Good morning everyone. It is Tuesday, August 19th at 9:00 a.m. We'll call the Wright County Board of Commissioners to order. We will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Nice to see a good number of uh individuals in attendance today. Must have a very interesting and intriguing agenda. First item on the agenda would be the approval of the minutes from July 29th and August 5th. We can approve those minutes collectively or individually. I'll stand for modifications or motions at this time. >> Make a motion that we approve the minutes for. >> All right. Motion by Commissioner Holland, second by Commissioner Shane. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. Same sign. All right. Minutes are approved unanimously. Today's agenda. Would anyone like to make any modifications to today's agenda? >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as presented. >> Motion by Commissioner Holland. >> Second. >> Second. Uh second by Commissioner Shane. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Both. Same sign. All right. Agenda approved unanimous. Today's consent agenda. Would anyone like to remove anything from today's consent agenda for further discussion? I'll stand for a motion to approve today's consent agenda as presented. >> So moved. >> Motion by Commissioner Dietrich. >> Second. >> Second by Commissioner Moina. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Same sign. All right. Motion passes unanimous. And now on to our 9005 which we are moving quite swingingly along as Dina Diana. She's all right. Our CM JTS. >> Good morning everyone. I am Diana Rristtoaki. I'm the youth program manager with Central Minnesota Jobs and Training. I know Dena was out here a little while ago presenting on our overall programs and it sounded like you guys had some questions in regards to what we do for youth program. So, I have my Wright County staff here today. I also want to just introduce them and let you know what schools that they serve. So we'll start with Jodie. >> I'm Jody Lee. I service mostly the right county area. So I start with the Annavale Maple Lake Buffalo right choice Phoenix program. I also do the right tech center right academy. I'm in Howard Lake Wly Winstead and I have out of school youth out of Rockford and Del. >> Hi my name is Abdul Navigator. CCGS. So I currently serve uh Teranova um corner and storm which is located uh right tech technical center and I serve Monosell high school in school and out of school. >> Perfect. I'm not good with technology so he's helping me with my power foot side. So thank you very much. We can go ahead and go to u slide four. So what do we do? Who do we serve? Um, our youth programs have up to, since we're a nonprofit, a lot of our funding comes from our grant process and we can have up to probably 9, 10, 11 different grants that we're working under with our youth programs. So, under those grants, our eligibility criteria for our youth may differ, but in the majority, this is kind of the umbrella of who we serve. Our ages are that 14 to 24, so pretty wide gap in age. Our youth can come from lowincome families. So that might be either on MIP, TANNIF, SNAP or just meet some of those um low income criteria. We have youth who have disclosed that have disability. We work with our school dropouts and our potential school dropouts, homeless youth, our foster care youth or those youth that are transferring out of foster care, our justice involved youth, pregnant or parenting, English language learner, basic skills, those who are chemically dependent and or their parents can be chemically dependent, and then overall any of those youth that really just require some of those additional assistance. in order to achieve their educational or employment services. And this could be maybe it's our youth who are human traffked, um our youth who are um in truency or families who are just really under some stress at that time where we can help those individual youth as well. So we can move on to the next slide. some of our services that we provide. Our biggest service that we do under our youth programs is what we called our workbased learning programs. And so that allows our career navigators to work with our local businesses to place youth within their business to learn that different career pathway. CMJTS pays a work experience wage of the youth. We take on the workers's comp, the liability, all of that from the business and then in return the business themselves acts as that mentor teaching the youth the different skills that they need for that career pathway. Alongside that, our career navigators are working with those youth with those work readiness skills, whether or not it's giving them a mock interview before they go to the work experience. Maybe they're doing the resume, working on those soft skills. Hey, how do I um talk to my employer about different things? So, and in return, a lot of times we're working with the different schools to try to get them school credit during their work-based hours. Another big piece of our youth programs is occupational skills training. So, we can pay for tuition for some of our youth as long as that career is a um high demand, high wage, we're allowed to pay for it. And a lot of that times it's more those two-year post-secary training or it can be some of those short terms with like their CNAs um CDLs or any credentials that an employer might need for those um jobs in our community. So we move on postsecary preparation. Um this can be anything. Looking at what is that youth going to do after high school? Um are they going to go into college? if they're going to go into college, helping them to explore that different career pathway. Is it high demand, high wage? Are they going to be able to be employable after they do that? If it's college that they're going to pursue, then it's really looking into those college transition programs. How do I roll into college? Helping the family through the FAA, looking at different loans and and um scholarship opportunities. Um, if it is just that work where they want to do just go out of high school to do work, then it's working in with employers, looking at those job openings within our communities, helping them get placed and hired within those different um entities. And then also some of those uh a lot of our kids go into apprenticeships. So, we're looking at um doing tours of the JAT centers, what kind of skills do you need to be a pre-apprentice, those types of stuff. but really any of that career exploration, the assessments, um anything that they really need help with as they're transitioning out of high school. Um our dropout recovery services, this is really cheery geared to our kids who have completely dropped out of school. Um, we're working with our GED to get them reenrolled if they qualify for high school still. Working with them to get back reenrolled into high school, helping them with do you have the T access to the tutoring skills and the studying skills that you need. Um, and really taking a look at what is their educational plan in order for them to get that GED or that high school. Um, can go on the next slide. Support services. This is really a a key component of what we do and I would say is our wraparound services for everything because this is where we're partnering with all of our our community members