[0:00] Good afternoon. We have quite a number of things on the agenda today. So jump right into it. First things first, let's go ahead and hit just the public business meeting for the day and go through what's wanted in case you guys have any questions for concerns. A lot of these are going to be a little bit of repeats from our last meeting because we're either having a second hearing, a second reading of some of these topics. So I can close through some of them pretty quickly.

[0:28] You'll see, first of all, listed their item and county utility brief presentation, as

[0:34] you guys know, Brennan Adam did that during her last meeting gave you kind of an in-depth

[0:39] discussion about what's going to be included in our rates, really today's more of just another

[0:44] kind of hearing for you guys in case you have any other questions or concerns about anything

[0:48] that's in there.

[0:50] And, I wish we had a question, as we put that together, about what could we do for the

[0:55] bell air. Yes. Oh, he's not. I have an update. Yeah, there we go, everything.

[1:06] My friend's a current rate. Oh, yeah, yes, ma'am. Yeah.

[1:16] She's got. You know, you're back

[1:20] to sleep. Yeah, he did, didn't he? So we looked at what we're currently charging

[1:25] Maryland water service and then what we would charge them if we were to follow the agreement

[1:31] that we have with them and we're comfortable with holding the FY26 rate of let's see for

[1:38] them it'll be $10.58 for them so we can offer that to them and it's a little bit but it don't

[1:51] lower them, but they don't raise it anymore, yeah.

[1:57] And along with that, I had just a very informal conversation with the City of Carmel

[2:02] and to see if they'd be having any willingness to help there, it was totally informal, but

[2:07] they kind of indicated that would be a very tough thing for them to do, and that's understandable

[2:13] from that side of things, just in how they market everything, they felt that would be very

[2:17] difficult.

[2:18] It was no more than an informal conversation, I just thought we'd try to have this.

[2:22] and the same conversation with the mayor.

[2:25] Yeah, yeah.

[2:26] So, but this will help at least.

[2:30] Well, yeah, at least it's no big repentant stock animal.

[2:36] Yeah.

[2:37] Yeah.

[2:38] Thank you, guys.

[2:38] Yeah, yeah.

[2:39] I'll just remember, too, that when it seems like for us to,

[2:43] I mean, bring us back and she has all this information

[2:45] written from her, and she can take a look at it and say,

[2:48] very quickly, yeah, we can offer this.

[2:50] we can extend this offer to them. This is all well and good, but when we, when we end up building these rates, we like having certain

[3:00] historical thresholds in there that are count for water loss. Okay. We end up with a big water break.

[3:09] So we end up losing a lot, but this one here is something we can make work.

[3:29] I know that's a bunch to look at.

[3:36] Moving to the next topic, the CIP, Dean Whitton's here.

[3:40] he obviously presented that at length or a lot of evening, so Dan's here and

[3:46] fish best, having questions on that. But same thing for him tonight, it's

[3:50] simply going to be a questions concerns, additions, deletions, anything like that,

[3:55] ward off the CIP with utility rates and everything else in the budget next week

[4:00] during our journey. So it's simply questions. So you got to have any concerns?

[4:04] Thank you.

[4:07] You did.

[4:08] Good, Dan.

[4:09] Yeah, Dan always did.

[4:10] I just did one little quick thing to add.

[4:12] Sure.

[4:13] Since the last time we met, at least the McKenney reached out asking for letters of local share

[4:19] funding commitment for three projects, they're looking for smaller projects, Prosper Library

[4:23] Group, Georgia's Creek Library, Roof and Washington Street Library, HFAC.

[4:27] They were in our CIP already, asking for funding for physical 27-week as the committee had recommended

[4:33] deferring that out. The grant money she's applying for is for fiscal 28. Anyway, so there's nothing

[4:40] that's going to be asked for on those three projects for fiscal 27 at this point. The only difference

[4:45] from what I presented the last time is that when I first presented it was just a recommendation

[4:50] that we would defer it but based on what she had contacted me since then they won't be needing the

[4:54] money from us anyway until fiscal 28. So between those three projects they're only looking for a total

[4:59] county share of $60,000 and it's 90-10 funding so it's going to leverage a lot more. Obviously

[5:06] we can't guarantee funding for fiscal 28 but the letters that we write which is based on

[5:10] past practice it's just we intend to be able to support that it's going to depend on final budgeting

[5:16] but yeah that's that's our understanding of the system so we're working with them in the meantime

[5:21] to make sure if there's any immediate needs we can try to help them out for the best we can but other

[5:24] and that's if he's saying have no changes since the last mouthful I did it two weeks

[5:29] three weeks ago.

[5:30] Perfect.

[5:31] Thank you.

[5:32] Thank you.

[5:35] Next, when we haven't really spoken on this topic yet, Intercounis here, program at Space

[5:41] Recommendations for tonight, we've had some information about this.

[5:45] Do you guys have any questions for Andrew about when he's going to present to you?

[5:49] No.

[5:50] Yeah, I think we're good.

[5:52] Sure.

[5:57] I hope Andrew they do what they did a couple of years ago natural we adopt everything

[6:01] call and say hey we've got more money coming your way find more projects yeah I don't

[6:08] think that they and for them you're going to present tonight we have to take action on this

[6:13] by the end of June, is that correct?

