Next, the clerk will take the role. Commissioner Hinrich here. Commissioner Braad here. Commissioner Gomesh here. Commissioner Schulty here. Commissioner Jeepson here. Commissioner Meisner here. And uh only Commissioner Reiner not feeling well this morning. U item number five is the approval of minutes from the March 25th, 2025 county board meeting. Do I have a motion? So moved by Commissioner Schulty. Do I have a second? Second move by Commissioner Hinrich. Any changes, questions? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I. Opposed. Hearing none, it's approved. Uh we'll move down to chair's remarks. We have a few this morning. Um we have three items that are under our chair remarks today. The first is a resolution proclaiming April 13th through the 19th is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. Commissioner Braden, who serves as the lead commissioner for the public safety committee of the of the whole, will lead our conversation and introduce our guest this morning. Commissioner. Uh, thank you, Commissioner Gamash. This is honestly one of my favorite weeks of the year. Anything to do with public safety is is right up there for me. I'm honored to be part of proclaiming April 13th to 19th as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. Our in Noa County emergency telecommunicators perform an essential function in our society. They are the first and most critical contact citizens have with emergency services. Anoka County's 911 staff fielded more than 400,000 emergency and non-emergency calls a year with 95% of those calls answered in less than 10 seconds. That's an astounding level of service and we should commend all our telecommunicators for their dedication to their jobs and to our public. The public safety telecommunicators of Anoka County have contributed substantially to the apprehension of criminals, suspense suppression of fires and treatment of patients. Each dispatcher has exhibited compassion, understanding, and professionalism during their performance of their job in the past year. I'm very grateful and thankful for each one of you. Now, let me introduce director of our NOA County ECC, Carrie Moresy, to tell us more about all the great work our EC staff is doing and maybe comment on our our new digs that you've got going out there. Yeah. And commissioners, thank you. Uh we just first want to thank all of you for our new building that started in this room. very much. We have Thank you for Thank you all for coming, especially I'm not sure if I want to show, but no, that's that's great. Um, and I want to thank you all uh the nurse communications and all the staff members. Um, and I'm going to let Commissioner West offer resolution. So, resolution 2025-47 April 13th through the 19th is National Week and I'm asking fellow commissioners to join us in support of this uh this year. something special here. So, um I I really appreciate uh everything if I didn't say something, but I think back to January of 2013, and that's when both Shelby and I started serving on the board. and our first visit down to 911 in the basement of the Port House Government Center. And I I just could not believe that we had this important of a department down like the cellar in the basement. And so both Commissioner Schulty and I agreed that this was going to be a priority. So it's government does not move fast, right? But we've come full circle and I just cannot be more excited for you guys to be in that new building and better surroundings and um like mentioned retention and hiring the place to be for radio shop. So thank you former very happy building not only the building but all also some of the amenities around the building system my dad is a lifelong Rapids resident and former city council member uh that's right on the border of Rapids. So, thank you to the border of Cong and and thank you for your work in public safety. I uh as Commissioner Breast has has been a priority not just for her and I but for this we all believe in public safety and this has been on the forefront of our facilities management program. I'm glad it came to fruition. We worked hard at it and not a lot of good things came out of the COVID crisis. This is one thing that got pushed to the front financially process and I for one. Congratulations. Absolutely. And with that um all in favor of the resolution signify by saying I. Opposed. Hearing none. It passes unanimously. Congratulations. You guys are And we'll move down to our next item. Um, and as you can see by uh, Commissioner Brassstead's yellow and my Jerry Garcia yellow spring tie, spring is officially here, which means it's time to talk about mosquitoes. Uh, managing these pests is constantly on the minds of the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District staff, and I'm thankful they're here to help lessen the impact of these biting insects in the metro area. Commissioner Heinrich, who serves on the Minnesota Met or the Metropolitan Mosquito Control um District Board, uh will introduce our guest from the MMCD, and I'll turn it over to Commissioner Hinrich. Thank you, uh, Mr. Chair, Commissioner Gamash. Uh, it's just been a short time since I've been able to serve, uh, on the board here. I've been to a few meetings here this spring, but already learning so much and very impressed with, uh, your work and the impact that you have in our community. Um, so mosquitoes to many people are simply a nuisance when they're thick. They might ruin a backyard grill out or camping trip. People often times view them as pests whose bites simply result in red raised itchy bumps. But mosquitoes can be disease carriers that spread illness such as West Nile, both western and eastern equin and sephilitis, lacrosse encphilitis, and dog heartworm. These diseases can be mild for [Music] some people and animals, but there are documented cases where they've led to serious illness and even fatalities. So, it's important to control the mosquito population when and where possible. This is where the MMCD comes in. They're experts in intervening in the mosquito life cycle to reduce their numbers throughout our metro area, and they offer useful education about how to control mosquito populations in our yards. Now, let me introduce MMC Executive Director Daniel Huff and public affairs manager Alex Carlson to tell us more about the work of MMCD and what we can expect in this upcoming mosquito season. Take it away. Thank