Tofte Town Board Chair Paul James
Shane Begley of Begley Wireless Consulting Service reported to the Tofte Township Board on December 8, 2011 that he was working with Minnesota Towers Inc. on finding a place for a 140- 190-foot communication tower in Tofte. Minnesota Tower would offer the landholder $300-500amonthwitha3percent annual increase.
One piece of land that is available is a 3.5-acre triangular piece of property owned by the Futterer family and surrounded on two sides by Superior National Forest. Chuck Futterer, speaking on behalf of the family, indicated they would be willing to sell this property to the township for just over $4,200. Some title issues would need to be cleared up in order for this to happen, however.
“We need a cell tower in this town,” said Board Chair Paul James, “and we need it to happen as expediently as possible.”
Begley said the proposed tower would have no lights and no guy wires and would take up a triangular area up to 40 feet across. Minnesota Towers would want two tenants on the tower right away in order to get the fastest return on their investment, he said. Companies that might be interested include AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. Begley said he is working on a tower project in Taconite Harbor as well.
Community members had previously raised objections when AT&T had proposed siting a cell tower in the township cemetery. If the tower has no lights on it and no guy wires, James said, a lot of potential objections should be avoided. The tower doesn’t have to be 190 feet, Begley said, but the taller they are, the more powerful they are. Fire Chief Rich Nelson suggested disguising it as a 200- foot palm tree.
People accept industrial areas along Highway 61 all the way up the shore, Supervisor Jim King said, such as the mining facilities in Silver Bay and Taconite Harbor. “If people are sitting on their cell phones, are they really going to object to a cell phone tower with outside antennas?” he asked. They should not downsize the Tofte tower for aesthetics and compromise its usefulness, he said.
The board passed a motion to enter an agreement with Begley Wireless to examine the feasibility of erecting a tower in the vicinity of the Futterer property and leasing it to Minnesota Tower Inc. for $500 a monthwitha3percentannualincrease. They also passed a motion authorizing Begley to help expedite the purchase of the Futterer property.
The project could be finished by July, Begley said. Nelson added, “When the snow leaves!” Birch Grove Community Center
Paul James reported that an unacceptable level of lead had been found in a sample of faucet water in two rooms at Birch Grove Community Center. The faucets are not used very often and the lead may have accumulated when water sat inside joints that had been soldered with lead.
Birch Grove Foundation Director Patty Nordahl is running water through the faucets every day and keeping them covered so they won’t be used, James said. The board discussed the possibility of removing the sinks since they are not used very often.
Supervisor Alan “D.C.” Olsen said he is working on applying for the building to receive Red Cross designation as an official evacuation area. If the building received this designation, they would need to have a source of backup power, he said, but he thought they might be able to get a FEMA grant to pay for the necessary equipment.
Tofte is selling an old tanker to the Birch Grove Foundation for $1. It will be used for making ice in the ice rink. Fire at Taconite Harbor
Fire Chief Rich Nelson called a November 21 fire in the turbine oiling system at Minnesota Power in Taconite Harbor “a very serious thing.” Employees extinguished it before firefighters arrived, however. “It was a disaster averted,” he said.
The Tofte Fire Department donated $550 to a fallen firefighter memorial being planned for state capitol grounds.
Rescue Squad Chief Louise Trachta told the board about a small fire department west of International Falls that was in “desperate need of equipment.” She suggested donating some unneeded equipment they had received from some of their Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants.
Rich Nelson requested permission to donate extra equipment to departments that need it, assuring the board that they would keep spare equipment on hand. The board assented to this request.
Nelson reported that the Sheriff ’s Department is now requiring firefighters responding to calls to identify themselves and their vehicles by number rather than name or vehicle type. He thought getting used to using numbers would be a challenge for the department. “We’ll stencil it on the foreheads of everybody,” Rescue Squad Chief Louise Trachta said. Senior housing
Clerk Barb Gervais said The Meyer Group, a Duluth-based architecture, design, planning, and consulting firm, gave the township a quote of $29,000 to do an engineering study on a senior housing facility. Paul James said the proposal could be used in a grant application to the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation. Vice-chair appointed
Paul James recommended that the board authorize someone or a couple of other people besides himself and the clerk to sign checks. As things stood, if they “fell off the face of the earth,” no one could sign checks on behalf of the township, he said. “That would be good for cash flow!” Supervisor Jim King said.
King read from a Minnesota Association of Townships publication that suggested that they not appoint their spouses to be deputies, because if they were hospitalized, their spouses would likely be more concerned with them than with township business. “Hopefully!” Rich Nelson said.
The board passed a motion appointing Alan “D.C.” Olsen vice-chair of the board so that he could sign documents on behalf of the township. Olsen abstained from the vote. Propane use
Louise Trachta reported that the town hall propane tank was at 40 percent. Board members discussed how fast they had gone through the fuel. James said, “We better start shutting the front door!”
Leave a Reply