[0:01] Okay. Good morning, everyone. Thursday, September 17th, 2026, for our agenda meeting here at the West

[0:11] Annnings Boardroom. All three commissioners are present on call to the meeting door and have a bunch of

[0:19] of the United States of America and to the Republic of America, which stands, one

[0:25] nation under God, indignisable with liberty and justice for all.

[0:30] The incumbent comments portion of the meeting is the public comment for any item under the

[0:37] county's jurisdiction and not on the agenda.

[0:41] No action will be taken.

[0:42] Is there any public comment?

[0:43] In, during no will move on to disclosure of conflicts of interest and ex-partake invocations

[0:54] and moving on to minutes, approval of minutes for agenda meeting of August 31st September

[1:03] 3rd and September 10th, 2026, is there any staff input or report?

[1:09] Any public comment?

[1:12] Any board discussion?

[1:14] is there a motion?

[1:16] Mr. Chair, I move to the adjournment.

[1:18] It's from March 31st, December 3rd, and September 10th, 2026.

[1:23] Second.

[1:23] It's been moved.

[1:24] And second, it'll call for a vote.

[1:25] All those in favor say aye.

[1:27] Aye.

[1:28] Motion carried.

[1:30] No claims and announcements.

[1:35] No consent items or file items.

[1:38] So move on to the business, which is a resolution

[1:42] Number 2026-29, to cancel our agenda meeting on September 28th, 2026, any staff input or report on

[1:55] the comment.

[1:57] I just know this is because of the Mako Convention and Helena at Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so we will not be here.

[2:08] Sarah motion.

[2:09] So.

[2:11] I'm going to seconded to.

[2:13] The.

[2:14] 26.29.

[2:15] I'm the.

[2:16] I.

[2:17] I.

[2:18] I.

[2:20] I.

[2:21] on the staff records.

[2:25] So first week, making some transitions with the sewer district.

[2:30] Things are going fine.

[2:31] It's been a little bit of scrambled.

[2:33] I went out and met with the lab yesterday.

[2:37] And I got them to give me enough data.

[2:40] I would do that.

[2:41] So every week we do samples out there.

[2:45] Usually on Wednesdays is kind of the best day to do it.

[2:47] So I'm going to cut the samples for the plant, ran out of the lab, and I met with a project manager out there to kind of get a deep brief on our program all we have set up.

[2:57] It's an automated deal every month they generate all of the required testing that we do out there.

[3:04] They sent all the bottles up, they sent all the chain custody reports, and then once a month we just pick up a bunch of coolers.

[3:10] So it's a pretty well put together system, it'll be easy for us to catch what we need to do there.

[3:19] I do have a meeting with Spencer Stone and Pete Betcher on Friday out of the plan.

[3:24] We're going to talk through kind of what our needs are for the short-term future or longer-term future.

[3:31] of how it works, but information that Jeff got from DQ, the DMR reporting, we don't really

[3:40] need to have an operator do all that. Those pieces we can have anywhere, maybe staff do

[3:47] that, so we're going to continue on that road from now. I'll bring in Spencer when there's

[3:53] qualified operator required to use some real adjustments.

[3:57] Seasonal adjustments, any time we're changing the flows through the plant, that's got to be done by an operator.

[4:03] And so I've talked to him about kind of what our needs are. We'll flesh that out on Friday.

[4:08] For the most part, I'm going to try and live in his time out there best we can.

[4:13] And do what we can in terms of until, you know, different when we have either find a replacement or long term, if we have to, if we don't find a replacement,

[4:23] that would work through training and qualification for internal staff.

[4:28] But right now it's going on right now.

[4:30] I'm still working with the big line local requests.

[4:33] I'm getting some of that stuff oriented.

[4:37] I have access to it, but I can't report on it yet.

[4:39] I'm going to figure out that.

[4:41] So I'm not about the phone calls this morning to them.

[4:43] But I think there's a question.

[4:45] Where does Pete Betcher fall into the plan?

[4:48] So Pete Betcher is, I think he's,

[4:52] He's a qualified operator who lives in Absorby.

[4:54] And he's with Montana.

[4:55] And we're all on Montana.

[4:56] We're all on our own.

