During their recent meeting, the Big Lake Town Board reviewed a letter to be sent to the Big Lake Post Office. The letter urged the post office not to relocate their operations to Monticello, but to keep operations in Big Lake to best serve the residents of Big Lake Township, Big Lake City, and Orrock Township. Supervisor Laura Hayes offered a few changes to the letter to make it come across as more forceful and urgent. Hayes asked to continue to work on it later with the town clerk. The letter will be presented to the board again at the next meeting.

Sheriff’s Report 

Sgt. Barrett gave his report for the month of May. He noted an accident on Co. Rd. 35 and 150th St. A moped was following two motorcycles when a deer suddenly ran out of the woods. The motorcycles braked for the animal, and the moped driver rear-ended one motorcycle. The driver was transported to the hospital but is expected to make a recovery.

In other notable calls, Barrett mentioned the theft of gas from a snowmobile and two stop arm violations.

Roads Report

The road committee received an estimate from the road engineer on the additional projects they added to the road work proposed this summer. Based on the estimate, Supervisor Dean Brenteson asked the board to allow up to an extra $105,000 to complete the work, which should allow some wiggle room if things don’t go exactly to plan. Even with the increase, the township is still under their road budget for the year, which is why they chose to pursue extra projects this year.

Crack sealing was expected to begin very soon.

In Other Business, the Board:

• Rescheduled the public hearing for a road vacation to June 21 due to lack of proper notice in the newspaper;

• Heard from Supervisor Mark Hedstrom that Tower Truck One at the fire department is ready to respond to calls;

• Heard from Aubol that he was able to take a tour of the Xcel Energy solar fields, which prompted some discussion of the project.