Board of Supervisor - Regular Meeting

like to welcome you all here. And to start off with, I will open a public hearing on amendments to the fiscal year 26 housing budget. Good morning. Uh this is the time of the year that we seem to always have a a budget amendment and it's been busy for all the cities and schools. seems like a lot of them been coming through our office this week. Um the big ones, we'll start with the um expense. The big ones as you know last year in January of 25 when the departments were submitting their budgets to you all um the county attorney's office had uh a role in there or for a civil assistant or whatever a temporary one or just a part-time one that was maybe going to come in and you had told them to re him to remove that out of the budget because he didn't have that in there with knowing that if he did hire somebody if the workload got to that point in time that he could put that back in. Well, that did happen last fall when they hired Zack Verish. So, the um county attorney's office needed to amend their budget. Um the one budget would go down and then the other one would go up. So, the overall net change in that county attorney's budget for this year would be 62,27. Um the next thing that I we are amending is the um medical examiner. that line item every year is just really what I'm gonna say is a crapshoot because um if you do not are don't die in a nursing home or a hospice setting or in the hospital, it's by law the medical examiner has to come out, has to declare you legally dead. That's a $300 um cost to the county. And if they can't determine what the cause of death is, most generally they're going they go down to the state medical

examiner's office and that's cost like about 2400 to $2,700 to the county. That is a county expense. I mean, we don't know how many people unfortunately are going to pass away every year. So, we usually put in about $50,000 or something. Last week, we got two bills that totaled about $7,000 alone just from the medical examiner. So, we're going to have to amend that budget um a bit. um county environment um that um 2128E agreement that we have with water quality. This year our annual our expense to them is 89,750. That fund had um extra money in it. So they um had a cost savings to all the counties and the cities afterwards. So we're decreasing that by 15,558. U my budget I had in there that we were going to um hire somebody else. Um, we made it this year without hiring somebody because the main reason was because the I voter system is going to go to a new system and we thought it would be um it would the timing would not be right to have somebody come in learn elections and then the system's going to go away. So, we thought it'd be better just to bring somebody fresh in when we're all training on a new system. So, my budget would be reducing by 60,100. Um the next um two items are basically our maintenance uh natural um gas um we're going to lower that by $15,000. The utility bills have come in better. And then actually the janitorial we're going to reduce by just shy of $40,000 and that's due to probably less hours and basically snow removal hours because we didn't have as much snow this year. Uh the next two items are our IAP or um grounds insurance and our workman's comp. in December of the year that we're budgeting for the next year. I was talk to our agent and say what should we um you know what should I you know we set aside to for this bill and he said last

year I would set aside about 30% increase because things don't look good. Well our renewals came in way way under budget and the workers comp came up under budget because of our um mod factor is really really good right now. So that's a kudos to all the employees here. Then we go to the rural basic fund. Um we had normally the siren is just what our monthly um utility bill is on the sirens in the county. This year we had to upgrade. We had one that got believe got hit by lightning and so we had an unexpected expense to that and then he had to replace some batteries. So I'm going to have to um raise that budget by 12,500 to cover those. Um the next one is the missile is uh county environment that is the wood chipping. Um Lee is just being inundated with the trees that are coming to the RCC. Um this year to date so far he spent 151,000 257 um it just in shipping and stuff and he still I think has to pay somebody one more time. So we have to amend that by $145,000. um the American Rescue Plan as as we're winding down. This is the last year. All the money had to be committed and spent by the end of this year and we just had projects that got done sooner than later. So, we're reducing that budget as well. Um the next one is an opioid one. The opioid the people that sit on that committee have an obligation um for an expense that the hospital came to present to them about. And so that that is it for expenses. And we're going to actually lower our expenses by aboutund 106,166 this year. And most of it's due to our insurance coming in at a really really good rate this year. So then if we want to flip over to the um revenue side, um

we're going to lower the dis the um homestead tax credit by 25,000. And that is mostly due to last year we had like 18 new disabled vet credits. So we don't get money back from the state for those to offset. Um so that's what the big a decrease in that fund is. Then the agricultural land credit we have to send a credit in in April but it's not the state waits. It's like a year later that you find out how much the pro rate will be. So you're never 100 um you're never funded at 100% for that. So this year um their pro rate what they gave back to the counties was a really a small small amount. Um the next two are um increases. We had a good return on our investments um both just in the general fund um for interest and then the um treasur now as investments to the county are buying stamped warrants. So we've got that was a good increase. Um, now it looks like things are kind of going south the other way. So, next year we probably won't have as good of numbers for investments. That's for sure. Um, miscellaneous reimbursements in community services. Last year when we budgeted, um, as you all know, Janu July 1st, the HHS took over mental health. I mean, we didn't really know even know until about June 30th or July 1 what was going to happen. But one of our employees is basically the advocate and works with mental health through the HHS. So Sue Dun's um wages are about 100% reimbursed from the state to us. So that was an increase to that line item because we didn't know that that was going to be happening obviously. Um district court overages um unfortunately there's more people probably paying fines. So um that was a bigger number than we've had in the last few years. um federal government that line item is um we usually keep that at a zero because

there's some even though it's US government and it says it's tax exempt um some parcels within the county if the federal government has extra money or whatever they actually will pay a sudo like property tax to the counties. So this year we got $3,900 from that um charges for services. And this is just Lee's um moving that over to offset his um recycling the extra chipping. So and then the last two actually were um the trails that was a um reimbursement from FEMA a couple years ago. She had some damage to her trails and um drains underneath the trails. And then the last one was in July. It was like, in fact, I think it was July 4th weekend. We I got a call here about 5:30 in the morning and um one of the jailers had seen movement down in our basement and a huge pipe burst downstairs and we had water all over and uh destroyed a lot of historical records down there unfortunately because water is a a bad thing. But anyway, overall um the total adjustments are 669,152. That's in our favor. I do want to also mention that these were all taken accounted for in our reestimated total. So these are not new extra money being moved forward. They're part of our budget.

