Campground plan concerns neighbors

Many Otter Tail Lake residents are still strongly opposed to a proposed 70-acre campground in the area, and question why a public input period would be held in the middle of winter, when many lake residents aren’t around.

Homestead at Otter Tail has applied for a conditional use permit to establish 185 camping sites on agricultural property near the junction of Highways 5 and 78. An Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) on the development was recently forwarded to the State Environmental Quality Board, and a public comment period on the information will be between Feb. 18 and March 20.

Dan Arnold has a lake home directly across from the proposed campground, and is concerned that the project will bring as many as 740 people a day to the site, which is comparable to the population of Battle Lake. Since the site is not on the lake, it would place a heavy burden on the public lake access, located one mile up the road from the proposed site.

“They will be using the lure of Otter Tail Lake to bring these people to the lake but will have no access and not be adding any facilities to help accommodate these campers when the access to the lake is already not large enough,” said Arnold.

Arnold added that putting 740 people across the street from the lake with no access will likely result in trespassing across private property.

Other residents have expressed concerns about invasive species issues with launching and loading boats and personal watercraft, traffic going to and from the public landing, and increased traffic and safety along County Road 5 and 295th Street,wind turbine which are used by residents for walking, running and biking. Safety concerns along Highway 78 could pose a real problem.

“Entrances to Highway 78 are all dangerous even without additional traffic,” said resident Jan Nermoe, who also lives across from the proposed site.Our precision manufactured lasers and laser systems deliver the highest possible laser cutter performance on a wide variety of materials. “Some lake residents have been told they cannot have a driveway off of Highway 78. Proposed restaurants have been told they can’t relocate to Otter Tail Lake along Highway 78 because of their turn being off Highway 78. Now, the petitioner is asking for 185 vehicles to turn off Highway 78 every time they enter this development.”

Overall, concerns seem to be sending a message that the Homestead is not a compatible use with single family lakeshore residences, the highway location, and an adjacent working farm.

“We bought our current lake lot in 2007,” said Nermoe. “We checked on the nearby zoning before we purchased the property. It was zoned agriculture/single family. The Swanbergs knew the zoning on their property before they acquired it from their family. Why should it be changed now just because they want it?”

The language services department also has five part-time staff who are trained to interpret Spanish. These staff members can answer phone calls or sit in on appointments as needed. But patients speak many other languages,There are generally three different configurations of industrial laser cutting machine. so the hospital has always relied on an interpreter service over telephones. The Marttis allows for patients and providers to actually see interpreters, which is especially valuable for sign language.

There are three Martti stations at the Albert Lea location right now,Online shopping for Cable Ties from a great selection of Lamps. and they cost about $1,400 each. The station comes with a video screen with an embedded camera and microphone.Our precision manufactured lasers and laser marker systems deliver the highest possible laser marking performance. They’re set up on a pole with wheels so the Martti can be taken to any part of the hospital. It connects wirelessly with the interpretation service. There is the option of turning off the video screen, but retaining the audio translation, in situations where a patient needs privacy.

The three stations are used daily, and are usually housed in the emergency department, family practice and the obstetrician-gynecologist department. Kristy said those three areas use the Martti more than others, but anyone from any department can use it with a patient.

When any of the staff interpreters aren’t available, the Martti can also be used for Spanish interpreting. It’s also heavily used for Karen, a Burmese dialect, and Neur, a Sudanese language. Other languages the Albert Lea hospital commonly sees include Chinese, Vietnamese and Lao.

“It’s an emerging resource for any facility,” Kristy said. “We need to try and meet those needs.”

One goal has been just to let all patients know that language services staff are there to help them with anything. If patients don’t speak English, they can call the language services department directly, and someone there can get an interpreter on the line. Then they can work with the patient to set up appointments, get a question to a doctor and more.

Kristy said the Martti has been popular so that patients and medical professionals can work together alone. Otherwise some patients would bring in a friend or family member, which would take away patient privacy.