County asks support for two-lane Hwy. 61, trail

Carlton County is looking for the approval of Thomson Township organizations to move forward with planning the proposed County State Aid Highway 61 reconstruction and trail project, but the community organizations are not ready to give their stamp of approval.

Carlton County engineer JinYeene Neumann requested a letter of support from the Thomson Township board at their meeting March 17, to be used as part of a grant application process for the project. Due to relatively low traffic on the roadway, approximately 2,400 vehicles a day, and feedback from the community, the county decided to move forward with a plan that would convert the four-lane highway into a two-lane design. The transition to two lanes would make the road more cost- effective to maintain and would allow for the construction of a recreational trail along the roadway.

The project is somewhat urgent. “CSAH 61 is in desperate need of repair and structures under the roadway are failing,” Neumann said.

Township supervisors expressed concern about offering support for a project that has no drawn plans and said they would like to give township residents the opportunity to offer feedback and ask questions before any motions are made regarding the project.

“I’m not saying I don’t want to support this grant, but I know that there are other stakeholders that want to have a conversation about this, and if that’s the case, why not give the community that opportunity,” said supervisor Terry Hill.

Other board members and members of community organizations, such as the school board and fire department, are concerned about the safety of the project, including Esko fire chief Kyle Gustafson.

“With the business park being down there and buses going in and truck traffic going in and out, it could be a problem area going from four to two lanes,” Gustafson said.

According to some board members and township engineer Joe Jurewicz, it will not be possible to keep the four-lane road.

“I understand that everybody from the sheriff’s department, fire department, school district, and even us are going to want it to be a four-lane road. It will never be that again because the numbers and the funding are just not there,” supervisor Jason Paulson said.

The road was once the main thoroughfare between Esko and Duluth, before Interstate 35 was completed in the 1970s.

Jurewicz echoed Paulson’s statement, explaining that the road no longer has the volume of traffic to warrant four lanes and reminded the board that the construction of a new trail in the community is something on the township’s comprehensive plan. Jurewicz and Paulson said the project is not something that the community can avoid, so they should prepare for an eventful year of planning and public input.

Before any decisions are made regarding the township’s support of the project, the board will meet with other community groups and Neumann to get a better understanding of what it will look like and determine if they still feel that there are safety concerns.

Ambulance levy cap

The township board decided to send a letter to state representatives in support of a levy cap for the ambulance-only areas served by the Cloquet Area Fire District, citing the nearly threefold increase that was proposed for this year as an example of what could happen when there are no limits placed on what can be levied. That increase never came to fruition, as CAFD board members ultimately set the ambulance-only levy at the previous year’s level after residents and township officials fought the increase.

The board also asked the township’s lawyer, Dave Pritchett, to come up with his final opinion on whether or not the township can be levied at all or if CAFD should have to bill the township itself for services.

At the heart of the debate between CAFD and the township is a “reallocation” of costs for ambulance and fire coverage, something the CAFD board and administration has fought for since the inception of the fire district in 2009. At that time, the state legislature didn’t allow the state’s first and only fire district to tax property owners in the ambulance primary service area. In 2013, CAFD got funding language for EMS added, but the legislature put in a cap of 0.019 percent of estimated market value for CAFD, although every other EMS district automatically got a higher cap of 0.048 percent.

In 2021 — with an eye toward encouraging the formation of more combined fire districts like Cloquet’s — the state legislature removed all levy caps for any fire district starting in 2022.