your name came up in the awards we just wanted to let you know that I signed it twice declined the cup at the bottom i I'm not sure yeah I don't know like
that but the public may No it's a valid question closed captions how did your uh know about the ringer you feel welcomed
morning Marc so is such a complic it is such a complicated ones you have to stay clear it's not a single thing it's many many you know yes summarize it,000 words
and there are some things where I think I think I understood that but honestly I need a second go to make notes because sometimes there's just not enough room on here so it's just you can do whatever works for you one
more experience any other experience where they pulled on so if they pull an item and they'll read that item right okay so then it'll say that XY was
pulled able to keep moving through and that's what they'll say to the I know today so that's why I'm asking people um I'm going to ask that Chuck read the
consent items for training so that he can fill in training me to read you can but okay is that as other other duties as assigned yes okay well it'll be a test can I ask for
it in an Irish accent i'll [Laughter] try you could just have Siri or somebody read it you know technology Yeah really really the
person oh this would be to do looks oh nobody else here uses Apple stuff right you guys are all for the county i gotta find a Apple phone i lose things do you use
Apple Chuck just my phone okay honestly go back it doesn't work as well with Excel so I don't No no but I I' I'd literally lose emails i got to go downstairs when I put them
in folders they're gone i've searched them like you know search all you know put their name in and everything and it just they're gone and then the the phone just recently too the phone did something different too the
phone deleted passwords you know or there's a new app you have to download for pass you know all your passwords on the iPhone i mean it's Yeah it's on here now yeah it's in here but it's not on
the phone i'd be I'd be putting a call in or two before you did anything yeah well I don't have anything seriously you think anything's protected if they want it they'll get it i mean this cyber security how many people ever stole file
cabinets you know how many times do we have anybody go in and steal a file cabinet seriously well you know those Russian spies they had the little teeny tiny camera they'd watch those movies we didn't have a problem yeah we didn't have a problem before all this
electronics believe me didn't you get your Didn't you do your taxes they all They want it all anyway when are they scheduled when are the taxes scheduled to go out when are the taxes property tax next week uh today oh today
and for Kathy they are on schedule so they should go out today i'm talking about Yeah and [Music] some just Oh yeah yeah first thing I do is go look to see
if it's sensed because I wasn't ready i know you get a little Yes are you still happy yes this is awesome 911 trillion dollars you don't uh you don't make money you make money now this is when you make your money yeah you only
lose it if you sell it it is great hope it goes down another five it's not that great for my 401k only if you're withdrawing or my pension plan only if you're withdrawing yeah well when you're retired that's what you're doing that's kind of the only
choice you have little bits little bits when she goes up you'll be happy it always goes up right the crazy part is if you look at 2022 and 23 yeah 2022 and 23 the stock market was much lower than what it is right now it wasn't just a couple years ago it was
significantly lower yeah yeah this is great you talk to any anybody wealthy Warren Buffett any of the people that mastered this this is this Well you saw it six months ago he was dumping stock already he knew it was coming and so you watch you watch watch
the big boys and they knew it was coming on the on the flip side when this thing goes out awesome tracker yep this is the key i already put phone calls in starting got to have
liquid money to do it i'm doing got her tied up in toys and cell phones and everything else yeah you're not going to not going to handle Yes so part of what we do is Yeah if you look at a cost percentage
you had a 2% removal on like a 401k for a period of a year over what the expected rebound would be people are going to make money hand over fist coming up they just everybody panics now is common you know the the people that don't pay attention to the market and
just look at it at face value panic but everybody that follows money and understands money this is this is where they make their money it's the reciprocal yeah and then if you look at how many times the market's corrected 30 40% it's a lot
i usually Yeah so people educated themselves they'd be happier people follow mainstream media and get upset and panic and especially how about that baseline came I don't watch oh that kid from Texas got feel pretty
crappy today unfortunately Florida came through it was a last minute he went up for go midnight he went up for a shot could have could have been a hero and he just he he and he bounced it and then he couldn't touch it
against somebody else so he could touch Just yeah I I leave my office till midnight i went home i like it i work 80 hours a week speed why up and down just awesome and
the passing it just it they're great things i mean it is it is pretty amazing back in the 90s in high school I used to follow like the NBA a little bit more like Jordan and all that you know that was fun back then yeah but now it just doesn't excite me baseball is even kind of or especially the Twins right now
they just they just don't have a like a minor league team almost it's disappointing it being 9:00 we'll call to order the Winona County Board please join with the pledge of allegiance algiance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all morning everyone morning beautiful sunshiny morning a little
gonna be in the 70s this week get people too excited things are coming alive it's kind of encouraging to see spring and all the things budding out with me coming home um we start our meeting excuse me
i had grandkids last week i have a feeling I have impact of grandkids coming here i think I've got one okay um we'll start with our public comment is there anyone wishing to address the county board you have your two minutes please state your name and address
chassity Saraki 1254 West 3rd Street in Winona i currently have 36 open unfulfilled data requests pending with the county the majority of these requests are connected to the data request for cast vote records of the 2022 general election in Winona County
which I originally submitted shortly after the election that year i have to date only received a portion of that data i also have cast vote record requests pending for the 2024 primary and 2024 general elections as well this
data is considered public record per Minnesota statute 206.84 845 i have written inquiries through the county's data request portal as well as made phone calls following up on the progress of the fulfillment of my
requests and yet still I wait my last inquiry on these outstanding requests was made on February 25th of this year an inquiry that has not been responded to minnesota statute 13.03 subdivision 2 section A states the
responsible authority in every government entity shall establish procedures consistent with this chapter to ensure that requests for government data are received and complied with in an appropriate and prompt manner i do not consider the length of time I have
been waiting for this public data to be in keeping with this statute i recognize that the wording in the statute is quite vague and may be interpreted in myriad ways that is why I propose that the board draft a policy with clear straightforward timing guidelines for
responding to and fulfilling data requests this will give county staff clearer parameters to work from as well as give the public clearer expectations on when data may be reasonably received this will also foster more trust in the public as to the efficacy and
transparency of their county government thank you also wishing to address the county board good morning so Amber Braun 19740 County Road 25 Winona Minnesota so here to represent a couple neighboring residents
and land owners including myself uh across the road from Greg and Brandy Gaml's 1979 uh who are petitioning for a conditional slashinterim use permit uh to establish a dog boarding facility on their home
property so this party that I'm speaking on behalf of is in support of this uh permit being granted for uh for the gambles to be able to use their land for personal economic development opportunities uh and there's just to be
clear no opposition from this party for granting this permit uh on the March 20th planning commission meeting there was some information provided uh I don't believe it was attached in the board packet but it was in the um the notes
from the planning commission meeting and in there was just some different information on um just recommendations on different soundproofing precautions um something that's unique about this
situation uh some of the environmental conditions I guess to take into consideration is in this particular part of the county where the business is being proposed there's minimal trees minimal structures minimal change in elevation um so abrupt changes in sound
do travel exceptionally well compared to other parts of the county um and then other factors to include is just it being smaller uh smaller part uh land about three-ish acres and other similar facilities have about um 20 to 60 acres
to work with um so that information was presented uh Greg took the information in and was very carefully considered it drafted a new layout plan and that's really appreciated the only thing that wasn't uh I guess addressed was just a
looking at a capacity for that facility um because it's not regulated by state or federal government those kind of facilities aren't um right now there could be as many dogs as could fit on that property um so we don't think that
the GML would do that they've been really considerate neighbors they take great care of their own dogs uh just looking to to set a capacity so that a uh a business that's anticipated to be ran very well can just have some some
guidelines should there ever be an issue we'd have something to go off in the future so again in support of this permit being granted um in support of of the GML being able to to utilize their land um yeah so thank
you anyone else wishing to address the Winona County Board online we have a different stream good morning we just wanted to take the opportunity to introduce you to Brian brian Berthu is my name the new county
feed lot officer so he's been with us about a month now we just want to take the opportunity to introduce you welcome Brian thank you very much can you give us a little like who you are where you come from to accomplish in the next
I'd love to um so I grew up in Andover Minnesota uh it's a exerb of the Twin Cities north side i moved down to Winona for college um went back to the Twin Cities for a while and
