00:00:08,330	Turn your microphone Now it is. There we go. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the season that we are in. Uh, as I pray in my tradition, Father, I thank you for the gift that you’ve given us through your Son Jesus Christ, and we celebrate Him this season.

00:00:28,170	And we also celebrate other things, God, and we are thankful for all of those things that we celebrate. Uh, we do think Father, uh, for those individuals over in Australia, I just want to pause and just pray for those families that you’ll be with them and that you’ll comfort

00:00:42,430	them during this time, and we pray for an end to hostilities, uh, towards other people in this world. God, we just ask for that to cease in, in the name of Christ. Father, thank you for this commission.

00:01:01,370	Thank you for these commissioners and the work that they do and their dedication to this county to make this county the best county in North Dakota. Pray that your hand will be upon them and the decisions that they make, that you’ll watch over them, protect them, and just bless them, God for the job that they do.

00:01:15,730	We also pray for our first responders, God, in this county and our county workers that, as they’re out there doing their jobs that you’ll be with them, protect them, and watch over them as well, and bless their families. And now, Father, just be with us tonight. Everything’s said and done, glorify you, and we pray this in your name. Amen. Please stand. If you can, and say the pledge with me.

00:01:33,800	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, Commissioners. Merry Christmas to you.

00:02:07,870	2025 meeting of the Commission to Or for studying is Parliament Comm Bakken, here, Comm Schwab, Comm Woodcock, Comm Munsen here, Chaman Bittner here. Um, next is the approval of the agenda Commission ers I’m going to add one thing under other business. Bismarckr Fire. I to make a presentation, uh, concerning returning unused or funds. I’d like to add Bismarck Rural Fire, but other than that, any other changes Moved to approve with the amendment. Second.

00:02:39,000	Motion of the second to approve any further discussion over. Comm Schwab. Yes. Comm Woodcock. Yes, Comm Munsen, yes, Comm Bakken, yes, Chair Bittner. Yes, motion varies. Um, next is consideration of December 1st, 2025 meeting minutes and bills, Comm, I had had an opportunity to review the bills and found them in order and we asked for it.

00:03:01,870	motion to approve Move to approve. Second, motion the 2nd to approve meeting minutes and bills. Any further discussion? Call the room. Comm Woodcock, yes, Comm Munsen. Yes. Comm Bakken? Yes. Comm Schwab. Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes. Motion carries, um, next public comment period. It’s, it’s uh this is restricted to Burleigh County residents and landowners.

00:03:26,000	Has anybody wish to speak on any item that’s not on the agenda. Once again, this public comment period. Anybody wish to speak? 3rd and final call. Anybody wish to speak during the public comment period. Seeing nono closed the public comment period. We move on to the consent agenda, Comm, you have abatements and special event permits.

00:03:49,430	to approved. Second, motion is 2 to approve any further discussion. Call the rule. Comm Munsen. Yes. Comm Bakken? Yes. Comm Schwab. Yes Comm Woodcock. Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. Next, uh, item number 7 Jonathan Fortner or Legite Energy Council presentation. if that’s your name Jonathan? Yes, OK.

00:04:20,000	Welcome Welcome, Comm, uh, for the record, Jonathan Fordner, present CEO of the Legnite Energy Council. Uh, just wait a sec to get my presentation pulled up. I just thought it was a good opportunity for, uh, to hear due to the impact of the coal industry for Burleigh County that, uh, we have an update on what’s going on, uh, that’s

00:04:43,970	coming off the, the, uh, heels of their, uh, annual meeting. So, just an update, uh, since that we have a large segment of the population in Burleigh County and we’re affected greatly by the coal industry.

00:05:01,530	This was a good opportunity to hear where exactly they are and what direction they’re going and uh how things are progressing and a sizable chunk of our both finances for the county and employees within the county. So Jonathan, thank you That’s right, uh, uh, Chair and commission members, uh, thank you for the opportunity to speak, and I think what Comm Bakken was, is actually, is absolutely right.

00:05:17,630	So, I wanted to give an overview of, of the coal industry here in North Dakota, Lake Nite Energy Council, we’re a state, uh, based, uh, trade association. Uh, we have the, the mines, the plant owners, the contractor suppliers, um, and then I think estimates that we’ve seen in studies in the past is maybe about 30% of our workforce

00:05:38,370	lives in Burleigh County, so while you might not have a plant or a mine in Burilli, uh, a significant part of the workforce um is here, so I wanted to make sure and touch base with you all, uh, over the summer I had gone out and met with McLean Oliver, and Mercer Counties and gave a very

00:05:53,330	similar presentation just want to make sure that you all had received that as well. So industry overview, uh, ignite industry’s been around for quite a while.

00:06:12,530	I know it goes back probably more like 100 years, um, but, you know, the, the plants that are in operation today, Leland Os uh had a fac had one of its units, uh, in, in operation in 1966, uh, since that time we have 5 commercial plants at the moment. We’ve had a couple of the smaller ones retire due to age, um, but that’s where we’re at right now.

00:06:30,170	North Dakota is probably number 7th, um, for the most coal produced in the nation, uh, North Dakota also has about, I think it’s the 2nd largest deposit of lignite coal. It’s, it’s a younger, softer coal compared to the other types.

00:06:48,700	Um, we’ve got, uh, that, that right here in North Dakota, we mine about 25 to 30 million tons per year, and with the uh state Geologic survey that’s been out there, they go out and, and kind of do some drilling and testing and see what’s out there.

00:07:05,530	By their estimates, we have an 800 year supply of lignite coal here in North Dakota, um, and what that does is, uh, because our mind mouth operations, meaning the mind is located right next to the mouth of the power plant where they burn the coal. That, that makes it so there are no transportation costs, which lowers the cost for the ratepayers.

00:07:29,470	So North Dakota, um, is, is anywhere #2 or or number one from the energy information Administration for lowest residential electricity rates, while rates have been climbing nationwide because of North Dakota’s backbone of its electricity grid and coal and the long term contracts, the, the, the no transportation costs and all of those other things, that’s a benefit to here in North Dakota.

00:07:49,100	Uh, the industry by the numbers, so every 2 years, uh, NDSU does an economic, uh, uh, study of the industry and, and the last one we did was at the end of 2024, so it’s $5.5 billion in regional economic impact on an annual basis.

00:08:07,470	There, it provides more than 12,000 direct and indirect jobs, so the direct jobs are those to that work at the mines and the plants and the industries that service those facilities, but then also if you take the, the, the coal, uh, Coy c ities um, the counties and then also places like Burleigh.

00:08:23,870	There’s an extrapolation of how many other jobs are tied to that industry, which, which comes out to be about 12,000, more than $100 million in state and local taxes are produced on an annual basis, uh, North Dakota is one of only 4 states that have never violated an EPA Ambient air regulation, so think of that back when EPA was started in 1972 under Nixon, um, North Dakota’s one of 4 states that have never violated one of those uh ambient er re g ul ations since 1970, um,

00:08:43,730	over 26,000 acres of land has been has been mined and then also reclaimed, um, and that’s, that’s something that is unique in the country where, where the gold standard as that, has that happened so from an environmental standpoint, uh, North Dakota has the cleanest air, the cleanest water. We take the best use of the land.

00:09:00,170	Uh, it’s something our industry is very proud of and as I said before, um, about 33% of the employees, uh, live here in Burleigh. Federal Federal update for coal is with the Trump administration coming in, you know, for the, for the 4 years prior to that, we saw probably 6 or 7 different rules um from

00:09:20,170	the EPA that we believe were overreaches. Uh, they were unworkable, unachievable rules, not that I mean we’re, we’re one of the most regulated industries that exist today, but they wanted to really ratchet down where those rules would go and make them even more difficult.

00:09:39,730	And the problem with that is, is when, when it’s an unworkable or unachievable rule, then that only costs more to operate the facility. A lot of times those costs are passed on to the ratepayers, um, and then if plants do go offline, that hurts the, the reliability of the grid as well.

00:09:54,070	So our industry gathered comments, uh, put all of the information together for the administrative record to fight those, um, North Dakota led uh lawsuits with a bunch of other red states, uh, LEC as as industry we did the same thing. Thankfully there was a, there was an election that took place. The timing couldn’t have been better.

