Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good morning.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

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.

FOR A MOTION TO APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA.

A MOTION MADE AND SECONDED TO APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA. ANYONE HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR CHANGES TO THE AGENDA? MINUTES FROM MAY 19, 2026 FOR SUPERVISOR MEETING. Fireworks permit for Bellatorra on July 3rd, 2026.

Accounts payable. As far as the fireworks display permit, I do have all the information for this.

It'll be on the 3rd of July. All those in favor? Aye.

Other looking carries. There are no liquor license renewals. We're up to public comment.

I have one small. I had a person come to me, said they were at the auto department at 3.30 and they did not get waited on right away. They looked like this person thought that the employees were acting like they were doing busy work or just messing around not to get it done before 4 to 4. Finally, this person wished their opinion, and it did get done. But I think we need to be more cautious about, you know, if a person's there or two, let's get them done out of the way by 4 to 4 or 4 o'clock, just like the note says.

Any other comments?

I'll stand so the rest of you can hear. Good morning, I'm Jan Norris from Montgomery County with an update on the Summit Carbon Pipeline. On May 13th, Summit filed a notice of intent to withdraw certain segments with the Iowa Utilities Commission. At this point, Summit intends to remove four ethanol plants, including Green Plains and Shan, and Capoeira and Hornet. AS SUBMITTED, THIS WOULD ELIMINATE 200 MILES, INCLUDING EVERYTHING SOUTH OF CRAWFORD COUNTY, BUT A ROUTE OF NEARLY 800 MILES STILL REMAINS, ALL NORTH OF I-8. SO FOR NOW, MARTY MAKER AND DEBBIE WHEELER, IT APPEARS THERE WILL BE NO CO2 PIPELINE PROJECT AT THIS TIME. HOWEVER, SUMMIT HAS LEFT ALL OPTIONS OPEN IN THE FUTURE. I MIGHT POINT OUT THAT ALTHOUGH THE PRESS RELEASE SPECIFICALLY STATES THE PROJECT WILL TRAVEL WEST THROUGH NEBRASKA FOR WYOMING SEQUESTRATION, No official ruling or filing with IUC states that it will. Currently, the fate of Summit's project lies with the Iowa Utilities Commission. They have to rule on amendments, a route change, the end use, conditions, and consolidation, and then it may go back to district court. It is easy to see why some parties are asking Summit to just start over. Without a route here, some think maybe landowners who signed easements made out like bandits. But remember, unless otherwise stated in the signed document, those easements can be forever. In Nebraska, Tallgrass was able to move quickly on their project because of existing easements, some of which were 40 years old. Unaffected counties could see an opportunity to re-evaluate ordinances, get them in place without company threat, and incorporate the ruling of the courts. More projects are coming in solar data centers and now hydrogen drilling. In fact, a forced cooling bill was passed in the last days of session that would force non-consenting landowners to participate. It behooves local officials to be proactive. Summit's route removal has not taken away the threat of eminent domain. Only the IUC decides if a project like this is allowed to cease property. But the legislature could make changes, and we're still waiting. Things are not going well for Summit, so making this big change was likely a hail Mary to try and salvage their investors' billion dollars. But landowners are cautious and recognize it could just be a strategy to cut out some of the loudest opposition, regroup, and come back and push harder. Owners of nearly 4,000 parcels in Iowa are still impacted by this project, with no property rights protections in place to shield them from private industry. Summit's CO2 pipeline project is far from over, but recent reduction of the overall route demonstrates the power of people standing together. Some wonder why I have devoted so much time to this issue. Billionaires can hire teams of high-priced lawyers and paid lobbyists. I figured the least I can do volunteer to stand up for my neighbors. Do you have any questions about the pipeline?

Dan, you mentioned going across Nebraska with existing pipelines to then into Wyoming. Obviously Tallgrass is doing that, but I know, was it South Dakota struck down the use of the domain for the pipeline? Is Summit's plan still to go through the Dakotas or are they also planning on going through Nebraska? I guess I was a little confused by it.

We're all confused. And they're very ambiguous. They're leaving all their options open.

We don't know quite where they plan on bringing it to.

They said in their press release they're going to go to Wyoming, but they haven't changed anything in their documents saying that they're not going to the coast. And they're pursuing legal challenges up there and trying to fight it too. So they're spreading a white net. But yeah, Trailblazer did get their permit. in February, but it's conditional based on permitting in the other places. Yeah.

I've got a copy of that.

Any other questions?

Thank you. Thank you, Karen.

Thank you. Karen? Thanks. I'm Karen Sison-Houston, and I'm in Anderson Township. And I've been working with Jan for a little while now. A little more information about the whole Tallgrass Trailblazer Summit situations. Now that that just shy of five miles has been opened up in Mills County, that opens us up for a new attack from Summit to go west. So now that's opened up the ability for them to start selling, buying leases in Mills County to bypass the whole South Dakota, North Dakota situation. They're also still hammering on people in Minnesota as well to try to go around. I am in full support of my county supervisors to look out for the very best interests of us taxpayers, our landowners, our property rights. I think it really behooves all of us to put a full moratorium on that list that Jan suggested of all the different projects coming down. I know Mid America owns now that property on 34. And they're starting the solar factory there. My concern is data centers next. So our water and power are going to be greatly impacted by this just during the construction, let alone during operation. If we set a moratorium now, we can always lift it. We can be more selective. But let's slow down this process. Let's be very thoughtful and remind the state that counties have rights. Our individual landowners are who we're here for. not for outside interest to come in and take over property, water, power, mineral rights, and just keep leeching out the little individual bits from our actual taxpayers who then live here. This is our home. I want my family to be able to come back here and live and have a business. Maybe it's farming, maybe it's not. But if we don't protect our interests now, we're not going to be able to pull it back later. So I and whatever I can do to help get some kind of a blanket moratorium. Now, this doesn't say business is shut down in Mills County. It just means that we're going to be more thoughtful and protective of our rights before we open ourselves up to be taken advantage of. I got one of those leases to purchase leases for the state of Nebraska through Summit. It is a permanent easement. permanent, regardless of who owns it. And you have no right to choose what you put on your ground, how you use it, because they have permanent leasing rights without ever paying property taxes. So if we think this is going to be a big property tax boom, we're going to have to look at things. But thank you, and I'm open to help or questions in advance.