you, uh, Mr. Chair, Commissioners, and Commissioner Heinrich for that great introduction. Uh, my name is Daniel Huff. I am the executive director for the Metropolit Mosquito Control District. As uh Commissioner Hinrich said, I'm joined by Alex Carlson. I'm also joined by uh Dave Durswagger. Dave is the manager for our In Noa County office, which is also um in Andover um actually adjacent to the 911 office. So very near Rapids is where I stand. Um but uh really appreciate uh being able to come to you and appreciate um the service of Commissioner Meisner, Commissioner Reinhardt and Commissioner Heinrich representing Anoka County on our commission this year um and previous service by Commissioner Gamash or Mr. Chair and Commissioner Jeff. So thank you. Um but I'm going to turn it over to Alex to give a update on who we are and what we're doing and what we expect for this year. Thanks Dan. Thank you, Mr. Chair and commissioners. This is my sixth year or sixth season at mosquito control. Uh but I'm still I never lose excitement about talking about mosquitoes and getting people excited about all the information that's out there that um the public may not be aware of all the kind of behindthe-scenes work that goes on for mosquito control um you know in ponds and wetlands and kind of the tucked away hidden areas. So, I'm going to do a little overview about just some basics about the mosquito life cycle and biology, but then talk about what we saw last year and what we can expect this year with the big question we always get is, you know, what's the mosquito forecast for 2025? So, we'll do our best to offer some projections. Uh, but MMCD has been around since 1958. Our governance is the elected county commissioners. So, we're honored to have Commissioner Reinert, Meisner, and Heinrich serve on our board for 2025. Um, we're one of the biggest mosquito districts in the country in terms of uh service area. So we have 2900 square miles um that we cover and that really gives us a big advantage when it comes to um our practices which I'll talk about in a little bit. Over three million people um live in our service area and we have over 80,000 wetland habitats which is very important and you'll understand why when we talk about the mosquito life cycle. Our funding comes from property taxes. So, the median home pays about $11 per year um towards mosquito control services which we think is a a pretty good deal for all the services which include comprehensive mosquito surveillance and control, mosquitoborn disease suppression. As Commissioner Heinrich mentioned, mosquitoes aren't just nuisance, they can also cause um illness. And so, one of our main goals is public health. We do tickorn disease surveillance. You know, finding and locating ticks and reporting to different agencies about the tick activity. Public education is very important. Uh knowing more about mosquitoes helps people take proper precautions. And then we also do some control for black flies or the biting gnats which come out um of rivers and streams. But just a quick background on mosquitoes. Um the mosquitoes have a four stage life cycle. Egg, larvae, pupa, and then adult. We have over 3,000 species in the world, but here in Minnesota about 52 are established here. And of those, only about 20 or so are what we consider our human biting species or public health concerns. So, a little bit more than half the species that we have don't bother with mammals at all. They exclusively feed on frogs or on birds or on other species. Um, and so our focus is really those 20 or so that are a human concern and especially the ones that we consider are disease vectors that can spread diseases um that can make people sick or can cause some serious harm. We we follow the rain in the summer. So, there's two main types of mosquito eggs. There's the flood water mosquito eggs which lay their eggs on the edge of a pond or marsh and then wait for rain to hatch them. Um, and then they come out of the water about a week later. So when we see a big rain, it's usually about, you know, 5 to seven days later, you're going to see that spike in mosquito activity. We also have container breeding or stander standing water breeding mosquitoes that aren't as dependent on rain because they'll find any sources of existing water um and lay those eggs. Mosquito habitat looks like this. There's, you know, uh there's ponds and stagnant marshes that are always holding water, um even in drier years. And then there's flood water sites that are designed to, you know, flood up after it rains. And then a lot of people produce man-made habitats of of mosquitoes, whether it's things you leave out like piles of tires or buckets or tree holes. We do a lot of work on uh catch basins or storm water drains because those hold a lot of stagnant water. Um so we check those and try to eliminate larvae from there. Um but that's just part of our public education is remind people don't create additional mosquito habitat with your activities. Uh we've every year we get calls from people that are reporting high mosquito activity and then we find you know their neighbor has a kitty pool that they filled up and then they just left out for a couple weeks and it's full of mosquito larvae. So people can be part of the the problem and also part of the solution. So that's part of our you know public awareness campaigns. But it all starts with surveillance. Good mosquito control starts with the data to justify what treatments are going out there. And that starts with wetland surveillance. So, when you see our staff out, a lot of times what we're doing is um wetland surveillance using our favorite tool, the long-handled dipper, where they're skimming the surface where the larvae tends to congregate, um checking out how much we find and and sending it back in vials to our entomology lab to be identified. Um we also do adult surveillance where we're collecting the flying mosquitoes. So, we do traps. We set up about 200 traps every Monday night from about midMay to the end of September. Um, and then we also do some humanbaited collections where we have volunteers stand out in their yard and wait for the mosquitoes to come to them and then use a little net to catch anything that's trying to bite them. Uh, cuz not all mosquitoes are attracted to the the attractants that we put in the traps. So sometimes we just want to know what's biting at people and that's what we use those sweep collections