##VIDEO ID:A-ps4zZ9XQM## ready I'm ready good um I'd like to call the uh regular Board of Commissioners meeting uh for the last day of the year to order we'll stand for the pledge in a moment of silence I pledge aliance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with libery and justice for all there we go hey do I apprciate roll call commissioner coring here commissioner ly here commissioner barels here commissioner franzine here commissioner hog here all members are present thank you um this is a moment we could do the open form is there anybody here for open form I don't see anything we don't have anything in front of us and nobody online that you know of no okay we'll dispense with open form uh commissioner comments um just uh just kind of a comment from me is this is my last day as being board chair um and you know when I came into this the the board elected me to be board chair for the last year and it's been kind of an honor and a privilege to do that I also realize that it's actually a duty and a responsibility um not All Counties have a um a rotating board chair as this as this County does this County takes every commissioner and has their opportunity to serve as board chair which I think is is part of the duty and responsibility of being elected official um I'd like to thank everybody uh on the board for allowing me to be the board chair for this last year and uh and that's all I had so I just wanted to make that comment thank you review and approve minutes so moved second okay I've got to guess now which one give it to Paul give it to Paul okay we have a motion from franzine a second from Paul all in favor signify by saying I I I I motion carried uh review and approve the agenda motion to approve second we have a motion by coring seconded by franzine all in favor signify by saying I I I all opposed motion carried consent agenda Mr chair I would make the motion to approve second motion by Barrow second by Francine all in favor signify by saying I I I motion carries Community Services I think is our next item up here uh personal budget amendment public health nurse cannabis and substance of use is who is up here to speak to that oh uh hold on can't hear you though I am not muted yep I can now okay cool I apologize for not being there I'm a bit under the weather today so didn't want to bring it in to anybody but I am here to discuss the um proposed new position for public health uh public health nurse for the Cannabis and substance use uh prevention Grant um as you heard in Personnel Community Services received $1 16,569 128 for cannabis substance use prevention uh work the position we're asking for is a public health nurse um Position will work to um I apologize participate in site visits to um complete the grant reconciliation process with mt mdh participate in regularly scheduled calls and meetings with mdh provide technical assistance calls webinars and trainings they will attend those um participate in required evaluation activities um and then also do prevention work out in the community they'll also partner with our blade coordinator to ensure that we're not duplicating any efforts um this is work that we are required to do by mdh the position will be fully funded by the grant as well as foundations of Public Health dollars and will not be or have an impact to the levy so we're looking for your approval today to add a public health nurse for this work um you said this is not affecting the levy at all this is not a this is all from funds coming from the state ahead of time to approve for substance abuse for THC right that is correct okay and we can use it for other other things are just THC um it can be used for all substance um Abuse Prevention uh activities and so while THC or cannabis is the um priority area we will be utilizing the position to address all sorts of substances okay Mr chair yes so did we talk about this somewhere else at Personnel yep yes okay I thought we did I don't think I was in favor for this was I correct regular agenda that's right okay now it's coming back to me sorry about that okay memory laps Mr chair Let It Be noted also that if the grant doesn't continue this position will also not continue correct that is correct thank you for bringing that up barrows Mr chair if there's no other discussion I would make the motion to approve we have a motion do we have a second second motion by Barrow second by hog all in favor signify by saying I I motion carries was there no I voted no oh I didn't hear you but you didn't say ask okay you voted no I voted no okay so we have uh four yeses and one no motion carries thank you you're welcome um next public he nuisance good morning Mr chair members of the board the property that I've brought to you today is located at the 2,000 block of Rebel Road in marafield we have declared it a public health nuisance there are multiple concerns on this property as you can see from the images there's a lot of household waste um there's there's many trailers Vehicles campers that have Windows that have been busted out and are further uh deteriorating um as we speak it's the the property owner unfortunately has passed away so we're working through uh the attorney's office or with the attorney's office with Land Services to kind of coordinate um the process of this property which is currently going through probate so we're here today to ask permission to Abate the public health nuisance if the the representative that's been uh determined to to now have uh authority over this property if they aren't able to Abate it or it continues to be a nuisance then we'd like to be able to step in and clean it any questions Mr chair if there's no questions or concerns I would make the motion to approve the resolution that's attached regarding the public health nuisance at 23442 Rebel Road Mayfield second um sorry to interrupt there's actually an updated resolution hold on Steph one second there hi Stephanie go ahead there's now an updated resolution with respect to this property um when we submitted it last week we were looking for um some concerns with respect to explosives um that is no longer a concern for the personal representative who's handling the estate but we do have some issues with open burning and combustibles um and so pollution from that so we did do