Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

GOOD MORNING, EVERYBODY. IT'S TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2026. MY NAME IS DON SMYKER. I'M GOING TO CALL THE JACKSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING TO ORDER. TO MY LEFT, I HAVE MIKE STEINES. TO MY RIGHT, I HAVE NIN FLEGEL. BEYOND FROM I.T., LISA FROM THE AUDITOR'S OFFICE.

GOOD MORNING.

AND FIRST UP ON THE AGENDA, WE HAVE A PUBLIC HEARING IN REGARDS TO A ROAD VACATION OF 133rd AVENUE IN MAKOKANA. SO WE'LL GO AHEAD AND OPEN THE PUBLIC HEARING. WE HAVE JANE CHECKLE FROM THE ENGINEER'S OFFICE.

So about a month or maybe at this point, two months ago, we received a request from adjacent property owners on 133rd Avenue, the level B portion to vacate said level B portion due to it's frequent to illegal dumping and problems, all that. So, which is that's occurred in the county in the past. So that, or with that then starts the process of this public hearing to where we're at today. This one, though, has a little more involved with it. The fact that there is a bridge on the vacated or on the segment of roadway proposed to be vacated. And I've been working with the auditor's office and the county attorney's office on it. And there is some guidance to From a 1930s attorney general opinion that ultimately the county has to do something positive for the disposition of this bridge and primarily that's either been completed in one of two ways, either by selling the bridge to the adjacent landowners for basically a dollar in that we're with a there's an agreement. It's that basically we're relieving ourselves of all the liability, everything that bridge to these property owners, they sign off on it and in exchange for $1 payment. The second way is just by the county removing the bridge entirely. So that way, you know, because the bridge is an asset that we actually own. We don't own the right of actually own and have. It's an asset to us and that's the reason why we have to do something what they consider positive. So those are one of the two ways to do it. And I have spoken with Craig and I know that bridge would, I guess last we spoke anyway, that bridge would provide benefit to you by still remaining in place.

Would you introduce yourself please? Craig Cruz. I'm My family owns the majority of the land on both sides of 133rd. And we would like to get it closed so that we can keep the illegal dumping out of there, the tires, the trash, the yada yada, you know, and we feed cattle on that farm. And if I leave a tractor down there, the battery's gone, the fuel's gone, you know, it just, It's just a headache having it opened.

I did travel that road. And again, I crossed that bridge with my side by side, but I don't know if I'd cross it much more than that. When you say, explain to me, Jayden, I'm sorry, I forget when we did it last time. If we close this, we still have...

vacating it, no.

We would not have a key to the gate.

No, because that is changing it from level B to level C, which that's not what the request was.

I would prefer vacating.

So vacating is, yes, eliminating our right-of-way altogether where we don't have easement or nothing through there. We're out of there completely.

And you don't foresee us having any need for that portion. I mean, I didn't see. Is there electricity right on top of the farm to the north, I want to call it? I didn't pull in, of course, but

where my son lives, and yeah, he's got electricity and water, but where that silo is in the middle, there's no electricity down there.

Oh, there's not? Okay, but there was a water tank there.

Yeah, there's a windmill there and stuff.

Any utilities would still, by IOC, would still have their easements, like if there was, say, overhead lines that went through there, they would still have rights to access it for them, but we, as the county, would not. We would be vacating our right-of-way altogether for how it's proposed here. Well, I can't see any value to us to have it.

No, it does not. To maintain it or any liability. I just want to make sure we're not liable for anything, especially that bridge.

No, so that's part of the, with the bridge. And the county attorney's office did draft up this on its own. some agreement, bill of sale, and assumption of responsibility for the transfer of the bridge. And ultimately, with this bridge, there's two property owners. So with Greg being the one on the east side of them, there is a separate property owner on the west side of the bridge, which I have not heard from them. But ultimately, it would have to be a... It would be transferred to both entities. Equal. Yes. Equal. Yep. And so with that, we'd have to add those lines.

Do you want to ask who's the other property owner? Your center. So it's Bailey. Yeah.

Kelly knows. Corey Army. Okay.

Would you be able to give me their contact information? Okay. So the bridge would be split up amongst the, between, property owners per this. I did not receive any calls or inquiries of closing it or abandoning it, if you will.

I have not either. So our process from here is to get the approval for the sale of the dollar and the agreement first?

I would recommend, I guess first let me touch base on this because this is what going forward as well. The second thing is once we vacate right-of-way, property owners are not, any property they own that's in the right-of-way, they're not taxed for right-of-way. Well, once we vacate the right-of-way, any of that what was right-of-way would go back on the tax roll to be taxed and assessed for. So talking with the assessor's office on how they would like to see, how do they know what acreage is to go back on the tax roll? There have been examples in the past where a flat of easement had been prepared by a professional land surveyor where they not only come up with the property lines, but also they show the right-of-way and call out the acreage of what's to go, ultimately what would go back to the tax roll. I guess Lisa could probably correct me if I'm wrong. It's been done, this has been done sometimes, and then there's other times where it's not been done. And I guess... Going forward, I think it should be done just to be more consistent that way. This is the best way for the assessor's office to know what is going back to tax roll.

Obviously, there's not a lot of value in this to go back on the tax roll, but not to say in the future that there couldn't be. Different properties. We should have a policy and we should have procedures that we follow pretty regularly or consistently.

