June 10, 2021 at 1:12 p.m.
Cass Commissioners oppose closing Gull Dam Road
The following is the letter:
"Dear Colonel Calkins
"The purpose of this letter is to provide official public comment to you on behalf of the Cass County Board of Commissioners regarding the potential closure of the roadway crossing the Army Corp(s) of Engineers Dam on the Gull River in East Gull Lake, and to advise you of our interest in keeping the road open to general public use, including vehicle traffic.
"While the road in question is an East Gull Lake city street, it serves an important county function in that it connects two Cass County Roads. According to our most recent traffic study on County Road 105, the roadway over the dam provides connecting access for 1,400 motor vehicles per day. If you close this road, Cass County will need to seek an alternative route connecting our County Road 105 and Cass County State Aid Highway 70.
"The Cass County Highway engineer has advised us that our two roads in their current configuration, meet our traffic and transportation needs today and our projected needs for the next 20 years. It is also our understanding that the current configuration of the Gull Lake Dam Road meets the City of East Gull Lake's current and future transportation needs. We have not planned on or budgeted for any re-alignment or reconstruction of either County Road 105 or CSAH 70 in our 5 year road improvement plan. To do so now would have a significant negative effect on our ability to provide safe and adequate transportation elsewhere in the county.
"We are not aware of any concerns locally that would drive the decision to close the road. In fact, our informal conversations with our local tribal partners, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, have led us to the opposite conclusion-they are satisfied with the current configuration of the road and believe that the least disruptive course of action to this historically and culturally sensitive area would be to leave things as they are. We intend to discuss this issue with them in a more formal setting at our next combined Leech Lake Tribal Council/Cass County Board of Commissioners meeting. We value our relationship with the Tribe and have committed to speaking with them prior to doing anything that affects them.
"Construction of a new roadway and river crossing would have significant effects on our community, the sensitive ecological environment in the path of a new roadway and quite likely, on as yet undiscovered and unknown historical and cultural artifacts. It would alter the bucolic and pastoral setting for the Army Corp campground, it would lead to a significant increase in daily traffic on the east side of the campground and it would create bottlenecks and unsafe conditions at the intersections of other local roads and streets, specifically the intersection of MN Trunk Highway 210 and Cass County CSAH 18, the intersection of Cass County CSAH 77 and 70, and potentially, the intersection of Crow Wing County Road 126 and MN Trunk Highway 371.
"For these reasons, we request that you leave the roadway open in its present location and configuration."
In a July public meeting in East Gull Lake, Brian Turner, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers site lead at the Gull Lake Recreation Area, explained the concerns with Gull Lake Dam Road, and the idea to close it, came up following an embankment slide just upstream of the Gull Lake Dam in the fall of 2017. After the issue was fixed the Corps realized it had an outdated license with the city of East Gull Lake for the management of the road, which is on federal property under Corps stewardship. East Gull Lake is responsible for the road's maintenance. Turner said the license, which dates back to 1926, needs to be updated if the road stays open.
Then came a concern with the road's compatibility with the Army Corps' mission, which Turner said is recreation, environmental stewardship and flood reduction. Lastly, the Corps reported tribal representatives requested the portion of the road to be permanently closed because of its proximity to sacred Native American burial grounds.
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