uh Board of the Scott County Commissioners to order would you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and two Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice thank you very much and commissioner wolf will be joining us momentarily so first on our agenda today is um the agenda are there any additions or amendments to the agenda if not I'll stay it'll stand as posted next number three on our agenda is to approve the minutes of the no November 5th 2024 board meeting are there any additions or corrections to the minutes I make a motion to approve the minutes of November 5th 2024 second so I moved in second and to approve the November 5th minutes any discussion hearing none all in favor please say I I I I'll oppose same sign motion carried thank you now we are on to item four in our agenda a very important item on the agenda recognition of interested citizens um first I'd like to say hello we have some shocky High School um cap students in the room and want you wave uh these students are um Juniors and seniors I think mostly seniors this year who are participate in the Human Services academy uh with Sou high school and currently they're doing some of their coursework here at the government center so we appreciate you we hope you all want to work for local government um After High School and after your your next plan so thanks for being here today and of course if one of you uh planned on coming up during interested citizens you can still do that I just wanted to say hello and and recognize you okay all right do we have um any other interested citizens who'd like to address the board about an item not on the agenda um if so please approach the podium and state your name and address uh for the record um you'll have up to five minutes per person per topic good morning good morning hello um first I also want to thank you guys for the students it's always good to see young students come up and be in the Human Services Arena um my name is Ida Abdul Madam chair and members many thanks for the opportunity to be able to speak before you today I appreciate your time I have a son with autism and live in Scott County first I want to say it again as I had stated last time I was here that I appreciate many of the staff in Scott County who have helped helped and supported my son and I and I always recognize their name their names Gail Jennifer and Cherry they were wonderful kind empathetic and approachable however this is when I get mad sadly and unfortunately that is not always the case for all autism families in this County as you know the men Choice assessment is supposed to be objective and fair it is intended to capture to capture the needs for that child and family the assessor is supposed to provide services support resources that are needed in an objective manner doing an objective assessment too often I see that is not the case as you know no one can request services and resources they do not know exist this is why I cringe when I hear well the family didn't ask for anything more how can they the county assessor is obligated to be fair and provide the support that is available to the child and family who are struggling with autism I have seen children get services and resources based on things that they have no control such as their color race or ethnicity I'm sure you know how wrong and heartbreaking that is um in my eyes and in your eyes a child with autism should be a child with autism should be a child with autism irrespective of anything else I respectfully suggest that more training and sensitivity is done for your main choice assessors I also ask the county to hire accessories that reflect the communities they serve um let me put it this way Madam chair if the employees or the board in this County were all men all hell will break loose and we would say we need gender diversity when I do not see people who look like me I think hell should break lose and we need to hire people who reflect me and my son who as American as app pie and as Minot in as its 10,000 lakes thank you for your time thank you for being here today and we thank you for submitting your remarks and writing they'll be part of the record thank you are there any other interested citizens who'd like to approach the board today all right we will move on Oh I thought Suzanne was coming but she's going out thank you thank you Suzanne for connecting all right we'll move on to item five it's a Scott uh deliver day and today we're going to hear about Public Safety about safety and our physical environment uh Chris Harter is goingon to get us started welcome to you and to the panel thank you very much good morning Madam chair good morning Commissioners uh we're going to spend a little time with you today talking about the safety of our physical campus in the Scott County buildings um as you know you have supported investments in safety for our facilities um primarily in areas of um Building Technology and some process improvements and um we just thought because a lot of that work happens kind of behind the scenes that it was a good topic to bring forward and just talk about what had what do we know about the results of those investments in these safety pieces and so we have a a distinguished panel of people here today um to speak to the data that we have and what that data tells us and maybe what data we still need to answer some core questions so with that I would ask the facilitators to introduce themselves and then the panelists to introduce themselves who you are and what department you work for and then we'll get started good morning everybody thanks for being here my name is Vanessa strong I'm the natural resources supervisor for Scott County my name is Chris ly I work for the community services division Jake grusing transformation Enterprise Services good morning Troy beam Fleet and Facilities managers W Kane security operations coordinator in facilities good morning I'm Kevin Nelson I work for employe relations is the health and safety team member hi good morning everyone uh Scott redy uh Scott County Jail administrator good morning my name is Scott H I'm the director of Emergency Management in 911 Communications Brian Beasley facility operations manager thank you um Vanessa would you start us off absolutely so I was really surprised at how many uh uh key cards there were initially when you started these Endeavors that basically probably don't get used it's at about 200 or so and you've worked really hard to reduce that number by a significant amount um so then I'm reading on page 13 this really interesting slide on the Justice Center now I know very little about the Justice Center I usually work with things outside so this one was a little harder for me to wrap my brain around and I thought well you know if it's hard for me maybe it's hard for others um and it's some really interesting data about how many unique uh key cards we have that can kind of bypass some of the point of entry systems but then how many of them are actually used it looks like on a regular basis um could you maybe help us understand a little bit bit more about why the slide is Meaningful or why we have so many badges that need to be able to do this but really it's a seems like a small percentage of people that uh you actually use it and kind of help us understand why this is important for us I can I can start um years back most County Employees had access just to the whole campus Justice Center being part of the whole campus and so our our process was to make sure everyone could get to where they were supposed to be um in in looking more into the security aspect of the Justice Center and some vulnerabilities that that arise there and just looking at how what we have in place it we've come to the conclusion that everyone needs to needs the ex because a they don't use it so um so we looking at the whole process of how that works um there are people who use who are in there every day a lot of folks from Health and Human Services are in there um attorneys and Corrections staff need access in there but we're we're um in the process of kind of revamping the whole access process for that so can somebody speak to what that future state will look like well we anticipate that and again it's a response to the industry in general um there are far more counties that have full lock down of their Justice centers than we are willing to do we understand that it's a some situation for people that have to work there um on a regular basis daily basis and so what our uh system will do is sort of um sort of look at all of the uh employees and try to figure out which ones really do need to avoid that sort of burdis some situation and so it looks to us like we I I can't remember exactly what the numbers are but some of the obvious players are probation Community Corrections those kinds of players who were constantly over there um and this will just reduce um reduce the the uh the liability and the rest that are involved in keeping that access open to everybody it just limits the access so that we can of keep up with industry and reduce those risks I think the original intent was that if you were Scott County employee you were allowed to go around the point of entry that was the intent and I think since that time we've determined in a different Administration um that the security needed to be tightened up for the Justice Center and so we've taken steps to do that um do we know at at the end of this revamping how many staff will have the ability to bypass do we know that 400 yeah I don't have the numbers with but I think it was around I think we're going to reduce it by like about a 100 okay 300 range okay thank you if we stay with the the Justice Center point of entry for a minute and go to SL 14 um interesting to see the items retrieved at the Justice Center Point of Entry and I think in in terms of keeping the courthouse safe from acts of violence my question would be are we are we retrieving The Right Stuff one and is anything getting through are there things that are getting through that shouldn't be getting through I do think yes we are retrieving the right things so um a lot of the items we receive are you know things like uh more mundane things tools uh things that could be described as a weapon but are not necessarily maybe what the average person would just assume is um there have been uh there have been a couple instances where so stuff has gotten through um we have uh adapted to that um I know we've recently the you know the X-ray machine that we have at the Justice Center is newer and so we've tightened up a few things on that um but uh I I would say going forward that that we are doing the right thing and and that there is a lot High degree of confidence um that that the the deputies have over there um that I do think that uh if an incident does happen there's a un known response that that people can react to and uh then we can adjust to that whatever H whatever incident happen and this this slide excuse me this slide really does tie into that previous slide in the conversation that's being had about who should be able to bypass the point of entry uh we do recognize that the simple Act of having to go through screening makes a lot of people become aware that maybe they're trying to walk into court and they have a box Cutters in their in their pocket um again that can be an item that does show up in screening and does end up going into the box because it's something that's stopped before it gets there you know these weapons that are stopped aren't aren't always guns and knives and things we think about it it could be that box cutter in fact a lot of them tend to be yes just that people who are normally normally carrying things to and from work they've got to go to court they go in for the hearing the visible presence of the point of entry for forces people to acknowledge and check themselves before they go through that screening so that in and of itself is an is a powerful tool in keeping the Justice Center safe and it also ties into the conversation about who can bypass that Poe and one of the considerations that's difficult in a county environment like this is understanding that yes we have people who day-to-day work in the Justice Center and uh for good reason should be able to pass the point of entry screening um what we also have uh a population of people people who are community members people who have bad days and sometimes the people going to court are our County Employees so part of the conversation is what about somebody who uh does have the authority to bypass that point of entry uh but maybe they're going to a going through a nasty divorce we still would want them going to the point of entry at that point and that's why it makes sense for not everybody in the county just to have free access to bypass the point of entry someone's going for a court hearing that's relative to their situation they should go through screening like anyone else so we made investments in that point of entry when the new building was constructed and now we're looking at some additional investment to revamp that area and can you talk about what the intended benefit is of the um next investment there yeah so um a big point of of changing how the point of entry is utilized is um putting the deputies in a better position uh to monitor the the entry point um and so uh we will be switching the doors that that people enter and exit uh at point of entry uh putting the deputies so that uh in a position where they have better sight lines uh at the Justice Center so for instance right now um unfortunately deputies have their backs to to open hallways especially along that that long hallway uh uh after you get through point of entry and so putting them in a better position to just monitor everything um setting up um a more um a better work post for the deputies to monitor camera views and and uh just create a better safer environment like it'll uh it'll go a long way I think to making everybody feel like that spot is is a lot more safe thank you if we look at um slide six it looks like overall um staff is raing the facilities as they feel very safe however in looking in the difference between 2022 and 2023 it looks like there's a little bit of a change upward in the unsatisfactory in the average and just a slight change downward in the superior above average do we know from the questionnaire are there any um um is there any feedback that's given to say why they might feel if they're rating it unsatisfactory or average there may have been some comments I don't recall what they were off the top of my head but I there were some comments in there about some of the security stuff that they were concerned about but I think it was more around the safety of the environment versus the security of the environment the ones I remember it was the slip and falls and those kind of things I think that's what they were kind of referring to that's what I recall in the survey but there wasn't a whole lot of written responses it was just the answer to the question so let's build off those slip and Falls talk about something I'm a little bit more familiar with um slide eight kind of goes into the heart of those slips and trips due to ice one of the things we love best about Minnesota um so you face a very interesting challenge you have trying to keep people physically safe on the campus while also balancing the environmental pressure to reduce the amount of salt that we're using because we know that salt is killing our lakes rivers Wetlands we can't get it out but yet people matter more than anything else right so how is that going trying to find that balance between the two um and can you tell me a little bit more about like maybe your pre-treatment practices and and what kind of things you're doing kind of balance those challenges sure I can answer that one so uh one of the changes that I think well we have to look at the kpis but how are we being proactive and I think that STS here we we definitely took on this a couple things was um weather you don't know whether it's going to be ice or it's going to be snow in the mount and the frequency of it but a large bulk of the snow from the city plows are being pushed to the southern part of the street which would be the north side of the building I worked with the city last year to start pushing the bulk of that snow over so there'd be less treatment on that North Side additionally uh we started filling up our brine uh tank similar that the highway carries so we can put a brine treatment that buys us time probably from a half inch to inch of snow so we're not putting so much um of our ice meltdown creating that potassium high potassium runoff so if if we see that it's working and we don't have to add more salt that's that's how we're mitigating that um additionally um not only working with the seed to move that uh snow to the north side using the brine uh we are working with our contractors where we follow up every time after there's an event to make sure that they've cleared and used the right amount of product okay is there anything else that you're hoping to do in the future to improve that situation even better I well one of the things again is proactive right so more application proactive between every storm we monitor that we have a conversation with our crews prior to that every time so each storm is talked about differently I think we're going to continue with the bran um there's always an opportunity when you look in the future to heat it but there's obviously a cost to go with that if we were to ever go down that route I will I will add to that that this um this chart that we're looking at here doesn't really give us a real clear picture of um slip trips and falls when we talk about the reports of slip trips and falls it's it's based on across the county and it can be as um simple as somebody tripping going up the stairways that is reported as an injury right those injuries may not result in any kind of medical cost or anything like that but we file