So that's it. Thank you. Might want to stay there. Public might have some questions. Anyone in the public have questions for Lori? I have questions. Yep. Yeah. Patrick Kelly, Okaboji, was the with respect to the uh damage of the whatever the historical records were, could you just elaborate on that? Was there security on that stuff or was it just it was just exposed to flooding from from the sewer or where the water?

No, it wasn't actually. It was a huge pipe up high and um we have I mean all of us downstairs or most of us have locked doors that I mean water can obviously go there but then a lot of people just for like let's say old claims and things like that um have what they just cages I mean it looks like a jail cell giant jail cell and unfortunately my page and the treasurer's cage and a little bit of the clerk of courts got the most water damage and we saved as much as we can. But we had I mean we had books that were maybe um old I'm going to say from the early 1900s that were like receipt books that even before the water hit them just because of age you couldn't read the writing anyway. But historically you're supposed to keep that stuff forever and ever.

So going forward is there modify like the security everything they're all Yeah. They're all in different boxes. Yep. Yeah. And then and then a good thing is a couple years ago with American Rescue Plan dollars um that um and it's worth the recorder and myself took all of our books and had them digitalized in case that would ever happen. Appreciate the work that you and that you supervise and and that the other people here that not just the electeds but you know all the people that work here. Thank you. We all we appreciate what you Thank you. Any other questions?

I appreciate this award a lot. I don't remember getting one so detailed before, so I appreciate it. Yeah, if you ever have any questions, just ask. There's nothing else. Thank you, I will now end the public meeting. as public source and we will move on to approve the resolution 2026-9

be a resolved by the Dickens County Board of Supervisors that the amended budget for fiscal year 26 be approved as published in the official newspaper of the county on Friday, April 17th, 2026. Have a motion on that. So moved. I'll second. Move. Mr. Dard seconds. Further discussion. As there is none. Kim I. Mr. Dollar. Hi. Mr. Clark. I Levi. I was I.

Following that, we have the approval of resolution 2026-10. 50. with the year 26 appropriation amendment

appropriations amendment changing departmental appropriations whereas the board of supervisors of Dickinson County has held a public hearing pursuant to Iowa code 331.4343 4343 to amend fiscal year 26 county budget and whereas the amendment does not increase the taxes to be collected in the fiscal year ending June 30th 2026 and whereas all comments from the public have been heard therefore be a result of the following department appropriations be changed as follows expenditures department 1 supervisors 7,620,815 minus 23,358 to 7,417,457 7. Department 2 auditor 533,350US 60,100 to the 473250. Department 4 attorney 825,147 plus 62,217 to 88 887,364. Department 22 conservation 2,35,913 plus 145,000 to 2,180,913. Department 28, medical examiner, 52,000 plus 5,000 to 57,000. Department 51 general services 844,425US 54,925 to 789500 which equals -16,166 revenues. Department 1 treasur uh 400,540 plus 28,500 to 429,040. Department 4 attorney 31,000 plus 30,000 to 61,000. Department 22 conservation 727,70 plus 50,000 to 777,70. Department 27 trails 2,410,580 plus 110,817 = 2,521,397.

Department 39, Community Services, 1,500 plus 76,500 = 78,000. Department 99 non-EP departmental 16,725,794 plus 267,169 equals 16,992,963 with a revenue increase of 562,986 by service area intergovernmental with a total of 7,728,583. Charges for services a total of 1,57 or sorry 1,57390. Use of property and money a total of 1,16,770. Miscellaneous a total of 754,119. Public safety and service a total of 4,31,420. Physical health and social services a total of 746,64. County Environmental and Education 6,786,385 Government Services uh 1,93,97 Administration 4,122,249.

Very good. Thank you, Jordan. Motion to approve resolution 2026-10. Mr. Clark moves. I'll second 10 in seconds there. Further discussion hearing. None. Mr. Clark. Hi. Kim. Hi. Mr. Dard. Hi. Levi. Hi. Bill. Okay. Item five is approval bonds. Lori, would you like to explain this?

Yep. Um these are the bond payments for it's 2007 D series and an SRF one for the East Okaboji Beach um TIFF area and the um money is all from TIFF dollars. So it's just our annual we we pay twice a year in November and May. So after these payments um we will our outstanding balance is still 86307250 and it'll be done in fiscal year 30. The board have any questions? If not, I would take a motion. Oh, we should probably say that the total on this payment is 158,6250.

Motion to approve. I'll second. Mr. Clark moved by second. Further discussion as there is none. Mr. Clark, I. Levi, I Mr. Dollar T. I item number six, approval of the April 21st board meeting minutes. Motion to approve. I'll second move. Mr. Zer seconds. Further discussion. As there is none. Kim I. Mr. Dollar. Hi. Mr. Clark. I Levi.

