Board Meeting Information & Materials - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the Bloor County Board of Commissioners meeting of July 7th, 2026. Please stand for the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Agenda review, Josh.

Madam Chair, there are no changes to the agenda.

Okay. I'll move. I'll move the agenda.

Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carries. Then we'll move on to drainage. Ryan? Good morning, everyone. Good morning.

We don't have a room full of people today. It must be quiet drainage. It must be. Yeah.

Yeah. No public opinions this morning.

No, sir. No, sir. Just a couple cleanup items here. I'll start out with County Ditch 56, Madam Chair. Quotes were solicited from multiple contractors for the proposed repair work on County Ditch 56, Branch 5, involving a new boring of subsurface tile under Blue Earth County State Aid Highway 20. The solicitors of repairs included the installation of new HDPE tile under Blue Earth County Road 20, replacing the current Branch 5 tile. On Thursday, June 25th of 2026, only one bidder submitted a quote for the proposed repairs for the crossing. The engineer's estimate for the proposed repair work is $33,803.70. The single submitted repair quote is provided in the table with a quote submitted by Sally Excavating with a lump sum bid of $29,746. ISG and Blue Earth County have and are currently working with Sally Excavating on projects with positive results. ISG recommends awarding the repair contract to Sally Excavating. Action requested, we are asking the County Ditch 56 Strange Authority Toward the repair contract to sell the excavating in the amount of $29,746 for the proposed repairs for County Ditch 56, Branch 5.

Thank you.

Moved to approve.

I have a motion. Second. And a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. On to the next dish.

My next item is County Ditch 77. County DIT 77 watershed has approximately 3,491 benefited acres and is located primarily in McPherson township. A petition for partial abandonment under Minnesota statute 103E.806 was received on June 25th of 2026. Attorney KLR Van Bruggen of Rankin Noonan reviewed the petition and found it to be adequate. Action for today, at today's meeting of the Blue Earth County Drainage Authority, we are requesting an order to appoint Engineer Charles J. Brandel of ISG to prepare an engineer's review report for the proposed petition for partial abandonment affecting portions of County Ditch 77, Branch 1. That is all, Madam Chair.

I move approval.

Second a second any discussion all in favor aye opposed carries Thank you.

Have a good morning. Thanks Ryan.

Hey, thanks Ryan. Nice and easy And now we'll go on to Public Works Ryan Good morning.

Good morning Not too long of an agenda here today. First action item for consideration is final payment for State Aid Project 007598038. This is County Road 156 box culvert replacement. Over the Maple River, done by Minnowa Construction, the original contract amount was $517,183. And the remaining contract payment to be made, $13,619.78. For a total contract payment, final contract payment, $515,226.10. I would recommend approval of that final contract payment.

Do I have a motion?

So moved.

Second. Any discussion on this? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you. Action item number two, consideration of final payment for County Project 2184. This is County Road 184 box culvert replacement project by Selly Excavating, original contract $182,713. Final payment amount, $1,989.03 for a total contract payment of $198,902.96. I would recommend approval of that final contract payment.

Do I have a motion? Move to approve. And a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.

All right. Included in the board packet is the 2025 Highway Department Annual report we've typically reviewed these in depth or and less and I know due to some time constraints in the past the board has asked that we just consider the report so maybe with that being said I would be happy just to answer any questions that the board might have on the 2025 annual report in consideration of my recommendation for approval of it.

It was really a good report. I was happy to read it and amazed at how much money we spent.

We do our best.

Thank goodness we have the sales tax.

Yes.

Anybody else want to make a comment? It's always a good report.

It is.

So we just need a motion for that?

I'll move it.

Second. And a second. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Carries.

All right, and action item number four is consideration of approval of the 2025 Parks Department Annual Report. There is a summary that does provide for our updated parks usage and payments that were made, projects that were completed. We did get some more revenues than last year due to the rate increase, the modest rate increase, so that did help us kind of... make it look more than we had in previous years, but we'll be considering those rates again later this year. So with that, I would recommend approval of the parks, annual park.

I move the report, approving the report. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Another good report.

You know, and it's well known that Blue Earth County's really got a diamond for parks across the state of Minnesota. We have an amazing parks department, and we keep our parks up, and people really use them. So I just drove through a few of them the other day, and just amazing how good they look. So good job, and make sure you let the park pass it down because they're the ones that do all the work. Thank you.

Thank you. I would also agree with that, and I also appreciate the fact that you're looking at the rates. I mean, I don't camp, but I just know those rates. When I look through that packet. They're low. They're low. Again, I don't camp.

For someone that did camp, they're low.

I've talked to a few people that own campgrounds, and we are very reasonable. I think that's okay, but at the end of the day, we need to have some income to pay these expenses, too, because they're expensive to operate.