[6:16] We'll come back in two weeks and that's for you.

[6:19] Do you guys know how to present it?

[6:20] And then we'll put it on our website in a couple of minutes.

[6:26] Thank you.

[6:27] Good afternoon, Chandler.

[6:29] Next one, public hearing.

[6:31] You guys heard it in great lengths for me

[6:33] to a couple of weeks ago.

[6:36] Tonight is simply our second preliminary budget hearing.

[6:39] We'll be in a real presentation

[6:40] since we want you guys to have questions.

[6:42] It's a really a chance for the public to comment

[6:44] if they have any.

[6:45] So do you guys have any concerns?

[6:48] terms, questions, anything from last time anyone brought to you or anything else?

[6:52] No. It's a balance. It's good. It's good.

[6:53] The balance, there's no tax rate increases as we've talked about, so it's putting money

[6:57] back in fund balance. That's budget we've had in years.

[7:00] Thanks, Pam.

[7:02] Job well done. Yeah.

[7:04] She needs a new pencil.

[7:07] I knew a racer.

[7:11] Item B, you also heard about last time, that for Verbs, sanitary serif A7 or bond bill,

[7:17] So we put in last, last meeting was the introduction of that to make it be hearing and the potential

[7:21] action.

[7:26] And

[7:32] May, we've talked about it in length as well.

[7:35] We've brought this legislation across the town fire too as tonight would be your chance

[7:40] to take action on that as well.

[7:42] Any questions, concerns there?

[7:43] No.

[7:44] It's pretty low.

[7:45] Lower their tax?

[7:46] Yeah.

[7:47] Yeah.

[7:49] Item B would be for amendment to the ground links we already have with so-and-ease acetate

[7:54] the board of county commissioners this will extend the lease as we currently

[7:58] have it all the way through 2031 out of this area we'd like to add to that.

[8:03] There's

[8:06] any questions? It's a win for us. There's a piece of ground but behind our

[8:11] wastewater treatment plant that had a tank on it, a storage tank. Yeah. In five

[8:15] years ago we went into a ground lease to be able to have access to that tank.

[8:20] We used that tank as part of our treatment process that the plant it's

[8:23] It's not a portable water, so we don't have to use

[8:26] a portable water in the drinking process.

[8:29] It's a wind for us.

[8:31] So someone used the ones, that time?

[8:33] Turn the ground and tank, yeah.

[8:35] OK.

[8:39] Item C is something kind of similar to an extension

[8:43] of an agreement we already have with the way

[8:45] all the flooding association brought out of the field.

[8:47] They reached out to us and wanted to extend their current

[8:49] agreement, which was expiring.

[8:51] So this is a three-year, so all the terms

[8:53] are the same if that's good with you.

[8:58] Item D will be an approved

[9:00] to care for stop loss renewal of fiscal 27.

[9:03] As you guys remember, we kind of talked to you guys

[9:05] about this is a big piece of our insurance increase.

[9:08] We had a pretty high claim history

[9:10] over the last couple of years.

[9:12] What that does is stop loss kicks in.

[9:14] Once we meet a certain threshold,

[9:17] we've met that for many individuals.

[9:19] So this is true insurance for us.

[9:21] That did came back pretty high as we expected.

[9:24] and Christie's here in case you guys have questions on that. You can see the cost is going to go to about $300,000 for us.

[9:31] Which was unfortunate but expected. So any questions for Christie?

[9:40] No.

[9:40] A lot of what we can do with it.

[9:42] We've got to have control on it.

[9:44] And C-Bez is part of their workforce to sort of put this on their market for us

[9:49] and get first came back.

[9:50] This is the best alternative, so they market this and broker it for us, so this just locks it in.

[9:59] Item E, Resolution 26-9, Mending Rules and Rags.

[10:04] Really two things here, Chris, did you want to talk about these?

[10:07] I think it's worth a discussion.

[10:11] There's two, I guess, clarification.

[10:13] The first one is to our promotions policy,

[10:20] This policy just to clarify some verbiage when someone's

[10:24] voted from one position to another, if it's a higher grade,

[10:28] they can currently receive up to 5% per grade increase.

[10:35] But that doesn't make sense in every situation,

[10:38] depending on where the person's currently at or salary,

[10:41] how long they've been with the county.

[10:42] So we'd like to just add in up to 5% per grade.

[10:48] And then the second one is regarding our healthcare reimbursement for folks who are on a

[10:55] spouses policy or parents policy and we talked about this a few weeks ago, we would like

[11:00] to increase that reimbursement from $50 a month to $150 a month.

[11:07] And the reason there is self-serving obviously, you know, we pay 20, we have some more family

[11:15] playing here will well in excess of 20 grand for that plan for those folks that we they're willing to kind of jump off

[11:21] That's a potential exceeding sort of carrying so it's worth the little bit of money

[11:26] It's not meant to push someone off

[11:28] But it's an incentive. They have an option somewhere

[11:32] Makes sense. So if we get even one or two people to fight on this

[11:36] It pays for itself

[11:38] Good. Yeah, very good

[11:42] No, thank you. It's not the park today. It's because the staff has done a wonderful job on this

[11:52] The next one may require a little over time, and this is the resolution we've all been

[11:58] working towards for a long time, and we especially have been working towards.

