Hey there. >> There. >> All right. Please join me in a pledge of allegiance. I >> pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you for that. All right, public comments. Anybody in the audience, not traditionally a Carver County employee, but somebody with an issue not on the agenda? I see none. So, let's have agenda review and adoption. So moved. >> Second. >> Moved by Anderson, second by Fehee to for the agenda review and adoption. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. >> Motion passes. Approval of the July 8th, 2025 minutes. >> Move approval. Mr. Chair. >> Second. >> Have a motion by Lynch and a second by Anderson to approve the July 8th, 2025 minutes. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Motion passes. Community announcements. Commissioner Lynch. >> If I could u starting um tomorrow night, we have a wonderful actually starting tonight, we have a wonderful uh uh celebration in Carver County called the Carver County Fair. you know, bring many, many thousands of people to the great city of Wakonia and there's a little something for everyone and uh please come and come hungry. So, a lot of 4 uh projects, a lot of uh just a lot of everything at the fair. If you haven't been there for a while, stop in. >> Thank you for the heads up. I was unawares uh the fair was going I'm very aware I've got a pork sandwich every Wednesday, opening day of the fair. Pork sandwich. Love it. Commissioner Fay. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, just to that point, it's the 113th annual fair. So, we'll get to Wakonia. It's excitement, entertainment, just the community spirit and what the fair board does in the preparation and a tremendous job that they all do. So, if you have an opportunity, please come and visit the fair. Also, u since we haven't had community announcements for a couple of weeks, I had the opportunity to visit or attend the 2025 Midwest Regional Short Line Railroad in their annual conference and learned quite a bit and the guest speakers were phenomenal. It was just a great opportunity to connect with that group. And then national night out this evening. If you or gather up your neighbors, you have an opportunity to get out and go meet some of your neighbors. Please go to the various community national night out events. They're all over the various cities in the county. So, please get out and meet your neighbors. That's it. Mr. Chair. >> Okay. Commissioner Man. >> Mr. chair. Uh I have the opportunity to participate in a global leadership conference the last two days of this week. Um it's an enrichment opportunity with leaders across America including uh speakers Nick Sabin, Craig Rochelle, um John Maxwell, 100 countries will be rec uh represented in 30 different industries and um they have a satellite uh location in Waconia and so it's uh it's a great place for leaders who want to lead. It's been a passion of mine uh to do that within our community and this is one of those areas. So um looking forward to that. uh night to unite as others have said is one of my favorite nights. Um have a chance to get out to Chesca and Victoria. So looking forward to that. Uh probably one of my highlights was it last week or the week before we had a chance Lisa Commissioner Anderson and myself, a bunch of staff and a bunch of partners had a chance to see the Trades 360 program about halfway through the building of the camper cabin. Um I'm seeing some nods in the back. Ari was there as well. And if you haven't seen those pictures, um it was fantastic. Um the goal initially some years ago was planted what would it look like if we had 16 kids learning 16 different trades across 16 different weeks and the output being course credit um skills to use in their home in their community or pursue as a career and then an output and so we'll be partnering with Three Rivers Park District to get that placed um and then I posted on my socials and invited anybody in the builder community if they wanted to participate in um Camper Cabin 2.0 know and to my surprise um three people reached out and said we would we would love to underwrite or donate items and so I just I think that's fantastic unexpectedly too we had an impromptu tour um the intermediate school district 288 superintendent was there Tim Horton happens to be a constituent and uh he's he's done a lot of amazing things in other districts and he was able to give us a quick tour and we think that there might be even deeper partnerships as it relates to some of the funding that's coming our way or not coming our way with the African-American bill uh to partner with them um to deliver some services that we don't have in Carver County that could alleviate tax burden for some of our residents. Um softball's kind of been on my mind. Um my kid just got done with the tournament this past weekend. She's playing a select team this weekend and we had a chance to go to I told her I'd give her a call out, but we had a chance to go to the Iowa State tournament. Claire, just calling out for you. It was the number one ranked team in Iowa. And it's interesting. I only bring that up from the perspective of yeah, I'm proud of both of them, but also when I get into these different communities, I get to see different things. I get to see the sports complex that people have made the investment in and to attract young families and athletes. Um I was in Elk River this weekend. I'll be in Ann next weekend and and there are communities in the metro that are investing heavily in attracting the next generation. Sports is one of those. Um county fair uh will be there again this year. um I didn't grow up with a county fair and so probably unlike some of my peers um it's kind of a hoot for me uh that I didn't have growing up and so I look forward to that every year and I think a lot of people have said I'd rather go to the Carver County Fair than even the state fair. It's about half the price and about half the headaches and so I reached out to extension um because I'm one of our reps for the extension and I said how many people go to that fair every year? Does anybody want to venture a guess? >> Over 10,000. >> It's over 65,000. >> 65,000 is about what we attract. And I think a lot of people don't know that, right? 