Board - Regular Meeting

I have it now.

Hi, how are you? Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yes. Yeah. Stairs. Teresa, you get her side over a full house. I've had conversations. It's 7:00. We're going to call the meeting to order. We're going to do the pledgece

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. I've got the prayer. Is that on now? Okay. [clears throat] Okay. We're going to do a prayer. Lord, give us the strength and the wisdom to get through the agenda that we have before us tonight that we all work together and get the business of the county accomplished. Amen. Amen. Roll call. Teresa Bay here. Tim Brown here. Carol here. Julie Edwards here.

Chrissy Grant. Jeff Gray here. Clay Hardy here. Keith McCormick. Christine Matwalk here. Tad Mayh Hall. Trisha Miller here. James Mitchell. Jim Tim Moors here. Jean Price here. Austin Pritchard here. John Stroll here. Larry Ciphert. Don Tate here. Christy Wford here. Brent Wallace here. G Wood here. We have a form. [clears throat] Okay. Need a motion to accept minutes from the February 11th meeting. Trisha and Austin. Okay. All is there.

Any discussion? Is there any discussion before we do this approve? See my got any comments about it? Okay. All in favor of approving those minutes. Okay. That sheetch. Pardon me. March 312.

March 312. Is there two of them on there? Okay. We're going to do this again. I need a motion for the March [clears throat] 3rd one [snorts] meeting. Carol and Judy. Any discussion? Any discussions about it? Okay. All in favor? Okay. I got to check the sheet guys for public body comments. [cough and clears throat] [snorts] [clears throat]

We have a few. [clears throat] Okay, for those of you that aren't familiar with the rules with the public body comment, you have five minutes and I'll try to keep track of it and stuff. But um there's three people here. Matt Overbeck. Okay, I'm going to ask you to speak up. Okay.

Okay. Uh hi, I'm Matt Overbeck. Um I had a uh comment about the zoning board or the zoning um issue we have tonight. Um me and my wife, we are completely against it. Um I we own the property joining the whole north line of the uh old junkyard. We would never have purchased our house if it was an active junkyard and we we don't want that in our backyard um just due to the noise. We're worried if we resell our property in the future if that's going to hurt, you know, just due to everything going on behind it. Um, all the noise that's already happened back there and stuff and just the, you know, just I guess the like the burning and everything like that. Um, [clears throat] we can I see that please. Sorry. Um we one of the problems we have over one of the things like our neighborhood it's we have a very quiet neighborhood right now everybody minds their own and stuff and when he like when it's the work has been done over there already it's just constant machinery noise all day long we have a lot of people getting ready to retire in our area or neighborhood my wife's a teacher takes summers off and um just the the the noise of it and then we had a concern with the uh when it used to be a junkyard, all the dumping that happened there and the junk on the road and the semitruck traffic, you know, it's not a very good road for it there. I know it was a junkyard once before, but I mean, times have changed. We have a lot of different people in the neighborhood that used to live there, and I know from the zoning board meeting, there's a lot of people that disapproved of it. So, that's my comment.

Thank you. [cough] Jim Schwarman. [clears throat]

My name is Jim Schwarman and I also live just down the road from the the old salvage yard. Um have several concerns. One of them is will it lower the property values for the homes uh around the salvage yard, the noise, the mess. Um when it operated formally, there were many times where people just came and dumped their garbage right at the front of the entrance. and one of the homes that's newer that is in the area is right [clears throat] adjacent to that entrance. So, that's not a good thing. Will it bring heavy traffic, semi-traffic? Um, that road currently is is posted for no semi-traffic and obviously there will be if [cough] the salvage yard operates. It is adjacent to uh the creek and uh there's some concerns about will it contaminate the creek not only for drinking and so on but occasionally kids play in that creek downstream so that's also a concern. Um there's some specific things as far as the zoning my wife looked into she I'm sorry that she couldn't be here. She probably would explain this better than me, but um as far as the u being adjacent to residential a residential area, it's supposed to be 300 ft at least from a residence and it the property is adjacent to the residential area. So, it looks to me like the zoning board took that into consideration when they said that this shouldn't be reszoned for the junkyard. Um there's some concern, I guess, as far as um could it be grandfathered in somehow, but it's not been a salvage yard since 2018. The property taxes were changed from agricultural I mean two agricultural that time. It had had a property tax of over $31,000 the year before that. And after it was reszoned, it was $1,800. So obviously at that point, the assessor didn't think it was an operating business anymore. Um,

and I think those are the main things. There's just a lot of concerns. The neighborhood is quiet. We [clears throat] had a neighbor a few years ago just south of the salvage yard that asked to be have their property reszone commercial and their request was denied because, you know, it's a it's a neighborhood area and it wasn't really suitable for that. If this has changed, I I realize now initially we thought that they wanted to reszone commercial. This is really a special permit, but if the board is looking at something as far as reszoning commercial, even if the salvage yard doesn't stay a business, we don't want that to be reszone commercial so that something else could come in in the future that we, you know, don't know what it might be. So, those are my comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Hannah.

Hi, I'm Hannah Overbeck. Um, Matt Overbeck is my husband. My comment is not as heavy on statistics as his wonderful ones are. I just kind of wanted to comment on the area that we live in. My husband and I keep to ourselves and that was something we were looking for when we were searching for this house. Quiet area, quiet neighborhood. So, there are a lot of folks going into retirement. Our neighbors retired. I imagine his wife will not be that far off. And we would just like to raise kids and a family in a quiet home and not have to worry about all of the traffic. I know those roads are already misused with semis even though it's posted no semis. Um I hope that one day that gets under control and I understand that farmers have to use it once a year. My husband is a farmer. I completely understand that. But I don't think that gives us a reason to open it up when it's posted no semis for even more traffic going through because now there's grandchildren. We hope that there's children involved someday and we really just like to keep the peace and quiet in the neighborhood. Along with that, I have chronic migraines. I see a neurologist and an ENT for those. Um, on Christmas Eve, there was burning the entire day. We were trying to have Christmas dinner, rolling up towels, trying to get them under the door, the windows, because the smoke smells were so strong. And it's like that with the smoke and then the constant all day beeping. [clears throat] I personally do not know how our neighbors, this is right in our backyard. For some people, it's their sideyard and their front yard. And I just do not know how they're dealing with that all day when this is going on. And I'm nervous. It was noted that the operation hours were wanting to be 8 to 5, but one of our neighbors made a comment asking what happens when you have a toe coming in at 8 or 9. And he said that he would still bring those in, but we have dogs, children. Some of us go to work, some of us are school teachers, and again, we don't really want that extra noise in our neighborhood. So, thank you guys for listening.

Thank you. Public body comment. Public body comment. [clears throat] Sorry, I I keep thinking about this for many months and I just like to say it. [clears throat] I'm probably going to do a terrible job because I'm I'm but um socialism is something that uh we don't think about much here in Shelby County and uh we hear a lot about it but u um you know remember when Bernie Sanders came out as a socialist he was one of the few and now they're becoming more and more popular all the time. [clears throat] Um it's promoted and uh many kids are thinking it's a great idea. Um I know uh one candidate for president said that America will never become a socialist country, but sometimes I see our policies more and more are becoming more social. I was actually talking to a former Shelby County board member. He served the Shelby Shelby County board for more than 30 years. and he uh [clears throat] mentioned uh we was talking I said something about socialism he goes well the public school system is the social system [clears throat and cough] and I didn't know what to say I thought about it for a long time and I know that you know 50 to 63% of our property and landowners taxes go for schooling you know and uh a lot of people's kids get educated for free and that's that's a good thing um but you know it might be a social system we it's needed. Uh but one thing that's really kind of weird about the schools these days um

now it seems like they uh they're taking away home economics sometimes and sometimes they they'll remove uh classes like shop class, you know, uh industrial arts and sometime and then they they'll teach stuff like golf or tennis. And if you think about that, why would they do that? Uh, in a social system, if you have a social system, you need some people that aren't very skilled and who need assistance from the government. So, you know, if if if they're all involved in B who's got the ball and who's going to be reading the front page, you know, they who are they going to be paying attention to government and if our so and if they don't know how, you know, to take care of their families or feed their families and they're going to be on a socialist program, there's a chance. And so a socialist system needs those kinds of people and they're they're the kind of voters that relies on the government. [clears throat] Um and by the way, you know, everybody says, "Well, it hasn't been tried in the right way. We can do it better." The only place that socialism works is on Star Trek. You know, that's the only place it works.

