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e e e e e e phon good morning everyone and welcome to the uh Tuesday February 18th 2025 meeting of the candy oh high County
Board of Commissioners on this uhis uh February morning uh first order of business please stand for the pl IED to GL of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation God
indivisible andice for all before we get moving with the uh uh approval of the agenda I'd like to invite uh administrator Baker to to uh uh introduce uh to the public uh a new member of our administrative team yes so good morning I'd like to introduce our
new Human Resources Director Katie zemer she started last Monday February 10th and she is picking things up very quickly almost too quickly that we're like okay here we go um but we're really excited so she over the next few weeks she's meeting with department heads and getting to know staff and employees and
uh the services that we provide so I just thought I would invite Katie up to the podium to just do a really brief introduction hi I'm Katie I've been here I'm on week two uh over the last week I've been meeting with different department heads and plan to continue to do so over the next month and I'm
excited to be here thank you and uh and and thank you for coming back for week two that's yeah that's an encouraging sign and hopefully week three right yeah
and apologies while I turn off the phone all right uh Katie thank you welcome to the team and uh it'll be great working uh working with and alongside of you um next item of business approval of the
agenda agenda is presented is there a second I'll second that Mr chair uh thank you and uh any discussion comments very none all all in favor say I I all opposed motion passes thank you
uh next item of business is the uh consent agenda uh these are uh typically standard items that uh that we see come across here uh uh that can be simply approved as a uh as a group they include
the approval of the February 4th 2025 County Board legal minutes approval of the auditor warrants and claims claims paying the bills approval of Human Services warrants and claims and cancellation of Human Services warrants
uh typically items that uh are in either uh error or uh uh or the uh check has never been cashed so on and so forth so is there a motion on the consent agenda so move Mr chair Mr chair
I'll second that there a motion on a second to approve the consent agenda discussion is there any item that any commissioner wishes to pull hearing none all in favor say I I all opposed motion passes thank you uh
at this time it's our uh pleasure to uh introduce ask to come up to the podium Sarah vandar um and uh let's see just is not here today I forgot that he was on vacation that's what I was looking at and uh sir please introduce yourself who
you're with and uh and what we're going to be seeing today very good I am Sarah vhar and I am the executive director at pack for families um pack for families is a five counties joint Powers um families and Children's Mental Health collaborative that Services candy ohigh
merer McLoud Renville and yellow medicine counties so today I want to provide just a few updates about some of the programs and initiatives that we're running um the number of families that we're serving and different um areas uh where we have been working to improve the system of care so um I do have a
report that I sent over that you can kind of follow along as I'm going but I'll start with some of our programming um so we have several federal and state initiatives that are running right now um samsa provides Federal funding for some of our programs
includ including our journey to Independence program which first started in 2020 um that program ended in 2024 and we did receive additional funding to continue that program for another four years so that program Services youth
aged 14 or it was 16 to 21 but now with this new cohort we moved it down to age 14 so we're serving a few more few more families and kids but it Services kids 14 to 21 who are at that transition AED youth age and are experiencing serious
emotional dis disturbances or serious mental illness or even at risk for those and what we do is help prepare them for their transition into adulthood we help to um make sure that their youth serving service providers are going to help them transition into adult serving services
so that they can transition successfully into adult roles and responsibilities um so we have coaches that work directly with them oneon-one and then we also have a family liaison that works with their families to help them understand diagnosises and different challenges
that they could be facing to help um reiterate some of the goals that the coaches are working on with those youth and then our road to success program was one that we received in 23 which goes through 2028 so it's a 5-year program um and it is also a SSA funded Federal
grant um and it works with the same age group except 16 to age 25 so expanded from the 18 all the way up to age 25 um and then we work with those youth um and added developmental disabilities to the eligibility criteria for that program so
we're able to service a few more families and youth with that program building life skills and helping them again transition into those adult roles responsibility so that we can have successful communities um our next program that I wanted to uh go over is
our um Family Support Services which is are funded directly through um local collaborative time studies dollars through the state and um yes so I'm on that back page so the Family Support Services um strengthen families uh
through family Lees on support and resource sharing um from our staff um to connect them with different resources and services within the system of care and also to help navigate that system of care so our family liaison um position
in 2024 in 2025 we are expanding that and adding another part-time position so we can service a few more families we also have our wraparound services that go through that program and we recently shifted to a motivational interviewing wraparound program which is a very um
High Fidelity wraparound program so that we're meeting with families helping them understand their goals and values and then helping them to develop those goals so that they can be more successful in in addressing some of their mental health challenges and the services that they need throughout their their
Journeys and then we also have support groups that support uh families who have children with developmental disabilities or different behavioral challenges so that we can pull those families together and offer a little bit of additional support offer resources and make sure that they have uh additional supports of
across their their families and communities part of that program is also our guia program with the Family Support Services and the guia program is um funded through the state through seig funding which is cultural Equity sorry I have it written
down um and and it's a it works on cultural equity and we work with youth aged 14 to 21 um who may have mental health or substance use challenges so we work with the schools and kind of with the youth to ensure that they don't have treny in the schools and that they're
also um being provided the socially um appropriate and linguistically appropriate Services uh we're working on developing a really strong referral system so that kids and families can have those linguistically and culturally appropriate Services through either
telea health or through um providers right here in in our communities so working to expand that program one of the nice things um that I'm excited about with this next um round of funding which was just received um in November for this grant is that we are going to
be working with kids to explore different Mental Health Professions um to raise awareness about mental health and what they can do um to expand the cultural diversity of professionals within the communities so we're excited about that project as well our
partnership for Success Grant is in its final year um Candy ohigh uh candy ohigh Renville and yow County are part of a tri count partnership with um the success partnership for Success Grant and we work to develop positive Community Norms with youth um to promote
substance youth's prevention so through some of those positive Community Norms we help um change the perception of substance use across the counties and so we have been working to show kids that not all kids are using substances and
then we're also sharing messages about talk they hear you with parents so that parents can understand the importance of talking to their kids about substance use and making sure that they know expectations so that we can um make sure that kids have a a good perception about what what substance use can do and um
and the perception of harm and make sure that they have a clear understanding of what that is that program has also been working with school districts to distribute um Vape disposal boxes um it's kind of been a collaborative effort with the ship Partners um through our
counties so that's been a good project as well and then our uh our prevention Specialists and program directors have been working with smart approaches to marijuana to develop some cannabis legislation and prevention just to make sure everybody's aware of what that
legislation looks like and what we can do to keep our kids and our families safe as far as it comes to um substance use and cannabis so that program is coming to an end here in 2025 so we are in the process of writing a new propos
proposal um with that new proposal they've changed the criteria a little bit um the population size is what will indicate the amount of money you can apply for with that project so we're looking at splitting that Tri County partnership into two dual County Partnerships one with yellow medicine
Renville County and then one possibly with candy ohigh and merer County so we're waiting to hear from merer County to see if they're um if their Meer area prevention partnership would be interested in collaborating with candy Ohio County on that project so we're really excited about the possibility of
