00:00:06,900	We have a chaplain in the room, please. Then it’s good to go. If I do, I’ll know by the end of the week. I The Yeah Chaplain. OK. I knew it was here. Joe we break? Heavenly Father, this afternoon on the eve of This Thanksgiving holiday we desire to give you thanks for all your blessings.

00:00:50,230	So often we can go through our days and take for granted your many blessings. We thank you for your love and compassion, which is new every morning. You’re faithful, loving God who said that you would never leave us or forsake us, and we can walk with you. But you never walked away from us.

00:01:12,100	We gather here this in this uh building we come together to transact the business of our community. We come with grateful hearts for the numerous strides forward that have been taken. that have contribute to our well-being, to our safety, to our wholeness and present blessings. The task remains constant for unfinished projects and new challenges.

00:01:37,770	I pray for those who sit before me. Those who step forward to be servants of our people. May they remain humble and teachable, gifted. I always have a servant’s heart. Pray for the many members of our law enforcement community, and we ask for your protection, body, soul, and spirit.

00:02:03,870	Lest their spouses and their children with your piece and comfort. I pray for members of our fire department, ambulances and volunteers and Those departments that you also would protect them at all times. Countless individuals work in our health care system and hospitals and clinics. Another health related responsibilities.

00:02:31,870	But you also protect them as they go about their work and also provide workers where there is a need. We are blessed with fine schools, both public and private. We ask for your blessings, enablement and guidance to those teachers, administrators who are called to struck. Our children. This evening I pray for knowledge to be seen and wisdom to be unearthed. For a commission members and Chair.

00:02:56,700	Guide them and lead them in the decisions that are made and may there be unity and profitability in all these proceedings. Heavenly Father, in closing, I am reminded of. A beloved song that comes to my mind at this particular time of Thanksgiving. Words, God bless America. land that I love.

00:03:23,530	Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above. From the mountains to the prairies. The oceans white with foam. God bless America. My home sweet home. We ask all these in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. A stand for the Legislation allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

00:03:54,970	And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thank you, chaplain. Yes, we work and with that, I would like to call to order the, uh, weed board, please call the roll. Comm Schwab. Comm Woodcock, Comm Munsen here, Comm Bittner, here, Chair Bakke. Here.

00:04:29,830	Uh, first set up, uh, approval of the agenda. Motion to approve. Second, motion 2. Any discussion? Here on call roll please, Comm Woodcock. Yes. Comm Munsen. Yes. Comm Bitettner. Yes. Comm Schwab. Yes. Chair, uh, Bakke. Yes. Next item up, consideration of the October 4th, 2024 meeting minutes. to see Second, motion is 2 further discussion. Carry call, Comm Munsen.

00:05:02,770	Comm Bittner, yes, Comm Schwab. Yes. Comm Woodcock. Yes. Chair Bakken. Yes. Uh, next item up, uh, chemical application bids for the 2025 season. Darren. Good afternoon, gentlemen. OK. What we got going on He is, Contract, there’s 3 different forms.

00:05:31,770	Oh, sorry, uh, what we have going on is there’s 3 different forms that I’ve, um, looked into, um, with the, From the past, uh, there was several different I don’t know what you call them, different, different contracts. That’s, uh, were explainable or, you know, covered certain things, but I did, um, feel Um, that we needed more. With the, uh, a little bit of, a little different change.

00:05:58,230	Uh, the first one, that I would, uh, have you point your eyes to is in the recitals of the number one. Uh, on the Burleigh County Knox weed control contract. It says, where’s the board? It has uh such to responsibility pursuit, um, through the 4-147, which includes the herbicide control of state, uh, prescribed noxious weeds on all Burleigh

00:06:25,070	County rightaways. And that’s, that’s where it had stopped before. Um, in the past, uh, we’ve been doing, uh, state and federal highways also, they send a contract in and, uh, Basically, our sprayers would take care of that and and fulfill it.

00:06:49,700	Where when they actually, I don’t think they knew that they were, you know, in this contract, it wasn’t in there. So I felt that um that the state and federal highways, when, when, uh, contract for um NDDOT is accepted by Burley County Wheat Board annually.

00:07:13,000	Uh, that gives it a little fluctuation where, you know, one year they may not want us to spray or they find a different sprayer, um, And that’s the, the, the contractor who receives the bid. Also knows that that’s in there, so there’s, there’s just that explanation is, is on that one.

00:07:37,370	And then, uh, We go to the bid for rates, um, there was one that had a on, on page two, there’s one bid, uh, application or contract that had uh that required a boat and then I didn’t feel that was necessarily, you know, cause, um, next to the river and such, um, I’m actually working with the park.

00:07:58,030	Uh, the park and rec, um, with other, uh, uh, the gentleman weed officer in Morton County also, just to kind of feel it out is how we can, there’s so many different areas along the river. There’s coral land, there’s private land, there’s all that. So that’s something I’m checking into for, so we can do applications where we can or if we can.

00:08:17,100	Uh, so I took that out and then the stipend, of course, was taken out, uh, because of our, our, our past meeting. I took that out of that. Then we go to, um, Page 3 right at the top. Uh, one particular contract had um at the right, right below the minimal, uh, requirements. It says the 3/4 ton 4 wheel drive, uh, pickup, whatever with, um, 2 200 gallon carrier tanks.

00:08:45,830	One had, uh, one contract had, um, 250 gallon tanks. And then as a minimum, and then there was one, it just said 300 gallon minimum, but the latest one that I’ve worked or looked at and it was 2 200s.

00:09:08,970	So, um, in the past, uh, the sprayers that have been doing and contracting for Burle County did and had to 200 gallon tanks. Just uh, just little things that I’m trying to clarify. And I believe that. was, yes, that, that was the changes, um, that I looked at for the weed control contract. Then we move on to Uh, on your papers there, yes.

00:09:39,830	Then we look at the bid specification, uh, It, it’s, it’s basically what I just said, but I felt that it needed to be addressed, of course, um, the 2 200 gallon tanks, not the 22 150s, the removal of the bolt requirements and the removal, um, as of the statement also.

00:10:00,970	So that is the only changes that were made to that, uh, particular, uh, contract or form. And then we go to the notice of bids, uh, this is, um, We, we had discussed the, the time for this to be, um, dated in the newspaper at our last meeting, the dates are, the, the dates are the same.

00:10:27,400	Um What was changed here on this particular one was the way the, the, the notice for bids. It It was worded in a sense that um on the like on our, our, our bid here, our bids will be accepted on Monday, um, January 6th, and that’s, they have to be in by January 6th, um, on or or before 5 p.m. Well, the other one didn’t.

00:10:51,470	It, it specified that that was going to be when we were going to open and read, publicly read them, but it didn’t specify that if that was exactly when we were going to accept the contract.

00:11:10,570	Or If we had time to review and in such, so that is what I, I, I’ve, I’ve written in so that we, that’s, uh, the 6 is when they’re, uh, supposed to be in, received by, and then January 22nd is when, um, the reviewing uh and the just the decision on the contract will be, um, Uh, announced.

00:11:34,770	And then at the bottom, because of uh I wasn’t, I wanted this looked into. Um, I just, I did change the dates for when it’ll be run in the paper, um, the plan was for it to be run in last week’s, so I’m putting, I just changed the dates so that we’re, we’re operating or putting in the paper this week. Any questions? Questions for Darren? Steve. OK. Yes. Microphone microphone.

00:12:16,300	We aren’t obligated. And Darren and I have gone over this, Uh We’re right away, but. That’s a gray area. Riverbanks are not right away. That’s number one and 2, The right of ways on the interstate and a state highways, I believe, are a pass through on the billing, right? There, I’m sorry? Is a pass through on

00:12:45,030	the billing. Yeah, that the, the state, the state gives us, Pays for the whole thing. But it is a touchy deal on that, uh, On that river there’s so many people involved in that. And uh I I don’t know, we should be out there spraying riverbanks when somebody’s got a swimming pool next to the river.

00:13:12,370	And his dog’s running around out there. It isn’t a right of way. So I, I would think whoever controls that is going to have to figure out what to do down there. That’s what, that’s what I’m going to be looking into on that. Yeah.

00:13:33,100	Because I’ve talked with, uh, Game and Fish, uh, I’ve talked with, um, a core member and it seems like It’s just kind of a, a, like you say, gray area because one area that they do take care of it, one area they Don’t wanna touch it, you know, type of a deal.

00:13:51,230	But I just, I feel that I need to know or we should know what’s going along that river, you know, as far as the we, weed control, cause a lot of bodies of water, um, from the edge of water, you know, you might have a 20-foot easement or a 40-foot easement in there.

00:14:05,300	Well, that’s what I want to find out who is controlling that and if that is something that we need or that, that needs to be taken care of because if it’s not taken care of, the weeds aren’t taken care of up the river. You’re just gonna have more problems down the river.

00:14:19,600	So it’s just something for my own education kind of in a, in a sense, but also, you know, to serve that, that area and make sure that it was looked, uh, that it is looked into in, in, and, and whatnot. So Kind of my thought on that, would that be part of the state’s program or core program or, cause it’s. Right. That’s cores jurisdiction.

00:14:41,070	Well, I mean, you’ve got, like you say, you got multiple agencies here. There’s got to be one that’s got some oversight, because I, I can’t imagine they cast it in the wind and see where it falls, that’s how we spread. Yeah. See, that’s, that’s what I want to check into and I’m just keeping my, you know, wheat board.

00:14:57,000	You know, in, in, in, uh, information on that and kind of give you an idea of what I’m up to there. I think in the past, If they did anything, On the river that was a pass through to whoever wanted it, whether it was, The Army Corps, the state, or whoever. Park, whatever. Because actually, we are not.

00:15:22,700	We are not, according to the century code it’s supposed to be doing riverbanks. So, technically, if they want us, Help them get a sprayer. That’s fine. To let us know what you’re doing down there so they, Uh, do the right thing, but, Uh I don’t think we need to buy a boat to spray down there.

00:15:47,870	Something that doesn’t belong to us. It’s true. And Comm Bittner. Thank you on um, on the bottom of page two. The second line from the bottom. I think you, I think you meant to say there, which could be a half ton, and on my copy it has percent sign in the,,, 00. OK. Oh, this on the specifications.

00:16:11,700	Uh, bid rates on page 2, there’s 2nd page in. Good. Second line up from the bottom. the percent sign. To You’re I saw someplace else where you, you had mentioned that the, the main one. Well we’ll get over to that. The first set of paper. Are you talking about where equipment starts. That’s yes.

00:16:37,300	Just on, on the contract here, the second page of the actual contract where it talks. Yes, sir, uh, which could be, and I see the percentage on there. I didn’t change anything in there. I left that because that’s the way that was particularly, I can change that absolutely. Yeah, I. You know, to a half to.

00:16:53,670	Yeah, cause I saw something else someplace where it referenced half ton and I’m I’m just taking it for granted that’s what you meant, you know. Yes, yes. and At the bottom of that page, You have 3 trucks, 1 backup truck, which could be a percent ton. Right. That’s good, that’s what we’re talking about.

00:17:10,030	We’re going to change that to a 0.5 ton. I have to. Yes. OK. We’ll have to handle that. Well, that, that’s. The Halt to put in to 200s in there, that’s just gonna have to, you know, whether that’s a, as a backup, they can have 2 150s in there.

00:17:31,830	I mean, And for the half ton or they just have 1 200 for backup till they have the others, you know, until they get the other one fixed or whatnot. I mean, In these in the contract, I mean, there’s a lot of them. What ifs in there, you know, I mean, there really are. So, I mean, this is one of them.

00:17:49,370	I mean, as a half ton, we can specify at a half ton they they have to carry at least a 200 gallon, a single 200 gallon in it. For backup? I mean, I’m open to suggestions or whatever. Cause I mean the half tone isn’t gonna, you know, we’re talking roads.

00:18:11,230	If they have a half ton. The 200 would be fine with that, and we’re talking roadways, they don’t have to take it down the ditch and try to twist the frames on it or whatever, you know, by having, you know, 400 gallons in the back of a half ton wouldn’t be.

00:18:27,870	Wouldn’t be, uh, something I would do. But it should be a four wheel drive, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that, the four wheel drives and then, um, cause On the, on the bid specific bid specification sheet, they’ve got a name out their three trucks, but they don’t have, You know, the backup truck or the 4th truck

00:18:46,070	on that one. So As, I mean, with, with this half ton. I can put down, you know, one single 200 gallon tank so that they’re not sitting, you know, they’re actually out still being able to spray. Have you ever monitored how many gallons they’re actually using in a day’s time.

00:19:08,970	Well, that all depends on the weather all that, you know, it’s kind of, I mean, it’s what they, what, on our, on our uh spray sheets and whatnot, yes, I mean, if I looked into it, I’ve never, I didn’t monitor or write down exactly what they, you know, average use was, um, per day or

00:19:26,430	by by the hour or any of that right now, no. Well, I think if anything, uh, there could be a clause that, you know, we’re not paying you an hourly rate to go back and reload the tank, you know, if, if, if you don’t have sufficient product to, to spray the day, then.

00:19:41,130	Well, that’s where the 2 200s come in. Yeah, yeah, no, they, they, yeah, they’ve definitely got enough, they’ve definitely got enough chemical to, to spray the whole day, absolutely, absolutely. Right, because, I’ve seen in the past where I’ve seen bills that. You know, there’s travel time and whatnot involved. Um-hum. And, and we’re not going to.

00:19:59,570	Well, that’s Pay you to go from, Uh Minoan back to Bismarck to get a take of water. Right. So you can go back to work. Right. That’s where that stipend comes in. That’s what we, we remove that, so just be watching for that so that we’re not. Yes, sir. Yes.

00:20:16,830	Because I, I sprayed a lot over the years and we, we ran 2 450 gallon tanks. We run a couple sprayers off of that. You know, we can burn through 900 gallons in a day. But I don’t know how what size nozzles and whatnot you’re using on these little trucks. Right. The size of the sprayers, so.

00:20:35,200	Yeah, I, I understand, but that’s a lot of weight. We don’t, we don’t put any of our tanks in a, you know, pickup. Right. Well, that’s where the 2 200s, um, in the past, that’s what, uh, the contractors were using on a 3/4 ton truck as required, and they were fine with that, so that’s why I just

00:20:51,570	figured we’ll just go with that because It’s basically a, a standard almost then, you know, so, but I think there’s some common sense involved with that too as far as, you know, somebody who wants to pull a trailer. You know, for different logistical purposes, we can make accommodations for that as they arise. Right. Absolutely.

00:21:10,630	Uh, any other questions? Um Consensus on some of the language changes. That sounds good. No. Um, Darren, thank you. Uh, any other business with the Wheat board? Do we need to approve these contracts? Consensus, it’s just some language changes. OK. So, Um, I had a couple other things real quick, um, for basically all business.

