Cass County Board: Permit activity continues at record levels

   WALKER — Permit activity in Cass County is beginning to slow down, but still is seeing record levels overall.

   Environmental Services Director John Ringle shared the second quarter planning and zoning activity report at the Tuesday, Aug. 3 Cass County Board meeting. Even with the decline in permit activity during the month of June, Ringle said, the first half of the year is seeing more activity than the department has seen since they began keeping activity records back in 2000.

   First half statistics are as follows: zoning permits are up 23.28% over last year, from 683 to 842; variances increased from 29 in 2020 to 43 in 2021; conditional uses have gone from 8 issued in 2020 to 15 issued in 2021; and shoreland alterations increased from 122 issued in 2020 to 178 being issued in 2021. First half revenue for the department was $300,011, which is an increase of 41.8% over last year’s amount of $211,514. 

   Ringle did mention he felt that the decline in permit activity during the month of June was related to the difficulty in acquiring building materials, the cost of materials along with contractors being unavailable. However, July seems to be already showing an increase of activity again.

   Land Commissioner Kirk Titus requested the board approve $210,000 from the forest development fund over the next three years for participation in the Upper Mississippi River LIDAR Acquisition and Forest Inventory project. The project would cover 180,000 acres of managed commercial forest land and would assist in collecting inventory data for future harvest planning. Commissioner Neal Gaalswyk asked Titus if this would eliminate having staff go out into the forests and physically inventory the timber. Titus stated there would still be some on ground inventory taking place, but that would be outsourced by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and is included in the cost of the project. The commissioners unanimously approved funding the project.

   In other business, the county board:

   • Approved the 2021 distribution of the State “in Lieu” payment in the amount of $1,238,567.33 and the Wildlife Management Lands distribution in the amount of $107,148.75.

   • Tabled approving the notice of intent to advertise and fill the vacated Forest Resource Manager position. 

   • Awarded a contract to replace the bridge on CR 103 over Mosquito Creek and the bridge on CSAH 25 over Bungo Creek, both with concrete box culverts, to Gladen Construction in the amount of $319,954.25.

   • Awarded a contract for the grading and paving project on CR 119 on west side of Ponto Lake to Anderson Brothers Construction Co. in the amount of $1,054,244.37.

   • Approved an amendment to the Memorandum of Understanding regarding management of commercial permitting with Sylvan Township.

   The next meetings are as follows: Commissioner’s board meeting, 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 17 at Cass Lake City Hall, 330 Second St. SW, Cass Lake and Commissioner’s board meeting, 9 a.m. Tuesday, Sept 7. at the boardroom in the courthouse annex in Walker.