[12:02] And before I'll turn it over to Lee here in a second, just as a slight addition, you guys

[12:08] have a copy of it.

[12:09] Last night, April and Quayne Delaney's office sent us a letter signed by Eric, the entirety

[12:16] of our congressional delegation, especially in the support for us doing this.

[12:20] They can't necessarily help with this process, but they stand ready to help if we are successful here.

[12:29] They stand ready to help us with the system.

[12:32] So what we're going to do is we'll go ahead and include this in the record.

[12:35] And in fact, I think King and Sam have already put this in the agenda packet.

[12:40] I think they will get there.

[12:45] In the minutes and all I can read it unless you guys want to get into the record to that item. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So after that, we

[12:56] Sorry the voices on the way out

[13:02] Item math

[13:08] Resolution

[13:10] 2610

[13:10] This is our condemnation action for Valar water, essentially what we put forward.

[13:16] But together here is the first step in the process, tonight you all have resolution 2610 in front of you to consider.

[13:26] And the large point of this resolution, the necessary step here is that you all are declaring that there's a public necessity for

[13:38] or the government to take these private utilities,

[13:42] the two water systems, the Pinto water and sewer system,

[13:47] and the Highlander State's water system.

[13:49] Please just to clarify, isn't that item 25, 10?

[13:53] No, 26, that type of there is 26, 10.

[13:57] Resolution 26.

[13:57] Okay, I've been told that.

[13:59] Yeah, bring it up, just ask.

[14:01] No, I had the same question.

[14:04] Your resolution 26, I got it, thank you.

[14:06] Yeah,

[14:11] like the large gist of the item here is you all are declaring a public necessity

[14:17] to take the system and that will be the first step in that eminent domain process once

[14:26] you take action to declare a public necessity to take it from that point.

[14:32] We will endeavor to negotiate purchase price with Maryland Water Service.

[14:40] And if we can't get that resolved file suit in the Circuit Court for Alignity County to commence the eminent domain proceedings.

[14:49] But this is your declaration that there's a public necessity to take the systems.

[14:56] Fantastic.

[15:00] Hopefully we can resolve it before it gets to end of the main. Is that? Can draw it out for a long time.

[15:07] Yeah, I don't have any incidents.

[15:14] Next one on the agenda is resolution 2611, a resolution

[15:20] to ratify certain sales and leases of county owned property. This was the correction that my

[15:30] Getty and I have been looking towards with regard to the past sales and leases of county

[15:38] and property. We put all this together, sent it over to the Times News, and they screwed

[15:46] up our advertising on the first time through. By the time we found out about it, when we

[15:54] contacted them. They were unable to get this ad ran again in the same week. So we did not

[16:02] meet the threshold to have the public notice ran for three successive weeks prior to today's

[16:10] meeting. By the time we received notice from them and they were able to do what corrective action

[16:21] they could. We also missed the ability to do this on the June 4th. So the next meeting

[16:28] that we would have available to do this is June 25th. So we will be re-avertizing the

[16:35] public notices and having this resolution presented on the June 25th, 26th, agenda.

[16:49] I'll just add, it's a very cumbersome process with the Cumberland Times News to get it

[16:54] and published by them.

[16:56] It takes multiple days, four to five days,

[16:59] lead time to get something to them.

[17:01] And in this case, they took what we sent them

[17:04] and I guess not copy the paste, but re-typed them

[17:08] and as they did it, there were multiple errors

[17:09] within the first attempt.

[17:12] So, you know, it's not like you can just then say,

[17:15] well, we'll run it tomorrow.

[17:17] The best you can do is run it four to five days later.

[17:20] And that's just the nature of the beast right now

[17:22] that's where their newspaper operation is always right now that's the kind of

[17:27] being kind of any things not really being here so correct we sent to them in a

[17:33] PDF format the universal universally accepted format and they apparently

[17:41] couldn't open it but didn't bother to contact us to say hey we can't open it

[17:46] so they just tried their best to retie print type and this is what we got some

[17:52] So, um, no, the last step is where we are.

[17:56] Okay.

[17:57] Any question there on the action agenda?

[18:01] So, um, consent's pretty, pretty simple.

[18:04] Uh, first one, right, a May is for rock the mountains for a community events promotion for $1,500.

[18:09] As you guys know, they're now at the fairgrounds, like, they're last year.

[18:13] And this is another group.

[18:15] We're only a music festival.

[18:16] Yeah.

[18:16] We have here.

[18:17] So, it's a good thing.

[18:18] And I think you'll see these dollars.

[18:19] Ultimately, come back to you there.

[18:22] Item B would be another community event promotion for us

[18:25] for the Palis Theater, 2026 classic film series,

[18:28] and the amount of thousands hours.

[18:30] So this will help them get that event up and running.

[18:34] Finally, or not finally, it's going to be more.

[18:36] Item C, reappointment of Renée nicely

[18:39] to the Allegheny County Library System Board of Trustees.

[18:42] As you guys know, she has been one there

[18:45] and was currently the president of that group.

