February 11th where did the first 11 days of February um gosh do we have a is there an agenda in here oh yeah yeah yeah there is there is so uh yeah item two approval of the meeting minutes from January 28th I'll second okay we have a motion
by commissioner Olsson second by commissioner Meer to approve the meeting minutes any discussion all those in favor say i n okay approved uh chairperson's report um well I heard on the radio driving in we have an uptick
in uh flu and everything um which it's probably the highest they said I think in five years or something like that so be careful again wash your hands soap and water and I was advised you have to apply friction and a length of time saying
happy birthday or yeah yeah um we did have a shack meeting last week um of course uh the state people are very concerned of what's going on not only at the federal level but the state level and the State Department of Health like
50% of the funding comes from federal so they're very very concerned um of what's going to happen it's all the unknowns and everything um they are working towards um legislation you know more legislation
trying to um and it's funny they were all excited they got like an extra $9 million but you know when 9 million that's a decimal point in in a budget so I said don't get too excited and when you divide 9 million over the great state of Minnesota it's per Community
Health Board it's it's small um but what they're trying to do is um relating back to covid and how important um the strengths and challenges were and but the strengths of the basic public health and public
health is kind of underfunded as a lot of people feel because it's the health of the whole population Health doesn't have you know parameters it's it's the whole population and they're trying to you know Public Health one of the talking points here government public health is small But Mighty and needs
more capacity and I was surprised that uh we did get some extra money um and Emily luckily was on online and I was surprised how many people had hired staff and it wasn't true public health staff in my opinion it wasn't true
public health staff it was staff that was gathering data to justify uh programs and we need to take a look at and I I I apologize I haven't had a chance Dakota County and I got it sent to me Dakota County of course these big
Counties have lots of Staff different staff and they have collected information on like how many people and I don't know in public health that they got down to the details you know how many people took advantage of that particular service and then uh did some cost analys analysis and everything one
of the things that we were talking about unrelated to health is they did an analysis how many 3/4 ton pickups do they need and they found out they had too many 3/4 ton pickup trucks and they've actually gone to a lot of hybrid uh Vehicles they have a massive Park uh system that they're in charge of so it's
a little different but uh I will try and I'll I'll forward that to U Miss hty and and it can go out um but that that's the challenge is knowing how many people are using the service what it cost and what funding is needed uh to keep moving and
Emily um provided that yeah we we kind of been looking at contracts versus hiring staff because you know you put staff on and it's it's uh you know a major thing and and Emily provided me remember at our legislative thing um we
have like 20 grants so take 20 grants and minimally say we spend an hour you know a grant that that's that's not re reality but an hour a grant and so that and the hours and you take $100 a person you know $100 an hour to do you know
that's probably reasonable and then you take 87 now there's not 87 Public Health but I'm just 87 counties we spend $3.5 million just in and that's low in wages to apply for the grants and monitor the grants so Emily there is going to be a
work group and I've been recruited I I I didn't see the email come through there is going to be a work group in public health to try and consolidate some of this grant reporting uh make it consistent you know everyone has their own little idiosyncrasies which takes a
huge amount of time so we're going to try and narrow the focus of what needs to be reported how it needs to reported and in a concise way now Emily I'm not volunteering you I was volunteering they volunteered volunteered my me um so I'm not sure if I'm on that short list or
not but I think that's very important that the number of Grants we have and the time it takes and uh you know money uh dollars that we spend on reporting and again the reporting is important because that's what generates the revenues and stuff um other than that
yeah they're pretty nervous they don't uh the state people are to say the least are nervous but um probably rightfully so so we'll see what happens um the commissioner was there I said thank you for the water testing kits coming into one own accy um that
that's you know it's important in the dollars for reverse osmosis systems and everything so she was there she was in attendance and everything always always good to see a commissioner at that level there all right does anybody else have anything Emily you were
online I think you covered it okay okay thank you thank you for being online that that is nice that we at least have that option that staff and there were quite it was the weather was a little questionable so I know a lot of people especially up north people coming from up North it was it was a bad Drive in
day so they U they did Zoom all right uh then moving on to item four uh 4.1 approv purchase agreement with Motorola for apx 6,000 portable radios um so this purchase is um being
proposed to be funded through our response sustainability Grant speaking of Grants um that focuses on public health emergency preparedness um it would replace 14 existing radios that we have that are um no longer up to date and not supported by Motorola uh would allow us to communicate amongst
ourselves in other gencies and emergency situations and um in situations where maybe we lack cell phone coverage which of course is often in this County so is there um questions I have some uh these were R so 14 is ex existing
radios do they have any resale value um at this point in time we are looking at if we can donate them to local fire departments um because they still are operational it's just if they fail there is no um support to repair them okay and but they're not time flies they're not that old that's
what's very frustrating unfortunately the technology continues to move forward rapidly and for us to continue to communicate effectively we need to keep Pace with the other agencies and there's a lot of stuff you know I looked in the contract there's a lot of add-on it's not just the radios there's a lot of add-on stuff so does that require us to
do a lot of charging and updating and keeping and again are these things just going to sit on the Shelf till we need them or I I I question you know I know when you need them you need them but it you know this the grant is designed to uh sustain our response to emergencies so it is designed to support
those instances that we need them in emergencies but we can use them for larger scale events uh the radios were used regularly with our covid clinics for example um for effective communication amongst uh different team members okay Mr vley so 14 uh 14 we're
we have 14 existing we're replacing them with two with 12 excuse me because the price probably went up so yeah so $73,000 divided by 12 so it's not just a radio it's radio and software and it's the supportive um equipment the
you know the clips and the things that you would need to carry the radio with you the charging stations the docking stations okay the antennas are extra everything is extra everything's extra that's that's what gets me and I hate to say it Motorola kind of has a um lock on
this market so competitive uh is it competitive that's questionable I totally support having these um these tools available in case of emergencies but over $5,000 a radio okay yeah well I would like to I don't know how we can if
we're going to buy them I like to use stuff I don't like it sitting on the shelf so I don't know how they can be used in a safe way that they're ready for a public health emergency but I don't know I'm thinking uh you know and unfortunately sometimes you have to practice with this stuff I don't know if
they're really user friendly I'm sure they do practice yeah yeah I mean take them out to events or something like that or um we do have practice events yeah where they get the train and they practice as if there was a train
derailment y yep yep um the response sustainability Grant funds do need to be spent by June of this year if we do not spend them we do have to give them back to the state so um if that impacts your decision in any way sh reform yeah I just I I'll move to approve item 4.1
I'll second that okay we have a motion by commissioner Meer second by commissioner vagle to approve the purchase of the radios um just one last question I I know it's a short turnaround time and everything but I don't know how we analyze if it's the best use of these
dollars what else could we have done with these dollars and I I don't know I mean there was lots of opportunity for us to do other things unfortunately with limited staff um that's what most people have done with their response sustainability grants was hire staff and do community um promotion of emergency
preparedness yeah yeah okay so I I mean somehow we have to analyze the be again the best use of of our dollars all right uh all those in favor say I oose nay okay approved um 4.2 approved notice of intent to apply for Statewide Health Improvement
partnership uh this is just our uh we want approval to uh let the state know that we do intend to apply for the next round of ship dollars um that are used to support um Community Health Improvement prog projects um within the county this would be the sixth round and
