494 Landing

It was just a matter of time before this happened. Yesterday TBO pulled up to the 494 landing to find the gates locked. This had been a concern of mine for awhile but until yesterday it was not that importent. There has been signs at the landing this entire past summer hinting about it being closed at certian times. This was the first time I had heard of it being closed. We where able to get out in st paul park anyways.

What does concern me about this is the abillity to be able to put in at 494 this winter. From the looks of saint paul park landing that one must freeze up in a heart beat. Lilydale will freeze also. That leaves hidden falls which is a long ways from 494 and is prone to the river freezing between the 2 areas. Not good.

Im not to happy to see one of my prime winter fishing holes being closed up for the next few years. The reason I say the next few year is that from what I have heard is that they are not even half way threw construction on the bridges. Once the first bridge is done the old bridge is coming down and a new one is going up. One person on the work crew mentioned 5 years.

Now if they are going to close this landing every night, weekend and evening that is alot of missed fishing in that area. Atleast Im lucky anough to be able to get out during the week but it is really going to suck for you guys that only get to go in the evening or weekends.

So anough about my concerns. It looks to me its time to find out a little more info on whats going to go on with the landing and who to talk to. If anyone has any info on whats going on down there please post or if you know anyone we could talk to and voice concerns to please post that also. I have a funny feeling that if no one says a word about the 494 landing as soon as it becomes a hassle to keep it open they will shut it down. That may be the deal anyways with as close as the old bridge is to the landing.

Any thoughts guys?

Thoughts? I think I should be able to hear DeeZee scream from Champlain as he reads this post.

Mike, I couldn’t find anything under MNDOT…but here’s their email address.
[email protected]

Mike I know a bunch of the fireman in S St.Paul and will ask them to ask around maybe I can find somthing out for ya. If I do I’ll pass it on.

Adam there was a comment on line here a while ago about them not being able to close the landing due to safety issues on the river.

Yeah know I work off pool 2 atleast 5 days a week, I’d happily entertain pm or posts asking if the river is open, there really are few days that it’s iced up good.

I’m with you guys. We need to nip this in the bud. I’m calling the Mayors office this morning. Does anyone know the name of the construction company?

-J.

Lunda

494 launch is open M-F from 7:30am to 4:30pm. Closed on weekends.

This issue is making me nuts…..like Mike said, right now we can use the Levee Park dowriver, but after some single digit lows we are expecting to see in the next 2 weeks, that ramp will be all iced up as well.

The last time I spoke to the DNR office last spring, they mentioned that they were to make sure that the ramp stays open for anglers as well as emegency situations, via, coast guard, sheriff, dnr, etc….

Jon,
Keep us posted on your call you make. I will make a call to the DNR again this morning and see what their plan of attack is. Pool 2 will get fairly busy i nthe coming weeks as lakes freeze over and the hunting shuts down.

Ok, here is what I have going so far this morning.

Talked to the City Engineer for So. St Paul. His name is John Sacki (sp?) 651-554-3210. He explained why the area has been closed. The big dirt piles by the tracks make it hard to see on-coming trains. And that they needed to hire a man to stand there and control traffic going across the tracks. That was expensive for the city. (Boo Hoo) The main reason they kept that road open was for the city residents to use the compost heap there, not the fishermen. Now, since the compost heap is closed for the winter, there are no plans to keep the ramp open on weekends!! He referred me on to the State Dept of Tranportation.

Talked to Adam Josephson – Chief Engineer. 651.582-1115

Adam was not aware that fishermen used the ramp into the winter months. I explainded our dire situation and he seemed like he was willing to work something out. He will be discussing the issue at an upcoming meeting. I left it at that, but will be following up if I don’t hear something by Wednesday.

If by Wednesday there is no solution, I will be contacting ALL of the local media outlets. WCCO, KSTP, NBC, ect and try to get a reporter on this story. If that happens, I will need all the help I can get on this. I’m thinking that a line of boats/trucks from the tracks back to GoodYear would make a good photo op….. We will win this one.

You name it, you got it………what I can do, I will.

Good work Jon. I was able to get a number at the department of transpertation today. Talk to what i believe was one of there inspectors. He mentioned the project is schedualed to be finished in 2008. Thats way to long for this to go on.

I also saw that the landing is a joint landing managed by the city of South Saint paul and the DNR. This made me wonder if the DNR knows that one of there landings has been closed.

Just tryed the number I was given and it said it was no longer in service.

Im with you Jon.

Hey jon and steve. I would be willing to bring my boat and trailer down to help cause the big jam needed but I will need somthing in return. Them good fishing spots you guys always have lol. I only brought you in steve cause I need all the help I can get . But on a serios not I thank you for doing the work needed to get this ramp opened to us, I havent yet fishied pool 2 even though I live rite there its always been pool 4. I need to learn this pool next but one pool at a time. Thanks again I no others appreaciate it as well.

Any thing new yet Jon. Im planning on calling some of those numbers posted tommorrow. If nothing else just so they get the idea your not by yourself.
Any one here anything from the DNR or the city yet?

