00:00:11,270	Everybody. We’ll go ahead and call the, uh, Burley County Water Resource District, uh, July board meeting to order. When you take roll call, please? Initial. Here. You. And Manager Jones. Smith. I’m here. Chair Heberger. Here we have a quorum, we can continue.

00:00:38,070	I move it on to item 2 this morning, approval of last month’s meeting minutes. Any changes or additions to the minutes. Last month Move we accept the minutes. Yeah. One second. And a motion by Manager Smith and a second by Man Reep to approve last month’s meeting minutes as presented. All those in favor say aye. I, I just have it. Motion passes. Minor approved.

00:01:09,030	Moving on to approval of this uh meeting’s agenda, any changes or amendments? To the agenda. Move to approve as presented. Second And a motion by Man Reap and second by Manager Smith to approve the agenda as presented. All those in favor say aye, aye. I, I have it, motion passes.

00:01:32,630	agenda is approved. Went on to the next item. Comments from members of the public. Why do you want to come up Yeah Good morning. Good morning, Chair Landenberger, uh, members of the board, um, like I would state your name. Yeah, Mike Connelly. I’m a Bismarck citizen.

00:01:58,670	Um, I’m also one of the Bismarck City Commissioners, um, public comments is actually why I’m going to talk today. I’ll give you a little bit of background in 2020, um, actually, when it comes to this sport, that’s when they first started uh putting.

00:02:20,570	Your meeting on Dakota Media Access, uh, just because of not having people in the room, so I’ve actually watched every single meeting since that time, um, and learned a lot from everybody on this, and it’s been appreciative and I’ve mentioned it to uh Chair Landenberger. He actually uh manages one of the best meetings and all of the uh government meetings that I’ve uh been privy to. But um with uh public comment specifically.

00:02:45,170	I actually had a statewide initiated measure written and ready to go with uh 25 on a sponsoring committee because with open meeting law, um nationwide, there’s two reasons for it.

00:03:07,670	It’s for transparency and efficient government, and it was always up to the discretion of the chair at that point, whether they allowed for public comment at all. It was actually not. to right and actually uh when uh people go up, say, in front of a school board and say it’s my right to speak.

00:03:24,070	I would get up and say it’s actually not a right unless they choose to, because if we’re going to claim we’re running by the Constitution, then we actually have to follow what it states. And that was part of the reason for bringing it forward when Representative Paulson brought Senate Bill 21804, that essentially would have been what the initiated measure was about and with it passing, we’re the first state

00:03:42,400	in the entire country that allows a public comment time by right. And that’s very interesting. Does it make us more constitutional or representative, we’ll see over time. We vetted in that space.

00:04:03,600	But one of the things when I was going through and talking to different people, um, in the legal areas when you have a public comment time on and it says not on the agenda. You actually open it up to the full scrutiny of the federal Constitution, which um we’ve had a couple of times where, say, uh, Ted Cruz or um.

00:04:27,600	Uh, I’m forgetting the other one just recently to where they actually spoke for hours on a topic completely unrelated to their course of business, which would take you away from that efficient government goal. So by putting it on there, you can speak on any of the line items and the Senate Bill 2180 actually says the meeting before any of the items on the meeting before, um.

00:04:53,270	And every government entity right now is dealing with how they’re going to develop um their rules for their specific committee. Um, we just adopted ours at the city before. And The 5 years I’ve been watching your meetings, you’ve had two public comments.

00:05:13,070	I don’t think it’s going to be a huge detriment to any of the good work that y’all do, um, the one thing that I actually testified at the state about is, um, the average person speaks 1 to 300 words a minute, so if we err on the side of the people that struggle with communication.

00:05:32,270	If you go at 120, and then, uh, uh, during middle school. The uh uh in as far as the research, the reason why they start out with a page and a half essays is it’s um the average, um, Minimum amount of words that it takes to express a comment that

00:05:53,070	people can either build off of or make a decision off of is 600 words and so 120 goes into 600 words at 5 minutes and so I’ve really advocated for that.

00:06:15,030	You can choose any time limit, um, below that, uh, in all of the uh triple blind studies and things that I’ve looked at, um, it’s like checking a box. People don’t have enough time to barely get beyond the. reading and then express themselves, but 5 minutes seems to be a good round point and then within the law, everything falls back onto the discussion of the chair.

00:06:36,900	At that point and if it’s garbage comments, it shut it down, please spare us, uh, if it’s really good comments and improves the efficiency of the meeting, um, now we find out what kind of leaders we are at the boards. And uh, so just what I had to say, if anybody has any questions. Yeah, thanks Mike.

00:06:54,500	So you think adding something in our agenda that would say, you know, not on the agenda, but still specific to the burly tiny Water Resource District would cover that. I would say because I don’t wanna step on water with me being in part of the city commission and that is, uh, in your part of the county, talk to the county.

00:07:14,200	They’ve adopted a um public comment policy themselves just at their last meeting, that’s a little different from what the city is and then we adopted ours last meeting as well.

00:07:29,130	Um, it’s something that everybody’s kind of working with because it is a different nuance, and I think it’s pretty cool that North Dakota’s leading, being the first to recognize the citizen with a public comment space. Yeah. OK. Any questions for Mike? I don’t know, I guess, I guess just one comment for your, for your information. It is part of our agenda today is to actually discuss that upcoming policy that we’re going to adopt.

00:07:46,900	We have a couple of options in our packet for people to consider and. And uh I think we also have the Burleigh County Commission’s version in there is one other option that got added to our, our packet too, so thanks for your comments, appreciate it. Yeah.

00:08:01,200	Well, I was in, Truth be told, I was going to speak at the last county meeting, but they’re meeting actually landed on my uh uh 24th wedding anniversary, so my wife gave me a small window and one of their items went a little too long, so I didn’t get to comment during that time. Thank you, Mike. OK.

00:08:26,270	We can then uh move on to McDonald Dan this morning, uh, updates on the easement negotiations. Mike, anything? Uh, with the easement negotiations, Travis, would you want to address that, um? Particular process. We had conversations with uh Attorney Bliss as well, but Travis has been in communication with the individuals, so.

00:08:52,030	Um, uh, Chair Mans uh right now we have 2 landowners that we’re currently in communication with regarding the primary easements that are remaining for this project. One of them, uh, has signed and returned the easement documents that they were provided, and the other one I just spoke to yesterday afternoon to uh do a follow up on that, and he said that he still has not had a chance to look through those,

00:09:07,300	but he is going to and then I made myself available to him if he has any questions or or needs any additional support on any of that regarding that final easement.

00:09:21,730	We’re still working on, so um I’ll be in touch with him and, and try to get that prosecuted here so that we can land that final easement that we need for the project. OK. Yeah, good news, good work on getting the one signed and and um, one question, Mr.

00:09:37,400	Chair, the easement itself says that upon signature that the payment from the water resourceur district would be made for that easement, um, obviously, we need to record that as well. So, um, I guess the scenario, if this board wanted to consider payment for that easement at this point. You can do so, but I would, uh, hold on payment until you actually record the document so that it’s on file.

00:09:52,370	So, yeah, it, it has been added to our bills for this month. OK. So we can at least cut the point we can wait till it’s filed. And and that to your, yeah, on that aspect, if it’s in your agenda and you’re willing to approve it, fine, we’ll let the Chair and Wendy know when it’s actually been recorded. OK.

00:10:07,300	Thank you. Uh, Mr. Chair, just, uh, as a sideline, I’ve talked to Wendy earlier about putting on the website, uh, a special session, and executive session should the board need it today. Obviously it doesn’t need it. So I don’t think that needs to be on the agenda today. OK. Thanks, Dave.

00:10:29,130	Uh, anything Michael regarding the updated water supply, um, from the water supply standpoint, you have a memo in your file, um, or in the, in the agenda packet which goes back to the, it’s the long awaited analysis.

00:10:45,600	I was able to get back in the spreadsheet, um and update some things, some of them were actually hand entries from way back when that’s what was missing when the formulas weren’t working, there actually weren’t formulas, so I did update that, that is ready to go, uh, with your consensus, I will send a letter to Um, Mr. Bartholomey with DWR that that’s been completed as his consideration for the extension of the conditional water permit.

00:11:04,870	OK. So, otherwise, um, I’m very happy with the results. Everything looks to be in order. I did add some things to the memorandum that weren’t there before. Uh, so I believe it’s well documented. Any questions for Michael on that? consensus to send that to the DWR. That’s presented, OK. We have consensus, Michael. Thank you.

00:11:27,730	Uh, next item, bank stabilization and, and the trail protection project on Travis want to give an update? Yeah, we’ll let Travis update. He’s been out in the field and, uh, watched the, uh, ongoing construction, so. Uh, good morning again. Uh, the bank stabilization project has gone very well.

00:11:48,300	The contractor showed up on Monday, uh, around midday to uh begin setting up and, and starting work on the project and uh proceeded with it very effectively. So right now, uh, as of about 23 o’clock yesterday afternoon, all of the planned quantity of the rock has been placed.

00:12:05,200	He still has to do his, his clean up and reclamation yet and then just do his uh touch up for the seating, etc. He’s got to loosen the soil a little bit where it’s compacted.