it with our insurer just to make sure that they're covered in the event that something goes on we look at some of these higher numbers here um we can isolate where those happened on ice but oftentimes that happens on Ice in remote locations maybe an inspector going at a new construction s site or something like that we some of these numbers look like that in other times uh for instance if we look at the 2023 uh 14 10 of those happen within January and February two different icing and snow events and so we we have a bulk of those that happened at the beginning of the year or the end of the year due to the um snow events um but oftentimes those numbers are kind of deceiving because at least three of those were either trips up stairs or just trips in the middle of the hallway and fell and hurt themselves so I just want to kind of put that in perspective when you see these big numbers that doesn't mean we have people slipping around the government center it could be a parking lot um you know or on the street getting out of their cars things like that places where we wouldn't have control over those conditions when we get those reports in we investigate those situations and where there's something that we can engage in and correct the hazard for instance like a sump hole in the street or or an UNL sidewalk um we we work with facilities they work with the city of shaky to help us get that corrected so if we broke out these numbers they it might kind of be shocking how few are actually ice caused by ice and then how few of those are actually in places that we would expect them like on Fourth Avenue or what have you so is there a a better way that you're thinking that we might reflect this data or present it in the future that you might be working on just more of a conversation that we need to just keep having so I think behind the scenes there's a process that goes on where we take in a report we investigate how that happened if we find that there are commonalities and I have worked with Brian one of the one of the results of that 10 slip trips and falls from 22 or 22 was was that problem where we had snow piling up on curves and people having to step over this icy area we had a couple of injuries and so we talked about that and and that's a good idea about how this process works um short of that where random slips and Falls happen and because of an icy event like a rain and Ice um it really is just random and when we consider 940 people that represent our County 14 in a year is really a good number right especially because they may not be even recordable to the ocean in other words they don't rise to a level of medical that would requires to report it to the federal level so this is being taken care of in the background M um those numbers can be break broke out into Infinite you know sort of charts and everything but ultimately what you're going to find is somebody slipped on Corner fourth and Atwood and somebody slipped on the corner of 6on homes and it doesn't help us a whole lot really because it was a big snowfall so can I just I I really am not trying to be contrary okay sure um but but so there's this little incline like when you come in that fourth or that Atwood Street door there's that little incline and part of our job is to protect our employees right part of our job is to protect the community and people that are coming in and you watch people like baby stepping up that thing all the time and I I'm sure it has to do with sun and melt and all those things did we look at what it would cost to heat that sidewalk I did interesting question so to actually if you look at the whole north side I did an estimate at I think this is the high contingency with demo and removal it'd be about 440,000 to heat the sidewalk on the North side so to answer that question and then to add further I think a lot of uh from the kpis and what we read into where the crosswalks are slippery right and I think everybody knows that um I did reach out to the city again and communicated with them and they came out and put more aggregate uh more reflective on it um and put them on notice of that issue uh because a lot of people are slipping and they maintain those crosswalks as far as spraying them I think that epoxy or latex that they're using we may have to have them remove it and just go down to two lines but at least we're having that conversation and showing them what we're dealing with to that creates a problem to our customers and to ourselves nice thanks and in response to some of that Chris yes we actually de with that all the time and we may send a a a maintenance request to have more salt or more material put down their order to blow lighter things like that whenever we see that we're always trying to correct it and stay ahead of it very nice thank you so one thing I'm uh so Evan do your best this isn't really a data question I'm struck by the number of departments we have here which we usually try to do with these Sky CL deliveries broad topics so we have facilities we have the sheriff's office we have employee relations then we have at least in preparation for this conversation it and our CIO who's not able to be here today and running through the packet the data I think looks like pretty good looks like you're achieving the goal of providing a safe and secure Government Center campus for the staff and for the people who are coming in to do their business here is that just all four of you your areas doing your own thing really effectively and it just just so happens that the data keeps getting better or has this group been intentional about being maybe a little less territorial over time time and finding places to collaborate toward this common goal and if it's the latter can you can you describe that process of how the four areas work together so we've worked really hard in the last year uh where we've got everybody together to kind of talk about security and safety so we're kind of separating the two we're separating the safety from the security and we've gotten together to go through all the different issues we've outlined what some of the concerns we had either from the survey or from the situations that we've incurred uh over over the last couple of years and so we've gotten together to really um work together with it with all the structural stuff that it does for us and all the things that we work with employee relations um the sheriff's office we meet now on a regular basis um to talk about these kind of situations and we to see what we can do to prevent them we've got some things that are in the works that we're still trying to do that we haven't been able to accomplished yet so um but we're working on those we hope to have those done within the next you know few months here I think um so but yeah it's been it's been a great experience and we worked really well together so I think there's another thing out of that Not only was it team and then taking ownership of your part um Kevin brought in third party Homeland Security so we had an outside point of view too so we're not stuck in the Shell of what our thoughts are we also had that point of view to help us progress with security and and find issues too yeah and I and I will add that uh I think that Jake the Dynamics have changed a lot um in terms of uh facilities um Emer or occupational health and safety we've always worked closely with facilities to try to resolve some of the things that we uh have run into problems that we've run into as far as safety issues but I think that there's been a big focus on security being part of safety and and and security being something that um facilities has really taken ownership of I think the addition of Wanda as a security person and um and Brian as operational manager has made a huge difference in our ability to collaborate and to work together on some of these shared goals and Visions um everything we do security wise um it it improves our health and safety occupational health and safety inside including full uh for our guests and visitors so um I think it's it's fantastic I think the some of the Dynamics that changed um have been for the best and I think what you're seeing here in numbers and and collaboration is really U that really reflects that that group of people Chris can I ask a followup question oh I was just asking him I was this one this one has data so we can go to number five so given that maybe was a little bit of a setup given your your good response to the previous question um Slide Five we see what I I think Scott County residents would be would be happy to see that County Levy is a percent of their total personal income has been going down over time so given the collaborative nature of your work and maybe some resource sharing what are your contributions as you see them to that decline that's pictured on Slide Five how how maybe a better way it says how are you increasing efficiency and how are you quantifying that well I can add a couple of things so we've been working with it so one of the things in terms of time um we've been doing a lot of things with the research on on the usage of the badges and we had a real issue with um when people would leave we wouldn't have the ability to turn their cards off and now everything is done automatically through active directory so every time a person leaves it's automatic um it's it's not even a it's it's instant and so I think there's been a lot of efficiencies working with in the IT department and getting everything done through active directory so when a new employee starts that access is regenerated immediately based on their position and their title and not necessarily their length of time so that's been really effective for us I think that's been really efficient it saves us a lot of time from having to go into the software and do some research to find out if someone's still employed here or not um there's a lot of other things that come with that um that active directory the active directory really helps us in every process we ever Bridge the other thing that we're working on that we haven't quite finished yet because we're waiting for the software to be upgraded but one of the things that we're working on is the buttons that we have in dispatch so it used to be when someone would would call 911 we would have to make a phone they'd have to call somebody in facilities and get in contact with us to lock down doors for certain situations now it's instant when they call 911 they can literally push a button to control all the doors based on the scenario so and we're pretty close to getting that done but we're waiting for a software upgrade to get before we can finish that but that is a huge efficiency in terms of time um in response and the sheriff's office has been great to work with on that the other part of that is that we um thinking about how the how our collaboration has created some more efficiencies is the ability to look at what we're doing individually and decide whether or not that's the right place for it should we move this task over to this seat one example of that is that Wanda and I now co- administrate the everbridge system because it seemed to be more um it it seemed to be more appropriate for someone in facilities to uh to manage that uh and then I assist her with that that's a great efficiency uh active directory for everbridge is a great great efficiency and so where we can come together look at what we're each doing and say does that make sense for us to do it or should we share those responsibilities um or where where is it most appropriately assigned we've done that and so it gives us the opportunity to look at then with those things in place what is our goal and then start looking at how we can be proactive and some of the things that we see that need to be improved and I think that's what's happened over the last two years and this is a really good example of uh Migra from more of a siloed approach to more of a pro programmatic approach to solving problems uh ultimately by putting a team of diverse backgrounds and uh different needs different expectations different experiences and capabilities uh we've found that what facilities brings to the table uh plus What er brings to the table what the Sheriff's Office brings to the table and what it can bring to the table when you put everyone in the same room and work towards solving problems together instead of kind of the way we worked many times in in the past we've come up with some sometimes very simple but very effective Solutions um a good example of this is that the county invested a lot of money in panic alarm buttons and part of our conversation was so what do we do with this now they they were tested when we installed the system the vendor said that the system works how do we know what to do with those buttons how do we understand how to communicate out through this collaboration we were able to have the right conversations communicate to employees in a consistent framework that helps employees know call 911 if you can if you can't push the button because what we don't want is a system like this going a technical system being deployed um separated from the communication and training aspect of how to use that resource if we had an employee who would push a button thinking oh I have a panic Alarma button there's a medical emergency I'm going to push this button problem solved sounds great feels great doesn't solve the problem we're going to have a deputy respond to that Panic alarm not bringing medical equipment we're not bringing uh we're not starting an ambulance and we're not giving pre-arrival instructions that that person it's just a good example of how we uh had the opportunity to to debate and com uh had the right conversation about what's the right message to get out and how do we appropriately train staff furthermore uh speaking of the buttons um it's an opportunity where we looked at we needed to maintain that system and how do we Val validate that it's a functional system uh initially the idea was to have the contractor come in and go around and test all the buttons twice a year uh we had a quote I think they came somewhere around $88,000 for them to go walk and do the buttons and in the conversation we came to the conclusion that I can pay a couple extra hours of overtime to dispatchers who after 8:00 p.m. when the all bul of County Business is done I'll have two dispatchers who go around with the radio and talk to the dispatchers working in the center and they will manually test and reset every single one of those buttons so for twice a year for what costs me really about four four to eight hours of Total overtime across the the entire year we're able to accomplish that task and not not get a $16,000 bill from a vendor and now we have ownership uh we can maintain the system it's it's a win-win win because even my staff now gets a better idea of how the physical layout of the structure is and they get time and something unique to do which is always good to have some uh some job shadowing and and uh changes in in life so it just ended up being a simple solution that wouldn't have happened if we weren't all sitting at the table looking at the problems looking at how to collaboratively manage a system and find a a positive step forward and I think a big part of that too is is governance and governance gave us the guidance and the ability to we doubled our Panic buttons we've doubled all of our card readers they limited the public access to everything on the first floor except for during board days so a lot of that has a lot to do with the Safety and Security and those decisions helped us and gave us the guidance to do what we did so I think that's a big part of it so I think to add to that with the operational costs how we hold that is you know revising the budget looking at what we have to Scott's point we really what where can we Pro be proactive and reactive because in business reactive is what's cost you that much more money in a proactive State we took ownership and in facilities we've really driven ownership down to the employees of we need to really take care of this to our vendors and that's held that Flatline in that budget there's two followup questions on the panic button so that's oh Evan yes page 11 thank you um one is my understanding is that when someone hits one of those Panic buttons that a that a deputy is dispatched yes right but what's your opinion about um the training for the Department like in that immediate area like there are probably people already there like what's our training for people that are standing there while there's we're waiting for a deputy and I know we come really quickly in in the actual training piece that we um that we push out twice a year we push out the what the expectation is for those distress buttons um and what you can expect to have happen um and and one of those clarifies that the fact that the distress button only tells dispatch where the button is being engaged right um as far as what everyone else should be doing it would depend on the situation um generally um you know we would we would fall back to what's the situation is a medical emergency how how can you help in a normal medical emergency um if uh uh if it's a conflict or violent situation obviously you want people to do different types of things but in any case it um in the training it describes that if that if that button is engaged other individuals would be okay with calling 911 as well and letting them know exactly where you are and what's going on so that does uh communicate to the employees what to expect when you push the button where the buttons are and uh what what you should be doing if you're a bystander to that or if you're engaged in it even if you've pushed the button as soon as you can call 911 because as to what uh Captain HF says the buttons won't tell them whether this is a real emergency um or what they may need as far as backup in EMS or whatever so okay um my other question is does your team look at this data on at some kind of interval to