[0:28] e [0:58] e [1:28] e [1:58] e e [2:36] good morning everyone it is Tuesday September 10th we'll call the right County Board of Commissioners to order we'll begin with the Pledge of [2:44] Allegiance I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the [2:50] Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and [2:56] justice for all good morning everyone we have a pretty [3:04] uh full agenda here today uh first items is to uh take care of the minutes from August 20th and there's two sets there [3:12] and one from August 26th we can prove them collectively or individually I'll stand for any modifications or [3:21] motions Mr chair I'll make a motion to approve the three meeting minutes right [3:27] M motion by commissioner cas catch Mark uh second by commissioner Shane any further [3:34] discussion hearing none all in favor say I I both same sign all right motion [3:40] passes unanimous H today's agenda does anyone have anything to add to today's agenda [3:45] Administration nothing from Administration Mr chair all right with that I'll stand for a motion to approve [3:51] today's agenda so moved I'll second motion by commissioner Shane second by commissioner Holland any further [3:58] discussion hearing none favor say I I same sign all right consent or the [4:04] agenda is approved unanimously today's consent agenda uh is anyone like to remove anything from today's consent [4:09] agenda for further discussion if not I'll stand for a [4:15] motion to approve today's consent agenda so moved I'll second motion by commissioner Shane second by [4:20] commissioner Holland to approve today's uh consent agenda uh all in favor say I [4:26] I same sign motion passes the we're already flying on to our 905 timed [4:33] agenda item uh Mr loots is going to make his way to the podium he has an [4:38] introduction for us good morning uh Mr chair fellow Commissioners um it's my [4:43] pleasure to introduce my my newest assistant County attorney Tamara pishy [4:48] uh Tamara grew up in Watertown she went to college at Hamlin and went to law school at William Mitchell uh she [4:55] clerked for a judge in McLoud County and also worked as as an assistant County [5:00] attorney in lur County and most recently as an assistant County attorney in McLoud County so she came to us directly [5:06] from McLoud County where she did some chips cases and also some prosecution [5:12] work and she's going to be part of my misdemeanor gross misdemeanor prosecution team and she was a a welcome [5:18] site yesterday we've been down in attorney the whole the whole summer so um it's nice to have Tamara here and I'm [5:24] looking forward to her contributing to the office uh right now she lives in Victoria with her husband and her [5:30] daughter who I learned just turned one over the weekend so so I'd ask you to join me in welcoming uh Tamara to the [5:36] county and I do have her a certificate of appointment to present I'll I'll give [5:41] it to Mr cry well welcome we're happy to see that you're working at the right place here [5:48] at right County thank you Mr chair yes thanks for bringing her [5:55] in Tammy and introducing her and with a resume and an intro like that I'll expect to see you as a contributor on a [6:02] news cable station or something because that's a lot of times what we hear I won't say what station [6:09] but thank you congratulations thank you welcome aboard we're very fortunate to [6:15] have you you it looks like you have H quite the resume and quite the experience especially in the government [6:20] sector so she came down during a break in her orientation so she's she's back to [6:26] orientation so all right thank you thank you all right uh moving on to our Mr chair [6:32] Mr chair would be a motion then to accept the um certificate of appointment [6:37] and oath of office and authorized signatures all right with that I'll stand for a motion to uh accept that uh [6:45] oath of office and certificate all right second motion by commissioner Dietrich second by commissioner Holland any [6:50] further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post same sign all right [6:57] motion passes unanimous welcome aboard uh now we're moving to the 910 and I [7:03] believe uh either is it Mike or Jesse or we're going to get blessed with both of them this [7:09] morning made me dress up good morning um good morning Mike you dress [7:17] up every day oh okay at least when you see me I [7:22] do um Commissioners uh before you I have an agreement that needs your approval [7:28] for Signature um um a little bit of a history uh when drug court started a [7:33] number of years ago we actually were the coordinator of drug court there was some and Fiscal Agent there was some movement [7:39] with that um as things evolve and uh that position we stayed Fiscal Agent for [7:45] a while and then the drug court coordination moved to the state of Minnesota and then when there was [7:51] another change approximately two years ago three years ago now um we we [7:56] absorbed the drug C coordinator position and money as well as the Fiscal Agent [8:02] money and