2015

                          SCHROEDER TOWNSHIP

      Minutes for Regular Board Meeting of April 14, 2015

Present: Supervisors, Tina McKeever, Roger McKeever, Bruce Martinson; Clerk, Doug Schwecke; Treasurer, Alicia Kangas; Fire Chief, Phil Bonin, Commissioner Storlie, and residents of Schroeder.

The meeting was called to order by T. McKeever at 7:00PM.

  1. McKeever moved to approve the minutes of March 9, 2015 and the Board of Canvass minutes of March 10, 2015, as corrected. B. Martinson seconded. Minutes approved as corrected.

Treasurer’s Report: Receipts for March totaled $35,355.41. Disbursements totaled $7,455.75. The ending checkbook balance as of March 31, 2015 was $69,279.54. B. Martinson moved to approve the treasurer’s report. R. McKeever seconded. Treasurer’s Report was approved. The receipts included the first half of the Taconite Production tax of $32,888 and the town road tax allotment of $1,901.14.

  1. McKeever moved to approve checks #3503-3532 in the amount of $16,823.92. B. Martinson seconded. Motion carried. $10440 of this is the Rescue Squad payment to Tofte.

Lodging tax debit slip for Feb. of $602.38 was approved and signed.

Commissioner Storlie: Next Tues. April 21, 1PM, the Commissioners are holding another work session on establishing a fair and just way of distributing non mandated funds in Cook County. Sam Muntean, asst. county engineer for 2 ½ years, is leaving. The search to fill his position will begin soon. The hiring process for the new county administrator is progressing, with the 3 final candidates coming back for another interview. On Thursdays the agenda for the following Tuesday’s Commissioner’s meeting will be posted on the county website. She asked for her contact info to be placed on our website as well. She reported on some county road projects planned for the next couple of years. Discussed rewriting letter of support for snowmobile use on the bike trail to better state our intent.

  1. McKeever moved to elect Tina McKeever as Chair. B. Martinson seconded. Motion carried. T. McKeever moved to elect R. McKeever as Vice-chair. B. Martinson seconded. Motion carried. T. McKeever moved to approve the committee assignments as; Road & Bridge- Roger McKeever, Cemetery- Bruce Martinson, Recreation- Tina McKeever. R. McKeever seconded. Motion carried.

John Oberholtzer presented a request for support from the Lutsen Junior Alpine Ski Team of $1,000. Currently there are about 50 kids, aged 5-13, in the program. About 25 of them are from the West End. He explained the lifelong benefits for the kids and went over what the money would be used for. He stated that Lutsen Twp had approved $1,500. It was suggested that this would be a good place to use a service contract, such as help cleaning the Welcome Walls in exchange for the funds. Supervisors tabled any action until it could be brought before the voters at the continuation of the Annual meeting on Aug. 12. They also requested that it be posted on our website for comment. T. McKeever will be meeting with a supervisor from Tofte and Lutsen, and possibly a MAT attorney, on May 5 so all three townships are on the same page regarding donation requests. She asked for any comments or questions from the audience. T. McKeever will report back at the May meeting before any further action will be taken on the requests voted on at the Annual meeting. We received an invoice from BGF for a donation request from 2014. Clerk’s research showed that it had already been paid and will inform them of it.

SAHS-A letter from Linda Lamb stated that the evaluation of the Cross River Heritage Center for the National Register of Historical Buildings is complete and will be reviewed by the Mn. Historical Society. Daryl Fisher, their longtime docent, has retired and Brenda Melin, from Lutsen, has been hired to replace him. Bruce Martinson has secured a $1,000 grant from Great Places Project and is working with them to secure other grants to place a viewfinder/binocular at Taconite Harbor boat ramp. She suggested that the Township develop criteria for requests for support. Supervisors would like to wait to see what the County comes up with first.

  1. Martinson moved to have the Township send a letter to the DNR and MnDOT requesting that the signage for Taconite Harbor Safe Harbor be replaced with the same signage that they installed at McQuade Harbor and Silver Bay Marina. R. McKeever seconded. Motion carried.

Fire and Rescue: Phil reported that they had a meeting last night and did an equipment check. They were on call for a brush fire today. Schroeder and Tofte would be conducting a training session together in May. He will bring some prices to the May meeting for updating their air compressor. Discussed increasing compensation. Tofte is at $25/call and $10/meeting. Tabled until May so he could talk to the members.

Road and Bridge: Bill reported that the replacement road name signs came today. The grader is at Randy Merrits being fixed. Laboda Grading will do the Sugarloaf for the same price as last year if we need him. Long term road plan wouldn’t cover emergency work needed, but will include inventorying roads, culverts and signage and assessing future maintenance needs. Rick Anderson will head this committee and begin working on it this summer.

Cemetery: Nothing

Recreation: Township’s application for the Great Places grant has been turned down this year. MNDOT has delivered some mulch to be used on the Welcome Walls. It was decided to rent a port-a-let for the Township Park but not the ball field this year. Karl will be asked to put in the dock at Dyer’s Lake. T. McKeever moved to approve the lawn care contract with Greg Johnson. R. McKeever seconded. Motion carried.

Maintenance: Wifi for the public is now available at the Town Hall. A leak around the ventilation tube needs to be looked at.

Other Business: The Schroeder Community Development Fund (formerly Storefront Loan) was discussed. It was decided that before any changes could be made to the program, our obligations to the IRRRB program needed to be clarified first. Clerk has been unable to locate any information on the start up requirements, believed to have been in 1995 or 96. Alicia and Bruce will check with IRRRB. Jesse Johnson’s loan request was turned down as not being covered by what the new program should accomplish. Welcome Walls clean-up to be in May or June. May meeting date was discussed, but was left as scheduled on Tuesday, May 12. Discussed the notice that was received concerning a Quiet Title for 20 Baraga Cross Rd. B. Martinson would look into it. B. Martinson said we should be approving the agenda at the start of the meeting.

Correspondence: Sent– Acknowledgement of receipt, Thank you to MnDOT for brushing

                        Received- Quiet Title-20 Baraga Cross Rd., BGF annual report, Llyod Gellinger letters

  1. McKeever moved to adjourn. R. McKeever seconded. Motion carried.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:57.

Respectfully submitted,

 

Doug Schwecke, Clerk