then you would make the recommendation that Bo to sue would be in control of that and if we give the ditches to the board to Sue it's going to be underneath your dis any and at least if it's in it's in there we can you don't want to have
screw gate installed with no management strategy Troy 100% spot well because if you look at the see permit that went to Boise to Su that was approved with no control structure so they said we don't need one y and and I'm not trying to
weigh in plus or minus on on a control structure that I'm not trying to address whether we put one in there or not I'm saying if you do you need to have an operation and maintenance plan and yeah like Troy said the boy to Su permit doesn't have one on there so they didn't
tell wolf tying or or Daniel that they needed one right that's what my question was the boy to sue figured we need it one they' have it in there so so do list is your area you got
feelings on whether they should or why they shouldn't or why they didn't or no it doesn't matter to me we just had to put one on I don't know why we had to put one on the other one yeah yeah and I I can't even remember honestly so but it doesn't matter to me I guess
so I'll make it most improve the project as stated in the the boy Su thing or the boy Sue recommendation and go with that okay we have a motion to approve the
petition is there a second second additional discussion all in favor say I I post you get 17 minutes to talk about were water flows
Downstream or upam L might be flowing up screen thank you Aon y thanks guys I don't I sometimes have feelings about an agenda one of the things we might we
might wait you know what happens when we get ahead of schedule yeah so why don't you give us the I'll wait till they [Music] finish a little bit of update on Connie
Road 10 and maybe what's going to commence the well weather related what would happen as far as the is next week they're supposed to start with curb gutter getting the concrete work done then proceed with bu Paving
after that with this rain this week probably delayed a couple days I guess guys get get to install the catch basins or who's coming to do that no that's the catch Basin are there's was control I suppose
they're in the curve light inste the Dig Down yeah the is in is that what you said yeah do we know then with this moisture how the extra pipes are there are they running water through
them kind of one of things whether it's needed or not it's more just a safety issue just to make sure in case it fre off PL that we have but they are ping right now Prett
high and we can tell at this point because I think you mentioned yesterday I visited that sech charge 2 has not moved no it moved at all so we can be thankful and rest assured and very likely it's going to not
move it has since I started here so think coming up on8 n months so Gooding down pipes anything else you want to add from your department at this point I got two
agenda items so we're little early uh Mr Matson is it yeah yeah can y okay your the people that you have would coming are I know we early are they here y so we could commence to have you start
and Bill said it's okay if I go ahead and schedule so go ahead that works for us come on come forward yeah and welcome thanks thanks for the opportunity to come and visit got hand
out we're going to leave you with it rather than kind of go through line inv verse of it but uh appreciate the opportunity to connect we wanted to reach out to Grant County um we spent some time at the Elbow Lake uh city
council meeting maybe about an hour's work time kind of sharing where we've been uh where we're aiming at and uh what we're about and wanted to make sure we're connected with Grant County because we have the privilege to serve um all of Grant County for the
healthcare needs and um I wanted to share some information but also wanted to uh listen to you and find out if you have any questions about what we've been uh doing so um I'm Kim Matson I'm the chief executive officer at Lake Region
healthc care so I'm responsible for kind of everything that we do although I don't operate anything day over day we've got the right people in the right places doing the right things um I've been around uh Lake Region health care for about 30 years um I've been leading
the place for about five maybe six years specific to um you know the Elbow Lake Medical Center whether it's Grant County Medical Center or uh Aaliyah or Prairie rdge or All Region Healthcare um I've been around it for a long time uh
probably in Earnest since 2007 uh when Dr rap called over to Fergus Falls and said hey can we connect on some things um because uh uh We've partnered to take care of people over the years uh but we need to maybe look at doing some things differently for the
future and was really aiming at a couple of things it was he and marleene wood had been providers for a long time they had a tough time recruiting permanent providers and he was thinking at some point in time he'd like to not not keep
working as hard as he was um but it was a tough tough piece to recruit uh to get people to stay beside some folks on J1 visas the other thing uh that key was talking about and board members at the time were talking about was a new facility
um the existing facility it served its purpose but it was time to maybe get into something and so um I was involved with Lake Region at the time I also did a lot of financing work with USDA and uh so when we started talking about the new facility they were equally
is interested in making sure that there was a strong medical staff development plan because if you build it you got to sta it and then also even at that time they were talking about the challenges in health care so I've been around since 2007 and I wasn't leading the place back
then but I think I'm kind of The Last Man Standing uh around uh Dr rap is still around he supports the foundation but he's he's really kind of retired from the practice so I've got a bunch of institutional knowledge and I need to hand that off to other people as I start
to get a little bit more senior uh my mom was a nurse uh she started to retrain herself um when uh a business at they had and Fergus fall shut down so she worked at Grant County Medical Center for Dr rap and she eventually
ended up in Fergus Falls and was a uh nurse manager and leader there for a number of years so um I remember the time uh that she spent here uh and she benefited from some great training with Connie wistrom and and Dr rap and and
those folks so um I personally have a commitment to rural uh Minesota I have a personal commitment to rural Healthcare uh I want to see it grow I think that the decisions are best made for all of our rural places by folks that live in
the communities uh that they serve that they're looking at it from a rural perspective uh Lake Region Healthcare as a whole is is independent we're not hooked up to any system we're not uh owned by any system we partner with Sanford we partner with mayo we partner