00:10:11,800	President Trump has been a very strong supporter of the coal industry. Uh, he had a cold day at the White House where he unleashed a flurry of executive orders to offset what the Biden administration had done and put it on a more positive path. We’ve had another cold day.

00:10:25,730	These are unprecedented, by the way, hasn’t happened with another president. Um, we had, uh, over at the Department of the Interior with former Governor Bergham, who’s now the Secretary of the Interior. He hosted DOE and EPA all together, um, and they ordered, they made a bunch more orders, um, and rule changes, um, at that time.

00:10:42,370	So that’s all positive. With those, um, we’ve seen, uh, as I said, the rollback of the rules and the goal is really to remove the barriers um that we’re accelerating coal retirements across the country.

00:10:59,370	Um, what we’ve seen, um, is hundreds of plants have closed down from 2010 to about 2022 and largely that happens in places where the states don’t take a position, they don’t fight um to keep those um plants in operation, and what that means is either filing lawsuits, um, doing things that the legis l ative level to make sure that they’re trying to offset what the federal government or a

00:11:15,870	neighboring state is trying to do. So, um, as those things work out, you know, we’ve been, we’ve been working, I think our industry between our members and the state has probably spent between $5.07 million dollars, um, in the past two years fighting all of these challenges, um, so it it.

00:11:29,730	as we see a new administration and we have a window right now that’s, you know, we’re, we’re already through year one, just about. We’ve got 3 more years, um that helps, but what we will see is where before you had industry and red states filing lawsuits against EPA, you would

00:11:46,330	have environmental groups in blue states lining up to support what EPA had done. after the election and and everything changes, you’ve got EPA basically going on the other side of the table and it’s musical chairs more or less, where a lot of those regulatory battles will continue, and there will be

00:12:00,700	more of the legal activity, um, unfortunately that happens, but the goal is during these four years of, of the Trump administration that the the regulations that change and where you try to guide those and then if Congress could do something to help and then if there are, uh legal challenges that make it through that, that the results

00:12:20,000	of those uh legal precedents then rein in these agencies so we don’t continue going back and forth, uh, like a ping pong ball. We’re really looking for the regulatory certainty that we think this will help provide.

00:12:40,100	Some of the other things that have happened is, is, uh, expanding access to federal coal just last week, you may have seen, uh, the, the Bureau of Land Management, um, rescinded the Biden administration’s resource management plan, which, which would have outlawed about 98% of the federal coal that we have here in North Dakota would have really limited um our ability to mine into the future, but also would erase costs, because the mining can continue

00:13:00,070	on state and private lands, but when you have to go around a checkerboard, of federal land mix ed in with state, you know, who owns the minerals, who owns the land. There’s a lot of complications that go on there.

00:13:12,630	So that was just removed last week, which is, which is very strong, and I think we’ve seen too, uh, grid reliability being an issue. I think you all remember uh back in 2021 in February, uh, where we had winter storm Yuri that knocked out natural gas pipelines and other forms of generation down in the Texas area and we resulted in blackouts up here.

00:13:31,970	Um, that’s because we’re all intertwined in in these regional grids, um, and so when one area uh is impacted, the rest of us try and shoulder the rest of the load, but things can happen where the grid really, uh, uh, can go dark in in different periods and, and how you offset

00:13:47,900	that is you have to keep the dispatchable baseload generation resources online, um, you know, wind, solar, other forms, they have their place, but when they get to be too much, it’s dependent upon the weather for those to to really happen.

00:14:03,530	So when you have storms, when you have droughts, when you have uh excess wind, you have to curtail, um, you know, you have it day and night, you’ve got all these variables.

00:14:18,600	Well, if you have, uh, coal, you have a, a, a, a fuel source, as long as you’re feeding that power plant coal, um, which we have a 3 week supply at all times next to our plants. That doesn’t happen. It just keeps going, but we’re, we’re intertwined in these grids, so you’re seeing at the Trump administration level they’re doing everything they can to, to make sure that the regulations are there or whether that’s FERC or other federal agencies are taking action to try and stem the retirements because we, we

00:14:37,170	can’t, we can’t have much more retire without increased uh issues. We’ve seen um some actions as well for uh federal Energy supremacy, so trying to make it so you know each state has passed their own rules. We’ve seen Minnesota pass rules. There’s one right now, 100% carbon free by 2040.

00:14:57,530	Um, that basically is trying to outlaw, uh, electrons being sold in their state that are based from carbon resources, whether it’s gas, whether it’s coal, you know, if a, if a certain state wants to do that within their own boundaries, that’s fine.

00:15:14,000	But the way they’ve written it is it would, it would reach outside of their state, which is obviously an interstate commerce issue, uh, North Dakota has, has sued on on things previously with Minnesota and has won those. Right now we’re trying to take a look and just see how that plays out.

00:15:28,900	They haven’t totally done the rulemaking in Minnesota yet, but the federal level, you’ve got states like California, New York, and others that are, you know, are banning natural gas pipelines, and they’re doing other things so the federal government’s trying to say, you know, this, this can’t happen.

00:15:44,800	You can’t have a patchwork like this and, and, and expect that the grid stays functional, so they’re looking at how to make that happen. Uh, the other two things that we’re really excited about here in North Dakota is, uh, the development of critical minerals and rare earth elements.

00:15:59,370	So in our coal uh, we’ve got the lignite Research Council has been doing a lot of research over the past years, um, in our coal, we know in the 800 year supply that we have with the commercial operations, uh, with coal being uh the one of the softer coals lignite is. We have the ability to extract, uh, extract, uh, germanium, gallium, and other things that are critical to national defense.

00:16:16,530	So whether it’s the night vision that our soldiers wear, um, when they’re out on the battlefield, that’s germanium and gallium that go into those. Whether you’ve got MRI machines, you’ve got computers, you’ve got cell phones, uh, missiles, uh, radar systems. It’s all dependent upon, upon these critical minerals and right now the in the world, 95% of them are controlled by China.

00:16:35,070	Uh, we’ve seen China in the last uh few months even uh they, they can cut off the exports and then they can turn them back on. Turns into a trade issue, but as we’re planning our national defense and everything else, you, you can’t have this be cut off and continue to build a strong

00:16:50,170	military to protect our own citizens on the on the global stage. So what we, what we’ve done here in this state is we’ve done all the research, we know we’re producing the coal. We know we can extract it from the coal, whether it’s precombustion or post combustion. Um, so the federal government is lining up right now.

00:17:06,470	Um, we’re seeing that there’s funding opportunities and we expect, uh, in the not too distant future, whether that’s Department of Defense or others. are going to put out some um some contracts we believe that will say we want domestic supplies of those, Comm. um. so if, if, uh, somebody has their coal minerals leased for coal mining.

00:17:31,630	How does that relate to the germanium, the, the critical minerals, um, and that separation. Sure, uh, uh, Chair Bitner and Commission members so uh back in about 1970 at the legislative level, um, when, when these laws were still done, it was more of when you lease, you know, a seam of coal.

00:17:54,000	what’s included in it? And the way that the, the legislative intent was at that time, and we’ve seen a number of legislation, um, since then, we saw Bill even this last session come through, um, trying to further clarify that, um, we believe it’s from the top of the seam to the bottom of the

00:18:10,070	seam and, and everything that is, that is coal, uh, co-located or a part of the seam in between that Comingled, I think is the word I’m searching for here.

00:18:27,270	So as we’ve done it since, you know, the, the early 70s or 60s, whatever was leased with the mineral owner, um, we went out, everything that was in that coal seam got burned for coal. Yeah. That’s part of the product that’s there that would not be extracted there, if not for the coal extraction that happened. Um, where it’s at today, so I mean, in a sense, those minerals have been in the coal.

00:18:44,270	They’ve been burned um to burn electricity, and so right now they’d be sitting in ash pits, right, that are out at those facilities and you could go out there and extract from those ash pits, but where you’ve got the scene today as we’re looking at this opportunity and what can we do to posi best position

00:18:59,100	North Dakota, um, you know, compared to where the other states are at is you do, you, when you have the existing leases at the time of when you when you sign the lease. in there is everything that’s from the top of the seam to the bottom of the seam.

00:19:13,530	On leases that may move forward into the future, you may see different language that’s in there. The legislature this last session went in, um, and they put a royalty rate in there more or less as a floor cause the nobody’s nobody’s producing these domestically as it stands today.

