Uh, good afternoon everyone and uh, welcome to the Tuesday, June 17, 2025 meeting of the Kandandy High County Board of Commissioners. Uh before we we begin, um of course there was an
unspeakable tragedy this last weekend uh involving the assassination of uh House Speaker Emmerita Melissa Hortman and her husband uh Mark uh as well as the
attempted assassination of uh Senator John Hoffman and his wife Het. Um, political violence has no place in our society and it's my hope that the better
angels of our nature will prevail in this. Would ask everyone for a moment of silence. Thank you. Uh please stand for the pledgece 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. My understanding is that we have uh two late additions to our agenda. One is a wake zone resolution uh and the other
involves uh selection of voting delegates uh for the Niko uh conference coming up. Uh would like to u with those two with those two additions uh I would request approval of tonight's agenda.
Also move. Commissioner Dale Anderson moves. Is there a second? I'll second that, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Dwayne Anderson seconds. discussion. Where would you put them? Those will go under the U appointments. Uh oh, okay. Reports
calendar. Anyone else? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. At this time, I'd request approval of the consent agenda, which includes the uh June 3rd, 2025 county board legal
minutes, approval of the auditor's warrants and claims, and the approval of the human services warrants and claims paying the bills, and approval of the June 3rd, 2025 closed session minutes.
Is there a motion to excuse me, would any commissioner wish to pull any of those items? Um, Mr. Chair, yes. I so move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Uh, thank you. Commissioner Berg moves. Is
there a second? I'll second that. Commissioner Dwayne Anderson seconds. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Uh at this time, uh the next
the next item we have up for business is the uh consideration of resolution 2025-21 declaring a state of emergency for Candy Ohio County. And at this time, we'll ask emergency management director Ace Bonama to come to the podium. Ace, uh good
afternoon. You've had a busy weekend. It's been busy. Good afternoon. Thank you. Ace Bonama, director of Kenya County Emergency Management. Um, I don't know if I do have a little slide uh PowerPoint here. If it could pop that
up. Um, here today to seek your approval on resolution 2025-21 declaring state of emergency for Kenya County due to the recent storm events and flooding. This declaration starts the process of getting assistance from state of Minnesota, federal government,
volunteer agencies active in disasters. Uh on the screen you can see the uh emergency management wheel there. [Music] Um well
uh the the wheel shows preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. Um in this storm event, we are still in the response hoping to get to the recovery phase that's started so far. Um there
are three different um there are different thresholds for qualifying for assistance. On the state side, that that number is a little over $103,000 in public infrastructure. Federal side, that number is a little more than 206,000.
You can see that we uh there we have county road 20 um shot from Wilmer area and then uh Raymond City garage. Um several parts of the county were affected. Um this is an early sheet that we used showing estimated rainfalls and
some of the road issues faced by the county and just going to zoom in on that a little bit to the southern part of the county which appears to receive the most water. It also shows some of the initial impacted roads um that that uh Mel and
his crew have had to deal with. So, currently we've set up a hotline. Um this is primarily for unmet needs. That number is 320-214-6780. Um and I'd like to thank Sarah Carlson with Warmer Community Foundation, Mike with Red Cross, Captain Jennifer with
Salvation Army and her crew, and many others that are helping out. We're encouraging people who would like to donate or assist to check out the Wilmer area community foundation's website. And at this point, I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. Uh, do any of the
commissioners have any questions for Director Bonama? Commissioner MD. So, um, resolution 2018 did declare an emergency which expired about 2:30 this afternoon or something like that. Is there when would this
declaration expire or don't they ever expire? I don't think that it expires that that resolution would would stay in effect. It it starts the the process moving. We we initially um called Chairman Gardner
to get that process started. It gives um some flexibility, lets us call the state partners and stuff like that. And then basically that needs to be approved. We had three days to do that resolution. So, yeah.
And uh you mentioned the damages to the public infrastructure and uh and I assume that's still going to be assessed as well for further damage, but it meets uh and exceeds both of those thresholds that you mentioned. That's correct. And in terms of the uh unmet needs uh that
relates to uh members of the general public uh who may have experienced adverse impacts uh during this uh during this most recent uh event. Uh and uh it's important for everyone to know that
this uh hotline uh that is uh set up uh will do what exactly for those folks? Well, mainly we're trying to find out what the needs are. Um we have had a couple of citizens that um had to evacuate. Um are being put up in hotels
right now with assistance from Salvation Army and others. Um we are giving out some cleaning kits if we can. A lot of it is just advice. Um sometimes the only thing that we can say is it's tough to be a homeowner. Sometimes the criteria
for the Red Cross is 18 in of water. Fortunately, we didn't get that. But at the same time now we don't qualify for some of those things. However, there are some of these pockets um you know with the state and stuff as far as small business loans and other type of things that we need to start the process, but
we kind of in that preliminary phase of finding out exactly where the damages are. Red Cross can't even go into some of the areas to do their damage assessments because they just can't get there. Um like the trailer court and Raymond is one example right now. So, um
it's it's a process. It's um the water's not going away right away and this is going to outlast the water. So um it's some work ahead of us. I noticed one of the ditches in town is not going down anytime soon. Uh if it is, it's going
down only a little bit uh at a time. And uh the community foundation uh is involved in that. they have a uh fund uh that people can donate to and it's uh and and this is the only uh approved
fund for uh this type of thing. Can you elaborate on that just a bit? Yeah, we learned um during the Raymond train derailment um we had there were I think there were six or so uh GoFundMe accounts mostly out of state um and then we had people all over. So we're like
this is kind of our norm now. um the Wilmer Area Community Foundation. They sit on what we call our long-term recovery committee along with James Miller and and some others. And so we're trying to funnel everything to this account because we know that it stays
local. We can trust that source. And so we're trying to get that word out that hey don't don't be going to the GoFundMes and stuff like that which take a little even if they are legit, they're taking a little bit of money off the top for for their needs where here it's all going to the community. this might be
for um it depends on the needs. I mean, we don't know if people are going to have their HVAC systems or water heater issues again. Um and so it's it's kind of triaging the worst of the worst. Uh same as our hotline right now, we're helping wherever we can. Um,
unfortunately we we can't help everyone and buy everybody new carpet, which would be really nice, but so so if you so if anyone wants to donate, they contact the uh Wilmer Area Community Foundation and uh and they can rest
assured that any donations that go there are going to uh go specifically to the purposes identified. That's correct. And so they don't have to worry about giving it to some scammer. Exactly. Commissioner Abdek. Thank you. Just to be clear based on, you know, the
conversation between the chair and you does that mean that Salvation Army and and Red Cross are not qualified um entities for Certainly not. You you can certainly donate to those and and they're great organizations. Um but if you're hoping that your money stays
here, we know that that the community foundation is going to keep that money in Canui County. Um whereas um with Red Cross, I don't know what their process is. I don't know who they write the checks to here. We play a part in making
the decisions of we need that money to go here. There was some money left over in the um after the Raymond train derailment one. I believe it went towards purchasing I think a new ambulance afterwards because it's like the committee got together and it's like okay these funds
