County Commission - Regular Meeting

830 Tuesday September 1st, I'll call the meeting of the Brookings County Commission to order Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Moving on to item three is approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved. Second.

Motion and a second. Any comments, corrections? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay. Motion carries. Number four is employee anniversary recognitions and Commissioner VanderWaal is going to be doing that today. Could I have Sue Bjornahl come forward please?

While she's walking up here, this is a certificate of appreciation presented to Sue Buellerdahl on this first day of September 2026 by the Brookings County Commission in recognition of 10 years of dedicated exceptional service in the Brookings County Sheriff's Office.

Thank you, Sue.

Darren DeYoung, is he here today? There he is. While he's walking up here, this certificate of appreciation is presented to Darren DeYoung on this first day of September 2026 by the Brookings County Commission in recognition of 10 years of dedicated exceptional service in the Brookings County Sheriff's Office. Congratulations, Darren. Thank you.

Alright, thank you very much Number five invitation for a citizen to schedule time on the Commission agenda for an item not listed There is a five minute time limit per person Anyone wanting to speak during this agenda item must sign in prior 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. I Today we have a few signed in. We do have a pretty lengthy 9am so if we do hit that time frame we will move and come back to the public comment. First, Paul Johnson.

good morning um just wanted to visit with you a little bit about the weed department i am one of your people on that board and just want to comment a couple things on where i see some changes need to be made and How I see that is I've got 40 years of experience working in weed control at SDSU and a couple years on the board here and I was on the board in Coddington. First of all, I look at there is no overtime in that department and when spraying season is going on uh... there needs to be flexible hours overtime allowed to get the weed sprayed because if you don't spray them in time they don't do any good and that's one of the things you can say well overtime costs a lot But I say overtime is really cheap because you're spraying right, you're getting a good job, and you're doing that excellent. I mean, it would be just like telling Doug over here that right now, when he's chopping silage, he can only run 40 hours a week, and it's gotta be these specific 40 hours that he can chop. And he would tell you, well, that ain't happening. And I guess I'm saying the same for this. The second part of it is once you have decent control of what you're spraying, then you can start enforcing on farmers and other entities that may need to be taken care of. And from what I was told at the last meeting in a way, if the weed soup would come here and request that they're going to put somebody under enforcement, the commission would not support that and allow that to happen. Now, I'm not saying that's right, but all it amounts to is if they put somebody under enforcement the either somebody is hired or the department goes out and sprays that area and what that costs then is put on their taxes and It will be collected that way. They have to pay it before they pay their taxes. So if they just pay their tax amount, it'll go towards the bill. I was indicated that you guys would not support that because it could go into contingency funds or whatever for that time period until it does get paid. And I don't think we want to look at that because if that's the case, everybody in the county knows that they don't have to do anything. And I think you're going to run into trouble there. The way it works on how somebody is put under enforcement, so you know it just doesn't get done, the person in charge calls a meeting of the Weed Board And the weed board gets together and everybody on the weed board has to sign off on that. And so consequently, that is the way it would work. And those are the two things I see really need some help here in order to make it a more effective weed program And do a better job because if you're not going to do those two, you might as well just pull the budget and save the money.

Thank you thanks Paul. Next up Mrs White.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I am here today to support your nomination for Jeff Struwe for the Human Rights Commission Board. I'm not sure if any city council people are here, but to just give an update to people here that it was my understanding that you voted for Jeff to be on the board, and the city council denied that. And just to read just the first paragraph, the mission of Brookings County Human Rights Commission is to improve human relations and civil rights in the Brookings area by fighting discrimination against individuals or groups because of their age, disability, race, color, ethnicity, sex, creed, religion, ancestry, national origin, familiar status, marital status, gender identity, sexual orientation, and political affiliation. It promotes educational activities to make Brookings an inclusive and welcoming committee. My concern is here it says Brookings area, which to me would include Brookings County. Not just the city. So I feel your nomination was a great nomination. I think Jeff would be really good. I feel as a resident, the Brookings County Commissioner should have a say in who goes on that board. Again, I think Jeff would be a great addition and I guess I'm here to say I hope that you and the City Council can come up with an agreement to make this fair for everyone. And again, I think Jeff would be a great addition. Thanks.

Thank you. Next up, Bill Landsman.

My mind goes, I don't quite know where to start with it, because my daughter and I, we were out yesterday taking signatures and talking to people about the power line and that, and we're talking about, you know, we've got a chance of getting your 20-foot set back and that, but we were talking to people, and what we're talking about is why are Are we even letting that power line come down through here? Because what does it do for the state of South Dakota? And what bothers us is we haven't hardly seen anything in the papers or anything about this power line even coming down. And about 15% or 20% of the people we talked to yesterday had no idea that this power line was coming down through here. And we've done some research, and we can't figure out yet why it is coming down through here, what it's going to cost the state of South Dakota or the residents to have it come down through here. There's some research we'd like to do on that, but we went out yesterday, my daughter and I, and just driving around, we collected 160 signatures of people that do not want that power line down here. Tonight I'll be at the zoning one, and that's where I will present this. But I just wonder why... FOR COUNTY BECAUSE WE FOUND THIS GOES WAY BACK TO MARCH OR 25TH OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT OF 25 THAT THERE WAS STARTING ALREADY THAT THIS POWER LINE WAS BEING TALKED ABOUT AND THINGS BEING DONE ON IT THAT'S ALL I WANTED TO SAY BUT THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME THANK YOU BILL THANKS BILL NEXT UP ANGELA DALE

