County Commission - Regular Meeting

December 16th, 2025. We start the meeting by standing for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Item number three on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. I have a motion to second. Any comments, additions, or corrections? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppos, same sign. Motion carried.

Item four is an invitation for a citizen to schedule time on a commission agenda for an item not listed. There's 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. We have nobody signed in this morning. So we move on to item number five is a consent agenda items which includes the minutes, travel and education requests, personnel action notices, cellular authorizations, human services report. Do I have a motion to approve? So move second. Have motion and second. Any comments?

Hearing none. Call the role. Vanderwal I. Post. Hi Miller. Hi Hustler. Hi Jensen. Hi. Motion carries. Item six is routine business. Um approval of the claims. Do I have a motion to approve the claims? So moved. Second. Motion second. Any comments? There was one additional claim that was added. I did a I handed that out um this morning. Believe it was for extension. had an additional one that got added in late. Okay, any questions? Hearing none, call the roll. Post I. Miller, I Hustler. Hi. Vanderwal, I. Jensen,

I. Motion carries. Department head reports. Start with Brian from the highway department. Morning. Morning.

Well, mother nature has been throwing us curveballs left and right, but I think we're overall maybe going to get ahead of it with this nice weather that we've gotten this week. Um, our gravel roads, like I was speaking with the sheriff, are a little icier in spots than our paved roads. And, uh, we hope to get them kind of taken care of today. And, uh, speaking with Chairperson Jensen this morning. We are going to be addressing some of those township roads that lead up to our county roads, uh, as far as the intersections go. But, um, overall, I think we're staying ahead of it. um or at least get ahead of it here the next couple of days with the warm weather. Uh that's pretty much what we've been working on. Is there any other questions?

Brian, just one question. Salt availability, that doesn't seem to be a problem. I mean, we're early here, of course, but so far it hasn't been. Um, you know, we do purchase salt off the uh state contract and what that means for us is that we're second in line be behind the state, but we we've had orders in earlier on this uh season. Uh we do have four orders in right now. We're wait awaiting those for arrival, but uh haven't had any issues so far. Okay. Have we have we kind of had some interesting melting catching snow patterns and stuff? Because I've noticed that

Well, the one particular intersection I think you're you're referring to, Doug, is the uh intersection south of Vulga on County Road 12 and County Road 5, the Sinai Road. Uh I think we doubled up there. Um and I kind of stress the communication with the guys there that we need to communicate. uh as our routes meet together. That is one spot they met together and and that was kind of really the only issue we had in in the county as far as sifting snow. And I think that's what happened is we had too much salt on that intersection and and then the snow stuck.

Yeah. It it just seemed strange that everything was clear and then all a sudden this intersection was Well, my my foreman went out and looked at it. He's like almost like somebody dumped a load of snow there. But that's the salt stuck down and and then the uh just kept accumulating as the snow was sifting. But uh uh that has been addressed with the crew to make sure we communicate so we're not overlapping each other. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. It was taken care of right away. So any other comments? Thank you. Thanks. Thanks Brian.

Marty from Sheriff's Office. Good morning. Morning, Sher. Morning.

I'll just do a quick overview with the jail. It uh uh we're still u low numbers. 38 uh presently in in uh in detention and uh we have still um uh 11 US Marshall inmates, four from Moody County and uh two from Kingsbury County at the present time. And also the numbers are down in the 247 area with 86. And this is all good stuff. you know, when you have uh it means that uh uh things are going pretty well and and uh it's it's not been that low in 24/7 in a long time or in the jail. So, that's uh I think those are good signs. So, I hope that stays that way. Um other than that, unless you have some questions concerning the jail. Um also, we're we're continuing to stay busy. You know, the last snow events or whatever has been pretty good. A lot of times it's on the weekend uh where we get most of it and for some reason we have less accidents and things when it's on a weekend because I think people aren't I've talked about that before that they're not as much in a hurry and so forth. And the roads were pretty good is and I don't know if Brian if you mentioned that the gravel roads were the tough ones uh were the slippery ones when we had some slideins and and some intersection accidents. It was on a gravel road where they were they were losing control and stuff, going a little too fast on gravel. Also, we continue to work stop signs. I just tell you the quickest incident that happened on Friday is that we got a call from um uh a individual at at our intersection intersection at 204 and 471 in Highway 30 there said that a caravan went through and everybody ran the stop sign and that they were headed uh east on on

uh 30 going towards white. I had also I had a deputy in white at the my school resource deputy and he was able to get everybody I don't know how he did it but he got everybody stopped and they all stopped and then I sent a deputy to to look at our camera that we got set up and to verify every everybody went through the site. Um, so the convoy had a lead truck or had a lead, you know, like they do that you normally see on the interstate and so forth. He ran the stop sign and then everybody followed them. There was two there was two electric trucks that were with the group because they were they had two semis that had a high load so in case they came across and had to move high lines and stuff. So uh they were carrying two semis were carrying generators. there. They didn't even slow down at that that intersection to go through and stuff. Uh we did site everyone at that uh cited five there. So it I don't know how to get the word out. It's blatant. And so my deputy asked one of the truck drivers, "How about the other two sets?" Because they came from T. They come down 81 and then they came down six or 204. and and asked the semi-D driver, "How about the other two sets of four-way stop signs?" And he goes, "Uh, I don't recall those. I I I don't I don't know what more we can do." You know, I'm thinking that we should have red that maybe the the by Bruce we should put up because that's my second highest complaint is is the Bruce for way. Uh but they everybody is that's been running them has been running where my flashing light is, you know, so but they still better than nothing. But it's just blatant out there and someone's going to get killed again.

And and the lady that stayed gave us statements, you know, she had to stop on 471 cuz she had she had the right away, but she could tell that they weren't going to stop. So she stopped and then followed them till my deputy got them stopped and so I just trying to get out. It's just we got to somehow these the drivers got to stop start stopping at stop signs. So it's right now that's a pri priority with my department and we're busy enough going on but trying to work the those stop sign offenses. So anyway, any questions? I'll get off my soap box now. Someone's going to get killed. They they they're just blatantly running stop signs, not even with disregard. We've threatened them with jail. Of course, you know, these all came out of out of town and and some have ran that stop sign that that are that are Brookings County and Estelline and and so it's not all out of town. It's it's it's it's uh local, too. So,

yeah. I I agree with you, Marty. Like I said, I I go through that intersection sometimes numerous times a day. Um, and I always slow way down at that intersection because they just blatantly just run right through it. Yeah. Anyway, so unless you guys have any other questions, we stay busy. Like I said, the highway department's been really good to work with uh with sand and that type of stuff. So, we're all trying to keep keep the road safe for everybody. So anyone Brian, do you know what the status is of the rumble strips up there coming from the west?

I know Marty, you attended the the do meeting and I had two of my guys attend that meeting also, but uh they were they were in the process of when they had time to get them put in. Yeah, I don't have a time frame. They they talked about it at the DOT meeting, but I don't have a time frame. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Charity. Lori from finance.

Um, my items will be coming up later in the meeting at the end of the meeting with the election agreement and uh end of year pay period discussion.

Okay. Bob from Community Development. I put everything in my staff report. One thing, I also added a form that I picked up when I went to the fall board meeting that shows what Brookings County participates in with the National Association of Counties. And if you notice, we we participate in two of the programs and they've got other programs that the the commission is welcome to look at. Some counties in South Dakota did each county that that was there got a got their own separate sheet and um various counties in South Dakota do various things, but it's something that worth looking at. And also National Association of Counties has a website that you can go on and actually get get some real good numbers from that I would encourage the board to take a look at. Other than that, we have an emergency management exercise with the United Living community on Thursday. I didn't put in my staff report, but uh we've had good support from the Brookings Register and Brookings Radio getting my emergency management message out. I concentrate mainly on weather weather weather events, but when other emergency management topics come up, I I am able to shift to meet the needs of the community and and we appreciate the support that the community gives us.

Any questions? Any questions for Bob?

Bob, I just had one question. As I was going through the budget um for the yearly budget, I see there was $14,000 for disaster response. What was that for? 14,000. Part of that was their pre- disaster mitigation plan. We we submit the claim. $6,000 of of that went to the went to the um predesaster mitigation claim and then we'll submit that paperwork to Pier and get that reimbured to us so we can put that back in the general fund. And for right now, I couldn't tell you what the other 8,000 was, but I can get that to you.

Are were you talking about the claims? Was that the claim for first district on the budget? I saw there was a for emergency management there's the budget is 15 $50,000 and $14,000 had been spent under that. What was the the claim for first district for the six 6,000? Okay.

6 Okay. And then typically anything like on the on the EOC trailer and anything related to to response. Some of it could be water that I buy when I give out when I go out to to disaster scenes. And that's not a that's not a fund that we use easily. All right. But I can I can do some more detail and get you an email with the information. Okay, I think that's it. Thank you, Sonia from 4. I believe we have some documents from you also.

No, thank you.

Thank you. Good morning. I provided you with a report, but I have a little sticky here of some things that weren't included that I thought I would highlight this morning. We have six Christmas trees on display at the outdoor adventure center by our 4 clubs that make the concourse very festive. They've all kind of got their own theme. Some that fit their club, others was a club project. They made a um made an ornament, whatever. but they look real nice out there and we'll be set up through the end of the month into early January. last year and and the year before that we ran a program called food fund 4 and I I know I've highlighted that with you and I've also indicated that our group of six 4 educators that kind of represent the northeast area have been working on our own version of that in a curriculum development that models that uh that program where it's an at-home cooking program designed for youth to do with families and we have rebranded that for South Dakota. It's called 4 flavorful and our first issue of that was released the early part of December is available on our for on the extension website and being distributed through different means. I do have some kids that have signed up for it. So I'll provide them with some copies. If they submit a report at the end of the time frame, then they get a little kitchen gadget or or some little tool device to use within the kitchen. We've taken a little different twist on it and are featuring one food group a month instead of a whole meals worth of recipes so that families can incorporate one or more than one of those recipes into a menu for the day or throughout the day, but they're not designed to all

be served at once. So this first month was vegetables and there's um consecutive months will represent the remaining food groups, but there's a recipe that fits for a morning meal, a noon meal, an evening meal, and then a snack and also some tools for them to build menus so they can incorporate that recipe into whatever they might be planning to serve for the day. Our 4 clubs and members completed delivering just shy of 9,200 phone books for Swiftel Communications throughout the city of Brookings, Vulga, Elton, and Aurora. So, that's a nice fundraiser for the 4 leaders and uh the clubs to collect on and were able to get that done before the snow started flying and the temperatures were mild and comfortable. Um, we had a shooting sports training at the BACAC this last weekend for instructors. Uh, there was just about 40 instructors present for training in maybe a discipline for the first time or an additional discipline to their resume. I had about 10 new instructors and those looking to add a discipline to their uh, portfolio. So, we'll get started with our for shooting sports the Tuesday following New Year's and have schedules again that fill up the calendar Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So, we will be busy once the shooting sports season gets started in January. I will be collaborating with a colleague from Duel County and implementing the Chicks in the Classroom program in the Dubick Elementary. It's a program based on chicks hatching in the classroom and spans the the about 25ish 28 days. So there's five lessons involved with that uh based on a a

certain day. So, not necessarily every Tuesday for four weeks, but day three, day 15, day 20, whatever that uh guideline is, so that the lesson matches up with kind of the stage or the process of the incubation, including the final lesson, which features hatching. And by that time, the chicks should have hatched in the classroom. And um shortly thereafter, those chicks find a home and go bye-bye out of the classroom. That's not my job to line up a home for those, but um that's something new for me. And um Deb out of Duel County has the equipment to to foster that education and an incubator and stuff. So, I'm going to uh tag up with her so I can experience that um experience that educational program and see what it all entails. I'm not much into chickens, I guess, so this will be a learning experience for me as well. Um, our 4 year year is currently 3 months in and we have a nice number already for uh enrollment and reenrollments for this year. Of course, I've said before shooting sports registration really helps those kids get their reenrollments or or enrollments done so that they can get registered for the program. But uh the rest of that information that is provided in the document I'm willing to take any questions if you have otherwise I

Sonia with your uh shooting sports uh instructor training do you do you have enough shooting instructors to accommodate the the shooting sports um

youth we are going to have a nice set of instructors. There are some areas where earlier this planning season, September, October, we felt maybe a little light, but I think that we've uh recruited several new instructors and have um placed them in a discipline that they're willing to be a coach for. And also, these are just some of the best people that their kids are going to do. these two or three disciplines, for example, they're always very willing to sit across the table and say, "Where am I most needed? Where's the where do you need the most help?" And so, we do have some new instructors certified for pistol. Air pistol specifically is one that this year was going to need some support. And um with that individual getting trained and the others that we have, that will help in that area for sure. uh have a nice a nice group actually quite large for our our BB gun, air rifle and archery disciplines but um we need that many to cover some of the to cover the number of lines but we are looking to be um supported nicely by volunteers.

