SOUDAN- Residents of Breitung Township approved a 2025 levy of $740,000 on a 9-1 vote at their reconvened annual meeting held here on Aug. 15. The levy, which marked a seven-percent increase over the township’s 2024 levy of $690,000, has been rising steadily since 2017, when local taxpayers shelled out $489,660 to help fund the township’s operations.
Town chair Tim Tomsich was elected as moderator for last week’s meeting.
Tomsich explained that $10,000 of this year’s increase was earmarked to cover increases in part-time wages, payroll tax costs, insurance costs, and workers compensation insurance.
A $40,000 increase was earmarked to rebuild the township’s road and bridge fund after spending in this account the past two years has used up most of the township’s reserves. Tomsich said he felt this might need to be the new normal for the road and bridge fund.
“We use this money for local matches for grants for our road projects,” said Tomsich, who explained that this year the township has several major road projects underway, as well as the money spent repairing flood damage from the June storm.
“The township is doing a lot of work at once,” he said. “The flood showed us how vulnerable we are to major expenses.”
Tomsich said the township was able to do a lot of the flood repair work using its own maintenance staff and equipment, but they did need to hire outside contractors for some of the repairs needed. While the township should be eligible for federal and state reimbursement for much of the flood-related work, the money will not be available for a year or longer.
“The cost of everything with road construction has risen so much,” said maintenance supervisor Tom Gorsma. “A simple job that was $5,000 now is $8,000 or $9,000.”
“These increases will set us up for future year’s road improvements,” Tomsich said.
Current road projects include work on Church St., Stuntz Bay Rd., Echo Point Rd., and Thompson Farm Rd. The township has received $544,000 from MnDOT’s Local Road Improvement Program, or LRIP, for the Thompson Farm Rd. work, along with grants from the IRRR, DNR, and Prospector’s Trail group. The township has also received CDBG grant funding for work done in Soudan proper.
The Stuntz Bay Rd. project is being funded by the DNR, but the township is responsible for engineering costs. The IRRR is helping with engineering costs, but that still leaves half the engineering costs for the township.
The township has another application into the IRRR for engineering work on the Thompson Farm Rd. project, which is expected to get underway next year. The current shortfall on that project is as much as $400,000. Tomsich said if additional IRRR funding isn’t available, the township will need to look at scaling back the project, completing it over several years, or simply not doing the project. The project will reroute the gravel road to give more access to township gravel reserves and create a safer roadway, as well as creating a route from the new ATV state park campground, which is currently under construction, into Soudan and Tower.
“We are asking more than usual from our taxpayers,” said Tomsich.
The township normally sets its levy at the annual meeting in March, but this year delayed the process, due to uncertainties with grant funding for the Thompson Farm project.
Flooding updates
The township has submitted an application to FEMA to be reimbursed for flood-related costs. Clerk Amber Zak has been working with Gorsma to track money and hours spent on each individual repair project completed.
The Breitung Water Commission has approved giving residents $5,000 no-interest loans to help with flood recovery costs. The loans would be paid back at $50 per month. The commission has a similar loan program in place for residents who need to replace leaking lateral sewer or water lines.
Supervisor Matt Tuchel said that work done over the past ten years actually mitigated the amount of flood damage residents experienced.
“It took a lot more rain to do damage this year,” he said. The work done fixing sewer lines, both township and the lines going into homes, meant less stormwater infiltration into the sewer system, he said. Also, the township has worked on improving the rainwater drainage from the mine hill, so that water doesn’t enter the sewer system.
“We’ve invested millions of dollars in our infrastructure,” Tuchel said, “but apparently it wasn’t enough.’’ The township will be looking at ways to prevent additional sewer line backups after torrential rains, especially for those living south of Hwy. 169 in the South St. area.
Two residents on South St. said they were denied FEMA help, but Tuchel, who also lives in Soudan, said his was approved.
The two residents said they were denied because they had sewer-backup coverage as part of their homeowners’ insurance, but that paid out only $5,000, nowhere near the total cost of repairs needed. Tuchel said he also had that coverage, and wondered why those claims would be denied. Homeowners are able to appeal the initial FEMA denial.

Police report
Police Chief Dan Reing reported he has been enforcing curfews for teenagers who are out after curfew hours (only allowed if with a parent). They are also continuing to enforce ATV rules for teenage drivers, though Reing said complaints are down.
Arrests in July included one adult female arrested for fourth degree DWI, three juveniles arrested for 2nd degree felony assault (with the fourth juvenile arrested by an outside agency).
The department issued 20 driving-related citations, including 15 for speeding, including multiple drivers going 80 or over in a 60 mph zone, and three drivers going 69 or70 in a 50 mph zone. A citation was also issued to a juvenile male driving 65 in a 40 mph zone.
A request from Reing to have the township hire part-time clerical support was tabled so the township could talk to the city of Tower about sharing the cost, as well as find out if this worker would be a union employee. Reing said he thought that four hours per week would be sufficient to help with the increasing paperwork load, and allow officers to spend more time patrolling, and less time in the office.