##VIDEO ID:vhdovel6vrU## morning morning it is 9:30 and I'm calling the December 17 20124 uh meeting of the Clay County Board of Commissioners to order first item on our agenda is approval the agenda move to approve second a motion to Second all in favor of the motion say i i i o same sign motion passes uh next we have citizens to be heard do we have any citizens present uh in our meeting this morning who want to address any issue that is not on our agenda Steve we got anybody online we do not Mr chair okay next approval of payment of bills and vouchers Mo do approve second motion to second any discussion if not all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign and next we have approval of motion passes next we have approval of minutes from November 12th 2024 work group session in November 26 2024 and December 3rd 2024 move approval second okay have motion to Second any further discussion not all in favor of the motion say I I I oppose same sign okay uh next up we have the annual treatment Court update and judge mkin judge Rosenfeld and judge uh judge leer here he will be he had a hearing at 9:30 so well they're keeping him busy now that he's got a real job yeah so he'll be here shortly okay it was only gonna be a few minutes and Crystal uh cadri Kadri yep Kadri um good morning and thank you Commissioners for meeting with us from treatment courts uh I think I can speak on behalf of judge mkin judge liser and judge rosenfelt that we appreciate your continued support um in making treatment courts and Clay County successful um I do believe we are changing lives keeping the community safer and work working on ending the addiction cycle Crystal can you maybe talk a little closer to your mic oh perfect there you go that better that's better okay um I just kind of wanted to go over just a few things uh a few updates that I've know I've noted in um in in your forms that you received uh just wanted to discuss drug court we are um making some major changes to both drug court and Veterans Court um judge rosenfelt is going to be taking over at the beginning of the year for both drug court and veterans court um I think I sent an email um tomorrow is our last um treatment court hearing with judge murkins um you're all invited to attend that and we do have one graduation so um we'll we'll be celebrating two things um I just want to also note um we've had a few additional Josh arvidson Jackson elest and Eric zimmel are are now all new to the team as well um just for your information we received 100% of uh the funding formula last year and this year um that that from the state so we received $130,000 which previously we were only receiving 88% of our funding um which was at 116 um and then we just received a 10% increase in November from the seao um so that was an additional $113,000 as noted in my budget um we plan to have in drug court we plan to have foundational training um to learn the brand new breast practices that are put on by the um called they're called allrise now but it was the national addiction um drug court professionals uh National Association I apologize of drug court professionals um that was originally their term and now they're called allrise and so um we should have that occur this spring um it's free they have someone come here to Morehead to do that foundational training for 3 Days um so we're really really excited to have that opportunity and to learn some new new things that maybe we need to learn and make some changes as it relates to veterans court we're still working on screening individuals for the program we have one participant right now in Becker County that is a that was a Clay County file um and he's doing well um so our our main struggle in veterans court and why we don't have very many participants is a lot of our eligible veterans actually live in North Dakota and so that kind of creates that barrier where we can't serve them here um but I hope to work on some of that within the next year um including updating the manual and the handbook to ensure that we are following best e um the use of those cannabis funds um and then I finally just wanted to reiterate where we are with DWI Court um as you can see from all the updates and the proclamation that we have requested from this um the Commissioners we've been busy going through the process of starting the DWI Court um we first applied for a DPS Grant and successfully received funding in the amount of $150,000 from DPS um that gave us the opportunity to implement and hire both um a probation docc agent and a compliance officer before we went to training in October we um were able to take 10 people from Klay County to that DWI Court training in Fort Collins and I can tell you that that training was phenomenal I know judge liser can certainly add to um that training being um so beneficial having 10 people from Clay County listening to the same information about addiction um and going through that same process I think that gave us the ability to be really cohesive in how we wanted to start this DWI Court program um so as part of the requirements for implementing and finalizing our DWI Court we need to get a proclamation from the county another part is we need to uh finish our handbook and our manual and get a memorandum of understanding from the team members to be signed um once we do all of that hopefully by the end of this year um we can send that off to the treatment Court initiative and the judicial Council and then once that all happens we'll be operational and my hope is our goal is to have that operational we'll have the judicial council meeting on the 16th of January and hopefully be operational after that and get started with our DWI Court um from I'm starting to already get Rumblings I'm starting to get emails from people saying can we can we be staff for DWI court so I know that there's interest already in Click County um but I hope to have you know a little bit more of a marketing once we become operational to let people know to let um um defense attorneys and prosecutors know that um the DWI court is um operational so with all of those updates um I don't know if you want to speak or if I can just I'll just finish um we're requesting so at this time we're requesting um the the uh $30,000 that we continue to have for the Clay County drug and Veterans Court that's already what you um are providing for us for now we are not seeking any monetary support for the Klay County DWI Court program um as we have not been operational yet um and we think that we'll be able to be successful with that $150,000 if that were to change during 2025 obviously we will reach out but we believe that since that financial support will likely be needed next fiscal year um when we know a little bit more about how much we need to spend in that DWI Court program any questions comments Frank you said you got 16 treatment centers opening up or where are they going to be at you know um I think it their goal is to have them in treatment or in programs that don't have treatment courts in the in their counties um so we're working towards that I believe there are some I don't have exact which ones souls are going to be um we don't won't you you don't have to apply until March 1st for the next bium so we won't know until March 1st who those people are that are working towards that um but I have been in I did have a meeting with um multiple counties so the counties that don't have treatment courts in the Seventh District which include witha um Benton um Todd and um Douglas and I've met with all of them and I'm hoping that if it's not going to happen this year it will happen next year that we'll have some kind of addition treatment courts in those counties are you talking 16 more for the state correct okay and that's going to come out of specifically cannabis funding um in the history of treatment courts you usually had to apply for a grant and then the state would fund you once you've become operational in within the grant um and that's not so getting this additional money you don't have to go through that step you can just get into the funding formula through State funding um which again creates just a little less work I think because you don't have to write and be involved in a grant although the DPS Grant um they're very successful um as you know I I provided about nine pages of of documentation in a summary of the evaluation of treatment courts in my as part of the Proclamation request here today um and so the evaluation of those findings just kind of says a lot about treatment courts one how they save lives and how they save the community money I can tell you that um I think the one thing that stood out to me and this was from 2014 we haven't received a f uh findings um sooner than that but I think that it still is applicable here today um yearly savings at that point was $700,000 for the state admin 2014 that was correct this is a 2014 finding but it was spe year old correct but it was specific to the nine DWI Court treatment Court programs that were um in operation at that time and now there are F we will be the 15th DWI Court um and there isn't one in Cass County um so I'm just really I'm really looking forward and I'm excited to be able to provide that opportunity and I appreciate your support in in the DWI Court program um in our training the one thing that we noticed is um um and the one thing that caught my eye specifically had to do with the fact that it really does save lives for everyone because the fact that DWI court is uh or DWIs are dangerous to everyone not only the drivers but the people out on the roads with them um and so to to be able to have that opportunity and the lower to lower the recidivism rates of our DWI Court uh or I keep saying that our DWI in Clay County will will help everybody in the long run commiss Campbell thank you um obviously the record speaks highly of of the success in the drug court and in the veterans court I the numbers speak for themselves in terms of why it should be funded I'm I'm curious now with the DWI Court what what's the process for how does one qualify for a lack of a better word how what does who who who qualifies to get into that program sure and and judge liser can also speak to this because we are we we had to make some changes with which judges were going to Pride over which treatment courts but um I believe the Focus right away will be on the felony DWIs right so the people whove been charged with their fourth offense in a 10-year time period and are facing a felony um and so those will be the individuals that will initially be eligible for screening the screening process is essentially an email to miss Kadri saying uh from a defense attorney a probation agent a prosecutor a social worker saying this person is currently has this charge there's a history of addiction could this person be screened for DWI court that screening process then involves the chemical use assessment a risk assessment and then of course the team meets and ultimately makes a decision on whether or not that person will be accepted I will just note for for all of you I've been in uh Court proceedings where it's a felony DWI and the defense attorney and the prosecutor are saying judge we'd like uh about a two-month continuance and I'm like oh okay what to be screened for the future DWI Court yes so there are already individuals that have identified that this might be a program for them um and there's a there's a significant need as Miss katri indicated we don't there's no DWI court on the Fargo side and drinking and driving numbers have have essentially stayed the same or increased over the course of time they're not going down um and so there are individuals in our community that really need this court and I think we'll be better served through the DWI Court than trying to figure out a way to get them into the drug court um because it it is different that the alcohol the drinking and driving is different than than the drug court participants just a question well uh driving well and tox ated on marijuana that would stay in a DWI Court correct correct yes they um they we talked a little bit about those those certain participants that um it could be drug related or um alcohol related and they strongly recommended that keeping them in DWI court because the ACT was driving not so much concerned about what the what the symptom the substance was that they used it's the driving that makes it that much more dangerous and so keeping them in DWI programming is kind of for the most part where we go except for your your handful of people that they have a long history of drug related offenses perhaps and they get one DWI that person may not be they may be more um appropriate for drug court but a majority it is going to be DWI Court based well and I understand the focus on felons because there's got to be consequences if you don't comply with what the the the court is trying to get you to do and those consequences are only relevant when you look at felony punishment so but it's more the penalty is more severe correct and there's a I mean and again I I'll let judge liser speak to this but of course we want to start with the felonies but you know that second degree that gross misdemeanor and you're knocking on the door of a felony is also a really good opportunity and I believe is something that the DWI Court does want want to explore on how to incentivize those individuals to get into the court before they get to that felony level um and so starting with the felonies because those are easier to incentivize participation but looking at ways to incentivize that gross misdemeanor will also be something that the court will be looking towards I realize that we should help all these people but I would almost think that after the second offensive already we should be looking at these I mean you say we're waiting until the fourth offense before we go for this drug court thing uh and part of it is um the criminal penalties associated with your second offense some right now an individual who receives a second DWI offense um might be looking at a very short period of time of jail and unsupervised probation and so comparing that with the 18-month high-intensity DWI Court program that's where we have to figure out ways to incentivize there's been some very high-profile DWI cases in Minneapolis where individuals have crashed into bars individuals have died and there is some talk that some of these penalties for repeat offenders is going to increase and if that happens which we have nothing to do with of course that's set by the legislature but if that happens that will give us a little bit more to work with in terms of incentivizing individuals to be a part of this program we agree with you but we also recognize that we have to try to figure out ways to to get people into this program commissioner Campbell yeah thank you I I do know that there's in the drug court and Veterans Court there's an awful lot of work on the part of a lot of people that are that are part of that program and in in doing that uh and you talk judge you're talking about the fourth degree felony felon charges right now as being the targeted group what kind of numbers are we talking about there and and how does that equate to um the ability to staff all of that with the number of people involved with each of those cases sure do you want to yeah we're hoping to be between 25 and 30 is our maximum um just based on the agent primarily the agent availability um I'm always open if that ends up being we are at that High Mark um you know that's happened a couple times in drug court where there's been some discussion um whether or not we would add more onto it we haven't gotten there yet um but if that were to come come to fruition obviously we would bring that up and add more to our plate if that's something that we needed to do so right now you're targeting for that 20 to 25 range correct thank you any other comments or commissioner Mojo thank you Mr chair thank you for providing the evaluation of findings I think as we talk Statewide about how what is the most appropriate level of care for folks in different situations it's really great to see the outcomes uh and I know this board has had well your courts have have a champion with commissioner gross he's attended almost all of the graduations and if you've not had an opportunity to attend any of those graduations it's quite a powerful movement so uh really excited about the securement of that or the securing of that Grant that's a huge uh number as we get this thing off the ground and and I agree I think it's there's some critical components that make it a little trickier in regards to the DWI Court versus the the other courts but um I think the outcomes to that once we get through it will really be um speaking for themselves so thank you for um your initiative really in lifting this and just I want to mention that we the public safety commiss uh committee with AMC during our meeting we had last week the specialty courts were brought up there's going to be some participation from us uh within the Statewide group grouping on this but this is something that is really being supported uh by our counties as well and we're going to make sure that the education on the efficacy of these courts uh comes to our membership ship in the AMC so just one more comment on that you know when you go to those graduations I mean that's almost like going to your grandchild's kindergarten graduation I mean you really get involved in those people in what they have done to correct themselves and I appreciate what you guys are doing thank you very much thank you commissioner if I if I could I would really encourage you this graduation tomorrow is going to be incredibly special this particular individual was in my courtroom room being sentenced on a felony drug offense on a plea agreement that called for him to go to prison and he had done a lot of work while the case was pending to get himself clean and sober he had relapsed after having a period of sobriety and it's a plea agreement my hands are tied he's going to prison the uh defense attorney said you know this is a person that I think should be in drug court and for one reason or another just didn't get there and the defendant read a statement in my courtroom and after he read that statement the prosecutor stopped the proceedings and said I think we should look at this guy for drug court a second time and he was accepted into the program and has had no violations has just performed remarkably well and um I think it's going to be a really special graduation and it really shows how powerful the program really is so I I would encourage you to attend um if if you're if it works for your schedule commiss I unfortunately I I end up having to be out of town every Wednesday when you have this for for another meeting that I I serve on or committee I serve on but I I have had a chance to be at them and they are remarkable the stories that are told are incredible so make krainov yeah just uh again haven't been around this some um just again a big thank you your last story there just um the thank you is thanks for giving people Second Chances and means a lot well and we're very grateful to miss Kadri she has been an excellent um coordinator for our treatment courts and she has really been the one behind the scenes doing all of the work to get the DWI Court up up and running so thank you Mr chair I would move resolution 202 24-36 second the motion motion to Second any further discussion if not all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you for being here and thank you for the job you're doing Mr chair I might really quickly if it speaks to The Testament of the uh the quality of folks that this community is Raising having gone to middle school and high school with two judges who sit uh in Clay County it's quite a remarkable thing as well to see the uh commitment that the young folks in our community grow up to do amazing things and it's just really cool cool so I could tell some stories but I won't stories offline yeah thank you thank you we are going to have a public meeting in seven or six minutes uh we'll take a a brief break until until uh Mr chair yes I see M McKay has got two items after that oh I think that we could maybe maybe address just to keep the that'll work Miss McKay okay good morning Mr chair and Commissioners thanks for allowing me to uh jump in uh my agenda item was to approve um to fill our um position that's been just vacated it's public health strategist um she's resigning from her position so um this is a position that is Grant funded we've had this position for number of years excuse me so my request is that we could fill it it's also budgeted um in our 2025 budget all right any questions or comments move to approve all right have motion