Because then the main point, or not the main point, one of the main parts of the easement plan is who is going to be responsible for that cost. Because, you know, we don't have a professional land surveyor on staff like some other counties do, and that's what's gotta be prepared by, well, they're gonna have a cost. So ultimately who should be responsible for that cost? whether it does county, does county be responsible if it's the county looking to vacate said roadway or where the county is initiating it? And is it property owner or requester responsibility if they are the ones requesting? We don't have a policy, but I guess going forward, we should have something because this will come up again periodically. But I think with all of this, we won't-

that whoever's requesting the abandonment should be assigned

So say when a right-of-way goes forward, our resolution does not state what is going, what acreage or what part of the road is going back to the adjoining landowners. We're just simply stating we are vacating our right-of-way at basically a beginning and end point based on section corner, distance and bearings, all that. We're just basically giving the beginning and ending points way in between those points but so would it be pretty obvious i mean it's 50 50 you own to the middle of the road so whoever's on if you own on both sides of the road i guess you own it all if you own somebody else on the other side you don't have in some instances yes and others where the road you know makes 90 or curves every which way well sometimes their property lines may not follow the center of the road they may own if it's in a 48 or parcel it may be the best way to describe that i can't One I maybe think of will be going to show up on the screen, but that may not always be the case.

Well, it all depends on a property I know of. They purchased it. The southern property mind said, you come over to this point to here, and then you go south until you reach the middle of this road. Well, the road moved.

You can see the right-of-way and how it bends.

But the property line said you go south until you get to the middle of the road. Well, the road moved about 50 or 70 feet, you know what I mean? So.

But that's why you're having the engineer have a new description on, correct? I mean. So they are surveyor.

Surveyors, surveyors, yeah. Yeah, so I think it should be surveyed as far as who's paying for it, the requester has skin in the game there's more than one property owner because everybody's gonna you know and then but then again we are also benefiting in the fact that we don't have to maintain this road and we don't have to worry about the liability of the bridge you know no but i guess one one we have liability on the level yeah the one benefit large benefit on this second road as it relates to the county is we would be relieving the

system one less bridge to worry about liability all that stuff so that would be one of the from my my opinion one of the county's uh benefits of this vacation is simply getting rid of that bridge i don't know if it would be possible but like i told my sisters we leave the west fence the way it is and whatever the road comes out would go on the tax roll on the east side Oh, so you would basically... That's my side.

So you would basically own it all?

I would basically own it all. I told them that if we could make that work, that that's how we would do it. That way they would have no tax increase and everything, you know.

You have to vacate back to the property owner that you got it from. The county has to vacate back.

So you... could probably do something legally on your side, but from the county side, we have to vacate it back to whoever owns it.

You don't actually have ownership of the land. We just have an easement. So when us giving up our easement, the easement is... That's the same work.

Right away. We don't know that. And also, all we're doing is simply just getting rid of our easement. Say when a vacation goes through, it gets recorded, and when a surveyor

future when he does his research they find these recorded documents that oh there's no right of way so I guess I would say I think we probably not going to take any action on this today because there's too many questions but I think maybe one of the first things is hearing what your and your sisters were thinking if it was actually surveyed out and you came up with kind of like a purchase agreement with your sisters however you know That would answer all our questions on how much of what this easement outline border would be identified. So when we vacate it, it would all be kind of wrapped up together, wouldn't it?

Well, from the county standpoint, oh, we would, Lisa, if you can correct me if I'm wrong, but oh, we would really, but it's just this plot of easement prepared by the land server. However they want to distribute or change property lines would be on them. That's kind of irrelevant. Whoever did this, so he, it's not that long ago, actually, in 2011. Yeah, and that's for a different row. That was for a different row. This is just an example of what one would expect, I guess. Oh, that's on them.

Is there any way we can, I mean, like, Eberhardt can measure a field and tell you how many acres is in it. It hasn't been done. It has to be a legal survey.

No, there's bins and all kinds of stuff they've got to find and locate. They'll know exact.

Well, I would say we could probably still move forward with our end of it because what they decide to do on how they do that is on them. Is that not correct?

so i don't know that we're fully clear how we want to move forward with the sale of that bridge and how you're going to allocate the land we're speaking of if you're going to allocate to the debt for the tax purposes we're not really clear on that correct yeah that's one thing we'll have to work out because i guess i i didn't know kelly was uh your sister because that's we want to reach out to her to make sure she's good because ultimately what would happen is if the vacation goes through at a later meeting um

we would bring this to the board for approval and you, property owner, jointly would sign this document. So we would have to, I'll actually give you a, if you can write her a phone number now so I can contact her. But I guess ultimately, yes, a decision can be made later. We at least had the public hearing today to discuss if there had been any pros or positive feedback or people are opposed to it, which- I've heard nothing.

My question is, do we need to have a public hearing on the disposition of the bridge?

Have we ever sold a bridge before? Do we know how that process went?

on old 61 by Manning's property.

Because it's county, it's properties. I mean, I talked to the county attorney. That would be my only, when you said, do we need to have it as a public hearing? That would be my only, when we do that, we traditionally need to have a public hearing on that. So that would be my only concern.

But would that not be covered in this because it was part of

Yes, which this is our encompassing part of the road.

But now we're going to talk about the disposition of the bridge, which is a county asset. I'm not saying I'm right.

I mean, we've even addressed it. It's in the, you know, the county attorneys drafted a purchase agreement or whatever so I don't know that is another question I would say right now you guys need to get back together and kind of figure out what would be the best way to walk forward you need to get with your sisters to figure out how the best way to do that if you want it all to go on yours because that would be an assessor question on how that legal thing I think if anything You know, if you get it all surveyed, does the PLATA survey include the utility easement we need that we can get out of it and how all this works out? There's a lot of moving parts and questions before we can really move forward. But I think moving forward seems like an obvious thing.

I would agree. Yeah, I don't see moving. it might be no action made today, but just because of some of these, I'm going to call them outstanding items, but. I would make a motion to close the public hearing.

I would second that.

Got a motion by Mike, seconded by Nick, to close the public hearing regarding the road vacation of 133rd Avenue. Any other discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing is closed.

And I'll just make a motion. We will take further steps as needed depending on the property owner and request your input on this vacation. So I would table the bridge and the road. Table the action on it.

Second.

Got a motion by Mike. Second by Ned to table action on vacation of the road and the bridge of 133rd Avenue for further information. Any other discussion? Motion carries. You two get together and talk. Will do.

