6472 French River Road Duluth, MN 55804 218.525.1848 The Board of Supervisors meet on the third Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m., unless posted otherwise, are held at the Normanna Town Hall, 6472 French River Road. The Board of Supervisors will meet: Monthly Board Meeting Monday, January 22, 2013, Board of Audit (BOA) to follow Monthly Board Meeting Monday, February 25, 2013, BOA to follow Annual Township Election and Meeting Tuesday, March 12, 2013 Reorganization Meeting Monday, March 25, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. Monthly Board Meeting Monday, March 25, 2013 Annual Road Review Monday, May 13, 2013 at 5:30 p.m. Monthly Board Meeting Monday, May 13, 2013 Monthly Board Meeting Monday, June 17, 2013 Monthly Board Meeting Monday, July 15, 2013 Monthly Board Meeting Monday, August 19, 2013 Monthly Board Meeting Monday, September 16, 2013 Monthly Board Meeting Monday, October 21, 2013 Monthly Board Meeting Monday, November 18, 2013 Monthly Board Meeting Monday, December 16, 2013 IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING ASSESSMENT & CLASSIFICATION OF PROPERTY This may affect your 2014 property tax payments Notice is hereby given that the Local Board of Appeal & Equalization for NORMANNA TOWNSHIP, in St. Louis County, Minnesota shall meet at Normanna Town Hall 6472 French River Road on Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. The purpose of this meeting is to determine whether taxable property in the jurisdiction has been properly valued and classified by the assessor, and to determine whether corrections need to be made. If you believe the value or classification of your property is incorrect, please contact your assessor’s office to discuss your concerns. If you are still not satisfied with the valuation or classification after discussing it with your assessor, you may appear before the local board of appeal and equalization. The board shall review the valuation, classification, or both if necessary, and shall correct it as needed. Generally, an appearance before your local board of appeal and equalization is required by law before an appeal can be taken to the county board of appeal and equalization. Ellen Hanson Clerk of Normanna March 30, 2013 2014 TOWN LEVY PASSED at the ANNUAL MEETING On March 12, 2013 General: $25,000 Fire: $20,000 Road/Bridge: $25,000 Cemetery: $1,000 Building: $5,000 Impress: $200 TOTAL: $76,200 Ellen Hanson ClerkTown of Normanna 2013 TOWN LEVY PASSED at the ANNUAL MEETING On March 13, 2012 General: $20,000 Fire: $20,000 Road/Bridge: $30,382 Cemetery: $0 Building: $0 Impress: $0 TOTAL: $70,382 Ellen Hanson ClerkTown of Normanna Update on the Cloquet Valley Internet Initiative September 2012 The Broadband Preliminary Feasibility report is complete. The report lists all potential Internet Service Providers in our area along with the characteristics of their services: bandwidth, latency, data caps & a description of technology platforms. Here is a brief Excede Satellite and the Coop Light & Power (CLP) are ranked as two of the ‘best options today’. Excede is superior to its predecessor Wild Blue with download speeds of 12Mbit. However it is limited by latency and data caps. CLP’s new wireless service has 7Mbit/1.5Mbit download speeds and has no latency or data cap issues. They are building a 200-300Mbit wireless middle mile network to support smart meters in townships where they provide power services. CLP is also interested in expanding Internet services in townships where it is profitable. They have been invited to the September 17th Normanna Town Board Meeting to discuss expansion of their services in our township. Existing providers are not actively developing partly because they have invalid data indicating that the internet speeds are average in our community. There is a way we can show that speeds are poor. Go to http://speedtest.connectedmn.org to run a speed test from your machine. Results will instantly be available to Internet Service Providers and will help us prove that our services need to be upgraded. The more we login to run these tests the better. The FCC is funding two rural broadband initiatives we should watch: -FCC is also offering funding to extend DSL services. Normanna’s service provider, CenturyLink, may pursue this funding. Submitted by Mark Anderson and Kimberly Grubb See the Boardband Provider Report below.
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Cloquet Valley Internet Initiative "Working together to bring high speed internet and more options to our region" Options available for cell phones, Internet and television service are limited in Normanna Township. In some areas, cell phone or high-speed Internet service are not available at all. In other areas, limited services are available from Frontier, Centurylink, Coop Light & Power, Cellular companies and other providers. In all cases, the demand for Internet services far exceeds the capacity. As we move into the future, tele-commuting (virtual travel) will provide greater access and be more affordable than physical travel. In rural areas such as ours, those who want to tele-commute from home aren't able to do so. Students are missing out on important educational opportunities. Fire and safety operations will be affected if telecommunications are unreliable. Access to certain services, such as tele-healthcare aren't possible. As more services are offered over the Internet, we are being left behind. Representatives from area townships have been meeting to seek a solution to this problem. Townships in Cloquet Valley - Alden, Ault, Fairbanks, Gnesen, Normanna, Northstar, Pequaywan, and Unorganized - need to make sure that we not are left out of the planning for high speed Internet access that is going on in Lake County and other areas. An important component of this effort is demonstrating the interest of area residents - both year round and seasonal - in improving current Internet, phone and television services. In order to convince providers of Internet access to either initiate service or improve their current level of service, we need to demonstrate potential demand. A variety of approaches are being investigated, such as national programs that extend broadband to rural areas, participation in new projects like the Lake County Fiber Optic Project, or expansion and improvement by current providers. Those volunteers working on the Cloquet Valley Internet Initiative have been meeting with officials from Lake and St. Louis Counties, and representatives of the Coop Light and Power, among others, to determine what options are available. The group has secured a grant from the Blandin Foundation for a consultant knowledgeable in this area. What is the Lake County Fiber Optic Project: Using funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utility Service (RUS), Lake County is building a fiber-to-the-home network serving Lake County and a portion of eastern St. Louis County. Residents in this area will be able to receive new state-of-the-art telecommunication services including ultra-high-speed broadband with video, voice and data services delivered over fiber-optic cable. The Cloquet Valley Internet Initiative is investigating whether it would be feasible to extend that network to include our area, as one option to increase the Internet service here. Fiber-to-the-home networks differ from conventional telecommunications services, which are delivered over a copper line (DSL service), copper coaxial cable (cable service) or wireless services (ground based tower or satellite services). Fiber-optic networks deliver data through strands of fiberglass, using laser technologies that operate at many time the speed of conventional services. The term Broadband is defined by Rural Utility Service as 3 million bits per second (Mbps). Resident support and interest are the keys to making anything happen. Resident support will be required to get a government loan or grant. No one will pay attention to us unless residents stand up and say...Yes, we want better service. We want more choices. We want to take full advantage of all the potential the Internet is offering, whether personal or business related. In Normanna Township, we will be contacting neighbors to get feedback on their interest and suggestions for how to proceed. You may be contacted by eMail, in person or by mail. If you are missed, please email NormannaBb@gmail.com and request an interest survey and to be added to the eMail distribution list. Please go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VZ2P8JQ to enter your survey online. We will continue to keep you informed. And, of course, since we are aware of the limited Internet service in this area, we will also be using printed materials to keep residents informed! |