Okay, any other questions for me this morning? Any questions? Well, thank you very much. Thank you for your support. Merry Christmas. Thank you. Thanks. Merry Christmas to you. Okay. Move on to item C is a finance officer report. Uh some documents be and be it noted items. Uh auditor's account with the treasur payroll and additive totals, highway expenditure report, register deed statement of fees collected. Um item two is an action to approve the fourth quarter general fund transfers as per budget appropriations. Uh, do we have a motion to approve? So moved.

Second. A motion and a second. Any comments? Any comments from finance? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

Oppos. Same sign. Motion carried. Item A is from general fund 101-4-911-4294 to Highway Road and Bridge Fund 201-3-371-0000 in the amount of 899,96.75. And from the general fund 101-4-911-4290 to emergency management fund 226-3-371-0000 in the amount of 33,628.75. Moving on, it is uh we do have some scheduled agenda items at 9:00. It's not quite nine. So, we'll move on to regular business. Item A is an action approve resolution number 25-61. A plat of track one of Grun Edition, an addition in the southeast quarter of section 28, Township 112 North, range 52 west of the fifth principal Meridian, Brookings County, South Dakota. I have a motion to approve.

So moved. Second. A motion to second. Any comments? We heard this at our December planning and zoning meeting. It was approved unanimously and sent to this board with the recommendation that you approve it. Okay. Any question or comments? Hearing none. Call the role, please. Miller. Hi. Hustler. Hi. Vanderwal. Hi. Post. Hi. Jensen. I. Motion carries. Item B, action approve resolution number 25-62, a plat of tracks 1, 2, and three of Robins edition in section 25, township 111 North, range 49 west of the fifth principal meridian, Brookings County, South Dakota. Do I have a motion to approve? So move. Second.

Motion second. Comments? We heard this in the December planning and zoning meeting approved unanimously and sent to this board with the recommendation that you approve it. Okay. Any questions? Additional comments? Call the roll. Hustler. Hi. Vanderwal. Hi. Post. Hi. Miller. Hi. Jensen. I. Motion carries. Item C. Action approve resolution number 25-63. A plat of lots 2 A, 3 C, 4 A, and five of Porter Edition located in the north half of the northwest quarter of section 13, Township 109 North, range 50 west of the fifth principal meridian in Brookings County, South Dakota. Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved. Second. Have a motion second. Comments? We heard this in the December planning and zoning meetings approved unanimously and sent to this board with the recommendation that you approve it. Okay. Call the role please. Vanderwal I. Post. Miller. I. Hustler. Hi. Jensen. I. Motion carries.

Item D. Action to approve resolution number 25-64. a plat of lot 11 of Turtle Bay Edition located in the south half of government lot one in a northeast quarter of section 29 township 109 north range 50 west of the fifth principal meridian and in a portion of the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 29 township 109 north range 50 west of the fifth principal meridian and a portion of government lot 2 in the southwest quarter of section 28 township 109 north range 50 West of the fifth primary principal marinian all in Brookings County, South Dakota. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second.

Have a motion and second. Comments. We heard this in the December planning and zoning meeting passed unanimously and sent to this board with the recommendation that you approve it. Okay. Call the role, please. Post I. Miller. Hi. Hustler. Hi. Vanderwal. Hi. Jensen. Hi. Motion carries. Thank you. Item E, action approve resolution number 25-65, a a resolution approving annexation of territories by the city of Brookings. That motion approve. Move to approve. Second. A motion and second. Any comments.

Bob, do you have any input here on Yes. This is the property down on the new interchange um 20th Street South and in the interstate. The property in in discussion is what's known as the old church. Used to be a a wedding chapel type church thing back in there and it was zoned residential in the joint jurisdiction area. So now they they're and it is contiguous to the city of Brookings. So now they want to bring it into the city limits and that's what spurred the annex annexation request. Okay.

It wasn't previously in city limits. No, that portion had always been left out into into the county uh it was joint jurisdiction but county um agricultural district. Okay. So which meant it was not in the city limits. Thank you, Bob. You're welcome. Any further comments? But just for reference, I haven't, as far as I know, I haven't been part of an annexation before. Is this at least not with Brookings? What happens with the property tax situation then? They city just adds their chunk onto it and we're still the same or how does that work?

I'm sorry. I have no idea on that one. I would yeah I mean I with this I would assume that it would go through the process of getting reassigned then to be part of the city and then start um being responsible for city tax as well. So it all goes through kind of a process once it gets through here and actually gets annexed then I think equalization is notified and register of deeds is notified. So yeah then all of the changes are made. So, okay. Any other comments? Hearing none. Call the role, please. Miller. Hi. Hustler. Hi. Vanderwal. Hi. Post.

Hi. Jensen. I. Motion carries. Okay. It is 9:00. Move on to scheduled agenda items. U. Item A is a public hearing, an action to approve resolution number 25-60, a supplemental budget resolution. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second.

I have a motion to second. I now open the public meeting. Any proponents who would like to speak to this item? Any proponents that would like to speak to this item? Any opponents? Any opponents that would like to speak to this item? I now close the public hearing, entertain any comments from the board or staff. These are all sort of cleanup things, things that we need to do to make sure that um we're not in a negative balance in any of these funds here coming up on year end. The 101 um for the beta the fund balance or transfers out to county building that was part of the um pay for the beta building. You'll see some more of that I believe coming up um here a little bit later. the rest of that to unassign some of those funds. Um, the highway is just the the wheel tax is sort of a separate it's a separate line in the highway budget. It's not anything that that Brian's responsible for. This is just kind of money in money out, but we didn't have enough money um budgeted for the aortioning that goes out. So, we needed some additional dollars there. Um 911 remittance fund, that's the 207 that you see there. Uh this is just again to cover additional dollars received and paid out. This is the searchcharge fees that everything that comes in turns around and gets sent right back out to our E911 to our dispatch that um so that is to cover just some additional we got more revenue in than that we had budgeted for the opioid settlement fund 252.

Um same thing that's just to cover some expenditures there. Uh you'll also be seeing here coming up later in the on the agenda an auto an auto sub automatic supplement for that. And then finally the jail debt service. Um there this is just uh fiscal agent funds. We needed another $600 there. Um it 600 comes out twice a year and it was only budgeted for coming out one time a year. So um that's all with those. Do you have any questions on any of those? A lot of it's just kind of money in money out and we just didn't got more money in than we had a portion out for most of them. So,

okay. Any comments from the board? Okay. Hearing none. Call the role, please. Hustler Manwal. Hi. Post. Hi. Miller. Hi. Johnson. I. Motion carries. Item E or B. Public hearing and action approve the transfer of a retail on sale liquor license to CCNF Retail Incorporated. Do I have a motion to approve? So move.

I have a motion and a second. I would now open the public hearing. Um any proponents that would like to speak to this item? Any proponents that would like to speak to this item? Hearing none. Any opponents that would like to speak to this item? Any opponents that would like to speak to this item? I would now close the public hearing. Entertaining any comments from the board or staff.

Uh the only comment that I have Jenna Baker in the finance office. Um just a little background on this. Uh CCNF Retail Inc. uh I believe purchased already uh Sky View Junction over there in Elkton. Um and so because of that uh we need to transfer the alcohol licenses over to the new business. Um with this there is a $150 transfer fee which all stays with the county. Um and then the publication was noticed in all of the legal newspapers. So, our office would recommend approval. Thank you. Any other comments?

Hearing none. Call the role, please. Vanderwal. Hi, Post. Hi, Miller. Hi, Hustler. Hi, Jensen. Hi. Motion carries. Item C is a public hearing and action approve the transfer of a retail on off sale malt beverage and South Dakota farm wine license to CCNF Retail Incorporated. I now um a motion to approve. So move second.

I have a motion and a second. I now open the public hearing. Any proponents that would like to speak to this item? Any proponents that would like to speak to this item? Any opponents that would like to speak to this item? Any opponents? Hearing none and close the public hearing. Entertain any comments from the board or staff. Uh again, Jenna Baker from the finance office. The only comment that I would have is uh similar to item B. Um, the Sky View Junction currently holds the retail onoff sale malt beverage license, but because they've sold it to this new entity, we need to transfer that license over to them, uh, we collected $150 transfer fee and the notice was published in all of the uh, newspapers. Our office does recommend approval.

Okay, any other comments, Jen, this was the um, this is the Sky View Junction again, correct? Okay.

Yep. Uh, yep. Sky View Junction currently holds a on sale liquor license and an on sale offsale malt beverage license because they've sold the business to a new uh entity. Um, those two licenses need to be transferred over to the new business to reflect that purchase. Um, and if you scroll down, I believe Stacy, if you can scroll down just a little bit, um, you can see there is an affidavit of the transfer. Um, right there that shows that Sky View Junction has sold it to that business. Confusing when it says South Dakota Farm Wine license or it's a different

It's the same thing. There's there are three different licenses that Sky View Junction held. They're transferring all three licenses to the new entity. Yeah, there's three different types. So, the first one you approved was the on sale liquor. The next one is onoff sale malt beverage and South Dakota farm wine. It's a combined license. And then the next one, as you can see, item D also relates to the same the same two businesses, another transfer for another offsale liquor license. So, just three different licenses that we have to do all three public hearings for. Thank you. Yep. Okay. Any further comments? Hearing none, call the roll, please. Post. Hi. Miller. Hi. Hustler. Hi. Vanderwal. Hi. Jensen. I.

Motion carries. Item D. Public hearing an action approve a retail package offsale liquor license to CCNF Retail Incorporated. I motion approved. So moved. Second. A motion is second. I'll now open the public hearing. Any proponents that would like to speak to this item? Any proponents that would like to speak to this item? Any opponents that would like to speak to this item? Any opponents that would like to speak to this item? I would now close the public hearing, entertain any comments from the board or staff.

Um, again, the only comment that I would have uh again, Jenna Baker and the finance office. Um, so if you recall, uh, November 4th, um, Sky View Junction was in here to apply for the retail package off sale and the commission approved that, we sent it off to the Department of Revenue. Um and then with talking uh to the department of revenue once we knew we were aware of the sale going on um because we were aware of the sale after the board approved the package off sale license for Sky View. Um we thought with the Department of Revenue we thought it would be cleaner um because they hadn't even received Sky View's application yet. That's just what the postal is going on right now. They haven't even received that application. And to keep things cleaner, it was advised that uh they're just because Sky View is getting rid of the business that this entity CC and F retail apply for their own um because again they hadn't even received the application. So there's nothing to transfer because it wasn't even approved yet. Um, so we so basically the Department of Revenue is not going to uh do anything for Sky View Junction, but we will CCNF retail is going to apply for their own new license for the package off sale. Um, this is a $500 package offsale fee. It will begin January 1 of 2026 and go through the end of the year. Um, if approved, Brookings County would still have four remaining off sale liquor licenses to issue.

Jen, I assume CCNF uh meets all the requirements for the soft sale. Yep. Any other comments, questions? Hearing none, call the roll, please. Miller. Hi. Hustler. Hi. Manderwall. I post. Hi, Jensen. I motion carries. Okay. Item E, Colin Schwaska from Banner and Associates. Uh, discussion on bridge inspections and bid ready proposals with regards to future big grant applications. You come forward.