00:19:28,530	There is no market, um, so what was trying to happen is to establish that a market can be there, and you need to have those inputs if you’re gonna spend 100 million plus to build a critical mineral processing facility, you need to know what the inputs are, what’s it gonna cost to build this, what do I

00:19:43,070	have to pay the landow ner What’s the royalty? What are the taxes, um, who’s paying me for this product at the end of the day. And so that’s what that legislation tried to do is just fully flesh that out, um, as this gets built up, any legislature in the future can go back and change that.

00:19:58,000	They could, they could change the royalty rate that’s in there, um, you know, a negotiation could happen between the landowner and the mining company or the mineral producer, um, or processor, I should say it to change that as well, if that, if I answered your question. You did. Thanks.

00:20:11,230	Thank you. OK. So, uh, Greg Very exciting. Um, so, uh, as we move forward on that, we’ll kind of see where it goes, but we’re, it’s something that’s very exciting because this gives us a way um to diversify.

00:20:27,800	I mean, if, if we’re mining, say 25 million of of coal this year. Obviously we’d like to do more and the year after and the year after, um, it’s dependent upon what the demand is, right, of what the grid is showing.

00:20:41,170	Right now our plants are are doing well compared to in the past, but from the mining side of the equation, if, if we’re already mining and say, you know, a couple more trucks you know, every day or every month or something goes to a different purpose, um, that that’s actually, you know, the ton, the tonnage cost of that coal or the elements or the minerals that are in them are far more than a ton just for

00:20:55,630	the coal to make electricity. Um, so it’s an exciting, um, economic opportunity but for national defense, um, it’s, it’s critical as well. The other thing that um is going on is in the in the big beautiful bill, um, reconciliation bill that Trump likes to call it that, uh, enhanced oil recovery was something that was

00:21:14,970	in there and so as, you know, for carbon capture, um, our industry since 1993 has been working on carbon capture, um, trying to just kind of set the policy in place, um, knowing, uh, two things are true.

00:21:32,900	One is it’s a regulatory threat to our industry, um, CO2, the emissions that, that, that are produced, um, we have a rule right now greenhouse gas rule under the Biden administration that’s in the process of being rescinded. Um, we think that’ll be challenged and go through the core process to see where it comes. We know same thing is happening in Minnesota where half of the power we produced goes.

00:21:48,370	um, a state-based law. So it’s a regulatory threat. That rule right now, if that wasn’t a rescinded or had it not been stopped, you know, in the court system, um, but for an election, um, that would have dictated by the year 2032 that every coal plant in the country would have to have carbon capture, uh, uh, facilities.

00:22:07,000	built onto those coal plants to continue operation. If you didn’t build those, there was a date certain you would have to shut down by. So it’s, it’s a real threat, um, it doesn’t go away just because we have 4 years of a, of a favorable administration.

00:22:23,170	Um, I think we believe the next time the political pendulum swings back the other way, we’ll see more rules like that. So for us, we have $18 billion in assets between our minds and our plants. Um, what can we do to preserve those? How do we make sure they continue in the future? Well, you have to mitigate your threats.

00:22:40,730	So on the other hand, we’ve got an economic opportunity where CO2 is a commodity. Um, you know, the, the, uh, Dakota gas, uh, Dakota gasification facility, um, has been capturing CO2 and sending it in a pipeline up to Canada, uh, for 25 years. They’ve been doing it safely.

00:22:59,470	It’s been used to enhance oil recovery up there, um, so we’ve proven the technology works. We know sequestration, all of that information, uh, the, the, the testing, the drilling, um, everything has happened there and whether, uh, you know, people all on all sides of the issue can like it or not like it.

00:23:13,430	I think for us it’s a regulatory threat we need to mitigate. If we could create, uh, take a waste product, um remove that, capture it, sell it to the oil industry, and they can produce more oil.

00:23:31,470	Um, we’ve heard that the Bakken oil playy, whether that was the the energy and environment research center at UND or even the oil industry as well, you know, their future, um, outlook looks like in the next 5 to 7 years. without utilizing this type of technology, the Bakken oil play will go into terminal decline.

00:23:49,600	And what that means is they will not be producing at the same levels in the future, and that has a ripple effect across our state. We’re 52% of the state’s general fund. um, is funded by oil and gas tax revenues.

00:24:05,630	So if we start producing less oil, um, that, that has an impact, you know, every road, every bridge, every county budget, every city budget, school budget, um, there’s just a ripple effect that’s there. So I think that ’ s that’s a way that while we are a partner with the oil industry. We power a lot of their, uh, production facilities.

00:24:20,070	I think if we’re selling them a waste product that removes our regulatory threat, um, gives a longer economic life, um, another revenue stream for our power plants that keeps the base load reliability and the and the low lowest cost in the nation, um, for the residential ratepayers. I think that’s a good thing. So, yes, sir. OK so why isn’t that being done Why isn’t? The, the enhanced oil recovery. So that’s a good question, Comm.

00:24:39,270	So right now in in the Bakken, so there are a lot of the product production um isn’t isn’t necessarily off the conventional wells, it’s off of the fracking. Um, what they’re trying to do is figure out, it’s called Crack the crack the code 2.

00:24:53,730	0, which I think you’ve probably heard about, um, in the press and from Senator Hoen. A lot of the R&D is being worked on right now and how you would use the CO2. First you’d have to capture it off our power plants.

00:25:07,000	You’d have the pipelines that would go 100 miles plus over into the Bakken, and then they have to figure out there how they would use it. I mean right now they’re using salt water, they’re using sand, they’re using other things and they’re only extracting 8 to 10% of the oil that’s down in the reservoirs.

00:25:22,700	Um, what the technology is saying is if you use a carbon-based molecule like CO2 to do the same, um, you’re gonna double the production. So while, while you might not have more barrels, you’re going to have additional barrels over a longer period of time. Um, is, is what the outlook’s doing. So it’s the technology is being worked on right now.

00:25:36,970	So us on the, on the coal side, we need to figure out how to capture it, um, off of our power plants, how to get those financed, how to do all that, um, it’s up to the oil industry to figure out, you know, how they take that, how they have the off take, and they’ll go use it out in in their facilities.

00:25:55,170	OK So a couple more slides left and again, thank you for the time um to present this to you all tonight. So future growth opportunities, we’ve talked about critical minerals, um, we have also unprecedented demand growth that’s, that’s occurring right now.

00:26:17,070	Um, our artificial intelligence, um, and then electrification of, of all things, whether that’s, uh, uh, vehicles or buildings or whatnot. It’s, it’s just growth that our industry has not seen, uh, the electric utility industry has not seen, um, for a long time, if, if ever And so right now, you know, you’ve seen a number of uh data centers that, that have been built, um, across North Dakota, um, each project kind of a

00:26:31,900	standalone and how they work with the community and, and the, the resources that they use and, and the contracts that they have are all individual to those.

00:26:46,330	I won’t speak to any of those, but, you know, from the coal industries’s outlook, um, you know, our goal is to mine as many tons of coal per year as we can mine, and that we have our five power plants running at the top, and right now, dependent upon how those markets are played with unsubsidized or or for subsidized other uh generation resources, we have to respond to where the market’s at. Um, and that’s tax credits going to other forms of generation.

00:27:04,900	If we had whether it’s a critical mineral processing facility, a data center, um, any other large load manufacturing, um, um, uh, company or project that wanted to be out there.

00:27:24,800	That’s something that’s very attractive to us because we could contract directly with one of those facilities, um, or through, you know, a, a co op or, or something where if we knew we had a consistent demand, right, that took up some of that that gap from where the top of where we’d want to be and maybe where the market would have us, um, I think that that really helps those those coal plants, um, reach their full economic

00:27:40,270	potential. Um, it’s something that’s exciting. Who knows where artificial intelligence goes, but right now there’s, there’s billions if not trillions being invested across the country um to build that out, um, so something from us just large load um is, is where our interest is, um, the capturing the industrial carbon dioxide, um, I’ve covered as

00:28:00,530	well of, of where that can go into the future. And then there’s just plenty of other value added opportunities for coal. Um, we know we’ve, we’ve got projects right now that’s taking coal and they can make roofing shingles, they can make concrete blocks, they can make graphene, uh, graphite.

