County Commission - Regular Meeting

and it's 5:30. Time to call the Ramsey County Commission meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge. stands nationy for all.

First item is approval of the minutes. Move to approve. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Were was there something on there about tableabling the financials? Didn't we make that motion at the end of the financial? Yeah, I believe you're right. You recall that, Candy?

I'll look back at my chicken scratch. Might have to go back to the meeting. Yeah. All I have is table. Yeah. Okay, I'll check it out. Do we need to amend that motion to correct the minutes? Second. Daniel, you got no.

Okay. Right. Ed did. Yes. Yep. All right. Any further discussion? If not, all in favor say I. I. All oppose say nay. Motion carries. Approval of the agenda. There any additions or deletions?

I would like to add one and that is the extension portfolio that I have. Put that under new business. Where would that be? Guess we don't have portfolios this time. If we could uh amend the agenda to have the egg valuation discussion at the February meeting. I think that was the intention of that. It's under unfinished. I know. Oh,

I didn't want Elizabeth to have to sit through three presentations and then have to ask her to that we're going to discuss it in February. Do we have a motion to approve the updated agenda? So move. Second. Have a motion to second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I.

All oppose say nay. Motion carries. Uh, we have George Ellson, Northland Security, and Scott Wagner, bond attorney. Okay, we're going to do a little bit of creative. Okay, Scott, can you hear me? Okay. Okay, turn this up. There we go. Okay. Okay, take it away.

Hey, Scott. Hi, George. Hello. Good evening. Yeah, we can hear you. All right, Mr. Chairman, commissioners. Scott Whitner with Parks Whitner Bismar for Council Library. Um, and I understand you want to talk a little bit about financing options. You I sent the PowerPoint that I done for the assation counties last fall. Um, I I don't know if you have that up or if you wanted to look through that um or not. We do have that up, Scott.

Okay. So So would you like to to touch on some of those items? Yeah, if you uh have some that you'd like to some slides that you'd like to run through or um some specific things that you think would be pertinent to our discussion tonight.

Sure. the the third slide um should be titled debt limit and and the point here aware of this I think but um political subdivisions of course have a constitutional debt limit and the debt limit set by the constitution is 5% of assessed valuation and that's not taxable but assessed which is half of the the full true And so not all borrowing is subject to the debt limit, but general obligation bonds or or bonds that are paid from a property tax, they are subject to that debt limit. And and I understand I think George had had found this um based on the county's assessed valuation, your debt limit is right around $40 million. Um, so, so that would be the maximum amount of debt you could take on if it's the kind of debt that's paid from property taxes. So, for example, sales tax would not count any toward that debt limit. Also, you know, of course, counties could do special assessments um and and borrow against other state federal money. So that that also doesn't count against that debt. Um the next slide um is property tax limits and and as you know of course there's the new uh property tax uh legislation last session but specifically um that new legislation that limits the property tax does not apply um to voter approved bonds or um or other statutoily uh approved borrowing. methods.

So, if you do one of those, and we list a few there, those are specifically um outside the caps. And for example, as you know, of course, the counties have a a capital projects levy. And so that levy um would be subject to the cap, but if you you're able to borrow against it and pledge that that levy. And so to the extent that you pledge some or all of it, then then those mills again are not not figured in determining that the cap and that 3% increase.

You're looking at slide 11 there on those levies. Yeah, it's it's the property tax slide and it's the second page of that slide. I think that's five.

Okay, I'm skipping ahead. Sorry. So, so that would mean, you know, if you have 10 mills in the capital projects levy, if if you bond against say five of those mills, then those five you just take out for purposes of the cap, but the other the other five remain subject to cap. Uh then the next slide um should be six is general obligation bonds. And I think that's what maybe you've been looking at a little bit. Um, and this requires um 60% so a supermajority approval in order to issue those. And a change last session was the legislature. It used to be special elections were allowed. They restricted that to primary or general elections only. No more special elections. And the thing with go bonds is the voters um are asked to approve a dollar amount. So you put in front of them um a specific dollar amount of bonds and then um if it's approved and you issue bonds um the mills are whatever are needed to pay that annual debt service and it's an unlimited excess mill. So it it doesn't matter how many bills it takes. Um it it's if the voters approve a dollar amount of bonds.

Say Scott. Um yeah.

Can I ask you a quick question? Um chair and commissioners Georgeson here from Northland Securities. Um we've I I apologize about the dogs. Um, Scott, regarding that question of of uh, you know, voting on a on a on an amount, uh, if the if the amount that the county could do under general obligation debt is approximately 40 million, the and the project is say 70 uh, for example, on the ballot. The question is the what which of those two numbers would the county have on the on the ballot as the pro as the as the amount uh the maximum amount of bonds rather under that that question on the initial resolution.

