Minutes: September 10, 2019 Regular Board Meeting

Presented for approval at the October 8, 2019 Board Meeting

     

September meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by Michelle Meis with the Pledge of Allegiance.  Supervisors present included, Brandon Mell, Betsy Rising, John Paitl and Jared Landon.  Also present was Clerk Stan Iskierka, Treasurer Mary Dillner and Deputy Clerk Kelli Storck.

Agenda (Additions or Changes)

Additions:

  • New Business – Printer
  • Along with Line Item VI: CenturyLink

Motion by Landon seconded by Paitl to approve Agenda.  Approved.

Approve Minutes

Motion by Rising seconded by Landon to approve August Minutes. Approved.

                                                                          

Treasurer’s Report

Motion by Paitl seconded by Landon to approve Treasurer’s Report. Approved.

Bills

Motion by Rising seconded by Landon to approve paying bills.  Approved.

Additions to Bills:

  • SEH – Engineering – Approval needed to pay $5,983.66 in addition to the previous bills that were passed.

Motion by Landon seconded by Mell to pay SEH $5,983.66. Approved.

  • CenturyLink – Kirstin with CenturyLink presented the following information: She stated that the final draft of the application for the Broadband grant is complete and will be submitted. She noted a couple of corrections that were made: 3.4 – the spelling of Eagan and 4.1 – an updated final cost to reflect the total application cost of $5,525,167. This increase is to include all of the cost for the drops. This includes the total cost for the drops to go all the way to your house, whether you are a subscriber or not. CenturyLink is going to ask the State for 30% of the grant (Represents 10-points). Nessel Township’s portion will be 25% and CenturyLink’s portion will be 45%. Kirstin recently found out that Midco is a provider for the Shorewood Development. Grant money cannot be used to overbuild Midco. She is not sure at this point if Midco will need to give approval to add Broadband to this development. The Board can decide to exclude Shorewood or issue an SSD. She will need to check into this further. Once the contract has been awarded and accepted, and an agreement has been reached, the projected timeline would start in January 2020 with engineering, construction planning, and ordering the materials. Once frost is declared “out,” is when work can begin with placing cable into the ground. When frost is declared “in,” is when they will start working with the electronics. Her guess is, that, by January of 2021 is when they can start taking orders. They will do temporary drops through the winter if needed and then come back in the Spring to bury the drops. The final project should be declared final by the 3rd or 4th quarter in 2021. Once the State declares the project is complete, they will submit payment. After that point, payment would be due from the Township. CenturyLink has a proposed pricing structure, and as of right now, it states up to 15mg, the cost is $45.00 per month, and up to a gig, the price is $85.00 a month. They also offer a “Price for Life’ product which guarantees a price lock for as long as you stay in your residence or as long as you stay with the product.
  • Ehlers-Finance-Broadband – Todd Hagen from Ehlers and Associates presented the following information: Ehlers Associates are finance advisers. They will be working with Nessel Township to prepare and issue bonds. He presented a draft timeline with a schedule of events. He highly recommends that the Township gets information out to as many township residents as possible. He stated that the residents could pay the bonds back with an SSD (Involves a lot of steps) or through County tax abatement (Easy process – would be based on property tax base). Paying back the bonds could be spread out over a 20-year span. Todd will get back to us with approximate figures that the residents would have to pay. He will base it on a cost of 1.5-million and he will create a chart for an SSD and also one for a tax abatement.

Variance

  • Janette Busch – 48190 Blue Heron Trail – Would like a variance for a minor subdivision under the new minor subdivision ordinance, with a home that was constructed in 2004. She also is requesting a variance to be exempt from formal platting requirements.

Motion by Mell seconded by Paitl to approve a variance to subdivide the property and to exempt the formal platting requirements. Approved.

  • Justin Buehring (JSB Construction) – 51300 Rush Lake Trail – On behalf of the owners of the home, he is requesting a variance to add an addition to the home and a deck that would be closer to the lake than the required setbacks.

Motion by Landon seconded by Mell to approve the variance. Approved.

Open Forum

  • Nessel Township Truck – Ritchie Ronning suggested that the Township keep the pick-up truck for the safety of the Nessel Township Board. He suggested that we use it for everything so people will know who we are if they see us on their property.

Maintenance Report

  • Graded new gravel various roads (5,000-yards)
  • Graded both sections of Elmcrest
  • General maintenance on roads in Royalton Township
  • Put up signs on Clover Trail
  • Has about 150- 911-signs left to be put up on Cty Rd 1 and in Shorewood Development
  • Resident on 540th stated the post-office made him move his mailbox closer to the road than the required setback. Iskierka will send the resident a letter informing him that the mailbox needs to be moved
  • Resident on Arbor Avenue West, has a rock wall in the road ROW. Rising will talk to the resident. She will also look at the newly installed mailbox on Arbor Avenue to see if it is in compliance
  • A new home is being built on 497th. Trucks have crushed the culvert and it has filled with dirt. The ditch needs to be cleaned out. Also, they installed a mailbox post that is not in compliance. Rising will take a look and talk to the homeowner
  • Beech Avenue has some higher branches that have fallen and are laying on other the lower branches, which are laying low and into the road
  • Mowed