for. So it's a good way for volunteers to, you know, get some bites for science. Um, so we take all that data and it helps us direct our programming. Um, we have an entomology lab in St. Paul with several full-time entomologists. We also have a full-time vector ecologist who can um determine where disease species are showing up. Uh we have seasonal staff of students and and people who work in the summer who come and help with taxonomy and identifying the different species. But those laral species, we're identifying them to see if they're a human biting species and need to be treated. Um and then for the adult species, we're trying to separate out the disease vectors. And we actually have um a lab on site where we can test for West Nile virus. So, we can usually be ahead of potential outbreaks by finding the mosquito populations that are carrying the disease before it becomes a human health issue. When we come uh when it comes to controlling mosquitoes, a lot of people know MMCD because of our helicopters. They see the the air show that our helicopters put on flying low over ponds and wetlands. Um and when we're doing those treatments, we're dropping dry granules um that have an active ingredient that controls mosquito larva. So, we're never doing sprays from those helicopters. Um so, anything that goes is designed to land right in the water and it activates when it hits the water. Um, they're very safe materials. Our main active ingredient is BTI, which has been used for decades and and widely shown to only target mosquito larvae, the specific gut of a mosquito larvae. So, you know, fish can eat it and other insects can encounter it and not have any impact. It's really specific to mosquito larvae. Um, so that's our main method. Um, we consider ourselves a laral control agency. And the table here in the display shows, um, you know, last year was a very high year because it was a very wet year. So, we had a lot of rain. So, we did a lot of acres of laral control. But even with all the moisture that we had, we didn't do that much adult control. Adult control is really something we reserve for disease suppression or we work with cities or communities if there's going to be a large public event. Um we can, you know, work with them to do some treatments there to help um the public that will be attending that event not get eaten up by mosquitoes. Mosquitoborn diseases, Commissioner Hinrich did a great job outlining some of the big ones that we have in Minnesota. Luckily, our our winters protect us from some of the more dangerous tropical diseases. um you know like malaria and deni fever and yellow fever the ones that tend to make the news um but we do find cases every year of westnile virus Jamestown canyon virus lacrosse and sephilitis is a little bit more rare but it can be very um dangerous for young children so we do a lot of preventative work to prevent lacrosse and sephilitis um triple E or eastern ecine and sephilitis and then dog heartworm good reminder that people aren't the only things that get sick from mosquitoes you know your your furry friends can as well and summer is really the time that they're most at risk environmental stewardship Integrated pest management is very important to us. So, uh the basic idea behind integrated pest management is our goal is to eliminate very specific target species of mosquitoes with minimal or no harms to anything else that's in the ecosystem. Um whether that's, you know, humans or pets or other animals, um even other insects, we want to protect pollinators like bees and butterflies. So, over the many, many years of our program, we've really refined our practices to be very targeted. Um, and we know that we're uh doing a good job of eliminating those species that people are most concerned about um and having very very little impact on the species we want to protect like the monarch butterfly um and bees and things like that. Our program is reviewed by a technical advisory board every year panel of scientists that looks over everything just to make sure that we're we're operating safely and efficiently. So last year was a strange year. I feel like every year I come up and say last year was a strange year because there's no normal anymore. Um but last year we had a very wet year after three consecutive years of drought. Uh we had a a consistent rain pretty much from midappril through the beginning of August. Uh where we had you know usually about an inch or more of rain every single week. Um but we didn't quite see the spike in mosquitoes that we would have expected because of that. One factor is the cattail mosquitoes which are a species that actually is based on the previous year's rain. So we had come off a drought year. So those species were low last year. Um I'll share what our prediction is for them this year based on last year's rain. But we didn't see the midsummer spike that we normally see. Um and then also just coming off of three years of drought, we we expect that um the main flood water species were just so low because of they hadn't been active the past three years. Even with the rain, they weren't really able to rebound fully. Um last year was also a strange winter. We saw, you know, pretty mild winter. So we found our first deer tick in February 5th and our first mosquito larvae in February 26th. We found both this year, but they were much later. Um the larvae wasn't found until March 17th this year. Um and then the deer tick was just found about two or three weeks ago. We've had other reports of people finding deer ticks, but um they were out much later this this year. And then there are fewer disease conditions. The the disease outbreaks tend to go in opposite of the nuisance mosquitoes. So in a a wet year, we don't see as much case as many cases of West Nile virus, whereas in a hot dry year, those species tend to thrive and we might see more cases. So that's t the trend we typically see. For in county specifically, uh we said we did more laral inspection. We did twice as many acres of larval treatment in an Okoka County last year. That was our big thing just because we had so many rain events that we had to respond to. Our helicopters were up almost every week. Um we did slightly more adult mosquito treatments, but really laral is where we really really um had to add more last year because we were doing more uh laral treatment. It took up so much of our staff time. We did fewer of our other daily