00:12:19,330	But, uh, uh, one of the items that was noted yesterday was that the plan quantity of the plan, uh, stretch of bank that was gonna be stabilized was approximately 200 ft, and so that has been accomplished, but now, um, I’ve been made aware of that a little bit farther just to the west of it, if we, there’s some additional, uh, pieces that are broken off a little bit of erosion that’s occurred there that I was not aware of when we originally, uh, designed this

00:12:35,600	project and uh um Dave Robinson made David Bowman, who’s a contractor, aware of that yesterday when he was out there visiting. They’ve got another lower trail that kind of goes, follows the water’s edge that they’ve had to move back a couple of times just because of some of these failures just to

00:12:49,700	give that a little bit of room, so, um, if we could address those as well, those, there’s a couple of spots there that, uh, with the tall grass and such, it, it just wasn’t readily apparent when uh or initially reviewed the site, but I went over there and looked at it a little bit closer.

00:13:04,170	Yeah, there’s a couple of chunks where it’s broken off and uh this project being that it came in, uh, a little bit more than $20,000 under budget.

00:13:19,270	And then we’re also probably not going to be using the full plan quantity for the, uh, Class 13 gravel that we’re gonna be playing as well because the, the, the gravel roads have held up really well to the traffic for, for holding the rocket because it wasn’t that many loads of rock is maybe 20 loads, so, um, we’ve got some additional funding available, or at least I would think that there is, there would be some room in the budget for uh some

00:13:36,530	additional rock placement if it was deemed necessary for some additional stabilization to extend the project. A little bit farther to the west to hit those additional areas that are, are failing and, uh, Dave Robinson can, can, uh, describe some of that a little bit better to you, what he’s seeing

00:13:50,870	there and then what he’s had to do to, to address that or I guess to, to, uh, compensate for that, to adjust the trail over.

00:14:02,770	And so right now what I was looking to do is, is, uh, see if the board would be interested in adding a little bit to the project and, and extending a little bit farther to the west, uh, as it is right now, we could hypothetically add about 190. tons of rock.

00:14:20,200	It’s the project and still be within what was originally budgeted for this, uh, at least per our original OPC original estimate for this project, um, and still be within what the, uh, the costs that we had anticipated for this project to be, so, uh, we can be a little bit, uh, discretionary on exactly how much we want to add to that and uh like I said,

00:14:32,570	I’ll let Dave, uh, speak to you about how far he thinks that we might want to go if we were gonna extend this a little bit since we already have everybody there and, and frankly right now.

00:14:47,070	The contractor has done, is done placing the rock from the original project and uh they’re basically waiting on me to let them know if the board authorizes some additional rock placement a little bit farther to the west for that, for that work.

00:15:01,900	Otherwise, he’s just gonna begin work on his reclamation and, and start getting things buttoned up and then he’ll probably, uh, get that accomplished this week, possibly come back next week just to do the final seating, but, uh, but for right now, he’s a little bit in a holding pattern until we make a decision on that, so I don’t know if they would be. interested in speaking to the Mr.

00:15:15,200	Chair Travis, so it certainly seems reasonable. It seems logical to do so, I agree. Um, is it, would it be continuous with the other already placed drop and then what would be the additional length of approximately, we, the quantities that I’ve run would, uh, we could add up to, up to maybe another 100 ft to

00:15:33,400	the, the 200 ft that we’ve already rocked on there and uh I think it would be more than enough because that bank is even lower than the stuff that replace, so it wouldn’t take as much rock pullling in your foot of placement and so, uh, frankly, we could easily do another 100 ft and still be

00:15:51,000	within, uh, the, the costs that I had, uh, scoped out for this project. And I’m not so much worried about the costs. I mean, if we’re going to do it, let’s do it right, so let’s, you know, protect all the areas that need to be protected, I guess, and

00:16:01,170	so even if we have a quantity overrun, I think we’re still OK. What, what’s it, 25% variation that’s allowed in contracts typically and I don’t know the exact length about how far they would.

00:16:17,370	Uh, want to go to, to get that areas or just how far down the line, uh, it is where that, uh, you know, failures happen because like I said, I found a a few chunks that have have broken off and um just from my Observation that seems to be maybe another 100 ft, but they would have to be, you know.

00:16:32,270	Moving, removing a couple of little shrubs and stuff to, to get to that, you know, and kind of just clearing it so that it can get in there to do the work, so, but that would be included in the original clearing and grubbing for the project because there was not really much. Uh, clearing and grubbing necessary for this, so I think that would be uh allowable.

00:16:46,530	The contractor wouldn’t have any problem doing that, just a couple of little, uh, shrubs to move and then. Uh, do that additional stabilization down the line and, and we could see exactly how far we need to go and. And make sure we cover it to that point. Yeah. question.

00:17:01,430	Dave or Dave, do you want to add anything to that discussion. Chair Landenberger managers, um, talking with David, I. We agree wholeheartedly, I think. The best practice would probably be go as far as we think we need to go to make sure everything’s, we’re gonna stop erosion, you know, if.

00:17:26,530	If And I don’t want to spend the money willy-nilly. You don’t want to be responsible with the funds, but if, if we say, well, you know, the budget amount or the E OPC was gives us 100 ft and really we need to go 125 ft, I hope.

00:17:41,630	That we could go that far, um, I don’t see the point of, of going and then stopping short and then we have a problem, we’ll have to come back again. So if we can go as far as deemed necessary between engineer and contractor and David’s eye.

00:17:54,330	I, I think that would be the best practice for us to move forward so we can get this thing done right and get it stabilized so we hopefully don’t have issues down the road. Good. Yeah. All right. Any other questions? Not, what are the wishes of the board you want? Not this needs emotion or just more of a consensus, but. We have the budget amount.

00:18:13,030	I don’t know if it needs a motion or not. It makes sense to me to do and then to do it right from an engineering perspective, the contractor out there. It was a really good price for the rock. Yeah, I’m in agreement. They’re identify, OK. So OK. All right. Travis is that, that work for you? Yeah. OK.

00:18:28,530	Then you can report back once the, once the final quantities have been established and get kind of a final change order that we can, we can do that and then, uh, uh, either myself or or Dave Robinson could go out there and identify exactly where we want to have our stopping point be on that just to make sure that

00:18:43,670	we cover those, those small figures that are occurring in there, and we can kind of get everything sealed up good and, and have a good finished project. OK. Is there any updates we got to do for, like, from a regulatory standpoint or preventing. as far as with that final footprint looks like.

00:18:57,400	Uh, Mr. Chair, I was going to take a quick look at that. I believe the permit covers it, uh, typically it’s a number of um G guards per lineal foot, and then there’s a lineal foot, you know, limitation. Yeah.

00:19:13,570	Um, I think it’s 300 actually with the limitation on the nationwide permit, but we’ll double check that and make sure that we’re within that, OK. Mr. Chair, you mentioned change order. Maybe we do need to do a change order and so maybe we need a motion just to authorize the Chair to sign a change order if you have to prepare one, you know, even if it’s retroactive to the fact.

00:19:28,270	That’s a good point. That way, yeah, That way, yeah, the order will That way, yeah, will encompass what our final in place quantity is, you know, because we don’t know that for sure because when you’re hauling a rock, you, it’s hard to get it right to the exact amount, so when our when our final, uh,

00:19:42,830	load tickets come in, we’ll see what our final tonnage was and then then change order will adjus. the uh quantity in the project so that that balances out the contract amount. OK, so to that point, I think I make a motion that authorizes Chairman’s signature on a change order subject to the conditions we discussed. OK. OK.

00:20:01,900	Your second. I’ll say. OK. Got a motion by manager Reap. Second by Manger Smith. They had the Chair authorize it uh and sign a change order uh for the additional rock placement at Mel Dam for the banks stabilization project. OK. Since Wendy gets that typed in, we’ll do a roll call vote. Man. Yes. Yes. I understand. Yes.

00:20:32,870	burger. Yes, the motion passes. OK, um, any updates, Michael, regarding The, uh, DWR Koer requests a couple of items on that one, Mr. Chair. Travis is working with Beth.

00:20:57,930	We submitted the um application for reimbursement actually it was relatively small amount because we didn’t include the easements, uh, going back historically, um, way back when, I don’t remember whether it was a policy change or something because easements typically are not an eligible item. And the DWR came back and Beth said, well, they are ineligible item for dams. Basically for the embankment and or the flood pool.

00:21:15,630	Um, and of course this is a little unique because it’s not for either one of those, it’s actually for a pipeline that supply water to the uh to the facility. Uh, they went back internally and looked at it and said, yes, they’re eligible. So what we did is we stepped back one request, and other is typically a timeline you can go back a year.

00:21:33,170	Uh, we stepped back one request and included all the easement costs up to that point in there, and that’s why the reimbursement amount is, you know, 29. $900.

00:21:52,500	Uh, there’s a remaining balance of 7100, um, Beth did note that if you needed to expand that amount to complete the preliminary engineering, um, you could go through a, um, Well they have a certain percentage that they can go above, but you’d have to go through the web grants process again. From that perspective, I do not believe you need to do that at this point.

00:22:09,400	We’re probably, um, Travis and I are talking probably 75, 80% through the preliminary engineering. Uh, we would now switch once the easements are in place to go through to final design and actually ask for uh the cost share for final design.

00:22:33,600	So this reimbursement obviously is larger than um previously anticipated because of the ability to um request cost share for the easements, uh, the remaining $7100 I’m sure will be covered. You know, in cost share for some of the uh finallo out costs for the, uh, securing the easements. I’m very comfortable now with that process and um it was nice for the DWR to, uh, to point out that change so. OK, thank you.

00:22:53,330	Any questions? Um, along those lines are we looking at the outdoor Heritage fund as well, and when’s the next round of applications have not looked at the dates on that just yet. OK.

