Okay, I have 7 o'clock, so I'm going to call the meeting to order. Everybody stand for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag, United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all. Motion to approve the agenda. Uh I just have one addition. Uh the addition just to make it public because I I just found out about it. Uh docu PC8212504 has been withdrawn.
So we have four petition three petitions. So with that uh Louie made a motion. Do I have with All in favor say I. I oppose. Nay. Hearing none. All in favor.
Approval of the minutes of July 17, 2025 moved. Do I have a second on that? John second. All in favor say I to approve the minutes. I oppose. Nay. Hearing none. All in favor. Uh updates. Uh
uh actually. Uh Jordan, you'll have some input on our docket ones, but you have any other things from the board of adjustments? Yes, we had two petitions today. Um, one that you'll be hearing later for a Amish
schoolhouse. Um, the other was for uh housing for a full-time farm worker for uh Mark Clark's farm that his daughter operates and that they were both approved by us. Thank you.
Marsha, are you available to uh give a county board uh report? Um, yes. Uh good evening. Um uh the the uh last two was it two petitions. The cannabis one was approved
and I I you're catching me off guard. I wasn't um we've approved everything that was presented to us. There was no confrontation or no extra discussion or no extra conditions. No. Was the Eert House Yes. the division the the subdivision of
the the parcel of the land. Yes. They were both approved. Thank you. Thank you. Uh staff, any any uh updates on the comprehensive plan? Yes, we do. So, we've been doing a lot of engagement. Um we went to family
night on the farm a few weeks ago. John came and hung out at the booth with with us for a bit um and our consultants. Last week, we attended a township officer meeting um up in Wilson Township. We did a meeting with part of the Amish community and then Lou attended a Farm Bureau meeting as well.
Um, next it looks like we should be scheduling the second steering committee meeting pretty soon and then the survey is open until the end of August. If you haven't taken that, we'd recommend you take it. Any questions? Yeah.
Okay. Petitions. Uh the first one on my docket is docket number PC0821-25-01. is to consider a petition of Twilight Peterson and Sean Himmstead who are representing
GSS Incorporated uh site acquisition consultant who are seeking a conditional use permit regarding the following to allow a new wireless communication
facility including a 300 foot tall guy towered pursuit of chapter Chapter 10.4.6 point or -6 and chapter 5.5.4.1 of the Winona County Zorning Ordinance.
So, I think Eric, you have this. I do. Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, good evening. I'll be uh presenting the first two requests here. Uh first one on tonight is a conditional use permit to allow a new
telecommunication tower. It's a 300 ft uh tower that's scheduled that's excluding um the top of the lightning rod. So if you look there's a diagram that I'll get to be uh quitly larger if you were to in include the the lightning
rod. Well that uh the sections of the ordinance stated with these 10.466 466 which is out of the egg district that says any type of telecommunication tower requires a conditional use permit and the set of findings that's applicable to these are 5541.
It's your standard uh conditions. The first site is in Udica Township. Oh god. Section 36 and it's proposed to use an existing field road that would be improved to access the proposed tower site. Uh the
township road in question is Enterprise Drive. The current property owner is Twila Peterson and it's currently in agricultural production. It's corn at this at this uh point. Um, it's an
approximate 9.6 acres. Uh, the the hypothetical concept site drawing by the consultants. Um, you know, I know it's pretty um detailed and probably hard to see on the screen. So, you know,
hopefully you were able to make sense of that in your packets when you got them. If there's any questions, uh, the consultant hopefully could clarify those. And one more U drawing that kind of shows u some of the contours and um kind
of some of the the elements there with the site. And this one would be a I believe it's a three three guide wires with this. You know, I guess I'm trying to make sense. Looks like there might be four. But uh
then the one on the right is showing the overall height I believe at being approximately you know 300 with the 304 to the top of tower with the lightning rod.
In this case the conditional use permit is um proposed to be a lease area. uh there'd be a compound of roughly 100 ft by 100 ft that would encompass the base of the tower site and all the equipment
that would facilitate that. Um again using the existing field entrance 300 ft guide communication tower. Uh the proposed tower base would be approximately 180 feet from the road center line point of the township road
um and 600 feet to the closest neighboring dwelling. Uh with that there should been in your packet we did get information from the engineer um with these uh tall structures such as telecom communication towers and wind towers.
We've always had a concern of what happens if the worst case scenario should something topple. Um, a lot of ordinances in the day require like a 1.1 setback of the total overall height. In that case, it would be like uh 330, but
in this case, we don't have it by strict interpretation the ordinance. In the last number of these that we've gotten, the engineers supplied information or a letter of a structural design that it's intended to if something did happen, it
would collapse within I believe um it varies between the two, but it'd be like within 160 ft of of the base of the tower. Couple photos looking at this. Um again
the GIS map is left and this is a picture looking at Enterprise Drive over the 9.6 acres looking to the northeast. This is looking back um to the west. The
vehicle's parked approximately I believe where the field entrance would be. And you can see the corn there to the left as we're looking somewhat to the southwest in this picture. This is looking straight to the east
along Enterprise Drive and the site would be off to the right. And this is again looking to the southwest along Valley or Enterprise Valley Drive. uh the consultant has supplied us with a
coverage overlay and uh I don't want to pretend I'm an expert of what that means or what the ranges would be for that. Um but this would show essentially the
the air site with the coverage between I90 and County Road 29. Uh the one thing uh we did look at as we did our preliminary review in this case uh since you have um that that um
believe trout stream that sits to the north um and it sits on a plateau or a higher ground that kind of overlooks that river valley. Um based on the credentials for our archeological probability mapping that we do, this area would fall into a higher
probability of archeological resources. Uh if a house was being built or egg structure or anything that would be something that we would require um from the property owner or the proposer to that we would have to
commission that. In this case, they already did a phase one survey. They had a professional consultant compile a report which we were we received for each of these two sites. And the summary with that phase one that they did
essentially summarize that no cultural resources or material of historical properties were identified with the surveys and they seem to be very standard with the vendor that we use which is UW Lacrosse is the ones that we've typically done but they had an
outside independent um consult and do it which seemed to be pretty much on par with what we've seen with the ones that we've done independently. The petitioner did meet with Udica Township on June 9th and in that township acknowledgement form they
indicated support for this request that should be in your packet. Um, in summarizing, consider all the materials, all the findings, the fact findings that have been reviewed and supplied by the county attorney's office. Uh, the way that the staff
report has been prepared and presented is that um, the department is in support of granting this petition as a conditional use permit. Um, should the planning commission recommend approval, we've recommended 10 conditions with this.
With that, I'll take any questions here. Um, it's a 10acre site or 9.6 there. Do which is currently being uh having crop on it. Will they still have crops around that tower? You know, that's my understanding. Yeah, I
Well, we're not taking 9.6 acres out of production, just that actual 100 by 100 area, right? There's 100 by 100 with the compound and then you know the guide guide wires there'll be an an a point anchor and they probably have to keep a
20 foot radius around it from from equipment and from from cropping but they could probably as long as that's not disturbed they could probably get pretty close to those as well. Well, the only loss is the actual base part and the Yeah, there would be
way they need access both cases. Okay. What page in this atlas is the 10 comm conditions on 19? They start on 19 here, I believe.
