GREENWOOD TWP.- A debate over the township’s salary for the 911-coordinator, a position currently held by Clerk Ellen Trancheff with a paid salary of $6,400 a year, was the focus of a heated discussion during Tuesday’s meeting.

Supervisor John Bassing had placed the item on the agenda, and asked the board to consider either keeping the position paid as it is currently, move it to a volunteer position under the authority of the fire department, or move it to an unpaid position for the township road supervisor (a town board member, currently Bassing).

“I feel this is not a prudent use of township money,” he said, noting that the township has been issuing only between six and ten new numbers a year.

Bassing noted that Greenwood is the only township in St. Louis County that does their own 911-addressing, and the fact that the township’s numbering system and “grid” do not match the one used by St. Louis County does create a complication.

Bassing said he talked with County Commissioners Tom Rukavina and Keith Nelson about the issue, but it was likely there would be costs associated with having the county take over the addressing system. Bassing said if this would involve assigning residents new fire number/addresses, than that idea was a “non-starter.”

Trancheff explained the reasoning behind the township’s addressing system. She said the township was given a very short time frame to come up with their own system, which the fire department felt was needed to easily track which properties were water-access. She said that she herself, along with a group of about eight others, spent a long weekend naming all the roads and assigning new addresses/numbers. The township had been using a letter/number system to denote water access properties, but St. Louis County was moving to an all-numeric system, she said, so it would have been difficult to quickly determine if an address was reachable by land or only by water.

Trancheff said the 911-position did not become paid until 1992, a few years after the initial township numbering system was put in place. She estimated she was spending 35-40 hours per month on those duties, each year.

She said the growth of the township had made assigning numbers in a logical order difficult. She said when the township annexed the unorganized township to the west, she did all that numbering for the township. She noted the form that Bassing had for fire numbers was just a form to get a number, but that there was much more involved with assigning a new number to a property than filling out a half-page form.

Trancheff noted she also tracks the fire numbers on Bois Forte, though Bois Forte does their own street naming and numbering.

Bassing also said that township residents were already paying, through their county taxes, for 911-addressing for the rest of the county, noting the same argument which has been made repeatedly for turning planning and zoning over to St. Louis County.

Supervisor John Milbridge then said he was suspicious of the timing of this request from Bassing, coming after the controversy over raising the clerk’s salary earlier this summer.

“I think there is a ‘I hate the Trancheffs’ club,” he said. “This feels mean-spirited.”

Bassing said he had contacted the Greenwood Fire Department over the weekend to get their views on the issue, and was waiting to hear back.

Supervisor Gene Baland said he would like to wait to hear back from the fire department before making any decision on the issue.

“I am not opposed to the idea [of making it a voluteer duty],” he said. “Your point, John, is well taken.”

At this point the audience began talking among themselves, clearly upset with the lack of action by the board.

Baland lashed out at the audience.

“You people are so rude,” he said, asking the audience to stay respectful.

Some in the audience said this was more of a cost-related issue. They noted that the township residents had been reducing the levy.

Jeff Maus noted that a reason he had been given for the elimination of his and others’ positions in the fire department was to reduce spending.

A vote on a motion to turn the 911-addressing duties to the township road supervisor was denied 1-4, with Bassing voting in favor.

Comprehensive Plan comments

Bassing asked the board to have planner John Klaers release all of the written comments made on the survey mailed to township property owners as part of the comprehensive planning process. To date, Klaers has only released a sampling of about 70 of the close to 300 comments received, citing privacy and confidentiality.

Bassing noted that the data collected for the plan, paid for in part with an IRRRB grant, is considered public data under state law, and that the grant agreement clearly states so.

A motion by Bassing to have all the comments made public failed for lack of a second.

“Why does the committee not want to make it public?” he asked.

Chairman Kirsten Reichel stated that Klaers said no other entity he had worked with wanted the information to be part of the public record.

“I think we should rely on Klaers’ expertise on this,” she said. “There was a lot of discussion, and I don’t think there was an actual resolution by the committee on what to do.”

Reichel said when people filled out the survey, they didn’t think their comments would “show up on the front page of a newspaper or on a website.”

“In my mind,” she said, “I don’t think it should be considered public information.”

