00:00:14,730	Heavenly father, we just come before you. Thanking you for this season of lent that we’re all in. And I pray God that we, uh, understand what it’s what it’s for and what it’s about. We’re here for this meeting tonight to probably talk about a lot of important things.

00:00:32,370	And I pray, God, you will just guide the conversation. Be with these, uh, commissioners as they, they serve this, uh, this county. And we pray that they service well and, uh, be with all of our, uh, first responders out there in the street. And we thank you for what they do.

00:00:51,630	And and, uh, we’d be remiss not to think about them as as we are able to be in here in this meeting. And we do this all in Jesus name. Amen. 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.

00:01:13,500	I appreciate it. Excuse the speaker. We go. To. Turn off the phone. Okay. I’ll call the March 2nd, 2026 meeting. The Berkeley County Commission order. Um, I believe that, Commissioner. Um, bacon is participating by phone. Is that okay? Uh, I am on. Zoom, but I’m getting a formal lectern.

00:01:49,770	Okay, we might have a problem here. Uh, I have called the meeting to order. First thing is, roll call the members. Commissioner. Schwab here. Commissioner Woodcock here. Commissioner Munson here. Commissioner bacon. Chairman. Bitner here. We know he’s there. Yeah. Next is the approval of the agenda. Commissioners. I’m going to add something under the OHV. OHV discussion.

00:02:20,270	Um, potential asked Mitch to put together a potential resolution regarding the OHV thing. So we would be talking about an ordinance or a resolution or both. That would be under item 14. Anybody else want to change or add anything? And entertain a motion on the agenda. Move to approve. Second. Motion. And second to approve the agenda.

00:02:54,500	Any further discussion? Call the roll. Commissioner Woodcock. Yes, Commissioner. Munson. Yes, Commissioner. Botkin. Yes. Yes, Commissioner. Schwab. Was that a yes or no? All of them are yeses. Yes. Uh, Chairman. Bitner. Yes. Motion carries. Next consideration of the February 17th, 2026 meeting. Minutes and bills.

00:03:17,330	I, uh, did the bills. It looked okay to me, and I went through the minutes, and they looked okay. So I moved to approve. Second motion and second to approve the minutes and the bills. Any further discussion? Call the roll. Commissioner Munson. Yes, Commissioner. Bacon. Yes. Yes. Commissioner Schwab. Yes. Commissioner Woodcock. Yes. Karen. Bitner. Chairman. Bitner.

00:03:46,200	Yes. Motion carries. Uh, next would be public comment. Um, it’s restricted to Burleigh County residents and landowners. Um, it’s for items that are, um, from a previous meeting or or this meeting’s agenda. Does anybody wish to speak under public comment? Chairman. I don’t think so. Push the button. On the bottom. There you go. Hello? Good. All right.

00:04:24,070	Chairman. Commissioners. Uh. Uh, I just was curious. Uh, I live on 71st. Uh, and I come home on 52nd. I’m wondering about, uh, two years ago, they repaired the culvert going across 71st and 52nd. Two of them twice.

00:04:52,500	And because what happens is, when you’re driving, you go down there and whoosh like that, they’re starting to sink. Now, after they redid the whole pavement, that same two culverts are now doing the same thing. So what I’m saying three times now. Now that’s all redone. We all know the 71st is redone. They’re going to have to tear that up again I’m assuming.

00:05:15,370	And on the north side of 52nd going into the country Creek field. So I think for future we need to get I saw him do the one I went by there every day yesterday. I don’t think they’re getting compaction. And they put in them culverts culvert because it’s the same situation.

00:05:35,100	Now this is going to have to be tore up again for the fourth time. Fourth time. So I think we should check into that and maybe try and do a little bit better. Uh, engineering on doing them culverts. I know that’s a wider area out there, but we’re going to have to get some compaction or something because there’s no reason to do it four times.

00:05:55,370	It’ll be and then the other two are doing it now. All in that corner intersection two to the west, one to the north, and the main one right on 52nd. So maybe talk to the county engineering and stuff and see if we can. Huh? County engineer guys are right behind you. Well. I know, but I’m not.

00:06:18,830	I’m going to. I’ll give them a chance to. Okay. To respond to that because we’ve we’ve actually had a lot of conversations in this regard. You wouldn’t be the first person. Um, I come across it myself too. So. I appreciate you bringing it up. Okay.

00:06:38,800	Now, uh, I would like to ask permission because I have to leave. I sat here for an hour and a half. Wait, and. And you guys said you were not going to let the OHV conversation. So I left that go to a meeting. Would you allow me five minutes to say my part? Because I have to go to another 7:00 meeting. Would you do that? I think so.

00:06:56,200	Okay. So I’m going to show you a quick scenario. I live out in 6700 coded country drive. Uh, I’ve had two side by sides and a 4x4, and I’ve. They’re all gone now, but I have a I’m going to give you a scenario because this is what frustrating.

00:07:20,870	I have a neighbor that purposely comes in my ditches, purposely tears them up. They do it because I know they don’t like it. I don’t like it. I’ve called the sheriff on it.

00:07:42,200	He came up and talked to him last summer because I finally got him on camera and the tracks pictures I showed the sheriff, I showed him the camera videos and he went over there for 20 minutes. He talked to him and it was good for a while. First time it started melting. Now they’re back on it with them big tracks going down my ditch and. Just.

00:08:01,070	And I can’t do a thing about it other than maybe call the sheriff again. So we need to get this situation. I, I’m not against side by side. They’re 4x4. Is there anything but maliciously when they’re doing it and they’re the they’re the hassle of the neighborhood. Their dogs run in my yard. They do their business.

00:08:20,570	I mow that my situation and and my idea is to when these people sell these side by sides, the buyer and the seller, there should be a fee on that tacked on. So if the county is going to, you know, allow us to keep our I keep my ditches clean.

00:08:41,900	I think all that pricing and and the collected things should come to the Verde County sheriff to help pay the expenses. And then if the county has to come out and mow my ditch because the ruts are so thick, uh, then they can take it out of that.

00:08:57,400	It’s just a thought. Or we have to start enforcing the law. And the county sheriff has to come and do it. It’s only one person out there. There’s a lot of them out by my house. I have a paved road right on the west east side of my house.

00:09:16,630	It’s a dead end paved road and a section line all the way east and west. Why are they going in my ditches and tearing it up? Just. Just that person. I’d like to give the address, but I’m not going to do it. Give it to the sheriff. I give. All right. Thanks. I appreciate that. Thank you.

00:09:37,900	Okay. This is a public comment, period. And because I obviously allowed him to speak on on an agenda item because he, he had a valid concern from last meeting, anybody else wished to speak under public comment.

00:10:10,670	My name is Dennis Wetzel, and I’m here to talk a little bit about the ETA. And we’ve been out of it for two days and all, but, uh, I went to the county about getting a permit for my garage edition, and I was told that I’m in violation now because my house is no longer out of the floodplain.

00:10:29,770	And I think I sent a letter, which I hopefully everybody has a copy of. But, you know, when I built my house, I built it at the flood elevation was 1632 and I built it at 1634. Well, then in, in 1995 85 it went to uh 1637 when all is back to 1633.

00:10:54,900	But I’m only one foot above the baseline elevation, so I talked to Mr. Flannigan about a permit, and then he said, well, I’m in violation, but there’s a caveat. If it’s less than 50% improvement. But he said, I need to get an appraiser out to appraise my house.

00:11:18,000	And then having have him appraise it with the garage edition, well, my house is appraised at 488,000. I’m looking to build a 24 by 44 edition, and according to the county, that’s worth about $20,000.

00:11:45,630	So I don’t know why we can’t just include the tax statement for the current value and then put in the file the, you know, the the county’s estimate of what the cost is going to be. So I guess then I’ve seen some houses that go up in areas that are south of me that weren’t, that aren’t elevated at all. And I gave some addresses in my letter.

00:12:05,000	So I guess one of the questions I have is, you know, the county, uh, regulates to the 2% or the 500 year flood plain, and the city only does to the 1% or the 100 year. And I checked with Cass County and Grand Forks and Ward County, and they all do the 1%.

00:12:24,500	So, I mean, why does the county regulate to the the 2% of the 500 year? I guess I like to get some response to that. And then, uh, the other thing is, you know, the BFE, the slight elevation, isn’t it the same no matter if you’re in the 100 year or 500 year? I

00:12:48,700	mean, if I’m looking at a firm map, it has a flood elevation. And right now my house is out of the, uh, floodplain. But according to Mitch, now I’m in violation because I know I’m in the county jurisdiction, not in the city’s ETA.

00:13:14,230	So, anyway, those are my questions, and I don’t know if I can get a response, either from the colony or from Mitch or somebody. Well, I think I think it’d be most appropriate to have, uh, have Mitch come up and address your concerns. He is the floodplain coordinator. Uh, the floodplain issue, I think, is a bigger thing than most of us are familiar with. So.

00:13:32,870	Yeah, you know, and the county or the city only regulated to the 1%. So all these people now that are in the out of DTA now all of a sudden, are they going to be out of compliance, you know, because, you know, we built according to the code at the time.

00:13:52,100	It’s you want to give a little insight there. Commissioners. Mr. chair, um, well, there’s a lot of questions there. Uh, as far as the number of parcels in this one 500 year and in the ETA, there’s, uh, 978 parcels that are in the 500 year Bradley County considers both the 100 year and the 500 year

00:14:17,370	special flood hazard areas, which means we regulate them. Uh, the BFE is the same for both zones. It’s the elevation that changes of where you’re building that affects where you’re two feet above, or two feet of below, or how you how much freeboard you have, how much you don’t. Um, Mr.

00:14:36,970	Wetzel built his property to the floodplain. Correction. Correct. When he built it first, I never told him he was out of violation. I told him that he built. He would create a violation of Burleigh County because we elevate two feet. Now he has the option of adding an addition to his house.

00:14:55,800	As long as it’s not greater than 50% substantial improvement. And to get to that 50%, you have to get an appraisal. Um, I did ask Alvey to look at the property to see what kind of appraisal he would it would be, and it’s right at $77 a square foot, which this edition is 82,000 square foot, or $82,000

00:15:18,100	for the project. So he would be less than 50%. The idea is that if he hasn’t done any other improvements to the house since the flood, elevation has changed, then the the $82,000 would be part of that substantial improvement.

00:15:43,300	He would be allowed to build if he, um, the violation is that if you wanted to go past the 50%. And I, um, I haven’t got an answer yet, but, um, they asked for an appraisal, a professional appraisal. Now, Al Whitmire is is is is pretty accurate on his appraisals, but is really kind of I want to be providing appraisals to these private landowners.

00:16:09,300	That and I would have to work it up and make the make the appraisal report. But this is what is at his issue. I could issue him a permit tomorrow if he had the right documents.

00:16:30,730	Um, but as far as regulating the 2% or the 500 year, the both zones, the the 500 year is consider the less less of an impact. It has probably a third of the chance of what a 1% or 2% of 100 year has. But it still makes our community more resilient if we if we effectively enforce both, zones.

00:16:50,370	I could give an example of up in Hog Island, um, prior to the 2024 maps out, the that area was was zoned uh for the 500 year. We regulated the 500 year, we elevated many of those properties two feet above the BFE. Now, that entire area is in the 100 year.

00:17:15,000	So these maps change, and Burleigh County didn’t really have accurate maps up until this last round. We and it’s only for a few places in Raleigh County, but they’re more reliable. But I wouldn’t advise changing our ordinances. Um, because we have been regulating 500 years for the last since 2014. Um, I would not advise to change that. Uh, I believe Mr.

00:17:42,370	Wenzel was at many of these meetings during the ETA discussions, and that was brought up. And I did state many times that I believe I told him to as well, that the 2% is in is regulated by Burleigh County. The city of Bismarck does not regulate that 2%.

00:18:08,370	So that’s where we’re at on I know that’s a lot of questions, but basically he just has to get the, uh, substantial improvement under 50% and he’d be fine. That doesn’t sound like that’s a difficult process, isn’t it? It isn’t. Yeah. Well. I have to hire an appraiser, then. Or do I? Yeah, I think that’s I think that’s accurate.

00:18:30,300	I don’t think that we would want to get into a situation where our staff is performing appraisals for individual citizens, because they’re out there appraising for taxes. But where did that say you have to have an appraisal in the in the code, it just says the value less than 50%.

00:18:50,230	I mean, common sense. I mean, my house is 488,000. My garage is going to cost me 20,000. You know, I guess it’s a moot point because, uh, after I talked to Mitch, I went to the city and I got my permit.

00:19:08,170	I went there on a Friday morning, and I had my permit Friday afternoon. So, I mean, that’s, I mean, the county throws up these roadblocks. And I went back to the city because before March 1st, I was in the ETA.

00:19:33,230	So I guess, uh, at this point, it’s a, you know, but I want to see this, this, uh, ordinance enforced because I’ve seen property go up. It’s not elevated at all. And I gave some addresses to the to match because I like to find out why they were permitted and if they were permitted and why that was allowed.

00:19:53,030	What he’ll probably tell you is that that was happening under the city and it wasn’t a county jurisdiction at the time in the county. Some of them are in the county. There are a couple are in the city. Um, they were I don’t have any records of them. They were built before I got here.

00:20:04,230	So many of them that I looked at that he gave me the list of. And you can’t tell what how a house build or how a garage was built by driving by it and looking at it. I mean, there’s there’s many things that you could build below.

00:20:20,000	You used to be able to build below, back then below the basement elevation. As long as you vented it, as long as you had engineered venting on the outside of the building so you could build 2 or 3ft below back, back in the day. Not anymore.

00:20:39,530	Um, but as far as, um, the 500 year and the 2 or 100 year, um, I my advice is not to change. It’s it would create a very, a very big question mark. If we were to take out those our ordinances for 500 years.

00:21:04,130	And after enforcing all these people before to raise, you know, two foot elevation above, and all of a sudden we’re going to take that out. I don’t I don’t know what the hell that would take place, but, um, you can’t back to the drive by looking at buildings.

00:21:23,230	You can’t tell by just looking at them how what the elevation is, what it was built to, what year it was built, what regulations were in place, what was the back back then? Yeah, there’s so many. I mean, and those properties that I looked at, I don’t have any permanent records on them. There were several that were in the city’s jurisdiction. Okay. We’ll we’ll have another conversation at some point about those individual properties. You and I will take a look at them. So thank you.

00:21:44,000	Maybe just one last question. So, you know, I know the county was looking at the community rating system. And you know, what does this do now to these people that, you know, with flood insurance, are they going to all of a sudden have to carry flood insurance because

00:22:00,100	before they’re out? I mean, right now they’re out of the flood elevation, out of the floodplain. So now all of a sudden they’re going to be back in the floodplain. And if they try to sell their property or somebody wants to buy it, are they going to need flood insurance. That’s coming up behind you again.

00:22:21,900	The 500 year does not require flood insurance. The one third year does. But again, we’re back to flood maps that not frequently, but they can change. They change dramatically from the 2014 maps to the 2024 maps. Dramatically in many areas. The the flood wave was completely removed.

00:22:46,030	In some areas it was raised. And so the people that were out of the flood plain were now entity. And so the idea is these, these they that river changes, the bathymetry of that river changes the bottom of it raises and it calls in some areas it causes further flooding.

00:23:10,530	So how does the community rating system effort apply? How does it it. That. Okay, it has nothing to do with flood mapping okay. The community rating system is is a program that the community joins to, um, it has more, um, record keeping. It has much more data that we have to keep and maintain.

00:23:30,830	We have to have visits to make sure that we’re doing everything right. And you get a percentage, a break, a certain degree of percentage from the monthly cost for homeowners on their insurance. Right. That’s what I was heading towards, because I think the CRS, the whole goal is to result in reduced insurance costs for the citizens. Yeah. Yes. Okay.

