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The North Branch City Composting Site opens April 26 and the citywide “cleanup day” is also happening that same date— but this year the disposal location for cleanup day items is being moved to west of the freeway, at North Branch Township Hall.  The township and city share the same recycling services provider, so the cleanup day location was consolidated to the roomier parcel at North Branch Township Hall.  

You can drop off items for recycling such as tires, appliances, etc. for various fees. 

Evergreen Recycling does the collection, processes and transports the items for the city and township.  You may have gotten a coupon included with your property valuation statement,  from Chisago county and you will be able to use this at the township hall event.

The North Branch city compost site is also opening April 26 and will be accepting organic debris from North Branch residents from 9 a.m. to noon.  There will also be finished compost for residents to load and take away.  The compost site is at the end of Ash Street, at the east end of the business park.

Bring a driver license for proof of residency.

Normal hours to use the compost site, at the wastewater treatment facility on Ash Street, are 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.  

Another news item from the North Branch council meeting last week, is the County Road 30 reconstruction starts soon.  The county road from Stacy to where new surface halts (south of the library) is concrete but the reconstruction segment within North Branch through to Hwy 95 is slated for asphalt.  The completion date is in September.

April 14, weather permitting, work was set to get underway to remove old concrete and any subgrade materials. It is scheduled for County Road 30 to close until April 21, from the golf course north end to Pine Street for this work.  Signs will be posted.    

The official detour for any closure of County Road 30 is to direct traffic over to the freeway.

Another road closure is tentatively planned for right after the MS 150 biking event.  This stretch of #30 from 382 to 384th is the area of the closure.

A third road closure is expected in July near 377th and 379th.

Coordinator for the city on this project is Nate Sondrol and Ben Hobert is the county project manager.

In other business last week, council:

~ Approved a garbage hauler license for LePage & Sons.

See NB CLEAN UP/8 Adopted the police department’s drone policy final version (story in Press March 6.)

~ The city’s new storage building required a permit as it is in addition to a city owned property. The conditional use permit for the extra accessory structure was approved.  North Branch has a building that is used for storage that’s for sale now and the city is preparing to relocate the stored goods. Proceeds from sale of this property are being directed to pay for the new post frame structure.

~ And, congratulations to the wastewater treatment plant team, awarded an “exceptional compliance” rating by the state Pollution Control Agency. Lead operator Paxton Lind and operator Jamie Monette were recognized.  North Branch has won this exceptional rating 25 times. Of 676 wastewater facilities in 2024 there were 236 awardees.

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