GREENWOOD TWP- Widespread coverage of high arsenic levels in the town hall’s water supply, while generating some unwanted publicity for the township, has led to information on some potential treatment options, according to Supervisor Barb Lofquist.
Lofquist said she has been working with the Water Control Corporation, located in the Twin Cities, and their BrassMaster filtration systems, which are approved by the state to remove arsenic.
Lofquist is currently waiting on quotes from two Iron Range plumbing companies that could install this type of system. This system, she said, will also put less load on the town hall’s septic system, because it does not use as much water as a reverse osmosis treatment system, which is one of the other options for addressing the problem.
“What about drilling a new well?” asked Chairman Mike Ralston.
Lofquist said the costs of drilling a well are quite high, and there would be no guarantee that the water would have a lower arsenic level. Recent water testing showed the township’s existing well water has arsenic levels ten times over the maximum allowable limit.
The new system would limit the amount of clean water available. Lofquist said this will mean the water spigot at the town hall, used by many township residents and cabin owners, would only be available for residential use. The township would not have enough water to allow for commercial use, such as the minnow dealers who used to refill their tanks at the town hall. Minnow dealers are required to transport minnows in groundwater, rather than lake water, to help prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species.
The town board left open the option of calling a special meeting later this month to discuss quotes on the filtration system.

Ambulance
Tower Mayor Dave Setterberg attended the Dec. 14 meeting to give an overview of the work being done to create a new business plan for the Tower Area Ambulance Service. He was also there in response to a recent meeting with Virginia Fire Chief Al Lewis, in late November, that focused on wider issues facing ambulance services statewide, and the lack of funding for emergency medical services in rural areas.
“We would like to thank the EMS personnel in Greenwood,” he said, “and the township for the subsidy you provide.”
Setterberg said the city is working with both the EMSRB (Minnesota Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board), and the Small Business Administration to produce a workable business plan for the ambulance service in the future.
“There are a lot of rumors and misnomers,” he said. “I took it upon myself to go through 35,000 journal entries, starting in 2006.”
Setterberg said they found no wrongdoing, but they did find instances where the city transferred money out of the ambulance fund, as well as times the city paid money back into the fund.
According to Setterberg’s accounting, the fund had a $431,000 balance on paper. Of that, he said, $135,000 was in the ambulance replacement account (now in a separate fund account) and $135,000 was the insurance payment for the garage adjacent to the fire hall that burned in 2014.
“So, the balance in 2018 should have been closer to $170,000.”
“There are a lot of questions and controversy,” he said. “We need to make a fresh start.”
“You inherited a financial mess,” Lofquist said to Setterberg. “We understand that.”
The city has been taking some of the recommendations from the EMSRB report, and then also working on budgetary options to find what is affordable, Setterberg said. He noted that running the ambulance service is a lot of work for the city, as well as a large financial obligation. The service is now close to offering 100-percent coverage with on-call personnel, but this comes at a cost. The service is paying out over $200,000 in wages, with a total budget closer to $500,000.
He wondered if the township had specific issues that it wanted the city to address.
“It is the lack of Advanced Life Support,” said Lofquist. “That is lost time for a patient.”
Setterberg said that Greenwood had not relayed that concern to the city.
“If there are issues, bring them to us so we can look at where it is going,” he said. “It would be nice to work together.”
“The meeting was based on a grassroots concern,” said Ralston. “The meeting was held here to basically identify the fact there is a concern about getting ALS for this area.” Ralston said that Virginia taxpayers are funding their service at a rate of two million dollars a year.
“There are big mountains to climb,” Ralston said.
“You are getting a great service for about $15,000 a year,” Setterberg said.
Greenwood resident Lee Peterson, a longstanding critic of the city’s ambulance service management, asked why the city had not produced a business plan yet, which is part of the subsidy agreement.
“It needs to happen,” Peterson said.
Setterberg said the process is ongoing.
Peterson said Greenwood needs to look at hiring someone to do a study of EMS service options for the wider area.
“There is some funding available for this,” he said
The board took no action on the issue.

Broadband
Supervisor Sue Drobac and Barb Lofquist tabulated the results of the broadband survey that was mailed out to township residents. The township received 371 responses from individual households.
“The vast majority want high speed internet and are interested in bundling internet and phone service,” Lofquist said.
The results of the survey will be used as part of grant applications, and by possible future broadband providers. Decisions on grant funding, which had been expected by the end of this year, have been delayed into next year. The good news is there is more grant money available.
“Our township application is still in the process,” said Ralston.
One grant would totally fund the project, at over $9 million, including installation on the Vermilion Reservation. The outlook on that grant is looking favorable, Ralston said.