with asensa but we don't uh we're not own by them we're a Community Asset um I am a steward of of a res s ources that are owned by the communities the board members that we have are those same stewards we're here to make sure that uh the people in the places and the things
are available to serve U the healthcare consumer we want to do it closest to home a lot of times when smaller places get together with bigger places they say everything's got to go to you know fill in the blank Community Minneapolis or Faro or St Cloud our goal is to get care
closest to the consumer so when we think about Elbow Lake and Grant County uh we think about our Herman Clinic it'd be pretty easy to shut the Herman Clinic down because sometimes it's difficult to staff those but when we talk to Dr spear about that we talk to the staff and we listen to the community they feel it's
important to have a connection there on the other hand when we looked at Hoffman it was difficult to staff Hoffman um and when we talked to the community in Hoffman they felt that they could get taken care of an elbow Lake but it was close enough so we closed Hopman down really to do with uh the resource that
we weren't able to bring there when we think about Ashby U we have consistently grown the services in Ashby now we're going to be open starting July 1st 5 days a week with Clinic practices with Dr uh Peterson um and Janice sandine so
we are fully trying to get our places staffed up and that includes the Elbow Lake Medical Center um Dr spear uh uh Dr Holmes um are our primary doctors in that Community or this community uh we also have recruited um Dennis geralt um
who is serving out some time in the military really a strong practitioner smart guy is an MD he's going to be joining us later on this year and we've asked if he would spend some time at elow Lake as well as having a practice in Fergus Falls um so he's going to be
doing probably three days a week in elbow lake and a couple of days in Fergus Falls um we're also continuing to have mid levels like nurse practitioners and physici assistants come Ben graph uh a perus Falls kid that wanted to join Lake Region we said yeah let's do that but
let's get you into Elbow Lake and let's get you into battle Lake Ben graph has been received I think really well he's also working at the U nursing home now um uh in a few short weeks has probably taken care of half the patients in the nursing home in Ashby so we're trying to
create access um and grow Services therapies is something that we've really um supported Pediatric Therapy in particular um now we have more uh therapists in Elbow Lake uh we've got probably about
$25,000 we've invested into um a sensory gym um to grow Pediatric Therapy on the good side of it we've got a waiting list now and that's not always good because you've got people waiting but at least we've got that consistent flow coming in
we're doing a little things like adjusting our waiting room in elow Lake now that we've grown that service so we are really serious about um making the commitment to serve Grant County uh in ways rather than just pulling it back to Fergus Falls uh or some other community
I think I'd also say is is oftentimes we talk about the hospital we want to be not viewed as a hospital yes a hospital is important part of our business but the hospital in Elbow Lake has an average daily census of one um and that's good because that
means that there's not sick people that need to be hospitalized but critical access hospitals like Elbow Lake have typically been oriented to having an emergency department to be there when somebody's clutch in their chest um and to stabilize and admit if you can but usually it's stabiliz and discharge or
stabilizing get to a larger Center often times that means perus Falls oftentimes that means Fargo but we try to get those people back as fast as they can and one of the tools that we've invested in as an organization is epic it's the electronic medical record it's it's the
the medical record it's our business record um it's about a $25 million investment over 5 years uh which we did we sunsetted the EMR that was used in Elbow Lake but this solution it allows all of our sites to speak to each other so Fergus Falls speaks to Elbow Lake
speaks to Hopman speaks to Herman and it speaks to St Cloud if they have if people have to go to the St Cloud Hospital speaks to Mayo if you have to go to Mayo so you can carry your record with you electronically and your doctors and your nurses are able to look at that medical record whether they're in
Rochester or Fargo or soup balls or whatever and that's really important because Health Care has got to be portable nowadays uh we've got Workforce Challengers just like everybody else but thankfully we've been able to recruit providers to come to these communities um also would would think about us you
know more as a healthcare organization than than just um a hospital because we're trying to grow our Clinic Services um most people don't need emergency department day overday but you do need access to get uh a cumate visit or you need access to get something checked out
with a nurse or a doctor a clinic visit so we want to grow that access and do that locally close to home so we're increasing Primary Care access by adding doctors we're also uh increasing local services like therapy the other thing we're trying to do is um the elake
hospital has got a great uh surgical Suite but it's been underutilized over the years so we recruited Dr Christinia um who was trained uh at to Luth in a rural general surgery program so she knows how to do general surgery in a
rural setting which is a lot different than a metropolitan facility where you've got a specialist for everything she's got her practice uh in elow Lake she's got her practice in ferus Falls but we're focusing heavily on Elbow Lake to do more surgeries there uh We've also
got a new pediatrist that's joining us and we're standing up her practice at Elbow Lake to make sure that we're meeting the customer where they are and making sure that emergency that excuse me that uh surgical Suite is is fully staffed we've Got7 or so people that are
employed at the Elbow Lake Medical Center that's grown substantially uh over the last 10 years medical staff has grown substantially over the last 10 years um and that's because we're partnering um uh to grow those Services we're also doing things like bringing
plastic surgery to um Elbow Lake plastic surgery a lot of people think about um Beverly Hills and Botox and all that type of stuff but the first case that our plastic surgeon did was to take care of a lady whose arm was mauled by a dog bite so that's what a lot of her
practice is she still has elective surgeries people come from all over to have Dr Johnson operate on her and we're getting those people into the Elbow Lake Medical Center because it's a great surgical Suite um also it's easier access we've got a bunch of Surgeons