Hi. And Bill is item number seven is approval of drainage planes. We have two stamps. Uh today the first is from Glory Jurgen Construction in the amount of $75,74 and that's for DD19. Motion to approve. Okay. Kim moves. Second. Mr. Clark seconds. Further discussion. As there is none. M I. Mr. Clark. I. Levi. Hi. Dollar. Hi.

And I second one is for DD76 from Carne Drainage and Excavation in the amount of $2,550. Motion to approve. Do you have a move? I'll second. Mr. Dollar second. Further discussion. Answer is none. Kim. Hi. Mr. Dollar. Hi. Mrs. Clark. Hi. Le. Hi.

And the bill is item number eight is the approval of claims from April 28th. Did anyone see anything from this? I saw our amenable examiner was very busy.

That's kind of a miss. West. Thank you, Levi. You're young yet. You'll get on. Yep. Levi has moved. Second. Mr. Clarks. Further discussion. hearing. None. Levi. Hi. Mr. Clark. Hi. Mr. Dollar. Hi. Hi.

And Bill is item number nine. Holding. Uh, general discussion. Board committee reports.

I had a recycling commission meeting that Mr. Dard and I attended. Uh, I guess the biggest things to come out of there is one of the things that we're obviously concerned about is chipping. They've increased the charges for that, especially for these side dumps. And even though they've increased that with side dumps, now somebody's invented a new kind of hall that's bigger than a side dump. So, we'll continue to monitor that as a commission, but I think they're in the right direction to cover those costs so that we should be in good shape with that. Um, the biggest thing is these commercial groups that are coming in here. A lot of folks are asking about the DNR trees that are being cut at ESM Park. Those have not been brought down to the recycling, at least at this point. Um, so we're not quite sure what direction they're going with those. We have a question out to them about that. Uh, also their summer hours have begun this week. It's 9 to5. This is at the Green Waste uh, center there. 9 to5 Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I lied to you. It's Monday, Wednesday, Friday 9 to 4 and Thursday and Tuesday 9 to5. So that's the biggest news I think that came out of there is we're we're constantly monitoring what's going on with the green waste space so we can stay ahead of that and do what we need to work with the with the landfill and make sure it's done correctly. Other than that, I actually did a couple road trips. I went out and looked at lower gar bridge. Uh boy, that's coming along. It looks really good. I'm expecting that to be ready to go by the end of May. I would guess somewhere in there, but the platform looks great. It's going to be a very uh nice bridge down there. I also went out to A43 bridge. Uh they're redoing the length of that, so it's taking a little bit longer to accomplish, but it will be done, I'm guessing, either late summer or early fall would be my hope. So that's all I

have.

Mr. Dard. Yes, sir. On the uh 22nd, Mr. Clark and I met with Mr. Lwig and Megan and few others on the preliminary meeting for the county land use program. Uh on the 23rd, uh I said I was with the uh at the recycle commission and then I just handled some phone calls and that's this week and that's about it. Mr. Clark. Uh on April 22nd, I attended the county land use plan with U Mr. Dard and we have received RFPs from Confluence, Bolton and Mink Engineering and RDG. We uh discussed those with presentations a little bit and are waiting for their their actual presentations. We did have on the 23rd the presentation of confluence for their whole plan. Uh we go forward from that and meet uh tomorrow and Thursday. We meet with uh two different the other two um planners and we'll have their presentations and then the committee will get together and uh form a recommendation to bring to the board of supervisors on on which we think is the best fit for Dickinson County. On the 20 well the night of the 22nd, I'll regress a little bit. I attended the Superior City Council meeting and presented them with the material materials that were presented to the people that attended the uh homes for Iowa program they had down at the Sammy Center a couple weeks ago. I thought maybe that would fit real good

in Superior uh you know to fill in empty lots and things like that. On the 23rd, the uh when we had the confluence plan, we voted to uh go ahead and have the other two come down and make presentations. I think it would be very unfair to accept one's presentation without giving the other two a chance. I think we needed to uh uh make sure that all of them are are working with from equal footing so that that we have a a presanding of a presentation from all of them.

Uh on the 24th and this is for Kim's benefit. I completed my wellness check. Thank you K sir. Appreciate that. Way to go. Well he's he mentions that he didn't mention it this week but he mentions it almost every week to everyone get it done. So it's been a huge thing for the county. It's a it's a large savings to the county if we uh if we meet the threshold on that. So saves quite a bit of money.

Uh on the 25th I attended the anniversary uh of Ferguson's garden center and landscape down at in Spirit Lake here. uh upcoming things. Tomorrow we meet with uh uh Bolton Mink and I think it's Bolton and Mink and Friday and Thursday we meet with uh RDG on the continue county land use plan. Uh on May 1st at 5 to 8 just a little little publicity deal here. the uh that's all you know walleye weekend openers this weekend and uh they're having the Arnold Park Okaboji fire and rescue pancake feed to open up walleye weekend and that's at 5 to 8 on the 1st and 7 in the morning till 12 on the 2nd. And uh that's all I did. uh last week, Thursday, I believe was the 23rd, I sat in on the confluence uh county land use plan, enjoyed what they had to say, and um I will plan on being uh at tomorrow's update from Bold and Mink. And uh I should have an update with ECI next week. I just got an email this morning um on my way over here and um I know they've got more meetings at the state, but we should have an idea of where we're moving forward with that uh very soon. Um other than that, that was uh that was my week.