a second any further discussion not all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you thank you just stay in compliance we'll take a break for five minutes concession 101 uh I'll enter entertain a motion to go into a public hearing now so move second have motion second all in favor say I I oh same sign motion passes Jason we're going turn it over to you thank you chair um so thank you for uh having this public hearing for us um I just put a couple of slides together to kind of put us all on the same page of what we're asking and where we're headed um before the public hearing gets started um so the idea is to update our tobacco ordinance uh it is currently 12 years old uh there's been quite a few different uh state laws and a national law raising the age to use to 21 that has happened over those 12 years so that is the number one reason why we brought this forward the second is we're always looking to protect kids right we're we're trying to make sure that addiction doesn't happen and so we know that flavored tobacco is one of the big reasons why youth start using nicotine so just to kind of put that in perspective as I go forward um I'll give you a little more information um right now what we have before you are two different choices um just for sake of brevity I called them um ordinance A and B um in ordinance a we would end the sale of all flavored tobacco and uh you can see underneath uh that point that is the line that is added to the ordinance um flavored products no person shall sell or offer for sale any flavored products that is the line verbatim from the ordinance in B the idea would be to um go after the um vaping products nicotine pouches any future tobacco uh products that might come out in a flavored manner from the industry um and so this would include vaping this would also include those uh kid kid-friendly nicotine pouches and uh verbatim from the ordinance would be right there what you see the add-on being um excluding menthol cigarettes and flavored ch chewing tobacco so that would be Choice a versus Choice B just to put flavored tobacco in a picture um we're talking any of this flavored tobacco can be anything from menthol cigarettes flavored chewing tobacco um there are flavored cigars um there's uh also vaping is probably the most commonly known right now um and then Zen products as well are just one of the brands of nicotine pouches which I'll talk about in just a second so what's the deal with flavors um just using Minnesota data 85% of our 11th graders and 78% of our eighth graders currently use flavors if they smoke or vape or use any of these products um and so what we know is that the uh the flavors attract youth the nicotine provides the addiction the chemicals that are actually in the product is what causes the disease and death that happen over time um one of the good pieces of news for Minnesota is that we have dropped our use of overall tobacco products from 20% to 18% um one of the bad pieces of news that go hand inand with that though is the level of addiction is growing very quickly Menthol was the original flavor way back when um it was added specifically to make it easier to start smoking um and it was therefore made it harder to quit um there's lots of studies that have shown that it at least doubles initiation and doubles uh how hard it is to quit smoking or using other tobacco products there's also quite a bit of research and information around the fact that Menthol was used specifically to Target kids women African-Americans the lgbtq plus Community um flavors have been used to Target a lot of people nicotine is um the big concern when we talk about tobacco that is where the addiction lies um I I'm not going to take a whole lot of time to go into the depth of this uh because we have experts sitting behind me that can tell it better um but it does harm brain development when we talk about kids and nicotine it slows down the mental development of kids um we know that the brain doesn't cease development until you're 25 and even then there's a little bit that still goes on but that critical window is in your in in our teens in our in our youth that's when their brain is fully forming who they're going to be so anything that's going to affect that is is something we should try to work to not have on the market uh new research lately is linking nicotine to anxiety and depression when we think about mental health nicotine is something that should be in that conversation because what we have seen is nicotine can raise anxiety levels four times in our kids and it can more than double depression as well um unfortunately when we talk to kids who are choosing to use they think that they're self-medicated they think that this is going to actually help them it primes the brain for future addiction as well um if there is such a thing as a gateway drug nicotine is it so right now when we talk about vaping there's a real reason why we're all incredibly concerned about this when you go back 10 years ago when I started this job we were talking mostly about smoking and vaping just barely came on the market 1 milligram of nicotine is in every cigarette there's 20 cigarettes in a pack and I put put that specifically up there to make to to point out that the level of nicotine has grown astronomically in the last decade we now have on the market elfar and other other Vape products that have more than 590 cigarettes so we're talking almost two cartons some of them have more than two cartons worth of nicotine and chemicals in them so this is incredibly scary stuff that's going on um and it's right here in our County nicotine pouches I promise you a little information um Zen is the most popular brand here um it's often talked about as a tobac less product um it is indeed created in a lab um you can see there at the bottom we extract nicotine from a tobacco leaf sometimes a synthetic brand is made in a lab this comes with a whole host of other chemicals that are in this product um we now have a product that's even easier to use than vaping um because you don't have to spit it unlike chew you don't have to spit this product out right so you don't have to carry a bottle around with you or somehow get rid of the the the spit you can actually swallow it um it's absorbed directly through the membrane in the mouth and it comes in products that have anywhere from 2 to six sometimes 8 milligrams strength um products so these things are are literally just glued up underneath your lip and used um sometimes more than one at a time so they're uh cropping up in our schools at this point in time so that's what I have for you just a reminder that the whole reason we're we're doing this is for our kids um and thank you again for letting us have this public hearing questions or comments for okay uh this is a public hearing and we're going to open this up for public comment couple of parameters here we'll set we try to keep each person to three minutes you don't that doesn't mean you have to go three minutes it means 3 minutes is a maximum uh we need you to sign in if you're going to speak uh you'll address me uh this is not going to be a discussion between uh people who wish to speak or a debate you can come up and give your presentation uh you you'll start with telling us who you are and where you live and uh we will We we'll try and avoid repetitive comments if what you have to say has already been said uh it helps the process if we just move along I want people to feel that they're heard and chance to express themselves but we've got to set some parameters U Mr Mr chair yes commissioner I can too I um this morning Jackie handed some documents to us uh and I'm assuming that they wanted to be included into the record and so if I if it's okay Mr chair if I could just um maybe announce the authors u in terms of who these letters are from so that they can be entered into the public hearing record uh we have a letter from Bill lehy owner of Express and convenience I hope I not butchering the names um and then we have a letter from Jeanie wum she's the president of the association of nonsmokers Minnesota we have a letter from Pam con I I'm hoping I'm pronouncing that right she's a senior director in advoc advocacy advocacy and public policy for the American Lung Association I apologize I have some allergy issues today so um gamada Bolam Outreach coordinator for it's acronym s a y FSM Reverend fiku etia and a document from the tobac free kids action fund dated December December 16th 2024 and a letter from Paul wz who is the state government relations director for the American Heart Association I would offer those letters into the record very good commission letters aren't all in favor of it well I I mean you we all have those to read right yeah no no they're yeah I I'm not I'm not saying one way or another how they stand I'm just I just they took the time to write the letters and so they should be put into the public record Mr chair commissioner um those are also the ones that were given um after the packet was made so in your packets there are additional letters as well so you want to read those but the ones that are in the packet will be will be part of the record already okay yep just want to make sure you need a second is that where we're at or um have to well we can't vote we're inos yeah I'm just I'm just offering into the record so it's thank you I don't know that that needs to have a motion or second okay any any questions for Jason okay members of the public have we got got people signed in or I know Jim Joy is is one of the members Jim if you'd step up to the the podium thank you Commissioners um I'm uh here representing my business in Klay County it's in Holly Minnesota 1014 hbert Street I own a company it's uh held under Anam Holdings doing business as Kirk superstop um I oppose this tobacco ban and what it is it's it's a toolbox in my chest and I sell bait I sell kind I got people coming from North dakot I got people coming down because of our Lakes area and we attract tourist and everything like that and I want to have all tools available to be able to sell to people if I want you know that's a choice as a business owner to choose what I want to sell and what I don't want to sell and you know in 2023 I sold $58,000 in flavored chewing tobacco that is being targeted right now that's a 95% tax on that product that leaves the wholesaler and comes into my store so I oppose this um I know there's a high rise in uh youth using Vapes and ecigarettes and all these things um if I ever get into the industry of selling Vapes or anything like that I go to the manor Manu the major manufacturers that have FDA approval I don't sell the elicits the stuff you can get online and that's something to look at when you're looking at this you know just because we want to uh make a m to help Youth and all this but I have a lot of construction work right now we have we have schools being built in Holly we have a lot of construction that stays in Holly stays in the hotel and those contractors come from many different areas and they can buy their products at our sea stores today and if if that's not available they can either drive to Barnesville that does their own licensing or they can drive over to Lake Park and you're taking businesses from you know small communities that are trying to keep the communities alive and hurting our sales so I just today encourage the commission to look at this and maybe take it back to the drwing board and have some more discussion on this so um again I appreciate my time thank you thank you Mr chair yes can I get clarification um on what is the current legal age to purchase um these products in Clay County it would be uh 21 I believe yes is that is that what it currently is 21 okay okay anyone else to wants to address have you signed in ma'am all right state your name and place residence I'm Becky Anderson um I live in Fargo North Dakota I'm a retired registered respiratory therapist with 42 years of experience caring for and building nationally recognized Health Care programs for the people of our region including Clay County as a respiratory therapist I was on the front lines of the tobacco epidemic my entire career my early professional years were marked by caring for people with chronic diseases caused by tobacco use those at the end of their lives spent a considerable amount of time hospitalized as an impressionable young therapist I remember their names I remember their faces and I remember their stories I remember the physical Devastation and emotional burden which are the result of nicotine addiction I sat beside the bed of thousands of patients trying to bring some small measure of comfort and light at a time when many of them were at the end of their lives dying way too young in their 50s and 60s and 70s as they shared their stories with me it always struck me as tragic that nicotine addiction is an epidemic mic which starts in childhood many of them under the age of 10 90% before the age of 18 90% of tobacco users this is getting in the hands of our children this is disturbing on many levels Jason talked about the brain development this forever nicotine forever changes brain circuitry making it easier for addiction not just to nicotine but to all addictive drugs and it's more difficult to quit later in life the tobacco industry targets our children for addiction ordinances restricting flavored tobacco are important because the T Taste of tobacco without flavoring is so unpalatable it would cause children to never start and encourage current tobacco users to quit saving Untold lives a top priority for all of us should be to stand for initiatives which significantly improve the health and wellness of our citizens for these reasons I ask that you pass the strongest ordinance possible by removing all flavored tobacco sales thank you thank you ma'am any anyone else wish to speak have you signed in ma'am if you tell us who you are and where you live and I also have a letter from um the from Dr Griffin from Sanford DED as well so my name is Elizabeth alzando I've worked for Sanford for 30 years as a tobacco treatment specialist I see patients with who use all forms of tobacco I am from Fargo the other side of the river but a lot of the patients I see are from this side of from the Minnesota as well in Clay County area do hear about kids do you speak closer to the microphone sorry I see kids who as early as early grade school have used tried Vapes and that is very significant that these young children are starting the Vapes because it truly does alter brain development increase nicotine addiction risks like Becky and Jason had mentioned the majority of teens and pre-teens that I see who Vape I see in the hospital they're treated as because they're vaping it's irritating their lungs and they're treating them as asmatics I see many patients in their late teens and early 20s who wish they never started vaping some tried smoking first but didn't like the taste or the smell others were just tempted by the enticing flavors of the flavored Vapes and flavored pouches pretin in their words are just sucking on the good flavors all day long all the time by the time they're young adults many cannot say how much they are vaping at times they're vaping the equivalent of the nicotine that would be in three to six packs per day of cigarettes that's much more than most people you see smoking cigarettes um they're and they're unaware of the hazards of this some are ready to quit but they feel they can't because they just don't know how to live without that nicotine others don't see the problems with the Nic with the vaping please help to do to protect the health of his children in our area and help reduce the appeal and access of these harmful chemicals and flavored nicotine products thank you thank you and then this letter dear commissioners as a med chief medical officer at Sanford Medical Center I strongly support your efforts to restrict the sale of flavored tobacco products in Morehead Clay County I often see the impact of tobacco related illnesses have on our patients annually smoking related illnesses CA United States cost more than 300 billion with nearly 170 billion of these costs being attributed to the direct medical care for adults and 5.6 billion in Lost productivity due the secondhand smoke exposure to the fda's 2020 National Youth survey 3.6 million American youths are currently using EG cigarettes with eight out of 10 these youths using the flavored ecigarettes it is clear that that flavoring especially those using ecigarettes is highly appealing to young people which are used as a gateway to a lifetime of tobacco use and increased health care costs just like their non-flavored counterparts flavored and Menthol tobacco products are dangerous and deadly just like every other tobacco product these products cause cancer heart and lung diseases and death by adopting this ordinance Clay County will be at the Forefront of preventing another generation from becoming a lifelong tobacco users as a healthc care professional I strongly support Klay County's efforts to protect the health of the community sincerely Dr Douglas Griffin MD thank you thank you have you signed in ma'am yep okay my name is Katie om man I'm from Delworth Minnesota I am the assistant principal at dgf middle school and high school serving grades 5 through 12 we search students every single week week for Vaping devices fifth graders and seniors we find these vaping devices that contain nicotine as well as cannabis oil but all every single one of them are flavored Vapes are difficult for us in the school to manage as not only are they easy to hide but also very diff difficult to detect we receive reports of students vaping in the bathrooms daily but also in our classrooms in the hallways on the bus anywhere we have increased supervision where we can but it's impossible to find it at all times when students go into the bathrooms blow fumes into their sweatshirts we are out of luck for students who Vape it typically starts out as a stud a student trying it to fit in by trying a flavored tobacco Unfortunately they enjoy the flavor and so try again and again and again which easily turns into an addiction unlike other mood altering chemicals students enjoy the taste of the flavors such as fruit punch candy and dessert and they get a thrill off of finding new ones trying them and passing them around to their friends at school it doesn't matter how much we preach it at school teens just don't realize the health effects addictions that come later in life or before it's too late many of the students we find vaping are repeat offenders and visiting more in depth with them they are addicted while there are some online classes for them to take that is not a priority of theirs as a teenager like I stated it's difficult for them to realize these harmful effects of a vape when it tastes like they are eating candy as a school district we find it hard to believe that a student can be 19 years old in college and get a minor in consumption that requires them to pay a fine have community service and attend a class but students who are vaping flavored cannabis or Tobacco on school property under the age of 18 and as low as fifth grade get restorative justice for the first offense and a small Citation for the second offense school districts are fighting a losing battle with vaping devices and teen addiction to vaping devices is an epidemic and we need to make vaping less desirable to our youth by not having flavored products around and to remember the impacts of all of this on their mental health by restricting flavored tobacco sales in Clay County we will take an essential step towards reducing youth tobacco and THC use promoting public health and preventing lifelong addiction and disease thank you okay have you signed in yes okay go go ahead good morning my name is Olivia I and I'm a sophomore at Dorth glinton Felton high school I'm from Dorth Minnesota I'm also a member of Dorth glinton Felton's Rise club which was which stands for responsible individuals striving for excellence Rise club works against youth substance abuse by recognizing positive Community Norms it is super important to me as well as the rest of Rise club that we make the sale of flavored tobacco products illegal in Clay County this is the first step in the right direction of ending youth substance abuse every day when I walk into school I see posters saying 92% of dgs students choose not to vape or drink in a typical month while 92% is amazing and a lot of progress from where a district used to be I can't help but think about the 8% of students who choose to use substances passing this ordinance would help students who use substances reach out and get help because having access to flavor tobacco products would become