now I've moved back here um most of my background is in uh geology and GIS work so um I worked for a couple years as a GIS technician doing mapping and such um I have very little experience in the agricultural science world so I've been
doing my best to uh remedy that deficiency i've been talking to a lot of folks at the Soil and Water Conservation District and I'm working to build connections in the egg community um yesterday I spoke with an hour or for an
hour with uh Carly my predecessor and it sounds like she did really good work uh building trust with agricultural producers and I really hope to follow in her footsteps there um I suppose in the next year I just hope to continue her work and make sure that the feed lot
regulations are well administered and yeah I hope to do a good job thank you welcome thank you you know most cows probably have chips in them so you could GIS great u We have a different screen i
don't see any on screen participation okay and one last time then is there anyone else wishing to address the county board right thank you i'll move on to our agenda approval of the county board meeting minutes from March 25th 2025 so
moved i'll second by Commissioner Ellison second by Commissioner Vley to approve the meeting minutes any discussion all those in favor say I name meeting minutes approved um item four acknowledge the receipt of approved
committee meeting minutes from uh planning commission February 20th 2025 so move again i'll second that motion by Commissioner El by Commissioner Vagley to approve the acknowledgement of the meeting minutes from planning February
20 2025 any discussion all those in favor say I name um item five consent comments and approval agenda commissioner Bley comments and if possible when we go through the
consent items I don't want to pull it maybe in item 6.13 just a quick comment as we're going through 69 uh several comments at the end i'd like to pull 615 just for clarity and public
uh knowledge okay 615 okay so we'll make 615 [Music] um 7.0 that's okay commissioner Wilson nothing for me nope
nothing thank you okay i I do want to pull um 6.1 for uh clarification and comments so we'll make that 71 that then be appropriate for the amended
agenda move second motion made by Commissioner Olsen second by Commissioner Elling to approve the amended agenda any discussion those in favor say I i nay approved all right uh Mr elliot going to
be on a trial run here reading our consent business please okay 6.1 was pulled um and moved to general business 6.2 approve amended conditional use permit for Clear Crest Farm LLC
6.3 Approve conditional use permit for Beth Turner and Aaron Jeffson 6.4 Four approve recommendation to appoint human resources director Todd Sadler 6.5 approve applying for
community living infrastructure grant 6.6 Appoint interim planning and environmental services director 6.7 approve LG220 gambling application for exempt
permit Pwick Mill Inc 6.8 8 approve agreement with Election Systems and Software LLC 6.9 Approve renewal of purchase of service and business associate agreements with Frederick guardianship
services 6.10 Approve professional services and business associate agreement with Melissa McLuren for professional consultation and reflective supervision services for children and family unit
6.11 approve resolution and detour agreement 1059385 with mindot 6.12 award bid for 2025 chip seal project to Scott construction inc 6.13
award bid for CASA 25 bridge replacement to structural specialties incar one of the things that we have been doing for years and we will continue to do but it's seems to always be um the
elephant in the room is um helping families children with mental health issues with chemical dependency issues and so the more preventative work we do and we have our committee um u through early intervention and prevention as
well as our juvenile justice committee um and working with health and human services we work together but there are times when things happen as Miss Volti was saying and Mr elliot that we can't control you know that if if a child has
a meltdown if a um a family's you know suffering from u mental health issues and or chemical dependency and usually both then we got to get those kids out of that so yeah okay so we have a motion and a second all those in favor
say I nay okay approved all right um to address that then 7 uh 6.1 that is 7.01 01 um that is the interim use permit for uh the GML
for their dog reading or dog boarding I'm sorry boarding um there was a new document uh provided um in our county board packet that wasn't uh that came out of uh the
planning commission meeting and there were three um three things listed here and I apologize i suppose I should tell you which page that it's true north animal boarding is this headline um and it's implied and we always say in
our planning and such oh everything that anybody says when they're testifying we're going to um you know adhere to which is fine but I think things need to be a little more black than white and it's easier to page 41 41 yep
um so I would like to in the conditions add um the number as a condition the one up to update uh have up-to-date vaccinations required as I said in leash uh coming in and leaving um I would like
number two to be uh and that was provided um that that's an absolute that they flipped the building and put the runs on the west side and um um the location and there was a new map provided which I think is what uh the neighbors uh would greatly appreciate
and then number three the perimeter fences of outdoors could be no it should be made of wood or material for privacy and absorb um so it shouldn't be you know could is well maybe I'll do it maybe I won't i I definitely want it as a should because that was a big concern
of the noise uh I know living out in the country even when I got hills and valleys you can hear animals for many miles so I think it should it it has to be a should be made uh of wood or private and the privacy absorb the filtering the sound and restrict the
site and then number four um I know the GML had said in their testimony that they personally have I think I read seven dogs or whatever and then I read in some of the literature that was provided that really in this type of operation that maybe it's one per 10 you
know one person per 10 uh animals dogs so I would like to set uh at at a maximum of 30 um that they can board and house and if that needs to be changed in the future I mean these can be adjusted and permitted but this way we have a definitive number that we're working
with and they're working with and um uh I think that makes it a more clear-cut specific uh interim use permit and I think is Mr g almost there um I think what you did was outstanding and I want it to be a successful business but I
also my personal feeling is that the new kids on the block come in and they want this this and this and we try to accommodate that but we also have to accommodate the people that have lived there a long time that they they do need to make adjustments to their lifestyle and their their use of their property too so I think we need to minimize that
so I think you have done that with these conditions so I would like to add those as um the conditions to the IUP madam Chair yes can I ask Mr gro a question sure yeah you'd have to come to the the podium please
um so I see that on page uh 20 it's on page 24 of our packet but that you have indicated that your you estimate your full operational capacity to be 40 dogs and 15 cats um but Commissioner Ward is suggesting that they would she would
like to limit that to 30 dogs how are you comfortable with that um the 40 was you know intended as max capacity we're not going to start out with 40 dogs obviously
um but if uh it can be adjusted in the future to show that we can care for that many animals and we're not having complaints and such um I would hope it
could be changed and um the other three conditions that are proposed which come from a letter that you sent to us about three additional things you would agree to are yes that commissioner word is saying she would like to make as conditions to the permit are you okay with those yes the
fencing and stuff okay thanks your gohead um to get it up on the table then for discussion i'll move to approve the um is it a contingency permit in general i I'll move to approve the IUP with the is
it four now it would be four four uh adjustments that Commissioner Ward mentioned the three that are on the letter and then clarifying the upper limit would be 30 for now that could be adjusted later yes thank you um for our staff whoever
is covering the is it um Miss Luther um is uh how do they have to come back for a second inter news permit to raise the number to 10 i I'm just 10 to 10 more right to raise it by another 10
yeah because I sort of Well I hate I don't want to really make them do that if I would if I could see they already have so many of their own dogs and then they're adding this many so my concept of 30 takes so that they're still allowed to have their own dogs but that
puts it up close to I think 40 animals and that cats they're Yeah they're they're they're not that noisy well mine can make a lot of noise if they don't like each other um and it's an eerie eerie sound a cat fight good old cat
fight uh so that was my intent of going 30 and not restricting their own personal herd or flock or whatever you call a bunch of dogs sure so they would be amending this permit if it were to be approved it wouldn't be a new but they would still come to the board for approval and it would still have to go
through the planning commission and still have to come through us and they would have to pay the full fee i don't know what the amendment fee is off the top of my head shaking his head yes right there okay yep and oh well and can you cl clarify what
commissioner Ward is asserting that it would be 30 boarded animals plus their seven or their seven count or however many they have count towards the total 30 wouldn't count for their commercial operation of a boarding facility 30 would be the commercial boarding facility correct it wouldn't include
their personal animals and it's 30 dogs correct yeah dogs we put 15 cats in I guess that's what I just wanted to make a comment that And thank you for the concerns of protecting people that are in a particular area already um you know we see this in the
industry um and then the flip side of this we see the opposite and I just want to bring light to where we see people moving into rural or uh uh sectors that um there's businesses already operating farming businesses that we uh I know
several instances where people have complained in other parts of the country and uh ultimately won and farmers shut down they had to quit dairy operations and different things and uh they were they were there first they just feasibly couldn't meet certain standards so I
think that this bus goes both ways we need to protect people that are already there um but also be respectful of what needs to happen and that's a two-way street so um I just want to bring light that this this happens on both sides so thank you for looking at one side and also for looking at the other side that