and also offering financial support for our youth. So this might be we have a youth who is homeless. We're we're working with those CAP agencies for that youth to get stabilized housing. It might be a youth who has been human traffked and we're working with those safe harbor advocates to um get them in the right place and onto that educational goal that they might need. um any it could be referrals to um you guys all here um for those parenting, pregnant teens, probation officers, truly anything that is going to help remove barriers and create those wraparound services for our youth so that they can be self-sufficient. We can also pay for things. One of the main things that we pay for through our youth programs would be our driver's education. um paying for that and or hours that they need in order to achieve that. We can pay for rent, anything really that helps work towards that educational or career pathway. Financial literacy that just comes into play along with everything. A lot of times this is with when we're kids are on our work experience and we're working on budgeting with them, opening checking accounts, how do you have a savings, pretty much overall money management. Then lastly, a couple of our programs allow us to follow our youth for a full year after they exit our programs, which is pretty phenomenal. Um, so once they become self-sufficient, they've got that job or they're in that school and they're really, really stable, then we transfer them into what we call our follow-up services, follow them along for a year just to make sure no barriers come up or anything so that we can kind of help them to ensure that they're pretty um sufficient throughout that year. All right, we have some pretty cool initiatives that we're really proud of as a team that we wanted to talk to you about. And one of them is our operation exploration camp. And we have a video. It's 3 minutes. So it explains it at all, but the one that we have here is at Wright Technical Center. And I can kind of explain those partnerships once we take a look at the video. jobs and training. CMJS puts on operation exploration camps every summer. Operation Exploration Camp where youth can come engaged on hands-on career exploration within a variety of different fields. So, they can experience the healthcare field, welding, manufacturing, automotive, masonaries, and more. I a lot better than what you would like normally do in school and stuff because it's easier for me to learn that way. >> It's a lot more empowering. It's it's two weeks. It starts later than school. You get paid 10 bucks an hour and you're there from 9 to 3:30. You get 500 bucks by the end of it just learning. >> Each day is different. It's hands-on engaging activities in order to learn about the particular field. Depending on the camp, they're able to weld are able to put together sheds. They're able to actually go and lay cement. Or if they're doing some of the camps that are in joint with our apprentice training centers, they're actually able to run the heavy equipment and they're learning career success skills that they can bring whether it's to school, the work environment, college environment, training environment. It's all transferable learned skills. >> That helped me I believe and I just had a lot of fun doing it. The industry partners that we have donate their time, they donate supplies, donate their knowledge, which is huge. They'll donate lunches. They're just amazing. It's not like how school is or like summer school is. It's more fun because you actually are doing things. >> After camp, we'll set them up with the work experience or we will help them find a job. Our career navigators work oneon-one with the youth. It's so great for them to share their passion and give the kids access to the different careers they never thought they'd be able to see. But most importantly, they're a mentor. My biggest takeaway is that there is more for me to think about. >> It's sort of reassuring that I don't have to be stuck down having the doors open to have money of my own and to get things of my own. I think it definitely helped open up a lot of opportunities. >> I would do it again. It's pretty interesting to learn and be able to do and you just should definitely try it out because you're probably going to have a good time. >> I'm J. I just got done with the CM JTS healthcare camp. I liked it a lot because you guys really see firsthand what all this stuff is about. There are a lot of learning opportunities. >> My name is Johnny and I participated in the trades camp. We did welding, automotive, and construction. And I recommend doing this. So that's become kind of one of our best practices. We started with our camps probably five years ago and they have expanded way beyond what we can um can imagine especially here in Wright County. Um we partner with the right tech center um for our healthcare and our trades camp and actually a trades camp has um a waiting list every year even that was even adding on a second cohort this past two years. So we generally serve probably about 47 youth just with those that camp at Wright Tech. So that partners like um they host us, they let us stay on site. Um we pay their um instructors to do the welding, the automotive piece of our camp, and then we're out with the local businesses. They come in and do that hands-on exploration. So we um we absolutely love it and we're seeing some pretty good um feedback with it. So, um, one other, uh, partnership that I do want to highlight is our youth build program. And I don't know if any of you have heard about Legacy to Inspire. They're a local nonprofit and they are fantastic and amazing. Um, but with our youth build program, this is focused on our actual youth that have dropped out of school and or our youth that are potentially dropping out. and we're working with them as career navigators to get them back on track with getting that high school diploma and their GED while they're learning the construction trade. So, Legacy is our partner. They come on site with a mobile lab that is um carpentry and metal works once a week with our youth. Um and then they they teach them the skills needed for those um different trades. But the biggest part is they have a heart for mentoring and so they mentor our youth um one-on-one and really just they show up for our kids. So that is um another initiative that we're really proud of. The projects that we build through that are really all focused on lowincome type um projects. The one that we really like the most is our portable food pantries. So you can go on Instagram on their site and it it we are actually building food pantries for some of our food shelves where they can set outside um communities can have access to the different staple foods when the food shelves aren't open. So um lastly, I talked about a little bit about our partnership, but one other thing that we can do with our local schools is what we call our outreach to schools program. And under our Minnesota youth program, we're allowed to set aside some of our funds to serve just the general population. And we work with our different schools on what that might look like. So we may be in the different um classes teaching different career exploration skills, anything with um doing mock interviews, interviewing, those types of things. pretty much anything under that career or workforce development umbrella, just working with the schools on what might that look like. We also do a lot of large group um career events where we're either helping develop them and or we're just on site. So, this past year we served over 7,000. That was our that was our main numbers um for that. So, just another way that we can connect with our schools um and businesses as well. So last side we can sorry we can progress to the last one. I want to leave you with some data because when I was when we were Leslie writing for one of our youth build grants we were looking at our data and honestly it just blows me away. Um if you take a look at this we served over 532 youth last year. So this is June to July data. 185 of those, these are true enrollments, was from Wright County itself. 