[clears throat] Um, so anyway, I I'll just stop right there until later. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Okay. Public body comment. [clears throat] Public body comment. One more time. Anybody? Okay, we're going to move on. Okay. discussion in vote to approve special use uh sitting on the parcel [clears throat] 1812-23-00-200-005. This is um what these people were talking about, the old um salvage yard. And this permit was for to reopen the junkyard. And everybody on this board has received from Scott McKe all the the literature and stuff that the determined the denial for the permit. So I guess we do we need a motion to motion to open this up for discussion. So somebody needs to make a motion. Julie made the motion. Second [clears throat] now we can open it up for discussion. Does anybody have any comments? I think Scott's here if we have any questions.

Scott, I remember you. The zoning board has denied it, right? Yes. We agreed unanimously [clears throat] to recommend denial of the special group. Ultimately, it rests in your guys' hands. We just make the recommendation. [clears throat] Go ahead. Go ahead, Scott. What was your uh what was the zoning board's determination as far as why for the the denial?

Jim Schwarman brought it up, but it is because um when Mr. Adbury had it. It was grandfathered in once the new ordinance was approved in 2005 as a non-conforming use. And then once that junkyard was no longer operational, then the new zoning ordinance applies. The new zoning ordinance states that no junkyard can operate within 300 ft of a residentially zoned area. So that was ultimately the biggest reason that we chose and that has also been sold from Adterbury to somebody else. Is that correct? It will the sale of the property wouldn't matter. Okay.

Um as soon as they stop operating for over a year, then the new ordinance supplies. [clears throat] Is this a a salvage yard or is this a landfill? I was told that it was for a salvage yard. and and this salvage yard was active as recently as 2018. Is that correct? That is correct to the best of my knowledge or at least it was assessed [clears throat] as a salvage yard.

Okay. I the the public body comments made it sound like it's a a landfill like trash being dropped off at the front gates is one comment another [clears throat] commenter talked about smoke from that is I don't know if I can well is this recently is this or is this back when it was in operation I no this [clears throat] has been a recent Mr. Bloxom who is here by the way if you want to ask any questions but uh he was clearing brush from the property brush. Okay. Okay.

That's all I got. Thank you. Mr. Mr. Chairman was Julie's motion to deny or what was your motion? It was to open it up for discussion. Is um is is the owner here who wants to Yes. Mr. here. Mr. Sir, would you like to discuss it?

Yeah, I uh purchased it from Jim Adam sitting right here. Uh I was going to open it back up as a salvage yard. It's not a trash yard. We burnt some brush, trees. We cleaned it all up. It sat for quite a while. uh didn't know what it would hurt to open it back up, but uh I guess uh people's having different feelings about it opening back up. I'm not sure why, but uh are I'm sorry to interrupt. Are there uh old cars sitting on the property currently or is it

We had a few out there. Yeah, I I towed it out there. I had a toy coming too [clears throat] and uh that was going to be the scrapyard my impound lot which I have another impound lot south of town. I wouldn't have to use that for an impound lot but I got another spot too. I just uh I didn't spend that kind of money to get denied. I know it's agriculture now you're saying is that correct? That is correct.

So as as agriculture what's that like just do you have have a harm down there too? I mean, I'm just saying it's going to be a business building a home farm, junkyard or something cuz I spend that kind of money down there to uh, you know, get denied. So, another comment was se traffic. Is semi-truck traffic necessary for a salvage? There there'll probably be a truck, maybe a truck a day, [clears throat] a tow truck or a semi truck. my tow truck and maybe a semi haul scrap out. Okay. Anybody else anything?

Call the vote. Okay. [clears throat] And we need to be explicit about what we're voting on. Wait a minute. Well, the motion is to approve. You purchased this ground. [clears throat] When you was looking into purchasing it, what were you told about it? What were you told? Were you told that you could open the junkyard back up or why would you I guess [clears throat] I I I wouldn't buy something to spend a bunch of money like you just said to hope that you could change a bunch of things. So, I'm I'm just wondering did you look into being able to change it or [clears throat] did you just I mean

I just by the time I did grandfather in you know what I'm saying? I just thought it was open for 50 years the place. Yeah. But it it's been closed forever. Yeah. The ordinances have all changed. I mean, you'd have to go through a bunch of

So, that's why I'm saying, you know, if you just purchased it, did you know, did you find out if you could even begin to I didn't look into I we're going to vote on this and the the motion is to approve this permit. So, a no vote would mean that you don't approve it and they can't have the the permit. Can can I ask one more question? Yeah, Jim, you can't talk during this set part of the session. The public body comments the only time that the audience can talk.

