and utterly devoid of the leadership that is willing and able to bridge the gap and unite us in harmony. We mourn for Melissa and Mark Hortman whose lives were taken because they dared to serve others. So, please join me in a moment of silence to honor
Melissa and Mark Hortman. Thank you. All right. So, we're going to start the agenda includes a public hearing. Uh, approve the recommended updates to chapter 3500 of the Mstead County Code of Ordinances.
Who's going to Who's going to speak on this before we open the public hearing? Nobody. Okay. I thought so. I guess we're not going to have that public hearing today. All right. Are you gonna introduce the topic? I can.
Okay. Hello. Hello. Alex Coringa, Homemstead County Environmental Resources. Solid Waste Assurance Coordinator. Thank you for your time. Uh we're opening the bill or opening the
ordinance up uh in regards to uh with pertaining mainly to cannabis, but with the with it being open, we also did uh fee changes and we're also looking at expanding uh recycling re reporting requirements for
the class A haulers. Uh the cannabis section, you can probably move to the next slide. The cannabis section is required by uh under the state that we have to have some form of solid waste assurance in regards to cannabis
disposal. Uh that is outlined like I said under state statute. Next slide. uh tipping fees. Uh we need to change those in regards to upping our
demolition was a big part of that. Um looking at the market and where that is changing and then a few other things pertaining to has waste and things like that. We also needed to change uh the terms of generator and what is a defined
as a person as well. Next slide. uh update the class C licensing dates to make sure it runs uh from uh January 1 to December 31st. I believe that was
somewhat missing in the language needed to be added and customer recycling education requirements uh for the class A haulers uh pertaining to so we limit confusion. If you go out on the county website, we
have a list of what we accepted in the sort separated type of realm. Uh cans, things like that. What are plastics that we accept? The the haulers do coal mingling, may take it to a different
location and have it separated at that point, and they may accept more recyclables than what the county does. And we want to get on the same page with education and making sure everyone understands when the county says it, it
pertains to this. And when your hauler says it, it pertains to them. Just understanding how they're communicating. We wanted it to be done annually to their customers in some form. And we also wanted to make sure it's being done with new customers when a new customer
signs up with their services. Next slide. uh outline disposal processes for cannabis waste by retailers, growers, including um uh remediation methods and
recordkeeping. Uh part of that will be then handled by uh the licensing which is uh I believe the health department will be overseeing the the licensing of that. So they need to know what we expect in recordkeeping as well.
Next slide. Uh retailers must accept and manage return of battery powered devices. This is a big issue that you will see transfer stations, landfills, even in the waste to energy. Those batteries heat up, cause fires, and we
believe it's time that we we rely on the retailers to help manage that and making sure that they're recycled appropriately. So, we've outlined uh how they would go about that and how they could possibly handle it as a hazardous waste or should be handling it as
hazardous waste. Includes recycling, recordkeeping, and fire safety requirements in regards to that. But that's also broader to any uh retailer that sells those battery tobacco. Uh some of these other dram shop type areas
that provide those batteries that they'll also have to have some kind of recordkeeping and recycling program put in place as well. Next slide. uh update the fees various services, county facilities including the recycling
center, waste energy, the landfill uh and has waste facility. Next slide. Uh penalties establish. Um we also decided it was time to expand and really clarify and codify the penalty and how we go
about doing these administrative penalties. Before it was just one set. Um, we felt that it was time to go to maybe a tier type of system and making sure that if we had an issue, it also
outlining what section really clarifying in what section of the ordinances would you could be cited for for different types of issues related to not only the expansion of this cannabis, but all things pertaining to um the waste
ordinance. And thank you. Any questions that I could ballpark or any questions before we open up the public hearing? Mr. Chair, just just to ask uh so within within this ordinance, we're dealing
with uh battery operated devices that associated with cannabis or vaping and things like that. Yes. But we wouldn't count uh for instance, I don't know, a a key fob or any other kind of device. No.
