[0:33] All right. I'd like to call the regularly
[0:35] scheduled County, Douglas County Board of Supervisors meeting
[0:39] for the month of April to order please.
[0:43] Right. Let's do the Pledge of Allegiance, please.
[0:46] I pledge allegiance to the flag of The
[0:48] United States Of America and to the Republic
[0:51] for gracious fans, nation under God, indivisible with
[0:56] liberty and justice for all. Alright. We need
[1:00] a roll call, Casey. Long, Sapak, D. Cummings,
[1:12] Pomish, Bong, Slay, Benesse, Baker, H. Hendrickson, Here.
[1:19] Glazman? Here. Scowland? Here. Peterson? Here. M. Cummings?
[1:25] Lear? Here. Sandok Baker? Losey? Here. S. Hendrickson?
[1:32] Lustry, Liebert, Here. Moen. Okay, we have a
[1:38] quorum. How many? Am I? One, two, three,
[1:42] four, five absent. So we have 16 present,
[1:45] five absent and youth reps Blix. Here. All
[1:50] right. Thank you for coming. We're looking for
[1:54] the approval of the minutes from the 03/20/2025
[1:57] meeting. Mr. Skolin, second by Mr. Baker. Any
[2:03] questions or changes? Seeing none, all in favor
[2:08] of the motion signify by saying aye. Opposed?
[2:12] Motion carries. All right. Tonight we have a
[2:14] presentation from the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research
[2:18] Reserve updates. And you guys remember back, you've
[2:21] been here long enough that we were supportive
[2:24] of them actually getting this in our city
[2:27] and we were in the running for a
[2:30] while and actually had to compete with a
[2:32] couple other cities. So, this was actually kind
[2:35] of a good coup that we actually got
[2:37] this. So now they've been operating for Almost
[2:40] fifteen years. Oh really that one? Long time.
[2:43] It's true. Well, I'd like to introduce Deanna
[2:45] Erickson. She is, I guess the easiest way
[2:49] to say she runs that place down there.
[2:51] I do my best. Yep. All right. Yeah,
[2:53] I got to tell y'all, I didn't know
[2:56] how rowdy Douglas County board meetings were until
[2:59] I came in So I feel like I've
[3:02] learned something just by showing up already. So
[3:06] my name is Deanna and I want to
[3:08] share just maybe ten minutes or so about
[3:10] what we've been up to down at the
[3:12] Lakes Pier National Estuarine Research Reserve. And I
[3:15] told her that the County Board is always
[3:17] willing to ask questions because they're a smart
[3:19] group. Make sure you pay attention. I'm ready.
[3:26] I'll find up there. Okay. So for folks
[3:30] who've been around, they probably have probably would
[3:32] remember we work on the mouth of the
[3:34] St. Louis River. So it's the largest port
[3:38] in the Great Lakes. It's the largest river
[3:41] in The United States going to the largest
[3:43] surface of freshwater on earth. It is the
[3:47] site of an $87,000,000 so far federal state
[3:51] tribal restoration and remediation of some toxic areas.
[3:56] And so it's a really important place and
[3:59] we're lucky to work here. And I won't
[4:01] say too much about what we do right
[4:03] now because I'll try to just give you
[4:04] some examples. So the land base, we were
[4:11] designated in 2010, there's over 16,000 acres included
[4:15] within the reserve. It's DNR land, City Of
[4:18] Superior land, Douglas County, UW Superior. And all
[4:23] of that was public and existing public lands
[4:26] when we were designated. So we're kind of
[4:28] like a friendly layer on top of those
[4:32] existing public lands. And really what reserves do
[4:36] is they leverage resources to do stuff in
[4:39] that place. So we don't have particularly a
[4:43] direct conservation role ourselves, we help things happen.
[4:50] And we're part of a national network. So
[4:53] there's 30 National Estrogen Research Reserves around The
[4:56] United States. They are led by the National
[5:00] Oceanic Atmospheric Administration or NOAA. And we were
[5:03] started by Congress under the 1972 Coastal Zone
[5:06] Management Act. I think the county has actually
[5:10] also benefited from our sister program, the Wisconsin
[5:12] Coastal Management Program. We're all kind of hanging
[5:15] out together in that law. So what are
[5:21] we up to? What have we been up
[5:23] to in these fifteen years since designation? And
[5:27] I should say too, the Douglas County is
[5:31] a signatory to the memorandum of understanding that
[5:34] made us exist. Like that was a really
[5:38] important act for us. We hold that MOU
[5:41] up whenever we want to describe the partners
[5:43] that care about our work. And so you
[5:47] know, that signature plays many roles. It offers
[5:53] a role on our advisory board, so Sue
[5:55] Hendrickson fills that role. Terry Wright is the
[5:58] alternate and helped us create some of our
[6:02] buildings down there. So we have like a
[6:07] kind of a special relationship with our signatory
[6:10] organizations. So we're tracking water quality. So how
[6:16] healthy is the St. Louis River? And something
[6:19] that we have a really good scientist, Doctor.
[6:21] Kate Reinall, working on is harmful algae blooms.
[6:24] So this is us out in the Bokagamore
[6:26] River out in the Superior Municipal Forest. Every
[6:29] green circle on here is a permanent water
[6:32] quality station. And what those things are doing,
[6:34] they have like an underwater computer. It's collecting
[6:37] things about how clear is the water, how
[6:39] much oxygen is water, what is the temperature
[6:41] of the water, things that change over time
[6:44] that can have real impacts on things that
[6:46] are stuck living inside water. So each one
[6:50] of those stations collects data every fifteen minutes.
[6:53] It goes to a website, you can access
[6:55] it. We've only got one station online right
[7:00] now. They'll all be online within the next
[7:04] two weeks. If you go to seagull,likethebird,.glos.org. You
[7:13] can zoom in there and you can see
[7:16] that data real time. There's also a new
[7:19] addition this year we had while studying last
[7:22] year, a buoy out in Lake Superior that
[7:25] was funded by the Great Lakes Observing System.
[7:30] The blue dots are spots where we've been
[7:33] collecting water quality after every storm event, so
[7:36] every big rain, for the last two years.
[7:40] And those are places that the city, the
[7:42] county, and other partners identified as spots where
[7:47] there's maybe more problems than others where the
[7:49] algae blooms are emerging in particular. This is
[7:54] a graph that is more complicated than I
[7:57] would like, unfortunately. But what I will say
[8:01] is there's years running across the bottom. The
[8:05] temperature is denoted by red or blue. So
[8:08] red being warmer years. This is just a
[8:12] small finding of what we're seeing, but the
[8:15] algae blooms are coming out more in the
[8:18] hot years, and they're especially coming out in
[8:22] the drought years when the water gets really
[8:24] low. It also gets clear. Algae enjoys light
[8:28] as a way to grow. And that also
[8:32] concentrates nutrients that it needs. And so we're
[8:36] seeing algae blooms in years like that, hotter
[8:39] than normal, lower water levels than normal. So
[8:43] that's one of the things that we've observed
[8:45] over collecting twelve years since we've had those
[8:50] stations set up. So the buoy is new.
[8:54] And I just wanted to show this off
[8:55] because it's kind of neat. This is Dane
[8:58] Polkinghorn. He's from Superior. He went to UMD
[9:01] for engineering, and he built it. He built
[9:04] that buoy. And it was really hard. It
[9:07] had a lot of technical issues that I
[9:11] cannot fathom or even remotely understand. But this
[9:15] is the day that he launched it out
[9:17] in Lake Superior. And he was happy here,
[9:20] but he was pretty nervous until we got
[9:22] the boat back to the office and he
[9:24] opened his computer to see if it was
[9:26] transmitting data, and it was. So that was
[9:29] a pretty big accomplishment. The reason we put
[9:32] this buoy there is because when algae blooms
[9:37] are happening in the river, which is where
[9:39] they're a little more common, they go out
[9:41] into the lake and the nearshore current just
[9:44] drifts along there. And this is kind of
[9:47] halfway between the mouth of the river and
[9:51] the intake pipe where our drinking water comes
[9:54] in. So we want to be able to
[9:56] track and understand changes in water quality at
[10:00] that spot in particular. Algae can make toxins
[10:06] that make people sick. So that's why we're
[10:08] interested in that. Another thing we're doing is
[10:12] mapping wetland forests, or mapping the estuary and
[10:16] restoring wetland forests. We're losing a lot of
[10:20] ash trees. You all know that. It's kind
[10:22] of a bummer seeing those things fall down
[10:24] because some of them are really big, trees.
[10:27] They also suck up a lot of water
[10:29] and they create shade that keeps the water
[10:30] cooler, which is important for rivers. So with
[10:35] support from WISCORE and AmeriCorps program, we over
[10:38] the past couple of years have planted about
[10:40] 23,000 trees along the St. Louis River and
[10:44] we're hoping there's 17 different species and we're
[10:49] hoping that'll kind of establish some of those
[10:51] benefits that we get from trees. The shade
[10:56] sucking up water, keeping islands in place, protecting
[11:00] wild rice beds that are out in the
[11:02] river. This is impossible to see. But it's
[11:08] habitat map of the estuary using satellite imagery
[11:14] and ground truthing over three summers by students
[11:17] to figure out what all of these habitats
[11:20] are. And this can be used to track
[11:22] change like it's a snapshot of what these
[11:25] places look like in 2024. So we can
[11:29] see how things change over time using this
[11:31] map. It is incredibly complicated to create. I
[11:37] thought it would be so much easier. So
[11:40] another thing we're doing is, supporting and engaging
[11:43] teachers and students and community learners. This is
[11:47] the group of Rivers to Lake teachers that,
[11:50] participated in our teacher professional learning program this
[11:53] year. They're actually still all in the program.
