Roads, solar farms, ordinances and voting machines were all part of Tuesday’s Clear Lake Twp. Board meeting.

 

Engineer Terrance VanderEyk advised the board on potential township road projects for 2016 that resulted from their recent fall road trip. Preliminary estimates were presented for road seal coating, overlay and striping projects.

 

The board — consisting of Chairman Gary Gray, Joe Goenner and Bud Stimmler — will review the list and decide which roads will be worked on in 2016. 

 

Eyk said Glen Goenner will be contacted for an onsite meeting to identify trees that should be removed or trimmed at the intersection of 71st Street and 89th Avenue to provide better visibility for on-coming traffic.

 

Eyk said 31st Avenue has been turned back to Clear Lake Twp., the same road that is shared by Haven Twp. — who owns one-third of the road. Haven Twp. will be contacted to discuss how to divide up future maintenance on this road, said Eyk.

 

Joe Tierney of Sunrise Energy Ventures and Tom Braman of Westwood Professional Services presented an overview of a new solar project designed to be  a solar farm on 240 acres located in Clear Lake Twp. east of Hwy. 24 and north of Co. Rd. 8.  It was noted this project is currently in an Interim Use Permit (IUP) phase.

 

The solar project would include panels that would supply an anticipated capacity of 20 mega-watts for existing Xcel Energy customers. The energy produced from the solar panels would connect into the power grid to an existing distribution line.

 

Clear Lake’s township supervisors were in agreement with the project and their approval will be noted in the township comment form to be formally submitted to Sherburne County. The next step is for Sunrise Energy Ventures to present the plan to the Sherburne County Planning and Zoning Commission for their approval.

 

If the solar farm project is approved by the county, the construction phase could start in the spring of next year with a project completion in the fall of 2016.

 

The supervisors discussed the zoning ordinance that Sherburne County is attempting to rewrite regarding contractor yards. 

 

The consensus was to suggest that the zoning ordinance only apply to property greater than five acres.

 

The township representatives for the county planning advisory board are nearing the end of their three-year terms currently held by Roger Neils (Clear Lake Twp. representative) and Gary Gray(alternate representative).  Their current term expires Dec. 31. 

 

Stimmler motioned to have Neils continue as the township representative and Gray as the alternate with a second made by Goenner.

 

The supervisors noted the M100 voting machine — currently shared with the City of Clear Lake — is over 10 years old and Sherburne County suggests that it be replaced with a new, more advanced voting machine. 

 

The board agreed a new voting machine should be purchased and the cost of that purchase is to be shared with the City of Clear Lake.

 

The township has accounts with Sherburne State Bank, who is closing their branch office in Clear Lake. The township supervisors decided they will keep their accounts with this bank, but use the branch office in Becker.

 

Sgt. Chris Aleshire gave the sheriff’s report for the month of September in which there were a total of 63 calls for service. Two of the calls were for fraud complaints, six for medicals and one for mail tampering.

 

• Chairman Gray reported there was no library board meeting last month;

 

• Gray reported there was no fire department board meeting last month;

 

• Stimmler reported there was nothing to report on parks and trails.

 

The next Clear Lake Twp. Board meeting is Nov. 17 at 7 p.m.