an amended I don't know if Bethany gave that to theres or not um I can send if you can email that over to Tre I don't have it yet I will email it to you right now Tes and we're just taking out this whereas so it is this one right here I'm assuming with the explosives the part of the explosives and there's just some other changes um including one about um fires about the burning the fires are on the habitat habitat for f we did an initial cease assist on open burning and and then we did an additional cease and deist just this past month uh in regards to any burning on the property because of our concerns for combustibles so Mr chair first of all I'm going to withdraw my motion and would there be any problem with moving this to the January 7th meeting TimeWise no no issues with moving it um other than than just having something in place so that we can move forward if it continues like I said to be a concern there are people on the property that that are not like they're occupants but they're not residents they're not legal Mr chair if I may may make a suggestion if we set this aside until later on in the meeting and we have that email that that updated version of the resolution emailed and have us in front of us and then we can decide what we're going to do then yeah it's already on the agenda it's just getting this document in the format that we want to have it to make sure we corre I apologize for the last minute changes it's a moving Target at the moment pretty active on can we have that I do have it here okay if we can get it printed out so we can all look at that I think that's a great idea or do you want it on the screen um yeah really the the changes are removing the issue with the explosives and then um noting that there is a personal representative who now is part of the property um and the the issue of um open burning has been added and then on the uh resolution at the very bottom it originally says Abate the property at the property owner's expense I did remove at the property owner's expense because the property owner is at this time deceased and it's going through probate so I just said Abate it and then number three talks about it being assessed to the property as mandated by Statute and I think we're fine with that um but those are the substantial changes that had to be made would you be okay making a motion based upon what's on the screen or would you want to see it in print that is that is the resolution there right screen as long as it doesn't change at all I mean I'm I'm I'm asking I'm asking the board if what what is your preference so Stephanie for this is commissioner barrows for clarification you said that you added something at the owner's expense and yet it has it it says that we're going to assess it against the property pursuant to the the uh Provisions correct um commissioner bar so number two of the resolution used to end with at the prop proper owner expense so that's not on the the new version that you have correct correct I removed that since the property owner is deceased um and it is going through probate the personal representative is hoping to sell the property there are open Communications with her um that have been ongoing she was just appointed the personal representative and there have been a lot of issues with respect to the person who is residing with the prop property owner at the time of his death um this is something as U Bethany talked about not only Land Services Public Health but there's also been um quite a bit of law enforcement contact with the property uh since his death so those are the major changes I think the biggest thing is removal of the explosive issue and then adding of the significant fire hazard um to re uh because of the concerns about open fires um when the property was last looked at um and discussions with law enforcement there is a garage on the property with a wood sto stove within it there are multiple combustibles within that um structure and there's essentially a tarp hanging over one corner of that structure and there's large concerns about what all is within that garage and if there was to be a fire um what that would do to the air and possible pollutants um within that garage if there was a fire which is why we're adding that with respect to this resolution as Bethany said we're hoping that we don't have to do anything um because the personal representative is in good contact with us but we just want this available if things progress or if she's not able to do something additionally if she does sell the property this is already on the record if we have the resolution which is something that the potential buyers need to know if it's sold prior to um completely evading the property so Mr chair at this point I'm not comfortable approving this until I see an a truly updated resolution that we can vote on if that can be accomplished by the end of the meeting I am willing to move this to the end of the meeting and we'll review it at that point this is the amended this is she it to me and this is it but number two doesn't follow am I misunderstanding something number two where the period ends here if you look on the other one number two it says at the property owner okay I was looking at that first one please so this was the old one and then this was the one she emailed me and this is the new one that you would be voting on got it I was looking at the other one and thinking that that was the one okay so I understand now so personally I'm comfortable now making that uh motion but I want to know from the other Commissioners if they're comfortable before I make it that's okay so Mr chair hearing no concerns from the other Commissioners I'll make the motion to approve the updated resolution as presented to us regarding the nuisance at 23442 Rebel Road mfield Minnesota I have second second motion by Barrow second by hog all in favor signify by saying I I I I I did I hear I okay none opposed motion carries now DHS cost neutral transfer agreement and Bridges of Hope contract who is here to speak to that Tammy good morning good morning chair ly and fellow Commissioners Tammy L Adult Services manager at community services and yes I'm here to talk about the DHS cost neutral transfer agreement and um with that we'd like to bring forward um a request Around The Bridges