more difficult this would make them realize they have a problem and make them more interested in getting help the first step in getting better is admitting that you have a problem when we use the bathroom at school we'll occasionally see busted up Vapes or cartridges in the toilets but still many people have never seen the effects of vaping firsthand especially on our youth population but I can speaking from personal experience I've been in the car with people who are vaping and I've been offered to vape before I've I've seen teenagers not be able to put their Vape down and take it wherever they take it with them wherever they go when I declin the offer of using a vape the person looked offended we need to pass this especially for the Youth in our community because this is not okay thank you thank you you sign in ma'am all right good morning um my name is Megan carlstad I'm a registered nurse and operations manager with Essentia Health with the pulmonary medicine Department I wish I had never started smoking that's the comment I hear the most from our pulmonary medicine patients uh but before I tell you about them I want to share a few statistics that you may be familiar with from before so I'll skip most of them uh but in Clay County one in seven deaths are tobacco related two two and three cigarettes sold are flavored tobacco and a little bit about fiscal responsibility smoking costs 33.3 million in excess medical dollars for the county um as was mentioned there is hope uh smoking rates have gone down uh however ecigarettes have actually increased uh but let's ask ourselves why does this really matter um it's lives um and our children's in the community's lives so I'm going to touch on what happens once that addiction takes place and happens and what happens long term um empyema which is one of those first pictures if any we're not too squeamish and we can look at those uh empyema is a common disease of smoking which includes constant short of breath air hunger coughing that doesn't go away wheezing chest tightness swollen legs ankles a swelling legs ankles and feet frequent infections and that can't be cured and gets worse over time um but the one I really want to talk about is of course lung cancer uh so when we get addicted at a young age uh an addiction is especially with tobacco is insanely hard to quit um long cancer is the one we of course think about and in our community of C clay less than 7% of our community gets screened for lung cancer um looking around the room I'm actually wondering how many of us get our lung cancer screenings or who even knows what the criteria is for a lung cancer screening um but lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death uh and why it's because it's caught too late even in screening some of us might be surprised to know that if a 1A or a super tiny nodule is detected uh depending where you go for your healthare and even in our community sometimes you get brought back to the doctor's office and are told it is too small for us to reach depending on where it is come back in 3 months so during those three months you know you have lung cancer in you and you get to know you sit and wait for it to grow um so what happens then in three months we put you under sedation we use a big fancy robot as you see in the pictures and you come back for a biopsy after that we put you under sedation again for die marking for a surgery after that we put you under sedation again for a procedure with our cardiovascular surgeon um then you get to have part of your lung removed um hopefully goes without complications unlike a patient to fars Ruth who was in her mid-60s for a routine surgery ended out bleeding uh unexpectedly and passed away um then you get to go see oncology for chemotherapy radiation and everything that goes along with that as we all know uh that process just from diagnosis to having part of that rection done takes months so after all that the 5year average survival rate for lung cancer in the United States is 26.6% 26.6% early stage is 63% and late stage is 8% so what can we do here today we can help save lives in our community of our friends of our neighbors and of our children we can make the difference so that they won't ever say I wish I had never started smoking thank you thank you next speaker have you signed in sir I have all right my name is Mike Martin uh retired principal from Holly um been out for five and a half years and um when I uh first encountered vaping uh when it came out you know we were talking about devices the size of a cell phone not what principal 's dealing with anymore and I'll get to that in a second and I knew it was going to be a difficult issue but the one thing I didn't understand coming in is how delarius the effects were going to be on on kids and their lungs and addiction and that that's soon manifested itself as we I you know I would challenge a kid on why they had a vape in school and that and they just said they were addicted and it and it happened very quickly I called several schools to give you current information this morning not based on what I recall and there's a couple real Comm common themes number one addiction addiction addiction to almost to the student when principes would call a student and they'd say I it's so hard to quit okay didn't I didn't I didn't anticipate that but that's a common theme now the second thing to the person it started with flavored product um you talk about Starburst fruit rollups that's going to catch a child um one principal said you know cigarettes are basically off the table for him but he said once the flavored Vapes came into place he said it's been exponential growth for them to deal with and he brought up a really good point he said when you look at the advertising it talks about like this Pro this product is discreet why does it need to be discreet all but two of us in this room can legally vape we don't need a discret product one that looks like a car car fob one that is this big they're marketing students precisely with that type of thing um I had a principal whose nine-year-old son came into the office and was digging where he wasn't supposed to dig and he goes oh my gosh what is this it smells so good well it was a vape cartridge you know the nine-year-old and to Circle back to just not going to repeat uh what Jason said but I'm a trauma-informed uh instructor and we talk a lot about the prefrontal cortex it's that mechanism our brain that enables us to make good decisions to stop I call it the breaking mechanism and that doesn't in young ladies about age 22 and young man about age 24 it's pretty near the end of its development but we with these products we are impeding the development of that extremely important brain function and you know just on that alone uh I'm very much in favor of of doing whatever we can to restrict the use by our young people um as Commissioners all of us in this room are looking at this at the surface level you're up at a th000 ft I understand it's a difficult it's a it's very complex issue for you I appreciate your service to the county and being willing to represent us thank you thank you any other speakers if not I believe we've got a couple people online yep oh okay have you signed in sir I have yes okay uh my name is sha Mor I'm with the city of Holly um I thank everybody here for the Clay County Commissioners to be considering the direct impact of this proposed ordinance Banning flavor tobacco uh this measure will have significant can effect on the city of Holly and its businesses um if enacted individuals seeking flavored tobacco products May begin taking their businesses near by locations such as Lake Park where they're going to be able to purchase their bait their fuel and other items as a result of this tax simplifications will extend beyond just flavored tobacco this issue affects Holly as well as other cities that do not collect their tobacco licensing fees uh this is not affecting places such as uh Morehead Dilworth and Barnesville from what I understood um this loss of business in smaller communities would be significant as people will have few fewer reasons to stop and spend their money locally when they can easily drive just a little bit further and pick up what they need there this could also result in more money being spent outside of Clay County and my concern with this is how this might impact the County's Bond obligations of buildings that rely specifically on sales tax revenue I would ask the Commissioners if if they are concerned with the effect on how affects children right now and what kids are currently using like what was stated earlier um most of this stuff is being used through Vapes and uh ecigarettes currently marijuana use with ecigarettes uh for per the Minnesota Department of Health uh website that I looked up at last night um ecigarettes is currently being used with marijuana at 14.5% with students um this is a slight decrease from 3 years prior at 18.2 with uh ecigarettes alone 14% of uh students have stated that they they have used it in the last 30 days and again this is a slight decline from about 19.3% but with specifically with cigarettes and with chewing tobacco both of those numbers are a lot lower significantly lower cig cigarette use currently with high school students is 4.5% which is basically unchanged from 2020 and again with chewing tobacco it's 2% of the population and again it's basically statistically um has not changed since 2020 tobacco use such as cigarettes and chewing tobacco has been declining overall in the past four years but again like what was stated earlier um and let me rephrase that chewing tobacco and cigarettes uh with tobacco use has been declining overall over the past four years both among students and with adults per the Minnesota state department uh website uh what of indiv idual are using more of and what you guys heard here earlier are the Vapes and ecigarettes this ordinance though is targeting all flavor tobacco which would include everything from cigarettes down to the Vapes last night uh while reviewing some of the things online the Fargo I read a Fargo form article that proposed that this proposed ordinance aims to align clay County's tobacco regulations with state and federal law and if I'm not mistaken please correct me if I'm wrong uh but businesses are already in compliance with state and federal laws since they're not selling flavored cigarettes which the the federal law is stating currently this ordinance would specifically affect flavored cigarettes chewing tobacco cigars and Vapes there's an ongoing discussion right now with the city of Holly about restoring local control over tobacco compliance and how this ordinance directly impacts Holly I have concerns about how this ordinance will be implemented and the potential effects it may have with our local business business is we are like Mr Joy stated the concerns I think here and what everybody else has stated is with Vapes but the way the ordinance is written right now it currently covers all flavored tobacco uh I'm open to engaging with other Mayors and communities to discuss the impact that this could have on their businesses with bordering uh communities from other places thank you good morning Ezra bear Goose prair Township I wasn't going to speak on this matter today but I figured I would with flavored tobacco and ecigarettes I believe everybody in this room could agree they are bad for our kids but you have to be 21 to purchase them just remember that that's all I have to say thank you is have you signed in oh okay all right sir good morning my name is Kon and I am the executive director of newth mwest immigrant own organization also I am the district lien in moad public schools uh moad we sered I personally as a district Le agent Ser more than 500 students uh mostly uh new Americans and I mostly get involved when they in trouble I am sure there is a lot of enough being said but one thing I want to add is uh when it comes about tobacco used it's a major problem for us and for the family that we served there's a research shows that every four black kids two of them not graduating at Mo high school and do we do our own research most of them those who involve tobacco use doing the bathrooms we have more than a dozen students who are in in home today that we are talking 16 years old 17 years old most of them drove up some of them end up in streets jails and we have been talking this problem for a long time I have a families who are mental health because of tobacco used being involved with their teens I have families who end up divorces and I don't even understand why we have this debate about this so I don't have a lot to say but I would say the people that we sered tobacco used is a problem thank you thank you okay let's uh let's get the people the remote uh I cannot read the names from this distance yes please Jasmine is it Jasmine Jasmine yes okay if you would uh again you can address us right now we've got you on remote thank you good morning chair and County Commissioners my name is Jasmine and ciso I'm testifying on behalf of the National Association of to Outlets also known as NATO and the retailers and gunan stores operators across Clay County I'm speaking in opposition of the proposed ordinance to um ban F tobacco products we all share the common goal of protecting children from accessing tobacco products and licensed retailers in Clay County have demonstrated their commitment to this by complying with strict age verification laws however this ordinance goes too far by restricting the choice of law abiding adults while imposing unnecessary burdens on small family-owned businesses a full flavor band disportionately impacts small retailers who depends on flavored tobacco products or significant portion of the revenue these bands could lead to job losses store closures and a decrease in local tax revenue harming the very communities we aim to protect additionally Banning flavored tobacco products may push P consumers to unregulated markets where products lack safety and quality control this will undermine Public Health effect efforts and create unintended consequences such as increase in Black Market activity while protecting youth is vital we must also uh respect the freedom of adults to choose legal products adults should not be penalized for the actions of small minority who bypass existing laws evidence shows that education campaigns and Community focused prevention programs are far more effective and addressing underage use than outright banss rather than implementing a ban um that penalizes both responsible retailers and adults we urge the board to consider collaborative solutions that achieve public health goals without negativity impacting the community for example enhancing compliance efforts through Partnerships with retailers launching targeted education campaigns to prevent underage tobacco use expanding Community programs that focus on Tobacco prevention we encourage the board to reject the ordinance and focus on balance effective strategies that support both public health and local economic stability thank you for your time and consideration thank you uh the next is it Pat or Pam pat pat good morning uh it is Pat mcone thank you so much Commissioners and thank you for this opportunity my name is Pat mcone I'm the senior director for public policy and advocacy for the American Lung Association our offices are based in St Paul I've worked for the Lung Association for 45 years I was known once as Smoky Sam's mom and worked on prevention a long time I can tell you I have never been as concerned about this nicotine and tobacco epidemic as I am now and I find it ironic that um the two times I've dealt with the tobacco industry as interested in policy work have been when we did smoke free air and some of the same claims from business owners will go out of business people won't come they'll go other places and with flavor restrictions I also commend you as Commissioners as the job for City people in county is first and foremost health and safety I think it's ironic that when we talk about a product that used as directed kills over half of its customer customers we get concerned about the economics the real economics here are the cost to motans for healthare related to smoking which amount to $4.7 billion annually or were restricted from marketing from producing flavored cigarettes at that time a compromise was made and I know a compromise is on the table in Clay County the compromise in 2009 was the only flavor to be allowed was Menthol it's time for that compromise on people's Health to end and as we know Minnesota's model is local control and locals do the heavy lift of policy change before the state does it we've been advocating this at the federal level for for many years I want to talk about the unintended consequences of option b it has the potential of driving even more young people back to the use of combustible products and or smokeless products I know that the language currently says chewing tobacco is exempt there's no definition of chewing tobacco and you've already heard earlier about Zen pouches if I chew on that pouch a little bit and place it in my mouth is that chewing tobacco or is that a pouch I would call it chewing tobacco if I were addicted and wanted to keep use of my product I'd say that smokeless tobacco products are second only to Vapes in the percent of students using flavored products second only to Vapes is smokeless tobacco we've already had a huge in uptake of Zin I can't you know they they ran out of the product produ they actually Philip Morris that owns the company big tobacco had to build an is in the process of building a new plant in Colorado it's made from nicotine salt it's highly addictive I mean when we talk about addiction when I was a child when I was in high school when I we had to sneak behind the alley to get a Pana cigarette I think the schools have done a good um job of telling you the epidemic what they have are facing I think schools have done their job I really urge you to as County Commissioners as representing the health of the county to do the right thing and vote for a comprehensive health healthy ordinance and avoid the pitfalls of uh exemptions thank you again and appreciate your time Mr chair thank you ma'am commission moo thank you Miss mcone when your reference SE a um you referenced there's a compromise on the table what what were you uh referencing I'm referencing in the handouts there is an option a and an option b draft of the ordinance thank you do we have any other people wish to address this issue Jackie is there any anyone else online we don't no and I asked uh um Sarah as well and and she said nobody has contacted her either so okay it again last last call here anybody wish to address this issue that hasn't had chance to speak okay I'll entertain a motion and move at a public hearing second have motion a second any further discussion if not all in favor moving out of the public hearing say I I I post same sign okay we're back in session I would to entertain a motion Mr chair I or discussion on yeah I think there needs to be some discussion here okay thank you um I I I really respect everybody who spoke today and your passion towards your views on this um is very important I I have some concerns regarding Clay County doing this alone I do I have you know back when we I was on this board in 2012 when we did the ordinance that that dealt with um uh removing the smoking from uh bars and restaurants and those types of things am I glad that was done absolutely but you know what Klay County didn't do it alone we had we had support from across the river we ended up having support from the entire state in doing that I have a real concern when we're going to pass an ordinance that still allows anybody to go over any one of our bridges 600 ft make a left turn and go 600 ft and be able to buy whatever we're wanting to deal with here in terms of of of uh impacting you know or regulating um does Norman County have this ordinance does Becker County have this ordinance does otter till County have this ordinance does Cass County have this ordinance and again I you know I'm speaking from theate stand point of and Ezra you came up here and you mentioned and it was one of the things that I asked about very early on in this what is the age to buy this so all these kids that we're talking about it's illegal for them to have it how are they getting it are we are are we talking about that at all is it still going to be convenient for whatever Source they have to go 600 feet over into Fargo and buy it and get it to them I don't know that this Clay County and what we're what the proposal here alone to do is going to stop or prevent those kids from getting this product I I heard no testimony here on