Minutes: September 13, 2022 Regular Board Meeting

Presented for approval at the October 11, 2022 Board Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by Chair Michelle Meis, the Pledge of Allegiance was recited.  Supervisor’s present includes Stan Iskierka and Branden Mell via Skype.  Absent was Supervisor Betsy Rising.  Treasurer Mary Dillner and Clerk Mary Winter were also present.

Agenda

 

Motion to approve the agenda by Stan Iskierka, seconded by Branden Mell.  Approved.

  • Added to agenda “Vote Here Today” sign

Minutes

Motion to approve the minutes by Stan Iskierka, seconded by Branden Mell.  Approved.

Treasurer’s Report

Motion to approve the Treasurer’s Report by Stan Iskierka, seconded by Branden Mell.  Approved.

Bills

Motion to approve paying bills by Stan Iskierka, seconded by Branden Mell.  Approved.

  • Supervisor Stan request additional clarification on the invoice from Fish Lake Township for Nessel Township portion of Blue Heron Trail.  Clerk will reach out to the Andrea Nekowitsch, the Clerk at Fish Lake Township for additional clarification and email the board the information.

Variance/Plat

Plat – Brad Brunet.  The board gathered and reviewed the plat.  A motion was not needed.  The board approved the plat in a prior meeting.  Chair, Michelle Meis and Clerk, Mary Winter signed the plat.

Variance – Jason and Catherine Foss – Board reviewed and discussed the variance request.  The set back from the road for the house would be 14 feet from the edge of the road.  This does not meet the setbacks from the center of the road.   The board recommends the house be built closer to the lake rather than closer to the road.  

Motion was made to deny variance for Jason & Catherine Foss by Branden Mell, seconded by Stan Iskierka.  Approved.  Reason and Conditions: Twshp would prefer to have house moved closer to high water mark instead of closer to road or as it currently stands.  

Open Forum

  • Dwayne Peterson – came to discuss the road that goes to his driveway – 498th St.  Dwayne believes the responsibility for the road belongs to Nessel Township.  Points that he made are as follows;
    • Bought the property in 1977.  The road was already there with ditches.  There is a better base on this road than the road coming up on Cty Rd 4.
    • Address is 449 – 498th Street. 
    • This road has been open with continuous use.
    • He brought in 2 loads of gravel to fix the road when he was building.  After fixing the road Jack Olson showed up and he was told in no uncertain terms that the road belongs to the township.  
    • For many years he has not had a problem with this part 498th St. when it needed to be graded.
    • Nessel township was given a piece of land that was owned by him for a turnaround.
    • Anytime he had a problem with the road he would call the township and the township would take care of the road, until Supervisor Stan told him this is a private road.
    • The ditch is in complete alignment coming up the road from Cty Rd 4.
    • Per Dwayne, Supervisor Stan stated we will not be putting class 5 on this portion of the road and will not maintain the road.  
    • Dwayne had a survey for another purpose that he paid for.  Board reviewed the survey.  He explained what the survey was for.  He pointed to 498th Street.  Robbie took care of the road all the time.  He asked Dwayne if he remove 4 elm trees that were in the way of grading and he did.  
    • Dwayne showed on the survey where the turnaround sits.
    • Dwayne agrees the easement is 33 feet wide.
    • Stan stated the road has not been worked on for many years.  Dwayne stated it has been graded up until 2 years ago.  
    • The road has been there ever since he purchased the property. 
    • Stan stated the old plat done in 1959 had the easement.  Dwayne calls it a road and stands by that it is a road since day one.
    • Chair Michelle asked if the properties on the road next to Dwayne’s property could be developed.  Dwayne does not know what the current owner plans for the property but does agree that there is a potential for development on these properties on this part of 498th Street.
    • Supervisor Stan stated who ever platted the road did not build it to any standard.  It was just a field.  This is called a private road.    
    • Dwayne explained that the power company will come onto this part of 498th to set a fuse on the power lines.  They will also come down the road to cut back trees when needed from the power lines.  
    • Robbie graded the road and plowed this road.  The only time Dwayne has had a problem was when he spoke with Supervisor Stan that he has had a problem.  
    • The road is higher than normal grade. 
    • Supervisor Branden asked if we are plowing.  Supervisor Stan stated he told Dwayne that we will plow the road to the turnaround but not any thing else.  The road is a private road.  The road needs building and it is not Nessel Townships responsibility.
  • Chair Michelle stated going forward the board will go out and look at the road and do more research as to what was it in the past.  What records we have and what do they say.  Do the records call it a road.  Let’s go from there and figure out what it was, did someone along the way drop the ball, or has it never been an actual road and there has just been a huge assumption all these years.  The board will go back and do some research, take a look at the road in question and really discuss this.  If it is really our road, we will need to bring it up to our standards and if it is not, we will need to come back to Dwayne and talk to him about it.  
  • Supervisor Branden stated that no one disagrees with what happened in the past.  What happened in the past happened.  What Supervisor Stan’s point which is very logical that it is a private road that is an easement that has been maintained over the years.  But it never has been a township road.  It was never built as a township road.  The board will go back a verify this.  Right now, the board views this as an easement that is a private road.   We have a number of private roads in the township that are not the responsibility of the township.
  • Dwayne provided his phone number to Chair Michelle.