we can continue to all kind of live in harmony and uh just continue to you know uh bring up the respect value of what the agriculture sector does for the economic driver in all these counties we have a motion to add the conditions
uh to the IUP any further discussion i think we need a second second oh okay i'll second it was made by Commissioner Begley seconded by Commissioner Nelson to approve the IUT any further discussion all those in favor say I i
oppos nay okay approved i will have to a comment though I do have to make and and I'm I hope this is a very successful business and it works into the neighborhood but I am surprised i got no calls on we just went through all this and and to me um health safety and
general welfare of you know was it the dogs we were worried about a couple weeks ago or was it the people and now it seems like it's this facility isn't an issue but I said how traumatic is it to take a dog from a home throw them in a kennel with all kinds of strange dogs
strange sounds strange noises strange environment and not create chaos in that animal's life i mean I I I just am appalled i even called our friend Anne Olsen and I said "You don't have a concern over this kind of operation
huh?" And she said "Well I wasn't aware of it." And uh I'm surprised she isn't online this morning and such but it's kind of in my mind it's a little bit of hypocrisy so that's more comment we'll move on thank you all right uh now we're
into 7.1 approved uh review approved draft cannabis business registration ordinance page 157 it appears that way yes make a comment on this yes so before you get going Mr cr i just you
know I've had very little feedback from any constituents in my district on this and arbitrarily we we know that we've got a minimum obligation by the state um you know we had to kind of pick a number that to
me pro business but also look at the moral culture aspect of what it is that this is about um so I was very surprised we didn't hear any and we are getting some feedback now as to certain townships noting not wanting anything to do which I respect that 100% that's
that's the township to me is what we represent is the communities and the townships that we that we uh um help out so uh with that I I think we just I just wanted to put it on record that we arbitrarily didn't want to limit business but at the same time understand the moral uh conflict that exists with
this so I'm open for any more and I encourage anybody that's listening that's part of the community or township boards and hopefully we can I can make the Wednesday board if I can get u back here in time for that to get a little more input and the sec first question I had is one that statement the first question I had again most of this is
just off from state guidelines and I I I was looking for maybe any red in here that might have changed anything is this pretty well stamped it's a lot to read through yeah I I uh the the changes aren't noted uh it's
from it's based on the model ordinance issued by the Office of Cannabis Management we did make some changes and we made some changes based on your input for uh from last meeting um and I could just go through what those what those changes are or explain anything that uh
you would like more information on yeah it'd be really helpful to do this in again not that excited to do a job but if you could do them in red that would be really helpful for me because then I don't have to go and look for what I don't know so yeah thank you i appreciate that yeah and um uh and along
the lines with your earlier comment I I think we're putting these in place because we have to have something in place and I I I suggest the board revisit this after another uh after some time has passed or or after things are in
operation or you get more feedback and identify some issues that that might exist uh because this is all new to everybody and so it's hard to predict what the what the outcomes will be um I did want to update you on uh
timetables so last Friday the administration rules were uh admin administrative rules were approved and they will go into effect later this month that's basically the last step before the state could start issuing uh
licenses except for uh on last Friday um a judge ruled that the social equity lottery must go ahead the one that was cancelled uh it's OCM plans to seek an expedited dismissal of that case but uh
if that has to go ahead it's going to delay implementation uh I think quite a bit um so we could be seeing applications anywhere from the end of this month until sometime in 2026 is is the range
literally that depending on what happens in that court case and that would be a state mandate that we have to allow it to be open along or how fill me in what they're trying to do here yeah so so this is um the state before we can register
businesses or or are required to register businesses the state has to pre-approve the applicants and so the applicant gets a preliminary approval and then says they might say I want to apply in Winona and they will uh uh submit information to us and work with
us on zoning and get registered under this statute uh and uh where we're at in terms of the delay it's the state being able to pre-approve licenses uh because if they have if they have to again it's
unclear but if they have to hold that lottery they have a lot of logistics to work out I'm sure uh so um so that again is a pretty big unknown change all subject to lawsuits all subject to the courts exactly
um so the the um the primary changes uh that uh the board directed were to allow an additional five up five registrations if there are less than five in the uh rural
areas of of the county which the area that uh the county will be issuing uh registrations for uh so we added a provision uh 2.9 I think is where that is uh
stated and basically what it says is we're going to limit it to to one registration per 12,500 residents unless there's not five registrations in the area that the county is responsible for registering applicants and then we will
make new registrations available up to five but not more than five uh for for businesses in those areas yes can the townships have authority to say yes or no uh
that's I've had different conversations on that i don't I don't I think they should in my opinion I think they should be able to say no if they'd like to yeah i there is a provision in there that that in the statute that suggests that the townships may have some control um
again it's one of those areas that's not 100% clear that was and the other uh last week at the township officer annual meeting that was a question and they had their attorneys from the township and it would yeah it's it's unclear but I I
totally agree there should be an opt out there there are a few townships and I don't know what the mechanism is that they don't want it in their township but I don't know what the opt out clause is or how we do that commissioner our issue would be let's say hypothetically because under state
statute we are required to have x amount or we break the law if everybody says no how then do we make our minimum standard governed by our wonderful state right right and exactly and and the um what we
think is most likely to happen is that all all of the county's requirements will probably be met through registrations in the municipalities and then it will just be those five additional uh that you that you want to uh uh uh provide in the
rural areas um so the uh um sorry depending depending on how you do this you could be in a position where you don't do the additional five and and
you're all the all the registrations for Winona County are covered by the municipalities but with this provision in there you'd have to you'd have to allow those five somewhere first um I was also at the township officers banquet last week and to Commissioner
Ward's point they did have attorneys from the township officers association i'm just going to read two bullet points one of their slides it says "If a township has already delegated to the county but wants to limit its cannabis retail registrations to one the township will need to revoke the resolution if
approved delegating cannabis functions to the county." Second bullet point on that same slide is the township will then need to approve an ordinance limiting the number of retail cannabis registrations in the township to one and prohibiting the issuance of so it sounds like based and I'm not saying that this
is the truth this is their encouraged interpretation that they would if they've delegated it to us then they may need to take it back is that is that fair to say i hope there's a way to avoid that because and and they don't have planning and zoning staff to create these
documents if those two lawyers would I again it's unclear to me commissioner and then commissioner I think were you first think so go ahead commissioner all right so I asked this at the last meeting and the question was Winona City of Winona has no limits let's say they get 10 then we're covered we don't have
to give five more and you said yes and Eric Johnson came to the podium and said no that was incorrect so which is it so the way this is written uh you would be required to make five more available in in the rural areas of
Winona County regardless of how many there are in the rest of the county okay and so is there if we said that was one we're not allowed to say one right no no you could say yeah you could say so it could
be the minimum requirement is one for every 12,500 residents in the entire county and we're allowed to count towards that the municipalities the city of Winona anyone doing their own registrations are allowed to count that so as long as we the county as a whole
is meeting that goal of one per 12,500 people we're not required to issue any more uh uh licenses but if we want to limit we can't do anything less than one per 12,500 uh so if those were covered by
the city of Winona the county if we changed our ordinance as drafted you would not have to add additional registrations but the way it is written now is that it's one per 12,500 unless there's not five in the rural areas of
the county okay so if the city of Winona has 10 then rural Winona County can have zero right well well I'm sorry no one so so you the way this is written is there are five registrations that will be made available for the rural areas of
Winona County regardless of what happens else happens in the state so you're establishing a minimum of five in the rural areas that will be available regardless of what happens in I'm sorry in the county okay I know I don't understand the
answer okay city of Winona has 10 given the way this is written right now how many will there be in rural Winona County so uh the way it is written is that the county shall make additional registrations available to ensure at
least five registrations but no more than five are available for licensed cannabis real uh retailers uh to op to operate solely in the geographic areas in which Winona County has authority to issue