competing for Turf at Fergus Falls so if we can use elbow Lake it's better for everybody again more jobs more people come into town that's really what we want to do um you mentioned the the modernization of elbow lak it's fantastic Place Grant County the facility that we're sitting in right now
if we invest in our uh rural communities we're going to make sure that we've got just strong places for people to come to regardless of the essential service that you need um so I think about just kind of beyond that hospital uh think about a medical center um think about what's
happened with Dr rap allowing him to retire Marlene wood retired we've got a lot of new practitioners that took her um strong patient base and have grown that and that's what we're about are we perfect absolutely not do we satisfy
everybody absolutely not I bet Grant County doesn't either but we want to do is where people aren't satisfied with their experience we want to hear what didn't work well and we want to fix it we're a continuous Improvement organization um and that's the way Healthcare Works um it's called
practicing medicine not perfecting medicine um the other thing I'd say is is you know if you have questions about us come to the source um you know we're not about smoking mirrors at people we want to talk facts some people um like us some people don't like us but we're
here for the community we're Community Asset and resource uh financial performance uh that's a big question out there I think that uh you've heard some some folks maybe in the community that that they're concerned about how we're doing doing and and are we driving this thing into the ground we made a
commitment to our board uh which is uh from Ashby which is from Elbow Lake which is from Donley which is from Fergus Falls which is from Barnesville that we won't drive anything into the ground we will fix out our financial situation I'm happy to share right now uh this year we're on an improved
Financial trajectory in the packet you'll see some information um we've got about a $827,000 uh positive um Financial result this year that's about a 6% margin
healthc care needs 2% to survive to take care of our people and our places and our things we're at 6% at the Elbow Lake Medical Center right now um that's primarily uh through the growth of Patient Service Revenue about $1.6 million better than last year at the
same time we're doing that work with about the same Workforce um labor is about 60% of our overall expense we need to control that we need to invest in it to grow access but right now our expenses are up about 1% over last year and that's pretty big
given that inflation takes 3% every year so um our revenue is up our expenses are hold in tight and that's how we're able to have that 6% margin now we're not in it to make money but we do have to have Financial uh positive results to make
sure we can P for new uh ambulances um new uh maintenance vehicles in the lake but we are performing better financially um we're committed to that into the future so most of our financial Improvement this year comes from growth from
providers and therapists and we've got those folks in place and if the demand is there we'll continue this financial performance to grow uh well into the future it's not like we're making onetime Cuts we're making long-term Investments that'll be there Ambulance
Service we thank you for the uh Grant of $100,000 to make that ambulance available it's north of $300,000 they're really expensive they don't pay for themselves as you know um but um when we get it in 2025 it's going to be a better
vehicle uh to respond to the types of things that we have to be ready for uh Eric risb I think does a fantastic job of advocating and leading uh EMS Eric's passionate about what he does and that passion comes through a lot of times I appreciate that about him uh but he's
smart about this stuff and it's through his leadership that Grant County and Otter tale are leading that um uh quick response uh demonstration program for the entire state if he hadn't gotten in front of that he hadn't shown what could be done wouldn't given our local
legislators the ability to bring that funding back to us so we look forward to demonstrating a program that works Lake Region Healthcare overall the N communities we sered were invested in leading uh a change for EMS it's going to take everybody thinking differently
we got to do our work different so we look forward to partnering with Fergus Falls and Elbow Lake uh and perm on that demonstration program we look forward to partnering with ototo County and Grant County which we have the privilege of serving uh to figure out how we're going to sell to EMS we're meeting with ringd
dolls next week or the week after they're a private agency which runs the ambulance service not sure how that's going to work into the future because it's tough to run a family business when you don't have positive margin um with us we can uh avoid paying
income taxes which helps because we put that money back into our stuff we can also tap into some grants that others can't but again it starts back to Grant County supporting us with that ambulance we've got a state grant for it we've got some local charitable minded people that
are supporting as well and we have some Capital that we're committing to it from operations to make sure that that works but without that support it's going to be tough to make it into the future um reimbursement many of the government programs p 40 cents on the dollar of our
cost and if you're running your own business you know that doesn't work very long but um we're not here for government handouts we're here to make sure we can stand up on our own again that's why we're trying to grow this place but we do have to partner with those things that need public support
like EMS um and a lot of our hospital-based operations so it's kind of me talking a lot at you hopefully answering some of the questions that are hanging out there but we've heard how are you doing financially are you just going to suck everything back to Fergus Falls are you for sale or not for sale um we think we
can make this uh with 14 Community Based board members governing us with local leadership um and uh and not have to sign up for a system and hang you know some system sign up so decisions can be made in Elbow Lake and Fergus BS instead
of Chicago or s Falls or somewhere else now we support and appreciate the relationship that we've got with them but we just don't want to become them that makes sense so that kind of a high level we needed to yeah I got a question
yeah questions you got Dwight and Bill have served on the EMS Committee in a sense that it seems to be a really important issue if you looked at the
wheel and you had a hub and you look at Hoffman and you look at ashb and you look at Lake Region or Elbow Lake I'll refer to Elbow Lake from an ambulance EMS
standpoint your vision Kent who's the Hub that that that's a great question um and here's what I here's what I say we have to look at things differently uh when when we talk about what the Hub and where those folks go up to in another day everybody could have every all of