35 of those youth disclosed, 70% of those youth disclosed that they had a disability, which is higher than our state average. So, we're doing pretty good with um working with our youth with disabilities. 45% of those youth were BIPAC or Hispanic. 390 were basic skills deficient. 335 lowincome, 40 were actual true dropouts, 23 homeless, and then 29 were offenders. So, we are hopping all the time, but we love our jobs and we're passionate about what we do. So, that's all I got for you. I'm sorry I probably went over my 10 minutes a lot of time. >> That's all right, D. Board members have any questions or comments? >> I just had one question if I could. Um the youth program is that anybody like under the age of 18 then that you >> for the what >> for that two week the program that youth program that you have >> the camp. >> Yep. The camp anybody underneath that that a 17 or 18 still would be school age. >> Yeah. So it can be 14 to 24 for our health care but due to the child labor laws the trades have to be that 16 to 24. >> Okay. >> Yep. Excellent. >> I just want to say thank you. Uh Dan works really hard that your your staff works really hard and uh thank you for presenting. It's always uh it's always a highlight to see what you guys do every year and I know you guys had a busy summer and uh yeah and I just thank you for all your hard work and you're doing great things. >> Thank you. I appreciate all the updates on the great programs you guys got going. So, thank you for your time. >> Perfect. Thank you for your support. Thank you. >> And moving on to our 9:15, Lindsay is making her way to the podium with Tyler. >> Good morning, Mr. Chair and board. Morning. >> Um, as you are aware, we are Tyler and team are currently conducting absentee voting for the Senate District 29 um, election which will occur next Tuesday. As part of that, we need to certify the results and that needs to happen on Wednesday the 27th. We need um to establish the canvasing board which needs to include two board members. >> Who would like to help us out with that? >> So, is everybody raising their hand all at once? No, I mean I'm going to volunteer a couple of people to do this, but I think that the the two commissioners that are not residing in the district should sit on this canvasing board. >> I'll do it. >> What time is it? >> Yeah, I was going to say I can do it as long as it works around this schedule being it's such short notice. Can we do it somewhere between 1 and 3? >> That's usually the time you you guys usually do it at 1:00, I think. I appreciate that. >> One o'clock. >> One o'clock. >> So, I'll stand for a motion there, Commissioner Moina, to appoint Commissioner Shane and Commissioner Holland to the canvasing board uh for the August 26 special primary election. >> That's moved. Yes. >> All right. >> Second. >> Second by Commissioner Dedric. Any further discussion? >> I just have one question. I keep getting asked this question. on the ballot. Does it say endorsed if they are endorsed? >> Uh good morning, commissioners. Uh no, it does not. The endorsement process, that's a that's a party process. Um and so we just have the candidates who file, do you wish to remain on the ballot for uh Tuesday? >> Okay, great. Thanks. Answered my question. >> All right, I have one more quick question. Were the um absentee ballots mailed out this for this because it's a such a short election. Were they mailed? >> Uh yes. So we were able to get absentee ballots ready by Thursday. So we've been working on mailing to our permanent list and those who have requested absentee ballots. We do have those available. We are encouraging folks if you did receive a ballot that we mail to you do drop it off at the taxpayer services counter just to allow for proper counting. But we are open >> um obviously during regular business hours for inerson voting. the city of Delo, city of Monaceel, for those residents, that's an option as well. And then we'll be open Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. for absentee voting. So, >> plenty of chances to get your vote in before Tuesday. >> Wonderful. Thanks for the update. >> Thank you, Tyler. >> Thank you, Tyler, for all the hard work. It's been a squished up season this year. >> All right. Is there any other comments? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I oppose. Same sign. >> All right. Motion passes unanimous. Commissioner Shane and Commissioner Holland are appointed to the canvasing board. All right. Now, moving on to our 920 Chad. Morning, chairman, commissioners. We have >> three items this morning. First one, make sure I got the right order. Teddy Grant. Okay. The first one is um resolution offering to um be the recipient or the applicant for the Teddy grant related to the CASA 35 realignment by the old government center. Uh applications are due by September 29th. There's 1.76 million available statewide and then we'll have results by December of 2025 um is the kind is the basic timeline and we're working with the city of Buffalo to um help gather information and submit the application by the 29th. Any questions on the uh resolution 2548 uh with the submission for the Teddy grant application? >> I stand for a motion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Motion by Commissioner Shane, second by Commissioner Holland to approve the resolution 2548 authorizing submissions to the transportation economic development infrastructure application for CAS 35. Any discussion? >> Mr. here. What is the amount that we're requesting for the grant? >> Um, I don't think we've decided on an amount. I mean, given there's only 1.76 million statewide. >> Um, it's not a lot statewide, but if nobody else applies, you know, they, you know, I think we're looking at least half a million. You know, they they'll they'll all there's usually a box that checks like, "Are you willing to accept less?" And we'd say yes because anything is better than, >> you know, nothing. So, but we'll bring that actual agreement to the board before we submit it. So, this is just saying the resolution is saying we're willing to, you know, uh, basically take the lead and then we'll send out the agreement for everybody to review before we send send it in. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Did we have a motion on that? >> Yep. >> Yes, we did. Yep. All right. Uh, resolution vote. Uh, Commissioner Mo, >> I >> I >> I >> I >> I >> All right. Motion passes unanimously. Chairman, next item is the related to our counter 137 project is this is the uh last meeting we had the $1 million grant for the uh local partnership project funds. This is the $ 1.5 million grant for the local road improvement program funds. So there is an agreement and a resolution for those funds with MINDOT. And just want to highlight we need signatures on pages 3, eight, and then the resolution. So there's three um items for signatures. So, any questions on that one? >> Motion to approve resolution 2549. >> I'll second that. >> Motion by Commissioner Moina, second by Commissioner Holland. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. Resolution vote. Commissioner Shane. >> I >> I >> I >> I >> I. Resolution passes unanimous. >> Great. All right. The last one is um related to the same project. This is basically the uh agreements with the cities of Atiko and Albertville for their share of the improvements on this project. >> I'll make a motion to accept that. >> Second. >> All right. We have a motion by Commissioner Holland, second by Commissioner Shane to approve uh agreement number 2551 between Oiggo and Albertville. Uh any discussion? >> Hearing none. Uh all in favor say I. I >> oppose. Same sign. >> All right. Motion passes unanimous. >> Great. Thank you, >> Chad. Thank you for all that extra work and on that one. >> Appreciate it. >> Patience and >> hopefully we'll start in couple weeks. So, >> Overville is going to be full of orange cones. >> Great project. >> So, are you saying it's going to look like W >> all or Howard Lake? I mean, it's going to look like Howard Lake >> or more so >> or more so. And at this time, Ross is slowly making his way up here, >> waiting to be called upon. >> Waiting to be called upon. All right, Chairman Vet Commissioners, we have one item before you today, and that's to authorize the parks and recreation department to coordinate a special archery hunt um for 2025. some of the parameters for this archery hunt. We've received throughout the years several requests just from people asking for uh consideration or looking for archery hunts. Uh for the last 14 years, we've worked with the veteran services to do a disabled veterans duck hunt out at NY. So, it's something that we have were familiar with. Uh many cities in the area currently do it, too. Uh to specifically our Elk River and St. Cloud conduct special archery hunts. Um, so this would be probably the first time that we would do this. We are working through our commission and with our staff. We're looking to consolidate it down to the last two weeks in October just to make management a little easier. The three parks we're looking at are Monaceip, Bertram, and Harry Larson. So 10 hunters total. We would assign them to certain areas again to make management easy. Um, we had kind of explored some community partners. We talked to Excel Energy Center. They Excel Energy Center. No, we're not going all the way down there. Excel Energy. So, they are doing they do special archery hunts on their property. This year, it's specifically just for employees. So, next year, if this does continue to move forward, uh we would do in partnership with them for the a community event. So, >> Ross, I really appreciate you uh working with me on this. Um the just had a good great deal of people over the last couple years the population in that area of the deer have gotten to be the point where they're becoming a public safety issue as well as a uh nuisance to uh property and damage. So >> yep and 229 which is where this area uh would occur which is the zone that we are conducting the hunt is a surveillance area for surveillance area for chronic wasting disease as well. So, one of the kind of the um management strategies is to conduct special hunts for that. So, and it our staff are going to be involved too. So, we'll be doing hunter safety along with this. So, the 10 hunters that are selected through the lottery process, we'll have our we have some staff that spend a lot of time archery hunting and uh they'll be helping with the education portion of that too. So, >> great. >> Great. At this time, I'll stand for a motion. I'll make a motion to approve that. >> Second. >> All right. Motion by Commissioner Holland, second by Commissioner Shane to authorize uh Parks and Recreation Department to coordinate an archery hunt for 2025. >> Mr. Chair, >> yes. >> Just a question, quick question. Is this specifically directed at veterans again or it's open to the >> open just to Ray County residents 18 years a of age or older? So, we're really just trying to make it as simple as possible for this first year and then we're going to reassess to see how it goes and maybe what we could potentially broaden it if it goes well and if it's easy to manage. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yep. You're welcome. >> With the uh is it just going to be regular bows allowed or I mean because if you have a handicap exemption, you can have uh >> compound >> you can have Yeah, exactly. >> Compound bows. You can hunt compound bows. You don't need to have a handicap access. >> No. Uh, sorry, not not the comp the crossbows. >> Crossbow. Yeah, crossbows, too. Sorry. That's what I meant to say as well. So, yeah, it would just it would follow the DNR or what the Minnesota regulates. So, crossbows would be allowed during hunting. >> Great. Any other discussion? All right. Hearing none, all in favor say I. >> I. Oppos. Same sign. >> All right. Motion passes unanimous. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. And I'm assuming it's online. >> That application is online. >> Uh you can ask Ross really quick. I just I think it's a good way of saying if in individuals that are interested, where would they be able to find an application to apply for that lottery? >> Uh we will have a link and we'll be advertising. It'll go through our registration software. So people will be able to register. We we're going to start advertising once we get this down. So we'll start advertising online. We'll probably send it out to our participant list as well. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. 9:32. We're right on time. Mayor for you Barry. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Uh what we have is the uh approval of ordinance 25-3. Uh this amendment uh includes the allowance and performance standards for backyard chickens. Uh as well as a modification to the dynamic sign definition which would allow a sign to be digitally changed no more than once per calendar day. Uh includes adding uh farm equipment sales back into the general agricultural district as an interim use permit. When we converted conditional use permits to interim use permits as part of the mining ordinance adoption in 2324, it was accidentally omitted. Didn't find that out until a little while later and so we're adding that back in. It was not intended to be removed. Uh and then there was one other amendment which is converting uh personal cell towers back to conditional use permits in conversations with cell tower companies. uh their underwriters do not like the interim use permits because they sell often and that is one of the conditions of interim use permits is that they need a new permit upon sale and so it made sense to me to to move it back. So this amendment does revert that back to a conditional use permit for personal cell towers. Uh this was uh brought through the revisers