SOUDAN – With the retirement of Eagles Nest Fire Chief Larry McCray, Eagles Nest Township is looking at alternatives, and one possibility could be some type of collaboration with Breitung Township. Eagles Nest Township board member Frank Sherman discussed the matter at the Breitung Town Board meeting last week.
“When (McCray) notified us of that, we started thinking about either how we’re going to get a replacement or what else the fire department would need,” Sherman said. “As a result of that we’ve begun discussions with Morse and Fall Lake about joining them in some sort of association or joint powers board that we might ultimately agree to.”
Sherman noted that while Eagles Nest is aware that things won’t be in place by Jan. 1, “We ‘re interested in broadening both the scope of coverage and financing.” Sherman pointed out that regarding medical response, “There are some specific advantages of joining with them.”
Sherman told the board that they would welcome Breitung’s participation if they were interested.
“We are going to do something, and if for any reason you have interest in broadening what we’re talking about we’d be happy to continue (discussing) it,” Sherman said. “If there’s any reason to continue the discussion, we would probably be able to come to the next meeting.”
Supervisor Chuck Tekaultz asked if there was already a mutual aid agreement, which Sherman confirmed.
“There’s already cooperation, but this would make it a little more formal and also in terms of budgeting, we’d all be joined together,” he said.
Further discussion on the issue included current numbers of volunteers in various departments and capability to give adequate emergency response coverage over an expanded territory. It was agreed that Sherman and McCray would attend Breitung’s next regular meeting with more information.

Other business
In other business the board:
• Awarded the bid to Mesabi Bituminous $346,215 for a 2022 infrastructure project.
• Approved Ordinance 93-07 regarding parking of vehicles on any township of Breitung roadway. This ordinance allows the township to tow vehicles parked on township roads that are restricting snow removal, as well as adding in fines.
• Approved the amended blight ordinance, which adds in fines and other enforcement actions to the existing blight ordinance.
• Approved starting the process of formally recording the newly-paved N 2nd Street as a township road.
• Discussed pursuing Option 1 in regard to proposed ATV trails with possible alternate routing where necessary. This trail will connect the planned ATV campground with existing ATV trails and will keep ATV traffic off the highway right-of-way. The trail will be built and funded by the DNR.
• Scheduled a public hearing on Thursday, Dec. 8 at 11a.m.
• The next regular board meeting will be Thursday, Dec. 1 at noon.