After years of work, Mike Chmelik dismantles his construction project electrical system. Mike and his wife Teresa own and operate Croftville Road Cottages in Croftville and will soon open a beautiful new lodge on the site overlooking Lake Superior.
On Tuesday, October 25 the Cook County Board of Commissioners accepted a grant for $226,800 that will be used for residential owner rehabilitation of eight properties in Lutsen.
Residential properties owned and occupied by low and moderate-income homeowners in Lutsen that qualify can receive $24,750 to rehab their houses.
Cook County partnered with AEOA to administer the Minnesota Small Cities Development Program application that led to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development Authority (DEED) grant.
AEOA prepared and submitted an application for the grant on November 10, 2015.
Funds from a DEED grant can help homeowners who qualify for the program replace worn shingles, windows, doors, siding, etc. on the house to make it weather proof and more efficient, but the grant money can’t be used to increase the square footage of a house.
To qualify residents’ property taxes must be paid, and the property must be a single family home or owner occupied duplex. In a mixed use commercial building containing an owner’s residence the owner’s “home” must contain 51 percent or more of the structure.
Local contractors that are licensed and insured will be sought to perform the work. People that stayed in their homes for 10 years wouldn’t have to pay back any of the money. Should they sell their homes before then, they will be charged 10 percent per year.
To receive an application you can contact Barbara Ackerson at (218) 748-7349 or email her at Barbara.ackerson@aeoa.org. To apply by mail write to her at 702 Third Avenue South, Virginia, MN 55792.
Cook County Community Center Director Diane Booth came before the Cook County Board of Commissioners and requested new doors for the community center building.
“We have some safety concerns without a window in our front door and have had some people not returning keys as requested,” said Booth. “We need to at a minimum replace the front door and rekey the building. We would like to go to a keycard system so that we can better control the use and safety of the building,” she said.
Booth presented the commissioners with two options. The first was to rekey the major doors at the community center for $6,344 and the second option was to change to a key card access control system. This would cost $16,602.85 to replace the front door and add electric strike plates to the major doors of the community center building.
Not included in those bids said Booth, was the 4H building, small conference room or her office. Without replacing doors and locks, Booth said: “We will have to continue tracking keys, purchasing new keys yearly, trying to get them back, and safety concerns with keys floating around.”
Booth said she had tried to implement charges for keys not returned, but they hadn’t worked.
“Were you asking $25 per key?” asked Commissioner Garry Gamble.
“Yes,” said Booth, adding the fee made no difference, she still wasn’t getting keys returned to her.
After a robust discussion about the merits of both bids, commissioners voted to hire Northern Door and Hardware, Inc. of Duluth to install new doors at the community center for $6,344.
Three new people were recruited to work for the county. Heidi Akins was tapped as a new social services worker; Steven Veit is the sporty new Wetland/ Land Use Specialist; and Karl Smith accepted the position to become the Tofte Transfer Station attendant.
County Administrator Jeff Cadwell said all three employees are replacing workers who have left employment in the county.
Planning Administrator Bill Lane brought forth a proposal to rezone a parcel of land from single-family residential/ general commercial to single-family residential. The .78-acre property residence is located adjacent to the Skou Road in Schroeder. Thirty-six letters of notification were sent to adjacent property owners, and only one person replied, and he had no concerns about the rezoning request, said Lane.
The planning commission studied the application to rezone the land and approved it unanimously. Lane said the owner of the home had passed away and her daughters were trying to sell the property, and this change in designation would help the make the sale.
Commissioner Jan Sivertson remarked that the names on the petition to rezone the land brought back memories because she knew the petitioners. She made a motion seconded by Frank Moe and voted on unanimously by the three other commissioners Garry Gamble, Heidi Doo-Kirk, and Ginny Storlie to accept the planning commission’s recommendation to rezone the property to residential.
Donations to the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office toward the purchase of a mobile command trailer were received with thanks. The North Shore Health Care Foundation contributed $2,000; Lutsen Township donated $500; Lutsen Mountains Corporation gave $300 and Tofte Management Co. LLC gave $1,000 to help with the purchase of the command trailer for Search and Rescue.
Auditor/Treasurer Braidy Powers presented the board with a list of 27 businesses that were applying to renew either their on-sale or on/off sale of beer, wine or liquor licenses and 13 firms that were renewing their tobacco licenses, which the board approved.
Skildum Enterprises was awarded a contract not to exceed $4,000 for a hazardous fuels reduction project on Gust Lake. The work must be completed by December 31, 2016.
Senator Tom Bakk and Rob Ecklund came before the board to take questions from commissioners. They were briefed on the county’s work on affordable housing and the county’s dilemma with its current high levy situation. Bakk also touched on the new program the state and the federal government has to work together to produce more logging sales. He said even though most sales would be poplar, there might be a load or two of pine coming off of them that could go to Hedstrom Lumber Co.
Leave a Reply