00:00:12,730	Good evening. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we begin our meeting tonight in this Easter season with grateful hearts given you thanks for the many gifts you have bestowed upon us, especially the gift of our nation, our state and county and our families but also for the gift of this commission,

00:00:36,830	their staffs and employees, each of whom work for our benefit. Lord, is this commission gathers tonight, we once again come before you asking for your help, for your guidance, and for your protection.

00:00:57,230	We pray, Lord, that all the discussions, deliberations, and decisions made here tonight will be done in accordance with your will and work to serve the common good. Finally, Lord, we pray that all the works done tonight by this commission and all actions related to their work will begin in you and by you be happily ended. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, your son or risen Lord.

00:01:16,800	And ask that all glory and praise be to you forever and ever. Amen. Please stand face the flag and join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

00:01:37,730	I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you Yeah, I’ll call the April 21st, 2025 meeting of the Burleigh County Commission to order. Uh, the first item is roll call the members. Comm Bakken here, Comm Schwab, Comm Woodcox, Comm Munson here, Chair Bitner. Next is the approval of the agenda. I don’t have any changes or additions, um.

00:02:09,230	Anybody have any concerns? Otherwise I’d entertain a motion to approve. To approve. Second motion is second to approve. Any further discussion? I see none follow the rule. Comm Bakken? Yes.isher Schwab? Yes. Comm Woodcox. Yes. Comm Munson. Yes, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. Number 4, consideration of April 7th, 2025, meeting minutes and bills, Mr.

00:02:32,270	Chair, uh, I went through the meeting minutes, uh, as well as the bills and approve those this afternoon, so I would move to approve. Second, motion a 2nd to approve any further discussion, see noncultural. Comm Schwab? Yes. Comm Woodcox? Yes. Comm Munson. Comm Bakken, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. Next is consent agenda.

00:02:56,230	We got abatements, second access permit, special use permits.

00:03:04,200	Anybody want to pull something off of the motion is 2nd to approve the consent agenda. Any further discussion? I’m seeing noncultural.

00:03:15,030	Woodcox, Comm carries. Next, Sheriff Lieben quarterly Report. Welcome, K. Mr. Chair Commissioners. I wasn’t expecting to be this quick, so, uh, kind of caught me off guard. Um, well, just so you know, it’s Comm Bakken’s wife’s birthday, so we want to get on that. I’ll talk as quick as I can.

00:03:42,730	Um, so, Commissioners, I apologize. I noticed in your packet, um, on my way over here, I actually gave you my notes from last quarterly report, so I apologize for that, um, but I will go over the updated numbers for you here.

00:03:59,170	And if you’d like a copy, let me know, but, um, basically similar to what I go over every time. So the average daily population is around 290. Um, that is an increase from where we’ve been, and I’ll explain that in a minute.

00:04:21,100	Um, so if you remember pre-COVID, we’re about these numbers, then we dropped and it’s taken a while to get back there, um, but what, the reason we’re getting back to these numbers is not because of just Our prisoners we are increasing the contracts like I’ve spoken with you about, um, the state, the feds, and Cass County are probably our biggest um users of the facility outside of us in Morton County right now.

00:04:43,470	Which is a change when we look at, you know, the history of that building coming up on 8 years we’ve been in there now. So, um, the numbers I, I think are something that is good news for Burleigh County. Good news for Burleigh and Morton County taxpayers as we look at the cost to run this facility.

00:05:03,800	So the quarterly billing for 2025, we build out 876,236 to give you a comparison in in 2020. before, which was our best year yet. We had billed out at this point 591,337, um, in 23, uh, which again was better than the previous years.

00:05:30,470	Um, that was 558, 8060 at the same point in time. When you look at where we ended, um, 24, we ended $2,591,063. Our best year by almost $700,000 the previous year, 23, we were at 1.9 million in change.

00:05:58,930	So the reason I, I explained this to you is as we look at where are we gonna end up this year, um, in 23 and 24 at this period, we were very comparable for income. Um, but we ended almost 700,000 different at the end of 24 because that’s when we really started looking at these, um, I apologize, can you hear the phone ringing coming through my hearing aid.

00:06:23,870	Yeah, just watched the video of some grandpa was singing along with the kids. He was the only one that could hear it. Like I said, you caught me off guard and, uh, so I, I dropped my phones and came right up.

00:06:39,930	But, um, So I, I think where this is interesting is 24 is when we really started looking. At the people’s need out there, and when I say the people’s need, the other entities and how that could be used to the benefit of our facility, um, to try and mitigate some of these hard costs and, and disperse that cost with more prisoners and um so we’re looking at probably

00:07:03,400	ending this year, I would say, um, optimistically 3.5 million, which is a million more than we ended in 2020. For, um, and so we’re keeping a close eye on, you know, our cost in spending and I know Lee is doing a good job of keeping track of that

00:07:21,530	and so, um, we’re going to be able to show that, um, by bringing in these contract prisoners were definitely doing what we can to lower the cost of that facility for the Burleigh and Morton County taxpayers.

00:07:43,500	Uh, the alternatives to jail, um, those numbers, I always continue to uh stay very stable. One of the things we worked with legislatively is, um, we have seen in other jurisdictions, not so much in Burleigh County, um, but the courts in other jurisdictions have waived these fees for people to be on this program, uh, we got involved because of the size of our program and

00:08:05,770	work. With Cass County legislatively, um, to try and change that so that these fees can’t be waived because in the event these fees get waived, then it’s a direct cost back on the Burleigh County taxpayers to run this program, and I, it’s a good program, but I think the people that are using

00:08:27,300	the program to Get out of jail should have some skin in the game and have to pay for the cost of being on that program. Um, we, uh, the bill that was drafted on behalf of Cass County, unfortunately was defeated in the house. We got it through the Senate.

00:08:48,130	Um, it got defeated in the house, um, but I do believe they’re doing some other work on it, so potentially, um, We can avoid that in Burleigh County. The good thing is, um, in the past, uh, the courts have worked very good with us on this very well, I should say, and they’ve used bond money to help offset the cost, so again, it’s not coming

00:09:10,400	out of our budget, um, it’s a pass-through program that we do in the end, at the end of the year, we return money, we pay for all the expenses of the program, but we also return money. Back to the general fund, um, to help offset the cost of the salaries of the employees that worked this program.

00:09:33,370	Um, looking at staffing at the jail, um, I feel like this is kind of the never-ending story. I always come with all this optimism and then it, it doesn’t materialize, but the good thing is we’ve been in a continuous hiring process for detention that has kept us afloat, um, it seems like we,

00:09:53,170	we’ve got this certain percentage that’s about, you know, 5 to 8 positions that we constantly are turning over and I explained to you in the past, there being poached by other law enforcement agencies to come to work for them, which is good for those employees because they get an opportunity

00:10:11,470	to chase their dreams. Good for the other agencies, but it puts us in the constant hiring cycle, um. The, um The one thing I’d, I’d say is it’s not a shortage of applicants, and you’ve heard me say this. Unfortunately, applicants don’t equate to, um, higherable employees every time.

00:10:34,870	And to give you an example, uh, we had the latest round of hiring, we had 31 apply for the position 21 were interviewed, so 10 either didn’t show, withdrew, or were immediately disqualified, we interviewed 21, I think we came out of that with like 1613 or 16 applicants that we could look at, um, I had spoke with HR.

00:10:59,370	I spoke with the Guy handling our hiring Sergeant Elliott Carvel, we were going to fill as many backfills as we felt we could handle, um, to get him in and get trained today, day one, we had 7 that we brought in the door. So out of that 21 we interviewed and, and 13 made it or 16.

00:11:22,270	Made it through interviews, we ended up with only 7 and, and that’s because the backgrounds tended to wash quite a few of them or other people withdrew, and sometimes what happens is when we start the background process, um, some people will withdraw instead of going through the process and you know, like we

00:11:43,100	always explained to them, we don’t, we’re not hiring saints. We understand people, um, have made mistakes in their life and we just to make sure we can work with that in the profession.

00:12:02,400	Um, I come before you all the time and I say this, and I, um, we’re finishing up that back the blue Grand, and I’ll be giving you a report at some time on this. The number one thing that is helping us is our employees recruit good employees, and I can’t say that over and over enough.

00:12:23,800	Because we’ve got good employees working for us, and they find the people that they want to work with and that has helped us so even if we’re a little short on employees, the quality of employees is there and we’re doing good there. Um, last thing I’ll just kind of reemphasize this. We have started the budget process for 2026, uh, very preliminary, um, but we’re getting there.

00:12:43,870	Um, the big thing on the detention side is we will be looking at these our ability to bring in more contract prisoners and how that will equate, obviously we’re going to have to spend some money to get additional employees like I’ve spoke with you or at least consider that, um, that will be.

00:13:04,800	for you to decide, uh, but the potential is there, um, and even guaranteed beds will be part of the discussion. So before you would have to commit to authorizing us to get additional employees we would have a contract in hand. that says we would be guaranteed this amount of income to provide that bed space.

00:13:26,100	That’s all I have for you if you got any questions, I’d be glad to answer them. Comm saying questions. Not seeing any. Thank you. All right, thank you. Good luck getting home tonight, Comm Bakken. Thank you, Kelly. K, County Human Resources Director Binder, um, HRIS slash payroll timekeeping software.

00:13:49,730	Welcome, Pam. Comm Bitner. And Chair Bitner and the rest the commissioners, um, I did send the memo out, um, we did do an RFP last year for this same product and we decided since Infinite Visions was supposedly integrated that we would go with Infinite Visions.

