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.