Excellent. I do have one thing I want to add. on uh Wednesday of last week, I went down to Spencer and if you remember the the Great Lakes corridor gave a presentation on this build my future.

Mhm. And I went down to to that just to see what was going on. And they had had uh I believe 15 or 16 different schools from the area attend this build my future pro presentation. And it really wasn't a a rigid presentation. They had all the different vendors down there and employers all the different kinds of things and the kids could go to which oneever one interested them. Uh, I saw I saw a couple of girls that were copper sweating pipes together for plumbing. Uh, I saw a couple of different ones working uh with with electrical stuff outside. They had a huge excavator out there in the parking lot and they were teaching kids how to pick a basketball up with an excavator and letting the kids run that.

So, the parking lot book after

it looked just like it did when I got there. So they had uh 15 or 16 different school districts. They had 762 students. They had about half of them in the morning and about half in the afternoon. So you could get around and and talk to everybody. Dick County sent 263 students. 103 from Spirit Lake, 72 from Okaboji, 30 from Gretenger Terrell, and 58 from Harris Lake Park. Uh and they had they had uh schools from Storm Lake, Storm Lake St. Mary's, New Fonda, Ala, Aurelius, Sue Central, Spencer, Esesterville, North Union, Emisburg, Homeschool Co-op, South O'Brien, and Sheldon. So, it was uh really and everybody I talked to was just really thrilled at how this was going. They've evidently been putting these on similar down in Sous the Sous City area and it's it's been really good and and the information I got from um the corridor people uh was it's was they thought it was ter or tremendously successful and will be looking to do it again next year. Uh we did hear a lot of comments from some of the the people that were there presenting. They thought maybe sophomores was a little bit young. You know, when you're a sophomore, you don't quite have your mind made up what you want to do and stuff, but we'll see how it goes next year. And I'm sure uh I'm sure the kids all thought it was worthwhile.

Sounds like a good experience.

It was for my part. I had emergency management and E911. It was a real exciting pair of meetings. Basically, all we did was approve the minutes. But the best part of those meetings is to hear Bill Moss and some of the other folks speak about things that happened back in history. Uh there were some people complaining about the speed limit in one of the areas down by the old Miller Bay door. And so they got a policeman there to check people. Well, the first three people they got were the folks that were complaining about the folks failed.

So, uh, you know, you hear stories like that, it makes it worthwhile. Now, we're our next item isn't due for half an hour. So, I Hey, Bill. Chris is here. Yoke. I followed Lory's orders. You are here. I told him to come early. Yeah. Where is your uniform here? Does it? Yeah. Go ahead, Chris. But once I'm not burning, you know, yesterday took that care of that for a little while.

Good morning. For any of you that don't know me, I'm Chris Lu. I'm the wildlife management followers for the Great Lakes unit, and I've been here for a very long time. Not quite as long as Bill, but quite a long time. I was going to say you're starting to look like a college student balanced on the high school.

You know, I didn't have to. So, it it's it's been a longgo. Um anyway, uh today we had a project that we've been working on actually for quite some time. took a long time for the engineering to get into order as well as for us to get it worked into a federal fish and wildlife knocka grant that was going to help us get the monies for restoration on this parcel that is within the Iowa Great Lakes wershed and also within the Diamond Lake wershed. Um anyway, the the Hodge restoration there is a cooperative project between Iowa DNR and Fish and Wildlife Service and uh a small wetland restoration project of four different basins. Uh pretty much one of them is a is a really nice large basin which will be very beneficial but the other three are actually fairly small to some degree which is u you know a good thing too to have out on the landscape. Anyway, two of the wetlands uh fall within two different drainage districts. One is within drainage district 26 and the other wetland is within drainage district number 29. The larger wetland there in drainage district 29. Uh we want to work on branch number 63 which is at the very very upper end on a parcel. And anyway, uh, basically that's an old 7 to9 in concrete tile according to the profiles and the information that we have. So, uh, we're looking actually, you know, we'll do tile search and everything within the area, make sure that, uh, we've located any additional laterals, things like that that would be, you know, negative as far as restoring the hydraology. Um, but we'd like to then hook into with

after we build the BM, uh, we put a water control structure in there, tie into branch 63 with a 10-in dual wall tile, uh, run that through the structure, and then tie it back into 63. So, we make sure that we don't put additional water back onto the surface behind the burm um, and actually then restore that that basin, which will be in the vicinity of at least a 10acre basin. Um, two of the wetlands we did and and of course we've been doing this for years, but the the two that we're actually working on, we have actually designed those to have some minimal flood relief. Um, especially that one in the in the larger area to the northwest. That one has very large potential flood relief that we can put there. So, uh, we've not oversized the structure to inundate or surge the downstream tile or anything, you know, which would be a negative. We don't want to do that either. Um we sent of course as we do with any project this one is very similar to the one we had spring on several years ago um there with McDow. We contact the adjacent land owners touch base with them. I even stopped and talked to Leonard Browning. So, uh, which he had me talk to Tim and, uh, so I visited with him and Chief Johnson briefly being mad again. Of course, you know, some of this water goes across the road, uh, for the other portion that I'll talk about in a minute. Um, but but anyway, um, we did all that back in March. Um, I've not had any comments from anyone. Prior to even doing that, I sent the project to Jeff Rose for review comments, suggestions, um, things of that nature. Uh so then if we want to move over to the one that's in drainage district 26, that's the one that goes into the Welch Lake complex. And of course that water then flows to West Lake Okaboji. Uh that's at the very upper end of branch 83-7-31-B.

