The Schroeder Town Board held its annual reorganization meeting on April 10, and Supervisor Tina McKeever was elected chair for 2012. She replaces Ross Willson who has moved out of the area.
Once again Supervisor Roger “Bill” McKeever will be in charge of seeing to it that the township’s roads and bridges are up to standard, while Supervisor Deb Johnson will handle the cemetery report for the board. Clerk Doug Schwecke will report on recreation projects the township is currently engaged in.
Commissioner advocates for taconite loading docks
Cook County Commissioner Bruce Martinson shared his frustration with the mining companies for not loading their ore from the Taconite Harbor facility. He said that in 2003, the mayor of Superior, Wisconsin said in a TV news interview that he was against opening the loading dock at Taconite Harbor and in favor of keeping the jobs in the Twin Ports. However, the taconite loading facility in Schroeder is the fastest on the Great Lakes and could save shipping and mining companies a great deal of money per load over slower, much farther away loading docks in the Twin Ports.
Martinson said he was trying to schedule a meeting with Cliffs Natural Resources (formerly Cleveland Cliffs) and the county board to see if there is any way to re-open the dock. Martinson also said Cliffs Natural Resources would soon repair the damaged railroad trestle across Highway 61. The trestle was damaged last summer when a truck carrying an oversized load slammed into it. No one was hurt in that accident.
Fire department gets loan for fire truck
Schroeder Fire Chief Phil Bonin announced that earlier in the day the county board had approved an $80,000 loan to the fire department to use in purchasing a new (used) fire truck. The money will come from the county’s revolving loan fund and is set up to be repaid over 20 years. The department currently has about $21,000 in its truck replacement fund and a new [used] truck will cost around $100,000, said Bonin.
Bonin said the department is looking at purchasing a 1991 fire truck from Missouri. “It’s in good shape. We will have to outfit it with hoses and nozzles. We will need 1,500 feet of hose. Our hose is 30 years old.”
He also said it would be nice to get a foam unit that would fit on the truck, but it would cost $6,000 to buy it and have it installed on the truck. “It would save us a lot of water. We always run out of water on fires,” he said.
Bonin said the Search and Rescue Squad was quiet, and not much had happened in the way of fire calls in the last month. He added that his crew had gone through some training to fight brush fires, noting the dryer than normal spring weather.
In other business:
. The board approved the purchase of a county snowplow truck for $6,500. The box on the truck needs repairing, and the board approved spending between $3,500 and $3,800 to have the box fixed.
. The board nixed a proposal from Como Oil to buy propane at a fixed cost of $1.599/gallon for 4,000 gallons for next winter. Bill McKeever said he had better luck waiting until the fall and then purchasing propane. He also said that he had been reading that the country has a lot of propane and prices should fall below what they are right now by next winter. The board agreed to wait to purchase propane until next fall.
. Greg Johnson submitted the only bid to mow the town cemetery, park, ball field and community center grounds. The bid was for $25 an hour, the same as last year, noted former Clerk Carol Tveekrem.
. Commissioner Martinson gave an update on the proposed AT&T cell phone tower for Schroeder. He said plans are still moving forward and there is hope that the tower will be up sometime in July or August. “We’re still ahead of Tofte” on the cell phone tower issue, noted Martinson.
. “Tansy has taken over,” reported former Clerk Tveekrem. “It’s crowding out the raspberries.” The diabolical tansy is located in the town’s park. "If you pull it out and don’t get all of the roots it grows right back. We should spray it. Not on the lakeside, though,” said Tveekrem.
Tveekrem will talk with some other gardeners about the dreaded tansy and make a plan for its removal.
. The next Schroeder town meeting is Tuesday, May 8 at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall at 124 Cramer Road.
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