Bray was packed to the brim this weekend. Drove through Bray Park, and man, I tell you, I don't think there was a spot left there. And some of the empty spots were filled up. and the park looked immaculate, immaculate.

Yeah, I just talked to the caretaker. It sounds like it was a good weekend all in all. Busy, but no issues per se. All right.

We have a motion and a second. Okay, we've had discussion. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carries. Thank you.

Informational item updates on our construction projects. Casa 5 from Riverfront Drive to Summit Avenue. Holtmeyer's underground crews are continuing to work on the city water main and sanitary sewer replacements from Riverfront Drive to Maxfield Street. So they're working from the south end of the project to the north. The railroad, Union Pacific Railroad, is scheduled to begin working on the crossing replacement in mid-August. Should just be a few days. The Centerpoint Energy 16-inch gas main replacement work is continuing from the north end of the project to the south. Right now they're having to excavate through bedrock, which is very slow progress on top of having to lay in secure that heavy-duty pipe. CASAW 4 bridge replacement project is complete, was reopened to traffic early last week by Mapleton. CASAW 10 from the West County line to CASAW 20, crews are continuing to work on final shaping a turf establishment and they're finishing work on the borrow sites which is still underway. We proposed to add the final wearing course for this segment from the West County line to CASA 32 via a change order to the bituminous overlays contract. So that change order will be coming to the August board meeting. So that was in lieu of pushing it back another year so that we could have the 10-ton road this year. Because we had allowed those fill segments to settle through the winter last year. But it had not been included in our original contract. Casa 40 slope repair project work is completed. 26 bridge replacement project, just south of Lime Valley Road. Box culvert has been installed. Lorenz plans to finish paving, I'm sorry, yes, no, that's correct. Lorenz plans to begin paving this week, and the project should be completed and reopen to traffic in the next few weeks. Our county-stated Highway 69 reconstruction project, Lorenz also has that. Their crew's working on laying storm sewer on phase one going up the hill. They'll begin road work, subcut, and aggregate base placement after that. They have curb and gutter scheduled for late next week or early the following. They don't anticipate that that aggregate base work and road subcut should take a lot given it's mostly kind of rocky grain material for the most part over the top of bedrock. Our project that's carried over from last year in St. Clair on County, State and Highways 15 and 28, BCM is beginning to put the road back together on that segment of 15 east of where 28 goes to the north. And the curb and gutter are scheduled for next week for the segment. And then BCM will begin reconstruction and digging up the segment of Casa 15 from the 28 south to the 28 north. So from the school to the east.

Now we're just going to the school? Correct, the intersection at the school.

Where 28 goes to the south. And our overlays, we've got Cassaw 20, County Road 114, 118, and 172 paving complete. And they're going to finish the shouldering on those. And that's actually underway as we speak. And then they'll pave Cassaw 11 and Cassaw 10 later in August or September. So that's our construction projects going on right now. Maintenance activity updates. Crews are finishing mowing shoulder cuts. We'll begin fully mowing out the middle third of the county this month later on. They're shouldering and patching the bituminous roads. They'll begin seal coating operations later this month. that are blading and maintaining gravel roads as conditions permit, which actually we've been getting frequent rainfall, so they've been able to keep up on that. We obviously don't want to blade those roads when it's too dry or it makes it worse. So we've been able to have adequate moisture. We'll begin working on striping and pavement messages in the coming weeks. And our excavator and tractor backhoes have been busy with drain tile and intake repairs. Just a note on the Monarch Butterfly Conservancy Agreement. I wasn't able to attend the meeting, but on June 4th, there was a monthly UIC, which is the university that implements the Conservancy Agreement Program, presentation that was shared. There's stuff that commissioners might find this interesting. There are now... 8.8 million acres enrolled with 1.3 million adopted acres committed to preservation. So pretty impressive when you think about it. In late May, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recognized that lands already enrolled in the conservancy agreement are delivering real conservation outcomes for the rusty patch bumblebee, which is the next one that they're worried about in addition to the monarch butterfly. And CCAA partners that had previously confirmed enrolled lands in proposed critical habitat have been excluded from the final bumblebee critical habitat designation. So they listed some of the partners, but not all of them, so we're going to do some verification. We're certainly hopeful that we will be part of those people whose lands is exempted, that the land we've set aside for the monarch... will also hopefully serve the need for the rusty patch bumblebee and that we will be exempt from future restrictions on how we work in our right of way for doing that work.

Rusty patch bumblebee?

I couldn't tell you what they look like.

No. So will they be coming and talking to us from the DNR about that?