[11:55] They participate for a year. We help them.
[11:59] They get paid. They get money for buses.
[12:02] They get money for their classrooms. Admission to
[12:06] the Great Lakes Aquarium, they get to go
[12:08] on field trips in places that they think
[12:10] would be good to underscore what they're trying
[12:12] to learn about science. So that's our Rivers
[12:17] to Lake program. These are some of the
[12:26] schools that we've worked in since that program
[12:28] kicked off in 2013. The ones that are
[12:31] in bold are the schools that we're working
[12:33] in right now. So we're working with about
[12:37] four fifty students in all of the classrooms
[12:40] of those teachers. So we are in their
[12:42] classrooms helping them as well. We have community
[12:48] programs down on Barker's Island. So the river
[12:51] walks and river talks, you're welcome to come
[12:53] river walks in the summer when it's nice
[12:54] to walk, and river talks in the winter
[12:57] when it's maybe better to listen to somebody
[12:59] indoors. But it's all, you know, folks doing
[13:02] science on the river that come and share
[13:04] what they're working on. And then if you
[13:16] haven't visited, I do invite you the red
[13:18] building down on Barker's Island is the estuary.
[13:21] It's free. It has more regular hours in
[13:24] the summer and you can stop on by.
[13:25] We have a pretty cool exhibit hall. You
[13:27] can learn about the St. Louis River or
[13:30] bring kids to play. A project that I
[13:36] wanted to share with you all, and I'm
[13:37] going to be taking this to the Conservation
[13:40] Committee, is a NOAA funded project that is
[13:45] looking at several rivers that go into Lake
[13:46] Superior and trying to help communities identify places
[13:50] where roads do rivers do this when they
[13:53] flood. Sometimes that's associated with culverts, but the
[13:58] idea behind the project is to be prepared
[14:00] for emergencies resulting from flooding. And it's also
[14:05] to have tools that can help you describe
[14:08] the pre flood conditions of culverts when you're
[14:12] trying to work on funding a replacement if
[14:14] those blow out. So Mark and I have
[14:16] talked about this, but I also yeah, I
[14:20] think there's been a lot of work done
[14:21] already in Douglas County and this project is
[14:24] actually a lot further along than it would
[14:26] be in other places. But the Northwest Regional
[14:28] Planning Commission is running this. There I got
[14:34] the button now. So this is our Coastal
[14:37] Champions program. This is a training program. We've
[14:40] worked with several communities. But last year, were
[14:44] working with emergency managers who just wanted a
[14:47] really useful functional form that would allow them
[14:51] to track culverts that had washed out. And
[14:55] we figured we did that. It got shared
[14:59] across all of the coastal counties from Iron
[15:01] County to Douglas County and the Lake Superior
[15:03] region. And it allows people to in a
[15:06] very easy way and sometimes an offline track
[15:09] things that you need to know if you
[15:10] need to apply for funding to restore those
[15:14] places. So that's just an example of what
[15:16] this program does. We just help communities address
[15:18] needs, many of them associated with flooding and
[15:21] big storms. So the economic benefits of the
[15:28] reserve are I'll just talk money for now.
[15:33] I think there's other benefits, but right now
[15:35] we have open awards, not all that we're
[15:39] spending in one year, but about $4,700,000 that,
[15:44] comes into Douglas County from other places and
[15:46] gets invested through jobs and projects here. So
[15:51] we have 12 employees as of May 1.
[15:54] We've got one starting on May 1. And
[15:57] we fund, partial refund an additional 13 people
[16:00] in the region and we're generating local government
[16:04] revenues through that. We are unfortunately at risk
[16:09] of defunding as of November 1. November first.
[16:20] But we're trying to find ways to do
[16:22] this work and the county has been a
[16:24] good partner. And all of the partners around
[16:28] here have given me a lot of encouragement
[16:32] in what we're doing. The school districts, the
[16:35] teachers, the people who show up to our
[16:38] programs, the St. Louis River Summit, which is
[16:41] another large event that we have every year.
[16:44] And it's just been really amazing to watch
[16:47] this place grow. So thank you for believing
[16:51] in it in the first place as a
[16:54] government body. And thanks for the investment of
[16:58] the time and your time tonight. Thank you.
[17:01] We have some questions for DM. Put your
[17:04] light on Mr. Losey. There we go. Second.
[17:15] You're good. It's on there. Yeah, was on.
[17:17] It's on there, John. Oh, okay. So I
[17:20] got three questions for you. Oh geez. When
[17:23] you find the algae, is there a treatment
[17:27] thing you guys do or? Yeah, good question.
[17:31] And then I'll go through all three questions
[17:33] and you can answer them. And then the
[17:35] other one is when you say water intake,
[17:38] you're talking about the Duluth water intake or
[17:40] the Superior water intake? Let's see. Superior has
[17:43] wells in Park Point that we get water
[17:46] from. Yeah. And the water comes in from
[17:48] Lake Superior as I understand. Yeah. There's a
[17:53] pipe out under there. Nope. It's the other
[17:59] way around. Oh, let's direct the questions to
[18:04] Deanna here. Microphone. Excuse me. There's a big
[18:16] pipeline that goes to Cloquet, and we buy
[18:19] our water off of that pipeline, and it's
[18:22] laying out on the out on the lake.
[18:26] No. It's other way around, but that's okay.
[18:28] Yeah. And and then the the other thing
[18:31] the other thing that I was curious about
[18:33] is when you get this data put together,
[18:38] I mean, I think what you're doing is
[18:40] remarkable. It's a lot of data. What do
[18:43] you do with it? You know what mean?
[18:46] That's such a good question. Yeah. So I'll
[18:50] take the algae blue one first because it's
[18:52] a little more straightforward. So we scoop up
[18:54] water. We did it today actually because there
[18:57] was a green slime on Barker's Island Beach.
[19:00] And that happened last year about the same
[19:03] time. There's algae that will actually bloom on
[19:05] the bottom when the ice comes out. So
[19:07] that is going to get sent down to
[19:09] the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene for testing.
[19:12] And what we're testing for is what species
[19:15] of algae is this because they do different
[19:17] things. And then was it making toxins at
[19:21] the time that we collected it? Like could
[19:23] it actually hurt us? We've also got a
[19:25] training coming up next month where it's already
[19:31] full, unfortunately, but people will be learning about
[19:35] you can actually dip a test strip in
[19:38] the water and tell if it's toxic. And
[19:40] we tested them for a year. They seem
[19:42] to be pretty reliable. It's a lot cheaper
[19:44] than sending things to the state lab. And
[19:46] we can tell people quicker because it drives
[19:48] us crazy when we're on Barker's Island and
[19:50] we know there's an algae problem and we
[19:51] can't be like, maybe don't put your kid
[19:54] in the water. So that's microscopes that we
[20:00] can look at those algae and speciate them
[20:03] ourselves. Anyway, the second question. With the monitoring
[20:10] data, we're creating reports every year. We try
[20:13] to distribute them as best we can and
[20:15] I'm happy to send them to you guys
[20:16] if you want. It's like what are the
[20:18] big interesting trends that happened? Kind of like
[20:20] that slide, the graph that my colleague Hannah
[20:23] Nickleigh gave me. There's kind of a different
[20:29] story every year. What does low water do?
[20:32] What do big floods in the spring do?
[20:34] We can see different things. We also have
[20:38] published papers so that data goes into published
[20:40] papers. It also is going into creating a
[20:43] long term monitoring plan for the St. Louis
[20:45] River because those forest stations are either in
[20:49] the Pokagama Bay or in the Thalweg, like
[20:51] the middle of the river, which is not
[20:53] the same as like where all the plants
[20:55] are growing or the fish are. So that's
[20:59] a summary and not an exhaustive one, unfortunately.
[21:06] Mr. Cummings. This again was to the water
[21:11] collection or I should say water pipes because
[21:15] that's I had a similar question because I
[21:17] was always of the idea that we had
[21:20] we got our water from wells which actually
[21:24] many years ago, us older people remember saved
[21:27] us from the quote taconite tailings. Yeah. That
[21:31] Duluth had because they had a regular intake
[21:35] pipe. Never mind. But anyway, and so maybe
[21:40] there's a question, but I was also under
[21:42] the impression that we drew our water from
[21:45] wells. I'll tell you what I've been told
[21:49] over the years. It's not necessarily right. And
[21:54] now I'm like, oh geez, have I been
[21:56] told the wrong thing? Is that the water
[21:58] does come in from the lake and then
[22:00] goes into wells, which is actually a really
[22:02] big advantage compared to Duluth because Duluth doesn't
[22:06] have the wells in the middle and then
[22:10] goes into the public water system. I'll look
[22:15] it up. And I don't wanna get in
[22:18] the middle of this, but I took a
[22:19] tour out at, they had something we did
[22:22] for emergency management out at the water plant
[22:24] there off of East Second Street. And I
[22:26] had said the same thing to them. And
[22:28] they said, I had two answers to it.
