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Mississippi Headwaters midpoint review and 2627 grant proposal include stormwater equipment and vac trailer for Beltrami County projects
Summary
Staff briefed commissioners on the Mississippi Headwaters 10‑year plan midpoint and a 2627 grant application; Beltrami County projects in the draft budget include a brine‑tank retrofit for a highway truck, Lake Bemidji stormwater work, and purchase of a vac trailer to support maintenance in smaller towns.
A presenter outlined the Mississippi Headwaters 10‑year plan, now at its midpoint, and summarized a consent‑agenda budget and work plan for a 2627 grant application that would be the third grant received under the plan.
The presenter said the plan’s priorities include lake stewardship (shoreline restoration and phosphorus reduction), agricultural stewardship (no‑till and cover‑crop experiments), and urban stormwater best‑management practices. The 2627 budget is organized into three pots—staff, projects and administration—and was developed by a steering team of five counties, five SWCDs and the Leech Lake Band before going to a policy committee of one elected official per county.
Beltrami County‑specific projects highlighted in the draft work plan include retrofitting a county highway truck with a liquid brine tank for pre‑storm application, two Lake Bemidji stormwater projects done in partnership with the county highway department, and purchasing a vac trailer the highway department would own and make available for towns and townships to avoid expensive outside‑vendor rates.
The presenter explained the budget is intentionally flexible so partners can shift funds across projects if needs change during multi‑year grants, and noted that Beltrami and Itasca counties account for a larger share of project work because they contain much of the watershed area and population.
