Duluth Council To Vote On Lakewalk Path Extension

The Duluth City Council is also voting tonight on a measure that will impact funding for the lakewalk. However, the city did not inform the Friends of the Lakewalk about this resolution right away, and the organization says they were caught off-guard by the news. 

DULUTH, Minn. – The Duluth City Council is also voting tonight on a measure that will impact funding for the lakewalk.

The measure supports three things: It would cancel plans to restore the lakewalk bluestone footpath in front of the Ledges development and cancel the construction of a pedestrian-only path in front of the Beacon Pointe Hotel.

It would also reallocate federal storm dollars from the Ledges shoreline to the shoreline repair projects in Brighton Beach and along the Marten Trail.

To repair the pathway behind the Ledges townhomes, the city received almost 1 million dollars from FEMA after the pathway was battered by a storm in October 2018.

The Property, Parks and Libraries Director with the City of Duluth says the resolution would save Duluth about 2.3 million dollars, which would allow the city to put resources into repairing the area around Brighton Beach and the Marten Trail without spending even more.

However, the city did not inform the Friends of the Lakewalk about this resolution right away, and the organization says they were caught off-guard by the news.

“We routinely work with the city, we partner with the city, but this resolution was a surprise so that is the reason why we want to make sure we engage the city council as well as the administration,” said Jim Topie, the president of Friends of the Lakewalk.

City leadership says they attribute the lack of communication to a few factors.

“To some extent explained that the combination of reduced city staff and numerous pandemic-related crises is unfortunately diminishing our ability to do community engagement on some of these sorts of issues,” said Jim Filby Williams, the property, parks and libraries director with the City of Duluth.

City Council may table the resolution on Monday night to provide two more weeks for residents including Friends of the Lakewalk to learn more about the decision itself and prep for a potential October 12th vote.