Business Owners Concerned About Backus-To-Hackensack Highway 371 Project

If you live in or own a business in the Hackensack or Backus communities, expect delays and changes in your route to home or work, as a $4.2 million dollar full depth reclamation project will shut the highway between Backus and Hackensack down to one lane in August, and then portions of it will be shut down completely after Labor Day.

Area business owners are concerned about the project and the shutting down of the highway. Dan Dean, owner of Saw Again, located on the highway almost directly in the middle of the project, says that many businesses in northern Minnesota depend on this time of year to be financially fruitful to last through the winter. Dean was hoping that MnDOT would find alternatives to the detour, but was told that that would not happen.

MnDOT says that business owners and customers will be able to access the businesses during the project – it may just take a little longer than normal.

More information about the project can be found here.