Or maybe this is more of a comment. I have to think a lot of the people that live there now were living there before when it was an active junk. A lot of people that own a house there bought that house and moved in there before 2018. I I I can't answer that. I don't know. True. The way it sounds, that's not It sounds like they might have bought their house after the after the junkyard already closed down and it had already grandfathered back in is the way I understood the table. [cough] [clears throat] Okay, guys. Jeff, we're go ahead.

So, um, you know, Mr. Barry wanted to speak and he's been a longtime resident. I I'd like to just ask, you know, can can I ask him to speak while we're having a discussion? I'm not normally in this seat. I don't think Tad would let you if you make it short because the public body comments is when people are supposed to talk. Go ahead, Jim. [clears throat]

Well, when I bought that in 1968, it was zoned farmland. It was already a junkyard. Had been for over 10 years. Now you're talking about trucks on the road. As long as he's paying road use tax, fuel tax, they cannot stop him on the road with the semi. And there's a lot of other things I could say, but I'm not going to say anymore. Okay. Okay. Scott and zoning did the zoning committee deny the request. Is that right? We voted to recommend denial

of the special use permit unanimously. And a no vote means that you're denying the permit from this board. And I think rather than do it as an overall voice, I think we're going to do it individually so everybody knows. Roll call. Roll [clears throat] call. Let let me clarify. A yes is to accept the permit and let them open up. Okay. A no is to stand with the zoning board. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Bane, no. Brown, yes. Cole, no. Edwards, no. Greg, no. Hardy, no. Mattlock, no.

Miller, no. Morris, no. Price, no. Pritchard, no. Stroll, no. Tate, no. Waford, [clears throat] no. Wallace, no. Wood, no. Motion denied. 15 eyes, one yes. Brown.

Going to move on to item six on the agenda. Um, I have an announcement that we do have a new zoning administrator and he is here that we're going to vote on him, but I'd like to introduce him to everybody first. His name is John Herren and he is from Windsor and he accepted the position. John, would you please stand up so everybody can see you? So, Scott, that's your person there. You're going to help train. Okay. Okay, I need a motion. Tim made the motion. Second,

okay, all in favor of the nomination. Any discussion? Well, do you want to Okay, discuss it. I'm just Okay, you're keeping me honest. Anybody want to talk about this? I can tell you that we had three applicants. Really? Yes. and they were all three good applicants. So, okay. All in favor say I. I.

All opposed. Same sign. Okay. Number seven on this list is um has to do with Crystal Watkins the CFS stuff. And um we're going to do them. We're going to do A, B, and C. And

I don't I don't have the ordinance. I don't have the list. We're going to do C D E is what we're going to vote on right now is what we're going to do because A and B and F we don't have a Jessica does not so where we could have it and stuff. So C [clears throat] is acceptance of the intergovernmental agreement with Moltry Christian Clay Montgomery and FET. I need a motion Jeff and Carol. a second. Okay. Is there any discussion or questions? Because Crystal is here for this.

Why don't we have A, [clears throat] B, and C or whatever it was? We don't have them. We

We're in the process of refining some different um paperwork and all kinds of things. I do and the federal government all are coming up with new ways to improve and streamline um financial responsibility for grants in general. So, we are taking our time and making sure that all that documentation is up to date. Uh just last week, there was a form that changed again. So, I want to make sure that we're not wasting the board's time or the community's time with filling out things and having to bring them back multiple times. I got a question.

These these contracts are basically what is already in

they're the same contract. Well, theoretically they're close to the same contracts that we utilize with CIP underneath. So CIP is the um entity that we partner with for the buses. CFS is the organization that CIP is within. And then we are a pass through grantee where we receive the funds, give them the money and and do that. So they've been in this process for many many years. I did upate up update some of the verbiage um to the intergovernmental agreement and try to add some some information that was missing and I personally was at multiple meetings where the other counties our partners went ahead and passed their the government agreements and some of the information. Um and then Beth Marx she is uh the director of CIP. we kind of tag teamed it and there's there are six counties. So, we've been working on this project since November and with some of the changes and implements of the different paperwork, we're just wanting to make sure that we have everything really solidified, but it's pretty much [clears throat] the same thing.

