##VIDEO ID:nsHvzJLTMuE## Susan Derby and Kyle terer to the extension commission D establish an absy ballot board for the March Township elections e approv docs Recovery House lease F award contract for c2401 which is county state aid Highway 1 G award contract for C2 24-14 and C2 24-18 which are County Road 114 and County Road 118 H exception acceptance of donations and I accept the 2024 adop a family program donations can I get a motion move to approve the consent agenda second okay we have a motion a second all in favor say I opposed carries all right moving forward discussion decision items first up award contract for the tire cleanup project we disappeared at the former pens project Matt good morning good morning Commissioners Matt Miller director of facilities and building operations uh so I'm just going to do a brief H uh history on the property of 4613 70th Avenue Northeast um and just talk about kind of what our recommendation is and potentially some next steps so if we go back uh the property is a little over 22 Acres we assumed responsibility for it back in 2017 when a tax forfeited um it has been a collaborative effort so property records and Licensing kind of led the initial activities out there and then we've assumed responsibility as facilities and building operations um we've certainly had support from Public Works county attorney's office and many others within the organization to to deal with this property so going back to the 1940s it was originally purchased by the pens family through the mid-50s it was used as a radar monitoring Base by the federal government and then it transitioned into a juvenile detention center and training facility for kind of the the middle part of the the 50s through the 70s in the 1970s is when it started to accumulate the solid waste so that included the tires in question uh for this bid recommendation as well as a lot of other Solid Waste uh and that carried through 2017 when it did go into tax forfeiture status in the 1990s it was actually rented out as residential units so it did have barracks on the site so it was used for residential uses through the 90s and then if we fast forward to when we assumed responsibility for it in 2017 property records and Licensing contracted with a firm to do a phase one environmental assessment so we knew that there were issues with the property we just didn't know to what extent so the phase one really identified the most hazardous materials and kind of gave us an approach um so that was F the focus of the initial work there in 2019 we did a limited site investigation and I'll talk about that was connected to a a rental of part of the property for a Solar Development so that was the reason for the limited site investigation and we also did a phase two environmental assessment just to further some of that uh investigative work for the property they did identify in that LSI or limited site investigation that there is no groundwater contamination so that was some good news for the property and what they do is it's called site closure so they essentially close the site to say you're okay you can move on with development additional cleanup stuff like that so at that point there was about six acres that were ready for development uh so as I mentioned in 2020 we did have a coordinated effort with people's energy cooperative and a private solar developer to construct a one megawatt solar array on the southernmost six acres of the property so it was previously used for agricultural production it got taken out of agricultural production and then the solar array was uh uh erected and has been brought online just for your information it is a 25e term initial term for the solar lease there and it's about $4,000 we get for those six acres of rent at that location so then the other thing in 2020 is we collaborated with h Hill Township uh they previously had a Township Hall West of this location on County Road 2 and they were looking for a new site uh they had a very old historic uh township hall and we quote unquote sold four plus acres so it was more of a transfer than it was a sale but we did deed four plus acres to H Hill Township and they just recently last fall completed construction of their new Township Hall at the site so they assumed responsibility they had to De demolish a bunch of septic tanks sewage treatment systems and stuff to prep the site uh but it looks really nice right now um that they have their new tone Ship Hall out there and then uh brings us to the last year uh so last year the legislature uh did appropriate $550,000 through an NPC Grant to begin or continue our cleanup activities at the site uh so again I think our local legislators were in instrumental in that process you know obviously this picture from the post bulletin uh just shows a collaboration where now chair Ty uh met with legislators out there to see if we could Garner support and we were successful in that and then to date we've invested about $150,000 in cleanup to the site um so we estimate the cleanup to be around 800,000 remaining at the site so that 550,000 should get us a long ways uh but we also have some good news to share on the tire cleanup bids as well so with that uh the bids came in around $200,000 so we are recommending that you award the contract to Big Wolf site Works LLC I do want to qualify that bid saying that we know it's not all inclusive so as I mentioned we have Partnerships with people like Public Works they brought their survey Department out there and tried to estimate the quantity of tires in the six largest piles so it's roughly 2,000 cubic yards of tires that we know are in those six piles but we know for a fact there's other piles out there that aren't included so that roughly $200,000 bid is not going to get the entire project done but we did unit prices on a per tire and per ton basis to finish the cleanup so the goal is to be able to get oh excuse me the the goal is to get all the the tires cleaned up we just know it'll be more than that base bid can