WILMA TOWNSHIP BOARD OF SUPERVISORS’ MEETING DECEMBER 3, 2014

WILMA TOWNSHIP BOARD OF SUPERVISORS’ MEETING DECEMBER 3, 2014

          Chairman Glen Williamson called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance.  Also present were Supervisors Gary Vink and Mike McCullen, Treasurer Patrice Winfield, Clerk Paul Raymond, Road Manager Mark Pallow, and Pat Story and Karen Henke.

Paul read the record of the November meeting; Mike moved to approve; Glen seconded.

OLD BUSINESS:  Fire Hall Doors:  Pat said the work is mostly completed and we can pay Randy Beurman for the work on the fire hall and town hall.  Mike said we can put some sealant in one gap, and Pat said Randy will tweak  remaining jerkiness.  He left two remotes for the grader bay; Mike said we need to have easy access to the remote, besides the one on the grader fuse box; it will be by the light.

MAT Convention Report:  Paul and Glen gave reports on the training sessions and seminar on civility in public service.  Training workshops were held concurrently, so Paul and Toni took CTAS training on the new program, and Glen went to roads and cartways training.  General sessions covered resolutions and legislative issues concerning townships.  Next years’ state convention will be at Arrowhead Resort in Alexandria.  Glen said several townships had their entire boards in attendance, and he believes more of our board should attend.

DNR Informational Meeting:  Mike gave a report on the meeting Monday at our hall, attended by 4 DNR officials and citizens from Wilma and Arna, including all of our board but Gary.  Gary said he knew what they were going to say.  Bob Brewster had asked for the meeting because of concerns about the DNR spraying and killing blueberry fields on Pansy Landing and the overspray on his organic farm.  Mike said he asked them three times how their herbicide spraying will affect our  gardens and fishing and hunting areas and berry picking and the personal health of our residents, and they could not or would not give a straight answer.  He knows of residents who are very allergic to pesticides and herbicides.  They did agree to notify citizens when they will be spraying so Bob can post it in his newspaper column and it can go on township websites.

Road Report:  Mark had to go out to plow Storviks because they didn’t get on the list.  Mike asked if he was able to inspect our escrow account roads before the snow; Mark said yes.  Discussion on T&T’s escrow for Crooked Lake Road.  Mike said they really tore up the Short Road, but Mark said they repaired it.  Gary said they should not be doing repairs, at least not without notifying the board.  Decision to postpone the escrow account issues until Spring.  Glen had said we could document $111 in deductions from the Crooked Lake escrow, for inspections and re-grading, leaving $389 to be refunded.   Gary said someone is cutting firewood on the South Duncan Road, driving a Hopkins truck.  They said they were covered under Mike Weidendorf’s escrowaccount.

Heller Drive Beaver damage:  They did not get the culvert cleaned out before it got too cold; Mark said Dave Seeloff traps beavers, and can go in there if he wants.

North Duncan Road:  Bill Peno said he expects the township to do more work on the North Duncan Road.  When he was injured he had to be transported by helicopter because of the condition of the road.  Mike said they would have had to use  a helicopter regardless because he was in the woods.  We did put in two culverts last year, which used up the balance of our $7,000 budget for that road upgrade.  Glen said he could let Peno know that we have a website and that the road inspection will be posted on the website, if he wants to come along when we inspect North Duncan Road.  Mike said we should not make special efforts since we have fulfilled our agreement and spent $7,000 on the road already.

River Cabin Road:  Karen Henke is a permanent resident on the road, but we returned her snowplowing fee because Mark can’t get into her narrow drive.  In the past she has hired Gary to snowblow her drive, and has had other private plowers.  She said if the township had a pickup plow they could do narrow drives like the ones on River Cabin Road, and we could plow out non-residents who would be willing to pay.  Patrice said we almost did purchase Mike’s truck; Glen said the hangup was the extra $1,000 cost.  Karen said non-residents have sold their properties because of no winter access.  Gary said when we did have a policy to plow any property owners who paid the fee it backfired on us when we had the 1991 Halloween storm and everyone signed up after the storm, but wouldn’t sign up on other winters.  Gary said it is not the purpose of townships to plow private drives, and we can only do them after our township roads are plowed. Mike said even if we found a truck/plow for $10,000 there would be additional expenses like insurance and maintenance.  Glen told Karen that at the annual meeting, all the citizens get to vote on township issues.  The board is only bound by the levies as voted, but they take voters’ concerns seriously.  He told Karen to try to get a petition with 20 citizens to present her concerns to the township.  Mark gave her the number to call Duane Glienke, if Gary or someone else can’t plow her out.  There was a discussion on who is eligible to vote at annual town meetings, full-time registered residents or any property-owning citizens?  Paul will call Cathy Clemmer and find out.