of Hope contract for Sheltering um uh just to give some history on this back in November 2nd of 2022 when um when we worked with Community Partners to develop and work on the Sheltering um of our homeless individuals in the community um during the winter months um we had put forward this request to DHS because we had learned that um counties could take beds that you have that you're holding um we have around 50 beds that we are not utilizing this is what we've used when we developed the White Oaks project over in Baxter um for mental health consumers so we have an opportunity to um put forward a cost neutral transfer request and that's what we did we requested 20 beds to be transferred um and what happens when you do this is instead of um so instead of these being just kind of single beds um out at like an like we did at White Oaks this would go into kind of a pool to to cover the cost of Sheltering individual over at the bridge on 7th and so we've been waiting for quite some time I think I've come here a couple times and mention that um and we did receive word from DHS um I think back kind of around the end of November because I think we were here and at that time there was um the opioid Coalition had put forward a request to ask for the shelter to be open year round instead of just the winter months and um I think there were some dollars that were earmarked through opioid this um cost neutral transfer would allow us not to need to utilize any opioid funds for the bridge on 7th um this really will cover the costs for them to be um operating annually based on what they've um put together I think if you remember Bridges was here and did a little overview of the numbers being served and then what it would cost for them um and the time that they would need to put into those extra days of care um throughout the year so what I'm asking is to approve the agreement between the state of Minnesota through the Department of Human Services homeless housing and support services division and Crowing County to support people with um disabilities experiencing homelessness that are in need of emergency shelter unfortunately we need to ask for this to be through January 1st 2025 through June 30th of 2025 for up to $181,400 um and this is because that we're working with the state fiscal year so when I come back in May um I hope to bring a full fiscal year because we'll go with the state's fiscal year at that time which would be July 1st through June 30th of 26 just a quick question then Tammy is that $181,000 just for the six months then it is just for the six months um the allocation for 20 July 25 through June of 26 um is estimated to be at $162,200 if there's no increase potentially we would be getting an increase annually based on the housing support rate goes up usually doesn't always but if it would if it were to go up we would potentially get an increase but at this time based on the current rate that that would be the dollars that we would receive for a year ask for a whole year correct I will be asking for a whole year is it adequate funds to do what you want to do with it I mean I don't know yeah I think um when Bridges put in their initial just kind of they did some initial work on this they were right around 300 a little over 300,000 um and this grant they can only invoice up to so if they don't need the dollars they won't be able to um access them all but currently the shelter um has been running over the 20 um actually closer to the 30 their Max there is 30 um during these winter you know during the last month so um not every night and we don't know what summer months will bring because we may see a see some reduction in that but um this is for 20 um beds to be occupied the need is there is what you're saying if it's okay and then the second part of my request and I'm not exactly sure how you'd like to handle this today but um it was recommended that I bring them both just because they tie together this grant can only be utilized for emergency Sheltering and we would like to then go into contract with Bridges of Hope um being that they are our emergency shelter provider currently and that would be January 1st through June 30th um only up to that $181,400 permission for us to move forward with that agreement with Bridges of Hope and those dollars are all coming from the state they're not they're not County dollars and they're not uh Opia dollars correct okay any other questions from the so I would make the motion to approve the contract with the state of Minnesota and the contract with Bridges of Hope to follow that contract with the state of Minnesota to provide the uh Sheltering for homeless individuals from January 1 through June 30th motion do we have a second motion by Barrow second by hog all all in favor signifying by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carried I didn't hear either you or did you a or I you rule it if you rule it pass unanimously that's the way it works Mr okay I didn't hear it I didn't hear you matter it doesn't matter doesn't matter whether you vote or not if you don't vote the vote goes with the majority okay good I'll remember that next time I'm here motion carried thank you very much Tammy thank you thank you dammy next Land Services morning Chris good morning Mr chair and Commissioners and happy New Year good morning thank you uh what you have before you today is U um a memorandum agreement to implement the cing river comprehensive watershed management plan if you remember back on November 26 the County Board adopted the watershed management plan as the water plan for that part of the County uh the next step now is to basically enter into a member of agreement to U agree to work with um the other local government units within the Watershed to implement the plan uh there is nothing in this agreement that has any requirements on our end about certain financial resources or that the money that will be coming from the state through watered based implementation fund funding from the state will be there to implement you know part of the County's role with implementing the plan will be continuing doing Planning and Zoning activities and and enforcing the ordinances and and that that's the main role that the county has in this um if you go to page 129 is this any different than any of