Letter

Kanabec County Sheriff

18 N. Vine
Suite 143
Mora, MN 55051

Dear Sheriff Schulz:

On Saturday, April 30, my sister and I were doing some volunteer work for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. We are assigned a route in Kanabec County and we complete a frog and toad survey three times a year. Our route is near Kroschel. We get out of our car ten times along this route and listen for frog and toad sounds that we have memorized. The route needs to be completed after the sun has set. On Saturday we heard lots of spring peepers, chorus frogs and wood frogs singing. As we left our fifth survey location on Teal Road, near 340th, we got stuck in a frost boil that extended completely across Teal Road. I had managed to get through several muddy spots already but this frost boil was deep and it was wide. By this time it was 10 p.m. I stepped out of the car to get my shovel and my foot submerged almost to my knee. We looked at the spot where the front tires should be and saw the front end of the car was in so deep, only part of the license plate was exposed. We didn’t know whether to shovel toward the tires or away from the tires. We had to admit we were stuck.

I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to dial 911 when stuck in the mud. We couldn’t think of any other options so I did make the call and talked to a woman named Susan for about a half hour. She offered to call for a tow. Later she came back on the line and said the first four tow companies refused to come out on Teal Road because they might get stuck. She told me not to worry; she was still working on it. I guess everyone but me knew better than to drive down this road. Later she said seven tow companies refused to come out but one said they might come out during the day. Again she advised me not to worry as she had a deputy calling local businesses for assistance. I hadn’t seen any local businesses and this was a low point in the evening until I realized she wasn’t giving up on us. With this 911 call, I had several people working on my problem. Suddenly I felt very important. Not very often have I had several people working on my problems. On this Saturday night, I was like a celebrity; a very important person. Susan asked us if we could walk back to 330th and meet a man named John in a black pick-up truck who would take us to the church in Kroschel where a deputy would take us to Mora for the night or else John might pull us out with his chains. From where we sat in the mud we could see the reflection from the street sign for 340th and we weren’t that excited to walk back to 330th. Susan told us that if we got scared or needed reassurance, we should call her back and she would talk to us while we walked. My sister and I walked down the road in the dark. We avoided the muddy spots as best we could. The frogs were still calling but we weren’t interested in frog calls anymore.

We met John and his friends. John was able to pull us out of the frost boil and set us on the road home. John rinsed off my tires and brakes at his Royal Flush business. He refused to take any money for his troubles. We expressed our thanks and promised to pay his good deed forward. Again I called 911 to let them know we were free from our frost boil and to say thanks.

I would like to express appreciation from my sister and I for the excellent public service on the night of April 30th. The kindness extended to us changed our evening from a disaster to an adventure. We will be running our frog and toad survey again on the same route at the end of May and the end of June. We hope all the Kanabec County frost boils will be healed by then.

Sincerely,

Orange-Sue


CC: Joanne Nelson, 911 Administrator