Good morning. I'm Colin with Banner Associates here in Brookings. Um, I'm here today just to give a brief update on the 2025 bridge inspections that were completed this fall. Um, and really it's more to give you guys an opportunity to ask questions about the bridges themselves. Um, so this year I inspected a total of 21 structures uh, plus an additional nine structures that are under 20 ft. These are all structures east of I29 plus a few that are on an annual cycle on the west side. Um total of six of those. Um also in there it was three initial inspections for structures that were replaced this year plus one structure that was replaced last year. Um in my inspection findings, we didn't post any new structures this year. There was one structure that we reduced the load posting on just due to continued deterioration of the timber substructure. We thought it was more or prudent to at least prolong the life of the structure for passenger vehicles. Um it's going to restrict heavier trucks, but that's just the way it is. Uh that structure is located south of Brookings and I believe the commission did approve a resolution to apply for a big grant this year for that structure. So we will be applying to um replace it. Um based on previous year year's scores, it would secure a grant. However, I don't know how this year is going to go with uh it's it's hard to read what the scores are going to be or what score is going to be required in order to receive a grant. Uh other things observed um timber or sorry steel girder bridges with concrete decks the older vintage

that were built in the 30s 40s 50s they're deteriorating quickly. Um there's a few of them that we are in the process of replacing. There's a few more that we have done studies on and a few more that we have submitted applications to do hydraulic studies on but haven't been awarded grants. But that is a main focus of where we're trying to work towards replacing these structures. Other issues I see um like the structure south of town, it's the timber structures, timber piles um tend to decay over time um and the timber bent caps. You know, the options to rehab them are there. However, the options to rehab them are also probably as expensive as replacing them. So, it's not usually a viable option, but we do consider what we can do to prolong them as long as we can. Um this year and later in this meeting, you'll see proposals for design services for three structures to prepare them for a bid ready at bridge improvement grant applications for next year. Meaning we would do the design, prepare the plans and get everything in line. And then next December, we would submit applications to the DOT to replace them. Doing the bid ready package buys you essentially 10 more points in the rating or the bridge rating. Um, and that's pretty beneficial. The only other way to buy points is to increase your share of the cost. So, currently the minimum is 20% share on the county, 80% from the DOT. If you bump that up all the way to

50/50, you only get 10 points. So paying to do the design ahead of time is a much cheaper option. Now there's no guarantee that those 10 points are going to be enough to secure a grant the following year. So there's always the option to increase your share and contribute more points as that way as well. I believe that's really all I have for you. Do you have any questions for me is is there a way to identif I mean just with the scoring pro process and with the state funds there's no way to speed up these bridges so that we can have them on the replacement schedule before they restrict commerce in the county as far as load limits. money. More money has be the way. I mean, it's it's not they're not cheap and then the process, especially going through the DOT, it's it can be I don't want to say tedious, but you have to follow all their steps and all their rules. Um so the first step is the hydraulics and making sure that your new proposed structure or proposed options that are viable um and aren't going to create problems with the water surface elevations for the upstream and downstream land owners. Um then after that we move into design and it it it is it's a it does take time. Um I don't think I'm answering your question here. I kind of got off on a tangent there. Uh really it and one issue I see here with funding is several years ago when the DOT established the

bridge improvement grant fund um they set aside 15 million for these grants. Well, that was 10 years ago and that fund is still the same amount. Um it doesn't go as far as it went 10 years ago. You know, there were several years where the federal government contributed additional dollars for local federal bridge programs that we saw big big or much larger funds, grant funds awarded, but that has gone away the last couple years and there may be more federal dollars coming. We don't know. Um, but with that 15 million not increasing, it's not indexed to inflation or anything. So, it doesn't go as far as it used to. Um, it's much more competitive because Brookings County isn't the only county with structures. There are many other counties that also need to replace your structures. And people are realizing that this is, you know, going bid ready is how you do it. So, the point the minimum threshold for points increases every year. Yeah. The only way to stay at ahead of it, well hopefully we get caught up at some point and then we can, you know, stay ahead. But there's many structures that were built just kind of put together in the 30s, 40s, 50s that weren't necessarily designed, but labor was cheap back then and now those are all coming due. So, I mean the at the current pace of what state funding will, you know, will afford for us, we're going to keep falling behind on bridges if we don't start up in the Annie as far as the county contribution. Uh, yeah, that's probably not an untrue statement. Um, and I don't know if the

DOT has been looking into ways to increase that 15 million. I I don't I don't know. That's kind of a question I had the current funding with the DOT. I'm sure it's not getting any better. Um, are there timber structures out there that possibly could be replaced with corrugated metal pipe that we should look at on some of the, you know, not the highly traveled basically secondary roads that may be an option. Um, hydraulically you're never going to make it work really or real well just because you put a pipe under road where you had a larger opening. It's going to raise the water surface elevation. So that would probably require some sort of agreement with the land owners that they're going to agree that this is going to have this effect. The roadway is likely going to over top more frequently. Um, I mean it's always an option, but That's I was wondering what what was out there that uh if there was areas that that could be done.

I I think a lot of the ones that could be done were done in the past, you know. Okay. Um not say you couldn't do more, but I I al I also don't know what type of environmental impacts doing that would have and doing it the correct way and obtaining your core permit. It may present some challenges as well. It would all depend on the the type of road and the access needed. Yeah.

Um in some of those areas, some of those bridges basically makes it access impossible. Uh where if you had uh the corrugated metal pipe, you would at least have access there and you might have to, like you said, replace some gravel. Uh but you would have access to the properties um something just to look at I guess um any other comments from the board or Colin maybe you've given that to us already or or maybe this is a Brian question but do we have like a list um of the bridges that you've done inspections on in the eastern side? Could you get that to us or maybe we've already gotten that? Uh, I don't believe I presented anything. Um, you just I have provided Brian all the reports. Um,

but just something like a two-page deal. Is that something you could do, Brian? Just a list is all you'd want that. Yeah, that'd be easy enough. So, yes, just to help us get our heads wrapped around it. I think Brian, don't when we receive bridge inspections, don't we have access online to the bridges? Yes. Um, is that under the under the highway web? Well, highway web, but the bridge inspections are on there. Thank you. I'll look into that.

Any other questions for Colin? Did you want to kind of touch on them three proposals? Yeah, I can touch on those right now. Um I think coming up in the agenda here, you'll see those three proposals. Um the three structures that we are proposing would be structure 06, 153, 2.

Just have it on now to kind of give kind of a highle overview to the commission. Oh, so those aren't on the agenda. If if you could focus in on uh Colin's sheet there, Stacy.

No, like the camera.

This one here, Brian.

Correct. Okay. Uh so yeah, so we are proposing to move forward um with bid ready review plans for three structures next year. The three structures are 06153 200. That's on Kai Road 12 um southwest of town um just about a half mile east of Kai Road 19, the Country Club Road there. Um the other one is 06248040 up on County Road 44 um northeast of White. That's the one down in the valley on the road that's on the escurve or the curve down there. And then the third one would be 06 320 235. That is on County Road 35 south of Elton. Um and these are all structures that we have done preliminary engineering studies on in the past. Um all three of them are proposed to be cast and place box culverts. Um, so the the my base cost I was kind of coming up with is about 72,000 to do the design and or the engineering plans, obtain environmental permits and get everything ready for submitting for the DOT review and then eventual bidding. Um, couple of them are or one is skewed, so that takes a little extra work on our end. Um there's a a few other issu things in there that um cost couples cost be a little more just because it's going to take some more work on our end from the permitting side as well. So I think this is kind of what Doug was

looking for. Uh these are structures that are in the program. If we do this initial additional engineering work, they'd be presented to the state as bid ready then. Correct. Yes, that would be yes. Next year. Um I can't really see all that on there. I I did kind of do a little comparison. Um and my printout doesn't have it all. So uh but the going bid ready on these structures is the lowest cost option to increase the points to a point where they might okay based on the previous years they would receive a grant. Um do I have the scores on here? Yes. So these three structures um currently score 45, 46.3 and 41.3. With the additional points, the lowest score would be 51.3. Um, going back to So, this is a little summary of the lowest score to receive a bridge improvement replacement grant going back to 2018, as well as the total number of bridges that received grants. Um, and on the left would be the total replacement grant funds each year. So, going all the way back until 2018, that 51.3 score would have received a grant every year, but there's no guarantee going forward. As you can see here, here's a couple years where they really had federal or

they received significant federal funds that they were able to trade out with some of the state funds and put the state funds into list so they could utilize them as in the big program. Um, that has gone away. Going forward, this number is probably going to be closer to about 13.5 million. what they usually reserve about 1.5 million just for the hydraulic studies, the grants that are awarded in August. Um, and there's also some funds that they will if there's preservation projects, they like to put those ahead of replacements if they can. So, if we commit to doing the extra engineering costs here, that gets us to apply to the DOT, but that's not guaranteeing that we will be granted the project. Correct.

Correct. But if we were granted the project, that's not guarantee a timeline for that project to be bid.

So, at that point, the plans are essentially ready to go. the do once they are confident that it'll be awarded they usually initiate a review on their end and so we can begin the review process. So it may be possible like if we were to do this and we applied in December January 2nd of 2027 would be the deadline for the application. The awards would probably go to the transportation commission in March of 2027. um likely if they knew that the structure was probably going to receive a grant, they would start the review of the plans already. So you may be by April, May, you may have the opportunity to be ready to go out for bids. Unlikely that you're going to be constructing something in 2027 yet, but it is possible if depending on how many contractors are out there if you wanted to try and push them to get it done in 2027 yet. But more likely it would be construction 2028.

Okay. If that helps Doug kind of understand the timeline how Yeah. And all the all these regulations with the hydraulics. I mean the engineering name that you have to do that has to be done re regardless whether we go through a state bid or not. I mean it's not a case of half the prices. Correct. getting research done to make the state say it's they'll fund it. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, there there could be cost savings going on your own because when we go through the DOT, we are required to put together a full hydraulic design report.

In many cases, that's not 100% necessary. You know, a more streamlined, simplified hydraulic analysis where we aren't exploring multiple options. we kind of settle in on what we think we know is going to work, we could move forward with less on that. Um, and then likewise in design with the DOT, every design requires a design and a check design. So, it's two complete sets of design calcs for the structure that you wouldn't have to do that if you went on your own, but it is it is a good practice. It's a really good way to make sure that you're not having an error in your calcs and it's just a way good way to hash out any differences in your design calculations. So, I don't know that I would recommend that. Um,

one of the things that I would like to point out and I'm sure uh Larry would remember with being on previous boards is the big focus on this big program was our larger structures, our longer and more square footage structures. And we're kind of still on that realm of taking care of our larger structures where we can take advantage of the state funds to help us with those larger structures because obviously there's a larger cost with a larger structure. Um, and that's kind of what we've been focusing on is our, you know, used to be the river bridges over the Sue River. Now we're kind of branching out from that. uh taking care of some of our other longer structures.

Well, I guess my question was just kind of evolved around the idea that on a state level when they've built new offices in Rapid City and Sou Falls, they contracted with someone else to build and own and then lease it because then they didn't have to go through all this. if it's not a state property, there's a lot less hoops to jump through and they can get it built and get moved in a whole lot quicker. And I didn't know whether I mean if there was a 50% cost savings from not jumping through all the state's hoops then we could get structures built. But I mean I I just

I don't I don't think there it's that point or not. Yeah, the you know in the in the grand scheme of things your design cost on the front end might be say 10 to 20% of the total cost. So your savings would be our contribution then. No, it does not.

Um but that the so there may be some savings there but you still have your construction cost and those costs are what they are. It's at the mercy of the market of when you're bidding and how many biders you have. So there may be some costs going alone but it's not significant. I I still think it's worth attempting to get matching funds from the DOT on a lot of these structures. So, but you said the minimum that the county can propose is to pay 20% of it after we've already paid 10 to 20% up front.

Correct. Then, but that 10 20% up front or the the design cost on this going bid ready buys you 10 points to give you a better chance. What does putting our portion in at 30% say bias points wise?

So at 20 the minimum is 20% and the maximum that they award additional points for is 50%. And so in between there there's a 10 points they will give out. So, if you did 50/50, which we have done in the past, you essentially are buying 10 points to secure a grant. Um, but we used to have to do that because they had a cap. Yeah. The Oh, they've removed the cap. The the reason we did that before was we needed to proceed, but there was a $4 million cap over a three-year period, and we were

we were at that limit for several years. So, we didn't have available grant funds, so we went 50/50 to keep working. Now, that cap has been lifted to 8 million. And it's a little that's a little harder to hit, and we're not going to hit that for a while, especially since we're not doing two 300 foot big SU bridges right now. So,

thank you. Okay. So essentially, we need to decide if we want to do this here in the future. Uh we'd have to put it on the agenda. And what is the deadline to apply? This would be next this would be for next December application. Oh, okay. So we have time to get these agreements on the agenda and approved. We're not up against a deadline there, but sooner the better. So they can get them and I can get them on Jan. I was just hoping that they weren't you didn't need them by the first.

No, I I thought I I thought they were going to be on the agenda, but no, my apologies on that. No, it'd be Yeah, the sooner we can get them in, we can get them scheduled in our workload because we'll be have to fit them in with all the other projects we're working on. But we are we do have a place planned for them to work on these assuming we move forward with this. So, yep. Okay. Any other questions for Colin? Thank you. Thanks. Good information, Colin. Thank you.

Moving on to item F. Brookings Economic Development Corporation presentation. Good morning, county commissioners and uh county staff. Um it's really exciting to get to be here with you today. I'm Mattie Kerr. I serve as a business development specialist with Brookings Economic Development Corporation. And I'm Sierra Stephenson. I'm the marketing specialist for BEDC.