if you remember the budget process that's tied to the State dollars that we that we're getting so this is [8:08] approval to receive the State dollars we did a reorg our office that allowed us to be a little bit more flexible so when [8:14] drug court originally started we had a coordinator an agent and a Fiscal Agent all three separate people when we [8:20] brought it back we met with the court uh when judge Tenny took over leadership of the drug court and we wanted to blend it [8:26] into our department to spread out the work a little bit make it a little bit more equ Equitable and give us some flexibility and train other people uh to [8:33] get the job done so Jesse uh set upon that with her staff so this money uh offsets the coordinator position so some [8:40] of it goes towards your salary and then also the the the Fiscal Agent piece which goes uh which goes to another [8:46] person's salary and but that being said it is Blended within the support team um [8:53] to help manage all that for the uh for the drug court so it's just a little bit way of doing business differently but [8:59] spread out the work and also if there's a transition then we're able to um you [9:04] know if there's a success helps with our succession planning if anything ever happen so but we need your signatures on that so that's what's before you today [9:11] and the money is in the budget so you know great thank you any [9:18] questions this time I'll stand for a motion to approve that uh memo of understanding between the state of Minnesota and Ray County uh court [9:24] services we'll make that motion all right motion by commissioner Holland second by Commission Shane any further [9:31] discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post same sign motion pass is [9:37] unanimous awesome thank you have a great meeting all right and Tim's hiding out there back in the corner he's going to [9:43] make his way to the podium here uh we're looking to adopt a resolution for the reduction of coverage limits for the uh [9:50] right County Government Center in downtown uh Buffalo good morning Commissioners um [9:56] essentially a formality housekeeping item here before you not sure if there was any questions otherwise uh should be able to [10:04] proceed so recollection this is coming back from a workshop discussion uh on [10:09] looking at at that facility and what we need to do and what limits we need to have on that uh facility so uh this was [10:16] coming back with that recommendation from that uh previous meeting and with that I'll stand for any [10:23] motions I'll make that motion all right motion by commissioner Holland second second by commissioner Shane and any [10:29] further discussion Mr chair yes I don't want to let Tim off that easy but there's such a dis discrepancy in [10:37] the values of the property we had two real estate people you know two years [10:43] ago that said 2 million for the property too Mr chair was here at that time but [10:48] the mcit estimates are multi-million dollars [10:53] versus what what we had estimated and I I guess I'm not going to argue it to [10:59] much because that bottom price of 3500 is very low but the question is the [11:07] values are so different if it was a higher amount I'd say can we go to another appraiser per se or entertain [11:15] another insurance company but because it's only 3500 I I think that's that's a [11:20] good price but everybody that looks at this will say look at the difference from MC's estimate to what we proposed [11:28] the what we thought the value is is just out of the ballpark difference Mr chair [11:34] commissioner catchmark I think the difference you're seeing here is replacement value versus market value to [11:40] rebuild that building if something were to happen to it what you see from mcit is the cost to replace it but the market [11:46] is the market there's not really a market for an old jail that hasn't been used for 15 years [11:54] so that's what we get yeah it's kind of like your home I mean most people's replacement value on their home home is [11:59] more than what they could sell it for we don't in most cases that if it's not then you might be undercovered so te B I [12:07] think it's a a case of the insurance company wanting more money well construction cost is always [12:16] is I you can't build a new house for the price that you can buy an existing house for so that's just the matter the fact [12:22] of the matter and that's the same thing with the with the new building So when you buy coverage for replacement they [12:27] have to Factor on new construction versus uh buying existing building so well I would just comment too we're in a [12:34] transition period you know we're moving towards the sale of the building it's not being used as a government center um [12:40] from the insurance perspective they value it as a government center fully functional things like that this is just [12:45] more that formality of transitioning our way out um with that property as Greg [12:52] had mentioned as well difference between replacement cash or excuse me replacement costs