MP09-16                                                        
Maine Prairie Township Board Meeting
April 14, 2009
 
Chair Loewen opened the board meeting with the pledge to the flag. 
 
Board members present: Supervisors Dennis Loewen John Wicker, & Jim Unterberger, Clerk/Treasurer Terre Harff, Deputy Clerk Bev Adolph.  Others present Chuck Froehling, Gene Merten, Bill Liedman, Lonnie Hendricks, and approximately 45 residents from Carnelian Lake Rd, and Cabana Circle.
 
Chair Loewen called for any additions or corrections of the minutes.  Supervisors Unterberger/Wicker made a motion to approve the minutes as presented.  Motion carried.
 
Chair Loewen called for treasurer’s report.  Supervisors Wicker/Loewen made a motion to approve treasurer’s report.  Motion carried.
 
Road maintenance agreement with the City of Kimball is being worked on.  Tabled for next meeting.
 
145th Road Easement – Loewen will work with Lawyer Thede on completion of easements to get recorded at the county.
 
Road Maintenance agreement with Meeker County line roads was reviewed.  Meeker County will increase the maintenance coverage to $575.00 a mile compared to the last agreement of $390.00 per mile for 3.13 miles.  Board felt the agreement was fair.  Supervisors Loewen/Unterberger made a motion to accept the agreement presented.  Motion carried.  Clerk Harff was concerned it didn’t specifically cover the liability issue.  She will continue to look for the original agreement accepted many years ago.
 
Chair Loewen asked if the board should pursue legal action to try to retain all the gravel tax money received from the township gravel pits.  Supervisors Unterberger/Loewen made a motion to have Loewen check with Thede.  Motion carried.  Clerk Harff was asked to email the gravel tax allocation schedule drawn up by the county.  
 
Comprehensive Growth Mtg on April 23rd.  Supervisor Unterberger will be in charge of getting the food.  Setup will begin at 4:30 p.m. with everything to start at 5:30 p.m. 
 
Short Course – All supervisors and clerk attended.  Discussion was clerk felt it beneficial; supervisors would like to see different topics, too much repetition. 
 
Weed Meeting – Loewen/Unterberger did not attend because of bad weather. 
 
Traffic Counters – With three quotes reviewed ranging from $290 - $359 for full packages including counter, hoses, and freight.  Supervisors Loewen/Unterberger made a motion to order two of the more expensive (TT4) units because of the timers to stop and start at different times throughout the day.  Motion carried.  It was decided to use old fire hoses to protect the hoses on gravel roads. 
 
 
MP09-17
With many in attendance for the Carnelian Lake Road/Cabana Circle road project discussion, the board addressed the issues.  All the people were thanked for coming.  Unterberger explained what kind of work the township is looking at doing on Carnelian Lake Rd.  Some of the work was to move the electric poles back 9’ or bury the cable, move some evergreens – this would cost roughly $51,000 (move poles) to $74,000 (bury cables).  To reclaim the road (take up tar, crush it and lay it back down), add 3” of tar in two processes, make it a 17’ road; cost is approximately $82,000 for ½ mile.  Other township requirements will be move mail boxes to be put in one location, and parking on one side of road.  The reason the township is looking at this road is the condition of the road is very poor, hard to maintain, hard to plow and the school bus issues from the past.  It was explained the township would pay 2/3rd’s and the residents would be charged 1/3rd. 
 
Questions asked; could the amount owed by the residents be added to their taxes in the form of an assessment, how much it would cost each land owner, speed limit signs need to be added, concern for sewer being added before rather than after, would it be engineered, is there stimulus money available, can they leave it as is so there won’t be a lot of cars running through, how many trees will be removed and a concern the road would cause erosion if it is raised up.  After the questions were addressed a hand count was taken of the residents from Carnelian Lake Rd – 18 were in favor of doing the road and 7 opposed of doing anything. 
 
It was decided that a walk through will take place on May 2, at 10:00 a.m. with the residents reviewing the boundary lines and going over what the board is looking at doing.  Russ Robb, from the Lake Association, will get letters out to all the residents that own land on that road.  Clerk Harff will get that info to him.  Robb will meet with Loewen to draw up a letter on April 20th at 6:00 p.m. at the fire hall. 
 
Cabana Circle residents went over what needs to be done on their road.  The residents were concerned on the water issues with no culverts.  Unterberger explained that the developer was to make sure the road was brought up to township specifications before it became a township road.  Skaja Development was present and explained that the previous township board approved the road when it was dedicated to the township in 1979.  The road is approximately 1320’ (1/4th mile) with no culverts or ditches.  The road will need a holding pond for runoff, and build up with gravel (which could come from cutting the hill off of 163rd for safety issues).  It was decided to have a walk through with the residents on May 2nd to begin at 8:30 a.m. 
 
East Carnelian Lake Road residents just requested that it remain a township road for maintenance purposes and to add fill in one location that seems to be lower.  It will also be reviewed May 2nd.  With that all the residents were thanked for coming. 
 
Waste Water Management Meeting on May 20th, 6:30 p.m. at City of Kimball Hall.  It is to set up a task force.  Loewen was asked to represent Maine Prairie. 
 
The Town Officers Association meeting will be on April 24th to begin at 7:45 at Freeport Community Center.  Attending will be Bev Adolph and Dennis Loewen.
 