how they're getting it none I didn't hear any testimony about how they're getting it and that's that's an important factor that we have to understand here where are they getting it are their parents buying it for them I hope not but I you know so I I have I have some concerns from that standpoint in regards to this because I I obviously um there's an issue with the flavored vaping that I think really does need to have some some discussion whether or not know I'm whether or not I'm prepared to do an all encompassing I I I'd have to vote no right now on it in all honesty that's my my thoughts on it I uh I have real concerns with the Vape and with the Zen I think that's what what is attractive to kids I've talked to people that work in the schools and they're saying they don't see cig cigarettes they don't see the smokable issue the issue is vaping and you know I I don't know I I just don't feel comfortable with saying well they'll get it anyway you know their big brother will get it for them or somebody will make a run over to Fargo uh limiting the convenience of getting these products uh for vaping and the pouches limiting the convenience of those products for uh which are the ones that are impacting on our kids uh I think we we I feel obligated to do that uh we are coming into where we're legalizing cannabis and you're going to see the ability to vape cannabis products I will bet you my next three paychecks on that and once that happens it makes it that much easier for kids to smoke or to to ingest cannabis products in the school so I I you know is this going to be a cure all absolutely not is it going to limit access yes once you get into guys that are older than me that want their schools or people that are smoking menthol cigarettes they're over 21 as long and the business people we're hearing from I think we have compliance I don't think they're interested in selling the kids I think they're interested in maintaining a business business that honestly uh people it determines whether people are going to stop in their businesses on the way to the lake people that live in the community and work on the farms are going to want to have access without driving to Fargo or or D or um Detroit Lakes um again we're not going to come up with a perfect solution I smoked for 15 years and I am really glad I don't smoke anymore I'm glad I quit when my first kid was born but uh when I don't like controlling the behavior of adults not in this but the The Vaping products I think are designed for kids and that's where the problem Lies when you hear people in the schools talk anyone else commissioner crabing off yeah thank you um I uh e now commissioner e said um it yeah um anything that will protect our children from leading them down a bad path and we have the opportunity to help this as I listen to the schools um uh that that talked of of the uses and that down to fifth grade I standed here in those things that as it is right now makes me shake to shake inside and um I don't know I I've had two good friends di lung cancer this year uh I've had people with pulmonary disorders that maybe quit 10 years ago and now they're at my age and they're getting toward the end of their life and it shortens it and was that by their free choice yes but at the same time if we know that by bringing the age from 18 to 21 which maybe was controversial at the time has reduced smoking in its own effect I don't know why doing something like this to take away especially the VAP and the pouches so I'm leaning I will tell you leaning toward the option b but if that helps Dar it I feel we just need to do it it's the right thing to be doing um personally I will just say uh um I've had cancer I've had radiation around my throat and I as I AG um it's becoming difficult it's becoming difficult to talk to eat and when I think of even shoes or just the um Mana the the destruction that does Smoke by intake in the esophagus and other areas I don't wish this on anybody so i' be U I'm open to moving toward B um um um my heart says go with a but you know in consideration something toward business I guess uh I can see the other but um the the increase of Vape just um and and to marijuana when that comes out and vaping comes out um uh and you see uh I just hope some way our laws keep and ordinance keep pushing back and all this but the issue of the hand is at tobacco so that's my voice Mr mooso thank you Mr chair thank you to the folks that showed up today it's always great to have uh varied voices around the tables all of us sit around a lot of different tables and have lots of discussion throughout um everyday uh life and so I appreciate hearing your stories uh one word that was turned or brought up was ironic I will say find it uh really ironic that we have more folks in in the room uh to discuss this issue than we did in regards to legalizing marijuana as a mom that terrifies me uh I will say we also um I've not heard as many voices around this table or around other tables in Fargo or Cass County around this issue either and that's I struggle with that a lot of the letters and testimony that we got were from residents of North Dakota and so I would encourage you to also have vibrant discussion with those leaders uh that can um change those laws as well we had a meeting this morning about uh chamber policy and legislative priorities and and certainly we sit around a lot of tables that are that talk about public health and and how we keep the members of our community the most safe but another piece is how do we deal with the discrepancy in policy with North Dakota and Minnesota and how does that affect business owners how does that affect residences how does that affect the cost that schools have and implementing so many different rules and regulations and it's challenging um it's really challenging and I think I agree with well I don't think I know I agree with commissioner Campbell in that the community does so much together in regards to flood protection in regards to Metro Cog and planning and Roads and implementation and this really has to to be a holistic uh Community uh initiative that doesn't just look at one County versus another uh I do really struggle with that and I have an 18-year-old that lives in wton North Dakota and I also have a 15-year-old that goes to Mor high and I will agree that it is evident that you can walk in the schools and use the restroom and see the puffs of smoke and kids are hiding it in their sweatshirts and so I'll completely agree with that uh that The Vape is a problem I also will not regulate a construction worker that is stopping in Holly to fill up uh diesel in his truck and get food for the day and also getting um if he chooses as a TW over 21-year-old adult to buy tobacco products because I will tell you if he doesn't get it in Holly he will get it in Lake Park he will get it in Becker County and those are tax revenues that they're also getting part of what this board does is look at a lot of different issues and you'll see later on on our agenda we have a huge budget that we'll need to approve and one snippet of that has to do with uh kiddos uh 8 to 21 who need psychiatric residential care and I'm not saying that those kiddos come from families that don't have addictive Pro problems that is true but if we're asking the state for $28 million to help house those kids in Clay County those revenues have to come from somewhere and so it's also really difficult for us to sit around those tables and say allocate $28 million for Clay County to to build a residential treatment center while we're also doing things that are reducing the sales tax capacity and revenues that come out of our County as well those are really difficult challenges as a mother those are really CH difficult challenges as grandparents and folks around this table as well we have to equally balance that out but what we also do is support our staff that are in these positions and I'm looking at Social Services and public health leaders in this room and I think that you have a board that's really willing to work to address areas in regards to compliance Enforcement Education and we've all we've never voted down initiatives that help to educate but what is challenging right now is when we have a an ordinance proposal that is void of substantial dialogue from stakeholders and decision makers it's really hard to have a one hour public hearing and vote on something without looking exactly how that needs to read I am very close uh with uh members of of different school districts and I have had a long conversation with uh Dr lunic from Morehead uh also do U uh superintendent hunstead this morning and over 99% of what they're seizing in those two districts alone are vape and I think there might be a compromise here if we are are talking about kids and and what the trends we seeing are if if that's something we do but it's not going to detour a kid from from getting it in North Dakota it is it's not I mean it's it's just if it's so readily available this has to be a CommunityWide approach commissioner Camp Mr chair and thank you and going to a little bit of um what commissioner Mojo said you know we as a as a board we deal with an awful lot of issues and an a lot of controversial issues and an awful lot of community concern issues and I think to homelessness as one and and the and if if just one entity tries to solve homelessness on your own does it just push it to somewhere else and it this this you know it can it can go from being trying to do too much to to doing too little by yourself the whole the whole point that I'm making here is that this this issue is so big that and every one of you raised a really good case for your concern don't get me wrong every one of you made a really good case but you know who we should be making that too the state legislature because if if Klay county is going to be the only one to to to do this how many counties in in the state of Minnesota right now have this ordinance that's being proposed for us the point being is that you know uh The Vaping and the youth issues and I I firmly believe that that we should be um Mr chair and members of the board uh over the past couple years on on on difficult issues like this we've established work groups where we've had the ability to sit down and dive deep into this as commissioner mju said today we've heard one hour of testimony from people who really have concerns on both sides um but what we haven't done is we haven't we heard we heard from members from the city of Holly I haven't heard from many members of Morehead I haven't heard from uh members from Barnesville and some of the other entities and I think we need to look at what the total impact of this ordinance is going to be for everybody by doing this and I I firmly believe that that unless we can expand this to not just be Clay County we're kidding ourselves if we think that these kids aren't going to still get this product okay uh just a point on this city of Morhead already banss all flavored tobacco and bait they've had that ordinance for over a year here this hearkens something I was involved in gee 17 years ago we had a an endemic use of synthetic drugs in this community there was no state or federal legislation on the use we had head shops that were selling these things they were selling when when they had to shift the formula for the synthetic drug they called it bass saltz or plant fertilizer they gave it all kinds of different names but everybody knew it was there for ingestion it made you sick it made you hostile it made you dangerous and they tweaked the formula as the state tried to regulate it uh when they when in the downtime where they had to get new product in they sustained themselves by selling drug paraphernalia things were legal here some of which were felonies in North Dakota possession of the synthetic drug was was a felony in North Dakota I had the parent of a kid with autism who was on Pro on probation over in Fargo called me and ask me what are you going to do about this Chief when I told him it was legal and I thought it if we can't control anything else we got to push with our federal and state legislators for regulation and we got an outlaw on a loc coordinance drug paraphernalia I have no idea how much health I was going to be in for but we did it it took six months to get it through the Morhead city council but we stopped the sale of the drug paraphernalia Senator clober stepped up and worked with us to get Federal legislation on it that mirrored the state uh legislation that came along and we made the first arrest on a group The wwas Gang That was selling this stuff Morehead was first Department to make an arrest on the new law I say this not to give a war story but to say you do what you can do and this we can rule on what goes on in Clay County outside of the bigger cities on this ordinance and maybe Fargo set the tone North Dakota set the tone for the legislation that we passed on a local level and Morehead because the standard was different across a river and we were selling something that would get a kid tossed in jail on a felony charge and we woke up to it maybe we can wake them up in North Dakota I don't know but I think this compromise is a good ordinance and I'm I'm going to support it uh commissioner gross well I personally feel we've got to start somewhere you know to say well no one else has done it well let's do it you know and it's just we've got to somewh convince our dealers you say we're going to affect our dealers they can't they're going to lose money why are we allowing our dealers to sell stuff to our people that makes them sick that I don't understand you why why can't they sell stuff that's going to hurt our our children and just that's what's got to be stopped you know and I realize that's that's even tougher yet you know but somewhere along the line you got to start something whether it's this here probably won't do very much but we've got to start and with that I'll make a motion to endorse the restrict the sale of flavor tobacco is that a or b b I think it is just to clude so uh in second that would be so we would oh this Lang oh you got a different page T it motion this will include vaping yes and and grandfather in the Menthol chewing tobacco and in cigarett I guess your page is different than mine but yeah it has to be his motion whatever his motion is MHM okay that would be my motion yesb and I'll second that further discussion commission moo I know we had asked earlier to have the sales tax revenue forecast or estimates based on after Morhead did their ordinance to now and what we saw the differences were we able to gather that information we were not Madam chair Commissioners okay and I guess my only other comment is Morehead and Dorth enacted these same ordinances and the usage in Morehead among School members is higher than ever so how do we think this is going to be an effective ordinance without a substantial effort in other areas well we know I think doing nothing won't help further discussion if not we have a motion on the floor all in favor of the motion say MRG ask for a roll call vote okay commissioner Mojo no commissioner Campbell no commissioner evinger yes commissioner gross yes commissioner kravinoff yes all right the motion passes I want to thank everybody that came out here including the folks online uh to share your views with us um that's what we're here for is to hear what our citizens want what their concerns are and I think everybody up here on this DS is doing what they believe is the right thing to try and address it and I appreciate what our staff has done and working on this Jason you've been a a real strong Advocate and a responsible one um Rory you too Kathy you too and I appreciate the efforts move on to the next item uh request M State travel I believe okay I Believe Miss Savage Jo is online okay okay Kim we're on your item good morning Commissioners good morning good morning I am here today to request aate travel to attend the National priia Conference in Texas in March of 2025 priia is the property records industry Association it was created for all participants in the real estate industry to come together to discuss issues and develop best practices um I've been a PR member for almost 10 years and I've attended this National Conference virtually and um feel that it is worthwhile to attend in person um it will give me um time to meet with professionals from other parts of the country and a broader part of the private sector um the cost of the trip will all be paid out of my technology fund for the record's office so there will be no impact on my 2025 budget I'll make a motion any question make a motion to approve hey we have motion a second any further discussion not all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you Kimberly thank you thank you for your support okay next up we have Quinn Jagger with uh Proclamation December 2024 as Health and Human Services worker month good morning Mr chair Commissioners thank you for having me today um I'm here to request a motion to Proclaim December uh Health and Human Services worker month uh our staff over at Social Services play a crucial role in supporting the well-being of individuals within Clay County uh they work tirelessly to provide essential Services often under challenging circumstances ensuring Access to Health Care social services and other support systems uh many people are unaware of the diverse roles and responsibilities that Health and Human Service workers take on from crises to supporting vulnerable populations this Proclamation serves as an opportunity to educate the public about their contributions and critical nature of their work uh by celebrating the profession publicly uh th those actions can Inspire others to Pur pursue careers in this field uh I believe with some of my most recent openings that I've had in the child protection unit this is one thing that can help uh raise awareness um is getting a public message out there uh this Proclamation highlights the meaning meaningful and rewarding nature of the work hopefully attracts new talent to meet growing Community needs recognizing the contributions of our staff helps validate the value of their hard work and dedication to improving the quality of life for others I have attached a uh Proclamation for your convenience and I would ask um to Proclaim December as Health and Human Services worker month anything for Quinn yes commissioner gross um I personally agree with with this Proclamation you know and it isn't very important thing but since December has been claimed that's the the month forward why didn't we do this in November sometime uh that would be my fault I'm a little late on that okay I would ask the commission to uh if we're if we're going to do this let's read it we're all comfortable with that I'll make a motion to do it okay do we have a second I'll second the motion and then I'll start reading it well where we can vote on it and then we'll read it perfect okay all in favor of the motion say I I I poose same sign motion passes take it away commissioner Mojo thank you the proclamation is Health and Human Services worker month 2024 our Klay County Proclamation whereas the dedicated employees of Clay County Social Services work tirelessly to improve the lives of individuals and families in our community through their commit commitment to health safety and well-being and whereas Klay County Social Service Services Workers must meet the highest standards of professionalism and in Integrity in performing their duties and whereas the responsibilities carried out by Klay County social workers social services staff require exceptional skills compassion and adaptability to serve clients and address the diverse needs of our community and whereas the state the federal state and County initiatives depend on the expertise and dedication of Clay County Social Services Workers who continuously enhance their knowledge skills and comp competency to meet the involvement challenges of their work and whereas Clay County recognizes and deeply values the meaningful contributions of its Social Service staff in in ensuring the health safety and stability of our residents and whereas the efforts of Klay County Social Services Workers are critical to building a stronger healthier and more Equitable Community for all now therefore be it resolved that the Clay County Board of Commissioners to hereby Proclaim December 2024 as Health and Human Services service worker month adopted this 17th day of December thank you very much thank you Quinn thank you Quinn all right Justin shm our County engineer yes good morning so the first item I have is requesting approval to advertise for sap1 14634 32 and this is the mill and overlay project on Casa 34 from trunk Highway 9 all the way to Casa 