[18:47] this would just be a new term for them. 2026 through 2031. And then DENF, I won't go into

[18:54] great detail. We've seen these multiple times. More non-on-one board funding that Roger and

[19:01] his team have been able to go acquire. They have kind of a series of monthly meetings with

[19:05] the Maryland non-on-one board and they have worked projects to reach in those meetings. So here's

[19:09] is the three latest awards award for you.

[19:13] So.

[19:14] About $18,000?

[19:15] Yeah.

[19:16] They treat us very well.

[19:18] We've got lots and lots of money

[19:19] out of them.

[19:20] Yeah.

[19:21] You can punch them out.

[19:23] That's it as far as the agenda goes.

[19:28] You have a couple items listed

[19:30] to talk about today.

[19:33] I guess first one would be fiscal year 26 budget amendment.

[19:40] So we've been talking about fiscal year 27 budget lately. Now we're going to switch gears

[19:44] back to 26. You're current budget.

[19:49] So every time I go to rate a check, I have no idea

[19:52] what year it is because I'm working on 27 budget. We're in 26. I was working on 25

[19:57] financials. It's always a jungle. Yes.

[20:07] Okay, so as you well know, we adopt the original

[20:11] budget month or two before the fiscal year starts and that's just with all the data and information

[20:17] we have at that time. So of course during the fiscal year things come up that weren't budgeted for

[20:22] and we talk about them and we go ahead and take action on them. So all of these that I'm going to talk

[20:29] about you have already taken action on this is just basically officially emending the budget for our

[20:34] financial records. The first one is and we'll say to a lot of time with the grants when we do the budget

[20:40] We don't have the information yet, maybe from the state or other agencies.

[20:45] So this first one is just a health department grant and we're just recording the review and the expenditure.

[20:50] So it's a wash, it doesn't affect on the balance at all.

[20:54] The second one is so back in October of 2023, we were free to purchase a big, bad vehicle for the Sheriff's Office.

[21:03] So that's approved but it takes some two to three years to build it.

[21:07] So they just have it completed and finished and have it delivered.

[21:12] So this is just basically showing the purchase of that vehicle that you already approved.

[21:17] And then the big one is the budget amendment for the flood recovery.

[21:21] We wanted to wait until we made sure that all the emphasis were in for the fiscal year for

[21:24] all the flood recovery.

[21:26] If you remember, fiscal year 25, we allocated 3 million of the lottery proceeds.

[21:31] And then at fiscal year 26, we spent another almost 5.6 million on the flood recovery.

[21:38] And that's all through those emergency procurements that Dan and Adam did.

[21:41] I think it was 18 of them, so they've already taken action on all of these.

[21:50] And then the breakdown with the 5.6 million is lottery proceeds, is 2.7 million fund balance.

[21:57] and then the rest, the 2.8, is a regular unbalanced, which we're hoping to, in 27,

[22:04] recoup that money back from the budget. So this is just all proposed for your

[22:10] information. Are we going to put it on the action agenda next week? Do you have any

[22:14] questions now or now until then? That's good because it's all baked into the

[22:20] budget to present and so we know change of nothing. This is just the details.

[22:25] Yeah, these are things you guys kind of already knew were bad when she said and so now it's just a matter of that

[22:31] You have to take an extra action to go ahead and amend the budget to show the changes and now it's the time of year

[22:36] We always do that. So yeah, it's that time.

[22:41] That's good. Thanks for the work on that. Thanks, Pam. Thank you

[22:44] The next couple leds led and copper testing and won't cite discussion

[22:50] I don't matter who you want to bring with you

[22:56] This is a huge lift for the Public Works Department.

[23:00] Brandon and I have been trying to have been brainstorming on this for well over a year.

[23:06] This is a requirement through the EPA and down to this to MDE.

[23:11] It's mainly a big public outreach effort where we're trying to capture what the service line

[23:18] material is for all our county water customers.

[23:22] And with Katie's help, and also Chance Downstairs, we're going to be putting this information

[23:27] out on our website, social media, and then there's going to be information put on the

[23:32] bill that goes to our customers.

[23:35] And then Dan has been working with Chance to be able to not only, I mean, it's great to get the information

[23:41] out, then we got to manage all this data.

[23:43] So I put it to hand in charge and make sure that this is done in the backslides.

[23:49] What are you doing?

[23:53] No pressure game.

[23:55] Just touch briefly on what Adam said.

[23:58] This rule, we've probably seen it from some of the other municipalities that have gone out.

[24:02] We're trying to avoid a situation where we send confusing letters to over 5,000 customers and make things more confusing than they already are.

[24:11] the long and short of it, any county water customer we need to have information about the material of their water service line and

[24:19] most of our as bill

[24:21] drawings and records don't show that material is because in many cases we were connecting to existing water service

[24:27] laterals so we can make some assumptions based on what we know based on time period and things like that

[24:33] ultimately though to have

[24:35] validation and confirmation of what it is we need to get information from

[24:38] the person who's actually there.

[24:42] So to avoid a situation, again,

[24:44] where we're sending out just very long letters

[24:46] to thousands of people and causing lots

[24:49] and lots and hundreds of phone calls,

[24:52] we've looked at ways some different areas have done this

[24:54] and trying to take advantage of some of the technology

[24:57] that we have in place.

[24:59] On our end, prior to this outreach effort,

[25:01] it's gonna be beginning here.

