##VIDEO ID:3tSVwYbstQo## e e e e e e e think about is kind of Asing but I don't know if you want you know we're not getting whole County representation then but but then again at the end of the day I don't know what the hell are she going to do now we can always post it again we might have to that's what I would do let's go call it we'll call to order the Bon County board meeting for December 17th we'll start with the Pledge Allegiance Pledge alance 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 all right Beth sure commissioner schlong here commissioner Heinen here commissioner ginsky here commissioner Johnson here commissioner pop here oh no present no present today no present all right do we uh uh do we have any additions to the agend we have no changes okay move for approval Mr chair second okay we get a motion in a second all in favor I I post same sign motion carries County board meetings are broadcast live and video recorded on YouTube please refrain from speaking from the audience area and come to the podium so the viewers can hear you the County Board observes Robert's Rules of orders for its meeting so please obtain the board's chair sent before addressing the County Board public comments are generally reserved for open Forum segments or public hearings however public comment on other agenda items may be allowed at the discretion of the board chair as we begin today please turn off your cell phones and turn your or turn your cell phones to vibrate thank you open Forum okay we got nothing well we got a smaller consent agenda here um consent agenda items 1 through 20 21 what is the Wish V for approval Mr chair second got a motion in a second all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries okay we're done with one page Monty we are going to conduct a public hearing on proposed changes to the Betton County fee schedule M sh we'll again with a staff report and we'll ask each department that has changes to come up and give you a very brief a summary of those changes and I believe rocksam will be first uh she's going to cover the changes on page one OT treasure and then also the Land Services changes and those page numbers are noted in your agenda item thank you bran good morning Mr chair Commissioners morning morning uh so first off we have the changes within the auditor treasurer's office and these are all related to the Cannabis retail registration cannabis temporary events and then the Civil penalty appeal hearing um and because I was the lead on the Cannabis ordinance um I that's why I'm bringing it Forward even though it's the auditor treasurer's office and fee schedule um so what we did is we took um what the state allowed us to charge for a retail registration and renewal fee and we have added that to our fee schedule it seemed appropriate to um charge what we were allowed to charge considering the amount of effort and work that will need to go into processing these registrations um and then we added a $500 license fee for temporary cannabis events which is in line with what we charge for our large exhibition um events and then um the $500 civil penalty appeal hearing fee um that takes into consideration the time and effort that is needed to process those hearings then we have uh the records in the record office we're increasing the fee of a copy of a torren certificate of title from $5 to10 $10 for a certified copy that's in line with um statute and then the final addition is for the planning and zoning office and that is um a zoning verification letter would be $50 per letter the zoning verification letter is generally something that is requested by um an attorney or a title company for the sale of a property and what they want to know is what the zoning is if there's any um additional permits that are on there any violations so it requires research on beh um at the staff level to uh provide that letter and that service so we're looking at $50 per letter which is consistent with um what some other counties are charging for that and that is all I have for the fees Mr chair yep roxan I got one question on the special events for cannabis are we putting a limit on the number that we can do in a year we do not have a a limit on the number per year no and does it consist like say somebody has an event I don't know where we'll pick say you know way up in one Township and they want to have cannabis there is that what would be considered a special event um so they will need to get a permit first from the state and be qualified as a temporary cannabis event then it would come to us and we would go through that entire checklist that we we um added to the Cannabis ordinance for 96 um there is no on-site consumption allowed at those events and they are not overnight events um okay but they could potentially sell at those I see it was a pretty big issue with one of our neighboring toally okay okay yep there's some pretty rigorous standards that they'll need to go through uh not only with the state but with us as well in order to be able to um hold these events okay as a not rock and our fees are in line with other counties as well and what they're doing yes okay all right so M chair your next change is Human Services on page 10 if Sandy could cover that please on the Chang is for daycare where're going to charge daycare homes $50 but those charges are actually going to the state um so it's a fee that the state is picking up for daycare Homes at renewal time so daycare providers will not see that they will not see that okay y that was I don't see here I don't see Chris here unless he's with he's not with us online Chris's changes are on page 13 as I recall as Chris explained in the commit the whole uh our surveyor our contracted surveyor Jay witto uh is passing along some increases to us which explains why we need to increase our own fees and again you can see those on page 13 that's my recollection of that that explanation from Chris okay final batch of changes would be uh sheriff trck and those start on page 13 good morning Commissioners good morning good morning so we're proposing reorganizing reclassifying some fees and also raising a couple of others so to begin with on page 13 you'll see that we're deleting the fee titled sale notice we are adding that back in on page 14 uh this is a notice that we are required to post for a Judicial uh judicial foreclosure we're required to post that at three different locations our standard fee for each trip that a deputy makes is $75 so the $225 for this uh posting notice of sale accounts for three trips at $75 a trip uh we also are involved in rid of Recovery Service when uh a landlord has a renter that's broken their lease for whatever reason they go through the court process we are involved in that in posting the posting or serving the notice of uh recovery and then actually going to the property with the land ORD securing that those that's once again $75 each trip and we are instead of having two different fees to reflect the service and then standing by we're combining that into one $150 fee uh you'll see a little bit further down on page 13 we're eliminating the language that indicated some of uh the Redemption fees were refundable uh we are changing that to reflect that they are non-refundable as uh per statute and in line with our other counties around us and finally uh we regularly do an analysis of how much it costs the county to process permit carry fees um we have to we have to send $10 for every renewal I'm sorry $10 for every new application and $5 for every renewal into the state of Minnesota the rest of that fee there going from $70 to $80 for permit to carry initial and from 65 to 75 reflects basically an inflated cost of labor for us to process those fees that's all I have for you thank you Sheriff chis Monty took care of yours so any left uh no sir that's it okay with that uh we heard from staff uh the applicant is a Benton County we will now open a public hearing if there's any anyone in the audience who wishes to address the County Board on this agenda please uh come to the podium give your name and address or online is there anybody body in the audience or online that would like to address the County Board on these fees schedules I'll ask again is there anybody online or in the boardroom that would like to address the County Board on these fee schedules last call all right uh I will I will close the public meeting um are there any emails letters from townships cities or anything like that okay has any Department received any comments not that I know okay uh action what would uh what would the County Board like to do motion to adopt a revised beton County fee schedule will changes effective January 1st 2025 second okay we got a motion to adopt the proposed changes to the 2025 fee schedule and we got a motion a second is there any other questions on this if not I'll call the question all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries okay rock s you're back up with uh another public hearing to consider ordinance number 497 to amend beton County development code ordinance number 477 to add Provisions for regulation of cannabis business within the County zoning jurisdiction you have the floor okay I'll put it like that I think that works so everyone online can see okay so before you we have the zoning ordinance related to cannabis businesses um the first draft of the ordinance was presented to the Planning Commission on October 17th um there was consensus to change all of the uses that were listed as conditional uses uh to interm use permits and the reason behind that was to make sure that um that there was a a Sunset date or um and the ability to Sunset date those uses um and we'll get into more spefic specifics on that so that was changed um and that was uh something that I think a lot of other counties were looking at changing to was from conditional to interm use permit um I presented the ordinance to the committee of the whole on October 21st and there was agreement to move forward on that um I sent out an invitation of the uh to review and comment on the draft ordinance to all Township supervisors and clerks and ask them to attend the November 14th Planning Commission meeting um to further discuss that at the meeting we only had um uh three Township supervisors attend and there really was no comments uh about changing or amending the ordinance has presented so then further we went and held the public hearing on December 12th uh at 6 pm and there was no one uh present to comment on the ordinance at that public hearing so we did move forward with um bringing this to you today um so en closed is the draft cannabis ordinance and it was prepared by staff in coordination with the attorney's office it's based on review of Minnesota statute 342 the Draft rules prepared by ocm several information SE sessions and discussion with counterparts in other counties Outreach to cities towns um and training sessions throughout the state um the ordinance was prepared in a way that addresses the type of use and the potential effects on surrounding properties versus the license type so we want to make sure that um it was clear what these uh individual businesses were doing versus what they were licensed for um and then the areas that we took into consideration were the use of water the electrical grid odor uh security lighting and waste um so the following is just a summary of the draft ordinance section three is the definitions we added definitions based on State Statute um addressing cannabis businesses cultivation delivery services um and and the rest of the um definitions under cannabis businesses for statute uh section seven is the zoning use districts and you can see in the zoning chart we have added where we felt appropriate and which was consistent with our existing ordinance um the location uh for things such as um indoor cultivation outdoor cultivation uh mixed light cultivation which would be if someone were to have um let's say a greenhouse where could be open during daylight hours and then closed up in the evening so that they can continue um providing that uh light source to it uh We've added manufacturing retail of both hemp hemp and Cannabis Testing transport and wholesale and this is essentially all of the aspects that um make up the licensing components um so we've added those as interm use permits permitted by WR or uh as an accessory use only um so for example example someone could have a delivery service as an accessory use to an existing uh for example a cannabis uh cultivation business they could have a delivery service attached to that but they could not have a standalone delivery service in our agricultural District um section nine is our special Provisions so specifically uh 9.2 7.1 through3 requires the operation of cannabis business uh and H to be in accordance with with 496 which is our uh cannabis regulation retail and regulation that was passed at the previous uh or the November meeting um and then businesses must provide us evidence of ocm approval of the license and or endorsements uh section uh 9274 is our setbacks so again requiring that they meet the setbacks as outlined in 496 and then we did add that Cannabis Testing cultivation and Manufacturing must be 660 ft from residentially used or zoned property and that's due to the odor that may be associated with these you may have outdoor uh cultivation but there still is an odor when that product uh begins to dry and so we've added that uh that additional stipulation for these uh t for those specific types of uses uh 9.2 7.5 is hours of operation again retail is to follow ordinance 496 and then all others are to indicate their hours of operation on their application and this is similar to what we would do for a rural event venue uh for mining operations other uh similar intense uses where we just want to know what are those hours of operation and then we'll take into consideration what's around those businesses and um you know if there's going to be outdoor operations versus everything will be strictly indoor um screening we are requiring a 6t high obscure fence topped with a with a three stranded Barb Wire extender arm to completely surround outdoor and mix light cultivation facilities for screening and security purposes and then security fencing is required by ocm for certain uses this is just to prevent um anybody trying to get into these facilities and hopefully providing some sort of security for those sites uh preventing the need for um additional law enforcement protection or anything like that um this 6ot high fence is required for outdoor at per ocms requirements we've just added a little bit uh to strengthen that for for Bon County odor um odor is not to be detectable beyond the exterior of the property and they're to install um proper ventilation and filtration systems This is highly regulated by ocm so we've just complemented uh their their requirements security again we're adding security as required by ocm that is something that they're requiring as part of their application and approval for the license um and we just want to make sure that we're receiving a copy of uh that security plan lighting shall be provided for security purposes no outdoor grow lights shall be used between 700 p.m. and 700 a.m. and that's strictly your outdoor grow lights pretty intense lights we would want to make sure that that you know we're not interfering with uh surrounding properties and then no light shall Escape mixed light cultivation facilities between sunset and sunrise just making sure that if they're going to open those facilities up when they close them they're secure and closed so that we don't have uh beams of light coming out of those um water and solid waste shall follow all local state and federal requirements and we reference back to our Solid Waste ordinance and then here comes the uh termination Clauses that are with our interm use permits and that uh the iup may be terminated upon any of the following events change of ownership change of ocm license holder it's revoked expired or otherwise terminated earlier and that is what I have for our cannabis zoning ordinance and I have not received comments um from any of the Cities townships um again they were all invited and received this notice perfect thanks roxan we will now open the public hearing is there anyone in the audience or online who wishes to address the County Board on this agenda item if there is please come to the podium and state your name and address anybody online make another call anybody in the audience or online that would like to address the County Board on this ordinance Final Call okay we are going to now close the public hearing uh there's been no letters uh no departments have any concerns no Sheriff heck is all on board with this so uh action what would the County Board like to do move for approval Mr chair second okay we got a motion in a second to uh the ordinance number 497 to amend Betton County development code ordinance number 477 to add Provisions for regulations of cannabis business within the County zoning jurisdiction any other questions if not I'll call the question all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries thanks roxan thank you thank you all for your work on this yeah and more to come right yeah ever changing all right we'll continue okay so the next item I have is an agreement with Bogart Peterson and Associates for um Wetland Conservation act Administration assistance uh we previously had an agreement with Bogart Peterson to assist us um through this transition period um while we were looking for uh a new employee for that position for the Wetland and solid waste uh lead program manager position as it's called now um we have hired an individual this individual does not start until January 21st during that time we are looking to contract um re-execute a contract with Bogart Peterson to assist us to to be our lgu for whack administration at least until January 21st when that individual starts and then beyond that they would serve in an assistance role as needed to assist the new individual in learning the wacka Administration process assisting with guidance on applications that come in um and and just making sure that overall this individual feels confident and comfortable in this position and is doing the best that we can for Betton County um things have been working very very well with Bogart Peterson these last few months and I think this would be an excellent opportunity to get an employee trained in um and trained in well uh I do have the contract extended all the way until December 31st of 2025 and that's just to make sure that we don't need to come back if um for any reason that may come up uh but it does cover Us in um the event that we need them and um hopefully hopefully we will be able to uh not use their their services sooner than than later but for the time being I think they've been doing a great job of course there is a cost with that they did extend the uh $110 per hour fee for that we'll use what we can of whacka um and and then use uh the Planning and Zoning general account Mr chair I'll add to RX s's comments I've heard nothing but positive remarks from land owners that have been dealing with wacka stuff so good all right with that Mr chair I'll move for approval of the agreement with Bogart Peterson Associates for assistance in the administration of Waka and authorize the chair to sign the agreement I'll second that okay we got a motion in a second any other questions if not I'll call the question all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries thank