be up this morning. 8:14 June 3rd regular commissioner meeting come out to order. Everyone got a chance to look over our last meeting's minutes? And I'll make a motion to approve those
minutes. I'll second by known. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. Any additions to the agenda? I have one of them. Karen Bergstrom is looking to do a Shriner raffle at Golden
Lake and just needs approval. She's kind of started the paperwork and I'll send it out to the date you guys. Yep. And then the rainbow bridge is not going to be here. They're moving it to August. Wild Explorers. Any other additions?
If not, can I get a motion to approve the additions to the agenda? I'll make that motion. Motion by Strand. I'll second by Brown. All in favor? I motion
carried. I need a park board meeting now. M. Okay. Steel County board meeting order June 3rd, 2025. Is there any agenda additions? Anybody have
anything? If not, is there a motion to approve the agenda? Make that motion. Is there a second? Second. Any more discussion? Not. All in favor say I. I.
Post. Same sign. Motion carried. Approval of minutes. Everybody read last minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes? Make a motion. Is there a second? Second. Ed seconds it. All in favor say
I. I. Same sign. Motion carried. Old business. The multi-use court contract. I have them. I forgot to get I've got we signed four of them. Jason kept one. He's going to give
one to the association. I got one for you guys and I got one for myself, but I forgot them in my pickup. The other pickup. I brought the other one this morning. I got them in the other pickup. But they are signed. Perfect. Oh, that's taken care of. So, I don't know. Do we need a Don't
need a motion ring on that. We're just here. I'll bring that in. Uh other issue is the septic Well, we do have new business and see if Jake comes here. Okay. Yeah, Jake has said he'll be here, but Okay. Well, we
can save that then because I know what he's got. I can tell you the shelter updates. They've all been done. They've got I think Charlie got that all done and then he fixed up even where Melissa's got her little thing for he fixed that up too. So, he's got a little
cover and stuff on that. So, the drop off for them. The drop off. Yep. So, that all should be taken care of. It's all paid up and everything last. Okay. What did he charge for that? I don't think we ever I don't know if
you ever got it written. Wasn't much. Yeah. I guess something I could bring up under new business is Melissa's talked about a mower again. Yeah. I talked to Rod Peterson a little bit. I said we might have to start getting some numbers together this winter on it and see what
we can do for a mower. I think she's got I think she's going to have 7800 hours on that board pretty soon. So I think it's 46500 when I talked other day. What's that? 465 on 465. Okay. A
couple hundred on Yeah. How many hours on average? I think we usually trade about six seven. What? Every three, four years we try to trade this report. So you said the decks start problems, right?
I don't know if you want to look at John Deere again or if she gets some other quotes, too. Wouldn't hurt to get bolts or get some kumotas or something else. Couple others. She likes her John, does she? Yeah. She the model size too. Yeah.
City of Hope got a bad boy a couple years ago. Yeah, that thing really eats the grass, doesn't it? Yeah, it works. It works well. Fast little more expensive or not? Not compared to John Deere, I suppose, in No, I think it was less than John Deere
is why we went with it. Who handles them? CSC. Yeah, we got it from I can't remember where we got it, Matt. Okay, that was something we have to check into. I told I met like I said I seen Rod that one day and I mentioned it to him. He we'll
figure something out this winter. I guess we don't have that under here under new business too. He had uh his grease pit in the crawl space went to heck again. Spilled a bunch of stuff in that in the
crawl space. So, he had to air that all out. He had uh we went over and sucked it out. What's that? We went over there and suck it out. Did you? He had um Oh, it's Curtis. Come and look at it.
See if there's something different we can do because it's kind of a pain crawling down in that crawl space all the time to clean that thing. I don't know if there's any place you could really move it to. There's 2200 of those shelters in that sand.
Okay. So, that's something that But he did go down there then and he said he cleaned it really good and he him Curtis ran something in the pipe and he said they pulled out about baseballsized wad of didn't know what it was that must have gotten in there somehow. So, it's
just sounds like it's just a maintenance thing that you got to keep up on and probably never been done before. cleaned out the place or anything? Probably not. You thought about having them come in there and steam them out maybe, but since they found out, maybe they cured
for a while. Roof looks nice. Had that rains and never leaks, so that's a good [Music] thing. That we were out there that one night when it was raining and Becky was walking around all over looking at the ceiling, see if there's any water anywhere. But there's no leak. So
doesn't He's got somebody going to fix that underneath that door. Thought he was going to have that Landon Landon was supposed to do that. But and then you close the freezer. So that's that's we're just discussing was Landon's going to fix under that
door. Starting today, is he? Okay. Just brought that up. So he's starting that. Okay. Yep. Starting on the shelter and then the door and then shelter. Little rot around the coolers. He's going to get all that fixed, too. What What shelter was he
doing that they got all fixed? Um he's enclosing the coolers. Oh, he's enclosing the coolers. They're all done for Yep. Yeah. Brad's got all steel on the roof and we're two restaurant updates. The shelter updates we discussed. We got that. restaurant
updates. What do you got, G? Um, see, well, septic, I guess. I got Yeah, we got that on here, too. What's the septic? What? Septic, I guess, is Burky now. Um, which getting it pumped. We had some
issues with our grease trap that's in the basement. Talk about that. Got it working and cleaned out. We're going to need a new grease trap. We can't get it to seal. every time it pressurizes or builds up,
it pops and leaks into the basement and lakeside backed it out. So, we got the majority of it cleaned up and then I called steam attic. We got them out there to run fans and deodorizers in the basement. So, probably let those run
until I think Wednesday. We'll see. It smells 10 times better than what it was, but it's castened last year and I had to clean it all out again. And when I cleaned it apart, it was basically black grease that's been there for a long
time. So, it is working now. But Curtis looking to put a new one in. Um, I talked to Curtis about putting a new box in. Um, I haven't got a price or anything like that. So, we talked about moving it, but there's not it's not really a good spot to move it to where
it's easier to access than Right. Janna just said she got this bill for pumping and it says three bathrooms. That must be the vaults and stuff that they did, huh? Who did that? Darren
Linder. Dar. I was going to say Darren used to do all the bathrooms and stuff like that. So I think that's a normal one where he does all three sites. It's the two at the lake and then one up north lake I meant. Yeah. Okay. What did you We got the other one. The
other issue there was was it another 900 we owe you for the other half of that from this winter or what is it? Let's see. Oh, got six more for 400. 100 bucks a week we were paying to get the septic pump. um to be
opened as and you paid all these everything is paid already. So what did this total come to? 2400. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. What did you pay him, Jen? And we paid
him 900. We didn't pay him anything. Well, we paid him, but then I didn't realize that Jake paid everything already. So, we'll I mean, we technically owe Jake $900 as of now. We haven't wrote the check out or anything, but Okay. Yeah, he was going to void that check
and either send it back or shred it. Yep. I told him to shred it because he had already been paid up and stuff, too. So, so we never we have never reimbured Jake. None of it yet. No, none of it. Okay. because I didn't know what we were going to do to do all of it, some of it
because we did bring it up. So, I haven't done anything with it yet. What do you think? I suppose I kind of feel this is kind of our responsibility. See what dates it was from replacing those pumps. I
haven't seen one. So, I know you had to replace the the main pump from the new septic tanks to pump it to the drain. We didn't really 200 bucks a tank from
freezing from it. When did you do that? When did you do that work? It was really cold. It would have been like try putting heaters in there just to see.
We didn't know if that's something that we're that pump we should have to replace every three four years or it's pumping a lot of water. They're kind of long distance but and Curtis was there last week too. Was he there for the other
stuff? I haven't got anything for that either. say it'll be a while to get us. Okay. We say January I think is the last they worked on anything as far as like
besides turning around the water for the I'll watch for it. But if I see him or talk to him, I'll ask him. You pump sewers, Richard? You guys don't? We
don't. You don't like it though? Yeah. What do you charge? I think we just pay those and then next year we get to be do some stuff. Yeah. We got We got to try the water tank heaters and
Yep. put some straw or something down or snow cover wherever. It must be where it goes under the road. You think that it plugs to the grain field or what do you think? That's plenty deep. It is. So it could be coming out of the tank, you know, we got to it comes up or over. So I mean it could be a bad spot and
then when it goes up to the drain field, it comes up and it's got to go into the drain field. So it could be in that spot too, you know. So if you're not using the tanks very much, right? Know that that's probably going to freeze. Putting stock tank heaters in there and
each one of them a little warmer, but no, not the not tank, right? or way at the other end by the drain field. The drain field would start north of the right of the campground, right? Is there some way you got cover that where it
comes up and over like that or not? We can find it. Maybe put some bales over it or something or No, there's no snow. Mhm. But they're shallow and you know, you want them shallow so they work. Otherwise, they're too deep and it's not going to work. Wonder if a guy could
find that. There's no way I could like heat tape in or something locate put heat tape in it or something over the winter. I don't know if that do anything or not. Maybe or expose it wrapping paper, right?
Yeah, I got I could find a wrapping tape around it that way maybe. So, like you say, we got something we got to do because it's been almost every year now I've bothered that I guess kind of spending it. Yeah. If you have problems over time, yeah, it's been is everything
been working, you know, now that we got everything cleaned up and stuff. Um, just and I do think it's from the old tank freezing down to the new tank and that can be exposed too. And then we could wrap that with heat tape and then you know maybe put a couple layers over
it. So we use one next one can be a sphere that way down the road. And then we can also put inch and a half um insulation over a couple insulation around it. Yeah. Insulated blankets. Insulated blanket some kind, you know, two inch foam.
Yeah. All right. Is there a motion to pay them bills? Reimburse Jake for it? I'll make that motion. Is there a second? All second. Any more discussion? All in favor say I. I. Post.