[25:03] We've looked at all of our previous water contracts

[25:05] going back 50 plus years to try to identify more or less what we did, what type of materials were used,

[25:12] where it was done, what it replaced, and things like that. They would help us try to kind of get

[25:16] generalizations that we can use to try to identify what areas might be problematic and that we might

[25:22] have to really zero in on. Terry Lybarger in our Department of Public Works has examined every building

[25:28] permit going back to the beginning of our records to identify where it was put in and when,

[25:33] which will also try to help us identify areas that might be of special concern.

[25:38] The big idea of those, we need to identify homes that have either lead, water lines,

[25:44] copper, water lines, galvanized water lines, or ones that we don't know.

[25:50] So our plan is to, in the next, probably 15 to 30 days year, roll out a survey to members of

[25:56] public county water customers asking them to provide us with information predominantly about where

[26:02] they live and what their count number is we can tie their response to existing records

[26:06] that we have and then give them an option, either one that I have no idea about my waterline,

[26:11] which is probably going to cover some folks. I don't know where it is, I don't know what it's made of

[26:16] and then that will allow not going to ask them to call in and burden our phone system with hundreds

[26:23] of calls but rather just say I need assistance and then our staff will reach out to them to take

[26:28] advantage of the folks that we have on staff and set up an

[26:32] appointment with them at their and our convenience to get

[26:35] that information based on the information that we need to

[26:38] grab as far as what that material is actually made of.

[26:42] The option would be if somebody does know information they can

[26:45] then enter here's what I think it is. Here's some photographs

[26:48] of it and there's some links and some information will provide

[26:51] as far as if they can see it using magnets or scratching it

[26:55] with a penny or something to try to just identify what

[26:57] And these are all things that we've been able to pull from either APA's website or other

[27:02] localities that just try to mimic what they're doing.

[27:05] As that information comes in, as Adam mentioned, we'll track the responses and then based

[27:10] on what we're seeing, areas that we think are either unknown or might be kind of a hotspot

[27:14] in terms of needing to know more than we'll zero in on those and then maybe do more of a targeted

[27:19] outreach through letters to folks just so that everybody's aware of it because we know

[27:23] So if not, I just see everybody's going to be able to look at a online survey and complete

[27:27] it, but we want to just try to make sure that we're directing our efforts into the areas

[27:31] of most concern.

[27:33] So we're working through this, as I would say, it's a big effort, 5,000 customers, no matter

[27:39] what, trying to tie things, especially if the owner of the property is not the resident

[27:42] of the property, trying to tie it to our meter IDs, working with the records they have in

[27:47] the tax utility office, which are very helpful, and we're getting a lot of good assistance

[27:53] just to try to take advantage of our technology and not have to do everything just one by one

[27:59] by one. So we'll have more for you here in the coming weeks as this effort gets underway.

[28:03] We just wanted to bring this to your attention that we're making our best effort to be in compliance with these rules.

[28:09] And it will be a long process, but we're doing our best to get underway.

[28:13] And if there's any questions now in the meantime, be happy to answer them.

[28:17] But we'll update you again here shortly once we have some more data in hand.

[28:20] and then we'll make plans from there.

[28:24] Well, hey, good.

[28:25] I know it's a lot of work because I've been through this.

[28:29] I have to do our best.

[28:30] It's fair to call this another unfunded mandate, right?

[28:34] It's, I mean, it's necessary to make sure

[28:35] folks aren't dealing with materials that they shouldn't be,

[28:38] but at the same point, it's asking for a lot of information

[28:41] that we just don't have, and it would be,

[28:44] even the guidance from MBE on this.

[28:47] One of the viable options was to use AI in order

[28:50] to come up with some extrapolations

[28:52] is to what would make sense, and we definitely didn't get into that, but it's something that

[28:56] I think even they're acknowledging that it's a bear to try to put a lot together. So,

[29:01] we'll do the best we can, and then we'll come back and just keep going through it.

[29:07] I hear

[29:18] the phone ringing often to Laura, or even to Laura,

[29:23] than transferring phone calls to Andrew, like why isn't them all psyched?

[29:28] When's them all psyched and to be open?

[29:30] So as you know, cost, it being overrun, last year we made a decision to just make it open

[29:37] on the weekends.

[29:38] There was a lot of commercial contractor trying to take advantage of it, it was all intended

[29:43] to be for residential use.

[29:46] That's the way it was set up, even before I arrived.

[29:51] So after hearing enough phone calls I ask Andrew what about the opportunity right now what could we do to really keep it safe card it so it's not over run?

[30:00] And then an offer something through the week. So Andrews come up with a pretty good plan here. And there's like you guys to here and see if you're okay with it. So perhaps we can offer this. We have enough people around that area for most part of the day. So we were thinking maybe open it from Tuesday Wednesday from 12 o'clock in the end until 8 p.m. Brother Bennett 30 offered to help close it up during that time. And what that allows us to do is Monday. We can clean up.

[30:30] up there in the weekend rush and then Thursday and Friday we get to clean back up again before the weekend rush again

[30:36] So with that that offers that on to the residents that can't take advantage of her user during the weekend

[30:42] So we would open it noon on Tuesday

[30:44] We would close it up at 8 p.m. On Tuesday

[30:47] We'd reopen it on Wednesday at noon and we close it up again at 8 p.m.

