Grand Marais council gives East Bay condos perpetual easement

Deliberately flaunting the advice of City Attorney Don Davison, the Grand Marais City Council voted unanimously to grant a perpetual easement to "East Bay Suites," the gonzo view-glutton occupying the whole footprint of the former, beloved East Bay Hotel, for the illegal handicap access ramp it built on public property. Davison proposed a terminable lease with annual payments, citing the need to provide for all future contingencies and the unfortunate precendent set by a virtual giveaway.

The "Gunflint Gals" (no relation to the actual Gunflint Trail; these gals are Cities developers) and their attorney, Dehlia Seim, argued that it was not their fault that they forgot to include a handicap ramp in their original plans, and that it would be a hardship to have a terminable lease. They made no comment on annual payments.

Winner Take All, Folks! And they took it.

The Gals said they had been jacked around by the Council and Davison, and the Attorney General claimed no receipt of a letter from Davison requesting an opinion. They claimed that many other communities provided similar easements.
Davison, however, contacted their supposed information source and said they supplied him with several sample agreements similar to the one he proposed: a terminable lease with adequate notice and an annual payment to the City.

Mayor Sandbo said the continuing discussions are a waste of time and moved to cave to the Gals. He also cited an email from the only residential property owner on the downtown lakeshore, who said the giveaway was a mistake and added that if it went ahead he wanted an adjacent 20 feet of public park for use on his own property. Sandbo said, "Since this is the only residence, I want to see it all changed to be a public park."

Lezzie Latkes, your rad fem lib Jewish lesbian reporter, signing off for True North