Good morning everybody and welcome to the uh Kyoi County Board of Commissioners meeting for Tuesday, August 5th, 2025. Uh please stand for the pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Want to thank everybody who's uh uh catching us on YouTube and for the folks who are in front of us here today to uh listen and to present uh during our
agenda. Uh at this time we I would ask for approval of uh today's agenda. So moved. Uh moved by uh Commissioner Mdeck. Is there a second? I'll second that, Mr. Chair. Comm uh Commissioner Dwayne Anderson seconds.
Discussion. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Uh we also have the consent agenda. These are the routine items and they consist today of the approval of the J July 17, 2025
county board legal minutes, approval of the auditors warrants and claims. We're paying the bills K9 purchase agreement uh and New London Spicer School Resource Officer Agreement for school year 2526
and Supplemental Nutrition Assure Assistance Program SNAP joint powers agreement amendment. Are there any of these items that any commissioners wish to pull from the consent agenda? Hearing none, then I would accept a motion to approve the consent agenda.
Mr. Chair, I'll move. Commissioner Dale Anderson moves. Is there a second? I'll second that, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Bergens. Discussion hearing. None. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Uh at this
time then our first item of business is uh uh uh Caroline Khan, our HHS director. And Caroline, you have something for us here today. Yes. Good morning. Um Caroline Khan, health and human services director for Candy Ohio County. This morning I wanted
to to present to you an opportunity for us to move forward with um some of our technology enhancements in the way that our social services teams will interact hopefully with our community. Uh Melissa, could you help me with the presentation? Yes.
Thank you. Um this morning I want to just do a brief highle overview of what case works is um as well as what we're hoping to start to integrate moving forward into our caseworks platform. So caseworks is in essence an electronic document system in which we can put in a
layman's terms I like to look at it as kind of like an electronic health record but it's not your health record. It's your social services record. It allows us to securely secure score or securely store documents on behalf of our clients um watch through case
trajectories um and engage um in electronic platform with some of our external government sorry and uh Caroline this is something we're already using. Yeah, we've been we were actually one of the first counties to to go on with caseworks and we actually host case
works um on behalf of other counties through our IT department. So we are heavily at Caseworks. I believe there's 63 of the 87 counties are in in um partnership with Caseworks as well which also creates some great uh document
sharing and and link sharing when when our neighbors move to other counties. So Case Works is a is a platform that we've used for many many years. Today, what I want to talk to you about is this mythical portal we've been talking about since last year when we met um both during our budget presentation as well
as our eligibility uh work session and we talked about some of the enhancements that we can continue to do to move our work forward um and create streamlined processes and automation within the way that we our workflows. So, what is case works portal? In an essence, it's an opportunity similar to if you think of
your my chart, you can go in and you can have secure messaging with your provider or with your social worker. In an essence, you can share documents back and forth in a secure way. Um, again, I'm doing a generality just for a a community perspective of what this could
look like. So, Mr. Gardner, you would uh Commissioner Gardner, you would get your own login and be able to go in and interact with what what is needed from you from the county and what do you need to share with the county. Right now, um a lot of things are done by individuals bringing things to our door, which then
we have to scan and creates a lot of processing. It also causes a disruption in their work schedule. Um we work 8 to 4:30 and so do our neighbors. So they have to take time off of work to come um and deliver documents that they might need to otherwise we have to rely on the
postal service or email transmission which is not always secure. So caseworks portal offers a secure and efficient platform for communication and document sharing between our staff as well as uh members of our community. It supports our engagement and as well it reduces
our administrative burden and allows us to automate our workflow routines and task completion in a way that we currently uh depend on manual labor to do. Some of the core features is allows us to send portal invitations uh request
documents securely. So, if we're waiting on your do driver's license, you can log into your portal and see driver's license needed versus having to wait till 8:00 tomorrow to call to say, "What do you still need from me for my case?" That causes a lot of dis discomfort and confusion and concern for our neighbors
when they're trying to access their most critical services. Um, so this would be allow for an opportunity for them to engage with our department during hours that are convenient for them and see what's needed as well as progress through this process. It allows us to share documents directly. So, if we are
sharing a case plan with a neighbor, they can go into their portal and and see their case plan right there versus depending on having to find it in their email individually. Again, increasing our confidentiality and and security as well. Um, and then collaborate across
counties that are using caseworks, too. So if a a neighbor moves and then we're allowed to share with their consent, it'll create an efficient process versus having to scan all these documents and send over excuse me or as I've mentioned for the
client experience. It does have a high level of security with as well as multifactor authentication. It allows them to take a picture of their documents and upload that. um they can review their documents for up to 30 days. As well as a really important factor is receive import um appointment
reminders. Similar to my chart, I get an appointment reminder that I have a an appointment with my provider coming up. If you have a an interview with your SNAP case worker, it can be part of that. So you can log in and see, okay, that's at 10 o'clock on Tuesday, which
allows us to streamline our processes because right now if they didn't remember to put it on their calendar or don't um know that we're calling when we're going to miss that call, you know, when you see that phone numbers coming in that you're not expecting, you and I
both don't answer those calls and neither do our neighbors, which then delays time in processing and creates add additional burden on both our staff and our clients. Um so that would be a very welcomed feature to allow for that client um appointment scheduling. The
caseworks automation portion auto assigns case numbers and client data and document type. So it'll know where to send it. It does provide some security. So say you have a child support case as well as a financial assistance case and potentially a child protection case. It
will know where to send it without um the staff seeing all three areas. the staff still only see the area pertinent to them, but the client sees everything they're involved in. So, it does create some of those safeguards and barriers within our own system, but creates the driver's license. It'll know to send it
to the three places versus, okay, now it sits with child support, but we also need it over in in SNAP and financial assistance. It creates some streamlining for that. It allows us to route documents appropriate to the case owner, like I just mentioned, and reduce that manual effort. So, it really provides a
lot of enhancements. I've done some due diligence and reaching out to some other counties um and Min Prairie was welcome uh gracious enough to just kind of share their snapshot um and how the portal works for their collaborative there. So, um you know,
they've sent over a thousand account invites to clients and of that 68% actually made the account. We I need to be honest that that will be a burden and it will it will be a barrier because it will depend on our efforts to communicate to our clients to engage our clients to do this and we can do that
work. It'll also be something that we'll have to engage with our partners that are engaged in our work. Um, you know, we have a lot of robust partnerships in our community and and in communicating to Woodlands like, hey, if your individuals filling out their healthcare application, this is how they can go in
and they can also support that use of the portal UKAP in the same way when they're looking at other financial assistance programs. It allows more client control of their case experience. Um, of the 4,500 tasks request by staff, um, 41% have been completed. Those are
really good numbers and show that the communities are engaging with this in the way that they're hoping. And again, even if it creates a shift of 25% workload burden and efficiencies, that creates a drastic difference in the way that we're able and the speed in which we're able to inter interact with our
clients. Um, one thing that I am really excited about is the ability for staff, like I mentioned, community members to engage with us after 4:30. I a community member in the I remember seeing her um at noon in the lobby and
she was like it was such a difficult thing to come in to hand these papers in on my lunch break and then that's usually when everybody is able to be there. I said, 'Well, if we had this, do you think you'd use it? And they're like, absolutely. Well, then we went back and we were talking, you know, this has been an an a year-long discussion
internally. Um, and we looked at the numbers. Over 60% of the applications that are coming in to min benefits and menure are coming after 4:30. So that of the applications we're receiving, they're coming in those evening hours, which
tells me our community wants to engage with that type of work after 4:30. Um, so this allows that opportunity to not only engage at a state level, but engage with your case locally in a time that's convenient for them.
So in summary, I sound like a broken record, but it it will be an enhancement to not only our community's experience, but as well as our staff experience, allowing for some automation. One thing we're trying to move to in partnership with it is even when you come into the
office, we're going to offer you a computer to fill out your application first because that also creates less time, you know, reading the document, scanning the document, going through this process. It also gets people to their benefits faster. Um, if we're on the phone with someone filling out an
application through this portal, as well as our online packets, it allows us to finish. I'm going to send you a link. You can sign that right now. we can complete that experience in real time versus okay, I'm gonna mail this out to you today. Please mail it back within 14 days and hope that it it makes it
through that process in the timely fashion that it needs to. So, it'll again allow us to hit some of those completion numbers and those error rates that were can um Did you have a question? Oh, sorry, not yet. Okay. Um
again, looking forward to the the future of the work that we're expected to do. This will just be another hat in our feather to keep us moving forward in that um completion process and and ensuring that we're hitting those error rates uh go markers and goals as well as
decreasing our postage um and just paper utilization as well. It's not going to work for everyone. I need to be clear about that and I'm aware of that. But it will work for a good chunk of our neighbors which allows us to then serve our other neighbors more efficiently,
too. So it it it will be technology is not something for everyone. So I'm not expecting this to be a a saving grace for for everyone, but I do expect it to be a meaningful and impactful experience. Our partners in Sterns County as well as our partners in
Western Prairie are also using portals and they're al we've been talking with their supervisors. How are you using it? How are you getting your clients to use it? How do we um deploy this in a way that's meaningful for our community? and they've all echoed, it's not for everyone, but for
those that it is, it's great and it allows more space for those that it's not. So, I think that it's a very um exciting opportunity. So, a little bit about our contracts. Uh since we've been talking with caseworks about this for over a year, our original goal was to
build it into our 2025 budget. Since that time of those original numbers, their pricing has increased some. So our the what we had budgeted for this process is a little short. So it's partially funded. Um I do look at things a little differently and I like to look
at what's our overall levy cost after FFP reimburse after we get our reimbursements. So when you see 30 that's our total cost but that's not our net cost after reimbursements. our net cost after the reimbursements of um because in we receive a reimbursement
amount for child support investments as well as social services investments. Um we also anticipate that those will be changing after the recent federal legislation. So this is the time that we're like hey we need to move this forward versus rolling it into next year. Um, so we're looking at about 167
as our total net after reimbursement. And we had invested 8,000 into this year's contract portion. Um, as well as professional services for their billing schedule moving forward. So, I just wanted to be very transparent about that that there would be a little bit of a a
net adjustment within our current budget period andor use of reserves to offset that that difference to accomplish this goal. my, you know, my job is to bring forward information and let you guys make the difficult decisions. Um, but I do want to be very open and honest about
that process to make sure that we're making strategic investments in the way that we work as well as in the way that we're able to work in the future and engage and serve our neighbors. Caroline, uh, if I may, um, uh, and then I'll open it up to the rest of the
board. Uh I'm thinking of that single mom who, you know, has to be at work, you know, isn't able to take time off. Uh we're out here, they're maybe, you know, on the other side of the county. Uh they're able to do uh access a lot of
this stuff after hours. Uh and I just cannot imagine uh what a convenience that would be. And I think this is the direction that uh general direction that we should be moving in as a county uh is
uh having more of those types of services. I think you're spot on here. So, thank you. Um uh open it up to the board. Commissioner Mdeck. Sure. Thank you. Um I like the analogy with my chart because I think or males or whoever
you're using. Um I think it makes a lot of sense. How long has this portal been available and is it available as an app? It it that's a great question. I've only seen it on the web-based interface. So, I'll have to follow up as if it could be an app location on their phone. Um it
has been in development, I believe, for four years. It's been since before I came um to Candy Ohio County. It was a product that they launched and that they haven't robustly jumped after because they've been slowly building. So, I've asked that question
to some of our other partners engaged like would you do it again? Would you do it at this investment? And every single one has said absolutely because it not only um is it meeting its needs now, but it continues to grow and develop in its abilities to to meet client needs and
grow that experience. So, if we're getting people early adopting, it'll just continue to grow as it continues to grow in features. Go ahead. Um, and what is do you know what the adoption rate is in Sterns and Swift and the other counties that you've
uh met with or even from um company itself, Face Works. Um I have I do have that in my office. I don't want to misquote. I think they were all similar to what I presented from Min Prairie's um adoption rate of about that
40 to 60% completion of creating the portal and then actually completing the um the documents requested within the portal. So Commissioner Anderson, thanks. Uh so right now with all you
don't have this right now. No, this is not. So what do you do now? Do the clients come in and do all the paperwork themselves with you guys? So, it's it's a it's a myriad. Right now, um our experience is mail. So,
Commissioner Anderson, we're on the phone. We're filling out the application. Now, I'm going to mail you this and I'll send you a return mailer and then have you mail it back and or you can come in to drop it off. So that creates that lag time and ensures that we have to touch it a few times in that
process and it it delays our delivery of services for individuals but it's also time consuming for for you guys it's a lot of time where with this person can just log in theoretically and if if they have issues they can still call you but they can
Yep. And then it allows them I can't I'm I'm looking for the correct word. I I want to be very mindful of that creates a lot of anxiety and concern. These are your basic needs that that we're helping meet in some of these areas and their financial assistance areas as well as some of the needs
within our children's or um our you know disability services. Also a very big convenience for those areas. But when you don't know, did I get everything in? And I and I want to make sure I'm doing what I need to do, that creates a lot of concern. And I I want to be mindful of
like that's also a a a priority for our our department as well is to to make sure that we're helping provide people the information that they need. Yep. We have everything we need. Nothing's pending in your box. And not having to have you call and do that because returning 90 phone calls a day also
takes an entire FTE. But it also it also kind of makes it if they have to come all the way here. Yeah. Very deal with you and then they forgot something or didn't have the right information then you got to set up another time because they got to run back home. And so yeah. So it's it's working and it's worked in many years. It's just this is
an opportunity for us to push that needle forward and and keep striving to s provide the best service and experience for not only our neighbors but our staff. Commissioner B. Oh, thank you, Mr. Chair. I got several several questions
for you. Um, why don't I start out with the first, if I may, uh, with the first one. You said there's a big chunk. It could take care of a big chunk of clients and help a lot of them out. Any idea what percent of that big chunk would be for the number of clients that
have the internet or even a computer is that you're just I would be making a a generalized guesstimate but I would anticipate that we have service connected electronically um at least half of our clients to to engage with that or because they're also
engaging in teleaalth services they have some of those things and we've helped build that infrastructure but in order to hit those milestones we are going to have to educate our staff on this is how you know and that's part of that um launch phase with case works is to help
educate our this is how we you know hey commissioner bird can I talk to you about the portal and get you help signed up and get your email that will take a little time upfront but pay off in the long long run that will be our responsibility and if I may follow up then with case works you said we've been using case
works do we contract with them for any services then or or how we how are we using them now yep So we've used utilized caseworks as a as a document management system. Um so we're contracted with them. Yep. We've contracted with them for many years. Additional contract. This is an additional contract for an
additional service product or additional product that they offer. Okay. And along the same going back to uh the the budget for this going forward, it looks like it it does keep increasing. Um and I have a couple questions. Uh how
do they come up with that rate? Do they estimate how many clients you're going to serve or the size of the county or I think it's based off of our county size. I'm not I think that's that's how all of our contracts with Case Works are based off of. Oh, okay. So, and the the example you gave us uh from
the other group, how big a group was that then? That's pretty impressive numbers. Men prairie is three counties. It's Dodge, Steel, and Wasika. Pardon me. Dodge, Steel, and Wasika counties make up Men Prairie. So, that's pretty good size. Okay. and they utilize it heavily within their
children's department. This was just their financial assistance data. We hope to utilize it in children's to help make sure that we're hitting our fore qualifications and information. It's an it's an area that we're um committed to growing in. So, if we can say, "Hey, we need you to fill this out and you know provide this information with our
families that'll help improve that reimbursement through 4E as well." uh approximately how much training time is going to be involved in this and then will we have a a staff person then that will be trained as new people come on how to use that system then
so caseworks does provide weekly calls for our staff to jump on and and ask their questions and and learn a tidbit we've been working on building our infrastructure for caseworks education and implementation um as a strategy internally uh our new administrative
coordinator um is heavily versed in case works and a great partner. So, she's added that asset to our leadership team to help ensure so she's been going to every team weekly um or once a month to every team that meets on weekly basis to to talk about a tech tip and how do we
ensure that we're utilizing these investments correctly. That has been something that we've been focused on and prioritizing. Uh we've also been in partnership with Casework saying, "Hey, this is the information that we need from you." So, we're they've done um a specific children's education time where
they met with that team and talked through some of the processes. They've done that with some of our other teams. Um like we've all talked about, products are only as good as you use them. So, that's an area that we've intentionally been investing more efforts in on on an internal basis with the existing relationships and would emulate in this
new one. Uh just two two more comments. Uh, Commissioner Dwayne Anderson and myself are with the committee. Maybe uh, the meeting with you on Monday coming up. Y, maybe you get a chance. Can you show us a little bit of how that works? It' be kind of interesting to to know that.
