During their most recent meeting, the Big Lake Town Board of Supervisors discussed what to do with the emergency sirens located within the township.

Beginning in 2026, Sherburne County will no longer be taking care of emergency sirens. They will turn over maintenance duties to the townships and cities. These sirens are expensive to maintain, so there was some discussion about what the town board wanted to do.

The county will continue to care for the sirens for $60 per month per siren. However, since there are 14 sirens within Big Lake Township, the cost would be over $10,000 per year.

The sirens are technically owned by Xcel Energy, but the company does not perform maintenance on them. Xcel is also looking to move away from this type of emergency notification, preferring to use digital warnings instead.

The board was under the impression that they may be able to refuse taking over the sirens, which would save them a good amount of money and hassle. They discussed how the sirens are not meant to notify people indoors, only outdoors, and that there are many emergency warning services available to people besides the sirens. They believed few, if any, residents relied on the sirens.

Becker Township reached out to Big Lake Township to see if they were interested in being partners in tackling this issue, as the two townships share several sirens along their shared border. 

The board decided to form a committee to further investigate the issue and meet with representatives of Becker Township. The board hoped to have more concrete options by the time of the reconvening of the annual meeting in September.

Deputy Treasurer’s Wages

Treasurer Ken Warneke recommended a four percent pay raise for his Deputy Treasurer. The board made the increase retroactive to the beginning of the year.

CMRP Letter of Support

The board signed a letter of support for a Planning and Environmental Linkages study (PEL) for the Central Minnesota Regional Partnership (CMRP) bridge project. This is the project hoping to build another local bridge over the Mississippi River. 

Roads Update

The board planned to open bids for road work on April 1. At the time of the meeting, they had six bids. The board will likely approve their bid of choice at the April 9 meeting.