00:21:41,230	I checked in, um, at the last meeting we, we, we, uh, visited about, uh, purchasing a generator. For, uh, uh, the distribution center, um, through the tag, I can, we can purchase a generator, the hard wiring that we had talked about.

00:22:03,600	The, the tag will not cover that, but I did speak with the electrical inspector, and he said that a generator placed outside extension cord, and a temporary heater in there if power goes out, is fine. Just use our better, you know, just use our better judgment and place the heater in a, in a proper place.

00:22:23,030	Um, and, uh, so that was all I had there, but just to keep you informed on that. Perfect. Uh, your intent to proceed that direction then? Yes, I, I mean, I’ll, I’ll ask you if I should, uh, go ahead with the, the purchase of a gender off the TA program so that we do have a backup on that’s something we discussed before, so yeah, so, so it’s that’s.

00:22:42,500	Yeah, so I think that was. Again consensus on going that route instead of hardwiring something in, so, um. Good on that. So Darren proceed with that. Um, Anything else? Uh, no, no, sir. OK. Uh, any other business? Weibo. Hearing none. This meeting is Adjourned. Thanks, Darren. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I’ll call November 18th meeting the Burleigh County Commission order.

00:23:14,070	First item of business is roll call of members, please, Comm Woodcock, Here, Comm Munsen here, Comm Bakken. Yes, Comm Schwab Cha Bitner. Here. Um, I’m going to make some changes to the agenda. Um, there was, there was something that was, uh, supposed to be on the agenda. We had a CO2 update. So, I’m going to insert, uh, CO2 update.

00:23:38,770	In between the consent agenda in Bismarck Parks and Rec. I know there’s a lot of people here that want to speak on that, so we’re gonna try to get to that. Reasonably soon. Then, um, I’m going to move, Item number 11. Which is County Finance Director Jacobs, the first quarter investment Report.

00:24:06,300	Up to right in front of CO2. So that we’re gonna hear the investment report first, then we’re going to go into CO2. And then Under other business. Um, I’m going to add a request from the city of Bismarck. Um, I got an email from a Mr.

00:24:34,570	John Frazee F R A A S E, inquiring about, uh, renaming the. Municipal courtroom over in the county courthouse, um, And, uh, instead of like room 103, they want to give it a name. Um, which I, I checked with Kevin and every other courthouse in the building is only by numbers.

00:24:58,270	So I don’t know that that was something we’d want to do, but I want to add that under other business. Then, um, uh, boiler replacement. Issue um for the courthouse. We have, uh, uh, a real late breaking thing.

00:25:23,270	I think it was Friday, Thursday or Friday, and Kevin called and we had a boiler go down, breakdown in the courthouse, and we don’t have parts available, um, for that particular machine. So, we need to have a discussion about, um, uh, the path moving forward, and we have a plan, so I’m going to put that under oath of business. Then, uh Uh If possible, Um Who would like to have a little conversation concerning an Apple Creek ordinance that’s been submitted to Burleig County.

00:25:52,100	Um, it’s not for a decision, it’s just for informational purposes. I know that that was, um, provided to state’s attorney, lawyer, and, um, we’ll just have a little conversation about that, so. That’s not for a decision. Mr.

00:26:11,370	Chair, um, I would like, I think auditor is gonna add, but I’ll make sure that we do it, uh, there’s an application for an opening in the water board, the pretty kind of water resource board, and we do have an application that looks really good and I want to get that acted on this evening. OK, we’ll add that as well. Any other additions or changes. Yes, I want to talk about a bridge. So McKenzie. A bridge. Great.

00:26:32,130	We did just south of Lincoln Road, so it’s a quarter of a mile south of Lincoln Road. We got to name these bridges. South of south of Lincoln Road. We should get the kids going and Start naming I, I’m serious, so we know what what we’re talking about.

00:26:50,230	Well, how about if we call this one Schwab bridge. Uh, no. Swab number one, swab bridge. Nobody’d use it then. OK. You don’t have an approximate location. A quarter mile south of Lincoln Road. We’re at east west. It’s uh straight south of McKenzie. Going to the Done Ranch, Black Leggy Ranch, south of Mckenzie. I’m 236. What? 236. I’m 236.

00:27:18,500	I can’t do on 23, 236. OK, we got it. Now we know what we’re talking about. OK, any other additions? with that, I’ll entertain a motion to approve the agenda. Moved to Peru as amended. Motion to second any further discussion? Oh Sherwood Coxs. Yes, Richard Munsen? Yes. Comm, Bakken? Yes. Fisher Schwab? Yes. She been here.

00:27:48,970	Yes, motion carries, Mr. Chair. Comm is our date of Wednesday noon to early in the process, or should we bump that up to? Thursday noon or something because we get so many additions lately that.

00:28:07,170	Yeah, when you think you’ve got a two-hour meeting, you got a 4-hour meeting and just because of things that are not not advertised and people don’t know they’re on there and they might want to be involved and they can’t cause it pops up. Right. Um, that, that’s a real good point, but every one of these things that, that I mentioned have come up since Wednesday.

00:28:22,670	That’s what I mean is our Wednesday date too early, too, too much. No, that’s, I think we had, I had this conversation with the auditor at one point is that the goal is to as much as possible, have agenda items that go out to the public, done and advertised by Wednesday, and that gives commissioners ample opportunity to research and to, to find out,

00:28:43,370	you know, what, what they need to know about this, these late breaking things that, that you can’t do anything about, like the boiler breaking down. I realized that Thursday, you know. That’s the CO2 pipeline thing. We’re, we got people here. A lot of people don’t even know. That came up Friday. Yeah, that was Friday.

00:28:58,500	Based on that, uh, PSC permit. Uh things. So Here again, yes, the goal is to make sure that everything is in by Wednesday at noon. But It’s always been my, uh, physician that, Commissioners can add to the agenda, certainly up until the meeting when you have, you know, things that need to be talked about and dealt with.

00:29:20,630	That’s appropriate because some of these things. Uh, for example, the boiler, we’re not going to put that off for two weeks, um, because it’s going to start snowing here tomorrow or the next day. So, um, you know, we have to make some decisions, so.

00:29:37,330	The goal is to make sure that for as much as possible, we have as much advance notice, so the agenda isn’t. burden that much by these last minute additions, but it’s just some sometimes you just can’t avoid it. Uh, Mr. Chair, Comm Most of the stuff here that we’re talking about, these additions are It’s good to put them on now instead of under other business, you know, I mean.

00:30:06,130	We, we could have still done them under other business, so it’s, Yeah. You know, as long as I don’t think we’re voting on anything. So No, I don’t. But it’s nice to get it, the word out that it’s. Sure. OK. Well, you know, I think, Chair, uh, if, you know, something comes up and, and.

00:30:28,200	Because we have to deal with those things as they come, but if something comes up and, and we feel it’s important enough to get further vetted, then that’s when we can always continue something to the following meeting, so, um, you know, I’m always in favor of addressing things as they come, getting to them as soon as

00:30:44,200	possible. OK, so did we vote on that? Yes. Yes, we did. Yeah. OK. I withdraw my objection, but I still object. I have another I have another agenda. OK. Consideration of the October 18th special meeting minutes and November 4th, 2024 meeting minutes and bills, Mr.

00:31:11,830	Chair, I would approve, move to approve October 18th and November 4th, uh, meetings and uh the bills I approved this afternoon, uh, Auditor Sposkowski will give us an update on the special meeting minutes later on. So I’ll hold that for them. Second, a motion a second, any further discussion? Call roll, please. Comm Munsen. Yes. Comm, uh, Bakke? Yes. Fisher Schwab? Yes. Fisher Woodoxck? Yes. Chaitner.

00:31:34,770	Yes, motion carries. Next item is the consent agenda. There’s abatements and a check replacement. Um, anybody want to discuss anything in particular on the, uh, consent agenda. If not, moved to approveag and motion of 2 to approve any further discussion, seeing noncultural. Bakke. Yes. Schwab? Yes. Woodcock’s? Yes. in? Yes.

00:31:58,270	Shainner? Yes, motion carries. Next item. Uh, that I moved up is the, uh, 2024 1st quarter investment Report, County Finance Director Jacobs. Welcome Lee. Bittner and Commissioners. So as indicated we are discussing the, Uh Investment report the the county has an investment policy, which requires quarterly and annual reports to the commission. Um, the reporting requirement has been neglected.

00:32:33,470	And so the finance department took the initiative to create this report starting with Q1 2024 with the goal of providing the whole 2023 Annual Report at the earliest convenience and so when I say we took the initiative, it’s, it’s because the finance department is not responsible for investments, uh, Burleig County has a combined auditor treasurer who was

00:32:57,030	elected, uh, auditor Spowskowski was elected in November of 2022. He took office in April of 2023 ultimately, as an elected official, auditor Swanskowski is responsible for the investment of funds. However, historically when the offices of auditor and treasurer were combined. The treasurer became the deputy auditor treasurer.

00:33:24,630	And continue doing the treasurer duties, including investing, and so our department learned this, uh, looking at some old documents on the drive. We found some old testimony from, uh, Auditor glot, uh, so adding to that the job description of the deputy auditor treasurer states.

00:33:49,400	Manage and perform fund investment activities and monitors cash flow requirements of county, including preparation of required reports and apportioning various funds to proper districts and custodial accounts for 25% of that position’s time and so. Consequently, the duty to invest county funds may statutorily belong to the auditor treasurer, but it has been delegated to the Deputy Auditor treasurer. However, at the end of the day, I, it does. The delegation flows from the auditor treasurer’s statutory authority.

00:34:16,970	So the investment policy requires that we, we report on two areas which are investment return and the transactions, uh, transacted during the quarter. There are 2 optional areas we can report on areas of policy concern and suggested or planned revision of investment strategies, but I think, uh, in the interest of time, I was, I will cover the

00:34:38,100	required items tonight. So, item number one is investment return. Our policy requires we design a portfolio with the objective of of attaining a market rate of return.

00:34:59,300	Uh The market rate of return for the county might be different than a Wall Street bank, because we have um we’re restricted on what we can invest in based on the century code. And so to determine whether we attained a market rate of return. We benchmarked our investment portfolio. We used US Treasuries as a benchmark. We retrieved historical daily interest rates from the US Treasury and we benchmarked three-month investments against 3 month treasuries, 6 against 6, 12 against 12. Etc.

00:35:24,770	for money markets or demand deposits we used one month treasuries as a benchmark. Uh, the reason we did this is because If someone’s looking for liquidity, they can invest on a rolling basis in one month treasury, so you have a treasury maturing this week, the next week, the next week, the next week, and so forth and so you’re constantly getting an infusion

00:35:43,130	of cash, um, so the benchmark assumes we are investing efficiently investing efficiently means that we do not have idle or uninvested cash. So when something matures, uh, we would receive the cash and we would invest it immediately, uh, so we do not lose days of interest under an efficient. Investment plan.

00:36:03,500	So as an example of uh of benchmarking. If you suppose that we bought a one year CD on July 1st, 2023. In this report, we would benchmark this against a one year treasury bought on the same day, using the rates that we downloaded from the US Treasury. So for Q1, 2024, Burleigh County underperformed the benchmark by $136,238.

00:36:30,570	Or to put it another way, had the county invested its funds efficiently in US Treasuries, we would have made another $136,000238 during quarter 1 of 2024. This amounts to a little more than $10,000 a week that were Essentially foregoing or losing.

00:36:57,170	So why did we underperform? We lost $90,000 in the quarter due to a failure to invest funds. And we lost $46,000 due to poor investment choices, mainly prioritizing convenience over yield. So of the uninvested funds,,, $56,000 came from failing to to invest our burly sales tax funds in the Bank of North Dakota.

00:37:21,400	Um, we also failed to invest Morton County funds, which we are empowered to do under our joint powers agreement, or I should say some Morton County funds, which we are empowered to do. Well, we’ll explore the impact on Morton County and on our bond repayment during the 2023 Annual Report. On average, the county had $4.7 million in uninvested funds in the Bank of North Dakota during every day of the quarter.

00:37:43,230	The rest of the funds in BND were invested in treasuries, so the county, Clearly had the capacity to invest this cash rather than to let it sit uninvested. So we are continuing to see uninvested funds in our BND accounts in quarter 4, of the uninvested funds. The other $34,000 came from a failure to invest funds at Wells Fargo.

00:38:07,170	We had $3 million uninvested at Wells Fargo during every day of the quarter. These funds were in an operating account called the zero balance account. The account is designed so that the balance is at $0 overnight.

00:38:26,830	Uh, as the county draws on the account during the day, the account goes negative, so sort of like a bar tab, and at the end of the day, Wells Fargo will sweep cash from the money market into the operating account to bring the balance up to 0. So the cash stays invested in the money market throughout the day. We go negative at the end of the day, Wells Fargo.

00:38:47,170	Sends out, you know, batches all of our transactions and moves money over for us. So we’re able to earn that money during the day and then again overnight, especially overnight. So rather than leave the balance at $0 overnight as the account is designed to do the auditor treasurer’s office instructed Wells Fargo to leave $3 million in the account overnight.

00:39:09,500	The finance department discovered the $3 million balance in the zero balance account. We first brought the issue to the county auditor treasurer during a May investment meeting and we met with what I would describe as resistance from the county auditor treasurer’s office when it came to our idea to lower the account balance to $0.

00:39:30,970	In total, it took at least 3 meetings and 13 email exchanges between the finance department and the auditor treasurer’s office over the course of almost 5 months to lower the account balance to $0.

00:39:51,830	It took Wells Fargo only 3 days to make the change on their end once they were notified and during the almost 5 months where we were the finance department was trying to up fix the account, the county lost around $50,000 in interest that we would have otherwise earned. So that concludes the uninvested funds. The second area where with the county underperformed was our investment choices. We lost $46,000 during the quarter due to making poor investment choices.

00:40:19,270	As I said, prioritizing convenience over yield. Uh, the, the first area was in the money markets. The county has 80% of its non-sales tax investments in the money markets, sales tax is in a trust account with BND, so that’s kind of a, a separate thing, um. But of the other funds that were really actively investing.

00:40:42,570	I mean we’re actively, actively investing those, but of our operating funds and general fund reserves and so forth, 80% is in money markets. The money markets underperformed treasuries in every month of the quarter. In total, the county’s money markets underperformed the benchmark of a one month treasury by $25,000 during the quarter.

00:41:05,570	The way the investment policy reads is that, um, liquidity needs are at a higher priority than yield. In other words, you don’t want to have your money invested if you need it, so you need to Manage your liquidity in this case, we have no liquidity needs because a lot of these are, um, reserve funds, ARPA funds, and therefore we should be going

00:41:25,170	for the higher yield, that’s kind of the, the logic here. The other area where we underperformed was in in certificates of deposit. The county had approximately 15 million in CDs during the quarter.

00:41:47,730	Most of the CDs were purchased in 2023, in every case where when the county purchased a CD, a treasury was a better investment, including the CDs purchased in 2023. In total, the county CDs underperformed the benchmark by $21,000 during the quarter. So the second required area, uh, of, of Our report is in the investment, in the, in the transactions, transacted during the quarter. I think I caption these as investment decisions in the report.