[30:52] Now on Wednesday evening so then it's just not left

[30:56] Dr. Dork out of sight and people were numping off together.

[31:00] What if we're on C Roger and see if we can get some cameras and get some signage up

[31:05] there about the warnings of that because you know when I don't remember we used to keep

[31:09] two people from the county roads here all the time and it just the expense of it was just

[31:15] got phenomenal.

[31:17] And there is no excuse for commercial people to be using that site.

[31:23] there's other places around the county to dispel us aside and we direct them

[31:27] there. We do have a camera. Oh do you? There is okay information out there

[31:31] on how it's to be used so well if you guys are good with this let us attempt this

[31:35] and see if it's not overrun and contaminated we'll get the information out

[31:40] of Katie's health and give it a try. I hope so because there is a lot of people who

[31:44] use it and I've been feeling calls also on that. Okay. Very good. Again try and see

[31:51] I hope you get out of control and you know we'll have to

[31:56] be ready for a month or so.

[31:58] At least with the breaking closing, if it does,

[32:00] you don't have control.

[32:00] We still have the option.

[32:01] I'm not going to let you keep building yourself.

[32:05] So just to remind you also why it is a big cost for us

[32:09] is the space gets overrun.

[32:12] We have to then grind it.

[32:15] We can't do that.

[32:16] We have to have it.

[32:17] So we can then do it.

[32:19] And then we have to have it hold out.

[32:21] Okay, and it has to go somewhere up.

[32:23] So a couple years ago, we had an access of $50,000

[32:27] and we just don't really plan that.

[32:29] Right, okay.

[32:31] Yeah.

[32:32] We got a little bit lucky in this case,

[32:34] the public safety is at close,

[32:35] so they kind of worked out their case down there.

[32:37] They can have someone kind of check on themselves.

[32:40] And we had two maintenance guys

[32:41] that worked with FEMA every day,

[32:42] and it's part of that contract.

[32:44] So they can click and open it up as much time.

[32:47] Great.

[32:47] Very good.

[32:49] Thank you.

[32:49] Wait a minute.

[32:50] Wait a minute.

[32:51] I'm going to take a problem through, sir.

[32:52] I'm going to take a problem through.

[32:53] Yes.

[32:55] So if your interest was the only other things we really had, and you just any department updates

[32:58] that anyone might have, I'm just going to kind of go ahead and sit here if you have one

[33:03] of one.

[33:03] Sit back down.

[33:04] You're not out of the hot seat yet.

[33:07] I got a bunch.

[33:08] Okay.

[33:12] Everybody's extremely busy to the point I'm going to take next week off.

[33:19] We are Andrew is working on our processing center for our recycling is a contract that we

[33:28] go into and so he has publicly advertised that asking for letters of interest.

[33:33] We've received two letters of interest now we're going to put it back into these people's

[33:37] courts to give us a bid to be the processing center for our recycling.

[33:42] As you're aware, you're going to hear the first

[33:44] Abbott program open space tonight at 4 o'clock.

[33:48] Dan has been working with their county roads on our annual

[33:51] fuels and stone bids that we do.

[33:54] We purchased fuel and bulk and a lot of the department's

[33:57] use it.

[33:58] Stone is used for our resurfacing.

[34:00] So that's currently advertised right now.

[34:04] And I'm also about to ask for all for our ship surface

[34:08] resurfacing.

[34:09] In the final stages of two water projects, then I'm getting ready to advertise one is

[34:15] Depot Water.

[34:16] That's being funded by MDE through the traditional water funding process.

[34:21] It's like 95% plans waiting for them to bless them so I can advertise them.

[34:27] I'm also working with the Band of Mindland's Division on trying to get water to have a green

[34:32] heritage center.

[34:33] So I'm hopeful by the end of June that that will be publicly advertised for BIDs.

[34:38] For Inn has been working, we sent out a letter of interest for electrical contractors

[34:46] to submit their qualification package on being able to assist us on the electric side

[34:53] with their Ustility division.

[34:55] We've been unsuccessful in hiring a replacement engineer since Dan Ernest retired.

[35:04] We had one gentleman who was a fantastic fit.

[35:07] He was with us for about nine months and then moved on to another opportunity and then

[35:12] recently we tried to fill it again and it just didn't work out.

[35:16] So now we're looking to outside source this a little bit.

[35:19] Never done this before but we're just exploring those waters.

[35:26] Just today, I was contacted by Department of Housing and Community Development.

[35:33] Sounds like they are going to be the agency that's going to hold the flood money for the state that we're supposed to get.

[35:40] So I had about a 15-minute conversation with him.

[35:44] He says he's having a meeting.

[35:46] He doesn't know the particulars about it, but there's more information to come.

[35:51] And this lines up, you know, the governor was in town last week and we had a chance to

[35:55] talk to his staff a little bit about this and they promised us that they'd be following

[35:58] up on this, that they were working through the details of how this money was going to

[36:03] flow and what to do and it seems like that started to come together pretty quick.

