Thank you. The clerk will take the role. Here commissioner Meisner here. Mr. Heinrich here. Commissioner Brastead here. And we are all here this morning. Uh item number four is the consider the accepting the regular claims paid for five over $500 on the purchase card claims paid for the period ending April 18th, 2025 and May 2nd, 2025. Do I have a motion? So moved. It's been moved by Commissioner Brasha. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Commissioner Schulty. Any discussion or questions? Seeing none, this roll call vote. Commissioner Gamash. Hi. Commissioner Schulty. Hi. Commissioner Jeepson. Hi. Commissioner Meisner. Hi. Commissioner Heinrich. Hi. Commissioner Brastead. Hi. Commissioner Reiner. Hi. That passes unanimously. Item number five is the approval of the minutes from the April 22nd, 2025 county board meeting. Is there a motion? So moved. Moved by Commissioner Meisner and seconded by Commissioner Jeepson. Any changes or discussions? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Hearing none. It passes unanimously. We'll move down to chair's remarks. Item number six. Uh we have one item under chair's remarks today and that is to acknowledge Tanya West Hoffner, Department Director of Community and Government Relations at Anoka County and her commitment to the National Association of County Community and Economic Development, NACID. NASID is a volunteer-driven organization that includes professionals from across the country who advance the interests of counties and their residents. In 2024, Tanya served as a as served on NA nayed's executive committee as its past president. In her capacity as a board member, she helped the association establish community development, economic development, and affordable housing initiatives of the organization, improve feedback to federal agencies involved in community development work, specifically the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and facilitate educational opportunities for local government staff to enable community development professionals to become more effective at their work. I received a letter from David Saxs, the current president of NASA, saying many great things that were added to this about the work that Tanya has done over the years and wanted to thank us for giving her the time to do that. So, we want to ask Tanya to come up and say a few words about her involvement with the organization and uh just tell us a little bit more. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much, Chair Gamash and and commissioners. I just first of all want to start off obviously with a big thank you for allowing me to to continue in that role when I started here. I as the first year I was here I was the media past president obviously the year before that I was the president and so it's a lot of of a commitment to send staff to multiple things um and out of town and and that kind of stuff and providing us with that time to do that. So I I truly appreciate that. Um, I just want to quick thank the NASA president, um, David Saxs, who was my secretary when I was the president, um, for sending in that kind letter. Um, as you said, um, NASA is a a national organization that was it's affiliate of NAO. So that's you guys have seen me at the NATO conference because we attend typically attend the legislative agenda conference to get uh NAO to put on their platform increased or at least stable funding for the the federal housing programs through the community planning and development or the HUD programs, the home and CDBG dollars. Um, and you know, it started off that I just started attending conferences because I got the opportunity to. And so then it just kind of snowballed from there, I guess you'd say. Um, because they had they usually had their all their committee meetings and their board meeting that would all happen during that during that time. And so you got to kind of see all how everything kind of interacted, all the different committees that they have. They have a housing committee and a community development committee and economic development committee. And it's all the work that we do. So, you get to have this incredible national um resource at your fingertips essentially and you know having it's almost like having another staff person um because you have so many people that you get to know and and have different expertise in the different programs and I always felt really comfortable about calling people and asking them questions or you know really relying on their expertise or saying hey I got this idea you think that might work obviously we have a really close network here in our metro area because all the all of the counties are members of of NASA. Um, so I have a really good deep relationship with all of them, but really established a lot a really great network throughout the whole country, but then also just established really good relationships and friendships. And I guess I'd probably consider some of them to be be my family essentially once you once you're in it and you get to know a lot of people and and get to foster and and mentor younger people in that because that's that's really how I I got sort of drugged along by a couple of of people that were in those higher areas in the beginning and said, "Hey, you should really become a committee chair. Oh, you really should become a vice chair of this or you should be doing this or you and so then I just started volunteering to be those things and then eventually you get noticed to say, oh, well, maybe now that you're done with your board time because you move through the committees and you get to be on the on the board and then then you're eligible for the executive committee. And it took a little while, a few years to to get to that point, but it was just really a great experience to be part of that. And obviously, we're still members of that as you guys saw me in the the national conference or the legislative conference. So, just a big huge thank you to to you guys for supporting staff to do those type of things. So, we really we really app I really appreciate it and I know other staff appreciate it too. You guys have any questions? Yeah. Uh, Commissioner Renard, I just had a comment. You know, beyond your economic development work, um, you're also government relations and, you know, I've been working more with you as chair of IG and working with legislative priorities and our lobbyists and legislators and, uh, the more I get to know you and get to work with you, uh, appreciate the work that you do. And so no surprise to me that we're honoring you today and keep it going. Thank you, Commissioner Meisner. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, yeah, I will just build upon the comments of Commissioner Reiner. Congratulations. And um I know I've commented this to you before in the past, but you know, you are coming at a time in government too where things are just so questionable and you know like everything is just shaky ground, but you handle it so well and I always feel good about the information that you can give me and the direction that you lead us. Um so I'm thankful that you are here at Anoka County with your experience and a fresh pair of eyes. So thank you. Thank Thank you so much for that, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Hinrich. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh yeah, thank you for your service, Tanya. I've just gotten to know you. It's been a pleasure. Uh just gotten to know you over uh the past few months a little bit, but what I know is that you deal in an area that uh can be very complicated. Um but I appreciate your time and patience with myself and some of the other commissioners to uh help us uh learn um uh more about uh what you do. And so um yeah, congratulations and uh keep up the good work. I feel like the people of Enoka County are in really good hands with you. Thank you. Appreciate all that. Commissioner Jeepson. Well, Tanya, this is your show this morning. So, congratulations. But I want to step back a little bit and speak a little bit more broadly to the decision that um this board and previous boards have made because it's really been impressive how supportive they have been we are for current staff and leadership. you know, coming up in our next management um report and uh consent agenda just in a few minutes here. Um there's a long list of of conferences and travel and and um things that we send staff to for professional development, but not just professional development, but for your learning and for bringing it back to us. I know that that is a huge commitment, both time and expense. And I don't think of it as an expense. I think of it as an investment, an investment into you and other staff to make sure that you're soaking in all this knowledge. You're building those relationships and those partnerships so that you can bring it back into another county. And that's what I'm so appreciative of. So, thank you for being here and congratulations. Thank you. That's exactly what exactly what I would say we do is that without that without being part of these different organizations whether it's NARO or or NED or Niko or some of just the local ones the Micah and that kind of stuff though everybody you can just work more I'm a team person I like to be on a team and so it's just it's like you said you bring back the knowledge and be able to run the programs better you bring back ideas maybe we can make things better for the community better for the people who are applying whatever that looks like I I I like to learn and and change things. So, thank you. Thank you, Tanya. Uh without the dedication and the energy of the pe of people like you, much of the work that NISET um stands for would be left undone. And so, we want to thank you for your diligent commitment to that organization. Also, um your commitment to Inoka County because um we're just very thankful that you're here helping us out and doing what you're doing. as everybody indicated um you're doing a great job and uh we look forward to continue great job that you're going to do. Great. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm always here if you have questions and I I do not expect you to have all the knowledge that I have after 30 years of doing housing programs. I don't expect you guys to have all that. That's what I'm here for. So, please take advantage of it when you need me. Okay, we'll do. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Um a little other nugget we have here before we head into committee of the whole reports. I'd like to remind everyone that the 16th annual 5K walk for mental wellness will uh take place Saturday, May 17th at 10:00 a.m. at the Rapids Dam Regional Park. This inspiring event is familyfriendly and features live music and complimentary snacks. The 5K Walk for Mental Wellness is organized by the nonprofit mental wellness campaign for Inoka County. Its mission is to erase the stigma surrounding mental health through awareness, education, and engagement. You can visit www.mwcac.org5kwalk um to register for the event. We hope to see everyone there. And now we'll go into our uh committee of the whole meetings. Uh we'll start with management. Uh Commissioner Meisner. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The committee of the whole for management. We met on Tuesday, April 22nd in room 772. Uh there were no public comments in person and I did not receive any via email either, but everyone is welcome to do that at mandy.mmyisner ananoka countymn.gov. So you can see on our consent agenda for the slate, it is all uh as Commissioner Jeepson um talked about earlier, travel for conferences and training for a variety of people and departments. For transparency's sake, I will state that for uh a there are several commissioners that will be going um to our annual conference for NAO in July. That would be commissioners Gamash, myself, Hinrich, and Reinert. And the rest um again go for various departments. Some in uh public safety. We have some in communication, IT um or excuse me um finance. and last for the examiner's office. So I will go ahead and move that in total. That would be A through E. We have a motion on the consent agenda. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Commissioner Meisner, seconded by Commissioner Jeepson. Anyone wishing to pull anything off? Okay. Um, let's see. This is roll call. Roll call vote. Commissioner Schulty. Hi. Commissioner Jepson. Hi. Commissioner Meisner. Hi. Commissioner Heinrich. Hi. Commissioner Brastead. Hi. Commissioner Reiner. Hi. Commissioner Gamash. Hi. And that passes unanimously. Any otherformational items? Commissioner Meiser? No, there were noformational items and that completes my report. All right. Thank you. We'll move down to transportation and parks and we'll begin with the consent items under highway which is items number one through seven. Commissioner Jeepson. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh the combined transportation and parks department. Um committee meetings were held on May 6 at 1 pm at the transportation divis division facility in Andover. Uh there was no public comment given and all commissioners were present at the meeting. Um so there as Mr. Chair you said there are seven items for the transportation consent agenda. Um so I'll just go through all of them briefly. The first is recommending approval for resolution 2025 TR-15, which is a resolution revising regulated parking along the north side of Lavell Road in the city of Lexington. This revision will change the existing 2-hour parking limit to a 4hour limit along that stretch of the road. Uh the next six consent items are recommendations to approve various contracts. So the first contract is C 00010688 which is a JPA with the city of Andover for the construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Cross Town Boulevard and Nightingale Street. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer. The second contract is C000011540 which is a professional services contract with WSB for the design and environmental documentation services for the replacement of the bridge. on Bridgestone Road over Celibbrook um in the city of St. Francis. So, just I want to make a point regarding this specific contract because typically uh most often we have to take the lowest and most responsible bid um based on all of the bids that come in. Uh the WSB bid uh was second to the lowest. Um and there was a very specific reason why we chose them because the lowest bidder's proposal uh was determined to be incomplete by the evaluation committee. It was missing some critical tasks and elements necessary to deliver the project. So uh we had to eliminate their application from consideration. Uh we have two contracts with BNSF Railway. Contract C000011599 and contract C000011600. Both of these are with BNSF Railway to repair railroad crossings. Uh contract 599 is at 229th Avenue Northwest, approximately 500 ft east of Flintwood Street Northwest in the cities of Oak Grove and St. Francis. Uh the project is scheduled for the week of June 9th. Um and then contract 600 is at Cedar Drive Northwest, approximately 600 ft southeast of 2001st Avenue Northwest in the city of Oak Grove. Uh that project is scheduled for the week of June 2nd. Uh the next contract recommended for approval is contract C 0011543 in the amount of 1 million232,13.96 to Drestle Construct Contracting for the reconstruction of 109th Avenue between Lexington Avenue and Sunset Avenue in the city of Blaine. Uh construction is scheduled to begin this summer. I would like to mention that the lowest and most responsible bid by Drestle uh was over $600,000 less than the engineers estimate which is very those are the numbers we like to see. Uh the final contract for transportation consent agenda is contract C 000011544 in the amount of $3,257,89355 to park construction for the reconstruction of Viking Boulevard between uh Rum River Bridge and Lake George Boulevard in the city of Oak Grove. Uh construction for this project will begin this summer. Um, and as noted from the previous item, the lowest and most responsible bidder was park construction uh for this project and was more than $1.2 million less than our engineers estimate. So that again are numbers that we like to see. So Mr. Chair, that concludes um the items on the consent agenda. Thank you, Commissioner Jeepson. Does anyone wish to remove any of these items for a separate vote? See, I move the consent agenda. Thank you, Commissioner Schulty. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Commissioner Hinrich. Any questions or comments anyone wishes to make on any of these items? Seeing none, this a roll call vote. Commissioner Jepson. I. Commissioner Meisner. I. Commissioner Heinrich. Hi. Commissioner Brassstead. Hi. Commissioner Reinert. Hi. Commissioner Gomesh. I. Commissioner Schulty. Hi. And that passes unanimously. We're going to go to the parks uh consent agenda. And Commissioner Reinard. Yes. So, Mr. Sure. We do have just one item and it is to accept miscellaneous donations and um I'll do a shout out to all those that did donate and we've got $8.58 dedicated to parks administration from uh Deb uh Stenderson. $70 dedicated to Shaman Golf Course from Kim Hannon. $20 dedicated to Wargo Nature Center and that's an unnamed donor. $500 dedicated to park operations from Centerville Lions Club, which comes to us every year. They have a real nice um uh they call it the Cadillac dinner. It's um they serve prime rib about the size of your head there. It's delicious. But great event. Um over the last year, we did an alum treatment in u a Centerville Lake and they uh were very much appreciated of that. Appreciative of that as well as um all Centerville residents and people that use that lake. um $50 dedicated to natural resource management management from uh Stacy uh sustenic or sus let me just get this out. Um sustains. Okay. Hopefully I didn't murder that too bad. I I think I did though. Um and with that then I um I guess I'd move the board to adopt resolution number 2025 TR14. We have a motion by Commissioner Riner. