Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning, it's 830 we'll call the Tuesday April 21st County Commission meeting to order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Number three on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion to approve? Second have a motion in a second do we have any additions Corrections comments Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay. Motion carries. Number four is an invitation for a citizen to schedule time on the commission agenda for an item not listed. There's a five minute time limit per person. Anyone wanting to speak during this agenda item must sign in prior to the meeting. To the start of the meeting, no commission action will be taken during this agenda item. Any requested action item may be scheduled for a future meeting date. Today we have two signed in. First one is Rick Weibel.

Good morning. I'm Rick Weibel from Elkton, South Dakota, representing myself. And of course, I'm here to talk about the elections that we're not having. Twice I've showed up to try and vote absentee early, just because that's what we have afforded to us in law. unfortunately there's a lot of finger pointing going on as to statutes that caused our absentee period not to be ready some of that's correct some it's not correct so we discussed during the legislative process the timing of petitions by candidates is too close to the start of the election the legislature legislature determined that it was too much of a hardship for them to have less of a filing period and getting signatures. The timing of challenges as we've seen this year is such a narrow window and we've had a number of statewide challenges that the Secretary of State's offices had to go through as well as some local ones plus a curveball in Minnehaha County. But I think this really emphasizes our disaster recovery plan. Failed. It's nonexistent. What's interesting is our statutes are actually based upon a hand count of the election. And so to say that we needed to abide by our current contract that we have with ES&S as a single source for balloting, I think is incorrect and should be re-reviewed. I think there would have been an opportunity to, as we look at the Secretary of State's website, Our sample ballots are available. I think the auditors did the right thing by not using the sample ballots in the election. However, they could have modified those sample ballots to do an official ballot as designed by statute and the South Dakota administrative rules. and they could have had those hand-counted ballots available, and then at that point, the county could decide, do they use the resolution board to transfer those early absentee ballots until they can get the machine ballots corrected, then cure those non-readable machine-styled ones, for hand count and transfer those over to the official ES&S ballots for them to run through the machines. We've seen other jurisdictions that have run into this across the United States take that path so that they don't disenfranchise the voter. One of the things that's really interesting is that before the Supreme Court right now, there's this whole issue of single day voting and the absentee balloting period, as well as when absentee ballots can arrive. So in our state law, we basically, it has to arrive by 7 o'clock on election day. We already now have the ACLU trying to stretch that we may want to receive absentee ballots for X number of days after the election, subject to when we get our real ballot started in the election. I think that's bad, and I think the timing couldn't have been worse for the Supreme Court, as it's already heard oral arguments regarding absentee balloting and mail-in balloting across the United States. And so now, once again, we're in the forefront. I think this is time for us to take a step back and re-look at the elections. Now, I didn't want the school and the municipal elections as part of the even year. I would have preferred to keep the same timeline and move those to the odd years for other reasons as well, such as competition with well-funded candidates. preventing local candidates from being able to buy newspaper ads, being able to have crowded sign printing, all of that just creates additional down ballot dystopia, as well as ability for ads within the newspapers, everything else. So it creates so much conflict that I think we have to re-look at this and really take good notes, and what the possibilities are to not disenfranchise absentee voters again. Thank you.

Thank you, Rick. Next, we have David Larson.

Good morning. My name is David Larson, originally from the White, South Dakota area. I'm here mainly representing my family, but just about every landowner, rural resident of eastern Brookings County with the Power On Midwest transmission line. I'd like to see you folks put in a 2,000 foot setback. The proposed line, the last drawings I saw, the line is running within 100 yards of my family's home, or it's not my family, my extended family's home. And it's also next to the Hutterite Colony, and it's right next to several other properties. You know, this, I think there's, I'm no expert, but I would think there's health issues, stray voltage issues. We already have one transmission line that runs through our property, and you can feel electricity when you ride underneath that. So I'd really like to encourage you commissioners. I believe dual counties already done this I'd really like to encourage you to to look at putting in place a 2,000 foot setback Thank you Thank You David

All right, moving on to item 5 consent agenda items to include the minutes travel and education requests personal action notices cellular authorizations and Human Services report Do we have a motion to approve? motion approve second motion in a second comments Hearing none call the roll please Vander wall.

All right post Miller Jensen. All right hostler motion carries all

Number six on the agenda is routine business. Approval of the claims. Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second. Motion and a second. Comments? Hearing none, call the roll, please.

Post. Aye. Miller. Aye. Jensen. Aye. Vanderwall. Aye. Hostler. Aye. Motion carries.

Letter B. Department head reports. Brian with the highway.

If I could Stacy Start here with the city of Elkton I This is the detour. The north drive there is our Brookings County Road 30, which heads out towards the Naughty Pine from Elkton there. And they're going to be working primarily in the Elk Street and that north drive area. This work is going to take care of their water and sewer improvements in that intersection. And later on here, I'll be discussing a little bit about a grant that they got this year. But this work just is in that intersection. So that will be closed down. This is a detour the city is providing I've sent this information out to a couple of the businesses primarily a Twin City fan and Central Harvest or CHS there in Elkton and I think the city of Elkton's also got a Some advertisements out notifying everybody of this detour. It's going to be on our Facebook and our pages, our social medias to share that. This work is going to start on the 27th. Time frame given to me was two to four weeks. It'll be gravel surface for a while. That intersection's going to end up being completely concrete the entire Elk Street is going to be concrete and they have extended that section where the turning movements occur out on our roadway. So it'll be replaced with concrete when it does get replaced. Just for a short segment, I believe it's like 50 foot either side of the intersection where the turning movements happen. So getting to that, I've also provided you and Stacy provided you estimates of the remainder of the work on North Drive, which is going to start there. The city's work starts at Buffalo Street and will uh go all the way out to the end of the residences out there on the west side of or east side of town i apologize which leaves us with the remainder which is our portion which because they don't have any uh uh Utilities within the right-of-way that estimate that was provided to us by that SPN and associates which is doing the work for the city of Elkton Which we don't need to consider today, but I just wanted to get that information in front of you and That work would encompass from Buffalo Street to the intersection on North Drive to Cornell, and then across the railroad tracks to First Street is where their other utilities stop. So we would go Our portion would go from North Drive to tie in to where they stopped work a few years ago, which I believe it was three, four years ago. They did the work on Cornell Avenue, which stopped short of the tracks or stopped at First Street. And then to North Drive, nothing was done. And then obviously the little segment in there. So just so you guys have the information and front of you if you guys recall Jeff McCormick from the SPN was here to Discuss that with you guys here a few months ago, and it was unsure of whether or not they got the grant Now they they know they have it and that work would be They're hoping to get that bid this year to to do that work next year So just so you guys have that for information Is there any questions before we move on from this? One last thing on this, if there's any questions regarding this project, all questions should be directed towards the City of Elkton office, and they can answer those questions.

Brian, have you looked through this? I see some of these costs are split 50-50.

Some of them we're looking at in order to get the drainage, which, you know, the drainage is very limited over there. We're looking at doing some additional drainage pipe to try to get some of this. It's very flat. It's going to be very difficult to get the drainage over there. So some of the costs are split. You're right, Larry. Some are and some aren't and I'm just make sure to go through them before this comes to bid or whatever And when we sign agreement before we move anything Move towards on anything and I think we just need to bring Jeff and Jeff did offer to come back And I think it would be best just to have Jeff come and explain everything So we can answer all your questions before the Commission makes the decision So moving on, there was another handout that Stacy handed out, 09GU or structure 240-141 and 09GT or structure 241-23. The state has reviewed all the plans and uh... they received all the information that the board acted on your of couple weeks ago as far as the right of way documentation and now that all that's in place on the are going to give us a get go to get these bid Just been discussing this with Colin because a couple of the things you know these structures are located north of Bushnell on County Road 25 or 478th Avenue is a very busy road We're going to try to limit this within one construction season We're hoping that letting the project start in the winter time to try to lessen the effect of the closure. But we just haven't quite gotten the phasing done yet. But before we do go to bid, we'll definitely make sure you guys are aware of what's going on. But just wanted to have this in front of you, knowing that these are our next two bridges that we'll be doing as far as the big program projects. As far as the crew goes, we've been crack sealing south of Sinai and County Road 11. We're just about wrapped up with crack sealing. And lastly here, we've been doing a little work in the yard. Last year, I'm sure you guys seen that we poured that drainage pan or drainage valley there. And before, What we're changing in drainage the water used to flow towards the what we call the state shedders is the building directly adjacent to south of the main shop the water all used to flow towards the north We're just trying to get the water to flow towards that drain pan to lessen the effects of the water That's flowing back towards that state shed. We're trying to Get that so it don't flood no more

Aside from that that is all I got Brian the county staff are they going on for day work week soon?

Oh, I apologize. Yes. We did start our 410 hour days Monday this week All right anything else right Thanks, sir, thank you.

Thank you Brian

Sheriff Stanlake. Good morning. Morning, Sheriff. Morning, Marty.