On the data centers, When I was in D.C. in February, I had a large meeting. The state of South Carolina had seven of them wanting to move in. The legislators of South Carolina said, okay, fine. You have to produce your own electricity. You have to produce your own water. And you have to take care of any runoff and stuff. So I talked to my nephew later on. worked for Caterpillar. They are designing 680 horsepower generators for these companies. But it does, in a sense, alleviate problems from South Carolina and stuff. But, you know, how much water does a plant use? No one seems to know.

And the whole closed loop thing is a farce.

Right. So, I mean, you've got some active legislators that think ahead. I mean, OPR will help us out because it would be a lot easier if they would step up and look at something. And I realize the state's looking at, well, man, but they pay in taxes as well. Yeah, but it's at whose expense?

Right, because they get the subsidies from us. Right. It's our money. And it is concerning because of what they're doing, but the hydrogen situation that they've opened that up, we have to remind, I mean, We want to keep pushing this down to the state or the feds will take care of it. They won't. Number one, policy happens globally. And if we set this up now before we have these other entities knocking at our door, we sit in the decision-making seat, not them. Set this up before they're knocking on doors, buying up water rights. because I think that's already happening. And we're downstream from the big one there in Pike County. We don't even know what the long-term effects of that's gonna be. This is our home. And I totally support my county supervisors to protect and serve us because it's you guys too. So any way I can help out with that, talk to county zoning or whatever, please count me in. I want to make this successful for us who live here as long as we can possibly do. Thank you. Sorry. It's okay. I'll get it later.

Anyone else?

So I was wondering on the recent bids that came in for the renovation project, When did you decide to go ADA after this thing's been kicked around for a year and a half or a year? And after you get bids finally, it changes again. What's the story on that?

Yeah, we were made aware that any remodel to a bathroom that we were trying to do, the federal government requires it to be ADA. So we were not planning on doing ADA. So then we decided to.

So a year or two ago, nobody knew that?

I wasn't here. I mean, I don't know for sure, but I don't know that once it was all done, it was brought to our attention that it would have to be made ADA.

I was the only bidder a year ago on this project, and then I rebid it recently. A lot of delays, more delays, more delays. Finally, you get a second number, and then I find out I'm a little bitter, but I'm not awarded the job. And then I find out that you changed it. So a lot of confusion. Who's reviewing the bids? What's your process? I got a whole list of questions for you.

We haven't been through the political process, our lawyer and stuff. He more or less says, well, we can't do this. We just put it on hold, and we haven't sat down and looked at it yet. So now you've got to get an architect involved and draw. Probably.

Oh, yeah, you will. There's no doubt. Yeah, I was just... Because they're not really public restrooms, and I thought about that while I was in the bid process. I'm like, yeah, they're not public restrooms. But it doesn't make any difference. Yeah, apparently it doesn't. I have a whole list, but I know this isn't the time for it. Thank you. I'm not just your average little guy. I've been involved in major projects in Omaha for years, so. I've been through this stuff. I've sat in with Keywood, White's, Dunn, Mortenson, all those big companies on bid process, bid openings. And I've been low twice and I've come up zero.

So, okay. A little bit concerned about what's going on.

The other bathroom project, I was considerably low and no review, no questions asked. We awarded it to somebody else. I don't think taxpayers would like that if they find out.

Didn't raise a stink about that one yet. Thank you. Process should be reviewed.

I'd like to make a comment about the pipeline.

I haven't been involved in any of that discussion. I only want to make a comment about existing pipelines and the impact. I have three large pipelines go through my property. I have about 20 acres. About five acres of that is the easement for the pipelines that go through my property. I pay all the property tax. They pay nothing, and yet I'm precluded from doing anything, including planting a tree or a shrub or anything on that property. I've talked to the state and our assessor's office. Why do I get assessed? thousands of dollars for property that I cannot use. So I'm not part of the fight against, you know, future pipelines, but I can tell you that it does have a large impact to property owners. And obviously, I knew the pipelines were there when I bought the property. So, you know, you make that decision when you buy property. But I don't know that Most county citizens understand that once those easements are there, the property owner is the one on the hook. We get no compensation and we're precluded from doing anything on that property. And yes, they fly the plane over every 30 days to make sure that we haven't planted trees. And while I do have some fruit trees on there and the guy comes out and you have to tell him, You know, you have to fight that battle. And they say, well, we'll remove them if we have to do some work. But other than that, you're not able to do anything with your own property. And I feel that that's the issue that the future property owners are facing.

I would add to that. Every farm I have had anywhere from two to five pipelines through it. Any terrace work that has to be either repaired, redone. So far, we've been fortunate with the government office. They cover all that workforce. But legally, if there's a hole in a terrace, we're not supposed to farm within 250 feet of either side of it. Correct. And I'm going, I don't think so. I'm paying cash rent on this, and I am going to get what I can out of it. But no, there's so many rules and regulations that these pipelines, railroad stuff have.