00:23:08,370	Um, obviously, one of their things that they asked for was that we have the easements in hand, um, so once they were signed, we will look at the dates and get on their next agenda, uh, the conversation at the time with DWR was to actually do a combination of the outdoor Heritage Fund and DWR funds. Um, there’s a percentage and waiting between the two that would actually occur, should. approving the other not approved or whatever, so but we will start that process once the final easements recorded.

00:23:26,500	I imagine we can just kind of resurrect what we had submitted before. Correct. We have to do updated obviously on the cost side for OPC and stuff, so. OK. Do, do you have any idea? When that our Heritage fund. A while. Yeah. Well, we’ll look into it.

00:23:46,170	I’m thinking that it’s, it’s, it’s in September, October, right? So my time out pretty well. Yeah. Yeah. And then we would go and design possibly construction, um, next spring, depending upon how the. How it works out. OK. If you Any updates on the emergency action plan? No, I still haven’t talked to Mary as to, you know, when she wants to do that.

00:24:04,870	I’m suspecting it’ll probably be fall. OK. So Right OK. Dave wants some updates this morning with the board. Go on. Chair Landenberger and Commissioners or managers, sorry, uh, just quick updates, uh. Since we last talked, uh, Traffic counts, uh, and trail usage.

00:24:36,870	For June we’re at 10,000 846 for traffic and trail usage was 695. Like that’s up from the last report that I gave you in May, which is typical for that time of year. Um, obviously, we get into our busy season.

00:24:54,600	Um, Since we last talked, the, uh, we, we did have the blue-green algae that shut down the lake or the, the reservoir for a little while, um, it’s been since back opened and um the uh PEQ is doing a one month follow up today, uh, we feel pretty confident that we should be. should be good with uh C clear water. It’s been, it’s been good since, since it was closed down.

00:25:12,600	The time that it was closed down was also right before the Bismarck Marathon, or sorry, triathlon, um, so I became a duathlon but it was still one of the most attended that they’ve had. It was uh still the busiest one. So it did go over well. I was out there for it, so maybe.

00:25:32,970	And I’m still standing so you finished, yeah. Yeah, I made it. Just barely according to David when he saw me, so. Uh, on June 20th, we, everybody knows we did have that, that large, uh, winds, wind and rainstorm that came through, uh, we did have some damage out at McDowell Dam. Uh, losing 18 trees.

00:25:54,300	And branch clean up, uh, you know, uh, other hangers that David and his crew were able to clean up. But we did lose 18 trees from that. Uh, then last Wednesday we had the hail storm hit. Um That did damage some buildings and as we had been in conversation since then, looking to get.

00:26:14,530	out there to take a look at that to see if there’s anything that needs repairing or from insurance and and that kind of thing, um. I did share some photos. Late yesterday with with Chair Landenberger about some of the, the building damage the hill was the size of baseballs, um, David did send me a picture of that, so I feel this whole hand

00:26:30,600	up with. With one hail hailstone, so they’re, they’re pretty big, um. So we’ll, we’ll, uh, proceed with that and see where we go with that, um, I just wanted to inform the board that Of that damage that we saw. Other than that, attendance has been good. Yeah.

00:26:48,200	So, we did have one vehicle, I think, right out there that probably sustained some damage. As you remember, that was a military surplus vehicle that generally made a little bit tougher than the, the traditional vehicles so damage may be minimal less. On that one. Um, and it may. Quite frankly, may not be worth.

00:27:07,930	Repairing it. um. The vehicles there to to stay in to to do the grunt work that, that happens out there. It’s not a showpiece, so. We’ll have to weigh whether or not it’s, it’s, it’s. Really necessary to repair it. Did your residents get some damage, Dave? Pretty minimal.

00:27:26,300	I saw the photos didn’t look like there was much at all, so that’s good, and that was re-roofed. 8 years ago,, 78 years ago, and that, that has, uh, metal. OK, metal roofing on it. They look like shingles, but they’re, it is a metal roof, so. Pretty sturdy, held up pretty good.

00:27:50,130	They did, uh, Was it the rainfall then that uh cleared the water up or what that blue green algae. Got to a point where you could reopen the lake. Well, how did that happen? Traditionally, from what I understand. You’ve got a couple of factors that, you know, move, movement of the water will. Get the allergy, allergy out of there.

00:28:08,800	And surprisingly, very early. Um, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in. At McDonald Emmett has shown up in the past, but it’s later on in the year when it’s hot and we don’t have any, and it’s dry and we don’t have any movement, we don’t have any influx of fresh water or anything like that from rains.

00:28:23,200	Kind of shocked us all that it came in June, um. Surprised by it, you know, we had a little bit of a rain shortly after.

00:28:40,400	Uh, about a week and a half after the test, and that cleared it up, um, because, um, what we did is after the test, a week later we ran another test. So we We, uh, went out and got a test and, and expedited a test a week later, and it, it cleared up and it came back clear. So we think it was mainly, you know, a little bit of wind and, and that little bit of rain influx to Coer weather contributed.

00:29:00,100	Could have been. Could have been too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That David shared, it’s the, the tests have to get sent to, was it Florida? They have the tests get sent to Florida. To get tested, so. That’s why it takes a surprising, right? Something in Minnesota even with, you know.

00:29:19,170	Interesting, but we have to take the sample and freeze it, put it in put it in a cooler and ship it off it off to Florida and wait for the results. Patiently. Yeah. Patiently, right. Well, thanks for all that. I appreciate that. Um.

00:29:35,330	Yeah, so you had mentioned and we were talking before the meeting with you and I and Wendy about maybe reaching out to Bain or, or, uh, insurance, we can do that. That’d be good. And then if, you know, if we had to meet out there, I’m sure they’ll contact you guys and show up and. Do their assessment. Yeah, see what they come up with. OK? We will proceed with that. OK. Sounds good. OK.

00:29:53,470	Any questions for Dave? Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. OK. Sier McDonald Dan this morning, we can move on to financial reports this morning, Mareep Mr.

00:30:19,130	Chair, uh, board members, um, pages 45, 46 of your balance sheet and and accounting of our Um, Des designated reserve funds special assessment funds, um, I’ll just go through some of the activity in June, um. We started uh in our checking, we started a balance of $2,190,112.31. We paid bills in the amount of $68,527.32. We had income in the amount of $39,360.08.

00:30:45,130	Excluding some interest that I’ll talk about a little bit later but that income reflects real estate tax, disabled veteran credit, state aid and homestead credit um along with a small amount of special assessments collected in a small amount of interest on our our regular savings account. Uh, we also had a miscellaneous income of $500 related to subsurface drainage permit application.

00:31:07,570	Um, so, uh, we ended at the balance in our checking account of $2,160,945.07 in our bravera wealth account. We began with $210,943,430.39. We had interest in the amount of I don’t have the exact amount, sorry about that, but uh over 7000 under 8000. And then we had a conversion of a CD that we deposited in our wealth account in the amount of $317,000.

00:31:37,000	So our ending a balance in the revere wealth account is $2,434,246.15. Reserve fund balance remains unchanged. previous month. At 700,000 $408.15. Um, so total, we do have a small amount of receivables also slightly under $250 yet to be collected, um. So total amount $5,295,849.25.

00:32:10,700	Um I don’t know if there’s any questions, but, uh, absent questions or inducive questions, I’ll move to approve the balance sheet as presented in your packet. OK. I got a motion by Man Reep seconded by Manager Smith to approve this month’s balance sheet. Any questions this morning on that? If not, when you take roll call vote, please. My Commission. Yes.

00:32:31,400	rate? Yes. Smith? Yes. Chair Lanier. Yes, motion passes. Mr. Chair, board members. Similarity page 4748 of the profit and loss, um, documents, um. No, no issues with those. I’d move for approval as presented. Emotion Ho second. Motion by Man Reep and the second by manager Smith to approve this month’s, uh, profit and loss statement.

00:33:01,900	Any questions on that? Not hearing any. When do you take Rocavo, please? Yeah. Yes. Yes. Smith. Yes. Chairmanberger? Yes, motion passes. loss is approved. Mr.

00:33:22,770	Chair, I C is your 2026 budget, as we discussed in the past, James and Wendy and I got together and prepared a a draft budget formi. We did submit that to the hearing or budget. Committee of the County Commission did visit with them on June 25th in this room. I shared the information with board members just last night what was shared with the county commissioners, um, short the budget request is is for 1.

00:33:45,130	5 million, 5 mLs, excuse me, um, including our anticipated uh interest income, um, and, and McDellam income that number goes to about 1. 2 million is a budget request number, um, they’re still in their process.

00:34:08,070	I hear they have a hearing probably later this week, next week to really start getting into the nuts and bolts of the entire county’s budget, so, um, ultimately I think by September, typically we have a final answer and I’m a Chair or Comm Woodcock cares to add to anything in that process. Mr.

00:34:26,500	Chair, uh, we’re meeting next week, I think, uh, to gather all the budgets together, which we’ve done, then the county Commission will look at those and we’ll start perusing each one, and I anticipate no problems with the water resource budget so far, uh, we gotta wait till we get everything added up and then we’ll go from there.

00:34:42,800	So, so far we’ve had some budget problems, not with this group, but, uh, with other things and we’re straightening those around. We’ll get them, get them going next week, I think. OK. Sounds good. OK. Comm. Any other questions for Dennis on the budget? No, I appreciate the, all the assistance on that, Dennis, Mr.