Yeah. So when you ask the voters to approve a dollar amount of bonds um but we also said that these these this type of bond counts against that debt limit. And so, right, if the debt limit is 40 million, that that is measured at the time the county actually issues the bonds. So, even though the debt limit is 40 million, you could ask the voters say for 50 million because normally um you wouldn't issue all of those bonds immediately. It might happen over a few years. And what what can happen then is the valuations increase and so your debt limit goes up. And so maybe by the time you issue the last part of the bonds in a few years, the debt limit is caught up to that dollar amount. So that that dollar amount can be listed without regard to the debt limit. But you know, as a practical matter, if the debt limit's 40 million and you list, you know, 80, obviously it might take some time for the debt limit to grow that much. So you could go you could go over but you know you got to take that into account of course.

Thank you.

Yeah and projects for the geo bonds are you know very broad and it would include um you know correction facility um and then the ballot um while I said the it's an unlimited excess mill levy. the the ballot question has to list the estimated mill impact for the first year's death service and I think you should have back in November I did send up a couple of resolutions and a formal ballot. Um but anyway that you could see how the ballot question would would be set forth and there there are a couple resolutions to start this process. An initial resolution that requires certain information including the maximum uh dollar amount of bonds and then a resolution calling the election. And and the other thing about that dollar amount of bonds that does not obligate the commission to issue that. So say the voters approve just say 40 million. If if things change or uh you know uh it doesn't turn out the the way you were anticipating the commission is not bound to issue any bonds or they could issue a a lesser amount. What this says is just cap your authority what you could could issue. Uh the next page um I I think we can skip it just lists a few exceptions to that voting requirement. Um although the first one there I think this is page seven emergency condition. Uh the county did issue geo bonds under this in 2010 for uh for road improvements. So you haven't

used you haven't used that one and that didn't require uh voter approval. Uh the next one should be entitled limited general obligation bonds and these are are bonds that the commission by a twothirds vote could issue. So, no no voter approval. But what happens is you you publish the resolution in the paper that you plan to issue these bonds and then there's a 60-day protest period and and owners of taxable property can can file protests against it. And the protest threshold is 5% of assessed valuation. So owners of property that would have a value at least that 5%. um if if that amount protests then it would block you from going ahead but but absent that which would be pretty rare um the commission can go ahead and issue these limited geo models. Now the bottom of that slide there's really two purposes only that you can use these for. um one would be uh bonding against your capital projects levy and the other would be the bond against your road and bridge levy. And so on the next page, I think we're on nine would be the county capital projects levy. So as you know, you get 10 mills with this levy. And what this limited geo bond um option is, it means you can borrow or bond against those 10 mills. And again, that's without voter approval, but just subject to that that process. And and you're aware too, I'm sure you can you can increase that capital

projects levy by another 10 mills, but that takes a vote. Now, as you know too, one of the purposes of the capital projects levy would be uh for correctional centers and specifically uh the statute says you can construct equip and maintain structural and mechanical components of a regional or county correction center. Now the of course the limitation with this this type of go is your borrowing capacity is limited to those 10 mills. So you know George would have to figure you know how much can you borrow um if you were to use the whole 10 mills um to pay debt service but that that is an option and these can be combined too. So, in other words, you could ask the voters for the regular go bonds and then you could also bond against the the capital projects levy, but then obviously that um you bond against those 10 mills obviously then they're tied up and you don't have them for your ongoing needs. And I believe uh based upon the conversation uh George here that uh that I had with Candy that the county is already um the capital projects levy is about 713,000 um in 2024. And so I believe a majority of that uh 10 mills is already being used uh towards the correctional facility. Um, correct me if I'm wrong on that, Candy or Jeff, but uh,

but okay. So, if you used it for debt service, you'd have to obviously find a way to make up the operational cost elsewhere. Thank you, Scott. Sorry.

Yeah. Yep. No, slide 10 just lists um the other approved uses of that capital projects levy. Um the next slide 11 um the road and bridge levy that that's your other levy you could bond against with the limited geo bonds but but obviously this is um this would be for your road and bridge projects. Uh slide 12 um is titled limited tax bonds. And one thing that's a little unique that counties can do is you can basically um borrow or bond against your general fund levy. And that's what this option is. And that's just by action of the county commission. The statute just says it has to be for primary governmental functions. Um but that could um certainly include um corrections, you know, uh road and bridge, county building improvements. Number of counties have used this for say courthouse repairs, um you know, windows, roofs, elevators, all those kind of things. Um and also several have used it for road projects. But again, what this is is borrowing against your general fund levy. So as you know of course then that means if you dedicate whatever say five meals to the general fund le you don't have them available for for another use. Um now one other thing that's a little unique I guess with this is you only are allowed a fiveyear term. So if the repayment is in five years that really I think limits maybe the dollar amount you can borrow.