Road Committee

  • Mr. Phouvieng – Mr. Phouvieng sent pictures to Rising and stated that the driveway is not on the road, but the pictures he sent were of the neighbor’s driveway, so Rising took pictures of the driveway and put up stakes where she thought it would be ok for the driveway. Rising informed him that he needs to stop the driveway before the ROW and cannot go beyond where the current stakes are. He agreed that he would not go beyond the current stakes. After the board had some discussion, it was determined that Mr. Phouvieng cannot pour a concrete slab on the road right-of-way. Rising will inform him of this and let him know that it is          Townships policy.    
  • Vehicles Blocking the Road – Landon stated that some residents brought concern to him regarding vehicles blocking the road by parking on both sides of the street while they are working on Mr. Phouvieng’s residence, as well as further up this road, the people going to the Grumpy Minnow, are parked on both sides of the road. Landon stated that this could be a safety concern and asked if we could have one side of the road be “No Parking.” Iskierka commented that in the past, the residents did not want “No Parking” signs on one side of the road. Our road contractor stated that this has been a problem for him in the past. It was decided that Iskierka will order four temporary “No Parking” signs and Landon will put the signs up. Also mentioned, was that the “No Parking” will not be enforced by law enforcement.

Motion by Landon seconded by Mell to purchase four temporary “No Parking” signs. Approved.

  • Berry Avenue and Town Hall Parking Lot – Rising contacted four contractors regarding graveling Berry Avenue and the Town Hall parking lot. Midwest Construction said that they could do these jobs next week. The other three contractors said that they could not do the jobs this year. Mell stated that we told Virgil Lindstrom in May of this year, that we would complete Berry Avenue before the frost. It was decided that our contractor would patch Berry Avenue this year and then fix the road next year. Iskierka will inform Mr. Lindstrom that we will complete Berry Avenue at the beginning of next Spring. Our maintenance contractor will do the prep work next year on Berry Avenue and then he will hire a sub-contractor to finish the road.

Motion by Mell seconded by Landon to reject the Midwest Construction proposal for the patching of Berry Avenue. Approved.

Motion by Mell seconded by Rising to authorize our maintenance contractor to patch Berry Avenue as early as practical next Spring and allow him to manage the whole project, to include the prep work, paving and patching. Approved.

Motion by Mell seconded by Paitl that we reject the Midwest Construction proposal to patch the parking lot at the Town Hall this Fall and that we address it next Spring. Approved.

  • Frost Boils – Our contractor will concentrate this Fall on addressing the frost boils on 487th/Alpine and also on Balsam Avenue. He will also remove a concrete culvert on 540th/Balsam and fill it back in. Our contractor will contact the County regarding the placement of a culvert on Basswood.
  • Salt/Sand Shed – Rising’s neighbor, Dan will give us a quote for a new shed and also one for splitting the current shed. It would be treated and tongue/groove.

   Old Business

  • Royalton – 540th Street – Meis, Rising, Iskierka and our contractor, John, had a meeting with the Royalton Township Board. It was discussed that 540th Street needs gravel. The estimate of gravel was for 2,040 yards of gravel plus grading, with the cost being approximately $22,960.80. Royalton agreed that they would pay half of the cost of gravel and grading this year. Our contractor will proceed with this project and we will bill Royalton Township.

Motion by Landon seconded by Rising for our contractor to proceed with graveling 540th Street. Approved.

  • Anchor Avenue –Mell stated that last month we received the plan from SEH for two options. One for overlaying the existing auto-seal and the second option was to grind it all up and regrade the base for two 1.5” lifts of Bituminous pavement. The soil boring test came back and it did not indicate that soil correction was required. SEH will give us a base bid with sub-soil correction unit pricing items as a separate line item. For our November meeting, we should have market pricing totals, which will give us the information that we need to proceed with SSD discussions. In the Spring, if need be, we can re-bid if there are any indications that the prices have come down.
  • Gravel Test – Gravel was tested a couple of times and it met the required range.
  • Broadband Special Meeting – Approval needed to approve the Special Broadband Meeting minutes.

Motion by Landon seconded by Mell to approve the Special Broadband Meeting minutes. Approved.

  • Fish Lake Twp – Blue Heron/482nd St a shared road had asphalt repair at a cost of $28,000. Iskierka sent Fish Lake a bill for their share of the road repair at the agreed upon 62% of the repair. this is the percent agreed on in the maintenance agreement with Fish Lake Twp., Nessel Township agreed to trim the trees. The tree contractor did not have the insurance certificate at the time, but has it now, so Rising will notify him to move forward with removing the trees.

New Business

  • Resolution 07-2019 – Every year the Township has to make a resolution designating a polling place for voting. Resolution 07-2019 designating Nessel Township Hall to be a polling place for the year 2020 needs approval.

Motion by Paitl seconded by Landon to approve Resolution 07-2019. Approved.

  • Printer – New copier/printer is needed for Town Hall.

Motion by Mell seconded by Paitl to approve the clerk purchasing a black and white copier/printer to the Town Hall up to a cost of $400.00. Approved.

  • Transfer of Job Duties – Meis announced that as the Board Chairperson, she will be assuming the duties as the Road Committee Chairperson and Rising will be the Road Committee Vice- Chairperson. Landon will be removed from the Road Committee and at this time will not have    Committee role. History: The Board Chairperson was previously always the Chairperson of the Road Committee, as this helped the Chairperson to know about the conditions of the roads, so that the Chairperson could better communicate with the residents that called in with a road complaint. Mell will update the policy to read as it previously read.

Motion by Mell seconded by Rising to revert back to the original policy with the Chairperson of the Board also being the Chairperson of the Road Committee. Three in favor. Landon opposed. Approved.

Motion by Rising seconded by Paitl to Adjourn at 9:55 pm. Approved.