registrations so that 12,500 goal could be met and there could there would have to be five more made available if there if there's not five in the rural areas now this is totally on the board this is not a state requirement this was just based on your last meeting so if the
city has 10 rural Winona County will also have five yes okay thank you Mr el currently what was proposed and I was under the impression that I flipped it in my head imagine if none of the municipalities had it we would still
have to make the minimum 125 does that is that correct which is why the five came into play to at least cover let's just say none of the municipalities do anything we still have to allow five permits in the county is that correct well the the uh the five permits I I
believe was uh uh Commissioner Ward's suggestion to to um not take a business opportunity away from What I'm asking Mr is let's just say nobody does it we have to allow five permits in the county to meet the
minimum state standard right and so the the the the catch here that I can't figure out how to help the townships out is that let's just say number of the cities do this it is now on the county to still allow five to exist anywhere in the county right we have to hit five to
hit our minimum quota by the state forcing us to do this so to me the five when we asked what was the recommendation in my head clicked all that makes sense because if nobody else does it as a county we have to allow at least five now let's just say the cities
decide to have 10 it puts us out of a need to have those five because we've met the quota however if they quit we still have to have allow five so minimally we have to have five allowed to meet that quota i
thought he just said the opposite of what you just said well that's what I'm trying to figure out i'm trying to lay it out so how do we meet the quota if the county says zero or one but the municipalities don't fill that void
aren't we out of compliance so the the minimum the county could do as a whole is one per 12,500 residents correct regardless of who's doing what if that is met that's the five that's that's the five 50,000 people right if the city uh
uh doesn't get any registration requests say for example and we get uh five registration requests in the rural areas of the county we would have to we would have to register them if they qualify and then I want the second part
to the thing that I had here was the aspect of townships opting out if they all opt out how do we meet our minimum requirement yeah and and I did spend some time talking with the attorneys who were at that township meeting on a phone
call and it's it's a it's a difficult uh issue because the statute's not clear and obviously it would it would undermine the the purpose of the statute if all the townships could opt out and we had nowhere to register anybody
because I'm just looking for a concise thing to give the townships their options to do what they need to do but that I know we're ob obligated by the state to do something as far it was a lot easier when we didn't have any of this we just make it illegal again right right that's a lot that's easier let's just make it illegal again and make some
money off it and and when I drafted the resolution for the de delegating uh the townships delegating the county it does have them acknowledge that they are giving up control as to whether or not a a cannabis business is registered in their township uh you know as this is
probably why they their attorneys are recommending I feel like we're going to see some push back from the townships and rightfully so you know that's really what what they're there for is to obligate what happens in their areas and good for them so Mr baker I I misspoke earlier the banquet was two weeks ago um and the the last county board and they I
was impressed because the attorney language that they shared with at that night was the day after they had it updated here's America election of what happened and to me the confusion is partially from Austin County Board the staff came to us with a recommendation of once you take the city of Winona good
view St charles all the incorporated areas out then we had to allow at least one because and what we asked I think that we asked Commissioner Ward and Commissioner Eline what do you think should it be one should it be unlimited like this and you know to allow and encourage some businesses and there was
a discussion back and forth we're the ones that make bumped it up to five um we could if you wanted to revert back to one i mean it's it appears in a number of places now it it appears earlier than the section two as well but we could revert back to just one the tough part
is we want to encourage businesses in the rural areas we also want to respect the rural residents opinions but so we could revert from five back to one we asked you what you thought was best yeah and I was I was uh when when when
the staff had recommended five I guess the light bulb went off we adjusted five no we asked what the staff wanted and they they said five cuz we were talking 10 wasn't it well I think there was four and again it just went off in my head again it was a late conversation and it
just clicked and I said "Well that makes sense if everybody opts out we have to have a minimum of five to make our requirements." So that in my head that's the way it processed was okay that makes sense five if nobody does anything we still have to allow five permits that's where I said "Okay five." That's follows
the state statute we're good to go so the question remains if we opt for one and start there and everybody opts out and says "Nobody's allowed to do this anywhere how do we make our minimum state standard?" If if everybody has opted out and that's how the law was
meant to work we would have to say we can't approve any i I don't think that would hold um because that obviously would undermine the the main purpose of why the legislature enacted this law um
I know there was a an aspect of the township uh position that uh it w it was perhaps not they could fully uh uh eliminate any uh uh cannabis retailer but that if the county has all
the retailers or whatever positions filled if there's five already then they can refuse and uh I think I think that's you know a a stronger argument uh because it's just it's the same authority that
we have well one issue came up and I was asked is that you know townships these would have to be in commercially zoned um and there's very very limited commercial zoned out in the county so they said they felt that that was a
protection if if if it's only in commercially zone and I'm getting a nod from Eric Johnson there's very few commercial areas in the rural part of the county so they figured that was a protection that if they don't have any commercial then they can't come and if
they came would it would be through a either a variance or a conditional use permit so then there's all those steps that they have to meet all the criteria and everything so there are controls within our current system to regulate
um and again are we are we pro business it's a crazy business yes but are we pro business or anti-b businessiness or do we want to put a ban on it um that's yet to be determined um but they did bring up the zoning and said well we don't have any commercially
zoned property in our township so that they shouldn't be established for dispensaries mezo business is a different story and etc but that would also fall under the cup etc so right Eric looks like he's got a bit of to share with us as he has he come as he
comes up real quick so today the point we're just reviewing are we actually going to approve this is that what's our goal here today um review and approve says review and approve do we need to approve are we under a time constraint so um so the time constraint is we don't
want to have an ordinance not in place if the state starts issuing licenses and what's the forecast on that that's sort of what I what I said earlier anywhere from the end of this month to sometime
in 2026 i would really like to get more in I think for in in my feeling I think the townships are just starting to become vocal about this and um it'd be interesting for me to get a little more feedback like I've stated multiple times i've had virtually no comments no calls
on this which is odd i've tried to bring it up in conversation and a lot of people just threw their hands in the air and I don't think anybody really knows what's going on so I'd love the opportunity if we didn't make a motion on this today eric grabbed as much information as we can and continue the
dialogue and if it gives us a week or a couple weeks couple board meetings to gather some more conclusive evidence as to what the real constituents want I think that'd be great so that's just my thoughts if we could yeah no just when it comes to this limit
it's a it's a a number so we have to work within that standards and my take has been that you exclude the cities that opted in because either you opt in or you opt out ones that opt in I think they're subject to this they're probably going to be required to have at least
one commercial retail um but the wild card is that we have a number of cities that opted out so they'd fall under the county so we got to tally up all the populations of the townships and those cities that we are going to be responsible for and that's where that
number gets probably closer to five because you exclude the 25,000 from Winona you exclude Good View and perhaps St charles or Lewon but you're still going to have a base population of somewhere probably between 15 and 25,000
um sorry the one town shop township that opted in that I spoke with in my take is is like Wilson Township and they said "Yep no we want to have our own ordinance and I my questions were do you have a commercial district?" And they
said "Yes they would have a mechanism to allow for one for that particular township." So that's how I believe it will play out for those cities or those townships that opt in they're going to have to set their own standards so we are going to be I think regulating all
those other local units of government that would fall under our ordinances just one one second i think did Miss Holy um Mr cr if you could clarify for the board um in reference to the
effective date of an ordinance if I'm accurate it's when it's posted in the official paper correct yes okay and so just be aware commissioners that with the post there's only two dates of the week that you can
post just be aware of our timeline um and I I I can clarify as far as how you count the population this was something a piece of information that we were trying to find out for months how you how you count uh the population for
calculating that 12,500 uh requirement and I did finally get a response from OCM on that and and that person explained that you you count the whole population of the county and that's as many as are required in the whole population and you deduct anyone