you again roxan thank you we will move on to sheriff heck consider the contract with Tyler Technologies for purchase of updated CAD RMS system and Joint Powers agreement fully R Sock Rapids for the cost sharing plan related to the purchase of the shared system you have the floor very brief title for you so I'm here to talk today about the computer data dispatch and Records management system that we have at the Sheriff's Office this is the system that takes in all the data manages it flows it through our office stores it it's a mission critical piece of our operation over there in uh 2016 we moved from a product that was at that time owned by Central Square to our current product uh LG uh primarily because we were dissatisfied with the service that we were getting from Central Square to maintain and improve the product that we had um at in 2016 I had really hoped that that would be the last time I had to talk to you about a cad RMS system but here we are um the advantage that we gained in moving to the letg system that we currently have is that it now became a shared record system between ourselves Sock Rapids Foley and rice this enables any officer anywhere in the county to be able to gain all the Intelligence on a person that any of our other agencies have gathered over time and it's really a uh an enhancement to the work they can do we're no longer siloed and we're able to be uh more efficient at sharing information keeping officers safer making investigations go smoother we've been operating on the LG system as I said since 2016 unfortunately in the eight years since we signed on with them they've been bought out by two other larger software companies most recently Central Square so here we are again Central Square has made it clear that uh the LG product is basically their minimum maintenance Road of their Suite uh they've uh through various memos and actions that they've taken and and reversed have indicated that they're not putting any more money into development um this product gets the lowest attention on their on their hierarchy so it's become untenable to continue forward with LG in 2023 we got together as a Benton County Law Enforcement uh group of and we talked about what are we going to do next uh we recognized the need to move on and came up with strategy for what we're going to do to transition to our next system so over the following months since May of 2023 we've had a lot of meetings with software companies that have come in and put on their demos we've had meetings together with our staff and meetings together as a group of chiefs to talk about what's the right move for us as we're exploring what our other options are um a unique opportunity presented itself as Sterns County was also in the process of selecting their next vendor they went through their RFP process over there and their selection was Tyler Technologies we considered Tyler because they have uh they have an excellent product and because of this potential um potential partnership with Sterns what came out of all of our deliberations was to select Tyler as a product to go forward so what we're proposing is to enter into a contract with Tyler to create a shared system between not only all the Benton agencies but all the stern agencies as well the system envisions our um portion of the system living on the Sterns County infrastructure saving us the uh cost of having to come up with our own infrastructure or invest in Cloud infrastructure it is a Rob system um as I said it was the one selected by all of our staff internally select by all of our partners we think it is a system that is going to move us forward into the future and be a real bonus to um to our law enforcement information sharing needs there are portions of this system that are used exclusively by the Sheriff's Office and then there are portions that are shared equally by all the law enforcement Partners so as we're coming up with how to pay for this we Rec recognize that the sheriff's office should be responsible for the systems that are used solely by the Sheriff's Office and that we would share costs for the parts of the system used by all users our agreement among the Chiefs that we're bringing here to be codified by all of the government agencies is that we would share those systems according to the population the percentage of Benton County's population served by each law enforcement agency when you break that down according to the definition in the joint Powers agreement it comes up with uh bent County shouldering 44% of the shared cost Sock Rapids shouldering 42 Foley picking up 8% and rice picking up 6% so as we work through this um agreement and through the through the model to pay for this one of our other priorities here at the Bon County Sheriff's Office was to find a way to do this with nonl to the extent that was possible this is a big lift it's very expensive so we thought found ways to do that without affecting the tax levy we were fortunate to get um Public Safety aid from the state of Minnesota in 2023 and in our plan for how we're going to spend that we reserved a sign significant portion just a little under 50% of that for this project and that is enough to pay for the portion that needs to come from the public safety Aid we're also paying for this out of uh e911 funds inmate welfare funds and uh as I said the the public safety Aid um the purchase price is coming at a cost of zero to the levy there are ongoing costs that would be paid by each of these funds going forward including about $25,000 that will come out of the levy and that money already exists in my budget to continue to pay uh fees that we would have been paying for LG as I said we think that this is the system to move forward with we've got a funding plan for it so we're seeking uh seeking the board's uh commitment to our cost sharing in the joint Powers agreement and to signing the contract with Tyler to move forward with purchasing this system so um i' be happy entertaining any questions that you have and also Charles Olen from Tyler Technologies is here if you have any questions relating to functionality or the Tyler contract Mr chair so U Troy you said that the 25,000 is the annual going forward cost yes okay and that'll be shared equally on the percentage that you give us so um not quite so $25,000 is our total of the Benton County only recuring costs and the sh Benton County shared recuring costs and as I said right now in my budget I'm paying pretty much that to LG every year sure for their system and then the our partners will pick pick up their share right so our partners like for instance Sock Rapids pays about 10,000 each year Foley pays about 2,000 and Rise pays about $1,500 in recurring cost I'm assuming they ran that past their city council people yes so I have this joint Powers agreement has been approved by Sock Rapids in Foley and it's going before the rice city council shortly okay okay answered my question Sheriff ask what you were currently paying with your existing budget so thank you I was going to ask to make sure that this got through the other cities including Sock Rapids so yeah yes all right what would the board like to do I'll move for approval Mr chair of the to contact Tyler Technologies for the purchase and updates of CAD slrms system second okay we got a motion a second any other last questions on this not I'll call the question all in favor I oose same sign motion carries thanks Sheriff than you I think we should comment or commend the sheriff for working with Sterns County too just done absolutely all the partners it it it's like hurting cattle making sure everybody's on the same page especially when it's cost sharing right thank you thank you all right moving on to sandy yes so I have Jessica Brandon the executive director of Central Minnesota Mental Health Center here today um I've got some handouts to give each of you she is going to give you an overview of how we're changing their Chang their services from a detox model to a withdrawal management model um and after her presentation then I would ask for approval of a contract with cament mental health center for 2025 just go thank you good morning Commissioners good morning good morning my name is Jessica Brandon and I am the CEO of Central Minnesota Mental Health Center I'm joined by Rob Matan who's the agency's chief operating officer and as Sandy mentioned uh we are here to discuss a transition our original def model to a withdrawal Management Services model this be careful thank you uh the transition Services came about for sort of two main reasons so um as you can see on the first slide for the last several years the detox program has been basically financially insolvent so um we've been really struggling to try and figure out how to pay for these services and so we approached the counties to talk about that because as I'm sure you're all aware um every county is statutorily required to offer Detox Services to folks in their County who need access to them um and so we were trying to figure out creative ways to work together with the counties to make sure that these services are available we've been a long-term um provider of these services to Benton County uh the agency uh uh started in 1959 we've offered Detox Services for much of the time of our existence um and this is important program um available for people who need it most as you probably all know Central Minnesota Mental Health Center provides a wide range of chemical health and mental health services to the community but again today we're going to focus on what was called detox so in May of 2023 when I was relatively new in my position um we started talking about the problems that we were having with the payment model so um the reimbursements that we were receiving for services were not sufficient it's certainly no secret to you or anyone else that the cost of services has increased exponentially over the last many years and our rates hadn't kept up so when we approached the counties to talk about the problems that we were having what we were finding is imagine that that there wasn't a lot of extra money rolling around to pay for more services so um we wanted to come up like I said with some Creative Solutions um to do that so we approached the counties about um converting from Detox Services to withdrawal Management Services and so that's a little complicated and I don't want to give you more information than you need about that but think of withdrawal Management Services as detox plus some additional services so we're still continuing to provide the Detox Services um that are statutory required for counties to provide but on top of that um the services also include a comprehensive evaluation and support from our staff to get the person from detox to ongoing treatment so the goal here is that they won't continue to utilize Detox Services that we helping people um bridge the gap from the original point of service access so the detox part but getting them into long-term treatment um interesting ly the withdrawal management model has uh sort of two main benefits so one is the better clinical care that I talked about so we're not talking about sort of the revolving door of detox or if somebody has a chemical health problem they just continue to come back we sober them up they go home then when they need to be sobered up again they come back to us this is really about an ongoing solution to treatment um but it also created some Financial benefits um for the counties and for cmhc so a shifted payment for folks who qualify for medical assistance so who have an MA or pmap or Behavioral Health fund eligibility so detox is not covered by any of those payment sources but withdrawal management is I'm going to turn it over to Robin now to talk more specifically about finances well if you look at the slide that's um labeled Benton County um this is through October 31st of this year and this is um showing you how much the county has saved by Shifting the billing to the map map and behavior health fund so you can see 35 of the um clients ended up on the map map and three clients ended up on Behavioral Health fund now I say this is through October 31st um we met a couple weeks ago to discuss the uh August and September bill and we know there are also clients on there that are going to end up on Ma or Behavioral Health fund uh the Count's working to get them so that number will even shift even more under the detox model all 87 of those people would have been built to the county there was there was any other funding source rarely rarely we would have a commercial insurance that would pay something but it was I've been there 12 years it was very rare so um and if you go to the next slide you'll see the total cost to the counties um this is why we proposed this so many months ago with withdraw management you can see how much the cost to the counties has gone down from 22 to 24 and as Jessica mentioned you know the cost of services obviously has gone up um everything else has gone up so the fact that we could Pro we could provide this service to the residents of the county and save the county money and also offer a better service as Jessica said this is a this is an enhanced service it's not just detox so we're saving the county money we're offering the residents a better service and that's what we're proposing Mr chair if I could Sandy um how was the county portion being paid is that Levy dollars it is okay thank you however we also do go back as well and Bill some of the patients for that so depending on their income there's a sliding fee scale so some individuals end up paying their whole bill themselves and some end up paying a portion or none okay just to go ahead do you know what percentage that is that pay a portion or none oh great percentage pay a portion or n or on Cooperative yeah okay so based on the 2022 of $1,99 9.98 that was all Levy too yes okay how do we pre-plan for that or just do we go off historical yes okay how how are you Rec those um losses or the money loss 850,000 the agency is a nonprofit so we do a combination of fundraising and we also have other services that are not underwater so some of the income that we generate from our other feif for services programs are uh helping to subsidize this but as cost continue to increase we're having more and more difficulty covering those costs is the state going to step up to help out some more we certainly hope so withdrawal management is a model for the state of Minnesota um and so the reimbursement rates haven't caught up with the additional cost of the services um so we certainly hope so but as I'm sure you all know the lobbying process for increasing State rates on anything is a long process so we're trying to be uh creative locally to figure out how to bridge the gap between now and when the state catches up with a new service model okay yeah whatever S I didn't mean to say that but yeah yeah you did with that I did I did mean to say that they just won't hear it with that what what are what is the wishes of the county I'm going to make a motion to approve the 2025 contract with Central Minnesota Health Central Minnesota Mental Health Care for withdrawal management I'll second okay we got a motion in a second uh any other questions I got a comment seems like a no-brainer to me so yeah all right hopefully we can recover some extra funds out of this too of course thank you we got a motion in a second I'll call a question all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries thank you and we'll move right on to to your next agenda item so I'd hop today to come with a contract with um Sterns bank and um Children First children's Finance however we have not yet been able to do a contract it has nothing to do with Benton County it has to do with some agreement between those two agencies um trying to figure out how they might uh develop a contract to provide loans and grants to childcare Ser providers in our County the idea was to attract new providers and maintain current providers improving their business models um so um the money we had previously dedicated towards this was set to be spent by the end of 2024 so I would need a new motion to extend that into the coming year and rededicate that money uh we had $50,000 we have 177,000 120 left um so I think we could spend it in the same way we were spending it um we no longer would pay for their licenses but we were paying for things like CPR um and we had an incentive at $1500 to get license we could still do that if the banking the bank program does not work out um but I would like to try the bank program if possible and would like Hope to come back to you with one or the other of the programs but we do need to dedicate that money to keep the arpa funds is my understanding before the end of the year which is today um so I'd hope to have a contract I do not Monty we can we can extend this it just needs to be spent by the end we went back and looked at the old motion and it was that the money uh would be obligated to end of this year um so we thought to clean it up we should get a new motion to commit it to the purposes described by Sandy uh through the end of 26 perfect yeah yeah yeah just no-brainer yeah I mean we got the money in there correct yeah yeah just allocation for another year that's y that's all we're doing I'm going to make that motion dedication of up to $ 17,120 ARA funds towards administration of the child care home loan grant program to be administered by Sterns bank or hopefully administered by Sterns Bank maybe have it be the Recruitment and support of foster foster care providers right yep I would agree with that instead of Mr chair instead of listening the bank as the correct the sole entity so did we get that motion probably not second we got are we clear on that Beth yeah on what we're doing um we're taking out Sterns bank and first children's finance and putting in Foster recruitment support of Bon County foster care homes yep okay got a motion in a second I think it's a no-brainer Sandy I want to thank you and your whole group for anything you do with child care yeah because that is as everybody knows it's a very big issue yeah and the more that we can help out bring in new providers that's going to help out all the residents with their Workforce and you name it so thank you thank you I will call the question all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries Mr chair if I can interrupt you maybe in response to sy's time here could we move Community Health Board recess County Board move into that there's quite an extended agenda that she would have to sit here for thank you commissioner Johnson I will turn it over to uh that's Jacqueline oh that's right yeah yes thank you for the even though Sandy was looking at me like what are you talking about thank you for the correction I'm still trying to get used to that thank you online Mr chair I got one more comment I hope that we'll vet this pretty with Stern's bank if this is going forward that that's vented pretty well yes between the County attorneys and whatever yes okay got it all right I think we're going to move right on to Christine then thank you Sandy thank you my good morning good morning morning uh so before you we have the establishment of the Baton County absentee in yava ballot board for the 2025 election season um currently right now we're going to have three elections one February 11th for District 47 the March Township election and then in May the St Cloud and sartel school districts will have a special election so I just look for an approval of a resolution of establishing the