Just a quick overview of the jail. At the present time, we have 45 inmates. 22 of them are Brookings County inmates and the rest are, there's one from Moody County, one from the Department of Corrections, and we have 21 US Marshals. So we've been staying between 20 and U.S. Marshals inmates. 24-7, the participation is down, which I always have said is good. There's 80 participants on 24-7, 34 come in twice a day, got four on remote breath, eight on scram, 17 on UAs. So that area always stays busy. Other than that, I was gone all last week at the Sheriff and Police Chief Conference out west, and it was the most attended I've seen in a long time. Lots of police chiefs and... and uh... sheriffs out there uh... and uh... so it was a good good week uh... talked about a lot of things uh... one of things we we talked about was uh... cattle thefts course out west has more cattle thefts than uh... than we probably do, but us East River sheriffs are concerned because of the price of cattle. And I'll probably be doing some stuff on Facebook, just asking farmers to probably watch their pastures once they get out there to watch their cows, the price in calves. It used to be that if the calf got out on the fence, somebody probably stopped and put it back in. So I don't know now if they'll stop and put it in the back of their car or not with the prices and stuff. So we are trying to get my staff to work gravel roads a little more at night now, just with the calving season and so forth, just try to watch. But the big thing is just a lot of times we have... Cattle owners that are from another county or they could be across the state and rent pastures in Brookings County There's sometimes we it's hard for us to locate Who owns or whose cattle they are we'll even ask the neighbors they go, you know So it's it's always been kind of an issue, but we've not really worried about rustling, but that is something to think about now Also, we're preparing for construction season and trying to do some proactive stuff with that. And hopefully it won't be like last year where we had lots of complaints with speed and stop signs. Let's see. Last week, talking to staff, we had several controlled burns and That were called in and we didn't have any issues the fire departments Issued permits or gave them verbal gum so that so far is running smooth as far as I know so hopefully we'll get some moisture and then take another look at that so Other than that unless you guys have have any questions Thank you

Finance Office.

Jen.

Good morning. Good morning.

So to start, we have the finance officer's report in the agenda today for the month of March. Be it noted items audited account with treasurer payroll and additive totals highway expenditure report and register of deeds statement of fees collected We haven't had the highway expenditure report for a few months because the pumps were down, but they are Getting back up slowly. It's my understanding. So there's just a couple couple things on that one for this month, but that is in there and In our office, it's April, so first half property taxes are due by Thursday, April 30th. They can be mailed. There's drop boxes in person. If you mail it, make sure it's postmarked by April 30th. And don't just drop it in your mailbox and hope it gets postmarked. I would walk into the post office because there's issues with that. If you pay it online with credit card or by e-check, there are some fees that apply. We have not, if people are checking to see if their payments are made, we have not received any of the bank escrow payments yet. So just keep that in mind. They'll be coming in the next couple weeks. We haven't received any of those big, big, they come in as a file that we upload and make the payments. And we have not received any of those yet. Kim continues to work on cleaning up county aid liens in our office sending out statements and collecting payments that whole process is going well And then a couple things with Alcohol beverage licenses at the next meeting the 2027 on sale Malt beverage and South Dakota farm wine license renewals will be in that everyone has passed past the alcohol stings so there won't be any public meetings so let's have those renewals those renewals and then at the next meeting there also be action on a new on off sale malt beverage South Dakota farm wine license to begin July 1st there's gonna be a new wedding and event venue in the county and then we have elections today there's an election actually happening in the county it's the North Brookings Sanitary district so it's just a small district holding an election. So the finance office is available from 7 a.m. To 7 p.m For that district to answer any questions Tuesday so next Tuesday April 28th is the last day for nominating petitions to be filed as an independent candidate and In-person absentee voting, as we all know, has not started. We have not received our ballots yet. We do not have an ETA on when ballots will arrive. We're hoping this week or next week. So if you requested absentee ballots through the mail, obviously that hasn't been mailed out. Nothing's happening there. We're just on hold waiting. Voter registration deadline is Monday, May 18th by five. Something to keep in mind is if you're a new voter or if you have been removed from the rolls for any reason, you do have to prove citizenship now as a new registrant, so. And then one last thing, Jenna will be going to an event Saturday for the National Federation of the Blind of South Dakota. It's a conference that's being held here in town, and she will be giving a presentation and demonstration on how to use the express vote machines for voting. So that's all I got.

All right. Anything for questions? Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

County Development.

Richard.

Good morning. Last week was Severe Weather Awareness Week in South Dakota, so we had a spot on the weekly radio spot on Monday. I did also do an interview on KELOLAND. I believe that aired sometime this past weekend, so on what severe weather warnings and things to do in Brookings County here. Spring of sprung we're gonna have a busy maze owning meeting we've got five conditional use applications to variances for plats And we've issued 14 building permits from 1st of April today, so And that's all that I have Anybody anything for Richard Thank you, thank you Jim do you have anything are you here just for later on okay come on up Tim with weed and pest

Morning everyone starting to Spray contracts been really really slow to come in we've received five townships so far Only one requesting our services as of yet, and that was Volga The gopher bounty program those letters all got sent out. They're coming back into a little more response on those I Did finish my applicator testing last week and? That was all new to me. I've never had an applicator's license before, but that was done at SDSU at the testing center, so just scheduled tests as they were available. But did complete that last week, so I'm all done with that, thank goodness. Starting May 4th, we share two guys, the pest department shares two guys with the highway shop. They'll be coming over to the weed and pest site on May 4th and kind of thinking about doing 10-hour days. Four tens on that. I don't know what everybody feels on that if that's a go or not but the guys are receptive to if there's a weather day on a Wednesday or something coming in and Making it up on Friday if weather's better on a Friday than a Wednesday or something like that But I think with a highway shot doing towns it probably just worked better for us if we were all on the same Schedule so that's kind of what we're looking at doing there, but that'll start May 4th so far I'm still just Tuesday's generally 7 to 3 30 so That's about it.

All right anything anybody have anything for Tim right now All right.

Thank you, Tim. Thanks Thank you, Tim.

We do have a scheduled a couple scheduled 9 a.m.. But we'll move down to regular business quick Letter a first reading of ordinance 20 26-0 to an ordinance providing for the amendment of ordinance 2022 This is the first reading title only. Note the second date and time of the second reading will be Tuesday, May 12, 2026 at 5.30 p.m. We also have letter B. First reading of ordinance 26-03, an ordinance establishing a 45-mile-an-hour speed limit upon a portion of Brookings County Road 25 north of the city of White, South Dakota. Action is the first reading only. Time and date of the second reading will be Tuesday, May 5, 2026 at 9 a.m. C we do have action to approve resolution 26-15 a plot of block seven eight nine and ten of Birkeland addition located in the portion of government lot two in the southwest quarter of section 28 Township 109 north 50 west of the fifth prime meridian all in Brookings County, South Dakota Do I have a motion to approve? So I get motion in a second comments Yes, this plat was recommended for approval by the Planning and Zoning Commission with unanimous vote at their April meeting Any other comments questions Hearing none call the roll please Miller all right Jensen all right Vander wall all right post Hossler motion carries carries We can do number nine action to approve resolution 2616 a plot of roads addition and government lots one and two in the southwest half of the northeast quarter of section five Township one one one two north 50 west of the fifth prime meridian brooking, South Dakota do I have motion to approve motion approve?

motion a second comments Yes, this plant was also recommended for approval by the planning and zoning commission with a unanimous vote any other comments

Call the roll, please.

Jensen. Aye. VanderWaal. Aye. Post. Aye. Miller. Aye. Hostler.

Aye.

Motion carries.

All right. Timing is just right. We hit 9 a.m. Back up to number seven, scheduled agenda items. Public hearing and action to approve resolution 26-14, a supplemental budget resolution. Do I have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second. We do have a public hearing.

Do we take public hearing first?

Okay. So I will open the public hearing. Do we have any proponents that would like to be heard on this? Any proponents?

Any proponents?

Do we have any opponents? Any opponents that would like to be heard? Any opponents? All right. We'll go ahead and close the public hearing. We have comments.

This resolution provides additional funding for a number of things. The first is the additional funding for the Brookings Library, $15,000. The remaining funding for the Samara Avenue project, $219, just over $219,000, and that's in the highway fund. Additional funding in the for the Rural Access Infrastructure Fund. As you can see there, it's a lump sum. We have cost estimates that we have approved for those projects for 2026. Again, those are just cost estimates, so I put a little bit more in case things do increase. They got those estimates. summer of last year. So there's that. And then in the 301 or the capital fund, $600,000, that's to cover the remaining costs of our HVAC project that we have going on for this building.

All right. Do we have any other comments or questions?

When we discussed the library funding earlier, there was some indication that THERE WAS VERBAL COMMITMENTS OR WHAT WITH LIBRARY BOARD POSITIONS OR HOW DID THAT EXACTLY ALL END UP?

I KNOW WE TALKED ABOUT IT AND REQUESTED BUT HOW DOES THE WHO THEY APPOINT THROUGH THE IS IT THE STATE OR WHO APPOINTS TO THAT LIBRARY BOARD?

State statute for the library board spells out what the composition of that board can look like. And then they're appointed, I believe, by city council. I don't think there's anything saying that we can't ask. I don't know if we've ever done a formal ask to add an example, like an ex-officio non-voting member to that board. I don't know if we've put that official request out to that. They meet. On Thursdays, I'm not sure, second or third Thursdays at like 1145. I think I've been noticing those in your public notices if you plan to attend, but... don't know I don't know that we've put out a formal request to have any type of representation I think it's been mentioned but I don't know if there's been a formal ask when Asia Gustafson was here I don't know that I was here at that meeting I don't know that we asked for that specifically so

And the total mandated funding that this will be, was it $25,000?

$25,000, yes. $10,000 already was approved as part of the annual budget.

And we have other boards that we give that amount to that we are provided a board seat membership, correct? Correct. Is there other areas or other boards that we do like them? I know domestic abuse shelter. We have a board.

Yes Yeah, so some of our other non mandated entities where we do have representation on their boards are domestic abuse beta Hospital We are an ex-officio member on the hospital board, but we don't provide funding. I mean, we did at one time funding, but we don't do ongoing funding for the hospital board, and that's an ex-officio member. That's a city board, though, as well. Yeah, kind of research park. Yep, we do have a representation on there.

