00:00:14,830	digits. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. about one. The Called the September 4th meeting of the Burleigh County Commission to order the first item on the agenda is roll call of members, please. Comm. Woodcox, Comm. Ronson, Comm. Bakken, Comm. Schwab Chair Bittner, motion. roll call was complete.

00:00:59,230	Um, next is the approval of the agenda, and I want to add. For discussion purposes, um, property tax discussion. Um, Uh I think we'll probably take that up right after the consent agenda. And this is for informational purposes only since um um. Uh Property tax.

00:01:35,570	notices went out, not property tax bills, but we want to clear up some confusion with that and what I want to point out that our next meeting on September 16th. is a normal county commission meeting at 5 o'clock and then at 6 o'clock.

00:02:03,300	Um, we will convene for the final um Budget hearing for Burleigh County, so, um, anybody that's interested in attending the next meeting on September 16th at 6 o'clock in the evening will be the final budget hearing for Burleigh County. OK, so. Um, with that addition, I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda. So about 2 motion a second to approve the agenda. Any further discussion, see no call the roll please, Comm. Munsen. Comm. Bakken. Mr. Schwab, Comm. Woodcox Chair Bittner, yes.

00:02:30,030	is approved. Next is consideration of the August 19th, 2024 meeting minutes and bills. I did have an opportunity to review the bills and found them in order and um Comm. Schwab had a comment about the meeting minutes. That the vote after we came out of executive session was not included in the meeting minutes.

00:02:55,700	Um, so I would entertain entertain a motion for the bills in the meeting minutes to include. the vote on the Executive session that no move. Take a second. motion in a second and a second to prove any further discussion. Call roll, please. Comm. Schwab. Yes, Comm. Woodcox, Comm. Munsen, Comm. Bakken, Chairperson Bittner. Yes, motion carries. Next item is the consent agenda.

00:03:28,230	There's abatements, abet applications for license rather and special event permits and a check replacement. Anybody want to pull anything off to consent agenda for discussion? If not, Move to approve. 2 motion and a second to approve the consent agenda any further discussion. Seeing no call the roll please, Comm. Bakken. Yes, Comm. Schwab, Yes, Comm. Woodcox, Comm.

00:03:52,700	Munsen, Chair Bittner, consent agenda passes. Um, the next item is property tax discussion. I added this to the Agenda, uh simply because I've been getting phone calls, um, regarding proposed property taxes, notices of increase went out to citizens. And there was some confusion about how we got to that point because I believe this commission was very clear.

00:04:21,030	That we were not anticipating a property tax increase. Of any sort this year. There's no question to me that that was our. Goal And um and then.

00:04:42,430	I got a notice that my property taxes, the county portion was going up, and I, I, I thought that was probably because I purchased some other lots or something and increased my value so my taxes were going to go up, so I didn't have a problem with mine. However, I did get calls from people who didn't have that situation, and I thought, Since I didn't have a good answer for the public that we would ask staff to provide some information.

00:05:01,570	Um, regarding that, um, E Viemeyer, the tax director, provided me with some information here and rather than read the whole thing, I think we may.

00:05:19,870	Um, save that, but um I can do a summary of his and then I want to get into information that Lee Jacobs will provide for us cause he's got a Um, a much better summary of how we got to this situation where we'll have an increase even though we're not increasing property taxes, which is a real surprise. But basically what it boils down to. I, um, it has to do with the taxable value of the property, so if, if your house goes down in value.

00:05:43,830	You would have a decrease in property taxes and then conversely, if your house or your property goes up in value, then of course your property taxes would increase even though here at this board, we set the the overall dollar amount, not the, the thing that happens with all this uh movement in market value and whatnot, and I think you're

00:06:06,230	going to be surprised by some of the information that Lee presents to us. So, um, without any. Further ado, Lee. Please. So is that something you want to enter into the record from Bemeyer, um, yeah, would it be possible to put that up on the elmo so people have an opportunity to see that,

00:06:23,930	because that while asked Lee to to do that all at the same time, if you would, please. Sure, and you may want to. We'll go ahead and take a screenshot of that if. OK, since I don't have it in front of me anymore, um, you know, feel free to. Take a screenshot if you're at home.

00:06:55,900	Or uh to refer back to the tape after the meeting if you want to read that, OK? So that kind of a summary of what goes on from the tax director's position and now Lee, please. Yeah, so the. The the issue is how our taxes, um, staying the same. But some people are reporting an increase.

00:07:19,930	Uh, the issue does come down to market. We've got that algebraic equation and one of those items is the market. And so the market is volatile, um, it was volatile last year in, in Burleigh County, um, So what changed for some people is basically the mix, and so what I what I provided uh commission

00:07:45,630	is, um, a breakdown of our taxable values by property class and then for residential. I just made some sort of arbitrary buckets that I thought were probably descriptive, um. So by by property class, we had a few property classes that saw a decrease.

00:08:14,430	And so if we're leaving everything the same and one group has a decrease and unfortunately somebody else is going to have an increase, so the, the mobile homes saw 0.5% decrease. This is market market as well.

00:08:38,300	Uh, the agriculture saw a 3% decrease and then essentially assessed it's a class of property that is centrally assessed by the state, uh, Things like pipelines, railroads, utilities, wind towers, that class of property saw a 7% decrease. Uh, the state has a method for doing that. I'm not totally familiar with what it is. I think part of it is depreciation. Part of it may have to do like with utilities with the, the, the, the market value of the product that's, you know, traveling the line, um.

00:08:58,630	So just as interesting item is uh wind towers saw a 20% decrease. This is from the state. Railroads saw a 9.47% decrease. Um, again, I don't know why, um. In fact, I think we get these numbers after the preliminary budget.

00:09:24,330	So It's, it's kind of a minor problem, but I think we're using last year's numbers as a placeholder during this year's budget. Um, and so those were a little bit higher. They came in, the actual numbers came in lower and like I said earlier, if they're lower than somebody else is picking up the difference.

00:09:46,470	But the big issue, um, I should touch on commercial, commercial size 6% increase, uh, in residential overall a 5.82% increase. I think the big issue. With constituents is the mix of residential value changes. And what I mean by that is, uh, if you refer to your, to your. Hand out the property class with the taxable value of $250,000 or less. That saw a 1010.5% decrease in value since last year.

00:10:15,270	And that is a sizable chunk of our, of our total market value. It's nearly 12%. Um, so again, 12% of our market value saw a 10% decrease since we're leaving everything flat, means somebody else is gonna, is gonna pick up the difference, um, 250 to $350,000 property saw a 2.25% increase.

00:10:44,000	350 to $500,000 properties, residential properties saw a 6.85% increase. But the big change was in the 500 to 750,000 and in the 750,000 or greater, uh, property. So the 500,000 to $750,000 property sought nearly a 23% increase in mark uh market value last year, which shocked me, um, because of the change in interest rates, I, you know, you would think, basically, interest rates go up,

00:11:14,900	makes it more expensive. To purchase a home, you would expect that, um, there will be fewer home purchases and or prices would go down, but we saw the complete opposite effect in our market where interest rates went up and it's almost I'm not a realtor, but the, the impression I get because I've been this person

00:11:33,100	is almost like panic like I gotta get that, I mean, that's how I got my house, um, so anyway, uh, it's just a bizarre, bizarre circumstance and then the 750.

00:11:59,130	1000 or greater should, should mention that 500 to $750,000 class of property is 12% of our total market value, so it's a sizable chunk of the market value of the county. And then the last. You know, bucket that I created was 750,000 or greater, and that, believe it or not, saw a 28.32% increase in the, the market value over last year. So I think that's really where some of the. I Confusion, baffling, bewilderment is coming in.

00:12:25,530	Is this just this, this huge change where You know, we've got 10% decrease on the low end and 28% increase on the high end, and then when you leave everything the same, that mix is changing and some people are gonna see pretty substantial increase. Some people are going to see a decrease. But on the whole, the county is.

00:12:46,770	Flat Can you put that on the Elmo so that the folks at home can see that and be able to kind of analyze that themselves for. I'll just leave it up there for a little bit. I'm sure we'll have a little conversation here. Unless you wanted to add something else that was a great summary of exactly.

00:13:05,370	What's been happening and the reason that I asked him to put this in print is so that we can have this, each one of us can have it so we can answer those questions about what happened.

00:13:23,800	Now, the concern that instantly came to mind with me was the centrally assessed thing that we have absolutely no control over central assessment that's done at the state level. Because every one of us has probably heard a legislator or somebody say that, you know, we give these tax breaks to to everybody to the political subdivisions, but then they turn around and they backload it or they, you know, jack up taxes to uh uh make up for, you

00:13:42,330	know, or or to fill that hole back in. I'm sitting here thinking when I learned this, it's like, wait a minute. The state is given a 9.5% decrease in property values to railroads. I, my question was why, right? And then, uh, uh, 19 or 19.98 so a 20% discount in the property value of wind turbines.

00:14:08,830	Now, I just, I'm thinking those guys are newer than some of those things are newer than a lot of our homes and our residences and businesses that were were tax. So that didn't make sense to me.

00:14:24,570	And so I think that it would, I think it would be good for us as commissioners when we have a chance to talk to legislators. To say how is this happening? How, how do you, how do you do a central assessment. Um, or, or, uh, you know, a 6.8% or. I'm I'm sorry, but the railroads and the wind turbines was the big ones.

00:14:44,770	As far as the decrease, how do you how do you justify that? Because we had to come up with. You know, a pretty fair amount of taxes on residential and commercial property to compensate for that what was lost.

00:15:01,870	So that that was the thoughts I had and I want to thank Lee for doing such a good job of putting this together because that was, was pretty impressive and one of the things I want to know too is there's a 4.84% increase on utilities. Well Who are the ratepayers on that? Those are the taxpayers, so that gets passed along to the ratepayer. So now you're seeing another hit on the taxpayers. So. Yeah, I, you're you're 100% correct. It was a stunning, Comm.