the other Watershed plans we're in this is the same process and same process yeah so as a reminder this is the crowing Watershed itself you know we are we're at the bottom of the Watershed it actually um the crowing River actually um goes is the Confluence is at the Mississippi River at crowing State Park um so we do have a small part of it but it is a pretty important part of our County as far as our lakes with GA Lake and um North long um round Hubert those Lakes over there on that side of the county so um I would uh um ask for approval today to um to approve the memoranda of agreement allowing the county to collaborate with other counties and S swcds within the Watershed and to allow the board chair and the environmental services manager to sign the memorandum agreement and this is one of the Watershed plans that I've been on and and we just got it pretty well wrapped up don't we correct it's going to be going to um the board of water on sore resources in January for final approval so it's on the very last uh we're on the and this will be the last Watershed plan that we'll be working on as the county the only there's one more we have five watersheds in the county and this will be the fourth that we've done then um down in commission Coran's District we have Mississippi sartel but we have such a small piece of it that we're just going to opt to not be part of the planning process and and we can opt into the implementation agreement you know down the road if we want to but they're just really in the getting it started up in the planning process right now for the Mississippi sartel Watershed any other questions from the board motion to approve second we have a motion by franzine second by coring all in favor signify by saying I I I hi post same sign hearing none motion carries thank you thank you CHR County engineer I'm smiling good morning Mr chair and Commissioners I have one information only item for you today and when I originally scheduled this and put this on the agenda I I was not sure that I would be able to speak to some of you about it and I wanted to take an opportunity to make sure I have an opportunity we have some short deadlines for a grant that's coming up and I'd like to discuss some of that with you today the first thing I want want to really touch on is the comprehensive plan and uh this County uh worked really hard to to finish that this year and in the transportation section I think it's really important it ties to my information and future request is um a trend that is contained in the transportation chapter and there are five Trends but this is one of them sustained occurrences of fatal and serious crashes on state highway system within Crowing County and I think all of us know that that is a true ISM it's uh continues to be a problem but some of the opportunities that are identified in the comprehensive plan are continued to Foster planning and funding Partnerships with the Minnesota dep Department of Transportation which will result in the advancement of safety Improvement projects that align with the priorities important to croing County and its local Partners act another bullet point is actively participated in developing formal State Highway Corridor management studies and develop future land regulations to implement and uh to implement the identifi safety strategies and finally actively seek Grant applications from state federal and other specialty Transportation funds to supplement existing funding sources to assist with achieving priorities important to Crowing County and its local partners and so when when the highway department is putting together its portion of the comprehensive plan this is a trend that emerged and we had identified some of the opport OPP unities that will help us address those fatalities and serious crashes that happen where our system intersect with the state highway system of course that's the most volumous roads that we have and I'm here today to give you information about one of those opportunities to seek grant funding to address the priorities of Coran County we're closely with our partners and hopefully um be able to deliver those to our residents and guests in the coming years so over the last 18 months or so croan county has been working closely with menot the partners at Baxter niswa and others to develop a corridor plan for 371 that stretches from the river bridge south of bter all the way up to County Road 18 in niss it's the uh the second light and through that process um which included public involvement so far and um other opportunities for engagement the team has developed several near-term midterm and long-term strategies to address the challenges that are happening on the 371 Corridor between Baxter and Isa and although the the plan is not completely done um it's it's due to wrap up over the next 6 months or so but the near-term Alternatives um and concepts are ready to uh advance and so also recently mindat approached uh approach me to request that we take the lead on a grant a Federal grant opportunity it's it's called a raise Grant which is rebuilding American infrastructure and sustainability and Equity Grant initially menot was going to be the applicant but because of uh some limitations on the amount that the state amount of applications the state can apply for and frankly some strategic thinking about U being successful with the grant it was uh suggested that croing County be the applicant with all of the partners lending their support behind the application and so uh the raise Grant that I am going to ask for formal um consideration next Tuesday on Friday um will be for between 20 and 25 million we're still finding the number with our partners and what that what is be um what we need to ask for and it's intended to fund the near-term strategies identified in that planning effort that's been going on for for 18 months and those include the realignment of a couple skewed intersections these are the ones that come in at an angle where you have to look through your back window to find out and judge the speed of traffic in your gap on 371 at Barbo and Johnson Road those have been on our radar screen for many many years this is an opportunity to fund that also some offset left turn Lanes at a couple key intersections where you can have a better