00:23:51,630	Thank you. Does that answer your question? Okay. Okay. Anybody else wish to speak under public comment? Commissioners, my name is Curtis. Just a couple. Things. Uh, first one is I want to talk about the garrison diversion. Uh, I’ve been no secret. I want to see Burley County. Get out of that. Stop paying 760,000 a year.

00:24:29,600	That money will come in handy now with what’s going on with OHV, we can apply a good chunk of that money somehow. I know it’s not that easy, but it would be $760,000. We could apply a chunk of that to maybe a trail system or whatever.

00:24:45,830	There are a lot better uses for it. So I just wanted the public to know that this commission has tried to get garrison diversion here to Bismarck, to hold a public meeting for Burley County, um, garrison Diversion, based out of Carrington, has refused to do that.

00:25:05,370	So there now will be a meeting in Carrington at 10 a.m. on March 24th. And I think as much of the public that’d be willing to travel there to, you know, give comments would be worthwhile.

00:25:27,700	Um, but it just shows you the type of individuals that are running that operation, and all the more reason that we should, uh, sever ourselves from a group that’s operating the way they are. They refuse to record the meeting on March 24th. Um, and instead, they’re going to have a stenographer. But it’s my understanding that Burley County is going to have representatives there, and there will be recording equipment. So in addition, any of us will be recording. But this is an operation.

00:25:48,030	Who has gotten mill levy money? Um, put in the statute by our legislature. And as our counties have grown, they’ve gotten so much money that they had to form a recreational board. And I listen to their last meeting a month and a half or so ago.

00:26:06,300	They have so much money that there they’ve been funding for years, you know, swimming pools. And now I heard something about a pickleball court and it just gotten out of hand. Uh, the original mission of Garrison Diversion had nothing to do with this. And I, for one, would like to see Burley County be one of the first counties to scale back its mill levy contribution.

00:26:25,900	Second thing I have is, um, in, uh, I think it’s probably been about seven years since I was up here talking about the, uh, chip code and seal up in our, uh, subdivision northeast here of Bismarck. And, um, that went very well. Uh, comments.

00:26:50,500	One comment I made, I want to just reinforce again to our county roads, people, there is nothing more important and significant that you can do to increase the longevity of your concrete or your asphalt by getting your cracks, expansion joints, but your cracks in the streets sealed as soon as possible before the spring rain comes and before more moisture penetrates below those cracks.

00:27:11,470	And I did notice the last several years Burley county’s gotten out there pretty early. I’d like to just encourage that effort. With this early spring coming, to not look at the calendar and say, well, we normally don’t go do that until, you know, March 15th or whatever, maybe because of heavy equipment.

00:27:28,830	I don’t think they use real heavy equipment, but I think road restrictions are going to come on early here with the weather forecast through about the 16th.

00:27:44,900	But the sooner that our Burley County can get out and start sealing some of these cracks, there’s one on our street that’s probably a good that sucker’s, you know, heaves and probably a good half inch. So they gotta put a lot of goop in that guy. But anyway, I’m pretty happy with very happy with what I’ve seen Burley County do the last several years. And getting out there really early in March. And, uh, outstanding work, by the way, on snow removal.

00:28:02,570	I mean, we drive into Bismarck to family and friends. You know, the last snowstorm have put it in four wheel drive and our streets clean. I mean, they county road crews have been doing an outstanding job, so I have to applaud them. Um, and Commissioner Schwab, did you have something.? I believe we’re going to start this week.

00:28:23,300	That would be fantastic. I see 60 degrees in the forecast coming up here. Those two guys behind you told me. That. Is it Dan? Is that. Yeah. Dan, um, so one other thing about that, that this is you guys have so many things going on, but, um, protecting our roads with, with, uh, weight restrictions very important.

00:28:47,430	Hard to enforce. That’s an issue with this whole enforcing OHV. But one of the things, um, that is, is, uh, really going to be a wear and tear is a wear and tear and a problem on like the subdivision I live in north of 71st Avenue.

00:29:05,570	But, you know, in the morning, uh, coming up here with Frost, I’m concerned we have three dump garbage trucks that come through there in Bismarck. You got one goes up one side, down the other. We have three of them. That two passes every day.

00:29:25,370	Six of those guys up there competing for business and not a problem until we get to the the road restrictions and the frost coming out. But it’s been real tough. On from 71st North on 52nd. There’s been problems in from 71st South to 43rd. There’s we’ll track issues that they have to keep patching.

00:29:45,770	But you know until that soil stabilizes and that blow that pavement uh, these six dump truck get garbage trucks I’m sorry. Garbage trucks. I mean, that’s that’s a huge wear and tear on our subdivision roads up there.

00:30:03,770	You know, um, and I have some ideas on possible solutions that they won’t like, but it’s just temporary during the road restrictions, you know, you start swapping out where you just have one garbage truck come through and just for, you know, they swap. We’ll go over to that subdivision. And I mean, there’s ways to do it. I mean, it’s not, but it hasn’t been a problem. No one’s thought of it.

00:30:18,800	But I sit in my home office and I see them. Oh, then I got the school bus too. But but I see those six passes every Thursday, and not a problem. Until now.

00:30:32,030	I’m a little concerned coming up here about the next month, and they have to pull right to the edge of the road, and that’s where we start getting damaged. So I mean, it’s it’s wear and tear in our subdivision roads out there. And I don’t know that there’s anything we can do about it. But I do have ideas.

00:30:44,930	There’s something we can do about it that is fair to all of these three. So far we only have three competing for our garbage out there. So that’s all I had. So I stand for any questions, commissioners, any questions for Kurt. Thanks for it. I appreciate that I hadn’t thought about that. Uh. Multiple truck. Meeting is March. 24th at 10 a.m.. Yep.

00:31:03,530	March 24th, 10 a.m. for the Garrison Diversion meeting in Carrington. Anybody else have any public comment? He said Castleton, it is character. Carrington caring. I didn’t. Catch that, but it is in Carrington. North Dakota. You’ll be. In the wrong place. I’ve been dealing with some issues that have to do with Castleton. Okay? It is okay. Carrington.

00:31:29,130	Carrington. Anybody else? Third call. Anybody else for your public comment? Are you coming up? Good evening. Is it appropriate to talk about the OHV issue right now? No, I’d rather we were discussing that during that of an agenda item. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I’ll close the public comment period.

00:31:58,070	Move on to the consent agenda. We got abatements, special event permits, second approach permits. Commissioners to approve. second motion and second to approve the consent agenda. Any further discussion, call the roll. Commissioner Bakken. Yes, Commissioner. Schwab. Yes. Commissioner. Woodcock. Yes. Commissioner. Munson. Yes. Chairman. Bittner. Yes. Motion carries. Uh seven. University of Mary bond issue.

00:32:23,100	Preliminary resolution. The only thing we’re going to point out is that if you looked in your agenda packet, um, there would be a different dollar amount in what we have in front of us as the county commission versus what the public might have in the agenda packet. So introduce yourself, please, and.

00:32:42,270	Go for Chairman Bittner. Uh, commissioners, my name is Jerome Richter. I’m the executive vice president at the University of Mary. Uh, happy to answer any questions that are had. And thank you, Chairman Bitner, to acknowledge to the public the change that we made.

00:33:02,770	And so, uh, what was posted originally was a $50 million request, and we have moved it up to $60 million. But the rest of the resolution stays as is. Okay. As usual, my understanding with these things, based on all the these things in the past, is that this is essentially a pass through. This is not an obligation for the county. Um. Your understanding is my understanding. Okay. Um. Chair Bittner.

00:33:29,800	Yes. Commissioner Baskin. Uh, Jerome, I got one question. As far as, uh, the project timelines. Um, so I know there’s duration of bonds. What are we looking at? As far as, uh, the projects coming into fruition? Do you guys have a timeline on that yet? Thank you, Commissioner Bacon.

00:33:49,100	Yes we do. Uh, we are looking at the master landscaping athletic facilities being completed in the fall of 2027. Depending on how things fall together for us, we’re looking at the fall of 27 or the fall of 28 for the residence hall and then the welcome center, most likely in the fall of 28,

00:34:08,300	with everything hopefully wrapped up by the fall of 29. Thank you. You’re welcome. Okay. Any additional questions on this preliminary resolution? I think there’s a need to schedule a public hearing. Mr. chair, I would move that. We set a public hearing, uh, here in the Tom Baker room on April 6th at 5 p.m.. Second.

00:34:30,670	I have a motion to second to schedule a public hearing. Any further discussion? Seeing none, call the. Roll, Commissioner Schwab. Yes, Commissioner. Woodcock. Yes, Commissioner. Munson. Yes, Commissioner. Bacon. Yes. Chairman. Bittner. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Jim. Thank you. Gentlemen. Uh, northern Plains Heritage Foundation, 2026 4th of July celebration. Commissioner Woodcock.

00:34:52,030	Thank you. Chairman. Um, this is the culmination of our our efforts to work along with the city and our independently to. As for the 4th of July, 250th celebration and the first project of the mural has fallen through because of, uh, the cost got way out of line in which we could not afford.

00:35:13,430	And I did check with, um, the Northern Plains Heritage Foundation or the their director and the grant that we received of 35,000 was a matching grant, and we would have to start off that they will not transfer that automatically to the city of Bismarck for their project.

00:35:31,030	So we have to start over again or, uh, which will take some time. And I don’t know whether to get you approved in time, but my intent is to, um, I would like to move that we take the $5,000 from last year’s Community Foundation Community Involvement Fund, and which we had dedicated to this.

00:35:48,200	The previous project and the $5,000 from this year’s Community Development Fund and add on 20,000, 30,000, I’m or 30,000 from our general fund, which we had in the previous project. We had committed 30 to 35. This would be 30,000. So the total of the three and three fees would be $40,000. I move that we approve. Second, for discussion.

00:36:16,300	A motion and a second further discussion. Uh, Commissioner Woodcock, so is I know it’s going to take a little time, but is there still an opportunity to to get applied for that grant? And we could, uh, attach those funds that we would be voting on now for the matching funds for that grant, if that opportunity arises.

00:36:40,900	Well, they they request the city or or John Bollinger with the he he was hired by the city to ramrod this this project and they requested he requested $40,000 from the county. And that’s why we could reapply for that grant. I don’t know whether how long that would take.

00:37:01,230	It’s going to be some time and start all over again. And, if we push that project right up to the close of the July 1st planning stages, and then they need to know, uh, how much money we’ve committed so they can work on their budget and decide how much they’ve got to spend.

00:37:18,930	If you want me to do that, we’ll start all over again and reapply. And I don’t know how. Long that is there a way that you can make your motion, though, that if they get that grant, the funds that we’ve applied, that we’ve dedicated to it would act as the matching grant funds?

00:37:38,530	I’m not sure if that could do that or not. I can add the motion on whether it’s effective or not. That’s the only problem. Um, Julie. Julie’s not here, but. Oh. So the question is whether you can use the grant that you’ve already received. And designate those funds as matching funds.

00:38:07,400	They will not allow that. We’d have to reapply, start all over. Ignore the first, uh, Grant, and start all over again with a $20,000. So it’d be a $30,000, $30,000 grant, which would then be split 1515, if that’s their desire. So we have 15.

00:38:28,530	Is do we have an opportunity to allocate those funds, which I’m in favor of. But if we allocated those funds and then they were able to get that grant at a later date, could those funds be utilized as the matching funds versus we would be asked, because I’m not sure I would be in favor of allocating another set of funds for matching funds.

00:38:49,200	So would we be able to allocate these funds? And if they were able to get that grant, these funds would act as the matching funds, because we’re actually above and beyond. I guess I don’t see why not. I could look at it, but I can’t think of any reason why we couldn’t do that. Okay.

00:39:07,730	But I’ll take a look at that and get something. In writing. The process we would have to go through would be to start ignore the first grant entirely because they’ve said, right. They said, we cannot transfer that over to another project. So we would have to start with a new grant requesting a match.

00:39:23,770	Well, I don’t know if they would match it or not, but we would have to provide $30,000 one way or the other, plus the ten we’ve already committed to. We committed to. doing the commitment. No, no, please, let me finish. We committed 35 already from the general fund. This would change it to 30,000.

00:39:40,300	If we can get a grant, then, then I don’t know what they would. Whether they would grant part of the 30,000 or because that’s up to them how much they were going to donate or how much they’re going to, uh, provide to that grant.

00:39:55,770	You understand what I mean? Yes, but we’re not going to I’m, I’m guessing because I probably would not be in favor of if they do get that second grant. We’ve already allocated funds that would cover that. What would equate to that matching portion? Um, I more than likely would not be in favor of adding to that total.

00:40:15,570	So if the funds that we were to allocate now could be considered as the matching funds, that does give them a starting point so they can go ahead and start working off a budget.

00:40:36,470	But if they have that other windfall that that drops into their lap because of that grant, the matching funds are already there on our part. So essentially what so essentially what you’re saying is reduce what amount we’re approving by what we could get as a as if there was a matching grant. So instead of 30 out of the general fund, if they were going to kick in 15, say that it would reduce our commitment, commitment. Yep. Right.

00:40:59,870	No. I’m good. The Commissioner Woodcock has come up with. But if there’s an opportunity for them to get more grant funding, then I wouldn’t be in favor of allocating, um, more funds beyond what we already are allocating tonight. That would just be extra money for the project. I would be in favor of that. Okay. Mr. chair.

00:41:29,200	That gives them a little bit of budget options, but they also have a place that they’re starting with because they know they’re allocated the funds. If they have the ability to go and get extra funds, I’d hate to leave that money sitting on the table in the form of a grant.

00:41:42,570	Um, but I’m also not willing to burden our taxpayers further. Okay, I understand what you’re asking, Commissioner Munson. You’ve mentioned in the past you sit on this grant committee. When do they meet? Next.

00:42:01,900	And do you think that this falls within the guidelines? I think it does, because it was I think it falls within the guidelines because it was already approved once at once. Yeah. Um, I, I forget that’s I, I was just looking real quick, but I realized that the, the invitations and the meeting schedules is all in my personal computer, not my county computer.

00:42:19,130	Um, but I can tell you that there was just a meeting last week, and I missed that meeting because I was over testifying at, uh, Morton County Courthouse regarding, um, a special or special use permit or a permit for a project under Burley County jurisdiction. So I don’t I don’t have that in front of me.

00:42:42,900	But I think, at any rate, it would be worthwhile to do the application. And, um, see, because they also have the ability, like we do, of having a special meeting if needed and whatnot. And I think they would be as motivated to, um, celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary as we would.

00:43:13,870	So are you want to amend the motion to somehow reflect that conversation? You said, well, I’d rather withdraw the motion entirely and just go back to the Heritage Foundation and say, hey, uh, let’s apply for a grant, see what they say, because I don’t know what they I just don’t want us to get up to July or June 15th, and and we don’t have any matching

00:43:28,400	funds. Are we going to automatically I assume we’re going to provide the funding for the total 40,000, which is 55 and 30. Now that 30 is what we’re concerned about, are we willing to commit to that, paying that 30 if the grant does not come through? I can’t speak for a future meeting, but.

00:43:49,130	But as as you have said, if we. Provide this, these dollars that allows them to apply for a grant to get more. , right. That’s at least that’s what I heard. From we we well, we committed to the third, the first grant.

00:44:07,000	But I’d rather cut that off completely and start all over again. And if we’re going to do that. That makes sense. Okay. I’m not you know, we don’t have to make that decision right away. Today, I think we’re leaning towards the notion of. approving it. Yeah, I think that’s possible. Okay. I might vote against it just to be voting against you, but.

00:44:25,400	You can’t even vote because you’re on that. On that. I have to recuse yourself. If I can. I think. If nothing. Else, then let’s make sure we have a consensus amongst the commissioners that we are in agreement to partially or to fund up to 40, depending on their grant application and

00:44:45,170	their status. I think the group needs to know that we are willing to. at least we’re committed to doing this portion of it. Yeah, and I’m good with that. As long as they know that they have a budget point to start with that we’re codifying that. They know what they have to work with.