[36:07] So yeah, more to come on this, hopefully pretty soon we'll just keep getting more weight

[36:15] Thank goodness we did last summer because you actually put it to the test and we got another

[36:21] half inch, three quarters of inch rain. It jumped to banks again. Adam thank you very much and

[36:27] your guys because they was in action yesterday again and they was life safe. We had a team meeting

[36:39] here yesterday morning in preparation for, it may come yesterday that thankfully didn't

[36:44] last day and so did I, I stalked early in the morning there at Braticron on my way in

[36:49] and the water was super high in Braticron and I didn't think we were going to make it.

[36:54] Yeah, a little bit of breaking between.

[36:56] Yeah, Dan collected a lot of pictures yesterday on some of the areas that we made improvements

[37:02] in last year after the floods and everything looked really good.

[37:07] It's a good thing you got that piece right above the trussle of water in the western

[37:10] floor because it was.

[37:11] Yeah.

[37:11] Do you want to add that picture to this morning too?

[37:14] Yes.

[37:14] G.S.

[37:14] Was it hanging out on the bridge area yesterday?

[37:17] Mm-hmm.

[37:18] And thank you guys for being willing to spend all the money.

[37:22] Thank you.

[37:23] Sorry.

[37:23] No.

[37:24] It was needed to do it.

[37:26] I assume then we'll put together a list of projects once we get the criteria for the state

[37:32] money of what priorities and what needs done first.

[37:36] I think we'll we have already a list that we've been working on that's a carryover that we'll have before he has

[37:43] Information that we'll learn more after this

[37:47] Tomorrow, and then we'll be back

[37:51] Use some of it this summer. Sure could some of these areas are referring to need additional improvement or potentially

[38:00] other target areas

[38:02] there's areas

[38:03] is a table that we didn't completely finish.

[38:08] There's an area in Beechwood

[38:09] that I had a larger scale plan.

[38:14] And we were just ran out of season.

[38:16] And we were in the process.

[38:18] There's a couple tax sale properties

[38:21] that are part of this plan that I'm trying

[38:23] to maybe relocate the road

[38:25] and just hydraulically improve the conditions

[38:28] for everybody down through Beechwood.

[38:30] But we also, I mean, it's one of those little narrow roads that goes up to the top of town and there's five bridges on it.

[38:36] And so, one of those is on the schedule for this summer that Dan's working with our county roads on.

[38:41] So, there's plenty to have in the shore, right?

[38:43] Yeah.

[38:45] Thank you.

[38:46] Thank you.

[38:46] Thank you very much.

[38:47] We've got some money for some things.

[38:50] It's on the way.

[38:51] Yeah.

[38:51] It's on the way.

[38:53] I'm just going to kind of go around to see if anybody has anything to do with the game, then.

[39:06] I'll keep it short, though of tailing into what Adams says with DHCD because Mr. Ned

[39:16] that in our office has a good relationship with them and he's he had couldn't call with

[39:21] them as well with the money so he'll be in action if he comes to fruition yeah so that's

[39:30] Good news. The other thing I wanted to just give an update about. Our office did a resolution

[39:37] last fall. I believe it was early November and this is in reference to the loop mill site.

[39:44] We were contacted by a group about doing a BDO study or analysis which is stands for bio-economy

[39:55] development opportunity, and it basically is biomass, which has to do with wood waste.

[40:02] This would be likely exclusively wood type thing, but there's a consultant that's called

[40:10] EcoStrat, that's a Canadian company that kind of coined this process for BDO evaluation.

[40:20] What we're doing now and what was already authorized in the resolution, and Commissioner

[40:26] or Caperelli signed for me, our federal forms.

[40:30] We're going to go after some federal grant through USDA,

[40:33] the RBDG program to pay for this analysis,

[40:38] but what we'll end up with, as we've worked through this,

[40:42] is a score.

[40:44] There will be a good score.

[40:46] And I'm anticipating, you know, in the consultant's head,

[40:49] this should be a really good site to do something like this.

[40:53] And what that does for us is helps us market the site for, you know, this type of product.

[41:01] Yeah.

[41:02] So, I think this is a good thing.

[41:06] And puts in with all the other industries we brought in here as far as the upcycling.

[41:13] Yeah, it's our circular economy.

[41:14] It's our circular economy.

[41:17] Yeah.

[41:17] and biochar and could be a good thing.

[41:24] I thought looked at stuff like this.

[41:28] Yeah, so, again, this is just the point of, right.

[41:30] We did the resolution, the window finally opened.

[41:34] Like, the window wasn't open last fall

[41:36] to get this grant funding, but now it's open,

[41:39] so we're going to, with a consultant's help,

[41:41] we're going to apply for the help.

[41:42] It's not going to exceed probably $100,000 to do it.

[41:47] And then we'll send Ego Strat off to do this

[41:50] and they'll come back with a school.

[41:52] And then we'll have that to the market at all.

[41:55] Yep.

[41:58] Very good.

[41:59] We'll just keep you in the loop on it as we proceed.

[42:02] Very good.

[42:03] That's all, guys.

[42:04] Thanks, Jeff.

[42:05] Thanks, Jeff.

[42:06] Chrissy?

[42:08] Everyone, quick comment.

[42:09] Going back to open enrollment.

[42:11] We're in the final week.

[42:13] We have one day left of our open enrollment for this year.