[4:58] Pete's willing to do kind of a substitutionary help

[5:04] if we need him to.

[5:06] Spencer was the one who contacted him because he lives out there.

[5:09] So I don't know if they've got a working relationship.

[5:12] But I've talked to Pete a couple times.

[5:15] He's not interested in being the person, I think.

[5:18] But because he lives out there, he'd be willing to help out

[5:21] And so that's just wonder because I knew he was qualified and he retired from DQ.

[5:27] Yeah, now he went to work for Montana World.

[5:30] And so that's a support group for all of these.

[5:32] And Montana World will, you know, they'll help us out.

[5:35] Kind of keep things going.

[5:37] Yeah.

[5:37] I'm going to approach them on steps to get qualifications.

[5:42] Whether we hire somebody or not, I'm going to work on getting someone into a lot of qualified.

[5:48] I don't want to get all the things in one basket, just like with the boiler stuff, you know, I've got myself, and we've got Elijah now, so if one of us goes away, we've got stuck in a bunch of chickens, so I want to prevent that in the future, so that'll be the long-term direction for us.

[6:06] But we've got to get him one, and I've got to get a bunch of things out there, and he can take care of me.

[6:12] That's why I was in the plant that needed him.

[6:18] So, but we've got to get him one.

[6:21] You got the security issue?

[6:22] Yeah, I met with the security company.

[6:25] Got all the access stuff changed over.

[6:28] So that's limited.

[6:29] to choose a padlock on the game just so we have a good transition there and I've got them

[6:38] working on, I'm going to rearrange some of the cameras, some of the images are not what

[6:44] we want and they don't catch some of the areas that I'd like to see, especially me and

[6:50] I may plan to be able to review that stuff and be able to see the actual equipment, it's

[6:55] kind of what I want.

[6:56] So we might add a couple of cameras out there just so I can get some better coverage.

[7:01] So because we're not out there all the time, I talk to you in my eyes on it.

[7:05] But all that, I mean, we're going to handle it.

[7:09] We're all through and it's a little bit of a struggle to catch all those little pieces.

[7:12] There's a lot of moving parts, but I don't know if we're in a good spot.

[7:17] Well, we will have a DMR to do at the end of the month here.

[7:21] so I'm going to pull Spencer in on that so we can collect all that data which we're getting

[7:25] done correctly and then we'll move over there. You are one of your guys have to get an account

[7:33] to enter that.

[7:36] So for right now I'm working on just trying to catch all the information

[7:43] that I'm going to pull Elijah Tom in on it so we've got some if I need somebody else to take samples

[7:48] That's for instance, I can get them out there.

[7:50] They can do that, take the lab, but well,

[7:54] very good.

[7:56] So that's all good.

[7:58] We, the access controls at the courthouse are all live

[8:03] and all working out.

[8:05] Doors unlock at 8 a.m.

[8:07] And they lock again at 5 p.m. automatically.

[8:10] And people who need key clouds who come in way early,

[8:14] We have them, I've approached all the departments, I've given department heads 24-7 access, but I've tried to limit all the other access points to between 7 and 6 on Monday to Friday unless there's a specific meeting for somebody to come in after hours or a weekend, I've tried to get a pull back home as much as we can till we're safe.

[8:38] So you have a cloud?

[8:39] I do.

[8:40] It's a great.

[8:41] In a word, yeah.

[8:45] So we still got a couple of little bugs.

[8:48] We got a door hanging up at the end of the night.

[8:51] I got a call last night, but the locks didn't match like a shit.

[8:55] So we're still working on some little things.

[8:58] But I can see it on my phone now.

[9:01] I can give.

[9:02] I can remote open from home or anywhere in that.

[9:06] And I can, I get a report on it, or it's propped open, or it's not supposed to be open, it is, so I can see all that now on my phone, I'll be able to set up push notifications on my phone, or something like left open at night, and it shouldn't be, I'll be able to get notified, so.

[9:23] So if there are master keys still there?

[9:25] Yeah, but I'm going to get you guys some pops too, just so you know, it's a, I think it's just better to have the master key will work on the back door of the elevator.

[9:40] It's really the only one because the problem I'm having is with people using keys on the other doors, it kind of messes up the system because they feel like they need to lock and they don't.

