Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RALPH ANSAMI
Ironwood — The Ironwood Tourism Council has agreed to increase its potential contribution to a trail project to better the odds of obtaining total funding of $400,000.
The Ironwood City Commission on Monday learned the ITC is willing to provide $66,000 for the local match, increasing its original total by $10,000.
Ironwood Community Development Director Tom Bergman said that will mean 10 more points on project application scoring toward a $320,000 Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund grant.
The plan is to establish a Miners Memorial Heritage Park bike trail network.
The remaining $14,000 of the project cost would be provided by the city in the form of an in-kind contribution, Bergman said.
In other business Monday, commissioners agreed to extend the talks on a tolling agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for claims related to the former manufactured gas plant site that was cleaned up near the Montreal River. The city’s cost of the project is to be determined.
City manager Scott Erickson said he expects that a final agreement will come before the commission in the next month or so.
The extension carries through Nov. 1.
The commission agreed to adopt a resolution ordering the clean-up of an eyesore at 207 N. Curry St. Code enforcement officer Jason Alonen said quite a bit of improvement has been made at the property, which was the topic of a Monday public hearing that was concluded without any comments from the public.
The parcel owners will have another week to complete the clean-up, or the city may take action.
Alonen said the parcel has been a problem “off and on” for the past few years, but a real effort has been made by the owners recently to improve the situation.
Erickson noted 1,400 children will visit the downtown Wednesday afternoon as part of the Cole’s Foundation special day. The main street will be blocked off for a motorcycle stunt riding demonstration, there will be a speaker and Ms. America will attend, with programs planned at the Historic Ironwood Theatre.