absentee ballot board for 2025 so moved second okay we got a motion in a second any other questions so go ahead comments first we were at right city council Chris bird and myself last night and had a presentation and as you know I was a little slow to the to the thinking part um didn't the school district piggy back on their elections the township officials have theirs um I'm not sure on that one I mean you know it was after the fact because superintendent was there but you look at the convenience and everything else that it would have done to some of the members with that you know where the townships have the election MH I know the township is like its own election and its own election administrator so I'm not sure why it didn't go off of that but I know that they typically don't go off of a general election because of the turnout right so I thought it could have saved some money maybe well Mr chair I got a question so it says that it's $43 per hour Bon County staff time that seems a little low in my opinion that's on to the next one so oh okay s sorry you're scooting ahead okay uh we got a motion in a second on the um first resolution I'll call the question all in favor I I oppose same sign motion carries we'll move on to the ISD 47 so the school district asked us to assist them in their Standalone election um we came up with this agreement and they had signed it at their board meeting last weekend last Monday uh I see you're questioning the $43 I believe we can only recoup exactly what what it's costing us so that's for that person okay okay I I was just questioning that Mr chair it just seems awful low on my end but you know it is what it is Mr chair Monte I would assume that $43 includes their Sal and their benefits and the whole type of thing at 43 I would say yes that's going to include health insurance and Social Security Medicare that sort of thing yeah yeah okay that sounds about right so just looking for an approval and a signature on this agreement with School District 47 my computer is froze up that's got the Sock Rapids commissioner written all over it yeah I will make a motion that we enter into this agreement and then I'm going to set second Mr chair okay we got a motion in a second um I want to think I have never realize how much goes into elections and I'm telling you that they keep getting worse and worse on what you got to do and and everything you got to go through so yeah I thank you and your staff for everything you guys do because it's a lot of it goes unseen sure until there's an issue like Scott County and unfunded yeah and unfunded yeah unfunded yeah that's a good one so with that thank you again to you and your team all I'll call the question all in favor I I oppose same sign motion carries thank you thank you Christine thank you did Monty whenever you're ready I think I have the next 85 agenda items that's all right that'll give my computer out of the first one of them that'll give my computer time to reboot here let's see here here it is all right okay up so M at the AMC annual conference just last week uh bent Cony was recognized for its performance by MCAT and the work comp Division and you all POS for a nice photo up on the stage and Shannon has here so Mr Sher I wanted to maybe just elaborate a little bit on know what does this mean and I think you know MCAT looks at all facets of your risk management and work comp performance in other words do you promptly report injuries do you do you provide good reports thorough reports so MCAT can investigate do you assist employees in returning to work let's just say for example they have an injury but they can do some work do you help find them light duty to get them back uh into their position I know we've done that in a few instances over the past year do you have an active engaged Safety Committee we do um and and so Shannon organizes that group uh she she gives them an agenda brings them together and they talk about injuries and they talk about policies do you have updated uh risk management policies do do safety training so I want to kind of give you the impression it's it's a whole basket of issues that helped the MCAT pays attention to that resulted in our County being recognized and I want to make sure I acknowledge Shannon and her leadership of the Safety Committee I know Jeff is a big part of that too for example MCAT comes through and does inspections of our facilities and Jeff goes along with them and they identify areas where we can make improvements so let's just say for example um some guard is missing on a piece of equipment okay let's fix it so that's something Jeff is very much involved in also is a member of the Safety Committee so I want to make sure involv I acknowledge Shannon and the members of our Safety Committee that resulted in us getting this recognition so awesome so we're gonna ask Shannon to come on up for another picture with a board chair I'm on hi you're welcome um before we do this picture I just want to uh commend the whole staff for this accomplishment this is a very big award at the AMC conference and it is number it is the first award they give out so everybody's paying attention right it it is uh it is it is a um we're we're very proud to to have have your have the staff do what they did and and to be recognized like this we didn't have anything to do other than stand up there take a picture smile we almost had Shannon do a little speech but she did not want to so yeah Now's the Time for the spe I'll say that b do you got anything else to just that mcit is the main sponsor of that luncheon on Tuesday that's kind of why it's front and C they do that yeah sure great all right all right or do you want to come down no no you want to think about it I already thought about it we thought about it thank you again y yes you will shake your hand thanks Sharon everything thank you app thank you thanks je thank you Sharon we probably we probably wouldn't survived this year without Shannon you know with that we should give a round of applause for all of our staff this goes shal the county I mean every employee has a part in this so thank you all right if I may Amanda there we go don't do it to me don't do it to me a roll right up oh okay there we go okay I think Amanda you maybe let's see shut off I can just Advance you can just use a mouse okay yeah you know it's really nice as long as they're still getting things ready is last year we had the Broadband award correct this year we got this award what are we going to do next year what's coming up yeah what's and just for those we've never got an award prior to last year at any of the conferences I've been at years ago we got something I know we were mcit County the Year back in like 2 I don't know or something well something to work on again for next year right well good morning uh chair and board Commissioners um I wanted to kind of go over again uh second year in a row the Minnesota City participation program uh you heard about this last year around this time and um we kind of uh kind of worked on it tried it out see if it was a good fit for our County and and our city partners and it seemed like it was a um really good fit so I just wanted to go over it again with you just to give you familiar with the Minnesota City participation program which uses uh tax exempt Bond housing pool allocation authorized by the office of Minnesota management and budget uh to enable communities throughout the state to efficiently provide firsttime home buyer loans in their Community without any administrative burden on our part or the County's part uh of running their own Bond program uh the first time home buyer act uh home buyers access the programs through their local lenders so there's really no Administration on our part um they have access to the down payment and closing cost assistance if needed on new home purchases in an across the county um or potentially even refinancing of their existing homes um in your packet you should have uh the presentation um which was presented last year but I'll quickly go over it we don't need to go into too much detail um the program application um and commitment agreement every year we need to commit um to the to the program so that we have access to these Bond pool um funding and then um we need to submit the application the only administrative part on our part is to submit the application to Minnesota housing between January 2nd and Jan uh and January 15th so that's kind of the time frame um last year I'll just kind of quickly go over it last year we did two loans um or two loans were allocated for deferred down payment assistance for two um Residential Properties in the county um outside of city limits now uh the city of Foley city of Sock Rapids um have and City St Cloud City of Sartell have also participated in the program this last year and also in your packet is this really fun spreadsheet that kind of lays out um the allocation amounts that were received by the county um and all of our city partners and then the loans that were committed as part of the program for down payment assistance so you can kind of see and track some of the progress of this program um fley let's just uh for example let's just go through um beton County received an allocation amount of $275,700 Partners uh is 33,000 and fley the allocation amount last year they that was their first year participating in the program um they received 100,000 however um they had six committed loans within the city limits um their committed amount was just over a million dollars which of course they met that need um and their down payment assistance and closing cost assistance um resulted in $123,800 um sartel um did eight committed loans sck Rapids did 11 um sck Rapids was brand new to the program last year so there there's a lot of activity and a lot of Need for down payment assistance and uh closing cost assistance in our County um it helps bridge the gap between the cost of the homes and what the home buyers have to bring to the table um often times we hear that uh there's a gap in what is need needed for down payment assistance in some of these homes so it's a really great program again very little administrative burden we have access to those State bonding funds um through that housing pool um so it's a it's a really great program it seemed to work out really well and we met the need and um obligation last uh this year so we can apply for it again this next year so I'm just going to kind of run through the presentation real quick um we're just going to kind of go quickly over the the MCC program the participation benefits um and the Home Mortgage overview the application Pro uh process and what to expect um so this is Minnesota housing's um mission is the foundation for Success so we can collaborate with individuals communities and partners create preserve and finance affordable housing and again it's um to provide firsttime home buyer loans in the community um cities can apply counties can apply we can apply as a multi-county um we just need uh to collaborate together which we have been doing these are the counties um in the state um that are colored that participate in the program Amanda yes one question I know it's probably a technicality and I I tend to like them but it says first time home by buyer in your community so is do you got to be the first time home buyer ever or just in your community um nope actually uh there's a criteria that you need to meet I think it might be in this presentation but if you haven't owned a home in I think it's like four years or something like that you can re okay apply for the program um so it is to promote firsttime home ownership in the community um to access down payment and closing cost assistance um they're loans they're not grants um so you do have to pay that those funds back but a minimal administrative burden on our part um it's dedicated funding for our community they do all the marketing Outreach they give us the information we deliver it to our lenders I think on the payback isn't it isn't it paid back at the time of of payoff of the loan or when you sell the house it could be advertised over the term of the loans so 30 years or payoff at the end it depends on how the um what program they use and how it was structured there's no cost to the county no application or fee in 2025 and then we get monthly reports so if you want those monthly reports I can certainly for them to Monte and you can get them every month um maybe you don't want them I'll give you the at the end of the maybe halfway through the year if we could I'm sure Monty would love to have those reports yeah I get them um so I monitor them um internally in our office but um I provided you with the overall report at the end of the year so there's a couple different programs with Minnesota housing this is the first-time home buyer program they have they call it the startup program um which you have access uh to down payment and closing cost loans you have to um meet with a participating lender that is uh that has gone through the vetting process through Minnesota housing um to access these funds and um the other programs are called step up and fix up so you can a home improvement loan um or repeat home buyer um loan as well so if you're purchasing a refinancing existing loan um so basically how it works uh you have your base product which is your conventional financing through FHA vaa or rural development um and then you work with the lender um to uh access the Minnesota housing program the first mortgage products so steper stepup or startup programs um and then Minnesota housing provides those down payment and closing costs loans as part of um the closing process so the borrower the lender US Bank Services the loans and then Minnesota housing provides um the funding you can find a participating lender in the um area I think last I looked um there were two participating lenders in um Bon County specifically but in a broader scope there's over 25 lenders that participate in the program um there are eligibility requirements so you the borrowers that um participate in this program there are limits um for housing prices um you do still need to meet all your credit limits um and go through home buyer education so um in the county if we're looking at Benton County specifically the home price limits is you can purchase a home up to 472,000 um credit requirements you have to have a minimum credit score of 640 U maximum debt to income ratio um and down payment and closing cost loan eligibility to in order to to qualify for the program and then you have to go through the home buyer education um this is specifically for the startup program uh household size anywhere from 1 to two um we we're looking at we're not in the Lev County Metro Area um Dodge and Olstead C is obviously not but if we're looking at the column where it says All Counties um the income limits are pretty generous 111 $1,800 if you have a household size of 1 to2 and 3 plus is 1285 they're pretty generous um the mccp eligibility requirements um the property just has to be located in the jurisdiction so in the county so um the city the cities that are participating so city of Foley city of sock rapid Sartell and St Cloud um they have their own program and those homes that are located in those specific jurisdiction qualify for their funding pool allocation and the balance of the county um can be utilized by our allocation does that make sense yep um and then the borrows borrowers income is at least at or below 80% of the area median income uh so as I mentioned just the kind of the application um Pro process for the county is that Minnesota housing emails are the participants in application and agreement which you have in your packet um we will uh present the information and then you you know act on that information we'll give it back and get it back to Minnesota housing and then Minnesota housing um allocates a a a bond amount for the county um in January February likely um and then we work with all of the lenders to spread the word about the program so the lenders are familiar with the program and um and provide them with all of the marketing materials so really um that's the nuts and and bolts of it um we kind of went through all of those other slides but um we need to in order to for us to re-qualify for next year we need to use at least 50% of the allocation between January 16th and November 30th which we certainly met that um we can always consider changing the participation level the nice thing about this program is if we go over our allocated um bonding amount we can um pull in funds from other they'll pull in funds from other communities that haven't spent their bonding amount and so we can never really go over if that makes sense there's always funds out there so these are just some of the brochures and um monthly reports that we I get a newsletter every month I can certainly share that with you if you'd like um although I'm thinking maybe you get enough emails um but we do get these usage reports which are included in your application and I just kind of ran through those a little bit but um this is just an example of what those usage reports are it uhu identifies the county what the startup loans um stepup loans total loan activity in the county and then the down payment and closing cost assistance that was given to each one of those loans so you can kind of see what that looks like this just talks about the marketing that we've um that we push out but other than that um it seemed like it was a really great program as very successful especially with our city partners and then also with the county and we met our need and obligation and um I'd like to reconsider doing that again for 2025 Mr chair you know I I was surprised for a new program that you had 11 of them in Sock Rapids I believe the number was and six of them in Foley uh 11 in Sock Rapids six of them in Foley yep okay so the question I have though is is how do they find out about this program does the lender tell them about it correct yep so but and the Realtors if okay so okay because I was just kind of questioning that I mean if with the new program you know how are they going to find out do you have this on the be website too yep um we do and we also had a informational webinar um be uh did that right away in the first quarter of 2024 um and we invited all the title companies the Realtors um the lenders to participate in it and um it's a recorded thing and and our members have access to that so Mr chair Amanda I know you highlighted fairly little administrative work yes is there some some type of reimbursement to be for the time that be is put into this there's really very very little other than me coming to this meeting um and uh delivering the brochures and flyers so it is that light it is very it's a very good program for the county to participate no doubt you've got a little bit more than just bringing the stuff to us cuz you got to prepare and I mean this year was a little bit um heavier uh lifting just because we wanted to get the word out and get the information out there but but um other than that you know knowing that the lenders know about it the Realtors know about it the title companies know about it also highlighted it that one of your quarterly meetings we did we actually had a presentation at one of our quarterly meetings as well it's a great program great program and it it is it's a program that if we didn't have be wouldn't exist exactly that's kind of where I was going with this it's a little humble over there on what she does so thank you all right welcome board so