MP10-09                                                        

Maine Prairie Township Board Meeting

March 4, 2010

Chair Wicker opened the board meeting with the pledge to the flag. 

 Board members present: Supervisors John Wicker, Dennis Loewen, & Jim Unterberger, Deputy Clerk Bev Adolph and Clerk/Treasurer Terre Harff.  Others present Chuck Froehling, Lonnie & Joe Hendricks, Kevin & Janna Johnson, Charles Craft, Glen Schindele, Lori Doering, Robin Salmala, and Ron Kuechle.

 Chair Wicker opened the Board of Audit to review the Audit books.  Clerk Harff explained the comments concerning donations to a 4-H club.  Other than that, the audit went smoothly and the reporting has been sent to the State.  Supervisors Wicker/Loewen made a motion to accept the Audit as printed.  Motion carried.

 Chair Wicker reconvened the Board meeting.

 Chair Wicker called for any additions or corrections of the Comp/Bd meeting minutes on February 25th.  Clerk Harff was asked to change wording from “extending Elm Street” to extending “93^rd Ave” since that is the road in the township that would meet up with Elm Street.    Supervisors Wicker/Loewen made a motion to accept the corrected minutes.  Motion carried.

 Minutes for the Board meeting on February 9^th were reviewed.  Supervisors Wicker/Unterberger made a motion to accept the minutes as presented.  Motion carried

 Chair Wicker called for the treasurer’s report.  Clerk Harff explained the Gravel tax went down to $507 from $2200 last year.  Supervisor Loewen asked to have information sent to him as to who is in charge of the gravel tax payment and who could answer questions about it.  Supervisors Unterberger/Loewen made a motion to accept the treasurers’ report.  Motion carried.

 Old Business:  Rockville Fire Contracts – Supervisor Wicker explained that the contract was reviewed and there was an error in the City of Rockville calculations.  Wicker spoke with Rena Weber and made the appropriate corrections and it dropped the township costs about $4,000.  Supervisor Loewen thought that the previous year should be reviewed.  Wicker explained that last year the City of Rockville covered half of the cost so he felt that saved the township and he felt it would not be right to go back to last year.  Supervisor Loewen/Wicker made a motion to approve the new contract and to leave last year calculations as is.  Motion carried.

 Fire Districting was discussed.  The feeling of the board is the calculations shows that fire districting is not cost effective.  Clerk Harff explained she would have to turn a list of parcels for each separate fire district into the auditor’s office along with the fire district costs.  Supervisor Wicker felt that the levy would then need to be adjusted because right our levy includes fire coverage.  Supervisor Loewen/Wicker made a motion to speak against fire districting at the annual meeting.  Motion carried.

 Gravel crushing – Supervisor Unterberger explained that the gravel crushing equipment has been moved in to the Rod and Gun Club pit.  Clerk Harff explained the paperwork has been sent back to Stommes but she will need to write up a contract with them. 

 Agenda for annual meeting reviewed:  Discussion to talk about dust guarding more roads, road extension changed to read 93^rd Ave and limit donation requests to 2 minutes. 

 MP10-10

Road projects up for review:  Ditch work on 135^th St and 140^th St, Reseal & Repair 155^th St, Caisson Rd & Caldron Rd, Reclaim Evergreen, Eclipse & Eldorado and Repair 83^rd & 73^rd Avenues. 

 Clerk Harff was asked to make sure that the recorded road papers were given to Keith Donnay. 

 Discussion with Lonnie of Hendricks Sand & Gravel on reclaiming the gravel off of the road ditches.  It was explained that a machine can be rented.  Joe Hendricks explained that sometimes it can do more damage because you are removing vegetation from the ditch and it could cause washouts from runoff.  Lonnie will check into it.

 Discussion was if the levy should be raised.  Supervisor Wicker felt that with the sign of the economic times, it should remain the same.  It was mentioned that it has not been raised for a couple of years and should be increased to handle more road projects.  Supervisor Loewen/Unterberger made a motion to suggest an increase to the levy by 2% in order to maintain roads.  Supervisor Wicker voted nay.  Motion carried.

 Short Course Training is Mon. March 22 in St Cloud and Tue. March 23^rd, in Hutchinson.  Clerk Harff will be attending the Hutchinson Class.  She will need to know who is attending and where. 

 Sign Reflectivity:  Meeting at the Stearns County new building will be Sat., April 17^th at 10:00.  Reservations will need to be made.  Discussion was that at least one supervisor be in attendance to bring back the information to the board of supervisors. 

 SCORE grant was complete and needs approval to send to the County.  Supervisors Wicker/Loewen made a motion to approve the grant letter.  Motion carried and was signed by Chair Wicker.

 Township Association Dinner Meeting in Freeport will be held on April 23^rd to begin 7:00 for registration and social hour, meal to be at 7:45 p.m.  Deadline for reservations is April 14^th. 

 Meeker Electric Asso sent out a letter requesting information as to any major projects that they need to be aware of this year.  With none known at this time, no reply is necessary.

 Clerk Harff reported that 14 letters were sent to residents for snow and ice problems on the road.  Supervisor Wicker received 5 call backs to request an explanation. 

 New Business:  Supervisor Loewen asked for an explanation on plowing snow on bus routes.  A complaint came in concerning a turn around for a school bus.  Lonnie explained there is a letter is sent out every year about shared responsibility for a bus route road.  If the people choose not to keep their road open, bus route roads can be changed.

 Supervisor Unterberger explained the township land paperwork is all completed.  He said he needed to get an appraisal for the accountant of the Kuseske family.  The bill came to $300, Supervisors Loewen/Wicker made a motion to pay that bill. Motion carried.

 The Supervisors were given the Tax Capacity rates for the township.  The rate for 2010 is at 24.236%.  A breakdown is:  Revenue (General Fund) is 2.916%, road and bridge 13.912%, snow removal 1.773%, Blading 2.108%, Fire 3.133%, Town Hall .0394% on a $615,000.

 With no other business:  Bills were called for.

 Supervisors Wicker/Loewen made a motion to pay the bills.  Clerk Harff asked if she could pay some of our monthly bills that come forth such as Tri Co News, and telephone.  With the early meeting, bills were

 MP10-11

not received yet; it is required to pay the bills before due in order not to receive overdue charges.  Motion carried.

 Balance Brought forth:   $  74,131.81

Money received              +      29,559.72  

Balance total                      $103,691.53        

Expenses:                       -      74,072.56

Balance in Ck Bk              $ 29,618.97   

Total Investments           +   677,785.80

Total Value of Twsp        $707,404.77

 Supervisor Loewen/Wicker made a motion to adjourn.  Motion carried.

 Terre Harff, Clerk/Treasurer