Election Judges – Operation V4V – Sawmill Dome Highlands Complex Project – Assessor Update – Firefighting Efforts
Lake County Board Chair Rich Sve started off the meeting by noting the 28th of July marks National Waterpark Day and the birthdays of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, author Beatrix Potter, and Garfield cartoonist Jim Davis.
Two people took advantage of the public comments period, where any resident of Lake County is free to speak to the Board about concerns, compliments, or announcements regarding matters relating to the County’s interests. Bonita Bieniek had concerns about the demographics of election judges chosen and asked for clarification about how ballots within the state are determined to be counted appropriately, especially what it means to be counted by hand and ensuring the County is up to legal standards held by the State. Later in the meeting, in response to the comments, Sve and Interim Auditor Ronelle Radle discussed the current method used for counting ballots in Lake County. To ensure numbers are correct, there are hand counts of voting signatures and voting receipts by election judges, plus election ballots are counted by machine and give a public count “to know that you have the right number of ballots for the right number of voters,” Radle explained.
Speaking next was Tanya Bruzek, president of Operation Volunteers for Veterans, or Operation V4V, an organization newly established in 2025 which offers a variety of services to aid veterans within Lake County. She announced a new website for the group at “operationv4v. org” and wanted to bring attention to events held by the group at Two Harbors’ Harbor Theater. The group will now be doing 2 pm matinees the third Saturday of every month (replacing the event on Thursday evenings). The movie is open to the public, and Vets get in free. On the first Thursday of every month, they will also have a Veterans-only free coffee and tea event, also at the Harbor Theater.
The star of the show this meeting was an official introduction to the Sawmill Dome Highlands Complex Project, a proposed Scientific and Natural Area (SNA) offering a variety of outdoor activities to the public and adding a new destination for tourists while also responsibly managing natural resources. The project is a collaboration of several parties, including the Minnesota Land Trust, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR), Lake County Land Commissioner Nate Eide and other County officials, and husband/wife Steve Wilson and Mary Shedd, private landowners and residents of Isabella.
The land in question, located east of Finland along Little Marais Road, is currently a mix of private land owned by Wilson and Shedd, tax forfeit land, and school trust land. Northeast Regional Specialist for the MN DNR Amberbeth Vanningen explained the area’s importance as part of a 1,654-acre High Biodiversity site that includes old growth forests, cliffs and slopes, and a trout stream watershed. By combining private and public parcels of land into one Scientific and Natural Area, they can better ensure the area is preserved for use by the public while protecting natural resources for the future. She referenced the Minnesota DNR website to describe what a Scientific and Natural Area is: “exceptional places where native plants and animals flourish; where rare species are protected; and where we can know, and study, Minnesota’s fascinating natural features.” She further pointed to Minnesota Statute 86A, covering the State’s Outdoor Recreation System, section 05 subdivision 5, which gives the definition that “Scientific and Natural Areas protect and perpetuate in an undisturbed natural state those natural features which possess exceptional scientific or educational value” with a list of required features for the official designation to be applied.
Vanningen emphasized that even after receiving the status of Scientific and Natural Area, their hope is to still allow for many of the activities enjoyed there now, particularly hunting and rock climbing. The Superior Hiking Trail would be extended within the area as part of the plan, and keeping with the rest of the trail would allow for leashed dogs on trails and picnicking in designated areas.
Minnesota Land Trust General Counsel Amy Schwarz covered the land types involved in the plan in more detail, starting with the private land owned by Shedd & Wilson. In late June, MN Land Trust used state grant money from the Minnesota Outdoor Heritage Fund to purchase a conservation easement from the landowners, meaning that although they still own the property, there are restrictions on how the land can be used. The tax forfeit land, meanwhile, is managed by the County. If the Sawmill Dome project moves forward, the land will go on sale in January 2027 to be put towards the project’s purposes. Finally, the school trust land is parcels of Minnesota land portioned off when the State first began to fund local schools. In the years since, many have been sold off, though the process is quite restrictive to prevent abuse. The MN DNR would go through all proper procedures to pay the school trust fund an appraised amount, freeing the land to be used for the Scientific and Natural Area and the public. During her presentation, Schwarz displayed a photo of ‘Mary’s Mountain’, an area currently within the private land portion with wide-spanning views of the surrounding forest and Lake Superior.
