##VIDEO ID:EZoM-WJnnPc## e e was that the time Vicky had to ask how to spell [Laughter] it he should have invited Vicki along here today yeah really yeah all right I'm not sure all this was done in the past but I'm going to call the October 1st 2024 board meeting to order we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance IED aliance 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 roll call Beth sure commissioner schan here commissioner Heinen here commissioner ginsky here commissioner Johnson here commissioner pop present thank you all right approve or amend the agenda Monty we have no changes motion to approve the agenda is presented Mr chair second okay we got a motion in a second to approve the agenda all in favor I oppose same signed motion carries for all time sake anybody want to do the board announcement or the NOP okay County board meetings are broadcast live and video recorded on YouTube please refrain from speaking uh from the audience area and to the podium so that viewers can hear you the County Board observes Robert's Rules of orders for its meeting so please obtain the board's chair consent before addressing the County Board public comments are generally reserved for the open Forum segment 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 or turn them vibrant thank you open Forum no one no all right consent agenda items 1 through three I'll move for approval of items 1 through three Mr chair second okay we got a motion in a second all in favor I oppose same saying motion carries uh right before rockan I I just want to recognize the uh the past Commissioners maybe we could uh stand up and say who you are and what district you represented used to represent District city thank you to represent District Two yeah and Jared used to work for me years I did well work I don't know about that but kener District 5 back in the 90s well welcome gentlemen welcome thank you all for your service y all right we'll move on to roxan good morning Commissioners Mr chair well we have come full circle with the Eagle View common septic the septic has been installed and we are at the point where we're ready ready to special assess those costs back to the property owners um the final cost was $442,000 76 slightly less than what was the estimate which was $444,000 um so always good to come under budget on those um with that being said we had anticipated $11,100 being assessed back to each property that can be dropped just slightly just about $30 less per property um the terms of the loan were approved by resolution 20 23-14 which indicate that the um that there would be a 10year payback period at 1.75% um and within that we also required that the loan shall become immediately due and payable and full upon the sale conveyance or other transfer of property so that being said we did have actual actually five properties that refinanced um in the meantime and so we have received the their funding um upfront and we have that and are able to pay that back to uh the uh Department of egg um we will provide them back uh a reimbursement of um $29 and some odd cents uh for that uh and then we do have one more coming in this week after the assessment goes through so six properties are already will already have paid in full on this um notification was sent out to the property owners of this public hearing and uh assessment role has been provided to the auditor Treasurer's Office all right is the applicant here or the repres well I mean it was 40 applicants but is there a rep representative here no okay I balance's on here um I took over Larry Johnson okay okay you want would the applicant like to speak on the matter okay sanatory all right uh we'll now open the public hearing is there anybody in the audience that would like to speak I don't see any of the home owners anybody online Second call anybody like to speak on this matter third call on the of 442,000 W swcd or do we have access to that funds too it is partially coordinated with the swcd they had to approve that that those funds were available okay um so I did have to work with Nathan sinoski over there um to get make sure that those funds were eventually set aside for us um but ultimately we're the the lender The Lending Institution for this it's just an interest buy down R uh or it's a fund yeah it's a fund that goes well they buy the funds down I yeah I know how they work so okay thanks Mr chair I'm going to move a resolution adopting the assessment of costs associated with the community septic replacement upgrade and Eagle View Commons through the agricultural best management practice loan program I'll second that okay we got a motion in a second any other comments Michelle i' or uh Rock I'd like to make one this has been a long Pro process and I I thank you and Michelle and your entire staffs for uh going through it this is something very much needed in that area and uh they you guys all figured out a way to get it done thank you thank you thank you okay if there's no other comments I'll call the question all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries thank you thanks roxan Monty Europe up Jack he's going to introduce this [Applause] good morning Commissioners it's that time of year again it is time to present the 2023 audited financial statements um and as you probably know Clifton LaRon Allen helps with the preparation of those financial statements and the audit so they are here to present um um the closing the exit conference for the 2023 audited financial statements good morning commissioner good morning my name is Kristen H I am the signing director on the audit and with me I have Eric good morning I'm the managing kind of in charge of the audit make sure things go smoothly so on the agenda today is I will go over the required Communications and internal control followed by Minnesota legal compliance and the federal single audit and then Eric will wrap us up with the financial results and the key issues in summary so for the required Communications you should have or if you don't have yet um I know it's back will give you uh stapled letter this is the governance letter um it is just about three four pages Yep this is required by audit standards to be given to you it is very boilerplate so I won't go through everything but some of the key issues or key items I should say in here is that we did Implement a new gasby standard or governmental Accounting Standards Board it was Number 96 on sidas that stands for subscription-based information technology arrange ments so there were some that we found it's basically any subscriptions you have to it items um if they're over a year long so those are booked as assets and liabilities now on your government wide statements it also talks about if there are any estimates there were none um it also talks about difficulties encountered in the audit and once again there were none and no disagreements with management it discusses uncorrected misstatements corrected misstatements and I will say the corrected misstatements that is in the audit adjustment finding that we'll go over um on the next couple slides and then the other bullet here is that you were given an unmodified or clean opinion on the financial statements which is the best you can get so that means everything was in order if you ever want to read that opinion it is on page two of your financial statements so going into internal control we are required to make sure that controls are working properly so we look at a variety of transactions make sure that all the processes are working and have controls over them and there are two types of internal control deficiencies that we must note in writing the first is material weaknesses so they are deficiencies in internal control that there's a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement would not be prevented or detected and corrected on timely basis so the key word there is a material misstatement to the audit so the two listed here are the same two as last year the first being audit adjustments so we do help get them um into what you see here they are um kept on the modified acral basis they flag the um payables receivables for us we audit those we help get it to the full acral as well as the financial reporting process so that just means that CLA does help draft the financial statements as Jackie mentioned and those do start on page 125 of you the financial statements if you ever want to read those in detail and then the other type of internal control deficiency is a significant efficiency so that just means it's less severe in nature but it still needs to be inwriting so this is also the same as last year and it is segregation of Duties just that you do have limited Personnel in various departments with any questions on those okay so then going into Minnesota legal compliance and the federal single audit so Minnesota legal compliance the state auditor's office requires us to look at checklists that have various State statutes to make sure you're in compliance so in looking at all of those we noted one deficiency and that is the ditches so 11 of the 13 active ditches had deficit cash balances at year end and that is just something that will continue um because otherwise you'd have to be transferring money just for 1231 each year and putting it right back so that has been a decision to leave it as is and we do see this one quite often so and we did resolve um a Minnesota legal compliance deficiency from last year um so great job on that and then in terms of the single audit so since you did spend more than $750,000 of federal expenditures we are required to test um or to perform single audits so the two programs that we tested this year were medical assistance and then the state and local fiscal recovery funds or arpa so we did not know any material weaknesses and we had one significant deficiency which was over arpa around suspension and deartment and that was just that one of the vendors of the two that we tested didn't have the deartment checked before entering the contract it was fine but it just needed to be checked beforehand see Monty we're good yeah and I I believe that was the our original consultant um that helped us with the study you know that was in the early early Broadband study right exactly right it was the Broadband study consultant yeah yeah yeah so and very easy fix I mean that is a very um pinpointed item that can and and all subsequent agreements have contained that specific provision um in them so yeah yes okay I will turn it over to Eric to go over the financial results perfect thank you Chris all right so the first thing we'll look at is the months of expenditures that you have in unrestricted fund Downs so basically that's looking at how long can you go just running off no funds coming back into the county just on what your reserves are not restricted for something else uh the Osa recommends anywhere from 3 to 5 months of expenditures in that unrestricted fund balance and you are above that in all the past five years at about 5.28 this year did come down uh ever so slightly from the last couple years but as I'll go over in next couple slides you did have back in 2020 you received a whole bunch of cares act money so you've been slowly spending that down so you are doing very well in that regard uh next looking at governmental little funds so this is all the different funds the county has uh grouped together so you'll see