Good morning, everyone. My name is Angela Daly, and I'm here representing Brookings Regional Humane Society. At our last meeting, I talked about finances, but today I want to talk about lives saved. Let's make it a good, happy, informational piece. As if you know, most of the budget for our Brookings Regional Humane Society It comes through grants and fundraising efforts. That's about 58% of our budget. The food pantry is one of those programs that is housed at Brookings Humane Society and receives money from grants to help it roll. The pet food pantry has been used 125 times, and this is data up to mid-August, 125 times in 2026. There have been 389 animal intakes up to mid-August 2026. If the need continues at this place, Brookings Humane Society will have helped 176 families in Brookings County with pet food by the end of the year. And 550 animals will have been helped to find a new home by the end of 2026, if everything continues at this pace. We have roughly a dozen foster homes. Foster homes will take bottle kittens, will take dogs, mothers and pups, mothers and kittens, and help them reach the point in health where they are ready to be adopted out and find their new home. We thank those generous people for opening their homes to foster animals. In July of 2026, there were 76 animals brought into Brookings Regional Humane Society. And by the end of the month, roughly 70% of them had found a new home. 10% of them passed away, and the final 20% are still waiting. I think this is a commitment to the people of Brookings County and the good work that they do, whether it's funding or fostering or just showing up at some events and giving us some money. I thank you for your time this morning.

Thank you. Next, Rick Routweibel.

Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you for letting us speak this morning. My name is Rick Weibel from Elkton, South Dakota. And a couple things that I want to talk about. Number one, it just dropped last night that we have four ballot questions on this November's election. Two of them, one is US citizens to vote would be an amendment. And then also a 60% threshold for South Dakota constitutional amendments are going to be kind of the top discussions that will be there. But voters, educate yourself. Two, aquifers. I've noticed looking through the USGS mapping topology for Brookings County that it is not... Well surveyed and so I'm asking Brookings County to actually get ahead of the curve based upon what we've seen now in painting County where they are running out of water and they don't have enough water to fight resources and some of the ranchers don't have enough water to take care of their crops or even their cattle. And so if we're going to be looking at data centers, we're going to have to understand this. And what's interesting is that. Most of the survey is looking at the surface water drift wells and really nothing below 500 feet within the mapping that I see at the USGS. So it'd be interesting to see, do we have more water at the 900 foot level that we can access? And so if we're not looking at these things now, it's going to be more expensive later. The other important thing that broke yesterday is that Pennington County, in one of their remote offices over at Wall, South Dakota, is now shut down for the rest of the month of September because of cybersecurity incidents. And so I'm imploring you, and I've already been talking with a few of the county employees, that with a new IT person, you've changed passwords, which is good. I would also look at any router that is older than three years, get rid of it, replace it. Also, you need to be controlling all of your VPN access. If you are not controlling the VPN keys for remote access, stop allowing that access. Also, any app that's being used to monitor any type of device or monitoring, that needs to be removed because most cell phones that we're all carrying, already infected with foreign software and so we need to stop using those apps and start looking at different ways that we control remote access into those devices through secured laptops and VPN keys that you control and I would also advise that if you're using any type of VPN service if you haven't updated the key in the last 90 days do so thank you thank you

All right. Number six on the agenda is consent agenda items containing the minutes, travel education requests, personal action notices, cellular authorizations, and human services report. Do I have a motion to approve?

Motion approved. Second.

Motion is second. Do we have any comments, questions, concerns? Hearing none, call the roll, please.

VanderWaal?

Aye.

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

Number seven, routine business. Approval of the claims.

Motion to approve.

Second. Motion to second. Any comments? Hearing none, call the roll please.

Opposed? Aye. Jensen? Aye. VanderWaal? Aye. Hostler?

Aye.

Motion carries.

Letter B on routine business is department head reports.

Brian.

Morning. Morning.

Little bit update what we've been working on here the past couple weeks 819 2026 the sheet pile was removed up there at the culvert site on County Road one and The following Tuesday or the 25th of August County Road one was reopened. We have not patched it yet We want to let that settle out Good and now we've got a little rain on it to kind of help that process out and then later this fall we'll get that patched in and then that'll complete that project. We also are going to do some seeding now that we're out of the seasonal limitations to kind of wrap that project up. Yesterday I heard from Matt Bray the rumble strips are going to be installed this week. To kind of update you guys on that. 922, we're going to be looking at our annual update to the Brookings County five-year plan. And I have not been updated from Donnick on when they plan on starting on Brookings County Road 2, but we are working on getting some stockpile material up there. So once they get that overlay done, or mill and overlay done, then we're going to be shouldering that. Mowers are continuing to work their way around the county. Preparation for winter and we're hauling gravel on over by Elkton on County Road 27 That's what we've been up to the last couple weeks Who's got something for Brian Thank you, thanks Brian Sheriff I

Good morning.

Good morning, Sheriff.