their own things whether it's a school or a fire department or a clinic or whatever uh in rural um America today where resources are constrained we've got to think differently but we also can't abandon the communities and suck everything to one town or the other so as I've looked at the EMS thing and this
is just since I've been thinking about this deeper since last week I think we got to think about herum and having a hub out there and reaching out to that aspect of of otter taale County we have to think about bergus Falls um and that
as a hug reaching out to all of of the county and I say that primarily because Fergus Falls is right at the interstate it's on 59 it's on 210 it's really easy to get to um and I think we have to think about Elbow Lake being that Hub and spoken out to the communities in
Grant County now we don't do that in isolation because of overlap between Grant County and Ottertail County and Douglas County and you name all the other counties around us but I think if we focus on putting the facilities uh in those hubs but making
sure they can get to these communities and are partnering with those communities that have volunteer resources and other resources that are willing to staff but I think you have to look at that model differently um because what's happening is a lot of our communities are becoming bedroom communities people leave the community
during the day to go work somewhere else and when you do that you can't be there to respond to an ambulance call um that's one of the constraints that you've got so how do we leverage full-time resources like you can do with Carrie and Eric at at Elbow Lake with
volunteers coming from somewhere else uh and conserving the human resources in these broad Geographic areas to get to the places that they need too fast and there's no time to waste and you also have to have highly trained people get to be places as well so you want an
answer I gave you that one I think that's what we need to do coordination so now I'm going to ask Bill and Dwight yep since they've been kind of leading this let's say Kent's Vision as the Hub is
accurate then where are we going Bill and d and how do we lead that from Grant County standpoint if that's can well my thoughts are you know the Elbow Lake is the Hub because that ambulance
covers the whole County and uh and you know Ashby is a great ambulance too in hawman but Elbow Lake does cover the whole County they got they got jurisdiction to go anywhere in the
county so that's that's how I see it that um what what do we got to do to make sure that those volunteers keep showing up we gota we got to work on that but uh but Grand County as a
whole has a real good EMS system but I keep it that way five six years from now it' be tough with the age of the volunteers ashp's a main three four guys
are 70 years old old 70 so but that's uh that's how I see it I uh even before we knew about this sprm car we we've been talking about how do we sustain this EMS in this County yeah and uh and working
with Eric and Spock up in Ashby and hman ambulance you know we're still planning things even with the Sprint car deal going on we're going to be talking about how do we sustain that in this County the EMS because you know I was a
sheriff for 22 years and when we'd get out on those scenes I knew AMS was coming or they beat us there and uh people expect that they expect the fire department
become they expect EMS to be there but they don't really understand that EMS isn't essential and uh you know there's no retirement plans there for him really and things like that so but EMS is uh I slept better at night knowing they
were out there when these calls come in yeah yeah so Bill you pretty much you know wrap that up there the whole thing of it is we got to recruit people and we got to retain them okay well people aren't going to go for a half a day ambulance ride leave their job or you
know if they're private employment or you know for 50 bucks they're just not going to so we need to Foster you know that Recruitment and retainment and and things like that and training and get get people people so they're interested and and I think they should start at the
schools a little bit and get those guys going which they already do you know it just that it it takes money to do this right and everybody's going to understand that you know it's a commitment as a county because you know our our you know public or service area here has got to be covered through the
county as well so instead of the towns and everybody else kind of I you know ping up on things like that I think this is something that we got to look at budgetary times and make sure that that everything stays sustainable and and they they feel like they're we're
listening and we care that's where I'm at with right so so if we stay on the Hub analogy Doyle what's your feelings from your
District well we you know in Herman word and I'm not exactly sure but back when I was on the Rescue Squad in fire department we uh we or tra weaton came and elbow came and Morris came because we're we're kind of in the middle of all of them and I think right now it's still
kind of same way you know the western part of town weat in the nor cross and I think Al lake is coming Norr too but like the southern part is closer to Stevens County so that's that's the way they go and I don't know there's
really no no uh good I mean right answer for that I mean it's just going to have to when you're kind of out away from everything it's that's the way it's going to have to be what I would
say thank you Troy thoughts what it's to me it's much larger than to say we need elake as the Hub it's a dis that's gone on
for a long time one of the recent meetings we had where we had all the fire departments from the county as we're talking about if I'm in Hoffman can I respond to Something in Hoffman does the insurance from Barett
cover because it it's a it's a Personnel C the equipment you can write a check and buy equipment but you have to have people with that so it it's more than just you know okay El Blake's going to be our Hub
can you keep that stat it's it's the people y so just the thought from Ken is we've talked quite a bit about this
and we got committee members and and I'm representing Hoffman and I hear you know some of their concerns or comments but I think it's really important is that we formulate a vision and a desired
outcome and we need to communicate that vision and desired outcome and now can it will it change very likely just like business plans change but if we're asked to make decisions at
this level and we're fragmented at some point staff-wise different I mean we're we really need that vision and desired outcome to be communicated and writing at a point where this is where we really
want to go and that would be the one challenge if if we agree The Hub analogy if the Hub is going to be an elbow L that then that vision and desired outcome has got to be