[22:31] They said, Technically we have pipes buried nine
[22:34] feet in the point. He said, The water
[22:36] is coming through not much sand and it
[22:39] technically is just there, that's how we keep
[22:41] it. So we technically maybe have a filter,
[22:44] but it isn't much of a filter. Like
[22:46] when we were kids, we were told it
[22:47] was 90 feet down in the sand, but
[22:49] this is a short one. That's what I
[22:51] was told now, whether or not, so. Yeah,
[22:53] that's helpful. So it's not like I'm wrong,
[22:55] it's just like where the pipe Yeah, we're
[22:57] all right. Yeah. And then there is the
[22:58] cloquet one that does come off the pipe
[23:01] and go to cloquet. Mr. Marquise. Oh yeah,
[23:04] I was wondering, how long does it take
[23:06] for you guys actually cure the algae? What
[23:09] is that process? Well we can freeze them.
[23:12] It's unfortunately kind of a pain. We can
[23:15] freeze them if we want to test them
[23:16] later, but otherwise we scoop them up, we
[23:19] pack them in a cooler, we pack them
[23:21] with dry ice, we tape the thing really,
[23:23] really hard and then we ship it as
[23:25] fast as we can to the State Lab
[23:27] of Hygiene. You I think well, an unnamed
[23:33] service, mailing service lost something for us last
[23:36] year, which was unfortunate and we never got
[23:39] him back and we don't know what was
[23:41] in there. I'll ask. Oh yeah. I guess.
[23:48] Gradesman. You Mr. Chair Deanna. You mentioned funding.
[23:53] If that goes away, what safeguards are we
[23:55] going to have to make sure our water
[23:57] is safe? Well, you know, I'm going to
[24:00] do as much problem solving as I can.
[24:03] You know, 70% of our funding comes from
[24:05] NOAA. So that's the large bulk of staff,
[24:09] which is pretty important for all this stuff.
[24:14] It's foundational to all this stuff. You know,
[24:17] there's partners that we have that will maybe
[24:22] help us. There's, you know, we're part of
[24:26] UW Madison's Division of Extension. Every reserve is
[24:30] a state federal partnership and the responsibility of
[24:33] that reserve is shared, which is kind of
[24:34] neat. Know, sometimes it's confusing like I'm a
[24:37] UW Madison employee in Superior working with NOAA.
[24:41] But it will impact things. We will if
[24:48] we lose 70% of our funding, we will
[24:51] change possibly dramatically and part of my job
[24:55] right now is trying to figure out what
[24:56] that looks like. You mentioned the partnership you
[24:59] have with UWS and the EU system. I
[25:03] understand that they've been asked to drop plans
[25:08] for a 510% reduction in funding. That's true.
[25:14] Yep, so yeah, so we have that on
[25:16] the other side as well. So I was
[25:18] just talking with my boss about this morning.
[25:22] Deanna, I got a question for you and
[25:24] maybe it'll make it a little less dark.
[25:28] I was a kid, we swam at Billings
[25:30] Park against all smart, I mean, why were
[25:33] we swimming in Billings Park with all that
[25:35] contamination out there? It's, we stunk when we
[25:38] come out, the fish we caught, we couldn't
[25:39] eat, we used to throw them in the
[25:40] garden or try to give them to somebody
[25:42] or throw them away, they actually stunk. So
[25:44] there's been a lot of changes out there.
[25:47] Yeah. Now you're telling me that the clearness
[25:49] of the water, the more successful we are
[25:52] at making the erosion less and the clearing
[25:54] up during the rain events for that rush
[25:57] in there that the more successful we are,
[25:59] the clearer the water gets, the more chance
[26:02] of us to have this poisonous Algae. Algae
[26:06] growing and as the Yeah. So then are
[26:08] we gonna want the invasives that eat the
[26:12] algae? We're gonna want them to actually take
[26:14] better hold to get the treatment of I
[26:16] say either way. But, know, one of the
[26:23] other things that underpins that, light does matter.
[26:27] We get if you like fish on the
[26:28] river, you know we get tons of plants
[26:30] in the years when the water is low
[26:31] because the water gets really clear because everything
[26:33] is just like great, I'm gonna grow. And
[26:36] that's good in some way. It's just a
[26:37] cycle. That's a normal thing. With the algae,
[26:42] and I'm not the algae scientist on staff,
[26:46] but what happens is they can actually make
[26:49] their own nitrogen. Cyanobacteria, the specific kind that
[26:53] produce toxins, They can make their own nitrogen.
[26:56] So what limits a lot of other plants
[26:59] in the system doesn't limit them. So when
[27:02] the water goes low and nutrients become concentrated
[27:05] and there's plenty of phosphorus, which is the
[27:08] thing they can't make for themselves, they're like,
[27:11] great gangbusters, we're gonna go. So, and there's
[27:16] probably a lot more to that relationship that
[27:18] also has to do with ice. So we
[27:20] do winter monitoring under the ice, although that's
[27:22] been was harder last year, we didn't have
[27:24] good ice, but this year we had too
[27:28] much ice. But we don't fully understand what's
[27:35] driving it. There is sort of a hypothesis
[27:38] that the big spring storms like the twenty
[27:40] twelve flood that like blew everything apart, that
[27:44] those seed enough nutrients and then you get
[27:46] a drier later season and it concentrates down
[27:50] and then that's kind of like going. It
[27:53] seems like it's a little more complicated than
[27:55] that, but, trying to figure out that out
[27:58] is Doctor. Kate Reinle's job who is down
[28:01] the hall for me. Thank you. Mr. Skolin.
[28:05] Deanna, is there a counterpart agency in Minnesota
[28:09] side for Oh, that's a great question. There
[28:12] are two national estuarine research reserves in the
[28:15] Great Lakes right now, and the other one
[28:17] is in Ohio. That's Old Wind Creek. And
[28:23] there's a third one where the designation process
[28:25] is underway. And that's a little bit stalled
[28:29] out right now because of Noah's ability to
[28:33] support that. But there has been tons of
[28:35] support for that in Green Bay, and it
[28:38] would be great for us. We'd be able
[28:40] to look at what's happening in Lake Michigan,
[28:42] especially where those algae blooms are over there,
[28:45] and kind of cross check, like, what's happening
[28:48] for you? What's happening for us? Figure out
[28:51] problems more efficiently. Mr. Blix. I Hi. I
[28:59] just had a question kind of regarding, do
[29:02] you guys do anything once you determine that
[29:05] the algae is of the toxic kind? Like,
[29:09] is there a process that you follow once
[29:11] that those lab results come back? Or do
[29:13] you just kind of hand that off to
[29:14] other people and let them handle that? It's
[29:17] actually the county that says like harmful algae
[29:21] blooms puts up the sign. And so we
[29:25] let the county know. And the city also
[29:30] plays a role in that. There's a little
[29:31] bit of back and forth. Sometimes we're like,
[29:33] we got the sign right here, we'll just
[29:34] go put it up. But we need to
[29:36] know that it's okay to do that. I
[29:38] think the test strip process could really change
[29:41] how quickly we're able to do that because
[29:43] getting it done to the state lab is
[29:46] too long. Mr. Juckus. Thank you Mr. Chairman.
[29:50] Couple points and questions. We got a lab,
[29:53] a health and human services lab up on
[29:55] the Fourth Floor that may be able to
[29:57] help you. They've been doing other things. They've
[30:01] actually installed new equipment to do different things.
[30:04] That might be a good answer. Thank you.
[30:06] Help out for you. They've expanded what they
[30:09] are qualified to do too. Okay. That might
[30:13] be your thing rather than sending it down
[30:15] to Madison. That would be really great. Yeah.
[30:18] Okay. Another thing is maybe later on when
[30:21] it gets closer to that time you say
[30:22] that there might be funding pulled or stalled,
[30:26] this board can come up with a resolution
[30:28] offering support. Let's keep that in mind. Foundings
[30:32] are very influential in the world. Yeah. And
[30:34] with Casey's help writing resolutions and stuff like
[30:37] that, that could work out very well. And
[30:39] then could you repeat that seagull? Yeah, yeah,
[30:42] totally. Seagull like the bird. Yep. So seagull.glos.org.
[30:52] You can also find our weather station on
[30:54] there, is out at Pokagama Bay in the
[30:56] municipal forest, and that's live right now. I've
[30:59] seen that out there. Yeah, you're on what
[31:00] is that and why is it Yeah, so
[31:04] okay. And my one other question just this
[31:07] will be for Nick, where do you pan
[31:09] for gold in that estuary? No one's ever
[31:14] asked me that before. You get around I
[31:17] bet you see black sand and stuff. I'll
[31:21] get back to this body when I have
[31:23] an answer. All right, any other questions? Is
[31:28] Can you see my hand up? You know
[31:32] what Sue, I never look there. Just so
[31:34] you know, if you're not here, I miss
[31:35] you. So I'm missing you now. So go
[31:37] ahead Sue. Yeah, thank you. I had responsibilities.
[31:42] It's Holy Week this week. So you, you
[31:45] guy to choose God instead of you guys
[31:47] tonight. So I just wanted to welcome Deanna.