00:15:27,900	Woodcock. I've always had a burn under my saddle on agricultural land. How can that go down 3%? I mean, we hear. Prices all over the place of what's selling and what's moving and it's crazy that they that the state, and that's the state agriculture at NDSU that values that land and I there's

00:15:46,600	no way that that could go down 3%. Well, I would challenge you. I would challenge anybody to go out there and try to buy an acre of land right now. I mean, I, I bought a little bit and just a little bit here lately, and that stuff is not going down in value, I mean.

00:16:01,030	You know, they don't make it anymore, of course, so it's, it's odd that. Some other government entities can can basically, basically this makes it look like we as commissioners are, are like lying to the public when we say we're, we're holding the line on property taxes.

00:16:26,330	We sat at this table and, and we said we are not increasing property taxes and suddenly citizens get an increase in property taxes. And I, I couldn't figure out why, and that's why I'm, I'm so happy that Lee was able to, you know, kind of dig around in the numbers and and come up with some of these things that are, that are having that effect without us really understanding

00:16:41,900	it, so. Comm. Schwab, do we have to Follow these guidelines. Yes, I, I believe so. I don't know that we have, and that's another question I have. You know, why can't we turn around and say, well, we're not decreasing the railroads in these towers that are worthless.

00:17:04,130	And uh Get these other ones back in line to what we said, because we told the people we're not going to raise taxes, and here it is. So I think we need to find out whether if we can't just go back to the same tax schedule for last year.

00:17:22,330	So the question is how do we do that? Is that something we need to involve the, uh, the auditor, the, the state's attorney, how do we, do you have any suggestions on that or? If the state's imposing that and it's the state, the state's authority to do what they can do. We can't supersede that. So we're given it Just don't have the power to give it a minute.

00:17:48,400	The state can, can give uh Money away and to people that don't even live in North Dakota. Uh To pipeline companies, etc. etc. Why in the hell can't we fight him on this? This is BS.

00:18:10,030	I, I agree that's that's why I that's why I wanted it on the agenda because it was just like shocking. Because I'm, I'm sitting here trucking along thinking, well, we're holding the line, we're, we're doing our job, we're You know, maintaining uh uh property taxes and, and then all of a sudden it's just people are calling me going, hey, what's with this increase they're bitten, you know, I look at this thing and I say, well,

00:18:29,070	19.98%. If you follow the Tribune here within the last 3 or 4 days, they were talking about. Not having enough electrical power. Mhm. And uh that looks to me it's like to entice. More of these wind towers and stuff, they're actually Running private enterprise here using taxpayers' money.

00:18:54,500	To pay for it and I don't like it. Well the one take on it, Comm. two things that come to mind to me is, you know, And the legislature likes to fall back on local control, and local control, and, and they're taking that from us for one and second of all.

00:19:14,870	When I look at this and and you know, the history of What equates to a state sponsored tax incentive kind of makes you wonder why you would ever cite. A wind farm in your jurisdiction ever again. Yeah, true. I mean the big, the big selling point was supposed to be the property taxes are going to generate this is putting the rest of the taxpayers.

00:19:38,530	In a precarious position because they have to pick up the difference. She sounds a little bit like a tiff or a Renaissance zone or some of the other conversations that we've had at this table, but on the state level. Yeah, well, we're talking 20%. We're not, we're not talking just 2.

00:19:56,470	26% increase in the value of a house from $250 to 350,000 or something, you know, we're talking 20% decrease on. 117.6 million in valuation which the year before was 120.998.999, so basically $121 million worth of Of of property when in the residential, um, in that 500 or in that 750,000 or greater was only 401 million. I mean, that's a big bite, Comm. Bake.

00:20:35,970	Leon, I don't want to put you on the spot on this, so yeah, I, I almost don't expect you to have the answer on this, but The question I've got is when if a landowner has a wind farm or wind turbines plurals cited on their property.

00:20:53,730	How does that formula go back to benefit them. Or just just the wind turbine company get this. How does, how does that portion of the property that is essentially leased from the landowner, do they get to see a benefit from this? I don't know, you know, in oil and gas, if you have a, a, a joint interest, then you would get the um the

00:21:17,700	the expenses you would pay a portion of it. So if the but that's oil and gas. So if the expense goes down, you with a joint interest would pay less. I don't know if there's a similar, um, deal with the wind tower.

00:21:33,030	Just get a royalty, the royalty side, there wouldn't be a, you know, you don't pay expense. So I'm not sure on the win side. Hm Amazing stuff, um. I I didn't have answers when people were talking to me and now I think we have a pretty good understanding of just what kind of a a butt whooping we just took here, um, and so my point that I want to get across

00:21:54,570	to the citizens is I I guess the road to Hades is paved with good intentions because our intentions were to, to, to not have any increase in property taxes, but suddenly there was an increase in property taxes and it caught us unaware. And I think those are things we can work on in the future.

00:22:12,600	But just so that you know now we have a better understanding of of what just happened to us. Hopefully we can address that moving forward. Anybody else have any questions on this information, Mr. Chair, Comm. Woodcock, just as a reminder, the county portion of your tax, property tax is only 15%.

00:22:31,000	the park board gets, I think 16% and the city gets in the twenties and the school district gets 40%, so what's what's gonna happen to these other entities when they see these property tax increases.

00:22:52,130	Well, Your bills go up for the same for the same reasons because this thing that affected us is going to affect every one of those as well. Hm Which and I looked at my statement and I will, I will, this is kind of an odd way to say this, but the first two phone calls I got, they were thanking us for the decrease because their statements had a decrease on.

00:23:11,300	Then the calls turned the other direction and it was increased. But if you look at your statement, at least mine in particular, every line item was an increase, so it has affected everybody. Not just Burley County. Well, I, I think we need to engage wherever we can with state legislators on this because this came right out of left field for me.

00:23:36,030	I As you know, I've been in one of these chairs for quite a while here and and this had no idea this was, was. kind of going on behind the scenes. So thank you for all the effort, Lee. Anybody else that helped you, I want to thank them too, so. Appreciate that. We're going to move on. Chair Bittner.

00:23:52,000	Yes, can I do it just a little quick thing. Yes, you sure can. Well, why we have a little pause, uh, may I, uh, anybody from Selma Carbon Solutions here? Anybody from Summit? I gotta ask, Comm., Chair Bittner, um, I'm Brandy Kaya, deputy auditor treasurer here.

00:24:19,630	Um, I wasn't presenting or anything, but I just wanted to bounce off of the value, um, and the increase or not increase for Burley County. So, Bear with me. I just put it on my phone, but um I did send this to social media to Mary Singer, so that way she could put that out there. See if it'll actually show up.

00:24:45,830	So I just want to show that this particular property, the value did not change, stayed the same at the 364,300 between the 23 and 24 taxes. I know it's really bad. But that first line there is Burley County, and if we scroll over to. Oh, there you go.

00:25:22,170	I don't even know if it's gonna gonna So this is just an average property that we're talking about with what But I wanted to show that the value didn't change and the Burley County line showed a decrease of $17.54.

00:25:48,270	So this value did stay the same, therefore, that that um Burley County ill or the dollar amount, it did go down for this particular property, but if like there was an increase of value or something like that or brand new build, those ones, like you said, offset this decrease.

00:26:04,330	So I just want to to show you guys did try to do your job and try to keep it the same and do everything the same and potentially decrease it, and which you did. So I just wanted to show you guys that. So yeah thanks we appreciate that. What range was that? I, I, I was the value of the home and that remained the same. OK, very good. Thank you. Well, I thought that was a worthwhile discussion.

00:26:32,170	Uh OK, we, we have, we have a. A person that requested an appearance, and I neglected to mention that during the approval of the agenda. And I think out of respect I would like to ask her to uh do her presentation now rather than waiting until the end of the meeting. I think the name is.

00:26:57,730	Phelps, is is yes, Dina on the bulk. My name's Diieta Phelps. I live at 8524 Brierdale Drive. I've lived there for at least 41 years. We moved there in 1981. I've been through floods. I've been through fires, I've been through many things there. The thing that I am a little closer there, please.

00:27:22,430	The thing I'm concerned about right now is on Simply Drive. Um, there was a tree taken out. We sat in line, had to go back home till they took this tree out. I don't know who decided to take the tree out, but they took the tree out. When they took the tree out, the roots went with it.

00:27:41,500	And the whole side of Sembly Drive went into Apple Creek. So we've got erosion down there into the creek. Which is blocking the creek. Which has slowed down Apple Creek. About half. All right. They came back out and they decided to put this stone.

00:28:08,930	That was the solution to put this stone, and they dumped the stone there to keep it from sliding more. Well, OK, that's one fix. And I'm not an engineer, so I'm not sure how you fix it. But anyway, in so doing. The road is now. So that if it gets icy. And it will There is no protection about not going into those rocks in that creek. There's no guardrail.

00:28:37,030	All we've got are the orange. Pigs standing out there that blow over in the wind. Out there there we've got some new families that have moved in in these last years and they have teenage drivers. My concern is they hit that with ice and into the drink they go and down over those rocks.

00:29:01,000	Can we at least get Uh, a guard rail something. Because it's on a curve. And it's gonna get bad as time goes on. In so doing, Taking that out and having the erosion go down. It has blocked a big portion of Creek. And we've got um trees down down there.

00:29:28,900	And that again is blocking while it has backed up Apple Creek now. And Right now, it's not hurting anything. But as winter goes on and it starts icing over. We're going to have ice jams down there with no way for that water to get out into the Missouri. It happened when I was teaching at what was then Lincoln School, which is now Piro School.

00:29:57,600	And I took my kids down to the, it was March of '87. And I took my little ones down to the gym, and as I looked out the south door. Here came Apple Creek across that meadow. And I went to the principal and I said we got to get these kids out of here.

00:30:17,300	You see, it's backed up and what had happened is the ice jams not only down at the Missouri, but from Clare up at Wayne we had huge ice bunk big icebergs floating down Apple Creek. So we went back in and at that time they were all bus students. So we could pull a bus up.

