WILMA TOWNSHIP SUPERVISORS’ ROAD INSPECTION MAY 9, 2012
The Board met at the Duxbury Store at 10 p.m: Glen Williamson, Mike McCullen, Gary Vink, Road Manager Mark Pallow, and Greg Beck (County Forester) and Jason Palme (Supervisor in Danforth Township) and Clerk Paul Raymond.
North Duncan Road: At the beginning of the road Tri-State Lumber had gone off the road and cut a deep rut. Greg Beck said he repaired that and marked it to keep anyone else from going off the road. He said Tri-State stopped payment on their escrow payment because several years ago they had a lumber lease onNorth Duncan and paid their escrow, but they never had trucks in to do the work. They did bring a bulldozer in to clear a trail to the wood. Gary said they must have had the blade down on the dozer because they scraped the crown off the road and we used their escrow monies to restore the road. It is uncertain whether they were told that we had used their escrow or if we were able to document to them how it was used. Greg says Wilma has a reputation of taking escrow deposits and never returning them. He said that as part of the county’s lease with loggers they are required to repair the road to its original state, and if they don’t the county will. He said Tri-State told him they were never notified that they had damaged the road in 2009. Gary said he didn’t know that they didn’t do the logging then. Greg said that before any logging or work is done on a lumber lease, we need to have a mutual inspection with Greg and Mark to verify the condition of the road before and after work is done.
Mike said this recentDuncandamage is still not repaired up to specs. It needs gravel. Greg said not $500 worth; maybe one truckload. Mike said that would be $200. Greg said Todd Elliot would do it for $80-100. Mike said we also need to include Mark’s time from the escrow. Greg said that’s not fair and he doesn’t know if it’s legal. Mike asked why should the town’s people have to pay for it? He said we can redo our escrow notice to include inspections in our costs to be deducted from the escrow payment, and that they must contact Mark before starting work. Also we need to have a fixed fee for inspections.
Greg said he will talk to Tri-State and if they say they did not blade the road in 2009, then we took their money wrongly. Glen said we can’t second-guess our earlier decision to take their deposit. Greg said the county will stand by their contracts and require loggers to repair roads to township specs.
North Duncanneeds two loads ¼ mile up the road. Also two loads past Tri-State’s log pile. Tree needs to be cut 1 ½ mile up. We need to see if we used up the full $7,000 budgeted for this road. Gary and Mark need to check the rest of the road (where the grass starts) on four-wheelers.
Crooked Lake Road: The road is good at first, but ½ mile past Bob Johnsons it needs gravel. Road is rutted and has holes and needs more of a crown. Jason said their grader operator Dave Vader said there’s not much to work with on that part of the road, with no gravel. It needs gravel, or they will plow up rocks. There are ridges on both sides of the road that channel water right back onto the road. They can’t be bladed off; they need to be dozed off. A dozer would cost about $110-115/hour. Mark said Wilma should take over the grading so the crown isn’t always bladed off and we lose all the money we’ve paid.
Mike and Gary will attend Danforth’s board meeting on May 18, the third Friday. They are authorized to get consensus on what needs to be done. Jason said the road past Bob Johnson’s has never had Class 5 gravel. Mark said the road needs 4” of gravel, but the sides need to be dozed off first. The Supervisors discussed having Wilma take back the road authority. Jason said the biggest obstacle to that is our high fee for grading, $150/hour. He said he will make sure Summerland builds a better crown. Glen said what Danforth is asking for, $10,000-12,000 of repairs and gravel (split between the two towns) is a lot for just two people.
Eagle Head Road: Culvert will eventually need to be replaced. The culvert is open, but there is some debris on the bottom of the screen. Eagle Head needs one load of gravel down at the end and the crown needs to be built up and restored.
Dollar Lake Road: Five loads pit-run gravel past the area that was graveled before. Mark wants to do the whole road, 5-6 loads from Sealy’s south.
Vink Road: Needs 3 loads gravel at the entrance by the highway and 4 loads 1/2 mile up (7 loads total). Mark said we can use our gravel at Shute’s. The Board went to Shute’s to inspect our pile. Gary said Rybergs took some of our gravel and then replaced it and took the crown off the pile. Glen said we should use it up and keep track of how many loads we get out of it so we know how much we lost.
Heller Road: Needs routine blading. Big beaver pond with dam and lodge. Gary said the trapper said he got all the beavers. Gary will tear a hole in the dam and see if any try to repair it. If we tear out the dam and blow up the lodge we will need to notify the DNR. We need 3 load of gravel at the culvert after the dam.
McCullen Drive: Needs regular blading and maintenance.
Tamarack Pine Drive: We need to repair the damage done by the surveyor past Mark’s place and document any money we take from their escrow, including the inspection and grading and 1 load of gravel. The road needs regular grading.
Mink Farm Drive: One load of pit-run at the washout. We can take it from Vink’s gravel pit across from the washout. Road needs routine blading.
Mayfield Road: Halfway towards the end needs 2 loads gravel and another 3 loads further up. We need to ditch at the swamp and put another 2 loads at the swamp. The culvert past the first cabin is washed out a little. FEMA paid to put the new culvert in and gravel it, which included aprons and rocks, but Schlomka never put the apron on. There is water in the road in places that needs to be ditched. We need to call in locater before we ditch because of utilities. Duane Glienke can do the ditching, 100’-200’past the DNR turnoff. Gary said we need to find out what’s making it flood.
Pete Anderson Road: 2012 is an even-numbered year so is Arna’s responsibility. Road needs routine blading. There is a tree across the road 1.8 miles up. We tried to drag it off the road but were unsuccessful. Gary will cut the tree up. Arna will put two loads of pit-run gravel at the end of both range-line roads.
Langstrom Road: Routine blading; two loads of gravel at end. Arna’s responsibility.
Fust Road: Routine maintenance.
Schmedeke Road: Routine blading.
South Duncan Road: Routine blading.
Little Tamarack Lake Road: Needs two loads of gravel ½ mile before Holters’ by the junction box. Needs one load at the curve by the landing.
Short Road: Routine maintenance. There are still trees in the right-of-way at the end; we need to ask Mike to remove them.
Lost River Road: Routine blading.
River Cabin Road: Regular maintenance.
Mona Drive: Routine maintenance.
Kenny Peterson Road: Routine maintenance.
Road Inspection Meeting completed at 4 p.m., 6 hours.
Paul Raymond, Clerk