chance of seeing around traffic that's stacked up up in the opposing left turn lane so you can better judge your Gap when you're making lefts on a couple key intersections and then a fairly widespread use of the median J turns these are the things that are on either side of the peat Lakes bypass you're seeing them they've been Incorporated in front of vir and other locations and this is been a proven strategy to reduce the type of right angle crashes that result in serious uh injuries and fatalities it does require you to make a U-turn go North to go south go south to go north and although it's a little sometimes can be inconvenient the statistics are pretty clear that these have a large reduction in the crashes that result in those serious and fatal crashes there's also the incorporation of a couple new intersections in Nisa where there's plan development Nisa has done a very good job of planning they've had some developers come forward that are imminent and uh the introduction of some new intersections on 371 not signalized intersections these restricted movement intersections that allow people to get in and out um but by putting those inter sections in place before the development is there we can ensure the safety of the public um at those locations as development occurs there's also an opportunity to potentially extend the op the or seiz the opportunity to possibly extend the front engine backage Road Network along the 371 Corridor of course we had done that at at theater road we have a few opportunities that we can continue to advance to keep people off of trunk HBY 371 if they don't need to be there and then finally some other improvements like the message board so you might see these I don't know exactly where they're at on your way down to Little Falls I who knows where the potato fields are you used they have a big message sign that says blowing snow and things like that there are a couple opportunities uh and problem areas along between Baxter and miswa that they feel that those are necessary and I agree you think about the blowing and drifting that's coming across Gull Lake there um to be able to warn motorists coming north and south of upcoming hazardous conditions and so they'll take the opportunity to install those as well so in so a lot of these fairly low cost options are the what we consider the near-term uh strategies to improve the safety of the 371 Corridor and so so all of those things will be incorporated in a request and make up the cost of 20 to 25 million dollars that we're going to ask for we'd like to ask for from the federal government to help us out uh with improving the safety of 371 Corridor now you may wonder about matching funds there's always you know when when you get Federal money state money normally it requires a matching funds from theow local agencies in this case because it is federal money minda is a local agency that would have to provide a match Crowing County the first assessment district and some of those areas potentially niswa Baxter in this particular case there is a portion of Crowing County that continues to be identified as a area persistent poverty as identified in the 2020 census and I kind of SC because um I don't feel much of croan County you know particularly on that Corridor there are areas there are areas of course within C County but because that area identified by the 2020 census exists we are able to write this grant to eliminate the local match for menot croing County First assessment d andisa so I've seen a draft of the grant they've Incorporated that in there they asking specifically they identify that area on a map and the rule is if any portion of your project is touched by this you qualify for 100% funding by the federal government and so we're continuing down that path hoping that there will be none but even if there is some that squirts out and there's a local match to it the strategies that we're talking about primarily are within the men. RightWay and so any local match that any any local agency would have to pay for is for your stuff so if it's in the men. RightWay which is a very R Corridor you think of these median u-turns these signs some of these new intersections they're primarily within the mot right away and mot would pay the local match for that if we have a little connection on a side road like barbell Road for example we go down the road uh a few hundred feet or something like that we might have a cauer on that but that is minuscule compared to the the 20 you know the vast majority that men not would pay for so I guess I'm trying to say that they're we're not sure about um the local match we're we're applying for 100% but I believe the exposure is minimal considering we only pay the match on our little little portion of the project it might be a 20 million project but the vast vast majority probably 19 million of that will be the responsibility of mad and they would pay the and minda would pay the local match on that Mr chair yep so Tim I did ask you this question when you called and talk to me about this and and um that's that's the only thing that you know I think this is a great idea the only thing is is you know NIS if if nisah has some Buy in or Baxter has some Buy in their pockets aren't as deep and I think we just got to be mindful of that and that's the only thing I'm worried about that that the city council of nisah and backers have Buy in on this and realize that there could be some exposure yes and so that's the only thing that's the only thing that I can think of that I'm concerned about yes and as I mentioned the local match for those cities we're going to apply for 100% of that I I have reached out to the cities of Baxter and iswa and and the next Tu to day and ask them to um be here to answer any questions those concerns about whether they're elected officials or inter or not it will like it will likely be the administrators they are working in the partnership to educate their elected officials to see if they're interested in providing letters of support that will supplement this application and they're menots working on a lot at or federal Representatives state representatives local agencies I think Sheriff clang is going to be contacted and see if he is willing to um consider letters of support that will be be compiled for