Northern Township Board Responds to Bemidji’s Annexation Resolution

After Northern Township issued their notice of intent to incorporate into a city, the Bemidji City Council quickly passed a resolution asking Northern Township to rescind that notice and have the city re-enter wastewater negotiations with the township. At their latest board meeting on Monday, Northern Township announced they will be sending their own letter in response to the city’s resolution.

The letter outlines the history of discussions between the city and township regarding annexation, as well as the reasons why the township “must decline further negotiations predicated on annexation.”

“This should include past and present pertinent information to support the Northern Town Board’s position to continue to move ahead with the incorporation procedures, as requested and supported by our residents,” said Micheal Kelly, Northern Township Board Supervisor, at the meeting.

“We’ve come a long way on it, and we’ve had a lot of previous discussion with the city and tried to work some arrangements out [but] that fell through, so I think we’re well down the road on this process,” added Gary Barnard, Northern Township Board Vice Chair. “We’re going to do what we can to protect the township.”

The city offered to extend their wastewater services to Northern Township in 2022, but required annexation to do so. The township then left those negotiations to do the project on their own, but that has been met with opposition from some of the residents that would be affected by the project.

“[What the] township board is saying is, the septic systems are causing the phosphorus in the lake, but science shows the opposite,” said Northern Township resident Jim Aakhus. “My septic system’s fine, I’m not polluting the lake, so that’s not the best stewardship of my money. I’m not going to benefit from having this system. That’s another bullet point that the township board has is, this will increase your property value. Lake property is finite, there’s only so much of it. There’s always a demand for it, the property values will always go up, and having a centralized wastewater treatment system on a property is not a selling point.”

Northern Township will be holding an information meeting regarding this situation at the 4-H Building at the Beltrami County Fairgrounds on May 7th at 6:30 p.m.