Fire Hall Plowing:  Mark plowed the Eagle Head Fire Hall, but it was before any freezing, and Joe Vink had to go over it again.  Mike moved that Wilma Township plow the Eagle Head VFD Station without paying the usual fee, since the fire department and responders serve all our citizens; Gary seconded.  Passed.

TREASURER’S REPORT AND BILLS:

Patrice gave the Treasurer’s Report (attached).  Claims were presented:

Pat Story (mileage)                                     $             53.76

Paul (expenses)                                                       345.21

Mark (expenses)                                                      154.72

Chad Beurman ( town hall back door)                              160.00

Randy Beurman                                                   5,459.00

Patrice (expenses)                                                     37.96

Bruno Deep Rock (fuel)                                          866.41

Glen  (chains for grader, computer for treasurer, expenses)    1,966.64

Lucy Downing Hager (Hall deposit)                          50.00

ECE                                                                          43.95

Purple Pumper                                                        145.00

Glen (mileage)                                                           97.44

Glen                                                                        413.03

Paul                                                                         384.18

Mike                                                                          46.17

Mark                                                                       382.33

Gary                                                                        214.26

Patrice                                                                     123.75

Total Bills:           $       10,943.81

 

Gary moved to approve the report and to pay all the claims, and to transfer $11,000 from savings into checking.  Mike seconded.  Glen moved to adjourn the meeting; Mike seconded.  Meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m.

Paul Raymond, Clerk___________________________

Glen Williamson, Chair__________________________

 

WILMA BOARD OF SUPERVISORS’ MEETING NOVEMBER 5, 2014

WILMA BOARD OF SUPERVISORS’ MEETING NOVEMBER 5, 2014

          Chairman Glen Williamson called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance.  Also present were Supervisors Gary Vink and Mike McCullen, Treasurer Patrice Winfield, Clerk Paul Raymond, Road Manager Mark Pallow, and Pat Story and Ben Glocke.

OLD BUSINESS:   Fire Hall Doors:   Pat asked to be first on the agenda.  He got four bids for the fire hall doors; two that are very close, Dave’s Garage Door from Rush City and Randy Buerman, from  Richmond, both around $5,400.00.    Randy is Mark’s brother-in-law and Mike said he thinks Randy did work for the township before.  Paul asked that whatever bid is chosen could they also fix the back door of the town hall, which is mis-aligned and had a big gap?  Pat said neither contractor is a carpenter and they can’t do it.  They will put window in the door for $50 extra.  Mike moved to hire Randy Beurman; Gary seconded; passed.  Pat said all the companies recommended 6” thermal seal be put on the bottom of the doors.  He said we can have 6” thick apron in front of the hall for $2,000-3,000.  The board said to wait on this.

Snowplowing Fees:  The deadline is tonight.  Glen moved that the deadline be moved back one week, to November 12, to allow everyone interested to pay.  Mike seconded; passed.  Steve Grabau voted yesterday but did not pay for snowplowing. His is the drive over ½ mile the board made the policy for.  Mark said it is not a driveway but a path through a field and he almost got stuck more than once, and he doesn’t feel good about plowing this.  Glen made a motion that at the discretion of the board on the advice of the grader operator, if a drive doesn’t meet the feasibility and safety threshold for the protection of the equipment and the driver, that we can refuse to plow that drive.  Mike seconded; passed.  Mark said that the North Duncan Road can be scary to plow also.  If Steve doesn’t pay, the point is moot.

October meeting:  Paul read the record of the October meeting.  Gary moved to approve; Mike seconded.

Schmedeke Lane Extension:  The Board passed a resolution to adopt the Schmedeke Lane Extension as a township road last January.  The county said they would release $10,000 to the township to bring the road up to specs if the resolution were recorded with the county, and as we submit invoices for the work done.  This is based on the county’s estimate of  $8,000 for 800 cubic yards of Class 5 gravel to top the road; $1,000 to repair the culvert and put in rip rap to reinforce it; and another $1,000 for misc. ditch and rock and cleanup.  The board passed and signed another resolution stating: “The Board of Supervisors of the Town of Wilma accepts the county’s terms and conditions in their entirety, and makes no further demand on the County for any work on this road extension.  Once the repairs are completed under the budget and funds provided by the county, Eldon Schmedeke will make no demands of the township or county for maintenance of the entire Schmedeke Lane above and beyond the same maintenance as for any other township road.”  Mike moved to record the road resolution to accept the Schmedeke Lane Extension as part of our existing Schmedeke Lane, and to authorize the Road Manager Mark Pallow to add this project to his agenda for 2015.  Glen seconded.  Gary voted nay. Passed.