you answer for me please maybe it's not cooperating oh it's fine so the the last slide is just saying you know kind of what are the next steps uh so assuming that you decide to award this tire cleanup contract the next steps are to continue with solid waste cleanup on the site so the way that the mpca grant was written was to include both the tire cleanup and solid waste cleanup so we can continue to use that we can continue to use that $550,000 revenue or Grant from the mpca to continue the solid waste cleanup um so hopefully that like I said the goal is to get as much done with oate dollars as possible um so we are expecting the tire project to be completed by June 30th uh if you do award it and then we would continue with the rest so the the picture there on the right just shows um some of the images from the phase one and phase two Environmental assessments of all the stuff that is still there um so as I mentioned in the upper right corner the the septic system that is now the property owned by H Hill Township and where their township hall is uh the southern uh you know six acres of agricultural crop Land There is a solar and then everything in between is stuff we still have to clean up um you know all the the black uh circles or or black blotches on there are the tires that will get cleaned up as part of this project and then we'll work on building demolition and just cleaning up the rest of the site to make it development ready so so happy to entertain any questions that you have comments uh and again would recommend that you make a motion to approve the bids any questions I I've got a question before I'm sorry David no when you say development ready do we have any plans for the property we don't have any plans so I have reached out to People's Energy Cooperative to see now that they have the infrastructure there for additional solar would they be interested and just ask that they get back to us sometime this summer uh but no other immediate plans that's something that the board can decide now that you bring that up is that is that rate that they're paying does that have a multiplier as it goes forward it is it's 1% a year or 5% every five years is what the increase is to that not much son it's not nope all right Dave uh thank you when I looked up big wolf uh site Works uh just just generally on on on the web it's it's an Excavating excavating company and it's I I suppose they haul too but my question is like what happens to the tires obviously there it didn't appear to me that they were in the in the tire recycling business or anything like that what what what's going to happen to our tires do we obviously we have to know because we have some liability going forward on those as well yep we do have to know so one of the requirements of the npca grant is we have to provide waste um chains of custody and documentation that's been properly disposed of and the way that npca defines prop prop ER disposal is recycling of the tires so our understanding is Big Wolf site Works intends to use Clayton County Recycling they're a company in Wisconsin that does uh rubber or tire recycling but again they they are required to provide us all the documentation for the mpca to make sure it is meeting things like prevailing wage requirements uh proper disposal and any of the other stipulations in the npca grant so Mr chair at some point we'll get a a release of uh I'm not sure what they call it anymore but a release of custom and Associated liability exactly y okay thank you is any part of this um property out there uh Farmland usable to grow crops or rented out yeah I would say generally that six acres where the solar array is right now was previously crop land so that was um you know used for Crop Production previously um could you convert the rest of it to crap land potentially you might have some drainage concerns just based on the topography uh but I would say on three sides of the property is crop land right now and then it's bordered by the the gravel road on the East yeah thanks Mr chair can I just follow up sure does does it does the proposed bid cover not only getting the tires out of the ground and to where where they're going to go but also that recycling portion it does so it's TurnKey for us so that $200,000 bid roughly is excavation hauling disposal it's TurnKey to essentially free us of them thank you MH any questions down here all right well before uh accepted motion I just want to thank representative Hicks and Senator Balden uh for carrying this legislation because that was was very important to us and I want to thank H Hill Township for coming up with all the information that really helped convince the legis lure to support this that npca got to drop the ball so all right I'm looking for a motion chair I would move the proposed bid to Big Wolf's site works at $26,500 second okay all in favor say I I opposed carries thank you thank you okay next request to sponsor olon County History Center bonding proposal let's let Pete start and come Dr W thank you good morning Mr chair Commissioners P ke and Deputy Administrator with our physical development uh division just want to introduce Dr Mark Warner with uh the olate County History Center board the the History Center board is requesting the county to sponsor them in a bonding proposal that that they're seeking to pursue with the state to do some changes and improvements out at the History Center so I'll introduce Dr Mark Warner and he can share their proposal broadly of of what's planned and also appreciate the the efforts they're making this isn't something that we've we've only done one other time in sponsoring uh a nonprofits bonding proposal and think they have some ways in which to do that that would help minimize the work on our end so appreciate that from the History Center board so thank you Pete uh thank you Mr chair and Commissioners for having me today um I think you've heard from me before uh and I'm not sure exactly what to say um except if you want a broad overview I'm happy to