actual cash and kind [12:58] of current market value so I know it's a little confusing but um kind of our goal [13:03] was to reduce our coverage as we transition the sale and then that's what the resolution makes this more of that [13:09] formality to get that transaction taken care of from a followup from the workshop so thank you all right so we [13:16] have a motion we have a second any other discussion hearing none uh so resolution [13:21] vote commissioner catchmark i i i i i all right resolution passes unanimous [13:28] all right and moving right along here uh we're run a little bit ahead here but I [13:33] think we'll just continue on with it as none of them are uh what I'm going to consider to be uh controversial timed [13:40] items is that okay administrator yeah Mr chair the only item we would have to be time specific on is item e the public [13:47] hearing at 9:30 so we can go through Chads and if we're still moving we can move on to items for consideration or [13:52] take on some other items I'm just going to move uh with the highway items so the the resolutions so all right Chad so the [13:58] first item there you got the resolution authorizing the preparation of Highway rightaway plat uh pertaining to ca 8 and [14:06] 35 good morning Commissioners it's pretty straightforward it's is just an authorization for our surveyor to [14:12] prepare a plot for us on the intersection 35 and 8 where we're constructing a roundabout next summer so it's just minor RightWay takings from uh [14:20] four corners of the [14:26] intersection make a motion no I I I'll make make a motion to um adopt that [14:31] resolution all right motion by commissioner holl second second by commissioner Shane any [14:38] discussion hearing none commissioner Shane resolution I I I hi I resolution [14:44] passes unanimous all right second item all right next item before you uh this is an [14:51] an agreement with mindat to allow us to receive uh local bridge replacement program Grant funds for the replacement [14:58] of of the casassa 5 Bridge next summer um the grant agreement can't be [15:04] completed till after bids are open so we need exact prices so we received um 1.6 [15:09] million roughly in federal funds and this grant agreement is for $386,000 [15:15] $299 79 of State Grant funds for towards that bridge reducing our local [15:21] share I'll make that motion Mr chair second all right motion by commissioner catchmark second by commissioner Shane [15:28] any discussion hearing none resolution I vote i i i i i [15:35] all right resolution passes unanimous and the last one is the resolution of the sponsorship of a [15:42] Fiscal Agent for the city of Clearwater yes so this last resolution [15:47] before you is just like it says it's basically uh we're agreeing to act as a [15:52] fisal agent for clear water if they were to receive a Ted Grant um and that's towards the improvements on Highway 24 [16:00] um that mad is proposing in 2026 [16:07] so I'll make a motion to adopt that resolution all right motion by commissioner [16:13] Holland second second by commissioner Dietrich any further discussion hearing no uh hearing no [16:21] hearing none resolution vote commissioner Holland i i i i i resolution ution [16:29] passes unanimous all right thank you Chad and we'll see you in a couple minutes so yes all right now we'll go on [16:36] to the uh items for consideration uh first item would be uh [16:42] adopting a resolution appointing a hearing officer for tobacco ordinance appeals uh this was an item that was uh [16:49] discussed uh at a workshop not too long ago in information was submitted to [16:54] board members from Administration I don't know if there's any questions about that this was kind [17:00] of uh making the process a little bit cleaner for those that want to uh appeal [17:05] their violations for [Music] tobacco right well I make a motion to [17:13] adopt the resolution all right we have a motion by commissioner Holland second second by [17:19] commissioner Shane any further discussion I just appreciate this move coming forward I think this will be a [17:25] much better process and what we attempted yes last so thank you yeah Mr [17:30] chair commissioner dedri our hope is to improve the process for the board and most importantly to give some more due [17:36] process and to give some more level of formality to our appellants as well to [17:41] try to give them a more formal process as well in this administrative process so I think it'll be better for everyone [17:47] in the outcome y agreed thank you oh great with no other uh questions or [17:55] comments uh we have a motion in a second resolution vote commissioner d trick i i [18:00] i i i resolution passes unanimous all right uh we're still running quite a bit [18:07] ahead here we'll approve the recommendations from the Personnel committee on 820 uh there's four [18:12] different ones here the first recommendation was the committee was the consensus was to post uh for one over [18:18] comp for an attorney to uh this would be one that just kind of uh allows them to [18:24] keep continuity and not