Same sign. Motion carried. What about restaurant update? Anything else you got there? Um we're back to Wednesday through Sunday for hours. Um dinner time hours then too. Yep. Yep. Lunch. Um kitchen's open from 119 through
Sunday. We got It's been busy so far. Um got lots of little repairs to do as far as um some lattice to fix and um couple bushes to take out. Kind of maintenance I guess throughout the summer. We'll get the beach tilt today
or tilt up today. That's right. I should brought that up. I'll bring in some more. I'm going to need in some more sand just from wash and stuff like that. So tough to get over Richard get some in. And
then um the shelter um shreds got still on the one shelter and got the wood fixed on it. I think they did the pavilion side too. That's all done. So yeah, just getting everything kind of cleaned up
and all the docks are in. So now we can mow everything around the building, too. So Yeah, just I had I did have a complaint from somebody that was wondering what we can do about the goose poop on the beach. I'm just like if you want somebody sit out there 24/7, that's the
only way you're going to solve that problem. There's going to be geese on there. So, couple people didn't want me to bring out on the pavilion side or the west side the boat launch there since we're doing the construction with the pickle
ball court. He said on the one side it's it's a pad that's fallen down so it's really steep or they Richard do you remember what what happens when boats get down there they they loose it dig it out they wash it probably
is cuz here is there a cement pad in there part way under toes it every time they take off I figured there wouldn't be very easy probably pull that pad out and redo it either Oh, did it? Okay.
And I'm sure probably with the inlet come there too, there's always a little bit of circulation where sediment around moving it in scoop it out. Okay. To get something for the back or excavator. I'm just going to pull it
back in and I'll dump some rock in it. Um I was wondering about like weed control. We can still the county guy that does uh is it scuba diving? Yes. Yep. Okay. Upstairs.
Okay. Um I knew he worked up here but I couldn't remember. So people were asking about it and I'm like pretty sure he scuba div but I didn't want to sounded kind of odd right away. So yep. I think he just posted that he's starting next week. Okay. Yeah. He's gonna Oh, he's
gonna be out there doing that or Yeah, he um some people asked about um because the county or they don't do the like 5050s cost, right? Okay. So, they talked about Yeah, he has a Facebook page. He
just shared something today about it. Okay. I can send it to you. And he does weed control or what? Yeah. Yeah. He pulls pulls all the weeds out from like the roots. Yeah. And he scuba dives and dives and pulls all the weeds
out. I don't really know what I had done at my place once in Minnesota. They do a good job. We'll just charge for that. Yeah. I couldn't even tell you. Pretty much an hour, I'm sure. He works up in Ben's office and he does this on the side. So,
something else you can think of is spraying dand all the properties. I used to do that many years ago. Somehow we we didn't get back to it. The dandelion last five, six years. Terrible
everywhere, right? That was my next back. That's a quote from Johnson's or Jacobson. Oh, Harris. Somebody need to get it done. on the west side of the lake by rainers
there. We have um bunch of kids that are looking for work this summer. So, is it fine if we we whack that and like clean up the trees, branches and stuff. It's funny property, but that line didn't leak. No, it's been uh they
found where the leaks were coming from was coming from the through the old satellite dishes and then the propane line coming off the exhaust fan. It was coming from but looks good. It's been holding water. So,
she did a good job cleaning up and everything too. So, okay. Anybody got anything else? Ed, you got anything? I surprised out there Sunday. The lake really turned green already. It must be
turning over already. I can't believe if it's cuz it's keeping the water clear now and the sun gets to the bottom and or what? But it was green now. Yeah. Hopefully it turns over and be clears up again.
So, there nothing else is there. A motion to adjurnn. So move there. Second. Second. All in favor say I. Motion carried. Meetings adjourned. Yep. Thank you guys. Do you want that
now or you want to take it off? Um I'll bring you a check tomorrow and then I'll get everything settled up. What should we do next? Read louder. Yeah. Morning. Uh, we need a we need a motion to accept
the gravel bids. Why don't you explain what's on the ground? Explain to us. We uh There was uh lakeside and uh KB and uh Gwen
Gowens 8 and six and Lakeside is 76 20 15. We got Lakeside. Yeah, we're total 111,900 total bid. Yep. Another 1575 if they do it by
August 1st for a grand total of 113 475 total. Lakeside KRV 86450 um to do with 886 and
11 1,13750 if they do by August 1st for grant total 87,58750 That's the if everything is done before August 1st, and we're set up for about 10 miles
of spot gravel and and stuff. So, and uh then there'll be roughly 29,000 uh left in the gravel budget. Let me if there's any other spots that we
need to get done. So, okay. I'll make a motion that we accept Lakeside's bid for County Road 7, 16, 10, and 15 for a total of 100 and 11,900 with
the kicker of 15 or 1575 if they do it by August 1st for a grand total of 113,475. And we'll make a motion to accept the bid for KRB to do county road
8A six for a total of 86,450 with the kicker done by August 1st of 1,13750 for a grand total of 87,58750. Is that it? Motion by Curry to second bid as
presented. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. And on the crack ceiling, uh, as of this morning, they were little over 6 miles
in, uh, heading east. Uh, that Conro 11 on County Road 11. Uh that is one full day and two half days cuz they got rained out yesterday. So there
I think if they you know in a half a day they can get a mile and a half you know on that road and stuff. So it's a lot less product being used than what we did on 25. They were doing a pallet a mile.
Yeah, but it's got a good job done on it, I believe. And and we patched uh all the holes and stuff that we found alongside the edge of the road. We we put uh
asphalt in them and stuff. So, and we've been doing that on we did even up one to the highway 200. There was a couple spots. I mean, just it's on our our section of road. So, um,
Yep. Then I'm hoping that they should have hopefully everything is done by the end of June here and then they're going to start on County Road 8. They have to get County Road 8 done and then we're going to 23.
So, we we went through uh one semi- load and we're into our second semi- load of of product uh and stuff. So, but moving right along with that probably going to rain tomorrow. I
don't know what time but it was so but we are doing some shoulder work and stuff around and uh you know we've been we ran our mower over
the top of the them sod humps and stuff and to break them up drive slow uh before we put a new set of blades on it. it seemed to uh pulverize everything because they're just driving really slow and uh not mulching down on it hard, you
know, and stuff and it's leveling it out. That's what we have to with. So, any other questions before we move on to Mike with the Culvers and and County Road 8? Still
no more applications or no. uh our youngest summer help is interested in pos possibly uh and we told him that we would help him, you know, and train him. We're not just going to throw him in,
you know, cuz he's a little scared at first, you know, but uh hopefully he he might be a good candidate, you know, he's either thinking that he would, you know, move to Hope or move into town to here uh because he likes the community
area. I mean it uh I said you can even live in Mayville. Well, you know, cuz that's where his brother is and stuff. So, but uh that's a possibility. I'm we're hoping.
So, otherwise, if you see it on Facebook, share it. You want to move on to Mike? Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Morning everybody. So we previously had uh um hydraulic
study with culvert sizing that you approved for a bridge replacement on Conor Road 6 down by Hope and Conor Road 20 up north. So Tyler did a little leg work and uh working with Reed to get some prices that I passed out earlier today. So we've got two components of
this one. We got two quotes um for each of the two bridge locations and uh we've also got uh culvert prices in there separately as you guys purchase your own culverts from your uh um county bid
prices. So with the culvert quotes first they quoted um each location two different ways. You should have the red information on there to show you which culverts is for which location. Um, for counter road 20, I think we're fine with
just the uh the 5x1 corrugated steel pipe, just the regular galvanized one. The reason that uh aluminiz type 2 was discussed is because the counterroad 61 is kind of in a swampy area, kind of a cattail slooh down there and likely to sit uh with a lot of water in it, which
sometimes can shorten the life of those culverts if they start to rust out on you. So the aluminiz type 2 is something that True North Steel is uh um you know pushing just a little bit as a as a solution for that. One thing we do sometimes if uh um we have concern about
that is we'll suggest maybe just going a thicker gauge on the steel so the steel will last longer. So on on County Road 6 the difference there between the uh um galvanized and the aluminized type two is uh about
$2,500. the difference with the uh um increasing that uh one gauge in size is probably closer to double that. So in this particular case, the aluminiz type two is probably a good middle- of the road alternative on that to be able to get a culvert that'll hopefully resist
that rust a little bit better and last a little bit longer for not a whole lot additional cost. Did you check to see if there's a much more longevity or they I didn't look up the exact numbers, but that's what their sales pitch on it is. They they they think it's going to last an extra 10 to
20 25 years. 20 nothing there. It's there's 5 ft of water in there. I think there's a beaver dam downstream there somewhere because I think if uh if that was out of there, I think that water will take off. It's just it's got that big scour coal downstream. So, I think that'll take off too. But if you guys
were were interested in spending the additional money and getting illuminized for that one as well, you know, that's certainly an alternative. Maybe we should just put, you know, that one's about $3,000 more for that particular one to go extremely Y2 3,000. It's not a
huge cost. Yeah, there there's lots of different options nowadays for trying to get culverts that uh last a little bit longer. Um you know, some of the soils in this area aren't real kind on steel. Um so if you uh remember down in Conro 5 with Fuller's Lake down there, that one
we used the uh palmetric coating on it. Well, the first time around that didn't work very well because it only lasted 10 or 12 years. Hopefully, the second time it's doing just a little bit better. But that palmetric coating on top of that steel is just another option to go. That's that one's a little difficult
because it's a little bit more sensitive to installation. And if you nick that coating so the water can have access to the steel, then you kind of negate the whole thing. The aluminiz doesn't have quite as much problem with that. So your your galvanized culverts have kind of always been the
standard and you know there's there's culverts out there that have been there for 40 years, 50 years. So they can last in the right circumstance, but these bigger ones are a little harder. So that would probably be the first decision so that we can make sure we get those culberts ordered was what
you guys want to do with that. That was how again how we had looked at it is maybe just getting the galvanized for the uh um counterro 20 and then getting the aluminized for the counter road six. But you guys want to go a different route? You're sure welcome to I think we
should just put the Okay, I agree. Yeah. Okay. If that's the case, we'll just get those ordered. Um, so we had put together just an abbreviated little bit bid package to send it out to KRB and Lakeside just to give them some quantities so they could
kind of quote apples to apples just a little bit to get the prices back. And this is uh what you got back. So uh section one um I just kind of tabulated it on front. The pages behind are their actual little bit sheets that we had them send in. So the um the section one,
the first one on the top of there is for county road six. So KRB's price um for the Conor Road 6 was 77,200, Lakeside was 81,200 and then for the second site for Conor 20 um ARB was
71,950 and Lakeside was 63720. So, it was uh it was noted in the information that we sent out with this that uh it would be totally up to you guys' discretion if you award both sites to the same contractor, different site to different contractor. Um totally up to you guys to
decide what you want to do on that. But this is the information we got for you today. So, if there's any questions, do you do you want this these bids awarded today? I think you should so that these guys can get it on their schedule and be prepared. Um, you know, we could certainly follow up with them
on uh when uh when the coarts would be coming. Um, know that I don't know delivery dates on that until they're ordered. So, but if you order it today, it'll get on their schedule. I'll make a motion to award county road 6 to KRB and to award county road 20 to
Lakeside Construction and Services. I'll second that. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion approved. And did I leave a copy?