committee public hearing was held by the planning commission at their last hearing and is now before you for adoption of this ordinance. M Mr. Chair and Mr. Ryinberger, if I could Barry, if I could take your attention to page two, article 2, section two, where you're amending 155.049. What part of that should be underlined or stricken? >> New language, >> article two, section two. >> Yes. Page two. >> That is all add. >> That's all add. Okay. So, we'll we'll change that to all and underline and reexecute. >> Oh, mine has it all underlined. The copy in the board packet has nothing. >> Oh, so so it's 155.048D2R insert after and then it's ask farm equipment sales. So the one I have here has that all underlined. >> Nope, wrong page, Barry. >> Oh, that was article two, section two. >> Section one. >> Oh, section one. >> Article one, section one. Sorry. I'm messing up this. >> Article one, section two, page two. >> Sorry, a lot of ones and twos. right above article two. >> Yeah, that would be I believe that would be all at I don't have my full ordinance with me. >> Okay. >> Is that >> Mr. Chair? Mr. Chair, we'll just note that it's it's an amend. I will I will verify that and get the correct copy to the board. >> Okay. Why don't we table this then till you can clarify what has to be underlined there. >> Yeah, >> I guess we can answer. >> That's right. is that if there's if there's that much ambiguity, then let's just come back with it. >> We can just come back with that at the end of the agenda. But if the board has any other discussion or questions, now would be the time to ask them and we can clarify this at the end of the agenda. >> I'm pretty certain I know what what it is that portion. >> Uh do you think we can you get the clarification here within the the next 20 30 minutes or do you think >> Oh, I think we can. Oh, yeah. I think Barry Barry will have that, Mr. Chair. >> Okay, great. Then I guess we'll uh >> lead me over to the end. I'll go back and check it out. >> Sounds good. We'll come back to you here, Barry. in a few minutes. >> Sounds good. >> All right. Now, then we'll move on to our 9:37. We're pretty darn close. We'll move forward with it. Jamie. >> Yes. Good morning, chair. Good morning, board. Um, in your packet, you have a present or you have got information the opioid epidemic response request for proposals in which there are five RFPs that were vetted through the opioid settlement advisory council. um and being submitted for your approval. If you have any questions, I have both Becky and Sarah with me today. >> Does uh board members want to go through the PowerPoint or are you uh okay with just uh having open discussion? I guess I'm going to leave that up to there first. Um if they have no preference, I'm going to make a few comments on my own on it. Um, as far as uh the first three that are on there, I you know, I I I feel like I would like to instruct the opioid committee to try and solicit better and find more prevention and educational opportunities. I feel like so much of this and almost too much of this money is is being funneled across the state into one bucket and that's all pure mentoring. And to me there's it's a twofold thing. One, philosophically, I don't know at what point did uh sponsors for people in addiction become a paid position. Um and then on the other side of it being that that's where all we can find, the only way to spend the money more often than not. Uh I I guess I'm I'm looking at seeing more in funds being put into uh the prevention and education side of it. Uh so I'm kind of topped out on one, two, and three in terms of wanting to support allocations there. Um I can support the uh four and five funds. Absolutely. >> I mean I I tend to agree with you. I mean, just looking back at the history of the previous things that were were approved, um, there's there hasn't ever been anything in the last couple years there where we've approved purchasing or or renting homes for, you know, the opioid addiction in recovery, which I'm not saying is a bad thing to have those homes, but at when did the philosophy of the opioid council become that we're going to use the settlement money and taxpayer money once it, you know, hits the the general fund that we're going to use that towards renting and and purchasing homes for u you know, whatever organization it is that that's doing this. >> Yeah, I'm not sure if there was a philosophical change. Um I don't know if sir Becky you have any insights. Um Becky is uh one of the facilitators and is um I would say um as a facilitator, she's there as a neutral party, but she certainly hears the um the information and is um helpful in soliciting the information that we do get. Again, we can only act on the RFPs that we do receive. Um and with that, I will leave hand it over to Becky. Thank you. >> Good morning, commissioners. Um so housing and transportation continue to be a very high need. I mean, not just amongst individuals with um opioid use disorder or co-occurring conditions. Um so I mean when we brought the RFP forward to the board, it was very peer heavy. Um so that just is best practice in in the world that in which most of the council lives in and has experience in. So I I mean I can only speak there hasn't been a philosophical change. We have done prevention, we have done treatment, we've done recovery. Um so it's it's when we did the community assessment um asking where the community wanted the funds spent treatment and recovery were number one prevention was to criminal justice and then harm reduction um and doing some gaps analysis with the opioid settlement advisory council just um continue to show that individuals that are struggling really do need treatment and recovery um and prevention. We have prevention dollars that we use through the drug free communities grants. We haven't done prevention through the council during the last two cycles of RFPs. It's not something they're against by any means, but being that we've had funds that the county has used in the past, it hasn't been a top priority the last two cycles. >> I I guess because I'm um and maybe this is something that the board will have to give some better direction back on how we'd like to see funds allocated. I um I feel at this point so much of it is targeted on that uh treatment and recovery side of it which don't get me wrong has some value to it but it's gotten beyond even the the treatment piece to it to know uh the peer recovery piece is really hard to account for how the those wages were spent and the time was spent. Um it's a it's difficult for me to go to the public and say uh because we're creating jobs that only drug addicts can have. Um that that's it's a tough appetite and especially when historically typically uh a sponsor is a friend, a volunteer of somebody who is in recovery, not not one that should be of a paid position. So just philosophically that one I I can't and won't support. um the housing piece to it. It's one thing for housing for uh treatment. It's another thing for housing for them just for the sake that they're having difficulty housing. Um there's a lot of other children that have suffered from drug abuse that we haven't even done anything with that. And I'd rather see us help the victims of the drug users versus the drug users themselves. Uh we help we can help both, but we've really