TOWER—The city council here, on Monday, declined to wade into the ongoing dispute over an effort by the Cook-Orr Healthcare District to annex five townships into the district without a vote of the residents. The move, being pushed by members of the healthcare district board, has prompted township officials in Greenwood and Vermilion Lake to fight what they see as a hostile action. Earlier this month, officials with Vermilion Lake Township asked the council to consider a lengthy resolution opposed to the annexation attempt. At the time, the council delayed action citing the need to study the issue in greater detail, and forwarded the matter to the April 24 agenda.

While councilors made it clear they agreed with local township officials on the need for a public vote for any annexation, they declined on a 3-2 vote to approve the resolution proposed by Vermilion Lake. Councilors Kevin Fitton and Lance Dougherty supported passage of the resolution. “I think the voters should have a choice on the matter,” said Fitton. “They gave others the right to vote to join. Why not give that same right to everyone else?”

Dougherty noted that Vermilion Lake, in particular, is located just west of the city’s borders. “I think we should support a neighbor,” he said.

But while Mayor Josh Carlson said he agreed that township residents should have a right to vote on the question, he didn’t see a need for the city to weigh in at this point. “Tower doesn’t need to take a stand for or against,” he said.

Other local city councils have taken a similar position. Councils in both Orr and Cook have also declined to pick sides in a feud that began in March when hospital district officials began circulating a letter of support for their proposal to local units of government that are currently part of the district. Some townships have signed on to the move, while other local governments have declined. The hospital district plan would require new legislation and that doesn’t appear likely this session. But officials in the five townships that the district hopes to annex plan to watch the issue closely moving forward.

In other action, the council approved a new four-year contract with the Breitung Police Department. The council action came after the city and the township reached an agreement on the allocation of costs moving forward. The city will pay 45 percent of the department’s additional expenses over the next four years, with the exception of unemployment which will be the obligation of the township. At the same time, the city agreed to a two-year notice for cancellation of the contract.

Under the contract extension, the city’s total costs for police protection are expected to rise from $113,500 this year to $133,395 by 2022.

In other business, the council:

• Approved taking over administration of the 2017 city deer hunt and increasing the bag limit to five deer. Jeremy Maslowski with the DNR’s wildlife office in Tower, also provided results on the 2016 hunt. He said 20 hunters in the city’s muzzleloader hunt took a total of ten deer. He said success was limited by the late freeze-up on Lake Vermilion again this year. He noted that the deer often move off islands and into town once the lake freezes, without ice on the lake, many of those deer were still dispersed. Maslowski stressed that cities undertaking deer hunts need to do more administration because of growing funding and staffing shortages within the DNR wildlife division. “We’re 26 positions short this year,” said Maslowski. “We just can’t do everything in the future.”

• Approved moving forward with the plan by Ambulance Director Steve Altenburg to convert the ambulance service to paid on-call to improve service. While the switch would substantially increase operating costs to the ambulance service, Altenburg said he’s confident that the service will be able to cover those higher costs with increased revenues from hospital transfers, which have become increasingly common. The council will still have to approve job descriptions and hire new ambulance staff before the new system could be implemented. If all moves forward as planned, Altenburg estimated the new system would be in place by July 1.

• Approved a city policy requiring that all IRRRB applications from city-affiliated entities be approved by the city council and processed through city hall. After some discussion, the council amended the policy to drop a provision that would have required all entities located within the city to submit copies of any funding applications to the IRRRB to city hall. The language, as written, could have required private businesses seeking any kind of business assistance to file their proposals with city hall. Councilors agreed that wasn’t their intent and they modified the language to clarify the issue.

• Gave final approval to loan criteria for IRRRB economic development funding that the agency recently provided to the Tower Economic Development Authority for gap financing on the harbor project.

• Purchased a new 6 foot by 50 foot dock for Hoodoo Point Campground, which will be leased to campground users.

• Reversed their earlier cancellation of a cabin property lease after the owners of the lease cleared up their arrears to the city. The decision came with the provision that the owners also clear up their delinquent personal property taxes on the site with St. Louis County by the end of the year.

• Agreed with a request by Vance Hall to allow him to continue to store a 45-foot Chris Craft yacht at the Standing Bear Marina until Aug. 31 to give him time to restore it and find a permanent location. The craft is currently stored in a temporary and unpermitted building at the marina. The marina is currently under a blight compliance order approved by the city earlier this month.