Quite the surprise to see Supervisor Hudson Kingston hobble into the Fall Lake Town hall on crutches. He found out he had been walking on a broken leg from a February skiing accident.
Kingston and supervisor Craig Seliskar were the only board members present, supervisor Roger Murawski was absent.
Transfer site attendant Dean Barrett said all was well at the site with summer residents coming in and checking out the rules for depositing their garbage in the proper bins. Barrett said more signage is needed for the bins.
The transfer site will be open on Friday, July 3 and closed on Saturday, July 4. This will be posted at the site and in the Ely Echo.
Kingston’s suggested a sign-up sheet also be at the transfer site for people who are interested to have a scheduled E-waste disposal, and list what kind of electronics people have for a collection.
Kingston will check into companies to see if it will be worth their time to have an E-waste collection at Fall Lake.
Jeff Goetzman, engineer for MSA Professional Services gave an update on the Sunset Road Local Road Improvement Project (LRIP). A preconstruction meeting was held with Low Impact. Erosion control, clearing and digging has started.
Goetzman did provide a contract amendment for the construction phase of the project.
“Some things weren’t in the original contract,” said Goetzman. “Like field staking and surveying the project. The main thing was the amount of time to be on the site, to monitor construction progress.”
The board approved the amendment which would provide for a better budget for the project that will take six to seven weeks.
Lake County Commissioner Joe Baltich said he was in St. Paul and met with Sen. Grant Hauschild and Rep. Roger Skraba. He was able to secure $200,000 to extend a Sunset Road project for another half mile beyond the reroute LRIP project. This money will come from IRRRB.
Baltich said a better contact is needed to be established with the IRRRB and Chris Ismal. Baltich will talk with IRRRB Commissioner Ida Rukavina about this.
Two years ago, Baltich was able to secure $100,000 for Finland’s septic project.
Seliskar thanked Baltich for all he has done.
“It all comes back to mining in obtaining these funds,” said Baltich.
Baltich attended the opening of a Multi Modal Trailhead Center in Silver Bay. He said it is a very nice building that could easily handle 75 people for gatherings.
Seliskar said he had contacted Minnesota Power about the flooding on Winton Point Road which has spread out more and more each year.
He said their public relation person is willing to meet with the township to discuss possibly helping the township with building up the road to avoid flooding.
Baltich asked if Winton Point Road is private or a township road. He had looked at the flooding and noticed a private road sign on a pole.
Seliskar said the road is a township road, so the private road sign should be removed. He contacted Jeff Schultz to fix the road now that the water is gone. Class five will be hauled and the road graded.
The board addressed three bids from Phil Hegfors for work on three roads.
The brushing on Voyageur Road was tabled until fall. Fixing of the Villa Road at Warren Carlson’s property will be addressed with 12 yards for cleaner Class 5 and installing a 10-inch culvert behind Carlson’s garage.
The last bid was for moving rocks on both sides of Snowbank Road and widening the road with pit run and topping with class five.
Treasurer Don Stocks said he has driven Snowbank Road for 60 years and the rocks were never an issue.
“There has never been an accident in this area,” said Stocks. “People have gone off the road in the swamp and other places.”
Kingston said the board should get more information about this area, and Stocks said there are probably other places to spend money until more funds come back from the county.
Baltich said the community center group has gotten back together and working on the project.
Seliskar addressed the capital improvement projects that he had come up with. Goetzman said he would be willing to donate his time to do the report to apply for a grant. Seliskar suggested to enter into an agreement with MSA on these capital improvements.
Cindy Smyka didn’t have much to report as the township’s Ely Area Joint Powers Lodging Tax representative. She said the next meeting would be on Monday, July 27 at 9 a.m. at Morse Township. The meeting may be relocated due a lot of interest in the meeting.
Kingston expressed interest in attending Minnesota Association of Township training. He said it would be covering a lot of topics, including ADA, accessible websites and data center development.
“I’m excited to learn about that from the township perspective,” said Kingston. “I’m glad that we have that sort of training available.”
Seliskar said St. Louis County would be putting a lift on the Cloquet Line up to the St. Louis and Lake County line. A culvert has pushed up on the St. Louis County portion of the road that needs to be addressed.
A question was asked about the Aquatic Invasive Species cleaning station that has been rotating to various lakes in the area. Fall Lake Township is a sponsor of the cleaning station. Several sponsor stickers are on the machine, and but there is no Fall Lake Township sponsor sticker. WICOLA will be notified about this.
In correspondence:
• Received a thank you from the Northeast Range/ Ely boys and girls golf team.
• Received information from Minnesota Association of Townships on upcoming CTAS training for clerks and treasurers.
• Received an invitation from RAMS to the 2026 summer member meeting and end-of session for legislative updates along with information for state revolving fund for project priority list.
• Received information from ARDC for the Minnesota Cooperative Summit to be held July 28-29 in Duluth.
• Received St. Louis County’s newsletter on county sustainability, including grant opportunities for EV infrastructure community program.
• Received key date deadlines for applications for the EV infrastructure community program.
• Received an email from Kerry Davis saying new tape will be put down for the pickleball court at the town hall. Davis asks that contractors not drive over the court until late fall.
• A request for funds for the Ely Track Club was received with $400 approved.
• The Lake County board of commissioners committee of the whole will be held on Tuesday, June 16 at 6 p.m.
• The Morse/Fall Lake Fire meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 17 at 6 p.m.
• The next regular Fall Lake Township meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 8 at 6 p.m.