00:30:37,030	We got them all in the bus. And got them out of there. We teachers stayed until they were on the bus. We waited out in water almost to our knees, very cold. Apple Creek Water got ourselves out of there and what the school was surrounded for nearly a week. We couldn't get back in. Nowadays.

00:31:05,330	There are a lot, not all the kids are brought there on a bus. A lot of people are bringing them in a car. Well, if that would happen. Again, there's no way they can get their children. Because it's going to be surrounded by water again. So something's got to to give. To get that water out of that creek.

00:31:28,530	Because it's going to be a problem. Next, um, next spring. If it freezes up and we have a nice jam. OK, the. Those are the things that are. Concerning all of us in Brierdale, and in that south part, there's only one road in. And one word out, that's it. We've got one road.

00:31:56,100	And if anything goes wrong, We're stuck. We need to do something now. I know that some of my neighbors have called and they said there's no money. That was the reply they got.

00:32:21,700	Well, Maybe there's a contingency fund somewhere or something to at least put a guard rail along there to save those kids and the people that go drive in there every morning. Personally, I'm retired. I don't have to go on ice anymore. I did for 27 years, but I don't anymore, but those young drivers, the quails have 5 children across from me. And the two of the girls drive to Bismarck High School. And they take their little brothers with them.

00:32:43,130	I don't want to see one of those teenage girls going into that those rocks in that creek. And as far as the kids are concerned in. At Prairie Road School. They need to be protected. From An ice jam and from floodwaters that could come across and this had nothing to do with the Missouri like it did in 2011.

00:33:08,170	This had came solely from Apple Creek. So I'm just here to tell you that this is a situation I'm hoping you will hear that and act in a prompt manner before it gets too bad outside for the weather changes, that kind of thing, and just let you know that I really appreciate you letting me come and present

00:33:31,300	this. Thank you so much. Well, thanks for thanks for sharing your thoughts. I, I guess it'd be fair to tell you where we're at. And what we've been doing already down there.

00:33:53,600	Um, I guess I've, I've had a fair amount of conversations with both, um, with, with everybody from the engineering staff to the emergency management to Um, engineers outside of here, we, we are already. Engaged in planning um. Responses to the different events that could happen down there. Um, we've been engaged in that now for quite a while, um. They the It it wasn't that a tree was removed. It, it was that the tree fell in because of the erosion.

00:34:17,500	So what's happening down there and what best we can figure. Is that, um, for one thing, the University of Mary has been doing a lot of work on their side of the hill, and we don't think at this point, and I, I haven't heard any engineers have a speculation otherwise, but we don't think that that work has caused any

00:34:35,300	additional harm down low, but this is something that we've been monitoring. Actually, for a lot of years already. We've, we've been watching this going on down there.

00:34:54,970	And uh it's kind of coming to a head now, but what has happened is that the land on the East side of Apple Creek is sloughing down if you notice that the trees are starting to die on the other side of the creek, it's because their roots are getting sheared off and the land is starting to slide down, so it's not that. The west side along the road to your place. Is the problem. It's the, the result of the problem.

00:35:14,300	So right now everybody is working towards some solutions, some good long range planning and how do we best uh address that, uh, part of the reason that I, I can tell you that I'm so involved in in. Moving that forward.

00:35:35,570	Is that first off, a friend of mine lived down in there until he passed away, and I've been on that road probably 100 times. And now today my granddaughter attends that school and my son and his wife drive her to school back and forth every day. Um, from their house right there, um, um, on the University of Mary Hill. And so it it is a personal thing to me as well, cause obviously.

00:36:00,030	I Going to take care of my granddaughter too, but we are working, um, if, if Mary is here or if Marcus wants to add some information on it I think it'd be appropriate because we, we already have a, a, a large. Well, I'll let them explain, OK? So I thank you for coming in. It's a really good.

00:36:21,470	Marcus Welcome. Thank you, Commissioners. Um, I think you did a good job of summarizing what took place and stuff like that down there. The only thing I wanted to add is we did consider and we are considering guardrail along that location.

00:36:42,330	I should add there may be additional work needed there yet because of ongoing erosion, so I don't think it's necessarily a great idea to put uh guardrails in the way yet, right? I mean, we're still working through that, and that's correct. We didn't want to put any fixed guard. in place because we thought, well, we may have to remove that and that's a waste of taxpayer money as far as we're concerned.

00:37:00,970	We are looking into the possibility of doing temporary, um, Jersey barriers down along that and that's something that we can look at, try to get that in before the winter that would help improve the safety along that corridor, but you summarized everything else really well.

00:37:17,500	I know we're looking at having a meeting tomorrow in regards to some of the bigger picture items and maybe Mary will talk about that a little bit, Mr. Ban, Marcus, as far There's a contingency plan for any ice damming that might be due to the erosion because she brings up a great point for that.

00:37:32,500	Uh, do we have a contingency plan in place for what that might look like towards spring. Um, part of that discussion was going to be taking place tomorrow, so we'll have that a much better idea after tomorrow's meeting. Can we get an update on the next commission meeting. Yeah, I assume that was the intent. Yeah, thank you.

00:37:48,030	So it's real ironic that you'd come in and ask the questions today when the meeting is tomorrow, right? It's already Mary, did you want to add, I am very thankful that you. You hear the situation yeah yeah yeah if you can yeah if you can, uh, you get a hold of me or someone down there and. Let us know.

00:38:11,430	OK, this, this is Mary Singer of Burleigh County Emergency Manager. We used to work together. Oh, OK. OK. So indeed, the meeting is tomorrow and it's more of the technical aspect and the people that have the data and the intent tomorrow is to start looking at emergency action measures if it does pinch closed at any spot along Apple Creek.

00:38:35,900	What measures can we take as well as long term opportunities of, of what we can do for that area. So, um, there's, um, we're working it through with the water board so we have there.

00:38:56,770	Uh, Their their data too, as well as the engineer working on the University of Mary project, um, and you know, there's, Regulations we have to follow. There's different ownerships. There's private ownership, there's some public ownership, and so we're just gonna review what all our opportunities are. OK. Thank you. Thank you. So Thank you. I appreciate the input. stay tuned.

00:39:22,100	Can I ask what time that meeting is and are we, are we open? Mary and Marcus. I don't, I don't know that it's an open meeting only because it's, it's it's an overarching technical, I mean, there's a lot of technical information that's it's technical only if we get into future projects and input and assessments and things like that, then we'll start bringing in those, uh, the private stakeholders that own property

00:39:44,000	along Apple Creek, but tomorrow's meeting is technical only it's and it's not a public meeting, boring then you mean? Well, not for me, you know. I wouldn't say boring, but it's a, it, it's a time for experts to sit down and and and really start to knock this thing around, so thanks for expediting that appreciate it.

00:40:06,700	OK, try to get back on track here, number 6. Burley County school reorganization committee applications. Well, your name for the record, please. Uh, Brand Burley County Superintendent of Schools. Uh, I'm here to present 3 candidates for the Burley County school reorganization committee.

00:40:33,900	There are 3 members whose term was up as of the end of June in 2024, of those three members, one has agreed to reapply and continue her term, which would be great. Uh, two of them have asked to resign their time, uh, Joyce Falkenstein had served since 1995, so she had done her.

00:40:54,700	Service, so I want to thank her for her service, her service and uh Kim Berkland had served since 2011. And so I want to thank her for her service. So I in your packet there's 3 candidates, uh, that I would present again, Brenda Blaser to continue to serve on the committee.

00:41:12,830	Uh, Linda Buckman is the board president of Nottton School District and so she has applied and then the third one is Brian Deer, who is a retired superintendent who had served at Uh, different schools across the state uh Wiek and Carrington, and now he is retired and and works at you, Mary as a professor, and he had served on the state board of education and so he brings a

00:41:32,130	lot of experience and would be a great addition to the committee. So that would be my recommendation that you would approve the three candidates as presented. OK, Comm. for your wishes to approve. Second We have a motion in a second to approve the 3 applicants for School reorganization committee any further discussion, Comm.

00:41:53,130	Woodcocks. I, I got a couple of questions I wanna ask him because there's a couple of things going on beyond this, so let's do the, the approval first and then uh. I didn't, I didn't want him to leave. OK. Call a roll. Comm. Woodcox. Comm. Rounden, Comm. Bakken, Comm. Schwab. Chair Bittner. Motion carries. Comm. Woodcock.

00:42:19,130	I noticed on Thursday, this is one of my portfolios, so on Thursday there's a state meeting of superintendent of schools. Can you review that and you are the current president, is that correct? Um, thank you.

00:42:36,170	No, I'm not the president, but I was asked to present so there is going to be a workshop presented tomorrow and it's gonna be talking about the. The county superintendents, what their role is, that's actually what I'll be presenting on, uh, tomorrow morning. Uh, there's also going to be a presentation on annexations and and reorganizations and dissolutions and and just trying to get a better understanding.

00:42:56,530	There's a lot of counties who have appointed superintendents of schools who do not have the background uh in schools and so we're trying to do some training, so, uh, some understanding of that process. I've learned a lot as far as annexations again, when you're a school superintendent. And then go into the county superintendent.

00:43:12,970	It's a little bit different, uh, learning curve there and so it'll be good to uh get that training and so yeah, I, I, I'm, I am what I am the president of is the North Dakota small organized schools, um, so I work uh with that legislative and it was interesting conversation about uh property tax, uh, that's, that's something that, uh, it does interplay with school funding a

00:43:31,230	lot and so a small rural schools, we were always trying to find opportunities, uh, ways that uh Uh, we can think about and improve that process in between schools and and the taxes and all those type of things cause it is interesting and I'm gonna actually could talk with some other of my superintendent friends about

00:43:50,370	centrally assessed property because that is an interesting conversation that you had, so I, I learned a lot from just sitting in the audience. Appreciated that. Thank you. The other question Appreciate that. Uh County Engineer Hall, petition to vacate roadway right away, second approach permits request and the developer waiver request. Welcome. Good evening, commissioners.

