Local News

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Todd County Board of Commissioners Still no peace for "The Sanctuary" by Karin L. Nauber The regular meeting of the commissioners on October 2 was only a little over an hour long, but development was again an item which was discussed, at length, during the meeting. This time it was the final plat approval for "The Sanctuary," a development on property owned by Long Lake Development LLC in sections 19 and 30 in Birchdale Township. The property is on Long Lake and has been contentious since its inception. The preliminary plat for the development was approved with conditions by the board on March 21, 2006, but the development has been in the making for almost four years now. According to Environment and Land Resources Management Director Andrew Dahlgren, the development that was approved in the preliminary plat has been completed. The issue of contention, a turn-around, was what held up approval this time. Commissioner Randy Neumann said he has been in contact with Birchdale Township officials and the turn-around "will not fly" and they are asking for a 120 foot cul-de-sac. There was discussion about the township previously not allowing a cul-de-sac. Neumann said the township had said they would allow one at the January 12, 2006 meeting. He said that there is not enough room for a school bus to turn around the way the current turn-around is made and that there is barely enough room to turn a full-size truck around in it. Dahlgren said the turn-around, as approved on the submitted preliminary plat was, he believed, approved by the former county engineer Duane Lorsung. It was for a 74 foot cul-de-sac. The county now requires a 120 foot turn-around. Because Birchdale Township is the road authority for the turn-around, they don't have to take over the road if they are not satisfied with it. Dahlgren said that from what he looked at, it is complete and that current county engineer Loren Fellbaum said it meets the requirements of what was approved. As they were looking at the drawing of the turn-around, Neumann asked, "How can we approve something that doesn't look like that?" He asked if they could table approval for legal advice? Chairman Mark Blessing said he understood the situation, but that the developers had met every requirement stated in the preliminary plat. County Administrator Mike Peterson who had gone out to the site said that it did not even meet the old requirements. Commissioner Mark Nelson asked if they could change it now? Dahlgren said, "It was not approved as a cul-de-sac, it was approved as a turn-around. You would have to talk to Loren about it." Fellbaum, who had walked into the meeting then, said that there was no requirement for it to be bigger, that he could see. Neumann said he could not find the phrase "turn-around" anywhere in the planning and zoning minutes. The only thing he saw was in the January 2006 minutes where it talked about a cul-de-sac. He said the township did not have an ordinance against cul-de-sacs which had been stated at one time. Neumann said that they were working with a 600 foot dead-end road which did not allow a cul-de-sac. Dahlgren said they went with the T turn-around because the ordinance stated there could be no dead-end road over 500 feet with a cul-de-sac. Dahlgren said they were trying to prevent a situation like the one in Little Sauk where the township would not take over a road that they saw as deficient. Blessing suggested they rescind their motion and table it until they had more information from the township and legal advice. Commissioner Gary Kneisl asked if there was room to build the larger cul-de-sac? Dahlgren said there was plenty of room, it would be more cost to the developers, though. The board agreed to rescind the motion. Blessing said they needed to work with the developers and get this issue resolved. In other planning and zoning business, the board approved the final plat of "Fiddlers Green" in Birchdale Township. Hands of Hope Nicole Beach and Jamie St. George presented a proclamation asking the commissioners to proclaim the month of October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It was approved. St. George, who is the new domestic violence coordinator for the program, said that in Todd county alone 184 families have been affected by domestic violence in the past year. As part of the proclamation, they are providing free training to supervisors and local business owners in Todd and Morrison counties to help those people recognize the signs of domestic violence. Sheriff's Department The board approved a joint powers agreement with the Central Minnesota Major Crime Investigations Unit. Sheriff Peter Mikkelson said the agreement is basically the same as before, however, the new joint powers board will not have county attorneys on it as it previously did. Commissioner David Kircher said this was a good move because it gave every county a fair vote on funding expenditures. The Benton County attorney will remain on the board for legal advice. The joint powers includes Todd, Stearns, Morrison and Benton counties. The county has also received an alcohol compliance check grant in the amount of $3840 which will help cover wages and provide "buy" money for people to do the checks. The grant is from July 2007 through May 2008. The establishments that sell liquor will be warned that the checks are taking place, but not exactly when they will happen. The compliance checks are designed to target selling liquor to underage individuals and administrative penalties would be imposed on those that are not in compliance. Mikkelson said that public health also has a grant to find out who is drinking underage and find out who is buying for them. As part of the grant, it was suggested that each county involved update their ordinances so the administrative fines could be imposed. Mikkelson said if the cities in the county do not also adopt such a policy, the county may not be eligible for a grant in the future. Natural Resources Block Grant The board approved acceptance of the 2008 Natural Resources Block Grant for $130,643. The block grant provides money for local water management, wetland conservation, the feedlot program, shoreland program and for ISTS. Public Works Approved the final payment to Central Specialties Inc. of Alexandria for the Lake Wobegon Trail in the amount of $30,083.11. The total amount was $500,519.11 of which 80% was paid for through federal grants and 20% through the Department of Natural Resources trails grant. The board approved the removal of a stop sign at CSAH #2 and CSAH #11. One bid was received and opened for the Browerville Shop. It was sold to Verso Paper LLC from Alexandria for $79,000, the minimum bid. They will close in 30 days. Human Resources Approved the full-time status of Sarah Morton, GIS technician after she successfully completed the, three month probation extension. County Administrator Peterson said he met with the Long Prairie City Council and they have agreed to open up parking on the east end of Annex II. This will allow for five or six more spaces available for parking as well as provide one handicap spot and two 15 minute loading zones. They also discussed the hockey contract at the Expo building on the fairgrounds. No decision was made.