have potentially not have an opening in that office for an extended period of time as they just [18:31] previously have had uh trying to prevent that just because the onboarding process is long as well as the recruitment is a [18:37] little bit more challenging in this market than it has been previous uh the second one was a election staff rehire [18:44] uh so this was one that pertains to just trying to [18:50] uh Mr Jer can help with this one this one if a vacancy came up in election staff it it allows elections to post [18:57] that vacancy immediately with without having to wait for a board meeting during the dependency of the general election just because there with the way [19:04] timings of the board meetings are there's a potential chance that if somebody would leave during that period of time they could have a three-week [19:09] window in with elections in October it just gets to be a busy time uh hoping [19:15] not to lose any staff but we want to be at least a little proactive to take action that would prevent such uh [19:22] occurrences uh then policy revisions on 602 and 900 uh you can many of you [19:29] probably have already read that I'm not going to get into the they more housekeeping type items that we have to uh just keep up to date on our policies [19:35] uh to keep us in line with uh those at the State uh then we had just the [19:41] information at the well at work clinic and then the uh Finance taxpayer Services was one that was uh just a had [19:50] an update on it but it's still going to be uh held out there to further meetings and further discussion so no action at [19:55] this time Mr chair just a question on at Wellness at work were was someone asking [20:01] for us to throw some dates or are they not ready to schedule that meeting at the end of September for item [20:09] four yeah we're still working on that Mr chair as staff yeah there there's a I [20:15] believe Administration or HR has a meeting scheduled coming up with them but information only at this point in [20:21] time but more to come yeah all right uh with that I will stand [20:27] for any discussion otherwise I'll look for a uh motion to approve the uh [20:32] recommendations from the Personnel committee on August 20th I'll make that motion all right motion by commissioner [20:38] Holland second second by commissioner Shane any further [20:43] discussion hearing none all in favor say I I post same sign all right motion [20:50] passes unanimous 919 uh we could probably jump [20:56] into the Health and Human Services portion for a little bit here I don't know that we we still 10 minutes early [21:02] on our public hearing uh so at this time it's pretty quick it's pretty quick yeah so right away we'll look for the uh [21:10] consent agenda there's a number of different items there uh nine to be exact I'll look for a motion to approve [21:16] the consent agenda unless somebody would like to remove ones for further discussion I'll make the motion motion [21:22] by commissioner Dietrich I'll second it second by commissioner Holland any further discussion um chair I just want [21:29] to say um pass on to Bradley that he's going to be well missed at all he was a [21:35] huge asset to all these committees and I know his new job is making it difficult [21:40] to come yeah we we're going to miss him and he was a great advocate for just all the way through and as you can see he [21:45] was very engaged because he was on all of our committees so it's disappointing [21:52] yeah I'll pass that along thank you so we have a motion we have a second uh no other discussion all in favor say I I po [21:59] same sign all right consent agenda approved unanimous now we're on to the first one the uh accepted donations for [22:05] August of 20124 um you should have a um resolution [22:13] accepting our donations and the amount of [22:21] 5,000 [22:27] sorry and the am ount of $5,151 187 we had donations from um a passenger [22:36] safety program for our special needs program and from the right County United Way and a donation to our HHS donation [22:42] closet from our staff all right so with that I will uh stand for a motion I'll [22:49] make that motion motion by commissioner Holland second by commissioner diet to approve resolution HHS resolution 2410 [22:57] in the acceptance of the August 2024 donations uh once again we appreciate all those donations and they do great [23:03] work for the community and citizens here of R County agreed thank you with that a [23:09] resolution commissioner catchmark i i i i i resolution passes unanimous thank [23:16] you all right next is the uh item number two to cancel and reschedule the public hearing for the tobacco [23:23] ordinance uh so the recommended would be to cancel it was for this Thursday uh [23:29] and now looking to move it to October 15th correct that that's correct Mr chair and just so the board is aware the [23:35] reason for the cancellation is because um we didn't realize that there wasn't going to be a publication in our [23:41] official newspaper they went online when we were looking to publish this and we tried to get the