Clerk duties
Clerk Debby Spicer gave the board documentation of the hours she spent on the job in April and May, once she became the township’s elected clerk. Prior to that, starting in October of 2020, she was hired to be the interim clerk at an hourly wage of $27/hour.
She asked the board for additional compensation to cover the hours above the 12 hours a week the township office is officially open
“I was told if I presented this I would get compensated,” she said. “I worked 134.75 hours and was paid for approximately 76 hours.”
“How do you know what you are paid per hour?” asked Lofquist.
Spicer said she had an email from Ralston saying her pay was $27 per hour, and that the deputy treasurer also told her she would be paid for extra duties.
“They are not authorized to do that,” said Lofquist. “This is a public service, not an hourly job.”
Spicer read from a letter from the city attorney that said the township should expect to pay for clerk duties that are outside the statutory duties of a clerk as defined by state law.
Spicer’s list included work performed, for example, during the regular six office hours on April 1. That included getting mail, opening and distributing mail, opening email and filing, drafting board of audit minutes, and answering the phone.
The clerk is currently paid a salary of $1,391 a month.
Ralston asked if any of the extra hours were for specific training, but Spicer said no, they were daily duties imposed by the board that were normally done by the clerk, but were not statutory duties.
“The clerk is a salary position,” said Drobac, who was formerly the township’s elected clerk. “If we can hire someone to open the mail, do filing, answer the phone, send a meeting notice, update the calendar, respond to voicemails, to me these are clerk’s duties. Then we could lower the clerk’s salary.”
“I agree,” said Ralston.
Spicer noted that Drobac had quit the clerk’s job after the board reduced her office hours from 20 to 12 hours per week, and then correspondingly reduced the clerk’s salary.
“You said you couldn’t do the duties in the time given,” Spicer said to Drobac.
Drobac said there were other issues involved, although Drobac has discussed increasing the clerk’s hours at previous meetings.
Spicer said the upcoming township election will take up all her time between now and March.
No one on the board was willing to make a motion to pay Spicer’s request, and the issue was dropped.
Later in the meeting Spicer said she did not think it was worthwhile to print out public packets.
“Last month it took over three reams of paper to print out packets,” she said. “Why do we need to waste paper? I am not doing that anymore.” Spicer said printing out packets for the supervisors and one public packet to place on the board table should be enough.
Some suggested the packet could be scanned and emailed to those on the notification list and made available on the township website. This month’s meeting agenda was not placed on the township website, as it normally is, either.
“You are welcome to continue doing that,” she told the board.

Other business
In other business, the board:
• Approved claims on a 4-1 vote, with Drobac voting against, but held one where sales tax had been issued on a large repair bill for a fire truck. The bill needs to be reissued with the sales tax taken off, it was noted.
• Approved payroll on a 4-1 vote with Drobac voting against.
• Approved an across-the-board salary increase for township and fire department officials of five percent on a 4-1 vote with Ralston voting against.
• Voted 3-2 to continue using ADP to process payroll, with Drobac and Lofquist voting against. The bill from ADP last month was $348, over twice the normal fee because they needed to do adjustments to correct the actual pay period on the checks. Drobac said when she was clerk it took about 45 minutes to do the payroll. Current treasurer Belinda Fazio asked to remain with ADP, because the service allows direct deposit, does the annual W-2 forms, and has accountants who check the tax filing reports. The township previously used free software available through the Minnesota Association of Townships. Ralston said he would like to review this issue again in a few months.
• Will look into classifying fire department members as volunteers versus employees, which would reduce the township’s obligation to withhold payroll taxes. “They would be responsible for their own taxes,” said Ralston. The issue was referred to the fire department for review.
• Approved changes in the fire department’s operating procedures so that they now only recommend members complete the state Firefighter I and II training. Safety Officer Rick Worringer said there is room on the department for members who are trained locally to do duties such as driving trucks, getting and pumping water, but not specifically working on the dangerous parts of a fire. “Currently for every person up on a fire,” Fire Chief Dave Fazio said, “there are three in the back providing support.” Currently almost all the department members have completed this training.
• Approved setting the fire department response pay rate at a flat $20 per hour starting in 2022. Currently the rate is $20 for the first hour, and then $10 for any additional hours per call. Fazio told the board is would increase costs by between $1,600 and $2,000 a year.
• Discussed some changes needed on the township’s new website design.
• Worringer said his wife Mary was interested in starting up an auxiliary type informal group that would provide food on fire calls. Drobac said she was also willing to help out.
• Approved the purchase of new turnout gear for four firefighters who are trained for interior work but have outdated gear. The older gear is suitable for members who are working the exterior of a fire scene, so can possibly still be reused. The gear will cost approximately $3,200 per set.
• Approved $100 donations to the W.C. Heiam Foundation and Northwoods Partners. They acknowledged a donation from the Greenwood Quilters.