that kind of fluctuate each year expenditures did exceed revenues by about $3 million this year but again you you've been spending down those funds you've received in the past uh one thing to note is you did have quite a big increase in revenues and expenditures this past year which I'll go into more detail in the next few slides when we kind of break it down but the most notable theme was that you did have a lot of large road projects this year or 23 so you had about 7 million more in cost this year next piece is just breaking down the different buckets for revenues for all the different governmental funds so you'll see the two biggest categories are taxes and your intergovernmental revenues taxes are pretty consistent they increase each year as the property tax valuations go up as well as your Levy and then your intergovernmental revenues you'll see that does kind of fluctuate that one big jump in 2020 was that $5 million in cares act funding the next piece is just looking over expend es for all the funds you'll see that General government public safety and Human Services are all pretty consistent and as County continues to grow and cost goes up uh the couple of sporadic increases you'll see highways and streets and then Capital Outlet uh the one thing I'll point out for highways and streets is that's kind of just a reclassification of how we're presenting the cost for your road construction the reason that 2019 was so large compared to Capital outlay being so large was we kind we reclassified that to Capital outlay for the road construction and then the you see 2023 for Capital outlay was quite a bit larger than last year and that goes into the road bridge construction increase about $7 million uh next slide is general fund revenues and expenditures so revenues did exceed expenditures by about $2 million this year now probably the biggest driver of that was the fact that fair market value adjustments were largely increasing this year compared to last year it was a huge decrease just that fluctuates with the market we have to adjust to whatever the your investment statement say and I think it was $2 million increase this year compared to deficit $200,000 and that's just based on how the fair market value plays out uh the other thinge was you did have a $2 million increase for uh intergovernmental Revenue just for couple of new funding like Public Safety Aid next one is looking at the road and Bridge funds so you can see here this is really fluctuates based on the typ projects you got going on uh you had a large about $7 million increase for road construction this year uh and this you'll see at the end of the day uh after your transfers in and out your fund balance just decreased only $400,000 so that was covered by your local option sales tax I think I came in on County Road 4 where proudly display that you paid for the local option sales tax and that was transferred out of your capital projects on where those revenues are coded next one is Human Services revenues and expenditures so you can see that's pretty consistent a lot of these uh the programs run are reimbursement base so you generally do see your revenues are matched by your expenditures and revenues have exceeded your expenditures for the past four out of five years which is fantastic never want to run a deficit in those funds uh the last one we'll look at is the miscellaneous funds so revenues did exceed exp by about $400,000 now this is where you kind of code a lot of the random type of things coming in and after transfers in and out your fund balance did increase by about $400,000 for use in the next couple years expenditures did decrease uh this year from last year which I looked in I think there was a a Lake Association that you had a aquatic invasive species Grant or help funding them so that was about $100,000 last year last piece we'll look at for financials is just the county indebtedness so you can see a huge decrease in that Top Line that's your overall bonded debt so you did pay off in I believe 2022 the 2014 bonds and So you you're just going to continue paying those off over the next few years other lines are all pretty consistent compensated absences is the second biggest and that just increases year overy year as you have your continual pay increases uh and then now we'll just go well before I move on any questions over those okay so the last piece is just key issues in summaries as Christian mentioned there was a new account cting standard gasby 96 uh we had a few that we found nothing material but we just wanted to add those to those financial statements about $200,000 for assets and liabilities uh the SAS 143 to 145 so those were new auditing standards that we had this year we did uh additional testing over the it environment basically now that everything's becoming more computerized we made sure the controls were more proper in place around those and physical controls and we didn't have any major findings we had a couple coms but we brought those forward to Monte and Jackie we made sure that they're at least aware of them but nothing that we had to put in writing for you and then next year it's going to be kind of a quiet year there is the new standard gby 101 compensated absences so that's they're basically changing the types of items being uh acred for like what used to be is we looked at vested PTO and compensated absence that you would be paid out now they're looking at more what is unvested in just trying to show a better uh more context of what is actually owed by the county for the next coming year so any questions on any of that otherwise we thank you all Jackie Monty Christine Michelle those are all great people to work with we had no problems and fantastic time working with people thank you yep thank you for do you got any questions NOK thank you for presenting have a great day um I believe the next one is the health insurance uh we're awaiting of Amy Dietrich do we want to jump move on to other items Amy from MMA is going to join us virtually that's my understanding so we'll we can go on to other issues and come back okay now we're on the additional services for employee engagement Mr chair members of the board so the first cohort has finished its uh three sessions and you may remember we we said we were going to pause at the conclusion of the first cohort and assess how's it going how do people like it so Andy did a Andy zimney who's the primary with employee strategies did a a survey and we also heard from folks who were uh in it at our management team meeting generally uh the responses were hey the content was right on the money the content was good uh Andy was doing a superb job as a facilitator so I think I think you know I think we hit the mark in terms of content uh presenter and so on but the biggest concern was it felt rushed is normally Andy would say hey I normally deliver this in eight or nine sessions and he crunched it down to three so folks felt really rushed it was a lot of content coming at you in three days so I had a conversation with Andy about you know possible expansion and what I'm bringing you today is recommendation to expand it to another four so a 4-day program for our last two cohorts so the last two cohorts would go through a 4-day program and you I know everyone is extremely busy and I'm not sure I could ask people to give give us eight or nine days so this is asking for four days um with Andy for cohorts two and three to help save money they'd be all they'd be on the same day so one in the morning one in the afternoon uh the cost goes up dramatically if you have them on separate days that's just Andy's pricing structure because he's got a you know that's a whole day off his calendar travel and so on so forth so it gets a lot more expensive if you have them on separate days so that's part one part two is the culture team they've had three maybe four meetings and in conversations with Andy and some feedback I've heard they're they're getting off the ground um they're sted to have you know good discussions generate ideas create some subcommittees it doesn't sound like though they're they're ready to kind of run on their own and could use some additional facilitation from Andy so this recommendation pretty much gets us to the end of the year with additional in-person facilitation from Andy the original agreement was three iners and one virtual this would give us three more inperson uh visits facilitation sessions with Andy so uh Mr chair the the cost 22,600 uh and we can definitely fund this out of savings from our HR Director excuse me that position has been vacant of course all year so and probably will be for at least another couple months so that's easily $100,000 in savings that can cover this additional cost so this so then Mr chair this will get us across the finish line for the leadership training then we'll we'll be done with the leadership training now take all 50 supervisors through through training uh and this again gives us three more inperson sessions for culture team um I guess we should just assess at the end of end of Andy's next three sessions are they good to go I I really hope so I mean I think we kind of said earlier at some point the group has to sustain itself and you know kind of run run their their committee and and carry it themselves without continued facilitation so I I generally hope that's the case um with these three additional sessions so okay Mr chair Monty can you remind me have all the supervisors been in attendance in the cohort or will be they all will be right we had really good attendance for Cort number one I think two people missed one of those sessions but otherwise the attendance was really good and that is the goal commissioner Johnson is that every supervisor in this County will go through this training right absolutely y thank you and they and they see it's working or uh getting something out of it again the surveys most most people said hey it was very useful I'd recommend it uh content was hit the mark one thing we were really concerned about was would the content reflect the results of the employee engagement survey that was a really big deal and most people said yes it they connected the dots so that's that's really important it was very important so again I think content we were okay okay people seem to like it um again just to rush in three days so Mr that is a recommendation Mr chair so Monty did did Andy recommend like more than three days or was that our choice it was our choice again his normal program is 8 to9 he said with some clients they actually do train over a course of an entire year but it came with a lot higher cost so you know I ain't uh yeah I I I had a small group of folks from our management team help to evaluate and the consensus seem to be is again everyone's really busy we can't possibly ask for people to give up you know a day a month for a year and also to cost it was going to be very expensive to go with the full program uh and I think between time and cost our group said that's just that's just too much we can't ask that so we ultimately compromised on on a three-day session you know Andy's really flexible he's going to try and work with you but it meant putting his program into into those three days and it turned out to be a little too rushed so yeah okay so frankly I'm really glad we paused and and we made that known to Andy like okay we're gonna pause after first coort