Croftville Road Cottages is about to expand its profile as a family resort. Located on over 500 feet of Lake Superior shoreline just east of Grand Marais, the property has been beautified significantly already since it was purchased by Michael and Teresa Chmelik—who live there with their children—and their friends, Phillip and Paige Kochan.
The Chmeliks have applied for an interim use permit to put a 37-foot 2002 Nomad travel trailer on the property while the main house is renovated and expanded. According to the application, “Since 1990 Michael and Teresa Chmelik have had a dream of buying, renovating, and operating a bed and breakfast inn on the shores of Lake Superior. In 2003 that dream had the chance to manifest itself when the Chmeliks, with the help of their good friends, Phillip and Paige Kochan, bought 1558 Croftville Road. This property was the remnants of a small resort that had been unoccupied for over 10 years. The Chmeliks made the house somewhat livable, moved in, and began cleaning up and rehabilitating the property. Croftville Road Cottages opened in 2007 with three completely renovated cottages.
“Our small resort breaks even and provides us with a place to live but without income to live on as we raise our two children. We want to expand this business so it can support our family and provide us with a suitable home.”
The plan for the expansion includes renovating the house into an inn with family living quarters, an office, and five rental units with separate entrances. The Chmeliks expect to stay in the trailer until October of this year, after which it will be sold, and complete work on the house by June 2013. After that, they plan to add three lakeside cottages east of the house and then put up a building to house laundry facilities, a garage, and a shop. They plan to complete the whole project by the end of 2014.
The interim use permit application maintains that the proposed building project is consistent with the pattern of development on Croftville Road, which is a mixture of small resorts, year-round residences, and family cabins.
After unanimous approval by the Cook County Planning Commission, the county board voted unanimously on January 17, 2012 to approve the interim use permit.
In other county news:
. The board approved the hiring of Greg Gentz to fill the newly created deputy sheriff position in Grand Portage. Gentz has 13 years experience as a police officer and worked as a seasonal deputy with the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office in 2009.
The Grand Portage Band will be paying his salary as well as underwriting the cost of a new squad car.
The department was also authorized to purchase two replacement vehicles at a total price of just over $54,000 plus the cost of equipping them. The purchases will be paid out of the Sheriff ’s Office car expense account. One of the cars, a 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe, had 105,000 miles on it and the other, a 2005 Chevrolet Impala with at least 95,000 miles on it and due for replacement soon anyway, had been totaled in an accident in Duluth. . On behalf of the Cook County Soil & Water Conservation District, the county board approved a letter of support for the district’s application for a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “urban waters” grant. It would enable a study of contaminants in storm water runoff within the City of Grand Marais.
The letter states, “The purpose of the assessment is to produce a list of priority concerns and potential best management practices (BMPs) for storm water runoff for the Grand Marais watershed.” It would also have an educational component and involve students in collecting data. . The board approved the use of Title III funds – linked to federal land in Cook County – to help fund portable radios for the Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire Department. The radios would be used to communicate with the U.S. Forest Service and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in dealing with wildfires.
The department, which has 21 “trained and qualified wildland firefighters,” requested $15,000 from the Title III funds but would cover the rest of the over-$20,000 cost in some other way.
The equipment to be purchased would not be part of the Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response (ARMER) system the county is currently gearing up to use along with emergency response entities throughout the rest of Minnesota. It would be compatible with the two big firefighting entities that would respond to forest fires, however. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the firefighting division of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) use the same frequencies – but not the 800 MHz band used in the ARMER system – to communicate. In situations where local and state emergency response entities would need to communicate with the U.S. Forest Service and the DNR, the networks could be patched together.
According to Gunflint Fire Chief Mike Prom, his department is the only one in the county that has gone through wildfire training. “All wildfires larger than 100 acres (19) that have occurred in Cook County since 1988 have occurred in the Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire Department’s current fire district,” stated the proposal. The other functions of the department are to respond to medical emergencies and put out structure fires.
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