I could certainly arrange for it if you'd like, but I wasn't planning on... I'll Google it. Good choice. Yeah, we're learning about it as we go, but it's another one that's kind of right on the fringe of being threatened and or endangered species, which will carry a heavier designation with it. With that, the last item I have on the agenda for today is the Rapidan Dam and County State Highway 9 bridge updates. The 9 bridge update is pretty brief. We've got the roadway plan comments for revision from MnDOT. On June 18th, we provided the revised plans on June 25th for their approval. On the 29th, we received an email from TKDA talking about the casings for the deep-drilled shaft pier foundations, taking 10 to 14 weeks of lead time, so critical that we get this out to bid and get it in the bidder's hands, and contract approved. So if project authorization stays on track, it should help facilitate winter construction, which is what we're looking for. And then on the 29th, we received an email from TKDA saying, providing a permitting update stating that they anticipate the issuance of the core and DNR permits in the next two weeks. So we're expecting project authorization and permits really soon. Fingers crossed, of course, that everything comes through. So we'll be doing some following up on that this week and seeing where those items are at. But we're on the cusp of being able to get that out to bid. Dam update. On June 4th, we met with Bar Engineering, discussed several project-related items. I won't go too far into depth on those because it was an older one meeting at this point. On the 9th, the FERC issued a letter to Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office in response to their November 5th letter, an excerpt from that letter. states that the FERC letter concluded that FERC staff find that approval of the undertaking proposed dam removal project with implementation of proposed avoidance and minimization measures would not adversely affect any historic properties in the area of potential effect. And so now they're waiting on SHPO's concurrence. We're hopeful that SHPO will concur with their assessment. And then just from a recent conversation, FEMA had implied that they would anticipate adopting that decision as well. Yet to be done. That has to be completed before it's official. But that would be great if that all goes through. So, again, we'll keep our fingers crossed. On June 12th, we provided a response to FEMA, including a technical memorandum from Barr Engineering that provided additional project need and cost justification for three items, construction water control, seepage cutoff tied to the bedrock, and downstream slope erosion protection. That additional cost totaled $5,412,000 in addition to their initial estimate. On June 18th, we met with Barr again. They're working on renderings. of the proposed preferred alternatives. We did talk about the slope stability on the east bank, and right now it's very steep and unstable. Basically the nuts and bolts of this is the Army Corps of Engineers standard for the factor of safety, so if a factor of safety is kind of put it in layman's terms. If a factor of safety is one, it should hold, but there's not a guarantee. There's a chance it'll hold and there's a chance it won't. I'd say a factor of safety is two, it's twice as much as you probably need. So it's an extra... The factor of safety for their slope stability calculations is 1.4, and so that would equate to about a 2.5 to 1 slope on that. County staff didn't really see any point in making the slope any higher risk than need be or making it steeper than necessary because it's a future maintenance project for us. And cost. So we did direct BAR to go with the factor of safety 1.4 building slope at about a 2.5 to 1. They'll look at some additional surface stabilization methods in addition to that, turf reinforcement mats or others. EAW will cover scope of work options for two and four, and then we talked about our schedule, and again, this is all up in the air depending on several moving pieces, but they're still anticipating 100% plans by early 2027 if the remaining work can stay on track. FERC and NEPA review should take four to six months after the 60% plans are issued, which we're anticipating to be, that'll be the end of August that we would start that. and they would anticipate then that core permit could be to be determined, but may be in hand by mid-2027 if things stay on track. Project budget is tracking over hydraulics and hydrology because of the numerous options we've reviewed, and geotechnical engineering will likely require a change order to address the additional work that's been completed by FAR. On June 29th, we met with FEMA to discuss their cost estimate review and reevaluation FEMA appreciated our documentation that bar provided in the county assisted with and they're reviewing the for the project total review, they're having to review the biggest footprint, the biggest impact. They won't review two different project options, so they want which one are we going to do for sure consideration. And they want the biggest impact that that one could generate. We discussed the pass of options two and four that we had previously discussed with the county board. We want to avoid the amendment process at all costs with FEMA. That's a certainty. They need to draft EAW this month, and they need the 60% plans by end of August, early September. We discussed getting those contents approved. and a potential time extension request. Further explanations are going to be necessary to justify why we would be asking for additional time. But I think we're going to just really focus on getting the project out there and under construction first and foremost before we spend energy on that. On the 29th, we met with Barr as well following that meeting with public works and administration staff. We agreed due to the critical time frame, BAR needs to carry both options two and four to the 60% plans in order to avoid the potential for that amendment process and the time lost. So they're actually going to be advancing both designs so that we have them on the shelf ready to give depending on which direction the county decides to take. On July 1st, we provided them with comments on FEMA's purpose and needs statement, so the next step in this process, and they issued that subsequently thereafter. And last but not least, on July 1st, 2026, FEMA provided a revised cost estimate for hypothetical repair to $28,054,147. So they were generally accepting of the supermajority of our Requested changes, there were a few items that they did not agree with, but all in all, it was a successful effort.

