Board votes to reappoint Paulson to CAFD, changes snow removal policies

Talk of the Cloquet Area Fire District continued at the Thomson Township Board of Supervisors meeting Thursday, Jan. 20.

In past discussions about CAFD board representation, it was unclear whether the township’s representative had to be an elected official, a township employee, or if it could be anyone. According to township attorney Dave Pritchett, the representative cannot be a paid and/or current employee of the township, but must be an elected official to vote on the CAFD.

Board supervisor Jason Paulson questioned whether the township was able to have a voting member in the CAFD, since Thomson is not a member of the fire portion of the district, just a part of the CAFD ambulance district. Without a clear answer during the meeting, the board decided to keep Paulson as the representative with supervisor Terry Hill as the alternate.

In response to subsequent questions from the Pine Knot, interim CAFD chief Jesse Buhs sent a copy of the bylaws, which state that the Carlton County representative shall be selected by elected officials of that area, but the appointed board member doesn’t have to be an elected official.

Normally the county representative comes from Thomson Township but could also come from Twin Lakes Township; both are partial members of the fire district because they fall within the ambulance district primary service area. The bylaws also call for the county auditor to call a meeting to appoint new representatives for partial member communities to the CAFD board (full member communities appoint their representee without county auditor involvement), which could be the next phase of the process of filling the board seat vacated by Paulson last fall.

In other business, the board found itself between a rock and a hard place in terms of finding a company to perform the annual township audit. The township’s previous firm cited staffing shortages and said it could not perform the audit for 2021.

Supervisors accepted a proposal from Abdo Solutions to be the financial auditing firm to perform the 2021 audit. Abdo Solutions is the only firm that submitted a proposal to the township, asking for twice as much as the township has paid for the audit in the past. With no other choice and time running out, the board felt it had no other choice but to accept the proposal and move forward with the audit.

Supervisor Tony Compo suggested that the board make some changes to the township’s snow removal policy. Current policy states that snow is plowed “when snow accumulation reaches three inches.” Compo said this has been dangerous when just under 3 inches falls and gets driven on and compacted on the roadway, making it slick. Compo proposed the policy be changed to read that snow would be plowed “when snow accumulation stops.” The board unanimously passed the change.

Chair Ruth Janke made a comment to the public during the meeting that the township would be continuing to follow federal health recommendations when it comes to Covid-19 protocols.

The township’s annual town meeting will begin at 7 p.m. on March 8. The town board meets on the first and third Thursday of the month.

Pine Knot editor Jana Peterson contributed to this story.