Um they must have needed some more numbers apparently for that line. But uh but anyway, it's an 8 inch line. There is just a small segment that is over on the odds farm of course that runs onto the highway highway 86 and then proceeds over into Dean Madigans and and goes down towards Welch Lake. Um same kind of principle as the other one we're going to um this one though we're going to actually instead of tying into the tile because we know it's not a very large segment we're just going to put surface inlets in in the front of the wetland. Um, however, I did notice uh here the other day that my engineer actually had made a kind of an error. We'll actually be tying that tile, no different than the other one, back into the tiles or into the um primary line or into the district line. Um, it's just going to be 8 inch to 8 in. So, there's no, you know, and the structure we're using is is I believe an 8 in to 10. Um either one is just equivalated to make sure it's it's sized appropriately for the for the alpha pipe. Um, and the reason that's a change, I think he had it drawn in where that was actually in a surface outlet on the surface behind the basin. And there is an intake that is right there in the highway right away, which we will make sure is maintained, but it's a very small intake. And as I told you, two things. I've done these long enough that I've worked with DOT many times and the last thing we ever usually do with the county or DOT is usually just put water in there right away and then have it go down toward a culvert or rely on an intake that could flood very easily. So, um if we were to get a big big rain and water goes through the spillway, that intake is still behind there. Primary flow will still go through the basin, but the basin is designed to handle you know potential flood capacity to whatever degree at that stage. And the nice thing with the structures, it allows us to manage that water level. Um, we don't and normally

ever hold these pools at full level, uh, which is, you know, by design and it allows us to manage and if we have a problem, we've got the capability to drain it down and repair something if necessary. So um but otherwise like I said it's a great water quality project and migratory val water val habitat project for the area and you know the wild plate complex is one of the highest quality water at least still to this day in the state of Iowa. And so we're just kind of building off of that. And it's going to benefit Diamond Lake at the same time, too. And we'll reference it, like I said, up there, as I told talking with Tim and Keith, uh, we won't be doing any work on branch 79. Uh, we'll make sure that that line is not cut or disrupted, anything of the sort. So, our department today would like to request permission from the board if possible to work on branch number 63 in Greenwich District 29. And if possible, we would like to also uh request permission to work on branch 83-7-31-B in drainage district 26. Is it 83 or 63 for branch or for drainage district 26?

26 is 83. Okay, it's 63. And then 63 is the one for 29.

Okay. I I will also note that when we do our tile searches on these BMS, um Jeff brought that comment up to me when he reviewed our plan set. If we encounter areas of sand or grally spots, things of that nature, then we do um basically put in core trenches as necessary. Um but these soils are typical Okaboji pothole type soils, we shouldn't have any issue there. But if we f encounter one, we will address that accordingly to make sure we don't have additional seepage water that we don't want to see moving through the system. We want to make sure we hold that hydrarology as long as we can. This is in the best interest of everything downstream. So

I'll make a motion to give them permission to proceed. Moved by Kim. I'll seconded by Levi. Further discussion. Is there a cost of associated to the drainage districts? No. Okay. This project's fully funded by North American Wetland Conservation Act funding or if we needed additional funds if something came up and we didn't have enough in the budget, Fish and Wildlife Service would probably be assisting on the projects.

I I read that you're starting after harvest. Um was there a a timeline? Um yeah, the the one our grant expires the end of this year and that's why I had to kind of give engineering a boot in the rear end to get this moving. But two, the uh northern portion where a lot of this work was going to be done. We went ahead and and had a tenant continuing to farm that. Um it's going to soybeans so we can rotate it back for as soon as the construction. Well, after harvest we'll do the construction and and soybeans provide us typically the best seed bed for planting the last of the high diversity native prairie that we're going to put in. So, so that's why it's kind of planned to provide after harvest and before we freeze up.

How long just curious how long does it take you to complete this approximately? um a smaller project of this nature, a contractor easily take care of this probably within a week, two weeks as long as he doesn't encounter weather issues. Um can be a little longer or if they get delays on getting pipe and things in, but if once we get through our bid process and contracting, they'll be able to order materials and they'd love to start and do it this summer. Um, our larger project we just bid out just recently, of course, as you saw maybe in the news, you know, that was a $350,000 one at Spring Run, another very significant, you know, project. Um, that one will be under construction this summer, um, as soon as we get through the contracting.

Questions, Levi? Anything else? This will increase our Mard population by I keep working on it. So, but no, unfortunately, malard trends have actually kind of, you know, continue to trend down along with a lot of other duck population trends. Some of which is attributed to several different things, but again, it it does fluctuate, but it'll help with the local population, that's for sure. Okay,

Chris, when on trench 63, you're going to hold water back with the burm. Are you going to go in and replace the tile on the other side of the burm to make Yeah. Well, we'll be tying into the the front portion of the tile, using it, and then we'll actually install an intake on the system in the front of the wetland. Okay. just in case that tile would ever have issues, then I still have a capability of of drawing the basin down and then it'll be tied back through the system back into the tile on the back side. All right. Thank you. Any further questions for Chris? If not, Kim Ivi,

Mr. Clark, hi. Mr. Guller, hi. And Bill. Thanks, Chris. Thank you. Yes. Um Chris, is are there any plans um in on Mil Creek past the lower gar bridge? There's, you know, I've seen drone footage of of some closed areas that that river is not flowing as freely as it could. Are there any plans to clean that out? Uh as far as our department and anything there, we don't have any juris well essential jurisdiction truly in that area. Okay.