who's doing their own registrations is you could deduct those registrations from the required number of uh required number of registrations based on the on the population one of the elements that I think that townships might be interested in I don't know if we can answer it the money there's fees and
there's uh profit ship you know there's profits and some of that goes to this a bulk of it goes to the state of Minnesota but then some come to the local and would would a township benefit from having an operation in their township i don't know
i I don't I don't know where the money goes on this whole industry but that is a question i know township's got some money on it that might change their um you know their their approach to this so that'd be a question I have but Commissioner Alson I I agree and I I
just would really like to relinquish a little bit of the I guess adoption of this scenario to the individual townships and allow them to have that precedent because I am hearing more about townships looking at creating their own learning ordinances and
various different things like that so I I think we just need a little more information and I appreciate uh Mr holt's comment about uh time frames and posting on the post but I think we still have a little bit of time um based on probably the earliest we could see something is the end of the months that
would at least give us another board meeting to get gather a little more information is that a fair statement it's I would I would say it's a fair statement in the sense that it's unlikely we'll get a reg a registration but it's not impossible that we wouldn't get one they could they could publish
this tomorrow all of a sudden and and and they're going but thanks okay so I'm think I'm getting closer to understanding the number thing which I still get confused about but so what you're saying is okay we'd have to do five because of the 12,500 but then we
can deduct the the limits if the city of Winona said "We're going to have five we're going to allow five." We could say zero no if the city of Winona registered five we could save it zero you have to wait until they're registered and then if they uh go out of business and
relinquish their registration you have to make a registration available i see you don't have to go out and find people to for the businesses but the reg but the opportunity has to be available you really can't set it at zero you because it's a movie target right right the
minimum is that 12,500 one per 12,500 right that's exactly where I came up with the five where if that scenario happens we have to allow five yeah because it's a moving target because it's a moving target so we can't cap it at zero because that's saying in order
to account for that everybody has to play ball and if the ball stops we have to allow five that's that was the impression why I said oh yeah that was the click in my head that said yeah we have to allow five because we don't know whether this is going to happen or not yeah the the uh uh the original draft of
this had it not limited to zero it had it limited to one per 12,500 which we could follow that right and so if and then in that instance just like you said if if say the city of Winona registers five we're not obligated to to do any
registrations if that solve our does that solve our flow problem if we if we made if we made it one per 12,500 regardless of where it comes from then it would be okay but the the but keep in mind five registrations could be
submitted for you know rural Winona so and but I don't know how we can control that right the townships can opt out mr um so it sounds like we do need more time and it sounds like you guys are still trying to figure out so we know
that Wilson Township is not opting out good view and Winona are going to regulate themselves how about St charles Lewon st charles commissioner Vegley if I could could we have a Could we we have enough could we see something could you put together something for us maybe and email it out of of of who's kind of
decided what does that make sense sure help us understand a little bit more and I I'm going to just put a motion on the table to table this if you're looking for a second i just finish my questions and then and then do my comments is that I was I thought we was pretty clear last
time that we met is that we don't have any say over the cities what we're talking about is the non-incorporated areas that's why originally the draft was one for 12,500 we asked the royal commissioners "What do you think one 10 five unlimited etc." And we settled on
the number five so we could revert back to one um this was the entire discussion of the banquet i mean this was the one and only topic that they discussed i'm not saying that they there hasn't been a chance and we should definitely ask or wait if you know etc but I do feel like there has been this was the entire
conversation and presentation um but it would be good to know like you just said um Commissioner Aline some kind of who's in and who's out etc but I do think it's ultimately we have to make a decision for the non-incorporated parts of the county and I'm comfortable with five and
on I'm also fine with one motion motion and I think five was the number that staff was comfortable too because what I was alluding to earlier is what when we had asked that's what we were told well I mentioned we already have one in the township yeah in a
commercial district that received a conditional use permit i would suspect that would be one of the first ones that would probably come through a licensing and registration um keep in mind you know the timeline of these licenses the county will have 30
days and most of them are going to be commenting back to the state that no to have this type of business it's going to require a conditional use permit conditional use permit process takes 60 to 90 days that was what I envision our
formal comments going back to the office of can cannabis management most of the cases there's only you know one handful of businesses I think we've agreed we need a moving flowchart to know what all the pieces okay fit in the puzzle
commission that was the when I was alluding to the staff saying the five that's exact Eric that's exactly what I was talking about so um so with that I still going to make make a motion to table this I think we need to gather a little more evidence and and review it on next meeting meeting April whatever
the date is i'll second that we have a motion to table made by Commissioner Eling second by Commissioner B all those in favor say I i all right are there other things we can clarify for the staff so they come with the information that we don't need to ask them to come back
no they all kind of fit you know it kind of all filters okay yeah i don't think there's going to be big changes here i think this number absolutely and and again if the of course the county is
always going to be the um enforcer or the uh you know all the problems that come with this kind of industry and everything so we have to look at it from that perspective too i just would really like the counties or the townships to have more of a voice right now i think they're just it's just starting to come
out so and I could ask uh Commissioner Alison as far as a redline document did you want redlinined what's different from the model ordinance yeah what we changed really nice anytime we change something again you know it's just really helpful to read through 100 pages but he's saying to the model ordinance
or to the last version you saw that's what he's asking oh the uh Well I would say I see what you're saying yeah whatever changes we made to the model ordinance would be really nice okay and then we know what the state has and what we would have okay thank you for that sure appreciate that and is this a case
where we can be more restrictive than the state no usually we can you know each level government more i just want to make sure we follow the state so we don't get our operation yeah and then one other question uh maybe for commissioner
vaguely if I could get a copy of the township PowerPoint so that get a clear idea of their thinking on it would be great or you could reach out to um um Bill Schwz who might have that steven White we could we could do both y great
well maybe maybe um Miss Holy could send it out to the whole board because the whole board wasn't there stephen I was there for part of it but I have also so yeah thanks for bringing that in i know mine's in a pile at home i'll give it to you and then we can do both so thank you
thank you moving on 7.2 Review and approve application for comprehensive plans during the page thanks okay who's done it i do like the shortened form Madam Chair if I may yes
um so our understanding from the previous meeting is the board wanted to see the actual application before we moved forward so that really is the intent okay is to get affirmation that you're good so we can move forward okay move to approve second looks good thank
you very much for doing any further discussion all those in favor let's see commission um I I understand this does i do also appreciate it's shorter and much more it's easier to fill out um item on page
168 item two it talks about Mona County Township representation we don't need to right now indicate numbers for those groups right okay we'll do that later okay perfect i want to make sure we have lots of rolls okay okay all those in favor of the application
I approve thank you um moving on 7.3 discuss and or appoint citizen advisory committee member [Music] discontinuation um I'll move to approve the the recommendation
second second motion made by Commissioner Begley second by Commissioner Olsen um the Jab is a long-term forage uh all those in favor say I jose okay approve um 7.4 discuss modify approve
the 2025 strategic plan miss Holy yes ma'am um so the department heads worked on updating the 2019 strategic plan there are very few modifications that were made
um in the packet and just see if we put the previous version so I handed out the previous um at the previous meeting the red line version so hopefully you all still have that document um so really just opening
up for discussion with the board if you have suggestions feedback yeah a few things yeah commission uh 174 kind of gives us a 2025 strategic plan review with Winona County Department heads one of the big things I say in there and and I don't mean this comment
in a facicious way but I would say hey that's that's a great description of Winona um you know we don't really see we we could throw you know a stretch of few things in there maybe for driless topography for the rural districts but there's really nothing about agriculture
um you know really a lot of small business um things like that um so just a few things that you know we could you know there's manufacturing education transportation i would say a diverse economy would include small business uh
agriculture should be that's you know if we probably look at the total u uh production of Winona County I would say agriculture is probably the trumping factor in the whole thing um so this just a few things to maybe like I said this would a great description of Winona