Just a quick detention center overview. At the present time, we have 58 inmates, Excuse me, 31, we have 31 local inmates that are on Brookings County charges. We have one from Kingsbury, one from Hamlin, two from Moody County, and two from the Department of Corrections, and then we have 25 from the US Marshal Service. Our daily average is, so far for 2026, is 57.5. So the jail stays, but we always have room. Weekends is always the busiest. Everybody asked me with college starting is that a issue and really it's not it's very few SDS students that come to jail it's still our locals that still there are the high volume for us so 24 7 we have 20 80 excuse me 80 participants 37 come in twice a day for PBTs I have four on remote breath test SCRAM is six. I have 20 that come in for UAs, so that area always stays busy. The deputies have been busy. We had a fatality accident, as you know, on the interstate. Which was a little hard on my guys. They got there, of course, first. Then we called the highway patrol to come in and help us. And then they took it over. Well, they bring in their drone and map it and do all that. So it's just a sad, sad accident. But there's been fog in the mornings, and I urge motorists to pay attention to the fog and turn their lights on and that stuff, because we're going to end up with some of those mornings with the fog and stuff. Also... this time of year pastures are down and we get cows out calls and we then put some stuff on Facebook and stuff but I just urge landowners and animal owners to check their fences and check you know everybody can have a cow out once in a while but if the same person has the cows out all the time they are subject we keep track I hate to do that, but if their cows are out three times within a year, they can get charged on a county ordinance. We don't like doing that, but sometimes we have to get their attention. Most farmers or landowners, when we tell them their cows are out, they'll check their fences and get them repaired and stuff, but our main thing is to keep them off the roads, especially at night. Also, the highway department's You know did the tops of the ditches and that really helps course. We still got a lot of county roads that have corn on the corners and so forth so but. It helps to have the ditches mold like like they have been all summers been been good with that. So other than that. You guys have any questions?

Sheriff looking at the SRO part of your report here the last couple weeks of August looks like Deputy Creasy was pretty busy in the schools.

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah Yeah, he stays he stays busy with the three schools.

Yeah. Yeah and

Also, we're doing some different patrol patrol. I have assigned Jail staff that have marked cars to come out in the morning and they do school patrol in the morning and I Have one that lives in white and one lives in Elkton and they're doing school patrol before they come to work And so that's that way I got more coverage and then I worry about Aurora has I try to get someone over there because the bus stops there and picks up the kids and stuff and And so we're doing little things different to have more coverage at beginning of the school and so forth. Thank you.

Thank you.

I would just add in there that also this time of year for the public to remind them that it's harvest season. We're getting rolling. There's a lot of big trucks and equipment out there and we generally try not to go too fast. So you're going to have to be patient with us as we're Traveling around on the county gravels and everywhere else so please be patient with us while we try get the harvest up Jen can you do her in three minutes?

No, you don't have anything okay, Bob you got three minutes

We've got a planning meeting tonight. We start off with a joint city county planning meeting. Then we go to a regular county planning meeting. The United Way is looking at doing volunteer organizations active in disasters. We've got a meeting on the phone about 10.30 at that. Thursday, we have a PPCC meeting at the East Fire Station. The new generator, the portable generator that my office is getting, is scheduled to be delivered on September 11th down at the highway shop. I'll be gone next week, 14 to 18, to Spearfish. Richard was gone last week. He went to a planning conference in Sioux Falls. Richard will be in Sioux Falls on Monday the 21st for a crisis track training, which is required by the LEMPG. One of the wind tower companies is going to have a full-scale exercise on September 24th. I pass out a drainage document to everyone. The one in front of you today is the latest one to include all the bridge data. So if it's got page numbers on the bottom, that's the latest addition. I haven't been able to digest it yet, but I'll have to work with Ms. Steffensen to set up another drainage meeting so we can discuss Discuss that project again coming up. And with my office technician has been put on medical leave and so for the next approximately month, You may very well walk down the hall and see my office closed with a sign on the door. I typically contact my liaisons, let them know we're leaving. But if there's only one person in the office and we get an emergency call, we have to scramble. So we'll take care of the public. And if anyone does miss us, we got procedures, cell numbers, and they can leave messages. And everyone will be taken care of. So that's all I got. Anybody have anything for Bob? All right.

Thank you. Thanks, Bob. All right. Computer says it is 9 o'clock, so we'll move to number 8, scheduled agenda items at 9 a.m. Letter A is a public hearing in action to approve resolution 26-31, adoption of the 2027 provisional budget for Brookings County, South Dakota. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion is second. I will open the public hearing. Public hearing is open do we have any proponents that would like to come visit about the provisional budget any proponents Any proponents Do we have any opponents Any opponents All right, I'll close the public hearing board comments I

Commission have any comments or questions concerns regarding our provisional budget Mr..

Chair Just some background information This budget has been published and noticed with this public hearing time This is the first step in adopting the 2027 annual budget that will be done on September 22nd and Any changes that are made between the provisional budget today and the annual budget on the 22nd, those will be specifically noted at that meeting on the 22nd. So everyone is aware of any changes that we are going to be making. We we will see a little some slight changes that we know of due to centrally assessed utilities Slight increase in revenue for both the general fund and the building fund that will be coming on the 22nd for BUT WHAT WE HAVE PRESENTED TODAY IS BALANCED BUDGET ACROSS ALL FUNDS, NO RESERVES ARE BEING USED, AND THE LEVY ALSO DECREASED SLIGHTLY, LIKE SIX ONE THOUSANDTH OF A PENNY, BUT IT'S DOWN FROM $3.921 IN 2026 AND 3.915 IN 2027.

Board having comments questions I gets like to visit I support the 25,000 for the library I'd like to in my opinion.

I think we could do away with the voucher system if that'd be possible that was recommended I Agree 100% with that and fund the library for 25,000 with no voucher system I

I do also, after it was proposed, with the amount of the $25,000, the voucher would not allow the majority of the individuals. It would limit it, what we could spend, and also it would increase manpower and stuff in the office, so I would support that as well.

