Lutsen Township Board Meeting Minutes
December 16, 2025
Lutsen Town Hall
Present: Lollie Cooper, Chris Homyak, Ashley VanDoren, Samantha Mcquatters-Spangle, Sharon Hexum-Platzer, Kasia Schmidt, Steve Duclos
Call to Order: Meeting called to order by Vice Chairperson, C Homyak at 7:00pm
Approval of Agenda: C Homyak made a motion to approve the December agenda, L Cooper seconded. Motion passed.
Approval of November Meeting Minutes: L Cooper made a motion to approve the meeting minutes; C Homyak seconded. Motion passed.
Commissioner’s Report: (Ginny Storlie) N/A
Clerk’s Report: S. Mcquatters-Spangle Deputy Clerk:S. Hexum-Platzer
Correspondence: 8 phone calls forwarded, 3 new townhall rentals reserved and one walkthrough. Emails: Entire United States; half staff alert, MAT annual conference set for December 11-13, 2025 in St. Cloud MN. MN housing notice; public comment period for 2025 CAPER, OSA weekly newsletter including new fire relief procedures documents, SLFRF new reporting guidelines, Hall staff alert in remembrance of Pearl Harbor, Arrowhead agency newsletter update, Minnesota Department of management and budget public input deadline Dec. 8, 2025, Microsoft price change(townhall uses these services), MAT calendar correction for township elections, MN state arts board grant information session newsletter; Half staff alert for Sara Beckstrom; CCHE newsletter, IRRRB meeting recap, city of Grand Marais weekly updates, PERA webinar notice for Dec 17, 2025.
● Voting notice published
● Snowplowing contract confirmed and sent
● Sanding contract drafted
● Township tuesdays meetings
● Fire/EMS supplies ordered
● End of year coding corrections
● Election calendar set
● Park electric invoices printed
● SAFES updated
Treasurer’s Report: Ashley VanDoren:
As of November 30, 2025;
North Shore Federal Credit Union-
● Checking $188,962.56
● General Building Fund $57,572.86
Draft
Grand Marais State Bank”
● Money Market $86,331.07
● Fire/EMS Truck Fund $82,728.78
CD Investments at Grand Marais State Bank:
● 7 month CD deposit $100,000 at 4% currently at $102,613.70
○ Matures 2/19/26 for truck fund
● 29 month CD deposit $100,000 at 4.5% currently at $104,512.33
○ Matures 6/2/26 for truck fund
● 24 month CD deposit $10,249.18 at 4.5% currently at $10,249.18
○ Matures 10/22/27 for vehicle refurbish/Maint
● 7 month CD deposit $10,249.18 at 4.0% currently at $10,249.18
○ Matures 10/22/27 equipment replacement
Total funds including CD investments $643,219.66
Year to date Receipts $283,905.04, Year to date disbursements $321,712.33, 2025 General Town Budget $40,850.00, 2025 Fire District Budget $363,795.00, Total 2025 Budget $404,645.00
2025 General Town Levy $40,000, 2025 Fire District Levy $300,000, Total 2025 Levy $340,000.
C Homyak made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report. L Cooper seconded. Motion passed. The only noticeable changes to the fire and general for the end of year will be the deposit if the 2nd half of property taxes will bring us out of the deficit of funds in both accounts.
Treasurer VanDoren let the board know she would not be seeking re-election for the upcoming term in March but did offer to train and help any new incoming treasurer for Lutsen Township.
Thank you for all of your effort and work over the past few years and you will be missed!
Review and Approval of Claims:
● Clerk S. Mcquatters-Spangle provided the invoiced December claims: Details; 12 claims for a total of $4,916.82. This included $803.63 for the installation and filling of a propane tank for short term emergency shelter, $941.52 for Visa use in purchasing a windsock frame, EMS and fire supplies including safety vests and splints and $888 to MATIT for workers insurance compensation. C Homyak made a motion to approve claims. L Cooper seconded. Motion passed.
● Clerk provided December 2025 payroll; Quarter 4 payroll with 21 claims for a total of $8,053.75; this payroll includes Fire and EMS personnel.
L Cooper made a motion to approve payroll. C Homyak seconded. Motion passed.
● Claims approval and payroll distributions were signed by supervisors; copies are on file in the town office.
● Cash control for December 2025 presented and matches between clerk and treasurers; both signed by all supervisors and on file in the town office.
Cash control was off by 2 pennies as PERA often splits pennies; Clerk requested a motion from the supervisors to manually fix the 2 penny difference from the Clerk and treasurer CTAS. C Homyak made a motion to allow clerk to manually fix the 2 penny difference in CTAS for end up year accounting. L Cooper seconded. Motion passed.
