Board of Supervisor - Regular Meeting

with liberty and justice for all.

Well, good morning. We'd like to welcome you all here to our meeting today. We've got couple of things to do today. The first thing we start off with is the report from the Iowa corridor. Good morning.

Good morning weather, huh? Beautiful weather. Feels like spring out there. Uh Kurt Strath with the Iowa Lakes Corridor. Thanks again for allowing us a little bit of time here this morning uh to provide a couple updates on some things. As you know, we appreciate the partnership in economic development here in Dickinson County and appreciate your support and allowing us to do the work that we do, which is multiaceted, you know. So, today we're going to provide an update on a couple of different things. One, on a brand new workforce development initiative that you've heard about probably through the some press releases called Build My Future. So, it'll be a brand new initiative that will be launching actually this week, which we're excited about. So, we'll give an update on that. And then the other avenue we're going to provide an update on is our business retention and expansion report. And so business retention and expansion is a dedicated piece of what we do for economic development where we're meeting with all of our local companies here locally to see what their opportunities are for growth and expansion. And so Joanne, who does a great job of leading that through our office, is going to give um an update on that. It's hot off the press. You got the report in front of you. So we'll just provide just a high level overview of that today um and then answer any questions that you have. The other document that you have in front of you is our 2025 annual report. Uh thanks to all of you who were able to attend our annual business recognition lunchon um on January 28th. Uh we delivered that annual report which gives our um essentially our annual snapshot of all the good things that happened over the past year. So take some time. You probably have already seen it. It's not a brand new document but some feel free to take some time and look through that. feel free to share with any of your constituents uh that are interested in all the good work going on in the corridor. Um just want to recognize our team in attendance, Joanne Fallen, Trevor Smith, and Jenny Dika. Uh Alyssa Peterson, who's our fifth leg of our stool, is back at the office today with Build My Future coming up. She got a lot of phone calls coming in this week. So, she's holding down the fort uh there today. So, uh anyway, I just wanted to just remind you that we're a regional economic development organization,

nonprofit. Uh we do have four board our board representations from each one of the four counties that we serve. So for here in Dickinson County, your board reps are Brett Johnson with the city of Spirit Lake and Central Bank. Uh Tom Nelson with Bank Midwest, Drew Hegy with Spirit of Okabochi and Chad Clary with Clary Lake Service. So good representation of B of a board of directors that also sit and help direct the work that we do. So uh with that you guys got the documentation. I'm going to have Joanne Fallen come up and just kind of give a highle overview of the business retention and expansion report and then Trevor will come up and kind of give a high level overview then of the build my future event. So Joe,

thank you Kirk. Good morning everyone. Thank you for the time you're allowing us this morning. Uh you have two documents in front of you for the 2025 business retention and expansion report. As you know the last couple years we rebranded the program. that is now our growth program. Um growth is an acronym. It stands for gather relationships, opportunities, wins, trends, and hometown. Um it is a partnership with Iowa Economic Development Authority, IEDA. And we do report um progress in aggregate form on a quarterly basis to the uh state of Iowa. Um so if you look at the report as you can see um I have a Dickinson County report. I have a 4count report which is the summary report. We did a total of 117 visits um throughout the corridor region last year. That is an increase from 105 in 2024. Um we also did 26 of those directly in Dickinson County. We are very proud of the fact that 13% of all the BRE visits um reported to the state of Iowa were done right here in the corridor region. That also is an increase. Um in 2024 we did 11%. So if we break down how many we did per county, it was Buunabista 35, Klay County 38, Dickinson County was 26, and EMTT County was 18. So when as we're looking at um the expansion and growth for the region um in Dickinson County specific there were 38% of companies that plan to expand in the next three years. Uh two of those are right here in

Dickinson County. Um, also we want to note that that is a capital investment of $62 million and over 94 new created jobs in the county. 36% of new products um were introduced in the last five years within Dickinson County. Um, and then if you also look at the graph u manufacturing for Dickinson County had a very big footprint. um they were almost 42% of the interviews that we did. Um also retail trade was very high as well. Uh as far as the market outlook, we want to note that 77% of the companies reported stable or increasing sales in 2025. Uh considering the year that it was in 2025 with tariffs and rising interest rates, we felt u very good about that. their primary markets are local, regional, and national. Um, also we ask the businesses to rate the community services. We're very proud of the fact that in all four counties, community services get rated very high by the businesses. Um, specific to Dickinson County, police and paramedic um were rated at 4.25. Uh, fire protection was up there at 4.33. Schools also at 4.21. 21 and then we're proud of the fact that economic development was also included in that at 3.83 tops um priorities for business housing child care initiatives and workforce upscaling. And then as far as top community strengths uh for Dickinson County, the local support that the businesses receive, um our specific location here in Dickinson County along with all the

amenities that it has and then also education rated very high in all four counties. Local support was number one. Um businesses really appreciate the support from the cities and the counties. So, um, with that being said, I do want to touch on workforce as well. Um, workforce 63% of the companies, uh, in Dickinson County said they were experiencing rec recruitment difficulties. Uh, that left approximately 43 jobs in 2025 that were not filled. uh we asked them to rate the workforce um on a scale of one to five and availability was given a 2.29 quality was given at 2.91 and then stability of the employees was given a 3.13. Uh 21% of the local schools are working with local businesses are working with schools. This year we added 12 um schools to our VRE list and those 12 schools are all the schools within the corridor region. We met with superintendants um and also some of their other personnel. Uh we talked about workforce availability. We talked about talent pipeline development and we also talked about long-term workforce stability. Um our students will be our future workforce in this corner region. So, we wanted to talk to them and let them know that um we are having a new program which Kurt mentioned, Build My Future. It will be um launching on Thursday this week between the hours of 9 and 2:30 at the Klay County Regional Events Center. We definitely want to invite you to be part of that. Um, this

is a hands-on experience with businesses and I'm going to introduce Trevor Smith to talk a little bit more in depth as far as that. Thank you.