00:28:17,530	There’s all kinds of products that are out there are based off of, of, uh, the ingredients that make up coal, so it’s something we’re working on. And I think I’ve covered already the rest that’s on the slide. So with that, um any questions or comments you may have, Mr. Bakke.

00:28:40,000	Uh, Jonathan, thank you very much for, uh, presenting this and, um, you know, going forward, I’d love if we were on your regular schedule for, uh, when you speak in coal country, and, uh, please include us and in those presentations as you give those throughout the year, um, grid stability, you mentioned that and I know AI is a piece, trying to keep the, uh, ratepayers.

00:28:59,730	some pulls the base load. It’s the backbone, um. from an administration perspective, um is there any opportunity to expand the coal industry or cause with what’s coming on board, Wind and solar isn’t gonna cut it, so where does that put the coal industry because I, I, your predecessor and I had many conversations,

00:29:24,270	and one of them was, you know, it, it, it’s plain and simple, uh, the coal industry is a big ship. You don’t turn it overnight, um, and regulatory insecurity is probably the biggest issue when it comes to the coal industry.

00:29:45,630	Uh, is there anything that can be put in place or have you had any discussions about solidifying what that looks like because you’re, we’re actually hearing a little bit of different, uh, take from the other side of the aisle when it comes to the coal industry now, uh, just because of the lack of grid stability that’s out there right now with data centers, AI, um

00:30:06,370	grid security, um, is that opening a window? Is there an opportunity to kind of codify some things moving forward so that you’re not gonna have to deal with this roller coaster of who got elected to office every 4 years? OK. Comm Bakken, uh, that, that is our hope.

00:30:24,730	You know, there’s been a 30-year war on coal, right? I mean, it’s, it’s existed for a long time and we’ve seen it in tax policy. We’ve seen it in regulatory, um, from both neighboring states and also the federal government, and there’s just been kind of the slow, you know, stranglehold on our industry that’s been there for a long time.

00:30:41,800	Um, so right now it’s kind of like we’ve got a little bit of whiplash and we’re like looking around the corner saying, wait, is this true? Like, uh, do we have a president that’s actually embracing, um, you know, the, the goods and services that we provide as an industry and, and he clearly is.

00:30:54,070	I think the other part is, you know, financing is usually what’s been a, a, a pretty significant detriment. So if you’re, if you’re out there in a hedge fund or a big investment firm or a big bank, um, and a lot of those have the environmental, social, and corporate governance policies known as

00:31:09,100	ESG policies um, and for a long time it was they would only invest in anything that was renewable, sustainable, whatever the buzzword was, um, but you know, we’ve reached a point where the Myso grid, the SPP grid, they know you can only go so far, you know, it’s, there’s about a

00:31:26,000	30 to 35% threshold on one of those regional grids that says we can, we can do about 35% of intermittent resources. We still have to have base load because, uh, you know, believe it or not, in Myso there’s a, there’s a 15 state uh uh grid.

00:31:42,370	If you looked on your phone, there’s a, there’s an app that you can go look and every 10 minutes they update where the power generation comes from, and there are times, whether it’s in the summer on the hottest days or in the winter on the coldest, there will be no wind whatsoever on on a fifteen-state grid or too much wind or too much wind, and

00:31:58,270	they have to curtail, um, so, you know, it’s funny as, as all this, you know, Cole’s dying and all this message that’s out there, I mean, we’ve been consistently between 30 to 40% of those of the Myso grid. it’s consistent.

00:32:15,700	It, it’s, it’s, it’s always there, so I think right now what we’re seeing is, you know as you’ve had Silicon Valley, kind of the tech industry, you’ve had the big banks, um, Wall Street, uh, global firms as well, looking at everything ESG and how can we, you know, kind of get our green stamps.

00:32:31,170	The change has been not only in the policy at the federal level, which could be short-lived, but bigger, bigger change, I think, is where you’ve got the artificial intelligence. Every one of those text firms is in a race for market share. They want to be the first to develop.

00:32:46,170	They want to have the largest market share, you know, you see it just in, you know, whether it’s co-pilot or chatGPT or whatever, the race just to be, you know, on your computer, you know, making that work, but these huge data centers, you know, they’re, they’re out there and I think there’s an ener energy realism that’s now coming into focus, where

00:33:01,070	they’re learning, I need to have the 5 9s of reliability, and that means 99.99999%, right? I mean, almost 100% of the time that electricity has to be there because if it’s curtailed, their system doesn’t work.

00:33:22,170	You can’t ramp all that down and bring it back up, um, when you’re running a data center, so I think we’ve seen a shift, um, right now, you know, we, up, up at Coal Creek, there’s a lot of, uh, uh, small data centers, um, that are, that are operating there today. Um, I think you’re gonna see more, um, across some of our member facilities. I think you’re gonna see growth, um, as well.

00:33:35,370	There might be, you know, new gas plants, I think might be built, um, to service some of those. We’ve been working on a lignite plant of the future, a studied for the last couple of years, uh, that shows, you know, from a cost comparison.

00:33:48,070	we’re, we’re a whole lot cheaper than a new nuclear facility or something else, and we have the natural resource to do it, and I think from my view, if we have an 800 year supply of a natural resource in this state. with the with the industry that’s there and the low cost, the jobs that are there as well.

00:34:01,900	We know from the CO2 we produce has a value, it’ll help us produce more oil that will keep the revenues flowing in, so we have the lowest state income tax, um, in the country, um, and you know, if we like our, you know, if we want our

00:34:14,430	property taxes to be lower if we want everything to be lower, you need to support the industries that make that possible. So I think realism is coming into play.

00:34:29,330	Um, I think that sticks, um, and I think more and more you’re gonna hear, you know, that that industry that maybe drove ESG in the past, I think is going to have a little bit of a pivot to say, wait a second First thing is we need to make sure that our investments, you know, make a profit that we actually gain that market share, and there’s only one way to do

00:34:40,970	it. You have to have the base load to make that happen. Um-hum. As far as Minnesota’s concerned, I, I have a proponent of this for a long time. We need a rolling, brownout about mid-January on a Tuesday afternoon and see if you like our green electrons or not.

00:34:55,270	Uh, that’s Comm, I think that’s true. I mean, uh, everything is well until the lights go out. Yeah. Everyone’s going to want to know what in the world happened and and who’s to blame, and, and we don’t want that to happen. Thank you.

00:35:09,730	I want to, um, I want to add a, a, a kind of a little statement, um, you know, Burleigh County has a commission. Um, we have had an issue with the carbon dioxide pipeline through Burleigh County. I want to clarify for you and hopefully you’ll share it with your industry peers and whatnot, that the Burleigh County Commission has no problem with using carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery.

00:35:31,630	That is not our issue in any way, shape, or form. We recognize that if it could, I recognize, I shouldn’t say we, I recognize that um carbon dioxide could become part of the recipe for um enhanced oil recovery and whatnot and and just so you know, I am a, a landowner and a mineral rights owner, and I

00:35:52,100	support coal. They’re mining coal on our land today. We’re right across from the, um, uh old gasification plant in Antelope Valley Station that land was our family’s land, um. when they bought it and built that And so I’m not personally not have no opposition to coal or oil or using carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery.

00:36:15,100	So if you can kind of share that message, because the pipeline issue brings something up from Iowa or wherever it’s generated there, has nothing to do with. And pumping in the ground. Yeah, and then, yeah, that’s a whole another science argument, but that’s, you know, if it’s utilized for enhanced oil recovery, I certainly have no issue with that.

00:36:32,500	Chair, I appreciate that. You know that that project, you know, every project stands on its own, right on how they’ve designed it, how they work with the landowners, um, that, that project was not one of our member projects, wasn’t tied to coal, it wasn’t, it wasn’t, wasn’t shipping CO2 from a coal

00:36:47,900	facility, um, but I, I hear your comments, um, and I think, um, I’ll make sure and take those back. I, I, I believe that um everyone thinks that Burleigh County is supportive of the industry.