and we're going to assess how it's going yep motion to approve the additional commitment of 22,600 for expanded leadership training and additional in cultural team facil facilitation second okay we got a motion in a second any other communication I I've had some uh conversations with the people on the cultural team and they really enjoyed it so far so it's helping hopefully perfect and if I can follow up I think probably it'd be really nice to have a representative or two from culture team to actually come and update you all and hey here's what we're talking about here's where we're going I do I do get the impression that this group wants some connection to you all and I'll help facilitate that to share hey here's what we're doing here's what we're talking about that would be good that be great Mr Mr chair Monty um also I would assume in the previous dollars that we spent with this we've used it's kind of the leftover dollars from that position yeah right the base is pretty much used up right yeah the administrator budget H it came out of the administrator budget as uh well initially we tapped into our training budget that we had was like 35,000 sitting in the training budget and then we went to the savings and administrative budget for the rest okay yeah so thank you yep okay anything else if not I'll call the question all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries I believe the next one is the Wetland and solid waste program lead so um I believe we discussed this at a commit of the whole and there was an observation that this is a really challenging position to recruit for it's highly technical uh the comparative wage rates out there particularly in private Consulting are are substantial so I think we we felt if we have a a sporting chance of attracting a qualified candidate we're probably going to have to do more on compensation for this position so there was a consensus at that Committee of the whole to speak with Tessa DDA about possible reclassification so she took another look at it and she's recommending it would go from a grade grade 8 to grade 11 but also to give us some additional flexibility to create a senior position too at grade 12 so this is kind of like um the concept you have in high whereare you have engineering Tech it's got the interposition but also the senior so if you do find someone with substantial experience you could hire them in at the senior level um I think also too Mr chair this discussion recognize the the consequences of this position work it has substantial economic consequences for lots of folks in Benton County it operates with substantial autonomy working with the te on again highly complex technical issues and I think as we look back at this in hind State great8 just wasn't wasn't the right number for this position so I I hope this again gives us some additional flexibility to recruit and retain someone with the kind of experience the County Board is looking for and I know I believe two board members were selected to be on that that selection committee so so with that Mr chair we're recommending a reclassification of the Wetland Solway program lead from 11 excuse me from 8 to 11: and then creating a senior at grade 12 board I think our two volunteers volunteers you got right Mr chair if I could Monty I I agree 100% the the importance of this position is a lot of impact so Mr chair I think in the last three to four or five years this position has become a lot more um in depth with all of our ditch work that we've been having to have to do so yeah and it's hard to find I mean I don't know how many people are out there that will have qualify for this position I think is going to be our problem yeah well I think as we observe this year this is a really interesting and maybe somewhat unusual position but require it it involves so many different disciplines certainly Wetlands but also solid waste and Shoreland and I'm probably forgetting one or two so was a lot thrown into that basket they we asking a person to do and we were looking at subcontracting that out at at some at one point but I think there's way too much there's there's a lot of implications for our our taxpayers especially on these ditches MH and hopefully we'll get more money from Solid Waste as we go forward here that you know there'll be more involvement in that too Mr chair I'll move to to reclassify the wetlands and solid waste program lead to a grade 11 and create a wetlands and solid waste uh senior position at grade 12 I'll second that okay we got a motion in a second any other questions on this if not I'll call the question all in favor I post same sign motion carries do we have Mark yes Amy has joined us say he she's with us she's with us by phone so my question to Jackie is were we going to share anything on the screen or they're not at this point it's all in the packet right yeah it's in their package so Amy I see you're with us by phone yes well Amy sorry about not earlier no no problem so we uh the floor is yours Amy please alrighty well thank you uh members of the board we are pleased to be presenting our recommendation that there be a z % increase to the health insurance funding for 2025 after a couple of uh rather large increases to help build the reserves and put some stability back into the plan um right now for 2025 things are looking very very good so our uh our recommendation is a zero I do always have to put that with a little bit of cautious optimism health insurance is uh not a predictable uh expense and we do anticipate cost will continue to go up but for right now Benton County is sitting in a good position good good news very good news Monty or Jackie what's our current balance on our know off top of your head uh about 1 point1 1.2 million we should be about 1.8 1.9 roughly should is our balance Target a lot better position than a few years ago substantially better right yeah we spent down to virtually nothing in our health insurance trust fund balance right you bet we built it back up decently over the past year yep knock on wood it can go quick right it can that's true right yeah all right all right thank you thank you all right happy to bring some good do we need to approve her recommendations please yes yes if you could move for approval second chair okay we got a motion in a second to move for the marsh mclenon approval of 0% increase on our health fund uh I'll call the question all in favor I post same sign motion carries thank you okay Sandy good morning good morning um uh first of all I want the on behalf of Human Services I want to thank you so far with your work with the policy positions that we brought for the 2025 budget um but but um or in addition um joyy and I would like to bring forward a request to hire two of those social workers early um as you may recall in the budget discussion we had we have two long-term staff who have been putting in um in the last year over 500 hours of their own time to complete men Choice assessments we are still um have 51 people on the wait list and we are some people are waiting four to five months um for those assessments now we do triage though so not everybody waits that long um but for our residents who are waiting on that list for men Choice assessment and meting waiting for services for themselves or the family um this is a hardship we do have funding these are fully funded positions um a little bit of offset at the beginning while they're training in but we also have had a director's position which um we have savings from for for nine months of salary so I would respectfully request that we you entertain the idea of allowing us to hire these two workers early earliest would be November we're really only talking about maybe two months if we're lucky um because hiring has been tough so what what is how many applicants you get for these positions it really depends um our last Social Work position we had open is child protection um we had I don't remember exactly the number but we have had to go in and interview three times we now have taken down the posting because we could find nobody and have are reposting um so of many times we'll open it up to 8 to 10 to interview three or four show up maybe um and then we have we just have a lot of problems doing it so I would say many years ago we'd have 100 to 80 people applying and now maybe 10 maybe I mean it's it's a significantly lower list and not everyone's even qualified doesn't even have a degree so it has been tough I also anticipate in January a lot of counties will be hiring for these men Choice work Ur everyone's experiencing uptake this is not new so we will be definitely competing with other counties not that you know that's the case for the sheriff's department and everyone else but get ahead of the curve but I would like to request that these are people on that waiting list and it makes me extremely nervous quite honestly you do that huh what can we we legally actually do that what move it ahead move it ahead it's already it's it's fully funded uh you know the board of course retains a discretion to hire position create positions whenever you choose to okay uh and there's nothing that prohibits that that's the question that's the answer I needed and the I guess my question was as long as it's fully funded I didn't want to and we don't have to yeah dig into the 2024 budget I'll to fund these position I'm okay with this otherwise I would not be Mr chair Sandy you talked a little bit about and I'm sorry I forgot the term that you used at the very beginning of this process with these employees um the training in part or I'm not sure what term you use there um I'm not sure just so there's some time when they're training when they're not earning Revenue okay that's it is and that typically is how long a couple weeks okay I mean that that's going to be the case whether we hire him in 2024 or 2025 as well but yes but we certainly have the revenue from the director's position as well okay okay I'll make a motion to approve to hire two social workers for the men Choice unit in November I'll second that okay we got a motion in a second any other questions on this if not I'll call the question all in favor I oppose same sign motion carries thank you Joy maybe for the uh past Commissioners you want to give an introduction to yourself yes I do am it's an important position yeah hello yes Jo Jackson Lind I'm the new wom Services director I'm just about four weeks in so really happy to be here and with both me shadow Sandy she's been a great teacher and just getting to know people throughout that County uh certainly and and Community stakeholders so it's nice to meet you all thank you thank you sorry to put you on the spot all good I assume they were here for me so all right I think we're going to move on to Chris then Chris you probably recognize a lot of these gentlemen as well so well yeah it's nice to see some former bosses out there my first thought when I walked in is like oh great what road did we mess up that my bosses had to come in to to say something so uh good to see you that's coming next well today I have before you uh a topic that we've talked a lot about our reconstruction project in Gilman Casa 3 and Casa 5 we've been talking about it for at least four years now um Gilman is very much a partner in this they've got sanitary sewer underneath our roadway and much like for a lot of small cities those are huge costs that the city