look at you know do we do we get does the buzzer and the Board conference room go off all the time or like do you do you look at where those hotpots are where those frequently used alarms go off and do we have any problem solving around that Scott would Scott people would be the ones who monitor how many times those are engaged and why they're engaged I think that well the first part of the question is our team didn't exist until a little bit ago so historically not yet historically the answer is no no one was paying any attention to this um so part of the functionality of this team is to be doing this assessment and the the Avenue has been created to have the right people at the table because they weren't before so as we get some actual data and we understand the history we'll be able to actually assess that better but we we haven't had the data and we haven't had the team together got it I I will say though that U the the uh incidents in which somebody reached under there and pulled something or did something like that was happening before we did the education piece since the education piece that really has kind of Gone Away of as part of our problem right people don't know what it is they're just goofing around so okay so there's a lot of great data in here I mean anecdotally though from from my perspective you know when I first started here at the very end of 2019 you know I could honestly walk into the building walk to my office and never use my key card all day and leave um and that was you know that was 2019 and now I there's no way I can even get to my office without scanning it 15 times at least seven of them on the elevator because I'm never sure if the elevator's happy with me or not so you guys just have a lot of really amazing data about how you've improved security but is there for each of you what is like one challenge you are maybe facing in your areas that might not be really well reflected in this kpi data that you would really like to kind of bring forward or let us know about I think we outlined some of those things some of the downfalls that we're having one of them is with everbridge we have a lot of people that that are not so when you active directory immediately puts you into everbridge so your email and your work phone number are in there there but where we're having problems is where people's personal information is not in there so we have roughly 3 to 350 people that have not registered their own personal phone numbers so if something happens they're going to get an email or a phone call at their work desk but they're not going to get anything if they don't register their personal cell phone numbers and so that's been a struggle for us to get people communicating that and um and we we we just to follow up on that we do have a campaign uh we have constant reminders to people if you want if you want this to come to your cell phone you need to go in there update your preferences um education is I I would say that between our reaching out to them after they've been hired and then what we do all year with our drills and everything else there's always a reminder to update those things I think tailgating we outlined is is an issue um people that tailgate in inside the doors we see that occasionally in the cameras we see that happening um that and propping doors that's a huge issue for us the fire alarm with the fire alarm goes off and that door is propped open it doesn't shut like it should there's lots of security and safety things that go on with that if that doesn't work um I think we're having an issue right now where we can't push the the buttons I guess they're called the the buttons across the street we we keep trying to figure out what a good name for those buttons are but the ones that 911 pushes um the security buttons to lock all the doors we're having an issue with the software until that gets resolved we can't test those we can't do anything with it until that's done so that's been a a weakness for us we're getting that we're working through that now and hopefully they'll have that upgrade in the next month or so I I think the biggest thing is missing the people that didn't comment on this these kpis these comments are very important I throughout the year review this where I can do better not only in this uh survey but you know the largest survey of all kpis and so when we get all employees to participate it's better feedback that we know we need to move on something so it's we don't know what we don't know I think it's getting that participation getting those comments in there that helps us improve that would be the biggest thing that we're missing another Gap area that we have is that thankfully we we have a a pretty great employee base in uh we're in a neighborhood residential area so we don't have a lot of commercial crime in the area uh there's a lot of benefits to where we sit um but just like any other facility whether it be a business a school a government facility we have the potential for something bad to happen here we're working through the steps we're going to be aligned with the nationally standardized process for locking down securing uh being in a hold situation so that's a big step that our group's been able to take and implement but we have a huge gap in how we communicate uh to our employees and our guests we've got the everbridge system and everbridge does what everbridge does it's it's a way to get to people's emails if they've opted in it's a way to send a message to their cell phones but in a crisis one of the first things that will happen is cell phone towers get overloaded so if we're relying on a system that's based on notifying people's cell phones or giving them an email um we know historically that when things get bad and when there's a lot of congestion they don't work so we don't have an alternative system like a PA system in the buildings that can rapidly notify not just their employees but if you look at any given point in time we have a lot of guests in our facility and our guests are not registered with everbridge so we're riant on the employees getting the message and the employees taking action to notify the guests that are near them on what the the best action is to to protect the entire population of our employees and guests in the facility so a big gap we have right now is we just don't have a way to truly do a mass notification where everybody's going to get a common message and common direction to take protective actions see Chris can I ask Scott a question uh red key yeah so can you just talk a little bit about the investment in the law enforcement center courtroom and what that's meant and how that is more efficient for us as well I haven't heard much on that one so I'm kind of curious that was a big deal when we did it yeah no I I would certainly say that excuse me the the courtroom in the law enforcement center is is fantastic um it's helped us um in two areas uh that I see uh obviously security so just not having to take people uh transport people to and from the Justice Center uh has been has been great um especially for those instances we do have people that are maybe a little out of control and um and have keeping them in the jail or at least uh attached to the jail is always a um a better security precaution to take um that's worked both ways so either we've recommended that to the courts or the courts have for whatever reason know know something that we don't and have advised us we'll come over and and and see that person in the LEC courtroom um so that's been great the other area that it's been a a Big Boon for us has been um just in volume so um in those days when we do have 20 20 plus people to transport to and from court in any given day keeping those people um in the law enforcement center is is just much more efficient so uh we don't have to to go uh very far obviously to uh to get those people in court when they're in that courtroom I mean the uh I do think that there's no question that the LC courtroom is is a safer environment um if you've if you've been over there you can kind of get that sense from from where uh the in custody population sort of uh sort of uh is during the court proceedings um we do have a a a point of entry uh um with to that courtroom on the on the public side also so I uh I'm very pleased with the law enforcement courtroom um we use it for um daily for bail hearings which is by far and way our our highest uh volume of uh people that need to go to court um and then for uh for the other high volume court court appearances throughout the week so it's been it's been fantastic to have access to that so I remember the old one and some of the judges concerns so this one meets their needs and their concerns then as well absolutely and you can tell that in the sense that they will reach out to us to use it right in the past that didn't happen uh very very very often where they were asking to use the courtroom uh in the basement of the jail so uh it's it's it's much better the way it is today I know Chris you had one last com and I don't I think unless the facilitators have a burning question I'll let Chris finish it up go ahead uh my question is just at at the end of the day is is the campus safer than it was five years ago absolutely and why is that well I think just if we look at what we've done with our infrastructure even if we were talking about and part of that is education um talking about um see something say something or tailgating or or what have you the security levels have been uh implemented that even with for instance the employees entry door even if somebody were a tailgate in there who was unauthorized um which has happened people wander in there thinking they're in someplace they should be um you still have the interior security at that point which is really a nice feature so I think that um we look at how those those accesses have been um controlled and and and how they right now controlled through the computer system I think we alleviate a lot of different things that could happen in areas where we wouldn't want them to happen I think mainlining all of our guests and visitors in very generalized areas of this uh facility has greatly reduced the areas where somebody might end up um being at at a greater risk level of acting out or what have you so that's just my perspective on how the facility security piece that worked out when we were going through that in the new build building construction I was really um uh happy to see them take that so seriously and I think that's created a lot of good um security safety issues I guess I'll add in the short term I've been here we've not only collaborated more outside um I know my last walkth through was with the Fire Marshall and will be with police chief that they're knowing of our surroundings and how quickly they can react around our infrastructure is going to make them faster the response that makes us safer so I think we as a core group we're working strong together we're working outside with our partners so just in that short time we are better U that much more safer and responsive absolutely and and by the way our federal um Homeland Security representative who came to do an audit was quite impressed with uh our our entire complex here so U we we were meeting a lot a lot of the criteria that they would cover we already meet all right thank you I will tell you too that that Brian and I attend a meeting with all the other counties and all the cities and I didn't realize how much more advanced we were than many of them so I was really impressed with um our progress very good thank you um with that Madam chair thank you thank you I the questions were really good today they answered a lot of our questions already and so wonderful to to hear about this team and and seeing how much progress you've made in a very short time at working together and and really getting rid of some of the silos here I'm GNA go first to commissioner wolf he's been patient waiting you know the tailgating I I think I'm guilty of it and I think others might be so how many is it really tailgating or is it just one employee that like if maybe Ron lets me in I mean is that what it is mostly I know you would but we do think about our I think if anyone would we think about our tailgating as being a problematic only in as much as um if you are if I'm coming in the building and I Scott is behind me obviously I can identify him but for instance last week I was going in the employees entry at Government Center West and three people tried to enter behind me did not have their badges displayed I did not know them and so I immediately asked them if I could help them or if they were employees they all pulled out their IDs um so um I think that when you start looking these big groups of people coming in um then you're we are trying to encourage people to take do the right thing make sure that you either know who you're dealing with at that point and if you don't then ask them because there can be times and I had it happen to me where I walked into a door and somebody followed me and I stopped and said wait a minute I don't recognize you um are you an employee and they go no I'm supposed to go to court okay well let me walk that way you know so that does happen from time to time but we really want to educate people about taking the initiative to think about that who's following you I just add in all these Technical Systems that we apply are only as good as the people that are working within them and as we look at this you know the scenario of tailgating specifically we have to organizationally prioritize fixing that and part of it comes down to Kevin's an employee right now we all know Kevin but at some point in time Kevin's not going to be working here anymore and we don't want want employees think oh that's Kevin come on in Kevin uh we want employees to understand that they're supposed to be carrying their right with them it's supposed to be displayed that's our current expectation of employees if we've got people walking through the building we don't want them to be in the habit of oh I know that person it's okay because we don't know what's going on in the individual's lives so building and training in really taking into account the human factor is one of the most important considerations when we're talking about any of these systems okay and can I just have on page nine there's all that uh um injuries and other than covid well there was only one in 20 but so there was 34 reported injuries in 2023 as the closer you get to zero how much does that save is there savings on insurances or anything like that or workman's comper well there is is there an equation to that yeah we we we do commissioner a great question uh we do have a uh a comp rate or we're comp rating and from year to year that changes based on our experience of injuries prior in the year prior um and so our premiums are are estimated premiums and then as the um actualization of the injuries come through um that premium may increase um or it may increase for the following year due to uh injury rates um we and and again up sometimes this gets a little bit skewed also because 34 injuries is 34 reported incidences where people um had something happen to them doesn't necessarily require a bunch of medical costs and things like that your premiums are also reflected by what the cost of your events or incidents are if we say there are 34 events in 20123 um we we may have only a third of those had anything medically that went on they went to a clinic or they got evaluated or something like that and so that's the the premium is is reflected in the amount of injuries you have and the uh level of injury that you have and the cost that that the insurer incurs so so that's about 1% if you were if I heard you correct 1% have injuries that are maybe cost money or more serious so there's a so there's a there's our insur wants us to report when somebody reports an injury to them okay okay then there's a bunch of people who fall and have things happen don't ever report the injury so we have 34 that have been reported of those then there's certain ones that meet the criteria of being more okay uh involved medically where we may have to report those to the federal so of those 34 we may have had 10 reportables to the federal those 10 are ones that cost us money or person was out or they were on restrictions those will cost MC money and that will be reflected prum I got it okay year Prem great all right thank you go ahead commissioner Brandon um I have one comment and one question um living in this neighborhood I do get the occasional calls um regarding snow plowing or snow removal on the sidewalks and I always refer them and there's always such a quick response so that's why I want to say that I really appreciate that um when you talked about the duress button um do the employees get trained do they go through a scenario where they you know this isn't an issue and this is how we respond and real life um practice type of things we haven't had real life active training in that way our Our Hope always is is that the directors and managers are taking once we push out training in that way that they are having those a small group conversations in their own uh group meetings that they'll talk about um how that works so I did initially send out a bunch of information to supervisors managers and asked them to sit down with their employees and talk about what their expectations are when these situations happen uh but short of that um the information that is pushed out in that training talks a little bit about that but um in terms of going to the place where you have your meeting when you go into that room look for that button make sure you know where you're sitting and uh and what you would do in the event that so something would to take place so and I think to add to that um because we haven't finished the buttons for the 911 dispatch Center yet until that software gets upgraded once that's done there's a huge initiation to get the training