activities like catch basin treatments. Uh we did slightly fewer tire recycles uh recycling events. And then we did have fewer customer calls last year despite the rain. So hopefully that means that we were doing a good job out in the community and people weren't getting bitten up quite as much despite the rain. Budgetarily, this is the the difference this year. Um again, it's about $11 per year for the average home. Um just looking across the Anoka County levy specifically, there's only a $23,000 increase year-over-year, and that's going to help us reach our budgetary goals in the coming year. looking for the plans in in terms of MMCD for 2025. A big thing for us this year is we're continuing to expand our drone program. So, we've added about one or two drones each year. This year, we were able to add enough so that each facility will have drones. Anoka County is actually going to have two drones in the area. Um, and this really helps with those kind of medium to smallsiz wetlands that are too small for the helicopter, but very hard to get to just via staff on the ground. Um, and so this is going to be a lot more effective. Hopefully, we're going to be more efficient in our treatment. It's more safe for our staff because they don't have to put on the the the full chest waiters and go into the water and with a backpack. Um so it's quicker and safer and we're excited about this. Um we're working on a new strategic plan. So Commissioner Meisner has been part of the process um uh meeting when and developing a a strategic plan with the Prrowy project. Um so we're going to be unveiling that in May um and enacting it throughout the next couple years. Uh we're continue to increase our educational outreach and we have some several new uh staff that we're excited about. We're hiring a new entomologist. Our main entomologist, Diane Crane, um is retiring at the end of April after almost 40 years of service um at mosquito control. So, we're going to miss her knowledge uh very much, but we are looking to hire a new entomologist. Um we've brought on a new vector ecologist just in the past past month, a new quality assurance uh specialist. Um a we're hiring a new business administrator, and then we've added a couple field supervisors, one new here in Anoka County. Well, two new in Anoka County, but one new more than we had last year. So, we went from five to six. um just because there's a lot of wetlands up in this area, so it keeps our staff very busy. The mosquito prediction for 2025. Um so this is the the Star Tribune did a story about this last year, but the big thing we're predicting this year is the cattail mosquitoes will be back. The cattails come back the very next day. um that you look at the past couple years, 2022, 2023, 2024, following drought years, those were very low. But because we had so much rain last year, we actually are finding four times as much breeding in the cattail sites than we did this time last year. So, uh we're going to see a big spike uh in cattail mosquitoes right around the middle of summer. It'll be the worst the further you get out from the district. We're going to do our our best to find these and and do our control work um to make sure that number isn't as bad. But if you're going up to the cabin around the Fourth of July, you're going to see a lot of those mosquitoes out. Um, beyond that, predicting mosquitoes is like predicting the weather. We have a pretty good idea what the next, you know, week or two might be, but beyond that, it's very hard to predict. Um, the National Weather Service is predicting this is going to be a drier summer, especially in those peak months of June, July, August. So, we'll see if that prediction holds true. That would be good to lower those flood water mosquitoes. So, that's just the cattail mosquitoes spiking. Um, but we'll see. We wrote a full um blog post on this at our website if you want a little bit more details about what we're expecting for this year. For residents, some good resources. Um our website has a lot of great tools. You can find out about helicopter activity, weekly updates about mosquito activity, interactive maps where you can click around and view uh what the mosquito breeding sites are looking like, about 20 years of of treatment history at all those. And you can also submit um if you have requests for, you know, additional areas that might need to be checked out um or tire recycling, things like that. These are the maps that I mentioned. You can look up your neighborhood and find out all the mosquito breeding sites. You might be surprised. You know, it might probably not the big pond that's producing mosquitoes. Maybe it's just the the roadside ditch or something like that. So, it's a cool tool for people to have access to. Um we encourage people to sign up for email alerts. We send alerts out at least 24 hours in advance of any adult mosquito activity and usually about the week before or the week of helicopter activity just to notify that helicopters are going to be out. And then we do a lot of public outreach. So we're always trying to expand um our event attendance. We do parades. Um there's our mascot in the foreground there. Her name is Victoria. So she makes appearances at parades and other events uh throughout the summer. So if you know any events or groups that we should connect with um please let us know. We've also been doing a lot of outreach to cities. Um, so we've been been kind of visiting city councils and providing updates as well. So if you have any city connections that you think would be good for us to reach out to, please let us know. And with that, I'm briefly going to hand it over to Dan before we open it up for questions. Um, thank you, Alex. Uh, Mr. Chair, commissioners, just to reiterate some of the things that Alex said specific to Anoka County. Um, so Anoka County, we have or you have um the most breeding sites of any county in the metro. In fact, you have almost twice as much as the other six counties combined. Um and uh so this year we have uh added additional resources as Alex said. We've added a new um field crew supervisor in Inoka County. Um we've added a new drone. Um Dave and his team are starting treatment next week of those cattail mosquitoes that Alex mentioned because we want to get ahead of those. Um so we are significantly increasing the amount of treatment that we are doing in Anoka County this year. You can see that we doubled the amount