Dust Guard – Unterberger received quotes from Savage, Tri City Paving and Ferrell’s.  Quotes were for Magnesium Chloride and Calcium chloride.  With the success with the calcium chloride last year, the board felt it was best to go with that again this year.  Supervisors
 
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Wicker/Loewen made a motion to contract with Tri City Paving again this year at a bid of 54 cents per foot at a sweep of 18’, to be laid the end of May or the first part of June.  Clerk Harff was directed to get the legal in the paper and the letters out to previous dust guard residents.  The board felt the residents in the detachment area will need to pay full costs because no tax money will be received this year.  Clerk Harff was asked to contact Rena Weber to get a list of residents that had dust guarding done in the past. 
 
Road bids will be called for Reclaiming and tarring 1 1/4th mile of Powder Ridge Road, reclaiming Eclipse/Eldorado Road and reclaim and tar approximately ½ mile of Carnelian Lake Road.   Unterberger will be contact person for road bids.  Maintenance Bid will also go out with adding detachment roads to increase to 69 miles of township roads.  Wicker will be contact person for that part of the bidding process.  Clerk Harff will fax bids to companies offering bids previously and get the legal bid in the paper.  Wicker felt we could save by adding it to the web site by directing companies reading the legal’s in the paper to the web site.  Bids will be opened at 7:30 p.m. at the regular board meeting.  The board felt strongly about doing a 5 year road plan.
 
Clerk Harff asked Chuck Froehling and the board to review the new contract for Chuck.  The board increased the zoning administrators permit allocation to $15.00 out of the $30.00 he collects.  Supervisors Loewen/Wicker made a motion to approve the contract.  Motion carried.
 
A request was made from Holy Cross Church, Pearl Lake and from Pearl Lake Recreation for Liquor license renewal.  Supervisors Loewen/Unterberger made a motion to accept the applications.  Motion carried.  
 
The road maintenance agreement with the City of Rockville was reviewed.  The board felt the agreement was fair.  Supervisors Loewen/Wicker made a motion to accept the agreement with negotiation on the cost charged.  Clerk Harff was concerned the agreement did not address the liability issues for each road.  Supervisors Unterberger/Wicker made a motion to make the agreement for 5 years.  Motion carried.
 
Fire Appropriation Agreement from the City of Rockville was reviewed.  Supervisor Wicker felt it should be checked into since we have never had an agreement like that with the City of Rockville before.  Wicker will follow up. 
 
Tom Sieben had complained via fax to the clerk, that his mailbox was damaged by the snow plow on March 31st.  Loewen went out to look at it and felt it was not done by the snow plow because of where the dents were.  He directed the clerk to send out a certified letter explaining this, including copies of the townships mailbox policy.  Nothing more was heard from him.
 
Mailbox swing supports - With residents request, the township will check into finding who will produce swing mailbox supports.  It was suggested that it be required to have new homes put up these new mailbox supports.  Clerk Harff will fax Hendricks a copy of the support specifications.
 
Clerk Harff asked the board to review the reorganizational meeting minutes to make sure the changes are worded correctly.  Supervisors Loewen/Unterberger asked the clerk to change the mileage of 55 cents to read:  As the mileage rate is changed by the federal government it will automatically be changed at the township level.
 
 
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Unterberger asked if the July meeting could be changed so that the Fire Department can use the room.  A meeting date will be set at a later date.
 
Unterberger said that the recycling day is this week end and they would like to get rid of the trash that was picked up in the road ditches.  They have a bunch of tires and appliances.  Clerk said that she would come with the checkbook to pay for the refuse. 
 
Lloyd Kunkel wanted to know if the township would clean up 101st St ditches.  He said he would pay for half because he is the one that hauled the rocks into the ditch.  John made a motion to remove the stumps not to exceed a cost to the township of $200, seconded by Jim.  Motion carried.
 
Washout repairs – 113th needs to have the culvert fixed and dirt put back into Krippner’s field.  Eden Road, 197th & 121st needed the shoulders fixed on each road and the corner cleaned up on Eden Road.
 
Roads that need to be added to the road plan is 135th St and 108th St, both had water standing, need to replace culvert on curve and clean up the ditch by Tom Donnay’s.
 
Clerk Harff was asked to check into Knife River’s permit.  No permit is needed unless they are mining. 
 
Clerk Harff asked for approval of the Spring Reminder letters on right of way issues.  With approval a list of residents that will receive these letters was compiled. 
 
Wayne & Donna Hebring will need to go to the county for an after-the-fact permit.  The couple received a permit from the township for replacing stairs to the lake, but they made two decks at two levels.  This is in the county’s territory.
 
Balance Brought forth:        $ 90,348.94
Money Received:                      1,076.08
Total Expenses:                     18,726.78
Balance in Ck Bk                  $ 72,698.24
Total Investments                650,860.63
Total Value of Twsp            $723,558.87
 
Clerk Harff asked if she should take advantage of the forever stamps since the price of stamps will be going up.  Supervisors Loewen/Unterberger made a motion to purchase 300 forever stamps.  Motion carried.  She also received bills from Murnane & Brandt, Attorneys at Law for $76.00 and from Arnolds in Kimball for sign bolts for $7.06.  Supervisors Wicker/Unterberger made a motion to pay the bills.  Motion carried.
 
Supervisors Wicker/Loewen made a motion to approve the permits presented by Planning and Zoning.
 
Supervisors Loewen/Unterberger made a motion to adjourn the meeting.  Motion carried.  
 
 
Terre Harff, Clerk/Treasurer