The traditional Lutsen Fire Department Pancake Breakfast was held for the first time this September in the new community room. Above: Firefighters had room for the big pancake griddle in the fire hall. Firefighters went through 15 batches of the Lutsen secret recipe pancakes, serving 265 people. Left: Tourists and residents, like this fall season visitor and Patty Nelson of Lutsen, enjoyed visiting over breakfast.
Three officials from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) appeared before the Lutsen town board on Tuesday, October 15 to discuss next summer’s work on Highway 61 that will impact Lutsen businesses, locals and visitors to the North Shore.
Todd Campbell, a civil engineer who is the assistant district engineer for program delivery for MnDOT District One, which encompasses eight counties in northeastern Minnesota, led the discussion.
Campbell said work will probably begin in May, and that a 10-mile stretch of road from Onion River to a couple of miles east of Cascade will receive a 3½ inch overlay after crews first strip 3½ inches from the current surface.
“Eleven culverts will be replaced before any overlay is put down,” said Derek Fredrickson, who will oversee the Lutsen project for MnDOT.
Lutsen Supervisor Ginny Storlie asked if MnDOT had any plans to widen the road and make bigger shoulders, especially for the many bicyclists who pedal through the area. Campbell said no.
“I think widening the shoulder would be great, and you might think widening the shoulder wouldn’t be a big deal, but it is quite dramatic to add shoulders and we don’t have the funds to do that right now,” Campbell said.
Several people attending the meeting asked if MnDOT was going to require a contractor to add rumble strips to either the center line, the sides of the road or to both, but Fredrickson said that while the rumble strips were still in the plans, two weeks ago they were told to take them out and for now, they won’t be included in the work.
Campbell said the overlay was part of new national highway standards called pavement preservation, or “reconstruct light.”
“This is a decent fix, a significant upgrade from what is now there,” said Campbell, adding, “But it’s not the highest standard to fix the road.”
The new owners of Solbakken Resort asked if work would go on 24 hours of the day, and if so, could they find a way to get some relief for guests who would be trying to sleep. Fredrickson said to call him and they would work with the contractor when the project moved to their location. “I will talk to the contractor and they almost always are willing to work with affected businesses,” he said.
Snowmobile bridge repair
The Lutsen Trailbreakers Snowmobile Club requested $10,000 to help repair the Beaver Trail Bridge that was severely damaged in the June 9 rainstorm that pounded the area. Cost to fix or replace the bridge is estimated as high as $20,000, said Sharon Platzer, who along with her husband Scot, was at the meeting to represent the club.
“We’ve repaired it for this season, but it will need to be replaced next year,” Sharon Platzer said.
The current bridge is 38 feet long but a replacement bridge would be 46 feet long and set just above the current bridge location.
“The state has no capital improvement grants this year or next. We are looking at other funding sources, but the places where we usually get money to fix and maintain the trails are drying up,” said Platzer.
Because the bridge sits on a major snowmobile trail and is also well used by hikers and bikers in the spring, summer and fall, it is important to have it fixed, said Platzer, who added, “We don’t want to risk lives and people’s safety or the safety of the trail groomer and the $150,000 grooming machine by having an unsafe bridge.”
After some discussion the supervisors agreed that Lutsen Trailbreakers needed to come back to the township’s annual meeting in March with their request.
“If you can’t get more money from the feds or state, you might need to request more from the township,” said John Groth, township treasurer.
“This request should be voted on by the public at the annual meeting,” said Tim Goettl, whose fellow supervisors Marland Hansen and Ginny Storlie agreed with him.
“This bridge has been repurposed three times. It’s a 20-year-old bridge that doesn’t owe anything to anyone. It’s finally given out,” said Scot Platzer.
The couple agreed to come back at the annual meeting to request needed funds to fix the bridge.
In other business:
. Lutsen Fire Chief Paul Goettl said his crew received only one call last month. “And that turned out to be a false alarm. It was just a campfire that had gotten out of control,” he said. There were no calls for the department in August.
Goettl said that Como Oil & Propane had provided a propane safety class for firefighters and said the county has distributed the first round of ARMER handheld radios to the Search & Rescue squad.
“This is part of a statewide system. This will bring everyone in the county together, the police, Arrowhead Electric, fire departments, Search & Rescue, Forest Service. We should have hardly any dead spots. The fire officers and fire trucks will also get hand-held radios,” said Goettl.
Groth said the township will now have to budget to replace or repair the radios, which cost $2,500 each.
. The board approved the liquor licenses for Lutsen Resort, Northern Lights, Papa Charlie’s, Lutsen Mountain Corporation’s Summit Chalet and Rosie’s Café.
Leave a Reply