During their recent meeting, the Orrock town board discussed plans for Pine Crest Estates West.
The township is working closely with the developers of the Pine Crest Estates West development, which will be located south of Co. Rd. 4, east of the town hall. At the time of the meeting, the developer’s agreement was pending review with the town attorney. A special meeting May 11 will be held to further consider the development agreement after getting the attorney’s feedback.
The entrance to the new development will be located off of 180th St., which is currently a gravel road. The developers wanted to have the road paved, and hoped to have the county’s contractors do the work as they are working on Co. Rd. 4. Unfortunately, this is going to cost much more than the township or the developers thought it would. There was some discussion on whether it would be better to wait and hope the prices would decrease, but road engineer Kevin Krueger said this wasn’t likely to happen, as he’s seen prices rise significantly, more than 30%, since January of this year. Ultimately, the township decided to just get the project done.
Sheriff’s Report
Sgt. Luke McLean of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s office shared his report for the month.
There has been a rise in traffic violations, as people are driving too fast on township roads. McLean noted that there has been a rise across the county, but without any specific reason for it.
McLean noted that one township resident was the victim of a scam, where a scammer pretended to be an Xcel Energy employee who threatened to shut off the victim’s power if the victim did not pay them right away.
Open Forum
Anne Felber spoke during open forum. She requested that the board fully fund their budget, meaning that they put money aside for purchases like office supplies and other common purchases, which currently are taken out of the general fund. She said she would like to see this happen in the name of transparency, and in order to make sure the township has funds available for future replacements.
In Other Business,the Board:
• Tabled a decision on whether to keep or sell a parcel of tax-forfeited land;
• Renewed a contract with town handyman Darryl Waletzko;
• Heard a brief update on the town hall expansion, with the special meeting still scheduled for June;
• Discussed a new tool on the county website which allows site visitors to type in the type of garbage they have (for example, an old mattress) and find out where they can recycle it;
• Reported that it looked as if the tree trimming had finally been cleared up;
• Planned to adopt a new mailbox ordinance at the May meeting.