Thank you, Joe. Good morning, supervisors. Uh, Trevor Smith here with the corridor. Uh, just want to talk to you guys about our build my future event. Uh so what we're do is we're bringing uh 750 high school students uh from the corridor region to the Klay County Regional Event Center on Thursday, including over 200 students from Dickinson County alone for a hands-on career experience. Uh that's not a typical job fair. So every single activity that's going to be at this is by businesses that are from uh our region and have some type of hands-on component where students get a real look about what these jobs are actually like. So it's not just anformational you hand get a document and move on. And uh that will be held uh this Thursday between the hours of 9 and two. We encourage you just to stop by check it out. Uh Build My Future started in uh uh Springfield, Missouri and then the De Moines area for the last seven years, which is a giant construction trades type uh career experience where they bring in 7,000 students from across the state, which is great. But then they use that opportunity to recruit students from all over the state of Iowa to those companies down there and our schools would participate in that and we found a need not only through the schools and meeting with them for something closer but also through our companies through our BRE uh uh interviews and uh through that I mean you guys saw the numbers 60 over 60% of our companies right here in Dickinson County have workforce recruitment issues and so trying to give these students an opportunity to showcase all the amazing jobs that we we have right here locally and opportunities uh I think is important and the uh businesses did feel the same way and they're really jacked and excited. We have uh careers from all over including uh manufacturing, construction trades, HVAC, welding, uh healthc care. We have a lot of different health care booths and even uh public sector jobs. I know you guys with the supervisors with all the jobs that you have available uh just

right here locally that you're trying to fill with high quality individuals between uh you know engineering or department of transportation maintenance all of that uh we have our local police departments public safety national guard uh we got over 50 exhibits for these students to uh uh attend and so it'll be broken up into two sessions morning session and afternoon session so about 350 students in the morning and over 400 in the afternoon. Uh so they'll all get a good experience indooroutdoor exhibits. Uh so you guys have any more questions about the Build My Future event. Uh it's going to be a lot of fun. It's taken it's been about uh eight months in the making, a lot of work. Uh we have a lot of different partners in it, including uh all of our local chambers, city economic development partners, and industry professionals from across the region. So it's been a big group effort that uh we couldn't be more excited about. Thank you. Thanks Joe and Trevor. Appreciate it. I just want to give a shout out too to the team including Jenny. Jenny is our marketing uh expert so to speak and to be able to get this thing out there at a high level to our schools and our companies is no small undertaking. So appreciate all the work Jenny does as part of this as well. And again, all this comes from the business retention expansion report that Joanne just just delivered. As we're meeting with our companies, we're understanding what those pinch points for growth and opportunity are in our county. Workforce development continues to be at an all-time high as far as recruiting highskilled workforce to our area. That's why build my future is a thing. Um, we're talking about opportunities for growth and expansion for creation of new jobs, the creation of new capital investment. You've been briefed on a couple of really nice projects that are under, you know, under the gun right now and opportunities here in Dickinson County that come from opportunities just like Joe is is is evolving in some of these visits with our CEO, our CEOs from our companies. Brown Med just received a 4.0 0 manufacturing 4.0 grant through IEDA. That was something that Joanne was able to facilitate with the leadership at Brown Med to to get them a $25,000

grant for some technology upgrades that they'll be going on in their company. Uh total project costs about 165,000. Well, in scale and scope, those dollars aren't aren't large dollars dollar amounts. Uh the any sort of assistance that they can get to help offset some of those costs help them continue to grow and expand right here in our region. So, thanks to Joe and leading that and and Trevor and and Jenny and Alyssa for uh getting off the ground this brand new initiative. And I do encourage you if you got some time Thursday, walk through it. It's going to be at the Klay County Regional Event Center. There's two opportunities as far as morning afternoon session. Over 200 kids from our schools here in Dickinson County will be participating and a lot of a lot of business vendors, you know, I think almost 60 local business vendors will be there uh providing hands-on skill um opportunities for our students. So, uh, with that, happy to answer, uh, any questions that you have. Um, I did want to just reiterate, I just said a note here as far as growth. You know, we talk about opportunity for growth. 80% of growth still comes from our existing industry and businesses that are here existing in Dickinson County. So, just another important aspect on why the business retention expansion visitation program is is an important one. So, with that, thanks uh, thanks for your support, your time. Uh, happy to answer any questions uh, either myself or or the team. So,

is there any effort to promote businesses in our smaller communities get away from the lakes area?

Yeah, great. Yeah, absolutely. Great question. I did have in my notes and I didn't get a chance to to actually mention it. The assistance from our small communities um as far as an outreach from them is probably at an all-time high right now. I we're working with city of Terrell on some stuff with some with some housing and some small business. City of Lake Park, we've been very engaged with their leadership on one of their larger employers there. Um even even some small smaller businesses with Mayor Carson. Um so both of them. Yes. And then uh Superior too. Superior's got some stuff going on. We met with had conversation with their city leadership, city council about the establishment of maybe an urban renewal area to help incentivize potential business growth within their community. So 100% and we encourage that's part of what your support provides our our counties or excuse me our cities within the counties. If there's if there's concerns or they need assistance with anything um from a business development, you know, just as far as an incentive structure, we encourage them to reach out to us and we're we're there to be able to assist them any way we we we can. And I would say to that, I think at an all-time high, and I think our team would agree as far as our small community participation and assistance is probably at an all-time high since I've been there in three years. And that's part of where our goal is. Like we we want to be able to be that one-stop shop. We want to be able to have communities be confident in calling the corridor for assistance to be able to deliver that. So to answer your question, yeah, go.

One of the things I've been trying to promote, Mr. Clark tells me it's not feasible is to get more housing in these smaller towns and take the pressure off the lakes. Yep. What can be done about that?