00:44:17,100	The first item I have on the agenda is during the development process of putting a plaque together, one of the first things we do is have a pre-plat meeting with the property owners a lot of times. And uh property owners came in and wanted to develop a piece of property on Conny Highway 10 in the Stirling area.

00:44:32,570	And one of the things that jumped out is with us on this particular property is how the right away is kind of uh. Excessive in this particular area and uh during that discussion it was, it was asked if it would be possible to straighten some of this, this right away in this area out.

00:44:49,800	Get that property back on the tax rolls versus being on, uh, the government side of the equation. Um, so, uh, at this time I had the individuals fill out an application basically, uh, to start the process, and I said, well, I'll bring it to the county board.

00:45:08,870	What we can do is look at the application and we can at least set a public hearing. The public hearing, uh, time, uh, would be a month from now and that'd be October 7th is what we were looking at.

00:45:25,100	There is a map in your packet, uh, it's like the second map probably is the better one where you can see the two parcels or two pieces of a parcel that we were looking at vacating and they would revert back to the property owners on the south side of that, uh, particular area if you can see along there uh we kept uh we're proposing the keeping the line, the right away line as. ideas on each side of that property.

00:45:43,100	So in that location, it's 100 ft right away. Now, generally speaking, we can do just about anything at 75 ft on the side of the roadway, especially in this kind of terrain where there's no big fields, there's no big cuts, it's a pretty straightforward kind of situation, but we chose to keep it at 100 ft so we'd have a

00:45:59,100	little bit of extra room to work in those those two locations or at least proposed to keep it at 100 ft so uh that is the property they are looking at vacating.

00:46:18,000	I did inform them that historically we've asked for some compensation on that particular property, at least the money that the county or governmental entity was out at the beginning when we bought the property, so, um, that is on the table that's something that the board can discuss during the public hearing if you choose to do so and and set the dollar figure at that time, that would be fine. So there is a proposed resolution in your packet.

00:46:33,400	I'd recommend approval, but I'd be happy to answer any questions. OK. I, I have, I have some concerns, obviously. That Land has become quite a bit more valuable than it was back when that was purchased because that was probably done back in the early 1900s or something.

00:46:54,030	It's been a long time since we've had that property, yes, um, I want to be very careful that we're not. Um Basically unduly enriching individuals because The government has a A pretty substantial financial interest in that at this point if we were out there trying to buy it, like maybe we should have an appraisal in the meantime, but, um, commissioners, I'm not

00:47:16,500	opposed to having a, a public hearing on that, but. I would move to set the public hearing for the right of way proposal for October 7th at 5 p.m. OK Motion and a second to set a public hearing and further discussion. So no call roll please, Comm. Munsen. Comm. Bakken, Comm. Schwab, Comm.

00:47:45,370	Woodcock, Chair Bittner, motion carries. Next. The next item I have on the agenda is a request for the peal of the highway department's denial of a second approach permit. Uh, you can see that this is up in misty waters.

00:48:03,270	There's a couple of different maps showing the location of it showing kind of their plan for the second approach in that particular area and the only reason the highway department did deny. it didn't meet our standard requirement of 100 ft between two axis points. It's only 50 ft at this location, um. The highway department doesn't necessarily have any problem with this location because it's a slow speed area.

00:48:22,330	It is a slow, uh, traffic count area, so safety wise it's not a huge, uh, decrease in the safety in this area by adding a second approach. However, um, because it didn't meet our criteria, we did reject it and they would choose, they chose to appeal it to the county board, so. Mr. Chair, Um.

00:48:46,300	A very restrictive covenants in that area that would restrict a second approach. Uh, Comm., I know there's a lot of covenants in that area as far as I know I don't know of any, um. A second requirements on second approaches.

00:49:06,370	Um, here again, that's between them and the other landowners as far as covenants go, you know, we decide if we're comfortable with it and they can decide if it meets their criteria, so, you know, in in normal cases when we do changes like that in the neighborhood we usually send out, um, you know, notice to the neighbors and and get their opinions on those things? Like when it's a planning and zoning issue, Comm.

00:49:24,130	Bauer, one other concern I've got with this as well is. You know, are we setting a precedent that, OK, hey, somebody wants a second approach or a loop driveway for all of this, uh, who handles the snow removal and That development. And and Where does the snow go? Uh, that's a great question.

00:49:47,730	In this particular development, it's especially a problem because there's curb in this development. So we have struck a deal with the township in this particular area, we will do what we normally do on any road in a subdivision, so we basically plow it off to the sides because we don't have ditch storage or anything in that area, uh, when it gets to a certain level that it needs

00:50:05,170	to be removed either the township will contact the contractor do that or they'll contact us and we do it as a fee-based. System. So, uh, we charge them extra for that kind of service if we have time in that particular year. Uh, the last couple of times they've had to do that.

00:50:21,230	They've had a contractor actually come in and remove the snow along those areas, so, OK, because my concern is snow storage is, for one, and given that misty Waters has had some interesting conversations about their covenants anyway. I would really like to hear if they have anything in place to allow this.

00:50:44,700	Yeah, or not or not allow it, yeah. I don't. I'm, I'm reluctant to make a decision on the, on the two approaches at this point without having any neighborhood input, Comm., uh, Marcus. This is a Two lot build, right? That is correct, Comm.. So then technically if we gave him a second approach, he still can put one on the other line.

00:51:08,730	That is correct. So he will have 3 lots to his house, 3 and you got it. Uh, residential house that has 3 approaches. Uh, that is a correct statement, uh, Comm..

00:51:30,100	However, we always look at it each lot or each parcel in the county is we do everything possible they're entitled to have an access point. So that other lot is entitled to have an access point, so we give them the one so. Mr. Chair, Comm., I was out there and looked at it today and it's a flat light right now.

00:51:47,170	There's nothing there, they're just starting to do the work, but right across the street there's one that has two approaches and they aren't 10 ft apart. I mean, they made a loop of in front of their house and so there were two approaches that were almost side by side. So apparently it's allowed in that area.

00:52:03,130	Unless they went to the association and they approved it or something like that, but there are several that 4 or 5 that I counted that have a loop in there, so it's called two approaches, so there's some outliers in that. Development that it would be, I, I think it's incumbent upon us to find out what The board out there would have to say about that and if there is a provision for that.

00:52:23,570	Seems like it would be a simple step to find out. To ask, you know, some letters and. Work through the planning department or whatever and. Yes, if the commissioners wish to table this until the next meeting, I can do some investigation and bring that information back to the board. That would be my request.

00:52:41,630	I would move to table this until our next commission upon further information found by uh county engineer motion 2 further discussion. Are we going to contact both the association and the township association. Uh, Comm., I'll work with across the board whoever I need to talk to on that, so try to get those entities to write a letter or make some position on this.

00:53:04,630	So, OK. F Comm. Schwab, Comm. Woodcox, Comm. Munsen, Comm. Bakken, Chair Bittner, motion carries. The next item I have on the agenda is a pavement uh waiver of our, our pavement policy, as you know, our policy states that basically a developer is required to pay construct and pave all internal roads and adjacent section lines to their particular

00:53:32,900	properties we have a request for a uh plat that's going in into place. Out in the Sterling Township, uh, there is a map in your packet that shows you the location and kind of what they're looking at doing.

00:53:51,570	It will be a 4 lot subdivision up in that area as part of our pavement policy, they'd be required to reconstruct and pave a, a quarter of a mile of Township County Road basically in that area as part of that plot, they are adjacent to Highway 14 there, so they have paved access all along it on the, on the, the west side of the property.

00:54:09,700	This would be just dealing with uh the section line that is on the north edge of that particular property. Um, as always, uh, these waivers, uh, don't, um. Allows the plat to move forward through the process, uh, but it does not preclude the county or township from requiring the property owner to share the costs in that construction and pavement in future years when

00:54:33,230	the county deems it necessary. So there's two resolutions in your packet. I'd recommend approval. What we broke What we're a pro? Second, we have a motion a 2nd for the discussion, Comm.. What size is that lot one? I can't read it. Uh It's a little fuzzy.

00:55:04,730	It looks like 3, but I thought it was larger than that. I thought it was a 5 acre lot, so it's like 2 acres to me. It's getting awful small, 2 or 3, and, and that will go through the planning process as far as can they, are they allowed to build that particular lot so. Or to plat that particular lot.

00:55:22,630	Do we have a Any kind of uh Code and how big our lots are supposed to be. Yes, we do. What is the minimum? and a half. I think it's 65,000 square feet.

00:55:48,470	And, and that's unless there's a uh centralized sewer system, and you can go down to like a 3/4 acre lot if there's a central sewer system and the logic there, whether I, I, I don't necessarily agree with it, but the logic is if you needed to replace your septics, your drain field that you have someplace else over there where you can put a drain field, although I've been involved in projects where we removed the drain field and put

00:56:03,430	a new one in in the same place without any problems, but. Does that make sense? OK. Any further discussion? All the roll, please. Comm., um, Munsen, Comm. Bakken, Comm. Schwab, Comm. Woodcock, Chair Bittner. Yes, motion carries. Comm.

00:56:30,700	, I would like to just bring to your attention, uh, um, in the last few years we've brought a lot of pavement waivers to you, um, as far as waiver to the policy, maybe it's time that we look at changing the policy, um, in those types of situations where it's a small number of lots, it's some criteria that we allow those to take place.

00:56:47,900	That, that's your call, but if you want me to put something together I can and bring it back to your for your review and approval so. Yeah, um, would it be possible, but How far do you think to go back to trying to get a a baseline for. Um, what those requests look like 5 years or so or and.

00:57:08,670	Commissioners, I can look back at the policy when it was developed and and get a feeling for how many pavement waivers we've granted in that time and the nature of those waivers, generally speaking, what the nature of these is, anybody who's developing a large number of lots, they're not even going to ask for a pavement waiver because we'll tell them that at

00:57:26,230	the at the staff level it's not gonna happen. So the only ones that come are these small lot kind of subdivisions where we felt that it would possibly be a burden on those individuals to construct and pave a road. when they're only doing 123 kind of lots kind of thing.