focused all of the funds right now on the drug users themselves and not enough on the byproduct of family members and children that have been affected by uh drug users. >> The one that is in there for housing, the first one on your PowerPoint, there is a component of there. Is this on? Sorry, sounds quiet. Okay. Um there is a component of there that children would be allowed to live in that home as well, women and children only. Uh I did see that piece too, but uh it's once again it's still more tapered to in the way it reads to me is more tapered to the drug uh users themselves or recovering addict I should use I should say. Um Mr. Chair, I I could address the the board and commissioners. I I sit on the opioid advisory council as a member and it's it's a diverse group and philosophically uh Mr. Chair, I I see it the same way you do because I'm from an enforcement perspective, a prosecution perspective. Uh we do have a lot of members who are in uh the treatment world and the recovery world. And one thing we've consistently heard from the group is that there's a lack of sober housing in Wright County. So I I think that's you know whether I agree with it, the commissioners agree with it or not, that's what we've heard from the board. So I think that's why there's maybe more of an emphasis on this. I I did raise a concern at the meeting where where these were brought forward awarding, you know, multiple grants to one entity. You know, I I didn't love the optics of that. So, I I I voiced a concern about that as well. So, I'm I'm simply addressing why is it a priority for the opioid advisory council? And it it I I think a majority of the members are from the treatment recovery field and they've spoken to a lack of sober housing. So just just weighing in on that without um taking a position on on what's before the board. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> I mean I I agree with you uh chair about, you know, getting on the other side of it and and giving the treatment to the kids because they they need it as well after the fact because it's a very traumatic experience. However, you're not going to break that cycle and that history that a lot of these families and these people come from without the recovery and the treatment. And I'm I'm okay with that and that that's fine. And I just my issue is that is we're sending the county dollars out to rent andor purchase homes for it when there could be other areas that you know for instance um number five was an administrative recommendation. It was not recommended by the opioid council. And you know that one particular is a is a city ambulance service that they were not going to get this money. They're on their own island, this particular ambulance service where they don't have a hospital 10 minutes away. So, they are the first ones that are responding to it. Why are we not approving that when they they need that out there versus and this isn't directed towards you. This is more towards the council, but we're not giving the money towards ambulance and EMS. We're instead giving it to purchasing and or renting homes when you know this this ambulance service and other and other ambulance and EMS services. They need more of these drug. I mean Narcan is not something cheap and it's something that if you talk to anybody in public health, I'm sure anybody in EMS, anybody in WCSO, they'll tell you that they're administering more of it than they ever have before because there's so many more overdoses that they're running into. So, I understand the prevention piece and the treatment piece and the recovery piece and that's those are great, but I think that I would like to see more of a focus on what we do when we run into those instances because for them to even have any chance at recovery and and changing their lives, we need to save them when there's an overdose that's happening. So I that's where I'm just kind of wondering where you know the the the change in the thinking and and we could say that there isn't but it looks as though there has been just looking at some of the things 2023 there was the the co-responder program there was the anti anti-stigma and education piece uh there was stuff for Narcan there was you know recovery specialists trauma-informed care practices last year there was only one that was approved approved and then this year it's we're moving to renting and or purchasing property for sober living. And I don't have an issue with there being grants for that because people need the recovery piece. You you need to take that step and getting back into the community. But we're sending, you know, the the county tax dollars to that versus I don't know what the the four or five other RFPs that were rejected were for. Um, but we're sending money to purchasing and or renting homes for sober living instead of helping, you know, EMS services with what they need, whether it's education or more um more Narcan or more other, you know, things to help them when they're responding to that. So that's where I feel like there there has been a shift whether there there has or hasn't just looking at what I can see that is available online for anyone to look at it looks as though there has been a shift towards that and like I said recovery and and prevention are are great and we have other programs that help with that as well but EMS and first responders I think that we need to put more towards that than than what this time without the without the administrative recommendation there would have been nothing towards that. It would have all been towards you know one or two groups as as you had said. So >> Commissioner Mo I greatly appreciate your comments and that's where I'm like all about supporting four and five. Uh I just feel that we can do a lot lot better with the funds and I think we we had done well with it and I just feel like we're kind of going astray here with these proposals >> but I also think that we need to work on having talked around with a lot of different nonprofits and different people in this industry out there they it's the grant itself almost seems so narrow on what it can be used for. Uh and then on the other side of it, there's a lot of people, a lot of organizations either that don't know if they could if know how to utilize this grants. So I think we have to go back and really re look at how we're informing people and maybe doing a little bit more handholding with organizations in trying to apply for this funds and getting it so that we can get applications for this grant that are more targeted to where we want the funds to go. And I'm just here to say I I oh I'm sorry that I agree and I think we are looking for direction from the board. I don't sit on the council. I think there is a lot you know potentially there's dynamics that have changed if not a philosophy. Um but I think we are looking for direction from the board. I think that would ease a lot of the um you know ability for us to look for some of those opportunities. >> Mr. Mr. Chair, um can I just have someone speak on the number four with the county department just kind of what is being suggested there and who's going to be doing it >> on uh item number four. So >> item number four, yeah, >> I guess I'll turn over to administration who >> that' be uh court services. Mike, I think >> McMillan >> or Jesse [Music] I can talk