cannot they could never tax enough of their residents to pay for that so they're seeking outside funding well as the years progressed they've been unsuccessful in securing enough funding to complete their project so what was in the packet there was a letter from the the Gilman mayor asking us to uh delay our project as we've talked about it at a staff level I mean it makes sense we don't want to move forward with redoing our roadway and then leaving their old um poor sanitary sewer underneath our roadway that inevitably they would probably need to excavate the roadway before the life of our pavement so I think at a staff level we're open to the idea of delaying it but with that being said next year we we we're going to have to do some patching and that may be this the sand mix overlay type thing that we've talked about before going ahead and patching that so the road stays together and then that gives us some more flexibility on what actually that year is for construction and I know that's something we've talked about in the past is like should we go and do that um uh Gilman likes to use us our project as leverage and I think we're okay with that that our roadway needs to be reconstrued constructed so that hopefully gives them some leverage to seeking these outside funds for their project but that's the reality of it we're going to have to probably do some patching uh next year just to to hold the road together Mr chair Chris in earlier discussions with Gilman I know you and I were there and B that if we're going to move ahead with this uh sand patch and it's going to be some cost to the county obviously to do this that we weren't going to do but there's a way potentially when their funding comes through that we can we can trade some I don't know if dollars is the right word or we can trade some Paving uh project uh to kind of reimburse the county for that can you explain that maybe to the full board that discussion yeah you're right that is something that we discussed it seemed like earlier they were kind of open and understood that idea um current numbers or current Grant applications that they've applied for didn't include that number so I think that opens up that conversation again that we should go back to part of the city and say okay now we're it's it's making our project more expensive and and I think ideally they would go back to their Grant sources and say because we didn't receive funding there's there's a cost of delay now and maybe wrap that into the the grant award um some good news and bad news as commissioner pop was we were out in DC a couple weeks ago we heard good news from representative emer's office there's $2 million sitting there uh for Gilman for their project just unfortunately that's not enough to complete all the things that they they need to complete and this is about a $12 million project right correct yeah you know one thing I think that we we're seeing with this is that um Gilman went after the USDA Rural Development funds um I think maybe the county or the your office Chris is going to have to help and move that along because I get the feeling that like when you send your engineers like Bolton and them out there I don't think the representatives listen to them as well as they would listen from a city council person or somebody from the county I they don't you don't seem to drive at home as good and I just believe that they blow the not not disrespecting Chris but they blow the engineers off a little bit versus somebody else like the private engineer priv the private engineer yeah the private engineer and you know they're going to need help I mean there's no doubt about it that that City can't withstand 12 million bucks no I mean they won't exist if if they have to withstand that kind of money so as we go forward here maybe we can I don't know somebody can help them out a little bit and and you know if we can get the USDA funds from Minnesota that' really be good I think as we continue hopefully going out to DC we need to keep lobbying for this it's been working yeah you know uh one of the things that we we hear is nobody wants to go out there and everything like that then when you go out there especially in the Transportation Alliance you get out there and it's like everybody's like don't tell anybody this is the best kept secret we don't want a lot of people to come because it actually works and then you start going out with the APO and everything there's there's money coming back so Mr chair Chris the arpa money that was dedicated to them from the county they Ed the majority of that for their design correct so that's that's been essentially spent so uh they did want me to I'm glad you mentioned that they did want me to express their thanks for that that without that they wouldn't have been able to even get to this point I think for knowing what their costs are and some of their their engineering costs so uh that was appreciated and it's been spent already M so with that $2 million coming in from Emmer's office they'll accept that it just brings their project down to 10 million Left Right correct and how long do they got to use that so that's that's the time frames um you know those uh our Congress people want to see those being put to work right away um so anticipate a a a groundbreaking ceremony or certainly a ribbon cutting when that happens but I think in the federal law there's some flexibility I think there's a maximum time frame of like within five years those funds need to be spent so I think if we're still within that time frame FR we we can accommodate that in our our our 5year transportation plan and and move that around so okay so elephant in the room where do those uh funds get moved to uh well right now we were planning on using a lot of our state aid Municipal funds so they're going to stay parked in that uh Municipal account till uh till we do do spend them so okay well it's not that all the funding doors are closed I mean that there's potential State bonding and and correct public facilities Authority dollars that would maybe come around so that's part of it too yeah I'm glad you acknowledge that the state the lack of bonding for projects like this is really um affected that I think they were seeking State bonding as well yeah and I know representative Schultz is very much aware of yeah what's needed up there yeah so I think it's more for information um we talked about adopting a 5-year plan and I don't think we want to do that yet I think it's beneficial to the city of Gilman to show that we've identified this that this project should have been constructed in 2025 so if they can attach that still to their their applications for funding that still once again that's that leverage that they're looking for from from the county so that brings up a good point though Chris is when are we going to be looking at what we're doing instead uh this winter so we've already talked about it uh with the assistant engineer and the maintenance superintendent is as part of our patching budget next year let's plan on doing something in Gilman so we're already having those conversations but we're not going to spending those significant dollars there so are we doing a project instead of Casa 3 and five and on top of the sand mix fix I mean what project is going to slide into Casa 3 and five because we're not doing it or won't we well my recommendation is is is not to so we've got a pretty full workload um already in 2025 and also in 2026 yeah so as we discussed it with their engineer you know it's not just one year we may be just because of our staff and capacity for administering projects it may be two or three four years before we realistically will be able to reconstruct that I mean we were prepared for it in 2025 we're not prepared to do it in 2026 Chris question then on uh on the funds what is that sand mix going to run and and how is that going to deplete our our maintenance account uh yeah that is a very very good question uh we haven't got that far to find quantities I think by the next board meeting okay we could certainly put some rough estimates together based on we could look at this year's bid prices and estimate uh what it would be and you know projected a year out and and come up with some tonnage and stuff because that's a that's a big uh project uh on a on a maintenance program budget sure well and that's why we need to make sure we're marking it that we can potentially get some reimbursement out of that sure okay all right so really just for information no form action so that's that's all I had for now unless there's any questions no thanks Chris thank you thank you with the board's consent I think I'd like to um move away from the County Board and go into uh Health if that works for you commissioner hen yep okay okay we'll call it over the Ben County Community Health Board roll call everyone's here approve or amend the agenda anything to add Jacqueline just one addition um that we'll add today it would be for us to be able to have a conversation and for the board to consider an appointment of a commissioner or Commissioners to our emerging substance use Community Coalition move for approval the amended agenda Mr chair second okay we got a motion a second any further discussion not I call the question all in favor say I I I opposed motion carries consent agenda item one and two what would you like to do with approval approval second second okay we got a motion and a second any further discussion n call the question all in favor say I I I opposed motion carries Jacqueline first you want to do the fle a walk to school day yes good morning um good morning Commissioners I will invite Mariah Klein up to talk with us here and Kayla rolloffs two of our community health specialists to talk about the upcoming Foley walk to school day and their invite good morning commit good morning we are just here to provide a quick update on Foley's walk to school day taking place this month the event is to take place on October 9th on Wednesday um before school so it's it'll start around depending on the location where students walking from it'll start at the earliest around 7:20 at three different locations so if you look at the map there students will be walking um from the Foley fire hall the gustavis Adolphus church and then the 13th AV um neighborhood and so so if you are interested in Walking with the students or helping public health staff pretty bigs for that participate we would like to invite you to come help us um in this event and just for some background information public health staff have been involved with safe routes to school initiatives with the city of Foley and Foley School District since the beginning um of them applying for a um transportation Alternatives Grant back in 2018 so we've always kind of helped with this tradition and it's been a great initiative to help students safely uh walk bike to school so great Mr chair you can mark me down I'll be there okay awesome I'll be probably at the Gus Davis location okay awesome thank you I'll probably do the same okay all right thank you and if you have any additional questions please feel free to reach out to us great thank you thank you great thank you very much okay next appoint Commissioners to substance use Community Coalition yes so in follow-up to our last Committee of the whole meeting where we've been in conversation about developing our advisory committee that will