Neither Bassing or the small minority of comprehensive plan members who are in favor of releasing the information want names of those commenting released, just the comments themselves, with names, and other personally-identifiably information redacted.

Comprehensive plan committee members have told the Timberjay that Klaers told the committee it was up to the town board to decide what information was to be made public.

Committee member Lee Peterson has been very outspoken on this issue also, and feels that the committee should be privy to the information, so they can see how representative the samples released are of the overall comments received.

Petersen, in a message sent to board members, noted that Duluth Township had published all the comments (with names redacted) on their website.

“Duluth Township provides a good example of how to handle survey results and the written comments that are sent in,” Petersen wrote to the board. “They post the survey results and all of the written comments. Their policy states: “Where respondents might be identified from their comments, identifying references are eliminated.”  … Our township attorney, Tim Strom, is a resident of Duluth Township and is also the attorney for Duluth Township, so he is familiar with this process.”

The survey mailed out to all Greenwood property owners had an open response question, which allowed residents to provide any additional comments.

Bassing said he had talked with the grant specialist at the IRRRB, who he expected to hear from within a day, on the issue. He noted the grant application the township had signed clearly indicated that by using state monies, the township was bound to release the information collected.

Reichel said, once again, “Are we picking which legal advisc to follow?”

Bassing noted this was state law, not a legal opinion.

Reichel said perhaps they will need to consult their attorney on the issue, and Bassing asked that they do so.

Fire Chief honored

Steve Flaherty, who oversees a statewide leadership training program for rural fire chiefs presented Greenwood Fire Chief Dave Fazio with a plaque in honor of his completion of a year-long series of trainings, held quarterly at Camp Ripley. The training program, of which Fazio was an inaugural member, covered four different aspects of fire department oversight, including financial management, marketing and recruitment, leadership, and human resources. Flaherty noted that the training also provided the rural fire chiefs with a cohort of peers they can call on in the future as a resource. The training was funded by the Minnesota Board of Firefighting Training and Education, which receives funding from state homeowner insurance payments (which also fund the State Fire Marshal’s office).

Other business

Several residents in the audience, which numbered close to 35, asked questions relating to the clerk’s salary, job duties, and office hours. Sue Drobec said she had sent an email to board members asking questions about this, so information would be available if someone else is interested in running for clerk next year (township elections are in March), but said she never received a response. Others also had questions about hours, job duties, and hourly pay.

Reichel said she would make information on the clerk’s job description available.

No action was taken on the ongoing issue of how the town board would appoint interested citizens to boards and committees that had openings. It was noted that past practice had often been to appoint whoever had their letter of interest in first, but that some did not agree with that policy.

The issue, which had come up last spring, has yet to be resolved. The board has talked about adopting a more thorough application process, but Supervisor Baland has stated he would also like to institute a policy of always conducting interviews, even if only one application is received.

The town board passed a policy which prohibits the consumption of alcoholic beverages on township property, including the grounds of the town hall, unless the town hall alcohol use policy is followed, or if specific permission or a permit is granted. The current policy, for alcohol served inside the town hall, calls for a higher rental fee and damage deposit, and requires an onsite law enforcement presence.

The issue, for town board members, was township liability, not the question of whether or not some bocce ball players may want to enjoy a beer or two while playing.

The motion was passed 4-1 with Rick Worringer voting against.

Fire Chief Dave Fazio asked the board to consider purchasing an old ambulance from the Tower Ambulance Service, which has been offered to the department for $19,000. He said the rig would not be used as an ambulance, but as a medical response vehicle, and also a safe place to assess patients and for resting fire fighters, since it has both heat and air conditioning. He said this would reduce use of the department’s rescue truck.

Julia Maki, a member of the Embarrass Fire Department, said they have such a rig and it is used often.

Questions were raised on what the cost would be to outfit the rig with radios and other equipment.

“Do we really need this,” asked Reichel.

The board said they would like more time to study the issue, and will address it next month.

Supervisor Rick Worringer attended the recent St. Louis County Board meeting in Morse Township, hoping to speak on the Moccasin Point pier issue, but said he was not given time to speak.

The board approved primary and special election judges. The primary election for Representative David Dill’s seat will be on Tuesday, Sept. 29, with polls open from 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. The township will also take applications for new election judges for the December special election. Interested residents can contact the clerk’s office for more information.