County Board considers purchase by DNR of Bert’s Cabins resort at Itasca Park
Tue, 08/07/2018 - 9:39am
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By:
Karen Edelbach
The Clearwater County Board of Commissioners met on July 31, 2018, first hearing from Gary Heoft, the DNR Manager for the Northwest corner of the State for the past 38 years.
“One region included in the district is Itasca State Park. We have a potential opportunity for the purchase of Bert's Cabins, a resort within the park,” Gary said. “There are 12 cabins which would remain available in the park,” he pointed out to confirm the value of this sale.
The present owners of the resort, Pat and Dave Evenwoll, were also at the Board meeting. Pat is the daughter of Bert and Alice Pfeifer who started the resort in the late 1930s.
“We want to keep the resort going for guests who have been coming here for five generations,” Dave said. “There is a lot of history with the park. The goal is that they will keep running the resort.”
Bert and Alice Pfeifer ran it until their retirement in 1990, and it is now 81 years old. In the mid-1980s they contacted the Itasca State Park manager about having the resort become part of the park someday in the hopes their legacy would be preserved for future generations.
Pat and Dave own two parcels of land within the park totaling 240 acres. They want to sell the 20 acres on which the resort sits, which has 12 cabins to the state, and they believe it would fit right into the Itasca Park venue. They would retain the remaining 220 acres.
While there are benefits for the land to be sold to the DNR, Commissioners Dan Stenseng, Neal Illies, and Dean Newland expressed concerns about the “No net tax loss policy” that Clearwater County has.
“We would have to look at some sort of land swap, or it isn't fair (to others the County has denied), “Commissioner Newland said. “If we make an exception for them, how many others will you acquire once a precedence has been set,” he continued.
Gary explained that it is actually the value, and not acres that is considered for the exchange, but that varies county to county.
Commissioner Illies asked for comments from Representative Steve Green.
“DNR sales in trade hardly ever happen, and the sale can't be final until the other property is sold,” he said. “Sales don't generally happen unless they are part of the deal.”
It was pointed out that sales that do happen are often swamp land that the DNR offers to sell in trade.
Cheryl Kelley-Dobie, also from the DNR, said there are now many sites that would be perfect in trade. Some are trust lands. She said it would help to acquire access, and since Clearwater County has a lot of tax-forfeit land, that might be an option.
Commissioners said that if a sale took place they hoped that the history of the resort would not be changed.
The DNR has completed an appraisal of the property and has signed an option to purchase throughout the end of 2018.
Commissioner Stenseng said the conversation on this issue has been very helpful, and said the issue could be brought up again in August.
Border to Border: While the DNR Manager was there, they discussed the Border to Border plans. Gary Heoft reported he had heard that the latest proposed route would be all on bituminous roadway, which was confirmed by Representative Matt Grossell, also in attendance.
“They need to prove the Commissioners would want their presence in the County,” he said. This helps in taking the burden from the Township roads which become costly to repair if some cause damage by going off the roads.
“You cannot say to one group, 'You can't use public roads'”, Representative Green added.
Environmental Services Director, Dan Hecht said there is sandy clay loam available near the Highway 2 construction, and he wants to obtain all he can get. It is at a good price and very useful to them.
“Clay soils are very important as final cover on the landfill because we want the landfill to shed water once it closed, or portions of it are closed,” he reported. “If rainfall is allowed to percolate through the waste in the landfill, the contaminants the water picks up then show up in our monitoring wells. Since the only soils available on our own land there are very sandy and rocky, we have to obtain clay soils off site which can get very expensive depending on how far you have to haul it and whether or not we have to buy the soil.”
He said that when there’s a road construction project nearby such as the big one going on in town right now, that’s an opportunity for the landfill to obtain clay soil, since if clay is under the highway they’ll want to remove it and replace it with more stable material.
“Reierson Construction is finding some clay soils now between Highway 2 north to First Street, and we’ve been fortunate to work out an arrangement that’s favorable for both parties and allows the County to obtain soils that we’ll need for cover material at a reasonable cost.”
Pat Holloran, Assistant County Engineer brought a request for the Engineer to be authorized to advertise for the position of a full time Highway Department full-time Accountant. The current accountant will be retiring as of Oct. 12. The motion was approved. The position has been advertised first in house, with no response. “Two years of education in accounting, and two years of experience are required for the position,” Pat said.
The Commissioners accepted the Engineer's Certificate of Performance for completion of Township Signing and final payment of the work certified in the amount of $91,337.
All Commissioners were present at the meeting: Daniel Stenseng, Dean Newland, John Nelson, Neal Illies and Arlen Syverson.