The view from living along Lake Superior’s shore is at times indescribable, but homeowners are worried that same beauty will only continue to take its toll.

One of those homeowners is Paul Treuer who has lived on Park Point for more than 20 years. Treuer said “... erosion going on, rapid erosion by our property and also on both ends of the point.”

 Treuer explained how flooding and erosion is a constant battle and it has only gotten worse. Despite stone dunes along the edge of his property built to combat storm surge, Treuer said Duluth’s recent October and spring storms were no match.

He said “... entire soccer fields where kids would play soccer was under water. The road was closed and the police were stationed there not letting anybody through so the airport was completely shut-off.”

City officials like Mike LeBeau, who spends his days knee deep in this work, agreed it’s a huge problem. Thanks to a FEMA grant worth more than $250,000, LeBeau said they can begin a new study to better understand erosion and storm surge and hopefully find a solution.

In terms of the study itself, LeBeau explained “... that is looking at a variety of factors. How close the infrastructure road, parking area, buildings, is to the eroding edge? What the rate of erosion is? Things like that.”

The study will focus on the stretch of shore between Brighton Beach and Knife River along with the bayside of Park Point. Once it’s finished, engineers and city officials can get to work on resolving the issue and mitigate major damage in years to come.

“Make plans before its too late.”

The first virtual public meeting about this study occurred on February 16. More meeting are scheduled in the coming weeks.  To join the meeting, click here and select, “Property & Facilities Public Meetings.”

To see the video version of this report and related stories, follow this link to the KBJR-TV website.