Proposed: Lake Vermilion State Park

Comments: 8

Sarah W. Jul 21, 2007, 5:03pm UTC

I've been listening to this a lot with interest. I don't live far from lake Vermilion. The proposed housing development has been a topic of contentious debate for a long time. Lake Vermilion is already becoming more populated than the local infrastructure can handle. Lake Country Power has been planning to build a new power line going up to Tower because all those houses and cabins are really straining the grid. (and I thought that people staying here in cabins came to enjoy the peace of the wilderness.) A new state park could possibly be a solution to some of these problems--creating revenue for the county through tourism while halting some of the development.

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Gary Fischbach Jul 24, 2007, 2:20pm UTC

Who pays for it? The taxpayers of the state? Aren't the rest of our state parks being run pretty lean already? It sounds warm and fuzzy, but what other land that is privatly owned that must be bought up by the state? Do we need to subsidize the "cabin experience"? Is it a right to enjoy "the cabin experience" at taxpayer's expense? So "the cabin experience" is now another governement entitlement? It's an old steel mill. How much asbestos? Toxic waste? Who pays the cleanup?

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Sarah W. Jul 24, 2007, 6:32pm UTC

The tax payers will pay for some of it. The government hopes to proposition non-profits such as the the Nature Conservancy to help pay for some of it. Either way, the tax payers are going to have to pay. The way it is, the infrastructure in this area cannot handle the growing population and the energy, transportation, technological wants of people that are not used to rural life. The taxpayers will eventually have to pay for buying off property through eminent domain for new power lines and roads when the new housing development is built. At least the tax payers can enjoy the park. There is not a whole lot of entertainment value in playing with power lines and in traffic.

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Julia Schrenkler Jul 25, 2007, 11:11am UTC

Say, I noticed that Courtland Nelson (the Director of State Parks with the Minnesota DNR) is going to be on MPR's Midday today: The state of our state parks. I hope you can call in or use the online send a question link to get your questions in...

-Julia

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Sarah W. Jul 25, 2007, 11:57am UTC

oh--and I think that the area is undeveloped. US Steel primarily runs open pit mining operations in Minnesota, not steel mills. Property value on lake Vermilion is worth way more for residential than industrial purposes. That is probably why they want to sell it rather than mine the ore.

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Cynthia J. Jul 25, 2007, 1:02pm UTC

Thanks Julia for telling folks about the Midday show. I'm running behind myself this morning.

Reminder: The show is archived on the web, www.mpr.org and go to Midday program.

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Diana Raabe Aug 5, 2007, 1:05pm UTC

Anything that prevents the area from becoming too commercialized is well worth a few tax dollars.

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M.K. Mueller Dec 9, 2007, 4:49pm UTC

I just came accross this article. I don't know what the current status of the proposed park is but I embrace it with open arms.

Gary does bring up good points about the tax payers money subsidizing the "cabin experience" but like Sarah said, either way the tax payers end up paying for infrastructure.

It's getting to be that only the elite wealthy of Minnesota can afford lake property. My great-grandfather's cabin recently went up for sale, it's not currently owned by family but sadly there is nobody in the family that could afford the $750,000 price tag for a small cottage at the end of a pennisula.

What we can afford is to spent a little more in our taxes to help pay for MN State Parks.

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Proposed: Lake Vermilion State Park

Comments: 8

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