Board of Supervisor - Regular Meeting

Well, good morning and welcome to our meeting today. A fine October morning out there. Our first order of business is to approve the 2026 SHIELD agreement.

Did anyone have any questions about that? I sit on that board so I can inform you that we have a new director, Lindsay Kroc, doing a great job. We just got done with our CPR training. With this agreement with SHIELD, all of our trainings are done. They just got done doing a training with our of guys with the engineer's office. So what it does is it keeps us up to date on all of the different trainings and those types of things so that we're compliant. So I will make the motion that we once again approve the agreement with Shearer.

Okay, Kim has moved.

I'll second.

Levi has seconded. Is there further discussion? Hearing none, Kim? Aye. Levi? Aye. Mr. Clark. Aye. Mr. Dullard. Aye. M Dillon. Aye. Next we have the approval of May 12th board meeting minutes. Did anyone see anything out of place? I'll make a motion to accept. Okay. Mr. Dullard moved. I'll second. 10 seconds. Further discussion? Mr. Bellard? Aye. Kim? Aye. Mr. Clark? Aye. Levi? Aye. And Bill is aye. We have no drainage claims this week, so we'll go down to number five, the county engineer's report. Deb?

Good morning, Board. Good morning, Deb. I have four items. First is to approve request repairs on E23 tile and hire a contractor to complete the repair. The cost will be less than $2,500.

Motion to approve.

Mr. Clark moves. I'll second. Levi seconds. Is there further discussion on this? Yes, there is none.

Mr. Clark? Aye. Levi? Aye. Mr. Dullard? Aye. Kim? Aye.

Kim Billets? Aye.

Thank you, Board. I'm number two approved request repairs on DD 79 tile and direct county forces to complete the repair, which I've asked me to be less than $1,500.

Motion to approve. Kim moves. I'll second. Mr. Dollard seconds. Further discussion?

Hearing none. Kim? Aye. Mr. Dollard? Aye.

Mr. Clark?

Aye.

Levi?

Aye.

And Bill is aye.

Thank you, board. I have number three is approved request repair on DD 19 tile and drug county force to complete repair, which I've estimated to be less than $1,500.

Motion to approve. Kim moves. Second. Mr. Clark seconds. Further discussion? Hearing none. Kim? Aye. Mr. Clark? Aye. Levi? Aye. Mr. Dullard? Aye.

And Bill O'Connor? Give me words. and item number four is considered resolution 2026-13 for temporary closure of the 23 000 block 178th street at the location of the iowa great lake century district improvements this is just a few feet past carlson beach

Whereas a request from the county engineer has been filed with the Pickett's County Board of Supervisors asking that action be taken to temporarily close a section of Dickinson County Secondary Road described as follows. A portion of 178th Street at the location of Isle of Great Lakes Sanitary District improvements to install a new 8-inch sewer pipe and manholes under the road. The requests at this closure go into effect starting Tuesday, May 19, 2026 and remain closed until May 29, 2026. Whereas no objections have been received either in writing or even since present. I'll therefore be resolved by the Dickinson County Board of Supervisors that the subject section of road be ordered temporarily closed. The temporary closure shall stay in place until the crossing is replaced and determined to be complete by the county engineer.

Thank you, Jordan. I'll second. Mr. Dollard seconds. Further discussion? Yes. How do you put manholes underground? It says, install a new 8-inch sewer pipe and manholes under the rope.

Yep. If I remember the plan right, they're going to put two manholes in. So we'll dig down to the base of the manhole and place it up. And manholes come in sections. So we'll stack them on. Then what you see on top is just a cone section and a lid for access. They're planning on putting two of those in and a new pipe in between.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none, Levi? Aye. Mr. Dollard? Aye. Mr. Clark? Aye. Kim?

Aye. And Bill Wood? Aye. That's it for my agenda today. Thank you, Board. Thanks, Jim. Thank you.

Thanks, Jim. We're already down to general discussion.

