Regular Meeting June
28, 2011
Crow Wing Town Hall 6:00
p.m.
Board Members Present: Chairman Mark Platta, Supervisors
Greg Smith and Dave Schultz and Clerk Virginia Rogers.
Mark called the meeting to order and the pledge to the
flag was recited.
No gopher bounties were claimed.
Brad Arnold gave the planning and zoning update. He asked
for a decision on an ordinance amendment that is required by the state. The Planning
Commission recommended approval. He also asked the board to make a decision on
the refund of any unused portion of an application. Records indicate that most, if not all of the application fee had been
used since the application wasn’t withdrawn until just before the scheduled public hearing. The Chad Jillson property has been inspected and found to be cleaned up with only a minimal amount left
to be finished. The court case has been dismissed. A relative of the Roger Niesen
attempted to apply for a permit for the property in violation. He was informed that the property has outstanding violations.
Greg made a motion to pass Resolution 2011-03, which is
attached to these minutes. The motion was seconded by Dave and passed unanimously. Dave made a motion to deny the application
fee refund request, based on the fact that the fee was spent in processing the violation. The motion was seconded by Greg
and passed unanimously. Dave made a motion to adopt a policy which states that once an application has reached the point of
having been published for public hearing, no refund will be considered. The motion was seconded by Greg and passed unanimously.
Mark made a motion to send a copy of the fence standards
from the ordinance to Anthonys so that they can follow them when repairing the fence along their property. The motion was
seconded by Greg and passed unanimously.
A complaint had been received about a rental property in
Barrows where the grass has not been mowed. A letter will be sent to the property
owner asking that they look into this and discuss it with their tenants.
The loggers who will be removing timber from coujnty land
near Cook Road and were present to ask if the township would be flexible on the 7 ton per axle limit on Cook Road so that
they could haul ten cords per load. Brian Pike was present on behalf of the county
and stated that the township would get a portion of the surplus from the timber sales. The county gets 50% with the rest divided
between the school district and local governments. Greg asked if the county would repair damage to the road that could be
caused by the logging trucks. Brian Pike stated that they would work closely with the township but would not agree to pay
for re-paving a long stretch of road should it sustain damage. They would repair any breakage to the edge of the pavement.
Discussion followed concerning the low areas along this particular road, the high water table this year and what could be
done to minimize damage to the road. The loggers were asked to have their trucks weighed with ten cords of wood on it and
to turn that weight into the township. The topic will be discussed again at the next meeting. Dave stated that he doesn’t
think the township should allow more than 7 ton per axle as the road is not suited for heavier weights. Greg said that he
would be open to looking at the numbers and discussing it again. He asked what it would cost to build up the trail from the
other direction. An estimate is $1000 to $2000, with the cost possibly shared by the county and the loggers. They had anticipated
being able to use it as-is, but it is under water this year and will require some work in order to be usable. Mark noted that
$2000 wouldn’t go very far to repair a paved road, should it be damaged. Dave added that is cost $7,000 to repair 100
feet of bituminous.
Mark showed
a demo of the cemetery records program he had created using power point. It appears that it will work and will be used rather
than purchasing software, which has proven to be very expensive.
Dave gave the road report. He has started mowing the ditches.
The tractor fits in the shed, but the mower does not. Dave will continue trying to figure out how to make it work. He will
also pick up some small flags to mark objects that may be in the way for mowing and hidden by tall grass so that in the future
they will be easier to spot. In the right of way on the end of 110th Street there are some stumps left from logging.
Randy DeRosier broke snowplowing equipment on one of them last year and he would
like to remove them. The board agreed that he can do so. Randy was asked to work on the culvert at the Lukota property where
it has been filling with sand. Len has been cleaning it out. Dave gave an update on Ditch #14, which the town board requested
be opened up and maintained. The matter will need to go before the County Commissioners and someone is supposed to meet with
George Burton to look at the ditch. Dave had a proposal from Dale DeRosier for repair to Cook Road. It was determined that
the repair should wait until a final decision on the logging route discussed earlier.
The minutes of the June 14th meeting were reviewed.
Greg made a motion to approve the minutes with one minor one minor correction. The motion was seconded by Dave and carried by unanimous vote.
Payroll was approved and paid and correspondence was reviewed.
The meeting
was adjourned at 8:50 p.m. by general consent.
