County Commissioner & Board of Adjustment - Regular Meeting

This conference will now be recorded.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, With liberty and justice for all.

Call this meeting of Lawrence County Commission to order for June 23rd. Any changes to the agenda? Mr. Chairman, 915 is canceled. Other than that, no changes. Okay. Room to agenda is amended. Second. And moved by Tisdale, seconded by Comer, to approve the agenda as amended. All those in favour, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Any conflicts today?

No.

Did you all have a chance to look over the minutes, I'm sure? Motion to approve the minutes from June 9th. Second. And moved by Ewing, seconded by Comer, to approve the County Commission amendments from June 9th. All those in favour, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Motion to recess as County Commissioners and convene as Board of Adjustment. Moved by Ewing, seconded by Tisdale to recess as County Commissioners and convene as Board of Adjustment. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Okay, we are the Board of Adjustment. We've approved the minutes of the two-minute meeting of the Board of Adjustment. Second. And moved by Tisdale, seconded by Palmer to approve the minutes from the Our Board of Adjustment minutes from June 9th. All those in favour, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. That motion carries. Motion to adjourn the Board of Adjustment and reconvene as County Commissioners. Second. Moved by Ewing, seconded by McDaniel to adjourn as Board of Adjustment and reconvene as County Commissioners. All those in favour, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. All right, we are back to County Commissioners. All had a chance to look at the bills. Anybody have any questions on those? I didn't. All good, no? Move to approve and pay the bills. Second. Moved by Tisdale, seconded by Coleman to approve the bills as presented. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Okay, bills will get paid. Personnel requests.

I have seven personnel requests from the Sheriff's Office. So James Lee, I'll start with step raises. So James Lee, step raise, going to a correction officer two, grade two, base pay of $2,686, full-time permanent employee effective on 7-12. Alexandria Koloski, step raise, going to a correction officer two, grade two, base pay of $2,686, full-time permanent employee on 6-28. And Kyle Parks, step raise, going to a Deputy 1, Grade 3, base pay $33, full-time permanent employee, effective on 7-12. Classification changes, Daniel Howard, going to a Correction Officer 1, Grade 2, base pay of $25.30, full-time permanent employee, effective 6-23. Andre Stewart, this is classification change, going to correction officer one, grade one, base pay of $24.80, full-time permanent employee. Also 623, Ashley Jo, going to sheriff's office, correction officer two, grade three, base pay of $27.41. She will now be a part-time fill-in employee, effective on 619. And D.R. D'Artagnan.

Not a name you see very often.

As a new hire, dispatch one, grade one, base pay of $24.80, also a permanent, or a part-time fill-in employee effective on 6-23.

Muscatine.

Yeah. How did you say it?

Or d'Artagnan.

D'Artagnan.

Who to approve? Second. And moved by a flag and seconded by Comer to approve all the personnel requests. Any discussion, questions? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay.

Those are approved. I also have an FMLA that has been exhausted and Paul is requesting to continue the employment of Barb Baker as a reasonable accommodation until August 14th of 2026. You don't have to do paperwork on that. I just need a motion.

So the acronym, could you help us with that?

The Family Medical Leave Act. Okay. If you only get 12 weeks, and so once that's exhausted, then you can't extend the FMLA, so you have to do things to continue the continuation of employment.

Second. Moved by Tisdale, seconded by Comer to approve the medical leave extension as part of the breaker. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed nay? Okay, motion carries.

Travel requests. I have one travel request, Chairman, for Mike Lujan, Carmen Simons, and Josh Bridenstine to head to the end of the 2026 Annual Assessor School in Pierre on February, or February, September 13th through September 18th, and to also request meal reimbursements

Motion to approve. Second. Moved by Coleman, seconded by Flanagan to approve the travel requests for the equalization of staff. Any questions? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Okay, that this request is approved. Need to canvas the results from Rimrock Road District.

Yeah, the election was held On last Friday, on June 19th, and the votes was, all together was one vote, one voting for and zero voting against. So it's in authorization for the chairman to sign the official canvas and the order declaring it incorporated.

Second. I move by flag and second by Fisdale to approve Canvassing of the vote and allowing the chairman to sign the order. Approving. All those in favour, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Okay. All that's approved.

Thank you. This is the season for elections.

It is. Secure and Rule School Act, through Matthew Bruce.

It's that time again where we have the county's required to make the election under the act. I've got the amounts up on the screen. I think the estimate of the payment is $255. If you read it, you can see where you're required to make certain elections. Those that you see on the screen as provided to you represent what you've done historically, I believe, the last several years. For example, that Title III money, that's money that can be used to reimburse search and rescue activities, I think, and things like that. We struggled to spend that money. Title II, I think, can be used for RAC projects. And we've reached out, isn't that right? Title II stays with us. That's right. Title III is RAC projects. We reached out to the Forest Service to see if there was any way that they could spend the Title III money. And the passport committee, the RAC committee, improved the... the observation deck at Brandeville Falls. So we're trying to spend it, but it's kind of difficult. It's federal money, so there's a lot of restrictions. But we'd be looking for a motion to authorize to continue the allocations that we said.

And Title II then goes to the search and rescue? Title II stays with the state.

It stays with them. Title I is the National Forest money that gets split half and half in between schools and the road bridge. And then the Title II stays with in the new title three is title three money that has to be used within the national forest. So it kind of made it very limited.

There's really no discretionary spending for the county through any of these funds, but we have to approve them available. Is that what we approve right now? Because we're not approving the actual project.

Just the percentages.

Just the percentages. So the 255K, that's already with the 25% or that's a 25% plus that?

So we would be electing to do the SRS, so the 260, 780, 217, is that, and then they split that by those percentages. And then that's what comes, 85% comes to the county, and then 8% stays there, and then 7% is Title III. I know it's clear as mud, it's, yeah, but it is revenue streams that is available for, John to use for his roads.

That got his attention.

I can name certain roads, but I won't. They do a great job.

Motion to approve. Second. Moved by Ewing and seconded by Flanagan to approve the SRS funds So we're electing to utilize them, is that essentially what the motion is going to be? And the allocation center. Yep, so then move to allocate them and elect to use them. Any other questions for discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay? Okay. Check that box off then. Thank you. There'd been another something to do. And we have the Association of County Convention's coming up in September. Bruce needed to know by a certain date if we're going soon.

Yeah, just as a reminder, so there's a new portal that will allow you to register online or I'll register on your behalf. They don't have the registration materials up yet, so they don't have any kind of a proposed agenda or anything like that. Some overachievers have already reserved their motel rooms at the Ram Kota almost a year ago. And so if anybody's interested, if you want to let me know. It's in Sioux Falls, isn't it?

Yeah.

You don't have to do it today.

I can get you a motel room reserved too. So yeah, just maybe try to let me know whenever you're ready.

All right.

Pat is here. Yeah, Pat is up next. If you'd like to give us a report from the Sheriff's Office, or you have a full report, that's the handouts.

I'm very happy that I have nothing to report, so if you have questions for me, I'll try, but I got nothing. I wish I had something.

Should be something we can roll you around in the morning.

Well, okay. Good to hear everything must be going good.

Yeah, it's going very good. Very well.

Thank you. Thanks for coming. Do we need to wait for a certain time to do the post-election? We'll move right on into that.

All righty. It's me again. So we held the post-election audit on June 16th. We started at 9 o'clock and finished just around 11.30. Everything went. Couldn't have asked for... Better crew that I had, they did just a marvelous job. Very thankful. Of course, the results of the post-election audit were 100% as to what was counted on the tabulator. It's very good. I'll just read the letter to the Honorable Board of Lawrence County Commissioners. On June 16th, 2026, a post-election audit was conducted on the following precincts in Lawrence County. from the primary election that was held on June 2nd, 2026. The results of the post-election audit are as follows. St. Onge Precinct, the following races were audited. Statewide race, United States representative official canvas total, Marty Jackley, 74, and James Villalata, 15. Post-election audit total with Marty Jackley, 74, and James Villalata, 15. Second race for St. Onge was precinct committee woman. Official canvas total was Valerie Samuelson, 45, Mary J. Fitzgerald, 38. The post-election audit results were Valerie Samuelson, 45, and Mary Fitzgerald, 38. And we went and audited roll number two precinct. The following races were audited as a state-wide race was United States representative. Official canvas total was Marty Jackley, 612, and James Villalata, 182. Post-election audit total was Marty Jackley, 612, and James Bialata, 182. The second race was the school board members, Spiritfish School District 40-2. The official canvas total was Alicia Limbaugh, 462, and Raeanne Mettler, 261. The post-election audit total was Alicia Limbaugh, 462, and Raeanne Mettler, 261. Respectively submitted, Brenda Magruder, and it's coming up.

