Let it freeze! The Birch Grove Community Center is almost ready for skating. On Tuesday, December 6, Charles Lamb and Greg Vetter used the Tofte Fire Department’s 5,000-gallon tanker to flood the Birch Grove skating rink. This is the last year for the current rink—next spring the ground will be broken for a new rink and warming house.
The Tofte Town Board and the Birch Grove Foundation meet every other month on the Monday before the regular township meeting. At the latest meeting on Tuesday, December 6, township and school officials considered a number of issues that come about from owning an aging public building.
The Town of Tofte owns the Birch Grove Community Center building, which houses the foundation and Birch Grove Community School and serves as a preschool, senior center, Sawtooth Mountain Clinic satellite office, a Sven & Ole’s Pizza delivery center, and more.
Changes for entryway considered after fire marshal visit
Birch Grove Foundation Director Patty Nordahl updated the town board on a recent visit from the state fire marshal. Nordahl said the visit resulted in moving the computer stations that were open to the community in the building’s main entryway. “The Fire Marshall said we cannot have any free-standing furniture in the entryway, so we moved the computers and printers to the community room,” said Nordahl.
Not an ideal situation, she said, as computer users who may want a quiet space are then sharing the area with children. And the school’s policy is to not allow the general public free access to the school.
Supervisor Paul James said he was disappointed to hear this, as the township wants community members to visit and use the community center. Supervisor D.C. Olsen asked if many people use the community center computers and Nordahl said a few people do. More people come in to use the wireless Internet on their own computers, to which James expressed surprise. He did not know Birch Grove was a wireless “hotspot.”
“We need to do a better job to get that information out there,” said James. “I think a lot of people would come here to access high speed Internet.”
The board discussed ways to modify the entryway to allow computer workstations there, including constructing cubicles of some kind— one or two for computer users and perhaps one for people bringing in their laptops. They asked Nordahl to contact the Fire Marshal to see what would be acceptable in that area.
Aging fire alarm, plumbing
Some good news on a related issue is that the recent inspection of the school’s fire alarm system show that it works well. The bad news, Nordahl said, is that it is quite old and if something did go wrong with the system it would be unlikely that replacement parts could be found. “Maybe we should be proactive on this and start looking at a new system now,” Nordahl said.
Supervisors agreed. Supervisor Paul James, a firefighter, said the system should be zoned and each zone should be connected to the master electrical box. “For safety, this should be updated,” he said.
Another issue with aging buildings is old plumbing and Nordahl reported that two water faucets in the building had been found to have an elevated lead levels in their water. Nordahl explained that the school is required to test its water every three years. Samples are taken and sent to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). The results from this year’s testing show that levels were elevated in the faucet in the community room and in the kindergarten room.
Supervisor Olsen said this problem is not uncommon in old buildings, especially in sinks that are not used frequently, which is the case in these rooms. The sinks are seldom used so water sits in the pipes which sometimes have lead in the soldered joints.
Nordahl said all users of the building had been notified of the concern and she had placed bags over the faucets to ensure they were not used. She said MDH had instructed them to flush the faucets twice a day for a month and retest.
However, the town board questioned whether the faucets were even needed. Other sinks in the building— especially the one in the kitchen—tested at normal levels, so why not just use them for water? “Could we cap them and direct use to the other, primary water sources?” asked James.
The board agreed to see what the results of the re-testing showed but agreed that eliminating those sinks would be done if necessary.
Nordahl also reported that some of the building’s heaters are getting too old for replacement parts as well. The town board asked Nordahl to talk to a contractor about installing new heaters.
Flooding the ice rink
On a happier note, the Town of Tofte turned over the title for its 5,000-gallon tanker truck to the Birch Grove Foundation. Because the Tofte Fire Department receives funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), it must follow federal guidelines regarding the age of its equipment. The tanker must be retired, but, in addition to being a “standby” truck for firefighting, it has been used for years to flood the hockey rink at Birch Grove.
By turning the truck over to Birch Grove, the truck will still be able to be put to use at the skating rink and will remain in the township in case a large quantity is needed to fight a fire on the West End.
As the township and foundation officials met indoors, volunteers Charles Lamb and Greg Vetter were putting the tanker to use, flooding the community center skating rink.
Leave a Reply