Northeast Program Manager for the MN Land Trust Kathy Varble went over plans for trails and public access, with one of the largest changes being an extension of the Superior Hiking Trail that would take hikers to Mary’s Mountain. Planners walked the route to find “what the best views were, the easiest way to get through the area,” Varble stated, noting it would “provide the public with another place on the Superior Hiking Trail to see a great view of Lake Superior.” The private land easement will also make it easier for the County to manage a large area of tax forfeit land to the southeast of the property, which is otherwise inaccessible, by adding a road for County access. A parking lot for the public is also planned.
A hopeful timeline for the project has it taking several years to go through all legal processes required for the various land types as well as undergo trail and other developments. All said and done, the Sawmill Dome Highlands Scientific and Natural Area would ideally open to the public in 2030. “It would take a while, but it’s a lot of moving pieces,” Schwarz explained.
Steve Wilson then took a turn to explain the background of how he and his wife acquired their land and why they were choosing to go the route of a conservation easement and the Sawmill Dome Highlands Complex. The two moved to Isabella in 1980, where they still live today, and soon after saw the parcel with what would become Mary’s Mountain up for auction. Curious about what the area being auctioned looked like, they took a hike and decided to take the plunge to buy. “Somebody with enough money would eventually come along and push through it up to the top and build a mega-mansion up there,” he commented, “and not only ruin the view for everybody else, from down below, but deny access to the public to what we were experiencing” while standing on the mountaintop.
After purchasing the land, they held onto it for some decades, waiting for the right opportunity to collaborate in preserving the land. “From our standpoint, we’ve been able to protect the high-quality native plant communities already.”
He listed several benefits of the project, including financial proceeds for Lake County, easier forest management in the area, and the addition of the area as part of the overall attraction of the North Shore as a natural area for locals as well as tourists, which in recent years has provided a new and still growing economy for the region. The Complex would be an area where, Wilson thinks, “people are going to put this on their ‘to visit’ list when they come up to North Shore.” Wilson commended Lake County’s Forestry Department for their “professionalism, accessibility to the public, open-mindedness, and just getting the job done.”
Commissioner Goutermont stated his support for the plan, saying that discussions so far have “sold the significance of this area and why it should be preserved for the public.” A vote on whether to approve the project will be on a later date, though Wilson expressed hopes it would be soon. Statewide, there are around 170 Scientific and Natural Areas at present; Lake County contains three, with the closest to Two Harbors being a 10-acre site containing Ionas Beach.
Next on the agenda, Lake County Assessor Gregg Swartwoudt gave the Board an annual update. The County has been on a modestly positive trajectory, helped by new construction completed over this past decade bringing in more tax revenue. Land sales, especially those with water features or views, have spiked in value in this region. One interesting factoid brought up during the assessor’s talk was that in 1886, the Board of Appeal and Equalization changed the rate at which cows were taxed, an issue of far less relevance in modern times in this area.
Firefighting efforts against fires up north have made good progress over the past few weeks, with County Administrator Matthew Huddleston stating that “things have been going the right direction over the last number of days to get folks back in their homes.” Commissioner Baltich recently aided with fire evacuation efforts and expressed his thanks for all those working on the fire. “It could have been absolute, complete pandemonium and chaos,” he commented, but due to expert emergency handling “everything went really, really smoothly.”
Consent agenda items of note included contract amendments with Bolton & Menk for construction staking, engineering, inspection and administration; a payment to Neumo Enterprise Solutions, LLC for software maintenance; and the purchase of plastic and metal culverts. One consent agenda item involving an interim use application was changed to a resolution to allow for discussion, then approved. Also of note, a resolution for reimbursement of property tax relief was passed as part of aiding residents with properties damaged by the Stewart Trail Fire.