And you did two precincts because you needed 100 votes.

I just need a motion for you to approve.

Second. Moved by Flanagan, seconded by Tisdale to approve the post-election audit canvassing. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Okay, that is approved.

Thank you all very much for your support.

Thanks for doing a great job. Mr. Bay, I believe you can go up next.

Good morning. Good morning. I have a few applications for some permits. The first one I have is for approach permit this is a private approach this is personal property off of the elk creek road that was recently replanted this would take the proposed approach and move it to the east i went out and visited the site um the site distance to the north is 525 feet into the south is 800 feet that is more than adequate for the mile an hour posting on that road, which is 35. The site does not sit and exist in any kind of a floodplain and it will not require any culvert, everything drains away. With the conditions I've added to this and that would just be the standard, the approach would be constructed perpendicular to the Elk Creek Road and remain perpendicular to the Elk Creek Road and then any all additional material that would be required by the with the contractor or the property owner to bring the approach up to a substantial grade that is acceptable and still maintain the negative grade to help regrow and subdrainage this to their property. And with that, I would recommend approval of that approach.

Motion to follow Highway Superintendent's recommendation for approval. Second. Sorry, Brandon.

Let me get a, approach following the highway superhead recommendations. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Okay, motion's approved.

Thank you. The next permits I have, these are for utility permits, and I'm going to, they're kind of together. They're two separate permits. They're for the same project, but they're on two different properties. And this is submitted by James Straska with Black Hills Energy. And this will require, and the reason I broke these out into two is because one of them is going to require a bore under the Galena Road. The other one is just an open trench to private property, and then it turns into a bore, which we would have nothing to do with. So the first one, it, It would take in some underground trenching along the edge of the property line and then a bore under the Galena Road. That property is 12056 Galena Road. That property owner has property on both sides of the road. They're trying to get power from one side to the other. They're taking power from an existing power pole, an existing transformer. They're going to take it down the road in front of the property owner's lot, and then across the road. The second one, it will go from the same power supply, and it goes the opposite direction. And just for a little short distance, it will go along the Galena Road, and it goes on a private property. So the next one, that one there is the one that crosses the road. That one right there, it just goes a little bit short distance and then it goes on to private property. Neither one of these do I have an issue with. There's already existing power poles there. This is all underground. It's all at the outside edge of the right-of-way except for where it moors across. Black Hills Power already has bond with us. They did give us the estimated cost of $12,000 per job in the right of way, but we already have a bond with them. I would not require, you guys don't require an additional. I did put the stipulations that the utility must be at the outermost limits of the right-of-way. The utility must be minimum depth or deeper as specified in Ordinance 0701. Board pits must be at the outer limits of the right-of-way. No digging will be allowed in the road or at the road's edge. And any utility boxes or transformers will be located outside. They have agreed to these conditions. With that, I would recommend approving each of these permits.

I recommend

Do you want to do these separately? Well, I have them separately, so if you want to do them separately for 262326, I'd recommend approval.

I recommend approval following the recommendations from Highway Superintendent for Utility 2-62326. Second.

And moved by Coleman, or seconded by Flanagan, to approve the utility permit for 2326. following Superintendent's recommendations. Any other discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. We'll follow our donation on the other one. Second. Sounds like a yelling vote. That's moved by Flag and seconded by Comer to approve Utility Permit Number 362326. Again, following Superintendent's recommendations. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Motion carries. Those are both approved.

And the last thing I have is we kind of ran into some issues with our current software. Our current software for our highway system is going to be discontinued at the end of this year. I have a left it up to my office personnel i put all of my faith and trust in them to find a suitable replacement they've been working very hard on this for the last last year really but the last six months they've really put a lot of effort the issue is that our current software has changed it went from hub works to g works they sold uh the company is now going to be a It's going to be a web-based system, which all of them are now, but it does not really meet our requirements. It's more designed for cities and municipalities, and it's just not going to work. We did do some demos with it. Some other counties in the state have tried to demo it as well. It just doesn't seem to be the right fit. There is a new system. In fact, some of the employees from the current HubWorks went over, and they started a company called There's already several counties that have switched to that system, and that is our recommendation is to go to NOBO. It's also a cloud-based and web-based system, but it's more tailored to counties and South Dakota state codified laws. There is an upfront cost, though, and it's going to be this year, and it's a cost that I didn't anticipate a budget for it, but it's going to cost us $17,940 to sign on with this company. We do have a contract here for them, and I guess I would like to have your guys' approval of switching to this system. I guess I don't know, I guess it'd maybe be a question for Bruce if this is a contract that you guys need to sign, or if I can just sign it, I don't know. I was unclear and unaware, so that's kind of why I brought it here.

You can authorize the highway superintendent to sign if you want to, I think. Yeah.

I can review it. Well, I would certainly ask for that authorization, and if you guys need time to review that, that's fine. I think, did you provide them with that contract? No. Okay. I'll have to retro-flag it.

As the old system, send them phased out so that the new one What are you doing currently?

We're currently still working with the system. We did get a letter from them or an email from them that when it's done, it's done. At the end of this year, we either have to renegotiate and sign up with them again or they turn it off, I guess.

Greg is here.

Greg, some of the stuff is on our system, on our hard drive. If we would have no support, we would not be able to add or go forward or forward. We'd be able to retrieve our old information and things like that. We won't be able to use their system for any kind of new input. So you need the upfront cost for next year. We're going to need the upfront cost for this year. It's going to have to be paid for when we sign the contract. Right. But our current contract goes to the end of this year.

Correct. So there'd be a gap.

So is there a plan to support software and get our existing information transferred into? That's part of this cost. Cost is to transfer the data into the system and get it up and operational, work out all the costs.

Part of their cost is taking our current information and putting it into their system. And then that's part of that $17,000. The one-time setup cost is $11,450, and after that it costs $6,490. which is a little more than we're paying now. Right now we're paying like around $4,600 a year for the system we have. But that price is going up too. This is the closest one we came to the existing price we have now. So it's a three-year contract with a 3% increase annually after that is what they proposed. I do think Greg has reviewed this contract He had a few issues and some things that he thought would have to be maybe addressed in the future, I guess, I don't know.

So yeah, Greg did review it, and I think he actually talked to the vendor, and he had some recommendations, but he had no security concerns, so I don't think there's any vulnerabilities to the web-based system, if I'm saying that correctly. I think his concerns were more related to, I don't know how I would say it, like the robustness of their system, maybe, is that fair? If they were to go down, sort of those kinds of things, but in terms of any kind of security issues, I did not sense any problem. I reviewed the contract as well. It's one of these fairly off-the-shelf software contracts.

Did you see anything? I'm going to tell you right now, it's out of my wheelhouse. I don't know anything about this. I put all my faith in my office people that I have all the trust in the world for them to, they've researched this and they've done a lot of work on this. I put everything on them.

They're comfortable with it? Absolutely, yes.

And it's compatible with our current accounting systems? Or do you just send a report to?

We send a report. We send a report. This is not compatible with the office systems down here. Okay, Commissioner Blanket? Where is the money anticipated to be coming from? In the future, as we will look at in my budget proposal, I increased our office, budget to accommodate this. For now, we'll just have to take it out of our road and bridge fund.

So you have room inside your current budget to pull?

Yeah, I think we will be fine. It's early enough in the year. I mean, if there's a shortfall going in towards the end of the year, we'll just have to cut back on something else. Or come in with something. It's something that has to be done.

I don't like, one way or the other, the current system isn't going to work. That's right. We'll make a motion to approve the expenditure and allow either the chairman or the highway superintendent to sign whichever is appropriate with the contract language.

Second.

And moved by Flanagan, seconded by Ewing to approve the expenditure for a new accomplice in the highway department and authorize either the chairman or highway superintendent to sign. Any other questions or discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Okay. It's approved.

Thank you. Good job. If there's anything else that you have for me, I'd certainly listen to that now. If not, I have nothing more for you guys.

Thanks, John. Thank you, John.

Have a great rest of your day.

We might as well jump on ahead since Amber's not down here. Mitch, are you ready to roll here?

Sure.

I appreciate you coming up, Mitch.