Regional Growth Alliance.

Well, I just asked because I remember that being part of the discussion was that when they were here to present and then we asked, that was part of what we had discussed was some type of more of an update and information and an avenue to have a little bit more of what's going on here if we're going to give money. And on top of that, I'VE RECEIVED SEVERAL COMMENTS IN THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS ABOUT SOME OF THE MATERIALS THAT ARE AVAILABLE AND ACTUALLY PROMOTED TO OUR YOUTH THAT MANY PEOPLE DON'T SEEM APPROPRIATE FOR TAXPAYER FUNDING. BOARDERS ON THE OBSCENE IN MANY CASES. AND SO I SEE SOME CONCERN IN USING TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO PROMOTE THAT, IN MY OPINION.

NEW SPEAKER SO WHAT WE WOULD NEED TO DO TO DO A FORMAL REQUEST TO a letter to their board?

Yes, I would draft a formal request to have probably an ex-official member on that board to start receiving agendas and items.

It's not something unusual that we've done because we have somebody like that. Think it's probably would be a good a good thing to do is to formally request a at minimum ex-official position Based on the level of funding that we've given historically Any other comments questions concerns All right hearing none call the roll please I

VanderWaal?

Aye.

Post?

No.

Miller? Aye. Jensen?

Aye.

Hostler?

Aye.

Motion carries.

Letter B, Brookings Regional Humane Society presentation.

Come forward.

And if you guys could just go ahead and pull some chairs up and PULL THE MICS OVER TO YOU SO WE CAN HEAR YOU AND EVERYBODY LISTENING CAN HEAR YOU AND IF YOU WOULD STATE YOUR NAMES FOR US.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALLOWING US THIS TIME TODAY. MY NAME IS MAYA MOORE. I'M THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE BRICKINGS HUMANE SOCIETY.

I'M ANGELA DALEY. I'M CO-DIRECTOR OF THE CAMPAIGN, THE CAPITAL CAMPAIGN.

AND I'M TAMMY, ALSO A CO-DIRECTOR OF THE CAPITAL CAMPAIGN AND ANGELA AND I ARE BOTH BOARD MEMBERS. Next slide.

Good morning, ladies. Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

All right. Our mission at the Brookings Humane Society is to improve the lives of companion animals and support those who care for them. Next slide. We were established in 1998. We've had three different rental facilities over the past 28 years. We've been in our current facility for over 10 years. It was built as a veterinary clinic, and we have really enjoyed our time there, but we kind of outgrew that space as soon as we moved in. The Humane Society is funded mainly by donations, fundraising, and grants, and we work 365 days a year to care for the animals. We have been consistently at or over capacity for the last several years and we're forced to turn away animals every day. Next slide. Last year, we took in 745 animals, which was a 29% increase from the year before. 95% of our intakes are from Brookings County. This year to date so far, 90% again of our animals have been from Brookings County. 65% of our animals come directly from Brookings Animal Control. We have nearly 2,500 in-shelter volunteer hours logged every year, and that does not include our board of directors, our fundraising committee, our surgery team, or any of those other outside of shelter hours. Those are just in-shelter volunteer hours, so that's pretty significant. Next slide. We've been asked, what is the relationship between Brookings Humane and Animal Control? Animal Control actually holds those lost or found animals for their legal stray hold. So that little miss was picked up running stray by Volga, and she went to Animal Control for her five-day impound. That gives an owner a chance to reclaim their animal if they're looking to get their animal back again. If no owner reclaims, then they come to Brookings Humane Society where they're spayed or neutered. And then we vaccinate them, rabies vaccinate them, give them all their preventions and those sorts of things and care for them until they're adopted. Next slide.

I would like to share some important facts about safety. First of all, this is the only shelter, animal shelter in Brookings County. We take as Maya and her crew decided 2025 they were going to say yes to every animal from Brookings County and you'll see that's a lot of animals that was 700 roughly 750 animals last year. So there is a need for someone to care for these people. Closest other shelters are Watertown and Sioux Falls. And you know, We coordinate with them. There's a lot of sharing and caring between the shelters when we can make it work. It's important to care for all the lives in Brookings County. Human lives first, but animals definitely play a part in human lives. And I think all of you know that. We are important to public safety. We assist law enforcement all the time. There's regular calls and interactions between the police department, the city of Brookings, and Humane Society. We support citizens.

Did you want them to go to the next slide?

Oh, yeah, I'm ready. Sorry, I'm a little out of, thank you so much. We want to help as many people keep their animals, okay? Their pets are part of their lives and we do definitely want to support them. The ways we can do that are a pet food pantry. We will try to microchip all the strays that come in and when they adopt from us, we'll have a record of that animal, what they've been treated for, what other things have gone on. It's about safety for everyone as well as educational programs all around. We mentioned Safety Town on this, but I think it's appropriate to include places like Advance. We use some volunteers to come and help clean and do other things, give them an opportunity to interact with animals. So this is a greater good thing. Next slide, please.

Our current facility is located at 120 West 2nd Street South. The main structure is a little over 3,000 square feet. And it was built originally as a veterinary clinic. The important thing about that is that it was not meant to house animals long term. So it does not have the plumbing systems or the ventilation systems that are really required for an animal shelter. Um, it also has a pole barn attached to it and that's where we have our nine dog kennels, our food pantry, our laundry area and our cat holds. Uh, we pay $48,000 in rent per year, which is 13% of our operating budget. And we'd love to have that money go to programs and other expenses. Next.

This is a picture of our current nine dog kennels. We've been over capacity so we have some pop-ups and as Tammy mentioned our ventilation and floor drain system is not appropriate for the long-term housing of animals. We're also constantly in need of more than nine dog kennels. Next slide, yeah. And this is just an example. It's not just the dog kennel space that is overcrowded. So our cat recovery, this is an intake and surgical recovery room. This is also where we are currently housing all of our bottle feeding and neonatal kitten supplies, incubators, things like that. Next slide. Our medical treatment area that doubles as, well, kind of more than doubles, triples, quadruples as laundry and litter storage and donation staging. Next slide.

So the Humane Society has been seeking a permanent home ever since its inception 28 years ago. Um, I know Angie's husband used to serve on the board and at that time they were actively looking for a place to build or relocate. Um, but we kept running into roadblocks as far as zoning ordinances. And then as far as, um, finding land that wasn't in the floodplain, et cetera. However, um, since we we've continually had struggles with overcrowding. The board decided to take some actions a couple years ago. We figured we'd only get one shot at this, so we wanted to do it right. So we hired HDR out of Omaha, combined with Animal Arts Architects out of Boulder, Colorado, because they specialize in building animal shelters, vet clinics, and that kind of thing. So they are up on industry standards and best practices. Originally we thought we would be staying in our current building. So they came here, they did a program study, a facility needs study, and we received a concept design for a larger facility on our current site. We opened an endowment fund with the South Dakota Community Foundation a year ago in May. The purpose of this would be to help to sustain us financially into the future. In the summer of 2025, we hired capital campaign consultants and we began working on our capital campaign. We started talks with the city and in January of 2026, the city of Brookings gifted 2.5 acres of land to us valued at $285,000. And this is within the city limits. So all of the infrastructure is already there. And this was just a game changer for us. It meant that we had a place to build. Next slide. And if you're not familiar where that's at, it's east of I-29 south of Highway 14 on Prince Drive. just south of Daktronics and west of Counterparts. Next slide. So we went back to the architect. We asked them to put our building design on that piece of land so it would kind of look like this. This is their initial rendering. Next. And this is a rendering of what the building could look like. It's not set in stone, but this is a rendering. Next.

all right so since we have this blank slate now we would love to put up an ada compliant almost 10 000 square foot building we want to expand dog kennels to 22 we want to have more cat space as well we need improved ventilation and plumbing and we need isolation rooms because sometimes we don't know what is wrong with the animal and it's important to keep them isolated to prevent disease spread. We would like all the people in Brookings County to be able to visit the strays. If they would like to, it can be a great mood boost. Expansion we learned was very necessary from the feasibility study that Tammy mentioned just a minute ago. The feasibility study showed that the size of Brookings County calculated by the number of pets shows that we're very small. And we should expand significantly to meet the needs of our community as it stands today and as it's projected to look in the next 10 years. We need an efficient floor plan so that all the dogs barking in the kennels are not so overwhelming that the staff can only stay in there for 10 minutes. These are people working for minimum wage and we got to take care of them. We gotta make sure that they're not being taxed beyond reason. We would love to have expanded outdoor space because where we're at now, it's very limited, the amount of outdoor space we have. And if you've had a pet, you know how nice it is for them to get outside and run. Next slide, please.

Our conceptual project cost analysis was included in your packet. We're looking at 6.5 to 7.2 million as our proposed budget for building. Next slide. That's me too We are we have a working goal of 7 million with an ultimate vision of 10 million just Anticipating that cost will continue to rise as we have to continue to fundraise Our campaign timeline is now through 2030. Our goal is to break ground in 2030 or 2031 We are our new facility will allow us to serve more animals provide best practice care expand services to our growing communities and Respond to the growing needs of our Brookings County in the surrounding region next slide

So next steps. The city of Brookings has pledged additional support for our capital campaign and they will gift us the net proceeds from the sale of the other three acres of land that's just north of ours on that parcel. We have engaged private donors and have received a number of six-figure pledges over the next five years. One of our first Donors to make a significant pledge is here with us today. He asked if he could come Sean Morris, so he's in the audience Angela Daly and her husband and myself and my husband have also made significant pledges already and We have several conversations going on with other community members and we're actively researching and applying for grants and We have formed a capital campaign cabinet that's working on materials and engaging donors. And we are committed to growing our endowment fund to ensure financial sustainability. Next. So we would like to invite Brookings County to partner with us on this campaign. We feel that a county investment would really accelerate our capital campaign and it would signal strong public support for us. We feel that our work is very important for public safety and animal welfare in Brookings County and the surrounding area. We would respectfully request a lead gift of at least $500,000 from Brookings County over the next five years. And in addition, we would like to request an increase in non-mandated funds. We've been getting 10,000 from the county for the last 15 years, I believe. Our number of intakes and programs and our operating costs have gone up every year since we started, so we are asking that we double that to $20,000 per year beginning in 2027.