[31:51] Sorry I couldn't be there tonight. I'm glad
[31:53] you're here. There's lots to learn about the
[31:56] NERR and the center down there is a
[31:59] wonderful spot to go visit. So I encourage
[32:01] people to do that. I know we're we're
[32:05] looking at trouble and I'm wondering if if
[32:09] you might have a boiler plate resolution we
[32:13] could work from that would have, you know,
[32:18] accurate data in it that we could use
[32:20] to send on when it's needed. One of
[32:27] the things about state employees is we're not
[32:31] allowed to advocate unfortunately, even for ourselves. But
[32:35] I can share information that might be helpful,
[32:38] Sue. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And thanks so much
[32:41] for being here. I'm glad you got in
[32:45] so quick. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for asking
[32:49] the question. Sue is Sue invited me. That
[32:51] was nice. Mr Cummings last one last quick
[32:55] one. I know the. Over in Duluth, they
[32:59] had recently had a public protest in support
[33:04] of them and I'm trying to think of
[33:05] the EPA probably, maybe that one. Right, do
[33:08] you work with them at all? Yeah, do
[33:10] work with them. EPA has some crackerjack scientists,
[33:13] like really good folks over there. And that's
[33:16] an aquatic toxicology lab. So you can see
[33:19] how that might connect to the work that
[33:21] happens here and throughout the Great Lakes. It's
[33:23] the only lab in the Great Lakes that
[33:25] does that. And so some of what I
[33:30] guess I would describe as the most hopeful
[33:32] data, data that really shows change in fish
[33:35] tissue, in mercury, and other toxins has been
[33:39] coming out of the EPA. Good change, the
[33:43] kind you hope for. Yeah, they also have
[33:48] done a lot of the sediment studies that
[33:50] helped identify where some of the contaminants were
[33:53] that can move around and get into people's
[33:55] bodies and cause issues. Yeah, it's an incredible
[34:04] community. We have kind of the best, so
[34:10] we got that. All right, again, thank you
[34:13] for coming. Yeah. When we have something that
[34:16] we need from you, we'll be calling you
[34:17] again. Thanks for your time and your really
[34:19] good questions and your slightly rowdier nature. I
[34:22] appreciate That's what we like. All right, this
[34:29] is the time for public comment. Public comment
[34:31] will be allowed on action items listed on
[34:33] the agenda. All comments shall be listed or
[34:36] limited to three minutes in length unless otherwise
[34:38] directed by the board. I have nobody on
[34:41] file to come. Is there anybody in the
[34:43] audience who would like to public comment? Anybody
[34:46] for public comment? All right, hearing none, we'll
[34:49] move on to resolutions. Resolution number seventeen dash
[34:53] twenty five, environmental health fee schedule amended, presented
[34:56] by the administration committee and supervisors on the
[34:59] health and human services board. Move to adopt.
[35:01] Motion by Ms. Jocca, second by Mr. Pete.
[35:03] Ms. Peterson, did I see a light on
[35:05] Al or did you not have a light?
[35:08] Got it. Okay. Any questions? Any questions? If
[35:13] not, all in favor of the motion signify
[35:15] by saying aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Resolution number
[35:19] eighteen-twenty five, Rural Housing Authority County Loan Limit
[35:23] Raise, presented by the Administration Committee and Supervisors
[35:26] on the Rural Housing Authority. Motion by Mr.
[35:29] Baker. Second by Mr. Cummings, Mark Cummings. Any
[35:34] questions, comments? Mr. Hendrickson. One question. We got
[35:40] two Hendrickson's. I called on him too, sorry.
[35:43] Mr. Hendrickson. Does this change the fund size
[35:48] of the fund in any way or is
[35:49] it just mean the same size fund distributed
[35:52] over smaller? I mean, more fewer larger loans.
[35:56] I can answer that question. You can sue?
[36:01] Yes, can. Who did? Okay, go ahead, Sue.
[36:03] I serve on that committee. The problem is
[36:09] that the amount that we were offering just
[36:11] wasn't covering the needs that people had because
[36:15] of the increased cost of septic systems and
[36:18] other, kind of things that we fund. So
[36:21] we just need to give people a little
[36:24] bit of a bump in order to cover
[36:26] the their expenses. So it's making the loan
[36:30] more efficient for those folks that need it.
[36:34] Ron, did that answer your question, mister Henrikson?
[36:37] No. Not exactly. I understood the reasoning behind
[36:42] it. I'm just wondering whether that means that
[36:44] if your fund, if your fund size hasn't
[36:46] changed, it seems like larger loans are just
[36:48] going to reduce the number of loans that
[36:50] fewer people will get in them. Bill, can
[36:52] you explain how we get that money? Is
[36:53] that something you can help us on? Mark?
[37:11] Sure. If I recall correctly, and Sue could
[37:15] answer to it, but I've heard in the
[37:18] past that all the loans, all that money
[37:20] wasn't going out anywhere. There's, I think, three
[37:23] different loans like this, and I'm not sure
[37:27] exactly myself. But I think generally the loans
[37:30] are not going out like they should be.
[37:32] And we had a in we asked the
[37:36] Douglas County County, a rural, members of the
[37:41] board to go out and encourage people to
[37:44] apply. Right. Back to if I remember right,
[37:47] Sue correct me, if I remember right, if
[37:49] we don't use all of the money allocated
[37:52] for Douglas County, another County's able to ask
[37:55] us for that money, correct? Not for these
[37:57] funds. Not for these? Okay. No, one of
[38:00] the funds is it's a one time deal
[38:02] and it's just getting smaller and smaller. The
[38:05] other one is self funding as people pay
[38:09] back their loans. So, and Nick is correct.
[38:14] We were also seeing that people weren't applying
[38:17] because it wasn't serving the purpose. So, I'm
[38:22] hoping that you'll vote to increase these funds.
[38:25] They'll be able to be used a little
[38:26] more efficiently. Thanks. Hendricks, Ms. Hendrickson, I'm not
[38:31] sure we've gotten to the bottom of your
[38:33] question, but I think it's pretty close. Okay.
[38:36] Okay. All right. Any other questions? Hearing none,
[38:43] all in favor of the motion signify by
[38:45] saying aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Resolution number nineteen-twenty
[38:51] five, Rural Housing Authority Federal Loan Limit Raise,
[38:54] presented by the Administration Committee and Supervisors on
[38:57] the Rural Housing Authority. Motion by Mr. Jocas,
[39:02] second by Mr. Fettisi. Mr. Slate. Yeah, is
[39:07] this would this have another name on it
[39:11] or because we just didn't want to raise
[39:13] it. So, is this another one that we're
[39:15] raising another percentage? Or they're two separate. Yeah.
[39:19] Yeah. So, they have two separate names or?
[39:21] One's county, one's federal. Yeah. Okay. And I
[39:24] believe it's also where the money comes from.
[39:26] Okay. Yeah. Any other questions? Seeing none, all
[39:34] in favor of the motion signify by saying
[39:36] aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Resolution number twenty-twenty 5,
[39:41] District Attorney fee schedule amended presented by the
[39:44] Public Safety and Administration Committees. Motion by Mr.
[39:49] Skolund. Second by Mr. Losey. Questions, concerns? Seeing
[39:57] none, all in favor of the motion signify
[40:00] by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Resolution
[40:04] number 20One-twenty 5, urging Governor Evers and the
[40:07] Wisconsin legislature to support the county courts presented
[40:10] by the Public Safety Committee. Motion by Mr.
[40:14] Jocas, second by Mr. Fennessey. Questions, Comments? Seeing
[40:20] none, all in favor of the motion signify
[40:21] by saying aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Resolution number
[40:26] twenty two-twenty five, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
[40:30] Surface Water Grants 2025 to 2029, presented by
[40:34] the Supervisors on Land Conservation and Zoning Committees.
[40:38] Motion by Mr. Lustry, second by Mr. Sandok.
[40:41] Ms. Sandok Baker, questions, comments? Sue? Yes. Look
[40:48] at that. I knew you were going to
[40:49] ask even before you did. This is kind
[40:53] of standard procedure and the next resolution is
[40:56] the same. It just gives our folks the
[40:59] ability to sign for these things if it
[41:02] comes between meetings. And land conservation only meets
[41:04] every other month. So sometimes we run into
[41:07] timing problems on these grant applications. It's something
[41:11] we do every year and you've okayed it
[41:14] before us. I hope you'll continue to do
[41:16] that. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments? If
[41:21] not, all in favor of the motion signify
[41:23] by saying aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Resolution number
[41:28] 20Three-twenty5, Wisconsin Department Of Natural Resources Surface Water
[41:32] Grant Applications 2026, presented by supervisors on the
[41:36] Land Conservation and Zoning Committees. Motion to approve.
[41:40] Ms. Sandak Baker, was that your name? Yep.
[41:42] Okay. Second by Ms. Pong. Any questions, comments?
[41:50] Seeing none. All in favor of the motion
[41:52] signify by saying aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Resolution
[41:57] number 20Four-twenty5, meeting room policy amended, presented by
[42:01] the administration committee. Motion by Mr. Baker, second
[42:05] by Mr. Jocas. Questions, comments? Just so you
[42:11] know, Casey's had to work on this a
[42:12] little bit to get this. We've had some
[42:14] problems in there and we hope that this
[42:15] amendment will change, double booking and all the
[42:18] other problems we've been having in there. So,
[42:21] any other comments? Seeing none, all in favor
[42:24] of the motion signify by saying aye. Opposed?