Yeah. So, so again, I'll go back to the city of Terrell. I mean, they're they're trying to get some, you know, some some housing done. They got some ground. So, trying to figure out ways and avenues to help and assist that. So, you know, one of the things that we hosted, a handful of you were here just a couple weeks ago. Uh, we brought up Nick Sorenson from the Iowa Economic Development Authority who oversees and facilitates the Iowa Workforce Housing Tax Credit Program, which is probably one of the most competitive and most popular incentive programs funded by the state to assist in housing development. So, we brought him up here along with Dave Miller with Homes for Iowa. And Homes for Iowa is another opportunity for for rural communities to to uh, you know, for infill development, if you have a vacant lot, for infill development, to be able to to deliver homes on site. The cool thing with Homes for Iowa is they they actually use uh they develop workforce as part of this. So they take incarcerated individuals who are ready to be released um get them trained in the construction trade. They're building these homes at a at a very nice price point for communities and counties to go in and purchase them and then they will deliver them on site. Uh price point there they you know the homes can be delivered. They estimate about15 $120,000 bill and then the average resale home price is right now the median price about $250,000. And the problem we're running into and everybody hears it is the cost of development and interest rate are really driving up development costs right now. And so to be able to put a home out on the market that's deemed affordable for everybody is it's really really hard. Uh so we have to rely on one community involvement. Community incentives have to be a part of the process now. And then we need to make sure that we have leverage at the state, especially with Nick Sorenson, you know, as a program administrator. They know the opportunities up here in Northwest Iowa. So we can leverage dollars for to support projects um similar to Steve Booty, Talon Development, Eagle Construction, and Spirit Lake to be able to put 146 units on the market here in the next year. um to be able to get high quality units that individuals can get in from a rental standpoint and get

their footprint here will hopefully evolve them into finding that home ownership down the road, whether it's, you know, the $200,000 house and just provide that continued stair stairstep approach uh for home ownership here in the county. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. In your uh school programs, yeah, your job fairs, are you promoting trades like welding, plumbing, electric?

100%. Yeah, that's the main that's the main focus, Steve, is promoting the trades. I mean that's a lot of what our we talk about manufacturing sector being one of the largest employment sectors in our county in our region welders and trades and I mean electricians all of that is being promoted at a high level 100%. I don't know if e ei one of you or Kenny has anything you want to add to that but

uh if you go on our website uh build my future there's a tab uh it's got a list of all the different hands-on activities and all the companies who are participating. And actually, if you look at um page six in the annual report, I'll make this really easy for you. There's a QR code on there. So, if you just take your phone and take a picture, that QR code, it'll take you right to our website and you'll be able to see, excuse me, you'll be able to see all the the businesses that are participating. Is it active? Yeah, it's good. All the businesses are participating and, you know, maybe some of the activities that they'll be hands-on for the kids. So, encourage you to check that out. Great question, Steve. Yep. Anything else? Ford,

do you come up with uh the same thing that we've been hearing for a number of years that around here? Housing affordability is the one of the biggest problems in Dickinson County. That's why we have so many people that live outside the county to drive in.

We do. We hear that a lot. Yeah. And you know, just with with home prices from a median uh sale price value, Dickson County is I mean, it's no, it's not hidden. It's just one of the larger most expensive counties to to to live in. And we understand our employers hear that and we we take that to heart and we want to find ways to be able to strategize to to uh to accomplish that. And so, you know, even Joanne talked about our partnerships with the school. I mean, you know, Spear Lake and Lake Park and Okaboji having conversations, we hear the same thing. There's a lot of lot of families that are open enrolling in their districts. They want to be here, right, to be able to to educate their kids here in Dickson County, but they necessarily maybe can't afford it right now. Um, so you see a high high percentage of open enroller. So part of what our goal is is to continue to provide those opportunities from from a cost affordability standpoint. And again, incentivizing our developers, you know, through the state of Iowa or locally or setting up tiff districts and urban renewal areas to be able to support the the assistance with infrastructure costs or the things that are continuing to drive the cost up for our developers that ultimately have to be turned those costs have to be passed forward and then to the end user like how can we, you know, how can we incentivize those developers, maybe take some of that cost burden away from them so they don't have to ultimately um pass that forward to the end user. So that's why, you know, that's why urban renewal areas are so important. That's why tip assistance is so important. It's it's part of what we have to do nowadays to keep the affordability in place to be able to develop at a high level. Um, and to recruit those individuals. I mean, we got companies that are wanting to grow and expand right here. And what we hear a lot is workforce development pipeline, cost of living, and housing. Those are things we talk we talk about verbatim both at the staff and and ultimately as a board of directors and in the same conversations that we have with our with our cities and counties. We're all working collectively to get there. And when we go down to uh professional developers via Iowa, which I do get the opportunity to serve on the board of

directors for PDI, uh when we go to rule summit, when we go to Heartland Economic Development Course that Jenny just got back, this isn't something that we're just focused on here in our region. believe it's all across the state of Iowa. So if we sit here and think that we're just we're the only ones that are dealing with these pressures, we're not. The the opportunity advantage that we have in our region is the tourism activity that we have and darn it, we live in one of the best corners of the state of Iowa. And so we can lean on that and that gives us a little bit of a competitive advantage. So good question, Steve. Does anyone out in the crowd have questions? This is your tax money worth spending and we're always available. So, if there's ever any questions that public may have, but either funnel it through you or, you know, feel free to call us at the office. We're always happy to to have those conversations. So, but we appreciate your support.

Thank you. Absolutely. Enjoy the rest of your meeting. You too. Thank you. Down to item number three, appointment of the Dickinson County Weed Commissioner. Yes, sir. You're it. Yep. Here I is. I'll make a mo I'll make a motion to appoint Charles Vall as our weed commissioner. I've had the opportunity and pleasure to work with Charles for seven years out at the recycling and and that type of thing. He does a tremendous job. He'll do a great job as our weed commissioner. I'll second it.

I've had a lot of interaction with Charles also out there and and he's done a super job. Never complains when I bring in a trailer load of tires or anything like that. You're wrong. So I I think he'll do an excellent job for the county. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Is there further discussions? My interactions with Charles are not related to recycling or or weeds, but I don't have an issue with him. You see on the weekends once in a while. Yeah.

Now you've got this nice ditch. It's got all these beautiful wild flowers that have been planted and there's stencils growing in them. What are you going to do? Well, depends how bad it is, but usually just spot spray it, try to get rid of those thistles, and then at the end of the year, maybe burn it off. That's literally what I'm going to be doing right here is going to burn some of our new plantings in the right way.

Try to keep it clean and healthy. Well, at an ISAC conference, they had uh the state person talk about the wonders of uh being a weed commissioner. And I said, uh well, what happens? Same question I asked you. If you got these beautiful wild flowers, there's thistles in them. He said, I planted them. I can kill them. Yep. So, Yep. Yeah. It's it's dependent on where it's at. So, right,

we just kind of do what we can do to keep it one, keep it healthy. So, you know, if it's got lots of wild flowers in it, that's good. It'll help keep all those weeds down. So, yeah. If there's no further discussion, Kim, hi, Mr. Clark. Hi, Levi. Hi, Mr. Dollar. Hi, M. Billis. Hi. Welcome aboard. Well, thank you. Thanks, Charles. Yep. And I'll see some of you Thursday at the meeting, too. Okay. Item number four is the approval of a change order and pay application for granny district number nine femal.