this large application I think he was just notified yeah he's not the maps he's Notting his head up and down I think that's a good indicat absolutely okay um so if so this is similar to The Interchange where we were uh successful as a part parnership same partnership uh essentially to land some State money to build the interchange and um although it wasn't cro County Roads we were the applicant we received this successful award and we have now asked mot because it's their roads essentially turn the money over and the controls to them to design their system and work at local agencies this is very similar croing County will be the applicant we have a few more touch points than The Interchange actually we have zero on The Interchange but we will uh be working with mindat to transfer them the funds as they develop the project and go through uh the design process so Mr chair so then that brings up another question so being that they will once they have the money and they develop what they think are the fixes um you know as 12 years here I found that doesn't matter which Road you fix um somebody's upset about something so we aren't the Count's not going to be doing the the uh design or any work like that they will be in control of all that and so any feedback will have to go to the state do correct correct this so similar to The Interchange too I'm just that's the parallel here is that we had worked uh on a partnership on a $20,000 budget to do a study would to come up with some Concepts and then the concepts were used to secure the money and then through the process that's been working so far we developed those Concepts in much more detail the money to to Deep dive into those Concepts and found out that some of those have some problems and we need to figure out other solution and evaluate other Solutions similarly here we are applying for the money on Concepts J turns new intersections realignment signs and things like that but once the money is there if if we're awarded the money the hard work begins it'll be a whole new public Outreach there'll be public meetings about it there'll be minicipal consent required likely from each of of the cities of Baxter so the elected officials including yourselves because we have touch points on the counter system we'll get another bite at the Apple as the Deep dive on exactly which roads are impacted what the final configuration is and so it's we're getting the money on Concepts and then the hard work begins to get the dirty details which includes more involvement more decisions from uh the elected bodies and so that's where people will be able to um voice their pleasure or displeasure with some of the things and there is a process for that this is one we're applying for what are our chances our chances look pretty good on well I I mean this is I mean it's kind of like we're here to go to here to go to here to finally get to there it's it's hard to say on these federal grants because it is federal it is it is Federal grant it's very competitive one thing that I learned through this process when mindat was going to be the lead applicant um this is one of only three areas in Minnesota where men menot identified as they're going to apply for this chunk of money they only have limited amount of opportunities apply for this 25 million and I'm not sure where the other three are but I'm glad that croing county in this Corridor which continues to underperform in terms of uh fatalities congestion and serious injuries has risen to the top of their list so if they feel that it's the number three area in the state I think our chances are fairly good and um and I'm glad they they reached can't get the money unless he try and I tell you what this Coalition and this partnership behind this thing is immense yeah I'm glad they I do like our chances I'm glad they reached out to you in regards to this because you've had pretty good luck with with working with these things in the past it's a it's I don't know if luck is in there but it's a partnership we plan I mean I could go back to our strategic plan is like we plan for this so when these opportunities show up we're ready and we thought about it our partners are around us and ready to act and that that's what they're asking us to do now initially mindat was going to do it they've asked us to do it and we've been successful doing that for them in other places and we should continue that in my opinion so today it was again only for uh information only I'll come back on the 7th and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have and be prepared to answer them on the 7th if you are satisfied today I can come back and put it on the consent calendar or I can sit right in front of you again go through it answer more questions maybe the public generates some questions through through this um opportunity and they ask you and then you'll want an opportunity to ask me in person right sitting right here in the 7th so that's the information I have today I'd be happy to answer any questions or any concerns you have I guess I'll I'll be comfortable with it on the consent agenda on the 7th but I Mr chair yes so the only thing is is is if you're asking the uh if it's on the consent usually doesn't create a whole lot of conversation and if we have some representatives from Baxter and thisa and I think it's probably good to have it so I just would like to hear it from their mouth if their councils are okay cuz you know I I just don't want to have a you know like let's say I don't know hypothetically let's say something happens at 50,000 for Nisan I'm it might never even happen but if it is that's a lot of money to them yep I would agree Paul so maybe not put it on see I think what I glean out of this is safety safety safety you know people might say what and uh heck are they spending all this money it's all about safety it's all about um you know I I was talking to Tim about o jib Road when somebody pulled out with a boat and somebody on a motorcycle and I think that person got killed nashv yeah and so it's just it's really government County state federal trying to make the road safer for the traveling public which I think is a great thing so thank you maybe one last comment really an ask I mean I see a request for board action it is more of an information yes