Okay. You want to pass this down, Jen? Maybe I missed somebody and I did. We're going we're going to go with the T2s on both on the T2s on both culverts. Yeah, we need a motion on that or anything. Probably not. That's just buying culverts. It's part of your regular
maintenance budget probably. So, um the other thing that I wanted to have for you today was uh prices to uh um repair up on the north end of Con County Road 8. I don't know how many of you have been up there, but uh on that last bridge before the Grand Forks County line up there on both sides of the
bridge, the pavement's blown out just a little bit and we've got some issues up there. So, I met with two different contractors up there to get quotes on that. And I've got one that we received. I'm still hoping for the other one to come this morning. So, if you guys are going to be around for a little bit, maybe I could just tag in back at the
end of the meeting and see if we've got that second one or not. Um so that you have two different numbers to consider on repairing that. It's a fairly long stretch from the hill through the bridge to the county line. So, it's it's certainly not a cheap operation. So, just kind of wanted a a couple couple
numbers. Just repaving it. Um off of both ends of the bridge, the pavement's broken up so bad that we would actually mill those out completely down to the gravel and then uh um we would butt mill on both ends of that and then pave back in the entire stuff that you take out and then overlay the whole thing from
the hill all the way up to the county line just to try and get some structure on top of that. So tough area. So I'll be around for a little while. I got a little got my computer with and a few things to do. So I will check in with you towards the end of the meeting. Let you know if we get that or not. If we don't um you guys
want to get that on the schedule, we can can consider just that one price if you want to too. We'll hang on to that for a minute. So So if you didn't have anything else good today, thanks Mike. Thank you. I'll be back. You know
anything? Okay. Morning. Good morning, Doug. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. Good morning. All righty. Thank you. multiple choice. Thank you.
All right. Well, I thank you uh for having us here today. Um on this proposal, the first couple pages, I'm not going to bore you and read to you. Um, it's just kind of says who obviously you guys hopefully know
who Britney and I are and and um just kind of goes through through what we what our plans would be for if we uh are able to to uh handle the insurance, what the kind of our service
goals and everything are, the coverage highlights. We'll kind of go right to that general liability page and start there. Um uh right now you have a $4 million aggregate um on the policy. You know the
which I don't think there's um the North Dakota tort cap caps uh caps $2 million at the state for any tort type liability. So, anything that you're found negligent for would be $2
million cap on it. Now, you can get up to $10 million. You're at four. And um that would be for any civil matter. There's no cap. So, a sexual harassment suit or or um yeah, excessive force. Uh
things like that. uh any any employment discrimination, any employment um wrongful death, those kind of things, they fall outside the tort cap. So those I would say the tort is 95 96% of
the claims that that the insurance reserve fund has. So really the we don't really have any recommendations on anything higher. Obviously, we could if you ever wanted to uh in the future if we were able to do
this, we could get any numbers for you on the higher amounts. But and then north, the only thing that we were going to mention is on the um the one state one the cyber liability, you can get a
up to a 4% discount on your premium, which would be approximately $360. Um but that is something that Janna would work with the state on directly for some cyber liability um some more
cyber liability things and they have like three steps um three different steps that they do. It's a free endorsement um but it would just be something that you would have to work more with the with the state on their options for
that. So kind of like the county IT department with the state IT. Yeah. Yeah. So the two of you I mean they already monitored. Yeah. You know everything but just so you implement this part of it. Okay. And I don't know how how much exposure
you know you have with with cyber. Um so it it is something if you wanted to look at it would you know ever just question question them direct. So, um, and then, uh, on the on the auto policy, um,
really the only considerations we were looking at would be right now you have $100 comp deductible and $250 on collision on most of the vehicles.
Um if you wanted obviously those are those are low and the premium right now is 33,000 a year. Um if you wanted some numbers with higher deductibles most companies now
are going to you know a th00and thousand deductibles isn't uncommon anymore. Um, but we sure could run some numbers just to let you see what the savings would be on that. Yeah.
Ben just said too that we already have the moderate monitoring for the cyber security just because it's part of a grant. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And really it was just something for you to be aware of and work with the state. It's nothing that we um on. That
would be something you work directly with them. So, yep. So, if you wanted obviously once we were able to go in and and have access, then we could get get numbers if it was something that you want wanted to see some what some higher
deductibles what the savings would be. So, and you can do different deductibles per unit. So, say you want your squad cars with a lower deductible because they have more exposure. Those could still remain lower. Your other units could be higher. You can mix and match.
The big the big one where where there could be some um something that we would recommend is on the commercial inland marine which is basically everything from your radios to the machinery. Um
and right now everything is scheduled. So, if you had a um for example a steel chainsaw and you had a so or a serial number on that scheduled amount for I think there was one on here for
$180 and if something happened where that was stolen and they came and you said, "Well, here we had a new one. We hadn't updated that list and the serial number was wrong." they would deny the claim
because it wasn't the correct one on it. What we like to do is we like to blanket all of that. And basically it would just come down to once a year we would as we get close to the renewal we sit down with Janna and just update her list. Um
if it's if it's blanket we just say there is $2.4 million total. Um, and if there's a claim as long as that blanket is within 80% of the total. Um, so that
eliminates her having to update us with we bought a $500 scraper or, you know, little things, smaller ones. We still like to update them. If you buy a new road grader for 2 million or something
like that, those we kind of like to even do it midterm just because it can skew the you can fall out of that 80% of the blanket fairly quickly on those and we just would hate to have a have a problem
there. But otherwise, um that is um that is that is what is a nice thing. It it eliminates you having to call with every little thing that gets added. And we just as long as your list is updated
at at renewal, we'd probably we would stop in and just update the totals and make sure everything is is good. But that eliminates having to them to say, "Well, this serial number on this uh on this um plow isn't correct." And and
eliminate any problems. Um I think that and then uh there are some items um like the the radios some of the items still are on a
cash actual cash value. Um so they do depreciate those if the electronics if something was to get stolen or or uh damaged. Um, but the rest of it then on the blanket would fall under replacement cost.
So, and it just eliminates having to update and get a $5 bill, a $12 bill. It it just kind of rolls to Yep. Unless, like I said, it's it's nice if you get a a high dollar item, it's nice to update it right
away. And then on the property, um, with the state fire and tornado policy, um, right now it's a $1,000 deductible. Obviously, if you ever wanted to look at what some higher deductibles on those
would be. Um, you do have the per occurrence wind and hail deductible, which is good. Um, so if it's a big hail storm, it's not taking a deductible per building. it's doing it per per occurrence instead of per building. The
only thing that we we noticed was right now debris removal is um about $10,000 given on the policy, you know, between this building maybe the the um out at the lake store
that would I mean if this place had to be debris removal if there was a huge fire or something as Richard could tell you 10,000 isn't going to touch a lot of manh hours. You can get a 100,000 per building, 250 per building, 250,000 or
500,000. I believe a h 100red,000 per building is like a $5 charge. It's almost Yeah. Yeah. It's I don't know why they don't just put a half a million and be done with it, but you can pick that per building. So if you wanted to increase what it would
what you have for coverage on this building or or any of the other ones, you can do a separate limit for those for those three values. So um other than that, the rest of it, you know, you can you can look
them over. It's just some things on our proposal. Was there any questions that you guys had? I mean, the insurance reserve fund is still the, you know, the best best carrier for for these political subdivisions and is a does a
does a nice job and have have decent have really good rates for it. So, one, right? Yep. Yep. So, just uh we just wanted to give you the proposal and just let us know if it's something that you want to move
forward with. So, All right. Any other questions from any of you guys? Okay. Discuss rotating it between people. Um, three, five years.