00:57:44,900	So I'll, I can check back on that information and get that to you. So please do. I think you pretty well just nailed it on the head though 123 lots that's probably. Mhm. Like this one's 4, so you'd better be pushing the envelope. Yeah. OK Thanks. If you'd like me to come back with something, I will. OK, I will.

00:58:05,870	Thank you right Thank you, commissioners right there Comm. so long as we have Marcus up here on the stand. Uh, little updates so that people know what's going on out there at Highway 10. 0 yeah, that was a surprise to me today.

00:58:23,930	Great, yes, uh, commissioners, a little update on Highway 10, as you know, it was a, it's a mill and overlay project where we're milling out the center core of the roadway. we're only going to go down 4 inches and then repave back at 4 inches.

00:58:40,970	Uh, we've just completed, uh, the mill and they did it in 22 different lifts and both one side of the road and the other side of the road, so they did that whole length 4 times as far as the milling goes. They've just completed that this afternoon, so all of the milling is done, they were. Working on, uh, they've paved the uh. The Westbound lane, that that had already been paved the 2 inches from the very beginning. They're going to pave back in 2 inch lifts.

00:59:03,230	So 1 2-inch lift is done on that lane, and they were working on the eastbound lane as we were speaking uh we informed them that we wanted that completed before the evening was out. Hopefully they will get that completed before the day is out. We didn't really want to have a 4 inch lip anywhere along there.

00:59:18,900	Uh, so we're trying to get that taken care of once they complete that, then they'll switch back over onto the first lane and then. they'll continue on the paving.

00:59:34,830	Hopefully that will be done in a week or two, depending on the weather and things like that that go along on the construction project, so the paver was up to 80th Street on heading west on on the east bone. Um, because I, I ended up having to drive a couple miles out of the way because of the, you know, there, there's a substantial amount of traffic backed up right around that, that little project, so. But they are getting on it.

00:59:50,970	It's looking good, so. Anything else? Thank you. Thank you. HR Director Binder Risk management policy in 2025 benefits open enrollment. Welcome, Pam. Chair Bittner, commissioners, I have the risk management policy, um, and also open enrollment. The Risk management policy is nothing new. It just has a few updates and it's just a language.

01:00:26,200	Um, the risk management policy is the safety policy. It covers safety training our LMS courses and our LMS courses are what gets us the discount on our workers' comp premiums, so that's very important to us, um, annual inspections, so it's annual safety inspections that is done out of my office.

01:00:48,130	Um, the WSI workers' compensation process for reporting injuries is done and that's to the county employer group, the Kg Group, um, those forms haven't changed. There was just a little bit of wording that But nothing changed substantially. Um, designated medical providers.

01:01:08,470	We do this every year and it's if an employee gets hurt on the job, what medical provider do they prefer to go to? And so if they, we, we have Sanford and CHI, and I believe we're non-work related. Injuries, um, it's a form we use in a process.

01:01:46,100	We also have the the exposure control policy so the bloodborne pathogen and bodily fluids, how to deal with those and also hazardous chemicals and materials, so the MSDS sheets make sure they're up to date, all of that. Um, ergonomics we have on there and we do have a person in the HR office that can do the basic ergonomic assessment and kind of adjust heights on keyboards and different things to make sure that we have the basic assessment.

01:02:07,000	Um, we also have in there accidents involving county property, how to report them, and at what level they need to have a police report? So that is basically the policy. There's really nothing new in it, but it does need to be approved because there is some wording changes. Um, so I ask that you approve the policy as written.

01:02:25,270	Are there any questions? Any questions? Move to approve as written 2 motion a 2nd to approve as written. Any further discussion? Seen called roll please. Comm. Bakken, Comm. Schwab, Comm. Woodcox, Comm. Munsen, Chair Bittner, motion carries.

01:02:50,770	And the next thing is our open enrollment annually in the fall of the year we have open enrollment, and that is for people to add a change or remove our health insurance, our vision insurance, dental insurance, life insurance, and employees must enroll in the flexible spending accounts, medical spending account, independent care spending account each year in order to keep it. That doesn't just roll. Um, so October 7th through November 1st is our open enrollment. So if there's any change.

01:03:12,200	That need to be done for those benefits. It has to be done. During that period and it will be effective January 1st of 2025. So that's just for your information. That's all I have. Thank you, Comm.. Any questions for Pam? Don't see any. Thank you. Thanks. County recorder Hansen's salary variance requests. Welcome, Missy. Good evening Chair Bittner commissioners.

01:03:40,500	I am here this evening to ask for a salary variance request for a new employee that I have that will be starting in my office September 16th. Um, this employee is a current county employee from a different office and um I would like to bring her over. She's the same pay grade.

01:04:02,830	Um, step-wise, but I would like to bring her over to make her whole in my office, so she, um, the current. Um, grade is a grade 4, the current step that I have budgeted for my employee is a 5 and this employee is a 6, so I would recommend approval and if you have any questions. For me. Mr.

01:04:27,470	Chair, I did go over with Missy today and the malt is like 68 cents or something, isn't 65 cents So I would recommend approval. I move we approve. 2. The motion is second to approve any further discussion? Seeing uncalled rule please, Comm. Schwab. Yes, Comm. Woodcox, Comm. Munsen, Comm. Bakken, Chair Bittner, motion carries.

01:04:54,330	Thank you. Mr. Munsen, Bismarck Burley Public Health Services, joint powers Agreement. Thank you, Chair Bitner in your packet today is the 2025 joint powers agreement between the city of Bismarck and Burley County, uh, for the public health services. Um, I'm stand for any questions, uh. If not, I would move to approve. Mr.

01:05:30,370	Chair, we're funding this at 25% of their expenses, is that correct? Yeah, that's what we had that did not change or anything that's what was in our budget, OK. Mr. Burn. was Mr. Schwab, yeah, I'm sorry. I was, I was reading a lot of questions on this thing and. Number 4, contracts.

01:06:05,130	Uh, Shall be approved by Bismarck in a grant. Funds awarded to Bismarck Burley Public shall be applied to program benefit both. Blah blah blah. County and Bismarck, but Bismarck. it seems to me what's happening here is Bismarck has is retaining a lot of control and We're giving them more money. Uh Hm I'm really not happy with the uh. The administrative committee, it's just staff.

01:06:38,270	I don't know why, just staff. Except, except for uh The auditor And the terms of this agreement is from January 1st. 20 25 You December 25. But then it also says that once you sign it, It goes into effect. Go to effect January 1st January 1, yeah.

01:07:13,070	Uh That's not the way I read it. It says line 8 this agreement shall become effective upon the signature of all the parties. So we have a lot of time to do this, but line 9 is the term. January 1 to December in this contract.

01:07:35,470	I don't know what to tell you this is the only thing that's been I believe we are a home rule charter. Coy, right? And we're not described as that. It, it is in the uh Beginning Uh But I did notice We are going to pay Bismarck. $582,502. And they can approve grants and stuff and if we inherit all this stuff. How do you stop a program you had no part.

01:08:06,830	starting Which seems to be the goal here. I can't. I'm not going to support this thing the way it's written. They own this is the same joint powers you're gonna that's been in place for years and changes in it and I wasn't here when it was done before. I don't believe.

01:08:33,000	And I would have voted on this, it would have been a mistake. I would have gone along with it. There needs to be a lot of clarification on that. Chair Comm. Bach, Renee Mack is here. She has something to add to this. I'd like to hear from her. Thank you, Chair Bittner. Comm.

01:09:11,830	Schwab, just to answer some of your questions, um, we are a city of Bismarck department and so the funding that we get for grant applications would come to the city of Bismarck, but the way that reads is it would benefit the city of Bismarck and Burleigh County because we serve Bismarck and Burley County.

01:09:26,370	Um, so that is, is the paragraph that you were asking about when it talks to contracts, um, And then the other, if you're talking about the control of, um, public health and we report to the city of Bismarck City Commission as a city department, but we also have oversight and come here, uh, for services, which is through the joint

01:09:46,730	powers agreement. Um, if you recall, Comm. Munsen and I and my city portfolio holder Cleary, uh, we're working on a potential, um, joint Board of Health, which would have a representation from the Burleigh County Commission and So the city commission, in addition to members, um, of the community and health professionals, that would be

01:10:06,600	another way of going about a board of health for oversight. So if you have concern about control or more input, that would be a way to have a voice for Burley County at the table. Um, so I just wanted to share that, but that was voted down previously.

01:10:22,970	The date and that and the date is January 1 is when this is yes, we do this annually every year. Uh, so the joint powers agreements go January 1st through December 31st every year and we're adjusted, um, every year through the budget process, um. Effective date this agreement shall become effective upon signature of all the parties.

01:10:43,300	Number 8 is mute. That would be today. So basically you're agreeing to what is written for the 2025 year it's just for the 25 year. That is not what the contract says. It's very clear But And I think in other words, Mr. Chair, it says because Comm.

01:11:15,230	effective stains that that when we everybody signs it, that proves it to start January 1. It doesn't approve it to start the day that you're signing that. It's for the effective for the next budget year. I guess it would make everybody happy you could remove Section 8. Wouldn't hurt anything. Doesn't have any, it doesn't have any practical effect.

01:11:44,130	Now, to me just just remove section 8. It's been there for the last how many years, so it's just always been there for the last time of the year it's, it's a moot point, right. Mean anything, right? What do you think? Um, I just have one thing to add about the effective date.

01:12:04,900	I think having um that could have been part of just getting a confirmation for us to be able to plan our budget for 2025, that once this is signed, um, we know what we're going to be planning for, um, but I could be, if you feel like that should be worded differently, we can certainly take that back and have the city adjust it or if Um, The

01:12:21,030	state's attorney has any comments, I welcome that too. Julie. So I haven't seen it, um, because it's the same one that we've always used. And so it's been approved since forever ago. So I haven't had it for review. So I believe that Comm.

