Chairperson Ron Gajewski called the Regular Solway Town Board Meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. at the Solway Town Hall, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Also present were Supervisors Clare R. Stromlund and Scott Welsh, Clerk Regena Merritt, Treasurer Cindy Moe, and five concerned citizens.  

MOTION made by Welsh, seconded by Stromlund and carried to approve the minutes from the May 12, 2009 Town Board Meeting.

MOTION by Stromlund, seconded by Welsh and carried to accept the following Treasurer’s report dated May 31, 2009.

INCOMING CORRESPONDENCE:

5/14/09 St. Louis County Public Works – Opportunity for township to purchase Calcium Chloride Dust Control through the county contract.  The board sees no advantage to purchasing the dust control through the county.  The township has more control as to the date of application and the amount of dust control used when purchased through an independent contractor. The board will not participate in the county contract for dust control.

5/15/09 St. Louis County Attorney – Annual report.  No board action. 

5/20/09 WLSSD – An operations grant in the amount of $6,483.78 was awarded to the township.

5/20/09 South St. Louis County Fair - Thank you from the South St. Louis County Fair Board for $100 donation from the township.  No board action.

5/22/09 MN Assoc of Townships - Membership cards.  No board action.

 5/26/09 State of MN Auditor’s Office - New limits for FDIC. No board action.

6/1/09 MN State Demographic Center - Township population. The state has asked that  the township does not release the population estimates until July 15, 2009.

6/2/09 St Louis County Public Works            - Survey from St. Louis County Public Works and the MN Local Road Research Board. This survey is to provide feedback about the online toolkit developed by the Federal Highway Administration explaining the new street sign reflectivity rules.   The Clerk has not been able to open the online toolkit.  No board action.

6/9/09 St. Louis County Commissioners – Resolution from St. Louis County re-zoning in Sec 24 and 25 from FAM-2 to FAM-3.

OUTSTANDING BILLS: The Treasurer has the following list of additional bills. The Dust Dr in the amount of $3,990.00 for dust control applied to township roads; Avenet LLC in the amount of $396.00 for website hosting; Jim Lindquist in the amount of $6,039.00 for grading township roads, ditching South Mattson and Peterson Roads, and a new culvert on the South Mattson Road; John Childers in the amount of $9.00 for fuel reimbursement; Equipment Specialist in the amount of $1,444.32 for repairs to fire truck #2 and $70.00 for repair to the roadside mower. MOTION by Stromlund, seconded by Welsh and carried to pay all outstanding bills. 

CITIZEN REQUESTS/CONCERNS:  a) none

ROAD: a) The roadside mower has been repaired by Jim Johnson.

b) Jim Lindquist will install the new driveway culvert at the David Larson residence on the Van Gassler Road tomorrow.

c) The gravel has been applied as the Motioned by the Town Board at the May Town Board Meeting.  Dust control has been applied to the township roads and was completed on June 2^nd.

d) The “Jeffrey Road” sign that was missing has been installed by St. Louis County.    The township was charged for the sign, but not for the installation.

e) Lee Parenteau is the owner of the property on the Stone Lake road where there was a driveway culvert that was not installed correctly and removed by the township.  Mr. Parenteau has contacted the town office and filled out a driveway permit and will be installing the new culvert this summer.  Jim Lindquist feels there should be a 36-foot culvert installed.  Mr. Parenteau told Clerk Merritt he has purchased the longest culvert he could get from Thomson Township. 

f) The board will be obtaining information on the new state regulations for road sign reflectivity and will also find out who is responsible le for purchasing the new signs if the intersection is a county road and township road, and the sign is not in the county right-of-way. 

Jim Lindquist has completed the ditching and new culvert on the South Mattson Road and the extension of the Tondryk Road is complete.  Ditching on the Peterson Road has also been completed.

FIRE:  a) Fire Chief Wayne Suliin reported 33 calls year to date. There were 12 calls the month of May. These calls included: seven medical; two grass fires; one structure fire and two DNR assisted calls.

b) Chief Suliin is submitting a FEMA grant in the amount of $225,000 to replace tanker #2. The department has also applied for a FEMA equipment grant to purchase stabilizing bags to use on the scene of a vehicle accident to roll a vehicle off a pinned victim, and other equipment in the amount of $40,000. There is a 5% match that will come from the township for both of these grants. The department has decided not to apply for a DNR grant to construct a water reservoir.  The cost of a reservoir is approximately $40,000 and would be a 50% match from the township making the project cost prohibitive. 

c) The problems with the rear brakes and the steering gear on truck #2 have been fixed.  Truck #1 is also back in service, but there is a cracked housing that was not repaired.  This is a very low ticket item.  Chief Suliin will check into having it fixed at Hansen’s welding.  MOTION by Stromlund, seconded by Welsh and carried to have the fire department get the cracked housing repaired at Hansen’s Welding.  Steve Adamski will return to finish truck #6 and to install the filter on the fire hall compressor lines to solve the condensation problems.

d) The Fire Department would like to participate in the Fall Fun Day that is planned for September 26^th. The department will coordinate with the Special Events Committee.   

