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There’s a mindset that needs to change in a hurry. Instead of energy being spent to stop things from happening in the Ely area, we need to find ways to encourage businesses to want to locate here, hire employees and pay taxes.
The whole Silver Rapids Resort debacle is the latest loss of a better economic future. Here was a company willing to invest $45 million to give our area much-needed services and lodging, plus additional employees and tax revenue.
Now that may never happen. And to make matters worse our ridiculous Minnesota DNR is suing Lake County for the way an agreement was reached to remove the permits for the project. Even the judge was shaking his head at this move.
The Ely city council also continues to unnecessarily restrict businesses that are going to be allowed to sell a legal product in cannabis. There is no sense in this one either. Those who have a concern over substance abuse are overreaching and not looking at the big picture.
Much of the downtown business district would be off-limits under terms of one of two ordinances that will be up for adoption yet this year. This is anti-business, not anti-substance abuse. If you have an argument over whether cannabis should be legal, take that up with the DFL, which pushed through this massive change under a trifecta in the last legislative session.
But to misplace your fears and opposition by putting in place ordinances that don’t put alcohol and cannabis on the same level lacks common sense.
Again, like it or not, cannabis is going to be sold in this community. Wouldn’t we be better off to welcome these businesses, employees and taxes than to shoebox them into a restricted area?
There was also some discussion about the campground expansion project at the council meeting. No matter how the process was handled, this was a project that could have been a benefit to the area.
We have way too many people who thrive on saying no. Let’s look at issues like the Boundary Waters Canoe Area permits, the proposed copper-nickel mines, the Silver Rapids Resort project, the campground project and we’re sure many more. People who say no and are opposed to these are not helping our area survive and thrive in the future, they are paving the way for a dying community to continue to lose businesses and jobs.
We will also note that this community can not survive on non-profit organizations that say they are businesses. If you are not paying taxes, you are not helping the tax base. Businesses don’t write grants when times get tough. Businesses are the ones generating the tax dollars those grants are often derived from.
The bottom line is we need to have a mindset change of welcoming businesses to our area and encouraging them to invest in Ely’s future. If we don’t, Ely won’t have one.