01:12:45,770	Munsen did not, you received it from Janelle City attorney Combs, and I think you were on that email too. No I, I didn't, and I apologize. I did, it's one line I didn't question because this has been the same agreement. And I don't know how many years, but I mean it has just been change of dates, change the dollars.

01:13:06,900	And It has been Approved the reason I bring that up I 8 is an underlying effective date and then it explains the effective date. It doesn't say. At the end of the year or anything. It says when this thing is signed. And that's the effective date.

01:13:35,170	Does that mean then that nobody signs it until the end of the year? No, the way it would qualify the way that is, um, in effect, it says the effective date is the date that the signature of all the parties is on there. The term of the contract is January through December. So basically if you sign this agreement and then you decide you don't want to come January.

01:13:50,630	You don't want to be part of this agreement. You have to give them the 60 days' notice because those terms are effective, but, um, or the agreement is effective, but the actual terms of fulfilling it wouldn't be effective until January 1.

01:14:14,870	Well, I'll, would would would it make you happy if I just don't sign it until December Mr. Chair I don't have to sign it, I think she made a point that we didn't pick up on is this is for budgeting purposes also is we have to commit to it now because the city's budget is, is up and once they pass that, they can't do anything with it, and we

01:14:29,630	can't either, so if we were to wait till December to do this and they say, oh, we're only gonna do half of. Or whatever that would throw a mess into the whole thing, so the contract is effective January 1, and I think this sign signatures approves that budget process.

01:14:46,170	And that's, that's one of the reasons I have it in the packet now since next next meeting is our final budget hearing. I just wanted this to be one of those items that was not on our list to have a conversation about, Comm. Bach and going back to item number 4 and Comm.

01:15:02,800	Munson, if you wanna follow up with this. Because I know that's a discussion that you've had at this table as well on the percentages of financing for public Bismarck Burley Public Health, and a lot of the reason this runs through Bismarck as a department of the city of Bismarck is because of the percentages of ownership when it comes to public health,

01:15:23,300	so at this point we're agreeing to 25%. That means the city of Bismarck is agreeing to 75% of the cost. The cost that is not covered by grants and insurance you know payments and all of that.

01:15:45,130	So out of that $6 million budget we're looking at roughly 2 million um uh property tax funded, uh, 25% of that is what we are agreeing to with this JPA. Out of curiosity, how many Do we handle health for illegal aliens. Um, Comm.

01:16:09,430	Schwab, I guess that would not be something that we would Verify with anybody if they were an illegal alien, um, we serve anyone that comes to look for us, to come to us looking for services. Um, so I guess that would be my answer is we serve everybody. I understand you serve everybody, do you You serve the probably then they probably slipped through it, illegal aliens. They don't have any way a way of identifying that.

01:16:35,330	They don't ask those questions at the beginning when they're intake. Why not when they come for service, they come for service. That's public health. Permission That's their mission. Well, then their mission could be to go down to the border and help everybody down there too. I'm not sure I would stand for that, but we have enough to do right here.

01:16:57,630	With our own people and not Burley County. Anyway, I will move to approve the JPA2. I motion is second to approve. Any further discussion? So no call roll please. I do just have one thing on there. I noticed that your name at the end is spelled, misspelled unless there misspelled unless there unless there unless there So With correction with correction. Perfect.

01:17:29,070	All right, um, we have Comm. Woodcox. Comm. Munsen, Comm. Bakken, Comm. Schwab, uh, Chair Bittner. Oh, for the heck of it, no. Just because your name was just spell your name was misspelled, don't get it wrong next time, you know. That's 16 years old that next time and make sure it's right.

01:17:51,030	Motion carries, uh, don't spell Brian with a Y either. No, no, no, I know better than that, yeah, yeah. OK, number 11, Comm. Schwab wants to head off and we're going to have a little bit of an update and discussion on the CO2 pipeline. Mr.

01:18:11,870	Swab, you know Well, let's, let's start with What happened today and it's happening on. To the right of me every meeting just about I am getting tired of Comm.. Bach and asking if anybody for summit is here. It's obviously Or not. Not just show up, so I'm number one. You know, with this thing that happened down in South Dakota, the Supreme Court South Dakota ruling.

01:18:41,030	It's, it's quite a quagmire. And We can't I can't remember the last time. Anybody from Summit showed up. It might have been the meeting where they Didn't want to talk about the building part of that gas line. And they couldn't wait to get away from the sanan.

01:19:08,230	And then they went up to the Public Service Commission and they told the public service commission while they wanted to talk to us about that. But we wouldn't talk to him. So that's what you call perjury, and I'm going through this stuff. And uh, I'm wondering if we shouldn't start sending certified letters to this outfit.

01:19:34,500	Informing them That they're on the agenda and see what the response is or a certified letter. Why aren't you showing up to these meetings and defending your position. Because I'm going to start being bringing things up. Uh, Such as why is it good? For us in North Dakota. To bring CO2 up here and in the process of doing it.

01:20:04,400	You produce more CO2. Than what you Have brought up here That was asked. No answer. Silence is golden with this outfit. They will not answer question. They've also made the statement that they talked to the weed board. I'm halfway through that, but I know you went you went through that. You can address that.

01:20:30,100	With regard to that where they said that they had Approach the weed board in, in Burley County, I reviewed all of the meeting minutes, um, and the agendas from the Burleigh County Weed Board back to a period before summit came into existence and didn't find any reference whatsoever to um um in attendance or any questions from summit on the Burleigh

01:20:53,030	County Weed Board. And you, and I haven't gone back as far as you, but I haven't found anything either. Uh, They haven't answered. How much water resources they're going to use. And if From what I'm reading and watching here and it's in the Bismarck Tribune. They're using an enormous amount of water.

01:21:21,900	How is that going to affect ag in this county. They got to keep them pumps cool. Uh, They have not addressed. Come winter, when there's brownouts. Who's going to get the power, them? Or the citizens that have been here forever.

01:21:51,370	Once again They use the uh The deal while that's, you know, we don't want terrorists to know or it's inside information, we don't want the other guys to know. And then the state is on this list too. Uh, Are they, have they offered summit? 10 year Tax break One more property values. Mac last summer when this thing was. Starting up here.

01:22:24,170	Summit come out and said, well, it's going to increase property values is that I haven't seen them come up. And prove anything and how it's going to prove. Property values, but it was constantly on the radio. So I'm calling them out right now that they're a scam. And I want to know, first of all, How they benefit us by producing all this carbon.

01:22:55,230	That To move one ton of carbon, 1 metric ton. They have 1.2 metric ton. They produce So In listening, I made a statement, uh, and it's being repeated quite a bit. I'm not embarrassed to say it again. That all this is is a group of billionaires and people nothing else to do to get on the hind teeth.

01:23:21,430	But cash cow financed by the federal government. And the more I look at it, If that decision in South Dakota. Holds up They would have to be selling. CO2 be a common carrier. Do you read it that way? Which means they don't have their cash cow paying them 85, 90 bucks in.

01:23:50,230	They're not going to be able to be on one side of the fence on the other, but that's up to them to explain it so. Rather than getting detail the next meeting at budget, I suppose that would be a bad meeting.

01:24:11,030	Uh You, does anybody have a problem, uh, knocking on the door with a certified letter and saying come to the meetings? I have no problem with giving him an invite because I ask and their CEO has made it. Abundantly clear out in the media and in the press that they show up at every meeting, every planning and zoning, every county meeting that they can attend, and I'm yet to see him here.

01:24:29,170	Also, I don't know if you've noticed or or heard, but uh uh last week it was out in the press that they asked for the public to pray for them, um, so I'm wondering if we should add that to the agenda item with the prayer from the chaplain. Well, I'll pray for it to go away.

01:24:48,470	I'm not quite sure what they want us to pray for, but they asked, well, you know, the thing about it is it's, it's foolish for us to have this stuff going on and, and like you said, they, all they attend all these meetings just like they talked to all the weed boards. They have not addressed one problem.

01:25:07,000	That we have had brought up. And It must be nice because. For them, silence is golden. We got the government behind us. I would also like to know how many investors Out of our North Dakota government got money in this thing. There's a lot of questions here now that That are coming to light.

01:25:36,570	Uh There it The big thing though is you accomplished nothing. And I'm going to say it one more time. Moving carbon up to North Dakota and ruining our state. And you're producing more carbon, so you can take that, make money off that too. There's something wrong with that. That's a pyramid scheme.

01:25:58,430	So, so what would you suggest, um, getting together with staff and, and writing out those questions or do a blanket invitation to address Questions I think it'd be good to give them the questions. However I, I would hope that we would include the Burley County Sheriff's Department at that, engineering department, and Mary Singer with emergency services as well.

01:26:23,970	As part of that, here's our list of questions answer these for us, please. So maybe it would be prudent in the period between now and the next meeting that we establish an actual list of questions. I want, I have questions for the governor's office, Public Service Commission. Possibly the Commerce Department and why For instance, I went down to the meeting in Lenton.

01:26:46,900	I drove down there. Mary Singer was down there. No, she's still there. And it, it was about noon and Mary. She comes and tells me, Steve, there's 60 people ahead of you.

01:27:08,870	And I watched this little dis disgusting display and what the lawyers for Summit were doing is dragging out the people that The interview with the peoples that would come up and testify. So the other people had to go home and Take care of the farm or they pick up their kids and stuff. That is BS. To me It's about time that that uh We expose this and by the way this.

01:27:31,770	AI is kind of going woke on me, doesn't want to talk to me anymore. So I am hoping if anybody's watching this thing that has engineering experience on pipelines. And aren't intimidated by North Dakota State government. To get in touch with me to go over this information. That I've accumulated so far. But it, it's time to Make these guys answer the question.

01:28:04,470	Another question they need to answer is they never talk about safety. First responders and plumes. Because there's terrorists all over. Well, if they think the people in North Dakota are terrorists, and they should say the hell out. Yeah. That's my opinion. How can you design safety if you don't know.

