Fair / 66° F
Township residents ask why elected officials getting free snowplowing
Published 10:59am Monday, March 19, 2012At least one township is grappling with whether a five-year practice is legal or ethical.
Residents of Leaf Mountain Township questioned the practice of officials using public equipment to clear snow from private driveways, primarily those of the township leaders, during its annual meeting last week.
The “perk” began about five years ago when it was offered to a clerk to keep the person in office, according to Karen Tolkkinen, a Leaf Mountain Township resident who was among those questioning the practice.
“They claim other townships are doing it,” she said.
But Art Dorn, a township official, said the primary reason for the practice was to allow him or others to be quickly available to help road maintenance crews if they encountered trouble.
“We have an old snow plow and it breaks down,” Dorn said.
Last winter, for instance, the wing of the plow broke and it was quickly fixed to allow the driver to get back to work, Dorn said. It would have taken a couple hours to clear his drive to get to the driver otherwise, he added.
At least one other township clears private residents’ driveways as well. However, according to Bonnie Mark, clerk for Dane Prairie Township, the township bills those individuals for the work performed.
According to Otter Tail County Auditor Wayne Stein, the use of equipment is a township matter and not under the jurisdiction of the county.
To the credit of Leaf Mountain Township leaders, they plan to look into the matter, said Tolkkinen.
“There is a training for township officials in a couple weeks, and our township officials said they would ask that question,” Tolkkinen said.
She is not against the practice, she said, she just wanted to know if it was legal or ethical.
The money township officials receive for their service is “a pittance,” she said, adding maintenance crews do a good job maintaining the township roads.
…might be a pittance but no one is forcing them to SERVE their township.
Everyone else that lives in the country is responsible for their cost of clearing their driveways. Other taxpayers should not be forced to pay to have elected people get free driveway cleaning. If they are getting free snow plowing, it certainly is not ethical. The cost of plowing, mowing etc are taxed to all township taxpayers according to feet of frontage. I have lived and/or owned rural properties most of my life ( still own a couple of them ), and if I am paying for someone elses snow plowing, I want my money back.
Oh come on people. These officials have important work to do. Keeping them from getting anywhere would seriously push back any important work they have to do. The rest of you prols are nothing w/out them.
This is just a thin, thin slice of the garbage that goes on in St. Paul and Washington. I say let them get stuck in their driveways. Getting themselves out is probably the only real work they’ll do.
Well, it sounds to me like this is working out fine for them. That Art Dorn character sounds like he is a mechanic of some sort, as was alluded to when it stated that he helped fix a broken plow. If the townships plow is unreliable, it might be a good idea to make sure that the mechanic of the area has good access to get to said plow. The article states that an occurrence like this has already happened, so because they plowed his driveway, he was able to make it out to the plow when it broke.
Also, the other township stated in the article said that they bill people who receive this service. I see no big deal with that.
I know of somebody who gets their driveway plowed by a road grader (because they own it) and it literally takes them 40-50 seconds to do. If it’s the same for the people receiving the free plowing, that is a pretty cheap benefit if it has already proven to be useful.
i thought a while ago tjld quit plowing any private drive even if it was pd for gonna have to check that 1 out Len Schwarz