Road Maintenance Report

  • Asphalt is in on the new salt shed.
  • Moved Salt from the old salt shed to the new salt shed.
  • Back filled the new salt shed.
  • Built a pad on the other side of the new salt shed for culverts.
  • Mowing is done.
  • Graveling is all done.
  • Dropped one road from the roads that need to be done to stay in the yardage
  • Started mulching a bit.  Wil 
  • Wants to bring up incident he had with a resident this past month.
    • Resident lives on Boxwood
    • Came up to John very fast and almost ran into the tractor.  Proceeded to get out of the truck and started to scream at John.  About a mailbox that John had hit 3 months ago.
    • Called John a liar many times.  The resident was very rude and aggressive.  
    • Pushed John to his boiling point.  Shut the door on the tractor and left.
    • As John was coming back in the other direction he came towards John in his truck.  He stopped and John did not know what he had in his hand.  John called his wife quick.  It was a phone.  The resident proceeded to scream at John again and showed him pictures.  The resident stated he is calling the sheriff.  John said it would be a good idea to have the sheriff here.  
    • John told him he should call the board.  He is doing what the board told him to do.  
    • John called Stan immediately after hitting the mailbox.  Stan told him to put it back the way it was.  John improved on what was there.  He went back and fixed the mailbox better than what it was.  It now meets the standard height for a mail box, is solid and sturdy.     
  • We have about 14 more signs to put up and is waiting for post to arrive.

Committee Reports

  1. Road Committee – 
    • Supervisor Stan stated we need additional gravel.  We have approximately $6,000 left in rock that we have not spent.  He would like to order an additional 500 yards of gravel from Haas for reserves.
      • Motion to purchase 500 yards of gravel from Haas at a cost of $11.85/yard by Stan Iskierka, seconded by Branden Mell.  Approved
    • Supervisor spoke with Pat Mattson about the old salt shed.  Pat feels it would be a waste of money to repair.  There are roof trusses that are busted.  The back wall is bad and the inside plywood is all chopped up.  
      • He said he could fix it but we would still have an old product.  
      • Supervisor Stan’s question is do we really need this salt shed?
      • If we have 150 ton of salt coming, he will not have enough room in the new salt shed.
      • Supervisor stated he would like to see a new shed.  Build a new one not as large.  
      • Supervisor Branden stated we do not want to lose the storage space.  He would like to look at the old shed. 
      • Chair Michelle asked if we could get an idea of repair of the old shed vs. building new.  Supervisor stated Pat would not do the work but could get someone in to look at it.  
      • It was determined to look at the cost to repair and cost for a new salt shed.  Clerk will call insurance company to see if they would put the repair estimated cost towards a new salt shed.

 

  1. Budget Committee – 
    • None at this meeting.
  1. Contract Committee – 
    • Supervisor Braden stated that he has been in contact with Rachel, the city administrator for Braham.  He told Rachel to contact us prior to preparing the next contract draft for us so we can come and meet with them.  
  1. Policy Committee – 
    • Motion to approve Policy “Request for Public Information” by Stan Iskierka, seconded by Branden Mell.  Approved
  1. Clerk’s Township Update – 
    • Clerk present monthly report of township happenings.  

Old Business

  1. Credit Card Update
  • Treasurer Mary D. is working with her contact at the bank.  She is very thorough and has pushed back asking for additional information.   We are really close to being approved.   
  • Treasurer Mary D. rounded up the limit for the credit cards to $35,000.00.  She told her contact the boards opinion is if we needed to increase the limit on a credit card we could just call in and get an increase on a specific card.  They do have what they call an easy business match line that it would allow us to raise a limit on a specific card.
  • When the credit cards have been issued Treasurer Mary D. wants to use the card for the invoices that are not forgiving on late charges.  For instance, CenturyLink Charges $18.00 / month for a late fee.
  1. ARPA funds – spending to date.
  • Treasurer Mary D. provided a spreadsheet to the board with month-by-month spending.  Currently we have $153,937.71 in the ARPA fund.  The black top for the new salt shed will be deducted from this amount.  It was determined to also deduct the cost that our contractor John from Muddy Gap Hollow has invoiced the township for the new salt shed.  
  1. CCATO update
  • Chair Michelle provided an update from the CCATO Meeting in regards to District 7.

New Business

  1. Pre-buy Propane Contract 2500 gallons
    • Motion to purchase 2500 gallons of pre-buy propane at $2.049 from Pioneer Propane Gas for a total cost of $5,122.50 by Stan Iskierka, seconded by Branden Mell.  Approved
  1. CTAS Cost Accounts Continuous Improvements Discussion
    • Object codes are used to divided out cost from invoices in the financials.
    • Supervisor Stan and Treasurer Mary D. met to ensure the financials would provide everything Supervisor Stan, the road supervisor would need to make financial decisions for the township.
    • Treasurer Mary D. provided new financials for the board to review.
    • Supervisor Branden stated the board needs to dig into objects codes as a board and understand what each means.  The board needs to agree on how we use object codes and then we all need to agree on how Muddy Gap invoice is broken out into the object codes. 
    • Supervisor Branden recommends we take this step by step. Step one is understanding the object codes and how they apply to invoices that role up to the budget. 
    • Muddy Gap invoices all roll up into paved roads or unpaved roads, the board all need to be on the same page and understand what is needed for reporting to the state.
    • Treasurer Mary D. has redistributed the budget for 2022, not changing the total dollar amount of the budget, into the object codes for the financials to make sense to the board.  
    • Supervisor Branden stated this is an interim process.  We will never fully align the financial spreadsheet we used with CTAS.  We will slowing align our budget with all the agreed upon object codes.  Again, a step-by-step process.
    • Treasurer Mary D. provided a list of the object codes to the board.
    • Clerk will add onto next month agenda under old business Review Object Codes.
  1. Sign for “Vote Here Today” Nessel Township
    • Motion to purchase Nessel Township – Vote Here Today sign for $229.00 by Stan Iskierka, seconded by Michelle Meis.  Approved.

Motion to adjourn by Stan Iskierka, seconded by Branden Mell at 9:35 pm.   Approved.

_____________________________           ________________________   

                      Chair                                           Clerk             Date