Um, but the legislature said if you uh if this is for a loan through the bank in North Dakota, then you can have a 20-year term. Um, and that's that's uh through that 2% infrastructure revolving loan fund. Um, which I don't think is a whole lot of money available. So, if you don't go to B and D, you can use this, but again, it's you're going to run up against that five-year term. But this also is something you can um you can combine with the other options. So, in other words, these aren't exclusive. You could you could use uh multiple um options, of course, for one project. Uh the next slide um 13 um certificates of indebtedness. This just allows political subdivisions to borrow against any um federal or or state revenue stream. So any kind of um state aid or you know say the highway uh tax distribution fund um you're allowed to basically leverage that and and bond against it for a project and then it's repaid um annually through those revenues you receive from the state but you know for your project here I don't know that that you know would help you too uh for 14 um special assessments. Counties are allowed to uh issue special assessment bonds and usually it seems are for paving in one of the subdivisions outside city limits. But um but you do have the option of doing special assessments

And then 15 um you know something that could help of course would be sales tax. Um but as as you know you need a a home rule charter and then the charter has to provide the you know the the powers which would include um you know uh imposing a sales tax. Um now that if the voters approve a charter, you could include a sales tax with that question. Um some of course older uh ones that have had a charter in place a long time, they have a charter in place and then the charter provides they need a a vote though to oppose the sales tax. So, um, Burley, for example, um, for their detention center, um, their home world charter question included, um, authority for a, you know, I don't know if it was a 1% maybe sales tax or half maybe half set, but anyway, that that could be in one in one question. Um if the voters approve it whether through home rule chart or a separate vote then um further action is just up to the county commission and it's a revenue bond just based on sales tax collections. So um the bond amount is just limited by by what the anticipated collections are if there are no no historical collections and there's also no maturity limit. So be kind and can structure these however uh however you think uh works best.

The next slide just um lists home rule. Um you can do other things through home rule. um you know maybe for example an appropriation bond um where you're just agreeing to to appropriate from the general fund or other sources but but again I don't know that that's that's of interest here um 17 you know there is this kind of whole area of um kind of lease financing or certificates of participation and some counties I you know I think Rolette and and more recently Barnes County used this for their correctional facilities but after the Barnes County project the next session the legislature restricted uh the ability to do this lease financing. Um so that's now on the on slide 18. Um it's now the case that you need voter approval if your um lease financing project is over $4 million. So pretty low limit just the majority. But that's what the legislature put in place, you know, and it's all because someone didn't like that Barnes County um financing. You know, that's that's maybe kind of quick, but that's basically the options that, you know, counties have for finance. Daniel How just with a quick question. Um, you mentioned

at one point that some these options aren't all mutually exclusive. If the commission wanted to, could they combine several of these options to meet the cost of the project?

Yes. Um you can now um you know I'm sure you're familiar Walsh County um voted on a couple of a couple of different things to use together for a project um sales tax and then they also voted to increase the I believe it was the general fund levy and they and then they were going to use those limited tax bonds to borrow against the general fund. So to combine those options and and you know the one passed the sales tax passed I think and the the general fund increase failed. So so you can you just might kind of have an incomplete result.

Thanks for the answer. So, Scott, uh, Commissioner F here, um, moving forward, what would be the first step that of these resolutions that we'd have to pass in order to get this, um, on to the next step? And what time frame do we have? What do we looking at to get that implemented by June 9th?

Yeah. Yeah. The first step would be that initial resolution. Um, and I I said send it up with some blanks in so you could look at it. So I I probably should update that and I could send it again, but and I don't know if you have that in front, but it's just a one-page resolution where you set out the maximum amount of bonds. You have to list your assessed valuation and then of course a a paragraph describing the purpose and then whether the county has any current data. Yeah.

And that's that's the resolution that starts um the process to issue general obligation bonds. Now, usually um right after that at the same meeting, although it doesn't have to be, but there's a second resolution and that's the resolution that calls the election and that what that basically does is say, you know, this vote on geo ponds we're setting for, you know, if you wanted on June 9th, for example, it would just set set forth that information. So, two resolutions. uh the form of the ballot is uh an attachment to that second resolution. So you you'd also be approving what that ballot will look like as to that question. Now, as far as timing, um the statute says um any questions that are going to be on that ballot um have to be available at least 64 days um prior to the election date. And the idea of that statute was just to give the county auditor plenty of time to make sure they can get the ballot ready, especially if you know there's it's the an election with candidates and and maybe other measures. So, you know, you have time. Um, so it's that 64 days and you you'd want to be, you know, wide to that so you don't cut it too close. But um and then the other thing of course is for any kind of uh public information and and discussion etc. to make sure you whatever time you want to provide information. Scott is the second resolution calling for an election is that the one with the 64 day timeline?

No, they both are because is really that initial resolution is is the resolution that um is calling for the geo bonds and that's the question and then so I mean they both are you that's usually they're adopted together and so both should be adopted you know more than 64 days ahead of time. Thank you. Other commissioners have questions. George or Scott, did any final words that you can think of? Any words of wisdom moving forward?