[9:51] And so if they lock a door then it messes up the whole unlocking, so because it's all off of mags now and it's got an UPS battery back up and so they'll, even if the power is out, they'll stay secured.

[10:08] But if somebody comes in and unlocks or locks the thing, it messes up.

[10:12] We kind of applauded some keels, so people can't mess it up, but it'll be a little bit

[10:20] before I can get some of those locks adjusted where I'm out of the system, but still

[10:25] accessible.

[10:27] I'm sorry.

[10:28] But Jerry's

[10:34] crew all have one.

[10:36] And that's been part of the problem is with the public access opening, hey, you have a lot

[10:42] of people that show up being 15 minutes early and they can't get it.

[10:45] So Jerry's team all have them and they've got kind of limited access, 7 to 6, Monday to

[10:55] Friday.

[10:59] All turn of news, I didn't have any given one, all turn of news yet.

[11:04] Kisha Tammy didn't indicate that she wanted one, so she doesn't have one yet.

[11:10] The courts have them, some Melissa and her group all have farms, they'll be able to have access.

[11:16] We've got a court date.

[11:17] I think coming up, that's an expertly morning one,

[11:19] and so they all have that access set up

[11:22] to where they can come in early,

[11:24] and then Katie and her group up there

[11:27] had a fox at the end, so I mean, probably,

[11:33] oh, and Heidi's group.

[11:36] So, Heidi, so this system that we're using

[11:38] is the same platform that Heidi was using for her stuff.

[11:43] So she already had fonts for her stuff,

[11:45] and I just had to add her FOBs to our system.

[11:48] And so now they have one bomb that opens the person up.

[11:51] So I didn't have to issue those there we have.

[11:55] So pretty much everybody in the courthouse outside

[11:57] of alternatives have the access through a FOB that they

[12:01] couldn't do.

[12:02] So probably it doesn't, 14 or 15, something like that.

[12:11] Those are the highlights, I guess.

[12:14] How about Clarker Recorders stuff?

[12:18] I think they've got stuff clean, oh that's the other, so we've purchased a bunch of storage

[12:23] racks for the South Antics, and we've got that all set up as of yesterday, they've

[12:28] finished setting up shelves in there.

[12:30] So my next approach is to say, because it looks like that stuff in the hallway is, at least

[12:36] there's a sign on a box that says South Antics, but I don't know if that intention is all

[12:40] of that in South Antics, or if it's just that blank box, I don't know if that's the

[12:46] storage setup. I'm gonna say, hey, we're ready for this

[12:50] afternoon lower. But I just didn't want it piled in there.

[12:54] So, we've got all the storage racks set up.

[12:56] That's good. Where were those in the back?

[13:00] We've got them both in the front and the back.

[13:02] So, we've got, probably it doesn't have the big gorilla racks.

[13:07] Set up, Costco's having a $800 off with a set of them.

[13:13] So we got all that set up.

[13:17] There's a B6,

[13:22] there's probably eight in the front room just along that outer wall.

[13:28] And then there's another set of six in the back room.

[13:30] So, and then my thought is the hard walled offices that are in there.

[13:34] We would reserve those.

[13:36] We would move out of here, we're going to have all these pods that are going to need to go somewhere.

[13:40] We're having somewhere that's a little more secure

[13:42] and independent of everything else.

[13:45] We'll reserve those offices for that.

[13:48] But right now it's just the open areas.

[13:50] Yeah, I'm just not showing you, so I'm trying to keep it organized,

[13:54] but that's okay.

[13:55] Yeah.

[13:57] All right.

[14:00] Nice to meet you, Jen.

[14:02] And well, I talked with John Thomas this morning.

[14:04] He's switching over to the new server

[14:06] over the courthouse this weekend.

[14:08] Okay.

[14:08] And so it could cause issues with an ominous

[14:12] send an email to the people over there but it could cause issues with scanning and sending

[14:16] and stuff like that and share files and things like that.

[14:20] So it shouldn't affect anybody over here but if you have glitches on Monday and things

[14:24] just don't seem right, just put in a work file and he'll come and get it fixed.

