Supervisors focus on economic growth for Iron County

HURLEY - Economic development was the main topic during Tuesday's Iron County Board of Supervisors meeting.

On Thursday, members of the board are invited to attend a workshop sponsored by the Iron County Economic Development Corporation. Supervisor Larry Youngs said he believed the county needs to improve it's economic standings.

"We have to do something now, because waiting for this mine is like waiting for the second coming of Christ," Youngs said. "The only thing to help Iron County, is Iron County."

An idea has been created to have a "Shark Tank"-style competition for residents to present ideas for new businesses in the county. Other board members said money is available for new businesses, and Youngs said it would be nice to encourage people to present ideas, and help them get started on where to go to make their dream a reality.

"I know people have ideas out there," Youngs said.

The topic of economic development came up again during the canceling of tax deeds. County Clerk Mike Saari presented one deed the county owned that needed to be canceled after the owner paid the last four years in over-due taxes, interest, penalties and an additional $500 penalty.

Resident Steve Schurtter asked if something was going to be done with the old Wishbones restaurant in downtown Hurley that sustained a fire in December.

Schurtter called the gutted building an "eye sore," and said something needed to be done.

County board chairman Joe Pinardi said he had two interested parties looking at the building, because he would like to see the lot become an active business again in the future.

The county owns the building, after taking it during the delinquent tax process earlier this month.

Youngs said he would like to see the building torn down as soon as possible because "people are sick of looking at it."

However, Pinardi said his reasonings behind the building were for development and tax revenue.

"What taxes is an empty building to generate," Pinardi asked.

Youngs agreed with Pinardi, but said something should have been done with the building.

"The building is sound, and we have had (an exterminator) in there making sure it's not becoming a nesting ground for rodents," Pinardi said. "We're trying to keep the building there to have an open business there as soon as we can."

Air Choice One

Shane Storz, CEO of Air Choice One, spoke the board about the airlines home in Ironwood at the Gogebic-Iron County Airport.

Storz thanked the board for it's support of the company, and discussed some recent changes to the services to Chicago. Flights from Ironwood only fly to and from O'Hare Airport in Chicago, and after a recent fire in the communications portion of O'Hare delays are being felt across the country.

"The (Federal Aviation Administration) is working hard to rebuild the communications center, which should be up and running by Oct. 13," Storz said. "As for Ironwood, the 4:40 a.m. flight is doing good, because there isn't a lot of travel during that time of the day. However, the flights at mid-day and in the later evening are being delayed roughly three to four hours, and will be that way over the next two weeks."

According to Storz, O'Hare normally receives 106 arrivals per hour, but after the fire, the airport is only receiving about 60 an hour.

"The customers have been great through this," Storz said.

Aging unit drama

Board members briefly discussed the Iron County Aging Unit, including arguments among members of the Commission on Aging and issues with the executive director.

Supervisor Opal Roberts, of Mercer, said "things are not going well."

"I don't like how little power the Iron County Board has over the aging unit," Roberts said. "The prior problem was the executive director, and I still believe that it is. That is all I am going to say on that."

Supervisor Tom Thompson, of Mercer, said the "fighting has to stop."

"If it doesn't stop, we get rid of the director and we cut their funding from the county," Thompson said.

Pinardi said he has discussed giving the unit half of it's county allotment in January from the 2015 budget, and if the fighting stops, it will get the other half in July.

Other business

Stumpage on county land, or the price of standing timber and the right to harvest it, as of Tuesday was $1,905,466. Last year at the same time, stumpage was $1,614,310.