what can we do to uh mitigate and help in the future and and it just was a logical process whereas the Red Cross I'm not sure how that works. So I'm not trying to say that those are bad organizations to donate to whatsoever. I just know that for us, this is a trusted
source. Um, and we appreciate all the work that they do for us. So, Ace, what's next? Uh, what's uh what's within this process? I assume that there are going to be uh evaluation teams coming out, that type of thing. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Yeah, we did some preliminary uh drive-throughs and stuff. Um, we have a conference call tomorrow with state. Um, we'll be starting some of those meetings with state and federal partners. Um there's um we may end up setting up a a
mark a multi- agency resource uh center where different organizations can come kind of a one-stop shop. So if somebody had flood damage, they can come in talk to somebody from Red Cross or Public Health or um Salvation Army, uh Wman Area Community Foundation. Um so we're
kind of just going through the the process right now. We're reaching out to all the townships, all the cities, finding out what their damages are. Um, gathering that information so we can bring that all together and then eventually FEMA will come out and and
uh, you know, it's not just that they have a blank check blank and they're like, "Oh, here here's some money." No, you got to work for it and prove this and receipts and it's like it's kind of a tedious process, but I mean the tax dollars that we pay to those
organizations, we might as well try to get those tax dollars back here. So, that's kind of our current process. Commissioner, uh thank you, Mr. Chair. I received a phone call today from uh Chuck Aman who is the uh one of the state directors for Senator
Clolobashar's office and um he encouraged us and and uh emphasize that we should really uh make sure and and FEMA will only cover and some of the state funds will only recover public uninsured public um losses. So our roads
that are that are not insured. So it won't help with the carpeting and probably won't help with the stove and that kind of stuff. But he said the the totality of the damage and Kenny County alone sounds like we have enough damage to qualify at the state level. But uh
for if there's any FEMA dollars that remain in existence um during the current administration, we need a totality. So, like if there's a loss in Bigstone County at Ortonville and and I'm sure you're in contact like City of Raymond and City of Wilmer, it's really
important that all those public losses be totaled up. U maybe Swift County has some too because there's a threshold that would need to be reached in order for uh the state to designate. So, thank thanks for um doing all that work and
making sure I think you call it MARKS. Well, the MARK is that multi- agency response center. We haven't decided for sure if we're doing that right now. We we want to find out what the what the processes are and if it's needed. Um, fortunately, when the Red Cross came out, um, they they didn't see a lot of
the basements with the 18 inches of rain and stuff like that. So, we held off on on sending out their their major damage assessment teams because, um, we we think that, you know, we other processes and wanting to see what the state says, but we have a lot going on, too. People
are still cleaning out. We keep watching the skies, hoping it's not going to rain more. Um, again, waiting for some of the water to recede. Um, so it's kind of a long process that we've just started. So, Commissioner Berg, thank you, Mr.
Chair. Um, as we all know, our most important priorities, our citizens, our businesses, and and and the county itself. Um, but talking about the county, I and I know you're continuing to do assessments. Has there been much damage to uh the county's properties and
uh the roads and the parks and uh can you just give an update on that? And then also, you're talking about the thresholds. Do do you off the top of your head happen to have the thresholds that we have to come up with for FEMA and for the state? Yeah, the state of
Minnesota threshold is $103,2752. The federal number for uh Canohai County, and this gets changed every year, um is $26,4154. I know Mel did some initial um road
stuff and we were looking at over $400,000. So that almost doubles what what we need for some of those thresholds. And then we have to add, you know, all the other, you know, the Raymond golf course is is a city owned
thing. So that that qualifies as well. So all of those things, but we we don't have all those numbers yet. So well, thank you for that update and I'd like to thank everyone in this response. It sounds very positive that we were out
there. I want to thank you emergency management group and our management team and um well done but it sounds like there's a lot of work to do yet right thank you commissioner yeah and and in that
totality of damages he said even Noah national organization atmospheric oceanic or whatever that stands for gets involved because whatever damage happened in the same weather in incident even if it was a county two counties way
can qualify for that totality. Um, you know, like last night, was it last night? Damage a big lake and you were up that probably would be a hell of a stretch to go 3 days away, four days later. Noah and stuff. They they have certain criteria, how long it has to
stop raining in between to to be considered a different storm cell and stuff like that. And those are just some of the pieces to the puzzle that we have to figure out and get the state and federal partners and then they fight over it. So, I think it was back in 2022 when we had
those two storms in May. They were categorized as two separate storms by the state and FEMA. And so where ACE is kind of going is we're still really doing a lot of the assessment work. Mel and his team um I applaud them. ACE they we they were out Friday night. They were
out all day Saturday for about 8 n 10 hours probably assessing the roads, parks, all of the infrastructure. So, I think we can provide more of a report and dollar amount when we get all of that information. Maybe at the next meeting we'll kind of work on that, but we're still really in the assessment
stage. And so, our initial number is around that 400,000. So, that is why we uh brought uh Chair Gardner in the loop so that we could um declare that emergency so that we could get the dollars rolling because then we can account for payroll reimbursements. we
can account for all of that starting that 13th. And so that really just is the note to the state and the federal FEMA to for us to get that ball rolling to look for reimbursements on um and to be accounted for those assessments that we're doing. So I think the three of us
will connect after today and we'll um continue doing those assessments and we can provide up an update at a later date. Mr. Chair, I'd move on resolution 2025-21. Thank you. Commissioner Mdeck moves the resolution. Is there a second? I'll second that, Mr. Chair. Uh, Commissioner
Dwayne Anderson seconds. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Ace. Thank you. Thank you. Keep up the pile of work. It's just an update. Yep. I have that at this time. Then we have a
grant update uh from uh uh community corrections director uh Dr. Dr. Tammy Joe Leeberg. Tammy Joe, good afternoon. Good afternoon. I have just a really quick update for some grants. Um, just I will be back actually in a couple weeks to talk more in depth about probation
and parole officer week and then some department updates. But we in our department are applying for we've applied for one grant and we're applying for two more grants in the next two weeks. We do not need a board letter at this time, but we just wanted to let the board know that we are applying for the grants. um and just kind of give you
just a quick update. And the they're state prevention grants you utilizing evidence-based practices. One of them we're going to apply under a juvenile intervention grant and the other one will be on the adult side. Both of them will look at evidence-based practices and community corrections using um a
variety of different things. And what some of the things we're looking at incorporating into those grants are using um adding like a life skills component of um resume building, job applications, interview skills into our community work service program that you know we're already working on job
related skills with our juveniles and our adults in that program. The other side of it is is we're currently one of this grant we actually have it currently right now in 24 and 25. Um, we're ask actually asking for an extension in 26 and 27. It currently funds a
facilitator. We we currently have seven cognitive behavioral groups running out of our office each week. Um, those groups require two probation officers plus we do rides and there's coordination and all of those diff different things. This grant right now
um assists us with one part-time facilitator. um we are going to ask for to continue that part-time facilitator but also ask for a coordinator position in in the grant to help us with coordinating some of those extra nuts and bolts and things that it takes to run the grants that we're doing.
