Discussion on road maintenance, street signs, outhouses, swing sets, election machines and road bid letting were all part of Monday’s Palmer Twp. Board meeting.

 

Engineer Terrance VanDerEyk said that since the county suspended contracts for road projects, he has been in contact with Becker Twp., Clear Lake Twp. and now Palmer Twp., to see if they’d like to put together a bid package to take advantage of the low bituminous costs.

 

Eyk said he already made arrangements for a bid letting May 24 at Becker Twp. Hall at 6 p.m. and invited at least one representative from Palmer to attend and vote.

 

Following their recent road tour last week, Supervisor Richard Larson said overall the roads looked pretty good.

 

Larson and Steve Demeules said they made note of potholes that need to be fixed by spray painting an orange color around the road cavities.

 

The board promised to forward a list of the pothole locations to Clint for repairs.

 

A final payment was approved for the 48th Street widening project in the amount of $1,813.36.

 

Matt from the fire department said Palmer had 15 calls for service for April. He also reminded the board and the audience of an upcoming advisory board meeting Wednesday.

 

The board and Matt also discussed an internet issue at Station #2 and Matt was looking to follow-up on the problem.

 

The board was told that a few mailboxes were recently re-put up following last season’s winter. 

 

Mitch said he ordered a few “no dumping” signs and advised the board they needed to consider getting some “no parking” signs for an area around Rush Lake that already has signs, but few drivers are abiding by the restrictions.

Sherburne County Sergeant Bob Stangler suggested the board purchase the “drive over”, no parking signs that are placed in the middle of the road and are impossible to discount. Stangler said the signs would have springs at the base so they can be driven over by fire trucks but pop right back up after the vehicle passes.

 

Mitch said he will look into the costs of making a purchase for said signs.

 

Mitch said the well at the end of the fence by the volleyball court has been drilled 75-feet deep. He said further work is need to build trenches for lines and to hook up to existing lines.

 

Someone mentioned the Lions donated $20,000 for playground equipment and a site needs to be designated that can accommodate 60-feet by 90-feet of playground area.

 

The board discussed at length the situations with the three-to-four outhouses they serve. One is very old and needs to be replaced and it was mentioned there has to be at least one that is handicap accessible.

 

The board will search out costs and other variables as far as buying or utilizing a company to maintain them.

 

Treasurer Roger Johnson reminded everyone May 21 is the annual clean-up day in Palmer and will be happening from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Johnson mentioned the prices are the same from last year and volunteers are in very much need.

 

Clerk Kathryn Miller said she and a few others spent some time at training for a new election machine. She gave forms to be filled out to the board to be signed off on.

 

Miller said the new machine is a big improvement and has a modem installed so all the tallying can be done right there and directly messaged to the county in a matter of minutes.

 

The Duelm Lions asked to be approved for off-site gambling in order to hold a raffle for a one-day event on Sept. 17 at Kinitski Brill & Bar.

 

Sgt. Stangler said the county received 111 calls for service in April with 30 being traffic calls, two being burglaries, three being thefts, one a crash with injury, one a mail theft and one an ATV warning.

 

The next Palmer Twp. Board meeting is June 13 at 7 p.m.