Well, Greg will tell you, last year on our property, they had about 150 workers working on our property for six months. Greg was out there breaking up fights and stuff all the time. They tear up the property. They say they'll put it back. They do a fairly good job. Do they put it back? No, they do not. And for over a year, you're without use of your own property while they tear it up. And we get zero compensation. Because when I go to the assessor's office, they say, well, you're getting easement fees. And the answer is, we don't get anything. You're charging me excessive property tax. I get nothing from the pipeline company. So I think that's the argument that these people are trying to make about future pipelines. There is a safety aspect, but products need to move, whether they're going to move over the road or in a pipeline. I mean, that's just part of our economy. And we haven't had, when's the last time Mills County has had a safety issue regarding any of the pipelines? Do you remember?

Some kind of release or exposure. I'm going to a safety meeting in June in Shenandoah. All the pipelines that go through Mills County. I'll try and get the information to you. It's open to the public and stuff if you want to come and talk to people.

My point is I've been here 55 years and I can't really remember a significant safety event. I think it's all about the land use, property tax, and your inability to Use your own property, right?

Well, thank all of you very much for your comments. Girl, you're up.

OK. Just general discussion items at our meeting last week. Deacon Steelcoat went really well at 20 to 30 people. Probably show up questions and answers. Kind of explain the process and what to expect out there.

June 1st is when we're expected to start doing road work there to stabilize the existing soil.

That's heavily weather dependent, so we'll kind of touch base with them probably at the beginning and see if they have a go or no. But potentially starting next week on that moon.

L63 have a meeting of contractor DOT supplier this Wednesday.

And then we'll figure out our direction forward coming out of that meeting. We'll start charging in 14 days. Started Thursday to make sure that they're getting what they need to do. We'll have direction and answers after that meeting, so then it's on them to figure it out. You know they moved to another job site right now, but. And that's on them to get crew together to come back. We had some complaints about the Bumps at the bridges. Originally, those bumps were there. The tensions of maybe a few days before they covered up the asphalt. Then they had all these issues. Relayed that to the contractor. They came out and put some millings in. And I didn't go visit it, but talking with the guys that were out there, it wasn't nearly enough. It kind of just popped out right away. So I had them come back in. We did not put more in there, so we'll keep on them. They need to do it again before Thursday or whenever they come back. We'll make sure there's a lot safer than everybody jumping in the other lane. Yeah. That's what we're good. This Thursday have meeting and aims with the DOT or our safety action plan that we have put together and working with them. Now I'm going to lay on the areas where they overlap. So on our safety action plan, some of the things that came out were turned lanes on I-34 onto other roads so I can't leave my road and things like that. So we'll have discussions about those and see if we can try and work those into actual plans to get some funding for it.

That's pretty much all I have for general discussion today. Anything for me? I see they started putting down calcium. Yep. Make people happy. They're great operators.

Just wanted to say that I attended, of course, last Wednesday's meeting and wanted to thank you for the presentation.

You're a professional. I got a lot of compliments from people in the crowd after that. So they were very pleased with it.

So you did a well job. Well thought out plan.

Yeah, I think it went over very well. We're excited to get that information directly from me and not just from their Facebook neighbors.

Yeah. Now with the extra rock putting down on the calcium chloride spots, that's not something that we are planning on charging at this time. We have nothing in writing.

I know. So all we're doing right now is we're only rocking the areas that are on our project list for this year. We're not rocking the areas If they want to, right now we're just going to say, hey, it's not on our project list. We'll continue to monitor it. If it does get really bad, we'll just call it broke. We will do it. Typically, we put the rocks beforehand because if we do it after they spray, you know, then they're upset at us. Their permit does allow us to do that. We can add rock. We grade it. We just try not to. So if it gets really bad, just cash in on that part of their permit and say, hey, But yeah, in the future, if you guys want to have discussions or anything like that, if they do want luck ahead of time, hey, this is outside of our normal maintenance scope this year, we can do it. We're not going to make money off it. It's just paid for the cost and material involved.

I think it's worth looking into. How many people do we have that put down calcium chloride?

I'd say we have 80 to 90 percent.

Try to put words in your mouth, but how much did you say that putting down that rock is to the overall rock budget?

It was right around $200,000.

I think it's worth looking into. In our rock budget.

It's right around $200,000.

About 20% there. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's something we should look into it. Absolutely. Yeah, I can get those numbers for you guys to check with them all.

I have nothing further.

Are you sticking around for Mr. Zimmer or? I kind of can't again.

Hey Jake. Check. Yes.

I'm here this morning on behalf of the Pointe Creek HOA. I've got Berlin and Tristan who are kind of heading up the HOA these days. I am helping them trying to get water out to their St. Jude. About 10 to 12 years ago, I think it was for 12 now, they kind of started this whole process, GMU, but kind of got down the road and then kind of just disappeared. No one decided they wanted to do it. A year and a half ago, they came back to GMU and today our water is sustainable. I brought these guys in to kind of just give their background and kind of what they're dealing with. You guys have on the operations, kind of what you guys are seeing out there. Yep. I'm Tristan Nolan. I'm the president of the 23P Surrey.

So like I said, we've been working for about a year and a half. Today we own the water system in that HOA. That was by design in the 70s when I put it in. Those wells have high levels of manganese. We've had other great tests out of those systems. Verlin and I are the only operators in the HOA. We're certified by the DNR. We have to go and do testing on the system daily. We're owning repairs and yet we're not getting potable water from the well system. So our objective is to try to bring clean potable water into the HOA to better serve our patients.