out not only on those buttons but on on how the doors work and how to assist other people that maybe are not employees here and what their role is in in that scenario so yeah there's a lot of training that's coming out okay thank you questions comments maybe a little bit of a tangent one but you mentioned the uh law the across the street is that high utilization or yes I mean well anything's High over what was before right um but is it utilized on a very regular basis and are we seeing those efficiencies based on that yeah it's used every single day um again for the most high volume reasons so it is used all the time it is used then also for high profile reasons so absolutely good that's all I have thanks all right thank you everybody I think this is um one of these areas where because we care about our employees of course we don't want them to be hurt we we care we we love them and also it it costs money when people get hurt when people leave because they don't feel safe here um it's important it's a it's hard balance to have because we could spend millions of dollars keeping people safe um so I really appreciate your team and finding out that that best balance and how we can be most efficient and most comprehensive um over our whole organization it is it is very important so thank you thanks to everybody who's involved in today's presentation all right we will move on to item number six on our agenda which is the consent agenda um and these items are items that are either uh approving contracts uh or approving items that have been previously workshopped or vetted by our um advisory committees or just standard annual items I will read all the items on the consent agenda and any uh board member May remove an item for further discussion or an independent um separate vote item 6.1 to adopt resolution number 20241 73 authorized in final payment SM henches and Suns Incorporated for the County Highway 27 Expansion Project 6.2 to adopt resolution number 202 24-27 authorizing entering into a property management agreement with the Scott County Agricultural Society for the extension building 6.3 adopt resolution number 2024-25 to adopt resolution number 20 24- 287 approving a reone preliminary plat and final plat of Alex and Britney kley Edition Alex kley applicant and Carrie s kley of revocable trust property owner 6.5 adopt resolution number 20242 authorizing entering into a contract with Kilmer Electric Company Incorporated for the traffic signal power cabinet installation project 6.6 adopt resolution number 20242 approving a reone of 9 6.17 Acres from Urban expansion Reserve to Urban expansion Reserve cluster District David and Christa wahoff applicants and westof family farm Properties LLC property owner 6.7 to adopt resolution number 2024-25 authorizing entering an agreement with bibla LLC for open plus software and Hardware utilizing American Rescue plan act funds 6.8 to adopt resolution number 202 24-29 authorizing entering into a Cooperative agreement with the city of shaki for the County Highway 78 pedestrian under press project 6.9 adapt resolution number 20242 N2 authorizing entering into attachment three to the master agreement with laugher Companies Incorporated 6.10 adopt resolution number 202 24-29 3 authorized an application for a wood waste utilization Grant and if awarded accepting the Grant and entering into an agreement with the Minnesota Pollution Control agency 6.11 adopt resolution number 2024-25 approving the order establishing joint drainage Authority and appointing members 6.12 adopt resolution number 2024-25 authorizing entering an amendment to attachment two of the master agreement with laugher Companies Incorporated 6.3 uh 6.13 adopt resolution number 202 24-29 authorizing entry into an agreement with the Minnesota Department of Health for cannabis and Substance Abuse Prevention 6.4 adapt resolution number 2024 301 authorizing a second contract increase for the Spring Lake Regional Park Lakefront development construction project 6.15 adopt resolution number 202 24-38 approving entering a participation agreement with the Minnesota Count's cooperative and Tyler Technologies incorporating Incorporated 6.16 approve the appointment of a citizen to an advisory committee 6.17 approve renewal applications for scat County intoxicating liquor and wine license es for establishes within belplain Cedar Lake Louisville San Creek Spring Lake and St Lawrence townships for 2025 6.18 approve payroll processing of personnel actions and 6.19 approve record of dispersements and approve claims colleagues um are there any items on the consent agenda that you would like removed for separate discussion or a separate vote Madam chair I'll move approval of the consent agenda second moved and approved to approve the 19 items on the consent agenda any discussion I just want to thank staff for the work that they've done um on the underpass on County Road 78 in shaki um that's going to be a really important safety feature for that area so thank you agree thank you can I as long as you mentioned shaki um is there a way we could get a tour of the amphitheater and all that's going on over there as a board I think that would be really cool if we could I will bet we can look into that not after I'm just I know I'm out of order here one night when there's a really good concert right yeah no not really I'm sure someone will note that request thank you any further discussion on the consent agenda hearing none we'll proceed to a vote all in favor please say I I I'll oppose same sign motion carried uh just an announcement if you have haven't signed in today please sign in there's sign in sheets on uh at both doors um next we'll move on to our our non-consent agenda first off we have a project that's been in the works for a while um to adopt resolution number 20241 182 approving a preliminary plant and conditional use permit for Cambria re LLC um Cambria re LLC applicant applicant and Great Plain sand LLC property owner welcome Marty schmidtz to present good morning Madam chairman Commissioners on on the screen is the site location map for the property Cambry is proposing for preliminary plat and for a conditional use permit for a trans load and processing facility uh for their operations the the property is located in section 33 of Louisville Township to the east side of the property is uh State Highway 169 on the North End of the property is County Road 14 on the west side of the property is the up Rail and the the Minnesota River Valley flood plane on the south side of the property that darker gray line actually separates uh Louisville Township on the north from San Creek Township on the south there is a second rail line that transverses through the northern part of the property essentially breaking the northern part of the property into two Parcels one parcel there between 169 and the Railroad and then the bulk of the property between the two railroad uh areas um also on the Northern portion of the property uh there is a DNR protected water course Pika Creek that transverses the site from east to west uh the property itself is about 88 acres in size it's zoned I2 which is our heaviest industrial Zone trans loading processing warehousing uses are allowed in that district with a conditional use permit I'll go to the next slide now here's a aerial photo of the site again 169 to the east 14 on the North the railroad right away to the west and the Louisville s Creek line to the South access to the site is in the center part of the parcel currently it has direct access out onto State Highway 169 um in in the in the center part of the property you see the lighter shading those are silica sand stock piles as this site is actually the northern half of the shaky sand silica sand Mining and processing facility the processing facility is actually located just a little bit south of those silica sand piles uh on the subject property where that material was mined from was actually south of the subject property near that water feature that's where the Quarry operation was shaky sand idled this facility five years ago so there hasn't been any mining out at this property for about five years and about a year and a half ago shaki San came to the county and both townships and said we're done mining here uh we want to begin Reclamation of the site um they had up updated grading Reclamation plans approved by the county and both townships and they commenced on that uh Reclamation grading here last year so much of the Stock B silica stand that you can see on this um aerial photo was plac back in the mine and is no longer on the site um the county and both townships have reviewed that Reclamation grading and and we're all in agreement that it's done it's done well it's done according to plan there is one Element to the Reclamation plan for Shak stands that still needs to be addressed and that's the need for a gravel Township Road extending from Smith Drive on the North down to Bluff Drive on the south through this project Cambria would be uh improving existing Smith Drive where it ties in with Red Rock Drive on the North and then extending Smith Drive along that Eastern railroad right away down to the southern extent of their property this would include the railroad crossing a crossing of P Creek the DNR protected Waterway um so we would get the frontage road to the southern point of their property where they would ended in a temporary culdesac Cambry is in discussions with the land land owner to the South which is quinc mining also known as Q Prime uh regarding contribution for extension of that future Frontage Road through that coupon property at some point in the future um there the contribution in this case would be made to San Creek Township San Creek would essentially hold that contribution in place until that um C Prime Property would develop at which point San Creek would utilize those dollars to offset the cost of that roove through the site so we feel like with that um agreement which conceptually has been agreed to by all parties uh we could terminate the iup for mining of the shakan Min sight and the developers agreement um and this is an important piece of the puzzle for Cambria because it's part of their final plot approval they too want that underlying iup terminated and and um being held to any requirements within that document so as part of a final plot request that will probably come forward to this board uh in in future months you will all see a also see likely a termination agreement for that Shak band iup along with the developers agreement spelling out um who's responsible for the construction of the frontage road through these properties I think now I will go to the preliminary plat here uh North actually on this drawing is to the left um County Road 169 is on the top and then the Western the railroad that runs along the western side of the property is uh to the to the to the bottom of the screen uh the central part of the property um is designated as lot one block one this is the area where Cambria will be is proposing to construct their uh processing and transload facility it's about 65 acres in size there is that section of property between 169 and that first set of railroad tracks that's identified as an out lot this uh would not be a developable piece of property under this plot it would have to be replotted to a lot and block before it could be further subdivided there's also a SLI property um to the west of that Western Rail Line Outlaw a that would also be ploted as an outlaw the preliminary plot identifies an outlaw C uh um which is on the Northern portion of the property between the future Smith Drive and that first set of tracks in all likelihood out lot SE will be incorporated uh as as a road RightWay on the final plat um the county is working with the railroad to um do some design work on how uh Smith Drive will cross the railroad in the future with with improvements to Smith Drive uh the county has also agreed to fund some of the safety improvements at the railroad crossing and in order to provide flexibility for that design work the final plat will likely incorporate all the land between that transmission line easement I wish I could show that with my with the mouse here but I'm not able to do that um this drawing somewhat shows a concept of how Smith Drive might be realigned at the railroad um but we wanted we wanted additional rightaway on that Northern segment of the property to provide options for that design work of crossing the railroad and then swinging the Smith Drive to the South across Pika Creek um Cambria would be responsible for all the costs of constructing um that future Town should br through their property uh the vship road would parallel that first set of railroad tracks all the way down to the South terminating in AAL back um where it potentially would be continued at the time that that cpre property of the South gets developed uh on the site I I did choose the landscape plan primarily because it shows the bulk of the improvements that Camry is proposing um on the left hand side of their developed lot you will see a rather large building it's about 80,000 Square ft in area this is a rail served Warehouse uh Cambria would be building a rail SP up to this Warehouse off of the existing rail siding on the property and material that would come to the site in a finished form that's ready to be used at one of their plants in Bell plane or the sewer would be unloaded in this Warehouse loaded into a container uh a storage container and then stored in the container yard there just to the right I'm going to go back here a little bit can we go back to uh let's go back one more so just to the right of that rail served Warehouse building um is a 8 and 1 12 acre container yard where uh these storage containers could be could could be um would be stored until the need for the product at one of their processing facilities um came up uh storage containers could be stacked as high as three high within this container yard uh Cambria will also be bringing material to the site that is not ready for um production at one of their facilities that needs further processing that material would be stockpiled in the stockpile area um shown where would you want me to point with this uh let's go to the next slide actually so on this one you can see where the stockpile area is that's where material waiting um processing would be stored that material would be conveyed to a new processing facility approximately 52 53,000 Square ft in area um and be processed to a finished product that would be utilized at one of their manufacturing facilities that processing building at least a portion of it will be up to 103 ft High High to accommodate equipment used in the processing um because our height limitations in the i1 district is 45 ft for structures Cambria did request a variance from the County Board of adjustment that variance was approved at our August Board of adjustment meeting um so we do have um that that issue addressed through that variance um also um a little bit further south just south of where the stockpiles are is the old processing facility the one that was used by shaky Sands to process silicus s on the site initially the county wanted this building removed as part of development of this property uh Cambry indicated that they did have a second process in mind for that facility um a process that could be intermingled in the new processing building uh through the conditional use permit there is a condition that provides Cambria 3 years to identify use for that building if no use is identified the building would need to be removed so we are accounting for that building in the conditional use permit that's a use of our liking is that part of it or just a use it it would be a a second processing use it would have to fit with the zoning and the conditional use permit as they're riding for the for the property okay um I think we should go let's go to the next slide this is uh elevations for the rail served Warehouse building uh the top photo shows the office area of that building which is on the South Side um we can jump to the next photo here this is conceptually what the processing building would look like I say conceptually because the dimensions of the building have changed since these elevations were produced but it does give you an idea what the building would look like it also uh demonstrates that not the entire building will be at that 3T elevation a large percentage of the building will be more at the 60 to 65t Elevation um that concludes the presentation I had here um I I do want to note that the town Board of of Louisville and the County Planning Commission have recommended approval of both the preliminary plat and the conditional use permit with the conditions um that are in the resolution um Joel Peters uh Vice president of real estate with Cambria is here today uh to answer any questions you might have and I'll stand for for any questions as well thank you Marty and thank you Joel for being here uh questions or comments commiss Brandon I have a question regarding the railroad crossing um you said that the Scott County will be paying for the that railro Crossing um improvements and do we have an estimate on what that cost is so at present what Scott County has agreed to do is work with the railroad on the design for the crossing so we've uh I think we put up $110,000 to work with the railroad on the design of that Crossing we aren't necessarily paying for the crossing itself the construction we would pay for any reasonable cost safety improvements that might need to be done which would be things like signals arms signage that sort of thing as well and those those items will be spelled out in the developers agreement can I ask just and this has not much with this project but that the Sands that you back how many years ago did they get that permit to do the sand that 10 so the mining of silica sand on this property has been going on for 45 or 50 years it's on again off again but there was a recent one