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After taxpayers out $1 million, what's next? It was no surprise in this corner that Judge James Rosenbaum ruled last week in federal court that Mille Lacs County, with the First National Bank of Milaca as an intervenor, had no case against the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and, therefore, he was dismissing a lawsuit against the band by the county and the bank. That feeling about the case came not from a knowledge of the law but just from a feeling on what was known about the case. When Judge Rosenbaum heard the appeal by the band in January to dismiss the lawsuit by the county and the bank, it was obvious by his line of questioning that he didn't think there was much of a case. Last week he threw out the case that asked the court to determine if the band still has a 61,000-acre reservation instead of the 4,000 acres the county thinks makes up the reservation. Rosenbaum dismissed the suit with prejudice, meaning that basically there is nothing about the lawsuit that can be fixed to bring it before the court again. Last month the Mille Lacs County Board approved a payment of about $55,000 to the Tobin Law Office of Winner, S.D., Tom Tobin being the lead attorney in the case, raising the total spent on the case to about $972,000 at that point. This month the board will have to vote again on a bill for April from the Tobin office that will send the amount beyond $1 million. The bills will end there, of course, if the county doesn't plan an appeal, right? Well, maybe the bills won't come to a screeching halt, although Dick Satterstrom, county commissioner from Princeton, plans to vote against paying the bill this month, saying Tobin's work is done. Satterstrom, new on the board since the beginning of the year, expressed some doubt about the lawsuit during the election process last fall. But, he said, at that time, he wasn't very knowledgeable about it and thought possibly the board was right in going to court. There are lots of taxpaying citizens in the county who didn't feel the lawsuit was needed, especially when the bills began mounting from an original $50,000 appropriation by the board a couple of years ago after a closed-door meeting at which Tobin just happened to be in attendance. He was visiting relatives in the area, it was said. So where do we go with this thing now? Board chairman Robert Hoefert of Isle said he was "shocked" and "disappointed" at Rosenbaum's decision. Board member Frank Courteau from Onamia, generally regarded as the leader on the board in seeking the lawsuit, said Tuesday he would make no comment, despite being very vocal to this point. You can understand their feelings after a long battle for a course of action in which they believed. Some, however, weren't shocked at the judge's decision. Former Mille Lacs County Attorney Janelle Kendall, now the county attorney in Stearns County, said the decision was consistent with advice she gave the board in January 2000. (Commissioner Dave Oberfeld, board chairman then, said the board would use information from Kendall to help decide whether or not to contest the band on the reservation issue.) Nor does Kendall think the band has attempted to assert any jurisdiction in the area under dispute. "They [board members] have to wait until they have a real legal issue," she said Monday. "Legal issues have to be based on more than fear." Courteau has, from the beginning, said he was afraid the band would start trying to run the show in the 61,000 aces, an area that includes Isle, Onamia and Wahkon. It always appeared to me, and many others, that the band simply couldn't afford to do that. It would be a public relations nightmare, to say nothing of - at the very least - open verbal warfare. The band would be asking for trouble and would likely get it. So, what's next? The $1 million is gone in a county that isn't exactly rich, and little was accomplished. It's time to end the waste of money, a waste that has done little so far but line the pockets of an "expert" out-of-state attorney. (See front-page update on county's planned appeal.)  Princeton Union-Eagle P.O. Box 278 Princeton, MN 55371 Telephone: 763-389-1222 Fax: 763-389-1728 E-Mail: pueproduction@ecm-inc.com