the funds would come this fall right and and the we don't know the exact amount of the funds it depends how many um agencies intend to apply and then they distribute the funds accordingly and we don't know if that funding is stable funding it's as stable as as we can
anticipate for any public health related grants yeah it's been there for more years than people have they are State dollars which um can be helpful yes okay I'll move to approve item 4.2 we have a motion by commissioner vagle we'll give commissioner olon the
second any further discussion all those in favor say I oose nay okay approve thank you uh General business Ross you got any words of wisdom for us you came over and the called just being handy in case there questions how many do we know how many
people have requested I suppose we don't know like the well testing kits I've got one sitting on my table I got Do It um we we we did receive some information from the state last week uh so we've got we've got 36 reverse osmosis systems installed so far with the the new
funding oh uh so um 36 yeah so we we our County or in our County oh wow fabulous so uh yeah and the uh the testing waiting period they had projected anywhere from 2 to 10 weeks for people supposedly that is not going as long as they're anticipating so um those kits
are getting mailed out and and tested but we we're still waiting for for numbers so okay all right okay well if people need those kits they can go isn't there is there a link on our website uh yes there is so link to the website and
you fill out a form to have the to to have the kit sent to you so yeah and it comes and I didn't send money in because I thought it would freeze immediately once I put the water in so I'm waiting I don't know Frozen water tests different than it shouldn't
we don't of course we have City water but we have friends who are out of town for the winter and they ask Paul to execute the water collection steps for at their place and he immediately messed it up um there's just so it is kind of you have to read all the instructions
before you do ideally you don't want to freeze a sample if you're testing for bacteria because that will that will that will interfere with an act yeah so I was waiting for it to warm up a little bit you also can't do it on a Friday because it you know because of the bacteria
stuff it needs to get sent in a real time it does have to be uh reached the lab within 28 hours of collection so that it it's accurate so so read all the instru if you get a water test read all the instruction it's complicated all right thank you Ross uh anything else
anybody have anything else no school is still in session we haven't been I I know there's a number of schools that have closed because of the flu in all the in northern Minnesota I mean I think it's just at normal levels right now unless Emily knows something different but I think the
schools are at the roughly roughly at the okay okay all right thank you all right I guess then motion to adjourn or be I'll move to adjourn I'll second that we have a motion by commissioner Meer second by commissioner vagy to adjourn any discussion all in favor say i n
we're adjourn thank you thank you good morning nice crisp CL clear February day light Breeze the flag outside going lightly everybody can be safe all right we open our Winona County
board meeting with uh public comment and is there anyone wishing to address the County Board of any particular topic this morning you have two minutes if you're here for that please step to the mic and we need name and
address and I don't is there anybody on line I see guest is there anybody online that would like to address the wona County Board and is there anybody wishing to address the County
Board last time anybody wishing to address the Winona County Board okay seeing nobody rush to the podium we'll move on to uh item number four approval of the County board meeting minutes we have a closed session from January 28th 2025 and the County Board
from January 28th 2025 I'll move to approve both sets of minutes I'll second we have a motion by commissioner Meyer second by commissioner vagle to approve both sets of minutes any questions discussion all those in favor say I I
POS nay okay they are approved um acknowledge receipt of the approved committee meeting minutes 5.1 is the board of adjustment from December 19th 2024 and 5.2 is Planning Commission from December 19th 2024 I'll move to approve
both those sets of minutes second we have a motion by commissioner Meyer second by commissioner Olen to accept the approved meeting minutes from Board of adjustment and planning any discussion all those in favor say I I
oose nay okay approved um item six consent comments and approval of the agenda uh commissioner vagle I actually would like to pull item 7.3 uh award viid and approve contract with one of Daily News okay so 7.3 we will make um
8.0 sure or it can come later too okay well the appointment yeah we can make it 8.0 okay 7.3 anything else no thank you okay two committee reports two committee
reports okay Miss halty nothing Madam chair okay attorney nothing for me okay um I have one item that came up yesterday at a committee that's relatively time sensitive so we maybe need just a a direction on that uh concerning the
emergency communications board um so I'll have that all right okay uh with that we have a amended agenda I'll move to approve the agenda as a with the additional as with the um
Amendment I'll second that okay getting that we have a motion by commissioner Meyer second by commissioner vaguely to approve the amended agenda any discussion all those in favor say I I I close nay okay approved so miss Hy will
you read the um consent absolutely s .1 approve interim use permit for construction Ventures Incorporated DBA bant Stone 7.2 approve interim use permit for nelsson 7.3 was pulled 7.4 approve
addendum to Professional Services agreement for gwendelyn abber as executive director of Criminal Justice coordinating Council 7.5 approved resolution for donations received October 1st through December 31st 2024
7.6 authorized disposal of excess furniture and Equipment 7.7 approved notice of intent to apply for Statewide Health Improvement partnership 7.8 approv purchase of Motorola Solutions for apx 6000 portable radios 7.9 accept
compliance status update and 7.10 confirm payment of dispersements I'll move to approve the consent items I'll second okay we have a made by commissioner vagle and seconded by commissioner Meer to approve the consent
business I I did have one question and I don't know if I I it wasn't in the package 7.9 it's accept compliance status update it was there supposed to be a report issued there or just that we're in compliance yes okay okay I didn't know if I missed something all
right any other discussion all those in favor say I iose nay okay approved um moving then to General business um 7 .3 which is
Page 61 61 yes okay and commissioner big that you pulled that um I don't want to be overly critical of the wona daily news but wona Daily News is a mere shadow of what it used to be um yes and for example I subscribed to their online um subscription service and there was
almost a week period when they weren't it wasn't working I guess I consider what we consider newspapers and this is something I don't want to I don't want to turn into um a large um issue but I just I consider the Mona post the only legitimate local newspaper um and I
realize the bids are there and there's ex but the one on Daily News I think has one reporter that is not even full-time to to the wiona area um so that's just my initial and I realize it's difficult because we're constrained by certain rules in terms of what we have to what we have to request but I I feel like
there is a difference in price but I don't think it's a big enough difference I think that quality is is also a factor in terms of how people how accessible it is to people and I don't I forgot in terms of how many people receive it in
the I got a figure of 19,000 the post as opposed to the Daily News which is very different so um I would prefer to go with one on oppose I'm sorry wison I know that we have this discussion before and aren't we statuto
obligated to take the lowest bit of the something like that isn't it reasonable bid reason well last year the question was U posed about the how many times it was published and then there was the issue of online access which I think we
addressed which which the idea that um and I know I'm not answering directly the question but I just want you to know that that um that comes up from time to time um and that uh the statute looked to me slightly changed so that you could have online delivery but it has to be
free Act which is sometimes hard to find the Portal if you want to call it to get into the free access to the to the published legal notices um I would have to check on what you're asking commissioner Olson because um there are
certain things that uh government entities can um accept a bid that might be not the lowest but might be in the best I'll call it the best interest but but there's a a certain legal term and I have to look at that I don't want to
answer your question without looking at that again but commissioner Meer so as I recall this conversation last year because we did we did have it last year the bid that had come from the Winona post did not contain all of the elements
that were required did it this year handwritten but it seemed to contain them it it's not as may I Madam chair yes it's not as self-explanatory as the letter from the daily news they go through and say exactly how they're
complying with the law um we do not have that from the post and just for a clarification last year the post had errors in their proposal the calculation of numbers so we reposted and then this