notice over to the [23:48] alternate newspaper in time but we missed it by I think five or six minutes and it so it didn't get published on [23:54] time so and it happens so we're just looking to reschedule to make sure that we give the proper 10day publish notice [24:03] of online edition and we saved a few dollars too in the process cuz I think our alternate one was quite much quite a [24:08] bit more expensive to we did actually yeah so that six month saved us some money but we have a little bit of delay [24:14] now we have to give Reen notice and go through the process again yeah but Mr chair that works for me that date and [24:21] time you said October 15th yep 11 o'clock okay y all right that works so [24:28] that works all right then with that I'll stand for a motion to uh cancel and reschedule the uh public hearing for the [24:34] tobacco ordinance uh 24-3 uh cancelling the one for this Thursday and uh rescheduling it for [24:40] 11:00 a.m in this room on Tuesday October 15th I'll make that motion Mr chair all right I'll second that motion [24:47] by commissioner catchmark second by commissioner Holland any further discussion hearing none all in favor say [24:54] I I post same sign all right motion passes unanimous Jamie the floor is [25:00] yours yeah well I only have one topic for you um so this is an update on where [25:06] we're at with our um covid vaccine funding that we have to share with the [25:12] community members uh just a little bit of background back in 2021 we received about [25:18] $879,000 of non-co vaccine costs um um these can be used to now that we're kind [25:24] of through the covid um process to help community members are um largely [25:30] nonprofits you know um use the funding to support the people that have been impacted by covid so you'll see in your [25:35] packet they have 10 um 10 recipients that we all that we um both reviewed all [25:43] and commissioner Holland said on the Review Committee reviewed I think about 20 maybe overall um applications for [25:50] these funds 20 to 25 I think um landed on these 10 as the most appropriate um [25:55] and the best use for our um residents uh the Department of Health has to approve them they have so this is really not a [26:03] vote um item this is more an awareness and an update on how those fun that funding is going to be used I started to [26:08] say that we had about 8007 we received $879,000 back in [26:14] 2021 um we currently have a balance of $535,000 so this close to $300,000 will [26:21] reduce that to a couple hundred, which we have to spend by early 2026 so it's a [26:27] long long time one time Grant long-term one-time Grant of [26:32] funds very good well thank you for that information thank you all right that's [26:38] all I have all right thank you Jamie thank you and now it is 9:25 here we have a few minutes before we can go into [26:45] the public hearing um is there any quick updates from board members that you have [26:51] at all you want to [26:57] share so with that uh our public hearing here will be for [27:03] the local option sales tax it is the updated of the uh projects and plans as [27:11] there was modifications to it so the this takes place uh usually either every [27:17] year or every couple years as we review projects and we determine the new ones [27:22] that need to be uh taken into consideration or other ones that maybe need to be removed as they are no longer [27:30] necessary so at this time we are four minutes too early for that public [27:38] hearing stretch it out I I don't have any more to explain on the process on it and I don't want to adjourn for a four [27:44] minutes we could have Chad come up here and just talk about uh aggregate we can [27:49] have him talk about different classes of aggregate different types of binus you can put down the benefits of concrete [27:55] versus binus I we can about where the update is on the uh Highway 25 uh I've [28:02] gotten a number of emails and calls questioning is is it on schedule is it [28:08] intended to still open here at the end of September or is it uh is that time frame [28:15] changed and while you're at at County Road 35 good good morning Commissioners [28:20] I can I can wing it for a couple minutes yeah uh we have three projects currently [28:25] under construction um in short answer is they're all looking at early to mid- October completion open the traffic [28:33] final up for the year so the Cassat 2 Bridge North of South Haven at the [28:39] county line that's bridge deck was poured uh the concrete approach panels are being done last week and then so [28:45] they're working on railings and then we'll do the road approaches and open that up so that's looking at uh early [28:51] October um hopefully weather looks great uh the next one is 25 and 83 roundabout [28:56] like we said that's um that's looking at early to mid- October also um water M [29:04] was a little more challenging than we expected for the city water main and obviously the weather hasn't been great [29:09] for a lot of the summer but um we should be able to make some good ground the next two weeks um