I am yeah go ahead just looking for action it's a no-brainer yep go ahead sure uh I'm sorry I don't even know what the motion is my thrs up um I have the motion or the action requested is to approve by motion the 2025 um mcpp agreement and authorize the execution of the application by the County Board chair and the County Administrator that'll be my motion Mr chair I'll second then okay we got a motion made by commissioner Heen and second by commissioner pop all in favor I same sign motion carries thank you thank you Amanda you're welcome thank you very much okay that's it I'm done with this been doing that you get your computer updated mine is new okay he's got mine now Mr chair I'll be without my computer no problem you can use mine must have been all the extra stuff that Monty put in it and just for the audience we've been going through this for months now so that what's that the uh the levy and everything have everything yeah okay I'll be there in just a second I'm getting close when do we start this back in July I don't know seems like we're going to be starting again in February right for the next year okay let just go real quick almost there I should have used best best links okay now we're there R said a 12% Livy increase here we go okay so miss chair day's action represents final action on the the 20125 budget in Levy District was you adopted proposed budget Levy back in September and you had a truth and Taxation public meeting on December 3rd if I may I'd like to use this one pager to give some highlights of the of the final budget Levy I may the levy before you is a is a 4.98% increase over 2024 at we mentioned in the truth and Taxation public meeting the Statewide average proposed Levy by All Counties was 6.4% um so just just point of reference I think that question came up and we addressed that during the truth and Taxation meeting our tenure average is 2.7% we talked about uh there is a bit of stagnation in our tax capacity for payable 25 couple reasons uh the home market value exclusion increasing and also uh some valuation reductions uh due to sales data I think as Brian mentioned uh a lot of that's occurring in stock Rapids particularly the North Eastern portion of stock Rapids where we're seeing some reductions in residential values and again that's driven by sales data so we might see it we we we probably will see a a small increase in our County tax rate from 44% to 46.5 but I want to quick to point out we sold down from a high a high of 77.6% in 2014 major factors behind the levy increase compensation benefits that leads off as the largest reason for the increase there's a 2 and a half% general wage adjustment January 1st most employees are still receiving uh step increases those average 3.2% moving on down the list the board chose to use all their certified 2025 County program aid for l reduction you can see that that took $583,000 off the levy increase new positions talk about that in a second we're seeing increased out of home placements in human services increased cost allocation from Department of Corrections for its support of our local probation office here in Foley the board chose to add a fully uh fully insured um that's misspelled it should say insured Comprehensive Dental Coverage for employees we're seeing increased usage of the East Central Juvenile Facility it's interesting how you see things after you've seen it for like months that should say insured not insured um we're seeing increased usage of the East Central Juvenile facility otherwise known as L Lakes uh were're seeing increased cost from University of MOT extension as they had to make and they needed to make some pay adjustments to attract and retain Regional extension Educators that all adds up to about a 1 .2 million Levy increase for 2025 some discussion about the new positions two new two new Detention officers we heard from Sheriff heck that all of our posts in the jail need to be staffed 24 hours a day seven days a week we were we heard from sherack that they had been reduced seen Staffing at night uh and the doc told us that we could no longer do that um ultimately I believe the formula says we should add at least about eight deten officers to achieve full Staffing of all the posts as an interim step uh Sheriff heck proposed what a five so-called five post Gill that would allow us to instead of adding eight initially to add two also um the board expresses its uh its intentions that the SCS position would work full-time in the jail I think to the crews are so small right now there's the jail populations are roughly about 30% of capacity so you really don't have a lot of folks to work on Crews anyway the board chose to add an environmental technician SL ditch inspector for Highway um of course you've devoted a substantial amount of energy and resources to um improving our public ditch system and you want to make sure that it stays that way so uh this will give Chris some much needed assistance to make sure that those ditches are maintained long term also to help navigate the complex environmental peridance associated with roow programs several positions were added in human services and eligibility specialist uh two men Choice social workers and two uh social workers for the What's called the home Community Based waiver Services those are basically for adults uh vulnerable adults elderly uh who need of services to stay in the home uh as human services though point out is all the all these positions are are off fully offset by Revenue so no Levy new Levy dollars going into those positions and then we talked about the I spelled it correctly there fully insured dental dental plan for employees Mr chair I believe that's all I wanted to cover again just some highlights of the of the final budget and ly and the way the statute works it asks you to adopt the lovey first and then the budget motion to adopt the levy as presented second okay we got a motion in a second to adopt the levy any other questions Mr chair I would ask uh Beth if you could incorporate into the record this onepage summary it's and it's in its entirety thank you y with the correct spelling with the correct spelling all right I'll call the question all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries all right now we want to adopt the uh budget I'll make a motion to adopt the budget second okay we got a motion to adopt the 2025 budget any other questions seeing none I'll call the question all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries all right thank you everybody for your work on these it's it takes a lot of people to come up with this so Mitch I'd like to chime in on that right right we start the budget process back in June it is very much a team effort yep with all our departments contributing folks in administrator's office of course the County Board uh budget presentations uh yes it's a long process it takes a big team yes and not everybody gets what they want and and it there's got to be give and take on all ends and it's it's tough especially when you look at a a 5% Levy increase just on colas and everything like that right yep but we're not we're in the same boat as a lot of counties so okay moving on all right elect official salaries so Mr Sher it's the statutory responsibility of County boards to set the salaries for the elected officials in this in this case it' be the sheriff the auditor treasur and County attorney this matter was discussed at a December uh 2nd Committee of the whole a consensus was reached at that time and that consensus is reflected in the in the resolution you have in your packet also included a table which shows uh historical salaries requested salaries and then the board's consensus uh final salaries for 25 including the and percentage increases I again that's in your packet thank you Mr CH if I could I just want to highlight our discussion with the committee of the whole about how we talk about our representation from 15 other counties how employees basically plus or minus 6% increase had those conversations and tried to bring our elected officials into that same realm so I I concur with what you just said it uh this gets our elected officials closer to what the what the averages across the board so and not only that I I think our elected officials are doing a very good job as well well it and it also highlighted no offense Christine but the years of service from Sheriff Heek and our County attorney so yeah totally agree all right we got a motion in a second I'll call the question I think we had a motion no that was the one before I'll make a motion we could have the motion I'll make to approve the elected salaries I'll second okay we got a motion in a second all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries thank you all righty next Mr chair it is also the statutory responsible of County boards to set the salaries for County boards this matter was also discussed at December 2nd Committee of the whole it since this is reach at that time and that consensus is reflected in the attached resolution I should just mention to I believe that the consensus were was for the same general wage increase that employees will receive on January 1st thank you for me Mr chair thank you for mentioning that Ponte which is two and a half two and a half% Mr chair I'll make a motion that we uh set the County Board salaries as 2.5% in last year increase second okay we got a motion in a second uh for the commissioner salary of 2.5% increase all in favor H is it enough I don't think anybody's getting rich on it I thought you have some input on that yeah no it uh it definitely is a I encourage anybody so with that I will U uh call the question all in favor I I oppose same saying motion carries it is a lot of work um that I I think people mostly think that we just do two meetings a yeah that's way different than that yeah all right moving on super DM Canon boards are are eligible to receive a prum on their service on Boards of commissions as authorized by the count board it was the consensus of the board at the December 2nd Committee of the whole to keep the PDM at the current $70 level and that's reflected in the attached resolution move for approval Mr chair second okay we got a motion in a second all in favor I post same sign motion carries all right I believe my final item is is Arbor related so uh really this is two issues uh the first is uh back let me think here look at my note back in back in actually September of 23 the board uh by consensus in a commit of the whole decided to set aside $250,000 of arpa money for County fiber project fiber between our buildings uh it has done a great job of getting that project done it's it's getting close there's about 71,000 left in that budget and uh of course you know we've got this obligation to um to make sure the resources are committed by the end of this year it was telling me that they were in position to order the remaining equipment and use up the remaining 71,000 by the end of this year but I said to to Steve saying I said look you know in case maybe something doesn't work out as planned uh to take a little bit of the pressure off how about we just ask the board to to pass a motion to commit the remaining 71,000 and then we're good so somehow let's just say his order falls through again there's some problem between now and the end of the year you've committed it and we're good there's no issue then so that's really my first thing to ask you is a motion to commit the 70 1,000 uh let's see here the exact number is $ 71,3 22 to commit that to the remaining part of the county fiber project so again that that covers Steve he's good to go I think he's going to get all the equipment necessary ordered by the end of this year and I should mention is when you can show that you've ordered equipment that satisfies the the the requirement to obligate the funds another way you can do it is through a motion to commit so that takes care of it too and just being a bit obsessive here but I want to make sure there's no issue about it being committed obligated by the end of this year so that's the first part so yeah I'll make that motion second okay we got a motion in a second uh to uh we'll allocate the 71,000 remaining AR the exact dollar amount is 71,3 22 to the county fiber project yeah yep yep okay got a motion in a second all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries thank you very much I thought this would be a great time for a quick recap of how the county is use the arpa funds as you know we had the obligation to to commit the dollars by the end of this year and that has been done that has been accomplished so this is my pie chart shows you of our eight roughly $8 million of ARA funds where did it go well 38% went to rural Broadband uh of course we're hopefully as as Benton Communications has told us that should be done by the end of next year where our County will be covered with fiber um that's great news the second largest area was the city water and sewer projects between those two 75% of our resources went to rural broadband and city water sewer projects um if I and you can see here the other pieces of the pie only about 14% really actually went to the county and that was through the our revenue losses and those were true revenue losses in uh inmate boarding and state aid for roads um we devoted the 250 to fiber replacement and the board actually then put some additional resources into the contingency budget about 14% went to County purposes but then you can see for example $500,000 went into that Economic Development revolving Loan Fund 100,000 went to the two apartment complex uh improvements in St Cloud so uh again I just want thought be a good time for for a recap and um with the actions you've done today every every penny of those resources are committed obligated uh so we won't be returning any to the federal government remember how nervous you were Monte that we might send some back right we don't want to send any back that's true I I know we've said this uh uh sorry commissioner I know we've said this before but uh I I do commend staff and our board for really putting this money back out in the community and and and it wasn't a fight it was it was everybody felt that this money should go out to our communities to keep building our communities and and it was negotiations on both on all sides to to get money out somewhat equally and to population so uh I commend our entire board and staff on all of that Mr chair I agree because I'm sorry go ahead commissioner Pop I agree I just wish everybody in the county would see this pie chart yeah of where we put all of our except for 14% put all of our ARA funds yeah I mean we could have used a large portion of this for revenue losses and you I'm sure it would have went back to the citizens because we probably wouldn't had the the levy increases but we tried to do something for every portion of the county and I hope the citizens and in the cities are appreciated of it you know I'd like to see good appreciation come from them M I also want to make sure I I acknowledge the contributions of our townships corre to uh the Broadband effort you can see gilmington glenoro langola mayew Lake Maywood Minden Sock Rapids and St George combined contribute $140,000 towards our Broadband efforts and we definitely thank them and appreciate their their contributions I I see Amanda still here and and we obviously must thank Amanda too for her efforts because I know she and board members went to these Township meetings uh to secure their contribution so we greatly appreciate that uh effort as well yep she led the charge on all the townships for sure absolutely uh that's it Mr Shar all right thank you we will move on to Chris bird Monty just for a record we were 5 minutes ahead until your stuff came up so now we're 10 minutes behind I mean not anyway keep track I'm now on double secret probation okay oh no you expect me to get us back on schedule yes y I told him last night no update I don't think that'll happen well let's get right into it then the first item I have before you is an administrative agreement between Benton County and the City of Foley so the city of Foley is moving ahead with the their street uh reconstruction projects in 2025 uh Fourth Avenue which is R County Road 43 North or yeah County Road 43 North of Highway 23 but it's also Casa 20 South of Highway 23 uh I don't know have to ask the those that are around in the 50s why that's a CA route but uh that's when it became established as a CA route so long story short the city has utilities underneath that roadway that they they need to replace it's prudent for us to reconstruct the roadway uh over top of that uh while they're they're doing that so the city approved uh this contract at their last uh city council meeting I do want to direct your attention to page two uh under costs just to so you establish uh what our costs are uh this agreement agrees that the city would basically be the lead on the project uh they hired the engineer to do all the engineering work which we were reviewing when it pertains to our roads they're going to hold the Construction contract they'll go through a city bid leting um and hold the Construction contract and basically we will reimburse the city for our roadway costs that appear on those monthly payments to the contractor additionally though this agreement say says that we are also agreeing to pay for the engineering costs of that um uh because they had to do the engineering we didn't have the staff or resources available to do the engineering so we're going to reimburse the city for the actual engineering costs to design uh the roadway uh of Fourth Avenue our County Road 43 uh and the the rates are kind of established uh upfront based on percentages so exhibit a is the the engineers estimate for the project um and I'll just try to try to zoom in here if I can um total costs to the county is estimated about $1.4 million of that 1.4 is a little over a million a million 48,000 of actual construction costs they have about 10% in there for a contingency of construction costs but another $188,000 for engineering and another $52,000 of administration so uh we had a recent meeting with the city of rice where we were expecting uh anticipating some reimbursement administrative fees for their project but I think this demonstrates when it's the other way when we have somebody else administering our projects we're paying we're acknowledging that we pay a little bit of administration uh to administer those costs and quite frankly this project the city of Foley they need to get to it now we we would not have been able to fit a reconstruction of one of our roadways into our fiveyear plan um and so I think that's why this agreement works best is the city is important to get to it make sense to reconstruct the roadway over top of their utilities um they're willing to take on that uh administrative burden and we're just acknowledging that we're reimburse them for that so any other questions on that agreement so very typical and similar to past agreements that we've had with the city of Foley and city of Sock Rapids for that matter Mr chair I'll move for approval of the administrative agreement with the city of Foley in regards to cassad 43 and cassad 20 second okay we got a motion and second all in favor I I oppose same sign motion carries one thing I add the $1.4 million is in our plan is coming from wheach tax if there's any concerns about that now consider the iig ja technical assistance grant okay so we were awarded this technical assistance grant again to hire WSB to rework our