After reviewing an application from Tofte Township to help pay utility costs at the Birch Grove Community Center, Lutsen township supervisors voiced their preliminary support for Lutsen to pay $7,000 in 2019 toward those costs.
The decision came at the board’s December 18 township meeting and follows voter approval given at the 2018 annual meeting.
A delay in approving the money came because there was some doubt about whether or not townships were allowed by the state to give money to a school or community center.
But an attorney working for the township found MN Statute 471.85 which addresses property transfer; public corporations, which states,
“Any county, city, town, or school district may transfer its personal property for a nominal or without consideration to another public corporation for public use when duly authorized by its governing body.”
This statute was first enacted in Minnesota in 1951.
Noting this expenditure is legal, the supervisors directed the clerk to ask for a new request for funding from the Tofte township board so a claim can be processed, reviewed, and approved by them at the next meeting for 2019 funding.
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