swearing in. Do you want us to remain standing and raise our right hand? Yes, raise your right hand. and the oath of office head. There's variations that can be used and we try to I stay very um very similar from year to year but I
wanted to give you an opportunity tonight if you'd like to mention your office first district commissioner second district commissioner that is that's that's fully within our our realm to do that. So, and in doing that simply we can go around the room. You say I and
your office and then after that we all join in on the oath. Okay. You have one that you wanted to start with? Yeah. Chris, please. Hi, Commissioner. Chris Meer. Hi, Chris Meyer. Uh, District 1, County Commissioner. Winona County
Commissioner. Hi, Greg Olsen. District 4, Winona County Commissioner. I Marshall Ward, District Five, County Commissioner. I Dwayne Vegley, Commissioner, County Commissioner, District 2. I Chelsea Wright, County Auditor Treasurer. Thank you. And this
will be uh together. Um you'll repeat after me. We do solemnly swear that we will support the Constitution that we will support the Constitution the United States of America of the United States of America. Constitution of the state of Minnesota. the
Constitution of the State of Minnesota. And we will perform And we will perform the duties the duties of the board of appeal of the board of appeal and equalization and equalization to the best of our knowledge and ability. The best the best of our knowledge and
ability. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations and thank you. Thank you. We have the um official signature form format. So we'll pass that. All right. Senate can vote to Heidi. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Bob.
All right. Next order of business is electing a meeting chair and secretary. I'll move to nominate Commissioner Marshia Ward for chair. Secretary, is that remind me. Is that one of us or is that? Yep. It's one of you. Um, Miss
Heidi does the work for that. Then nominate Greg Olsson for secretary. I'll second those nominations. Okay, we have a nomination for Commissioner Ward as chair and Commissioner Olsen as secretary. Are there any other nominations? Are there any other
nominations? Are there any other nominations? Hearing none, a vote would be appropriate to cast a unanimous ballot. All in favor? All in favor say I. Nay.
Okay, we are official. uh property owner appeals. Um we did not have anybody contact us. Did anybody um I guess from a staff perspective did anybody um work with anybody individually earlier or anything
or was it a low quiet year? Yes, you can. I want to say it was quiet but on this front. Yeah, you okay. On this on this which surprises me Bob. It was not quiet. We have provided hard copy and
electronic copy about values and sales to people and parties asking this concept. I'm glad we have both formats. We can provide the information we can be very proud of it. When they see that and when they look at the sale prices
there they're just there just isn't to come and talk about it. They're continually going up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. the the report in our uh agenda here. It explains yeah how everything is is has increased. Thank you to the assessor's uh office
staff that helped make this happen and addressing people's concerns. Thank you for that. So do we move on then? Yeah. Yes. Move on to So there is no number four act on property owner appeals. There are no appeals. Um item five, review assessor
2025 report and that's included. Um does anybody from the assessor department want to highlight anything? Okay, please. All right. Second brief. And for the record, state your name and position with Lindsay
Brand. I'm just an appraiser in the assessor's office. Yes. Thank you. Um first, no tax court appeals this year, so we're happy about that. uh the sales ratios that it kind of glances over. I just wanted to touch base. It says, you know, any township within six sales or more that's included
in your packets there. Uh the pre-adjusted values are when the sale happened and then the values uh to the value we had previously. So the final sales ratios after the adjustments were made. Uh just for clarification there.
Um, countywide though, just touching on what values did change. The countywide minimum at 5%. Um, values have been going up. We all are aware of that. Alura was specific at 7% for residentials. Saratoga Township did go
up 17. Uh, the sales in that area quite high versus what we had on them. Uh, Wilson Township was 10 and the city of Winona was seven as well. Uh, a for the county went up 10% across the board if
it's tillable. Pasture went up five and timber went up 15. Uh, our timber sales in the county have really gone up. People have been buying them for hunting purposes. Um, and they're coming from, you know, Twin Cities and whatnot and and they're willing to pay a lot more.
So, right now our timber is at 5,400 an acre. Our top tier tillable went from 10,000 I believe. Yeah, 10,000 to 11. So that's at 11. Um I believe you have a breakout in there as well as for other
counties in our area. I think that was in that uh commercial properties, city of Winona was 10%. Uh city of Udica that did go up 20%. We don't normally have a lot of commercial sales in Udica, but our
five-year trend uh showed that in Udica. There was a few there's a few, but we did the five-year trend and it it it was necessary. Um you can't just leave it hanging out there after so many years of not enough sales and it's just always being low.