So the change order was a decrease of $383.36.

Motion to approve. I'll second Mr. Dollar second. Further discussion hearing. None. Kim. Hi. Mr. Dollar. Hi. Mr. Clark. Hi. Levi. Hi. And Bill. Okay.

The pay application was for um to Corey Jurgens Construction LLC for DD19 main open ditch repairs in the amount of $75,74.98. Um there is a $8,34166 uh retainage that's being kept that as well until the completion of the work past 30 days. And so you'd like motion to approve. Motion to approve. Okay. Kim has moved. Second. Mr. Clark seconds. Further discussion hearing none. Kim. Hi, Mr. Clark. Hi, Levi. Hi, Mr. Dollar.

Hi. And Bill. Okay. Item number five is approval of the April 14 board meeting minutes. Motion to accept. Mr. Dard moves. Second. Levi seconds. Further discussion hearing. None. Mr. Dollar. Hi, Levi. Hi, Mr. Clark. Hi, Kim. Hi, and Bill. I

don't believe we had any drainage claims this week. No. So, we will not We have two minutes to wait. have.

Yep. This is going to be a It is it is now 9:30 and so I will open the continuation of the joint drainage district 61 French 399 West public hearing also known as the Colin Kling cleaning bottle show. I don't know about that. Uh, good morning everyone. So, there's a handout. I've got amendment number five to the engineers report. So, they're stacking up here, but basically

to go back with we had a had a scheduled hearing proposed drainage improvements in this drainage district two weeks ago on the 7th and where we ended with that was that it was continued to today. So part of the purpose of continuing it was to basically there was a idea brought forth about well we were talking about an open ditch project and the idea was if we moved the open ditch to a different location uh to try to alleviate concerns with liability with the natural gas pipeline crossing. So, in this amendment, if you want to flip kind of into the middle, I guess it's the third page with the map. Um, and the the uh sorry, the thick blue line is the what I'm calling option six open ditch move north. You can see at the east far east end where it joins into the joint 61 main open ditch before it just followed the north side of 230th Street. you know, hug the road basically. And like we talked about the idea behind that, you hug the road and so you're not going out into the middle of somebody's field and, you know, making it more difficult to try to farm on both sides and farm around it. Uh so if you if we move it, you know, there's have to deal with some of those issues.

But you can see here what I did was approximately the first 900 feet had that about 100 feet further to the north and then from that once it crosses the natural gas pipeline then it would angle kind of west southwest to the to back towards 230th Street basically. And again, kind of the reason behind that is that the existing drainage district tile, there's a 28 inch diameter tile in that same location is a drainage district was established in I believe 1912. Is that it? Yes. Uh established in 1912. So, there's been an easement for that drainage district tile in place since that time. And the natural gas pipeline, I'm not sure exactly what year it was installed, but I know we've got easement agreements with private land owners in this area from 1958. So anyway, it's obvious the drainage district was there first and it had an easement all that time and so that the natural gas pipeline came into that easement in the late 50s or roughly in that time frame. Um, and if we were going to have the open ditch just on the north side at 230th Street, there was a crossing agreement with the pipeline company that they were going to ask that the drainage district sign as and as we talked about um, two weeks ago and and in January,

uh, that that crossing agreement basically spells out that if you sign that the drainage district is agreeing to accept liability for damages to the pipeline either during construction which is halfway that's understandable but also into the future at any point in time in the future. So that's where stuff starts getting wild do do we really want to sign our name on that accepting that liability and the answer obviously is no but can we get around it? So moving the ditch to the north operating in our own easement. Um idea is if we use our easement that preexists the the natural gas pipeline that we can we can do this without having to sign this crossing agreement. Now, I didn't want to I went back and looked to get a an updated cost estimate for moving the ditch to the north, but also I wanted to make sure that with legal counsel that that was that was a good assumption to make that if we do it this way that we wouldn't need to sign this agreement. And so I talked with Bob Goodwin um for the drainage district and he agrees that if in his opinion anyways that if we operate in our existing easement that we would not need to sign that crossing agreement with the pipeline company. Now the pipeline company might have an objection to that. So if if it gets approved today, I guess we'll find out.

So that's that's kind of the background behind it. Um, I will say this. So, I'm getting to the point where I got the updated cost estimate, but if there was any thought that moving the ditch to the north, and I'd say the ditch will cross the pipeline, but just to be clear, it's it won't be a ditch where it's actually going to cross the pipeline. Um, we would put a culvert underneath the pipeline. So, it would still be a pipe. Like right now, it's a 28 inch diameter pipe. And we would be putting a larger diameter pipe in the same location within the existing easement. And Iowa code is clear that that the drainage district has that easement and it can be used for repairs, inspection, and improvements. So this would be considered an improve. Um, back to what I was getting at. If we do this, it's I I want to make it clear that it does not mean that we are free and clear of all liability whatsoever pipeline as long as we have intermingling facilities, you know, and frankly there's drain there's other the drainage district tile cross, you know, they they're crossing in places right now. There's some liability exposure there. you know, I don't know when somebody wants to sue and you don't know what a judge would say if it goes to court. So, I guess obviously what we're trying to do if is try to get ourselves in the best position to limit liability

exposure from the pipeline and still accomplish drainage improvements which which are needed in this drainage district. But obviously if you there's different things you can do to limit the liability exposure at different cost amounts, but you can't completely eliminate it. So I do want to make make sure that's that's something that's clear um as far as a cost estimate. So where we were at with option five, which that's the that's where we were at two weeks ago. It's just a ditch staying just on the north side of 230th Street. And now we're talking about moving first 900 ft 100 ft north. I'm estimating an additional $56,000. I'm hoping that's on the high side. So we were at $520,000 and now if we we're looking at this option six looking at $576,000 cost estimate. Um, in this in this packet there's there's maps. Basically, I've updated the pre-class. You can see on a parcel by parcel basis the uh estimated assessments based on a $576,000 project. very back there's a kind of a detailed cost estimate there. Uh a fair amount of the additional cost is because of the damage to the property value of the land where we would move the ditch to the north. So there's going to be