Well, it's pretty standard conditions. or 21 would have the condition. Uh Mike, yes. I got a I got a question for Eric here. It says um that uh it's AT&T
what uh FirstNet and then a minimum of three others. But that's that type of information isn't anything to do with one of the conditions. They're telling us this, but are they really going can we hold them to having
three on extra on this tower? It's possible. I mean, the intent all along since the '9s that I recall is to try to get the the most out of if we're going to allow a new tower is to make sure it's maximized as far as the number of providers. And, you know, I think to
get into that is somewhat proprietary. It's probably a touchy subject, but I think, you know, the way the direction that the county board and planning commission has historically is that's an issue that they really do want a
response to. Um, I think it's a number of factors. one that if there's emergency responders that have the ability to equip a site to to strengthen their signal as well as to try to get a number of independent ones that seems to
be probably more in line with the purpose of allowing towers but you know I would encourage you Marca to probably direct that question to the consultant too to see okay all right conditions are conditioned to what's represented so that that could be the
avenue I read it somewhere. Now I can't find where I read it again, but it did say AT&T FirstNet. Okay, thank you. Y for a tower like this, uh, are the neighbors given any notification?
Is there any requirement for that? Just the standard conditional use permit and we I think in this case I went out roughly 2500 ft. So or 20 probably close to a half mile in all directions. And there's two the minimum is at the 10
nearest or I believe a quarter mile. But I always use a general I more generous noticing just to make sure you know I get a a big perimeter of the neighboring property owners. Okay. And and what's the form of that communication? They typically get the
the notice that you see in your packet informing them that there's a public hearing that the planning commission is going to meet and that um it has the property owner, the area, and then they get a GIS map typically and then there's usually an accompanying packet of um what section of the
ordinance, some zoning ordinance um information, too. Okay. Any other questions for Eric? Well, uh, with the petitioners like just tell us your, uh, project. Yeah, my girlfriend's mother lives. State your name and your address.
Did a notice. My name is, uh, Sean Hemstead. I'm with GSS Incorporated, 33119th Street, Urbanddale, Iowa. Um, just to clarify a couple of things on those drawings. They were really hard to read. This will actually be 100 by
100 least area but only fenced compound initially of 50 by 50. And um there will be guy anchors in three different directions at 120 degrees uh separation and uh they also will be fenced uh as
well to a safety uh point of I believe it's 20 feet so that we can make sure that nobody clips them if they're decide to farm in between. Um, but typically, uh, they have no problems farming around them. I actually met with the tenant farmer today out on site, uh, Darren
Wartz, and he seemed to think they would have no problems going forward. So, um, again, as Eric stated, it's 300 foot guide tower. We're designing it to handle four carriers total. The initial
anchor tenant will be AT&T, excuse me. And the tower will actually be owned by a company called Cloud One Services. They also own Bug Tussle Wireless out of Wisconsin. Um, so there is a potential they may be bringing a uh what they call fixed wireless provider
and as well they are not sure if they're going to deploy that year exactly when, but they will be deploying AT&T uh right out the bat. And uh their their financial model is to get other carriers on the tower. So they would welcome any other people on the tower. That's kind
of how they make additional revenue on the tower. So, um, but I will answer any questions I can. Any questions, commissioners? Um, Mike, I've got a question for the gentleman then.
Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Um uh sir Marshall Ward uh county commissioner and um I one of my goals is to limit the number of towers but maximize the coverage. And so when you say a minimum of three, how do
I hold you to a minimum of three? I mean you might just put AT&T up there and be done, but you don't you don't do you represent the owner or the are you working for cloud one? I am working for cloud one. Correct. Okay. and they're the owners of the
tower. Anchor tenant will be AT&T. They are just a tenant on the tower. Cloud one's business model is to go out and get additional colllocators if possible. We can't guarantee that a Verizon a T-Mobile edition network will
come on the tower. We don't know what their networks look like, how their their RF designs are. We're hoping that they will. That is Cloud One's intent is to do that along with if say like Eric said earlier a county or state needs to
put repeaters up there or anything from like Wil uh I know Wilson Township's a little far away but Utica Township you know any anyone that would need something there they would more than welcome people uh to collocate on the tower but the
for that I'm sorry where's your network of towers where are your other I know you have another application here. Do you have a Can you provide us a map of all the towers that Cloud One operates in Winona County? Um, this will actually be the first
Cloud One tower in Winona County. Um, this is they are what what they're doing is it's called Build to Suit for AT&T, but they're also taking over basically managing their network in this area. Um, so they're eventually taking over all
the AT&T management of the AT&T sites. Uh, meaning they'll service them like a technician, uh, the RF, uh, engineer will make adjustments as needed. Uh, but Cloud One, this is actually the first tower that they will actually own in W County. And hopefully Kip uh, or in
Dakota, we call it Kip, but it's over by Dakota would be the second. I am working on a total of 15 sites in Winona County personally. Some of them are colllocations on existing structures. Um some of them are uh brand new towers. Uh
you will be seeing me frequently. Uh AT&T is making a commitment to expand their network here. Uh Winona County as though it's God's country. And what I mean by that is it's beautiful. It's bluffs. It's valleys. It is a nightmare to cover from an RF perspective. The
bluffs create shadowing. The valleys it's hard to get into. you have to position your towers a certain way to able to cover everybody. Um, so right now every carrier, Verizon, T-Mobile, uh, AT&T, they all have what I would say subpar coverage here. AT&T is the first
one to come in and say we need to improve it. They are building, uh, we're working actually on 62 sites just in what I call the the boot toe of Minnesota, kind of from Rochester over to the Wisconsin border and Iowa border. Um, some of them are collocations or
redoing of existing towers. Some of them are new towers, but they're really trying to improve the coverage of this more quoteunquote rural area of Minnesota that's been underserved for a long time. I also do know that Verizon will be doing this starting probably
next year and starting to build sites in 2027 and 2020 2028 probably is from what I'm hearing as well. All the carriers are starting to understand that this area is underserved and they would be welcome on these structures if it fits
their network. Okay. Your first comment was very accurate. Winona County is a beautiful landscape environment and everything. And I guess you know you're aggressively you and your other companies are aggressively putting up these towers and they in my opinion that detracts from my
beauty beauty and my um natural landscape. So, does this tower We did towers here not too long ago in in the Nodine area and the people there kept telling us these towers need to see each other. So, what is this tower looking
at? What other towers are in that neighborhood that it needs to see or is that is that old technology? Well, the technology will be changing. They are going uh to a new technology here in the next two years. This is one that will have the new technology put on it. Uh the the tower to the north that
I'm familiar with is they do have one in Lewon. Um I'm proposing one in just outside of St. Charles, which you will be uh probably seeing me later on this year. And um
to the west, we're proposing one in Wilson Township kind of can't remember the road name, but it's uh it's north of the existing state tower that's there by about a mile and a
half and that general area. Um again, we're putting one in Dakota. I'm looking at one um south of Wakota to cover 72 down to Houston. That's a very very hard area to cover. Uh one up in
Pwick, which would be a new tower. Um Rolling Stone, that one will be in the county on uh farm up there on uh back off. It's not up on the bluff, it's back aways. And then in the city of Stockton, we are
working with the city of Stockton to place a communications tower right by their uh um not fire station. It might be their fire station, but it's kind of a utility building there. Okay. And so would you be willing to put those potential locations on a map and
provide my planning department that map? I could show you the general areas and the ones that we've locked down. I can't show you what we're propos where ex I if I don't have a signed lease with somebody, it's never a sure thing. Sure. I can show you the general areas though. Yeah.