And our other um three amigo that is not able to be with us today because we are a short staff right now is Stephanie Mason who serves as our vice president of economic development and operations. Um, we just want to be give you a big thank you for being um, partners with us and providing an investment into our organization that allow us to do economic development work and planning um, that really has a high impact within Brookings County. We want to give you a little bit of an update on what we've been up to this past year. Um, knowing that this is not completely um, in indicative of what we've been up to and there's certainly a laundry list of things that we're looking forward to as we head into the new year. So, we'll dive right in. Thanks Stacy. Um we met early on actually with Stacy um Commissioner Hustler and Commissioner Miller just to visit a little bit about what some of your priorities were um looking at 2025 and to talk a little bit about what we were looking at from a BEEDC standpoint. So, it was a really great conversation centered around um looking at things like housing investment into our area communities outside of the Brookings municipality and um really just strengthening that regional collaboration. So, one of the things that actually came out of that conversation was the idea of doing a regional meetup. That was something that we hosted then in August. I know several of you in this room were in attendance, so thank you for that. But it was a really great starting point for us to be able to pull together variety of stakeholders within the Brookings County area. Um everything from planning and zoning to um county personnel, other municipality staff and elected officials as well as board members and other stakeholders that would have an um direct investment in economic development within our area. conversation certainly centered around housing um affordability of land land annexation and uh doing a little bit of planning

there. So something that we'll look to continue as we go on um kind of tested the waters a little bit with that group of people in the room that day and asked what are some things that you maybe um or how how frequently would you like to meet in this setting and it um came up by annually. So in the off time then we decided um with a lot of questions maybe around tax increment financing what it is how people are may be able to use it. It kind of led to the opportunity of us having a educational event that we hosted then in early November. I think it was scheduled for late October and we had a few scheduling hurdles. um where we actually invited the director of county equalization, Jacob Bremer, as well as Todd Kay from the first district association of local governments or our planning district for the area to kind of come in and just give a highle overview of how to be ready if you're looking at doing tax increment financing district maybe to support like housing infrastructure or buildout of an area with land annexation and purchasing um expanding opportunities for our communities within Brookings County to grow and um it was just really great was a little bit lower attendance. We have that session recorded if that's something that's of interest to you in our recap. We'll make sure that you get that. But overall, that regional conversation was a really great starting point um to talking about what does economic development look like for Brookings County as a whole and how can we all kind of work in concert with one another to have the best high impact that is um just great for our areas and helps this region grow and thrive. I think we'll move into a little bit on our other initiatives. Um so overall we have about four initiatives. I think we have a slide in here that um highlights it in a little bit. Um but one of those areas is supporting existing businesses and a large part of my role is to um get out and connect with businesses, visit

with them through our business retention and expansion program. BR and E programs are a huge part of economic development and being able to get that local information and local data directly from people that are involved in it, your business owners and leaders. Um, we're in our second year of the BR program and I think it's it's been going really well. It has been a little bit slower than last year. Um, but I look forward to this next year and maybe getting into some other industry segments. So primarily um we've been visiting with folks in the manufacturing, agriculture, finance, real estate um and insurance areas. So that being said, um we're also looking to get out into our Vulga community and Arlington community. So along those lines, um, with outreach and business development with Vulga in particular, um, we there's kind of two primary ways that we work through the BR& program, and that is through an annual business survey as well as getting out with business visits. We do a little bit of like a smaller touch point called a business walk. And this was the second year of both the downtown and Vulga community. So getting out in Vulga with um Michael Schulty, we've been able to connect with about over 25 businesses each year and now we're kind of actively working through a couple of those more formal business visits, which a business visit would be something that we would actually schedule. It'd be a sit down conversation um a little bit more in depth than just a hey, we're dropping in um introduction that we maybe do on the business walk. So, we've really been focusing on um working with Arlington and Vulga right now with BEEDC because they have been regional city partners with BEDC historically over the last fiveish plus years um in kind of that named format of being a regional city partner. So, Vulga has definitely seen a little bit more traction than Arlington. Um though Arlington is getting to be pretty exciting in 2026

with just some of the work that we're doing there with their chamber of commerce as well. Um, a lot of the concerns that we're hearing, which we'll have a formal kind of year-end report come out here in the first quarter of 2026 from the BR& program and visits this year, is that um, property taxes certainly are playing a factor, but also just looking at growth and expansion opportunities. um available land and site ready land is certainly something that has been an interesting conversation that is leading to a couple of conversations internally as we kind of transition into um our newly merged organization. Some other really great work that we've been doing in those communities I'm actually going to let Sierra talk about. So we have started doing consumer surveys again. So we did one in Brookings last year and then we are currently doing one in Balga and in Arlington this year. We just determined yesterday that the Arlington survey is going to run all the way through March. They've just had a lot of activity going on and haven't been able to promote it as much as they'd like. Um, but for the Brookings survey, we had about 600 people uh participate and were able to take that data and share and support why that why some of the development going on in area um is important and what our residents are looking for um and why it's important for continuing to grow the Brookings area. Um, in Vulga, we are going to be wrapping up the consumer survey at the end of the year and then we will bring all of the data together and put it in a nice little report um to go out. And then with Vulga and Arlington, a lot of what we're focusing on is um services offered and how that impacts business in those communities um and why people live in those communities, what they're looking for um and ways to expand and support the region as a whole and not just each town itself. How the Brookings region in general, Brookings County, um can really

help support the growth that is happening in the area. All right, there's that slide that I was referencing that we were going to talk about our initiatives. So, those four um kind of key initiatives really have guided a variety of our work both from things that have maybe um been, you know, laid out for our organization through the city of Brookings master economic development plan to strategic initiatives that have been born out of board conversations to just feedback that we're hearing, right? Um there's a little bit of flexibility and openness that we have to have in economic development to be able to meet any opportunity that comes our way. And oh my goodness, um there are a lot of opportunities that we have ahead for our county. And it's just I have a lot of pride when I get to go to statewide events where I maybe get to interact with other folks and they say, "We would love to have this. We would love to have um you know the population growth that Brookings County is seeing. We would love to have this opportunity. we would love to have a new interstate exchange. So, um, kudos to any work that you have been involved in in making that happen. Um, whether it's the inter interstate exchange to all the other numerous things we can talk about. I do think that our area is just really poised for growth. And, uh, I I'm looking forward to working with you and many others to be able to meet those opportunities when they come. So, we'll go a little bit more in depth on some of the next initiatives in the following slides. Um, in addition to the business retention and expansion program, there's a couple other ways that our organization supports existing businesses. So, through our industry cluster events, um, we're looking to pull together those industries within our area that maybe have just a little bit more businesses involved. So, primarily agriculture, there's a couple of subsectors that probably go into that. And then manufacturing. The idea is bringing together those business owners, leaders, folks within those industries. Um, whether they are stakeholders or not. Um, just to kind of do a little bit more of an in-depth conversation on current

trends and what's going on there, maybe ways that we are able to support one another in that. Um, it's I think we've had some great success and are looking forward to this upcoming year, too. Um, we did kind of two two bigger industry cluster events with agriculture and manufacturing where we brought in several stakeholder partners, whether it was the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation and um, Secretary Holman to talk about workforce trends that we're seeing in manufacturing to USDA rural development for funding opportunities. Um, South Dakota trade talking about some of our agricultural trade opportunities and issues going on. Though I would say with an agriculture background that's maybe gotten a little bit better. um but it can always be a little bit more as well. Um so just a lot of industry related folks um in those conversations that allow us to have that convening point and hear directly from folks involved in that um market segment. SBDC services through the small business development center. Um we're very fortunate that we get to have an office within our county. I serve as a part-time counselor for that. Um it is funded both federally and statewide. Brookings County technically falls within a region um where the regional director is based out of Watertown. I kind of cover the majority of inquiries that come up in Brookings County and then as we're a team of like one and a half full-time equivalents um we kind of block and tackle for one another as we need to. But while we've maybe um overall with the SPDC center um system statewide seen a little bit of a cooling down just from economic factors of right maybe loan rates and whatnot. um building costs are not as favorable for building expansion. We've seen a lot of work with existing businesses and we're seeing some trends right now with a lot of change of ownership where that generation that has ran and operated their business for 35 years is maybe looking to actually retire and move on. So we um I' I've worked with a few of those here in Brookings and a lot of the work that we do is confidential by nature. So I wish that I could tell you

more details but but we simply can't. Um we can certainly provide metrics though. So, I want to let you know that SBDC services in our area are going really well and we're seeing a lot of um just really positive things happening. I think I've worked with over about 40 clients and have ended up doing like $3.75 million in direct counseling. So, that has been investments in some way, shape, or form in Brookings County. Those investments and how we count them on the SBDC system is directly tied to some sort of approved um loan, whether that is through a commercial bank or some sort of other funding partner. And then Tiar's going to talk about some of the marketing efforts that we've done with existing businesses.

Yes. So, we have been doing quite a few business spotlights. They go out monthly in our newsletter. So, if you don't get our newsletter, I apologize. I'll make sure that you're all on that list after this. But, um, we have an intern in our office who's been doing a lot of short form video to uh just touch base with all of the businesses in the area, make sure we're featuring them. Um, we don't do just bricking specific. Uh we do focus on our regional partners um as well as a couple other communities. Um we're looking at getting into a business in Aurora um and also Elkton here coming up. So just making sure that we're sharing the stories and um they're actually some of our highest we have some of our highest engagement rates on our social media. Um it's the the fun stuff that the community enjoys um watching. So we get a lot of really great engagement on that. and um have heard feedback from the businesses that they've had new customers or new people seeking um their services uh because they saw the post on our social media. So, that's great to hear. Moving into recruiting and attracting new businesses, we've seen about 10 requests for information or RFIs come out. um mo the majority of them being sourced and sent out from the governor's office of economic development through their RFI platform that we have access to to then one that we independently um sourced via a board member that saw it and sent it our way. So, one thing that I wanted to talk about with this is that the majority of the RFIs that we've seen our community does not qualify for. whether that is land and site readiness to infrastructure availability. Hard to aggregate exactly um in those because we've seen things from they need a large amount of water to they need a thousand um acres contiguous um for some operations and whatnot which right good luck and maybe finding a thousand acres that are contiguous um definitely would

be a puzzle piece to work through. But um the the two that we have um qualified for or there's three there's three that we have qualified for and we submitted for two of them. Um we did not advance in the process but it's it's interesting to see I know that the governor's office of economic development their business development representatives have been getting out a lot more um seeing a lot of things that are maybe related to um defense. So, you know, there's a significant investment going on out in the Black Hills with the expansion and um work going on at the Ellsworth Air Force Base. So, while it's not necessarily um explicitly spelled out in those RFIs because you don't get a name, you don't get an industry segment, um if it kind of quacks like a duck, it might be a duck. So, you can kind of piece those together and then lo and behold, typically anywhere from six months later, you maybe see a press release related to that. Um, but the big challenge with our RFIs is really having that site available land um with the infrastructure ready to meet it. And that's something that Stephanie Mason and I have really been thinking through internally and something that we want to focus on moving into that um quarter 1 of the new year of doing a little bit of our own internal and infrastructure assessments as well as working with um local area professionals that are skilled maybe in those areas and our service and utility providers to make sure that um we as a county are ready to meet some of these opportunities. Um there's a program called infrastructure first that the governor's office of economic development was involved in in 2024. They did a lot of infrastructure studies with ISG on kind of taking a look across the state on building out infrastructure, having some site ready areas. Um I believe I talk about this a little bit later, but I'll I'll talk about it now. um Brookings County. I I don't know maybe what was happening when they were reviewing, but we are fortunate enough to end up with two locations and that didn't happen anywhere else within the state. So really taking a look at that infrastructure first information that

came back um the confidential internal work from really looking at sites to maybe looking at um um opportunities based on industry segment to maybe see if we can make something work and do a little bit bigger project that would provide a really significant investment into the Brookings area. And when I say something like that I guess I will liken it to another Bell Brands project, right? What is something like that that can be really transformative for our region that maybe helps bring in a different market segment or bring in um another large group of folks that um then provides just a really great opportunity for an organization to join our area and become invested in this. Um so we'll actually maybe hop back to the last slide, Stacy, just to make sure I didn't miss anything. Um, one of the other big things with this infrastructure readiness and site readiness, um, is that we've also been working with local utility providers and land owners to have conversations on, um, tracking down, you know, any sort of rumblings that we may hear of so and so might be interested in selling their land if the right project came along. Um Stephanie and I are working to build relationships with those folks, get in front of them, get handshakes, and really just understand what their desire may be because we know that not every project might be a certain fit. Um and we really want to respect those land owners in the process, too. Now, we'll move to the next slide. Thank you, Stacy.

This is good. This is good. Thank you.