And the city of St. Charles on average uh the commercial went up 21.6% 6% and that was uh a lot of what was quintiled and then also the mom and pop shops down the main drag. We were very low on all
of those. Um let's see. Can I interrupt for a second? Absolutely. I think I know the answer but no one's watching but in case this is recorded. So these increases have nothing to do with taxes. This is just just values. Just market values. Correct. Perfect. Yep. But I do have a
question. So this is always based on sales. How does the influx of new housing affect? Does it have any effect on on if you have somebody who's uh a builder and you on you know you're building your own
house to sell like a contractor builds a model home. Yeah. Sells it. Yes. That's included in there as well. The private party that buys a parcel of land and builds a house that isn't considered a sale or anything. So it wouldn't impact Nope. Yeah. I mean eventually it may.
Yeah, it does have to be an arms length transaction. So, you know, no relative sales, no odd financing, you know, contract for deeds with no minimum payments. Those we don't count because those really would throw off the ratios high and low. So, we don't we don't
count those. All right. Thank you. Um, just of note, I wanted to note that the homestead threshold had gone up for taxes payable this year. went from 4139 for residential property to 517,200. So those people who had higher valued
properties are now getting a little homestead credit as well. Um new construction for the county as a whole, we had 27,249,377 in new construction in the county. Uh if you guys do want I can get that broken
down per city and township if if you want it for your own areas that's an option. I I well I know the townships always love this type of information. So if it's not too much of a you know I probably have one back there I can get you after the meeting. Okay because um
you know uh Bob does a report and goes to the townships and they all absolutely really and civic organizations and everything. So, um, so you said what? 27 million. 27,249,37 in, uh, residential or new construction as a whole. Oh, new construction. Okay.
Yep. So, everything commercial, industrial, everything. Everything. Yep. Um, I did want to mention that the areas up for quintile this year, uh, Whitewater Township will be done as a whole. uh the city of Minasca,
Saratoga Township, St. Charles Township, city of Lewon, uh half of the city of Good View, excuse me, half of neighborhood 4 in Winona or Winona City. So Winona City's broken up into four neighborhoods. Uh so
half of neighborhood 4, a quarter of neighborhood 2, and a quarter of neighborhood one will be done. But those aren't precincts. It's just four neighborhoods. Correct. Okay. And what what that terminology quint quintile? What's when we visit every five years
physical visit? Yep. Okay. Um and then because we do have a lot of uh newer appraisers and we kind of switched up the areas a couple years back. Um myself I'm in charge of
Richmond, Dresback, Dakota, Lac Crescent, St. Charles City, St. Charles Township, Saratoga, uh, countywide commercial and apartments. Uh, Stephanie, who's here with me tonight, she's in charge of Good View City, Stockton City, Hillsdale
Township, Lewon City, Udica City, Udica Township, Alura City, Norton Township, Minnesota City, and Fremont. Uh Heather, she's in charge of Winona City neighborhood 3 and four, Rolling
Stone City, Rolling Stone Township, Mount Vernon, city of Minasca, Whitewater, Elba, uh Elba Township and Elba City, Warren Township, and she does the countywide mobile parks. And then our two newer appraisers, one is John,
he also goes by JR. He uh is in charge of Winona City neighborhood 2, Homer Township, New Hartford Township, and Pleasant Hill. Scott, he is in charge of Winona City Neighborhood 1, Wilson
Township, Hart Township, and Whiskeyway Township. So, those are bug you for that list. I still got the really old one on my wall. Absolutely. Absolutely. A question for the employee safety and the public safety. So when you know you're trying
to go to their house and make a a visit and everything and it is during just business hours, correct? We do keep it up until 4:30 the best we can. We do try to if somebody's like, I don't even get
off work till 5, that's kind of the latest we'll push it. Um, and at that point we usually are in contact with the rest of the team so we know where we're going. Well, I I'm it may seem trivial, but how do we do we have a a a vest or a something that says
Winona County? Why I bring this up is when Amazon really started delivering out in the in the in the rural area, strange cars would pull into the yard with no identification, no knowledge of, you know, who these people were coming into, you know, a a deadend township
road. And I did tell and some young ladies and I said, "You really need to be careful because people don't know who's coming, you know, to the door." And then after a while, I did see that they had like a vest on or they put a sticker on their car. There was at least a minimal amount of identification of
who is coming to my front door. So, we all do wear our badges, badges with that. Um, I mean, I I don't know what we would could could do or should do, but I just I want everybody to be safe. And then I also want the public to know who's knocking on their door. Um, looks
like the young lady back there. Yeah, for the most part, we drive the county cars. Okay. I know uh originally like even when I started appraising um when we struggled to get a county vehicle sometimes we drive our own cars but then it's even it's a little more awkward and then
people don't really want to let you in when when you're pulling up in your own vehicle looks weird. Yeah. And and I said even me as a community member, if I had somebody pull up in their own car, even though they had a badge, I'd be like, "Okay, yeah, I'm let my house." Well, and so I think we're all maybe