Okay. I I would uh greatly appreciate seeing that. Yep. I will try to provide that to Eric. Thank you. Um Well, go ahead. What uh what's the color of the light that's
going to be on top of this tower? It'll be white during the day and red at night. And different from some of the towers that were built in up until about 2015, uh these towers are now built and a lot of the older ones have been changed out
to LED lighting, which is a lot less obtrusive than the old incandescent lighting. Uh first of all, it's energy savings of about uh about one10enth or 1/100th, I'm sorry, of the power consumption to use it. But, um, it's
softer and it's better aimed north or up to the to the sky. All the lighting is quoteunquote aimed to the sky because that's who needs to see it. Um, but as we all know, I can have a flashlight and aiming it somewhere, but somebody off to the side can still see it.
But it should not be obtrusive to anybody's residence or anything like that. And it'll be flashing, right? It will be flashing. Correct. That's required by asking because I was a little concerned because it's right in the you know Mississippi flyway for migratory birds.
Sure. And that the NEPA is underway right now. We've already looked at that. Um my company GSS actually we do environmental engineering. I'm very familiar with the migratory bird flyway here in uh the Mississippi area and also over in Nebraska. um we make sure that
you know we have to do that and there is a chance I I'll be very blunt that the NEPA could go back with some issues. Uh it's not back yet. It's due back I believe the end of October. Um middle of October, end of October I think if I remember right. Um but right
now everything is looking good and I believe everything's been sent off to the state historical preservation office and all the tribes. So I believe it's good. Okay. Thank you. My question has to do is how much power is the tower putting out or radiating?
How many kilowatts? So the tower itself is zero. Um the AT&T installation I really I've been in this industry 25 years so I know quite a bit. Uh I don't just do site acquisition. I was a project manager for a while and AR engineer. So I know a little bit. those
uh radios that are up there are putting out maximum 40 watts uh but each but they actually us typically run a little bit less than that otherwise the radios overheat. So I would guess they're run going to run between 20 and 30 watts each. We're not talking like a radio station with
No, we're not talking 10,000 watts or 100,000 watts. No. Okay. Any other questions for the consultant? Yes. Do you I I got a tower and I don't even know which company put that in.
It's on 43 just south of I90 a couple miles. And do they do you put um this um cybernet cable to the tower mean fiber?
Yeah. Yeah. Anymore um it's back hall is handled one of two ways. the pri the preferred method is by taking fiber to it. Um that is the most secure uh way to have make sure that the signal that's being received from the cell phone down
the tower into the equipment gets back to the switch which then sends it to where it needs to go. Um if they cannot get fiber to that area, the backup method is what's called microwave IP microwave. But with that one, they do
need line of sight to wherever they're drawing the other side's um IP from. So, right now, my understanding is this will be fiber, but that could change depending on uh if they're able to get the fiber provider to uh come down
Enterprise Road and and put it there. Okay. Any other questions? Otherwise, vote. Twilight, if you want any comments. Okay. Oops. A motion to open the public meeting.
I make the motion. You second it. All in favor opening the public hearing say I. I. Nay. If opposed. Hearing none. All in favor. Anyone wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the
microphone, state your name and address and your concerns. Anybody wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the microphone, state your name and address and your concerns.
And the third time, anybody wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the microphone, state your name, your address, and your concerns. Hearing none. Motion to close with public. Do I have a second? I'll second. All in favor of closing the public
hearing say I. I. I. And against closing public hearing say nay. Hearing none. All in favor. Eric. Just maybe a point of order. When you get done deliberating whatever direction this goes. I think the vote we'll want
to make sure it's a roll call vote because we have one member that is remote tonight. So that I think that's the more official way to conduct it. So thanks. Thank you. Okay. Any concerns from the commission? Um Mike. Yeah.
Marshia. Uh yeah. Um and maybe this is either the the consultant or or staff number the conditions here on page uh 21. Uh number five. It hasn't been an issue, but it's listed here. Any interference
caused by the tower and or its services shall be corrected at the petitioner's expense. What's the burden of proof there? I mean, we don't have any neighbors speaking for or against. Um I I don't have any towers super close to
my own residence, but is there any experience here um that that we have to have burden of proof, you know, before and after the tower goes up? I would just add Marcia that that is a very old condition. Um that one was um
from the ones from the 70s and 80s and mainly that was radio towers and whatnot. I think that was a major primary concern even before the cell tower. But I think when we did get the first group of cell towers in the n mid
90s that was still a concern. So but it hasn't proven to be a problem. I don't no had any any complaints along those lines. Okay. For 30 some years. Okay. The equipment that would be on there would be regulated by the FCC to
not cause interference in the first place. Right. That'd be my understanding too. Well, should we just take it out? I mean, well, I I don't know that I want to take it out. 113 pages for this meeting.
I'm a creature of habit. So, I mean, I've just brought everything forward from the from catch all type thing. But if you get a neighbor that, you know, after this goes up has, you know, something happens. I mean, I don't know how they prove that it's the top. It it
could be a quandry how they would prove it's the tower, it's not the tower. Um, but that that's something that neighborhoods have to deal with sometimes. But I think it's just safe to be there because the next hearing, well, it's the same one, but maybe next spot that'll be
something else. So, as you go, maybe the next technology will have lots of interference, right? Well, one thing for sure. I think it was outlined that Winona County does have a lot of dead pockets where there's no communication. I'm well
aware of that. Well, my phone when I drive couple miles away and Stockton, it does not work. It also doesn't work in Rolling Stone. It may or may not work in Alura.
Now to take that one step further, Lewon controls that fire area of Stockton. They carry two pagers because they don't always work. Well, they have two different pagers that they have to deal with because maybe T-Mobile might work,
but Verizon doesn't. I'm just using these examples. They might I don't know which ones work. Now, when we had the Stockton flood in 2007, we had no phone service in Stockton. So, FEMA, myself, we had to drive to the
top of the bluff to make a phone call. It was the same way in Rushford in 2000. My whole point here is we also have to look at safety and how we communicate today. So, if somebody's driving and they have trouble with a car, maybe it catches on fire and they're in Stockton,
the phone doesn't work. Now, these might be exceptions, but I want us to be aware that this is kind of scattered through a large portion of our county, as the gentleman mentioned, because of our topography. We got steep bluffs. We got all these
bigger hills and valleys, hills and valleys, and most of the time, if you're on 61, you're bouncing off the towers in Wisconsin for your service. It's not coming from Minnesota.
and theirs bouncing off ours in Minnesota from Wisconsin. Don't we have one of the towers we proved was for the Wisconsin DOT and that a while back if I remember correctly and that is true because that straight line. Yeah.