65,000 people and I didn't ask you know what percentage of them are Carver County residents and which aren't. Um but 65,000 people is it 25 people on the board. Uh they do a nice job. Their marketing is excellent and a lot of kids get to show up for that. Um retirements are something that happen regularly here and I can't name all of them but I I did see a post on uh a longtime sheriff's uh deputy deter retired. Um and then I had the chance in the last couple days talk to a few retirees of the county. Um, I wish, you know, in my utopian world that we would stay in touch with them and we would use those for volunteer opportunities and I just dovetail that with the county fair and we're going to spend a lot of time and energy at that fair with our staff. It might be an opportunity for us to consider inviting some of our staff back to help us with those things. Um, road construction project. I I took a little jaunt out west and I saw it's not just uh something that's happening in the eastern part of the county, it's all over. Um, but spent uh some time with five or six residents yesterday that had strong opinions on the 41 project, 41 and 10. Had some time with Lyndon this morning to talk through a few things. And at the end of the day, I think people are are are frustrated, but they're grateful that we're doing it in um shorter periods of time and getting more done versus spreading it out over longer periods of time. And um we do know that the 4110 intersection, and I I said I'm the bearer of bad news, it it will slip and it won't be open until after the school. And so our team's working really hard in the communication plan with the district um to see uh what we can communicate to the bus drivers and the families because it will be an interruption, but I think when it's done, we'll all be happy for that. Uh River City Days, we talked about, I think you said 113th year of the county fair. River City Days celebrated their 49th um River City Days. Um Colin was instrumental in that. We get to see him in the boardroom every time we're here. Um and so next year will be the 50th. Um Commissioner Anderson was at the parade. I was at the parade. Um our sheriff's deputies were there. a lot of strong presence and it was a hot hot day but people showed up and it's always fun to have those community traditions. Then finally, the district 112 announced that they areum going to go out for referendum in 2025. And I share that from the perspective that when people look at their taxes and they see one or 2% increase, um that doesn't really get them riled up. Even if one of the three entities, the primary entities in the tax bill, whether it's the city, um the county or or the school district, uh is is above that, as we've seen historically, uh I think that this year is going to be really challenging. And I think that it's important to know the value that a strong schools mean to our overall uh ecosystem within the county. And so if if our cities are going to be double digits this year if counties facing north of where we've traditionally been potentially um it's going to be tough for for that referendum to pass. But I just want to impress upon people the value of having strong school districts helps our whole community. So those are my comments. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner Anderson. >> All right. Well, um because Colin is now back in the room, I do want to reiterate um that River City days a couple of weeks ago. So, Colin, thank you um for all the work you did and to the all volunteer board that puts that on. Um I didn't um completely appreciate um that it is an all volunteer board and and does that largely without um funding of any public entities. So, I'm grateful that they continue to to do that. It's always um fun. The parade is always fun. So, thank you, Colin. Um, also want to reiterate, um, you know, the a tish of a delay in our 4110. Um, also had an opportunity to connect with this with the school district on the importance of communicating that early. Um, and people really understand that when it rains, it rains in buckets and it's difficult to build roads. um when when that happens. I also had uh an opportunity to observe court and um so I observed um Judge Wel and um a couple of weeks back and um saw some of some of our our county attorneys lawyers in action there and I have to say I I didn't appreciate the whole world that happens behind um that and I was impressed with Judge Wel and how he treated everyone with kindness and respect and um that goes a long ways in in that kind of work. So I was um super impressed and honestly I could spend all day there. It was um super fun to to watch that in action. And that's all I have. >> Thank you very much. Um, I can just piggyback on that that I'm glad the 41 and 10 intersection is nowhere near my district. Uh, I think ESPN has the show, pardon the interruption for so for Unite to I'm looking at the map of things I could go to on my little motor scooter. Well, you better bring a map uh to get around uh because you may not get there from here. Uh but um I will be at a bunch of those tonight. Um uh the county fair, I will get out there. Um we usually take a couple of grandkids on Wednesday, so maybe we'll be out there. And I learned last year that the Scrambler ride uh there there should be an age limit on the uh Scrambler ride. um not for youth uh right >> but uh so somehow I ended up on that and I didn't remember the G forces and I began praying that it would stop about 10 seconds in uh so >> I guess there's the age factor but a lot of good food and things to do out there so that's all I got >> all right consent agenda do I have a motion >> so move Mr. here. >> Second. >> Commissioner Lynch moves and Commissioner Anderson seconds the consent agenda. I know that we have a member with a small item family member item on there. Commissioner Fehee. >> Yes. Uh Mr. Chair, I do support all of the items on the consent agenda, but I will be abstaining because of a conflict on 2.5. >> Very good. Okay. Any other discussion on it? Commissioner Udman. >> Mr. Chair, I want to call out a couple things on 2.3 Wonia parking lot. Um, uh, I know that First Street Center is close to the end of its life, and I know that we're scrambling and working hard to try and address, uh, some of the deferred maintenance items. Um, I know our priority is the 600 building. Um, and I know that there's a lot of pieces to that equation, but I just I just wanted to call out it pains me to approve a parking lot knowing that we'll probably rip that up in a handful of years in the future. And I just want our board to to focus on what's prudent when it comes to replacement and then putting band-aids on. I also know that we've got a fair amount of deferred maintenance that we're going to have to make similar decisions of do we put a patch on it um when our useful life of those buildings are near the end. And so just a comment um on 2.5 I just want to be completely transparent with the public on that one. Um the applicant is is uh is married to one of our commissioners and so just for the public and for transparency uh I I love it. I think I I've been very clear of of supporting Agra tourism, being pro business and being um pro- signage and I know that that has not necessarily been voiced by by the entire board, but I support this and I support all the elements of it and it looks like they comply with everything and then I'd point out that it received unanimous support from the township uh the city and and the uh on the planning commission. So support everything on the consent agenda. >> Okay. Any other discussion on the consent agenda? I have a motion and a second. Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed. So 4 on the consent calendar with one abstension. All right. 