Next slide. Thank you for your time, and we appreciate any questions that you might have.

One question I have. You mentioned 95% of your guys' intakes are Brookings County entire. Do you have a breakdown on what the city of Brookings or small towns like Volga, Elkton, Aurora, and then actual county residents are? Do you have that breakdown that you either have today or can you provide us with that?

We can get that information. One of the hard parts about our current animal tracking system is I can track all the animals that come directly from animal control. Up until the past year or so, they didn't necessarily break down for us whether that was city or county. And then when we get in an owner surrender, we have to go by the animals line by line. So I would have to look and see that Person X surrendered this cat and then I'd have to look up their address. So I did look at those statistics and run those for the for the beginning of this year and I could get that information the other part that's a little quirky is if an animal comes from animal control and then it's adopted out to someone in Clear Lake outside of Brookings County and then a few years pass and then the owner passes away and the animals return to us it's then counted as an intake from outside of Brookings County when originally that animal was from Brookings but so there are some nuances to it but yes absolutely I calculated the beginning of this year the first quarter of this year and I could get that to you thank you anybody else have anything

What the annual budget for 2026 it's three hundred and eighty thousand dollars Of the 745 animals taken in what percentage are adopted any idea?

adopted or transferred out we usually are 90 to 95 percent of those animals and 92 to 95 percent generally we take in anything that comes our way so even if animal control calls us in for something That's critically injured and the veterinary team decides it has to be euthanized that counts as an intake But 92 to 95 percent get adopted or transferred out What do you mean by transferred out? Um, sometimes when we are, uh, working with entities like Sioux Falls Humane Society, um, they might contact us and say, Hey, we don't, we've run out of isolation space. Would you be able to take in three cats with ringworm? And we could say, absolutely. Would you be able to take, uh, five cats that are waiting to be spayed? And so, uh, then we would transfer them for cats because they have a more robust surgery program than we do. And then we would take in those ringworm cats and then keep them in our isolation space until we put those up for adoption. So we work with other shelters in the area because we have different strengths.

With your guys' building that you have proposed and have drafted, where does that rank in size, features, amenities, square footage with the Sioux Falls and Watertown?

It I would have to look into that but I could get that information I know that Watertown is also looking at building a new building and has started the process to purchase land And Sioux Falls this hasn't been updated in a while, but they're significantly larger than we are. Okay, so

And then probably another question is, where do we rank, where do you guys rank with intakes and housing of animals compared to those as well? Because those are the two that you mentioned that in our region, correct?

Okay. They're the closest shelters to us, just geographically speaking. Sioux Falls has significantly higher population and significantly more intakes than we do. I know they're in the, like, I believe last year it was like 3,000 some adoptions, and we're still under 1,000. The last time I spoke with Watertown and Yankton, we were fairly similar in intake size and adoption numbers, so I could check with them on square footage of their buildings, but as I said, Watertown is starting the process to look at building a shelter too. It's hard to sometimes retrofit buildings that weren't built to house animals to be able to provide that ventilation and drainage. We reached out to a group that just built a clinic in Sioux Falls and they said their budget was significantly less, but then again, they're not housing animals overnight or for weeks or months at a time. They're doing clinic work, which isn't quite the same needs as far as long-term housing for dogs.

Overcrowding of shelters is a nationwide problem right now. It's it's really been ever since kovat.

I think there's been a problem Do you have in-house veterinary services or do you rely on the veterinarian coming in or we have?

veterinarians that volunteer their time a couple of them that are from Big Sioux veterinary care a retired veterinarian and a veterinarian from a the SDSU Animal Disease Research Lab. I'll take turns and come in and volunteer all of our medical diagnostics and spay-neuter surgeries or other surgeries as needed. So we're very lucky in that regard, but definitely going forward, having to have a veterinarian on staff is something that we keep in mind.

Yes, I just would like to add that the veterinarians donate their time, but we do have to pay for the equipment, the medicine, et cetera.

This building looks like a really nice building. Have you had a chance to go to other communities and look at their facilities and, hey, I really like this, whoa, I don't like that type of thing? Have you found some value in that?

Yeah.

Absolutely, yeah.

So Maya and I toured the Yankton facility, mainly because I'm from Yankton, so... And then we also toured Omaha's facility, which obviously is much bigger than ours, but that it was designed by the same architects we went to. And we were there for a whole day and we got a ton of information and

Yes, like what do we like what don't we like what do we and what do they like and what do they not like? After they've spent these millions of dollars. What would they do differently? So we've been trying to do those outreach To make sure that we know we only get one shot at this and it's you've toured the Sioux Falls facility as well Yes, absolutely we we want to make sure that we are We're being good stewards. We wanna make sure that we are being financially responsible, but we also know that if we cut corners in the wrong places, that we're just going to be in a situation in five years where we may be asking our donors to help us repair things. So we wanna make sure that we're being responsible in the right ways and making sure that we don't cut corners on things that are super important when we can give up in other areas.

How long have you been working on this fundraising effort? When did this start?

The capital campaign really just started, I'd say, less than a year ago. And we've already gotten close to a million dollars in pledges.

I just want to add that a lot of the funding for just running the shelter from volunteers grants and fundraising efforts Have you guys had conversations with your architect and your design people to to

you don't get the entire amounts to begin build what you really need and then how to expand over time and then my next question would be when you get everything built and everything what's the lifetime of the building how long will you be in there or looking to expand or move again that's a great question

Yes, that's one thing we did ask our architect that we are working with. And so he did come up with a modular design so we can modify. This is just a concept design that we've presented. We are certainly open to looking at that and making modifications as long as we're not sacrificing quality that we need for the animal shelter.

The lifetime of the building?

Oh, I don't know the lifetime of the building. I'll have to check on that.

Some of it would depend on the materials you put in it, you know, because if you're looking at dogs scratching at stuff and, you know, needing to spray it down with bleach every other day, it's going to

Yeah, that's part of why the cost is what it is, is because of the types of materials that we would want to use in the shelter for long-term durability and ability to sanitize and clean regularly, daily.

Yeah, disease management is in the forefront of our minds. As many of you know, Sioux Falls Humane Society had an outbreak of a distemper this year. We took in a dog this week, and he has kennel cough. We have no isolation space for dogs, so now he's in the same dog kennels as all of our adoptable dogs. So making sure that we build isolation spaces and spaces that are easily disinfectable are super in the forefront of our minds.

And then is equipment and stuff built into this cost? And that, of course, as we all know, equipment and that, you have to replace every... I mean, they have life expectancies too, but that is built into...

Bottom line is open the doors, and you're ready to take in all the animals yep on that slide that had the cost of the project the architect broke it down by The different things there so The FFE costs yeah

Any other questions or comments?

I'd just like to say it was a very good informative presentation. Thank you.

Thank you.

Very thorough, very thoughtful. Seven million dollars over the next five years is a pretty aggressive goal. If you get half the way there, what's the plan? Do you push it out longer? Do you change the building design?

I think we'll have to look at that. And we may need to change the building design. And then we may need to take a loan out for part of it. But I think when you're doing something like this, you've got to look at what would the ideal be? What would we like? serve our community now and into the future and so that's what we've dot uh... so yeah we will have to see where this goes if it if it takes off and we're able to get there in five years and that's what we'll do will build us otherwise we'll have to regroup yeah for the plan b aggressive goal i wish you the best of luck that's uh... that's uh... thank you uh... the building

is a beautiful building. As a builder myself, I look at that and it would be a spectacular facility, but very expensive. You get to a point where you need to start cutting across the style and layout of the building with the transom windows and the angled roofs and all that stuff. It looks great, but very expensive to build. If you get short, I would just say that that would be ONE AREA THAT YOU COULD SUBSTANTIALLY CUT THE COST IF YOU NEEDED TO. ABSOLUTELY. YOU GET A LOT MORE SQUARE FOOTAGE FOR LESS MONEY, WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT, I THINK.

THIS ISN'T ANYTHING WE PUT OUT FOR BIDS FOR ACTUAL DESIGN YET.

THIS IS MORE OF OUR CONCEPT. I THINK THE IDEA WITH THE WINDOWS WAS TO LET IN NATURAL LIGHT.

IT WOULD BE BEAUTIFUL. I DON'T DISAGREE WITH YOU.

We know that there's going to be trade-offs all the way through this.

Absolutely. It's a work in progress. I get that. Have you considered adding on to the current building?

We have. That was kind of the initial plan, but we ran into some roadblocks. Number one, we don't own that building. We would have to purchase that building, and the price that we were given is not something we're prepared to pay for that building. And also we would be limited by how much we can grow. There is not the correct, I don't know what the term is for it, on that piece of land, like roads and curbs and gutters and all that. It's sort of like a bunch of buildings thrown up. And so to parcel our little part out for us to buy it, Would would take some hoop jumping that I don't think our landlord is prepared to make So just to be honest with you. Yes. That was our first choice. We were we were considering staying there, but It's I just don't think it's going to work out and so we were very happy to have this offer of land that already has the infrastructure in place it's in the city limits and So, yeah, room to grow. And room to grow. More green space.