11 and I would propose a letting date of January 28 move to approve second any further discussion all in favor the motion say I I oose same sign all right next item uh yes so the next item I have is requesting approval of resolution cargo Morehead area Metropolitan Transportation plan Metro 2050 Transportation moving ahead Michael MX from metrocog is also here um this is something we've been working on for quite a while and the resolution is just something that's required as being part of the TMA yes did I miss anything on no thank you very much again my name is Michael Maddox senior Transportation planner with metrocog um this is uh something that we required to update every five years uh it's kind of our core document like a comprehensive plan is for a city or a county um it contains a federal transportation policy um and how that interacts uh with the local uh environment here in the Fargo Morehead region uh as well as um a long range uh look at how our transportation system will look maybe 20 or 25 years in the future um and contains projects that will meet those needs uh in the future so with that uh if there are any questions um I'm open any questions no question make a motion to approve all right I'll second the motion to approve resolution 202 24-37 any further discussion just to discuss thank you uh I serve as Vice chair and now chair I guess of Metro Cog and uh this really has been a work in progress so I appreciate having Clay County engineering staff as part of the dialogue around those tables and um I think it's a good plan moving forward so thank you any additional if not all in favor of the motion say I I I poose same sign motion passes thank you thank you all right last item I have is requesting approval of MOT Grant agreement in resolution 20243 so this grant agreement is with mindat so it is it's basically giving us money to apply for a raise Grant so in the past we've joined Norman and P county is kind of a joint application so there is another round of iiga funding coming out through the raise program so this grant agreement just covers the cost to put the application together so there's no Financial impact to the county unless we were to receive funding and this is a project that we've um written letters of support throughout the years for as well and for us it would be replacing the casa 36 Bridge just north of Georgetown Mr chair I'll offer a motion to approve resolution 202 24-38 second have motion to Second any discussion if not all in favor of the motion say I oppose same sign motion passes thank you thank you we're going to take a five minute break Corey bang our Solid Waste manager Cory it's all yours good morning Mr chair Commissioners uh my first request today uh is increase in tipping fees for our demo landfill prices um the demolition landfill has increased their fees from to $16 a yard and we in turn have to raise ours just to break even I would propose today that we raise our private customers to 1940 um the reason 1940 is with the generator tax it comes to an even $20 and then the commercial loads would go to $25 per yard and again this would just cover the costs of us hauling this the material to the demo landfill so second have motion to Second any any further discussion this was brought up at our swack meeting and it was recommended by swack as well to recommend these rates any other discussion if not all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign motion passes second item this morning is to approve the uh Pelican Rapids contract to to treat our leech heate uh the price did go up a little bit this year um it still comes out a lot cheaper than taking the product of Fargo it'll still save us somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 by going there um and we're doing a yearby year contract with them just based on potential posos issues so um my request would be to approve the 2025 contract discussion questions motion to approve second have motion a second any any discussion if not all in favor say I I I I oppose same sign Mr I just want to recognize Corey for being the one to reach out um with telicon Rapids on this it's um his his efforts have it's another example of how it saved the county a tremendous amount of money last year and now once again for 2025 so thank you Corey thank you we appreciate you and all in did we vote on this no all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign motion passes now thank you thank you okay next up Matt Jacobson planning zoning director good morning Mr chair morning Commissioners um so bringing before you a uh request for a proposal to establish single track dirt bike single track dirt bike track on County owned property bring the property up for you here it's this uh parcel on the north side of 10 um just across from from Buffalo River State Park and our County Memorial Forest property kind of midway between the city of city of Holly and and Glendon uh this property was purchased by the county in around 2000 in 2002 um the solid waste Enterprise fund fun to be used as future landfill site and um been able to expand the landfill at the existing River or Holly Township location so um we did own the whole um um section at one point and the east or the West excuse me the West half was sold in in 2020 um to a private party so this request it came before the county lands Committee in uh September um typo in my my memo to you it's buff run um they're a local chapter of the American Motorcycle Association and um they are looking to potentially establish this uh track on this property um it's essentially a 4ot wide uh dirt track um would be designed to minimize noise um from onto neighboring properties would only be used by members of the American Motorcycle Association they'd have a plan for like a gate with a key fob access um things like that uh they're they they approached just because they just noted a lack of ridable trails in the area and they have to travel sometimes as far as Still Water Oklahoma um to ride uh so this committee we you know discussed this proposed use because there's been some other uses of this property as well Highway Department used it for a while for stockpiling materials a lot of that uh happens now to the north on the um cassad 26 Gravel Pit property uh the the sheriff's department does use it um the bomb squad and SWAT team also use property as well um and uh recently looking at using it for for K9 training um as well and so um really I think the ask here is to to consider this request and and if approved uh develop a kind of a request for proposals to go out and bid for for leases on that um on that property any questions for me at all questions any comments that's something that have to be determined I'd come back to you for that Mr oh sorry go ahead commission Mojo thank you uh as you can see in the memo this is something where um as serving in the county lands committee as I do and I've served the entire time I've been on this board uh there's been a number of times when different members of the public have approached us in regards to what the plans are for a county-owned property and sometimes it seems like there's a fit and sometimes it doesn't and U if you recall several years ago this board did decide to work with the Soil and Water Conservation District and pursue a grant from pheasants Forever on pollinator habitat that's something that we were able B to implement and um now the Crestwood sites that we own um have been uh developed into that capacity there's a great pollinator component out there there's also some walking trails for the public um we've also had different bik bicycle groups reach out to us on uh some properties and as you recall this um this is a solid waste owned property and early in 2024 this group did reach out to us to propose an opportunity that they thought could be a good fit um certainly you can see the dialogue that we had at the county owned lands Committee in recommending this for a discussion at the County uh uh commission um really felt like there was some concerns that we had had in other proposals that were mitigated with this one and seems to provide a um a pretty good niche in regards to Eda opportunities or uh Economic Development opportunities in um relation to its location close to the Buffalo River State Park um I I certainly um appreciative that the sheriff's office is able to use a component of this property uh for the dog training if you see there's uh they've done a really great job of developing some boxes for scent training and I do know that the bomb squad uh uses that um when there needs to be a detonation I believe Sheriff um and then so part of the dialogue that we had at the county-owned property is if there is a way to redesign um what the proposed Trail Outlook is is to be responsive and allow the Sheriff's Office the space and um requirements that they need while still um maybe moving forward with the opportunity for this single track course um I I can stand for any questions in regards to what the discussion at the committee level was commissioner krainov yes I'd like to hear more I you know I it appears um it's coming forward with really uh understanding for both but maybe you want to talk about the discussion or maybe we can hear from the sheriff uh what their intented uses um the way I feel right now is without too much background is um how does this allow them to grow with the programs they're trying to do in their department and what limitations what the length of this um contract might be that might inhibit them from other they talk about regional growth um uh training place um I I guess I'm concerned about taking that opportunity away from um the sheriff's department and and the regional root so um Mr chair and commissioner krabbenhoft um I'll defer to to the Sheriff's Department on that I know there's a there's discussion um just about different County uses of of this property um and in in relation to other County owned properties where we have um FEMA um deed restrictions on the property and that d dictates how that that property can and cannot be used um and also just discussions about um I guess from the from the single track from the from the uh buff run Club side of things I know that they're what there's some discussions about um and they are here they have Representatives here as well they can speak to this but um essentially the way that their Club is set up is that it would be for them Members Only You couldn't bring any guests with you um uh it would there would have to be some sort of access in place some scheduling in place um they wouldn't hold any events out there just beyond like a maintenance or cleanup type event um and then insurance through the um American Motorcycle Association as well I think those are some of the things that kind of set them apart from like we've had proposals for just like a public bike um off-road or gravel bike trail before and things like that and there's some potential liability issues there that might not be present with us but I can let those two parties the sheriff's department and the um Club speak to that as well Sheriff do you want to bring us up speed ironically Sheriff Burk was and I when I was Chief wanted to move the range out there and the city wouldn't pay for it and zoning wouldn't approve it so that kind of was still born but that was many years ago yep um so the bomb team and swad team they've been using that property since about 2014 when the um I think that was about the time that it was closed to public it used to be open for public hunting and things of that nature and then it was closed I think right about that time the bomb team K9 team SWAT team they all started to use it um what the K9 team uses it for is they use it for tracking for Rural scenarios they'll use it when they're on shift um we call it laying down a track or they'll look at one of their partners and say you want to go lay down a track so they'll go out there and they'll lay down a track in that rule setting uh that's done on shift they also have to train for a minimum of 16 hours a month that's where we do have our K9 boxes out there uh currently there's eight boxes out there and we've kind of developed a need or found a need for uh kind of a area outside the city because uh where the current boxes were at in the city and Morhead up at the rain they went up there to train one day and they found somebody sleeping in them um they do bite and apprehension work out there they have OB they have obedience training and things of that nature uh the hope is to use it for some Regional certifications to eliminate the need to go to the metro area um that would be a hope it' also be a savings for us as we wouldn't have to have three hotel rooms and send people away for three days um there are times where the K9 we can have up to 10 K9 train teams out there because we do Regional training as well uh I did talk to the bomb team assistant commander in regards to this he feels that they've been out there since about 2014 they use it for emergency disposal of any type of recovered explosives which we just got a call yesterday of somebody that had uh five um five sticks of dynamite up in their Rafters and that does happen sometimes it's kind of a something that happens quite often people used to you know blow up beaver dams and things like that and then they forget the dynamite up in their their garage uh then they have to transport that they don't know how stable or unstable that is so transporting it um on a paved roadway rather than a gravel roadway is nice um they have a site to utilize their burn trailer uh which is a big cast iron square box um training and proficiency of the explosive explosive Demolition and post blast investigations uh they also utilize the site when they worked with the FBI ATF to work through possible different uh Avenues of attack with propane tanks very similar to what we saw on July 14th of 2023 and they are they do intend on using it in 2025 they're going to get a new it's called a total containment vessel what exactly that is I don't know I did ask the assistant team Commander if dual use would be something that would be uh in the books and he didn't feel that that would be ideal they need about a 3 to 600 yard uh perimeter depending on what exactly they are doing out there uh SWAT team uses it for rail uh rural training scenarios um our SWAT basic can use it and they end up training people from all of Minnesota North Dakota out there as well they also have their explosive breaching uh training out there um in the past this equipment was uh stored on private property and it did get to be an issue when it was on private property just due to the storage uh also for vehicle uh scenarios and their Rook operations if you don't know what a rook is a rook is like a um it's an armored bobcat on tracks is what that is and they use that for uh several different several different deployments and then they also are looking for uh sniper training uh you can use those existing areas out there um as like rooftop scenarios and things of that nature so that's what they use it for end of the day that's a very unique property uh in several different ways for law enforcement uh for both sides of the river uh for both our regional bomb teams and for our K9 teams as well miss anything actually the only other thing was that we did reach out to mcit to see um about the insurability with a a dual use unfortunately that was a couple weeks ago and we have not heard back from them as of yet what their recommendation would be in regards to dual use and my concern out there and I did bring this up when I did speak with one of the members from buff run and um you know if we're out there training for the bomb team or or sniper or whatever it might be and we end up blowing something up and something Falls along their track and we don't go clear that and then somebody comes and drives on that track then that's on us um as far as the liability side so that is a concern for us and I I know these three gentlemen I like all three of these gentlemen I think they're all all good people and I I I respect exact I respect what they want to do and what they want to complete here it's just uh for us I I don't feel that this would be a good dual use commissioner Mojo was this we're Sheriff uh was this not were we not aware of the use on this on the on the lands committee as far as the lands committee goes um what ended up happening I think in 2014 when we started to get all the uh all the permissions I think uh I did ask Matt about this as well Is We I don't think there's a lot of people that are on that committee now that were there in 2014 and uh I don't know how well the records were Tak taken care of in the past as far as the can9 boxes go I know that lieutenant schroer and Matt worked together it did not go through the lands committee meeting and that that is on us I I will accept the responsibility for that that that is that one is on us I believe this were Billy and I got shot down and the Morehead City Council wouldn't fund it but and we we've talked about that property as well even when Steve Lanson was here about a potential range because we know that that range in Morehead is becoming to be a a Hot Topic mm up there too commissioner Campbell yeah I I you know I again I I'm I'm G to speak to County owned lands in in general not just this one particular parcel and I I think it's very important that when we have those lands that this board is aware of what's going on on those lands uh you I you know I guess I can't speak to who was on the lands Committee in 2014 I know I wasn't I can I mean I was on in 2015 yeah okay but but my point my point being is that you know how how does any one department just go out and do stuff without the board knowing on this and the reason I asked that is because on many county own Pro lands I get calls as a commissioner is it available for this is it available for that you know so we get all we get a lot of in calls and if we don't know what's already going on on there uh we could be creating an issue that we didn't know about that's that's my concern on it but um 293 acres is a pretty large area but I also understand that I don't know that I would be want to be one of the people on a bike trail and hear a bomb going off at you know at the same time I don't know how you can control the the safety aspect of that going on but I you know Mr chair he asked me a question so I might as well follow up on it um um so I I began a dialogue with the applicants or the residence early on and I followed the process in regards to how our committee structure as this board has um allocated us to all have committee structure was The Proposal the site visit um and those dialogues and agreed uh the sheriff's department is part of that dialogue and and unfortunately for whatever reason wasn't at the one meeting where we talked about a recommendation towards this board and unfortunately also the sheriff's department did not present um the usage of this land for the new dog boxes to that committee but um nevertheless I think the reason we're here today is there is a proposal and there are applicants here that I think it's important that they have an opportunity to talk about what their proposal is and how we could um fit a need um certainly it's a solid waste owned land this board has um in the years since 2015 has designated part of that land that we did offer for sale that we didn't see a future use for um and so uh you know I think the reason Matt's here is he does have a dialogue and a proposal that the uh gentlemen who are in the audience brought forward I think we probably need to hear from the gentleman who are interested in this approach and hand you out a yep sure what I have in here just wait till you get to the microphone mik well um I'm Mike lmy with buffr MC um I have Chad West and Matt HTH also with me uh all Clay County residents um anyway the the hand out I gave you and you know I didn't mean to cause a big upra about a piece of land that's been abandoned for over 5050 years I didn't find out how how important it was and I want everybody to know that I'm not I agree with the county usage for bomb squad and K9 and all that stuff so I I get that and and out of all this if that isn't something that's feasible for for us to share I understand 100% okay um I'm a little nervous so um we're all friendly here I'm not good at I I it'll take me a little bit to calm down I'll little coffee the morning but uh so I I gave you a list here that that shows some of our ideas some of the things we' like to do um within the county uh gave our copy of membership stuff um what we're doing is we're laying out a mimic uh to kind of a copy of what they've done down in Oklahoma and that was city-owned land that they didn't want the liability on