Yes. Just give me a quick summary. This letter that we're proposing to be sent out by the county is related to the timber harvest situation. And there's been some, issues with the forest supervisor uh kind of distorting or misinterpreting the county's position on timber harvest that field trip um that he was not present on and this letter is just to clarify the county's position i think it's necessary because there's been some other things that have gone on recently as well very similar and so it would be good to get on record. Also, it's creating the forest supervisor's position or misinterpretation of the county's position is creating some concern by other counties and wondering what's going on with Lawrence County. Basically, what I'm hearing is Lawrence County wants to cut trees in other areas, but not in their own county. That's really unfortunate and the only thing I would say with this letter is we could think about maybe not having the district ranger on the CC list because I don't think he was part of the problem here. But I'll leave that up to Eric and you guys. It's coming from the forest supervisor. The other CC on the letter is the forest supervisor's supervisors. So with that being said, that's kind of the gist of it.

So the other CC, Andrew Johnson, is listed as forest supervisor. Is that his actual title at the bottom?

He's acting regional forester. He's also a forest supervisor on the Bighorns. So I think it should be changed to acting regional forester. But not a big deal. Troy is on another assignment. Troy Heidecker, is he still there? He's still there. He's still part of that whole group.

I'm trying to understand here. So he's a regional forester. Yes. And then Andrew Johnson is an acting deputy regional forester.

Deputy regional forester. He's underneath Troy. Okay.

Gotcha.

So that's how that's set up.

Okay.

If it's a big problem, you could leave Andrew Johnson as Forest Supervisor because that is correct. He's Forest Supervisor of the Bighorns. I could change it and take Patrick off if you want me to.

I just leave them all on, figure out the appropriate title. I'm going to have a motion to approve and send this letter to the, not the way it is with some edits, to who they are and what their title is.

I'll second that. And moved by Flanagan, seconded by Comer to authorize the chairman to sign the letter and send it to the appropriate people. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, negative.

Mr. Chairman, and so I'm a little CC, so are we going to take off Patrick Champa, the district ranger then? That's my recommendation, yes.

I would say just leave it on. I don't know why we don't just let everybody in the food chain know.

And then Andrew Johnson, can I leave this time list for a supervisor? Patrick was at the last Natural Resources Committee meeting as well. And so he's sort of aware of all of this as well. So my sense is, and I will defer to Chairman and Mitch, is he's not going to be caught off guard by this?

No, not at all. We've talked to him about it and he feels that things got misinterpreted as well. And so the problem there is that the forest supervisor, not with the local district ranger, that's been going really good. And so it is good. So it's the most important one. I think this will help nip this type of thing in the bud for future things.

Thank you. And I think Patrick has a good sense of a good working relationship with the county. That's what I get. Is that fair? Yes. It's probably never about as good as it's been for a very long time. He's trying very hard. Yes. And this letter will be no surprise at all to us. We've discussed the situation with him before. We did submit your other comments at the last meeting too.

I don't know if you've had any follow up with him since then, Mitch. Patrick emailed me and said, thank you. They really helped. Just positive. Benchmark comments that we were listening to. Benchmark project, that 40,000 acre project in the benchmark area.

And the county has also made some images through the IIS, do some of the next resources.

Yeah, we've gotten the LIDAR information and we've got some really good imagery from the county. And that's really helping use the two to look at forest conditions in a way that we've never been able to look at them before. Tree height, crown, species, all of that, it's pretty incredible. So thank you for setting that access up to those photos.

Mr. Chairman, what I referenced earlier, we're trying to see if we can find a way to spend that Title III money for things, I don't know, like LIDAR or hiring any experts that they need to expedite any of their environmental assessments, that kind of thing. And so hopefully we'll hear some good news and how we can spend that money in terms of your efforts.

And I saw your email about that. So that's great.

I haven't heard anything back yet. Hopefully we can spend it.

Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Jeff. Thank you, Mitch. All right, why don't we take a little break here. There's probably not much stepping up for Amber to do, but we'll take a five-minute break here.

Anyway, we'll meet in three minutes.

All right, we will call our meeting back to order. Planning and zoning.

We have one item today. So this is just a memorandum of agreement amendment, or a new one, because we do a new one every time they make a change. They've requested to have some money taken off of their littering credits. So the new engineer's estimate is completed. ASCII has been doing, is showing the completion so we can see what's coming off of each of these. Here's your new bond amount at 68216530. The bank did do an amendment to the standby letter of credit, and we did get that new information. So this is just pretty standard. As they start to release money, we require them to provide a new documentation. So we sign a new one, and then it just goes on the record. This engineer has kind of got it figured out now. the difference in payment, and then he also provides these pictures kind of showing what they did. We're including those and we just keep track of them as we go through the process. So that's it. Pretty easy.

So looking for a motion to approve the amended letter or memorandum of agreement? Correct. So moved. Second. Moved by Fanagan and seconded by Tisdale to approve the amended memorandum of agreement. All those in favour say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Motion carries. This is the project that they wanted to trench through the road instead of boring under it.

Correct.

Have they done that?

That would be a question for, yeah, because it goes through John. I don't think they did anything, but I don't know, I guess. I'm seeing a permit.

It's part of the project. I had a permit already.

Yeah. I thought they had it.

They had a boring rule and they denied it.

Because you denied the boring permit, right? Gotcha.

Yeah. No, we approved the boring permit. Okay. Yep. All right. Just seeing these pictures from the boring, I just got to think about it.

Yeah. Do you have anything else, Bruce?

It's done. Just waiting for, yeah. We're way ahead, so yeah.

Sorry, I got nothing else for you. I can't fill your time.

Pass out budget books. I need the recording here while we do that.

You go in with an agenda, your agenda just goes away. And on all this stuff, you learn.

Yep. There's rules. Yeah. The statutes are there for a reason and we have to follow them. That is, you know, what you find out as you go along.

I didn't realize I'd get sucked into 20-some years of this stuff.

So do you think there would be an appetite for annual spring workshops instead of every other year? I would go.

We have them already. We're already doing it. You just add the commissioners like the year after.

Yeah, county officials, they're already doing an annual. They used to do annuals for county commission and that changed before I came on, shortly before I came on. They just do the new like every other year. Yeah, it's a following an election. Okay, we'll bring that up. Thanks for doing that. Anything else from the commissioners? Okay, well, can we do items from the public?

You can. I don't see anybody online.

Yeah, is there anybody online that would like to give us any comments? Or anybody from the gallery too? I didn't mean to overlook you guys.

No real agenda, but just appreciate being here and learning your advice about going forward.

All right, we'll close the public comment period also then. Should we just kind of go into some budget workshop things?

He's coming in early, but you're even further ahead than I thought. I'll try to keep the budget step up on the screen.

So do you want to give us just an open mic here? Sure, Brenda. So as I process through the budget this year, plugging in the numbers, one of the sheets at the beginning is your increase, decrease. It shows the 2026 budget compared to what was submitted by the department heads for 2027. Also includes my estimated transfers to Road and Bridge 911 and EM. With that and the estimated revenues that I've calculated, right now I'm showing we're a negative 156.705 as far as we have to dip into the surplus cash. And so that is kind of where we're setting. I have kept going back over it because it's a good number. Of course you want it to balance and I think as we go through possibly we can make up a little bit of that. I've already made up some of it. I've got the actual figure from Butte County for our half of 4-H. That was less than I calculated 3% when I put it in. I came in a little bit less than that. So I've already made up some of that 156. So I don't know if you want to start going through the allocations first, or if you want to do department by department and we can do the allocations within each of those allocations within each of those budgets. So, but anyways, I think we have to go ahead. Quick question. Where were we last year? 156. No, it's pretty good.

But this is with the maximum increase Yes, 3%.

3% and then the 2.5% for the CPI and then the growth. And then we did have a little bit of, with the TIF dissolved and the discretionary growth, we can also use that or you can go above the three. So the county is, I'm not going to have that in front of me, I'll have to pull that up, but I can bring that up after I speak with them.

And what did you do on health insurance? Because that was a pretty big deal.

I did 10%.

You did 10%, but we have not gotten that number yet, but we'll get it in July now. Is that when we get it?

It's supposed to be a little earlier. It's like usually either end of July, so I have to publish. So we'll meet on the 30th, and then if we have it by then, that would be great because then we could do it. Yeah, and then, you know, go from there. But as of right now, I did do 10%.

Yeah, it was seven last year, wasn't it? Is that what our number was last year?

That high? 7.85 is ringing a bell with me, but we left it at 10. We did not go in and change it. We just left it at 10 because it was pretty close.

Taking a pretty big bite in the budget there.

