REGIONAL — A sweeping infrastructure bonding package approved by the Minnesota Legislature in the final hours before adjournment Sunday includes direct funding for projects in Ely and Cook while also creating broader opportunities for transportation, trails, water, housing, and recreation improvements that could eventually benefit communities across the North Country.
The approximately $1.2 billion package, approved just ahead of the Legislature’s midnight constitutional deadline, includes major statewide investments in roads, bridges, drinking water systems, wastewater infrastructure, flood mitigation, trails, and public facilities. Another $46 million in general fund appropriations was included in a companion bill.
While the Minnesota Department of Transportation received the largest single agency allocation in the package, roughly one-third of the bill’s overall funding is tied to drinking water and wastewater projects statewide.
For Ely, lawmakers approved $3.9 million for water supply improvements. The project centers on replacing a deteriorating water supply line from Burntside Lake and includes water main replacement along Sheridan Street. The bonding allocation represents a significant share of the overall funding needed for the project.
Cook received $1.5 million for what the bonding bill describes as public infrastructure improvements. The funding is intended to support planning, engineering, and construction tied to improvements in the city’s inflow and infiltration collection system as well as rehabilitation of the city’s wastewater treatment pond system. Inflow and infiltration problems occur when groundwater or stormwater enter aging sewer systems, increasing the amount of water that must be processed by wastewater treatment facilities. The Ely and Cook projects were among roughly two dozen northeastern Minnesota projects receiving funding through the bonding package.
Beyond direct appropriations, the legislation also includes numerous statewide grant and infrastructure programs that could eventually benefit communities across the North Country.
The package includes:
• $56 million for the Water Infrastructure Funding Program.
• $30 million in drinking water grants.
• $26 million in clean water (wastewater) grants,
• $15 million for lead service line replacement.
• $17 million for emerging contaminants grants.
• $17.5 million for public housing rehabilitation.
• $9 million for flood hazard mitigation grants.
• $4.5 million for the Local Road Wetlands Replacement Program.
• $2 million for the Greater Minnesota Business Development Public Infrastructure Grant Program.
Many of those programs distribute funding through state agencies or grant processes, meaning additional projects in northeastern Minnesota could potentially benefit in future funding rounds.
The bonding package also includes $47 million for local road improvement grants, $25 million for local bridge replacement projects, and $3 million for township road improvements, programs that could eventually support projects pursued by St. Louis County, local municipalities, or townships across the North Country.
The bill also includes broader funding tied to recreation and tourism infrastructure, sectors that play a major role in the North Country economy.
Among those allocations are $2 million for state trail renovations, $1 million for improving accessibility on DNR-managed lands and facilities, $1 million for improvements to the Gunflint Trail in Cook County, a key tourism corridor serving Boundary Waters visitors and other recreational traffic in northeastern Minnesota, and $3.5 million for reforestation efforts statewide.
MinnPost contributed to this article.