News

The City of Babbitt will again enter into an agreement to purchase the assets of a troubled company. <BR><BR>This time it’s Kasson Manufacturing, the pool table company that has been struggling financially for the past six months. <BR><BR>The Babbitt city council met Friday morning and approved a plan along the lines of a previous deal.<BR><BR>Babbitt bought the former Tirecyle rubber plant and sold it to BIRCO through a non-recourse loan from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board. <BR><BR>Mayor Don Negley said this would be a similar situation with the city acting as “a conduit.” <BR><BR>Council action included appointing Negley and council member Dick Niss to negotiate with the company’s creditors, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Northland Foundation and Minnesota Power. <BR><BR>The city will also have to work with U.S. Bank, which owns the inventory at the plant.

Ely Community Resource’s annual art auction and fundraiser generated over $13,000 for the community service organization.<BR><BR>More than 160 people attended the April 23 event at the Ely Community Center, bidding on approximately 175 items of art.<BR><BR>When it was over, ECR officials were smiling.<BR><BR>“We did great,” said ECR Executive Director Patti Zupancich. “We don’t have final numbers yet, but we raised about $13,200 from the art alone.

In what had to be the oddest occurrence since the Ely Echo’s Ice Out Contest began, Grand Ely Lodge’s dock was socked in with ice until Tuesday, April 27 at 4:41 p.m.<BR><BR>The prior weekend brought winds from the north which cleared Shagawa Lake fairly well in the east to west direction. What happened, though, was a fluke. The ice piled up on the south shore of the lake, pushed by northern winds. The result was that Grand Ely Lodge’s dock was wedged with ice and a boat could not leave to go to the opposite shore.<BR><BR>Finally on Tuesday the wind shifted to come from the west and the official judges at Grand Ely Lodge watched the shoreline expectantly until late afternoon’s ice opening.<BR><BR>Almost hitting the time on the nose was winner 4:30 p.m., Karson Otness, Bemidji, MN. Karson will receive $100 in Grand Ely Lodge dollars. Next closest was 4:18 p.m.

Baseball was probably on the minds of most of those who attended the Chicago Cubs’ home-opener at historic Wrigley Field in early-April.<BR><BR>But for at least a few moments, many in the sellout crowd were introduced to Ely, and in a very unique fashion.<BR><BR>Two people dressed as bears were holding placards, while another walked through the crowds mouthing the line ‘I’d rather be in Ely.’ Down the street, two people attempted to paddle through traffic while in a canoe.<BR><BR>And one misguided fisherman tried to reel in the big one...

In March and April on Camp and Chapman streets, passersby may notice plastic jugs or zip-lock bag’s hanging from many of the silver maple trees along the roadsides. Looking closer you would see drip, drip, drip, sap, that is, being collected for maple syrup. Two serious syruping groups were discovered in Ely. The Haaversen family were the ones with the plastic bottles hanging on trees and Ray Carlson’s crew had the plastic bags. The tapping method may be different but the processing idea is the same. Get the sap out of the trees and boil it down to make maple syrup. <BR><BR>Usually the maple syruping season is about 2-3 weeks during spring thaw. Each year when day time temperatures rise above freezing, and temps drop down again below freezing at night, the sap starts to flow in the trees. Maple trees can be tapped with spiles, the sap runs through the spile and into an attached pail, bottle, bag, can, or whatever can collect and keep the sap clean.

In March and April on Camp and Chapman streets, passersby may notice plastic jugs or zip-lock bag’s hanging from many of the silver maple trees along the roadsides. Looking closer you would see drip, drip, drip, sap, that is, being collected for maple syrup. Two serious syruping groups were discovered in Ely. The Haaversen family were the ones with the plastic bottles hanging on trees and Ray Carlson’s crew had the plastic bags. The tapping method may be different but the processing idea is the same. Get the sap out of the trees and boil it down to make maple syrup. <BR><BR>Usually the maple syruping season is about 2-3 weeks during spring thaw. Each year when day time temperatures rise above freezing, and temps drop down again below freezing at night, the sap starts to flow in the trees. Maple trees can be tapped with spiles, the sap runs through the spile and into an attached pail, bottle, bag, can, or whatever can collect and keep the sap clean.

Three Ely seniors returned home from the state high school speech meet as medalists.<BR><BR>Joe Manlove, Raychal Zupancich and Brian Kess all were among the top-six speakers in their respective categories at the April 16 State Class A meet at Centennial High School.<BR><BR>Manlove had the highest-finish, a third-place performance in Discussion.<BR><BR>Zupancich placed fifth in Drama while Kess was sixth in Humorous.<BR><BR>All three earned medals a year ago, as well, when Manlove placed fifth in Discussion while Kess and Zupancich teamed up to take second in Dramatic Duo.<BR><BR>Manlove stayed in the same category for his senior year, moving up to third in the state.<BR><BR>Kess and Zupancich both branched off into individual divisions, and returned to state on their own.<BR><BR>The seniors were three of nine Ely participants in the state meet.<BR><BR>Others competing, but failing to adva

It’s on to the drawing board, literally, in the effort to establish a joint public works garage and maintenance facility in the Ely area.<BR><BR>Representatives of several government entities have identified possible locations, keying on city-owned property behind the Dorothy Molter Museum, and they’ll seek architectural drawings and designs for the proposed new building.<BR><BR>“Really, we need to figure out what is possible,” said St. Louis County Commissioner Mike Forsman. “What can we do is what this amounts to.”<BR><BR>The county, Ely, Winton and Morse Township are among the public bodies that could be involved in the project.<BR><BR>Forsman said that Lake County will also be invited to join.<BR><BR>“That’s one of the things we talked about,” said Forsman.

The patriarch of the North American Bear Center was at the Morse town board meeting last Tuesday night, informing them of a new site for construction.<BR><BR>“The Bear Center is trying to get some property just outside of town to build a facility just about like the Wolf Center,” said Lynn Rogers. “The public purpose would be to educate people about bears.”<BR><BR>Rogers said the property, just a half-mile west of the Ely city limits on the south side of Highway 169 is currently owned by the county. He said a conveyance to the Town of Morse may be in the works. <BR><BR>“We would help you raise the money to buy the property from St. Louis County and then a miracle would occur and you would convey it to the Bear Center,” said Rogers.

A local group has formed to spruce up one of Ely’s most popular recreation areas and provide a new way for people to remember loved ones.<BR><BR>The Trezona Trail Celebration Association will coordinate and oversee the purchase and planting of trees, bushes and flowers along the four-mile path around Miners Lake.<BR><BR>Each planting will be done as a memorial, and the group will solicit donations from those who would like to honor Ely area citizens or visitors with a tree, bush or flower on the trail.<BR><BR>On Thursday, April 22, the group will plant its first two trees, in remembrance of Mary Markovich and Richard Gamble.<BR><BR>Efforts to create a memorial on the trail for both Markovich and Gamble led to the creation of a beautification program to honor past and present Ely area visitors and citizens and their families and friends.<BR><BR>“I think it’s a fitting tribute and a way to give honor to family members and bea