[42:27] Motion carries. County administrator report. Welcome, Dave. Thank
[42:33] you. Staffing update. Right now we're at 93%
[42:38] staffing, so we've still been busy working on
[42:40] some recruiting and onboarding. Seems to have been
[42:43] an upward trend of the quality of candidates,
[42:46] which is a good thing. So we've had
[42:48] a fair amount of applications for all, or
[42:51] majority of all positions. And on the flip
[42:53] side, we have had, a fair amount of
[42:55] candidates that don't show up or call for
[42:57] their, interviews. So but all in all, we
[43:01] seem to be in a pretty good spot.
[43:02] We're actually we'll be working on, eight new
[43:05] hires that are in the loading, period as
[43:09] well, and they'll be starting here, in the
[43:12] next few weeks. We are also working with
[43:15] the jail. As far as jailers, they have
[43:18] three spots right now where they have individuals
[43:20] out on leave. We're looking to allow a
[43:23] limited term employee hire to fill those three
[43:26] spots. Those should all fit within the budget.
[43:28] Again, we're trying to make sure that we
[43:30] have adequate staffing within the jail. As far
[43:34] as recruiting, we're recruiting for dispatchers, jailers, seasonal
[43:37] highway laborers, health and human service social workers,
[43:41] and then our child support office associate. We've
[43:45] had some recent retirees as of lately, after
[43:48] thirty plus years of service, Beth Bean with
[43:50] our health and human Services in the Economic
[43:53] Support role has retired. And then next week,
[43:56] after eight years, Donna Stone within our sheriff's
[43:59] department, our records custodian and legal assistant will
[44:03] be retiring. We've hired for a fair amount
[44:07] of positions since last meeting, health and human
[44:10] services office associate, jailer, clerk of court, the
[44:15] deputy position, our highway maintenance workers, our sheriff's
[44:20] department legal assistant, and a deputy medical examiner
[44:24] in our medical examiner's office. As far as
[44:28] some other employee updates, this week was nine
[44:30] one one telecommunicator week. So I spent some
[44:34] time down with my former crew down in
[44:36] dispatch. We get to celebrate with them. And
[44:39] April is actually also national county government month,
[44:42] so we hope to be celebrating that next
[44:44] week. So stay tuned. They may be looking
[44:47] for some county board support to help with
[44:49] an event here that we'll be working on
[44:51] next week. As far as capital projects, many
[44:57] requests have came in from multiple departments. We
[44:59] have over 3,000,000 in requests thus far. Obviously
[45:02] there won't be funding to allocate to all
[45:05] capital projects as there are still a few
[45:08] committees that need to hear these requests. But
[45:13] there is again some funding. We're probably right
[45:15] around that $25,000,000 that we'll have to allocate
[45:19] to fund the capital projects and I will
[45:22] be working to prioritize those once those come
[45:25] in. As far as the budget, right now,
[45:28] we have our financial auditors here. Mister Whiteside
[45:31] is probably fielding emails from the auditors in
[45:35] the corner of the room as we speak.
[45:36] The 2024 budget is essentially, closed out, and
[45:40] I've still been working on the 2025 budget
[45:43] review process timeline. So I basically kinda know
[45:46] what to expect for that because that'll be
[45:47] my first kick at that process. And you
[45:50] said was in yesterday, and we actually went
[45:54] through some of those timelines and has been
[45:56] a good good support mentor in regards to
[46:01] that role. We also met with our bonding
[46:03] agent last week or the week before. So
[46:07] the last bonding cycle that we issued was
[46:10] for $7,500,000 for a three year cycle for
[46:13] 2022, '20 '20 '3, '20 '20 '4, all
[46:16] for our highway department road infrastructure improvements. After
[46:20] meeting with the bonding agent, there are some
[46:23] unpredictable times, even more so than COVID, that
[46:25] he's seen in his thirty plus years of
[46:27] bonding, just with all these tariffs and other
[46:30] federal pauses. So it is some time of
[46:33] uncertainty, but right now, it's basically an average
[46:35] time to bond for such projects. So we'll
[46:38] be evaluating our circumstances and potentially looking at
[46:43] a three year bond cycle for somewhere around
[46:45] that $9,000,000 We'll be meeting with our bonding
[46:49] agent again to hammer out a few of
[46:51] those specifications. And it's been great to work
[46:54] with mister Bill Whiteside, his finance team. We've
[46:56] also had Ann Doucette and then former finance
[47:00] director Candy Anderson. So if you talk about
[47:02] a trifecta of individuals that have been able
[47:04] to help me through this process, It's been
[47:07] nothing but great, so appreciate their support. And
[47:10] then lastly, continue with the Douglas County Drive,
[47:13] where again, I continue to try to connect
[47:15] and learn with all county departments. Just yesterday,
[47:18] I was with Casey and her team down
[47:21] in the clerk's office, Lexi and Melissa, and
[47:23] I learned a lot. Each time I meet
[47:25] with these departments, it's amazing the amount of
[47:27] things that they do on a routine basis,
[47:30] and it is in their memory bank and
[47:33] they can regurgitate what they do on a
[47:35] moment's notice. So it's really encouraging. You walk
[47:39] through the passport process and how they create
[47:42] online appointments to do that, worked through some
[47:46] of the marriage license, looked at land sales
[47:48] evaluations. So a lot of different things that
[47:50] I didn't know all the specifics about. And
[47:52] again, hope to be able to share that
[47:54] with the county board and then also the
[47:55] community so that individuals know about what our
[47:58] county clerk's office does. And that's what I
[48:00] have for my report, unless there's any questions.
[48:03] Dave would have had a video here, but
[48:05] he did not do very good in the
[48:06] dance chorus line that Casey had lined up,
[48:09] just so you know. Very true. So we
[48:12] all know what that would have looked like
[48:13] down there. Anyway, thank you, Dave. Anybody for
[48:16] Dave, any questions? Alright, County Board Chair report.
[48:22] At the last admin, when Carolyn was asked
[48:25] did she have anything new to report and
[48:26] when she said, Ah, no, nothing new, I
[48:29] just about gagged cause I know how busy
[48:32] actually she's been on working with things in
[48:34] the county. So, there is a lot of
[48:36] things going on that don't show up in
[48:38] either the administrator report or the county board
[48:40] report or any of the committees, just so
[48:42] you know, it is a busy place. One
[48:45] of the things here is the assigned ordinance.
[48:48] We think we're there. We finally got a
[48:51] signed ordinance that we're gonna be able to
[48:52] have as we start removing illegal signs off
[48:56] of the county forest land. We've got an
[48:58] alternative that months, I guess we've been working
[49:02] on it and now we think we're down
[49:03] to the nitty gritty, we're gonna be able
[49:05] to have that in place here by probably
[49:07] the middle of the summer. Forestry updates. Forestry
[49:12] is preparing I guess to put our first
[49:16] carbon credits out. We probably will be doing
[49:20] that probably by fall, it'll probably take a
[49:22] long time for them to be sold. There's
[49:24] been a few credits sold in I think
[49:27] in the Bayfield, they were the first ones
[49:28] in the state to have carbon credits. Problem
[49:32] is, or not the problem, but is most
[49:34] of those early dollars go all to the
[49:36] people who actually do the selling of the
[49:38] credits. So it'll be a while before we
[49:40] see any money on there and at least
[49:42] it's encouraging, it looks like the process is
[49:44] still going forward. Wetland mitigation, I've met with
[49:47] more people, continue to move this process forward.
[49:51] Again, I found the need for this to
[49:54] continue to ratchet itself up. The last credit
[49:58] that was sold in Douglas County by a
[50:00] private banker, a mitigation banker, went for $150,000
[50:05] So we're approaching that kind of cost for
[50:08] these wetlands. Superior's raising their cost, and I'm
[50:11] not sure that they know what it's gonna
[50:13] go to, but Superior's also raising the cost
[50:15] of their wetland bank credit. So it might
[50:18] be the perfect time for us to do
[50:20] it. We're gonna invest some money to do
[50:22] it now and it'll turn out, I think
[50:24] we have that money allocated, not allocated, at
[50:27] least identify that we might be able to
[50:28] do that. WCA updates, I was downstate at
[50:32] Madison last week, I guess, and talking to
[50:36] Mark O'Connell and some other people. One of
[50:39] the things that we've been discussing is the
[50:43] elimination of Act 10 and how that will
[50:45] affect the counties. And when I went down
[50:48] there, all the information I was getting was
[50:51] that it's a done deal, Act ten's going
[50:52] away and we're gonna have to live with
[50:54] the consequences of it. But evidently the state
[50:57] has identified, and maybe even opponents of Act
[51:01] 10 have identified how this would impact school
[51:04] districts especially. They figured it could bankrupt them,
[51:07] it could put them out of existence, And
[51:10] the counties are the next in the lines.
[51:12] The only one that probably would be okay
[51:13] out of it was the Towns Association because
[51:15] most towns, especially up here, don't have any
[51:17] town employees as far as that would be
[51:19] in a union. So there's some questions on
[51:22] how that's gonna go, but at least it
[51:23] looks like they're at least thinking about the
[51:27] impacts of that. So I'm not sure that
[51:28] means it's gonna be looked at, but that's
[51:30] what they're worried about now. Towns association, I
[51:33] was at a training for the Towns association.