serve um to review and help administer those opioid settlement funds um this would be a Community Coalition uh where we were looking to have a commissioner or commissioner representation on um this committee would serve for all substances of use in our County as well as our opioids and so breaking recommendations back to County Board um the full County Board on how we're disseminating those funds but also would be a place in a space where we could have conversations around like our tobacco ordinance our cannabis ordinance you know things that are coming up related to substances if anything comes up around alcohol or whatever they may be be a good opportunity to have that commissioner representation within the working group of that committee and help bring information back and forth and then um as well as of course the opioid settlement funding so just looking to see um if the board would like to consider appointment and I'll open it up for you guys to discuss so in our previous conversation of course I was thrown in right away and then I also wanted to throw commissioner ginsky in because he's with Public Safety I'd be what are you smiling I'd definitely be interested in this do we need action to uh sure for this Coalition Mr chair I'll move that commissioner hin and commissioner kinsky are appointed to this Coalition I'll second that okay we've got a motion in a second uh Jacqueline when will these start do you know yep and so we were looking to get the names of who would be appointed and then Kayla plans to send out a poll to get a first initial meeting date set up we've had one meeting since our committee of the whole with that that small Planning Group to catch everybody up to speed we kind of did that orientation that we did at the last Committee of the whole with all of those members reviewed the opioid settlement funds talked a little bit about the background context and history and then our next step was to get that planning committee together which uh the two of you will be a part of and we'll have discussions around Community sectors to invite um those key players do a review of what the advisory or the Community Coalition will be made up of how many members you know those sorts of things and then we'll get to those planning meetings so perfect that would be the next steps am I forgetting anything Kayla you know what days is of the week you guys are looking at I think we were waiting to see what your schedules would would kind of yeah provide insight to before we scheduled that initial meeting so that we would have the best representation I know generally commissioner kinsky likes Friday afternoon two o' that's commissioner H yeah okay yeah so we'll be meeting as a group we probably probably what we'll happen is we'll have that initial meeting we'll have some discussion around dates and yeah so we'll we'll get something sent out to get that first meeting scheduled and then after that there'll be a discussion around what works best for most schedules so we can have the most individuals representa at each meeting great thank you thank you okay I'll call I'll call the question we have a motion in a second I'll call the question question all in favor say I I opposed motion carries thank you with that I'll turn it over to the board chair all right and uh I apologize board chair we're adjourned at 9:55 for public health with that uh if the board uh seees so fit I'd like to turn it over to commissioner Johnson for the ditch Authority all right we'll call our uh oh don't leave yet this is where it really gets good another meeting you know how that actually are these committee assignment meetings commissioner ner this just one you're making up oh okay all right we'll call our ditch Authority meeting uh to order uh roll call of course we're all present approve or amend our agenda Chris do you have any additions I do not I actually do have a couple additions I'd like to add I'd like to have some discussion about the potential maintenance of cd6 and what our plan is going forward there and also we need to have some discussion and again these don't need to be today if it's not today I'd like to get it on the next meeting uh CHR I have talked about in the past really defining what our buffer strips means I I know that we've had some I don't want to say disagreements but differing opinions on what does it mean to establish our buffer strips and so I think we need to get that to the Forefront and so that we're all on the same page and also what that means for existing fences or trees or those things that are left in our buffer strips and how we're going to manage that so um I'd like to add those to to our agenda today so with that is there a motion I'll move to I'll move to approve the agenda Mr chair motion I'll second and a second all those in favor I oppose it's carried consent agenda item one approve or amend the meeting minutes of September 23rd so moved second okay motion a second to approve those minutes is there any further discussion hearing none all those in favor I oppos is carried Chris update on County ditch 14 Wetlands okay so if you recall at the the last uh ditch Authority meeting we discussed uh the additional work next to those no repair areas uh and we talked about the idea of vegetation management uh and not having an impact to the wetlands uh the drain Authority asked me to talk to our contractor and get an idea of what that actually cost would be to phys physically do that vegetation management uh the report that that Houston engineering had prepared for us estimated at about $4,000 per location and there were four different locations uh so I met last week with uh our contractor since we still have that repair contract open with Helman construction we met on site and discussed what what that work would look like um and discuss different options and the contractor submitted uh a unit price of an hourly rate uh to do that work um we didn't know if we would need swamp mats out there or not a couple of locations it looks like that they could walk a machine out to those locations without any trouble some of the other ones it's wet next to the ditch and they may need these swamp mats um and then they provided this hourly rate uh of an excavator at $250 an hour so what would that really cost um it's hard to say how long it would actually do that work so I back figured this this work if they estimated it at $4,000 per site at these costs even mobilizing their excavator mobilizing their swamp mats uh and then 250 $50 an hour uh we could we could use them for 112 hours uh at the price of one site I really believe that a day's worth of work they could probably get to those four locations the one at 90th Street that's one of them that the the spoil pile was uh um dry except for the one spot still where we got stuck but um they could walk their machine to that that re that repair location and without the swamp mats and so it's a matter of I think less than an hour at that location because it's close to a public road they could drop the machine off at the public road walk down there within an hour grab that walk back up load it and go to the the next site so um I think it's hard to say what it actually cost but if we just assume $4,000 per site uh what we estimated before I think we would be well under that I think for about $4,000 we could probably get uh all four I guess the roundabout way of what I'm saying Chris couple clarifications so you're talking about the vegetative removal or are we talking about repairing it and second question is you're talking about four sites so are we talking about the three to the north correct yes so thank you for clarifying that so this is just for vegetation management that would be no impact to Wetland so then um it would be just the cost to the the the drainage system of just doing that no additional Wetland mitigation costs furthermore I did get some clarification the last week is can we do this vegetation Management on those three sites Upstream my understanding was that uh that Bowser would not sign off on vegetation Management on those other three Wetlands north of 90th Street uh Consulting with uh Houston engineering uh they believe that that Bowser did say that we could accomplish vegetation management and have no impact to those Wetlands as well so we would do all four I think that would be the recommendation from your your ditch engineer here would be that if we can get by with no Wetland impacts let's do that vegetation management at all four of those Wetland uh locations Mr chair yeah so is this taken the The Cattails out and do do they have Tak the cat tails out of the channel and the the root ball below that yeah but no excavation below that that uh root ball so we we require somebody being on site while they're doing that work to say yep that's good no more or yeah we could take a little bit more because he still got some root structure there um and who's somebody B DNR um I would say at a minimum uh our staff and due to lack of Staff it' probably be me out there on site saying yeah let's let's can I volunteer for that you uh did you find out how how big a root ball is because I think when I pulled it up they're pretty good size yeah that's right so we hit some in our conversation with Bowser that was around 12 in so I think our next step if this is approved to move forward with this by the board is to have that full teep meeting and I think at that meeting we're really going to have to have some hard conversations to say what is an average depth of a root structure for um Reed canary grass go ahead so M Chris um if we would choose to do the Full Repair m we understand that costs more because there going to be Wetland mitigation correct do you need T approval for that or can we move forward uh yeah if the board chooses to go for the Full Repair then yes our next step is to complete an application to the te to say that we're going to do a full repair and we're going to M or impact those wetlands and therefore mitigate for them so they still have the say correct because they need they need to prove the Wetland Bank that we choose and the withdrawal of the Wetland credits and so more than likely a full repair request would delay a repair MH mhm for some time it could yes because trying to find the Wetland credits that's that's where the the time delay comes in I I think the T could approve the applications rather quickly it would be us searching Wetland Banks you know on the market for available credit at 100 Grand an acre and we were looking at two right two two to one yeah but that actual cost is around $45,000 it was because we like the one just south of 90th Street by doing a full repair we're impacting about 0.24 Acres so replace that at 2 to1 that's 048 Acres that we need to find and we're estimating you about $100,000 per acre so yeah that's where we get to the 48$ 49,000 just for wetland credits I got to tell you I mean in my opinion the the partial stuff I think we're taking a chance with Bowser and if they come in and say we violated this stuff right we're going to be talking about it for forever my other concern though with that is is if we pull the trigger on the Full Repair that we can't just move ahead I mean if we're going to need number one t approval number two to find the Wetland credits there's a high chance we won't even get to it this year I take there's a chance I I I suppose yeah I would be hopeful