this sliver of land kind of on the south on the south side of the ditch where before we're we're basically interfering with the minimum amount of land that we could. Now the ditch will take up more or less the same amount of area but we'll have additional area this sliver of land that'll have much diminished value on the south side of the ditch. And then there's also some additional construction costs and things of that. So I guess with that's that's the crux of what I had to start. Obviously really I I guess I feel like the the conversation now we've got in my mind there's three options. we where we were two weeks. That's option five and that's keeping the open ditch just on the north side of the road. But we would have to sign that crossing agreement. Or we can do this option six where we move we move it across the pipeline where the existing tile does and you know not sign that crossing agreement but potentially $56,000 of additional project cost. And so is that is that a worthwhile expense? And then the the third option is to I guess terminate the project and do no improvements. We've obviously had several meetings to get to this point and it would be nice to not have to deal with this pipeline stuff, but that's we can't do anything about that other

than deal with it as best we can. I guess with that I will close from land owners. But did you get any letters? Rachel is online as well. So I told her if she wanted to talk just interrupt and Rachel, yes I did the email um with the report that Colin has been talking about. I did just send it this morning but I did send it to you.

Okay, good. Thank you. And and I do have a question as to what is the effectiveness of the the total drainage uh system and how it will work in those comparison of number five and number six. What's the comparison? What are we losing out on if we don't do the five versus doing the six

as far as drainage effectiveness and capacity? there's there would be no difference. So, we're not losing out on anything as far as that goes. It's just additional co it's basically just paying additional money to not have to sign this crossing agreement accepting liability for the natural gas pipeline. Doesn't mean if something happens in the future that they couldn't try to claim the drainage district's at fault and take us to court over it. But obviously if it went to court having not signed that agreement we think have would have to help the drainage district's position. But yeah so to I guess to reiterate it would not affect the drainage capabilities of the of of the proposed system between options five and six.

Okay. And then the other the second question I have is do you um know for sure that we can get that uh land as a an easement that south of the new proposed um uh system and then if not do we have like plan A if that doesn't work plan B?

Well we c we can. So what would happen? Let's just say theoretically this morning that project the project is approved option number six and the next step would be to acquire right of way and so that that can be an in that can be a voluntary or an involuntary process that I mean there's it's similar to this like we except there are two other individuals involved so it would It's an engineer and two appraisers. And basically we look at okay what do we need for right ofway for this open ditch and what is fair compens you know what is our best in our best judgment fair compensation for that. Um and then that gets submitted to the board of supervisors. A hearing gets scheduled, notice gets sent mailed out to the to the properties involved. And so then they can have a hearing not unlike this one where if they they can see the dollars that they're looking at and they can they can oppose they can say, "Well, it should be more and give reasons why." But really the discussion isn't whether or not it can happen. It's just it's it's about compensation. Does that make sense?

Not a question of more a question of how much compensation. I wasn't here for the last meeting, but option five, and you had some people in Terrell that are saying that it's really expensive and we have a lot of people that can't afford it. With this option six, you said there was a 56,000 additional cost. Will that add to the cost that it's going to cost them, too? I'm sure. Yes.

Yeah, it would. So, if we look at there's two dollar maps. one. I tried to zoom in the tarot. Okay. Better. And that was that last one. It's the It's the last map. Okay. And if you just look at that, so $576,000 project. Obviously, there's varying sizes of lots in Taro, but if you look at them, you see kind of a range. Some of the grass lots have a white prices on this map are the ones that will be in effect.

Well, sort of. I mean, this is this is what the best information we have to operate on to make a decision today. But 576,000, that's probably not going to be the final project cost. Hopefully it's less, but this that's so it's based on a 576,000. Assuming it's 576,000 and assuming when we reclassify we make no changes to the way that the pre-classification was done, then yes, those

I don't see a map with the cost of it before with option five. So, how much is it going to go up?

Uh, well, it would go up. See here I'm just the same it it the proportionality remained the same. So it went up 10 point 10.7%. let's say. So, yeah, you can kind of see a range in in Terrell, you know, the bigger plots. I guess that's actually farm ground $900. You've got 274. know there's kind of a wide range but typically you know it's between oh 150 and it up on the deal

in in the in the west it's on the west side of uh N14 I Some of those assessments are quite low. But yeah, anyways, 100 100 to 200. Obviously, some of the larger lots end up with higher assessments than

one to 300 per lot kind of catching for the most part. One thing that we did talk about last or two weeks ago was that we started off, if you remember, with a lot more and a lot more expensive stuff. And the kind of the the sentiment was that's too much money. And so we've we've narrowed the scope kind of down. The tradeoff is, okay, it's less money, but you know, there's still going to be all these hundred-year-old inadequate tile that carry the water to this ditch. And so when we do this ditch, is it really going to make an immediate, you know, positive drainage impact for everyone? probably not much noticeable for some part that they'll be paying because it is helping everyone like in the future if you do additional improvements that part's already done. So, you're bringing a better outlet that much closer to these lands. Um, but I get that. That was a concern I had is you you reach a certain point where you just you're narrowing it down to try to limit the cost and pretty soon you've got diminishing amounts of immediate drainage benefit. And there's I mean there's problems in some of those areas that are not going to be greatly helped by this project. But it I guess it depends on how you view it. If you view it as a first step, a foundation and then in the future you can add add stuff onto it, build on build on top of it and and pay for pay for that part of it

now and then later you know you won't have to pay for this part of it again. That's one way to view it. Another way to view it is, well, why would I want to pay anything for this if it's not going to have an immediate drainage impact for me and I I can understand that that's that's the balance that we have with, you know, how far do we go with this? you know, initially I would have, you know, I had recommended that we do a lot more that would have a more, you know, a drainage benefit to practically the entire drainage district. Um, but that that was deemed to be too expensive. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. with this proposal. Now, I assume that where that aisle is going to be under the pipeline, the operator, this farm will be able to drive over that.

Yeah. See, that's a tremendous advantage to the guy farming that the other plant, he lost access to the main road there. I mean, that is the primary road they use. We were going to have So, they were going to be able to drive over that from the road. We talked with the pipeline company about that. So where we were going to have the covert, they were going to be able to drive. So that was that is unchanged. That's unchanged. Yeah. But yeah, that that is a benefit because there's access. I mean it's a going to be a big wide lane. Okay. But it's I mean it's going to be a 200 foot long culvert.