How many homes approximately?

40 to 50, depending on the type of connected. So it is a small system, but right now it is not on the water whatsoever. Any main break is on them. So there is no water. Like Berlin had a break there a couple weeks ago where they're out of water. Objective was to try to find the most economic route to get water down to the compartment. When GMU board is open to that to soak up water, there's been some. common pickups would be funding agencies trying to figure out how to really fund this to make it palatable. When you only have 45 users, when you're talking about a $1.5 to $2 million project, how does that work? How does that? So we have gone through an extensive LMI and MHI survey down there. I'm saying we'll qualify for some CEG funds once we get to that point. USDA is also involved. They were involved 10 years ago, so we kind of picked it up where we had before. We've done a lot of the legwork right now. It's trying to get to a point where we have to find out or determine how we're going to pay. So one of the CDBG requirements is that we do have a plan on how we're going to do this. So doing some research on our own, there may or is some LMI funds that the county may have. The bigger picture would be not to pay directly for the HOA's water system, but to help expand the water system in that area that's been served. As you guys recall, seven, eight years ago, we extended that water that was a county-led project to help extend water in that system this one would not connect to that same line this would actually come off 225th and up at lincoln but the idea would be that between gmu maybe the county go back into a connection fee to gmu to help extend water north south that area downtown lincoln um for the future i know there's some other pockets of houses up there that just knowing and being involved with gmu people are running out of water a lot easier So, if we could extend water as a regional system, it could benefit everybody as well as help out. So, how that would look right now is GMU would extend a line. Oh, yeah, there you go. So, within the last couple of years, GMU has added a new water power that they go on. So, this new extension would actually be fed off of that.

There you go.

Sorry, 221st we'd be coming off of. So that line would run essentially from right, all the way down. Right where we ended there, there would be a vault, a mass delivery vault, where that would end the GNU system. And then everything would actually bore underneath the lake there and bring it over into the subject. So there's two parts to the project. One is the distribution system. USDA requires new water meters, et cetera, for the entire system to keep track of water loss from the system, et cetera. So Pony Creek would own everything to the left of kind of that break point, and GMU would own and operate everything to the right. There's still some finer details to work out of what kind of testing the AHA would still have to do. Initially, when we brought this project to the USDA, we wanted to give the whole system to GMU as a property. Fortunately, due to them taking a loan out on the top page away, that is not worth that health center system to help make the payments. So still working out the details, but it's anything available to help water in this area. We're getting. Questions left and right from the bluffs area about 90 to 20 birth of is a water. Well, there's not where it's he's got it's not great. It's orange water, water.

So we were down right to the bottom of the lake.

I was just thinking of making a loop so that would be the end all be all for one of the issues we have with that water line myself is there is a portion of six inch line down when we connect the county made oversize that line to a inch when we put it in. So there's capacity there. We just can't. It's kind of a bottom. So with a loop system, we have water to the direction. Well,

You never know what's going to happen or anything, and it's always better to have a connection somewhere. Yes?

So I'm Verland Belp, the vice president. I've also had my license to the DNR for the last 10 years. And the manganese problem is really quite more frequent than people think, but it's just not tested. But since we're a public water system regulated by the DNR, our wells are tested. You could find over the course of time that they start testing and regulating that as well, saying it's non-potable water. Because as far as it's non-potable, you know all the way through that valley it's non-potable. And we have, we started this, tested different wells through that area. just to see where we could possibly maybe drill new wells to get potable water. They found, but we couldn't find any place. They were all . But like I said, since they're private wells, they're not regulated by the .

Would this line going under the lake and stuff be big enough for fire protection?

Right now we're planning around a six inch line, which would give the basic fire protection. Now you're not gonna be able to, drain the line completely, but you will be able to pump into a truck or bail from it. Right now, the intent would be to have the GNU reinvest the facility fees and pension fees and oversize, not oversize, but upsize that line from 221st down to Deegan as an inch to help future growth, whether that's for the north or that's for the south. GNU's taken a pretty good policy, not policy, but there's nothing written, but in future I think they're open to trying to serve water down there. Right now, that Legohana tower is probably a little bit oversized. We are checking that there's more water we can use, the more water is turned over. That's better for floating residuals. That's better for running the tank at full capacity rather than in the way we're running it at half capacity. So there could be a lot of potential benefit. Not to say we're going to get 15 new users or help 15 people. We don't know. I just know we're starting to get those calls. While it's going dry, we can't get water. What do we do? We'll GMU extend our tanks. So it's not partial to one location. It's kind of this whole rough area. And then you guys know the history around here, but the water's not great. GMUs have the same thing down the bottoms there. Time in is very true. So really just to see if there's any funds available to help with this. We're probably 70, 75% for your design. The goal would be to get a design done in the DNR. start their review process, which is taking a significant amount of time there lately. We go back to USD and say, hey, here's how we have this partner, we have this partner, here's the loan we potentially will need. That will allow USD to then say, hey, there are potential grants you can partner with us. Right now, USD has no money in this cycle for grant money. There's always a low in this grant, but we're looking at the next 27th cycle where there may be more available to try to make this doable for everyone. alone taken out by the 20th by the 20th they would have a monthly payment for that um just like the gmu would or any other system i don't know if they also have a bulk water to buy ideally we could probably continue to take over some of the everyday testing just as part of their catch fee um but it's not as many percent as what we have to do at a plant but there is for individuals there's some some copper type stuff that we have to do because we still require coverage They can't completely wash their hands and it was the goal. I think we care very much.