3.1 peer award recognition. I thought I would see all the winners in here. >> Well, good morning, Mr. Chair and commissioners. I'm Michelle Miller from employee relations. We're here today to celebrate the 15th annual public employee excellence recognition program, also known as peer awards. This program is designed to allow employees of Carver County to nominate their co-workers for an award having uh shown excellence in one of three categories. The categories are innovation, customer service, and project-based teamwork. The innovation award nominees are for those who have performed an improvement in process or implemented an innovative new idea, procedure or product. The result may have been a cost-saving measure, an increase in efficiency, enhancement of services provided or have a significant positive impact on the county. And the 2025 recipient of the innovation award is Bridget Stewart for her work launching a book club for adults with disabilities and she works at out of the Watertown Library. Uh Bridget is unable to be here today, but we want to congratulate her on her award. The customer service award nominees are employees who have demonstrated a dedication to courteousness, a high degree of efficiency, the ability to respond to others needs, and often go the extra mile in responding to requests of internal and external customers. The 2025 recipient of the customer service award is Brandy Danielson from Health and Human Services for her willingness to jump in and help with both internal and external customers wherever she's needed. and Heather Goodwin will say a few words about Brandy. >> Good morning, board chair, commissioners. Um, I do want to just extend a quick thank you to all five of you for attending the peer awards this morning. It is a really important event. Want to thank Michelle Miller uh for hosting and putting doing a lot of work to put that event together. It's something that is important work. Um, and I'm excited and happy to be able to honor one of our employees um with a with an award that she received this morning. She was there this morning, isn't here. I'm sure she's back to work, honestly. Um, and not here. I know she's in the building. Uh, but Brandy is a is an example of one of the opportunities that is exists in health and human services for folks to be able to advance their career um within and honor, you know, the work that folks do and good work and honor good work. She's somebody who started in our front desk um did amazing work with the customers both internally, externally. Um she's sh someone someone who has shown um dedication, has shown compassion, certainly so shows excellent work skills and has been able then to advance her career and moving up to a a child support enforcement technician law. No, I'm saying that wrong. Child support enforcement technician. That's a mouthful. Sorry about that. Um and so she as she's moved up into that role, she supports our child support officers. She supports our income support staff. still continues in many ways to support support the front desk. Um but she's someone who is has shown um that she is the kind of employee we want in health and human services. She is dedicated and she continues to advance and grow um not only within herself but helps others grow as well. So I'm really thrilled to have her win the award this year. >> I'll save it. >> Um I would like to reiterate what Heather said about having all of you in attendance. That was really nice to see that support and I know employees appreciate that as well. So, thank you. Uh the project-based teamwork award nominees are for employees working together to demonstrate excellence in the improvements of process coordination of a project or services provided as a team. This year's award goes to the food access project where our public health department worked with community partners to reduce barriers to food access. And the team members from this team were Lily Halverson, Caitlyn Harris, Tammy LGO, Kelly Velker, Samantha DS, and Richard Scott. and Heather will say a few words about this team. >> Thanks, Michelle. >> I mean, I'm going say this for the public. Uh you all heard it this morning uh in our peer award uh celebration, but this is a really important project. Uh food insecurity occurs when a household cannot access enough food to feed themselves or and their families. It is linked to oftentimes to one or more factors that we know well in health and human services. Um creating a cycle that can be hard to break. Access to nutritious, affordable, and culturally relevant foods is important for overall health and well-being. Eating well can play an important role in preventing chronic disease, providing enough energy to carry out daily activities, support mental well-being, pro promote growth and development in children, and much much more. This public health team uh spearheaded a project, again really important, called find food carver county. And I say that because there is a website, Find Food Carver County, that folks can go to to find food resources if you are food insecure. So folks listening out there, if this is something you have a need for, please go to that website. It will link you up to us and our community partners and help you to be able to access food. Um the goal of the project was really to eradicate uh food insecurity in Carver County. Um this is something we really do feel like is an achievable goal. we certainly can reduce the need and dependence um for f for folks to be able to get food. And I we had lots and lots of community based partners we worked with. I won't name them all here today because I probably will leave out somebody and then somebody will be upset. But lots of lots of the nonprofits, lots of uh really critical partners in the community. We worked with local farmers markets, um the community gardens. There's so many folks involved and we are really just the we just spearheaded this. This is really a collaborative effort for many many folks in the community um to be able to work on food insecurity. Again, this project continues to expand. It has just it started small and it has just grown and grown and grown and we're really excited about that. I think it's a testament to the passion and dedication of this team and the commitment they have to the communities of Carver County. Again, addressing food insecurity is not a short-term effort. This is something that this team works on day in and day out and and it takes long-term commitment and collaboration. I thank I thank this team and I thank our community partners who have worked on this f find food Carver County project and I'm really proud um of the work that they're doing and proud that that they're part of health and human services. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I just want to thank you again for allowing us to have a few minutes and we appreciate that um you're willing to recognize the hard work of our employees. Thank you. >> Thank you Michelle. I remember when you didn't need reading glasses so uh so prominently like myself. >> I have them all over my house now. >> I uh I know exactly what you're talking about. Um but uh thank you for representing uh all those great employees. Again, you know, I often say it's county government is the most sexy government, but uh our employees are figuring out ways, new and great and innovative ways, whether it's libraries or food insecurity or all those things that the Carver County taxpayer pays for that they're they're really not aware of on a day-to-day basis. And so, it's fun to to see uh some of the 750 employees we have do the wonderful things. So, um, fun to be there and, uh, have a little fun. So, anybody else? >> Great comments and I like your comments about sexy government. >> Right. >> So, that being said, I wonder if Commissioner Lynch has a motion. >> Uh, Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to recess as a county board and convene as a as a county ditch authority. >> Second. >> Commissioner Lynch has moved to adjourn as us as the county board and convene as the county ditch authority. Speaking of very sexy things. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Motion passes. >> Mr. Freshman. >> Good morning, Mr. Chair and board members. Uh, actually, ditch authority members. Dave Freshman, property and finance director and county ditch administrator. Uh the the ditch authority has gone through a process of uh redetermining ditch benefits for nine um county ditches and uh joint ditches and our our ninth one. Uh we just finished the um uh the the determination the board or the ditch authority approved and now we uh it's time for the assessment. um that'll go against all of the property owners using the new benefit roles that have that have been approved and determined by the um our um uh the people that did our viewers, excuse me, I couldn't think of the word. uh the viewers. Um and the so the total assessment is 213,528 and recommending the following terms that um any special assessments over $250 are spread over five years at an interest rate of 3%. And no interest if um is uh is due if the uh full special assessment is paid by December 26 of this year. Um and there's the following details on the back. Just a reminder, um, no county, uh, general property tax dollars are used for any of the ditch activities. Uh, all the costs and projects are assessed back to, uh, the benefiting property owners. Uh, so with that, I'll stand for any questions. Dave, uh, the 213,000, would you would that would you consider that average pretty reasonable? Is anybody one large prop if I own a se quarter section of land maybe what am I paying? >> Um well there uh there are two very large assessments. One is for uh the school district and one is for the city. Um though but those represent um large uh benefiting properties. You know the rest of them I think are pretty average. It is a large amount but this is the largest um ditch system in the in the county. uh there there's a lot of property owners that are sharing in this. Um so I think the the actual cost to the to the um benefiting property owners will be about average compared to other ditch systems throughout the county. >> Okay. So nobody's here today to to complain about that. They do have their bills. >> Uh they don't have their bills yet that that uh this is the process that starts that those bills. >> Okay. So this isn't finalizing it. Uh this this is final this is the the amounts have been finalized the costs been finalized. This action is actually um proven the total amount that will then will then go through the process of sending out the bills giving them the opportunity to to prepay. Um and then if anybody who doesn't prepay those will get added to their property tax bills. Um you know anything over over $250 will be added the next five years uh with an interest rate of 3%. Well, thinking of our good employees, thanks for keeping us straight on all of this. I know this is technical and and financial and and everything, but but it's still contestable by the property owners. We're not done. >> No, we're done. >> We're done. They they can't contest back to us. >> No. >> Wow. Okay. >> Well, good. >> And so, we had a we had we had a public hearing. Um and that's uh you know we took input and you if you remember on this particular ditch we actually went back uh had two or three subsequent meetings uh to try and get it right. Um and then there was an appeal process. There's a window for appealing. No one appealed. So now we are at the point of uh now uh approving the assessment to now share the costs um over all the benefiting property owners. >> Mr. Kling Hutz is happy. Uh, I I I would not uh I would let him characterize his happiness or or lack thereof. >> Good move. >> Anybody have a discussion item on this or do we have a mo do we need a motion? We need a motion. >> We need a motion. >> I'll move approval as uh stated. >> Okay. >> Second. Commissioner man moved and Commissioner Anderson seconded a motion to approve the recommended ditch assessment of 213,528 to cover the cost of redetermination of benefits and buffer strip payments for CD2-3. Any further discussion? >> Only that if uh Dave sure can clear a room, can he? >> Right, >> Mr. Chair? I will be abstaining because I am a property owner in CD2-3. Okay, we have uh Commissioner Fehee abstaining from this vote. I wondered why he didn't jump in and make that motion, but now I know. I can remember why. So, any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed? Okay. One abstension. >> Move to adjurnn as county ditch and reconvene as county board. >> Okay. Got a motion by commissioner Udman. >> Second >> to adjurnn as the county ditch and reconvene as the county board. >> No discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Motion passes. We have a quick brief moment here before we listen to the county administrator. And I also want to say hi to Bri in the back of the room who will be Christa's replacement if Christa needs I don't know if Christa's planning to travel to Europe or something or what she's got on but this is this would be Christa's >> replacement in the future should we need it correct >> backup backup >> backup >> not replaceable Mr. here, >> right? But she seems good to have a backup. >> She seems equally affable. So, um, we're in good hands as usual. So, okay. Commissioner, county administrator report. >> Yeah. And thanks to Christa and Nick, as I was on vacation, they took care of business. Seems like things go better when I leave. So, thank you. Uh, my batteries were recharged, but and then they were drained yesterday, so I'm back at it. Uh, uh, it's going to be a busy month. uh tonight uh night to unite. I always want to call it national night out night to unite and Christa did send around a list showing you by district and also which events the deputies were attending. I know the sheriff's also back from vacay so he's back in town. He'll be around. You may see him. And then Thursday, uh there's a CDA tour starting at 1. That's on your calendar. Who's going to be attending that? >> Lisa. Yep. >> I thought I had a conflict, but I >> maybe >> I keep looking for it. I But I'm going to be there if I don't have a conflict. >> Working at the fair. >> That's fine. Uh Nick will be there. I'm a maybe at this point. So we'll have a good showing there or a showing. >> Okay. Very good. And then uh next week, no meeting and then back at it at the end of August or mid August. Summer is half left, Mr. Chair. >> Half left. >> Yes. Doesn't seem like it's half left. Uh, I will be on the island of Maline next week >> having a spotted cow. >> Mr. Chair, if I may, congratulations on your newest title, father-in-law. I know that that happened during the week of the work session. It was a lot of stuff going on, but that's a pretty cool thing. Yep. It's good. I saw one of the pictures, just one of you and your daughter, which hits home because >> you're bringing tears to my eyes. >> The ones that have the ones that have daughters. I heard you gave a great speech. >> Thank you. and married in Carver County. >> Very appropriate. >> There was a premium for that, but >> more and more people getting married in Carver County. That's good. >> Okay. Um unless uh Commissioner Fehee wants to abstain from the adjournment motion. I have a motion from Commissioner Fehee to adjourn and a second by Commissioner Lynch. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. Those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much. We will be going into a work session on local affordable housing aid update on potential qualified projects. >> That speech that was great person that told you, was it Dave? >> It it was not his wife. >> No, no. >> I heard it was too long. >> It was supposed to be five minutes. It turned into 15. >> Was it really? >> It was 15. >> Oh, that's not hard. >> You didn't plan for the the glass clings, >> all the tears and the cry and whimpering. >> Spent my time thanking people. That was a >> lot of that. Did you bring your shotguns when you're on All right, guys. We're returning to our work session here on some housing issues. >> I don't know if he >> Heather, are you going to kick us off or >> answer? Alison's quite capable as well. Either way, >> um, good morning again. >> Good morning. >> Good to see you all. So local affordable housing aid is a I think you all are pretty familiar with the term LAA. It is one of the funding sources that comes from taxes uh to Carver County. Um it is a seven metro county only funding source um that helps us to um preserve affordable housing um helps us to um helps folks from losing housing, helps folks find housing um those that are homeless and um in our community. So this has been uh like I say this has been in front of you a number of times. Um we continue now we're kind of second year of these funds. Um we received these funds last year. Um there was we were in front of the board to accept those funds. We have we were in front of you in March uh where we had a contract between health and human services and uh the community development agency uh to be able to work together um to on project on qualified projects. qualified projects is defined in statute. Um and very um specifically um there's a lot of details to that and a lot of kind of rules and regulations we need to follow in regard to um what is a qualified project. Uh but we um did receive uh funding um and our funding was higher than expected. I'll let Allison dive into that a little bit more. Uh but we are here today to just talk about a couple possible projects that we would like to work together on um to be able to spend those funds um and be able to expand our affordable housing here in Carver County. Uh so with that, I'll I'll let Allison jump in and kind of walk through uh what she's what the part of her funding. If you remember, uh 30% goes to HHS, 70% is going to the CDA at this time. That was board approved last year as well. Uh, so we um, like I say, we just got a check last week um from Department of Revenue um, which is one of the reasons we're here today. Allison and I have been talking for a while um, and we've looped Nick in as well. He's in the back of the room. Looped him in um, on some things that we would like to, like I say, get started yet this year. >> Thank you. Thank you. Hello, Allison. >> Morning. Allison Strike, executive director for Carver County CDA. Uh, thanks for having me. Um, so again, as Heather mentioned, LAHA or local affordable housing aid helps the metropolitan local governments develop and preserve affordable housing within their jurisdictions um to keep families from losing their housing and to help those experiencing homelessness. Um, as she mentioned, um, the the county board provided approval for the county to administer 30% and the CDA 70%. And we signed that, uh, professional service agreement was fully executed on April 30th. Um, and then the Minnesota Department of Revenue posted the certified 2025 amounts in mid July. Uh, so the 2024 certified amount, and that was for a partial year, was 1.63 63 million. Um, and 70% of that total was 1.141257. Uh, the 2025 certified amount was $4,285,474. Um, which I think Melody walked into my office and showed me that amount and I'm like I'm like, are you sure that's the right amount? She's like, well, I got it off the website. Uh, I know we we knew it was going to be higher because 2025 was a or 2024 was a partial year. I just don't think we were expecting it to be that much higher. Um so this is a proposed allocation of funding we showed you I think probably in 2024 um when we were talking about the 30 70% split. Um and just to give you an update on the 1.141 million uh in 2024 that the CDA received um we used all of 2024 for our down payment assistance program um down payment assistance closing cost assistance. We launched that in June. Um as of today, um we have 81.6% or $898,000 of that funding committed. We have closed on four. Um we have five that will be closing by August 9th. Uh nine more reserved. That means we have nine more households that are searching for a home. 37 applications that are in the pre-screening PLA process. And of those 37, we'll only be able to make four more reservations um before 2024 will be completely expended. Um so due to the 2025 being uh higher than anticipated, we're proposing to make two changes to that prior spreadsheet. Um the first would be that we allocate um that 10% to multifamily new production and that would be allow us to do like some gap financing to other developers um if they're trying to do tiff or like going into Minnesota housing. So we'd like we're proposing to start that with the 2025 amount which would be approximately $300,000. Um and then the second is related to the CDA purchasing and rehabbing two Noah properties. Um so prior to the certified amounts being released, we were already in the process of looking at these two projects. Um one is in the city of Chaza and one is in the city of New Germany. Uh this CDA, we currently do not have any projects in the city of New Germany. So this would be very appealing to us. The city administrator is very excited about the potential of us owning this project. Um so we intend to we intend to purchase the property for the appraised value. Um and then additionally, there's rehab work that needs to be completed on the property. This project has five rental units in it. Um, and then the Chesa property would be sold to us. That's on 110 West Second Street for the same price that it was purchased for um, in 2018. And there's also rehab work that needs to be completed on that project. Um, both projects will meet the definition of a qualified housing project. Um and that definition is projects designed for the purpose of construction, acquisition, rehab, demolition or removal removal of structures um to housing to provide affordable housing to households that have incomes that do not exceed the greater of 80% of the greater of state or area median income as determined by HUD. Again, the New Germany project consists of five rental units and the approximate cost to purchase and rehab the property is $500,000. The property in Chaza currently consists of retail space that's currently being occupied by the CAP agency. Um, and our intention is to continue to rent to the CAP agency that we feel it's very important for them to have a physical presence in Carver County. Um, and then there are two rental units upstairs. Uh, we have been in a discussion with the Carver County housing unit about using at least one