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CRANE LAKE WATER & SANITARY DISTRICT (CLWSD)
BOARD OF MANAGERS’ REGULAR MEETING
Crane Lake Chapel Fellowship Hall
Wednesday, January 5, 2022 – 1:00 P.M.
Members present: Bonnie Caughey, Deena Congdon, and Rob Scott
Members absent: Mark Anderson and Darrell Scott
Also present: Clerk/Treasurer Jo Ann Pohlman
Rob Scott took the Oath of Office prior to the meeting.
The meeting was called to order by Rob Scott at 1:07PM.
Election of Officers. A motion was made by D. Congdon, supported by B. Caughey, to appoint Rob Scott as Chair. D. Congdon & B. Caughey voted in favor, R. Scott abstained and the motion carried. Rob Scott will be the CLWSD Chair for 2022. A motion was made by R. Scott, supported by D. Congdon, to appoint Bonnie Caughey as Vice-Chair. R. Scott & D. Congdon voted in favor, B. Caughey abstained and the motion carried. Bonnie Caughey will be the CLWSD Vice-Chair for 2022.
Chairman R. Scott continued with the meeting.
Minutes: A motion was made by D. Congdon, supported by R. Scott, to approve the minutes of the 12/1/21 Regular Meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Correspondence: The correspondence list was reviewed by the Board. A motion was made by R. Scott, supported by B. Caughey, that the correspondence be placed on file and acted upon as required. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report: Clerk/Treasurer J. Pohlman presented the November 2021 Financial Statements to the Board. December 2021 payroll: Admin – $1,790.00, Operating – $4,725.00. Payroll Taxes: PERA – $2,205.84, Federal Deposit – $1,648.74. The 2021 Year-End Tax Apportionment Advance of $778.06 was received. The October Tax Apportionment was received: $15,427.64 – Levy; $11,231.17 – Special Assessment. The Special Assessment amount was transferred to S.A. Savings. $57,229.99 was transferred from S.A. Savings to Checking and $2,231.01 was transferred from Debt Service Savings to Checking to make the annual Rural Development loan payment; which transpired on 1/3/22. A motion was made by D. Congdon, supported by B. Caughey, to approve the Treasurer’s Report as presented and the payment of bills as follows: Admin Fund – $1,806.00; Legacy III Fund – $11,175.26; and Operating Fund – $10,151.65. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Funding Balances: A Report of current grant funding balances was presented to the Board.
Information Requests: A summary will be made of expenses related to information requests on District operations.
Administration
- DNR Special Use Permit: The Permit has been signed by both the DNR and the District. The Permit allows the District to infuse water into the collection system from the Bayside Drive Public Water Access well to prevent freezing. A motion was made by D. Congdon, supported by B. Caughey, to approve signature of the document. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
- Professional Services Agreements: A motion was made by R. Scott, supported by B. Caughey, to approve signature of the Agreement between Walker, Giroux & Hahne and the District to provide auditing services for 2022. All voted in favor and the motion carried. A motion was made by D. Congdon, supported by R. Scott, to approve signature of the Consultant Agreement between Costin Group and the District for 2022. All voted in favor and the motion carried. A motion was made by B. Caughey, supported by R. Scott, to approve signature of the Contract Agreement between Rutchasky Enterprises and the District for 2022 with a change to 2. (k) as follows: Assisting the Sanitary District in planning and implementing expansions or improvements for (removing within or to) the Sanitary District. All voted in favor and the motion carried. A motion was made by D. Congdon, supported by R. Scott, to approve signature of the Contract Agreement between Orton Construction and the District for 2022. Discussion followed: B. Caughey stated her concern of a conflict of interest with the same firm providing design and inspection services. D. Congdon stated that the County and the State are OK with the same firm providing design and inspection services and the District could consider separating design and inspection when they wished to. D. Congdon & R. Scott voted in favor, B. Caughey voted against and the motion carried. A motion was made by D. Congdon, supported by B. Caughey, to approve signature of the Contract Agreement between the Wastewater Treatment Operator, Robert Scott, Jr. and the District for 2022. D. Congdon & B. Caughey voted in favor, R. Scott abstained and the motion carried.
CLWSD Meeting Minutes – January 5, 2022
Administration (Cont.)
- Board Designates: A motion was made by D. Congdon, supported by B. Caughey, to approve the following for 2022:
Fryberger, Buchanan Law Firm remains as primary council for the District with Cope & Peterson and Maki & Overom as needed.
Glorvigen, Tierney & Co. remains as the accounting firm for the District.
Walker, Giroux, Hahne provides auditing for the District.
Any bank may be used with Park State Bank being designated as the financial institution for the District.
Carl Brown Consulting remains as a financial consulting firm on an as needed basis for the District.
Costin Group remains as consulting firm for the District.
SEH remains as engineering firm for the District.
Robert Scott, Jr. remains as Plant Operator.
Rutchasky Enterprises remains on contract with the District.
Jim Orton of Orton Construction remains as ISTS designer & inspector.
Lance Ulen &Jeff Truebenbach remain as Maintenance Workers.
David Stern & Craig Campbell remain as pumper truck drivers.
Traci Bak & Jo Ann Pohlman remain to provide Administrative Work.
CNH remains as the official newspaper for the District.
All voted in favor and the motion carried.
- Administrative: A motion was made by R. Scott, supported by D. Congdon, to approve the following for 2022.
Rental payment to the Crane Lake Chapel will be set at $70 per meeting.
