Twelve residents were in attendance of the Fall Lake Township meeting, which included two of the four candidates running for two open supervisor seats.
Roger Murawski is running for the remaining oneyear of Adam Masloski’s seat. Masloski sent his resignation to the board as he is moving to Grand Rapids. Rod Gruba was in attendance. He is running for the three-year term to fill Supervisor Eric Hart’s seat. Hart decided not to run again.
A notice was received of a township legal seminar to be held at the Cotton Town Hall.
Supervisor Craig Seliskar said this seminar would be like the Township Short Course. The seminar will deal with road vacations, engineering of roads, conflict of interest, drones, personnel policies, and annexation. Seliskar said the seminar would be good for the new supervisors to attend. The board approved paying for any costs involved.
A Zoom meeting was held with MSA engineer Jeff Goetzman to discuss the opening of the Sunset Road project. The township board accepted the final construction plans for the project and requested that Goetzman and Lake County Engineer Jason DiPiazza solicit the bids.
Seven bids were received. “There were three bids lower and three bids higher than Low Impact Excavators’ bid,” said Goetzman. MSA recommended the township accept Low Impact Excavators’ bid.
The board passed a resolution in support of the bid, and requested Lake County Board of Commissioners approve the contract award to Low Impact Excavators at their March 10 meeting.
Goetzman said if all steps are finalized the project could be ready to start by May 1. Seliskar asked if MSA will do the oversight of the project. Goetzman said yes.
Seliskar asked if the board should have Jason Chopp of SEH attend a meeting to discuss capital improvement projects. He said such a discussion would be needed when the township wanted to apply for grants. Hart suggested Jeff Goetzman attend another meeting to hear his plans for capital improvement projects.
There were no requests for recreation funds, and supervisors had nothing more to report.
Clerk Cheri DeBeltz request the purchase of a fireproof file cabinet for township documents. This was approved.
Seliskar thanked Eric Hart for his years of service, dedication and leadership as a township supervisor.
“Next week we’ll be definitely opening up a new chapter for the board,” said Seliskar.
Hart said he appreciated all the support he has been given. “You never know what the future will bring,” said Hart. “But right now we are empty nesting, and so it’s time to have more fun.”
Wendy Wattunen asked what the procedure was to get the next mile of Shady Lane taken over by the township.
“We’re off the Cloquet Line and there are a lot of year-round residents, plus the University of Minnesota acting as a business,” said Wattunen. “What does it take to look at that mile section and have the township take it over?”
Seliskar, Hart and De-Beltz hadn’t had to deal with this road issue in their time on the township board. DeBeltz will get the road specifications to Wattunen.
“It has to be brought up to our road standards and culverts in place,” said Seliskar. “A certain amount of class five gravel would need to be put on the road and the road right-of-way would have to be secured.”
Wattunen asked how the process is started.
Nancy McReady was involved with the first half mile of the Shady Lane being taken over by the township. She said a petition of year-round residents and obtaining the right-of-way were the first steps. The road association would have to make all the road improvements. Once completed the township could make the decision to take over the road.
Gruba added that the road association would have to raise the money to make the improvements to bring the road up to township specifications. Then contact the township about making the road a township road.
Frank Wattunen asked about the money available for the improvements being made to Sunset Road. He asked that Sunset Road is already up to spec.
“No,” said Hart. “This is for a brand-new project that we identified the first stretch of the road as a potential hazard. The improvements could be made to reroute the road which would make it safer.”
The big difference in obtaining a grant for the Sunset Road is that Sunset is a public road already a township road. Shady Lane is a private road. Hart wasn’t aware of any public funding for a private road.
“I would say with the University being at the end of the road,” said Gruba, “there could be something they could do. The citizens would have to get together and send a letter to the state. Contacting state legislators may be an option. Basically, this is a private matter.”
In correspondence:
• Received an email from Peter Kostantacos asking for the board support for a workforce housing project. Seliskar said this is not something the township does. The board passed on this, and Hart suggested Kostantacos be referred to Lake County.
• Township election for supervisors will be held on Tuesday, March 10 with polls open from noon to 8 p.m. The Annual meeting will follow the tallying of the ballots.
• The next regular township meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 8 at 6 p.m.
• The Board of Appeal and Equalization will be held on Thursday, May 7 at 1 p.m.
