County Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening everybody. First thing on the agenda is approval of the minutes. Second. We have a motion and we have a second. All is fair by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Approval of the agenda. Anybody have anything to add to the agenda? I'll move to approve the agenda.

Second.

We have a motion, we have a second to approve the agenda. as we have in front of us. All in favor by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed by same sign. Jason.

Okay, all right. Sorry for wrestling with the mic. We're gonna jump around a little bit on my agenda. I got a couple of things we would need signed and I think Paul would like to do that while he was here. So I'll present those to the chairman now for the resolution. from the state to accept the bid of the Knife Rivers for the Thin Lift Overlay projects. And that bid came in at $2,585,346.70. So that's a little bit over what we had estimated, but not too bad. Yeah, our estimate was $2,410,270, but that was three months ago. So I'm asking for a motion for the chairman and the auditor to sign that resolution with accepting that bid through the DOT for Knife River. And then, I suppose we'll do that separate. Let's do that one first.

How much was that for?

The total $2,585,346.70. And that's Ramsey County four, Prairie Road, Woods-Rutton Road, and one mile by Brockett. The next one was 2.7 and the last one was three by nine. And Knife River is doing US 2 as well for the DOT, so they'll be right in that area.

But they're still always better.

Yep.

Just looking for a motion to accept. I would still move. Second. We have a motion and a second to accept the bid of $2,585,346.70 from Knife River. And those are for County 4, Crary, Woods-Rutton, and One Mile Rocket. All those in favor by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

along those same lines, I guess. I don't know if it needs a separate motion, but there's going to be electronic contracts sent out by the DOT signature. I don't know if we could get a motion to approve those when they come across as well.

So moved. We have a motion.

Second.

So we have a motion. We have a second.

That way. Electronic version comes out, I can sign it. All those in favor by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed, opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

that ramsey four is that over where we're experiencing the flooding

no that'd be it's north of there north of there it's from number eight up to state 17 so a lot in road to okay 17. we do have a culvert to go in there i've been working closely with true north steel to get that here um as fast as we can it's a coated culvert so we're trying to get that in obviously before we overlay but so we'll get that handled thank you and i already well meeting or so ago we proposed the price from mr johnson and accepted that for that culvert on four so he's also here willing to put that in as soon as the culver gets the ground he said so we're out of the way of the overlay project um also we should probably for anybody who doesn't know the two million five hundred thousand um that's not all county money there's federal highway money involved in that I just want to specify that, that everyone understands that, that we're not, that there's federal assistance on that project for what was roughly, we were estimating around 1.4 million-ish on that. We'll get hard figures as I know that we're moving forward, but.

And we have to be able to ask everyone to get a bid through the DOT.

So just so we're clear, so everybody doesn't, you know, wonder where the money's coming from on that. And the second part of that then for the next motion, and then we can let Mr. Bjornson move on, is we got the engineering contract. I think this is the task order. Is that what I'm seeing here, Paul? And again, we ask you for a signature from the chairman to, I brought the other sheet for the total of the project, Yeah, the total for estimate of the engineering lump sum is $188,200. Yeah, $188,200. Yeah, that's actually out to a man, so it's not lump sum. Oh, it is. Okay. I don't know.

So there's a spreadsheet up there.

So does anybody have any questions on the engineering costs for Paul before we ask for a motion to sign that agreement?

I would move to sign the agreement. Second. We have a motion, we have a second. This is just to accept it, right?

So we have a motion. To approve them, yep.

Motion and a second to approve the $180,200 for KLJ, correct? Yep. That's the balance, but it's our . Yep. Correct. All those in favor by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed, same sign. Motion carried.

Thank you.

Thanks, Paul.

We'll get you those. Okay. Sure. All right. Taking care of that business there. Appreciate that. We will jump into the other things I had here. I would like to revisit the building on the renovation of the five-door. I'm asking for a motion to accept the low bid from TJP Construction of $86,450 to move forward with that project.

Oh.

Second of emotion we have a second. To acceptable bid $36,450 just for the concrete correct floor hip floor heat. All's in favor of something that bid. By I I pose pose same sign motion carries.

The next one is I received only the one quote for the roof repair. So that came in at $4,292, $4,292. And that is also from TJB. So he will, I'd like to ask for a motion to accept that quote.

