The majority of people who crowded into the Grand Marais city hall on Wednesday, Oct. 9, came to ask the city council to see if it could slow down or stop the upcoming cutting of 11 elm trees that line Highway 61 for a two-block area from Java Moose to the Dairy Queen.
The Minnesota Department of Public Transportation (MnDOT) has let the contract for the trees to be removed this November. MnDOT will conduct work on the highway and town’s infrastructure along Highway 61 in 2020 and 2021, and the MnDOT arborist said the trees were in poor health and needed to be taken down.
Not all of the 17 speakers wanted to save the giant elms.
Jim Boyd, director of the Cook County Chamber, cited the positive aspects of having the trees cut, listing the highlights of the MnDOT/City/MPCA project.
Boyd noted contaminated soil would be cleaned up for better water quality; improvements made to storm water management; the public utilities’ aging water and sewer infrastructure replaced for the longterm; pedestrian friendly travel corridor, improved safety (possible reduction of vehicles on the street?); Dark Sky friendly lighting; many new trees planted, gathering spaces, and public art spaces created.
He concluded by saying the finished work would be “a design that keeps us from looking like anywhere else, uniquely created to reflect the local culture of traditional/contemporary Scandinavian fusion.”
Pat Zankman asked the council to keep Grand Marais looking like the small pleasant community that it is, and “save as many trees as you can.”
Joe Paulik said when he moved to Grand Marais, “I saw the elms and thought it was a miracle. Trees, they are the welcome wagon to the people who come here.”
Greg Mueller said he loved trees, but after listening to the mitigation plan to clean up the soil by MPCA and looking at the plan designed by CJ Fernandez, he was in favor of moving ahead with the trees being cut.
Jim (James) Raml thought it was too late, but he would give it one more effort to save the trees.
Raml has attended many of the meetings conducted by MnDOT, and through the years, suggested alternatives to cutting the trees. “We were completely ignored,” he said, of his efforts to communicate with MnDOT.
Raml and a group of people contacted a professional arborist about one and one-half years ago to study the trees. That study found the elms to be mostly healthy, a contradiction from the MnDOT study. The arborist asked that his name not be used because he was a government employee. He suggested the city or MnDOT hire another arborist to do a study. Raml forwarded the study and suggestions to the mayor, who apparently didn’t share it with the council or with MnDOT.
“I know Mr. Mayor, you received that evaluation where he said you should have another evaluation. That was before any of this was finalized. And now it’s just kind of pushed through.
“All I’m asking is, why does this have to be done in a couple of weeks if the work is going to be done in 2021?”
Chris Norman and Ben Peters questioned the cost of $1.5 million overrun to the city. “I have not been on top of the contract when the contract had gone up 300 percent. I’m surprised it hasn’t been addressed,” said Norman.
Jan Sivertson said she didn’t like to see the trees cut, “I’m not happy about it for sure, but if it has to be done, it has to be done.”
Mary Hain, a part-time citizen who grew up in Grand Marais, spoke next. “I attended the MnDOT meeting in August, and I was told that if the bike path weren’t built, the trees would not have to come down. I don’t think we need the bike path. We already have one, and it doesn’t get used much.” She favored saving the trees.
Other speakers talked about a lack of transparency in the planning process, the fact that no business assessment impact was made, the loss of habitat for animals and birds, and the loss of the shade trees.
One man said he had lived in Europe for eight years. “In Europe, nature is sacred. They don’t do a bureaucratic move like this.”
The most moving testimony came from a young man who said that his ancestors were first fur people, then water/fish people then moved on to logging. He talked about working seven days of the week for $13 per hour and how he and his pregnant wife would have to move from the recreation park out of the county to find a cheaper place to live.
“I grew up in Hawaii, much like the Native Americans. How selfish for us to be feuding about trees on the highway when our kids can not live here,” he said.
Following the public discussion, the council met to discuss several other topics and rejoined the conversation at 9:30 p.m., ending a little after 11 p.m.
Councilor Craig Schulte said even though many public meetings were held, he and other business people in the downtown were left in the dark about several matters. He said he was shocked to learn the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) was closing down Highway 61 to remove contaminated soil adjacent to the old Cobblestone station. “That station closed 22 years ago,” he said.
Schulte asked why an economic impact statement hadn’t been made. He questioned why city engineers were so far off in their estimates for infrastructure work the city will have done during the project.
To the question of MPCA, councilor Tim Kennedy said the city had invited MPCA to come to meetings to explain why they are drilling wells throughout the town, “and they have never come.”
Councilor Kelly Swearingen asked if the city requested a change order to save the trees, “will the bill fall back on the taxpayers? We are already paying substantially more than we hoped.”
Still, Kelly said it was “worth the ask” to see if there was a way to save the elms, at least for one more year before the work in town was to take place.
Kennedy said after five years of planning, he didn’t want to risk slowing the project down. “I don’t know how we can go back and not release a domino effect on the project,” he said. “Unfortunately, the trees are not part of the plan,” he said.
Mayor Jay Arrowsmith- DeCoux suggested he contact Michael Kallenbach, the MnDOT project manager, to discuss the project. Councilor Anton Moody and Kennedy thought the project should move ahead as planned, with Schulte and Swearingen saying it was worth the mayor’s time to meet with Kallenbach. Jay will report back to the council at the next meeting with a report about his meeting with Kallenbach.
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