that because we have talked with them in the past about um different collaborations we've kind of walked alongside them as they're building their coalitions and their prevention efforts in the county too so um be on the lookout for that proposal and um and a letter of commitment to hopefully come
from this County Board um any questions about the programs that we provide uh any thank you Sarah any any questions for Sarah in regards to what she's presented to us here so
far commissioner thank you Mr chair um do you have a maybe you know the number or at least a sense of the amount of direct or indirect funding you get from the federal government for the programs that um you run yeah um I do so our
journey to Independence program pulls in $640,000 a year um over four four years um so 640 for each year um our to success pulls in $630,000 a year uh the partnership for Success Grant um was
$300,000 a year um for our local collaborative time studies um dollars that come from the state we are getting around $425,000 a year but it depends on um different participations with the random
moment time studies that our public health and um school districts do so that is not a very it's not a very um easy one to determine how much money we're going to get out of that so we we do our best to provide the training necessary to keep kids to keep
all of our partners on board um and making sure that they're contributing to the the random time moment study so that we can get the mo most out of those um opportunities and then with our guia funding that one was just approved and I
believe we're bringing in $285,000 this this year and then 210 the following two years yes uh and did you distinguish between State funding or federal funding on because the one you mentioned that
was hard to okay discern was state but I'm I'm more interested in the federal share of this and maybe as a percent of your total budget if you have that I do um so 65% of our budget comes from federal and state funding I would say
that out of that 55% of it comes from the federal government um with our journey to Independence our partnership for success and our road to success program um we have been talking with our grant project officers and right now they have
instructed us to continue as we are um all of our funding um except for the RO the partnership for Success funding which is um in notice of funding right now so we're writing that proposal so that's the only one that I'm very that I'm a little bit concerned about as far
as future funding but the rest of the funding I'm not not so concerned about at this point um I think that everything will continue as as is for at least the next for the end of the grant cycle so thank you yeah you bet commissioner bur Mr chair thank you yes I think I know
where you're going with with this and I know everybody's concerned about Federal funding as we hear so much about that but we do have contracts for some several of those that go out a couple years than will cross our fingers that the federal government will honor our their contracts with us and we can go
forward but uh that is the give us informed anyway yes will yes yes we will we are in close contact with those um gpos through the through samsa so we are communicating with them and expecting that they will um share any information that they have when it comes sure any
other questions from any of the other Commissioners uh Sarah I have I have one you you uh mentioned just in brief there's a vape disposal program that you about and this is uh I think this is kind of interesting this is actually
almost a hazardous waste type of issue can you speak to that a little bit sure so as part of our partnership for Success program we've been working with schools um to decrease Vape use in in our school districts and one of the ideas that we came up with when I was still working on the coalitions was that
we should help schools to properly dispose of these Vapes because they are they are ahead Hazard they can cause fires and they do have um lithium batteries in them so they developed these they're kind of like ammo boxes and they've got um materials in them
that help to neutralize the chemicals in the Vapes and then the the school districts dispose of all the Vapes in there they are keeping track of how many they collect um and then the kids who are caught with Vapes are also going through some sort of cessation um
training and therapy so that they can learn about the the effects of vaping and what that's doing to their bodies and hopefully um get them to make some better choices um but then we're also using um the Disposable waste and taking it to the to the landfill and and
working with with the county partners for that too so it's a great project outstanding thank thank you for that explanation because I think that's something that uh uh people probably don't understand is that uh uh these Delivery Systems are uh if they end up
in the waist stream improperly uh that's that that's a hazard across uh across the community so it is it is we were excited that the the the counties were able to work with us when it came to the Disposable waste of those so that's been a great partnership well uh commissioner Burke
go ahead oh no I mean after I you're done you you weren't waving at me yes but I was just letting you know I oh I just really want want to give a little bit of History I know the board's well aware of this but maybe any public uh group that may be listening so they're aware of the history of the
collaborative it started back in the 90s and uh state of Minnesota with the federal waivers or uh given uh some authority to move forward and and uh creates situation where there would be less rules and regulations in some
aspects there still you know lots of accountability there's no doubt about that when it comes some money but to work together because they wanted government to work together uh in in the own entities so they wanted Public Health and Human Services and Community Corrections to get together as a
collaborative and that's kind of how it started out except we're very unique here in our region and it's uh we're just so lucky that we are that way that we look beyond our boundaries and we collaborate so well together and it started out we decided to go we when I
used to say you or pack four decided to go with four counties and actually added another County so it's really pack five but we call pack four uh going forward and working together doing all this and then including the schools and uh a lot
of the different providers we have in the community and the nonprofits getting together cross boundaries and trying to uh work together to make better uh lives for our children in our in our region and how successful this is when you look at each County even though we're all
rural to a large degree each county is a little bit different too to able to be able to navigate through that as you said well maybe these two compies work together on this and these two can do that but just opened up a Floodgate of potential services that we've been able
to provide and uh and they go to good let's put that way and that's why I really want it wasn't a matter of getting money to come in to provide these services but think of all the hundreds of kids that were helped by this and still are being helped so yeah uh great program yes and with our journey to Independence and road to
success those are both programs that work on building the system of care so so we're collaborating very closely with our mental health partners with our Public Health Partners Family Services Corrections all of those people are coming together to make sure that we have a system of care that actually meets the needs of our kids and our families so that I think is is one of
the major goals of pack for families and I think that right now we're doing a really good job of it and we're working on expanding those Partnerships even further um we're getting letters of memorandum um memorandum of understandings from some of our healthc care providers mental health care providers to provide um data for us to
report on for our federal grants which I think has been um it was a hard ask but we we've been getting letters back and um receiving commitment to do that so we're very excited about that new partnership yeah um so moving on I
wanted to talk a little bit about our local area um advisory Council and some of the things that they do that pulls all five counties together as well and we work on some May's mental health um things to share out with counties and
within our communities so um last year we distributed May's mental health um cards they're the on the left side of the screen there um they are translated into both English Spanish and Somali uh and they provide resources for mental
health agencies um that uh text for Life uh Suicide Hotline is on there and um there's a little QR code with additional resources for families if they are finds in need of um support um and with the Somali cards we are working on getting
that QR code to be kind of a voiceover of what is on the card because many of the Somali people in our communities don't actually read their own language so we're working on making sure that we can be accessible and and provide them with accessible information um the bcen and green contest was um a contest that
we ran through May's mental health month last year um we did have some participants in candy Ohio County participate and um put together these cute little prize baskets um with like all things green so like I put a green pickle in there things like that just to
get kids excited about May's mental health month so we're going to plan to do that again uh coming up here in May uh so look out for that uh and share your pictures of dressing in green um some of the community training and development initiatives that we've offered uh throughout the past year
include tra trauma informed care so the trust-based relational inter invention um training goes out to professionals across the five counties um right now we're working on a pretty big initiative with the Wilmer Area Community Foundation to provide that training to
our Educators in the Wilmer School District um very very well attended um and I think it's going to it's going to have some some great um feedback from that opportunity um they're working on monthly sessions with with the trainer