Anything that the retailers sell as a is a uh electronic thermometer or anything that would not count. It's just that that should still be handled as a hazardous waste type that we do outline in in the ordinance. But we're talking about any delivery device that delivers
these kinds of products because they are becoming so prevalent, it's hard to manage and making sure that the the retailer informs their customer of the dangers of that and that they should have a recycling program as a part of that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay,
Travis. Just a couple comments to add real quick. Thank you, Alex. I just uh for the rest of the public that's here, I mean, the board has reviewed this item on May the 20th uh and had quite a fair amount of discussion in regards to some of the
options for this ordinance. It was reviewed again on the 3rd of June uh that this board had the opportunity to weigh in, provide some additional feedback. And so this I just wanted to acknowledge that there's there's quite a bit to this ordinance. Um, it's an ordinance that has existed and now we're
adding pieces to it to include some restrictions that we need to address per statute as it relates to cannabis. And then there are a few revisions. And so I just wanted to mention that this is the third time the board has taken a good good hard look at this. And just wanted
to make sure that folks knew that we weren't just moving through it like that. We've been at this for um several weeks now. So thank you. There there is a section as you will see that it deals with the retailer themselves and then the cultivator and how we
do tell the difference and and the handling of the material as well. Okay. Any other questions for Alex? Okay. Hearing none. I'll entertain a motion to open the public hearing. Move to the public hearing.
Second. Okay. All in favor say I. Hi. Public hearing is open, but anybody like to speak for or against this? I didn't expect it with I got to say it three times. Anybody like to speak for against it? If you do, come on up and find yourself question. Well, you still
got to come on up. Okay. State your name and then your question. My name's Laura Meyer and I'm still a teacher at a school. Um, I was actually appalled at this last year because there was absolutely zero attempt to do any
recycling at our school. And we teachers teach that. I remember my kids taught me that back in the 90s. I mean, I've gotten so desperate. I take the plast I would take the plastic bottles out of my trash can. Anything else I could recycle and take down to my apartment. So, is it possible to have
something in this resolution that maybe there could be some funding to push recycling at schools? I don't think it's I don't think it's going to be uh related to this to this, but I mean I think that we need to do some public outreach at your school, right? Yeah, I know. I thought it was
about cannabis and stuff, but I it just came to my mind and I thought, you know, there's so much waste and it's just all going in the same dumpster. It just kills me. So, I mean, my kids taught me back in the 90s, so I didn't forget. All right. Appreciate that. Thank you. Anybody else like to speak for or
against us? Anybody like to speak for or against this? Third time. Anyone like to speak for or against us? I don't hear anything. Okay. Move to close the public hearing. Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Okay. Discussion. Motions. Chair. I would move to adopt the changes
to chapter 3500. Second. Be discussed. Okay. We have a motion to second. Any discussion? Hearing none. And all in favor say I. I. Opposed? Carries. All right. Next public hearing. Hold public hearing for
Homestead County's municipal separate storm sewer system MS4 program. This is much more exciting. So skip. I hoped you'd say that. Uh Skip Langanger Soil and Water
Conservation District. uh manager. Uh appreciate the time to be here tonight. So once a year we get together and talk a little bit about our MS4 program, storm water runoff uh within our community of Rochester. Um and this is
that opportunity. Generally, we have an annual report that we also have you approved that gets submitted to the Minnesota Police Control Agency. Um, but in the last three years, I think they're trying to develop a mechanism for us to do some type of online reporting and so
we just haven't had an annual report now for for that many years. So anyway, we'll jump into it because we still do have our activities. You can go to the next slide. So MS4 is our municipal separate storm sewer system. It's our
linear system of roads, ditches, pipes, best management practices that manage storm water runoff. Um, of course, the the reason for it is to reduce pollutant loading into our our waters and MPCA is
the governing agency for the M for MS4. Um, it affects urbanized populations greater than 10,000, but can also impact a smaller community of greater than 5,000 if they are potential for impacts to special waters like trout streams
within their communities. Um, what we do as part of the process is we develop a storm water pollution prevention plan. We call it a SWIP. We love acronyms. Uh, the current permit is 20 2020 to 2025.