Yeah.

Yep. Okay. All right. Anybody else?

I was just curious, what was the price tag on that initial concept that was designed for you guys?

The initial one?

The concept that you showed us in here, the people that put that together for you, was that donated or was that part of the... Five and a quarter on the building? No, just to put together the people that did the plan, the engineering.

What did we pay them? We paid them about $30,000 to do a program facility study and to come up with an initial concept design. However, just to be clear, that doesn't mean that that is who we would use in the project. We just wanted an idea, what is this, what do we need, what is it gonna cost us? And so we got that, and then once we get to a certain point in fundraising, we would put the project out for bids. Hopefully it would come in much less, and as Dave said, there could be some design changes

That would really help us with that price tag All right Well, thank you very much for your guys presentation. Of course. We're just discussing today. We do have budget meetings and Thank you very much. Thank you for your time Next, letter C, we have Lori Frederick, Maddie Kerr, and Steph Mason from the Brookings Regional Growth Alliance.

Good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Lori Frederick. I am the CEO for Brookings Regional Growth Alliance Thank you for having us here this morning and allowing an opportunity to let you know a little bit more about what's happening within the organization We know that it's new in many ways and so we just wanted to come to you and provide you some updates and Let you know where we're at and what we're working on So one of our purpose for this organization is to unify and to drive economic growth in strength of the communities within the region and enhance that quality of life across Brookings County. Our region is Brookings County, and our core areas of economic development are business, community, and destination development. Our board is composed of eight volunteer directors Uh, there are two directors from each of the former four organizations and three appointed positions, including a representative of the county. When we talk about what we're looking at from a framework for economic development, as you can see, the things below the line is a lot with community development and destination development, and it includes the role of public policy. the role of you as a county representation, as well as city, state. And what we look at is how we build on those building blocks, and as that goes forward and as that grows, how that helps us to grow for existing business development, that innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as the recruiting and business attraction. Our Growth Alliance team right now sits at 11 individuals. We do have one position we're opening up for marketing and sales director. That role will be overseeing all of the marketing and sales for the entire organization. We look at this from a collaboration standpoint and this staff for the most part is all from the original organizations. Some of our strategies right now we're working on is combining and creating our mission, vision, and values of the organization, team development. Like I said, we've combined the staff of four different organizations, so we're really trying to work together and see how that balances out and what duties and roles each one plays. And then our regional and stakeholder partnerships, working with those. So we have business and community attraction, the regional impact and economic leadership. And what we have here today is our business development team and I'm gonna let them talk about some of the things that we have accomplished, they've accomplished in this first quarter and the last couple years.

Sounds great. Thanks, Laurie. Good morning, commissioners. Stephanie Mason. This is just quick Snapchat of some of the work that we've been continuing forward from the previous economic development organizations. So just kind of aligning them with those department pillars that Laurie was describing there above. So we're still continuing forward with a lot of the programs that you saw through the chamber, downtown Brookings, and Brookings Economic Development, and have seen a lot of success so far this quarter.

Good morning commissioners. It's great to see you. Hi everyone, Maddie Kerr would love to talk a little bit about SBDC services and kind of what I've been seeing in the region. First and foremost, I would just want to remind you that a lot of the work that I do or that we do in business development has a level of confidentiality to it in the SBDC center is. no exception to that, highly confidential. So unless I have direct consent from a client, I'm not able to maybe share some of those stories, but there's been a lot of really good things going on in our area and I'm working to get that consent from them so that we're able to share their praises and share the good stuff that's been going on. So last year was pretty great. In comparison to 2024, it honestly was pretty on par. And I would say the more exciting number in that is seeing that capital funding number of a little over $3.7 million. So in comparison to 2024, capital funding, to maybe back up and explain that a little bit, is anytime that I would work with a business on developing pro forma projections, Whether they're securing a loan to do an expansion, maybe it's a working capital situation, or a business purchase, which is maybe what we're also seeing a little bit more across the state. And that's something that we're gonna track a lot more heavily this year. We're seeing a lot of generational shifts in our community, so businesses are changing hands. But that being said, the capital funding number in 2024 was almost about $500,000. You know, really great increase of over $3 million and in conversations with Stephanie last week, I kind of tallied up the SBDC specific projects that I'm working on and already I'm waiting on processes and loan approvals. I'm trending just for these kind of first four months somewhere over $7 million in projects. And there's an exciting one that I'm going to talk about in relation to the Aurora community in a few slides that would not be counted in SBDC because it's not a owner-occupied project. But a lot of really great things going on at the SBDC Center. You can see the numbers there, honestly, very on par with 2025 and 2024. Overall, I want to say that the Watertown region is which is what I would fall into, and I work with a full-time counterpart out of the Watertown area. I oversee Brookings County, and then we kind of just work on projects as they come up, maybe in Moody County, Kingsbury County, as Melissa Mietinger is also, you know, at capacity. We kind of flex, and we have a really good working relationship there, so... Overall, on our Watertown region metrics, we kind of led the state in terms of percentage analysis, so there's a lot of really great things going on in this kind of northeastern section of South Dakota. Last thing I want to call attention to on this slide is that we are actively accepting nominations via online submission or paper form for small business awards. um it's something that we did previously in conjunction with the chamber so casey stickland and i kind of ran that project and now it falls completely under my position in the growth alliance but if you know of any small business that has had an active part in championing community happenings maybe they're doing some really innovative work or they've opened up in the last two years please nominate them we'll make sure that you get that link if you know of others that would be willing to share that or want to take part in it too. Those nominations are going to close next Monday at the end of day and then I'm going to turn around with my selection committee and make those awardees. So we'll announce those during the small business week and depending on timing, we'll maybe also be able to share those at the economic summit. It is a really great way to highlight our businesses that are doing wonderful work in the communities. that make up Brookings County and sometimes it's just the timing of we love to make that award presentation fun for them and sometimes too like they make it an opportunity to be able to celebrate and bring together their staff or folks that have been involved in their businesses so that's my little caveat about might not be able to announce it at the economic summit but we'll see how timing works out. In general, a lot of great things going on in our community. So the difference between 24 and 25 is about 47 new establishments that have occurred in the county area. What you're seeing there is the opening of an office for Respec. It's an engineering firm that's based out of Rapid City, South Dakota, but has opened up a location here in Brookings. They have an office in Sioux Falls as well, and they're doing like international work. So really great. Fun story about this is we learned about the space that was available in the back of the Dakota Land Federal Credit Union building and Tevis Holzer who's holding the scissors there was actually in my leadership Brookings class and happened to reach out to me saying that they were going to be opening up this office if we as Brookings Regional Growth Alliance knew of any open spaces. So it's really fun to be able to think about the connection points that we have of even a couple of quick messages back and forth resulted in a new office space with several full-time staff members, a handful of SDSU interns too that is gonna be doing great work across the nation centered right here in Brookings County. Some other project highlights include the continued development of the marketplace with Aldi opening here this last year, seeing the changeover of Mac's East Side Grill. I've only heard great things about it. I've heard it's kind of hard to get a table in there, that they're doing very well. And something that's interesting about that is Jesse Davis is kind of helping to lead the management of that. He's also opening up JD's JD's at Trails Head, which will kind of be a little bit of like a sports bar concept. So looking at a local restauranteur who has had a great impact in our community, employs a fair amount of folks in the workforce, now kind of managing three locations across our community, I think is also just a really great success story of the caliber of business owners that we have in our community that genuinely care. and knows the importance, too, of maybe losing an eatery on the east side and kind of how that can affect our community as a whole. So that Aurora mixed-use space. In preparation for today, I was talking, you know, Aurora's a small town. Originally, I'm from Highmoor. I know that it's probably pretty easy to piece together who might be doing what, What I want to talk about particularly with this project is it's going to be an opportunity for more commercial or retail space in Aurora. And as you are familiar as commissioners, there's really not a lot of those spaces available. They are also challenged by sales tax generation. So it's going to be a really great success story when the project kind of gets to its point of groundbreaking fully funded still kind of working through some stuff there but the project is green lit that that is going to be a really great presence at aurora that's not only going to be able to provide that commercial space maybe develop a few new businesses and get some entrepreneurs starting there in the community but also provide a handful of affordable apartments And last but not least of what I'm going to cover is it's been an awesome, awesome couple of years too for our community. Bell Brands and the Sloventum investments are huge, right? Things like that don't get to happen every day and we kind of got to experience those in back-to-back months. So it's remarkable how we're seeing the continued investment of longtime businesses in our community, hearing both The Bell executives talk as well as Sloventum executives talk at those ribbon cuttings if you weren't in attendance They really talked about the significance of why they chose Brookings and why they were continuing to invest in this area And it is because of a myriad of factors of not just a great business climate But also really great people and I think some that's something that we can entirely be proud of as a county that We are competing on an international global level of by the time the Babybel expansion facility opens in 2028, all the Babybel cheese wheels in the US and kind of North American region are going to come from Brookings. So then Sulventum said that 10% of everything that they produce comes out of the Brookings facility in some way, shape, or form if it's not an end product. That is remarkable global business that is happening in our county. And there's a lot more stories just beyond those two businesses that we can tell too.