from the previous year uh from last year to the previous year. So really uh doing what we can to make sure that we're serving your residents and providing the best value that we can for the taxpayers. Um we uh um do invite people to sign up um to go to our website and um one of the things that we have done this year because we're very innovative um you know if we have um we have launched our laser loom program um to uh to tackle the mosquitoes directly. But we do have uh you can can win one of these t-shirts if you uh go to our website um sign up for our alerts or just put your name in there. Um and uh our tagline which is uh making the outdoors better since 1958. So please uh go to our website, enter to win a t-shirt and learn a lot more about mosquitoes. So thank you very much. Well, thank you. I appreciate it uh uh both Alex and Dan for being here and joining us today to talk about the important ways that the MMCD works to reduce our mosquito population. As as they pointed out, we have the most breeding areas around. I also noticed as I was driving by yesterday, um you have a help wanted sign or now hiring sign out there. Do you want to uh speak on um what people should do? just pull in and walk in. Uh, Mr. Show, that's a great question. So, we hire a lot of seasonal folks every year. You have to be 18 years old and you have to have a driver's license. Um, and you get out in the field all summer long. Um, you go to our website and apply right there. Um, you know, we're hiring here at our no facility, but also at our other uh facilities in the metro area. Um, and we've had a really good response this year. Um, but yeah, please take a look at that. We always welcome more folks, retirees. It's a great way to stay active and, you know, get to interact with a lot of folks, especially young people. We have, uh, students that often come and then just other folks who love to get outside, uh, do some good work for the community this summer. Great. Um, I signed up last year to get updates. So, does that carry over to this year? Do I have to go back and sign up again? Nope, you're good. Okay, good. Um, it does help. Um, I've gotten uh calls from uh residents. I also will usually get a call from um a certain uh establishment in Fidley uh Kuners uh where they like to do outside music concerts um in tents and of course they're right next to Mor Lake. Uh so they usually want to know how well um the the the treatments are going to let them know that they help their with their customers. Mandy, did you have a question? Commissioner, go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, just just mostly uh comments. So, thank you guys. I know you come here every year to present. Um but I I just have to so Alex in particular, I mean, we kind of started at about the same time at MCCD and you've done such a great job with the education and the energy. Um just a couple things that I just wanted to I guess comment on. Commissioner Heinrich started out talking about like most of us think about it as nuisance, which is true. it's a pest. Um, but when I got on this committee or this board, I mean, understanding the science and the depth of the work was so incredibly interesting to me. Um, I want to talk a little bit too about your budget that you touched on. So, just to put it in perspective for the public. So, it is very difficult for you guys because you don't want to have a lot of money, you know, just sitting around in there. You've got a lot of work to do. At the same time, you're so dependent on the weather and it is volatile. So kind of walking that line with your budget is extremely challenging in any given time. So I wanted to point that out. Um and then to all of us too. So Alex was talking about his part of his job is community outreach. So our schools and our cities and our parades and um put Victoria to good use. Uh he does a really great job with that. And then I just have one question actually. So you mentioned the the entomologist is retiring. Do you do you know is it a um are you hiring a female entomologist that's replacing her or you're not sure yet? Um Mr. Chair, Commissioner, we are right now in the hiring process and so that uh we have not made our determination. Okay. The only reason that I I was asking so this is a little bit of trivia. So since 1958 there's always been a woman um lead entomologist which I thought was actually pretty unique. So uh good luck though with that search and we'll we'll see where that lands. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Well, thank you again for coming. Um and uh we appreciate this every year and uh we'll see how the mosquitoes go. Have a good one. Um moving down while we're talking about mosquitoes. You know, April is also severe weather awareness and we have severe weather awareness week taking place this week from April 7th through the 11th. This is a great time to make and practice your emergency plan and build or restock your emergency preparedness kit. There will be two tornado drills Thursday, April 10th. The first drill will take place at 1:45 p.m. and the second will take place at 6:45 p.m. The first drill is intended for institutions and businesses, and the second is intended for second shift workers and families. Minnesota experiences on average 29 tornadoes per year. Understanding this threat and knowing what to do when a tornado approaches can save lives. Families, neighborhoods, and the communities alike are encouraged to create or update emergency plans to ensure proper preparedness in an emergency weather event. Um, another nugget that we have for you here in the spring is that um is we have the uh Mississippi River cleanup events which um each year for the last I think this will be our third year of doing this. Uh we kind of teamed up with uh some other counties along the Mississippi River uh to do some cleanup every spring and uh we're going to have three opportunities to volunteer with our NOA County Park staff this spring. The events are from 9:00 am to noon. The dates are Friday, April 18th. That one's at the Rapids Regional Dam. Um Tuesday, April 22nd, we will be at the Riverfront Regional Park in Fidley. And on Saturday, April 26th at the Mississippi West Regional Park in Ramsey. Um there will be information on our Noaca County Parks.com site. Uh there's even um uh a little scanning insignia thing I think that shows up that you can get the information onto your phone. Uh but