Steve Fernlund and The Long Way Home

To those who say that Social Security payments are an entitlement and not an earned benefit, you should see how much I have paid to the Social Security trust fund since my first payroll job in 1970. In my more productive years, my financial advisers, all of whom sold some type of retirement investment, told me that Social Security was just one leg of the three-legged stool that would give me a financially comfortable retirement—it made sense.  The trouble is that I'd whittled the other two legs down to toothpicks by the time I was old enough to collect social security. I was afraid to leave the stool lest it tip over on its one solid leg. Financially comfortable was a faded dream. Living well and living on Social Security are mutually exclusive. To supplement the pension that is my SS income, I’ve cobbled together what the young folks today are calling “side hustles.”  Management coach, business consultant, POS (Point of Sale, not the other meaning) retail, and some people are...

MEA weekend went out with summer-like temperatures and thunderstorms Sunday night. You could say it, and the 2022 summer tourist season, went out with a bang. Business owners that cater to the tourism crowd are breathing a sigh of relief--I think. The pressures of a steady onslaught of customers while coping with staffing shortages seem immense. As much as they profess to love it, the ones I’ve seen over the last week or two seem a bit weary. I talked to a visitor here in Grand Marais on the Saturday of Moose Madness. He marveled at the crowds, and the lines extending out the door and down the block from various food and retail establishments. Evidently, he had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit as he said, “What I see is an opportunity for new businesses.”  I didn’t suggest he visit again in a month. Why spoil the vibe? I had a brief conversation with another visitor, the same day. She was lamenting the staffing shortages at businesses along the shore. (It’s a nationwide problem, ...

Cook County Independent School District 166 has put a levy renewal request on the 2022 general election ballot. In 2016, county voters approved an operating levy of $800 per pupil to support smaller class sizes, elective opportunities, and some extracurricular activities. That levy is set to expire on December 31st this year. According to a letter sent to voters from Chris Lindholm, Superintendent of Cook County Schools, if that levy expires it would reduce the annual revenue of the district by $350,000 to $400,000 a year. That loss, according to Lindholm’s letter, would force the district to reduce some teaching positions and program offerings for the kids. The ballot question asks voters to approve a ten-year extension of the 2016, $800 per pupil levy. A vote to approve the levy request will not result in an increase in current property taxes however allowing the levy to expire may reduce property taxes. ISD 166 has scheduled informational meetings to meet with voters. A virtual mee...

The Committee Addressing Racial Equity (CARE) kicks off “Opening Doors: A Year of Learning” Saturday, October 8 at Grand Portage National Monument from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Activities include Lacrosse, the “Gift Game,” drumming and singing and learning about the people, places, and history of Grand Portage. Starting at noon, the Grand Portage Community Center will provide free fry bread tacos. The entire community is invited and there is no charge to participate in the activities. The event is sponsored by CARE, the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Cook County Higher Education, and the Grand Portage National Monument. CARE formed in early 2020 as the Community Leadership Group for Cook County, also known as Joint Powers. It began by focusing on two issues--housing and racial equity. With the establishment of the Cook County Housing and Redevelopment Authority this year, CARE made racial equity issues its priority. The CARE group is made up of community members, representative...

Rejection can be funny if you let it. When you’re my age, you have experienced more rejection than you ever thought possible in the glory years of vigor, youth, and absolute certainty. Like anyone who has ever submitted their writings (scribblings, nonsense, etc.) to a publication, I recently had an editor reject something I’d written. This rejection would have killed me 30 years ago, but his was so nice--and funnier than he knew--that it triggered my column here. He wrote, “Fun piece (especially when I read in the voice of Andy Rooney) but I”m going to pass on this. It’s a touch too local for us.” I’m guilty of being a curmudgeon, but I’ll never rise to the level of the brilliant Andy Rooney who spent 33 years ending each episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes with "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney.” But the 60 Minutes reference returned a funny memory from my days publishing a weekly community newspaper. Our Arts writer was a freelancer who didn’t see me that often. One day, after yours trul...

