I am writing to comment on the public hearing at the county board meeting on May 12. I am writing in support of opening the Gunflint Trail sections in question to ATV use.
If safety is brought up as an issue, I would urge you to look at bicycling, jogging and walking on the Gunflint Trail. These are very dangerous nonmotorized activities that happen daily on the Gunflint Trail. If a motorized vehicle is not allowed on a road made for motorized vehicles out of sincere safety concerns, these nonmotorized activities in turn should be addressed and stopped. Soon we will have a 55 mile per hour speed limit, cell phones and texting on the Trail. The Gunflint Trail will indeed become deadly. Cars, trucks, semis will be picking off pedestrians and bicyclist like flies. I suggest safety conversations should be geared towards that rather than stopping a few folks from enjoying a ride up the trail once in a while on their motorized ATV.
If noise is a concern, please consider addressing pontoon parties, lawnmowers, barking dogs, generators and fireworks that our summer season brings. Another motorized vehicle along with trucks, cars and motorcycles will not bring any changes to the noise already created by a busy road.
Please open up theses stretches of the Gunflint Trail for us.
Sarah Hamilton
Gunflint Trail resident and business owner
Soon-to-be ATV owner
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