of those units for shelter purposes. Um, we have obviously not finalized any details. I just had one discussion about that being an option to see if there was even an interest in it. And then the CAP agency would be interested in using the other unit for rapid rehousing. Um, current residents in those uh units are currently on monthtomonth. So we would obviously work to re relocate them ideally to some CDA housing and the approximate cost the full cost to purchase and rehab that would be about 500,000. Um, however, because there's retail space in there, we would not be able, the CDA would bring about 51% of the cost to purchase it. Um, and then we would prorrate also any rehab costs so that we're only spending LAA on the rental units because the retail piece would not be in eligible use. Um, so funding if funding to purchase and rehab the two projects would still leave over two million $2 million to continue with other programming as we've outlined. Um, so the next program that we're planning to launch is the first gen down payment assistance closing cost assistance program and the current goal is to launch launch that by the end of quarter three. Um, and then the next program we're intending to la we're working on launching and having a timeline for implementation would be um the senior rehab program. So our intention is to have a timeline for implementation of that by the end of quarter 3. Um and again moving some funding to the multif family gap financing a year before planned would allow us to fund some other multifamily projects um sooner and any questions. >> Feels good to have some money, huh? >> What's that? >> Feels good to have a lot of money >> doing doing God's work for housing. >> That's right. >> Mr. for Commissioner Udman, >> we're we're not in the same position as a board right now and and for the next three or four years, right, to have money sitting on the sidelines and and I and I think in partnership, you're going to be able to probably do a heavier lift than us in a lot of areas. Um I don't know if the LAA money can go towards that, but I also know that I think we have $2 million of uncommitted formally COVID dollars still sitting in an account to assign to potentially two more projects through the CDA. Is that still accurate? >> One. >> One more. >> Yep. Um, I'll Trails Edge, uh, sorry, Carver Place and Carver Oaks. That money's already been distributed to us and put into the project. Trails Edge Senior, we got an extension. We just submitted an application to Minnesota Housing in July. >> Okay, good. And I've been out that way a number of times to see the construction. It's crazy. In 18 months to have two complexes and I think the last one's near completion. >> Track and Yeah. Cover place is scheduled to open on September 1st, less than a month. >> Yeah. So, we were just there cutting a ribbon it seems like. and on top of all the uh road construction construction there. Are these projects that you're showing us as complex as funding the the big ones? >> Okay. So, I guess the path I'm going in my head is I know that we have just wrap with me on this one. I know that we have needs in our first street center in Waconia and I know that we just approved $150,000 to pick up fix a parking lot and I know that we don't have a bi pile of cash on the sidelines to try and address that while we're talking about the 600 building. Does it make sense for us to go down the path of exploring if the LAA money could be used to I'm just going to throw out an arbitrary number 100 unit housing complex on the property that the county already owns and then the base uh the main floor potentially to have the same services as what First Street Center currently delivers and potentially some office space to alleviate the pressure that you guys are facing from a CDA perspective. And I just think through it and said, I thought it was two million, but if it's a million, if we took took that million and if we took the four entirety of the four million or, you know, four or five million over the course of three years of LAAHA money, could that be a good chunk of change to accelerate addressing the county's challenge of the First Street Center? I'd imagine that there's some overlap with the clients that you serve directly and the clients that we serve. Um, and to address the overall, is that something that's been on the radar? Is that something that could be considered? um as we look at you know budgets going to be tight for the next three or four years with all the shifts from from um state and from federal is that is that a viable consideration? >> Uh it is not something we have considered up to this point just based on our this kind of the spreadsheet that we developed where we looked at all the things we were going to do. I mean I I will always be the first to say I'm always open to looking at housing other housing options but it is not something we have talked about or considered at this point. Heather, any any thoughts? Because I don't I don't want to go down a rabbit goose chase, but I also know that we're going to be facing I don't know what the replacement cost of the First Street Center is. It's direly overdue. You know, what what that dollar amount is and where it comes in. Maybe Nick has some thoughts, too. But isn't it prudent for us to at least consider something like this? Maybe not go too far down, but how would it sketch out how might it work? Maybe it won't work. >> Well, and I the I mean, it's a great view, great location in Waconia, obviously. I mean, if you got some apartments up higher, it's you're going to look at the lake, which is lovely. Uh the one piece that would be la funding wouldn't be able to fund the part of the building that first street center or county offices would house in. It could fund the part of the building where the affordable housing could be, but the county would still need to pay for the build of the first street center part and the um any county offices part. So I think it would be, you know, could that could there be a a melding and kind of a cocktail of funding that would make that happen? It's possible. Uh I think we would just need to be really clear on um which which pot of money is funding what. I mean there are pretty strict rules of LAAHA reporting. Alice and I have artist talking even earlier today. We're starting to work on the reporting um that we'll have due uh later this year for LAAHA and it's pretty intensive. So um I think we would just need to have really clear lines. Uh but but I think you know certainly possible. We absolutely need a new first street center. Um that building is we call it the Brady Bunch building. It's, you know, certainly has a 70s look to it and a 70s functionality to it. So, um, I think if that would be something that the board is interested in, um, it could be something that we could work we could work together and put a plan together and and bring forward. >> Yeah. >> And I would I would sorry not to interrupt. I would have one caveat that we do not look at. Currently, my extension on the the ARPA, it's not ARPA money. The Carver County CDA housing project fund >> is through I think January. I would ask that we not until we find, you know, that we not make any decisions on that because I have it as a source right now on an application with MHFA. >> Yeah. And