We're also it also includes extra evidence-based practice training that we've been taking advantage of throughout this year. Um, and it includes some extra things for um that we wouldn't be able to do typically um such as emergency housing vouchers and
emergency transportation vouchers. And so we have some emergency food vouchers and things in particular. We use those for cases like if somebody gets released from jail at 4:30 on a Friday like we had last Friday. Um actually happens quite often at 4:30 on a Friday. Um and
they have nowhere to go and we have to figure it out at 4:30 on a Friday. um sometimes that might be in the dead of winter and so we're using those types of emergency interventions when nobody else is open that we can actually have access to them in our h in our office. Um we
also have um some of those um transportation or incentive vouchers allow for some of our clients that can't get to and from their probation appointments um we can help them with some gas vouchers um if they have vehicles or transportation so that they can make to their appointments. So these
grants are allowing us to do a variety of different things, helping them to get through their programming that helps them in the long run protect and for us to address public safety. And so we're going to uh get a request
for a letter of support on this at some future date. We do not need a letter of support. I just wanted to let you know. I'm just giving you an update. And as part of that, so and actually I just wanted to also share this which is kind of interesting because it came up today and so I brought a show and tell um we
were actually part of a project that um actually Ralph brought to us um over there but it was um from Crossroads they the church gave us a loom and when people are dealing with difficult conversations right crisis situations
when they're having difficult conversations a lot of times it's easier to talk when they're doing something, right? That's why play therapy with kids works and different things. And so when a probation officer is talking to somebody and they're having a difficult conversation, sometimes if they have an activity, it helps. Or during our
groups, if they have an activity, it helps. Or a variety of different things. So they gave us a loom that we can use plastic grocery bags to create mats to donate. And aren't they pretty? So I just wanted to share. So you can donate
so that we can donate these either to do a variety of missions or homeless or a variety of different different things like the plastic bags out of the community, you know, out of the environment. Um, it allows our clients to give back and do something
constructive, but it also gives them that opportunity to have something to do. And so, I just wanted to share something kind of neat and unique that we're starting. You can come see our luminar office if you want. So, uh, any questions for grocery bags?
Who' have thought? Any questions for Director Labor? All right. Well, that's that's interesting. I I I wondered if those were uh plastic shopping bags. Yes. So, if you have plastic shopping bags, you can donate them to my office now. We
will use them now to make these mats. Oh, I can help you with that. Yes. All right. Any questions? All right. Well, thank you very much. Thanks for the update. At this time, we'll have zoning
administrator Eric Van Dyken uh uh present to us a planning commission recommendation. Eric, good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Eric Van Dyken, county zoning administrator here today with a single request from the planning commission
meeting of June 9th. Um it was a pretty short meeting and they had a single request from Michael's Road and Stone. The the proposal from Michael's Road and Stone is a temporary concrete batch plant. This will be um to be located in
existing Dunik Incorporated gravel pit will be at in the uh southeast um quadrant of the u intersection of Highway 23 and County Road 9. Um an existing gravel pit behind the the
poultry facility there. Um the the batch plant would be for trunk highway 23 reconstruction project that will take place over um through parts of this year and into 2026. So the the requested um
length of the permit would be for till the end of 2026. And in the attached six conditions, you'll see condition number six does set the timeline at um 2026 as an end date for that. Um with the
conditions you see there and the recommended findings, staff recommends approval. Mr. Chair, I move on the planning commission's uh recommendation citing the findings and conditions. Commissioner Mdeck moves the uh recommendation of the planning
commission. Is there a second? Mr. Chair, I'll second that. Commissioner Bergens discussion. Pretty routine matter. Uh and the planning commission saw it that way as well. All right. Very good. Uh hearing
no further questions. All in favor of the recommendation signify by saying I. I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. At this time, uh, Administrator Baker will, uh, uh, present to us a report
and, uh, uh, and a resolution to follow. Good afternoon, Kelsey Baker, Candy County Administrator. Before you today, I have, um, requesting approval for resolution 202518 for the 2024 performance measure report. Um this is
something that we have been doing since 2011. It helps us um increase our aid payments that we get from the state. Uh a lot of counties do this. You have to pick out of all of the categories which are included that we measure upon. You
have to pick 10 out of those items. And then listed before you today are is public safety, public works, um public health, social services, records, valuation, assessments, elections. Um we
did something different. We added parks and libraries this year because we were unable to get the veterans information uh due to some federal cuts. And then uh budget financial and environment.
And so I would ask that you approve that resolution so that we commit uh submit this report and resolution to the state. It needs to be submitted by July 1. So the uh request is for approval of resolution 2025-18
2024 performance measure measurement report. Uh before I ask for a motion, are there any questions for the administrator? again as you commissioner B uh ju just some comments. I guess it was I enjoyed
every year looking at these and having all the numbers together in one spot and even for the public to look at all the u different things that we touch as a as a county board and uh the impact you know
the large number of of latex paint 5,000 gall almost 6,000 gallons of latex paint you know recycled or taken care of or or the number of people at the parks and so forth for the year. So, it's very interesting information. It's good to do
this. Besides, financially, it's a plus. Right. Right. I think the one that stuck out for me was under the very first one under public safety where uh uh group A and B crime rates uh uh serious crimes are uh
considerably down uh as uh as it relates to our uh sheriff's office. uh and uh maybe we'll hear something about that at a future time uh from the uh uh sheriff and uh I would assume he'll have some sort of a report. Are there any other
questions or comments on this? Commissioner, just one, Mr. Chair. Um it's just a clerical thing. I think resolution 2025-18 was the executive order over the weekend. So, we would have two of them of the same number. So, and we have had
that before. 18. They're for more of our internal use. They're not standard resolution numbers. So Melissa noted that um in our resolution book that we have. Okay. Thank you for that. And I would
entertain a motion. Commissioner Dale Anderson. Mr. Chair, I'll move on 2025-8. We have a motion to approve the resolution. Is there a second? Second. You can go. Chair seconded.
Okay. Uh any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Next item uh administrator Baker uh has as well. This is the uh request for
approval of the employee handbook and the acceptable use of technology policy. So yes. So again, Kelsey Baker, uh Kanduway County Administrator, as Commissioner Gardner said, um we have the employee handbook and the acceptable use before you today asking for
approval. Um as you know, we create I created a policy committee to gather some department heads and elected officials to review the policies that we have. And so we're working our way through those. Um, and as Katie Zemer, our new HR director, started in
February, I'd asked her to review the employee handbook. Um, and these were just, um, so I'll start with the employee handbook first. Sorry. Um, it was included in the board packet. The edits and the changes that are made are in red.
