On Tuesday, June 24, 2014, Tofte Township supervisors approved a one-year lease for the Birch Grove Community School at a special town board meeting.
The lease calls for the school to pay the Tofte township $37,502 to use 4,412 square feet of space in the Birch Grove Community Center building for the year 2014 – 2015.
Under terms of the agreement, the school will switch its office space with the office that currently houses the Birch Grove Foundation director. Otherwise the school will use the classrooms it used last year and share the same common space (the gym, playground, hockey rink, tennis courts etc.) the other three tenants now share at no additional charge.
The Birch Grove Foundation is in charge of the building and grounds while the town of Tofte owns the facility. The school is the biggest tenant in the building and a lease payment of $37,502 will go a long way towards paying the approximate $73,000 yearly operating cost.
No litigation for tennis court design
In other matters the board agreed to have lines painted on the Birch Grove Community Center tennis court and have them match the line colors of Bluefin Bay’s tennis courts. The board also will ask the same company it hires to paint lines for two pickle ball courts on the hockey rink.
The town board has decided not to pursue litigation against Architect Tim Meyer and The Meyer Group for the design of the tennis court. It slants slightly upward to the middle of the court but it isn’t noticeable for the average player, said Supervisor Paul James.
Cost to fix the court was estimated at $70,000 and with litigation the figure could go as high as $100,000. Under rules of arbitration the township could end up paying for a lot of the bill, said James, so the town board decided against arbitration.
Salvage yard concerns
Supervisor Jim King said salvage yard owner Joe Sanders never met with him to discuss forming a plan—and implementing that plan in a speedy fashion—to get “Big Joe’s Salvage Yard” cleaned up. King called for a resolution to file a complaint with the county Planning & Zoning Office and the county attorney’s office. Supervisor Jeanne Larson seconded the motion and Supervisor James voted with them to send the complaint off to the county.
Sanders appeared at the last township meeting and agreed to meet with King the next week and set a plan in motion to end the four-year-long dispute between the township and him to finish cleaning the grounds around the salvage yard. Sanders has done a lot of the work asked of him, but has failed to finish it, leading the township to move to a formal complaint against him.
Senior housing display
Larson said the Birch Grove Foundation would have a senior housing display booth at the July 4 celebration.
Information will be present about the 12 units of senior housing that will be built behind the Birch Grove Community Center within the next year.
“We could have a naming contest for the senior housing project,” said Larson.
“That’s fine, but I don’t want to be held to using just the names we get at the July 4 booth,” said James.
Larson agreed with him and added that the Birch Grove Foundation is trying to set up an advisory board that will look into what activities senior citizens would like to have in the community. She thought the booth would be a good way to recruit people to serve on the advisory board.
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