00:34:59,100	Chair, board members, one item, I was not here at at last month’s meeting, but we the discussion was, you know, we should look into Treasury bills as an investment vehicle, potential investment vehicle. I have not done that investigated any of that yet.

00:35:18,530	I did visit with our legal representation, Dave Bliss here before the meeting just briefly and we don’t think there’d be any issues with it other than, I guess in my mind, if we have to go outside of our regular bank to invest in those and that might become an issue just from our policy we adopted to to do business with that bank,

00:35:30,830	so I’ll, um, I’ll do some checking into that and see if that’s a viable option. OK. And one more item I guess just to keep the board updated our wealth. Rate um as of this morning is at 4.28% um with an effective rate of 4.03% after you reduced the management fee on that, so.

00:35:56,470	Still maintaining pretty good rate. OK. Nick Dennis, any questions for Dennis on that? Not hearing any. I think Dave, you have one more comment regarding um. Apologies Man good. Sure Lenenberger and and managers, uh.

00:36:22,730	Yesterday we received an email and and I know uh Manager Jones was copied on it as the portfolio holder for McDonald Dam, uh, Gimish had sent an email to herself, uh, to manager Jones and myself, um. Regarding the uh Boat type. That is allowed out at McDowell Dam. We wanted to open the discussion.

00:36:44,530	For, and I’m going to read this to you just as you don’t have this in your packet, I would like you all to, to understand what it is. The department is reviewing some of our administrative rules over a couple of over the last couple of months on the topic of motorboat restrictions came up. They basically have two types of motorboat boat motor restrictions. One is an electric motor and um. An idle speed only.

00:37:04,270	The discussion within the game and fish is that It basically it. The way I understand this is McDell Dam is one of the, one of the only Um, reservoirs that requires electric motors. Um So they’re asking if we would be willing. Water Resource District Board, uh, would be willing to.

00:37:27,230	Forego the electric motor only restriction and just go to idle speed. Um We barely had a time to discuss this uh as a staff, David put together Some pretty good points, um, you know, where you put in the boat. In relation to the swimming area.

00:37:43,570	Pretty darn close to each other, um, last year I think we had somebody go in there with a, with a regular boat. Um And they got ticketed for it. Um, we’re as a staff, somewhat uncomfortable with the proximity of voters to swimmers.

00:38:03,770	We have swimmers that do go outside that swim distances, they come up to the reservoir to swim for distances, and they, they’ll go out to the swimming area and they swim the entire length of of the reservoir and back. Um In the morning, early. So if you have somebody that decides they’re just gonna. gunner across the reservoir. Um It’s a recipe for disaster. Uh, also, um, It is a fairly small reservoir, so.

00:38:26,530	Any fishing boat that is out there, they can get across there pretty easily and with a trolling motor, um. And One of the other points is our parking lot is pretty darn small for, for the, uh, the boat ramp. Uh, we don’t feel that we have capacity if if we started opening that up to anybody with.

00:38:46,330	Uh, as was stated from Game and Fish, anybody with a 4 cycle. Um, engine that would open it up quite a bit if they don’t have a trolling motor and if they’re just gonna go out there with idle speeds, um.

00:38:59,230	And like I said, uh Manager Jones wanted me to bring this topic up and I was just going through reviewing a few emails with pertaining to McDonald Dam this morning, noticed that she wasn’t here.

00:39:13,000	She’d asked me to bring that up, so I apologize for being out of order, uh, with the discussion, but just wanted to bring it up to the, the board’s attention and maybe open it up for discussion if, if, if there were topics or if there were thoughts that I could respond if we want to try and keep it. Still keep it as an electric motor only or if we want to. Make that change That’s questions.

00:39:31,600	You know what does the gaming Pitch restrict on these like the horsepower or is it strictly, I think it’s strictly, it’s strictly electric motor versus idle speed, those, those, and they he included the Their language for the restrictions in the email that he sent me. And I can I’ll forward it to you. OK.

00:39:48,670	Um, as I was reviewing it, I noticed that you weren’t on the cover or weren’t copied on it, but they do have two definitions, they have electric motor only and they have idle speed only and that basically says, I take that back. There are other, other reservoirs, um. They do not allow Um They only had the electric Combustion engines as it’s listed in the definition, um.

00:40:10,130	But uh So did you put a boat in there that would have just a trolling motor and they only run the trolling motor, but they would have the larger. Motor on their boat, but they could, but they’re not allowed to.

00:40:28,870	Turn that out, otherwise it could, you know, I’m sure David would be calling we’re pretty darn we’re. How do they load the boat? Yeah. There’s a ramp there? Well, it’s the ramp and they could probably. You get going you have a on the trolling motor. We can pull the winds out far enough. OK. So they just get out there enough to strap it up and. Yep. And then crank it up. Yeah. No OK.

00:40:50,070	Yeah, we can continue the conversations when you guys get the chance, maybe we could have a conversation and kind of. Bring it back to the board maybe next month or something. OK. I have a recommendation. I.

00:41:03,530	I don’t see at this point why we would need to change regulations. I mean, at this point you’re not going to get any pushback from fishermen anyway, are you? I mean, it’s I’m trying to figure out why there to clean up on their end just to make it because we’re like the only handful like.

00:41:18,030	That’s the, the, the sound of it is that they’re just trying to clean up their, their regulations and restrictions and. The, the topic came up, so they thought I’d ask, yeah. Um Yeah. OK. And is it signed out there, Dave, that, yeah, very well, I think. If I remember right, yeah. There are. Pretty clear.

00:41:45,070	H6 dozen Or more, you know, OK, not more than a dozen, um, electric motor only. Yeah. Locations in the state. OK. Yeah, I mean, I guess just a question you, if you, if they were allowed combustion engine would increase your policing activity that you need to and, and would there be any concerns about, you know, bank erosion or anything.

00:42:03,730	I, I’m just, I’d imagine both, yes, the staff would be definitely more aware, you know, we have paddle boats out there as well. So if you consider people on paddle boats and and kayaks on the river and boats going by, that’s, you know, that happens all the time, but paddle boats, people come so many.

00:42:21,330	decides to open up an engine to get across a reservoir really quick to get a, get, you know. I’m, I’m not saying fishermen are bad at all, but you know, sometimes they just got it right off the boat ramp to get to the spot that they want to fish at the fastest, um.

00:42:34,330	They might accidentally do that and then we’ve got Three-foot waves and a couple of people on a paddle boat and all of a sudden we have a paddle boat full of water. Right. Um, Yeah, I idol speed seems pretty gray too to me. It’s like what’s version of Idle Speed. Yeah, well, I don’t typically be your Pre Inge without any acceleration.

00:42:54,100	Just first gear? Yeah. Or, yeah, there’s. Got you. Yeah. Popped out of neutral, that’s about it, right? Yeah, it’s 2 miles an hour. Yeah. I guess this other question, I mean Parks and Rec manages the facility.

00:43:18,470	Do we as the owner have ultimate say or or is it basically your say? I would imagine it’s probably ours, yours say it’s, it’s your reservoir, we manage it for you. Right. But yeah, I think it pretty heavily it pretty heavily on it pretty heavily, you know, your opinion. Yes, recommendations. Yeah. And we, we, we can make recommendations. That would be good.

00:43:37,200	But I think your points of being, the ramp is really close to the beach and just to me it’s very narrow with the kayaks and everything, it’s not a huge lake and it doesn’t seem there’s ever, I don’t ever remember anybody. Uh, you know, complaining about, you know, electric only out there, so. To me, I would think we discontinue, but let’s, let’s continue the conversation.

00:43:56,630	You guys can look at that and we can come back. OK. Discuss. Yeah, the only thing I can really see from a fisherman’s perspective is when the weather gets cool enough.

00:44:14,870	To where, you know, a longer want to get out of the boat, crawl into the water and lift your trolling motor to walk out and hook it up with your, Your tow rope, so, uh, At some point, I’m sure they’d rather start their engine and drive it up onto the trailer. So. It’s cooler. And you probably don’t have swimmers at that time. I don’t know how late they would go and fish there. Yeah, it.

00:44:41,270	Yeah, it doesn’t, I, I think that the fishing kind of cools off after a certain point. I don’t know that it kicks back up. There’s not walleye out there or anything like that, but. That do that the the spring fall. Yeah. How many boulders do we typically see? In a week OK. Yeah. No. Less than one a day, yeah. Mr.

00:45:01,570	Chair, there’s a couple of items, um, obviously, if you open it up, you’re gonna see more votes. Because you open it up and you’ll have some people that, you know, don’t wanna go out there and have that, so that, you know, Dave’s comment about parking and everything else, um, granted, it might increase the use of

00:45:17,070	the facility, but you have increased risks that go with that. The other side of the equation, the minute you introduce a combustion engine, you have oils and other things that, you know, on a small reservoir could impact water quality. So just point those two things out as well. Thanks mate. OK, well, good discussion.

00:45:37,870	We’ll kind of continue the discussion. And did they have a deadline or anything they were just, he, he did not. OK, probably look in the head to next year’s proclamation, I imagine, just trying to clean some of that I can reply back and say that we’ll discuss it at the next board meeting and

00:45:49,670	hopefully come back with a conclusion. Recommendation OK all right thanks guys. Thank you again. OK. We can now jump into drainage permits, complaints.