and its uh communities um but I I think we're just lacking a few things to represent the other 80% of the county was my thoughts so we would solve that by adding those those are good points under like diverse economy we should we
we definitely should add you know agriculture agriculture small small business um you know things like that um yeah make you know rural communities um yeah
those are just my suggestions great ones right so is the intent to go through each of these categories or It's really up to the board um like I said there were not that many revisions made to it so but if you have other
ideas or suggestions of what you would like to see what do we do with a document like this set it on the shelf and dust it off every couple years i mean I mean see there's a lot of there's a lot of stuff in here but it's there's a lot of
philosophy in here so you did indicate somewhere that you're going to try to do action steps like for for instance um uh you know increased contact with public through outreach town halls community groups and such so would you take that one and schedule some outounting meetings or like are you trying to take
each one of these bullet points and create some type of action action item do we work with management leadership throughout the organization to come up with how can we take action steps that align with this strategy
just a reminder these are not the only things that we work on as an organization as you know um but these I'm hoping are things that as a county board you can agree upon because there are various things as each of you desire
us to work on that is not listed here um again this is a majority of the board to agree on things that we can work on madam Chair yes Commissioner M um if I had to pick two topics for a
2025 strategic plan for Winona County they would not be in this document um I would say keeping the county solvent given what's happening with funding at the federal level and keeping the social safety net from collapsing however when we did this back in 2019 that was before
the pandemic and when our staff reviewed it it was certainly before the election and before we see the activity that's cutting so many federal programs uh that supply money not just to Winona County i understood that Spring
Grove lost funding for some new building fire department yep exactly so um what I remember of this is that back when in 2019 when we did it these were things that the board could agree
upon and staff took that because uh when we discussed having a full strategic planning last year you had indicated that whatever day it was on you would never come so I think what staff has done is great
and I think I mean just you know from my perspective it sort of works around the edges and doesn't get to the core but I think these are all fine things so that if the will of the board is to approve them fine I will go ahead and vote for them um and that'll be great but if uh
you do not want to approve it and it doesn't get approved I still commend the staff for the work that they've done and that they continue to work do on behalf of the residents of Winona County and we just move forward well your statement the sound fiscal
policy that that kind of outlines a lot of we're working with right now i guess that would rate as we speak today i think that would be the number one because of the the funding from other you know levels of government is rapidly
changing and um so I I think that really fits into you know as a as a priority um yeah I think it's Christian word yes yeah it just look it it in in all these
situations it's always open for interpretation you know that's the tough part it's I look at some of these things as a as a pilot I always look at airspace you you flying right at the ground surface all the way up to
obviously some planes can get up to 80,000 ft a lot of these things are focused in that 40,000 foot range and as we dive down into the details you know that's what these are set for and they're although not written vaguely they're written very well they're open
for some interpretation and flexibility because we know that things need to be that way so I like it you know I think we can move forward with that whether we needed to review this or not that's a whole another different situation i think my big thing is on 174 if we're going to you know kind of lay
out what we are as a county uh as part of this process that we're in i just encourage that we change some some of that verbiage as far as the rest of it go we can as Commissioner Meyer said we can move forward um with that in mind um going to Miss
Holy if I refer to page 174 in those bullet points could I add um per your suggestion to support rural communities as a bullet point yeah I think diverse economy should have small business and agriculture in it and then what uh add a bullet point about supporting rural
communities and then on the last bullet point to add agriculture and small businesses and with those two changes to that I'd like to move to approve the 2025 strategic plan i'll second them
okay we have an addition to the items on 174 so it's one more bullet point support rural economies and rural communities and then to add to the last bullet point to add agriculture and small businesses in there and again there's there's a lot of
there's a lot of words here there's a lot of I interpret it one way somebody else interprets it another way i guess that's the beauty of for I don't know if it's really strategic but it's it's a plan um any further discussion okay all those in favor say I
nay okay thank you absolutely all right committee reports and communications commissioner Vaguely um I believe I'm guessing that all of us received a letter from Representative Rinsky um and so I I want to thank him
for sending the letter and he asks about meeting with the county um I think maybe instead of the county board um Miss Holy did you receive a letter from Mr ripinsky um is maybe I he's very knowledgeable about city government maybe it would be helpful to set up a
meeting with him to look at the impact of pending state legislation on county services unless the board wants him i think it'd be more productive to have him meet with staff rather than have have him come and talk with us of course depending upon what he wants i think it's a great offer that he offered to
meet with the county i've reminded him several times yes he comes from city government he doesn't Right so I don't know if that's something that we need to put on the next agenda to discuss or can we how do how to best handle that that open for discussion i'm just one of the things he could do
is you know come on in the open mic oh absolutely like that you know invite him to do that and take advantage of that also but in terms of yes to that but in terms of process if we're going to ask but not today we can also offer an opportunity for him to come and meet
with staff okay so do you so does it need to go on the committee of the board for next or you'll just take care i can take care of Okay thank you well and I think with that Commissioner Vaguely I think there's some very specific items in their budgeting that directly affects and if we can get more specific on a
particular program and have facts to back up and I appreciate what he's doing that's a great idea that he's to meet to reach out to But we can't just say we need more money well we need more money because you know this got cut $50,000 and you know this is what you're doing
to us no but this directly ties back Oh pardon me madam it ties directly back to the the point that Commissioner Elsing made earlier about the transfer of funds to HHS yes that we fund from our levy what the state does not fund and
sometimes it's goofy regulations that say even though this person should be should move from this level of mental health care to this level when there are no beds you still have to pay for it now because the ruling was made yeah and that is very expensive and a and a former city council person wouldn't have
that background yeah that's why I thought it'd be more in his position perhaps we could help educate him that's that's what I keep reminding him and I also want to publicly thank him he was one of 14 state Republicans that signed a letter to the congressional the entire
dele delegation to oppose the 880 billion proposed large cuts to Medicaid so I think he's very open to hearing all folks but that's all that's that's taken care of and the second item is in terms of state cuts and I believe Miss Holt has already told us via email that
you're going to keep us updated on how that's going to impact our budget that's just please make sure that in addition to what we see in the media if you see things and I'm reading Micah i'm reading AMC i think we're getting closer to some real dollar amounts but let us know so we can help with that communication
process that's it thank you Commissioner a couple things I just wanted to u bring up uh um Chassity's comments for the request for data i think that is a is an issue and it'd be interesting to get a little more to the bottom of that and I
would support uh looking at uh potentially looking at some tight timing guidelines and um you know reasonable type scenarios just so that we're not leaving constituents in the dark as far as hey it's just an open-ended thing that may or may not happen within x
amount of time um and maybe help us just prioritize uh within staff's capabilities um two uh I just wanted to bring light uh to this um Beaver Creek removed from M I'm sorry to make copies for everybody beaver Creek removed from
MCPA impaired waters list thanks to well Bowser and Winona County SWCD um you know it just goes to show that things are changing and and it's maybe not what the internet says that that you know agriculture has this massive
massive negative impact the reality of it is is things are moving and we know that didn't happen overnight so that's just a continued trend of what we're seeing to back up uh since we've done accurate water testing and well testing since 1984 that 03 or 3% of these wells are out of
compliance so it does go to show that the agriculture sector uh is not necessarily as bad as what we think and that things are moving in the right direction even according to Bowser and NPCA and that's something right here in our backyard so um I I I think uh there's a lot of other factors that
might be contributing to some of the things that are being brought up um but this is really something I wanted to show off that uh there is positive things happening out here and we're moving in the right direction so I'll say my saying again i've been saying for a decade plus education over regulation um that's what we need we just need to
continue inform and and go from there so may I ask i know of several Beaver Creeks so this is the one in the Whitewater area correct okay yeah this article you're welcome to take there's a lot of Beaver Creeks around just that one not all of the Beaver
