EMBARRASS— A new cast of township officials is struggling to deal with a host of issues and disagreements over personnel, disruptive residents, and plans for a new post office— and tensions are running increasingly high.

Adding to the frustration is irregular meeting attendance by some town board members, which has prompted the cancellation of meetings at a time when the township is experiencing unusual upheaval.

The cancellation of the board’s regular monthly meeting, which had been set for June 1, prompted town board chair Zane Beaton to call an emergency meeting four days later to address personnel complaints and take steps to replace the township’s former maintenance supervisor, who recently resigned, at least in part over infighting with the township’s other maintenance worker.

The emergency meeting prompted more outrage from residents, who were caught unaware of the hastily assembled meeting, which some suggested was illegally closed.

Township Clerk Jennifer Boese denies that the meeting was closed. “It was an emergency meeting,” she said. “There’s been a lot of things going on between the board and workers, and meetings have been getting cancelled.” Meanwhile, she said, the township is short a maintenance worker and township-maintained lawns weren’t getting mowed.

It’s unclear if the circumstances justified an emergency meeting, which can be called under certain circumstances with less than the usual required public notice. Boese said she contacted the Minnesota Association of Townships attorney, who indicated that the decision is largely up to the discretion of local officials. Boese said she’d take the fall if the emergency meeting wasn’t entirely legal. “I’m new here. I’m sorry if I screwed up.”

Whether legitimate or not, the limited notice for the meeting upset some township residents and fueled the sense that things are spinning out of control. “I just can’t believe you could do something like that,” said Roland Fowler. “The open meeting law applies to townships, too.” Fowler said he doesn’t blame the clerk for the questionable meeting. “It’s the board’s fault,” he said.

It isn’t just residents who are upset. Boese also expressed exasperation at the situation in the township in recent months. “There’s been so much going on. All these people are mad at the board and it’s been hard for me to get my job done because of the constant phone calls and complaints,” she said. “In all these meetings, people are just yelling and screaming.”

Concerns over plans to replace the Embarrass post office have drawn a considerable amount of the board’s attention in recent months, said Boese. “We have three people who keep coming to the post office meetings. They complain about everything and keep holding it up.”

Recently-elected board member Roy Worsham said he thinks the board has spent too much time focused on the post office project, while ignoring some critical personnel issues. Worsham said that was one of the concerns he brought to the recent emergency meeting. “Nothing else is getting done,” he said. “We had a big free-for-all,” he said, describing the meeting.

Disciplinary action for the township’s other maintenance worker is another issue that Worsham had hoped the board would address. A personal dispute between township maintenance worker, Roger Davies and one of his neighbors, Edgar Petrell, had deteriorated into a physical confrontation at the town hall recently. At one point, Davies reportedly knocked Petrell’s hat off his head. Petrell tossed coffee on Davies in response, which led Davies to attempt to physically throw Petrell out of the hall.

Fowler, a former township maintenance worker and supervisor himself, said Davies should have been subject to a three-day suspension for his action. “They’re flying by the seat of their pants, not applying the policies of the township,” said Fowler.

Worsham said he favored disciplinary action but said the rest of the board seemed uninterested in dealing with the situation when he raised the matter at the recent emergency meeting. Instead, said Fowler, the board gave Davy a one-day suspension for the incident.

The board, however, did draft a letter to send to Petrell, informing him that he could no longer enter the town hall except for specific business with the clerk, after he allegedly made threats against the clerk and the town hall. “He threatened to blow it up,” said Boese. She said township officials did not report the alleged threat to law enforcement because the threat was reported secondhand. “We didn’t hear it ourselves,” she said.