going to be on a little higher uh alert with the happenings and stuff. So, anything you can do to protect yourselves and then also protect the the public so they know um give it some thought. Yeah, maybe we can put into the paper
which areas are being done. Maybe that would Yeah, that would be beneficial. Or put a alert or the news uh the radio the Yeah. You know, the radio saying, you know, the Winona County assessors are going to be in these neighborhoods. Yeah. Is it is it common in your in your
industry to have any kind of like shirts or I know it depends on what what time of the season if it's a coat or whatever. I'm not thinking like great big FBI or something like that, but that's something that or is is that too far out there over over No, I don't think that's a horrible idea. I do know
some counties as well do um postcard mailings, but mailings are Yeah, they're very very expensive. I think if you can use the media, you know, to our best bet and you said we have a um Facebook page
and something. Okay. All right. Um again, the key is to everybody be safe and knowledgeable. Absolutely. Okay. All right. And and everybody who does if if you go to a property and you're just getting
the the yuck feels. Yeah. Just you don't need to knock on the door. You know, you can leave the tag on a fence or, you know, somewhere that it's visible. Um I've probably had one maybe in the county ever that's like
just one. That's impressive. Well, the whole thing I campaigning, you meet some you meet some aggressive dogs, you know, dogs. You do sound certain properties that you don't approach and
things like that. Still, I don't know about the news. We did have a couple when if if the police department was worried about a specific, they'd try and give us a heads up. Okay. All right. Yeah. Okay. Um, that's all I
had for that. All right. Thank you for what you do. I know it's not always a popular see coming, but it's important. Thank you for that. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Okay. Act on assessor's consent change list, but we
don't have any on. I do have them individually. Sorry about that. Um, okay. There's three consent changes. Two are for St. Charles City and one is for Winona City.
Uh the first one I'll give you a parcel number. It's 29.099.0131. That's at 955 Brown Street. Um that one we did a no change in the city of St. Charles board meeting because of the timing. Uh I met
with or actually Stephanie and Heather had gone and did a walk through right before the meeting. So we didn't have enough time to do any changes before the meeting. Um was what was the issue? They thought it was too high. The value was too high. So once we reviewed
it um and kind of they walked through it, I reviewed it with the two appraisers who walked through it. It's it's the large house in the new area by as you're coming into town if you're familiar on the right hand side. It's
it's a non-conforming residence for that area. So, it was at 686,100 and I had lowered it to 69,800. So, it was lowered 76,300 because of non-conforming. Um, do you have any questions
specifically to that one? No, I get if if it was looked at with multiple eyes. Yeah. Uh the next one that was in the city of St. Charles, parcel number 29.010. 02 or excuse me, 0520.
The address is 406 East 14th Street. Uh I did a walkthrough right before the meeting as well. Uh there was quite a bit of the property that was nonfunctional within the house. Um,
and I did lower that value from 153,700 to 98,400. Um, when I say nonfunctional, like the upstairs bathroom was not usable. There's a lot of mold and roof breakdown which was coming down to the second
floor as well. Okay. Um, one of those kind of issues. And the third prop any questions on that one? Was it being inhabited? Uh there was a gentleman living there. Yes. Okay. So when you mention mold and everything, are we do we take any actions for public
health to be notified? He is working with a couple of different um I don't know what you call facilities not not not SEMA but there's another one. Oh okay. I think out of Wabashawa he was mentioning but he is working with a
couple them that does rehab. Okay. Yes. He's working with a couple different places. Okay. Good. Um, the third one is in the city of Winona. It's parcel number 32455110. It's at 451 Huff Street. Uh, that's the coffee shop that had the fire. Uh, the
fire was October 1st of 24. Um, the inspector walked through and it does need to be torn down. So, we went with a flat fee. So, it's got still has the land value obviously, but the building value because there is something sitting on that property
was 10,000. So, it went from 224,800 down to 77,200. They are planning on rebuilding it. So, once that happens, then we adjust accordingly. Are they going to tear it down? It looks like they're working on it right now. They were. And then the
inspector came through because yeah, there was like um Tyveac type of paper around the outside. Yeah. Used to have been the board of the Lutheran Campus Center. They wanted to completely rebuild it, remodel it, but they discovered all kinds of issues. Oh, and
the insurance only covers I I won't know I I know the numbers, but the X amount was going to cost this much to rebuild it. So, they're kind of stuck right now. The hope is to rebuild it like $300 $300,000 difference between the insurance
estimate and so the building was in bad shape regardless of the fire. Yep. In terms of it wasn't just like a 100 years old is 15 Bob maybe you know me it's 150 years old or even older days. It had mean didn't even get ice cream there when I was a kid. There's parts of it
that where the foundation is just rock pushed together etc. Typical. Well, it's even more so than like, but now that you've had the fire and the water damage, that's going to cause those to accelerate the depreciation of that foundation. Sure. Okay. All right. So,
those were all taken care of by internal staff. Yes. Uh we don't need to take action or we just need You still would need to vote on them as a Yes, you can change those. Okay. To approve the assessor's consent recommendations.