I would make that motion to accept the bid request to 4292.

I do have a question on the repair of the roof that gives us a warranty of how much time? Is it going to give us any kind of warranty?

I would assume that, well, yeah, I mean, I guess we can, I suppose we can specify that, but I mean, I don't know. For the work he does, I'm sure he'll stand behind. I just, I don't know. I guess I'd, It's a hard one to say that the metal to me seems okay. I don't know. I haven't been, I don't, I'm not.

Yeah.

I'll make sure that there's something in there. I'll have him write something for us on that. Okay. So we're covered there.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor by saying aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

I got a little one on here. We're looking to purchase a trailer from Runnings locally that was for $3,100. It was a little bit over our spending limit, so I'd like to get a motion to purchase this trailer.

What's a trailer? Anybody?

It's for the mowing and the mower, mowing cemeteries and chop yards. The old trailer we have, we'll demote that to the sign trailer and then the sign trailer will surplus. We've got a bent axle on the sign trailer, so.

Move to approve. Second.

We have a motion. We have a second to purchase a trailer from running at $3,100.00. All those in favor by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

Let's see if we got any other small ones before we jump into the water issues. Yeah, I got the Fox Lake culvert was installed. Johnson had given us the quote for $9,500. I was going to pay that. And then I was visiting with Commissioner Frith. I'm asking, should that be paid out of the county ER funds since it was on our emergency work? Or should I pay that out of my culvert budget? What do you guys think on that?

I thought that since we're declaring that emergency action on the 27th of April, that it could be spent out of the county ER funds.

I would agree with that. I would say yes. No.

I agree. That was for a 14-day emergency, correct? Yes. And this work was completed within the emergency preparation?

I think it was. It wasn't completed. Brian, do you remember when you completed that?

I don't exactly either, but it's been a while.

It was started.

Yeah, yeah.

If it wasn't completed.

It was accepted during that. Certainly accepted at one of those meetings to put it in. And that was for $9,500, so we'll pay it out of that.

I make a motion to

We have a motion.

We have a second to pay the $9,500 out of emergency funds. All those in favor by saying aye. Aye.

Opposed? Opposed? Same sign.

Motion carries. All right, we'll move back to the Fox Lake situation we have there. I'm sure most of you have been out there, but I do have some pictures from Friday.

I have taken a

Once we got the culvert in and we equalized the waters, I decided to take a stance to wait and visit with the commission on what was next. As I looked through that permit of the US Fish and Wildlife, the permit was allowing us to get the water under control to put the culvert in the road. But we already have the culvert in the road. We did it live without digging a temporary ditch. We have basically three foot of freeboard on that road right now on a calm day. But as you can see with the wind the way it was on Friday, we have zero freeboard on that road right now. So we got a couple options that I've explored into. One of them would be to work with the Fish and Wildlife on the temporary drain. I've talked with Chris. He's not opposed to that, even though we put the culvert in, he would be willing to let us put a temporary drain in until October, like he initially granted the permit to us for, but knowing that that would be filled in in October through the 160 acres of wetlands. The next option would be to try to maybe go outside the, the realm of Ramsey County's department, highway department, and do like a drain tile through there or something, something more permanent for a drain in there. I don't know the ins and outs of that. I know talking with Chris, he said we'd have to bring them in as well, US Fish and Wildlife again, and they'd have to help establish an elevation and things like that in there. And then of course that cost would be on us. The thing with the permanent, I visited with all the landowners. Part of that land is in a life trust or a life estate, and getting that family to agree to that part of it, the north part of that, would be tough. But in that part, the ditch is already there. The only part we'd really need an easement on would be where we would put drain tile. And that landowner is fine doing that if we want to incur all costs. But then he also would like to see a lifetime easement put on that that Ramsey County would maintain and take care of said drain if we come in and dig through his private lands and put a drain in. So I got prices roughly together for both of those. The temporary drain would be right around $30,000 to dig through that and take some water off. the permanent drain is much closer to $70,000, $52,000 roughly just to get through the wetlands area. And I guess I'm just looking for direction which way we want to go. I attended the water board meeting this morning. I've been visiting with quite of the guys up there quite often. They have started looking into a snag and clear option for this Fox Lake that would have to tie in with Ontario's, but that's just in the talking phases at this point. I mean, nothing has been officially started there yet as of today. They're all talking about, you know, I mean, it's just kind of coming up. People are realizing now that it could maybe work together with what they're trying to do in Ontario. So I think it picked up a lot of steam today. Seems like it was a pretty heavy conversation. That is the natural drain is west and south and then west again. That is how it's supposed to drain.

