Rice Lake Seeks City Status With Fear of Annexation

RICE LAKE TOWNSHIP - With recent threats of annexation, Rice Lake Township has taken a big step to avoid being taken over by any city in the future.

At Tuesday evenings township meeting, the board decided the township should try to become its own city.

"We consider ourselves being held hostage here to the situation so we had to act," Rice Lake Township Chair Greg Andrews said.

Neighbors feel gaining a city status is the only way to keep their community safe from annexation.

It was community members who wanted to start the process of becoming their own city.

People living in Rice Lake already consider themselves their own town and they like the way the function. They've got their own infrastructure, manage their own roads, and even have their own fire department.

Last year Duluth wanted to annex part of the township and neighbors put their foot down saying they would fight against becoming part of Duluth.

Soon after a community meeting in Rice Lake, Duluth called off talks with the township.

Since then, Chairman Andrews has been working to make sure his community doesn't get taken over by any nearby cities.

"They'd rather be a township,” said Andrews referring to the feeling of community members. “If we have to protect ourselves from being annexed they would like us to seek city status."

Andrews did pay a visit to Mayor Don Ness’ office Tuesday before the township meeting, and Ness assured him Duluth would not try to annex Rice Lake again.

Tuesdays meeting was just the very beginning of the process.  Now officials with Rice Lake need to let all the nearby towns know what they plan on doing.

It's a judge with the state of Minnesota who has a year to make the final decision whether the township will become the City of Rice Lake.

While it's possible for the judge to decide to make Rice Lake part of Duluth, neighbors are hoping for a better outcome.

It'll cost Rice Lake tax payers about $100,000 to complete this process, but they say it's a price they're willing to pay.

Community members say when Duluth talked about annexing them, it was a slap in the face.  They think they're doing a good job managing themselves, and becoming a city is the only way to keep it that way.