year we didn't have anybody submit so we reposted so I I guess the question I would have then is if if the post I I would want them to have I mean I wouldn't want us to be in compliance with the law that's always kind of my Baseline so I would need to make sure that that's true this year and if not um
well trying to get it I had information if I can um both the city and the school district use the post so I mean again there's other government entities Miss hty so there's nothing that prevents us from
using both papers it it really comes down to some of the methods in which each of the vendors use to calculate the cost and so there are times where it is very costly
to use the post versus the one when own a daily news um and sometimes they're fairly close so I mean where there are times that we want to make sure we're hitting the the vast majority of population we can easily use either or
both papers there's nothing that prevents us what what we're asking is that you set the official paper where we must post and then we can post in any other paper as needed because the county has to have an official newspaper yep understood and I
apologize I didn't give either miss hty or Miss son in a heads up about this I should have given you guys more time to look into it but with that all being said we could table it or if the school district in the city go with the one of post I feel comfortable going with the w post and the wona post is actually
expanding its Publications not continuing to shrink its its offerings Etc so so just if that is the case know that the the line item budget will be over for newspaper because it will cost
more right it won't be a large but it be I can't say the exact amount because the need to advertise es and flows to be honest and depending on how much public hearings Etc that we have
I can't estimate that for you Mr Elliot do do you have the actual from 2024 I can get it okay all right maybe a table would be appropriate I mean it is is it time sensitive Miss
halty use the last um official newspaper that you established okay so we'll just continue our practice until a decision is made can we have it on the next board meeting agenda yep and said and commissioner Meyer asked about
the um line item which is a good question we also I guess if Mr Elli if he could figure out like what the bottom line difference would be between the two small difference medium difference large difference if that would if that's okay to ask St to do and and addressing commissioner Olson's question I I thought it the language had changed it's
the it's a it's not necessarily the lowest bid it's the most reasonable and I I have feelings too that the the Winona post is is more of a local and reaches a broader portion of our population than the Daily News so so
okay table motion to table um do we have a motion I'll I'll move to table that okay commissioner vagle do I have a second I'll second it to table um for the next County board agenda meeting okay any other discussion all those in
favor say I I pose nay okay we'll table it all right thank you thank you um then 8.1 uh that's the appointment Board of adjustment liais on to the Planning Commission and their meeting minutes were included and I'll move to approve
Jordan Potter as was recommended by the board of adjustment second okay we have a motion to approve Jordan Potter or the liaison position that was recommended by the board of adjustment any further discussion or motion made by commissioner Meer second by commissioner
Olen any further discussion all those in favor say I hi POS n approved okay moving in then to a presentation we have somebody here going to talk about the spongy
moth I think they're probably froze today I don't think they're spongy today information want hibernate what did they do in the winter time well we're about to find out okay they have to have some kind of
good morning good morning my name is Matt Gallow I am the spongy moth treatment coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture um like to thank the uh Board of um Commissioners here for inviting myself and my supervisor um Kimberly tan
kremers for being able to speak on uh this really important uh topic today and I'm uh ready to take it as you guys are and I did you say like next slide just go on to the next slide okay yeah okay so we'll start with a little bit of
backgrounds on spongy moth here just introducing you guys to um what it is why it's important and what we're kind of looking to get out of this conversation here today next slide please so there's a lot of good news I have to give to you about spongebo but
there's also a lot of bad news um I'm not really giving you a choice in terms of what we're going to be speaking on first um we're going to get into the bad news next slide please so when it comes to bad news about spongy Booth um there is no shortage of it really wherever you go
and keep in mind uh spongy Booth had a name change in the past few years it used to be known as gypsy moth um so now it's known as spongy moth and really like wherever you see spongy moth in the news um it's it's really negative in in really any kind of context right whether we're talking about spongy moth
devouring our favorite vacation destinations whether um the raining down of their feces being described as biblical um stripping um our trees of all their leaves really like any way you can describe it spongy moth truly is the stuff that nightmares are made of next
slide please good introduction by the way thank you so really what we're concerned about with with spongy moth is the fact that the this is an insect that is a defoliator and defoliation essentially means that spongy moth pillars feed on
the leaves of tree species and when we have spongy moth infestations we often see scenes like what's pictured here widespread defoliation and keep in mind this picture was taken in summer and so all these Brown trees have had their leaves um completely stripped um from
spongy moth caterpillars next slide please not the greatest photo in terms of resolution but this is um an even larger aerial shot of a forested area in Pennsylvania um this is taken back in the 80s I believe and again like this photo was taken in the middle of summer
and we see kind of you know Miles and Miles off into the Horizon here and all of those brown areas are trees that have had their leaves chewed off by spongy moth next slide please spongy moth can feed on over 300 different species of trees and shrubs
and if we just jump to the next slide um we get a sense of what species at spongy moth is most um feeds on most voraciously so they don't feed on all tree species species equally there are certain tree species that they prefer to feed on over more so than others and when we're looking at the tree species
that are susceptible to spongy mouth infestations we see you know Aspens bass Woods Birches Oaks um species like that if we jump to the next slide we can see that of the most common tree species in Minnesota um five of
them are considered extremely susceptible to spongy moob right so that's Aspen that's Oak that's Basswood that's Birch and even tree species that aren't super susceptible um to spongy moth like Pines and sprues are at least somewhat at risk if spongy moth kind of
feeds its way through all the oak trees and then needs something else to eat they're going to start going after Pines and sprues as well next slide please when and a lot of the impacts of spongy moth extend beyond just the environmental impacts we're also talking
about lots of human impacts as well so spongy moth caterpillars are actually a really big Health concern they are covered in these really long hairs and for people who have sensitive skin if they come into contact with spongy moth it could actually cause an allergic um skin reaction to them um not to mention
the fact that spongy moth can just have huge property value impacts um when spongy moth infestations get large you know we're talking about caterpillars especially numbering in in the billions um which means that's potentially millions of caterpillars on the trees in
your yard on your house in the roads that you're running over with with your car as you're driving around um I it really can reach sort of biblical levels of infestations here um in addition to economic impacts that we might see from quarantine next slide
please so that's kind of the bad news when it comes to spongy moth but I want to dive a little bit more into what spongy moth is exactly next slide please so spongy moth is um an insect that goes by the scientific name Lanta
despar it's originally native to pretty much all of Eur Asia so Europe Eastern Asia Northern Africa it's been an invasive species in the United States since the 1860s and we have been trapping and treating for spongy moth in Minnesota since the 70s um and 80s and
um each caterpillar can consume about a square foot of leaf material within a single day which when you think about a caterpillar you know maybe yay big that's a lot of leaf material next slide please so when we're looking at the spongy moth life cycle what we're really
most concerned about is that caterpillar larval stage these guys are going to be active it depends on where we are in Minnesota because a local climates are going to change when they emerge from their eggs but really the general time frame is May through June the caterpillar is going to be active this
is the only stage of the spongy moth life cycle where they are actually feeding so in no other stage even in the adult stage are they actually eating any material it's just this caterpillar stage and so when we're thinking about the pictures that I had showed before for of um you know the defoliated
forests from above all of that is happening within this may to June time frame now once spongy moth caterpillars kind of run the gamut of of feeding is you know you hearken back to kindergarten class and learning about the monarch butterfly life cycle they're going to go into their puping stage