Yeah, it the I know we've we've been on a rotation in in with the city of Northwood and they had it on a two-year and you you never really get caught up just as you kind of get caught up getting everything
done what you you know what we feel it should be then then it's gone and then when it comes back it always is that little lag. So, um, yeah, if you, you know, fiveyear would be would be good. We wouldn't have, that would be nice. You get your feet in and kind of work with it for a few years and go from
there. [Music] I think Yeah. Or whatever. Yeah. Yep. Whatever works for you. So, are we concerned about as we rotate? if we're going to think about rotating
um are concerned about something getting dropped the ball. I know that was our discussion last time we were looking at that back and forth. So just something to consider. The policy itself, you know, would stay
would stay the same unless and if the next agent in, you know, um found something or made a change. But the policies once you're happy with, you know, if you're happy with those, um,
that wouldn't change, you know, if you stayed with the insurance reserve fund, it would just be whether the next agent, you know, looked it over, had some different ideas or saw something. But so
I think the biggest thing is we should increase the debris removal deductible and the change. Yeah. And we can once we have access to where we can request the
the quotes and once the agent of record if you decide to do it if the agent of record once that's signed then we have access to be able to go in and say okay we what would this quote be we can get that right now they wouldn't we're not the agent on it so they wouldn't let us
mess around with your policy to quote it. So, um, so once once we get that done, we could easily have if if we decided today to do it, sign the papers, we could easily have numbers for you before the
renewal on 71 to see what the savings would be on those items. So, me personally, I'm not ready to make that decision today, but it's up to you guys. Last meeting would have been decide this
meeting 71. We got to make that decision if we're going to switch before next. We could have a special meeting. We have a meeting to decide before. I'd like some time to chew on that too
for I'd like to think about that. Yeah. But I mean we today we'd have to give them [Music] permission should at least do that. And once once you decide and once we have the agent of record into them, they would work with us where we could get
some get some changes very quickly. It wouldn't be a much of a lag time in there. It would I imagine it would be once they just process it internally, they'd let us go. Do you project that it'll save the county money? Oh, yeah. Now, I'm not sure how much because the
auto with with a 33,000 um I I don't really know off the top of my head how much it would be to if you went 500 to,000 500 comp,000 collision. Um but it's it'll be a it'll be a
reduction. It's just matter of if it's $400 on a 33, you know, then some offsets. I mean some of our um lake demand said I mean that was 10 billion that's not we need to raise that yeah there if you said let's put the lake
store and here at 250,000 for debris removal each going to be a $20 bill total somewhere around there. It's very very inexpensive. So, and then the property
um the buildings themselves are at a thousand. So, um you know, if you wanted to see some higher numbers there, we could we could let you know. But thousand is pretty common. Some are going to 2500, but it's
whatever you want. But but you're not necessarily looking for a commitment to change. You're looking for an approval to get prices to get prices. Well, right that you they would they would uh they would want us to have control of the
account before they before they let us go. Yep. So, we either special need and if you want to discuss it, we're we're just right down the street. it would just be a matter of coming up and
having Janna sign the the um the uh agent a record and then once we get that into them it wouldn't take long. So however you want to do it we probably have to decide if we want to do that today and then they can do the price and
then we have to have a special meeting if we want to decide the change. Yep. Well, that's what I think that's kind of how it's got to go unless we want three more or two more meetings. And if you want to discuss, like I said, if you want to discuss it later, uh either Britney or I can easily run back up and
and uh just down the street. So, we can run up and get the paperwork signed. And I would say by the end of day, if we did, we could they could start working on some numbers for us. So, who are we with currently?
I for I think you used to be on a rotation. I think it just kind of stopped is my understanding. I think it's probably time to Yeah. I forget what year it changed. We we had it and then Yeah. And is that citizens? Yep.
Correct. Citizens. Yes. Yeah, I can't remember last time if we settled on a number of years that we were going to stay with diary or not. And I would like to do it every four just so it's not an election. Then then we get into the rotation. Yeah. And their policy is
you know that there was nothing here that was glaring you know that was a oh my god you know this wasn't on there. So it you know they've done a fine job. So, it's just a matter of um the the biggest
thing is the blanket the blanket and and we have some on schedules. We're trying to move them over to the blanket coverage. It just eliminates any problems. So, but I'll make a motion that we uh we go any
pricing so you can get by. I'll second it. Second by Chris. All in favor? I opposed. Carried.
[Music] Didn't we have that issue with the stop sign last year or was it the number on whatever was? I did. But we got these flashing stop signs, too. What's that? Some flashing stop signs. Okay. Okay. To check insurance as well.
Okay. Well, yeah. would hit cover or talking like a couple thousand or like if we buy at the stop sign for $2,000 is that something that we should that would cover under the blanket or is that something that we
should that would either I'd have to just check with them to see how they be on our house. It might go on the it might go on this the the policy the state fire and tornado policy with buildings. Yeah, they might consider that a
building. Currently they're insured separately like they're on separately. Okay. I think we just spelled the graphs last time which is kind of what happened. I'm glad they weren't. How many did you say you have? We only have two. Now we got
some speed limit signs too. Maybe we insure as well. Okay. Flashing. Okay. Yeah. We would just kind of need to know values. What you want for goes around probably. Okay. Is that the one that tells me how fast I'm going when I tell
I try to hit a record as I get it doesn't hit that third number pretty bad. All right, I'll just have it doesn't send me a ticket to mail. I don't care. Yeah. Well, whoever whoever All right.
Okay. Get this sent in today and then get get those get those numbers to you as fast as we can. Sounds good. Thanks, guys. All right. Thank you. And then uh yeah, just let me you can shoot us an email on the values. Um and then we'll
check and see if that goes under the the buildings or if it goes under um inland marine the blanket. All right. Well, thank you all very much. Thank you. See you guys meeting
day 24th. 24th works for me. Yeah. And you could probably do that online. Just go over the insurance for time. Yeah, I
guess before this maximum service motion. A second for a short break. I'll second it. Second. All in favor. I got it on my calendar so I won't forget. Sometimes it only gives me 10
minutes to put water. My as well as all the said for your house the other day your
work. Whatever decided to call center. over there already. That's all. Okay, now Better. Good day. It's 9:23. We'll call the meeting back
order. Have those guys coming in. Um the days at courthouse bash. So yeah. So um probably be myself and maybe
somebody else. So, we'll go out there in the afternoon about 12:30. So, anybody needs a reser? I think we're doing hot dogs and burgers. Oh yeah, we're ready to go. Guys, John's coming to you.
One of you guys can sit here and speak into the microphone if you want. You want to pull your chair up here and you see a little better. That's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Good morning everybody. My name's Paul Hansen in case uh you don't know me and this is John M. He's involved with the same the same
deal. And I guess what uh why we came here today is that uh uh this drain complaint has been settled or it's been decided on. Just telling Perry both the west side of the road and the east side of the road are supposed to fill the drain in the drains in and the the next
issue. So that issue is done. That's been a 20 20 long year deal or whatever. It's been a long time, but they're supposed to fill the drains in on both side, put them back to the way they were supposed to. And then the issue has come up uh that we asked them about what the work that have been done in the county road ditch that's been ditched to the
county road ditch and used the county road ditch as a drain to go to this culvert. And I don't know, Perry, is the group or the commissioners here familiar with the the culprit I'm talking about so I don't have to go into any detail or Yeah, we spoke about it last at the last meeting. Yeah. So, so I'll keep it short
if if everybody knows what what I'm talking about without talking about section 15 going to 14 and all the details. It's all readily accessible. I'll answer any question you guys want on on any of that. But, uh, the point has been is that section 15 has been Myers have been ordered to fill the
drains in. I understand they haven't appealed. They plan to fill them in when the weather's fit. It was supposed to been done by the 20 whatever date they gave them, but the weather hasn't cooperated. So, they agreed to do it when weather's fit. The east side of the road or east side of section 14 Harris Wales land estates land got sold to
Keegan Elliot. Same story there. That's been uh they investigated that later. That's supposed to be filled in also when the weather's fit or they can do it. And so, the issue is in between as a county road ditch has been used as a drain. Been drained previously through there. had fresh work done there. And
then the culver and the water board says that that's not their issue because it's the county road ditch and that's up to you county commissioners to order that part of it be to be filled in or put back to the way it was. And then we had the question on the culbert. The culvert
was stuck in uh we're not sure John is guessing late 80s 2001 something like that. The count we're not even sure if the county put it in there. said there's no records on it. Uh we've understood maybe the county put it in. John said this morning he thinks
maybe a private land owner Harris Whale Raymond Whale had the land owned the land and his brother was Harris Whale across the road and uh they didn't uh when I didn't necessarily see eye to eye had different renters whatever was going on but the culver did get lowered and
then that made this drain that wasn't like I said wasn't permitted wasn't uh no permits ease in sorry that used for it. So that that cover did get lowered. John said he watched him put it in and he said it was about a foot and a half lower than what the original was. And uh
so other than that, like I said, John watched him go put it in. I saw it after it was stuck in. It sounds right that it was probably about a foot and a half lower. It was a 15inch coward from what I understand. Went to an 18inch coward plus got lowered a foot and a half and then that ditch was drained to it. So,
what what we're looking for, the question we've got is uh is that we would like the county to to order the county road ditch put back the way it was filled in. Uh and then the question is whether or not we can put have the culbert put back uh to the height that
it was originally uh to begin with is when the culbert was at the original height and the drain wasn't done. and John's been down. My land's in between uh John's or John's and this other land in 14. And so John said before this
culvert was stuck to where it was in the drains was done and I I took on this land about this land in between that time is that most of this water any water never made it down to us. and we've been flooded out and and not just wet. We're not just wet, we're
physically flooded out uh a lake across after all this work has been done over the years. So, this been a continuous project for many years trying to get this changed and there's there's orders in place of the other work to be done from the waterboard, but never got done. Just never got done. So, here we are
what John 20 20 30 years 30 years later here we sit talking about the same issue we've been talking about and we're getting closer and closer. So this culvert now is an 18 inch. Was that What size is the culvert now? Uh it was 18 18 inch. And then you say it was put in the 80s. So this culver could be anywhere
from 20 to 45 years old. Yep. Yeah. Late 80s, early you know, we're not sure. There's no records. Reed says there's absolutely no records. We're just going by recollection except like I said, John watched them dig it in, stick it in. And uh
Can you go to the site? Is it a good shot? I didn't look through the culvert. Okay. Reed Reed probably would have some information on that. Have you guys looked in the culvert? Is the culvert shop? I haven't read it. I haven't already looked. Is it in water? I haven't been out. So, it's not water.