you're working on [29:17] cutting the road de grade now all the storm SE is done so you'll see some on you'll start to see concrete coming next [29:23] week and then things will start looking like we're getting close so um it's just when doing all the underground stuff it [29:29] doesn't look like they're doing much but it's all taking place underground so and the last one is our 35 two-lane to [29:35] four-lane Expansion Project that one is making good progress they're uh um uh [29:42] looking at we have one major concrete Paving pore remaining and then you know [29:48] concrete medians to be completed Turf all the cleanup stuff so same thing [29:54] we're still looking at uh um first week or two of October so um it's going good [30:00] so no surprises in the last month or two so and it looks like the same as the true for the river crossing in mon solo [30:07] that it's looking like it should be still completed at the end of October for menot yeah [30:14] yes all right um Chad can you give us an update on 19 and 34 that round oh yeah [30:24] um that is the city of Handover Le project on cassan 19 it's a two summer project starts at the river goes up to [30:31] 34 so um same thing they're doing the roundabout at 34 this summer and then they'll do the everything South next [30:38] summer so that one we've had some challenges too with some very poor soils it's you know it's all swamp and so we [30:46] had some challenges there and then um but they're still on track for relatively the same time frame it's just [30:53] you know um that one has gone slower than expected but it's just un [30:59] unforeseen conditions that they've had to deal with so do you think we'll have a long-term effect with that low low [31:05] area with water and stuff um yeah we might you know like I said we're we're doing some lightweight fill so the roads [31:12] just kind of floating on the PO soils um the other options you dig it all out which would be um very expensive so [31:21] there might be a certain you know a few years from now certain spot might settle so if we spend a million dollars to dig [31:27] it all out or 100,000 to do the lightweight fill we might have 100,000 [31:32] in repairs 10 years from now you never know but it's still more cost effective to do what we're doing so but yeah it's [31:38] been challenging yeah just because of the circumstance of the area yep yep thank you yeah well thank you Chad and [31:46] that brings us to 9:30 here and at this time we'll be having the public hearing for the updates to the local option [31:53] sales tax so if there's anyone here in the audience that wishes to comment for the record uh pertaining to the local [32:00] option sales tax please come forward and give your name for the record uh so at [32:06] this time the public hearing is open uh if you'd like to speak please come [32:13] forward and would anyone like to speak would anyone like to [32:20] speak and one last time uh would anyone like to speak on the uh public hearing [32:27] regarding the local option sales tax please come forward all right seeing that no one at [32:34] this time would like to uh speak for the uh public hearing regarding the updates to local option sales tax I will close [32:41] the public hearing and move it up here all right board members before you at this time you have a resolution uh [32:49] pertaining to the updates to the local option sales tax I will stand for discussion or a motion to approve uh the [32:57] resolution Mr chair yes it thanks Chad for your [33:02] efforts it looks like it's pretty evenly dispersed which as a lowly District 5 guy from the beginning we were hearing [33:09] that a lot of this was being pushed to another part of the county but I think that's been readdressed if it needed to [33:15] be and in my travels people are not bringing this up for better or worse we [33:20] went went through one vote if we should continue it or not already and we're still in that period of continuing it so [33:28] uh I think that no news is good news and no protests and complaints I'm just not [33:33] hearing it and it like it or not it's probably [33:39] the most uh palatable and Equitable I mean we're paying this tailes tax at all of our surrounding counties uh so I [33:45] think it's only fit that that that it is collected here uh since we're paying it everywhere else and there would be no [33:52] other way for us to afford the $14 million in road projects that we are [33:57] able to do annually and in most cases are necessary with the growth uh because to be able to do that through the uh [34:04] Levy would be very very unpalatable so uh with that stand for a [34:11] motion I'll make that motion all right second that motion by commissioner Shane second by commissioner Holland uh to [34:18] approve the resolution updating the local option sales tax all right any [34:24] discussion hearing none resolution commissioner Shane I i i i i resolution [34:31] passes unanimous thank you appreciate it thank you all right well at this time with no [34:37] other items on the agenda we will adjourn today's uh meeting at [34:56] 9:33 for