repeat that and happy to do that um it's really up to you it's it interesting you get a little more nervous when you know everybody I have ironically testified many many more times that US Senate and House committees than I have locally so I I I guess I'm looking for Direction but if you like me give a general overview of what we're asking I thought it might be an opportunity for the public to hear what your looking and what your plans are okay well thank you very much so um I'm gonna set just a little background of why we're asking for a $3 million bonding bill from the state legislature um what happened uh the we're coming up on the 100th year of the History Center and um I will tell you at least for the last 40 years I've driven by it never stopped in uh but now that I'm the president I stopped regly uh it's interesting how you get more involved at at that point but um approximately 1968 this is after Chuck Mayo died the owner of mayo wood uh there were some hard feelings between that Mayo family and the Mayo Cluny and uh so Maywood was passed on to the History Center instead of to male clinic uh ownership and the History Center at the time had was making plans that just was working on building their new building which opened in 1973 along with the purchase of 54 acres of land out where we currently are um so the the History Center was already burdened with the cost of a new building the land and unexpectedly got Maywood and Maywood that was fine for about 10 15 years and then Maywood I kind of fell into uh disuse and and uh it was hard to maintain particularly structural uh capability because it was designed by Charlie mayo and not an architect and it was built by local farmers in area who didn't maybe have some of the building skills at at that time and so the the if you went in the basement for example started to implode and U we were really worried about the structural Integrity but the History Center for about 45 years that it owned Maywood put every spare Penny they had into keeping Maywood from falling in new roof whatever uh and didn't really take any of their funds and uh support the modernization of their current History Center or the three historic buildings in The stopple Farmstead and uh there were several of us in 2008 were at mailwood and saw its disrepair and said this can't happen it will implode so uh we worked at a deal took four years to do uh to have uh mailwood taken over by the mail Clinic which they they took it over in 2012 matter of fact we had to get all 29 grandchildren of Chuck Mayo to sign off individually that Mayo Clinic could buy it because Chuck and his wife had put in their will that Mayo Clinic would never be allowed to own it until after the death of their last grandchild plus 99 years so uh we we finally got it over to Mayo and a great agreement Mayo's now put nearly 10 million dollar into fixing it up it is a jewel it is uh now Ada compatible everything about it is excellent and as part of that agreement we were able to make sure that at least half the days a year are still open for tours of the public we now have almost 10,000 people a year that go through and tour Maywood so we're very proud of that what that did though is open the opportunity to take the resources they were put in Maywood and start putting it back into the history set so we then ran into the Stop Farmstead and the barn the house The Smokehouse all three of which are on the National Registry of historic places were also them starting to implode and uh so we've now have raised in the last four years years we've now raised $1.1 million and put that into uh at least restoring as best we can structural Integrity of those buildings we've actually completed restoration now for the most part of the SmokeHouse we're now in the middle of a half million dollar restoration of the structural Integrity of the barn we've not done anything yet to the house and we probably have about another half million dollars of work to do on the barn to get it to where it becomes an exhibit hall Activity Center where we can get visitors to the Olstead County area in Rochester to go out and actually learn about agriculture and early agriculture through today's Agriculture and so U we are now in the middle of about a $6 million activity where we're going to go through four fa three phases phase one is to restore the stole Farmstead and make it Ada compatible to make exhibit Halls out of it ETC number two is to mod iiz and expand the History Center itself the main building and then phase three is the other 40 acres that need to be used more efficiently than they are so um uh we would like to request a $3 million bonding bill from the state and uh to do that because we're not a public entity uh we have to have sponsorship of a public entity and that's you folks thank you um and and then as as Mr geson mentioned we have to do some behind the scenes land lease type legal agreements because State bonding money can go only to a public entity and as a private nonprofit organization we can't receive that money directly so anyhow I know you've done it once before I think 2018 the reading Center uh had your support and uh they got $1.5 million and then have gone on to to complete their project uh we fortunately have worked with them and it turns out that uh Dunlap Seager did their legal work and in fact our vice president our board happens to be at Dunlop Seager and we have permission from the reading Center to use their materials and the processes they went through with the county at the time to kind of use that as a precedent and save a lot of time and effort and probably expense uh up front to to get this done so it would be a land lease agreement of some sort that that would replicate in many ways what the president set with the reading Center and therefore I think we can keep the administrative costs and the legal costs UPF front uh as minimal as possible uh so at this point in time the uh Senator Liz Bolton Senator Carla Nelson representative Tino lebling have all