Thank you for your time. You betcha. I will give you these numbers here. I got to go to the truck and get my phone. Okay.

All right. So next up, we got visitors and citizens. Is there anybody in the gallery up? Jay, you're next. So unless you want them to go. I can go. Okay. Anybody online or in person would like to address the board today? Yeah, we got online. It's Michael and Brittany. Okay. Hearing none, we'll move on to the neighbor community services for Clinton and Jackson County. Come on up. How are we doing? Good.

How are you?

How is the mental health for Clinton and Jackson County?

It's going good. I just have the one that's signed. I do have the... The one that are something you need to set for us.

That's one. So, really, anyone would traditionally have to copy sign that way. We keep one. They keep one. So, every chance.

This is the same as the one that came in the packet correction. Yes, it is correct.

Is this a redefinition of our agreement?

So it's just the changing because they only have it for a year at a time. So it's exactly the same except for the dates have been changed.

Okay. And everything's working as planned? Yeah. As good as it can. Are we getting paid? Mm-hmm. Okay.

Yeah. And I've been working with the DAP and we've been having some clients that we've been kind of bouncing back and forth and helping. It's worked out where there's certain things that they're pretty limited on what they're able to do and fund because they have... HHS guidelines that they have to follow so then I kind of catch the ones that kind of slip through the cracks and then help them get the services that they need and the benefits that they qualify for and then we kind of go back and forth once I get them going and ready then they can go to them or sometimes they have folks that they aren't able to help and they can bring me in with certain things that they're not able to do. So we feel like

there's less funding or that people aren't getting services they need because they can't cover the fees that are needed?

Some of the funding has definitely changed. When we were a region, we did have some say in the folks that we served and how we were able to fund them and discretion, and we could base things on people's income and do a sliding scale. Well, that's kind of gone to the wayside. So it's either they qualify or don't qualify. Um, and one of the big things too is like, um. When we were a region, we had folks who did have insurance, but they couldn't necessarily afford copays or, um. You know, they would maybe have to spend $5,000 before their insurance would kick in. That would be something that the region would have been able to help with a sliding scale. But that type of thing no longer exists. Transportation remains an issue. And then also. Like with the region, we would sometimes fund people who were coming out of a facility. We would fund their rent for a month or two because your Social Security doesn't click in right away. So we've had some issues that we've been trying to work with ASO and the DAC with trying to... get that funding in place because rent is not something that they fund. And they don't want to have to fund that. But I think they're starting to see we're getting people who are trapped in, you know, a hospital or facility because they don't have the income to pay that first month's rent and people aren't going to let them move in the community until they have that first month's rent, but they can't get their So we're kind of had an issue with that with a few people that we've been working on. So.

So, I mean, just an overall view of it. I've heard less about it in the last year than I have in eight years prior, because it was always something, and always an issue, whether it be with law enforcement or with your services, and I've heard very little. So to me, that's good news. It seems like it's seamless. I've never had calls as far as issues. I don't know. Is that true or am I missing something?

My question was going to be kind of along that lines is it's been almost a year since the transition.

Correct.

How's it going?

So I think, you know, the people that are coming to me and stuff, we're able to help them. We're able to get what they need. The big barriers, like I said, are the transportation and the rent. And I know that the ASO is working with trying to get some of that stuff figured out. We've had some issues with like MHI sometimes not having beds available for people but that's not a new issue that was an issue that was always there but they are trying to work with trying to get them more easily accessible to people as well so I mean as far as like the people in our community and if they're getting the services we're getting them hooked

to talk about seamless transition is the fact that the only problem I have with this over the last year is the fact that you existed before this and now you still exist because we decided we were going to pay for it. So basically what was once funded by the state, we had to swallow. And we did it because we needed to maintain the connection and putting the services of the people together. That is something that we decided. Other counties might not have that option or didn't have that option. And so they're probably having a completely different experience with this. but we're not because of you. And we appreciate that. But that's why we continued the services because it's a needed thing. Um, but it's also one of these things who it gets back to that stupid phrase of it's an unfunded mandate that passed down from the state in an effort to save money and downsize and all this stuff. All they did was push an expense off on the taxpayers of Jackson County. And fortunately we were in a position where we could handle it and do so. But, um, I still get tired of hearing how much the state has in savings when they keep pushing expenses off onto us because we don't have savings. And I don't like hearing how we don't understand how local taxing goes when the state says we've got to figure out how we need to do it better when I think it's the opposite for the most part because when they almost get to the point where they understand that they change anything.

I mean, it wasn't really a tremendous burden to us because of the fact We did have the opportunity to share with Lincoln County. We didn't know how that was going to work. But when we go to the state level, listen, it's horror stories out there. I mean, you hear horrible things. I mean, they're a chair up in arms. Yeah, but I can see it happening in maybe a bigger metropolis too or something maybe.

Even in our own county, how many people would be hurting and how many people would we be hearing from?

Yeah, yeah.

if we didn't fund this i guess we can be here from law enforcement i guess i don't i don't know and um yeah we would see some of that come through the law enforcement and through the jail and i do have to say our community is lucky too because we do have robert yum so i know that that's um a service that we're very lucky to have as well so we appreciate everything you've done to kind of help make it seamless and

I think this agreement's a good thing because us working with Clinton County, it's a manageable thing for you and it reduces the tax burden to Jackson County citizens by half. And that's a win-win for both us and Clinton County. So I think we should keep it going.

I would make a motion to go ahead with the 2080 agreement for another year through with Clinton County.

I would second.

Got a motion by then second by Mike to approve the 2080 agreement for mental health coordinator services in Clinton County for the next year ending in June 30th, 2027. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Anything else for us?

Thank you guys. Appreciate it.

All right. They've been sitting back. Are you ready?