All right. So as we look ahead um we know that we are transitioning into a newly emerged economic organization called um legally right now the Brookings Regional Growth Alliance. There will be a more um formal kind of public name that comes out um that will end up being a DBA of that Brookings Regional Growth Alliance, but legally it exists as BRGA right now. Um a lot of our work this last year has maybe been a we'll have to see what happens with the merger and where we're going. Um, I I'm really excited to share that Stephanie and I are going to continue to be your friendly faces directly involved in that business development work. So, as anything comes up, if you have questions, if you want to talk a little bit more, please do reach out to Stephanie and I. We'd be more than happy as our schedule allows to to grab a cup of coffee with you or have a conversation around um what are those opportunities and kind of what's some of the more in the weeds work that we're looking ahead at. And uh the next two bullet points after the infrastructure first program definitely talks about what are the in the weeds work. Um implant is an economic impact analysis software that allows us to kind of punch in a couple of different metrics metrics depending on the project to kind of get some sort of output from that. So an example would be um the the grocery leakage retail study that we did a couple years ago with Dakota Institute. Um Jared McIntaffer utilized the implan software to do that and be able to provide like Brookings County or the Brookings area is kind of losing this much in sales tax, right? Or you might have this much of a potential investment from something like that coming in. So, kind of whatever the project may be, um it's a really powerful tool and Stephanie and I are excited to kind of have that back in our wheelhouse and be able to look at some of the larger conversations that have been happening around maybe this industry segment or this particular project um possibly looking at right like a project that could um be along county road 214. I do

know that road is of interest to all of you as well and maybe getting that paved and um doing doing a project along that area could be a possibility to kind of help um help see that come to fruition. So the data and analytical work that we do internally is going to be tantamount to our success in looking at um what areas that we're looking to recruit in and kind of where we're presently at so that we don't necessarily dilute any workforce or cause any unjust um competition in a particular market segment. But what's something that's really complimementaryary, right? whether it's maybe um ahead of a manufacturing stream to kind of post manu manufacturing stream or logistically related um how can we be complimentary to the businesses that are already operating within our county and um still bring in you know another really great employer that has a huge investment and impact. Moving along, the housing study um was last completed in 2022. Those are typically done every 5 years. So we're looking ahead at 2027. We've had some questions right now based on the amount of apartment projects that you've seen particularly within the Brookings municipality go on to then some of our conversations um in our regional city meetup of we need to add more houses, we need to add more rooftops, um how do we grow our community? We're looking to maybe do some intermediary data analysis to help us understand from a couple of units in the various housing um um categories that were put out in the 2002 housing study. Where are we measuring up at? Obviously, we can take a look at permits um at building permits and whatnot for each municipality, but we're looking for a little bit more comprehensive data analysis on that to really understand are we at a point of saturation, let's say, with apartment complexes or not. So, know that that's something that we're also dialing into and looking at very seriously here in this first quarter. Um, since we are still kind of

a year and a half away from kicking off a formal housing study, maybe less than a year, I'll turn it over to Sierra to talk about the Brookings video project. So, about seven years ago, BEEDC did a video project that was utilized for recruiting workforce to the area um as as well as businesses. Right now, our main focus is workforce. So, we're working with a team called Forefront Studios to update that video. Um, we have already gone around the area and got a bunch of footage um just showcasing why this is a great place to live and work and grow your life. Um, and then we also just did an interview section um with some folks, some leaders in the community who really tell the story of Brookings um and the Brookings County as a whole. We have a couple who works outside of Brookings but um lives in Brookings. So, they're just kind of bridging that gap of why how the communities kind of work together to support each other. Um we're hoping to launch this video in early 2026. It will come with the new brand, new name that everybody's been patiently waiting for. Um but we heard a lot of feedback that businesses in the area have been using this for workforce attraction. Um, and just thought it would be a great time to update this uh, resource um, and be able to continue to provide that to our local businesses. Thanks, Sierra. Something else that's very near and dear to my heart is a big part of my job, supporting innovation and entrepreneurship. Um, talked a little bit about SBDC support earlier, but also want to talk about some other programming that we have um, going on this last year and are also looking ahead at. So the co-starters program is a entrepreneur accelerator program um kind of focused on a really high impact

um programmed opportunity for folks to come in get a little bit more information and feel like they have some action items that then can get started with their business. So that's a program that we support. Um I was a part of two cohorts this last year. One that we hosted directly in Brookings that had about six participants to then one that was more statewide initiative um of Dakota Resources. So looking forward to continuing that within our Brookings area. Um as well as some other opportunities for programming related to like spaghetti sessions. So that one's kind of fun. It's more around how do we provide that kind of low stakes networking opportunity for other entrepreneurs to get to know one another and talk through their ideas um just to have that community. So we call it spaghetti sessions because we actually eat spaghetti and we get together at the children's museum. And it kind of came out of the idea of like throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks. doing the same with business ideas and how um they're maybe able then to to get some good feedback to move forward on or maybe you know um move on to the next idea. Kidreneur programming um another really great highlight from this last year. It's a program that we do with downtown Brookings in conjunction with their Brookings Bonanza event. So we had over 25 participants and um it's just a great opportunity for us to instill that entrepreneurial spirit and programming in kids at an early age. We have no idea, right, um, if this is going to end up being some of our next business owners and leaders within the Brookings community, but it's really important that we plant those seeds now and show them that anyone can be an entrepreneur. Um, and kind of work them through a little bit of making sure they also make money in the process. Um, so there's a little bit of business education that goes along with that. Um, Sierra talked a little bit about the entrepreneur spotlights um, already. Do you have anything else that you'd want to add with that? Oh, and just entrepreneur wise, we feature uh folks who have gone through the SBDC process. Um we have some co-starters uh folks that are going to be featured as well, but very similar to uh business

spotlights and they're seeing seeing good outcomes from having those small video features out there.

And then last but certainly not least, when it comes to our initiatives is the collaborative economic development leadership. Um so talking through a little bit of our leadership and regional alignment. Um one of the big things that we have put out now and it's available on our website in much more detail would be our legislative platform. Um yes session is coming right up. Um it'll be here before we know it and there are quite a few hot hot button topics that are going to come up um in that particularly um economic development as a whole and maybe how that is viewed across the state um to property taxes. that'll also be a huge conversation that has many implications. Um, so you can check out our legislative platform online. We'll make sure that the link gets sent to you so you can really read through. There's I think over 15 kind of areas that we address and talk about. So some of those highlights would just be um really emphasizing that local control and flexibility for things as it comes up related to infrastructure and transportation um property taxes, right? um a statewide um a statewide thing might not work the best for Brookings County and that's just something that we um talk a little bit more in depth about in our legislative platform to then overall just support for those modern econ modernized economic development tools that allow us to really be successful here in growing our region. Um, we will also be working with the um our our lobbyist Matt Krogman to do some legislative updates on a weekly basis. So, we'll make sure that you get information on that. Um, you're invited to attend those. He last year he was doing them kind of almost every Wednesday at 4:00. So, we'll make sure that you have information on that if that's something that you'd like to attend and receive those updates directly from Matt. Other things um we're looking to do that regional city meetup again in February. So kind of like a mid um legislative session preview. So know that more information will be coming on that. And I will let Sierra talk a little bit

about the work with Vision Brookings.

Yeah, we continue to work with Vision Brookings as their uh through a management contract. So we help handle all of their finances and then a big part of that is guiding economic development decisions. So, um, a few of the things that they've been supporting are large economic development initiatives. So, the child care collaborative, um, they are helping support the video project that's coming out to help with that workforce um, recruitment, the I29 exit. Uh, but we'll continue to work with them and be a voice for economic development in the region. Um, and then community leader roundt, we gather once a month to discuss things that are going on in the area. um and kind of bounce ideas off of the leaders bounce ideas off of each other to figure out how they can best support each other. Um with that though, that will likely change with the new organization. I have a few ideas on how that can be just a little bit more beneficial for everyone involved. Um so more to come on that. Uh but we just wrapped up our final one in December with an update on the merger and then we'll send out updates as we kind of realign in the new organization.

And then the economic summit.

Yeah, save the date. May 5th, we'll be doing our third economic summit. Um something that we kicked off several years ago of just a great way for us to give those really broad economic landscape updates. um hear from a variety of stakeholders that maybe have a little bit of a um a larger presence within the area. So know that information will be coming to your inboxes as well, but we wanted to at least throw the date out today. Um in conclusion, thanks a lot for your support this last year. Certainly means the world to us. I know it's been um really fun to be able to also get to build relationships with each one of you um as we've maybe come across um one another at events and kind of talk through some of the work that we're doing. It's hard to summarize a whole year of work into a very brief presentation. So, if you would ever like to know more information, please know that any of us would be more than willing to do so. Um, thank you so much. We really do look forward to continuing a little bit more in the weeds um partnership as we really talk about some of these broader topics um moving into 2026 that um are are crucial from property taxes to infrastructure investment and site readiness and being able to really meet those opportunities when they come up for our county. So, thank you so much. We will pause for any questions if you have any. I just want to say I've been uh involved with the BDC for my tenure on the commission and

and uh this past year and moving into the regional growth alliance the the focus more as a regional organization to to help with Brookings is is exciting and with the regional growth alliance uh starting in 26 and and moving forward I think there's great things to come. So, I appreciate all your guys' hard work and um yeah, keep it up. Keep up. Thank you. Any other comments from board? Great presentation, ladies. Thank you. Good information. Exciting. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we now go back to regular business item. I believe uh item F. Action to approve resolution number 25-66 fiscal year 2025 contingency transfers. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. A motion to second. Any comments?

As we sat as I sat down with uh the finance office to look over year-end budgets. Um these are the contingency transfers needed to keep things kind of out of the red here as we get as we near year end. Um probably the biggest thing to note is the judicial system that went significantly over budget this year. Again, that's something that we just can't really anticipate. I don't know if Dan has any additional comments to that, but um but we're I think we're looking at some other ways to reduce some of those cost costs in the future, but um if you take that kind of out of the mix, we're we're in pretty good shape.

Okay. Any questions from the board? Hearing none. Call a roll, please. Hustler. Hi. Vanderwal. Hi. Post. Hi. Miller. Hi. Jensen. Hi. Motion carries. Item G, action approve resolution number 25-67, a resolution setting the official pay plan for 2026. Do I have a motion to approve? It's a move. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further comments?

So, this is the budgeted pay plan for 2026. We like to get this out and approved before the year turns over. Um, this lists all of the the positions and the pay grades by department. uh countywide and again this is approved uh was approved through the annual budget in September. Um also as part of this I did include the kind of 2025 year end FTE full-time equivalent employee list. I don't think that's changed a whole lot from the beginning of the year. So um yeah that's it unless you have any questions on that.

Any questions on the pay plan? Okay, hearing none. Call the roll, please. Vanderwal, I. Post. Hi. Miller. Hi. Hustler. Hi. Jensen. I. Motion carries. Item H. Action to approve agreement number 25-93. an agreement between Brookings County and the city of Vulga for the maintenance of Samra Avenue County Road 5. Do I have a motion to approve? Move to approve.

I have a motion in a second. Any comments? This agreement is for uh the new well partially newly constructed Samra Avenue over in Vulga. The city of Vulgahead has already approved this maintenance agreement. I don't know Brian if you have anything to add to that. No. So far, it seems like uh our crews and their crews are working together to to try to keep the the streets so we ain't plugging their streets or inundating their sidewalk with snow, but seems like it's working fairly good so far.

Is there anything special with the new construction that uh needs to be addressed or this is will handle it? This this should handle everything kind of like we discussed. I know Larry and Kelly were pretty involved as they were on the task force. Uh but if you scroll up, it uh divvies out the responsibilities um for each entity uh with a lot of the additional responsibilities outside the roadway that was you know previously there uh with their sanitary sewer, the drop inlet, storm sewer, water, curb and gutter uh ADA accesses at uh all the streets that were affected by the construction. uh the sidewalk and the crosswalks that are going to be coming within the next phases or the next phase, sorry. And then uh any of the warning or lighting that was on uh taken care of on the city side in the mailboxes. Uh whereas Brookings County uh when we first originally or when I was first originally uh met with this, I know it was discussed back all the way back in 2017 when it was brought to my uh attention when I was fairly new to the position. I know we had negated to uh pave through the city of Vulga basically starting at the city limits all the way up to Highway 14. Um we omitted paving on a paving project through town. And uh essentially what the city what the county of Brookings will be taking care of forward here is basically that pavement that would would have been in the existing shape, you know, outside of the the roadway, which would include the

curb and gutter, you know. So the county's responsibility would be the asphalt roadway surface uh from curb edge to curb edge and striping and painting of the asphalt roadway. Uh and then the jurisdictional authority which you know anything that would happen with inside that right of way we would still you know request to get permits within when the city works within that right of way even though um you know they were part of this process but they would be required permits you know if they were going to be working within the right of way.

Okay. Any other questions? Brian, this is great to see. So, it just helps each entity understand what their responsibility is. Maybe it's in here and I didn't see it, but like additional signage like say if they want to uh put a no passing zone or that kind of thing or no parking.

That is why we are maintaining the jurisdictional authority of the roadway. they would need to, you know, come forward to us with those requests and then it would be brought to the board. But I I would assume that this is why we wanted it this way from the original inception is that we know what's going on within our roadway and right ofway. Does I didn't read this real close. Uh does this address the seal coat process in the future?

There again uh as I mentioned the roadway surface between edge of curb and edge of curb would be the maintenance of the highway or the county highway. Okay. So any seal coating uh you know crack sealing or anything like that that would be the county's responsibility which it would have originally been when the roadway uh was unimproved. Correct. Okay. Hearing no other comments. So, call the roll, please. Post. I. Miller. Hi. Hustler. Hi. Vanderwal. Hi. Jensen. I. Motion carries.

Item I. Action. Approve agreement number 25-94, an agreement for detention services between Minhaha County, Lutheran Social Services, South Dakota, and Brookings County. Do I have a motion to approve? Move to approve. Second. I have a motion to second. Any comments?

This is an annual agreement that we uh that we do with Minhaha County for juvenile detention services down at the JDC down in Sou Falls, also with Lu Lutheran Social Services, shelter care. Um this is a pretty significant expense to the county. Um if and when we have juveniles that are down there in these facilities. Um the increase for JDC is going up a little over $24 from last year to 52202 per day. And then for Lutheran Social Services Shelter Care, that's going up almost $12 per day to $38 a day.