information only so so on next Tuesday it'll be a similar request for board action information and there will be a resolution that addresses some of those things um including you know an understanding of the local match and then it's directing me to apply for it and be the lead agency you know traveling that road since 73 since I've been in town and and when I had business and lived up north I would have never assumed that that road ever even thought would have got as busy as it has and and you know in retrospect if we could have been ahead of some of those things before the development started you know we could have done a better job this here will give us an opportunity because we don't know what this Road's going to look like in another 20 years and so this will give us an opportunity maybe get ahead of some of that before it becomes how can we fix what's already happened right so I think it's a great idea I think with this and I I put it in the notes there is that I I think without a large dump of money and kind of trying to take care of it all at once they it may never happen to get these types of systematic uh and impactful improvements of 371 when I left mindat 15 years ago I was trying to do this type of thing median closures and and eliminating those uh right angle crashes through lefts and throughs and those two-stage crossings that are resting having bad bad results and I think we got finally got bir two years ago I mean a portion of it and it was very difficult to get in a couple of those so we've been working on this a long time when the money is there in large chunks like this with a strong partnership I think that's the only way to get it done it'll be a long time before we get back if we don't get a specialty funding like that you make it one here and take years and years and and um over that time people are having bad crashes along there so I appreciate your support I will put it on the regular agenda I do plan to have representatives from our partnership group at mot backer and this here I've invited them and uh we'll be able to take formal action then or consider formal action then on Tuesday thank you Tim anything else from the board Tim no okay County Sheriff I think you're next on the agenda yes we anything for you today you're not even going to come up and say hi I certainly can do that I'll never miss that opportunity well it's hard to hear otherwise yeah right well thank you I don't know do you guys have anything you want to share or think about yeah I think everything's uh been going good we're wrapping up 2024 and getting all our training done and um you know a lot of people leave that training to the end so we're trying to uh all us procrastinators um are trying to knock that out the before the end of the year so we uh um yeah we're excited about 20125 we got a lot of good things that are going to be happening in 2025 we also probably have some really good challenges too that'll be um be hard on us as well Recruitment and Retention in the jail I think is still still is a challenge for us and uh we plan on making some uh good strides and trying to creatively come up with some ideas to bring and keep people uh in our jail so Mr chair so Sheriff just a reminder uh uh looked through the bills that were all sent Commissioners warrants and um dog food was in there so I just remind you Sarah Barrett's willing to of Barrett Pet Foods is willing to donate P I don't know if you reached out to her yet yeah I appreciate that appreciate that cont I I appreciate that contact you be up here for a reason no yeah absolutely no we uh I did uh share that with Nick sensor one of our Dog Handlers and he was going to reach out uh we had some other people too that reached out to us and wanted to provide uh some dog food too now so I don't um I'll good so if I see another bill I'll remind you again yes that sounds very good perfect and Don too probably I don't have any dogs oh okay yeah so thank you yeah thank you nothing else thank you sherff yeah thanks a lot for this last Happ New Year good support yeah Happy New Year to you guys and Doug again thank you for your uh good support we sure appreciate you and it was H fun working with you so you bet it has thank you County attorney I don't have anything today either Mr chairman I came primarily to thank uh commissioner hog and Doug for all his years of service and stuff and um otherwise I could have stayed back to my office and cuz I had nothing to present but I am here to answer any question it's nice to see you in the flesh thank any anything for County attorney from the board I have no uh intentions of getting a dog either just so you know commissioner CL happy New Year everybody okay thank you likewise for saying that so County Administrator Mr chair there was no senior management team report um there was no meeting and the next next item is citizen committee appointments if there's any District specific ones um we would take those at this time I have not been nobody has told me any right now but I do have three at large ones that are chair appointments yep and that would be uh Bob Sharon sh Brock on BR on the Raleigh Johnson natural and re recreational area joint Powers board and then both Caitlyn roach is a delegate and Rex roach as an alternate on the central Minnesota EMS region advisory committee and that's who I have heard from so far okay so those three for sure and then if there's any other District ones and they both serve all three have served before I know I know yeah yep I see no problem with appointing those people I don't know if there's a formal action you take on that you all you have to do is say you make that appointment I will make that appointment thank you thank you Paul I appreciate that thank you Mr chair that's all I have uh Mr chair just a question um uh I know that we asked for letters of support just curious curiosity I think we're going to make that decision on the 7th for the airport commission how many letters have we received any those letters of Interest are due today at 4:30 okay so they still have time to get some in I believe there's three no okay okay okay all right thank you um I see we're at additional business and I have none but I think uh we have the upcoming recognition of the outgoing County Commissioner Doug hog and I think