Awesome. So I'm going to share a little bit about what our cohorts or our colleagues are doing in community development and destination development. So the Brookings County Farmers Market, they just wrapped up the Winners Market that was taking place at the 5th Street Dim. Kirsten said that was a very successful kickoff for the Winners Market for them this year. They had over 250 booths with 45 businesses. 31 of those businesses are Brookings County based vendors. So a great identification of entrepreneurs that are thriving in our industry or excuse me in our area. The summer season is kicking off May 2nd. So just around the corner here that will take place between the courthouse and the library as it has in past years. They already are maxed out on applications, so have 81 applicants already, and 42 of those vendors are located in Brookings County. So it's a great opportunity for our community to see thriving farmers and other entrepreneurs with their homemade goods.

If you would indulge me quick, in that photo was Little Shire's honey. If you have an opportunity to get to the farmer's market here when it opens up in the first couple weeks of May, you've got to pick up their hot honey.

The hot honey. Back over to you, Stephanie. So good. Other community events that are happening, we launched the Business Professional Network this year. This is kind of a combination of the Women in Leadership and the Young Professionals Network that were previously led by the Chamber of Commerce. And we already have over 50 members registered for that. It is only a $50 membership that allows anyone of all ages or demographics to participate in some training and networking opportunities that are already scheduled to take place throughout the year. Kind of along those lines, we also have the Volga Business Committee. That is still a committee that's housed underneath the Growth Alliance. They are kicking off a Lunch and Learn series the first week of May there. It's packed with practical tips and valuable insights from industry professionals. So that will take place over the noon hour. all through May in rotating businesses in Volga specifically. So there's a state of the city, AI scaling your business, and a lot more. So that's a great opportunity for local businesses and entrepreneurs to network and learn a little bit more about some resources and trends that are upcoming. Downtown at sundown will take place again this year. It kicks off July 30th and then just to highlight or note that we had over 17,000 attendees for that event in 2025. So it is a big regional draw for our community to bring people in and have some food and enjoy the music so.

Do you want to cover tours? Sure.

So tourism and hospitality impact in 2024, is we will be providing the release at the upcoming summit for what 2025 impact data is, but in that period of time, over $127 million in visitor spending, which is a 2% year-over-year increase, We've outperformed our regional growth, so Glacier Lakes and Prairies region, so we have done very well in that capacity. That has generated obviously quite a bit of state and local taxes and 1,400 direct tourism jobs supporting the local economy. That has come into $36 million in direct labor income from the tourism industry. And we are number two in regional tourism employment share, which is behind Brown County. Like I said, if you please join us for our economic summit on May 5th, we'll be providing that 2025 impact data at that time. We'll have all of that compiled to do that.

Some other things that have taken place so far in 2026 as well I'm sure a lot of you were following along with the conversation around the Dakota Bank Center so with the partnership with the city we kind of helped with some of those community discussions and so we helped kind of share out distribute and promote the survey that was Released excuse me in March that survey was shared we had over 1,400 responses from that so helping kind of with the design of the survey and then What the city was trying to propose with those three kind of options continuing forward with events primarily in that space or capacity and looking at some sort of hybrid approach or transitioning it to a community and recreation and Wellness Center, so Conversations are still taking place but they saw a great response both in the survey and in the open house that took place there were over 100 attendees that were able to tour the space kind of talk about different uses that were being proposed and Share some feedback and input at that event overall Of those three options, the hybrid model was slightly favored, I would say, in those responses, but there wasn't a dominant share of any one responses. And so right now the city is working through a feasibility assessment to understand kind of the financial modeling that would go along with those different proposed options that would continue on in conversations with City Council in June so a lot of great work that happened there and then Our team helped put together a regional impact report So if you scan or follow the link on that QR code that would take you to the final report that has been made available to the public that shares kind of the analysis of how events have performed in the recent history and then kind of some of the modeling around the other two options that have been proposed and The America's 250th celebration. So we're celebrating America this year, 250 years. And so Brickings wants to participate as part of that initiative or program. And so our destination development team has done some nice work on an art mural project. There's over 950 tiles that the community has been asked to participate in designing. They put some parameters around them, so they're mostly blue, mostly red, mostly white, and so the image that you see on the screen here is gonna be the final design of that mural project that will be installed on the VFW building facility. So I think that that will be a nice addition, and I think that, yep, that's supposed to be unveiled June 4th, so very exciting for us. There's a lot of other things that are happening in Junction with that 250th celebration. So Uncle Sam Jam obviously is a popular event for our community and our county and bringing people in to celebrate the 4th of July. And then we also have 250th celebration flags that are available for people to utilize for their events or picture backdrops, different things like that. anybody's interested feel free to reach out with to Laura with our team and she can help get you coordinated with a tile painting party or Some of those other great events Legislation session obviously wrapped up in March and we take a pretty active role in Understanding what the bills and policies are that are being proposed each legislation session We hire a lobbyist to help support advocate and advocating for economic development and regional growth for Brookings County specifically there were two four public forums that we hosted in February one with just district seven legislators one with district eight seven and eight legislators to be a part of that. Those were recorded and are available on our chamber YouTube channel if anybody is kind of interested in hearing the feedback from those forums. And then really amped up our bill and policy education to the public. So we leveraged our social media to make sure that people had a good understanding of how property taxes work since that was a very popular topic this year for a legislation session in particular. What that means for our county specifically, and some of the other bills that were essentially being proposed and then as legislation session wrapped up we did both a press release and then an interview with Brookings radio to kind of talk about the bills that we felt like we're going to have an impact in Brookings County and so you can kind of see the Individual bills listed up there if you have any questions, I'd be happy to visit with you more on that but I'm sure you've all been following closely along with some of those discussions and And then lastly, I just kind of want to talk about, you know, economic development as a marathon, not a sprint. And so some projects take a long time to get off the ground, as you all are aware. And so these are two projects that I just wanted to note that hopefully as county commissioners, you're all very, you know, knowledgeable on or working closely with. some roles that we took place in over the last six months with the county road 214 obviously long-term goal of getting that road paved would be very impactful for our county and the residents that are coming from the east side of the county maybe to work in Brookings or come to school here or different things like that and so We have initiated several conversations with Senator Thun's office, been ready, I've had regular discussions and what that looks like. And then EDA, we obviously helped with some letters of support for some grant funding in 2025 and would continue to help support those efforts in any way that we can. And then there's a power transmission project that's being proposed that would add a 765 kilowatt, or kilovolt, excuse me, transmission line in the Eastern Brookings County, which I'm sure y'all are aware there was a presentation in March on that topic. But again, our role is to help kind of unpack that, educate the public about what this means, what the added value is, and the opportunities to help both residents and businesses that exist here today. So those have been popular topics that we continue to chip away at. And then lastly, the annual economic summit is scheduled for May 5th. It's Tuesday. It's at the Dakota Bank Center from 8 to noon. We'll highlight in a similar fashion as we have before. Our keynote speaker will be GOED Commissioner Bill Even this year to talk about some things that are happening. With economic development from a state and regional capacity, pulling in other panelists, local economists, Jared McIntaffer with Dakota Institute will come and share some data metrics with us and what we can kind of see looking into the future. And then we'll host some breakout sessions to get that feedback from community residents on where we'd like to go next. So hopefully you all can join us. I think that's, yeah, that's our presentation. So we just wanted to thank you guys again for your time, and if you have any questions, we can take those now or offline. Perfectly happy to do that, but we'll try and come visit you guys again in a few months.

Well, I just want to say, just being a part of the economic development in the past several years, and of course being on the board for the Growth Alliance, the last couple years, our regional impact in our economic development work throughout Brookings the entire Brookings County not just in Brookings has been very encouraging and I'm excited for the opportunity and the Continued success and those conversations, so thank you guys very much for your work Thank you for all you do for Brookings much appreciate it Great information.

Thank you for sharing.

Thank you. All right.

Thank you very much guys All right, we got down to letter E, so action to approve agreement 26-23, a state of South Dakota Department of Transportation joint powers agreement for pocket gopher baiting services. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion to second. Comments?

I did have discussions with Tim and then the weed guys and they are aware that We do this and they know what to do and how to move forward So this is in front of you now with the recommendation to approve All right any other comments questions Hearing none call the roll please post Miller right Jensen banner wall all right hostler motion carries all

Letter F, action to approve 26 agreement 26-37, an agreement between Brookings County and Dunnock Inc. regarding the 26 Brookings County surfacing project. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion second. Comments?

This is just the agreement. We've approved the notice of award. This is just the agreement for the work to be completed on our overlay project up by Ponset this year.

Any other questions, comments? Hearing none, call the roll, please.

Miller? Aye. Jensen? Aye. VanderWaal? Aye. Post? Aye. Hostler? Aye. Motion carries.

Letter G, action to approve abatement 26-06, an abatement application made by John Mills for parcel 40357-00100-000-00 in the amount of $492.39. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion is second. Comments? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay. Motion carries. Letter H, action to approve abatement 26-11, an abatement application due to the retroactive award of VA disability benefits in the amount of $2,755.39. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion is second. Comments? Hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed say nay motion carries Letter I action to approve abatement 26-12 an abatement application due to the late elderly tax freeze in the amount of 1091 dollars and 16 cents do I have a motion to approve so moved second motion second comments Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Motion carries. Letter J, action to approve abatement 26-14, an abatement application due to the retroactive award of a VA disability benefits in the amount of $2,499.64. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Comments? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Motion carries. Letter K, action to approve abatement 26-15, an abatement application due to retroactive award of VA disability benefits in the amount of $2,145.82. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion and second. Comments? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye. Opposed say nay. Motion carries.