to help um go through some of the specific incidents that are happening in their schools to make sure that they're trauma informed in their approach to working with kids with trauma um the youth Mental Health First Aid training is another one that we've been offering pretty regularly throughout the last
year and moving forward Ally training is the Trevor Project training uh you may have seen that flyer out there um it helps to build inclusive practices with the lgbtqia plus youth um so that training is available for County staff and different professionals across the
five counties um safe talk suicide prevention is another one that we've offered um the B extraordinary Buu marijuana and THC risk awareness was one brought to us through the partnership for Success project um and there were two schools here in Wilmer um area that
took advantage of that training for parents and youth um youth leadership academy is an opportunity for youth to come together and build leadership skills so that's been a great opportunity for our kids um and it expands kind of off of our youth substance use prevention program efforts
and as well as our um transition services and then the brain conference um offers different trainings related to brain health and mental health and we bring people from the five counties together have a nice conference um bringing um this year we brought Tom
Thelen um from one to's from New York so it was nice to bring somebody nationally renowned speaker to talk a little bit about suicide prevention and kind of efforts and what we can do to improve outcomes for our kids um any questions any any questions for
Sarah we have a couple of other items for us uh last thing is to just talk about the transition of school social workers um in candy oh high County um we did transition so over the past 20 years we have contracted with schools to provide Mental Health Services and
social workers within the schools and um our CEO board and um executive board came together a couple years ago to develop kind of a transition plan because the local collaborative time studies dollars are supposed to provide Innovative approaches to mental health
um and um evidence-based preventions and as we were looking at some of the the changes that need to occur because of funding deficits with the local collaborative time studies dollars we needed to take to make a turn or shift about how we wanted to to utilize some
of those dollars so the the executive board and CEO board did come up with a transition plan to to transition those School social workers into employees of the school districts where they would take on 100% of the salaries and benefits of those youth of those um
workers so um for 2425 we are still providing 10% of the total salary and benefits for um for Misty langth um Monica Crow and Liz Krueger with Wilmer schools and the New London Spicer schools did um go to employment of their
schools so they have taken over employment for their for workers but um we just want to recognize that although this was a challenge for our school districts we are still working very closely to collaborate with them in other ways to provide trainings
um like the TR trust based relational intervention training that was a nice big project that is still supporting Youth and the the teachers in that school district um as as a as a collaborative it is still our jobs to be um including and partnering with all of
the partners with across our five counties so even though we had to make that shift we still want the schools to know and recognize that we are still here to support them in other ways so working on developing training initiatives and things that can support them as well
so and that's all I have for you outstanding any uh any final questions or comments Sarah thank you so much for everything that you and uh in fact for do to help positively uh impact
Community Health we really really appreciate it thank thank you so much have a great day you guys than you as well all right uh at this time we'll uh request uh County auditor Mark Thompson come and uh give the
2024 gravel tax report riveting stuff I know but necessary morning commission there's Mark Thompson auditor uh I'm here to present the gravel tag report uh total collections for
2024 we had $176,800 is uh an administration fee that dollar amount came to 8,841 32 uh what's left over is 167,50
and6 from there 42 1.5% goes to the townships involved and 42.5% goes to the rad and Bridge fund the remaining 15% gets put into a Special Reserve fund uh I can go through the numbers
there if you want um as you can see the different townships verbank Township 2885 and2 uh kfax 589 48 doy Township 1,110
31 jenese Township will receive $3,585 Green Lake Township will receive 9,497 192 um Lake Andrew Township will receive $ 6,878 183 New London Township will receive
$82.60 and Roseville Township will receive 27,1 19123 as I mentioned the the the other half the other 42 2 and a half% uh goes to the road bridge fund and that dollar amount would be
$71,000 $394 or $393 64 and then the remaining 15% goes into a Special Reserve fund and that is $2,197 76 um the next page on uh in your packet
there shows the haulers and uh what dollar amount they uh what what dollar amount we collected from them some report by yards uh it's 21.5 cents per yard some report by tons it's in the
charge is 15 cents a ton um so if you have any questions on that and then of course the last page in the report shows um the ongoing Reserve balance as you can see in 2024 we had an additional
25,000 $197 76 added so that's a it's a grand total of 344,000 $24.3 in the gravel tax
fund that's my report to you and I think what all I need is a a motion to approve the report and the distribution of funds so okay thank you for your report U Mr
sure I would uh move to approve the report and the distribution of funds there's a motion to approve uh is there a second I'll second it thank you discussion commissioner mde
um thank you Mr chair uh Mr Thompson the uh can you explain a little bit uh what the Reserve balance will be used for when and what will be drawn from it sure and I probably going to again I don't mean to put uh Public Works
director Mel in a spot but those funds are determined part of those funds will be used to reclaim gravel pits I believe um the rest of the funds I'm not quite sure M what what is the so so the Mr chair members of the board the reserve
funds go to reclaim any gravel pits that have been left in disarray uh we've never used it uh the other part of the 42% 42 half% goes to our crack filling projects every year so we use it we we return it back to the road every dollar we get on the
gravel tax we return it back to the road thank you Mr chair I I was referring to just the reserve portion so part of the reserve goes for crack filling no well the there's a there's a piece in here that the 42.5% goes with
Bridge funding then the 15% goes to the reserve fund the reserve fund is never been tapped okay and so does that if I may continue does that mean we haven't reclaimed any pits uh since 2008 when this was started that would be correct
okay commissioner Dwayne Anderson um well commissioner mde asked my asked my question basically which was uh were were what was the Special Reserve fund used for so thank you any further questions for
auditor Thompson all right there's a motion and a second on the floor to approve the uh report all those in favor signify by say and I I all opposed motion carries thank you okay thank
you next item uh consideration of resolution uh RK uh ditch uh judicial ditch 2 Austin do I have that right yes good morning go ahead morning Mr
chair board members Austin Hill Branch and drainage manager coming today seeking approval of resolution 2025-the that we share with Renville County again this resolution confirms selection of members for the joint County drainage Authority um designates
districts in the event of vacancies and designates a majority County um after the last election um renva County had some changes and we we realized we did not have one of these resolutions on file there is a uh a
sister resolution that will be approved by Renville County um and this resolution would appoint commissioner mde and commissioner Dwayne Anderson districts four and five as joint County board
members are there any questions for Austin on this matter Mr chair can you just explain for the public uh about where ditch number two is uh yeah I believe the board may know so joint County ditch number two that we share with Renville county is in
uh the Southwest Southwest section of Lake Lilian Township and then also the southeast uh area of East Lake lilan Township ship so along the County Road 44 Corridor at the at the Renville County border and then uh along County
Road 2 in East Lake L Township and then the majority of it is in Renville County um uh we are 38% of that ditch system so we are only allowed two Commissioners commissioner in Mr chair I
would move on resolution 2025-the solution is there a second I'll second that Mr chair thank you discussion just one more comment regarding that if anybody is wondering why Renville has three Commissioners and Ki has two it has to do with the amount
of ditch in each of those jurisdictions thank you anybody else all right uh motion is made and seconded all those in favor of approving the resolution signify by saying I I all
opposed motion carries thank you Austin you have the next item as well pesticide license testing fee schedule yep coming to you now as the county egg inspector so uh this uh fee schedule is my uh is
to become a Minnesota Department agriculture County testing partner um to host pesticide applicator testing here in candyy County um this fee schedule has been approved by the MDA so my initial proposal to them um
I submitted back in January and that we just need to approve the fee schedule here and this is the fee schedule for me to host testing here at candyi County um so if you go to the fee schedule you'll see that $60 non-resident um fee that's basically set
by MDA so MDA used to um host pesticide applicator testing um at their place at their place in St CL or St Paul sorry and then uh they they still had County testing Partners um now MDA is switching
to a thirdparty vendor and that 30 third party vendor charges $60 for not for their testing um facilities so that's we can't undercut them so that's why the non-resident fee is set at 60 I cut it in half for candy County residents um and I put free for candy County