00:42:15,970	The county made only 2 active investment decisions during the quarter. The first was at the Bank of North Dakota. It was a transaction on February 2nd to invest sales taxes received on January 23rd and an investment that matured on January 31st. The county received sales taxes monthly. However, February and March sales taxes were not invested during the quarter.

00:42:39,970	One other note matured, but the county did not reinvest it during the quarter. The second investment decision made was to reinvest a CD that matured during the quarter. This was a $6 million CD that matured at Choice Bank on February twenty-eighth. The county reinvested the CD with Choice Bank on the same day.

00:43:04,500	It’s not clear whether the county received bids from other banks before reinvesting with Choice. Uh, we reinvested the, the CD with 36, and 12 month maturities. Every CD we selected yielded less than a comparable treasury. So for example, we purchased a 3 month CD for 2.4 million yielding 4%. On that same day, a 3 month treasury yielded 5.38%.

00:43:31,070	The county also made several passive investment decisions during the quarter. The first was to allow CDs purchased at First International in 2023 for 7.5 million to mature into money markets. The CDs yielded less than Treasury’s when they were originally purchased and the money market yielded less than Treasury when we deposited the proceeds from the CDs.

00:43:53,430	Uh, there was no liquidity need for a money market. Because CDs were in ARPA funds and general fund reserves. And so therefore, the county should have selected the higher yielding securities, according to our investment policy, which in this case were treasuries.

00:44:15,500	Uh, the next passive decision was to allow sales taxes to sit uninvested in BND, uh, these will received monthly and they earned, I think, 0.66/10 of 1% at BND. The 3rd passive investment decision was to leave maturing notes uninvested. A treasury note matured on February 29th, and the proceeds were uninvested past the sat uninvested in BND past the end of the quarter, earning, as I just mentioned, 6/10 of a percent.

00:44:42,270	And in the other case, a CD matured at BNC National Bank on March 28th. We received a check for 1.2 million on April 11th. We deposited that check in Wells Fargo on April 12th. So the, the proceeds from this CD of 1.2 million were uninvested. For 2 weeks while in transit costing the county over $2000 in lost interest.

00:45:11,170	The alternative decision here would be to require the bank to wire the money the same day. That, that concludes the two required uh reporting elements, um, I could stand for any questions. Commissioners. Mr. Chair.

00:45:38,830	Who, who is the This may sound like a Dumb question, but who is the finance department? Who’s the Chair, who was in it and who makes the decisions. The finance department is myself and uh, the Deputy finance Director Taylor Schmidt. That’s just, just the two of you. The finance department. OK, and they, they work under the Burley County Commission. I’m sorry. Keep, yeah, I’m sorry. They work where? They work under the Burleigh County Commission. You remember conversations we held earlier.

00:46:01,770	That, um, That we kept them separate from the auditor’s office simply for this checks and balance, and this is why. So, that’s your portfolio, right? OK. So, you’re the, you’re the. Both of them. You’re the portfolio on that, and there are two people in your department of the, the Burley County Finance department.

00:46:23,730	I’ll point out that I requested those guys to look into this and, and give us a, a summary of what’s going on, and I’ll also point out that I was actively involved in the The production of the uh investment policy. Where do we begin? Where do we start? We got a mess, don’t we? Sure. A big.

00:46:43,530	You mess. It’s a mess, isn’t it? So, what was the total number again that uh was Realizedd and what was the number that should have been realized. I could tell you that in a moment here. you. Our interest earned in the quarter was $809,854.

00:47:27,900	The Benchmarked interest was $946,091 so the benchmark interest was $136,238 more than the amount realized. For one quarter, Mr. Chair, the Comm. Makes this any worse, but what do we do if we go back into 2023. That’s 23 I asked, I have asked them to go ahead and look back. To give us an understanding of what exactly was happening throughout 23 also.

00:47:51,430	They had their hands very full coming up with just the first quarter of 24, and I’ll remind you we’re at in the middle of the last quarter of 24, um, estimates that I’ve heard kind of beat around is that we’ve had an interest income. Loss or a or a Interest potential that is. Costs us over a million dollars already.

00:48:15,730	For, for what, from 23 and 24. So I’m sure you’re just as stunned as I was when they started telling me the numbers. Um, I, I think that we’re gonna, we’re going to continue to deal with this over probably the next couple of meetings.

00:48:39,900	Um, I have asked the finance department to do a bunch more leg work on this, and we’re going to look at, Certainly, what kind of changes we could make to the policy or I’ll work with the state’s attorney on what we need to do, if anything, um, at this point, I don’t know that there’s any decision required of this item.

00:48:59,600	At this point Unless you have any additional questions, we’re going to move on. Comm. Any indication of fraud? I’ll tell you this, I had a hard time figuring out where Our proceeds were from the CD I mentioned of $1.2 million because I could see that. It matured on the 28th of March. But I could find no record of it.

00:49:27,300	Um, until I dug into the tack into the cash receiving portion. And then I could see that it came through on the 11th, and, and then, so we get the check. And it gets receded into the system, but then the next day we do like a desk.

00:49:44,970	Deposit type of thing apparently we can scan it at the desk and get it to Wells Fargo. I think what happened, so I was a little concerned there, but what I think what happened is somebody made money on that $1.2 million and it wasn’t the county.

00:50:01,500	I think it was the bank, so I think they just held off on sending the check, uh, for about a week and a half and Probably invested our money and then they finally put it in the mail begrudgingly, you know, like April 8th or 9th and it gets to us 2 or 3 days later, or it could be the postal service. I’ve heard concerns about that too, but 5% interest environment, $1.

00:50:22,900	2 million is a lot of money to part with, uh, if you’re a bank. OK, um, in an, in an earlier conversation, you referred to in, in some ways about the numbers of emails. Um, they’re going back and forth and your interaction with the auditor’s office, and you, you gave me a number. Of, of emails.

00:50:45,870	Just since October 10th. Since October 10th, I lighten the board a little, please. Our, our deputy finance director has been, um, I, I’ve tried as much as possible to turn the investment piece over to him. He’s got a background with cash management and so forth, um, since October 10th, he has been.

00:51:10,300	Trying through the county auditor treasurer to invest 2 or 3 different, 3 or 4 different items that Bank of North Dakota sales tax, um, I think we may have had a, a note that matured, and then there may have been, there was some cash in an in an account, so 3, maybe 4 items.

00:51:26,470	And as of this afternoon, we are at, I asked him to count the number of emails, and we are at 48 emails back and forth between our office, the county auditor treasurer’s office. Uh, Bank of North Dakota. And, and there’s still 11 of those items has not yet been.

00:51:50,370	Invested And I think that came through October 21st sales tax deposit for Morton County. And, and after 48 emails is still. Not invested Mr. Chair, on that, on that. The sales tax that we received for all this length of time is all from the jail. And we have been investing that properly for a long time.

00:52:14,430	What happened we got away from, I would think that would be set up automatically when we got it, it would automatically be invested in the best rate we can get, but apparently we did that for quite a while. Now we’re off the beaten path, and we’re not investing it at all, apparently, and some, some cases, so something. Two different things, Comm.

00:52:32,070	He’s talking about sales tax dollars a minute. We we weren’t invested at all. There are, there are that sales tax is the only sales tax we collect is from the, uh, the, uh, gel, right? At that time. Yeah, BND is our trust officer.

00:52:52,400	They’re not our Investment Guy and so under the bond documents, the Burleigh County Auditor. is the only person who can invest sales tax proceeds for Burley and Morton County. And so the, the Burle County auditor needs to direct the trust officer to invest the money when it either matures or as we get it, I looked back at I think it was December 2022 and I saw only 5

00:53:19,500	million out of $20 million invested in BND. So, uh, it, it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s and it’s gone back and forth. I mean, there are periods where there’s long periods of uh of uninvested funds, but, you know, during that whole time, this position of deputy auditor treasurer has been filled.

00:53:42,170	So it’s not as if we didn’t have somebody in that role during that period. It wasn’t a turnover thing. It’s just uh a parent, I, I don’t know what it is. OK. Um, I know, I know where we’re headed. How can we, how are we going to handle this? We’re not going to handle it right now.

00:53:59,770	We, we’ve got some heavy lifting to do. And we have some more understanding to do. We have to get, we have to understand the size and scope of this. And there’s going to be additional conversations, but not at this time. We’re not here to make a decision. No.

00:54:19,300	Um, the whole point in doing this is so that the Burley County Commission is as aware as I am. Of, of the conversations that I’ve been having, um, regarding Burleigh County finances, and I thought it was just, uh, Um Uh, very important that you guys get an understanding so that you’ll, you’ll understand the additional information that’s coming forward.

00:54:39,600	So with that being said, we’re going to move on. Uh, thank you, Lee. Um, next item on the agenda, Comm, would I be able to approach at all? No. No. OK, so you don’t want to hear it from the auditor side, not, not right now. This is not a, we’re, we’re not making any decisions. We’re looking for information.

00:54:57,500	There’s more information to come and you’ll have a chance to, um, I’ll weigh in on that, OK. Next item on the agenda, CO2 update. Um, we added this to the agenda. Because of the decision on Friday. Sure, uh, just before we get into the CO2 discussion, is there anybody from Southern Carbon Solutions here? Anyone from Summiturbon Solutions in the room tonight.

00:55:23,900	No, there is not. Thank you. for that, Mr. Parkin. OK, um, this was on the agenda. It was intended that it would be an update, um, uh, Comm Schwab was going to lead off on that.

00:55:44,230	And, um, um, before he does, Um, I wanted to let you know that in case there’s any doubt, the North Dakota Public Service Commission decided to grant a permit to, um, Uh, Summit Carbon Solutions for a CO2 pipeline in North Dakota.

00:56:05,670	And um I immediately after that decision, I, I was on online watching it but or attorney that was at the meeting called me and, and he was, was letting me know that he was not going to be able to be here today to give us additional information. And, and what I did is I asked that he work along with the state’s attorney to, um, uh, determine options for us moving forward. We have a window that if we’re going to appeal the decision of the North Dakota Public Service Commission.

00:56:25,800	We have to do it within 30 days of the decision, which was this past Friday, the 15th, so by December 15th, we’ll have to have some sort of a decision.

00:56:45,270	And I don’t think we’re anywhere near being able to make a decision on, on, on that, what, what the possible grounds for, for an appeal are going to be, and, and whatnot, so from my perspective of that. Uh Of that permit being granted, we need to basically get our ducks in a row to make a decision on something to move forward.

00:57:02,700	Now, I know a lot of people are here that want to speak to the issue, and I’m, and I’m willing to give them a chance to, um, say whatever’s on their mind, because I know they’ve, they’ve, uh, put a lot of time into this as well as the rest of us. So I’m gonna turn it over to Comm Schwab for any comments you have and then we’ll.

00:57:19,230	If I could just throw in, um, so the December 15th deadline is when things have to be filed with. the court for an appeal, which means a decision needs to be made well in advance of that so that documentation can be done, um, things can be written up to be filed with the court, just so we have the timeline clear.

00:57:32,030	OK. Um, one of the thoughts I had in that regard is, is depending on how much time you need and that’s, I’m hoping that you and our, and counsel can, can work through that and if need be, we’ll, we’ll schedule a, a special meeting with the Burley County Commission.

00:57:47,670	If need be, because I imagine that would be the executive session type of thing anyway. Correct, if it’s litigation, which it is, so yes. OK. We’ll work together on that. That was my question. OK. Comm Schwab. Uh That The decision by the public. Service Commission was disappointing. Um Another, and I also want to apologize to the people.

00:58:13,900	There’d be more people here today. At the last meeting, I instructed this thing, the summit. Uh, continuation to be on the agenda and that didn’t happen. And mistakes can happen and whatever, but I’m not happy with that. But we’ll have to move on. So, What I did was I went on the radio last Friday.

00:58:45,770	Uh, in the afternoon to let people know and let them know that chair Bittner would Let you speak, vent, whatever the hell you want to say, because it doesn’t seem like the The uh Idiots up at the Capitol understand they’re producing more carbon pumping carbon up here than what they’re getting rid of. So These doom cos up there.

00:59:11,500	There’s no use trying to get to them because they don’t understand math. So I, I think let the public speak. OK, any other commissioners want to weigh in before I open it up to the public. Right. Um, the only thing I would ask is that we don’t, um, uh, needlessly repeat ourselves.

00:59:34,300	I, I think you’re welcome to come up to the mic and please give your name for the record and let us know what your thoughts are on this, if you want. My name is Curtis Junt. Welcome. Thank you, uh, thank you, Chair Bittner, Commissioners, uh, for the opportunity.

01:00:01,170	I did hear you on the radio on Friday, by the way, Comm Schwab, thank you for doing that. Um, because I would not have known, and I would not have been here, um. It was disappointing. The Approval and unanimous at that, but it wasn’t surprising.

01:00:28,900	And it wasn’t surprising that it came 5 days after the November 5th election, um, Gee, does that sound familiar? Uh, 3 days after the November 2020 election. The FD or the pharmaceuticals, the anti-Trump pharmaceuticals came out and they had all of a sudden had a vaccine. It’s deja vu all over again, Yogi Berra, and this is politics. That, uh, the PFC played, uh, but we’ve been saying this for a year that, uh, chair, uh, Crispin would do this.

01:00:51,700	The, the ruling was not surprising. And the only way that I could have shot, I could shoot more holes. In this 29 pages as if I went to the indoor range with my 9 mil. And unloaded about 10 clips. Because there are so many holes in this ruling starting out with page 3.

01:01:13,570	The issues to be considered in the application for certificate accord or compatibility and route permit. Now these are two things, two separate things that they chose to combine which under state statute they could do. This is all things you all know here.

01:01:33,970	Number one, will construction operation maintenance of the facility at the proposed location produced minimal adverse effects on the environment and upon the welfare of the citizens of North Dakota. Now, if you go down and read. I don’t know, probably about 10 pages down, and you read what they talk about different testimony. There’s testimony from landowners and. Chair Bittner and a number of us, most of the people in the room here, um, we attended. 14 hour hearings.

01:01:59,070	We heard many, many. Uh, landowners testify on how they were treated. The tactics And What how this would impact their well-being. You go down through here. The conclusions made by the North Dakota PSC. Every item that was brought to the PSC’s attention by the public as a concern.

01:02:25,100	They use testimony that Summit gave as a reason that it’s gonna be OK. It’s gonna be OK, because, and everyone, even the insurance liability to do appraisers that summit provided. We were at the hearing. Most of the people here were there. Set up no impact. Oh, really? You have how much experience with real estate appraisal where there’s a CO2 pipeline. 0.

01:02:52,570	Um, then our Chad Wachter, who along with a couple others as an intervening group, landowners impacted and as a developer. Chad and it, and a number of others, there were 3 of them that were intervenors till Burlee County took over. They’re heavily impacted. Liability wise development, real estate value wise, Chad testified.