[51:36] One of the things that came up in
[51:39] the legislative session where they talk about, and
[51:41] legislators are there, is the emergency response requirements
[51:48] continuing to be boosted up into almost full
[51:51] time status for some of these emergency who
[51:53] are continuing to have harder times finding emergency
[51:57] responders and the fact that the state in
[52:00] response to our complaints about the requirements end
[52:04] up actually increasing them again rather than reducing
[52:07] them. So that's gonna be something we're gonna
[52:09] have to think about. So, any questions about
[52:12] my report? Okay, and I don't have any
[52:16] listed here, but I do have some good
[52:17] news on some properties that we've been trying
[52:19] to sell for a little while, she'll let
[52:21] me say that anyway. All right, appointments by
[52:24] the County Board Chair, Douglas County Revolving Loan
[52:27] Fund Advisory. We're gonna put Nate Tepal, he's
[52:32] replacing Tim Foster. Annie Donahue has requested that
[52:36] he not be considered for replacement. So we're
[52:38] still going to have to look for one
[52:40] more replacement for that revolving loan fund. And
[52:42] then I also have one, if you guys
[52:44] are okay with it, of energy committee replacing
[52:48] Craig Tyson, he's retiring off of the highway
[52:51] department and Andy Johnson, who's one of our
[52:55] head, or is our head here for the
[52:57] building the grounds, he's gonna replace him on
[52:59] the energy committee. And I think Dave, you
[53:01] were on that committee until he got changed,
[53:03] right? Yep, I still chair that. Okay, all
[53:05] right. If nobody has a problem with that,
[53:07] I'm gonna add that energy committee appointment for
[53:10] Andy Johnson. It's okay, is there a second?
[53:14] Okay, by Mr. Cummings, Dennis Cummings. Any questions
[53:19] on the appointments? All in favor of the
[53:22] motion signify by saying aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
[53:26] All right, committee reports. Administration, Mr. Jocas. Thank
[53:31] you, Mr. Chair. Coming up on this, obviously,
[53:34] we're gonna be talking about capital projects, but
[53:35] other one that I found interesting today as
[53:37] we went to the agenda setting meeting was
[53:39] about how Minnesota has that sick and safe
[53:42] legislation over there. And because we have numerous
[53:46] employees that actually live over in Minnesota and
[53:48] work more than 50% of their time in
[53:51] Minnesota, it does cost Douglas County money. And
[53:54] so we're going to get from our HR
[53:56] director a summary of what that actually costs
[53:58] and what that can look like in the
[54:01] future. That should be an interesting little tidbit
[54:04] of information. Yeah, thank you. Okay, thank you.
[54:07] Any questions for Mr. Jocas? Alright, extension. Sue,
[54:12] are you there? Can you give it over
[54:13] the phone? Yes, sign in. Yep, yep. We
[54:16] had a couple of things come up in
[54:18] extension yesterday. Wanted to share with you. First
[54:21] of all, Dave was there. Thank you so
[54:23] much, Mr. Administrator. Always good to see you
[54:26] and showing interest in our work. And I
[54:29] think he was impressed with the work of
[54:31] the extension staff too. Some updates on the
[54:37] Bead program, broadband grants. And we had written
[54:44] our resolutions for Mosaic and the one for
[54:47] the city. And those are waiting for PSC
[54:52] approval. We haven't heard about them yet. And
[54:55] apparently we won't hear until round one and
[54:58] round two and round three go through. Those
[55:02] who didn't want to lay cable could apply
[55:06] for money to put up cell towers or
[55:08] a satellite system. And then there's round three
[55:12] other miscellaneous ways of broadband being propagated. And
[55:19] of course, things are moving forward and we'll
[55:23] just see how the funding comes out of
[55:25] of Washington, but until we hear any different,
[55:29] those grants are all being looked at. We
[55:33] talked a little bit about recycling. We saw
[55:39] Sheldon Johnson's annual report. They handle our recycling.
[55:45] Apparently we get about 55 or $56,000 a
[55:49] year from the state And our recycling program
[55:53] is costing us about $160,000 But he said
[55:59] the possibility, if you wanted to cut down
[56:03] on the expenses would only be The only
[56:05] thing we could do is eliminate some of
[56:07] the sites and we could do that. Right
[56:10] now, all our municipalities have recycling sites and
[56:14] everybody doesn't do it that way. So, that's
[56:16] something to keep in mind. Heard from the
[56:21] folks that run their Strong Bodies exercise program.
[56:25] It's a multi county program. They have 99
[56:28] participants that do this on the computer twice
[56:35] a week exercise program. Healthy for women. And
[56:40] just wanted you to know that we're really
[56:42] having effect, our two food people handle that
[56:49] program and it's very, very effective. Last thing
[56:55] is that you will find in your mailboxes,
[56:58] this is our extension annual report. I hope
[57:02] you'll take a look at it. The back
[57:05] pages are what the extension agents do. The
[57:09] first page you'll see is the budget and
[57:12] you'll see the amount that we put in
[57:15] compared to the amount that we get out.
[57:17] And I think you'll see that we put
[57:20] in about a fourth of what comes back
[57:22] to the county for extension services. I hope
[57:26] you'll get a chance to take a look
[57:27] at that. That's all I have. Thanks so
[57:32] much. I'm so glad we have this Zoom.
[57:34] I was feeling upset about not being able
[57:37] to share with you tonight. Good to be
[57:39] able do Thank you. Right. Forest Parks, I'll
[57:43] give a quick one. The signed policy obviously
[57:45] is one that we've been kind of moving
[57:47] it forward, helping that out. But the Loggers
[57:49] Forum was held Tuesday, we had a couple
[57:51] supervisors that were there, Towns Boardsmen, loggers, some
[57:56] of the DNR personnel, we had, I think
[57:58] I figured around it was 50 some people
[58:00] I think there, and it was well attended,
[58:03] we've been doing it for nineteen years and
[58:06] I think that doesn't include the fact that
[58:08] during COVID we did not do it for
[58:10] a couple of years, if I'm not mistaken.
[58:13] And, but it started out, highway had to
[58:16] have bodyguards there and now he just gets
[58:20] up and he does his presentation and he
[58:22] talks about the removal of the weight limits
[58:26] and all that. And he gets a couple
[58:28] of questions. And I think just to show
[58:31] you how we've been responsive to the loggers
[58:34] and they've been taught a lot. I mean,
[58:36] last year, Jason brought the frost tubes that
[58:39] are in the road and kind of explained
[58:41] how we keep track of when the roads
[58:43] have to be protected and when it's okay
[58:45] to put them back on the weight limit.
[58:46] So, we appreciate his help, all the other
[58:49] help for all the other departments that do
[58:51] that. So, that was for Parks and Recreation.
[58:54] Land and Development, Scott. Thank you Mr. Chairman.
[58:59] At the excuse me the last Land Development
[59:01] Committee meeting we passed a temporary limited easement
[59:05] for the county to work on the County
[59:08] Highway W project. That gets completed this this
[59:11] year and the rebuild. The committee is also
[59:14] looking at the property management agreements for the
[59:18] fairgrounds and the racetrack. We had a couple
[59:20] ideas. We just started kicking around. It's going
[59:22] to process is going to take a while.
[59:25] One of the couple of the ideas were
[59:27] one one operator instead of both contracts out
[59:30] there. Surcharge on utilities for RVs and then
[59:36] future needs of the of the property. Those
[59:39] agreements are up in the December or end
[59:42] of the year. And then we also had
[59:44] a little. We always get an economic report
[59:46] from Mr. Jim Caesar and so he provides
[59:50] economics for the county and he included a
[59:54] little bit of talk on the hybrid closure
[59:57] planning committee so our planning so anyway that's
[1:00:01] what I have Sue, did you have a
[1:00:03] question? I did, thank you for noticing. Was
[1:00:06] just curious. Casey did, just so you know,
[1:00:08] I won't take credit for that. Just wondering
[1:00:11] if you had talked anything more about forming
[1:00:15] a fair committee. I actually, I think me
[1:00:20] and, trying to think, was it me and
[1:00:22] you had it? Yeah, and we're going to
[1:00:24] wait, but we are going to do it.
[1:00:27] Okay, thanks. And it might be, we're not
[1:00:30] sure of the numbers yet or how it's
[1:00:31] gonna Yeah. Yeah. Still on the radar. You.
[1:00:35] Thanks. Anything else for mister Lustry? If not,
[1:00:39] public safety. Mister Fennessey. Thank you. At our
[1:00:44] last meeting, the Mayo Ambulance Service did a
[1:00:47] very nice presentation stuck around after took questions
[1:00:51] from people in the audio that were there.
[1:00:54] There's a few takeaways they are definitely looking
[1:00:57] at the bridge planning and like everybody else
[1:00:59] they're not sure exactly what the impact but
[1:01:02] being able to supply adequate emergency service here
[1:01:06] in Douglas County once the bridge is replaced.
[1:01:09] The Hawthorne Station, some people there was some
[1:01:13] concern that people thought it was not manned.
[1:01:15] It's not manned all the time, but they
[1:01:16] did say that oftentimes the drivers park their
[1:01:20] cars in Duluth. They'll drive the ambulance down.