employees that are seeking a non-commercial government applicator license so on the fee schedule is the test type they would have to select and then the categories we would offer all right thank you are there any questions for Austin I got a question
commissioner Dwayne Anderson so is this new or is this so I believe we did offer pesticide applicator testing here at candu County but was given up um because the state wasn't necessarily helpful um and we they didn't have at the time it
was all paper uh paper tests and now we were we are going to be doing um computer tests so okay um so I I I I've been approached by several um Candy County residents and and even members of Public Works staff that wondering why we
don't um offer this testing here anymore because now they would have to go to St Cloud is the nearest uh third- party vendor or a different County testing partner so all right and then maybe this isn't related but private pesticide uh
stuff it private they can't do that online anymore or how how does that work yep your private applicator for Farmers Only You Can Do that's a test online this would be okay it's still the same as it's been y this would be for any commercial applicator that wants to get
paid or somebody that's um applying restricted use pesticides as a for their business or for for their or yeah an employee for a business okay thank you any other questions for Austin and
then just just to clarify the fee is free for uh candy ohigh County employees who would be considered non-commercial government applicators so I assume this would be folks and say Public Works Public Works your ground facility people
if they if they apply restricted use could probably they could come take their one of their categories um and I wouldn't we wouldn't charge them to take the test here so yeah because that's that that's all basically internal correct County non non uh not for commercial or profit yep yep a
non-commercial um government applicator is a non-commercial license like I said but it's it's specified that it's only for the government organization or whatever so very good thank you uh any final questions we have a motion and a
second to approve the pesticide license testing fees schedule for candyi County all those in favor signify by saying I I I I'll opposed motion carries thank you I don't think we did I'm sorry I don't think we did a mo that
was for the that was for the previous one you know we went through that did my brain go mind all right well let's back out of that would I'll make a motion to accept the fees y that's awesome and I'll
second it Mr chair very good now we have a motion in a second any further discussion all those in favor say I I all opposed motion carries thank you very much thank you Mr chair I request a
a five minute break uh we will recess for 5 minutes e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e C County Board of Commissioners meeting next item on the agenda is the Planning Commission uh recommendations uh
standing in today is Gary gear uh Mr van D must if he's somewhere warmer uh I'm going to be envious today let's not let's not bring that up then uh thank you Mr chairman yes Gary gear
kway County Environmental Services director here to present to you the two conditional use permits that the Planning Commission heard on February 10th uh the first one is of Tatanka Club LLC they were amend proposing to amend their uh conditional use permit for a
Hospitality Center by allowing for two residential structures the previous conditional use permit that was approved was just for the one so this would be adding an 8-bedroom Hospitality unit along with with a separate building for a spa and Game Room uh again uh there
was a a certain uh amount of uh public present and uh a good discussion was had a good number of questions uh back and forth between uh the public and the Planning Commission and then the Planning Commission discussed the matter in detail among themselves as well
ultimately landing at a motion to approve the request based on the conditions and findings that are before you the three conditions proposed are that the facility shall not be used as a hotel motel that sewage treatment needs shall be met through the design installation and maintenance of cluster sewage treatment system plan for Outlaw
a of Tatanka Village or another approved means and that kitchen facilities shall not be open to the public but shall be limited to guests only so with those three conditions and the findings the Planning Commission uh recommends the County Board approve the application as
presented all right thank you are there any questions for U uh commissioner Dale Anderson hey Gary um I'm not against it or that concern but I've had a lot of
people call in with questions and concerns so I guess that's the reason I bring it up and I I um I think the big concern still gets to be is the hotel motel part I mean I understand that it's for guests only but can you talk any
more about that I guess about um what the reason that it's not a hotel motel um just for the public and I guess I would say just having visited uh with Eric uh following the meeting and the discussion that was held was such that
it's not open to the public you're not able to go online and make a reservation so that's the distinction in in my mind I think in an er's mind and maybe the Planning Commission as well after they discussed the matter as to why the condition landed as you know it shall
not be used as that but uh and again in addition that's what the applicants are uh agreeing to as well that they are understanding that they're not wanting it to be that so somebody may feel that it looks like that or feels like that but it's not I think the significant
difference would be is that nobody's you or I aren't able to go online and make a reservation and stay there it's guests only thanks yep commissioner bur Mr chair thank you a quick question uh do they have to uh pay like a a lodging tax
like a hotel would boy I C that one yeah I am not familiar with the L lodging tax and whether they would or would not um but that would be a an
IRS requirement if there if they are needing to do that see all right Mr chair commissioner if I make comment on commissioner Berg's question my understanding has long men and the developer said that lodging tax would
apply as long as they don't stay over 30 days okay sounds good all right thank you uh any other questions for Mr gear if not I entertain a motion on the
matter Mr chair ISO move to approve with the uh findings findings and conditions yes all right thank you I would second that motion thank you uh motion is uh made and
seconded uh any discussion uh G I'm just uh uh a little not quite understanding the capacity uh of this uh it says it's an8
bedroom uh facility I mean how many how many people is this structured to uh it's would be accommodate it's uh the calculations are made on two persons per room so that'd be 16 all right thank you and then it would
be 32 in total because they have their two eight-bedroom units is what their Hospitality Center is okay landing at yep all right thank you any other questions or comments Mr chair commissioner yes I
believe we all received some information as well about this I am you know very concerned we want to you know do our eyes and cross our tees on this whole thing but there's a lot of misunderstanding too because some of the information I've been receiving is the numbers are a lot higher than that the story keeps changing and getting larger
and uh just to be clear that it's not a major uh change uh Housing Development from that point of view and I believe we expected to be one we're adding an addition one correct correct that's what this
adds thank thank you anybody else all right we have a motion and a second to approve the recommendations of the Planning Commission uh on this matter this uh conditional use permit Amendment uh all those in favor say I I
I all opposed motion passes thank you next item all right thank you Mr chairman the next application was that of Ryan kozman uh and the is requesting a conditionally is permit for a cluster PD planned unit development cluster
development of 17 units in an R1 Shoreland residential Management District um this is the property right across the road from The Old Mill in on Green Lake it's actually has nest lake Frontage um and again uh the Planning
Commission uh discussed this matter in detail with members of the public uh questions were raised and uh I believe through that uh public hearing that those uh answers were given and ultimately again the Planning Commission
landed at uh making a recommendation to approve the request based on the conditions uh and findings presented in the in the packet you have in front of you uh the six conditions include that the mpca permitting for construction storm water shall be secured and
followed any driveway access point changes shall be approved by the County engineer the vegetative management agreement shall be followed watercraft moing site shall not exceed 14 dockage shall not be configured in a manner that inhibits navigation and prior to construction the developer shall submit
construction plans for review as required by State Statute 30708 subdivision 10 so with those six conditions and the findings the Planning Commission is unanimously recommending approval of this planned unit development which would be for 17 new
homes thank you uh any questions for Gary ER one of the uh uh one of the things that was uh I think would have been helpful for me would be to have been able to see some sort of a uh uh site plan on this as it relates to uh uh for
example uh where the U uh dockage or moing uh facilities uh would be that uh that wasn't in our packet as we received it last week okay if if by chance I don't know if administrator Baker could go to to
the camera here uh then I guess maybe the map I have here in the file is the the preliminary the plant I'm sorry the common in community preliminary plat
map that shows the the locations of the 17 homes and the clubhouse pickleball courts pool area and it does not show the dockage but the dockage would be in this area along the nest lake
side um I apologize that seem to be a a point of some concern uh that was heard I think during the uh testimony during the public hearing and uh and it wasn't it wasn't clear to me where that uh where
