BEMIDJI — While not as heavily attended as the hearing at the Beltrami County Fairgrounds, the final public hearing for the contested boundary dispute between Bemidji and Northern Township included at least a dozen speaking before the judge.
Northern Township seeks to become its own city and construct a new wastewater plant to serve properties on its side of Lake Bemidji. Nearby Bemidji is disputing this move with a counterpetition that would annex properties around the lake into the city limits.
Several of the affected property owners spoke during the Wednesday, Oct. 8, hearing at the Sanford Center, including Ron Cuperus, who has been gathering signatures for a petition protesting the annexation into the city of Bemidji.
Cuperus' petition does not comment on the sewer issue.
"The sewer issue kind of muddies up the big issue here, which is annexation,” he said.
“The real core issue here that brings us to this point is that there's been a change in fiscal responsibility philosophies through the years, and the city of Bemidji, the Council — as the Council has rolled over ... has become less fiscally responsible, in my opinion, and the township has remained pretty concerned.”
Others on the affected route supported Bemidji’s annexation petition, claiming it would cost less to connect to the city’s system than paying the special assessments for Northern’s wastewater plant.
“Northern Township’s wastewater project will cost residents too much,” said Jeanne Jaeger during the hearing. According to estimates she gathered, it will cost between $53,000 and $73,000 to remove her septic and connect to the new sewer, in addition to the special assessments for the project.
Beltrami County Commissioner Joe Gould commented in support of Bemidji’s petition.
“The city is in the right to annex the disputed area,” he said during the hearing. “A city grows or it dies.”
He commented that while the regional goal has been to extend sewer access around the lake for decades, there has been a lot of resistance from nearby townships to the city growing by annexation.
After the hearing, he said the differences between Northern and Bemidji are philosophical.
“I think it's just the nature of a rural way of life," he said. "People that live outside of a city, they're used to having a little more flexibility, looser regulations. It's cultural.”
Northern Township’s plan includes constructing a new wastewater treatment facility in two phases, timing out the first phase with Beltrami County’s planned road construction in 2026. The municipal lawyer representing the township, Mike Couri, insists that the township must incorporate, which would secure the tax base for bonds needed for the project.
The total cost of the project is expected to be around $19 million. The first phase has $6 million in federal grants, and township leaders hope to secure millions more in state bonding dollars to offset the cost of the project, which otherwise would be paid by special property tax assessments along the route over the life of the construction bonds.
History
Bemidji’s municipal wastewater treatment facility was built in 1985, with millions of dollars poured into it over the years to keep it up to pollution standards. It was built larger than needed, with the original idea being that nearby Bemidji and Northern townships would either be annexed in, or the local governments would work together to create a cooperative sewer district.
A sewer district never materialized, with Bemidji City Councils over the years sticking to a policy of “no connection without annexation.”
In 2004, the three local government groups worked together in the Greater Bemidji Area Joint Planning Board, which included orderly annexation agreements with Bemidji over 15 years. Bemidji Township sued to exit before the first phase of the annexation began in 2010, and Northern Township announced its intention to depart the board in mid-2022.
In 2021, Ruttger’s Birchmont Lodge requested to annex into the city of Bemidji due to its septic system falling out of compliance with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The MPCA reported the resort is now in compliance — and the resort’s application for annexation has since beenwithdrawn — but the issue served as the impetus to address the decades-long goal of installing sewer around the lake. The two local governments disagree about which is in the best position to do so.
How to participate
Written comments can be submitted to the Court of Administrative Hearings by 4:30 p.m. Oct. 24. Comments can be submitted by mail to the Court of Administrative Hearings, Attn: MBAU Administrator, P.O. Box 64620, St. Paul, MN, 55164-0620, or by email to: mbauadministrator.oah@state.mn.us. All written comments should include the docket numbers for this case: OAH 71-0330-40846, OAH 71-0330-40869.
Northern Township and the city of Bemidji are expected to continue filing items on their respective cases through Dec. 1, with the judge’s decision not expected to come before the end of the year.
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Chelsey Perkins/KAXEWithout the funding, residents’ water bills could increase from about $40 a month to nearly $70. The projected costs for the new facility have risen substantially. -
Lorie Shaull/Special to KAXEThe lawsuit states Robert Slaybaugh was placed in a cell with a sheet and a bunk previously ID'd as a suicide hazard, despite an “overwhelming combination of risk factors.” -
Contributed/Minnesota Incident Command SystemThe fire has been mapped at 160 acres. A predicted change in weather calls for increased and shifting winds, creating a potential to push the fire toward the trail. -
Plus: The Minnesota Department of Human Rights announced it secured two settlements against northern Minnesota employers for sex discrimination; and the US Small Business Administration is operating a disaster loan outreach center through Oct. 18 in Bemidji for those impacted by the June 21 severe storms.