And so there weren't a lot of changes. I'm not going to go through them, but did you have any questions on any of the handbook changes? A lot of them were just clarification. Yeah, Commissioner B. Sorry. Well, almost the same thing again. Uh, I
really like this presentation as well. Dealing with handbooks, they can get pretty uh uh detailed going through and finding out and where they're highlighted. I really liked the way it was presented. I know on some other committees I've been on and similar things and you can spend a large amount
of time going through an extensive uh handbook and it was well laid out and the things in red that you pointed out were very easy to follow and and very understandable. So well well prepared by the only thing I would note is that we are adding more tobacco language and
that is on that last page um in that last paragraph is that we added that was all new information just to create it more of a little bit um some counties have a separate complete separate tobacco license. we felt that it could fit underneath our handbook.
And so, um, the committee's recommendation is to improve approve the employee handbook. And the, uh, uh, all of these are just, uh, more or less clerical updates and,
uh, uh, and, uh, language clarifications uh, because things have maybe changed since the last session of the legislature, that type of thing. Um well, no. Okay. No. Um some of the
language was like you said was clarification uh regarding break times. Um we had a a wrong year in there. Um moved it moved to a different section. Uh took like I said, took out the 2024 language. If you
look on page the second page, it removed um it we added ESST language in there. Mhm. Um and so really this was just more clarification and changing around some formatting. Okay. For the employee handbook. Um go ahead. And I think we
can do these in one vote. And so the acceptable usage of technology. Um I didn't go into detail with this one because this is really totally revamped. We hadn't updated this policy. It was originally adopted in 2005 and I cannot
find that the board adopted it since then. There were some maybe minor changes that we had worked on, but the fully being adopted by the board was 2005. Um, and so this was really it had, you know, CDROMs language in there. Um, DHS
is I think was in there. And so this was really just updating all of that information. But really the the overall impact of this policy is that any owned or county owned device, technology, software is county property. And so we
all have a lot of us have county phones. We we use our emails. So that means that if we needed to get in and review a staff's emails, review their web history that the employer county has that authority to do so and just to be respectful of it. And I think we have
some it really I think Scott did um he is the author of this. He did a really good job on laying out like you know if you use your county email that's okay but how often are you using it? We know people probably peruse the internet probably for personal use but it's a rem
this is this policy is a reminder that when you're using a county device it is not your personal device. Um and so I think this is always a good one to review. So, I'm glad this one is getting to the board for final approval. Do you have any questions?
Any questions for administrator Baker? I would also include um the policy committee uh meets quarterly. So, we just met in May and so then we'll meet two more times this year and we'll review more policies and so you'll be seeing more policies come to board if
they're completely outdated or maybe some minor updates. If not, the committee will just hopefully we'll get to an annual review process. All right, any questions? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve the Kandai County employee
handbook and the acceptable use of technology policy. Mr. Mr. Chair, I so move. Commissioner Berg moves. Is there a second? I'll second it. Commissioner Dwayne Anderson seconds. Any discussion?
Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. At this time, we'll have several items, more than several from uh uh county engineer uh public works director Mel Odens. Mel, good afternoon. Mr. Chair,
members of the board. Yeah, there are a few items. Um I'm Mel Odin's, county engineer. Uh we'll just start with the first one and it's uh the bid award of the Diamond Lake um boat access on the west side by the campground.
Um we were able to secure funds from the DNR to fund 50% of that and so we worked last year and this spring to put the plans together. And we put the bids out this spring and we were How many bids we
get? Oh, I'm sorry. The first one was a co-op agreement. Let me let me um I was I was Oh, no. It's been award. You're good. You're good. Yeah. Seven. Time of the board. Honestly, I'm
saying good morning to everybody and everything. So, uh, bids received on June 2nd, we had seven biders. We had a lot of, we had a lot of response to this. We had an estimate of 404,000. Uh, the lowest bid came in at $460,52.91,
which is over our estimate, but on small projects like this, the Matuminous quite honestly, is is the driver on these. It's not there wasn't a lot of material other than I mean there's some gravel and dirt and then some some paving and then there there also was some special
um trench soil work where the the water quality pond if you will is in the middle in the middle but uh this was covered with levy dollars and DNR funds so um which was which is fortunate we have a good relationship with the DNR so
it's my recommendation to award SAP PO34599-042 to Brower Construction Limited of Raymond, Minnesota in the amount of $460,52.91. Further recommendation of the engineer. Is there a motion to approve? I'll make
that motion, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Call second. Uh, thank you. We have a motion and a second to approve the recommendation. Any questions? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Motion passes.
Thank you. And you have five more of these. Well, now now we will get to the to the the payment uh the co-op agreement with the DNR to pay for 50% of that access.
So, what you have before you is is um a co-op agreement with the DNR with the state of Minnesota. And basically what the co-op agreement says is that um we will do this project in the next two years. Um they will we will maintain it.
They will um once it's improved and there really isn't much more than that other than about 10 pages of agreement. One other thing that I do would like to note is under E on one of these is part of our seating has to be pollinator habitat. So, there is going to be a
little bit of that out there in case you see some uh some pollinator habitat. But with that, Mr. Chair, I would recommend um to pass resolution 25 2025-9 and authorize the chair and administrator to
sign on behalf of the county. You've heard the recommendation. Is there a motion? Uh Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to pass resolution 2025-9. And is there a second? I'll second it. Thank you. And any discussion? I did see
that piece in there about the pollinator planting. So, I was always happy to see that. All right. Anything? I just want to question about that. So, that pollinator seed, how long do we have to maintain it? I mean, because you know, things die. Two, three years. Yeah. Okay. It's
a threeyear reoccurrence that we have to to watch that. Okay. To get it established. Yeah. and and it you know we did some at the entrance to the park as well through the soil and water but it it always I always caution people it
always looks messy for a few years and then quite honestly it looks messy maybe it looks natural okay so it looks like a natural grass field you know so it's not trim prim and proper but we will have some perimeter
on Okay. Uh, we have a motion and a second to move on resolution 2025-9. All in favor signify by saying I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. And
then this next one is another bid award. This is uh going to bring a smile to several of us up here. The LED stop signs and rumble strips. Yeah. So, uh, in the safety money release this year, um, LED stop signs were able to be
applied for. And so, what we did is we did apply, um, to do in in our case 12 additional intersections with LED stop signs. And then we added two spots with rumble strips ahead of the LED stop
signs. Um we were noticing that um rubble strips were good, but it seems like we're getting a lot of positive feedback on the LED stop signs. The only thing that we will caution, you know, because we don't want LED stop signs at every intersection because then it's it
it reduces the effectiveness. But I do feel and when we met with um both the sheriff's office and um our safety people, the intersections that we have in here were the intersections that appeared to be maybe the most frequently
accidents or most frequently run where people would we get complaints of people running these intersections. And a lot of them is up in the northwest part of the county. And and a lot of that we feel is because it's it's open. It's flat and nothing looks like you should
stop. It's just a wide open area and so people don't stop. And so this will just anything to get their attention. So we did apply for money. We got 90% of the project covered with safety dollars, federal safety dollars. And so we're
going to do these intersection. Um, and it's my recommendation to award the contract to Safety Signs of Lakeville, Minnesota in the amount of 52,990. Further recommendation. Is there a motion? Mr. Chair, also moved.