01:03:16,900	That I have lots up in Promontory Point that have a natural gas line on, natural gas, a totally different animal than a CO2 pipeline. Natural gas pipeline erupts. It’s not going to migrate for thousands of feet and miles as an asphyxiian. Natural gas doesn’t do that, it’s half the weight of air.

01:03:35,700	You may have an explosion, but we have odorant in it, but he still said those are the last slots to be sold because they have an easement on them. That was the last part of that paragraph. But the POC said because these other two guys. There’s not going to be an issue. There is an issue.

01:03:52,230	We have our own developer saying there’s going to be an issue, and one of our most reputable. Successful developers. So, what, And if I’m a little energized here. Yeah, it’s not because, My battery’s got recharged because I’ve been a little inflamed for about 34 days on this. So, if you look at the, uh, North Dakota Century code. And what they did to our county.

01:04:18,470	In Emmons County, all the counties. The PSC has in their order that they have washed their hands. It’s out of their jurisdiction for safety. They waved the white flag on safety. Now, everything all over this is they’re gonna look out for the welfare of the citizens.

01:04:39,300	The welfare meaning first and foremost health and safety, then financial and economic well-beings. This is what you all tried to do 18 months plus ago. You tried to not only look out for the financial and economic well-being of the county and its growth east and west because in the infinite wisdom. Of this group of 8 people. who want to become a pipeline company.

01:05:01,570	Got guys from Houston, Texas, Jim Paul. And a bunch of others to lay out a pipeline east and north of Bismarck where we’re going to grow without coming and and and conferring with all of you and decided that that was going to be a good deal.

01:05:18,630	Why do you suppose they figured that was going to fly? Because, as you all know, we’ve not just been battling to get the right thing done with again, Summit and the PSC we have our governor. Oh, he’s going to be in Fargo now. He’s 20 200 miles away we have Mike Lafour and David Hogue are two leaders of our legislature. One’s in mine out, one’s in Dickinson.

01:05:39,000	How close are you, Randy K Christman on Friday said, you know, I live 10 miles away from the DGC pipeline. That’s a twelve-inch line. Whoopy freaking duty. We have a 24 inch line running east and north, cutting off our growth of Bismarck. That’s equivalent to almost 66 of those 12-inch pipelines. So all of these people are legislators.

01:06:00,830	All of our leaders in the state, we have been fighting and they’ve all been putting pressure on publicly these 3 PSC members know what their position is. They know that we’re the big money is.

01:06:21,700	And who do we have right here? We have been trying to defend ourselves and and the Get the right thing done in our state who’s now going to contribute what, 50 $60 million in property taxes to summit. We have tried on our own.

01:06:41,030	To not only battle against The PSC doing the right thing and summit, but all of our political leaders in the state and I guarantee you, I guarantee you as somebody who’s been involved in safety in the pipeline industry for much of my career, not John Holman, Kevin Kramer, Kelly Armstrong, Doug Burgum, or anyone in the legislature had one clue, not one. clue of the safety Problems that come with putting 2200 PSI CO2 in a pipeline. Not one we’re told, you know what they were told the same thing as the landowners.

01:07:03,930	It’s in your beer. It’s in your pop. You exhale it. What, what can be, what, what can happen? Our landowners were told it’s safer than a natural gas pipeline. So, in the North Dakota Century code. Under, and I don’t know if I have the right chapter number, if this is old numbering, but anyway, there’s a chapter in there.

01:07:24,300	Effective issuance of certificate or permit local land use zoning, building rules, regulations, and ordinances. Now the count in this Sentry code Paragraph, you all as a county have a right. 2 Have ordinances. It says a certificate. Of site compatibility, that’s the corridor.

01:07:52,430	Um Shall not supersede or preempt oh by the way, and it says for an electric energy conversion facilities. So I don’t know if this is old that I got here. Nevertheless, It shall not supersede or preempt any local land use zoning or building rules, regulations or ordinances, and a site may not be designated which violates local land use zoning or building rules, regulations or ordinances.

01:08:10,500	Then you go down and it talks about. That Our ordinances, the commission can make a decision to supersede if they view our ordinances as being unreasonably restricted. Wow, now this is where it really gets me going.

01:08:36,700	So we have the PSC who has nobody with any knowledge about boom modeling and CO2 ruptures and what can happen have now decided that you all who are looking out not only for our health safety, but our financial and economic well-being and the growth of our county and, and we carried the load for city, the city too. You tried to protect all those interests, but these folks at the PSC who do not have the qualifications.

01:08:58,030	To decide that what we did here over 18 months ago was too restrictive. It’s BS and you know what? I’m not happy as a citizen, and I don’t think anyone else here is either that the PSC made that decision. Because it’s wrong. You, we do not, we, we. We don’t have the plume modeling, we have no idea.

01:09:19,370	They, they apparently must have seen something what made them determine that it’s all gonna be OK. You, we have, you have every right to write an ordinance to protect not only the people.

01:09:39,170	The livestock, the horses, the landowners, but our city and its growth, and they took that away and I’m extremely disturbed about that and I’m here to ask you all to take that. You know, under advisement and, and help us in the county do something about that because I don’t think they’re the ones that should have made that decision first and foremost, and the last thing I want to address is I sat.

01:09:59,970	As did almost all these people here through dozens and dozens of hours of testimony in 23 and 24. And I, we listened to landowners. Give their testimony through tears. I also have been contacted by so many of them, not just in North Dakota, but South Dakota and Iowa and Nebraska. These people don’t sleep at night, they’re stressed out.

01:10:26,830	And I listened to these. Same people that the North Dakota PSC did, but apparently. The welfare of the citizens is being covered. It’s being covered, you know why? Because apparently Summit said so.

01:10:50,700	So, I, Tactics fair? Well, I’m not sure if you’re told that it’s as safe as a natural gas pipeline and it’s in our beer and we exhale it and nothing to worry about. You know, if I were a landowner and they came to me. And, and somebody who’s been in the oil and gas industry, and they came to me and said, hey, Kurt, we want to put a CO2 compressed pipeline at 2200 PSI and by the way, it’s going to be 24 inch.

01:11:04,600	I don’t care if it’s 8 inch or 12-inch or 24 inch. It’s going to be running at 2200 PSI or more. We’re gonna run it across your land. And oh by the way, I’ve heard this from people in 34 states, 700 ft 500 ft from their bedroom window. Close to their kids’ rural school.

01:11:24,830	Are you flipping kidding me. And then, what, what’s the first thing I’m gonna ask, any normal person should ask. Well, what, what happens if it ruptures? Whether, whether it’s Due to pipe failure or I hit it with my tractor because it’s sunk 6 ft into the ground. What happens if it ruptures.

01:11:48,500	What, what will my family be exposed to? What do I have to worry about? And, and, and, and what will they be exposed to and then how do I keep them safe? Can you tell me that summit? Can you please tell me that before I allow you to put this on my land. Um, no, we cannot do that.

01:12:06,230	Because if we let you know that, Then terrorists could get a hold of that and you know, that could, that could be a bad thing. You know, my response to that would be? So what you really want to do is put a weapon of mass destruction across my land. Wow, that feels really good.

01:12:26,230	The one thing I’d want to know before I ever sign a *** easement, you won’t even tell me. You will not tell me. Now, I have never in 42.5 years of being part of any project pipelines, gathering systems, ever, ever treated landowners this way Ben had a transparency issue. Or ever heard of the tactics that are being used.

01:12:53,630	Which, you know, probably shouldn’t surprise any of you that I’m guessing the legal fees to this, and if you’re listening right now, I’m sure your legal fees are more than your engineering fees, and that’s pretty frightening, but that just shows you what happens when an egg company tries to build a pipeline company, and that’s all I have to say. Thank you, Kurt.

01:13:10,200	Wait, I do have one more thing to say. All right, go ahead. I have one more thing to say. Well said by. They can criticize me and anyone else all you want about any numbers and stuff that we come up with, but you have refused to give us any information about anyone living in proximity even 1 mile, 2

01:13:32,500	miles,, 1000 ft. Nobody has a clue, and that’s by design. But I did some calculations, and here’s the calculation. This pipeline running east and north of Bismarck and through Emmons County, 24 inch pipeline. If that’s CO2 is at 50 degrees. In the ground and it’s a 2183 PSI.

01:13:54,370	And that pipeline has a rupture and it’s 20 miles between B block valves. They’re not going to be able to stop the leak. They got to let it blow down just like they did in Starch, Mississippi. You, you can’t even get close to there. That’s 100% CO2 and it’s minus 106 degrees cryogenic.

01:14:10,630	So even if you have breathing apparatus on, you’re going to freeze to death. They, they can’t, they can’t, they have to let it blow down the atmosphere. Well, guess what? That 20 miles is 331,732 cubic feet of CO2 at 2183 PSI and 50 degrees. You know what that becomes when it’s all. Above ground. It expands 1,178 times and will disperse at 14.

01:14:38,170	7 PSI 391,729, 380 cubic feet. 7 atmospheric pressure and 32 degrees. OK? 1,178 times. So I did another calculation. What if OK. Here it is. What if I took that 390. 1,729,000 cubic feet and I took it out of the pipe. And I just said, OK.

01:15:17,230	What would that look like in a cylinder above ground, just volume one, just take it out of the pipe at 2183 PSI and 50 degrees and put it above ground. At 8 ft deep. How What would the radius of that cylinder be 8 ft deep. At 8% concentration. Now remember 8%, you don’t have a lot of time to get rescued. So 8%. We are talking At 8% CO2.

01:15:45,630	8 ft high. The radius is 16.5 miles. Kate, now keep in mind that there would have to be absolutely zero wind and it would come up and it would all just form a cylinder. It’s going to move in a teardrop kind of a plume.

01:16:07,930	And, and the, the, the 391 million cubic feet is if they shut the valves off immediately upon immediately instantaneous. It’s going to keep flowing CO2. So, obviously, by the time the valves are shut, you’re going to be. You’re gonna be, uh, releasing more than 391 million cubic feet above ground and it’s going to be moving along with the wind.

01:16:28,200	So, you know what, some, you didn’t give us any information, but I’m here to tell you. That we got. Below zero temps coming up. That’s going to make it more dense. And we’ve got, we have mornings when there’s just a 5 mile an hour wind, and that pipeline ruptures, it’s gonna move.

01:16:50,100	In the low lying valleys and it’s going to stay there in very high concentration, but you won’t tell us. You won’t tell us, but I’m here to tell you that this pipeline, if it has one rupture anywhere close to a populated area. Or even a landowner, it is not going to be A pretty scene. So until you come out and actually show us.

01:17:14,670	The numbers and show us what we’re up against. We’re gonna, we’re gonna start making our own. Determination somehow because we are left with having to defend ourselves with this commission right here. This commission is the only 5 people that have done anything and Emmons County to try to keep us safe.

01:17:36,570	Not our governor, not our federal delegation, not our, I mean, hell, this summer, late for and and Ho come out with a letter to the editor in the Fargo Forum beating their chests about they’re the ones. 15 years ago started this whole thing. Well, you know what, now we know who to point the finger at when this All goes south. Thank you. Thank you, Kurt.

01:17:57,830	Well done. I Thank you for having this meeting. During the past 2 years, I’ve attended 5 days of Public Service Commission’s hearings. Um, in different places, not all of them, but some of them. I recall hearing concerned citizens speaking about how this pipe is going to adversely affect their lives and their communities where they live.

01:18:29,830	I don’t recall any citizens who were not receiving money in some manner, shape, or form in this project in favor of the pipeline. I recall hearing one legislator speak in favor of the CO2 pipeline. This morning I called the Public Service Commission.

01:18:50,200	The request The number of people that that spoke, um, and I’ve listed 4 of them there. We spoke against carbon dioxide pipeline. The number who spoke in favor of the carbon carbon dioxide pipeline. The number of students who spoke in favor of the carbon dioxide pipeline who are not getting paid.

01:19:07,770	In some manner, shape or form, and the number of out of state people who spoke in favor of the pipeline. I was informed that this data is not collected, but uh uh if I wanted to, I could come to the department and they would direct me to the place where I could listen to the testimony and collect the information myself.

01:19:22,570	I don’t know how many days it did, but I wasn’t at, there was more than 5 days of testimony. I did, I didn’t go to Winton or out of the Linton, Bismarck, Mandaneria. Um The person I spoke to was very considerate and cooperative. They did the best they could.

01:19:41,400	And then also emailed uh them with the same request, thinking I’d get something in the email, and I did. I didn’t notice it that they sent it back already about 12 o’clock at noon. But also invited me to come in and, and look at it. Um I question now the public service commissioners could approve this dangerous supercritical CO2 pipeline like Kurt Jus just explained.

01:20:01,570	Without keeping track of the basic data of how many people in North Dakota came out and spoke. For it or against it or anything else they give up their time, their effort, and at their own expense to go and speak, and they don’t have any of this data. Uh, and for days it happened.

01:20:20,900	And as you can tell from Kurt, we can’t get um Alu model because it’s Two dangerous to give to us the public. And they would not give a plume model. I can visual a plume model that Mr. Junt just gave us. And that’s if it shut off immediately, just within that 20 miles of pipe. And if it takes them an hour or two to shut it down.

01:20:43,870	Unbelievable Uh, uh, the plume model presented was too dangerous. Um I’ve heard some people use the word when discussing this, and I’m trying not to cover stuff that Mr. Dut covered or that others did. I’ve heard that some people use the word recall. Um, should be occurring. Also remember at the meeting on Friday I was there.

01:21:05,700	And I forget the exact words that the Chair said. But it was, it was not the same words but something uh similar to it. Uh, it was either unreasonably restrictive he used or it was ridiculous or it was 2, we are too out of line to go with the setback that you, the county Comm requested.

01:21:26,000	And I did make the mention to him afterwards, I didn’t think, I thought 500 ft or the distance you guys requested was still too ridiculous. It should be a lot further. And I remember my testimony, I said it should be uh 10 to 20 miles away from Bismarck.

01:21:42,570	So that if there’s a big rupture, it isn’t gonna impact here and it will not. Box in Bismarck’s growth to either the north or to the east. Uh, also looked in the Constitution of the state of North Dakota articles 1.2 states all political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for the protection.

01:22:05,270	Security and benefits of the people, protection, security, and benefit. To me that’s safety. The Public Service Comm Speaker said they were not into the safety. I was not one of their concerns. It is to me as a citizen, and I can tell it is from all of you too from past meetings. To me, that’s big single issue.

01:22:24,430	For doing something about this, at least in my opinion. Um I hope that um That you as a commission take appropriate action to protect the safety. Of the citizens of Burleigh County. And thank you very much for all your hard work. God bless you. Thank you. I wanted to Want to add something else in here.