[1:01:22] It's in the garage, so it is not
[1:01:24] eliminated. And the and verified what I heard
[1:01:28] before that if you call an ambulance and
[1:01:31] they don't transport, they don't charge you. So
[1:01:34] they emphasize don't hesitate to call an ambulance
[1:01:38] and don't worry about the cost because if,
[1:01:40] again, if you don't use it, you don't
[1:01:42] get charged. And just and our meeting next
[1:01:45] week on April 24, we are going to
[1:01:49] from three to 04:00 before the meeting, we're
[1:01:51] going to do a court related tour. The
[1:01:54] judge is gonna take us through everything related
[1:01:56] to the court, hands on over there, over
[1:01:59] on that side. And I encourage anybody who's
[1:02:01] got the time to stop and I know
[1:02:03] Dave does you know the good videos but
[1:02:05] it's nice to be able to get in
[1:02:07] their hands on ask the questions see what's
[1:02:09] going on so did that memo go out
[1:02:11] to everybody on you've got you should have
[1:02:13] an email talking about from three to 04:00
[1:02:16] and that tour. Again, encourage everybody to take
[1:02:19] advantage if they can. Thank you. Alright. Any
[1:02:21] questions for mister Pensey? Thank you. Transportation infrastructure,
[1:02:27] mister Baker. I've handed out to you the
[1:02:30] five year plan, and I would like to
[1:02:33] explain what we're doing this year and some
[1:02:36] of the problems with it. You'll notice we're
[1:02:39] gonna spend about $10,000,000 this year. And first
[1:02:45] of all, is the Namauchi River Bridge and
[1:02:48] that is W. We hear about W being
[1:02:53] closed for five years. We hope next Friday,
[1:02:57] we will get a good bid. It's coming
[1:03:01] in next Friday. We're opening, and Jason will
[1:03:05] be calling me and telling me exactly how
[1:03:08] it went. Right now, we're looking at a
[1:03:12] $1,800,000. 5 years ago, it was 1,200,000.0, and
[1:03:17] the state of the Fed set it that
[1:03:20] rate rate. They're only giving us about 50%
[1:03:26] of the cost, maybe less than 50% of
[1:03:29] the cost of the bridge. We're gonna pay
[1:03:31] the rest. And they're gonna give us about
[1:03:35] $825,000 and we really don't know what the
[1:03:39] rest is gonna look like until Friday. Z.
[1:03:44] Z is changed. We were looking at a
[1:03:47] $2,200,000 project. We wanted to widen Z so
[1:03:52] we had a better road. And, we were
[1:03:58] cut and we got a million. So what
[1:04:01] we're doing is making a real good road,
[1:04:04] but on the same size that it is.
[1:04:07] We're not widening because we had to buy
[1:04:10] property and that drove the cost up. And
[1:04:15] so that is why it was gone that
[1:04:18] way. The big one of course is Highway
[1:04:22] C. We're doing three sections of Highway C.
[1:04:26] This is the first section, and we're getting
[1:04:31] about four just over $4,000,000 for that, and
[1:04:36] the rest we're paying for. But we're going
[1:04:39] to basically try to reconstruction all of sea
[1:04:45] over years. We're gonna have to keep asking
[1:04:48] for money, and we hope that they don't
[1:04:51] hold it like they did for five years
[1:04:53] when the costs went up and the rate
[1:04:56] they're paying has stayed the same. That's not
[1:04:59] nice, but that's how government works now. The
[1:05:03] big one, that we're gonna be working on,
[1:05:05] and this is the first part of it,
[1:05:07] if you look down to 02/2006, we're gonna
[1:05:10] be doing more of it for Highway B.
[1:05:15] And basically, we're going, from, p to over
[1:05:22] to Highway 53 if we can do it
[1:05:26] or excuse me, '27. I'm sorry. Anyways, what
[1:05:30] we're gonna do is tear it up. We're
[1:05:33] gonna saturate the material that we tore up
[1:05:37] and crumbled in with foam. Then we're gonna
[1:05:41] put it back down, and it will be
[1:05:44] much more solid, and we'll put another two
[1:05:46] inches on top of it. And that's basically
[1:05:50] the new thing we're trying. And they say
[1:05:53] it works well in other places, and we're
[1:05:55] gonna try it now. And it's a foam
[1:05:58] injected materials. It makes it hard, makes it
[1:06:01] a cushion, and then you can build on
[1:06:04] it. And that's what we're hoping to do.
[1:06:06] And that is it. You have questions about
[1:06:09] all of it? I'm sure Jason can. And
[1:06:11] Jason, do you all need to correct anything?
[1:06:13] Okay. He he taught me well. Thank you,
[1:06:18] mister Baker. Any questions for mister Baker? Mister
[1:06:20] Chakas? Thank you, mister chair. Nick, what is
[1:06:22] the the second column from the right hand
[1:06:24] side? It's titled ADT. What does ADT stand
[1:06:27] for? Perfect, thank you. So then that goes
[1:06:33] into my next question of that bridge on
[1:06:35] W before its failure. What was the average
[1:06:37] daily traffic? So thanks Jason. So I don't
[1:07:16] think Sue could hear that without a microphone
[1:07:18] but right so it's an important highway to
[1:07:21] Carlton County. Maybe they want to share some
[1:07:25] funds. Let's think out of the box, but
[1:07:27] maybe they don't even want that bridge. When
[1:07:30] Jay Cook washed out here back in 2012,
[1:07:33] they had that whole Highway 61 run alongside
[1:07:36] the river that wasn't opened up for years.
[1:07:38] It was a nice road. Went there and
[1:07:41] biking and hiking and stuff. Maybe these locals
[1:07:44] out there, maybe they don't want that bridge
[1:07:46] and maybe they've gotten so used to traveling
[1:07:48] the other directions. You know, it's I don't
[1:07:52] know but. Actually, I'll at. Thank you. Was
[1:08:03] looked at to close it. Know, I mean,
[1:08:05] that would be a tremendous savings to the
[1:08:07] county. But if you remember in 2018, the
[1:08:11] Black River Falls there, dam went out. And
[1:08:17] that landlocked that whole quadrant of the county.
[1:08:21] And the only way they got to some
[1:08:25] of that area was Highway W. See at
[1:08:27] eighteen, the bridge, The. Dam washed out, but
[1:08:33] the bridge didn't the bridge just a little
[1:08:35] bit of the approaches and within a day
[1:08:37] we had the bridge open. See this bridge
[1:08:39] is memorable actually since 2019. Everybody thinks it's
[1:08:42] 2018 because we had quite a bit of
[1:08:44] flooding then and and the dam went out,
[1:08:47] but that actually saved, you know, a lot
[1:08:51] of travel time for people. I mean, they
[1:08:53] would have been. It would have been a
[1:08:55] nightmare, a landlock for, like, the Northern Part
[1:08:59] of Summit and and I guess would be
[1:09:03] the Western Part of Superior, town of Superior.
[1:09:06] So it it it it was we looked
[1:09:11] at that and then that kind of proved
[1:09:12] that we better keep it open. Okay. So
[1:09:15] I'm satisfied with that. You. And the local
[1:09:18] ones, Elle, the people actually have been showing
[1:09:20] up at these meetings and have been pretty
[1:09:23] adamant that it needs to be fixed, and
[1:09:24] they've actually been supportive of us taking this
[1:09:27] time to finally get it done. They I
[1:09:29] mean, they understand what we went through to
[1:09:31] try to get this funding. In in hindsight
[1:09:33] too, they they, shortened the bridge in '93
[1:09:37] when they replaced the the previous bridge. And
[1:09:40] I I think that turned out to be
[1:09:42] a mistake. And we've we've lived with it
[1:09:45] ever since. And now with this this upcoming
[1:09:47] project, we're actually putting the bridge back to
[1:09:50] its original position, which no doubt will help.
[1:09:56] I mean, it's not the cure all. Obviously,
[1:09:58] there's there's no guarantee that it will never
[1:10:01] wash out again, but what the project will
[1:10:05] put in a lot of controls to prevent,
[1:10:07] you know, and it would take a lot
[1:10:09] of, you know, major eight hundred to one
[1:10:12] thousand year flood to probably to do what
[1:10:14] it has in the past with with what
[1:10:16] we're doing. Okay, well, you, Mr Baker. I
[1:10:18] was just gonna repeat what you said. We
[1:10:21] had a lot of people at our highway
[1:10:23] meetings wanting the bridge done. We even had
[1:10:26] people show up at this meeting at our
[1:10:29] county regular county board meeting complaining about it.
[1:10:32] And at budget time, it was always a
[1:10:34] big issue. Yep. Right. Any other questions for
[1:10:40] mister Baker, mister Pendency? That foam injected, blacktop,
[1:10:43] that's so that's recycled on-site. Right. Instead of
[1:10:47] hauling it off and We don't haul it
[1:10:49] off. We do it all right there. It's
[1:10:51] pulverized. We bring in a company that does
[1:10:54] the work. Cool. Yeah. It's they come in
[1:10:56] with a little train. They don't know if
[1:11:00] it's a little pug mill or something. Haven't
[1:11:01] seen it yet. This is the first time
[1:11:03] we've tried this in the county. They did
[1:11:07] it on Moccasin Mike Road Years ago, but
[1:11:12] I never went and I didn't I didn't
[1:11:14] see that method. But yeah, they they basically
[1:11:17] pick it up. They grind it up in
[1:11:19] this little mill. They inject foam asphalt, which
[1:11:24] is is basically emulsified asphalt in foam. Form.