again depending on local climate it's usually going to be in the middle of summer once they get through that stage you're going to emerge as adults now with spongy moth adults they're only going to be active for about a week or to and they exist solely to mate females despite the fact that they have wings
actually can't fly they essentially just kind of wait on trees for males to come to them they will mate um the female will lay um an egg Mass um as you can see kind of pictured over there those egg masses can contain um 500 maybe even
up to like a thousand eggs per egg Mass um and they will overwinter so even though we have super cold temperatures like what we have today um spongy moth egg masses in the area are still going to be able to survive the winter now if it gets down to like you know maybe -30 we're going to see some mortality but
they can survive some really cold temperatures once it eventually starts getting warm again we're going to see those caterpillars emerging in the spring next slide please so the thing that is also really concerning about spongy moth is that the
females are not picky about where they are laying their eggs and we often see human assisted dispersal um from spongy moth so if females are laying their eggs on firewood um household items on Nursery stock next slide um and recreational vehicles you
know like RVS um industry equipment Outdoor Equipment next slide please holiday Greenery industry and in just visitors from areas that already have high spongy moth populations all of these can be means by which spongy moth is able to spread so it makes our job a
lot harder because not only is spongy moth spreading just through natural dispersal but it could potentially jump ahead of the line so to speak by taking advantage of human dispersal Pathways next slide please so this is a map of where spongy
moth is currently found in North America now those dark blue areas are counties where um are under usca quarantine but essentially I think for the purposes of this presentation what's more important is to understand is like the dark blue counties are areas where there are like firmly established spongy moth
populations like they are inundated there's really no hope of removing spongy moth from those areas now those that green kind of band that wraps around those dark blue areas that's what we um refer to as our action area and this is kind of like the spongy moth
Invasion front so to speak so you can see it's kind of spreading westwards and southwards out of that initial um Center of population there and as you can see Minnesota is really kind of at the the crest of the wave of this Invasion front
next slide please so that's the bad news I know I threw a lot of information at you all um but they're actually is good news in terms of how we can deal with sponging moth we are not completely hopeless we just jump to the next
slide we uh we have a lot of tools when it comes to being able to manage these spongy moth populations to avoid a lot of these really devastating impacts that we frequently see from that next slide please so in terms of areas you know thinking back to our map before those
dark blue areas where spongy moth is really widely established sponge is actually not one of the largest invasive species concerns in those areas part of that is because there's a lot of other invasive Forest pests within those regions but also because they're actually natural diseases that keep the spongy moth
population within those regions in check you don't really need to understand this at like a super detailed level but all you really need to know is that there is a fungal disease and a viral disease it actually does a fairly good not perfect but fairly good job of limiting spongy
moth populations within those areas now our one of the main goals that we have at the MDA and within the larger slow the spread efforts for the spongy moth at a nationwide scale is to be able to slow down the spread rate of the spongy moth population to allow these two
diseases to keep up with the spongy moth front does that make sense now I actually worked um as an invasive species manager in Upstate New York for the last four years and these I can speak from personal experience in that SpongeBob was not a concern for us
really at all up there again we had a lot of other invasive species to deal with but also we had these diseases that were already widely established within New York to really do a much better job than we could ever hope for of um treating spongy moth populations next
slide please I'm I'm sorry I didn't follow you you were dark blue in New York so they're they're heavily there you're saying some other Predator takes takes them out yeah so essentially what I'm saying is is that the combination of the fungal and the viral disease is actually enough to not eliminate spongy
moth but to make it so that it's not like the biblical plague that I had described at the beginning of the presentation okay so you're talking about uh commercially spraying for them and then there's some natural virus or something yeah so this map actually does like a really good job of kind of
showing that here so essentially um we operate within the larger slow the spread framework um under the US Forest Service where the MDA the US Forest Service and several other states work together to slow the spread of um the SpongeBob population within the United States our goal is to slow the rate of
spread by 60% and we're consistently able to actually beat those targets and the success of this can really be shown on these two maps here so if you look at the map on the left that's actually the predicted spongy MTH spread without our efforts taken into account so this is like if weing were doing nothing and you
can see decade by decade like how fast the spongy mouth population would be spreading and if you look at the photo on the right that is um kind of like the the spread that it we would expect to see spongy moth have with our efforts um in place and you can see how
dramatically slowed down that spread is and so what we're trying to do is slow that spread down as much as we can because the viral disease and the fungal disease can't spread as quickly as spongy moth can so if we don't do anything those diseases won't have time
to keep up with the population which means that we're going to get millions of caterpillars all over the road defoliating all of our trees causing all kinds of impacts does that kind of tie everything together there okay next slide please it's not a predator and
it's not a pesticide it's just giving time for the diseases yes say yes yep so we have um a trapping program you might have seen some of these traps before we have thousands of them all over the state that we use to get a sense of
where spongy moth is spreading the most and based on um trap counts how many spongy BS you know we're trapping in each of these traps we identify areas of high concern that we think that we can step in and do some treatments of ourselves next slide
please so for 2025 um we've identified areas across nine counties about 100,000 acres um across the state of Minnesota where we're planning to do these treatments um so you can kind of see it's uh mostly concentrated in northern and southern Minnesota as well um as uh
Rapids in inoka County next slide please now as it relates to what we're looking at here in Winona County um we are treating um what we call treatment blocks so these are just areas that we do our treatments in we have three areas where we're going to be doing what's
called mating disruption and one we're going to be using another product called BTK to slow down the spongy moth population if we just jump to the next slide so we can see a zoomed in area here of where specifically we're looking to um conduct our treatments in Winona
County so you can see um for the most part concentrated towards the Western area the blue areas are areas where we're going to be doing um uh mating disruption and the one little uh Brown area is where we're going to be using BTK and that's going to be within the
city of wiona and we already have conversations set up um with the Winona city council to have pretty much the same presentation that we're having here today so we're really only going to be focusing on um how this relates to those other areas where we're going to be doing mating disruption next slide
please and we have an online interactive map of all this as well if you want to kind of take a look for yourself and and see where exactly these are lining up next slide so mating disruption so we have two tools in our tool belt when it comes to dealing with SpongeBob how do we
actually like slow that spread of the population so may in disruption is our tool that we use to slow the adult phase of spongy moth down so like I had said before we have our female spongy moths despite the fact that they have wings they physically cannot fly they are waiting on a tree for a male to come to
them now what they use to find each other what's called pheromones pheromones are just you know natural smells that they emit into the environment and then a male spongy moth as he's flying around can pick up that pheromone and then find the female now what we've been able to do is actually
synthetically create this pheromone and by applying this through an aerial application as you can see um in the photo there we can inundate an area with spongy moth pheromones where there's so much of the pheromone arounds that the spongy moths can't find each other
anymore and if they can't find each other they can't make now this is a product called Splat GMO and the GMO naming here um is a little um it's not what you think when it's GMO it actually just means gypsy moth organic it's not genetically modified organism this is an
EPA certified organic product is non-toxic it is biodegradable um and it's actually made of food grade materials and the pheromone specifically itself is um just for spongy moth so it's not like any other insects or any other organisms are using the pheromone
