Koochiching County commissioners discussed local issues with two statewide groups Tuesday.
The council met with Jody Tableporter, executive director of Voyageurs National Park Association, who was accompanied by VNP Superintendent Mike Ward.
The county board also met with Mark Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters, who was accompanied by MDHA Region 2 Director Fred Freihammer.
The board invited Tableporter to meet after she sent a letter thanking commissioners for approving an AT&T cell phone tower at 200 feet in height near Rainy Lake Houseboats.
Commissioners were concerned about a sentence in the letter that they said could be interpreted as a threat to pack future Planning Commission meetings should the height of a tower exceed 200 feet.
Tableporter told the board that the letter was not meant as a threat and could have been worded differently.
Towers exceeding 200 feet must be equipped with strobes and lights, noted Commissioner Wade Pavleck.
The discussion prompted comments during an audience portion of the meeting by Ranier residents Arden Barnes and Thomas Hall, who urged the board to consider carefully the site and height of future towers.
They said cell towers would be obtrusive to a park experience should it be viewed within the park’s boundaries and Barnes expressed concern about measurable negative energy from the towers.
Hall said that other places in the nation erect signs telling people they are entering a wilderness area and that cell phone service may be unavailable. Future phone technology involves satellites, he said and wondered what would happen to the cell towers when the technology became obsolete.
Haze
Commissioner Mike Hanson and Rob Ecklund asked about the VNPA’s involvement in regional haze lawsuits.
The federal Environmental Protection Administration approved the Minnesota State Implementation Plan that allows for industrial plants to trade emissions instead of cleaning up the specific polluters.
Tableporter said VNPA will be involved in a case in November encouraging the use of Best Available Retrofit Technology that would identify appropriate technology for attaining the highest emission reductions at eligible power plants. BART, she said, would involve six plants in Minnesota. She said Minnesota Power gets its electricity from two of the six plants and those two plants have nearly completed the retrofit technology. North Star Electric Cooperative, she said, receives its electricity through North Dakota and wouldn’t be impacted.
She said she and Ward encouraged the MPCA not to move forward with its current plan because it was illegal.
Hanson said he’s concerned that electric rates would be increased as a result of the lawsuit.
Ward said the issue is very complex and that he and Tableporter did not want the MPCA to put forward a plan that would position the EPA to step in and that’s what’s happened.
In other issues, the board asked Tableporter to advocate for funding and support of a project that would bring sewer collection to communities adjacent to Voyageurs National Park through state and federal representatives.
MDHA
Johnson told the board he was in the community to help reorganize and reinvigorate the Trails End Chapter of MDHA and to see how the organization can work with the county on projects.
Johnson also told the board that the organization would help, if it could, to continue public access to lands owned by Molpus Woodland Group.
At issue is change in tax policy that affected the private company, which is considering how it can afford to maintain public access.
Freihammer said he’d like to discuss oak regeneration and thermal cover projects on county land that would benefit wildlife.
Tom Worth, a founding member of the local MDHA chapter, discussed the benefits of the Hides for Habitat project, in which hunters donate hides which are sold. The money is used to fund habitat projects.
Worth passed around photos provided by county Land Commissioner Dennis Hummitzsch, showing deer eating clover planted on county land with seed provided by MDHA.
