Timber Harvest

The city has a good deal of acreage used for wastewater treatment facilities. The obvious use is the immediate plant and ponds. The ponds provide treatment of wastewater and also storage of the effluent that comes from the plant operations. Storage is required as the city doesn’t have a discharge point into a waterway, which is more typical of a wastewater plant. The city discharges its effluent with spray irrigation into the surrounding forest of lands we own. This can only be done in the summer months. Having adequate acreage to discharge is important as only so much can be applied to land under the permit granted by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.


In considering the future, the city had acquired property to provide for additional irrigation fields. Currently the city has approximately 90 acres of unused irrigation lands available for future use. This land has been idle forest land with tree growth of Birch, Aspen, Maple and Oak. Upon review of the forest trees, the Aspen and Birch are in decline and it was felt harvesting of the area makes some sense. It would be good for the forest to rejuvenate and for the city in reaping some revenues.

Crow Wing County was contacted and they were willing to assist the city with harvest operations. There services come at a price but include an inventory, notice, bid specifications and contract administration. An advertisement for bids was recently held and a bid was received. Lately the market for timber is depressed with a couple of paper mills closing and construction being down. The bid provided for summer access to the timber which is a more desirable situation as many timber plots are only assessable in the winter due to wetlands.

We were pleased with the bid from Sawyer Timber Company of Backus, MN. The bid was awarded to them and harvesting could occur at any time but likely will commence next spring as weather conditions warrant. The area will generally be clear cut but a buffer will remain along the east and north boundaries. It is expected this activity will be completed in 2013.

Election 2012

In 2012 we had a presidential election and as is generally the case we see a large turnout. The turnout was perhaps, more than expected. Breezy Point is now the third largest city in the county and we believe were growing. We started the day with 1441 registered voters. On Election Day we had 226 new registrations for voters.


Votes cast at the polls were 1240. Absentee votes cast numbered 180 making the total votes cast in Breezy Point 1420. In 2010, not a presidential election, we had 907 at the polls and 90 absentee voters for a total of 997. This represents about a 43% increase in voters.

When you think about our estimated pollution of 2388 and all the residents who can’t vote we either had a very high percent of voters turn out for the election or more population than we think, or both. I would tend to think we had both.

I want to express my sincere thank you to the election judges who worked that day. It is always a long day starting, at 5:00 am for some and going to several hours after the polls close. Not all judges’ work all day but a few do. They did an exceptional job. They were professional in their actions and voters moved through the polls with limited delay. I was very pleased with the way in which it worked out.

I can only assume we’ll see more voters in the years to follow as Breezy Point continues to grow in year round residents.

City Council Salaries

I don’t know if any of you have considered what City Council members do and what they get paid to do it. There is the obvious, attend a monthly meeting and the occasional special one to deal with governmental decisions. Some of these fall into the routine and others definitely fall into the “policy” area. The policy area are those questions that can’t be addressed by staff or anyone person. Sometimes these are those where there is no right or wrong answer. It comes down to what is the best decision for the majority of the people. Just saying that brings to mind that all decisions have those that approve and oppose the outcome.


Typically the salaries that are paid to council members don’t amount to much more than enough to cover expenses incurred in their actions as a council member. Many look at the salary as a token amount in appreciation for the work they do. But even in the realm of a low paying job the compensation for council members can amount to pennies an hour.

In Breezy Point the City Council has been paid $150 per month and mayor at $200 per month since 1995. It was recently discussed that the council is the lowest paid council in the area and perhaps an increase in pay was warranted. Councils set there own salaries but can only increase salary for an upcoming council. So a decision made today will not take effect until after the next election with a new council coming on board.

The city council discussed the possibility of an increase in salary of a $100 per month per member. Doing this would still continue Breezy Point City Council as the lowest paid council in the area. This increase amounted to $6000 overall for the year. The budget could be adjusted to accommodate the increase and a draft ordinance was written.

The council discussed the possibility and felt that an increase is probably warranted but it really should be brought up in budget discussions early on. Accomplishing this change at this point in the budget cycle isn’t appropriate and making a change at a later date would be in the best interest of the city. The council voted down the ordinance providing for a change in their salary. The next option for a salary change would be after the 2014 elections to take effect in 2015.