Pier on a small Minnesota lake that cost taxpayers $667,000
February 5, 2010 2 CommentsBy: Bob McNaney and Becky Nahm
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS Tracking Your Money discovered a huge pier on a small Minnesota lake that cost taxpayers $667,000 breaks Department of Natural Resources rules.
The DNR said the 612-foot fishing pier on Dower Lake near Staples should never have been built. It’s the biggest pier in Minnesota, built on a lake one-fifth the size of Lake Calhoun.
According to internal DNR emails, staff repeatedly tried to kill the project because of environmental and financial concerns. Staff members said allowing the project to move forward and disregarding DNR rules would open the door to shoreline absurdities like gazebos in the middle of White Bear Lake or boardwalks blocking off the shore of Lake Calhoun.
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS asked DNR Commissioner Mark Holsten about the pier.
Holsten said, “I am not taking a bullet for this one.”
Holsten said blame the legislature.
The pier was a project of the late Sen. Dallas Sams of Staples. When he died in 2007, Rep. Mary Ellen Otremba, DFL-Long Prairie, pushed the project forward and put it in the bonding bill. The legislature approved the bill and the governor signed it.
There is a memorial to Sams on the pier.
Watch video or read the rest of this article at kstp.com
State, Uncategorized
Otremba is dumber than a box of rocks and an embarrassment to the DFL When are they going to put her out to pasture? She slipped into office because she shared the last name of her husband when he held the seat. Half her inbred constituents probably still think they’re voting for him.
This story is a perfect example of poor journalism… The story implies that this was a completely new structure. In fact, if you look at the Google Earth images from 1991 you can still clearly see that the pier existed back then. The pier was originally built about 100 years ago and this project was a restoration project on a shallow lake that is less than 10 feet deep for almost the entire length of the pier. If the DNR wanted to kill the project due to environmental concerns then they should have killed it since that is exactly what the job of the DNR is supposed to be. It makes me wonder how much of the rest of the story is accurate.
Read a more factual version of the story here:
http://tweentribune.com/content/staples-folks-rise-defense-dower-pier