Wilderness News Online

As bonding to purchase land for the proposed Vermilion State Park was signed by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a St. Louis County official now wants the project to include private development.

As Minnesota Public Radio reports, HERE, county commissioner Keith Nelson thinks a third of the 3,000 acres of land along Lake Vermilion to be purchased by the state from U.S. Steel should be developed for private use.

Nelson, concerned that no money has been earmarked to properly develop the acreage into a park, proposes that funds from the development be used to develop the remaining land. St. Louis County commissioners will take up the issue today.

Pawlenty signed the bonding bill which included the Vermilion purchase despite line-item vetoing $319 million from what had been a $1 billion bill.

The Minnesota DNR has a web page devoted to the proposed park HERE.