Uh so to solve this I don't think we're going to get rid of our cell phones are we? And we probably have more than one carrier and that's proprietarial thing. So you might have to rent whoever owns this
rent instead of four different carriers, five depending on the future. So my point is is there's just dead pockets that we haven't confronted in Winona County and it affects our emergency services whether it's ambulance or fire
or even your county workers driving it around. I'm sure they get in many areas your phone doesn't work because I see them down by Stockton but I don't know what the carrier is. So it may or may not work. So we need more than one carrier. So getting back to Marsha,
we all got different for I bet if I took a poll here, I bet there's at least three carriers amongst just the small group and somewhere along the line those pockets are going to be there. So I can see it servicing multiple carriers. That's just my position on it. So that's
my thoughts about it. Anybody else have any thoughts before I move on? I'm just uh interested I I understand uh the concern about the number of the towers and I understand also that uh a lot of
these towers u the carriers uh piggy back on on to uh I have a little surprised at the number of towers just outside of St. Charles up by the love. I mean, we just had another brand new tower go go go up and uh that I believe
probably was a T-Mobile tower because I suddenly can get a one gig on my phone from that tower. So, but and uh in the St. Charles area less than half a mile, we've got at least three towers there.
Yep. And I think the concern is that what happens if at says, you know, I'm not going to offer the services to T-Mobile or I'm not but I'll offer them to a
lesser, you know, homegrown cellular by that. That's I'm wondering if that's not what happened. Tell me if I'm wrong, but in this situation, AT&T is going to be one anchor, but they don't own it. They rent, right? But they're but they're put
footing the bill for the aren't they? Nope. Okay. So, Cloud One is the one that So, AT would have no say if another Verizon or T-Mobile comes in. Okay. Well, that's
I I don't believe that though. Money speaks. Can't we make them look like pine trees or maple trees or something, you know, to blend in with our environment? Marsha, I'm gonna have the consultant respond to your concern and
about that not being true about AT&T. Correct. Um, what when individual companies own the tower versus the carrier, those individual towers companies make their money by having all the carriers on the tower. is that is
their perfect scenario is that everybody on there they will not allow the anchor tenant to dictate who they can and cannot allow on the tower. Um it's it it totally defeats their business model of what you know why even build it if you're not going to be able to pay for
it, right? Um but in the city in the situation of uh St. Charles, I didn't know a third tower. I know the two Verizon towers that are on the uh the south side of that that is those towers are owned by Verizon. They could in a
sense stop other people from coming on those towers because they own them. Uh they're not owned by a tower company whose model is to do that. They wouldn't I I worked for multiple carriers over the years and Verizon does allow collocators on their tower. Uh they
played very nicely with people. They take a long time, but they do eventually allow people on there. So, the industry uh over the years uh I got in the industry in 99 when um cell towers were new and and people were scared of them,
right? They just weren't sure what to expect. They didn't know if they were going to cause interference or harm people uh in any way. Um and today's world, it's a little bit more people. Everybody has a cell phone, so they're a little bit more readily acceptable. But
we as an industry all had to play nice together on the development side. Uh I started off working for Nexttel in 99 and I knew all my competitor project managers uh very well because we had we fought the same battles. We let the salespeople fight it out between
carriers. We all worked together uh when we're trying to build sites because we understood what each other's struggles. So, but hopefully that answered your question a little bit on the allowing people to come on the tower. Well, uh I'll refra reference our latest
tower, the Zeni operation. And correct me if I'm wrong, staff, is that owned by AT&T. We had a tower just within eyesight, the the Mindot tower by the Nodine Highway Shop that had space available to rent and they did not want
to rent. So maybe maybe I I don't remember. Does AT&T own the I I know that that tower. It's owned by Hempill Towers and it was for Verizon. Oh, Verizon. Okay. What it does, you have to remember that um if you put two towers too close
together, it's like putting two McDonald's on the same block. They serve the same customers. It's a waste, right? So, uh, a wireless network needs to be separated and not all existing structures work within that network. Um, it's just an unfortunate thing. We hope
they do. And in the old system of TDMA and early days of CDMMA where it was go as tall as you can and blast as hard as you can with signal, that's when they were maxing 80 watt radios. Uh, back in the day, um, there was you could overlap
like this and it wasn't an issue. In today's LTE world, they want to mesh. They want to barely overlap. Otherwise, what happens is the phone fights to which signal it's going to go for and your battery starts draining. Your data speed starts slowing down and your
service is goes to kaputs. Let's put it that way. Um so un typically have come down a little bit. Um to build a 300T guide tower in today's world is what I would call the oddity. Typically um in
rural areas it's not but typically we're when I work all over the country we we're now looking at more 250 ft and below and typically 195 and lower in more areas because they want them shorter and they want them to where they can connect it and each one
has three sectors to it so it feeds different directions and they blend them in and into a network. So, it's it's kind of hard to to explain unless I could draw it out, but um you'll see on the coverage map how they have little
sectors how it goes out. But hopefully I didn't confuse Morris Lou. We're complaining about towers going up and that I remember the days that we had micro wave towers all over the county, the country, whatever it was for communications. Some of them relics are
still up. But they were up there too and they were bleeping across the country and you could see them from the houses at night just like you can see these other towers. So I mean we're not seeing anything really really new
because somebody's complaining about the same old crap and Jordan I think the point that I agree that uh uh the coverage in Won County is so spotty. We really need to correct that. And a lot of the uh fiber services that supply the
towers will also uh supply broadband uh to uh to homes once that gets set up if we ever get around to doing that. Uh the only thing that um I had to concern about is
as I said there were those two towers in the St. Charles area. Uh, I have T-Mobile and periodically I would lose service in my in my home and call them up and they complain, well, it's a Verizon tower. They're trying to get
somebody over there to fix it, but um and so then that new tower went up that uh is a shorter tower. It's looks to be primarily 5G. It's got the panels on it instead of a microwave dish or that. And I, as I said, my T-Mobile's
coverage improved immensely. So, I think what T-Mobile did was they erected their own tower so that they get away from um fighting with Verizon to uh to correct this stuff. So, I'm just, you know, as long as everybody plays
together, well, I don't have a problem with it. But uh once we start uh um putting multiple towers within a half mile service, then you got to question what's what's not happening between the
cellular people. Sure. Well, I've uh gotten a greater stuck down in this valley in an ice storm before and had to climb my way up out of there to call somebody to come get me out. Um, so I think that's a fairly
decent example of why this kind of thing is necessary around here. Um, so I would move that we uh recommend this to the county board for approval with the all the conditions as they're listed and the findings of facts as presented by staff.
Second. All in favor say I. I post nay. Marsha, I'm thinking. I'm still thinking. I I uh I know we need it and everything and I
guess it's not a bad thing. Somehow we have to control the industry and control our own landscape. So, I'll work on that. Uh I'll give them preliminary approval tonight, but I got a couple weeks to think about it. Thank you. There's a roll call because Marsha's online.
Okay. I'll start with you, Steve. I I I I'm an I I I I. And to reconfirm, you're an I for tonight. Yeah, I'm an I for tonight. I'll work on the conditions. Thank you.
So, all in favor? Unanimous. Okay. And your next hearing with the county commissioners will be September 9th at 9 a.m. Okay. It's a Tuesday.
And that brings us to uh another familiar subject here. Docket PC08-21-25-02. This is to consider uh a petition of Beverly U Dolls and as property owner Sean Hemstead his
petitioner who represents GSS Incorporated site and acquisition and consultant who seeks a conditional/interum use permit regarding the following to allow a new wireless communication
facility including a 300t I'll guide tower in pursuant to chapter 10.4.6 uh subchapter 6 and chapters 5.5.4.1 of the Winona County zoning ordinance.