Uh the outlet itself though, I mean if there was a major obstruction say as a beaver dam or something like that could obviously have a flood impact to some degree then you know the land owners there and even at times our department or other folks would uh possibly core instance could be involved or even the county themselves. Um but right now I don't know of anything that um I know there have been a lot of looking at that a lot of discussion with the bridge and different things which is coming along. Um um I don't know of any and of course I believe there Iowa City is still doing you know flood studies looking at certain things too. So anyway that's that's really all I stage.

Okay. Thank you

Barb. I I can comment a little on that. Dr. Weber in his reports has suggested that that old weir that is down in there and some other obstructions be removed. But when when we've approached uh De Moines the DNR down De Moine, they really have no interest in that. Not that it shouldn't be done, but they don't have any interest in doing that at this time. We thought that when the construction started on the lowerar bridge this year that it would be a a really good opportunity when they had the big long reach hose and stuff down there, the excavators to um maybe work a little bit on that, but it wasn't in their plan. and you know all the all the projects that that the they plan at the state and we plan here locally uh they're they're not all a able to just go in right now and do something unless it's an emergency. So we haven't gotten very far on that yet.

That'd be something they obviously coordinate with Mike Hawkins I guess if there was something in that area or vicinity. I'll be coming back in if I can get engineering and other engineering to move along with a few other projects that that we do have in some locations. Um, more significantly though, we're going to be moving very quickly on. We had, as you very well know, like close to 15 different FEMA projects that it's taken very long time to get ready for approval. Some of them haven't hit engineering yet, but I mean essentially that's almost a million dollars worth of repair work that we're going to be doing. Um, only one of those I'll probably would need for review with with the board at that time. I don't know that it needs any action, but I'll keep Jeff and everybody involved at that stage. Well, thank you for the time. I appreciate the help.

Thanks, Chris. Last, Mr.

Kelly, I have a kind of a general question and anybody that thinks they can answer it, I'd like to hear it. What's the latest on the level of toxicity in the Little Sue River in terms of swimming or anything like that? There's no signs out there or anything, but people that I've talked to that have that have sw been swimming, uh, they they ended up with a lot of, uh, skin issues. So, I just want to put that out there. I think you folks are the electics here in this county. And I'm not bringing up the De Moines River. I'm bringing up the little suit which runs right through our county. So, I'd like to put that out there. Somebody can get an answer or form a committee or something and notify the public on what the status of that water quality is. Thank you.

Well, we jumped off our agenda quite a bit today. Okay. Um, our next one I have mixed feelings about. It's item number 11. It's discussion possible action on resolution 2026-8 establishing temporary moratorum set public hearing and times. Jordan, are you up to reading it? Do you want it read again? It's the same one that I read two weeks ago. And the only ch It's not. The time has changed on it.

Well, that that's what I was going to say. The only thing that's changed is from 15 months to 6 months. Okay. Lord, what do you think?

Well, I'm the one that brought this up and I know that there's a lot of people that are not in favor of any moratoriums uh in this county. I think that this is one where it we need to have the time to address it with the proliferation of high water usage data centers, bitcoin mining things and like that. Uh all this stuff needs to have time to go in front of our zoning board and be updated and to really determine whether we want that type of development. You know, not every county has to have all the same development. There's there's way different developments that would be more acceptable in our county, I think, than going with these huge data centers. Now, someone all has already said that, well, we have a data center. Yes, we do have a data center in the county. It's a very small one. Doesn't use any water for cooling or anything like that. It just it was put up uh by an individual for his business. And uh I don't believe it was even requested or permitted. It was just part of the business development. Uh but I think that I don't I think this is something we need to address. I think our zoning board needs time to to work on it. And I don't know if it's the type of development we want in our county. We can't just say we want development and let anything go. I think that because of the and for me it's the water quality usage. If they're not going to pump it out of the lake, they're going to pump it out of the ground. And you know, human beings can survive a long time without data use. They can serve about survive about 18 days, I believe, without food, but only about five without water. And I think we need to be

looking into the future on everything we do. And just like with Chris presenting that for water quality, I think water retention is also uh a big deal and we don't want to be pulling it out of the aquifers in the ground to to cool data centers. So, I proposed as I've uh we've met with the uh zoning commission last week and uh heard them what I heard from from to my memory from both the members of the zoning is is uh they are acceptable of this if we uh lower the time from 15 months to 6 months and have it renewable. Then if the if they aren't quite finished with it in zoning, that's what I'm proposing at this time.

I struggle with moratoriums as you know and

I guess partly why I think a little differently, Steve. I so agree with you on all the reasons that you're wanting to bring this up. 100% agree with it. But in meeting with our planning and zoning team a week ago, my understanding was was that Megan was going to get someone to educate them on that. John was going to look into his solar part of some of the things that we already have. So I think we're in my opinion moving a little quickly with this. I was hoping to get some more feedback from them because we do have to work together. I think with that group, I guess I'd like to hear maybe from Megan or Erica. I'm glad you're here today. I appreciate that. I guess I agree we have to address this. These are important things, but I I think we can accomplish it without a moratorum, but I could be wrong. That's why I defer to Megan or Erica. What What are your thoughts about it coming to the planning and zoning? Is a is a six-month moratorum something that can work for both groups?

