Fish house storage park of 100 approved

•Richard Gadbois made a request for an interim use permit (IUP) for a 175-unit dead storage fish house park in East Side Township. The county’s planning commission, at its October meeting, reduced the number to 100 and said the IUP would be good until the end of 2014. Another condition the commission imposed was a two-row evergreen buffer to preclude viewing from Highway 18. The County Board approved the IUP and the conditions recommended by the planning commission.

 

Board says no to
conditional use permit for excess number of animals

•A request for a conditional use permit (CUP) for an excess animal density agricultural use permit in Kathio Township was denied. Angel and Dan Oehrlein, Garrison, made the request in September and it was tabled until last week because of concerns by the Kathio Town Board. The Oehrleins and the town board met but no compromise was reached. At a County Board public hearing in September Angel Oehrlein testified that they had animals there for eight years without complaints. The Oehrleins requested having 14.26 animal units on 3.5 acres. The formula for animal units counts a horse or a donkey as one unit, a cow/calf combination as 1.2, and chickens, for example, as a fraction of a unit. The Oehrleins have five horses, a donkey, five calf/cow combinations, chickens, turkeys and ducks on their 3.5-acre parcel. They also own adjacent parcels of .3 acres and 5.085 acres. Commissioner Phil Peterson, with Commissioner Jack Edmonds seconding, made a motion to approve the request for 14.26 animal units on 3.5 acres. It was defeated, 3-2, and a motion was then made to deny the request and it passed 3-2, Commissioners Dave Tellinghuisen, Roger Tellinghuisen and Frank Courteau voting YES. The result of the motion, said Michele McPherson, Land Services director, is that the Oehrleins can redistribute 8.58 animal units on their three parcels but they will also have to remove some of the animals. Commissioner Edmonds said he voted in favor of the request as a member of the county’s planning commission and suggested a variance. “That’s my big concern,” countered Chair Courteau. “We’d be setting a precedent.”



Board OKs sheriff’s
equipment requests

•Equipment purchases requested by Sheriff Brent Lindgren were approved, the sheriff updated the board on squad car purchases, and the installation of radio consolettes was approved.  One of the county’s three new squad cars will get a LED light bar at a cost of $1,000. The other two, with the use of fleeing an officer forfeiture funds, will get LED light bars at a cost of $1,305 each. Funds from DWI assessment forfeitures will be used to pay for digital recording cameras for the three new squads at a total cost of $12,600, well under the $15,367 it would have cost to use a state bidding process. DWI assessment forfeiture funds will also be used to pay for radar units for the three new squads. The cost will be $5,613, or $2,115 less than the state bid. The three new Chevrolet Impala squad cars will come from a dealership in Fergus Falls now, the sheriff told the board, instead of a Pine City dealership that has been closed because it was owned by Denny Hecker. The board also approved spending $15,203 of a total cost of $35,703 to purchase and install three consolettes that will connect the county with the ARMER system, a relatively new emergency system that will be in place around the state by 2013. Right now, Lindgren told the board, Mille Lacs County is not connected to Sherburne or Benton counties, or the city of Princeton, as far as regular communication goes.  A grant of $20,500 will fund the rest of the purchase and installation.



Go-ahead given to buy
three county cars

•Concerning an item not on the agenda, commissioners approved the purchase of up to three fleet vehicles for the county at an amount not to exceed $45,000, plus taxes and fees. The money will come from the Miscellaneous and Nondepartmental Contingency-General Fund account.