Billings County Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning everyone.

Thank you for coming today to the September monthly meeting. We will

First of all, approve the minutes of our last meeting, and I think there's only one, is that right? Is there any additions or corrections? Does someone want to make a motion to accept the August minutes?

I make the motion to accept the minutes for August.

We have a motion, is there a second? I'll second that. We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. We have the agenda. Does anyone have any additions to the agenda? So we want to make a motion to approve the agenda. I'll second that. We have a motion and a second for the agenda. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. um we'll move into public comment period um we have one and i think it's joey a joke yeah good morning um i guess i just wanted to voice a concern over last month's uh

meeting in regards to budgetary recommendation mainly bonuses giving to the sheriff and fire chief based on performance. I guess just notes is uh sheriff elected to do a duty and grateful that we have a sheriff um and in searching around just google searches or whatever in regards to uh there are gray areas on bonuses given in a way and stating that the wage possibly should be adjusted instead of a bonus be given and then questioning where that bonus is coming from if it's coming out of general fund or if it's coming out of emergency fund whatever that is um and also if it's a performance-based bonus is there a form of evaluation process that takes place to achieve to that and then in regards to the fire chief the commissioners i understand pay the salary and he's governed by the board fire board which is elected and i spoke with the fire board president and stated that there was no communication in regards to a performance-based bonus on their side and that there was not even any communication to them in regards to it. I guess I feel that as a board, they should have been able to make that recommendation or at least been included in the conversation. And then also have a concern that the week of the presidential library opening that two commissioners spent the week together at the more school, which was command Center for law enforcement and listening to the August 4 recording, it was stated in that recording that. In deciding the performance basis to be paid that. They were staging under there from morning till evening and help make decisions and was just questioning in regards to that. If there was decisions being made on behalf of the county and state's attorney was present, was present, but there was no meeting notice, no minutes or anything of that. So those are my concerns and thank you for your time.

Thank you. Is there a? Anyone else there's any more okay? Thank you again We'll move into the next item which is Kevin Kessel You want to come forward Morning commissioners morning So I've got several questions, and this is why I wanted to be on the agenda Have you guys?

done a performance review of said employees for the bonuses? It's a yes or no question is all I'm looking for.

Not that I know.

Okay. Because if you had, I wanted to know what metrics you used to justify it.

We didn't, so we can't answer that.

Okay, then you answer this one. Where in Century Code does it state you can give an elected official a bonus? Because all I can find is you cannot, so I would like to know where it does.

It's been done in the past, so that's all, unless the State Attorney wants to answer that.

the uh where it's been done in the past um yep um

Don Heiser wasn't elected, but people. I mean, I hate to go into names. I got a few names that we gave bonuses that I wasn't on the board with, but I mean, I heard about it. Couldn't read about it because it wasn't in there, and I don't want to touch base on it because I'm all for stuff like that when a person goes and exceeds what they do. So that's what I'm saying.

Considering the duties that were performed, Jim, would you personally, they work for Hague Farms or Ranch, whatever you call yourself, would you personally write that check for that bonus? Yes or no?

What's that got to do with the county? Yeah.

What's that got to do with the county? Yeah. Would you personally spend that money? That's what your job is right there. You're spending the county's money. You made a decision to consciously spend the taxpayer's money. So I'm asking, would you write that check out of your personal checking account?

This isn't personal. The farm would be different than the county, Kevin.

Why would it be any different? If you personally wouldn't spend that money, why would you expect the taxpayers to?

Who said I wouldn't do it?

That's what I'm asking you. You're telling me what's got to do with it. I'm asking you, would you personally spend that money?

I'm looking at the overall picture of what happened here with Billings County.

I didn't answer my question. I asked, would you personally spend that money?

That's not the question I asked.

I'm sorry.

Just not going to answer it.

No.

Okay. Mr. Chairman, I got a question for Jerry. So does the state incentive code, you can or cannot give a bonus to an elected official?

There is... has been it's been alluded to there's a gray area on it salary adjustments are preferable however if there is if it's discretionary and if it's in the discretion of the board based upon there are multiple ways to do it the board elected to do it through a one-time discretionary bonus century code does touch on the board of county commissioners of the county made by resolution increase the salary of any full-time county official provided in the section if in the judgment of such board by reason of duties performed the official merits the increase So applying that to the bonus, and with the bonus there's obvious tax implications and things, but the board does have discretion to increase salaries if they so choose. They chose to do it through the discretionary bonus subject to the emergency declaration based upon the extensive amount of work that was outside of the normal duties of the two county employees that performed the work running the emergency management services and running the sheriff's department has its own set of of criteria and expectations what we as a county faced throughout not just july but for a year in advance of this past july 4th was in excess of what any sheriff around the state is expected to and as well as the emergency management services with the fire, EMS, the rest, that's what has some basis in the law to do. So it's been done in the past where others in the county, county officials have gotten increases in salary. The bonus structure is defined in century code for state employees. not as clearly set forth for county employees. State employees have a very, they actually have their own piece of the century code that talks about setting it forth. and they're limited and capped, but bonuses are given all the time. And again, I'm not gonna get into county versus state. Many more examples of state budget, I'm sorry, state bonuses that have been awarded just within the last month, approximately a month. I believe it was the State Investment Board opted to give hundreds of thousands of dollars of bonuses to its board um which the attorney general said was was proper but again that's that's codified that's statutory uh the attorney general found language that said it was proper and appropriate so i guess to answer the question back to the inning there are a couple ways to do it the way that the Commission voted does not appear unlawful but in their discretion again the Board of County Commissioners if in the judgment of such board by reason of the duties performed the official merits the increase it's not unlawful okay I have a question for you then yes sir so

Did you ever attend, because you're on the fire department, right? That's right. Okay, so did you ever attend any of the events down here that went on? Did you go to any of the meetings during the previous year? I did not have time.

That is why it's a volunteer fire department. I have time. That's right.

So I'm just asking. So you don't really know what all of the individuals that did do things... do and so why individually no i do not what they know what they did individually if you don't know and you're asking questions that's fine it's your right to do that so but we have a reason to believe that they were entitled to that that's my take okay okay and my and if you uh want to know how many meetings or how many things that were attended and taken care of after hours. There was lots, there was city meetings, county meetings. We went to Bismarck several times.

It should be documented, right? Huh? It should be documented, right?

It is, yeah.

Okay.

So it's there.

So they worked some overtime hours.

That's what you're telling me, correct? An exempt employee, the sheriff is exempt. Both of the individuals you're referring to are exempt. They don't get overtime.

They don't get overtime.

That's right. Which means they have the luxury of taking time off when other 40-hour employees do not. To answer your second part of that, you can adjust the salary. A bonus is not a salary adjustment. Because if a bonus was a salary adjustment, the tax would be the same, but a bonus is taxed different. Just going from my personal experience on that. So that would be an auditor.

That's a Jared question.

Anytime your paychecks are higher than normal in a lump, there's more taxes taken out.

So bonuses are taxed at a different rate than what your standard. That's not a salary adjustment. If you did a salary adjustment, then... That's different, but you didn't. You issued a bonus. I'm not going to rebuke. You have the right to do the fire chief because he is not an elected official. The one I question is going to be the sheriff as an elected official. Am I not going to deny that he probably had to work some hours? Yes, but I'm also going to say, Dean, you were around in 1988. There's a lot of people who worked a lot of extra hours then. That, to me, is more of a natural disaster than the president showing up.

i disagree with you yeah i disagree with that there's a lot at stake on a county side when there's a lot of liability on the state listen county side when we were sitting there that week when you have secret service and the fbi and they don't even talk to you but on thursday one of them finally did and think how wonderful billings county was up to par and did this because if we would have had a disaster it would have fell on us and it would have So in 88, you're talking in fires. I was assistant chief in 88. I'm pretty familiar with that. So when you're out there, fire got away, fire did this, fire did that. That's not a national disaster what would have happened here if something would have went on in the day trauma has here. So that's where I'm going to divide the two.

I understand where you're coming from because you can't control the fire and you've got a lot more control here. But I'm also going to say the Secret Service and the FBI, they do this every day. They do. They do it every single day.

And when they come and tell you how wonderful Billings County did and what we did, we couldn't expect what people we had. We had no control on that. We still had to plan this event as if what was going to happen.

That's right.

I was thankful there wasn't enough people around and it kind of went the other way just because of issues, but we still had to go through this whole ordeal before and all the way up to the time of the event. And when that day was over, I kid you not, it was a big relief. Did you ask if you can get that cost back?

My understanding is that's the intent. It can be the intent. Through the emergency declaration that the governor also issued, the intent is to reimburse the county. between the secretary of the interior in his previous capacity as governor other individuals that were involved in setting this library up for the last four or five years there's been a lot of planning and the state is not going to let it fall just to the county so you're right and all i'm asking is um

The only thing I can find on it, so I want to know from the commission, is the only thing I can find on it is you have to apply to get that cost back. And I'm just curious.

It's already been applied for.

What do you apply through?

I have no idea.

Well, it was applied for. That's right. We had to do it before the governor, so the governor could make it a disaster. TES. Yeah.

So there was a million dollar set aside. I'll spell 1018. Be specific. So DES is working on that.

We actually have a meeting on the 14th at 9.30 or 10.30 a.m. to discuss the million dollar funds.

Okay. Which one of you guys is going to be in that meeting?

I've been in the past one, so I'm sure I'll be in the next one.

That's all I ask. Okay. That is all I have, gentlemen, for now. Thank you.

Thank you, Kevin. So I'll do department reports after. And Julie is on 915.