00:37:02,330	Every project speaks for itself and, and it’s just trying to figure out how do we make this happen, how do we build linear infrastructure is a big question, um, because, you know, maybe not everybody wants it, but then on the flip side, you know, there are a lot of people that do sign up for things like that where they could be generational wealth opportunities, um, to make that

00:37:17,000	happen, and, and I think projects need to be paying attention to how the landowners feel and find a path that works for everyone, but I, I greatly appreciate your comments. Comm, any other questions for Jonathan? Well, I thank you for your time. It was very informative. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks. I want your 35 minutes, Jerry.

00:37:40,800	That’s your your fault your. My fault. OK, item number 8, Missouri Valley Complex Committee Chair Kay Lacoe on Missouri Valley complex yearly updates. Welcome, kid. Anything down in the coal industry Huh? Every day I think Johnson did a pretty good job.

00:38:15,530	No, have you never I get a lump of coal in my stocking every once in a while. Does that mean you’re a member of the coal industry? I didn’t know Santa Claus got cold. One lump. One lump in your socking. That’s it Well, you must have to be you to get that lump of coal, I guess, Comm. It takes a lot of hard work.

00:38:38,970	I don’t know. My kid grew up asking for cole in his stocking cause he listened to his mom for so long. Hi, thank you for the time, Commissioners, for the record. My name is Kay Laco and I’m here on behalf of the Missouri Valley Complex Committee.

00:39:00,870	and I wanted to take an opportunity to update the commission on all of the work that has gone forward and build up over the past 18 months or so. It was a new group that was formed in 2024 and the whole idea was to bring the stakeholders together that had individual interests out at the Missouri Valley complex and bring those voices

00:39:28,070	to one table to push forward a collective improvements and offerings to the county. I have just a few slides, but you will also notice in your packets, I gave you lots of reading material should you want to dive into it, but really at its core, the Missouri Valley complex.

00:39:54,530	we were looking at foundational progress and as I indicated before, we act as a management operation and development oversight entity, but we are responsible to Burleigh County Commission. Our duty, we believe, is to vet and take suggestions before they make it to the county table.

00:40:28,470	We are tasked with engaging the stakeholders for planning, programming, site improvements, and anything having to do with improvements in operations going forward. The primary source of any funding that has been spent in the last 18 months comes from the Missouri Valley complex Fund, and as of August 2024, that balance was at 5.6 million. That balance is still applicable today. There has not been substantial monies spent out of that.

00:40:55,630	That complex fund was identified and has been used for major capital improvements out at the complex Additionally, for that money is to be used is to take some of the responsibility, the financial responsibility off of the backs of the individual users and focus that on collective benefits.

00:41:26,230	You can’t get anywhere without regulatory functions and infrastructure. In April 2025, 1 of the biggest successes that we have marked for the past year is to get the approval from the Bismarck City Commission to move the complex from a PUD or planned unit development to AP public zone facility, meaning that it is publicly oriented.

00:41:49,800	Again, I mentioned the allocation out of the Missouri Valley Com complex fund 50,000 has been earmarked for the Sunson and Hagen’s involvement in the planning, um, again, that comes out of the existing fund and so far it is to take the zoning and the plotting forward and now we will be moving into the planning side of that after the turn of the year.

00:42:15,270	The Missouri Valley complex has formally recommended to the Commission, uh, that roads, parking lots, utilities, and stormwater management, maintained as public improvements. One of the key pieces to the facility being furthered and promoted is an benefit to the entire county.

00:42:46,730	And that involves not only economic impact dollar for dollar, but also to bring services and other things for the community members to do. We start with 4H and extension, and while they are not for-profit organizations. They certainly do provide extreme value for the county, as you will see here. Forage extensions, like extension through September of this year, hosting 32 events.

00:43:11,800	You’ll notice Life on the farm sessions, over 500 attendees and more than 1200 at different educational outreach events coordinated with that. One of our committee members that represents for each her definite special identity is tied to the bomaster 4H Club, and that has been doing 13 different events that foster not only participation from the

00:43:41,170	youth, but also the adults as well The Bismarck Parks and Rest District. operates the Joan Hetzel Memorial Building, and those rentals have increased over the years, uh, 72 rentals over 108 days recorded through September of 2025. So obviously not the entire your reporting yet. The event, average event attendance is right around 4800.

00:44:11,600	The community gardens also exist out there and plots being rented to Max and then you also have the Burleig or the buck stop Junction that serves as that place to have just about anything, not to mention that connection to our his history and as you see, even here, K-9 training exists out there.

00:44:39,370	Motocross, for example, provides direct economic impact with dollars. You’ll see here that their estimate is at 10,000 per day when uh non-local visitors spending within the county. 26 different events, 3500 people at or attracting about 3500 people and at $40,000 annual impact, and they have also qualified for grants to further their offerings and supplement what they’re doing out there. So.

00:45:11,870	as we wrap it up, the Missouri Valley complex has successfully laid out critical regulatory infrastructure and plans on how to move forward. The major one major of our accomplishments is the zoning change at the same time, the plotting process is going through, as you well know, uh, the formally adopted policy on

00:45:37,070	the roads and utilities infrastructure being public improvements, establishing a clear chain of command that ideas and questions brought to us first as being able to vet and then us being able to bring you more informed information.

00:45:56,800	and as we wrap up the planning and the zoning or the platting and the zoning processes, we are moving into the actual planning to see how all of those entities interact as we go forward as a public use facility. With that, I will yield to any questions.

00:46:22,700	Comm Schwab Uh you know, I went through this thing and you guys take a lot of credit for a lot of things that you’re not doing. The pudd deal You didn’t even know it until Comm Bitner brought it up. and changing you know, zoning isn’t that big a deal. You just go change it, but you make it expanded. Second thing is, when you rent 72 times that building out there.

00:46:55,470	We’ll get some money for the rent Uh, that is, uh, Chair Bitner, Comm, I, I, I would suspect the Bismarck Park board does, and we rent that building. and they’re piggybacking That doesn’t come to us Third thing I want to say is I hold the extension portfolio.

00:47:20,100	and you’re taking credit for what they’re doing out there by your figures, you’re included in here. They have really worked hard. What have you done for them? Chair Veterinary Comm Schwab I’m not in a position to answer on behalf of each of the individual stakeholders, I realize, I realize that, but when I look at these figures and the way they’re presented,

00:47:44,170	you include them to make it look like the committee is doing a lot and in my opinion, the committee, is a they’re gonna fall on their own sword out there. because it should be number one, a foundation. They still haven’t got uh, a nonprofit going which we’re gonna talk about at the end of this meeting.

00:48:10,370	I want to start on next January, get the ball rolling. Because if you guys aren’t gonna do it and do it right, don’t know your figures. You know, to me, I look at this thing and I understand what you’re doing. You’re making it look better than what it is.

00:48:29,370	Mr. Chair. And I, and I’m, I’m not trying to get on you, Kate but I’m a pretty transparent Guy I’m telling you what I think. and I could see so much improvement Now when you go further into this thing, you kind of complain that um you’re not any getting any help from staff.

00:48:58,730	and you’ve picked out the highway department. I hold that portfolio and I want you to explain to me what the problem is there. Chair, am I able to address the commissioner’s questions? Uh, I think Comm Munsen wants to.

00:49:23,370	Well, I, I wanted to just highlight a little bit, but K is doing is simply providing us information of what’s actually happening at the facility. Uh, I don’t think the Comm the complex committee is taking credit for any of it. Uh, she’s just simply trying to report, uh, the value that the that uh the complex has and, and with all of the events that are on there.

00:49:41,000	uh, as far as the, um, Joanne Hetzel Memorial Building, um, the complex, the committee, the, the Burley County Commission. We don’t receive any part of that because that is owned by the Parks and Recks, so you’re correct, we rent the building.

00:50:00,370	You rent the, you, you lease the, the, I don’t know if you lease the whole building or if you just leased the office space, but you are correct. Uh, the county does lease. I, I, I do know that if the Bismarck Parks and Re has something scheduled in that building and something comes up for the 4H and extension. First one gets served, which would be the Bismarck Parks and Rereck.

00:50:23,170	And as far as I’m concerned, I don’t know what they rent that thing out for. But if we’re paying rent and they’re, they’re grabbing rent. That don’t make sense in the same building. Absolutely.

00:50:40,870	That’s a very fair question that we should have our state’s attorney look into if we’re renting the whole not only that, in my opinion, through malfeasance they got possession of that building and now we pay $5500 a month rent and I tell you, every time I do the bills and I see that. I get kind of ticked off Yeah. So I want that to be made known to the committee.

