Tuesday’s city council meeting was brief, running just under 45 minutes, with much of it devoted to a report from a lobbyist.
At a quiet City Hall on a warm summer evening, the council heard from Bradley Peterson, executive director of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities CGMC is a lobby group that represents the interests of 110 cities outside of the Twin Cities. Key issues include local government aid, funding for environmentally conscious infrastructure, transportation, labor and employee relations, economic development, and emergency medical services.
Peterson spent the bulk of his report on the results of the recently-completed state legislative session in St Paul.
“There were two main drivers of the 2026 session: the divided nature of the government…DFL maintains a one seat majority in the Senate, and the House is evenly divided…the other thing that drove this session was the fact that it was not a budget year…there really wasn’t a lot of talk about spending and taxes,” said Peterson.
According to Peterson, focal points for this session were fraud, guns, a bailout for Hennepin County Medical Center, school safety and a bonding bill.
CGMC’s priorities were to protect LGA, pass a bonding bill with investments in water, waste water, lead service line replacement and economic development for communities like Ely.
“The budget work they did last year along with changing economic assumptions and forecasts has created a small balance of $77 million, but I think the overall take on the state budget situation is that it is still very fragile because we are bringing in less money than we are spending over time,” said Peterson.
The total bonding bill passed was $1.24 billion to be distributed to cities across the state, with Ely one of the winners, having landed state funds to complete the water line project to Burntside Lake.
Also Tuesday, Rachel Heinrich, the city’s librarian, reminded folks that the library has two state park passes and two Minnesota Discovery Center passes available for patrons to check out.
“You do not have to have a library card to check these out,” said Heinrich.
Police Chief Chad Houde announced Ely’s participation in the National Night Out, which this year is set for Tuesday, Aug. 4, from 4-8 p.m., with Whiteside Park serving as the focal point.
“There will be bounce houses, dunk tanks, face painting, worm races and a petting zoo,” said Houde.
In other business the council:
• Approved a recommendation from Ely Utilities Commission to pay $6,396.83 to RESCO for the Pattison Street project.
• Approved a recommendation from EUC to approve an energy rebate of $400 to Jim Robbins.
• Approved a motion for a residential rehab loan of $10,000 for Larry and Amy Wier for a new propane furnace for 10 West Shagawa.
• Approved city and EUC claims for $366,560.51.
• Received the latest monthly police activity report (see related story) from Houde.
