Dear Neighbor,
The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) held its final meeting of the year and dealt with three of items of interest to our area. As a member of the IRRRB Board, I am one of nine board members that review and make recommendations to the IRRRB Commissioner on projects that come before the board for consideration.
The funds involved come from taconite production taxes and are available within the taconite assistance area, which includes the Cuyuna, Mesabi and Vermillion Iron Ranges. In our case on the Cuyuna, the taconite assistance area boundaries are the same boundaries as the Crosby-Ironton and Aitkin Public School Districts.
The City of Aitkin received a favorable recommendation on a grant for a potential housing development project. The proposal involves construction of a new 35-unit market-rate apartment complex. The location of the project would be near the existing hospital.
A $323,000 sum will be available to the City of Aitkin to support the costs associated with the public infrastructure required to support the project. That award is contingent upon a private investment of $8 million for the actual building construction.
Crow Wing County received a favorable recommendation on a $58,185 project to improve emergency-vehicle access to a remote segment of a mountain bike trail system near the City of Cuyuna. IRRRB will provide $29,000 and Crow Wing County will cover the remaining costs. This past summer a mountain biker was seriously injured. Emergency response personnel experienced a great deal of difficulty in reaching and extracting the individual. The project includes improved vehicle and air access and adds detailed mapping of the access points to the emergency management system.
A Cuyuna Range Broadband Expansion Project spearheaded by CTC Communications and Crow Wing County also received a favorable recommendation in the amount of $742,850. The total project cost is $5.78 million. The funding includes a variety of other federal and state broadband grants, as well as a direct invest by CTC of $548,303.
The project will expand fiber optic coverage to about 500 unserved/underserved households in rural Crow Wing County within the taconite assistance area. Construction is planned for the summer of 2022.
All three projects received a unanimous vote of the board. While it has been many decades since that last active mining occurred on the Cuyuna Iron Range, mining production taxes continue to benefit our area.
Sincerely,
Dale