Monday, February 8, 2010, 6:30 P.M., Northern Town Hall, 445 Town Hall Road NW, Bemidji, MN.

PRESENT: Chairman Ron Gangeness, Supervisors Tim Mountain, Mike Kelly, Dan Bahr and Clark Chambers, Treasurer Doug Kranich, Road Supervisor Clarence Lindseth, and Clerk Mary Israelson. See guest book for visitors.

MINUTES: A motion was offered by Mountain, and seconded by Bahr, to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of January 25, 2010. The motion carried unanimously.

VISITORS:
Duane Ebbighausen, Beltrami County Assessor, was asked to address the Board regarding the proposed Assessment Agreement that is increasing 5% over last year's amount to $23,388.00. Ebbighausen explained that the increase is normally tied directly to employee salary increases. However, because his rates are well below the state average, the County Board has asked that they excel the increase even though salaries are only increasing by 2.5% this year. A 5% increase is also targeted for next year. A survey of rates around the state was obtained approximately five (5) years ago and Beltrami County was dead last. Northern Township's rate is $8.41 per parcel and there are 2,781 parcels with @ $379,000,000 of value. One assessor spends a majority of his time working on Northern Township and his salary is certainly higher than $23,288.00. The office takes in $225,000.00 from fees and their total budget is approximately $600,000.00. He did indicate that when properties are annexed, the fee will be reduced by that number of parcels (@170 in the first phase X $8.41 = $1,430).

Karl Jacobson, has addressed the Board in the past regarding his desire to try and stop the annexation of his business and home that are slated to happen in the coming years according to the Orderly Annexation Agreement. He sees no advantage of being annexed and notes that there is no advantage to Northern Township. Members of the Board indicated again that the agreement was made several years ago in an effort to try and take some control over their destiny due to annexation laws that favor cities being able to annex township property without approval by the property owners or township. Jacobson wishes to pursue his quest and was told by an attorney that he would need to get the support of the Township Board. Even though most of them were not involved in the process and were not in favor of it, they are supporting it now.

CORRESPONDENCE:
1) Preliminary budget for the Greater Bemidji Area Joint Planning Board, 2) e-mail correspondence from Mel Milender with an attachment from Attorney Troy Gilchrist regarding his opinion regarding the City's proposed annexation action, 3) memo that was presented to the City Council at the meeting on February 1st by Mountain, 4) e-mail from Kelly regarding his ideas on the orderly annexation discussions, 5) letter from John Vigen regarding his plan for the appraisal work to be done on the Birchmont Drive re-assessments, 6) report from Beltrami County Auditor regarding payment of the 'short settlement', 7) agenda for the JPB meeting Wed. evening, 8) minutes of the December 17, 2009, planning commission meeting, 9) correspondence from the Census Bureau, 10) RFA year-end reports submitted by Mountain.

Vigen Letter - John Vigen has done a brief analysis of the work needed to appraise properties in the Birchmont Project due to an order by a District Court Judge to re-assess the parcels included in the appeal. He has laid out a plan and indicates that the work would be done on a time/expense basis and predicts that it would not amount to less than a total of $45,000. The Board discussed the topic and concluded that the work needed to be started but a cap at $60,000 would be desired, with extensions after that point. Attorney Jason Kuboushek will be advised regarding whether or not he should be included in the contract negotiation and a time-frame of the work with an anticipated completion date will be requested.

Orderly Annexation Agreement - After talking with Attorney Jason Kuboushek, it was agreed that there is some disagreement regarding the City's decision to proceed with the first phase of the Orderly Annexation Agreement (OAA) leaving out the seven (7) properties affected by Birchmont Utility Project appeal. Kuboushek does not believe the OAA allows for it and it was certainly not the intent of the agreement. A joint meeting with Bemidji Township and the City of Bemidji officials is scheduled for tomorrow evening to discuss the topic. It was agreed that the Board would ask that if the City wishes to proceed with the annexation this year, they must take all of the properties included in the first phase portion. If they wished to proceed with excluding the seven (7) properties, a court injunction would be sought for an interpretation of agreement. It was also agreed that if they wished to delay the annexation, the tax distribution formula would remain as laid out in the OAA and an amended distribution formula over the reduced time period would not be acceptable.

ROAD REPORT:
Icy Roads - Lindseth reported that the icy roads are posing some problems coupled with cold whether and wind. He had Thorings blade some of the roads in order to try break up the ice, but it wasn't real successful. A small snowfall over the weekend created more of the same problems. The warmer weather today did allow some sanding to be done.

Sanding - A resident has complained that sanding has created a messy roadway on Majestic Pines/Quiet Majestic, so no sanding will be done on the road for a while.

Juniper Circle - A resident has complained that excessive snow has been placed at the end of her driveway after snowplowing.

Majestic Pines - Kelly reported that he has talked with Brian Grund regarding the plans for Majestic Pines/Quiet Majestic Lane. Grund feels the best plan is to remove the bituminous, put down a good gravel base, and then blacktop, basically as he laid out in the middle phase of the preliminary report he prepared. He suggests that it would not need to be done immediately allowing for budgeting. However, the reconstruction work that was done last summer needs to be blacktopped and the other areas that have a lot of breakup should be dug up, filled and patched for the time being. It was decided that Lindseth would talk with Knife River Materials and Bemidji Bituminous for quotes on this work.

TREASURER REPORT:
Bills - Are payable with check numbers 7052-7084. The total is $38,122.35, which includes; GBAJPB quarterly payment of $12,785.25, Ramsland & Vigen for preliminary work on the Birchmont re-assessments for $2,416.00, Arcon Construction for work on Shady Lane - $7,810.64, winter road maintenance to Thoring's - $3,579.00, and Freeberg & Grund for Majestic borings/report - $1,200.00. A motion was offered by Mountain, seconded by Chambers, and carried, to approve the bills as presented.

Treasurer Report - Cash by Fund balances are; Revenue - $301,122.22, Road & Bridge - $136,368.18, Rural Fire - $16,596.40, Sewer District Waville - $12,536.33, and Sewer District Birchmont ($26,027.30), for a total Cash by Fund of $440,595.83. Kelly asked that Kranich create a separate line showing the amount designated as reserves, which would be the levied $60,000 and the funds from the land sale on Hannah Ave. of $119,000. A motion was offered by Mountain, and seconded by Bahr, to approve the report. The motion carried unanimously.

Certificate of Deposit - Kranich recommended that $95,000 be re-invested for 30 days at 1.25% interest at Security Bank. The recommendation was approved.

Audit - Kranich reported that Miller, McDonald have completed their field work at the town hall and indicated that it went smoothly without any surprises.

BELTRAMI ASSOCIATION OF TOWNSHIP OFFICERS (BATO):
Chambers reported that the meeting on January 26th included: 1) Deputy William Beise with an update on the Gang and Drug Task Force, 2) Jane Mueller with an overview of the Beltrami County Interactive On-line Web Mapping program available to everyone, 3) MAT District 12 Director Steve Green, and 4) Beltrami County Commissioner Joe Vene.

RURAL FIRE ASSOCIATION (RFA):
The new budget was approved with a 0% increase and the new Fire Chief was introduced.

OTHER:
Assessment Agreement - A motion was offered by Mountain to approve the Beltrami County Assessment Agreement in the amount of $23,388.00. The motion was seconded by Bahr, and carried unanimously.

Budget - Due to the length of tonight's regular meeting, Kelly suggested that the budget session be postponed until another date. It was decided that the meeting would be held on Thursday, Feb. 18th at 6:00 p.m.

With no further business forthcoming, the meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m.