communicated and so we work towards it a comment on that Ken yeah and I appreciate that um what what I would say is the the it it does take a plan it does take a vision and what's that desired in state and and the way that we
approach things is we have to collect information from all the stakeholders to get their input uh and in particular the knowledge about what each Community needs so I think you can come up with maybe already have that and been deeply involved in that but if you've got all
the information of what each of the community needs and what they can bring to the table I think that can develop that shared vision and then how do you get there we just have to be really I think candid with each other u i mean if you look five years into the future
there some helps by looking five years of the past everything has changed in healthcare in the last five years and that's going to change and that's not going to change so if you look five years in the future where we need to be that's what I think we need to do as communities and I think with the
legislature and the folks that are around here we can put something together pretty quick we can up come up with this rural uh EMS Regional Vision that works and get some funding from the state to support that so I don't diminish what Ash's got for human
resources or Hoffman or Barrett it's going to take everybody it's going to take this Village of a county to make it worse um so it's not a takeover it's a collection and collaboration and aggregation we just got to look at that differently best
time to plan a tree is 10 years ago second best time is to do it today it's going to take it's going to take hard work I we can do it and just to touch on a little bit you know I'm I'm a direct result of what C PA ask us will will help somebody out
you know what I mean and whether you understand what was going on in your body or not you know I didn't know at the time and I thought I was having an heart attack so I got my car and I drove up to the hospital and knocked on the door and they come and got me and leave me out and check put two blood pressure cups on me and got two different
readings and oh you're going to something you know Central Care in St Cloud you know and my my wife at the time was I looked at her and said I don't need a chopper right give me a ride down there uhuh we've ordered it you're going you know so that all you
know that critical access and that connection and that you know response time was critical for everybody and that's what's crucial in my opinion so again you just said it we we're working as a community whether it's in you know
either town or you know gr County as a whole has to have a collaborated effort in my opinion and your oncology people is up there as far as infusions and things like that those guys are rockstars or I wouldn't be sitting here today so do Tate was my cancer doctor
and then Marge bar was my oncologist for radiation so it I learned a lot when I was up there you know I there were some things I wouldn't let him do I don't like to Port you know I don't want that direct infusion of you know hemo going right into my heart and degrading that
so I made him feed it into my arms and did unorthodox things and and Dr Tate had to put set me down and said uh and I thought I had eight chemos okay and I said I'm done with that he goes uh you haven't had eight at the art shop and I went he have eight chemos and I said'
I'm still alive and he he looked at me he goes you've been dancing and working and tap dancing and drinking beer and carrying on he goes I got three people over in that hospital had two chemos and they can't even get out of bed so he said just show up on Tuesday for the last one so I did here today because and
and that's why it works we're also working on bringing infusions to elb eight so we don't have to drive there's some things you have to drive for but we're bringing infusions to Elbow because you shouldn't have to drive when you're sick so it's a great story and we're glad that we could help um but again it's got to set set aside
Community boundaries sometimes figure out that Global Solution that's what we're about we 100% ready to be at the table with all the communities how can we how can we serve how can we solve the problem together so needs assessment that critical needs assessment in the beginning y so I'd like to thank uh I I
would like to just Lobby one thing about Pete the insurance County the county has your cost level four the highest if there's anything we can you can do to negotiate that down yeah um well and I apologize for
that one that was a decision made by somebody um who isn't with us anymore maybe had not a community mindset on it and we just have got now a better solution of looking at that thing Community by community so we understand that and uh we need to fix that one
thank you I got one y go ahead the just want to state that hofman ambulance Ashby ambulance uh Lake Region ambulance they're all very NE necessary in this County so you know I know Grant or Lake
Region has the jurisdiction over the whole County but we need Ashby up there and we need Hoffman over there and uh that's what we're working on is uh keeping keeping those three uh going in this County at a strong Pace yeah
because uh like you know we've all I've seen many many people that wouldn't be here anymore without the ambulance and uh and our First Responders to all those people and Dr rap I've seen him stabilize so many people and Y yeah he'd
even he'd even have us in there bagging patience with them you know just to keep them alive so we could get them in a chopper or a airplane or something so yeah no 100% I I agree and you know if you take a look at their map in there um
we are we are trying to get into the communities to make sure that we're partnering with them but not burdening them with Administration stuff that people already have a bus busy enough day so 100% hear what you're saying so I got question for are you reaching out you know to the federal government on
your reimbursement coming back from Medicare and Medicaid at$ 40 cents a dollar do a 60 for a critical access correct yeah better reimbursement when you look at the cost PL right so this standardization you know should you know what I mean be wherever you go it should
be the same price right so it should be that 60 cents in my opinion or or whatever it takes for the sustainability yeah we were with representative Congressman congresswoman fishbach yesterday in Otter City talking about EMS talking about reimbursement and she
specifically called folks together on that side of of ottero County to get together so um Sheriff was there uh some City uh chiefs were there bring G was there uh and she's trying to figure out a way to help get some funding from the federal side of it so it was a great
meeting but that's where we got to look at it so it's again Grant County and the communities we got to look with otter tale County as well and partner um and uh I think that's the way it's going to work because we're so interconnected as it is as counties and