00:45:06,330	If there’s an opportunity for them to get more through that grant process, then that’s what I was concerned about. If we can I I’m good with what we’ve already committed to, but I would hate to see them leave out some grant money on the table that would benefit the citizens of Burley County. Okay. I think it’s pretty good.

00:45:26,670	So let me read that correctly. Are you allowing me to go ahead and work with Northern Plains to apply for a grant? Yes. Yes. Okay. I by consensus, we’re allowed to do that. Okay. Yeah. And then if you run into difficulties or something then certainly let us know. I’ll call you.

00:45:44,570	Yeah, I guess I could call them right now, but I’ve got other things to attend to. Okay. I’ll withdraw my motion. Then I’ll withdraw my second. And I am a consensus. Same here. Okay, well, we’ll put that. We’ll just keep that on the agenda for the next meeting because we’ll know by then whether there’s a path on that.

00:46:08,430	So, uh, number nine, Sheriff Liebman, salary variance, request. Welcome, Kelly. Good evening, Mr. Chairman. Commissioners. Uh, basically. Excuse me, what I have before you is a request to, uh, make a job offer, or I should say, a salary offer outside the standard policy by the county where we can go through grades or, I’m sorry, steps one through five.

00:46:40,430	We’re trying to hire a nurse. Uh, we ran a process. Uh, the good thing is, these are additional positions. We added one in the 2026 budget. The other was with the opioid settlement funds and also the grant that we obtained through Docker. We ran our process. Uh, we had two candidates that met the criteria.

00:47:07,170	One was unemployable, um, as they’re obtaining their college degree for nursing. So we were unable to offer that position. The one we did get is a very experienced nurse. Um, 24 years of experience has experience in the emergency department, uh, mental health and corrections, which is very, very good education and experience for what we’re looking for.

00:47:34,470	Uh, the problem is, with the 24 years experience, um, they’re not interested in the position at a step one through five. Uh, as you recall from several meetings back, we had another nursing candidate, basically almost a carbon copy of what we have here.

00:47:56,300	Uh, we ultimately settled on a step 13, and that’s what I’m asking for. Permission tonight is to go outside Burleigh County policy, um, to make this higher. Okay. Move to approve. second motion and second to approve the grade step. Request any further discussion. Call the roll. Commissioner chair Bender. Uh, yeah. Go ahead, Commissioner. Um.

00:48:20,500	Kelly, what’s the duration of those grants? Uh, as far as funding those that position, um, before it reverts to us, is that an ongoing grant, uh, that we keep applying for, or are we hiring a position? I don’t have any doubts that, uh, um, the position is going to wind up being filled anyway, but I.

00:48:40,600	I’m just kind of curious what the duration of the, the grant funding is as opposed to US funding that position. Mr. chairman, commissioners. Commissioner Botkin. So this position we’re talking about tonight is a budgeted position. Um, this is one of the two. We put this one in the 26 budget, the other the grant funded position.

00:49:03,670	And I would have to double check. But it’s the two year biennium of the state that the state has committed that money to. Uh, the other money is the opioid settlement money, which I would have to add up what that was. But we’re talking several years. We can fund this position once we get somebody hired.

00:49:24,370	I do anticipate they will keep this going because I think we’re going to produce good data. Uh, and I think the legislature is hungry for things that are successful. And I think this program will be in the event that the funding ran out at some point.

00:49:46,300	Um, then through attrition, we would be looking at not fill in that position or make the decision. I just wanted that clarification. Thank you. Kelly. Yes. Okay. We have a motion a second. Any further discussion? Call the roll. Commissioner Woodcock. Yes, Commissioner. Munson. Yes, Commissioner. Bacon. Yes, Commissioner. Schwab. Yes. Chairman. Bittner. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you, thank you. Next. County Planning Director Flanagan got Coomer ranch final subdivision.

00:50:13,500	Welcome back, Mitch. Commissioners. Mr. chair, this is a, um, a single lot, five acre subdivision that they took it out of a 40 acre parcel. Uh, it is in Apple Creek Township. It’s located at 8305 Pleasant View Road. They intend to keep it residential. They they use will be residential.

00:50:36,030	Stormwater management waiver was approved on the 16th of February. Paving. Waiver was approved on January 26th and the Planning Commission recommended approval by an 8 to 0 vote. I stand for any questions. Commissioners, any questions from which move to approve.. Second. Okay, you got a motion and a second to approve any further discussion. Call the roll.

00:50:58,870	Commissioner Munson. Yes, Commissioner. Bacon. Yes, Commissioner. Schwab. Yes, Commissioner. Woodcock. Yes. Chairman. Bittner. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Commissioner Mitch. County, auditor. Sponsor 2026 election poll worker recruitment update. Engineer. Shrek. Snacks. Sir. Number 11. Oh 11. Again, I put the mark on the wrong number. Okay. County engineer. Shrek. Welcome, Dan.

00:51:26,070	Good evening, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners. Um, item one we have on the agenda tonight would be a, um, declare a resolution of necessity for the Ponderosa Riverside Village Subdivision special assessment, district number 78, and call for the public hearing. Uh, just a little background on this.

00:51:47,500	The residents of the Ponderosa Riverside Village subdivision have presented Burley County with a petition for paving improvements. Um, we have some attachments that are included. The county auditor and the county engineer, along with Commissioner Schwab, have reviewed the petition and have determined that the petition contains signatures of 28 landowners, or 62.2% of the property owners involved.

00:52:10,100	Um, the the County Special Assessment Screening Committee met on February 26th, 2026, for the purpose of considering the petition and predicting the feasibility of the project, the solvency of the project, and to make a recommendation to the County board.

00:52:27,170	After careful consideration, it was determined that the proposal should be moved forwarded to the Burley County Commission with a recommendation that the project be approved and the resolution of necessity be adopted. Declaring a resolution of necessity and calling for that public hearing. I would like to point out in the minutes of the screening committee, I had a typo.

00:52:44,530	There was 17 nays or non not asking under item C, um, it was just a typo. I had 18 in the minutes. It was actually 17 because there’s only 45 total lots. So uh, there is a proposed resolution I would stand for. Any questions. Okay, commissioners. Any questions for Dan? I had a question years ago.

00:53:01,700	We were talking about this same project and I and I thought there was an issue with the width of the road and the trees. Is that been resolved? Um, so that width of the road issue is still there.

00:53:18,900	Um, the I went back to some of the documentation from what John Miller used to do when he did these, these older subdivisions. Um, they always aimed for 18ft to be the kind of the minimum standard of what they went back to for paving. Um, this one is very, very close. Some of them are a little bit narrower, some of them are a little bit wider. But we are shooting for 18ft on most of these roadways.

00:53:36,900	But you’re right, they don’t meet the 24ft that we shoot for on our standard for for new roadways. So, um, as far as the trees go, we have one, one tree removal, um, that we’re going to have to do there.

00:53:50,730	And then we’re going to have to do some trimming back to, um, just kind of get them so we can actually pave the roadway because of dump trucks and things like that. But right now, there’s not a plan for a massive tree removal down there. Okay. Thank you. I would move to approve. Second. You have a motion and a second to approve. The public hearing.

00:54:19,600	The public hearing? Yes. Um. Approve the resolution of necessity and call for public hearing. Okay. Any further discussion? Call the roll. Commissioner Botkin. Yes, Commissioner. Schwab. Yes, Commissioner. Woodcock. Yes, Commissioner. Munson. Yes. Chairman. Bittner. Yes. Motion carries.

00:54:45,270	Um, was there something in here for a date for the public hearing? Uh, April 6th. It will be at the first meeting in, um. April. Don’t remember if we had that in the. Yeah, I don’t see that in the resolution. That’s why I asked. We’ll put that on the agenda for today. Would you. Want. Me to amend my motion.

00:55:00,200	To include that. or are we good? I see, I think we’re good. I think. Yeah. Okay. Um, and did you want me to, um, just give an update on the crack ceiling or anything like that? Well, yeah. Yeah, that. Would be good.

00:55:15,700	Okay, so we have been crack ceiling for several weeks already. We, um, this year is our county road system. We kind of have every other year scenario for our county roads. And then the township roads. Um, just because the staff and time it takes to do these. So we have started on the county roads.

00:55:30,270	We’ve been going for probably about four weeks now as weather has allowed. Um, we have I don’t know how many miles it’s been to this point, but I’m hoping to finish crack sealing of the county road system sometime. Um, end of March, beginning of April. Um, so we are hopefully going to get that as weather allows. So. Sure.

00:55:48,170	Do you have any thoughts about that comment about the multiple garbage trucks? That kind of surprised me. Yeah. As Mr. John Ted pointed out, the garbage trucks seem to be our biggest offenders when it comes to subdivision roadway damage. Uh, I’ve talked to several, uh, township officers, whether that be Hay Creek Gibs.

00:56:06,900	Um, uh, Apple Creek. It seems like those, those garbage trucks tend to hug the shoulder of the road because they don’t want to go to the middle and then come back over and, and kind of make that swerve and, um, yeah, we see majority of our damage on the weakest portion of the road, which ends

00:56:21,300	up being the, the outer edges, of course. So yeah. Okay. Let’s talk about that some more. Yeah. You can certainly do that. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Okay. Now number 12 splints. Koski auditor sponge Koski with the election poll worker recruitment update. Yes. Chairman and commissioners I just want to give a quick update.

00:56:45,570	Uh, Commissioner Woodcock, they actually suggested that we do this. So kind of this is a little bit of an advertising. Uh, uh, opportunity to be able to recruit any election workers out there or people who might be interested. But at this time, um, we are well on our way to recruiting all the, all of our election workers.

00:57:02,530	We currently have 146 already recruited. Uh, we typically try to recruit. Well, we need 230 for election day, but then we like to to have 30 to 50 individuals for backup, because oftentimes there’s something happens. Somebody calls them, they can’t make it for whatever reason.

00:57:21,100	So we typically try to recruit anywhere from 260 to 280 total uh, election workers. Uh, so far, we have emailed most all of the, uh, individuals who have worked past elections. Uh, a lot of those have already signed back up. Um, some of those have all also helped us recruit new poll workers.

00:57:41,370	There are our greatest asset is our former poll workers. They recruit a lot of different individuals to help as well. So that’s always helpful. Um, and then our our plan is in the, in the upcoming weeks for anybody who either doesn’t have an email address or hasn’t responded to our emails, we’re going to actually

00:57:57,370	give them an individual phone call. Uh, from this time versus the last time in 2024, we’re substantially ahead of schedule compared to where we were then. So we’re setting up pretty good. But I just wanted to give you guys an update on that. Okay. Thank you. Yes.

00:58:18,230	The long and short of it is we can certainly use some additional volunteers for poll workers. You do get paid. That’s an important thing. Um, I don’t think there’s any free pizza in here, but it’s a good experience. Yeah. It’s a beer. No pizza, Mr. Chairman. Okay, Commissioner. Woodcock, I’d like to ask our auditor.

00:58:34,770	What’s the time commitment? Because everybody says, well, is this a two week education period and all that or what? For a new person, what’s the time commitment? So the time commitment is everybody has to attend at least one training, which typically takes approximately two hours.

00:58:50,970	And then on election day, we ask that they show up at 6 a.m.. So the polls open at 7 a.m., but we request that they show up at 6 a.m. and then they stay there until polls are closed. So oftentimes it ends up being, uh, anywhere from a 13 to 15 hour a day.

00:59:04,170	Uh, because you’re not you cannot leave the premises while polls are open. Obviously, you can go ahead and take breaks. We have break rooms at most of our locations, all that kind of stuff. But you’re not allowed to leave the location itself. So really, it’s Election day. And then one training. And nothing after the election day. Uh, not typically. Okay. Thank you.

00:59:22,900	Do we have a link or anything on our website that kind of helps to expedite that process? Yes we do. Okay. Kind of thought we would. Okay. Next, uh, my guess is me, uh, review a draft amended public comment policy.

00:59:45,430	This kind of came up after the last meeting, and the the part of the thing really is it relates if you go to page 49, um, it’d be basically. Um, kind of crossing out one line and adding one line that makes it more consistent with the actual state law. 4404 20.

01:00:16,230	1 public Comment regular meetings of a public entity, um, basically, that’s the nuts and bolts of it. It’s just limited to, um, the change to make it more consistent with state law. Move to approve. Second motion and second to approve the draft. Any further further discussion. Commissioner Woodcock. The line is lined out. Uh, five, six dots down.

01:00:40,900	Presenter must sign in with name and address on form. Can we not do that anymore? Well, it’s already it’s in the one up ahead of it. Look up. Uh, three. Yeah. The third dot. It says the same thing as. The third dot. Yeah. The fourth dot down. Uh, says the same thing. Okay. Gotcha.

01:00:58,400	Never mind. Yeah. So we’re kind of cleaning that up a little bit at the same time. Any other discussion? Call the roll.. Commissioner Schwab. Yes. Commissioner. Woodcock. Yes, Commissioner. Munson. Yes, Commissioner. Bakken. Yes. Chairman. Bittner. Yes. Motion carries. Next is update on the county administrator position.

01:01:19,800	I think Pam is handing this one off to me because, um, for various reasons, um, we do have, uh, we did have applications. That application period closed. Um, staff has determined that we have five qualified applicants for the position. And, uh, three of them are internal candidates and two of them are external.

01:01:54,030	And because they’re internal candidates and, um, there’s a suggestion that and I have a list, but there’s a suggestion for possibly outsourcing the interview process outside of our immediate folks. And and part of the reason is I’ll just be quite frank with you.

01:02:17,130	I know every one of the every one of the applicants, and I would like for it to be a little more, um, uh, removed from familiarity, kind of like, you know, I want to be fair to everybody. And, uh, so I have a list of some, I think you. We got. An email. We got it today. Okay.

01:02:38,770	You got an email, and so you can look at that and, um, one of the thoughts I had was, you know, obviously outsourced that somehow I thought I had was maybe involved somebody from, like, say, Cass County or or one of the other counties that would it’s already got a county administrator and maybe knows how it works and how it works for them and whatnot.

01:02:56,900	Those are just the thoughts I had. Um, and I’m, I’m open to suggestions on that. The person at the bottom of the list is Jenny, uh, from North Dakota Association of Counties.

01:03:19,370	She sat in on one of the most recent, uh, uh, interviews for the building and grounds director, um, and, and I and I thought she was a real good. Um, influence. I mean, a good, good person to have on the on that committee as well. So I thought I’d bounce this off your commissioners and see what you thought. What are your thoughts? Mr. chairman? Commissioner.

01:03:40,170	I think it’s a good idea that we have somebody outside because we’re all familiar with all the candidates are there, and and we’ve had so many ups and downs in the last four months or four. I wish it was for most four years that I would assume, good idea to have somebody outside of us, uh, immediate.

01:03:57,000	My one concern is, are we going to have any county people on any of our board on that committee, or is this going to be a one person or one man decision? I, I don’t have a position on that. You know, I think that should be something that we discuss here at this board. Um, typically. We would have an interview committee that would score the applicants. Right.

01:04:20,200	And then after that, the actual decision on who to hire then comes before this board and whatnot. So I’m I’m not real sure this is a this is a kind of a difficult row to hoe here because of the the closeness of the applicants to us. Um, I’m open to suggestions. Really.

01:04:41,000	Would we want to have a non-voting, um, member of the commission as part of that panel? I think that would be appropriate as far as, uh, some direct feedback to the board, unless you’re are you talking about a commissioner sitting in on that or.

01:05:02,500	Yeah, commissioners sitting in on the interview process who’s not keeping score? Um, just would have insight for the board if questions arose. I think that would be appropriate. I don’t. I’d like to see three people. I would not, not just one. I would like to see three people on it. Right. That’s one is. One plus two other.

01:05:22,130	You’re right. Um, I would the, the last however many of these that I’ve participated in, we had at least I believe four, um, scoring individuals, you know, people that are doing the scoring. So in his scenario, Commissioner Botkin scenario, that would be a total of five people.

