Schroeder Township held its reorganizational meeting on April 9 selecting a chair and vice chair, designating a polling place, town depository, compensation review and updating the contact list.
Tina McKeever was selected board chair and Bruce Martinson vice chair. The North Shore Federal Credit Union was picked as the township’s depository, the Schroeder Town Hall as the polling place, and the Cook County News-Herald as the paper of record.
Bruce Martinson asked for and received permission for an easement of about 30 feet across Minnesota Power land so a snowmobile trail could come into his resort.
The board passed a resolution to approve $1,500 to Tofte for the July 4th celebration.
A May 14 board meeting with Minnesota Power will be held at 6 p.m. to discuss plans for the closed Taconite Harbor Energy Center 225-megawat coal-fired power plant, which was idled in the fall of 2016 because it was both cost effective and helped the company meet its EnergyForward goal of reducing greenhouse gases.
The decision to idle rather than close also allowed Minnesota Power to restart and produce electric power to maintain grid reliability if the demand for electricity should arise.
At the time of closure Minnesota Power announced that a group from Duluth was working on plant repurposing. Engineering firms were brought in to look at the power, rail and harbor assets. A whole gamut of ideas was being explored completely unrelated to making power on the grounds.
In the years since the plant being idled, little has been said about the future of the plant site. Schroeder supervisor Rick Anderson said it would be interesting to see what plans or ideas Minnesota Power has for the plant or the land it owns above Highway 61.
One of the company’s biggest assets is its 500,000 cubic yard landfill, which was offered to both Lake and Cook counties to look at as a landfill, but neither county showed strong interest in the proposal.
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