State money OK'd for 'blue' blizzard damage

Carlton County will receive more than $700,000 in state disaster relief following the winter storm Dec. 12-16 which coated the region with heavy snow, breaking tree limbs and crippling power infrastructure for days.

Carlton County gathered details from townships and jurisdictions throughout the county and submitted for $979,360 in costs associated with cleanup and repair.

The National Weather Service referred to the storm as a “blue” blizzard becasue of the high water content in the snow that caused so much damage.

Gov. Tim Walz approved the request earlier this month, at a rate of 75-percent reimbursement, or $734,520 for Carlton County.

“A majority of that was debris management,” said Marlyn Halvorson, Carlton County emergency management director.

Snow removal isn’t eligible for emergency funds, but clearing up tree limbs on power lines and across the roads was.

The seven counties approved for disaster assistance included St. Louis County, which will receive $570,473. All told, the counties submitted costs approaching $7 million, Halvorson said, falling short of the $10.1 million necessary to reach a threshold for federal disaster relief.

Most of Carlton County’s money will be aimed at reimbursing power cooperatives responsible for utility restoration, Halvorson said, including Lake Country Power, East Central Energy, and Moose Lake Power.

“Those were our highest figures,” he said.

The county collected damage figures from townships, cities, the Cloquet Area Fire District, and local offices for the state departments of transportation and natural resources.

“We expect cleanup work to extend into spring and early summer once the snow melts,” said city of Cloquet director of public works Caleb Peterson.

As a result of work to come, Peterson remained unclear about a final dollar figure due the city.

The Cloquet Area Fire District said it responded to 55 emergency incidents during the snow emergency, ranging from fire alarms and carbon monoxide incidents to hazardous situations such as tree branches on power lines and emergency medical incidents.

Overtime and additional staffing expenses, along with the cost of equipment for the responses, totaled approximately $6,300.

“We receive 75 percent of the total, so we should receive $4,600 in reimbursement,” fire chief Jesse Buhs said. “We did not incur any damage from the storm to equipment or facilities, nor did we have injuries to staff.”

The disaster assistance will be meted out through the state Department of Public Safety’s division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

“These jurisdictions have one year to complete all tasks to submit a final invoice,” Halvorson said. “It can be quite a chunk of money.”

Each jurisdiction will be left to themselves to cover 25 percent of costs associated with storm damage.

Wildlife area extended

The Carlton County board was notified at its meeting Tuesday that another private 40 acres is being added to the Red Clover Wildlife Management Area north of Cromwell along Minnesota Highway 73 and just south of Cross Lake.

The Department of Natural Resources does not need the county’s blessing in the case of a private organization, Pheasants Forever, buying land from a private party.

The emphasis for benefiting birds other than sharptails that use brushland habitats has been the focus of the DNR wildlife staff. Information provided by the DNR, through a presentation by wildlife manager Chris Balzer, noted that even though that particular brushland area has been a sharptail habitat historically, “it has not been occupied in recent years.”

Lawrence Lundin, an adjoining owner to the north of the wildlife management area, via telephone said that he has seen sharptails on his hill property eating birch tree buds, swamp cranberries, and seeds from the wild sumac. He commented that there would be no sharptail in the area if the small grain fields on the Anderson Road and to the west stopped cultivating those crops.

Currently, there are nine wildlife management areas in Carlton County. The current private property has a 2022 property tax of $294. State ownership of that 40 acres will make a Paid In Lieu of Taxes payment to the local governments valued at $250.50.

Busy construction year

It will be another busy year for county road construction:

• In District 1, Brookston Road will be graded from Lund Road to the north county line with the bids let in the summer 2023 and work starting in the fall 2023. Railroad crossing improvements will be installed this summer at the rail crossing south of the Sawyer store.

• In Cloquet, 14th Street improvements from Tall Pine Lane to Prospect Avenue are scheduled for this summer. Upgrading 22nd Street from Washington Avenue to Prospect Avenue will cost $2.5 million in federal funding. Design plans are still being worked on and construction is planned for 2024 in the joint Cloquet/Scanlon project.

• Planning goes on for CSAH 61 reconstruction in Thomson Township. Funding sources are being worked on.

• Five bridges being replaced on CSAH 4, 6, and 13 in District 4. The bids for these projects were let this last fall and will be installed in the summer of 2023 and 2024 in some cases.

• District 5 will see the Kingsley Road and the Swede Lake Road (2.5 miles south of Highway 210) paved this summer. Lakeview Township Road 126 will see two 18-foot-by-8-foot box culverts installed on the Tamarack River on the west county line. CSAH 20 and 23 will be milled and paved this summer. CSAH 121 (Kalli Road), 1 mile south of Minnesota Highway 210 and County Road 128 (Tamarack Lake Road) 1.3 miles south of 210 will have full-depth reclamation and bituminous paving.

Other news

• County engineer JinYeene Neumann got approval to sign a gravel pit lease with Dan and Gayle Heikkila at $3 per yard for a pit just over the county line in St. Louis County.

• Attorney Adrienne Pearson was hired to represent parents in court matters. She is being paid $130 per hour and was appointed by the Sixth District Court.

• Commissioner Proulx asked why the final budget levy on property taxes is always set between Christmas and New Year’s. He said most people are gone on vacation during that period and there are other counties which approve the final levy before Christmas, after the Truth in Taxation hearing. County coordinator Dennis Genereau said he will explore all options and come back with a recommendation for a budget planning schedule.