Brainerd Dispatch: News | Brainerd, Minnesota | Brainerd Lakes Area News on brainerddispatch.com

Home > NEWS >

Thursday, March 11, 2010

E-mail

Forums

Board approves H1N1 planning grant

CROW WING COUNTY BOARD

The Crow Wing County Board Tuesday approved a grant request of $57,749 to support H1N1 planning and response in case there is an additional wave of influenza or assure cold storage capacity for a possible future mass vaccination and communication needs with the new 800 megahertz radio system, a federal mandate that counties switch to an 800-megahertz radio system for emergency services by 2013.

Approved a zoning change and a variance request for Cheeks Saloon. The request, by Ray and Marcee McCabe, was to remove a deck on the bar and build a screen porch. The zoning changed from waterfront commercial to commercial one. The change allows a greater impervious surface coverage from 25 percent to 50 percent.

Chris Pence, planning and zoning supervisor, said 24 parking spaces will be installed along with a single entrance point. Pence said with Cheeks outside the 1,000 feet of the shoreland area, the change to commercial zoning was appropriate.

Revamped the county's cell phone policy in view of IRS requirements. The new policy goes into place April 1 with a six-month review. The idea is to offer multiple options to allow an employee, such as an on-call staff member, to carry a single phone either through reimbursement of a personal cell phone or use of a county phone with options to pay for personal calls. The county reported the move is expected to save money and cut down on the need for people to have two cell phones.

Heard an application was submitted to the county to allow cell phone towers to exceed the current limit of 199 feet in height. Anything higher has to be lighted by a white strobe in day and red strobe at night. The request is to allow towers to be higher than 199 feet if the tower is farther than a mile from a DNR classified lake. A public hearing is planned at 5 p.m. on April 15 at the planning commission.

Note: Comments are not edited and don't represent the views of The Brainerd Dispatch. Please read our posting rules in the terms of service policy. To report a post that may be inappropriate, click the triangle alert icon.