It's not water. It's not in the water. No. No. No. It's not. It's not in the water. It's most likely it's got enough age on it. I was thinking that thing was stuck in right around 2000. John thinks it was earlier than that. and and we're only going by is that all this work
initial drainage complaints were filed in the late 80s. There's been like three or four like the late 80s, 2001, 2007, uh then the last been a couple just by the the time frame on drainage complaints and this work was done
someplace in between there. So, we'd have to say the late 80s to early 2000 is probably when this culvert was and John thinks it was late late, you know, like ' 89 or whatever it was. Yeah. But uh but with that time frame, odds are, you know, if you're going to dig the cover out and reset it, it's most likely
the cover is most likely shot or so the the new dig the new digging in the county road ditch comes comes off of what because we were kind of discussing that last meeting from this current ditching project. Yep. Yeah. And they
there is new ditching in the county road ditch or on the edge of the county road. We needed to figure out if that was in our rightway. We wanted to find out if that was in our rightway. Okay. And I think Mike went out there after our last meeting and drove by it. So I don't know if he has any information for us on
that. And that that was the question that we asked, you know, over, you know, a couple three months ago that, you know, that was that did come up. The water board has decided that there it isn't their they threw me back to here. And I just talked to Josh last week and he
said that we have nothing to do with that. We're done with our end of it. We've decided that the field has to be filled and the drains have to be filled in out in the field. The stuff that's to the runs north south in the county road ditch or along the county road ditch, however you want to refer to it. That's not our business. We we don't have an
order in place to put put that. So So that's telling and that's that's less than it might be like an eighth mile. Yep. So it's not a very long distance along that. That's that's in the field. position. Yeah, that's uh that that is
it. I think I had a question mark on that one mind. I I think that one's on the this inlet on the west side of the road. Yeah, the inlet, right? Yeah. This is one with the rocks is the one with the rocks and the deep side. Yeah. So, the way the way the ground looks
with the back field to the bottom of the culvert and our right away. I mean just like going and let's go instead of going out there and measuring but if we build it to the bottom of the culvert that's look like it could be existing height or I don't
just by looking at it. Yeah that's it's got like a grass line if you that's a downhill that's what I'm saying but I mean so that looks like that's been excavated out of there. Oh absolutely. So we backfield it got to back field to
the existing grade without going measuring. I'm not I'm assuming everybody looking at that picture, but to me the picture if it was the bottom we had that hill that the that's the new excavation then
this is there's something around the county. Well, this this is the what did this lead the downfall side of the water correct? What was that? This is the This is the downfall. Down side. Yeah. Yeah. East
side of the road. East side of the road. East side of the road. Yeah. And that's that used to be level with the field that that culbert and John can correct me. John used to farm this land till this changed this past year. But but that used to be flat with the field. To me, if we had it back filled in the colony right away to the bottom of the
culbert, that looks like that would be back fill up level with the other sides of the ditch. So, that look great. This is what this is what's out there right now. This is what Myers did up to your county road ditch. And that's current. So, so whether or not you consider this
being in your county road ditch and what you have to do with it, that alone out there is sitting out there waiting for somebody to drive into it. And you know, you don't need to do much of anything. You look at that and say, "What? What the heck?" So they they ditched to the south. Mhm. And when they hit the
property line, they turned a corner and headed east towards the county road. When they got to the county road, they turned another 90 degrees and went back to the culvert. Is this Did they ditch to this culvert? Mhm. They ditched to there. Picture. They ditched to here and
then they were going to turn the corner and go to the culvert. They started out, they dug about a twoft hole by the culvert. And then they went back out and they did all the work in the field. Then they got up to the county road and all in the meantime we'd file I'd file a complaint and they kept on working and kept on working and they actually brought in a lot of equipment. They got
done by the time anybody even got a chance to go out there and look at it. But see where that depth there if if you took that depth and went to the culvert the plan was from I understand the culver was they wanted the culbert lowered and it make that whole works the whole thing work but they got stopped
when that happened there. So that's that's that's I think what we'd want to do then is we want to find our exact rightaway and we'll we'll have that we want to back field in our rightway to that existing grade the old grade to what it was before. Yep. Mhm. To match
both sides. Mhm. Y if we need to find out what our rightway is for sure. We can Mike look into that. like 33 feet from the center line. Um that would be my suggestion to Yep. And we discussed last time does that
even matter because they they need to pay to fill it in either way. They can either pay they can either do it themselves or they can if they don't want to do that then wire them to get done. If they don't want to pay to then we'll assess their taxes. Yep. That's how that's got to work. And I think the
ordinance says that, you know, if you order it filled in, they got what 15 days to do it. We could really a little more than 15 days. Yeah. Depending on whether we could get 60 to 90 days. We need to check with our county engineer though and find out exactly where the rightway is so we can
uh be correct. We can make them fill in beyond our rightway. That would be my suggestion. But then do we have to start over the waterboard? is the water is all we're talking about is our county rightway. Okay, we will just be in our county right away. Anything beyond that, that's
not our We're just going to take care of our road ditch. But you know what I'm saying is that the water board is already, you know, we're going to do a county water board says beyond our rightway. That's not our deal. We're going to take care of just the county road right away.
Yeah. Well, there's a definitely old grass line along there that you know where it used to be and they're they're actually To be quite frank, there there wasn't a ditch along there. It was just a grass strip. Uh yeah, I mean, it looks pretty noticeable. I mean, we can easily get that back filled and should be easy to figure out where that's got to be. We
can we'll have our engineer find out where the rightway is and uh then we can stake off the rightway where it's got to be back field and we can even set a grade height on both side if need be. As far as the culver, I think we leave the
culvert until it's shot. If if unless it's a lot higher existing ditch, we need to get some shots on that. Well, right now the culvert is a is a foot and a half lower. You know, according what John said too, and I agree too that is put it back. If the culvert's the
same height as the existing slopes of the ditch, not where they dug out, but the existing grade that they didn't mess with, then it's tough to I understand what you're saying. It could have been lowered 18 or many years ago 18 inches. But we don't really have any grade shots or proof to to show that to us. Well, if
you put those if you put that grass line back that you're talking about, you know, if you go like this, that's what I'm saying. If we do it, if we take and shoot both sides and both sides are higher than the existing culvert, they are. Then we need to take and put the culvert to that existing height. They are. And until we until we have our our
engineer go out there and do that, we can't we're not going to sit here and argue about it. We'll just have to have him go out and step back. But I think that's our best best case to go ahead and move forward with that. I think that'll take care of everybody's problems. I can
handle if the cover is lower than the existing grade, then we'll have to just change that. Well, if we went back to the way it was before, then John's problem down, you know, his land washes down there, then I'm done with the flooding out and all that except for like a Noah's Arc event or something
like that. But, uh, if we if we replace that culvert though, I think we still put an 18 inch back in there. 15 in that would be obsolete. They're just Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that. Don't you, John? That it's Yeah.
But you guys agree with all that or you want to do anything different? 15 18 is going to make any difference if it's at that height. It goes back to old height. It's not going to make any difference. So, what we'll do is we'll have our engineer go out there and get great shots of both sides before the slopes and then we'll match that up and
then we'll have our have them also get a great height of the culvert and then we'll get our right away marked out their estate and once we get that all figured out he'll come back to us in our next meeting maybe the 24th we could do it at our at that meeting then we can
issue an order from there. Mhm. That sound good? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You think John? I agree with that. Questions there are to ask you guys pretty much answer them. I think
I wonder who who raised my paper to change that color whether Raymond did it or the company. Well, that be if you knew that that would be hard to tell if there's no records of it. 40 years ago. That's Yeah. 30 years ago. Yeah. I was wondering who did work the
county or the Vernon Johnson or somebody else. We're real lucky. We took a lot of pictures back when all this work started causing trouble and we never seem to get anywhere with it and you know it just took forever to do this stuff and then now we got this far. Of course then we
got pictures from before back in 2001 or whatever you know and on all that stuff and then the current picture. So it told a pretty good story what's going on there. But well, hopefully now with everything in the minutes, everything will be documented and good notes taken and we'll have everything there. So if
you ever have issues going, [Music] all right, that answer all your questions then. Yep. Anything any more from you, John or? Yeah. Well, thank you very much for your time and thank you for the help on this.
It's been a long long time coming and getting this stuff done and dirt work still has been done of course for us to put a fill it in. So we'll see what happens down the road. Was it your guys? I think that was yours. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll we'll see what
happens. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thanks guys. Thank you. Do you want to reach out to Mike or should I reach out to Well, he'll probably be in here. He is still here. Yeah. So maybe we could talk to him today.
I think he went out there to kind of look at the right away after our last meeting, but I I haven't followed up with him. Next bears or someone. Was he gone today or what? about building permit. actually pretty
Mike Culbert for Hansen's we would like you guys to go out there and check the grade on both sides of the the field existing ditches or the existing grade and see how that correlates with the existing culvert that's in there. Is this the one down on County Road 10?
Road 10. Okay. I'm not sure. Did you ever go out there after I did? I drove by and looked at it. Y we would like to know if that existing raid on both sides now ex excavated. Yep. If the covert is lower is lower, then we're going to replace it. We want to put the same
height as existing field grade field grade. Then we also would like you to state their county right away. Okay. Cuz we're going to instruct them to have a back field. Okay. To the Conro right away. Yep.
