Former Ely mayor guilty

[Lee Borgersen]

Former Ely mayor pleads guilty to new Ontario park violations

 Today at 2:53 p

  ........
.Roger Skraba, the former mayor of Ely who was convicted in U.S. federal court for violating U.S. wilderness regulations in 2010, has now pleaded guilty to similar charges in Ontario.

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources reported Wednesday that Skraba pleaded guilty in Ontario court and has been fined $3,550 for violations within Quetico Provincial Park.

According to Ontario officials, Skraba was confronted by conservation officers on June 12, 2015 as he exited Quetico at the Black Rope Portage on Lac la Croix.

Officers discovered Skraba was in possession of non-burnable food containers and rocks that he was removing from the park.

In addition, Skraba had illegally stored his motorboat and related equipment in the park and brought a chainsaw into the park to cut trees to create a portage and cut firewood — all in violation of well-known park regulations.

The case was settled in the Atikokan courtroom of Justice of the Peace Ron Beck on Jan. 28.

Skraba's boat, motor, chainsaw, fuel, rocks, pack and other items were seized at the time. His boat and motor will be returned, Ontario officials said, but other items were "forfeited to the Crown."

Reached Thursday afternoon on his cell phone, Skraba told the News Tribune that he was too busy working construction to comment at that time.

Skraba, 54, of Ely, has been an outfitter, guiding fishing trips into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and, apparently, into Quetico Provincial Park which is adjacent to the BWCAW along the Minnesota-Ontario border.

Skraba has maintained a high profile in local issues and politics in Ely and across the Iron Range, testifying at legislative and agency hearings and as a spokesman for pro-mining issues.

Last fall he ran as a Republican in the special election for House District 3A after the death of DFLer Dave Dill. Skraba lost in a three-way race to DFLer Rob Ecklund of International Falls.

Skraba served as Ely's mayor from 2005-06 and again from 2009-12 and served seven years on the City Council. He's also been active in pushing for safety improvements to Minnesota Highway 169 in the area.

The Quetico violations are the second high-profile criminal case against Skraba, who has in the past been an outspoken critic of federal wilderness regulations that have come with the BWCAW. He was seen as a high-profile example of the ongoing anger among many Ely-area motor enthusiasts who lost winter and summer access to some of their favorite fishing lakes when the wilderness rules went into effect after 1978.

Skraba has been cited a half-dozen times for violating wilderness rules on the U.S. side of the border.

In March 2010, Skraba pleaded guilty in federal court to driving his snowmobile in a federal wilderness area and entering the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness without a permit. Skraba also was sentenced for breaking into a U.S. Forest Service shed and stealing a portable toilet, which he had hidden, apparently for the use of his outfitting customers.

Skraba was caught and ticketed on Crooked Lake on March 22, 2007.

He was fined $3,630, sentenced to 40 hours of community service and given two years' probation by federal Magistrate Judge Raymond Erickson.

Erickson stopped short of banning Skraba from the BWCAW for three years, as the Forest Service had sought, saying it would hurt his ability to earn a living as a fishing guide.

Testifying before he was sentenced in May 2010, Skraba told the judge that he would no longer illegally enter the BWCAW or challenge federal wilderness rules.

"I want to apologize, to the people and to you. I know I have not done it since (2007). I know I won't do it again," Skraba said at the 2010 sentencing hearing, lamenting an increase in federal border agents patrolling in jets, unmanned drone aircraft and boats. "The game is over. It's foolish. I've had a life of this (hostility against federal regulations) and it is so done. It's time to change. It's not fun any more."

U.S. prosecutors in the 2010 case had sought up to $15,000 in fines for the three Class-B misdemeanors, citing Skraba's long record of similar violations dating back to 1978. Skraba was charged in 1980, 1983, 1990 and 1994 with illegal entry into the wilderness along with illegal motorboat and snowmobile activity. Prosecutors also noted at the time that Skraba had been convicted in Ontario court for illegal operation of an all-terrain vehicle in Quetico.

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources reported Wednesday that Skraba pleaded guilty in Ontario court and has been fined $3,550 for violations within Quetico Provincial Park.

According to Ontario officials, Skraba was confronted by conservation officers on June 12, 2015 as he exited Quetico at the Black Rope Portage on Lac la Croix.

Officers discovered Skraba was in possession of non-burnable food containers and rocks that he was removing from the park.

In addition, Skraba had illegally stored his motorboat and related equipment in the park and brought a chainsaw into the park to cut trees to create a portage and cut firewood — all in violation of well-known park regulations.

The case was settled in the Atikokan courtroom of Justice of the Peace Ron Beck on Jan. 28.

Skraba's boat, motor, chainsaw, fuel, rocks, pack and other items were seized at the time. His boat and motor will be returned, Ontario officials said, but other items were "forfeited to the Crown."

Reached Thursday afternoon on his cell phone, Skraba told the News Tribune that he was too busy working construction to comment at that time.

Skraba, 54, of Ely, has been an outfitter, guiding fishing trips into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and, apparently, into Quetico Provincial Park which is adjacent to the BWCAW along the Minnesota-Ontario border.

Skraba has maintained a high profile in local issues and politics in Ely and across the Iron Range, testifying at legislative and agency hearings and as a spokesman for pro-mining issues.

Last fall he ran as a Republican in the special election for House District 3A after the death of DFLer Dave Dill. Skraba lost in a three-way race to DFLer Rob Ecklund of International Falls.

Skraba served as Ely's mayor from 2005-06 and again from 2009-12 and served seven years on the City Council. He's also been active in pushing for safety improvements to Minnesota Highway 169 in the area.

The Quetico violations are the second high-profile criminal case against Skraba, who has in the past been an outspoken critic of federal wilderness regulations that have come with the BWCAW. He was seen as a high-profile example of the ongoing anger among many Ely-area motor enthusiasts who lost winter and summer access to some of their favorite fishing lakes when the wilderness rules went into effect after 1978.

Skraba has been cited a half-dozen times for violating wilderness rules on the U.S. side of the border.



Skraba was caught and ticketed on Crooked Lake on March 22, 2007.












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