and I know we're in work session. So, I'll lean on Dave and maybe our chair to to figure what's the appropriate venue to say, do we want to, you know, engage one of the CDA architects to say how would it lay out because it is it's beautiful views. We already control the land. Those are two big challenges with CD. I mean I remember the project we were at with Sarah and yourself and others Julie when it was the I don't know the name of it by the target in in Waconia. So >> and it took how many years to acquire those pieces of land and then how many years to ask multiple times to get it funded. It's just a complex space and if we take off one of those complexities maybe we can accelerate a project that works for everybody. The other question I've had and I I don't know if I've asked specifically, but with these dollars, um, because it sits close to the district I represent and a lot of people that utilize the space, why aren't we considering um, Oakidge? We could have immediate, it seems to address a number of needs. We could have immediate housing available um, their space for your staff potentially in the square footage that's um, currently, you know, um, open space or community center space that could be retrofit. I know that we're going to have a challenge um for however many bodies that we need to find a home for on a temporary basis. Seems like an opportunity for us as a community to invest in something at a distressed price that we could more or less be an investor and and maybe recalibrate in five or 10 years to to pull our investment out and recoup it and still have housing to show for it. So, I guess the base question is is has CDA considered it and why isn't why aren't we considering using some of these dollars to retrofit something that it sounds like could be 200 bedrooms in the course of about 10 months? Uh, we have not considered it. I think some of the elaborate finishes at Oakidge Ridge makes me very nervous to retrofit as housing. You know, you've got marble floors and uh I mean, my understanding is there's a potential contract for deed about to happen on that project. I don't know if it will go through, but >> um it's not been something we've really been interested in. It's not to say it's not something we would ever explore, but we just really have shied away from it. Just and I think the cost to retrofit that to make them into apartments would be pretty expensive. >> Um I I think using them as sort of a single room occupancy where you're maybe just adding in, you know, a refrigerator would be a lot easier than actually turning them into apartments. >> Yeah. I think the math that I've heard is that the building could be acquired for roughly 13 to 15 million bucks and 20 years ago that was built for 20 million. So, you know, if you take out a build cost of something, yes, HVAC's a dump there. They need to rip that out. So, that's probably another million or two and probably another two or three to cash flow until it gets things going on. But on a cost per per unit basis, I don't think that we could build or retrofit anything else. Maybe the New Germany property for less on a per bedroom basis. And so, my math is if you spit shined each room about 10,000 bucks a piece, you could start cash flowing in as short as six months. So, I think it's just prudent to given the money that's available for us to consider if our goal is to have incremental affordable housing. This seems to be there's it doesn't seem like there's too many options that we could do it faster and for less money. And I I for one would encourage us to to take a deeper look at it and find out is there participation could the CDA control the underlying land. Also, there's about 5,000 jobs within about a four mile radius of that area that that we look at workforce and and I know Costco regularly needs jobs and I know that there's industrial spaces that that's there. So the the barrier from a labor labor standpoint, housing is one of them. Transportation is another. It could be um largely eliminated if we accelerated a relationship. I don't know what it looks like. I don't know if it looks like investor money. I don't know if it looks like seed money. That's your world. But I certainly think it'd be prudent, especially given like the of the of the unexpected dollars uh to consider pursuing Oakidge. So thank you, >> Mr. Mr. Chair. I like the idea of uh looking at first street center from a multifunctional aspect. I think it's a really good idea. Uh we also have the community center service center concept floating around out there. So so veterans office. So there may be some combinations. The fundamental problem is how would we pay for our portion? >> That's right. >> Which is >> you still would have to pay millions and millions. >> Still need to do that. Y >> and but but you know these things take time to to evolve and plan out and as you know we're we're in the process of trying to come up with the principle and interest for the government center. Uh second this would be the second year now we're trying to raise 450,000 and quite frankly I'm struggling to do that in my admin recommendation. So stay tuned for that. I'm really really trying to figure out a way to get get that done. I think if we delay that, it delays everything. >> Uh and and that's problematic. So, I've asked Nick to assess that project with a couple scenarios. Let's look at well, what if we didn't do anything? What's what are the expenses? What about inflation? How does that play out? And then what well, okay, what if we do it? There's there's going to be a comparison, a rough level comparison. and we would include, you know, there will be additional costs for a new building too for for maintenance, etc. So, so let's keep our eye on that ball, but I do like this other this other idea because I think it's going to take really creative solutions to solve these problems. That would be one of the many budget messages I'll be sending will be we're going to we're going to need help. Uh we're going to be I've already asked my city administrators, can you help us? Can you help us with uh library programming, for example? Um just talking to our superintendent Erin. Uh can you help us? Can you find some funding for for mental health? Uh maybe it's not your money. Maybe it's federal money. So So all those things are Thank you for the idea commissioner. We'll work on that. Stay tuned. >> If I could, Mr. Chair, too. And before we get too far down the road on that too, we need to have some local control. We need to know if city of Wakone is interested in a 100 unit apartment building with uh in a residential area. Uh, obviously you're probably going to need updated infrastructure and u whatnot. So anyway, before we get too far down the road, we need to have local control. >> Good point. >> And if I can just bring us if I can just bring us back around. So we did I mean four million is a lot of money. >> Allison and I did a little happy dance when we saw it. But but between >> you want to demonstrate that? >> What's that? Demonstrate that. >> Would you Oh, there it is. But if the board is supportive of the projects that Allison just um laid out, the one in New Germany and Chaska, between that and the down payment um cost assistance programs, we're going to have the 2025 money spent uh between the two of us. And