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Fall Lake Township transfer site has a new face attending the site. Todd Garvey has been hired to fill in when Dean Barrett is not available. He had a busy first day and has been snow blowing around the bins. Barrett attended the Fall Lake meeting and said the recyclable bin has been flipped and is ready for Ozfab to weld.
The board discussed the Lake County cannabis ordinance that was passed by the Lake County commissioners. Fall Lake Township will follow the county’s lead on cannabis.
Lake County confirmed that Fall Lake Township will obtain calcium chloride for the Sunset Road and Cloquet Line. The board will discuss possibly other roads for this treatment at their budget meeting.
The board approved Nancy McReady, Teresa Sagen, Cheri DeBeltz, Gary Nevalainen and Delores Delany as election judges for the March 11 supervisor election. The board also approved the date of Tuesday, June 17 for the Lake County Board of Commissioners committee of the whole to meet at Fall Lake Township.
The board accepted the contract with USDA for beaver management in the amount of $2,000.
There was discussion of replacing Don Stocks as the lead member on the Lodging Tax Board with supervisor Sheila Gruba. Stocks said he had a very busy schedule, and would rather be the alternate members. The board approved Gruba to be the main Lodging Tax board member.
Gruba received an update from Abby Dare that Cindy Smyka is no longer with the Ely Area Tourism Bureau. Stocks and Gruba will meet with Dare to update all on how to move forward. They will know more after the next Lodging Tax board meeting.
Gruba received a letter from RAMS executive director Paul Peltier regarding the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding program. An invite will be extended to Peltier to attend the next township regular meeting to discuss the details of the funding to address the challenges and history of broadband in the township.
Gruba gave an update on the Sunset Road reroute. She said the county is working on the wetlands delineation. She said the area has been flagged for the reroute but no approval for cutting the route will be made until all delineation matters have been approved.
The board received a bill from St. Louis County for salt/sand. Supervisor Craig Seliskar will connect Tom Erchul for an explanation of the nearly four times cost increase.
Fall Lake Township did not receive the grant for the community center planning. Lake County Commissioner Joe Baltich said he will call around to see if there are other federal grants for Fall Lake.
Baltich said Fall Lake’s purchase of the parking lot had been overlooked for the county’s agenda, but he doesn’t anticipate any problems with the purchase going through.
Baltich also talked to Peltier with RAMS, and he would like to have him come to a Lake County meeting and discuss BEAD funding for broadband.
Baltich said he asked to be on the Soil and Water Conservation District board (SWCD). His concern was for removing balsam throughout the area. He said having buildings in several areas of the county to house workers and having a planning station would be good. Baltich said SWCD also has crews to plant trees, and these crews need a place to sleep.
Stocks said that Camp Buckskin would be a good location. It is for sale. Baltich said he would inform the county board.
Gruba said there will be a virtual meeting with Minnesota Powers on water levels and the Rainy River Headwaters.
Supervisor Eric Hart attended the Joint Powers Ambulance meeting. They have decided to meet quarterly. Ambulance payments for Fall Lake Township will come from Lake County. One half payment will come in mid-May, and the other in mid-October.
In correspondence:
• Information from Minnesota Association of Townships about township priority concerns to legislators. They include transportation funding, taxes and state aid, broadband access and cell phone coverage and annexation fairness.
• Thank yous were received from Ely Winter Festival, the Ely Nordic Wolves and Ely’s Historic State Theater for donations given to them.
• Received the ECR quarterly report and thank you for the township’s support.
• Received an email from Susan Wold regarding the Power Dam Road which goes through her property. She stated she did not want changes, such as increasing the width of the road and brushing the road, that would impact two campsites.
• Board of Audit meeting will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 5 p.m. with the budget meeting to follow.
• The next regular township meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 4 at 6 p.m.
• The election of one supervisor will be held on Tuesday, March 11 from noon to 8 p.m. with the annual meeting to follow after the canvasing of the ballots.
• Local Board of Appeals will be held on Thursday, May 8 at 1 p.m.