uh agreed to sponsor the bill at the state legislature a matter of fact Mr senum and I are going up to uh the State uh Senate um environmental climate and Legacy committee on Thursday to discuss uh one of the bills that we have up there uh the bonding bill has been completed and not submitted though because we're waiting to see if we can get sponsorship from you folks but once that's done it's ready to immediately uh Senator Balton will submit it and get it going uh so that's where we are with the process and uh I'm happy to answer any questions you have any questions okay well thank you for that thorough explanation I appreciate thank you so much I really appreciate that here just a comment I think I expressed this before but uh the History Center is very very fortunate to have Dr Warner is its president this year and uh hopefully for a year or two more but but but along with that an outstanding board that's Missi driven and uh I really believe that uh it's going to over the course of the next maybe five six years going to change the face of Thea County History Center both perceptibly from the outside but also operationally it's great we really want this to be an activity place that people coming to Olstead County whether it's for medical care or whatever reason they have a place to go and it might drive tourists from the rest of the state to come uh because it's another opportunity uh activity in southeast Minnesota sure okay I appreciate that all right I'm looking for botion Mr chair I would move approval of resolution 25 regarding U the approval of sponsorship by om County uh uh for the History Center bonding proposal second okay we have a motion in a second all in favor say I I I opposed carries thank you thank you appreciate it okay next on our agenda is the discuss the County's property formally owned by senica foods good morning again p e Deputy Administrator um got the Powerpoint loaded there we go so this morning uh Commissioners this is a a continuation of what the direction we received from you in December to uh and during a Clos session of the board where you asked us to move forward with solicitation of uh for bids for the property formerly known as the senica property so I just wanted to give an introduction to that this topic here during a public setting and then Tom will help help us walk through the provisions to enter into a a closed session to continue conversations about the actual uh items that we're requesting and other items you'd like to include as well relative to setting a price for the property so just some background as you know the uh when we refer to the uh former Sen property primarily everyone thinks of the corner lot between parcel between 12th Street Southeast and Third Avenue Southeast it also includes a strip of land along the the railroad plus we have uh also part of that in uh inherited a tax forfeited Parcels on the north side of the Beltway as well so it it's uh for your consideration as we look at the solicitation whether to include those Parcels or not just wanted a high level overview of the history with uh this property it began you the board in 2018 began looking into the purchase of this these parcels and other Parcels of senica which landed ultimately in purchasing uh the parcels that I showed on the slide immediately the at that time it was the the main driver was to be part of the the transit uh the bus Rapid Transit process that uh the city is involved in and DMC is involved in it would have been one of two Transit Villages that uh would have been in the city uh went worked with the city and DMC over year to two years to create uh concept maps of that Village in how it could complement grah Park um and also you know getting to the point of an agreement uh that ultimately did not move forward with the city at the time so that took a couple years to do Co happen at that time and then it was there was really a pre reprieve from that work um with the board at the time with it getting resurrected in 2022 with the desire to put out a statement of Interest which basically would put uh an advertisement to solicit just ideas for the property meeting certain criteria similar to a request for proposal to really uh uh put forward and try to solicit ideas for what could be done with that property we received we worked with ready uh in that process we received four solicitations or ideas one of which the board dug deeper into but ultimately did not accept as as an idea or shortly thereafter the board agreed let's just put this on hold for a couple years and then two years got up last December and uh it was at that time you asked us to to move forward with the solicitation for bids just briefly similar to other bids It's s a a a process it's not a full request for proposal process where we would have expect a plan or proposal or set criteria to evaluate it would be looking for a a price to be offered for the the property typically but it doesn't have to be the highest bidder but that's the typical process that we would use but it wouldn't be um labor intensive for the developers the proposers either which is um counter to what would be involved in a request for a proposal where it is more work for those submitting proposals um we do have to advertise uh for a minimum of three weeks uh any solicitation that's by state law um and you can reject or award anything that you would get um just core from a staff recommendation standpoint there's some basic things that we would uh uh recommend be included around meeting zoning we have some restrictions on when we advertise on our Billboards things that we wouldn't uh allow there that we would request or suggest that also be part of the solicitation that we have those restrictions and we'd recommend the you know keeping the the corn cob water tower as well uh but all other things that that I think we're asking for your consideration and direction are whether you're seeking the knowledge of whether Tiff would be tax increment financing would be proposed as part of