Yep. I'd be happy to provide um, a link to a YouTube video. It was a little bit seven minutes. I didn't think you'd all want to sit and watch with me today. and it was really hard to grab pictures of what that looks like, but if it's something that we choose to move forward with, um we we can certainly then share
those on our social channels to say, "Hey, this is coming for our community." Um so that it did exist. It just I didn't feel that this was a great platform and didn't want to jump the gun either. So, but I just thought, you know, as as an action item, it would be kind of interesting that we would be involved and and know about that.
And we've had casual conversations. I I I understand that we haven't had very formal conversations in in various either this meeting or our other meetings talking about our technology and ways that we can continue to advance advance this. Um I didn't push that
completely forward right away because we didn't have the leadership buyin yet. We've gone through a lot of changes in our past year, but now our supervisors are like, "Hey, this portal would be awesome. Why can't we do this?" So now that we have that internal, you know, it takes a while for adoption and now um we're excited to move it.
Is there a advantage now that you brought this up and we should be voting on it that any special deal or is this something that this the reason that I now? Yeah. Why now? Uh because if if FFP changes from a federal reimbursement standpoint, we would miss out on potentially 25% of that reimbursement.
They are talking about changing that from 52 to 25%. Um and then this would directly be impacted. So well this is additional reimburse reimbursement we would well right the existing reimbursement is better than what the federal government in the big beautiful bill has projected but we're not getting that reimbursement
at this point this will be on top of that extra extra reimbursement or is this part of a reimbursement that we'd normally be getting if if we got this or not it would be within our traditional reimbursement structure right now. So we're taking money from something else then? No.
Okay. If that may go ahead. Yeah, you may. We when we purchase any technology probably as you know we do get reimbursed for that technology and so we probably are already getting reimbursed for the document storage uh software
that we already using. So this would be an additional reimbursement if we were to purchase it. Yes. So I think that's what you're asking. That's what I'm asking. And I sounds like a good program uh going forward with it. And I think if I may, I
think the two things I I can fully reiterate what Caroline said is software is only as good as we use it. And we have had case works for many years and we all are kind of looking at the software and saying we need to utilize this because it helps staff time. It
helps us be more efficient. It helps us say maybe we don't need that other FTE. Let's you utilize the software to help us scan and upload these documents. This is a it's a you know Caroline just explained it the workflow automation is really going to be helpful because it's
it's not only that we submit the information the EL eligibility division but then that might be a day or a day and a half then to get over to childport the same exact information now that's on us it's having that leg time to turn around and provide that service I think
the other point is maybe you want to touch on this a little bit Caroline with some of the federal snap changes that are coming up how Does this help prepare us to be more automated and our workflow workflow um in preparing for some of those increased administrative duties?
Corre. Yes. Um the way I'm looking at this is it'll help improve our error rates for sure. Um as a because that comes not only on agency but on clients. So it provides like almost an an in tune checklist on both sides that we can both work on
together. So, I anticipate it being a positive impact for that. I anticipate it being a positive impact for how fast we can meet those um timelines within SNAP programming as well as the additional burdens of administrative um functions of verifications and things that are still developing as to how that
will fully lay out. This will be a great tool in that resource. Um, I recognize we've been making significant investments in this function of our work um, over this past year and I appreciate that because with those investments, we're finally able to move things forward and we're at that time where we
can not just respond to issues but like prepare for future ones. So this it's kind of that perfect timing that we can start to to begin to implement this before it becomes a hey now we're trying to run to third base when we just hit hit the like hit the ball. I'm I'm
horrible at sports analogies but I always try. Um but it allows us to be ahead of that game and that's why when I've talked to other counties they said yep. Um is it everybody using it today? No. Does it take some time for that investment in ahead of time? Yes. But
it's going to pay off as we move forward into our future work. Commissioner Dale Anderson, and then I'll come back to you. Well, I think we've beat this a little bit to death. So, I'm going to make a motion to to go forward with the case works portto contract.
All right. We do have a motion uh to uh uh approve moving forward with this. Is there a second? Mr. Chair, I was going to make the motion, so I'll Yes. All right. So I just don't want my sports analogies. Uh further discussion. Commissioner Emda.
Thank you. Um so you you brought forth and I don't disagree with modernization and and um efficiency 35 to 40% uh take rate is seems a little
low to me. Um, so if it's going to be e drive efficiency, how do we get that to 75 or 80%. I I mentioned apps and I think that's critically important. Uh, and also like in the case of my chart,
we didn't get a choice after a while. You're going to use my chart or you're, you know, probably have to walk in to get an appointment. Uh so h how do you what is either case works or the county's uh idea for getting that take
rate up significantly? That's a fair question. Um I would say that they are only I think a year and a half to two years in. So that's a pretty good adoption right out right right out the gate. Um, and I don't know what their their leadership's strategy on implementation and making sure that this
is a a fruitful endeavor. Um, to speak to the you don't get an option. We can always prioritize that as an option for the way that we work with our our neighbors. Um, we can't make it an all or nothing because of that. Um, well, like that access to internet. We
broadband's been a strong conversation. this could be a tool in those broadband conversations saying, "Hey, we can also improve people's ability to to engage with social services if they have the internet um available to them. But it will for if we could take 40% or 50%
just to do round numbers of the 90 calls we're receiving every day, that's half of their day now that they because it's a significant amount of time to listen to that call, return that call, hope they answer, um and then return it again. if they don't um you know and if
we could save a half a day in work that that will drastically imp improve our ability to to streamline back to our original structures um and meet those client needs in that way. So it will be something that we as a as a county have
to commit to um engaging with and as and commit to embodying in the way that we work for with our neighbors. same as we're we're trying to start just from that front door. Hey, why don't we um fill this out on the computer? How do we
work with our partners that are already engaged in helping navigate through Menure? Um I'll use UKAP as the example. If we can help educate them, they can help empower people to do to do this too and kind of share in that um community adoption of this project. It will take
time. Um I expect to be in similar numbers if within our first year if not better. Um but I would take that 40% over no percent too. So Mr. Does that is that going to go into
effect be available like as soon as we approve this or No, it takes about a year a month for them to develop it and then we would have an implementation process over September. So about October one is when we would launch. But we could start communicating and going on the radio and talking to our newspaper partners using
our social media to to start to um plant that seed that this is coming and then have an intentional effort from in that last quarter of the year with everybody that we're engaging with to to sit down and help make sure that they're signed in and create a login.
So by the end of the first quarter of 2026, we should have some measure of of adoption rates. Yeah, we could have a measure like make a goal in that last quarter of 2025 about just loginins and that creation of login and then you know utilizing that and then by the end of
the first quarter in 2026 we could measure um completion rates similar to how min prairie provided to us and that's something that we measure utilization and engagement with our services on an internal fashion ongoing and that would just be something that we add to our internal dashboards that we
if you'd like us to come back and say hey we did this I think It would be interesting. I thinking about software adoption out at our place of business that I'm being encouraged as the old guy to to pay for. Um but I always look back and say, well,
if we buy it and don't use it, you know, then it was gone down a a rat hole. Uh you know, and and I take that as our measurement would be great. Yeah. Yep. And we can we can set that. I don't want to commit to what we we want it to be here, but I would hope to see
it similar. Um and then you know always keep that moving forward. So yeah, you're and you're going to have a full implementation program and uh education uh education and uh it is it is in everybody's best interest that this
succeeds. So I uh uh I I see this as a positive for uh for our clients uh for the community and definitely for your departments and uh and your people. So, anyone else? Yep. Then, uh, we have a motion and a
second. And so, all in favor of approving the caseworks portal contract, signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you so much, Caroline. And then next, we have Margaret Johnson, Kandu High Soil and Water Conservation
District Report. Margaret, good morning. And although I just said your name and where you're with, uh, please reintroduce yourself. [Music] Here we go. Good morning, commissioners. Margaret Johnson, Candy Soil and Water
Conservation District. Thanks for having me. So today I'll talk to you quickly about our district mission. Uh review our 2026 budget request. Uh briefly discuss some problems and
solutions that we see especially after this really wet summer we've had and historic wet summers. And then I have uh since we had just celebrated our 75th anniversary last year, I have some um history that I want to discuss with you
about the district and some traditions that we've been upholding for 75 years. We were actually established by citizen petition in the 50s. So the statute actually became um law in the ' 40s um
following the dust bowl in the 30s and it was really just making sure that there was the ability to make local decisions by locally elected officials. We are a political subdivision of the state but we also have our own statute. So our anonymity lies with our district
board elected just like you. Oh, I covered this part. We also have to follow the same laws that you do. Open meeting law, our statute, which determines our statutory obligations and duties and how the district operates
within the statute is laid out in in law. Our elected officials cover the county and we're not made up of population, but we're actually we actually cover the districts for uh townships. So Brandon Smith would
be the blue, Steve Freedelline would be the green, Jane Youngrance would be the white or gray. Danell Williamson would be the pink, and Jeff Martino would be the yellow. Each of our board members serve a 4-year
term, similar to county commissioners. So our mission is to encourage wise use of land and water and treat those resources with the needs for protection and improvement. Basically we have long range plans. We have long range budgets.
We help on on a majority of our time helping private land owners with their private lands conservation. Our statute statutory obligations and duties are through a pie chart together. This is a majority of what we do on our
day-to-day. These are our programs listed in how much time we are committed to them. Um we do and have transitioned into comprehensive watershed planning which we have done over the last decade now and we have finally completed our fourth
and final um plan in the county which was the chipoa. So starting with the biggest our our cost share and technical assistance. This is what actually is being done on the landscape. Private land owners doing private lands
conservation. Uh planning is what we do when it comes to prioritizing the types of projects we're doing and where. We do have some service programs. We have some obligations through WACA and buffer law. And then we do um reinvest in Minnesota and conservation enhancement program
which are perpetual easement programs. Our ask today is 400 $420,800. As you can see, we have grown in capacity and need. Um the district has
and is continuing to fulfill this the statutory duties and obligations very successfully. And you guys have been involved in providing the district some much needed office space. So come visit us if you haven't already seen our new office.