Yeah, it is. Things are actually looking pretty good as far as when they were here the last time. the numbers are looking good as far as insurance. So that's just the day-by-day thing as far as what happens within your group coverage.

Before we do that, do you need the mining guys? Yes, sir. Okay, so we could go ahead and if you're ready.

Well, I'm Gordon Phillips. I'm the CEO of the Micro Mining Museum. And we've got a request, as you see in the letter, for about $8,500 to pay Interstate Engineering for an engineering plan to help us with what's going on with our parking structure. If you read the Pioneer, you know, two weeks back, the front page headlines, the parking structure, which is adjacent to our building, has been in deterioration for many years. They tried different things, kind of kicked the can down the road. We are still hopeful for a new facility, but the condition, of the parking lot justifies taking some immediate action. The biggest problem is that a portion of the building sits on the parking lot. And so that area needs to be stabilized ahead of any removal project. And this is Garrett Jangborg from Interstate Engineering. And so they're the ones that will be doing the plan for us. After we get the plan, then we'll put it out to contractors to see what that part of the cost will be to get that done, and then we'll chase those dollars and move forward.

I'm trying to remember, that's all on the same side of the street, so isn't it?

Yeah, that's right. We own basically between the post office and the city library, and our building is on the city library side, and then there's a parking structure, a two-level parking structure, That original lot was the Hearst Mercantile, built in 1922. It burnt in 42-ish and then remained vacant for a while. And then it was rebuilt as a grocery store on the foundations of the 22 building, which is a big part of what the problem is. There's a lot of deterioration in that construction method with the concrete that are not what they would be today. And so it's It's been looked at, according to our files at the museum, it's been looked at four different times and everybody kind of comes to the same conclusion. You really need to work hard to get it down. And because of lack of identifying where all the money was going to come from to do the whole project, nobody ever really started on the beginning. And so we want to take care of that. If we're not able to do so, Our only main entrance is off of the parking lot. Our emergency exit off the main floor is onto that parking structure. We have two emergency exits on the tour level. They both go under that structure. And then we have one emergency exit in a sub-basement that goes out the back, which is not affected. So that structure has a big impact on our ability to get people in and out safely and we want to continue to do that.

Sure. And so this is for design specs to see what they do about the old foundation and what would need to be done from there.

Yeah, yeah.

So the scope of this work is to do a design for shoring up the portion of the parking structure that has to remain in place to support the entrance to the building.

Bruce, do you have a question? I was going to say, Mr. Chairman, it's initially presented to you as a request for mine severance tax funds. I included a copy of the statute in your packets. It's 10-39-54.3. Other options could include a funding request that you would discuss maybe today for 2027. And it also reminds me of $50,000 in your contingency fund currently. That money could be spent from there.

How much is in contingency? $50,000. That's what's my proof. That's this year we have it?

Yes, but I didn't get to share it. No, we did a couple a month ago. Okay, thanks all there. So those are the options. And if I may, although ironically this is the mine severance tax fund and this is a request from a mining museum, it's not immediately clear to me where it fits in the schedule I have on the screen. So I would suggest if you're going to consider the request to come out I think maybe contingency fund would be the easiest course. Is that fair, Brenda? All things considered for the immediate funding.

Yeah. I tend to agree. I didn't really feel that it fit in any of those four areas for the mining severance tax fund. It is true.

It is possible, too, for principal. So we're talking about spending interest. That's what we generally govern. You could take it out of principal. You'd have to contact the Governor's Office of Economic Development. They would probably approve it. We would have to take that step and then it would come up.

Do you have a timeframe that you're wanting us to do the work on this? Immediately.

Well, if we're to consider it, That would be what I would support.

Mr. Chairman? Brenda, would we have to come back again at the next meeting to get authorization to spend it then?

Unless you do the motion today. That's how you feel about the open meeting. It was not on the agenda, but you could make the motion to do the contingency transfer, but that would be up to you whether or not you felt it was something that needs to be on the agenda.

Because typically that's a public hearing. Usually we put notice of it on the agenda, the amount. But we just discussed that today, so it wasn't something we had thought of prior to today. So if you approve the contingency transfer, we would then follow up at your next meeting on July 14th. And I don't know how that fits into the timelines we have here, but there might be a delay until July 14th.

But we can't move forward until we find funds. So, I mean, that's the way it takes. That's the way it takes. But then you have the assurance that the money, it would just be a matter of process, generally speaking, because they can't speak for what would happen on 14.

No one's ever coming in on 14.

So you're looking for half the funds. You're looking for another $3,750. Am I reading that correctly? No, we need $8,500 to pay for the totals.

So that's what's left of the balance. No, that is the balance. That will be the complete balance for new construction documents for that project. They paid $3,750 for the new inspection.

Okay. Now this is $8,500.

Right. I'm with you. I'm good with the contingency, but I would also say we need to take the proper channels. Right.

Right. So we're probably looking for a motion to continue this to the next meeting?

I think you could authorize the contingency transfer to Brenda.

If you want it on the agenda, you would need to wait until you could just put it on the agenda to do the contingency transfer at the next meeting.

So we would need to continue it from this?

I wouldn't think you would need to continue it.

It's a new item on the agenda. It's a new item on this meeting. Okay.

And you could just say that, I can just put in the minutes that the board has discussed making a contingency transfer, and it'll be on the next agenda.

July 14th.

July 14th.

Okay, at 8 o'clock.

At 8 o'clock.

But there's only been two of us that said we would probably support this. We should. Yeah, yeah. Apparently give them some more feelings. So yeah, we need more information.

I'm generally in support. I mean, that used to be the Piggly Wiggly when I was a little kid, and it was there before I was a little kid. I mean, that was a place where grade schools went and fought after school was in the bottom level of that park. And when the Piggly Wiggly closed down, it moved down the street, and it closed there and moved up the street.

Okay, it's on the next agenda. All right, so we can't take any action today, but we'll put this on for July 14th and take it up then. All right, thank you very much.

Garrett, may I ask you a question? Yeah. So will the bill come from you? Yeah, yeah. So at the next meeting, if we make the contingency transfer and also have the bill at that time, then we could do the voucher and transfer, so we can get that paid.

Okay. Yeah, so typically we invoice after. If it's easier.

No, that's fine. I guess if that's how you process it, that's fine. I was just trying to speed up the process for you, but that's fine. We'll send the bill to the county for the $8,500 for the project.

Yes. I mean, yeah, we could do it that way or we could send it to them and they could bring it to us. Okay.

Yeah. Or we could send the money to the mining and they can pay you, however. So we'll figure that out. Thank you.

So back to, it was 7.35. Okay, that was the insurance. That was the insurance increase and the CPI was 2.5.

the growth for the county is 3.44 we had 44.44 growth on the dissolved tips and discretionary that we were able to have so that is what i'm using for the um max tax request as of right now okay because we have not obviously not in utilities yet so we will not be finding out which it comes in september

It could be more revenue.

Yeah, it could be.

Or it could be less. And that growth number is below the limits that the state, was that 5% growth? Three. Three.

Three percent. But you can go above that if you have TIF dissolved. The TIF dissolved. Or discretionary growth. And that is what I calculated, that gave me the figures.

So that's what you were talking about, that new learning that you have to do. Yeah.

Anyway, so that's where we're sitting as far as that. So do you want to just go by department and then we can look at the allocations? All of the allocations beside them are the department number. So if you start with commissioners at department 111, those first, there's nine allocations in the commissioner's budget that you could look at. decide what you want to do with them.

So can I just have, like, 111? Yeah. Which is Commissioner's? Yeah, why don't we do it that way?

Okay. So Commissioner's budget went up $46,010, a 1.53% increase. And the allocations, obviously, you can see those. Dump week went up the same at 10. Good Shepherd requested the same. Fast vendors last year, you chose not to allocate to that, so that is zero. Boys and Girls Club has requested 10,000, which is up 2,500 from last year. Opera House, Homestake Opera House has requested $7,500, which is an additional $7,250. The Matthew Opera House requested $5,000, which is up $4,750 from last year. And then the Scarefish Economic Development requested $2,000, which was up $1,000 from last year. And then Deadwood Lead Economic requested $1,000, which is $500 from last year, and then the Black Hills Council of Local Government, their annual fees went up $545. Those are the ones that are affected within the commissioner's budget. So we can decide to leave those as requested, or you can make changes, whichever you prefer.

So let's just knock those out one at a time here. So dump week is staying the same at 10,000. Correct. Are we good with that? Yeah. So typically it takes three commissioners to approve these allocations. So if I get three nods, we'll call that good.