Guess I would like to go back to the original amount that we decided in June and leave it at zero. I Still think there's inefficiencies in the library and the way it's operated. I Don't believe it serves the interests of all and they're not listening to all the county members and I believe it is the extortion that they've Conducted in saying that they're gonna charge County residences against South Dakota law. So I don't think that's They have their behavior warrants this type of reward. There's also previous history of funding swaps with the city that I'm not sure how we got back into this, but we were funding things that were more county directed and managed. And the city was managing the library and other options and funded those options. So I guess I would decline to do a voucher or the 25,000.

Do we have any other comments from the board? Alright. Call the roll please.

Jensen.

Aye.

VanderWaal.

Aye.

Post.

No.

Hostler. Aye. Motion carries.

Letter B. Public hearing and action to approve resolution 26-32 a supplemental budget resolution. Do I have a motion to approve? Move to approve. Second. Motion and second. I will open the public hearing on this resolution. Do we have any proponents that would like to come speak to this? Any proponents? Do we have any proponents? Do we have any proponents? Do we have any opponents? Any opponents?

Do we have any opponents?

Hearing none, I'll close the public hearing and open comments from the board.

This supplemental budget resolution once again has been published, noticed for today at this time. The dollar amounts that you see on the resolution include money for the Elkton ambulance funding that was provided earlier this year, the generators for both OAC, that's that permanent generator out there, and then the portable generator for emergency management. And then it also corrects the budget line for transfers out basically to the county building fund. That was for dollars that we transferred over to the building fund for the HVAC project for this building. We had assigned some dollars and then when we did the transfer we didn't supplement transfers out appropriately so that kind of is just a correction item. That's it.

Do we have any other comments from the board? Any concerns?

I should note too that this resolution also includes a cash transfer from the general fund of the building fund of the 87725 and then general fund to emergency management fund of the 70161. Those cash transfers are also included as part of this resolution.

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

VanderWaal?

Aye.

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

Letter C, action to approve Resolution 26-33, FY26, Contingency Transfers. Do I have a motion to approve? Move to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Comments?

Contingency, just kind of wanted to get these amounts transferred down. We'll probably be looking, obviously, at the end of the year at contingency as well, but these were things we knew of now. The $8,800 is for the... The insulation at the dome at the courthouse to do some of that work this year The 14 3 is the bat mitigation over at the courthouse and then the 30,000 is for architectural services professional services Looking at the cupola restoration next year spending that 30,000 this year for architect fees to get us bid ready So we can get that project done in 2027 Any other comments from the board?

Hearing none, call the roll please.

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

Letter D. Director of Library Services, Asia Gustafson. Update on library summer programs for us. Good morning.

Good morning, commissioners. Thank you for having me. I did also include our quarterly strategic plan report in the paperwork that I have. But just wanted to give you an update or a recap of our summer reading program. We had our theme was Unearth a Story, which was very dinosaur and paleontology themed, and it was a huge success. Everyone, adults, teens, and children really enjoyed the theme this year. We had 184 participating adults this year, and that was the best adult participation summer reading program that we've had in like 10 years. Our teens, which are a notoriously hard population to get into the library and be active, was very well attended, 129 signed up and attended events. And our children are always very excited for the summer reading program. And we had 984, which is just under what our numbers were pre-COVID. So we're finally getting back to the participation that unfortunately had to go down through COVID. So really, really excited about how our summer went. We had a great, one of our best participation programs was our transportation fair, which is where we have Vehicles from around the city, the hospital, police, parks, streets. We had 604 people attend that this year. And then we did a really fun thing, again, really into that theme of Unearth the Story and dinosaurs. Miss Catherine, our children's librarian, did a paleontologist for a day program. And it was 10 to 2, I think it was. And so they got to, like, chip away geodes and find fossils and things. They got to put together and paint dinosaurs. There's just like, I don't know, 10 or so different little stations for them to go to, and that was a really, really popular event for them this year. The other thing that we really pushed this year is our reading dragon program. And we started this a little bit last fall for the kids. And so Reading Dragons is a card-based reading incentive program, which encourages children kindergarten and up to read for fun. Participants can track their reading, collect dragon trading cards, and play card games, all while learning good reading habits and gain lifelong love for reading. This is a collaborative national reading program created by the Dover Public Library. No sign up is required. You just pick up a reading log at the library and start tracking your time. Whether you're reading to yourself or someone else or listening to an audio book or someone is reading to you, every 30 minutes counts. So they track their 30 minutes and then they get after their, I think it's two hours of reading, they get a pack of cards and it's a family. And then for the summer, All of our staff, full-time and part-time, so 21 staff members, got their own reading card. So we all had our own little avatars, and we would battle the kids. And so it was like they would come and ask for specific staff to get their card to win in their battles. And it's basically rock, paper, scissors. And it's really fun. And the kids really, really, really enjoyed it. So we had a very, very successful summer reading program. Any questions?

Anybody have anything for Adrian?

I just want to say thanks for coming to the commission meeting. Much appreciated.

Thank you for having me. Have a good day.

That concludes our scheduled agenda items. I think we hit all the department heads. Bob, you were all done? Nobody else in? We'll move on to number nine, regular business. Action to approve resolution 26-34, resolution update in the official pay plan for 2026. Do I have a motion to approve? Do approve. Second. Motion and a second. Comments?

So this resolution updates the pay plan. Really the only thing that it does based on the discussion at the last meeting was add an additional part-time correctional officer in the detention center and that came down from the discussion that we had at the last commission meeting with Sheriff Stan making that request.

And it doesn't increase the budget, it just increases the amount of staff that can use that budget, correct? Correct. Do we have any other comments? Hearing none, call the roll, please.

