Longtime Township deputy clerk to retire

BY BROOKE WOHLRABE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The White Bear Township Board of Supervisors pulled several items from the consent agenda during its last meeting. One of the items was to accept the letter of retirement from longtime Deputy Clerk Patti Walstad, whose last day will be June 30.

“I didn’t feel comfortable doing this under the consent agenda because I felt like we needed to give a personal thank you to Patti,” said Chair Ed Prudhon.

“She’s been a steward of consistency as our organization and community has grown,” he said. The board approved the notice of retirement. Later in the meeting, the board approved the hiring of Reilly Ramirez to fill the position of deputy clerk. Ramierez will start May 30.

The board then discussed the Ramsey County Emergency Operations Plan. Town Administrator Patrick Christopherson said that staff has reviewed what’s been proposed by Ramsey County and that there is a lot of responsibility put on township staff where there wasn’t before. He deferred to Township Attorney Chad Lemmons.

“It’s 300 pages of vagueness, to be honest with you and, to be fair, how do you detail an emergency? It’s pretty hard to do,” said Lemmons.

He said the county expects each municipality to take care of events that occur within its borders. However, in the event of a countywide emergency, all direction will come from the county.

Christopherson said one of the concerns they discussed was the amount of training required for township staff. Since the township needs to pass the plan soon, Christopherson asked if they could respond with a few caveats.

The county wants the different departments to familiarize themselves with what their roles would be but, in the end, they can’t dictate to town staff what to do,” Lemmons said. He said he thinks they should respond by saying they need to have an understanding of what’s expected and to work out a broad, flexible plan.

Several board members expressed concerns. Prudhon suggested Christopherson check with some neighboring communities to see what they think of the plan. Christopherson said he would do that, speak with Ramsey County and continue to work through the plan until the board is comfortable with it.

The board moved to discuss two items that were pulled from the consent agenda, each of which dealt with ordinances. One was to move the public hearing for an amendment to ordinance No. 35 from June 19 to to June 21 due to the Juneteenth holiday. The other dealt with ordinance No. 12 (water). Supervisor Scott McCune, who sits on the utility commission, said commission members recently had a robust conversation about the ordinance.

“One of the topics we have every single year that I’ve been with this group is, come August, the water gets really low and there’s a concern that the DNR will say ‘freeze everything,’” McCune said.

Now the utility commission is trying to get ahead of the issue. Members suggest that instead of issuing a written warning and a $40 fee to anyone who violates the sprinkling hours twice, they impose a $100 fee. In the event the DNR notifies the township of a critical water event that limits water usage, any person in violation of the sprinkler ban would receive a written notice and be charged a $500 fee on their water bill.

“This will shake residents up, because not only have we had that $40 fee, but my understanding is … it’s been sparse,” McCune said. “I want this to get out.”

Christopherson confirmed the township currently has an ordinance that says residents can water within a consistent timeframe.

“The only way we know if someone is violating it is by public works being out in the field or neighbors reporting it as a concern,” Christopherson said.

Ruzek said he believes changing the ordinance is a move in the right direction, as a $40 fee won’t get people’s attention — and the issue has been substantial. The board approved the adoption of the ordinance amendment.

In other business the board:

• Approved the fourth amendment to the Hoffman Road parking lot lease agreement. Lemmon said that the last time the board met, there was a question about debris on the property, which is being addressed.

• Approved a request for a 24.7-foot variance to allow construction of a garage at 5347 Hugo Court.

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Above: An enthusiastic crowd gathers around a Life Links III helicopter after it landed at Podvin Park in White Bear Lake during a recent Vehicle Fair featuring a variety of law enforcement, fire prevention, construction, transit and life saving vehicles and apparatus.

At right: A Lake Links III helicopter, piloted by Michael Lewis, captured the attention of the crowd as it came in over the tree tops for a landing on an athletic field.