Okay. Yes, sir.

Yeah. on the metrics. Could you explain what the difference is between like say what you have here what if nothing is done in terms of the costs to the ter people because I'm I'm not getting like you know what kind of the upper limit and what the lower limit is here because there's some exposure and to the residents that own this property. What I'm asking is is what's the difference in terms of the money to these individuals? She raised the issue that there was a concern amongst these people. So I'm just want what's the quantification?

Well, if we do, and I don't know if this is what you're getting at, but I'm going to try. If we do if today if this project is abandoned terminated and we do nothing right then the assessment will be basically for the engine basically the costs that have been incurred to date. So it' be the engineering any of the you know publishing the notices things of that nature. Uh, and I know for as far as the engineering bill, right now we're a little bit less than 60,000. So that's if we stop today, there's still bill to be paid. But 60,000 versus 576,000, it's a big difference. I will say if we do stop today, this these pre-class dollar maps are not they're they don't mean anything because th these were based on us doing an open ditch project and so it we would fall back to the existing assessment schedule for this drainage district to pay for the work to date that. So I guess what I'm saying is something. So if we do nothing, there's a cost. You said $60,000, but that gets spread out over X amount of people. If we go forward and we do something, what is the cost? And how what's the spread on that? Like for like person with this size lot, what are they going to pay? Person with that size lot, what are they going to pay? That's what this map. These

maps show that what each one would have to pay. Dollars per acre. these two maps. It's the very back map. All right. So, it gets it it it's pretty expensive if that's the cost per rate, right? Depends on how you look at it, I guess. You know, when we Yeah, depends on how you look at it. There's there's a lot of different ways to look at it economically and things, but it does it does cost a fair amount of money either way. Yeah. Your engine already included in that total otherwise though, right?

Yes. Okay. Yep. Yeah. We have to pay the engineering fees whether we do the project or not. The engineering fees have to be paid by the drainage district. I just wanted to clarify that it's not in addition to it's already included question that page.

Yeah. So the the 576,000 is intended to be the total project cost that would beable land owners in this drainage district. So that's intended to include everything construction and non- construction costs uh interest from the the warrants basically acrew acrewing interest over time legal fees publications mailings rightway acquisition

and then also like damages and stuff like that that would be compens compensated for as part of construction. Well, what that cost like per acre? So, how does that advertise out? If I'm a farmer and I've got X amount of acres, how long do I have to pay for that or that's So, if you have an assessment over $500 on a single parcel or lot, you can choose to either pay it all, get a waiver, and then pay for it in installment payments over time. no less than 10, no more than 20 years at an interest rate set by the board.

And the no less than 10, no more than 20 is that's that is a maximum time frame that's also set by the board. So, you can still pay it early. Like if you wanted to do that and then in two years you're like, "Oh, now I want to pay it all off." You can do that.

Um it's just the maximum can be set by the board for somewhere between 10 to 20 years. So for my two cents worth by June, this is the best compromise. I mean for some of us who would be happy with nothing realizing Iowa Grange law which you should really brush up. You should read into it a little bit. It's interesting and then you don't have to use it as public hearings because a lot of us have to get back to work. I'd love to sit here and entertain all day and we could talk about these things work. No,

but there's real people trying to make real money in this room. My feeling is we should go with this plan. It's the best plan we've got. And if you decide to go out of the easement, I'm Adam's 100% opposed to going out of our easement. Um, if there was a way I could make you liable for anything that happens after we go out of the easement, I would. Obviously, I can't do that. Um, I just feel like if there's ever an issue that we don't even know what it's going to be, being in there originally is is going to get us in a better position. I just know it will. When the gas company works on their end of it, and we've got some we've had some dealings with them in that regard. It's a totally different ballgame. You know, they serve.

Rachel, can you hear him? They need to be respected. So, if we're going to do anything, do this. It's a foundational thing. We can add more later. Um, yes. We were talking before if they need drainage later or if I need drainage, I can always add let's do this and let's stop this thing. It's gone far enough, guys. Tim, that that was my main question is is the 56,000 additional worth doing it to to make sure that we aren't going to be liable to this gas company? To me, it makes sense not to be liable to them. I'd rather be the one in control. And so as I'm hearing that makes more sense.

Yeah, it's it's way too much but it's what we got to do in my opinion. That's if this was my project alone we that's where I would be going. It was a personal problem personal. Yeah. The other thing is too we were talking about you don't know about the future. I mean, there could be something that happens that all of a sudden we're on deck for the drainage on deck for paying for a million dollar, $2 million just to repair something because because that's what we agreed to. And that goes with uh all of us who have town property as well. I mean, so um yeah,

question in the back. I agree with the theory on navigating the waiver of liability. That makes sense. Still, the existing county tile already outlets into an open ditch. So, all we're doing with the second open ditch is moving the outlet closer. I don't think it solves the actual problem. The existing county tile already outlets into an open ditch, right?

Yes, it it does help. So, that It's more than just bringing a better outlet. Like I guess maybe for your client that statement is true, but there are other lands in the district that are closer to that open ditch that will see a more immediate benefit. And so when we look at how this how the dollars should be spread out and assessed, that should be factored into that theoretically. Um, but so I guess the lands closer to where this open ditch is proposed, they would have a great like a much larger immediate benefit that they could realize and they'd have easy access to tile all they wanted where like your client for example west of Terrell would have a lot harder time, you know, getting water underground through Terrell all the way to that ditch to be able to realize the benefits. So, just to be clear, moving the ditch is really to keep the county from being liable for any payments if anything happened to the gas line. Is that correct?

The drainage district drainage district. Yes. Yes. That's potentially what it is. So, we're gonna pay 50 extra $56,000 to keep the drainage district safe from future litigation possibly and not in a better position. Not because they could still try to sue, right? But we don't we're not sign anything with them. That's right. So, we're going to pay $56,000 in a sense to try to protect the drainage district. Yeah. Like an insurance policy. I don't just throw my opinion out as public. I wouldn't support that. true that the more we drag this out, the costs are going to continue to go up.