to find their way around um really no other organisms are going to be affected by this except for spongy moth itself next slide please and I'm going to skip um the BTK discussions just because um it's not really relevant to to this conversation
because that's going to be more of a wiona city conversation um we there is one concern though I think I think you did some spraying maybe a few years ago and we had public uh information for people to know if something was happening so in the city of Winona is
this going to be an aerial application or yeah so all of our applications are aerial applications aial so but you'll work with the city council to let them know let their people know yeah we already have a conversation lined up in the coming week to speak with them I remember people being a little alarmed why are these airplanes flying low over
yeah and actually we're about to jump into the um you're you're just getting like a little bit ahead of you here no you're good you're good um trap at my house yep uh yeah so we could just skip this slide and the next one please thank you okay so yeah so notifying the public in regards to these
treatments that we're going to be doing so um we uh mail out informational postcards so all residents within treatment blocks in terms of what we're actually doing you know it's essenti just a slim down version of what we're discussing today hey this we're the MDA we're doing these spongy moth um treatments we also have um public
meetings where uh essentially local residents who are interested in what we're doing can get a sense of um this presentation have a chance to ask questions and and we can address any comments or concerns that they might have those public meetings are going to be held um sometime in the middle of
March we're going to be doing one for all of northern Minnesota one for Rapids and then one for the entirety of Southern Minnesota now in terms of you know why I'm here speaking to you today and what kind of our ask is is we need your help
in terms of helping us notify the public as to what's going on that's honestly one of the biggest things we can need help with so we're going to be sending out a press release into the local papers um but if the county has any websites newsletters social media
presence we would really appreciate any help that you have um in terms of of just getting the word out there in for our public meetings as well as once the treatments actually start coming up and the treatments themselves are going to be happening more um in later on in the
summer we also have um an email and text notification services so residents with within the treatment blocks can sign up for text and email notifications we can let you know hey like the spongy moth treatment is happening like today if you want to um change anything about your
routine during that day or you just want know like when it's happening this is your chance to find out about it so just like letting residents know that these options are available to them um would be really helpful for us because obviously you know when there's planes flying over your house spraying stuff people are going to have a lot of
questions so when when did you think the spraying is going to be the the actual spraying we don't have a set date just yet sometime this summer but sometime this summer yeah we can get you um well it's it's harder for us to actually get Hard dates until um until until we get
like pretty close to the actual treatments because a lot of it is affected by weather you know if it's raining outside like we're not going to doity Springs stuff like that so okay Jun 30th or June 20th right around that date that's kind of the week that we typically are in southeast Minnesota
could you could you come so folks online can Madam chair this is Kimberly with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture just to give you exact dates on uh applications right now we don't have exact dates cuz we're still planning and this is actually a US forest service project so it's pretty
cool um they'll literally move from North Carolina and come all the way up into Minnesota so they are actually the Contracting um officers we the local folks so they'll be in Minnesota probably late June so we are we we will know that date in the coming weeks and
we'll give you like at least approximate week within about four days and then as we get closer and we know a little bit more we'll continuously update on our websites and then that's the that's the glory of that text message and that email we can let people know like the morning we leave them know the day before the morning of when we're done
with operations we'll send another text out saying we're done thank you we're you know we're out of the area for the entire year so we really try to uh really get that communication out to Citizens as much as possible okay good you know the Public's a little nervous about all these drones and but these will actually be will they be big yellow
airplanes yes okay okay I mean that might be beneficial to tell the people what kind of stru you know what kind of things are going to fly over them um Madam ch the other thing that I think is really important to understand is that because this is applied at an extremely low rate that most citizens when they
look up in the air and they see this low-flying yellow aircraft they're not going to see anything coming out or being dispensed from the aircraft so to them they're just thinking an erratic flying aircraft is you know low flying um this aircraft will be about 100 fet above the Treetops so it is somewhat low flying and that's that tends to be more
of our issues you know that people don't see things anything coming out or being dispensed from the aircraft but they aren't seeing 100 foot airplane flying over their house either vagle I'm just I'm I'm I'm looking at what for us in our agenda is Page 133 in terms of the
slideshow um you have um in two areas in White Water boxes and then you have wona is that the only are areas that the treatment will be applied in terms of the the aerial spraying yes so the area in Winona is going to be a different kind of treatment called BTK um it's a
different product that we're going to be using that's more targeted towards the caterpillars but all the other areas the two around Whitewater and I believe we have one pilot mound in the southwestern Corner those are going to be the um the mating disruption pheromones will the city of wona be aerial spraying though as well too yeah so both are applied via
aerial spring so I think that's good to know is it won't be the entire County and it won't be it won't be the entire city no we're going to control the city of wona you don't know what's in that air and I think you you were going to do this anyways but just be Captain Obvious whatever you might notify the city have
notify us as well of us cover the city of Monona and that good view is in my County Board District and if you haven't already planned on visi with the goodw city council I think it'd be good to visit with them as well um they meet twice a month the good view city council okay because according to
it looks like the application some of the backwaters and the sloos it looks like you're actually more so in good view than you are in wiona but I think it's important to do both yeah I don't believe that if the actual like boundaries of you like overlaid the um our treatment area with the like City Limits goes over to good view but we can
certainly consider talking good out that's all y of course and following up with that the reason the other you you didn't find uh mass infestations in the other parts of the county you had these little traps traps out a few years ago yeah so essentially like in a perfect
world with you know tons of money we would be able to treat everywhere we where we have high spongeb off populations but you didn't find them in those other areas it's not that we didn't find them it's just that they were at really low levels where doing these kinds of treatments wouldn't really be effective
build that makes total sense because I remember when they um again that little teepe box in my tree they they came back and luckily I was there and they didn't find any anything in my box so that was a good thing yeah yeah my T okay thank you next slide
please oh oops should have had a couple more slides there but either way um we're going to be notifying residents both um before and during the treatment time um and all of this is part of a larger environmental assessment um impact
assessment that we conduct as part of the our forest service um funding where um we have to speak with local um Community Representatives as you could see picture there um that should be my last slide before the end here um we just want to jump to next one so I want
to thank um the uh County Commission here for allowing myself and for Kimberly to speak today my contact is information is uh listed there if you want to reach out afterwards and um discuss anything else that you might have in Minds there's any other questions regarding anything we propose
be happy to take them do you put those little triangular boxes out every year or yeah we do that every year I know my son was a box putter up oh okay great so a a question why the name changed because I think you know I registered
Gypsy Mo I didn't spongy Mo about something new so I mean maybe people need to understand why the name changed yeah of course so um it was made a few years ago and Gypsy is considered a slur to the Roma people yeah which like it's
like one of those things like in America because we don't have like a lot of them that word doesn't really carry a lot of weight as opposed to maybe like other racial slurs do but it was a requested name change and the enological Society of America um put through that change a few years ago to spongy moth spongy