Yeah, you know, I don't recall what you know, what the dollar amount need is, but um you know, the the debt limit obviously will limit you. And I don't know if you can get it done within the debt limit or if you need u you know for example sales tax as an option but then you know and I don't know if you're looking at a charter a home roll charter question too uh in June. Well, we do have a charter committee in place and if they come up with a charter and the commissioner approves it for the June ballot then we would u but I think uh a lot of this comes down to the law enforcement center coming up with the final design and what that estimated cost could potentially be and can we fit it within that debt limit. Great,

Scott. You

So, Scott, I'm sorry. Sorry to uh ask this follow-up question. Um if the you know the architects and as we all know nothing is going down in price these days but uh as if the architects come back and say the project is $60 million and and and Commissioner Fritz I know that there's probably an uh a an actual number being discussed but um when and I I apologize about this follow-up question on that initial resolution. If if the county's limit is really 40 based upon uh for the debt limit, but the project cost is sounding like it's going to be 60 million. Um would would with that line one maximum amount of bonds proposed to be issued realizing that there may be you know other avenues sales tax or the limited geo um that they could have as a a series of bonds uh to accomplish the entire 60 million for that question. Do they put the 60 million in number one or would this or would this be focused on the general obligation?

Yeah, this would be focused only on the general obligation bonds. So, okay.

And like we said, you know, you could set it over the debt limit because we're not measuring it today or at the time they vote. It it only is measured at the time you issue the bonds. And so there's nothing wrong with say, you know, if the debt limit is 40, if you list 45 or 50, uh it just means you might not be able to issue the full amount up to 50 if your assessed valuation doesn't allow you to do so. Um and then and then the other question is if you think, you know, that's not a good idea because voters, you know, the higher the number the the the more no votes you might get. Right. Under question four on that initial resolution, total amount of bonded indebtedness, the you referenced earlier the 2010 bonds for road improvements if and Candy or or or commission, you could probably um correct me if I'm wrong. believe that's the only existing debt outstanding. Um that would be included under total amount of bonded debt uh uh for the resolution. Correct.

Yes. Yeah. And I and I might be wrong too, but I thought those were maybe paid. So

if they are outstanding still then that would be referenced in that uh question four. Okay. Correct. whatever if there is a principal amount left that's what would be referenced okay thank you

I have no further questions Daniel uh no no questions for Mr. Wagner Mr. Any other commissioners have anything? Not at this time. If not, I guess thank you gentlemen for your time. Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you. Happy to to jump on at a future commission meeting as as you want.

Thank you. All right, moving on to Jason with the highway department. Hello everybody. Um, we'll get right to business. KJ Engineering LLC, formerly Cat Catously and Jackson Incorporated, has sent the amendment to engineer owner agreement for modifications to time for rendering service. This will extend the agreement until March 1st, 2031, asking for a motion to accept this agreement and also have Chairman Vulk sign the agreement. I have the agreement here. Candy or did you print one or

I'll leave it for Commissioner Hulk?

I don't think so. Paul's here. We're good through March 1st currently. So, is this just something we Yeah, it's the same. It's the same agreement. It's just that it's going to expire. It started effective date was March 1st, 2011 and it's going to expire March 1st, 20 26. So we'll extend it for five years with KJ. Do we have a motion to accept the agreement with KJ? Move to approve. Second. Further discussion. All in favor say I. I.

All oppose say nay. Motion carries.

All right. The next one is just a FYI, I threw a couple numbers in there for Commissioner Brown. He wasn't with us at the time we received the grant. Um, North Dakota DOT reached out asking if I had hired a consultant or as Ramsey County had hired a consultant, I should say, for our project for the shared pathway. As of now, we have not. Um, I reached out to Paul. he will work together to get a agreement completed to myself and then I will bring it to the submit it to the board for approval and then we'll get this to the DOT hopefully at the next meeting if Paul has time to get it together. So that's just the for you guys where we're at. I don't know if anybody has any questions on that but the refresher was we were awarded $348,827 for the shared pathway out by Ramsey County 1. That work is to be completed in 2027, but it's for construction only. So the preliminary area engineering and the construction engineering is local share. All right, any questions there? Or say that was more of an information, a little catch up for commissioner that wasn't with us when we started that project last summer or last whatever that was already. Time flies. Um, bridge 101-20.0 south of Church's Ferry, the underwater bridge has been selected for removal. Ramsey County would be responsible for the preliminary engineering, the construction and constructioning will be covered, you know, covered by the North Dakota DOT. This grant for bridges program as a reimbursement program. So only costs from 18206, that's the date they gave us forward, are eligible for reimbursement. So anything we've had done in the past is no is not allowable

for engineerment. I Ramsa County, we just did this with a 9inth Avenue uh project in South Manin. So it'll be very similar. I will have the uh KLJ also get a cost estimate together for that and get that to us for the next spinning because that would be our that'll be our cost and then after that the DOT will be able to submit for reimbursement to DOT for the rest of that project if we so I'll move to accept the grant and go forward with the project. So that grant that bridge is underwater. Yep. So, you'd be working in water or they'd be working in water. Yep.