I mean, we're already doing transportation and that's what the main thing is. Yeah. We're just trying to bring everything up to compliance since it was underserved for quite a long time. It's been a big chunk of [clears throat] um our work. It is a lot of work. Yes.

And just to throw a little caveat out there, CIPT is looking for part-time drivers. So, anyone who has a um CDL or is interested um in helping in any of the counties, um we're looking for people that are [clears throat] willing to do part-time work. Okay, we're going to uh go to D. We're going to vote on all three of these at one time. [clears throat] Uh purchase agreement between CDFS Economic Opportunity Corporation and Shelby County and FTA clauses. Okay. You got anything that you'd like to say about that part of it?

So CFS came up with this agreement. They did update it previously from the year prior. um they bring it to us and and we look over it and and have approved. Okay. D is the purchase of service agreement between CFS Economic Opportunity Corporation and Shelby County and FTA clause. Those are this is just this is just a pass through too. That's what everybody needs to understand too is we pay the bills but we get the money and then pay the bills and stuff.

So we the money comes in CFS charges and does well CIP not CFS strictly CIP charges um things for each location. So, the six different locations, they put that into an information, uh, run it through their programs, send a bill to myself, and I'm the compliance officer. They'll [clears throat] send that information to me. I'll go over that, then I send it into our accounting uh, process, and then we pay them. Does that make sense? So, it's like we get the money, they give us a bill, we give them the money that they ask for from the bill, and it kind of goes like that. And my job is strictly just to make sure that things are kind of moving along the way that they're supposed to. And uh not all the purchases are are logged and accepted. It's been a process to change some of that. That's not the way it was before. So, we are in the middle of, for lack of better words, trial and error, trying to make sure that we're able to make sure that all the things are being documented correctly. That's taken a little bit of a process, but we've been doing this with them for many years and it's pretty much the same thing except for the way that we're processing documentation.

Okay. Yeah. the police agreement is that for every vehicle or is it one big like how many vehicles do we have?

So we have we have 57 vehicles through the Shelby County grant 15 another project that I've been working on is all those disposals that are on the other side. Uh that paperwork has been in process for over a year. I that was the one of the first things I did whenever I started and I'm working diligently with him. So there's 57 15 are waiting to be disposed and then we have 42 vehicles to divide between six counties and these stats are from Beth um around 16 to 22 routes that we are utilizing those for at any given time. So, they're being driven a lot.

And most of the ones waiting to be disposed of, are they in the parking lot or they in the Shelby County? They're in the They're in the Shelby County um community services lot. And once they are disposed, we will um probably not be utilizing that lot anymore so that county services can use it for another activity. Any other questions? Because it's going to be a roll call vote and we're going to uh vote on C, D, and E. We want to vote on motion. I thought you said Jen.

You already got Okay, let's do it. Roll call. Roll call. Bane. Yes. Browns. [clears throat] Yes. Cole, yes. Edward, yes. Gray, yes. Hardy, yes. Matlaw, [clears throat] yes. Sorry. Miller, yes. Morris, yes. Price, yes. Richard, yes. Stroll, yes. Kate, yes. Wford, yes. Wallace, yes. Wood, yes. Those are unanimous. Okay, move on to number eight. Michael's not here tonight. And um [clears throat] Reed's here. He's offered to

Cameron if we have any questions and stuff. Cameron's here too. So we got two representatives from the highway department here if we have any questions and stuff. Thought our two our two brains maybe equals one of Michael. [laughter] Okay. Um you want to kind of go over read a little bit? You have a copy of this? Yep, I do.

Okay. Um, so, uh, the first one we had a, uh, we had a letting that we held last month and it was for a bridge that we're going to be replacing this summer in, uh, Ash Grove Township, and it came in at $479,888, uh, to, uh, Seahill Civil Contractors, which they built like so many bridges for us, 10, 20, you know, even 30 bridges. They they get most [clears throat] of them. So, yep. They were the low bidder for this for this leting year. So, we would just be approving uh uh to give the contract to them. Do you have any documentation on that item? Cuz I didn't get any.

Yeah. Yeah. We have a bid tab and and Yep. And that would show who has who's put in all the bids and stuff. Yeah. I thought that you would have got that, but yep, we can get that to you. That'd be great. Thanks. Okay. And this this one for the bridge and stuff, the money that's used for that is not coming out of your money. It's coming out of Yep. Yep. This is federal and state funds. Yep. So, it isn't anything out of our our local budget. Okay. Okay. Do you want to do these individually or I'd say do Okay. Let's go on to B. You don't have a motion in the vote or you never got a motion.

