Fire from a vehicle spread to a nearby cabin at 4700 North Road in Hovland on Friday, May 27, 2011. Fortunately the young family living there—Ben and Corrie Steckelberg and their 15-monthold son, Wilhelm, were not injured. However, the car, their home, and all their belongings were destroyed in the fire. The fire started in the couple’s 1990 Cadillac. Reached […]
Half of library expansion contracts awarded to local businesses
The total to be awarded in eight different contracts for expansion of the Grand Marais Public Library will be $909,617, about $250,000 over the amount the project architects had estimated and about $100,000 over the amount owner’s rep ORB Management had projected. Part of the reason for this, however, may be that ORB limited its solicitation of potential bidders in […]
Council approves permits for bakery bike, plane rides and wine sales
Grand Marais City Council convened for a brief meeting May 25 and approved permit requests for a bakery bike, airplane rides and a liquor license. Staci Drouillard, owner of Lola’s Sweet Life Bakery, appeared first before council to ask for a peddler’s permit that would allow her to sell a variety of baked goods in downtown Grand Marais along the […]
How historic is historic Gunflint Trail?
Most people familiar with the Gunflint Trail would probably consider it an important part of Cook County’s history. On Tuesday, May 31, 2011, the county board voted to enter a contract for a study of the 63-mile road that could lead to it ending up on the National Register of Historic Places. The Gunflint Trail is also called County State […]
Petition to slow Community Center progress
About the vote on the 1% sales and use tax, I believe that more people were interested in public broadband than the expensive, grandiose, “pie in the sky” Cook County Community Center. I haven’t heard any more about a petition to slow down the process of the County Community Center, so I’m starting one. If you want to slow down […]
Community Center is a pipe dream
For years I’ve listened to bleating about the government funding cuts to our area—the lack of monies to refurbish our municipal pool and the constant and inexcusable diminishment of school funding and school programs. Now apparently, like a rabbit from a magician’s hat, someone is pulling out an $11 million dollar community center. During the pseudo-prosperous days before the economic […]
County should require detailed costs for library move
Initially the Library Committee and its architectural firm, DSGW, told the county commissioners that the library would remain open during its expansion project, noting only that the computer area may need to be relocated. Now the taxpayers are being asked to fund a move into the high school at an estimated cost of anywhere between $15,000 and $30,000, and a […]
Still waiting for Teen Center
The rhetoric surrounding plans for a community center is not surprising. People are concerned about costs, which is understandable. It would be nice and a lot more productive if we could work positively as a community to make this happen. I currently live in the West End, in Schroeder. A community I believe includes all of Cook County. I lived […]
Only in Grand Marais
Time to say goodbye and thank you to this wonderful community, and it’s not easy. Although 8½ years here means I’m still one of the new kids on the block, it has been home in the midst of incredible natural beauty and a community of people that cannot be replaced. It’s been a privilege to market Grand Marais to visitors, […]