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In a series of votes on Tuesday night, the Ely city council showed support for mining jobs with a 5-2 margin.
The three votes had the same scorecard with mayor Heidi Omerza, council members Al Forsman, John Lahtonen, Jerome Debeltz and Angela Campbell on the winning side and council members Emily Roose and Adam Bisbee on the other.
This was an issue that revolved around a request for a letter of support for a LCCMR grant for the White Iron Chain of Lakes Association to do water testing for sulfates. Overall, the project is likely worth looking at, but the optics make it nearly impossible for local governments to support.
The Ely city council and other local bodies have been fighting a battle for decades with groups like the Friends of the Boundary Waters on issues ranging from mining to motorboats. City officials have made trips to Washington D.C. to battle groups like the Friends who can only find support from Twin Cities metro legislators to sponsor their bills.
What does that have to do with supporting a grant application? Everything when there now appears to be a direct connection between WICOLA and the Friends. Even a letter from WICOLA on the grant application mentioned the Friends. This was the beginning of the end and the door was slammed shut on Tuesday night.
Our local elected officials need to be able to work with their legislators in St. Paul and D.C. And those legislators have taken the same anti-mining stance that groups like the Friends have taken. The two council members on the losing side need to look at the bigger political picture.
So does WICOLA.