But obviously with all the water over there, it can't.

So we'd be trying to just take it north and add it into the Schneider Slough area where there is a drain coming out of there that was cleaned last year to take off high water. There's a high water ditch there.

Okay, where's Schneider Slough? Which way does it go, east?

That goes west. Northwest, yeah. Takes stuff out of there and goes northwest into the lot and out.

For a short term, this temporary gate would be a good option. First off, it's T-brick. Second off, the floor is not a permanent place to move over, as I'm aware.

It would be now. I don't think at the time it was, but yeah, I believe that's right, Bill. I've talked with Chris Root a couple times. I believe that would be accurate to say at this point, yeah.

And then if the natural flow is the other direction and let the townships move,

Nope, that's an assessed deal back through the water board.

Through the property water seal.

Yep.

I don't know if we want to get tied into something where we're doing a permanent thing because then what comes up next? How many other people are going to come in here and ask for permanent?

100%. The reason we were talking about doing a permanent is, you know, when you put in a temporary, you spend $30,000, you come back and spend $10,000 to fill it in and all those crazy things like that. But in this case, it might be our best option to move some water to save our road. The thing with it is to put the permanent one in, we don't even know if we can get that. I don't know that.

Temporary one, we know we can give relief. When we started to talk about this project, it was for relief. exactly to save the road yeah so my opinion i think you move on but uh temporary to save the road so that we don't lose them and go from there i mean if they were to get the state clear to go through that would help yeah that would take care of that would basically take care of it for a while you know yeah for a long time yeah

I agree that if we do anything, that's what I feel the best about doing as a highway department would be that the temporary.

So something that we can do right now, you know what I mean? We could, we could hope to do a permanent one, but what if it never goes through?

Right.

Then we're, and we wait too long and we can't even do the temporary.

And that's the risk with the snag. It clears too, but that's not something we can control. We can only control what we can control, and that's to do the temporary to take some relief off there. Get some relief there. Get some water off there, I mean.

I hope not to get 20 inches of rain again.

Well, that's the reality of this. You see that from the wind. We are one big rain event away from no more. We don't have to worry about it anymore because we're going to have barricades across that road.

I'm just afraid that we're not going to have time to do the permanent.

And we're looking at this picture, and we're looking at a mess on the road. Then you look at the sky in blue.

It's not rain.

Right, right. And how much did they think they could take off? Well, if they put the temporary drain in, that would stay there all summer.

Right. So anything new will be not in there.

And we're hoping with the elevation that Mr. Johnson and I came up with,

We'd like to see another couple, three feet come off there before freeze up.

And that could get us through this process.

Right. That we're looking to do. Of course, what's going through their easement on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, if we get a point, I suppose, where we're starting to drain the wetlands, I don't know if they would want us to stop sooner.

We'd have to cross that bridge.

Right, on the road. And we'd cross those bridges as they come up later. We'd be willing to work with them, however.

I'd say it's most likely... more cost effective to refill the wetlands than it would be to rebuild the road. Exactly. And as far as the easement goes, it is, as long as we're experiencing issues with the road and they haven't withdrawn it, then whatever action you need to take in order to preserve the road is acceptable or permissible.

Okay. Well, then I will ask the commission for your support and I guess a motion to

I'd make that motion to move forward.

Yep.

With the temporary. Okay. We have a motion. We have a second to move on with the temporary permit to move some of the water. All those in favor by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

So when can you start? When can we start? Six o'clock.

We'll work on that tomorrow, getting them figured out when he can start. I know he's kind of scattered out, but he said he's willing to jump back on these projects for us. He's been really good about that. So we'll hopefully get that figured out. So my next one is I had Paul take a look at a situation that came up with the coolie clean out on the Bartlett turn back. The water's higher on the north side than the south side. It can't get through there fast enough. So I had Paul take a look at US2. We want to make sure we wouldn't make any problems for the DOT there. We'd like to add a 24-inch culvert to our road, get that water down and through it faster. It can get away. It is getting away to the south now because of the cooling clean-up that was done there.

