The new hockey rink at Birch Grove Community Center in Tofte is leaking water, and it’s hard to skate on cement.
At the December 13 Tofte Township board meeting, Fire Chief Rich Nelson reported that the fire department crew had delivered at least 23,000 gallons of water to the rink—3,000 gallons a day—but it kept leaking out. “That’s a lot of water,” he said. He thought it was leaking out cracks in the cement or a seam around the perimeter of the rink.
A buildup of ice underneath the concrete could cause damage to the slab.
The rink was designed by Meyer Group, the same architects that designed the new Birch Grove tennis court, which slopes down from the net on either end.
Bringing a tanker over to the rink and dumping 3,000 gallons of water takes about an hour to an hour and a half, Nelson said. He suggested that they start paying their volunteer firefighters $17.50 an hour for their time but said they would not keep dumping water on it to see it continue to disappear. “It’s a waste of time,” he said.
Supervisor Paul James said the ditch between the rink and his commercial garage was filling with water.
The board talked about trying to freeze the seam closed, but the weather was not consistently cold at the time. “It’s kind of hard to wish for cold weather,” said Supervisor Alan “D.C.” Olsen. He said he would contact ORB Management, their owner’s rep, about the problem.
Fire and rescue
Fire Chief Rich Nelson reported that four members of the fire crew attended a training on dealing with coal fires. They learned “some scary things” about how coal should be handled, he said, including that fact that water can actually set coal on fire.
The Tofte and Schroeder fire departments gave Minnesota Power some recommendations and are in the process of developing protocol on dealing with coal fires. This fall, one of the coalbunkers erupted in flames.
Commissioner’s report
West End county board commissioner Bruce Martinson reported that Tofte AmericInn owner Dennis Rysdahl would be paying a much higher commercial property tax rate after losing seasonal resort status upon review by the county assessor’s office and the state.
The review determined that not a high enough percentage of the AmericInn’s reservations were for multi-night stays. Martinson said he thought a few other lodging properties might have “fudged” on whether they met that requirement when their properties were surveyed.
Nine Cook County lodging establishments lost their seasonal resort status, most because they didn’t meet a requirement that they provide certain recreational amenities. “Some of these businesses might go under because of that,” James said.
Martinson said he thought Sheriff Mark Falk “did the right thing” by involving the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in responding to a restraining order against County Attorney Tim Scannell by parents alleging that he had engaged in a romantic relationship with their 17-year-old daughter.
Martinson said the county board “is cut off from our own county attorney’s office for obvious reasons” in dealing with this issue. They were seeking advice from the Minnesota Counties Insurance Trust. He said he has received a lot of phone calls on this. About one fourth of them were from people asking why the board had hired him and why they didn’t keep control of their own employees. He has been reminding those callers that the county attorney is an elected office.
“We’re getting behind review of contracts,” Martinson said. He indicated the county would be incurring some cost in hiring outside help while Scannell continued to not be working full-time after attending a treatment program to deal with the effects of being shot in his office last December by a convicted defendant.
Commissioner Martinson said the county board had decided to increase security at the courthouse by hiring a fulltime employee to screen people entering the building.
Shelter for outdoor oven
The board voted to accept a bid of $5,500 from Doug Nordahl for construction of a timber frame structure around the new outdoor wood-fired oven outside the community center. Eight thousand dollars had been budgeted.
Senior housing
A new developer has started looking at taking on the proposed senior housing project after the original developer stepped out of it. The Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation grant that funded preparation of the 29 acres behind the community center set aside for the project closed out successfully, and the board will be looking at refinancing its bond at about 3 percent, half the rate of their current bond.
Use of town hall and park
The board approved a policy and application form for use of the town hall and park that John Nelson and other committee members had drafted. Residents will be charged $25 a day.
Salvage yard
Supervisor King said he has been working with Joe Sanders, who has continued to improve the appearance of his salvage yard facing Highway 61. Working directly with Sanders instead of through the county “seems to work for him and it seems to be working for us,” King said. “I’m feeling pretty good about that.”
Cell tower
Supervisor Jim King said he had looked at letters submitted to the Cook County Planning & Zoning Department in regard to a proposed cell tower near the cemetery and Bluefin Bay’s maintenance yard. For every letter opposing the placement of a tower in that location, the office had received about five in support of it.
Those at the meeting suggested ways the tower could be disguised. It could be made to look like a pine or a dead birch (to match the many dead birch in the area). Rich Nelson suggested it be made to look like a bowl of lutefisk.
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