Or Jay, I don't know. You're back. It's just a department update, right? Yep. Yeah. So our secondary roads guys are out since all the rain. We've been having, they're just out mowing and doing some edge running. Basically, we're not reclaiming. As far as construction, yeah, very busy. The bridge on Z15 or Springbrook Highway, all the bridge work is complete. I say bridge work, just the bridge. There's still grading and paving, but the bridge is complete, including the rail. So now the subcontractors are out there doing all the grading, pavement removals, placing riprap to get ready for new pavement, so that way guardrail can get put in and pavement marking. So we got about... depending on weather, about a month left yet on that project. The Channelworth Bridge on 82nd Avenue, they have poured the north abutment last week. And all the pile for the abutments and piers are all driven. Most of the substructure for piers and abutments are close to being done. They should be pouring an abutment sometime this week yet.

Is there a schedule kind of like on that? I mean, I know they have X amount of days, but do they kind of follow a schedule of what should be done in a certain amount of time?

They do, yes. So prior to the couple weeks when the river came up, the river was also high back in April, which delayed them on the pier construction for at least a few weeks because it was so high they couldn't build a cofferdam and couldn't pump the water out. So they do have a schedule, but it's been altered.

13 days of high water, that is extended automatically by that much, or is there a supplement in agreement?

No, it's basically the contract is set up by working days. So during the days of high flooding, they were not charged working days because they couldn't.

I get it. That's documented into it, how many working days?

Okay, so it's extended by that much. Yeah, we have to submit reports every week to our program, to the DOT. And that's with any of our projects, Z15, the overlay that I'll get to, all those, there's reports. So with that, the paving project on Bernard Road from E17 to the Craft Town Bridge, all the sub-drain work has been completed last week for that. So now we're just waiting for a boomerang to come in and start the actual paving, which that is scheduled for Tuesday of next week. They got pushed back because of the rain, because the sub-drain guys were pushed. Basically, rain's pushed everybody back on all these projects. So Tuesday is the day they're coming in to pave as of right now.

Is that double wide laying at a time when they paved? Yeah, they're going to be doing full width, including paved shoulder.

They're going to do the full width at once. And we've been in coordination with the post office and some of the property owners because part of the mail will get held at the post office. What are they starting on? They will be starting from or towards on the Moorhead side by Crabtown Bridge. They work their way south. Work their way towards the plant because the plant is... are you coordinating with them to make sure or with all farmers that make sure they don't get livestock trapped on one side or the other so i know we sent out letters to them that they won't they'll still have temporary access to their property so the contractor is going to provide golf cars for them to drive along once they pave to drive on the shoulder from the hard closure to their driveway if their driveway ends up being in there but With the strength, they should be able to get on the slab the next day. So it's just. How much higher is the road going to be than it was? About six and a half inches.

Not really. I was at the rodeo and I had a chance to talk to Moorheads and they were concerned about backing in and out of there. A lot of their, if it's raised the slope of their driveway, they might not be able to back their semis in and out of there. So I want to talk to them.

on his livestock. So that's all. We're not actually getting into that with the overlay because or overlay into that. The only thing that'll occur on that stretch of 20-year-old pavement is a few panels tear out in replacement that are cracked pretty severely. But other than those cracked panels, the rest of the pavement's in good shape, so there's no sense of overlaying it. So that really shouldn't be affected for them there because that pavement carries past. That 20-year-old pavement goes past their entrance.

You know, when they did the overlay, like on the 250th, it seemed dramatic when you rated it five and a half, six inches, but after it's done and all the gravel and all the grading is done, you can't even tell it, but it's pretty dramatic at the time.

And so on our... driveways like if we we know where the right-of-way is we're all staying within the right-of-way here because since it's wide enough but we carry the grade back further enough to make it gradual rather than you know tying it in within the first five feet we depending on the grades how the driveway slopes to the road away from road what have you we adjust for that and carry the grades out further or the our limits out further to make the slope change gradual but yeah that's works planned for Tuesday and the bridge on 450th Avenue, just east of Preston. They're going to be pouring that deck. The plan is on Thursday. So our staff is actually out there right now shooting deck grades because we'll be ready to pour concrete on Thursday for that one. So full steam ahead in the fog seal on Z20 from highways and then just north of Spragueville that was completed last week and you'll notice the public will notice no pavement markings yet and that's intended yet they will see the temporary orange signs that say no pavement markings because we have to allow that fog seal to cure before we can put those pavement markings on so which is about anywhere from 21 to 30 days so about let's just call it a month so they will be continue to see no pavement It looks new again. It's just another job.

Yeah.

All right. Any other questions for Jane? Appreciate it, sir. Thank you. Yep. Yep. Have a good day. You too. Now, back up from zoning. Good morning. Good morning.

Good morning. Zoning department continues to stay busy with routine zoning permit reviews, property inquiries, setback questions, floodplain screening, and subdivision-related questions. Part of the day to day work continues to be helping applicants understand what information is needed up front. so permits can be reviewed accurately and consistently. One of the biggest items over the last several months has been the high density computing facility or data processing facility ordinance work. The joint work session with the ZOMI Commission and Board of Supervisors was held on June 15th. There was strong public attendance, both in person and on Zoom, and it was great to see how orderly and respectful everyone was, especially considering the amount of public interest leading up to the meeting. For attendance, I do not have an official count because sign-in was optional and several people chose not to sign in. We had 71 chairs set up in the main room and they were pretty much filled up. There were also 48 chairs set up in the overflow room and that room was at least half full. There were also people participating by Zoom. With all of that combined, I would estimate somewhere around 120 to 130 people participated or attended in some form. Public comments were largely supportive of the county taking a proactive approach, and several speakers thanked the commission for the amount of work that has gone into the draft. The concerns expressed focused mainly on setbacks, noise and vibration, utility demand, water use, who pays for infrastructure upgrades, e-waste and other waste handling, scenic byway protection, and making sure there are meaningful enforcement tools and penalties if a facility violates the ordinance. Overall, the feedback reflected a desire for an ordinance that is clear, enforceable, and tailored to Jackson County's local condition. Therefore, my priorities for the next few weeks are to keep routine permits moving, continue ordinance work, and keep improving communication with applicants through geo-permitting.