00:46:11,670	Oh yeah, one more item there is um in your packet is insurance proposal, I guess I didn’t look through it too much, but it’s, it’s uh it’s part of our monthly bills as well, but it’s looks like it’s our coverages for Facilities and vehicles for the next year. Is that right, Wendy? Yeah. Um, I don’t know if there’s any discussion or or. negotiation that needs to happen. I don’t think there is, but.

00:46:29,600	So it’s, I think it’s there, but we do need to approve it bolded so I have a motion for it, yeah. OK. Uh, so I’d move approving the uh insurance as presented in your packet. Yeah.

00:46:52,200	My second motion by Man Reep, seconded by Man Smith to approve the Insurance policy for uh I’m not sure what the, what the year, the time frame is, but basically from mid. year to mid-year, July 1 through July 1st so we’re actually a little bit behind you. Yep. OK Any questions? If not, when you take rool, please. Yes. Man. Yes. And. Yes. Chair. Yes, motion passes. OK, thanks, Dennis. All right, now we can move on to item 7 this morning, drainage permits and complaints.

00:47:20,330	Uh, manager Jones isn’t here this morning, but. Um, I’m not sure there’s any updates on River Road at this point. OK, it’s on the list. Thank you, Casey. Uh, Gilbert Park, yeah, Mr.

00:47:40,270	Chair, if you from an efficiency standpoint, I’ll just step through these one at a time, visiting with Comm Jones, uh, Keelbot Park, uh, we’ve completed the research relative to the uh ONM documentation. I just need to prepare the memorandum to go to DWR. So that’s, that’s on process, hopefully by next meeting, you’ll have that quick summary.

00:47:56,670	It’s only gonna be a couple of pages, but it, it’s got background. Uh, the Hawtree HOA I’ve got somebody on staff, Nick Cullen, who’s looking into that. Obviously, there’s a lot of pages to go through and, um, we’re Trying to ascertain how we take the number of alternatives that have been proposed in, and summarize those concisely and see whether or not there’s an actual recommendation there or just

00:48:18,130	lay it out to the. the parties that be um I think that. Manager Mitchell actually was able to have a meeting on site that’s right. He mentioned that. Yeah. Um, let me, yeah, maybe just want to give some background on that. Yeah.

00:48:35,230	Yeah, I met with uh Brad Brown, uh, the president of the HOA, um, out there, and Paul Kahannis, the treasurer, and, uh, because I wanted to go firsthand view of the site and uh the drainage area that was uh their concern and they did mention at that time that there were some options available and they were entertained in those options

00:48:51,600	and we’re gonna move forward with that, which at that time we decided to, uh, I was going to touch base with him again in the upcoming weeks. OK. To see where they’re at with that. So, and if you had anything else further like, regarding that.

00:49:05,400	Yeah, and, I think what we’ll do, like I said, is basically, you know, the chronological history, you know, what went on from beginning to end where the standpoints are the, if you want to call it the stakeholders or the specific parties involved and then put those options and, and we can set up a meeting with you and Nick after he’s looked at that

00:49:19,500	and said, OK, uh, where are we at? and then maybe carry that back to them before the next meeting, if that’s possible and see what kind of response they have before we formalize it in a memorandum to the board. Just a quick question on this. So let’s say they have these options.

00:49:35,330	Who’s making the decision on. What option they’re going to move forward with, is it the HOA? Well, here’s the background to this one, you know, case you can obviously chime in. Um, there’s a number of players out here, uh, the real question is it two aspects.

00:49:52,230	Number 1, it appears as though all the options have been on the table, but nothing’s been formalized. In other words, they’re just out there, um, nobody’s kind of.

00:50:06,870	Grab the chains from all of them, pulled them all together, and so I, you know, what are they and, and where can you go, um, from the district’s perspective, uh, the real question is, is do they have jurisdiction relative to those culvert installations. Um, so from that, after that, and if the district doesn’t have any real jurisdiction per se. I’ll just lay it that way.

00:50:22,470	Uh, then it comes back to the HOA and the parties involved, do they want to pursue this individually? Do they want to take legal route or where? Um, but the real issue before the board is a jurisdictional question relative to the culverts and the obstruction. OK, thanks, Michael. Anything else on that, Chuck? Nope. No. OK.

00:50:42,070	Yeah, I will say that kind of background it’s, it’s a little off topic, but it’s close. The Wells County Water Resource District took the township. Roadway authority to court. Because they changed the township roadway, and they used the obstruction policy. To Basically try to put them, have them put the culverts in the way that. They wanted for an assessment drain.

00:51:07,830	So the cult obstruction question is out there. There’s been a legal decision on that. I’m not sure how it plays Dennis, you might have read that but how that plays in and you know, we’ll, we’ll. Take a look at that, um.

00:51:25,330	Decision as it might fit into this because it deals with culverts and deals with the district using uh the obstruction clause to have the culverts modified. So, that just came up with the water Resource District summer meetings. Yeah, I didn’t read that. Well, was there a decision on that? I don’t, I guess the the court actually decided that the water resourceur district could not use the obstruction.

00:51:44,630	Statutes to get the township to change, which creates a number of conflicts. There’s a number of issues in that lawsuit, but they ruled that the obstruction one could not be used. So we’ll visit with Dave on that as well. I’ll get a copy of it, so. No. OK.

00:52:06,430	OK, um, kind of moving on to the Mike Cook scenario, um, I’ve got Nick looking into that to create an assessment just from what that assessment district may look like based on, uh, um, Based on your recommendation, there’s really not been a lot of work. It’s just a matter, it’s, it’s in the queue to be completed.

00:52:21,970	Uh, as far as the Chase Dewitt’s application, uh, been a number of conversations with, uh, Travis and the applicant and, and Dave as well, uh, the applicant is aware that they currently do not own the property, so therefore, um, they have to get the certification or approval from the property owner to actually proceed.

00:52:42,900	I’m going to speculate that if they have a purchase agreement, they’ll wait until the purchase agreement takes place and they actually have ownership and then the, the permit could proceed, but right now it’s on, on hold because it’s considered incomplete. Yeah OK. Any other questions for Michael? If not, thanks, Michael.

00:53:06,900	We can move on to projects this morning, uh, starting off with Hogue Island there, the first one. Um, I assume we’re still kind of working on the easement. Yeah, that it’s another thing that’s just in the queue. We moving along. It’s, it’s doesn’t have a critical timeline to it, so.

00:53:23,900	And then the second item there in your packet on page 72 is a letter response to one of the landowners out at the McDow or at the Hog Island site. Um, they had reached out to me and I was probably maybe a couple months ago now and. Just had some concerns or some questions regarding kind of the finished product out there on their property and.

00:53:39,500	There are some back and forth, and I think at this point now we’re ready to send this letter, um, you guys, if everybody is good with that. This morning, so you can see there’s a, a two-page letter here just kind of Summarizing what uh Travis, I assume it was you that was out there and met with him.

00:53:55,000	Actually it was Jayden in our office. OK. So. All right. But he, Jayden knocked on the door. They were home, they walked out and looked at it and had a conversation on site, so good communication, sir.

00:54:13,030	So this is kind of more, more or less just kind of documentation of the conversation and kind of what we’re seeing and hopefully, uh, put this one to rest, so. If there is consensus where we can go ahead and send that letter. I don’t motion, OK. Good. OK. Very good, Michael. OK. You guys can just fix my signature, yeah. OK. Any other questions on that? We can move on to Apple Creek this morning. OK, a number of things, Mr.

00:54:34,970	Chair, the, um, contractor Weiss and Sons has been on the Apple Creek slide area. They have installed the, uh, crust drainage to remove the Uh, water that’s coming out of the slope from the, if you want to call it the lignite seams that are up there, um, Bron was out there on Sunday, took a look at

00:54:52,130	some things. Um, there are still some concerns. It appears as though the drain tile systems that were put in, um, at this point might be a little bit overloaded. In other words, there’s still water coming out of the hill.

00:55:11,200	Where they put the drain systems in, um, as is typical until um those systems can catch up to the water that’s in the system, that’s Likely Um, but we’ll continue to monitor as it goes. Uh, the other one that’s out there and, Um, I was trying to remember whether it’s actually in here. Uh, there’s a slight scope for revision for uh Braun.

00:55:29,570	They had a number of locations out there to where they were monitoring and it seems as though there was some movement going on. So, based on their. Monitoring points, they said, well, um, We’d like Houston engineering to go out and, you know, put some control points out there and do some double checks just

00:55:48,530	to make sure that we’re not seeing or that what we’re seeing is real. Um, in talking to our surveyor, uh, there’s a likelihood in this particular instance, given the timing that the Bismarck, um, uh, the, um. Bismarck State College. Um, site was offline for a while as far as their GIS and what they’re using for control.

00:56:11,570	So that may have influenced some of this if they were not aware of that. So there’s going to be some additional costs for Braun to go out and have us put some control points.

00:56:26,570	Probably prudent to have some control points out there anyway that are fixed that are in an area that are not subject to, you know, the potential activity that’s out there, so, um, that’s in here, um, that’s something that they will proceed with, um, it’s just part of the existing contract. Obviously, it might be over based on, on, on that.

00:56:43,700	But other than that, um, the review has gone very well, uh, talking to, uh, to bar relative to sharing information as far as what’s being done and how it was done and the background information, uh, you have the two, grant applications that are now signed.

00:57:03,070	Um, so that process is in place so we could be invoicing back to Um, for reimbursement on those, but it, it’s kind of an ongoing thing that we still look for approval once the grants are signed for, um, If you want to call it the actual groaned. Um disturbance activity as far as Your grant’s concerned.

