Two habitat easements approved in rural Henning

By Robert Williams

Editor

he Minnesota Department of Transportation has requested that Otter Tail County provide electrical energy for the new Trunk Highway Lighting System as part of the 2024 Highway 10 and County Road 60 project between Frazee and Perham.

County Engineer Krysten Foster noted the agreement is a better deal for the county than she has seen in her experience around the state where MnDOT has required more than just the power in a maintenance contract.

The Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners approved the agreement at their last meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 28.

MnDOT will improve access and safety at the intersection of Highway 10 and County Road 60 in Otter Tail County by constructing a J-turn. A J-turn is a type of reduced conflict intersection (RCI). It converts side street thru-travel and left-turn movements into right turns, followed by a U-turn. At the Highway 10/County Road 60 intersection, side street left turns and thru-movements are the most common generator of serious crashes.

In 2021, the public was invited to vote on the design of the J-turn. MnDOT will implement the public’s preferred design option: a restricted crossing U-turn (RCUT), where the center median remains open for Highway 10 traffic to turn left onto County Road 60.

The J-turn design at the Highway 10 and County Road 60 intersection will be a restricted crossing U-turn (RCUT) design. With an RCUT, the center median remains open for Highway 10 traffic to exit left in order to travel northbound or southbound on County Road 60.

Easements

US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) Realty Specialist Jessica Paler and Refuge Operation Specialist Chad Raitz approached the board with certifications of five easements in the county.

Landowners will retain the land on all five easements and the land will be closed to public hunting. Landowners are also responsible for property tax payments.

Technically, the Fish & Wild Service is acquiring the land as an easement, according to Paler. The landowners are simply limited on what they can do on these portions of their property by selling the easement to the USFWS.

The first is a habitat easement of 36.9 acres near Vining owned by Jeremy and Hannah Schmidgall. A second habitat easement was approved for 61.6 acres owned by Pamela and Douglas Bjorklund in Henning Township.

A 1.68-acre wetland easement was approved for Daniel and Tonya Zierden in Aurdal Township.

A second wetland easement covering 7.06 acres was approved for Tyler and Marcy Neuman in Dane Township and the final 10.19-acre wetland easement was approved for Rob and Peggy Nordstrom of Aurdal Township.

Paler gave a general description of the differences between the two types of easements.

“Wetland easements only cover the wetlands on their property; these can vary in size,” she said. “We go out there and measure how much water is there and are just trying to protect the wetland for water fowl habitat. We’ll restore the wetlands to their prior, native set and hopefully, we can bring back all those duck pairs.”

There are two types of habitat easements, hang or grazing.

“The landowners can decide which habitat easement they would like to put on their property and they have the right to hay or graze,” Paler said.

Owners can hay the property after July 15. Grazing can happen year round.

“It is kind of what the landowner wants to do with their land and how they want to protect their land for future generations,” Paler said.

ARPA funds

County Administrator Nicole Hansen discussed using portions of the $11,410,722 allocated to Otter Tail County through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act.

The board passed resolutions including a transfer for parks and trail, election equipment and the hazard mitigation partnership grant program.

Funds to be transferred include $500,000 for parks and trails and to be determined funds for the hazard mitigation partnership grant program. Funding will be allocated to the Navigating the Road Ahead program in the areas of: 1) Housing Investment, 2) Workforce and Business, 3) Broadband and Other Infrastructure, 4) Community Resilience and 5) Other County Resource and Asset Investment; and authorized the County Administrator to enter into contracts and agreements and execute change orders and amendments to contracts and agreements, in accordance with the County’s procurement policies and procedures, provided the amounts are within the limits of the funding with Resolution No. 2021-192 approved on December 21, 2021.

Also, $350,000 will be allocated to purchase election equipment to replace aging and obsolete equipment necessary for elections. This could also include the use of tribal funds.

An ARPA report will be prepared for the next commissioner’s meeting on Dec. 12.