00:14:13,630	We did install the HR side of Infinite Visions, and it didn’t get us anything. So basically what we paid, we, we paid them to get the other half of our program. But because we don’t use our program the way they use it because we’re a county not a school district we have to manipulate the program, the HR part of it wasn’t.

00:14:32,930	Wasn’t any good to us, so we are. We weren’t anywhere near where we should be, um, what they promised was a time card, timekeeping system and what they told us is that once we go to the online cloud.

00:14:56,000	Um, platform that they do have a timekeeping system and they demoed it for us and it’s basically uh it’s a very basic system. That is just time entry. It doesn’t do scheduling, it doesn’t do anything else. It’s just people entering time. And there’s no workflow approvals that you can do. It’s just really basic, um, so we did go back.

00:15:14,570	I, I had expressed concerns last year about Infinite visions, so we did go back to the other two vendors because they were so close in price and we’ve been negotiating with both ADP and P Palosity, and Palosity has come up with the best um quote for us. The best price we did get them down.

00:15:34,870	Um, with the online program like Palosity, you’re not buying the software. Your Paying per employee per month. For the different software programs, so we will have an ongoing per employee per month charge. Um With every payroll.

00:16:00,000	There’s that That charge there’s also a setup charge, um, but we got that with Infinite Visions anyway, and also if we choose to stay with Infinite visions, they are sundowning the server-based platform, so in a couple of years we’ll probably end up going to the online-based platform which will have the same. type of charge because an online platform charges by the payroll or by the month by the employee.

00:16:17,100	Um And the reason why we, we need a timekeeping system and a payroll system that can integrate is because we have Employees that are manually looking at time cards. We have employees complete completing paper time cards.

00:16:38,000	We have supervisors that are looking at time cards, looking at leaf slips, trying to prove time and we have mistakes. Last year we had the $20,000 mistake, um, for one employee, and you would think that that would be easy to find, but it was in one of our big departments that has a lot of overtime. Um, so it’s not something that readily sticks out.

00:16:58,670	So if we have an automated timekeeping system, we don’t have to worry about all these people checking time cards. Uh, we did an informal survey. Uh, what is the time it takes each department to check their time cards every payroll and we.

00:17:17,570	Took that by their hourly wage for the employees that are checking the time cards, and we come up to about 2500 a pay period that it costs us just to have employees checking time cards. Well, to run the payroll for Palosity it’s 3000 per pay period and you get the payroll, the HRAS onboarding, you get everything.

00:17:36,370	And also a scheduling component that the sheriff’s department thought that they could use. For their 24/7 scheduling. So I’m here today to ask. If we can move forward. With elocity. Um, approving them as our vendor. Knowing that there will be ongoing costs, but I think that’s going to be inevitable in the future anyway. So any questions? Mr. Buck, yes, Pam.

00:18:03,270	So down the road, are we gonna run into any issues kind of like we. did with this other system is we should be good for a while now should be good because they are. They’re a stand-alone system. What we have now is we are like multiple platforms and to the general ledger.

00:18:24,100	We’re not a payroll system, we’re just a feature. And this is a payroll system integrated with an HRIS system, so it’s, it’s a complete platform.

00:18:43,530	So is there going to be any thing that we may need to expand into later that If we choose, we may expand into the recruiting right now they have those all that. We are not taking their full array of products, we’re taking what we need. OK. Thank you, Comm Schwab. Pam Uh Just gonna include the election workers. Yes. There’s room in there for them.

00:19:05,170	Yes, we’ll just have to budget them into the election budget, those costs for that running their payroll, but they will be on there, they will have, be able to fill out time cards online. We’ll be able to track them just like employees. I think that is our best option at this point is just putting them on as employees they’ll get uh W-2s from the payroll systems on time.

00:19:23,800	Yes, it’ll be from the payroll system. The payroll system automatically, um, does that with your end. Um Checklist we do that. It would also have a feature where you could integrate the, um, 1099 process for like vendors and contractors. You probably could.

00:19:51,230	But it’s, it, I think the vendor process should stay at the auditors, the 1099 process should stay at the auditors because that’s their accounts payable system. I mean, you It says that you can do expenses on it, like expense reports, um, but I don’t know if it’s a 1099. We didn’t explore that option because I assumed accounts payable will stay down at the auditor’s office. Well, we can talk about that.

00:20:10,270	But it is an option if we want it, Mr. Chair, um, when we have an election, a major election, we jump up to 450, but then the next year, we go back down to 275 or whatever. Well, this fee go up and down depending upon how many employees we have. Right now we’re at 374 employees, just regular employees.

00:20:32,730	That’s no, that’s not our seasonal, so the highway department has seasonal employee. So we might get an extra 2 or 3 more, so. Yeah, it’s per pay period so the election workers, whatever we’re paying them those pay periods like two pay periods in June and two pay periods in November that will bump our

00:20:50,400	numbers up but we’ll just put that in the elections budget for that year and this, if I may continue the the total price you have of 83,000. Is that in the ballpark of what we’ve been paying? Right now we don’t pay for our feature.

00:21:10,230	That we have through Infinite visions and that’s the problem it’s breaking, it’s not meant for counties it’s meant for school districts, so it’s meant for teachers on contracts, not employees that are in a right to work state. Um, and our benefits we’ve had to finagle. Um, some of the features of it to be able to.

00:21:30,930	Have it adapt to our employees and because we did that we can’t do reporting off of it. So, yeah, we don’t pay a lot for it now, but we’re not getting. A lot. Every report that I do, uh, well, the first thing was supposed to be the turnover report, but I have to table that until next meeting because we have to manually calculate that and

00:21:49,100	we’re having some problems with Excel percentages so I will have that for the May 5th meeting because we have to do all those reports, the overtime, the turnover, all of those reports have to be done manually using Excel and data entry in.

00:22:05,470	So with this Plosity system we would have reports on demand. Is there a, um, An opportunity to negotiate with them about, uh, election workers as a block versus individual employees because there’s, it’s such a short duration. Do they have, do they have anything. It’s just it’s a per employee per month or per employee per payroll, so.

00:22:28,530	You know, we’ve negotiated him down as much as we can. We negotiate them from like 97 down to 83, and plus we’ve got um. If we sign, they will give us 2 months free.

00:22:48,470	They will convert our data for 3 years from Infinite Visions into the Palosity system and without charging us, so we, we kind of had him over the barrel as much as we can. Yeah. OK, go ahead. Well, I, I’m just gonna say that, you know, the 2nd meeting. years ago Comm Munson brought this and I brought up this thing and It’s about time we get going.

00:23:07,770	I moved that would give the lady what she wants. That’s a wide open. open. Well, can we., can we quote you on that? Actually, on the very last paragraph on my on the third page there, um, it’s the second page if it’s double-sided printing.

00:23:29,570	I have the the motion of what we need, so your motion would be what’s in the packet, yep, to accept the other thing, I read this in, Got nauseam and there’s a lot of savings too there on account of the staff having to do. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there, there’s no question about that. It’s going to be an offset. So, I’m, I’m not concerned.

00:23:47,530	I’m concerned about having three different Deals that don’t do the job. No, it’s long overdue. I have a motion is there a second on the end, so moved. Second, you motion the second. Any further discussion? Seeing noncultural, Comm Munson. Yes. Comm Schwab? Yes. Comm Bakken? Yes. Comm Woodcox? Yes. Chair Bitner, yes, motion carries.

00:24:08,000	Thank you, Pam. OK, thanks, and we will go for the October start date like I had said, the calendar so that we have it in place so the W-2s for 2025 will be done out of Pylocity. OK, thank you.

00:24:32,400	I County planning director Flanagan shot special use permit requests, amend Article 8, Section 30 data centers, and a BESS moratorium. Welcome, Mitch. Good evening, Comm, Mr. Chair, um, The first, uh, on the agenda is a special use permit that was recommended approval. At the Planning Commission at the April 9th meeting. This is for a uh. An office space on Jason and Jenny Schatz’s property.

00:25:00,370	It’s a 620 square foot building that will not meet a minimum of 900 square foot for residential use. So this, this special use permit would be restricted to office space only. He has a trucking company.

00:25:18,030	And he wants his, his wife needs an area to work or space and computers and the paperwork and all that instead of in their house. Um It was voted recommended approval by a vote of 6 to 1. In the packet is a copy of the special use permit. Which states that uh is to be used as an office space only.

00:25:43,470	There was questions that the commission meeting of whether this would require a septic system, and we said yes, and they have an application in our office right now, so we’re waiting for you whether or not you want to approve this.

00:25:55,730	To have two questions. One, is their intent that this is gonna be a permanently located. Building or at some point, uh, is it going to be constructed so that it could go away at some point or they’re going to permanently mount it.

00:26:15,470	And, and that plays into the second question of the septic, so do they currently have septic out in this location? They live on the property. With the small square footage is tying into their existing system an option or not? I don’t know if it’d be possible. It’s quite a ways away. It’s probably 6-800 feet away.

00:26:35,930	And I don’t know what the elevation drop or differences, but they, if they wanted to do that, they’d probably have to have a pump system in it. And uh the small lift pump and then as far as the Is it going to be a permanent fixture to the property or is it going to be constructed so that it’s just

00:26:51,800	long-term use and the Comm Chair or Comm Bakken, and that was not brought up at the meeting, um, the foundation for this would be for 4 ft pier system that would have to be included in the placement of this mobile home.