And motion by Commissioner Dale Anderson. Is there a second? I'll second that. Commissioner Index seconds. Any discussion? Right. Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. All opposed.
Motion passes. Thank you. Uh, next item, uh, reflect wet reflective grooved in edge lines. Once again, this is another federal, uh, safety project that another solicitation that we that we do and and you'll you'll notice and we had it on
the um the road tour. I believe it was last year where we we looked at the grooved in wet reflective. um universally in the whole state of Minnesota, I think quite honestly in the nation, this has been a very effective positive thing. So, we're we're doing
we're doing 20 30 miles every year. So, the map is in your is in your packet, but uh um it's my recommendation to award the bid to Sir Lines a lot out of Edina, Minnesota in the amount of $22,391.30.
Is uh you've heard the recommendation. Is there I'll move on that, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Commissioner MDAC. Is there a second? I'll second that. Commissioner Anderson. Thank you. Uh discussion. Have a question. Mhm. Um like we do with the townships on a
Bumis, do we invite them to put in set miles of road for the wet? Maybe they're not doing the grooved in. You know, we never have. Um, you know, you know, there there's a limited amount of funds and a limited amount, you know, not that
we wouldn't want to maybe share some of that, but we if we if if we put it in, they would take money that we would take to put on our roads. So, it would have to be their own solicit or their own application. But I think uh with with the buminous,
we let them add their request onto our bid. That's what I'm talking. Yes, I got you. So they would do a but we bid it for them. I mean I I can certainly look into that but I'm just thinking that if we bid their striping we would only get
in this case 22,000 and part of that would be theirs. You know what I mean? I've noticed that especially New London Township um whoever they're hiring it lasts about two years and it's gone. Yeah. It's probably a latex. No. No.
And I note that uh uh 90% of the funds here are highway safety improvement program funds. Correct. Uh and uh there's some state aid and the rest of it is local levy. So pretty good bang for the buck, right? Yep. It's a well it's a good way to to leverage our local
dollars. Okay. Are there any other questions? All right. Uh and we have a motion in a second already. Yes. All right. Uh all in favor of uh awarding the bid
signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Uh and then we have another resolution. Mel. Yeah, this is resolution 2025-20. It's it's a it's a deed restriction for Big Candy East.
And you may re recall that we did a two camper cabins, a bath house trailer, a fishing pier, a floating dock, and a 45 foot wheel dock out at Big Candy East. When you when you get the money, they they want you, if they're going to give you money, they want to make sure you
use it as some kind of a recreational place in perpetuity. And I think that's the risk we all knew when we get money that this will be a park, you know, forever. And I think there's some discussion, you know, like so it it it locks it up as a park. If the state's
going to give you money and the state's going to do fishing peers and and uh docks, they would they want you to not just get rid of the park. So this is a deed restriction. Um and if you but what what I think we would like to do is in
July the state's going to come out and do a final inspection. and what my assistant and I were talking about today. Maybe at the July Road and Bridge meeting, we could do a PowerPoint summary of what this all entailed. And so I I won't go into any detail at this
time unless you want me to. But so it's my recommendation to pass resolution 2025-20 placing this deed restriction on that park uh and authorize the chair to sign and administrator to sign on behalf of
the county. Further recommendation. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to uh pass resolution 2025-20. Is there a second? Mr. Chair, I'll second that. Commissioner Berg, thank you. Any discussion?
Uh D. So, what does happen if we absolutely do have to close that park at some point in time? I mean, if we're going to be losing money and losing money and losing money on it at some point in time, I don't think that's good for our taxpayer dollars. Then what happens with that if for this is passed?
I well I could I haven't read through all the details but I I think that is the risk you run when you want to do something with the state. You may need to you could reduce it maybe to not lose money like not have a lot a bunch of
camping for instance or you know you could it's it's a lake so you're going to have the fishing pier and the and the docks and the things. So to me that's a low risk. You just be locked into that part of it. Yes. Y Mr. Chair, um I think we also have other
agreements with the DNR with that park and maybe other parks that that we have to have it open to public. So even if we close it for camping or whatever, we'd have to keep it open somehow to the public. That's Yeah, that spot where the store
was the store is was owned by the DNR. So, we've had a long-standing relationship with with the DNR at Big KD East. East one, two, three. All right. Any other questions?
Uh, we have a motion and a second to move on resolution 2025-20. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. And I think we're coming to the end of your stuff here, right? So we were
Yes, Mr. Chair. Um the the last one is one that we work with. Uh this is an example of being the fiscal agent for a township and Dovery Township um has been trying to redo Long Lake Road. It's about a 2 and a half mile piece of road
right um north of 25 up to 27. and they were able to secure uh an LRIP the local road improvement program um money for 1.2 million I think it's 1 point what was it about 1.25 25 million. And so we
um we worked with them on developing the plans. We worked with them on um getting it through the state aid process and we opened bids for them on June 2nd. There was three biders. Donic Incorporated at Prinsburg was read low and it's my
recommendation to award SAP 34-592-005 to Donic Incorporated in the amount of 2,222,67712. Further recommendation. Is there a motion? Mr. Chair, I moved. Uh, we have a motion. Is there a second? I'll second
that, Mr. Chair. Oop, sorry. Go ahead. All right. Thank you. Uh are there uh is there any discussion? I have a question. Um Commissioner MDK, so we put county staff time in that do is that part of the expense that um we have not we
generally don't build in back. Um and the township has already passed a motion to award the contract as well. So this just gets everything moving. Correct. So the next step that they'll need to do now is they'll submit it to the state for grant approval and then
once the grant is signed and authorized the state will will give them an authorization letter to proceed with notice to proceed. So so essentially they have to come up with about a million dollars yep from
their funds. Yep. And and there's no county levy dollars going there's none. We have no fiscal obligation to this. The only thing that we have a obligation to is to make sure that the monies get spent and executed correctly.
Outstanding. We have a motion and a second to award the uh bid for Long Lake Road Rehabilitation and Dovery Township. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you.