we'd love to have the volunteers come out. There's a little picture here on the screen of some of the volunteers that we worked on last year. It's a great time to be out there. I think the water is going to be about the way it was last year. It wasn't too high, so we didn't have any problems, especially at the uh Mississippi West where the where we had some issues two years ago. or we couldn't go too far down the riverbank. Uh but this year I think it'll be good. So we'll have some opportunities for people to get out and clean up a little bit along the river banks. Um it's a great opportunity to see what's happening in your parks and this year we are adding that regional uh park in Fidley for those down in the Fidley area to join us. But uh so it's Rapids Regional Park in Rapids on Friday, April 18th, Tuesday, April 22nd at the Riverfront Regional Park in Fidley and Saturday, April 26th at the Mississippi West Regional Park in Ramsey. Um I've got information here that I know that we were talking about they can't predict the weather, they can't predict mosquitoes. I I see 70° plus each day, so it's going to be beautiful. Um, and if you there's a phone number 763-324-3413, you can RSVP. Um, but go to our website um for the parks and they will uh get the information to you. And that concludes uh along I'm sorry about that chair's remarks, but we had some great information to share with you today. Um, committee of the whole recommendations. Uh, we'll move on to u management committee and commissioner Meisner. Thank you, Mr. Chair. the committee of the whole for management. We met on Tuesday, March 25th. So there is before us on the consent agenda um several travel requests. So this would be A through F in total. I won't read them all but you can see that there is a variety of um training or um conferences going from IT library human services the job training also for social services and in corrections. These again are all for various employees for their trainings. Um so I will go ahead and move that as a slate and uh A through F. Uh, we have uh, Commissioner Meiser made the motion. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Schulty. Any questions? Seeing none, there's a roll call vote. Commissioner Braen. Hi. Commissioner Kamash. Hi. Commissioner Schulty. Hi. Commissioner Jepson. Hi. Commissioner Meisner. I. Commissioner Heinrich. Hi. And that passes unanimously. Item uh, orformational items. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, for underformational, we have been going through a lot a of union contracts. So mostly this would be for A through E. These are a variety of contracts, union contracts um all under the law enforcement. We are almost completed with all of them. So I am really excited about that and really appreciate all the work that goes into that. These have actually already come before the board and approved, but um this is underformational. And then we did have a uh closed meeting as well that day that uh we closed the meeting and then opened it back up and that went um also to the board uh last time around. So with that, that concludes or concludes my report. Thank you, Commissioner. Um we'll move down to transportation and parks. And uh with that, the consent items um for Commissioner Jeffson. Uh for parks, could do you want me to do parks? I'll have you go ahead and do parks, too. It's highway and park, so you might as well go grab those. Okay. Um, since they are very different, I'll just start with parks and then move on to transportation if that's all right. So, um, the first item on the consent agenda for parks is contract amendment C0010670A with Bolton and M in the amount of $23,452 for a cultural resource monitoring uh, reconstruction at Banfield Lock Historic House Foundation in the city of Fidley. The second item under parks is contract amendment C 0000009338B to TKDA in the amount of $30,000 for additional professional engineering services uh related to the design and construction of Bunker Hills Water and Sewer Project. Uh the third item is contract C 000011483 in the amount of $117,000 $835 and6 cents to Dunaway construction for restoration at the Rice Creek compost site project in the city of Lo Lakes. And the final item on the consent agenda is contract C000011459 in the amount of 204,64.90 to Batuminous Roadways for the Mississippi River Trail uh for the RI um Ryvenwick trail reconstruction project in the city of Ramsey. And with that, Mr. Chair, those are the four items on the consent agenda that I will go ahead and move. Great. Uh we have a motion. Do I have a second? Second been moved by Commissioner Jeepson, seconded by Commissioner Meisner. Uh, anyone wish to move anything off the Oh, Commissioner Meiser, go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. No, I don't wish to move anything off. I did just want to make a a comment about one of them actually. So, this would be under item number three under parks. So, Commissioner Jeepson mentioned about the Banfield Lock historic house foundation being repaired. And so what this is a a contract or amendment for is we do need to hire a um an archaeologist because there's enough artifacts that were found in that area. So just uh since we need to do this as requirement by um by law, I am hoping that we can actually kind of maybe mix this up into some kind of field uh field trip for some of the frilly schools around that area while they're there. It's not too often that we get an archaeologist in the area. So, I did just want to make note of that. I don't know if it will actually happen yet, but that was just some an idea that I have that um Jeff Perry and Parks is going to be exploring and then if that does work out, uh that would be occurring then in the fall then of 2025. But just wanted to comment on that. Thank you. Um any else anybody has? Uh we had a motion and it has been seconded. All in favor signify by say oh I'm sorry this roll call vote. Commissioner Gomesh I. Commissioner Schulty. Commissioner Jeepson. Hi, Commissioner Meisner. I, Commissioner Heinrich. Hi, Commissioner Brastead. I, and that passes unanimously. Uh, on to transportation consent. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I I apologize. I didn't start um appropriately with a parks um report. So, I will continue um with transportation. We met on Tuesday, April 1st at 1 p.m. All commissioners were present. There was no one there for public comment. Uh there are two items on the consent agenda for the board to consider for approval. The first item is resolution 2025 TR13, a resolution authorizing Anoka County to enter into contract C0011493 with MDOT. Um this is um a contract in which the highway staff submitted an application to MDOT for local bridge replacement program. Uh they approved our application and have awarded us $3.4 $4 million which will go towards the pedestrian trail improvements along the 44th Avenue Bridge over the BNSF railway in Fidley. Uh construction is expected to begin one week from yesterday, so on April 14, and is scheduled to be completed the spring of 2026. Uh the second item on the consent agenda is awarding contract C 000011506 in the amount of 7 million $672,796.7 to North Valley Incorporated for the 2025 countywide overlay program. There are six different corridors throughout Anoka County which are included in this program. All of which I'm very excited to see happening. Uh they are all listed on the screen right now or it they're all shown on the screen right now in green highlighted. Um or you can go to the county website to see which um of your community areas are going to be impacted by this overlay program. Uh so I just wanted to comment that North Valley's bid came in approximately 1.2 million below the engineers estimate. Uh so any budgeted dollars not spent on these six uh projects will go towards future overlay projects um that were on their original list but which were removed because of the added expense of that 44th Avenue bridge over the BNSF railway. So with that, Mr. Chair, I will move those two consent agenda items. Uh we have a motion by Commissioner Gypson. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Hinrich. Any discussion? No. Okay. Seeing none, that's a roll call vote. Commissioner Gomesh. Hi, Commissioner Schulty. Hi, Commissioner Jeepson. Hi, Commissioner Meisner. Hi, Commissioner Hinrich. Hi, Commissioner Brastead. Hi. And that passes unanimously. Uh, informationational items, Commissioner. Yeah, there were a number offormational items. Um, uh, three of which we um approved for the county engineer to move forward with some projects. Uh, one in Oak Grove, one in Columbia Heights, um, as well as one in the city of Fidley. Uh, we had a fascinating I found it fascinating. and I found it very very interesting. Um, so I'm just going to talk little bit about it. Uh, but we had a great presentation from Anoka County surveyors and GIS staff about their essential work in remmonumentation of section corners throughout Anoka County. uh we are well ahead of our time and expectation to get this work done in comparison to the rest of the state and I just want to commend those surveyors and the GIS staff um and actually this board too for taking the initiative to uh prioritize the work that needs to be done um so that all of the parcels of public and private land are appropriately monumented um because I mean land ownership is very very important um and so is this work. So um so because of this dedication and termination of staff uh we have an accurate representative representation of those uh public and private boundaries. In addition, what I found most impressive was the technology that now those GIS staff and surveyors can use. Uh not just the current ones, but those in the future uh will have a very userfriendly um editable uh software to use in the in the future so that we will not have to repeat what um all this work has accumulated over the years. Uh, the final thing I want to mention is that I wanted to put a shout out to the highway department and our communication staff for updating the highway department's website. Um, it's a very interactive website with lots of great links to see career opportunities, a calendar of events and meetings. Um, and an interactive project map. So earlier we just approved the countywide overlay program and so all of those projects uh will be listed on that interactive map. So you can see in your neighborhood the status of those projects and when they're going to be um started, worked on, and completed, as well as the final thing on the website for current ads for bids. Uh this is a great tool for everyone interested in what's happening with highway. And with that, Mr. Chair, that concludes my report. Thank you, Commissioner Schult. Yeah, Mr. Chair, I just wanted to make a quick comment on Commissioner Jeepson's last remarks. Um, this really calls out our mission. What GIS and our highway department, specifically the survey team has done here, really talks to innovation and fiscal responsibility. They're uh putting this into the GIS system and melding it with the survey team and and remmonumenting the county the way they did. We're the first in the state to do it, to come up with this electronic program and a way to do it. That's innovative and that really speaks to what this board has asked our teams to do and that's uh that means a lot. That means a lot when this board compels our staff to do that and they take it serious and so I want to thank them for that. That means a lot. No, well said. It was great work and it's very interesting. It was an interesting uh presentation that we had. Um speaking of the parks, I just wanted to uh give uh Jeff Perry, our parks director, an opportunity. Uh we had some discussion about the bunker uh beach water park and uh uh one uh big change kind of interesting change with uh going to no cash. So I thought we might as well start the conversation as I'm sure a lot of information will be coming out to the public as we get closer to our opening day on June 7th. Okay, Mr. Perry. Thank you Mr. Chairman, members of the board. My name is Jeff Perry, park director for NOA County and uh as a pilot scale uh project this summer at Bunker Beach. We are going cashless at all point of sale um stations at Bunker Beach Water Park. However, the public still can bring cash. And there'll be two kiosks, one outside of the gate and one inside of the gate to where if you only have cash, insert the cash into the kiosk and it spits out a debit card, which then can be used within the facility at Bunker Beach for your admissions, concessions, etc. if the public doesn't happen to spend uh all of the money on that particular debit card, it's uh essentially the same as a Visa card that can be used, you know, throughout the rest of the world. So, um it's uh again a pilot scale study. There are no fees associated with uh converting