Where to begin: the threat of annexation, the need for improved radio communications among rural fire departments?

Or new township road signage requirements and a proposed change to the county zoning ordinance to require bio-filter systems for confinement systems for 500 animal units or more?

Maybe, the tough talk from the Mower County assessor about state law changes affecting ag land?

Or a plea to all to help townships and school districts to hold onto their share of the wind energy production tax revenues, while state officials gaze lustfully at all revenue sources to wipe out the state budget deficit, too?

All that and good news about bids for the new Mower County Jail and Justice Center made last week’s Mower County Township Association meeting one of those “something for everyone” sessions.

Those topics dominated a marathon three-hour meeting Thursday for the Mower County Township Association at the Elkton Community Center.

There were 66 representatives from Mower County’s 20 townships at the spring meeting, according to MCTA secretary, Delos Frank.

The MCTA holds only two meetings a year — spring and fall, during harvest — so the opportunities to share important news with the diverse audience are infrequent.

Soon after MCTA president Richard Epley convened the meeting, the Minnesota Township Association’s district representative, Gary Peterson, had township officials’ attention.

“It’s going to be a complicated year,” Peterson predicted. The reason: threat of annexation from municipalities.

Peterson urged MCTA members to be prepared to fight the threat of losing their tax bases to cities.

That is happening to Lansing Township, where 25 percent of its tax base was taken away by the City of Austin after a sanitary sewer controversy and the need for the city to extend services to the township’s Woodhaven area residents.

Mark Osmundson, president of the Mower County Rural Fire Association, updated all on the efforts to obtain a grant to upgrade radio communications for rural fire departments.

According to Osmundson, an Adams Fire Department volunteer, “During the day, firefighters are at a premium.”

With fewer firefighters able to respond to emergencies during the day, that puts greater responsibilities upon those firefighters at the scene and that, in turn, means it is essential for the volunteers to have the best communications with each other.

With Mower County’s willingness to fund a 10 percent share of the local matching funds requirement, Osmundson said it will help leverage obtaining the money needed to upgrade the rural firefighters’ repeater system.

The total cost of the upgrading will be an estimated $700,000 with townships asked to pay a share, too.

Perhaps the most keenly anticipated information came from Mower County Assessor Richard Peterson about tillable farm land sales, land valuations and land classifications for exemptions.

According to Peterson, ag land values have increased, because of the sales by 12 percent. The average price paid per acre of ag land has risen from $3,600 to $4,000 and the results of 13 new sales show ag land is now selling at an average of $4,736 per tillable acre this year.

Residents will soon receive their valuation notices, which Peterson told the MCTA members to “look over carefully.”