01:22:51,500	At one point, and I know a lot of people are aware of this, but I want to make sure that anybody that’s watching and anybody in the room knows that. We are looking for, and I, and I have a, a reasonable list already, but we’re looking for people that either signed easements or declined to sign these, it doesn’t matter under threat of

01:23:11,170	eminent domain being used. So if anybody’s out there and you felt threatened or intimidated or, or that was used as a, as a possible reason that you better sign this now because we’re going to do eminent domain. I want to know about it. I want the names and numbers.

01:23:30,430	or addresses, um, of anybody that may have been threatened that way. OK, so I just wanted to put that in here. Anybody else want to speak? I know those guys are. Um These guys have done a really good job. I want to say. Mr. Schwab, go ahead.

01:23:49,170	Um, I don’t think a lot of people understand, but He was an eye, not an eye opener, but a Ear opener I believe it was yesterday. On the radio, they were talking about this pipeline. And CO2 bombs. Our weapons of war that they’re making. Um Believe it or not, what a coincidence.

01:24:16,830	So, you know, I thought, well, what the hell would they use them for? Trenches. Low areas. I believe, am I right? tunnels. They have developed them. Tunnel warfare. There you are. And it, it’s, uh, What we got is a high pressured CO2 bomb and now it used to be 2000 miles, now it’s 2500 miles. So they should be well over. Well over, uh, Close to Creating A 1.5 carbon.

01:24:53,170	Moulton Would I be correct? Uh, can I, can I? Yes, sure you can. OK. Raw on the same page. So just stay up just to, you’re absolutely correct, Comm Schwab, because CO2 is 1.53 times heavier than air. So it’ll move to all the low lying areas. We’ll go fill those trenches first.

01:25:12,830	Boom, they’re suffocated, they’re goners. So there’s a gentleman who gave a kind of a counterpart to me and through a lot of the county, uh, meetings that the opposition and the and the vote no on RL 21 in South Dakota. He gave a, uh, he worked in the Bakken geologists, geological engineer.

01:25:32,170	And he said they finished doing a frack job using CO2. Now there’s nitrogen used or CO2, and he said they had liquefied CO2 left over, left over in the tanker, and they didn’t want to haul it. They backed up to a ravine valley. And uh they released it. This was back in the 80s when, you know, things like that were done.

01:25:53,030	And he said the CO2, of course it comes out, moves from uh into a liquid, then it’s uh to a a solid and sublimes into a gas, but you’ll see that white cryogenic and freezes all the water vapor in the air and then it just warms up and it turns into an invisible gas that went

01:26:10,030	down the valley. Into the ravine area where there just happened to be a prairie dog town down there. Not one. Prairie dog left. The rancher was pleased. He was happy. He said, you know, this might be a way. Instead of having all my buddies and family come out and, you know, shoot him.

01:26:29,970	And it, it wiped them all out. Uh Without, without any problem, um. But uh there was one other thing I was going to say. Uh, what, what were we talking about when I, I kind of got distracted there with that eminent domain. Um, no.

01:26:51,870	Anyway, they’re, um, oh, I’m sorry, I just, there’s been so much stuff on my mind on this whole thing, but um, Ah Yeah Oh, Yeah, I know, uh. That’s not it. But I’m, I mean, the whole thing about this, uh, The CO2 It is, we are now, they used to say 18 million tons a year. It’s now 19 million ton a year, and they’re still going after more and more industrial.

01:27:19,430	Uh, loads. Oh, I know what I was gonna say. You asked about water power. There’s probably gonna be in December, uh, the Minnesota PUC when it comes to Summit has one. They applied for, to take the CO2 from the Fergus Falls Green Plains plant. 0.19 metric tons. 0.19 million metric tons a year.

01:27:42,970	That’s 10% of summit’s overall throughput coming by Bismarck. It’s going into a 4-inch line at Fergus Falls in Otterdale County. They’re gonna be pulling water from groundwater resources. It’s a heavily irrigated. Uh, corn belt area in their application, which I read, and they’re probably going to get approval going into this 4-inch line, 13.

01:28:04,770	5 million gallons of water a year. And 38,500 kilowatt hours of power, which is 38.5 gigawatts or 38,500 megawatts for, for just, that’s just for 0.19 million metric tons going into a 4-inch line. This is massive amounts of water, massive amounts of power and they’ll be using natural gas here and there too.

01:28:30,070	So your assumption, Comm Schwab, that they’re probably going to Create as much CO2 as they’re going, you know, to just get this all done. When you look at the power, our power still comes from 60% fossil fuels, coal and natural gas. Well, they’re going to be using gigawatts galore.

01:28:49,200	Um, then you look at water and you look at the electricity they’re using and their natural gas through the just getting this all, um, Captured, cooled, compressed, shoved all the way up to North Dakota and then everything is gonna go be involved in North Dakota. Your assumption is probably correct. Nobody’s done that calculation, but we’re talking about.

01:29:09,830	Gluco amounts of water, power, and natural gas that are going to be used in this whole. Scheme, if you will, and it makes absolutely zero sense because what’s lost on all this now is it’s going to benefit the environment, which is nobody talks about that anymore because you know what, it’s not measurable.

01:29:30,770	We’re spending federal and state tax dollars to supposedly benefit the climate, but nobody anywhere will ever tell us what the benefit side is of the equation and most and all the costs right now. Once this thing is built and operational, the costs are being borne by us and the risks all the way along the pipeline.

01:29:48,370	So this is a really lopsided uh economic equation and not one of the investors in Summit Carbon Solutions would ever invest $1 without knowing what the benefit’s going to be, but it’s OK to invest our dollars, federal and state without us knowing anything, but now it’s become, we’ll look at all the jobs, all the people that are for it now, engineering firms,

01:30:07,670	unions, I mean, it’s all jobs. now and look at what it’s gonna do. I mean, it, it has nothing to do with what started this whole thing and that’s. Somebody got everybody to believe decades ago that CO2 was the devil. And it’s not.

01:30:27,900	If you take CO2 and you keep reducing it out of our, the air we breathe and you drop it down into the 200 parts per 2. 2, 100 parts per million from the 400. We, we, and you keep, if we don’t have CO2, we cease to exist. Everything in this room and all of us were all carbon. Carbon built, carbon based, and CO2 is the foundation of life.

01:30:48,270	And if you reduce CO2 more and more, you will affect plant growth. You will affect hence, uh, crop growth, trees, um. Oxygen. Where do, where do you think all our oxygen comes from? CO2 and photosynthesis, 51% comes out of the ocean. The rest comes from on land, photosynthesis.

01:31:10,700	So it doesn’t make sense when a greenhouse goes from our 400 parts per million and they, they go up to 7000 parts per million. And if anybody’s walked into a greenhouse, it’s like walking into a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

01:31:26,170	I mean, it’s just wow, you know, so if you ever have any upper respiratory problems, go to Planer and walk in there sometime. But I, I think it’s time we’re getting close to Christmas. I think we need to call Cousin Eddie and have cousin Eddie.

01:31:43,400	Go find all these summit people and get them down here in front of you and let them tell you what their risks are to their family and their friends and their horses and whatever. I, I want, I think, I think cousin Eddie needs to bring him in here so they can tell us what their risks are. I don’t think the reason why they’re showing up is because They can’t defend their position. And this thing started years and years ago.

01:32:07,170	The Commerce Department is Involved in it, we had talked about that last 2006. 2006 on the research I keep doing to come come up with this great idea and it’s a dog, no matter which way you look at it, but they, that should be shot.

01:32:25,830	It’s a rabbit dog, but *** it, they started it and they’re gonna, they’re going to see this thing on us. They are. And the thing about it is, I should let you vent. I’m venting. No, Comm Schwab, but here’s our only hope.

01:32:44,570	So I know why President Trump kind of went along with some of this and fossil fuel industry, but Look, we, I’m, I’m cautiously optimistic, but, you know, what he said in his campaign, we know we’re RFK Junior’s at on it. We know where JD Vance is at on it. We know where Ramaswami’s at on it. We are $36 trillion in debt as a nation.

01:33:01,100	We’re gonna be $40 trillion in debt when we stand up here and speak a year from now we now spend over $1 trillion on interest on our debt that is more than our military budget. This is we we we’ve hit peak stupid, um, we this and we are going to destroy our country. OK. Mr. Bakke, thank you, Kurt.

01:33:23,970	Bottom line for me, it, it, it just, and it doesn’t matter what position you’re in as an elected official. Uh, it, it, you could be at this table, you could be at the city commission with Bismarck. You could be at the Public Service Commission. Your number one job. Your number one duty as an elected official is to protect your constituents. It’s about public safety.

01:33:51,230	And beyond that, Beyond the ability to perform that duty when you’re not given the information needed to address situations. There’s a break in the system, and when we can’t perform that duty of public safety because we’re not given the information needed. There’s something else awry. There’s something wrong, and if they cannot come to this commission table, give us that plume modeling.

01:34:17,900	Tell us what they think. is pertinent information and equipment and man hours. All that is needed to protect the public. In the event of an accident. We don’t have fire departments because we know there’s going to be a fire. It’s what if.

01:34:43,670	We have to have them just in case, and we can’t perform that duty with this, hey, trust us, it’s gonna work. I’ve got a problem with that. That, that is a problem and that is an issue.

01:35:03,370	Your job, and I don’t care where you are from the Governor’s office on down, your number one job in the state of North Dakota is to protect the population, its public safety, and we’ve got a very bad problem taking place right here in North Dakota that unfortunately, not enough people and the media for certain, is not paying enough attention to. Yes sir. Comm Woodcock, I have a quick question. Somebody might be able to answer the question. North Dakota’s severe winters. We have freezing and thawing all of them, we all know it.

01:35:26,770	We have water main breaks all the time in the winter. What are, what, what is freezing, severe freezing. Do, due to this pipeline. I’ve never heard anybody you ever pick rocks in North Dakota, Jerry growing up? Did you ever pick rocks growing up? What’s that have to do with? I’m talking about freezing a pipeline.

01:35:43,530	Because things come to the surface. And when there’s, you pick a rock field, you pick a field clean of rocks. What’s happening next spring? You’re picking it again. Yeah. It’s the FreeStyle. So have anybody, have they, I’ve never heard any information on whether they have addressed this. Are they saying this pipeline this safe so it won’t break in freezing.

01:36:03,200	Well, there’s 22 answers to that. Number one, the federal government has decided Frost really doesn’t raise these rocks. So they must be meteorites. The second, the second thing is I did read that Houston outfits Report. A bunch of clowns down in Houston. Foroo is great. Very In that climate.

01:36:32,500	Well, if anybody’s been in the excavating business, I’ve been in it for 40 some years. I’ve had Frosted 9 ft. If there’s no snow cover and under. Roads Yeah Anything bare, the frost goes down. And people don’t understand when things break. Like you take your average water line. It isn’t because It isn’t because it’s weak or anything. It’s temperature change.

01:37:04,570	So in the morning, when you go to work and you see the city is out there working on a water line. That night, that that water in there absorbed. Heat from the earth and then in the morning, everybody gets up, takes a shower, turns on the washing machine, and that Warm water comes and hits that casting

01:37:23,500	boom. It breaks. I don’t think that can happen with high pressure line. Would I be correct. OK this thing could fail. Yeah it’s facilities and just like hybrants and curb stops that jacked up, you know, up and up and down that one of the things that stresses out water lines.

01:37:47,800	They, they, they jack up and down the ground. Uh, they’ve got 38 of those, I think that’s the right number in North Dakota, but they’re There, there’s a risk right there that. You know Cross TV and and stressing the pipe below ground.

01:38:07,000	Hey, does anybody else wish to speak on this item? I want you to know I appreciate you being here. The route for the pipeline. Yeah. The latest? We, we have, I think we’ve all seen it. Yeah. Yeah, you can go ahead and put it on the, uh, what do you call it, if you want to? I’m Kevin Chey. Uh That pipeline goes within 1 mile ofokin School.

01:38:28,900	What would happen there? You got 60 to 80 kids. In this school. Shelter in place. That’s ridiculous. Not in his, like about a mile or less than 1 mile, not in school. Yeah. Yeah. They were going to come through my land. They There’s the meats edition is right next to my land.

01:38:53,530	500 ft away from the me edition, they were gonna go through my land. And they did not tell anybody in this ice edition that it was gonna be there. And they, I said, well, You don’t have to tell him. No, we don’t have to tell him. It’s 500 ft. That’s what we need to stay away. This is a A terrible company, Summit Carbon Solution.

01:39:15,900	I’ve caught him on my land 3 times. I did not give him permission. To come on my land, and I caught surveyors on there 3 times. They actually Ask me if I would take 1.2 million. Come through a 24 acre. Housing development. That I bought 30 years ago to keep the housing development out.

01:39:45,870	And I said, what will you give me? 66.5 ft away to go a mile across my land. They said 45,000 plus damages. It’s all housing out there. I mean, the Mariners got the Alba Ridge. There’s uh, did they define damages? Yeah, it’d be around 150 to 20,000. And here’s another thing. This, uh, I, I’m a No till farmer.

01:40:20,970	They’re gonna tear up 100 ft. For 2400 miles. That’s a negative, uh. Impact on CO2. My land absorbs CO2. Everybody’s land does. If pastures. Uh, no till land. If you take 2400 miles times 100 ft wide. That For 5 years is a negative impact. For CO2 capture. This pipeline should be shut down.

01:40:58,300	The Koa Volcano In Hawaii, I was there. I, when it was going on. Puts out 8500 metric tons a day. Enners. 55 to 60 erupting volcanoes in the world. There’s 1500 active volcanoes in the world. If this, if 2 More volcanoes erupt. Next year This pipeline’s useless. That is how little this pipeline does.

01:41:39,500	I don’t understand why we’re even thinking about it. It’s a big land grab, it’s all it is. Money. Yes, it is money. It’s money. But it’s a land grab. On 99 years, my grandchildren would never be able to build on this thing. I’ll tell you one thing, I’ll never buy a John Deere tractor.

01:42:03,500	Now, I have them, I probably won’t buy another one. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well thank you for your input. before we move on. Does anybody else wish to speak on this item? OK. Well, thank you, everybody, uh, for coming in.

01:42:26,970	I, I know that everybody in the room was, was here to support the ones that did speak, so there’s not a need for everybody to speak, and I just want to thank you for being here. Um. Comm Schwab. I, I just want to say again, I’m sorry this item was on the agenda. I’m sure more people would have liked to come. I’m considering, Putting it on the gin, the agenda next. Meeting Uh Probably am going to.

01:42:52,670	So, kind of watch the agendas and, and, uh. You’ll know, um, Comm Schwab, I think in that regard, we’ll just go ahead and direct the, um, just be on the agenda for the next meeting, because at the very least, we’ll want to talk about legal action, but we’ll probably be having a special meeting before that too,

01:43:11,830	because OK. It may not give us enough time, but we’ll put it on there as a placeholder. Well, and have it, have it up first so these people can go home. They’ve got.