raise Grant application uh so we received the letter uh saying that we have been approved for the grant amount of 23, $628 now we need to adopt a resolution and enter into this agreement with with mot so they will actually disperse the funds to us it's a reimbursement so we will have to pay the WSB invoices first and then submit that for reimbursement from the state so uh although it's not necessarily uh budgeted for since it's going to be an in andout we can float that we we believe we can float that cash for that time period where we pay the invoice and then get reimbursement for be so so just ask you for approval of the adoption of the resolution and approval for board chair signatures on the mot agreement I'll move approval of the resolution and I'll second that okay we got a motion in a second all in favor I I oppos same sign motion carries all right okay this one's going to require we got to do one for the board chair to sign what's that we don't have to do anything for okay perfect that was included in it good yeah would that yeah the next item this is something we talked about back in November uh the city of sck Rapids is still interested in pursuing a transportation Alternatives Grant application to get funds to construct a trail along Mayu Lake Road from Osaka Road up to that unnamed Road or what's uh name nicknamed The Water Tower Road uh the board asked me to have some additional discussions with the city of rice about if they construct that trail and becomes conflicted with the future expansion of Mayu Lake Road uh are they prepared to pay for the relocation costs my discussions with the city went to summarize uh like this they hope that the board would exercise some flexibility in the future if that trail needs to be relocated so not a hard commitment either way uh I provided some sketches additional sketches here their engineer is also looking at could they possibly get some easements from the school district to construct it outside of our ride of way if they do that then they wouldn't need this letter of support um this is what these sketches show getting a 25t trail eement from the school outside of this yellow line which is the current rideway limit of Mayu Lake Road um I drafted up a letter of support with some suggested language from mot for these applications but so that's fully up to the board's discretion if if you're okay to the idea of them putting that trail in our rideway I think our department at a staff level would still require them to acquire a utility permit which is basically anytime any work is in our RightWay we require those to get a permit we could put some permit language in there that says that you're in our RightWay by permit we can revoke that permit at any time due to conflict of the the maintenance or reconstruction of the the County Highway in which you lie um or if the board doesn't want to uh sign a letter of support it it would in essence Force the city to look at placing that trail outside of existing right of way Chris I I I think this this first SE section from 29 to three is closer than what we think and I would just hate to build a trail and then have to rip it all up with tax May or you know this uh uh alternate a transportation Grant I mean we all pay for this stuff and it it's it's stupid to to to take and build something that could be tore up M Mr chair Chris just for clarification even if they got the 25 foot easement from the school district is that even far enough away from a potential future upgrade to cassad one um because you're you're look at what's our right of way now it's about 75 ft on either side okay okay so I think it would be our goal to construct as much as we can within the existing Road rideway my concern would be at this this intersection and and then later the next uh item we'll see why roundabouts inevitably you end up needing Corners at the intersection just to build that Circle you're trying to fit a circle a round peg into a square hole uh when it comes to roundabouts so that's my biggest concern at at these locations can't we have further dialogue with them on on especially those those points of interest so we can have them figure out an alternative area because I think those roundabouts are coming quicker than we think and that's the timing I guess is the big question I think the the the Grant application they're applying for is for fiscal year 29 so if you get the grant you know you're the funds aren't available to 29 so that's four years out which a lot of times takes the engineering environmental review to do that um would we be constructing roundabouts or before that time frame I think that's that's the big unknown that like which comes first is the chicken or the egg thing um but when I look at this intersection I still we we don't have enough engineering completed to know look at these houses that we can't encroach there so that forces roundabout to the east east and then how much are we acquiring over here how much this is going to be a partnership with the school the city and the county all the way through whether it's the the the trail or the road so and I think we know the school has got big plans yeah that's going to be on the ballot in February to build a lot of features on this property here in the next two to three years so so go ahead no I'll let you go I think we might as well start having the conversation with the or Force the conversation for the city and the and the school to have this convers ation now yeah on this Trail I I am not in favor of inent embarking on any of our righta aways on this Ro because it'll come back to cost us money correct so Chris you you threw out two alternatives to add to this and what was please tell me both those Alternatives you were just talking about if you would like to be supportive of them submitting a grant um you could authorize or approve this letter and then still Direct direct us to grant them a permit and then we could put some permit language in there that they are in our road wi Away by permit yeah and then if they need to relocate it because it's in conflict of our maintenance and reconstruction of our roadway just like any other utility it's on them to do that at their cost correct or we could just not say we're not supportive of it being in our rideway then we don't have to do anything else then then then that would the problem is not even to write up their Grant saying that they need to acquire additional easements from the school property and put it outside of our road rideway the problem with that is then they wouldn't be able to get in for the 2029 Grant they wouldn't have enough time to get all that well I mean I I'm very much in favor of the second location because if the school goes ahead and that passes they're going to re refigure some of this stuff and they need to make sure that property's available to them now not after the project is done y so I mean there is no way I want that trail in our right away whatsoever what if we built the the the road the future Road like has kind of been designed would that work in our right away um possibly um I don't know we don't have enough what what what came out of that Corridor study is some highlevel Concepts you know basically where you looking at two Dimensions what happens when you put it on the ground level that's actually out there that's when things you get you got to get through quite a ways into engineering to say oh the ground's a lot higher here we got to go chase that slope back all of a sudden we're outside of our existing ride of way to to get the ground to tie in and and match up again well Mr chair that's the problem even with a 25 foot off from the school district is that may not be enough and there is um let's just just treat the city as like any other utility within the road rideway and use our recent example with Excel when it's there are some risks there too when it's right outside of our rideway and we impact it then generally we are on the hook for those costs because they were in their own easement so there's risks both ways which ways best to minimize our risk or cost risk in the future I I do believe that they would Faire very well in this uh transport or those alternate trans yeah I I do I think they could get the money I I agree with you on that it's just that you know what kind of language can we put in there so that we don't have to replace it the only the only thing I would say on that is we we worked with a few of these at the APO and they are out to 29 MH so if if you look at it there's a lot of things that change in four years and you know what I mean so we could technically support that but if all of a sudden that raise Grant comes through or something like that on that first leg they can they can still get that Grant now it's just reconfiguring their Trail to to go because I believe that's part of the raise Grant is if something like this was going in that actually votes better us to get that raised Grant does yeah that and and I had that's another totic but we had those recent discussions with WSB when we're talking about our cost for a project we were looking at ways to minimize our costs you're right having pedestrian features meets more those environmental justice kind of things requirements but it isn't added cost to the project do we show do we take that out and say okay we're lowered our project cost so our benefit cost ratio looks better but we also took away some of the benefits too yeah um and and technically we can we can apply for this cuz we wouldn't be awarded it before we apply for the raise Grant so there's a chance that you could potentially get both because of the timing if you will you're right so we have one more board meeting the first board meeting in January occurs before this Grant application is due the rais grant actually due at the end of January uh those Transportation Alternatives they usually make that announcement uh I believe in the spring it might be April time yeah yep we may not know our raise Grant until June June y so so um yeah um I I agree with commissioner pop the only thing is is I I I I think if we supported this there's time for that for to reconfigure um because they they don't have to they don't have to get all of their easements right now they could still work on easements and slide that over 20 ft or you know um but I'm afraid if we support it that they can use our easements that's way it's going to that's way it'll come down I think we still got to do the they got to do the fees and we got to put some language in there and stuff langage two Commissioners pops point if if we do offer the letter of support that says that we're okay with it being in the road right away that's how their Grant application will be written up and if they get the grant it'll be expected to still do what the Grant application said put it in the road right away we have any indication if the school district's willing to work with them on the 25 foot easement uh I do not um Fields right there that's in the ball field so how long what's the distance going back to their if the school district gets their athletic complex they may have money to do that and if we put it in our right away then they don't have to you know we can we can force the city and force the school district to do it the right way by by staying out of our by staying out of our right away especially when we know there's something coming right yeah my my my real concern on this is do we have enough room to do the road the right way if we get the raise Grant without acquiring more easement that would well efficient my point is if they got the easement from the school is that even far is that even might still be tearing it up now is there a way to have more communication with Sock Rapids even if commissioner he and myself well uh I do know we have a meeting the city did request a meeting uh sooner than later I just sent out a meeting invite for Monday they want to talk about specifically 29 in1 roundabout the status of that it may be a good time to open up the conversation about other projects I I think it makes sense my rsbp it may even make sense before we get too far along to even get into an administrative agreement with the city of Sock Rapids to I mean we we're all Partners we're all good neighbors of each other it's nice to have something in writing to remind each other who what our roles and responsibilities are on these these Mega projects I mean this would be a mega project for B County Earth Sock Rapids do you know if uh uh superintendent Bergstrom was going to be there I do not I I think I think they are very a very important partner as well um part of the reason we got you know our earmark was because we talked about the the the new Athletic Facility going going on up the north here so I mean it's all we're all tied together we're all I keep wanting to say we're all in bed together but um we we we're all we're all we're all interacting with each other we're we're creating things that drive traffic and we're trying to address existing safety issues um I have confidence in you guys having a discussion I think we address this on WE address this on Monday right away and and come to a conclusion yeah and I and I think between the three jurisdictions we should be able to come a couple of the things I think we should bring to that is the school should give the footage from the ball field to the to the RightWay Y and figure out if what that what that is because if if if there's a way that we can do it that way that would be the best way to do it because we can't affect that road there's got to be change there was another bad accident yesterday morning out there on on that round that we're changing a three car and the other part if you look at school district's going to need votes they're probably willing to come to the table sooner than later before February 11th in order to get past what they want past so I mean everybody's kind of and superintendent bergstrom's been hugely on board with this fixing this issue tell you want to take his ball fields away oh I I I don't I think we can still make it work but one of my concerns I'll just point out does anybody see this Shadow here yep so uh that's our friend Excel any widening or expansion does that foret this this direction and not that way so there's still a lot of unknowns to get into any hard commitments at this point so I would say let's table this until we have our meeting because we can we can still get it in the first meeting in in January to meet their deadline correct yes yes the Grant application I think uh is due January 10th and our meeting is the 6th seventh seventh okay so if we do it when we will I mean if we want to do it then we still have a couple days to get it to them the problem is I going to put them in a bind if I don't know maybe but can it doesn't seem like we're ready to commit right now and I I don't think we should feel pressured to commit one way uh or another yeah Mr chair I moved to postpone this decision until the first meeting in January yeah I it's a big decision I have a question though well if I I'll I'll second that just you don't need a second for a table no you don't okay well I just wanted to make sure the my only question Chris is when we go to our meeting Monday morning with the city I want you to bring uh documentation of our plan for that road of how it's going to impede and how wide it's going to be for our ride away and everything so that we have an understanding you know you say we've got 75 ft are we going to need a 100 of it m we need to know that for our new system of road if we get the raise Grant cuz I'm I'm going to tell you if we built if we got this this uh Trail money or they got this money and then they put it in and then a year later we tear it all out yeah though we're going to all get mutilated in the public eye totally yeah we should y yeah AG why we're having this conversation that's right yeah we're not saying we're not going to support it we're going to say that we need to have more support communication and maybe that's at the end of the day it's just like now's not the right time yeah cuz we put a lot of money and they they is correct they actually put in a third of that money for that study yep yes you're right you're right yeah mhm wasn't there a trail on that study too there was yeah I think some of the concepts did show Trails on one or both sides of the roadway too so maybe that's a compromise it's like okay we can fit one of them in but we're not going to be able to fit both on both sides of the road so there's going to be a trail on one side and sidewalk on the other yep okay we'll table that till the next meeting all right uh the last thing uh for your attention uh is approval of the road rideway plat number 16 and this is the plat at 1 and 29 that establishes the limits of the new ride of way we we acquiring uh earlier I mentioned trying to fit a round peg in a square hole and that's that's kind of demonstrated here so you see Mayu Lake Road our casa 1 North South here Casa 29 East West these lines represent the existing Road rideway um and then here's the new proposed rideway limits kind of these triangles that are needed uh at all four quadrants this one's uh uh larger than the other four because we're we're we we need to put our storm water treatment ponds in this corner so that's why that corner looks a little bit larger than the other three corners uh for additional road rideway so that's where the term we have a existing rideway generally applies a lot of times but then you get into engineering and you see your elevations and you realize okay your grading limbits extend past oh yeah we need to treat our storm water that runs off of our project and you need additional Road ride of way so approving this and recording this plat then becomes the legal description of those Parcels uh in any purchase agreements that that we enter into later okay questions move for approval of RightWay plat number 16 is presented second okay we got a motion and a second all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries all right and I have the plat with me I'll leave here for signatures after the meeting what it's another couple yeah yeah that's right right all anything else or I'll step aside for keep going no I think we're good thank you Chris we're going to run into commissioner we're going to we're going to finish up the the the uh um board meeting real quick with this being commissioner Sloan's last board meeting we'll let her start with commissioner updates unless we end up having a uh special one for some reason you don't see that coming to you Monty special board meeting okay good maybe yeah maybe something with Bap maybe that's kind of I yeah still waiting commissioner he okay I I'll start so I had we had the uh Benton County opoy development committee that was interesting then I did the uh uh CLA meeting audit with the audit firm uh also I had a sock rabbits join power meeting that I attended on behalf of benon County let's see AMC conference very good conference this year uh what else I had the uh extent extension 29 meeting PMT meeting yesterday and that's all sir okay commissioner slan oh I got a lot more I guess holy christes go ahead no finish up no I'm fine okay fine we're good commissioner slan hey we had um the AMC conference the um Industrial Products tour of the facility and uh one other one the Wastewater um recognition by the golf I think that was it okay commissioner Johnson right so on December 3rd uh commissioner Po and I met with Chris on a ditch subcommittee meeting um discussions in regard to cd6 