00:51:03,170	If this kind of stuff is going to be going on. how do you how are you going to succeed Like a week ago, Kate, and I’m, I’m not picking on you, but I could go all night and what I see out there that isn’t being done that should be done. Yeah.

00:51:22,900	Mr. Buckley. Well, I think a lot of what we’ve got the committee put together for is trying to circumvent that, um, and fix that. So, um, you know, that’s why this was part of a a little bit of a reinvention with the ETA discussion.

00:51:48,070	This is going to give us an opportunity to do what we see as, as we see fit out there with Burleigh County property for the benefit of the county. So, um, when I look at the, the committee for this, this is just one piece, but it’s, uh, integral piece for what we’re gonna be able to do that it would be my hope is down the

00:52:07,430	road this is going to generate revenue and take more burden off the taxpayers of Burleigh County. That’s the way I look at this from an economic development standpoint. We’ve got a lot of opportunities out there, um, but we have to take them Mr. Chair.

00:52:26,500	Comm Munsen, Od Spoonskowski, could you send me a copy of that lease? or the, the lease that we have with the, the parks and Rec? I’d be curious to you, why don’t you forward that to all the commissioners. Yeah. For the extension office? Yes. Yeah. Please, thank you. Thanks. For it to all the commissioners though, I think.

00:52:42,070	Kay, I want to thank you for the work that you guys have done. Um, I know you guys have you’ve had to ask a lot of people a lot of questions and sometimes two and three times to get the information that you have in this, in this packet and, uh, I appreciate your diligence as the chair. I appreciate you leading this group forward. So thank you.

00:52:59,070	Thank you. OK. Thanks, Kate. Chair, can I please quickly address. Yeah, go ahead. Sure. Comm, I really appreciate the questions because it keeps us package together. I put the package together. By yourself? Um, well, with the input of the committee.

00:53:22,070	And I do want to express 100% that we are not trying to take any credit for anything that our stakeholders do. Here’s. We are trying to promote that’s another item. You, you talk about the stakeholders. Who are the stakeholders You guys are considering the people that rent out their stakeholders. I consider the stakeholders the citizens of this county.

00:53:48,730	And then when you come up and you say, well, now these roads are going to be financed with public money. isn’t a fairground money, public money Chair Comm S Schwab, you are correct in the stakeholders are Burleigh County because there are 3 at-large representatives that serve on there as representatives. Yeah, but, but there’s also three people that were former or sitting members of the Bismarck Mand Park board.

00:54:25,000	Chair, Comm, that’s about my pay grade. I’m gonna move along. I’m gonna move along here. I’m gonna have to change the subject and, and get us back on track with the meeting. So is there any further questions for Kate. Thank you, Kate. Thank you, Kate. Thanks for the opportunity.

00:54:45,270	Um uh, Connie County Planning Director Flanagan Kuntz’s final subdivision. Welcome, Mitch. Good evening, Comm, uh, Mr. Chair, uh, tonight presenting the Koons Final subdivision, uh, in October earlier this year, uh, Albert and Linda Koontz came to Burley County to Platte, a two-lo subdivision on their 40 acre parcel, while lot one is 10 acres, um, 0.

00:55:10,870	05 and the other is 27.01 acres. He intends to build a single family dwelling. His son lives on the other part of the property. Uh, it is located in Burnt Creek Township, the paving waiver was not required as 149th Avenue is paved.

00:55:31,900	Stormwater management plan was approved earlier this month, um at last week’s Planning Comm was recommended approval 8 to 0. Comm, any questions on this? I would move to approve. Motion to approve the Kuns subdivision. Any further discussion? Call the rule. Comm Bakken. Yes, Comm Schwab? Yes, Comm Woodcoxck. Yes. Comm Munsen? Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes. Thank you, Comm. Motion carries.

00:55:57,430	Thank you, Miss Um, Item 10, Comm Munsen, Missouri Valley Complex Special Assessment discussion. Uh, Mr. Chair, uh, in your packet, you will find a letter, uh, addressed to the mayor in the Bismarck City Commissioners. Uh, it is my opinion and I’m asking for your signature on this letter.

00:56:20,330	Uh, they are, uh, planning some additional developments or some additional modifications to uh uh Midwest Drive, uh, in my opinion, we need to opt out of that amount of cost that would be deferred to us.

00:56:45,900	Um, they’re, they’re putting in street lights basically along Midwest Drive that will be uh up against the complex They have no value to us Um I go back to the history that, uh, the highway department has, uh, filled me in on when this originally happened. when Midwest Drive was built, uh, we gave them access to the land. The deal that was, that happened back then was no assessments would be placed on Missouri Valley Complex. They have not followed through with that.

00:57:05,730	Uh, we have paid assessments uh for the work off Midwest Drive. So at this time, I would actually like to um opt out of that project. I would like to protest it. Is that a motion? Is that a motion? Yes, that’s. Second. OK, I have a motion. There, there is no benefit to us.

00:57:24,000	I knew this was coming quite a while back. Yeah. It seems like the city thinks that they can just do anything they want and build the county. My problem is, is they agreed that we would not have to pay any specials on this property if we gave them that land to use for Midwest Drive.

00:57:39,900	and they’ve not followed up on their part of it. We have some documentation on that somewhere. It’s a verbal agreement between Marcus and Maltin. They’re at this point we do not have any written Well, the deal’s a deal. Deal’s a deal. Yeah. In my opinion, yes.

00:57:56,900	Yeah, I mean, we’re all gentleman and we can understand that. Yeah, Comm Bachin. Mell is no longer with the city, so, um, would there be benefit in getting an affidavit from Marcus that that was a verb, there, there was a verbal agreement in place just so that we can get something on the record would be up to the state’s

00:58:19,170	attorney if that would help to that. We’re going to have to have something because a verbal agreement isn’t worth the paper. It’s worth. Exactly. But there’s no paper.

00:58:34,900	Yeah, so I guess it was approved at a commission meeting and there’s a record of that We’re gonna need records of some kind. Yeah, so it. Some written record of some kind. So, would a, an affidavit from Marcus attesting to. A sworn statement from him would certainly put us in the right direction. whoever he made the deal with getting an affidavit from them too would be helpful as well.

00:58:54,230	Um, it would also be good to go back to the meeting minutes. because, uh, from my understanding, it was at a planning and zoning meeting. uh, where this took place as well. And so maybe we’ll ask our auditor to go back and dig through that. Marcus recalls the date dates pretty well.

00:59:13,870	So I think we should dig back through those records. That, that would be a good that would be a good pass. Comm W. I happen to be part of that group too, when we talked about it way back when, 10 years ago, or, or whatever it was.

00:59:28,800	So I’ll be glad to co-sign it, whatever you want to call it, so, cause I remember we complained about what they wanted to get back then. They wanted, yeah, just $600,000 or some ungodly number. I don’t know what we’ve, we’ve paid 2. We didn’t do We didn’t We didn’t do it.4 million in S specials on that property. Um-hum. When we had a verbal agreement that that would not happen.

00:59:46,330	Well we paid, I think 1.2 million back when they put sewer and water in Highway 10 right away. Yeah, yeah. To get out to rocks and blocks, cause they wanted to get that thing. Filled in. And we had no interest in that because we were, we had done with development going on.

01:00:00,900	We’re just. But we did there, there was another sewer project also that went all the way across the fairgrounds to get up to that new, um, industrial subdivision. Yeah. We just, we’re gonna need some documentation on that, so it’s I think this is the first start to protest out of the. Yeah, absolutely. Improvement District Um.

01:00:21,600	state’s attorney, have you reviewed that letter? Yeah Good. Yeah, there was a motion in a second. Motion in a second, yep. OK. Any further discussion, Comm Baker? Marcus would have to answer that question. Yeah. Julie, are we OK to proceed with the motion in the 2nd and a vote on that, uh.

01:00:46,730	just to protest. mean there’s, there’s a procedure to um request to not be assessed specials and so you can do that regardless of any agreement that was made, so yes you can, you can still move forward with that aspect of it. There’s a date. Thank you. 19th or something I think it.