being kind of like the texture of their egg masses well the kids SpongeBob Square Pants vaguely if um that's an excellent point if the local media helps us with the publication of this and I think it's going to be done anyways just we could
for a while say formally known as gypsy moth people understand gypsy moth i' say spongy moth sounds sounds like something new that came into the and I'm a high school um teacher and there's all kinds of bad dad jokes come to mind when I hear about phone and disruptors I'm going to is that for now
so in terms of what we could spray at the high school but sorry commissioner okay do we do we need a motion to uh cooperate with the Outreach plans if so I would make that motion that we assist in terms of data distribution and notifications through our social media
and any other County yeah I don't we can take a motion I but I think I think we're all in agreement that we want people to know about this yep and stuff okay all right well thank you wonderful thank you so much really appreciate it yeah thank you thank you biblical plagues nice Madam chair and the
Commissioners I just wanted to address that uh to commissioner Olsen's uh point about uh um positions and jobs they are posted right now for our survey Trappers so I'll put that out there if there's anyone else that's interested you need any Pilots I got a pilot in
the so yes and thank you and this is a continuous project so we continuously survey throughout Winona County until obviously until that front moves through so this won't be our first time um unfortunately we may be back again in the future too just back to the employment it is SE it's a seasonal it
is a seasonal position yes we have 40 seasonal positions across the entire state of Minnesota on that eastern half hopefully okay and where did they get that information they can go to the career website at the uh the state of Minnesota has a career website and if they go to that career website they can search for spongy moth or Minnesota
Department of Agriculture to get that job posting but we would love to have some local folks join us the only I have to say from a rural resident perspective um I have people drive down my yard and they don't identify themselves and then you see somebody walking around and sticking things up in the trees do they
provide you know they need to be uh vested or something that people know that these are offici corre that is their requirement is to be vested so if our sta I will make sure um that they're supposed to be vested carry a Department of Agriculture ID with them at all times
our vehicles are also we try to get them Placer but but you know the those don't magnet they don't stick as well anymore um so we do our very best to make sure and they should approach give notification leave notice um for General citizens to inform them as well thank
you it's important their safety and and the citizens safety so maybe commissioner vaguely can direct some students to that awesome all right okay thank you all right moving on uh 8.3 receive update from the recorder
Department Bob good morning morning thank you for having me on the agenda this morning uh 2024 another extremely busy year for real estate in wona county and uh it's getting more and more lopsided we have
many many more buyers than Sellers and uh that just presents a lot of challenges for people that would like to be in wona County but the opportunity isn't there so I want to just uh share a few of the a few of the numbers from the past year and and uh if there are any
questions we'll see if we can answer those um the average price um in wona County jumped 30% in 20124 to 261,000 at the end of 2023 the average was
201,000 during 2023 we had the largest increases in prices that we've experienced that caused the assessor to raise the values what happened in 20124 is that we
had 80% of our sales that went even higher than those higher values and that shows you the prices that are being paid for people that are in need of a home so we've had two years of big jumps in
value and sales that are still above that all right um the number of homes that sold was 553 um we had 57% of those in the city of wona
3117 the price range with the most sales 118 was 150 to 200,000 I think that the $50 to $200,000 sales are starting to drop behind and we're seeing more activity this past
year 111 sales between 200 and 250,000 so it seems like uh this morning that's where the targeted number is going to be we also increased on the high end we had 72 sales um above
400,000 and uh within the uh information provided the Commissioners and also the handouts that are here um we've got more detailed information in there it's also on our website so you can certainly pick up more but uh just to mention a few
other things that um took place um we had uh a number of starts that were late in 24 and they were really welcomed there were a few that were along Highway 43 and then there's an area in Pleasant
Valley called um Cobblestone Creek which um added three or let's see added about seven lots and even at the time they were doing that I think three of them were already spoken for so that just as another example of the activity all right um to provide for a more
attractive lot price in St Charles a trust is now offering land leases on Lots so a home can be constructed and you won't have as big a layout for that initial start um this is somewhat new to
our Colony but there has been some preliminary interest uh and we expect that there's going to be more uh in all price ranges there continues to be more buyers than there are homes available I've done a lot of
presentations and the question that keeps coming up and I want to share it with you this morning you've seen bits and pieces of it is why is there a home shortage Home Building just do not kept pace with demand we can be so thankful and so appreciative of the KN Valley
development because at that time that brought us to kind of a neutral ground we made up for all the homes that had been lost for earlier expansions but since that time we've not had a major Housing Development and we have had
blocks taken in the city of wona all for very very good purposes and I'm not being critical about that part but it's leaving us very short on the home end there's one thing that is taking place across
the United States in some cities now they are requiring that if you're buying residential property and it's going to be changed to a different use you have to replace the residential property and that may be something that the county
the city will look at as time goes on uh we'll also get a chance to see what the response is across the country um I'd like to also say that um homes have been demolished for other projects and buildings been a lot of talk about that recently in this area a
couple of the programs I did the first questions that come up were the high prices that are being paid and we're talking about 300 400 $500,000 for home sites apartment sites what's that going to do to other people's values and what will It
ultimately do to their taxes and wanted to just bring this message this morning that is a change in use it's not going to be another home there's there's another use that's going to be um hopefully appearing on that property
so those will not be in that formula and when the value is already determined for homes for example it will be with comparable homes and what increases are taking place there there won't be any high-end sales that are thrown in
because it was a home that sold but now for a different use so many it sets some people at ease to know that and I wanted to mention that this morning um we have today fewer people in our homes the
census this morning it says it's 2.99 in other words three is the average number of inhabitants in a home or in an apartment it wasn't very many years ago that that was six and before that back
in the 50s it was 8 to 8 and2 so just think about that if we had homes in the ' 50s that were're having eight or more people and today it's three average we need more than two homes just to offset that another reason why we're trailing
behind all right increased numbers of people are moving to Monona and wanting to move here from very large um Metro areas um during the past year we saw more cash buyers than we ever have in in
our recent history and we don't have firm counts on those but there are a number of things in the transactions that show that for example uh some of the people coming here uh have sold homes in their other locations they're able to C pay cash and there's no
mortgage so we're seeing a lot of that kind of activity question on that Bob the state demographers office in their projection to 2045 has said just the opposite that people are moving towards the Metro um towards large city so I
would I don't know why do you have a different well and some of that um is coming from I've had a number of visits with people that have moved here and there several have come from Los Angeles we've got several from the state of Colorado that I met with I recently met
with several f i shouldn't say several three families from the Chicago area they wanted to know why their son or daughter during their Junior and Senior year went on estate were not able to buy a home when they had their parents'
support and their parents' financing and I told them what I've just told you we're very very short on homes here that's been something that many of us don't know a lot about but some students through their family buy a home and then they rent part of that home along with
the area that that they use during their college Years uh this is really added challenges to do that M Meer had a question I will say that I saw a headline yesterday that uh we had a net increase in migration into the state of Minnesota whether they're
coming to rural areas that it I didn't see but it was like 180,000 net increase not loss in that's I think a turnaround for the state I think they're all living in apartments in this metro area theast the other thing that I I was asked to
