New year brings new faces to township board

Thomson Township welcomed two brand-new board members Thursday, Jan. 2, swearing in Nathan Barta and Logan Saline. Elections were held for town board offices, with Tony Compo elected board chair and Ruth Janke as vice chair.

The first meeting of the new year was largely dedicated to organizational tasks, once the new board members were seated.

The two new supervisors quickly settled in, volunteering for a number of committee and liaison positions. The youngest member of the board at age 21, Barta will connect with the Esko school board, serve on the parks and trees committee and sit as a township representative on the Cloquet Area Fire District. He also offered to serve on the Duluth urban watershed advisory council.

Saline volunteered for the community education, town hall, roads and planning and zoning committees. The others retained many of the same committee appointments, including Compo for fire, sewer and water as well as the joint sports and recreation committee. Terry Hill will continue with the public safety, personnel and economic development committees. Janke joins him on economic development and personnel and will also take on the environmental/recycling committee.

The board reappointed Dan Stangle as zoning official and Kyle Gustafson as fire chief, plus Beth Elstad as clerk-treasurer and public works supervisor Jonathan Bouvine as assistant weed inspector. They also selected Fryberger Law Firm for legal counsel, Bollig Engineering for engineering services and the Pine Knot News as its official newspaper.

In other matters, Bouvine said now that the township has updated its road and bridges policy, it should focus an outdated sewer policy next.

The next town board meeting is 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 16. The board set a work session for 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10.