So we get, of course, if I may. Yeah, so you don't officially approve the budget meeting in September, so you're kind of giving provisional authority so that Brandon can move forward in making the adjustments and represent this. Does that make sense? Just so everybody knows it's not a final decision today. So we're kind of taking a straw poll here is essentially what we're looking at.

Good Shepherd Clinic. Leave it. Yep, I'm fine with it. Fassbender, do you want to continue to not vote that one? Leave it. Leave it? Yep. Boys and Girls Club. And this is in LEED, isn't it? Is this the one in LEED? Yes.

It actually is actually at where the old funeral home used to be over by the high school. When you come up and come onto the highway, it's there. Last I knew. Was it a coffee shop or something for a while?

An extra $2,500. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to get their letter.

There it is. I mean, it's the same as last year. And with that, okay.

Home Stake Offer House is looking for a $7,250 increase. We've been giving them $250. Anybody have an appetite for increasing then?

You on that board, Brandon?

No, the commissioners ended up getting off of that one, I believe. I think for a while they thought we needed to have one, and then I think they realized that they didn't need to have one. I can't remember. Diver was the last one that got that one.

Are we still remodeling that, or? Yeah, just as they have funds. I think we leave that. If we leave that, we need to leave the Matthews. And the same as last year.

So 250 for both?

Yeah.

Okay.

Spiritfish Economic Development Corporation membership. You're on that board, right?

I am. I'm good with leaving it.

Ed would lead economic development. We've been at 500. So I would advocate for increasing that, actually. They actually do need some money. They do quite a little for economic development in the lead area. They're very active in bringing in businesses and stimulating businesses, I would say. But they don't have the membership base in this area that the Younger Economic Development Corporation does.

Can we – would this help send a message to, like, SADC? If we increase this one, it didn't increase them, because of their activity? Yeah.

That doesn't really have any other income sources. They just have their membership. Spearfish does have some other income sources.

$1,000.

So you'd like to raise it to $1,000? I would like to put it at $1,000, to have both of them the same, both Spirit Fish and Deadwood lead the same. Okay. I can live with that. Okay. Black Hills Council local governments, their budgeting felt they required an increase for membership fees. So we're good with that? Yeah. Okay, that takes care of those for the commissioners. Then we'll pick those other ones up and we'll get to that department, I think.

So then the next one is the commissioners contingency. I'm budgeting $50,000 for that again for 2027.

I'm good with that.

And then elections, since it's on Odd-numbered year, we typically don't have an election, so I decreased it down to 30,000. I try to always purchase, you know, supplies to carry through for, you know, even-numbered years. So I'll drop that down to 30,000. And then courts, so you do have a couple allocations with the courts. Okay.

get out and make any decisions on the court.

Sounds good. So the courts, we have CASA, they're requesting 15,000, which is the same as they requested last year, and also teen court requesting 17.5, which is the same as last year as well. Their letter states that they have left everything the same as the prior year.

I think we need to support those. At the same levels? Yeah. Nice that they didn't even ask for an increase. Right.

And then the next one doesn't come in until Department 422, so we have a little while before we have another allocation. Okay. That leads us into the auditor's office. I requested an increase just basically for cost of living, step raises, dues and copier, leases, they always go up a little bit and the dues always go up a little bit. So I'm just asking for that, just that 3% cost of living and then the step raises for my staff as well.

I'm good with that.

And you're on target with all the 2026 budget for supplies and all that.

Right now. So I'm going to pull this out so I don't have to jump back and forth here. One second.

A question on elections. We're having an extra election with the governor runoff. Is that going to put us in a deficit for that budget?

Yes. So thank you for bringing that up. Yes, obviously I only budget for two elections, so we're going to have three. But I did submit to the state for Health America Vote Act funds. So that covers our maintenance agreement, other supplies, et cetera. When that comes, I would probably ask to have that automatically supplemented into that budget, which is about, I want to say it was 20,000, but off the top of my head, I can't remember. So if I put that back in there, that should be, it was not income that I had budgeted for in 26. So it should just offset it, and so I'm hoping that should cover the cost of the runoff. Thank you for bringing that up. That's a very good question. Okay, so Treasurer's Office, Deb kind of put a little scenario. If you go to page 12, she put a little scenario as to what she is requesting for her increase in her budget. And every department head puts comments in there as to why they're asking for their increases. Who was page 12 at in her book? Sorry, Department 141. Sorry, I have that on the screen too. 141, so my apologies.

Save the last page under Section 15.

Yes. Deb is asking for a 5.9% increase.

She's pretty frugal. Yeah, she is. And you can see why she wants the camera set.

I put it in the rack out there. Any other questions for Deb? So the next one is 145, insurance and bonds. This covers all of our property insurance, workman's comp, indigent medical, any type of insurance that we would have happen throughout the county. This is a 6.88% increase for that. Of course, like everybody knows, your insurance goes up every year. and hopefully that's it hopefully yeah then the next one is postage um i don't know if you recall um i think we're into the fourth year the fifth year of the 10-year continued increase every twice a year for postage so i just increased that by 20 000 to try to stay ahead of that that um increase so um of course july 1st we have another increase going coming into effect. So that was a 10-year project through the Postal Service.

Why was 2025 spent so much less?

Non-election year, too. That makes a difference? Yeah, it does. Because you're not sending out the absentee ballot. Because you're having to bail out the ballots. It does make a difference. And it depends on what kind of election. This was if I was a presidential. You just don't know how many requests you'll have. So, you know, we all have the same, we have to send out the tax notices, the assessment notices, and then we have all of our election notices and all of that. So it just depends on the count.

Yeah, most of that's predictable. Yep, yep.

Anyway, so, okay, we'll head into the State's Attorney Department 131. It's a negative 2.86% increase for them. Shelly just submitted the budget, stating that there was step raises for two of the employees going forward. They are still short a deputy state attorney as well. So that has been a struggle for quite some time for Brenda. Okay, Public Defender's Office, Department 152. She also put notes in the comments about the 3% increase and then anticipate the separates for one of her employees. And that she met with her advisory board on June 3rd. And this is what they are proposing. And so they're at a 1.5% increase. A court-appointed attorney, 153. This also is one of those departments where some years is good and then some years it's not so good. It just depends on what's happening in the court system. Just about impossible to predict. Exactly. And so the Circuit Court is just requesting that it stays the same and move forward, hoping that that will sufficient funds going forward. 161 is general government buildings. Tim submitted his budget. I don't know if he put any comments. He did not, so I don't know if you want to talk with him, but he's requesting 13.15% increase. I know that he has, as he moves forward with the new public safety utilities and things like that, just trying to get fit into his budget, so.

Yeah, I'm sure that's been a challenge. Yeah. Looks like he's looking for a new truck.

And then, yes, he is. Thank you, Brandon, for putting that in there, too, for a new three-quarter ton mobile for $50,000 as well.

So do we want to hear from Tim?

He's had that truck for a long time.

I'm all right with the budget for that.

Okay. Good. Okay. Equalization, Department 162. Brad is at a negative 1.74%. She put her comments in there as well. Of course, everybody puts in there their step raises and their cost of living because that's built into the budget. Talked about some software and... And of course, they all have training that they're required to take care of.

It's nice to get all their software upgrades . All righty, so register of deeds, 163.

We did a 3.3% increase. Just the biggest lease agreements with Tyler and your fees, and then they added that Trim and Lend notification software that just went active here just not too long ago. And then the M&P funds, which is a special revenue fund, it's self-funding, it comes from their...

It's not taxed for it.

Right, yeah, it's not taxed for anything that they get from their... Yeah, there is.

It's from the documents, by the way.

Yeah, documents, yeah, like helping somebody. Can't think of the word, thank you. Yeah. So, okay. Into Veterans Service, 165, the major increase there would be switching from the health insurance, a different, yeah, yeah, different.

That's just from a single to a family plan, is that? Yeah, so, yeah.

Yeah, so yeah. And then predatory animal that stayed the same. No increase to that. And then Greg's budget, 171. He is always very detailed on everything that he is reporting to you. So I don't know if you have any other questions for him.

It's a brief insurance drops by $16,000.

Yes. Somebody dropped from a family to a single individual. Yeah, it's a major change if you go from a single or if you have other coverage or whatever.

Supply.

Yeah. So I don't know if you need it. Good with Greg's explanation, if you needed to visit with him or not, so okay.

But there's nothing new.

No, no, he's very thorough on his explanations.

There's no new software.

No, no.