00:27:10,930	So it could be there for a while if they wanted to convert it into a house or something like that, that would not be a possibility. Unless they came back and took the special use permit out and replatted the property and all that, go through that process, so I don’t know if he’s here tonight. I don’t see either one of the owners here.

00:27:30,870	Um But that was not brought up at the meeting. It was not discussed or asked. I would definitely would have called them. OK. Commissioners, what are your wishes? And will we approve the special use permit. Second, motion to approve the permit. Any further discussion? Only Comm here would be making sure the septic system is part of that motion.

00:27:53,770	Because that was very specific at the planning and zoning is we approved if the septic system was applied for. Yeah, it was contingent. Yeah, it was contingent.

00:28:07,730	OK, Woodcox. Comm Munson, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries next. Uh, next on the agenda, Comm of the amend the Article 8 to allow data centers that become necessary to consider amending the current Article 8.

00:28:31,100	Within allowed data centers within an I district under a special use permit data centers or facilities that contain large amounts of computer systems, IT infrastructure used for remote storage processing and transmission of digital data. Article 8 ordinance for data centers was presented to the Planning Commission on July 10th, September 11th, public hearings were held on November 13th, February 2nd, and April 9th of this month. So this has been Heard many times at the planning Commission.

00:28:54,200	This is the first time it’s presented to you guys, so. Um, starting off data centers are an intensive land use. The large ones especially. Um, this ordinance is um. is directed towards 50 megawatts or larger. So that these are large, this, this ordinance affects anything that’s above the 50 megawatts.

00:29:20,170	Anything below that, we’re, we’re gonna have to work on developing a second ordinance for those. So these are for very large facilities. They are a challenge to standard zoning policies. Um, they present, um, the standard planning models they just present a uh just a.

00:29:41,470	What do we do with this? And some of these are large, the one in Ellendale is uh by the time we’ll be finished, it’ll be 2.5 million square feet. Uh, large facility, 600 85 megawatts, I believe, in use and power use.

00:30:03,370	Um And it’s uh the particular site needs are they’re difficult to cite where would we put this and that’s gonna come up to the board if we don’t have some kind of, first off, we don’t have some kind of ordinance in place and the possibilities of Developing these sites and not causing problems for Infrastructure needs. Um In my mind, essentially they’re spot zoning. Cause we never had, we don’t have anything like this, this large 50 megawatts or more.

00:30:27,570	There are data centers in the city of Bismarck, but they’re much smaller. Um, they don’t take anywhere near 50 megawatts of electricity. Uh, the city of Bismarck and Mandan take about 150 megawatts of power, so. That’s how large the these electrical needs water needs for cooling facility and that sort of thing there, they’re, um. They’re big structures.

00:30:51,630	They’re industrial type buildings, they’re tilt up, usually, well, they’re tilt up buildings, construction, some of them are not. Um, and there was much discussion with Nick Phillips. He came twice to our meetings. And um I didn’t design this for Nick Phillips. The basically this was geared toward um Any facility that comes to town, uh, the.

00:31:15,500	You know, from what I can tell, Nick does a really good job. Applied applied digital, they do like a fantastic job for building buildings and that sort of thing. And they spend a lot of money. This is. I don’t know, several billion dollars project in Ellendale.

00:31:34,670	But this, we have things in here that are part of the ordinance to protect Burleigh County from An abandonment of these facilities and the decommissioning plan and the uh reclamation bonds, surety bonds that may be required with these facilities. These are for, um.

00:31:52,470	Facilities that if they abandoned them, then now what do we do with the building? It’s, it’s, you know, they need, we need to reclaim this and tear it down, get rid of the, basically that’s geared towards the Um Toxic products inside like the lithium batteries or uh diesel tanks that are left on site for facilities that are left on site.

00:32:12,730	Some of these could come to us as in the form of a Conex boxes. Or You know, Kwanzaa huts out of some type of facility that’s not going to be an expensive tilt up construction buildings $100 a square foot to build. They may come to us in other forms and so that’s what.

00:32:34,470	Our ordinance was geared towards, not people like Apply digital who does do a very good job. But We have to have some kind of bond for these and the reclamation of of returning the land back to where it was, um, not necessarily to tear down expensive buildings.

00:32:56,470	And so that’s That’s what it basically was it’s um The intention of this ordinance is to to minimize offsite impacts to the people that live around it. They uh The data data centers, um.

00:33:20,370	They can generate first off the sound from these uh can generate a high high decibel levels and low low frequency decibel levels, which are, they are not easily absorbed by the air or blocked by uh a sound barrier. Um As far as this ordinance itself, I have made 22 changes to this from the suggestions made by Applied digital. So we did listen to him.

00:33:45,100	Um The There are, there are many things in the audience that I can discuss, but I don’t know if you wanna bring anything up. The The highlighted red highlighted sections or areas that they wanted to removed, uh, upon Nick’s suggestion to have any references to the Lee or the operator. We all we want is the owner of the uh facility after it’s built.

00:34:06,000	We don’t want the owner’s name on the application for the special use permit. So Um Any questions for me, Commissioners? Any questions? Um, Go ahead. Comm, this ordinance, once it’s created, would that be effective on outside of the city limits of Bismarck only, our ordinance. It would be in our jurisdiction that would be outside the ETA.

00:34:30,270	OK. Um, there are 31 townships in Burleigh County that are not under our jurisdiction. So he could, uh, he could go to them. They may or may not have an ordinance. Right. OK, thank you. I mean, anybody can go to and ask another township for sure, but there are 31 townships that are not under our jurisdiction.

00:34:51,730	Comm Schwab. My question is, These buildings use a lot of power. Um. And I really don’t see a safeguard in case, you know, we have to serve shipping power down south.

00:35:15,870	Uh, who’s going to get cut off? The data center or the citizens of the county in the city. I mean, you know, That is an issue that is always Bothered me. It, it, nobody has ever said anything about it. But Who gets the power That would be a PSC question. This is under their commission. Because it’s they are.

00:35:45,570	Uh, anything they’re like siding corridors for the location of where that power is gonna be. He’s gonna use the power, the one in in Ellendale. Um They happen to have enough electricity there. So, uh, but I, what’s gonna happen in the future we don’t know. I don’t. I don’t have an answer for that. Sure Comm Munson. Uh, to kind of answer, uh, Mr.

00:36:06,730	Schwab’s question. Part of the application process, uh, requires the agreement between the electrical provider and the developer to make sure that the power is. It is plentiful for the facility before Mitch would even get a chance to look at the application.

00:36:25,170	So, I understand your concern and I agree, but there has to be an agreement in place between the two parties to make sure Um, that the power is available. Uh, just to give you a little background, part of the reason this was, has taken on so long as some of it’s myself.

00:36:44,130	Um, I know that the association of counties and the City League of Cities. have been working on a model ordinance. They asked us if we would push this back to June. Until, you know, so they could get through the session and then be able to get their opportunity to work on, uh, the ordinance.

00:37:05,230	I believe in Mitch’s comment the other day that Without having an ordinance, we’re susceptible to some concerns, and so, uh, we did move it ahead a little bit faster than I would like. Um, but as I’ve talked to Mitch, when the model ordinance comes out. Uh, I would ask Mitch and this committee to look at the model ordinance and see what works best for, for everybody.

00:37:24,870	Uh, one of the items in my motion that uh. I removed, uh, was the, uh, Uh, distance in our ordinance, it’s a, it’s now set at 1 mile from any residents. Uh, it was set at a half mile.

00:37:45,370	Um, we also have in the ordinance a, uh, a sound, the, the amount of sound that’s allowed in the ordinance, so I’m not sure if we need to have, A mile and the maximum decibels that are emitted at that mile or if a half mile is fine, again, since we already have the, uh, the decibel rating in there.

00:38:08,830	I’m happy moving it forward with the, the way, uh, Mitch has it in here for now, um. The only other thing that my motion did uh and I, and I’m reconsidering my thought process there, the, my motion, initial motion did, uh, remove the decommissioning. Um, but the more I think about it as a Burleigh County Comm.

00:38:29,530	The more important it is to have the decommissioning plan available in this ordinance to make sure. Burleigh County and Burleigh County residents are protected. If this were to not go through. The Ellendale facility has 685,000 gallons of diesel. So if that would need to be remediated, that would be on us if this facility went.

00:38:51,100	bankrupt or left or whatever. I’m sure, I’m sure the County Highway Department could use 685,000 gallons of diesel, but, but as we talked about it again, it, it was one of those items that I felt was. It was good to be protecting a Burleigh County residents, so we left it in.

00:39:11,130	um, but again, uh, I will tell you that when the model ordinance comes through, uh, hopefully in June or July, it’ll be back in front of us as a way of planning and zoning as a way of comparing what we’ve approved versus what could be written, uh, differently.

00:39:30,930	I think Mitch has done a phenomenal job at this, uh, we went through the 6 other ordinances that he’s researched to create this one draft. Uh, he’s done a lot of work on this. He’s done a lot of good work on this, so I want to thank Mitch for all of his efforts. I know it doesn’t meet all of.

00:39:46,470	The developers, uh, needs. I know the, the chamber is here and it does not meet the chamber’s needs to Attempt to bring developers here to take a look at Burleigh County. Uh, when we look at Dickey County. Uh, the applied digital facility is paying next year,,, $2.1 million in property taxes.

00:40:08,270	So that’s something for us to consider.