the cash to the card to the public and um it's going to really save efficiencies uh for staff cash handling going to the bank uh filling the cash drawers, counting it at the end of the at the end of the evening. uh in terms of a a risk reduction standpoint and a public safety standpoint uh for our staff for handling cash, there'll be some great efficiencies um recognized there as well. And um you know, at at the end of the day, uh it's going to create more efficient and safe water park operations for Anoka County and for the public. No, it's something that I think the public has grown accustomed to. Um we if you go to a Twins game I don't believe you can use cash anymore. I think you have to have a credit card in and that perhap is perhaps is happening as well at other sporting events and the uh professional sporting events and maybe even college. But uh so people are becoming more accustomed to that. So I think it is a good time um and it works well and hopefully it'll be efficient as we hope and the public will be ready for it. But I will have information, I'm sure, going out on the park website and the Bunker Beach website just to remind people as we get closer uh to the date. The other issues that we're going to run into, I think at Bunker Hills will be some construction this year with some water. Um have any updates on the when that'll begin and what people can um be ready to see? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. The water and sewer uh connection project will connect Bunker Beach Water Park and our campgrounds to the south to the city of Rapids uh water and sanitary system which will be a significant uh benefit for the county um because currently we're on well and septic and there's a lot of associated operational costs uh with maintaining those systems. So, we're very encouraged that uh the construction will be complete uh by the end of May for Memorial Day weekend so we can open the campgrounds. The water park is scheduled to open on uh Saturday, June 7th, right after the Anoka Henipin School District uh gets out for the summer because 90% of our employees are are high school students uh here in Anoka County as well. So, that project will be wrapped up, but then uh the A-RO uh construction and some other trail construction work will start this fall at Bunker Beach. So, we'll be um updating our website with um all of those inconveniences that may result uh this fall uh associated with travelers that are going through the park, but they'll be well informed uh through an NOAP parks.com for updates. and um we're looking forward to a very busy summer and a uh successful summer. That's great. I think it's great that we balance the the get the get the water and the sewer done before the end of May and then go out in the fall to finish or do some of the other construction so that we're not bothering um the summer months uh where people are coming into the park. But I know people will enjoy it. heard um a number of people asking about when are we going to do some of the trails ma mainly kind of on the northern side. I think a lot of the trails were getting a little older and and maybe the rollerblades weren't working as well on those older ones, but they'll be newer trail. So, that'll be our updated trail, so that'll be great to to see. So, thank you uh for that. Um and I also have C, item C is the transportation share report. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to recommend that the board approve um authorizing the county engineer to advertise for bids for the reconditioning of 109th Avenue between Lexington and just west of Sunset Avenue. Uh earlier on the agenda, we approved the 2025 countywide overlay program, but this specific project was separated out of that uh due to the amount of grading and excavation required for the addition of the proposed shoulders, turn lane, and bypass lane construction. Advertisement will begin this month with construction scheduled to begin in the next couple of months. And with that, Mr. Chair, I will offer recommend um authorizing that advertisement. Okay, we have a motion on that. Do I have a second? Second. It's been offered by Commissioner Jeepson, seconded by Commissioner Meiser. Uh, this does not need a roll call, correct? Um, it's just going out for bids. Oh, that's true. Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Hearing none, it's approved. Uh we'll move down to item number eight, which is to consider approving employment agreement with Randy Pribill and appointing Randy as the assistant director for public health and environmental services department effective April 8th, 2005. Do I have a motion? I'll move it. It's been moved by Commissioner Schulty. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Commissioner um Jeepson. Uh any comment, Commissioner Meiser? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a comment. Um I'm so happy to see this. I've worked with Brandy a little bit and I know what a needful position it is, you know, for Janelle. So, uh, thank you so much for stepping into this role and applying and, um, best wishes with it. I look forward to seeing it. Yes. Welcome. We'll take the vote, but we'll we'll have it. We'll have Oh, I'm sorry. Was I premature? I'm sorry. This is probably technically premature in that, but No, no. I think I think you felt the crowd here. Okay. Any other comments? Hearing none. Um, this is a roll call vote. Commissioner Schulty, I. Commissioner Jeepson. Hi, Commissioner Meisner. I, Commissioner Heinrich, I, Commissioner Brastad, I, Commissioner Gamash, I. And that passes unanimously. And welcome aboard. Item number nine is to consider reappointing Mary Campbell and Jason Lund to the Creek Watershed District Board of Managers for three-year terms ending May 27th, 2028. Do I have a motion? So moved. Moved by Commissioner Brastead, seconded by Commissioner Schulty. Uh just to to let everyone know there was uh just three people, two of them here that uh reapplied and just one other person. Um so we moved forward with um with them. Um they were just in their first terms I believe. Um so we give them another round. Things are going well in the Creek wershed. So I was very happy with that. Any other comments? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Hearing none. It passes unanimously. Is there anything else to come before the county board committee this morning? Seeing none, we are adjourned. Thank you everybody.