St. Louis County Board commits to broadband expansion
After seeing firsthand how rural parts of the county lag behind when it comes to internet service, St. Louis County commissioners said this week they would help foster expansion. 1:23 pm, Mar. 17, 2021 ×
A family pulled up to McDonalds in Chisholm, using the free Wi-Fi.
Development in the city of Rice Lake suffering for lack of requisite internet.
During a workshop session Tuesday, St. Louis County commissioners weren’t voting on anything, but they committed to one thing for certain broadband internet expansion.
Mike Jugovich
“We’ve got to be better than this,” Board Chair Mike Jugovich, of Chisholm, said. “We need to do better. We have seen firsthand that broadband is lacking in so many areas.”
VIRGINIA â Keith Nelson was âmore than a little ticked off.â
A St. Louis County commissioner, Nelson, of Fayal Township, spent Tuesday criticizing three of his counterparts from Duluth for sending a letter to Minnesotaâs U.S. senators and the federal nominees for the Secretary of Agriculture and Interior stating their opposition of copper-nickel mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park.
The problem, he said during the latest county meeting, was that the majority of the seven-member board had long backed PolyMet and Twin Metals and just passed a resolution 4-3 expressing their support for such projects. âLetters intended to deceive should not be sent by elected officials on this board or any board or city council,â he said. âAnd that is clearly what this letter is is an attempt to deceive.â
VIRGINIA â St. Louis County Board members again split when passing a resolution that puts them on record supporting the current environmental review process for copper-nickel mining, specifically opposing more regulations during a Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday.
The resolution generally states that the county board wonât support legislation that creates a moratorium on copper-nickel mining in Minnesota. Rulemaking, permitting and environmental review for proposed projects are handled at the state and federal level, prompting the all-too-familiar debate among commissioners whether Tuesdayâs vote was symbolic or whether the county was reinforcing past votes supporting the industry.
Two bills â one in the Minnesota Senate and one in the U.S. House â aim to either delay or outright block copper-nickel mining in the state. A âProve it Firstâ was introduced by State Sen. Jen McEwen, DFL-Duluth, earlier this month, that would require scientific p
This would effectively shut these projects down, Board Chair Mike Jugovich, of Chisholm, said.
“The proof is the permit,” Commissioner Paul McDonald, of Ely, said. “There’s nobody that wants to do unsafe mining.”
Paul McDonald
Ashley Grimm, representing western Duluth, called the resolution “a real disservice” for the way it occupied time over other matters without any service to constituents.
“I’m for most mining projects, but this type of mining has never been done safely in the United States,” she said. “If it was safe, it wouldn’t be on this agenda.”
A handful of citizen callers opposed the resolution, citing the potential for environmental harm and an economy they say would improve with a ban. They made a point that opposition to a ban was, in turn, opposition to a “prove-it-first” process.
St. Louis County Commissioner Keith Musolf, of Hermantown, was on track early Tuesday to become the new board chair and represent a leveling force between colleagues from the Iron Range and Duluth. But in a turn of events, he withdrew from expectations and instead supported re-electing Chisholm-based Chair Mike Jugovich as the leader of the seven-member board.
The win made history. The chair from the Iron Range is now only the second in 100 years to serve as chair for two consecutive years, according to a county spokesperson. Commissioner W.A. Swanstrom served as chair in 1921 and 1922. I am honored to again serve the people of St. Louis County and my fellow commissioners as the Board Chair in 2021, Jugovich said in a statement. While it s out of the ordinary, nothing has been ordinary during this pandemic, so I am pleased to have this opportunity to again serve as we move forward to hopefully brighter and healthier days in the year to come.