ELY – Three Ely entrepreneurs are set to launch a new view of the community at the end of the road through a publication called “Underground Optimist.”

Kara Polyner, Rachel Colber, and Gregg Cramer, the three founders, talked about their new endeavor at a Tuesday Group gathering this week at the Grand Ely Lodge.

Promotional materials made available indicate a Memorial Day weekend launch of the publication. Their mission statement: The “Underground Optimist” is an Ely-centric magazine with an emphasis on the unique people, arts, activities and possibilities we have to offer. We, as underground optimists, want to provide Ely locals and visitors an optimist view of the future of Ely and a positive sense of community.”

“I don’t think we need to elaborate on why we gave it that name,” Polyner said. “We all kind of know why it has to be that way here in Ely,” she said in veiled reference to another view that insists Ely is dead or dying. “We want to try to get positive thinkers all together and to brainstorm on different ideas to try to improve Ely.”

She described herself and her two co-conspirators as being on the extreme of optimism. “There are those who like their cities, and love where they live, but there also those like us. We obsess over our city and obsess over what we can do to make it better.

Polyner is the owner of Ely Design Works, located on Chapman Street. She has been involved in the Ely community for the past 7-8 years. She served on the City Council, was involved with Incredible Ely, and the Chamber of Commerce Merchants Board. “I dabbled into many of the different aspects of what Ely has to offer, and may have a different viewpoint than most on what we can bring with Underground Optimists,” she said.

Rachel Colber looks at Ely through the eyes of an artist. “We have so many artists here and I we would like to drive that as an economic development idea, and that’s why I joined in with the Underground Optimist,” she said

Cramer moved to Ely almost 20 years ago to attend Vermilion Community College. He has an extensive background in the natural sciences, rural planning and cartography. “I bring those three things to the table with Underground Optimist,” he said. Cramer previously was zoning administrator for the city of Ely, and involved with Incredible Ely.

The trio passed around a teaser publication for Tuesday Group participants to view. “We are trying to keep the magazine under wraps until the actual launch,” Polyner said. “Look for Underground Optimist with a different cover around Memorial Day weekend,” she said.

She described the look of the publication as “old school.”

“We don’t have a big budget. We are not looking to be the designers of the century. We want something that we can pull together quickly and easier. It will have a rough layout. We want to cram a lot of information into a little bit of space.” Polyner said Underground Optimist operates as a for-profit LLC. “We have all been involved on different boards and commissions and non-profits. We didn’t want to do the board thing with lots of meetings, approvals, budgets and reports. We are a more action-oriented group. If we want to do something, we just go ahead and get it done.” Any profits will go back into the magazine, she said.

Positive spin

Underground Optimist was born to fill a niche that is lacking in Ely. “We want to have something that shows the positive things that are happening here in our town,” Polyner said.

She said the premier edition may have as many as 24 pages. A second edition could be ready by Halloween. “After that, we will see where it goes. If there is a lot of interest, we will keep going. We may have to get thicker or go quarterly. It depends on the response that we get.”

Colber described some of the ideas for content. “We have a large population of artists and we’re not exploiting them to their fullest extent. Believe me, they want to be exploited,” she said.

As many as three local artists will be featured in each issue, and Underground Optimist will have an extensive children’s and artist’s calendar. “We want to accentuate the things that we feel are the best economic drivers of Ely,” she said.

Polyner said one subject that Underground Optimist will focus on is what people do in Ely, “for a living, and for fun.” She said the magazine’s target audience is those who are visiting Ely for the second or third time, who may be pondering moving here. “We want to show what Ely has to offer. We have great geography right next to the Boundary Waters, but we are more than that,” she said.

“We want to attract those millennials who may have a chance to move up here and bring their job with them,” Polyner noted. “That small-scale economic development is what can drive this community.”

Small business features will be part of each Underground Optimist publication, along with a “made in Ely” promotion, kids’ page, day trip itineraries, center spread map of the city, art and photography.

“We will have no mention of those subjects that are not positive or optimistic,” Polyner said, “No M-word, E-word, R-word, or P-word. I’m sure you can figure out what that is.”

Special advertising packages and promotional rates are available. Contributions of stories, photography, and art will be considered.

For more information, email undergroundoptimist@gmail.com, and find them on Facebook.