The Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa welcomed its new tribal council members on Wednesday, March 2, 2011. Giving the oath of office is Tribal Council Chairman Norman Deschampe. The new council members are Arvid Dahl, committeeman and April McCormick, secretary-treasurer.
Once again Paul James was called to moderate the annual Tofte township meeting, and once again he did a great job.
In election news, Allan (DC) Olsen garnered 15 votes and won a three-year supervisor term and Mary Jane Huggins was elected treasurer with 16 votes.
Emergency services report
Fire Chief Richie Nelson reported that his crew had been paged five times in 2011, “It’s been a pretty quiet year,” he said.
But, said Nelson, most of the 13 members have completed their Firefighter I and II training, and the company was going to get a new used ladder truck at the end of March. The department also received a $27,000 grant for new hoses, and, said Nelson, he was continuing to work on taking the steps necessary to get the fire department a Class A certification so that Tofte residents would qualify for a 10 percent reduction for homeowners insurance.
“I just want to say thank you to our fire chief for the outstanding job he has done getting people trained and getting us new equipment,” said James.
Jim King reported that Schroeder had agreed to give the Tofte fire department $10,440 as part of their agreement to share rescue squad costs.
“That’s what we asked for. I’m glad they agreed to pay us a fair amount for our services. They’ve come a long way. Two years ago they paid us $3,000. Everybody wins under this agreement,” said James.
Rescue Chief Louise Trachta said her crew responded to 49 calls, 25 in Schroeder and 24 in Tofte.
“We’re working on improving our response time,” said Trachta, noting the good relationship her group has with the ambulance squads from Grand Marais and Silver Bay.
“We have a really good group of people. They are dedicated to doing a good job and work very hard. I would trust my life with them.”
There are currently nine First Responders with three additional people taking First Responder classes, said Trachta.
Cemetery cell phone tower discussed
James said the proposed AT&T cell phone tower has received a lot of positive support, and so far only three letters against the tower have been turned in to the township.
AT&T is proposing to build a 140-foot cell phone tower with a small building at its base in the Tofte cemetery. James said AT&T engineers picked that site because it would reach all of the citizens living in Tofte.
If it passes Planning and Zoning and sails through the public hearing process, the tower will be built in July. It would be unlighted and designed to break at 50 feet if there is a high wind. The tower would generate $800 per month for the township for the next 30 years under a current proposed lease agreement.
“We will take this through the public hearing process,” said James, noting that most residents were happy with the prospect of having their cell phone and computer services updated.
Taxes—lodging and 1%
For the second year in a row the township agreed to keep four percent of the lodging tax revenue collected in Tofte and will use that money to promote the town. The new Cook County tourism association would prefer that all of the lodging tax revenues go to their group to fund advertising campaigns for the entire county.
Cook County Commissioner Bruce Martinson gave a brief update about the 1% sales tax (collected to fund seven projects in the county), as well as broadband and a cell phone tower proposed for Schroeder.
Martinson said the library project funded by the 1% sales tax was going full steam ahead, while the community center was looking at a budget of $8 to $12 million. “Every group wants something put in there,” said Martinson, adding that it would be up to ORB Management and the steering committee to winnow down the requests and come up with a workable plan.
“I am very concerned about the maintenance costs of the proposed community center,” said Judy Motschenbacher. “I don’t want to find out I have to help pay for maintaining the building a couple of years down the road because the maintenance costs exceeded expectations.”
Motschenbacher noted that maintenance costs for the courthouse expansion and new jail were higher than expected.
“We’ll be taking a hard look at those costs,” said Martinson.
As for the broadband project, the meetings have been positive and the process is going as well as expected, said Martinson.
Birch Grove questions
Tofte Clerk Barb Gervais read the Birch Grove Community Center report and said that, among other things, veteran’s services had been added to the center, and there was going to be a push to update the outdoor facilities.
“I just want to say that there are a lot of jobs here. This (center) has had a very positive impact on the community,” said James.
Judy Motschenbacher asked that, because the building was now paid off, half of the proceeds previously spent on the mortgage each month would be put towards operating the center.
“Enrollment at the school has dropped,” said Motschenbacher, adding, “We have a decent fund balance, but we will need help in the future.”
She suggested cutting the lease payment in half, but James said that, while he was all in favor of helping the center, maybe the community would want to add a line item for the center and put a certain amount in that column.
After some discussion it was decided to table the annual township meeting until the second week in July and discuss this matter further. This would give the Birch Grove Foundation time to make a proposal, and if the proposal was met with any objections, they could be rehashed at the August meeting, said James. The final budget has to be set in September, he said.
At the end of the night it was noted that the 2011 budget was 13 percent less than the 2010 budget. The possible $800 month payment from AT&T was also not figured into the current budget.
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