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Segetis seeks $21 million from IRRRB for big project
Segetis, a Golden Valley-based biochemical company, is planning a $105 million expansion to Hoyt Lakes on the eastern Iron Range. They’re asking for $21 million in support from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board at its April 22 meeting. The promise: 545 jobs and $55 million in annual economic impact. That appears to be…
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New Partners takes over for Eveleth telemarketer
The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board today announced that a new business would be moving into the Eveleth building owned until recently by the now defunct Meyer telemarketing firm. Meyer Associates closed earlier this month. EVELETH, Minn. — Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) Commissioner Tony Sertich today announced that New Partners Consultants,…
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Metal train touts mettle of Minnesota iron mining
The Iron Mining Association of Minnesota, the trade group representing northern Minnesota’s taconite mines and processing plants, is rolling out a new marketing campaign that asks people to “imagine LiFE without iron.” The premise is that it’s hard to imagine life without iron, which is in most of the things we use every day. And…
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Iron Range Pizza Hut zero hour
I’ve encountered a number of reports that Pizza Hut restaurants in Hibbing, Grand Rapids and other locations in the region have closed today. I don’t yet know how many Pizza Hut restaurants have closed and I have not yet confirmed why they are closing, or if the closings are permanent. One employee suggested a franchisee…
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Hibbing VFW Post 8510 closes
The Hibbing Daily Tribune reports that Hibbing VWF Post 8510 Club has closed. This is the big bar and event hall visible from the main highway through town. The club had previously struggled with money, but had clawed its way out of the red. The reason for the closure is simply that the VFW post…
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‘Green Envy’ for Iron Range botanical garden
This Saturday, April 12, from 4:30-8 p.m., the Friends of the Greenhouse in Virginia, Minnesota, will hold its second annual “Green Envy” fundraiser for the Olcott Park Botanical Gardens. The greenhouse and gardens at Olcott Park are holdovers to a time when many Range towns poured effort into beautifying their public spaces. Virginia has held…
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Education, broadband as economic development
Two items across the wires today illustrate the often unheralded spurts toward actual economic development and diversification in rural, post-industrial places like northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. First, the work of my colleague Ken Strukel at Hibbing Community College was featured in today’s Hibbing Daily Tribune. He’s developed a computer application design program at HCC, training…
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Ancient mysteries on Minnesota’s Iron Range
Cindy Kujala at the Hometown Focus includes a buffet of interesting mysteries and factoids about Iron Range history in her column this week. Most of it is reprinted from a project compiled by the Iron Range Historical Society and University of Minnesota at Duluth. My favorite excerpt: There is a place where the Embarrass River…
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Range lawmakers spiked wild rice report
In late February, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency was about to release a wild rice report indicating that the state’s wild rice standards (no more than 10 parts of sulfate per million) was an appropriate limit to ensure the health of wild rice crops. However, Iron Range lawmakers, concerned that the wild rice report would…
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Range projects faring well in bonding proposals
There’s still a few miles of debate ahead, but Iron Range bonding projects seem well situated in either the House or Gov. Mark Dayton’s bonding bill proposals. The Senate is expected to release their bill soon, where Majority Leader Tom Bakk, an Iron Range state senator, is unlikely to short shrift the region. The Duluth…
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Eveleth telemarketing firm closes; 104 jobs lost
A St. Cloud-based telemarketing firm abruptly shut down its facility in Eveleth this week, leaving 104 employees out of work. Fox 21 News has a good recap of what happened. Meyer Telemarketing was founded in the ’70s as a fundraising contractor for mostly Democratic Party campaigns and causes. As a northern Minnesota resident with Democratic…
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Ely, MN, launches ‘The Ely Channel’
The Ely, MN, Chamber of Commerce announced today, April 1, it was launching the 24-hour cable network “The Ely Channel.” Featuring original programs like “DNR Cold Case,” “The Real Housewives of St. Louis County,” “Iron Range Chef,” and Sauna Wars,” this channel was unveiled at a news conference this afternoon. Today the Ely Chamber is…
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How heavy is a dime bag of taconite?
If the domestic iron mining industry ever goes to pot, perhaps we in northern Minnesota could take matters into our own hands, running ore across the border like bootleggers. Case in point, the Knights Templar drug cartels in western Mexico has now diversified to the point that illegal iron mining and processing is a major…
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East Range shared school plan having bumpy roll-out
One of the biggest stories on the Mesabi Iron Range this year has been the proposal to build a new co-located high school in Mountain Iron that would serve students in the Virginia, Eveleth-Gilbert and Mountain Iron-Buhl school districts. Jana Hollingsworth of the Duluth News Tribune penned a Sunday feature on the shared high school…
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Range newspaper joins call for rural broadband
I often find myself out of step with the editorial page of the Iron Range’s largest newspaper, the Mesabi Daily News, particularly as it relates to economic priorities. So today I’m glad to report that the Mesabi Daily News has made a strong, compelling case for something we agree about entirely: expansion of Minnesota’s rural…