Letter L, action to authorize the Weed and Pest Department to purchase a F-150 pickup and spray system. Do I have a motion to approve?

Motion approved.

Second. Motion and a second. Comments?

You can see here, we in Pest Supervisor Tim Huber had reached out to INSPAR to match the state bid, did that, and then the addition of the new spray system. I think we're looking at the F-250, which would fall under for both of those items just under what is budgeted for 2026 of $59,000.

So we have two here for an F250 three quarter ton and then an F350 for a one ton? There are the two numbers on the bottom there?

Correct.

Okay. See the base price of $47,150. What's the $11,315?

That's for the spray system.

Spray equipment. Oh, gotcha.

Tim, The spray equipment, how many gallons is that?

That would be for a 300 gallon tank in the back.

Okay. Is a three quarter ton versus a one ton that many gallons?

It would be the same system for either truck. The F-350 would handle that tank better than the 250, but we'd be happy with either. So the F-250 comes in, fits our budget at about a 59,000 with the system in it. I think we'd be $730 over if we went with the F-350.

Say Tim obviously we've had some turnover and staffing and a reduction of staffing. Have you had a chance to? Really analyze whether this is needed equipment for this year Do we need to figure out where the balance is exactly with how many people we have working now and whether this Maybe it's something we can push off for another year.

It could be set back. We have one truck. That's Considerable age on it I think they replaced an engine in it last year, if I remember right. Yeah, it does work. We do have three pickups with sprayers on, two in really good condition. That third one is the one that would be on the way out. It's an older GM. I'm not sure what year. But no, we could get by without it this year. That would work. The issue with these trucks is If we ordered this truck today, it'd be about six months before it would arrive. Regular cab. It's just not a truck you're going to go off the lot and buy. It's going to be something that they would order. Minimum four months, more like six months would be something probably for next year.

It wouldn't be available for this year's spray season. Probably not. If you were to get through this season and then we decided, Boy, we really could have used that truck. We can still order it and have it for next season.

Correct.

What's the lead time for the spray equipment and tank?

We could have that real soon. It wouldn't take long for that. The issue is going to be getting the pickup.

Yeah, you could go down to CNR and pick that up. Yeah, CNR has it.

Yeah, they can put that together pretty fast.

Is that, of course, being pretty new and just in it, The spray equipment that we currently have Of course we're going to be rotating that out Would it be something to? Possibly do the spray. I know of course. We've got everything budgeted, but would we do the the could we do the spray equipment and everything and upload it and fit it into one of the other pickups for use and then Down the road if we don't approve the pickup move it over to the new vehicle next year and stuff. Is that an option you've thought about?

It could be moved over, but that's another expense too, taking it out of that truck and putting it into a, and it's an old system also in that pickup.

Is that something with the installation stuff that you guys take care of, or do we hire that out?

Probably not. We'd probably farm that out.

Of these three pickups you have set up with sprayers, each one serves a different purpose, or do you have three sprayers going at the same time?

You know, I can't answer that generally. I think they have three of them. They're running at the same time so.

Because we do have three staff this year, correct?

Correct, that's what we're we're going to be operating with left to coming over from the highway shop first part of May and then obviously I'm part time so less than 30 hours a week so.

That the pickup that we were going to rotate out is I guess for lack of a better term does some of our other county departments have their eyes on it that they want to grab on to it and utilize it for some reason.

If we dismantle whatever Brian said he was interested in using the truck so be something we can use. We wouldn't surplus. I think Brian had some interest in probably inheriting that one.

I have some older vehicles, yes, I have pickups budgeted, but the one that I'd be looking at replacing is used, we'll put it that way.

The one that we would rotate out of weed is better than some of the ones to utilize on that. Correct. And you don't have...

I have a pickup budgeted, but I don't have three, four pickups budgeted to just be replacing one that is rusting out.

So because this is budgeted, it would help?

Multiple counties multiple departments to rotate and and help with that okay Tim just clarity on the two guys that are coming over from the highway department their full-time Correct Ben wrench and Mike Anderson yep, so they're there 40 hours a week and correct you're there 30 Up to 29 and a half is the way my job description read so So there's 10 plus hours a week that they're unsupervised Yeah, right That's kind of where that four day work week fit in because like say I'll probably be around three days a week so And these when these pickups are out spraying typically it takes two one drives and one sprays No, they're operated by the driver

Any other comments? Questions? All right, we have a motion on table to approve. Would look for all those in favor to approve signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

Nay.

Motion carries.

I do have a question. Which option were we? I didn't make a... Oh, we didn't.

Yeah, I guess I was... It was under, because it was listed as the F-350, that's the option that we voted on. Okay. And passed the F-350.

That would be my recommendation also.

What's that? Yeah. Yeah, so motion passes.

Thank you, Tim. For which pickup?

Yeah, the 350, which was on the original motion, correct. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Tim. Letter M, action to automatically supplement for unanticipated expenses incurred and reimbursement made to Brookings County. Receipt 00765807 for $37,262.15. And receipt number 00764172 for 1,000 to general line item 2 0 1 dash 4 dash 3 1 1 dash 4 2 2 6 Do I have motion to approve motion approve second motion a second comments?

This is reimbursement from the city of Volga for the Samara Avenue project the $1,000 was just me accidentally putting in a wrong amount at the last meeting so we had another 1,000 there to to to supplement so and then we got the the $37,000 from them from a most the most recent billing Any other comments Hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye

Opposed say nay motion carries Let her in action to approve a request to fill vacancy for an equipment operator at the highway department. Do I have a motion to approve? Move to approve second motion a second comments Just a resignation Any other comments questions Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Motion carries. Letter O, action to approve a request to fill vacancy for the legal assistant slash human services in the state's attorney's office. Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second. Motion is second. Comments? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay. Motion carries. Letter P, action to approve a request to fill vacancy for an appraiser in the Equalization Office. Do I have a motion to approve? Move to approve.

Second.

Motion is second. Comments? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Motion carries. Q discussion and possible action to direct a county development office to create a subcommittee to review the proposed 765 kilovolt transmission line project motion proof motion a second Richard do you have any comments on on this I?

yes we would do this the same way we did the subcommittee on the pipeline directed through your authorized through you application process for members of the public to apply and you would apply that to the commission office you would go review the candidates or the applicants then you would pick of those for to be on the committee and also other members of the industry Could you be picked by the director like we did with the pipeline?

Okay, and we're we're Thinking or talking about wanting to open the app open this application process up today, correct? Correct and then close it on May 12th for discussion and action and appointment on our next Meeting on the 19th. Is that kind of our timeline?

That's yes, that would be sufficient.

Okay And how many people would be on that board?

Well, there's four members on there now three members of the County Planning and Zoning Commission and the Commission member mr. Vander wall so there'd be Mr.. Hill two members from the public and then up to mr. Hills discretion for industry representatives to be on there also and that's kind of the same setup as we did for the Same setup we did with the pipeline subcommittee they would have set up the meetings That'd be public meetings for the public to come in to view and just with that exact same process Okay, just does that include any township representation? Yes, that would we would also reach out to the townships on there and But on the subcommittee, on the A1, we also reached out to the emergency services and fire departments and things. We would not necessarily need to do that. But township officials would also be invited to participate.

Any other questions, comments?

I think it's a good idea that we do something like this just as we did with the pipeline to educate. educate us as well as educate the the public and get that public input and of course with the expertise from

As we work through this process with this proposed power line, I just encourage landowners, if they have questions, to continue to work with the company that's proposing this. They're there to work with the process as well, but the power on people, those landowners that have some concerns in the meantime need to keep focusing on communicating that with that company.

We don't need to amend the proposed motion with the dates, do we? We can just vote on it with those dates?

Yeah, that's fine.

Okay. So we do have this out. Do we have any other discussion or comments?

Yes, sir.

Go ahead and come forward. State your name.

Good morning. Tim Rogers, Xcel Energy, representing the Power On Transmission Project. We're partnering with Otter Tail to build, to first get this approved and built. And I just want to make sure that, well, I'm asking to be on the subcommittee. I'm not sure if I work with Mr Haugen if an application is needed, but I'm just offering my services to help the public understand or the subcommittee understand any of the technical issues and just wanted to make sure you know that I'm offering to be on the subcommittee.

Yeah, I think you can work with Richard and Bob and and they can point us in the right direction to figure that out.

Very good, thank you. Thank you, thank you.

Any other comment?

Yes, sir sheriff like the pipeline. I think somebody from my office should be on that too They were on the with the pipeline as well.

Okay. Yeah, I think we can work with that. Just is the same as with the pipeline Any other comments Hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye both say nay carries letter our discussion and possible action regarding a The code of conduct approved on March 17th, 2026. Action discussion. Do we have any discussion items?

Do we call for a motion?