01:28:28,300	What you need because you don't get the information. It's all a scam. And I would like to fix it and send him a letter. Why aren't you here? And then we'll publish it their answer. Comm. Bach just a little follow up on. Comm.

01:28:50,170	Schwab's reference to the Supreme Court ruling down in South Dakota, there was also a court ruling here concerning amalgamation which you brought up with the poor space issues, you know, that is very troublesome as well, so, um, I think that I, I would be all on board with uh coming up with a list of questions to be asked and have a representative of some carbon Solutions appear like they appear at all these

01:29:11,970	other meetings here to Us, yeah, they say they. Somewhere. Well, I, I think it's fair to ask questions and and request some answers because I think the public wants to know. So I think the best thing would be to establish a clear list of questions. Work with staff and the various departments.

01:29:33,000	Um, uh, to get a comprehensive list of the questions that do matter to Burleigh County that we can look at and say, OK, this is, this is what we want to send them. For a for a in-person response. And I think that's fair. I don't think we're asking for um.

01:29:53,630	Blood here I would actually like to have Open record The correspondence with a state that's helping them. I'm at that point right now. I'm at that point right now because I do not trust them. They'll sit here and say one thing and lie at the next meeting and they're a bunch of liars, in my opinion, and I'm entitled to my opinion.

01:30:16,130	Well, public records requests can be made in the absence of Summit's involvement, OK. You know, that Anybody can ask those questions, um. It sounds like a path forward. So at least we can, um, work to get some answers for the public. So we'll look forward to that for. Next meeting. Moving on County planner Flanagan.

01:30:48,100	Um Present the findings of the August 29, 2024 planning commission meeting, amendments to Article 8, Section 28, Mitch, are you still here? Not here. OK, um. Mr. Munsen, you want to, I mean, we were both, we were both there. I was, I was, I had to zoom in because I was ill, but.

01:31:10,170	Um, I guess we were both involved if you want to go ahead uh the, the basic, um. Action that was taken at our meeting was to deny the uh amendment to Article 8, Section 28, due to the fact that we still have a lot of work in writing that ordinance.

01:31:33,770	Um, we had a lot of people that attended the meeting all spoke, um, We For, for the most part kept it to the language of the, uh, of the ordinance that was written, um, the planning commission at that point decided that there needed to be a lot of work yet, uh, to be done with that ordinance in order for it to be to be brought to the Berleycon

01:31:53,900	Commission. So. Um, we will hear from them again. Yeah, in a nutshell, I'd have to agree with that. He essentially, basically at the end of the day, it's it's like, well, there's enough changes that are needed that we're not going to hammer through that through uh. The meeting lasted, I don't know, 2.

01:32:11,970	5 hours as it was just getting testimony from people and there wasn't a I think we could have been there till midnight and not had a had, had a product, you know, and so in the past, just so that you're aware of the suggestion I made, and I, and I think it's kind of important, but.

01:32:29,100	In the past we've had these what we call stakeholder meetings. And I suggested that we discontinue that, discontinue that wording and whatnot and instead do focus groups because it appeared to me that people kind of staked out their position over here and they staked out their position over there and they weren't making any headway on an ordinance.

01:32:51,100	This, this group would say, nope, no way. That's not something I agree with, and these other guys go, well, then I guess we're stuck. So I think it's important to the future of Burleigh County that we look at focusing on what Will be a meaningful ordinance for that type of activity in the county rather than.

01:33:13,370	Doing this, putting a stake in the ground kind of thing to be a process by which you can move forward, and that's, that's why I'm suggesting that we circle in a focus group or or almost anything else you can call it a. Uh care afternoon tea.

01:33:31,570	I don't, I don't care, but it's not the, the nomenclature or the thing of saying this, this stakeholder that gives you the impression you pound a steak in the ground and that's my ground and I'm not gonna, I'm, I'm gonna die on that hill and that's, that's just didn't get us anywhere.

01:33:48,270	There there was kind of a line in the sand where where the the individuals that were involved and it was a large, I think Mitch said there was like 48 people on the, on the group mailing list. It wasn't a small thing, and it's important to note that nobody was excluded. The goal was to have everybody that was interested in that, um, to be part of it.

01:34:09,500	And unfortunately they just, they just couldn't come to agreement. There was a stalemate at the time, so. Um, what it boiled down to is that there is no ordinance that allows for that activity of either one of those two. That applied for a special use permit.

01:34:28,800	And so there's, there's no way for them to move forward, and I did point out during the meeting that I kind of chastised Mitch a little bit that why did the planning staff even. Allow someone to purchase or to pay for a special use permit application.

01:34:48,530	Um, when, when the ordinance wouldn't allow for it to be passed anyway, and he said, and I, and I back him on this, he, he said that the staff does not have the authority to pick and choose, but. They can You know, say is a, is a, you know, something that's a permitted or or the the boundaries or the Criteria for a special use permit and I'll give him that because it wasn't.

01:35:11,400	Uh, you know, quite clear, so you know, we ended up giving um the one person, uh, the one applicant back the $300 but I don't want to point out one more time that that's after we already had a substantial amount of staff time, more than we've had on many other things.

01:35:32,230	As well as mailings and and whatnot, so in the future, I would like for us to be, you know, careful that we're not kind of giving away the ranch, but I. We, we should probably be looking at do we. Allow people to continue to apply for a special use that doesn't have a path forward either. Now, I don't. Have the answer.

01:35:51,600	I haven't thought a whole lot about it, but that's something we should probably think about, Comm. Munsen. uh, thank you, Chair. If anything, the last 2 or 3 months of this process should let our residents know. That in future times if they choose to apply for the special use permit, as you have stated, staff cannot turn them down.

01:36:13,870	Therefore, they're taking their chance. After all that they've heard, they've, they're taking their chance on making that application if they so choose. The other thing that I wanted to, uh, to mention that, uh, and I appreciate you bringing this up and, and I wanted to, to confirm. Without an ordinance in place. The activities are not allowed.

01:36:35,700	Ordinances are written to allow activities. And so I, I wanna make sure that the residents understand that because even one of the commissioners at the planning and zoning board, uh, felt that they didn't need to worry about the ordinance. The reality of it is. Is that ordinances are put in place to allow activities.

01:36:57,200	And if there are no ordinances, those activities are not allowed. It is a Zoning ordinance. A violation which can lead to a misdemeanor. Mhm So caution to our residents. Let us get this ordinance in place so that we can make sure that this is all done correctly. Thanks for the clarification there, Comm. Mr. Chair. Comm. Bugner first.

01:37:25,470	OK, Mr. Wick, I, I've always believed in property rights, and I always felt that if somebody owns some land and they want to do something with it that they should be able to do that, but, and I don't know that I agree with the fact that you if you don't do anything,

01:37:38,970	if you just come in and put a a a uh uh uh tomato stand on a property. You have to get a permit to do that. I don't, I don't know why we have to do that. Why, why did we go through this whole process to begin with. Uh, what prompted us to create ordinance.

01:37:55,400	Was there any need to create an audience because I don't, cause I don't, why was there? Why? Because, because of the public backlash. What public? I never heard any backlashes at all until, uh, all of a sudden they're, they've got a month or two of, and they did a lot of work.

01:38:10,930	I don't, I granted they did a lot of work I think you need to understand the the ordinance process started with the previous one. It wasn't actually the corn maze. The corn maze was a, a follow up to what the actual. The thing was the start of the process of the ordinance for it.

01:38:28,900	That was at Burn Creek Farm thing where they were up there, um, you know, doing these events, kids would come out and they, you know, play around on the farm and stuff and it's just real very similar to something goes on right across the street from my house.

01:38:46,500	And I supported that the city planning commission, ordinance for the ETA that's this Apple Creek Farm. So, I said at that meeting, if you could pick your neighbors, these neighbors of mine that are doing this thing right across the street or like they're the ones you would want to have for neighbors because they handle it very nicely and all. However, we're on a paved road.

01:39:03,300	There's um limitations, you know, kind of self-built in that they, they have put in place and this other Guy then wanted to do a much larger venue. Kind of a He had a, a pretty grand plan and the neighbors just said no, it's all gravel roads. There's one way in, one way out, similar to what you heard with.

01:39:22,400	uh Brier deal Is a priority. Um, and so dangerous roads, narrow rutted, um, a lot of work would have been needed on behalf of the county to handle dust control and and road maintenance, and so there was issues that the neighbors brought up. And that's what started it, so the, the conversation about the.

01:39:50,130	Corn maize actually involved a deer farm that was right next that isn't allowed use under the agriculture zoning ordinances and with regard to your question about a, a tomato stand, a tomato stand or a truck market isn't allowed use is under the ordinances, so it's not there's so many things that are allowed that it was just these.

01:40:12,970	New things that nobody ever anticipated. And it got the neighbors into um Uh, the, the Burnt Creek farm one. There was a lot of people that were um involved with that. What do they do? Burt Creek Farm.

01:40:33,430	Uh, I, you know, is that the one that the one up northeast of town on Ion 10th, is that what you're talking about where the Guy had the, OK, I know what you're talking about, right, OK, and so that, that was what started and they had uh there was a lot of people in opposition to that one, but the corn maze is is something that people actually support and they want to see it happen except that that ran

01:40:50,900	into an existing use, um. Uh, for example, 2 weekends ago, some kids were out there. Kind of hanging around or monkeying with that corn maze and they went over to the fence and started scaring those deer, and one deer got run into a fence and it and it was the veterinarian that called me

01:41:08,030	about it, but he ran this deer, they ran this deer into a fence and they busted an antler. And this Guy had that dear soul because that's his business, that, that deer was worth $9500.

01:41:25,770	And then he had a broken antler, so maybe he can sell them next year, um, feed them for another year, Dr. them up and do whatever, maybe some new antlers. So anyway, um, there's these conflicts. And that's what we're trying to resolve is how do you allow these things? Um, when it, when, you know, one person's rights run into another person's rights. It's a problem.