Oh, that drain there, yeah.

so it's it is better um but we still need to like to install a 24 inch culvert across the bartlett turn back so i'd like to i gotta i think our guys can put that in so it's just a matter of doing it so it's just more of an fyi that we looked into it and we're doing it i guess so that'll be happening here in the next week or so I would like to ask for a motion to get that 36 inch culvert installed on 102nd Avenue or Ramsey County, Nelson County line, north of the Thompson farm. There's a 36 inch in there that's rusted out and we looked at it last year, but then it was late in the fall and then it was getting into the time of the year, we didn't want to dig in there, but I had Johnson excavating look at that and he quoted me a price of $4,500 to install that. Do we have the culverts? Yeah, we'll supply the culverts.

So moved. We have a motion, we have a second. Second. We have a motion, we have a second to install a 36-inch culvert. Ramsey County North, or NC line, north of Thompson's, right? All those in favor by saying aye? Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

And then, let's see, the Fenster Slough, that was just your guys' information for you guys. It has a 513. I didn't shoot it today. I wasn't out there today. It has a 1-foot-6-inch freeboard. So we're sitting at about 18 inches, 19 inches of space before it overtops the road. It's on a calm day again.

I haven't got anything back from Bismarck on that. I asked Jeff earlier today. He hasn't seen anything.

I did get a follow-up. It said, let me pull that up. Thanks for reaching out today. Continues to consider the emergency application and taking steps to gather information necessary to properly evaluate. So I know they were out there today installing a presence system out there right across from Rex Place. That's a remote sensing, remote information sensing device that the department has all over the state. They collect precipitation surface and groundwater data and present that in real time. And as soon as it starts collecting data, we'll share that link with everybody, including Mr. Kraft.

Yeah, I was called and informed that they were out there by a couple of residents. They were curious what we were putting in. I said, I'm not sure. I haven't been notified by anyone. I haven't heard of anything. But I said, I'm sure it's something to do with gauging the water or, you know, obviously. So thank you for that information. I just had that call when I was walking in here. So anytime people see somebody moving, it's a good sign. You know, they were excited just to see any type of movement out there. I think they feel forgotten about over in that corner right now. And then the last thing is, as you guys know, Ontario and their flooding, well, Ontario, Noonan, and Morris, they're working on some snag and clear options. Part of that snag and clear would be to have ran down Ramsey County 3 right away, and then along Ramsey County 2. I should have sent you guys a copy of the map. It's about a mile and a half-ish. It starts just... three quarters of a mile north on three and comes down to the intersection and then goes about three quarters of a mile to the east, just past the Dave Buckmeyer residence. It's part of the drainage to relieve that water, but it's gotta be done in our right of way. So the easiest thing, instead of putting that into a snag and clear is for us to do our right of way maintenance on that. So I have a quote for $14,000 from Brian. He went out and lasered the thing to see there's not a lot of drop there. We got a lot of high spots and stuff to clean out of there. It's never been done. So I'm asking for a motion for him to do that as well. So we can have that ready to start moving water. And they said they will start releasing water as soon as the right away is cleaned out in a controlled type manner. this morning at the water board meeting.

Do we have a motion, do we have a second? Second. We have a motion, we have a second to use our right of way to move the water.

Do they not come to us for approval when that's made clear to move by the water board?

Yeah, it's not there yet, but they can start moving water now. Water will go in there and run if we do this. So this has been omitted from the snag and clear because first off, it's our property. And second off, it'd be a way to get some water running now instead of waiting until the whole process is done. Because that water, again, those snag and clears are never guaranteed to get approved. So they would like to clean that up and let some water run now if they could. What's up? Yeah, it it does go there. It just needs to get the home salt and cattails out and. We have like that we have a second.

Hearing none, all those in favor by saying aye. Opposed same sign motion carries.

All right, I think I covered enough everything, and I will get these for you to sign, Blaine, at the end here. Thank you, guys.

Moving on to unfinished business, which is very proper.