Uh today's request is a um ask. This request is only 23% of our budget. All the rest of our budget comes from state and federal sources. And there is a need in the future. What we use this request for is matching state and federal
grants. Um much like any grant that is given, it requires a local match. Without this local match, we can access that fund from state and local local grant opportunities. Just to give you an idea of what we use this money on though, um for every $1
spent on conservation in our county, it generates $181 locally. We use we use exclusively local contractors to do our work. Uh exclusively local co-ops to help buy seed for private land owners to do cover crops. Um, and so when it comes to
generating local economy, it is definitely a feedback cycle and feedback loop when it comes to the amount of money that we're spending locally. County statistics. I know you I've talked about this before, but just to give you an idea of what we need to prioritize, um, these are the four major
wersheds. The North Fork, South Fork, Hawk, Creek, and Chippoa. And your guys, this county is 551,000 acres. We have 361 lakes. When I say that, they're designated by acre size. So, this is any lake that's greater than 10 acres. So,
over 11% of our county is lakes and 29% is is water. That includes wetlands, um, wet meadow areas, bogs, marshes, that type of thing. Of the water, 61% is
wetlands and 39% as lakes. And then of the land that isn't water, most of that is in crop land. and over um or close to 50% is corn. We have a lot of beans and then the other small percentages are some canning crops, some halage, um some
some farmers that do have pasture yet. So, how do we prioritize? Because that's a lot of resources um and it is the role of the elected supervisors to determine priorities. It is also the role of our comprehensive watershed plans with mo which most of you sit on those boards.
um how do we prioritize because it tends to be a lot. So when the North Fork and South Fork were doing their planning, what they were really focusing on was the quality of water and the Chipoa and Hawk uh was really focusing on the quantity. So um that kind of does create
a divide in our office depending on where the land owner lives, how we are approaching them when it comes to private lands conservation. Then the northern part of our county um has a lot of quality lakes and the southern part of our county is where we're seeing a majority of that eggland. Then to
complicate it even further, we have irrigation, we have drinking water, we have urban areas, we have drainage. Um and when it comes to prioritizing, and by the way, we are sending all of our water in the county out. We're not
getting anybody's water. um 40% of our lakes that have been um sampled are impaired in the county. We've lost close to 90% of our wetlands. And so it does, you know, you could argue that if we're sending bad water to
our neighbors, we're not doing very good as a neighbor. But um there are things to do that when it comes to programs and private land conservation that we can foster collaboration between upland and and upstream and downstream. And so these watershed plans have created a way
basically they've created a bank account to bring money to those priority areas. Hopefully you didn't get a headache from that one. Um one of the major problems that we're seeing too and it's not raining today but uh we have 130 years of data that
has been collected through the university's climatology office and that data comes through our office. We actually organize um I think over 20 volunteer monitors and we've had people doing it for over 50 years which is
really really great. Um but the top 10 warmest years on record have all been since 1998. And I know that there are drought years that is called a variation in weather. I know that there are wet years that's
still a variation. But overall the trend which is the red line is showing that summers are getting wetter which just means that more people are coming into our office needing our services. This also obviously impacts a lot of things like lake levels
um ice outs lake damage um drainage systems in channel and infield erosion. So this is something that we do every day. uh land owners come to us, they have maybe buried a tractor in one of these holes
in their field, they need services that we provide for free, which is called technical assistance. In some cases, landowners do require that they the cost to fix is to extreme and so we are able to also provide financial assistance.
So, just some historic photos. These are obviously issues that have been um happening all over the county, but the solution to this would be grass waterway constructed in 1980. I did find this location the other day and it's still
there. So, that's good. There it is. Another problem that we have is wind erosion. Um, I took all these pictures except for the one in the top left or my left. Um, these were all just within the last
couple years. It it tends to be a problem more so over the winter period when there isn't anything on the landscape. And since a majority of our county is egg and we're seeing those fields maybe turned over a little bit more black, then our our office would
like to see a solution could be a windbreak. A solution could also be reducing um the tillage that's happening in the farm. And here's some old pictures of how we did some reduced tillage in Regal and Atwater back in the 80s. And a solution could also be cover
crops. So we help land owners with technical assistance. We look at the operations of their farm. We help them identify what would work for their operation and sometimes we can provide financial assistance through those state and federal grants. Another problem,
this isn't going to be all bad, I'm sorry, is uh nitrates and wellwater. We are seeing that even in Candyo High uh anytime it's over 10 milligrams per liter uh that is you should not continue
to use that. Well, uh we support a lot of through financial assistance the decommissioning of um or the if it's not being used the closure. And if there's one takeaway today that I
have for you, it's that well caps are super important. So if you are on a well, please just go and look at your well cap and know a bucket doesn't count as a well cap. And if it's broken, that means that things can get in there. bees, rodents,
um contaminants, whatever you are doing in your yard is also then going to be at the bottom of your well. The picture on the left is underneath a chicken coupe that was a well found by a landowner. Um the picture on the right
was hit by someone mowing their yard. These are all wells that have not been decommissioned and they should be um because they are providing a direct contamination source to their drinking water supply. We also have a well out in the middle of
nowhere on the left and the well on the right was in town in New London. Um and kids could just simply throw their toys down there, fall down there. I mean compared to the five gallon bucket. So we do provide financial assistance up to 100% if you're in a priority area.
um the priority areas are more susceptible to nitrate contamination and so land owners who come in and need assistance decontaminating or I'm sorry decommissioning their well we help them um they have to find somebody who can do
it now that um we dug a bunch of wells over the last hundred years we only started recording them in the 80s and so now that we have a record of those wells we actually now are able to record when they're being decommissioned but some of these wells, we simply don't have a
record of their location. There are wells that are out there that people don't know about, that weren't recorded, that were sold, bought and sold by multiple people. Um, if it's out in the middle of nowhere, you wouldn't know about it. But it also continues to be a risk to drinking water.
So, I'm going to just pop into some history. This was the original board. I don't know any of the people's names, but I thought this was kind of fascinating. I didn't use a picture where they were all smoking around the table. um and the history of our technology. I
actually brought with um just show you how we used to read maps back in the 60s. Um this technology back then uh to use a sports analogy like Caroline was the 90
1990 Bulls like this technology was very very intense. Um, so we would take photos from two different directions and then piece them together kind of like a puzzle and then use these funny glasses called
a stereoscope to read the map. And I can leave this for you. You guys can try it later. Um, but you set it over the map and your eyes will able are able to actually capture the 3D image on the map. So, but
we don't need this anymore because now we have LAR which comes within millimeters which is light detection and ranging. So, they send lasers from airplanes and now the mapping programs that we have um we are able to do 90% of our work on our computers and in our
offices without needing to do planes and and mapping that way. Um, this obviously was some pretty state-of-the-art education now, but I I urge you if you get an opportunity um the fair, we have some new a new education um display this year. That's
going to be very very cool. Uh, also the history of our cedar. This is obviously an old cedar, but we have um we do thousands of acres every year to seed um pollinator habitat anytime. and we work a lot with people who are doing their
CRP plantings. Um, horsepower is also something that we're went from two horsepower to 600 and all within potentially lifetimes of people who are still alive. But, um, this also does provide a bit of a challenge for our
office that farming is different and how we worked with farmers 50 years ago has advanced. we've needed to advance our technology and we've also had a lot of family tradition. This is actually a 150 year
old farm. This is a great great grandpa and his great great great grandson. He is a part of our climatology office reading the rain gauge. So, we have a ton of family tradition that happens um within our within our district offices.
And speaking of tradition, um Uh, our board selected the Anderson family to be our 2025 outstanding conservationist. We select one farm family every year and the board selected Dale Dale and his family. Uh, they are
certified on climate smart alliance program acres. They do CRP. They do crap for wildlife. They have utilized several federal programs which is great. uh prescribed grazing, which I really really hope we can get back into and we need to see more in the county. But um
being able to rotate your cattle through pastures and um they also are Minnesota egg water quality certified. So that's pretty cool. So congrats. Sorry to embarrass you. Um the Andersons now will be able to be recognized statewide at
our our annual convention in December, which is pretty cool. So back to my ask. um all the things that I reviewed and I have a whole lot more. Just run out of time. The $420,800
is really for um our 23% of our our ask or our overall budget, which would be a match to state and federal grants to continue doing private lands conservation and all of the things that are in this pie chart.
Do you have any questions? Uh and before anyone has any questions, I just want to remind the board that uh we're taking this presentation for information today. Uh and uh also uh to uh our friend over at the right uh congratulations to you
and your family. Uh any questions for Margaret? Commissioner Dwayne Anderson. I just have a comment about the wells. I'm glad to see that there is cost sharing, but I didn't know it at the time. and I capped about three wells at our own expense, but uh it's good that
to know that there are well capping funding or whatever cost assistance, however you call it, but it can be expensive, but it's good that people can call in. So, yeah, I had a couple big ones. So, Oh, sorry. That's okay. Shoot. So, this was years ago, but uh but there
but I found out afterwards that that there was, but uh so there might be more. I don't know. I think so. Yeah. All right. Anyone else? Commissioner Burger. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. First off, what what you the services you provide
for Kui County is just fantastic and these are really a priority that we have. As you know, we tried to fund you in the past as much as we can possibly do. So, we'll keep that in mind as we go forward. But, I did have a couple other follow-up questions. One is about wells
and the other nitrates. Um, do you ever get calls to uh cap wells in within the cities? Uh, I'm I I know within in town uh uh as towns grow, you know, they have had wells in them because they're
outside of city limits at one time and I think there's probably several that probably have not been capped. That's one question. And the other question I had was about nitrates. It really looks like the nitrates are more involved in the water in the northern part of the county. And is that I'm assuming is that
because of the glacier? Okay. Yes, correct. Um the the soils are more susceptible to contamination because they are sier and so it's easy for water to infiltrate. So you're
right. Um and the second part is we do get calls from inside the city limits of wells that are in people's basement. Yes. um that we help. And uh wouldn't you
know, it's more expensive to cap a well in someone's basement than it is out in the middle of a field. And so those people do need financial assistance and we help them with that financial assistance. Uh yeah, so yes, good question. Anyone else? Commissioner Mck.
Thank you. Again, mine is more uh comment related too. So, as in many counties, but particularly Canyo County, there's a sort of a delicate balance between egg, which is our number one economy, and tourism, which is our number two economy. Um, and I think the
work that you are able to do helps balance those two economies by, you know, bringing awareness to, um, conservation efforts that will keep both our groundwater and our surface water uh, clean. And we're feel like we're
kind of losing the battle a little bit because of you had the chart there about the frequency or the amount of rain in a year since the 1980s. It's not just the amount of rains, as we well know this year, it's the size of the events. And I
it just pains me to drive through the countryside and see the wash outs that we're getting because of these torrential rains. Uh and sometimes I feel like all the work you do, you can work hard all summer and then next summer of it can wash down the stream
anyway. Um but the probably the chart that is the most telling is that we are still really trying to keep up with our neighbors who have even less uh of the dynamics of water and and and uh or tourism and and agriculture than we do
in terms of uh the budgets. And uh I know we're trying to catch this up. So, uh, I appreciate the work you're doing and we'll certainly try to do everything we can to, um, honor this request. Commissioner Dale Anderson.
Yeah, just a comment. Uh, thanks a lot and and I do have to say that my son is probably the reason that we got this award because he's the one that's really taken a lot of time and a lot of effort into doing anything that's possible to do something different than something crazy, I tell him sometimes. But he he's
done a lot of work with that. But the biggest thing I want to say and I think this is for the public is all it takes is a phone call. If they can't help you, they can't help you. But if they can, there's there's a lot of opportunities by calling the soil and water conservation. And a lot of people don't even understand what's all available and
what options are there. So all it takes is a phone call and 90% of the time there is going to be something that they can do. So that's what I think it's kind of amazing that I found is that just ask Margart said to me, "Well, yeah, we could do that." And I've said, "No, you can't." And you know, it's just interesting how you don't even realize
what's all available. So, thanks, Commissioner B. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, yes, Margaret. You're of most of the time you're so positive. Oh, we can work this out. We can figure this out. And I really appreciate your attitude uh to a lot of different things.
I guess that's probably it. Uh, anyone else? All right, Margaret, thank you so much and uh thank you for your presentation. We'll take a fivem minute recess. Come use this. I want you guys to try
it. If you get a recess through them before, colleagues, yeah, bring it down to my level. it, are you ready? The Candy County Board of Commissioners is back from recess. And at this time,
uh we'll have Barbara Carr, executive director for Candy County Economic Development. Uh and this is also an item for information today. Barbara, good morning. Good morning. And if you'll pull the mic over there, if you'll kind of slide over just a little bit. You bet. I'll go like this.
