Carlton County: State sings recorder's praises

One of Carlton County's longest-serving employees received statewide recognition last week for her exemplary work in the recorder's office.

Kristine Basilici, Carlton County recorder and registrar of titles, earned a member-of-the-year award last week during a conference in St. Louis Park of the Minnesota Association of County Recorders. Auditors, treasures and recorders from all 87 counties were on hand when Basilici received the honor. She received a brass and wooden plaque "in recognition of distinguished service."

"I love my work, and serving the public and being able to bring (state) statute to life for people," she said. "It meant so much to my district recorders that I serve with. This is a reflection of their work and it's a reflection of my staff's work, too. It's not only my reward, but this is theirs, too. Without them, I couldn't do it."

Basilici has been the longtime chair of the local district, which features nine neighboring county recorders offices.

Basilici spoke with the Pine Knot following Monday's meeting, describing the work of the county recorder's office as threefold: part recorder, registrar of titles, and local registrar. Several roles fulfill property matters, such as filing real estate abstracts and torrents. The department also issues certified copies of birth and death records, and is responsible for marriage licenses and certificates, ordination credential registration, notary commission filing and is the authorized repository for military discharge records, said the county website.

"You have to be willing to learn and learn statute, and how statute applies to all of the different roles you fill," Basilici said. "You have to be willing sometimes to work extra-hard to make sure that the efficiencies are there for your department."

Over the years she's had to adopt new laws and systems, including the age of electronic recording.

"Things change and they change fast," Basilici said. "We have to change with it. You have to adapt."

Basilici expects to retire next year, during her 39th year on the job, and is in the process of helping with the transition. She enjoys that the work within the office puts her own mind to good use.

"We try to be as helpful as we can be," Basilici said of the office. "And using some gray matter that's up there is always a good thing."

Freemasons donate fire tools

Heath Weirsma and other representatives from Masonic lodges in Cloquet and Moose Lake donated four fire suppression tools to the Carlton County Sheriff's Office at the county board meeting Monday.

Sheriff Kelly Lake accepted the gift, and drew laughs when she had to put down one of the heavy objects during the presentation.

"If you can use a fire extinguisher, you can use one of these," Weirsma said.

The systems work by pulling a pin and bowling them into a structure fire, Weirsma explained, creating 5,300 cubic feet of powder, or an amount that would fill a two-and-a-half-stall garage.

"The two lodges are donating four of these units to the Carlton County Sheriff's Office for their shift commanders to use," Weirsma said. "That way, there is one being used at any one time, any time of day."

Weirsma explained that the local Masonic lodges were working with the Grand Lodge of Minnesota and Minnesota Masonic Charities to raise visibility of the historic charitable works conducted by the local lodges.

He called the Freemasons "alive and well in Carlton County." Fire suppression tools used in an incident are replaceable by insurance, he said, and the units presented this week have a 15-year lifespan.

According to online pricing, the four fire suppression units would retail in the neighborhood of $1,000 each.

Solar coming to airport

The board also unanimously voted to enter into a land lease with Origis Energy, of Miami, Florida. Origis is in the process of bringing a solar energy station to the county-owned Moose Lake Airport. The 4.25-megawatt proposal would feature 30-40 acres of solar panels located on the southeast corner of the airport, along Old Highway 61. The 25-year lease, for $700 per leased acre, would include five-year options following the end of the initial term.

The project is expected to begin construction in 2026, following obtaining legal land access rights and permitting with local, state and federal jurisdictions. Origis will submit the airport project into an upcoming Minnesota Power request for proposal, at the end of the year, with energy derived from the solar plant intended for the Minnesota Power grid.

Operation of the solar field would commence near the end of 2026.

The airport property is considered underutilized at the moment, according to the county.

Origis has built more than 170 solar and energy storage projects across the country since 2008, it said in literature presented to the county board. Origis provides 24/7 monitoring, command and control of its operations from a site in Austin, Texas, it said.

Origis managing director Josh Teigiser told the newspaper that airports are well-suited for solar fields for being flat and unobstructed.

He declined to share a cost for the project until a final agreement is reached. He described the county's lease vote as the start of "negotiations" on a lease, whereas the county resolution called for the board to vote on entering into a lease.

"We have approached Moose Lake Airport about the possibility of a solar facility on airport land," Teigiser said in a statement Thursday. "Currently, we are not able to give specific information about final size, scope or cost, because discussions are extremely preliminary."

The Carlton County Airport Commission recommended the board approve the lease. The airport straddles the county line with Pine County, but is solely owned by Carlton County. A proposal to locate the solar project at the Cloquet Carlton County Airport was rebuffed, said county transportation director JinYeene Neumann, because property within the airport was already slated for other purposes more related to the airfield.

Other items:

- The county board unanimously approved the transfer of a liquor license from Rob's Mahtowa Tavern to its new owners, Mahtowa Tavern LLC. The new owners, Glenn and Renee Gaffney, have owned TJ's Country Corner in Mahtowa since 2019.

-The county board did not address a proposed resolution on delisting the gray wolf from federal endangered species protection. After two previous meeting's worth of discussion, the topic was not on the agenda. Commissioner Tom Proulx, who was absent Monday, had previously reminded the board last month that in 2021 it voted to avoid federal topics and topics outside its "scope of authority," instead agreeing to stick to local matters in its resolutions. The gray wolf has become a target of northeastern Minnesota residents, deer hunters and some lawmakers, who argue the animal is no longer endangered in the state and that wolf predation is responsible for a declining deer herd.