Carl Madsen’s first trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) as part of a group from Iowa State University was in the fall of 1989. They stayed at Rockwood Lodge and Outfitters on Poplar Lake. You could say he fell in love with the place. Returning over the years for vacations, eventually with his wife Stephanie Lightner and virtually his entire family. Stephanie’s sister Carol and her husband Mike Seim also visited Rockwood regularly. Carl and Mike worked with the Lodge’s owners, Mike and Lin Sherfy, to help open the seasonal cabins and make general repairs. When the Sherfy’s decided to move on and sell the resort, the Madsens and Seims stepped in to buy it. Now in their seventh year of ownership, Carl says, “We have experienced 15% business growth each year.” But not without challenges. 2021 was a tough year. “With the fires closing the BWCA and Gunflint Trail, along with Covid, we had almost no business in August,” he said. The business gets 60% of its revenue from wilderness o...

The Cook County Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) plans a Housing Summit, open to the community, on September 9 in Grand Marais. The event will be held from 6-8 pm at the Cook County Courthouse in the Commissioners Meeting Room. The meeting will be recorded for later viewing online. According to Jason Hale, HRA Executive Director, the summit is intended to present and discuss the simple to name, but difficult to solve, current problem of not enough housing in Cook County. The HRA will present how the county arrived at this housing condition, where the housing situation is currently based on a recently completed and published study, and what the identified community needs are for housing. They will be followed by a presentation from local developer and HRA board member Chris Skildum and Jeff Corey of One Roof Community Housing. Their experience with housing development and construction in the county will give a real-world perspective on the construction challenges of some of th...

A member of my fan club who hasn’t paid her dues this month suggests I only write about the desserts my wife makes for me and stay away from serious topics. I hate to disappoint, but my column today is on a more serious topic. Wait for another time to read about Becky’s brownie brittle, Swedish Kringle, and Better-Than-Sex Cake. My mail ballot for the August 9th Partisan Primary election arrived and I’d like to explore it here. There are four parties to choose from. The two usual suspects are Republican and DFL, the so-called Major Parties. The other two, the Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party and Legal Marijuana Now Party seem to exist for one and the same purpose only and are irrelevant to my thoughts and most voters today. The major parties have paid staff, physical offices, and collect significant money during the year to fund election/campaigning operations. They each organize precinct caucuses in January to engage real people in the process of writing a platform and endorsing can...

Now that the dust of rage has settled, stirred by the mass shootings on the Fourth of July, I thought I’d reflect on a simpler time. Maybe give you something to smile about. It’s the 60s, and I’m a grade school student in a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. We were taught to start and manage a “passbook savings account” at Richfield State Bank. One morning a week we marched a couple of blocks for some churching, during school time. And we had regular fire drills, parading single file out the nearest exit. A nice break from learning. Periodic civil defense drills found us lined up on the walls of the inside hallways, seated in neat rows on the floor with our knees raised and our heads bent between our legs. We weren’t afraid of active shooters of course, but the Russians who had the “Bomb” were an evident threat to our existence. Only later did we find out that if “The Bomb” struck our fair city our corridor pose would not have saved us, but it would have left our charred remains neatly...

Northshore Journal July 15, 2022 Only a few issues rise to the level of controversy that abortion brings out. Civil rights, same-sex marriage, and access to birth control for married women have come close over the past 60 years, but they simmer in comparison to the boiling over of debate on abortion. On June 24 this year the United States Supreme Court, in a case titled Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturned its Roe v. Wade decision of January 22, 1973, bumping legal abortion providers off the precarious perch they sat on for almost 50 years. Instead of relying on the Roe decision, they now contend with the various state laws that regulate the procedures. The recent decision will have far-reaching ramifications beyond abortion, but that shall be a topic for another time. The Dobbs case involved Jackson, the only abortion provider in the state of Mississippi suing Thomas E. Dobbs, a state health official, over a 2018 state law banning all abortions after the first 15 w...

