Koochiching County commissioners Tuesday agreed to keep the Burner Road open to the public.
The board said it would encourage the public to use alternative routes from December to June by placing two signs on each end of the road, as well as advertise in the local media.
A committee is scheduled to review the action in one year.
Boise Inc. had asked the board to vacate the road, which is a portion of County Highway 332, to alleviate safety concerns about mixing industrial traffic with private vehicles.
Based on the proposal, Boise Public Affairs Manager Lori Lyman Tuesday asked the board to withdraw the company’s vacation request.
The idea to ask people to seek alternative routes during the busiest period on the road, where the Boise scale shack is located, came from a committee meeting which considered alternatives to vacation.
While few people spoke in opposition to vacating the road at an earlier public hearing, commissioners said they heard from many constituents who asked that the road remain open to the public for convenience.
Lyman told the board that she felt confident the signs and advertisements would solve the bulk of the problems on the road.
Commissioner Wade Pavleck credited Boise for being open to solutions other than vacation.
Commissioner Mike Hanson, who seconded the motion to encourage alternative routes, said he has learned through his years as a commissioner that “nothing ends like it begins,” noting that the issue had earlier caused much strife in the community and many calls to commissioners.
Board Chairman Brian McBride said the proposal makes sense and noted that traffic on the Burner Road has decreased with the opening of County Highway 155, east of the Burner Road.
“Vacation is permanent,” he said. “This is the right route to take.”
Towers
In other business Tuesday, the board said it will gather information about a proposal by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to site a 300-foot tower on state property south of Rainy Lake One Stop, located on County Road 93.
The board is expected to reconsider the tower issue when it meets next week.
Pavleck urged the board to write a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton and members of the Legislature urging them to overturn a previous administration's executive order that allows the state agency to site towers without input from local governments or residents.
“It is unbelievable that the citizens of this county have been left out of a process that has so much importance in a scenic area like this,” he said of the number of towers installed in the county recently.
The board said it wants to know if MnDOT is placing other entities’ equipment on the towers to alleviate the need for additional towers.
“And the larger fundamental issue is that the county has been excluded from the process,” he said.
