Three representatives from the Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation were at the county board meeting Tuesday for an annual update and to ask for support from the county board.
Executive director Todd Sellers gave the update. He said a study for phosphorus started last spring, which is being done between Minnesota, Ontario and Manitoba agencies as well as two colleges; St. Cloud State University in Minnesota and Trent University in Ontario.
Sellers emphasized that there is collaboration going on in the studies and sharing of data between the two countries that share the lake.
The next step, he said is to get the International Joint Commission involved to help with coordination of studies, prevent duplication, and help search out funding from both sides of the border.
Director Dick Sjoberg said they have been working with elected officials on the U.S. and Canadian sides of the border to support the IJC’s control of lake. Currently, the IJC’s jurisdiction ends where the Rainy River enters the lake.
The IJC prevents and resolves disputes between the United States of America and Canada under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty and pursues the common good of both countries as an independent and objective advisor to the two governments. In particular, the Commission rules upon applications for approval of projects affecting boundary or transboundary waters and may regulate the operation of these projects and it assists the two countries in the protection of the transboundary environment.
County commissioner Todd Beckel was leery of giving support. “Basin-wide management makes sense, but I’m afraid of higher up decisions that have affects locally,” he said.
The county board members will have a letter of support drafted, and look at it at the next board meeting.

Planning
commission
There was a planning commission hearing on the final plat of River’s Edge Estates, but approval might be held up. There is a lawsuit filed against developers Rick Amundson and Scott Olmstead. Ted Furbish and Doug Brown filed the lawsuit with attorney Steven Anderson, saying that part of the land used to access the plat is owned by them, and not the developers.
Amundson and Olmstead have Alan Fish for an attorney, and Fish said the property is shared, and that the title is clear. Fish said this lawsuit is a last-minute attempt at stopping a development.
“The planning commission is not the place to decide a court case over easement,” said chairman Kim Bredeson.
The board members asked interim attorney Michelle Moren to review the title and abstracts, and they will look at the results at the next meeting, which is scheduled for November 25th.

Ditch 1 projects
A few months ago a landowner on Ditch 1, Milo Ravndalen, requested a portion of the ditch be cleaned and repaired. That project’s costs would have to be assessed to all the beneficiaries of the ditch system, so a public hearing took place. At that hearing many of the other landowners said they didn’t want to pay for the repairs, since Ravndalen caused much of the damage. No action was taken at the time.
Instead, a committee met and looked at the whole ditch system and listed all the projects that might need to be done, and what the costs would be.
The result was a priority list of 18 projects for a total of $35,400. Of that amount, $24,300 was to repair the ditch of Ravndalen’s request.
Another hearing would have to take place with the landowners to decide what projects would get done, and how they would be assessed to pay for the projects.
One of the difficulties of determining assessments is that the county board members are unsure if the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources would pay its assessments. As of now, the DNR refuses to pay for assessments.
To add another wrinkle in the discussion, Ravndalen went ahead with cleaning out the ditch, without permission, and not to engineering standards. The county’s ditch attorney on retainer, Kurt Deter wrote a letter to the board recommending that Ravndalen should pay for the repairs since he did the work without authority.
The county board members said they would invite Ravndalen in to a board meeting to discuss it with him. Attorney Moren said Ravndalen could be charged with a misdemeanor.
The board members did not set a date to discuss the other work on the ditch system.

Other
There will be interviews for a full-time assistant assessor; three of the nine candidates will be interviewed. There was one application for a contract assessor, but the board came to consensus on hiring for the full-time position.
The board heard a second request from the Historical Society for funding. The money would be used for a building addition to be constructed in 2010. Board member Dan Crompton and curator Marlys Hirst said the money would not have to be paid out until 2010, but having a commitment from the county board helps when they submit grant applications. They were requesting $25,000 per year for three years, or $75,000 in 2010. County board members said they were unsure what their budget would be like by 2010, so they were unsure of what kind of commitment they could make. They talked about $15,000 for the current year, or possibly $30,000 total, but they instead decided to talk about it at a committee-of-the-whole meeting at a later date.
The board members transferred the former Maxi-Van to the Williams Fire Department to be used as an equipment vehicle.