And Eric, you got this one again. I believe I do. Yep. Guess spoiler alert. The specifications are pretty similar to the last one we had. Um this regards again it's a 300 ft tower in the two sections
of the ordinance that uh this is applicable to this site happens to be in New Hartford Township section two. Uh in this case the road that serves that site is a county road. It's county road 101. This
is kind of just outside the city of Dakota in the township area. and the property owner is Beverly Dulick. Again, the site layout of this um the Dulick building site is located just to
the east of the proposed tower site. And again, um the uh distance that um um that we're looking at is a 100 by 100 foot perimeter and they would create a
50 foot wide easement to access the tower site and this one would be anchored by three sets of anchoring um at various points. Um again the consultant and the engineer supplied a
letter that said that this tower would be designed at its base should there be a failure of the tower site that it would collapse within 120 ft radius of the base of it. Uh the dual parcel is
approximately 12 acres in sight and um this essentially shows the the layout of the parcel with the survey that was submitted by the consultant. Again the schematics are pretty much identical. um it' be 300 ft top of
lightning rod it'd be I believe 304 and this shows maybe the tower site in relationship to the building um shows that the neighboring house is the property owner is the closest distance and I believe I have those distances
cited here be approximately 220 ft from the road center line and about 220 ft from the dual residence. The nearest neighbor is approximately 480 ft. Again, it's a least area that would
contain the tower of 100 by 100. Quick photo overview from various um vantage points. Uh this is essentially looking to the northwest over the doul 12 acre parcel from the approximate tower location. It's currently um um
like hay and pasture and there's a wood line that's uh kind of borders it to the north. This is looking southwest over the 12 acre site and we're looking back at the county road, County Road 101. And you can see the neighboring properties in
the photo that would be the closest affected neighbors. This is looking straight south back at about where the tower would be in line. And it's County Road 101.
Again, this is looking back to the east at the Dulick Homestead. And they provided a coverage map. And again, you can we um looked at the archeological and it actually you get on
the other side of um the road uh there would be a high probability area, but the tower is outside of the high probability area according to the county's mapping system. But in this case, they did still conduct a phase one
survey and that summary concluded that there was no cultural or historic um resources that were associated with their survey. This case, the petitioners did meet with New Hartford Township Board on June 12th
and New Hartford Township indicated that they had no comments in regards to this request. Again, the planning commission shall consider the report um everything with the findings of fact, consider the recommended conditions and the way that
the findings of fact and the um approval is favorable um based on staff's uh review that I guess any questions with this site. Eric, could you repeat that radius
that you use uh for the notifications? I had a couple of neighbors who wanted to know. Okay. Again, I I believe I searched out close to a half mile. The the minimum requirements per state statute in the
ordinance is a quarter mile. So, I usually try to at least go well above that just to make sure. I you have to have at least 10. And then if you have a city within two miles, that respective city should be notified. In this case, a
city of Dakota falls within that radius. So we sent notice to those folks in the city of Dakota just so that they're aware of this proposal being kind of in their right at their doorstep. So Okay. Thank you. Yep.
U Eric, I have a question. Um there there is a tower down there in the valley somewhere uh on I90. Uh do we know who owns that tower? There is that's a leased site as well. Um that one went up some time ago and
it's a fairly shorter. I think that's one that's under 200 ft. And you know there's been quite a run just on inquiries. I can I can testify that they're continually updating these existing towers. So staff does get a
chance to go visit these towers and it was American Tower I think back in the day but again there's multiple providers and we're always dealing with different consultants because they're putting they're continually upgrading the antennas in the in some of this
equipment on it. They're updating the equipment cabinets and the shelters and doing rewiring. But I I couldn't tell you, you know, who who the ownership chain is with it. Okay. And who's on You don't know who's on that tower.
It's we deal with AT&T, Verizon, um T-Mo, we deal with them all, you know. So, it's it's whoever um you know, there is taking the liberty of upgrading it. So, we get a pretty good solid dose of consultants on a daily basis with these.
Sure. I didn't I I didn't on the map and I I you know the geography I didn't see that map that that tower. Um can do they see each other? I mean they're kind of in the same neighborhood. You can. Yeah. I mean it is I think from that site, but it's that that's a tower
that was it's basically on the valley floor, right? It's it's for probably more for the traveling traffic going up and down I90 because that's a pretty steep incline as you're going up towards Nodine. And I don't think you could actually see
it from down below where 61 and kind of merges with I90. I think it's more wrapped around the corner at that point. So that it's probably not even visible from the high from the Mississippi corridor. Right. Well, and so you you made a good point. So I I'm a little confused. We
got GSS and as a is that just the consultant and this cloud one is actually the one that's going to own it. So is this just a consultant working for this cloud one and cloud one will be the owner? Again I probably you could ask for
verification consultant. I don't want to misspe on that point. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Y just one comment. Uh we sure got good coverage on I90 for cell towers. That's every every tower that goes up
goes up right next to I90 and the the uh rural communities aren't getting coverage. I just wanted to give a piece of information that, you know, there's a highly regulated industry and the FCC does have tower registrations online uh
that you could search and you could see a map of Winona County and and see where all the towers are and who owns them and that sort of thing. Uh so I just wanted to make sure you knew that resource was available for you. Can you send out the link? Sure. Thank you.
