During their February meeting, the Orrock Town Board discussed the agenda for the upcoming annual meeting.
Supervisor Anne Felber wished to add a technology update topic to the agenda, to discuss improving the recording equipment among other things. Supervisor Paul Ellinger voted against the addition as he didn’t see it being necessary based on the amount of views the meeting videos and the website have. The board took it to a vote and it was added to the agenda. The annual meeting will be on Tues., March 11 at 7 p.m.
The board acknowledged the draft budget to be presented at the annual meeting. Legal residents of Orrock Township will have the opportunity to directly approve or disapprove the budget and tax levy at the annual meeting.
Sheriff’s Report
Commander Ben Zawacki of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office gave his annual report for 2024. He noted 2,220 calls for service, up from 2,063 in 2023 and 2,178 in 2022.
Zawacki shared the exciting news that the back-up dispatch center was up and running. Due to a technical problem, the dispatch center went down for a very short time once. The Sheriff’s Department wanted to make sure that would never be an issue again, so they created a back-up dispatch center. It is not yet being staffed 24 hours per day, but the department is working towards that goal.
Treasurer’s Business
The board appointed a new treasurer at their January meeting, but she was still not able to step into her duties, as she had an ongoing family matter. Gary Goldsmith has continued to do the treasurer work, as he was not able to do much training of the new treasurer. Goldsmith officially gave his resignation and was re-hired as a consultant so the township would not have to worry about paying out Earned Sick and Safe time. Goldsmith will continue to work with the township until the new treasurer is trained and ready to take over completely.
Recently, the bank Orrock Twp. uses contacted Goldsmith to let him know an account was overdrawn. Goldsmith worked quickly to transfer funds to cover the charges, and asked the board to retroactively approve his emergency actions, which they did. The board noted this happened another time recently, while Treasurer Janine Arnold was preparing to resign from the township. They asked Goldsmith to keep a very close eye on it and keep more money in the account to prevent the same error.
Office Purchases
Town Clerk Sandy Erickson requested the board approve a few items to make her job a bit easier. She requested a Ring doorbell, as sometimes residents would come to the office outside of business hours and she wouldn’t hear them knock on the door, but would be startled when they knocked on the window of her office. She also requested a label maker, as the previous clerk had a personal one that she used a lot. Finally, she requested another fire proof cabinet to expand storage capacity for town records.
Erickson’s first two requests were approved after some debate, but the board wished to discuss the cabinet later, after having a discussion about storing records electronically.
Roads
The board had the opportunity to review the contract for 2025 road work. At the previous meeting, they had not yet reached a decision about whether to approve the change order, an overlay on 180th St. (south of Co. Rd. 4). Since the road only serves one residence, the board debated letting the road go back to gravel to save on costs.
However, at the February meeting their road engineer, Kevin Krueger, suggested that looking at the maintenance costs over the next 20-30 years, it would actually be slightly cheaper to keep the road paved and perform overlays as necessary. The board also discussed that letting the road go to gravel would cause significant issues, such as opening the township up to lawsuit, causing issues for the residence with the post office, and devaluing the property. The board adopted the change order.
Supervisor Felber noted that she recently attended the Becker Township meeting. Becker Twp. was discussing doing road work on 109th St. (which turns into 243rd Ave. on the Orrock Twp. side). The Becker Twp. engineer measured the road on the Orrock side and stated the width was 19.5 ft. Felber knew it was supposed to be a width of 22 ft., and the engineer said he would double check. He did so and confirmed the width to be 19.5. The road tapers significantly as drivers travel from the Becker side to the Orrock side.
Fixing up the Orrock side was supposed to be scheduled for 2026, but Felber wanted to entertain pushing the project up to this year since Becker Twp. was already working on the project. Ideally, the project would be extended so the whole road would be completed by one contractor and to one set of specifications, wherein Orrock would pay Becker Twp. back for the work completed on Orrock’s roads. The board instructed their engineer to work with the Becker Twp. engineer and present possibilities later.
In Other Busniess, the Board:
• Welcomed the new deputy clerk, Francine Larson, and approved her wages at $25 per hour. Larson is currently the treasurer for Blue Hill Township and the clerk for the Sherburne County Association of Townships, and she will be serving only to support Erickson in case of emergency or sickness;
• Held a successful board of audit meeting, wherein records of township financial transactions are spot-checked for accuracy.