So, we're kind of coming to the conclusion of the current permit period, and later this year, we'll start the process over to develop a five-year plan. Um, it results the the storm water pollution prevention plan is a schedule of activities that we're going to
undertake. Uh, you can go to the next slide, please. Um our responsibility then is to develop actions under these six uh minimum control measures. Uh they're listed there. Everything from public education
and outreach. Public participation is things like having a program where you know bags are available along walking trails to pick up your dog poop and put it in the proper receptacle to sweeping up grass clippings so they don't go down
uh the storm drain. things like that. Elicit discharge, detection, elimination. We worked with Tom Cananan to develop that part of the ordinance. It's really only rain down the storm drain. You see that stencled on storm drains all over the city. That's the idea that we keep the rest of the things
that can go down a storm drain out of it, out of our rivers and streams. Construction site runoff control and post construction runoff control. Those are the plans that uh ensure that we don't have sediment leaving sites that
are raw um disturbed sites where construction is happening. And then post construction that we stabilize those sites uh when we're done with our building efforts. And then number six, better housekeeping, pollution prevention, really is our internal work
to educate our staff to do the work that's needed to manage uh the the MS4. Uh you can go to the next slide, please. This is just a view. I'm sorry it's a little bit of an ugly picture, but in the center of it, the city of Rochester,
uh, our MS4 as a county is really an interwined, interconnected system of ditches, roadways that really cuts all through our metropolitan area. And so, um, our water becomes the city's water
becomes our water and and eventually leaves through outfalls and things. you see some different examples of of outfalls, storm water ponds. You're familiar with many of them. Storm water BMPs and infiltration basins and things like that um that we have on campus.
Um so the treatment that we do equals resource protection. That's the reason that we do it. So we're required to uh use infiltration first in our methodology of treating storm water bofiltration secondly and then the
typical wet storm water ponds that you see are the third item that we go to there in the picture there's some other things that we have a rain garden out on campus uh the the the salt and sand uh materials underneath cover out at public works service center and and other storm
water features. Um, so our public works crews do this very excellently. They're great at their jobs and they maintain this system um, not only within the city but all around the county. So they maintain the outfalls structural BMP stormwater
ponds. We inspect them annually, 20% of them. We have to inspect them all over the 5-year permit cycle. They do the repairs. So they're the ones out there making sure that the that the system is stable, that sediment is removed when it needs to be, that it's receded when it
needs to be, and and maintain the capacity of the system overall. Um they're putting in new coverts. We're mowing ditches and rightaways. And of course, we have to maintain a current um mapping and inventory of all our BMPs for for police control agency.