01:05:45,630	But the fifth person, if it’s a commissioner, would be a non-voting member. But obviously someone who would report back to the board. Mister chair. And I even had a thought on the other side that all five of us would score. But your comment makes a lot more sense. We are close. We’re probably too close.

01:06:05,470	That was my that was my concern. And I think we need to have a body of people, of outsiders that are representing the questions and the scoring. I like Commissioner Watkins idea of having one of us in the room to bring the information back to the commission, but, um.

01:06:25,100	The final decision is going to come back to us, but we are all with the internal candidates are very, uh, integrated with them. And I cannot guarantee that there would not be a bias there.

01:06:48,900	Um, I, I this position for the county moving forward for short term and long term success is too important to one not have somebody in the room to be at least have some feedback, but two, we need utmost clarity in it. So that that’s kind of where I was thinking that, um, having a commissioner there who’s not a voting member of that, but having that scored, uh, independently, would those scores are going to come back to us and we’re going to make

01:07:06,070	that decision. So that that’s kind of my rationale going down that road. But this position for the county is vitally important moving forward. So. Okay, I, I’m encouraged by that.

01:07:31,400	So basically from looking at this list as far as who would be the possible consultants, you know, I, I that first off at the top of the list, there’s an outside person, you know human resource. They do human resources for local government. But originally I thought if we could invite and cover the cost of of the attendance and the mileage and whatnot for somebody from like a Cass County that has a county administrator, that could be helpful.

01:07:51,830	And we haven’t reached out to them yet. I wanted to run it past the board and see what you thought, but that could be a possible. The first two could certainly be possible candidates. And then you have other county individuals that would kind of go down the list.

01:08:09,230	And then the, the, um, human resource director from the city of Bismarck, I would not be opposed to that because they have a county or a city administrator. And I’m sure they went through that process. And then the person representative association of counties would, I think, be a pretty good one. Go ahead, Commissioner. Bakken, chairman, can I throw in one more? So one.

01:08:25,870	Um, the Association counties. I could see some value with that as well. I, I do, um, Cass County or another county that has an administrator. I see a lot of value to as well. Um, could I throw in one more potentially, uh, because of our new relationship with them? Would be potentially.

01:08:42,930	I’d Bailey, who works in that space a great deal as well. Okay. Well, that’s a good thought. So maybe, um, you know that either or between the Dakota dynamics and Heidi Bailey, it depends on who’s willing and who’s willing to make it. Yeah. And who can. The the person, Mr. chairman, the person you recommended.

01:09:08,470	Where do they work? I don’t know, um, this is just a possible list. Provided to me. You said you worked with somebody else on another association appointment. Yeah, the Association of Counties person I’ve met. Um. That’s. Why I haven’t met any of the others. No, that’s what I wanted to know.

01:09:23,500	Yeah. I mean, it was just a brief meeting, too. I didn’t actually get her name, but I thought she. She, you know, performed well as far as the scoring process that we were having, are you looking for a motion, Mister chair? No, no, no, not really. Okay. Just. Yeah.

01:09:44,870	Consensus to do the Association of Counties, uh, the city of Bismarck and either the Dakota Dynamics or. Well, we don’t. We want Cass County if they if they’re available and if they would. Yeah. Or some, some other county. Yep. A large county, obviously. Would it makes sense to have uh, so we’ve got a list.

01:10:04,130	Uh, would it make sense to have, um, the auditor’s office reach out for, uh, just a point of inquiry to see if they have some availability for an interview process and then come back to us with who’s available or actually come back to the chair.

01:10:24,970	And I’d be I’d be comfortable with the chair making that decision on on from availability. But we’re in consensus of who should be on this. Yeah. We don’t we don’t. We just don’t want to wait two weeks. Commissioner. Right. Yeah. I, I don’t want to wait two weeks either. I’d be okay with that. Okay, Commissioner. I’m wondering.

01:10:42,370	If it’s a good idea to have a city sit on on on this because they’ve worked with this staff to. Yeah, that’s that’s why. I don’t think that would be appropriate. Uh. Misgivings on. That. Oh, I guess the only thing I thought, and it’s not certainly solid.

01:11:04,470	I think all up there at the, uh, at the Association of County. Sheila, we did we reach out to her. We have in the past. Yeah. I think she can solve this problem of where to go.

01:11:25,630	We already know where we want to go some places, but I think she should be on on the committee or whatever you want to call it. Panel. She did a good job interview. Yeah. She did. Yeah. That’s why I’m sure there’s she. No how to proceed with this. She’s quick with her answers. So Commissioner Schwab raised a concern regarding the city of Bismarck. Human resources director.

01:11:51,500	Commissioners, would you. probably right. Could be. They may be working in the future together. So we just. Yeah. Yeah, I would leave that one off the list for now. Okay. So now we’re looking at Cass County. Um, Association of Counties and either I’d Bailey or the other one. Yep. Dakota Dynamics. Yep.

01:12:15,830	Yeah. And I would be fine with that. Whoever’s available I I’m not familiar with the one but I know I’d Bailey does work a lot in HR. Uh space already. So. Okay. I think. It’s just who’s available.. Pretty much.

01:12:35,730	Yeah, because I think we want to get moving on it. Yes. Okay, so the notion is to ask that the, um, um, auditor’s office reach out to these folks who’s available, and, and we’ll move forward that way. Uh, do we have some prospective dates to give them for the interview process? It’s not like, hey, we’re going to be available when we decide.

01:13:00,330	So I think I think we I think the fair thing would be to see what people’s schedules are and try to kind of, you know, do a, do a workaround on, on the availability. Right? Yeah. I would agree. Okay. I think we can work that out moving forward.

01:13:16,700	Yeah. If you could just send me that list, we can get right on that. Should I fold it into a paper airplane? I can walk over that to the meeting. We’ll do it later. Okay. Um, I don’t think there’s any further action required on that one. Okay. Okay, well, we’re getting to the, um, item number 14.

01:13:42,370	Commission continued items for OHV ordinance discussion. And if you recall, I added a thing for discussion. Uh, regarding a resolution and just, um, I understand nobody in the audience has seen this.

01:14:11,230	Um, I did have a conversation with the state’s attorney regarding the differences between doing a doing an ordinance under the Home Rule Charter and the resolution and a resolution under the Home Rule Charter. So what that boils down to is an ordinance is a thing that, um, it becomes permanent.

01:14:36,830	So whatever the decision is moving forward on a resolution, on an ordinance is permanent, but a resolution is something where we we say, okay, this is in this is in place for a certain amount of time. And the reason that I thought a resolution could be part of the solution is that, um, Commissioner Munson, I think, is going to talk about some, um, some things that, um, have been discussed and whatnot.

01:14:59,900	And if we passed a resolution for a certain amount of time, it would give some of those things a chance to come to fruition or, or to actually get accomplished.

01:15:20,630	Uh, there is a concern that, uh, some of it will be about fixing damage in the ditches, and some will be about trying to create other, other trails someplace and things like that and all that cover it. But I think our resolution, um, is, is a possible thing to consider. And that’s why I wanted to add it to the agenda. And just so that the public understands the difference is in ordinances, permanent resolution is for a certain amount of time.

01:15:40,500	So with that, Commissioner Munson, I think you wanted to speak on that. Thank you. Um, first, I’d like to Sheriff Lieberman to come up. And visit a little. Bit with us. We had an. Opportunity to meet with the the dealers, the local, uh. Dealers in the. Area, uh, the state, um, Parks and Rec, uh, were. On site.

01:15:58,570	With us. So it’s the sheriff. So I’ll let the sheriff start off with the first part. The first part of it. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioners, uh, as Commissioner Munson stated, we had a meeting, uh, approximately a week ago. Uh, and we met with the dealerships.

01:16:16,200	Uh, there was, uh, Tony from North Dakota Parks and Rec. Uh, Commissioner Munson and Major Jim Holm and myself representing the sheriff’s department. And basically the meeting I felt was a very productive meeting. We talked a lot about different options that are out there.

01:16:37,970	And, uh, I guess I don’t know how much you want me to cover as kind of a couple our meeting, but so some of the options and again, um, you know, as I’ve stated to many of you, you know, the in law enforcement, we don’t create the policy. We carry it out to the best of our ability.

01:16:54,570	And, you know, our job is to advise what we can and what we can’t do, um, or what our capabilities are. And so on one hand of the equation, obviously, the more restrictive the ordinance or resolution, uh, the easier the enforcement.

01:17:15,500	But on the other hand, you know, obviously somewhere in the middle is where, you know, the balance is going to be, I would imagine. And, uh, so in one of the things we had talked about in there and, you know, looking at, I think this winter is atypical, um, typically this time of year, we would still have the ditches full of snow so people wouldn’t be riding

01:17:37,770	the ATVs this winter. We’ve had very warm weather, which has caused a lot of problems. Um, so I think, you know, one of the things we had talked about is do does this commission consider like a ban for certain times a year on wheeled vehicles in the right of way?

01:17:59,170	Um, I know in South Dakota, that was a point of discussion that in South Dakota, in their trail system, that basically they look at that option to help them maintain their trails.

01:18:21,030	That would help us, obviously, from an enforcement side is an like right now, I think we all agree with this warm weather. That’s when a lot of the big problems are happening. The other thing we look at is, uh. And I think Commissioner Woodcock said the other night, and as much as I don’t like to hear it, because I wish we had answers to this, but it truly is an enforcement issue.

01:18:42,900	Um, you know, the but one of the things I go back to when I brought this up in that meeting was several years back, the Missouri River, uh, was a point of contention, um, similar to the ATV issue. Uh, fortunately there the state was more involved in that. Um, because you have several legislators that reside in this area. It’s a public waterway.

01:19:09,100	Um, there’s a little bit more ability for the North Dakota state to directly get involved in that. Um, but ultimately, um, I would say, for lack of a better term, peace has come to the river, um, through the extra enforcement. But there’s a price to that.

01:19:28,830	And in the case of the river, the state picked it up. Now, when I compare what happened on the Missouri River to the potential with the public right of ways on the roadways, I can’t say that the violations dropped out on the river, but what has dropped is the public complaints. And so there’s still going to be violators.

01:19:51,370	I think at the end of the day, we’re never going to eliminate all violations of the law. If that was the case, um, you know, we could look at every other law out there, drunk drivers, speeders, whatever it is, and say that that should have been eliminated.

01:20:11,670	Also, um, I think what we all agree is that there has to be balance for both the landowners and for the recreational, and where that is, and that’s up to this board to decide, uh, from our standpoint, um, typically when we look at enforcement activity, there’s two ways we would look at this, depending what the commission would

01:20:33,430	direct us to do. Um, if we looked at staffing, um, ultimately I would have to put in for at least one deputy if we were going to address this with staffing. And the reason I say one deputy is because we already have a school resource officer who’s committed to the schools during the school year.

01:20:54,830	The majority of these problems happen in the summer. They happen year round, but the majority is in the summer. Um, so I would need in our agency one additional staff if we were looking at a full time enforcement, if we were looking at, um, overtime opportunities, which I think we would have no

01:21:15,200	problem filling, typically what we would look at is a two deputy operation. Um, and basically what I think would work the best is a minimum of four hours. If we go with two few of hours, our deputies aren’t going to want that overtime opportunity.

01:21:37,500	Basically disrupt their day off for two hours of overtime. It just wouldn’t be productive for them. So what it would cost is just to give you a comparison, if we were looking at adding a staff member with salary and benefits, that’s about $100,000 a year per staff member that we hire.

01:21:59,570	If we’re looking at overtime, we’d be looking at for two deputies to run a four hour operation, uh, per day. You’d be looking at about $500 that I would have to ask for an overtime funding.

01:22:18,270	Now, um, we have worked very closely with Parks and Rec, and like I said, when, um, at and I’ve said to some of you at the last meeting when this came up, not the last one, the one before, I was kind of caught off guard because we’ve worked very closely with North Dakota Parks and Rec and have what we’ve called courtesy patrols out there, um, where we’ve had our deputies driving both marked and unmarked, OHV,

01:22:39,430	and we’ve had a, a couple situations we had to work through, um, and rightfully so, where a landowner was concerned. And, um, and we fixed how our deputies were doing the operation.

01:23:02,000	Uh, but overall, I felt that, that we had made great strides because, um, in my opinion, the complaints had dropped drastically. Um, out in the county. Um, so that meeting did kind of catch me off guard, that it was still to this level. Um, and I understand, you know, there’s some that have have come up here and testified, and I have no reason to doubt them that they just haven’t called in also.

01:23:21,630	So that’s kind of the recap. If there’s something I miss, Commissioner Munson. Um, North Dakota Parks and Rec had offered at one point during our meeting to reimburse the county for X amount of hours. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to visit with them as to what they’re willing to reimburse us for.

01:23:41,830	And, Mister Chairman, Commissioner Munson, commissioners. Um, not entirely in that aspect. I know that we had spoken with Tony. He is here tonight. Um, not to put him on the spot. He wasn’t going to do that. But you did it. Yes. Yes, exactly. So.

01:24:02,770	Um, you know, obviously, depending on what we’re looking at. And here’s the thing I would throw out to you, um, from the enforcement standpoint, um, kind of what we’re doing right now. And obviously there’s a lot of people that feel that hasn’t been productive.

01:24:23,670	If we were going to do this, basically what happened on the river to change that is seven days a week. There is river patrol out on that river. Almost all daylight hours on the weekends.

01:24:46,730	And so basically, um, it’s oversaturation of enforcement and, and I think at least in the beginning, I would recommend we are going to have to do more than 1 or 2 shifts a week. And I don’t know what you know, Tony will be able to identify, you know, what they’re willing to reimburse Burleigh County for. But ultimately, I would think that there would be a burden placed on Burleigh County. Um, I personally think it’s worth it.

01:25:08,100	You know, if we want to get control of this through the enforcement measure. Either way, um, ultimately, what we want is voluntary compliance with the rule or the ordinance. But that’s not always guaranteed without enforcement.

01:25:35,570	Is there? Um, have you you’re able to ticket an OHV rider that is, is, um, doing something illegal? And have you had any issues with those tickets? Are we charging $50? Is that enough? Should be raised. Mr. Chairman. Commissioners, I don’t think I personally I here’s what I think the issue is. Um, you know, we we’ve got a big county to cover. Uh, we got a lot going on in the county.

01:25:56,430	And so to do targeted enforcement, just like, um, and I would say this, I come before you all the time with these dot grants, and one of them is texting and driving. Um, we spend so much money each year enforcing the texting laws. And any of us can drive up to a stoplight in Bismarck, North Dakota, and look at the car next to us.

01:26:19,370	And chances are, they’re texting, um, so one, I think the the fine is important, but more so I think the likelihood of getting caught is what matters.

01:26:44,570	Um, because what if the fines $50 and there’s no chance or very little chance of getting caught? Um, I think the deterrent factor is very minimal. And so, um, we could raise the fines, but again, without that enforcement action, and I’ll give another example, the desert south of Bismarck, um, as I’ve stated and you guys are aware, I’ve been in the department 35 years.

01:27:04,900	I can tell you there was a time the desert was not like it is today. Um. It was, I would say, for lack of a better term, lawlessness down there. Um, and what that took is concentrated enforcement, um, non-stop until we crested the wave. And now we have what we have down there.

01:27:28,370	Still crime, still a place people are going to go. But the the the belief of getting caught is higher today than it was 30 years ago. I did ask the state’s attorney if we could impound those vehicles that we pulled over, and I was told no. So that was not that didn’t make me very happy.

01:27:48,030	But, uh, I would love to see a 16 year old go to the mom and dad and say, hey, we got to go to the sheriff’s department and get my bike. Yeah. Because no matter what we do, in my opinion, we’re not going to stop a group of those kids.

