Lutsen Fire Chief Paul Goettl told the Lutsen Town board that plans must be made to eventually replace the 60-year-old fire hall. That or expand, update, repair and refurbish the building.
“When we last did our training for firefighters we had to use the facility in Tofte because our building wasn’t adequate,” Goettl said at the board’s August 17 meeting.
EMS director Fred Schmidt said that as long as the fire hall was going to be looked at it might be time to look at expanding the parking lot and replacing some signs. A few members of the audience also commented about the need to expand the parking lot and Goettl said that if the board would be willing to look at a “vision plan” for the facilities he would like to contribute his time and effort to that plan.
“We should put this under ‘Old Business’ in our monthly meetings and discuss this further until we can come up with a plan,” said Lutsen Supervisor Joe Buttweiler.
After some discussion among board members it was decided to place this item on future agendas and look at forming a committee to look at planning and budgeting for these needs.
Cook County Commissioner Bruce Martinson reported that the county would know on Sept. 7 if phase two of a Northeast Service Cooperative (NSC) broadband application will be approved. The first phase enables NSC to run cable along Highway 61 through Cook County to the Canadian border. The second phase will allow NSC to extend service inland in the county.
Thefiber optic cable bringing broadband will allow people to have high-speed Internet, TV and phone service bundled in one package.
Martinson also said that Arrowhead Electric and its partner, Pulse, were still in the running to offer similar services. “They have come up with a two-phase plan rather than a three-phase plan that will allow less interruption,” said Martinson.
Martinson also updated the board on the county’s request to keep court services in Grand Marais rather than pull them out of the county. “It will be very time consuming to have sheriff deputies, human service workers and the county attorney driving out of the county to handle county business,” Martinson said.
The reason the state wants to consolidate courthouses is because of issues with money. According to Martinson there is an anticipated cut of 5 to 10 percent coming for 2011. The county board is asking that the court operations not be moved out of the county.
A $2,000 donation from the Ross family will be used to buy a bench and a memorial sign for Connie Ross Sutherland. The bench and sign will be located near the playground. “Connie always loved children,” said Diane Parker.
Goettl reported that the firefighters had responded to three calls over the last month. Fred Schmidt said that Sea Villas donated $2,500 to the EMS squad and the money would be used to buy safety equipment.
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