Um another one of the things we're tasked with is street sweeping. So keeping the stuff off the street that often times we're putting on the street. So sand, salt, um each year we're undertaking this, especially in the spring, post winter, but also sometimes
in the fall. So last year we collected 85 cubic yards of material. 10 tandem loads of material comes off the roads. We do reclaim as much of that as we can. The garbage gets screened out of it and goes where it needs to. And then the
sand and other materials we can use in some of our uh road building back in slopes and things like that. So we use that reclaimed material. Um so storm water education and outreach. I'm really proud of our team and the
work that they do in the education outreach arena. You've seen us at Earthfest County Fair, Arbor Day, and so on and so forth. We're at many events. A lot of times we're planning these events and or helping to plan and coming up
with our own displays and things like that. Adopt a Highway is very successful in Homestead County. We have 170 groups volunteering. We nearly cover most of the roadway, the the paved roadways that we have. Um we plan workshops and
demonstrations. We have a storm water website out under our public works website. We have a hotline if you want to call about storm water issues. That's our number. Um we do site visits, respond to calls that we get. We provide
technical assistance to land owners that have concerns and issues. And then this is a collaborative effort. I have to give kudos to our our city folks that work on storm water. They do they charge fees. We don't get any money to do storm water on behalf of Minnesota Police
Control Agency. It's something that we do from the goodness of the bottom of our hearts, I guess. And and so the city also has a program and we work with them a lot um to put together good programming and do out out education
outreach that's necessary under this program. Uh go to the next slide. So internally we also train our staff. We have many staff that are certified in in different types of storm water inspection and construction from
engineers to our inspectors. Um and so annually we do training with them. We had 85 staff at our at our uh most recent training. Um they also are individual train individually training as I said that that results in
certifications that they hold as as professionals in the work that they do on our behalf and we do that a oftentimes through University of Minnesota mind provides training and then the Minnesota erosion control association as well. Our storm water
website is there um if you have any questions I'd be happy to try and answer them. Any questions? Okay, Mr. Cho. Okay. Uh, Skip, can you What is What is the
purpose of this hearing? Uh, what if if there's a member of the public out there that wants to comment? What would they comment on the on the the skillfulness that we're doing the program or or I'm just trying to understand. Are we doing this program because it's a required
report to the public or is there something that goes on to the state agency on this or Yeah. what's what kind of what's going on here? What's the purpose of this particular program? Because right, we all know you good good work, but is it is it just a public report? Twofold, I guess. One is that
we're required to hold an annual public hearing on the activities that we do under our storm water pollution prevention plan. And so if any of the I thought the people that were here earlier were here for storm water, but that never really holds true, I guess. So, um, but if they have comments that
they'd like to make on our stormwater pollution prevention plan or if they'd like to view the SWIP, we have a a hard copy available um out at the public works service center. It's also on the website for review, uh, we could take those comments tonight and then
typically we would provide an annual report of our activities to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Um, but like I said, the last three years they haven't had a portal that we can do that though I think one is coming and then we'll report back the years that we
haven't. So, Mr. Chair, just noticing there's there's no action seemingly it's just to hold the hearing, but there's not even an approval request on this thing. Yeah, there without having an annual report that we would submit. I guess I didn't have it as an an action
item for you to approve our report. There isn't one. Um, but we would like to take any comments that folks have and would like to provide. Thank you. Okay. I think I made a mistake asking for a motion for a public hearing before. So, I'm just going to open the public hearing and see what uh somebody wants
to talk about this. Now's your chance. Second time. Anyone like to talk about this? There we're gonna I just have a question. So, I have uh Come on up and introduce yourself and go speak to the mic. Okay. Speak to the mic. Um, I'm
Nancy Wheeler Hanland, uh, and, uh, Northgate Court Northwest. And I'm very impressed actually with how clean the streets streets are. And I'm also very big on um, trying to I because I'm uh, now in the retired status, I actually go