01:28:05,630	We’re going to we’re going to create some ordinances that are going to affect everybody. Um, but if. If we can add to our enforcement and I would like to I would actually I what I will do is I’ll move uh, that we allow the sheriff to work with the North Dakota Parks and Rec, uh, for a reimbursement program to increase our presence.

01:28:26,970	Uh, especially out on the north and the the east side, northeast side of of of this area. Because that’s where our biggest problems are. That’s where the most damage is being done.

01:28:41,530	Uh, and so I would like to like I said, I’ll make that motion that we ask the sheriff to work with Parks and Rec to negotiate that reimbursement amount, and then Kelly can report back to us. It’s pretty bad out around Lincoln, too. Yeah. You know, it’s not isolated to any one place. And I think along those lines, we need to get an inventory of where the damage really is. Um, that’s the next item. Chairman.

01:29:03,830	Mister chairman, Commissioner. Would, um, I know where the areas are, how bad they are, but I don’t think we should put that in the motion to restrict them to those areas. It’s county wide. I mean, your intent is to do more enforcement in those areas, but we don’t want to put it in that road.

01:29:21,370	We just want. I don’t think we need a motion at all, to be honest with you. I think just the direction he knows, he understands. Okay. Well. Within commissioners, he knows what I’d actually like to hear from Tony if he’s willing. But, um, just because we put him on this, he put him on.

01:29:36,870	Since Kelly put him on the spot, Tony can come up. Yeah, quit. Saying that. No. Wasn’t asking him for money. So you’re not. Commissioner Schwab. You know, I kind of noticed out there when I’m driving the roads, it doesn’t seem like the state highway department has near the problem that we have.

01:29:55,630	They got a lot of roads in there. Uh, if you’re going to go after the state for advice, they may be another. Source division. The they look like they got pretty good ditches. Oh. Yeah. Okay.

01:30:24,000	And in regards to that fine discussion, I remember when we did the, uh, you know, the first ordinance that the reason for the fine was just because that was more consistent with other similar infractions or what have you. But actually, I had I had somebody tell me that we need to increase those penalties because simply, I’m going to go out there, it’s only 50 bucks and I don’t care. I thought, wow, okay. I’ve had the same comment.

01:30:45,270	Okay. Commissioner, I think we should look into that confiscation of the unit if we could, if we could get that in there. And we did it a few times, I think that would. Spread the word. I would agree that we should be doing those sort of things.

01:30:58,930	Commissioners, in order to get this to that process of of the ordinance and then developing and making changes and whatnot. There’s a specific path in the in the home rule charter and, and that means reading the title of the ordinance and the title of the resolution, and then scheduling a public

01:31:25,830	hearing. And based on the public hearing and public input, we would certainly make changes and additions that would be consistent with the goal of a public hearing. And so the ordinance, the title of the ordinance is ordinance number 2601.

01:31:54,700	And that’s an ordinance to amend and reenact ordinance 23 one amended Ordinance of Burleigh County, North Dakota, relating to operation of all terrain or off highway vehicles in a public right of way and the other is resolution 0020260. It’s a resolution of the Board of County Commissioners, County of Burley, North Dakota. Moratorium on the use and operation of OHV. Okay, so that accomplishes the the criteria in the. in the law, in the.

01:32:26,170	Law. And so the next thing would be to schedule a public hearing. And I certainly am willing to listen to what the citizens have to say about this. You know, at this point, because they’re here.

01:32:43,930	And if they wanted to put input, um, and I’d since I don’t think any other action is required on the ordinance and resolution to move to a public hearing. Should we hear from Tony. I do that’s I was. Going. To okay. You know, I was just clear enough that I don’t think there’s any other action needed to take. Tony. Welcome. How’s your dad doing? Good. All right. Tell him I said hello. Would you? I will. All right.

01:33:07,230	Mr. chairman. Commissioner, my name is Tony Heilig. I served with the North Dakota Parks and Rec department as a recreation division chief. Uh, part of that portfolio is the off highway vehicle program. Snowmobile program, trails, and then the grants program.

01:33:25,430	And I think there’s some discussion in a few of those, um, programs of record that I kind of manage on behalf of the state. So specifically with the off highway vehicle program and the enforcement we’ve been working with the Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department for over the last two years.

01:33:43,030	Um, and so there is funding available through North Dakota Central Code gives me the authorization to use some of those trails, tax dollars for enforcement purposes. So willing to sit down with the sheriff and kind of work out what some of those, um, costs may be and where we can definitely assist and continue that program, as well as continue the use of some of our equipment that we have.

01:34:02,830	That’s pretty easily accessed from the north side of Bismarck that the sheriff’s department has, and we train their deputies through national certified safety courses as well. So they have that safety certification. Uh, one of the other things that we do is we do teach the youth OHV safety course for the state of North Dakota.

01:34:20,430	We typically have about 5 or 6 of those here in the Bismarck area. Uh, you know, going through this and listening to a lot of this, I think there’s some things we can probably incorporate into that.

01:34:39,100	Youth OHV safety course, following the Tread Lightly principles to start kind of educating, uh, you know, not only the safe operation, but more so the proper operation to so to protect some of those riding areas that the folks are riding in it, too. So we can take that on and put that in part of that course curriculum that we’re teaching as well, too.

01:34:57,930	So education goes so far, right? But if we can reach, uh, you know, 25, 30% that that’s going to be beneficial to resolving some of the issues that you’re seeing in the highway right of way. Commissioner, do you have any questions for Tom? Mr..

01:35:17,570	Commissioner Woodcock, we heard that there’s a $5 fee that when they think sell a vehicle, there’s a $5 fee, do you get we try. And where does that $5 go? Are you the one that receives that. Yeah. So they’re on the sale of a new or used OHV or snowmobile here in the state of North Dakota, the dealers charge a $5 service.

01:35:29,930	That money does come back to North Dakota Parks and Rec department. And that kind of what pays for those safety courses that we host. So we host between 25 and 30 across the state of North Dakota. Uh, the other thing that we do, because we just noticed in the early instruction probably four years ago, and I’ll get to where that money is going to.

01:35:48,500	But the amount of youth that would show up with improperly fitted helmets or helmets that have significant damage, that would not protect in a concussive event. And so we started to apply those dollars in purchasing helmets.

01:36:04,500	And so what we do is we buy helmets using those safety dollars, and we issue a new helmet to every student that comes through one of our courses. So, uh, so we’re spending more in the safety course, uh, curriculum during the year than we’re actually taking in from the dealer safety fees. Okay.

01:36:22,200	I should also point out that at one point, North Dakota Parks and RECs worked with us quite a little bit on establishing the it’s before your time, Tony, um, was established in that area at Missouri Valley Complex, the play area and the safety training area. Um, they had provided, uh, signposts, you know, marking the trails.

01:36:41,970	They actually had a ATV with a mower behind it that was stored out there, and it was used. Now, I don’t know how that all that just kind of fell by the wayside or if it’s still a thing, but, um, they did work with us a lot on on providing

01:36:58,970	at least some area where people I mean, we even bought a and I think the funding for it probably came through North Dakota Parks and Rec. So we bought a, a loading and unloading ramp, you know, a factory thing. And that’s still still sitting there.

01:37:15,500	Um, and I think I mentioned at the last meeting that I’m not recommending anybody go out there and, and utilize that player in those trails right now because there’s a sewer construction project going on, and it could be really dangerous for anybody to be to turn around out there, which I would like them to be able to

01:37:33,270	do. Except not now while that project is going on. And then we also have a, a culvert replacement project going on that limits one of the accesses for the place. So just to kind of get that out there. Again.

01:37:49,200	And that’s the exact place that we uh, so we appreciate the county having that space available because it is a great use. OHV instruction, um, place. And when we utilize that, when we’re doing the courses here. In business. That’s great. We want to maintain that relationship.

01:38:02,570	And I want you to know I really appreciate your willingness to come in and and help us here with some of this stuff for, for the county. Now, if we can access some of that trail maintenance stuff. Well. And that was another point to that.

01:38:19,830	Um, and, and so we do have some great relationships with snowmobile in North Dakota, and they do have influence over some of the clubs. So I think there’s room for us to kind of work and get some volunteers with the snowmobile in North Dakota, in the group that actually goes out and signs those and see what we can do to maybe go out and do a little maintenance.

01:38:35,770	Uh, on particularly where we’re doing laying in those snowmobile trails. Um, I’m fully aware when we sign it that that that’s kind of given a path for OHV to use to uh, and so I think there’s some responsibility, uh, with, with myself and the snowmobile clubs to see if we can help address some of those ruts inside of the ditches.

01:38:53,730	Well, I don’t I haven’t actually seen a snowmobile creating ruts that that’s a whole different time of year right now. The big problem I see with snowmobiles is the ones that want to jet off into private property.

01:39:08,700	They get out there in the alfalfa fields, and when the snow conditions are right, they crush the crown of the plant and they kill my alfalfa and I feed cows with with hay. Um, so that that’s a concern for almost any landowner. And one of the biggest issues is the ruts in the ditch. Make it so folks can’t safely mow their ditches.

01:39:23,100	And a lot of people like to keep their area nice and clean looking. And so, you know, leaning on my point would be leaning on the snowmobilers to, to fix the damage caused by ATVs. With. Uh, hardly.

01:39:43,900	Be a commissioner, not necessarily fix the damage caused by ATVs, but do a better job in preparing the trail for the snowmobile use in the winter. So those ruts actually influence the way our groomer can operate in the ditches as well. Right? So we get, uh, we can’t open our trails till we have at least four inches of compacted snow. And it’s really hard to compact that snow into some of the ruts.

01:39:59,900	Uh, inside of those ditches. So, uh, again, good point that we have, we have the ability to try to influence and get some volunteers, uh, maybe assist with some of our equipment that’s here locally as well too. So it’s not just a Burley County problem.

01:40:17,570	Uh, we want to make sure that we’re doing, um, as much as we can, uh, to assist you. Mr. Chair, one of the things at our meeting. Now, a lot of the stone. Builders are also OHV drivers, so. So they are dual seasons. They’re not just going to ride snowmobiles. So a lot of those same folks, um, and.

01:40:36,230	So as I told the chair earlier, I mean, I’ve talked to two different groups about volunteering time and efforts to do some repairs in the ditches. I’ve received, um, a I won’t use the right word, but heck yes, uh, they’ll help.

01:40:56,030	Um, and so for the residents out there that are listening, please email me addresses of where you believe the trails need to be fixed. The ruts need to be taken care of. I will compile that list and we’ll get that to the volunteers, uh, that are asking for help with their with their ruts.

01:41:16,830	Uh, and so I’m hoping to have the second conversation with the other group, uh, next week. And if I could get two different groups out there that are willing to volunteer their time to help fix our ditches, that would be awesome. So, um, so that plea is there. Please send me an email with the addresses.

01:41:35,670	I think a really good place to start also would be with the township officers, because we all received this meeting. Yeah, we received this email from township officers where apparently some of these places are getting bad enough that utilities are getting exposed. And I tell you what, you go ripping up some, uh, fiber optics one time and see how your day changes. Yeah.

01:41:53,370	I mean, you take out the utilities in an entire area just because you want to, you know, have a little fun. Yeah. All of a sudden we’re at that point, and that area makes me nervous.

01:42:09,300	I need to make sure I know where that is so that as we’re directing volunteers to go in, we’re we’re cautious of of that concern. Great. Okay. Well, I thank you. And I appreciate you the willingness to work along with us. Chairman, Commissioner Botkin, go ahead. Yeah. I got one other question for Tony. Um, so snowmobiles aside that, you know, usually frozen ground, uh, we’re dealing with warm weather now.

01:42:29,430	Uh, one of the things that I’ve been battling around is road closures or closures of the the ditches and the right of ways. Um, how does the state or how do you manage? Uh, trail closures through the summer and in cases of rain events? Um, we get a three inch rainfall. Uh, some of these facilities are not going to hold up.

01:42:53,100	Uh, do you have a mechanism in place by which you close these trails? What does that look like on the state side? Uh. So I’ll speak to that in in two parts. Um, Commissioner. So first, we do manage three off highway vehicle riding areas. Uh, one is south of Mandan called the Rough Rider Trail.

01:43:09,670	It’s about a 26 mile trail that begins at for Abraham Lincoln and goes down to the Fort Rice Campground. Uh, a second one is in the Turtle Mountain Forest area and OHV park there.

01:43:27,730	And then the Palmetto Gorge State Park, which is a state park that’s going to open, uh, June 9th, uh, here in the wonderful state of North Dakota. Uh, and that is a designated off highway vehicle, um, kind of riding area, too. So, uh, we have a app that kind of manages all of our trails, and we can turn those trails, close those trails, uh, through that app.

01:43:47,600	And we do social media post to alert public, uh, to those trails. But, uh, I don’t close the Rough Rider. Uh, it’s it’s more of a hard and packed trail, so it doesn’t really get affected by the rain. But in the Turtle Mountain area and in the Pembina Gorge area, just because of the soil conditions, you’ll see those trails closed based on significant rainfall.

01:44:05,500	Um, it’s the same issues in in the highway right of way. Those ruts are harder to rectify after a significant rain for snowmobiles that is managed by North Dakota Central code 3929, it’s a seasonal limitation placed in highway right of ways across the state of North Dakota for snowmobile use, and

01:44:24,770	so those snowmobile highway right of access for snowmobiles is only allowed from 1st December to 1st April. So. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else have anything for, um, Tony? Tony, I’d like to chat with you a little bit after the meeting, if you wouldn’t mind sticking around. Sure. Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

01:44:47,300	Um, you know, as as promised, I want to, um, allow people to speak on the issue if they want, because, um, hopefully you’ve been reading and following the agendas and the media and and all of that. So. State your name for the record, please. Yeah. Good evening. It’s been about a month since I was here.

01:45:10,100	Um, quite a few of us are here tonight. Uh, we weren’t aware that there was public comment the last meeting, so. Oh, sorry, Brian. Fatigue. Okay, um, we weren’t aware of the public discussion occurring, so we were able to watch a replay with some of that. And let me interrupt you right there. Yeah.

01:45:28,300	Um, it wasn’t it wasn’t intended that it be public comment, but because it was my decision to to go for that simply because people sat through the whole doggone meeting and I thought, well, they’re taking their time. And I wanted to hear what they had to say, but go ahead. Yeah. No, I appreciate that.

01:45:43,230	Um, first off, I have a message I received today from, um. Well, let me. Oops. From Mary Renick. Uh, the chair and road supervisor in Hate Creek Township. And she couldn’t make it here tonight, and she thought there may be an opportunity for comment.

01:46:14,770	So she asked me if I could read a statement on her behalf. If that’s all right with you, I’ll. I’ll read that right now. So this is her words. Uh, Chairman Bittner, fellow commissioners, my apologies for not speaking in person, but I had another pre scheduled meeting. Please permit Brian Pfennig to read my statement as a Hate Creek Township resident.

01:46:33,370	Thank you. Sincerely, Mary Renick, chair and road supervisor. Uh, this is a letter she wrote to Commissioner Woodcock, and she and all the commissioners on it. She is writing to you today regarding the OHV issue, specifically within the Hate Creek Township area.

01:46:54,870	I have attended some meetings and always watched the county and zoning planning meetings as well. I am also aware that you spent quite some time driving with Interim Township Officer Doug Pearson the other day, and he gave me a synopsis of your visit.

01:47:11,370	I wanted to be straight about my concerns, one of them being the possibility of the township board making a financial commitment to repairing ditch damage or approach damage done by OHV riders. Hey Creek is not allocating the taxpayer dollars for the deliberate destruction of OHV drivers, unless the root cause of this damage is addressed, it is a futile and expensive endeavor.

01:47:32,730	I am supportive of an ordinance to not allow any further ditch use by anyone, unless they’re permitted by their business use for needed ditch access. As you may be aware, there are such deep cuts in some areas of the ditches that utility cables are being exposed.

01:47:49,230	This could be an expensive repair and has the potential for incurring bodily injury damages for the county and or township. I also want you to be aware that as a township board, we are very careful with our budget. Our priority is yearly planning for road repairs, maintenance and future road rebuilding projects.

