March 11, 2019
Chairman Darrel Fehr called the meeting to order on March 11, 2019 at 7:30 pm. The supervisors present were David Clements and Matt Borofka. Other officers present were: Victoria Trinko-clerk and Judith A. Prince-treasurer. See attached list for delegation present.
Recitation of Pledge of Allegiance by delegation present.
Certification of proper posting for the scheduled town board meeting: The notice for the March 11, 2019 town board meeting was duly posted on March 6, 2019 in the 3 designated places within the Town of Cooks Valley.
Public Comment: There was no public comment.
Darrel Fehr made a motion to move item #12 to item #5. Matt Borofka seconded the motion. The motion carried 3-0.
Presentation by Christien Huppert-Chippewa County Land Conservation Dept.:
Chippewa Sands-Chippewa Sands was permitted to the extended boundary. The high wall is permitted and will be monitored annually for rock fall, rills and stability. The permit does not call for planting vegetation on the high wall. After determining the stability of the high wall, trees will be planted at the base of the high wall for semi-camouflage of the high wall. With the new permit, Chippewa Sands will switch from internal draining to external water draining. Flocculent will be added [40 million grams per liter of suspended material]. They will need to treat storm water on site due the amount of snowfall, prior to the construction of the new water storage pond that is necessary to the external drainage system. The new storage pond will be located above the intermittent waterway that flows toward and under County Highway A. Chippewa Sands met their monitoring goals this year. There were issues with big rain storms in 2018. There were washouts on the attempted nine acre reclaimed area that filled in the swale below the hill, which has been dredged out. In Oct. 2018, a pump failed which resulted in a milky discharge. A citation was issued to Chippewa Sands from the County for this incidence. For reclamation, Chippewa Sands is currently working on 26 acres, 15 acres are at final grade, with 9 acres in the final stages. When the County determines the reclaimed area shows stability of reclamation, Chippewa Sands will be authorized to remove the berm at the bottom of the hill that is reclaimed.
EOG-DS Mine: There has been no change in the active external boundary. No final grades are set at this time so the County is looking at final contours to update financial assurance numbers. Financial assurance is a bond to cover the cost to the County for reclamation of the mine to the permitted contours if EOG-DS Mine would quit and leave the mine as is. Chippewa County will be completing the same process for financial assurance numbers with Chippewa Sands. Financial assurance was completed with Preferred Sands two years ago. Financial assurance is done to protect the County and taxpayers from absorbing the cost of reclamation due to a sand mine contractor declaring bankruptcy or abandoning a mine site without completing reclamation required by the Non-metallic mining permit granted by the County. The County will hold the bond for each mine. There was a concern expressed about gullies being cut on the south side of 135th Avenue on Mark Berge’s land due to storm water discharge from the storm water storage pond. Another concern expressed was the fate of the storm water storage pond-will it be filled in or left in the present state? Since EOG owns the land occupied by the storm water storage pond and if they left the pond after mining has ceased; would the next property owner be liable for the maintenance/removal of the storm water storage pond?
Preferred Sands: It is still called Preferred Sands as they are still the permit holder. Frontier Sands is working the mine. Frontier washed some sand and plan to mine this year. The financial assurance is in place. No updates have been done on the final grades for reclamation. Frontier Sands missed some monitoring reports. One report was submitted instead of quarterly reports. Preferred Sands met the quarterly reports and used outside professional sources. Chippewa County feels the ground level crews did the report and feels the report was not accurate due to a spike in the ground water level measurements.
Christien Huppert submitted his notes to the board, which will be attached to the official minutes, placed in the folder of each mine, and posted on the Town of Cooks Valley website.
Discussion and possible action on budget categories: There was no action on budget categories.
Approval of the February 11, 2019 regular town board meeting minutes: David Clements made a motion to approve the February 11, 2019 regular town board meeting minutes. Darrel Fehr seconded the motion. The motion carried 3-0.
Reading by Treasurer of February financial report: The ending balance as of February 28, 2019 was $169,617.30, with the total assets-$338,294.82.
Reading and Approval of the February bills: Darrel Fehr made a motion to approve the check vouchers #4829-#4847 for payment of the February bills. David Clements seconded the motion. The motion carried 3-0.
Building permits: no building permits.
Discussion and possible action relating to the plan commission: no action was needed on this item.
Discussion and possible action on purchase of a printer: Darrel Fehr presented facts of E.O. Johnson has a printer for the cost of $2300.00 with a service contract of $149.00 quarterly; whereas a printer at Best Buy with the same features except for collating would cost about $400.00. Matt Borofka made a motion to authorize Darrel Fehr to purchase a printer and ink not to exceed $1000.00 with reimbursement with the submission of receipts for the purchase at the April meeting. David Clements seconded the motion. The motion carried 3-0.
Discussion and possible approval of plan commission member’s term of office: Darrel Fehr made a motion to approve Damian Prince and John Sykora IV to the plan commission for three year terms. David Clements seconded the motion. The motion carried 3-0.
Discussion and possible action on Chippewa County Ditch Cleanup program for 2019: Darrel Fehr made a motion to approve the Chippewa County road ditch cleanup project for 2019, not to exceed $800.00 with the ATV club performing the cleanup. Matt Borofka seconded the motion. The motion carried 3-0. Chairman Darrel Fehr will submit the form to Chippewa County accepting the project.
Chairman’s report: – Fire Dept. There were no fires in the Town of Cooks Valley for the month of February. The Chairman received a check for $25.00 for a fire suppression fee for a fire/car accident call in the Town of Cooks Valley from last year. Mine Roads- Frontier Sands started hauling sand last week to Weyerhaeuser. The chairman requested the town treasurer, Judith A Prince to transfer $300.00 from the Frontier Sands fund to the Town of Cooks Valley checking account for cracksealing on 186th Avenue. Darrel Fehr reported on the WISA workshop: the testing of sand mines appear to be going well; testing will continue on Mud Lake to determine if the high phosphorus content may be caused by phosphorus contained in ground water and springs which feed into the lake.
Dissemination of Information –Clerk’s report: A Zoning Baord Adjustment & Appeals Workship will be conducted on March 25, 2019. Xcel Energy requested a Tax Exemption form-the Town of Cooks Valley does not claim tax exemption at this time; a fire inspection report was conducted by Rod Schmidt [the Town of Cooks Valley had no violations]; a folder was given to the Chairman from the Construction Business Group with aids with bids, wage violations, etc.; and a survey will be completed by the Chairman for the Chippewa County Emergency Management.
Future agenda items and business:
Pledge of allegiance, Discussion and possible action on: budget categories, minutes of the March 11, 2019 regular meeting, treasurer’s financial report, March bills, Building permits, on concerns pertaining to the Plan commission, chairman’s report, dissemination of information-clerk’s report, adjourn
Spring Election will be on April 2, 2019
EOG annual permit review in conjunction with PurFrac around April 10, 2019
The next meeting will be April 8, 2019 at 7:30 pm.
Adjourn: Darrel Fehr made a motion to adjourn at 8:30 pm. David Clements seconded the motion. The motion carried 3-0.
Typed: March 12, 2019 Respectfully Submitted,
Approved: April 8, 2019 Victoria Trinko-town clerk