Uh we are at administrative updates, appointments, etc. At this time, uh we'll introduce uh uh uh a no wake zone resolution uh 2025-22. Uh and you can stay right here if you'd
rather. So, I heard from um three commissioners regarding this and then the fourth this this afternoon regarding um lakes and the amount of water that we're having and with the increased amount of
rainfall. Um and so in talking with the sheriff, uh we don't have a county ordinance um that we have that um gives the sheriff maybe the authority to do a no no wake zone. And so it does fall
underneath the county board uh per statute 86B.201 subdivision 9. And so you have before you resolution 2025 2022 um that would enact um 150 ft from shore
for all bodies of water within KY County. um a no wake zone starting today, June 18th or starting tomorrow, sorry, June 18th until midnight June 25th, 2025. One week um just for people to raise their docks, get prepared,
things like that. We potentially could have more rain later on this week. And um if we do need to revisit anything, we the board meets then July 1. We hope we don't have to do anything because of the July 4th holiday weekend. So, we're
hoping that um this one week effect will uh meet all of those needs and then um we will I will continue to look into to see if the county should create an ordinance. I was talking with some commissioners earlier today and so I
want to meet with the county attorney and the sheriff regarding which direction would be best for the county if we were to create an ordinance or not. Uh but before you today, I would be asking approval on the resolution for a no wakeake zone on all Kandandy County bodies of water effective June 18th
until midnight of June 25th, 2025. The uh request of the administrator to move on resolution 2025-22. Is there a motion? I would move on mo uh resolution 2025-22. Commissioner Mdeck, thank you. Is there
a second? I'll second that, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Berg, thank you so much. Uh, I just wanted to mention that uh uh this was brought to my attention uh and I forwarded it on to u uh to Kelsey and she took it to her team. But uh I wanted
to uh thank uh Council Member Tom Gilbertson from the Wilmer City Council for uh uh bringing up the question in the first place. So Tom, thank you for that. Are there any questions? Commissioner MD, not a question, more of a comment uh for the public. Um this is
really a minimal a very minimal no wake restriction of one week. Uh we could have gone 300 or 500 ft uh from shore. Um I think 300 given some of the body water and the reactions that I'm getting from
lake shore associations would have been a little more u uh in line. But 150 ft is something. Uh so it only lasts a week. This should be over with, but we we would have to do another one in order to extend it beyond one week. So, we
should be good for the 4th of July unless we are forced to do another one. All right. Anyone else? All right. Uh, we have a motion and a second to move on resolution 2025-22.
All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Uh, next item. Uh, Kelsey, you'll uh take us through this one. Uh, this is in reference to voting delegates for NAO. Yes. So, my
apologies to not adding this to the agenda, but we do have two commissioners that are attending the Niko summer conference, Dwayne Anderson and Roger Mdike. And so, in order u for Kandy County to vote, we need to have the board vote on the primary voting
delegate. Um, I would recommend Roger Mdike to either uh vote or proxy. So then I would submit that information uh to NAO. All right. Uh you've heard the uh uh recommendation of the administrator. Is
there a motion? Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to have uh Commissioner Mdeck uh be the the voting delegate for uh NAL. Uh the chair will second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. All
opposed. Motion passes. A couple of things under the u uh appointments uh and uh administrative updates so on and so forth. Uh Tuesday, July 1, uh we're going to have a space study work session
with W Architects uh following our uh board meeting. Are we just uh going to be going right from the board meeting into that or probably we'll probably order a lunch um and have it following the board meeting. I don't know. We
typically have a lighter agenda that that meeting, but we'll kind of I'll keep you all posted, but it will be following the meeting with the recess in between. All right. So, that is for the information of commissioners and of course our friends in the media. Uh I
have one item here as well. Uh this is a request uh to appoint uh Shelley Gayy uh to the Candyo High County Housing and Redevelopment Authority Board of Commissioners. Uh this is an opening that needs to uh be filled by uh member
of the public. Uh and uh this is the recommendation coming from the uh uh H administrator. There are any questions? I would move the uh appointment of Shelley Gayy to the uh uh Kander County
HR. I'll second that, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Index seconds. Thank you. Uh any questions, discussion. All in favor say I. I. All opposed.
Motion passes. Uh we will be in recess for about 8 minutes. Is that It says recess. Are we going to Okay. Uh we'll have a brief recess. Kawaii County Board of Commissioners is
back from recess. Uh at this time, uh we are going to uh consider approving going into close session for a real property discussion pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D.05, 05 subdivision 3 uh discussing a
property for county options at 14998 Highway 71 Northeast, New London, Minnesota 56273. Uh is there a motion to move us into close session? Mr. Chair, I moved. Uh
Commissioner Dale Anderson moves. Is there a second? I'll second that. Uh Commissioner Dwayne Anderson seconds. discussion. All in favor say I. I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Uh and we will
uh recess uh into the Yes. Nope. I think we'll just wait for it to start streaming. Pull us off from streaming. Okay. All right. Lights out. #
unanimously adopted me public works director appeared to present resolution county [Music] minutes one moment I guess was it
reading I was typing on the fly and all of a sudden it started. Yeah. Sorry. All right. We'll try that again. Uh the Candyo High County Board is back out of
uh closed session. Uh and we are back in our uh regular session. Uh at this time uh we will have a uh a presentation from Environmental Services Director Gary Gear uh as this relates to the uh uh
item that uh uh that we've been discussing in close session. Gary, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, Gary Gear, Kandary County Environmental Services Director. And I believe yes, you have that in front of you. Um, and it's just
a two-page uh slide kind of trying to recap what our discussion has been and information that the board uh is has been made available to to you all to make a decision on this matter. And it is regarding the purchase of parcels
number 232460 and 23025046. Uh it's a parcel two parcels of land immediately adjacent to and on the south side of the current landfill property. Gary, I'm going to uh I'm just I'm just going to do uh I've been informed that I
need to kind of summarize uh what we uh talked about in closed uh session. Uh so the uh property that uh we referenced earlier at 14988 Highway 71 Northeast in New London. Uh as Gary was just
indicating is adjacent to the um Candy County Landfill. Uh and uh we have been talking about uh developing uh an offer for that uh for that property. Is that good enough for now? Okay, go ahead.
Sorry. Okay, sounds good. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. and excuse me. Uh the information or the interest in the Canary County Landfill Environmental Services staff to look into this parcel
uh sale uh when it became available was uh to limit future development around the landfill. Uh you don't know uh how land could potentially be subdivided by in the private entity. So that would be one thing and that's something that we would not want to happen is to have
additional uh neighbors around the landfill facility. Uh it extends the facility's groundwater compliance boundary which is uh equivalent to our property line but that's a significant factor in what monitoring we ultimately have to do. So adjusting our compliance
boundary is a a significant favorable thing to uh have occur. uh we gain control over potential future environmental liabilities. It also increases or uh I shouldn't say increases changes uh what monitoring
requirements we would be required to do through the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and our permit for the landfill itself. So, uh, having a handle on that with greater acquisition or land acreage gives us a better position for future
environmental liabilities and cost savings. Then associated with that, uh, and liability reduction on page two, uh, we would be able to use non-invasive survey techniques to explore the extent and depth of potential contamination. So
unlike the the plume that was to the northwest of the landfill when we did a had to do significant uh wells monitoring wells uh throughout kind of a grid location uh there's more uh current
uh technologies available to capture that type of data with a lot less uh dollars being spent. uh it gains us time and space to research and implement remedial action and assess natural attenuation. That's something else the
board considered too uh with uh attenuation being within the soil and not actually transporting pollutants offsite. So um and it avoids up to $7 million in source removal costs and up
to 4.4 million in off-site plume delineation costs. So whenever we can maintain again changing that compliance boundary to our property line and then that lets us uh not have to do the more
intensive monitoring offsite. So those are the significant savings that came to our attention to that were much greater than the cost of the purchase of the property even though the purchase of the property is a significant number and that's why we ultimately came to the
board to uh ponder this question and Gary this is not being looked at as an expansion of the landfill. We don't need to expand the landfill. What we're trying to do is uh
control uh that property because there might be some adverse effects from the landfill. Correct. Correct. That is correct. All correct. And if we don't control that property uh then it becomes a potential
big liability if there are some of those correct uh adverse effects. Uh and then of course uh if we don't control it then the monitoring is much more severe and much more costly. Correct. Okay.
