Doesn’t look good Rainyn River

It’s come to my attention that the county board is voting on whether to close all landings on the Rainy River this season. I believe this is being voted on tomorrow. Much of the local population has sought to close it and apparently the commissioner has said he hasn’t heard of many who wish to fish the Rainy River. If you feel strongly about this situation the county commissioner would like to hear from you at 218-244-5748. Being silent will likely seal the fate of the 2020 season on the Rainy River. Feel free to share. This from Chris Granrud

Sounds like it’s already to late. It’s going to be a big loss for the communities.

It’s a good thing no other people come and go from town.

If you stop the fisherman, you stop any potential of the virus.

Could you imagine what would happen if Marvin Windows sold windows outside the county? Or if the oil refinery in town shut down? Or if all the fresh vegetable farms down the road froze?

Thankfully everything in Baudette is self sustainable. No need for the outside world.

Here is the email for the Koochiching county district 5 commissioner. I sent him one tonight.

[email protected]

B-man wrote:

It’s a good thing no other people come and go from town.

If you stop the fisherman, you stop any potential of the virus.

Could you imagine what would happen if Marvin Windows sold windows outside the county? Or if the oil refinery in town shut down? Or if all the fresh vegetable farms down the road froze?

Thankfully everything in Baudette is self sustainable. No need for the outside world.

So your saying all the resorts/bait shops and everything else are full of local people only from Baudette?

Coletrain27 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>B-man wrote:</div>
It’s a good thing no other people come and go from town.

If you stop the fisherman, you stop any potential of the virus.

Could you imagine what would happen if Marvin Windows sold windows outside the county? Or if the oil refinery in town shut down? Or if all the fresh vegetable farms down the road froze?

Thankfully everything in Baudette is self sustainable. No need for the outside world.

So your saying all the resorts/bait shops and everything else are full of local people only from Baudette?

Well yeah….of course!

If it wasn’t such a banner ice fishing season for the area I don’t think closing the accesses would have ever been brought up.

Untold millions were pumped into their economy this past season, much of it cash. And good for them, I love supporting the area. Lots of great people and great businesses. I’ve never met a person I didn’t like in Baudette.

I don’t blame them for wanting a shutdown, but stopping some spring fisherman isn’t going to halt the virus. Sucks, but it’s true. I hope I’m wrong.

B-man wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>coletrain27 wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>B-man wrote:</div>
It’s a good thing no other people come and go from town.

If you stop the fisherman, you stop any potential of the virus.

Could you imagine what would happen if Marvin Windows sold windows outside the county? Or if the oil refinery in town shut down? Or if all the fresh vegetable farms down the road froze?

Thankfully everything in Baudette is self sustainable. No need for the outside world.

So your saying all the resorts/bait shops and everything else are full of local people only from Baudette?

Well yeah….of course!

If it wasn’t such a banner ice fishing season for the area I don’t think closing the accesses would have ever been brought up.

Untold millions were pumped into their economy this past season, much of it cash.

I don’t blame them, but stopping some spring fisherman isn’t going to stop the virus. Sucks, but it’s true.

No, stopping spring fisherman likely isn’t going to stop the virus. However, it could most certainly slow the spread and rate of infection there, in a very small town with limited health care capacity. Isn’t that the whole point of social distancing and shelter in place orders? To slow the spread and “flatten the curve”?

When one case of the virus hits a town of 1,000 people, it’s there, and a lot of people could get it.

It could be there already. Does it matter if it hit a week ago or two weeks from now?

It’s an honest question. The same goes for any small town.

I live in a small town too (1,500 people). Does it matter if 2 sick people came to our gas station or if 50 did? Does the virus have to reach a certain concentration to become more contagious?

If a cooler handle, credit card machine, or gas nozzle is contaminated it’s contaminated right?

shefland wrote:

It’s come to my attention that the county board is voting on whether to close all landings on the Rainy River this season. I believe this is being voted on tomorrow. Much of the local population has sought to close it and apparently the commissioner has said he hasn’t heard of many who wish to fish the Rainy River. If you feel strongly about this situation the county commissioner would like to hear from you at 218-244-5748. Being silent will likely seal the fate of the 2020 season on the Rainy River. Feel free to share. This from Chris Granrud

I’ve been hearing rumblings about this the last few days. Some LOTW resorts are shutting down over worries (whether justified or not) over the covid.