Yeah. All right, we'll head into dispatch. This is the sheriff's office starting a batch of dispatches. Went up 5.1%. There's an explanation. This year's budget request is the third lowest in 19 years. So it's not much of an increase.

I was expecting an increase on this from what the report gave us.

Okay, so this year's dispatch, the one that you're going to see the increase is in the 911.

He does. Yeah, he does.

So this year is just things that do not qualify to be purchased under the 911. So you have to have, you know, because there are things that you cannot use and utilize those funds for because it's a special revenue fund.

Okay. Stand by. That's a good question. Just to confuse us.

Yes. And, you know, those questions you'll probably have to talk to Brian because it's mind-boggling when you get to the PSAP and the converting and stuff like that. But I think it's falling together relatively well. So on the sheriff's office, just a 3.41% increase. He also shares his explanation on that. Of course, he's always happy to come and visit with you if you have any concerns.

Last year, he wanted to add a detective that we didn't last night.

He has, we did discuss that in Sheriff and I. We do have one in here, but it's the last quarter of the year. We did do a new hire at 520 hours a year, but looking more towards the latter part of 27, like maybe October, September, October, I'm hiring that new detective. So that is incorporated in this budget.

So we're gonna have the cost the entire year, a fraction of the year.

Yeah.

520 hours?

Yeah, that's that new hire down there below. did add that in there for him. He also, like I said, will have that in his presentation when he talks to you as well as the value you need for that. So I'm heading into the jail. That's at an 8.78% increase, $246,000, which is not too bad. He also has A new hire in there as well for 27. So again, I know Brian anticipates visiting with you on the 30th and explaining everything. I mean, I can try to, but I would hate to not speak on his behalf. He's very detailed. I won't overset my bounds on that one. The coroner did talk with Pat on his budget. He is asking to increase his coroner from 250 to 260. He is increasing his coroner travel 3,900. That's for oil changes, et cetera. Now that he has the vehicle, he's going to have it.

Does he have it, Lynn?

He does have his vehicle now. He did get it. So this is just incorporating his gas and that.

Or they travel to Denver, right?

If you would have to do that, take the... Autopsy? Yeah, to autopsy. No, you're fine. And then, of course, radios and lights, he's going to need that. And then he is also requesting a $2,500 increase in his salary. And you can see that on the page before where he is requesting that for his salary. Okay. The 24-7 is also a special revenue fund. It's self-funding. It comes through all of the diversion programs that ran through the sheriff's office, the PBT scram, remote breath, all of that. That money comes into this fund. And so it's basically revenues in and revenues out. It's not taxed by the taxpayers. JDC, there again, that's one of those you just, yes, because you don't know what type of, sorry, it says 215. You don't know what is going to happen in a year-to-year basis. So we budgeted for $100,000 again this year and pray that that will be sufficient.

It's interesting to look at 2025, Mr. Chairman, and see how much you spent there.

That was a bad year. I think we supplemented twice in 2025.

Well, and they started out this year with some pretty good expenses.

Yeah, and it's kind of leveled off right now. So I pray that that stays that way. This here is the direct for the chair expenses. Brian has not budgeted anything in that. That also is a self-funded special revenue fund as well. Heading into fire advisory. 221.

221, yep, so we're fine.

I did not increase that. It stayed at $75,100. Basically just splitting a little bit of a change on the prior departments, because that goes by population, or not population, it goes by their assessed value. And that may change a little bit within there once the utilities come. It just depends on which department it affects. As of right now, that should stay solid. And that, if you look at the last page, it shows we've broken that out by evaluation.

That stays statute too. Yes.

So there's that. Emergency management, 222.

The raise in there is just because of that generator that needs replaced, isn't it?

It's $11,500 for that. And of course, this one here is the one where we are reimbursed back from the state. We did get some of the revenues from that.

Still not caught up.

But we still have the shares to get. So we did finally get the years before.

Plus they reduced it for this year. Yes, they did. They reduced it and they're still not getting paid? Well, we haven't gotten it yet for this year yet.

Okay, so this here is 9-1-1. It went up 44.53%, and this here is the implementation of, if you look on the salaries page, where all of the new hires, there's two new hires just for us, and then two new hires bringing in the Spiritfish PSAP. So that, Brian and I have worked on that, got that in there. I'm going to just not comment on that because he's got, he wants to explain how he wants to bring those employees from Spearfish up to our facility. So I'll just leave that to him. And I know there's some other grant opportunities that he's working on as well. So hopefully that will just basically balance it So there are things in the works. Jamie is working diligently on trying to get that up to date. Title III this year, as we talked about this earlier with the secure rural schools that we just passed, I did not budget for anything in here because as of right now, I have nothing to spend it on until we can come up with something. So there is funds in this. This is also a special revenue fund as well, so it's not taxpayer dollars. Road and bridge, 9.82% increase in this basically that John of course explains in his very detailed explanation on the comments too. It's also, he's got purchasing some trucks and some snow equipment. And then also we've got that huge bridge project that we're going to have to pay $427 million, which is, I want to say $1.8 million for that bridge, and that's the, he puts it in there, yeah. A little over $1 million. $1 million.

So which bridge was that, do we know?

It's the one out at Nemo, right? One of the two there? Yeah, out there at Nemo.

One bridge.

Yeah. But like I said, I'd like to ask him, so.

Yeah. Push me out of your comfort zone.

Yeah, out of my comfort zone, yeah.

Tell us about bridges.

Yeah, well, so if you were going to build a bridge.

This has been recorded. I'm just kidding. It is being recorded.

All right, so rural access infrastructure, during the legislative session, they passed to continue to fund this. So we will be getting, we did actually just got the money for this again. So I know, again, speaking for John, but I do think he has a project to fulfill using these funds, because it's just small structure. You can't, if there's criteria on how you can spend it. Yeah. Special revenue fund, county assistance, there again. This has been a pretty stable budget with dating back to when they had the marketplace and you were required to have insurance. So this is pretty steady. Rent, this is rental and that.

So looking at the burial expenses, is that going to be enough?

No, I think I've already, I'm getting the whole burial expenses as we speak. We've actually gotten a couple of folks to pay some money in and had some savings with somebody who's at a prepaid funeral, but those monies don't automatically go back into the account, right? And so, yeah, so no, I've already spent my entire budget for burials for the year so far.

Why are we doing more burials?

People are dying.

It's just, yeah, so it's like one of those things, just like JDC or quarter-pointed attorney.

So should we bump that by 10?

Actually, I think if you, like I said, sometimes the other line items will cover that. I see where you're coming from, but if we don't pack a supplement in 26 and the other line items will, Take care of it. We put it in the budget, not the tax.

I mentioned it more than I might need to supplement this year. Of course, it goes off the total of my budget, so I have to exceed that. I should add that I think we're seeing a certain demographic. It seems to be single males. Of course, now they're getting into their 70s. Typically, they're retired or they're on SSI, often estranged from their family members. And it's kind of a certain demographic that kind of fits a pattern mostly, right? Sure. We do, if they do have a house or even a property that we can lean on, we do lean on it, but that's a rare, a rare circumstance. And actually this year when we've gotten reimbursed, that hardly ever happens. But we try. Of course, by statute, statute says it's the obligation of loved ones and friends and family to pay that cost. But if they either can't or if they refuse, then the county has to step in. So we don't really have an option.

Another final state thing to say that is.

Yeah, and so I think maybe some counties may haggle with people a little bit more. I tend not to because what am I going to do? Ultimately, you have to pay for it, and usually the funeral homes are interested in sort of moving on with the person, right? So just for the dignity of the person, we try to resolve this.

Does that make sense?

We can't adjust the amount that we pay. You can. You have recently. You did, what, three or four years ago? You raised it to $3,000 for cremation, so like 99.9% of them are cremations. You did have one that was a funeral this year, I think, earlier on in the year, where most of them are cremated at a negotiated rate. In Kincaid, your agreement is with Iceberg, but Kincaid and all the other funeral homes are really good about abiding by that amount. They don't haggle with me at all. Can we only pay for cremations? No, you'll pay for a funeral as well. Yeah, but can we change that? You can, cremations are actually more expensive. Well, no, cremations are cheaper. I think the idea is that most counties, I think, allow for the option of a burial, of a regular burial, just because some people have religious proclivities or something along those lines. Again, it rarely gets used. Most people, they're fine with that. But you're not required to, but I think most counties do have that option. So the cremations were $2,000?

one of the barriers. I thought that. The boxing box. Yeah. Yeah. I just thought that there was not. I always thought that was awesome. Yeah. I can't remember. The ambulance went up a dollar.