that area was where that was where that was going to be so the and the the reason for that is this and you can kind of see it by The Contours on here it's it's leveler and lower along this stretch of the frontage along
here the bank is much steeper and higher and that's what is so it would not be allowed to be in that area but I I guess I'm kind of backing up or apologizing here that that map or that information wasn't included to you but that the
docking or the location that is specifically governed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources not K County okay yeah all right uh commissioner B Mr chair thank you um I did have a chance to see that in my packet or somewhere I
had the same M okay um and I had some questions about that as well but I I have two or three questions if I may disc continue with that just looking at long as we're talking about the map or looking at uh there's not much spaces between each facility and one of the
questions I had was uh where it hooks up on the south side with the road there's there's one road coming in and that looks like the the main road but there's another road but it's not going to is that really hooked up to the the main road going across in front uh said
there's like gravel or or stone or something there so uh is it has it been ran by the uh fire department for example how would a fire truck get in there it looks really uh congested let's put that way I I know uh uh Eric did
Reach Out to the fire department and did not receive any input back that this would not work so um and that's been historically true for our office we we make the contact we make the request so once in a while we'll get a comment back or they want to see this specific thing
for their concern is this if they don't have a concern we generally do not specifically hear back so uh while it's tight um they are prepared to that's been their input to us over the years they are prepared to
respond uh and and Gary this is kind of the nature of plan unit developments so typically those are intended as a way to uh uh be a little more flexible in uh in this owning and allow for a little more
density uh on a property where there might be a challenged and that includes uh some narrowed up Street wids I assume these are probably what 24 I can't read it on here are they 24 foot uh streets
look like I think it is a 24 I'm helping with my eyes here too looks like it could be a 24 there's a dash right in the number uh 20 or 24 but again the that you're correct with that the development has is not held to a specific width uh inside because it's
not a public road of any sort it's a private road Private driveway to serve these homes cuz there are a number of uh planned unit developments in uh in the city of Wilmer as well and that uh uh and that's something that is allowed for
in in State Statute correct sure um May I follow up on my questions yes thank you okay you but thank you and and you you brought up you know statutes and so forth my question is I believe we all received some letters too as well and
stting some specific statues in that uh letter about you know the different aspects of this and I was just kind of wondering if uh if those have been addressed and uh how do they legally are we meeting the criteria put it that way
and I'd like to ask uh K County attorney uh Mr Baker if uh from your p uh point of view have you had a chance to review this at all and do the legally or we meeting all the legal challenges with
this well I haven't given the materials in the file so I don't know on those factual things I know that and looking at the ordinance it does have a it's on it's 12-33 or page
57 starts they're a listing of nine paragraphs so I'll call it nine documents that have to be provided before final action is taken on the request and I know that was something the claim that all those were not provided so then that's true if they
haven't all been provided final action can take place and so then uh do we know if all of those particular documents have been provided yes and through Eric in uh review of the file and the application
and the information submitted all information the application is complete and we have met the applicant has met all of those requirements those nine requirements well I I guess I was related to that and Mr gear answered the
question okay thank you any other questions commissioner Dale Anderson I guess I don't want to I don't really have a question I guess I got more of a statement I mean there was I was at the cling and Zoning meeting that night there was a lot of concerns about whether this was being done right and
and all the process was completed as far as how it was the application was being submitted so I mean that that's my biggest concern is that we aren't as a county aren't going to have some liability at with this somehow in the future but if everything is in and and
properly done I guess I'm fine with it but that was one of the biggest concerns that a lot of people had was the process and making sure everything was done so commissioner here thank you uh and I would remind the board that what we are
approving today is a preliminary plat not the construction of any buildings or the placement of any uh plot much of this as was explained in the Planning Commission for example the the concern about the number of slips on Green Lake
uh is not our governance that is uh DNR governance and so today what we're really doing is uh approving or not approving the preliminary PL and so to Mr Birds concern about the
tightness of wor the ability that isn't laid out yet I mean those are just placeholders of Monopoly blocks if you will okay where those buildings will be and I would point out on the map that we received in our our uh in our packet um
if you look at the uh Lot number TW or parcel number 27 I think it's 027 0350 uh you'll see a tree a single tree that kind of lays over in the water there almost to the right in the middle
of that parcel that is approximately L where the uh moing the 14 Moorings would go and they won't extend out into that channel uh as one might think they'd be more done in a parallel to the uh Shoreline
fashion thank you uh Gary maybe just one point of clarification to uh commissioner imd's uh input technically today we we are approving the conditional use permit for the 17 units M the preliminary plat does come yet back to the board as a final plat so I
think that's the piece you were but not in the buildings themselves correct correct yeah they they will Mr Sheriff I mean the developer will have to adhere to all the ordinances that we have regarding setbacks both from the water and from the from each other's buildings
and whatever to the county Engineers requirements uh when that when that part of the process starts correct and so if I may clarify it CU I think I'm seeing this in the packet the first action is that we are
approving a conditional use permit for a planned unit development correct or not approving it yes okay that's the first action and then you'll be asking us to either approve or not approve the preliminary plat separately no the preliminary plat is an agenda item at
the Planning Commission that ends at the Planning Commission so when the applicant comes back with a final plat to the Planning Commission the final plat comes come back to I appreciate the clarification sounds good thank you so much any other
questions comments commissioner Berg thank you Mr chair so I I'm hearing correctly then that and from uh attorney Baker that legally we are meeting the criteria and we're going to be hearing more about this later in the more details we'll be addressing some of the
issues that were brought up before if they still apply or not I'm saying I haven't looked at the file to answer question yeah but I'm just saying what process would be required as far far as what's submitted in the
application is legal this clim me that it has been so all right anybody else so then um we haven't done it okay I would entertain a motion to approve
the uh uh conditional use uh permit uh for the planned unit development uh on the property uh informally known as The Nest Mr chair I would move on the permit citing the conditions and findings of
Staff thank you is there a second I'll second that Mr chair thank you any further discussion all right hearing none all those in favor of approving the uh C uh conditional use permit signify by say
and I I all opposed motion carries thank you that back thank you Gary thank you so much uh next item business uh final payment and acceptance uh for a couple
of road projects uh Mel Odin yep Mr chair members of the board Mel Odin Public Works director for the county the first one you have is a final payment and acceptance for our um federally funded um edgeline striping if you recall this
is a grooved in wet reflective with porcelain beads it's got a like around a seven-year life um and it does provide very good reflection reflectivity when it's um wet out or raining in addition to when it's dry out but it's that's
primarily um this year we did um a lot of roads in the northeastern part of the county and we did a little over 50 miles and it's my recommendation to accept a project and authorized final payment to Sir Lin aot v d Minnesota in the amount of
16, 7369 all right you've heard the recommendation of staff is there a motion U Mr chair I'll make that motion thank you is there a second I'll second
thank you uh any discussion Mel we went on that tour last summer and uh I can uh I can speak to for somebody who has trouble seeing at night uh just how nice that is especially when it's wet out
dark out it's uh uh it's it's a really nice uh uh really nice thing so I appreciate that y anybody else hearing none all those in favor of final payment and acceptance for uh sp3
4 07017 signifi I all opposed motion carries and you have one more for us yeah Mr chair um this is the um a local option sales tax project where we re we replaced a deficient bridge on our
County Road one just um in the southwestern part of the county it's right north of the beat bealler site on cter road one north of pburg um this was let in June and they completed it just a little over a month um they took out the