Creeks okay um I don't know that anybody else had anything else to add okay uh just one thing it's getting to be a busy time out in the rural landscape people that are driving around and everything please be respectful of any large equipment or machinery um traveling our
roads uh give them the space that they need and everything um one thing I guess um this is kind of it can be crazy weather time spring we can get some crazy storms so I think um uh we need our emergency management to keep us a
breast of anything that people need to do to be safe um because of the weather patterns and everything uh Ben Clinger I think we used to have a thing where people could get weather station information maybe he needs maybe he could put out a public address thing
of where to get your best uh you know information it it's amazing one of the local TV stations that we have always listed with a lacrosse station they no longer have a weather team in lacrosse they depend on a regional team and so you get Madison and Oaklair and I mean
that is not southeast Minnesota so I mean it has impacted I think some of our our viewership so I think where people need to tune in to get their most accurate weather information would be a helpful um link agreed okay we could
pass that on to him all right otherwise than that and anything else I would entertain a motion to adjurnn so move i'll second that motion made by Commissioner Elie second by Commissioner Bley to adjurnn all those in favor say I take five minutes
dis morning good morning um so we had in the board packet we had included a summary of the bids uh with the detailed breakdowns and we had also included a kind of a summary memo on uh some options that are available to us uh as
we had indicated the two bids did come in over significantly over available funding um we have confirmed with the contractor so far that the uh handicap
accessessible paving um for the park is included within the concrete work so we would be able to reduce the cost of the project by little over $45,000 um by eliminating the paving of the of
the parking lot uh the paving of the handicap accessessible area is is a required element of the grant so we can eliminate that component so um currently we're looking at almost $90,000 in overage if we uh
remove the 45,000 for the paving that'll get us down around the 45,000 area um with with um that aspect we kind of gave some on the end of the memo we gave
you a couple of different options we the DNR will allow us to downsize the size of the pavilion um by 10 ft um what that would translate to in savings we're still trying to get that
information out of the uh engineers and the company it's probably wouldn't be directly proportional uh so there'd be kind of a limited benefit there and then and then there would also be redesign costs uh for the contractor so we would
we would get eat into those savings um so we've kind of outlined different options within there uh we could we could reject bids and redesign and and
uh see what the new bid would come in as given the tariff situation um the longer we wait I don't think we're going to end up with a positive outcome u so um we could just utilize what funding we've put together between ARPA and county
funds and do the best we can and look at a pavilion at some point in the future um we're just kind of coming back to just you know here we're we wish we had been able to move this a little forward earlier maybe we would had a different outcome uh but
uh we're given the scenarios and the expenses that the that we're all facing and the uncertainty with the with the budget we're kind of looking for your guidance on where you'd like to go with this this was discussed for a little while at last week's park and environment
committee i'm going to speak for myself only um on page 186 there is a series of bullet points um speaking for myself only I'm not speaking for the committee i'd like to move forward with the second bullet point complete assessment of cost
reduction measures implement changes allowed by the DNR and request board funding of excess project costs um again speaking for myself only and nobody else I think we could um let the the paving go cut it in half and then have the staff i frankly think that it would be
pennywise i mean it's not cutting off 10 ft of I I would like to see the pavilion built if nothing else you know to honor the work of George How um and all the time and the work of many others who've devoted so much time to this park and it's not even a it's park is a word it's
a small park i mean it's a it's a it's a park I guess it's just not a big park it's a pavilion i have my opinions on that okay show them after um but I think that's what I would like to do is is proceed with that second bullet point drop the asphalt and then have the staff
come back to us to see what it would take to get it done because I'm also fearful that if we continue to wait on this with tariffs and other stuff the cost will only go up and up and just normal inflation due that's all oh good okay
um it's a piece of land yes and and to me I can ride my bike over there but I can't get a drink and I can't go to the bathroom so why are we trying to spend 300 to $500,000 on a pavilion i don't know i I
guess I don't know what is it just a covered piece of concrete or black top or something again we're Why are we enticing people to a property that there are no services i mean seriously i mean water yes you can bring your own water and I suppose I could set up a pop stand
on the on the weekends and and do that but there are no bathrooms there if you're enticing people to come hike young children senior anybody if there's no bathrooms you have to drive all the way down into Lac Crescent to one of their city parks that probably has a
portaotty at the bottom of the hill um it just I I can't see spending that kind of money yes it has uh trails and that has been um uh mowed and that makes it nice um probably should cut down a few trees so you could see the see the the
valley i mean it it the the vistas are very limited um to see the whole river valley actually the pulloffs further to the uh north and west I would call are are more scenic than actually the park is as far as seeing the whole river valley and the airport and the whole lay
of the land so I guess I'm saying reject bids and use what we've got um to just keep maintaining what it is i mean it is used um most of if you go there it's a lot of Wisconsin plates um that come up you know drive up and and take a look
and then they they leave because there's there's you know again you can't get a drink and you can't go to the bathroom so you got to plan your you know your agenda it was a be Yeah it was a grandiose plan the city it was and it was primarily driven by the city of Lac Crescent when it first got started and I
don't know if they've got any money to contribute um I don't know if you know you can put a composting toilet or we've talked uh in the past of portaotties or something but there just is there is nothing unfortunately the the project
does include a pad for a porter toilet um if there's a desire to put a a reoccurring service there but then I would add a reoccurring cost to to the county so is lesser i I don't know i don't know but it's just it is an issue with me i can ride my bike there but
then I got to plan to get back if I need to use the bathroom or and even downtown Nodine doesn't have a public bathroom just a couple questions um how I have when I used to be on the parks and environment committee like how many weddings are there i mean there are a
lot of people who plan events there because of this it's so beautiful there there's been a few um some of them we don't know about until after the fact yeah is there actually even a reservation process for it or can do people just show up uh there's supposed to be a registration pro uh process it
is it is with online uh that if you do want to do a wedding or something of that nature that it is supposed to be um registered through our online service um in reality particularly with the smaller type weddings they're not something we
we hear about but I had also heard that uh um there's church services people have like sunrise church services there i don't any frequent any idea about the frequency of that around Easter sometimes yeah that's what I'd heard yeah it's not something I'd heard heard
about um so I do want to make a couple inquiries about the finance part so we allocated 80,000 in American Rescue Plan funds looks like we've spent about 34,000 of that i'm looking at page 185
there's some red numbers right there if I add those together those have already been Is that indicate those already those have already been committed yes we the grant required we do an archaeological assessment so that was done uh the design the actual design
plans for the pavilion and the surrounding infrastructure is the 275 we've got about 1,500 left to actually uh pay out on that uh and then uh uh Kqu Quali had uh developed a conceptual
design uh before applying and that and those costs are also reflected there okay and at this point I'm kind of surprised that there the ARPA funds are still hanging around because I thought they had to be spent by the last the December 31st of 2024 uh they they they
because they were committed we are able to carry those through yeah okay but then again we can't just repurpose them and let's say give them to the warming center we need to spend them on this project i My understanding is some counties are not spending their ARPA funds because they're afraid they're
going to be removed um but our advice currently is that they can be used so if we're going to use them they will be spent first what saying because they may get recalled by the federal government is what we're hearing okay okay so we got the state grant that was the 91,000
and then there was a county match and that's levy funds correct so those were those were um those were put in the budget for uh 2024 and then um have been carried over
into use of reserve for 2025 okay so uh bullet number four which is reject the bids use the unallocated ARPA funds reduce future pro to reduce future project C and then designate the county
match funding for use future grant match and then reapply at sometime in the future um what I'm trying to figure out is yeah I mean I am not I think this was a great idea but from the one plan com
parks and environment committee meeting that I attended I think maybe the full project costs were not well thought out at the time that the project was like the grant was applied for the original grant was hurried um that was under a a proceeding and we've been trying to kind
of make up for that and put things together because there's a at least half of the work that wasn't really anticip the price that was not anticipated correct um so no no design provisions were made there were a lot of things that ended up getting vested okay thanks
i just look at the total design cost and some of the bids here to put up a pavilion which are usually pretty basic structures without an without a bathroom or anything you can build a pretty nice house for $300,000 with cabinets and toilets and plumbing and everything in it and so I just think we've got