01:48:05,330	The idea mentioned of our funds being used in a recreational solution for off road drivers is not part of our role or responsibility as a township. I find it ludicrous that the general public should be financial, responsible for the actions of a small number of OHV riders who are deliberately damaging the road, ditches and approaches with no apparent regard for public safety and damage. This growing issue is a public nuisance.

01:48:24,430	North Dakota Century Code 42 0101 and 42 0106. Clearly defined nuisance and noise issue associated with these vehicles undeniably apply. Burley County needs to make some direct decisions in my opinion. Needs to look at the legal process and other states that have gotten a good handle in this issue.

01:48:43,270	There is a reason for regulations and laws to protect the safety of individuals, their property and their tranquility. Not only is the damage a major issue that will only intensify as their population grows, but the increasing noise levels are unbearable for some residents. This is not acceptable within a city or a rural. Subdivisions.

01:49:00,770	No one invests their life savings in a home for a front yard racetrack, used for the personal enjoyment of strangers as the chair and road supervisor for Hay Creek Township and requesting the Burleigh County Commission take definitive action on restricting the use of any off road vehicles and ditches.

01:49:20,630	The only exception should be for utility or road maintenance. If the dealership’s clubs and interested individual O v enthusiast want and need an area for their use, they can start that planning now.

01:49:38,630	This is a small group of individuals and as such they can approach this as their mission to satisfy their own desires as well as to eliminate the public nuisance issues from populated and numerous roadway areas. Not only will riders be safer, but property drivers, pedestrians, animals, and residents will be safer as well. Please consider taking definitive action on this concerning issue without further delay. Thank you for your time and service.

01:50:01,100	Sincerely, Mary Renick, chair, Road Supervisor, Hay Creek Township. So thank you, Mary, for the comments. Okay. Um, I gotta make sure I get this, uh, this one machine here to work to show something. Is it just the power button? Yeah. Put whatever we need. All right, so these are my. It’ll be actually just. Yes. Right there.

01:50:28,330	Just put it in front and it should work. If I have something. Okay. All right. So I watched the meeting. It sounds like there’s been discussions going on since, again a month ago. And the only thing people care about tonight is the ditch usage. Either you allow it or you don’t. Nothing else matters.

01:50:51,830	Unfortunately, any ordinance that does not completely prohibit the ditch usage will never move the needle on this issue. And I’ll explain more in a minute. First, if you dig deeper into the opposition, some could argue it seems this is largely the residents versus special interest groups.

01:51:09,970	They have the right people in the right positions to protect their investment, their interest, making things more difficult for everyday residents to be heard or properly represented. For instance, um, Kurt Gent, we get along. I agree with a lot of your viewpoints and such. Um, but like yourself, you’re part of the Rough Rider Club, which is fine.

01:51:28,700	Um, we heard, uh, Sheriff Liebman mentioned Major Harm. He’s a board of director for the Rough Rider Club. He’s also at the top of law enforcement. So this. And he’s also a Polaris ambassador. So for the citizens here to to have a chance at getting anything done, it feels like all the special interests are already at the table.

01:51:50,570	Having this discussion without the public input. 95% of the E.T.A. lives in one and a half to two acre subdivisions. Why is it that no one rides the ditches in those subdivisions, even though those ditches are owned entirely by the county and have an 80 foot right of way? So all this population of 13,000, they

01:52:10,770	it’s the county’s ditches and nobody rides there. Can you imagine if someone took a £3,500 side by side, up and down every one of those ditches and approaches after rainstorms or when the frost comes out? Can you imagine the calls and complaints that would generate, even though it’s 100% perfectly legal to do so, phones would be

01:52:31,330	ringing off the hook. We wouldn’t be here tonight because they would have already been banned from the ditches. See, that’s the problem. No one wants their so-called privilege taken away. But at whose expense? They won’t ride in their own ditch. But they have no problem riding in others outside of their subdivision.

01:52:48,770	How many of those in opposition have this racetrack in their front yard? I think we all know the answer to that. For the record, we did not move into this area. We grew up on this property 34 years ago.

01:53:08,000	And also, for the record, unlike the subdivisions, we own every square inch of the ditch, since our property has not been platted, it’s a property rights issue. We’re paying property taxes and maintaining it to the center of the road. There was a in your packet, I think, uh, State’s Attorney. Julia Lawyer did a good job with the definitions of easements and others.

01:53:25,600	I’ll quickly put that on the screen. Yeah. So we’re I’m pointing down here is there’s no express, right, to use a roadway as a government authority can put restrictions on their use. At the top there likewise there is no express right to ride snowmobiles or OHV in roadway easements either.

01:54:01,830	However, lawful use of those vehicles in roadway right aways is permissible. Use of the right of way so the right doesn’t exist. All right, so because of the 13,000 I live in the MTA, we know the ditches are overwhelmed with OHV traffic. They’re not designed for OHV of any sort.

01:54:26,100	If you drive around, the ditches don’t lie. They actually tell a story. When traffic counts increase, what happens? Roads get built up, they get graveled. They get paved. Ditches don’t stand a chance. They’re simply turf. There’s no there’s a reason they sell lawn mowers with turf tires.

01:54:44,570	But we’re allowing OHV with off road tires just because we should. When state law was enacted decades ago, people were driving three wheelers that weighed £500 maximum. Nowadays, these larger OHV units weigh £3,500. Similar to most small pickup trucks, it doesn’t matter how many millions it would cost to repair the ditches, because you can’t attempt to repair them because of the usage.

01:55:07,030	Contractors won’t even bid to repair them since it’s a waste of time. The volunteer idea you might have to find volunteers because I don’t know who would guarantee their work. Uh, restricting use during thought cycles or events won’t work. Ditches are designed to hold water in root water.

01:55:22,500	You have to close the ditches every rainstorm, and some ditches take days to dry out, and some never do dry out. Sadly, some of these deep ruts are now holding water year round. Now let’s let’s fast forward. Let’s say if enforcement is perfect, we have all the funding in place. Nobody breaks the law.

01:55:42,230	You have to ask yourself, can any ditch withstand the volume of OHV traffic? So perfect weather conditions. Uh, perfect enforcement, no bad actors, great parenting. It makes sense to still allow these vehicles to ride on turf, like, over and over and over in this populated metro area.

01:56:09,100	It’s just, I mean, I got videos showing when it’s drought, when they’re driving and there’s so much dust on 43rd Avenue, you have to slow down because of visibility. So we’ve heard for years it’s bad actors, certainly part of it as the population increases, so do the number of bad actors. We heard it’s a parenting issue.

01:56:31,830	Absolutely. How many of you think parenting is getting better? We heard more education and training. We’ve been educating for 30 years, and we know we all know how that turned out. Recently, I heard about discussions taking place to create a dedicated OHV trail in the county.

01:56:51,030	That is just ridiculous in my opinion. For so many reasons. I don’t have enough time to list all the reasons why that’s a horrible idea, but I find it hard to believe that the county wants to start picking and choosing recreation activities that they want to be involved with.

01:57:09,300	Maybe next week I can request a dedicated horse trail along our road. What’s the difference? We’re all horse owners along our road. It sounds what I heard tonight that we might have 778,000 from a garrison diversion savings we could apply to a really nice equestrian trail.

01:57:31,770	You know, to me, it doesn’t make sense picking and choosing what it sports to support and whose expense and everyone wants it, but at someone else’s expense. Enforcement. Actually, I’m going to step back right now, and this is important because a lot of the public in here probably hasn’t done the research or doesn’t remember, doesn’t recall. I know some do. But for instance, this is a Tribune article.

01:58:05,300	So this is December 5th of 2007. The commission is again pushed to act on OHV usage. I wish this microphone was closer to the machine. I don’t know if you guys can hear me. Um, but what I circled in green is these individuals, they all lived along Lincoln Road.

01:58:25,570	They’re getting questions questioning the allowed use of the right of way in ditches. Here’s what they’re talking about. Four inch ruts are typically what can be seen. They’re up to 18.5in deep. Water runoff is an issue. They’re undercutting pavement. The county does have easements for ditch right away. The land itself belongs to the owner.

01:58:46,970	When you have rutting traffic all day in and night erodes property values. This is an oh seven. This is 19 years ago. And there’s there’s actually 20 articles. I’m not going to read them all. I just got three examples, just to give you an idea. But erosion is a bad problem and have no magic solution.

01:59:08,830	They talk about this expense and all the commissioners are in here. And here’s what they’re talking about. 19 years ago. Part of the problem is the huge increase in use across the state. Just a few years ago, there were 15,000 ATVs. This year were nearly 22,000.

01:59:25,400	And by the end of the biennium, be closer to 30,000. These numbers have exploded. These projections, somebody can correct me on them, but I’m sure we’re past that. Okay. I’m going to ask you to kind of wrap it up a little bit, okay? Okay. And then here’s an article in 2009. Where I think we got that point.

01:59:39,930	Okay. So they were looking at a solution at the time. Um, the same issues keep popping up and we couldn’t do anything. So this is what I have here is for the first time, if you do prohibit the use in the right of way, we could actually stop in sight someone which we’ve talked about earlier.

01:59:58,070	The highway department could fix projects, etc.. Um, this is the thing that nobody talked about. I haven’t heard anyone talk about it, but with the county acquiring the easements, we build the roads, we rebuild the roads, we maintain the roads, all with county dollars and county resources.

02:00:20,470	But the state mandated we allow OHV to use the right of ways. How did that happen? That’s where the state had overstepped in. The state agreed this past year that this is why House Bill 1346 passed 44 to 0 in the Senate. It gives the authority back to the county for all the reasons previously mentioned.

02:00:39,570	It’s also worth noting that opposition and the media portray this as a Burley County ban, which is far from the truth. Riders will still have access to 200 miles of state highway right of way in Berkeley County, all at the expense liability, enforcement of state resources.

02:00:59,370	How many times have we heard there needs to be places to ride? Well, there’s 200 miles and I have a map. Too, with riding places galore. So all these state highway right aways, there’s nothing this county commission can do to restrict use in those state right aways. Local clubs could operate out of these small towns, for instance, Wilton or Sterling, located along the state right of way.

02:01:17,100	Gas stations would be grateful to see that, just like people have to haul their boat to water, you can haul your OHV to these small town areas along state right aways and ride for days, all at the state’s expense. Maintenance, liability complaints, etc.

02:01:33,670	and I’m not sure why anyone hasn’t brought that up. It’s really a state thing that was pushed on the counties. It created problems and the state is the entity now that could actually solve that issue. So commissioners, the choice is yours. Ten page ordinances won’t work just like no one reads instruction books. The ordinance must be black and white.

02:01:52,700	Burley County needs to eliminate OHV usage from county ditches. That’s the only thing that can be enforced. And simply that is why it’s the only solution. That is the only thing that will work in society can move on. And with that, I stand for questions. Okay. Commissioners, any questions for Mr. Fatigue? Seeing none.

02:02:11,570	Thank you very much. I do appreciate the input. Thank you. That was a real good question about the state highways. They asked I actually asked a question about, um, what do you call it? Uh, restricted access highways. And of course, that’s like the interstate.

02:02:43,100	You know, we’re we’re none of this kind of thing happens on the interstate, but thank you, Dan, for getting back to me on that. Does anybody else wish to speak on this issue, on this item? So there was another lady that stood up earlier. Um, sorry I didn’t get your name. Anybody else? On in. Fill out the thing there and give us your name for the record.

02:03:02,670	Okay. Was there a pen up here. Or was. There was was somebody. Just, uh, state my name quick. My name is Austin Ducat. Um, where do I want to start with this? So I’m not part of a special interest group. I’ve just been riding most of my life, um, since about the time I was 13.

02:03:34,170	And most of the people that I run across that are out riding aren’t doing the activities that are commonly described here. Um, most time when I ride recreationally, I just hop on. It’s a nice evening. Go for ten 15 minutes. Similar to what you do with a motorcycle, right? I’m sure people can sympathize with that.

02:03:54,500	Many motorcycle riders. That’s not their primary mode of transportation. They have it because it’s something they enjoy. Um, it’s something that might be relaxing to them, right? Might not be relaxing to the people around them. But you live in a community and we sacrifice for others on occasion. Um. I have somewhere around six machines.

02:04:18,530	I guess what we talked about, uh, of course I get in volunteering. That would be something that I would be open to if, uh, anybody wanted to contact me, maybe have people volunteer from the community to help teach courses. Um, I’ve been riding ditches enough to know.

02:04:38,430	And just on personal property, what does and doesn’t work for preventing damage? Um, I know some there’s some people, there’s some bad actors. They don’t care. But, um, I was encouraged to hear about a resolution. I was encouraged to hear about the safety course being brought up. Um, I don’t know if that’s been discussed amongst people.

02:05:01,270	This kind of fell off my radar. I didn’t realize this was a big topic. Again. Um, has there been any talk of a remedial punishment? Kind of like, uh, you know, if you get too many points on your license, you gotta take defensive driving or you lose it.

02:05:22,500	Has there been anything like that discussed? Okay, okay. It sounds like we’re punishing a lot of people for the few, right? At this point, that keeps being brought up. So I guess I didn’t have much more to add because things I wanted to add were covered tonight. Uh, do you guys have any questions for me? Cause any questions? First, I want to thank.

02:05:42,230	You for not. repeating things that other people have done that. I appreciate that a lot. Yeah. All right. Any questions? Okay. Thank you. Thanks. I appreciate your input. Anybody else? Okay. Hi. I am Debbie. I am the Gibbs Township deputy clerk. Um, what? I was at the last meeting.

02:06:16,630	They mentioned that a lot of the damage was in the Gibbs Township ditches and also, um, Hay Creek Township. If you pull that microphone down a little. Sorry. They were saying that a lot of the, um, damages were in the ditches of Hay Creek and Gibbs Township ditches in there. Correct.

02:06:34,570	Um, and they also mentioned why don’t we ask Gibbs Township and Hay Creek for money? And I think that’s a great idea. Um, I’m actually going to bring it up to our board, um, a discussion with them and see how our board members feel about that. And I’m going to have to, um, disagree with Mr.

02:06:51,830	Fedak because I did find a flowchart that indicates the townships do receive funds through the Highway Tax Distribution Fund, which is generated by off road vehicle. Um, registration fees. Um, and it does come to the townships, I don’t know in what amount, but we are receiving funds. So my feeling is that we could be part of a solution.

02:07:13,230	And I would like to bring it up to our board members to see how Gibbs Township feels about that. Um, our next meeting, our annual meeting is March 18th. Um, I also encourage all Hay Creek Township, um, residents. There’s 4480 of them.

02:07:30,630	Um, go to your Hay Creek Township board members and ask them the question. Will you be willing to, even if it’s a little bit of money, help fixing the ditches or put up signs, or try to be a part of the solution to this? Um, and Hay Creek is also having a meeting coming up

02:07:47,770	March 4th. Their annual meeting is March 10th, so if you want your representation, take it to your board. That’s what they are there for. Um, the other thing that I have is Burley County is a large county. We are the 13th largest county in North Dakota.

02:08:08,030	Um, within all of the county, there’s 103 residents. Uh, we have 47 townships. And I guess I’m wondering, with the board, are you aware or do you know how all of the townships feel about this ban? Um, for all of Burley County? And what I’m seeing is a lot of people don’t even know about it.

02:08:28,300	They’re not even aware that this is being discussed. So. I would respectfully ask that the members of the 103,000 103,000 residents, they trust you, commissioners, that you’re making decisions for them. Um, and are you going to put your feelings, personal feelings aside and represent those 100,000 residents within Burley County? That’s all I have. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

02:08:58,330	Commissioner Woodcock, I’m glad to hear you mentioned that you’re going to go to your township and decide whether they have money or they should be even contributing to any sort of solution to this. But we got this letter from Mary Renick, and I’ll read part.