a a bid whether you're seeking to include a minimum bid or not whether you want to include the north Parcels as part of the solicitation or not among other things that you would want to add into the discussions for the Clos session so this is where I think I have one more we do again for our uh we work our our purchasing department actually solicits bids all the time and this we've used uh both building upon what we used for the statement of interest but those that sign up we have over 175 just for those C categories that fall into the real estate category of uh vendors that have signed up for this service and that I think it could be expanded beyond that to other types of vendors so it's casting a widenet using the systems that we have given we're not using a bro outside broker to help us uh do the solicitation we would recommend a 30-day window to solicit knowing it has the three week uh minimum advertising window incorporated into that so but again this is up to the board on finalizing kind of the the details that we're looking for before we would move forward with the solicitation and with that I think I do say questions but I think we're I think we would probably recommend moving into Clos session uh to continue the conversations okay so then once we enter or come back out a Clos session then we can we can vote on how to proceed is that how we're going to do it Mr chair I think actually you would come up with a recommendation in Clos session and decide direct the staff as to how you want to proceed okay all right are there any questions okay so Mr I don't know this what with questions at this point just regarding the availability utilities is that is that well we could talk about it in there but yeah I don't know if that's a area that would be a challenge to talk I think it's an open public discussion relative Matt Miller is here and he's he'll join us in in the close session as well and he has I think the knowledge relative to the utility question I believe utilities are at the street so my understanding is we just talk about price in the the back room y okay all right so there's there's a resolution in front of us and I'll just read the uh property tax IDs for the properties that we're going to talk about and then I'll accept a motion to go into close SE SE session so first is the primary parcel which is tax ID number 64111 1.00794 69 then the strip along the rail road is tax ID number 64111 1.025 n30 and then those properties to the north across the Belt Line our numberers 6402 4421 980 and 6402 4421 1982 can I get a motion to move into public or to close session to discuss those moved all right we got a motion at a second all in favor say I I oppos if there's nothing else we're just ready for Bard committee reports whatever you want start on Greg's then do you have anything Greg well I just wanted to uh publicly thank John Sipple Tom Bellinger Susan Derby and Kyle deer for volunteering on our um advisory committees I think it's really important that we are involving our general citizens to come in to help the county with their expertise and their talent on on the directions that uh uh we could go uh and and so I I'm very appreciative of of them stepping forward and volunteering so thank you Greg Laurel yes uh uh commissioner Mueller and I attended the 50y year anniversary for the wick program in omstead County it was a a fun well attended bustling event a lot of excitement and I'm just going to say a few things about the wick program uh it is uh Wick stands for women infants and children uh and uh Wick has supported thousands of families through food benefits breastfeeding support and community outreach since 1975 and we are proud of the impact Wick has made in Empowering Families and improving Public Health over the last five decades and I wanted to um to put one more statistic out there that when Wick started in 1975 it had 41 participants and today Wick serves 4700 participants and U I think that is um a really significant um um example of growth and success agree thank you yep Dave I'll just uh report uh I I perhaps have to some level in in the HHH meeting but uh last Thursday night I attended the Micah annual legislative conference in uh in Prior Lake uh uh by the way uh former administrator Welch says hi to all of us and uh and it was good to see her there was probably about 130 people there uh the emphasis of the meeting was uh largely around uh the U dysfunctional state government and and then more over the governor's budget and it shift to the shifted on that budget towards uh towards uh towards counties away from State funding things and towards counties and there was a a spreadsheet had and out which amounted to over the course of the next four years around I think it was $87 million is is is proposed in his budget to be shifted to counties now probably not all that's going to happen but with a $2 million proberbly $2 billion deficit forecast I I would believe that we could you know expect some of that to come come towards ours so and and then the other one that was brought up uh I guess it was yesterday and maybe Brian was report but the africanamerican family preservation Act is and I think I've mentioned this before and and the the county that seems to be the most vocal on this is wadina County which is nowhere near of course the size and scope of our County but it will cost them and they've analyzed it pretty carefully a little over a million dollars to comply with that act which I think goes into effect in I believe 2026 so it's uh something that we ought to be looking at from the standpoint of of U ofon County and and the effects financially on on us and uh and whether it's anywhere close to if it's a if it's a million for wadina County it could be a couple times more than that for us so we probably need to take a look at that thank you Bob you have anything okay Brian so I have nothing to report okay I'll close it with the today's quote is going to be a short African proverb the axe forgets the tree remembers whoa