1 December 2008New jobs coming to Range
Up to 37 new jobs are coming to the Iron Range following action taken at a Monday, November 24 Iron Range Resources Board meeting.
Twenty-seven of the jobs will be at a new $1.8 million custom industrial sizing and classifying screen manufacturing facility in Nashwauk. Seven to ten new jobs will be created at a $9.1 million University Medical Center-Mesabi expansion in Hibbing.
Midwest Manufacturing and Mechanical, Inc. is constructing a 12,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in the Nashwauk Industrial Park and installing the required machinery and equipment needed to manufacture the screens. A $370,000 loan to assist the company was approved by the IRR Board. Screens that will be manufactured in the facility are the type used in the iron, coal mining and food industries. Midwest Manufacturing and Mechanical, Inc. will also provide custom fabrication services to clients in Minneapolis and Pennsylvania, said Michael Stiglich, a principal in the company. The 27 new jobs will pay from $15 to $18 per hour, include a full benefits package and be in place by the end of 2011.
A $750,000 Iron Range Resources grant to the University Medical Center-Mesabi in Hibbing will help fund an expansion and renovation of the medical center’s Fairview campus. A new 9,790 square-foot addition will house the emergency department. The existing 3,760 square-foot emergency department will be renovated into an urgent care facility. In addition to the seven to ten new permanent jobs, about 40-50 construction jobs will be created.
The board on Monday also approved:
- A $150,000 grant to the Laurentian Energy Authority (LEA) to assist in funding a $1,234,000 study to determine new techniques to optimize the region’s biomass resource and assess the feasibility of expanding renewable biomass energy production at LEA facilities in Hibbing and Virginia. Terry Leoni, general manager of the Virginia Public Utilities, said the study will examine repowering all of the coal-burning boilers at Hibbing and Virginia into biomass burning boilers. A $984,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy has also been awarded for the study.
- A $2,445,674 Taconite Economic Development fund grant to Hibbing Taconite Co. for nine environmental improvement projects at the taconite plant.
- A $1,547,563 Taconite Economic Development fund grant to Northshore Mining Co. to help complete a water treatment plant expansion at the taconite plant’s Mile Post 7 tailings basin.
- A $280,000 grant to the City of Cook to help fund site preparation and infrastructure costs for an assisted living/memory care facility in Cook.
- An extension to December 31, 2010 on the due dates for interest payments on $1.5 million and $8 million loans previously made to Excelsior Energy.