I thought that went very well, and I'd like to ask compliment the people that showed up because you know some of these meetings can get kind of tense in things and it was everybody was you know thoughtful and well-spoken and considerate I think it went very well yeah so you know hats off to the zoning department the board and the zoning commission and everybody that attended it was I was very pleased with how it went and it was great great conversation definitely was and it was

There was a lot of positive conversation involved, and they respected the work that you guys were doing. You know, there's always a few comments here and there, and there always will be. But all in all, you know, it's a process where, again, you can't just ignore it. So it's coming. We don't want to get left behind, but we want to do it right. the taxpayers and the constituents of jackson county now that's a majority you're probably not going to get them all to agree so it's kind of a majority so um again we're working for everybody and we respect everybody's opinion and there's a lot of and if you have a copy of that i would appreciate that if you had a lot of the items in there but i made notes of but you make you make it sound a lot better than my notes i could read

and again everybody is trying to do what's best for jackson county we can't control what goes on in other counties but we're trying to do what's best for jackson county as a whole right and we all have unique circumstances and situations each county so one county's ordinance won't work here and vice versa

doing the best we can for what we have in our house and i have heard from other counties and they appreciate what we're doing and would they appreciate that i sent you know right to them instead they have to go hunt for it so i sent a draft you know and they appreciate it and uh very much so and and we make the th about every day also so they mention us quite a bit today you know we had a lot of good points in our draft but you know i need some more okay well we're we're open our ears are open here you know right it's still good some people reach out since that meeting and yeah ask questions and conversations are going so yeah nothing wrong with that appreciate it there was a lot of work

up to it too. Thank you to Bjorn for setting everything up and the maintenance guys did a great job with all of the chairs and Lisa and Shelly were very helpful.

We just need to make sure the air conditioners are done. Yeah. If we have that many in there again, got a little warm there.

And Jeff did mention that he even cranked it that afternoon, but yeah. Thank you very much.

We appreciate it.

Can I email you one?

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'll email you all.

Okay. Next up we have Beth Gerlach from the Treasurer's Office. Good morning. Good morning.

Good morning. So I think you have your abatement request resolution. So there are three requests. Two of them are mobile home tax. And they date back, you can see the first one for Robert Lee Streets dates back to 2007. And the other one for Kyle Lee Morris dates back to 2015. they're all different circumstances but the third one is a building on lease land and leisure lake which is is a mobile home that was there but now we've got confirmation that is no longer there it's been a problem for quite a while since the owner of the mobile home has been deceased for quite some time too. So I'll start with the two mobile homes in the mobile home park, which is Prairie Creek, which is just on East Blatt Street. The first one, Robert Lee Streets, I got confirmation from the park manager that that one has been removed and destroyed. I tried to look up Robert Lee Streets. I did find a Robert Lee Streets that's still living in Iowa, but I don't know, I'm assuming it's the same guy. But at this point with the mobile home being removed from the park and the park owner is trying to get a new home in there to collect taxes on, I'm asking for abatement on that one. The total tax portion is $2,546 on that mobile home. And the next one is Kylie Morris. I have spoken to Kyle in person. He gave the story that he was living there with his grandma or something and a storm came through and the roof was damaged and it was inhabitable. So he just abandoned it. and moved out and didn't pay the taxes and didn't do anything with it. So it sat abandoned for a while. In those situations, which I'm sure Roberts was probably abandoned as well, the park owners can go through the abandonment process through the courts in order to get the mobile home destroyed or take ownership of it. The park owners did not do that in either one of these cases, but if they were to have done that, then this is what we would have to do. The court would order us to evade the taxes in those situations. They get it free and clear to clean it up in hopes of getting new mobile home taxes to start collecting again. So the total on that one is 1,276. And, of course, that one has also been confirmed destroyed and is now an empty lot.

So just a question.

Mm-hmm.

How does this sit, like this first one, how does it sit there and fester since 2007?

Yeah, I mean, as long as it's there, we have to keep taxing it. So it's really the park owners that should take that into their own hands since it's in their park and go through the abandonment process and get it cleaned up. But there's nothing that's really forcing them to do that if they wanted to sit there in their park abandoned. As long as it's physically sitting there, we're going to keep taxing it, whether someone's living in it or not.

But if we're not getting paid for the part that we're taxing on, can't we do something sooner?

Can't we proceed with... We can send it to tax sale, but if it doesn't generally get sold.

What? Then if we send it to tax sale, they generally don't get purchased at tax sale. So then there's not a process after that? Do we own it then?

Yes.

We don't want that. Yes. I think you can get rid of it in a big hurry with a demolition and a dump truck in the back That's when you're talking $6,000.

Right. And it's just, yeah, taxes that have been accruing and accruing and accruing on a home that's sitting there abandoned. But, of course, we're not collecting on it. And the means we have would be sending it to tax sale the first year if it doesn't get sold, which generally they don't get sold unless someone accidentally buys it. And then they go to a second year. The following year, if they're on tax sale the second year and don't get sold, that's when it becomes a county health tax sale certificate.

So there's no way we can assess the landowner?

Well, the landowner?

I mean, because, one, I would assume he's not letting me sit for 15 years not collecting a lot of rent.

Right. Maybe. I don't know. But to my knowledge, no, I don't think we can assess it to the landowner. They're paying their real estate taxes on the land. This mobile home tax isn't on real estate. It's on the person that owns the mobile home. So it's like school, it's school, it's fire, it's city, you know, it's those taxes. It's not real estate taxes.

