by Penny Mio
editor

The Lake of the Woods County Board had a special meeting Thursday, May 27 with Dave Hengel of Headwaters Regional Development Commission. The topic at hand was if the county should form an economic development authority.
The issue has been at the board in recent months because an EDA could help bring development grants into the county, grants that are unavailable without an EDA to administer them.

by Ted Stone
staff writer

About 40 people turned out Sept. 28 for a public hearing on the City of Baudette’s proposal to annex land south and west of the present city limits, including the industrial park south of town and Lake of the Woods School west of the city.

by Ted Stone
staff writer

Commissioners got off to a fast start at the July 14 Lake of the Woods County Board meeting, moving swiftly through the consent agenda, Social Service Department claims, and a series of other routine items, all within the first half hour.

About a year ago the Department of Natural Resources wanted to acquire land from Dean Bernard near Graceton.
The property is 640 acres with two miles of frontage along County Road 4, and it is adjacent to the Graceton Wildlife Management Area.
Last year when the DNR came to request permission for the trade, the county board blocked the action. It was a time when the county board members were upset with actions of the DNR on other issues such as management of the Beltrami Island State Forest.

Patty Beckel will lead the Lake of the Woods County Board this year, as she was nominated and voted in to be chairperson at the Jan. 6th meeting. Chosen as board vice-chair was Edward Arnesen.
Beckel, Arnesen and Tom Hanson were sworn in after being elected in November. Hanson is the only new face on the board. Beckel and Arnesen have served previously.

Newspaper

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.

The county board members got a grim preview of what might happen to county funding with the new gas tax formula. The increase in the gas tax was supposed to amount to about $250,000 in increased funding for the county highway department, but it’s not likely to happen.
That money would be used 60% for construction and 40% for maintenance of roads in the county.
But when gas prices were so high, people stopped buying so much gas, and the profit projection in October was barely enough to cover the change in the formula.

The county board had a full agenda when they met last week. Among the bigger issues were reductions in the solid waste fees, restrictions on billboards and the old Williams School.

Solid waste
The board looked at a recommendation from committee that suggested three things:
• a reduction in the seasonal recreation rate from $68 to $60 per property, which is about 1,400 properties
• eliminating assessment on season recreation properties owned by county residents, which means about 100 properties

It’s the time of year that the city and county have to submit their levies and budgets, and both agencies did that at their meetings last week.
The city met Thursday night and adopted a levy of $211,817, which is $192,817 for the city and $19,000 for the fire department.

County
The county adopted a levy of $2,255,463. This goes to the revenue fund, road and bridge fund and welfare fund. In addition, $455,805 will be levied against unorganized townships. This is for township road and bridge fund, township fire, Williams and Northwest Angle.

The county board convened as the planning commission Wednesday, Sept. 10 to review the initial plat of Marina Drive Estates.
The board had looked at the plan earlier, which is owned by Wayne Bendickson. The plat takes Hanson Estates, adds some land to it, and creates the same number, but larger lots. A road that was in the Hansen Estates will go through the vacation process September 23rd.