old bridge and they did a double line of 12 X10 boxes which which also came to the board in the in the drainage report um and it was done by John RY construction of Morris Minnesota and my recommendation is to accept a project
and authorized final payment to John Riley construction of Morris Minnesota in the amount of $ 35,1 184. 198 you've heard the recommendation of staff is there a motion uh Mr chair I'll make a motion to accept the project and
make the final payment to John Riley construction Inc thank you is there a second Mr chair I would second that thank you uh any discussion comments uh came in almost exactly right on budget right yep felt good about it it was a
little bit of a theme last year if I remember right was let's hope it continues knock on one absolutely all right any other uh any other questions or comments hearing none all those in favor say I I all opposed motion passes Mel if
I can ask you and I I apologize for not asking you about this earlier but uh uh you uh had some clarifications on maybe some of the work that is proposed to be done or is going to be done uh on the
bypass can you can you just clarify that for the public for the sake of the board um I did send to the chair um I believe um commissioner Berg the two City reps there's been some discussion in the city of wmer about what we did a dour agreement at the last board meeting because they're going to
be using Cy Road 71 and our County Road 5 for a piece of Highway 23 from 71 over to our cter road 5 which is the piece that's that two and a half mile that's not done okay and um I was getting a lot
of questions about is did we finally get the money to complete the the four lane and and no I guess the the short answer is no we did not so this project is a two-year project that piece going to be done this year and they're going to just
overlay the existing um concrete or binus with concrete for that two and a half miles not do anything with the undone piece um so that that should clear up that confusion so we are going
to still go after money to complete the uncompleted piece and uh I think we I think the administrator and I were going to try and meet you know just got to get a calendar set to meet with Menan on that um some strategies but we have
not um done that yet all right yeah I uh I'd heard a couple of those same questions myself and so I wanted to ask you to give that update and uh thank you so much yeah so the thing that I think is
maybe a little confusing is is that the southpond lanes I think are going to be closed basically for two years and then the other thing that I think that is was pointed out pretty well in the article is if you want to get to Raymond this summer or to granded Falls you're going
to have to go on five or 71 you 23 will pretty much be closed for six months this summer so all right any other questions all right Mel thank you so much
all right our next item of business is the uh administrator performance evaluation uh review and I will just note that uhu uh uh the administrator
has the option of holding this uh review in either a closed or an open uh session and uh administrator Baker you prefer which option to have it an open Open session
all right wanted to make sure and thank you for that let me give you that before we lose it um and I just kind of want to set the table just a little bit briefly in that we uh uh uh uh Commissioners had
the opportunity to uh uh answer several questions that are really the most pertinent uh for our review because you know we don't often get to see the administrator working with uh uh various staff employees anything like that but
uh uh ours uh our work with her is at a little a little higher level than that uh a little more of a 10,000 ft overview uh and so there were U of those uh evaluations received kind I just want
to set the uh tone for this uh by uh uh mentioning just several of the U uh items that were within those uh there were three questions that uh uh were asked of uh the uh Commissioners uh what
is the administrator doing well what can the administrator improve upon and what would you like to see the administrator work on uh over the next one to three years and uh I just picked out some Snippets of uh of of what was uh
mentioned uh Kelsey does a good job of uh getting uh Unity among the staff and holding people accountable uh she listens uh evaluates and takes necessary action she's creating a new team Dynamic
across the county making sure all are heard and valued uh hers is an open collaborative leadership style significant Improvement across many areas growing expertise makes her increasingly competent in her
position uh Kelsey has given a clear picture of our year ahead by providing a work plan has us moving forward with our work sessions regarding board operating procedures very accommodating when I have questions and I need answers those were for question one
question two what can she uh improve upon uh want her to not worry so much and just run the county she uh the way she feels is best it's hard to come up with areas for improvement because I feel she's doing a great job can't think of anything at the moment has been very
transparent hope she becomes more confident in her work want to see her become Bolder in her visioning and management/ Leadership uh has made positive uh I got to talk to the guy who wrote
this down uh positive contributions uh a few areas for continued Improvement uh in uh uh regarding uh understanding chain of command and the effects of personnel issues
uh continues uh enhance continue enhancing listening skills question three what would we like to see your work on I keep evaluating departments getting the most out of our Workforce and hold all accountable out of the box
thinking is a good quality focus on helping complete board operating guidelines and developing the Strategic plan address staff turnover improve the exit interview process move forward with a five-year strategic plan glad she is
jump starting strategic plan process uh board and department heads will need to be all in on this work uh glad she is enhancing her skills and uh understanding of County finance uh so with that I do want want
to give uh uh Commissioners uh an opportunity to uh speak to anything that they had on their uh evaluations that were uh that were submitted uh does anyone want to uh speak any further on this on this
to uh Kelsey any uh any questions for the board on based upon what you heard there no I appreciate the Commissioners that have reached out to me in the last year and the last uh week or two uh discussing their comments and their
review and we had had a nice conversation with those who did and I appreciate um being communicated being transparent because I think there is always room for growth I think we talk about that I refer to that with myself and I refer to that with staff I think
the culture that we're creating within candy county is really important for professional and personal growth that I think we have worked really well on in the last year I think about my first date here on February 15 2023 and
I think we've come a long ways with communication and respect amongst um the leadership and all the way down to Frontline staff I think that's really important I always say to staff I have a place in this in the county and you also
have a place we all have a place and we all have work to do um just to go over I and it was also mentioned but some of the goals that I have going through the next two years um will be to start working on the Strategic plan that the board has approved and I'm excited to
start that process with the department heads and the County Board um legislative opportunities um one of the goals I have is to strengthen relationships with key policy makers at the state and federal and I think I've said this before the the level but I am really gracious that
the board allowed me to go out to Washington DC even then in a time like this but I think it's really important to start creating those relationships and start advocating on behalf of the services we have here uh streamlining Human Resources functions I think that's really
important in today's world it you don't think it connects to employee retention and uh but it really does and the other thing is I I'd like to provide more of a human resources report Maybe twice a year to the board I've talked with Katie
and Lisa within our team how can we do that in a productive manner that will provide a a retention and recruitment report to the board in more of a positive and not maybe just say the negatives but I will say our retention has improved in the last two years we always see your your bumps in the road
we're always going to have those dips that's very natural um with retirements but there's a way we can pull that out so we'll I'm working on that um autom automate and improve human resources processes um instead of adding an FTE we
might be able to add a software that can streamline some of the services uh exit interviews is on that list uh performance reviews uh to establish a more efficient and data driven performance review process that's not only beneficial for the supervisor but
it's also beneficial for the employee as well board communication and transparency um to improve the the board reporting um that the board we and you talked about that which I really appreciated being involved in the discussion that you had at your last
board operating guidelines and procedures work session when uh you talked about your board reports I think are helpful for me but also are helpful for the staff we are listening um and how do we provide that communication from the board to the County Employees
um countywide and then employee retention and recruitment I think it's always kind of beating the drum but this is something that I think is really important and um launch new retention strategies as it development programs improve benefits which we've looked at but you always have to stay on top of that within the health insurance
committee um and enhance employer branding to attract top talent and I think this will come within the strategic planning process that we'll have that will be starting this year and um at the end of the day I was just thinking on my Drive-In this morning how
uh how how far we've come I feel like within the last two years and I'm really proud not only of myself but this board um to improve on that because we all take a lot of pride in the positions that we have and that we're able to to work for CYO County and I think that's really important that we stress that not