I just wanted to come in today to just bring some further attention to the minutes publication process in the county

I know when you visit with people, and I'm curious, I guess, if you've heard people say that minutes are never published. I know they are, but I also notice that there are gaps, and you try to keep up by reading the paper, which I normally utilize the paper. But just in the last couple weeks, I just realized that there were probably more gaps than maybe you realize, maybe the office realizes, whether intentional, unintentional, I'm not here to say, but I think some accountability maybe as to getting these published timely and posted online timely would be helpful. And just to bring that to everyone's attention, as in century code, obviously in 11-13, 11-13-02, the county auditor shall act as a clerk of the board of county commissioners and keep an accurate record of the official proceedings of the report, And according to the NDACO, other duties of a county auditor include finding and storing copies of the official county newspaper, which is the Pioneer, as county record is found on their website under that information I found on the NDACO website. Also on 11-11-37 of the Center Code, proceedings of Board of County Commissioners to be published in official newspaper when published, the Board of County Commissioners shall supply to the official newspaper of the county a full and complete report of its official proceedings any regular special meeting no later than seven days after the meeting at which the report is being approved.

So obviously once they're approved the following month, they go to paper.

The publisher of the official newspaper shall publish the report in the issue of the paper next exceeding the time of its reception and shall file with the county auditor and at the date of the publication executed in the proper form. So I do know from experience with the change in the newspaper ownership, it hasn't always been picture perfect with correspondence. But when things aren't published, there should be acknowledgement of that publishing. So I would think that that would be something to be checked on. In 2024 was at one point when I was looking for minutes that I noticed that there was an issue, and I had contact with the Auditor of Office at that time. It was mid-April, and I couldn't actually find minutes beyond January 2024, either in the County Pioneer or online. So that's very much April, three months. I was looking for February, March, which March also included a special meeting. They all would have been approved prior to April 18th when I inquired about trying to find them. So the minutes ended up getting posted relatively quickly. Also, I was told that the newspaper would be contacted to follow up and obviously the emailing process of those minutes. But they were additionally published about a week later. But that was April. So you got February, March minutes not being seen until the end of April. At that time, my hope in contacting the auditor's office was that they'd like to see the communication between the auditor's office, obviously for your proceedings, and the newspaper, that there would be successful communication to ensure timely of the future publishing of minutes and proceedings. Also to bring to attention that online postings aren't always immediate. They don't have a week to make, but when it's a couple months and they're not posted online. Even since then, because that was 2024, I have noticed gaps, but just nonchalantly paying attention. It started making me think in July of this year, on the 31st of July, I was trying to look up some zoning items, and I pulled up my newspapers because I had quite a few weeks left from prior, and I found that the last official minutes as of July, as of those newspapers, were published from April, and I could not find May or June, and those should have at least been at some point published by July 31st. jumped online and again found that the issue of them not being available online. So I contacted the author's office again to resolve it. The online posting was just declared an office omission, but I mean, you got a couple months and minutes that weren't posted at all timely, which should be easy to do online. Emails, I was also provided the emails to show the documentation of the communication with the newspaper, which that was appreciated, but they just, they weren't published for whatever reason. One thing I noted in the emails was that the June minutes was entirely, and this is of this year, the June minutes email were entirely minutes while the email containing May was kind of bundled in the board packet and it didn't request publication. And the auditor did bring that to my attention that it was for error in not requesting publication. So, again, a communication problem. I haven't other people have said recently in the last few weeks when i did a business about county business that basically you can never find the minutes in the newspaper which you know you can easily say that if you're but i i was curious so i i got into the county newspaper online and i went back to 2024 and i mean everyone we can go back and go to the room but i mean i scoured those editions two and three times a piece just to make sure i was not missing anything And in 21 meetings, and I did follow through on, I went online, through the agenda center, printed them off for 24, 25, and 26. Went through and verified that they all had minutes attached to make sure that they were meeting that did have minutes. And so of 21 meetings in 2024, seven of those were not published. Six of which were the last meetings from October on. There was one special meeting that was, considered a potential meeting, but there was never any verification on whether that meeting occurred or not, other than there were no minutes for it. In 2024, or 2025, there were 24 meetings noted, but 13 of them were not published. And of 16 meetings so far in 2026, which are not including the August few minutes, because they would be approved today, so they weren't available for publishing yet. Three were not published, and one was actually published twice, which was like the biggest January one was published at times. So of the ones published, and also not all of them are timely, like I found August meetings published in December. It's very sporadic, and I watched some of the other county school board whatnot, yeah there were some flip-flops too so am i saying this is all entirely on the county office no what am i saying is there a communication problem to follow up and be sure that these things are getting to the paper to the appropriate person at the paper who's supposed to be publishing these um And like I said, I worked through them two or three times a piece, and I'm pretty confident in my numbers. I know they had some email issues in the beginning of the newspaper, but at some point, I would think it would make sense to ensure some sort of confirmation proceedings by email. There should be some invoicing for these publications. And I know they switched over an accountant, so that might not be current, but along with the invoicing should be the affidavits of publication. And that should all be filed in the county office because the county newspaper is supposed to be filed. So there has to be at least some way with the staffing in this office that people can make sure the dadgum minutes are posted in the dadgum paper and they are online or published in the paper and they are placed online. It shouldn't be, some of these are showing up well after the next following board meeting. and some accountability is what I'm asking for. I did notice in the emails that I was forwarded to show the email communication. One, I believe, is for the newspaper reporter, and the other one is actually for the editor and the person that handles sales. So I'm not sure if there's a problem there, but I'm pointing it out so it's looked into so that the citizens don't have to keep coming and saying, where are the minutes? And then everybody is mad. You know, the citizens are, you know, they're grumpy because the minutes aren't there, but this is real. It's a 13 out of 24 meetings and 25 were not published. That's not a good number. Also, one suggestion I can find on the website I use a lot, and I don't know if it's just a certain protocol that it's not done this way, but when I go to a special meeting, I can find the agenda, but I have to go back to the regular meeting that it was approved with. to find the minutes. And so I guess I feel like if the agenda can be posted separately for every individual meeting, could the minutes for each special meeting be posted with that agenda line? Because if a person doesn't think to realize that they're all approved in a group, I found that in the beginning until I found out where they were. But you have to dig through regular meeting minutes to find special meeting minutes where So if they have an agenda line for that meeting, those minutes could be posted with their corresponding agenda. But that's just a suggestion for use of a person using the website. We still have our county paper, and there are people that use it, people that don't, people that go online. Citizens are still looking for a publication of the minutes. And I think it's a high priority to ensure that the county is providing access to them in a timely and consistent manner. I'm sure there's some kinks to work out with the newspaper staff, but until those kinks are figured out, the blame is falling on the county and the auditor's office. So, maybe there could be some investigation into why the minutes aren't being published, and I think that's forwarded so that the problem can be resolved so that people can see the minutes, wherever they might be. Also, in regards to posting things, I know when I sat through meetings, I was heard time and again that the redistricting information was going to be held online on the website, but There's nothing on the website. You can find the redistricting minutes, but as soon as the Birdman went into place, there's a hot button right at the top that says there's a Birdman. But the redistricting information, when people said they didn't see maps, it said you go on the county website and you can't find it. And they know there was the process of it being filed. They get people looking for candidacy so that they wanted to know where the lines were. And I get that there's Facebook, but not everybody's on that either. And that's not the county's official website. So I guess you're gonna have a website Can you make sure that something like that, that was an important topic for the county, be put there so that people can find the information instead of having to dig? That's what I have for you.

Thank you. Huh? Yep. Marsha?

to me because when you did back in July I did correct that immediately so I do appreciate it and anybody who reaches out for meeting minutes or anything that the board receives I can send it to you immediately I will work out the kinks with the paper and I appreciate you bringing that up so thank you like I said I don't think it's all one side but I there has to be a way to I

very particular in how i said things so it's if it's specifically i mean i wrote the paper right so i mean it's here's my article here it is and then when i didn't hear back i would check back but you know that's just articles you know pulling up these stories about those coming but these are minutes and it would think that there'd be some sort of receipt but the differences in the emails i think is a problem in who's receiving them um And yeah, if we're collecting the county newspaper compilers, I think we'd be checking to see the nature of the publication. So it's a full package teamwork thing, but it all comes back here. So it needs to be fixed here and find out where the communication problem is because I was very surprised last night as I scrolled through all those papers and I kept like, I can't believe, I mean, there was one month where it was for one year. It was in 2024, I believe. It's highly cut out, it just gets missed, right? There was 2025, it was all in May, all of it in May and June. I did not find them anywhere in paper. March was missing, February was missing, but end of 2024 was the complete end of the year. I looked into January, I scoured all those papers, and I ended up into 2025. November, two meetings, December, three meetings, and yeah, no publication in the Pioneer. And like I said, It can be a two-way thing, but if they're not being seen, somebody needs to question where the emails went. So thank you for your time. If anybody has questions, I'll let you get back to business.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay.

I'm gonna just make a real quick comment that the 24 and 25 issues and things I can't explain that just as we've asked for understanding from the people from the citizens this summer was unprecedented I've talked with Marsha a little bit about the minutes and things from June and July. There were lots of extra meetings between redistricting board, et cetera. The comments are well taken. Things should get on track now that it's been brought to the attention, but with the vouchers, the hundreds and hundreds of extra bills to process, everybody was stressed. It's not just in defense of the sheriff's office or EMS or DES. The entire county was put to task and everyone, and I'm new to this position. I had very little to do with any planning and prep prior, but I guess just in defense of what happened through May, June, and July with the election, the redistricting, the America 250, all the extra vouchers, I hope that we can all get on track as a county and that everybody can work together and things will get back to normal soon because the divisiveness, it's just not well received and it doesn't make the county in my opinion look great um so with that uh everybody's on notice that we have to get back on track so that that's the only thing i would say to that but i have spoken with marcia about the minutes and other things but when you have dozens of extra meetings throughout the very busy period of time i think that's where some of the more recent things um got lost in the shuffle, but I would be remiss if I didn't say that as well because we've asked again for consideration of every other department, every other person, commissioner, and things. Anyway, that's all I have to say on that.