Do we have any other microphones available for us?

But you guys have not created a plan.

So that would be the first step is working with our mind and price to create a plan product scope to use our mic.

I would ask with this board would be interested in doing that mile or. Whatever it is from conservation up to.

I want to know. So 1.52 million is what the overall project would cost. You're saying that they would take a loan for a portion of the project, the whole project?

Anything that is not covered by an outside source. So how much money is GMU planning on contributing? That has not been decided yet. It's going to come down to it. Right now it would be the capital facility fees are $3,300-ish with a charge and a connection, times essentially 44 users. So $150,000 roughly would go back into business. CABG will be eligible for a $500,000 match, but there's no guarantee. You have to submit just like anybody else, and they pick their certain ratings and stuff like that. And USDA won't tell us what grant is available until we have everything. So it's kind of hard because you kind of put the cart before the horse in some of these situations. THEY'VE MADE THE INVESTMENT, THEY'VE TAKEN OUT A PLANNING AND DESIGN LOAN WITH THE STATE S.R.F. FUND OF ABOUT $160,000. SO WHETHER THIS PROJECT DOES OR NOT, THEY'RE TRYING TO PAY TO GET THE WORK DONE. IT'S BEEN A LONG PROCESS. I MEAN, WE'RE A YEAR AND A HALF IN. THE LMIs AND MGI SURVEYS TOOK A LONG TIME TO FLEX. IT'S A VERY SMALL SYSTEM. YOU HAVE TO GET 90% OF ALL So you have to get 41 out of 44 to respond. But I think, you know, I was at their HOA meeting last weekend. I think they're not in. They want this to happen this time around. It's just a matter of if they have four days. The engineering is the easy part. It's how to find money to pay for it. So we're trying to help with that as well.

Pretty sure we have a little longer, 600,000 and not five months.

That's fine. I think that worked out.

I thought it was like $590 for the two projects.

We've got a couple projects. I think it's more than that.

So we'd appreciate any consideration there is. Obviously, we're trying to look at not only that, but also kind of the bigger picture. I think that county investment was a great idea. We just need to get hooked up to it to offer that. I know it's funny here. Kevin's used some water, but the water we use out there, too, it just flushes. It's better for

I know that the water issue in Southwest Iowa, total Southwest Iowa, you get Page County, Shenandoah down in there. They're worse off than we are. They're sitting on a lake and can't get out. So, no. So I'm certain this board will do some conversations and stuff and look and see what we can help out with here. You know, I've been on this, I think this is the third or maybe the fourth time She's been brought to my attention, I think, Lonnie, a couple times over the years. It's finally come to a head where, like you said, folks, your water's no good. Can you even water your lawn with it? Will it work for that or not? It hasn't killed the grass yet.

I would be cautious of it. Unfortunately, it's not going to get better. GMUs, I think, made some very good investments, especially after the flood. You know, we've got the berm around the plan. We added an extra well. I think they're ready to serve the area. It's just how you get there. Yep. The hard part is GMUs not enough financial efficiency. We just accept lines to say the weather will build it. They will come because we are trained. So I think the more groups we get together, the better.

Water and fire protection would be my biggest concerns.

Yeah.

I know this isn't a formal action, but this is something that we would entertain to come back later and discuss.

And I'd be happy to come back if you guys are interested in extending that line, you know, across the figures. Yeah, at this point, it would just kind of start the discussion.

We put you on the agenda in two weeks if you can come back and discuss this, you know, the extension or some of the other things that needs to be done. Yep, I'd be happy to get some figures together and do something with those.

Yeah, I mean, it's not as simple as it was 10 years ago with that new pressure zone. You know, we're talking about the high pressure to the lower pressure, but there's ways to do that. Where does that break point go? And you guys, we have to comment on that, too. In this situation, we actually have the negative pressure down. Before, we were probably right on the right. As well, because there's something that can insist. I don't know if I can explain it well. Like I said, the engineering will do all the same.

By that time, we should have some figures to look at if you would do that for us. We appreciate it. June 9th.

Next week is primary. I know, let's do the 16th.

I'm going to have to reach out to Horsey-Whitney to see what that level is going to be.

16th?

16th would be better, okay? We can know how much we have in our LMI. And then this isn't a scenario where I'd like the county to up front the majority of the costs. So I'd like to know kind of what funds could potentially be available for this project, whether it be state funds or federal grants. And like I said, I think it'd be good for GMU to have a conversation and know what they'd be willing to up front too. So if we're all in this together, it makes sense. But if the county is paying for, you know, even a third of it, I'm not so sure.

