By MONICA LUNDQUIST
Cass County Correspondent
BACKUS — Cass County Board voted Tuesday to pay the city of East Gull Lake $173,058.81 to reimburse the city for costs incurred to install a recreational trail system extension in 2011.
The county will make that payment from interest earned on a trust fund that was created when the county sold former state leased lots. Administrator Robert Yochum said before this payment the county had $510,000 accrued interest in the account.
This is a dedicated fund. It may be spent only for forest, water and land management or recreational trails purposes.
Land Commissioner Joshua Stevenson obtained board approval to purchase 158 acres of land in Homebrook Township. County administered land surrounds the property on three sides. A public snowmobile trail runs through the area.
A state grant from the three-eighths cent sales tax to benefit the environment and arts will pay for the purchase.
The board approved a Minnesota DNR plan to add .7 mile of trail to the Big Rice Lake Hunter Walking Trail in Remer and Lima Townships south of Remer. Access to the trail is from County Road 133.
Stevenson said the DNR also plans to abandon a short section of walking trail in that area, which lies in a marshy area and has been hard to maintain due to wet soil conditions.