[14:30] He said he didn't think it would be that way but like you guys utilized the iDrive and so

[14:35] because it's shared, it could pass and like docu pro have some issues. So also the email

[14:43] that everybody said that everybody knows that and just put it. It's just a regular. I mean, it was a

[14:48] schedule server. Yeah, it was. I think he's had him both hooked up for a while. He's just gotta.

[14:57] He's gonna just like

[15:04] I did talk with Lumen quite a bit yesterday, and their corporate people. Lumen is evidently completely

[15:14] going out of the phone business, right? They're not going to be in the phone business anymore.

[15:18] And so I told him that the conversation was great between us, between me and them, but I needed more

[15:24] players in the room and you're one of them and so and John and so John and I talked about it

[15:30] at length this morning so we're going to get together before that meeting next week and decide

[15:35] exactly where all the copper wire really is and what implications that has for us. He also wanted

[15:43] to approach NEMOT. Remember what we talked about at the airport board meeting? He wanted to approach NEMOT

[15:48] and see if there isn't something we can do, you know with them having the

[15:55] ability of giving free internet to the city and the city shops, well look at

[16:00] they do for us because they're in our county and they've never approached us

[16:05] for franchise or anything else. Well they need to think about maybe what they could

[16:09] do for us. They're offering some free stuff to the city. Yeah they are already

[16:16] getting it. So the city should have done the franchising room with them and didn't they just took

[16:22] free internet and missed the opportunity. They did miss a huge opportunity so well maybe we'll try

[16:28] to bring them to the table and see if we can't find something if it's that infrastructure that

[16:33] you know the fibrinette that we talked about or the ring or whatever and get that figured out

[16:38] even maybe it's just the civic center I mean because they're already pushing out towards that area

[16:43] and maybe we can get something for free.

[16:45] I need plowing out there now.

[16:47] They, but they're going to.

[16:49] They're planning to go up around corner of ways.

[16:53] I mean, well, so it's a good time to do that.

[16:57] So we'll be looking for that meeting.

[17:00] And.

[17:01] I did talk to the contractors doing all this stuff.

[17:05] I was already, they had pulled fiber up to our plant out there.

[17:08] And that's kind of one of the issues out there

[17:10] are Internet is for it. But they won't be landing at that

[17:16] fiber probably till next year. It's big out of the pipe in the ground, but now they've got to start

[17:20] terminating all the ends and he said it's a long process to get it. Everybody hope so.

[17:28] Yeah, we can get all those points on the map and show them, you know, this is a lot of money for us

[17:34] and if we exclusively went over to them. Yeah, what kind of deal are you guys going to do?

[17:39] Exactly. So I think we should, we should send it to the table with them.

[17:44] Otherwise, we're going to give all my money to Starlink.

[17:46] Pretty much.

[17:48] And some places won't work with Starlink evidently.

[17:51] So like, the airport, which I don't completely understand that either.

[17:57] Starlink is pretty secure.

[17:59] I know. That's what I thought too.

[18:02] That's all I know today.

[18:03] Okay.

[18:04] Anyway, we do still have some outline accounts and stuff that you can get.

[18:13] Well, the spectrum ones have been closed but I still got equipment and so they're still

[18:17] sending bills.

[18:18] And so I talked with John about that too and I said, what's it be all?

[18:25] Because he's the one that's on there.

[18:26] I couldn't close him down.

[18:28] He's the credential person so yeah, you

[18:33] have to get out.

[18:37] Can't we have anything to throw out there?

[18:42] Welcome to our...

[18:45] Thank you.

[18:46] Thank you.

[18:47] Right now I'm just doing a lot of research on our website,

[18:53] trying to get some trainings in from the Montana State website

[18:58] and some webinars and then just learning everything,

[19:03] trying to learn something.

[19:05] Yeah, maybe I don't know. Don't be afraid to ask questions.

[19:09] Yeah.

[19:12] Anything else to come before the board?

[19:16] I'm going to obtain a motion to adjourn.

[19:20] Second.

[19:21] Some favor say aye.

[19:23] I'm adjourned at 9.

[19:27] 21.

[19:28] Thank you all.

[19:32] We'll

[19:34] just make sure that the red button is in there.

Untitled meeting

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