February 2022

Feb. 8, 2022 Free N95 and N99 masks are now available to all Lake County residents.

DECA is a high school marketing and business club that prepares emerging leaders for the real world of business, entrepreneurship, finance, and marketing. This is a competition where students perform in events of their choice in front of a judge. They can prepare a presentation about a business scenario, sell something to a customer, give financial advice, or think on the fly in a roleplay or interview.

A position at the Fall Lake Township transfer site is once again open due to Evelyn Kuzma obtaining a full time job elsewhere. The position will be listed in the Ely Echo and the Ely Shopper for anyone interested in applying.

The Lake Superior School District (LSSD) is once again broaching the issue of whether continuing a four-day school week is the best option for serving the educational needs of students in the area. The first four-day school week, with Fridays off, was approved in 2009 under the leadership of then-superintendent Bill Crandall, using the logic that four-days was a more efficient use of resources, and would save the district money in terms of transportation, and staffing costs.

A full house of attendees in-person and by Zoom at the Two Harbors City Council meeting Monday night was reflective of the level of concern surrounding recent issues brought to light regarding the city’s mayor, Chris Swanson.

The announced idling of Northshore Mining in Silver Bay in Zay will have major impacts on the employees, their families, and the North Shore community. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has announced that its royalty checks to Mesabi Trust, based on the price of pellets, the weight of extracted ore, and the volume of shipped pellets from Northshore, have played a substantial role in this decision. Other factors were at play, according to CEO Lourenco Goncalves who in a 4th Quarter 2021 Earnings Call statement (Feb. 11, 2022) stated that the company’s strategy “to stretch hot metal by adding increased amounts of scrap to the BOFs (basic oxygen furnace) is working extremely well. With more scrap in the BOFs, we need fewer tons of hot metal to produce the same tonnage of liquid steel.”

Cleveland Cliffs, in its Quarter 4 2021 Earnings call, announced that they will be idling their mining facility in Silver Bay, along with the Peter Mitchell Mine in Babbitt. According to the statement made by Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves, iron ore needs have dropped with the use of additional scrap metals, and the ability to produce DR-grade pellets at their Minorca facility.