On both sides. Yep. We'll do We're going to have a meeting the 24th. Would you be able to have that done before then? 20. Yeah. Oh, yeah. By the 24th. That's a couple weeks out, isn't it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, we'd be able to do it by then. We'll have to do a little research
and figure out what the right way is first. No, that shouldn't be too hard. So, but if if the caller's shot, I don't know if you guys can look in there and see if the caller shot. If it's shot, we'll probably replace it with an 18 inch again. Okay. And then if you could just set grade next to the call a good
shot so when we replace Oh, you've got something to base it on. Yes. Yep. Sure. Can So, uh what I'll what I'll do for that is uh when we take some shots out there, some elevations, I'll put a map together with some elevations on so that you guys have something for the record as well. Good. Good. So, got it. We'll
do um I don't I don't quite know what happened, but I don't think I'm going to get the other quote for today. So, I think the price that you got um from RJ Zil is uh pretty good price. Did I get one for everybody? One more chance. Are
these all the same thing? Yeah, same thing. Just one patient. Yep. I think you need one more for Janna, I think. For J. So, this is the uh repair up in the north end of Con Road 8 that we were talking about. So, um the uh
price quotes I got from these guys was $73,384. Um couple things about this that the uh um you know, the one note to pay most attention to is that the quantities are an estimate. So uh um you know if for some reason uh you know they're they're
estimating 350 tons of pavement if it happens to take 360 tons of pavement um they'll be want to be paid for by that. So they they they want to do it as a unit cost. It gives them some assurances that uh if it gets uh let out of control once we start digging to figure out
where the bad spots at. Sometimes you end up a little further than what you hope depending on what you find under there. So just just to be aware that this is uh unit cost and this is the uh quote based on what we hope it's going to take to fix it. How about the millings if we had the county trust up
there all uh they would probably want to charge you for those because they included a discount in this to keep the millings themselves. Some some pavement contractors really want the millings nowadays. Others have built up such a huge stockpile they don't want it so much. The other contractor I talked to
didn't want it. That's why we'd reached out to you about location to to store them, but these guys do want it. Do you think the other contractor is going to get this price or not? I I don't know. I expected it yesterday by noon is when he told me he'd get it and he's nonresponsive and out today. So, we're
having another meeting 24th. I don't if you'd like to. Yep. I don't think there Okay. Um the these guys could do it in about three or four weeks. They were hoping maybe they'd be able to do it before the 4th of July. So that's why I wanted to make sure I got it to you today because your July
meeting, they would rather try and do it before then if they could. So contractor in September, August at least. Yeah. Yeah. You'd be a ways out. So I I think this is probably a pretty good price. Um 160 bucks a ton for a small quantity like that is pretty
good unit price for pavement nowadays. So I'd be really surprised if the other one comes cheaper. Um, these guys are hauling it out of a they're setting up a plant by Grand Fork some somewhere right now. The other guys would have been hauling it out of a permanent plant site by by Fargo. Good job. Maybe they
lasted. Yep. Zabro's really dug into this paving thing. They want to be paving contractor, too. So, that would be my recommendation is just go for it. Spent quite a bit time with the other guy and he had opportunities. So, and like I said, I'd be really really
surprised if it's going to be cheaper anyway. So, it's pretty tough up there. I know RE's got some signs, but when those trucks come across, it's pretty rough. So, I'll make a motion to accept RJ Zall's vote for Tony Road 8 repairs.
I'll second that. Second. All in favor? All right. All right. Sounds good. Thanks everyone. I have a bunch of papers for you in the books they sent last week. Hey, we have
somebody go out there to that corner of 10. Can you call me? I'll meet them up there. Sure. Yeah. No, that' be a great idea. Make sure we get back with you. Yep. Yeah. We got a building permit. Everything good in there, Casey? Yep. It's paid up and
everything. Do you need a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the building permit. Motion by Brown. Second that. Second by Brandon. All in favor? Hi language my other one will be there
this the sales tax that was just a notice from the state both there um the 2026 budget I did hand those out earlier today
Um there is legislator did pass a 3% cap um on all general funds. Um so you have to be aware of can't increase our budget more than 3% of the last three years. So there is that house bill. Um and there's
also that meeting coming up on the 16th. Um it's out in Bismar. It's also via zoom. I did send that to you guys if you want to kind of listen and get a there's a lot of a lot of things that they're already now with 3% cap. Um so ours is roughly going
to be $120,000 is what we can't go above last year's. So um we're sitting pretty good on that bottom line on the blue there. Again, this is with everybody's request.
Um, I mean, it looks I think you're only over about 60 and a lot of that is coming from the sheriff's line budget. Um, as you can see on those yellow pages, his budget's a little high. He's dropping in there.
Couple new tasers, new equipment, things like that. Um, his budget, it will be flexible until about August and he also getting grants. So that number will be will go down. Right now we're about $60,000 over last year's budget. Again,
that's with everybody's request. I'm expecting that to go down as you guys go through them. Um including cola, too. Yep. That's cola. But what what anybody asks is what I put in there. Okay. So,
um a lot of people did cola in a step. There's a few people that did a cola, twostep, one step grade, anything like that. Um, and in the yellow papers, I did start a notes section. So, you can just go to mine. Um, kind of towards the bottom there's my current grade, what
I'm asking for. Um, and I did that throughout the whole list there. Um, and just different notes um that you guys need to be aware of if you want to just kind of look at those notes on
there. Um um like for the buildings and grounds, I know we did um I stated that there's a lawn contract which is that amount up there. Um I probably will need help with the buildings and grounds budget just I'm not sure there was a lot
of money in for maintenance and I don't know what to do maintenance this year. So um I haven't seen anything. The other seems to be okay. So I'm not sure what that money was for but I need help with that. I think for sure just to see if
you guys um speaking on that not to get on I think but we have a contract I think with that from maintenance so we correct has anybody been here lately to uh yes was just here not too long ago. Yep. And then when we did um the new phone lines they made sure that that
emergency line was also activated. Yeah, they were here not too long ago. Um like public health kind of made some more notes. Um the vaccines cost up front were more expensive. Um the Oasis and Social
Security blank the percentage of your salaries and things like that. So once we get salaries settled I'll figure out the the amount for that. I just have that last year. [Music]
Are we going to take a meeting with all of the head surf I mean probably should have done it all together but I know Reed did his employees. I don't think anybody sat in with
Reed. Um, but just so you're aware that everybody has met with either Charlie or their boss, their department head. So I I sat in with Charlie and Hannah for public health and I believe Charlie
that's the only one I attended. I believe Charlie sent out a little He did. He sent out a recap. Um, Megan's again. Um the county agent sheet on page 19,
Megan will provide the salary once she gets it from NDSU. So that's blank in there. Um and then I also wrote down how many mills that they got. 24 25. You guys just kind of want to go through that and look at that.
Tyler after today um the tax equalization the numbers should be in to actually really figure out how much it's worth um if possible I'd like to have this done by the end of August have acceptance number so we don't have to
wait until work we can get it all out everybody's tax statements out accurately and it will take me a little bit of time too because this will be the first year I'm going in Tyler our budget So, if possible, I'd like to have the inks wrapped up by August. What's the deadline for the preliminary budget
submission? August 10th. August 10th. But I would like to have the final budget. Um, I also um final budget is October 10th. Final is October 10th. Yeah, like I said, I'd like to have So, I think we had a
special meeting on like October 9th last year. And we're going to do that again this year. kind of dragged everything out a little bit more. But hoping with providing all this stuff and some of the notes hopefully to make it a little bit easier for you guys to see where and if you want to meet with some
department heads or things like that. Well, every every one of them came in last year and spoke to us and I think that actually I think it helps a lot. So we can just go through their budget a little bit. I think so. Yep. Yeah. So I think we're gonna have to plan on budget updates from Yeah. Do you want to do a
separate? I think we can do it at a regular meeting. Okay. Yep. Set that up for July. When are we having that meeting? What is I have it set for the first. Do you want to move it? I I'll be
your I don't know if anybody else July 1st. I guess I'm okay with July 1. So I can see all the department meetings. I don't think it'll take very long.
It'll be just no hour or something. I think it's a very I think we got a lot of things down last year because of that. So and then I can also ask the soil and all the other less to come in and discuss too for you.
But any that um top sheet, that white sheet is just a breakdown of everything. You said when will you get the value of a mill? at the end of the day once you guys get those numbers if you guys go ahead and do that.
So, and then to I'm hoping that Ben has good news soon about getting grants. Right now, that's a really, as you can tell, the dees line is in for grant money because we're not sure. So that will help offset
some dollar questions or concerns about budgets or you know you said you didn't need any action on the sales tax contract general that's just that by set
Rainbow Bridge wildlife explorer be here today August that server was that planned what the server for 14,000 architectural that information that was in the packet. That's just for review.
Yep. And I believe see I guess me and Chris can talk about it. So Chris, myself, Ben, and Wayne sat down and met with four architecture firms. Um, one from Bismar, two from
Fargo and one from Buckton. Um, we did decide to go with I can't even think of Barlo West. Thank you. from Bismar. Um they had a lot of cool technology pieces that we thought would be a great asset to have for like
the building itself. Yeah. So what's cool is they they got a program where they come and um take a bunch of images of the entire courthouse and it puts it in this u digital 3D model which gives all the measurements
and everything. So, it's something that we would have that we could send out when anytime we need to get work done for them to be able to accurately bid bid a project without actually, you know, some of them aren't always able to make it here to actually physically see the building to bid it. Well, this would
make it so we'd have accurate bids from contractors and different things. They were the only ones that present anything like that, an actual digital one, and it's something that we could have. They said some put it on their website so people could see it if they like a virtual tour type thing. So, do they
charge us for that or I think it was part of the part of the package. Yeah. Yeah. So, that's what we thought really stood out to us and uh they're very knowledgeable and had a lot of interest in the building. I mean, they're the only ones that asked for an actual uh tour of the
building. Um wanted to see it and were fascinated by it, stuff like that, too. But Yeah. Yep. They're really about historical and things look how it used to look like and Right. Trying to preserve it. Yep. And
so we kind of talked between the four of us and kind of that that was one that we'd recommend to you guys as the commissioners. explain. So I do um probably looking for an approval of
that firm and then they can start getting the process and getting numbers and getting quotes out there. They do have um different companies that have done this kind of work before and they reach out to them and get the ball rolling
that way. It kind of sounded like it probably wasn't going to happen until next summer. Yeah. Nothing's going to happen for this year. Yeah. Yeah. No. And they all kind of alluded to that, too. Yeah. And the first thing they probably were going to do is it West Point or West of that 3D model. Yeah.