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

Letter B, action to approve Resolution 26-35, a resolution approving annexation of territories by the City of Volga. Do I have a motion to approve? Move to approve. Second. Motion to second. Comments?

The city of Volga, I think there's a map here coming up. They're annexing a couple of properties out on that west side of town. Basically by statute, the county has to approve annexation, so that's why this resolution is before you.

That's kind of their...

They're one of their clean dump site and then it looks like maybe that archery range and their well head area maybe too. Out that area by the gardens and the dog park. Southwest corner. Far west.

Do we have any comments from the board? Bob with development? Hearing none call the roll please.

VanderWaal?

Aye.

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

Letter C, action to approve resolution 26-36, a resolution authorizing the purchase of a 2027 Freightliner 114SD plus based upon the price established through the state of Minnesota bid process. Do I have a motion to approve? Move to approve. Second. Motion to second. Comments?

How much, like I mentioned to the board here when we met earlier this year to discuss in the budget hearings is that we would purchase this truck and then later on we would also purchase the plow and equipment to, you know, right now this would be a semi-truck, but eventually we'd turn it into a plow. Plowing and a dump truck and it'd still be able to be used for a semi truck There's the cabada system that we'd be putting on it to allow us to utilize this truck year-round and I also Wanted to point out that this is a budgeted purchase and I estimated at the time when I provided the planning 2025 200,000 and this is well below that price so If there's any questions on the budget I'd be willing to try to help answer any of that, but That's what I got for you All that 200 or whatever is in our budget this year.

We don't have to worry about anything This is something that we just write the check for correct and

I'm hoping that we will receive this by the year end as Chris was pretty positive that we would see this by year end and this is the same contract that the state purchases off of so State of South Dakota has been purchasing off this bid also. So it is pretty fair price. Okay, so Do you know of any other counties that have also purchased off this yeah? There's quite a few Yankton County has purchased off this clay counties purchased off this the city of Spearfish is purchased off this same same bid Okay any other comments from the ward yeah I guess I believe I asked in June, and I think you were gonna check on exactly how many miles do we get on?

The vehicle that this is replacing

Well, the vehicles that we just surplus, Doug, we surplus two trucks here, and they recently sold. And yes, they're under 300,000 miles, but they are 300,000 hard miles when you start plowing snow. Plowing snow is very hard on them. Those trucks were... Just just right at 20 years old You know so it's not the mileage we put on them It's the work that we ask them to do that's it's very hard on them the salts very corrosive But those those are hard miles three three hundred thousand very hard miles within that 20 year period What's that Yeah, yeah, yeah

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

Post? Aye. Jensen?

Aye.

VanderWaal? Aye. Hostler? Aye. Motion carries.

Letter D, action to approve agreement 26-50, an amendment to the 214th Street feasibility and H&H study contract for Brookings County 16A, preliminary design through the RTA grant program. Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second. Motion is second. Comments?

This agreement updates the contract that we have with Banner Associates for the 214th Street project. As you all know, we have the $1.6 million rural tribal grant that we received. Banner has been doing a lot of work out there for us. This contract basically gets it updated so that it meets all the federal requirements, has all that language in there that they need for for the grant. The rural tribal representatives did indicate that, yeah, we can go ahead and update this and continue to use Banner. We don't have to create a separate RFP and start that process over again. Waylon Blasius with Banner is here if you have any questions for him as well.

This RTA grant is just for design in that it's not for construction, correct?

Correct. It's design and engineering. Hopefully to get us to a point where we're closer to being bid ready and it makes us more palatable for future grant opportunities that might come about as well.

I know I was on the initial web call and there's a lot of reporting and things that we have to do to make sure we do this and I think it's a good program and I'm glad we did get this for that initial start for that 214 16A. Do we have any other comments?

I'd just like to thank Waylon from Blasius from Banner and Stacy with the county for all their hard work to get it to that point. Without those two, I feel that we may not have qualified for this grant. So thank you both and your groups for your assistance with this.

Yeah, and I think this grant really does push the time frame for us to make improvements to that road up tremendously. Larry?

I'd like to also thank both Waylon and Stacey for all the work. Kelly and I have sat in on a couple of these meetings, but Waylon, they're basically taking care of all the technical stuff and being able to grant banners, able to do the work now that they already have a lot of this information. They can plug it all in and set aside FEMA and Corps of Engineers concerns and Like I said, this will put us a step up when we come to apply for another federal grant.

All right. Do you have any other comments? William, do you have anything for us?

Yeah, maybe just a quick thing.

Thank you whale and blazius with banner I guess the only things that I would note is there's a couple things that obviously as a partnership with the County Commission that that will need to work together on one I would encourage a committee to be formed from the County Commission or at least members Obviously Commissioner Jensen Commissioner Vander wall and Commission director Stephenson have been working with the team throughout to this point and so I that certainly makes sense um you know our goal would be to put together an advisory group as well to incorporate somebody from the south dakota department of transportation because they are going to be a big player in this potentially moving forward with future grant dollars for construction as well as incorporating the city of aurora obviously this ties over to the city aurora within their city limits on the east end on brookings county 23 and then considering other entities potentially as a small advisory group to help facilitate some of the design process moving forward. Commissioner Hossel, you noted the reporting that's required for this. Obviously that'll require some partnership between some of the Brookings County offices so that we can make sure that we maintain the reporting on schedule as provided by the RTA program. They seem very accommodating to work with thus far. The main thing that they had indicated is obviously timeliness of accomplishing milestones at the deadlines that they set. So I think as long as we work together to do that, we can find ourselves with a successful project. So appreciate the commission's consideration of this.