00:40:16,800	Uh, the income generation from a facility like the road repairs and you have all the other things that go along with it, but, um, I’m, I’m glad we took the time to, to listen to Nick because there’s, A lot of positives, um, you hear about Williston and you hear about the MDU’s increased in electric bills because of how poorly that

00:40:36,000	facility is being handled, then you listen to, uh, the folks down in Ellendale, and you hear about the credits, the, the, the utility companies are giving their residents because of how well they’re using that facility and how well they’re using the power and it lowers so it’s, it’s tough.

00:40:53,200	We sat there for many, many meetings talking here. ing both sides of it, you know, where, um, Williston is the bad example. And gets more press. Uh, if we follow how things have been done in Stuttsman County and in Dickie County.

00:41:10,400	Those are success stories, and I think it’s something that we should take a hard look at. Um, but I will agree with Mitch that it’s something we need to have in place now to protect Burleigh County. Mr. Bakken.

00:41:27,200	Uh, one thing I will add on to that though is, is, Yeah, that’s For the most part a success story, but you take a look at what’s going on right now with some of the sighting issues. And the setbacks and what the state’s trying to do versus local control right now, and I have concerns about that because citing is important for a facility like this and why I would be in favor of one, what

00:41:45,400	happens to the landowner that happens to be between where that is sighted in the power line that needs to run to get there, which has common carrier status or the state supersedes. We’re going to disenfranchise a landowner for the sake of something else. And so the sighting is important.

00:42:02,570	I, that’s something I would have some serious concerns about where these are located at and making sure that the locations mesh with the shortest distance to get to the power that they need without displacing any property owner’s rights. Yep.

00:42:24,400	Yeah Comm Wood does the, uh, PSE have jurisdiction over the permeating in this? No, not yet, no. They, they, uh, there was a bill, uh, the Senate bill this earlier this year that was, um, Trying to allow data centers. Wherever they wanted to go. Over they would oversee or supersede local zoning. Um And that was, uh, did not pass.

00:42:49,530	Well, the PSC over, overrode some of our audiences on the, uh, carbon. CO2 pipe. They don’t, no, they. So, I don’t want that happening. Again, we’ve created, go through all the work, create all the ordinances, have them veto power over us.

00:43:04,930	Well, when they’re, when you’re dealing with 600 watt megawatts of power there, I believe they have to go through the CSC to have the sighting of those. And also, uh, obviously you’re gonna have to build substations for that. So that, that bailiwick I believe would fall under the PSC. Thank you. Then the next part you got is 228 comes back at us today with.

00:43:24,200	One more threat of taking away local control. If we create ordinances that are too restrictive. And so I want to be cognizant of that issue too, I mean, they’re pointing their finger right at us, um, with, with the pipeline, they’re looking at the counties between Ellendale and, and Jamestown

00:43:44,100	with the, the power line over there. They’re pointing the finger at Morton County with their moratorium that they’ve put on. Yeah, the legislature likes to preach local control until it’s not convenient for the legislature, so that’s the problem, yeah, and then, and then I noticed that the people who are speaking the loudest about that particular thing

00:44:02,830	don’t live anywhere near one of these pipelines. So it’s easy to say. It’s a data center or yeah, but again, it’s just one of those things to be mindful of. I mean, I. I understand there’s parts of this ordinance that, that are restrictive and, and they’re restrictive for our residents’ protection.

00:44:21,470	Um, and again, like I said, I, I would love to be able to look at this and compare it to the model ordinance that comes out this summer.

00:44:35,200	But it’s just one of those things to be mindful of that the states for the record, it’s SB 8 is what that reiteration is that they buried it, which is a, a DOT. Bill, yeah, right. Yeah. Of all things, Mitch, this is a, this is a, uh, special use, this is under special use permits, right? So the, the fact is if there’s things that are restrictive too much or anything else, we can always

00:44:52,870	deal with that during the special use permit application process, so that is chiseled in stone and that’s what was talked about planning zoning quite a bit too. Um, that that is, That’s what special use permits are for. Yeah, this is a starting point. It’s not the end point, so. OK.

00:45:09,900	Any further discussion? Comm Schwab Well, I’m not gonna support this because number one, I don’t trust the public Service Commission at all. They represent business and not people. In this county I think they’re corrupt.

00:45:30,900	And number 2 is I need to see who gets cut off if they’re on a shortage of power, and I can guarantee you. Public Service Commission is going to side with them. No way, we’re better off without it. So I can’t support it. Mr. Chair, Comm, to be clear, we’re just working tonight on a moratorium. Until the. No, no, no, no mort. No, the moratoriums coming up on the next. Oh, OK.

00:45:59,630	Well, this is a, this is a special use permit, uh, type of ordinance. Um, We, we have no Chair. State’s attorney. Yes, I, I wasn’t given a copy of this, uh, or if I was, I missed it.

00:46:19,470	Um, so in reviewing it for the meeting tonight, I would just suggest some formatting changes on page 4 to make it easier to read, um, they talk about financial security provided by the applicant, required by this chapter is subject to the following, and I would suggest that that line, which is on paragraph 2, if you’re looking at page 4, it’s under um item

00:46:37,470	number 2. It’s about the Third line up from item number 3, where it starts any financial security provided by the applicant. That should actually be item number 3 and then 34, and Item number 1 underneath there should all be A, B, and C because they all deal with what’s required for that

00:46:58,270	financial security which applies to both 1 and 2, so I would just suggest that formatting change to make it easier to read, um, and then, um, I would like to check too if there are statutory limits on the amount of, um, the financial security that is required because it, it lists

00:47:12,730	that it’s got to be an amount of 125% of the estimated costs and then also the special use permit, um, on page 3. Which is item H, um, Basically puts in a limit of no less than $300 for the special use permit application, up to $1 million

00:47:32,100	for the application fee, and I’m not sure if there are any statutory limits on that. I’d like to check that out, um. But that’s those would be my suggestions.

00:47:48,470	for that to be tabled or um, just until the next meeting so I can check those limits to make sure we’re within any statutory limits that there might be, Commissioners, can I get a motion to table? I move to second. Motion to 2nd to table to, um, the next meeting to State’s attorney time to, to review. Any further discussion, see on. Mr. Schwab. Yes, Kirer Woodcox. Yes, Comm Munson. Yes. Comm Bakken.

00:48:08,400	Yes, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. The next meeting it goes. OK. Uh, next Comm is next on the agenda is a moratorium for best facilities. These are um.

00:48:30,200	We’ve we’ve taken notice of the potential for it to be identified as a preferred location for these developments of battery energy storage systems. Best musical and it finds it necessary to develop a zoning ordinance to consider establishing a frame framework to evaluate this. In order to provide for an ordinance amendment consideration to place a moratorium as a pause on all new development for land use and construction application for best facilities is, is needed or applicable.

00:48:55,730	Um Large bass facilities are, again, they’re a good challenge to zoning, um, we don’t, we don’t see many of them around, um. The nearest one to Bismarck is the flickertail Solar Project down in uh. Uh, Dickie County. It’s capable of 150 megawatts of best storage.

00:49:21,370	It’s located on 20 acres, basically this project has 318 Conex boxes that contain, uh, the 20 ft in length, 20 ft apart, and 9 ft in height, um, they all contain the battery storage systems. And that’s, that’s uh 20 acres of looking at. Nothing but Conic boxes, row after row after row. That’s the closest I can come to.

00:49:42,670	I was describing anything in North Dakota. And so the, the ordinance for where we need to create for the ordinance is the safety and first responder standards, financial sureties for the decommissioning plan, uh, identifying setbacks, lots size and the density as industrial standards, noise, visual impacts, that sort of thing.

00:50:03,200	This, again, just like data centers, we have, we don’t have a whole lot to refer to. So we’re gonna, I wanna put a pause if they come. I mean, it’s, we just uh approved the solar ordinance, solar farm ordinance, solar facilities, and so these best facilities, there are, there are connected, usually with the solar system

00:50:21,370	or wind farms. Comm Bakken Mitch, what, uh, how much time do you think you need for? vetting what ordinances look like. I would ask for a year. OK.

00:50:47,830	I moved to approve a moratorium for a year, um, Or as time allows with Mitch, if it’s a little bit shorter than that, we’ll address it then, but, uh, uh, moratorium for up to a year. Second, motion to 2 for a best moratorium up to a year.

00:51:04,930	Any further discussion? Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you, Comm. Thanks, Mitch. OK, Comm Munson, fireworks discussion, public health discussion, and egg and equestrian center. All right. Thank you, chair.

00:51:23,770	The first item is just really a, a, a piece of information for, for, for us to keep in the back of our minds, you know, the Fourth of July is not that far away. Uh, we have a current burn ban in place, um. I want to just make sure we’re, we’re aware that if, if, if this burn ban continues, we’re going to have to put a moratorium on fireworks for the year.

00:51:42,470	What I wanted to ask was State’s attorney lawyer, uh, to let us, let the citizens know what’s the, what’s the penalty for somebody that doesn’t follow the burn ban or the moratorium on fireworks. Um, a burn ban violation is a Class B misdemeanor, which is a penalty up to $1500 fine and or 30 days in jail. Perfect. Thank you.

00:52:02,100	I don’t You know, we don’t have a burn band, do we? I think we have a burn restrictions and it’s a ban when the Fire danger index, is at a certain point? So it’s kind of a fine point there, but if there’s not a. Total out and out ban just specific, high, highly regulated right now.

00:52:21,830	Just wanted to keep it in front of everybody’s thought process because it’s. Fast approaching. Fast approaching and the, then the wildfires are crazy every time I turn around and look at the news. So, uh, makes, makes me nervous that we’re, we’re facing concerns.