Board and committee reports. Kim? In our coalition meeting, our food pantries have been busy. Lake Park served 71 households, 167 people. Milford served 105 households, 257 people, which includes Terrell and Superior, one of their busiest months that they've had. Upper Des Moines continues to serve 106 households a week. Good News served 90 households, and Spirit Life served 31 households, or 51 people. Our backpack program at Spirit Lake High School, of course, we're in the summer session. They claim that they are going to provide backpack food for around 25 students throughout the summer. As you can tell, we still have food insecurity issues here in Dickinson County. I attended the ISAC 99 County Tour meeting. We met with ISAC Executive Director Andrea Woodard and members of her team. They're interested, really, I think, this whole tour is to find out what counties are facing for problems and issues, because they're kind of a go-between, representing us down at the state level. Some of the feedback that we provided them, of course, was we're concerned about local control, communication with our state reps, and many of the things that were discussed involve a lot of the things that are high-end topics today. It was a good meeting. I think the biggest thing is they are a resource for our county, and we need to remember that. At a safety committee meeting, we talked about updated contract with SHIELD. Thank you for approving that. Lindsey Kroc is our new director. We have new AED devices installed throughout the county. We've had a tornado drill and fire drill, which are completed June 11th. We will be having de-escalation training scheduled for all offices. This was a request that was made by our employees. They'd like to have some training on how do you handle folks that are coming in that need to be calmed down a tad bit. Bill Dickey with Workman's Comp was present, and our claims are the lowest that they have been. That's great news for the county. It's important for our insurance renewal, and it's going to be as low as it can be. So congratulations to all of our employees. Jeff, your crew as well. A lot of things that can happen, but appreciate your leadership and the work there. Our emergency action plan, Mike tells us, continues to be in progress. I received a call from Supervisor Steve last week about something going on at the landfill. So I called Waste Management and they have been approved by DNR to start a new cell. They basically have a permit from the DNR for a four and a half acre cell, which will be adjacent out there to the one that we have. um drove down to lower guard bridge as everyone can see the deck's been poured and Jeff tells us that tomorrow the side rails will be poured so it's coming along it looks great if you have an opportunity to go check it out that's what I have sounds good Mr Dulles oh well as Kim said I I also attended the hundredfold election and it was it was good and as part of that uh

We'll get to that in a little bit here. On the 13th, I attended another strategic planning session, hopefully the last one, with Upper Des Moines and their staff, and they're narrowing down the items and they're assigning responsibilities and numbers to those in their different departments as to what they're doing. They also had another director resign. This one was a housing director this month. That's like four or five this year. that have resigned and went on to different jobs and positions. The EDMO director is still planning on doing a mid-year review with our board, telling us what they've done with the funds that we've had. One of the questions that they had was, they directed at me and I just told them we're interested in how they're using our money that we've appropriated for them in our county so that's one of the things that she's going to cover in her uh uh plans to us hope okay i left that session early to attend the uh 99 county uh session that we all attended. It was a really good and informative and a lot of people spoke up and spoke out about things and about ISAC supporting us. After that meeting, I attended the local VFW meeting where the main discussion was about the plans for Memorial Day, putting all the flags up. These guys are really concerned about getting all the flags out. They're hoping that we don't have any rain because the flags are, they get real heavy and they're hard to handle and stuff. They have to hang out a little longer to dry back out. They also wanted to plan on teaming up with a local agency that one of the interests was, one of the guys was talking about an organization that had given a bike to a little kid who was handicapped, low income, and They wanted to provide some type of assistance like that. So I told them a good agency probably to plan on what they could coordinate with the Atlas would be a good one for that type of stuff. Let's see. I mentioned the Atlas as a possibility. And on the 14th, Mr. Clark and I attended the Dickinson County Taxpayers Association meeting in the morning. Since I've got a whole ton of stuff to go through, I'll let Mr. Clark share about that. After that, I had a discussion with the director of Atlas to let her know about the VFW possibly contacting her. And then also, we had a discussion about support from upper to more. I'm interested in that. That's something that I'm going to Keep a closer eye on that. She's mentioned that there's been a recent uptick in homelessness here and there. Everything's full. They're filling all the stuff that they can use. In the afternoon, Kim and I attended the county safety meeting. And after that meeting, I met briefly with Mike Herron about a safety issue with one of my constituents. And after that, I run into Beth Will in the hall. And we had the same discussion about Upper Des Moines. And homeless, she had one person she was asking me about. We were able to discuss, you know, the meeting that I had, the call that I had with Upper Des Moines. On Friday, I had a meeting with a constituent, Jeff Rose, and Jeff had the problem pretty much solved. By the time I got there, the guy arrived about 15, 20 minutes early ahead of me. I got there five minutes early and they were all done. So I just had a discussion with Jeff. So thanks, Jeff. On Friday, I had a meeting with a, I already said that. Yesterday in the 18th, we had our first unloaded food to support for this week upper Des Moines opportunity is closed and our church is handling the handout for the food and stuff the numbers were stayed about just they were a little they weren't what I expected but uh in the evening uh went back and attended that stayed with that for a couple hours and uh also on friday at noon i attended a function at atlas that for one of their folks that had uh had they were celebrating his fifth year of sobriety and at uh one o'clock we had the planning and zoning meeting and then uh i like i said i attended the church for support up in the morning and then we'd have that again this afternoon i missed the unload of the truck this morning because being here so uh We'll handle that tonight, see if we can't get a... It helps advertise our food pantry as well. And I think that's about all I have.

