Star Tribune
Renting a place up north for a week? A primer on being a good guest in lake country
Vacation rentals in Minnesota lake country can be a blast. Squeeze in a bunch of friends, get everybody dancing to Taylor Swift, race each other on jet skis.
It’s all fun and games until officials step in and turn down the music, as Otter Tail County did recently during the height of tourism season.
Responding to complaints about noise and overtaxed septic systems, the county passed an ordinance that will go into effect July 1. It limits the number of people allowed on vacation rental property and enforces quiet hours from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. It was enough to make a Minnesotan stop in their flip-flops and go, huh? What’d we do wrong?
Minnesotans, being the lovely people we are, naturally want to be good guests. We don’t want local governments to ban VRBO or Airbnb or other vacation rentals, whether we want to party or whether we’re in search of a quiet interlude. I asked around to see how guests can help the situation. Here’s what I heard.
First, consider the neighborhood. Not everybody is there to party.
“You’ve got seniors, you’ve got young kids, you’ve got people that like wake boats, you’ve got people that would rather be in a sailboat,” said Brad Wimmer, vice president of the Becker County Coalition of Lake Associations. “You got canoers, you got paddle boaters, fishermen. And we’re all trying to get along.”
It’s hard to understand the dynamics of lake life when you’re only there for a few days. You think, yeehaw, no work for a week, let’s cut loose! Which is great! Here are some tips to make sure it’s great for neighbors, too.
· Introduce yourself to the neighbors. Tell them where you’re from. Offer them your phone number, tell them about your dog. And keep the dog from barking and pooping on their lawn.
· If you’re on a watercraft, know the regulations. Know about how far away from shore you need to be before you rev the engine. If you’re fishing, throw unused bait in the trash, not in the water. Clean all invasive species off your boat before putting it into the water.
· Don’t cram extra people or animals into the house you’re renting. If you’re renting for eight, keep it at eight. Some hosts are OK with daytime parties or celebrations, and some aren’t. Check with them. Otter Tail County’s limits apply day and night.
Now, we’ve got to talk about poop. In Greater Minnesota, many vacation rentals use septic systems, not city sewer. Often what goes down the toilet or the drain ends up getting pumped out, treated with lime, and spread on a farm field. That includes candy wrappers, condoms, cigarette butts and tampons.
“If it ain’t toilet paper and human waste, it shouldn’t go down there,” Dale Schmitz tells me. He owns Schmitz Septic Service in Wadena and knows whereof he speaks.
That includes baby wipes, or sanitary wipes, whatever you want to call them. These soft wipes form bedsheet-sized mats that get tangled in the septic system, Schmitz says. Please don’t throw wipes down the toilet.
I know you don’t want to know this. I know you just want to go out and enjoy the week at the lake. But the other thing you need to know is that septic systems are designed for a specific number of people. So if the system is designed for five people, and you cram 20 people into a house for a week, you’ll strain the system. Wastewater might bubble up out of the ground or leak out of the holding tank. It could therefore end up in the lake. And the big job of county officials in lake country is to protect water. Because nobody wants to swim in a lake tainted by raw sewage.
“I could see why Otter Tail is putting their foot down,” Schmitz told me.
I can, too. When a county takes a step like this with tourism season in full swing, with guests already having booked rentals months in advance, you’d expect they have a pretty good reason.
In the interest of full disclosure, my husband and I have been Airbnb hosts for three years. Our guests have been pretty good, but then our unit is in town, not on a lake, so we haven’t experienced the kind of raucous jubilance lake life can inspire. We’re also about to transition back to long-term rentals because it’s difficult to find time to clean the rental once or twice a week (and sometimes more).
I reached out to fellow Airbnb hosts in Minnesota for other tips on being a good vacation rental guest. They suggested the following:
Remember that sound travels across the water, so respect quiet hours and keep your voices down.
When you’re building a fire, keep it well away from shrubs or buildings or anything else burnable. Watch your kids, and extinguish it completely when you’re done.
Enjoy the lake like you live there year-round.
The only debate between DFL U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and GOP challenger Royce White started Sunday on the street outside WCCO Radio.
