Breaking News

Let Us Pause To Honor the Memory of
Raymond Joseph Godward, Jr.

by Tom Coombe
A somewhat quiet primary election season comes to a head this week.
Voters in the Ely area and across the state will go to the polls on Tuesday, but few races seem to have captured much attention.
Within the Ely city limits, a three-candidate field for mayor will be trimmed to two.
Across the area, the contest that may be the most competitive is a Republican primary for State Senate, with Babbitt Mayor Andrea Zupancich, who has the party endorsement, facing off with former mining industry lobbyist Kelsey Johnson.
St. Louis County also has one high-profile contest, with three candidates vying to move on to the general election for county sheriff..
Primary elections typically don’t generate the turnout of general elections in the fall when sometimes 80 percent or more of the electorate cast ballots.

by Tom Coombe
Ely’s Blueberry/Art Festival always draws a crowd but the opening day of this year’s event was impressive - even by the event’s lofty standards.
“I would call it a crush,” festival organizer Ellen Cashman said of the crowds she observed in the opening hours of the festival on Friday, July 29. “I think it was pretty awesome. I don’t know if we have ever seen the crowds that we saw on Friday. I was in the Chamber booth and we were surrounded by people the whole time.”
Many thousands of people passed through Whiteside Park before the three-day event ended on Sunday afternoon.
By all accounts, a good chunk of them spent money not only at the festival’s food and beverage locations, but with one or more or the better than 200 arts and craft vendors who set up shop in the city park for the 41st annual festival.

We’ve got some big shoes to fill in Ely with the loss of what many are calling a “pillar of the community.” We couldn’t agree more.
Paul Ivancich passed away this week after a valiant battle with cancer. If you knew P.I. then you know he used his positive outlook to battle a deadly opponent. It was that ability to see the good in any situation that made him one of our community’s greatest assets.
Paulie did so many things in his 59 years on Earth, including working at the Echo for a stretch. This was back in the early 1980s when high school sports hadn’t gone through consolidations and rivalries existed across the Range.
There would be nights he and a photographer would drive to Virginia to see the Blue Devils battle Eveleth in basketball, then stop in Babbitt for a high school hockey game against Ely before arriving back in town to catch the fourth quarter of another basketball game.

by CBS 3 meteorologist Dave Anderson
A lot of Ely and Babbitt people have roots in Slovenia. Slovenia is literally exploding from the heat this summer. Forest fires aggravated by a heatwave are setting off unexploded munitions from World War One battles between the Austrians and Italians.
The front line between battles of cold versus warm air is marked off by the polar jet stream. This summer, the warm side of the border has covered the southern U.S. and crested like a wave into Europe as well. Those zones have had a heatwave. Here in the Upper Midwest, we’ve been on the cool side of the jet stream border for the most part discounting a couple of trips into the 90’s this season.

Regular Meeting Ely City Council – City Hall,
Council Chambers
July 19, 2022

CALL TO ORDER:
The regular meeting of the Ely City Council was called to order by Mayor Skraba at 5:30pm in the Council Chambers
PRESENT: Council members Kess, Debeltz, Omerza, Callen, Campbell, and Mayor Skraba
ABSENT: A.Forsman

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Debeltz/Callen moved to approve the minutes from the July 05, 2022 Regular Council Meeting. Motion Carried 6-0-1 with A.Forsman Absent.

Call For Bids
Town of Fall Lake

The Town of Fall Lake is calling for bids for the revitalization of the town hall building located at 393 Kawishiwi Trail, Ely, Minnesota.

Project Scope
1) Frame, insulate, and cover abandoned doorway.
2) Finish entry door on north end of building, paint, and maintenance free trim
3) Replace overhead door moulding and door jamb trim (3 various sized doors). Final moulding finish to be maintenance free.
4) Refurbish soffit and fascia with maintenance free cover around entire building. Ex. Metal fascia and metal soffit panels.
5) Replace steel siding on the outside of the east wall. Siding to be matching color brown, standard rib style steel panels.
6) Update flagpole light.

All colors not specified are to be determined by availability.

Bid will be descriptive and clearly itemized.

Bids shall include project start and completion dates.

NOTICE OF MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE SALE

THE RIGHT TO VERIFICATION OF THE DEBT AND IDENTITY OF THE ORIGINAL CREDITOR WITHIN THE TIME PROVIDED BY LAW IS NOT AFFECTED BY THIS ACTION.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN: That default has occurred in the conditions of the following described mortgage:

DATE OF MORTGAGE: November 2, 2016

ORIGINAL PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF MORTGAGE: $188,466.00

MORTGAGOR(S): John Oscar Matt Haapoja, a single man

MORTGAGEE: U.S. Bank National Association

DATE AND PLACE OF FILING: Recorded on November 14, 2016 as Document Number 01297969 in the Office of the County Recorder of St. Louis County, Minnesota.

ASSIGNMENTS OF MORTGAGE: Assigned to: None.

LEGAL DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY: Northeast Quarter of Northeast Quarter (NE1/4 of NE1/4), Section Ten (10), Township Fifty-six (56), Range Twenty (20).

Tim Williams formerly of Ely and now of Lino Lakes MN, has been unanimously voted in to the American Ski Jumping Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony is scheduled for August 20 in Red Wing, MN.
His accomplishments include the following in which he received a unanimous vote:
• Junior World Cup, 1979, Quebec City – one of two U.S. skiers chosen to compete USSA National Championship,
• January 1980, Eau Claire, WI 1st place – Junior Class 1980 Olympic Tryout 1, Lake Placid, NY 2nd place – Junior Class 1980 Olympic Tryout 2, Lake Placid, NY 1st place – Junior Class World Cup, St. Nizier, France,
• February 1981 – 11th place USSA 1981 Jumping Points – Total points of best 5 competitions – 8th out of 74 skiers U.S. Ski Jumping Hall of Fame – Ishpeming, MI – 1st place trophy from Sons of Norway, 1981. Trophy awarded annually to only one skier for outstanding skill in the sport.

by Tom Coombe
Ely’s age 14-and-under team took both momentum and a high seed into the league playoffs.
A 10-0, five-inning rout of Rock Ridge I on July 28 helped Ely clinch the third seed, among nine teams, in the Iron Range Baseball League Playoffs, which started Friday at Cherry.
Ely (8-4) was slated to take on number-six Greenway in a tournament quarterfinal.
Both the consolation round and the championship semifinals follow on Saturday, with the consolation, third-place and championship clashes scheduled for Sunday, all at Cherry.
Ely beat its first-round foe twice during the regular season, including a 15-4, July 25 matchup at Veterans Memoria Field.
The home ballpark also was the site of Ely’s regular season finale, and the hosts had no trouble with Rock Ridge I.
Pitchers Hunter Halbakken and Owen Marolt combined on the shutout, with Halbakken working the first three innings and notching seven strikeouts.