We got to get you on. Whoops. Now we lost a cord there. That's just the power cord. You should be okay. I'll throw it in there just in case. Okay. All right. We're good. Go ahead. Thank you. Hi everyone. Um, thank you for allowing me to be here to talk about our budget for Candyo Countyy's economic
development. I wanted to just kind of start out with uh what we do at the county level. Um, KCED is the primary economic development authority here. We focus on countywide economic growth. We coordinate grants. We work with our partners to provide planning technical
assistance for local and regional projects. And we operate under a joint authority agreement with the city of Wilmer to serve as their EDA as well. Um in New London and Spicer, they have their own EDAs. So, one of the things I wanted to just
quickly point out is how do we optimize our network to improve our success? How do we differentiate ourselves and demonstrate our county from other regions? And one of the major factors, you just heard it, uh, value added agricultural processing, infrastructure
grants that provide successful improvements to our water, wastewater, and power needs. Um, we work with large, mid, small scale brand manufacturers. Um some of our prior success to similar businesses allow us to have room to grow
in additional businesses in the area and understanding how we as a community contribute to that operating success is that we are pro business. And then we consider what can we reason realistically accommodate and that includes availability and suitability of the sites and the locations for
development. understanding our local brand that defines our region as agricultural and attracting more tourism to increase sales tax revenue that provides essential services in the county. And the way that we do that is we partner with our grants, our loans
and our projects. And I just put a little bit on the side just to help you understand. MMDC looks at four counties. Uh Wilmer Community Area is looking at the Wilmer area. Southwest initiative has a large portion of the southern part of the area and of course deed is for
the whole state. So these are our partners and these are the people that we try to uh work with to uh move projects forward. This came from the association of Minnesota counties. I wanted you to be aware that uh funding is uh changing and
our ability to receive grant funds will require us to work on an economic development um regional level. when we apply for grants, it will no longer be a situation where you'll be able to receive the funding if you're applying just as your own organization. We need
to consider the region as a whole. And that's why I share with you about who our partners are. And this is just to kind of give you an idea about who we are and what we serve and um the resources that we provide. Obviously, you're aware we've been
around for a long time. Uh we've served under this um joint powers authority between the city of Wilmer and the Candy Ohio County uh for over 20 years. Uh we provide site selectors and developers the opportunity to find locations within
our area. We meet with them and encourage them to come here. Uh we describe what we have already and we support our local businesses to expand and grow. So, some of that requires us to be able to get out into the community and meet with our businesses. I had the um opportunity to do that with uh Chuck
last week where we went out uh some of the businesses that are in the outside areas of Atwater and talk to these long-term businesses that have been supporting our agriculture in our region. Um again, we're pro business. Our focus areas include advocacy. When
we hear from a company that says that they're finding it difficult to work in the state of Minnesota, we start to think about how can we make that better. Um recruitment and retention, uh building collaborative relationships, education and technical assistance. Those are the things that we focus on.
Um we include our promotion of development of new industries and support existing businesses which have a focus on egg innovation. Uh our broadband met yesterday. We talked about um the work that we've done in the community, the work that still needs to
be done in the community to make sure that even though the ARPA funds are are slowly dwindling and that's what we use as a resource to provide that uh fiber optics in parts of the county, we want to continue to be able to support having the entire county covered. And that's
going to take a different uh way of receiving the funds. We also assist in creating and retaining workforce by um helping with housing, training and child care initiatives. So that's our current focus. We look at
industrial development, agricultural innovation, housing, workforce, childcare creation and retention, broadband accessibility, um elevate community business academy, and there's one more under there, but this ours are we're not as compatible on
our screens. Um but then in order to do the what we've done in the past, we've certainly had some good metrics that have allowed us to um access funds and create additional um efforts here in the community. But now we're at a point
where we're going to do a strategic plan update. That timeline will begin in January. We hope to have it completed by July so that when the 2026 year end for our strategic plan, we're ready to go for the future. And so that's going to require some conversations with people
that are in this room and in other places. Um we hope to do that in alignment with some of the vision 2040 plans to reach out to 10,000 people and make sure that what we do in the future and we forecast that based off of community engagement.
And one of the ways that we work is through committees. Uh we have our finance committee that reviews the um revolving loans. We also have our broadband and advanced technology that thinks about what are the costs to do this and how can we uh create funds. Our
agricultural and renewable energy is trying to stay on top of the changes that are happening in agriculture and how can we best support that either through conferences or visits to people who are doing something different. Um business retention and in recruitment has been a little bit different here.
We've really focused for the last few years on the child care initiatives and making sure that we have enough child care slots because we recognize if a workforce doesn't have a place to have their children be be during the day when they're working, it's difficult for them to go to work. Um, and there's other
ways to do that as well with business retention and expansion and it includes those visits to go see those vis businesses, find out what their challenges are and try to figure out how we can solve those. Uh right now Farmfest is going on. So some of our marketing dollars are going
to support uh the tourism that happens in our community. And um we'll continue to look for additional ways to market our county. And then just in general, we contribute to a number of different organizations uh to continue to put our community in
the best light for the people that are out there. So, we do some funding for manufacturing through the central Minnesota tour of manufacturing. Um, we support vision 2040. We had a meeting yesterday to talk about what are we going to do next and what do we what do we think uh can be supported. Uh, we
offer professional services where we're working handinhand with um other organizations and people to make sure projects get off the ground and are supported. And uh one of our our big expenses is the Elevate Community Business Academy. You'll see that on
this slide. Um in the past, we've been able to access funds through grants and we'll continue to try to find those grants going forward. And then just in general, we we're a part of a lot of different professional networks because we need to be in a
place where we can meet people who are looking for their next location. And this is just to show you that the budget balance uh that some of these are um on the left are just some additional uh that's our that's where our funding comes from the 710,958.
Um it's different than what you'll see from your 2025 and your 2026. And that is because we want to operate where you know exact we know exactly where our money is coming from and this is how we manage our budget. um grant
funds and corporate sponsorships. Those are things that we need to work on and develop and it will go towards projects and programs as we go forward. And with that, I'll ask if anyone has any questions.
Barbara, thank you for the uh uh presentation. I'll just uh for uh folks out there uh uh who may be wondering uh three of us serve on the uh uh joint powers board uh commissioners Deckenberg
and myself and uh and then we have uh three of our uh friends from the city of Wilmer that are on that joint powers board as well. So uh I'll ask uh if anyone has any questions for the director.
Roger. Well, I I took some phone calls and budgets can be um really challenging to look at and evaluate fairly and I was taking some phone calls and messaging
in the last 48 hours actually um about uh one of the budgeted items would be a salary increase for the uh executive director yourself or whoever is in that position. And um I just want to make it clear that we do this all the time with
our staff. You know, we got our colas every year and just because it's in a in a budget for an upcoming year doesn't mean that tomorrow um Barbara's going to get a raise because it has to be budgeted in order for it to happen a year from now or whenever uh it's deemed
correct. So, um just wanted to say that because there has I have taken some phone calls and I've dealt with them in a way that um I I think they understood it. But, um just just so you know that. All right. Thank you for that. Uh anyone
else? Commissioner B. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. I just like to weigh in too. I want to thank you, Barbara, as as great presentation. I was wondering how you're going to do a presentation because the KCED or KU County Economic Development is so it's
many parts to it as you can as you put put out there and you condensed it really well and I want to thank you and I think it's we're in good position moving forward now and u the budget we're all pretty familiar with. Uh we want to bring in more businesses and
keep and support the businesses we have and do an excellent job. So, thank you. Right. Anyone else? All right, Barbara, thank you so much for the report and uh thank you for the conversation uh in your office yesterday
as well. And so, I don't have any questions for you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up is uh uh uh County Sheriff Eric Collison with Sheriff's Office uh report.
Morning, chairman, board. Uh, Eric Toliffson, Cano County Sheriff. I'll be really brief since my time expired about half hour ago. So, uh, I'll just breeze right to the, uh, uh, kind of the highlight of my
presentation. I just wanted to uh kind of um bring to your attention something that's been in existence for a little over 35 years and that's the C6 drug and gang task force. Um reason I'm bringing that it's not for an ask by any means but it's uh just
simply just to uh cast some or additional attention to some of the work that they've been doing at uh keeping our communities safe and violent crime and drug-free to the best of their ability. Um there's been a few items in the news
as of late of some significant cases that they've been working on. One in particular was a relatively large methamphetamine seizure here in June. Um the likes of which I don't think historically we've ever seen around here. Um
and I think it's just important to recognize the work that these folks do. Again, just a brief background. The drug task force was uh implemented back in 1990. I believe uh it was six counties initially. Ross and I were trying to
discuss or determine which the original six counties were and we couldn't remember. Could be that's the year I graduated from high school. So there's no way I would know that. Um but uh anyway, currently we are comprised of five counties. Um that being Canui, Mer,
Chipua, Swift, and Yellow Medicine. And uh we have seven agents total that are operating that task force. Two from Canui County, two from Mer County, two from Swift County, and one from Wilmer Police Department. Um one of the uh um and I'll get right to
kind of what I'm talking about here. Uh just just some quick stats. As of year, as of this year to date, within the last 6 months, uh the task force is responsible for 186 arrests uh in the service area,
$11,000 in cash seized, um 70 or 56 meth seizures totaling a little over 700 lb, uh 86 pounds of marijuana seizures, 153 searches, 17 child removals, and the seizure of 46 firearms. And that's in
the last six months. Um we're seeing and I Commander Ardoff can speak a little bit more intelligently about this, but we're seeing some trends that are just a little bit more disturbing. Uh the purchases that the task force is able are able to make are are falling off and that's in large part due to lack of
cooperation with informants and that kind of thing. Um there's a lot of theories out there um that could be directly related to lighter sentences for control substance crimes um which would then of course be less of an initiative or a reward for someone to
work with the task force. Um however the seizures are up quite a bit actually. Um, and another thing that I think is worth noting, we've operated kind of about under the
same size, you know, since uh the task force inception by as far as personnel and service area. Our budget however is an area that's kind of I think is worth uh bringing to light is is we look back over the last
10 years and uh our operating costs of course have gone up 42% in that time frame of course large part due to salary uh cost of vehicles cost of operating forfeiture revenue has drastically dropped um that's in large part changes changes to forfeiture laws and that kind
of thing so that money is no longer available um we have re we have raised our per capita over that 10-year period um to accommodate for to offset those costs and maintain the staffing level that we felt is necessary. Um however, the grant
that we receive in that time frame has only increased less than 10%. And in fact, in the last 5 years, it's been stagnant. So something to talk to your local lawmakers about. And uh but anyway, so
that's really quick. Um my visual aids here are uh Sergeant Ross Ardoff, commander of the drug task force. Um Ross has been with the sheriff's office a little over 20 years after he uh made the transition from the police department. And he's led the task force
for over 11 years now. And then agent Josiah Pucket as well. So you got any questions? The three of us would be great to or try and answer them for you. I'm going to uh try one just uh uh and and if you don't have the information,
that's fine. But uh what uh what are the impacts of cannabis legalization uh surrounding all of this because I mean they have some fairly large personal possession limits now and just can you c can you speak to some of the
difficulties and challenges that you're finding with legalization? I think it'd be good question for one of the two gentlemen to my right to answer. Um, whoever wants to take this one specialist right here. So, just uh give your name and
Yeah. And just up to the microphone, introduce yourself. Ross Ardoff, sergeant with the Candy County Sheriff's Office, commander of the C6 Drug and Gang Task Force. A nice pass. Josiah Pucket, agent with the task force. Um, I think the biggest
thing with the cannabis laws that went into place is that the state really wasn't ready to implement all the stuff that they had happening. So, we're seeing a huge illegal market that's come in. A lot of the states that had legalization already, we're shipping stuff in here and we're seeing a continuation of that. Uh, we're seeing a
lot of grows that aren't actually in compliance with the new laws. And not to say that we're not investigating all those, but we have a lot of other drugs that we're trying to deal with with meth and fentanyl. And so it's not exactly our favorite thing to be going and trying to follow up with all the
house grows that are happening. But um it's created a large black market uh because there's not a lot of actual places that are growing and selling it legally right now. And then there's a lot of uh a lot of the local smoke shops. Everyone's kind of trying to get
their money while they can. and there's no one really out there doing compliance checks on any of the people to make sure that they're doing that. And with the marijuana industry, um they're also it's a huge money maker. I mean, it amazes me all the stuff that they've done with marijuana products, all the different things that are coming
out between the way the vapes, the backs. We're seeing crystal substance that looks like meth, but it's actually THC products and they're all very high in potency. They're upwards of 90 to 95% pure THC. So, we're dealing with a lot of legit stimulants instead of just like
the marijuana from the 70s which was 3 to 5% THC. So, huge black market that's coming here and not a lot of regulation coming from the state at this point. Yeah, I think we can all safely say that the uh uh roll out by OCM has been less
than optimal. So, uh Commissioner Bur. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, first off, I want to thank you for uh risking your lives all the time. And you've got the kind of job that's out there we don't hear much about. You know, we hear other things that may take place with
the sheriff's department, but uh you guys are working all and I won't say you guys, but uh that your staff and this program has been working behind the scenes and you're saving lives as well for what you do. Uh I'm just amazed the capacity how effective you have been.
when I read in the paper about these buss and the and uh and the different raids you have to make on different areas and respond at all times of the day and how you do this in secrecy and uh I just commend you for that but I I
also don't hear much about the needs because it's how can you accomplish all this and and are you needing more staff is a need even more needs out there and I know this is for information only but my question is and And uh Administrator Baker too can help me with this too. The
funding though to fund this program since we're five five counties involved is that the five counties have to get together and work on the budget together. We all put the same amount in percentage-wise. Is that the way it goes? Not necessarily. I think it's per capita per capita.