What did you do in your spare time?

Well, I didn't get any rest, I'll tell you that.

Mr. Clark. Uh, Wednesday, I also was also here with the rest of the supervisors to meet with the ISAC staff. Uh, I thought it was a good meeting and, uh, they are a tremendous resource for the supervisors. Uh, and, uh, uh, a lot of the things that they do comes from input from supervisors across the state. Uh, after that, I attended the Arnold park city council meeting. Uh, nothing really that, uh, interesting going on there. Uh, just normal kind of things that are being, uh, proposed for going for work. That's being done around here. Uh, after that I attended the conservation board and, uh, Lee announced to us that night that they were, uh, in the finals for a cat grant that they'd applied for. And as everybody heard before he had a chance to release it, it was out into the public that they had received the cat grant. And I believe that's for 375,000 that will go toward the Nature Playscape. They still have a little more fundraising to do for that. And hopefully they'll have enough by the end of the summer they can start work on that. Sherwood Park, the final work is underway. They're starting the checklist and going down there, there's, I'm sorry. Some people are a little bit fussier than I am. You know, when you pour concrete at different times and over the year and different things like this, and one of the, Uh, the problem all along doesn't like that. There's a difference in the color of concrete. We think we've got, I think we got that resolved, but that seemed to be a big issue to them that the concrete wasn't exactly the same color all through the whole park. And, uh, you know, construction isn't always exactly perfect. So it was interesting, but they hope to have that. done and the final checklist completed and open in July. So we'll, you know, a year late, but we'll hope they get it right this time. Thursday morning, I went to the Dickinson County Taxpayers Association. They talked about a lot of different things. I'm not really sure. They want to go there. I think they're like everybody else. They're trying to understand the whole new property tax plan. And none of us will really know until that plan gets through the Legislative Service Bureau's rules writing on it. So, you know, there's a lot of speculation on, and the major things are all ironed out, but it's the little things that come along afterward that LSB writes. They'll sometimes change the whole thing. Thursday, I am... Okay. Yesterday, I did the planning and zoning meeting. It was interesting. They passed two zoning changes that will be brought before this board in June sometime. Not big ones, but just two small zoning changes. This coming Thursday, I have the Little, the Upper Little Sioux Water Trail Steering Committee. And that's down in Spencer. We'll see what, you know, this is something they've organized and along the, the whole Little Sioux, they're trying to do a water trail and they're meeting with some resistance from some people, but we'll see where, where it goes. Friday, I have a yes board meeting in Cherokee. That's all I did.

Well, I'd like to start mine. Let's see.

I had last Wednesday the ISAC meeting that we all attended and have talked about.

I thought that was my first one.

That was good. That night I had the Board of Health and the big topic there was that subdivision that was approved yesterday by Planning and Zoning east of the landfill out there by Prairie Lake. And so that was Megan was talking about or prepping us on the Board of Health on the sewage disposal system. And then it was passed yesterday, Planning and Zoning. And then on Friday I had our ECI Zoom. We are on schedule to be functional by June or excuse me, July 1st to be then providing services in line with the ISOILE program and best care for better babies. And so everything's looking like on track. I did get an email that our DCAT, but this is statewide, is being dissolved. It's being taken out of Iowa code. And so that's just going to be the state controlling that. Now there's no more regions in that. So other than that, I don't have anything going on the rest of this week. I had to clear my week. I am doing my last competition on Saturday in New York. And so I head out tomorrow and driving by myself my wife does not share my passion for competitions and so she said you're on your own and so I had to leave a leave a little bit early to make it happen but um I could beat Saturday afternoon and then I'll be back driving all day Sunday and Monday to get back here on Tuesday so good luck thank you now what is this competition uh this is uh what I do this is my online business this is The it's the world's competition this year is in New York. Typically it's in Europe. And I haven't competed overseas since 2019. And since it's in the this is the first time it's in the US. And so I thought I better. I better do this one last time and. And my body has reminded me that it's time to retire. Well, to retire from competing. I won't allow myself to compete in my age bracket. I still compete as a young man. You compete against those 19-year-olds. I compete against the young ones. But no, this is it, though. My daughter said, you need to start making better choices.