Um, so I guess my recollection from last week was a little different as well. I thought the sentiment was that we could move forward without a moratorum when asked of the individuals that were sitting at the table. Um, I'm also in contact I've already had several emails with Luke Seberg with ISU and trying to get him here. I also have a conversation or a Zoom meeting with him scheduled for Thursday. Um I know the PNZ wanted the data behind we had a lot of ordinances that um myself and Lee my assistant had collected and they wanted the data behind who was supporting those ordinances and how they came about not just kind of cherrypicking from each one of them. So I I do not feel that we have any imminent um uh I don't want to use applications for any of the items that are being considered. Um we do cover solar already and um anything should something pop up that we do not is not on our radar, this would be a conditional use under the current ordinance. It would not just be a permit by right. It would be under the major utility facilities definition. It would go to the board of adjustment. There would be public hearings. There would be additional oversight. What we are trying to do is give the board of adjustment an ordinance similar to what we did with wind that they have additional guidelines. So they are not being asked to become experts in these um in these fields that they have a set of parameters that they can look at. However, if the board shows so chooses, I mean, we will take direction. That is that is my personal opinions.

My sentiment is that of Megan's. My understanding is that at the meeting, majority of the PNZ board members had said that we felt we could move forward without a moratorum. Uh we do want more information on this and we also discussed having somebody um what was his name? Luke Sever. This Luke gentleman who and he helped with he's the um the education director if you will for ISU extension.

Um and then having somebody and even looking into hiring somebody to help write an ordinance going forward uh like we did with the pipeline ordinance. So again, we take direction from the board, but my understanding from that meeting was the majority were wanting to move forward without it or getting more information first. Thank you.

I guess for my part, I agree with both Erica and Megan after that meeting. I thought we they wanted more time to look at this and I was surprised it was on the agenda. I thought maybe we had said, "Well, we'll come back in two weeks." But that was before we had our meeting. Are these serious things that need to be looked at? Definitely. But I'm not sure at this point we need a moratorum with the That's my take.

I know how you guys feel on the moratorum and and I I would agree that uh P&Z most of the people were not in favor of it. But the one thing that keeps coming back is they need time. They need time. They need time. So it's I think that so that we don't have somebody in the meantime. I support a moratorum so we don't have someone in the meantime say we don't have safeguards in place for this or anything and they haven't discussed it in their ordinances very much and we need to uh some someone may move on us in the meantime before we even have a good uh chance to study and and educate ourselves more on Will you buy?

Uh I was not at the meeting with P&Z but um I do support a pause. Um you know that's all a mortorium is is a pause on on uh development and so um I would I would get behind this moratorium for 6 months. One thing I believe that was also discussed is the six months could be shortened. It it could either be shortened or lengthened depending on the progress that the planning and zoning was making on their developing an ordinance.

Okay. The way it reads now, it only can be lengthened, I believe. That's possible. No, I just didn't want to put an openended on it. That's for Kelly.

Yeah, Kelly from Okaboji. I would caution everybody to move very slowly in this area. Uh we don't want a mess like they have in EMTT County where we have a turbine company that is basically come in and bullied a bunch of electeds over there. And I'm not going to get into a whole bunch on it, but I just think we need to be very very careful because obviously people need jobs and people would like to have development around here. And certainly I think everybody agrees we don't want development that has an adverse effect on all of us or everybody else that uses the lakes or drinks the water. I know for a fact that aquifers are impacted from what I've heard from engineers. Uh Spencer gets its drinking water from aquifers just like Estherville does. We for the most part over here get our drinking water from the lakes and we just need to go very very slowly as we go forward. And I'm not saying don't go forward. I think we should go forward but we need to move cautiously so we don't create a a bunch of unnecessary hassles or adverse conditions that impact poorly on the people here or you know on the businesses. I think that you've got uh a situation where you know Esther and Spencer have really been devastated over the last 40 years with the de-industrialization that's taken place and it's impacted a lot of the small towns you know all the way from uh you know Wallingford to Lake Park or to Hartley. It's there's been a serious impact on the loss of jobs. When I was a kid around here, you could go work for a trucking company or for a packing house or for the railroads. That stuff is not there. So, I think that as we go

forward, I think we need to go forward and bring jobs in here. We just need to be very, very careful. And some of these folks, and the most visible ones are from Hacker Drive, Chicago, where I used to live, uh, you know, they are not hesitant in in litigation or in suing electeds. So, let's just be careful as we go forward. That's that's all I say. I thank all of you for what you do. I know a couple of you are leaving the board and there's going to be a different board next year and that's fine. That's necessary. Let's just let's pump our brakes a little bit on whatever we do. And I'm not saying do this or do that. I'm just saying given the due diligence, you know, you got you all have tough jobs, you know, and I you're going to take a lot of crap regardless of what you do, but the fact is we do need the jobs, but we need we need to protect the area. Thank you,

Erica. Mr. Dard, you called out the board asking for more time or asking for time and this is

this is a monumental task that the board is asking the PNZ to take on. Uh and just like with the wind turbines, we were able to get the ordinances done without a moratorum. And I think with the time that we're asking for and asking for more information, I think we're proving that at least Megan is moving forward with getting the information and stuff that we talked about at that meeting so that this information can be given to the board, the PNZ board. It's not it's not idle time that we're asking for. We're just asking for information to be able to work through this process. I'm not sure what six months of saying no to anything is going to do that we can't do in six months of just moving forward and getting our information that the board planning and zoning board can review and look at and discuss.

