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The Chisago City Council gathered for a special meeting Oct.13 to meet deadlines to facilitate property acquisition for Highway 8 and consider some decisions that could have significant impact on the Chisago Lakes area.

The special meeting was at the request of Chisago County Engineer Joe Triplett. Triplett needed the city to sign off on plats for land that must be acquired to provide right of way for next year’s reconstruction of Highway 8 between Forest Blvd. in Wyoming and Chisago City.

“Thanks for holding the special meeting,” Triplett told council members. “We can’t get  right-of-way orders out the door without an approved plat. We started some offers but would lose a couple of weeks if we didn’t have this meeting.” 

Project prep means 260 parcels of land must be acquired in order to get the highway project underway by June 2027 as planned. Triplett updated the council saying his team is working on obtaining necessary permitting and hopes to get the 2,938-page construction plan 95 percent approved by November. 

“We’ll have a lot to do in the next four or five months—lots of hoops to navigate—including funding sources,” he said, adding, “As far as funding, we still have a gap.  We’re working through the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) and I currently believe we will get the necessary funding,” he said.

Triplett told council to expect some type of action related to tree removal to begin next March. “We have several homes that will have to be taken care of as well,” he added.

The council passed a resolution approving the right-of-way plat for improvement of Trunk Highway 8 that includes parts of Sections 26, 23, 13, 12 and 1, in Township 33 North, Range 21 West, Chisago County, 

In a related action, the council voted to accept the county’s certification that the highway project in the vicinity of Lake Ellen and Little Green Lake will not raise flood levels.

Currently, movement of water between Lake Ellen and Little Green Lake is through two existing 60-inch culverts under Highway 8. Plans call for those culverts to remain in place with 10-foot extensions added on the Lake Ellen side. 

County hydrologic analysis showed that “the proposed shoulder upgrades, separated trail, minor fill, and culvert extensions will not raise flood levels.” The analysis showed, “The documented water level change is 0.0001 ft, and culvert improvements maintain full hydraulic connectivity.” Based on those findings, the council approved flood plain encroachment.

In other business, the council:

- approved a new three-year contract with city public works and parks employees who belong to the 49ers Union. Union membership had voted to approve the new contract on Sept 30 but the city subsequently found some minor adjustments needed in the wage tables. 

The new contract had changed the 49ers’ sick time accrual from four hours per pay period to eight hours per month in order to align with other city staff. 

”We saw we were giving employees more hours of accrued sick time per month than we had per pay period,” explained Administrator John Pechman. To correct the discrepancy, the city added seven cents per hour on the minimum wage in the wage tables. 

Council unanimously approved a draft proposal to construct an $8 million Lakes Area Police Department public safety building on an earlier identified site in Chisago City— with Chisago City agreeing to pay more than half the construction cost.  (See separate story in this issue page 1.)

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