Okay, thank you. That more or less summed it up what I was going to say too. It's just been a busy year, so we'll... We're trying to move forward, and we'll get back going here. So with that, we'll move on to the, unless someone else has something?

Commissioners?

Okay, we'll move on to the department head reports, and I don't have any orders, so who wants to start? Okay, Dale?

Good morning.

I don't have too much this month. There will be a voluntary in there from Bobcat for a little more. This month I'm going to trade in our room. I've got a pretty good deal on it. I talked to Steve over it. So that will be in there for $4,000. If there's any questions on that. That's all I got.

Thank you. Thank you.

They told me how to go first so that if I'm on winded, what would be done first? Good morning, Commissioner Sherman. Part of you is our report for August. Again, we are seeing record call numbers. Can't say that it's strictly tied to one or the other because it's all across the board of what we're seeing. And so I think it's just gonna be a busy year the way it looks. We did onboard Holly Bolts yesterday. So Holly Bolts is our nuclear medic. So after three months of having that open spot, it has filled. And she onboarded well yesterday. Our EMT course is set to start at the end of September. Currently we have five students. If Corey picks it, we'll have six. He's just sitting back in the back room. The RHTP funding that I talked to you guys about last month, we did submit for over $200,000 worth of RHTP funding. Update was that the state had approved it and it went to CMS's office in Washington, D.C. CMS will approve it and then we'll get notice of if they accept all of it or not. We did request a new cotton load system, two power stair chairs, five video alertness scopes, and then 30 800 series radios to circulate through this iron system. So hopefully we see some of that money. Some of it was a little bit outside the scope of what the grant was entailed for, but the state encouraged us to apply for it nonetheless. And then the last is gonna be the crew housing. Dean and I went to Medora's meeting on Tuesday night. They did approve it. The permit continued upon Jared and Sandy getting together and drafting a development agreement. And so just looking for the next steps that we wanna take from the county level.

Okay, so you have, we talked about it last month, we got some estimates or some costs of this crew quarters out of, can we go over those again from Watford City?

Do you guys have it in front of you? So we're looking at a quote of 327,399 and that's for the two buildings. the transport, the crane, and then setting the buildings along with the raised patio and the metal roof structure over top of it. So what's not included in that quote is going to be the electrical, the concrete work to build the foundations, any prep work, the sewer from the back of the fire and ambulance garage, water hookups and all that stuff is still gonna have to be according to Jared's bill. So according to Jared, we are good to go ahead and purchase these, correct Jared? As they are real estate transactions that's already built real estate and not something that we would have to put up for bid. But the rest should be put up for bid.

So there is no great guidance on point for the issue. I did reach out to the Association of Counties director, posing the situation, because at the last meeting, or one of the last, I believe it was the August meeting, when this came up, there's gonna be two sets of crew quarters. The cost exceeds the $250,000 threshold combined. However, it's not deemed a new construction, where bids for labor and materials, et cetera, are relevant and so in proposing you know what my thoughts were to the president or director of the association of counties just asking for guidance direction statutory interpretation otherwise essentially the feedback was another case of first impression hasn't been hasn't been really discussed before but it would be it would be a construction public improvement, however, doesn't necessarily follow the strict definition of a new construction, and it would be akin to buying used equipment under Chapter 24. So because the crew quarters exist, they are they are used, they already built, there would be no purpose in bidding out something that's pre-existing building that can be purchased so anything above and beyond that you know that meets the threshold for for bidding the projects if again if there's plumbing concrete other things that may need to be bid depending on how that shapes out i've not yet heard from the city attorney on the development agreement um but ultimately with all things considered because this is uh It's an existing opportunity that is going to not be available soon and the county would be looking at spending way more money to build something equivalent. Everything points to being appropriate to purchase what exists without going through the bid process because there is nothing equivalent. So that was the due diligence of looking into it and it's kind of a blend of the 4802.1 along with some common sense that it's a pre-existing building. So again, statute doesn't give me much direction and the Aaron Burst felt that it was appropriate to do what the county intends to do, at least not unlawful anyway.

Okay, so I attended the city meeting and they, excuse me, they're on the, we have a little bit of issue with, or the city has a little issue with sewer lift station, I guess you'd call it, and they seem to maybe got that remedied through their city engineer. And so they made a motion if we want to move forward, they made a motion to let us move forward. And so with this building and then that way we can get started sooner than later because of the purchase date, you can explain that.

So North Frontier Companies is looking for an answer on whether or not we're going to fund it or not. There's other people who are interested in these buildings, so he doesn't want to keep holding on to them if we're not serious about funding.

I would just like to point out from hearsay of other people building or trying to do stuff in the door with the development agreement how long it's taken, the process back and forth. Yes, I haven't seen firsthand just hearsay just so they don't make you, oh, you got to upgrade the sewer now on your expense or something. That's the only thing I want to point out is how others have said. I don't know firsthand.

And that is there is something to that and so they discussed that the other night and so we through the development agreement which their attorney you guys have already discussed this once right well I

I met with the city attorney on last week Friday on other matters and then I brought this to her attention. I haven't heard from her since the meeting on Tuesday night about the development agreement. I understand that the city engineer has been consulted. There's questions about who is responsible for the lift station. whether it's the foundation, whether it's the city, whether it's the county, everybody's kind of been just waiting for, working together, and nobody's playing responsibility for who it is, is my understanding.

So the way it sounded at that meeting, and correct me if I'm wrong, Dean, but TRMF offered to give the city the easement for the lift station, and that was all supposed to be grafted and done. So the TRMF has given access to all that.

but to steve's point yeah a development agreement has implications um obviously we have to make sure that it's completely fair and right by the county but because ems provides services to the city the city should, in all respects, cooperate. It sounds like they are. And we'll get, as soon as I'm presented with a version of the development agreement, I can say somewhat similar to the development agreement for the library and other things, but we'll need to go through there to make sure that any foreseeable issues are addressed before it's signed and then we aren't spending a long period of time waiting but i think it is important to at least speak for those buildings because again they will be gone sooner rather than later at the august meeting we spoke after the meeting concluded kyle michaels and i made a phone call to him he said he would hold him through the end of the month you know without offering anybody else so it is a extinguishing or uh the time is short of what i'm trying to say so that that's the important part is to to speak for them and say that the county would would proceed and whether they get moved right now is a different issue it's just so that they aren't lost

Talking with the city council, they asked when we would like to see an occupational date by. And when I said April 1st, they didn't see any issues with occupational date by April 1st.

We did ask Sandra Kuch, the state's attorney, or their city attorney, About the development agreement is going to be coming this week next week. Whatever right away and Didn't figure it would take much to get it signed get it So I'm half thinking that we might have to Agree to something today that we're going to move forward or not move forward and Then we're going to have to maybe have a special meeting once we see the development agreement what it's going to cost and

so that we can't make a motion on because we don't know what the cost is could you do a motion contingent upon a proper development agreement being provided or sure i i think uh

A motion basically reflecting intent to proceed, I think, is fine we don't have the final numbers in place and the development agreement will just be the cooperation between the two entities or three depending on how the foundation if they're going to be included in it or not. But the Commission, on the whole, if they want to move forward, I think. with the intent of proceeding should be fine the funds do seem to be available you know there was additional earmarked funds in each of the budgets for you know des and ems and whether some additional has to come out of the general fund and there'd be some budget amendments that's to be determined

okay so um just to get with the budget part you have enough money to in your budget for this year to so what i have in my budget if our budget continues to go as expected i have 150 000 from the 8 to 50 cents all that came out of the emergency punch

And we're probably looking at returning about $200,000-ish. If we get this grant and we don't have to purchase the cot and all that other stuff out of this year's budget, we should have about $200,000. So that's about $350,000 that we should still have left in EMS's budget. Okay.

Then would we... If we move forward, have to budget in the 27 budget for the remainder, the parts that we might have to bid out, is that what we're saying, or is there more money available?

I think it would depend on how fast they move, but I also have 8 to 50 funds in there that's at your discretion to use. It's saved here for the sheriff's office.

but if it's within 2027 you would just have to have that as an amendment to the budget okay and we can still do that this month you could do it in the october meeting because it's not going to affect the no levy requirement we just probably want it to be included in the final budget just so that people are aware of where it's going

If we can get moving and get concrete and plumbing and all that done yet this year, we have a good old winter.

We should be able to get it together.

It just depends on what Mother Nature decides to throw at us. We're going to get more expensive next year.

Like I said last meeting, I'm on board. I've seen these personally. I think we're fools if we don't because we're going to need them visiting with Kyle in a year or two. And then it's going to cost us a lot of money to hire a contractor to come in and build something. I'm going to say probably fancier than these because that's how it's going to be done. But these are really nice units. And I think they're really cheap. So if everything else worked on the part of moving them down here, I think it would be wise to buy these two and we would have our housing.

Jim, is the intent to buy them all redone? I don't have my stuff, I forgot it.

The quote is to have them redone. Yes.

And move, too.

So moving was on us, on the county. There's a quote for a moving truck inside of that that we hired with his contractors. But talking with Jim, we figured that his guys could hook him up and pull him down because he has the trailer to do it. Yeah. It's $2,500 per building.

it's on that on this quote i just think for the price and what you're getting it is rather reasonable it is they're nice units just a note to make sure that if you do move forward with this to make sure the liability insurance is covered for those buildings when they move them down because otherwise it would be under the contractor that moved them but

I do have cargo insurance. Okay.