01:43:25,300	Well, that’s why I wanted to move this up, because they, you know, we’re going to get to the kind of boring stuff here now, I think, but. OK, thank you, folks. Um, next item on the agenda is Bismarck Parks and Rec Operations Manager Dave Mayor Special road funds grants for the, for the record, this Parks and Rec is not boring, right? This is not boring stuff. I used the wrong word. Normal, normal.

01:43:50,400	Is that better? Chair Bittner and Commissioners, I caught that Normal. I, I grinned when you said it. That’s OK. That’s OK now and then. Uh, good evening, and, uh, Oh Everybody clear out for. There’s a bunch here. All right. There’s a bunch of them here. OK. No, a lot of people want to. I took, I took a couple of them.

01:44:16,130	OK. All right. Uh, good evening, um, within your pack, it was a, a simple, um. Statement letter that was put together by our executive director requesting board. I guess, uh, support. Endorsement for the Park District to submit for a state of North Dakota special road fund grant project, um.

01:44:52,230	Similar to the way what we had requested when we submitted for the TA grant, um, transportation alternatives grant for the shared Uath project, the The State of North Dakota recognizes the park districts as a political subdivision, but not as an eligible local public agency for the money to go straight to, so in.

01:45:18,900	This kind of a grant program or the TA grant program, we need to request um depend on the uh jurisdiction if it’s in the county or the city we request from the city or the county to endorse the project and basically be the pass through for that project, uh, for any sort of funds, and in the letter as executive director C Klipel stated the park district would be

01:45:36,870	responsible for any of the local fund matching for the project if we were successful in getting the grant. OK. Moved to prove. 2 motion to 2nd to approve any further discussion. Seeing no called bro. Uh, Comm Woodcoxck. Yes. Munsen. Yes. Mr. Bakken, yes. Comm Schwab. Chair Bittner, yes, motion carries. Thank you. Thank you.

01:46:04,770	Sorry about the delay there. We had some he wanted to learn all about the pipeline anyway, right? We had stuff. Uh, next is Comm Munsen with Missouri Valley Complex zoning Amendment from PUD to public.

01:46:28,100	So in your packet, uh, I have some information that was put together by Swenson and Hagen, uh, in the process that we’ve been going through. Uh, looking at changing the Missouri Valley Fairro from a PUD to a public zone. Um, one, some of the items that we found is there’s. There’s a chunk of land out there owned by the city. There’s a chunk of land owned by the state. And then we also have the, Uh, detention center.

01:46:50,770	So what would happen is if, We get this moved to a public zone. And these other entities do not come with. Then they would still be in that PUD so the concern that they, they uh voiced was if the detention center wanted to add a pod.

01:47:11,700	They would have to go through the months long, or if not a year long process to get The PUD amended. If there are P, it’s a simple, um, building permit request and things are done.

01:47:32,370	Which is one of the biggest reasons we’re looking at changing this to people in the first place is we don’t have to go back to the city every time we want to. Build a shed or put a bathroom up or whatever, um, and so the request was for Burleigh County to sign off. And then to request the, Uh authority for the Burleigh County Detention Center to also sign off so that it’s all part of a public group.

01:47:55,830	And I, as I’ve looked into it, Burleig County Commission is the one that has the authority to sign off for the detention center. I know he’s out of the room right now, the sheriff and. Yeah, I, I just get them on the record. I would like to. Yep. So, when he returns, I’d like to get his input on this. Mr.

01:48:19,470	Chair, Mr. Wood after these maps that that are on there, there’s a, says, uh, Unified development application from City of Bismarck, but on the right side page it says property owner state of North Dakota. What do they own? So they own this little chunk of waterway. That’s it. That’s what they owed. OK.

01:48:41,330	Uh, so, the state would sign off on a little waterway, the city would sign off on their lift station. So the smallest spot is the liftation. Obviously, the map with the right, with the little. And Waterway. They’ve all agreed to sign off on it already. If I remember correctly, the state having a problem.

01:48:58,830	Yeah, uh, the state side of that is more a function of an easement or a wetland then. Yep, yep. Um Sheriff of Liebman. Uh, he’s out. He’s upstairs controlling. Did somebody grab him real quick if, uh, oh, there he is. All right. Sheriff Lieben, please, you grab. Don’t sit down. Come on up. Come on up. Yeah.

01:49:25,500	No, they were just a little bit of a question regarding the, um, detention center in this PD to be public. you have an issue or. Yeah, Mr. Chair, Commissioners, I talked with Comm Munsen on this last week sometime. Yeah.

01:49:47,030	And basically, um, you know, really we don’t have a, um, I guess I wouldn’t have a strong opinion after listening to Comm Munsen. It makes sense to include us in this. Um, I looked at the joint powers agreement with uh jail and our uh operating committee. I don’t see any issues there. we would have to take it before both commissions, so.

01:50:11,530	After listening to Comm or Comm Munsen’s explanation, it makes sense to me. OK. That, that was the question. OK. And my concern was the JPA as long as we were clear of that with the, with the detention center. Seems to be fine. OK, so I would move to approve the support of signing the um Unified development application to move to PE Pub.

01:50:34,430	a motion to second any further discussion. Is that why you’re here? OK. No input? He was hiding here. I thought I had to explain it all. See, you could have got on. I could’ve got all of that. Yeah. Always I just let you roll on, you know.

01:50:53,130	Hiding is my best spot over there, uh, thank you, uh, Comm Berner and, uh, Chair Mountain or excuse me, Comm Mosmo, I spoke with uh earlier about this as well, just to let you know this is not uncommon for the city to request this when a zoning map is coming in and there’s properties adjacent to it that are that are under the same beauty or even the

01:51:07,030	same zoning, uh, rather than having kind of this odd spot that is PE then. We must bring everybody into this into the fold as well. Um, we just had some concerns on it because it was, well, the Missouri Valley Com complex, even though you guys are one entity as Burley County, and the Missouri on the

01:51:21,500	detention center and there’s kind of their own separate piece. We wanted to make sure everybody is aware that we we’d be bringing everybody into this PE public zoning. OK Thank you. I appreciate your patience. OK, any other discussion? Call the roll, please. Comm Bakke. Yes. Comm Schwab? Yes. Comm Woodcock? Yes. Comm Munsen.

01:51:41,700	Yes, Chair Binner. Yes, motion carries. County engineer hall, proposed project priority list and award of bids for motor gators. Welcome, Marcus. Good evening, Commissioners. I got 2 items on the agenda. The first is the approval of the 2025 uh Burleigh County construction program basically.

01:52:03,130	This is generally something I bring to the county board in January, uh, but since the board currently sitting is going to be the same board that’s going to be sitting in January. I thought we could maybe move and get a jump on this, get ahead of some of the DOT lettings and maybe get some better prices for some of our, uh, construction projects.

01:52:17,130	Uh, I have included a list of the projects, uh, for the 2025 program in your packet. I’ve also given you a, a, a copy, a little bit bigger print there, so a little bit easier to see.

01:52:32,430	Um, I just want to point out a couple items on it and then I’d be happy to answer any questions that you may have, uh, in, in this particular program, we do have chip seals, uh, projects post unorganized, organized townships, and the county chipseal projects that we have, um, in addition to that, I wanted to point out Brian Slough is a project that we’re, uh, we’re gonna be doing the American rescue, use the American rescue plan money.

01:52:50,570	This is basically a, uh, uh, be a dry pipe from that particular slew, uh, to the river, um, and then we’ll install a pump when we need it, if we ever need it, we’ll have, we have pumps on site that we can use for most of that work.

01:53:07,630	In addition to that, Uh, through the budget process, we added some projects using, uh, the prairie dog money, uh, that we will be receiving this next year. I did just check on that, uh, particular layout of where the money was at and stuff. I believe if everything keeps moving forward and the receipts keep coming in as they’ve been coming in.

01:53:25,770	Probably sometime the end of February, the first part of March, uh, they’re going to fill that bucket that is required for the county to get the money. So I believe this will take place and we will be able to get that money.

01:53:42,400	Projects We included, um, we’re a microsur surface project on a couple of different roadways, uh, seventyfirst Centennial and then 66, uh, the mill and overlay project on Highway 10, this is basically from where we left off all the way over to 83 Sterling, finishing up that particular project.

01:53:59,130	And then a chip seal for the whole thing all the way from 66, uh, over to 83 to cover that work that we’ve done in the last, last year and what we will be doing next year. In addition to that, uh, through the process that we were putting things together, uh, we, we, um, Through the development, um, department and stuff like that, we’ve learned that there’s going to be possibly going to be a gas

01:54:17,500	station put in on the corner of Highway 10 and 80th, that’s moving through the process, um, and so one of the things we required from that developer was to provide us with a traffic analysis of that particular intersection, uh, because we wanted to know if that increase in traffic at that location was going to

01:54:35,770	cause us any problem. One thing we learned about that is that we already have a problem at that. location. And so, uh, we, we talked to Comm Schwab and Comm Binner about adding a project to take care of some of our problems that we currently have at that intersection, even before the development moves in

01:54:51,870	place, uh, those changes that were going to be are basically turn lanes is what we’re going to be adding at that location. It’s not gonna be a roundabout or anything like that at that location. Just some turn lanes and, and improvements of the intersection.

01:55:06,170	We were able to fit that in because of some of the savings we’re thinking we’re gonna have on some of those other prairie dog projects. So at the end of the day, I’m not spending any more money than what we had planned. spending of prairie dog money through the budgeting process. It’s the same amount of dollars, so it’s just adding that particular project.

01:55:21,770	So, uh, there’s a proposed resolution in packet. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have, but I do recommend approval of that resolution. Comm, any questions? Richer Bakke. Uh, as far as contingencies, uh, of getting through this list for, The next year is is.

01:55:44,100	Where does the funding number come in and, um, because these are priorities in order, so 11 would drop off, then 10 would drop off. If there’s a, a hiccup in funding. Actually, Comm, um, when I use the word priorities, that’s kind of a misnomer. This is our construction program for next year.

01:56:01,230	So 100% of this was already included in the funding that we put together for the budget budgeting for next year. So, um, if at some point we see that, oh, this project’s coming in way over, then we’re gonna have to make adjustment. at that time. So and that’ll be on the fly. That was, that was my question, that’s how we’ll deal with that. Move to approve. Ja Oh.

01:56:20,900	Motion in a second, any further discussion, Comm Schwab. Do you have those turn lanes down by Highway 10 on Bitner Road What did you call that? I guess we I guess we I guess we I guess we wrote it in the land on the south. Yeah, I forgot what the road is we’re talking. A, yes. And that’s not.

01:56:43,870	Yes, that’s in here, yep, at Highway 10 and 80th, and that’s at the same location. I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you just. Any approaches for Schwab Bridge. Let me tell you a little story about why I would support turn lanes at that location.

01:57:00,970	So one night I’m coming home, actually from one of these meetings from a commission meeting and I’m driving down the road. And I go to take a right turn, there’s a Guy behind me and I’m going to be a nice Guy and turn, move over to the side to kind of let him go by and, and whatever.

01:57:14,270	So I, I crossed that fog line or whatever it is, you know, to give them some room like you would if there was a turning lane. North Dakota Cur rules. Yeah, and I, and I turned south, there’s Burley County Sheriff’s Department pulling me over because I was trying to give the other Guy some room.

01:57:28,970	So, the turn lanes is probably a good idea right there. Did you pay the ticket? I didn’t get a ticket. Oh OK. They, they look, took one look at me and said, well, You’ve got enough problems. Go ahead, sorry about that. um. Another thing, it does not include, That bridge we’re going to talk about later on. Right.

01:57:49,570	We, I talked about that with, um, ahead of the meeting, and we’ll, we’ll, Come back to that at some point here just not. Other funding, right? Um, any other. Call roll, please. Comm Bakke. Yes. Comm Schwab. Yes. Comm Woodox. Yes. Comm Munsen, Chainner. Yes, motion carries.

01:58:12,500	The next thing I have on the agenda is approval of the low bids on two motor graders on October 7th, the county board authorized the county auditor and the county engineer to advertise for bids for 2 motor graders under our, our typical 5 year total cost bid guarantee re repurchase a program, um, we did open bids on November 4th.

01:58:31,670	Uh, the bids are listed in your packet and I show you there. RDO equipment had the total bid low, uh, the low total bid, um. Cost for this particular, this particular items, as you can see the bids came in very close, so very good number as far as I’m concerned. Uh, they are higher than last year, by about 15,000. However, we’ve done some changes.

01:58:51,530	We actually went up to a, a model higher, um, this year than we did last year. Part of the reason was, uh, to, it’s a little heavier, a little more power, and, and we hope to be doing a little bit more, a little better on the blading operations.

01:59:06,830	It cuts a little better, and then also for snow removal operations. Uh, we felt the, the higher, a little more horsepower was a better way to go. Um, so there is a proposed resolution in your packet. I do recommend approval. I’d be happy to answer any questions. Moved to prove 2nd motion to 2nd to approve any further discussion. Call the roll, please.

01:59:26,670	Comm Woodcock, Yes, Comm Munsen. Yes, Comm Bakken. Yes, Comm Schwab, Sharan Bitner, yes, motion carriers. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Uh, Sheriff Leeben handgun replacement project and back to Blue grant program update. Welcome, Kelly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

01:59:54,430	Commissioners, um, The first item, the handgun replacement project, uh, basically what’s going on and we did budget for this for year 2025 in the, um, asset forfeiture line item and basically our pistols, our handguns.

02:00:19,970	are really the only weapon that we replace on a life cycle, basically, when you look at like our shotguns and our rifles, they don’t, they get minimal usage, minimal wear and tear in comparison to the handguns, so the handguns historically have been on a life cycle rotation of about 7 to 9 years somewhere in there.

02:00:40,900	Uh, we are coming up on 8 years here with these handguns, and so basically, uh, when we looked at this, the Cheapest way or the best way to do it was we felt would be a forfeiture, um, which is not money that’s levied through the property tax, um, this is money that’s awarded back to our department, um, through seized assets from criminal activity. And so, basically, uh, Even though we started or we planned this in 2025.

02:01:04,000	We had to start making the purchases, um, now, as we’re going to get in late 24 here, then 25, we will need to start paying some invoices because we’re using asset forfeiture dollars that does have to be approved by the commission because of the dollar amount, according to our asset forfeiture policy, um, so I have signed off on it, the finance director Lee Jacobs has signed.

02:01:26,700	off on it and the state’s attorney Julie Lawyer have all signed off on it in accordance with our policy. Um, basically, um, what we look at is with the handguns, uh, we do resale those. They are marked with the sheriff’s department insignia and Low there. Historically, we’ve offered them to our deputies.

02:01:49,230	That’s the plan we’re doing again this time at a fair market value. The, uh, the magazines have value, the holsters have no value. In the past we’ve had to sell those, um, when we’ve had old holsters. We’ve had to sell them over at um. Like the auction in Mandan, I forget what it Twin City auction wherever we can get rid of them.