This “worry” has already spread south to the Mille Lacs area. Citizens in that area now are raising the stop sign.

Have you seen the fabricated map of zone A and zone B? If you live in zone A, they don’t welcome you in zone B right now.

Just like zebra mussels, keeps the boats out keep the zebra mussels out.

There is a contingent of townspeople there that have been voicing complaints about all the wheel house invasions there every weekend for a number of years. Not everyone looks at it as a economic boom all the time. Some see it as a depletion of the local resource. It’s not unthinkable that the virus could be used as a tool to accomplish other things.

B-man wrote:

When one case of the virus hits a town of 1,000 people, it’s there, and a lot of people could get it.

It could be there already. Does it matter if it hit a week ago or two weeks from now?

It’s an honest question. The same goes for any small town.

I live in a small town too. Does it matter if 2 sick people came to our gas station or if 50 did? Does the virus have to reach a certain concentration to become more contagious?

If a cooler handle, credit card machine, or gas nozzle is contaminated it’s contaminated right?

Odds. You’re far more likely to run in one of those 50 infected people rather than one of the 2 infected people. And those 50 infected people are going to spread the virus wider/faster than what those 2 people could.

I get that for person to person direct contact, but if you’re abiding to the 6′ minimum rule “they say we’re safe.”

I’m talking about a single sick person contaminating the gas nozzle, then the front door, the pin pad, and the bathroom faucet handle. If it’s infected, it’s infected right? (Obviously only until the virus dies days later, after hundreds of other people have touch all the same things)

And the odds of those 2 infected people touching all of those surfaces all around town are far less likely than 50 infected people touching all of those surfaces all around town. Maybe those 2 infected people only buy gas at the Holiday Station. But you get 50 infected people and they’re likely going to spread it out more and faster than those 2 infected people. Again, this is the exact reason why people are being urged (and required) to stay at home, to slow the rate of infection.

Director of hospitals was on MPR today and was speaking to the lack of resources for rural hospitals. That’s without this virus.

I trust you have a whole brain bman, you are choosing to only use half of it for this argument here. I’m not going to fill in the blank for you on how devastating this could be for a small town.

Deuces wrote:

Director of hospitals was on MPR today and was speaking to the lack of resources for rural hospitals. That’s without this virus.

I trust you have a whole brain bman, you are choosing to only use half of it for this argument here. I’m not going to fill in the blank for you on how devastating this could be for a small town.

Hey, give me some credit, I’m normally running at 58% capacity

I wish all here a safe journey through this unusually unusual spring.

Keep your space and wash your hands. It’s unfortunate people can’t spend time outdoors there. If the town and county really mean well, they will close the area down completely. A half attempt will only buy days or hours.

Deuces wrote:

Director of hospitals was on MPR today and was speaking to the lack of resources for rural hospitals. That’s without this virus.

I trust you have a whole brain bman, you are choosing to only use half of it for this argument here. I’m not going to fill in the blank for you on how devastating this could be for a small town.

Sometimes I’ve gotten the sentiment from some small town folks toward me as such I should keep my distance. And I always get that, they’re not all that accustomed to being around city crowds. And that was long before this current situation.

Beyond that observation, I read today that the hospital in Grand Marais had I think only 8 ICU beds (if even that). Their concern was even one transmitter could overwhelm their little hospital in a day.

thank goodness there is a clear, coherent, consistent message being broadcast to everybody.

phishingruven01 wrote:

thank goodness there is a clear, coherent, consistent message being broadcast to everybody.

Like it or not, the United States was brought together with each individual state having their own autonomous governance. Even county and municipalities.

If you’re expecting control of the state, look no farther than China or North Korea.

Anyone listen to walz today? Man, I didn’t vote for him but what’s there not to like. Strong speaker, exceptionally clear, takes some balls not to shut down, and I thank him for it. He says the numbers aren’t just lining right up now. You can see it coming on the horizon very quickly that we will be getting to shelter state but not now, and with him in quarantine, Klobuchar husband having it, his liet. Gov brother dying of it would be pretty easy for him to do so like many other states around us. But he knows just like trumpy you have to keep the economy trickle along as much as possible. Good for him.