and so on so over time the club it end up going to the university and the club has a lease on it that's that's attached in the back here um I've a I've attached uh copy of our our Charter and and that nonprofit stuff and whatnot um I did put in a map and I understand the shared usage 100% I agree you know it's it's tough you're not you can't have a firing range and and people in the same area I I I completely get that so what what I'm asking is that I I don't want to go I want everybody to know I I didn't know that the Sheriff's Department was using it at all I I just so I didn't want any uproar about any of that stuff we're just looking for a place to ride just a place um just ride motorcycles like a cow path I kind of explained it in there um it says four feet or whatnot but this is what we're looking to do and if I can do anything out of this whether this is granted or not is the awareness of a need in our area for something like this for people like me um me me not me us so um I guess I'd like you just to entertain it and if there's other County land that would be amicable to working with on something like this I'd be open to that too it's um like like I said I I I I I'm not very PC but it's it like I said if it works it works if not it not it's going sweat off my ass that's kind of how I said it to when when it was discussed so I I guess that's I'm not looking to change the world I'm not looking to upset anybody we just would like a place to ride motorcycle um we used to have the hutter eight pit I don't know how right we were able to ride in there but it was open since the 70s and every Wednesday night that's where people went and rode you could go every Wednesday night to the hutter pit if you guys might not know where that one's at just south of the farm there I helped load their cows a couple times I got out but um anyway we had we had that area to ride in and that's what we're looking for something like that and this was we wanted to come in with a sanctioned club we wanted to come in with uh all of our ducks in a roll um the insurance thing that's the reason why we join the AMA is that we get into a national pool Insurance to ensure property whether it's this property other property that or or whatnot so we weren't flipping around trying to do this and that I have not applied for an insurance policy because I wasn't going to until to know if we were granted some place or something to do on this terms so um if anything out of this it's it's uh got the Commissioners aware of what's happened on the land what's going on out there but uh I I guess I'd like to thank you guys for your time listening I'm a little jumpy but and uh but I'm open to just anything with a if you had proper do you know that's I'll say unusable because we're like kind of cows out in the field ride motorcycle so um something like that and the gate the the gate and the membership was it's open to the public but the reason why we have as an AMA Charter if you're an AMA member you have a separate insurance policy as a person belonging to the club so it layers the layers of liability out from the property and by doing that being a member in a gate you cannot access that property unless you are a member with a code and the only way you become a member is you pay your membership do of 80 or $100 whatever you get the code you sign all your liability release forms and everything is all documented and so the only people there are ones with the code on the to get in and the responsibility is to lock it and get in and out so I'm getting very calmed down a little bit now when do you plan on using this during the evenings and weekends or during the day too well it see that's the thing is that most people write on weekend Saturday a Sunday maybe a Friday you know um it wouldn't I could probably tell you if there was if it was open every day of the week there would maybe be one person that' go out there in the middle of the week because of because work schedules more of an after work type of thing more an evening more weekend style Usage Now I want you to know after learning what the uh the sheriff's department is doing with it and using with it I don't want to conflict with it any of that um I understand and and to be to be honest with you I don't want to have to check in the sheriff's department when we go out there just like they don't want to check in with us when we want to when they want to go out there because we all live on a revolving world where well today wouldd be a good day to take the canines out it's nice out you know I get I get that 100% so out of all this if this doesn't work I'd love it if someone if there be a an another opportunity somewhere within the county that would be that this would work for thank you commissioner krain yeah thank you so M um don't be nervous uh I uh just curious so ideally uh I mean this was a larger acreage but what what would be the parameters of maybe what you're thinking out on a I mean I know bigger is better but you kind of have a range you know I I mean quarter se you know it all it's variable you know it could be let's say it was 20 acre stretch that runs the river yeah that you know but it's only however wide or or it can be pretty flexible on that you know if I said uh 80 acres I mean that would be great I'd be thankful for anything um but yeah that's that's kind of yeah by the way I grew up doing the same thing but we own the ranch so anyway I appreciate uh what you're trying to do Matt do you have any Parcels of land that would be alternate to this come to mind uh Mr chair there are a couple that come to mind but um just in the interest of being fully communicative and transparent I'd really like to sit down and maybe meet with our County lands committee and have all our departments involved and fully vet those before saying um committing anything or um offering anything up there are two though that that come to mind um in in the county sheriff does uh the you are you comfortable with the mutual use or is this something you feel uh the sheriff's U use of this property would be inhibited yeah there has been uh at times where we do try and train with others even in law enforcement where it does get to be training conflict so we feel that it would be a little bit a little bit difficult and as Mike alluded to is like he wouldn't want to check in with us and vice versa I just want to I I appreciate Mike coming up here and and speaking and hearing uh hearing what he had to say and things like that I've known him for a long time I've always appreciated Mike and uh you know thank you for working with us commission Campbell so sheriff sheriff so if I if I'm understanding this correctly we're is a total area Matt is total area 200 and some Acres that we have here yeah 293 a lot of it is Wetlands um uh the stuff up to the north too is I mean it's it's very wet in there so yeah it is 290 some Acres but usable Acres um once you start counting Wetlands up it goes down and there's no way that that could be divided where a track could be on one part and the sheriffs could be on a totally separate part where they would not intermingle well just taking in consideration like the the buffers that the sheriff alluded to and I'm not exactly sure where on the property is the prime area for detonating um it have to kind of work through that too and see if I don't know what's going on out there so yeah sniper training you've got to have a pretty big chunk of land where is that done now sniper train uh certainly don't do it in the Morehead range well they're not doing it the Morehead range right now they're not shooting out there they're just able to train out there and do some uh do some mimicking and eventually would like to do that but they are not shooting out there right now he yeah this was this has been a longtime need um that we were unable to address when I was working for the city and Billy Billy and I came up with a bright idea that this would be a good place for range I believe we might have even talked to Mr Melton when he was with the National Guard about your guys could qualify locally if you guys bring in a some people and do the dirt work but it never went anywhere we couldn't get any funding um I don't know if we're ready to act I mean if it I'll certainly be happy to hear a motion but I think there's a awful lot of questions on this that we should maybe explore before we lock in on a motion Mr chair commissioner Mojo thank you I think part of the dialogue that we need to have is is the board open to allowing some sort of RFP for use on County owned property um you know we talk about the boxes being checked on um on making sure folks have all their ducks in a row and this is something that needs to be permitted as well at the Planning Commission level but um as we talk about what county-owned properties uh usefulness is to the greater good um you know I I I think there's ways that we can mitigate this um with both parties but I also think um you know if there's an additional um land component elsewhere maybe that makes sense too so I think this board one needs to maybe have a general consensus if we're open to uh entities applying for rfps for uses on our county-owned properties that we can't get rid of or holding on to for other other other reasons I think why this this one group applications seem to really fit a a need is because they're they're not asking to build any uh permanent type of facility out there it's also something that can kind of EB and flow with what the needs of uh the land use is um but uh know that we also have some other additional properties that are are really sitting there that um we can't do anything with Mr krabo yeah so if you're wanting feedback um you know uh and as I think about the county lands I'm certainly open for those possibilities I'm I will say I'm not in favor of this one but um for the idea of looking at those tracks and and I think it'd even be helpful um guidance from uh Matt as to what possibilities of type things Beyond dirt bikes you know I like the idea of the dirt bikes I think it all fits uh however maybe there's some other uses as possibilities without trying not to be restrictive right uh but just to engage thought um you know toward what are these other possibilities for those types of lands that seem appropriate another question I have on this one Matt if I may did how would it be and would we have to on Wetlands would it even be allowed for a track to go through a wetland do you think under wa uh Mr chair and commissioner kof that'd be a good question for um okay or but I would I would think as long as you're not filling a wetland okay um that if you're just riding through one I think that would be I I just didn't know you know and it even goes back not just bikes ATVs right yeah would yeah whenever it comes to like excavation or filling um typically that's when things get a little more restriced with Wetlands if you're talking about um I mean riding through one with an ATV or a uh off-road motorcycle or bike whatever I don't think that that's as as big of an issue um to to my understanding um same with like haying or doing vegetation Management on wetland too so but really I think it's the filling or the Excavating where there's there can be issues okay thank you commission Campbell yeah I I I think looking at other sites is is probably a good idea at this point in time but I I you know I do want everybody to remember that this this parcel was purchased from our Enterprise funds which is solid waste funds and I don't know that there's ever been dialogue with solid waste I obviously what we what we've come up with as a board is we've come up with other solutions to long-term planning for our landfill but I don't know that there's ever been discussion about what that use of that property would be in the future and um the investment on that land came from an Enterprise fund and you know I I you know and again that goes to how we go about starting to use County owned land prior to having dialogue at the board level on on what it should be and that and that's the concern that I have uh what if what if swack would have had some future intentions of that land they bought it I mean I mean it was it was Solid Waste funds that bought it you know um is it does that does that border with our um um let's see the other landfill that we have on North Highway 10 the does border the demo landfill yet it borders the demo landfill you know so you know have we ever had dialogue about that you know and and what's the future of the demo landfill and could there be needs for that I and again that's I'm a little frustrated that that we've put uses in there with really out the board knowing that's when I'm being quite blunt here about that Cory do you have anything to add this basically is your land you keep telling me it's my land but I don't think it is um initially I was in favor of the track I did as all of you I was not aware of the Sheriff's Department using it um after I talked to or we were informed the sheriff's department using it I don't think it makes sense um if we can't share the property to make the sheriff's department incur a bunch more expenses when they're already using it yeah um as far as the demo landfill my guess is that demo landfill is going to close uh in sometime in the near future we I don't intend on or at this point don't intend on expanding it if we did we could come up with some compromise there but um as far as I'm concern I'm in favor of both but I don't know that they can share the share the property so and I'm not aware if maybe the property directly west of the landfill would work um it's something we could look at there it may be too wet but it would be something I would offer up as a as a potential solution would be that much of a problem if we want to work together that we just put a sign there you have to unlock it to get in there couldn't you just put a sign have two signs there inuse by Sheriff's Department in use by bike uh whatever is company or whatever their name is and then we should be aware that there someone's in there unless there has to be more communication than that my fear would be that would open up to human eror somebody forgets their exed to ride they forget to change my my concern on that Mr Mr Jaren commissioner gross would be as if the sheriff's department does have a bomb they got to get rid of I don't know they can they just patiently wait for that's a big piece of land to make sure it's clear yeah and I mean it's yeah it's I can see where there could be some complications there with that but next time somebody finds Grandpa's souvenir hand grenade or half a box of dynamite you don't want to want to have to clear a couple hundred thousand or a couple hundred acres to make sure you can blow it up without either scaring or hurting somebody well I think those situations come up very rarely yeah you know and I guess it only needs ones I mean but it just uh can be compatible and work something out I mean this land is just sitting there not being used let's use it you know I I don't I ask for consensus or thoughts on this can we put this off and and Matt would you work with the motorcycle group to see if we have an alternative and uh Mr chair you have a uh you have a committee recommendation and an agenda item and so in in uh talking with Mr Melton what we would want to do is uh take action ask for a motion if there's no motion uh either move forward based on that okay do we have a motion on I'd like to make a motion okay I make a motion to deny accepting request for um proposals and vids to uh lease the Riverton Township County owned property for a single track dirt bite for due to conflicts with the existing and potential County uses of the property okay do we have a second do we have a second do we have a second motion dies for lack of a second we have an alternative motion Mr chair I don't think it's uh out of our boundaries to be able to table uh an issue Stephen I I mean you either be a motion to to act I mean you have to take some type of action the other one would be to table that's typically with a with a designated time frame it sounds like that the board is looking or needs more information you know it comes forward sometimes with imperfect information but I mean question is just how long I don't know the answer off top of my head how long you could table it for but it sounds like you need additional information well does it is a tabling uh can can you say a two-month period for example can you I mean do you have to be date specific go ahead I was is just going to say that you know 298 acres is a lot of space it is a lot it's a lot of land and I I guess if if there is a recommendation for an action out of it I would just um maybe if this board is a meable to continue dialogues because I don't hear anyone say no this doesn't work at all um is to allow us the flexibility to work with the lands committee the Sheriff's Office and the and the proposed group to see if there is a way to mitigate it with a buffer I think what we're forgetting is that the the demo landfill has folks utilizing and coming in and out of that as well and so it's um and it's closer to what the sheriff's office is using than maybe the far Corner reaches of this property um 298 acres is a lot of space and so I guess my recommend ation would be that this board is in favor of a continued dialogue to see if there is a proposal of space that would work on this but if not identify additional components where this could work countywide and I don't think that's a formal motion I think it's a direction and I think if we can come up to a consensus on that we could move to table this until we have some answers Mr chair too I could add that if you did make a motion to deny that doesn't mean that that and that was that was passed that doesn't mean that that couldn't this couldn't be worked out and brought up again in in the future it's not it's not put it off the table completely I don't think it would just put it off the table for today commissioner Campbell Mr we already acted on it right I mean we act there was an action well I called for a second and there was no second okay Mr chair I I I do believe that in all fairness to everybody we should we should have some sort of a time frame involved here so that we can come up with some sort of solution I just looked on my calendar and I do agree with commissioner Mojo that that maybe the lands committee the sheriff's department uh and you know what other public interests might have on that property should have it have that dialogue and and I guess I would make a motion that it go back to the uh lands committee for further review uh and I would also suggest that they uh report back by our March 4th meeting with some sort of additional information for us to make decisions on that gives a couple of months time frame to try to work things out I don't think this is anything that's Earth shattering that requires a a decision in the next 24 hours so let's just take the time to work something out I saw um Mr chair we have a Citizens that would like make a comment as well is that appropriate at this time on this issue on this issue um um Mr chair I I I think I was making that in the form of a motion yeah second the motion okay we have a motion a second now we can have that um yeah if the citizen wants to make a comment on this I think that's appropriate uh we do limit it to three minutes and it must be on this issue and if you would give us your name and your your address ma'am my name is Connie Ashner and I live at 15108 15th Avenue North in Glendon and um I apologize for not being more prepared but I just found out about this at about 9:00 last night but um we live uh just to the North and the west of there and my concern is the noise we had the Buffalo River Speedway uh this Buffalo River Race Park before which was a mile away and this is much closer and and the noise when that was going on was very disruptive to our lives and um my other concern is they say there's only open to amaa members but those are am AMA is one of the largest organizations of motorcycles in the country so it's and my other concern is there are um excuse me if I could read one one thing here it says um says Minnesota boasts thousands of trails to meet any skill levels and desire from Flat to open to for beginners to winding trails and that's for um this is on the um their website and it says ATV and dirt bike trails through State Forest and former mining areas along old railroad tracks and Beyond so there are there are places for them to ride in this you know within I mean it might be 250 mil but there are places for them to ride not just in um was it Oklahoma that they had mentioned but um my main concern is the noise and there's a there's a lot of residents in that area