Draft
Fire and EMS Chief’s Report: (Steve Duclos)
● 1 Fire call and 1 EMS call; fire call happened during the fireman's ball
● 700 letters were sent out for a request of donation for Lutsen fire Drone purchase to aid in search and rescue; all to short term rentals in Cook County.
● Training consisted of:
○ Rope training
○ Air Pack testing
○ IV training; hoping to roll out fully trained IV staff on New Year’s Day
○ Truck checks; small engines
● Officer nominations:
○ Matt Kartes is stepping down as assistant EMS chief; Kasia Schimidt will be the new assistant EMS chief as well as the department safety officer
○ Ben Belland will take over EMS captain
○ Stephen Grey will be the junior fire captain
○ Greg Muller will maintain secretary
○ Hank was nominated for senior captain
○ Tim Lien renominated for assistant fire chief
● Attended chiefs meeting which included the state fire marshal’s office
● Some room is left on the fire budget for the year and over the next week the fire chief will be emailing about a few “want” items to better serve the volunteer fire crew
● New windsock mount to be place on fire hall, safety vest
● The newest firefighter just completed his EMR; the last firefighter will be completing fire 1 and 2 this upcoming season so all personnel will be trained.
Supervisors' Report
C Friesner: N/A
L Cooper:
● Represented Lutsen township on WTIP
● Talked with Smith Law lawyer on finalized kitchen lease
C Homyak:
● Gitchi Gami trail meeting consisted of bonding planning for the next year. Request for 4.5 million a section of which is for the bridge needed in Lutsen anticipated to be built in the spring of 2028. Letters of support requested for a transportational alternatives grant for 2029/2030 for the next section from Lutsen church to Caribou trail.
● Talked with Great River Energy about felling trees on township easement
Old Business:
● Lutsen Township emergency shelter: Generator on site currently waiting for electrical hook up. Propane tank delivered, installed and filled. Lutsen already has a working kitchen, cots, blankets, showers and has already talked with other emergency shelter groups on needs. Supervisor L Cooper will be the main contact for Mr. Keyport
Draft
about his hazard mitigation request. Supervisor C Frienser will be working with setting up the necessary work to have the remaining fixture such as heaters and plumbing installed.
● Grand View Park: The pavilion will be looked over and C Friener will reach out to a contractor on quotes about lifting the supports and winterizing it.
● Personal convection oven lease: L Cooper worked with Smith Law attorney to draft a specialized lease to cover any issues that could occur with just the damage deposit amount needed that would cover the quote amount on the insurance. L Cooper will reach out to Tabitha to gather the last of the needed information to close out the lease rental.
● Sanding bid; currently two bids have been submitted to Lutsen Township. C Homyak made a motion to accept the sanding bid submitted by Superior Property North Shore LLC. L Cooper seconded the motion. Motion passed.
New Business:
● Letter of support for the Gitchi Gami trail Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) grant.
C Homyak made a motion to write a letter of support. L Cooper seconded. Motion passed.
● Request for new town hall clerk laptop; over the last 18 months there have been 3 occasions of the bootup process not working to start up windows 11 and needed a technician multiple days to fix. Request for a new one before the hard drive fails. C Homyak made a motion to allow the clerk to work with Sundew Technical in buying a new laptop between $1000 and $2000 and creating a back up plan for all important documents. L Cooper seconded. Motion passed.
Donations: Cathedral of the Pines, Dana A. Grosslein, Paul and Barbara MacGregor; Thank you! L Cooper made a motion to accept the donation. C Homyak seconded. Motion passed.
Citizen Comments :
● When signing contracts especially through email make sure all parties have signed and have signed copies
● Request for an EMS section on the new website and keep it up to date, be sure to double check job duties when listing the fire crew. The clerk is responsible for maintaining the website so please don't hesitate to email or call and let the clerk know if there are any issues that need to be fixed.
● Request for a Lutsen fire calender
● Idea for fire crew; mail post cards to citizens to inform them about pancake breakfast, fish fry and any other events for better outreach to the community.
● Lutsen Trailbreakers is hosting their first annual ice fishing contest on February 24, 2026. Onsite registration starts at 8am on Caribou Lake.
Adjournment: C Homyak made a motion to adjourn; seconded by L Cooper. Motion passed and the meeting was adjourned at 7:54pm
Respectfully Submitted, S Mcquatters-Spangle, Townhall Clerk Carl Frienser;Chairperson