[1:11:31] Stay. Go ahead. And then they place it
[1:11:36] back down and roll it. And then it
[1:11:39] has to cure for about a week to
[1:11:41] ten days and then we'll cap it with
[1:11:43] two inches of hot mix. So it's about
[1:11:47] a 30% savings compared to if we pulverized
[1:11:52] and paved it, which if we just pulverized
[1:11:54] it And then had to put two lifts
[1:11:58] of two inches. So we're saving a two
[1:12:00] inch asphalt lift and asphalt is the most
[1:12:02] expensive item that we have in our projects
[1:12:05] now. So we we think it's around 30
[1:12:08] to 35% savings And we can do these
[1:12:10] with roads that we've pulverized and paved in
[1:12:13] the past. And then the ones that we
[1:12:15] haven't done, then we'll we'll still do the
[1:12:18] pulverized and paved method. Okay. Mark, one more
[1:12:21] comment. Go ahead. One thing that we've been
[1:12:24] doing is trying new ideas. We had a
[1:12:27] trouble with highway f, and it was sliding
[1:12:32] out all the time. We brought in and
[1:12:35] put in about 20 feet of Styrofoam high.
[1:12:40] And that is holding it in place. That
[1:12:43] was something we never done. And this is
[1:12:47] the thing the county is trying. We're not
[1:12:50] trying to do the same old thing over
[1:12:52] again. We're trying to try new things. This
[1:12:56] is another new thing. We the styrofoam thing
[1:12:59] worked out real well for us. I think
[1:13:02] we may have to use it on you
[1:13:04] too. But anyways, that's coming later. Highway you.
[1:13:07] Not not Highway you. Jason, not Jason himself.
[1:13:09] On Highway you. Yes. Highway you. Alright. What's
[1:13:13] the what's the life cycle on that, if
[1:13:15] I may ask? What? On the when you're
[1:13:18] doing the The foam or the styrofoam? On
[1:13:20] the foam. On the injection. Yeah, so how?
[1:13:23] Foam injected asphalt, it's about the same as
[1:13:25] as any other roadway, twenty to twenty five
[1:13:28] years. Okay. Lifecycle on the pavement. But as
[1:13:32] a saving of funds is what the, but
[1:13:34] it's a saving of funds. Correct. And then
[1:13:37] it also prevents us from keep building the
[1:13:40] road higher and higher because of our, some
[1:13:43] of our in slopes and slopes are getting
[1:13:46] to the point where we can't keep building
[1:13:48] higher. Alright, let's move on unless there's anything
[1:13:53] I'll move on to zoning and I know
[1:13:55] Joe's not here. Is there somebody from joining
[1:13:56] that was owning that wants to add in
[1:13:58] to what was happening if there's anything important?
[1:14:02] Alright, we'll move on to youth representative report.
[1:14:06] Mister Bilix. Alright. So we're currently on a
[1:14:12] break. I think it's staff development or something.
[1:14:14] They're not allowed to call it Easter break
[1:14:15] for obvious reasons. But basically, we're on break
[1:14:20] until Monday, which is very nice because it
[1:14:22] gives me time to do homework. And it's
[1:14:24] just kind of a break in the middle
[1:14:26] of the semester, which is very helpful, especially
[1:14:30] considering AP tests are coming up, which is
[1:14:32] adding a lot of stress. Just a couple
[1:14:35] weeks ago, we had our ACT and pre
[1:14:38] ACT. So students are getting feedback on that.
[1:14:41] And then we also got our scores back,
[1:14:43] I think, just on Friday last week. Speaking
[1:14:48] of Friday last week, our forensics team went
[1:14:51] down to Madison for state, and every single
[1:14:54] person on our team medaled. We got eight
[1:14:57] gold medals, three silvers, and one bronze. And
[1:15:02] then one is still pending because they're doing
[1:15:04] it online. But this is the second year
[1:15:06] in a row that everyone's made to state
[1:15:08] and it's just amazing how well we did.
[1:15:12] Our FBLA team went to state a couple
[1:15:14] days ago, and they did amazingly as well.
[1:15:19] We had a couple students made it make
[1:15:20] it into the state honors program for music.
[1:15:24] Two people from our orchestra, one from our
[1:15:26] band and one from our choir. So they'll
[1:15:29] be going to a summer camp in the
[1:15:30] summer, and then they'll have concerts down in
[1:15:33] Madison in October. And it's really special because
[1:15:38] I don't know how competitive the other section
[1:15:40] is, but at least for violins, there's only
[1:15:44] like, I wanna say 50 spots throughout the
[1:15:47] entire state. And we had one violinist go
[1:15:50] and then a cellist go as well. We
[1:15:57] had a UWS math meet a couple weeks
[1:16:00] ago, and our team from SHS took first
[1:16:03] place. So congrats to them. I think it
[1:16:04] was a team of about six people or
[1:16:06] so. We had solo and ensemble just like
[1:16:11] a week or two after our last meeting.
[1:16:14] 26 different groups made to state, and they'll
[1:16:16] be competing down in Eau Claire in a
[1:16:19] couple of weeks. We have our ninth grade
[1:16:22] transition night on April 23 where we have
[1:16:24] eighth graders come in and kinda check out
[1:16:27] the high school work, see where their classes
[1:16:28] are, join clubs, that kinda thing. It's very
[1:16:30] important. It's been very successful in kinda increasing
[1:16:34] our outreach and getting people involved in activities.
[1:16:37] Yesterday, we had a jazz concert, which from
[1:16:40] what I heard went very well. Then we
[1:16:43] have prom on the twenty sixth, which a
[1:16:45] lot of people are very excited about. I'm
[1:16:47] already seeing posters and it's just chaos. We
[1:16:52] also have student council elections going on right
[1:16:54] now. I believe there's a debate coming up.
[1:16:57] And then we also had NHS elections, which
[1:17:00] we selected all of our new officers and
[1:17:03] stuff for that. So overall, the start of
[1:17:06] our fourth quarter is going pretty well. And
[1:17:09] I think we only have like one or
[1:17:11] two months left of school, which is kind
[1:17:13] of terrifying, but you know. All right. Any
[1:17:18] questions in for Mr. Blix? All right. Good
[1:17:21] job. Thank you. I have a question. Are
[1:17:26] you having a musical this year or play
[1:17:29] this Yes, completely forgot to mention that. We
[1:17:34] have High School Musical going on mid May.
[1:17:37] I think it's around the thirteenth, around that
[1:17:40] weekend. And from what I've heard, I'm not
[1:17:44] actively involved this with this one because I
[1:17:46] haven't had time. But it looks like it's
[1:17:49] coming along very well, and I think it'll
[1:17:51] be a very good show. Do you know
[1:17:53] what the title is? High School Musical. It's
[1:17:58] a high school musical at Superior High School.
[1:18:01] Thank Thank you. I think we're to the
[1:18:06] point where we're gonna talk about future agenda
[1:18:08] items. No. So I'm Can I make your
[1:18:10] comments, sir? Sure. Sorry, mister Baker. Just I
[1:18:13] wanna commend Casey and her team about now
[1:18:17] having I've been meaning to do this at
[1:18:20] a meeting before, the correspondence at the end
[1:18:24] of the list. That makes it a much
[1:18:27] easier using document. Thank you. All right. We
[1:18:36] have the approval of the bills and claims,
[1:18:38] pay the bills and the claims here. All
[1:18:41] right. Motion by mister Jocas, second by mister
[1:18:44] Cummings. Any questions? Seeing none, all in favor
[1:18:48] of the motion signify by saying aye. Opposed?
[1:18:51] Motion carries. Future agenda items next week or
[1:18:54] next month, I believe if everything works out,
[1:18:56] we're going to have the DOT here and
[1:18:58] they're going to kind of respond to our
[1:19:01] request to actually tell them what is the
[1:19:03] plan for Superior. How are we gonna, which
[1:19:06] roads are gonna be and what they're gonna
[1:19:09] be changed to or changed from and maybe
[1:19:12] what they're expecting. I hope that Jason's here
[1:19:15] and he can ask her because I asked
[1:19:16] her the same thing. I said, you know,
[1:19:18] our highway guy said you should close that
[1:19:19] bridge down for five days right now so
[1:19:22] that you can see what the traffic patterns
[1:19:24] are in Superior. And then we'd have time
[1:19:27] to actually prepare to fix them when the
[1:19:29] bridge actually closes forever. So we'll see if
[1:19:32] we can maybe ask her that question and
[1:19:34] see what she's Pardon me, Mr. Not forever.
[1:19:36] Sure. Pardon? It's not closing forever. Close enough.
[1:19:41] Thank Be positive here. I will be positive.
[1:19:44] Seven years is a long time. How many?
[1:19:49] Okay. Four to five is what they're saying.
[1:19:53] At some point, we'll have a bet on
[1:19:55] the date and closure. We'll do that. Like
[1:19:58] a pool. Arm wrestlers. That's right. No, I
[1:20:00] want to make money on this. All right.
[1:20:03] So, that'll be next month and so if
[1:20:06] you've got questions, start preparing them because I
[1:20:08] told her that, you know, what our requests
[1:20:10] are and what our answers are are gonna
[1:20:12] have to be asked and respond to us.
[1:20:15] Any other future items, get a hold of
[1:20:17] me, Casey, and we'll see what we can
[1:20:18] do. Now, I'm looking for a motion of
[1:20:20] germinate. Our next meeting is May 15. Okay,
[1:20:23] motion made by Mr. Lustry, second by Mr.
[1:20:27] Slay. All in favor of the motion signify
[1:20:29] by saying aye. Opposed, we are now adjourned.
[1:20:32] Thank you again for coming to the meeting.