02:09:14,230	He mentioned all of it, but I’ll read part of it says, uh, the the idea mentioned of our funds being used in a recreational solution for off road drivers is not a part of our role or responsibility as a township.

02:09:33,430	I find it ludicrous that the general public should be financially responsible for the actions of a small number, and she’s exactly the opposite of what you’re thinking of. And my thought when when I mentioned it last meeting, was that one of the solutions we heard was signage putting do not trespass or or open to the public, or the reflector signs and all that.

02:09:53,170	That to me is on roads that the townships are involved with. That should be a responsibility of the township to at least contribute. I don’t know whether they mean to pay for all but but she says that’s not their responsibility. But I have a kind of a bone to pick on that particular.

02:10:09,270	That’s what that’s what the township’s money goes towards traveling and scraping and fixing up the roads and everything. And certainly the ditches are and the ditches and the approaches to these homes are part of the township’s responsibility. I think I could be entirely wrong, but. And according to the. Chart, we are. Thank you for going to your township.

02:10:26,270	You’re welcome. Yeah, we’ll let us know how that goes. Thanks. Anybody else wish to speak on this item? Uh, good evening commissioners. My name is Valerie Gent. No relation to Curtis. Maybe it’s. Yeah, we’re. Related somehow. I’ll take that. Um, first, I want to thank the commission for your consideration of this very important and relevant issue.

02:11:07,000	It is not an easy issue, but we’ve come to the point where doing nothing is no longer an option. A little background, my family has owned an 80 acre parcel of farmland off of 84th Avenue and 26th Street since the early 1970s, and at that time there was gravel road.

02:11:24,130	And, um, you know, a lot of development has happened since then. Um, my husband and I built our home in 1992, and so we’re still on that 80 acres, uh, on in. My brother owns the other 40.

02:11:45,900	Um, our our property is now surrounded by three sides of subdivisions, and I would qualify, especially Wayne and I and my brother and his wife, as a motorcycle loving family. We’ve always owned a bike, and we still do. We love to ride. We love the open road and many benefits of enjoying our beautiful prairies. And especially in the summer.

02:12:01,500	We also own a street legal four seated electric cart that doesn’t make any noise and doesn’t run up the ditches. Um, and I also want to reemphasize what someone else said earlier, that our property is not platted. And so we confirmed that our property to the center of the road is our property.

02:12:20,830	Um, until the last few years, we just really didn’t have a problem. Um, but as subdivisions continue to pop up in rural Bismarck, more and more people are moving into the country and they’re purchasing these machines for their children. So the time has come to address this important issue, which unfortunately for many reasons, has become a very serious problem for property owners.

02:12:40,830	Safety, noise and property damage. Those three things are a real problem. Um, it is mainly young drivers, riders that we’ve seen. I’ve seen some older adults and I wasn’t exactly sure how to show on the screen, but I took a lot of pictures of the of the real significant ruts.

02:13:00,100	Um, also, I’ve got a picture of an adult going through the rain that we had last week and just ripping it up and fish tailing it through the ditch on an SUV.

02:13:19,430	Um, I’ve seen jumping approaches and popping wheelies up and down 84th Avenue and up for, you know, as cars are driving, they’re not just in the ditches, they’re also popping wheelies. And that’s my brother was killed on a motorcycle, um, in 1986. And so my concern is the safety of these, especially the young children. Now, I understand what the individual from the Parks and Rec said that, you know, they give safety classes, but my husband’s a middle school counselor, and we all knew no. Right.

02:13:42,230	Middle schoolers don’t always listen and don’t understand the the ramifications of some of their decisions. Um, and so. Again. We just want to raise that as a concern because we, we care about our children.

02:14:01,570	Um, the other issue that we’ve noticed is there’s adults hauling trailers loaded with dirt bikes and dropping their kids off in our neighborhoods, and then just letting them ride around. And yeah, and they’re not even from our area. Wow. I mean. and encroaching on our personal property.

02:14:21,370	In fact, I was out walking one day, happened to stop these kids from doing their wheelies and asked them to please not do that, asked them where they were from, and they said they were up visiting from Napoleon and that, um, their parents were invited to bring up their dirt bikes to hang out with their friends. Um, there is damage to utilities.

02:14:37,870	I’ve got pictures of that too, where the cable boxes and the telephone boxes are even in our ditch, has got the wires sticking out of them. Um, and and that causes, um, additional fees for property owners. They pass those expenses on. Um, the other issue, my brother and I work with a farmer who’s kind enough to plant our field each year.

02:14:57,300	80 acres. After my father passed away, we sold and had an auction and sold all of our farm equipment. And it’s it is a burden for him to come from the Elk and Sterling area with his big equipment to do 80 acres. And then our neighbors across the road have 40. So he does theirs.

02:15:14,270	Last year he couldn’t get his equipment into our field because the ruts into the approach were so bad and so deep that he got stuck. And that’s I’m not making this up. This is just the reality. After he planted the field, we found kids zipping through the field after newly planted crop.

02:15:31,800	And you can put No trespassing signs up all you want, but it doesn’t stop them. And you know we don’t. So we need your help. Um, we’ve heard from businesses that sell these vehicles and owners that have children that they shed have a right to, to ride freely, basically anywhere they want without restrictions

02:15:48,230	or consideration. And I’ve heard very few solutions or consideration to the individuals who are impacted. This is our property. It’s our personal space. We have lived there for, well, now 50 years, over 50 years. Our our family has owned it.

02:16:06,000	And but I’ll also say that finding an outlet for our young adults is real, and it’s worthy of a parent and society’s concern. Um, we love children. We love young adults. Um, three people in my family are in education. I have a daughter and a son in law who teach, and my husband’s a school counselor.

02:16:22,630	So it’s not that we don’t care about young adults. And I’ve heard that this is better than letting them play video games at home. Well, when our children were in middle school and high school, our home and property became a safe place to gather. We always welcomed kids so that they could have bonfires, listen to music, have scavenger hunts, and do safe things.

02:16:42,100	Not necessarily just let them go and let them do whatever they want, especially encroaching on somebody else’s personal property. Teaching respect for others and helping to groom them into mature adults is the responsibility of all of us.

02:17:00,970	Um, beyond what I’ve also mentioned, and I don’t know if anybody else has really talked about this, but, um, they talked about building trails and what I’m concerned about too, is as you’re going down 26th Street and that is the front of of Pat’s 40 acres, the ditches are really, really rutted.

02:17:19,430	And those people who live on that parameter, when Sunnyvale was built, built their homes, own their homes long before these ditches were so rutted up. Now that’s devaluing the value of their property. Nobody’s going to want to buy that when they see that this is a recreation trail. And especially with the noise and the damage that’s being done.

02:17:34,970	So I think that that’s a real that’s a valid concern. Um, finally, the liability, if someone should be heard on our property and that hasn’t been addressed, whose responsibility is it? We own that land. And if they get hurt on that land, whose liability is it? And we just updated our insurance just in case somebody you know does get hurt.

02:17:54,230	Something needs to be done before the weather breaks or will be faced with more riding, disturbing the peace and damage to property. Our Burley County Sheriff’s Department is very busy and shouldn’t have to be responsible for monitoring compliance and taking on complaints.

02:18:11,930	So let’s get a working group together to come up with some reasonable and viable solutions. This is way out there, and I don’t know that it’s even possible, but the first thing I thought of is I was trying to park downtown the other day and I saw the the parking patrol officers, and I just thought, you know, maybe we don’t have to do a Burley County sheriff necessarily, but

02:18:26,870	just coming up with patrol people who are monitoring the areas that do nothing but look for compliance, um, you know, and then sighting them, that would be another opportunity. Maybe there’s even some volunteers who would be willing to do that just for the safety of the children.

02:18:43,970	Um, also just making sure that these people belong there, that they’re not coming up from different areas or just riding into somebody else’s area that isn’t even theirs.

02:18:59,370	Um, let’s come up with another method to have the riders and the owners of these machines sign up and volunteer to repair and clean the area and ditches that they’re riding in. Let’s see how much they’ll run them up. If they have to be the ones who have to clean them. And we used to do that with our children, too, is if you’re going to have a bonfire in the back yard, you’re going to clean up afterwards.

02:19:13,270	Um, for those who’ve been adversely impacted, we deserve to have solutions and support from those who expect us to yield to your recreational excursions. Doing nothing in this is not an option anymore.

02:19:30,900	So I’m begging the commissioners and those who are listening to please afford us as property owners, the same courtesy that you would expect if this were your property. Law and ordinances exist to protect individuals and society by establishing standards of behavior, maintaining order, resolving disputes and safeguarding rights and liberties. Laws and ordinance also help ensure safety and fairness, guiding how people interact with one another and with other institutions.

02:19:51,800	So we would encourage this commission to enact some, if not all, of the proposed ordinance, at least until some additional assurances can be made to address the valid concerns of our property owners. Thank you. Okay, commissioners, any questions for vote? Good job. Thank you. Feel good.

02:20:12,570	Um, your husband Wayne? Yes, I forgot he wanted to get together and have a chat, and I. Oh it’s fine. No, it’s all it’s all work. Yeah. We can. Whatever. You know, the biggest issue was just, you know, we’re all so very, very busy and trying to keep on top of all of the meetings and what’s appropriate, what’s not.

02:20:28,570	But we know that public comment is really critical and important. So thank you. Thanks for coming in. Appreciate it. Okay. Let me start out, Doug. Um, what’s not been talked about? Okay. And let’s play a different issue right here. This is within right in mind. I want to hear everything you got to say.

02:20:57,000	Don’t get me wrong. I just, you know, let’s. Yeah, it won’t be as. Long as last. Time, Commissioner. Yeah. Promise? Promise. Well, I think we’ve heard a lot of it. That’s. I mean, I think we have a pretty good understanding of the problem at this point. When we commissioners.

02:21:12,270	, are we going to act on this resolution tonight? No. No public hearing. And obviously, I think the public hearing will be most likely the next regularly scheduled meeting. Okay. So. Thanks for. Which is technically where we would be hearing these comments and whatnot anyway. But I have the technically. Have the open hearing or the.

02:21:37,970	Public hearing first. Yeah, the I think we’re on track, so we’re good. Welcome. Welcome. Good evening. Chair Bittner. And commissioners. My name is Doug Pearson and I live in the northeast Hay Creek Township. I want to first thank the parents that shared their story.

02:21:59,830	Last meeting, the ones that want to spend time supervising and taking responsibility for their kids. If everyone would do this, we would not have this issue in the Oeta area. This is one of the problems.

02:22:19,070	If you have kids under 18 years of age, the parents are responsible for their actions and when laws are broken, there must be consequences for their actions. Neither one of these things are being done and there is our problem. And I have pictures tonight. All these will be after the Home Rule charter was put in place. And Commissioner Munson, you might want to take note here. These are the roads here. Okay.

02:22:40,430	One of the roads is going to be 71st Avenue. 41st Street, 84th Avenue. I got a. Map, and you might want to add 26th Street north of 71st Avenue, up to about 97th. Yep. Okay. On the east side of 41st Street, there is a 70 foot, 75 foot right away from 78th Avenue to 84th Avenue.

02:23:11,300	That’s about a half a mile very wide right of way. And on the east side or excuse me, on the south side, 84th Avenue, from 41st to 46th Street, a little less than a half a mile is also a 70 foot.

02:23:33,770	Right away, our subdivision is in the southeast corner of 41st and 84th intersection, and is the hot spot for OHV. Because of our gravel roads in our neighborhood. So I’m just going to go through some of this right here. This is 41st Street right here heading north. That way. This also is going to be 71st Avenue.

02:23:59,430	You can kind of see down on the curve in the distance that is Centennial right there. This right here is going to be 71st Avenue 41st Street going north right there. Now this is a hot spot right there. That’s still a 55 mile an hour speed limit. And we got kids as young as 12 years old that are up and down that road.

02:24:19,830	And as young lady was talking a little while ago, there’s kids popping wheelies up and down that one to. This year also 71st Avenue. This is going to be uh, north on 41st Street, East side. And that’s where the 75 foot right away is. There’s a lot of overgrown trees in there.

02:24:49,270	There’s not a very good picture there, but this is also off the 71st Avenue. This is also down by the curve. This is going to be on the east side of 41st Street right here. Probably is six inches right there. Easily. You kind of stop you right there.

02:25:10,100	Once sure to make a point. Yeah. Um, my son and I, we we’ve talked kind of a lot about repairing trails. And when I go back to that picture. Well, sure. Absolutely. We talk a lot about repairing trails because we actually do repair trails time to time. And we built a lot of trails.

02:25:25,470	All the ones that Tony mentioned have worked on every one of those trails. Um, but one of the things when you start talking about repairing this, I want you to understand there’s only two ways to fix a hole in the ground. Okay? Either make a bigger hole. Am I doing some excavating or you fill it in.

02:25:45,100	Okay. That’s a point that I want to make very clear. I don’t want to see when we’re talking about repairs. Anybody considering that, we’re just going to take them blade a little bit of that dirt down, and we’re going to fill that hole in because we have machines that do that.

02:25:59,500	That’s a that’s actually an acceptable thing in the right circumstances, but not in those ditches. Want to make sure that nobody thinks that just blading some dirt down into there from the sides or something is going to be a solution that’s going to goof up every bit of drainage and and continue

02:26:16,570	pouring silt down into the drainage. Okay. Thanks, Doug. Go ahead. Okay. This right here is off 71st Avenue and Moonshine right here in the southeast corner. This is also going to be off of Moonstone. In the southwest corner. There’s a gentleman that’s going to come up here and tell the story. What happened here last fall okay.

02:26:37,370	Very interesting. It’s more damage. Here’s some things that we’re not talking about. Take a look at this. Uh, asphalt right here. It’s about a three inch drop right there. Easily. It’s cracking up our asphalt some more right here. Also right here is breaking up pieces right there.

02:27:09,970	This is off 71st Avenue. And this is very interesting right here. This is a a gentleman that was a neighbor of mine. He’s no longer there. He had enough. He moved out. But this is 84th Avenue on the south side in between 46 and 44th Street. Some more right there.

02:27:50,600	Now we’re going to get over by our subdivision, which is probably a couple blocks to the east. This is my mother’s ditch right here that I long no longer mole. There was 2 or 3in of rain the night before I came out that morning, and ripped up her ditch. Absolutely uncalled for. This road right here is what I call the turnpike.

02:28:11,900	You go down here. At the end of this blacktop is a section line that goes east about a mile and a quarter Toronto road, and that is going to hook into Country Creek Estates right there. We get a lot of the Gibbs kids that come on over from there.

02:28:32,700	Also, about a half a mile down on that section line to the south is 52nd Street. We get a lot of the kids that are coming from town. They take 43rd, 52nd all the way up to there at dead ends. They come across our way. And this family right here has got young kids.

02:28:50,500	A couple years ago, there was a slowed down sign right by this rock. They came off of there and ran the damn thing over. Uncalled for. Now here, this is Crescent Ridge Road. This is our subdivision. The gravel roads. You notice there’s no, um, road right of way issues whatsoever.

02:29:12,330	These kids that are coming in are not our kids. The kids that are right in our subdivision are very good, well-behaved kids. And if they get out of line, I know their mom and dad. We go have a little talk. These are kids that are coming in from other subdivisions, and they’re ripping up our roads.

02:29:31,900	Down around here, this is Creston Ridge. This is 46th Street. They love to come around here. Gravel gets spun into the ditches. And guess what? We hit it with our lawnmower. Oops. Sorry. There’s some more right here. All the gravel. And guess who gets the gravel? That. Hey, Creek Township. This is our 44th Street.

02:30:14,830	And this right here is my mailbox. I got a slowed down children and pets at play. You can see a little attitude right here. Also. Another shot of that. Now, this is going north. My place right here. This is where they get going. 40, 50 miles an hour right up here. 84th Avenue going sideways. You can see up there.