Correct. And bridge is no longer being used. Correct. And DOT wants to remove it. We um put in for a grant to get it removed because um refresher again, we we as a highway department and a county pay for underwater inspection, local share on that. That's an expense of every so often. It's an expense we put in for a grant. It was now selected to be removed. So, we do have North Dakota DOT. They will pay for the construction engineering and the construction removal. We pay for the stuff needed for them to figure out how to go about that up to that point. The preliminary, I imagine that'd be an expensive project.

Um, the preliminary estimate was 60ish somewhere in that area. 160,000 or so to remove that bridge. There's roads going to this bridge. Um, it's the old county land road. South to Church's Fairy, the road is impassible, you know, from the north or the south to the bridge and then the bridge is sitting there. Last year or one of the years here recently, the bridge was able, you could actually be get on the bridge deck. You can't get to it. You have to walk to it, but you could get to it. But yeah, so we have the opportunity to get that removed off the system and no longer have costs of inspecting it through this grant program. I think it was down in 21 when we're

Is that when it was Jeff? close to that 47 elevation. Yeah, you're probably right. I I remember it everything. I remember doing it. We walked down and looked at it, but it's surprisingly in good shape on the water. And even the respect the last inspection was I think it was 23 if I recall. I don't have all that with me tonight, but at that time it still wasn't restricted for anything. So, it's still a good structure. It's just there's no roads to it either way. And we're paying to have underwater inspections done on it when they have to inspect it. There's a way to get to it to remove it.

Yeah, I'm assuming so. That's up to the state. We just give them we pay for the preliminary and they they've accepted it. They've they've taken it on. So if we if we accept and move forward. So Paul will get us a price on what it would cost us to do that and then we'll make that decision. Um 96th Avenue. Just another update there. We did get the last invoice on the hydraulic study. Uh the water board and our office, myself at the highway department and KLJ are going to get together at the next meeting and make the make a recommendation there off of what they've told us and they've made the recommendation. I guess we'll accept it preliminary and we'll bring it to you guys for final approval. So that's just a more FYI to catch everybody up on that low water crossing. County line agreements. I have gone through those and uh have them pretty much ready to go to Mr. Howell's office at some point. I know he doesn't have anything to do and he's been desperately waiting for those. So, um but I one of the key points I did put in there is we don't want to get caught like we did this year with the chip seal project. So, um, any projects going to be done jointly need to be to our office by June 1st, the prior year, so we can approve them for budgeting because budgeting usually starts in July, so it gives them a little bit of time to get it to us, but we'll make sure that's stated in there. And then I and then of course we'll get them all signed this time. Half of the other ones weren't signed and we wrote some and other counties wrote some. And this way we'll make our own through their office. We'll get everybody to sign them and agree on them. hopefully and and we'll go from there. So, we got that part done. Um, both plow trucks are back in service. The 127, the Sander truck, we had to buy a turbo for $3,700 and 370750. There was a core of 51250. The reason those numbers are important is because they sent us one invoice here. So, we'll

get to that in a second. We did the labor on that truck in our shop, so we didn't have to take that one in. That 126 truck, we did haul that one down. They did $3,400.76 worth of parts and labor at NCI or Nelson. Then they sent it back to usable, but we needed the whole big cold air radiator looking thing in the front um there cold air coil and that a big upper hose. We were able just to order that and have our guys install that. But that did come in at 1900 191922 just for parts on that. So, I am asking for a motion to pay after the credits to NCI uh $8,59023 and that is for both of the plow trucks.

So, move second. Any further discussion? Do we need a roll call on this one? We're going to pay it. It's Yeah, they're back. We're We're ready. Roll call, please. Kim Potus. Hi. Brit. Hi. Brown. Hi. We'll go. Will mix up my mix up my saying will help me. Hi, Bulk. Hi.

Um, next we have the in the new truck showed up in Fargo. It's at NCI. um they need the payment at this point before they'll move forward on it. So I have the invoice for that. So I'm asking for $134,179.34 to pay for the truck only and then they will then we'll have to wait for the snow equipment, but they will actually once they receive the check and the payment, we'll get the paperwork. They will move the truck to Berts for us. They've reassured me that again on the phone today that they'll move it over and then get it in line for a year from now when we get snow equipment. That's really backed up right now. So, that'll be a while, but at least we're going the right way. We're getting closer. So, Anita, I'm asking for a motion for $134,179.34 cents to pay for the new truck.

I would so move. Second. Have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Hortis. Hi. Bri. Hi. Brown. Hi. Wilhelm me. Hi. Bulk. Hi.