if you want. >> I said I can talk. >> I can talk though too >> here. >> Okay. >> Thanks. >> Sure. Fire away. >> Just tell me more about >> well you're proposing to use the funds for >> there. I mean there's a lot of dynamics that go into this clearly and that and I've as Brian and the committee know that I do think the board needs to give some direction on it but there um as far as our proposal goes it really comes out of the genesis of it comes out of alternatives to incarceration grant that we had also the genesis of drug court. So it kind of couples both >> and supports what we've found to be um breaking down the barriers for offenders that are dealing with opioid issues plain and simple. um using the science evidence-based practices to come up with what we feel would be best to deal with that population. And as now as we're jumping into the felony realm with emerging of the departments, it just seemed like a natural fit for us to administer that those pieces. Yes, there are some barriers to housing. I'm not going to not going to duck from that. It's a it's a major barrier in recovery because those that uh commit crimes, especially when they're using opioids and also have some mental health problems, they tend to couch surf or jump where current users are. And we have to break those barriers down. We have to break some barriers down. Transportation, those highlevel things that we know from experience work. Um I think we shied away from peer recovery in this because there are resources available for that. So I don't think ours is heavy on that at all if if at all. Um so we tried to identify those barriers, those things that we felt would be beneficial in uh reducing recidism or so they don't stay in our system and become sober. And we think there's enough sobriety things that we've we're attached to at least in our department that we can get them give them those services that they need. As far as ambulance uh life-saving measures, 100% agree. I'm not in disagreement with that, but ours is focused on what we felt and we know works in the criminal justice system to break those cycles and make them productive citizens. And we would have we could have gone deeper in it, but there was only so many resources. So that's what we focused on. >> Does that answer your question? >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Commissioner. >> Aren't you on? And so I guess at this point I mean I'm going to ask that a a member make a motion to support moving forward with uh applications four and five. Um and just uh we'll just I'm I'm not looking myself to support one, two, and three, but I'd like to go forward with four and five. But in addition, I I not administrator Kryser, I guess I'm looking to see what would be our best step forward here to to get some better direction on this OPA council uh clean up this process. One, so that we can get more applications and two to get more applications targeted to uh to meet the needs of the county. >> Mr. Chair, members of the board, I think for further direction here, it would be to either schedule this or refer uh for further discussion either to a workshop. Our next workshop meeting I believe is on October 14th or to schedule a committee of the whole between now and then whichever way the board wants to go. I I don't foresee any another round coming up before October 14th, but if the board's so comfortable waiting almost two months, we could do that then. Or if you want to move faster, we can. But I I do know September is filling up quickly as well. >> Senator B. So, we don't have any commissioners on this uh committee at all. Then, this is a committee that that has typically had a commissioner >> and Commissioner Dietrich said she doesn't attend anymore. >> Do you want >> Oh, absolutely. We would love commissioner engagement >> cuz I feel like maybe this wouldn't have came if if you know a commissioner was on the board to understand and and relay what the board is thinking. >> So, uh is there a reason why or maybe even two commissioners? Um and I guess I guess I want to look at the dynamics of this board is is It looks like some of the things that have come forwarded are are pretty conflicted with internally within this organiz within this group in terms of what it what some support and what some don't. And I'm wondering is it because it's too large that it becomes almost overly complicated to support one idea versus another. Um I I'm trying to wonder if maybe we need to dump the box out and start over and and what it looks like and how it it consists and how these recommendations come forward cuz at this point we're allocating them funds at an eyropper rate. So we need to do better with them. We need to do better with finding applicants for it and how that looks. I don't know. Maybe we do need to talk about it holistically as a board. Uh Administrator Kryer. Um I I think a meeting of the whole would be great, but I I feel like before we get into that that we should have more of a a workg groupoup discussion, including you know, public health, court services, um you know, the the sheriff's office and a couple of commissioners in a in a workg group that can propose a couple of ideas on how to, you know, maybe realign with the thinking of what the current board is and then bring that to a committee of the whole so that there's discussion with you know public health they're they're on the ground the court administration they're on the ground dealing with these things if we can work group it in that type of environment and I'd be more than happy to be a part of this then we can bring it back to a committee of the whole where we then have a plan going forward that public health HHS the sheriff's office u court administration [Music] the county attorney's office all are in support of moving forward. >> Well, Commissioner Mo, I think you're >> What are your thoughts on that? >> I I want to Excuse me. I appreciate the request and Chair Fetch. Um, I think uh I want to respect the hours and hours of time that staff and community members have volunteered to give direction and we've solicited direction from hundreds of community members that started off the council and I would appreciate the opportunity to kind of educate folks about where we started from because we're several years into this um and community engagement and getting direction from folks is always bumpy. It's not, you know, people have lots of opinions, but not having input from the board has been a really difficult piece for us. And we're very excited to hear, I'm very excited right now to hear this dialogue and the engagement. And if that's an opportunity for us to have your um active participation and see at the table, um we're very very welcome to it. So, however we can proceed with that, >> Commissioner Mo, I am happy to sit down with you. I know you're well suited for this discussion. I would love to sit down with you and and some staff here from public health and uh from the court services and to look at what we can do to uh improve this council and be able to get this money allocated. >> Yes. Yeah. I mean, bottom line is we we're, you know, we don't want to sit on this either. This money saves lives. um you know, people can't be in recovery if they're not alive. So, there are some certain things that we want to do to be able to make that happen. And