01:01:04,900	Before that by the 19th of December. So that’s why it was important to be at this meeting. OK, call the rule Comm Schwab What are we voting on What is it yes? Whether we should protest. Whether you, whether you want to protest is specials. Yeah. Yes Comm Woodcock. Yes. Comm Munsen, Comm Bakke, Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. I have a question.

01:01:29,970	Out of what account would that come out of the highway department’s account, the last, or would it come out of the general fund. The last assessment came out of the Missourre Valley complex. Came out of the complex because they were the ones that were affected. Assessed. Yeah, but it’s adjacent to the property, that property. That would be.

01:01:46,500	So, if we’re not successful, it would come out of the Missouri Val Complex fund again. Well, how would it benefit us if it went in? Doesn’t. But it doesn’t, does not. You know, it, I mean, realistically, it doesn’t benefit us. OK Uh, next item on the agenda, County Auditor Slonskowski with auxiliary board applications.

01:02:20,730	Commissioners, I want to throw in one recommendation on the, uh, on the planning and zoning board since I can’t make a motion for a second. I would like to see Jim James Small. Back on that Planning Commission.

01:02:42,000	He was on the planning commission before and then got busy up in, uh, Williston and wasn’t able to continuously be here? Yes, he’s he’d made an application here. On the openings we got. Three? Three. We have three, yep. Um, I got a lot of applications OK, you want, you want to start with a particular one? What do you want to? we just go through them.

01:03:06,070	Uh, Chair Commissioners, I tried to get this as organized as possible because I know that we do have, uh, several applications for a lot of these. If you want to take on planning and zoning first. uh, we can just take it on one board at a time if you want, and, uh. Yeah, it’s, it’s the first thing here, you know. Yeah.

01:03:24,230	Um, well um Comm Patrick, who is reapplying, has, has certainly been a um benefit. um. as has uh L. LV Penomenal job. Also, um, I have no problem with him OK, so, that’s. He asked me the other day, when is he going to hear.

01:03:48,230	Yeah, when’s he going to know? And it’s going to get approved. Yeah, and I, and I know we have additional applications for it that would probably be very good candidates as well. Yeah, excellent. Um, but my preference at this point, because there’s 3, right? Three. Um-hum. Um, would be, Jim Small uh, Dale Patrick, and Alby Jarrett. So I move 2. Motion a second for Jim Small.

01:04:11,170	Dale Patrick, and Eve. Garrett. Any further discussion, call. Fisherwood ***. Yes. Comm Munsen. Yes. Comm Bakken? Yes. Comm Schwab. Yes. Charon Bitner. Yes, motion carries. OK. Next. All right, so the next one here is, uh, housing authority Um, well, as far as the applications go, it’s the water management board.

01:04:37,870	um, or, or county housing authority. So, we did, we see, I, I did receive an email today, uh, from an individual who said that there will be another application for the uh Burleigh County Water District. uh, and he highly recommended, it was who. who did we receive that e-mail from? I.

01:04:59,370	You were included in the e-mail. Jim Landenberger was the one who sent it in to us, but I have not seen it, so. OK, it was it, you’re included in the E-mail. Um, there will be another application allegedly coming in for the water resource district.

01:05:13,700	Um, so the only reason I’m saying that is because, um, Garrett Bryan applied for a water management board or Coy housing authority. So they, he put both, both, uh, boards on there. We do have one opening for the county housing authority. Uh, so Mr. Chair.

01:05:32,900	Comm Liug As well as one that’s at your, at your home. The one that, the one that we got the, uh, they admitted it was Lois Sundquist, and we had a meeting this morning in Bernie County Housing, and, uh, she is on there already. She wanted to re up for another term.

01:05:44,630	She does a good job and is there all the time and providing input. So I would, uh, move that we reappoint Loisundquist. Second, Motion the second for Lois. Any further discussion? Caro. Comm Munsen. Yes. Comm Bakken? Yes. Comm Schwab, Yes. Comm Woodcock, yes. Chair Binner. Yes, motion carries. Um, OK, next.

01:06:05,900	So the next one we have here is a school district reorganization. We do have one individual who applied for that, a Sarah Pic. applied for a planning commission or the school district reorganization board, uh, that’s the only application I’ve received so far for that particular report. Mr.

01:06:23,100	Chair, another one on the pocket that says any And there’s another one that says board. Mr. Chair. Comm Whitco. And, and that’s one of my portfolios and I visited with Brandt ***, our, our, um, uh, superintendent of schools, and he has he has one already that he that is on there and he wants to re up and, and he wants to wait

01:06:39,230	until he can get the second one. I see that we have an application for a second one, and he has not had the opportunity to contact that person. So I would like to see that postponed for one more time On January? Yes. Um I, I don’t see a problem with that. OK.

01:06:57,870	Cause I had, the one we got, I don’t know that person and I’ve not had a chance to talk to them either, because I just got it today, so, good. OK. But he will, he will get back to us by the next meeting as it should have 2 by that time. All right.

01:07:18,370	So, the next one here is the, uh, the Special assessments Commission, uh, Lee Lundy did apply for this position. I do have to let the Commission know that you do have a policy that these individuals are supposed to be put to a term limit of, uh, 3 terms or 12 years, whichever is greater, unless we don’t receive any applications for

01:07:35,730	those positions. So this is the only application I’ve received for this position, but if you wanna hold off before reappointing Mr. Lundy to see if anybody else is interested. Uh, it’s up to you. Mr. Chair, Comm Muren, how many terms has he served? Um, he’s been on the board since 2007. OK It says you’re 22 years, so.

01:07:58,100	you know, that’s, I appreciate his dedication to it. Yeah. Um you know, we do have a number of applications where they, they had said or any other board. We had one for any other board. Yeah.

01:08:19,630	And if you want, I can certainly reach out to, to, uh, Jeff and see if he would be interested in the board, in the, in uh the special assessments board I, I think that would be good.

01:08:40,730	I had, I had certainly have no nothing against the current Guy, but with the policy of 12 years or however many terms that, you know, it would be fair to um ask OK. And we’ll put that in on the agenda then for those. two uh, for the next meeting Any others at this time Uh, then we have the water management board, but like I said, uh, previous, we do have an application for that here.

01:09:01,000	Uh, but then we, we were encouraged through email, uh, to hold off until another individual can apply. But it’s ultimately up to your discretion. I see no problem in holding it. Yeah. I don’t, I don’t have an issue with it. Put that on for January 5 as well? Yep. OK. And that is all I have for now. OK. Thank you. Thank you.

01:09:23,500	OK, um item number 12 in your packet, we had, uh this was kind of a late breaking deal, and I appreciate the um, staff doing the, um, agenda amendment and and whatnot. This came out, I think on Friday. Um, the attorney general’s opinion concerning a special meeting of the Burleigh County Commission on January 13th of 2023.

01:09:50,630	Um, the significant issue to resolve is that it didn’t have a time of adjournment on the. on on the meeting minutes, and I talked this over with staff here a little bit ahead of, ahead of this meeting. and I think that what we should do as long as if within reason.

01:10:11,000	that go back and start at January of 203, since that’s what started this question. and try to establish the adjournment time of the meetings that we have a record of.

01:10:36,600	and then we can correct those meeting minutes with that adjourning time to match the century coat Um, and so, um, for this one in particular, um it just so happens that I called in to that meeting. and um um, I, I asked my son to go back, I give him credit. Thanks, Brandon. Um, uh, for going back in my, in my phone records and finding that I called into the Tom Baker meeting room phone number at 128. The meeting was at 1:30.

01:11:02,270	So I called in at 1:28 and the phone call lasted for 67 minutes. and generally I hang up when the meeting is Adjourned, right? That’s normal. So, in my opinion, the closest we can get without, you know, anything is to go off of that call record and establish the adjournment time for that meeting at 67

01:11:26,870	minutes past 128, so that’s what 2:35 or so. 35. I. Not a motion maybe? I can’t make a motion, but I went in two minutes, so I. Yeah, it’s Yeah. Yeah, but. So, I, I would move to approve that. OK. Second, Motion a second. Do we have a list of who was at that meeting.

01:11:45,600	Of the Commissioners? Yes. I don’t remember. Yeah, the meeting minutes are. I don’t know if I was there or not. I, I don’t. Oh, it was a, it was a, yeah that’s right in front of you here. I was there. Yes.