there's over I believe 20 in that in that close area so I just I just wanted to bring it up and let you know that it's something that it concerns us and it concerns us the access um you say well there might only be one person out there during the week but honestly one motorcycle or or 10 it doesn't make much difference there's still a lot of noise and like I said I'm I'm not very prepared but I just wanted to make you aware that that as a resident out there we are concerned about the noise and the disruption so I thank you for your time and I thank these guys for their time also thank you ma'am okay we have a motion on the floor in a second for discussion if not all in favor of the motion say I I I oppose same sign all right we will revisit this and thank you for everybody's input on this thank you Mr chair okay next is Rory Schmidt top that Rory I hope it's quicker yeah thank you Mr chair uh good afternoon Commissioners um my first item for today's agenda here is to purchase a replacement server hard Hardware uh the primary servers we have are five six years old and at at their end of life um we did receive uh three quotes from this um which we'd like to go with the lowest option which is $745 3734 from Marco for some new Dell servers uh the other two quotes came in uh from by speed $887 52 and Highpoint networks at $110,900 funding for this would be coming out of uh internal Services replacement funds any question questions on that questions for Rory move to approve second have motion second any further discussion all in favor say I I post same sign motion passes thank you Rory whoop you've got more yes I do two more do you need to introduce the the next agenda item or go ahead okay all right so the next item here is to request to purchase new network networking Hardware So currently we have some kind of backbone uh Network switches that all of our servers connect to actually the servers that you just approved connect to primarily for storage networking and that is also at its end of life at you know five six years old uh we did get three quotes for that and we'd like to go with the lowest C cost option there through Highpoint networks uh for extreme switches at $ 43,372 and the last one for Cisco switches through cdwg at $ 66,9 7312 and this would also come out of uh internal Services equipment replacement funds now you say that these are six years old you know does that mean you can't use them anymore or you you could still use them but uh with the technology changes so much we we're looking at faster speeds now okay uh for this next Generation Hardware just to make a motion to approve the $ 43,372 further discussion not all in favor say I I and your next all right uh this last one is unique in that uh my department should only come around once every three years on this it's our Microsoft services and software contract uh we do a a three-year term with Microsoft and due to the large amount per year um we did get the initial quote through Shi who is our Microsoft reseller currently uh that first first quote came in at $261,900 per year for three years um by going to a a national contract that's recognized by the state of Minnesota we were able to knock that down to $253,300 uh $812 to1 per per year so with with the high amount I'm relatively new to this but according to our state statutes and the county procurement procurement policy it it appears that if we're using a state or national contract like this it's not required to go out for bid or uh receive multiple quotes I I did also confirm that with our local state auditor as well and and to reference that statute is uh 375 Point let's see here sorry oh sorry uh statute 471 345 sub subdivision 15 is the one question Mr commissioner Campbell right what was the um annual amount that we were paying before uh it's pretty close to that I I don't have that that in front of me but it's it's up in that 230 240 okay per year and is that based on users so we have buy so many licenses right yep and it's it's not uncommon to in say in the middle of the year to have to True up in you know with HR letting us know that you know we we move from 620 employees up to 680 now or 690 whatever it is so it's not uncommon we have to do a true up in the middle of this three-year term so the the amount really is based on number B based on what we're at the current point in time number of users depending on growth that could that could increase so if it's recommended I can sure come back to board and anytime we need to increase those licenses throughout the year I'm I'm more than happy to do that well I mean it is I think it is what it is when it comes to that you're it's you're basically we're basically setting contract per user and if the users change that that contract will change it's it's I think what would be more important is if if we had a certain dollar amount in the budget and and during the course of the year and it was really going to exceed that just to maybe give board notice that boy what we budgeted was you know short as opposed to anything right absolutely Mr chair do we have a motion on this no I I had moveed to approve the three-year contract second have motion to Second any further discussion if not all in favor say I I post same sign motion passes thank you thank you all right Darren Brooks our annual Ren all right thank you Mr chair um I'm hoping this isn't contentious at all uh the this is always the annual year end uh piece of information that I bring to the board um the first thing has to do with the grid adjustments for 2025 um as you recall we have nine unions that have already bargained for and settled for 2025 at the 3% Cola and earlier this year I believe it was about in August we got the results of our 2024 Market study and that also recommended a 3% increase to the grid so that would be a total of 6% increase to the grid starting in 2025 and I don't know if you want to take these individually or you want to do it all at the same time um it would be up to you here I think we should give it a try to do it all at the same time if that's good with the yeah that would be fine okay says individually um the says individually oh uh we'll see I do have a question on one so I don't have to do them individually or not I think we do if it's advertised that way yeah can't remember what we've done in the past I think individually so we'll have to am individually okay so the first item uh would be the total grid adjustment for 2025 of uh 6% Mr chair I'll offer a motion to approve a grd adjustment second and mo that's the 3% grd adjustment correct okay for for a total of 6% nope nope I see okay grid adjustment of 3% and we have motion a second any further discussion if not all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes um the second item would be the 3% Market adjustment um that was recommended in 2024 for 2025 okay have a mo do we have a any questions on this or do we have a motion well I I would have a question on that one you know I don't know if our Market study reflected commissioner salaries at all but we're just given ourselves a 3% raise course the other other guys got it but because they were they did a market study right were the Commissioners ever earn this Market study um I don't think they looked at Commissioners feel somewhere along the line we as Commissioners just set an example that we don't just take s increases increases increases MH and just said in this example that you know world for go one increase um I have been here about 14 years and I think the year before commissioner Campbell took a different percentage but but since 14 years the Commissioners have always increased with the same as the uh the rest of the employees but I think for clarification Commissioners are not eligible for step increments increases corre so they are excluded from those types of right correct so they would they would only get the the cola and and Market study the they do not have a step great Mr chair oh I'm sorry I mean it's it's not a full we consider the full-time job it's not a full-time job so I'm just looking at should we set an example once and for and I'll make a motion that okay your motion is that not to to foro the 3% Market study adjustment for Commissioners yes okay we have a second do we have a second do we have a second okay the motion dies for lack of a second Mr chair I would move that we adopt the 3% Market study adjustment as proposed in our preliminary Levy do we have a second second and further discussion if not all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign okay motion passes hey um meal reimbursement rates uh $15 for breakfast $20 for lunch and $30 for different uh dinner uh that was last updated in 2019 um I should make note that all of this had been uh taken to the pick and forwarded to the board with these with these recommendations did they were they forwarded unanimously I'm sorry they were all forwarded for approval uh yes okay any any questions your discussion Mr I would move that the meal reimbursement rates remain the same at $15 for breakfast 20 for lunch and $30 for dinner second the motion have motion to Second any further discussion not all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion passes okay um the next item is the predem rates uh currently they are at $100 per day that was last updated in 2015 any discussion Mr chair I would move that we remain the same with our PR rates at $100 per day Mo yeah okay have motion to second any further discussion all in favor say I I oppose same sign uh the next next item was the IRS mileage rate uh increase I just looked online this morning that is the 2025 rate is not out yet but the way we have it in our Personnel policy is that we would follow the IRS uh mileage reimbursement rate for this year it's 67 cents per mile it usually varies a couple pennies so it's not a huge cost one way or the other Mr Jer I would move that we adopt the IRS mileage rate increase uh or mileage rate um increase or decrease well it is just align with adopt the IRS mileage rate correct for 2025 correct second the motion okay have motion a second any discussion that number has been known to go up and it's been known to go down yep exactly it is okay all in favor of the motion say I I I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you um last item is the 2025 Furlow program uh this has been ongoing for many many years uh basically the it allows the individual employee to take uh unpaid leave if uh they don't have enough sick Leever or vacation saved up they can take up to 140 for hours per year and that has to be supervisor and uh approval and then they they track that uh we can also track that you know um the Departments track that on their own as well so um for 2004 so far um we had, 141 hours that were used as Furlow time and that basically saved the county 38,000 $740 198 in wages that were not paid out um and so the recommendation is to uh extend the Furlow program for 2025 as well okay do we have any discussion I move to approve the 2025 furo program that will reflect no change from 2024 second any further discussion all in favor say I I post same sign motion passes I think I have the next agenda item too your next item which um is setting the salaries for the 2025 salaries for elected officials um I just found out this year through our uh Communications coordinator that this had to be in resolutions rather than um uh just out in non-resolution um so the proposal is that the 2025 salaries for elected officials County Commissioners would be 39,2 52 41 cents per year the County Attorney would be at 182,183 10 and the county sheriff would be $161,400 and I don't know if you wanted me to read the res the entire resolution or I don't think that would be necessary it's part of the record it's in the question that me yeah grabbing off so we're going back to um uh County Commissioners in that number is that reflect the 3% correct that's the uh three 3% call 3% Mark okay thank you and that that is for all of them yeah Mr chair I would move resolution 202 24-39 do we have a second second okay motion the second any discussion okay all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign motion passes okay thank you thank you I just take a couple minutes of break break well we were said to take a break at 12:20 okay take a breef break I've had too many children to sit here this long let's take let's take a 10-minute break thank you we are back in session and next up is our County Administrator has a couple of items Steve it's all yours uh thank you Mr chair the first item before you for your consideration this morning is change order number eight uh for uh the withdrawal management detoxification program uh as been has been well discussed by commissioner Campbell and commissioner Mojo through the construction process uh we've had a we had an issue with some of our doors uh and so a great deal of work has happened over the last uh four to six weeks uh in order to get the doors uh properly functioning with that uh came uh some additional additional fees uh totaling uh totaling $ 44,7 2335 uh there's also an additional uh uh8 excuse me $8,500 uh that's being requested uh by gert's construction for work outside uh outside of the uh the contract uh with the understanding that uh by ordering new doors uh this would have caus over $200,000 uh and so the request before you misprint there is is the total request is $ that were put in on my understanding are weren't compatible and so they had to they had to uh work uh to make sure that the two programs could talk to each other they didn't both speak English okay yeah and I I to maybe picky back off that you know it was a tricky maneuvering to make sure that we were able to mitigate that in a the most cost friendly way guess is the way to say that and I I know it took a substantial amount of discussion and time and retrofitting but we really do feel that this is the best case scenario motion to approve second motion second any discussion if not all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign motion passes hey Steve uh thank you Mr chair um the U um uh excuse me Klay County Board of Commissioners is part of uh part of the Metro flood diversion Authority board and several committees uh each year the the mor Metro flood diversion Authority board requests an updated action uh by by this board designating uh our um Commissioners that and Personnel that will be attending uh so where where we have uh on here today are the committee assignments uh as they are in 2024 with the with the uh area that uh we're looking for a alternate on the Fargo Morhead diversion Board of authority we would need an appointment there Mr chair commissioner Campbell yeah thank you I um I know that commissioner gross served as the alternate uh previously and I I did I did reach out with commissioner Mojo and uh with her work now that's that she does on the MCC gapa board she's willing to uh serve as alternate I think that kind of makes more sense she's in tune with that a lot of the inform a lot of stuff that goes on is within her district and so um Mr I I would move that we authorize the Slate of positions uh including the alternate on the diversion Authority board to be commissioner Mojo second okay any further discussion if not all in favor of the motion say I iose same sign motion passes all right Mr chair finally our last one is uh establishing uh the budget for 2025 we'll be looking for two resolutions or two excuse me two motions today uh today's extremely important day as that as the commission considers establishing the 2025 budget as you are aware this process started back in the end of the May at back at the end of May we've had several uh several presentations from department heads and and non-count entities that receive funding from the county after having been reviewed by Miss Johnson and I this commission has held multiple discussions provided guidance and Direction uh and received budget updates throughout the process uh that got us to our truth and Taxation evening on November 2 six uh uh where citizens had the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed budget as always we appreciate uh the citizens engagement and feedback I would want to just clar clarify a question that was brought up by commissioner mojo on truth and Taxation evening uh she made note that our licenses and permits uh were about $440,000 less than previous years and speaking with Miss Johnson uh the the those funding for the f food pool and lodging and Sewer permits were inadvertently uh put in public health uh and so they were captured uh and so just in the in the wrong place and so that has been adjusted um and so within your packet I do have some additional information just from a from a budget standpoint uh again we we have generally have our half cent sales tax updates uh as you can see uh with one payment remaining we're at 4,100 uh payment comes in uh the second item just wanted to touch base on a little bit is our expenses uh again revenues generally fall six weeks to two months behind uh but I know that uh this board has asked as we got closer to the end of the year uh to highlight uh where we are from a budget perspective uh again I believe this is through November first payroll in December first payroll in December uh and so uh as you can see uh the the from a budget perspect budget perspective uh we are in in a strong position there are a couple different areas that I would touch on information uh Services uh has a uh a deficit or expenses over revenues of $117,400 uh this would be because of the shift the shift that we've had uh in uh the uh um administrative area Jackie's position is now listed uh in in that area uh elections um again Miss Johnson saves for elections in over two years uh and then uh and then is elections every other year and so you're seeing a larger amount expended uh this year uh it's kind of utilized like our internal service Emergency Management uh we have our last uh last uh arpa dollars uh that are being U sent through there and so that uh that is the the large increase there if you look at the rest of our expend expenditures through in the budget uh we're we are within the time frame or of the year of where we should be uh with that I'd yield for any questions on any anything with the budget expenditures commissioner fraen off yeah so I'm sorry I was looking at numbers and not listening uh why is that number change so big with Emergency Management uh that would been that where the arpa money comes out of that the spending for that comes out of that okay okay thank you um I would would also note uh again I talked about internal service from a budget standpoint on an annual basis um our departments uh come through come through the the county auditor and then through our department and then ultimately before this board and other than internal Service uh and the funding that we provide uh that we're saving for from an insurance standpoint Point within this budget as our this is this 2025 will be the last year that we are capped it from our insurance at 9% uh we'll be having to go out for for bid uh next year anticipating some of the the cost increases that we would have seen had we not been in a cap uh We've saved saved uh uh saved some dollars for that in anticipation that we may see a jump and so th that that additional $250,000 is captured in the 2025 budget with that I would yield for any any questions questions for Steve make a motion to approve the budget um Mr Mr chair commissioner G if I could have two motions the first one would be uh to to approve the budget uh based on the expenses on on this document which are 123,00 excuse me 123 mil 990,000 and $95 just what he said do we have a second yeah a second okay motion second any further discussion all those in favor with motion say I I poose same sign just for the uh motion passed and just for the Public's um information we have been kept AB breast and have worked on this budget for months now and the brevity of this uh approval is simply that we're familiar with it and it is the product that we're expecting Steve you want to continue thank you Mr chair uh the the second item is a motion to approve resolution 202 24-40 establishing the the levy at 44 m866 746 do we have a motion I move to approve second have motion the second discussion questions if not all in favor of the motion say I I oppose same sign motion passes thank you Mr chair I would just note that we were able to make a few minor adjustments and that uh from our preliminary Levy at 4.62 uh the final final Levy based on your action today will be 4.45 so thank you for your direction uh during the last six months thank you for your leadership all right committee reports and we'll start with commissioner Campbell all right I um I don't have quite as much