I grew up at my family’s resort on Devil’s Track Lake above the town of Grand Marais, Minnesota. The tourist industry is and has been the breadbasket of this area before I was born over 65 years ago. My grandfather built our family resort in the 1920’s.
Winters for many businesses and folks can be months of scraping and scratching until the short busy summer tourist season begins. The money made for survival for the rest of the year is during those short summer months. On a good season. Many of the folks working for local businesses get laid off in the off-peak months with even some businesses cutting days and hours of business and/or even shutting down for a time during that time.
Much of the industry that keeps folks in jobs in this neck of the woods is the tourist industry. Multiple types of local businesses depend on this to survive. Including but not limited to doctors, lawyers, county and other government workers, teachers, grocery stores, gas stations, etc. etc. etc. So, the people living in this area depending upon that industry, which affects more than just our resorts, hotels, restaurants, etc., can already take a big hit every year come winter season. If our tourist industry goes down we all go down. Reality.
With the COVID-19 crisis we are now facing, those businesses, people and livelihoods are being crippled even further at an alarming rate adding extra burden on an already struggling local economy. (I’m not even going to go into the taxing end of the whole situation. Money grows on trees for some.)
And soon along will come the extensive local business hardship producing HWY 61 reconstruction project that is going to make a swath right through the middle of town directly and indirectly affecting many who have businesses along that corridor and beyond. It’s safe to say that this big project, in and of itself in good times, is going to put undo hardship on many local businesses on its own. Big time! Right in the middle of our much needed tourist season that helps support our local businesses, people and economy.
My question is this: Are our local and state government agencies, including but not limited to MNDOT, who are involved in organizing and implementing this HWY 61 reconstruction project planning on putting that project on indefinite hold until the situation can be assessed thoroughly by first finding out just exactly how much damage has been done these past few months by our national crisis we all find ourselves in? Or, are local businesses and folks on their own in the game of survival of the fittest with government agencies bent on pushing through a project on a HWY that is still quite usable for commerce and business as is… and has been for the past …how many years and decades? If the highway construction folks who would be working on this project need jobs, (as an example) the highway between Grand Marais and Grand Portage could sure use some much-needed TLC. Let’s figure and consider the cost.
Respectfully, MJ Flack,
Hovland
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