Yeah, I know this was approved at the last commission meeting, but upon further review, I was discussing with our County Association officials, and I know this had been adopted in some of the other counties, but specifically Section 7, talking about a violation resulting in the removal from office. Just upon review, I think it would be better to remove elected officials on this particular code of conduct just because The County Commission doesn't have the authority to remove elected officials. Only the governor has that ability so. This code of conduct as it's written and as it's approved. doesn't really hold up to statutory authority. Uh, so just visiting with Stacy, we decided to put this back on, uh, for their today's meeting to, um, in my opinion, it should just exclude, um, County elected officials. Um, so I don't know if we want to do an amendment for that or, um, if the commissioners have

questions or concerns about that I can do my best to answer that but that's that's kind of the reason why we put this on for today so any questions comments it seems like if we don't have the action to be able to the Commission doesn't have action to be able to do that it should not be in there so we have through codified law like Dan explained do we have any other questions comments So basically who would it cover then just the our department heads that are not appointed department heads and committee members So I would I would look to for a motion to amend the code of conduct removing elected officials That would be a significant motion I Would look for that motion so moved motion a second second we have motion in a second any comments on the motions Hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed say nay motion carried Number nine Commission Department directors report I

The March general fund surplus was included with my packet. It was at 15%. That is just above our 10-year average of 13%. Again, that will go up here in April with first half taxes being collected as we speak. And then we just kind of watch that throughout the year. Really that kind of comes into play at year-end when we're looking at possible year-end designations, but we like to track it month over month just in case we see any anomalies that happen to pop up. The HVAC project, the total cost of that was just over $1 million. Our 52% is about $548,000. We have paid half to date. They continue to work on that again as we speak, so it's coming along. the Samara Avenue project I wanted to bring up so we've the Commission initially agreed to 1 million dollars for the Samara Avenue project we are really close to reaching that we're about just over two hundred nineteen thousand dollars away from that I included with my report some of the spreadsheets that have been used to track that funding. We do have a meeting tomorrow, I believe, on Samara, so I think I'm going to bring this over and visit with, it's over at the City of Volga with Michael Schulte. I want to bring this up because I think there's probably more than that left. In in spending plus we had they had the city had gotten a grant and some additional funding and whatnot So I think it's just worth the discussion on kind of where we're at with that and and bring that up But I wanted to make you aware that we're really we're close to that 1 million dollar commitment on that project we are The ones paying those bills, though, as it is a county road, so that would continue. If we reach our $1 million commitment, then I would just seek reimbursement in full from the city of Volga on the rest of the remaining costs. But some discussions to be had. Like I said, we do have a meeting tomorrow over there. to discuss some of the upcoming work now in phase three, and then what work is remaining in the first two phases as well to finish up here this year. I will need to get consensus to do another supplemental budget, this time for the Elkton Ambulance funding request that was approved, I believe, at one of our last most recent meetings. A couple other things that have kind of come to the surface are some generator expenses as well, a permanent generator for the OAC, and then I know... Bob Hill our emergency management director has discussed a portable generator as well for the emergency management department Are those things that you would like to see in a supplemental budget and Those generators. Because I can work with Bob. I know he's set to return, I think, tomorrow. So we can get some numbers put together. But then additionally, the funding for the Elkton Ambulance, I believe that's going to be coming out of the Sheriff's Office budget per legislative audit. But that will get reimbursed back to that budget as well, Marty. So you'll see kind of an expense. But then you'll get it supplemented back. So... um you'll be good there so we'll be a wash for you um other than that um oh next wednesday at one o'clock on the 29th um i have to head to owakoma for a conference next week um at one o'clock that that um The bike trail presentation that the SDSU students have been working on, they're giving their final presentations at one o'clock next Wednesday on campus and wondering if a commissioner could go in my place to listen to those presentations and get that information from those students who've I've been working on that project. Probably take a couple of hours. When is that? Next Wednesday at 1 o'clock, and it'll be on campus. And if I can get someone the information and make sure that you get a parking permit and all that jazz. So is there anybody that would be interested in doing that?

That's the 29th? The 29th at 1 o'clock.

I'm scheduled at banners for a presentation at one that same day I could be available Yeah, okay, oh I'll reach out to you Dave and get details and whatnot I

So upcoming dates, we do have that joint meeting with the city council regarding that ordinance that we had the first reading on here this morning. That's on Tuesday, May 12th. It's at 530 here in this room. And then later that weekend is the trout extravaganza. I know Joe out at the BCOAC has had a hand in bringing that event back to the Indian Hills Pond over that weekend, working with GF&P. Also out at the OAC is their Welcome to Summer event on May 20th. Monday, May 25th is Memorial Day. Offices will be closed that day. One thing that I wanted to make note that I don't have on here is keep in mind the meeting for the first meeting in June is Thursday, June 4th. Make sure you have that switched on your calendar. June 2nd is primary election day, and so we will meet and have our regular meeting on Thursday the 4th, and then that is, as part of that meeting, you will canvass the votes for the June primary. So make sure you have that correct on your calendars that we're not meeting on June 2nd, we're meeting on Thursday, June 4th. June 10th through the 14th, the Vietnam Memorial will be here in Brookings at Fitchback Soccer Fields. June 11th is our safety week picnic. That'll be from 11 to 2 out at the OAC. That same day is that I've been talking about that weed tour if anyone is interested in that. June 23rd is budget hearings. Make sure that you have that on your calendars. All day we'll meet next door in the community room. The Statewide Transportation Improvement, or STIP, meeting. First District is holding a meeting on Wednesday, June 24th. That is at 10.30 at their office in Watertown. Looking out a little bit further, offices will be closed on Friday, July 3rd for the 4th of the July holiday. The Conservation District Tour, August 20th. And then one thing I wanted to note too and discuss with you was as part of the Brookings Regional Growth Alliance presentation, they said their economic summit is on May 5th. That is a commission meeting day. It's our next commission meeting I believe is May 5th. I don't know if there's any interest in adjusting our meeting so that commissioners can attend the economic summit. Any discussion on that? Because they overlap. The summit is from like 8 to noon I think.

I can't adjust the dates as I've got work obligations the end of that week. If we move the date I would be not able to attend our meeting. But that's just me.

I'm going to go find it. So you're just going to go find that date.

We moved it to that Monday. Would that work for you?

Or what if we moved it to 1 o'clock on that Tuesday? Just throwing it out there. I'm not saying that's the right answer. Just something.

I'm open that afternoon and that Monday as well, but

I think it's important we stay consistent. Maybe if we have a shorter agenda that day, we'll still make it. We'll get out there.

Leave as is.

Okay. I just wanted to ask the question because I made a note of that one as they were talking about it. Other than that, I think that's all I've got unless you have questions for me.

We do have a question on that Elkton ambulance request and radios. Didn't radios and stuff usually come out of the emergency management budget?

I think Jennifer had reached out to legislative audit on that to see where they wanted that to come out of and they gave us a line out of the sheriff's office that we would take that out of and then supplement it back in.

And then throw it in from someplace else?

Out of general, well out of fund balance. That's why we need the supplemental budget, because it's not budgeted for.

Any other questions? Moving to number 10, state's attorney office report. All right, number 11, commissioner's reports and discussion. Commissioner VanderWaal.

Thank you. On Tuesday, April 14th, I was here for the what you call it meeting. And then later that evening I briefly attended the Brookings Regional Growth Alliance Civics Bee. And then an hour later then I attended the Brookings Dual Real Water Annual Meeting in White. On Friday night the 17th I attended the Brooks Fire Department Feed. It was good to visit with other fire departments from around the county. And then on Saturday I attended, on the 18th I attended the County Republican Meeting. at the BCOAC, and then Sunday morning I attended the Aurora Fireman Pancake Feed in Aurora. That's my report. Thank you. Thank you.

Commissioner Post. Yeah, yesterday we had the Extension Board meeting out at Brookings Outdoors Center. I get those letters all screwed up sometimes. And that is all I have to report.

All right. Commissioner Miller. Okay. 14th with the Equalization Board, which is good. The 15th met with the Brookings Housing. That was my report.

Commissioner Jensen.

On the 7th, met with City of White on a speed limit reduction north of town by the golf course out there. Moving forward with that, we had our first reading today. On the 8th, I had a conservation meeting in the morning. Later in the day, I went to a 10-county meeting to submit. We had a great Pretty good update from the legislatures of the past session and the half percent property tax proposal, Senate Bill 245. It was good listening to what those guys had to say. On the 14th, went to a rural water meeting in Waite. Place was packed. There was a lot of people attended. They held the election process there for some board members. First in many, many years that they had an election. A lot of those guys on that board have been there for many years. On the 17th, I went up to the Bruce Fireman's feed that evening. On the 19th, I attended the Pancake Breakfast in Aurora also. That concludes my report.

For my report, on the 8th, I also attended the 10-county meeting over in DeSmet. It was good to have their presentation and then hear the legislators about their about their experiences out in Pierre. That afternoon I did attend the Hitch Studio ribbon cutting down on Main Street here in Brookings. And then on the 9th we had our Brookings Regional Growth Alliance board meeting. Of course I heard from them today and the work that they are doing. It's very exciting and I'm optimistic of that new organization and and what they can do and how they can expand their services to not only Brookings but the region to include all of Brookings County and our small towns. That night I actually did attend a fundraiser down in Sioux Falls for the Ronald McDonald House, which was well attended and a big program that was coordinated statewide, there was a like event going on over in Rapid City, which they telecommunicated in for some things. It was very well attended. On the 14th, Equalization Board, of course, and then that evening, I was asked to partake and be a judge at the National Civics Bee Competition that was held up at Performing Arts Center with local middle schoolers. It was... It's really interesting to see and it's nice to see the younger kids getting involved and their knowledge of civics and community outreach and just being involved in the community. On the 18th, attended the Brookings County Republican meeting out at the OAC, and then that evening, Lions Club had their spaghetti feed and fundraiser. We attended that over here at the church, and they served about, I think they said 198 meals and raised a lot of money for their organization that they do across the across the community. So a lot of people in there. And then on the 19th, just Sunday, attended the Aurora Fire Department pancake feed and then had some time before church so jumped over to the VFW and attended the VFW and the Brookings Police Foundation breakfast that they put on the third Thursday. After church, I had a nap. That is my report. We do not have executive session, so we skip over that. Letter 13, I would look for a motion to adjourn. So moved.

Second.

Motion and second. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Say nay. We are adjourned.