I I think with I90 it's usage and you have 20,000 vehicles minimally going down that highway and I'll bet you you got four customers now on the valley 19,99 20,000 own talked about safety you know
we're cutting out we're cutting out the towns the small towns the uh that uh just to support on I9 I mean, I'm again not opposed to expanding and making sure that we we
have the coverage. It's just that everything that's going in is going in right next to I90. And I uh don't see how it's going to help communities like Stockton or Rolling Stone. Well, and we'll have the consultant come back up, but as he mentioned,
he's looking other projects that will address that. I know Stockton is trying to address it. I know Rolling Stone's trying to address it. And I look for satellite or towers to go in there too. But coming back to just the reality of how many people go
up and down 90 use those services and every time they click, you know, that's a service for their business model and that's just the way life is. Am I wrong on that? No, you are correct. And when a when a company goes out when all these networks
were started being built in the 1990s, the first thing was to cover the major highways uh because they seem to be what people thought were the most critical if people were in their cars driving and had an accident or something. That was just they wanted to make sure they could reach someone while they were driving. And also was tailored more towards
transportation, the trucking industry. They were some of the first ones to really have uh the the bag phones in their truck. But to answer Marsha's question, I I want to be able to answer that. Um, I did a quick measurement on Google Earth here, and the distance between that 180
foot American Tower site and the proposed site that Cloud One is proposing is 1,116 meters, which I'm guessing would be about 35 to 3600 feet. So, little over
half a mile, but under threequarters of a mile. Yeah. and and thank you for that information, but it just behooves me with all our technology and all our science and and smarts that that that seems a very short distance. Um um it is and and being honest uh AT&T
will be coming off that American Tower site because they are down at the rad center of 140 ft which does not clear any of those uh any of the bluffs out there. All it does is provide some coverage along I90. doesn't even get
into Dakota. So, as they're improving this network, one of their goals is to take some of the existing sites that are out there and make them more efficient. Otherwise, you really can't build on. It's kind of like if you have a poor foundation, you're not going to keep upgrading your house. You're going to
fix the foundation first, right? To your and that's what they're doing is they're fixing that initial foundation right now. So, this one at 300 ft um improves coverage into Dakota. It also allows um them to connect better to their tower that uh they colllocated on which is
that tower in no dime right off I90. Uh they are colllocated on that and plan on staying there. Um which then helps connect to ita and um I can't remember the site that's to the north. Um it might be on the Wisconsin side but it
just allows them to hit all these other sites uh much better. Uh my coworker is working actually site south of there uh down towards Lacrosse. I cannot remember that county off the top of my head. Uh but you know uh we're trying to make
sure they were hitting to those sites as well down there. Um but to also clarify Marsha's question, yes, GSS is the consultant that Cloud One is hired to go out and find the properties, lease it, zone it, and then permit it. And in both
of these situations, like we'll be working with obviously uh the county for the cup process um and hopefully we'll get approval and if approval comes through, we then go back to the township, check for any building permits that would need to be possibly gotten or
um entrance permits. I do know that in the Udica Township one, we will be required to upgrade uh that entrance and I still need to check with the new Hartford Township, but it's a brand new entrance. So, yes, I'm sure we'll have to work with them to make sure that we
get the proper permits for the entrance off the county road. Any other comments? How about the petitioners? Would they like to speak on the project or do you represent them? Uh, you mean cloud one or
do property owner? Beverly is not here. Um, she I asked her if she was going to be here and she said, "No, you'll handle everything." Okay. Um I do have a question. Is there any part of the country that you work with that um that the county or the township
benefits financially? Like we get 10 cents for every ping that comes off of our ourations act of 1996 disallows that disallows it. Okay. that unless we are colllocated or lease
land from the county or the jurisdiction like we're doing with city of Stockton. We are actually leasing space from the city of Stockton for the tower. So they will be benefiting from that. Okay. We do try to work with jurisdictions. I've tried to work with the city of Rolling Stone. Unfortunately that is
down in a valley and the RF engineer would not accept any sites I found down there. So we are up on the bluff but back away. We're not like right on the edge of the bluff. We're outside the bluff zone. So, okay. Well, I don't want any of my new Hartford Township tax is going to build
an entrance to your site. No, no. All cost of anything is on the on the company on the applicant. They all, you know, even Bev and Twilight will have zero cost to that. Okay. Well, it's it's important to know
ownership because we've chased uh you know solar companies and we've chased wind companies from a staffing perspective to find out who we're dealing with. So, it that's an important part of this whole process too. I don't know if this makes any difference or not um because it's
Wisconsin, but they are Cloud One Services is a Wisconsinbased company privately held out of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Uh they've been around almost 40 years if I remember right. And like I said, they also own Bug Tussle, which is a fixed wireless provider, which is like
highspeed internet. And I believe eventually they will be bringing that over to here as well to help bring highspeed internet uh to the communities they're serving along with AT&T. So, hi, this is Bev. I am on the meeting on Zoom, so if you have any questions for
me, you certainly can ask. I'm just not at the meeting. Okay. Thank you for joining us. You're welcome. Okay. Open the public hearing. And do I have a
motion? I'll second that. All in favor opening public hearing say I. I. Say nay. If you're not in favor of the public hearing. So all in favor uh anybody wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to
the microphone, state your name and address and your concerns. Anybody wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the microphone, state your name and address and your concerns.
For the third time, anybody wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the microphone, state your name and address and your concerns. And move we close the public hearing. I have a second. Second. All in favor of closing the
public hearing say I. I. Anyone opposed say nay. Hearing none. All in favor of closing public hearing. Okay. Commissioners, what do you wish to do?
Motion to approve with the bies in fact in condition. In condition. Is there a second to Louise Milton? I'll second that. Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. Jordan second. All in favor
wording this recommendation in favor to the county commissioners say I. I. Anybody opposed say nay. Marsha. Yeah. I uh I do have to fully disclose that I live within ear sound of I90. So
I I don't have a problem with connectivity. Okay. Have to worry about flooding. just freeze. Did anybody abstain or speak against this petition? Seeing no one, it was all in favor. And
again, it's going to be September 9th, 9:00 in the morning, uh, with the county commissioners. Might be 9:02 by the time you get to this one. Okay, we'll move on to our next docket. Uh docket number PC08-21-25-03
is to consider a petition from Jake and Mary Yoder where who seek a conditional/inter use permit regarding the following to allow for a new schoolhouse to be located within a egg slource
conservation zoning district in pursuit to chapter 10.4.6 six uh subchapter 31 of the Winona County ordinance. Bill, take it away, Olivia.
That section of our ordinance references public and private schools. That's the reason that they are here tonight for the conditional use permit. Um the site that they are looking at is in St. Charles Township. It's on Jake and Mary Yodar's property. Um they're the petitioners. It's section 32. Um it's
about 28.9 acres. You can see it outlined. It does go to the north and south of County Road 35 there. Um, and it is at near the intersection of County Road 35 and Sinclair. Um, as it relates to that parcel outline.
This is the staff created site plan. It does show a feed lot setback. Um, they did go to the board adjustment earlier today and they did receive a variance from the feed lot setback. The required one is 500 ft. they received a 260 ft um
for where the schoolhouse is going to be proposed in the site plan. The schoolhouse building is the red outline and then there's a yellow outline that shows an out building that would be um for horses and then have a bathroom on one side of
it as well with the driveway proposed to the south there. This is a petitioner submitted site plan. um similar. It does show the building setback as that purple line. Um so essentially they're going to be it's a 65 ft setback. So they're going to
they're proposing to keep that out building just outside of that setback. Um and then the building is about 20 2630ish from the property line to the south with the driveway in between. Some considerations of the project. It is ARC zoning. Um like I mentioned it we
it's a public or private school is the section in the ordinance that we're citing for this. Um the petitioners brought this forward because they need additional um schooling educational opportunities for families in the area. It's proposed to serve 5 to 12 families
that live in the vicinity of where it's being proposed. Um as I mentioned the out building would have bathrooms on one side. There's no well being proposed. the bathrooms would be a holding tank that's designed to be underneath the building. So, it would just drop right down. Um, it is located on the
intersection of County Road 35 and Sinclair. I'll show you with some photos in just a second. Um, and then during the school year, obviously, there will be uh transportation to and from the site, but then outside of the school year, it wouldn't really see much traffic.
So photo one looking at the site, the schoolhouse is still that red outline with the outbuilding as the yellow. This is looking to the southwest. You can see the trees there. There's a fence that's um the cemetery property just to the south of the Yoders's property.
Um this is looking to the southeast. So again, the schoolhouse and the alt building. Um you can Sinclair Road is there's a stop sign in the very far distance if you can see that. um where the driveway would be coming in. So the stakes for the driveway are
circled in red there. Again, it would be towards the south of the buildings. This is looking north up Sinclair Road towards the intersection with County Road 35 and then looking to the south down Sinclair Road.
