Steve,
I moved this over from General Discussion so it didn’t get buried three to four pages back before everyone who visits Mille had a chance to read your post.
I also copied your editorial here before it got archived on the Mille Lacs Messenger website.
12/13/2006 3:42:00 PM Email this article • Print this article
Steve Fellegy – Will the DNR get it right?
by Steve Fellegy
Outdoors Writer
Sometimes the pot needs to be stirred to ensure the ingredients the recipe calls for are not burned and the whole meal becomes garbage. Well, there’s a pot been simmering for longer than all of us have known about along the shores of Mille Lacs that surely needs stirring. Hopefully, the original recipe that had way too many spices in it can be saved to a point where at least no one gets ill in the end. Or worse!
Here’s my take on the story that made Messenger headlines in last week’s paper.
1. There has not been a “public outcry” from any direction pointed at the immediate need for more public access parking or “safe harbor” accesses at Mille Lacs, according to the DNR. So what’s the rush? Slow down!
2. The proposal on the table, which involves developing Ray’s Boat Dock on the north end of the lake into a public access has zero positive aspects, in every regard.
A. The projected cost to the public is way out of line. Projected costs by DNR reps in last week’s report were way low. How can $70,000 clear all the buildings off the property, landscape the property which includes dealing with a drain field, filling in basements and removing dozens of trees, as well as prepping the ground for a paved parking lot and laying down the asphalt itself? Add the rip-rap around the harbor, tearing old docks out, adding a new one, tearing the old ramp out and adding a new one, and the annual dredging – $70,000? Of course, let’s not forget the initial $500,000 plus for half the harbor and several hundred more thousand dollars for future land additions. Oops – almost forgot the east and west turn lanes needed to accommodate this on narrow Hwy. 18. My sources tell me that highway stuff could exceed $70,000 alone! So, at well over a million dollars, 20 parking spots cost how much per space?
B. As mentioned above, the harbor on this site is partially owned by Ray’s Boat Dock. The entire west shoreline of the harbor is owned by another private party who, in no uncertain terms, does not plan on selling it to the DNR. But knowing that, the DNR, until questioned lately, had no concern over that situation. What situation? The lake home on the west shore of the harbor is less than 50 feet from the harbor waters edge. Envision a nice, warm, windows-open type of night when 25 boats “power loading” at 10 p.m. is the norm! All that as this poor soul has to stand on his dock and tell innocent boaters that the dock is private and they are not allowed to drop off the driver to go get the trailer. This scenario plays out all summer these days as the fall night trolling has grown to springtime size crowds around full moon periods. Who will pay for the new paint job on the west side of the harbor owner’s boat when a rookie boater drifts into it? Each day – my oh my!
C. The overall negative effects of putting this type and amount of traffic into a quiet neighborhood is plain stupid. Having the noise and traffic forced into this predominantly retired population is anything but good, let alone fair.
D. One of the key objectives of this proposal is to offer a “safe harbor” to the Mille Lacs public. My take, contrary to the report in last week’s paper, is that the water out from the harbor will be too shallow for safe navigation more years than not, especially late in the summer and fall with any kind of on-shore wind in place. Contrary to last week’s report, even in the last “10 years,” there has been plenty of problems with shallow water issues, let alone what we have now and could have in the near future or what we lived through several eras past. Sure – unloading and loading in that harbor will be fine in a heavy south wind. But as the bow goes up a wave and the outboard digs deeper in the rear, what will a 20 foot, $50,000 Ranger or Lund do in 18 inches of water? Stop! That’s what. Then go sideways as the next wave hits it. Now we have a panicking owner out of the boat in knee deep water fighting to keep his rig and his kids off the rocks – pinned under the boat. That’s the scene, which only needs to happen once to be too many times, if you consider this site for a “safe harbor.” Bottom line? It’s too shallow in the main lake to maintain good navigation, no matter the lake levels, at this site. So why add this mess to the many sites that we have now with these same issues?
3. What’s the solution?
A. First, sit back and plan this concept beyond the knee jerk thought process that has been in place to this point. Listen to Mille Lacs veterans and other out-of-state big water public access engineers that have historically developed and used logical ideas with solid, positive results. Ideas that don’t include more negatives than positives.
B. Consider other options that might need general policy change to reach optimum value for the use of public money, not only now but for years to come, no matter the climate effects. Position this concept to succeed, not to fail any part of the time, in any sense. Work with options that do not involve neighbors within a stone’s throw! Work with options where highway safety is already addressed and in place.
C. Consider what the Aitkin County Sheriff suggested at the meeting when he said, “Do not create more potential problems. What I see and hear tonight worries me.”
4. Remember, DNR, how you looked everyone in the eye at the public meeting on the 28th and said, “we promise to get it right.”
Guest columnist Steve Fellegy is a Pro Walleye Trail angler.
Too much moving sugar sand up there. The harbor would be nice, but the entrance to it would in fact be like the Door or Barneveld’s. Very shallow. Take the time and money and finish what they started at Liberty beach before the move toward any boondoggle on the north end. Just my $.02.
energy so we can go for 5 hours. 