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| 7/26/2006 1:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | A little more to add to the stir fry
 | Rob Crowe
Columnist
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Last May, my daughter Erin graduated from college and we made a trip out to Grand Forks for the event, watched her participate in the traditional Engineer "Ring" ceremony and went to a trendy eating place in East Grand Forks to celebrate.
I wasn't feeling the greatest for some reason or other. A headache was coming on so I wasn't as sharp as normal, not that I'm ever all that sharp. I wasn't too hungry so I decided on the stir fry. About a half hour later when the waitress finally got around to our table and asked for my order, I said I wanted the stir fry. She said, "Which one?" I asked her what my choices were and she rattled some off, ending up saying "Asian." I thought, China is in Asia so that must be what I want. "I'll have the Asian," I said.
Management looked at me a little funny, but I didn't think anything of it as it is a common occurrence. A little while later, Management had to take one of the little girls to the bathroom, another common occurrence. As if on cue, the food arrived soon after she left. I wanted to wait for her to get back before starting, but the stir fry looked too inviting so I took a big bite. It felt like I'd just put a shovelful of the molten metal from a blast furnace into my mouth. I hastily snorted some of the root beer I had ordered and wished I'd ordered a giant milk instead.
About that time, Management got back to the table from her mission and sweetly asked, "How is the Cajun stir fry?" Now, I've survived Lonnie Lee's chili at the Baptist music night but I can't really say which was the spiciest - let's just call it a toss-up. I did eat all the stir fry just like my dear mother taught me, and had to order another quart or two of the root beer to finish the dish.
Quite often there are hot issues to deal with on the local level. Just to the north of us there have been several issues for Itasca County to wrestle with. These include the new industrial projects coming up, already there is negative disinformation about the coal gasification project showing up, the unviable wind mill alternative is being spun as the panacea as usual. Fortunately, someone who had had some experience dealing with actual wind power generation wrote in and set the record straight, wind power is often a very expensive and unreliable power source.
In another instance, a fellow bought nearly 300 acres on one of the premier lakes and plans to put up a children's church camp. He has gone through all the proper channels to ensure that the place will be as unobtrusive as possible, setting aside about a fourth of the property in a conservation easement and the project was approved by the Planning Commission and the County Board.
Howls of disapproval were heard throughout the local lake association and some very nasty letters appeared accusing the zoning officials of conducting something akin to the holocaust to the lake. One fellow wrote in accusing the property owner of endangering "pristine musky spawning grounds." Gotta get the word "pristine" in somewhere, you know. While I don't know for sure, I suspect the fellow probably has been no closer to a musky than seeing a picture of the 1955 musky catch on Leech Lake - you know, the one you see in every rustic restaurant in the northern part of the state.
For my part, I want to commend the aforementioned zoning officials of doing "one for the children." I know they were just doing their job but in a private conversation one said that the owner had done a good job of addressing all the pertinent issues. For following the statutes and the courts, the official is vilified by the lake resident NIMBY's.
One wonders how the complainers would fare if their property was examined using the same standards imposed on the church camp. I can hear a zoning official saying to a lake resident, "No, just because 25 percent of the parties you hold on the property are wild parties, that does not qualify you for a conservation easement."
Far too often, when something happens in our figurative back yards, logical reasoning and fair play go out the window. I can't help but think that we all lose when that happens.
Rob Crowe chairs the Aitkin County Republicans and raises kids and cows on a farm near Hill City.
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