[42:16] And I wanted to thank you all for approving the changes

[42:19] with the new MetLife voluntary products and dental insurance as well as the enrollment

[42:27] sessions through CVS and jet benefits because employees are taking this very positive

[42:31] positively and most are all have voluntary products and they're actually saving money

[42:36] with that and the MetLife and we're saving money into dental as well so it's really going

[42:42] over really well this year so I just wanted to thank you.

[42:45] No, thank you for putting us first to effort into looking at different options

[42:50] It's been a heavy lift. Yeah, big things. Well, Jennifer. I mean she's been working

[42:56] Daylight

[42:58] Getting everyone in road and and taking care of things. So

[43:03] But it's all gonna be

[43:05] Working because I haven't gotten a call about it

[43:15] I'm hearing it in text, but if you're getting conscious

[43:18] through the day, laugh.

[43:19] Never.

[43:22] We're not too much of that.

[43:24] Absolutely.

[43:25] Thank you.

[43:26] Thank you.

[43:27] I just have one other quick one.

[43:29] It's just a hit up for you guys.

[43:30] It's a good thing.

[43:32] Just so you guys know, earlier today, myself,

[43:37] Jeff, Adam Patterson, and Brenne,

[43:40] we met with Deputy Secretary Adam Ortiz from NDE.

[43:43] He's just traveling through the area and has to stop by.

[43:46] More of just a general catch up.

[43:48] So I just want to kind of thank him and their staff.

[43:51] It's kind of a long one to have everything

[43:53] the governor and his team have done.

[43:55] They're really accessible to us.

[43:56] And this is just another case of it

[43:58] where they're giving us some FaceTime,

[44:00] which historically we haven't always got.

[44:03] So nothing, no great news from that.

[44:05] It's just a general update, but just wanted to let you know.

[44:08] He was in the air.

[44:09] Yes.

[44:10] Very good.

[44:11] Good.

[44:12] That was it for me reading anything else.

[44:15] I really think I have this, this is just a reminder after our meeting today at 6 o'clock

[44:20] in with the Lovale Library, PSC hearing for the so-and-so-and-the-home-steadercurve,

[44:26] I'll be heading out first,

[44:30] so we have you as well to testify on that project, so just

[44:35] a reminder on that.

[44:37] And that's why we're here early now, so it's very important for us to be there for you.

[44:43] to testify against that project.

[44:48] I've got just some quick good news.

[44:51] After 15 years, we're just about a week or two away from getting started on the

[44:55] Bailier pedestrian bridge.

[44:57] Oh, wow. That is good.

[44:59] So you may have to...

[45:02] We have a used railroad tanker that we purchased from our repurposed, somewhere in St. Louis that will meet our needs of nine foot five. I think I'm a 45-foot pipe. We got for a very, very good price to arrive within days. It's sitting out at the school currently. I got my approved waterway permit, so that will all be taken care of officially and legally and correctly. And our guys, the stream, is open for construction starting June 15th.

[45:29] which ties them nicely with the end of school.

[45:31] And the local share money that the board

[45:35] that had programmed a year ago to tie with state funding,

[45:38] which was $80,000, that local share

[45:40] will be more than enough to cover any expense we have

[45:43] for the whole project.

[45:44] And we've been talking with Jay Marley in order

[45:48] to make sure he's good with everything.

[45:49] So we'll begin to start with that.

[45:50] Just in the school wraps up, hopefully get it done this summer.

[45:54] So we've put in one large nine foot pipe,

[45:56] two smaller three foot goes on the side,

[45:57] and then backfilling, tying it into both the school and the field on one side and the neighborhood on the other side.

[46:04] So, you make it sound easy.

[46:06] Yeah, I took 15 years.

[46:09] At one time the school board actually wanted to, when we thought we was there a few years ago with this,

[46:16] right after Bob Ferrell died, I actually wanted to, because that was one of Bob's big pushers that he wanted to get done.

[46:31] I don't have any issue with that, and I think that as we get going, that should be their

[46:36] decision.

[46:37] Something to talk about for that.

[46:38] Yeah, of course.

[46:40] Absolutely.

[46:41] This should be a good community.

[46:44] It will have a nice, I mean, should be able to be done easily available.

[46:48] Film material, the types there, and it should be a good win-win for everybody.

[46:52] Yeah.

[46:53] I do agree with that.

[46:54] You can make sure you name that after ball.

[46:56] Bob really fought hard with it, and then it's a shame

[46:59] he's not here to see it.

[47:01] Yeah, I can always remember him with the, for sure.

[47:03] Naming of it.

[47:04] For sure.

[47:04] Yeah, just wanted to share that with you.

[47:06] That'll be going on behind the scenes.

[47:07] Good.

[47:08] No.

[47:09] Appreciate it.

[47:09] That was where it gets done in a little more means, please.

[47:12] Yeah.

[47:13] Right in the right direction.

[47:14] Yeah.

[47:15] Very good.

[47:16] You see everybody?

[47:18] 4 o'clock.

[47:19] Thank you.

[47:21] I'm

[47:28] sorry for your panic.

[47:30] I'm sorry.

[47:30] Yeah.

[47:31] I'm sorry.

[47:32] Tell us take the pads.

[47:33] Take the pads.

[47:34] I'm sorry.

[47:36] Thank you.

[47:37] Thank you.

Commissioners Public Work Session

Transcript