I made a couple calls yesterday but came to a road block in getting the right person in the DNR office. I wanted to remind them of the situation that is going on, because they stated awhile back that the ramp was to remain open at all times for emergencies. I am going to try again today.

Not that this is a favorable solution, but what would it take to keep Lilydale open? There is decent flow there, not much ice, if the same time was put into that landing as 494 could it stay open all winter?

Might be possible, but that would still be a long, miserable trip to fish middle/lower Pool 2.

Last winter my last day out of SSP was 12/28. Then we had a bad cold snap and the river froze all the way across. It did not warm up till early February. As I was searching the area ramps for access , the Lilydale ramp had a large snowplow pile at the top. The river was froze across for as far as I could see.

SSP was improving on a daily basis. The ramp was plowed to the edge of the ice. I was able to do some shoveling and chop the shore ice out and get back on the water on 02/14.
Hopefully we will not lose our rights to use the SSP access all winter.
Dino

Here is the latest.

Adam Josephson called me back about 10 minutes ago. He reiterated the reason the why the road is closed. The earth piles near the RR track block view of the signals. Since the signal can’t easily be seen, the road stays closed unless there is a flag man there.

Bad News. The road will be closed from this afternoon through Monday.

Better News. The earth pile will be removed on Monday and Tuesday. That should remove the need for a flagman at the tracks.

More Bad News. New bridge footing will start to get poured soon in the area of the tracks and MnDot can’t promise the road will be open at any given time. They prefer to close off the area when during non-work hours and weekends.

I again explained that was not acceptable. I insisted that the ramps be kept open. I explained that there are going to be a lot of PO’ed people this weekend and he can expect more calls. I assured him that our group will not give up on this issue. I also warned him that I would be contacting the local media. I also hinted that this issue could get ugly. (Meaning a bunch of parked boat rigs in the way of trucks and workers on a weekday morning!!)

I’m hoping they get this thing figured out next week. Unfortunately, there is nothing that will stop them from closing the road this weekend. Short of an unlawfull break through of the gates there will be no getting in……

What I want everyone to do is call the numbers listed above and leave a nice (really, be polite) message.

Also, call the So St Paul Police Dept and express your concern with the closure and remind them that that access is needed for emergency personel to access the river. We need to keep up the stink on this issue. These people don’t think it’s a big deal.

Police 651.554.3300

Here is a email I recieved from John Sacki today about the weekend closing of the landing.
Okay Cant seem to paste it. It goes just like Jon said. The ramp was to close wensday afternoon at 4:30 until wensday morning. The 1st. It is due to be closed the rest of the week and weekend because no one is working there. It is also due to be closed on monday and tuesday for removal of the surcharges (black piles next to the gates).

Now after talking to the guys getting off work down there today they told me that they are going to be working friday and saturday down there. That should mean the gate will be open unless they are working on something that requires the road to be shut.
What this leads me to believe is that the road may or may not be open this weekend.

John Sacki was nice anough to email me the mail he recieved from the DOT. He stated he then reports it to the sherrif/fire departments and also is going to send further closer notices to me to post on line here.
A couple of other items I picked up on today that may be true or not.
The road is controlled by the DOT. The city does not have say on what they due with it.
The landing is owned by the DNR.
The landing is managed by the city of south saint paul.

Jon is very right on contacting these people. We need to let then know that we are here. If they think that no one cares about the landing being closed they wont think twice about closeing it.

I left a message for Adam and I talked to the police department. The police department reassured me that emergency crews have access to the landing and they would not be delayed in any way by the “closed” landing. I havn’t been to this landing, so is she correct? Is it easy of for the cops to get access to the landing??

Let me know what else needs done John!

Jon. the phone numbers you listed a few posts back are the same. Adam must be a chief engineer with the DOT.

Kooty, (That may be hard to get used to former waterfowler…..) Yes, the cops have the keys to the locks.

Mike W. Yes, I believe he is in charge of the 494 Bridge project. The phone number listed are correct.

Eveyone reading this post should call and leave a voice mail message. Be polite but firm.

Kooty…I volunteer with a PD and they usually have a key for any gate or building they may have to get into. That would include a gate to a landing.
So that is most likly true that the emergency services can access the area quickly.

That’s good to hear. I would hate for an emergency crew to be sitting waiting at the gate if there is an accident on the rive.

Quote:

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Jon. the phone numbers you listed a few posts back are the same. Adam must be a chief engineer with the DOT.

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Sorry Mike,

I corrected the phone number in my post above.

Thanks Jon for all your persistance here. I will drop a call today with them as well…..telling them I have mouths to feed and my business depends on it! JK!

Talked to Adam today about the ramp. The latest is the ramp is open again. Hope he meant evenings and weekends also. They are planning on closing it again on Dec. 10th for some schedualed work. I will check with the city on monday to reconfirm that date. After that there are no planned closings in the near future.
Now keep in mind this project still has 3 years to go. It would be hard to believe this is a done deal yet. But Im happy to see that both John and Adam are willing to talk to us and seem open to the fact that people still want to use this ramp year round.
Keep posting if you do find that the ramp is not being kept open.

So I can expect the ramp to be open on Sunday? What about the 4:30pm closing BS?