give a presentation and so I updated my statistics about wona County from 2020 probably I did it last in 2019 2020 2022 any anyway the number of households in wona county has gone up between like 500 and a thousand so that just to
support that other component that people less people in a household household I don't know if you can track but what type of person is moving to Monona is it a retired couple or is it a young family with I I don't know I I hear a mix I mean we've got
some you know we got a huge the 180,000 was the state of Minnesota yeah we got a huge employer over here but then I'm hearing more and more uh retired people are coming because of our culture and arts and and stuff so I don't think I
don't think any of us have have 100% tracking on that but um one party from Los Angeles I'm going to mention this real quickly he gave me full and complete um permission and authority to share his information he told me that uh
when he left Los Angeles he had the lowest Val valued home on his block yeah before the fire yeah yeah before maybe before the fire I'm not sure you know what happened to the neighborhood but I said you know what what you know the the
least value you know what would that be 1 million you're close $1 million yeah and I said can I ask what you sold your property for $1 million and he said I found the home
that was the dream of my life lifetime here in wona County anyone want to guess how much 350,000 3,000 300,000 300,000 now you know a million 300,000 got cash
something improvements yes the dumpster goes out in the driveway and you put a new kitchen in you know and there were similar stories people from the greater Denver area that I've talked with and I didn't make a log and get everybody's name and you know the but the part I
just told you about he went to another a community meeting and told his story there and I think it helps people understand and realize that we have a lot to offer here and it can be for significantly less money oh yeah we have
so that puts pressure on our housing market yeah all right just a couple of things to to wrap this up uh our rural land sales there's such demand in in every direction we go um we had 45 and uh 24 um crop land prices we had a big
range um 6,400 an acre to 12,500 an acre and part of that is just recognizing that there's different soils or different yields if it's a neighbor they may want to pay more just to kind of be able to add it to their operation might be a chance in a lifetime so there's
just a long list of of reasons why we have that range um there was 128 Acres Marsh not too far from you and New Hartford Township that um did sell for the higher
end the the 12,000 an Acres so um you're right there's estate down in the valley if anybody want expensive um in the way that you calculated the 30% increase in home residential prices yes um do you
think you could calculate for us as well the rural land sales and maybe the commercial sales not that they have to have that right now I I say this because in previous years when rural land sales went up 40% but Residential Properties
went up 5% even if our property tax levy Remains the Same some people are going to see very big increases yes if everybody's property value went up 30% equally that
isn't going to happen to some groups of property holders and it would be great to have an idea how that is working right now because I think it it gives us information about what certain classes of land owners might be experiencing and
I think this is a concept that is kind of difficult for folks to understand um that you know our property our Levy could have gone down but your taxes would have gone up because relative to other property types your value went up so much so that those two kind of uh a
comparison of land types would be helpful for I think me anyway in terms of understanding what the consequence is going to be to the our our residents and taxpayers it all comes back to the sale prices yep it does and even from year to
year we could have some very high sale prices until B 24 maybe for some unknown reason they drop some in 25 and that that's going to probably immediately skew some of those comparisons
but what we have is is what we're seeing and I want to say that what I report to you is exactly what comes across the counter and we have unlimited Mega numbers of people that are interested in that and one of the most interesting things that's happened in the last three
years is that seniors get together and they're thinking about selling their home or they just bought a home they know of other homes in the community that are similar to theirs and they know what that one might have that they don't and vice versa and all of that I've
talked to a number of these groups and it's amazing what information they had compiled and put together that they were taking to their realtor or a realtor so they could start the house hunt but amazing just watching the sales that are
available from the county what they've been able to do and that it it's just another reason that um I feel very strongly that we need to have these out there if we try to answer more one by one looking them up even on the computer and the um you know excellent timing
that we have we're we're just going to be lost um I just like to um say that uh moving away from this oh I I want to mention the um Woodland uh we had um some uh sales there and that range was
uh on on the lower end uh we had some from uh as low as 50 3200 an acre to 5,400 an acre and um there there's demand for all areas whether it's kind of a grassy null or
it's a beautiful Woodland uh there's interest out there this is an example of what a lot might cost um for home we had um seven Hillside acres in Wilson Township just outside of wiona that just
sold for 21,000 an acre all right that's 7 time 21 and that's the real price of that lot and that that price is in the ballpark all right 58 acre um 58
commercial sales um took place during the past year uh we had some really well-known locations um in the downtown uh area uh there was the former at onetime Sears store that uh sold uh to a plumbing
company uh the sale was beyond a million dollars and in good view the Netcraft Corporation sold to St Croy and that was uh 2,600 plus thousand and there are many more uh we also saw the value
property along Highway 61 um on a couple of sales uh we were approaching a million dollars or more so there's a a lengthy list the 58 it is on the county records website all the sales
are there residential land commercial you can get more information there uh one important thing that uh deviates a little bit from just the sale numbers is as we start 2025 we've already put a lot of effort
in into the fact that across the United States there is real estate and mortgage fraud and theft taking place in some places it's in alarming numbers the best defense that is available this morning is a product
called land notification and for parties that sign up late this summer an email message is sent when a recording takes place on your property and it can be by your description or by your name and that
email would come to you if you sign up and if you get one of those emails you want to check on this immediately we have not had any outright theft that we're uh aware of here in Winona County but we've certainly
checked and answered a lot of questions that could have gone that direction and we had one that uh you know if it weren't so serious it'd be a big joke but we had a former wona resident that's living in Los Angeles called one day and
just really uh you know stressed asking if property he owned in Winona had been sold and we immediately looked and said no and he saidwell I just received by special Courier a delivery of a video
showing a party and and he looked like me to a te a package that included a deed to this property and he said that's why I'm calling I said in the defense the first party that you call is the county sheriff call the sheriff and let
him know we will also do our best to monitor what's coming through and we do that for anyone but when you've got 50 60 70 or more in a day there's not a lot of time to look at details of each transaction this service the
notification is the best answer we have right now um in our area Alstead was one of the first to really look at it seriously I've been at meetings with them we've had the benefit of working with them and they do have twice the
people we do they've got three times the budget so know that we can look to them for leadership and they they have started and they've had good reports Lacrosse Wisconsin has also started has good reports and I'm confident that this
will go well for us we will be doing installation and training this summer and by fall we should be able to take subscribers at present there's no fee and you'll get an email notification you'll have to sign up thank you for
that you're thinking that be available this fall yes okay right not people okay so those um I I think the year of 24 um certainly a very positive year for wona County I think a lot of transactions we
can only do better if we have more properties available and to be realistic the bluff is there the river is there and the only way that we're going to add more is to make absolutely the very best use of any of the land that we have got
to go up yeah got to go up you're landlock okay um and I don't just one final comment I get a lot of Publications I do a lot of reading um we're very fortunate we've get several professional updates online now and I
know that there are differences in what some of those reports indicate and I can give you an example when I was the census chair in 2010 the state demography was coming up with information that was significantly
different than the census because the census makes the final count not the state demographer I worked very closely with them I think we did well we got some national recognition for what we achieved in Winona County so here you've
