DETROIT LAKES — I don’t think MnDOT local and state leaders, or Gov. Walz, realize how their insistence on carrying out the unnecessary destruction of the Highway 34 scenic byway will deeply affect the standing of our Minnesota Department of Transportation.
As a person who worked for MnDOT’s Detroit Lakes shop in my youth, I have always held great respect for its workers. I think especially of the snow plow drivers who keep us able to get to work and school in snowy winters, risking life and limb. These heroes will suffer from the actions you are taking to destroy a treasured part of our region’s life.
I grew up at Toad Lake, and from childhood I loved the pines in our trips into our Osage post office and Park Rapids for groceries. The destruction of the pristine forest lining that stretch is, as so many have indicated in their protests, both unnecessary and unethical.
Public opinion of MnDOT counts – especially in Greater Minnesota.
Why spoil a good and deep relationship between a community that has respected and admired MnDOT by ignoring the Becker County Board and White Earth Nation’s protests of this action? It is simply not worth it! Killing the showy lady slipper patches is not worth it! Destroying the scenic byway is not worth it! Destroying a longstanding positive relationship with the public is not worth it!
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And practically, should you go through with this, you will be creating the conditions for whiteouts in blizzards, which simply do not occur in roads with trees relatively close to the road. Why risk that and more, not fewer, accidents? Anyone who drives here in the north knows that!
It’s not too late. Stop this project before it is too late!
The Trust Project