Well, is there any more questions on this or any more concerns? Do we, I guess it boils down to do we want to move forward or don't we? I'm fine with this deal. I think it's going to be needed in the future. The city, after Kyle explained everything, and we take care of the city, our ambulance takes care of the city, and they pay us to, I don't know how much it is, but over $200,000 a year. And so we just need to keep it up, and the fire department's going to, I think, eventually need a room or two. And so that's my opinion. Steve? Yeah, I'm fine.

I move to approve the purchase of the two modular units for, what's the number?

So that's a quote. So there's still some stuff. She wants to do a final walkthrough next week. We can go out and do a final walkthrough. No? Yes? Okay. With the two units, one of the middle bedrooms is getting converted to a laundry room, and on the other unit it's getting converted into the office space. And so he had concerns that he didn't put the correct stuff into this quote. He wanted us to come back up and make sure that where we wanted the stuff was correct with his quote. So the quote right now is for 327, 399. What was it? 327, 399.

And what was the company's name?

Next Frontier Company.

And it'd be nice to have them do it because he has a contractor there working on his where if you bring them down here and do it, we would have to sign a contractor if you find one. And I don't know about the price. He's given, according to us, a break because his contractor is right there, stays there. So that's how we started talking about having them just remodel what they needed up there on these buildings. That way it just comes down and sits there. You won't have to find, you know, except for the cement we have to do down here. But the buildings will be done.

The building and the on and over.

Okay. Well, we have a motion on the table and then we can do more discussion. Is there a second to this motion? Purchase the two modules. Okay.

So was that price going to change? Possibly, depending on if he has to move the electric. Increase or decrease? Probably increase if he has to move the electric. Did he give you a rough estimate?

Not only is he going to do it, that's what the deal is. That's what we approved.

Because if they made a motion with up to... Washer and dryer, he's looking at $3,300.

$3,330.

So if you made the motion of 328, or no, what did you say? How many?

So it's 327, 399 without, so if you included this other, if you have this thing, you can put the other one for the electrical work. So electrical work is not included in this code, which doesn't mean we have to have it down up there for electrical. We can use our local electrical company to do it down there. And then that'll have to be bid out anyway.

That can be in on the bid on the other stuff, yeah.

So like Steve said, maybe he'll do it all for that price. If not, then maybe we'll have to do it down here. How could he say no to you?

Would it make more sense to, and I don't want to interfere because there's a motion on the table, but for discussion purposes, TO TABLE THE ISSUE OF THE PRICE UNTIL WE HAVE A DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT AND CALL A SPECIAL MEETING TO GO OVER ALL OF THAT AT ONCE OR SO THAT KYLE CAN CONFIRM THAT THE COUNTY IS MOVING FORWARD, WE SHOULD GET SOMETHING IN PLACE OR INCREASE THE AMOUNT JUST TO SAY, YOU KNOW, X AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED, WHATEVER, BUT IT'S TOUGH TO ESTIMATE UNLESS WE KNOW. RIGHT, UNLESS WE KNOW.

Yeah, but I guess I like to keep mine set like that because I don't want to leave an open book and then he says, oh, you guys have up to $350,000. Wow. Another $10,000. So we have a little bit of a way to go.

Okay. It's still an open book. Yeah, it's still, do you want to change your motion or do you want to leave it?

Somebody could leave it.

Okay. I agree. I think we should leave it and see if they'll do it for that. If not, we'll worry about it down here.

Yeah.

Then we'll see how big you are in the market. I agree with Steve. That way we have something set. We can at least purchase the buildings and all that.

So it's just a matter of... And we're moving forward too. So we have a motion. Is there a second to the motion and the way it is? I'll second. We have a second. Now do we have any more discussion? Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed say aye. Motion carries.

Thank you. Questions? I have nothing else, unless you guys have any questions or concerns.

Thank you, then.

Do you have a little more? Do you have a little more? Yep. Do you want to request that you can relocate throughout the base for ? Do you want to wait until the development agreement? I'd say that you get your bids. At least get your bids. You don't have to accept it. Let me come through that next meeting. Well, I guess, are we, question, are we throwing in the day of going out? When they come out, we'll have to fit that sound in, because that's just, you know.

Yeah. So who's going to draw up the plan that's going to be bid out?

So he has the foundations already drawn out to specs, and so we just need to get that from him, and then we can put it in the bid packet and send it out.

Is that good? Will that work?

Yeah, we have just a generic bid process through the county, but if they just put in the specs that they need for it, It can be published for three weeks.

The only other addition, which I'm not familiar with, I'm going to throw it out and see who knows more, but the only other suggestion from the Association of Counties was in bidding the rest of the work to be done, there may need to be some architectural sign-off You know, for approvals and this and that, we may need to add that to the RFP as well for an architect to say that everything's up to code and spec.

And if they wanted to work with an engineer to do that, to get the big package together and make sure that they have the right RFP language, that would be... I think just giving them the direction to work with an architect.

Sounds like it's going to be expensive to bring the architect in.

For engineering, yeah. But I think it sounded like they wanted that through the development agreement as well, to have an engineer sign off on the design.

That could be. I wasn't at the meeting with the city, so I'm not sure what was said, and Sandy has not reached out to me quite yet, so...

Do you want to see what's in the development agreement in case there's other little things that need to be added and then you put it all in one?

You can get that all ready and started, but I don't know if you want to admit it. Casey, there's something in that development agreement that we do end up having to do. Then we have to change it.

I think we're going to have to have a special meeting after the development agreement is looked over and decided upon.

I think he can get it all ready to go, his end, right? Just finding to add to it.

And we're going to be two or three months behind.

did you want to say well the only thing i would say is having dealt with city on development agreements and with the library if the city attorney is going to put in the same kinds of clauses i would suspect that on their side they're going to be asking the county to assume a lot more responsibility and liability than one would expect for a project like this i would mr chairman just encourage your state's attorney to get a hold of the proposed development agreement and you can take a look at the existing development agreements and all of the indemnification requirements and bonding and everything else and you'll get a pretty good idea what you're going to be doing but no i have reviewed the development agreement prior um

and at least for the library's purposes and That's that's a long story not for this discussion But the point is well taken that yes, we'll need to make sure that that everything is fair and that there's no undue liability or indemnification on the county if the city is going to partner with us to get this done and

And at the meeting, they did acknowledge that, yeah, we need the ambulance service. We're going to help move forward. So I'm hoping that it's a little bit better than before. So, okay, so then I think we'll just leave that alone then for now until we get that development agreement.

Okay, we'll get everything worked out and ready to go and we'll have it for that next meeting. All right.

Thank you. Thank you. Who wants to go next? Dean, are you okay?

We had somebody else on the agenda, right?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, we do at a certain time here?

Yeah, 945.

Oh, okay. So is Ian here for the Dickinson Public Library? I surely am.

Okay, sorry about that. No, not a problem.

I know you're dealing with big stuff.

And I know you have no shortage of paperwork, but I have a little more for you. Okay, thank you.

Sorry, I didn't see yours. Oh, not a problem at all.

Good morning, commissioners. Thank you for having me. I won't take up too much of your time. I know you're busy. Every year I do an annual report for the various commissions that work in partnership with the Dickinson Area Public Library, and so this is the one here focused on Billings County. We actually had a pretty good year in 2025. Billings County continues to overachieve as far as library metrics go. You guys make us look really good when we provide this report to the state, so thank you Billings County residents. We saw a 12% increase in library card holders here for Billings County residents, so we're up to 341 active library card users. That number is a little higher, but we're only tracking the ones that have been used in the year of the report, so 2025. The bookmobile traveled 14,000 miles this last year, and 5,320 of them were here in Billings County. One of the impressive stats I've got here for you is 58% of the items that circulated off the bookmobile, that was about just shy of 3,000 items. 58 of those circulated right here in billings counties our billings county residents seem to be making really active use of that bookmobile and the books we've got there both fairfield and the school here so really exceptional numbers similarly digital circulation Here for our Billings County residents is exceptionally high. 62% of our registered Billings County users utilize services like Cool Club Living. It's e-books, audio books, movies, comics, things provided to Billings County residents at no charge that come with that library card. You guys are big consumers of that media and those books. Many of these cards are for children, and so we've got a highly literate population here. So big readers, folks actively pursuing that continuing education, seemingly outside of school. So it's really exciting to see. I wish my numbers down in Sloan County looked quite so good. I know I'm going kind of fast, but are there any questions on any of the information I've provided there for you? There is a broader report there, too, if there is interest in more information, but I did try to confine this to Billings County in the interest of time. It's a big 20-page report we provide to the state every year. I figured you probably didn't want to go through every one of those today. It is kind of interesting statistics you provide there. Like I said, you guys are very impressive every year. And it's really awesome to see how much engagement we're getting from the folks who are out here utilizing the bookmobile. Our bookmobile librarian, Becky, was really excited when I put this together and showed it to her before I came out to talk to you guys. And I guess a little bit of broader information for you, as far as library governance right now, when I returned in 2024 to the Dickinson Area Public Library, we did some outreach tried to get a member of each of the counties onto our library boards you guys have a a louder voice we just hadn't had one for a long time and presently the the president of the dickinson area public libraries library board is our billings county representative she has been awesome so thank you guys so much for providing us with such a strong champion for the library Yeah, that's really what I have for you. If there are any questions, I'd be happy to field them. Like I said, I know it's fast-paced, but I don't want to hold you up. I know there are others waiting.

Well, thank you for that report. And I know we see the truck here. I think it's the truck, the bookmobile. And it's once a week to both schools. Is that how it is? That's correct. That's right. Okay. Well, I know it's been there for a long time, so our kids used it back, you know.