Has that always been the same? I mean, I lived in a mobile home for a while, but...

the same process as far as taxes per year is based on the square footage and the um how old is there a way that we could pass an ordinance to for to require notification if a mobile home park is going setting a unit through the salvaged or abandoned process that we get notified so we find up okay you know so let's say the mobile home park went through this 10 years ago for this one from 2007 let's say it's 10 or 15 years ago they went through the abandonment process and got it destroyed and moved out of there so that we could say hey you have to notify us if you do notify us if it goes through that process because it's

to give this to them free and clear. So that means to say these didn't go through that process.

So how did they get going?

Exactly.

That's my question. How did they get the both of them weren't here?

I have pictures to show they're empty.

So did the property owner, the park owner just decided it's cheaper to just get it gone than it would be to go through the.

That's my assumption.

You know.

My assumption is.

I just can't imagine. somebody else, then you wouldn't wait 15 years, you say, to get rid of it. If it's inhabitable the first two years, that ain't going to get any better. Right.

The park ownership, I think, has changed probably 15 times in this amount of time, too. So it's just kind of been a problem that's passed down and passed down and passed down.

I guess this might be. So obviously, it's in the city limits of don't know the answer to that you know what i mean it sounds like it's a way to maybe speed up the process or say hey this is a nuisance clean it up you know we're gonna do it i don't know if mobile home and the i know there's a rental ordinance things like that but if they're not renting the trailer if they own the trailer outright i don't know if we do that leisurely

anyway back to this thoughts of the board as far as these resolutions you want to know about the third one because it's a different situation so leisure lake um michaela lauer she has been assessed with the sewer utility um or had been but um instead of ecia um assessing the real estate They were assessing the building on lease land, which is the mobile home. So she owned the mobile home and her parents owned the real estate. ECIA had a contract with her, the one who was using the utility. So they started taxing the special assessments to the BLL parcel instead of the real estate parcel. BLLs can't go to tax sale. Um, special assessments can, so these special assessments, I think a few of them did actually accidentally get paid on tax sale by a textile investor, and they just let it go. Um, but there, there is, um. A county held tax sales certificate outstanding with those special assessments on it at this point on this 1 on this 1. so. a few years ago, probably in 2022, stopped assessing the special, this BLL parcel for the Leisure Lake Sewer Utility. So that they stopped, but all of the previous delinquent special assessments were still there. And those three that you see in 2019, 2020, and 21 are all on a county health tax sales certificate. And the reason that those three years are there is because that was during COVID and we didn't have a tax sale in 2020. So what this one would be would be actually canceling the county health tax sales certificate. That makes those still due. And then we would have to remove the special assessments then. And that is where ECIA comes into play. So I reached out to ECIA to get confirmation that we can abate the special assessments on this property. And they did agree through email that that is what they would like done. So that's what this is. So you'll see that it's been BLL taxed, which again, it's not real estate tax. It's just tax on that building. The mobile home is taxes back since 2008. And then there are some special assessments that are the county health ones. That's the certificate. Number 2022-2125 is what I would be canceling on this one. And again, this one has really been a problem for quite some time for us.

So is it in our best interest to abate that tax sale? Because if it goes through as a tax sale, the new potential owner...

Essentially, it's not the county's money to collect. It's ECIA. So if I were to collect on this... the county isn't going to really get anything besides the insurance.

So is this a loophole that happened somewhere when the ECA did this whole sewer system that they assessed to the boxcar, if you will? Right. Instead of the real estate?

Because the real estate can go to tax bail and not have the value. In my opinion, they should have never assessed it to a building on lease land. of a new process when they did that whole you know and they learned some valuable lessons i'm sure but right usda was involved heavily also with that whole process yeah and that's you know right i don't think it should have ever been assessed to this person in the first place i think it should have been assessed to the real estate owner where you can send it to tax and you can collect on it and they have some skin in the game to try to redeem it um but yeah she's deceased The mobile home has now been removed. Jess reached out to me from the assessor's office to let me know that it is gone. And she has been having to assess it because it's still been sitting there. So the taxes have been adding up for the BLL tax. But now that it's removed, she's asking if we can remove the parcel so it no longer exists. And in order to do that, we have to clean all this up first.

So in other words, we don't have a whole lot of choice here to move forward. We need to move forward at this point.

Yeah, we got to get this.

It's not like we're a game.

No, you're not.

Are these able to do, and you got three separate ones.

The first resolution is 11-91-06-23-2026 is for the Mobile home owned, removed, and destroyed by Robert Lee Smith at Prairie Creek Mobile Home Park, the streets for 2546.

I'd make a motion to approve resolution 1191-06-23-2026. I would second.

I've got a motion by Nan, second by Mike to approve resolution 1191-06-23-2026. taxes on a mobile home owned, removed, and destroyed by Robert Lee Streets at Prairie Creek Mobile Home Park for $2,546. Any other discussion?

I have a question. I'm sorry, Don, did you say what? What was the name?

Robert Lee Streets.

Okay, I'm on the wrong resolution. Any other discussion? Is that the right number? Yes, 1191.

Okay.

OPPOSED? MOTION CARRIES. NEXT ONE WE'LL BE LOOKING FOR A MOTION FOR RESOLUTION 1192 FOR THE KYLE MORRIS SAME PLACE.

I WOULD MOVE TO APPROVE RESOLUTION 1192-06-23-2026 AS PRESENTED.

I WOULD SECOND THAT.

GOT A MOTION BY MIKE, SECOND BY NIN TO APPROVE RESOLUTION. ABATING TAXES ON THE MOBILE HOME OWNED, REMOVED AND DESTROYED BY COUNTY MORRIS AT PRAIRIE CREEK MOBILE HOME PARK FOR $1,276. ANY OTHER DISCUSSION? ALL THOSE IN FAVOR, SAY AYE. AYE. OPPOSED? MOTION CARRIES. THE LAST ONE IS FOR THE ABATING OF TAXES FOR THE LAND LEASED ON PARCEL, VERY BIG NUMBER. THAT MEANS YOUR LINK FOR

I'll make a motion to approve resolution 1193-06-2023. Yeah. 2026. 2026. Sorry. I would second. Got a motion and a second by Mike to approve the resolution 1193-06-23-2026, abating taxes and sewer assessments.

on parcel number 0504-244-2603-0000 for $6,388.15. Any other discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. I'll have to get fizzy on this. Thank you. And next up, we have Lisa from the auditor's office. You have the floor.