It is per capita cap sits on. Do you chair? I I do not. You don't chair, but he does sit on the committee. Okay. It's uh sheriff from uh right sheriff Cruz Maker Sheriff Cruz Maker County is a chair right now of the board. Yes. So it's based off capita and each
county pays in we house all of the agents within our building and I'm sure the sheriff and uh commander can speak way more to this but it's based off per capita and then they we have a staff member that bills out the counties and then they pay in for their each county
pays for their certain FTEES that are within the task force. Okay. Yeah, the the per capita is a certain dollar amount per resident bas based on population for each county. Um, and we're currently serving a little over 90
99,000 residents in the service area. So, it's a dollar amount assigned to each one of those people and that's what each contributing agency will kick in. Uh, just to bring up, we we did you mentioned staffing. We did consider uh reducing the task force by one agent
this year as a result of you know the stagnant u um grant and then it caught increase of it of expenses. But um everybody sitting on the board went to their respective um pocketbooks so to speak and decided to make some creative
adjustments to how we how we reimburse each agency and then also um uh to uh increase the per capita and um so that's how we were able to maintain. We didn't want to see uh the reduction in staff uh just simply because of the trends that
we're seeing. I mean, it's not we're not seeing less, we're seeing more. So, Commissioner Dwayne Anderson. So, I sit on the task force and and it's a very interesting meeting. It's kind of scary, too, because when I first got on
there, I had no idea how many drugs or whatever that uh you guys, you know, collected or, you know, apprehended or seized or whatever you want to call it. Um, but I have great respect for you guys. I always tell them or I' I've told them some of them if I w if I was in
their shoes I'd be like Barney F. I'd be so nervous because what you guys do I mean you guys are the point of the spear. So thank you for what you do. Commissioner Mdeick. Thank you Mr. Chair. And this is uh more of a general statement about um law
enforcement. And I was just making this comment to my wife the other day as we were driving to a baseball game and we met one of the squads and and I said, you know, growing up in the 60s, uh, if you we never had any interaction with law enforcement like at DARE and at
school or anything like that. And so they were sort of your adversary because you might be driving too fast or as a teenager, you know, at a party someplace that you're worried about getting busted and and uh but you're really about public safety. And I remember uh a now
retired um New London ambulance operator that sent me a note one one day and said, "Rod, I just want you to know that the sheriff's department and the highway patrol are the greatest partners we ever have when we go to these accidents
because not only are they keeping the public safe as they deal with the accident, they're keeping us safe because they're working in some conditions sometimes that quite frankly they're they're in danger themselves. you know, they might be in a road ditch or on the shoulder of a road dealing
with the patient. So, thanks for that work. All right. Uh, anyone else? All right. Uh, gentlemen, thank you so much. Thank you for the work that you do. And, uh, you'll all be out at the fair again this year. Yes, we will be. Yes. So, yeah. Just in
closing, I'd like to thank the board as well for their continued support as well as the boards of the other participating counties. Um it's without that um it's we couldn't do what we do. Um and uh really appreciate it. So take care. Thank you again.
All right. Uh we have two action items coming up. Uh the first one is uh uh resolution 2025-25 for the Minnesota Clean Water Partnership Project. lowinterest loan program. Well, there's a lot there.
We'll let our guests uh introduce this. That's about that's about four lines there. So, uh uh please introduce yourselves and good morning. Yes. Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board. My name is Christa. I'm environmental specialist um county
obviously. This is Logan Bankston. Logan Bankson taking over septics in the fall when I get my training and certifications done. So, yes. So, I brought Logan along today to kind of introduce him to the board and to get him used to presenting and that sort of thing. So, he'll just kind of
watch the process. Um, as you know, I came before you in May to ask for permission to submit a work plan to MPCA um to ask for funds um in a loan program because we are are depleting our funds out of our current loan agreement. So, I know that you guys are up against some
time. So, I've given my spiel before. So, today I come before you with the general obligation note. um is the first re um resolution for you to sign um to enter into that agreement. And then the second one is it to designate the environmental specialist as the project
representative um to ask for those funds as we need them and then to um you know get them into the auditor's office to be put on as a special assessment. So there are those two resolutions that I'm asking for. Mr. Chair, I would move on resolution
2025. The first one is 2025-25. All right. We have a motion to move on the resol first resolution. Is there a second? I'll second that, Mr. Chair. All right. Uh discussion, any questions? Um
Okay. So, uh Cliffnote version, if you could describe this for the folks out there in 30 seconds. This basically is a program that allows uh them to access funds to upgrade to individual sew sewage systems. Yes. Correct. Yes. So low interest loans. So
our previous loan agreement was 1% for 10 years. This loan agreement would be 2.5% for 7 years goes on your property taxes as a special assessment and can be paid off or paid down at any point without penalty.
Okay. And uh uh does the higher percentage uh does that begin at the uh next year or upon implementation? Upon implementation. So once the system is installed, then we receive the invoice and we would pay the contractor
directly in that year that we are in. They get pr-rated for the remaining months of that year for interest only and then the principal and interest would then begin that next year. Okay. Any questions? All right, then we have a motion, a
second on resolution 2025-25. All those in favor signify by saying I. All opposed. Motion passes. And then we have another resolution 2025-26. Yes. So, this resolution would um allow
for you well, it would designate either myself or Logan um to request the funds from the MPCA as needed. um because we're kind of a pass through um at that point. So, as we need the funds, we would request them from the MPCA and then that would allow us to do that
instead of coming to the board every time. All right. Uh Commissioner Anderson. Uh Mr. Chair, I would uh make a motion to uh pass resolution 25 2025-26. We have a motion. Is there a second? I'll second it.
Commissioner Dale Anderson seconds. Discussion. Mr. U I'll speak from firsthand experience because we had to put a new system in and most of our neighborhood tends to be putting one or two in a summer. Um and the public should not be reticent to
come and talk to you. It's a very very easy process and u it does help and to come up with anywhere from 12 to $20,000 to put a septic system in is um oftenimes not budgeted and uh so it really makes it easy to get the process
done and and um most people will wait until it's backing up into their house before they they contact you. But usually the failure starts a couple years earlier and you can tell it out in your yard uh as tends to get soggy even in a dry year. Right. Right. And just you know to add
to that average now is about $18,000 for a system, a three-bedroom system. Um and you know just to caveat the county does offer a low interest or I'm sorry a lowinccome grant program as well. So there are is funding available out of a grant program as well. Um, so
we encourage people to reach out to our office, ask us questions. That's what we're here for. Um, we'll walk you through the process. It's easy. People can come in. We'll sit down. We'll even fill out the paperwork. Help you fill out the paperwork. Yes, that's what we're there for.
Thank you. Are there any further questions? We have a motion and a second on resolution 2025-26. All in favor of the resolution signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you. And Logan, welcome.
Thank you. All right. Uh, at this time, um, Administrator Baker is presenting on a memorandum of understanding. Uh, Kelsey, go ahead. Good morning. Kelsey Baker, Candy County Administrator. Before you today, we have threeus.
Uh, one of them is for the ESST and the two other ones are are for the paid family leave. I'm going to take up um the ESST first and that's I think I believe last in your board packet. We'll take these three separately just so that
the board chair knows. We'll take three requests separately. Um, so I'm going to take up the law enforcement labor services local number 191. That's our telecom public safety telecommunicators. Um, this union was um very
straightforward, very willing to sign anou with us regarding ESST language, which basically um it's related to closure of the employees place of business or to care for a family member. And so because these are um
safety employees, we would still ask them to come to work, but they so they are still covered under ESST, but not um they have another option then as well. And so this MLUS will just clarify the certain positions that may be exempt from the statute due to the emergency
nature of the work. And this is something that came up because we had already negotiated the contracts and then this came forward from the state. Correct. and we didn't have any of this language within their contract and so that necessitates the memorandum
of understanding then. All right. Uh Mr. Chair, uh Commissioner B. Thank you. I also move that we approve them me uh memo of understanding between Candy County and uh law uh enforcement labor
services of local 1911. All right, we have a motion. Is there a second? I'll second that. Commissioner Dwayne Anderson seconds. discussion. Pretty straightforward. Uh hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I.
All opposed. Motion passes. All right. Next one. Uh these two next ones I'll kind of take speak togetherly but take action separately. Uh again this is uh unit 191 which is our public safety telecommunicators and then unit 22 which
is our deputies. And to caveat a little bit of this, Katie Zeamer, our human resources director, is working with all unions to work towards uh gettingus into place prior to January 1, 2026. As you all are aware of, paid family
leave goes into effect January 1, 2026, and is a bargain, a negotiable item for employees, for union employees. And so I we are very comfortable and feel really good about this start for anou because
our contracts are up at the end of 2026. And so we uh were very supportive of the LS uh union reps to be forward with this. And we are starting off with a paid family leave of a 50/50 split that
would go into effect starting January 1. Um, and this would be the premium that's paid through payroll deductions and that's pursuant to the statute 268b.14. And so we feel really comfortable with the 50/50 split to start this off. That
is what we're seeking with the other unions as well. We just haven't gotten those prepared and approved by the unions and ready for board. Any questions regarding these twous? Mr. Commissioner, are we going to handle them separately
or together? Okay. Um, which one is would you want us to move on first? I'm 191, the public safety telecommunicators. I'll move on 191 telecommunication services. We have a motion. Is there a second?
Second. Oh, go ahead. Okay, I'll second. All right. Any questions, discussion? Just comment. I think I know the answer to this. So on ESST we are not able to split those costs with with the employees. Correct. We paid family leave we can.
Yes. Yep. All right. Anybody else? All right. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. And the last and then the second one that we are seeking for approval today is local
number 22 for the deputies. And this is the paid family leave as well. Same language, different uh group. All right. Very good. Any uh any questions? Is there a motion? So move, Mr. Chair.
Uh chair will second discussion. All right. Hearing none. All in favor of theou with local 22 signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. And you have another item for us. Yes,
I do. Can I keep going? Yes, please. All right. So, this board request is for the Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center agreement for operations. Jennifer Swenson is here as the executive director of Prairie Woods. I think Jennifer and I have been talking about this for two years since we both
been here about the relationship between Candyway County and Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center. It was really a forwardthinking um action item that was done years ago that was really a handshake deal. And so I think what Jennifer and I were looking
for within this agreement was basically some understanding from both parties so there isn't any confusion um it is on county property. Uh so how do how does Prairie Woods and Jennifer provide updates in a timely fashion to the county board? What do we know is
approved? What's not approved? And so this was really um an easy sort of agreement, but we looked at you know what does need to be done. So it's more so like the capital equipment or capital improvement planning process that would
Jennifer would come and provide an update to the board. Anything that would exceed $100,000, she would come to the board and seek approval. any ancillary things I'm going to say like our public works going out to mow our community work service um like I said the ditch
mowing the plowing those types of things the county or myself don't need to be involved in that's something that Jennifer can handle on a daily basis and she's been doing that anyways and so it's really more so the capital improvement planning process that we would Jennifer and I would connect on
plan um the upcoming board meeting for a presentation and then seek approval from the county board of commissioners. Uh, one thing, Jennifer, when we met and we talked about this, we also did question that $100,000. I did have the county attorney, Shane Baker, review it as
well. This was something that we felt comfortable with to start with. We It is a five-year plan. However, we both feel comfortable and confident that we would go back to our board and say, you know what, this does need to be increased um because we do have representatives that
sit on the Prairie Woods board as well, but we just wanted to make sure that clear communication is coming from both parties to kind of kick this off until we all feel comfortable with that. And so, we're both willing to maybe amend the contract moving forward, even if it's in the mid fiveyear. Um, so with
that that said, we are asking approval uh for the agreement. The Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center board already approved two weeks ago. July 21st, I believe was your board date, and they approved it. Um, I hope I answered that question regarding the dollar
amount. Um, other than that, we would be seeking approval for the agreement today. And I will stand with any questions. All right. Any questions for the uh administrator or the director? None. Jennifer, do you have anything that you'd like to add?
Uh, Jennifer Swinson, executive director of Prairiewoods Environmental Learning Center. And Prairiewoods just wants to thank the county board for the continued support and partnership and feels this agreement will just allow us to continue to take good care of the property and
operate our programs as well as to plan for improvements to serve the public going forward. And there's an event coming up uh fairly quickly. Yes. Sure. Our annual fundraiser Prairie Stars is Thursday. Is that right?
Prairie Stars. And then you're hosting Prairie Pothole Days again. Same weekend. Yes. Outstanding. All right. Anybody uh anybody else? Uh we'll entertain a motion uh to approve the agreement. I move. I'll second it.
Have a motion and a second to uh approve the agreement between the parties. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you so much. Thank you. And uh
Kelsey, you've got two more items. Do you want to take them up there or I Yes. Well, my name's on there, but I cannot take the credit for these reports. Um so, Kelsey Baker will um as discussed kind of in the last year and a half, we're doing more quarterly
financial reports to the board to keep you kind of in the loop. Um this information is provided on a quarterly basis. Um, and so, uh, I will have the finance staff here. I believe Karen just walked up, but we'll take Carol Tulliffson first with Health and Human
Services. And really, this is, um, what I have guided them to provide today is a highle overview of where we're at for the the quarter, where we're at year-to date, and to just pro provide a snippet of what our this these staff do 100% of their time. These are the ones that are
managing our budgets, keeping us all in check and in line. And so I will let them uh present their information and then if I if there's any follow-up questions I can answer those as well. Outstanding. Thank you. Good morning.