The petitioners attended the St. Charles Township meeting on August 19th. The township form that we received indicated no comments regarding the request. Um, your packets were also amended to include a neighbor letter as well as the township form and then the draft
findings, but just wanted to point that out um to make sure you had a chance to read those. Our recommendation would be that you consider all materials and testimony before making findings that support your decision. Um, our analysis and draft findings do support granting the conditional use permit for the
schoolhouse. Um, and should you decide to recommend approval, we've drafted four conditions for your consideration. Any questions for me at this point? Thank you. Would the petitioners like to uh come up
and state your plans and goals and and state your name and address and then tell us about your project. Jake Yoder. Address is 11 808 County Road 35 St. Charles, Minnesota.
So we were with the schools that we have were traveling on County Road 35 like three and a half four miles to the school houses
and those school houses were families in that area had there was the the houses were full and we have 18 kids in this location.
So we are how so as a community or in that group we come together. How can we put in a schoolhouse? Where can we put it that's beneficial for the kids going to school. So this
location is what we come up with the best that we could find. And what this serves is the neighboring families. And we we we have the cemetery to the south which
that that pipe fence is a separation that you can see there. So to it is Steve Holm here takes care of that cemetery and we want to respect that. So
we we we moved the schoolhouse and the storage shed so that the playground is more to the north of that. Uh so we also have neighbors to Hansen's
who are to the east of the the storage shed and the schoolhouse. So, how can we best fit this in there so that we're not coming into
disturbing them? So, that's what we come up with with the driveway on the bottom side. We did have a conversation with Steve today on if we could make sure the driveway is put in a way so that we
don't have erosion, we don't have washing or anything like that. Uh, I did talk with Amy last night and we was talking on the different areas and she said signage.
What do we have? And so the signage is something I just told her we want signage, but is that out of our power? And we don't want to I am very grateful for anybody that's taken time for this
project. Uh but we don't want to create a why ask for signage if we don't have a school that the at all times whether we put the schoolhouse up or we do not the
the the school kids are instead of traveling 35 for three and a half four miles we're crossing the road. So at all times we are traveling 35. We
have we have two families on the north side of 35 that would be attending the school and we have three families on the south side of 35
that would be attending the school. Any questions for J? Is the schoolhouse and hope building quite similar to your other school facilities? The same thing. Okay.
So, we talked about and Olivia uh mentioned the the the the outhouse on it. So, what that is is, if I say this correctly, I believe it's what you have in the city
parks. So there's a holding tank, a two compartment that Chatfield has a design on that they did a design for it. So that's a 2,000galon tank that's buried beneath
the bathrooms and that's what so there that's the holding tank and then the horses they are contained. So, the storage building does have maybe four rooms, uh, two bathrooms, and then it's got maybe a 10
by 10 area for there's two horses that will be attending, uh, with that the kids would be coming with. Uh, and then the other end is our storage for desk, coal, for heat is is what the storage
area is for. schoolhouse and the storage shed on any of the the ones that we have built in the last three four years identical. Yes. And we are not uh
so we thought to move the driveway down on the bottom side. uh we can protect the privacy maybe a little better for Hansen's on that area and
maybe we we benefit the schoolyard a little better to put it below the traffic that's coming in there is so minimal. But we do have three families that are walking distance
and and each school has a fenced area playground. So what we were thinking is when we come off the west end of the cemetery with that fence line going to the top and
then we in that fence we put a crawl through space that so most of them would be crossing over onto the upper site which would not actually come down to the corner of 35 and Sinclair but closer
to the top of the hill. Okay. Does this plan include any room for expansion or is this this just set? We do not. So, room for expansion. Uh
school houses or school houses are all a one room and when you have school age children we do not have uh
for one teacher we try to stay in that 20 15 to 22 pupils is a full house. Okay. For one teacher and you've got that first eight we have 18 pupils
that would be attending this school. So as far as expansion really do not want to should I say. I mean, uh, it just gets to be a bigger area where we have school kids on the road for a
longer period of time is what we were. And when you take the 18 to this one, there's going to be more room in Yes, that's and these these 18 scholars are right now coming out of three
different houses. Any other questions? Thank you, Jake. Thank you. I move open the public hearing. Do we have a second to open the public hearing? Lou seconds it. All in favor say I to open the public hearing.
I. Marsha is an I. Yes. I. Anybody uh not in favor opens public hearing say nay. Hearing none all in favor. So anybody wishing to speak for or against
this petition. Please come to the microphone state your name and address and your concerns. Hi I'm uh Carolyn Stanley Hansen. I live right across the street from where it's going to be. That's Richard. He's my husband but he doesn't talk very well in public. Um, I did get one of my
questions answered which was as far as though the bathroom facilities holding tank. That's great. So, I don't have to worry about any kind of water concerns. Um, the only reason I came tonight though was to make sure that there's not going to be any impact on my home with a
school suddenly popping up right next to my house. And mostly the concern is it's a country house. We get varmint sometimes. Sometimes we might be out there, not towards the school, but taking care of varmints that might be
out on our property. I just want to make sure that that's not going to be an issue being near kids. So otherwise, I'm not opposed to having this school. So, thank you. Thank you.
Anybody else wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the microphone, state your name, your address, and your concerns. My name is Rachel Marquee and I live at 28179 Sinclair Road.
Um, I want to make it clear, I'm not against the schoolhouse. I am against the location. Um, it's not ideal for many reasons, just because of County Road 35 and how many families will be traveling
back and forth. Um, I don't know if you guys have been out there at all traveling on that highway. It's not good. Um, the highway is falling apart. There's rivets. Um, Mr. Yoder um, explained that he does have to fix his his buggy once in a while because the
road is just not well and we're going to have more traffic on it. Um, you know, the Englishman, we drive our cars down the middle of the road because it there's it's just it's falling apart on the sides by steel wheels. Um, I don't
know if horseshoes or whatever. It's just not it's not repaired. It's not a good road. Um there's a blind spot also um on that hill and when you're pulling off from Sinclair,
you can't see. Um you know, you got to kind of pull over towards the Hansen's a little bit to see. Um and quite honestly, it's it gets to be kind of scary when you're pulling out just because the drivers do not slow down. I mean, it's it's very fast traffic on that highway.
Um, I would be very, the reason I'm concerned is just because, like I said, the location, but if we're having kids walk or ride buggy on that road, um, I don't know. I just, I don't want to be a statistic like Filmore County
um, and have accidents. The other issue that I am concerned about is with the location is Mr. home does a wonderful job of keeping that cemetery intact and beautiful mode um cleaned and we're putting an outhouse
next to it and it's just it's not a pretty sight. Um not saying the kids will be playing in there but it's you know they're going to have a lot of more traffic on it too. Um I just I there's other considerations that I think you guys got an email with
too. So, um, that's just I hope you take that in the safety concern into consideration. Thank you. Anybody else wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the microphone, state your name and your
address and your concerns. Anybody wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the microphone, state your name, your address, and your concerns. I'm Melvin Gimbridge at 11673 Counter
Road 35. I guess the reason we're trying to get that school there is to get the kids off the road. If the school's not there, we got four buggies on 35. The school's there, we
got one. That's why we're trying to They're walking, but they're not on the on the road with buggy. That's kind of why we're trying to put it there. And I guess that's about all I got.
Thank you. Thanks. Okay. Anybody else wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the microphone. State your name and address and your concerns. I'll move to close the public hearing.