My son-in-law

competes in a type of similar program. And there comes a point in time when they tell you, you have to take an age group.

I just want you to know that's coming. They will tell you that. I did turn 48 last week. And so I know that's not a big deal to you, gentlemen. But definitely, I woke up feeling different for some reason. So I know as I get closer to 50 that they'll force that. but I know I'm going on my own, but not somebody else's.

If you're lucky, you'll look back at these. It's a good old days. Exactly. I'd like to start my time with addressing something that happened here last week. Part of that is my fault during our discussion time with our citizens, That's supposed to be for items that have been addressed in the agenda. However, I always fall on the side of, well, if someone's got something they really need to say, let them say it. Well, that was a mistake. We were addressed about wind energy and how Inver Energy Red Rock was doing construction, didn't have any money to help deconstruct it. We were reminded about a court case, and it caused quite a stir. According to Levi, it was on like YouTube or Facebook or something.

It was published to a website. What's that? The letter was published to a website. Okay, published to a website.

And so people kind of got upset apparently. And I thought I should explain how that should have been handled. Levi handled it perfectly. He talked to the person that would know about this stuff, which of course is Megan. But instead, it came here before the public and it left a sense of fear. The pot's been stored. And so I would like to read the email that Megan sent us, even though it's just addressed to the board.

Paul, the work completed at Power Thanks project boundary last year.

Inver Energy conducted soil testing and installed a subsurface concrete foundation slab, which was then backfilled using the excavated material. These activities do not require zoning compliance application or to complete the work. No loads exceeded weight or size thresholds requiring permits from the county engineer. This type of activity is comparable to other subsurface improvements completed on private property, which generally do not require zoning approval, provided they do not interfere with the drainage than one foot above ground level regarding decommissioning requirements the ordinance states the owner development of the wvcs's shall not be responsible for dismantling the abandoned or discontinued use of uecs devices and return the property to its original use additionally the board

mechanism that is mutually agreeable between the county and the WECS owner development.

With respects to paragraph 4 and the cited case of Worthwell in LLC versus Worth County Board of Supervisors, the circumstances are materially different from those in McKesson County. an additional use permit those procedural steps did not occur in the word county map to summarize the questions raised the decommissioning fund has not yet been established nor is it currently required for some surface work of this nature construction requiring a zone compliance permit However, based on the current ordinance language, Inver Energy Red Rock is not presently out of compliance with the Dickinson County zoning ordinance. So if you got all upset out there, call your jets. Everything's going as per ordinance. As for other things, the main thing I did reserved July 3rd on your calendars. And that's all I had. Well, does this concern?

Talked about. So Megan was contacted with no response. Okay. So when there's no response, people move forward this was written as an open letter it was posted to my personal website i have a right to do that correct right last week when i brought this up it was concerning a moratorium on permits and i brought it up because we have a permit that i don't feel Megan had said in her reply that the conditions have been met. The conditions have not been met for this permit. One of the main conditions is that the decommissioning fund be funded. So we can't say it's been met until that happens. Okay. So what her letter also says is that they can dig and construct how much underground before they have to do this decommissioning fund because her letter also says that it's a foot above ground. They don't have to comply unless they're a foot above ground. I want to know when the decommissioning fund is required to be funded. We don't have a straight answer to that. what what at what point does it need to be funded and this isn't as my letter stated this isn't just for the people of the county this is for the landowner to protect them because our our ordinance says it must be deconstructed decommissioned within i believe it's 18 months after they're no longer in use it doesn't say who has to do that but it has to be done. And that comes on the back of the landowner. And to have to decommission one of those things will be way more money than they receive in their lease permits over the lifetime of that wind turbine. So we need to make sure And we need to know where the timeline is of when this fund is funded and if any steps have been taken to make sure that it is being studied or met or deciding how much needs to be put into that fund to cover those expenses.

Now, who should you be bringing that problem to? This board. No. Yes. No. The people that are going to be setting up the rules on the amount of money that needs to be in there. And? And who was that? It was in the letter.

Who?

Who was it? I mean, I had to sit back there and listen to you read it. So who was it? Because nobody would send it to me this week. I asked to have it sent to me and I was told that I couldn't receive it.

You raised the issue for the public. You stirred them up. And so I thought that you shouldn't get preferential treatment on what you heard.

They were already stirred because there were phone calls coming in. Okay.

It was. Megan just texted me and she's on her way from East Okoboji beach to answer any of your questions again from here. So let's, let's go from there.

I mean, I like the answer from the letter since it's right there.