around and clean off stuff off of the the drains. Now, I have heard I've heard that you can do something about like claiming a drain to clean and that you can name it. How do you how do you do that? And is that true or is that one of
those things that just is part of the rumor mill? That's a great question. Um, so that would be if you're within the urbanized area of the city, probably many of those drains are part of the city's storm
water system. If they happen to fall within our uh jurisdiction, I'd be happy to entertain a name for a drain, I guess. I don't know how how we'd mark that exactly, but um the city does part of the city. You're part of
I'm part of county, right? So, the city does have a storm water group. Um, if you go to the city website, um, just go into their um, querying uh, and and ask for storm water. Yeah. And I think they do have a it's a it's
an adopt a drain program and there's little signs that they have actually to go on there and then to next to it and I think then your responsibility is to, as you were doing, keeping the drain free of debris and things like that. So, yeah, thanks for doing that. Yeah, thank
you, Mr. Chair. Yes. So, because you have uh an audience and and maybe some uh people who live in the city here, I I think it it could be a good opportunity for you to just give a you know, a brief
uh you know, recommendation about uh salting the sidewalk and how to use less salt and clean up your salt at the end of winter. Um that's just such a useful thing because salt can be such a contaminant into our waterways. Um it just seems like an opportunity here
where you could do a little uh salt education. Yeah. If you don't if you don't mind. Sure. Yeah. So, I think the thing about about salt and one of the things I guess as part of our storm water pollution prevention plan that we're doing in Homestead County is um
back in the day where you know with snow, ice and snow get packed under the roadways, we do uh apply salt to to you know help melt and loosen up that and and we're we're scraping it off with our plows. Now, one thing that most
communities, I would guess, have taken up is is brining. So, it's pre-treatment of roadways. Um, and so we go out and we actually apply a chloride solution to the road. That way, as the as the storms
hit and and snow uh falls onto the to the roadway, it's much easier to remove. at home. I think the the big thing is remove the snow first and then if if the the the weather itself, the sunshine
that follows storms and things like that doesn't melt away what's left. Um, you know, you can apply small amounts of salt, but the idea that more is better is not a good way to view your salt use.
Um, it's easy to buy a large bag. Same goes for fertilizing our yards. That's another thing that that sends contaminants into our storm sewer systems, but read and follow label directions. You probably need much less. Um they say just a small cupful, a few
grain grains of salt um per square foot is more than enough to to melt that that ice away. So once you break the ice up, you can scrape it with a shovel is a very good method. Thank you. Sure. Okay.
Okay. U three more chances public. Anyone want to speak about this? Second chance. Anyone want to speak about this? Third chance. Okay. I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing. Move to close the
public hearing. Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Okay. Discussion or a motion? Move to accept the report. Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Oppos carries. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay. Next up, consent agenda. Approve the M County Board minutes from June 3rd. I'm going to butcher these names. Appoint Kim Duke Chu new her me Diaz to the public health services advisory board.
Appoint Carol Lquist to the parks commission. Approve the settlement of the Jane Doe versus Homestead County matter. Approve parks and trails legacy grant application. Approve extension of the Minnesota official marriage system service agreement. Move to approve the
consent agenda. Second. Okay, we have a motion to second. All in favor say I. I. All right, we have no discussion decision items, which is great because we're running late. Um, next up, an update from Dover Mayor Dave Eiseninger.
Commissioners, thanks for having me today. Thank you, Dave. As stated, I'm Dave Aszmir, mayor of Dover. Um, I'm just here to update you on what Dover is all about. Uh, first off, I'll just talk a little bit about myself. After having to listen to
everything that goes on in this room, none of you guys are probably here for the money, as I am not the mayor of Dover for the money. It's something more. It's the people of Dover that keep me coming around, right? So, anyway,
thanks for having me be here tonight. I'm Dave Eisner, mayor of city of Dover, and I just want to talk about who we are as Dover. Do is one square mile in in one square mile with a population of 780. We sit just two miles from the
Winona County line and we have County Road 10 and County Road 142 running through our town. We're sandwiched right in between Highway 14 and I90 and we also have the Whitewater River that flows through town. Do was originally called Dover Center when founded in 1854 by settlers from Dover, New Hampshire.