00:52:39,500	I would point out, though, that if a fire does ensue from a violation of that burn ban, there could be, um, different charges and a higher penalties. OK. OK. Uh, the next item is, is, uh, just a conversation again about public health.

00:53:00,400	Uh, last year I spent some time putting together for you a list of all of the items that the public health, um, does for the, for the services of our, of our county residents, uh, during the, uh, budget season of 25, I had asked for, uh, additional funding towards that, um, And, and I want, I want. To express my concern in this. Number one, if we Decided to create our own. Public health.

00:53:26,730	I don’t think our, $500,000 budget is enough to do that, so I think for us, we need to think about coming to budget season increasing. Our budget on public health, so that if it comes to a time when we decide to go our own ways.

00:53:45,630	We, we’re not taking a large jump in our budget to do that. Um, the second part about it, uh, you know, someone who has, uh, has owned a business at 100% but also has owned a business at a partner. You know, I look at what we do for public health and.

00:54:01,270	We’re the entity that’s required to. Have public health, not the city. I don’t know what the history is over the last 40 years or 50 years, why the city has it and the county doesn’t. That’s not my concern. Uh, my concern now is we really contribute 25% to the budget.

00:54:23,030	We really have no say in how things go within public health. We’re just a supporter of the financial piece for the city and my the way I look at it. Um, if we want to have Because I know we’ve had some commissioners here express some pretty serious concerns. If we want to have a say about how this.

00:54:43,730	I handled We need to increase our percentage so that we are the leading factor in that group. Either way, uh, I’m going to encourage you guys to think about this again when we get to budget.

00:55:02,200	We need to increase our percentage, or at least our budget amount so that We’re protected if we decide to go our own way in the future, uh, and we’re not hitting the our budget. Too hard, uh, at one shot, but at the same point, I’d like to get to that point where we’re over 51, 50% of the Uh, ownership, if you will, of a public health so that we can start making some changes in there that we feel are

00:55:17,270	necessary. So I put the, the, the packet again with all of the items. That the public health system does provide, uh, As well as how each item is paid for, whether it’s through grant through. State funding through insurance funding or from our budget, so information piece only. Do you Mr.

00:55:44,130	Bakken, do you have a target in mind for. A Percentage at this time because, you know, 50, 51% it’s not. No. My thought was if we could go 10 or 15% a year.

00:56:06,630	To slowly increase our budget so that we’re If it becomes our own, we’re not taking a big hit all at one shot. Thank you. Number 3 in my packet of information, uh, Comm Schwabab, uh. Uh, and I believe it was his 3rd request, uh, for this, and so I made sure he got the information, uh, last meeting when we talked about the egg and Equestrian Center, one of the items Comm Schwab had asked

00:56:31,730	for again, uh, was dimensions of buildings. Uh, and I know he had asked for it prior, so I made sure that he had the information this time. It’s in your packet with the side walls of each unit, uh, square footage of each unit.

00:56:46,530	They didn’t give me a size, which is what I asked for, so I took the square footage and. Multiplied it out based on the conversations we’ve had in the past, uh, but again, just information for Comm Schwab specifically because he asked for it and there’s the information, so.

00:57:04,270	That is all I have. Well, thank you. um. Next is, uh, under me. I had, uh, a couple things added to the agenda just so we could have a discussion. Um, continuation of investment discussion. There was some activity recently, um.

00:57:31,470	Regarding A bank investment, and when we saw this report at our last meeting, there wasn’t any dates or times of these purchases. Um, that one investment. I was sitting in the bank at 4.02% when other banks with a similar amounts and and whatnot and kind of around the same time, you probably recall me mentioning that other banks were, were giving um I think 4.

00:57:53,770	24% at that time. Well, on, on that amount of money that was in that account at that time, that’s I think Little X and little in excess of $5000 a month that we were not. Um, getting an investment return on.

00:58:16,500	And then, uh, there was some transfer of money, I think, um, someplace around 9 million out of that account that, um, That kind of snagged up in something I, I think I’d like to have Lee do a little bit of, uh, input on it, but if something about a A shadow account and then there was a.

00:58:32,800	Um, an analysis fee that reduced the amount the the balance in the shadow account by some $25 and then it put a through a big wrench in the gears on this investment transfer of 9, it was like a, a pretty significant mess, and I don’t know if, if Lee, if you have, um, some details on that for. Yeah, Chair Bitner and Commissioners. Excuse me.

00:58:55,830	Uh, yes, in fact, The transfer was initiated on the 15th. Um Once it’s initiated, there’s a review email that goes out that basically says someone needs to approve this. Which is done by logging in online, maybe you could call to. I’m, I’m not real clear on that, and So on the 15th.

00:59:24,100	Uh, the, the transfers initiated, then we We see a fee show up in the account for for $25. And then what happened is the. Um, The, for whatever reason, the transfer was not approved for 2 days.

00:59:47,370	And so the transfer is sitting in this clearing account and the fee is sitting in the clearing account and then when we do go on in an approve the transfer. We don’t have sufficient funds. Because the $25 fee reduced obviously the amount available to transfer by just that much and so that got kicked out. So then we had to go in and and initiate another transfer.

01:00:10,230	We did call the bank, uh, today and ask how what what happened with this fee, um. The the answer we got is, is most likely it is a A yearly fee. It’s part of the cadence or part of the processes they waive these fees for us, which is great.

01:00:29,270	But they have to do it one year at a time. And so just by a coincidence or unfortunate timing, the fee. The one year lapsed that day, and the fee came back at the same time as this transfer. Um But So it’s very confusing. We, we.

01:00:53,270	Spent a bit of time today trying to understand the flow of funds and how this fee happened to hit at, you know, just that time and prevent this transfer. Um, but the transfer did go through, uh. Friday. So what’s what’s being done with that transferred amount then? So as of right now, it has gone to the Wells Fargo. Essentially sweep account, which is a money market.

01:01:19,000	It’s the exact same type of account as in First International and the rates, the last I checked, the difference between First International and Wells Fargo is Wells Fargo was about 17 basis points higher, um, and you know chair bittenner I think. The end of February, it was, as you described, it was 4.24 versus 4.04.

01:01:43,730	So there’s still a pretty significant, I mean, when you’re talking about, you know, milk tens of millions of dollars difference between Wells Fargo and First International. Thanks Lee. Um, so I guess my next question would be for the state’s attorney. We’ve talked about um Transferring duties from One office to another.

01:02:08,100	Is that something where we can transfer those investment duties from the auditor’s office to the finance department. Through emotion or what do you have a recommendation if you want to reorganize the office and change the duties that would be through the same procedure we’re doing with the um. With the Preliminary resolution to designate the auditor as an appointed position instead of elected position.

01:02:32,570	If you wanted to redesignate the duties of the office of the office of the auditor, that would be something you would do through that same process. So would we just modify the existing preliminary plan to reflect that? Yes, that could be something that could be done. OK. So, we’ll make note of that.

01:02:48,630	Um For that discussion because, um, too many, too many of these discussions that are involving problems with the investments that we just, we just can’t have that anymore. So. Then the next thing would be a continuation of the Auditor treasurer discussion.

01:03:16,870	Um, as we learned, um, and got confirmation that That we have the ability to make some changes within that office as part of this. Maybe through modifying the preliminary plan. Or Or whatever, and if we’re going to do that, then. We would also want to note that for the state’s attorney to go ahead and work on that as far as the preliminary plan.

01:03:34,730	Um, because that would probably be the next step. And one of the next steps for the whole process, what I would see would be the next steps is first off, I think that this board should by motion. Ask that the state’s attorney moves forward with removing the auditor from office. through the governor’s office. That would be step one.

01:03:56,930	Step 2 would be modifications to the preliminary plans. And if we so decide to leave the auditor as an elected position. Then we would um allocate all of the duties as necessary to other trusted agents, so we wouldn’t be utilizing. The Auditor for the significant investment decisions.

01:04:22,030	And then, um, at the end of that, then, because we would probably separate the duties and create a A treasurer position. That If we transferred the investment decisions, for example, to the finance department. I think that’s more fitting that that would be under the treasurer role.

01:04:42,800	And because I think it would help to establish the checks and balances that we really do need in the county. So I would think that that investment transfer to the finance department would be kind of temporary just to get everything under control. And then once they Treasurer is appointed.

01:05:03,130	With the correct qualifications and whatnot, then we could transfer those duties back from the finance department to the treasurer, and then lastly, I would suggest that We take and uh make the salary of the elected auditor position commensurate with the Um, significant reduction in Um, uh duties.

01:05:27,130	And at this point, um, there is a statutory minimum called out for in the North Dakota Century code. And that’s what I would certainly see as a starting point for, for that position after we’re done with the, um, the other changes we’ve discussed. Comm Bakken, so. Staff’s been working on a report. That we’ve. Yes.

01:05:49,170	As we went through the, the procedure with, uh, public input, uh, a lot of people were asking for where, what’s the status of that? OK, good that you asked. Um, what they, um, On Wednesday the 16th.

01:06:14,670	The analysis committee met this morning and reviewed all the documents that were attached, um, there was a public hearing roll up, the input form roll up and North Dakota Century code auditor and treasurer duties. Um etc. and that decision. Uh, they say the analysis committee met this morning and reviewed the attached documents. The committee concurs with the options presented at the April 7th County Commission meeting.

01:06:41,800	One was to redesignate county auditor treasurer as appointed by resolution and 2 was to separate county auditor treasurer into two or more elective. Or appointed offices by resolution, example would be either elected auditor appointed treasurer and that sort of thing that we just discussed.

