ACT Board of Supervisors Meeting
06/02/2025, 7:00 PM
In Attendance: Dan Reis, Gaylen Dewing, Brandon Prichard (by phone), Jerry Kunz, Terry Woehl, Randy Strom, and Sherry Leno
1. Call to Order
Chairman Reis called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm
2. Minutes Review
A. Corrections and approval of the minutes from the previous meeting.
Supervisor Dewing made a motion to approve the minutes from the June 2, 2025 meeting.
Supervisor Prichad 2nd the motion
Vote: Dan - Yes, Galen - Yes, Brandon - Yes
Motion approved
3. Old Business
A. Rich Johnson Property
Dan made a motion to impose a $2,000 penalty on the property
Gaylen 2nd the motion
Vote: Dan - Yes, Gaylen - Yes, Brandon - Yes
Motion carried
B. Myrtle Holzer Property - bring the judgment - civil penalty onto her property
Dan made a motion to move the civil penalty to John's lot.
Gaylen 2nd the motion
Vote: Dan - Yes, Gaylen - Yes, Brandon - Yes
Motion carried
Lot # 1 of this property did sell. The new owners did not have the $3,000 in their closing costs. The new owners have started cleaning up the lot. The Burleigh County State's Attorney is continuing with the nuisance property complaint. The court date is June 18, 2025
C. The amount of funds the township can have. The amount of funds does not matter; however, anything over $350,000 needs to be earmarked
D. Office 365 for the clerk. The clerk needs to apply on the township's behalf for approval. This will be done in July as the Clerk will be on vacation most of the month of June.
E. Ordinance Update
The Board of Supervisors has directed the Ordinance Committee to assign Article numbers to each new ordinance, and the board also approved the Ordinance Titles.
Should not use Airbnb as a title, it's a company name. Possibly use Short Term Rental.
Gun Ranges - leave in and word smith, then bring to the public hearing. ND Game and Fish rule, can shoot 1/4 mile from residence as long as it's on the land they own. It can be done as long as they are hunting.
Building Code Costs - Do we use ours or use Burleigh County? Sherry will call Mitch Flanagan.
Map - Mock one with the School District - Wesley will attempt.
Add an ordinance for Solar farms
4. New Business
A. Tim Leppert from LaMoure County - Russel Township attended to give the Board of Supervisors background on what his township is dealing with and some recommendations.
Need a 5-person planning board; if you have a municipality in your township, then one person to represent.
Need your zoning to make sure your setbacks are correct.
The businesses that want to come in do not care, and if you try to do something to stop them, they threaten lawsuits.
The Data Center in Dickey County sits on 160 acres. Presently have one 300,000 sq ft building that holds the AI portion, in the basement are the batteries. 2 additional buildings are 600,000 sq ft each. There is a 15-year contract in place. Dickey Rural Water is afraid it will run out of water. There is concern about all the batteries and the fire hazard.
In LaMoure County, there are plans to bring a gas pipeline to Fargo by way of I-94. Plans to build a power plant.
CEO of Data Center - crypto portion owned by an Australian company, out of New England, with ties to Saudi Arabia.
Tim used to live in Maryland, where they have lots of hazardous waste sites leaching into the water. It will cost billions to clean up.
ACT needs a comprehensive plan in conjunction with ordinances. NDSU helped with a generic plan and ordinances.
Tim recommended that we do moratoriums, which can be done legally.
Companies go to areas that do not have zoning, upper Midwest states are being targeted.
PSC approved high power lines to get power out of the state, and the residents are paying for it.
Burleigh County Commission made the land at the County Fair Grounds public so they could sell it. A data center is interested. These companies are getting their people integrated into communities, getting them on zoning boards, county commissions, and such.
Ottertail and MDU will not negotiate; they use eminent domain.
5. Area Reports
A. School Board - Terry Woehl
School Board Election June 3rd from 11 am - 7 pm
B. Treasurer's Report - Randy Strom
1. Approve bills to be paid
ES Attorneys $1,090
Chair Reis made a motion to approve the bills.
Supervisor Dewing 2nd the motion
Vote: Dan - Yes, Gaylen - Yes, Brandon - Yes
Motion approved
Checking: $183,822.94
Savings: $119.74
1 CD at $50,443.84
1 CD at $104,706.63
4 CDs at $52,050.00
Supervisor Dewing made a motion to roll over the CDs that come due, to the highest interest rate for a short-term period.
Chair Reis 2nd the motion
Vote: Dan - Yes, Gaylen - Yes, Brandon - Yes
Motion carried
Randy visited with the Association of Townships. They indicated it's hard to do business today without a credit card, as things are now. This needs to be brought up at the Annual Meeting.
C. Assessors Report - Marie Horning
Assessing is complete. Burleigh County certified the whole county.
Marie's contract is set to expire on June 30, 2025.
Supervisor Dewing made a motion to contract with Marie for the period July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2026, for the same amount as her current contract.
Supervisor Reis 2nd the motion
Vote: Dan - Yes, Gaylen - Yes, Brandon - Yes
Motion approved
D. Building Inspector's Report - Burleigh County
New building on Lincoln Road
Supervisor Dewing made a motion to approve the building contingent on Mitch Flanagan's approval.
Dan 2nd the motion
Vote: Dan - Yes, Gaylen - Yes, Brandon - Yes
Motion approved
E. Road Supervisors Report - Roy Kuil
Roy was not in attendance
F. Weed Supervisors Report - Dusty Hasper
Received one call for Leafy Spurge
Rules for cost share on weed spraying are posted on the Burleigh County website. Darin Johnson is the Burleigh County Weed Supervisor. A contractor/sprayer from the website must be used.
Jerry Kunz indicated that both sides of Northgate at 80th and heading west, have weeds
Terry Woehl indicated that 8055 Sunnyview Road in the Sunrise addition has weeds.
6. Zoning Board
Chairman Reis called to recess the regular meeting and open the Zoning portion of the meeting.
Roll call: Dan - present, Gaylen - present, Brandon - present, Terry - present, Jerry - present
The zoning board received a complaint concerning the Ron King property at 8019 Jeaner Place, Bismarck, ND. The Google Earth aerial view shows 24 vehicles, 2 campers, 3 trailers, and approximately 100 wooden pallets.
Dan will have our attorney start the process with a letter.
Dan will ask the County about trimming trees so speed limit signs are visible.
Gaylen informed everyone that the Lincoln police are patrolling Apple Creek Road. Apple Creek Road is 1.3 miles from the property that the City of Lincoln recently annexed. A former police officer was in attendance and indicated that city police can patrol 1.5 miles outside of city limits. Whoever writes the citation keeps the revenue (ie, Highway Patrol, the state keeps the revenue, the Sheriff, the county keeps the revenue, and the City Police, the city keeps the revenue.
7. Adjourn
Gaylen made a motion to adjourn the meeting
Dan 2nd the motion
Vote: Dan - Yes, Gaylen - Yes, Brandon - Yes
Motion approved: Adjourned at 9:10 pm