And I’ll add one last thing, imo a large reason why we aren’t shut down and walz spoke to this, is bc we are following protocols more than other states. It really could be that simple. We as a whole, have been more careful and more aware and have flattened the curve perhaps more than other states. And that allows us to have maybe one week, maybe two more of work for thousands and thousands of workers. Put a dollar value on that for people who might need to be shacked up for the next 6 weeks.

Kudos to MNs as well. Hopefully we keep this social shaming conversation going….

Sorry bman, your brain works just fine. I get cranktankerous once in awhile.

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>phishingruven01 wrote:</div>
thank goodness there is a clear, coherent, consistent message being broadcast to everybody.

Like it or not, the United States was brought together with each individual state having their own autonomous governance. Even county and municipalities.

If you’re expecting control of the state, look no farther than China or North Korea.

that’s quite the stretch.

Deuces wrote:

Anyone listen to walz today? Man, I didn’t vote for him but what’s there not to like. Strong speaker, exceptionally clear, takes some balls not to shut down, and I thank him for it. He says the numbers aren’t just lining right up now. You can see it coming on the horizon very quickly that we will be getting to shelter state but not now, and with him in quarantine, Klobuchar husband having it, his liet. Gov brother dying of it would be pretty easy for him to do so like many other states around us. But he knows just like trumpy you have to keep the economy trickle along as much as possible. Good for him.

X2

Doesn’t seem to be panicking or making knee jerk reactions.

The locals and guides that find a way on the river somehow might want to keep their ego and social media posts in check. Couple pics leaking out and there could be a real crap sandwich situation up there, putting law enforcement in a very precarious situation with civil disobedience relating to a highly questionable action by county commissioners, who really don’t seem to have the jurisdiction or justification to close down public water accesses for such a reason. People are getting stir crazy and unruly. Either the river is open to fish to everyone, or shut it down completely.

The counties might really want to think about what’s going to happen here if people start showing up with boats and trailers looking for any place possible to launch. This goes past a virus threat and is over stepping county authority and jurisdiction to control access to a public resource. Especially if the governor doesn’t shut the state down or its borders. A sip order is not a shut down, it still allows activities but with guidelines.

This is complete and utter bs by local government overstepping their bounds, and using one thing to cut off non locals from using a public resource. With very highly and questionable motives.

How many of those counties have no qualms taking tax revenue from outside their county? Maybe they should be on their own once the virus hits their communities with the same selfishness they are imposing, and resources should be withheld from them.

We all get it, slow the peak. Guard the elderly. Wash your hands. But shutting down public water accesses? Come on.

This is using a convenient excuse, to manipulate a situation for what seems like ulterior motives.

Is this really about protecting a community from a virus threat?

Or getting ride of non locals from fishing and invading a community, that many locals have had a problem with for years.

Sorry, this just stinks like fish all the way around to me.

Is the Rainy a international waterway? If it is I believe the Feds would have jurisdiction.

I guess I think they could close campgrounds and lodging to non essential travelers. Would pretty much take care of the people that want to travel from all over. If the people would just stop on their own. We wouldn’t need to be put in a shelter in place and lose that many more jobs.

A local municipality does have authority over their own boat launches. These launches are not owned by the federal government or the state of Minnesota. There’s no legal violations taking place if a local municipality shuts down their own maintained water access. Stop acting like the small town or county there is violating laws.

Is the Rainy River “closed”? Absolutely not. If you can find a way to it without using the specifically closed accesses, you may fish like usual. This is no different than a landing on Pool 2 being shut down for maintenance. Sure you may disagree with it, but the river isn’t “closed”.

I do think they’re going to have tons of boats and trailers pulling into town who have an ego and just assume “they can launch because it’s their right” and that all is good without checking ahead. For those people, I don’t feel bad.

So the justification for closing accesses is what?

If there’s an access open, that’ll only compound the problem of congregating people.

What about local residents that want to fish?

Here is the phone-in link for the public to listen:

HRG

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