BEMIDJI — It was standing room only at the Beltrami County Fairgrounds 4-H building as hundreds of community members filed in to learn more about Northern Township's plan to incorporate as a new city.
With the first phase of the expected $12 million wastewater treatment facility planned to begin as soon as next year, Northern Township’s attorney Mike Couri said in the Wednesday, May 7, meeting that incorporating is often the best way to protect the investment long-term.
“In order to keep our tax rate stable — so it doesn't go up or down, because we just got big chunks of us annexed out — in order to build something like a wastewater treatment plant and a sewer line to go with it, it's going to require the township to issue bonds,” Couri explained.
“We've got to know we're going to have the tax base to pay those bonds back. That, unfortunately, requires us to look at becoming a city.”
Days after the township filed its notice to incorporate, the neighboring Bemidji City Council passed a unanimous resolution to reopen wastewater negotiations with the township, as well as a notice of intent to annex around Lake Bemidji. In its resolution, Bemidji stated another wastewater plant on the lake would be “duplicative.” Northern Township issued its own response to the resolution, declining to come back to the table.
“Redirecting the project now would waste public funds and jeopardize environmental protections for Lake Bemidji,” the township stated in its response.
The issue of incorporation, even with Bemidji predicted to contest it, will be decided before an administrative law judge, with a public comment period expected sometime this summer. Couri said he expects Northern could have a City Council election as soon as spring 2026.
After several rounds of Northern Township residents indicating their support for becoming a city, Bemidji Mayor Jorge Prince requested time on the mic.
“The decisions we make here won't just change what's going to happen in our community for a week, or a month, or a year. For generations,” Prince said. “That's what we're talking about, changing our community for generations.”
“And if that's not worth a pause to take a little extra time to see whether or not we can figure this thing out, then I don't know what it is,” Prince continued. “Because I think our community deserves that and I think they expect that from us.”
Northern Township Supervisor Jess Frenzel said the township is determined to proceed on its own path for addressing the decades-old regional goal of wrapping sewer around the lake.
“There's nothing new that's going to be offered right now, and the only time that they came back to the table to start talking about offering something to us was when we [issued notice to] incorporate,” Frenzel said. “We have to incorporate to protect our boundaries. ... We don't feel they're sincere, so we have to move forward with our direction.”
Bemidji and Northern Township were once partners through the Greater Bemidji Area Joint Planning Board, which dissolved at the end of 2023. The dissolution came shortly after 18 months of back-and-forth discussion beginning in 2021 on extending sewer around the lake, which Bemidji said would not happen without annexation.
Beltrami County has delayed resurfacing Birchmont Beach Road to accommodate the planned sewer installation, with the work expected to take place in 2026.
Frenzel said the board is still deliberating on a potential new city name.
“It probably won’t be ‘Northern, comma, MN,’” he said.