They were going to come out and do that and get all that ready. So, did we settle on amount we were willing to spend for architectural services? We did not. So what we were looking to do is kind of know we got that analysis
done in the building with and they want to do that and kind of give us a timeline of these are things that you should do now and these are things that you could probably wait 5 to 10 years on so that we get a whole plan in place um going forward over the next 10 15
years but we kind of have to see what that stuff comes in costwise and they also understand too that it's we're not going to be able to spend billions of dollars right away. It's going to be we're have to do a little bit a little bit and they understand that. So, yes.
Yeah. Are they are they going to give us a quote if we approve to move forward with them? Are they going to say this is what our services are going to cost to get us that information? Yes. So, they we can't make a decision based
on what they're going to charge us. We're not allowed to do that. So it's just basically we got to pick the what we think is the best one at this time. They just give us their rates, right? But it's basically like Mike, their engineering company.
I'll make a motion to approve Bartlett and West for architectural services. Got a motion by Brown. I'll second. Second by str. All in favor? I opposed motion carried
addition to Karen Burch approached me about having a raffle at Golden Light um to benefit for the Shriners um the fundraiser for the Shriners um for lead. So she's in charge of the
this this year. So, she's having a first bingle raffle and she just needs approval to get that pass out there. I'll make a motion. I'll second. All in favor?
I carried. Wes has been here done there taking pictures of Chris did a quick walk through the kind of but they also got that information
package that um opened Who all is going to attend that deal in Bismar? John um myself and I believe going on. It's just about a 4hour afternoon in Bismar. So
I did that online legislative wrapup one that had a lot of information in it too. Bruce talked a lot about that. Um, I think Ben probably would too. miscellaneous isn't as thick as it usually
is. Being better at the chance at the bills. So, can I get a motion to approve them? By Richard, second by Chris. All in favor? I opposed. Motion K. A motion to adjourn the meeting.
I move to adjourn. Second. All in favor? I am That is one. He All right, it's 10:30. We'll call the county equisation meeting to order. What you got for us, Casey?
Morning everybody. Was a pretty good year this last year. We'll just go over some of the things that we did. Uh last year we had quite a few exemptions available for Steel County residents. Uh the biggest one was the primary residence credit.
That was new. Um you can go online and file for $500 off your tax bill. Um this year they're actually changing that to $1,600. So that's a huge huge amount for a lot of people around here.
Um there's 41 homestead credits filed, 25 veteran credits, and 178 farm residents. Um so look like last year the PRC had the 306 people filled that out from
Steel County and in 25 it looks like 340 people actually filed. So numbers are going up. been trying to spread the word everywhere I can about all these different exemptions
available. Eggland was set at $1,6327 cents an acre and that's based on NDSU and NRCS on a 10-year average of sales. Um the biggest change that
happened in my office was our appraisal company, Vanguard. um they updated their cost manual to a newer version. So we were working with the 2008 version, we updated to a 2020. So prices and values
are a lot different from '08 to 2020. That's all precoid pricing, not during the pandemic. Um, but with that huge increase in values, I was able actually to
adjust adjust a lot of the values um, with the guy from Vanguard, Ryan. Um, because once we did that conversion, it actually set everybody's values way up high, like not realistic. So, we did a
little adjustment countywide and then we did some did some tests with it and just made sure everything was, you know, close to market value. Um, after all those big adjustments and everything, I only sent out 230 notice of increase letters
countywide. So, that wasn't a whole lot of complaints or concerns. Um, at the equalization meetings, um, I had all the townships look over their potential valuations for next year, and they all approved
them. For Steel County to comply with the state of North Dakota, our sales ratio study must fall within 90 to 100% of current market value. Um, that includes commercial, residential, and egg. All three categories fell within the state recommend recommended
criteria. Commercial was at 90%, residential 97, and Aland was at 95. Now, we got a couple different factors that I base all my work off of. One's called the CoodOood, which is the coefficient of dispersion. We want that
below number 25 is their magic number. We want to be below. We at 17. And that's the first time it's ever been that low, which is good. And the PRD, which is the price related differential, ours is at 1.08. We want
to be at 0.9 to 1.03. So, we're really close. That's the closest it's ever been to falling in that range. So, those two factors just show that our market value and the actual valuation are close to where they should
be. The four biggest factors that we use when we do assessments is we use land value, manual level level which is replacement costs, depreciation which is age and condition and your map area
factor and that's your location and all those are in our Vanguard appraisal system. We can adjust those however we need and what we see fit with the sales. Uh last year I did the whole city of Finley for assessments and some other
spot checking. This year I want to get all the cities done. So finish up City of Hope, Sharon, and Leverne. So then they're all on a very close rotation for assessments. Um and then just to update
you guys, last Friday I received my class one assessor certificate in the mail. So I passed all my tests. Congratulations. Thank you. You guys have any questions on my work that I did this year or Well, as you know, my district up there,
I get a lot of complaints that we were assessed a couple years ago early for everybody else in county. Yeah. Um there's still people that say stuff about that. They they still want to look at why they're they're going to assess
first. Um, and I I agree. I think it's tough. It's not fair to the rest of the county to be assessed at the same time. And I know it's a lot of work for you to get that all done in one year. I would like to see something down the
road that we can implement the changes, you know, a little slower so it's all kind of done at once. Um, just to be more fair, right? what that would take with the consumer name, right? Yeah. To revalue
the whole county wouldn't be possible in one year. That's why they have it on that rolling five to sevenyear rotation. That's a long time. It is, right? But there are adjustments that happen every year. So just like let's say Chris got a notice of increase letter and you didn't
doesn't mean that yours didn't increase a little. So we try to make it fair with what the market is doing. improve your property wouldn't be um it based off of a lot of what just a sale yes the biggest one would be if you added like a
20 by40 deck it's like well I got to adjust that and put that under your parcel information but second thing is the residentials at 97% we have 90% I personally would like to see that number down like 93
okay and with I just I don't want to overt tax are Mhm. county taxpayers. It's Do you Can you tell me if other counties are at 97%. I could I guess I don't know for sure
where everybody else is at, but um with that 90 No, you're fine. Sorry, but I need to bring this up. Yeah, for sure. I like I like to hear it. So with our residential being at
97% our final statistic actually comes in at 93%. So this is just like one aspect of it. Once it actually gets the state it usually levels out to be about that 93. So we'll be So by you saying that so
then it's commercial at 90. Now is that going to be actually 85 then? No, that one will that one will be good there. There's I don't know how they do all their adjustments, but this is with the commercial being at 90% this year. This
coming year when I'm assessing, I'll have to adjust a little bit of land values like commercial value, vacant lots, stuff like that, but do it slowly so it's not a huge punch to the gut to anybody. No. And that'll help us on our
starting level next year. So, you're going to raise commercial next year slightly, but just because we'll have to put a little bit more valuation in on it because we'll be starting at that 90% right away. So, it usually dips a little
bit down into the 80s, but that's I mean there's a lot of vacant land out there, Sharon, Finley, Hope, Lever that don't have realistic values on them. I mean, they're in the hundreds for values where it's like if
you're going to build a build a residential place on there, I mean, your land value jumps dramatically. And I know with the Golden Lake side of it, their land value is quite a bit. I mean, a lot's $70,000 in
valuation versus something here, which is 12,000 or So, but so egg was that was what was that that's it less than 95 then or what's that going to be? No, that should be good.
The biggest one is the residential because there is so many different factors there like commercial we don't have that many different as much right so residential hopefully people
are so oh yeah that's huge living basically right you know it and it was that very, right? And I I was doing a little research on my own there and checking out, you know, parcels at
Golden Lake that they do pay a lot in taxes and if you if they applied and you take that $1,600 off of what their potential tax bill would be for this year, they're not living there. They can't apply for that. Uh it's only if you're primary, right?
But if they were primary and they applied for it, like their taxes would be comparable to like 2002, like on what they were paying. So it's a really good deal if you can, you know. Very good. So the state's trying to level things
out a little bit, but takes some time. So when when we're going around doing these reassessments, let's go back kind of piggybacking off Richard saying, yeah, the reassessment itself is triggered by maybe Like you said, a
deck, somebody builds deck could be. Yeah. Or or vice versa. You're going through your system and find something that's just oddball or Yeah. around like the city. Yep. And checking stuff out. I mean
sales. I'm sure sales recent sales be the biggest. That's the biggest thing that we base everything off of is Yeah. And if we keep So that doesn't change unless you know
unless we you know like you say buy a house for 200,000. Well now they start selling for 100, right? That would change that. That's that's the biggest part. Like I literally just had a place in Finley sell for $140,000. It's unheard
of. It's not worth that. But that's what they're selling for. Yeah. But that's the only thing. If we do scatter like residential from 97 and we try to move that down, we're not really helping anything. We're actually
going to hurt the residents next year because then they're going to have to pay more to make up that difference because the market's still strong. So, I understand what you what you're saying and what you want to do, but changing the percentage only only
actually hurts them in this if we go down. Before I ran all the numbers with the guy from Vanguard and our median would have been 96%, so really our residential would have been about 102%. So, we got it down quite a ways because
I don't want to be above 100 for sure. But with all the different adjustments we did, it was I felt like that was about as fair as we could be to everybody. And especially like Janice said with the different exemption, that PRC was huge and people still saved
quite a bit of money there. [Music] April, we told people, make sure you want the word out. We want people to apply because the state then comes back and gives us that money, too. So, you
know, right? Yeah. It's a win-win. Yep. For sure. And I did stop by a lot of businesses, dropped off flyers. I went to the senior center and talked with them as well again and seem to get a pretty good response
out of everybody. I think I think what Richard get that. Now, what we we get a lot of is the taxes themselves never come down. That's just in
general. I've got a few phone calls too from they get the notices sent out to you know some of them got a couple years ago. So whether that's step process or what I just did I'm the same
way the the the nature but I think that's what we're kind of getting back after is everything's just increasing and and understand we got to try to run
the county too. We also need to be fair, right? Yeah. On on a few of these things. We just don't want to be known as the county that's up here and you have counties around us that are way down here. We want to be We don't promote people that come to our county to move to our
county or build in our county and they're the highest paid taxes ever. And that's I've always said that. Yeah. I'm not trying to mask. I just No, I get people come to our county just want to tax up, right? No, I hear you. We have to think about that.
