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There was a little bit of scrambling around for more chairs at Fall Lake Town Hall for the Lake County Commissioners’ Meeting of the Whole after last month’s standing room only regular township meeting. Clerk Cheri DeBeltz borrowed several dozen chairs from the Town of Morse to accommodate an expected large audience again. A few chairs remained empty, but nearly forty residents filled most.
Commissioner Joe Baltich received a round of applause after he introduced himself to the crowd. It’s been a long time since Fall Lake has had sitting Lake County commissioner.
Lake County commissioners also attending were Rick Goutermont, Rick Hogenson, and Chairman Rich Sve. Jeremy Hurd was not present.
Also present were Matt Huddleston, Lake County Administrator; Lara Nygaard, Lake County Attorney; and Christine Mc-Carthy, Lake County Environmental Service Director.
Huddleston explained Lake County expanded for higher heights for cell phone towers to get more service to Lake County.
He informed the board about the alternative workplace policy was ready for the county board approval. Union business agents will have an opportunity to comment on the proposed policy.
Lake County has approved updating its aerial photograph for the countywide imagery of properties that’s on the county’s GIS page. The update should be available by the fourth quarter. Huddleston said this imagery is helpful to the county, but it should not be relied on for survey lines. An actual survey is needed.
McCarthy added the updates will show what is on properties and that it is her hopes to have overlays on the GIS imagery to show geographical and hydrological information.
In early July the county will begin their 2025 budget process.
There was a big reduction in the Thye/Blatnik Lake County Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) for Boundary Waters lands. This has been an ongoing issue for Lake County since 2018 when the Forest Service did a reappraisal of the value of the land. There is a reassess on a ten-year basis. The county is to get ¾ of one percent in PILT on the value of the land in the Boundary Waters. The Forest Service’s reappraisal significantly dropped and Lake County has been fighting this.
What this meant for Lake County, was a $1.1 million annual reduction to the county’s budget revenue. The county pushed for another appraisal which would give them an $850,000 to $900,000 reduction. Lake County worked with St. Louis and Cook counties, as they receive the same PILT payments. The second appraisal values the Boundary Waters land at $700 per acre.
Lake County attorney is now Lara Nygaard. She said former county attorney Russel Conrow will stay on as assistant attorney. Nygaard said the county also has a new judge.
McCarthy said there will be a hearing on the Silver Rapids expansion at the Fall Lake Town Hall on July 17. The expansion is for thirty-six units. Residents living within the project area will receive a notice of the hearing, and ad will be in the Ely Echo and posted on Fall Lake’s website for this hearing.
Baltich reported he has been attending numerous meetings. A recent meeting he attended was the Community Extension Committee. It’s an active committee for 4H in the Two Harbors area that has ninety-four kids involved. They do master garden programs. We don’t see a lot of this in our area, but Baltich would like to see this programing throughout the county more.
Baltich said he went to a Forest Service open house and learned about the Laurentian Conservation Development and Resources Board. This board is working on climate change, in a way. They are working to take farm lands or unused lands and plant trees with a fifty-year easement on the property. Property owners would get help in planting the trees. Cooperations can then come in and buy the trees, and the property owner get paid for the trees.
Baltich talked with Kawishiwi Ranger Aaron Kania about the recent drownings at Curtain Falls. Kania said he was able to use his satellite phone. SAT phones have enabled Search and Rescues, and not have to rely on cell phone towers.
The last thing Baltich shared was to have bird feeding stations throughout the county for bird watchers. This would extend our tourism interests. Finding places to set up a feeding station.
The last thing Baltich shared was about a USFS Fernberg project for an observation platform at the end of the Fire Tower Road, near the Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response (ARMER) tower.
“This would be fantastic,” said Baltich. “You would be able to see Canada, see Snowbank Lake, Moose Lake, Lake One, and the Kawishiwi River. This would be an added attraction for tourists and for local people.”
Commissioner Goutermont addressed the problems many ambulances and First Responders have in staffing. He said many legislators traveled rural areas to hear their concerns. From that, $30 million was appropriated, which will be a big help. They legislators came up with an idea to work with school districts to get juniors and seniors involved in First Responder and EMT training and pay them. The students would be certified by the time they graduated and possibly pursue a career.
School districts in Cook and Lake Counties are excited about this program for juniors and seniors. Legislators were able to get $100,000 toward ambulance training and materials, and $150,000 for teachers for training.
Commissioner Sve will meet with Senator Hauschild about improvements to the Knife River marina.
There have been improvements at the Two Harbors recycling center. Sve toured their building and saw the compacter.
Sve received a call from the Health & Human Services director on disclosure of ownership and controlling interests. Name, birthday and addresses were needed in order to get reimbursement.
Sve opened discussion and for concerns from the floor. Fall Lake Supervisor Sheila Gruba asked about the School Trust Lands that the township parking lot is on. Huddleston said he would look into the ownership of this land.
- As was the case at last month’s township meeting, several residents talked about the condition of Sunset Road. The main complaint was that the road is too close to White Iron Lake and muddy water runs into the lake. It was stated that 140 lots are on Sunset Road and residents pay taxes.
One resident said the road should be paved and the county should get a grant for the road. Goutermont said grants are through state and federal agencies. He said he doesn’t recall chasing after grants for township roads. He said the township could go to legislators for road money and argue hard for it.
Sve said when he was a supervisor for Silver Creek Township he was in support for paving roads, but paving requires a lot of maintenance. Townships may have graders to grade gravel roads, but they don’t have the equipment to patch pavement. That would have to be contracted out. Sve said it was too bad Lake County’s Highway Engineer couldn’t attend the meeting. Perhaps he could come up at another time for another meeting.
McCarthy said there is some money available for stormwater management. Money comes from the Clean Water Act. She had accessed $70,000 from this fund for septic system survey and compliance. This could be looked at.
Baltich said he was on the Soil & Water Committee and he will bring up the Sunset Road at the next meeting.
Residents asked about having a community center, and gave their support for a facility in Fall Lake Township to have pickle ball courts. Baltich has been working on this, and a citizens’ community center committee has visited the Clair Nelson Community Center in Finland to see what they have. More people are welcome to join the community. Any decision to move forward would be made at the annual meeting in March.
DeBeltz said the vision for a community center to possibly include the Sheriff Department. She has been trying to coordinate the committee to visit other township facilities. An ad will be put in the Ely Echo when the next meeting will be held.
Baltich stressed his main concern for a community center is for emergency needs in the event there is a fire or some other kind of disaster and housing of citizens or to gather for information. The community center could also be a place for public education, rentals for community activities, wedding, etc.
Gruba asked how the lodging tax is reported to the county.
Huddleston said the report was by zip code, which really doesn’t reflect the lodging in Fall Lake Township. Gruba said working for the State of Minnesota she could see the reports that were run by address, town, a zip code, or even pick the type of tax collected. She said she would like to work with someone to see what the lodging tax is collected from Fall Lake. There could be a benefit to the entire county.
The lodging tax money is to market the entire county, but Fall Lake only has a mention of Kawishiwi Falls.
Fall Lake also falls short from any benefit of the 1% event tax collected in addition to the lodging tax, mainly because Fall Lake doesn’t have many facilities to hold events. Gruba said a request for the 1% event tax for an event at Veterans on the Lake was denied funds because the event was going to be held in Ely.
After the meeting, Baltich was contacted to look into why funds to Veterans on the Lake were denied. Veterans on the Lake is located in Fall Lake Township, although their facility is on Forest Service property. Baltich said he would talk to Goutermont who is on the Loving Lake County committee.