or yeah so Shaka sand got their permit for for mining out here in 2010 so okay so 14 because that was a big deal and people were not happy and it's it's one of those uses that you know has its ups and downs in the market and it's either you know worth $100 a ton or it's worth nothing not much okay it it will be um this will put an end to utilizing the site for the mining of silica sand um we feel that the development of the property for a transload facility um with Cambria um will be a good use for Louisville Township will be good use for the county and will be something that Cambria can be proud of as well other comments or questions uh Marty just one I guess and probably this is because is self-serving because I'll get the phone calls about this one um the Township in the neighborhood has a little bit of concern about noise um which could happen for any development going on there but 20 and 20 and 21 I think of the resolution address that um kind of best efforts by developer comments on that were all parties involved okay with this language yeah all the parties have review the language that's in the in the draft um conditionally Ed permit hours of operation are 24 hours a day six days a week Monday through Sunday um the the language does include the use of of um lower noise creating backup alarms those kind of things on equipment so I think everybody's understanding that we're going to try and keep ice to a minimum here not not slamming of railroad car Lids those sorts of things things that we experienced during the Shak Sands days on the site um and what if during during this whole process let's say two years down the road we're just inundated with noise complaints what's what's our our action our availability of actions I think at that point we work directly with the with Cambria to address how they're how they're operating on the site and come up with some game plans for reducing that noise yeah okay thank you very much any other further questions or comments Madam chair I would uh make a motion to adopt resolution number 20241 182 approving a prelimary plat and conditional use permit for Cambria RH LLC uh applicant and great PL Sands LLC property owner I moved in seconded to um adopt this resolution any further discussion going adopt the resolution approve the preliminary PL and cup hearing none all in favor please say I I I'll pull the same sign motion carried thank you very much all right next we'll move on to 7.2 which is to conduct a public hearing and adopt resolution number 2024 304 authorizing the submitt of the Scott County Solid Waste Management plan 2024 to 20 2024 to 2044 to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for review and approval I make a motion to open the public hearing second it's been moved in second and to open the public hearing any discussion hearing none all in favor please say I I I'll oppose same time motion carried thank you uh good morning Madam chairman and Commissioners uh we have a brief presentation for the public hearing this morning that uh will'll give some background on the plan and maybe answer any questions that you have or maybe the audience does um before we uh end the public hearing so a little background um the Scott County Salway management plan the purpose of this plan is to um improve waste management practices reduce waste and protect the environment the Metro counties update their plans every uh six years and this year that's what we worked very hard on is updating our plan so these are the steps that we've taken so far in March we started with the sway advisory committee they did a kickoff meeting um and they decided that they wanted input from Scott County residents to guide them on um the goals and the strategies that would be the right fit for Scott County so may through July uh we uh notified the public that we had a survey available to them uh we put that out on the scene we did social media and then we did targeted mailers and we got a little over 400 responses back through the survey and we also went to the Scott County Fair set up a booth got input from the residents that way and then staff reached out to um stakeholders cities and haulers and we went to them and said hey please if you would like to input you welcome to join our uh swack meetings and some of them took us up on that and we also offered that we would go to the stakeholder and present to them if that's how they would prefer and we had some people take us up on that the City of Bell Plane invited uh us to come out and do a presentation and I should note that uh the Solway advisory committee themselves is a group of stakeholders they have we have representations from the city the township um Industry huler Facility and um citizens on that committee so then April through August the sway advisory committee they took um the feedback that they got and they started to make decisions on the strategies the goals and the strategies that were going to be the best fit for Scott County then in September um staff drafted a plan and in October we presented that plan to the committee and made sure that we we captured um what they thought um the plan should have in it and on October 24th the swack recommended that we bring that plan forward to you um for your approval and for us to submit that to the npca for their uh review and approval so that brings us to uh number five November here we are and um we hope to get to the npca in December so the ultimate goal in that Solid Waste plan is to reduce landfilling and increase Recycling and what you're seeing here is a the waste hierarchy so the most preferred on the left the green we've got reduced reuse and recycle and you're going to see a lot of that in this plan that's what we're focusing on and then Organics Recycling yard waste and food waste we focus a lot on that in this plan waste to energy and then the least preferred is land filling oh it's cut off here but on the top of there that says the objective so the objective of the plan is to um we want to recycle 75% of our waste and we want to reduce our landfilling to 5% so if you look at we want to do that by 2030 so if you look at the 2030 that that gold column there we want to capture 47% of our traditional Recycling and 28% of our Organics to get to that 75% objective and then we want to reduce our land feeling to 5% this is an ambitious objective okay it is but we really don't have a lot of alternative we cannot continue to land filling so in the beginning when the swag started um we did a look back over what we had achieved over the last six years and where we want to go in the next six and the swag and staff really believe that um the programs that we had in place the strategies that we had in place were effective and good we just needed to build on them some more um and focus on Reduce Reuse and um we want to continue with them and we know what works collaboration education incentives and recycling or and regulation that's it's working we're got to keep doing that so uh Nick is going to come up and he's gonna highlight the uh just certain strategies in these different areas uh that we're going to be working on the next six years well thanks Kate uh Madam chair Commissioners um as Kate said and I'll be discussing uh a few of the more significant strategies selected uh in the plan as a review uh the plan contains 16 sections covering everything from Organics to waste collection sections were broken down into 75 specific strategies 32 of which were are required uh by the state to be implemented by counties um and it also contained 28 optional strategies uh of which the county selected 17 to implement to help us meet uh our waste reduction and recycling goals um sorry collaboration is essential as we prepare for challeng es in the waste system such as impacts from the hert closure uh potential hert closure and new technologies like the proposed anerobic digestor in Louisville Township staff and admin believe collaboration between fellow Metro counties um is also important to ensure successes with regards to waste reduction and solid waste planning therefore moving forward the county will participate in an annual joint commissioners meeting on solid waste with senior Solid Waste staff from each County to ensure counties are prepared for challenges to the solid waste system Scott County will also work with local Solid Waste facilities to develop contingency plans for large facility closures uh and reduce landfill to reduce R landfill Reliance we will in turn share facility closure plans developed here scy County with uh other Metro counties so each County understands the impacts they may face with facility closures in other counties the county will also engage in efficient and value added infrastructure planning and continue to partner with Dakota County on the regional HH W they'll provide our residents with more convenient hours and locations to manage waste and recycling as collaboration is important to ensure consistent recycling message staff will continue to standardize Outreach and education and participate in the recycling education committee to ensure Regional recycling message is followed to avoid confusion among residents on recycling another topic we'll focus on is education um in a few strategies uh uh that impact or have a will have a play on that uh education is key and we strongly believe that people understand why it's important to reduce waste and uh landfilling and increase Recycling and how to do it correctly we will continue to Focus Education efforts on households and households businesses and schools current resources like the scene will be used to meet many of the strategies in the plan specifically uh the uh swack um recommended we select strategy 49 which is to develop indust contribute Tree Care education to private land owners to help reduce the uh uh improper disposal of uh increased tree waste due to Emerald ashor and the scene will be utilized to help get that information to our residents providing recycling education to businesses is more important than ever if we want to start diverting Organics from landfills currently Organics make make up 25 to 30% of our waste and strategy 14 in the waste uh in waste reduction will work to establish Partnerships between food rescue organizations and restaurants and stores to increase food rescue and in 2025 staff will work with current Partners uh to increase our waste reduction in food rescue efforts Nick can I ask a question on education or Kate one of you um right now I know we put dollars to retain folks if we were to put those dollars into a staff member who is available all year versus at certain times is that a strategy that we'd have to change before we submit the plan or is that some flexibility we can talk about the board with moving forward I don't think the the the plan doesn't specify so I I think we could move forward at any time um I'm just sitting in our dwm meetings and listening to staff who are especially in the schools it is quite interesting to me on um education and they think we're lacking a little bit there and could do more so I'm curious um and would really like to sit down and chat with you and the board about maybe we look at where we're investing those and having more input in some of those areas so you can jot that down as part of your public hearing thanks for the comment so um moving on uh lastly Regional Solutions will play a big part in recycling education as well as collaboration as we work to ensure a consistent message between Metro counties uh industry residents and local students as Kate said incentiv um we rely heavily on incentives to get uh the work done here um with regards to recycling in scat County um we're proud to have uh to have Innovative Innovative incentive programs and we'll continue to partner with local organizations to help implement the County's recycling programs to help meet our waste reduction goals for example strategy strategy strategy 27 was selected to establish curbside setout day to help increase the ReUse of household materials to implement this staff staff will work with local cities and partners like bridging to host events where residents can bring good household materials and Furniture to donate items are then gifted gifted or given to families in need which in turn helps divert more ways from landfills to help encourage waste reduction the county will expand our business recycling Grant to meet strategy 19's requirements to offer grants or rebates for organizations to transition to reusable food beverage serviceware um this meets the waste hierarchy as we move uh waste up the waste hierarchy um from landfilling to reuse strategies 25 and 70 which focus on repair Ambassador programs and building repair trainings these strategies will be implemented through our incentive grant program which will help to provide more waste reduction and reuse opportunities to County residents regulation uh the County Solid Waste licensing program has always been an important tool to ensure waste has managed to protect Public Health in the environment specifically scat County was one of the first counties in the country to require haulers provide recycling collection to their customers and this plan uses similar language to uh require haulers provide Organics collection to Residents to their residential customers uh by 2030 to ensure the plan and selected strategies we're in the best interest of stakeholders and residents the swack and staff developed a solid waste and recycling survey so residents could provide input on the planning process results which uh is most see results indicated that residents only wanted weekly recycling if it didn't increase cost which it most likely would after discussion with local haulers and neighboring Metro counties an alternative was selected to require haulers provide an additional recycling cart at no additional cost instead of the weekly recy requirement local haulers said this would have been uh would have the least impact on them and it would be easy to implement as it would not require additional trucks on the road or require more drivers while providing residents with more uh recycling capacity at home a comment letter from National waste and recycling Association also said they appreciate this alternative to weekly recycling in less densely populated rural areas three strategies um discussed will ALS um will increase requirements on local waste facilities to better manage waste and recycling specifically landfills will be required to complete a waste composition study every five years so we can better understand the waste being landfilled in our community and help identify challenges and opportunities for Waste reduction lastly is the requirement for landfills resource recovery facilities and transfer stations to pre-process waste by 2030 which is going to which will require them to pull out recyclables before landfilling or in inating for energy energy the county will work with local waste facilities and neighboring Metro counties to ensure consistent requirements are put in place for this strategy to highlight just how important waste diversion is just last week staff and myself provided compostables and recycling assistance during our County veterans meal sorting the waste resulted in an 85% reduction in waste to the landfill final steps moving forward and starting in 2025 staff will work to implement the selected strategies while focusing our efforts on collaboration education incentives and regulation in addition to the public hearing today we offered a two-e comment period as we informed stakeholders uh of the draft plan and we receive three comment letters which are in your packet also with us today representing the swag and stakeholders uh we have Rick seers from sub rival Waste Services Rachel hook hul uh a citizen of new pre and Barb Johnson a citizen also so um we would like to take this time to thank them and the other swack members and stakeholders for their time and dedication to Scott County uh solid ways planning here in Scott County um and they are available at this time if you have any questions for them lastly we received uh After we receive approval from the mpca we will return to the board to formally adopt the plan um and I'll stand for any questions wonderful thank you Nick uh questions for Nick before we um go on to any other public comments Madam chair yes I just want to say thank you to Nick Kate uh our committee I see Barb Kane Johnson's here anybody else that helped out it uh there was a lot of work in that and there's there's no really great answer on what to do with garbage and and I've even got some calls and comments from people like how much more is this going to cost us and I I don't know that answer I don't think any of us do but I don't think the cost is going to go down much right so anyhow thank you I excuse me I appreciate the work that was done by the swack and the employees on this um plan um it is aggressive plan and you know we've talked about recycling for 30 years and and we build in education and at what point you say oh everybody's educated and you know that's a philosophical one but you know you we want everybody to be educated and at what point are they educated you know why why are they not using it I I don't know um one thing and this probably doesn't fit in the plan it fits into a different area but um Economic Development and I would like to see us encourage businesses that are using recyclables or coming up with um innovative ideas for Waste Management um to be encouraged to come into Scott County um maybe through the fast trk challenge at the CDA or or um some of the other mechanisms that we have for economic development um I think that we could be really cutting edge in in uh Scott County on waste management and and recycling so I appreciate um the work that you've done thank you commissioner comments well the first is just more of an observation I thought if we were talking trash we'd have more people here but we have the die hards which is good um I guess