I have two last things that I added quickly. Um, one of them was, uh, next week I'll be traveling to Grand Forks for the county engineers convention. North Dakota station and county engineers convention. So I would like to ask I guess for a out of town travel request for that. I need to ask for just out of state. Okay, perfect.

Um and then the last one is I did get the quotes from Devil's Lake Cars for the for the one new pickup that we had budgeted money for. It'll replace the 1995 Dodge and then we should be good on pickups for a couple years hopefully unless something unforeseen pops up. Um the low quote of the we had a a Chevy, a Ford, and a Dodge all quoted spec same with the same whatever they put on them. But anyway, packages the Ford was the low quote. So at 46,000 I got to find it here. $46,990. That's with the other fees. The there's no tax, but I suppose document fees or whatever. But anyway, they gave us a $5,400 discount on that pickup. So, that would be the one that I would since it was low low price, that' be the one I would ask that we purchase asking for a motion to move forward with that. We have a motion in a second to I guess we're ordering the pickup.

They said they Yeah. Oh, that. So, sorry about that. It was Devil's Lake Cars and they did say they'd have that within like a week or two even. They do have them in inventory. They just have to get one up here with the XL package because, you know, they're the more work. Okay. We're not paying for it yet. Nope. Not until we get it. Okay. Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the purchase of There we go. a 2025 Ford F-150 from Devil's Lake Cars. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. All oppose say nay. Motion carries.

I guess that's it. I'll give this to Candy for Commissioner Vul with the KJ agreement and be back in a couple weeks with some more information for you. Thanks, Jason. Yep. Thank you. Next we have Sher PL I just got a three little things here we'll go over. It'll be real quick. Um, search and rescue is growing. They uh required another vehicle. So, our space in there is getting smaller and smaller. Um, so for us to store things, we've been trying to put it in our evidence room and our evidence room is getting full where we having troubles getting all our evidence where it needs to be and keep track of it. So, I talked to Jeff briefly and I talked my initial thought was buy a small shed. Uh, so when we purchase our vehicles and we go and have them all our police equipment put in, they're taking the center consoles out and everything. So, we bring that all back. We got to store that till we sell it and put it back in. And I've been watching the prices on tires and buying tires when they're on sale and stockpiling them. And so that's where my issue is coming in with some of our older equipment that

we are holding on um because we're using it for parts. If something breaks down, uh we just need a little bit more storage. So I looked at storage units. Uh, as you can see, compared to just buying a storage shed, and I haven't talked to Jason yet to see if there's a place I could set it over there. Um, but just kind of give you an idea. I was looking more like just a 10 by10 um to rent one that the U people store. They're $88 a month and they'll be about a,56 a year. Um, and then they're the cheapest storage unit that I could find so far.

Um, I looked at the shed central in Devil's Lake. They had a 10x12 with the high side and it's $5,811 for a shed. So, I'm I'm just throwing ass out there for now to see if uh the commission had any other ideas the of what we could do or maybe go or what avenues we should research some more. You better speak up.

Well, no, I'm okay with the shed. We can find room for a shed for now, but um I haven't had time to get the numbers together to look at this, but we're in the same situation. Obviously, we do have buildings that we could that I would we have a building I would like to heat and do some work to. I just haven't got any numbers together yet because we've been busy with the transition and everything. And if we could get this rolling, we could give him that blue building with the shop right in it where they already used for the slot. My plan is the five door building. I'd like to see some type of floor get put in there and some heat put in there so we can move things into that building so we don't have to have them in our shop because we don't have any room to work in our shop. We got to only have a couple buildings with heat in them. That's a cold storage facility. But if we made that a heated facility, he that would free up a bay. He could have that little building over there that's an entire bay. For now, he's still going to need a shed because I'm going to have to budget these things and stuff like that. But going forward, that's the plan in in the highway department with the guys to get us more room so we can because everybody's growing. Equipment's bigger. I mean, there's just more fleet.

Blades don't fit in the doors anymore. I mean, this building you're talking about the one we have now. Uh you want that you want to Oh, that that's that five door shop. It's like a 40 by 100. It's big. It's got five bays and it has a loft in one end. So, what I would look what I'm going to look at doing, this was the first thing on my was getting priced to spray foam it. Mhm. It's already a metal building. I'm just coming in and shoot it with foam. Doesn't need to be finished. That's that's finished product. It's already got the power in it. And then it's just do something with floor and floor drain and then get heat going in there. And there's five doors, you said? Yes. Are these insulated doors?

No, they're not. But they are the slotted doors where we could foam insulate. I'm I'm talking asphalt probably instead of concrete. It's It's less expensive. And it's not going to be We're not going to be in there dropping engines off of engines, you know, like a shop for. It's going to be to back in, melt the equipment off, keep it so it starts, and get it out of there and get it back to work the next day. And it utilizes space we already have and gets us our shop freed up. So we don't have two sanders and two pickups in there all the time. So before you go to do anything, you got to start all the trucks and move them out. So you can bring a blade in and change the oil or the cutting edges, which that doesn't seem like a big deal, but when you're the only guy working on a Sunday and you got to move four things to get one truck out, it's just royally, you know.