Good morning. Carol Tulliffson, fiscal supervisor for Health and Human Services. Um so like Kelsey said, we are halfway through the year. Uh so looking at my document, I think you all have it. Again, if we were 100% uh on track, each of these lines would be at 50%. Uh, as
you can see, our expenditures are under 50, which I don't think anyone complains about. That's a good thing. So, I'm going to focus on our revenues. Some of those are lagging behind, and so I do have explanations on those. Okay. Our state revenue is at 48%. So,
with our state revenue, we get some big allocations in July. July is the first month of the state fiscal year. So, we are getting our VCAA allocation of 588,000. our child protection grant of 318,000
and our adult protection grant of 105,000. So again, all those will come in July. So that will improve that line. Our recoveries line is actually very negative. We're at negative 109%. So what this is is we do the recoveries for
um all of the programs eligibility handles like our MIP, our SNAP, our GA, MSA, GR, MA. Okay. So when a client doesn't report assets and income timely,
accurately, then we can recover. So again, we do the recovery work. We we do the billing, we do the the recovery. Okay. So then we the county gets to keep just a portion of that. So with this, it's hard when you look at this from just the beginning of the year. So this recovery line overall again since the
beginning of time is is solid is a is a positive number. But when you look at it just from the beginning of the year. So in medical assistance which is mainly our estate recoveries when someone passes away and we recover from the estate
we have collected in 2025 195,000. We have paid 285,000. Now that's because the state is behind in billing us. they're the in 2025 we've paid for November and December of 24. So
again, when you're looking at this account from just the beginning of the year, it's going to look negative occasionally. Okay? But overall, again, since the beginning of time, yes, our recoveries, we do well. So with MA, we get to keep only 25%. Again, our staff
do the work, do the recoveries. Our incentive, they call it a county incentive, we keep 25% of what we recover. It's a little different for each program. SNAP is a little bit I think SNAP we get 35%. So again that's why that line looks off because again
when you're looking just from the beginning of the year we've paid out more than we've recovered. Okay. Uh the next line fees and other revenues. We're at 37%. Um the main reason this is down and really will never catch up is we had budgeted
some revenue here to cover our opioid position that we hired. We we got the ORAC grant, which I know you're all familiar with, opioid epidemic response grant. When we initially were were going to receive these revenues, um we put it in this line, but then after talking
with Karen Anderson, it just made more sense since we do this with um the the probation, it made more sense to keep these sort of their own fund. So, the ins and outs of the OAC dollars are somewhere else. They never will show up here. So, we had 120,000 budgeted here.
That will never show in this line. We are getting it. Our costs are covered, but it's just not going to show here. All right. The other line, managed care revenues are at 42%. So, this is one of those lines. So, so we we bill all the
PAPs that we have, the prepaid medical assistance plans, which assigned to our county is Blue Cross and Prime West, but then we're also able to bill all the other PAPs in the state. So if someone moves here from another another county and say they have uh medic Medicare meta medicica say they have medicica but when
they move here they have to be a resident here for two months before they can go on one of our PM maps. So we bill medicica we bill UKare we build all the PA maps because again when they move here there's two months that they're still covered by that other plan. So the reason this is down is because this is where we're seeing the state overall
being behind in processing the MA apps. Okay, with the re with the unwinding. So, a lot of our clients have lost their MA coverage. We're still serving them. We're still doing our targeted case management with them, but they've lost their MA coverage. So, that's where
we're seeing that's why we're seeing that. Hopefully, now as our county and other counties are catching up, hopefully we'll see that back on track. But otherwise, again, overall, our revenues are at 51%, but there are a few lines that were down. I just wanted to explain.
So, I don't know if anyone has any questions. Commissioner and Beck, thank you. Um, Carol, it going back to the recoveries uh on public assistance. I'm not questioning the percent which is as you pointed out is pretty dramatic
but is that the area we hear so much about in the big beautiful bill that um if number one where the error rate is and every county you know gets uh rated based on their error rate and is
it also going to be uh increased the amount of work that or what do you call that uh eligib ability work be increased and now I think they're also proposing that if if there is an error the countyy's going to have
to pay for the error. Can you expound and am I talking about the same area in which that takes place? Yes and no. So really where we're going to see that error rate is up in our federal line. That's our FFP, our federal financial participation.
Anything we pay for in human services we get federal funding for in certain percentages. based on the state's error rate overall, we'll probably lose some of that federal funding, some of that FFP because we're at like 13% or in that bracket where it's
I watched the presentation but I couldn't tell you. I'm sorry. But that that's where we'll see that drop in our FFP the recoveries. So again, all those programs I mentioned, the MIP, the SNAP, the GA, MSA, RCA, what that is, again, during during COVID, no one had to report their income
and assets or again, not very often, right? People's lives change, but again, you only had to report maybe once a year. Some they suspended really indefinitely. So now that that's back on track, now where we're again having to look at these eligibilities for all these programs more often, we probably will
see an increase here because again people weren't used to reporting that there's different reporting requirements, lower income standards. So that line itself we probably will see go up because of that reporting requirement, but our FFP, that's where
we'll see that go down with the big beautiful bill. Thank you for that. Yeah. Explanation. Anyone else? Commissioner B. U Mr. Chair, thank you. First off, I want to just comment have two comments, I guess. Um, was it formatted? This looks very familiar.
Yes, Sheila's formatting. I appreciate the presentation that you you gave. Also, I appreciate that uh you anticipated every question I had. I went through this before and I thought, oh, I ask about this or that or I think this is what that is about. So, uh very good report and appreciate having this
update. Thank you. All right. Any other questions? All right, then. And then we'll have um Paul come up. But just to explain Commissioner MDK just a little bit, that error rate that will increase our budget because that is
something that we don't have budgeted for right now. Um and so we will have to be prepared for something like this starting this fall, probably I think it's October 1st that it goes into effect. And so I think specifically with
we always say B uh budgets are moving targets, right? But with this specific health and human services budget, the human services fund, we are really working with a moving target right now because things are changing and this is all new to us and it will be new administrative duties that we'll have to
be doing. Um and just coming off the unwinding that Carol was talking about and now this is will be something new to employees and new to the public. So just wanted to insert that real quick. No problem.
I am Valker, the accountant for public works. Uh Carol gave a nice precise uh presentation. I like the idea of a moving budget. That is where we're at.
You have something else. Yes. anything. But uh one of the things you got to know that we're dependent upon the weather, we're dependent upon jobs, depend upon timing. Uh we'll start with looking at our revenue. Uh so far
we have $8 million in. Uh but you start going down the property tax of 2.6 that came in end of January, beginning of February. Um the
intergovernmental uh oh I mean excuse me the property tax was J uh June the intergovernmental was January and February. Uh the only thing that was consistent that's of a large amount is our transit
tax sales transit that's on comes in on a regular basis. And if you extend this out, uh, on July 7th, uh, we got in our 90% of our eligible, uh, regular maintenance, uh, regular
county constructions of 4.1 million. And on the same day, we had the 40% regular maintenance that we get in for 1.4. So $5.6 million came in basically two weeks after this quarter ended. So you don't
have this month we're going to do this, this month we're going to have this much come in. We're all over the point part. Then when we come to expenses, we have our four areas. Admin, maintenance, construction, and shop. And shop
consists of buildings and equipment. And all these especially the maintenance one is maintenance and uh maintenance and we do work for the townships we do work with the cities inter departmental DNR all those costs
go into 303 but then it also we have revenue coming in so it's never a true only road cost it's other cost we need road costs that's where I go to my cost accounting system.
Uh, two book system doesn't sound good, but that's the way we go. Um, then let's just jump down to uh construction, the contract payments. Uh, that's 24.4
million. Of that, uh, 2.2 2 million is finishing up last year's work and that means only uh roughly 228,000 was done this year. However, again, we
go two months or two weeks later on July 14th, we write out to Central Specialties a check for $3.9 million for the start of this year's construction. Our whole thing is more of a when and
how and look at the whole Mel and I will sit down and say where are we at, you know, compared to what we think we are as far as what we think the budget is going to be by the end of the year versus by month are we hitting our targets.
So any questions? Any questions from the board? just commissioner and um you know that lag or or sometimes you know the early bump is um not very much different from
farming. You know you have your biggest expense when you're starting to buy all the inputs and that bill might come um you know before you ever put the crop in the ground and you might not sell that crop till the following year. So you get this acrruel type of situation. Even in our business,
you think it's pretty straightforward, but in July, all our all of our Christmas stuff is arriving. And so now we're paying for this for the Christmas stuff. In July, we don't take the revenue in. So I guess I pretty much understand the the numbers, how they can be so
wacky. You're only at what, 10% of your construction payments, 11% at this point. But come November, we're going to see a pretty big change in that. Yep. All right. Uh, Commissioner Dwayne Anderson. Yeah. So, I since everything is kind of
all over the place, you know, um, are are there any numbers on here that kind of make you nervous and hope No. Okay. That was if you look at I usually ask that at a lot of my committees, you know, if there's anything on here because, you know, we
don't know if it's, you know, it says 44% if it should be. No, I I I look at it and over the trend of several years, it's basically right where we're at. Okay. Being the weather, being the storms, being the whatever, you put all these
little factors into it and go, we're good. All right. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? All right. Well, thank you so much. and Karen. Good morning. Good morning. Karen Anderson, County CFO.
And in your packets, you receive the 2025 year to date through ending June 30th actual budget summary. Um, our total expenses are at 44% and total revenues are at 50%.
So, we're doing really well on both and right where we should be. Uh going through the summary, I didn't see any departments that were far off the target, the 50% target, and I think we attribute that to the staff doing a
really good job with projecting the budgets and following the budgets we have set. So, we're truly hoping that this trend continues throughout the year. I don't know. Did you have any questions on any specific departments? Commissioners,
I'm just uh I'm just looking at the revenue uh fund total uh on the expense side and that's at about 65%. But is that maybe something that's due to timing of certain items just in general?
Um it definitely is timing. Um, you know, as um Paul had said, we've gotten in a lot of money in July for different programs. Um, the um I think that that pretty well is
where we're at. It's just t just the timing. Yeah. Yeah. Uh because as you indicated, everything else seems to be within, you know. Yeah. There was really nothing that flew off the page signaling anything.
Okay. Yeah. I I don't have any other questions other than that. Does any any other the other commissioners have anything? All right, Karen. Thank you so much. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for the work that you do. And uh Carol, thank you again so much as
well. All right. So, that is the second quarter financial report. Uh, do we want to take a fivem minute recess here, commissioners? Sure. Or do you want to continue? Yeah, I think it'd be fine.
Okay, let's take a fivem minute recess. Hey T, are you ready? Yes. Light lights on, folks. All right, the Candy County Board of Commissioners is back in session. uh and we will pick up with uh administrator
Baker and the 2026 budget preview and my understanding this is kind of a high level uh prep so to speak. Yeah, kind of a um it was mentioned to have something regarding the budget um at the this
first meeting and I I really toyed with this because I I don't want to give too much information because we're not we're still finalizing. We're still having some secondary meetings between schedules. Karen and I just met yesterday. We went
through budget number three. We're still making changes to that. And so we're hoping to have hopefully we'll have budget number four uh ready to go for August 19th. Um, but to kind of do a budget preview within your board packet, there were, I think, a list of eight
things, eight items, seven items that I kind of laid out that are high um high drivers to the 2026 budget. High drivers or state aid dollars. Um, and so I think the biggest thing that I want to
I'm going to say hit you all with is typically we have 26 pay periods in a calendar year. And this year we have 27 period periods which amounts to a 1.7 million difference right off the bat in our payroll budget in 2026. Yes. Six. What? Okay. Sorry.