only at this level but my level uh I talk about that at the uh department head meetings that we are the we're the leaders within candy County government and how do we tell our story and provide the services to the constituents um at all levels doesn't matter what salary
cap you're at it's all levels and so I do really appreciate I love the work that we do I love government and I um I'm always just grateful to do a job that I love some may call it crazy but I do appreciate uh this board and I do appreciate the opportunity to serve in
this role thank you thank you uh commissioner B yeah Mr chair I haven't made a comment maybe other people since we have shared this already with administrator Baker and and I just want to really comment that I had a chance to talk to administrator Baker about our
review and it was very positive I felt I as you said I think we had a lot of challenges to start but we're going in the right direction and I'm feeling good about that um the only thing I didn't put in my review though was goals for the next three was really the goals for the next six months to be really
conservative not knowing what's happening on a federal level and that's pretty common sense that we're going to be very careful as we go forward financially and and with the budget coming up again too so and I thank you for the budget uh that you've involved the board
so much more this last budget very well anyone else those say any uh questions or items uh within excuse me within your employment
contract that uh uh UC see might need any updating or it's been two years since that got looked at yeah I I don't have any right now um I wanted to get through this process but I I do feel that there might
be a comment next year I think in the salary we just didn't add correct language on moving forward in the salary structure um I'll clarify that um and then there might be something else but at this time I don't have any changes okay but that would if I did have any
changes that would come before the board for approval of course y all right last chance all right very good appreciate all the work that went into the evaluations and uh of course uh always
appreciate the uh work that administrator Baker does and uh uh I'm I'm very appreciative of your uh uh of your guidance and support uh moving on uh administrative updates appointments calendar and committee reports are there any
appointments that uh we need to be aware of there may be something coming from uh city of Wilmer in regards to a couple of spots on the HRA board but they have to go through their uh processes first uh
long convoluted story but uh but there's a couple of appointments that only they can make and then we have to approve them so uh we're looking to looking to see them get through their processes um we have a number of
upcoming work sessions uh next week uh we have the uh work session regarding the space study that has just been completed and that'll be coming before uh before us in a work session and I'm really looking forward to uh seeing the
work product that comes out of that the Health and Human Services work session on March 11th our next operating rules and guidelines um uh work session will be on March 17th and the following day
we have uh rod and Bridge uh and uh I think there's one other item that goes within that as well but uh but that'll happen on the uh on the same day so pretty much uh every opportunity we have over the next uh uh four to six weeks uh
will'll be meeting in some of those off weeks to u u uh to get to get some of this work done also a uh uh note for folks that uh uh we will be uh uh in attendance at the U Association
Minnesota County's legislative conference that's our opportunity to uh uh get in front of legislators and uh their staff and other policy makers and uh and also doing some of the uh uh business of AMC and advancing those
priorities I'm uh uh I'm happy to say that uh the general government government committee which I chair uh is going to uh have representative Dave Baker uh from Candy oh high County here as our featured presenter speaker uh at
uh at our uh committee meeting uh next week and looking forward to uh uh hearing his uh legislative updates and uh uh the opportunity for him to hear from from our other peers
so uh with that any uh any questions or comments otherwise we'll go into reports all right uh commissioner imde are you to start thank you Mr chair um my calendar back up here on uh
Wednesday the 5th uh following our last day after our last board meeting uh I attended the U mid Minnesota development commission meeting uh I think I sent all of you a draft of the minutes so I won't belabor that any um on uh the 7th well I I also
attended the rural policy webinar on uh that was put on I know it's not one of our committees but it affects a lot of us that Center for Rural develop uh rural policy development put on um Kelly ash from New London who many of you know was was the one of the
presenters there uh on the U 10th we had an extension meeting it was a sort of a reintroduction for me as I'd been off extension for several um several years actually I think it's been about five years but uh uh interesting
to be back on that and then um that evening we had the Planning Commission for which we just uh dealt with those matters and the work session that you and you we've all been on um then last Thursday again a non-committee it's not
really one of our committees but related to the work that we do regarding policy attended the Minnesota Transportation Alliance annual meeting uh the government govern attended our meeting as well as um several legislators and and then went over to the U Office
Buildings were able to meet with u uh new representative van binsbergen and um Senator Lang uh we had a conflict with representative Baker so we weren't able to meet on that one and then uh that was
it thank you uh commissioner Dale Anderson all right um I had extension with Roger that was uh kind of it's always kind of interesting to hear how much stuff extension has that is out there that people don't even realize and that's
what they were kind of trying to bring out is there's a lot of stuff in extension that is available for the public but they don't even realize is there um that afternoon we had a meeting with uh Middle Fork Watershed um on the
uh Diamond Lake project and and uh had talked over that um just preliminary discussion um I went to the Planning and Zoning meeting that night um interesting to hear people's input on on the issues that were brought up for that on the
11th we had our work session here and then after that I attended the first meeting um for me on the Community Health Board um really interesting and in informative to listen in on that um on that meeting um that night I went to
Middle Fork meeting um and they had uh a thirdparty u person give a report on the nanobore um project for Diamond Lake and it was interesting um to hear the discussion on on that uh no decision was
made at that time because the report wasn't final yet um and um the only other thing I would have had but I was unable to attend was the Prairie Woods open house on um the 13th and I had a heat issue so I had to fix that so that's how I had
thank you uh commissioner bur uh thank you Mr chair I had a uh monthly Prime West meeting in Alexandria and that took most of the day uh fortunately the weather wasn't really very nice driving up there on the first uh Thursday of
this month uh was better coming home let's put it that way um this was our uh main one of our main me meetings of the Year where we uh uh review the budget and the process as we go through with the budget we do that every year in in February and then also working on
setting the budget so that was the day spent mostly dealing with figures and numbers so very interesting and uh very complicated budget as you understand well too um and then I had two Zoom meetings for the 18 County Minal house
Consortium and one was a planning meeting uh with the acting Vice chair and chair as well as myself and the director of the program and then we also then the following week had the first meeting of the new uh joint Powers board
for the 18 County m h Consortium we elected officials we elected officials for the board and uh commissioner Paul Johnson from merer county is the chair and commissioner Rick Anderson from Lon county is the vice chair and uh commissioner Berg is the secretary so
that's a tough that's a tough job to have uh but uh on the other hand I'm very involved in because that three people so we will be meeting monthly two with oper I call it the operational board or The Advisory board that we have
uh to approve uh any uh any items that need to be uh approved by the board and then they'll be ratified by the for full board and we are going to try to meet four times a year so we're getting that really well organized going forward and um I think every count also just an
update every County was to put some money in to as a cushion for it and I believe all the two Counties have and uh basically the other two counties are saying oops or the checks in the mail so I think that went well we were kind of worried everybody wouldn't Buy in but I
think this is pretty exciting to have 18 County Commissioners really being focused and say this is an important issue for our region I was working on so that was very positive um we had this uh special work session for the uh operation guidelines for the board and I
I think we all felt that was a very positive experience going forward in the conversations we have so and may we be finishing that up with yourselves soon um I had a hot Creek what uh project as well as a hot Creek uh one Watershed
plan um uh during these past two weeks and uh just for your information hot Creek project uh that we have with chipo County and Renville County as a a joint Powers we have and um uh that is moving forward as usual but the number of
Grants are starting to kind of come to an end so uh we have to be concerned about the future as we go forward with that and I believe uh we'll be having an update from them real soon if you haven't been contact contacted just to give us an