and CD4 and few other options on cd9 and 14 on December 5th they had our final policy committee meeting with the onew one plan for St Cloud so that project's moving forward of course are MC conferences uh roxan touch base about our Planning Commission meeting last week we moved that forward for that ordinance today uh then I the next day also had a TR County Solid Waste executive board meeting uh reviewing bylaws and some other procedures moving forward um and then I also attended the St Cloud industrial production site was a good tour thank you for the invite to that by the way Amanda that's all I had thank you um well of course we had the AMC conference and just uh like to congratulate commissioner kinsky for being Public Safety chair so we you know Benton County still got a seat on the AMC board and I think thanks for the update because we you learn a lot being on there and County's represented makes a big difference um and then I went to the Wastewater deal it was really uh heart filled to see how much fley appreciated everything we did for them to get that rolling and get it done um you know you go to these things you like to see that that you know they recognize well you the county really did a lot and then we had Micah we had Micah meeting we finished setting the policies they're all online if you want to you know for this year and then we had mic again on Friday and we got our uh executive director down to six and we're going to V going to be doing an in-person interview this Friday hopefully we get one I think candidates were really good we had 13 of them to choose from so that's awesome yeah that was really good um and that's all that I had well then last night me and Chris were at the city of rice City Council meetings uh you know they beat us up a little bit right Chris but we were kind of kind of used to it they want a little more communication and I don't know how we're going to really do that I thought we were communicating quite well um just on different things and it goes back to the two to 3% administrative fee yeah all right uh with that uh Medical Services Board um nothing much there I got the emergency radio board tomorrow uh sounds like everybody from AMC is getting Co so sounds like most of the people are going to be doing remotely so wow um uh as commissioner pop did say that I did uh I would say lucky enough to get the board chair for Public Safety but I'll have that for two years I thank commissioner pop for doing uh the the environmental natural resources board for uh last two years so yeah between all the all the different stuff Bon County's had going for the last few years it's it's good representation there so that's really all I have for meeting updates we did not have any APO meeting and a few of the other ones uh we didn't have any agenda items either so okay uh we'll move on to commissioner uh comments I've got one comment on that and I I know that we're going to be talking about it in next next month is the airport Authority MH I know that talking with other counties I'm sure you guys have to we need to keep this in the Forefront and we got to be very careful on on how this moves forward so uh you know I know that uh there was a there was a a that question whether they wanted to even appoint people to to that if this is the way it was going to be ran Mr chair maybe if I could add on to that Monty if it's reasonable with the rest of the board maybe we could see a copy of that original agreement sent out to us electronically so we could review that before we have our discussion that'd be great yeah yeah I know uh I know one of the communications that came out was the uh executive board had two Representatives that had to come and talk so you know I don't I believe our Representatives can come and talk to us at any time and they should I agree so all right that's all I had on that um Comm a hole okay Mr here we go um the swearing in ceremony will be uh 8: a January 7th 8: a.m. January 7th so promptly at 8 we'll have judge Robert ralp here for swearing in and uh for commission kinsky commissioner Johnson um and commissioner elect Pam Beno uh after that we'll have a photographer here for group and individual pictures so consider that as you doll up all right I thought we should also get in the calendar your next meeting with GLT and contegrity of we left that unresolved at the last meeting they need to have conversations with um Exel so they kind of left up you all to pick a date uh to meet with them again Pete and Evan I thought so thinking probably H I thought it was going to be end of January because they had to wait until those numbers or until the design came back you know that's the last conversation I have with Evan is really it's it's it's kind of in your court now to set a date but you're right it should be probably second half of J January not early January no we set that one 13th or the 20th hm the 13th or the 20th 13th to early I thought they needed most of the just talking with GLT down there I thought they needed most well you know what why don't we look at our calendar we be Clos the 20th that's MLK day just an FYI I'm on vacation the 19th through the February 1st last two weeks of December so the week of the 27th but you guys can go ahead and have those meetings some place in there is um the ditch conference or is that the first part of February first part of February February 27th but commissioner Heinen you'll be gone drainage conference is the 5ifth and 6th of February right Fridays are really tough for me yeah that was the other thing I'd like to this is Mondays I'd like to eliminate oh I'm in December never mind thank you the 20th cuz you're closed right that's M day yep y we're closed right I didn't know I had a day off ah commissioner Johnson you do not okay and I looks like the 27th of the 27th 27th okay let's let's put that down if for some reason we could move it if for some reason they say that the 13th would work would that work for all you guys yes I'm sorry would that work for you 13th yeah yeah so how should I portray this is 13th the preferred date 27th or the 27th the preferred date well it really is going to go by what they have if they're ready I'd say I'd say the 13th yeah okay so 13th if ready got it okay I'd like to add some content to this committee also in the past you've used the committee of the whole to discuss the appointments to boards and commissions instead of just doing that usually historically used to be do that first board meeting of the year the last two years you've didn't discuss it at commit the whole first y so I'll leave it at you do you want to continue discussing at a cal first and then have it adopted yeah I do I'd rather have it at a c okay so could we include that with either the 13th or 27th okay no no stop right 27th I can't do it the 27th I think we backed up I'm on vacation the last two weekends of January month excuse me I'm sorry I I missed that okay if we if we can have it on the 13th we'd put it on that yes okay so I will just really stressed that we got to make it work with Evan on the 13th then so that would be then that's the preferred date so boards and commission discussion as well uh I was also asked to to get scheduled earlier rather than later your uh annual discussion about County goal County Board goals so the issues do you want to go ahead and schedule that today or or sometime later it seems like it's it's not happened till if we don't schedule it it's going to be later it gets into you know March so we don't want to go to March but early feary what do the well what do the 14th or 15th of January look like well as far as I'm concern what happens if we could tie tie everything together tie up Monday and be done with it y I'm great that's fine usually when we did B we do offsite though when we do goal setting sure but we go 9 to 11 on the cow and then 11 to whatever on the goal y so uh they said what are we back on 13th for this 13th okay so I'm hearing you may be W to try and knock out all these issues on the same day y so uh it would be GLT integrity and then boards and commissions and then goal setting later you consider Shing at did I hear did I hear you say you'd want to like have the goal setting part offsite yes yes so like uh recess travel to some other destination Jack Jack and J or wherever lunch okay got it okay I have one last one back to the airport Authority so was contacted Bill towel and he requested having a meeting between yourselves and members of their poort Authority including our two appointed Representatives sometime in the second half of January um so um he said if we could avoid Thursdays and Fridays and Fridays and Fridays in this case the second un less second half of January commissioner he G be G you know so that and that's fine you know how about we we can push it into February then sure that was just kind of a goal was trying have it by the second half of January but we can push it in February um um we could we could push it into the first part of February but I think it's very important because I think they're yeah I I think it's very important we get this figured out on what we can do looking at that Fe if it works for you guys you know the end of January that's fine I have no issues with that no you should probably be I think the five of us need to be there um the other part is that maybe we push it off into February maybe they'll meet with the other Three Counties prior to Oh I like that idea how about February let them get beat up first right yeah right how about February 11th through the 177 we can't Monday we at Quad County we're closed to the 17th that is uh President's Day another day I got another day off Jared you got I don't think technically do but they do how about February 11th Tuesday the 11th if we did it right away in the morning y February 11th what time roughly 9: 8:30 8:30 8:30 okay you guys are lucky I sold my cou and and again bill has assured me that they they plan to have an attendance are two appointees to their poort Authority you they'll have to see if that's going to work for them because that's going to be here yes yes here so just a quick recap again swearing in ceremony January 7th at 8 a.m. on the 13th we're going to have the government center discussion discussion of County Board appointments to boards and commissions and County Board goal setting and we'll we'll have that portion uh kind of over lunch at Jack and Jims okay unless that changes we'll let you know but we'll assume that'll work for them usually they can give us that back room sure that back area Vis sh that oh wait a second and there's a yellow envelope here in front of me oh please get on your calendars the Micah um annual legislative Forum it is Thursday January 30th in Prior Lake the Wild Golf Club mhm um you know they're asking they're asking for RSVPs by January 16th are anyone in in position to tell us that you want to go as of now I'm planning on it Y I'm to take a note back isn't that where we went to W last timeon this is impr wona oh we went down to wona it starts at 2 p.m. yeah right begins at 2 p.m. and concludes with dinner at 7 others no I I'm I I might be able to I I'll plan on it we're forgetting commission elect there yeah I should okay okay so again that's hosted by Scott County January 30th The Wilds Golf Club maybe they'll have their issues all figured out just kidding maybe they'll have the new election by then right yeah and also if we could uh the drainage conference is February it says 4th but uh it starts the it really doesn't start until the 5th there's like a welcome deal yeah on the fourth at night should we go ahead and put the fourth y okay the it's February 4th through the 6th at Arwood and Alexandria yes um from my standpoint I'm so grateful we have two Commissioners that have taken that on exactly so is there indication of who's going to go to that by chance I'm planning on it yep so are Commissioners pop Johnson see lots of finger pointing going on commer Beno are you going to attend that might be that would be a very good good one for you if you can the drainage conference yeah it's at Arrowwood Alexandria there's evening there's like a welcome reception that evening but it really doesn't start until that morning that's right I think I it starts right and early at 8 right I believe well well attended the last few years what is that February 4th yes Fifth and 6th 4 evening really but doesn't fire up till be gone Wednesday morning and ends on Thursday noon right yeah ice fishing that's Wednesday the 4th it starts Tuesday the 4th Tuesday the 4th and then the 5ifth and it ends at noon on the 6th okay yep okay I have to back up here so the 13th is that when we're going to do our uh goal goal settings commit the whole and set our appointments yep okay you know I don't know I don't know we actually set a start time on that well it don't matter but I have meetings already that first week of January I know that's always been a problem when we don't do it at the I think you continue I think well my my opinion is is the appointment continues until it's changed and but here you just here's the problem you could be elected chair well I'm gonna it don't matter but I will need another appointee because commissioner schlungen will be gone because there's career Solutions we may just have to have Mission there two or is it an alternate two two with no alternate right now well we can have an alternate but there is no alternate right now right now okay well if there's is there going to be a quorum problem maybe yes there is because there's only because it's a joint Powers board with two from Sterns and two from Baton okay and we need three there and we've been having issues yeah uh Beth do you know who is the alternate because I think we did place an alternate it's out on that Shar Drive the the list I'm pretty sure it's commissioner kinsky give us a second I but I'm gonna run into problems because I got APO oh no you don't because we start at 3:00 and Joel's on the board and we get everything done by 4 so that you can go to APO yeah see how that works and it's at the tech and it's at the it's at the tech college it's so similar to the um drainage conference stuff it's really right in there it really when is this this is the sixth second the Thursday it's the nth I will be I is the I got I got an idea michig Pinsky is the nth I got we point her at our January our fishing ice fishing deal Mig kinsky you are the alternate on Career solution okay so that won't work we can do it as a special why don't we just do a special appointment appointment on our January 7th board meeting to Career Solutions yes that thank you that's what I would appreciate just so you know yeah guess whose name like rise to the top and we could actually make that right now too if we wanted to yeah she's not SED no she's not appointed I mean she's not uh how about we just have that on your January 7th thank okay all right we good then Monty we're good all right motion to approve the Cs is presented one one point of question though we didn't set a start time for the January 13th 8:30 8:0 yeah I got I've got it at 8:30 8:30 okay got it there might be an orderly annexation on the first Tuesday with but they they usually cancel them with who um men men I'm the alternate anyway I can go to it okay okay okay got a motion in a second all in favor I I post same sign motion carries Monty okay we still got a lot to yet County yeah they ain't got anything do they y all right SL on and I thought we should recognize commissioner slan for her service on the bent County Board of Commissioners uh commissioner sler thank you very much for your four years of dedication to Ben KY you know I know sometimes uh it's interesting there's sort of like an impression that well you all just meet twice twice a month isn't that it you know that's probably all you do I wanted to just cover if I could a few things that were commissioner suen has represented you the past four years uh you've been the primary or core appointee to Career Sol Solutions the central Minnesota home visiting Coalition board the men and Township city of St Cloud or annexation joint Powers board the AMC General government policy committee the central Minnesota Council and aging board of directors the Greater St CLA Development Corporation the Transportation Alliance RSVP uh tricap program and you've been the alternate on various other boards and commissions I also kind of went back to my calendar and count up you had 20 so far this year you had 23 Committees of the whole here on site you know and that's a kind of a Insider term we use it's really a work session so the average is about two a month you've had Committees of the whole to talk about the building and Highway and all the various issues in addition to your two board meetings a month so you average about two committees a whole uh a month as well uh of course there's conferences AMC conference PA policy fall policy conference the drainage conference so there's it's a substantial time commitment I know and I don't think a lot of folks really really understand that of all the time that you all put in outside these meetings that happen twice a month so commissioner SL we definitely thank you appreciate your service I appreciate your investment ement and energy into serving the residence of County special district commissioner five uh thank you for your service and we have a small a token of our appreciation we'd like to present to you and if you could I have to take this out of the box okay a all right there we go presented to commission SL appreciation for four years of loyal distinguished service to Ben County 2021 to 25 covers on no look I can see them did that come I needed to get up anyway thank smile thank you I might do the same thing one more one more I got to run the restro before we start perfect thank you thank you I'm going to suggest we don't even urance so you can't do those Tim do you want to take a picture of these too these are all signatures oh boy yes all right uh any other business in front of the County Board no sir all right we are going to adjourn at 11:19 and I'm going to turn it over to commissioner Heinen for community Health Board can we have a two-minute break okay go ahead we'll have a two-minute break or up two up two G hits in minutes did that's sticking around for ditch Authority come on what in the world part oh this is Steve Heinen thanks Tim happy holidays Merry Christmas Merry Christmas timm to all of you we'll have fun we'll see oh it's either that or they put him down so it's I mean he's he's like right there just make sure they're giving you the right injection right away oh thank you might not surv that are not signed right now oh boy Beth I really appreciate you right now I know it's not you it took me almost two hours to go through all of those to find all the I might as well get one I'm done e e e I have an addition and then um real small I just have a couple of thank yous I want to do as well okay move move approval second the addition thank second okay we got a motion and second any further discussion if not I'll call the question all in favor say I I I oppose motion carries consent agenda item 1 through four what would we like to do with that who for approval Mr chair second got a motion a second any further discussion if not I'll call the question all in favor say I I I oppose motion carries s than you okay next uh request to submit an interest form go ahead Jacqueline please yeah so just reaching out so annually we complete our congratulate and educate checks with our tobacco retailers