Ironwood - April 24, 2009 The Downtown Ironwood Development
Authority held its regularly scheduled meeting Thursday morning. All
members were in attendance. Visitors included City Council member,
Tom Laabs and Lily Palmer of Coleman Engineering. Representing the
media were James Albert (Superior Chronicle) Arvo Toolanen and Lou
Bonagura (IronwoodInfo).
The authority members spent much of the meeting time discussing
the issue of downtown blight. Several of the members led by
Eva-Smith Furgason and Jackie Powers expressed concern with what
they describe as blight at the Woodtech Builders site on Frederick
Street.
Joe Karius advised the board that he believed the matter of
blight was a matter for the city to deal with and not DIDA. The
authority expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of progress being
made by the city in the matter. (ed. note: Woodtech builders
have done a great deal of renovations and improvements to their
property. There are many more seriously blighted properties in
downtown)
DIDA member Louise Demasi asked the Community Development
Director to bring the matter to the City Council for action on their
complaint.
Also discussed by the DIDA members was the matter of inadequate
lighting in the downtown business district. It seems as though the
lighting varies by street. Some streets are illuminated earlier in
the evening others later. The members learned that the lights are
not on a timing mechanism but go on and off by photocell switches.
It was suggested that the photocells be checked out. Bruce Noren
told the members that the electric bill for the street lighting is
quite expensive.
Dan Petersen advised the authority that the MSHDA grant for the
downtown area was approved. The grant in the amount of $140,000 is
restricted to rental units. There is a 25% match required of the
building owners. The loan value is depreciated 20% per year for five
years.
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