update on how things are going but also the one Watership plan we had our meeting at Soil and Water new building and district and it was very interesting to get a tour of that building and see how it works so that's they're very appreciative what the mo did to help
that make work very very appreciative so um and uh we had an overview of some of the projects that took place and they actually had a slide presentation of the projects across the the three main counties that involved in the onew plan
and all that's going forward um and that that's some thank you and uh I think just to Dove tail in on that uh appropriation for the U uh so Water Conservation District uh
uh probably should note that administrator Baker found uh uh found some room in the budget to uh be able to uh recommend that funding so um they very appreciative of that and commissioner Dwayne Anders
okay yeah so I I didn't have a whole lot going on last couple weeks uh our health and human services committee meeting was cancelled um we did have our work session um but we were all in attendance there so I don't need to discuss that any further uh I did attend with uh with
uh commissioner Dale Anderson and administrator uh Kelsey Baker uh with uh the Middle Fork Watershed and kind of couple representatives from Diamond Lake Association uh regarding uh that that n Nano bubbler proposal that they have and
we kind of all hashed out all our differences different issues we had um and I guess that's just kind of a work in progress so um but that was basically our first sit down with them um then uh I also had on the second or on the 5th
of February I had a central Minnesota jobs and training meeting that was basically just to approve the audit uh with CLA uh we didn't have a quorum but did uh discuss uh CLA gave their presentation and uh basically what came
out of that is we we have now uh uh improve safety precautions with uh more checks and balances for regards on how bills are paid and processed our new CFO he's implemented uh uh better I would I would say better accounting practices um
so that uh uh different bills and procedures are met so that uh uh things are more more accurately documented so that when if we do have any questions by the federal or state uh that uh that we can go back and and kind of you know
give them the correct answers that they need or give them the uh correct documents that they request so um other than that that's basically my report all right uh ad thank you uh administrator Baker anything uh you'd like to bring
forward I do have an update regarding the 16 bed the behavioral health it's not Fallen to the Wayside um I'm still hoping to bring it to the next board meeting um the only thing we're waiting on is the loan that was through Wells
Fargo is paid off um we just need Wells Fargo to release that agreement um because there's interest that's involved and so we're working on that because things have changed within Wells Fargo since 2017 to 18 and I think just at the time
in 2018 it maybe was missed um to make sure that we get that release statement um but the agreement and all of the other documents that the board will need to review and approve um have been sent to Shane for review so I'm hoping at
that first meeting in March is what my plan is but we are meeting by weekly with the state uh just to touch base um everything for 2024 should be reconciled and then basically what we're doing for January for 2025 is just doing month by
month sometimes week by week we're trying to make the request very minimum so that we have little to reconcile once the documents get approved but we cannot do the final sale process without this release agreement from Wells Fargo so that's what the holdup is and I kid you
not we've been working on this since August when the board voted on that um so it's taking time we I I mean I think Karen um and Andy Thorson and myself and Shane has done some work and so it's we've kind of just been chasing our
tails to find it I think we now have a little bit of Hope um that we'll be reaching that agreement some point hopefully in the next couple weeks so I'll be able to provide all the documents um and a closing date at that first meeting in March but we're we're
shooting for March 31st would be the final closing date but we have to have like I said we have to have that agreement in hand um other than that I just wanted to provide that update and then um going off that work plan we do have on April 15th that first quarter financial report in the budget work
section work session um when we close uh that the first quarter that's like the week before and so I want to just touch base that's tentative that we'll have that first quarter report like I said at that
last one we were doing what's called mapping within our financial software so it'll produce a better report for the board to review so if that's finalized it'll be April 15th but that we we'll shoot for that but I just can't guarantee that and then I wanted to double check did
the board want that work the budget work session in April again or do we we did that last year we had that work session in April or do we want to do it in May um what was the board's thoughts we can just do a recap of 24 and then like
looking ahead to 25 like we did last year and I can schedule that closer to the date but if that's the board's wishes I just I put that on there because that's what we had done last year so if that's okay I'll just still work on that yeah I think uh since uh
you're really going to be ramping up the budget work for 26 starting in May with your department heads and so on and so forth I like the idea of the uh April okay okay personally anyone else I'm on board with that to Mr okay
thank you and then that's it all right thank you um I'll go last obviously um had a couple of uh uh items that I wanted to touch on uh had a uh was unable to uh make the uh Prime West
meeting because it conflicted with uh a u State Community Health Services advisory committee meeting we had down at uh mdh uh back on the 6 uh we had a number of uh uh presenters uh a lot of
discussion in regards to the U uh legislative session update uh commissioner Dr Brooke cunning H uh spoke to the U spoke to the group um and essentially told us that U uh about 50%
of uh MD's uh budget Minnesota Department of Health uh is federally funded and uh on average uh 56% of the Community Health Board uh funding is
federally funded as well so we continue to keep uh keep an eye on as that progresses um we broke into uh Regional uh caucuses uh for the purposes of electing representatives to the U uh sha
uh executive uh uh committee uh and uh uh one of the U uh Commissioners commissioner leer from uh uh tripar County had been uh the U uh representative to the executive committee for our Southwest uh region
and he has uh he had indicated that he he wished to pull back from that and uh uh as it happened in the caucus I was the only uh commissioner participating in that so so I'm now on the executive
committee for sha so looking forward to that um have that item and I apologize I'd normally have my laptop up but I uh I apparently can't run that
today um Y and then I guess uh I guess everything else that is of note uh is going to be taking place in this last half of uh of the month here so that's really all that uh that I had that was
uh noteworthy to report on today does anyone have anything else that they wish to uh bring to the board commissioner Mr chair thank you um both both Commissioners Andersons and administrator Baker alluded to the
Middle Fork and and meeting with the county and I I get a lot of calls about that Nano Nano double bubbler and comments uh kind of what how does that relate to the county so what what if if it were to go
forward um they would like to put it on uh the park in on Diamond Lake on on County property and so we'd have there's a lot of issues we'd have to work out we'd have to have some sort of memorandum of agreement or understandings or whatever all legal
kind of documents that would have to be signed and maybe a lease agreement and at at this point you know I mean they were assuming that they could just do it and we were like no we got to have different agreements if if it's to go
forward so that that was what we made clear at that meeting so if I may so they're asking to put infrastructure at the park yes okay um and I'm sure there's more to come on that and then um
is there a change in any of our Park managers no because I noticed that one of our Park managers uh has just opened up a new business in Spicer um I wonder if that's going to affect their ability to manage count part five uh not for
2025 all 2025 managers are staying um from 24 to 25 um they if they would have had to um remove themselves from being manager that would have had to have been done by October of 2024 we have a a date on that um it's
either the manager notifies us or the county notifies the manager specifically if they're going to be the manager for the upcoming year so all managers renewed um for 2025 um and so yeah they should be
staying the same to touch on the the Middle Fork Watershed um I am hoping that a representative from uh the Watershed will be able to come to the County Board to provide more of an update and the requests of what they will be asking for uh it's just a lot is
at hand too for them to get that report um and there are specifically four asks and so like commissioner Dwayne Anderson said really it was just to kind of make sure everybody was on the same page of what the asks would be um and then we'll be able to move forward from there but
um I would like them to come and provide that report to the County Board first initially so that the County Board is aware of what the project is in full and then um to discuss the asks of that because they're not small asks essentially if I made the the manager
there uh is it a manager director whatever Coughlin has resigned and he's gone I think his last day was last Friday I think so it's this Friday this Friday or this Thursday something like that yeah yeah so they're in a little bit of a Lim
limbo so we'll give them time and then um I've been working with John Morales so I'll I'll connect with him on a date of when he can come to the County Board all right thank you anybody have anything else uh for the good of the order
if not then we will adjourn the this meeting of the C County Board of commission