we do this every year um so just want to um request the approval for us to submit an interest form to DHS to get a small amount of reimbursement back for completing the congradulate and educate checks the Sheriff's Office still does the compliance checks but we work in conjunction um a really good working relationship with their Sheriff's Office they do the compliance piece and then public health is doing the congratulate and educate um so just an opportunity for us to redeem some funds back for that work and have we done this last year too jaine yeah we we try to apply every single year um and the other benefit to us applying is it gives us the curriculum um and educational items as well through that contract so okay small amount of reimbursement but there's a lot of big wins for us and not having to create materials Mr chair Jacqueline so it's a $50 uh CN check that goes out what's the reimbursement it's a reimbursement of $50 for each that we complete and what's the cost of the ones you complete uh staff time primarily so it's mostly our staff yep staff time um and then we do have some individuals that we um work with and so it's paying for their time approximately how many you plan on receiving typically we do between I think we we're at 10 right now so we probably have yeah about so you're going to get about 500 bucks yeah okay yep move for approval Mr chair second great we got a motion a second any further disc discuss on that item if not I'll call the question all in favor say I I I oppose motion carries thank you Jacqueline yeah so a couple of quick things um just wanted to do a couple of quick thank yous um a big shout out to our Wick department so I don't know um last week um we had some issues with the plumbing um as you guys may have heard with the bathrooms and the Human Service area so I just wanted to commend our Wick staff they did a lot of pivoting um it it impacted our Wick lab which is where they do their um height weight and hemoglobin checks for all the individuals coming in for their Clinic appointments and so as you can imagine the public coming in um with the sewage issues um and the backups and overflows they they were doing a lot of the rotor rotter work um it sounds like in our Wick lab so they had to leave vacate that space and move into a conference room um and they setup shop they didn't have any Interruption to our Wick clients and so just want to commend them for pivoting and working hard through those challenges um and then spent time of course cleaning up um the conference room space and disinfecting that before they moved back into the wick clinic so so um and then also just a big thank you to Property Management they they were Swift with that as well um I know Corey was in our Wick lab um doing a lot of disinfecting in that space as well so just a big thank you to them for coming to the rescue and helping um helping get our our Clinic space back up and running as well um the other thing thank you I just wanted to quickly say um commissioner schan thank you for serving on our first steps collaborative joint Powers board we appreciate that um and then lastly just a quick thank you for AMC I really appreciated the opportunity to be able to attend and to receive information a lot of information that's good for us to be able to bring back but also a lot of good Partnerships um and commissioner Heen thank you for serving on the panel um the panel discussion that we did at AMC for the public health um component and I'll bring a department update I'll hold it until the next meeting so know um you all want to run but um I'll bring some highlights from that as well as as well as some other department updates at our next meeting in the new year so and Mr chair thank you Jacqueline for attending it was nice to see the show of uh department heads that were able to make it we keep that going forward in the future yeah totally totally agree with that yeah okay anything else Jacqueline that's it great thank you at this time we're adjourned at 11:27 turn it back over to the board M the board chair um okay turn it over to the uh ditch Authority chair commissioner Johnson all right we'll call our ditch authority to order uh we have done previous roll calls approve our amendments to the agenda Chris any question yes I think we would like to amend the agenda to add um uh topic on CD4 CD4 County ditch 4 discussion with uh possible abandonment okay move Mo to approve move to approve with the uh amended agenda item second motion a second to approve the amended agenda is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor I oppos it's carried move on to consent agenda items one and two move approval second motion second to app approve the consent agenda is presented all those in favor hi posos it's carried I move on to item three Chris all right uh okay so uh the discussion on doing some maintenance work on cd6 is back uh at the subcommittee meeting I was directed to contact uh Helman construction they provided us a quote a month or so ago to Mo the buffer strips uh at an hourly rate of $190 an hour they estimated it would take him about 88 hours um that's a that's attached here um I did reach out to them and even though that's dated 111 they still would honor that price if we would authorize them to do it so that's what I'm here to do ask the board if you're okay with Helman construction mowing both sides of the ditch at a rate of 190 hours we would pay them for the actual hour spent mowing that before you consider that I will add that the maintenance assessment for County ditch 6 for 2025 was $7500 so this does exceed that maintenance assessment we can do something where we we pay them 190 hours up to that 7500 or until it's completely done we have that flexibility the the the driving factor is at hourly rate so um yeah consider authorizing Helman to go out there and mow the buffer strips on County ditch six Mr chair m the only one that sees an issue with this moving forward yes yep cuz how do we do this every year mhm we can't um I do believe that talking to a few people that live on some of these ditches I do believe we're going to have people and I don't know if they got to be licensed bonded and everything else that are going to come forth and say at90 bucks I will go out there and do that and we supervise it this is an outrageous rate 190 bucks for what the equipment that they're going to use do do we got any other bids no we did receive two quotes when I put it out there for quotes we got this Pioneer Tree Service that was $315 an hour oh okay yeah it's like oh my God what I mean and I get your point but where are we going to draw the line with having individuals going out mowing buffer strips I mean that's ideal if they would do that sure I mean that's a longterm plan once it's established but we got some issues there if a is going to go out and M and he's to do the whole ditch ditch ditch B is going to say why is he doing mine MH right I'm not following you sorry well if ditch a lives on the ditch person a lives on the ditch yep and he says I'll mow the whole thing for X number of dollars or 7500 and then B comes along and says well I own land on that how come he getting PA get yeah so I don't know but I'm this is outrageous price I I don't think have has anybody been out there to look how what percentage of that needs to be mowed uh I've been out there I haven't done the whole length of the ditch but uh what I can see everything that I saw needed to be mowed uh the only place that I can think of is the branch on County County Road 4 51 the one landowner mowed the one side of it but the north side of the ditch had not been been mowed call 51 uh yeah it would be bo Camp 61 is that 61 yeah okay what's made um pcks they made all the hay down around their ditch I think but did they do the buffer yes that they made right up to the ditch okay you know because they make that whole metal there again there's no credit for that though no they but they they got the hay yeah well that is kind of the long-term plan right I know I'm a little torn because it needs to be done and I understand the cost of it and I understand there's going to be cost to establish the buffer this the Buffer's not established yet in cd6 well I mean it's established but it's not to the spot where it should be they can go out and just mow I I Mr chair I think we've come to the conclusion that it was going to be two years of somehow us mowing that till it got established you know and then hopefully the land owners would take over it wonder how confident Luke is in the estimate of ours yeah yeah well he seems to be very confident because this is the one remember we change ordered in to do the other side next the other side it wasn't originally in there how mile Channel we have here H what is it I don't know total maybe about six miles so basically I mean he's estimating about two weeks worth of work to do it so with a skid steer um if I if I know him well because we've done several projects with him now he probably overestimating so he can come in under when the actual work but um it's enough to cover him if something over foreen happens but the problem is is once we take away this this assessment we've already got out there what are we going to do next year yeah because it's going to have to be done again and it'll be at least this Coster not more also have some historical information to base something on Luke and us and been to this spot before right correct you know there's got to be a way that we can come up with a uh a plan that maybe it's maybe it's having equipment that townships can almost like a snowmobile trail where that they come in and and do their own deal and we keep these costs down because these are going to be ongoing costs yep and they they expect that but at that at that am moment of money I don't know if they're going to expect that the the problem is uh commissioner pop is if we ruin these buffer strips by going in when it's too wet or anything like that oh it should be done now yeah that's that's the problem and and if we let people do it willy-nilly whenever they want you know it could be demolished correct yeah it's going to be a higher cost what would what would you think of having hman go in and do up to the $7,600 see where we get 7500 or 7500 well I'd entertain that but then are you going to entertain when he comes back in and says I got 2/3 I got a third of it left and it's going to cost you way more for for going back mobilization and then you're going to have the landowner saying how come you didn't do mine oh yeah that's although although you're just having a skid loader on a flat bed but yeah I don't know where did the quotes go how are the quotes advertised so we we adverti them on our website and I specifically reached out to those that had bid on the repair project so Pioneer tree was one of them that had they might have I now I can't remember I don't remember if they actually bid on it or if they responded to it through uh the advertisement on the website so I received these by email that was the instructions so well according to that quote commissioner pop in the money at correct time frame that's but that's literally insane for a skid say two weeks no but it that rate is literally insane you can go rent a brand new Skid Loader with a brush cutter on it for probably hundred and put your man in there for 130 bucks an hour that that is correct but it's a private business doing it okay it's a little different when you've got to start adding insurance and everything on there too commissioner pop so I I don't like the price either but do we really have any control I mean we know we have to maintain it I think if if we ever do get our person hired for that we'll have some control because we'll know exactly what needs to be done when it needs to be done and not you know we're kind of going by driving by well and you know from our August annual meeting is we kind of all were speculative of what we were going to put on the assessments exactly not knowing Mr chair what it is it time to have I mean maybe we do something with this ditch because it's ready to go and it' be a good time to to mow it but is it time to have another County meeting for ditch people for for for maintenance just to show them what what costs are coming in instead of waiting till August because right now they they all probably look at us and go oh you guys are just making decisions for us no let's bring it out to you guys this show here's what the costs are and do you guys have any ideas on how we can bring this down and maybe the townships and and some of these people get involved and say hey how about if we do this and maybe we bring two or three ideas to them Ian or could the land land owners say they'll take care of their own some will some won't the problem is is I I think commissioner Johnson I think commissioner Johnson said it best is almost like two years of getting it established before we turn it over to somebody to take care of themselves because if you don't you're going to have brush growing up again you need to set and you need to make sure that's compacted your point is they run it up and stuff it's going to oh boy yeah well yeah cuz not everybody's got tracks get Mr chair johnon P um I just have a question is there a reason why we're not utilizing our Highway Department to take care of this until we get a handle on stuff time time and money time and staff this estimate saying two weeks so we're saying that our employees at the highway department do not have that two we span to take care of this we can't by law corre correct me if I'm wrong Mr Chair by law can't put County funds into a a ditch that needs to be assessed to to the ditch to the ditch Authority so we would have to charge that back regardless right is you you'll get to know this really quick and I get I get that so I mean what would our costs be built back if it was done by the count is that more or less than the $190 I don't know that the answer to that question but the other part is a slippery slope because then what do we do with the other ditch systems that want to use our maintenance our County staff to do this where do we this is only you're right Mr chair this is only the first ditch right that's that would be the key it seems like a small issue for one ditch but then take that small issue and multiply it over all of ditches then it's something that we could not do with our current Staffing level or equipment level so as far as the cost per hour I don't know that one concern I had is the accounting and making clear to the public that okay when this tractor was driving on the road mowing we did not charge a ditch but at the quarter hour it turned off of the road ditch and then went down the county ditch then they started charging the time I felt it was clear their counting to say we solicited quotes this is the people the the contractors that were interested in doing that work and this is what the actual cost was to the system it's it's in my opinion it's cleaner accounting to say we got an invoice for the work and then we paid it we didn't have to say Well County operator were you actually mowing the the road ditch at that time or were you mowing the county ditch at that time and and how did you break up your your time to to track that you know here's our other problem today as we sit here is that ditch is prepped and ready to be done now now we have no snow right it's froze you know I mean we've got the conditions set up to do this right now but but I I I go back to exactly what what uh Chris said earlier I believe that he may have overestimated just to make sure he's covered I know you're but what happens if we go back to him and say listen this is all we have can you do it and get it done you know what I mean and then we're going to have to figure out how we're going to do this in the future because cut us bid in half in St all we've got projected it's seven versus 9 right 7500 versus 16 16 oh yeah it would be yeah okay I thought okay I was I was I just had to corre signatures but that that's the point of the the annual meeting in August is to look at like what cost did we have this year what cost do we think will happen next year what should we assess maintenance wise for all right let's let's I I don't want to have to send another letter out that this is going to be this much more that's not going to work let's do it and pay the 7500 and see how much we are over and we can just can we just carry that can we carry it till next till our next letter goes out um you know the the ditch funds have negative balances already is it the end of the world if it goes over another few thousand what are we negative now is it like a million bucks so cuz if I remember I seeing in the the our financial that will it will be assessed you know and then we could show that we said 7500 and this is what it took to do it so this is not going to cover and see what they say at the end you me but then you also have to be prepared if let hypothetically 7500 gets half of the ditch done mhm the other ditch let them do the whole ditch and we saying carry the remaining carry the remaining I see and if it's 9,000 or 10,000 we just hang on to it and then when it'll have to be paid by that by cd6 sometime yes and then we tell them that this is what we actually did last year and it costs this much so what do you people want to do do you want to let it grow back up to brush which I they don't but this is what's going to cost to do maintenance on this and then how do they absorb the other 75 or 8,000 it be assessed included in August when the assessment be and then you're going to tell them that okay in SE in December we're going to do mow it again for a price at this right you know at at 18,000 probably next year you know well I would hope if we stay ahead of it that number should should decrease decrease yeah and if more land owners start mowing there then then then you know you just they just move through that area and that's less time and therefore like that's the cost savings comes in so all right well what are your wishes cd6 Mr chair I move that we we do cd6 and we allocate the 7500 we did and we pay that out and see how much they get done and if there's if there is a remaining balance we carry it until the next assessment and then go on from there okay second second okay motion a second you understand that is that clear enough Chris so authorize Helman to start doing the work all of it all of it okay all right and then um we'll track the hours we'll inspect it visit them and see where he's getting his track his progress and then when we hit that 7500 and he hasn't completed a ditch instruct him to keep keep working keep the whole ditch gets done it's just that whatever is above 7500 that we spend gets pushed off till the next year okay Mr chair yep Chris for the maybe for a potential poal meeting in the future with all the land owners again could you maybe come up with and and spitball basically what it might cost the county let let's just say not saying putting you under the under the gun right now but what happens if if we could actually buy a piec equipment right and one person that now we let's just say it's $200,000 over 5 Years cuz you're going to amateu the equipment out you know you got your labor it it let just say it's 75,000 a year but you now you spread that out to all of our ditches and say this one person and this piece of equipment is taking care of all of our ditches and it could be the ditch individual you know yeah um and you got spring is not going to be a good time to do it summer if we have