Any other comments from the commission, from the board? Well, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Call the roll, please.

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

Letter E. Action to approve agreement 26-51. A State of South Dakota Department of Public Safety Office of Emergency Management 2027 Local Emergency Management Performance Grant Agreement. Do we have a motion to approve?

Motion to approve.

Second.

Motion to second. Comments? Bob?

Yes, sir. This is an agreement we've been having in Brookings County since at least 1999, if not before. And it pays a portion of my salary, approximately 50% of my base salary and some of the benefits. And it pays 75% of mine and 25% of Richard's for our doing emergency management work. And of course it comes with several stipulations. This year we were caught off guard by an injury. We were supposed to both go to a big meeting and take some classes next week. Well, now I'm going out there. I have to keep Richard back here, the main man in the office. So next year I'm going to recommend maybe we look at the requirements and see if we can meet them a little bit earlier. Don't wait until the last minute. But that's on me and my leadership. We've been doing this for years, and typically we get our final check right at the end of the state's fiscal year ends September 30th, so first part of October they pay everything to the county, and it does offset budgetary considerations for my office.

All right. Do we have any questions for Bob?

How many were we Required workshops or whatever do you have to go to per year for this it varies on each one yet?

I could break it down I didn't break it down today on that one But they're all listed on the form and it changes year to year on what's required and what's not required and certain certifications, you know, we've gone after the certifications and we go after everything every now and I GUESS THE BIGGEST ONE IS CRISIS TRACK, AND WE DISCUSSED IT AT THE TOWNSHIP MEETING NEXT YEAR, 2027, WE'RE GOING TO TRY TO HAVE THEM COME IN AND GIVE THAT CLASS DURING THE TOWNSHIP MEETING TO MEET THIS REQUIREMENT. THAT'S THE SHORTCOMING RIGHT NOW THAT WE'VE GOT. SOUNDS GOOD. AND IT'S ON ME. I'M NOT BLAMING ANYBODY ON IT.

ANY OTHER COMMENTS FOR BOB? QUESTIONS? Thank you, Bob.

You're welcome. Thank you. Call the roll, please.

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

Moving to letter F, action to approve agreement 26-52, a state of South Dakota county contract for provisions of community health services. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion to second. Comments?

This is just our annual agreement with the state for the community health program here in Brookings County.

Alright. Do we have any comments from the board? Hearing none, call the roll please.

Post? Aye. Jensen? Aye. VanderWaal? Aye. Hostler?

Aye.

Motion carries.

Letter G, action to add omitted property to the assessment rolls of Brookings County. Motion to approve. So moved. Second. Motion to second. Comments?

Interim Finance Officer Jen Beller provided a staff report. These were digester facilities as I understand it that were originally they were told that they needed to be centrally assessed and now they're coming back and saying they need to be assessed locally. We're adding them back to our locally assessed tax rolls.

Board have any comments, questions? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay. Motion carries. Letter H, action to approve request to fill vacancy for a temporary election worker in the finance office. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion to second. Comments?

One of the temporary election workers is unable to work the general election, and so we would like to advertise that position and get somebody hired. It's really nice to be able to have all four, especially for this upcoming election. We anticipate it being very busy.

All right. Any comments from the board? Any other comments? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Motion carries. Letter I, action to approve a request to fill vacancy for a part-time corrections officer in the detention center. Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second. Motion to second. Comments? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay. Motion carries. Letter J. Action to approve the transfer of a 2004 Chevy 4x4 pickup from the Weed Department to the Highway Department. Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second. Motion to second. Comments?

Just helping replace one of our vehicles that we surplused here a few years ago. We never replaced it due to the availability of vehicles. I think we can get some use out of it.

Any other comments? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed say nay. Moves carries. Letter K, discussion, possible action regarding appointment to the Brookings, City of Brookings Human Rights Commission.

Do we have discussion on this?

I got a couple questions. Is this a recommendation or an appointment?

Good question.

This has always been an appointment. So the County Commission has appointed one member to the Human Services, is that right? Human Rights Commission, sorry. Human Rights Commission, and that's a city board. And then we also have three appointments to the hospital board. So what I was told after the appointment of Jeff Strui to the Human Rights Commission was that the city ordinance allows for the county to have that appointment. The charter says, the city's charter says that the mayor takes that appointment or takes that as a recommendation and then it's with his recommendation and approval by the full city council. This is the first time that that's happened to my knowledge that they've taken our Recommendation or the county's recommendation or appointment rather and then taking it to the full city the mayor's City Council for full approval We're the intentions of this County Recommendation to be a person that lives outside the city limits and

Or was that never discussed?

I don't think that's ever been discussed.

The one question I have was when this was incepted, was that back in like 2017? I thought I understood. I'm just wondering what the intent was at that time from the city. Because this is a city board, correct? Correct. It is a city board. They've asked the county to appoint someone. Yes. So in my mind, it was exactly that where the city wanted maybe somebody to help, you know, the outer lying communities is just my guess. But again, I'm looking for feedback on that. If anybody has any.

I don't know that it's specifically stated that way. If the commission wants to move forward and advertise that appointment that way, you sure can. Just know that, I mean, I guess, you know, do you want us to go through the process of advertising this position once again, knowing that any appointment, any recommendation would still then go through the mayor and the city council for approval?

Because this position has a term, and correct me if I'm wrong, the individual that we had on the in the position resigned before the end of their term. Is that correct?