So on my agenda for today is a discussion and possible action on the appointment to the Veterans Affairs Commission. So I would like to yield some of my time. So Ruth and John Pitlow can come forward to discuss the appointment.

Good morning. Good morning.

Morning.

Morning, John. Good morning.

First of all, I want to thank all of you for your patience with me in this whole process because I have never been through before. Our last process was just a re-appointment. So I think we had a little bit of, I had a misunderstanding as to how the process would work. My assumption was that um applications were submitted to you and then how they got to the commission I was unsure but according to Iowa code the appointments are made in consultation with the VA commission and the executive director or administrator so the commission has not been presented the applications yet I actually just saw them yesterday um for the first time so I do apologize Or that misunderstanding and, you know, and how the process works. So, I guess we, I know the commission would like an opportunity to review the applications and make their recommendation to the board of supervisors.

So as we spoke yesterday, we kind of went through this whole process and I was kind of confused myself because I assumed that they have seen them in the interview process or whatever it may consist of. And talking to one of the board members this past weekend, that was not the case. Actually, it was John that I spoke to. And yeah, so I would assume that that would be the process and it would make sense to me that you would go through the applicants and bring us a recommendation if you will.

You guys do make the appointment. Correct. But we get a chance to review and make a recommendation to you.

Correct. So my other question would be, and I apologize, does Human Resource have anything to do with it? Do they go through the Was it just the board and the director?

No, HR.

You talked to Becky?

I reached out to Becky yesterday just to see if she had any historical knowledge of how the process had worked before. She kind of knew that the commissioners would look over the applications. I am unsure if the commissioners have done, there was a bit of discussion last meeting as to whether there had been an interview process before, whether they had just looked at the application. Becky and I had kind of discussed too, you know, did the applications need to be de-identified before they were given to the commission, right? So I erred on the side of caution and did not, have not given them the applications yet because there was kind of this question of, does that need to be done as well?

Stepping off the commission

Yeah. She's been here three years and she just felt if she wasn't contributing.

Again, as we spoke yesterday, it's not, it's a process where we go through every time, but not like we have multiple candidates mostly for volunteering, you know? So it's nice to have two qualified or two or more or whatever it may be to, to actually,

Well, there is some question because there's a lot of board and commissions that we do the interviewing and all that kind of stuff.

So is this mandatory? Do you recommend that we interview the candidates before we make a recommendation or? or just read their application and make a decision on the application?

Personally, I would, my personal feeling is that you do a little background probably and do something, maybe use HR, maybe a little bit, or, and to do, I mean, some vetting of some sort.

Well, I look at it like, do all the four remaining persons, or even Laura, five, if she's still attending the meetings, Do y'all know?

Well, they don't know yet. I don't know. That's where it boils down to. Well, wait a minute. I may know them because I've talked to two of them that said they were going to put their applications in, but I don't know if those are the two that are in or not.

Well, it's just... I would do some kind of interview process just because you don't know, you might know, you might not. The other people might not know who they are. And it's just more of a, you can get a lot more off an interview face to face than just looking at a piece of paper. No doubt. However you guys want to do it. It's up to you.

Ultimately it's up to you guys. You want to do it. If you want to just go off the paper, that's your choice. If you want to reach out and talk to them and, make sure they have a total understanding of what...

I don't think they're going to have a total understanding of what they're getting into anyway. That's normal. But, you know, you can kind of lay out what your duties are going to be. And on the side of that, I think they deserve an explanation to what they're getting into.

Right.

Well, I think the job, the description kind of tells you, you know, when you're going to apply for what you're expected to do. And there's a lot of questions on the application that they fill in. Yeah, exactly.

And it does say, I did notice in the code too, it says, however, a member, so it talks about appointing the members and whatever, but it says, however, a member shall serve until successor has been appointed and qualifies. So I'm assuming that that also means that Laura would be part of this process, you know, because it says shall serve until its successor.

But her term ends. June 20, 30.

I know.

So if our interviews are after June or in July.

So with that being said, does that mean if we didn't get any applications, we would still be listed as that person until we got one?

I'm looking at it. It says, however, a member shall serve until a successor has been appointed and qualifies.

The word shall is important.

Shall is an important word.

A means it's optional. Shall means she will. But what if she doesn't want it? You don't have to participate in the meeting if you're on the phone. Right.

So, you know, and I have been in, I have been including her in communication, obviously, anything that I send, because she technically is still a commissioner until, you know, her term doesn't end until the 30th. But then I saw this and I was like, well, I think that she still has.

Yeah, there's a legal interpretation there. So I would lean that side of it. Okay.

And then going forward, I mean, obviously, I would like to see this process on your end go forward.

quicker rather than no doubt no doubt and it was my misunderstanding of it too i i think that we need to probably define what the process is moving forward of you know who gets the applications how they need to be distributed you know because like i said i've never been through it before and i made assumptions that i should not have have made well and i think no offense but the veterans side of it is kind of different than it is some other

things that we appoint yet.

And we also talked gender balance, which doesn't really come into play as much as it used to three or four years ago, but I guess that's something that you consider also.

We talked about that already, I think, in the commission meeting, and we're all on board on that, Mike, that if we have a qualified female of the two, we would probably lean in that direction unless there's something really pop it up or something like that, because we would like to keep gender equality as much as we can on that commission.

Okay, so I guess with that being said,

about it and review the applications and you redo your homework and we will give us a recommendation.

Okay.

Question for Don. Am I going to see you the 4th of July in Bellevue on the veterans march? Sounds like pressure.

You don't know yet.

Well, it depends on whether I do that or do I have a campaign afloat because I'm running again. Well, you can do both. Okay.