a dry summer that's going to be a great time to do it and then you know actually we could have done October November December this year you know where we could get it done that's a might be something to look at I'm just throwing out ideas because everything we have right now is costing a lot of money and I'm just looking at it going if you times this times six ditches which it would never or at nine ditches whatever we have 12 ditches you know like ditch three isn't going to be that much right yeah it's not that much you got different different different size ditches and let's just say it comes out at a $5,000 savings oh yeah per all Chris has to do is take the number of miles of ditch we got divide it by what it's going to what what the estimated cost is here and you can tell us about what we should have annual to to but that but that also comes with the equipment too but I'm going to play Devil's Advocate a little bit now if it's the person that we're going to be hiring anyways that's probably one thing but if it's not what do we do with that person the other thing they're not spending the whole they're not gonna spend months no so miss maintaining ditches go that position is not being recruited are constructed as as an operating position equipment operator would have to be in our shop it would have to be a union position if they're operating if it was yeah if it was actually operating equipment it have to be a member of Local 49 like an operating huh I know city of soccer rapid does seasonal seasonal hire for that heavy equipment what is are are Union contract may allow seasonal help under that classification Maybe it' be for October November or December or Chris I would need I need would need to reread the agreement I don't want to mate anything that's a good point we would need to check our contractual uh obligations so this is a position or a a duty that has to be done on certain months I mean if we're going to have two feet of snow you can't go out there but we don't know when those months no but we don't know I mean you could go all last year you could have wenton all summer all winter you might have a year where you don't get out and you might have a year where you don't get out yeah but if we could hire a person and and buy some equipment and look at the payback time and maybe this person has to work somewhere else at some other duties in the county it might be a win-win for everybody might je isn't here we can put it in him yeah no just kidding well sorry je at the end of the day we're thinking about things for the future you know Mr chair I think we've got to figure out and move on this and I'm going to call the question we've got a motion a second all those in favor iOS it's carried all right consider a final acceptance the repair of cd9 okay um so yeah we need to do a final hearing uh to um yeah have a public hearing to explain the the total cost of the project now that the repair work is done um and and come up with a findings in order to accept the contract so I have just a a sample order here my recommendation to allow uh staff time there's there's required newspaper Publications required mailing to send out uh with the holiday coming up next week the earliest uh I think uh we could recommend would be the first board meeting in February to schedule hearing that would be that February 4th uh board meeting um and then consider are you okay with having an online option as well this draft uh public hearing notice has the the goto meeting link are you okay with having online options and and what day was that going to be Tuesday February 4th that would be a regularly scheduled board meeting day okay you sure you're not going to do it like the 21st or something that no we're going to make sure everybody's here thank you Mr chair okay um yeah so motion on it yeah a motion in a second to schedule it for um oh and we would say the the the time start time do we just say 9:00 or do we account for regular board meeting time and push it back to maybe 10 or so or start time at 10 at 10: I think okay so then a motion in a second for February 4th at 10 a a.m I'll make that motion Mr chair I'll second it any discussion on that for February 4th at 10: a.m. Ain working all those in favor i v it's carried we'll consider the final acceptance of cd14 um yeah same thing for cd14 if you're okay having two hearings or combin hearing but they're separate system so same uh same notice um do we schedule that at 10:30 for cd14 I think you got to keep it at 10: we're ahead of time okay so I'll make a motion that we consider the the final acception CD4 on February 4th at 10: a.m. second motion second all those in favor all opposed it's carried they'll both be on February 4th so we would send out uh Christine and our my department staff would work together on sending out letters to all those affected parties any recommendations of what you'd like to see in the letter it may be a good idea to put those costs in there we can work together and come up with those total costs which include engineering the viewers fees the buffer strip payments and the actual construction costs um seem like a good idea sure yep any other recommendations put in the I think it's good information but don't overload them with two pages of information that makes sense okay yeah all right um very good we'll do that okay all right move on to CD4 discussion of Abandonment okay um so in the very recently um the auditor has received a petition to abandon County ditch four and I had our GIS specialist Scott zwick thanks to Scott for putting this together rather quickly too this is County ditch 4 um just for point of reference here's our CA 13 Lil Rock Lake is over here to the West County Road 78 North South here this blue line is the open channel of the ditch based on the original establishment records this is very similar uh where it is it crosses 13 and dumps into is this what is this Creek right here is this zul sucker Creek sucker Creek but because of the recent redetermination of benefits this is the whole Watershed so this is all the benefited area and why is that important uh and I think Michelle is on the call and she can back me up to abandon the ditch it requires a minimum percentage of those benefiting from the ditch to to sign the petition and that's a little bit different when it comes to a repair it requires only one of these owners uh to petition for it to repair but if to abandon it and take it off the books um I believe it's 51% uh of these benefited owners or at least owners that own 51% of the land could also add on to that that is correct you need to have 51% of the property or 51% of the owners um and we currently do not have a sufficient petion um in front of us um we don't need that okay Michelle I'm sorry you're coming in really hot and Loud here but did you say you currently do not have a valid verified petition for that correct yep we do not meet that threshold landowner aware that he needs 51% the people that petition that petitioning just a little bit I think um who is so I think Jim so I think we need more time I mean Christine has a petition with some additional signatures on it um and maybe Michelle explain there's two criteria about who has to sign in addition there's another criteria in addition to 51% of the owners who all on the parcels have to sign yep so there is a requirement in the law that talks about requiring every person on the parcel to sign off on the petition so if you have two people that own the property both of those individuals need to sign that petition and currently we only have one person signing the petition for one of the parcels and there's four owners and we have one person for the other parcel and there are two owners so it there's also the issue of the fact that there is a current assessment on the Stitch that isn't paid for so there's several different issues with this petition currently Michelle can can let's just hypothetically say the petition is verified and moves forward can we um it's the word I want terminate the assessment or I mean if this ditch gets abandoned you know we wouldn't want to be assessing maintenance cost towards the system well correct um so absolutely but I'm we have a negative balance in this particular ditch system and so that assessment that you assessed is covering those costs and we're not going to do any work this is for determination of benefits okay but think of it also like this uh in the abandonment uh statute you have to hold a public hearing and there's publication and notification requirements other correct me if I'm wrong Michelle other parts of ditch law says that those costs of publication is a cost to the system so even if we had not done a redetermination of benefits had not paid out buffer strip payments there would be some cost to that system just to go through the proceedings of Abandonment and I just want to be clear and you know upfront with the public you know if they're hoping to abandon the ditch to have zero assessments that may be unlikely because there is going to be a cost just to go through the process of Abandonment I guess our goal though is to minimize any costs if if it does get abandoned we want to minimize those costs to those benefited land owners okay but when is the maintenance assessment going to go out February March J March to the 2025 tax yeah so I'm taking that the people that came forth would like this done before then so that the assessment doesn't go out but the assessment include the buffer strip payments yep so and some of those people don't want to cash that check correct I have understand that but so best case scenario though if the board pulled away the maintenance assessment there's still going to be an assessment for buffer strip payments public hearing costs redetermination benefits abandonment cost there's still an assessment there would be some yeah yeah but if they if we uh if we did away with that ditch could we essentially get the buffer payments back and then just say cuz they're part of the the abandonment get that back and that that's a less amount that would have to be paid well and that's that's less amount of people that got paid for the buffer strips than what is actually in benefited Acres so right and and the other if someone objects to the abandonment you have to hire three disinterested people to essentially go out and view the property again so there's that additional cost as well and I think I know the answer to this but the property owner it's on him to get this stuff figured out of what he needs to do right but Michelle we you know we've been having conversations the last yesterday I think we agreed that maybe a letter need to be sent to the petitioner just to kind of fully explain this um you know it's it's something I see a lot of one signatures some of these I I know too that's like husband and wife are listed on the the deed so technically by law uh the misses needs to sign the petition as well because if the Miss's name is on the the deed need that signature so and then if it's in a trust um I don't know only one party has to sign if it's trust okay same with the corporation so between the three of you what do you need from us today nothing okay just to make you aware sure okay and is there anything we can do to help not at this moment I think if we amend the assessment we would probably have to have public hearing on that as well okay just just give them information so that they get this taken care of before March right Chris is this the one that Butch Anderson is on yes yep they they're they're the so the I think they got a lot more Steam on this one and than you mean to abanded yeah they got great steam sure they just got to get her done and I I believe there's only one person that cash the Ben the buffer strip check right now yeah cuz I was going to bring up that we need to go out and meet with Butch yet yeah um here we are just to be realistic of time frames though here we are at the end of December uh publication statute usually requires about three weeks before the hearing uh published in the official newspaper we already just set a hearing for the 1 of February we're bumping up against March just with time frames publication requirements notifications and things like that so I'm going to ask a question uh for for Michelle does the auditor have any latitude that with the assessments that's it seems inevitable that the the assessments are going to hit the the tax roles because that we've already started that process that if we're in the midst of the abandonment process can the auditor exercise any judgment to not penalize people for for not paying the maintenance assessment you understand where I'm getting at I think we can look that and um figure out if there is some latitude that pristine could exercise if they don't cash the check then there will be a positive fund balance that could be potentially returned just in the government process you get processes rolling MH and you even concurrently you're trying to do other processes there's time frame that we're legally bound uh to follow that we can't just stop one process because we started another process that's my the point I'm getting at here seeing hypothetical question stupid question we we get through this process you said March it's going out March 1st we're able to tell you for whatever reason stop the assessment is can that just happen that way or how does that work it's too late okay yeah I'd say February 1 would be oh wow well we're not going to make that anyway we're not going to make that yeah okay and let me remind you there might be something we can do with modifying that assessment technically we can't abandon if there is an active current assessment so that is the other that might be more doable if that makes sense I can't hear so the assessment would be undoable because there's an active abandonment petition it's undoable to do abandonment without an active assessment I see okay oh God have a question go ahead um with the ditch system is there can you dit just account how can you adopt out of the ditch system is it going to keep the flow or benefiting land owners have that opportunity they'll maintain it that up yeah that'd be up to them if you dig into that statute the PO purpose of the public hearing that we hold is to allow public testimony and that public hearing proves that there is no no public benefit to that drainage system therefore it gets removed so but I think it could take one person saying hey wait a minute no my water still drains through there it should stay as a public ditch so that I mean I guess that's the purpose of having public hearing is just to let everybody affected get a chance to speak have you have you been out to this ditch and looked at it uh yeah yes I I'm familiar with the what what is your professional opinion so the ditch is an open Channel ditch it is carrying conveying water to Casa 13 um uh there's there's no concerns from a roadway standpoint of drainage because immediately at 13 and this was verified with the establishment documents is where it dumps into Zer Creek so I don't have a concern from a roadway standpoint that if it was abandoned um most of our drainage would drain into the covert that's underneath our road anyways and would be carried Way by by the creek um it's those that are Upstream of it that I I don't know I I can't attest though that the the owners and where the ditch physically lies do appear to be maintaining it um so it's it's free flowing so the other we have not gone through the reestablishment process there it is possible if we went through that process we could say oh there's there's a foot of sediment in the bottom of the ditch compared to what how it was originally constructed but that that comes with additional costs too Chris but if they're maintaining it by themselves they cannot go deeper than the what was originally constructed they'll have to go through if this becomes a private ditch they'll have to go through soil and water to maintain that yeah they can't just dig it 12 feet deep because we're in charge now right that's where sometimes though a county ditch is beneficial because uh the reestablishment of Dr drainage records is a process that's outlined in statute so there is a clearer process of how to determine what that original elevation was if it's no longer it could be soil and water's word against the landowner's word of what that original depth was yeah honestly uh folks if it's not a county ditch that's less work for me in my department and I'm not opposed to that but um um uh yeah I mean statute is therefore reason to to consider all factors Mr chair I think we should set a public hearing for abandonment and see if we can well we don't have a valid petition yet that yeah we got to get a valid I don't know that we can do anything till we get a valid petition there going to be a lot of Staff CL spent so it sounds like this is just informational yeah pretty much yeah I thought it was important to at least have a discussion because I believe some of you were probably aware that this might be coming who's going to contract the people that signed the petition to tell them that they got to do more work I believe Christine has been having conversations with the parties and I have been giving her information to relay okay thanks Christine the Mr chair the only question I have is make sure that all that information is on a piece of paper of everything that they need to go through so that they don't come back to us and say well you didn't tell me this you know and that's and you know to further add some information um I believe one of the gentlemen that was in this morning is very well aware of how this works he's not like sure you know way out in left field that thinking this is going to be a free okay um for additional information I will I do like to point out that all this information is available on the County website uh and has been there for a while um there's the the viewers statements um that to talks about the total benefits um there's some additional Maps here that shows all the affected uh areas in classification um and so some additional frequently asked questions and stuff so you know I think the point now is to maybe more directly provide that information as opposed to just generically point them to a website yeah and Mr chair all of the information that we need I mean we've got to lay this out because in the past they've always come back to us and said well we didn't know about this or you didn't tell us this I just want to make sure you're covered that's all I want yeah and Chris I don't believe that other than a few people I don't think that a lot of the people in the benefited Acres have a clue that this is going on probably not I think they think only the ditch people that lie on the ditch can dictate what's going to happen and that may be I mean that's one of the the constant things we struggle with though all those people on this map received of these statements from H2O reviewers that talked about it you know and talked about that nominal charge of $100,000 what your assessment would be um and things like that so and maybe probably aren't aware because we haven't been as active in repairing and stuff and that this this statement was dated January of 2022 so it's been almost three years since they've had Direct maybe they have done H work who knows if that you know well and I think that's to the point of let's get a valid abandonment petition we got they got to do work they got to do their stuff that's right anything else Chris uh that's that's all I have members anything