that we could find credits within a I mean we're talking months not weeks well and not to minimize the dollars but remember whatever we do is going to be spread under this ditch system correct it's not just that location and it's setting precedence for other ditches I my experience our experience with Bowser the tap DNR I'd be pretty nervous about a partial well commiss pop so Chris when you go out when you go out there you'll meet with them before you actually go out to do the the root ball and whatever that's correct we're supposed to I mean if they come back and say we can take six inches you know what I I know what I tell them um but if they come back and say we could take 12 to 15 or whatever I think 12 to 15 out there would work when we were out there if you look at the the flow of the water but six is not going to work providing the whole bottom is a root ball yeah right cuz I think when I looked it up wasn't it like 18 to 2 yeah but it's going to depend on Bowser but Chris correct me if I'm wrong the repair is calling for a little over a foot yeah it was I if I recall it was yeah foot and 8/10 to get to the bottom did a repair right yeah so I mean for I guess i' I'd like to go and see what what Bowser says how deep or the ti says how how deep we can go so throwing it out there let's just say Chris's math is correct here and let's just say we can get to all of them at 4,000 would it be would it behoove us to try that and worst case scenario we then we have to go to the full um to maybe provide some clarification Next Step would be we have we we're at a fork in the road if we want to do vegetation management we apply to the te for a no loss exemption application oh if we go for the Full Repair we've agreed that we would acknowledge that there is some Wetland impact and then we apply complete the application as Wetland impacts but we already know that amount of the Wetland impacts it's 024 of an acre that's correct yeah I number we we would have we have some agreement agreement with the T that that would that's what it is yeah they just have not formally reviewed it because we've not completed that formal application Mr go ahead commissioner Heinen you know I I think for $4,000 it'd be in our best interest to see if this is actually going to work yeah because if the rip ball is going to be a foot to 15 inches that's going to help that process I mean even if we do a full repair it's only 12 Ines anyway we're going down so hopefully the root ball is going to be 14 in and I also see commissioner Johnson's Point like if all of a sudden we get in there and we dig it all out and then they go you shouldn't have done that well you know it's easy to ask for forgiveness yeah pictures and clarification that's what we need first I and I guess from my standpoint too I didn't realize we could include the other three areas to the north I mean that's a significant change it is that was yeah that was not my understanding but then after meeting with them again um this is this is the memo last year so yeah we know what the potential impact is but that's the impacts are greater on those Upstream ones so this is the location just said south of 90th Street so that would be that's where we were estimating of construction cost 4,000 but the Wetland mitigation costs go up significantly if we want to do the full depth repair for all four locations right yeah I don't think there was any ever any discussion about doing a repair on the upper three the concern was the one South and 90th and so yeah that's and that's a direction the board could provide too we could go with a full depth repair at this location and just do vegetation management at these other three and then then we could we could draft the application to that effect or we could do vegetation management all of them or folder repair on all of them I I think it's it's kind of like a menu you could pick and choose which one's wasn't there an issue with uh sorry Mr chair wasn't there an issue with uh um the benefit acre as at the cost being too high not on cd14 I don't think oh was okay right Chris I well that yeah that was a concern I think way back in the before we actually ordered the repair we didn't know we didn't know this much detail on the wetlands at that time so I think we looked at a worst case scenario that could bump us up against that benefit ratio now we've kind of honed in we drilled down did additional analysis and now know that that's $322,000 of potential uh impact but to your point commissioner kinsky when we originally looked at that repair report it was like and I'm throwing out numbers here an $850,000 repair versus a 3.1 million with Wetland ination mitigations and that why we chose the first round correct that is correct yes but now we've seen or understand that it's not 3.1 million MH yeah that's where I struggle with we should repair it but but we are I mean when you think about it we are adding another 50% of cost to that project because you're right we're at about $600,000 for the repair project we're adding another 50% to that so if you do all of that correct yeah if we did all of them if you just do the repair at the 90th Street location you're at $57,000 on a repair yes could do that minus 4,000 so they made 52,000 right yeah you were going to spend four regardless yeah um I know the land owners here that this directly affects Julie do you have anything you want to add or you've kind of heard the discussion some of this is new to us and probably so any and maybe Julie if I could have you come up so we could hear you that'd be great I guess the deal is guys is that if you do a partial cleanup it's just a temporary fix it's not a a making that ditch um like it should have been in the beginning um the effect of this ditch or this plug are not taking out these three beaver dams and that's what it is is three beaver dams because my family's been out there breaking it up for years about every 3 years so if you T do a partial it's going to grow back and and reclaim and there will be no record of it being part of the ditch it'll always be a wetland closure do you see what I'm saying um youve R the the raise of the water level at my house the gr of the land is really slight so when the water is restricted it raises that water table enough where it is significantly affecting us um I guess I'd prefer the full clean out because then you have it it's a one-time deal it it will never you'll never have to deal with it again other than just saying okay this is what it is this is our ditch it's a it's a county ditch and I don't think the extra extra cost um is that much that it's going to affect a whole lot and it would be a permanent fix to this ditch it wouldn't be well okay now do we go back out in three years and pull the tail the the the cat tail ball again or is somebody going to go out with a shovel cuz it ain't going to be me okay yeah so I I know that it's been a wet year and we've had wet years before we've been out there since 1978 and we I know that landine like the back of my hand the road that was washed out that leads to the hill has never washed out except this year the the 20 acre corn crop in the back is about 50% drowned out this is not a fun deal guys but I do want it fixed permanently I don't want in five years somebody going well we need to do something but now what are we going to do cuz it's considered a wetland it's not a ditch I guess that's my feeling on it okay thank you Julie thank you you know I mean I think she brings up a good point about if you repair it m then we're good then we're good because we've done it once y and we can go back and maintain now we're only talking about that 200 feet off of south of 90 right south of 90th I mean from my perspective I think we repair the spot too and we do the vegetative one up on top which we didn't necessarily have that option before get that ditch opened up okay and then we can maintain and we can't even we can't even do that up we can't well we could do the Full Repair but we're at when verus 57 yeah so yeah I think that's a very VI option that you will you could say this location will do the full repair and mitigate for those wetlands and then the other three locations will do vegetation management I think we better be prepared for the other ones to come come in you they may be may be but that's a larger cost because of the yeah no I'm just saying we better be prepared because if all of a sudden they come with the same argument and I'm not saying that your argument's bad because I I think doing it right the first time is the way to go but it comes with a cost that we get to dictate out to everybody else and then everybody else comes back to us and go why did you do that so well I I for me I'm a firm believer in getting it done and getting it done right the first way and so with that I'm going to I'm going to move that we do a full repair on uh the location 84 to 86 at an estimated cost of $56,900 and that we do a vegetative material alternative uh for the other three locations listed on CD4 I'll second that all right we got a motion is that not to exceed number for the vegetative it was 4,000 per site right yeah not to exceed that not to exceed not to exceed I'm okay with that not to exceed 4,000 at each site you're okay on the mendable to the second we can manage that now we know how much it's costing each hour we can very much manage that but we should make sure we stay in the contractor to make sure he doesn't stretch it out too yes yeah exactly right that's why we'll be on site okay there's a motion second any other discussion commissioner does this cover the beaver dams too that's where it's at that's where it's at yeah any other discussion hearing none all those in favor I opposed it's carried thank you Chris all right uh cd6 maintenance um I know we've all probably gotten phone calls and visits in regards to our maintenance assessments uh to me cd6 was done over a year ago mhm um I pretty much know for a fact it's ready to be maintained so I think we get out there and we get out their ASAP and we get it the buffer strip done we may have to look too Chris and this is something we haven't had a lot of discussion is you know originally we talked about maybe having to uh apply herbicide on the ditch edges to make sure there's nothing growing in the ditch sure sure um so we've kind of got two things going here is mowing the buffer strips and potentially applying herbicide to growth going on in the ditch because I know we talked about we're not tearing stumps out of the ditch side Banks and sure those type of things so you know it's a perfect fall I think we get in there we show these land owners that we're using these assessment dollars to maintain correct sure yeah before we get behind it'd be a great ditch to start on yeah and get in front of it I agree M so this is what I would plan on doing I would uh reach out for quotes because because we're not under any current contracts with cd6 ask for quotes to do that and then bring that back to a drainage Authority meeting for approval and move forward do you think we could have those quotes by the next meeting uh two weeks away it might be kind of tight I could try and and reach out to some contractors and say you got one week to give me a quote and then whoever responds responds and and go that way and maybe we might be limiting our no I understand if we need a little more time that's fine but