cities Larry get sits on your board yep so I get feedback from him i' like to thank Jill and for serving on this committee you got a lot of work ahead of you I also I'd like to thank Doyle and
Troy for their comments and we're three minutes overdue but I'm going to give Katie the chance to for the final uh some final to say and and if you could touch on choy's Final comment about the level four I think you answered we know we
need to fix that in progress but the question is are you GNA yeah yeah I I've got to look into I'm not sure if they locked into it for a year or when we can elect back into it but we'll fix it the next time it comes around so then I'll give you the final
say for Lake Region go ahead KY sure well just thanks thanks for the opportunity to be here a big part of my role is um connecting with our communities um making sure we're communicating well um so that they they know what we offer and we know what they
need and um one of the ways that we do that in Elbow Lake a recent investment is that digital billboard that's outside and I just leave that open that if there's ever anything that would be helpful for us to share messaging with the community um from the Commissioners
from the county standpoint um that's a community resource just like healthcare is and um it's privilege uh to be here privilege to serve and um to work together to enrich life through Health thank you for your presentation you're four minutes
overdue thanks for the extra time appreciate good to see everybody thank you anything comes up any questions just go to we give us a call our numbers and emails are on that power point thank you Matt thank you Highway Department prince in hand he comes with
all right which item was first 34 bid oh okay all right uh last Tuesday uh we did receive bids for the County Road 34 project which is the one uh Prairie Ridge Park there that road with two box
Cs on it we got two biders uh both bids were over the estimate uh pool Excavating out of Little Falls I've done work with them in the past they're small contractor the other one was Central Specialties uh right now we're about $200,000 over what
we were budgeting for this project and since it's a County Road we'd have to use County funds as opposed to cassad dollars for that uh another item that came up is when I was researching the funding for this based on the general obligation
bond that this project is utilizing for bridge bonding there was a there is a uh what do you call an eeo Clause that wasn't included in the proposal that would can be remedied
through a no cost change order for the project but that would take about a month to get through that and then down to St Paul for them to approve it so uh right now I did speak with the little bidder uh yesterday and he would like us
to award it to him obviously because since he's a small contractor he's also exempt from the EO I told him I would bring that up to the board and ultimately it's your decision to decide which which route you're going to go uh what the status of
the extra time it would take to do that eeo stuff and then get permission from the state to award the bid uh we probably wouldn't see any construction at all this year so the thought was my thought was
to rebid the project here in a few months get everything in there make sure everything's right and plan for a spring start on the project the way it looks now happen the way the water is any yeah it's going to be pretty ugly down there
it's a lot of water there so just help me out EO obviously it's an acronym and the impact and the effect to uh the EO stipulation would be on based on these General obligation
bonds I think it's anything over $100,000 has to have an EO in it and for this one they say the goal is 12% uh people of color and Indigenous and
90% female workers that the contractors would have to meet and they would have to submit their plan to the state for approval prior to awarding a bid to them so when do you think you'd order the boxes if we decide to go a different
direction here March February March no I would plan on probably having another bid opening if we go that route here in September okay so they can have them built over the winter and we need to go in spring so your recommendation is to
reject the bids and proceed to rebid this fall yep maybe we can get a lower price a motion to accept Matt's recommendation so
second a motion in a second additional discussion all in favor say I I oppose your recommendation is approved thank you uh the second item I have on there
is a couple months back the board resolved to uh purchase an easement from Kenton Cy Marshall regarding the surcharge impacts that happened to their property or the Wetland down there and since the project was just recently
platted due to the construction project the easiest route to go would be to do a RightWay map and I worked with Pat be goth our County Surveyor to do that work we did get the easement and it is signed so today to create the parcel or the
easement I have the RightWay map here for the board's approval so what we're approving is that the process for the easement and the map Yep this would create the parcel which the easement references okay so is there
a motion to the parcel that the evenement reflexes some is there a second second any discussion is there any numbers or any reference specific
references to the for the minutes or is it just general terminology like we've address I believe the previous motion was to purchase the highway easement for $42,000 so this is just a continuation
of that that make sense for you Chad any other discussion all in favor say I I opposed carried and I will need your signature on them okay that's all I have
thank you very much thank you thank you I think you got us right in spiff up there thank you did you want did you have something today to sign okay got get out of here before the chairman comes up with something for
you people are you next asley I believe you are we maybe wait till Mr lavali returns sure actually your son do last may they lost well yeah that's
the my grandson lost too yep y my grandson won y yeah it was a good game they they played very well with Wednesday they playing tonight now this is their by night so they don't have a game tonight oh the card going nope so they're going to practice tonight
yeah that's not all bad they'll play again on Thursday I didn't see your email but I did ask oh I didn't hear anything I I was I was on the phone doing Federal stuff so I'll talk to you later about it then
I thought the twins Cardinal game was pretty good last night of course you did of course we did so playing against his cousins yep that's kind of cool yes Y in multiple teams yeah y That's okay the Cardinals
got C that's okay that's all right it's good to lose yeah so I should asked you which one was yours in fact I was trying to pick them out of the uh where did he play or he was center
