During their meeting Monday night, the Clearwater Twp. Board of Supervisors reluctantly approved the fire contract with the City of Clearwater after the city refused any further negotiations.

The city approved one of the township’s recent requests, providing a quarterly call report, however, weren’t willing to approve the additional two requests; (1) to allow two of the three entities involved to call a special meeting or (2) agree to a cap on their 2022 budget.

Although the city has agreed to some of what had been requested over the negotiation process, the township board expressed concern over not being able to protect their constituents, as the last three years they’ve been hit with large increases to the fire contract.

“We’ve got a really great fire department and people are happy with them,” said Supervisor Scott Miller. “But this has been the problem the whole time, the cost controls. We have no way to limit the cost. The townships don’t want to build their own fire department, but we need a plan B.”

Chairman Bill Langenbacher expressed that he felt the township was back to where they started from.

Because of the late date the board felt they had no choice but to go with the contract and pass a motion stating ‘reluctant approval.’

DNR Grant

Langenbacher informed the board the DNR was accepting applications on local roads that would improve access to public areas, such as lakes and parks. He suggested applying to improve the road access to Nixon Lake. The board agreed; Langenbacher will submit after learning more about the grant.

Other Business

Shane Potter approached the board to discuss property he purchased that connects to 160th Street and the driveway access issue he’s facing. After a long discussion the board agreed to work with him, but recommended he first try to purchase a small piece of land from a neighbor, and if that didn’t work to talk to his other neighbor about the possibility of sharing a driveway.

The Sterling Kennel review was tabled until after Supervisor Rose Thelen has a chance to speak with the county. Currently the board doesn’t feel they’re knowledgeable enough on the topic to be certain the kennel is up to code.

Miller reported the owner of the Hendrix Ave. property that had received a junk complaint from Wright Co. had made a lot of process in the cleanup. Because he’s made an honest effort to work with the township, they agreed to give him more time to continue the process.

During public comment, Ron Schabel asked the board about the status of chip sealing Huber Ave. Miller explained it needs to be looked at and would benefit a lot of people, and hopes to talk about the project seriously over the winter.

Motions carried approving the township’s replacement insurance cost coverage, security replacement and upgrade costs, and election judges.

The next Clearwater Twp. meeting will be Nov. 2 at 7:30 p.m.