You know, when we started this project, I think the number one the first estimate the cost per acre was up around think

1,500. I thought it was closer to 1,800, but it it was really expensive, you know, and it was just, you know, that's the way it should be done. But we've decided basically we have to piece, you know, peacemeal it, you know, do do the first section. Uh, you know, the city of of Terrell doesn't really want to have to pay all that because if unless they upgraded the drainage tiles in town, it it's not going to benefit them. But it's the same for a farmer. You know, he'll have a better outlet if he wants to upgrade his his his facilities on his own farm.

Um I'm I'm also for going with this new plan. Um because I mean rather than doing nothing. And um can you kind of explain to me that it's actually the board's decision from here on out because everybody was uh notified in the very beginning, right? And and uh there wasn't enough of opposition at that point in time. So basically, it's my understanding that the board is hearing everything and it's ultimately their decision then and and um whatever input we have, they take under consideration. Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct, Rachel. That's right.

My ask I guess speaking directly to your name again, speaking directly directly to you on behalf of your clients, I would ask that you would do this and see how it works first. Considering that you're dealing with a whole bunch of people in an entirely different tax bracket than your client is, and if they can avoid this or even string it out without having, you know, they a lot of these people pay too much in house payments already, I'm sure. So, if you can help ease their pain a little by letting them absorb this and you may not even need it in the long run. Let's see how it works out. You're going to have a tremendous outlet when you do want it. And all you have to do is file a petition for improvement and you can do the same thing that Jean did. Jean signed one and this is where we're at. And even though I hate to admit it, it's going to improve my drainage, too. Even though I really not keen on doing this, but it's the right thing to do and drainage law is pretty clear. So, let's let's move on. Get the foundation to the house built. Does anyone have anything else to contribute? If not, I will close the public hearing. I ask the board what they want to do. I will uh make a motion that we proceed with this last

amendment number amendment number six or option six. Amendment number five. Amendment number five. Option six. And uh move the open ditch to stay on the uh easement to eliminate any you know possible future problems with the pipeline. Second that. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Does a letter need to be sent to the gas pipeline letting you know that the that letter will not be signed in the changes?

Yeah, we'll need to inform them if if this gets approved, we'll need to inform them of that. Guess I'd be open to if you want me to just let them know or if we want it to be more something more formal where that's coming from county attorney or something or from you all however you want us to do that but we can talk about that after a vote I guess because you don't want that part of the motion. Oh it could be

to have column. Okay. I would amend my motion then to uh include a letter to the pipeline company. I amend my second. Who do you want that to be from? Well, that's what I'm county attorney or Colin. Um you want Colin to produce a letter with the county attorney's um that would be that makes a lot of sense.

Makes sense. So, if you produce a letter and we'll have the county attorney look at it and send it then. Okay. We have an amended motion and an amended second. Is there further discussion on that? Personally, I think this is the wise way to go if you didn't stay in your right away. anything that happened to that pipeline would automatically be the drainage district's fault. This way you're eliminating some of that. Okay. If there is no further discussion, Mr. Clark, hi. Kim, hi. Levi, I Mr. Dollar.

Hi. And Bill. Do you have any other action belings? I don't believe so. Um for right away acquisition, I believe a phrase were previously appointed when we had Google before the open ditch option. I think that they would still be fine to do that. I think that's it. Thank you very much. Thanks. Yeah. Nothing's nothing else. No other actionable items today. Thank you fella. Thank you. Thank

we are now we are now down to the general discussion and board and committee reports

at a Dickinson County Hunger Coalition meeting last week. A lot of good information came out of there. Originally they were talking about doing a greenhouse that would be able to produce ongoing ve fresh produce for folks. They've now changed their direction a little bit because once they looked into the cost of the greenhouse, the amount of people it would take to maintain that, they are now going to work with farmers and farmers markets to work directly with the food pantries and they believe with the outreach that they've talked there, there will be some great partnerships that will be made with that. So, it's it's kind of a stepping stone type of thing, but I think a move in the right direction. Um, food pantries were busy. I think between Lake Park, Milford, Upper De Moine, Good News, and Spirit Life Pantries, there were close to a thousand folks that picked up food. We have started to deliver food to to Superior. 15 families are now getting food from uh the drop off and of course, Terrell continues to get 40. So, uh, appreciate Julie. Appreciate the work.

We get 45 now. 45. Goodness. So, we're trying to meet the needs. But Julie, thank you for your work over there. Makes a big difference when we have locals that are stepping up to make a difference.

Uh, so things are moving along there. I know uh the partnerships we have with Elderbridge and some of the other folks is tremendous. We're doing what we can to meet the food insecurities in Dickinson County. Secondly, uh we had a meeting with the planning and zoning. The board met with them kind of our annual get together. I thought it was a lot of good discussions because there's a lot of things keep coming down the pipeline of what could come whether it's data centers or Bitcoin or just a lot of different things. And so had good discussions with them on ideas and directions of where to go with that. So I I like that open communication with them. I think it's important. Um, this morning we had a public hearing with the conference board on the assessor's budget. That budget was approved and so I guess we move on from there. And last Wednesday I had a total knee replacement on my left knee and I'm up and around.

You're on top of a grass. The grass. Yes, Mr. Dulock.

Yes, sir. On the 14th, I attended the hunger coalition with Kim and uh was uh proud to receive our the church received the the McDonald's challenge. It was $500 check and all the food that was donated. And I made a point to mention to church that I think someone went to McDonald's a little too often. So uh on the 15th I attended the veterans board. They continued discussion moving ahead with the vets memorial. Uh there was they discussed grants that are out some of the funding that they've already received and uh they discussed a lot of ways to try and get more funding. Uh uh Melissa presented uh the uh we discussed a split between the cost of the veterans portion for the monuments and and but the new developments uh split from uh what the county is going to do. And I told them one way or another the countyy's going to move on the sidewalks and stuff. So they wanted to have get the funding together to make sure that they can match their part. So we're not trying to do things at two different times with different providers. Uh and uh the next meeting is going to be the 13th at 9:00 a.m. That's that's for your benefit, Bill.

Thank you.

On the 16th, Bill and I attended the rights board. They discussed their budget and went to uh city transit levies and city services. I'm going to let Bill explain that. It was he tried to get me to do it, but I'm going to let Bill explain that. It was a very long meeting though. On the 17th, Bill and I attended the preconstruct meeting that stopped from the in the county engineers office. And I'd just like to take the time to encourage residents pay attention to the stuff that they send out because get the information of what it's how it's going to inconvenience them or not inconvenience them. Uh and uh yesterday of course we attended the planning and zoning. I thought it was a lot of good discussion and uh

how much we'll just have to go from there and see what happens with that and that's I'd encourage people to attend the planning and zoning meetings. They're they're always informative.

