HomeMy WebLinkAboutReckinger Public InputSorry, but I had to leave at 8:00, the night of the planning meeting on January 22, so I
totally missed any of the discussions. I have a few thoughts and that is the creek and the
railroad and the old house at the end of 103rd Street.
First, I'm a very avid walker at the Dunes SNA. I also worked at the SPP refinery and can
well remember our maintenance guys talking about dumping barrels at the Dunes. Bad time,
but without it, that area would likely have been housed many years ago.
The creek is one of two in Cottage Grove that runs 24/7. The other one is the discharge
of the Ravine County Park Lake that goes underneath Highway 61 and under the CP tracks and
then meets up with the waste water effluent of 3M, before it all discharges into the Mississippi,
underneath the BN tracks on the river. I have been there many times before 9/11.
Since that time of 9/11, 1 have done almost all of my walking at the Dunes SNA and a lot
of those walks have taken me on the golf course area, from the Dead Man's Curve trestle, south
to the Dunes SNA. I usually park at the north lot and walk the Dunes SNA loop, above and
below, returning to my car. This golf course creek is commanded by the beaver population. At
the north end of the old golf course, 2 paved cart paths (close to each other) are bridged over
the creek. There are 2 sizeable ponds. One is to the west of the cart paths, the other is along
the west side of the rail tracks. Depending on where the beavers put their dam, a large portion
of the first creek backs up. They used to put in a simple narrow width dam near one of the cart
bridges. In recent years, they put in a wide dam between the cart path and the rail tracks. The
first pond is long from north to south along the west side of the BN tracks. This pond is right
across the BN tracks to the long pond on the Dunes side of the tracks. The water springs on the
east side (Dunes SNA) create this flow. The 2 ponds are connected by a culvert pipe about 12
inches in diameter at the base of the BN rail bed. I have seen this pipe on my walks when Doc
used to take out the dam right next to one of the cart bridges. Now the pipe is covered by a few
feet of water, hence a Dunes SNA walk makes one walk around the south end of the pond on
the east side of the tracks and that level of the pond has been high for several years. The water
level on both sides of the tracks is also that much higher.
I have asked myself for a few years now- how will this all work when the housing goes
in? The depth to the Prairie Du Chien bedrock is under 50 feet and most of that soil is post
glacial sand. Water passes easily through sand. Will some new home owners get flooded or do
the engineers have plans for these shifting water levels? Are people going to have basements?
If so, they might have wet basements. Water tables will be shifting.
The Beavers- do they get evicted by the project or will they evict themselves? The
beavers have been there before us. They have no regard for us and will chew up the new
residential trees faster than they can be planted. The maps I saw at City Hall show that there
will be considerable tinkering with that wetland.
I always was told that it takes about 18 dozen hoops to go through to mess with creeks
and wetlands with permitting and all of the state rules with disturbing these kinds of
waterways... or have the engineers (or whatever they are) taken this all into consideration?
Speaking of the 2 ponds, I saw on the development maps tonight that in the northeast
corner of the development, that some the new homes will wrap around the north pond.
Huh??? Some of those homes are right against the tracks. Trains can derail anywhere, and a
derailment there would put rail car right through a house with no problem. I have often
those fields and make it through those difficult winters. I'm just sore as hell at the changes I
have seen in the last 2 years down there. These changes are just a foreshadowing of what is to
come,
It's the wildlife that has already been disturbed. The field north of the Dunes SNA
parking lot used to harbor geese, swans and all kind of migratory birds in the fall, feeding on
Zywiec's freshly cut fields. Those fields are gone for a sewer and road project. I don't need my
headlight on early morning walks across the top of the Dunes SNA- Ideal has street lights and so
do the new warehouses. There are now two model homes just east of the Dunes SNA property
with a promise of many more to come. The homes across the Dunes SNA parking lot have
eliminated the pathway of the deer. The deer and coyotes don't know the golf course from the
SNA and use each as their safe haven. I haven't seen turkeys at the Dunes in 2 years or the
occasional otter. I don't pay much attention to the smaller critters.
I can't imagine the animals being restricted to the Dunes SNA. It's the west half of
Section 29. That would be an area of one half of a square mile, but it's smaller than that
because of the taper of the property at the southwest end, where Mooer's Lake is.
It makes me proud to see birders at certain times of the year. They come from all over.
One guy comes from Northfield. He lives next to Nerstrand State Park. He told me the Dunes is
the best place he has ever visited for birds. I ran into a 75 year old lady from south Minneapolis,
2 days in a row who was looking for some kind of Henslow Sparrow.
It's nice to have a legacy that others regard so highly, outside of our community. If the
golf course goes, then the Dunes SNA will be surrounded to the north, west and east. We are
lucky for Mooer's Lake to the south. All you have to do is leave the golf course and the SNA
alone. Everyone in Cottage Grove should be aware of all of the geographic and geologic
attributes we have, that separate us from the rest. We don't have to be like the rest.
Need more reasons to save the golf course? I have a hundred more reasons. Don't get
upset with Dave Gustafson or Pulte or Rachel. If not them, there would be others. No one out
there is dumb enough to make that kind of purchase without being assured ahead of time of a
profit. They are not the folks who changed the zoning of the golf course.
A concerned Cottage Grove resident- Herb Reckinger
A few more thoughts, mostly the pond. We have 2 water conservation committees for our
city. Years ago, I was on the one that encompasses the most easterly sections of our city. They
are alongside Denmark township- 1,12, 24, 25 and 36. The rest of that water district is all of
Denmark Township and about the southern half of Afton. I quit after a year. Here we were
making costly decisions for the waterways of the other 2 townships. Besides the committee
there was a lawyer and consultant at each meeting. What a waste for Cottage Grove to be part
of this area and we have no flowing water in our part, except for a huge rain or spring runoff,
which would put water through Pine Coulee.
I know we have a same committee for the rest of Cottage Grove. With only 2 free flowing
streams in our city, I wonder about that committee. Surely, the subject of the golf course
wetland, the ponds and the creek, would almost have had to come up in their discussions. I
brought up before the different agencies that would have to sign up for altering wetlands like
we have at the Dunes. Any wetland, anywhere, is more than just the water you see.
Did the Cottage Grove water committee ever take a vote on this? If so, was it 6-0? That's
what the votes for the planning commission were, and we know what the City Council tally will
be. Aren't there any free thinkers anymore? It's just hard to believe they all vote in lock step. At
that planning meeting a few weeks ago, everyone inside and outside the chamber were against
the development, except for the planning commission and the Rachel folks.
Thanks for all you are doing,
Herb Reckinger