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y Rin Porter Bartlett Township is locatedthe northern border of Todd

d Wadena Counties, just eastStowe Prairie Township. The

rtridge Riverows from theuth to theo r t h e a s trough it.i n n e s o t aghway 210ns east andest across theiddle of thewnship, andounty Road 11ns north anduth in thestern third of e township.s of 2009, 361ople livedere, and 102rms werecated there (citymelt.com).here were 172 housing units,

of which were single-familymes.The township was named for

a Bartlett. When Todd Countyas organized in 1867, thereere only three townships, andhat is now Bartlett was consid-ed part of Hartford Township.hen Stowe Prairie was organ-ed in March 1877, Bartlettcame part of that township.

hen in March 1883, Bartlettas set off by itself (O.B.eLaurier, The Long Prairie

Leader, Nov. 19, 1936).The Northern Pacific Railroad

touched the northeast corner of Bartlett Township when it wasbeing built in 1871, and the vil-

lage of Aldrich grew up there onthe other side of the town line.There are no cities or villages inthe township itself.

O.B. DeLaurier reported thathe could find no record of thefirst officers of the township, buthe did find a record of the firsttax roll prepared by assessor J.J. Gill. The 12 property taxpay-ers were: Ira Bartlett, ErnestErickson, Warren Foster, J.J.Gill, William Hunter, A. B.Jerome, Levi Lee, Frank Lee, M.Pettengill, Fred Peterson, A. J.

Vaughn, and Silas Walker.

Ira Bartlett, believed to be thefirst settler in the town, wasborn in Farmersville, New York,in 1839, the son of Ira Bartlettand Susan Conrad, and lived in

New York dur-ing his youth.He had fourbrothers andtwo sisters,plus two half brothers andtwo half sisters.He came toMinnesota in1861, and mar-ried MaryGardner inF r e e b o r nCounty in 1864( M i n n e s o t aM a r r i a g eIndex, ances-try.com). Theyare living there

with a son James on theMinnesota Census of 1865. Inthe 1870s, he moved to Iowa, butreturned to Minnesota in a fewyears and built a home inSection 7 of Bartlett Township.Minnesota Land Records showhe purchased 80 acres in Section8. On the U.S. Census of 1880,the family is shown as living inStowe Prairie Township, whichis correct since Bartlett had notyet been organized as a town-ship. Mary and Ira Bartlett had

By Rin Porter, District OneCommission Member andVice-Chair

The Todd County PlanningCommission held a public hear-ing at 6:30 PM Feb. 2, 2012, atthe Main Street GovernmentCenter in Long Prairie. Presentwere: commission members JimPratt, Mike Wiener, LloydGraves, Gene Irsfeld, and RinPorter; liaisons CommissionerGerry Ruda from the countyboard and Dale Katterhagenfrom SWCD; staff membersLinda Bleess and GarryJohanson from the Soil, Water,

Conservation and DevelopmentDivision of Todd County.Eighteen members of the publicattended the hearing.

There was one item on theagenda. The following are theresults of the public hearing:

1. Lawrence Troyer, deaconfrom Living Water MennoniteChurch, application for aConditional Use Permit to builda church and school on about 10acres of Ted and MaureenGolla’s 26-acre property inSection 19 of Little ElkTownship in an AF-2 zone, locat-ed on CR 14.

The commission voted 4 to 1to recommend denial of theapplication, based on staff find-ings that the location of the pro-posed building was on a parcelsurrounded by vacant land inthe AF-2 zoning district. Thecurrent use of the adjacentlands was for the shooting of deer and turkeys during thefirearms deer season inNovember and the wild turkeyseason in March. It was theconclusion of the staff thatpreservation of hunting landwas required by the 2030 ToddCounty Comprehensive Plan,

and trumps any other use of thisparticular land parcel.Several members of the pub-

lic spoke against the applica-

tion, citing their beliefs that (1)their ownership of land gavethem the right to prevent othersfrom constructing buildings,

even though buildings were apermitted use in the AF-2 dis-trict, (2) the proposed churchand school were too far from thenearest town, (3) commercialtrucks use the road and wouldmake it dangerous for carsattempting to turn into the pro-posed school driveway, (4) theexistence of a church and schoolwould cause the county assessorto reduce the value of otherlandowners’ property, (5) theexistence of a tax exempt churchand school would cause a budgetcrisis for Todd County becauseof the loss of several hundred

dollars in property taxes cur-rently assessed on the land, (6)the shooting of deer and turkeysduring two or three weeks peryear is a more valuable use of the 10 acres of land than theproposed church and schoolwould be.

The county board will consid-er the matter at its meeting onFeb. 21.

The next meeting of the ToddCounty Planning Commissionwill take place on Thursday,March 1, at 6:30 PM at the MainStreet Government Center. Themeeting will include a public

hearing on the revised ToddCounty Zoning Ordinance.

A community newspaper serving Browerville, MN and surrounding areas. USPS 067-560

Thursday, February 9, 2012 Volume 95; Number 34

www.bladepublishing.net

Wed. Feb. 8

Sunny

27°/10°

Thur. Feb. 9

Partly Cloudy

22°/-3°

Fri. Feb. 10

Sunny

12°/-1°

Sat. Feb. 11

Mostly Sunny

17°/5°

Sun. Feb. 12

Mostly Cloudy

25°/21°

Mon. Feb. 13

Partly Cloudy

35°/23°

W EEKLY W EATHER R EPORT

7 5 ¢Bartlett Township named forra Bartlett, 1867

Students celebrate Catholic Schools Week

Lions Club Superbowl Breakfast

PlanningCommissionrecommends

denial ofMennonite

Church/School

Bartlett Township Hall

A colorful group of Christ the King students visited Browerville Businesses to thank themor their support during Catholic Schools Week January 28 - February 2. Above: this groupas dressed for “Being creative in clothing day.” Additional photos inside.

Continued on page 16.