Okay. Well, I noticed that B and C were actually the same. They're just worded a little bit differently. So, just a little bit of a clerical error there. But, uh, it is just speaking of another bridge that we're hoping to also build, uh, like this fall. And it's in Clarksburg Township, um, near Hidden Springs. And, uh, so it is, uh, looks like a total estimated cost of just over a million dollars, $1 million and $5,000. Uh, it's a longer bridge. It's a threespan bridge and and the original one was actually set at too low of an elevation. So when we went to design this one, everyone realized this whole thing's got to come up um several foot. So we'd have a lot of approach work to do uh at either side of the bridge as well to bring that up in a in a natural a gradual slope there. So uh came in pretty expensive uh but but we we uh anticipated that. So this is just uh here just a joint agreement with I do to where it will release uh federal and state funds for us to uh to fund this project here and it hasn't been let yet. So but this is our estimated cost at ballpark at $1 million.

Okay. You want to do D2 then?

Yep. And then D, we have a uh we have a planned project we're hoping to do this summer and it would uh it would be oil and chipping, two layers of oil and chip uh from Heric to Tower Hill on Tower Hill Blacktop. Uh that whole road is is cracking really bad. It has been for a long time and it's just getting worse. So, uh, we actually found, uh, Richland County had had pointed us towards, uh, a way that we could actually use federal funds for for oil and shipping if if it's, uh, uh, if we use a certain plan. And so, we've kind of come up with this plan to use federal funds. So, so we can oil and ship without it coming out of our of our budget this year. But it's, uh, quite a bit. I I don't have the miles right off hand, but I think it's around 11 miles or so between the two. So, yeah. So, it's uh pretty substantial, but uh we're hoping to also have that uh be let and done this summer as well.

Thank you. Thank you. Need a motion. [clears throat] Austin's having [laughter] is there any discussion? Any discussions or questions for re? I got one. I heard that there was a guy on that greasy. That's the greasy road bridge you're talking about. The one that's got to be raised. No, that one's not actually. It's not that one. That's also anticipated to be I think the approaches need raised up as well on that one. Yeah, it's a different bridge though. Okay.

We're looking at maybe next summer or maybe even the following to get that built. Yeah. 27 or 28. Yep. Any other questions? You can't ask. [clears throat] Okay. Roll call vote. Bane. Yes. Brown. Yes. Cole, yes. Edwards, yes. Greg, yes. Hardy, yes. Matlock, yes. Miller, yes. Morris, yes. Price, yes. Richard, yes. Stroll, yes. Tate, yes. Waford, yes. Wallace, yes. Wood, yes. Motion pass unanimously. [clears throat]

Number nine is discussion and vote to approve contracting with Consociate Health to complete the [clears throat] federally mandated drug cost reporting for $1,750. Jean second. Is there any discussion on this? If [cough] not, it's a roll call vote too. Bane, yes. Brown, yes. Cole, yes. Edwards, yes. Gray, yes. Hardy, yes. Matlock, yes. Miller, yes. Morse, yes. Price, yes. Richard, yes. Stroll, yes. Kate, [clears throat] yes. Wford, yes. Wallace, yes. Wood,

yes. Motion pass. Okay. Committee reports. Has anybody got any reports?

The Teresa? I don't it's not a committee report necessarily, but Steve um from the health department text me earlier in the week um to let and he asked that I let the board know that the health department has received approval of its application to revalidate its Medicare PO participation for the next 5 years from the national government services. Now, if you're asking me to explain exactly what that means, I cannot. Steve probably could very well, but I'm assuming it's a positive thing because he [clears throat] wanted me to announce it, I'm sure.

And also, um, the probation department is hosting the drug court graduation on March 20th at 100 p.m. I believe all of the board members are individually invited, but it is open to the public. And as other people have said that have attended, if you haven't been to one of those, it's a very moving service and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication from both our probation department and those who are participating in the program. Um, it's very moving and I would encourage anybody to come uh participate or watch it because you don't really you can't really understand what someone goes through until you hear it from their own mouth. So, if if you're available on the 20th at 1 p.m., I would encourage anybody to come. Thank you. Any others? Finance department met Tuesday evening and we paid the bills. I can tell you that you're going to vote on them here in a little bit. Uh, moving on. Chairman appointments. There's two here. Uh, John Helton, the trustee for the Strawburg Fire Protection District. It's a three-year term. And Larry Minnett, trustee from Mika Fire Protection District. It's a three-year term. Motion

make a motion. Make [clears throat] the motion. Second. June 2nd. All in favor? Well, he's got men. I I don't have any chairman updates or correspondence. Old business. I don't think we have any. I got one. What's that? I want to continue on. [clears throat] Um about the c about the county farm. So, this is old business.