Well, I'll explain that. It was just a subject.

That's pretty rugged. Yeah.

It actually, it didn't, but because.

Clerical error?

No. I'll explain when I get there.

How can you say a clerical error? It's not just.

That's not a clerical, or it's a rounding deal. Pennies. There's one that's just by itself. We started a new book.

It seems to me it was just have one flat feet. Yeah.

And cremation.

There we go. Yep.

So yeah, the maximum that you'll pay is 3,000 for a burial.

Yeah, and in this book, the cremation is 2,000, I'm sorry, the cremation is 2,000. So 3,000 is the max.

Again, that happens rarely.

All right, so the next one is 422, which is nurses, and that's also on your allocation sheet. I made it to the state where you got back to me, So that was at $61,031.73. And so that is the increase, $842 for 27, so. Do we have a choice here?

We do, for the nurse.

Yeah, you signed a contract with them.

In the past, one of the commissioners was advocating going . Okay, so ambulance for 24.

So the reason for the dollar increase is, so when we stopped allocating to Sturgis, when you divide that in half, it's 5,889.50. But when you put it in the budget, it rounds it up. So I just rounded it up, gave everybody another 50 cents. Just keep that in mind when you're doing their contract, it's 5,890. per spearfish and monument. That is the explanation of all of this.

It's the same amount, just split differently.

Yes, yes. So Northern Hills Training Center is, never mind, never mind. Just ignore what I just said. How about domestic abuse? From that, stay the same at $14,000. That also is a special revenue fund. comes over from divorce and marriage licenses. And then we split and give this to victims of violence. This heads into Northern Hills Training Center. So they are requesting, so this is an allocation, the Northern Hills Training Center has requested $7,500, which is a $2,500 increase from last year. to sign whether or not you want to stay as you were with $5,000 or up to $7,500.

And they made the same request last year, didn't they? Correct. We have a letter of support too. Yeah. Spent the day fishing with them yesterday.

Did you?

Okay, perfect. We're increasing that one, I should say.

Okay, awesome. Head into Compass Point, Northern Hills Drug and Alcohol. Requested 10,000, same as last year.

They will also, as we get further down into the budget, have requested some opioid funds as well. So that'll be here in a couple of budget line items. Behavior management system goes by the census. So 25,768. So it's the same as last year. And then heading into 445, which is mental illness. This is... for our Board of Mental Illness Board. So if they do have a mental commitment, they turn that into payroll and then it's taken over this one.

Has that board had debate?

We have not had anything for quite some time.

It's been a couple of years now. I've been on the board.

Before that, there was a period of time where we were meeting quite regularly with that person.

I was going around, but not a problem. Right now, I'm just a patient, Eric. Did you have to get training for that one? Is that the one you had to get training for?

There's mandatory training.

Okay, so the next one is the opioid fund settlement expenses. I did increase that to $100,000. We did spend $100,026. We gave $62,000. ABC and 40 to Compass Point, I think. I don't remember. But Compass Point did request $35,000 this year, but I just budgeted for $100,000. That way, if somebody comes in and requests it, we don't have to do a supplement. It's there. So the money starts to come in in June. So we've gotten, I think, two checks already. So it just comes in.

So they're spending authority already baked into there. Yes. Yeah, just, yeah.

Well, the Compass Point did send a letter, or sent me an email request, said that they would like to request 35. So I did put that, if you notice, on that second page, Compass Point 35. And then I just left the other one at 65.

And if we're getting more money from the settlement, then we'd have to do it.

We would, if somebody would want to recant. As of right now, it's been coming in.

It's been pretty stable at 100. Thereabouts, yeah.

Alrighty, the next is the library. They are requesting, looks like about a 5% increase over last year, $26,232. Their letter is attached as to their request.

They're getting waxed so much at the state level. Still losing services. Now they're trying to figure out how to couple books between our regional libraries. A couple that was doing that quit, and they're trying to figure out what they're going to do. And I think librarians are talking about doing a shuttle amongst themselves. So, yeah, I'd agree with you.

Okay. Everybody's okay with leaving that as is? Okay. Coming into the fair. Same as always. And your request of 10, if everybody's okay with that.

Yep. And grab one.

Yeah.

Thank you.

And then Prairie Hills Transit is requesting 18,000, and last year it was at 15, an increase of $3,000. And?

I always support them. I think it's an excellent service for the Hills good transportation for the elderly people getting back and forth to medical appointments. So I don't have a problem with that.

Okay, everybody's okay with courteous?

Yeah, I am. Okay, so the next- I did an increase last year, but that was the first one . Yeah.

So then the next increase is we got a request from the Senior Citizens Center in Spoonfish. I'm requesting $100,000 to be dispersed in a three year project, or three year. Over three years? Over three years. So $33,333 for that, which is an increase of $31,333 for senior citizens. So we'll expect it the next couple of years.

Yes.

Three years in a row.

That's something you have to decide if you want to import 35 into the budget.

They're building some terrible shit. They're building some terrible shit, yeah. And their membership is increasing, and services keep increasing. Yeah, they struggle. I've only been involved because they had some land they had to try and do evaluation jerky, so they did that for them. You hear about their and it's pretty rough. Trying to race through what it looks like. What are the revenue sources today?

Is it just membership? As far as I know, yeah, I'm not that involved.

They have a list of some of them there.

Oh yeah, they do fundraisers and sponsorships, yeah. They didn't pay anything to do the elections there?

They do not charge us to use the facility. They never have since I worked here.

That's worth a lot right there.

And I think that it's mentioned

Does the city charge us for the pavilion?

Nobody charges us for any of their election polling places, so that's very, it's great. So, very thankful for that. So, right now, do you want to leave it as is or talk about it some more?

Somewhere, we need to trim 163 or 153,000.

That's a tough one.

We could ask them to come up too, if you'd like. Or we could skip it. Think about it, Joe. Yeah, let's think about it. What wonders about and it's 33, right? we're just talking to you there may be some

You're about halfway through the year and you have about $50,000 in your contingency fund.

We just used $85,000, so.

Oh, yeah. Right, right, right, right. Otherwise, that money just would just roll over if you don't spend it this year. Of course, I don't know if you're going to have any other unanticipated. Right, you never know.

You just don't know.

And then we fund it this year as opposed to next year, so you get them ahead of time.

Have we covered all of our legal bills so far?

So far, yeah.

So far, we don't have any outstanding bills. Okay, we're good.

All right, so extension, I spoke about that a little bit earlier. I got that amount and it's at $52,235. So that is a little less than what I had put into the budget. So I put $54,735, I just did a 3% increase, but Annie sent me what she's proposing to the commissioners and that would be our half, $52,235. So that will decrease that one. Did hear from the state, our shared office staff is 12,101. $576 for that. So conservation did request 25,000. Last year we were at 20.

They asked for more last year, too, and then we left it the same. We left it the same for quite a while. State law says you have to give them some money, but it didn't say how much. I recognize.

There was a lot more federal dollars available to them that has dried up this administration.

We have a nice breakdown. What's the breakdown, and what's it do for us? Yeah, that's all. Tree program. Yeah, grants. I don't know about the line. What? They're not going in the hole and they're not supposed to be in the business of making money. Say we leave them again.

At 20? Yep. Anybody okay with that?

Yeah.

Okay. Turned into the weed department, basic species. Increase of a negative 24.72. His vehicles are taken off of there, so that's bad.

He's actually pretty frugal. Yeah.

He's requesting a raise for that. Yeah. Yeah, step increase for Ryan from a one to a three. And then planning and zoning, 0.57 increase.

And their group insurance went up 10 grand.

Yes, and that was due to an addition of a family operation.

Okay, any questions on that?

Severance tax, again, that is the mine severance. I did not budget anything for that. I did, as you noticed, in 26, we did the supplement for that 3,000 for that housing study. And if something comes up where we would need to use those funds in 27, we'll have to do a supplement for that as well. And then to close it out, is our bond payment. So I did increase the other fees to 3000. That did go up a little bit in 26. So as you see, it was 27,000 or 2,700. And so I did increase it to 3000. Other than that, the bond payment pretty much stays about the same interest. goes down and the principal goes up. And then just plugging in the figures into the budget, the levy went up 0.58 with the values that we have currently. It would go up to a total levy of 2.87 million. It was at 2.821 this year. But other than that, everything looks good.