The department was asked about installing 911 address signs.  The new signs that are available are more visible from the road.   Chief Suliin will research Fire-Wise grants for any available funds; otherwise the homeowners can install the new signs themselves.  

RECYCLING:  a) The board would like to have another non-recyclables collection day, especially with the new television digital broadcasting.  MOTION by Gajewski, seconded by Stromlund and carried to have the Town Clerk set up the non-recyclables collection day with Hartel’s for October 17, 2009.

HALL: a) Pete Hildre has been working on the downstairs remodeling.  The Board has received three quotes for floor coverings in the basement.  The Board would like to install the carpet tiles. These tiles are made for commercial installation and can be removed and washed and then easily re-installed.  This type of carpet is more expensive than carpet off of a roll, but with the type of traffic coming from the outside into the basement, the board feels it will be a better option.

One quote from Mr. Matt Paulson from Flooring Installations would be to do the labor for $1,745 and we would purchase the carpet on our own at Menards.  The labor in the other quotes was approximately the same dollar amount.  The Carpet Connection in Cloquet and Cloquet Interiors quotes were very close.  MOTION by Welsh, seconded by Stromlund and carried to have Cloquet Interiors install the carpet tiles and vinyl tiles in the basement for the amount of $9,062.08.  This quote includes the vinyl tile in the entry and the carpet tiles in the remainder of the room; the front stairway and landing carpeted; base moldings and removal of the ceramic tiles in front of the bathrooms.  The Clerk mentioned that the back stairway should also be carpeted as long as the rest of the area was being done.  MOTION by Welsh, seconded by Stromlund and carried to also carpet the back stairway for an additional $500.  Chairperson Gajewski mentioned that Mr. Jim

Abrahamson from Cloquet Interiors could bring samples to the next Town Board

Meeting.  The board discussed the option of waiting till July 14^th meeting to pick out carpet or call a special Board Meeting next week to get the project completed quicker.  MOTION by Welsh seconded by Stromlund and carried to hold a Special Board Meeting Tuesday June 16^th at 9:00 a.m. for the purpose of selecting floor coverings for the downstairs remodeling project.  The board plans to purchase a new stove and refrigerator for the downstairs kitchen as well.

b) The Clerk was approached by a model airplane group that has as one of its members Pete Hildre.  This group would like to meet at the town hall during the winter months to fly remote control small lightweight planes. These planes weight about 2 ounces. This is not really a community function or community based group.  The Clerk will find out if more of the members are township residents or if the group would like to come to demonstrate what they would like to do at the hall.   MOTION by Gajewski seconded by Welsh and carried to table the decision for the town hall rental to the model airplane group until the July 14, 2009 meeting.

c) One of the new padded chairs was found broken.   Leon Forstrom is fixing the chair.   The board does not know how this happened.

PARK: a) Pete Hildre has submitted a quote in the amount of $475.00 to fix the baseball backstop poles by sanding, priming with a “rust stop” type of paint and then painting with aluminum paint.   MOTION by Welsh, seconded by Stromlund and carried to have Pete Hildre repair the baseball backstop poles for $475.00.

b) Todd Signs has submitted a quote to level the township sign and to replace the door latches on the reader board for $500. MOTION by Stromlund, seconded by Welsh and carried to have Todd Signs level the lighted township sign and replace the latches.   Before Todd Signs comes out to do this work, Jim Lindquist will check to see if he can easily dig a hole next to the signpost to try to level that side of the sign by forcing it into the ground further.

CEMETERY:  a) Two burials: Lila Manrud and Bonnie Fremling.

b) New flags are needed before July 4^th.  Leon Forstrom has found some at Menards for $4.14 each.  MOTION by Stromlund, seconded by Welsh and carried to have Leon Forstrom purchase with township funds 12 flags for the township cemetery from Menards.

c) The Town Office received compliments on the appearance of the cemetery for Memorial Day.

d) Chairperson Gajewski completed a cemetery inspection along with the monthly playground inspection.  No safety hazards were found.

e) There are a few broken branches at the cemetery that Leon Forstrom will trim up.

COMMITTEES: a) Special Events will hold a meeting June 16^th at 6:30 p.m. to start planning the Fall Fun Day. The Clerk will send reminders to the Special Events Committee members.

