Cook County News Herald

Neighbors should cooperate on road maintenance




Woof… Duane, Virginia, after three letters to the editor, your anger is unmistakable. You don’t want to contribute to keep our road plowed in the winter. We get it. So does the rest of the county.

About 1½ tanks of gas in your SUV or pick-up would cover the cost of keeping the road open all winter, giving better access for more land, cabin and recreational use by all property owners. Not to mention the increased use by the rest of the public for fishing or whatever.

Your argument appears to center around a non-service agreement that some people have signed. My family signed. We lived with it too, raising three pretty good kids up here. We snowmobiled in for a few years, finally got a snowplow (and all the costs that go with it) and dealt with things because we signed that piece of paper. We choose to live here.

There are more people here after 15 years. I can’t prevent the sand from falling through the hourglass of time, but things are different and many landowners are thinking that this small investment is a benefit, not a detriment.

I can snowmobile in and out just because you feel the need to demand that I do. But why affect everyone else? Why stop my neighbors from getting propane or a UPS package? Why can’t they access the new lifesaving device this paper boasted about for the county a couple of weeks ago? Imagine coming to your cabin, starting the propane heat but some kind of equipment failure inundates the cabin with carbon monoxide. Tough luck I guess. Emergency vehicle just couldn’t get here…

This piece of paper you so steadfastly stand behind is just that, a piece of paper. It isn’t stone. Even the Ten Commandments didn’t make it down without being broken the first time. Contracts change. We are seeking a change to plow the snow in the winter. That’s it.

I’d suggest we meet to iron out differences or hurt feelings or whatever, but the tone of your letters suggest you’d rather not. You’ve frightened enough spaghetti-spined commissioners into giving you another hearing in June after we already followed proper procedure, so we’ll see what happens. By all means keep bloviating, as it is a fine visual for the entire county of your unwillingness to cooperate with neighbors and see the whole picture.

Jon Muhich

Grand Marais



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