A little over a year ago, the Lutsen Township board agreed to contribute $10,000 to the citizens working to form a Lutsen cemetery association to fund improvements to the town cemetery. Dick Nelson returned to the town board on Tuesday, June 15, 2010, to give an update—and to ask if the cemetery association could count on further support.
Nelson said the upcoming cemetery association meeting was the first such meeting “in a hundred years or so.” He said the group has been meeting two or three times a month, researching the history of the cemetery and working on bylaws.
Nelson said a lot of work has also been done on the old cemetery grounds and the new section developed on land donated by George “Bub” Nelson and Scott Harrison. The cemetery group met with Jerry Cavallin of Cavallin Funeral Home and contractor Lloyd Speck, who has dug thousands of graves, about size and layout of cemetery lots. He said there are 160 new lots and 40 cremation sites.
Nelson said boulders have been placed to block off the entrance to the old cemetery and over Memorial Day weekend, 170 pounds of grass seed was planted. Topsoil was also spread and five sprinklers set up. “It’s already green,” said Nelson. “And, by not driving where we were, we’ll probably get even more sites,” said Nelson.
Nelson told the Lutsen board that once the cemetery association passes bylaws, it will work out more details, such as how many board members will there be? Will plastic flowers be allowed? How much should be charged per plot?
Nelson said organizers are considering establishing a perpetual maintenance fee. Such a fee could be built into the cost per plots. Nelson said the group also suggests that the price of lots be raised in line with the consumer price index each year. Theplan is to rename the cemetery “Lutsen Historic Cemetery,” which may also help with funding, as grants would be sought to help maintain the historic site.
Nelson said the cemetery group has a “wish list,” which includes a nice entrance sign, fencing, more gravel for the road, and more.
However, in the meantime, Nelson said, “We’re kind of wondering what kind of support we can get from the township. We may not have a lot of money to continue, unless we sell some lots,” said Nelson, “Would you consider gifting us another $10,000 to continue?”
Lutsen Board Chair Diane Parker said state statute allows the cemetery association to come to the annual meeting and request funding. “It has to go through the people rather than the town board,” she said.
Larry McNealy asked if the township planned to take ownership of the cemetery, as was proposed at the last annual meeting. Parker said that would have to be presented to the townspeople. Nelson replied that it might be better for the two entities to remain separate. However, he said it is a benefit for the town to have a cemetery association, as it would have had to spend a lot more than the $10,000 invested to date to create an entirely new cemetery. “There has been a really good core group; a lot of dedicated volunteers working on this,” said Nelson.
ATV ordinance update
After the lengthy discussion of the cemetery, Commissioner Bruce Martinson gave his monthly report on county board activities. He told the board that the county had amended its ATV road ordinance to allow all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) to drive on the far right side and inner shoulder of county roads, effective July 1, 2010. The only exception is the Gunflint Trail above the “Four Corners” intersection next to Gunflint Hills Golf Course. Martinson stressed that this does not
apply to youth riders. Any ATVer under 18 must be accompanied by an adult rider on another ATV.
Martinson also said the board had a request to close the Ski Hill Road (County Road 5) to ATVs. He asked the Lutsen town board for its preference. Theboard said it did not feel that was necessary and Chair Diane Parker added, “To be fair, if they are going to be allowed on some roads, they should be allowed on all. If the ordinance has been changed to allow this, the ordinance should be followed.”
In other business:
. Parker gave a follow-up on the township’s quest to obtain a Scenic Byway rock cairn sign. She said there is a delay as the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) looks at its road rights-of-way. She said Mn/DOT wants to insure that cairn signs are placed far enough off the right-of-way so cars
won’t crash into them. “So the cairns are on the back burner
right now,” Parker said. . The town board opened bids for mowing for the town hall, ball field, and town park. Three bids were received and Larry McNealy was the low bidder, however questions arose because he would do the work as a township contract employee, and would not carry his own liability insurance. McNealy is a part-time, as-needed employee who performs maintenance on fire department and first responder vehicles. Town Clerk Amity Goettl was asked to contact the township attorney to see if that was allowed. A motion passed to accept the bid from McNealy, pending advice from the township attorney. If the attorney said that is not a legitimate proposal,
the motion was to accept the next lowest bid, from Caribou
Cabin Service. . Lutsen Treasurer and Firefighter John Groth said that Clerk Goettl and Firefighter Kasia Schmidt have been working on a township emergency evacuation plan. They asked if the township could get some sort of board in the town hall on which to mount a large map showing all the homes in the township fire area. It was agreed to authorize purchase and installation of some sort of display board so the map would be available at the hall in the event of an emergency.
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