News

An Ely woman died in a fatal head on accident on Hwy. 169 near Camp Lake Road.
Pat Marsnik, 72, of Ely, was killed when a southbound Subaru crossed the highway and struck the Chevy truck Marsnik was a passenger in.
The northbound truck was driven by Bob Baier, 74, of Ely who was taken to Essentia Health in Duluth. Baier was listed as having non-life threatening injuries.
Another passenger in the 2002 truck was Ray Marsnik, 80, of Ely who was listed as having life threatening injuries and transported to Essentia Health Duluth.
The driver of the 2021 Subaru was Ryan Reid, 38, of Superior, WI. Reid was listed as having life threatening injuries and also taken to Essentia Health Duluth.
All victims were listed as wearing seatbelts. Road conditions were snow and ice at the time of the accident, 4:51 p.m., according to the Minnesota State Patrol.
Highway 169 between Ely and Tower was closed over over an hour following the accident.

UPDATE: The Ely School Board held a special meeting Thursday night and voted to offer the interim part-time superintendent position to John Klarich. Pending contract negotiations, Klarich would succeed Erik Erie, who is resigning Jan. 30.

by Nick Wognum
Greg and Jane Mosher walk their dogs every day on White Street and had a bit of excitement on Wednesday.
“We were walking by and I saw smoke pouring out of the eaves so I banged on the front door and told them they should call the fire department,” said Greg Mosher.
The call went out to 911 and the Ely fire department was paged at 3:57 p.m. to a structure fire at 1420 East White Street.
“When we arrived on scene, we found a single story house with heavy smoke showing from the eaves on all sides and coming out of the gable attic vents,” said fire chief Dave Marshall.
The occupants of the home, including Lynn DeNio, who lives there with her sister, were able to get out of the house safely.

One of the area’s biggest winter events won’t happen as scheduled but organizers still hope to pull it off in 2022.
The Fun Run was scheduled for Feb. 5 but Covid restrictions have caused organizers to put it on hold for now.
“We understand there are guidelines that need to be followed and we want to be as Covid safe as we can,” said Fun Run co-chair Jim Zupanich. “If the decision is made where we can’t have 150 people at the wrap up party, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to put on the event.”
The wrap up party is normally held in the ballroom at Fortune Bay Resort Casino.

by Tom Coombe
The Ely School District’s top administrative position will soon be vacant following a sudden resignation from superintendent.
Erie cited health reasons in resigning a position he has held since 2019, and just five month after signing a two-year contract.
School board members voted unanimously Monday to accept Erie’s resignation, which takes effect Jan. 30.
The board also informally authorized chairman Ray Marsnik to continue discussions with an unidentified “retired superintendent in our area,” who has shown interest in filling the vacancy on an interim basis.
“As board chair, I did have a conversation with a retired superintendent in our area about the possibility of coming in and serving as our interim superintendent,” Marsnik told the board. “He is willing to come here and sit down with us and discuss what we are looking for and what he has to offer.”
Marsnik added “it doesn’t mean we have to hire him.”

Four Ely area fire departments fought a garage fire Dec. 3 near Ely.
The blaze was reported around 6:25 p.m. in the 2600 block of Grant McMahon Boulevard, also known as Hwy. 88.
Firefighters were able to contain the blaze to the attached garage of the home. Departments responding to the fire included Morse-Fall Lake, Ely, Eagles Nest, and Babbitt.
Jim Blauch of the Morse-Fall Lake Fire Department served as the incident commander for the fire, which he said came with a number of challenges.
“We found the large two stall garage to be fully engulfed when we arrived and it was being wind driven toward the residence.
“We did an initial defensive attack to keep it from going into the structure. Once we got the fire under control we went into the residence but the fire did not spread inside.

by Tom Coombe
Lolita Schnitzius was a “mayor until the end,” as current Ely mayor Roger Skraba recalled on Tuesday.
Skraba led the rest of the city council in a two-minute “moment of silence” as they remembered Schnitzius, Ely’s first woman mayor.
On Sunday, Schnitzius passed away at Ely’s Carefree Living at the age of 83.
After moving to Ely a half-century ago, Schnitzius made her mark, working as a bartender and at the Ely Shopper and delving into civic affairs, including local government.
Schnitzius reached the pinnacle in 1998, when she became the first and remains the only woman to ever be elected Ely’s mayor, a position she held for two terms.
And despite leaving office on her own terms, opting against running for re-election in 2002 and never to seek elected office again, Schnitzius wasn’t done serving her community.

When Boundary Waters Canoe Area permits become available on Jan. 26, there will be fewer to go around.
Kawishiwi District Ranger Aaron Kania announced reductions of one permit per day at Lake One and Mudro and one permit every other day at Gabbro.
“The key is we were seeing resource damage and complaints about the wilderness character of solitude,” said Kania.
The Lake One change includes removing the restricted permits where you had to camp in the numbered lakes and beyond and adding them to the Lake One permits. Previously there were seven for each but instead of going to 14, that number will drop to 13.
That number used to be as high as 23 in the past and later dropped to 18. This was also when the number of people dropped from 10 people and five canoes to nine people and four canoes.
After the 2011 Pagami Fire that number was reduced from 18 to 14 due to a loss of campsites.

DOMINO’S IS COMING TO TOWN - The former Pizza Hut and Two Gringos building is being remodeled for Domino’s to begin sometime this month. “We have a contractual date of December 13th but supply issues are likely going to push that back a little bit since walk-in cooler, ovens, and refrigerated prep table are all still in process,” said Duane Carlson, Jr. franchisee for Domino’s. Photo by Nick Wognum.

by Tom Coombe
Ely School Board members got their first look this week at nearly $3.6 million in bids for the next phase of a major renovation project on the district campus.
Bids were received Nov. 18 and distributed at Monday’s study session. The bids will be the subject of a Dec. 1 meeting of the district’s facilities committee.
If all goes as planned, the board will award bids at a special meeting on Dec. 6.
It wasn’t immediately clear this week how the latest round of bids, which came on the heels of the district rejecting a spring bid package that came in more than $4 million over budget, impacts a roughly $20 million project budget.
Responding to questioning by school board member Darren Visser, construction manager Todd Erickson of Kraus-Anderson Consruction said “it’s a great question that I didn’t anticipate.”