Second. Okay. We have a motion to accept the assessor's recommendation on the three parcels that were discussed. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Post nay. All right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Uh
any other business to come before the board of equalization? We do have to hold this meeting until 7. We adjourn before 7 p.m. Motion to adjurnn at 7:01. Did you bring Trix or something? Elsie
or Bob? Anything else to discuss? Elsie or Bob? Bob, what's happening in your rule? We got to kill nine minutes. You got the floor. Eight minutes now. No, don't give them eight minutes. It'll take 20. Oh, I always like what Bob has to say.
We can give you the midyear report, please. Oh, did you get some? Okay. All right. was going to be at the uh board in the next couple weeks, but you can just get an early shot at it. Sneak preview. Yes, Marina already has us, so she's
ahead of us. Be at the airport at 7:05. So, which one? Minneapolis. Minneapolis. I drive fast. You got to go. Thank you. Thank you. I think kind of a highlight is that
we're a couple of sales of the one homes are we think that that's a bit of an accomplishment a great big one but every home to us is just very very valuable fact that we may have a couple maybe a
couple more move that every one of them makes a difference counts. What's the interest rate? six, seven. Hasn't homes gone up? Hasn't the interest rate interest rate go back up? Seems to be some
specials out there, right? Real close. Bob, I got a question. I just on the last bullet point on the first page. That's exactly the opposite of what every thing I says. That's the opposite. We're losing
population because people are moving to the metro. Is it Winona County or what is this? The county. Well, this says this this Winona means county, right? Yes. Okay. It predicts we're going to lose 5,700 people in population by 2045. That's the uh state demographic office.
And there's several things in play and one of them is just the average number of inhabitants in home. Um today it's barely three. Not long ago was And that was saying not that many years
ago that that makes a big difference to start with. Secondly, during the consolidation of farms, one farm home after another did not have an operating source and when the economics will look at
their money ahead to demolish the home and you know remove that sewer system and what has it done? left student population issues especially in the Lewon school district and that's where a lot of consolidation is taking place. We
certainly like to have a few more students in the Lona district and it goes that way through most of South Southeast Minnesota. There's a there's just a whole whole number of things that are in play. So I I met with Kenneth Jans at Winona State
talking about student population where they're stable but they expect a decrease because the graduating classes in their uh area of capture are going down. So there less people to go to school.
