Property Values?

The county assessor, on an annual basis, holds a meeting to address questions of property values assigned to individual properties.  This meeting is called the Board of Appeal and Equalization.  This meeting is held at city hall with the city council present.  Property owners are given the opportunity to talk with the assessor about their property value.  An appeal can be made to the city council to consider whether or not an adjustment would be made to the assigned property value. 

This meeting will be held on April 14, 2016 at 10:00 am.  Appointments will be available for the meeting but property owners can attend on a first come first serve basis.  Property owners may also meet with the assessor prior to the meeting to discuss their properties value.  The Crow Wing County Assessor can be reached at 218-824-1016. 

A New Sewer Truck

Sometimes you just need to replace something that was worn out.  This is the case with the equipment box on the sewer truck.  This box is on its third chassis and is literally falling apart.  We had holes rusted through that had been patched with various materials but continued to lose some tools along the road as the openings enlarge.  It was time to get a new utility equipment box.  

In thinking about this, a broader picture emerged.  The existing sewer truck is in good shape, a 2008 vehicle with only about 45,000 miles on it.  We have a 2000 one-ton truck that was replaced a couple of years ago but was kept as a backup vehicle.  It has a plow and dump box installed on it.  It was felt it would be good to recycle the dump box and plow equipment sending the chassis down the road from this 2000 truck.  With the purchase of a new vehicle the utility equipment box could be installed on a new vehicle.  The 2008 vehicle, with the utility equipment box removed, would be a good candidate for the dump box and plow. 

So the plan that emerged is a new sewer truck will be purchased along with a utility equipment box, including a crane for removing sewer lift pumps.  The existing sewer truck has a utility equipment box which will be scraped and recycled.  The truck and chassis will be reused with the dump box and plow installed from the 2000 truck.  The 2000 truck and chassis will be sold.  This effort would be undertaken by the public works crew.  The plan could change if the economies of making the switch and sale of 2000 truck would carry a better price with some of the equipment remaining.  This has to be weighed against the purchase of new equipment for the 2008 chassis. 

In any event the purchase of a new truck and utility equipment box was approved.  The price was obtained through state bidding.  The truck is a 2016 GMC Sierra 3500 for $28,915.28.  The utility equipment box comes to $35,562 making the total cost $64,477.28.  Funds for purchase of this equipment come out of the sewer fund.  $68,000 was budgeted for this purpose.