Opinions/Editorials

Three visitors to the Town of Morse monthly meeting likely didn’t get the reception they were looking for Tuesday night.
While the discussions were cordial the end result was a resolution opposing what had been brought before the board.
The DNR’s Lori Dowling-Hanson, Shaun Hamilton of the Trust for Public Land and David Kess pitched making yet another island on Burntside Lake a Scientific & Natural Area (SNA).
The Morse board was bypassed two years ago when Gaul Island left the tax roles and become an SNA. That was the pretext of the meeting Tuesday, to discuss what went wrong on the communication between the DNR and the township.
Instead, the trio brought another plan to remove some of the highest value real estate in northern Minnesota from the tax roles. While there would be some reimbursement through the PILT (payment of lieu of taxes), it won’t be equal to what would’ve been received and never as much if there had been improvements made.

Dear Editor:
I took the opportunity to drop in to the Tuesday Group that is held in Ely by what appears to be an informal group of people getting together for an “info-tainment” luncheon to listen to a guest speaker present on various topics.
This past Tuesday’s topic was “Saving the Boundary Waters” which was presented by Becky Rom, who is a Burntside Lake resident and environmental activist.
Curiosity got the best of me and I had to go see what was up since it is a well-known fact that the Boundary Waters usage is declining. That means that it is running the risk of heading into obscurity on a national front as one of the greatest places to visit. We all know the kids aren’t coming anymore.

Dear Editor,
My name is Mike Gavan, I’m 39 years old and live in Midhirst in Taranaki, New Zealand, with my four children and gorgeous wife.
About two weeks ago I was visiting my wife in her second hand shop when I came across a small pair of delicately made snow shoes about 8 inches tall.
On closer examination I found the name Frank Stupnik, Ely, Minn written on the bottom side of one of the tiny snow shoes.
I couldn’t help but wonder who had made these snow shoes and how they had made their way to the other side of our planet to make it to my wife’s second hand shop.
My wife said they were a handed in donation and therefore could not be traced, so here I am, looking in the only place to look, Ely, Minnesota.

A new formula for determining how to protect wild rice may not make it off the drawing board. The MPCA hastily revealed the formula after the governor made comments that the agency was using obsolete science.
“If the standard is obsolete and it’s not validated by current science and information, then to stick with it and close down an industry isn’t really well advised,” Dayton said to MPR.
One guess what industry he’s referring to. If you guessed mining, give yourself five points. If you realize that wild rice is being used as the spotted owl in stopping mining in Minnesota, give yourself another five points. You aced the test.
The MPCA is in a lose-lose situation trying to come up with a standard that protects wild rice and doesn’t cost municipalities and mining companies billions of dollars.

Hats off to Ely council member Paul Kess for shining the light on an issue that certainly needs more scrutiny and investigation - the city of Ely’s stringent requirements and exorbitant costs for building permits and inspections.
It’s hard to conceive how Ely’s annual building inspection expense of more than $135,000 is justified - when a review by Kess released this week showed that some neighboring communities don’t spend anything close.
And in some cases, including right next door in the Town of Morse, there’s absolutely no expense at all.
Need new siding, a deck, or a water heater in Morse Township? Simply call your contractor and get the ball rolling.
But in Ely, homeowners are saddled with hefty permit fees, and at the end of the year the city government has an eye-popping, almost incomprehensible bill.
How incomprehensible? Try $35 an hour, 32 hours a week and up to an 85 percent cut on all permit fees collected.

Dear Editor:
Minnesota cities are committed to good wastewater treatment. That’s a huge cost for cities and one we take very seriously. Here are a couple of facts about sulfate in water.
1. There are bodies of water with much higher sulfate levels and wild rice is growing just fine.
2. Drinking water standard for sulfates is 250 ppm; this means it is safe to drink at the level.
3. The state of Minnesota is the only state with a sulfate standard at all, and it is only in waters where there is wild rice.
In 1973, the state of Minnesota adopted a sulfate standard of 10 ppm in all municipal and industrial discharge permits that discharge into bodies of water with wild rice. The standard was adopted using research from the 1940s.

The proposed BWCA land exchange is out for comment and if history is an indicator, don’t expect this version to get very far.

The Forest Service would acquire 30,000 acres of state land in the BWCA in exchange for 984 parcels of federal land totaling approximately 39,074.65 acres scattered throughout Cook, Lake and Saint Louis Counties outside the BWCA.
Already groups like the Friends have come out opposed to any land exchange. They want the feds to buy the state land.

This portion of the project is only the first step in this attempt to right a wrong. There is a total of 83,000 acres of school trust land that was taken into the BWCA where it doesn’t generate a dime for the state’s school trust fund.

When the temperatures were still dropping to 30 degrees below zero last week, it was hard to believe. When you were out shovelling snow for the umpteenth time, it was hard to believe. But it’s true. Winter is going fast.
Our advice is simple: get out and enjoy it while you can. Ely, Minnesota is a winter wonderland. We offer unparalleled access to the great outdoors. Whatever you want to do, we can probably hook you up.
Snowmobiling is a great place to start. Ely sits at the crossroad of the Taconite and Tomahawk snowmobile trails. We can get you to the North Shore or halfway across the state. Plus there are numerous local routes with fantastic scenery and pleasurable riding. Our trails are groomed and ready to ride. Come on up.

If you’re keeping score at home, here’s some updates on the legal issues in the area.
PEIS: DOA.
Wolves: Back in court.
South Fowl: Out of court. For now.
Here’s a breakdown on what that means.
The Friends of the Boundary Waters, Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, Sustainable Ely and one Becky Rom of Ely had been pushing for a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the Superior National Forest relating to the possible copper-nickel mining projects.
This was seen as a “stealth” attack on mining and it took some sleuthing to determine Rom was the one pushing for the feds to do a PEIS. That push has come to a sudden halt.
U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan told the Mesabi Daily News that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has determined a PEIS will not be necessary.
Hopefully that puts that end-around play to rest.