Border Giant, Inc. of Thunder Bay, ON, CA has purchased the property on the west side of Grand Marais that formerly housed Benny’s Collision Center. Border Giant had been renting space on the property for a year as it worked to establish its US presence. The company, which started in late 2017 in a literal garage, is licensed and bonded as a common carrier with Canadian and US authorities and as a Canadian Customs Broker. It originated to bring the cost and service benefit of technology to the logistics of e-commerce to small sellers and consumers in Canada. It is also registered as a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency with the United States Postal Service. US regulations required the firm to have a physical presence on this side of the border. “We had considerable difficulty finding commercial space for lease in Cook County for three years,” said Border GIant CEO James Foulds. It leased the Benny’s property in the Spring of last year. The history of e-commerce shows that when the behemo...

The Cook County/Grand Marais Economic Development Authority has released a report it commissioned that is titled a Comprehensive Housing Needs Analysis for Cook County Minnesota. The 75-page report is dated May 2, 2022, and was prepared by a St. Paul-based consulting firm called LOCi Consulting. LOCi is managed by a man named Grant Martin who submitted this report. According to its website, LOCi does “market feasibility studies across the country for a wide variety of commercial real estate uses, including retail, office, residential, and mixed-use.” The report does not present much in the way of new information from what local folks might have heard in conversations at the post office, hardware store, or coffee shop in recent years. On the other hand, it is well researched and presented in a logical fashion. It provides an analysis of demographic and economic trends to estimate future demand for housing to assist government planners looking to address housing issues. Jason Hale, Execu...

When our oldest daughter was entering the fourth grade, we moved the family from East Bloomington, MN to West Bloomington, MN. To understand the cultural ramifications of this move, think about moving from Hovland to Lutsen. Or maybe think about the Jeffersons moving to that deluxe apartment in the sky. As young parents with four kids, we were hyper-alert to their happiness and safety. Other than an occasional night away from us, staying with siblings and grandparents, our kids had never been away from their doting parents. So when we heard that fourth-grade teacher Mr. Porter was planning a several-night field trip at a camp in Northern Minnesota, I had many questions. Attending the information meeting at the school I quickly raised my hand when question time was called. First, if I am paying taxes in Hennepin County to fund parks and nature centers, why do we have to send kids on an overnight trip to a nature center? Murmurs were heard in the crowd. Next, what about kids like mine w...

Am I qualified to express an opinion on the North Shore economy?   I’m not an economist. I suffer from a K-12 public school education and the exhilarating lifetime of experience brokering freight transportation and putting my opinions in writing. With that disclaimer out of the way I can add that other than being a tourist from time to time, I don’t know much about the so-called tourism industry.  While researching the current state of Short Term Vacation Rentals (STR) on the North Shore I came across a new word ( a new one to me)--Overtourism. It is defined on the website www.responsiblevacation.com. “Overtourism occurs when there are too many visitors to a particular destination … When rent prices push out local tenants to make way for vacation rentals, that is overtourism. When narrow roads become jammed with tourist vehicles, that is overtourism. When wildlife is scared away, when tourists cannot view landmarks because of the crowds, when fragile environments become d...

  Radio station WTIP in Grand Marais has teamed up with Story Corps to host its “One Small Step” program, producing conversations between two ordinary people in the North Shore community who do not share the same political and/or religious views. Participants may, or may not know the person they will be speaking with. Applicants for participation may request a conversation partner that they know. Maybe a cranky old Uncle who only argues when they get together. The premise is that most Americans believe the divisiveness that permeates our politics and society today is a major problem. One Small Step seeks to move beyond partisan and ideological labels and have people converse about the life experiences that shape how we each see our world. With participant permission, these conversations will be preserved for future generations at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Conversations will be held over the coming year and they are hosted by a trained third party to h...