the one thing take away from this is it does feel like we are maybe finally at a point regionally to be having some of these conversations um a little bit more big picture than just garbage and where's our garbage and and Recycling and um I yeah recycling is a very interesting um anomaly I feel like you need a PhD to figure out which can that this top goes go into but the bottle and what and then ah um so we can't make it hard we got to work with our partners we got to have more partners of the table which I'm speaking to the choir but I feel like we're finally getting to a point where maybe maybe there's some interest to having some of those bigger conversations not not looking I mean you guys are interested so um for more of our partners in the Metro make this a little bit more of a regional issue thank you can I make a statement commissioner um the best better bin um app is really great I've been showing my husband the better bin app and how it it specifically tells you how to how to recycle those materials so it's pretty good I I think I do have that app you introduced it like a year ago it's it's when I go to these places where they have six different bins like goly I got I got life to live I got to go but I I'll make sure that app is updated thank you commissioner and I think we all feel the challenges of of what to recycle when and where I mean um it's changing Rick I think You' agree it's changing all the time all the time and um you know it's just something we have to keep uh working to educate our residents on so didn't I say one more thing one more thank you one half thing no after the we met with the med Council uh um the chair and some uh the administrator and afterwards I because I know Ryan oconor for a few years they just mentioned you we've been talking about this garbage thing you know for as long as I've been here 16 years now and um and he said yeah he agrees and we can't get rid of the herk which is that henen County the burning thing and hardly anybody wants to take it down except for a few people but uh he also said we we got to stop burying our garbage and leaving it to our kids so somehow or another we have to we made whatever is comes to us we somehow have to put it back to where it belongs or recycle whatever so thank you agree thank you and and we have been having this conversation that this this work we're doing really is going to affect our County for for generations to come and I think just just seeing the landfilling and and the increasing um amount in it couple things I just want to since some of of the committee members are here and did all that thanks and appreciation but a couple things in the plan and how you developed the plan that I thought were so important um and and we we talk about doing this in in other areas too but when you ask the question saying do you agree with this or do you believe on this even if you have to pay more I think that was really important work you did instead of just saying Hey do you believe in this and that because obviously this all has to be funded with taxpayer dollars or the users so I really appreciated that um also really appreciate the thoughts about education and Outreach doing that regionally or at least with Dakota County um as as much as I I hate this I think the latest statistic is 54% of people get their information from social media you know like if we really are going to be reaching people um we have to be doing that and having some consistent messages so I appreciate that very very much um thank you for that work and I I think at least from this board's perspective we're just we're just getting revved up for this solid Solid Waste journey and and we're all in um and again we can talk about Recycling and and reusing but we really just need to reduce waste too the amount of waste that whether it's families or businesses that are generating we we have to figure out how to reduce some of the waste we're generating not just how to get rid of it so thank you for taking on this career path thank you for taking on this volunteer path I appreciate it um but this is a public hearing is there any other members of the public who would like to speak on this matter if so please come forward we invite you to any members of the committee this is an important plan that everyone worked hard on thank you hi mam chairman Bard Barbara Johnson was on the swap committee I can't tell you what dedicated group your employees are they were always on task they're always prepared if our meeting was two hours it lasted two hours and lastly they always made us feel appreciated my disappointment is if I make an apple pie and have peelings or I do a watermelon have the Rind it goes in garbage and I live in the city of prayor lake and I'm very disappointed Ed that they AR moving forward with Organic collection we have to wait probably another six years I wish that they would move forward with that new prey does it and Jordan does it so I really wish Prior Lake would get moving on that thank you thank you for your service and your comments is a public hearing please feel free Madam chairman um Commissioners um my name is Rachel Hal I'm from the committee um and I just want wanted to say um really quick I Echo Barb sentiments about the staff here they're phenomenal um I mean really just great to work with um and I just wanted to mention um as we were working toward all of the points on the plan um I think we had consensus on every single one so all of the haulers that were there the citizens that were there um the other me government Representatives um you know there discussion was had on each of them and we've managed to come to a consensus on everyone um so we all strongly support um the plan that we've presented um and including you know there are some requirements in there from the mpca that we've really had no choice it had to go in there so um that's all I just wanted to mention that oh really quick there is a drop off site in Prior Lake so yes so um that's on the um what's it called website that's on the website but what's the page organic drop off site so that that good thank you thank you Rachel good to see you again thank you for representing uh district one on that committee any other comments on this issue before we close the public hearing I'll Make A M I will make a motion to close the public hearing second so I moved in seconded to close the public hearing discussion hearing none all in favor please say I I I'll oppose same sign motion carried colleagues we have uh another item in front of us to um consider adopting resolution number 2024 304 I will move that motion Madam chair all right so been moved in seconded to uh adopt resolution number 2024 304 authorizing the submitt of the Scot County Solid Waste Management plan for 2024 to 2044 to the Minnesota solution control Agency for redo and approval any further discussion on this matter hearing none all in favor please say I I I I'll oppose same sign motion carried thank you and thank you so much to staff for and the committee for all that work um we've all been asked because of another meeting that was already supposed to start a few minutes ago to submit our committee reports and commissioner updates via email to Michelle and I assume people have have done that colleagues I just want to give you uh one minute if there's something you feel like you must say or report on that can't be appropriately done in writing I just want to uh if I could point out that um Leo Daly came to the service delivery committee and presented a a proor on the RTF you would all I think have gotten this in your email now I'm sure we'll have a workshop on this it was very clear there were different scenarios and what would cost each partner for different scenarios so it was it was clear and easy to understand and I'm sure we'll have a workshop on that thank you great can I just say uh Planning and Zoning they okay the marijuana ordinance and uh I got a number of people out there that like to see a revote in 54a is only a comment I know we have nothing to do with that but I just that's I've gotten a lot of that so anyhow thank you one thing I would mention is that belplane did fill their city council vacancy on Monday night they appointed um belplane resident Rex Stacy who we may have know as former judge Stacy um to fill that that vacancy so I assume we all have lots of things to on the report and they will be in the minutes and if anybody has questions once they see them I encourage you to reach out to your colleague for more questions next we'll move on to the County Administrator update yeah just real quickly Madam chair just reminder the county buildings will be closed next Thursday and Friday in observance of Thanksgiving November 28th and 29th it's already here is that probably the jail keep that open I said most County buildings they're not serving turkey so stay out all right County attorney do we need to recess for an attorney client meeting we do not Madam chair thank you so very much mad chair can I just asked between Leslie and Ron what's the process on this 54a there's going to be the recount on Thursday but if somebody doesn't like it what has to be done do you so so today is the after election uh review right the four precincts were pulled they will um go through those Thursday they will do the recount um for the 54a election next Monday we will do the canding board for that election um after that we wait and see um if the candidates file or do anything that's to them at that point so if the candidates one of them was not in agreement of whatever that's when they would file correct and then they have one week from there they have one week from after the canvasing board correct all right clarification under the second canvasing no no no air quotes correct after the canvasing board for 54a which will be I think 2 o'clock Monday I believe yep yep it will all be posted after the work today we'll update for Thursday after Thursday we update for Monday um at that point then we do what we're directed to do thank you commissioner and Leslie I think a lot of people have had questions and we're keeping the website up to date and uh thank you for the explanation we have to do what we're legally required to do and we can't do anything that we are legally not authorized to do there's other um Pathways for that we just need to follow instructions and directions there so thank you for bringing that up yeah this is exact ly the example of the checks and balances and what happened and then following the process thank you all right before we adjourn I just would like to announce that we have a ditch board meeting following this meeting we'll need to take just a very quick recess but we will get it started as soon as possible after that and then following the ditch board meeting we will meet in Workshop setting um to discuss uh several items our quarterly Erp update um to review the op opioid funding plan and then commit commer round robin so with that is there any further business motion to um it's been moved in second to adjourn the meeting following the meeting we will take a five minute but only five minute recess and we will be back um for the ditch board meeting okay all right all in's that point of order excuse me have to vote so look at this uh all in favor of the motion to adjourn please say I I I'll oppose same sign motion carried thank you we will look at these three I'd like to call the order the November 19th 2024 meeting of the Scott County ditch board thank you for your patience I know we were scheduled at 11: which means we can't start before 11: but as how our meetings go we often end up going over and starting later so thank you very much for your patience and being here today if you haven't signed in yet please do sign in at one of the signin sheets uh by both doors um on to the first uh item on our agenda well it says consent agenda but I don't see any consent agenda so we'll move on to item number three to approve the minutes of the May 7th 2024 ditch board meeting those minutes have been posted and distributed does anyone have any corrections or additions to those minutes Madam chair I'll move approval so I moved in approved to um approve the minutes from May 7th 2024 for the scat County ditch board any discussion hearing none all in favor please say I hi I I'll oppose same sign motion carried thank you um next we'll move on to the non-consent part of our agenda 4.1 is to receive public comment on the repair project for County drainage ditch 10 uh in your packets you did see information on the timeline on the cost on a lot of the comment that already has been um uh received and so welcome Chris Chris logy will get us started on this item not a public hearing though right we have different meetings okay thank you Michelle could we get the um agenda that is posted on the website for us and for our Medan attendees we're missing an item it looks like from the one that's been handed out here oh okay and I got this one all right thank you I will move on then I had a old draft of an agenda I did the minutes right though we're moving on to non-consent items 3.1 to receive public comment on the repair project for County drainage ditch 10 thank you welcome Chris thank you madam chair Commissioners I'm just going to give you a little bit of background on um The Happenings on County ditch 10 and then we will open it up for public comment so um back in Fe February of 2023 um that you as the drainage Authority approved the repair for the repair project for County ditch 10 um included in that repair project were three different options it was determined that option one was the best option for this project which included uh replacing culverts at nine Crossings cleaning the bottom of the ditch in certain areas repairing any sloughing and removal of most of the trees um we went out for bids um um we received uh we received and accepted bids um from husky construction for removal of the trees and from borne construction for the rest the cleaning and the uh Culvert repair uh we also at that point had been contracted with isg to do the Engineering Services it was at that time that we decided to no longer um continue with isg and in turn we um decided that our Highway construction uh Department would help with the um project management of this ditch um and and we would do that as in kind support of the project so to date um that that department has spent $71,400 47 in costs towards this project that are not being built back to the ditch um the actual costs came back the Husky construction cost came back a little bit above the bid that that they um had put in and the bori actually came back a little bit below we uh sent out letters a couple weeks ago informing any of the benefited owners that we would be holding a landowner meeting on the 13th of November to discuss um the status of the ditch and that we determine that the work of the contractors is complete on the project for ditch 10 um included in that letter were an was an estimate of what would be du from the benefit owners that estimate was realized to be too high and so those amounts have been um decreased so when we get to the portion of the meeting uh where we're talking about leans the letters that will go out if those leans are approved will be um decreased a reason for the overage one reason was that it included um the cost that bplan Township will be responsible for for the replacement of their CTS in which the county has agreed to do a 10-year interest free loan for them that was included in the amount that was sent out to the land owners as well as we had not yet received all of the final Billings from the contractors so we were going off of um what we considered could happen at that point so as I said those amounts have all been adjusted downwards for all of the benefit at owners um at the meeting uh Jake bulk from our Highway construction Department was there and he went over we learned a lot of lessons with this project um there there are things that would be done differently if we were to do something like this again this was the first major repair project that we've had in our County as far as I've ever as as long as I've ever worked with ditches and I think many of us that were involved as well um he he explained to the benefited owners that um there are still some things to be done with the ditch and that also is going to be handled by our Highway Maintenance crew and that will also not be build to the ditch so some of those things are um there are still some trees that need to be removed so it turns out when isg um put out the bids it did not include all of the trees that needed to be removed the reason for one of the reasons for the over for Husky construction to remove trees is because it was realized that there were additional trees that needed to be removed so they started the path of having husky go in and remove some of those trees where it made sense um the trees now that need to be removed are more of a um they're not big clusters of trees they're kind of every here and there and um they realized very quickly that the cost was just going to Skyrocket if they continued to use the contractor so so therefore the Highway maintenance department is going to take that over um another big lesson that they learned is um well one of the things also is when the project was bid it was um anticipated that the trees would be burned and then it was found out that that's not allowed so they weren't able to do that they um ended up doing kind of a chipping of the trees which um when Jake discussed it with the benefited owners he he never realized that it would cause some of the issues that it did um in a in a Highway Maintenance project when they do something like that the um the chippings get run over Enough by the equipment that they're using that it basically turns them into small enough pieces that it doesn't cause an issue that didn't happen on this ditch so when we received the heavy rains that we did this spring a lot of those um tree the leftover