maybe let them know that once it's approved I mean the expectation is go mhm you know we're October 1st already so yeah Mr chair commissioner Pinsky uh on the buffer uh strips I if we don't maintain them at least for the next two to 3 years on the county side well it's it'll be assessed to the ditches but everybody's going to go by these ditches and go well this looks horrible we just spent all this money and people think the buffer strips are are where the water goes or or it's part of the ditch deal which it is but if those are all growing up and the water's still flowing they're going to think we're not we're not doing what we need to do so we need to be able to be able to drive not get stuck we need to be able to right we need to be able to do all that we need to be able to mle with with a brush mower or whatever all the way through like we've been telling people commissioner P so I had a a call on on cd10 that we charged the maintenance fee and we haven't even done the ditch yet I correct yeah I don't think we should be able to do that um well I mean we have no ditch fund for ditch tin we know that we' I mean our chance of cleaning that CD 10 are going to be pretty minimal I don't you know what the cost I I she's very upset about CH land on six and 10 and I mean we're not going to do anything in the near future and we're already assessing them for maintenance well I mean we've had these discussions before and we're relying on the County's cash balance to fund these right and in light of the recent Wetland Conservation act changes this last legisl session I think repairs in the future are definitely going to look different I think we do know that there are some areas along tin that have some blockages maybe there's there's an accumulation of sediment in one location that maybe we can knock that out and get uh some drainage restored um big thing is those buffer strip payments we've got to pay out buffer strip payments um and even on 10 since we did have a repair petition we have incurred costs for the engineering up to this point so you're right the land owners have not seen any physical work my goal at a staff level is that next year we do see some things happening um that could be uh removing we do know there's some beaver dams along tin and there are some Lo isolated locations where sediment seems to has accumulated just because we know the survey is shown that there's a rise in the ditch bottom compared to upstream and downstream of that so maybe we can attack those areas but I don't know if we'll see a fulllength repair like we have seen on six and 9 and 14 basically because along the whole length of 10 it is Wetlands well and and Chris correct me if I'm wrong you do have a valid repair petition on cd1 correct so we have to do something we do have to do something and you've got a you've got a cost and redetermination of benefits MH you know those type of things buffers yeah buffer payments so commissioner Pop I get your concern because it's I it may be more than cd10 that we're not going to be able to Full Repair to but there are costs already associated with the ditch system just going to have to respond to because you can bet we're going to get more repair petitions we're sit on one 12 now they just didn't like seeing um you know the assessment without the assessment in 2025 and we haven't even touched anything yet I mean but to his point we've had costs yeah that the Count's floating okay the general fund's floating right yeah we just heard today our audit I mean that wasn't audit fing that out so that that the county funds County Levy is basically supplementing the ditch cost yeah up to now so you you got a very valid point absolutely my point it's she has a very valid point and re I mean remember I mean we talked about this with six we didn't assess until after that and then all of a sudden these Landers got hit with this large assessment amount and I thought I think that's part of the goal is that we start off with a small assessment amount and start building that that fund so no one land owner is hit with these huge you know multi thousand assessments that they're expected to pay in a relatively short amount I would say more than likely cd10 and 11 are going to be our biggest challenges to get a repair done they are part because they are they are public Waters identified as Mayu Creek um and a lot of wetlands that have been established in the last 25 years so but but I understand they haven't seen any they have not seen any work it's all been behind the scenes work up until now so I know I know I got a text over the weekend saying I was the best and now I understand what happened yeah so why you were the best yeah I'm like they must have got the maintenance on the ditches y so okay all right and then some discussion about buffer strip you know kind of defining what does that mean what to do with trees fences Etc I know cd14 has been one of those areas of discussion um Chris actually at this particular site that we just approved a full repair on there's some differences of opinion on where you know that ditch runs through a pretty I'll say swampy area um and so our challenge I think is what are we really going to do with these buffer strips are we going to uh put them in a position where we're maintaining both sides or are we just going to run it down one side you know some of the argument is well if you're going to chew up all that uh those Cattails and all that vegetative material it's all going to end up in the ditch and I would I would say yes it probably will but then that's going to be part of our maintenance in my opinion we may be back out there and maintaining that until we get those buffers established which you made a comment couple three years it's probably going to take to do that I don't know that we can sit and pick and choose that well we're going to leave a mile of this side of the ditch alone because it's full of cattails I I think we have to stick with yep the buffer strips are being mowed on both sides during this repair and then we have to maintain Mr chair remember what happened when we first started these ditches when we only did one side yes on cd6 this is a little bit ception Chris maybe you want talk about it because I respect your point about that that's an area that we disagree on about how that should be done so I'd like to hear you know your Viewpoint of that area because yeah drainage law does say that the buffer strips have to remain in a perennial vegetation so beyond that there's not much definition of what that per it could be uh Prairie Grass um and some some dra authorities have allowed ditch or trees to remain because they say well that root structure help holding that bank in place uh eliminating erosion and those kind of concerns so when we were going through 14 um uh yeah the quantities in our plans were to be honest underestimated so we got to the point where we were overrunning the quantity so to to manage costs we focused on where we actually needed to remove a lot of brush uh and Willows and those kind of things and so we we elected to like if it's just cattails and more of those Canary grasses we didn't have the contractor mow that this particular location South of 90th Street it was uh a mement thing for some time after we completed that work we saw stocks of cattails uh that was choking that that narrow channel that was up and that was causing some problems so it got to be the point that anytime we went out there we walked out there with a shovel and we would knock things loose just to keep water moving but I think as a drain Authority you you very much have that uh Authority let's call it to say what we're going to do with the man the buffer strips that could be say we're going to mow both sides um remove you know any brush trees uh or you could choose to elect that we're going to focus on one side and if it's at least if it's a grass and not a tree we allow it to remain or some combination of both I know with these recent maintenance letters uh we've received a lot of calls at the highway department um and some of the concerns was that we didn't need to remove trees I know we we seem to hear from the ones that wanted the trees removed I think there's opinions on both sides from land owners on what that land looks like but I do believe that that's your right and authority to to say what that 16 and2 foot looks like I guess from my viewpoint we went into this wanting to repair and maintain our ditches so I we're either going to do this or we're going to do it halfway and in my opinion both we do both sides on every ditch I we run to that conclusion a year ago yeah and if there's existing trees in place I don't know how the followup is when we you know we don't want to close the contract there are some trees that we we just need to remind the land owner we we allowed them to remain during hunting season and stuff but uh we needed to come back and remove those because that was the direction and probably some fencing yes yeah okay so before we close up these contracts I think we got to make sure that because we have to have the contractor out there to do this the TR I mean the areas where there's things in the way of the buffer right now you know if there's fencing there they obviously didn't through it well they maybe need to look at the one on County Road 4 I mean they fence but they're right up to the buffers sure and that's great that's great absolutely yeah yeah so we kind of have some consensus on this buffer stuff yep so question real quick on um if if there's a tree right up against the buffer zone that we don't take out falls in the ditch it's a land owner's responsibility we don't take out what do you mean well no on the edge of the buffer on the edge of the buffer that that is clearly 2T outside the buffer but the tree is 80 ft tall falls in the ditch I don't know what does ditch law say about that I don't know uh I I don't know I bet it's not clear I bet it's not so kind of like everything yeah yeah I mean same thing like say same thing could happen in a road rideway it's just our road rideway is 33 feet there's a tree 35t from the center but the tree is 60 ft tall it falls across the road we're going to clear the road to make sure the road I think our responsibility at drain Authority is to make sure that that ditch is Flowing like supposed to and that could be as simple as just whatever's in the channel we cut that off and get the water flowing again then address the other pors later maintenance maintenance maintenance yep well it cost somebody to go out there and do that's why I asked do it does all right any other comments on that stuff thank you anything else Chris uh nothing further so all right ditch Authority is adjourned at 1027 all right okay we will uh commissioner meeting updates I can start if you'd like since we just had a board meeting last Monday the only thing I had last week was all day Tuesday The Soil and Water Conservation District tour uh commissioner schlungen was on that also but uh very well attended and it was a beautiful day for it and it's great to see all the projects you know we talked a little bit again about the economic impact that that brings into the county and it's significant um and it was very good to see uh the communication and the ability for us fish and wildlife and the S swtd and some of these government agencies to see how they're actually working together