01:06:59,470	And that was the extent of That was a report that um that They came up with on that day. So, as far as the summary of. All your 3 inch stack. A lot of people have asked about is what is that going to be coming out? We haven’t had an additional discussion about that, um, somebody that was on the committee, um, want to speak to

01:07:21,400	that. Maybe he’s the state’s attorney or finance director. So I’m not on the committee, so I can’t answer the question. Come on. I guess that’s me since I don’t see Mary who is kind of putting it together. So Julie Lawyer State’s attorney, um, what we had talked about was, um.

01:07:43,800	Basically well reviewed the documents that were there and um we were not going to put together a summary of all those documents. We think they kind of speak for themselves.

01:08:00,930	It’s just, um, information that’s been gathered regarding um the auditor treasurer, office and duties and what’s been going on, um, over time with that office and so, uh, what came out of our committee was that we recommended that you Either follow one of the two options that was presented at the meeting.

01:08:18,770	Um, has there been any discussion about that getting out to the public from a transparency perspective because that’s what a lot of people have been asking for. Yes, uh, we had talked about putting those documents on the website underneath the um.

01:08:33,770	All the other documents that are pertaining to this resolution and then anyone who’s requested those, those have been sent out to them as an open records request response. So they’re available if anybody wants a copy of them, and I know Mary had talked about putting those on the website. I’m not sure if they’re up there yet, but they’re available if anybody wants one. They are now available. OK, thank you. Good. Comm Schwab.

01:08:53,200	Julie You know, We would go and separate these two, Officerss My question is, You know, pretty soon the auditor isn’t going to have anything to do. Are we able to assign him Things also.

01:09:18,800	So, um, the proposal for option to redesignating the office and reassigning duties would be to keep all of the record keeping and all of the, um, secretary duties for the commission and the election duties, all of those basically non-financial duties would stay with the auditor was what was proposed, um, and then as you redesignate that office, you can add or take away duties for that person.

01:09:35,400	So yes, there would be an option to give them other duties as well when I, what I’m getting at is, I understand the election and certain things, but staff does a lot of that and everybody wants to hire an administrator. Maybe he should be turned into an administrator. However this thing goes. Kill two birds with one stone. Mr.

01:10:01,030	Chair Commission Chair Chair Commission. Under this plan would, uh, Property tax is a major, major concern of the auditor’s office. They collect it and they distribute it to the schools and the, and the park board and that type of thing, would that go with the treasure or would that remain

01:10:15,670	with the auditor? That would be up to you, and again, I would consider that a financial duty, so I would recommend that that go with the treasurer position. OK.

01:10:35,230	Right, because that’s some of the significant issues we’ve had, you know, I think, um, Um, Comm Munson forwarded an email to me that was voicemail from the city talking about how the city’s having problems with certain reports and reporting periods and, um, and that I think came up, I think I mentioned that at the last meeting where and there was a a hand delivered check from the city to the county, hand delivered to the auditor’s

01:10:50,670	office and it went missing. That was a $91,000 check that just went missing in this office. Now, those kind of things just can’t continue to happen. And so I, I would say that the treasurer position is probably one of the best answers. So Obviously we need to work on either.

01:11:12,470	Modifying the preliminary plan. Or doing a different plan. What would you Be more comfortable with. Cause you know you’re And it won’t, it won’t matter which way you go, it’ll still be drafted the same. OK. OK. So, do you need any, uh, motions or any.

01:11:41,870	Anything further from us to be doing either one of those two things or, you know, I’d want a consensus of the commission as to which way to go. First off, like I said, I think the first thing needs to be, To petition the governor’s office for removal from office. Mr. Chair. Comm Woodcox. We’ve been at this for a year and a half or something.

01:12:03,630	I don’t know how long it is, but, and it doesn’t appear to be getting any better, cause we see this thing from last week and another one from today and things like that. So I think we’ve got to move forward.

01:12:16,630	We can’t, we got 2 more years left of, of the current term, and I don’t, if we keep doing this all the time, it just, it’s how much money we’re going to lose, how much are we willing to, to invest to keep the same person on there.

01:12:29,500	I, I just think we’ve got to move forward with renewal, removal. Not as a punishment, but as a Future of Bernie County. Well, you know, after the 3rd quarter of 24, which was the last investment report we saw. We’re already $1.37 million in lost interest income.

01:12:50,930	And I’m guessing that By the time you throw in salaries and all the wasted staff time and everything else, we’re certainly in excess of 1.5 million. We’re probably knocking on the door of 2 million by now. And we’ll get confirmation. Also, we’ve got budget hearings that are starting almost any time. And the last two sessions we’ve had with the budgets have been a disaster.

01:13:09,170	Essentially, we’ve overtaxed the the citizens of Bernie County. Mhm We don’t want to do that. So that’s, that’s my opinion. I think that, that we need to move forward with that. For starters, So I don’t think you need a motion for asking for consensus. Yeah, that’s what she was asking for consensus, so.

01:13:58,630	Is that, well, are you, you asking for consensus on I’d prefer to see a motion but I do too. See where we sit. Mr. Chair. Comm Munson State’s attorney, lawyer, did you say that the information from the committee. Is online or will be online soon. I will pull up the website and see if it’s online already.

01:14:26,830	I know that as I indicated Mary Singer, who’s, um, the person. I always send stuff to to put online or to correct what’s online indicated that it was going to be online. I don’t know what. I don’t know if she put that up there yet or not.

01:14:44,470	I, I just, I feel that needs to be there because that’s what we’ve promised the residents that they would have that report. And they would have the public hearing report as well as the online. Submissions Mr.

01:15:39,400	Chair, Fisher Wood, um, is this something that we have two Two ways of going, are they, can they be Put together, so we go to the governor and we request removal, and we also proceed with, with uh splitting up the two offices and can’t that go hand in hand? We don’t have to wait for one to the other, I wouldn’t think. I think they’re two separate. They’re. Yeah. Well, they are separate, but we can continue with at, at the same time.

01:15:57,170	Oh, yeah, we, we can continue at the same time. OK. Because we don’t want to just wait for one. No. The discussion on the, on the second part of this is, is that the direction, what’s the direction we want to go with the opposite? future. Whether there’s a removal or not that that would apply in 2 years. Right the next election. Right.

01:16:16,900	So, I mean, I would be in favor of, of splitting the two positions. Yeah, as a consensus for the splitting and rewriting the resolution for a consensus of splitting the two positions with the auditor. Uh, elected the treasurer hired and, I would be in favor of Julie. Putting the Eyes and Ts on that.

01:16:44,530	And, and move forward with the renewal. Removal. Are you talking about. Two separate. Well, two separate things. Just on, just on. Identifying what that position looks like in the future or positions look like in the future.

01:17:05,470	Move things along, I’ll move that we uh direct our state’s attorney to Apply the proper channels to go to the governor to have the auditor removed. OK. Julie, did you find out anything yet? No, I’m, I’m pulling it up. OK, sorry. We just can’t delay this forever. I mean, we Things things have not changed or not changing, so. motion.

01:17:39,000	Is there a second? I will second it so we can get the discussion opened up. OK, so that motion is 2nd. Further discussion Uh State attorney lawyer, can you run us through the process of what that is like to petition the governor. For removal, please.

01:18:01,530	So there’s a statute that allows, um, under certain circumstances for a petition to be filed to remove an elected. Officer from office, um, the petition has to be filed by the state’s attorney of the county with the governor.

01:18:20,730	Um, the governor then provides that petition to the Attorney General’s office, um, per statute and investigation then ensues for up to, I believe it’s 30 days, um, and then the attorney General will make a recommendation to the governor to either proceed with the removal proceeding or to, um, deny the petition if it goes forward with a removal proceeding, then there is actually a hearing that’s held.

01:18:38,870	Um, and then, uh, And, um, an ALJ is appointed to hear the hearing and gives their recommendations to the governor who makes the ultimate decision as to what will happen. And that’s kind of the short version of it. Time, time frame for that.

01:18:55,470	Um, it just depends on, um, Again, what happens with that investigation, like I said, I believe it’s up to 30 days, um, after that petition is filed with the governor, and then it’s a matter of when the hearing can be held, um, that could take a matter of months before they can get something in place for that, and then, um, Depends on what kind of scheduling order than that ALJ

01:19:11,370	has to get the recommendations to the governor. So in the meantime, one of our concerns is splitting these duties. Um To protect our residents, there’s really nothing we can do with that until We approve a final resolution. Of how those duties would split. Uh, to move forward from that.

01:19:32,870	So I think that would have to be happening at the same time, that’s the, that’s the same time thing so that either way. We’re making that correction and fixing the problem. Correct.

01:19:57,470	Um, and I did pull up on the website, it does not look like there is a link to those documents, but I’ll send an email to Miss Sanger too have her put those up there. OK. And I’ll, I’ll check with her at the next opportunity as well. Commissioner’s any other discussion. Uh your pocket. I’m not. I’m not comfortable until that information is out to the public to proceed with this vote.

01:20:25,670	Um, so at this time, I would not be in favor of proceeding with that until that information’s out to the public because I think for transparency’s sake, we need to get that out. That, that was the number one thing that was asked for at the public hearings, where’s the information? Um, because.

01:20:46,930	There really was a vague side and an innocuous side. So that was the number one thing people were asking for. I think that information needs to come out before we have this vote. I, I wholeheartedly agree.

01:21:03,730	So I would be in favor of tabling that motion until the next commission meeting, as long as that information gets out this week. I don’t see any problem with, uh, Waiting on it. As far as tabled the motion until the next meeting. Do you have any, did we get a second on that? Yes, you got a second. There’s I’m just concerned that we’ve been going at this for so long. Yeah. And without any real, Positive outlook.