field okay yep he has the he's a nine-year-old so he has oh he's a niney old yeah this was first year okay good it's a good Le good start of young and yeah he likes it yeah okay Mr lval is back so we'll let
Ashley commence mov on all right so the first thing I'll bring back to the board from the last meeting it was tabled um so the coordinator description was approved um and the the portion that was tabled was
the hiring or the uh posting and the hiring of the coordinator position um it was tabled because of to figure out the location of where the position would go so I don't know where we sit with that did the building committee meet yeah we after after the meeting we went to talk
to Rob and he indicated he would make that space right here available by August 1 okay so then it would just need approval of the posting and hiring to move forward so is there a motion we already have a motion in a second oh
okay oh okay so then I just need approv right because we had that last that it wasn't right but I mean it still stands right which needs to be voted on right so we don't we just what are we
voted on on something that took come took place in the past help me out so there was a there was a motion in a second made at our last meeting and that question got tabled until this meeting so currently where we stand is we have a motion and a second so where you would
go is into the discussion phe okay was made by Troy Johnson second and by Bill L Val to advertise and for the cordinator position there was no there was no vote taken on that because then there subsequently there was a motion made
to um table that motion of advertising and high until today's meeting cor thank you so I'll ask for discussion on the original motion to move forward with the advertising hiring is there any
additional discussion on favor of motion say I I opposed carried okay thank you so what office is he this person going into uh the veteran service office okay yep and
then when the move happens then for the courthouse okay September is come time whenever we're available all right so the next thing is the highway accountant position um so we've had difficulty hiring for the
highway account position so the Personnel committee Highway have met to try to come up with um you know ideas of creative ideas of how we can get somebody uh in the position um and Jamie and the treasur office had offered to um
help out the highway department in some of the accountant functions which kind of developed and um created that conversation uh so it was talked about um that uh Jamie would take on some of the the higher end of the accountant
duties um in her office and then we would reclassify uh the highway accountant into an office manager account text so it's a more entrylevel position um we feel that that would provide maybe more applicants um for that type of work on the day-to-day for
the highway department so um we developed a or reclassified the job description office manager account Tech position which is what I sent you guys yesterday yeah um and so it goes over the functions we took out quite a bit of things out of it uh it's It's Still
Remains at a a grade nine um but as you can see I don't know if you have any questions on it when I sent out but we would be looking for um approval for that position and then to go out and hire for
it it should grow the pool of applicants I would assume I would think so yeah it's kind of it's it's what we had um back in 2018 we did have this position and then we had our fiscal manager with
Social Services was here doing uh the things that Jamie will be doing um and so we've had this we've had this before this this um this job description we have had before we've had this before
yeah and then we had um the fiscal manager doing the other things for highway back I think it was 18 maybe it was a while ago but now but um so yeah we're looking looking for um approval for this job description and then I can
hire we can start hiring for it this is a question for Matt what's egram EGR is our online okay never seen that turn before I
didn't know I had a question I got to find it if you maybe you can help me there's something in there that addresses the website can you find the sentence for me so what I think is so like I had said about um the website is that every
department has somebody that is able to do the changing and the editing of their Highway page and so this position would let me interupt you a second yep can you tell me where can you find me help me find the reason is I don't know if the terminology because I think it addresses
maintains and doesn't address necessarily that they're going to have input on it help me out what what does it say I'm trying to find it great on top it's up on top on the right compiling and completing requested
information monitoring High wison monitor oh third one third paragraph currently I am do and I would say it's just adding and taking off things you both are complicated asking to do
yeah did Dia do some of this m yeah okay and Jen was say mhm they count whatever M person yeah and 20% of her time was built to the highway department correct so just to give you an update on
what was going on back was quite a while so you need a motion to accept accept and higher accept the job description Ander okay has a recommendation from the highway committee I will make that motion Mr
chair we have a motion is there a second second additional discussion all in favor say I I there you go okay uh the next thing that relates to the highway uh
accountant position is currently um Jamie asserted some doing some of the duties um helping out with the highway department and so we've kind of collected uh some of those duties um so then we'll have to bring to Baker Tilly but today I just want approval that she
can do those duties because right now it's outside of her job description and so I just would like approval that she can do those duties until we get that final job descript ition with the duties included so you need a motion to approve the treasurer doing Highway
accountant duties prior to the getting I'll make that motion say a second I'll second discussion so I got a question
would this be some of the details that Aaron was doing that no not necessarily no okay any other and that is ukg is that what no that's my next thing oh
okay prior to what did you say Ashton prior to um receiving the updated job description okay you got that Chad yeah all in favor say I I oppos
okay all right next thing is um ukg so we had um went into a contract with them um in 20
22 I believe um for a new payroll system and um Jamie and I when Jamie was the deputy auditor we both worked very closely when Jamie mov over to the treasur office Chad was involved more on the end of it
probably we were involved in all the meetings um to switch over to this ukg system uh as we entered the system and as we got the steps into going live it it it was in a good fit um we found many uh