Walk it for us, Don. Come on.

The only thing I've learned is there is a misnomer when you say, are you going to walk in a parade? Because there's no such thing as walking in a parade, because all cars are going five miles an hour. And that's running. We are walking. I did that once.

We are veterans, and we are walking. And if you can't walk, we got away for you to ride. Double the money. Double the money.

Holy cow. I think I left about 20 pounds with me the last time I left that parade. In fact, I was there.

He had to talk about that for a minute. He didn't answer that right.

The last time we did it, they had just redid the asphalt the day before, and it was really hot that day. Yeah, I remember. It was still really hot that day.

Yeah. All right. Thank you, guys. See you later.

Appreciate the committee and the commission for that, too, John. Thank you. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Right back to Lisa.

So with that being said, I need a motion to approve the June 16th, 2026 meeting and work session minutes as written by Audra Smith and authorized publication in the official newspapers.

Got a motion and a second by Mike to approve the minutes of the June 16th, 2026 meeting and work session written by Auditor Smith authorized publication of the Pittsburgh newspaper. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.

I need a motion to approve and authorize the auditor's office to issue warrants in the publication of the claims listing in the amount of $237,772.33.

So moved.

I would second that.

Got a motion by Mike, seconded by Ninh, to approve and authorize the auditor's office to issue warrants in the publication of the claims listing in the amount of $237,772.33, just FYI for the public. There was about a $72,000 audit bill in there, and there was about $27,000 in dental insurance expenses and stuff, and the rest of it's just kind

or less claims period of the fiscal year. Traditionally, we would have had it next week, but we bumped it up a week because by the time we would approve On June 30th, the actual checks would not be July, which would be in a different fiscal year, so we moved it up a week.

Great. Any other discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.

Need a motion to approve the cigarette permit to SNK Gas and Food LLC doing business as Outer Creek Stop at 18820 Bellevue Cascade Road, Zwingle, effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. I would make that motion. I would second.

Good. A motion by Ninh, second by Mike to approve a cigarette permit to S&K Gas and Food LLC doing business as Otter Creek Stop at 18820 Bellevue Cascade Road, Zwingle, effective July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. Any other discussion? All those in favor?

We have just very few outstanding warrants, but this is our annual practice. I would like to have a motion to approve resolution number 1190-06-23-2026, canceling outstanding warrants in the Jackson County Auditor's Office for a total amount of $88.81, effective June 23, 2026. And in particular, that's...

We're canceling.

That should be pretty much the same people that we're trying to get to ACH. We would rather direct deposit their checks when we pay them instead of writing a check.

So that would make that motion.

I would second that.

Got a motion by Mike, seconded by Nensho, approve a resolution 1190-06-23-2026, canceling outstanding warrants in the Jackson County Auditor's Office. FOR THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF $83.81, EFFECTIVE JUNE 23, 2026. ANY OTHER DISCUSSION? ALL THOSE IN FAVOR SAY AYE. AYE. OPPOSED?

MOTION CARRIES. THANK YOU.

YOU BET. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. ANYTHING FOR THE GOOD OF THE MEETING, BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS?

EARLY CHILDHOOD, WE'VE HAD A LOT OF MEETINGS WITH THE MERGER GOING ON. WE DID HAVE OUR FIRST JOINT MEETING with Dubuque, Clinton, Jackson County. They're working on a name because the name they kind of came up with was very confusing because it runs very close to BCIA. So we're looking at what that name will actually be, but it is going forward. And we had our last meeting with just Clinton, Jackson County and trying to work through all the loopholes. Like, you know, they got to stay Clinton-Jackson County through September to try to get all the final bills and things in. But getting through all that and going forward, and I think it'll be very good. I mean, there's some things that Dubuque County does that Jackson County doesn't do. There's some things that Clinton-Jackson County does that Dubuque doesn't do. So between the three of them, I think there'll be a good good flow over of things that are available to families and young children in the areas.

Mike, you got anything?

We got moved this week, or last week, because of not being able to work. So it'll be Monday. Otherwise, everything was operating about as normal as we expected.

Together, we built that a meeting last Monday. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend because I was standing in zoning meeting. I've since talked to them. They said it was pretty much there wasn't really anything to report that was out of the ordinary. Everything's going pretty good. A few things are trying to get tidied up, but I think that's about it.

I did go to the conservation meeting. They're working on their projects as always and some land around the Prairie Creek project. The pavilion is up and it's a lot of people out there using it. I see every time I'm coming to town, there's people walking on that trail. So the disc golf is going quite well. They're finding a lot of disc golfs out and about. So obviously if you're disc golfing out there, put your name on things and they can be usually collected at the interpretive center is where they end up back at. But they've had a few tournaments out there the way it sounded.

I think we're getting out of it, because like I say, my nephew, he looked it up. There's some app that talks about all the disc golf courses, and this one has a really high rating. It's really challenging because of all the altitude, you know, the topographical layout of the park, and the fact that it's 18 holes, so it's getting great reviews.

I did have a report from Dubuque that they had one on one of the school grounds up there, and... If they were going to do some expense insurance, you just get rid of it. So they no longer have a disc golf course up there, really. They kind of just doze it. So, yeah, no, I've heard good reviews on it. So I plan to bring the grandkids over. They're kind of heavy in that right away. Good addition. I'd just like to see something now that we could get a donation or some revenue box off of that, you know, when the people come.

And I think they are working on that. They're working on trying to figure all that out so that we pass audit-wise and whether it goes back to the friends or whatever to continue with projects and to help with

just pay for the mowing is benefiting from the people coming here they're eating they're getting big ass they're staying if you will and they're shopping and so obviously and to remind everybody it was kind of a junk project between the city of wacoca and jackson county so it was very well well done

Anything else for the good of the meeting?

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

Got a motion by Mike, second by Lynn to adjourn. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Everybody have a good day. Enjoy the beautiful sunshine outside.