East Range Community and Economic Development News

What’s the personality of the East Range? What does the East Range offer that no other place does?   Your answers to questions like these can help guide a new effort to develop a shop local campaign for the East Range as a whole.   The local collaborative effort is being led by a new marketing subcommittee that includes representatives from the Hoyt Lakes and Aurora Chambers of Commerce and the Biwabik Area Citizens Association. The subcommittee [...]

Over the course of six months in 2020, ERJPB’s Northspan staff consultants completed 28 Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) visits with a variety of East Range businesses. These in-person, one-on-one interviews with business owners and operators aimed to gauge both current operations and expansion plans.   Businesses across the full spectrum of the East Range economy participated to share their perceptions of the business climate and broader community conditions, such as the state of broadband on [...]

In spring 2023, ERJPB will revisit its three-year strategic plan. Since it was developed in 2021, all six of the current plan’s strategic directions have seen progress: Two are complete, and two more are on track for completion by the end of June, at which point it will be time to develop a new strategic plan for the next three years.  Here’s a look at the status of the six current strategic directions as of [...]

In December 2022, the Department of Employment and Economic Development awarded a Border to Border grant to Mediacom to bring broadband service to the Scenic Acres portion of the Town of White, along with substantial portions of Biwabik Township.  The Border to Border program provides financial resources that help make the business case for new and existing providers to invest in building broadband infrastructure for unserved and underserved areas of Minnesota. With funding from the [...]

East Range Joint Powers Board meetings take place at 9 a.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month. Community members are welcome!   You can attend meetings in person at Aurora City Hall or virtually via Zoom at this link.   Meeting dates and times are posted in advance on erjpb.com. The next meetings will be:   October 25 – more info here  November 22 – more info here  December 27 – more info here  At the meetings, [...]

A two-year project in coordination with a $13,270 culture and tourism grant from Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation has resulted in interactive trail maps now available online and in print copies at locations across the Iron Range. The process of creating the maps also involved an analysis of trail systems and led to updates to trail signage across the East Range.   The maps trace the East Range’s robust trail networks for snowmobiling, off-highway vehicles [...]

Residential redevelopment grants are available through the Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation for eliminating blight, improving property maintenance, promoting health and safety, or encouraging economic development.   In fiscal year 2022, the grant program funded the demolition of 44 structures in eight communities.  The agency’s Residential Redevelopment program provides funding to demolish dilapidated residential structures and blight within the agency’s service area to pave the way for a cleaner, healthier environment, more attractive communities and new [...]

With offices in Brainerd, Baxter, Crosby, and Mountain Iron, CTC is a member-owned cooperative that provides reliable, high-speed internet for Iron Range businesses of all sizes.   In collaboration with Northeast Service Cooperative (NESC), located in Mountain Iron, CTC can utilize fiber to provide broadband connections. CTC can also provide hosted phones, local phone service, PRI and T1 circuits, and more connectivity solutions.   CTC has been serving rural areas since 1950. The company started in Brainerd [...]