OLD BUSINESS:  a) Country Trucking and Excavating has paid the remainder of the legal fees that the township charged for the work to collect Aggregate Tax from them. 

b) The Town Board’s request to re-zone parts of Section 24 and 25 in Solway Township has been approved by the County Commissioners.  This is also addressed under correspondence.  

c) The Township Supervisors need to make “Conflict of Interest” resolutions for any work that they perform other than Township Supervisor Duties.   This would include any hall maintenance or grounds keeping.   MOTION by Welsh seconded by Gajewski and carried to adopt Resolution #68 Conflict of Interest for Clare R. Stromlund as follows:

Solway Township Resolution #68

Resolution Authorizing Contract With Interested Officer Under

Minn. Stat. 471.88, subd.5

Whereas, Town Board of Solway Township, St. Louis County, Minnesota is seeking the performance or acquisition of the following service or goods: General hall and grounds repair and maintenance.

Whereas, Clare Stromlund is a supervisor of said Township and will be financially interested in the contract for the following described reason:  He is directly providing the service as an employee of the Township.

Now, Therefore, be it Resolved that the Town Board, upon a unanimous vote of the supervisors with the interested office abstaining, finds that the contract price of $15.00 per hour is as low as, or lower than, the price at which the services or goods could be obtained elsewhere at this time; and

Be It Further Resolved, that the Town Board, pursuant to Minn. Stat. 365.37; 471.88, subd.5; and 471.89, does hereby authorize a contract with Clare Stromlund for a price of $15.00 per hour; payment to occur on the contract as agreed and upon the filing of a proper affidavit by the interested officer.

Supervisor Welsh moved the adoption of the resolution, seconded by Supervisor Ronald Gajewski, and declared adopted on the 9^th day of June, 2009 upon the following votes: Yeas – Ronald Gajewski, and Scott Welsh.  Nays – none.  Supervisor Clare Stromlund abstained.  Absent – none.

MOTION by Gajewski, seconded by Stromlund and carried to adopt Resolution #67 Conflict of Interest for Scott Welsh as follows:

Solway Township Resolution #67

Resolution Authorizing Contract With Interested Officer Under

Minn. Stat. 471.88, subd.5

Whereas, Town Board of Solway Township, St. Louis County, Minnesota is seeking the performance or acquisition of the following service or goods: General hall and grounds repair and maintenance.

Whereas, Scott Welsh is a supervisor of said Township and will be financially interested in the contract for the following described reason:  He is directly providing the service as an employee of the Township.

Now, Therefore, be it Resolved that the Town Board, upon a unanimous vote of the supervisors with the interested office abstaining, finds that the contract price of $15.00 per hour is as low as, or lower than, the price at which the services or goods could be obtained elsewhere at this time; and

Be It Further Resolved, that the Town Board, pursuant to Minn. Stat. 365.37; 471.88, subd.5; and 471.89, does hereby authorize a contract with Scott Welsh for a price of $15.00 per hour; payment to occur on the contract as agreed and upon the filing of a proper affidavit by the interested officer.

Supervisor Gajewski moved the adoption of the resolution, seconded by Supervisor Stromlund, and declared adopted on the 9^th day of June, 2009 upon the following votes: Yeas – Clare R. Stromlund, and Ronald Gajewski.  Nays – none.  Supervisor Scott Welsh abstained.  Absent – none.

MOTION by Welsh, seconded by Stromlund and carried to adopt Resolution #66 Conflict of Interest for Ronald Gajewski as follows:

Solway Township Resolution #66

Resolution Authorizing Contract With Interested Officer Under

Minn. Stat. 471.88, subd.5

Whereas, Town Board of Solway Township, St. Louis County, Minnesota is seeking the performance or acquisition of the following service or goods: General hall and grounds repair and maintenance.

Whereas, Ronald Gajewski is a supervisor of said Township and will be financially interested in the contract for the following described reason:  He is directly providing the service as an employee of the Township.

Now, Therefore, be it Resolved that the Town Board, upon a unanimous vote of the supervisors with the interested office abstaining, finds that the contract price of $15.00 per hour is as low as, or lower than, the price at which the services or goods could be obtained elsewhere at this time; and

Be It Further Resolved, that the Town Board, pursuant to Minn. Stat. 365.37; 471.88, subd.5; and 471.89, does hereby authorize a contract with Ronald Gajewski for a price of $15.00 per hour; payment to occur on the contract as agreed and upon the filing of a proper affidavit by the interested officer.

Supervisor Welsh moved the adoption of the resolution, seconded by Supervisor Stromlund, and declared adopted on the 9^th day of June, 2009 upon the following votes: Yeas – Clare R. Stromlund, and Scott Welsh.  Nays – none.  Chairperson Ronald Gajewski abstained.  Absent – none.

NEW BUSINESS: a) The board discussed various articles for the upcoming newsletter.  

MOTION by Gajewski, seconded by Stromlund and carried to adjourn tonight’s meeting after the board completes signing checks.  The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m.