That's actually great timing. Okay, we can have those discussions. Let's have those same discussions. Thank you very much. The other one I had on there is kind of a separate topic in the same area. I know there, Joey, I would just have some discussion with Steve. Discussion with Bonnie about what would it look like to get rid of their system and move up to a, this would also be GMU, but I know there's been some discussions in the past about, you know, getting Mideola hooked up to someone with their water, as well as, like I said, kind of open up the regional area for serving this. So they have given me the go to work on the interior distribution system that will be replacing the distribution, water plant upgrades, well upgrades, and kind of all parts of the system, water meters, et cetera. They're looking to invest about $4 million in those systems. Right now, they have orange water. That's their treatment, whether that's through old mains. They're trying to do the proactive changes. So there's a couple different ways to get their rough number as part of their engineering report. The DNR was five million, five and a half million. I don't think it's something that needs to be done now, but longer term. Maybe get it to be another county, a DMU, a Silver City, a MNU. There's quite a few users along there. It's a large project. It's not something that one is. So what are those things do? GMU's got the water, they've got the elevation, the tower out there. Just how do you make this work and everybody together? So while I was here, I thought I'd at least bring that up that we are kind of keeping an eye on this one. Would this be a project that Illinois folks could be using? Depends who's leading the charge. so silver city is going through there and they would obviously remember correct so it's um i believe it is who is holding the depth of the debt service would be the lmi percent of pony creek can do a separate one because they don't there's not a sense of status um they they volunteer by county cpi so that's why we did a separate um so it goes helping with silver cities right now to try to qualify same type of funding um would be a huge undertaking um don't get me wrong but it's i think it's years away but every time the dnr does a request we have to look at the bigger and we abandon a lot of the plant and we get rid of these smaller ones the only big issue with this one is as gmu system grows it is one long day there's no way to do this so it could be another one to your marker years, five years, so to begin with, it might be tolerable.

So it's $4 million just for them to upgrade their system. That wouldn't be any sort of work that you do right now. They're completely redoing there. I met with Joy probably two months ago or so. They're planning on redoing all their pipes.

All new pipes, all new hydrants, all new valves. Right now within their system, I mean, half the hydrants don't work. They don't know where half the valves are. They're broke. They are, in the short term, going to upgrade the media within their plant to help with some of the water. They're kind of at the point where they're just tired of working with water and are ready to do the investment. So that includes cleaning out the storage tank, rehabbing the wells, new water meters, et cetera. So we're at the very preliminary side of that one, but that one will be working as well.

For example, like if Silver City were connected to GMU, does GMU's current infrastructure be able to sustain

you know, 600 or so users of the sewer city. We redid all of our walls from the flood and added another one. Capacity-wise, this isn't going to be an issue with DMU. We can make all the water you want. It's just on the sewer side. Sewer is the issue right now. And it does have its... Like for them, it would be sewer.

There's some logistics side of things, you know, fluorine residuals would have to be looser pumps. We looked at it from a very $30-a-foot level. It says, what if? And after the fact, Joey actually said, hey, I'd like to look at this a little closer. And that's what he went down the line about that. Just kind of what else, how this would work.

There's a lot of stars that have to align. There's a very bigger picture. I'd be interested in looking at that further.

I mean, Silver City is, well, I find that all of our small towns are good things. continue having water quality issues especially when we're talking of you know Silver City of a few hundred people obviously four million dollars even now um despite a chunk of change but let's say you know 30 40 years down the line then you're going to have to do it again um this can benefit Silver City and also benefit the county it's something that should at least be considered I'd be happy to bring some stuff with me

fire protection dominio also and we bring fire protection units all the way along that 10 000. and a lot of these small towns you know the more i meet with them and you guys know that this is there it's not they're not looking for handouts they're willing to take the charge and start that stuff it just they may not be able to push all the way to the finish line i think we shouldn't lead it but we can be there to support those just like with silver city just like with these two

We should not leave the project. I don't think we should up front the majority of the cost, but if we can get some sort of agreement, whether it be with what they're paying, what Silver City would pay, or what state federal grants would pay, or what GMU would pay, if the county can get it across the finish line, then it makes sense. And we're looking for partners that have any little help with any of those kind of situations.

You know, we're dealing with the same thing in Hastings.

We're about to build a little project here in the 90s. Yeah. 15 gallons a minute water. There's not much there. When you're talking to 100 people, it's hard. Luckily, they were fortunate enough to get subsidiary funds and a certain grant. So their $900,000 project was down to $50,000 or $100,000. There's no guarantee when it comes to funding sources. You throw your name in an ad, it will be a bid based on your application and your situation. There's always a chance to delay it. go for the next round, but at the same time, the longer delay. It'll continue to be a problem, so we appreciate you guys taking any look at it, and hopefully we can help these guys out in Silver City and then Yolo and everywhere else.

Thanks, guys. Thank you.

Yep, I learn over. Thank you. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Oh no, I don't worry about it.

I got it. Having a cleanup.

That's me too.

We all need a little break. Morning.

Morning. What do you got for us? Okay.

I have resolution 25-4. Thank you.

Thank you. This is one that I believe the transfer portion is over 25. One way or another, I think there are some issues officially getting it transferred, but when I send out my link notices, I mean, I just don't think anything happens. It was still in the previous owner's name. Becky came in when I was out of the office. I do have payments for the full amount, but she is requesting that $19 will be to be evaded. $15 of penalty and $4 of the admin cost of it. I know there was some back and forth. Megan in the auditor's office

Um. I think.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

But at the request of Becky, I thought I would speak with you about that, as you are in charge of those abatements and not myself, but

She was just, she was a little upset because I think the whole situation, generally it's pretty easy from start to finish. And I think her situation was a little more complicated, but they did get everything. Everything is described now as it should be.

I believe. Motion to approve resolution 26-12. Second.

The motion may be seconded to approve resolution 26 a 20. Magnuson and Edgar. On llc abatement of penalty and the $15 plus $4 administration fee for a total of $19.

The abated. Any further questions.

I'm in. Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Opposed? Who cares? Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you. Yeah, that's fine. Very good. Talk to you afterwards. Thank you. I'm just seeing Mrs. Travis. Can we go ahead? You can have some of it.