Meeting Date & Time & Location: First Wed of each month, 1:00PM – at the Fellowship Hall. Changes will be posted.
Posting Places: Church, Post Office and area resorts when open with 1 posting annually.
Minutes Distribution: On website and mailed by written request.
Copy and Information Request Policy: Charge of 25 cents per copy (includes labor) for copy requests and $25 per hour for other labor requests.
Salaries: Lance – $26.00/hour + PERA, Jeff – $26.00/hour + PERA, David Stern & Craig Campbell – $37.00/hour + PERA, Jo Ann – $32.00/hour + PERA, Traci – $85.00/month. New Hires – $19.00/hour.
Mileage: Follow state guideline which fluctuates and is currently 0.575 cents per mile.
All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Joint Powers Board
- VNP Comprehensive Plan: The Comprehensive Plan is in its final form.
- Grant Funding: The District will be receiving $200,000 in Legacy Grant funds in 2022 and $400,000 in 2023. Gary Cerkvenik and Jeff Anderson of the Costin Group along with Mike Larson of S.E.H. are working on a DEED grant application for continuation of the CLWSD plant updates. Application forms are being completed for $200,000 in COVID funds to be used as a match for the DEED grant.
S.E.H. Engineering
- District Update: Jason Chopp provided the following report: WWTP Project Flow Equalization System project Update; 1) Provided assistance to Rob Scott related to newspaper questions. 2) Design correspondence with wastewater tank and equipment suppliers. Supplier confirmed delivery lead times for concrete tanks and pumps and pump controls are reasonable for bidding this winter and construction late summer and early fall. 3) Design review meeting with Rob Scott Jr scheduled for Jan 14. 4) Draft document submittal to follow design review meeting – tentatively Friday, Feb 4.
VNP Visitors Center and Campground; 1) SEH is working with the Town on the Visitors Center and Campground. We are in preliminary design stage, but it appears that there will be a visitors center restroom, campground restroom/shower facility, and 35-40 RV sites with sewer. My question to CLWSD is does the district have any preferences on how we handle the campground sewers? Normally we would collect the campground sewer in a duplex grinder station and tie it directly into the centralized system. In my discussions with Bob, the thought of a holding thank and hauling the sewage away with septic haulers was proposed as an option. I would like to gather the board’s thoughts on this and we can set up a meeting to discuss further.
O & M. (Decentralized)
- Management Program Update: A report was presented to the Board. D. Congdon reported that all is fine at the Michael Schwanke property – there is no freezing.
CLWSD Meeting Minutes – January 5, 2022
O & M Update (Centralized)
- Operations Report: Rob Scott Jr. provided the following report: We met all the MPCA effluent limits for last month. The influent flows to the plant are still low which will remain low until we get some more traffic in the area. A meeting is scheduled for January 14th with SEH to finalize the construction documents for the upcoming plant construction project this year.
I just wanted to clarify a few things in regards to an article that was recently published in a local paper regarding the CLWSD. When I took over the district’s discharge reports to the MPCA in the summer of 2019, some of the MPCA limits were exceeded. I even noticed some had been exceeded prior to me taking over as the licensed operator. So that being said, I decided to start some dialogue with SEH, our consulting engineering design team, that fall of 2019 on the problems the plant was having and what would be the best course of action to correct the issues with the plant.
Now the construction drawings and specifications will be finalized in February and then go out for bid by this spring, hopefully construction will proceed this summer. Our intent behind this construction project is to not only remedy the issues with the plant, which is approaching its 20-year design limit, but to allow for proper treatment of any future influent demand in the district and for further development in the district.
There is one thing I wanted to make clear in regards to all wastewater. All wastewater, prior to being treated, is 99.9% pure water. So the focus of wastewater treatment is the remaining 0.1% which is basically soaps, grease, insoluble fiber and microorganisms. The effluent limits that we are reporting to the MPCA are mostly to ensure that things like BOD, TSS, phosphorus, sulfate and nitrogen are being treated as well as fecal coliform, which is a bacterium in wastewater that is primarily not harmful to humans.
So in regards to the use of the word “pollution” in the article is not an accurate description of the effluent exceedances that the plant has encountered from time to time. Some wastewater plants throughout our country have encountered incidents that have allowed for untreated wastewater spillage directly into the environment, which I would definitely categorize that as pollution. Not so with our plant. These kinds of spillages are typically from holding pond type facilities which our plant is most definitely not. Furthermore, in all my discussions with MPCA in regards to the effluent exceedances, not once has it been labeled as pollution. They acknowledge that the wastewater is still being treated. There is NO raw or untreated wastewater ever getting delivered to the receiving waters from our facility.
If you need further discussion on this, feel free to email me anytime.
- Mark Anderson Report: M. Anderson was not present to report but did say that the plant temperatures are being monitored and are between 40 and 45 degrees.
- Winterization: A few of the infusers are having issues – all will be checked. A record will be kept of when the infusers are turned on, turned off, and if any repairs are made.
- Workforce: It was suggested that an internship program could be explored with students from Northwoods providing extra maintenance help to the District when needed and creating future job interest.
PUBLIC COMMENTS (5 Minute Limit): There were none.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:35PM
Jo Ann Pohlman, Clerk
NEXT MEETING: Board of Manager’s Meeting – February 2, 2022, 1:00PM, Fellowship Hall
This draft of the CLWSD minutes has been posted solely for preliminary informational purposes. Minutes are unofficial and subject to change until they have been approved by the CLWSD Board of Managers.
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