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WALKER - Cass County land use ordinance revisions could be ready for a public hearing before the planning commission by February and for consideration for final adoption before the county board by March, Environmental Services Director John Ringle said Thursday, Dec. 8.

Planning commission work groups are drafting updated versions on sections relating to resorts and to extractive uses (gravel pits). Proposed changes will be the first update to the ordinance since 2009, Ringle said.

Cass' contracts for operating the county transfer station and recycle center at Pine River and for disposing of garbage at a landfill will expire in October 2012. Thursday, the county board authorized Solid Waste Officer Paul Fairbanks to prepare requests for proposal to seek new contracts for operating the transfer station and for garbage disposal.

The county board expects to consider more options than just landfilling for disposal.[[In-content Ad]]

Ringle reported the county will receive an $84,908 grant in 2012 from the state Board of Water and Soil Resources for local water management, wetland conservation, shoreland management and individual sewer system management.

Crooked Lake Town Supervisors Gene Williams and Dave Schaumburg appeared before the board to ask why they needed a permit to move one of their town roads 11 feet to one side of its present location to get it onto slightly higher ground.

Ringle explained that the form the town was asked to complete was not a county permit application, but rather a state required application for a wetland mitigation credit. The state requires anyone who fills a portion of a wetland to re-create an equal amount of wetland in its place, he said. This applies to towns and counties as well as the public.

By filling out the form, Ringle explained, the Board of Water and Soil Resources will give the town free of charge a wetland credit from some project done elsewhere in the state. This saves the town the cost of either buying a credit from someone else or the cost of re-creating a wetland in the area where the old road was removed, Ringle said.

Following their appearance at the meeting, Ringle assisted the town supervisors with filling out the form.

Second publication rights after Brainerd Dispatch.

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