obviously, we want to fund prevention as well at the same time. >> So, >> Mr. Chair, I I I'm excited for this as well and and it came kind of an odd way of bringing this to our attention. So, I just want to say I was under the understanding that we had somebody representing the board there. So, moving forward, it looks like we're going in the right direction. So, >> thank you. >> Thanks. >> All right. >> Well, with that, um, I'll look for a motion out there of of some capacity. Um, >> Mr. Chair, I'll go ahead and make that motion to look at four and five and move them forward in the recommendations. >> All right. and motion by Commissioner Shane. >> I'll second that. >> Second by Commissioner Holland. Any further discussion? >> Mr. Chair, I would just note for the record in the minutes that item four is for Wright County Court Services and item five is for the Cooko Volunteer Ambulance Service. >> Thank you for the clarification for the record. All right. Any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor say I. >> I. Oppos. Same sign. All right. Motion passes unanimous. And now moving on to items for consideration. >> You want to bring Barry back up. >> Oh, yeah. Either way, are you is he ready now or >> Okay, >> I'm going to go get a copy, Mr. Chair. >> Okay, >> I have a copy. Uh on a side note, uh um when we visited with Senator Hoffman, he will again put forward a chicken bill. He uh he embraces that uh that bill and hopes we can get something done this year. When it gets passed, a copy of it will be hung in Barry's office. Mr. Chair, I missed it, but I think we're talking about our chicken bill. But yes, we had peace in the valley. >> Unfortunately, the legislature couldn't agree on what to put in for policy and the environment bill. And our bill, even though it was bipartisan support, both bodies did not get added. >> It's going It's going to go this year. >> It's going to go this next session. We're going to do it. It was the best discussion in in my career from a testimony perspective. So, >> all right. So, the to answer uh administrator Kryer's question in article one section two what we're amending is we're adding just reference to the performance standards for backyard chickens. So, it's and 155.113 is the underlying portion. ter also there was no p nobody came forward at the public hearing >> there's no uh disputes for any of these ordinances >> I appre >> well the there there yeah there was there was discussion we had a couple of of uh residents speak on the chickens and then we did have a resident speak on the dynamic sign change. >> Yeah, sorry. You're right. >> But in favor of the chickens. >> This is step one of like five. >> Yes. >> So, I appreciate uh Commissioner Holland and Commissioner Shane on looking at this from a revisers perspective. Uh this is once again one of those uh cleanup efforts and trying to write wrongs and clean up things that maybe got missed or things that uh when we moved it forward we didn't see the ramifications uh i.e. the towers. Um so I appreciate cleaning that stuff up >> and and we have a few more. I mean, I have a whiteboard full of potential amendments that we're looking at, but rather than bringing you a 100 pages of amendments, we're going to be picking at them as as we go along. Uh, I believe the next one that out of the revisers, we're looking at our subdivisions and uh our subdivision ordinance and our PUB ordinance. We'll probably throw a couple of the smaller ones in on that as well. um just to keep things moving and and to clean things up from the differences between when this stuff was written and society today, there needs to be some updates to it. So, we're working on them as as we go along when time permits. >> Well, and I appreciate it's easier for us to digest and it's easier for the public to digest in doing a public hearing when you're doing it on a 100 pages versus just a couple changes. >> Yeah, I agree. So, this is only for um R1 and and WZONED parcels. >> Yes. The the way the current ordinance is written, there's there's exceptions. We do allow them on egg and and pretty much every other zoning district or residential zoning districts to a certain size. Um actually any lot. And these were just referenced to the R1's in and the wild and scenic because there was a specific exception written in feed lot ordinance against those or that would exclude those two districts. >> So >> down to a certain size. >> Yep. And so I guess just so that I understand anybody else who might have questions on it can understand um is is this only within townships or includes cities as well? >> Just townships. Just what just what's our jurisdiction? So it would include all of the townships except for Middville, Stockholm, and Karina, which have their own ordinances. Um whether they then take this and adopt it. >> Yeah. I just I just wanted to make sure that that's what it included and it wasn't, you know, if a city does not have an ordinance against it that this isn't, you know, that somebody can rely on this. So thank you on that clarification, >> Mr. Chair. members of the board. In condition B, it says greater than 20,000 square feet. That's approximately just under half an acre in size. Any other discussion? Thank for a motion. >> I'll motion to approve ordinance 25-3. >> Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Moa, second by Commissioner Shane to approve ordinance amendment 25-3. Any discussion? Hearing none, uh, we'll vote on this and then we'll do the summary publication. All right. All in favor say I. I. >> Oppos. Same sign. >> All right. Now I need a >> motion to approve summary publication of ordinance 25-3. >> All right. >> Second. Motion by Commissioner Moa, second by Commissioner Shane to uh summary publication uh resolution for ordinance amendment 25-3. Resolution I vote I >> I >> I >> I >> I. >> All right. Resolution passes unanimous. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Now we can go on to items for consideration. Okay, we have the approval of the recommendations from the Ways and Means Committee uh regarding the Harry Larson uh property acquisition which has kind of been in the works for a extended period of time. Um administration, do you have any comments on it? >> Um Mr. Chair, I can just add that yes, you're right. This has been in the works for quite a bit of time here. It is a 41 acre parcel addition um to the Harry Larson Park. uh will allow for some additional trails to be created out there um and some more recreational opportunities for for members of the community to partake in. Current funding allocation right now is an $81,000 for conser conservation easement. Um ARP lost revenue uh as $150,000 contribution and then Silver Creek Township Park dedication funds of $56,000. Um, and I guess it's worth noting that this has uh met the methodology of the parks department for acquisition as well as supported by the parks uh commission as well. So >> that's correct, Mr. Chair. >> I'll make a motion that we uh adopt the recommendation from the Ways and Means Committee. >> Second. >> All right. Motion by Commissioner Holland, second by Commissioner Mo. Uh discussion >> hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I post same sign. All right, motion passes unanimous. And with that, uh, we've concluded today's agenda. Uh, we will adjourn here at 10:06.