because I was gone for a while uh in Sunny Arizona warm sunny Arizona sounds good doesn't it okay and I came back to cold Minnesota and my first thing was attending the AMC conference in Minneapolis on Tuesday and Wednesday and uh um I my highlight of the deal of course of course there were different things that we went to but uh the recognition of our retiring Commissioners was important and I I wanted to be there for that as as we um at the AMC level we said goodbye to all of our retiring Commissioners including commissioner gross and and uh so it was nice to be there to see him honored uh as a retiring commissioner I return then and on Thursday um I had a Lakes Country service Cooperative meeting in Fergus Falls and we had I serve on their budget committee or excuse me their audit committee and we did go through uh the audit and they they got a very very good um review on their audit so that was nice to see and they are looking at a I think Steve I think the Jeremy Kovash has reached out to you they are potentially looking for a site in in the Morehead area for a future building that um you know that can serve there's a they're seeing an increase in number of kids that they could you know potentially serve so there's work going on right now and looking for a facility or building in Morehead yesterday we had our um prtf predesign meeting and our uh non-secure juvenile update um I think we're getting we're getting down to really having some final draft proposals and I believe that on the 6th of January or somewhere in that time frame uh we're going to be it'll be coming before the board with um uh what we have in terms of design um I think the on the prtf there's I don't think there's a real significant amount of modifications that would need to be done there but the a lot of obviously there's going to be on the non new non-secure area it's significant and it's a lot of work has been done with that commissioner mro may have some additional comments on that but you'll be getting an update very soon as a board uh this morning we had a highway tracking committee meeting um they continue to have an issue they've had the diesel mechanic position open for quite some time right now and they've they've had one one application in five weeks and then that individual declined the interview so you know I think you know I think we're probably going to end up having to look at um compensation levels there I think if we're not getting any applicants it's it's saying that maybe our our grd in that particular area is way off so I think Darren will probably have some additional things to say about that and I it's Justin's intention to bring that to pick probably in January to discuss now we did recommend for this board uh to move forward with a maintenance Foreman pickup uh and we reviewed a three-year lease option versus a purchase outright option and the purchase outright option was just slightly under $2,000 more than the lease and and yet at the end of the purchase we'd probably have a 20 some, value in trade in so the recommendation that's going to be that he'll be bringing forward is to purchase that vehicle we had some discussion on uh we also had a presentation on more tractors that are up um there's a recommendation that's going to be coming for to replace two mowers um and those will be covered and incidentally both of those will be fully funded by the internal service fund so um and he gave a little update there's going to be a public meeting commissioner Mojo there's going to be a public meeting on the Comstock Urban reconstruction in early January that's got to do with that's going to be funded by the diversion Authority um I think Justin was going to make sure you and I were aware of those dates that concludes my report thank you commissioner gross on the December 6th had meeting talked to on the partnership for health uh talked about the vaping and stuff like that the discussion on that about the think that they're going to bring forward we discussed that at the meeting today that was taken care of then then I attended the AMC meeting uh went to the MRC um on Sunday night representative Paul tlon talked there uh I was surprised to hear that on the people that are doing our lobbying for MRC um r t a daughter to Senator ton so we should have good representation there and pretty much the things that they're going to talk about this year are mandate relief state fraud Paid Family Leave Ambulance Service in rural areas rting Services nursing homes tax and security and highest corporate and highest cor Minnesota is the highest corporate tax so that's some of the items they're going to be talking about this year in the opening session on Monday morning it was pretty much just a verbal description of what he does I don't know if he gives anything new to talk about but just sort of what what he does and what he's done in the past they did talk about uh the 5.1 million billion dollar shortfall the budget come 2728 that they're having some concern about so that'll be coming in the future for you guys to take care of send some money I'm sure they appreciate it um went to one of the one of the I went to was Cannabis used and prevention uh talking about the sales tax that uh it could generate ra and stuff like that for PE for some counties that'll help out let's see the other meting I went to was juvenile delinquency um I thought it was more on reism but uh it was more just on jum getting uh thought the American American um natives are being punished more than the whites so um little discussion of that another one I went to was the roundabouts and this roundabout that we're doing south of Morehead the the company that gave the presentation is the one that designed that one so um they use our roundabout as an example how to do a roundabout about along a railroad track excuse me for my voice it's breaking up I should probably quit talking when one with a sesors survey and roundabout um Thursday morning I went to beyond the yellow ribbon um pretty much talk to MSU getting very active working with the veterans U veterans organization will cover up to 18 credits for veterans going to msum other than that I was just talking about Christmas parties coming up and stuff like that um yesterday talked about uh partnership for health uh we had a request from ail County that they want to withdraw from the partnership from Health thing that we've got that's been going for almost 10 years and they want to withdraw from that so they gave their onee notice yesterday and this morning we had Highway tracking which Kevin talked about that's it thank you commissioner krabo yeah thank you Mr chair uh I to went to the annual the annual conference um my area of Public Health and Human Services uh uh uh administrator LaRon and commissioner Mojo join me in uh doing a ptrf U presentation to the um the Public Health and Human Services U policy committee and thank you to you too I thought and it was very well received um we got good feedback from people throughout the whole um uh conference and and um I think uh extended our promotion to other counties uh going further down the state so we did get responses from uh um henen and also film more of support and maybe others more coming forthcoming so um the other part was um having do I went to uh one about the um the upcoming uh marijana law cannabis I should say and that'll be coming in and one of the concerns that public health has in a big way is in last session in the initial uh framework of the Cannabis um law they were going to allow $10 million to go out to counties for um helping with registration regulation and prevention and they took 3.6 million out of that so uh high on the agenda first is the high cuity that we're dealing with uh in mental health and then second was uh trying to get that 3.6 million back so those are two areas that those uh those agencies will be working with with legislators um Thursday the 12th uh was uh was a PTR prtf uh strategy uh meeting with rep killer uh again um working with the legislative um staff um to get us um deeper into uh agency dialogue along with um moving along to con with AIDS for the governor and and and and again more Outreach to the counties um that that a afternoon I had the class wcd monthly board meeting highlights of that just let you know they had their uh review uh review of the Personnel um committee for their employees uh this will be reflected in their 25 budget uh they're giving a 3% H and then they gave $1 an hour um raise as uh into their Merit U their personnel handbook was also being reviewed to meet new State updates and other requirements so that was updated um want to um talk about one thing snaky Creek which is over on 11th street that repair was completed and they came $40,000 under the estimate and so they're going use those funds working along with u uh just and and the Watershed um to do some ditch repair in uh other ditch repairs in Clay County with that money um they had their annual convention the week before ours um big things were elections budget and I do do want to make me mention of their big legislative um item is going to be the fwcd a when that was passed uh two years ago uh 15 million went in out as s swcd in 2024 and for whatever reason they reduced 2025 to12 million so from what they had last year that is true and they don't get legislators to fill that Gap or get the money back out of the Clean Water fund they will potentially have a reduction from the state of about $770,000 so we'll see where they're at when they come with their budget next spring um yeah I think kind of finishing up on that one uh tree sales have already started they got 18 planning jobs already and it's not even January um Friday we had a uh I'm kind of repeating here a little bit but rep ker um are um another teams meeting with the legislative staff I already mentioned that and then also I had the uh County Extension committee meeting um good meeting uh just uh lot of good back background on the work they've been doing kind of talked about their yearend work and I just want I do want a lot little highlight here I don't have it I had it um how many kids they work with is pretty amazing and uh and had the page marked even anyway I'm just going to give out a couple things awareness so in Clay County they have 584 participants they have uh they had 145 new 4ers in Clay County last year of the group from 2023 they're uh they've retained 75% of the people from that time and um they have 344 Club me Members where they're in clubs and then they have 28 kids in the after school and and partnership programs in Clay County so they do tremendous work and the amount of kids that go to hire Ed is very high and and it's just great leadership and uh what a wonderful program uh we also had a presentation from Julian who is our local educator uh horticulturalist and U Master Gardener and she talked about the work she did the master Garden uh program picked up the had six for this year and they picked up seven new interns and then they talked all the things they do in town doing garden tours and the like and the like so that was that um yesterday uh again back to the P prtf I thought a very exciting day and um we heard at the chamber this morning uh we had uh Senator cek come in with um um uh Health and Human Services chair uh Senator Hoffman from St Paul he will be uh between those two the the big ones will be trying to leverage and uh as we work forward uh with the promotion of the uh prtf um Senator Koopa this morning at the chamber uh leaders Round Table um really did I thought a big shout out raah ra for all the things they saw in uh Senator Hoffman was I take it for his body language and everything he had for that two hours he was excited about what we're doing and couldn't believe how much play County engages not only what they're trying to do there but how they work with the through the juvenile cent center the way of Education transitional and whatnot so it was really nice to get an outside perspective of the grp great work we're doing here so and then this morning back to the event hosted by the chamber we had that leaders Round Table that's my report thank you commissioner Mojo thank you Mr chair last week or starting the first week of December rather I had a number of prtf discussions thankful for the weekly updates that we have with representative Keeler and strategizing how we move that initiative forward Thursday the 5th I had a cap LP discussion dialogue with uh our administrator Larson on cap LP's willingness to provide some sort of Route addition from the DMV to the Walmart bus stop uh we have funded their rural transportation bus and there seems to be an availability for them to offer a route on Mondays so I appreciate that willingness I also had the caplp board and governance board training that evening the next day after six weeks we were able to finally uh procure a meeting with the governor's office so we met with two of Governor walz's Aids on the proposal for the prtf as we continue to uh move that initiative forward uh really grateful for the opportunity to share that need with them Sunday the 8th I am grateful for the opportunity to attend the AMC annual conference and was able to sit through the MRC meeting a really great uh presence from our lobbyist group there and uh bringing awareness to small smaller County issues at the capital and then the 9th through the 11th with all of you was able to attend the entire conference uh great breakout sessions grateful for the opportunity to present at the da or the um Health and Human Services committee I know commissioner ebinger was also able to present the uh prtf component at his Public Safety Committee I was was uh voted chair of uh Vice chair rather of the environment natural resources policy group and uh was able to hand deliver our prtf project to Governor walls on the 12th uh we had an additional additional discussion with uh house research leadership uh for the prtf bill and Friday the uh County Extension committee meeting and another meeting with representative Keeler on the prtf bill I did then have conversations with uh representative Joy on strategizing today we H or yesterday we were able to host Senator Hoffman and Senator kek at the West Central Regional juvenile center really a testament to the work that Klay county has done in lifting that facility all those years ago I know there was a lot a lot of um uh concern from the state on how something like that could work and Klay county is really with the partners of all of the counties that buy the bed purchasing component um it's really a great um facility that we have there and then yesterday we also had the prtf meeting with um Architects and staff this morning I was able to attend the chamber Dialogue on legislative priorities and appre appreciate the LEC for hosting that concludes my reports thank you I'll try and keep it brief um on Wednesday the 4th I participated in the weekly call that commissioner krainov and commissioner Mojo have with um legis with uh legislative excuse me it's been a long meeting uh with with uh uh representative ke Keeler review involving the prtf I was doing that because I was I have uh the ability to reach out to commissioner Schnell with corrections and commissioner Jacobson with Public Safety and uh we wanted to bring them up to speed on this they're both very receptive to the idea I think we're again getting the word out very well I did uh go over the prtf facts with the Public Safety Committee with the AMC at our meeting uh which we had this week I also attended that um we had our public safety policy uh finally voted on the last uh policy priorities we wanted to bring forward uh the rest of the meeting was pretty well covered by by the other Commissioners but as always it was a very informative and productive use of uh 4 days uh I did attend the mcit annual meeting uh while I was there uh we elected new officers and the uh business meeting for the AMC on Thursday the 12th I attended a meeting with the greater or I had a phone conference for the greater faram Morhead DC with Tom Iverson he's a consultant that's doing an evaluation there and wanted some input from me uh Monday we had a meeting with the uh partnership for health and as uh commissioner gross indicated um we are going we did receive notice mod tale that they want to leave the partnership and my understanding is late development will wilin County will also be leaving with with them um it'll be a year that we've got to work our way through this but uh we're prepared to do so and then today before this meeting I attend the chamber legislative meeting I really appreciate the chamber they are actively trying to get the entire County our entire region to engage with our legislators and and uh address the needs of our businesses and that completes my report Steve I thank you Mr chair uh two Tuesdays ago be be we began the uh uh onboarding of commissioner elect Bay both on Tuesday after board and also on Wednesday Wednesday we had a strive leadership meeting we talked about uh our spring intergovernmental Retreat uh looking at leadership as as kind of our our our mantra for this upcoming year uh as uh we had um several meetings La that week with representative Keeler in regards to the p prtf on the 5ifth participated in the capill p uh meeting that commissioner Mojo has spoken about um on the sixth I met with Dan Molly and Derrik Leo and discussed common issues between the county and the city uh um let's see also had some discussions uh that afternoon with uh with Mr Melton Corey bang and Joe Olson in regards to uh Morhead City morehead's request to end potentially end the relationship at the resource recovery uh we'll have some addition meetings coming up with that in early next year with our commissioners uh we met uh with M after that me met with Mr Milton on a series of other issues within the county that evening and participated in the holiday uh holiday party just want to thank our employees that throughout the entire year uh are work hard to make sure that happens working in government we don't have the opportunity to do uh some of the things that private uh companies do and so without their work throughout the year not just on that evening uh through various fundraisers uh they they're able to put on just a really fun evening and so I really want to thank them for that uh on the eth uh participated in a MAA meeting we talked about the legislative sessions budgets uh uh on the 9th through 11th I attended uh with the commission for the AMC annual conference uh again appreciated the opportunity to talk with the Human Service Group I think when when all was said and done the five priorities that came out of AMC this year I think are things that are extremely uh important to our County uh increasing the solid waste tax uh relooking at paid family leave and ESS property tax relief uh Human Service systems uh updates and also mental health and so uh on the 12th I talked with Kathy McCay in regards to the issue with the partnership for health also participated an MCCA jpa prep meeting that meeting will be held this Thursday uh on on the 12th participated in the meetings with representative Keeler and on the 13th uh yesterday participated with Senator cek and Senator Hoffman uh it was a pretty exciting day as was mentioned uh Senator Hoffman just had a great uh great number of questions I found out yesterday that he actually ran a ran a juvenile facility up in Crookston um in his he said 40 years ago so uh and so that was uh that was a he had a a real good understanding of of uh what we're trying to do and so that was great um participated yesterday in the prtf owners meeting uh and just following up on commissioner Campbell January 14th uh is when they hope to have a presentation for this entire board uh the 17th participated today in that legislative chamber event uh just to note right now we do have uh we had a change order for the withdrawal management uh we are targeting December 30th as as move day uh and so we're hoping that everything goes fine with our last couple licenses uh and that can happen um just a reminder that uh we have advertised for you to all to attend a chamber event tomorrow at mstate from 8:00 to 9:30 if you wish uh also just a reminder to our citizens there's no board next week uh uh and on just a reminder because we will not meet again that we'll be having an open house on December 30th from 2: to 4m here in the chambers for commissioner gross that concludes my report all right Miss Milton anything no thank you Mr chair Erin Jackie you've got you've got something I don't Mr chair oh my gosh okay um y'all any additional business God help you if you bring anything up I think we broke some records here appreciate everybody's engagement the meeting is adjourned for