SOUDAN- The Breitung Town Board, minus its newly elected member, made no decision on how to fill the vacant seat resulting from Matt Tuchel’s decision not to take the oath of office due to a possible conflict of interest. Tuchel is a full-time employee of the Tower-Breitung Wastewater Board, a joint powers authority between Breitung and the city of Tower.
“We have a couple of choices,” said acting chair Chuck Tekautz.
The Minnesota Association of Townships lays out options for filling a vacancy, including offering the seat to the second-highest vote-getter, or requesting letters of interest to select a temporary board member.
Clerk Dianna Sunsdahl, who gets a vote on the replacement, even though clerks normally do not vote on town board issues, made a motion to table the issue until the regular meeting in April.
The board did not ask for letters of interest. Retired supervisor Tim Tomsich, who had elected not to run for his seat, did garner 15 write-in votes. Tomsich was present at the meeting but declined to comment on whether or not he would consider filling the seat.
Whoever is seated on the board would serve until the next township election in March 2023.
Supervisor Greg Dostert asked if it was possible to hold that election sooner, during the November general election. But Sunsdahl said that was not possible because township elections can only be held in March unless residents vote at their annual meeting to move the election to November.
Dostert said he was planning to retire from the board next year. This would leave two open seats to be filled next March, the three-year seat held by Dostert, and the remaining two-year term of the now open seat.

Police Report
Police Chief Dan Reing reported there were 61 calls during March, with two arrests, both for DWIs. He issued one speeding citation and conducted three investigations, including one for felony criminal damage to property. He told the board they had one applicant for a part-time office position.
The board approved the purchase of two body-worn cameras. The cost, including cloud storage for five years, batteries, docking, warranty including replacement options, is a little over $10,000, and will be paid in installments over five years. Reing said the township has received some donations to help cover the cost, and he is in the process of applying for grants.

Reorganization
The board opted to hold off most of the reorganization, including selecting a new chair, until the third supervisor is seated. They did select the Tower News as the official paper, since they had submitted the low bid. The board set their regular meeting date as the fourth Thursday of the month at noon, but said this may change when a new member is seated.

Other business
In other business the board:
• Heard the Local Board of Appeal is set for May 17.
• Heard the new dump truck should be delivered later in April. The township will sell the old dump truck this summer. They were told there is a good demand for used large trucks at this time.
• Heard the skating rink closed the second week in March due to warm weather. There was a discussion about recruiting adult/parent volunteers to oversee the warming shack, and also to train the teenage warming shack workers on basic first aid.
• Heard that St. Louis County had granted a variance for Mary Batinich to build an addition onto the existing old garage adjacent to the inn to turn it into a residence.
• Heard the township had received a $1,949 grant from the state to pay approximately 70 percent of the cost of the newly-acquired voting machine.
• Heard a request from a resident who wants to start a perennial plant growing business at their home in Soudan. The board did not see any issues with the proposal, but they wanted to check with the county to make sure it met zoning requirements.
• Agreed to jointly purchase, with Tower, a new camera head for the equipment used to survey underground sewer and water lines.
• Passed a resolution to apply for funding for the Tower-Breitung Wastewater Board for $272,000. This will cover a project for the township, and one for the wastewater board (which will repay that portion of the loan). The city of Tower applied for a similar loan for the funding for the new water filtration plant, which will be repaid by the wastewater board. The wastewater board is not allowed to apply for this funding.