Okay. Any comments for the board? Hearing none. Call the roll. Miller. I. Hustler. I. Vanderwal. Hi. Post. Hi. Jensen. I. Motion carries. Item J, action approve and authorize IT administrator Sean Plowman to sign agreement number 25-92 and agreement for the setup for a secure email solution between Brookies County and Secure South Dakota. Motion Do I have a motion to approve? So move. Second. Motion to second. Any comments?

This was on the agenda two weeks ago. However, we did the voice vote, but we went back and there was no motion or second made. I think the conversation just started. So, we caught that. We're bringing it back so that it can be properly approved at this meeting. Okay. Any further comments? Hearing none. Call a roll. Hustler. I. Vanderwal. Hi. Post. Hi. Miller. Hi. Jensen. I.

Motion carries. Item K, action to automatically supplement for unanticipated expenses incurred in reimbursement made to the Brookings County for reimbursement from the opiid set opiid settlement receipt number 00729887 00735165 00741026 00741027 00741029 and 0074130 to general ledger line 252-4-151-4281 in the amount of $5,8596. Do I have a motion to approve?

Second. I have a motion and a second. Any comments? These are all of the receipts that we've received throughout the year for the opioid money. Um, this just gives us budget authority now within that fund to spend those dollars. Okay. Any further comments? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. Item L, action approve a retail on sale liquor license for Dance Land Campground effective January 1, 2026 to December 31st, 2026. Do I have a motion to approve? So move. Second.

I have a motion and second. Any comments? Uh the only comment that I would have uh is that this is the annual retail on sale liquor license application. Um, all of the other businesses we've approved at a prior meeting. Okay. Any questions, comments? Any reason this one got pushed back here? Uh, just turned in after the deadline. Oh, okay. Okay. Any other hearing? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

Oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. Item M, discussion and possible action giving direction on drafting a combined election agreement.

I think um I don't know that there's really much action, maybe just some direction to give uh give us today. Last week, we had a discussion with uh city of Brookings representatives and Brookings school district representatives regarding in elections in 2026. Um possibly combining with the June primary or the November general elections. Of course, this all came with the passage of House Bill 11:30 last year. Um that discussion really centered around cost sharing. Um, as the discussions kind of went on, they there was a proposal, um, I think that that is now in that draft agreement that I handed out here this morning, where the the first 25% of election costs would be shared equally among among the entities um, who are combining in an election, whether that's the primary or the the general. And then the last 75% of the cost would be split proportionately based on what's on the ballot for those entities. So if the school uh district had one race and the county had um 10 different things on the ballot, then they would be getting um or nine different things. Do it that way. Then they'd be 10% of the ballot would be um the schools for example. That's just an example. I think that's kind of what um everyone kind of walked away from that meeting thinking that was something that they could at least bring forward again for 2026 may need to be looked at um again moving forward after next year but wanted to um get something in place um to move forward. I believe that again that draft agreement in front of you that I handed out this morning has that particular um kind of cost share

explained. Um I think the school board, the Brooking school board did vote to have June elections and I think the city did they vote they vote to have November elections. So it would be um the possibility of those entities then combining with us with on those dates. Okay.

I guess kind of what I'm looking for, you know, is the is the commission comfortable with that with that kind of cost breakdown? And then um you know if so we would bring this agreement that's in that draft form right now forward at the next probably at the next meeting for approval. Input from board.

Yeah. I guess I would add that this cost sharing agreement was something that was discussed among the three entities there at that meeting. Um, it was proposed as an intention of hopefully pulling them all into the November. Unfortunately, the schools decided to go otherwise now. So, not sure exactly what all was there. They've got their own reasons for doing what they were doing, but obviously we came with a higher cost share for them and then compromised hoping that we could pull them into our ballot that had fewer races on it. But unfortunately that hasn't happened.

I would just like to say thank you to Lori and staff for putting that meeting together. I I feel like that was a very productive meeting to get everybody on the same page. Good conversation. You guys came very prepared. Um well done. I think that was a very very good meeting. I'd also like to thank the election staff and uh people involved uh with uh getting together and and making this work. Um I guess if this uh agreement works for everybody and uh we can make it work. I' I'd like to see it move forward and I' I guess I would agree with approving it. Can I ask will there be another meeting scheduled to summarize or is there no plans on that at this time or

there are no plans for that at this time?

I can sure set something up. I just want to see those lines of communication stay open between the three entities so all the little stuff gets uh leveled out and and uh we can go smoothly as possible. I I what I see moving forward now with um the school district coming on, you know, and that's if they have an election, right? They they may not, but if they do, then I think there would be just some additional discussions on logistics that can happen between um the the school district business officer um Stacy Van Beek and and Lori and Jenna and our finance office so that that everything runs smoothly. I think that's kind of where it it goes from here. I mean, both entities made their decisions on when they want to do it. Both have their reasons for doing so um for picking the time that they wanted. So, um, I think this school, it just fell more in line with their their calendar year. They're a fiscal year July one start. So, having that election in June, that brings on that that new potentially new board members right at the start of a fiscal year and they have um kind of like work sessions, training sessions for new board members that that's are in August. And so, it just it it made more sense for them that. And I think every other school district I don't know is is pretty much that they've been in contact with is doing the June time frame as well. So and then the city I think it was just it came down to you know voter turnout for them. It really came down to that where general elections just have a larger voter turnout and I don't want to speak for those entities but I think that's kind of I think part of the reasons why they um they chose the dates that they chose. But now it will be. It'll just be a matter of keeping in touch with them and making sure things run smoothly as we get closer and closer to those election days.

In in the meeting, the cost of the election, were was each entity well aware of what it potentially could cost? We did provide breakdown scenarios were discussed through the Yeah, we did provide breakdowns of what the past elections have cost us and what we have budgeted for next year's election. Yeah. That's what I was just to make sure

this this is probably the best sol I mean it could always be better but this solution will provide that it it's not going to drastically increase costs for the county and shouldn't drastically increase election costs for either the city or the school. There was potentially more savings that could be had but right it's not going to be a big to us it won't be a big surprise to them. Right. Right. Okay. So, um,

so I I think if you can just give direction to put this next, you know, give us direction to put this this agreement that's in front of you in draft form today. We can put that on the agenda for the next meeting in January and get that moving forward and then then and then we can get that sent out to the school and the city as well. Yeah, I think that would be a good idea. Um, I know the uh city administrator in Vulga um is also interested in taking a look at possibly this agreement. Um, I know that they're also holding their elections uh in November. So, they could potentially want to combine as well. So,

and just for public info, Jenna, you did reach out to other school districts and other small towns also.

Yep. We did reach out to all of the business managers uh in Brookings County as well of all the city clerks. I just wanted to get a good idea on uh the date that they selected uh where they're going to hold their election and then if they thought about the possibility of combining with us. Um they could always change their mind. At the time that I did ask them, a lot of them had said no. They're going to be doing their own election um in their own space. Um but the only one that really kind of came forward with maybe some interest would be the city of Alga

and this agreement would kind of blanket any any entity that would want to come to to work with us. Yeah, I think we did a good job at drafting it to make it as um I mean it's not just for one entity. It's not just for the city of Brookings or the Brookings School District. It's for uh every single municipality and school district within our county. I think that would be good. Dan, any thoughts, concerns on this agreement?

No, I would certainly encourage all the smaller communities and schools to consider not presenting a situation where people have to go to two different locations to vote if at all possible. I just would relieve a lot of confusion for people. Okay. Well, we got a general consensus to move forward with the agreement then. Yes.

Okay. Okay. Moving on. Item N, discussion and possible action to authorize administrative leave for all full-time benefit eligible employees on Friday, December 26, 2025. I'll make a motion to approve uh uh administrative leave for the employees if if we're at that point. Have a motion and a second. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. comments?

Any comments? Merry Christmas. Um I think

my com I guess my comment would be that the state um the state offices the state governor and the governor has given state employees that day off with thanks or Thanksgiving Christmas being on a Thursday. Um what this does for our full-time staff is everyone would get eight hours of administrative leave. I you know when we work with the staff we know our sheriff staff will be on duty. We know highway may have to come out if there's a snowstorm. We have those essential services. They would get eight hours of administrative leave then to use at a later date. Um but essentially this kind of is following what the state does. There are a number of other counties that I spoke to. They already either follow what the state does or they are moving forward in um with this day off as well.

Yeah. I think with Christmas being on that Thursday, you know, travel times being with your family and stuff, it'd be kind of a pain. So, I think it's a good thing that we're do something for the staff and alleviate some some headaches because we all know Christmas is can be kind of a headache. Also, I believe a lot of the staff was uh scheduling vacation anyway. Um, we just uh hopefully we don't have a blizzard, but uh the jail will still be open. I guess and the deputies will still be patrolling, but uh um I'd be in favor of granting uh granting it also. So,

all elected officials are still on duty, right? So, okay. No f any further comments hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I oppose same sign. Motion carried. Item O, action to unassign 326,000 from general fund balance line 101-2-276-9105 assigned for beta. Do I have a motion to approve? Move to approve. I have a motion and second comments

this action to just kind of cleans up our fund balance assignments um since that beta building purchase happened this past year. Another part of that was part of that budget supplement that was a little bit earlier. This is just some cleanup that moves some of the that unused money back into fund balance. Okay. Any further comments? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Post same sign. Motion carried. Item P, discussion and possible action on your end general fund assignments. Um I believe Stacy has some recommendations and I also have one.

So general fund surplus at year end needs to be less than 40%. Um if you can recall every month I give you an update on where that where that general fund surplus is. Um I'm reporting here in November that it's at uh November month end is at 45%. So, um, and then what I do is I kind of estimate where that surplus I think will end up at December month end and then give you some dollar amounts as options to assign within the fund balance to get us below that 40%. We typically like to be about that 2530% at year end is where we've kind of discovered that's kind of a comfortable it's a comfortable percentage. Um, so as part of my staff report, um, assigning like $2 million would get us down to about 32%. And again, all pretty high level estimates. I'm doing my best here to to let you know where I think we're going to be. 2.5 million, 30%, 2.75 million would get us down to 29%. So somewhere in there um, is where I think we should be about 2 and a half to 2.75 million that we could assign. Um, current assignments that we have within the general fund, we have about uh 2.9 million under future economic development highway projects. We do have $5 million assigned for the 214th Street project. Um, whatever that looks like here moving forward. We're supposed to be hearing back on that grant hopefully here yet in the month of December, but um I haven't quite yet about that uh rural tribal grant that we applied for back in September. And then we do have $10 million assigned for um a new highway shop um as well. So again, my recommendation would be to assign between that 2 and a half to 2.75 million. I would request um 500,000 be assigned for the HVAC and uh system

project for this building. And now we're also looking at replacing the boiler system in this building as well. That was unanticipated. that has come up since since um we initially uh did some budgeting. So I am asking for that. I think that will be um put us in a in a good spot for for that for both of those projects for this building. And then I guess the rest would be at commission discretion. But um I think the two big things kind of on the horizon are 214th and the highway the highway shop. Okay. You said the 500,000 would be enough for the for the upgrades and stuff,

I believe. So, yeah, we have some already. Um, and again, that's a shared cost with the city. Uh, 50 we would be 52%, they'd be 48%. So, of that cost. So, um, I think the HVAC project actually looks like it might come in a little bit lower than we initially anticipated. And we still kind of have a high level estimate of about 400,000ish for boilers. So then we would have 52% of that. So um 500 would I'd be comfortable with that. Well, I would I would support that. I don't know if we need to if I need to make a recommendation for that or how we how we go along that.

I mean at the end if you just kind of list out kind of what you're thinking and then at the end we could just do it as one motion to assign these dollar amounts for these specific items. I know that HVAC stuff for this building has been a kind of a headache for years. So upgrading and making sure that that gets fixed and and is engineered the right way for these guys. I think that'd be a good good use of that. So that's just my two cents. But while I sit on the joint powers board, I've I've heard a lot of that in the last few years. What what was the total estimate on what that's going to run site back in this building?

Probably with both projects, I'd say about a million, maybe a little bit more than a million dollars for both projects. We have I want to say between like two and $300 right now budgeted for that project, but I think another 500,000 on our end would be good to cover anything that may come up because in my experience things change and we end up because that would be our share. Yeah. Yeah. That would be our share then. Yeah. In the in the past short it do it wrong. No. Right. And I like I said we already have some already budgeted for that. So, it's been nickeling and a dime in the county for several years. So, it'll be nice to actually fix it. Fix it, right?

Do it right. So, it lasts. Yeah.