Paul were you going to did you want to speak to that yes I can speak to that thank you well first of all I I just I don't know it's kind of a sad day because I Doug and I have become really close friends um I think all of us whether we agree or disagree politically we somehow have to get along and um you know of course Doug and I have had our ups and downs but um we've become close friends and I'm really sad to see him leave you know I I think about you you lost and it's hard to lose because I've I've lost three elections and CU I know it's hard to lose because the people people didn't vote you back in but that that doesn't mean that you haven't done a good job I I will tell you in the 12 years that I've been here we have done I think and I'm obviously I'm very biased towards grro County but we've we've made some huge changes here this County was had a lot of debt when Doug first got elected we have zero debt there is not very many counties that can say they have zero debt we had 8 years of zero Levy some I I that's kind of unheard of probably now that we look back we might say we went a little bit far on that but but but I think it's still something to be proud of I think we were we realized we might have been over collecting and we had a lot of money in reserves and so we were able to figure out how to give relief to people in Crowing County so that was a huge thing another huge thing was the way we changed County government it used to be that we'd elect the auditor elect the treasurer elect the recorder and we went to the legislature and Doug was obviously involved in all of these things and we asked for special legislation to really do County in a different kind of way you know years ago people would go to the auditor's office on the second floor FL and have some paperwork and then they'd say okay here's your paperwork now go down to the recorder and they go down and they'd stamp it and then they'd have to go back up and pay for it now it's a One-Stop shop it's really customer service orientated and that was all Doug and the rest of us realizing that the citizens of croing County we're working for them and our employees are working for them and we try to make it easy and I I I I can say that I think it works great when you go over to Land Services it's a One-Stop shop so that was a huge thing um at the time I think one of our legislators wasn't really I think they They carried it but they weren't really in favor of it but we got it done anyway Doug was uh really instrumental with some huge changes in the milord mine park now if anybody's here in the audience or listening the Milford mine Park if you've never been up there there's there's boardwalks and it's a be if you like nature and you like to walk it's an absolutely beautiful facility and um Doug was instrumental in getting money to improve that I will say that the Emily the new our brand new Emily Park is I don't think any of us can take credit for that that was all that was all on Doug and I can remember uh we all went up there on a back on a dirt road and got back there and it was muddy and of course I don't like to get my feet muddy but uh but it was muddy and we were back there and said I I never saw the vision it was just a bunch of mosquitoes and woods and and Doug says yeah I'd like to have this park here and in my mind I never voiced this to him but I said I in my mind I thought well this is a stupid idea but if you've if you have not been up to the the new Emily I know Emily Park I I mean it is unbelievable there's a swimming beach there's uh Gary had brought all his staff up there and had hot dogs and hamburgers and Doug and I went up there and it is unbelievable and the amount of people that are starting to use these I will say 12 years ago when I first got elected I thought County Parks were the dumbest idea that I could ever think of and I will say I've evolved I uh I drive by South Long Lake Park every day which is in my district and I see the people that are using them they're enjoying our area and so hats off on the Emily Park Doug I don't know that we're going to name it after you but but uh but you certainly deserve a lot of credit for for that Doug has gone through a lot in his 18 years here and I hope you don't mind me saying this but Doug lost his son too when he was serving here and it's that was a difficult time and um Doug continues to serve his community with raising money for the diabetes for for the hospital there and and um I I just it's not easy serving the public um somebody's mad I you normally don't ever have people call up and say oh thanks for taring my road thanks for doing this you always hear the complaints but you know what we all signed up for this we all signed up for public service I know I uh I like it most of the time sometimes I don't but but I will say Doug I just uh like I said I'm really sad to see you leave you have done great work and you've got a lot to be proud of and I'm I'm glad to call you my friend so thank you Doug thank [Applause] you you can stay [Applause] sitting I don't know you're able to come down for a picture oh we'll make her okay unless you want to say something first would you like you'll have to ask board chair if you can speak though I didn't uh really prepare anything but we could sit here for a day and list off all of the oh no doubt all of the changes that this board has uh made some some not typical County government uh we've never had a fear of wandering out and being kind of a a first if you will and and that feels good when uh when you've got stories like that to tell uh successful stories um so we we've done so much in the 18 years here that uh uh I'm just proud of every person out in that audience every employee we have and it's it's been a real fun ride so I will miss everyone and and uh but uh I'll stay in touch sounds good let's get a picture you move those down a little a little are we in far enough I'm you're off center off center seems like a Saturday Night Live deal St ready one two three let me get one more here right [Laughter] if there is nothing else Mr chair oh oh oh I would like uh Doug to please make a motion if there is nothing else to um uh motion to adjourn second motion made in second and all in favor signify by saying I I all same sign we are adjourned thank you