The plan is when we get a new printer live here. There's just the maintenance. Equalization. Yeah. Don't they share one? They share one. I use it too. I'm sure it needs, they were needing one. I don't remember.

How does that work?

From last year.

She was talking about whether or not, yeah, I think about whether it's a lease one or to buy one. Yes, remember that? Yes, is that for 27?

Or is it the?

I guess it is.

Should have been saying .

Whether she buys it or leases it, she's got it budgeted. So does anybody have any other questions as far as a budget or information you would need from me?

Also, right now I have, for July 30th, at the end of your meeting, we have probably the senior center come first, then highway, and then followed by sheriff for appointments from department heads. If there's anybody else you want me to have. Kind of a similar process to what you've seen in the past.

I don't have any. Is there any value to having Tim come up and talk about, now that we've got about a year into the public safety center, about any expenses

He can come with John.

I think he'd probably come any time. He doesn't necessarily need to come at budget time.

I talk to him periodically and I think things are going well. They're still troubleshooting some things and getting things worked out. They like it. The building is functioning pretty well, I think.

Those expenses have been pretty stable from what they thought they were going to be? I think so.

They're getting their shop completed. They poured the concrete. I think they're waiting to get some They're waiting, they have to have their gas line hooked up yet, I think. So they're waiting to do that. And then we have to turn the hot water off to the jail in order to do that, to run that line from the main building to their shop.

So I know they're still trying to work on that.

I mean, I can certainly, yeah, he'd come with John. Answer any questions you might have?

So what I will do is I will go make, those changes that we made, and I will reprint everything, and I will just put it back on here if you want to look on it, unless you want a hard copy of it. Let me know. I know you do.

I like just the one page.

The increase, decrease, okay. Well, there's two pages, I guess. Put the new increase decrease in there for you. I'll put the new one up here. And also I'll just do print the whole thing and put it on there so that if you want to look at anything, you can have it. And I'll call it departmental budget as of whatever date I put it in there.

Well, maybe I'll make it number eight.

I could do that too. Yep. Yep. Definitely. And then I'll just keep everything there so we can. We need to compare better. And then I'll just do a tab eight, which will be probably not today, but probably tomorrow, 6-24.

And mostly usually like, not mine, but there are notes on paper. Salaries, we just did a 3% increase across the board. That's correct. Except for the corner, apparently.

Then there was a couple other ones in there, individual ones.

There were step raises.

And then there's, I'd have to go, I'm trying to think who was it, somebody did, Nicole. 25 cents, 25 cents. I had one in there too, for Debbie, so.

And there were no changes to the longevity pay?

No, I left that as the 2468. Same with the personal. That would require to do resolution. We'd have to update the personnel manual to do that.

We should think about if we're going to do that before we do the budget final.

Are you waiting for a motion to adjourn? Yeah, I'll just wait. Commissioner Tisdale and I met with the department heads last night. after the last meeting, just to fill you in. We talked about the changing the longevity pay to reflect, right now it kicks in at five years. They would like us to break it down to three years and then maybe add something on at the end too, because it stops at 20. And so that's where we're just discussing the reflection, how the budget would reflect that change. The personal days were another issue that they brought up. Just looking for things that the county could do offer some benefits to them without salary increases. So the personal days was a little cloudy on because I didn't really understand. We have personal days, we have sick leave, and then we also have vacation days. But the personal days, you have to use your vacation before you can use the sick leave. Right now we have a snow day. They go home. They don't get paid.

Yeah, that's not right. That's not right. Or they have to take leave.

Or they take the sick leave or vacation.

They can use any kind of leave. And PTO doesn't increase their budget at all. And it's very important to employees, this personal time off. And, you know, we don't lose production. In my mind, we don't lose production. Same thing with the day after Thanksgiving and things like that. We don't lose any production. They get it done before the Wednesday, before Thanksgiving, and they work harder on money. Same thing on a PTO. I get to pick a day off, so I'm going to have my stuff done and caught up, and I don't have an issue. And it's a non-budget increasing benefit for employees to change attitude, and I think it does a good job. Calling it floating holiday.

So this is kind of just a recap. The two personal days that people get. Use them or lose them. Yeah, you get 16 per year. Right now, if you use it, it comes off your sick leave balance. So you're suggesting that does not come off your sick leave balance. It's just you get two days to take off. So we'd have to do that part of it. And then you're talking about if there's the snow day. So you've got. You've got the people that stay in your highway department, your sheriff's office, and then the ones that go home. Right now, if there's an emergency day and you go home, you have to take leave or no pay. That's how that part of that works. And so there are all different sections within the personnel manual. So if that's what we're thinking about changing, yes, that would not change the budget at all. It would just change if you just go home.

If we do a snow day, though, and the office employees get to go home and still get paid, what effect does that have on the road and sheriff? Nine and a half in that case?

They do if they come out on the weekends, they get extra pay if they come out on the weekends. But see, before it was like they just got paid because they didn't have to take leave because they were still working. So I think that's kind of the, Was the offset, I mean, I have to grab the manual to read exactly how it's worded, but I mean, I understand where you're coming from.

Well, they would still get those days they could take off in the summer or another day.

They get comp time. So I just didn't want it to be unfair to the people that have to work, that we're getting a disadvantage over the ones that get to go home.

So, you know, those are, I mean, like I said, we just have to look at that and how we would, toward that as far as policy. We're going to compensate, you know, highway and those sheriff's office that have to work while I get to go home.

If you're scheduled to work, you're scheduled to work. If you have to go home and you have to use leave, then you use leave. If we're giving them more leave time, then it's still the same difference because the highway department will get more leave time as well. They just are working a regular shift and everybody else has to take the leave time to get paid. It's not like we're going to pay them a free day. They're still using that leave time.

They would just get their leave time on a nice day on a snowy day. Right. Or, yeah, when they went to craft a vehicle, fishing. So there's no, so the longevity is the only thing that would affect the budget, is that correct? That's correct.

We can adjust the other without it. No blizzard today. Any other questions? We just got to be on top of competing with private enterprises. As we grow, more larger companies come in.

Well, and the housing costs are a problem for our employees. And so we need to, they need to be compensated a little bit better than other counties even in order to compete against the other counties.

I'm kind of amazed about longevity amazes me. Stops at 20 years. You want to keep your people that have been here for a long time. Why aren't we taking care of them? It was a very interesting meeting. All worth it. And we've scheduled a second one. And not just for budget, just to talk. That's good, I think. I want to keep your long-term employees such a resource. Can't believe it hasn't been done before. I don't know about lowering the limit on longevity, but I certainly think there's merit in looking at the upper end. You've got to give the lowering thought process just these new people to give them some incentive. In a five-year term, let the young people don't stick around anywhere for more than three years. I mean, keep them there for three years. That's a benefit to us and to them, but it is to us. I mean, poor sheriff and all the new employees he has.

Well, we invest a lot into them training those first year. That's true. We're getting that back to us.

I mean, you know, when we started, you know, we paid for the whole single policy. You know, I mean, that was a big, a big step forward, that right there. I mean, you know, not having to pay for your single policy is huge. change the residency requirement yes the residency so i mean we're we're trying but like i said if i 100 understand where you're coming from you know and you know and not to you know i'll say brenda downer but you're coming into a stage of the county and employees that you're going

I'm at a turnover here in the next five years.

Quickly looking at a couple handfuls of, you know.

Very talented folks leaving us.

Exactly. And so, you know, you're going to lose a ton of, you know, learning something new every day, people.

Get the state, quit throwing things at us with no money to do them with. That would be nice. Good luck with that.

Yeah. But, you know, our benefit package is great, but I also understand, you know, trying to keep the people here.

Particularly the younger people that don't necessarily look at the benefits.

You don't look at it until you're my age and you're like, wow, you know.

Yeah, at least in your 30s you start to think about family and understand it's expensive.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay.

It's something we can definitely look into. I don't know how soon you want it done. You know, I can maybe see if I can find another department head to see if they're willing to, you know, write up some resolutions for those two couple of, you know, cause I think it was 2020 when we did the main new last time.

It's been longer than that.

Maybe it's been longer than that. It's been longer than that. 2010, maybe. I don't know. Anyway, so.

Yeah, let's try to take a look at it. I think Amber had a matrix. Yeah, she did. All right, anything else? I won't be here at the next meeting, I know. So Commissioner Tisdale will be running the show. I don't know if I might be able to tune in online. I'm not sure. Let me know. I'll get you the link.

No lunch today. Good job. You could still have it.

No. 10.09, adjourn?

Yep.

Awesome. Thank you all very, very much.