Tofte supervisors tabled two of the biggest items on their agenda at the board’s monthly meeting on June 8.
Supervisors held back a vote on the request to distribute $20,000 to Birch Grove Community School’s community education program.
Also tabled for the second meeting in a row was a motion to dissolve the Tofte Schroeder Sanitary Sewer District Board which hasn’t been active for years.
Concerning the request for $20,000 from Birch Grove, a special meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 28, 6 p.m. at Tofte Town Hall to further the discussion that carried over from a May 31 meeting of the Birch Grove Task Force Conciliation Committee (BGTF) Agreement.
A task force was put together last winter consisting of members of all three West End townships – Lutsen, Tofte, and Schroeder — to look at ways the townships could legally give money to the Birch Grove Community Center and to find better ways to run all of the multiple operations that occur at Birch Grove. None of the recommendations that came from the task force, which was led by Bill Hansen, are binding
Before any of the township boards give the school money, each is making sure it is legal to do so.
Last year the townships received a notice from Minnesota State Auditor Rebecca Otto that told them they could no longer give township funds to the Birch Grove Community School and some of the nonprofits they had been giving to.
In the state auditor’s ruling, Ramona Advani, General Counsel & Deputy State Auditor, answered, “The money used for town donations comes from the town’s revenue, which in turn, comes from various sources including but not limited to property taxes, Local Government Aid (LGA), Taconite Aid, transportation tax, highway user tax, Town Road Allotment, Town Aid, investment earnings, etc. These revenues, no matter their source of origin, are considered public funds.
“Expenditure of public funds requires that there be both authority and a public purpose. Authority may be specifically stated in a statute or implied as necessary to do something that is expressly authorized. A public use has been defined by the Minnesota Supreme Court as “such an activity as will serve as a benefit to the community as a body and which, at the same time, is directly related to the functions of governments.”
Birch Grove Community School is a tuition-free charter school open to all elementary students in Cook and Lake counties. Enrollment started declining in 2012 and caused the school—which receives per-pupil state and federal aid to all public schools—to suffer financial hardship. At that time the school started asking the three townships for money at annual township meetings.
However, the amount of money requested has gone up yearly. In 2016 townships were asked to give $20,000 for the next school year, with the Birch Grove school board asking each community for a five-year commitment of $ 20,000 annually. None of the townships agreed to make that commitment.
While township supervisors, and in this case Tofte supervisors, want to follow the law, Birch Grove Community Education (BGCE) has made a request for $20,000 from each township. BGCE cites Minnesota Statute 471.935, which reads, a statutory or home rule charter city, county, or town may appropriate money to support the facilities, programs, and services of a public or private, not-for-profit youth center.
“For this appropriation to be effective, it would need to be received by, or as close to June 30, 2017, as possible.”
The letter was signed by Birch Grove Community Education Coordinator Diane Blanchette.
Tofte Schroeder Sanitary Sewer District
The Tofte Schroeder Sanitary Sewer District Board asked Tofte to vote on Schroeder’s request to leave the organization. TSSSD board members include Charlie Muggley, Dave Rude, Jerry Gervais, Bruce Martinson and Jim King. King said the entire board wanted to dissolve the TSSSD, with Schroeder getting about one-third of the money, which it would use to pay the legal fees to untangle the board, and Tofte getting the rest which could be utilized for the Tofte housing project if they wished.
Tofte supervisor Craig Horak said he wanted to see something in writing from the TSSSD board explaining the process before he wanted to vote on the matter. Supervisors Sam Crowley and Sarah Somnis agreed with Horak. King promised to come back with a statement from TSSSD, which probably won’t happen until the Tofte August meeting, King said.
Housing
Supervisor Horak has taken the lead on the Tofte housing project. Six twin homes are completed and are awaiting transfer to the hillside above the Birch Grove Community Center/school, but they may never be used by Tofte, said, Horak.
