REGIONAL — The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Advisory Board signed off on a wide mix of public works, housing, and broadband investments, along with the latest round of mining industry improvement projects funded through the Taconite Economic Development program.
Among the actions with direct local impact was a $500,000 grant to the Cook Hospital for major heating system upgrades.
The 14-bed critical access hospital with an attached 28-bed nursing facility serves a wide swath of rural northern St. Louis County. The aging boilers have been patched together for years and long surpassed their expected service life. The hospital will install two new LP gas hot water systems, part of a $4.18 million project backed primarily by Park State Bank. Hospital leaders note that the upgrade is more than routine maintenance. Reliable heat is essential for operations that include stroke and trauma care, outpatient services, and a workforce of 133 employees.
Ely also secured support for long-needed street reconstruction. A $150,000 grant will help fund a $1 million rebuild of four city blocks, including new storm sewer, subgrade corrections, gutters, sidewalks, and full pavement replacement. The project relies heavily on local funding, with the city contributing more than $650,000 alongside a Community Development Block Grant.
Housing needs remain a priority for the IRRR, and Babbitt received an additional $450,000 for its ongoing residential expansion project west of town. The city plans to open 18 single family lots, a site for up to 12 townhomes, and land for a future apartment building. The IRRR had previously committed $1.45 million, bringing its total investment to $1.9 million. Rising bid costs and the loss of expected federal block grant dollars prompted the request for more support. The full project now totals about $4.7 million, with state bonding covering $2 million of that amount.
Two broadband projects from Paul Bunyan Cooperative also won approval. The first is a $600,000 grant for Phase 2 of a fiber buildout in Field, Alango, and Sturgeon townships. It will extend high speed service to 146 unserved or underserved households. When paired with Phase 1, which is already under construction, the project will reach 566 locations.
A second Paul Bunyan project will serve homes in Cook, Marble, Keewatin, and northeast Hibbing, but that work cannot begin unless the cooperative secures federal BEAD funding. The IRRR’s contribution to that project is $313,000 in a package expected to total just over $2 million.
The board also approved its annual round of Taconite Economic Development Fund awards, which return production tax rebates to the region’s mining companies for capital improvements. Hibbing Taconite will receive $1.48 million for work that includes tailings dam buttressing and replacement of a decades old conveyor system, part of a $3 million package. Northshore Mining was awarded $786,741 for a $1.6 million stream restoration effort near its tailings basin. At Keetac, U.S. Steel received $1.28 million toward $3.4 million in projects that include a major dust collector upgrade and structural improvements to its tailings basin. And at Minntac, the board approved $3.24 million for the company’s ongoing sulfate compliance work, a $7 million engineering and field investigation program intended to prepare for a future cutoff wall beneath the basin’s outer dam.
Approximately $18.8 million in projects were reviewed at the meeting, supporting IRRR’s Fiscal Year 2026 spending plan and advancing development efforts across the Taconite Assistance Area.