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Itasca County fires administrator
Last night in an emergency closed session the Itasca County Board fired its administrator Trish Harren. This was the brief statement released by the county board: The County Board of Commissioners terminated the employment agreement of the County Administrator, Trish Harren, effective, April 15, 2016. April 15th was selected as the date because the County…
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Adam Levy in Grand Rapids postponed
UPDATE: The panel discussion and concert by Adam Levy are being postponed due to the winter storm today. They will be rescheduled. Adam Levy, front man for the Honeydogs, will do two special events today with Northern Community Radio in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Both are deeply personal. From the NCR release: Adam Levy’s new solo…
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Magnetation coming back, but Plant 1 in doubt
Like other Iron Range mining operations, Grand Rapids-based Magnetation was battered by the collapse in iron ore pricing and domestic steel demand last year. The homegrown Northern Minnesota company declared bankruptcy and lost ownership interest to a hedge fund amid financial restructuring. In 2014, Magnetation had four plants running, salvaging old mining waste from decades earlier and extracting…
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Thunderbirds vs. Lumberjacks, mythical feud
Tonight at 8 p.m., the Grand Rapids Thunderhawks will play the Bemidji Lumberjacks in the Minnesota Class AA State Hockey Tournament in St. Paul. Hockey is a big deal in Minnesota. It’s a cherished winter tradition and the source of a historic rivalry between the Northern and Southern portions of the state. (Or perhaps more…
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On the Anzelc-Layman race in MN-5B
This week Republican Sandy Layman of Grand Rapids announced her candidacy for Minnesota House District 5B in Itasca and Cass counties. She will challenge incumbent State Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township), who last week announced his plans to seek a sixth term. Layman is the former commissioner of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board…
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On golden pond hockey
Tomorrow morning, the puck will drop at 8 for the first game of a new pond hockey tournament on McKinney Lake in the storied hockey town of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The North Woods Pond Hockey Tournament is modeled after the famous U.S. Pond Hockey Championship held annually at Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis. The tournament begins at…
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‘Rogue’ baby born in family van on Hwy. 38
Most babies are born the typical way, popped out in a hospital surrounded by medical personnel. But sometimes, babies quite literally “go rogue.” Last Saturday, Feb. 13, a Minnesota woman went into labor in the remote northern Itasca County logging town of Bigfork. While Bigfork has a hospital, it does not have an obstetrics unit,…
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Talkin’ middle school parking lot blues
Let me be clear. I do not plan to murder anyone. But if I did the crime would almost certainly take place in the parking lot of my son’s middle school. Winter parking in Northern Minnesota is hard enough. Ice and snow cover the yellow lines. Every slight maneuver involves spinning tires and the risk…
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Golden opportunity for broadband on the Iron Range
Many people reading this have access to reliable high-speed internet access for less than $60 a month. You use this bountiful bandwidth to work from home, communicate with family, attend college, or help kids with homework. But for people who live in rural townships throughout the Iron Range this service isn’t available. They pay twice…
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Navasota project tied to Minnesota Power plan
Earlier this week, I shared a developing story about a new natural gas peaking plant proposed for the city of Cohasset, home of Minnesota Power’s giant Clay Boswell coal-fired power plant. After a great deal of initial confusion, we established that the $300 million proposal by Navasota Energy of Texas for a 400 MW plant…
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Cohasset proposes $300 million power plant
UPDATE: New information offers more clarity to this story. Cohasset City Administrator Max Peters said that the city backed the Navosota project as a matter of routine for potential buyers for lots in its industrial park. Though there are other bidders for this project in the Upper Midwest, this is the only one looking at…
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Reed Drug in Grand Rapids, MN, to close
Reed Drug, arguably the most iconic downtown business in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, will close its pharmacy this Monday, Nov. 23 at the end of the business day. The gift store will close at the end of the year. The store has been at this location since 1955, though has been operating in Grand Rapids since…
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State to fund Itasca County rural broadband proposal
Company officials just announced that Paul Bunyan Communication received a nearly $2 million grant from Minnesota’s Border to Broadband program to bring high speed internet to underserved regions. Their proposal would connect 1,250 households in rural Itasca County to better, more affordable internet options than currently available. My friend Tom Anzelc, fellow Balsam Township resident…
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Magnetation warns union of plant shutdown in 2016
Today, Magnetation announced it has warned its union that it will likely shut down one of its Iron Range iron concentrate plants on or after Jan. 31, 2016. Fifty More than 160 employees could be laid off or otherwise affected for longer than six months. Magnetation, based in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, is a scram mining operation on the…
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UPDATE: The growing pains of today’s Grand Rapids school vote
UPDATE (11 p.m.): The District 318 school referendum failed by more than 2,000 votes. Every precinct voted no. It was a crushing defeat that will send the school district back to the drawing board for its future plans. Here are the totals. My analysis is that the project was not fully formed enough to convince voters…