Yes, I was able to do some research and specifically it's not going to pull up uh so the county has the authority the commission has the authority to dispose of any county property that it sees uh that it seems fit to do so however any uh disposition of county property uh has to follow or to go to century code 11 2701 uh which states that um Any property estimated by the board to be a value of less than $1,000 may be sold at private sale upon resolution of the board. Anything that is estimated by the board to be above $1,000 must be auctioned off. similar to the same processes tax uh forfeiture um property sales so i'm not sure how the county commission wants to value the property i think that it's prudent to take a look at that property and look at how much it is actually worth and Most prudent would be to have somebody go out and actually assess the land so that the county can be assured that it's not going outside of what this specific statute states. However, the statute does specifically say that the property is estimated by the board. Unless there's something wholly untowards or clearly the property is worth more than $1,000, it would be appropriate for that private sale. So I don't think we're there today because I don't know what the specific value of that property is, but it can certainly move forward with that understanding and decisions can be made from there.

Since your code was what again?

11-27-01.

So each individual parcel would then fall into the $1,000? Yes, correct.

There's another option where the Commission could seek to have a real estate broker take over disposing of the property, but I don't think that's even remotely what's being considered here. So with that being the case, I think last Commission meeting, Mr. Christensen was asking that the Commission move forward on that. I guess I'm not sure how the Commission wants to go about assessing the value of the property, whether it's taking a look at what property values are in the area or looking at the total land area of each of the properties and making a determination from there. Well, I guess really that would be checking in with the tax assessor's office and determining what the property is valued at or what other properties in the area are valued at and going from there.

I think we could have Beth look at it, give us an estimate on it. Yeah, I don't think we want to incur any costs.

Right.

To help an independent.

No.

It's all swamp land. Yeah, exactly. That's my suggestion. Beth, give it a look.

We can use some areola if we have to. Chris can probably go out there and get some areola if we have to and make a decision from that, if you guys are good with that.

I think, yeah, more research needs to be done.

Right. We'll table it with more research.

Yeah.

That's a motion to table it.

Yep. So moved.

Second. We have a motion, we have a second at the table. I have more research done.

I can talk to Beth too about it.

All those in favor by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed by the same sign. Motion carries. New business. North Dakota DOT US 2 improvement project from Elks Drive to Heffner Rest area.

see we have a few people in here i imagine are interested on this jeff you want to run with this yeah we uh this is something we've been discussing for a number of years um dot has a public meeting back in august of 25 getting public input on proposed changes And this is what they took out of the media. They came up with some changes and it's really difficult to see for everybody. So this was based on some of the public comments that they took. looking at removing some intersections, changing some access points along that route. So you have green as the existing turn lanes, the yellows as turn lane modifications to meet standards, the red would be new turn lane, and then the orange X would be access closure.

That's right. Looking at this map, I believe this is where we sat down with the township. We sat down with the township, and I think Jeff and I were there with the DOT. We had a good conversation with the township. Jeff and I as a county and the DOT, and this is what they're coming back with.

So if you go up, I'm sorry, to the bottom of that, there you go, that page there. Go up just a little bit higher. No, a little further, there we go. So this is the changes on the frontage road. I think that is by that clinic maybe.

Yes.

And I don't know if they made changes based on the comments from the owner of the Lake Region Livestock that that would create some issues with semis backing up to a term going west. leave in their stockyards when they have following sales or things. He said sometimes that can get, they could have a long line of semis there if they don't have proper access to the, going to the west. They have to cross that intersection and if they get halfway out there and they're sticking out could cause some problems. And I don't know if this fixes that based on the comments that were made at the public meeting or if that creates a bigger headache. It's really hard to tell with that shrunk down image that they have.

I think this gives them two access points.

It does give them two access points.

And it was, when they were talking to us, these access points would be enlarged. for the traffic. I know it's quite small now, but they were, I wish Kevin was here, he could explain it a little bit better, but they were to enlarge those so that the semis would be able to get out in those areas. Because we had brought up in those areas to make something similar like they did out at Butler. in those real tight areas where those accidents have been happening. I want to say another place they talked about that is out by the B plant to make that intersection larger. Right, well, it'd be across that median.

So this one you're talking about, you're going to jump to semi on the front.

Tom, could you come up to the mic, please? All right, well, we know, but can you hear me? I can hear you fine, but people watching probably can't.

