Thursday, March 28th, 2024 Church Directory

Palmer board to update High Water Ordinance

The Palmer Twp. Board of Supervisors met Monday evening and discussed several agenda items, including an update to the High Water / No Wake ordinance for the chain of lakes.

Recently, several supervisors met with Sherburne County Attorney Kathleen Heaney, Sheriff Joel Brott, Commissioner Felix Schmiesing and Clear Lake Board Chair Gary Gray to look at solutions for enforcing the current ordinance.

The high water ordinance exists to help protect the shoreline of area lakes during high water events by creating no wake zones, therefore reducing the waves that crash onto shore.  

Supervisor Steve Demeules reviewed a history of the ordinance, which has been on the books for some time and has been enforced on a consistent basis until recently.

One of the challenges is that the MN DNR has been responsible for coming to the lake each spring and calibrating a gauge that measures the water depth.  However, at times this hasn’t yet occurred when the spring high water events happen and that has made declaring the high water emergency more nebulous in terms of enforcement actions.

As part of the solution, the county agreed to take over the calibration so it is done on a consistent basis and to the correct standards to clear up the enforcement questions.

In addition, the board passed a motion to re-authorize the ordinance with some language tweaks that will help eliminate any gray areas and provide for clear instructions on the declaration of the emergency, as well as the enforcement steps that will be taken.

In final action on the matter, the supervisors discussed and approved a motion to enter into a joint powers agreement with Sherburne County. This will clear up any confusion and allow for the Sheriff’s Office to enforce all local ordinances and the County Attorney to handle prosecution of any violations.

Chair Mike Ganz felt with all of these steps, it will strengthen the township’s legal standing for not only the ordinances on the lakes, but also at Palmer Park for issues such as dogs in the park.

“We know there’s a long history and many valid reasons why dogs aren’t allowed at the park,” said Ganz. “This will help tighten up our ordinances and allow the county to help us enforce the ones we have on the books.”

Sheriff/Fire

Commander Bob Stangler of the Sheriff’s Office reported on last month’s calls for service and reviewed 114 incident reports, with 38 being traffic stops. The Water Patrol made five contacts for expired registrations on boats, while there were also 11 medical calls.

The board asked Stangler for extra speed patrols on the roads by the lakes, and also discussed the posting of signs within roadway right-of-ways and how they should be handled with the winter season coming soon.

CLFD Chief Ron Koren was at the meeting and reported on 18 calls for service last month, 12 of which were in Palmer.  Most of the requests for assistance were for medical related issues, although there was one fuel leak and two motorcycle accidents as well.

Roads/Drainage

Ganz noted that he hopes to be able to get one more load of material for patching a few potholes before winter, while also reporting that the ditch mowing had started along several roads.

The clearing of brush is also a top priority in the near future, and Ganz is working on a partnership with Vonco, who might be willing to collect the chipped materials and use it for composting with their food scraps.

The board also circled back to last month’s discussion about drainage on roadways and Demeules reported that he had been in contact with the Sherburne SWCD. The supervisors established three criteria to be able to work on drainage issues near roadways: all work the board authorizes must be done within the township’s right of way, the work needs to be done at a specific location and the solution cannot push the water issue onto someone else’s property.

Ganz noted that this was a dry summer and next year there could be more issues brought up. The supervisors reiterated that one of their preferred solutions is to add ditches along the roadways, although many times residents are opposed to this option.

In other action, the board:

• Heard from Treasurer Roger Johnson that $7,735 was received from the county in the form of a SCORE grant and will be applied to last spring’s clean up day costs;

• Learned that an area resident may be interested in donating significant funds for a remodel of the park pavilion;

• Heard from Demeules that the lake association is looking for feedback on this year’s weed control efforts;

• Asked that any residents who are taking out docks for the year inspect them for zebra mussels and report any findings to the lake association;

• Discussed the rules at the park, including no golfing as it does damage to the turf;

• Authorized ARPA fund expenditures for several new computers, as well as software that will improve the board’s ability to communicate with each other and the public;

• Tabled the Thompson variance due to no homeowner being present at the meeting and approved favorable recommendation for four variances for the Sroka’s, who are trying to upgrade their septic system;

• Discussed the issue of garbage truck traffic and the frequency of the pickups, which is causing traffic and road deterioration issues around the lakes. A unified collection approach could be put on the agenda for the annual meeting so the supervisors can gather input.