Dover is located about in the middle of Dover Township and so the center was added later. The center was dropped after the mail service was getting confused about being Dover Center or Dodge Center. Uh Dover is a young town today with a
median age of only 28. Only 4% of our population are over 65. 38% of them people in Dover are 25 to 44 and 19% are 45 to 64. Do currently has eight businesses, three of which are bars or
restaurants, including the road trip, a neighbor's bar, and a hair shack. We also have a meat market called Do Processing and a boat re repair business named TNT Marine. There's also a photography business named Sunshine
Photography and a cold storage facility called the Dexter Warehouse. There's about 40 people that work in Dover and most of them are at the Dover processing plant. We also have a post office and a ready readymix plant. We're mainly a bedroom community and the town is quite
empty during the day and I'd estimate there's less than 150 people in town between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. The city of Dover has its own volunteer fire department and they serve three townships, the Dover, Quincy, and Elmyra. Additionally, the Dover Fire Department partners with the Yota Fire
Department for mutual aid. It's very beneficial during daytime hours when most of firefighters are out of town at work. Fire department is primarily funded through charitable gambling and also helps out many organizations across the area through monetary donations. Additionally, Dover pays county
sheriff's department for providing law enforcement and we pay the ambulance for their coverage. Things we've done in the past to improve our city is we've updated our water system with a freshly painted water tower on the outside as well as a new
coating of epoxy paint on the inside back in 2023. Our water tower is serviced by two separate wells and one well has a backup generator that we installed in 2024 with some grant money from the state. In 2015, we purchased
the Dover School back from the Doyota School District for just a dollar. And we made that our new city hall and rent out uh a kitchen that we built and a gym as well as we have a fitness center in the basement.
The city spent over 100,000 on a new playground equipment uh to update our main park. Uh we funded that by writing for grants and having fundraisers and donations from our local fire department as well as we used our own money. Uh the old playground was put
up in 1984 and had been nicknamed Sliver Park as it was wood well worn out Sliver Park. Do recently decided to go with a garbage wide citywide garbage collected collection service. So, we put together
a committee of the council members and towns people and worked for about eight months to get that rolling and it's now official as of May 1st of this past year. Everybody's really liking it. Uh we went with LRS and basically
everybody's bills went down and this is going to help help us all save on wear and tear from the garbage trucks is our main reason. What's next? In the near future, we plan to uh update our ball fields. Uh they see use three to four nights a week and
parking's a problem up there and we're just going to try and do something about that. Separate out the fields and try and fund raise for a bunch more money to get that done to improve living. Uh another thing on the horizon is uh we'll be trying to finish off our last
seven blocks of uh streets in Dover that have never had curbon gutter. And so that's a problem with storm water runoff. But our struggles are that with an annual annual operating budget of $640,000
and each block of roadway costing about $200,000, when you dig it up and put new pipe in and everything else as it needs, we don't go get very far. So, as previously mentioned, we have uh Whitewater River that flows through our
town. It's a blessing and a curse, really. Um, so over this river, there's three bridges that go through a town. One over 142, one over County Road 10, and then there's one over our little uh 7th Street that goes out past our readym
mix plant. And I would just urge that this is the this bridge is the city's responsibility to take care of, right? It's in city limits, but we all know the cost of B bridge replacement these days and where
that's going and how is that ever going to happen to replace that bridge. We're going to end up closing that road. Um the Whitewater River that comes through there is working on working on that road pretty hard. As well as the county's storm water runoff that turns into the
city's storm water runoff that turns into the county storm water runoff through that ditch that feeds it is washing the road away. We've spent as a city over 20 grand on that. It's cost a man his life fixing it. Problem is still there. It's not going away. So in
closing, I would just uh urge you guys to consider taking on the responsibility of some of these bridges that lie in small towns. Thanks. Thanks for your time. Okay. Before you go, can you tell us is how's
the population of Dover doing? Is it growing, shrinking, staying steady? Steady. Steady. Yep. We have two houses to be built in town this year by private people and not by a home builder. So those are the first two in two years.