So that's a big number. Well, way back in 2010, Winona State was several thousand higher and that and that answer population. I want to say that they are doing very very well when we look across
the country as a whole. Just holding a line as an accomplishment and I think they've done a little bit better than that, right? Yeah. Their 10ear outlook is the other um but aren't they think they're building the new dorm? That's that's that's to make it more attractive
attractive for them to come. Kids are going to Mano instead because they're air conditioned. uh in in all of the activity that goes on during a sale, this isn't one of the questions that's asked, but we can determine some of it
indirectly, and that is we have had more homes in the past year with cash than we have had in any year as far as we could determine. Now, this isn't big science, but one of the things is you don't see a
mortgage. Well, I kind of kind of given you that probably it's a cash sale. And then um beyond that, we've had a lot of people come into us and they're proud that they came from places like Los Angeles. They bought the home of their
dreams here for onethird of what they sold their private house for. You know, maybe that's the newest uh you know, effort to some cash from the family. But many of the people just really really
proud of it. One of the people um I asked if he'd come to the civic association and just tell us all about it and he did. He was thrilled to do that and I liked it because it wasn't secondhand from me. He was there and they had that night
people at the biggest a lot of builders. There's people that in many ways are somehow related to the real estate industry and they take take an interest in for him to tell us you know what he had you know his life what
he had gone through and fact that he came here and so what about there's a trend more in the metro area because I you know I spend time up there with my kids of these real estate companies coming in we'll buy your cash you know cash deal you don't have to fix it up
you don't have to take the trash out you don't have to do Are we seeing any of that happening around here? We're getting postcards and other information on the mail. It's hard to know exactly, but they would they wouldn't be high sales. They'd be low sales and all ours
are way over at the Winona City Council meeting last night. They passed the ADU ordinance um which is going to affect this side of Highway 61. So the most dense area of the city of Winona will now have the ability to have
mother-in-law apartments or but they could all be rental. So basically they cut every house into a duplex you could essentially every house. Oh really? That's big. That's big for the city. Uh because they they had it restricted. They had it so restricted by so much
percent for per block. They still 30% still intact, but you could take a small house and cut it into two houses. Are they just getting pressure to do that? I mean people the argument against it was that it's going to take firsttime
home buyers the market away from them because investors will buy them to turn into an investment property in the county housing study and also to some extent in the city there were requests for smaller homes especially
for family members that were you know the family's gone kind with the big house and they would like to move to smaller ones. We haven't seen a lot of buildings so far, but we've seen some remodeling. In fact, on the street, you notice that some of the smallest homes, which
usually didn't fit that that kind of care, are now getting it because they are valuable more and there are people wanting to buy them. But what's a what's our foreclosure rate? I mean, none. Wow. foreclosure, you'd have to talk to the
sheriff. Oh, okay. Cuz they they do those sales and then they still have to come through. But, um, yeah, there's only I looked right before we came here cuz I was looking on a different case. Um, there's only two sheriff sales recorded. Yeah. This year, it used to be
significantly higher than that. Um, sure. Well, you go to Minneapolis, St. Paul, or any of the suburbs, there's a lot of them, right? You know, it's just a different Okay. Did we are we know Chelsea's the official time keeper? I've been asked one question a number of
times. I tell him it's a city issue, but main square two that greenhouse is do you know like there's greenhouse? Um pointing over there. Um I should be pointing over here. I'm sorry. Well, the one single house that's sitting house. Do we know what's going on there? I
don't want to sell. It's being surrounded by all the the design is built around that house. They really have designed to build a structure. They have some advertising out and that house is in the picture. The person wants to stay there with them
with a they're going to build Yeah. Just there's a third block that there's acquisition taking place in and that block has has some homes that have value. and we're hoping that beautiful.
So, when is this new I I took a walk around the neighborhood here. When is that new apartment uh behind the movie theater behind the movie theater? When is that estimated to be done? It's It was done more than I thought. I didn't realize how much the building had been done. Fall, is it? Yeah. Fall or
spring? It didn't get right down there. So, the owners of that greenhouse aren't going to sell. Apparently not. Crazy. Looking at what Main Square Are we still being taped? Looking at what Main Square is being is paying people. Yeah. It's hard
to say and believe that they didn't sell. They have principles. Yeah. Same thing with that. more building. Those don't get those are thrown off the assemblage. Those don't get counted in the ratio either. Oh,
okay. They don't get counted. I did presentation for one of the churches and and there have been several of them. They're they're trying to have community information programs as part of as as to
some of the activities of the church. And there was a longtime senior that came to the program. They ed about 24 to 25 people. They had 47 and this this um party she was first to speak and she said, "Am I going to lose
my home?" And she was the volunteers. I said, "Did somebody say that you're going to lose?" She said, "I saw those prices that are being paid. Don't tell them." She said, "It took me a minute to find what she was talking about." After we talked for a little bit and a couple
of the people there also offered some they will help you. Um she said I invite her to come in and visit us and visit the assessor. Um she she said she was very happy to get the information that we had. we had to handle. I also
want to mention tonight John Nino had I'm not sure how he's doing but when we did the handouts he paid for paper right [Music] and we did that and I talked with Marie
about it oh so it was recently just very recently stroke okay I had a chance with Bill to all of us information. Yeah. Yeah. City of Louis, thank you, Bob. Okay. So, we'll have the
same presentation again later. Yes. Yes. We'll have a couple other points, but I think we got the heart of it. Okay. So, yeah, we fulfilled. I'll second the motion. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Olson, second by Commissioner Vley to adjourn. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I.
We'rejourned. Thank you.