01:12:01,700	Um, so you want, you want to say it minus the 2 minutes? minus the 2 minutes, yeah. OK, so that would be 2:33. Yeah OK Yeah, I can print that out quick. OK. Any further discussion Mr. Chair, there was a piece on the, uh, the, uh, opinion that we didn’t notify the newspaper.

01:12:28,800	Is that something that we need to do or how do we handle that? I don’t know that there’s any way to fix that. Fix it moving forward. Fix it moving forward. Right. OK. Right. Are you good? We have a motion in a second on this? Yes. OK. Then we’ll discuss the other meeting minutes. OK. Directly after K the rule Comm Bakken. Yes.

01:12:45,370	Comm Schwab? Yes. Comm Woodcock? Yes. Comm Munsen? Yes. Chair Bitner? Yes, motion carries. I just wanted to add a little bit of a dig, you know, it’s like from 3 years ago. Yeah. And we had 7 days to respond to it.

01:13:07,170	you know, OK Um, the next thing is absolutely, yeah, we will do everything we can to, uh, accommodate the Attorney General’s office. Um, the other, the other issue really is additional meeting minutes and so somehow we should authorize staff to um compile that compile that information. and either Report back. Yeah, report back with it and then we can, yeah.

01:13:32,870	I would move that we ask, uh, staff to go back to the beginning of 23 and bring us updated minutes that do include an adjournment time for each one. that we can find. Yeah, because Yeah, second. OK, any further discussion, call the roll. Comm Schwab. Yes, Comm Woodcock. Yes, Comm Munsen, Comm Bakken. Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries, um, Bismarck R Rural Fire.

01:13:56,800	This is under other business um welcome, Taylor. Taylor’s a farmer. He’s a fireman? Not the fire chief, but. He, he’s just. Before I start, a Chair Hener, he’s been, he’s been doing his fair share of putting out fires Comm.

01:14:13,470	Let me, let me tell you, um, I want to make sure and publicly acknowledge that he put in a a extra amount of work to make sure that the Burleigh County tax statements were compiled in and out, and it’s my understanding based on the conversation with him today that, um, those are at the printers. now. Yep.

01:14:32,230	And they will be getting mailed out, what, tomorrow and the next day. They split it up cause it’s so big, but, yeah. Right. It’s, it’s a great big 50,000 of them, but I just wanted to point out that that Taylor did a really good job of sticking with it, with generally unknown. uh, software and whatnot. So thanks for doing that too.

01:14:50,430	Um but I just want to add on to that too, um, just so the public knows because I feel that, uh, a lot of phone calls with questions and, um, I passed a few of the individuals on to Taylor who followed up with them, but, uh, it was a

01:15:07,870	server issue and that has been remedied, so we, we had an issue with the server and that’s why those statements were when you normally thought you’d get them. So, um, but Taylor, thank you. uh, thanks for following up with the, the individual I passed on to you as well.

01:15:25,730	And just to add quickly, they are online already too, so if you do need them online. Right. Yeah, I’ll, I’ll go ahead and I’ll go ahead and mention that. If you want to review your property tax statements online. That is available on Burleig.gov and um if you want to come in and pay your taxes in person.

01:15:44,100	You can have them print it out right here at the office and, and pay those taxes as well. We do apologize for the technical delay with the server and the programs and whatnot, but we do believe we have it under control, and thanks again. So go ahead with the, uh, Bismarck Rolfier.

01:15:57,700	So, yeah, as far as the rural fire, I just have a quick update and some housekeeping, um, the fire chief informed me that they are done with their project with with ARPA funds, um, and you did want to say, want me to extend the thank you from him for those funds and for, for that project, um, and there’s

01:16:12,100	actually a little extra money left over, a little over $20,000 and so he like I said, he, we, we reviewed the books, we crossmatched our books, everything is, we have every dollar accounted for, so we’re, he’s OK to give those, those funds back to us and with the with the AARPA guidelines basically since we’re now past,

01:16:30,170	if you remember, kind of the emergency meeting last year, the deadline to obligate funds was last year, December 31st, but we are allowed to reallocate those funds to a project that would meet the criteria and that had obligations and so kind of by my research that really would

01:16:45,370	just be the profit building because we had that big MOU we did last year, so that would be the only project. So all I need is just authorization to move those extra except it’s a little over 20,000, all the unexpended funds in that uh rural fire project and move it to the

01:16:58,330	Provident building, moved to approve. Second, OK, motion of second to approve moving the funds from uh the Bismarck Rr Fire to the Provident Mr. Chair. Pro. Have we ever had anybody return funds from a project? No, I just, I, I was, I was sitting down in my truck.

01:17:20,330	I congratulate the fire department for being resilient and getting and giving it back. Unbelievable. It just don’t. I was, I was sitting down in my truck when he told me that. Otherwise, I’d have probably fall over. Yeah, that, that’s very good. Thank you, Bismarck Rural Fire Department, um, call the roll. Comm Woodcock Comm Woodcoox, Comm Munsen. Comm Bakken? Yes. Comm Schwab.

01:17:41,370	Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes, motion carries. Thank you, Ted. Um, any other. One just a side note, um, we’re not that far behind because I just received my tax statement from Mercer County yesterday on Saturday. So, we’re not too far behind others. No, this is a normal time of year.

01:18:02,370	It’s just that people get kind of antsy and they wanna, you know, like, a lot of us want to pay our taxes in this calendar year, so, you know, taxes and all that other for other reasons, so I am done with that. Any, anything else for the good of Burleigh County, Comm? Um, actually, two items.

01:18:21,370	One, Casey or somebody from the highway department. I was wondering if we can get an update on, uh River Road. Uh, what that looks like and what, what’s that going to look like going forward, I guess. Slowly he walked. Mr. Chair and Commissioners. Well, uh, we started cleanup today.

01:18:40,970	Um, we anticipate that finishing up sometime in the near future when the, the, the site, the site is safe and to open to the traveling public. Um, right now, um, the contractor started moving dirt today, um, anticipate that taking several days and then hopefully that, that hill stabilizes and we can open that back up to the to the public as far as future mitigation, at

01:19:00,630	least to get through the winter or is, were you just at the mercy of what the weather dictates. Yeah, right now, winter time is really hard to do any sort of projects out there, of course, um, geotechnical projects tend to be expensive in nature anyways. Right.

01:19:20,530	So, right now we’re kind of just gonna, uh, monitor it like we were have been in the past with our, our drone and keep an eye on it and if we see any sort of movement or anything like that, we’re gonna try to um get on top of it. Well I’m guessing the warm weather probably isn’t helping the stability of the ground this week. Warm weather.

01:19:35,800	and then the moisture obviously coming as rain, it tends to get into those, those planes and, and the cracks and, and saturating things beyond uh what they can hold and. that’s what happens the the hill tends to slide. Thank you. Just be safe out there. Yeah. Good. Um, push. Go ahead. Ill.

01:19:52,370	Oh, I, I just one other, uh, I was wondering if we could get an update on, uh, where we’re at with the 250th celebration from Thank you. Misher Woodcocks? Uh, we’re still in the planning stage. I’ve gotten a couple of printouts or pictures of potential ideas.

01:20:14,330	One I didn’t like and the other two are, are moving forward. Um, person I’m working with with Fort Lincoln Foundation is involved with the what they call it, Huckleberry thing, so he’s heavily involved with that mitigation and that, uh, lawsuit and whatever’s happening there. So, uh, I haven’t talked to him for 2 or 3 days, but moving along, we’re doing good.

01:20:34,530	It’s going to be I think going to be a great, great deal for Bertie County. we’re trying to pick a date because there’s going to be lots of things going on in July 4th. I think the 4th is on a Thursday or something like that.

01:20:50,100	So that whole week there’ll be different celebrations of state and local and Bismarck and we’re trying to work around that, so. moving forward. Thank you, Comm. Comm Schwab. Uh, it isn’t too often I speak for all the commissioners of telling them that I’m not that I’m going to. However from the Comm, and I’m sure they’ll all agree.

01:21:12,470	Merry Christmas, have a safe Christmas, a Holy Christmas and Happy New Year. Thank you said thank you, thanks for speaking on our behalf. Merry Christmas everybody. Merry Christmas. Thank you. Um, I’ll, I’ll reflect here that it looks like on my screen. that it’s 621.