Moratorium on Cook County Chevron Signs

The Cook County Highway Department had been planning to erect as many as 100 reflective chevron signs along curves on the Gunflint Trail. The move did not sit well with many Trail residents, especially those on the Gunflint Trail Scenic Byway Committee. It also didn’t sit well with the county commissioners.

After an appearance at the public comment period prior to Tuesday’s board meeting by representatives of the byway committee, commissioners added the item to their agenda. After quizzing County Engineer David Betts, the board voted to postpone the project, for lack of public input. Commissioner Frank Moe made the motion for moratorium.

 “I would ask the board, and I would make the motion that Cook County put a moratorium on chevron signs installed on our county roads until the time we have the opportunity to have a public input session so that we can actually listen to and take into account the broader range of views on this issue. I would not feel comfortable proceeding with this until we actually have heard from m ore people in our districts.”

Betts countered by saying it was his personal and professional responsibility to provide for the public’s safety on county roads, and while he respected the board’s position and would modify the sign plan, he disagreed with the moratorium.

 “I can’t tell you how much I disagree with this if we are valuing aesthetics over people’s lives.”

Chevrons are individual yellow reflective squares with a heavy black arrowhead, mounted on individual posts that are lined up typically in multiples of three to six along sharp highway curves. There are already sets of chevrons installed on the last mile of the Gunflint Trail. The highway department planed to install at least another dozen sets from Grand Marais to trail’s end.

Over thirty additional sets of multiple signs were also part of the county-wide plan – as many as 180 chevrons. Nineteen of those sets alone were scheduled for the Caribou Trail.

Nancy Seaton chairs the scenic byway committee and in a written statement to the board said the Gunflint Trail has been determined by the State Historic Preservation Office to be eligible for historic designation. She wrote, “These chevron signs would have a significant negative impact on the character of the Gunflint Trail.”  Seaton added that there are already speed and directional signs posted at hills and curves and that additional signs would not necessarily be more effective.

“Do people move to Cook County or visit Cook County so they can feel like they’re driving around Eden Prairie?” she asked. “No, they come here to experience nature, to assume responsibility for themselves, to not be accosted by signs and billboards, to see the lake along the road, not the sign in front of the lake along the road.”

In the end the board voted unanimously to place a moratorium on further application for the federal funds available to the chevron plan until more public input is gathered. Betts said that would lose the funding because in the meantime the application deadline would pass.