got a state agency that's saying one thing and you've got the federal that's saying something slightly different it's just from the best information they have and how many people are working on it but there are differences when when is the next census 2030 2030 okay so it's a
few years out okay all right okay Bob thank you very much thank you very very much I know people greatly appreciate your your report and everything and it is online correct do they just go to the recorder or is it a quick link uh it is it's the County recorder and then a menu
comes up um you've got choices look at the land um there's a few other things there too that might be of interest Maybe could move it up to a quick link cuz our our I don't know if that's easily done or not our website for is a little clunky I'm looking at the website
right now and it still has information about the one on a County sales tax um so that would yep so yeah I think people will be very interested in that presentation with all due respect it's not outdated the sales tax is intentional to communicate with the entities who would impacts so it has
information about they need to contact thank you perfect thank you but maybe we could move this report up to a click link so people don't have to hunt and search just work with Heidi y absolutely yes we'll give you top billing and won't cost you 8 million either to have an ad
right maybe a compliment to to all of us on um the last day of that we worked in 2024 received a call from an appraiser that does a lot of work in all of southeast Minnesota and I thought it was
you know um 4:00 on the last workday of the year I really didn't want to start a big research project but he said Bob he said I'm calling to tell you that I just finished a big project in another County he said it's taken three days and he said it wasn't enjoyable he said we
greatly appreciate the information that you have available and he said all I can say is it would have taken a fraction of the amount of time so the message is here if we don't do that good job up front there are people paying the price
M sure right thank you all right thank you thank you very much okay uh item 8.4 discussion and our appoint citizen advisory committee member we had a an application for the parks environment yes and that that will that complete
that committee is it just the one okay one vacancy one application you want to make a motion or I don't know this person but um he seems to have a number of um I don't see a direct um history with working with
Parks or environmental issues but he seems to have a a background in a variety of different science um and technical jobs um I'll move to approve the appointment of I believe it's pronounced uh Craig gine easy sound
right second okay we have a motion uh by commissioner vagle second by commissioner Olen to appoint Craig gey to the uh parks and environment committee any further discussion all those in favor say iose nay approved and
we still have uh openings on economic development uh extension and the personel Personnel Board of Appeals so if anybody and those are on online if anybody's interested in our other um citizen advisory committees all right um
let's see commissioner mik you had down to committee reports two committee reports um the first one is that uh I was in uh rapo County um was Aurora uh Colorado
last week um our criminal justice coordinating Council had been invited to send two Representatives um on behalf of n no put on a peer session for communities that are counties that have um
cjcc uh or want to start one um I would say I was very proud because most of the programming that um bigger counties are working on now we already have and have had for quite some time probably the closest Siz Community was Sawyer County
which is um where Hayward is in Wisconsin and um they were there and starting up but had maybe of a similar size most of the communities were bigger but we are doing great work just like they are um the second thing is we had our first if you just pass those around
we had our first meeting and I'll give you this one the wi uh Winona Mississippi L Crescent one Watershed one plan policy meeting the very first one of the year they are publishing a document that shows the achievements um for 2024 I just wanted to share it with
you um page 13 which was kind of my favorite is um we use some American Rescue plan funds to help folks do Replacements of septic systems and it is telling us that the 16 septic systems were replaced with the assistance of
that funding and uh how much uh nitrogen and other um nutrients we are keeping out of our water supply as a result of that that's it thank you for going to that conference and thank you to County attorney s for continued work with the
rap plus program that's fantastic and uh so that takes nobody else said um yesterday we had our um joint um emergency communications so it was the sheriff's a few emergency managers and a whole bunch of County
Commissioners it's all the emergency communications you know many years ago we started the whole armor thing um Alstead county has always been very gracious in helping uh fund and uh Staffing they have been the Fiscal Agent
for that group and the uh administrative um person for that group and it takes it takes some time um because this person came out of the Olstead Finance area and back years ago when I actually had to be chair we rotate the chairship I mean we
had millions of dollars we spent to get the armor radios and the towers and everything it's much less but it's going to be gearing up again with more grants uh Olstead county is changing their organization they're not as gracious and and um helping out these organizations so The Plea was made to have another
County um take over and this person is closing close in retirement um so it was The Plea was put out for other counties in the multi uh southeast Minnesota to either take on the fiscal responsibility or the administrative capacity um
Sheriff bran was or Sheriff BR Sheriff Gan was there I he didn't raise his hand to take this on because it would be you know it would be some time and it's questionable if you can capture administrative dollars to pay for this function off of these grants there is
some uh POS possibility there but I don't know if the board has any desire to uh want to do those things it's relatively time I I apologize it's time sensitive they wanted some kind of commitment by the end of the month and our process you know would take us three
months to get it on an agenda um so I don't know if there's any and I wanted to I did not get a chance to talk to sheriff Gan if he felt he had any um burning desire to take that over um through his Department because it's more sheriff and and um but I don't know so I I'm I'm going
to talk to sheriff Ganon again see if he has any capacity um that's the big thing does anybody not have a full-time job in his organization I would support at least asking our staff if they you know what that would cost what it would take and whether it's so I don't if we want
to follow our regular process then we have to have a full discussion about it next meeting and get three people to support that maybe I'll just ask Sheriff Gan if he feels there's any capacity um because it's not going to be free I mean no and we don't know if we and it's
unknown if we can recoup any dollars but I would not want to lose that committee right or the value that it brings to the region y um and while it's true that uh om counties you know their GDP is like
five times ours ours is five times the the smaller like Houston and and and many small counties so I see the value of Winona County attempting to fill in okay all right I think it's a highly important sort especially in these times
and as more severe weather events happen just second what you're both saying is to me it's a question to staff is Staff interested and is there any bandwidth either with existing or with increased funding so I support the general idea yeah please please talk to the sheriff Gane and see what but if if they don't have time then of course it's we should
let it go but whatever the staff feel and the whole group is so the the committee the subcommittee asked the whole all the counties to look at their cap capabilities and we may even at some point have to hire a um but when you hire a staff person you lose all the the
inner uh uh relationship building and everything that a county person would have so let me follow up with Sheriff Gan get his first initial take on it and if we need to bring it back but they wanted a quick response I think even if uh we don't have staff that can just take that on with that there's a
possibility of doing some kind of cost sharing of all the counties involved and and you're right we pay small fee to um belong to that group to cover some of these non uh collectible you know functions and we've talked very briefly maybe we have to up that I think we pay
$ thousand dollar to be a part of theou but I I certainly support I think the organization brings value I'm I'm thinking out loud Miss suty and others and the rest of Commissioners so let's say that either between the sheriff's office or Emergency Management there's somebody who might be interested in terms of what
we have to do to get it to through the board process should we maybe now request that it's a committee the board item at the end of February and then we can always take it off if if it's not an issue so I think commission Myers or commissioner Ward's requesting and either any of us would second that or
whatever totally so we can put it on and if it's not an issue we can just take it off okay okay thank you thank you all right okay anything else to come before the Bona County board if not entertain a motion to adjourn Mo I'll second have motion by commissioner Olson second by
commissioner Meyer to adjourn any discussion all favor say I a adjourn thank you