We've got a stack of library cards that we keep on hand for everybody. Becky knows all those kids by name. It's pretty impressive if you come in and see her at work with them. It's kind of hard work, honestly. It's great to see.

All right. Well, thank you then. Thanks, Calvin.

Thank you for your time, guys. I appreciate it.

Yeah, go ahead, Dean. Okay. Morning, Commissioner.

Morning. So from August of 2025, we're at 144 calls for the month. August of 2026 we're at 172 calls So we're up 28 calls from last August just like EMS that we were seeing a big increase just from call volume and I was just talking to Chris Blackwell here the other night and he said they are at a hundred thousand visitors now at the library Since it opened in July, so that's kind of crazy. I don't think I certainly didn't expect that but I That was kind of impressive to hear, I guess. I don't know if anybody has any questions on our report there. I just had a couple of other things.

Okay, go ahead.

We should have all of our vouchers in for the A250 event now, and I think we mentioned it earlier, but we'll be meeting with the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services on September the 14th to discuss reimbursement.

So yeah, nice to have one of the commissioners or whoever attend.

I know, Dean, you've done a lot of that before, or Jim's my portfolio holder or whatever, but it'd be nice to have one of the commissioners attend that. The sheriff's office responded to a couple of calls involving salesmen going door-to-door after dark, and it sounded pretty suspicious. We investigated that and found out that it was related to an aerial photography company, basically, and he was out knocking on doors, you know, 9.15, 9.30 at night, and kind of startled some people, which I can see why. But I reached out to the company and talked to them and just suggested that they, uh, they make their contacts during daylight hours. Um, anyway, it sounds like they're going to do that. This is kind of the time of the year. I guess we'll do that, but they take pictures of homestead or farmsteads basically, and then try and distribute, you know, and sell basically the photographs.

But, uh, it was funny.

You could just tell there was a big uptick because, uh, they were out and about pretty, pretty strong there for a while. Um, The only other comments I guess I would like to make in regards to whether you call it a bonus or exemplary service or special act award or whatever, I too was a part of the 1988 wildfire effort and dealt with a lot of these wildfires as a federal firefighter. I mean, there was nights that we didn't get to go home. We had to stay on cots in the community center. But what I would say is that that event is relatively short-lived compared to what this event was. The size, the scope, it's different. From the planning efforts that went in from a year and a half ago to where we're at, there was a lot of work. And I'm not the only one that did it. I mean, it was a team effort. I mean, everybody put a lot of time in, my staff. Kyle Shockley, Kyle Michaels, I mean everybody stepped up. City Fire Department. I don't think people realize the amount of work and effort that goes into an event like that. And to basically be a part of a situation where it threats other president's life and to know that basically throughout the event, I'm not going to take any credit for that. that we didn't have any of those issues or whatever that crept up because I can tell you, I have a lot of sleepless nights thinking about it. Small community, I think that's why the Secret Service, the FBI, all the partners took it seriously. And yeah, it did cost a lot of money and it was a lot of effort, but there was a lot of time and effort that went into it. And going back to the wildfires in 88, i mean there was a sheriff was given an award back then so i guess my point now is what's the difference now i mean why is it any different than what has been done in the past and uh you know yeah i take full responsibility as the sheriff but i can tell you there's a lot of extra work that went in i didn't ask for this event to basically happen but you think about it it's a once in a lifetime event that took place 250 years and uh that was pretty impressive that'll probably go out as the pinnacle of my career actually thinking about that and thinking about all the people that we came in contact with in the end people were safe We had a lot of heat-related emergencies or whatever that happened. But we got a lot of accolades from the Secret Service, the FBI, BCI, I mean, everybody that was involved, to come into a small community where the president actually spent the entire day. And it was planes, trains, and automobiles. From the time that they put down up at Payne Canyon, then taking the motorcade into Medora, seeing all the moving parts, And yeah, to the end, I think it was very successful. Because if it didn't go successful, we would have heard about it. And the buck would have stopped. Right on my desk and that's fine i'll take the responsibility, but I also appreciate the fact that we did have. Commissioners that were engaged and wanted to be part of that or whatever, and there were no public discussions there were no county business or whatever that took place. as far as minutes being need to be kept or whatever. They were just there showing support, part of my portfolio holder. I mean, they saw that early morning, the late nights, sometimes getting called out in the middle of the night. It was a lot, and people that are not part of it, they don't understand. And I wish, you know, and I've heard throughout the community that, you know, there's people that are going out, talking to people that, you know, this all goes into Dean's retirement. It didn't go into my retirement. I mean, it was basically a one-time payment. I can show you my leave and earnings statement if anybody would like to see it. It took a lot of taxes, but that's, But it's not about the money. It's about the recognition. And I want to say thank you to all of you guys, basically, for the recognition of allowing an event like that to support it, to be part of it. Because we could have done it without everybody. I mean, that's from the road crew to everybody involved. Even Katie was involved with the wheat crew and some of the stuff that she had to do with some of the early on with the glamping. Definitely a team effort, and I'm proud of how it took place. And I'll defend it to the end. And I also want to say I just want to make one thing straight for the public record. Pat Rummel's taken a lot of heat for stuff that he had nothing to do with. So from the food contract, I signed it as a sheriff. I take full responsibility for that. Everything was done in the light, and I would be happy, I would have been happy to answer any questions that came in directly. and we can avoid all the garbage that happened in the newspaper and everything else, because you only see one side of the story, and you don't know all the facts. But Pat, it had nothing to do with that. I just want to leave it there, but I appreciate everybody. Thank you.

Thank you for everything, Dean. Thank you.

I have one addition. This event was not over on July 5th. The multiple agencies and crews for the county that cleaned up the school, cleaned up the grounds, did everything else. I can't speak to certain aspects of it, but the county is still not done. We're sitting here in September now. There are still things being followed up on from the federal government that involve the sheriff's department. There's still things that took place during that week that are still being dealt with and addressed. So it's not just July 5th got here, Monday we went back to normal. The Sheriff's Department's been involved with the federal government and agencies dealing with things because of what took place in those seven to 10 days around here. I can't say any more than that about it, but it's not that it was just over and done and we all went back to it. There's the reimbursement, there's more meetings, There's getting all the vouchers submitted. And I know very little about the hours follow up, but I know that it took quite an effort to clean up, because the command center that the school allowed for was quite impressive. But that took a lot of time to get back to normal, to get it in shape for school to begin. But that's just the follow-up since, you know, in the last, throughout the rest of July and the autumn of August, so.

Okay. Yeah, I'd like to add a couple things. The, uh, that event was very well, uh, I guess you'd call it planned, and planned in advance. There was a lot of planning going on to make this event safe and, uh, a successful event. And getting to where commissioners were at this, I was asked by my portfolio holder, Kyle, to be there. I was also on the fire department doing fire department things and part of that crew. So, you know, I wasn't there in a commissioner part of it and there was no meetings, there was no anything. We attended as much as we could, helped when needed, that's just part of the deal. I don't see anything wrong with how that shook out. So we had a very successful deal and we're going to try to finish up here in September, I hope, and hopefully we get some, the governor sees everything we've done, which he has, And we're going to go out and meet with him on, I think it's September 14th. So try and get this kind of all done and cleared out. All right. Anything else? All right. So do we want to move to Stacy or another department? Stacy, are you ready? You what? Yeah. No, you're the Misty Hayes, which she isn't here yet. Okay, you want to do it now? Yeah, sure.

Huh? I didn't expect that.

What's that?

She said she's going to be done in 10 minutes.

Oh, well, we'll time you. We'll time you.

We're going to time you.

Okay, so this is the report from August 20th. We have three applications on the agenda. Application for a major subdivision, a preliminary plat for Little Missouri Second Subdivision. There's a timber frame sign that would need a variance. And then John Schrock has an application for a temporary conditional use for RBE. And so the Medora Foundation, they're working on a subdivision. west of town we've been reviewing this for a few months now there's seven lots total this is still preliminary so i'm just going to just introduce you to the project because the final plot would be on the agenda for september and then you guys would review and approve the final plot but for the most part we're splitting up the existing uses at the campground and then the fire hall is on its own parcel the city pool is on its own parcel three or four three other new parcels and one is for the rodeo arena and then two lots would be available for development but there's no plans right now and so the zoning board approved the preliminary plot as continued as presented and then they'll continue on with the final plot that cleans up all of the plants documentation and then So the Medora Foundation down by the golf course application 2026-34 would need a motion and approval for today. They're planning to put the kind of like ranch entrance signs, like heavy timber frame entrance signs over the ranch at Bully Pulpit at Bent Barn. That one was basically approved as presented because it's not within our county right of way, but where Bully Pulpit is, We have a 120-foot right-of-way on either side of Bible Camp Road. And where they want to put the timber frame sign is within the county's right-of-way. And so it's about 30 feet or so into the right-of-way. It's approximately 170 feet or so from the center of So this is what the entrance signs look like. You know, they're just heavy timber frame at the top and then posts at the bottom. And then variants have been requested for the .

How come they don't just go further onto theirs then?

They looked at it and like where

It's pretty hard because they showed us, and I drove down there too, because they're going to get uphill a little bit more, and then where the road that goes to the side parking, you know, they'd be in that road already. They'd have to move that road too. So do you know what I mean, going east? They have a little extra parking? Yeah.

This slide shows where it would be. It's about 120 feet or so from the middle of Bible Camp Road. And then it would be right before the main parking area of parking lot. And so they want to put the post basically in the ditch. Our normal right of way for roads is 75 feet on either side. And then so because of the terrain around here, we got 120 feet for this project. But this is kind of a flatter area too. It's not part of the hills, but they just did 120 feet through the whole sweep.