Okay. You know, interest rates, mortgage interest rates are not there. Um the home builder raise the rate of his lots a little bit. People see that, they shy away, things like that. So, as a mayor, I'm just trying to concentrate on making
the area a better place to live and try and get people to come to town, ball fields, everything else. Um, one more thing we're trying to work on is we need child care in in Dover and a city-run child care would be about the only way we'd
get it. And that's a tricky one to maneuver. Sure. As as I was saying before, being the mayor of Dover doesn't pay the bills. I'm a tradesman, 25 year electrician. I'm nobody special, but I'm doing the job. I appreciate that. We need people
like you doing jobs like this. So, yep. So, we'll keep on trucking along. Any other questions? Any questions for the mayor, Mr. Chair? Just compliment him to come over coming over. Thank you for coming over. This is Yep. This is really helpful. Thank you. Need to We
need to hear from our small cities or about them. And I'm I'm glad to have the opportunity. Yep. So, thanks. Now, thank you, mayor. Okay, I think we've made the decision to postpone our legislative update based on time. So, we'll go right to board and
committee reports. Greg, I have no report. Laurel, I do have a report. Um, I'd like to just say a few more words about the folks that we uh recently appointed to our advisory boards. Um
so we um Commissioner Mueller and I um two or three times a year conduct um interviews of candidates and we congratulate today uh Duke Chu Nuhur Mimi Diaz to their appointment to the
public health services advisory board and Carol Lofquist to the parks commission. Um it is always a pleasure meeting and interviewing candidates um these candidates and and many more. There were more um uh candidates
interested than there were seats available uh you know um Commissioner Mueller and I and the department heads we you know we wanted to uh ex accept everyone um but there just simply weren't um the seats available.
Uh so we encourage everyone who applied and who was not selected at this time to reapply. And I'd like to say a few words to the general public about the importance of advisory boards which can only exist through public participation and
community engagement. Um civic engagement is essential for a truly representative local government and a healthy democracy. that brings people together to work towards shared goals and to create
solutions to complex problems. Participating in local advisory boards and councils fosters inclusion and empowers residents to shape and support the communities and the issues they care most passionately about. So to anyone
here today listening or watching the the live uh the live feed of this meeting, um if you're interested in supporting your community and the well-being of society, uh we encourage you to participate in
local advisory boards and councils to lend your strengths, uh voice your concerns, represent your community, and contribute to positive change. And that's all I have. Thank you, Laura. Dave,
uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have any formal even prepared comments, but I I would just like to, if you'd give me the a minute or two to speak to to the events of last Saturday. Uh, I'd appreciate it. It's it says uh I
and everybody in Minnesota woke up on Saturday to some of the most horrific news that I can ever remember at least in my lifetime and for me personally. uh to understand and to hear that two
dear friends and uh were literally executed uh or near executed as in case of John Hoffman is uh is just it's stunning.
It's awful. It's profound. It's way out of bounds. It's not consistent with our state. You know, it's it's unimaginable that that would happen uh amongst two individuals that
are are and uh with respect to John Hoffman still will be some of the finest public servants that I will ever know. Uh Melissa came into the legislature I believe a couple years after myself in
2005. Uh as I was in leadership, she was emerging in house leadership. We got to know each other very well. We were on several German trips together studying energy. She was part of my, if you will, my energy society group that met monthly
uh in St. Paul to talk about the innovations in in clean energy and and just a genuine fine person. And I I remember so well uh I uh attended a tribute to former Representative Mary Murphy early in the session and Melissa
came over and we had our hugs and our our giggles and our our greetings and and and just an absolutely fine person. And again to think that her life was taken in such a way uh is not at all
deserving of her life uh it's cruel. It was wrong. And I struggle for lessons learned on this one. And I struggle also for John. John sat in front of me in the state senate for a number of years. And we
again were dear dear dear friends. Uh and uh did a lot of things together. Uh and I I I can't maybe go inside the Senate, but I will just tell you this. Uh maybe I can. uh at the end of every
session typically it's about midnight and what are you going to do and we would always go to John Hoffman's office a number of us and we would probably stay there till 5 or 6 in the morning and and we would reminisce and we would talk about the session and we would and I'm talking about Republicans and
Democrats uh I mean we we just got along you know that was John John made those kind of things happen and uh and fortunately um by the grace of God John lives his life lives and we'll have John hopefully back again with us and our
state will have him with us. He's one of the finest human services legislators that we could ever expect to have. He's devoted to the cause. He's devoted to disabilities. He's just done so so much work in that area. And hopefully that's not over.