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Meisner. Any questions or comments? Hearing none. This roll call vote. Commissioner Meisner. I. Commissioner Heinrich. Hi. Commissioner Brastead. Hi. Commissioner Reiner. Hi. Commissioner Gomesh. Hi. Commissioner Schulty. Hi. Commissioner Jeepson. Hi. That passes unanimously. We'll go back to Commissioner um Jeepson forformational items. Yeah. Um as as most often we do, we had a robust conversation regarding a number of topics in transportation. The first being um the opportunity to um continue overseeing the transit link contract in partnership with Metrotransit uh beyond the expiration date of April 2026 or transition the full contract management and oversight responsibilities back to Met Council. Uh this conversation really came to the service due to an employes notice of retirement coinciding with the contracts expiration. the timing was an ideal opportunity to really weigh the pros and cons of renewing the contract uh and keeping the functions within an NOA County or not renewing the contract and giving the responsibilities back to Met Council. Uh we ultimately and unanimously determined that In Noa County staff uh would still provide a high level of customer service that many of our residents rely on. Uh but at the end of the day, we were really the middleman with Metroransit and Ment Council having the final say and approval in service delivery. Uh we will make sure to communicate in plenty of time um about this transition timeline so that residents who use Transit Link are fully informed. Um a couple more things. We also reviewed the Anoka County Transportation Management Organization commute solutions activities and financial reports for the first quarter. Uh we discussed a contract amendment for design services associated within the reconstruction of um of Lexington Avenue in the cities of Hamley, Columbus, and East Bessel. East Bethl, excuse me. Uh the final item that we discussed was becoming an enrolled partner in the nationwide candidate conservation agreement with asurances for the monarch butterfly on energy and transportation lands. That's a mouthful. Um but this this partnership in this program is really quite interesting and cool. Um it offers significant environmental and financial benefits for the county. It promotes um restoration and protection of the vital monarch habitats uh supporting biodiversity and e ecosystem health. Uh but financially the agreement provides regulatory asurances that protect land owners from uh future land use restrictions reducing potential compliance costs and by prior proactively conserving the species our county can avoid more stringent regulations and maintain greater flexibility in land management. And finally um I just want to put a plug out there that this week is national bike to work week. So, please check out our transportation highway uh department's website to see all the fun activities that are being um that you and your business can participate in this week. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Commissioner Gibson. Questions? Commissioner Meiser? Yeah. No, thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a comment. Um last, I will not be biking to work. Uh but I just wanted to uh loop back to the Met Council decision and that conversation. And I know that Commissioner Jeepson already said this, but I just wanted to reiterate that we did really all of us talk about how is this going to affect the residents. Um, so I do want to assure the public that it should be very seamless for the public once this happens because we had an in-depth conversation about that and the rest is kind of behind the scenes and and technical. Uh, but I did just want to emphasize that because I think it can sound like a it is a big change, but for the public, um, I just wanted to be a little bit reassuring about that. That that's all. Thank you, Mr. Hinrich. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, also inside that, uh, conversation, we didn't talk about it that day, um, but I brought it up to another commissioner, too, um, since then, but I'd really I think that this is a good time to, um, talk about expanding Metrobility Services. uh during our conversations with Met Council. So, um I intend to have conversations with staff and and other commissioners about what that looks like, but I thought maybe this would be a good opportunity um as we dive into the details with Met Council on uh this transition uh back to them uh for the full contract management and oversight that uh I know we have uh an increasing population of aging loved ones in the city of Ramsey and as I understand right now uh Metro Mobility does not serve uh city of Ramsey. I'm sure there's other areas in the county as well that um we've uh had a growing population of our aging loved ones and and others that can use uh metromobility and so I'd like to uh start that conversation um and maybe identify some areas uh for Met Council to look at uh that might make sense to expand some routes. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense because Ramsey is what the fourth largest city and probably going to bypass and over in not too many years in population as well. So, it's could be the third largest city in Oaka County. So, it'd be a good good time to have that discussion as we're talking with them already. Anyway, so good. Any other thing on the transportation part? We'll move over to parks. And I know Commissioner Riner probably wants to talk a little bit about the Centerpoint Energy. Got a few things to talk about here, Mr. Chair. So, we'll start with um Centerpoint Energy. Uh, Centerpoint Energy about a year ago approached uh the park uh uh committee to ask if they could um uh move one of their lines across um the river and through um Islands of Peace Regional Park. And um what that would entail is uh basically just clear-cutting um kind of a Z kind of a pattern uh through the entire island. And for those that aren't familiar, this island um you can see it uh north of 694 uh just off East River Road. And um we just felt that that was a little imposing. Um as isolated as that island is, uh it's a little bit of a wildlife sanctuary. And so we asked them to think harder about um other options and they came up with one. I won't share it with you for security reasons, but um uh we are going a different route. This action in front of us today though is for them to ask for uh rights to build a small building on the east side of the river where we have some land and and um we're okay with that. Uh so that's one thing. Uh next I'll go to K Cordiac Park. A lot of improvements happening. We're giving that whole park a facelift. Uh we've got a new uh picnic pavilion that's going to be going in. We're reconstructing the parking lot. We're reconstructing uh trails that are going to be 8 foot wide. Uh there's some consideration going to 10, but then we'd lose some trees, so we're staying with eight. Uh we're going to replace the south bridge uh with a box culvert. Uh plans will be um done throughout the year and you know some community and public meetings and um construction will be in 26. Um next I'll talk about Mississippi cleanup uh which happened in the last couple of weeks. We had 131 volunteers collect 108 bags of trash, 27 bags of recycle material. These happened at uh the Rapids Dam, Mississippi Park, and Riverfront. Um then finally, I'll mention um the nice weather that we've been having and obviously in parks, you know, that helps us. Uh we're ahead of the game on a lot of our mowing and you know, Shaman Golf Course has been open and is doing very well. Uh and the county wanted to shut that down about six years ago. and we stopped that. So, uh, it's doing very well. And, um, Earth Day, uh, took place April 19th at Wargo Nature Center in the great city of Lo Lakes. And, um, Bunker Beach, um, we've got some repairs and maintenance that are happening there right now. And is it early June it's going to be opening, Jeff? Yeah. So, we'll get that open pretty soon. I mean, it'd be nice if it was open right now because it's going to be 85 degrees or something like that today, but we'll get it open soon. And that completes my my report. Thank you, Commissioner Miner. Commissioner Meisner. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Just comment about Cordiac Park and the updates that you were mentioning that is located in Columbia Heights. And I just want to thank the uh park staff again for their strong community engagement that they have been doing for months. So, all of those decisions and those updates that Commissioner Riner talked about were in partnership with the people that live in uh Columbia Heights for Kodiak Park, which is crucial. Um and this has been going on for multiple months. But um the last community uh engagement meeting that you had, there was 70 attendees. Um 200 people participated in the survey to determine the the width of the trail, 8 feet versus uh 10 feet. So all those things are um vitally important. And I just want to give thanks to staff uh park staff as well as all of the folks in uh Columbia Heights. The Friends of Kodiak Park is actually the um official name of that group. So, thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Meiser. I want to thank everybody that volunteered for the Mississippi Challenge, the cleanup that we've been I think this is our third year now doing it. And we did have a Target Corporation um send a bunch of people, I believe, um to one of the parks and help us clean that one up. I think they had 50 or so people come in. So, that's always great to have see see some of that. But we did a uh as Commissioner Reinard had indicated three different parks on along the river. And that's basically um the challenge that's been going on um all the way down the river from us all the way down to into Good Hugh County, I believe is where they where they're still doing it as well. So, thank you everybody for volunteering on that. We'll move to item number eight, which is to consider approving employment agreement with Josh Beck and appointing Josh as the assistant director of community and government relations effective June 16th, 2025. Do I have a motion? So moved. Been moved by Commissioner Jeepson. Do I have a second? Second by Commissioner Meisner. Any questions? Hearing none. Welcome, Josh. Uh we're looking forward to to seeing you and and um and your work here. He had a holds Josh holds a bachelor of science and ge geography and graduate work in public administration from the University of North Dakota has 20 years of community development and housing experience including 15 years in a leadership and management position. Josh's experience and leadership will benefit the department uh with our community as he leads the implementation of programs team member management and helps foster and maintain effective relationships and partnerships. So with that, this is a roll call vote. Commissioner Heinrich I. Commissioner Bradstad. I, Commissioner Reiner, I. Commissioner Gamash, I. Commissioner Schulty, hi. Commissioner Jeepson, I. Commissioner Meisner, I. And that passes unanimously. And if there is nothing more to come before the board, we are adjourned. Next. Can you