parts of the trees went down into the ditch so that's another thing that the maintenance crew will be helping to clean up um and then as well as at some of the Culvert sites some of the rip wrap needs to be repaired so those are the things that they're looking at um still doing yet this um fallwinter to and and as I said that will not be built back to the ditch that we will be adding that to the in kind work that we've done for this project um as far as Jake was concerned like I said the um contract the the work that we had with the contractors has been completed so we are considering the ditch 100% complete which is why we're here today to receive public comment and then to talk about the leans to be placed against the benefited owners with that Stan for any questions thank you Chris a a good summary and I appreciate the summary about uh what we've learned since we only tend to do this every uh half century or so um and how we can do better next time could you just clarify for me about the decreased um amount of leans to land owners is what's in our packet the updated list what's in the packet is the updated list yes um in the letters that we sent out we sent specifically saying this would be your portion and so those amounts were high and it did cause um a little bit of angst amongst the benefited owners because it was higher than they were anticipating so when we went over it at the meeting we looked at one example and it's and they're going to be decreasing by around 30% so um when the letters go out after the leans are approved they will see a decrease in the amount compared to that letter that was sent out and so had the so I think you're saying that the benefit owners haven't seen those new amounts then unless they looked at the packet for today's meeting we did have them available at that meeting so those that were in attendance were able to come and and um talk to us and we told them what that amount would be and several of the people letter in the audience did that wonderful thank you very much other questions for Chris before we receive public comment all right thank you very much um this isn't a public hearing but it is a time for public comment so if you'd like to make public comment to the board please approach the podium and say your name and address and give it to us hi my hello my name is myON Bratch I live at 8116 Union Hill Boulevard in bplan Township as far as this whole project has gone I'd like to see more communication being better to the residents yes we received this letter that has this what the project was amounted to the last V letter we got was 1.25 million what did that equal we got no breakdown of what that project was I know they were saying that it was reduced by you know stuff was taken out of the project they said in words by Jake took out the spraying of the Trees of the ditch got taken out we'd like to see the financials how did we get to the 1.25 million is the township portion I want to see that where was that in there I'd like to see where that breakdown is and send that out to everyone it's got to be a simple equation this much for Husky this much for bun the the ditching this much for culverts give it to the all the property owners we're the ones that are paying for this we want to see the numbers not just the this is what you owe and that's it I mean that's kind of unreasonable as far as I'm as a land owner am looking at this I'd like to see the numbers you could put any number there because it was a nice round number 1.25 million I'm sure those bids didn't come in to a nice round number like that so we like to see the financials I'm not sure if you get them we'd like to see the financials know the original bid what was taken out of it say the sprain was taken out of it just all the deductions how you come up with the value of the project and have the per you want to take out the Township portion of it put that in there too so we know what the numbers represent that's what we want to see more communication like that and going forward with the next project too with the initial letters that come out and tell you this is what you're paying for towards the project I don't think our initial project people did not understand that that was just for the planning doing the whole thing of that project have more definition exactly what that is you know that portion and everyone a lot of people paid that portion because we thought that was part of the ditch cleaning I mean we don't go out and drive around everyone and see what was done to the ditch we just get this letter in the mail saying that this is what happened so I like to have more communication as far as that's concerned and also I'm the treasur for Bane Township so I'm putting on my other cap on now and when we get these letters for what we owe the township gets like 40 pieces of paper saying you owe this for this parcel and that for that parcel for all being the right of way it' be nice to be able to get a summation of that so we know exactly what the total is I'm not going to go through 40 pieces of paper seeing you owe $10 on this one 15 on this one 30 on this one and figure it all up to make sure the math is correct it'd be if you want to send that all out and kill a few trees that's fine but I want to see I think it could be done in two or three pieces just one list there and have the amounts what it represents have the property ID of it have it all in one list so at the township we see one bill not all these pieces of paper is a bill and so I just like to see more communication to us so we get to see what the numbers represent we want to see everything I think that's our right as we're paying for it we get to see that not just the total and then this is what you owe that's what we got in the letter so I'm not sure if you can H make that happen the next letters that are going out but that would be nice to be have it have that as presidents thank you my you have any questions I would just say I think that's a very good suggestion not only does it show you uh what what needed to be paid but also would show um in our conversations with a lot of people in this room over the last two years we've tried to find ways where the county could contribute legally contribute to this this project and and we could show that better too so that you know that so any anybody else questions from Iron thank you thank you other public comment please welcome and thank you for all the tours you're welcome uh I'm Jim jarrison I'm a land owner on County ditch 10 I uh want to start out by telling you in 1979 Cony ditch 10 was Doug and they did an awesome job of it and at that time your predecessors told us that they were going to take care of County ditch 10 and the land owners so now I'll move forward to uh when uh the uh request was made for the repair of ditch 10 approximately three years ago and you okay that then we moved on they uh decided they wanted to do a redetermination of benefits of all the parcels which was done that was followed by the bids for the tree removal and the construction where my issue lies is with the tree removal $200,000 I feel your your system failed Us and how can I say that in 1979 there were no trees in the ditch 2023 200 $1,000 for tree removal not only I feel your system failed us but your representative who was responsible for the care of the ditch didn't do his job quite frankly I don't think there's anyway in God's green earth that the landowners of ditch 10 should be paying for this failure and along with that your representative That was supposed to be responsible for the care of the ditch obviously did not do his job and he is currently still on your payroll to the tune of $136,200 a year quite frankly I think you have a skunk in the hos thank you for your time thank you thank you Jim other public comment you all came so I just want to make sure you have the opportunity a couple of these I've had calls afterwards and they've said I didn't want to get up in front of everybody but I'm going to tell you now but I hope you would come now and tell us your thoughts well can I ask you know piggy back so there was 45 years worth of tree growth there is that what you were saying j79 there were no trees 2023 at $200,000 for treat okay but would would we or the ditch people would have had to pay for some of those trees to be removed over that 45 years and would that have cost money or the spring H yeah I'm just asking good spring program would have cost a lot less I'm sorry we're GNA have the conversation we got to get you on the you go up sorry yeah thank you I'm just I want to figure this out so we I totally understand your question yep one of the simplest ways to maintain a ditch is a spraying program it takes care of brush trees weeds so forth it wasn't done it's pretty obvious the trees were there okay and we would have to spray every single year no they're proposing now two or three years or something they're proposing I believe maybe Joe can help me in the next in this next calendar year they're going to spray in the spring they're going to spray in the fall they're going to spray the following year and then they're going to assess if they got the controler looking for and it probably be a every two years or maybe even three years personally I figure that I I favor the two-year program but no if you have you have a spraying program it's it takes care of the problem MH okay all right thank you and I would just add to that um this isn't new Jim the thought about uh how how we or the county has failed in the the tree removal and that is one of the ways reasons we worked hard to find that ink kind contribution it doesn't fix it doesn't solve it but I I do think that was somewhat in reaction the other thing I would say is as I've talked to folks who were here much longer ago um there's just different opinions about what the land owners wanted there were some people saying land owners didn't want to be assessed for anything so we did very little I think this board said with with input from all of you with the redetermination of benefits is it really doesn't matter what happened before we have to do our job right now and legally this was was our job so I wish yeah some things could have been done differently I wish this didn't take three years but it did we're here now um and and we appreciate all your comments and input Mr yeah I I just want to add uh thank you chair for and Jim for uh every time I see this guy I see him in a Green Gate now moving forward uh cuz that was helpful for me um to get me out there coming up yeah it was it was helpful to see you know you look at this stuff and you know pictures and and I and I do try to get out to different meetings that different parts of the county but seeing uh was was very helpful um and what is not helpful is what You' mentioned that that this is something that happens so infrequently and it's who knows what the conversations and the thoughts and the expectations were back then and here we sit so let's try to get this thing figured out moving trees over 40 50 20 10 years cost money versus not doing anything for the same amount of time it costs money okay so here we are how do we move this thing forward so which is where we're at and I agree that spraying program ongoing spraying program is very very important and and crucial to not letting this happen again I think you get three times you can come up right or many you know I think this crew get gets like four well he could come up as my or as there you go 7times 70 right there myin brat from Del Township one thing too when we initially got the redetermination of benefits I don't think that was communicated very well to all the land owners when that in that contractor was at the meeting in Bel plane to go over what they found out I didn't know that that they were going to be doing there and determining that I think that that contractor would have had meetings for a week I'd like to see our ditch Authority person what is there 42 43 people residents that are under Stitch go over those redetermination of benefits and see if it's correct or not if the land that's in there shouldn't be included as farmland and things like that that was never done this time I know that for a fact someone needs to overlook that for the land owners especially when we didn't know that that vendor was going to be there to do that we were supposed to just go there and look at a map and see this is what is going to be the benefit for the ditch we didn't know that that was going to determine how much money we're going to pay that needs to be better communicated to the residents going forward when that happens because now according to Cindy we can't go back and do anything because that's all been decided when we came here for that hearing and if it's incorrect so be it so now going forward this 60,000 for a maintenance fee that's going to be gone real quick because you look at how much money it's going to be for spraying that ditch I'm a realist I'm in numbers that's going to be gone real quick so you're going to be coming back to all land owners want more money probably in three four years from now want another probably 100,000 at that point so we're going to be back to square one so all this ret termination of benefits then is going to get ex uh expended out on that initial determination that's not really fair especially when it wasn't done correctly or had anyone look at over it I know no County money was spent towards this project but it would how long would it take someone from the county looking at that to see if it's correct or not looking at the maps and we get a little map like this to look at and that's it they got the computer with the map to look at it blow it up and be able to see that all we don't get that when we're out in our where we live so I just like to see that going forward that happening and especially looking at the redetermination of benefits going forward when do we get to look at that to correct all that stuff thank you that's all I have yeah I think everybody in this room learned a lot about redetermination of benefits over the past three years Leslie Madam CH of Senor Chris we must have reviewed the redetermination of benefits and those acreages and good morning Madam chair um when that vendor when age2 overviews they sent out all the landowner packets and what they did as they said tell me what we wrong and at this meeting that we had just was it last week I don't know but um at that time there was a couple people on Ditch three who said my redetermination of benefits is wrong they don't feel that that it was just and I did tell them that I said you know it's hard now to turn around and say is the redetermination of benefits correct we would have to have viewers come back in and re and relook at theirs but they had the opportunity to take a look at that we had s wcd there we were there um I'm trying to think if anybody else was there that would look at those maps and say is this correct when we heard the people there were changes to that redetermination of benefits there were people who objected who said that they have Wetlands they had different soils they didn't think that they drained at all and those modifications were made so to come in like I I told the group last week I said it's really difficult now to say now let's talk about redetermination of benefits so there was an opportunity for property owners to raise a concern we actually staffed those meetings the swcd was there if something was raised there were changes made from those discussions correct there was an actual landowner meeting that they all got their packets and that they could come and discuss and that's what I wanted to clarify it wasn't this is just it there was a chance so no but you know I still say that in in those in those packets there was a couple different things that was included in them um but you know could they have done a different job I don't really know I I mean for me I've never done this before so uh AG H2 overv viwers does this all the time and that's what they have come to know works but in the future again now we know things are a little different so right thank you that's I just wanted to make sure people did have an opportunity sure and I think those were good comments and I think of H2 overviews doing it all the time and some of the counties where they do it all the time there's a redetermination benefits every two years on some ditch and it's just so different that people know that so I I hear what you're saying myin like you got that packet and I agree there are some land owners who thought they were paying for the ditch cleanup based on the payment of redetermination so we I think we hear you on that you got to come back up though getting your exercise today SI closer again this is my own Branch Joel can back me up on this I went down to his office and brought up the document that I had did not show the the identification of the benefit did not show on the little map that I got what was actually included in that description of benefit for that quarter section of my property when they brought it up in their computer and blew it up oh look at that that dip that fence line is included in I said why is the one and the other side excluded I mean Joel can back me up at this he's seen that we were looking at that and there was other areas too that was wet lands that I could not grow crop land on that would be something I would think a county person could see going over this project that you could see that I can't produce know tillable Acres or ground or crops in that that's considered pasture land I can't bring that back in according to the federal program to be produced and that was considered drainable land towards this project and the the thing of it is the description of it is was so vague for you to know the benefit when we got our letters in the mail you can send a letter out to everyone they did not know that that was to be for determining how much money you were going to have to spend towards your project