00:57:21,100	There’s obviously ground disturbance going on from the final construction, but that’s covered under the other grant. So as soon as this is done, there’s been coordination relative to the number of inclinometers where they get placed, uh, to try and prevent duplication between the, the two parties that are working on it, so.

00:57:38,600	It’s a complex ongoing activity, but it’s, it’s going along fairly well. OK. Is there anything we get to sign it? At this point, any of those. No, just the two grant applications and you’ve already authorized those to be signed digitally. I just got to go back. I was gone for a while. I want to make sure those are signed and all.

00:57:57,430	Chair, so, um, we’ll get, we’ll submit for reimbursement. That’ll be our job and I presume we’ll fall to. Right. Yeah. We’ll follow up as soon as we. To, to you folks, right? You, you guys have the arthritis. OK, we’re good with that.

00:58:15,930	I did see a pay estimate come from Bron Intech too it was like yesterday there’s actually two of them, one from BGC and one from Braun. I list this month on this month? Yes. They are. OK. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So, we’ll go back now with the grant signed, we’ll go back and look at the first reimbursement, so.

00:58:31,100	And I don’t know if you want to do that monthly or I mean we don’t have to decide, but quarterly or we’ll look at the amounts and try to make some decisions based on that or what the ongoing, um, you know, what’s next month gonna look like if there’s gonna be a lot, maybe it’s best to combine them.

00:58:43,200	OK. OK. All right. Any other questions? The Eury slide. OK. Now you’re, we can move on to. Old business this morning. Uh, first item there, I’m not sure there’s any updates regarding the CRS but said Mitch was here Mitch, I don’t know if you’ve. Got any updates or not for us this morning, but. Good morning.

00:59:10,070	Morning Chalandburger members of the board, the, uh, second week of August, we have, uh, uh, CA visit scheduled with FEMA. Oh, OK. 2nd week in August? Yeah, starting on Tuesday. OK.

00:59:38,130	The, uh, To 2 FEMA reps, Tom Bernie and Matt Lafferty and then uh State Water Resource uh NFI coordinator will be there too. OK We’ll do some site visits around the county and then we’ll look at all our permitting and. Ordinances and I’m not sure. I mean it’s scheduled till Friday every day, so I don’t sure how long they’re going to be or how long it’s gonna take.

00:59:56,870	You know, I, I think like we could do it in maybe 2 hours. But not, I don’t know. My first one, so we’re, you know. Yeah. So it’s a good thing. Yeah. OK. Thanks, thanks, Mitch. OK, Mike updates on the mitigation plan for, for Mary? Nothing at this point, no. OK.

01:00:21,430	All right, we can move on to item C this morning, our comment policy, so kind of timely here with the, the comments this morning from uh Comm Connelly. Um, regarding kind of how we ask for comments from members of the public during our meetings, but Um I don’t know Dennis, do you have anything you want to? Yeah, yeah, I, I, um, I, I gave uh

01:00:41,730	Wendy a couple different options, and they’re both included in your packet, um, actually, I think they’re both included twice just so there’s no confusion, but one originated through the eastern part of the state through Sean Fredericks, basically took his language verbatim, changed all the counties to Burley, whatever reference there and so

01:01:03,000	that was what represents that and that just so You know which one’s which, that’s the, that’s the one that starts with the whereas, um, more of a legalese type document, um, that’s that one. What page is that? Um, 108 is that one. Yes, thanks.

01:01:25,400	And then um also Ward County, who I work with, had just developed theirs. In draft form, and so I grabbed that changed again the name from Ward to Burley and presented that without really any addits to it, and so I think it’s something to consider. I don’t know, but we need to absolutely decide today.

01:01:43,600	But it goes through and addresses some time periods like was maybe presented here early this morning. 5 minutes, um, I think, you know, I think the chairman’s discretion is important.

01:02:04,530	I, I heard Dave mentioned that at the last meeting, De Bliss and um and so I, I don’t know that these are perfect and should be adopted at right now, but I think there’s something to do a good start and And to consider um one other document and that’s on page 116, I think that’s you said that origin is that’s Burley County Commission’s policy. As as it as it was approved. Last Monday.

01:02:29,470	OK, so, so there’s that option as well, and, and you know we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. I think there’s, you know, any one of these could maybe serve the purpose, um, or we could use combinations thereof or slate edits to thereof, so.

01:02:57,630	What’s the version on Is 106 our current? Or this is That is that again there’s the that’s the County the County County, twice each of those Ward County and Sean Fredericks got in there, so there’s. So sorry for that confusion. No, that’s fine. That makes sense. OK. Well, there would be some continuity if we used the Burleigh County. I kind of like that idea too, Roger. You wouldn’t Yeah.

01:03:14,400	It might be confusing if we had a different policy. Right. Yeah. So we’re kind of well connected to the. County There’s no time for him on that one. You know, just, uh, it, it time limit and appropriateness at the discretion of the chair, right. Mr. Chair, I, uh, as to the county’s, um, um, policy.

01:03:41,170	I like bullet points, numbers 1 and 2. They say may be available during each agenda item at the discretion of the chair and time limit and appropriateness at discretion of the chair.

01:03:59,200	I think we talked about this briefly at the last meeting, but in my view, uh, if that, if it’s clear that the chair has the responsibility to govern public comment. That’s really what Uh, what is necessary for the, the flow of the meeting, and I don’t think you’re denying any individual’s rights to be able to appear, but as long as it’s clear that the chair has that authority, um, the chair can run these

01:04:16,400	meetings, and if that’s embodied in the policy, that’s great. Um, I think Sean Frederick’s policy is excellent. I also like the counties, um, one thing I would, uh, uh, change probably with um With uh Sean’s too was rather than use the Senate bill, just put in chapter 44, substitute that, so

01:04:36,870	we’re not talking about a bill anymore. We’re talking about the actual statute. Um, a person could combine, um, bullets 1 and 2 from the county commission and use, uh, the earlier one as well or however the board wants to do that. OK. I think there are good things in both of them.

01:04:57,500	OK Any more thoughts this morning? If not, do you want to take a little time between now and next month’s meeting and. Or is everybody comfortable making a decision today. Your thoughts. So, Dave, you were saying that.

01:05:22,570	You would look at the Burlee County one with in addition to what? Um, I would, I would again, I, I think both are good. I, I think those, the, the points that they were making that the county Commission made are good, and they, they’re articulated well, and I would, I would think taking those two points and perhaps others, but incorporating that into, um,

01:05:41,770	the, the other policy that the draft that Dennis has. Uh, would be a good thing. It’s already there at the discretion of the chair, but I think the county sets it forth a little more clearly.

01:05:59,370	The only, the only question I have and, and it’s maybe more on a personal level, we all trust James right now, but if we get somebody in here that’s really, really, uh, Um, receptive to hearing people talk. I time can be get to be an issue. I, one of the things that, again, on a more personal level, I don’t like to see people just get up there for their 15 minutes of fame either.

01:06:18,530	um, and so, um. I do like Having a band or a boundary on time if, if possible. Again, it’s it’s addressed in the Burleigh County one, but it doesn’t have a number associated with it. Um That’s the only thing I would.

01:06:40,470	I do like the idea of being consistent, you know, within county entities as much as possible too though, so. Because the Ward County one is almost a page, I see, right, the signatures are on a 2nd page, but It’s a little more concise compared to the, the other one you had gotten. And that one does call out, I think the century code chapter 44.

01:07:01,270	As Dave was taught referencing, right? Um-hum. Um Is there a time limit on that one? On the Ward County one that we that I copied over, yes, um, the other part it requires is, you know, if you can, you can have written comments that have to be accepted, but it puts a time restraint on that that you have

01:07:22,730	to have it in handed in. 30 minutes before. Um, public meeting starts and so. Cause we’ve had some, you know, public hearings where we’ve had some public comments and, um, some of them are quite lengthy, if I remember right.

01:07:47,770	Um, And, and those instances, do you have the discretion on managing that? I would think so. It doesn’t state it that way in here, but. Um So there will be times when the board members want to ask that person questions which will go beyond the 5 minutes. Yeah, it gets to be a fuzzy gets to be different and that’s why it goes back to the discretion of the chair.

01:08:06,030	You may want to have some Guy up there who’s an expert and talk to him for 20 minutes. Yeah, cause. Right. The word county one is, however, the board may by a majority vote extend the time for public comment, but that doesn’t say specific to individuals 5

01:08:19,770	minute time frame. So, yeah, I, I guess I’m inclined to add that language? Well, I’m actually comfortable with this one and if it turned into a. An issue at every, you know, at some point then we would go, all right, this is not working.

01:08:41,600	We have to put a time limit on it, because it’s, I’m not sure where you would. You know, because, you know, it has to be. Pertaining to Burley County, so that reduces the amount of potential. Conversation right there and then it has to be pertinent to what we’re doing. And Uh, I don’t know.

01:09:03,070	I just don’t know that we had, See the same. Problems and if, if we do, then I think we’d have the ability to go back and amend. True. Yeah, it it can be a living document to perse, yeah, yeah. OK, so you’re kind of recommending maybe, Roger, your thoughts as we go with the, the Burleig County.