Uh and that's other than the meeting we had this morning, that's about all I have. stating on Wednesday, excuse me, Wednesday the 15th, I attended a a meeting in Emittsburg with Levi and Jeff Rose. kind of a presentation by Iowa Homeland Security uh on possible development and um trying to get the counties to get together and develop a a a matrix to record drainage issues that they have over the period of time. They have developed a kind of a a form that we're all going to look over and decide if that's something we want to participate in. Their hope is that uh this will make dealing with FEMA a little easier in the future uh if we all have the similar recorded uh cop or copies hard you know data that can be presented to FEMA when when disasters come along. This would be like for, you know, disasters that affect roads, bridges, all this kind of stuff, you know, to right now everybody just kind of reports on their own and this would give they're just they're hoping to get this to uh get enough counties involved so that it's accepted by FEMA. So, we'll see where that goes in the future. Uh Thursday, I had a call with Mr. Lwood from De Moines about the upcoming meetings on with the uh the steering committee for the updating the continuous land use plan. Uh we're going to meet tomorrow uh the steering committee is and go over the

presentation or the hard copies of the stuff that uh they're bringing. Then we meet on the 23rd with the first interview and I believe that's with Confluence out of De Moine and the second and third interviews will be on the 29th and uh approximately on the 30th we'll refer the choice of the steering committee to the board of supervisors for uh acceptance at the next meeting. So Friday I attended the youth emergency services meeting in Cherokee going over the financials. Everything is looking positive on their end. Uh one one thing that's kind of interesting with the changes in DHS that has come down over the the last couple years and and um it's mental health, youth services, the whole works. They're kind of getting everybody on board. So now the uh the payments from the counties are starting to come in on a more regular basis. So they're the accounts receivable are way down. You know, they're they're more current. Uh it was it was a struggle with some of the county counties with adapting to PCA the way way they think things reported and u uh but it's it's impro improving. I'm glad to say uh we have one county wishing to return to uh using the Cherokee Center. Uh they were previously a member. They left to join uh central Iowa detention and now wish to return. They uh they did not withdraw their funds from uh the Cherokee unit. So, I'm sure they'll be voted back in. Uh, since they, you know, they won't don't have to spend money to to join. They'll all all

that will need to be done is we'll all have to sign new 2080s that will include their county. So, I'll be bringing those sometime in the future. So, uh, client count for the month. Last month, the average was 9.76 per day out of 10 beds. the they we're currently on on last Friday at 7. Um they've been upgrading some of the rooms with repairs. They thought they'd try some of this fiberglass style smooth stuff on the walls, glue down to the walls, no seams and all. Them kids can rip it off. They put two rooms and and half it's half gone now. So, they're going with a heavier grade that they, you know, that it it's not it's a lot tougher to put on and it's also uh held on by some some pretty heavy duty fasteners. So, we'll see how that goes. It's amazing what what those kids can when they set their mind to it, what they can do. Uh they're u they've gone to um doing their own meal preparation there in the center instead of getting it from the mental health center. They're saving about $2,000 a month by doing that. So, it's uh and there's a detention center collaborative in the state of Iowa minus Pulk County. Pulk County doesn't want to be involved in this. They want to be on their own. And they're lobbying for House File 2781. And I don't know where that's going to go in the last couple weeks of the legislature because today is the last paid PDM day for the legislators. This is their hundth day. So what we have to watch out for is we've all seen it in the last two weeks, the last week, the last couple days,

those guys get in a hurry to get out of there and they just pass stuff willy-nilly. they really don't consider it, you know, as far as affecting the outreaches of the state. So, we need to need to watch that. Uh went to the uh PNC board also on Monday and uh was pleased with the uh discussions and the back and forth that we had there. So, that's all I did.

As Mr. Clark mentioned, I was at the meeting in Emittsburg last Wednesday as well about uh learning about the federal dollars from FEMA and setting up a new or potentially a new uh reporting system. I will uh plan to be at the meeting for the comprehensive lenders plan on Thursday this week. Um I did not have a busy county week. Uh last week I did have a very busy weekend. I was in Switzerland for a couple of days doing some training and filming for my other job. So I flew flew there Friday, flew home yesterday. So Wow. How long a flight is that?

Uh the longest flight was a little over nine hours. So it was uh it was plenty for for me. Can you lift weights in the middle

in the middle of the plane? No. No. There's not much to do. Uh but uh I had probably the first time in my life zero travel issues. So that was a a wonderful blessing because technically it's it's always an adventure and the more the longer there's more things that can go wrong it seems like and and uh but no there's no issues with connecting flights and uh travel went very smoothly. The the two days of content of filming and teaching went very smoothly. Um the host was was um very pleased with what we got done and and they treated me very well there and so uh my next trip to Switzerland I hope to to just be a tourist and and that work but uh was uh it was a very good trip. I grateful I have the opportunity to go and and we'll see what comes of it. So

excellent. Well, for me, I went to the uh preconstruction meeting with Jeff and men, both Jeff and John. The stuff that has to go into road construction is just amazing. Uh, learn some new words and they were good words. Choke stone was one of them. And uh let's see was it was it villain seats? Something like that. Something like that.

So that was good. But it's amazing just all the little details that have to go in and these guys had it handled. So that was interesting. My other meeting wasn't so fun. It was the rides meeting. I swear there are people in this world that just like to raise hell and see what happens. The latest is there are people wondering about the legality of government entities like cities and counties giving money to 503c private and public entities like rides. And so now that's in the courts because because the rule isn't written exactly as accurate as it could be. So somebody found this little loophole and now they're it it's gone to court, which would be a big hit for all these transportation uh entities in Iowa. As I told Hugh, well, I've had enough of my depression this month. We'll see you next month. Uh, I also attended all the meetings you guys did. And you're right, they were good. They were good. And that was about it for me. Anyone in the crowd have anything to add to that? Okay. Um if not I would take a motion to adjourn.

I'll make that motion. Mr. Dollar moves. Levi seconds. Further discussion hearing none. Mr. Dollar I Levi I Mr. Clark. Hi Kim. Hi. And Bill is I.