and I and I'm really excited um at the response that the CDA has received for the down assistance cost assistance program because that means we're helping folks buy homes. I mean, that's that's that's down payment money that we're able to provide to get folks into homes they own that they can be a part of this community and be uh you know, taxpaying resident here of a home as a homeowner. So, so we don't we want that program to continue. Uh we want to have that the money available for that because I just think it's I mean we've I've been just excited and in some ways even surprised at the response and the amount of applications and folks that have qualified. Um, so and that they're finding houses here. >> I might add, we've actually closed. >> Yeah. >> We're not even taking more applications because we >> there's been so many. Yeah. >> So, so between those programs and and like I say, if we can do these, if the if the board is supportive us of us continuing down the path of exploring these two projects, the 2025 money will be gone. So, anything we would look at, I think for a Wakonia would be with 2026 money and that's also pending that we keep getting this money. This is based on, you know, sales tax. People got to buy stuff. keep buying stuff here in in the metro because it uh comes back to us. And so I mean I I we're hopeful and I think feeling positive that that money will continue. But I will share this um from a legislative perspective uh that money got on the chopping block uh and was brought up at during the 2025 legislation didn't pass, but the state affordable housing aid and local affordable housing aid and the local homeless prevention aid. All those programs kind of squeaked into some of the legislative discussion um as possible cuts. So, I just don't want us to get too far down the road and I don't want to be the downer here, but um I'm always looking at the legislative lens and cautious that that money could end. So, um we we are taking it yearbyear, you know, spending the funds as they come in. Um and I like the idea. I mean, I love the idea of us looking at some of that 26 money, especially if it stays consistent and stays as high as it has in 25 um at doing, you know, looking at that project. And we can have some conversations with in the meantime and those things. Um, but just want to throw that out there because this isn't guaranteed money necessarily every year. I mean, as long as it's legislated, it is. But we all learned this year the legislation can do some unexpected things. So, just going to throw that out there. >> And Allison, I just want to thank you for the work in New Germany. Just with my discussions with a couple of those council members and the mayor, they're just extremely excited. first of all to have the CDA have a presence in New Germany. As we look further west, there's not a lot of opportunities for the CDA to get involved in these smaller communities. So, I think that's important for your strategic and then to pull that all together and to turn that into CDA housing. That's going to be a good thing for New Germany. Commissioner Anderson, >> I also want to um e echo what Commissioner Fehee said. Thank you. Um I I believe that New Germany is the the last um town in Carver County that CDA hasn't touched. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> Okay, good. Good. Good. I do pay attention at your meetings. >> Hamburg. Hamburg and New Jersey. Hamburg. Okay, we'll get there. We'll get there. >> Does Victoria have a project? >> Uh yes, we have some public well former public housing there. >> Yep. So, um excited for that and I do want to reiterate I I'm I am um thrilled to have the down payment program. I mean, I think at the end of the day, um it's part of the American dream and um if people can own their home and they can build wealth and that gives them that secures their future and and that's what it's it's really all about. So, I couldn't be more excited um for that program and I'm just grateful for the work that you do and looking forward to the bus tour in a couple of days. >> That's it. >> In regards to the bus tour, Allison, I'm actually volunteering at the fair that day. So, I will not be on the tour, but it's very highly recommended if you have not been on that tour because it's an eye openener of the facilities that >> How how far and wide is that tour? >> Um, so we're going to start in Watertown at the the 25 acres we own. Um, drive by Hilltop and then we're building a house on Franklin. We're going to go by that. We're going to go to Mayor um to see our rural development property that we rehabbed um Oakrove in Norwich Young America Lake Grace in Chesca and then we're going to go into the Ernst House and one of the new builds. >> Can Commissioner Workman follow with his scooter? >> We can have him on the bus. >> So following with a scooter, >> I may be driving the bus. >> Not without >> the only person qualified. I'm qualified for very little, but um and when do you expect it to end? >> Uh right now we have it scheduled for about 1 to four. >> Let's say three-hour tour. >> Yeah, it's a threehour tour. >> Thank you for the music. >> We got dancing, we got music in our work sessions. >> I know we have all the things. >> Um >> like I said, I thought I had a a conflict, but uh I'll keep looking and so I'd love to be on there. So >> good good talk. Anybody uh anybody else? >> Seeing none. >> Uh Heather, can you just clarify? Uh so it's already built in agreement. So this is kind of the one time agreement. >> Absolutely. Thanks, Nick. Yeah, Nick's question if folks didn't hear it um in the in the public that's are watching um Nicotavi, our assistant county administrator wanted me to clarify um we were in front of the board in March um and and the uh the professional service agreement between health and human services and the CDA um community development agency was approved by the board. Um we signed and officially executed got all the signatures in April for that and the and the current contract current agreement does include and does allow for this work. Uh so we wouldn't need to come back and amend the agreement or add anything else. It's already all included. The language is there. Um we wanted to be in front of all of you early uh before we did too much work on these projects to make sure that was something that this the board supported um that the projects aligned with the board's vision and interest in spending those dollars. These are count these are dollars that come to Carver County. Um and then we distribute to the CDA. So, it's just important for me and for Allison to um ensure that you as a county board are supportive of the projects and the qualified work. Um and it and that's part of our even our reporting um that we need to ensure the qualified projects are something that are being supported. So, thank you, Nick. Uh yeah, there won't be we won't need to come back in for any kind of further board approval of the contract. That's it's already in place. Um this is just an information session and we're just wanting to make sure we're on the right track. Okay, seeing no more discussion, I think we are. We're done. Not adjourned, but >> both finished. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Alison. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Heather.