01:09:21,230	Yeah, because we do put a time limit on it, which is logical, but there’s a lot of what ifs, and we were in, you know, potential would be breaking our own rule or having to Stay inside the guidelines we’re now voting on whether to extend that, you know, it could

01:09:39,400	get messy and. Yeah. I think we just have to trust the chair to manage, manage it and it becomes. An issue then And to Comm Connelly’s comment earlier at the beginning of the meeting today, was you had mentioned that how many times do we really see this happening with this board for 5 years, it’s

01:09:57,130	only been a couple of times public comment. Yeah. So I, so I don’t know that we have a big problem to resolve. Yeah. Mr. Chair. We did discuss the time limit thing, a couple of different meanings, but we left it up to the discretion of the Chair, and we felt that was very important because he’s got,

01:10:16,730	he’s the Chair. He, he can, he has to be reasonable. We can’t, you can’t let somebody go on for half an hour on and repeat themselves all the time, so it’s a, it’s a powerful thing for the, for the Chair, but yes, it’s a necessary one too, so,

01:10:33,700	uh, we also discussed whether they had to be a resident of Bernie County, and that was important too, because you, you talk about an expert coming to testify. No doubt that experts probably not from Burnie County. They might be some someplace else. We did, Kick that around a little bit, but. Yeah. OK.

01:10:49,830	The discretion of the chair was very important. I, um, Jerry, Mr. Wilcox, um, The first bullet may be available during each agenda item. Um, what’s the background of that bullet, you know, so if I read that right, each of our agenda items we could, somebody could say stand up and say I want to make

01:11:15,800	a comment on that. Is that what’s anticipated or, at first we thought it, it had, if it’s on the agenda, you’re supposed to make your comments and then when the agenda item came up, but then, then that’s up to the discretion of the Chair whether he allows any public comment at all.

01:11:33,530	So, uh, it’s kind of a Hard to tell what. What we, what we intend to do. OK. Yeah, that, That one is a little confusing to me. Because we give opportunity for public comment right off the bat. But. Is not associated with an agenda. Right. Right. Right. Yep.

01:12:00,670	Because if, if it’s on the agenda and Our current Chair now is is very good about allowing public comment, but that doesn’t mean the next Chair might say it’s No public commentlo, so. Who knows? That gives you that discretion again, right? Yeah. And I’m sure if one of the other commissioners wanted.

01:12:22,600	Public comment, they could bring it up and discuss it before. Right. Yeah. But, but just to clarify, the law does require allowance of public comment at each at each meeting. Yes, um, yeah. So at some point, the Chair has to allow somebody to comment if they, if they want to, yeah. And you’re right, Mr.

01:12:47,200	Chair, it does come down to the chairs discretion. Um, as long as I’ve been here, you know, there’s probably been a few more times. What you end up with is all of a sudden somebody’s got a particular issue they want addressed, and it’s not on the agenda. Oh, drainage complaint or whatever, um, it can come up, you can discuss it.

01:13:05,870	Sometimes you’ve had more lengthy discussions or otherwise say, hey, formalize your complaint and we’ll deal with it. Which means you’ve given them the opportunity to step up and be, um, if you want to call informed by the board as far as where they can go.

01:13:21,330	So I, I like the term may because, you know, you don’t necessarily open up, you get. You can see that you’ve got 70 people in the room on, on a particular topic and uh you can control it to the point to where, you know, you may need a public informational meeting, but the board can decide that relative to your, uh, The demands for time. Yeah.

01:13:39,570	Yeah, I think it’s, uh, a good bullet point here should not repeat items already presented so you can’t get up and say the same 30 people can’t say the same thing that. Right.

01:13:57,700	One other person has already said, And I would add I’ve been to any number of Um You planning board commission meetings, etc. where you have citizens who are saying the same thing over and over and over again, and quite honestly, I sit in the background and kind of say, OK, at what point do you just say, hey, unless you have something new to say, uh, there’s really nothing more to bring forward.

01:14:13,270	If you want to come up and say, hey, I support what the prior people said just so that you’re recognized, um, and if I were chair, that, that’s, that’s advisable, but sometimes things go on and on and on with the same thing. Yeah. So.

01:14:29,630	So it It comes to an efficiency point, but I think the legislature was looking at um as uh Comm Connelly pointed out the people for opportunity for people to step in and, and speak. So, and I think that’s, that’s being given here, so OK. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.

01:14:50,000	And Dave, it’s, it’s your thought that here this, this, I Bur County version on page 116 of our packet meets the intent of that. That bill, right? Yes, I think the intent is pretty clear. It’s now in statute. You got a public comment. How you allow that is up to the uh given entity. Yeah. And I think too, less is more.

01:15:07,600	I mean, I think if you give the, the Chair the quality of, of being able to run the meeting at his discretion, you’re probably doing OK. Yeah. OK. Well, Roger. Well, I make a motion that we accept the, Uh, policy, uh, as it is presented. In our packet and is, um, Uh The public comment. policy of Bertie County. OK.

01:15:37,500	The one that’s on page 116 of our packet, yeah. Wendy can put that into English. OK She just stepped away here. We’ll kind of wait till Wendy gets back here. We’ll. I don’t know there’s a motion. Is there a second for that motion? second. OK. Second by Chuck. OK, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir.

01:15:59,930	Um, we don’t want to forget this is a living document. So if, if this doesn’t work, we’ll know within 6 months, whether by the end of the year, whether this doesn’t work and we’ve got a problem and any particular area, it can be revised.

01:16:12,200	We might do it or this group might do it. No. But, there’s a challenge to it or something we can. We’re kind of, it’s kind of a uh Undecided question right now, so, uh, we’re trying to do the best we can and then if, if we need to change it, we will. Makes sense.

01:16:29,270	OK. Thanks, Comm. All right, Wendy, in your absence, we have all kinds of action going on. Um, no, we, we do have a motion by a manager Smith. OK. To adopt the public comment policy as pres as similar to or as the same as Burley County.

01:16:56,630	Which is the version that we have in our packet on page 116. So it’s the, it’s basically the half page one with about 10 bullets, yeah. OK And it was seconded by manager Mitel. OK. And we’ll take a roll call vote on that, please. Yeah, man. Yes. Yes. Andre Smith. Yes. Chair Laer. Yes, motion passes. OK, good.

01:17:29,630	Thank you. Good discussion this morning. Thank you, Comm. Thank you, Dave. OK, no other old business this morning. We can move on to new business, um. EAE program contribution, Roger? Yes, uh, the Missouri River Joint Board have their summer meeting two weeks ago today.

01:17:54,330	There was not a quorum, so there’s, excuse me, no actual business, uh, accomplished, but, uh, gave some reports. Uh, they did ask, uh, Me, uh, as representative of Burleigh County. Uh, whether or not we would contribute, uh, voluntarily, we do have paid our, Our joint board dues, uh, in last year, we Um Voluntarily donated. 7500. Yep. Right. 500.

01:18:21,930	And ask if that would, uh, If they could expect that again this year, I would, uh, Advocate uh for that uh voluntary contribution, uh, I think the program is, uh, and, As a reminder EAE educate, uh, advocate and engage.

01:18:50,330	And We’re engaging in activating the public, uh, so that they’re more aware of, Missouri River issues, the largest issue is, Uh, coming from outside of the Missouri River basin, and that is from others who are short on, Water quantities and want, want to, I the Missouri River as a possible, um, Source of Salting their water issues.

01:19:18,500	And so I think, uh, in the joint board believes that it’s important to Continually educate the public because, uh, there could be a point in the future where That is a, uh, A real fight, and we would need the support of Uh, North Dakota, citizens, uh, and without educating them. That might not happen.

01:19:43,070	So, Uh, we’re one of the counties that benefits, uh, greatly from having uh Missouri River on the border and uh we’re also one of the counties that has the, uh, means to be able to do that voluntary contribution. So, Uh, I would move that we, uh, continue and, uh, support, uh, that EAE program by voluntarily contributing $7500.

01:20:10,830	I don’t know that it was budgeted. That would be the one question I’d have, but, Yeah, Mr. Chair, I don’t believe it was identified as a line item, um, you would not be an issue. Right, I, I think we have a Missouri River.

01:20:28,970	You know, laying in there that this would probably fall into, right. Yeah, OK, got a motion by Manager Smith to contribute our $7500 again for the 2020 2025 year. A second. The second by manager Mitel. Mr Chaman I got remind me Chaman Chaman I got remind me, what is our uh annual dues. 2000. OK, thanks. Yeah.

01:20:58,330	And it’s all based on, uh, Oh, what’s that term, tax, uh, Tax, taxable Evaluation. Per county where in the highest, so you’re either at, 201,500 or 1000. Are they getting any more interest from some of the other counties and then we have some counties join, uh, now that, uh, our bylaws allow for counties that are not adjoining the river. Um-hum.

01:21:21,270	So we’ve had some new counties join, um, unfortunately, we didn’t get them on the call so that we could have a quorum and we suspected that. That was going to be. Getting a quorum was going to be more challenging and turned out. It was. Um-hum. That’s fair. OK.

01:21:39,000	All right, we have a motion in the 2nd on the table. Any more discussion or questions? Not hearing any windy take roll call vote, please. Yeah. Yes. Man Re. Yes. Smith. Yes. Chair Liber. Yes, motion passes. Thank you, Chair. Yes. Might not be a bad idea to put that in the budget as Community involvement.

01:22:00,400	If you’re doing it every year, it probably should be budgeted, and we have that out of community involvement. One of our line items. Also, we required the group that you’re donating to to send a letter request so that we have it on file saying, uh, this is what we do, this is the value and whatever it might be, so.