Correct. I believe the term runs through 28. I want to say the term runs through the end of next year. The county had an appointee and then that individual resigned back in January of 2025. So our position on the board has been open for almost two years now. over a year and a half. We have advertised it off and on to get interest in it. We did.

I would suggest that we delay any action on this at this point. We should maybe see how things shake out with this nomination. I guess I'll refer back to 17-022 of the Brookings City Ordinances and Resolutions and the City Council's comments didn't say anything about it being an outside of city limits person. It was why they had rejected him and otherwise comments that they made were directly discriminatory against his faith and his political affiliations, from what I can gather, because I listened to it, and directly from 17-022, whereas many in our community are hurting and fearful as a result of the rise of rhetoric and exclusion and vilification, and if that isn't exactly what they did to our nominee, was to exclude him and vilify him, they're violating their very own anti-discrimination policy. So maybe we just need to sit back and let's see where the chips fall on this one yet.

Does the board have any other thoughts? Do we have a motion to, I'll call for a motion if we have a motion. If we don't, it will just delay.

Would it hurt to advertise for it, but wait?

I mean, we... We can wait for the city council to tell us who we're going to nominate, like last time. We advertised for how long?

But through this process, there's been people indicating that they would apply if available, so... We had opened it up again the last time.

I don't really think that, I mean, this is an ongoing open seat that I don't, I think we would accept applications, not nominations. We would accept applications whether we open this or not, and then we would cross that bridge when we got there if we received a application. I don't think we really need to.

Technically we filled it. What's that? Technically we filled it until we retract him.

nominee well according to their website the and I'm just I'm just looking at their website according to their website Jeff was on on that board and if I if I do remember right if we look if we pull that website that is showing an empty seat for seat 10 which is the seat that we we have now so but yeah it

Correct me, he did attend one meeting, correct?

I believe so. They retracted him after that? I believe I was told that he did attend one meeting.

There's 10 positions you just said?

There's 10 seats on that board.

That is correct.

And up until our nomination, there was two seats open, seat six, which is a city appointed, and seat 10, which is the county appointed. And I believe seat six is filled now. I believe. It's been a couple days since I've been on the website.

What other entities appoint?

It is a recommendation from the mayor. All seats. Except for the one.

I didn't know if there was an SDSU one or anything.

I think there's there may be a SDSU representative, but I Don't know if anybody's on their website Let me just pull quick see if I can find it as fast as I can Here we go While you're looking for that I guess I just hate to open up the county to the same risk that the city may be at at this stage of the game The members include a college student representative, member, member, member, vice chair, chair, member, and I am seeing there is two vacants. two vacant seats on that board. One of them I believe is ours and one of them I believe is the city's. Appointed by the mayor and council. The SDSU student representative is appointed by mayor with council approval. And their website does say seat 10, appointed by Brookings County Commission. That is on their website. So with no motion, we'll move on to item 10, commission department director's report.

Last, each Wednesday we are meeting on the Samara Avenue project over in Volga. In front of you is the most recent construction schedule. Initially this phase was supposed to be done, well initially it was supposed to be done last year, then it moved to done by Labor Day and now it has moved out to the end of September. So we continue to meet weekly over there trying to encourage those contractors to keep things moving along. Also included with my report as part of the local emergency management planning grant, the task reports for both Bob Hill and Richard Haugen are included with my report. I think they were shared with the finance office and they were then told to present those to the commission. So those are part of my report. Deadline was yesterday for the Rural Access Infrastructure Program. The five year plans for townships to turn those in was yesterday. I did receive five year plans from four townships Eureka Township, it looks like they're planning on one project Richland is planning on a project next year Oak Lake Township has two projects and then Volga Township has two projects It looks like as well that they're going to be submitting applications for now at this point We just sort of wait the next deadline is October 31st where they have to submit their applications their resolutions quotes for the projects, etc. So it looks like we'll be looking at at least a few townships did get that turned in. Also, the news director at Brookings Radio, Jay Rowe, had reached out and asked if the commission is interested in doing a regularly scheduled on-air visit similar to what The city does now. I know the school district, Brookings School District does that now. They sit down on a planned schedule and visit with them about what's going on at their entities. Is that something that the commission is interested in doing? Is that something that I can do that or myself in the chair or even we can get a different commissioner each time to come in and visit on the radio about things that are going on? I know they have reached out. I think Jen in the finance office has reached out regarding election things and happenings. I know Bob goes on quite regularly to talk about things with his department, so they just wanted to extend that invitation. So if it's something that you are interested in, I can work with Jay and get something figured out and and whatnot. Is that something that...

I think that's a great idea. It's all about transparency in government, and I think that's a great thing that our local radio station, our now locally owned radio station, has a feel for that and a pulse on that. I think that's a great thing for the county to be involved with. It doesn't have to be the same people each week, but you, Stacey, can appoint somebody to do that each week or each month or whatever it is.