02:02:10,330	Because there’s really not a market for that. Um, so, basically, we’re using the same process. We’ve used historically since I’ve been a part of this, um, the only difference this year, we are changing um models, uh, we’re staying with Sig Sauer, um, going with the P320, uh, which is a more versatile handgun.

02:02:34,130	They had some problems in the past. They’ve worked that out and, uh, and this will be the first time we are implementing optics. On our handguns. So basically what I’m here before you is authorization, um, to proceed with the asset forfeiture purchase. Yeah, most of the second and the third, I think there’s any further.

02:02:56,500	You probably want out of here. Any further discussion, seeing. Actually, yes, uh, have you ever, uh, looked at some of the state auctions or game and fish when they do their confiscation with their, their poaching program, uh, some of those are rather robust auctions.

02:03:19,030	Um, a lot of people out there in the sportsman world may be interested in some of those assets that, uh, Uh, could fetch a better price, Mr. Chair Commissioners, and we have tried about everything, um, not necessarily the wrap auction or anything like that.

02:03:40,900	The problem with a lot of that, like the holsters, is it’s pretty beat up by the time we are done with it, so it’s outlived its usefulness, but we, we do everything we can to try and get the most money for the stuff, so. Much appreciated. Thank you. Pa Munsen. Yes. Comm Bakken. Comm Schwab. Yes. Woodcock, yes, Chair Benner. Yes, motion carries. Next, Mr. Chair, Comm, the next item is the, uh, back the blue grant update.

02:04:05,830	If you remember, I came before you in, I believe it was November of 23, um, basically there was a bill in the North Dakota legislature, uh, that authorized the state to give money to political subdivisions in an effort to retain and recruit.

02:04:31,000	law enforcement and correctional staff, uh, basically, when I came before you, um, we had looked at taking our money and using it mainly for retention bonuses, um, but new hires would have to stay so long and then get that bonus. Um, so with the amount of money we are awarded $168,903 not counting me because like I’ve stated, I’m elected official.

02:04:57,300	I don’t think a recruit and retention bonus applies to me, um, but basically, I’d asked for permission for $2,697. Of unused salary, um, just to round it up to an even $1300 for the employees that have been with us one year, and some of the hires that had been, I think, the, the lowest is 9 months, and we had graduated, um, or, or decreasing amounts,

02:05:22,270	but basically I told you back then, if we had 4 turnovers, we would not need that money from the county. Um, so I’m not gonna ask for that money. We don’t need it.

02:05:43,100	Now we have had about 20 turnover in, um, the year since this program was in effect, um, I will come back at a later point and give you a complete report on the program, the success, what we’ve learned from it because I, I think I stated before, and I would stay tonight that this program didn’t work, in my opinion, but what it did teach us is what does work, and I think that’s recruiting bonuses.

02:06:03,900	For our future or for our employees, um, if we’re ever gonna look at anything and, but I’ll give you a more thorough report because what we’ve found in the last year is our employees get us good employees and so if we’re gonna look at rewarding anything.

02:06:23,100	Maybe that’s something down the road the county can look at, but like I said, I’ll brief that at a later time. So my request tonight is, um, I did contact the AG’s office that is overseeing this program, I asked them, um, what they expected of us with this unused money, um, they said adjust your program to use the money.

02:06:46,770	Um, so I did speak with HR Director Binder, uh, basically coming before the commission tonight just requesting. organization to be able to work with HR on this, um, kind of use our same system we set it up with, but what it would do is it would increase those amounts a little bit for everybody, um, basically in an effort to use that money and

02:07:05,470	not return it to the state as directed by the AG’s office. Move to approve. 2nd motion 2 to approve any further discussion. Call the rule. Yes Comm Bakke, yes, Comm Schwab. Yes. Comm Woodcock. Yes. Comm Munsen. Chainner, yes, motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. County Auditor, treasurer Sloskowski, executive meeting minutes discussion.

02:07:44,870	Welcome OK, uh, Chair and Commissioners, uh, I know that was part of the discussion at the last meeting as far as the, uh, process for the approval of executive session minutes and so I kind of wanted to go over my current understanding of it, and I’ve talked to other municipalities and to see how they do it as

02:08:02,970	well, uh, I believe that we do it relatively consistently with what other municipalities do. However, that being said, I would definitely like to get the state’s attorney’s opinion on this and, uh, that we we can see how we want. Uh, do it moving forward.

02:08:19,570	Uh, so if you see here, we’ve had two executive sessions within, uh, this year. One was on July 15th, and then the other one was on, uh, August 19th. And So it, I included the minutes in the packet here and highlighted where that is covered, uh, to my understanding, the executive session, uh.

02:08:42,000	I, I almost don’t want to call them minutes, more like notes, uh, is required by entry code that the meeting be uh audio recorded, uh, and then the minutes are, they’re It, it depends on how you think about it, typically speaking, minutes of meetings are to be published and reviewed by the public in uh the uh newspaper, uh, executive session minutes are not held to the same rules because they’re Closed meetings.

02:09:05,500	They’re not open to the public. And so to my understanding of it, that is to be covered in the minutes of the next meeting, the the uh very similar to the way that we have it covered. In these approved minutes, uh, so, uh.

02:09:24,570	If you, uh, you just want to get some feedback here or from state’s attorney lawyer how she would prefer it to be done if, if we don’t currently do it the same way. Like I said, I’ve talked to and uh I, namely a city of Bismarck, and they do it relatively almost the exact same way that we do it currently, uh, so it’s.

02:09:41,170	Yeah It’s true Yeah So in looking at the statute governing minutes of an open meeting during which an executive session is held, which is 44-04-19.2 subsection 4.

02:10:05,530	It says that the minutes that have to be included are in the open meeting, um, and that would include the names of the members attending the executive session, the date and time of the executive session was called to order and Adjourned a summary of the general topics that were discussed, kind of like what we would put in an agenda. to announce an executive session, um.

02:10:26,700	And then So it’s a summary of the general topics discussed or considered that does not disclose any closed or confidential information and the legal authority for holding the executive session. And then any decision that was made during the open meeting would be part of those minutes.

02:10:43,900	But the actual contents or minutes of the executive session aren’t recorded or reported, um, because we have that recording of the actual meeting that has to be retained for a minimum of 6 months. So hopefully that makes sense, correct. I just wanted to make sure we were doing it correctly. Uh, I was questioned on it, so I wanted to have this clarification. So, if, if, uh, the. So, no action required. No.

02:11:06,270	Yeah, the only thing that I would suggest that we put in there is the same thing we put on the agenda, which is the statutory authorization for executive session that should also be included in the minutes. That’s the only thing I don’t see. OK, so That it was called to executive session pursuant to NDCC whatever that often.

02:11:24,670	Correct, and that’s, that’s in the agenda, so just copying that over to the minutes would be the only thing I would suggest. Otherwise, they’re good. Uh, Julie, who’s, If a case arises, who has access to those minutes, um, because they’re not open to the public, so if something arises, is it usually the AG’s office or who sifts through that.

02:11:49,900	So if somebody wants to challenge the fact that we went into executive session or what was discussed during the executive session, they could make a complaint or a request of the Attorney General’s office to review that. That recording goes to the Attorney General’s office. The Attorney general is also not.

02:12:07,430	authorized to disclose the contents of that executive session but K review that to ensure that we were following the law when we did go into executive session that we only discussed what was necessary to do that executive session.

02:12:22,700	And so it’s just the attorney General’s office and we’re not allowed to discuss anything outside of what that executive session was called for, so I just want. Correct. The public to be aware of of that from a transparency perspective. Thank you. OK, thanks. No further action needed on that. Thank you.

02:12:45,900	This meeting here, who’s taking the minutes? Well, this meeting is being recorded too, and it does say in the statute that the auditor is responsible for recording the actions of the county commission, but it doesn’t say how or when that needs to be done.

02:13:01,430	So since we do have a recording that somebody can look back on, um, it beats paying somebody overtime to sit here and take minutes when they’re probably gonna watch the recording anyway to make sure they got them right. And the reason I’m asking is because the weed board, has to have somebody there. So I figured, well, maybe this. Well, so when we’re meeting as the weed board. It’s recorded. Yeah. And technically, we You’re supposed to have somebody there. Reading not 5 minutes.

02:13:29,300	Well, it doesn’t say in statute that somebody has to be there recording the minutes. It just says that the, the business of the board has to be recorded. Um, by minutes, you know what I’m saying? And so. Yes, yes, I believe we are. Let me show you. And, and just for the commission’s, uh, information.

02:13:50,200	What I’m doing back here, I’m not just drawing smiley faces. Uh, I’m actually taking notes right here of who made the motion, who second the motion, and who voted for the motion. So if you wanna see what I’m writing down here, I’m. Taking a form of minutes as we go. Obviously we expand upon that later. Julie, I’m not a lawyer.

02:14:06,030	I’m not going to argue with you. No, that’s OK. Um, no, it does say, um, under the duties of the county auditor, because there’s nothing specific about the taking of minutes during a meeting in the century Code, but the under the duties of county auditor, the number one is act as clerk of the board of County Commissioners and keep an

02:14:21,030	accurate record of the official proceedings of the board, and that’s under Century code 11-13-02, and that’s subsection one. So it doesn’t say. that they have to attend the meeting and take the minutes at the meeting or that they can’t supplement them later by listening to an audio recording.

02:14:37,570	Um, I don’t know how it was done in the past before it was broadcast over TV and recorded that way. I, I think they probably recorded the meeting for themselves anyway, so that they could go back and review that when they were writing the minutes, but, you know, was talking about this, what happens if the recorder doesn’t work.

02:14:57,930	Well, that’s why they take note or that’s why I’m I’m, I’m taking notes of the bare minimum necessary things right now. OK. What if the pipeline answers that question. The world did. OK. No other action needed on that. Um, under other business. Move into um the first thing I had on there was um, Uh, uh, email from a John.

02:15:28,300	Rosy, I hope I’m pronouncing that right. Sorry if I’m not. F R A A S E, concerning the municipal, Courthouse, uh, or the municipal courtroom over in the court building, and he had a, he had a request if, uh, we would consider allowing that the city rename that room.

02:15:51,770	Um, uh, to reflect the years of service of the judge that was uh presiding there for a number of for however many years, I think you said 42 + years. And, uh, he wanted to know what was the process for working on this, so. Um, what I did is I asked Kevin Quinn.

02:16:11,970	Real quick, uh, what do the, um, Courtrooms in that building go by. And And so basically every one of those courtrooms has a, a number, you know, like if it’s, uh, Julie probably knows this better than I do, but like courtroom 10, 100 or. Um-hum. Or or something.

02:16:32,970	And so Kevin took a picture of the sign above that room and it’s, it’s I think it was room 103. Which I think we have to have no matter what, because there’s a building directory usually associated with that, and anybody who wants to walk up to the directory and go, what room are we going to? And then it’s municipal court.

02:16:48,930	And so, then, uh, I talked to Kevin a little bit ahead of the meeting, and the way it sounds is that, you know, when there, there’s a rumor floating around that once we move out of this building, the municipal court may move into this building anyway, so it sounds like it might not be a, might not be an issue regardless, so I just

02:17:08,270	thought I’d bring it to the attention of the commission and ask you if you want to Do anything with that e-mail. Mr. Bakke. Is there a, uh, I’m guessing there’s probably a, a time frame that some process would like that would take, um, but, If we’re moving anyway, then.

02:17:34,500	You know, how does that align with that that would be a city’s decision at that point, wouldn’t it? Yeah, if they’re moving the municipal court in here, they could name this place or not maybe this room, but Whatever room they Whatever room they’re in, rename that whatever they want.

02:17:48,330	I, I think they’d be able to meet their goal in their. So my question is on the email. Is it tied to the years of service by that municipal judge in that courtroom versus naming a courtroom for the municipal judge. Well, I’ll just read it. Um, it’s pretty short.

02:18:13,770	Uh, I am interested in working with you to rename the municipal courtroom after the recently retired Judge William Severn, who was judge for the city of Bismarck for 42 plus years. What is the process for working on this. City Administrator Jason Tamani told me to contact you to inquire about the process since Burley County owns the building.

02:18:33,030	I don’t know if, if this person that’s asking is a city employee or I, I don’t have any idea, but my only question would be about intent. Is it because he was tied to that. Courtroom or is it, it looks to me like it was because he was a judge for the City of Bismarck for 42 plus years. Right. So. Yeah. Probably like those plaques on the wall over there. Mr.

02:18:51,670	Chair, municipal court used to be here years and years ago, but it did move over there for long, at least 30 years as far as I, I know, it’s been that.

02:19:06,030	And he, he did do a great job and he was a municipal judge forever and he, he was dedicated to that room and they, when we remodeled, they did a lot of things that he requested and wanted to put into there and, and it turned out very good, but, uh, the, the intent is great, whether with the, the kickers, whether they’re gonna move over here. Yeah.

02:19:25,170	Uh, we, Are we, uh, ruining the intent of the the I would certainly favor it moving, uh, naming it for him if, if we do any of, we, we haven’t done any of, any of the rooms that we’ve got, I don’t think. Uh, so.

02:19:40,330	Would Julia have any insight on, yeah chime in and say maybe you want to invite him here to see what his intent is because I mean, that’s not unheard of. I just pulled up the news article from the Supreme Court website where December of 2020, um, they dedicated basically courtroom 30.

02:19:58,430	5 in Morton County to Judge Thomas Schneider, who was a judge in our district for 38 years, and that was the courtroom that was right outside of his chambers, and so that was the preferred courtroom that he was in and the one he was mainly in.

02:20:12,800	So I assume what they want to do is name the courtroom that he practiced in or or was a judge in for all that time, um, as his courtroom were dedicated to him and his years of service, um, I would assume if they do vacate that portion of the building, we’ll still use that as a courtroom because it’s already set up as a nice courtroom.

02:20:26,630	So I mean you might want to just invite him in to find out what he wants to do in this building after him just as easily. I would, I would like to proceed throw it back to him, see what their intent is. Well, that’d be a. We’ve got nothing to do Question for the city administrator if their intent is to move over to here. Would that affect our decision just like Schwab bridge number Swabb number one.

02:20:46,430	We haven’t done that before. Perry Mason got a door. I don’t know I would like to proceed on it. I mean, we don’t want to throw it in the wind, I don’t think, uh, she on, find out what their intent is. Yeah, I’d be, I’d be interested in hearing.

02:21:05,100	Yeah, if you, I would be interested in intent if they were invited. Yeah OK OK, I’m trying to figure out some way to respond to that email then. Um, I’ll give him an injection. You’ve never done it before, but we’re Open to the option maybe or something like that. Yeah.

02:21:29,330	If I may, I would just suggest you send it back saying we can put it on as an item for our agenda for the next meeting if he cares to come in and speak about it, and then he can let you know if he wants to pursue it, if you’re interested. Good idea.

02:21:45,800	And then just have him confirm that with the auditor if he is interested, if that’s something you’re willing to do. Contacting Coy auditor, yeah. And make a presentation to the commission. How’s that? Perfect. OK, so what I’m saying is you can place that item on a future commission meeting agenda by contacting the county auditor and make a presentation to the. Commission Anything you want to add? No, sounds good.