How high is the sidewall in the in the five door? Yeah, plenty high. We park payloaders in there now. We park trucks in there now, but they're all plugged in on timers. I'm assuming those timers alone, the electricity that we're burning through there were just we got two payloaders plugged in and a couple trucks and always a semi in case we have to haul and load something. So yeah,

I am I just have I didn't know sheriff was talking about this either until right now. So I'm just storm throwing out my snowball ideas. We are I've talked to Brenton, my grounds foreman or my shop foreman guy and we're we're moving forward. I've talked to Dwayne Bulk. He just hasn't got me a price. He's the spray and foam guy in town. And then we'd look for one other try to get a couple estimates on that. And first thing we want to do is get it insulated up, spray it up. So there' be room for the sheriffs. Well, we have a building right now that we kind of share, but we keep the shop side because we need it for the heated truck and they have their the SWAT team is in there and whatever else is in there. Plus, we have some of your old equipment's in there. There's a couple cages and stuff in there, but it'd be nice for them to just have that.

We pay the heat and they use half the building. pay his own heat that way. The search and rescue building is pretty well. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They have really expanded and gotten whatever. I don't I'm assuming that's all their equipment in there. I don't know for sure. Sheriff would know, but

but anyway, this just it just perked my ears because we we're in the process of this. I want to share that we are looking at something on our side, too. So, I'll be back with some numbers. I'll try to get I'll put a fast forward button on that. But so maybe that that would work out great because then we could park right still because you could probably get two pickups in there too, you know, if you one all the way up and one all the way back. You move over then you would have to be in their shop if you need to tear something apart or whatever either, you know. So, that would be the ultimate for all of us. We just have nowhere to go with that other truck right now. So, Sure. Okay. I I guess I can hit the binders and see what Jason comes up.

Well, I mean, in the short term, would one of the storage sheds be a better option for you that if you need something immediate?

Yeah, I I think it would be because we got stuff in this building, stuff in that building. I got it scattered in three different buildings. And then you're constantly on a hunt and if somebody moves something around. So are you just looking for some direction or are you looking for a motion to go buy a shed or what are you looking for? Well, I I think now buying a shed, if if Jason's going to do this with that other building and we can move get that whole building, we wouldn't need a shed, but maybe some temporary storage for now will get us by until we get that taken care of.

My request would be uh whichever is most secure. I'm not sure what you're keeping in these. Well, it's not going to be aveness, okay? It's it's going to be old light bars. It's going to be our tires. U equipment that we don't use all the time we pull out every now and then at an undisclosed location. Yeah. One more thing. Um, how much do they cost? Yeah. $5,800 for the cheap one.

Okay. So by the shed, we put it next to that blue building where that white pickup was sitting that we got from you. We put it in there. You'll have the shed with that shot. We'll clear that area out. Put it right in there. If you don't need it later on down the road because the weed building, it's right next door to the weed shed and that thing's been too small since the day I started with the chemical. Well, it has been. There's not enough room in there. So the stuff that doesn't have to be in a heated shed can go in that shed if you don't need it at some point down the road. We can buy it back however we make that work. We work by sheriff's department or whatever. But I think we get the shed and put it next to the building. It's between the two buildings that way and it's going to be used. You chipping in on

it? I guess. Do you have a direction you would like to go with this? Sure. Or should we ask Jason? I'm done. Maybe you guys better work it out and then we'll come back to us or something. Yeah, that that sounds better. We could just kind of table this for now and I'll get together with Jason and we'll come up with a better plan. And maybe you guys should talk more.

Well, you know, when you're trying to look for something and you're moving something and we just got 12 tires, we're trying to find a place for them that it was one of them. So, the other thing I I want to talk about real quick is the North Dakota legislature. This is a came up with a memorial highway for uh fallen peace officers that were killed in line of duty. Now, Ramsey County has one that was killed in the line of duty uh back in 1950. Uh his name was um Rudolph Howell. Um so what I did is I put an application in uh to see if we can get a sign um and a mile marker donated or not donated but directed towards him and it'll be a mile long stretch. it would be in memory of him. Uh, so I sent that off. We uh, we did get approved and they sent me the dimensions of the sign and everything and they gave me two places where we could purchase it. So, the maximum it would cost is $400. I was just I'm here to ask the commission if we could take that out of the general fund taking it out of my budget. It was kind of ironic this summer his grandson stopped in to visit us to give us a little bit of background and then the legislature came and did this. He was kind of looking to put something in the sheriff's office, but I think this would be really something nice to do for the family.

So, we're looking for a motion to take $400 out of the general fund to pay for signage for a fallen peace officer on the fallen deputy memorial highway. That accurate? Yeah, it's a uh let's see if I got it here. It's a uh North Dakota fallen peace officers memorial highway.