Um, the only other I uh I'd recommend I mean, we got the money today, I'd recommend uh possibly if board agrees um adding the 15,000 to the library request. Um, I hate to see that the county residents outside the city limits would have to uh pay for their library cards. I did speak with the city yesterday and uh was told that uh they corresponded with the library and they would wave that card increase if we would fund the 15,000. Um, I would suggest if we did that, I'd stipulate that it would it would state that in the in the request and also in the future, I'd like to see that uh we would have a a county representative on the library board. I think that would help with understanding the library a little better and uh with future funding requests coming from the library, we think uh this person could bring recommendations back to the board and we'd uh be able to understand this a little bit better. That's uh that's what I guess my opinion on it right now. Uh I don't like that it came to that that the city residents and the count and the residents outside the county had to be split on this uh issue. But uh today we we we have the money and that's uh I guess my fix to the the the problem. But uh on the other end of the deal, you um you said about 2.5 million would put us at how many%.

Approximately 30%. Okay. I don't know what the board thinks. Is that some input uh towards the 214 or towards highway shop? take recommendations of how much to each project.

Well, I think the 214 um would be my priority. Um as far as dollar amounts, I don't know what we're looking at dollar what that's going to cost, but that would be my number one priority. It's towards that. Uh we had good presentation today from Banner on the situations with our bridges and structures that we need to go forward with and I guess any dollars we can in that are supposedly extra taxpayer dollars that we have should be invested into those areas. um if we can buy ahead, pay a larger percent or whatever in order to get some of these structures in place before they end up with load limits for three, four years. And I mean, we also had uh presentation from economic development. Well, when you've got travel restrictions for grain and livestock and other things being hauled around the country and they end up going to a different market than one that's in the county, that costs us money, too. And it costs our residents money and slows economic development as well. So, I think number one priority needs to be to get on top of these structures and ahead of them as much as possible because it's it's something that's going to cost us money at some point. And so, the sooner we do them, the less they cost to get in line where they need to be. So, I guess I would take the rest of the money we need to reassign and do it all there. Um, does it have to be specific to the bridge or does it

Yeah, we have we have two have to go to correct. We have the 2.9 and economic development that Stacy brought up that is already there. Well, and if we put it there, it can go depending on structures and when they're approved, or it could be used for the 214 as well, if we've got economic development going along on that road and something needs to be done there. I mean, those are structures that would have to be done as well.

Stacy, how much from yearover-year in the last couple years, how much what's the percentage that we've we've moved into or we've lowered to? Like I said, we've tried to get between that 25 and 30% where we like want to be at year end. So if we did that 2.7, that would get us to that 30% or which it would be close. Yeah, 2.75 would get us to about 29%. But if again, these are just estimates based on kind of what I've been looking at. I'm just trying to figure out I'm just doing some math trying to figure out what uh how much money we have left versus the 2.5 versus 2.75. So

I mean I I think part of this too is and I know Jenn Jennifer came back up here. I think legislative audit would prefer that if you assign something it is for a specific project because even that future economic development highway projects I think that needs to sort of be addressed. I mean, I think if you leave that as that, but maybe put bridges or something behind it, so we know that that's money for for bridges that we're looking at rather than just sort of this

future highway projects kind of thing. So, um, and then as far as 214th, there are a number of structures along 214th that will have to be addressed if and when that project happens. And so any money um that goes to that would would help offset the costs of of that as well because there are a number of structures along that route there. I mean

so kind of with my my math if we do 2.5 um and if you take out the 500,000 for HVAC 15,000 for library that leaves us with 1.985 if you do 2.5. If you do another if you do two, you know, 0.75, add 250,000 to that.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, looking at that, I mean, if I'd like to see I mean, we got a lot of money in the bank for the county shop and that's got a lot of moving parts, but with 214, you know, 214 will help with with uh economic growth in that for for uh for Aurora and and that. I mean, I could see putting maybe a million dollars into 214, which would include all the structures across there and maybe that 985 or that or or so into the county highway building uh for that and that would bring us to that 2.5 million or that

I got a I got a question. Brian's looking at me smiling. the million dollar for the structures that what percentage would that even cover? Half of one.

Yes and no. You know that we're we're still in the infancy of a lot of these structures. Uh you know, I'm just going to use a couple that, you know, we're working on currently. you know, north of Bushnell on Highway 25, we're looking at, you know, close to about a million and a half,2 million dollar structure, you know, just for the one. Um, you know, initially uh, you know, I didn't necessarily have these uh, structures that Colin proposed to you budgeted. I mean, I'm sure my budget could absorb it, but initially, you know, to get started on a lot of these, I I have a feeling, you know, a lot of these counties are learning to essentially play the the game to attain the points, uh, moving forward. uh if we know this this is the commission's desire is to get us in a position to where we can you know spend a little money upfront. I'm just going to use the country club bridge as an example. you know, from the time of inception for uh that bridge and the time we got the grant was right around a year, year and a half, you know, whereas if we waited on grants and and uh upped our percentages, you know, like was mentioned by Colin, uh that extends that time out from the time you get the grant, you know, and and the actual build because you have a year of design, you know, to get it to prepared to bid. So, you know, that I I guess I would look at it as is if uh the commission is desire is to get us in a position, you know, maybe we look at a, you know,

design build for future bridge projects. And the the structure west of Aurora on that 214, the main bridge will be similar in size to the bridge north of Bushnull.

You know, I I'd compare one of them to that. Yeah. You know, I'm I'm ass sure that's going to be a uh you know, designed as a box culvert just looking upstream as that. Uh but there again, you know, that that's probably one structure that is currently not on our system because it was replaced with culverts, but most likely shouldn't have been back in the day, but the the amount of traffic that traveled that road, uh it worked at the time being.

Yeah. But is there the possibility of creating a fund for, you know, structure acceleration that we could assign money towards? Does that is that specific enough or does it

I I mean I think that you have about a little over 2.9 million in that future economic development highway projects. I think you could make a motion now to rename that future um bridge design and construction or projects. Um at least that would give a little more clarification on what you want to use that for rather than just future economic development. if you you earmark that specifically and then if a portion of the assigned dollars you want to put towards that to increase that 2.9 then you could do that.

Sean, back to your you said 214 with a million. Well, and I was just I you know, it kind of I agree with uh with Doug as you know and and uh and in that where we it would be nice to have more money in the bank to accelerate our um accelerate our standing and kind of I guess buy points. Um, with that, you know, with Brian Brian making that making that argument, I think it's a good it it is a good idea to do something there, not just to limit it to 214. I know 214 is is something that we're working towards. Um, but, you know, not limiting that that stuff to 214. I think it would be a good idea to maybe make it more generalized to structures and and that throughout the county. So if we rename the 2.9 rep um economic development to uh enhance bridge structures bridge structures yeah acceleration fund.

Okay then we're still back to Can we just handle the each of these on their own? I don't know if we'd want to do if we'd want to put bridge numbers in there or just leave it general. That way. Yeah, we don't have any bridge numbers. Yeah, I think you need to leave it general for now and then when it gets budgeted on the highway side, then it does get its own fund or its own uh general ledger line in my in my budget. I don't think we have enough information now to ear or dollar amounts known to ear marks for specific projects.

Yeah, that's so and how would it sound of 214 if we put a million for the road project and put 1 million for structures on that 214 structure. We've got already got a 214, right? We got a 214 and the structures in 214 could still come out of this bridge fund. Correct. Yeah. One way or the other. I mean, we have five we have five million right now set assigned for 214th. I would assume that that 5 million would include the structures

along that road. It's going to be part of the project, the overall project. They're going to have to be done if we update that road. My question would be is with 214 and looking for future grants and things like that, if we continue to fund our savings account for that, is that give us better standing as well with the state for possible grant? No. Or no? No.

We're just we're just putting money in the bank to help fit our own bill for that. The only way I think we'd help accelerate ourselves, you know, and save in the long run, uh, you know, say we do take care of our structures, you know, that wouldn't have to be experienced in the eventual construction cost. There we go. Um, I agree with Commissioner Jensen on the library thing. Um, we've we've got some funds available. I do not want to see the county uh patrons being assessed at charge, if you will. I think that library's got a lot more value to it than the general public realizes, but I also like what Commissioner Jensen said with if the county is going to be putting money towards that, we'd like a a small voice on that uh board as well.

Okay. You have any thoughts on the u allocation of the two point? So if we take care of the boiler here at the and then we divvy up the rest of it between this this new bridge structure acceleration and 214 is is my two cents and however what those levels are I I can be either way. How's that sound? Let's just handle each all three of them separately. How what dollar amount are you looking at assigning that would help me with Are you looking at the 2.75 or the 2.5? Let's take care of the 500,000 for the boiler. Okay.

Okay. Get that one done and vote and put a million towards Well, let's just do one at a time. Let's do a motion to for assign 500,000 for the HVAC boiler system for the government center. I'll make a motion. Uh 500,000 to HVAC for the county city building. Second. I have a motion and a second for 500,000 for the uh HVAC system. Any further discussion? Call the roll, please. Vanderwal. Hi. Post. Hi. Miller. Hi. Hustler. Hi. Jensen. I. Motion carries.

Okay. Entertain a motion for the library allocation. I move make a motion to 15,000 to the library. I'll second. I have a motion in a second. Any discussion?

I guess I'm rather disappointed the way this whole situation was handled. Um we had our budget meeting in June. This was discussed. We all had our reasons. We reallocated those funds to different needs that we saw in the community. Um, we weren't necessarily contacted. We were just all a sudden informed through Facebook is where I found out that we were getting county residents charged extra for a library card. Um, it's kind of like the library doesn't even consider that county residents shop primarily in the city of Brookings and spend their sales tax dollars in the city and don't receive nearly the city services as others do. And I was digging through their budget last night a little bit, which is none of my business necessarily because I don't live in the city. But in looking through things, I found it very interesting that their personnel costs for the library is over a million dollars and their fire department is only $686,000. So they are able to find volunteers to run into burning buildings but not to work in the library in order to keep costs down in the library. I just I I don't see it as a very efficiently run facility, much less for us to only reduced to $15,000 and that for them to try to extort county citizens or money out of the deal. So, I'm disappointed with the way it was handled.

Okay. Any other comments? I'm going to kind of build on on Doug's uh comments. Um, you know, we we're talking about HVAC for the Brookings County building and city administration, and we have a lot of conversations back and forth, but there wasn't any conversations. There wasn't anybody walk across the street uh when our budget was approved to say, "Hey, this is what's going on, you know, ask questions of us on on why it was or even attend our budget meetings." Um it was all sent by a letter and then weren't even informed until a Facebook post uh as Doug said that those fees were going to get charged. I think that uh I think there needs to be a lot more communication and um if this is approved with that 15,000 uh I feel that um we do need a seat at that table um because the communications and the transparency um with how it's run on across the street needs to be um needs to be brought to our our citizens. uh um knowledge and we need to have a voice. That's my two cents.

I I would reiterate what Sean said. Um I think it was handled poorly. Um I don't like how we've got thrown under the bus there. We felt, you know, we're all elected to be responsible with the funds that we have to use. We felt like we could allocate that in different places and for them to just um accuse us of raising the you know initiating the charge for the for the library is just not accurate and um could have been handled better. So um I would reiterate that moving forward I'm glad we're going to have if if we can get a seat at the table. just it was just simply a lack of communication. Um and we need to improve on that. So,

okay. Thanks for your input. Call the roll, please. Post. No. Miller, hi. Hustler. I. Vanderwal. Hi. Jensen. I. Motion carries. Okay. Okay. Then the next would be um so do we want to maybe are are we looking at like 1.985 or it depends 235? Yeah. What if you're going with 2.75 or if you're going with 2.5? You tell me and then I can figure out how much you got left. I'm

I'm comfortable with either honestly. It's It's like a 1% difference when you you do that. So, it's like 2.5 sounds good to me. What's that? 2.5 sounds good to me. That's what I was kind of leaning towards, too. I would agree with that. I think that's good. So, if we do maybe like I don't know, we have 100 or 1.985 left to allocate. Mhm.

What are some recommendations to go? I would say at least a million to that to the newly renamed deal with the with the bridges, if not maybe a little more. And then we can either divide the remaining up by 214 or county shop or is there something else? Well, we don't know what the cost of 214 is necessarily going to be. if it's more than five or not. We had an estimate of 17 million. Yeah. 17. It it the the they came in if I remember right between seven and 22. That's quite reach. Yeah.

It depends if we move forward or sell or went through the federal government. We know we've got enough bridges out there to spend the money on eventually. So, we could just put it all in that. And I will say too, if for some reason there's money that's ends up in the bridges and we need it for 214th, it's action by the board to move that money

and you know it would take you know we'd be have to be transferring probably over the highway fund anyway. So is there's some so these basically these assignments are just simple motion of the board to make any changes. So once you do this this is not set in stone by any stretch of the imagin if there is a a massive blizzard that comes through and we need it for emergency management. We can unassign it from where you have it and move it to where it needs to go. So this is just simple motion of the board to to make any changes to what you're doing today. So

I will make a motion for 1,985,000 to be placed in that newly renamed that organization bridge fund future bridge structure acceleration. What she said? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Call the role, please. Miller. Hi. Hustler. Hi. Vanderwal. Hi. Post. Hi. Jensen. I. Motion carries. Jennifer, would you like a motion too to rename that line? I was just gonna ask that.

