ELY- Other than those eating roots and berries in the woods, everyone in Ely has noticed all the construction at the Zup’s parking lot over the last two weeks. What’s it all about?
The answer is that the Zup’s parking lot work is just one piece of a much larger Ely Economic Development Authority (EEDA) initiative called the East End Development Project. The EEDA put together a package with multiple funding souces, including a matching grant from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, a community block grant, and private funding from businesses.
The Ely City Council awarded the contract for the East End Development project to Low Impact Excavators at its March 21 meeting. The construction phase started earlier this summer. The work included extending a water lione to the International Wolf Center and the Ely Cemetery along with water and sewer improvements on the east side of the city.
The businesses which will benefit from the infrastructure improvements include Zup’s, Spirit of the Wilderness Outfitters and Outdoor Store, Voyager North Outfitters, and Hammerheart Brewery. Harold Langowski, Ely’s clerk-treasurer, told the Timberjay he believed the work would be completed “around the end of September,” weather permitting.
The Zup’s portion of the project will provide water and sewer improvements for the undeveloped lot next to Zup’s, which will then be paved. Anyone who buys groceries in Ely will be overjoyed that Minnesota’s narrowest right turn into a parking lot appears to be going away. The concrete and curb that created the constriction under the big Zup’s sign is now gone. Once the former impediment is paved over, the horrible right turn into Zup’s portion of the parking lot will become just a moderately-tight right turn.