many things that didn't work um didn't work with our systems or things that they didn't seem as familiar with County government type work um and we ran into some issues um with them and I think I
don't know if Jamie's on but I'm sure Chad can chime in a little bit that it was very difficult um and so we came to a point in December of 22 that it it wasn't going to work and we didn't not want to move forward anymore with it and
so I had started the termination uh process process and here we are in 2024 and we still are talking about it um Justin had conversations with the attorney um I wasn't involved in those conversations but Justin was going to be here he had something another conflict
but um he had conversations with the legal team at ukg went back and forth with letters um and they came up with a uh either they they're willing to rearrange and either we can go live with them which I don't recommend or we can
end the contract which would cost uhu $4,850 to end the contract um other we do oh if we were to pay they would if they would require us to pay in full it'd be about 37,000 um but they're allowing us are
they're releasing or contract at that amount so you see me you said if we were going to pay in full it would be how much like 37,000 and how does that compare to the 14 something so the 14 they I don't see again I wasn't involved in the
conversations these are just what this is the email that I got from Justin um they're willing to have us pay they're willing to um accept the 14,850 um to terminate and get out but if we were to pay like our quarterly
fees because we were paying we had owed quarterly and we weren't paying them because I had um tacked with the sales rep that we worked with and said that we're working on we're having issues this isn't working and they said well we'll just um pause your quarterly amounts and you won't have to pay them
and so they were building up but we weren't paying them and so I suppose if we had to pay in full those are the quarterly amounts those are our yearly contract amounts and things like that so they are they said they're willing to rearrange so we can either go live with them or pay the amount to get
out so what I'm hearing is that we're not comfortable with ukg no what's our Plan B run B or C or we're currently with computer professionals and we will
stay with the computer professionals um I'm a little gunshine to go anywhere else at this point so we're actually aren't even using the fedal system we're using more we're using computer professionals we never went live with ukg we were never comfortable going live with all the issues that we were having
and so we we did not go live we told them that we did not want to change over um because we weren't comfortable with it um there were a lot of issues do you have a recommendation Chad my recommendation thoughts not
change our payroll system to UK not live so ukg must have some really great sales because we're not the only County in this situation we're not the only entity in this situation and those that did go to UK AG understanding is are trying to get out
and get back to CPT so CPT is in the middle of a huge tax reite and I don't know what's next if it's payroll if it's toss the county I I mean
there but it's still better than the time ukg is a very large compy yes very large their software I would see is probably geared more toward
large private corporations the company I used to work for using yes other counties around Grant County uh Douglas and po just that I know of um currently usingg and they
had a I would say probably a different experience on their training up to when they actually switched um they I know when I when we contacted folk they said everything was smooth we would
ask a question you Granton would ask the question of ukg hey what about you know ab and C the team that was assigned to Grand County would say no you can't do this no you can't do this no you can't do this and then of course you know you pick up the phone call County and they're like
yeah we can go that it was just and we asked them like our team we said we want to be set up exactly like Pope County we we can't do that we can't cross over that's confidentiality we can't ask that team I'm like well can we have that team then can we just be assigned to that team that did Pope County nope we can't
do that um so yeah there was there was lots of discrepancies um frustration as you got deeper into it you could kind of see what was potentially coming down the road of
support and changes and is there other parts of their product line that we use no no so I mean this is no so we'd be totally done with them we yeah and we would be able to get out for 14,700 we thought we were done at the end of
2022 so is your recommendation that we paid the 14,700 and or whatever that number is yes I am not comfortable going live um the conversations that Justin and their lawyers have had their customer service
and the way that they talk about Grand county is not something I support and would want to work with and that would be also your recommendation Chad I have really not been involved in that this part yeah I just thought we were done two years ago or a year and a half AG he
saying he doesn't want to use criminal so by default yeah but you're comfortable we get rid of them what we have and moving forward with yes what we currently have we will continue to use I would not recommend
going with their ukg is payrolling so we get into this money part of it I haven't been involved at all what adjustments so is there yes so has there been a direct billing that's come to the county already it's been sitting there no so
we've been billed but then we've been told by ukg that it's paused so we still get the quarterly bills but we were told that they'll be set aside you don't not have to pay that right yeah so and that number was again was 147 14,850 14,000 is there motion to accept Ashley
and Chad's recommendation as it relates to the 14,850 oh no no wait wait wait wait wait wait wait I'm not recommending we pay the 14 oh okay so is there motion to Justin's work to this how about I just make a motion and it doesn't have to be
based on anyone's recommendation it this is what has been negotiated by our attorney to pay a 14,850 to get out of that contract and down is there a second to CH motion we all got
it discussion thank you for the clarification there Chad any other discussion all in favor say I I POS good now is that it that's all I have other than the CL session you got
is there a motion to go into close session 1051 second all in favor say I I I oppos who made it yeah why you say
what e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e see there I [Music] nice a motion to mod of post session at
1120 so move second second all in favor I okay thank you ashle thank you are there any other committee reports we did the ARA requests
no pretty well covered Mr chair if that's the case then I'll jour meeting at 11:20 thank you thank you you still there granny got up that I don't to go back oh