Mhm. For sure. Um I was I did have that pop into my head while you guys were speaking there. Um I know I was trying to explain to a lot of people too at these tax equalization meetings that they need to go to like their township meetings. like
they need to be, you know, if they, you know, are really concerned about their tax values and stuff, they need to realize that, well, at the township level or city level, it starts, you know, that's where it starts. That's where you set your mills that you're
taking and all that. So, that's a big part of it. It's not the whole part of it, but had people that want to come to meetings and they say, "It's not worth it's going to come anymore. Nothing's going to change. Yeah. They call they didn't work
for me when they come to us. We got to start somewhere. Yeah. Um and they just we had a pretty good turnout usually at the township meeting. Yeah. I feel like you're This year was a little down, but I think they've been kicked
kind of hard lately. So they I've had calls, but they don't work on the meeting because it's not going to get changed. That's pretty much what they tell them. Okay. And I get it. I mean, how often do you see taxes coming down,
right? It's like anything. No, it's going to be I mean, it doesn't come down the sales say at Golden Lake. Yeah. Right. And that's the biggest even even in general. Yeah. Oh yeah. To get a house here for 140,000. That's insane.
us probably in the commission probably going to have to do what you've talked before is not taking any notes that's I mean we're sitting pretty well that's that's what you know my other thing is without the
screwing up the system how it actually is I believe it's it's it's a system it's it's a system but I believe it's not that far off it's not that flawed um
Then for for us to lower taxes, we got to cut mills. Yeah. Correct. Does that does that make sense? Exactly. So that means we go back in and take a look at So yeah. So for instance, we're only 60 over what we
had. So I mean you guys are going to do some cutting. So you're going to be taking less mill. Hopefully you guys will be taking less mills which means they're going to have they're going to get taxed less because the mill is going to be worth more. You know what?
Yeah. Yeah. It's a fine line of balancing the budget aspect versus tax assessment, right? So, like if my valuation went up on a house $10,000, but you took less mills, the
taxes are probably going to be less or the same as they were the year before. So, that's so then with all this stuff going on in the state where they're trying to get rid of property taxes, do we want to cut mills? That's the thing down the road because then we may shoot
ourselves in the foot as far as a very good point at 3%. So we can't take any more I mean we only can take Well the thing the thing is too it's it's not costing any cheaper to run the comp. It's not I mean
flat we are sitting pretty well. Yes and I agree with that. I mean it's I mean we can we can deep dive into that. There's going to be some hard decisions though if we do that. We cut pretty good last year, but school districts, fire
districts, and everybody else would not hardest things at Golden Lake, my area is the hat school. Yeah. Schools in his 20 years. It's huge. Yeah. And none of them can vote on it. And that's the kicker. But
also, you have to realize it's a recreational house. I mean, people, I mean, it's But they do get kicked pretty hard. Yeah, that's a bad one out there. Some, you know, I've got one neighbor that seems to get raised quite a bit and
he's he's unlimited income. Um, he still hold his taxes and he's not going to cry about it all the time. He does cry, but I I get it. I mean, no, I get that. And he no longer I'm not going to name names. No.
I mean for me that's something to think like I say though if we lower our mills and with this stuff going on the stage but I don't want to get hurt you said there's possibility too I know that auditors feel like we're
getting punished we are trying to cut and then do our job and now they're saying well you can't go out over because you guys did such a good job budgeting know that you don't need bud Yep. So, it's kind of like the double-edged sword. Yeah. May high a
little bit. So, in case you want to hire two more because 3% for us, that's what almost a person and a half salary. Yeah. Yeah. But there's going to be a lot of exceptions. I mean, for hiring additional staff, I think that's one of the exceptions. Yep. And there's like
the 91 911 is not included on that. Like fire is not included. There's a few things that are not included in that 3%. Correct. Yeah, but like this last year, Finley, they had to take Max Mills because they had to hire the new city guy and they still had to pay the old
guy to train him in. Hopes that Max Mills allowed by the state. So there's no raising. But even even with that and that PRC that people were paying less taxes than they were at
Yeah. What minimum is 18? A lot of the contracts are did really decent last year because there wasn't very much snow. So, a lot of them are coming in with extra money, but then also it goes fast. So, it isn't there isn't
most of township much money. So, no, unless you're some wind towers on, right? I know Janna's been doing an excellent job at that explaining the mil levy stuff. People I don't even know how to do mills
know how to do. So I've been trying to like this is what happens if you take some of the concepts were at 18 or 18 mills and some of them are below that and I said you need to go above 18 because for one you can get a few dollars different grants but you have to
be over 18. So, I'm kind of still in teaching them how to like what all this terminology means because a lot of them aren't, you know, a lot of them are older. They don't like computers. They don't or they got thrown into it, you know. Yeah. And then once you're on it,
you're on it. Yeah. So, Right. I've been trying to trying to teach them slowly about what how to do a budget, how to do this and that. Hopefully, it'll even out and they can be well off, right? Seems like the last couple years things
have been getting a lot Yeah. better. The budget hasn't been so tight. Well, as far as townships go, there aren't that many people left to take part. Correct. They're willing to take part. Correct. I hope there's a
township that shares a treasure. They can't get some of the other. So that's other places but sorry voice. Oh some time but I need to I told everybody I would say well I
think I think I think for all of us sitting here we feel that we feel that same way. It's just you can't just press a button and it's gonna change things. You know, that's the problem. If we go back and we have, you know, go back and it start fudging these numbers, then
we're going to have mass. But I just, you know, going back to we want to it's putting us in a in a double-edged sword position now because yeah, okay, we want to cut a bunch of mills out. Well, then we come down the road as
you know there's there's millions of dollars of projects all the time or we add another person or keep the courthouse going just look at that project alone. I mean just not you know we shoot oursel
on that 3% thing. I think it's good if people have questions. I think it's you need to take the time to explain what happened you know what a budget how the county budget works. Not everybody wants to know that like, but it's good information. It is, right? And if somebody does have questions about their
valuation on my end of it, I can sit there, talk to them. I can come out to their place. They don't have to wait for these meetings. I mean, I can do that anytime. That tax statements are very nice. It breaks it down into a pie chart and it shows you to this tent where where your
money's going. They can see it. And if you have problems, reach out to email and do a little bit more. investigating on where their money is actually going. Yeah. Cola, cola and inflation could be more
than 3% increase on our budget. Absolutely. One of those could be more than 3% on our budget. But I mean, like I said, you look at you look at the budget itself, the number that you know, the thing that's you're going to look at is you start you're going to start
getting rid of people and services. It's our two biggest things. And that's I don't feel that we have extra people. I I agree right now. So I agree with that. So you get it, you know, you get it on
the sides if we start doing that. But inflation is still there. It's still there from office supplies to whatever. Everything. So, what do you what do you need there, Casey? You need us to approve the Yeah, I got a couple motions if you want to
approve or if you want to see something else done. Um, the farm the farm the farm exemption. We didn't get them all back. I didn't get them all back and never do, but So, what did we do? What did we do last year? We kind of give them a buffer room. Gave him a buffer. I
think if I don't get them all back this coming year, I have to set a base valuation at $500,000. I mean, it's a one piece of paper. It's not hard to do. So, okay. And then we we'll get some Are you going to It's going to be more work
ultimately on my end because then I'm going to have to do abatements, but I mean it's Do you actually go and reach out to them? Yeah, if I can. And then at the last tax equalization meeting before this one, I have the officers look it over and say, "Hey, who here on your
township needs to fill it out?" So, I think the time to bluff is done. And next year, if you don't do the because there's going to be a farm income paperwork and then just the application. I don't want to fault anybody. I get it. People get busy and
they forget to do things, but this will be the third year now. it's time to just have the whole year to do it, right? And you can use the prior year tax numbers. Okay. So, you don't have to wait for your So, do you resend do you resend that information back out or you just go
through and contact them again? What's like when I like to the people that haven't that I I can send more letters, but a lot of times I either don't have the right address or I just don't hear
back from them. So, it's you should try and challenge you because I know that because when yeah when you have the farm exemption and I'll just speak into the mic so anybody listening can hear it's you only get tax on the land that your house is on. You do not
get taxed on any buildings house. I mean it's if I had that option I'd sure remember to do it. So huge. Yeah. Yep. I don't want to be that guy that puts that big valuation on things at all, but it's pretty simple and it's
a nice little kickback. So, I think I think that's what we have to do this coming year. And I usually give them about a month leeway after the deadline. So I'm not like has to be in
otherwise the next day you're Yeah. So 2026 will be the year Yeah. that you implement that. Yes. And I think we do it at a base 500,000. I think that's fair for a farmstead for a house and say you got two
buildings. I mean unless you guys have a different valuation you want to set on it. Yeah. What do you guys think? 300. Okay, that's I mean it all right. You could have the big guy or
the little guy. It's not Yeah, it's not fairing to put a number on, but it's Yeah, just to get people to start doing the paperwork. You can only tell them so many times if they don't do it, right? Test. Yeah. And I feel like I've
been fair enough with it. It's I gave you a couple so so I need a motion to approve all farm exemptions as I have and gotten back
motion second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. And then the only other motion I have is to approve the valuations as I presented with the percentages.
I so move. I'll second that. All in favor? All right. Thank you guys. Second. All in favor. I getting adjourned.