So moved. Second. Any further discussion? 1950 50. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Say nay. Motion carries.

Uh my last thing just real briefly, we uh did a trial run with some security stuff using the metal detector on the third floor uh where they had a hearing up there. Uh from my perspective on my end, things went pretty well. So we know that we got a judge that's going to have their uh swearing in and stuff. So, we're going to reshuffle things and we're going to do it on the ground floor and I'll have enough staff here to run it. We just want to see what it would be like to have it on the main floor with the side doors locked and everybody has to come through the front door. Uh because this is one of the thing that's been brought up at our safety meetings quite a bit. So, we want to give that a test run just to see how it would work and kind of give us an idea how many people it would take. So, I know we had two people up on the third floor. Um, two of us were busy 10 15 minutes and get done with one. We got pretty quiet. So, we want to give it a test run. So if you uh hear what sending out an email that side door is going to be locked, front entrance only, that that's what's going on.

That'll be for courthouse employees as well would have to like only enter through the front door or they will still Yes. Yeah. So, and then that's some information we can take back to the committee when we meet again and discuss. So, that's all I had. Unless you got questions or something for me. Thank you. Just so that it's clear, that date that's the side doors are going to be locked is February 10th. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay, that's correct. I'm sure a lot of people in the building will want to know what date that is.

And we we plan on sending out bulk email before that. Anybody have anything else for the sheriff? Thank you, Sheriff. Unfinished business. The beer liquor license application.

Yes. Um At the last meeting, I had asked the commission to table the license so that I could look deeper into our liquor ordinances here in Ramsey County. Um, my findings uh are that well, my recommendation based on my findings is that the commission deny the liquor license application at this time. Uh first and foremost, section 11 or excuse me, uh section 12 specifically states that uh any facility applying for a liquor license is required to have adequate and sufficient laboratory and toilet facilities. uh based on the information uh from state health that I've received at this point as well as uh came forward and gave a little information at last week or last meeting. Um it's well within the commission's uh authority to deny uh this application based on uh not having adequate and sufficient lavatory toilet facilities. Um there's also a couple other uh well one other issue uh with Mr. Johnson's application for the liquor license that uh all licenses uh must be issued to state residents. Uh and while Mr. Johnson may be a resident, uh the application listed the uh location of the uh business here on Highway 2 within Ramsey County. My understanding and well my understanding is that Mr. Mr. Johnson does not live at the location. So, we would at least want to verify uh before reviewing a further application uh whether or not Mr. Johnson is a North Dakota citizen.

And regarding the application, that's my recommendation at this point. If uh Mr. Johnson wants to renew his application if he's able to address these issues. Uh I encourage the commission to uh receive that application and have him come uh before the commission to address any concerns the commission might have. It's a little outside of the norm for one of these applications to be denied. So in the event that he does reapply, I think it'd be appropriate for him to come before the commission to talk about those issues or concerns that the commission may have at a later date. Any questions for me?

Move to deny based on the uh state's attorney's recommendations. We have a motion and we have a second. Is there any further discussion?

Um I do have just one little bit. Um Cindy Schmidt, prevention specialist with the uh North Dakota uh state health or working for Lake Region District Health. She had submitted a letter uh to the commission. Uh each of the members present were given a copy. One will be given to you as well, Commissioner Vulk. Uh this letter just outlines Miss Schmidt's concerns about uh another bar here in Ramsey County and uh just wanted to make sure that her concerns were highlighted to the commission. Uh that's really more for uh the commission to take into account when reviewing this application and future applications. But um I'm sure Miss Schmidt will be showing up in any future applications to make sure that uh her concerns are noted at a later date as well. Thank you. Any further discussion on the liquor license application?

Not. All in favor say I. I. All opposed say nay. Motion carries. The license application has been denied. On to new business. Approve a homestead credit abatement. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I.

All oppose say nay. Motion carries. And extension portfolio. That was me. Um when Commissioner Brown uh said he would accept the portfolio for the fair board, I think it'd be proper for him to also be the portfolio for the extension office, have the two coincide with each other. And I've talked to him and he has agreed to do that. If that is okay with the rest of the commission, I'd move to uh make that recommendation that Commissioner Brown be both the fair board and the extension portfolio. Second.

We have a motion and a second to transfer the portfolio of the extension office from uh Commissioner Hodus to Commissioner Brown. Any further discussion? Not all in favor say I. I all opposed say nay. Motion carries. Thank you. Visitors and delegations.

Hearing no one that wants to speak. Okay. Announcements. Uh, law enforcement center meets tomorrow morning in the law enforcement uh, cent's courtroom 8 a.m. We'll be reviewing some building designs with our architecture and some costs uh, potentially. So, if anybody is available and wants to attend, that's where it will be. No one else has anything. Meeting a journ.

You're welcome.