Right. So, in the meantime, how do you stop somebody tomorrow from coming up here and Well, we we discussed that a little bit in our meeting. I think John was going to look into some of those things and Megan had some ideas within the ordinances that were in there. Um, I had hoped that that was something that people were working on to present to the planning and zoning board so that we would have that information as well.

And as stated, it is a conditional use. So, it's not just like I said a permit by rights and it's going to be coming across my desk and it's up to me on whether or not to determine this facility can or cannot go in. There would be public notices following the conditional use article 21. There would be um obviously a hearing with the board of adjustment. So, it's not that we don't have a safeguard or a check and balance in place. I said we're just going to try to give them better tools in their toolbox moving forward. Okay. Are there any other comments or what do you want to do?

Well, I'll make one more comment. I don't believe this moratoring will tie anyone's hands. All it will prevent is applications coming across Megan's desk before we're ready to determine whether or not they're a fit for the county. You know, they won't be able to say, "Well, your regulations at the time didn't say we couldn't do this." I just I think it's a safeguard that we need to have. just give planning and zoning and the board of adjustment to be educated on this. Uh I don't necessarily know that it should be a conditional use plan. I think it needs to be an ordinance written and I think it this gives them time to do it. One thing I think it's incumbent upon the board to become educated about these three.

I agree 100%. You're the only. But here again, I think we know we all need time to become educated and see what's happening across the country and determine whether we want it here or not. I therefore will make a motion to approve resolution number 2026-8 for a six-month moratorum to give everyone time. Possibility of being shorter. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if everyone was ready. Can a moratoruming be lifted at a board meeting?

Can you undo what you're doing or trying to do? Is that what you're saying? Well, if if the in 4 months the planning and zoning is has has an ordinance ready, can it be a drop then? But sure if they're if you're going to if that's the way they're going to go. But I they're doing this um study. I don't know if they're going to have anything ready as far as an ordinance amendment if that's what you're talking about. No. No. I don't think six months will hurt anyone.

I'll second. Mr. Clark moves by seconds to approve resolution number 2026-8. Did you state that this needed to go to a public hearing for this type of resolution? This does have to go to Yes. public hearing. So the motion would have to be to set up a public hearing on it. Yeah. So not approval of the resolution. It would be to set up a public hearing on resolution 2026-8. That's a terms 20 noted.

So we would have to set it for May 12th by the time that we would get this to the paper which would be on the 8th the way that Dickson County News is. So then we would have that on May 12th which would be within our 4 and20. Um let me double check that that date is available at 9:00. Hey, can you see if 9:00 on May 12th is available? Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Yep. May 12th at 9:00 a.m. Okay. Then I would withdraw my motion and amend it to say that we'll have I would make a motion to have a public hearing on the proposed resolution number 2026-8 on May 12th at 9:00. I'll adjust I'll adjust my second to match Mr. Clark. Okay. Then is there further discussion? Mr. Clark. Hi. Levi. Hi. Mr. Dollar. Hi.

Yeah. In staying with our my conversation or our conversation with the board, uh the PNZ board, I'm going to vote no

and I would agree with that. I'll vote no. The measure passes 32. Is there any from the public concerning today's agenda? I would say that your your planning and zoning folks, I'm Melanie Summers Baller, your planning and zoning folks are under an extreme amount of pressure to to get this right. And with a six-month mortorium, they feel like they have to then bring you an ordinance in six months. and and as they'll probably tell you, I'm not um I don't know your your specific planning and zoning, but they've you know, they're under tremendous pressure to get it right. Um and to bring you an ordinance that that you will agree with that affects the entire county. And we're not just talking about solar, you're talking about battery storage, and you're talking about data centers. So, they are working hard. They are volunteers. Um they are not paid. Um, and so they are donating their time because they feel like, um, this is something important to them. So, um, I, you know, that six months does put a lot of pressure on them to get it to you in six months. Um, and that's hard for them when they're, you know, when they're donating their time, you know, once a week or or however often they feel they need to meet and taking in all of this information when it's brand new to them because they are not experts. I am not an expert. They are not an expert. So, I think that that six-month moratorum does put a lot of pressure on them, though. And I'd like to say in saying that, um, my husband and I signed up for wind leases and we thought it was great and it was wonderful for the environment. We weren't experts. We quickly had to become experts and we knew the detriment it would do to our land. And I don't think six months is probably long enough for us to see what data centers and such

would do to Dickinson County if it get buys time to see what it does. It also buys time to educate land owners who might unknowingly sign leases like we did not knowing the full extent of the damage it would do to our land and water in Dickinson County. Um I'd like to say that the last time they talked about this moratorum they asked for 15 months and we were told 15 months was too long. So I think six with an option to extend is a compromise. I wish the moratorum were longer because yes, this is a a huge task and we want to make sure that the that that the PNZ board, a volunteer board has time to do their job and we don't want we don't want an ordinance that's just put together based on not the full knowledge that they need, but we were told 15 months was too long. So this is this is a start.

Anything else? Not make a motion to adjourn. I'll make that motion. Mr. Dard moves. I'll second. Nevi seconds. Is there any discussion on that? Hearing none. Mr. Dollar. I Levi. Hi. Mr. Clark. I Kim Hi and Billy.