County Board of Commissioners discuss, accepts Rainy Rapid Watershed Plan

At their April 11th meeting, the Lake of the Woods County Board of Commissioners heard from Soil and Water Conservation District Resource Technician Mike Hirst and SWCD Directors John Sonstegard and Monica Dohman about the Rainy Rapid Watershed Plan.
After closing the regular meeting and opening a public hearing, Hirst told the Commissioners, "The Rainy Rapid Watershed drains most of Lake of the Woods County into the Rainy River. The area also encompasses smaller parts of Beltrami and Koochiching Counties, and the Red Lake Nation. The watershed has one town - Baudette, and 81% of the watershed is in public ownership, and much of the public land is peat lands."

Hirst then discussed the results of surveys taken within the county about perceived needs in the watershed area and outlined the five goals that resulted: 1 - Protect, manage, and improve habitat. 2 - Restore hydrology. 3 - Protect drinking water. 4 - Protect surface water. 5 - Stabilize streams, ditches, and riparian.
Discussion followed about the various goals with Board Chair Arnesen asking about programs for sealing abandoned wells.

"It's hard to get someone out to do that kind of a job," admitted Hirst, "it's a relatively low-cost job for a well driller who could be making way more drilling somewhere else."

"We need to find a way to incentivize this," countered Arnesen. "Who even knows how many unsealed unused wells are in the county? Thirty or forty? I mean protecting groundwater should be a priority in Lake of the Woods County."

"We need to get unsealed wells located," added SWCD Director Monica Dohman.

"We need to come up with a plan," concluded Arnesen.

Discussion followed about the possible need to address county rules and ordinances to deal with industrial-scale farming and clean water funds with Hirst explaining, "Clean Water Funds are meant to be supplemental. Our baseline annual funding is $260,000, and with Watershed-Based implementation funding that increases to $415,000. When we include funding from other sources - SFIA, NRCS, DNR, and others - that comes to $577,000.

With that, the Public Meeting was closed and the regular commissioners' meeting resumed with Commissioner Grund offering the motion to accept the Rainy Rapid Watershed Plan as presented, Commissioner Nordlof seconding, and the measure passing unanimously. The plan will next be sent to the Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources for implementation.

In other county-related business the board:

• Heard a legislative update from Board Chair Ed Arnesen who said that he'd met with legislators in St. Paul telling them that the county is going to need to come up with around $16,000,000 for a new law enforcement center.
"The Williams School demolition is back in the budget," Arnesen continued, "I was told that it's in this year's omnibus bill. I also talked to the committee about state funding for a Safe Boat."

Safe Boats were designed in Washington State to safely and comfortably operate on the rough waters of Puget Sound. One sought for the county would be operated by the Sheriff's Department and could be used in the worst types of weather for search and rescue and prisoner transport operations on Lake of the Woods.

• Opened and rejected a bid by Dan Crompton to lease 13 acres of county property for farming. "The field is only accessible through my property," Crompton told the board. "And getting a large machine into that small of a field just to crop the eleven usable acres just isn't feasible at the price the county's asking."

It was unanimously decided to amend the agenda, reject Crompton's bid for the use of the land, and to advertise the parcel again for bids with rewording the solicitation to state a set amount per acre or the highest offer.

• Paid the Social Services Claims as presented by Social Services Director Amy Ballard. The commissioners also approved a two-year contract with CSP Mental Health Services for 2023-2024. Ballard told the board that Social Services was still advertising to fill a vacancy in the department, and would advertise it until filled.

• Paid the Auditor/Treasurer's Claims as presented by Auditor/Treasurer Lorene Hanson.

• Agreed to provide the necessary support for paperwork needed for an architect to do the final design of Northerly Park. Lauren told the board about further work on overland snowmobile trails and requested the county act as fiscal agent for a trail improvement grant of $142,000.

• Unanimously approved a Resolution of Support for Miles Hogenson who was representing the Roseau Lake of the Woods Sportsmen and the Drifters who are putting together an ATV trail for summer use between Duluth and Roseau.

• Unanimously approved the County Feedlot Work Plan as presented by SWCD Technician Mike Hirst. Hirst told the board that there are still "about twenty" feedlots in the county and his job is to help inspect, regulate, and when the feedlot is no longer needed, close them.

• Agreed to provide up to $6,000 in matching funds for roof repair on the County Historical Society building. County Museum Director Lindsay Marshall told the board that the Historical Society has already made a down payment of $28,000 for the needed roof repair and is having a large fish fry and gun raffle to come up with more. "The rest will have to be obtained through a bank loan," Marshall told the board.

• Unanimously approved up to $2,000 to provide summer help for the University of Minnesota Extension Office at the school.

There being no further business to conduct, Board Chair Arnesen recessed the meeting at 12:00 noon.