I have been a cottage owner…

I have been a cottage owner on Engineer Lake for over 40 years and in that time have come to greatly appreciate the benefits of a smaller lake with a relatively close knit community. You will find that virtually everybody knows everybody else and there is a sense of community.

That sense of community plays out in many ways, one of which that is touched upon profoundly by this proposal is with respect to what is colloquially referred to as “the point”c which is a spit of land that adjoins the properties in question in this proposal and bifurcates Engineer from Winnetka lake.

Sitting as it does at the midpoint of the two lakes it has always been something of a gathering point for social activities by cottagers all over the lake and there has historically been no assertion of privacy to it. That is probably aided by the fact that it is too narrow and rocky to be usable for much more than campfires and corn roasts.

I also know that for some cottagers on Winnetka lake, it is the only viable spot from which to look NW and watch the beautiful sunsets in summer and which many do.

The applicant’s proposal, which would transfer title of the point to one individual and with no intention to continue to allow public access, would strike at the very core of this community and change summer activities, sow dischord and deprive a swath of cottagers the simple pleasures that access has afforded them unimpeded for decades.

In addition, a number of years ago members of the community, through great effort and care, created a network of pathways through the surrounding forest that commence in what is now common lands held by the corporate entity for the mutual benefit of shareholders. Cottagers all along the common road would bike and hike the paths, access blueberry patches, portage to other lakes and generally just enjoy the amazing wilderness.

This proposal would foreclose the opportunity to access these trails for all but the applicant’s family and those to whom the applicant subsequently allows to build on the property or to whom it subdivides for further development. In addition to being disruptive and selfish, it directly prejudices the longstanding practices and enjoyment of the cottagers immediately adjacent and along the common road at Winnetka lake.

Finally, if allowed to proceed, the proposal would very likely lead to further cottage construction and development. Any further development would be the first new construction in decades that was not simply replacement and represents a significant threat to the ecology of the local environment, threatening local bird species that nest in the adjacent bay and increasing the likelihood of eutrophication. I no longer have the results in my possession, but residents of this lake have previously taken water samples in the summer to Kenora for testing and the results (which presumably the MNR can access) indicated significant particulate matter and fecal conform counts that were not healthy. As someone incredibly concerned with lake health (and community health of those living on the lake), allowing a proposal to proceed that would inevitably lead to even further development on a very small lake would be ill advised, damaging to the environment and unhealthy for human residents.

Thank you.