NEW BUSINESS:  Road Report:  Beaver Dam:  Mark said beavers have almost plugged the 4 foot culverts on Heller Drive.  He and Gary checked it out.  Gary said if we use a fire hook to pull out some of the debris, the water movement will attract the beavers and they can be shot.  Mark said he wants to ask Duane Glienke if he can try to pull out the debris with his backhoe.

Range Line Roads:  Mark gave Paul a list of all the Range Line and Escrow Account roads that he has plowed or done work on, and the hours to charge to Danforth or New Dosey or to the escrow accounts.

T&T Escrow Account:  We are holding three escrow payments from T& T.  Mark said they’re done logging and he’d like to have their deposits refunded.  Gary said they damaged the culverts on Mink Farm and Eagle Head Roads.  They also hauled on Crooked Lake Road.  Mark said there was no damage on Crooked Lake Road.  Mike said we still need to deduct the time for the inspections and for routine gravel and grading; if they haul on a road they do damage.  Mike said we should take $150 from the Crooked Lake T&T escrow account for restoration.  Glen said we want to be able to justify any work so it is not arbitrary:  we can charge two inspections and grading and restoration, and the time grading.  He said we can document $111 in costs, deducted from $500, refund $389.  Paul said he could write again to all the loggers and to the DNR and County Forestry, explaining our axle weight-limit ordinance and the importance of joint inspections both before and after the hauling.  Gary said to make it clear that every road needs a separate escrow account. Gary said he thought we voted to take the entire escrow account if they miss an inspection, but Glen read the ordinance and it just leaves any damage assessment up to the Road Manager.  Mike said we should table the T&T escrow issue until the next meeting when we can also go over the Mink Farm and Vink Roads and give Mark time to inspect them.

Tamarack Pine Drive:  Mark said Hayward Logging damaged Tamarack Pine Drive and we should keep their entire escrow.  T&T also worked on that road and was concerned that they would be blamed for Hayward’s damages.

Short Road:  Mike said T&T is also logging on our Short Road.

Chains:  Mark said he needs two sets of chains for the grader. Mike moved to authorize him to get them; Gary seconded.

New CTAS Program and Computer:  Glen said he’s found a laptop computer for Patrice for $379, plus tax. Mike moved to authorize Glen to get the computer and to remove the programs and data from our old computer.  Gary seconded.  Mike moved that we sell our old computer to Fran Levings for $75.  Gary seconded.

 

Starowoitow Refund:   They paid $50 damage deposit and $25 hall rental.  They pretty much cleaned up the hall after them.  Gary moved to refund their deposit; Mike seconded.  It’s too late for tonight’s claims, but Paul can notify them that it’s coming.

DNR Hearing at Hall:  Bob Brewster requested the use of our hall on December 1 for a hearing with the DNR about aerial spraying and over-spraying of herbicides.  Gary asked why they don’t use Arna’s hall?  Glen said our hall borders the St. Croix State Forest where they are spraying and we are centrally located.  Mike said the fire chiefs also want to use the hall in November for a meeting.  Glen moved that both the DNR and the fire chiefs be permitted to use the hall with no rental fees.  Mike seconded.  Passed.

Outhouse Holding Tank:  The tank is full and stinks.  Mike moved to have Paul call Purple Pumper to pump it out.  Gary seconded; passed.

Mike apologized for missing two meetings in a row.  He said he will work on this not happening again.

Treasurer’s Report and Bills:  Patrice gave the Treasurer’s Report (attached) and claims were presented:

Pine County Courier                                   $          26.32

ECE                                                                       57.54

Security Life Dental                                             443.52

MAT State Convention Tuition                                     495.00

Jeff GrandPre (election)                                          39.00

Land and Cabins Culverts                                    538.50

Duxbury VFD (annual support)                                 4,500.00

The Evergreen                                                        27.00

Jeanne GrandPre (election)                                     36.00

Glen Williamson (expenses)                                   33.60

Antoinette Williamson (judging)                          147.00

Antoinette Williamson (Fall Fest expenses)                   183.14

Paul (election, mileage, expenses)                         417.11

Stephanie Hanson, The Procrastinators               300.00

Patrice (election, expenses)                                  252.92

Patrice                                                                  303.83

Mike McCullen                                                       62.79

Glen Williamson                                                   153.19

Gary Vink                                                            129.29

Mark Pallow                                                          49.87

Paul Raymond                                                     193.01

Total Bills                      $     8,388.63

Gary moved to approve the Treasurer’s Report, to pay all the claims, and to transfer $8,300 from savings into checking.  Mike seconded.  Gary moved to adjourn the meeting; Glen seconded.  Meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m.

Paul Raymond, Clerk__________________________________

Attest:  Glen Williamson, Chair________________________________