These towns all failed to turn in their financial data to the Minnesota Auditor’s Office in 2014-2015. None of the towns or townships was from Cook County. I was relieved to find that out, but I also marveled at the names of some hamlets and townships that strike the tongue—and imagination— as unique.
For instance we have Mudgett, Nidaros, Tynsid, Shibbl, Severance, Vineland, Tegner, Pembina, Poppleton, Pohlitz, Spruce, Moose Park, Rost, Lisbon, Lessor, Quiring, Leven, Crate, Clover, Clinton, Featherstone, Flom, Eldorado, Grimstad, Buzzle, Beaver, Friendship, Almond, Good Hope, Palmyra, Eastern, Eldorado, and Ardenhurst. Then too we have the towns named after people: Glen, Ross, Shelly, Logan, Lucas, Morris, Morse, Parker, Dale, Clinton, Ann (Lake), and Dewey. I have a cousin nicknamed Dewey, but he lives here, so I don’t think Dewey is named after him.
My favorite town name is Buzzle. It tickles the tongue to say it. Like many of the cities on the Minnesota State Auditor’s list, I had never heard of Buzzle, so I looked up some information about it.
Buzzle Township is located in Beltrami County. According to the 2000 census, Buzzle’s population was 286. Median income was $25,000; median age 41 years, and the average household size was 2.51 people.
The township took its name from Buzzle Lake. Just who named Buzzle Lake is a mystery to me. It’s good to have some mysterious “buzzing” around my brain. So I’ll let this one continue. If any reader knows more about Buzzle, let me know at ccnh@boreal.org. . Good news for those opposed to the current route of the Dakota Access Pipeline. This past week the Obama administration announced it would not grant a final easement for the pipeline until the Army Corps of Engineers conducts an environmental review to see if there is another route that leads away from the Missouri River crossing that now impacts the Standing Rock Sioux’s ancestral homeland.
Since August thousands of people have joined with the Standing Rock Sioux to oppose the current pipeline route. The Sioux worry that if the pipeline breaks the spilled oil will poison their water supply. The pipeline as now proposed would also cross ancestral graveyards, which the band opposes.
As winter has set in confrontations between the protesters and authorities have grown increasingly violent. Police have tried to remove protesters from their campsite so the contractor can build the pipeline. Both police and the demonstrators have suffered injuries, although far more protesters have been hurt in the battles.
The 1,168-mile pipeline, when completed, will carry 450,000 barrels of fracked oil every day. When finished the project is supposed to be part of the puzzle to help the U.S. become energy independent.
For now slowing down the project is the best way to go. Here’s hoping an alternative route can be found that will lead to a good resolution for the Standing Rock Sioux and bring peace to the plains. This should never have had to come to violence. Too often it seems it takes violence to lead to a peaceful solution. If “A” equals disagreement, and “B” equals violence and “C” equals peaceful resolution, we as human beings need to skip “B” and go straight to “C.” Seems simple, but so far over the course of human history we can’t get it straight. . Cook County commissioners are under the gun to lower the proposed 2017 levy from its current 19.88 increase over 2016. Options include cutting employees (no one wants to see that) and cutting back on the Cook County Highway Department’s equipment budget. There is also the option of reducing the fund balance, which sits right now at about 75 percent. That 75 percent number is what bond companies use to give the county a Triple A bond rating. A high rating means the county can buy bonds at a cheaper rate than if it were lower.
Commissioners have used the fund balance in the past to lower the levy, but promised last year to repay what they borrowed and tried to keep it at its current level. Administrator Jeff Cadwell is looking into what it will cost the county regarding paying more for bonds if it dips once again into the fund balance (which sits at about $7 million) to lower the levy.
Some counties, as Lloyd Speck noted, keep a fund balance anywhere from 35 percent to 50 percent. The commissioners have until December 30 to set the levy, and commissioners will do what they can to reduce it. A vast majority of people would like to see it lowered, and testified to that at the Truth in Taxation meeting.
All of that said, it was troubling to learn that someone threatened gun violence against commissioners if they didn’t vote to support the Cook County Grand Marais EDA and Lutsen housing project. Police were called in to investigate the threat. At no point in time is that type of action acceptable.
Commissioners have a hard job. If you don’t like what they do vote them out of office. Or, if you have a useful idea, call them and tell them what it is. They may seem to have a “deaf ear” to the public at times, but I assure you that’s far from the truth. They turn away when they have been pushed away. That’s just human nature. A civil debate like the one held at the Truth in Taxation meeting is acceptable. It might have been a bit rowdy at times, but it was democracy working at its best.
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