Ironwood approves water rate for Snowmobile Olympus

IRONWOOD — The Ironwood City Commission approved a special water rate for the Ironwood Snowmobile Olympus, a water and sewer infrastructure project and bids for a new portable generator at a lift station at its regular meeting on Monday.

The city commission approved a request from the Friends of the Gogebic County Fair for a special water rate for their 2021-2022 Snowmobile Olympus being held at the Gogebic County Fairgrounds on Dec. 31 and Jan. 7-9. The town offers a 50% water rate to events that bring people to the community to help support that event, City Manager Scott Erickson said.

“We would just like to see if we can get a special rate water price and build a nice track. It’s looking really good. We have a lot of competitors coming to town and bringing their families, so it brings good revenue to town. It’s all done by volunteers and a lot of hard work, so it’s nice to get some help. We appreciate it a lot. Hopefully, it brings some good revenue to the town,” Greg Mason said on behalf of the Ironwood Snowmobile Olympus.

Mason said the Olympus has been going for 12 years in a row with a list of 100 volunteers. During the race events, there are 15 to 20 volunteers out on the track in the infield and they have a heated building with food and drinks with another 10 to 15 volunteers.

“It’s a great event and I love the volunteerism and the people it brings in and having that around. Thank you for being here and providing that information,” Mayor Kim Corcoran said to Mason.

The city commission approved the public works department’s recommendation to approve an engineering services agreement with Coleman Engineering for the 2022 local water and sewer reconstruction project from Francis Street to Lowell Street and Greenbush Street. Erickson said that the project will cost about 1 million dollars.

Erickson said they have been replacing the oldest parts of their 62-mile water and sewer infrastructure over the last 15 years. He said that they have made great strides and replaced about 35% of the utilities, but they still have a long way to go. He said they used to have more than 100 water main breaks in the winter and now they have about 24 water main breaks, which allows their forces to put their effort into other areas of maintenance.

The city commission also authorized bids for a new portable generator for the old county road lift station. The lift station serves about 24 homes and a concrete plant. Since they do not currently have a backup generator, they have to troubleshoot the problem when their power goes out.