they were looking at the benefit oh this is what's going to get cleaned out and everything like that no one knew in that letter in these packets which you can't tell they showed the map of of it they had the whole ditch tent on one piece of paper how are you going to see on there what lands of your description then they had the description of the quarter section of what your benefit is but you couldn't see what that benefit was on that map that you got yes we got a packet but it was illegible and I didn't know going to that meeting in B plain where everyone was staffed it did not say in a letter to us that they all are going to be there they said it'll be for review at this meeting if we knew that like I said I'm sure you would have had meetings going out for a week for people looking at their stuff and seeing that it could be and what the determination was that's the only point I had to make now I I hear you Ryan Ryan myON um I think again some of that was we if I did it again I would really utilize H to2 overviews because that's their job and make make them actually meet with folks or tell all of all of us all of us here's the things you should look at you know fence lines all this and then talk with them to make sure they saw that because they're doing the whole thing so I I hear you on that I don't know that it was because again we do a county thing and then we're charging you again but as part of their role I think we could have outlined here's the things to look for a little bit more so get it we're we're taking down these things you were on your way back up and you you sat down I have a question for the board do you understand how our redetermination is done I can give you a rough rundown it they basically take the whole area and it's like a big checker board y every square is 40 acres everyone is evaluated by damages benefits and so forth it's a very fair process it's done by a group of people that are unbiased unrelated aren't from the area and the comment about myant there are some people that just don't want to pay for assessments and thirdly back in 1979 after the ditch was dug there were several people that fought their assessments and got out of it and I believe they haven't been paying till now but the redetermination should put them back in the in the portfolio if you will thank you and Jim I will say I know a lot more about redetermination of benefits and how it's done than I did three years ago and it's a value valuable necessary thing we needed to do it all right no more further comment thank you all right thank you thank you for being here thank you for going on this journey with us thank you for staff this was they have full other jobs and this is about this much of their their job too and they really had to learn a lot and do a lot with this process um over the past three years thank you we'll move on to item 3.2 to adopt resolution number 2024-the statement allocating cost the county drainage ditch number 10 repair project welcome back thank you madam chair Commissioners I'm here today to ask you to approve a lean amount for the repair of County ditch 10 I'm going to go over some numbers um just a breakdown of some numbers um for my's benefit um we can also send these out as well uh so the repair project now we are considering it complete the cost was estimated at 1,2 $ 35,6 42 when we got bids back it came in at 1,160 23758 the final cost came back at 95378 65 a portion of that is attributable to the Culverts for bplan Township for their roads that cost is $152,600 contributed $71,400 of the cost of those so that was great um the cost was um the grant amount was2 6, 66.90 so that that amount has been deposited into the cd10 account um to reduce the cost to the land owners so the total cost is $953,000 5079 belplane Township will be build 152,00 6666 that will be over a period of 10 years at 0% interest so it'll be 15,26 67 each year and then the grant funding of 26,40 and Chris just to clarify the additional work that needs to be done that the county is picking up yes that's that amount is not included in here not determined and it will not be assessed correct thank you questions colleagues we have this a lot of this information in front of us in the packet also this is an AC thank you I will make uh the motion here you know I look at these costs and I I I think we kept them down as good as we could on this so I will make that a motion to adopt resolution number 20 24-30 approving the final lean statement cost of the county drainage ditch number 10 repair project all right it's been moved in seconded to adopt that resolution number 202 24-30 any further discussion on this matter any discussion any discussion it's my my three-time one this time all right all in favor please say I I I all oppos same sign motion carried now we're on to item 3.3 to adopt resol Sol olution number 202 24-302 approving a maintenance lean for County drainage ditch number 10 wel thank you madam chair um just to go back to the previous repair lean um just for the people that are in the room that repair lean um will be available to be paid we'll be sending out letters you can pay it by December 31st if you'd like to pay it upfront without it going on to your 2025 property taxes if you are unable or choose not to do that um it will will go onto your 2025 property taxes for a period of 10 years at 4% interest unless the total amount of your assessment is $100 or less then it will go all onto the 2025 statement on to the maintenance lean we're asking for a maintenance lean for $60,000 um and this is to to cover um the ongoing maintenance such as the spraying um fixing of any minor maintenance um beaver dams any um blockages or anything like that that needs to be taken care of and to build up the fund balance to be able to cover those activities uh this um lean will be again payable by December 31st in order for it not to go onto the property taxes if that is not done it will be a lean um for three years at a 4% interest um and because the topic of Maintenance came up a little bit earlier I don't know Joe if you want to address what your plans are for future maintenance on the ditch we are striving very hard to keep this ditch once it gets completely cleaned out in the condition that it is after this repair good morning Madam chair and members of the board um yeah um just wanted to summarize maintenance plans for um the next five years or so um so starting next spring the plan is to do just a full assessment of the ditch following the snow melt uh monitor where repair work was done and make sure that there's no erosion blowouts um that sort of thing we'll also be monitoring the buffers just to make sure that those establish uh continue to establish with perennial vegetation uh and are free obnoxious weeds and are compliant with the 16 and A2 foot um requirement uh so we looking at all those things um as Mr jarrison mentioned we will be spraying planning to spray twice next year uh starting in the growing season in the spring and then in the fall as well um and then going forward we plan to spray at least annually um for at least five years or until it's clear that we've gotten control of those saplings and uh noxious weeds and things of that variety so um yeah we'll continue to monitor the buffers um may need to do a little bit of mowing rag wheed was kind of a problem this fall so might need to try and control that with mowing in addition to spraying uh so that's what we'll be looking at uh for for the next five years or so um and uh just continue to make sure that repair work holds up and um I also did want to mention one other um small uh maintenance project so when uh we were going through the repair proceedings there's a Spur one on the very end of the ditch that was actually left out of the repair uh completely at the time we were working with the um land owners to potentially do a wetland restoration and in addition to that it was recently cleaned out so at the time it really didn't need a clean out um fast forward to today and it has um appears to have built up with some sediment it's about a th uh foot stretch so that's something that I'll be coordinating for just a routine maintenance project to clean that section out um over this winter or spring is my goal to uh to address that um so um yeah we weren't able to include it as like a change order under the repair just because it wasn't within the footprint of the repair so um relatively small area but uh yeah we will be addressing that um so I think I hit all the high level items um so uh with that I'll stand for questions great thank you commissioner beer did you have a question I do and I don't know if it's under this item or the the last one but those what do they call the angle inlets oh yep alternative side inlets yeah there was some question of the elevation on some of those is that that has been corrected um they've uh reshaped the BMS they um when they're first installed they they're supposed to have a burm to contain the water regulate it so it um goes through that intake and there's essentially no BMS that were graded so um isg who we had to contract with to provide certification of those um installations worked with bori the uh contractor to make sure that the county was not um assessed any cost for those repairs um and so uh those have all been corrected we looked at it with staff um and isg is providing final um certification that they were installed according to their specs and if I ever build one of those which I never have and probably never will why would why were they there was a few of them that were not to spec at all like is there do we understand why that was is there some on the blueprint or like um it wasn't related to the design uh as far as I know um there is a little bit of fitting them to the conditions of the field but I don't think that had anything to do with it I think it was just simply um between the the engineer and the contractor for whatever reason they were not installed correctly um and fortunately that's fine and that's that's an answer that's that's fine I was just curious we we went out there and looked at them commissioner I think part of it was probably not some inspection when they were constructed it was after the fact but the other thing was I think there was a need for some material in a couple locations and had to wait my understanding was to be able to get some of that material to build up around them as well and so I think it was another really good um learning moment on inspection and having somebody out there no it's good we're learn it every day and then the other question would be to um the the amount of this look looking at the wrong one uh the maintenance Le with comments you know how do we feel about that 60k and how far that's going to go and what it's going to do and might that look like down the road yeah I I believe the hope is to um have that 60,000 last for three years um all being well I anticipate it should um I guess we'll see what the spring if we have a lot of snow melt it just kind of opens up more possibility for larger blowouts and and that sort of thing um but um are we are we still planning on having winter this year or is that well I guess we'll see okay okay okay um all right those are my two questions thank you Joel that was very helpful thank you anything else on this issue Chris yeah I just wanted to reiterate when we do place a maintenance lean against a ditch it is always the hope that that that maintenance lean will last for a period of least three years um if for some reason there's more than expected maintenance or the costs come in higher it could be less um if there's no maintenance or less than we expected then it could go longer so it's not it's not a one-time thing it is the hope that it lasts at least the three years but it will be a continuous thing in order to keep the ditch up to um the condition that it is after the repair and then also just as a reminder um joint ditch three which some of you are on the board for um drains into County ditch 10 so they pay an outlet fee so all of the owners benefited owners on joint ditch 3 have also received letters indicating that what their 7% share of each of these leans will be and some of those people are in lisu County as well so they're handling it on their side and we're handling it on Scott County side thank you any further discussion or a motion can I ask so most of those people L that would be under $100 is that uh there are some that are higher than 100 but um not not anything very large there are um there's a $10 minimum on a on an assessment so there are some that are at that $10 level okay as well good all right commissioner beer thank you I know we've had those joint ditch meetings and those have gone well but on on this this leaning process and collection process is that pretty going pretty smooth with multiple counties and I'm just thinking of wheelage taxes and counties and how that sometimes doesn't always translate is this going well it goes well um L county is very active in their ditches so um unlike us they've been through this process numerous times so their um auditor treasure is a big help to us um so what happens on this particular ditch since Scott County is the majority County um Dany will send out letters to her benefited owners she'll collect the the funds that are um paid in advance and she'll send us that money and then for those that go on to the property tax statements every time there's a settlement of the uh collections then we'll get a check from lur County as well to deposit into the county ditch 10 account okay one more so we are getting our money yeah yeah no that that's good that's you know want folks getting their money um and this when we go through and do the benefits and the maintenance Lanes we're not necessarily building up a fund balance for like if the 60 goes quicker oh we got a little bit of balance you know their money to to do this we're we're doing what needs to be done and if something else needs to be added then we come back at it so there's not like a to to keep the money which yeah I mean initially we are trying to build up a a fund to cover three years worth of Maintenance expected maintenance yeah and in addition to that we do send something out each year that indicates what's spent on on each ditch um I think it normally goes out in March after the year end close so when all of the um accounting is final and the bills have been paid um we'll send something out that will detail exactly how much has been spent on the ditch so that that the benefited owners can also be aware of what that balance might look like because it'll tell them what the beginning balance is what what's been paid out and what the ending balance is so um just knowing that when that amount is getting close to not enough to cover a spray for example then we're gonna have to go out for another lean got it thank you m commissioner beer I would also say as we're looking at those letters um you get tired of us sometimes showing you fiveyear rotations and fiveyear rotations and why we plan for it but to Myron's point they're going to have three intense years of spraying and that is going to eat that up fairly quickly we should in those letters be projecting that if we're going to go to every third year what does that mean moving out so they can see that there's simp implications for assessment moving forward for maintenance which is I think one of the things we ran into if I listen to the history of this right and how we talk about it so I think being a little proactive in that letter that we anticipate this will take us through the 27 spring but as of 27 we need to start then on a 30 spaying and a 33 spraying which means we have to reassess another $60,000 so somehow we have to talk about that proactively in our communication that was myone to owners yeah that's what I heard you saying and so it's that ongoing maintenance and what are the expectations for it I think we just need to talk anual letter for you as part the letter that goes out in I just told Chris I said the letter that we always send out as a recap that that's where we're going to try to keep all those costs saying this is where you're at Spring's coming in at x what can they they they know the numbers right so if we get $60,000 in a pool and they do two Springs next year they that that's going to be eaten up pretty quick and then Joe mentioned a Spur cleanout that wasn't in the original project so what does that mean so when we do our letter that goes out in February or whatever time of the year it is again on Ditch 10 all those detailed costs because we want to get to the end of the project and saying okay we're done this is our in kind and then this is all the each line item what does it mean than you thank you colleagues uh oh welcome not only am I involved in ditch 10 I'm also involved in ditch three The Joint ditch my question for you does lur and Scott counties each collect the fees for that or does one County handle it all Chris will answer that for us thank you Mr jerson the um Scott County collects for Scott County residents lur County collects for lur County residents and then if they collect ahead of the assessment going on to the property taxes the funds are sent to us to to deposit into the account if it goes onto their property taxes in lur County every time there's a settlement done which is three times a year after your first half second half and end of your settlements they will send us a check of anything they've collected second so I moved in seconded that we adopt resolution number 202 24-302 any discussion any further discussion from my colleagues hearing none all in favor please say I I I'll oppose same sign motion carried now we're on to item number four motion to adjourn the moved and seconded to adjourn the November 19th is it the 19th yes meeting of the Scott County ditch board any discussion hearing none all in favor please say I I I'll oppose same sign motion carried thanks for being here everybody he