So the one they're talking about is they're going to put the semis on the frontage road until you get past the 313. And then they're going to jump out right across the closed construction for their main building, right? I think you can go either way, though. Right. But the one on the left-hand piece, they're taking that intersection out. Just on the left-hand one, right by the number two, they're taking that intersection out right there, right? That's the one he wanted for his second axis. If I understood that to me.

The reason, I can tell you the reason for this. Because remember when they talked about speeds, intersections were too close to be able to put turn lanes.

Because they're too close together?

Yeah, then turn lanes would be into turn lanes. Okay. That was the big reason behind that. So, for instance, if you have a turn lane coming in, and then if you have another turn lane, there has to be solar energy because it's federal power.

Right.

And that's what created so much problems with the intersection.

That's why all these closures.

Exactly. Because otherwise they can't make the room for those turn lanes. You know, as the infrastructure went in, they were taking that into consideration. And some of those turn lanes that are there were only supposed to be temporary turn lanes.

And it just so happened people I know who made something.

You know what I'm saying? I'm just saying what they told us.

Right. Okay.

I mean, after looking at the very first initial one, the very first one with the J-turns and all this.

Right.

This is definitely a huge... Oh, sure.

But while I'm up here, so let's go keep scrolling through the paper. So let's go to M16. which is down a little more, right there on the left-hand side, right there. Isn't that the south entrance to the cliff subdivision? So they're gonna eliminate that? Or is that the entrance to Highway 2 from the north? No, they're going to take the median out of there, which is east and west access, which is the south entrance into the cliff subdivision, which is also the entrance to Cowboys with his records and all the things he has to haul in there. And Roger Johnson lives back in there with his trees.

Well, in some of these other ones, it says remove median and north access. So I get 22. Remove median and north access. They're just saying remove east access. No, it says east and west access. 16.

16. M16. We're looking at two different.

We're down at the bottom there.

Or she's got the arrow.

Oh, they're taking out 18, too.

Right?

Oh. Some of those are just crossovers. A lot of the ones that they talked about removing were the temporary access.

I agree.

I have problems with it. The one I think is the south one.

Because then they would have to use frontage road all the way.

Yes.

That's not a frontage road. That's a private road.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, but looking at, looking at every situation, right. Okay. That's a situation tracking that, looking at everything else on this.

Is that one of the M 34, which is the very last one, which is past the rest area is a major crossover for our machinery on those fields. And that is actually a really wide media, which I don't know what they shouldn't get rid of. I want them to keep that. If I have a voice in this at all. That one is past the rest area. Ed knows where it's at exactly. So those are the only two I want to address. The rest of them look fine. And I'm happy they're helping us. I really am.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if M34 was on there when we were talking about it because it was only supposed to be to the- It was never on.

It was supposed to be to the HESTA. Yeah, it just appeared on the map. Just the first time I've seen it and heard anything about closing M34. So the two concerns that- Are M16 and M34. Everything else is done. And we can contact them, definitely.

Yeah.

I can't remember which one it is, but he'll probably drive out there. If I can't, Jeff will meet him out there so that we can have a conversation piece that we're having right here.

Well, he's talking to me about my intersection too. I mean, they're really nice to work with.

To make the best possible decision. I think when we talk to the townships before, that is what we want. for the best safety and the best decision. And that will have to be brought up. Like on M16, I feel if that's a private drive, that's definitely something you absolutely have to take into consideration. You can't just remove that.

They would have to move it onto their easement. Right. And I don't know why they're closing that one. Other than to gain what we got, they had to eliminate some things and This is give and take, but I think M16 needs to stay there, and M34 doesn't need to be part of the project.

I'll ask that question.

Okay.

You cool with that, Ed?

What's that?

You cool with that, to ask that question?

M16. M16. M34 was never in the scope of the project when I first started imagining it. I think it was back in 22. Yeah. And that's what we're sitting here to talk about for what they drew up.

We sat down and to make sure that before it's a goal that we can come up with the best decision and the best safety for everybody out there. That's the way I took it when I sat through the thing. Any intersection that they were proposing to remove was not to take any means away from anyone. It was all for the safety of the whole situation.

the destination lighting on some of these intersections. That'll certainly help. And I think we've seen a decrease in accidents out there with the lower speeds. You know, haven't we? You know, we don't know that for sure, but, you know, because Sheriff doesn't get all of those reports from the Highway Patrol, but I don't think we've seen anything since the speed limit has been reduced.

