BOARD MEETING MINUTES – JULY 25, 2022

by | Aug 11, 2022 | Meeting Minutes

NORTHERN TOWNSHIP BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING – Monday, July 25, 2022. 6:00 p.m. Northern Town Hall, 445 Town Hall Road NW, Bemidji, MN.

PRESENT: Chairman Jess Frenzel, and Supervisors Chris Lahn, Curt Blumhagen, Mike Kelly and Gary Barnard. Road Supervisor Tim Vigen, and Clerk Mary Israelson. See sign-in sheet for guests.

MINUTES: A motion was offered by Kelly, and seconded by Blumhagen, to approve the minutes of the July 11, 2022, meeting as presented. The motion carried unanimously.

VISTORS:

ROAD REPORT:

Weeds – The Clerk had received a call from a resident with a complaint regarding noxious weeds along Aspen Ave and Town Hall Road. Vigen will take a look at them. Frenzel also had a name of a contractor who does do some weed spraying.

Crack Filling – Vigen reported that this has been scheduled, but the contractor has not been able to complete the work yet. The Clerk was asked to contact Beltrami County Hwy Dept, to find out if they will be contracting for their crack fill work next summer. We had been told that the County is not willing to do the work for other entities, but anticipated needing to contract out the work in the future due to the materials they need being discontinued.

Whitetail Road – There has been a request to do a traffic count on this road, so Vigen will set it up.

JOINT PLANNING BOARD (JPB) REPORT:

Frenzel is not able to attend this weeks meeting, so Kelly will attend in his place. Frenzel reported that he was asked to attend a meeting with the “executive committee”, which appears to be himself, Mayor Prince, and the City Administrator. Kelly questioned this tactic, since it was previously agreed that two (2) township reps would be included in these meetings. The content of the meeting is believed to be related to the lease agreement for the temporary housing of the JPB offices.

Lahn and Israelson attended a meeting with JPB staff member Melissa Fahrenbruch, who is working on the Smart Gov website that will convert their application process to an online structure.

TOWNSHIP/CITY:

Erin Stodgell, DNR Regional Office, asked that a meeting be held on August 22nd, to receive an update on the status of the sewer/water extension. Lahn also reported that he talked with Bill Dunn, MPCA, regarding completing the PPL request. He indicated that it is not necessary, but it would likely be a benefit.

RURAL FIRE ASSOCIATION:

Blumhagen reported that there is a regular quarterly meeting this Thursday that he will attend. There is also an emergency meeting of the Long Range Planning Committee scheduled for August 4th to talk about the over-spending in 2021.

TOWNSHIP PROPERTY:

Garage – Kelly reported that the shingling was done, and they are waiting for materials to proceed with other work. We are still waiting for a quote to have a gas line dug in to connect the current town hall connection to the garage.

Cemetery – The fence work is not complete, due to waiting for materials. It was agreed to have a load of top soil hauled in for filling sunken areas. This would be for anyone wishing to do the work on grave sites.

CORRESPONDENCE:

1) Quarterly report from Advanced Utility Solutions regarding the Waville Treatment System, 2) correspondence with the County Hwy Dept regarding ditch mowing and noxious weed control, 3) notice of the move of the JPB offices to 315 5th Street Suite 2, 4) copy of request by the City to be included in the Beltrami Cnty chip seal work for 2023 on Elliot Road, 5) email inquiry from City Manager regarding update of timelines for the proposed sewer/water extension, 6) County Board will be conducting the regular August 16th meeting at the Northern Town Hall, 7) thank you notes from Great River Rescue and Support Within Reach for the contributions, 8) notice of MAT District Meeting on Tuesday, August 23rd at Bagley High School, 9) Notice of Primary Election of August 9th.

OTHER:

Election Judges – It was agreed to continue paying hazard wages for the Primary and General Elections this year at $22.00/hr, half of which is paid from ARPA funds.

Letter to Ruttger’s – Frenzel has completed a draft of a letter to be sent to the owners of Ruttger’s and will be reviewed and then sent. This letter gives them an update of the status of the bonding requests.

Work Session with Attorney Jason Kubouskeck – It was agreed to have a work session to talk about a strategy for the meeting with Kubousheck scheduled for Monday, August 8th at 4:30 p.m. This work session will be held Wednesday, at 12:30 p.m. at the Northern Town Hall, and will be a posted meeting.

With no further business forthcoming, the meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m.