Despite my firm belief that large corporations are soul-killing leviathans, I am a committed capitalist. I believe that ownership of capital in the form of homes, other hard assets, and the business that employs you, is the best way to ensure a prosperous and more equitable society. I started to write this column about the trials and tribulations of small business ownership, startups, and closures. So call this a Capital Diversion. Small business ownership is the best way to hold capital in the business that employs you, but it is certainly not the only way. More on that later. Owning a home is a solid way to build capital (wealth). According to the online real estate service Zillow, single-family home prices in Minnesota have increased 96% over the last ten years. A great increase if you owned before 2012, not so great if you’re buying your first house today. The Federal Reserve studies stuff like this, and they report that their index of home sales and appraisals in Minnesota increa...

If last summer is a good indicator, more and more people will be moving to their little spot of heaven on the Scandinavian Riviera of Lake Superior. Beryl Singleton Bissell’s wonderful book of essays, “A View of the Lake,” is a must read for them, and for anyone looking to understand life on the North Shore. Bissell and her husband Bill moved to the shore line town of Schroeder, MN in August of 1998. She writes, “Bill and I were not like other couples who travel to the North Shore at every opportunity and who dream, year after year, of someday owning a home there.” In fact, their decision arose on impulse after Bissell completed two weeks of a writing retreat in Lutsen where Bill proposed marriage. Bissell writes, “I responded by saying I would marry him ONLY if we moved to the North Shore.” The essays she presents here are a true representation of all of the feelings newcomers have when they move to this vast and rural landscape that is inhospitable in the worst of times and glorious ...

Todd Ford Cook County government and North Shore Health are sharing Todd Ford. He serves as the new Public Information Coordinator for both organizations. He enters this new position after serving as Marketing Director for Grand Portage Lodge and Casino. Although the work of both organizations is quite different, Ford’s areas of influence are the same. A big issue for the county and the hospital is employee recruitment. He will work with Human Resource departments to effectively improve current, and develop new, recruiting programs. In the area of media and public relations, Ford will edit and distribute media releases and articles. He will arrange interviews for representatives of each organization and provide talking points that will keep a consistent and effective message. Ford received his Marketing Degree from Columbia College Chicago and he spent ten years in a leadership position with an advertising agency in Chicago. From there he was recruited to become the Creative Director a...

Somewhere in the not so distant past I heard a high school principal address his students with this. “Remember, these are the best years of your life.” I was dumbfounded (gobsmacked as my friend Adrian would say.) Then I remembered the wisdom of teenagers who know the bull excrement sessions they are forced to attend mean little to their present life, and less to their future. They would ignore this driveling swine. If any of us thought the rest of life after high school is all down hill, the despair would be overwhelming. My high school class had more than 1,000 students. I was a nerd. Nearsighted with astigmatism and my hair cut (not styled mind you) by former Sergeant Dad in the age of long haired, freaky people. He favored a more militaristic style. I simply wanted to endure my high school years, keep my head down, and stay hidden in the shadows as much as possible. There have been many best years of my life since then though. Getting married, and staying married, is the best. Hold...

 No nice way to say this. I hate meetings. Thinking about what I could write for this fine Journal about goings on in Cook County, I spent some time on the county website. First, I was reviewing the blurb for each of the five commissioners to see who will have to decide about running for re-election this year. Turns out that due to redistricting, each of the seats will be on the ballot. We political hacks call that a gold mine for organizing and getting out the vote. Back to meetings.  Each of the blurbs list the various committees and other organizations, including those outside the county, each commissioner claims. I won’t say that none of them are valid, but depending on the commissioner, they list from 29 to 44 groups. I bet you thought the scheduled public meetings of the Board would be burden enough on the average person's schedule. Knowing that each of these involves at least one meeting a quarter, I got to stewing again about the uselessness of meetings. As a business ...