All right, I am seeking approval from the Board of Supervisors to promote Kiersten Hoagland, leader into status of lead dispatcher for the labor agreement MOU that was signed. That'll be, The hourly is reflective of 7% higher than the maximum. My date would be to coincide with the next pay period, so May 31st. It's in the budget for this year. It's in the budget for next year. We're allotted three. We're currently running one. So I think implementing Kirsten in that status, we're going to target our an overlap of the midnight shift and the day shift to provide direct kind of easy status oversight to our midnight folks, which are most junior, you know, as of right now. So I think it'll be good for them to have some of those frontline supervision, you know, meeting calls, certain things that come across when an Iowa system NCIC status up, they work at questions directly to her.

Current salary is, you're gonna throw you a nine, what's the wage now?

So she would be operating under a dispatcher status. Oh goodness, I have to look, but I think she's just below the maximum. So the maximum for dispatchers for this year of the labor agreement is 58,500. Next year for the MOU with the labor agreement maximum 59.5. That's it. So again, that was two years ago now that they implemented that 7% for the lead status.

Roughly $28 or over $28. Yes, sir. That sounds correct.

Yep.

Who's our other lead dispatcher?

Dawn is currently operating in that lead status. During the day? During the day. Yep. And that's, we're going to shift. We want to shift it. It's going to be, I think, six hours from there. Dawn and Kirsten would have a couple hours of overlap. And I think that that's good. We want to structure like that just for them to discuss some certain things if they're working on joint projects, maybe some quality assurance type stuff, do some SOP review. And I wanted to do that, to structure it that way, to reduce any potential overtimes left or right, try to minimize that as much as possible. So that'll... that'll be in place. And then I also think a great opportunity to have those discussions with me, you know, and not have to.

You say this is in the approved budget? Yes, sir.

Yep.

I make the motion to approve the promotion of Kristin Wiederen from dispatcher to lead dispatcher status with a pay of $30.09 per hour starting Sunday, May 31st, 2026.

Second that motion.

We have a motion made and seconded to promote dispatcher Christian

We do recognize that. Yes, sir. The lead dispatcher position at the pay of $30.09 per hour. Starting date would be May 31st.

The other discussions, questions, concerns?

All those in favor? Aye.

Aye. Thank you.

One thing I want to bring up, Travis, with the next, I don't know if you remember, the next union negotiation round.

I believe that opens up July 1st. I think with everything in front of us from a county fiscal to 2%, I would love to start those conversations sooner.

Start them earlier. Absolutely. Go ahead, sir. I was going to say, I mean, there's counties right now, and I know Shelby County, they're working on next year's budget right now for next fiscal year. And so having those conversations earlier, more beneficial. I brought up to Travis, Richard and Amber that once we're going through the next union negotiation round, I would prefer that dispatchers as their own union agreement separate from the jail and the sheriff's office. I'd like to separate them because they are different entities, different person in charge. So I'd like to have kind of those separated. I'd be interested in this position, you know, to at least have that conversation with what that looks like.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. But no, I agree with you entirely.

I think looking at those things and really starting that, it's going to give us a better position from November, December and just, hey, what does this look like? You know, what are we going to be required to do? And then how does that factor into the overall accounts budget? So, no, absolutely. You know, starting those early. I'm already starting to look at some of that stuff, you know, for next year with the emergency management budget. Also, just because our timeline and having to have that all approved, certified is two months prior, I believe, to what the county does. Oh, absolutely.

And dispatch is, because emergency management has the 3%. Yes, sir. Dispatch has the 2% since it falls underneath the county. Yes, sir. It doesn't have their own board. Yes, sir.

Correct.

Yeah, they better have their conversations, too.

Agreed. That's all I got.

Okay.

All right, gentlemen, I greatly appreciate it. Go from there. In the coming weeks, could have a conversation with Motorola just about, you know, what the next phase of the communications infrastructure in the county looks like. So maybe be on the lookout for meeting there, just to kind of, you know, get together and have that conversation. I am going to do some, some site walks with the Motorola folks just up front to kind of get a current layout of our infrastructure, the tower sites. They want to, when it comes to equipment. We're currently like a three-rack delivery system in the facilities. And it sounds like the next iteration of all this equipment to deliver our communications is going to go through a one-rack solution.

So all that kind of stuff.

So just got to be aware of that. We're shooting some stuff out. We still owe you the power. We're still paying you. Yes, sir. Yep. We have an annual. And I can pull those figures for you. If you want to see. I want to say it's probably close to $400, I think, every single year for the bond. There is some interest associated with that. And then we do have a commitment of $100,000 or so for annual maintenance, for the annual maintenance contract for the microwave that they come out. And PM checks, they do everything. And then other services, like today, I've had a piece of equipment that He's talking to me, you know, in a strange language. So I've got some texts. I'm going to take a look at that.

And that would be underneath the county board of supervisors?

Yes, sir.

The towers underneath the... The communication infrastructure is absolutely over the county. Yes, sir.

During implementation, it was radios, you know, handheld radios, mobile stuff. We put that underneath the emergency management agency. You know, the ability to go out, take a look, diagnose what's wrong with this, add antenna, whatever.

And then a lot of that maintenance, you know, we, you know, the emergency agent side, we budget every year to try and handle some of those smaller expenditures. But anything with the infrastructure, tower sites, it's all underneath the county.