02:23:07,400	And, OK, we’re done with that one. Next one, Boiler for the courthouse. Late last week, I got a call that we have a crisis that, uh, with cold weather coming up, we have a boiler that broke down and we don’t have, uh, the availability of parts for that.

02:23:30,000	Now, you won’t, Uh, they’re not willing to part in something that’s an also, you know, like an aftermarket thing or anything because of safety concerns, um, We budgeted for and planned for. Boiler replacement for next year already.

02:23:54,000	We identified the funding sources already and the only question is whether or not, which is, it’s kind of a moot point, whether we should just move ahead with the necessary repairs to upgrade now. Or not, and, and I don’t know if Kevin’s still here, but I don’t think the option is to, Kevin, you want to come on up? I don’t, I don’t think the option is to wait because we know that the system that’s there, Is inadequate.

02:24:13,030	It doesn’t keep up during the winter anyway, right? And time is money. Yeah, time is money. Yeah. And so what, what we’ve already done, so it’s not really a decision required, but what we’ve already done, I told them that we want to put our name on these replacement machines to add in there. Now it’s not gonna be. The boiler that we really want in the overhaul.

02:24:32,870	That’s, that’s where the catch is, because to get the boilers that you want, now, and correct me, but to get the boilers that we want, we won’t be able to do something until February.

02:24:50,900	Like that particular size, so what you do is you put in a couple of these smaller ones, I think 3 with the possibility of adding a 4th in case it’s not adequate because there’s a, a sizing issue with these things, but we can move ahead now so that we have heat in the building now or soon, or we could go ahead and wait until February to where we order the, you know, because, because of the holiday season.

02:25:12,300	Uh, they’re, they’re just basically not making boilers right now. So boilers like that. 8 weeks to 16 weeks to get them period, let alone with the holidays and volunteer too. Right. And so now they were looking at a band-aid to get us by through the cold spell, and then we’ll reuse what we put in.

02:25:31,100	To supplement the rest of the new stuff. Next year. Right. So the goal is to, Get the work Going on and then use that so it won’t go to waste having done it. It will become part of the, the actual project, uh, with the remaining parts of the project. Now, cost wise.

02:25:56,100	He was estimating, um, 155,000 plus electrical and some mechanical work and stuff on the roof which would probably end up bringing the total at this point to like 165 to 185,000. Um, for this part of it, that’s not written in stone, but we have good confidence in those numbers. And, um, the overall project, I think we were looking at 1 point. Right.

02:26:18,430	Something 1.5 million to begin with, so. Um, you know, what we would probably end up doing is, is authorizing this to move ahead. And then do a budget amendment to recognize this and since we already identified where the money’s coming from on the, on the project, we’re just.

02:26:39,400	Make transfers as, as determined by the finance director. He was telling me what we could do with it, so Comm Whit don’t, don’t we have a jail maintenance or I mean a car loss maintenance fund. Uh, is there anything available there for this year? Not enough to cover this. There isn’t? Yeah, I reviewed that already as well. OK.

02:26:56,430	Um, We could probably come up with. 30 $40,000 but not 18,000. And that’s, Dipping into, uh, we haven’t got snow yet, so I’m looking at some of the snow outside stuff. We’re not going to get snow. They’re tapping into that, yeah, you guarantee that.

02:27:20,530	So second question, are these, can we, these 3 or 4 units we’re going to put in in the meantime or we, can we do, what can we do with those after that time? We just. They’re going to stay. Oh, OK. Yeah. OK. Now. That makes, that makes me feel better. You need to finish off. OK. So, this will be part of the new project. Yeah.

02:27:35,900	Yeah, we covered that because there wouldn’t be any point. I mean, it, it. We could do some sort of temporary measures if we weren’t going to be able to reuse them, but this is, we’re we’re able to reuse them, Comm Bakke.

02:27:51,570	So I, I, I’m not sure if recouping is the right terminology, but, uh, what does that take off of The project cost that was slated for next year then, if we’re going ahead with this piece right now. I take that one. 50 to 170 off of there. There will be some stuff that has to be. So, we’ll be able to realize most of that cost.

02:28:11,430	We’ll get to claw that back. The goal, of course, is to maximize the reusability. OK. I moved to Peru we move forward. Second. Motion second to move forward. Any further discussion? I see none called the roll. Thanks, Kevin. Schwab. Yes, Comm Woodcoxck. Yes, Comm Munsen. Yes, Comm Bakken. Yes, Bittner. Yes. Motion carries.

02:28:40,970	Um I, I had one additional item and it’s not really something that, that, Um That, that is, it doesn’t take any action. This is this, um, we’ve, we’ve been presented with an Apple Creek ordinance concerning commercial vehicles. Proposed. Proposed, and, um, I don’t know if Marcus wants to comment on it at all or if Julie wants to comment.

02:29:01,870	I know she hadn’t had much of a chance because I forwarded that to her, but No, but I did send a response before I came over here, so you should have something in your email. And I can let you know what that is, basically, um.

02:29:21,700	We had received a copy of a proposed ordinance regarding I believe it was, um, overweight vehicles on, um, Was it Apple Creek Township Roads, and they had wanted, right, and they had wanted to do an ordinance regulating that, um, there is nothing that I can find in statutory authority that allows a township board to adopt ordinances.

02:29:43,500	So there are things in Century code already that deal with, uh, allowing permits on township roads and allowing um fines on township roads for overweight vehicles, um, but nothing that allows the township themselves to pass an ordinance related to that. enforces that? Cause the township doesn’t have their own law enforcement. No, and so anyone, um, I’m not sure if Kelly wants to talk about this.

02:30:01,130	I don’t know if the deputies do. I know sometimes, um, we have received overweight truck complaints from the Bismarck PD. They have the um Not as familiar with them, but they have what the movable weights or scales or whatever that they use that they can weigh trucks on city streets, and then if they are overweight, we get

02:30:20,300	those very rarely, um, do we see that, but usually it’s the highway patrol that’s handling that, but I’m not sure if the sheriff’s department has those, those scales that they do that, but it would be the sheriff’s department who would have the authority or the highway patrol. Mr. Chair.

02:30:40,570	Comm Muns in reading the, the ordinance that were the proposed change, uh, that we receive from Marcus today. It says all commercial vehicles. Not just overweight. Is that correct? Yeah, that’s the way I read it. Yeah. And well, that’s a problem for me because I live in that township and I own commercial vehicles and somehow or another, I got to get home.

02:30:57,700	Well, it does say, it does say that you, it’s for delivery is OK, so it can deliver you home and then deliver you back out or it’s not what you have to go with the plain language and that’s not what it says. We could make a one off, one time. Per.

02:31:17,370	My, uh, wait a minute, that sounds. Right. Well,, 1st, 1st question I ask is, what about if you wanted to get concrete delivered to work on your driveway or to, or, or, or get a living room couch delivered or something like that. Anyway, it’s, it’s not up to me whether they wanna move forward or not.

02:31:35,730	The issue was because this Burleigh County State’s attorney can provide advice to township government. And so that was really the goal was to kind of get an idea of what, for our purposes. Whether that’s something that meets the law or not, and I, I would have preferred that they had contacted. State’s attorney on that, but it’s up to them.

02:31:55,430	They, they are their own government and outside of our jurisdiction. Did Marcus have anything to add on that because I, I can’t imagine that there’s not some funding pieces that come into play with that, that. OK Makes a little gray. He says no. OK. Thank you, Mars.

02:32:18,370	The other OK, I think, um, unless anybody knows something that I overlooked. Yes, I’ve got one more. OK. The application for the water board. Yep. Uh. Yep, yep. You did say that. And I believe I put it on there. I just Auditor has the applications. I asked to be put on the, the, uh, last agenda didn’t get done, so we got it on this one, so. Uh, Drake 3.

02:32:38,100	Thank you You. OK, so, um, I have been working on updating the uh current uh dates for the, or the, uh, updating the auxiliary board members and the dates of, of, uh, expiration of their terms, uh, and so it looks like that there’s going to be.

02:33:09,200	One, open position for the Water Resource District, uh, as soon as I get that fully updated, I’ll, I’ll get that out to Mary. Uh, so we have a few. I went ahead and added all the auxiliary board applications. This is everything that I have currently received. Um, I have the originals in my office.

02:33:25,570	And uh, so I just wanted to give you everything that I’ve got so far for your consideration. Uh, also, it, We talked about this last year as well, uh, with the wishes of the board, uh, do you want me to present to you all the applications or that I receive.

02:33:44,900	Uh, uh, every single meeting until we get every, every position filled or do you want me to just keep getting them and then present them all to you. In one, in one shot my personal opinion on that is, is that I don’t want to consider, um, individual applications at every meeting. I think we’ll, we’ll run towards right where the end of their term is.

02:34:05,030	And then, and then we’ll take those applications and apply them to the individual things because we could Um You know, we, we could have a, a candidate that may or may not be, um, even in the running at the time when I, when that. board appointment expires.

02:34:23,370	So we have two more county commission meetings before these, these terms expire. Uh, do you wish me to bring it before the next meeting or at the last meeting of December. I, I think the last meeting in September. Um, Because their term doesn’t expire until the end of the. End of the year and that’ll give anybody that’s already there, the chance to apply.

02:34:41,470	You know, unless there was a vacancy that were, that we’re filling. Mr. Chair, the one Roger Smith, he is already on the board and he wants to reup and he does a great job, so we could act on that one if you want tonight, or you can put it back to the next time.

02:34:57,130	Uh, I’d, I’d just as soon keep it all in one. And, and if, if he’s already on there, I think I’d know that. Yeah. We thank everybody that has been applying and, and we just want to repeat that. Board appointments are coming up and we’re looking for additional applicants. Absolutely. Anything else for the good of Burley County? Yes. Yeah. Fisher Schwaby Bridge. Bridge. Schwabbi Bridge. Bridge.

02:35:22,030	All right. Yeah. When does the sign go up? Hey, hey. When are you going to get that sign put up? You get to sign for my Well, this bridge, to be honest with you, I watched it again this fall, and they are going, The same truck Same markings. Loaded and unloaded semi. And I believe it’s 10 ton.

02:35:54,030	That bridge is in tough shape, and I’m not. It’s my job safety. We’ve got to fix it. We cannot wait around and wait around for the state. They keep moving back, replacing this bridge. And, uh, or else closed the *** road because what’s life worth? OK.

02:36:19,970	So I asked Mars to kind of throw together a little something on. At all Entails Commissioners, I’ll, yeah, just bring you up to speed a little bit on it and, and be kind of quick about it. I totally share uh Comm Schwab’s feeling of this particular bridge is a bad bridge, uh, a few years back we applied for additional federal funds to replace this bridge.

02:36:39,470	We did get it in the package and it is in the, the queue to be funded under the state program. It was originally intended to be done in 2025, uh, this next year, basically.

02:36:58,730	However, uh, because they’ve seen such a dramatic increase inflation for construction of things have gone up so much, uh, many bridges in the state had to be slid. Uh, this particular bridge was slid until 2026. So we’re going to be delayed another year on this construction of this. Uh, when this did, we did, we did receive this information.

02:37:18,370	I did authorize uh our consultant inspector that had done the original inspection of this bridge to do another inspection of this bridge, uh, just to, to let us know if they’ve seen any additional degradation of it, and anything that we needed to know immediately about that particular bridge to close it. At that point there was no changes in the bridge.

02:37:35,570	Now, that doesn’t mean it’s a good bridge. It’s still a bad bridge. It’s just that it wasn’t deteriorating at an increased rate or anything like that. So it is something we need to keep in mind, um, that move forward with, uh, Comm Schwab and I talked about other funding sources and different things that we could maybe consider.

02:37:53,370	Uh, there’s some ramifications and does get kind of complicated. So I’d like to sit down a little more detailed with Comm Schwab about what those ramifications are and stuff like that, long term for us, uh, and then possibly present something a little more detailed at the next meeting as far as recommendations on how to proceed, so is that

02:38:11,230	acceptable to you, Comm Schwab? Well, the one thing I want, to explain is what is happening to that bridges. Deterioration of the steel underneath where the water is hitting. Where the ice is hitting the bridge. Plus it’s got a wood deck of all things.

02:38:35,230	So it’s, it’s, it’s just a tragedy waiting to happen, and it’s going to happen if we don’t do something. Can, can you consider, is there some emergency measures we could take to reinforce, or is it, I mean, do, or, or just closing it off because I can understand what he’s talking about.

02:38:50,700	Yeah, uh, Commissioners, we’ve looked at, uh, some options and closing it is one of the options. There is a 123, basically a 3 or 4 mile detour around that bridge. It does use some township roads, so we may have to work with the township if we decide to close. Um, What about a load limit? Uh, it’s already at a 10 ton. It’s pretty low right now.

02:39:07,900	Now, that doesn’t mean that the people using that bridge are actually going at 10 tons. I mean, I think they are going heavier on that, and Comm Schwab has seen that in several situations, uh, heavier loads going across that. Um, so I think posting wise, we’re as low as we can go, really, uh, with that particular structure.

02:39:26,970	Uh, as far as, um, strengthening methods and different kinds of things that we could do to the bridge. Um, I think, uh, this particular structure, um, it might be, it might be a runaway train and trying to, trying to strengthen it.

02:39:43,900	Uh after thinking about that a little bit more, I thought now because once you start, you know, you break it, you bought it. I don’t think we want to, um, stick with the load limits and anybody that’s violating load limits, um, You know, it’s the people that are not Violating the load limits that could get hurt on that. I’m concerned about that.

02:40:02,200	So hopefully we can put that on the agenda for the next meeting and we’ll have more information and then we’ll discuss it further. You got any idea on what the, the cost of the rough. This replacement of this bridge is going to be about $1.5 million. So that much, huh? Still life. Yeah. They portion of that would be. I, I got a dog.

02:40:22,670	Cur Currently under the program we’re going with right now, the, uh, we, if we wait till the 2026 timeline, there’s about a million dollars we’ll get as federal money, so the remainder of it will have to come local. OK. So. And, and is there a scenario where if we moved on that for public safety earlier.

02:40:40,830	Is there a reimbursement component of that, or is that the historically, there’s been a program where you can construct things earlier using local funds and then in the a question for Marcus. Tua, what’s, what’s being built east of the shop? Is that Northwest Contracts main building, is that what? that.

02:41:29,400	No, that’s a utility company, uh, Central power utility companies building a, a station there. It’ll be some storage, uh, some office, a little bit of office space and stuff like that. Did they buy the land from us or did they buy? Nope, that was there, uh, an individual on that particular company.

02:41:44,700	Second question, the fleet farm is being built up here right now and going up quickly. Did we have any county money in any of that infrastructure around there, the roads and all that. No counting money in that particular area. OK, anything else for the good of Burley County? We are Adjourned. Thank