So question for Jared. What happens if someone hits that wood sign versus a breakaway stop sign as far as liability?

That came up in planning and zoning.

We can only be so big. It can only be so big. I mean, that's sort of for the right of way.

Yeah, the likelihood, and there's indemnification language in there. Okay. Yeah. And Stacy's got a copy she'll give you there. But they assume full responsibility. The problem with a breakaway sign.

is it's that type of a structure you hit that and then yeah well i get that i just didn't know liability-wise yeah yeah it can't be that they have the identification language they take responsibility all right that's clarified so like our erw applications for construction right away it has all that language in it and but it references approaches and so it's basically like the condition is to approve with the condition that um that the application to construct within the right-of-way whenever the word approaches use we would just replace it like the sign and they they realize that because our application is more geared for like approaches but we have other construction within the right-of-way too and so i highlighted the areas and orange on the application that cover the construction here and yeah

Does that answer your question? Yeah. Okay. Okay, is there anything else? No, probably this application.

It would just be approved with the condition.

With the condition, okay.

The application on there has several conditions, so we don't need to list everything, but it's just a matter of referencing the slide.

Understand everything then you're good. You're good. So I want to make a motion to accept this. Permit. I don't see the number again now. OK, tell me.

I'll second it.

Motion is second. Is there any more discussion on it? All those in favor say aye. Motion carries.

You got to take it back.

Oh yeah. Okay, and then the other application on the agenda, Estador John and Irene Schrock, they purchased three lots in Franks Creek subdivision on the south end of that subdivision. And they have an application to build a shop with living quarters. And then during the construction of the home, they requested to live in their RV until they're able to live in the house. And so this is a conditional use application So we have it in our ordinance that you can live in an RV up to one year while you're constructing your home. And so the zoning board approved this one with the condition that it would just be for up to one year during the house. And they have their application filed for their house and so they'll be starting relatively soon. They have their sewer and water application and so that will probably go in first while they get the utilities and everything to start the house. So that's to be just the condition to allow the RVS temporary living quarters for one year.

So do we have to make a motion for that? We do. Yeah, for conditional use. All right. So...

So I'll just tell you what I wrote instead of switching it over. Sure. E26-39 was the application. John and Irene truck. Conditional use permit with the condition of one year.

Of living in a motorhome or whatever?

While constructing. Yep. Okay.

I'd make that motion. Okay. We have a motion. Is there a second?

second second any more discussion all those in favor say aye aye aye motion carried um the other thing that we've been discussing too from the last over the last few months are the data centers and the discussion at the meeting was to propose a one-year moratorium for data centers I don't see us, you know, getting any requests for a data center within a year's time, but this gives us a buffer to get the ordinances in place. There is a major transmission line that's going to be constructed real soon south of us in Sloat County through, like, Heddingford County, Sloat County, the Golden Valley County, and on west, that's like a 500 and some odd, kill the transmission line and usually whenever you have the large transmission line maybe in the hunt for a data center but right now i don't see that happening i mean it's but you never know what the future is going forward so jared said he would he would work on a resolution which for a one year moratorium but it's it's a fairly common practice as big as you want to do it right the first time around but right now we don't have any requests so we do have the time and there's other counties like mercer and orton area and where the transmission lines are heavy and power generation is heavy they're getting the requests right now so i don't think we'll get them but we'll at least have time to work on that but that'll be coming to you guys so the zoning board made a motion right well we just did a consensus come from here right yeah okay yeah we wouldn't yeah we don't put the motion on that or just kind of like a recommendation to do this at the county level jared did you want to address that a little yeah i need to communicate with other states attorneys around the state namely

I was directed to Ladd Erickson, who's done quite a bit of work on data centers and moratoriums. I don't think it's a pressing issue to get a moratorium in place today. I don't have the language ready and without any permits being applied for and any intent to develop. As long as, you know, it was well the timing was good by Stacy to bring it to the Planning and Zoning Commission now the County Commission is aware you can start to draft that language for in the event that some development looks to come into the county but a one-year moratorium sounds like a lot of a lengthy period of time but again there's a lot that goes into it the information regarding data centers and Ordinances regarding them is pretty much new to the other parts of the state that are actually facing development. So we still have some time, but we'll work on that and get that in place for an appropriate amount of time until the proper ordinances are in place.

have it in place before we get somebody knocking on the door because then it would look like we're trying to stop that project where it's like we don't have any specific projects so that's a good thing for us right now but if we have a project like applied digital comes in says hey we want to put a data center and really don't work on the long-term so we don't have any companies so right now it's like within the next few months

okay so any more discussion on that where nobody wants to do nothing yet right yeah we get more information from jared also and you so we'll we'll be at and we'll keep this in the zoning deal well that's all i have for them we didn't have any arw applications for the project for the aeronautography project that is all in place and

They'll come out in mid-October or early October and do a flight after the routes are off. So that's progressing.

Okay.

Okay. Thank you, Stacy. 10.30, Misty. You're on the next.

Good morning commissioners and I'm Rob Schilling, deputy ranger is here with me as well today. Um, just wanted to give you kind of some regular updates. We haven't been here in a few months, so fair amount has happened in the last few months and there's things going on. Um, just wanted to start a little bit by mentioning the North Plains connector transmission line project. That's the project Stacy was referring to that is the. transmission line that is south of Billings County. So it does cross portions of Slope County and Golden Valley counties and portions of Forest Service lands in Slope County. So that project is moving forward. The notice of availability for the final EIS was posted to the Federal Register last week, August 28th. And so We are nearing the end of that process. The North Dakota Public Service Commission had hearings yesterday and today for that project as well. And so that's been an opportunity for folks to come in and express concerns. They would need to provide approval for that project to proceed forward. Over near center there's actually two pieces of it that tie into substations on that side, and then it goes into basically to Cold Strip, Montana, so ties into power lines there. The intent of that project as it's been described to us is to connect the east and west grids. As you know, in years past there have been issues with if one part of the grid fails or it's not a way to back feed across. So that's the intent of the project, is to connect the two. We've not heard any specific things in relation to data centers for that project, but as Stacey mentioned, obviously, if a power line wasn't there, it could facilitate other activities. We would likely have our decision by the end of October of this year, and what they indicated is that we would be finishing permitting into 2027 and likely construction would not start until 2028 if the project's approved. So no direct effect to Billings County, but certainly a neighbor for sure and not too far away. Wanted to briefly mention the Buffalo Gap Road. Things are moving forward and my apologies for the miscommunication and confusion we had on the alignment and getting the surveys going. Um, I think we had assumed that, um, things were moving forward and, and, um, grows was waiting for us to provide approval. And, and so I, I apologize for that miscommunication, but I think things are moving forward. And so as soon as we get the archeological and hydrological surveys back from them, we have completed the wildlife surveys and the botany surveys. And so we would be ready to, to issue a decision as soon as we get that information and the final. you know, engineered alignment from them. So I think things are moving forward for us to, to get that decision yet this fall, assuming we get all the reports in. Um, wanted to briefly mention the arts across the Prairie project. Again, this is not a direct impact to Billings County, but it's just over the line in Golden Valley County. And so just as a reminder, this is the proposed art installment that will be, um, between the railroad and old highway 10. just into Golden Valley County, so just west of Medora here. That project is moving forward. The county is working with the North Dakota Arts Council on preparing the approaches and getting the parking lot ready. I don't think the art will be installed maybe till next season, but that one is moving forward.

What is art again? Sorry.

kind of a rock-like depiction of a bison is basic. And then they did have what they call tile workshops where members of the community could come and create a tile that will go on the sculpture itself. So it'll be a large, I don't know, 12 to 14 feet high. Yeah, it's going to be tall. And it's basically three pieces. of sculpture and then there will be a parking area where people can pull in so not not big like enchanted highway but pretty good sized then it's rock instead of metal um well yeah it'll be rock or like a metal with some concrete cover yeah you guys are curious about it i have pictures all right i mean it looks like a

really funky from below and then there's another piece and then there's a platform that people kind of stand on.

Yeah. We are seeing some oil and gas leasing occurring so you may be aware we receive expressions of interest for leases or federal leases that have that are associated with Forest Service. We have been responding to those and we had a few so in the last sale that were in billings county and a few that are in the upcoming sale that are in billings county as well and we are seeing those leases sold so just an awareness for you those are mostly in the north tier of billings county and into mckenzie county so kind of that that north township or so But just an awareness for you all that there does appear to be some potential interest there, and we are seeing those leases sold at pretty good prices. So whether that means we'll have development or not is always a question. Sometimes leases are purchased as speculative, and they're not developed. Sometimes they're developed. But I just wanted to make you aware that this is probably the last two quarters are the first times we've been seeing active sales in Billings County.

yeah that's it that's i feel like the rough yeah this is the draft yeah yeah yeah that's pretty yeah that's pretty cool so it's kind of concrete but it's mostly metal panels that are all um yeah yeah yeah But the tile works on the side, so it's like, yeah, they'll be all posted on the other side. Yeah, anyway. So across the prairie, if you guys don't know, it's like each region, there's eight regions in the state, and so each region has like a large scale art installation. And so our area was selected and moved, so.

