All posts by Dean Sunderlin

Forest Township Neighborhood Watch Notification System

The Rice County Sheriff Dept. is assisting Forest Township residents in setting up and running a rapid response alert notification system.  See the recently published Forest Township Neighborhood Watch flier.

HOW THE PROCEDURE WILL WORK: Forest Township will be divided into four quadrants – (A) Northeast; (B) Northwest; (C) Southwest; and (D) Southeast.  There will be a Quadrant Captain for each of these.  Within each quadrant are 9 Sections (the 1-mile square area numbered in your plat book).  Each Section will have a Section Leader.  When the Sheriff’s Dept., or a Township Board member, or a resident wishes to report an incident through our notification system, they need to contact their Section Leader or Quadrant Captain.  That person will notify all of the Quadrant Captains, who will send out a group email or telephone message to the 9 Section Leaders in each of their quadrants.  The Section Leaders will then notify the residents in their section who have signed up to participate by their email list or telephone.  Thus the information will be communicated like the branching of tree.  Of course, if you witness a crime or suspicious activity, CALL THE SHERIFF’S DEPT FIRST, and then secondly inform your Section Leader or Quadrant Leader.

Proper Septic System Maintenance

Did you know, MPCA rule 7080.2450 requires Individual Sewage Treatment Systems’, (i.e., septic systems’) owners to every 3 years or less: ”

A.

assess whether sewage tanks leak below the designed operating depth and whether sewage tank tops, riser joints, and riser connections leak through visual evidence of major defects; and

B.

measure or remove the accumulations of scum, grease, and other floating materials at the top of each septic tank and compartment, along with the sludge, which consists of the solids denser than water.”

You can do the measurements and inspections yourself or hire a pumping service to do it.  See https://www.revisor.mn.gov/rules/?id=7080.2450.  Talk to Merillee DeGroot, the Rice Co. Sanitarian, about how to make a dipstick for the measurements.

Cyrus Trail Ravine Project (Completed 11/2008)

This project, the installation of a drainage system which diverted surface drainage water away from an unstable ravine on the southwest corner of the lake, has been completed!  The last phase, the installation of a culvert under Cyrus Trail, was completed on November 3, 2008.  All the project’s contributors; CLA, Tri-Lakes Sportsmen’s Club and Richard & Lorraine Carlander, have written their checks to the contractor, Terry Barker Construction, Inc., which I forwarded to him on November 28, 2008.  (fjw)

The CLA directors extend their heartfelt thanks to the association members, the Tri-Lakes Sportsmen’s Club and especially to Mr. Richard Carlander and his wife for their generous donations to this project.

The purpose of the project was to stop the erosion of topsoil from within a steep ravine a few hundred feet north of 130th Street and west of Cyrus Trail, a private road paralleling the Wolf Creek inlet on the south end of the lake.  For a detailed description of the project’s origin and history, including pictures of the ravine and the drainage system, click here.

To view high resolution, full-screen versions of any of the pictures shown in the description, click on the corresponding figure title shown in the following list: