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Part-time township employee Mike Velcheff beat back a write-in campaign to win a three year seat on the Morse town board.
Velcheff finished with 152 votes to 51 votes for write-in candidate Carolyn Dehnbostel.
Former supervisor Len Cersine received two votes. His name couldn’t be removed from the ballot since he passed away after the withdrawal period. Also receiving two write-in votes was John Freeman. There was one blank ballot.
“We had a nice turnout with 208 votes cast which was much better than the 21 we had last year,” said Morse clerk Nick Wognum.
The Morse annual meeting was held after the votes were canvassed.
The 20 township residents on hand decided to keep the 2026 property tax levy the same as it has been for around a decade.
Wognum served as moderator and the meeting was completed in about an hour.
Treasurer Mary Ann Lekatz presented the 2024 treasurer’s report. She said a $152,000 dump truck was purchased, $97,000 was spent on paving and $77,000 was paid for the final payment on a fire truck. Stebly, Ted and Somero roads were paved in 2024.
Lekatz presented the 2026 budget. She noted the election expenses increased with a primary and general election that year.
The total general fund for 2026 is budgeted at $259,000. The total Road and Bridge budget is $134,900. Total expenses are estimated at $393,900.
In receipts Lekatz noted the township has seen better interest rates on CDs which contributed to a higher amount of interest earned.
Lekatz said the recommended levy is $181,036.43 for Gene r a l Fund at $184,693.73 for a total of $365,730.16. That was the recommended levy for 2026 from the board.
Hans Olsen said it was a strange happening not to raise the property ties.
Residents voted unanimously to keep the levy the same.
Supervisor Bob Berrini said the board has been working with the legislators to increase the amount of monies for township aid in St. Paul.
Becky Rom addressed the group to have the Morse town board reverse itself on opposing the sale of federal government of lands in the BWCA. She said there is a process for the sales to occur. There are 80,000 acres of state lands in the BWCA.
Rom said the lands have been appraised five times but the latest appraisal hasn’t been made public.
Wognum said the issue was also discussed over how lands outside the BWCA yet in the Town of Morse would be included and that the values of the lands would be removed from the tax roles.
Berrini said this issue is for the board and not for the annual meeting. Rom said she is asking the board to reconsider the decision to oppose the sale.
Berrini said the RAMS board unanimously approved exchanging the land instead of selling it.
James Devine questioned statements made by Rom that the mineral interests couldn’t be severed.
Rom also said the sale of the BWCA lands would provide more monies to be distributed to schools in Minnesota. Those funds are distributed based on enrollment.
Devine said if the best interest is to raise monies for Minnesota school kids then non-ferrous mining should be wholeheartedly supported because it would bring in billions of dollars for kids in Minnesota.
Berrini said the vast majority of the monies go to the Twin Cities schools since they have more kids. Ruthanne Fenske said this will not greatly benefit Ely kids “so we shouldn’t give up the land.”
Bill Erzar brought up the Highway 169 project and that there were no federal monies allocated for improvements.
Township roads were also again discussed by Erzar. He said he has lived in Romberg Acres since 1978 and noted Heather and Hiawatha streets have issues that he doesn’t believe have been taken care of in his opinion.
He said the road was raised by Merrimans and caused an electrical transformer to be flooded. He said the problem was created by raising the road grade by three feet and putting a culvert in. Erzar said he is requesting that Heather Street have grade stakes put in and graded. He noted paving other streets is being done.
Berrini said the board has surveyed the land in Romberg Acres and submitted grant applications to pave those roads.
Erzar said the surveyors didn’t know what they were doing.
Erzar made a motion to have township roads maintained to St. Louis County standards public works department policy for roadway standards in plats and subdivisions.
He said it is something that needs to be done and that the slopes of the roads are dangerous for people going off the road.
Jerry Veranth said this would cause the township to purchase impacted land including on his property.
Wognum said the motion would be advisory to the Board of Supervisors. Forsman said there would need to be exceptions to this rule.
The motion did pass. Berrini said the issue will be discussed at the next board meeting.
Bob Hamilton said the 60 mile per hour speed limit on Hwy. 169 on has caused at least two deaths where he lives. He said he would like to see the speed limit dropped back down to 55 mph or 50 mph.
Berrini said the township has tried to change speed limits and been told by St. Louis County it was not possible.
Forsman said he would like to see speed limits increased.
In other business:
• The 2026 election hours were set from noon to 8 p.m.
• The annual meeting will be on March 10, 2026.
