Silver Creek to hold hearing on Flood Bay Road alteration, turnaround expansion

Flood Bay Road could soon be altered at its edge in Silver Creek Township, with the town seeking to correct a stretch that extends 100 feet beyond its current legal description and widen the turnaround area neighbors have asked for. The township’s public hearing on the proposal is set for May 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the Silver Creek Township Board Meeting Room at 1924 Town Road.

The action grew out of a resolution passed by town electors at the March 10 annual meeting, directing the town to begin the alteration process. That means the hearing is not just a formality: it is the point where Silver Creek residents and affected landowners can press the board on why the change is needed now, what it will cost, and how the road’s new shape could affect daily access, snow removal, maintenance responsibilities and emergency response at the road’s end.

The notice identifies the parcels tied to the proposed change as land owned by Rebecca and Robert Thibodo, Gary Molitor, and Kris and Anne Veiman. The legal description attached to the proposal lays out the new alignment in direction changes and distances, signaling that the board is working through the statutory road-order correction required before any physical change can be made. For the people whose land borders the road, the issue is immediate and practical: where vehicles turn around, where township equipment can maneuver, and how much land will be pulled into the public road system.

Under Minnesota Statutes section 164.07, a town board may alter a town road on petition of at least eight qualifying voters, and affected landowners are entitled to judicial review of damages, need and purpose after the board makes its determination. Silver Creek Township says its regular meetings are normally held the second and third Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the same board room, and it describes itself as one of Minnesota’s largest townships, stretching from Two Harbors to Split Rock State Park and inland to the Cloquet Lakes area. Founded in 1890 by immigrant families of Henry Clark and Ole Wick, the township is now weighing a road change that could reshape how one of its more remote public routes functions at the county’s edge.