As White approached the building, he loudly called some two dozen flag-waving and cheering Klobuchar supporters a “whole lot of commies.” The 33-year-old provocateur and podcaster also told them to thank Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney — who endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — because there was “no chance in hell” that Harris would defeat Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5.
Klobuchar, 64, had arrived moments earlier, smiling and wishing “good morning” to her supporters. Once inside, the two took questions for an hour from moderator Blois Olson. Their tone was generally polite with White often interrupting a Klobuchar response with, “rebuttal,” indicated he wanted to respond.
The senator repeatedly raised White’s claims on X, formerly Twitter, that “The bad guys won in World War II” and that there were “no good guys in that war.” She called that stance offensive to veterans.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar arrives at WCCO Radio for a debate with Royce White in Minneapolis on Sunday, Oct. 27. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii)
Klobuchar, who is seeking a fourth six-year term, portrayed herself as a pragmatist. She opened by saying that we live in “incredibly divisive times politically” but that she has listened and worked with Republicans to bring down shipping costs, drug prices for seniors and to help veterans and push for more housing and child care.
“Courage in this next few years is not going to be standing by yourself yelling at people,” she said, her opening allusion to White’s rhetoric, which she said is often vulgar.
White, a former NBA player, is a political novice, but a close ally of Steve Bannon, the jailed former chief strategist for Trump and right wing media executive. Last summer, White won the state GOP endorsement to run against Klobuchar.
“Our country’s coming undone at the seams. I think we can change that,” White said in his opening statement. He said he threatens the status quo, decried the “permanent political class” and referred to the two major parties as the “uniparty.”
Other buildings destroyed at Khojir and Parchin likely included buildings where Iran used industrial mixers to create the solid fuel needed for its extensive ballistic missile arsenal, Eveleth said.
In a statement issued immediately after the attack Saturday, the Israeli military said it targeted ”missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year.”
Destroying such sites could greatly disrupt Iran’s ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles to replenish its arsenal after the two attacks on Israel. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which oversees the country’s ballistic missile program, has been silent since Saturday’s attack.
Iran’s overall ballistic missile arsenal, which includes shorter-range missiles unable to reach Israel, was estimated to be ”over 3,000” by Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, then-commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command, in testimony to the U.S. Senate in 2022. In the time since, Iran has fired hundreds of the missiles in a series of attacks.
There have been no videos or photos posted to social media of missile parts or damage in civilian neighborhoods following the recent attack — suggesting that the Israeli strikes were far more accurate that Iran’s ballistic missile barrages targeting Israel in April and October. Israel relied on aircraft-fired missiles during its attack.
However, one factory appeared to have been hit in Shamsabad Industrial City, just south of Tehran near Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country’s main gateway to the outside world. Online videos of the damaged building corresponded to an address for a firm known as TIECO, which advertises itself as building advanced machinery used in Iran’s oil and gas industry.
Some take him up on it and fret when he’s not around.
“It is nice to be missed and be part of the school’s culture,” Arzola said. But mostly, he added, he wants kids to know that police aren’t around just for when the bad stuff happens. He’ll hand out his stickers and bracelets, even a trading card bearing his image. Then, they’ll talk about dogs and family.
School resource officer Al Arzola talks to students in his office at John Adams Middle School in Rochester on Oct. 11. (Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Two months ago, Rochester played host to a three-day training session for new SROs from across the state — an event organized by the Minnesota School Safety Center. On the final day, the 26 officers learned about surveillance challenges at the other school where Arzola works: Dakota Middle School.
It is a beautiful building with a scenic view. There is a lot of glass, too. Arzola, handling the role of instructor and tour guide, took the group outside and noted how one could look straight through the entrance to the large groups that gather inside. There were no curbs in front, either.
“There is nothing stopping any vehicle whatsoever from going through my front doors,” Arzola told the officers. “Law enforcement wasn’t talked to before this building was made. It was kind of like, ‘Here it is. You’re the SRO. Do what you do.’”
He showed them his office, too, which is separate from the main office and near those of other school support staff members. That makes sense, said Jenny Larrive, SRO coordinator for the Minnesota School Safety Center, given than SROs spend more time connecting with youth than on actual law enforcement.
