Star Tribune
BWCA fire smolders as forest officials close large surrounding area
DULUTH — The Spice Lake Fire that began Tuesday in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was still smoldering Thursday night as forest officials closed a large area of the wilderness surrounding it.
A closure order for the area, effective Friday, prohibits visitors on approximately 100,000 acres of trails, portages, rivers and lakes surrounding the fire, including a portion of the Kekekabic Trail. It affects 80 campsites.
Popular entry points affected include Moose Lake, Saganaga Lake, Seagull Lake and Snowbank. The U.S. Forest Service said it notified affected permit holders and outfitters.
The closure comes, in part, because the area is highly remote, according to the Superior National Forest. “It takes an extended length of time to paddle the area, the capacity for extreme fire behavior and excessive fuel conditions all lend to a large fire growth potential,” the service said in an online post. “These factors combined require a large closure area until we have complete containment.”
A 19-person hotshot crew is expected to arrive within the next few days to work the 20-acre fire from the ground, the Forest Service said. The elite team was ordered because of the logistics of supporting firefighters in such a remote area.
The Forest Service had been paddling into the area to disperse backcountry visitors near the fire. Campfire restrictions in the Superior National Forest, which includes the Boundary Waters, were already announced.
Firefighters were flown to the area by float planes, and aerial water drops continue to be conducted.
“These are not normal circumstances, the drought, warm temperatures, unpredictable high winds and fuel loads are creating a dangerous condition for our firefighters and the recreating public,” the post said.
The Spice Lake fire was discovered Tuesday afternoon on a routine wildfire detection flight, only hours after the Superior National Forest announced a campfire ban for the entire BWCA.
The area of the fire includes dead downed and standing trees that were killed by spruce budworms, the Forest Service said.
St. Louis Park will soon require landlords to give renters more notice before they file for evictions over late payments.
The city currently requires landlords to give tenants notice seven days before they file for eviction. Starting in November, landlords will have to give 30 days notice and use a form prepared by the city.
“This is a tough ordinance,” Council Member Lynette Dumalag, the only person to vote against the change, said during a meeting this week. “At least for me, personally, I felt that it pit those that care about affordable housing against one another.”
In public hearings and other forums, city leaders heard from renters who said the current requirements didn’t give them enough time to scrape together payments if they face a sudden hardship, such as losing a job. They also heard from at least one landlord who said he might have to increase deposits because he already struggles to make ends meet when renters fall behind on payments.
The change passed 4 to 1. Council Member Tim Brausen and Mayor Nadia Mohamed were absent.
PARK RAPIDS, Minn. — Ryan Leckner has resigned as Mayor of Park Rapids and the city council has officially declared a vacancy.
City Administrator Angel Weasner said councilmembers will hold a workshop on Sept. 24 to determine how to proceed. They can fill the vacancy by appointment or hold a special election, which Leckner said seems unlikely given that the November general election is just around the corner.
Until then, Leckner said “we’re thinking that we’ll just be able to get by with just one less council member.”
He added that Councilmember Liz Stone would likely serve as acting mayor until voters hit the polls.
Former Park Rapids Mayor Pat Mikesh is running uncontested for Leckner’s now-vacant seat.
In 2018, Mikesh stepped down a month before the election and Leckner successfully ran as a write-in candidate.
Leckner first joined the council in 2015 and is ending his third, two-year term as mayor early because his family built a home outside city limits. Construction of the home in Henrietta Township, and the sale of his existing home in Park Rapids, all happened faster than expected, he said.
“My term was up in November anyways,” he said, “so I was kind of planning on just not running.”
In the 27 years since Rhode Island’s first charter school opened its doors, just one has closed. Segue Institute for Learning, a community charter in Central Falls, R.I., is among the state’s successes. It has an extraordinarily low student-to-teacher ratio of 4 to 1, even though it spends less than a typical Rhode Island school.
Part III
How Rhode Island’s charter schools succeeded where Minnesota’s failed
Each spring, Blackstone Valley Prep in Rhode Island hosts a loud, spirited and celebratory “college signing day” ceremony for its high school seniors. One by one, the teenagers step onstage to proudly announce their post-graduation plans. Many are the first in their family to seek a degree.
Rhode Island is the smallest state in the country, but it’s here — and not in Minnesota, the birthplace of the charter school movement — that this daring experiment in public school education is paying big dividends for students and their families.
Left In the 27 years since Rhode Island’s first charter school opened its doors, just one has closed. Segue Institute for Learning, a community charter in Central Falls, R.I., is among the state’s successes. It has an extraordinarily low student-to-teacher ratio of 4 to 1, even though it spends less than a typical Rhode Island school.
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