You said you said this year. Sorry. 2026 uh budget. And so those are additional payroll costs that we don't typically budget for. Uh this happened a number of years ago and we missed it and we just um made a journal entry within our audit
and explained that to our auditors. Um it's it's it's kind of we're I'm talking with other administrators and finance directors on how they're looking at this and how they're budgeting for it. It's really mixed right now. So I'm looking into more information and I'll
have more of a recommendation um at the budget work session and at the next board meeting. However, right now, I think the main finance directors and between Karen and I, we feel most comfortable that it it does need to be budgeted for. It is it's a an additional
it's additional payroll costs that should be accounted for within our our budget. Um, we're also preparing for the closure of the demolition landfill. Um, we have engineering costs and then we have closure costs. Those comes that comes with a cost to close our that part
of our landfill. And so that's explained in there. We're looking at our capital equipment purchases that's funded through landfill and road and bridge and facilities. We're looking at how can we use our reserves to offset those onetime expenditures. Um which I think the board
has been in favor of in past practice. Um in 2026 we'll have an election year. So that's uh it's not a huge cost, but it is a cost that uh fluctuates um between election and non-election years. Um, we're in the process of evaluating
our facility needs. We completed a space study. We recently had a a work session regarding building projects and what does the future look like. And I that's not something that's I haven't stopped working on. I'm still looking at what are the financial opt options that we
could have um with future build building projects and so that we're not just kicking that can down the road because we don't know what the next five years looks like. at least we need to do that strategic planning and be prepared for that and to provide that good recommendation to the board on what would your options be if you were to
take action on a building project. Um but these building projects do include renovations or you know new construction but we need to look at all options as well and be strategically prepared for when that time comes. I did list in um some of our state aid
and funding sources. These are very generic. They're not all, as Carol Tulliffson explained, I didn't put the child support, the child protection, all of all the state aids that we do get. If I would have done that, that would this would have been a lot longer list. Um,
but I think the big thing is our county program aid did decrease slightly around $125,000. It's coming in at 3,28,391. Um, very minimal. Last year, our uh county program aid was 3.3. And I think
that's something that this board can uh can thank themselves and account for um by all the advocacy work around um talking with our legislators along with AMC and the work that you all do to keep that county program made high. I think what's hard, we're still not at the
levels um that we were at in 2012, you know, 2011 and 10. Counties are still working back up to those levels. But I think one thing that AMC does across the board that's so well is that we might have seen a dip, another county might have seen an increase, but at the end of
the day, those numbers are staying high and that's what we do. We we deserve that for the work that counties do within the state of Minnesota. Um, so and then I just listed, you know, the housing support, the local homeless aid, riparian aid, and then AIS. that was
really in confus, you know, there was a lot of discussion around that with the 50% reduction and things like that because we have AIS. Um, and so we were looking at what that would look like then in our county if that were to happen. And so really uh the next steps uh will
be our August 19th budget work session. Uh last year I had all departments come in and do kind of a very high level overview of their department. This year we're going to kind of zone in on a few the few larger departments. Um we'll have public works, health and human services, landfill, facilities and
technology here to kind of uh like I said zone in and kind of talk about what are our key drivers to the 2026 budget. What are we looking at creatively? How are we looking at our staff? And I think um in 2026 when we look at the budget
and I you know I have conversations, we're still looking at tech technology. I think that's a really big thing especially with all of the technology that's happening and the biggest thing I can't remember which commissioner said it might have been Roger that if we pay for software but we don't utilize it
that's a waste and I think I I'm a huge proponent that if we're going to pay for this we have to learn how to use it and um Melissa I always use the example of our your board software you know um when we had a transition between staff I kind
of dove in and figured out how can we utilize to the best of our ability with the software and I would say the work that Melissa has done moving forward is completely kind of streamlined some of the process and how we get the board packet out now. So, it's taking the time and allowing that learning curve, you
know, cuz technology is hard. I'm scared of technology sometimes. Um, and so it's taking that time to allow the learning curve and allow mistakes to be had and how do we figure that out and move forward because in the long run it is going to help us do our job. Um
uh we talked a lot about u going into the 2025 budget strategic planning. Um my goal was to have the strategic plan be adopted by the board today. We're just not quite there with the logo. So we'll hopefully at the next board meeting we'll have that ready. But I think we still are in our planning
process. We're going through the building plan. We're looking at how our capital equipment processes um our capital improvement, our CIP, our C and how are we planning to prepare for the future. so when we do get those opportunities that we are ready and that
we are progressive in those areas and we can stay up to speed on that. Um Mel and I were just having the conversation regarding our parks and how do we plan better to prepare for potential grant opportunities, federal or state or even local grant opportunities that are right
here within our community that we could expand on and get some dollars in to provide more marketing, promotion, signage, things like that. Then I think the other kind of key point of the 2026 budget is that we're looking at our programs and services and we're
doing a review of that process procedures and so all of that kind of entangles into the planning and the technology. Um I have asked every department head what's your mandated what's your non-mandated services and having those really tough conversations.
I made many comments to some admin staff that I, you know, it's these are hard conversations to have because these are employees that have these jobs and they're friends and they're neighbors. And so, but in times like this, we have to really fine-tune that pencil and look
at the services we're providing. Can we be more efficient? Um, does this help, you know, be proactive in other areas that reduces other areas, right? Like that's a whole circle of things and I am a true believer in government that yes government can be reactive but we want
to be proactive because then that reduces other costs as well. So it's it's hard conversations that we're having with department heads that I'm having with department heads. Um like I said Karen and I reviewed the budget yesterday went through. We'll have another budget run. And so in the
meantime if you have any questions prior to the August 19th budget work session please reach out to me. That's the number one pro thing I'm working on on a daily basis is reviewing the budget um and checking base with the finance staff and uh preparing the presentation for
the 19th. All right. Uh uh just uh and and I did just want to comment uh very briefly. You mentioned the county program made decreasing slightly which is what it is, right? Uh but I think it's uh worth
noting that uh uh we receive a relative drop in the bucket compared to uh what uh cities uh get in their local government aid. Uh and uh I don't know if uh uh what the reasoning for that is
uh because I mean we're tasked with doing a lot. Maybe they think that uh they're funding it in other streams. I don't know what it is, but uh uh it sure be nice to have some equity at the state of Minnesota between county program aid
and uh and local government aid and end of that rant. Any questions for Mr. Baker? I do have a question. Whoops. Um I was thinking our That's buffer strips, right? The repair you need, correct? Yep. Did that get cut in half? Thought it was
AIS that was going to get cut. It was a it wasn't repairarian aid. Reparian aid uh the corn growers association was wanting to get part of the siphon as well. Uh that didn't go through for 26 session. It was AIS that was looking at getting 50% cuts
and that didn't happen then. Correct. But it seemed like the repairarian aid was larger than that. Uh we have that is our appropriation per year but we have more money in the the account. Right. But I was so I think you I think we have shown
that um the account for that and we do have um good amount of reserves in there. That's another battle we're going to have to kind of stay on top of is to retain those Mhm. those allocations.
Right. Right. And that will be a uh continuing battle. And uh of course we have our in about a month we have our AMC policy conference uh starting and uh that'll be kind of
where the rubber hits the road and we've I think we've got a real heavy lift the legislature this year not to mention anything at the federal level. Commissioner B. Thank you Mr. Chair. Just to go over the the budget uh plan now then. So the ne next board meeting after that we're going to have a work session and some
presentations and then we'll be seeing the budget. We'll be seeing the budget before that at all. Yep. So, what I think we can typically do, hold on, let me pull up my calendar so I don't give you a wrong date. Um so then we'll typically um so prior from the 19th to September 2nd when we have
our next board meeting depending on the feedback that I get from the commissioners on August 19th I will provide any changes then that have happened um and we can do more of a presentation and discussion on at the September 2nd meeting if that's what you
choose to do and then at the September 16th you would approve the preliminary levy if we need to call. I think what's hard is because we will have two commissioners and staff head out to DC for the fly in. And so I think what's hard if we were to call a special
meeting in September, we always could the 29th or 30th, those two last days, because the levy is due um by September 30th. Okay. I well my question is
will we'll be in our packet then for that meeting on the 19th of the budget then the preliminary budget that you come up with I mean this is like a preview what might be part of that so we haven't seen that yet so we will we the question is will we see that before our
meeting on the 19th yep okay the IFS report I think last year it was in the board packet I'd have to be in the packet then it will be in the packet and those are sent out Thursday afternoon. So, you'll have and then we'll wait to contact you individually and talk about the budget
after that or you can talk about it ahead of time. I mean, I have the IFS report certain things. Yes, I think we we've have been. I'm sure other people have been too as well uh that come up. So, yeah, if if some of that stuff is ready earlier, it probably wouldn't hurt us to
have it before the before that Thursday because now you're heading into a weekend. A lot of staff isn't even around on Fridays a lot of times. So, um we don't have a lot of time to prepare before the meeting on the 19th. So if it's available, it'd be great to
get it a little earlier. And just to reiterate then uh uh we'll be having our first this will be first presented at the work session on the 19th. Uh and then at our first uh meeting we will have some further there
will be some further narrowing down of this and then uh the following meeting after that is when we will certify the preliminary level. Correct. So so there going to be a work session same process as other years
commissioner chair chairperson. Uh so you're saying we're going to have a work session on the second then too. Oh, okay. That'll be that'll be part of our regular meeting. Yes, correct.
Okay. Well, so we are going to talk about the budget though. We can. Yes, we absolutely can. I mean, the second Yeah, I think it depends. That's why I'm trying to sort through when Okay. when so we're meeting on the 19th as as a work session and uh it's
going to be on the agenda to talk about it more on the 2nd and then we're going to have a final meeting. U so we're going to have probably plenty of time to talk about that then on the second. Okay. Any other questions for the
administrator? All right, Chelsea. Thank you. And we know there's still a lot of work to do on that. So, yep. Mr. Chair. Yes. May and administrator Baker too. My my question too. We're going to have some presentations. I part of those
presentations. I'm sure they'll be addressing these issues, but since this is a unique year we're going into as we all know, you know, to I would really like to hear how each department is looking at any increases in certain areas and what they are basing that on.
I'm sure there's some national increases that are going to have to take place. But also in some areas that they worked on to uh make some decreases as well if they have some and or if they're just got a neutral budget that would be wonderful too. So I think I'm what I
think I'm hearing you say is that you would prefer to have each department uh present at that time with the the major ones the ones that are presenting any when they present those are issues I guess that they're going to be talking about the budget where they're coming in or are they just
talking about what they're going to be doing the next year. What's their presentation going to be about? Their budget. Yeah. their budget changes, their budget concerns, what's going to be coming up, what were the drivers y in those departments. So last year the feedback was, oh, maybe we don't need
all department heads here. It was too much. And so I'm okay with that. Yeah. So this year that's where um No, no, that's where this year it will be public works, health and human services, landfill, which are all typically done. Okay. The only two that I do think that
we should add are in my opinion are the are facilities and technology. I feel that those are big drivers and with when we're looking at technology to streamline some of the work that we're doing. I um I think it's a great opportunity for Scott to come in and kind of update you because techn is not
cheap. I mean, we dedicated the board approved to I shouldn't say dedicated allocate uh $500,000 for technology um within the American Relief Plan dollars and that didn't go far. And so when we are a large county like this to
update software, we need to be moving constantly or that's how we get behind and we're a little behind. And so how do we do that? How do we take advantage within human services? And I would say that's where Caroline and Carol and
Scott are meeting to how do they take advantage of these reimbursements because we get reimbursements for that technology. So, how do we do a better job on that billing uh the billing side of things as well. And so, we're taking a look at all of those opportunities. Um, and so I think that that's right.
I'm just adding facilities and technology um to that presentation. And absolutely after the August 19th work session, if the board feels that we want to have some other some departments back and we want to you want to learn more
about something, uh, please let us know because then that's a quick turnaround time between meetings for the September 2nd. If we feel we need to do add the budget meeting at the end and do a longer meeting, that's okay. That's what we'll do. Um, and like I said too, I'm
open if we don't feel that we're ready at the 16th. I might not feel ready for a solid recommendation for preliminary. Um, maybe when we I can talk offline with some commissioners who are going to be gone in September. We we can maybe move that second meeting in September to
begin with. Anyways, so that's something that I think we have a lot you have a lot to think about now in the next couple weeks so that we can decide that at the August 19th meeting. Commissioner MD. Yeah, I I think we might as well have that conversation now about that September uh 16th meeting because when
I'm looking at the flights, there's there's only time for about an hourong meeting before we'd have to hit the road to catch a plane. And so I don't think we're going to be able to have much of a conversation. So, we might as well accept the fact that we're going to have to have a different meeting or have have
that budget discussion at a different meeting, even if it's a special meeting. And you had indicated a uh another option that might be either moving the flight or if only one of us are going there, then I'm comfortable, you know, uh not being at
the meeting and because by that time all the hard work and elbow grease work will be done. Well, and and especially when we're kind of getting down to brass tax here, I'm I' I'd hate to have any one of us gone uh for any meetings, especially
where we're talking about the budget in September. So, uh I think it uh I I think that to Kelsey's point, we could have that uh conversation offline and uh and come up with something. I'm looking at the clock here for that as well. So,
uh, if everybody's okay with that, we'll, uh, uh, we'll have those conversations, look at the calendar, and, uh, come up with something. Is that fair enough? Yep. Okay. All right. We have one other, uh, uh, any anything else? Any other
questions for the, uh, budget preview? We have one other uh, uh, action item, and uh, that's at the very end here. I'm going to take that first. That's a uh uh request for appointment of Karen Kramer
to the Candy County uh HA uh board of uh commissioners. Uh you've seen u the uh uh letter from Director Benston uh and the uh city council has made this
recommendation for this particular position. And uh uh I would entertain a motion to uh uh approve Karen Kramer to the Candy County H. Also move. We have a motion. Is there a second?