to get some projects done instead of butting heads all the time so that was that was good to see of course we had our cow yesterday with GLT so that's all I had okay so I had the be board meeting um pretty much everything is normal they're um got the budget all set uh looking at the housing part a little bit more got a few good projects that are moving forward not just in the pipeline anymore so that helps and then on the same day I went to The Rum River one water one plan we met in Princeton and had a tour and boy you really appreciate what beton county does we spent this money on this one water one plan and I don't know how much money we spent they had 2.6 million and they showed us three projects and that's not all but them projects were nothing compared to what beton county does yeah and now they're going to get another 800,000 um they did they did approve the audit to go through an NOA County because it was going to save a pile of money so um I just was amazed at the projects compared to what we do in Bon County I was like wow you guys don't know what projects are that was all that I had okay commissioner slan um do we have career Solutions in the calls with that we call from yesterday that it for you y commission okay I I also had career Solutions we're running into a problem uh Stern County always used to take care of the payroll they went to a different vendor now they want to assess career solutions $445,000 to implement this and $118,000 a year for the payroll normally we're only paying about 7500 8,000 a year so I asked Monty of Bon County could take this on right now and right now we're short-handed so we're going to send it out for our rfps to see what kind of prices we can get so that's our biggest hurdle right now with career Solutions okay that it that's it yeah besides the Cs okay uh I just realized I got a atp3 meeting on Thursday oh yeah that's right yeah so I don't think I'll make our our judicial one so um with that said I did have a radio U board meeting on uh last last week Monty thank you for that cuz I did get run through the ringer on what we talked about earlier uh what came up with is I was going to uh join remotely and then I wanted to join oh okay yeah the whole a mean issue yeah so I called I called Sherry uh from the city of St Cloud and that topic was actually coming up at our meeting cuz nobody knew the answer and everybody's coming from long ways away they would rather be there in person but if something came up in between that 3-day time period so uh basically the long story is I talked to Monty he he said no you should be able to go and and we can close down the site that that was originally listed for you and I got to the meeting and um um there was an individual that kind of completely went against us that's why I got with you right away on an email right we got an opinion from the Minnesota department administration which clarified that issue yeah and we were in the right yeah we were fine we were good that's good yeah that's good so uh um I sent that off to uh Sherry and uh and Michel Myers and stuff like that so um for future if we if we post a remote spot and we want to show up in person we can do that absolutely right yeah good so um other than that uh we got that we got that other uh the Anoka bed deal too this week so that's all I have okay Monty you want to move move pass the Committees of the sure we do there right you'd like that wouldn't is it another week of nothing okay well we we need to put the Friday October 4th Comm hole on a calendar uh for this basing discussion with GLT that was the agreement yesterday so Friday at 8:00 a.m. uh here in the Board Room continue discussions with GLT um the point to the other one that's got to change um you know there was going to be we were going to have a meeting after the AMC District 5 meeting on the airport I we could probably take that one off take that one off okay we remove that one all right so here's the new stuff so roxan would like to have a commit to hold with you all to discuss the the Cannabis ordinance uh and roxan are you with us in person or remotely uh roxan do you have some suggested dates for a discussion of the Cannabis ordinance I'm open to whatever the board is open to and I presumably assume maybe the end of October and and I presumably also want to work with Michelle's scheduled too and I see Michelle is with us so perhaps Michelle you could kind of chime in if you could on your availability as I presume you'd want to be there too so yeah Y what we got after is this something we could do the Human Services C day are we gonna have a human services cow on October 21st we were but I also thought we had we get some tours that day as well so the the way we I think we talked about this is we knew we could sort of end the Human Services C at a specific time so we're going to go like maybe 90 minutes Y and then that would give you time to get over to River Heights for your tour yeah so the I guess the question though is do you have content for at Committee of the whole does Public Health and Human Services have content for a committee of the whole on the 21st do you have agenda items and content this is jacine we could do it underneath the public health portion of that committee as a whole is that word correct and and Michelle and Troy so what about Human Services on the 21st yep I think she's saying she time that start during her half of the meeting okay so she's got sufficient content for you know a portion no what she's saying is she could attack this what she's what they're asking for a committee of the whole on undering Canabis por I'm sorry the Cannabis issue okay well it really comes down to Human Services do do you do you have you know issues that really need some discussion on the 24 show can you you know we've already I know haven't we already uh missed one or is this is the one we just moved yeah we moved I wouldn't want to miss too many of these you know and just keep putting them off let's just do it no but I think what Jacqueline's saying is she could use her portion of that meeting to discuss canab can y yeah I heard I heard that part right yeah and then whatever Human Services needs we're good yep yep so I guess the issues can we can you crunch Human Services Public Health and cannabis issues into 90 minutes yeah but what time does it starts at 9 o' yeah can you turn that me again you know I do have hearings at 10:30 I believe we be Human Services one is scheduled to start at 9: we could do the Cannabis one right away with public health time and then Public Health yeah move into Human Services and then do our tour that work and we're tentatively supposed to be over at River Heights at 11 I don't work okay yeah y so the question is could we start at 8:30 with public health I guess my question would be does Human Services know if they need I mean let's just say um cannabis discussions an hour do you need more than a half hour we don't we have there have lots of issues that we postpone along the way every every meeting but we urgent so okay yes we could make that work whatever or how about moving to 8:30 Jacqueline can we move Public Health to 8:30 that would work for me as long as it yeah like I said if it worked for everybody else then I think we're good rock do we have we can have from two hours solid from 8:30 to 10:30 for all these issues yep okay and then that gives you you know a bit of time to get over to River Heights by 11 okay think we got that straight and is that all you want to tour just River Heights just making let's yeah that was the next issue is I um I think s was wondering is do you wish to tour other facilities beside River Heights for example Salvation Army or Lincoln Center do you want to bundle a few more tours into other facilities that more that that time we can schedule them and then if some of us have to leave we just leave yeah I think we do the River Crest first first yes okay yeah that was the priority so how so maybe make uh a um arrangements with um yeah with Lincoln and with salvation and if if board members can continue we can do that okay is there an interest in that or should we that's what I heard M pop right yeah yep there is you know I personally think tour and Lincoln would be interesting you know I visited there once when they were building all the interior structures and I presume that's all done now so it might be nice to see that operation see how it's run and so on it's surprisingly large it doesn't look like a lot from the street but it goes way back there's a lot there so all right uh let's see okay yes oh the walk the Foley walk yep the walk to school that's October 9th yep put that on and it starts I don't see a start time 7:45 is the locations on there isn't it gotcha oh I see different locations have different times seven yeah I see it 745 720 looks like the earliest so lastly Mr chair I'm almost almost done more so I was told so I I wasn't able to to attain attend the last joint meeting of cities counties County and the townships I was told there was a desire to have the your next meeting sometime this fall that's what I I believe Beth told me that and I I was not able to attend that meeting so is that still true you want to have another one yet this year I I thought there was a desire to have them twice a year twice well we just had the bcat yeah I don't remember anything I don't remember that either but could be I don't remember let's take it up at our next part meeting see need it sorry don't think okay I mean we just had a bcat so a what we were at the bcat the area Township meeting yeah right well I I know we've had one so far this year and again I thought there was a desire to have two we used we did two we did two we did one in the spring and then one well maybe jish I don't remember thought so there was no desire to have one at this fall we just we just did one well I know right there was a Township officers meeting right just recently well no there was one in when did we do that uh last one it was in August August end of August okay at St George yep that wasn't our first one of the year was it I don't think so I think we we did one in like April or May yeah we did one early so none none this fall none this fall this fall I guess we're off the hook then so well Christmas time yeah so the desire is still having two a year so we'll talk again maybe one spring summer yep okay got it all right I think that's it who for approval of the cows Friday at 8 they call Friday at 8 just before you guilty yep there's a there's a chance I won't be here on Friday okay I just got something going on that I okay uh okay probably want all Commissioners at that though could you join remotely if you have to from the tractor it ain't going to be in the tractor [Music] I think that's something we got to continue on with though just go ahead okay yeah just go ahead I think we' got your your your viewpoints so move for approval of the cow Mr chair second okay we got a motion and second to set the cows all in favor I I post same sign motion carries anything else in front of the board today um um Minnesota Transportation Alliance is having their annual membership meeting on November 14 on a Thursday okay so I think it's probably going to be doing the more know we have our career Solutions at 3 in the afternoon they feel get the morning meeting in I'll have APO okay okay all right nothing else we are adjourned at 10:41