Okay. Additionally, the board. prior to construction of a WEX device. If the pending litigation is resolved and the project is permitted to proceed, staff will ensure compliance with this stipulation.

Okay. There is no stay for building. So pending litigation does not need to be resolved for this because there was no stay in construction.

However, would you construct one?

if you knew you could be told you have to take it down i just want to know where the point is that's what my question is is where's the point i mean one foot above above surface to me is extremely vague when you're digging down 15 to 20 feet to construct, you know, a thousand metric yards, a thousand yards of concrete and tons upon tons of rebar. So, I mean, we kind of need a definitive answer there.

Isn't that between the owner of the land and them? No, it's between the permit and them.

Well, for one thing, they didn't do thousands a yard.

They haven't yet.

They haven't yet. These mud pads, as I understand.

Correct.

About 10 yards to a truck. So 10 trucks is a hundred yards. And I don't know if that's 20 foot across and, or 40 foot across. I depend, you know, it only, what would that be Jeff? A foot thick at the most.

Yeah, maybe.

Maybe, you know.

Yeah. I just, I think we need a definitive answer about when construction truly begins. So if you want to wait for Megan, if you want to put it off until next week, I'm fine with that. She's on her way. We can wait. Do we, is it next week you meet again and then the following week you're off?

I believe so. Okay. It's still May.

Yeah, I mean, we can do it next week, but I just, I mean, I think we need a definitive answer here.

Where is the go point? Next week, speak with me. If you need to speak with zoning people or with these other folks, then do that. Let's not stir the pot. Let's get your definitive answer. Okay.

We can give that a try, but getting answers has not been...

When I was on the school board, teachers would come to me with problems, and then I'd take them to the principal. The superintendent sat me down and said, Bill, here's how it works. If a teacher has a problem with another teacher, They need to speak to that teacher. If it doesn't get resolved, go to the principal. If it doesn't get resolved there, go to the superintendent. Then if it doesn't get resolved, come to the board. All right? So if you have problems, make sure you checked out all the evidence. Then come to the board.

Transparency.

Exactly. Okay. Did anyone else have anything?

Yeah. Kelly Okoboji, I wish everybody a good Memorial Day and let's all remember the fallen. There's been a lot of them. I wanted to say that I think that the issue of transparency and accountability is getting brushed aside a little bit. And I think that maybe what needs to take place, it's up to you folks, maybe you as the chair need to pull Barb And Megan and a couple of other people that are concerned in and have a sidebar and have a thorough discussion of it, as opposed to like having this all out where it makes it look like more turmoil than probably in fact, there is, you know, I think the board's doing a good job and going forward and stuff. So I just, uh, asked Mr. Leopold to maybe pull the people into a sidebar and see if you can't get it clarified a little bit, move on instead of having to have what you've got going on now, because we really need to have as much unity as we can, uh, you know, with the public and the board, you know, and so, and the staff, you know, I think it's not clear to a lot of people what exactly, what exactly, uh, Megan's authority is, you know? Maybe she's within the bounds of her authority. I assume she probably is. Otherwise, there would be some kind of action taken. But I would just ask for some kind of a sidebar meeting to do that instead of having it going on and on. That's all I'm saying. And I wish everybody a good Memorial Day.

Thank you.

I think, if nothing else, it points out why that moratorium is important. there's some weaknesses in some of our ordinances this is something that wasn't clearly defined in our ordinances and that's that may be one area that we need to look at in in these ordinance and that was a I think it's a supporting point for why we passed that moratorium anyone else Megan said she's a minute out a minute out you want to wait for me he's gone

Do you think it should be an agenda item before we have discussion on it during the board meeting?

I think she's just going to answer questions, I believe. Let's brought her up. Are you saying questions before the board or just private discussion? Good question. I don't know the answer to that.

Because I guess I got to agree. If we're going to have a public discussion, it probably should be an agenda item. I don't disagree with that.

Maybe ask Megan before she starts talking.

Okay. Now, Megan, we can't have a public discussion because it wasn't officially on the agenda, but I believe Barb would like to speak with you.

And that's completely fine. And I'd just like to note that I did respond to her twice.

And so I read your email, but she still has questions.

That's completely fine.

Okay. So we can take a deep breath.

Yeah, I get my cardio in today. Thanks.

Okay. If there are no more public comments, I would take a motion to adjourn. So moved. Mr. Clark moved. I'll second. Mr. Dullard seconds. Is there any discussion on that? Hearing none, Mr. Clark. Aye. Mr. Dullard. Aye. Levi. Aye. Kim. Aye. And Bill is aye. We're positively adjourned at 9.42.