I got to do it three times. I thought we were there already. Anybody wishing to speak for or against this petition, please come to the microphone, state your name, your address, and your concerns. Now the third time, anybody else wishing to
speak for or against this petition, please come to the microphone, state your name and address and your concerns. Jordan, take it away. Move to close the public hearing. I'll second it. All in favor of closing public hearing, say I. I. I.
I. Anybody oppose say nay? Hearing none. All in favor of closing public hearing. Commissioners, what do you want to do? I I guess I should have asked the question while uh Mr. Yoder was was up
there, but uh which I I presume that the uh the outouse building that the doorway is that will be facing the west away from the Hansen's home. So basically they would just see the back of the building
back. So come come come right up and I need to make sure it gets recorded. Okay. Okay. So when we're looking at what what we are
wanting to do what what we have down the bathroom would be on the south. So where the driveway comes in we have his and hers is on the end of the building. So when the doorways comes out so that
from the road you see the back of the building you don't see any doors. Yes. Good good uh good question. Just a point of clarification. Is the driveway right next to the cemetery there or was it coming in?
We took we took that I might not have done the best drug. We've got 36 ft to So the back end, if we go to the other drawing, can we do that there? So
when you see the back end to the north, the the yellow and the red, we have 36 feet on the front side of the yellow. So that's 10 foot set back from the red.
that 35 ft when we bring the driveway out so we can we can our our aprons on the culvert and everything. We are well set back on.
So it would come in on right there where it says proposed driveway. Yes, that's where it's not that dotted line coming from. We talked like today coming off of Sinclair a lower traffic road that is the 20 260 ft to the lot.
So So with that if the driveway comes in on the bottom side we we also did talk so St. Charles Township they're open. Uh they said when you put the driveway in, let us know what you
got. So the excavator said, "We're we're looking at a 12, but he's going to install a 15 inch cover in that in that driveway." So
we also did talk if there was such a thing where you guys want the driveway on the north side, we would push the two buildings down even on the south and we could have done that as well. So we
just thought if we put her down here, if we put the driveway on the bottom side, that's where the buggy parked. Now we have the playground is all on the upper side so that we are not uh down here by the cemetery.
In other words, the playground would be where that dotted line goes up to 35. Yep. Okay. Even even with the white line on on their cemetery going straight to the top, that's the playground area.
Yep. And uh as a clarification that was uh uh mentioned earlier this morning and mentioned this evening to their the blind spot. It's it's a difficult spot there right where the RD35 is on this
this picture. The Sinclair road actually comes up at an angle and you have to pull out see to the right to see to the right. And it's also a little bit of a raised hill. So, uh, that was
I it scares me when I'm there with my, uh, pickup in the trailer pulling out and I couldn't couldn't imagine what it'd be like for, uh, or a buggy to pull out there. So, one of the things that we'd really like I would really like to see if this goes forward is that uh uh
we somehow uh look with the uh Winona uh county uh highway department that to put sign appropriate signage up there just indicating that there's a school there. Jordan, can you address that a little bit? Jordan's got some information that'll help you out on that. I can read this whole letter from Dave
Kramer if you'd like or I can uh sum it up for you. uh just sum it up. So, okay. So, um basically what he's saying is he would he would suggest that we not make it a condition um any additional signage,
but he would like the county to work with the community on making that a safer area in general. So, um, if we want to as a planning commission maybe suggest the county reach out to the
community and some of the people who live in the immediate vicinity to address that, I think that would be appropriate. Um, but there's there's laws pertaining to this and um I
think some of the concerns as far as kids going out into the road will be addressed by fencing like you said, but um it seems like some kind of signage would be appropriate and I think Dave would be the guy to uh figure out what
would be best for that. and and the signage is needed. And it's it's not just uh the Amish community that has problems with that corner. It's anybody that comes off of Sinclair coming on. That is a dangerous corner. I've ridden the road many years.
Yeah. And I see a lot of times they as those roads are updated, they change that so that squares it up square with the road as you come on. So maybe that's a project the county needs to consider. At this point, we do not have buggies
coming to 35 and crossing over and making a left. We have one that will come to 35 and take a right. Not to say in the future sometime that might could happen, but at this point
it wouldn't hurt to have the signage any church. There's a lot of traffic in that in that area. 35 does tend to get a lot of traffic. Very fast. A lot. Yeah. Yes. But that's that's neither here nor there
with that's outside of this proposal. I just Can I ask um who owns that property? I'm looking at that map. Who owns the property on the right side of the road with a lot of trees around it? Is that Hansen? Hansen. She is here.
She spoke before. Oh, okay. Okay. So there's no um I I there's a lot of vegetation there. Is that in the count? Is that in the rightway or is that on private property? I think that that's showing though the there's trees. There's trees. They're very tall trees.
Yes. So that's all trees. And even even over on the propo proposed driveway now, those trees are all removed other than inside the cemetery. But that's that's trees. There is no uh
there's actually no uh it looks like it's in the roadway, but it's not. No. Okay. I'm looking at the trees on the county road 35. Yeah. From as she said they're just real tall.
Yes. They appear to be in the road from the corner. Yeah. They're they're on your private property. They're not in County Road Rightway. Yeah. And there there's what you're seeing are the crowns of the trees. Yes. Okay.
There there really is no shoulder on 35 and what uh it's really been tore up. The asphalt's really tore up. I guess I'm questioning Dave Kramer would know too with a rideway along that road. 66 foot wide road,
right? There should be some, but we'll let the highway engineer deal with that. The county grows point that one is there. It varies depending on the amount of traffic.
Well, a lot of the issues that as I read through all the material and the letters, these people talk about safety. You're talking about safety. Yeah. But I have trouble with safety when these kids are going down 35 m.
Yeah. More safe to get them closer. Yeah. Well, you said four buggies to one. So now there's less buggies on the road. You got to weigh one like this. Yes, apples and oranges.
Then I've traveled more times than I can count. I know it really well. I'm like Steve. I know about every mile of every inch. I've been on that many times. And and the signage is not just related to the school, but there's only one sign
that says, you know, Amish buggies seven miles. There's two when you start going in off and one other. Yeah. Yeah, the neighbors kind of know it, but anybody outline. I think with the variance they got, we
hopefully Dave Kramer will take care of that signage. Again, he doesn't want on conditions, but he's well aware of it and he has to be the final authorization on those signs in can't just put them up. Okay. They're installed by our
county. Any other questions before we move on? No. If anyone would like to read this, you're going to want them to. And I would I'll get a copy of that. We'll put it with our documentation and we can do that. Eric's got something.
I got a couple extra copies. Yeah. And I've read it already. I think it's good documentation for it in the record. Okay. We don't have make a motion on.
So, anybody willing to take on the findings of facts and the conditions and I would move for or against? I would move to approve this uh as written with the findings of facts as written by staff and the conditions.
Do I have a second? I'll second it. Eugene seconds it. We've discussed it quite a bit. Can we go right to a vote? All in favor say I. I. I. Anybody abstain or a name? I I have to abstain since I'm right door to this.
So I have one abstension. Steve is abstaining. Um so that would be seven of us in favor and one abstension. And again your next hearing is going to be September 9th at 9:00. County commissioners.
Any other discussion? Otherwise I'll entertain a motion to ajourn. So move. All in favor to adjurnn say I. I. I. I. Arsha. I didn't hear anything. I I
We are journ with all in favor of journ. Yeah.