Dynamic Homes was given $60,000 as a down payment to build the home two years ago, and they built the homes, said Horak.
At that time the township was waiting to hear from the Minnesota Legislature about a bill that was created that would give the township housing authority so it could manage the homes. That never happened and the homes have been sitting idle ever since in the St. Cloud area.
The goal today, said Horak, is to find someone to take over the project, own it and manage it. “We don’t want to be called in the middle of the night because someone’s dishwasher broke down,” he said.
Currently, the best possibility is to turn the workforce housing development over to One Roof Housing.
Tofte Township supervisors met with Cliff Knettel, deputy director of One Roof Community Housing at their February meeting to discuss the community housing project. At that meeting all of the information for the project was presented and Knettel took it back to his board for review.
The goal was to have Dynamic Homes build six twin patio homes and have them ready for rent by fall, 2015. But an individual bill crafted by the late Representative Dave Dill (DFL) and Senator Tom Bakk (DFL) that would have given the township authority to manage the units was stalled in a larger bill that didn’t get passed in the special session. It also failed in 2016 when the governor wouldn’t sign the tax bill (which the housing bill written for Tofte was tucked into) because of a $100 million error in it.
Horak said One Roof didn’t know if they could work with the Twin Patio homes that have been built, and he added if nothing could be done, the township would lose that $60,000 and Dynamic Homes would sell them to someone else.
Another dilemma occurred when the state informed the Iron Range Resources Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) that it would have to withdraw the portion of the $350,000 infrastructure grant from the township because the award was supposed to be used in one year’s time and two years has passed since $48,000 was used to clear land and put in a well at the building site by the township.
“The IRRRB told me that we could apply for the remainder of the grant when we find someone to manage the housing project,” said Horak.
Recommendations from the BGTF include:
1) Tofte, Lutsen and Schroeder townships will be asked to fund the Birch Grove building for the costs of operating and maintaining the Birch Grove building and the West End Community Center.
2) Cook County will be asked to provide annual funds to the West End Community Center at a level that is a fair approximation of the funds, on a per capita basis, that Cook County provides to similar facilities in other parts of the county.
3) Additional funding for programs in the Birch Grove Campus/Complex may be approved by Lutsen, Tofte and Schroeder townships in keeping with Minnesota statutory requirements.
4) Birch Grove Community Education will create a West End Community Center advisory committee, to be appointed by Birch Grove Community Education, which will include, if possible, two representatives from W. E. Connect and one representative appointed by each Township of Lutsen, Township of Tofte and Township of Schroeder, and other community members, as Birch Grove Community Education deems appropriate. This advisory committee will address issues of the West End Community Center as presented by Birch Grove Community Education.
5) W.E. Connect will promote and maintain the Birch Grove Foundation Endowment Fund (soon to be renamed the W. E. Connect Endowment Fund) on behalf of and to the benefit of the education of children in the townships of Lutsen, Tofte, and Schroeder, in keeping with the original goal of the fund.
6) The role of W. E. Connect is to expand existing programs, develop new programming and provide support for the West End Community Center.
7) Birch Grove Community Education is a fiscally distinct and separate program of the Birch Grove Community School Board. Community Education and Tofte Township will negotiate an annual contract for the operation of the West End Community Center.
8) Tofte Township will operate the West End Community Center at Birch Grove by contracting for those services with Birch Grove Community Education. Examples of Youth and Senior Center programming could include pre-school, daycare, after-school care, pizza night, pickle ball, exercise room, senior lunch, community lunch, mentorships, AARP tax preparation, tennis, ice-skating, free lending library, food shelf, and so on, as deemed appropriate.
9) Birch Grove Community Education will act as the Tofte Township’s contracted agent for management and operation, including renting and scheduling, of the Birch Grove Building and the West End Community Center. The goal for existing programs is that they are maintained.
10) Birch Grove Community School is a long-term tenant of the building, operating under generally accepted tenant/landlord guidelines.
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