Northern Township was notified at a Joint LGU meeting on June 16, 2021 by the City of Bemidji that Ruttger’s Resort was petitioning the City of Bemidji to connect to their wastewater system. The City of Bemidji has a policy that only city residents are able to connect to their system, and as such, proposed to the Northern Town Board some options for annexing Ruttger’s property and other properties along Lake Bemidji unto the State Park into Bemidji.
Seeing Northern Township had just finished the final phase of a 15 year orderly annexation agreement, the Town Board was very reluctant to discuss further annexation. On October 5, 2021 the Northern Town Board organized a meeting with all interested Northern Township residents to inform them of the situation and find out their wishes. At the meeting, there was overwhelming consensus from the residents of Northern Township that they did not want any further annexation of Township properties into the City of Bemidji.
Heeding Northern Township resident’s wishes, the Northern Town Board continued to meet with the City of Bemidji to try and find ways to install a wastewater system on the northwest side of Lake Bemidji without annexation.