Opinions/Editorials

Dear Editor:
I just finished reading the November 9th edition of the Echo.
It truly warms my heart to see all the Veterans recognition stories and ads.
I was an Ely resident when I joined the Navy on July 1, 1982.
At that time our country still had the bad taste of the Vietnam Conflict in its collective mouth.
It wasn’t “cool” to be in the military. Except in Ely. Every time I came home on leave to visit my parents, I would make my rounds.
I always stopped at Zaverl’s to see Gary. Prior to my enlisting, he and I had many a discussion about joining the Navy as I was deciding exactly what to do with my life.
Gary ALWAYS had a cold beer waiting for me when I was in town. On the house!!
I’d stop by to get a hair cut with Jerry the Barber, and he never took my money. After all, he was a Navy Vet himself.
I haven’t lived in Ely for over 37 years, but now spend my summers there and still consider Ely my hometown.

On the 11th day, of the 11th month, we pay a special tribute to our veterans—honoring those who served in every war since our nation was founded. Whether it was the beaches of Normandy, the hills of Korea, the mountains of Afghanistan, the deserts of Iraq, or right here at home—these extraordinary men and women all heard the call of duty and answered it.

When our service members signed up to serve there wasn’t a waiting line, and when they come home there shouldn’t be a waiting line for the benefits they’ve earned. That’s why we’ve worked across the aisle to modernize the G.I. Bill benefits for our troops, strengthen funding for veterans’ health care, improve mental health care for our soldiers, and ensure that our VA system provides shorter waits and better care. Our veterans deserve to be treated with the dignity befitting their sacrifice and that also means making sure they have a safe and affordable home.

Dear Editor,
I would like to thank the Ely Echo for the excellent coverage you did on the 3rd Annual Jake Forsman Memorial Car Show and Burnout Competition.
The editorial, the article, and especially the photos on page 12 illustrate very well that this event is about so much more than cars. Most importantly, it is about family and community.
You captured that in all aspects of your coverage.
Thank you!
Al Forsman and the extended Forsman family

Dear Editor
So, I have been hearing lately so much about the environment and how folks are so worried about our children and grand children not having a clean, beautiful world to grow up in.
Well, I hate to break it to those people, there is so much hate in our world today that our kids don’t have a chance on this planet. What they have to look forward to is hate, crime, high anxiety, and wanting everything given to them. They have the internet to teach them (and that’s not a good thing) and young teachers who are coming out of colleges to teach them their views to the kids and not how to think for themselves, be independent and have values, faith, self worth and not be judged and called names for having those values and opinions.

Dear Forest Supervisor Cummings:
Three years ago the United States Forest Service initiated a study required under a settlement with Wilderness Watch and stopped issuing commercial permits on the Superior National Forest.
Consequently, the Forest Service recently held an open house in Ely at the Vermilion Community College to talk to the public about recreational commercial services provided on the Superior National Forest.
Attendees were asked to provide information about which types of recreational commercial services they use, where they use those services on the Forest, and which additional recreational services they believe the Forest Service should encourage and permit. Attendees were also encouraged to provide the Forest Service with written and oral comments.

A letter printed in this week’s Ely Echo points out the problems with the permit system for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the Forest Service’s lack of helping disabled people experience the area.
There are some good points that were made and we believe the Forest Service has again ran afoul of the law and been too worried about creating an artificial wilderness than making sure people can actually go there.
We’ve said before in this space that with fewer and fewer people going to the BWCA that all options should be looked at to put more heads in tents if you will.
One way to do that would be to help our disabled people along with our veterans. The best way to help them? Give them a free pass. No permit, no lottery, no hassle. Just go.
These people have a hard enough time in the case of those with disabilities and for our veterans, we know they’ve earned the right to visit the very places they vowed and/or fought to defend.

With over $3 million in construction for ATV trails in the Ely, Babbitt, Tower and Embarrass area, there will be new sights to be seen. This past weekend one of those sights was an old one.
For snowmobilers the pictures of the bridge over the Kawishiwi River in this week’s Echo are familiar, albeit without the snow and ice.
For ATVers, this was a new experience as the bridge previously wasn’t part of a summer trail system. Seven months out of the year the bridge sat unused. That has now changed.
The Prospector Loop ATV Trail system opened the section from South Farm to Spruce Road and beyond, including the Kawishiwi River bridge.
Days after it opened, the bridge was the scene for a photo of the 100+ people who were part of a benefit ride for Special Olympics Minnesota.

The stories of Ely’s past came alive Monday afternoon.
It’s been over 50 years since the Pioneer Mine closed, but one could almost hear the echoes of days gone by as Serafine Rolando, John Seliga and Bill Erzar told stories, showed off exhibits and shared their passion for our community’s rich history.
Their audience was elected officials and political aides, and their appeal was genuine and matter-of-fact.
Money, a lot of it, is needed to preserve the historic mine site.
Much has already been done over the last two decades, with the preservation of the Miner’s Dry building providing a venue for public and cultural events, and a window to Ely’s mining past.
The headframe and shaft house rehabilitation were also welcomed and visitors, from around the region and far beyond, stop each year for tours, to look at the exhibits and hear some of the tales of Ely’s last operating mine.

Editor:
Is what’s happening in Europe a harbinger for the US? I’m talking about demographics. EU statistics that could soon become relevant to the US would indicate the answer is yes.
If you’re in your 70’s like I am why should we even care? Of course the answer should be simple since we’ll be leaving our country to our progeny.
The death of old Europe is no longer a laughable euphemism. When I overlay all the scientific data from both sides of the Atlantic, the similarities in demographic changes were pretty obvious, even if we took a different path to get there.
I’ve been researching the BWCA and why this pretend wilderness is flat-lining, even shrinking with permitted visits. More on that in minute, but here’s where Europe becomes our eye to the future.

Dear Ely community members,

Great changes are in the future of ISD 696!

Red surveys emblazoned with the Ely name and logo may have arrived in your mailboxes or post office boxes this week. When you hold this survey, you hold the future of our historic district in your hands. What will this future look like? That is for all of us, the taxpayers and community members of our district, to decide.

We at Ely Education Association (EEA) hope that each and every recipient of this survey complete it. It will take just a few minutes of time to help shape the 2020 referendum.