No, don't think so. Okay. Just wanted to make sure we had all of our eyes dotted and tees crossed on that. Okay. Okay. We'll move on to item number nine. Commissioner, sorry. Sorry. Uh, Commissioner Jensen, can you repeat Stacey the name of it? Future bridge structure acceleration. Okay, thank you. You got an acronym for that? FBSA.

Okay, that's good. We ready? Commission department director.

Let me find my report here. First is the veteran service officer report. um five DAV van rides and four other types of rides between Private Beta and the U Veterans Transport System. Outreach events uh four events were um that they did in in November are listed out there. Um just another comment from our VSO. It was just again a steady month for claims with a couple coming back with large ratings which is always good to see for our veterans. and they seem things seems to be moving a little bit quick quicker through the the approval process lately which is good. Um November month end general fund surplus as they had noted before is um was at 45% that's just a little bit lower than our te 10ear average of 46.6. We did receive the engineering report from Banner that speaks to several of the projects that we have going on with them. Um that was as part of my staff report. Um we also received the continuing disclosure document from Kier Collier's Securities. Um I think the finance office had shared that report. Um that was included with my staff report. Um another just a notice of proposed reissuance of general water pollution control permits. It was from um with for with for kayos from the state department of egg. That that notice was part of my report. um after all of these supplements and contingency transfers and and things that that we did today. Um I don't believe we will need a special meeting at year end. Um, however, just to be safe, I'd like I guess I'm I'd like to ask what is availab availability on either the afternoon of

the 30th because I'd have to get that agenda done either Monday morning. Um, so it'd have to be for the 24 hours would be for Tuesday afternoon or basically anytime Wednesday. And I'd actually prefer anytime Wednesday and the 31st. Do we have a quorum of commissioners that would be available that day? if if we need to. Um, we should know fairly soon kind of what that looks like. Yeah. So, I'm available both days. Available. I'm available. I'm seeing head nods. I'm available both days as well.

Okay, perfect. So, I if you know and I'll let you I I will let you know either way, but I I I as of now, I don't think we will need a special meeting here at the end of the year. Um, Brookings Day at the Capitol is January 21st. I mean, we do need to RSVP to them. Either way, if you plan, they do offer a bus out to Pier if you plan to ride on that or even if you do plan to drive separately or drive yourself, they'd like to know just so they know who to expect out in Pier. Do you know now if you plan to attend that event? I'll be going. Sean,

I will be at Shot Show in Vegas. I'll probably be going on my own. Okay. So, I'll be out there, but no, I plan on going. Okay. I am uncertain. I've got another potential conflict that that week. So, Okay. And then, um, Sean and Larry, do you plan to ride the bus or do you travel? I'll probably go out myself. I've got things out on the way back that I'll that I'll have to do. So, okay. I'll probably same as Sean. Okay. I go.

Okay. Just so I kind of have an idea there. Um what is next? I as um I think this did get into my staff report. The East Business uh East Brookings Business and Industry Association's annual meeting is um tomorrow the 17th. Uh it is at starts at 5 5 to 6:30 out at Dacttronics. I think there was some information again attached to my report for that I believe. If not, that's when that is tomorrow at 5:00 out at Dacttronics. Also, tomorrow is Christmas at the BCOAC from 5 until 8. Uh they have a bunch of different things planned out there. So, um if you are available, stop out there and enjoy some hot cocoa. Um, other than that, just sort of the other dates listed. Again, that will be closing at noon on the 24th, closed Christmas Day, and now closed on December 26th as well. Closed Thursday, January 1st for New Year's Day. Brooking Day at the Capitol as I had mentioned. And then looking a little bit further out, we have some dates in February listed. Probably the one to note though is um Thursday, February 26th. If it's not on your calendars, you might want to get that on your calendars now for the towns and townships meeting 10:00 out at the BC OAC again, February 26th. Um, just two other things I did hand out this morning. Um, the board appointment list. I know this time of year, um, everyone asks me for it, so I thought I'd just hand everybody a hard copy. Now, uh the these are the appointments that are made at the first meeting in January, which will be January 6th. And then last but not least, we have um kind of a concern coming up with payroll

for 2026 going into 2027. So, New Year's Day 2027, my little foresight here, right, is a Friday. So, that would be a payday, but we're closed that day. Banks are closed that day. Um, everything is actually closed that whole day, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So, if we do the pay date on the 31st, 12:3126, that adds a 27th pay period into 2026, which we did not budget for. Um, I know Jennifer and Lori had talked to um, legislative audit and initially we thought we're going to have to, you know, look at contingency for all of this. If we look at that because it's also holiday time, so there's holiday pay for some of our bigger departments. We're looking at using just right off the bat before we even hit 2026, 3540% of contingency next year for for a final payroll in 2026. But because this is an unexpected unanticipated expense, we can do some budget supplementing which is helpful. Um kind of maybe looking at doing that for some of our bigger departments, sheriff, jail, um and highway to to cover that. Um the other thing that we kind we looked at too is moving that uh first pay date of 2027 instead of getting paid on Friday, getting it paid out on Monday the 4th. But we know that staff probably wouldn't appreciate a late a paycheck coming in three or four days late. Um we do have a year to educate people on that, but that was something else that we we looked at, too. So, um I don't know that we really

need any if we need direction from the board, I guess, on what we're kind of looking at if yeah, what your preference would be, I guess, at this point. forward one day to the that Thursday. Have you looked what would that Yes. How how big of a mess would that be? Well, to move it right into Thursday if and that's what I just if we moved it to th Thursday, it' be the 123126. That would add that 27th pay period to 2026. Oh. Oh. Oh, the 26. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I thought it was we were talking 27 paychecks in 27.

It's either going to be one or the other. There's either going to be 27 in 2026 or there's going to be 27 in 2027. But we didn't budget for it in 26 because we didn't know that that Friday was a holiday. I mean what we know but it wasn't anticipated. Yeah.

The other thing to keep in mind is if we do it in 26, which we Okay. Any other holiday, Fourth of July lands on a Friday, we're paying everybody the Thursday before. That's just how we do it. Um, if we do 27 in 2026, all salaried employees, their pay now has to be split between 27 payrolls instead of 26. So, if they were anticipating getting 2500 a paycheck, it might now be more like 2400 a paycheck. It'll be made whole at the end, but they'll still be Yeah. They still get their full salaried amount

divided by 27 versus 26. Or or another option would be to skip or we skip a payroll for the salaried folks somewhere somewhere and it doesn't have to necessarily be at year end. It could maybe be have a third payroll in a month which happens a couple times a year. We could salaried folks just wouldn't get it.

Yeah. This being having 27 in a year is going to make three months with three pay periods. So we could pick any of those to not pay salary if that was the choice. we yeah we wouldn't need to wait until the very end of the year to make that to to skip for the salaries and I know we did that about in 10 12 years ago we skipped an entire pay for the salaried people I would and it came out of the blue um and didn't land real positive with the people who are on salary so maybe if that is something that can be looked that so they can plan ahead instead of just, you know, you're not getting a paycheck next week.

This happens every 11 years because of the calendar and that's just what year we're on. So I guess what? Yeah, our choices are move it to the fourth, which it's your choice. move it, do it on the 31st and use contingency and budget supplements to to cover it, adjust it. And then I don't know if you want them to decide about dividing it by 27 or leaving at 26. I don't know. I mean would I don't know if

because we're at the point where HR is right now today and tomorrow putting salary updating salary um in the payroll system because the next paycheck the salary people will get their pay raise for the year. So she needs to know like whether to divide it by 26 or 27 step increase or something at this stage. So it's gonna that would offset some of the Yeah, I'm kind of leaning forward to 27 just because of the contingencies. And I mean in 25 we're already spending half or threequarters of our contingencies for 26. That that would be my No, the contingency that we did today was 25 for 25.

No, no. I'm I'm just saying looking forward is is those contingency stuff. If we if we I mean it's already gone, but if we go to 27 in 27 then it in June. The only the only thing would be the the that staff then instead of getting they're waiting three days for a paycheck. They're waiting three extra days to get paid. So instead of getting paid on the Friday the January 1st, which they wouldn't anyway because of the holiday, they would get paid on Monday, January 4th to push to push that into a 20 into a to a 2027 expense.

There's no banks, so it's not like they'd be bouncing checks. Right. Right. Nothing is open the first, second, or third of January. So if they, you know, if they did have, you know, a bill that like automatically deducts on the first, it actually still wouldn't hit until Monday the 4th, same time that the paycheck would go into the bank as well. So So that's but we know that that would be a concern for for some employees. What amount are we talking about switching from seven to six?

We're rough numbers about 240,000. That's just to pay non-s salary people in 26 for that extra pay period and that includes retirement. There wouldn't be any benefits other than retirement included in that but taxes. Um we just set that aside right now. We were going to do 2.75 and we only did 2.5. It crossed my mind when I was sitting back there to assign it. I don't know. You should Yes. The short answer is yes. You could because yeah, you could do just do another 250,000 assign it for for 2026 payroll.

Yeah. Due to 27, you know, second. I just have one question. What are other counties doing? It depends on the county. Not all counties pay bi-weekly. Okay. And it's falling on us because our first paycheck this year is in is January 2nd. So say say our calendar year worked that it happened to be on January 9th. We went and ran into this problem until 27. So it kind of just depends on the county. Some counties only pay once a month. If you if you pay by monthly, it probably doesn't affect you. It's more if you do bi-weekly like we do.

I agree with Commissioner Post. Let's just get it done in 27 real or you know we went with 2.5. If we move that up, it'll be fine. just yeah take it from lower our percentage right now and get it taken care of. Okay, back to item P discussion and action on your end general fund assignments. I have a motion. I think yeah this is a motion a second to assign another Jenna's wondering how much um well I got the motion by post who's who's seconding it and then yeah dollar amount

250 Jen Beller was at 250 a motion a second general funment of 250,000 Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. Commission. All these things that come up once every decade or so. Yeah. Commission department director, you're you I am finished unless you have any questions for me.

Okay. State Attorney's Office. Thank you. Item 11, uh, Commissioner reports. Commissioner Vanderval. Thank you. On Tuesday, December 2nd, we had the zoning meeting here in this building. On Wednesday, December 3rd, I attended the mayor's celebration at the Dakota Bank Center. And then on Thursday, December 4th, I attended the uh innovation uh uh holiday celebration. And that's my report. Just want to thank everybody for a great year, all the employees for all their hard work here at Brookings County.

Commissioner Post. Yes. On Tuesday the 2nd, I attended the egg appreciation dinner. Um, on the Wednesday the 3, we had an extension meeting out at the activity center and on Wednesday or Thursday the 4th, we had a weed meeting at noon out at the weed building. And on the 8th, Monday, we uh had that joint elections meeting here in this building. That concludes my report.

Okay, Commissioner Miller. Uh on the 2nd I also attended the egg appreciation dinner and on the 8th the election day meeting again which was well done. That was done. Thank you again. And uh last night the 15th I attended the hospital board meeting and uh things continue to look good at the hospital. Well run. They had a good year and a lot of numbers a lot of people go through that place. Okay. Thank you Commissioner Hustler.

Yeah. On the third, uh we had a research park board meeting. Uh got some updates and some presentations for some possible uh more companies moving to Brookings, which is going to be exciting. Hopefully some things come to fruition with that. On the 9th, I was asked to do a presentation to the Brookings leadership uh leadership Brookings uh class. Uh they asked uh for me to come in and present on what uh kind of our roles as county commission. um uh kind of the county government and and how that all works. Uh it was a great presentation, great conversations. Uh there was I believe there's like 28 uh students in that. uh look forward to look forward to them graduating and and that on the 11th we had our merger board meeting um which of course with our BEDC um presentation uh talking about the uh Brookings Regional Growth Alliance which is the the formal name uh we're going through CEO search uh that's w winding up we're looking at possible uh virtual interviews with 8 to six to eight uh uh possible candidates the first part of the 26 which first part of January and then depending on how those go the the two to three top candidates coming to Brookings the end of January for interviews um and be available for community leaders to meet with them uh and that merged organization will kick off in January and and uh they've got some exciting uh planned and and I'm excited for the growth and and for the for Brookings in general. It'll be a good good organization. And that is my report.

Okay. On the second, I also attended the egg appreciation supper. On the third, I did attend a mayor's Christmas and awards night. On the fourth, innovation campus uh event out there. on the 10th uh did go to the water treatment ribbon cutting uh uh event out at the at the new water treatment plant. Uh it uh listen to um different presentations and uh how they I give them kudos to planning for the future and uh the size of that plant and and how it will handle the future growth of the city. Um they're probably later on when after the construction is completed, we'll be offered uh more of a tour of the facility out there. Uh on 11th, I attended the P pandemic planning meeting at the East Fire Station. And with that, that concludes my report. Um with no executive session today and move on to item number 13, I look for a motion to adjurnn.

So moved. Second. A motion and second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppose. Same sign. We are journ for 2025.