I'll second that, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Any discussion, questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. So then, excuse me,
[Music] it's cold. Um, so then we are down to administrative updates. Uh, uh, calendar and committee reports. Uh uh anything else that you needed to add uh uh Kelsey in the way of uh
uh no other than um as you all are aware the landfill property closed a few weeks back. Um I've been working with the staff to prepare on kind of what options we can have moving forward. And so I am preparing a request for proposal um that
we will send out to see if we can find a long-term lease agreement with an with an organization. And so uh like I said, I'm working on that RFP and then I will send that out and that would come back to board. Sounds good, right? Um then I don't have anything else. you
know that um and uh just to uh uh just to note that uh uh our uh Mark Thompson who had been our county auditor for years uh uh recently retired and do you want to uh
Yeah, I do. I do have two personnel uh staffing issues I do want to talk about. Not ne the second one necessarily isn't personnel, but the first one is Yes. Mark Thompson um our long-term county auditor uh treasurer retired July 24th. So we he he didn't want to go out with a party or
anything. Um and so he went out very quietly and I'm already going to guess is enjoying retirement and so um we held interviews for that and uh it was decided upon Lisa Whis who is currently our human resources generalist who will
be promoted to the auditor treasurer position. Lisa comes with um a CPA, tons of auditing and accounting experience already understanding some of our CPT software that she will be able to step into. Um, one thing I always uh give
Lisa so much credit for is her process and procedures and just being able to dive in and dig dig into a process and figure out where we need to be and how we can get there. And so I'm really excited for her. in the meantime have been officing out of the downtown
office. Uh kind of figuring out some of those needs and resources that we need to get up to speed on or anything else like that. Just kind of the functions of the day-to-day office. Um which I always say that's such an all off all departments are important, but this one is, you know, they're the checkbook of
the county. Invoicing, um auditing, things like that, accounting, reconciliations, it's a big deal. It's a big deal to be in that department. And so, um, talking with the staff and making them have that ownership and, uh, pride in the work that they do is always something that we want to see happen.
The other thing I just wanted to publicly say, um, is a huge thank you to our emergency management staff and our public works staff and Austin Hillbrands with our drainage uh, division within public works. Um, when those storms came through Candy County on the northern
part, our teams were out Sunday night and they went until 11:00 11:30. And that's something that I don't think people think county government does. And I really wanted to publicly say thank you to them because they were out there making sure people were okay, our public
safety, our law enforcement as well, making sure roads were clear so that we didn't have any accidents, clearing debris out. And it's not just our supervisors, it's all from top bottom. Mel and I were talking Sunday night. Um, I'm not doing that work. They're
communicating that work to me which I really appreciate. Getting calls from Todd Miller, getting calls from Ace Bonama, Austin Hillbrands. I mean, they were really our staff have really gone above and beyond. I feel like with this summer storms, we've been hit hard since
May between the rain, the weird weather, uh, and then the rain again, and then the rain again. And so, I feel that our staff have been doing a really good job. And I just um I really wanted to publicly thank them for that because a lot of like I said a lot of people don't maybe didn't know that our a lot of our
teams were out there Sunday night not not working till 9:00 working till late and then all showing back up Monday morning. And I think for sure with our public roads, um, you know, in situations like this when Al and I are talking, we didn't get to our roads until probably Thursday or Friday
because we're making sure all the debris in the small cities are being able to recover and get that cleaned up. And then our public works team is going to the parks and making sure that people are able to still come and camp and enjoy Candy County. And then by the end of the week now, they're getting to our
roads. And so it's prioritizing, it's making sure that we're in communication where the needs are at, but it's our staff that make all this happen. And so I just always want to thank them for that. Tomorrow's the last day, right? Is tomorrow the last day for the pickup or is that coming gone?
That's a new line. Oh, okay. The last Sunday storm. It might be uh one thing to clarify because we have had people ask that um there was a one week for the city of New London only. That doesn't mean all our roads because we've had a little bit of
that and no, we're not just driving around picking up other people's debris. So if I get a tree cut down yet this afternoon, it doesn't count. Commissioner B. Uh Mr. Chair, thank you. I uh I'm really glad you mentioned that. Saying thank
you to all our staff and our department has so much going on. So much going on. But also I want to say thank you to our administrator. uh you've had a lot going on as well then, right? And uh ma and you've been having to do quite a balancing act and you're doing a very
good job of that. So, thank you. And I just might go first you if I may on committee reports. Actually, I really want to just report on one. Uh I've had several reports I could do go into, but this is the one that's probably the most interesting one.
Yesterday we had a meeting with the Prairie Lakes Youth Program and at that meeting we approved and and signed an agreement a lease for a building and the building is located at 768 North Creek Drive and I'm not sure most people even
know where that's at, but it's just north of uh High Avenue. And you maybe not even know where High Avenue is, but we're uh Yeah. Yes. kind of down that way. It's um yeah, between that or soil and water
where their office is. It's just probably the two buildings past that going east. And that's a drive that goes through up to Highway 71. And it's a building there that uh we agreed to lease and uh with an option to buy and this is where I think it's really
important that the board be aware of that. and the Prairie Lakes youth program uh is very interested in buying that property and a percentage of the lease will apply to uh buying the property as we move forward and we're looking at as a joint powers purchasing
that property. Uh but a lot of things are have to be all worked out on those details. There'll be more to come and could be more involvement or more signing off on behalf of our board or not knowing exactly which way that can be financed. it. This building will be
used uh uh uh for uh education purposes for the schools and uh uh that they will be having three classrooms there uh taking place. It's a two-story building and on the second floor uh we will be having our we uh Prairie Lakes Youth
Program calls it the welcome center, but that's the administration place that people come in with questions or whatever. Uh that's where they would go and that's where the administration uh will be housed. Right now they're renting from um uh Midwest uh uh for
office space. So this will save some dollars. They are uh that were renting that space because of uh the changes in in you know as we know from the lightning and the hitting that building and all these changes. this is to fill in that gap and and the Wilmer school is
working with us as well as in reference to the costs taking place. So, it's really exciting. Uh and uh there's a lot to do between now and when school starts and and to get it to fit. Uh there's a lot of uh equipment I'll say and
technology and stuff in the building existing and that was all part of the deal as well. so we can move in and get right to it pretty much. Uh even though there will be some additional changes. So, uh we're moving forward with that
and I'll keep you posted and uh and uh that that's probably enough right now. Thank you. Uh any questions for Commissioner Berg on that? How did you find that building? Did you work with a realtor? Yes. Yes. And uh Ed realy and and Mr.
Festra we worked with on that one. And I I believe uh uh as as a board and uh we all were looking for other options. How do we deal with a situation that we didn't have a place for schooling the
kids and um and and for our offices and how do we go forward and positioning ourselves? I think we still need to keep a focus that uh we have a lot of issues with a secure unit and uh keeping that up because it's the the maintenance
especially on the outside is uh falling behind and we get dinged by uh Minnesota corrections department on on inspections. Um but uh uh Tammy Joe Liber uh she is on the board and I think
she's the one who came up with this suggestion if I remember right but anyway somebody did and I think it was her and we looked at many other options and this narrowed down and turned out to be the best option. Outstanding. Thank you. Uh Commissioner
Dale Anderson. Um just a couple things. Um, I had a CCT meeting with with Steve. Um, they're looking at a lot of different things to do for the um, organization as far as uh, training for some of the people that
are working there and um, it's coming along. Um, there's always some bumps in the road, but it's coming along and they're they're working on trying to make it a better organization. uh Prairie Woods meeting um and went over the thing that we passed today. Went
through that and some of the upcoming projects that they're looking at doing um at Prairie Woods and some of the new stuff for the new trails and in the destination park that they're looking at doing in the future. Um so yeah, a lot
of changes there. Um got some programming going again now. They got a new person hired back for that. Um, so things are going well. Um, and the only other thing I wanted to say is, uh, tourism committee meeting was yesterday. Um, I wasn't able to attend, but there's
two things going on that are kind of big milestones for this area. And that's the last Rockin Robbins tonight and then the county fair. So, take time and go out and enjoy the things that are going on because summer's just about gone. But that's all I have.
Summer's almost gone. Thank you for cheering us up. Dave, we're getting short, Commissioner. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um Dale just mentioned the Prairie Woods ELC meeting, so I won't touch on that. We had a Glacial Lake Sanitary Sewer and
Water District meeting that construction continues to go on out there. I mean, it's uh a lot of stuff going on. We we meet in Spicer at Det Center now because there's really no place to meet out there because they're adding on to the office building. um just no place to
meet. Uh we had a a broadband meeting yesterday and Dwayne can can uh talk about we we had a lot a real robust discussion kind of the meeting after the meeting if you will and how do we all the lowhanging fruits been picked. Yeah.
And so we've said for years the hardest mile to get is going to be the last mile. And that's kind of what we're facing now. borderto-border legislature did not put any money in the borderto-border program. The bead dollars are quite restrictive. Um and
so, you know, we talked about how do we come up with the funding to to keep it moving forward even if it's going to be slow. Then finally, um the legislative commission on Minnesota resources resources, LCCMR, did advance um the uh
DNR request for the glacial lakes trail funding. I think in $4.9 million and maybe Mill or other people who work with grants know this better than I. There's still several steps to go. It's not like we'll start building next week or anything. But uh that was a big step,
you know, and I think the dollars could go probably not up but could go down yet uh when the committee at the legislature uh does the appropriations. Is that correct, Mill? Usually. Yeah. Yeah. But it
that was a that was a big first step. Thank thanks to the board and all the other entities that I contacted for sending in those letters of support. Commissioner Dwayne Anderson. Since our last uh excuse me, since our
last board meeting on the 17th, uh I had a Pioneer Land Library executive finance meeting. Pretty much routine, I guess. Not not a lot going on there. Uh then we had uh I went to Weedfest which was kind of an on my own thing but they always invite a commissioner or two.
Weedfested Fest. Weedfest. And was it noxious weeds or was it Yeah, you bring in your your noxious weeds or whatever and then they usually have somebody there from DNR or wherever to identify those weeds. Um, so if and
then and they they kind of put on a nice event there at the um at the uh county park there in uh Diamond Lake. Uh so anyway, moving on. Uh then I on the 28th I had a uh Central Minnesota Emergency
Services uh training session that was all day up in St. Cloud and then two days later I went back for uh Central Minnesota Emergency Management Services uh regular board meeting. Um, so I just want to kind of say when you when you
become a commissioner, you get put on committees and you go, okay, that meets once a month or whatever. But then as you are there longer, you kind of get put in more positions of power, which also means more meetings. So it's it gets to be a lot sometimes. Uh anyway,
so on the 31st uh I they had a we had a veterans cruise for the the veteran uh benefits and uh it was it was a good event. One one veteran kind of got hurt the night before but he really wanted to go on the cruise and he didn't really say anything and and so
then uh Annabth afterwards she ended up bringing him into ER because he mentioned that and he said he had to go to the doctor after after the cruise but he wanted to go on the cruise. So these guys are pretty tough. Uh, and so I really have a lot of respect for them.
Uh, you know, for what they've all done and and, uh, you know, they're they really are an inspiration to people. So, that was a fun event. Uh, that was on Green Lake. Uh, and then, uh, uh, yesterday was the EDC broadband and it
was more of a kind of a refresher where we are as as far as a county. um as far as five, six years ago, we've come a long way to get uh fiber to the home, but now we're going to have a few challenges here going forward as far as funding. And uh that's going to be kind
of a challenge going forward. We got to kind of figure out if we if we want to keep going with fiber optic or or if we're going to, you know, what our options are. So, we're going to have to make some decisions uh as as a county, you know, as we go
forward with uh broadband. And then uh later after that was uh vision 2040 meeting and that was pretty much I would say pretty much routine. So and that was with administrator um Kelsey Baker that was also there online. I guess that's it for me.
All right. Thank you. And uh before I give my report uh uh I just want to note that we do have a proposed road and bridge work session for August 11th from 1:30 to 3:30. You should have all received an invite to that. And uh uh is
there any issue with that time or date for anybody? You use the word propose. It's not proposed. It's on the calendar, right? It is on the calendar. It says proposed in the uh your staff and and so I'm just I'm just following up and making sure that we're all good
for that date. Yes. Okay. Good. Thank you. Uh yeah, no worries. And then uh uh mine is uh relatively brief. Uh we had a number of interviews for the business
development manager position at KCED that uh was part of that committee that sat in on uh uh sat in on those and we uh we do not have someone for that position as of yet and uh uh there will be uh uh
we'll see what the next steps are inh. uh was able to sit down with Kelsey and a couple of our counterparts from the uh uh city of Wilmer uh having an informal uh discussion
uh just on things in general and areas that we could potentially collaborate in. Um, and a lot of stuff with CCT and uh uh oh, and then uh on the 18th uh I put my signature to the documents for
the uh purchase on the uh uh uh property out by the landfill. That'll be the only time I put my signature to that kind of money on uh on on most any kind of real estate purchase, I'm sure. And uh I
think primarily that's uh uh that's that's that's kind of it. Uh I've never been so busy uh doing this work in the month of July of all months uh as I was uh last month. So I was very grateful
for the fifth week uh of the month to roll around. So Commissioner Embeck just maybe think of something. Um you sent out a schedule for the fair that Yes. was I didn't see my name on it. Um yeah, I didn't uh
you haven't I I sent an email to you two times and I didn't see my name on this. Okay. I haven't I don't know that I've seen that. So that's think you said no. I mean I got enough going on but uh we yeah understood. So
but yeah uh we we can touch base on that. Does anyone uh else have anything for the good of the order? Otherwise, we will adjourn the Candy County Board of Commissioners meeting. Uh thank you everybody. Have a great uh have a great rest of your week and rest
of your summer. Rest of our summer. We got more Roll it.