01:41:48,030	Yeah, it is, and, and yeah, it's a big problem and unfortunately, we end up being judge and jury in that situation. In this case, with the help of planning and zoning to write the correct ordinances so that we can approve them, sure, and, and I want to point out we were doing everything we could. To approve these uses.

01:42:06,700	They said there was some misconception people were tossing around that some, for some reason Burley County is opposed to agriculture or opposed to tourism we're it's like, no, couldn't be further from the truth. We were, we were our staff and everybody was working towards allowing this stuff.

01:42:27,570	And then the very people who are asking to have it allowed were opposed to the ordinance that was allowing for it, which I couldn't quite understand. But now we're at the point where we just don't have an ordinance that's ready for prime time yet and we can't really adopt anything so we we went to the, we went to the extent of having a special meeting.

01:42:42,570	Yeah, it was just to try to make sure we could track it fast enough. Yeah, we tried to move it to get it so they could do this thing. And, and incidentally, there's a, a regular. County planning and zoning commission meeting I think on the 11th, 2 weeks just. Not too many days from now, which we tried to move it up.

01:43:03,830	But the public that was in attendance at the meeting, the preponderance of opinion that I got out of it because I was making notes about every person's name and what they're. Positions and thoughts were and at the end it's, it's Pretty much everybody just did not want the ordinance. At all.

01:43:22,670	No it was written the way it was written. I saw, I, I watched the media. So then you know, as a, as a county Comm., I can't say, well, We're gonna do that ordinance anyway. I mean, that would be pretty irresponsible too, so that's where we're at.

01:43:41,770	Um So point of clear so are they having the corn Is it going? No, they don't have a, they don't have the ability to, to do it. I thought under state law they could do it up to a certain number of people or something up to 75 people. I don't, I don't want to get into it I guess.

01:43:56,830	No, we're not, we, I don't think we have a legal opinion on what's the, what's the consequences if they do have it? Well, there's, there's consequences as laid out in the Burleigh County zoning ordinance. It has um penalties and, and possible. You know, like, like Comm. Munson mentioned misdemeanors and and different stuff that. Um, we'd rather not.

01:44:21,470	have to go that route, you know, I mean the goal was to allow this to happen except that The people just couldn't come to agreement on the ordinance. You know, you want to pass something that people can agree with. That's the whole point. It's a public process. Yeah Any further discussion on that one.

01:44:44,270	Anybody else have something for that? OK, Mr. Schwab. Kind of a deal when you're doing an ordinance like that, who is there first? I can answer that on that one if you wanted to talk just about. That particular one because that question did come up.

01:45:06,070	Um, Baldwin Greenhouse was started approximately 29 years ago, and they occupied basically the front of that lot up by the road. So then I don't know,,,,, 456 years ago, the Guy. Bought the property for the deer farm right next door.

01:45:22,630	And so I didn't have any problem with what was going on with the greenhouse up in the front because his stuff's back here and if you're, if you know the area, they're like a 600 ft wide lots by about a quarter mile long, so they're long 40s. So you're kind of limited on how where he can put his pens kind of up and down that whole corridor. So now, and I think it was February of this year, Comm.

01:45:42,930	Munsen, that um new people came along and bought the greenhouse. And so then the other people with the with the corn maze came to the people with the greenhouse and asked if they could do a corn maze at the greenhouse so to answer your question. The greenhouse was actually there 29 years ago.

01:46:03,800	The deer came in, let's say 5 years ago, and the new owners came into the greenhouse. With a different use. This year So you can kind of see how the muddied up the water, but the, the greenhouse that nobody had a problem with. I, I If they're getting along and then the Guy comes out there and puts deer in.

01:46:30,730	Well, He's got something new first as far as I'm concerned, then the other one, well, hey. You better Work out a deal with that Guy over there, you're gonna scare his deer. Right, and, and you know, I actually went so far as to talk to the state agriculture Comm.

01:46:49,100	about this, and I've talked to veterinarians and I've talked to You know, a lot of people, but you know there was some simple answers that just, just put up a uh one of those big rows of straw bales or hay bales, and that was actually. Um, After much conversation and other people mentioning that, that's actually what the egg Comm.

01:47:06,370	even said too, just, just, you know, put up a, put up a row of bales, straw bales, he said, and, um, separate the uses and the deer can't see those people and probably not hearing much and they could probably I. I don't know. But this was a situation where The two sides just did not seem to be able to work together.

01:47:27,100	I know that the deer farm Guy offered to help with fencing and doing whatever, but the, the, the people on the other side just didn't seem to think they had any responsibility to Mitigate their impact on that guy's thing. I know this is a long story, but this has been going on for.

01:47:47,530	It's, there's even more to the story that with all due respect to everybody involved, I don't think we want to go into some of the details that are, that are really out there, Comm., I, I visited both sides and I went up there and looked at it and everything, so I've got the gist of both sides.

01:48:02,330	In my mind, the owner of the deer farm. He knew how sensitive these were. He told me he said he researched what the deer do and and their habits and what they're scared of or and how spooky they can be.

01:48:19,930	I don't think you should ever bought next to the uh the commercial operation, not only, he should have went down the road. He mentioned somebody else at the cornma should have gone down the road because there was another piece of property for sale.

01:48:36,370	Why didn't he go down there to begin with? I don't see how he could possibly realize that with these sensitive deer that he's got, why would he put them right next door to a commercial operation and the pins are right up front. He's got a 40 acre piece that goes back a long ways. Why didn't he put it back farther away? I, I just. Don't understand that. I, I've got to be convinced that uh that he did the right thing.

01:48:50,770	And I, I don't think he did. I think he did the wrong problem. You didn't have any problem. Pardon me, he didn't have any problem with doing that. He made that decision to put that in next to that greenhouse and it didn't cause them any problem. I, I don't agree.

01:49:06,600	I, I think you should have, he should have bought a 40 and put it in the middle of the 40 if they're so sensitive, why didn't he put it in the middle of the 40 rather than up front where the highway is and and the and the greenhouse was there, uh, with, with, with how many they said 2000 cars there

01:49:22,430	and in the spring, well, the spring of the deer are there too in the spring. How could it possibly? Why would he want to have it right next door. Comm., he didn't have any problem with that. I don't know that I agree that either.

01:49:38,430	Well, he, he indicated to me that he didn't have any problem with the greenhouse. It was this other thing that came along later that brought people further back. See, dear, I pull in and there's a deer in my yard, and I, I get a lot of them, but the deer in my yard, they don't care when I come driving in.

01:49:55,370	They got 0 concerns when I drive through the yard in my truck, but you get out of that truck once and go walking over there and see what happens.

01:50:10,430	Those guys why did he put this sensitive deer project right in the front front of his 40 when he had, he's got what quarter mile or more that I think it was a foolish mistake that he made, and now he wants others. To pay for it. Oh, I don't think he's asking for anybody to pay for it. He just doesn't want anybody to.

01:50:29,570	Harassed the deer, um, but my understanding is that none of the activities there, the agricultural activities, planting trees or whatever went on with the greenhouse didn't cause them any problems. Up until now it was a new use. That was going to be the problem. He, he accepted. the, the greenhouse was there before him. Now new owners came along and wanted to change the use, that's all. I mean, he, he obviously was OK with that greenhouse.

01:50:52,170	So whether, whether it's the right place to raise deer or not, that's really over my head, but. Well, he was he was the expert, and I think he made a mistake putting it where he did. Should have been more isolated. Well. I guess maybe you should advise him then. Pardon me. Maybe you should advise him on.

01:51:09,070	I already did. I talked to him about 10 days ago. Comm., anything else for the benefit of Burley County Comm. Bakken, just an update with BNSF, uh, and uh. Um, A couple of people have reached out, uh, concerned about some noise, uh, for the next week or so, they're gonna be traveling pilings, they're working overnight as they're

01:51:31,570	trying to get ahead of the impending winter, uh, they've got a schedule to get done, so, uh, they're double shifting their crews, so if you hear some activity at night while they're working on that, you can follow everything that's going on at BNSF Bismarck Bridge.com.

01:51:51,830	They've got a website there, a lot of pictures, uh, keep Pretty good track of the project, but uh if you hear some extra activity or, um, there will be some extra activity for the next week or so, um, and then they're looking at shifting for the spring, a lot of that activity over to the Burley County side of the river right now it's over in the Morton County side,

01:52:09,370	but if you hear some extra noise over there, they are doubling up their crews. OK Thank you. Uh, I brought up one other thought to me, uh, we just received today.

01:52:30,830	A draft of the contract for moving forward with the Provident building and it had to do with getting that fire stuff, uh, the fire suppression stuff put in before the winter, um, and so unless there's any other issues, we'll be moving forward with that contract, Comm. Woodcock, quick, quick question, our sheriff is still here. We sent deputies down to the Republican National Convention. I'd like to hear what he, what did they learn? Did they, was it worth it or uh.

01:52:50,300	So I've not heard whether it was a good thing or a bad thing or did did our people learn something? Did they get some education or? Mr. Chair, Commissioners, um, it was a thing. That's what I would sum it up as uh So basically what ended up happening is based on the number of people.

01:53:13,970	That jurisdiction sent duties were assigned, so because we were a small contingency of just 4 deputies, um, they did a traffic control point for several days, uh, unfortunately they didn't get a lot of experience.

01:53:39,700	Good thing is they did get a chance to participate in a big event, um, we, the, it's my understanding the local Harley shop took the best care of them. As they were out in the hot sun, um, providing traffic control for when the dignitaries came through, um, so we did, uh, reward the local Harley shop with some swag from our department coffee cups, patches, stuff like that for the care they gave our deputies,

01:54:03,170	but they didn't learn a lot, but at least they got to participate in a national event. Well, we want to thank that local Harley shop. Yes, exactly. We, we show we'd we'd even put the name out there and I don't remember, but, um, Major Jim Holm. Did make sure we sent a box of goodies to them.

01:54:25,570	So great. Well, thanks for the update. Thank you. Anything else you want to add? That's it. OK. Thank you. Yes. What, gentleman? Anything else? We