The Cook County Historical Society is hoping to take advantage of a Legacy grant from the Minnesota Historical Society that would allow it to purchase the Bill Bally Blacksmith Shop in downtown Grand Marais. It needs to partner with the county in order qualify for the grant and is awaiting word from the county board, which has discussed concerns about potential liability over any contaminants that might be underneath the ground. The county board has asked County Attorney Tim Scannell to prepare documents that would limit the county’s liability.
With a grant application to the Minnesota Historical Society coming due on March 15, Carrie McHugh, Gene Erickson, and Hal Greenwood of the Cook County Historical Society met with the county board on March 5 for the second week in a row to discuss a partnership that would allow the historical society to purchase the Bally Blacksmith Shop in Grand Marais.
On February 26, the historical society had requested the partnership after hearing of Legacy funds left over in the Minnesota Historical Society’s biennial budget. The historical society’s annual budget was not sufficient to allow it to apply for the grant alone.
At that meeting, the county board discussed concerns over potential liability if any environmental contaminants were found on the property and authorized Planning & Zoning Director Tim Nelson to find a consultant to evaluate the property with a “Phase I” study, an initial evaluation conducted through visual observation, record searches, and interviews.
John and Christine McCarthy of Duluth-based Environmental Troubleshooters Inc. were hired to do the study, and Director Nelson accompanied them when they looked at the property. He told the county board on March 5 that he was more comfortable with the site after visiting it. He said they would have expected the possibility of finding heavy metals and other contaminants under the ground inside the wooden blacksmith shop building and the metal welding shop building if they had dirt floors, but the blacksmith shop has a wood floor and the welding shop has a concrete floor. He said the consultants thought the buildings were very clean and free of contaminants they also thought they might find.
“I am comfortable at this point just accepting the Phase I study,” Nelson said. He said other Grand Marais properties, such as former gas stations, have had a lot more contamination than he would expect at the Bally property. A memo he wrote to the board states, “It was noted during the site evaluation that the only type of consistent chemical substance use within either of the buildings on the property was that of waste oil for the purposes of heating and that no other types of chemicals were stored in either building on any kind of mid- or long-term basis.
“It appears that the main source of any potential contamination would have come from the fuel oil and waste oil tanks located outside of the buildings, which would presumably be the same level of risk for any structure in the county with exterior fuel oil tanks,” Nelson wrote. “It is acknowledged by the state of Minnesota that the ground beneath the city of Grand Marais has an existing general level of contamination due to past underground tanks, porous nature of the dirt, and high ground water table saturation.”
“He didn’t do anything sloppy,” Gene Erickson said of the late Bill Bally.
Nelson said the county could get a “retroactive determination of non-association” later, which would keep the county free of any liability issues related to uses of the property before the county owned it. The plan would be for the county to own it for five years to fulfill the potential grant’s partnership requirement and then to give or sell it to the Cook County Historical Society. The historical society’s main aim would be to preserve the property in its current state as a historic site with the exception of possibly doing some landscaping around the building.
Complete inspection of the property was limited by the snow cover. Potential issues identified but not tested by the consultants included airborne emissions and fallout from blacksmithing and welding, oil storage tanks that don’t meet current regulations, a shallow well under the building that has a hand crank inside the building and could have been infiltrated with contaminants, and an old auto body and repair shop on the property immediately to the east. The consulting firm recommended that the well be sealed, which would help avoid a need for any further analysis and potential cleanup. If the property were turned into a home or a park, Nelson said, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) might want further analysis.
The report lists some petroleum leaks that took place on properties nearby and stated, “…Seiche effects from Lake Superior tend to create wide smear zones and plumes in the coarse shallow soils.”
The blacksmith shop is probably the oldest commercial building in Grand Marais, Gene Erickson said, and if they were awarded Legacy money to purchase it, the historical society would probably be expected to keep it in their own hands and not change anything.
County Attorney Scannell said leaving the property in its current state is probably the safest thing that could be done with it.
Commissioner Sue Hakes said she has received some complaints about the building potentially being taken off the tax rolls. She asked the historical society if they could move the building off the property so that the sellers could sell it as commercial space. Museum Director Carrie McHugh said the Minnesota Historical Society would not support moving the building off its historic location.
More people would probably be upset about moving it than about taking it off the tax rolls, Commissioner Jan Hall said.
“I really think it would contribute to the community,” said McHugh.
“This is a real estate deal and we don’t want to do anything that would jeopardize taxpayers. …We need to go in with our eyes wide open,” said Commissioner Hakes. “I feel really pushed and rushed. …I need time to think about it.”
Attorney Scannell said the possibility of liability issues regarding contaminants if the property is not altered is slim, but it’s good to do due diligence to protect the county’s interest. He agreed to work with Tim Nelson and the seller’s attorney, Baiers Heeren, on coming up with legal documents that would allow the partnership while limiting the county’s liability.
The board will discuss the issue again at its March 12 meeting. Commissioners Garry Gamble and Bruce Martinson were absent from this meeting.
In other county news:
The board passed a motion agreeing to pay $50,000 toward the cost of land appraisal related to the proposed exchange of Cook County land inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) for U.S. Forest Service land outside the BWCAW. Any leftover funds greater than $25 can be returned to Cook County.
In its motion of approval, the board included a request that they be provided with information regarding how the money is spent.
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