Cook County Chamber of Commerce Director Jim Boyd and Visit Cook County Director Linda Jurek came before the Grand Marais city council on Wednesday, January 29 to present a marketing/ communication plan aimed at minimizing the effect of the upcoming Highway 61 reconstruction project on area businesses.
Boyd and Jurek were representing the Grand Marais Business Coalition who have met with business owners and learned from other communities how to maintain business traffic, preserve pedestrian connections and minimize disruptions during construction.
In the summer of 2020, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) will begin the reconstruction of Highway 61 through Grand Marais from 1.8 miles north of Cutface Creek to 0.1 miles south of County Road 14, to resurface, improve accessibility and replace box culverts. The majority of the work in the city of Grand Marais will take place during the summer of 2021.
The Fall River Bridge replacement is scheduled to start August 3, 2020, with construction expected to take four weeks. All vehicles will be rerouted onto County Road 7 during the closure, and businesses located along Highway 61 coming into town will receive some help through the placement of a variety of signs, billboards, social media, rack cards, logo, and branding, etc.
Councilors were given a financial overview of the cost to implement both the 2020 ($12,650) and 2021 ($11,150) communication strategies.
Both Jurek and Boyd said they were in front of the council to discuss plans for 2020, not 2021. Each of their organizations had voted to commit $2,500 to 2020, and they asked the board to invest $7,650.
Councilor Kelly Swearingen noted that one item was recorded twice, and Jurek said that was a mistake, so the figure for the city to contemplate dropped to $6,750.
Because parking will be extremely tight in town during the summer of 2021 when Highway 61 is under construction–along with the scheduled improvements to sidewalks and sewer and water infrastructure located along the corridor– a shuttle is proposed to take people to and from the Arts Festival, Fisherman’s Picnic, and July 4 festivities.
Boyd said Arrowhead Transit was open to being contracted on the weekends to run shuttles from the new city garage site (former Tomteboda site) and Sawtooth Elementary school parking lot contingent, of course, upon the city approving public parking on the new city garage site.
City Administrator Mike Roth said work would have to be done on the new city garage property before it could be used for public parking.
Swearingen wondered if the city could be held liable if they took part in paying for the marketing strategy, and someone was hurt being transported to events by Arrowhead Transit. Jim Boyd said he assumed Arrowhead Transit was adequately insured and bonded, and Linda Jurek said the money from the city would be paid to the Chamber, who would distribute it to the vendors.
After a lengthy discussion, the three councilors in attendance, Kelly Swearingen, Anton Moody, and Mayor Jay Arrowsmith Decoux, voted to donate $6,750 to the project.
Boyd said, “We are doing this to help the businesses in Grand Marais survive this (construction) in as strong of a position as possible.”
City Hall Liquor Store
Council listened to a presentation by Bruce Cornwall, LHB, about the latest concepts for the future new City Hall/ Liquor Store building.
Cornwall was last in front of the council in late October. He brought back more drawings and three more potential ideas for the council to consider.
The potential cost will range from $4.5 to 5.6 million, depending on how large the new space for the public restrooms, city council offices, liquor store, and possible new office space for the EDA and Chamber, which currently rent office space from the city.
The current square footage of the city complex is 11,500 square feet. One of the concepts Cornwall presented was 19,000 square feet with the smallest build at 16,000 square feet. Much of the discussion was on the size of the city hall meeting space. Councilors were shown a variety of designs that could fit as many as 140 people and as few as 70. Under some of the drawings, Cornwall said the city could use the room for receptions or larger meetings and parties.
Because of the volume of information and potential cost of the project, councilor Moody—a homebuilder by trade— asked if the council could meet with Cornwall in a work session to go over the plans shown in greater detail. Cornwall and the other councilors agreed to set up a future meeting to carry on the discussion.
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