Good job.

Thank you. That concludes my report. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Nice bump from the $12,500,000.

Yeah, it was a fight to get there from $12 million and change to now $28 million, but I think it's the right number.

Good job for you and your engineers. Good job.

Thank you.

All right. Should I go into the closed meeting?

I think we can do that to have a little time to set up.

Okay. So the next agenda item is to close the meeting pursuant to Minnesota Statute 13D.05 Subvision 3B to receive legal analysis and advice regarding a pending civil legal action from the Blue Earth County Attorney's Office and outside counsel. The board and its attorneys will discuss legal strategy for responding. It would be detrimental to the county's interest for the board to hold a public discussion about these matters. At this time, I would entertain a motion that this meeting be closed pursuant to the attorney-client privilege. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carries. So the board will now close this meeting under Minnesota statute section 13D.05 subdivision 3B for a meeting with the Bloor County Attorney's Office and outside counsel. Thank you. All right.

And we'll move across the hallway to the meeting room.

All right, we will call our meeting back to order. And next up on the agenda is our county attorney, Pat.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Commissioners. The report speaks for itself. If anybody has any specific questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them. But I know that we're under a little bit of a time constraint, so we can move on.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Josh, on to administration.

Yeah, the first thing we have is the approval of the minutes from the last meeting.

Move to approve.

Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Curious.

All right. Next we have the two weeks of bills for approval. So moved. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion on the bills? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Curious.

Thank you.

And back here, and the next item we have is our human resources agenda. All informational items for this meeting. First, we have a completion of employment for an eligibility specialist, and then a recruitment initiated for the position. Employment of a public health specialist for the SHIP program. Completion of employment for a part-time library clerk, and then recruitment initiated for that position. Employment for a .25 library clerk. a promotion from a property and land specialist to the county drainage systems coordinator, and also employment of a 911 telecommunicator position, and then also the recruitment initiative for public works operations and park supervisor. If there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer those for you. Any questions? All right, and the other item is an application for exempt gambling permit for the Ronald McDonald House for Southeast Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. This is for nonprofits and looking for a raffle, so looking for approval of that permit.

So moved. Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carries.

And that's the end of you, huh? And that is it for my report.

All right. Commissioner reports, Kevin.

All right. Since our June 23rd board meeting, that day I participated with the rest of you with the work session, the public works tour, as well as the Schultzman Road open house. On the 25th, we had township officers. June 26th, I had an AMC board meeting. On the 29th, we had a NACO ag policy call, as well as extension committee meeting that night and July 1st was department heads. That concludes my report. You're up.

My report is relatively short too, Madam Chair. After the work session, the next day I stopped for Greg's retirement party for the state engineer, for the district engineer. I had a big turnout, a lot of people there. I had a County Ditch 77 informational meeting, township officers meeting also. and have several calls on some gravel road issues and of course some ditch stuff still coming back together. And I missed out on planning and zoning so I can't give you a report on that.

Sounds great. Mr. Vance.

All right, also at the 23rd, we had the work session. I did the Stoltzman Road update at the Lincoln Community Center. Also attended Greg Ouse's retirement up at MnDOT. He was a district engineer. I think he was there 38 years, so, yeah. On the 25th, I attended a Hilltop Capital City of Mankato update. And then afterwards, I did the township officers meeting. I attended the retirement at the government center, the 26th for Sue. And then on the first I had the department head meeting and on the second I did a radio interview at MRCI. They had a little get together there. Of course the amount of people to show up didn't show up because we also had a thunderstorm going on at the same time. Got kind of wet for people to show up. And then yesterday I had an executive board meeting for MRCI. That's the end of my report.

Thank you. Mark.

Okay, after June 23rd, the work session, then on... June 24th we had a budget meetings with the sheriffs and also then the county attorney on the 24th and then June 25th had the township officers and then July 1st had the department heads meeting and that concludes my report.

I too went to the work session in the open house on 1st Stoltzman Road. Budget meeting with the sheriff and the county attorney, township officers, Sue's Retirement Party. Then I had my NACA FICA meeting on the 30th. I sat in on the deed presentation on the state agencies for data centers. So they all talked about what they do when data centers want to be built in Minnesota. On the first, department heads, and on the second, NACA webinar on what's going on with grants. And that ends my report. So we are recessed. We have a motion. Second. And a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carries. We are recessed. Thank you, everybody.

So we'll go up to the Eagle.