some elevated costs u uh severe underfunding um and again I go back to what the state is potentially pushing down i just don't think that the more I find out the more I don't good is not this is a nice to have not a need to have and I think in the future if
there's more public support from the city of Lac Crescent or some of the other places that reduces this you know as a county park we potentially could work together on that and we just to me the project needs to get put on hold i believe that was it yes
what which one say bullet point five one two three four five reject bids use allocated ARA funds yeah to just I believe there's a motion on the floor already or on the Well no I wasn't motion it wasn't a motion okay that was personal opinion okay oh okay i mean if there's some site improvements that need
to happen you know we can use that our funded oh that's right thank you so much i forgot where I was go from there i just be hard to get community support on that so and it's in your district so I'm gonna heavily lean on what your thought process is yeah well again it's it's
like you said it it's nice uh as it sits it's nice it's very nature very you know uh clean and it's used um but yeah at at what price at this time in our budgeting commission I'll make a I'll make a motion to accept
the report all right well committee of the board I guess we don't committee of the board we're not at the meeting yet reminded me that's right but we do have to we'll have to get this on so yes yeah but okay so five
is to use the ARPA funding and to continue to spend the county match no oh just read it i'm just saying read it is that really what you want oh that's the county match funding not Yeah that would be under it would be under
covered under six other possible combinations so who's allocated ARPA funding for yeah other six i just wanted to do ARPA arpa okay mr vley that's not even on there
arp six is you make your own up yeah I'm going with six and what did you make up arpa and use ARPA funds uh to do the site improvements and we just kind of scrap the rest of the idea for now
um to clarify Ross um the $327,000 for the you know there the it wasn't for the pavilion that's for the total overall i mean that's for everything correct everything concern um and I I also like the idea of adding a portaotti you know during the you know
during the summer spring etc especially the fall etc um I think it's important that we get this done now this has been this is we've already allocated money there's money in the county budget already it carried over from 2024 i think it's important to get this done if
we don't do it now I have a feeling it's going to languish in 10 years from now we'll be looking at this and talking about whatifs um and um it's not that's never going to be a high-end park um Farmers Park does have uh portaotties
etc i think if we added that it's pretty darn close to what we offer at Farmers Park etc and try to encourage a lot more even more traffic down to that end of the of the county in terms of economic development um enjoyment etc so I I think it's important that we move on
this get it done or else it's going to languish and just go on and on and on etc so speaking for myself only as one of five I'd like to um reduce the asphalt and have them figure out and then come
back if they still need $45,000 etc just allocated and get it done and then we could possibly add the port of hotties that would be an additional budget item commissioner Olsson did you say the asphalt was required
the the asphalt is not the the uh handicap accessessible paving is and that is actually covered under in the concrete work in another area of the bid except the grant just doing our own thing right then we can do whatever
improvements we want again why would you previous service on a beautiful prairie site you know it's just Yeah okay commissioner so the total cost would be the 91,000 plus the shortfall 30 40 some thousand so we're
looking at a total ask here of close to 140 there would be no contingency there's always the pot possibility of overruns over a half a levy point and but if you subtract the asphalt and
you subtract that off correct with that subtracted yeah so your your um ass if you subtract the asphalt you're going to be down in the uh 145 range um so because the estimates came in said
that the bids came in so high correct so bids are going only going to go up with time this is if we if we kick this can down the road this is going to be a much more expensive project if ever done etc of course the more people you attract then you're going to have more expenses because you're going to have garble
people i mean the highway department has put trash cans just at those little scenic outlooks just down the road and ask Dave Kramer and the highway guys having to dump that trash people bring their trash up there and they dump it so you're going to have to allocate a higher maintenance budget you know for
trash and portaotties and things so there's a lot of ongoing by developing it and expanding it and if you're going to have weddings and all this stuff you are increasing your overall cost well ongoing maintenance costs and everything
right now um is it still volunteers that do the mowing of the trails and things like that the the trail mowing is contracted but is contracted so we have mainten we already expend a maintenance for for doing that where do we go from here should just go
around the table and see where everyone's at and then staff can have some direction for a future meeting uh where would the extra money come from the the probably reserves fund because there is no other I mean there's money allocated that's rolled over but
it's not enough correct are you asking me what I think yeah i kind of agree spend the ARPA funds and then let the project go i think if I was asked later this year uh to do some work that maybe keeps
seniors in nursing homes and I had an additional $90,000 to put towards that or to cover out of home placements that would be my brain um I would support the project minus the pay
i um would agree to let's use our ARP of funds but and and do some site improvements i just worry about the ongoing maintenance and cost as well as kind of where we're at right now trying to reduce some cost and um so if the ARPA funds are something that we can't
allocate anywhere else um you know I would support using them in this situation and letting the project go wanted to go ahead and cut some expenses uh but I I want to not only go ahead and get it done to honor the memory and the
work of George How which I think most of us know how hard and how many hours he volunteered and and put into this um and people love to um go to parks but it takes vision and courage to create parks and to expand them and I'm asking the
commissioners to um be open to the possibility of investing some money to help people in the future appreciate the most some of the most beautiful parts of Winona County um because it's one thing to go to a park that already exists it requires another level of courage and
commitment to create a park or to upgrade a park to allow more people to enjoy the natural beauty in that part of the county and there are many beautiful parts of Winona County that is one of the most stunning and I would say use the ARPA funds and minimize our right now with the
economics that we have so I guess we got three to say meet the ARPA funds the other so we'll have to come we'll have to bring it to a normal business meeting right one one clarifying factor uh you know with we could use the ARPA funds
for future preparations or just making just generalized site improvements so if you had a desire to actually maybe do something in the future we could level out an area potentially for a pavilion that could be used as like a
picnic area for the for the for the interim but or we can direct the So if you have any additional direction you'd like to provide there i I kind of like the idea of the area for the portaotty even if let's say that they decided to ride um the ride the ridges or whatever
isn't there another apple blossom or whatever but there are events that they have in the crescent where that maybe would be part of a bike route and it might be good to have a port they could pay to put a port body there for their event that sort of thing the city of Lac Crescent and see what if
they got any extra but if we could use that to make the spot for it to go we could put a picture of a porta body on the concrete [Laughter] goes I think there's a ticket for public urination isn't there or something anyway okay we'll prepare a plan and
bring it back right just run it past you so thank you it's unfortunate but hey money's going to be money is going to be tight money is always tight when people discuss it's going to be tighter just in you can still go and enjoy the view all
right 10 point discuss potential asking staff for recommended lobbying efforts regarding health and human services okay so this is not the conversation this is the conversation about whether we have the conversation so if three commissioners are interested in asking staff um I would what I'm thinking about
is really what Commissioner Vegley was talking about earlier in the meeting it's really understanding our our um vulnerabilities if there are federal cuts and um what things we might be able to a lobby for but b anticipate in terms of our
preparation i think I've seen a couple emails on Emily just kind of staying on top of things uh shaft sent out a couple things about cuts for health and um of course uh Micah and AMC the updates are
they're getting closer to reality you know what reality is going I guess I support it yeah it's kind of ongoing yeah what we can can and can't do we hear a lot about staff time do we have the staff time we hear I mean it's
not an extra thing it's just the reality of the reality of we would be doing this anyway um it's just if there's something specific the board wants to talk about at the regular county board meeting about what is it that you want to see um
we already do it but it might not be exactly what you're looking for so it really be a point of again a diagram you know we have a tracking sheet that we're doing but we really don't have answers at this point you
know there's nothing maybe you could share the tracking sheet with us that kind of gives us an idea because then when we see the uh Micah and the AMC things we have more concrete things to ask the right questions so maybe if just the tracking sheet is No you don't no one know what we're even looking at or
know what to ask how do you know what you don't know is what I always say exactly so more more information is is would be appreciated okay all right we'll place that on the next meeting to adjourn okay i'll second that motion uh we have a motion by Commissioner Hing second by Commissioner
Vaguely to adjurnn any discussion all those in favor say I okay ajourned now we got to go into close session we going in the other room we're going in the other room kick everybody out of here no we have other room reserved I think