West End News: September 11

The Cook County Comprehensive Land Use Plan is an important set of guidelines that determines what kind of place Cook County will be in the future. The plan is updated every so often and the current update is happening now.
 
The committee charged with recommending a new plan is inviting all Cook County citizens to share their ideas for the future.  To that end, they have organized a community planning session that invites Cook County residents and landowners to share their ideas on future land use policy.  The session is scheduled for Wednesday, September 17^th, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Cook County Community Center in Grand Marais.
 
Trained facilitators from outside the area will run the meeting.  They are asking participants to think about how they want Cook County to look in 20 years in the areas of land use, economic vitality and community life.
 
If you want some background on the process so far, you can find it on the Cook County website under the heading of “Desired Future Condition.”  If you can’t make the meeting, you are welcome to submit your comments and ideas by email to the Cook County Zoning Department.
 
Of course, you want to be careful not to submit your comments to the other Cook County, which contains the good-sized city of Chicago in Illinois.  The land use issues there and here in the “real” Cook County are likely to be a little different.
 
I applaud the thoughtful, sensitive and well-written editorial by Rhonda Silence of the Cook County News Herald last week.  She tackled the difficult and sensitive topic how a small town newspaper should cover news of a suicide.  Her piece wasn’t an abstract analysis, but a reaction to the suicide of Megan Bauer Stejskal, who was a resident of Lutsen.
 
Megan’s father, John Bauer, from Grand Rapids, is using the unimaginable grief he is suffering from his daughter’s death to raise the subject of mental health and suicide within communities.  Education, awareness and engagement are the keys to prevention.  It’s not an easy thing for any of us to talk about, but talk we must.
 
Thanks again to Rhonda for bringing it to our collective attention.
 
I was interested and pleased to note a news item from Silver Bay that publicized the plans to expand the existing greenhouse/fish farm to a commercial scale operation.  The new venture is called Mariner Farms and the West End’s own Bruce Carmen is the President.
 
The pilot project has obviously been a rousing success and I wish the expansion the same success. 
 
It would be great to see a similar facility in Cook County.  There was some talk of re-using the old pool building in Grand Marais for this purpose, but it was in too rough of shape to remodel.  I wonder if the old Moffatt building in Lutsen would be a suitable candidate?
 
An existing West End business was honored and highlighted by United States Senator Amy Klobuchar recently.  The Senator featured the wild blueberry muffins from Moondance Coffee House in Lutsen at her weekly “Minnesota Mornings” get-together at her office in Washington.
 
Congratulations to the great staff at Moondance and also congratulations to the prolific blueberry bushes of the West End.  Both are a big part of what makes life so sweet here in the West End.