Um where are we at? I guess I'm so so so at this time then there has been an offer developed. Uh Administrator Baker would you kind of take us through that?
So, we have worked with the sellers um and have come to an agreement on a price and to present that purchase agreement um would be at the July 1st board meeting. But to um hold that price in
place, I would ask that the board authorize myself, the administrator, to sign on behalf of the county contingent upon county board approval for the final purchase agreement at the July 1st meeting. So, we're not asking to sign the purchase agreement tonight or
tomorrow. um that would be at the regular scheduled July 1st meeting, but it would authorize me to sign that purchase agreement to lock in that price and to give the sellers um some commitment that we are interested. So the contingency then is that we give
that final board approval uh at our next meeting. It would go to vote at the July 1 meeting. Okay. Um, are you So, just go ahead. So, can we talk about price then? What was the
original price and where we're at now? Oh, yes. Sorry. Um, I'd like to know, thank you. Go ahead. Sorry. Um, so the original asking price was 2.8. Um, we did come back or we did initially offer 2.3. Uh, we settled on 2.5. So,
the 2.5 uh price would be in the purchase agreement. That would be um if the board authorized me to initial um and then that price would be in the purchase agreement included in your board packet at the July 1st meeting. That would go to vote.
Commissioner Mdeck. Okay. Um is it tonight or is it at that meeting where we uh deliberate as to whether or not we should go forward with the purchase? We would be deliberating going forward with the purchase at our following meeting. That's correct. The the basic
idea here was to lock in the seller or the owners of the property from selling to another party. So, but also not to just discuss all right in this single meeting. Give some time to reflect, organize thoughts, comments and I think
comments and come into the next board meeting and have that full discussion before before the board decides whether it does or does not want to approve the purchase. So if you sorry go ahead Roger. So
there are a number of questions that I'm sure all of us have before we would go forward uh on J uh the July 1 meeting in July to approve the purchase. I get the holding of the you know securing the
property with a contract or something. Um but at what point do we cuz it could be fairly um fair amount of time fair amount of deliberation cuz you know we have a lot of questions we asked some
questions last time um but I'm for example you know uh have we looked at uh ways to mitigate is there is are there resources available from the state for a plume like this and ways of
mitigating it or is it um all on our on us? I believe it would be on us. We would be working together with them to uh agree upon mitigation and or what monitoring requirements, but ultimately
it's them state. I'm thinking of something like the super fund if it even exists anymore. Yeah, I I don't believe it exists anymore, Mr. Chair. So, um, my experience with going to AMC meetings. I'm I'm on that environment natural resources committee, uh, Renville
counties had issues and other counties have issues with their landfills and and having to drill monitoring wells for PAS and different things and and, uh, the state is not coming up with any money. And right now at this point, I think it's all on on the counties to pay for
that. So, if you can mitigate that sort of issue, it it's or, you know, if you can kind of prolong that or or come up with other solutions, um I think you're saving money. Commissioner Dale Anderson and then
Commissioner Burke. Well, I'm just going to move the process ahead here. I'm going to make a motion to approve Kelsey to sign the purchase agreement or whatever she needs to sign and with the vote on the July 1st meeting. Contingent upon contingent. Yep.
All right. We have a motion to authorize the administrator to sign a purchase agreement uh with the contingency that uh final board approval would be pending at our next meeting. Is there a second? I'll second that. Mr. Chair, we have a
motion and a second discussion. Commissioner B. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And yeah, I think we do have to get some discussion here because this is a major situation. Can you uh share or uh where would the dollars come out of our budget? Yep. Uh so I'm just going to
take this off because I do have a I didn't want to share my screen. Um, so we have uh our fund balance and we have our landfill reserves um that account uh they don't count towards our general fund reserves and
they don't count towards our overall budget. And so um our landfill reserves have been historically used to offset our overall levy. uh we've typically used around $300 to $600,000
out of the landfill reserves uh to offset the levy, but those dollars don't affect the overall budget. We also have what's called the long-term care uh fund, which is required if counties have a landfill. um that is uh dollars
in place to whenever the counties close the landfill, you would use those dollars um to close the entirety of the landfill. And so with the 2.5 um in speaking with our CFO Karen Anderson, we would do half of each. We would
recommend using half of our reserves within our landfill and then half of um the other remaining dollars from the long-term care fund. And so it wouldn't complete those landfill reserves. Um we
have an abundance of landfill reserves and so we feel very comfortable with you utilizing those dollars. Um we have those dollars in place. They are taxpayer dollars and so we do feel that using those funds to purchase this
property is good use of the taxpayer dollars and there's one of these that uh one of the two that has to be paid back. Yes, correct. The long-term care trust fund does have to be paid back over time
and that is something that Gary and his staff would work through that with the MPCA and document that. Commissioner, thank you. So, how much is in the landfill reserves and the long-term care? Long-term care, I guess, is irrelevant that what's in
there has to go back in. Whatever we take out, but how much is in the landfill reserves? Um, notebook because you want me to ask it. It's approximately 10 million in each in each. So, if we took out the entire mill
out of landfill reserves, we'd still have a very healthy reserve there. It's right under 10 million for the landfill reserves and it's a little above 10 million for the long-term care trust fund. I would have all of that information ready to go, but it is right under 10 for landfill reserves and then
10 for a little above um for the long-term care trust fund. Commissioner Bourbon, needless to say, we're all well aware this is not a perfect timing for something like this. Not even close. Uh
financially to to dig into uh the reserves like this. Uh on the other hand, it looks like it's even more than a proactive movement that something we have to do. And part of me is saying thinking that, you know, down the road, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, the county board then might be happy
that we took some action and we don't know. Commissioner and um so the long-term so let me go back to landfill reserves.