01:21:29,730	I mean, we just, we’re not getting anywhere and I just want to move it along. I, that’s one of the complaints I’ve had for the last years we should have had the public know more about this all the time along, and it’s hard to do.

01:21:44,300	We try to protect the position and the and the auditor himself by not bringing out this in the public, but I think that we’re beyond that now. I mean, we’ve, we’ve got to protect the citizens. That information needs to be out. I think before we can to note, Comm, that that information has been released due to public records requests. already.

01:22:00,270	I don’t know how many people have, have done the public records request, but that information is not private. And that’s not just in our hands. I think the people that are directly concerned with it, they know what’s going on. But most of the people don’t even know. What’s happening.

01:22:16,670	So, uh, I don’t know how we get that out to them, but maybe this will help. I would, I would. We certainly have done, we have certainly done all of our, all that we can. We, we can’t advertise. We don’t have any money for that. We’re not allowed to do that or, or anything like that, so.

01:22:31,670	I would certainly would be in favor of tabling for until the next meeting. OK, if the, if the motion, the second are both OK with that? I’m OK with that. Yep. I’m, Yep. Um, Now, proceeding with this splitting of those duties, though I am in favor of continuing that process. Absolutely. Most quickly. Yeah. Yep.

01:22:54,630	I think the consensus needs to be everybody say yes and ask Julie to get her done. OK. Um So you’re a yes, you’re a yes. I’m a yes. Yes. You’re yes You’re Commission. Is this the table? No, this is. No, no, no, this is on the resolution.

01:23:10,100	This is the consensus. Well, we have a motion on the table on the, on the table, so we have to take that first, don’t we? Yeah, we better. Any further discussion, call the roll. Comm Monson. Comm Bakken? Yes. Comm Schwab? Yes. Comm, uh, Woodcox? Yes.

01:23:31,930	there, didn’t you? No. No. No, I just, uh, take a, take a little bit of a page out of your book, I guess. I think that Schwabs. Oh. Well, they usually take turns. Yeah. OK. So, then, uh, the other issue is the consensus, Julie, and I think we just, um, covered that.

01:23:53,370	Do we need more than a consensus. I think this is so important that I would move that we proceed. With the, uh Analysis of the job description and the splitting of the Treasure, treasurer and the auditor modifying the resolution. Modifying the resolution. We have to do that first, I think. Motion the second to do that.

01:24:15,870	Any further discussion? Seeing no, Comm Bakken. Yes, Comm Schwab. Yes. Mr. Woodcox. Yes. Comm Munson, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. That’s all I had anything under other business commissioners. What, what is this we got, that’s, yeah. I have lots of stuff. OK. Ah.

01:24:39,800	Yeah, um, tell your wife I’m sorry, but we’re gonna keep on going. She’s. Just before I got to this meeting, Um Darren Johnson called up and he said there’s lots of garbage being dumped in the ditches. Where? Up northeast Marcus. Did you guys go out, you might as well come up here and we’re gonna get after you, too.

01:25:15,730	I think you sent some crews out to clean up, Commissioners, um, I, this is the first time hearing of garbage in the ditches, but yeah, we go out when asked to there’s certain areas where they’re consistently dumping it. I don’t know what the fine is for that. We catch somebody doing it. Obviously, it is, it isn’t enough. Yeah.

01:25:38,630	What’s being done? What’s being dumped. Davenport’s wood. You name it. Everything but garbage with their name on it. It’s Bismarck cleanup week, not Burleigh clean up. Right. So, go ahead and think about that. It’s tell you, Last year, I believe it was. Somebody dumped up there. Um Something like 50 dead.

01:26:10,630	Goose that were shot. And for the fun of it, you know, they went, and then they dumped him. And uh We may want to think about raising them fines geese. Oh. Yeah. So for the commission’s information, there is a North Dakota Century Code statute regarding littering.

01:26:33,930	Um, it says a person may not discard an abandoned litter, furniture, or major appliances upon public property or private property not owned by that person unless the property is designated for disposal, um, which, of course, if it’s in the ditch, it’s not.

01:26:52,830	Um, the penalty for that is an infraction, which is at least a $200 fine, unless the property um Or the litter discarded and abandoned amounted to more than 1 cubic foot in volume and then it’s a class B misdemeanor. There are also civil penalties associated with that and then litter is defined as garbage or refuse, solid waste, things like that. So there is a statute on the books for that.

01:27:09,300	It’s just a matter of investigating and determining who committed the offense. So the question is, how do we raise the penalty? Commissioners, you can’t really raise the penalty because, um, if you did pass an ordinance, the most you could do as a class B misdemeanor.

01:27:28,470	You can’t exceed what’s in state law, so. Since it’s already in state law, it would It wouldn’t be, there wouldn’t be any point to pass a county ordinance to go up to the hill. I guess that’s the end of that. OK.

01:27:48,270	Next, OK, the next thing is Comm may I ask the attorney a question on that. Uh, can we, uh, can in some way The costs associated with removing that garbage from the ditches and taking it to the dump and the dumping fees be included in any kind of fee or fine that they pay.

01:28:08,000	So I didn’t look up what the civil penalties are for if that’s included in the civil penalties, but for a criminal case, if we can establish that restitution needs to be done to make the victim whole. Um, we can ask for restitution. OK Your Well, I do drive the roads a lot. And it I would say in 2 weeks I’d have enough furniture for a house. It wouldn’t work.

01:28:34,100	You couldn’t sleep on it. So it seems like it’s getting worse, though. I don’t know, we’re at the maximum fines or not, but we better get there. That being said, the second thing is a letter. That is a draft letter that I gave to Julie. To Find out why Ducks Unlimited.

01:29:01,000	Can tell us whether or not we can build the road. Right, mitigate land. Because mitigating land right now is $80,000 an acre. You know, the problem I had with that when you first mentioned it to me is this is a, a non-governmental organization.

01:29:26,500	That is somehow worked out to where that they’re kind of in the driver’s seat, so to speak, on, on this wetlands mitigation maybe can tell it seems to me, and that’s why I suggested writing a letter to our, our senators and representatives, um, um, just to find out because there was this waters of the US ruling that I thought clipped the wings on the Corps of Engineers and suddenly now

01:29:45,670	you got somebody else that’s involved, Marcus, Commissioners, there. The rules are going back and forth depending on what administrators are in charge of the the cores and stuff like that or what, uh, who’s the president at the time? So things have been fluctuating on that.

01:30:04,470	There was uh cases that have been to the Supreme Court and have uh clipped the wings in some areas, however, in linear roadway projects, we still have the requirements that we need to meet as far as mitigation of wetlands that we fill in.

01:30:23,000	Um, the, the issue that we kind of have with Um, Ducks Unlimited, and, and let me be clear that this is a, a fluid kind of project right now. We’re still working with property owners. We’re still working with the core. We’re still working through different issues and stuff like that, so we haven’t actually. Given the coren application yet for them to respond to, to say this.

01:30:39,570	However, behind the scenes indications, uh, they would like us to use an off-site mitigation for this particular project that we’re looking at. Um, I offsite mitigation, by and large means Ducks Unlimited and going with their, their process. Uh, this particular, uh, project that we’re looking at, we’re looking at about 7.5 acres at $85,000.

01:31:03,230	Well, we’re in over $600,000 then. The project’s dead, if that’s what we have to do. Uh, we would much prefer what’s that I interrupt you there. Yeah, I guess I can, but I don’t mean to.

01:31:25,100	We have land that we’re mining for a gravel pit, and I think that we would be able to if all things were equal, we would be able to offset wetlands with just our own. property that’s designated as wetlands, couldn’t we? That’s a great question.

01:31:45,900	And, and we had that, uh, discussion about 2 years ago, we actually hired a consultant to start the process to establish a wetland mitigation site at our property that we own that is right on the, uh, uh, headwaters of the Apple Creek River going up there. Um, I thought it was excellent opportunity for us to, to create something at that location. Uh, the core did not.

01:32:06,630	actually saying no, but they said everything but no, that they weren’t, they didn’t feel it was the, the site was, uh, appropriate and they thought we were trying to do some things up there that weren’t appropriate and, and we argued with them quite a bit and at the end of the day, um, we said, OK, if you’re just going to throw up a bunch of roadblocks, we’ll move on from that

01:32:24,370	discussion. I think that needs to be included in this draft letter. Comm Bakken. Quick question, Marcus, um, Matching fund projects like a federal road project or the state road project when there’s matching funds involved.

01:32:46,630	Do the matching funds play into the costs of The wetland mitigation, generally speaking, the matching funds are particular to be spent on the construction of the roadway right away, right away and other things like that are, are. So does the federal government make any For a wetland mitigation, any, I, I think the chores, I’ve never seen that before.

01:33:05,000	It’s always, you know, matching funds or a road project or go for the construction of the road. But when you were locked looking at a sizable amount of dollars for a project. How is that not part of the consideration? OK.

01:33:26,670	So let me back up, um, I think the core has been consistent with treating the state, the county, the city, everybody equally crappy, OK? So I, so so and the Feds, so we’re all responsible to meet the obligations of the core. Yeah So, um, As far as spending these dollars on that thing. No, that’s not generally speaking what we do, OK? We, we spend it on construction.

01:33:46,630	It’s one way or the other, you know, I, if I buy a load of dirt here or if I fill in the hole over here. I, I still only have so much federal dollars. You know, I can only, I can use it for this or I can use it for that at the end of the day, the Feds construction. I-94.