okay so um so yeah just on the leases again just wanting to make you aware that we are seeing some potential interest in billings county nothing specific as far as development at this point but but like i say it's this is most recently been you know active leases being sold which at least indicates interest um I wanted to give an update on our travel management plan. So we did finalize the maps for the proposed action actually yesterday, day before yesterday, Tuesday. And so we have a proposed action that we'll be ready to take to the public here very soon. Our plan is to issue a draft environmental assessment, EA, and the proposed action maps for the public to provide comments on. That will be an official public comment period. We're planning for the end of September to have that release out there. I will provide a copy of the maps to you and to the grazing association so you can see those. The county and any member of the public and the grazing associations will have opportunities to provide comments, additional comments on things that you have concerns about or have interest in or whatever during that comment period. and really up until the time that we issue our decision. Right now, we are looking to potentially have a final decision as early as January. Could be later into March, depending on if we have a number of comments and if we have folks that would file an objection under our objection process. But I think we're very near to the end, which we are excited about. And I hope you guys are excited about, too, because we've put a lot of effort into it. And we appreciate all the effort that you all and the staff have put into providing us input and helping us work through the processes and talking about section lines and all of those things. So I think we're going to have a pretty good product that we can put out there for the public to take a look at here in the next couple weeks. Also kind of connected to that but not is you may have seen the notice of intent for the Forest Service to change the travel management rule. And I want to be very clear that that's a very separate process from what we're doing. That is a national rule and that is a national process that they announced last week. That process will, is, modifying how we would make travel management plans our current travel management plan that we're working on is under the current rule we anticipate our plan will be completed prior to the release of the proposal the proposed change rule from what we know now we believe our plan will be in compliance with the new rule and and my understanding is the new rule they are Specifically writing in some things acknowledging section lines and some other things that that I think we've already taken into account in our process so There is a comment period open for that right now for the notice of intent for that rule You're welcome to make comments on that as well But it shouldn't really affect our our plan. We've gotten approval to continue with our plan While they begin the process for that change in the rules So, and we don't anticipate that we'll have to start over or do a bunch of changes based on that road change. And then the last thing I had on my list was fire restrictions. I think you're aware we do have what we call stage one fire restrictions in place that does prevent campfires in dispersed areas. It does currently allow campfires in developed campgrounds. We have been talking about and reviewing in the last couple of days about potentially changing that to include restrictions on campfires, period, including in campgrounds. And I would expect we'll make a decision on that in the next day or so. As always, we're monitoring conditions and we recognize that while some places are getting some spots of rain, that doesn't seem to be widespread and it's not hitting everywhere. So we recognize there are places across all of the counties where it still continues to be very dry and where fires are a concern. So as things progress, if we continue to stay this dry, then we may look to do something additional yet this fall as well.

Okay.

Any questions?

Yeah, Mr. Chairman, could I ask Misty a question? If we had, Senator Hovind asked me to attend a meeting about two weeks ago. We had a meeting in Dickinson with Senator Hovind, the grazing associations and the chief of the forest service. And the, What I think the Commission should understand is that the, let's see if I can find it, the rule, proposed rule, unless you correct me if my memory is wrong, basically presumes in the last sentence that all roads are going to the presumption is that they will be open and there is a specific reference to the roads in uh billings county or not billings county north dakota i think western north dakota is what it says so it was a very productive meeting and i think that there's going to be some requirement really that the commission get involved i think is is that proposed rule gets going but i thought it was one of the more productive meetings that we've ever had on travel planning the roadless rule has been resembled so and and what you're saying misty is your last submission is under the existing travel plan. Do you think it's going to be consistent with the proposed rule? We do. That I just referenced? Yes.

Okay.

Just for information for the commission.

Good. Yeah, I'm glad that you were grazing, everybody attended. Yeah, that's good.

Got one question. Sure. Is there any truth or can you comment on the idea of a developed truck parking lot, the DOT by Freiburg?

So at this point, we don't have a formal proposal. DOT did reach out to us to look at an option for that. And I'm trying to think about the timing of this. So in the last month, we were preparing to set up a meeting with them and the grazing association to start having discussions around that. They asked us to hold off on creating a meeting because they're considering other options and I don't know what those are. So we do not have a formal proposal and we have not been doing any work on that until, if they come back to us with something. They did reach out to us to talk about what the process might look like and see what the possibilities were. it sounded to me like they were looking at other options which i would be perfectly happy with okay and that was the application or not the application but that letter that we received a couple meetings ago the potential idea okay so well we'll just wait to hear more yeah when you when you hear more yeah as we get a proposal and then you know we'll be and working with you all and the Grazing Association on what that request or proposal is. But at this point, they asked us to put any kind of meeting or moving it forward on hold until they explore other options.

Good. Okay. Lori?

I'm going to ask a follow-up question to Miss Seed. Um, a little clarification please on forest service named roads that are on the travel management plan that may even be an administrative use that sometimes are on private property and sometimes they're public property. What is that meaning with a new language about forest service roads will be open to the public?

So I, to be honest for the new rule, I don't know exactly what that means, except Our travel rule only applies to Forest Service administered roads. We only have jurisdiction to have roads be open up that are Forest Service roads or roads that we've acquired easements for. So if it's a road that we put a number on at some point that starts on Forest Service and crosses private and ends on Forest Service, that middle section would not be included in the rule and would not be applicable to the rule.

Okay, any other questions? You're getting questioned today. That's all right.

I'd rather people ask questions.

Well, thank you for your information. Thank you for coming. Thank you, Rob, too. Thank you, guys. All right. I think we'll take a break. We're overdue on break.

Call the meeting back to order. And I think we'll go into more department head reports. And so, Katie, do you want to go first?

I made a list now. Okay. Good morning. How are you guys?

So the Weed Board, a lot of our staff went back to school, so it's just Jody and I, and then we have one seasonal that's working a couple days a week when they don't have class. So we're still out spraying. We're still behind from the high temperatures we had in July and August, but fall's a really good time to spray the Canada Thistle and Absinthe Wood.

So if anyone's listening to the minutes and still needs help spraying or chemical, please get a hold of us, because we would love to help you.

And so we're going to keep working on county roads, spraying for private landowners, and then the Forest Service. Nothing too crazy at the Wheat Board.

Do you have any questions for me?

No, I think we're good. Thank you. Pat, do you want to go? Whoever you're going to go first.

Andy.

Good morning. I'm going to give you a brief update on our projects. Our guardrail improvement projects and the CMC routes, 3D, they completed the work and then there were site three to five that were seeded within just a temporary seeded window.

So they offered to do it at their own cost to see if the grass grows. So we're just

waiting a little bit for grass establishment prior to final inspection on that project. The crushing jobs at Tim Armour's pit. So Fisher, they'll probably finish up next week, provided they keep going and not break down too much more. They've kind of been off and on breaking down, but we did send in progressive estimate number one, the payout. So that was just an estimate amount. So once you get that signed, if you want to give me a copy, then I can get that back to the contractor. And then after the question's completed, we'll do a, we'll fly the file for a file measuring.

So when you do that, are you going to account for the clay that was all done there, as far as the payment to Armbrust? Or how does that work?

It's, I mean, we'll measure the pile and that's what they'll get paid for.

for final quantity because it's part of the product i suppose as far as payment to another landowner for clay and tracking but does it come from somewhere else though the clay yeah the clay is getting hauled in from castles aren't tim shouldn't be getting paid for the clay that's all that's what i'm wanting to clarify last time we did it on the moss circuit i believe it was we

subtracted the amount of clay, we had some clay left over, we flew that pile through the gravel pile, and then whatever clay we hauled in, we subtracted from it.

Yeah, I guess I was thinking for the contractor, we get paid their quantity. Oh, I get that. But then if you're tracking the clay, we can subtract that from it.

Was there a lot of clay used?

Yeah, in the first portion of the pit. The second portion here, they moved into a different area and they haven't been having here as much.

So it started to straighten out, but it's a completely different area of the pit.

We didn't want you to build it up.

I moved on to the Bobby Coos pit, so Fisher, Santa Gravella, they're doing that one as well. And they've just planned to move on over there once they're done crushing that Tim Arbor's pit. The Thompson pit, we did that project last month with wire reconstruction being a little bit of $208,000. So the notice of award, I sent it to you guys, you guys signed it, and then I sent that back to the contractor along with the contracts to start repairing. So when I get them back, I'll send them back here waiting for signatures. And I believe he's planning to start that this fall. He's doing some other crushing for Pat, so kind of whatever order you give him, I think he will do it. And as far as the chip seal project, so that one, Dale with Aztec contacted me, and he'd

week or two ago and said they wouldn't be here prior to September 1 to start, then they anticipated it'd probably be not until September 15 till they could get it completed.

So I don't know if you're familiar with chip shields, but typically September 1 is a good cutoff date or you at least want to have them started and ended shortly after.

That way it gives the proper cure time. and it helps prevent stripping and that kind of thing.

So I visited with Pat after the DOT about this Aztec requested an additional time or have it suspended for the winter. So our preference was to suspend it for the winter, put together a draft change order and sent them over to the change order would read that they could start September, start chip sealing after May 15th and then after June 1, LDs would start Or if they started before that, LBs would start whenever they start, whichever it comes to. So it's incentive to come and do it early. And then it's no additional cost versus being the price of that event. So it's unfortunate it had to carry over, but I guess it does give time for the trail project to finish up before the chip seal, a lot of that grading. But just kind of want to let you know that's the status of the chip seal.

Is there any fine or what do you call it? Since it wasn't completed, was that they should, that they're countered?

So there's a, you end up charging a penalty with related damages. So this fall you won't charge any because they're outside of the window being able to complete it. You know, with the weather, the time of year, they're not allowed to do that. It's hard to charge an LBs. But they're not allowed to do the work that's kind of standard practice.

But the fact that it could have came earlier, that's what I'm saying.

Part of the reason they didn't come also was the 4th of July around here. They had it scheduled in, but in the notes we said this is a bad week to show up. It drew a scheduling conflict in.