Those are dollars that um did I hear you say they're not levy dollars is that revenue we take in uh from our Owen and other fins. So, but the long-term care if we take uh 1.25 million out of there,
does that can that get paid back with the long with the landfill reserves or do we have to levy for that repair? Do we have to pay interest on that? Yep, that's a good question. we don't have to pay interest and we could pay um that lo that fund back with our reserves. So
what happen this this reserve count is an unrestricted that shows up on our audit. So we have a general fund road and bridge human services and county building all that go towards our fund balance analysis. The landfill reserves doesn't it it counts on our audit
obviously in our months of coverage and things like that but it doesn't count towards our fund balances at the end of the year. that goes that's based off those four funds. And so yes, we could pay the trust fund back with the landfill reserves and it would be a
zerointerest payment to set that up and we could probably set that up internally um within you, myself and Karen with a document if we all got hit by a van that this would be continued to be paid back. Commissioner, thank you. Uh and
expanding on that question. So the so the 10 million what what do we take in per year? I have a couple of questions here on the landfill reserves. I don't it really fluctuates on the construction project for the year, you know, and how uh um
we could get that information for you. It's going to be a rough estimate. Yeah, I would I'm wondering and Karen Karen probably had a good reason for it. was Karen, right? Who did she probably had a good reason for recommending half out of each, but I'm I'm not seeing it. I That
was my recommend That was my recommendation. It makes me feel a little bit comfortable because I, you know, I listen um that worst case scenario, that really rainy day, we have those funds available if if needed. Um,
I've been directed to use reserves for one-time expenditures, and this is that case. That would be a one-time expenditure. However, when we have such healthy reserves in our landfill, you could argue both ways. This to me just makes me feel a little bit more comfortable. Um, essentially, yes, we
would be paying those reserves back to the fund, but if something were to happen, we have that very healthy amount in the landfill reserves if we needed to use. And I think with where we're at, um, well, we we came out very lucky with
the state, but with these federal cuts and with future, uh, state and federal actions that could potentially be taken, it I guess it just makes me feel a little bit more secure. Um, and that was my justification to Karen. She thought about it for a couple weeks. She came
back and said, I I could I can agree with you. it the same thing though like I just said if we do half out of each essentially if you did choose to just take it all out of reserves it doesn't it's a horse a piece of when you're pulling it from that account and when it
would show on the audit. So I guess for me it was just more to ease my own thought process and mind on the amount that we would have in the landfill reserves. Um but I I will present both options as well. So, um I think I heard
you say this in the beginning. The landfill reserves are not part of our eight and a half months of reserve. Correct. Correct. So, it's 8 and a half months of reserve plus the nearly give or take 10 million. Correct. Um in our
general fund, we have 61% of reserves. are road and bridge we have 68% which is you know sometimes road and bridge we don't always that's not always accurate because of our state aid dollars and when the payments are dispersed and then our human services um fund we have 52%
in our county building and that's fairly high um that is committed dollars towards building projects like I said thank you Mr. chair. Look, like I said, it's not necessarily a good time for something like this. On the
other hand, it is really a good thing we do have healthy reserves and it's not going to be put on the levy and looks like you're approaching it from the point of view that we would still have options. That's what you're trying to do to divide it up. We could just take it all in one pot if we wanted to uh going
forward at this. Um I think some Yeah, I guess that's all what I had to say. uh to your earlier comment that uh future board uh might look at uh what we are considering now if we go through with it uh uh as a good thing and uh uh
and and that's why we're considering it. Not because we want a future board to be happy with us, but because we're we're trying to get ahead of potential issues and potential future liability for the uh uh to the county. Would that be fair
to say, Gary? That's correct. Commissioner, I agree. Uh it's fortunate we don't have to um address the levy for for this because of those reserves, but um is it possible that
the mitigation because this thing is moving slowly and might hit another border in a period it's moving how many feet per year? Oh, we first picked it up in 2018 uh in our monitoring well on the
landfill just south of the demo cell which is about 250 ft. And it was uh we believe in 2009 that that was that that product was first disposed of in the demolition cell. So in 9 years it went approximately 250 ft. But we also hope
to gain was kind of the attenuation in the soil a if we purchase this extra acreage and we learn more about how fast it's traveling or whoa it's it it initially went 250 ft
in 9 years but now in the next 9 years it's only gone 50 ft because it's it's getting dissolved. it's getting uh dispersed and then being held in check in the soil. So, it's a hard one to answer because but
that's part of why we want to gain the extra space to provide for the the monitoring and learn uh its patterns and tendencies because something like this doesn't always move in a linear fashion. Correct. Roger. But it
the the potential exists that we may still end up doing the mitigation and the monitoring wells as it if it continues to move at the rate that it's at. And so, um, I'm just saying that that I think this is probably the right thing
to do. However, um, it might not be the end all. Likely is not the end all. Correct. Um, I think from what we know now from state requirements, we do know that we wouldn't be held to the higher standard of multiple monitoring wells.
Um, so I'm I'm wanting to be forthright in in in presenting accurate information to you that I believe the 4.4 would be savings because we know that we're not going to be held to that higher standard of monitoring because we're still on
site because the compliance boundary has changed. So it will buy us time to uh potentially, you know, push uh more uh detailed or more intrusive monitoring
down the road. Wouldn't we need some monitoring just to know how fast it's moving and where it's moving? Yes. And and that was what we mentioned a couple weeks ago. Uh the more kind of I think Ryan mentioned it almost as an MRI. the
it's a magnetic surveying that we can really get some uh significant data from in that hundred to $200,000 range instead of the the 4.4 million range.
And that's really also what we're trying to get ahead of besides the fact that we're considering, you know, protecting, uh, the water, soil, everything else. Um, uh, we're also just kind of trying
to, you know, get ahead of that that entire issue. Correct. Correct. Uh, Commissioner B. Yeah, it basically everybody's saying it boils down to a proactive and environmental move that we uh make this move at this point and
that's I think that's a big priority to protect our environment and our water and our creeks and okay, but that'll be the that'll be the topic of discussion at our July one meeting then as to make the final decision as to whether or not
to uh move uh move forward with this. And I'm sure there'll be we'll have some more requests for data from you and uh you know more information ahead of uh ahead of that meeting and uh uh it'll uh
I'm sure we'll we'll hear from folks and if you can give us uh information that we can uh uh share that we can explain uh when folks start calling us uh that would be that would be really helpful as well. And so, uh, I was going to go
along the same line that, you know, should we approve this at our next board meeting, would you be able to ahead of time give us sort of a to what to the degree that you would know the steps that happen after that?
Okay, now we own the land. What now? And when uh yes, we can we can put that information together because we we can't just ignore it. Obviously, if it's a moving if if it's a moving target, we're
going to have to somehow um figure it out, you know, and hoping that it dissipates in the soil would be nice, but but we can't count on that. Exactly. Correct.
All right. We do have a motion and a second uh to authorize the administrator to move forward with signing the purchase agreement with the mentioned contingency. Uh does anyone else have anything uh that they wish to discuss
before we uh move the question? All right, hearing none. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. And uh that should be the end of our agenda
for this. We will be having uh the board of appeal and equalization meeting right starting right at 6:00. So u with that we will adjourn.