15 October 2009Comprehensive higher education initiative approved
A comprehensive plan for providing new post secondary, upper division and graduate technical programs in northeastern Minnesota has been approved by the Iron Range Resources Board. Under a $315,000 Iron Range Higher Education Committee grant, The Arrowhead Institute of Technology will at Northeast Higher Education District colleges develop five new learning programs: higher education industrial technology, process automation, industrial lab technician, industrial construction, and information management.
“It’s really an exciting endeavor for the region,” said Sandy Layman, Iron Range Resources commissioner. “It’s sort of a re-casting of education in the region.”
The Arrowhead Institute of Technology offers students access to three and four-year graduate level education without having to leave the Iron Range. The institute will work with Northeast Higher Education District colleges and the Applied Learning Institute to coordinate needs analyses and program responses. Northeast Higher Education District Colleges are Itasca Community College, Hibbing Community and Technical College, Mesabi Range Community and Technical College, Vermilion Community College and Rainy River Community College.
Additional three and four-year learning opportunities will be implemented by the Arrowhead Institute of Technology in the future.
Projections are that 20,000 to 22,000 new workers will need to be trained and added to the region’s labor force over the next decade due to natural economic growth, retirements and more than $6 billion in major economic development projects. Program funding is derived from a 5-cent-per-ton legislatively-directed allocation of the Taconite Production Tax.
The board also approved:
- - A combination of $2.7 million in loans for an expansion of the Minnesota Twist Drill manufacturing facility in Chisholm. Fifty to 75 new full-time jobs will be created.
- - A $40,000 loan agreement with Birchem Logging, Incorporated to assist the company in buying new equipment to support expansion into the biomass industry. Two new full-time jobs will be created.
- - A $150,000 reallocation of a previously-approved $375,000 loan to Spectrum Housing with Services LLC for renovation of Spectrum’s building in Progress Park in Eveleth.
- - A $1 million grant to Mountain Iron Economic Development First Discovery Wind Project for engineering, permitting and power purchase agreement completion on a $23 million, 9 megawatt wind energy project near Giants Ridge.
- - Approved a rebate program allowing the Minnesota Film & TV Board to recoup up to $150,000 in expenditures for the filming of the $4.5 million movie “The Convincer” within the Taconite Assistance Area.
- - Reinstatement of the Iron Range Resources Drilling Incentive Grant Program (DIG) to support mineral exploration within the agency’s service area.
- - $118,000 in capital improvement funds for Minnesota Discovery Center boiler replacement.
- - $98,680 remaining in a fiscal year 2007 Public Works Grant to the city of Hoyt Lakes for remediation, soil cleanup and site improvements at a 25-unit Leeds Road housing project.
- - Expanded eligibility of the Iron Range Resources Wage Subsidy Program, a wage assistance program aimed at helping Taconite Assistance Area businesses in hiring new permanent employees. Seasonal part-time employment and public administration jobs are not eligible.