You know, the ICAP policy. That would be very nice. I agree. I don't like paying interest. I don't like paying interest either. You know, here, I don't like doing that in my personal life. It doesn't feel good. No, absolutely. Actually, I don't like it at all.

no agreed and i can absolutely provide you know some of those things if you just want to you know take a picture of what we're at what we're projecting and we've kind of got that on a major expense tracker nice to get the balance on that bond and then figure out with it when you can't pay it off really you pay them off too early you get penalized so you're panning so agree just near the payoff nice to know that because

No, we can dig into that. I don't know if, you know, Carol and Amber kind of are tracking any of the more specific details associated with that bond. I know that I can.

Sure. We'll be able to help you.

Pull some of that stuff. Okay.

Just as an FYI. Absolutely. All right, gentlemen. Thank you, sir. Hello. Yes, sir. Hi, Greg.

What's up, Mark? On the agenda is considered formal action use of courthouse lawn for Sunday, June 28th, 2026. Are you having a party?

We are.

You are to approve the use of the way we do the lawn at times. This is a calendar of our event. As of right now, there may be some adjustments to the But on the 28th, we have the Hanson House train coming, and then the Girl Scouts are going to do a job in New York.

Good life. We're going to have a bunch of different counties.

All right.

Without thought. You were in this. I've seen you.

You should. You should.

You should. You should. You should.

Sure. Give me some buffer.

I'd make the lesson to improve the use of the courthouse lawn from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 28th.

Okay. The motion made seconded to the use of the courthouse lawn for Sunday, June 28th, 11 to 5 a.m. Any other discussion?

Not all those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Okay, next on the list, you're planting trees?

With your permission.

Or are you thinking for yourself?

Potentially, yes.

She's had lots of practice, but they're 100% fruit trees.

We have the opportunity to have a burner open. If you so choose, we're in the location that you would like to do a street dedication in July. We're totally in now. It's in. Thank you for the street dedication. Sorry about that. What were you thinking about putting it on the courthouse lawn?

Would it have to go on the lawn? Could it go to another building? I do not. I'm just throwing out options.

I'm sure we can find a place to put a burrow. It's just where. The lawn.

Push yourself in front of the auditor so she can turn the building to the ground, let's say. So you can decide where the tree goes.

Yeah, and decide to be determined. Yes. If you want to do that, then we can break back for formal action once we get to the spot.

And then email that to the Bloomer's Guest Buildings and say, where do you want to throw it out there? Yeah. So I'll look at them.

So we can find a place for it. Even if it's not here. If we can't find a spot here, could be able to have any conservation.

Yes, yeah, that's yeah, so many roads or. It's probably more by the conservation center.

The burros pick the native and then also it should hopefully be around in 50 years.

Yeah, I'm ready.

Looking forward to it.

I have it on my calendar.

So.

Formal action managers table.

Good. Ladies, thank you very much. More. Proclamation. Celebration.

Written for you or assuming so, why don't you?

Yeah, write it and then send it off to us and then we can overview it and make some changes if we need. Perfect.

But that way it fits your fancy.

So a couple of weeks ago, Audra and I came in asking permission to buy a destroyer and we weren't, we didn't have a date. So we have one. We're going to do it on June 14th. It's Black Day. And Sugar May 3 is going to give us a 50 small mini bags. The big flags, the little mini flags. We're going to have a reading of the meaning of the flag. I swear. It's going to be a little mini celebration. And it will be at night, of course. It starts at 8.30. I'll light up all the lights. And they're going to start with the first of June as we deliver here to the lights. We'll light them up on the flag. Here is the fire that we started with.

Majority of the sponsors are on the bottom line.

Talking about lights, one thing that I brought up to Audra, I brought up to Sandy specifically for this year, but hopefully it could be around for the future. It could be good timing as NACO sends us every single year the green light project for veterans in November. That's not something that we kind of have the ability to do currently at the courthouse. So one of my thoughts was if we could use some of our local option sales taxes fiscal year, we have enough remaining. might be a good idea to look into getting different lights to actually put on the courthouse, at least reflect up on the courthouse. So that way during that week, when it's the green light project, we can have green lights reflecting off the courthouse. Times like the 4th of July, we can have red light, blue lights reflect out the courthouse, kind of make the building more festive, I guess, in a sense. But I know I've spoken to Chad about it spoken to Audrey and Sandy about it. If it's something that you both would entertain looking into, something I would like to look into specifically for this year, I think it'd be a good time to use it all throughout the year for Alzheimer's awareness, breast cancer awareness, things of that nature.

Okay. Do we need a motion on this proclamation or thoughts? I was just discussing things. thank you very much thank you are we good on this third reading john not if you give it you have it not you're just tabling energy

I know there's other counties looking at this same thing, page in Montgomery County, looking at it.

I got an email from students. Would you mind, due to forum rules, would you mind emailing them

that list of things that individual I emailed to myself, you and Greg, that we're going to come to look at. Nick is the Board of Supervisors Committee meetings.

Getting that last week. Last week I went to the presentation of the Deacon-Succo project.

Like I said, Jake is well attended.

Everybody walked away with a good mood and they were all pretty pleased with Jake's information and his professionalism throughout. So it's a very good informational week that I thought I had.

I had juvenile detention. Everything's going good there. I had a finance committee meeting and I attended the Board of Adjustments meeting.

I had the Board of Adjustments meeting too. Anyone have any new business?

Just a reminder, there will be a meeting next week for the primary, and we will be back at a regular time on June 9th. And I'm going to put up a reminder on the website here at the subject.

Revision. The meeting on June 9th, can you include Golden Hills, please?

I haven't thought about this any bad. Yep, got it.

For the business, I'll make a motion to adjourn at 929.

SECOND.

MOTION MADE. SECONDED OR ADJOURNED. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR? SECOND. ADJOURNED, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING IN.