Parking lot to be removed says DNR

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Sept. 11, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced Friday it will remove the parking lot adjacent to Lakeside Drive Northeast on the east side of Lake Bemidji.

Tony Walzer, of the DNR's Trails and Waterways Division, said removal of the parking lot will begin Monday, weather permitting.

He said that property owners near the parking lot have complained about people overloading it and parking on private property since the lot was installed.

It is about two years old, he said.

Walzer said because there are few spaces in the lot, people would overload the lot, park on private property, on road right-of-ways and in nearby ditches.

"There were so few parking spaces for the high demand," he said.

He said the DNR tried warning people at the beginning of summer what would happen if the problem continued, but the warning obviously didn't work.

Over the recent Labor Day weekend, the DNR received a number of complaints about illegal parking and even the Bemidji Police Department was called and ticketed some of the cars.

Walzer said those looking for a new parking spot may try Lake Bemidji State Park or Beltrami County Road 19, where there is limited room for parking.