And that's why they didn't make it. They did reach out shortly before the 4th and said, hey, you can get there late. next week, but never planned ahead to schedule a pre-jump or anything, and it was cutting it pretty close. So they will be charged LVs once they start.

until they complete the chips.

If it's between May 15th or May 16th and June 1, after June 1, they would get charged every day until they complete the chips.

You say LDs, what does that mean? Oh, liquidated damages. It's a penalty. I didn't know your acronym.

Yeah, sorry. It is a penalty, so they will be charged some. It's just a matter of whenever they come to complete it, the total amount. There is time in the contract that was provided after the chip seal is completed. There's some time because there's a secure period before the striping. So there's, they'll stop once the chip seal is completed, the LDs, and if they complete the striping and the fog seal and the striping in a lot of time, there won't be additional LDs. That's how that'll work.

Okay.

The 15th Street Grading Improvement Project, so that update hasn't changed a lot. We submitted that environmental document to the Forest Service and we're still waiting on them for final approval. On that, our payment justification study. So we finalized the traffic data maps and then I set up a meeting with Pat next week just to go over the results and finalize the routes. So we want to look into further consideration. Then we got a couple of wish list bridges. Also the NDACO conference in October. That meeting with the federal aid meeting with the DOT we could register yesterday. Them fill up really fast. You know, as soon as you get the email you're trying to call in and you're already on hold. But we did get it scheduled for Tuesday at 1015 Central Time with the event center there. say those dates say that date again okay so the conference is 11 through the 13th of october the meeting would be october 13th at 10 15 central time and i did email out an invite yesterday i don't know if you got it or not but a calendar invite just to help help remind you and then i guess one last thing i had was Mr. Rodney, you had called and asked about looking at near Salt Lake Creek and East River Road, that intersection above the lead for guardrail.

So I visited with Pat and I just took a couple pictures.

So the first one, this is at the southeast side of the intersection. It kind of drops off there. And then the second picture below kind of shows like the vehicles are just taking the corner really sharp. And then if they exploded, they'd encroach upon that drop off and that was the area of concern. So recently the county put some additional gravel on there and there's optic markers to help delineate, I guess, that intersection. So then when you're looking at if guardrail is warranted, one thing to look at is the clear zone distance. So the clear zone is basically a safe, recuperable area that you can drive outside the driving lane, you know, if something happens. So that varies depending on your speed of your traffic, the amount of vehicles. So the last page, I put a table of clear zone distances for reference. And then we fall under that. that first line, so basically for any slope flatter than four to one, you need a seven to 10 foot clear zone. So going around, I guess this would be the second page, the top photo kind of shows Maybe the worst spot going around that radius, the distance there from the edge of the road was about 12 feet back, or 12 feet and then it got wider after that. And then going around the radius itself, you're probably 20 feet or better. And they're all, most of them are around 10 to one or flatter. It did get to about five to one, then you keep going to the west. So it meets the criteria for You've got enough clear zone distance there. So I guess my opinion from just taking a field visit, it's not necessarily warranted there based on the conditions now, the speeds, the traffic, and the amount of clear zone distance you have. So if you've got any questions on that, or hopefully I've explained it.

That's good. Thank you. I talked to Pat about it already earlier, and we just wanted to get

Okay, but if you've got other spots that you can look at, I'd be happy to do that. I don't know if you guys got any other questions.

I'm good. You guys good? All right. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, I'll try to make this quick today for you guys. Just want to give a couple of status updates on a couple of projects we're working with you guys on. First one is the construction of the shared use path on the East River Road from the south end of Medora here all the way to Campground. Barranco Brothers has completed all the earthwork and the gravel operations on that project. When construction will be coming in the 21st of September to be laying the concrete for the sidewalk on that project. They do have to do the fabrication of the steel bridge that won't get installed until April. The contract didn't allow for that time in there, but they do plan on setting the pedestrian bridge in April of next year. So that's just a quick skinny on that project. The other project is the Buffalo Gap Road Extension. Missy was giving her updates, but we're working with KLJ on completing the environmental studies on that. They have completed their field work and they will have their environmental or the wetland and their cultural surveys down here in the next couple of weeks.

And we will submit that to the Forest Service.

from there we'll proceed with survey and final design we still have to come forward with a task order to complete that work along with that estimated cost that each county would be marrying for that project but that's in the forecast we still still believe it's very realistic that this project gets constructed in 2027. okay that's all i really have for those two updates on those projects the other

Yeah, good morning. I guess I wanted to look at the shared use path project with Gail today and want to just take a minute to stop in here and just say we appreciate working with Billings County. are doing a lot of work in the city of medora right now our municipal team is so we really are best in this community want to be part of billings county in the future uh did want to extend an invitation to you guys to go to supper during the association of counties on monday night gail will send you guys an email with some more information on that but we would like to extend an offer to you guys for supper on monday night during the association of counties but Otherwise, I just wanted to say, you know, we are, again, you know, appreciative of the opportunities to work up here. And if there's anything else we can do, we'd be happy to help. And then, too, just if you guys have any questions on any of the projects that we're currently working on, please let Gail or myself know.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, guys.

So the crews have been hauling on East River Road, Sully Creek, West River Road, Frank's Creek, cleaning cattle guards.

The milling got done on Blacktail and on Fairfield Pasture.

Then they've been helping out with fires as they arise. District 1 got their 724 delivered. I talked to I heard about the mowers the other day, and they're supposed to show up this month yet. I haven't heard a date. The flex hitches are in, but the mowers have not showed up yet. The mouse pit, Wyrick finished up crushing. He's got some reclamation to do, and then we'll be done with that, moving to the next pit. The overage pit, Canopic finished crushing.

There's like 13.

1,995 yards that got put up there. There's reclamation needs to be done yet on that, but that is crushed and measured.

The trucks are up for auction at Piper's on the 24th of this month. You can see the trucks on line down there. The 135th, the dirt work and graveling is done. There's fencing that is going on yet. And then the permanent seating needs done yet.

There's temporary seating done, but the permanent needs done yet. The upper Magpie Bridge is set to start towards the end of October yet. There's some complications with the DOT, but they've all been resolved. There's still a goal end of October. And then the letter of intent was sent to Gooseneck for the lease tractors for next year. For three of them. That's all I have.

Okay. Thank you. Anything else? No. All good?

Kyle Shockley.

Was that fine and any questions?

What does AAR stand for?

After Action Review.

Okay.

I didn't get that. Is that on the back? Well, that's on the back. I didn't see that.

Sorry, I'm trying to save paper. No.

Oh.

I was just trying to save paper by printing it from the back.

Sorry.

Okay. so the fire ban i just wanted to visit a little bit so um the uh golden valley county took theirs off right golden valley county did yes they did and then the forest service hasn't indicated they're going to take it off yet nope they're actually indicating to go further okay put on stronger restrictions we haven't had any issues here but mckinsey county has with the fire rings

People are like putting 10-foot logs and they're letting them burn and they're falling out. So we haven't had an issue. I know they have up north. So yeah, that's what kind of spurred them going in further.

So we had received an email from Johansen last week, I think, on that.

Okay. Okay.

So then we're okay, everything's out. That was my only question, I guess. I would comment to that. Part of the county is greened up, part of it's not. That is true. That is true.

But you get Freiburg, it's green. You get it by your place, it's searched.

It doesn't take much. Any other questions? We're good. Thank you. Yeah, you're leaving or you're going to do some, huh? I'm going to head out. Oh, I thought you were going to give another report.

If you want me to come up. Thanks, guys.

Yeah, see you. And Juliana, she doesn't have anything. Marcia, do you have something?

I just have a couple things, a little. We have the monthly balance sheet along with the Treasurer's Cash Summary Report. There is a meeting that was scheduled for the county caucus with all of the Southwest region commissioners at the New England Mercantile. You guys went there before the NDACO meeting. This is the Southwest Association of Counties, not the NDACO, but NDACO will be there. So it's scheduled for September 14th at 6 p.m. they'll have a taco bar so you'll have to pay for it there then at 6 p.m. in New England so it's basically the same thing going on that's

But just different group?

It's just all the county commissioners that you're going to caucus and come up with resolutions that you want to cover to the full.

Okay. The only other thing is if you need hotel rooms for the

Association of Counties Convention, let me know. We do have a block of rooms at the Everspring again, and if you have not registered already, you can register online, or if you want me to register for you, just let me know of that too. We're getting ready to do our work on the general election, training of election workers and things like that. One change was made. Rhonda King can't do the November election work, so Jody Johnson is going to sit in for her.

Okay.

That's all I have right now.

Do we have... Who turned in petitions for the...

Um, for the November election for district four seat, um, it's a two year term. There were two petitions turned in, uh, one with Kevin Kessel and the other is Kyle Shockley. And then if you want to go through all the federal and state races, I can put them up on the screen, but there is nothing. Nobody was turned in for District 5, so that will be a complete write-in race.

Okay. You're good then? Thank you.

Jared, you want to do something? I guess I don't have anything much in addition. Quite a few little projects working on, social services, staying, keeping me busy with some of their things. Didn't have any major criminal fallout from the event, some minor traffic things here and there through July. Worked on that moratorium a little bit further, getting communication, dealing with everything else I've spoken on today. There have been several individuals that have reached out for guidance. District five residents who had looked to run a write-in campaign, the Secretary of State directed at least one of them to me to look into incompatibility of office type analysis. Those individuals are fully aware that it would be a write-in campaign, but they need additional information that the Secretary of State was unable to provide just to determine if that was if they're eligible and appropriate.

So yeah, just keep them busy.

Okay.

All right, well, I don't know. Is there any other, anyone else I missed? Or I think we're good to go. Someone wants to make a motion to adjourn. I move to adjourn. I'll second it. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you all for coming.