That John will have another chance to come back and continue on his good work. But I say all this I guess just to say that uh public service is a noble cause and uh the idea that somebody would be or two
individuals would literally be ravaged by bullets, one dead and frankly two dead and two others living albeit eight or nine bullet holes in them is is
beyond belief certainly and not certainly warranted it to anybody at all, much less somebody that or two individuals that have just dedicated their life to do good to Minnesota. So, I would just say that and and this
extends to people that hold public office all over Minnesota that we need to cool our rhetoric. We need to learn to get along. We need to understand our differences, respect them, and uh and go forward and do the good policy.
But we need to accept all of us, no matter what level of government we're in, we we need to again understand that our cause is enable or noble. But we have we have a responsibility well beyond this table. And that's to that's to understand that
uh we do all that we can to let our body politic understand that that you don't need to go to these sort of resorts to achieve your objective that uh that it can be achieved through peaceful and uh
good strong dialogue amongst people and that once you have that dialogue just as we do here we may differ but we leave it at the table and we leave friends. Thank you. Thank you, Dave. Appreciate that. Um,
no report, but I just wanted to make a few comments about some of the things we heard tonight. Sure. Um, I just want to thank all of those who uh provided testimony tonight. Um, I think it's important that we hear from members of
our community, um, that we understand their concerns, um, and get a sense of how it's going to act. Some of these potential changes at the federal level, uh, could impact their lives. Um,
and, uh, you know, it's coming before a public meeting is not always easy for folks. Um so I have to um you know acknowledge uh their bravery and their willingness
to stand um and uh speak out on behalf of the causes that they believe in. And it's important that they do so um for all elected leaders at every level of government to know and understand um how these impacts might um affect our
community um and the individuals that live here. Um so with that, I just want to once again thank them and um hope that we've all taken some of these as uh you know to heart. I know that, you
know, these are federal cuts that they're talking about that may potentially impact our community, but um uh we'll see exactly what those cuts may eventually look like. Um the one thing that I know um in my short time here on
the board is that Olmstead County will always do right by Mstead County citizens. Um, we'll do the very best we can even though we may have limited resources available to us.
Thank you. Well, thank you Brian. No report. So, no report tonight. Okay, chairman. Chairman Ty, I do have one thing that we need to address. Yep. I was going to do that, but go ahead. Okay. Nope. You got it. All right. I was going to
acknowledge that the commissioner Senjum is is going to be the only representative at NAO and as such the board grants him the authority to cast all three votes on behalf of Homestead County. So do you need a motion? No, I don't think so. And just an approval. I
agree. Yeah. Okay. I don't see any dissension. So we'll go forward with that. Congrats, Dave. You've always wanted three times. Three times. However, we will we will watch how you vote. Don't split that vote.
All right. Um and I'll join Commissioner Hopkins. We had se if you're late to the game, we had 17 people come up and speak to us about the uh the impacts that the big beautiful bill may have on their lives which are
very significant and uh important and uh and for them uh you know terrifying impacts on their lives. So, uh, I appreciate those that took the effort to come up and educate us and tell their stories. So, um,
on a completely different level, I'll selfishly take the opportunity to congratulate the Pine Island baseball team for winning the team's first ever or the school's first ever team state championship. There's a number of Homestead County uh, residents that were on that team, and it's exciting to see
them have that success. Um, and I'll end as I always do with a short quote. This one is a Chinese proverb. You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your
hair. So that'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Move to adjourn. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. We'rejourned. Okay. Do we want to take a fivem minute break before we start again? Okay. Five minutes before we get on to the next thing. It was a good recovery.
Well, you did great. Thank you, Steph.