The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Parks and Trails Division, in conjunction with the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council and the Minnesota 4-Wheel Drive Association, will hold a series of listening sessions across the northern counties of Minnesota about the Border-to-Border (B2B) Touring Route.
The first Listening Session will be held on Tuesday, February 20 at Cook County I.S.D. 166 School from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Signs will be put up by the DNR at the Eagle Door to let the public know which room the meeting will be held in.
On Feb. 22 a second nearby listening session will be conducted at the Beaver Bay Community Center located at 711 MacDonald Avenue in Beaver Bay.
The route will connect the eastern and western borders of Minnesota across the northern third of the state using minimum maintenance and rugged roadways. The end product will be a signed, mapped route for highway-licensed, four-wheel drive vehicles, following routes that are already open for driving. The project is funded by the off-road vehicle account in Minnesota’s Natural Resources Fund. Revenues for this fund come from registered off-road vehicle owners.
Listening sessions will be held to gather feedback regarding a draft alignment for the B2B Touring Route. Last year at this time, similar meetings were held on this project to help determine the best location for this adventure route. That information was used to form the draft alignment that will be the topic of the listening sessions. The route is proposed to traverse the counties of Cook, Lake, St. Louis, Itasca, Beltrami, Clearwater, Polk, Red Lake, Pennington, Marshall, and Kittson.
The nine meetings will be between mid-February and early March near the proposed draft alignment for the B2B Touring Route. All meetings will be from 6 to 8 p.m. For more information about the project, and to verify the dates, times and locations of the listening sessions (subject to change in the event of bad weather) visit the DNR website.
If you can’t make the meetings the DNR will also accept written comments on the touring route proposal from Feb. 21 through March 25. Written comments should be sent by email to mary.straka@state. mn.us or should be sent by mail to Mary Straka, Minnesota DNR, Parks and Trails Division, 500 Lafayette Road, St. Paul, MN 55155.
For more information, or to request a printed copy of the proposal, call Mary Straka, at 218-203- 4445, or email mary.straka@state.mn.us.
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