02:30:45,130	Another shot. And just a little bit off 84th Avenue. Some cookies. Okay, Doug, can we kind of. Yep. We’re almost done here. Commissioner. And right here, we had a service call by a deputy, came out, and he said, you know what? That’s not that bad. Well, you don’t live there, deputy. I mean, look at that.

02:31:24,100	The base is all ripped up. Yeah, they actually do that on my driveway. And right here. This is what really gets my goat slowed down there. On here you can see the wheel tracks purposely running over our signs. Yeah. Another one on Commissioner Schwab.

02:31:46,030	I was on the phone with you last spring. There’s the picture right there. That white cannon that came through and hit that thing. This kid has been terrorized in our neighborhood for three years. It’s been it’s been going on. The sheriff’s department knows who he is. Nothing’s being done.

02:32:10,200	How come there’s no fines for this kid? Even in the wintertime, to. That was in December. So, yeah, we need a a resolution. There’s got to be more protection for us in our subdivisions. That’s the key. Okay. And I’ll stand for any questions. Okay. Um, commissioners, any questions for Doug a good job. I think that, uh, we have a pretty good understanding of the problem. Yeah.

02:32:42,530	I think Lonnie wanted to come up and share real quick here, just on this picture. Of the picture. Okay, go ahead and sign in. And your name for the record. Welcome. My name’s Lanny Kanter. I live, uh. Right there. What’s that right there? Yeah, I live right there. I’m not right there. But a few.

02:33:18,900	Few, uh, lots of way. But, uh, yeah, my wife was coming home. She almost ran into one of the. There’s. I know this two or 3 or 4. I’m not sure how many, uh, motorcycle riders were jumping to jumping the cross. Moonstone Lane doing.

02:33:38,570	I mean, in the air, you know, tearing it up. She almost hit one of them. You know, they weren’t even watching. She had to hit her brakes. And you know who’s liable for that kind of stuff? You know, and yeah. It’s it’s not only just who’s liable landing nobody. Nobody wants to run. Over a kid. Nobody. Yeah, yeah. I know nobody.

02:33:56,800	My own mom, she was driving along the road on 80th Street, and apparently some kid came flying up out of the ditch, and she, by the time she got on her brakes and stopped, her car was on the ATVs wheel. I mean, her wheel was on the wheel of the ATV. That’s. Well, she.

02:34:14,500	She spent her whole life being a nurse. And I know for a fact that she didn’t want to see a kid getting hurt. Well, my wife, I mean, same here. I mean, I, I should have said at first because I that’s the first, first thing you don’t want is somebody getting hurt.

02:34:29,300	But, you know, if they do, what happens? I mean, at that time, the deputies did come out there and talk to them. And so we’re on our way back into town, and I can see they’re talking to some of them.

02:34:48,770	They had a trailer loaded up so much I’m not sure how many there were or if anything ever happened, but they sure tore that up in a real short time. Yeah. But that’s that’s what I got to add. All I got to add to that. But okay. Something to be done. Thank you. Any questions for Linda? Thank you. I appreciate. You. Okay. Anybody else want to speak on this issue? Come on up. Right there.

02:35:12,600	Uh, I think he’s he’s he’s, um, staff. Yeah. He’s he’s it. Yeah. He’s he’s. He’s the guy behind the curtain. Oh, okay. Get up. Never done this before. So it’s totally new to me. My name is Darren Schilt, and we have a group of typical riders.

02:35:38,370	We ride from southern Lincoln. We end up all the way up by Wilton Regan. We just 3 or 4 times a year ride and have a good time. Probably a few gas stations have a soda or whatever, sit and visit.

02:35:55,830	Um, I know the trails look bad, but a lot of those gravel roads that isn’t just ATVs or motorcycles, I mean, that’s that’s a lot more traffic than that. And I get gravel, gets moved off. It’s gravel.

02:36:18,900	It’s where it’s designed to do, um, as far as when it comes to, like, you guys are talking the fines rather than stiffening one big penalty. Why don’t they do a progressive thing? So somebody that makes a mistake because penalized, if he doesn’t learn by the second time, then you double third time it gets impounded and you stiffen it as you go versus just a $200 fine.

02:36:39,030	Because a lot of these guys, $200 ain’t nothing to him anyways. Yeah. You know, you got to make it or they learn from it. You start going, that’s fine. Am I going. Or something? But I’m not sure what that was. I think.. Commissioner Bachman, are you. Okay? Yeah, I just got my back. I’m trying to shut my phone off. All right.

02:37:04,700	So I’m pretty much done. I, I, like I said, we ride and we don’t do it a lot. And I do see trails that are bad. We try to avoid, you know, we slow down, but like it said, that when it’s wet, stuff’s going to get tore up.

02:37:21,170	I mean, if you’re if you’re going to rot on it and stuff, you just try to slow down. Mr. Chairman. Oh, that’s not working, Commissioner Woodcock. Um, you. Said you do a lot of running quite a few distance or quite a few ways. Right? Our North Dakota dot, Mr.

02:37:40,370	Bender had suggested that while he said there were three big trails that are operated by the Dot, and they sound like they’re extensive ones, he said 26 miles long or something, is that something we should look into? Do you think? Well. We got to have something in Burley County. Everything’s in Mandan or Pembina Gorge.

02:37:56,670	I mean, we ride there, we ride up in Bottineau, we we ride the rough radio trail. We run all the way over to Saint Anthony. What do you think we should be doing looking at something like that? I don’t know, I, I’ve never heard of them before, so I don’t.

02:38:09,830	Ah, the old abandoned railroad tracks that they’ve, that they started to use or what. But that sounds like a good solution to provide some more places to ride. It would be nice to have it. I mean, losing the ditches would be tough because sometimes you get your machine back from getting repaired.

02:38:23,170	You really don’t want to go out to a trail system and have no access to get it out, right, you know, to find out it’s going to break out. Okay. You know, it’s not easy pulling those things out. And when you start tearing them, they tear up things, too. Um, I. just like I said, we just occasionally ride.

02:38:40,400	We don’t ride a lot, lot, but we do travel, right. And, you know, we go down to the Badlands, we put a lot of money into it. We enjoy it. It’s our group. It’s there. That’s where everybody gets together and. Great. Um. Chairman. Commissioner Botkin, go ahead.

02:39:03,700	So are all your machines or most of your machines Street legal? Uh, I would say three quarters of them are probably street legal. There is. Like 5 or 6 that aren’t. When you go over to Morton County, how do you get there? We take, uh, the bridge across on Main Street, Memorial Highway or the other bridge across the main street.

02:39:20,770	So street legal? Yep. And is there anything preventing you guys from utilizing gravel roads or the street legal ones on, uh, on paved roads? No, it’s just different when you’re riding in a ditch. It just you slow down. You don’t have to be traveling, you know, you really don’t want cars coming flying up behind you.

02:39:45,900	Okay, so again, gravel roads is a simple solution to me. Right? But the dust becomes an issue. I mean, you can wear your all the helmets you want everything. You get loaded up with dust in your eyes and it’s tough. But we.

02:40:07,300	Have citizens that are complaining about dust mitigation, driving in the ditches or driving on on roads. Now, um, and part of that’s living in the country, if you choose to live on a gravel road, you understand some of that.

02:40:28,630	But without tearing up the ditches, it makes a heck of a lot more sense to utilize the gravel roadway system then, because you’re not causing damage on the gravel roadway system. I just I was just curious on how you get over to to Morton County for the trail system and that you just told me it’s street legal for the most part.

02:40:45,330	Right? Well, the ones of us that can drive over there, we just drive over there, meet over in Bayshore, and we ride from there. Um, a lot of them. Trailer down to by the rifle range down there. Unload and and then they we catch the trail there, and then we ride all the way south to Fort Rice.

02:41:05,500	Then we take gravel roads over to Saint Anthony and then come back through Fort Rice. And so the gravel roads aren’t a problem in Morton County. Well, it’s because we go over to Salem. We cater to the people that support us. So if we call them up, they open up for us. We have a big enough group to go through, so we cater to them.

02:41:23,570	So you’ll cater to the citizens of Morton County, but not the citizens of Burleigh County? Well, there’s not a lot of traffic on the gravel road. Let’s go over it.. Scene from. Kind of getting off the off subject here a little bit.

02:41:39,630	I don’t know, Commissioner Barkan, if you saw the pictures from the Doug right before you, but he was showing pictures of a substantial amount of damage on gravel roads as well. So, um, did you have anything else you. Want to add? No. I’m good. Okay. Thank you for your time. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Anybody else? Uh. Good evening, Chair Bittner. Commissioners.

02:42:10,670	I’m just a lot of good points tonight. Just like the last couple of meetings. I know this is a big topic. Um, again, I represent all the powersports dealerships in Bismarck, Mandan, um, and as we understand, this is our issue. Uh, Steve Blaine. Sorry. Um, it is our issue. Um, we want to be the ones that help mitigate.

02:42:29,300	Help. Um, first to say, I want to make sure people understand the room as dealers. We don’t want to see property damage or people get stuff wrecked. Right? We don’t want to see that, um, much as, like, auto dealers don’t want to see that also. Right.

02:42:43,700	It’s the same kind of thing. Um, we I thought we had a really productive meeting with Commissioner Munson. Sheriff Lehman, um, in topping, you know, talking about the topic and where it can go from here. Um, there’s a lot of good things. We talked about a couple situations that maybe we could be presented, maybe a, um, a time period restriction.

02:43:04,030	Right. A lot of the issues in these ditches are from one of these wet periods, again, 55 degrees and beginning of February is becomes a big issue with these ditches. Um, as far as the damage done and what can happen.

02:43:22,800	So maybe a, you know, December 1st to May 1st season, which uh, as sheriff, even, you know, noted to that be an easier part of enforcement for them. Um, in those periods, there’s nothing in between those periods. They still enforce it. I really think there’s a lot of opportunity between the state and, uh, the sheriff’s department to work on some funding to help with that.

02:43:37,870	And I think that I would lean in your resources, I guess coming out of that meeting, Sheriff Lehman felt pretty confident that just like the desert, just like the river, if we really enforce this thing, um, because the more we hear, you know, outside of the damage, we know that’s an

02:43:50,330	issue, right? And that’s something we talked about at the meetings, partner seen with some local corporations. Um, to look for some help as far as equipment dealers or things. Right. For some things, um, I think Tony with the state could definitely help us out.

02:44:08,130	As we talked with S, and I know it’s not for snowmobiles, but since the snowball trail is done, a lot of it already, we can do some repair. And I’d really be curious to see what Commissioner Munson gets for emails. Um, I know Doug’s pictures. We all seen the damage up there.

02:44:22,800	We drive by, see the ruts, right? I would be really curious to see what he’s going to get back for feedback. Maybe out of all these periods, some of those people, some of the damage, maybe Doug has pictures of are those owners that live in those properties that could be possible. Maybe it’s not. Maybe I’m wrong.

02:44:37,130	I’m just saying that could be some people have kids that live there, right. Um, so if he gets a lot of emails, obviously we know it’s a, it’s there’s a lot of issues we need to fix. And maybe that’s something we can get together with the state, with the entities and work on making them cleaner, better.

02:44:50,830	I don’t know, this could be out there. I get it, Jeremy Bitner. It could be a total big thing. I get it. Um, I understand that, but it’s avenue as we’re talking. Um, I guess I would, I would, I would ask that you guys lean on your resources. Sheriff Lehman, I think, had some good points to enforcement and how we enforce this baby.

02:45:07,830	And give it a try. I think there’s some good avenues. And the noise of this already, I think will help with some of the abuse we call the bad apples of jumping the approaches super heavy. We talked about maybe putting possibilities through the future of some stop signs.

02:45:21,870	Um, before the approaches. We can’t put them on the approach, before the approach, and some of the problem areas. Um, and things like that. And if we see things happen, I mean, that’s enforcement can help take care of that. If they’re around more, I think there’ll be less and less of that. I’m not sure.

02:45:36,170	But again, I just want to make sure people understand we don’t condone property damage. We don’t see that. I we had a great conversation. I think we’re going to look at digging into some of that RTP if we can, uh, like you, you talked about Chairman Bitner.

02:45:51,630	I know there’s a lot of, uh, avenues there where we can get some money from the state. I just worry that even if we find a riding area in the county, it might alleviate the pressure. But these aren’t weekend warriors.

02:46:04,730	As he is riding in these areas as much right as their local kids that live in these subdivisions that are riding in these areas. Um, you know, I live in Mandan and I wouldn’t come over to Bismarck to ride in those ditches. These are local people that ride there. See, if we make a, a park, a riding area, expand on something.

02:46:23,570	Um, I worry that it still won’t necessarily solve this issue. That’s where the enforcement, I think, comes in. Maybe a ban or restriction of the December to May. Nope. Can’t go. It’s too wet. Can’t do it. Um, it’s one of those things. So when we help, that’s just some of the things that came out of our meeting.

02:46:37,730	And I think it’s this has sparked a lot more, uh, conversation. We as dealer groups and special interest groups, um, unfortunately, can’t make stuff happen overnight. And we have, you know, plans going forward, I think, and good conversations. It’s going to take a little bit of time. So and I’d have I’d stand for any questions you guys have, I guess on. Your questions.

02:46:55,630	Thanks for your time. Appreciate it. Anybody else? Anybody else wish to speak on this topic? Going once. Anybody else? Okay. We’re going to wrap up that subject. Commissioner Schwab.

02:47:27,230	I want to make kind of a statement here that the damage that I’ve seen out there, and we have two engineers back here can tell you volunteers aren’t going to fix that. That’s going to take equipment that volunteers don’t have. The other thing is a lot of this damage is done in low spots, and you have to have proper flagging and signage for the safety. Don’t count on volunteers.

02:47:54,530	It isn’t going to happen if we let them go out there and do that and call them county volunteers, we are liable. Somebody comes over that road with a heavy truck, loses brakes, plows into the volunteers that got their vehicles parked there in their bobcat out there. Who’s liable? We are.

02:48:19,500	Just remember that we have the same problem with the with the people doing the weed control. We can’t let them out there. We have a problem with, uh, farmers that send us bills because they moved to snow because we couldn’t get up there. Now, we didn’t tell them to move the snow, but they moved the snow and the gravel into the ditch.

02:48:43,500	But the main thing was there, and I’m I’m a farmer, so I, I understand what their, their deal was. But the main thing there is they don’t have the insurance. These volunteers wouldn’t have the proper insurance, they wouldn’t have workman’s comp and they don’t have the proper safety equipment on their vehicles. Not to count. It out, have the training on.

02:49:07,070	Them not going to work. Um, okay. Well, what we’re going to do is we’re going to have a public hearing on that. We’re just going to make that motion at well, I don’t think we need a motion because we we read the title.

02:49:23,330	That’s what it says in the, in the things that there be a public hearing at the next regular county commission meeting, and we’ll talk about any necessary changes or anything else. And I would encourage people, because there was a number of people that had mentioned me. Well, I haven’t read the thing.

02:49:38,530	I’m just against it. And I’m thinking, well, you might want to read it. You know, it’s you understand what it is that we’re talking about. And, and whatever. So I think that this will give people an ample opportunity to have input.

02:49:55,330	And I really want to thank everybody for taking the time to come in and share your thoughts on this issue. It is a tough one. And, um, I think we’ll make some progress. Anything else for the good of the county. Chairman, if I could get clarification, that’s going to be a public hearing on the ordinance or the resolution. Both. Okay.

02:50:09,470	Because there’s two separate titles. So we’re going to talk about both. Mister chairman, Commissioner. Would I want to, um, before we adjourn, I want to congratulate my wife of 62 years. , 62 years. You know. I. I think that. I think. That should give. Me. I think she should get some kind of gold medal.

02:50:39,370	There she is. She’s got enough gold medals. Congratulations. But anyway, 62 years. I really. She actually, she. On. She is. He’s going to heaven. Staring at me. I can’t handle you for two hours. Thanks for your support. Thank you. We are adjourned.