01:34:04,530	There are 294, whatever, um. And there’s wetland mitigation that has to take place. Where does that money come from? This, the state usually, that’s part of the state matching part of it. And if we do with the project, it’d be the county matching part of that. So.

01:34:21,630	Now in this particular project that is stirred this up, it’s all local funds and we’re doing it with our local forces, so there’s no federal money involved, so. But the only thing that I would suggest adding is some some language in the drafts that would be, um, you know, more. clear about the fact that we’ve, we’ve proposed this.

01:34:45,670	And this is a solution that I think would be Certainly agreeable to

01:34:51,670	pull anything fast here, you’re actually. Looking at developing wetlands to offset wetlands loss, and I think that’s admirable. Yep. But I think that we need to, lay that out so that they understand that a little more clearly, Comm Schwab.

01:35:11,370	The thing that we don’t know is, We paid them in the past, right? Ducks Unlimited. Commissioners, yes, and I’ll, I’ll go through that a little bit too. There’s been situations in the past that we have bought a mitigation credits from Ducks Unlimited.

01:35:30,670	And generally speaking, those are situations where we’re doing a culvert across the road and we’re just filling in a 10 of an acre or something like that. And there’s no good location right at the site to, to make it. So for 10th 10th of an acre, we’ll buy mitigation. We’ve done that maybe 4. times 4 or 5 times. Where does that money go? Uh, that goes to Ducks Unlimited.

01:35:50,370	They basically bill us and we give them, and generally speaking, the core is the one that’s tracking that, that they are actually producing wetlands that meet the core standards, so that could be anywhere in the that could be anywhere in the country.

01:36:05,830	I believe it’s in the state of North Dakota, yeah, it’s all in the state of North Dakota, um, but that’s, yeah, it could be anywhere in North Dakota I see. OK. So Mr Schwab. So basically, when I, When the Marcus told me about this. You know, Anytime they come down there and raise a little hell, well, you give us 4000, you give us 67, and we’re going to go, we don’t know if they’re, where they’re using that money.

01:36:31,930	You would think it would be a North Dakota. At least in Burleigh, but we can’t, we can’t prove it. You know, we’re not sure where this, where this money goes. So I think in my opinion, all it is an extortion racket. Mhm And this is how government does things. He let somebody else.

01:36:55,500	do the dirty work while they’re behind it. Who does that remind you of? Are they here? No. So, you know, I, I see no benefit in having to pay ducks and limit. Jackson Limited money to, to go ahead with road projects, so. Can you address this to Elon Musk too.

01:37:24,800	So anyway, are you looking for a consensus on the letter because I think obviously we want you to send, I think. Yeah, I don’t think we have to vote on it or anything. Yeah. I, I would be in favor of consensus with some language added that, uh, the Chair recommended. Yep, same here.

01:37:40,900	And, and Comm, let me, you know, at this point it’s just FYI we’re still meeting with the developer and stuff like that, we may be able to pull this off at doing mitigation right on site, which is the best way to go on this particular project and stuff but I think this is a situation that needs to be addressed because you were already talking a year or two ago. Oh.

01:37:55,830	That, that we were talking about creating a wetland. Situation on our own property so that we could do those sort of things and we’re running into that Missouri Valley Com complex and we’re going to have other projects. There again is another example. Remember, everybody who’s addressed this is addressed to, or our constituents in Burleigh County.

01:38:11,630	As well. So. Yes, thank you. Uh, if there’s a consensus to move forward, we’ll, we’ll put something together, uh, and work with Comm Schwab on getting that together and then at the end of the day, uh, we’re, we’re hoping for uh Comm Bitner to sign that letter.

01:38:31,570	We may want to have a resolution at that time once we get everything together, but we’ll move forward. Sounds good. OK, the last thing is The highway department, don’t run away, Marcus. I went too far away. Uh, highway department was instructed by Apple Creek. Township to put up signs, road restriction signs, weight wise. Targeting one company, in my opinion, out at Lincoln.

01:39:10,000	And I instructed the county to take the ones down that would go into the section line. We can’t be targeting. Companies with load restrictions they can’t get in their land because somebody doesn’t like the development going in, etc. And it appears like. We’re going to have a problem here.

01:39:37,370	Apple Creek, it’s the way they actually, I believe, would like to. Put restrictions on the Lincoln Roads and many highways. I mean, you know, are up a little bit because I, I swear I had this conversation with the state’s attorney in the past. I Considering this ordinance, this, Um, Mr.

01:40:04,170	Hall had asked me about this in this particular ordinance back in November of 2024, and I had sent him an opinion that, um, in looking at the century code, there is nothing in the entry code that allows a township to enact an ordinance, and there is nothing that allows them to, um, To do what they’re doing, and I couldn’t find anything and I’m just sending an email out to

01:40:21,530	our um attorney that does our civil research to see if she can find anything that indicates otherwise, um, because I’d already sent out this opinion in November.

01:40:38,000	I don’t know, um, where this came from, who typed it up who drafted it, who adopted it, um, but I don’t believe it’s got any effective law. OK. So, that, that was my memory of it, and, um, so I think we’ll, wait, if you don’t mind, we’ll wait until some additional information from the State’s attorney. Comm Bakken Comm. I do know one of those roads is adjacent to Lincoln, um, and.

01:40:59,630	I actually have the Mayor of Lincoln here. Did you guys enact any Any road restrictions or approve any road restrictions, uh, as far as Lincoln’s concerned. See, those are, which roads are county Marcus? There’s question of Her response was no, by the way, so thank you.

01:41:20,200	I’ll fill in some details here, um, there actually isn’t any county roads at this time. However, 22 and and 80th Street are both section line roads and at some point in the future, as you know, we, the county has been taking over section line roads within the area of the, the The suburban townships I would call them, um, so that we can

01:41:41,000	maintain a, uh, a network of traffic traffic, um, roadway system. So we’ve been doing that. The two roads that are, are jointly owned at this point are the 22nd and the 88th. They’re, they’re both basically jointly owned roads.

01:41:59,370	So, uh, we’ve basically said we’re staying out of this on those two roads. We’re not going to get involved in it. That’s a, that’s an issue between Apple Creek Township and the city to solve what they want. do.

01:42:17,830	Um, I do know that Apple Creek Township is looking at, uh, getting signs made privately and putting them and hiring someone to put them up on those two particular roads. Who enforces that, Marcus? Uh, that is going to be a legal action between the, the two entities. So at that point, if, if the City of Lincoln doesn’t agree with what has been put up because the Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department wouldn’t enforce that. I I.

01:42:39,130	They could have called highway patrol, I suppose, but I, I don’t know exactly who would. Necessarily enforce it, but disagreements between entities like that are usually solved in the court system, so I think it’s important to point out that the state’s attorney is Um Right, we’re the attorneys for the

01:42:57,930	county and deal with all of these things and the violations that they have in this ordinance say that it’s a municipal infraction, and infraction is a term of art in criminal law for um uh non-jail offense, but it’s a fine, but it does indicate in here that it’s a civil infraction and

01:43:15,530	it’s civil forfeiture for not more than 1000 for a first violation, 2000 plus costs for a second violation. Someone would have to file that in court and it’s not going to be our office because again, I, this doesn’t.

01:43:31,730	have any legal authority and right and the unless the township wants to hire an attorney and try to do a civil forfeiture themselves, um, but again, I, this has no force of law, so it seems to me that the township is not availing themselves of legal advice, Certainly not from the state’s attorney’s office. Now, if they had an attorney advising him.

01:43:50,800	They might want to have their attorney contact the state’s attorney. Yes, Commissioners, you are correct. They have not been, uh, discussing this with our state’s attorney. However, they do have a township attorney that they use for their work, um. And like engineers, I, you get 5 attorneys in a room and they’re going to get 5 different opinions.

01:44:11,170	Same with engineers, so. You’re gonna, you’re gonna have a different billable hours, Comm, can I ask you, you mentioned eat history. Can I ask you a question, uh, has nothing to do with the signage, but we’re looking at redoing that intersection.

01:44:28,170	I was wondering why are we doing that? Have we done traffic, traffic studies of Highway 10 and 80th, uh, we talked about it, where is that at? Comm intersection were you referring to 80th Street and Highway, and Highway 10. 80th and Highway 10, yes, uh, as there was a development that is being proposed.

01:44:46,370	that location, um, but before that, well, as part of that process, we asked for a traffic study to be done at that location and as part of that traffic Sunday, it indicated right now that we have a traffic issues with with terms at that location.

01:45:03,870	And so it was, we decided at that point that since we know that there’s a problem, there’s a documented problem at that particular location that we should move forward with solving that problem even before the development goes in, so, and who would Be responsible for paying for it. We are. We are entirely, yep.

01:45:26,270	There’s no federal match or anything, just so you know, he, he, he referred to a development, but it’s The conversation was ag gas station on that corner, not a housing development person because it’s already surrounded by housing developments, which is why we have the problem already. I live on that street. We do have a We do have a problem at that level.

01:45:41,800	I drive by there and I, why, why are we doing this? I mean, the, it’s traffic, but people are used to traffic and I didn’t know we had done a study on it. Yeah. You know. Thanks, Marcus. Mhm Well, anything else for the good of Burleigh County? Yeah, one question uh is there a representative of some of the carbon solutions. He left.

01:46:02,730	I saw him leave, OK. So rumors start. There is not, thank you. All right. tell your wife we said happy birthday. We’re Adjourned. Thank you. Know you’re going to get great for