I will work with Jay and get that all figured out here, get a schedule of see when they want us there. Other than that, just a few upcoming dates. This coming Monday is Labor Day, so offices here will be closed. There is a regional stakeholders meeting hosted by Brookings Regional Growth Alliance. That's next Wednesday the 9th from 9.30 to 11.30 next door in the community room. I think invitations have been sent out for that. Sioux Valley Energy brought some kilowatts at Volga 4.30 to 7 on September 10th. And then the majority of us will be down in Sioux Falls Monday the 14th of September through Wednesday the 16th for the fall convention, SDACC fall convention. Note September 22nd is the next commission meeting. That's actually three weeks from now because we will all be in Sioux Falls on the 15th. We're pushing that to the second Commission meeting for September to the 22nd. First District, their picnic is the 24th of September up in Watertown. I know more information will come out on that here, I'm sure, in the next couple of weeks. Out a little bit further, Monday, October 12th, offices are closed for Native American Day. I hope you have on your calendars October 20th, that afternoon, we have department head reviews, at one o'clock hobo day parade and activities October 24th this year and then just make sure you note too that that first meeting of November the first Commission meeting is a Thursday November 5th and that's due to canvassing the results from the general election earlier that week And then that same afternoon on the 5th, we'll be doing our road and bridge tour. 1 o'clock we'll leave from the highway department and I'll be working with Brian and he will be coming up with a wonderful itinerary of stops that we will be making that afternoon. Other than that, I don't have anything unless you have questions for me.

Anybody have anything for Stacy? Hearing none, number 11, state attorney's office report. Number 12, Commissioner's Reports. Commissioner VanderWaal.

Thank you. Stacey mentioned earlier, but I want to say this too as well, but September 14th through the 16th, the annual convention, I encourage all commissioners to go if they can. That's a great avenue to learn more about what's going on and connect with other commissioners to see what's working and not working. I plan on attending that upcoming I want to say a big thanks to the Highway Department for getting those signs up on the 466 North on the Hamlin Brookings County line. I got several nice compliments from that. Thank you for getting that done. Much appreciated. On Friday evenings, August 21, I attended the Brookings County Republican Picnic at Hillcrest with several others of you. Great to get out and talk with constituents. And then the last thing I just want to mention is I've been doing some doctoring lately, and I just want to thank all of you for your understanding and thoughts and prayers. I appreciate that. I I had a procedure done on Friday and I feel better, a lot better. You don't know how good you feel until, or poor you felt until you feel better. Thank you again.

You look better too.

Commissioner Post.

Yes. On the 24th, we had our weed tour, our meeting and our tour. And we were able to go around to, you know, one of the commenters earlier in the meeting had discussed, and we were able to tour many of the places that had potentially would have been subject to the action that he was talking to or expressing. But in those instances, every parcel that we looked at that had had a complaint, the thistles had been taken care of and there wouldn't be any reason to take action at this point to continue on with that. I would say that we did have quite a bit of change in that department in the past year and I thought that our supervisor there had done a great job of learning on the go and keeping up with as much stuff as we could. what was allowed and things looked relatively good compared from my two years of experience of being involved with that board. That's my report.

Commissioner Jensen.

On the 21st of August I did attend the Republican picnic. On the 27th I did the conservation tour. It's always an interesting tour and it was well attended. That evening I briefly stopped in the Sioux Valley Electric meeting up in White on the 30th. I attended up in Gary, South Dakota, the rural rally. I picked up some handouts I give to all the commissioners here on the 765 power line up there. Yesterday, I had a joint powers board meeting on the city-county building maintenance, and that is my report.

All right.

and mine. On August 20th we had a research park board meeting in the morning. Gave some updates about the goings on out to research park. You don't hear a lot about the things that go on out there, but they've been a great, I don't know if I'd call it incubator, but there's a lot of neat and interesting companies that get a start out there. move out and are a part of the county. I know some information that the research park shared yesterday on social media. Indirectly 170 employees have been brought to Brookings County just based on the workings on at the research park. I know we financial supporter of that the city's also a financial supporter of that, but it really does there's companies out there that are One is arrowfly that is a drone company that is working with federal government and federal grants doing great things There's another company out there that and the name of the company slips my mind, but they are bringing technology to the older John Deere tractors and tractors for GPS work that John Deere doesn't support. It's just some great technology and a great asset to Brookings and Brookings County out there at the research park. Later that afternoon, I attended the Regional Growth Alliance board meeting. If you have not known, they have moved. They are down here in the old office peeps building now. They actually locked up on Friday, moved over, and moved over today or yesterday. I don't know when for sure they're going to have the doors open, but I encourage... Encourage the public to get over there, see their new facility, talk with Lori and the crew over there. They're excited to be in their new building and to show it off. And I see great things to come with the Growth Alliance, not only in Brookings, but the region as well, all of Brookings County. And I look forward to attending the stakeholder meeting here next week. On the 21st, I did sit down with the director of the Growth Alliance, Lori, for some coffee, kind of just chatting over how her last six months have been going and what her vision is, and it's going to be with a combination of all four of those entities. know I think we saw a great success with downtown at sundown and and then the community involvement that that they're bringing in the past year it's I'm excited for excited for what that organization has coming up On the 25th, I did attend the city council meeting here in the chambers that evening. I was sitting in the back of the room during the city council meeting, listened to the updates from their vote from our appointee and also the Dakota Bank Center comments that came through. You know, we'll have to... talk about things with our achievement days and what that looks like moving forward because we do have a stake in that Dakota Bank Center and unfortunately I don't know if we've been invited or privy to any of those that committee that they've been researching that so I'm kind of disappointed in that with us being a stakeholder in that that we haven't had a voice at the table for that. And then on the 27th I also attended the conservation district tour. Went around and of course HUDAC over there in Volga directly came out of the research park and what they've increased to from year over year, I don't know if it's the research park but the economic development center, they've had great success and are really doing something that nobody in the nation does. So it's nice to see. That is my report. So we'll move on to number 13, executive session. We do have executive session in accordance with South Dakota codified law 125.2 parentheses 1 and 4 for personnel and contract negotiations. I would look for a motion to enter into exec.

So moved.

Second. Motion and second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed say nay. Thank you very much.