At press time the deadline for completion of construction on Lutsen’s new town hall/fire hall was nearing and citizens were getting excited about using the new space. However, the expansion caused a little extra paperwork when the township met in October. At the October meeting, supervisors reviewed bids for snowplowing and cleaning services, but Town Clerk Silvia Duclos asked if it was fair to accept the bids. “Since the building has gotten bigger, is the current quote valid?” she asked, noting that the new building also has three bathrooms.
That led to discussion of whether the township should hire an employee to perform these duties instead of going out for bids each year. After some discussion, Treasurer John Groth suggested that the board contact the township attorney. “You need to see if hiring someone puts you in a different class for worker’s comp and so on.”
Supervisors agreed to put the idea of hiring on hold for now, but also agreed that bids for services should be rejected and reposted. The board asked Duclos to re-advertise for quotes and new bids will be considered at the November meeting.
Supervisor Ginny Storlie also noted that with a larger and improved community space, there will likely be more requests to use the building. She has been gathering information from other township on rental agreements. Storlie said she will bring that information to the November town meeting for discussion.
A question has arisen regarding emergency power at the town hall. Fire Chief Paul Goettl asked if the township wanted to obtain a generator large enough to power the whole building in an emergency. He said if they do, a transfer switch has to be installed to ensure that power does not feed back to the electric lines. He talked to Peak Electric and the cost would be about $1,000 to install the transfer switch.
“With the state-of-the-art building we are going to have, I think we should do it,” said Goettl.
Supervisors agreed and passed a motion directing Supervisor Joe Buttweiler to talk to the architect to work out the details on installing an emergency generator and transfer switch.
Whether the existing furniture will be adequate for the new building was also discussed. The board considered the space available and the number of tables, chairs, etc. that would be needed. Supervisor Marland Hansen said, “I think we have to just get in the space and figure that out.”
His colleagues concurred and the discussion on furniture will be discussed at a later date—possibly in the new space. Fire Chief Paul Goettl said, “The contractor is scheduled to be done November 15. Next month we could be meeting in our new town hall space.”
The next Lutsen Town Board meeting is Tuesday, November 20 at 7 p.m.
In other business:
. Lutsen Fire Chief Paul Goettl said the Lutsen Fire Department took part in the Fire Prevention Week visit to Birch Grove. Goettl said the kids are always excited at seeing the fire trucks and equipment. He said the fire department shared the “stop, drop and roll” message.
. Fire Chief Goettl also said Cook County is switching to narrowband radio and fire department radios need to be reprogrammed. He said Lutsen will probably receive a bill for about $500 for that programming.
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