Boreal Access

On Tuesday, May 13, county commissioners followed the recommmendation of the Planning & Zoning Commission and approved a rezoning request on Saganaga Lake at the end of the Gunflint Trail.  The 11.5-acre resort-commercial property on which the former Sag Store sat was sold, and the buyer purchased 2.1 acres of lakeshore-residential property next to it.  He would like to combine the two properties into one resort-commercial parcel.  This combination would result in meeting the current minimum requirement of 300 feet of shoreline for a lakefront resort-commercial property. Planning Administrator Ann Cervenka said forty-six notices were sent out to nearby property owners notifying them of the request.  Only one letter came back, and it was in support of the rezoning.

Friday:

There are two great exhibits of local art in Grand Marais this weekend — the Photography/Pottery Show at the Johnson Heritage Post , 115 W. Wisconsin St. The Heritage Post is open from 1-4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. And theSpring Underground Show at Betsy Bowen's Studio, 301 1st Ave. West.. Betsy Bowen's Studio is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

The Cross River Heritage Center in Schroeder opens for the season with new exhibits. The center is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 12-4 Sunday. It is closed on Mondays.

Joe Paulik plays at the GunFlint Tavern at 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday night.

Saturday:

Howard Sivertson will sign his new book, “Driftwood; Stories Picked Up Along the Shore,” from 1-3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Sivertson Gallery.

Annual 25K and 50K Superior Hiking Trail Race, Lutsen area. Visit www.superiortrailrace.com for more info.

The band Portage and Mary and Jim Schliep will play for a dance at the Hovland Town Hall from 6:30-10:30 p.m. The dance is a benefit for the Hovland Arts Festival.

Sunday:

Pancake breakfast at YMCA Camp Menogyn from 9 a.m. to noon. $5 suggested donation. To get there, take the Hungry Jack Road off the Gunflint Trail (28 miles from Grand Marais), and turn left on Menogyn Trail after 3 miles. Park in the parking lot and enjoy a quick trip across West Bearskin to the camp. $5 suggested donation.

Chris Gillis, Max Bichel and Carah Thomas-Maskell play jazz at the Gunflint Tavern at 6:30 p.m.

Whether to change the zoning designation of a union-owned property on Lake Superior at the request of its neighbors' attorney produced considerable discussion at the May 13 meeting of the Cook County Commissioners.  Attorney Dick Swanson is representing neighbors of the Minneapolis Meat Cutters, a union that operates a retreat for its members on a parcel of Lake Superior shoreline just east of the Poplar River. The property, known as OURS Resort was rezoned last year from residential to resort-commercial.  Swanson maintains that there was no justifiable reason for designating the property resort-commercial and asked the board to rezone it back to residential. 

At the Grand Marais Park Board meeting on Tuesday, May 6, 2008, Recreation Park Manager Chuck Carbert shared some bad news about the Grand Marais Municipal Swimming Pool building. The building, plagued with maintenance issues in recent years, has a new problem. Carbert said there is an approximately six to eight-foot bow in the wall on the south side of the structure where the siding and sheathing has become detached from the studs. At the Grand Marais City Council meeting on Wednesday, May 14, the council approved up to $10,000 for the repair.
At the Park Board meeting, Carbert said the problem “goes back to our moisture issues.” He said he had no idea what the cost would be until a contractor opened up the exterior wall, but added, “We have to get it fixed.”
Park board members asked if the repair would require closing the swimming pool, and Carbert again said he didn’t know. “If we don’t have to remove any of the tongue and groove inside, probably not. But at this point, we don’t know if these are load-bearing walls. We won’t close if we don’t have to.”
At the subsequent City Council meeting, councilors learned that Carbert had acquired estimates ranging from $6,000 - $14,000.
City Administrator Mike Roth said the estimates include taking off the damaged siding and underlayment, replacing the studs, and putting on new T-1 siding. Roth recommended approving up to $10,000 for the repair.
Pool manager Charles Christianson reported that pool use is down a little bit from 2007, with about 140 fewer visitors, but he said an upcoming swimming ticket sale should boost sales.
 

"The Trail Center--Grand Marais, Minnesota: You’re having: Beer and pie at this roadside bar and grill, you’re greeted with curious political riddles of northern Minnesota..."

Esquire magazine names the country’s best bars in the 3rd annual list of “The Best Bars in America” in their upcoming June issue on newsstands, Tuesday, May 13th.  This guide is a culmination of dive bars, hot spots, the best cocktails, beers, atmosphere, ambiance and everything else that falls in between.

The Trail Center in Grand Marais has been chosen as among  one of the bars selected in this cross country compilation!

"I was there last about a year and a half ago," said author Charlie Homans.  "Being from Minnesota, I go up to the Boundary Waters semi-regularly, and I always really liked stopping by the Trail Center on my way to and from the lakes."

Read the entire review (and about the other great places) in this month's Esquire.

In a 3/2 vote commissioners approved a resolution that supports the inclusion of three existing Cook County trails, the Superior Hiking Trail, the Border Trail Route, and the Kekekabic Trail, in the nationally designated North Country Scenic Trail. Superior Hiking Trail Association Member Dick Swanson attempted to assure commissioners that the designation would not affect motorized trails and referenced the Tilbury Trail reroute saying, “We don’t have a dog in that fight. The hiking trail association, the border route trail association, the national trail group does not have a position on either of the routes being proposed. We would not object to either of the routes being proposed. If you want to tack that on to your resolution that we’ve expressed that, that’s fine with us.” Commissioner Johnson said he would like to see the hiking trail folks work more closely with motorized groups on the issue saying, “I think there’s more to this issue than just a trail. I think it goes to some of the history of what’s happened in Cook County and it’s a trust issue. Secondly, the trails already exist so I don’t see any urgency to change the designation. Thirdly, I think we need to have input across the board by all the user groups before one user group comes before us for a designation, because if all the people don’t buy into it then it’s a recipe for disaster.” Commissioner Fenwick gave his support to the proposal but not without some hesitation adding, “I’m not concerned about the Superior Hiking Trail people or anybody in this community to tell you the truth, but I am concerned about people who are going to misuse the federal designation of anything to take advantage of the situation in a place like Cook County.

The U.S. and Wildlife Service is hosting a public meeting on Tuesday, May 20, at 7 p.m., in Grand Marais, to discuss the proposal to designate critical habitat for the Canada lynx, a federally threatened species.  The meeting will be at the Cook County Court House, 411 West Second Street in Grand Marais.
At the meeting, Ron Moen, from the University of Minnesota/Natural Resources Research Institute, will present information on lynx habitat in Minnesota. Mary Shedd from Superior National Forest will discuss interagency cooperation for lynx conservation between the U.S. Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.  Fish and Wildlife Service representatives will provide an overview of the current proposal to include lands in Minnesota in the critical habitat designation for the lynx. A question-and-answer session will follow.  Those wishing to offer comments on the proposal will be provided with comment forms and instructions.
The Service recently proposed to revise the amount of critical habitat designated under the Endangered Species Act for the Canada lynx. In Minnesota, about 8,226 square miles are proposed in portions of Cook, Koochiching, Lake, and St. Louis Counties, and Superior National Forest.  Of that total, about 5,378 square miles are federal or state lands.
Critical habitat is a term in the ESA that identifies geographic areas that contain features essential for the conservation of a threatened or endangered species and may require special management considerations or protections.  The designation of critical habitat does not affect land ownership or establish a refuge and has no impact on private landowners taking actions on their land that do not require federal funding or permits. 
More information on the Canada lynx and the critical habitat proposal is available at http://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/mammals/lynx/index.html.