Okay. And I just want to get it off my chest because I what I'm really looking for I'm looking for you folks to tell me where I'm wrong. Okay, that's what I want. And I want you to be I want you to be right, but I I just don't see it. All right. So, what [clears throat] the last board didn't tell you about the county farm, they didn't tell you that they thought it was the biggest socialist program there is. Now, I know we're all good friends here, right? This has been a community. We've all been friends. we we know each other and it's helped out a lot of people the county farm and uh it still is you know uh I almost didn't vote for it because I was afraid somebody from China was going to end up buying this property that and so what they told me was hey we can stop any foreigner from buying our property I said okay that's cool you know but then I found out later that a foreign Chinese foreign national could have bid on it. If he didn't get the bid, he could have taken us to court over over it. So anyway, [clears throat] um if you was to get the document of the county board and look at it of the of the count of the uh farm and look at it without the county names and the people we know, you would have to conclude that that belongs to a socialist country where um some somebody's working for the government and uh they're working for the government to produce food and they're getting paid for it. And I mean that's that's what it we would conclude. It's a socialist program. [clears throat] Uh is that bad? No, actually I' I've showed the card. I wish

I could have brought it with me tonight, but I've misplaced it. My uncle farmed the county farm for many years and I thought it was pretty cool because I remember seeing the uh the building there, the brick building and and uh hearing the stories and uh I I'm really disappointed that it didn't work out, you know, for the county. I mean for the poor farm because I think there's a lot of good things that [clears throat] people tried and they worked really hard to try to give people a chance to, you know, help themselves. But for whatever reason, it didn't work. You know, when you're working with people who's mentally handicapped or physically handicapped or they got an addiction, it it's it's got to be tough, you know. But uh [clears throat] so um it's been a way past 70 years and we got the governor's signature making it legal [clears throat] but you know it is flying in the face of article se article 7 section 7 um which is a prohibition but again we've been doing it for 70 years But here's the here's the problem. Here's the kicker. Now, I want you to help me with this. [clears throat] Now, Illinois is in trouble with $140 billion pension debt. We have some of the highest property taxes in the nation and people are leaving because [clears throat] of it. And the governor publicly attacks waste cutting efforts like Doge. How long can we continue in this poor situation we're in? You know, uh, and how much more debt can we incur? How how many more times can we be taxed? And so I just wonder when when the governor is

going to have a great idea, maybe uh, you know, maybe farming, could he do it? Madam Chairman, one order. Is this old business or is this It's not. And we're going to we're going to stop right here. Okay. I I don't think that this falls under old business. Okay. Okay. I'll see you on public body comment there. No, you've already done that. You only need that once. That's all. Okay. Well, I'll see you next week. Okay. Okay. Approval uh to pay the bill. I need a motion. So move. Jean.

Roll call. B. Yes. Brown. Yes. Cole, yes. Edwards, yes. Greg, yes. Hardy, yes. Matlock, yes. Miller, yes. Morris, yes. Price, yes. Pritchard, yes. Stroll, yes. Tate, yes. Crawford, yes. Wallace, yes. Wood, yes. Motion passes unanimous. Okay. Public body comment. One more time. You can't You can only speak one time. Okay. Okay. You didn't do public body comment. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. I'm coming as a public person, not as a

by personal personal thing. I just want to um thank everybody for in the county for all of the things that they do. I um think I have been as a personal person and as a pe I have been to many other locations. I know how much it takes to put a plan together to build a chip road. I know how long some of these projects take and some of them have been working on 3 to 5 years to even to even see any forward movement. So, I just want to thank everybody for continuing to be positive and support the county and support some of these projects that I know so many people have put their heart and souls into trying to see um successful. [clears throat] Thank you. Is there anybody else with public body comment that hasn't spoke? Public body comment. I want my [laughter] emotions to all in favor.