01:22:18,430	Otherwise it’s just a. If you do it the way it is now without it, without that, who knows what they’re doing or, or what, so whether it’s a community involvement project. Yeah, that’s a good point. We do have something in here in the packet from 2024. Do we? OK. Yeah. From, from last year’s request.

01:22:35,700	We had 11 group that we budgeted for $5000 and they didn’t request it. They didn’t even come and say, we, we’d like to, so we didn’t, we didn’t. You didn’t pay Sponsor the Symphony fireworks this year. Oh. Which is, uh, unfortunate because I’m a big supporter of that. Yeah.

01:22:53,200	Oh, I’m happy to get that letter from, uh, the joint board. Or or email or something or yeah, just in a I mean, would you go, we could consider that next month’s meetings for bills. Yes, it’s not in this month. Yeah, yeah. So that would be great.

01:23:11,770	No, I think, uh, that’s why I’ll, I’ll say, uh, we, we approved the motion, uh, uh. conditioned upon a conditioned conditioned upon a, a letter of request. Yeah. Addressed to the Chair. Yep. OK. OK. Sounds good. Thank you, Comm. You bet. OK.

01:23:40,270	Uh, another item on there, Wendy on a new business was the US Postal Service, was that? Something Cowboys has not received their payment for last month. Yeah. It’s interesting in the mail somewhere. It as of yesterday, it had not cleared the bank yet. OK. But I also know that no. Houston and Listed cash there’s till July, and they were mailed on June 20th.

01:24:05,730	Hm So at this point, we’re looking at maybe canceling that check and then issuing a new check? Yes, there is a reissue check in with the checks. Yep. It’s not on the bills because it’s. Already been paid. Right. But if we approve it, we’ll, I’ll have you sign that. OK. I assume a consensus there to do that, yeah. Mr.

01:24:26,770	Chair, yeah, go ahead, are we done with that? Well, I was just about, you know, with future payments to them, do we just want to try to set up where they can swing by your office or you have to swing by my, however, we can set it up so we’re not seeing this.

01:24:40,270	Male issue again, but maybe it won’t happen again. I don’t know. Oh, and even this one. Yeah. Do they even want us to try to Right, just have them swing by your office. I mean, I, I would think they’re, they’re local, right? Yeah. Just, I don’t know, it just seems like it’s.

01:24:59,630	Becoming kind of more the norm where this delay is just taking days and days and weeks to get the mail, a simple check. So Yeah, maybe maybe we can have. Comm Jones reach out to him and see if that’s an option for him. OK. I’ll hold on to the. OK. Thanks, Wendy. Mr.

01:25:21,670	Chair, back to Missouri River um at the Water Resource Districts Association meeting that took place during the summer meetings, um. There’s talk about there’s advocacy program through water Resource Districts Association, Water Users Association were joint boards contribute a pretty large sum of money annually to that advocacy program and that’s managed through the Hanson Dwyer, um. Company Um, for instance, I think the Red River. Basin contribution is.

01:25:48,270	200, 20 they’re proposing 25 Server Joint Board is going to be 10, if I recall correctly. Anyway, big numbers. The question was raised at the At the meeting by some of the eastern folks as well, what about this Missouri River joint board.

01:26:10,670	Why don’t they contribute? I think we, I think we did a couple 100 of a nominal amount. So um just kind of a notice that that’s a discussion out there, um, Missouri River issues are becoming, I think, a bigger and bigger um statewide issue and, and, you know, justifiably so that um so I think there’s going to be.

01:26:30,400	pressures or suggestions that Missouri River Joint Board and I,, I, I shared this and Mike was there too, and he shared some of that same thing that Missouri River Joint Board has not had a large operating budget, historically. Will that change in the future, maybe, um.

01:26:48,900	Just, just so that people know that there’s going to be some suggestions and maybe pressure to Say, Missouri River joint board, why aren’t you coming to the table for that part of it, you know, educate EAE kind of.

01:27:09,500	Supplements that are replaced as part of that, but there’s still a lot of legislation that happens that EAE is just not in a position to, you know, quickly address that this other entity is so Missouri River Joint Board had a, Good formal request from them? Well, they’ve contributed, so there was, there was some dialogue there. I don’t know how formal it was, but that must have been. Yeah, what they, what they’ve got now, and thanks dentist for bringing this up.

01:27:27,230	Um, they’re setting up a, you know, a suggested due schedule. And the Missouri River Joint Board’s been on this schedule for as 0. You know, from a request perspective, um, and it’s changing, and it was interesting because the Red River Joint Board has a lot of stuff going on. I mean, they’re very active. They got a lot of drainage issues.

01:27:46,870	There’s lots of legislative issues, and these dollars go to support that, um, advocacy for that type of an activity. So they’re more than willing to put in, you know, the dollar amount that’s necessary, but now they’re starting to recognize, well, why would the Missouri River joint board be at zero.

01:28:02,270	So they did, you know, put in there a $2000 request, and I think it, it looked fairly well balanced. But you’re right, Dannis said, as the Missouri River issues, things start to come up, uh, there’s going to be more required by the, the advocacy group on their side legislatively and otherwise to

01:28:20,870	move things forward so that contribution’s got to be there, so, or should be there. And so I mean, if that happens and you know, Missouri gets more bigger operating budget, it’s gonna affect our budget too, because they’ll, you know, how that’s going to get funded is through individual colonies, so.

01:28:34,300	And, you know, just the other part of that discussion is, it’ll be a little more hot topic because uh it’s kind of be the focus of the annual convention is Missouri River, the upper basin. Upper Missouri Basin.

01:28:51,500	Um, meeting is going to be concurrent with our annual meeting in December, so it’ll be Missouri River focused. Um, so Just I’ll pass that. That’s that on. Yeah, right. Hey, Dennis. Along those lines, check any anything from the summer meeting that you saw, you know, you, you were able to attend last week, last Wednesday was, uh, just attended the sessions, uh, that they had, and, uh, just thought of training sessions involved

01:29:14,470	with that day and everything and got some good information out of there. They talked about a lot of the uh legislative bills. Yeah. That I’ve gone through and stuff as well there too, so. Good. And, uh, uh, Michael was there as well. Yeah, anything of interest. Generally speaking, it was a good meeting.

01:29:29,430	I mean, there, there’s background information, um, obviously the tour was the Devils Lake Outlet facilities and other things that were going on. So it was nice to see what was going on and hear some of the background of that. Yeah.

01:29:45,270	Uh, the first time I was on the Devil’s Lake tour, so, uh, the bus was full, interestingly enough, uh, but there, there are a number of issues that come up. The one we talked about earlier with the um Wells County Board and going to court and actually losing, um, there’s, there’s issues with that.

01:30:01,200	That’s kind of the kind of the underlying purpose of some of those meetings to say, hey, we’re, we’re all having issues or similar issues, and if one goes through a particular scenario, we learn from the other, right? So, um, I thought it was a good meeting, uh, good sharing of information. Good. OK. Thanks, Chuck. Thanks, Michael.

01:30:18,900	Yes, one other item, the uh, the state Department of Water Resources has issued some draft policies on permit um reviews and um it’s on their website. comment period for that is through basically the end of August, well, I think September 12th is the due date of comments, but um, Anybody can comment individual waterboards, the water resourceur districts is, is, I

01:30:42,430	believe, going to organize a comment, a joint comment document basically, um, it lays out, you know, lays out timelines for permit reviews, completeless reviews, and so um that’s out there. Available for Mr.

01:31:06,970	Chair, I think what’s interesting on that is there were a couple of legislator activities, bills that were put forth to mandate that to DWR and DWR basically said, hey, wait a minute, let’s talk about this in policy. Let’s see if we can come up with something so it’s not mandated so that we can work with the water resourceur districts and others relative that permitting policy. I’ve looked through the numbers, they appear to be.

01:31:22,430	Relatively reasonable, they’re probably a little more extended than than some might want, but it’s a first step in the process to, um, if you want to call it a void law and deal with it in policy, which is always. Better not unlike the comment period you’re talking about here.

01:31:41,130	It’s policy you can adjust it as needed rather than having it legislated and mandated, so. Yeah Thank you. Right, uh, moving on to other document and information that correspondence additional in your packet, some, uh, temporary water permits and then in addition, there are, there’s one.

01:32:02,670	Uh, platin there too if you want to review that and take a look at that and provide any comment, you certainly can. Uh, next item, approval of this month’s bills. Mr. Chair board members on page 121. It’s a summary of those bills, um. As we talked about for the um McDowell Dam Apple Creek Water Supply Pro, um easement was received.

01:32:28,630	Um, signed and so We do have an addition to these bills to pay that utility ease the amount of $29,700.00. So with that addition to the bills, the new amount would be $115,000552.47. Right. And, um, math works out.

01:32:58,770	I would so move move approval for payment of the bills in that amount. OK? You got a motion. One second. Motion by Manager Reep, seconded by Man Smith to approve and pay this month’s bills in the, uh, the amended amount as, as, as Dennis laid out. Any discussion or questions this morning. Not seeing any. When you take roll call vote, please. Yeah. Yes. And, Yes. Sandra Smith. Yes.

01:33:26,800	Sherman Laberger. Yes, motion passes, bills will be paid. K remaining parts of your packet there, you have the detailed information from the billing, uh, for the month. Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 13th in this room at starting at 8 a.m. everybody be present at that meeting.

01:33:47,730	OK, we can reach out to Comm Jones and Make sure she’s aware of that meeting. And uh there’s nothing else. in the business before the board?