During the December meeting, the Orrock Town Board discussed the open treasurer position.

At the November meeting, town treasurer Janine Arnold had turned in her resignation effective at the end of the year. At that meeting, the town board issued a notice that they were accepting applications to fill the position. They received two applications, but decided not to hire either applicant at the moment. Instead, they chose to hire board member Gary Goldsmith as the interim treasurer. Goldsmith served as the town treasurer before Arnold and is familiar with the job. The board wished to have him serve during the busy early weeks of the year as well as to have time to train in the next treasurer. 

The board will continue to accept applications for the treasurer position until Jan. 10 at 4 p.m. A special meeting will be held Jan. 14 at 6 p.m. to interview the applicants.

Sheriff’s Report

The representative for the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office noted a standard month for calls in the township. He did, however, note a case of vandalism at the Sand Dunes horse camp, as well as the destruction of nine mailboxes in the township with one suspect linked to all of them.

Open Forum

Clerk Chris Weber spoke during open forum as a private resident regarding the road authority position. She noted that she understands the board may be interested in changing committee appointments in the new year, but she strongly recommended that they continue to have an experienced board member as the road authority, as it is a position that involves many unseen duties. She also believed it was important to have the incoming clerk be able to lean on the road authority’s experience.

Cannabis Ordinance

Sherburne County, as directed by the state, created a cannabis ordinance that was on the agenda for the board to possibly review and adopt. However, the way that the ordinance was written would require the town board to form a planning and zoning committee for just the township to regulate cannabis shops in the area. Not only do the townships not have the resources to run such a committee, there was also a question as to the legality of forming such a committee, as all the planning and zoning services for the township are meant to be outsourced to the county, who has a committee built to serve this purpose. 

The board passed the proposed ordinance on to their attorney, who said he had concerns with it and was looking to work with the county attorney on the issue. The majority of the board wished to put off adoption until hearing back from the attorney.

Supervisor Anne Felber wished to adopt the ordinance anyway for the protections it would offer, but the attorney said the board should look to adopt the ordinance some time in January for these protections, so it was agreed by the other board members to wait a little longer for guidance from the attorney. 

2025 Road Projects

Road engineer Kevin Krueger presented the road projects for 2025. The board will begin advertising for bids for the work starting at the end of December and will look to award a bid Jan. 22. The board in previous years has generally preferred to award the work early in the year, but there was some concern about whether the recent presidential election could cause the price of asphalt to drop more if they were to wait. Krueger stated his opinion that there would not be a significant price drop. The board agreed that if the time came to award the work and they felt the prices were too high, they could always re-start the advertising process and hope for better bids. 

Supervisor Felber asked that 180th St. be removed from the roads scheduled for maintenance, as it is a dead end road that only serves one house. The board discussed and agreed to have Krueger include it as an alternate road, with bidding companies providing a cost of service with and without the road. Felber agreed this was reasonable.

In Other News, the Board:

• Approved a one-time gambling permit for Ducks Unlimited, who will be holding their second annual bingo event at the Getaway Bar Feb. 22;

• Set the board of appeal and equalization, a time for residents to come and discuss concerns with their taxes, for April 9 at 6 p.m. at town hall;

• Hired on the outgoing clerk and treasurer as consultants to help with the upcoming annual audit;

• Approved a rate increase for town hall cleaning services through Options, Inc.;

• Approved raising a township-owned catch basin up by 5-6 inches after a recent cleaning revealed it to be buried by six inches of mud, with the work to be completed in spring at a cost of no more than $700;

• Reported a letter had been sent to a local resident who had a non-compliant mailbox.