So I guess if there's no other conversation, we'll take that M16, M34 and run with it.

And we need to make those comments. I think they wanted those comments by June 1st.

I'll make sure I contact you tomorrow. If we've got a drive out there, I'll drive out there with them and work with them and explain the concerns and why.

And the township should have gotten this same notification that we did. So they should have that information. And if they have concerns from a township perspective, they should be able to make those comments as well. Tom, I think I sent you that email, so if you have comments that you would like to make individually, you certainly probably have that opportunity to do so. But, you know, other than that, I think it looks, you know, positive. It's just something I drive every day.

Right. Trucks and machines.

Yeah.

I drive the cars and whatever.

It's just a major thing that I do.

Yeah. Oh, I think for the whole area, the whole project is going to be up.

It's going to be a wait.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I think that and I don't know when this project is going forward, but they're being like yesterday.

Yeah.

That is where your next scratch is going to be.

Agreed.

And when I went out there with them, when I went out there with them, Tom, it was a busy time and they absolutely agree where it wasn't in there before.

Yeah.

And we all know that it's only going to get more businesses as we grow.

Right.

That's why when I sat down and was talking to them, I was like, I want to do this right the first time. I don't want to have to come back three years down the road. Well, especially because it's federal, right?

And let's do it right so that when it comes down to making changes, they'll probably say, well, that's on the contract.

I think it has to be something that's worked into the DOT budget for this next legislative session. So it'd be anywhere in the 27, 29 by any. So nothing happens quickly in government.

So we'll blame it being what it is, right? But you have to be in part of the legislation that you have at the federal level.

Right. It would be great if there was something that they could do temporarily just to, you know.

Absolutely.

Okay. Any other discussion on this piece? Hearing none, we'll move on to the steps on the south end of the building.

I had a couple individuals come to me on the steps on the south end of the building.

unsafe and i guess we have more concerns now that we move the abstract office out there and they have seen people falling down because there is a couple of steps that are tilted uh roger had it mud jacked and it didn't 100 fix it so he's looking to get bids on that to possibly replace them so we're just waiting on bids but that's just so that you guys know that that's out there.

I think he's looking to replace it with the cement.

Yeah.

Instead of the ground.

Well, the cost will be a lot less.

Make it a safer environment.

Just like basically what they did out in the front into the side.

Anybody have anything else?

Visitors of the delegation. Anybody? Hearing none, move on to announcements. Yes, I have one that I got. If you could talk this piece, I got it from Sandy Shywood.

I'll just read it.

North Central Planning Council was awarded a Regional Livestock Development and Planning grant by the North Dakota Department of Agriculture and the VA. This grant supports counties, townships, and regional planning councils in advancing livestock development efforts through site analysis and strategic planning North Central Planning Council is funding to conduct a regional site analysis focused on identifying locations that meet state siting and local zoning regulation and position near key infrastructure to support animal agriculture production. The planning areas include Eddy, Cavalier, Ramsey, Rowett. and counter counties to carry out this work in our central planning council partner with the first district solution of local government to lead the site analysis and planning process and basically what i'm putting forward is they this if they are having an event they'll be hosting a meeting to share the findings of this study and discuss results found in each county this event will highlight key insights from the analysis and provide a platform to discuss the challenges and opportunities of livestock development. The meeting will be Tuesday, May 26th, 2026, from 4 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. at the Ramsey County Armory, right here in Devil's Lake. So that's what I have. I'm just reading what was sent to me so that everybody knows that it'll be good.

What was the date on that again, Wayne?

May 26th of 2026, 4 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. Next week, Mimsy County Airport. Is there any other announcements?

Airport had a meeting on Monday. Said another boarding market would continue to do extraordinarily well. But nonstop flight to Denver has really taken off and we're jumping on board, so to speak. No pun intended, but kudos to the airport and the airport authority for continuing their great work. Law Enforcement Center, we meet tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock. Everybody's welcome to attend that.

Anything else? Hearing none, that adjourns. Thanks for coming.