The Indus choir performs an Andy Beck holiday song.
Come all ye faithful
Indus holiday program this week
A4
Mark
Kowlzan
Mark Kowlzan said he’s proud of Boise Paper’s International Falls mill, its workers, and their accomplishments.
The community that plays host to the paper mill also plays an important role in its successes, said the Packaging Corporation of America’s CEO.
“I sincerely want to thank everybody in the community,” he said Monday, when he provided a group of mill and community leaders a look back at and ahead to mill activities. “I am real, real pleased with results in the mill.”
It’s been about one year since the Falls paper mill and other Boise Inc. facilities were acquired by PCA.
“We’ve made a lot of progress,” Kowlzan said.
During the gathering, he provided data he said “prove that you can be in the white paper business and have a profitable business. But we can’t do it without a community like you that support what we are trying to do.”
Looking ahead
In 2015, the company will install a 57-megawatt turbine generator at a cost of about $20 million, Kowlzan said. The new generator will increase the mill’s electricity-generating capability by 53 percent and it should be operational by the end of this summer.
“This will be a huge, huge operational boon to the mill,” he said. “It’s something the mill should have had 20 years ago.”
The installation has already begun, with the purchase of the generator in March, he said. The roof of the building was closed in last month and piles are being driven for the generator, he said.
The need for the mill to generate more of its own electricity was known by Kowlzan within months of PCA’s purchase, he said.
“We will have a state-of-the-art generator tied to this turbine,” he said. “People don’t realize we’re retiring some turbine generators that were started up in 1912 — we have some antique units here that should be in museums.”
Efficiency of the mill and the cost per ton of paper will be improved with the generator, he said.
In addition, the company has set a $15 million capital budget for the coming year, Kowlzan added.
Earlier in the day Kowlzan met with the leaders of unions representing workers in the mill to talk about “what we’ve been doing and what we can do better and what we are intending to do the next year coming up and continuing to make improvements.”
Kowlzan said the future must bring a connection between the mill the the youth of the community. He said it’s important to consider how to provide incentives to the community’s youth to work in the mill.
“We need the support of the kids, the youth in the region, and we need to show them we have viable employment and they want to come be with us,” he said.
Mill manager Bert Brown said he agreed later in the meeting, and said efforts are underway to tie the needs of the mill to offerings at local schools.
Looking back
Kowlzan admitted 2013 was a year of uncertainty with announcements of machines being shut down, layoffs and the purchase of the mill by PCA.
Kowlzan said the company in 2014 started to show its intentions, and he provided a summary of activities of the year.
“We got right to work fixing things at the mill and giving people the tools to work with,” he said. “It became evident to the employees we were serious about running this mill and hopefully, it became evident to you folks in local government.”
PCA is prosperous by operating efficiently and making a product for which a customer is willing to pay, he said.
Early in the year, he said the company added 26 salary and 16 hourly positions, and the company got a good return for the investment.
The company invested millions of dollars in acquiring spare equipment for the mill. Brown and other leaders “had the freedom to buy what they needed to buy to run the business,” Kowlzan said.
Kowlzan said the mill expanded its repair days and spent $3.2 million in maintenance and labor. Almost $30 million was spent year-to-date fixing things within the mill and bolting on new technology.
“You can get close to perfect,” he said. “But you can’t probably be perfect. And where we are today compared to a year ago we have by leaps and bounds improved.”
He provided data that showed the I1 paper machine has increased productivity by nearly 200 tons a day from 2011 to today, he said, and the machine’s efficiency has improved from 87.7 percent to 92.7 percent. The I3 machine has shown a similar trend, with dramatic improvements in productivity through efficiency, he said.
“The good news is we’re selling a lot of paper and we’re producing it at less cost,” Kowlzan said. “This is exciting opportunity.”
A strong safety culture and a highly engaged results-oriented team have helped to produce those results, he said.
“This didn’t happen with just one person,” he said. “It’s another substantiation that what we’re doing is the right thing to do, and it’s paying dividends.”
Santa Claus hugs a happy child during the Ranier Recreation Club’s Children’s Christmas Party Sunday.
Savannah Demars, left, and her mother Jessica meet with Santa Claus Sunday.
Santa Claus hugs a happy child during the Ranier Recreation Club’s Children’s Christmas Party Sunday.
Savannah Demars, left, and her mother Jessica meet with Santa Claus Sunday.
Santa Claus makes an up-close introduction to a child Sunday at the Ranier Community Building.
Savannah Demars, left, gets some help from her mother Jessica while sharing her Christmas list with Santa Claus Sunday.
Grampa Magic performs some sleight of hand tricks for a child Sunday at the Ranier Recreation Club’s Children’s Christmas Party.
Savannah Demars, left, shyly ducks her head while her and her mother Jessica meet Santa Claus Sunday.
Grampa Magic has a child pick a card during a card trick Sunday.
The Ranier Recreation Club’s Children’s Christmas Party Sunday featured two exclusive guests who are quite busy during the holiday season.
Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus entertained the children at the party, held in the Ranier Community Building.
Kids anxious to share their wish lists with the man in red got the chance to hop up on his lap and spill the beans, following a magic act from local magician, Grampa Magic.
Grampa Magic performs some sleight of hand tricks for a child Sunday at the Ranier Recreation Club’s Children’s Christmas Party.
Santa Claus makes an up-close introduction to a child Sunday at the Ranier Community Building.
Falls High School cheerleaders Regan Hanson left, and Maddy Foss, cheered in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City last month through The Spirit of America Productions. Aside from cheering in the annual event, the FHS seniors took full advantage of The Big Apple by sight seeing, skating in Rockefeller Center and attending a Broaday show at Radio City Music Hall.
Cheering for Macy’s
FHS takes
on NYC
A10
Ron
Wilcox
RANIER- The Ranier City Council Monday approved its 2015 tax levy at $156,000, a slight overall increase over the 2014 levy.
The 2014 levy was set at $150,000, but due to a slight increase in the city’s tax base, the levy can be raised by $6,000 without increasing the tax rate, Mayor Dennis Wagner said. In September, the council set the proposed levy at $160,000.
In other business, the council approved increasing the water rates incrementally for 2015, in order to keep pace with a 5-percent increase in the city of International Falls’ water rates. The city of Ranier purchases its water from the city of International Falls.
Ranier will increase its water rates by $1.15 for the minimum 2,000 gallons, and by 51-cents for the next 1,000 gallons, city Administrator Sherril Gautreaux said. After the end of this year, councilors hope to meet with the International Falls City Council to discuss the water rates.
“All that does is to cover their rate increase,” Gautreaux said of the Ranier and International Falls rate increases.
In other business, the council approved a contract with CliftonLarsonAllen for auditing services. The city received six proposals from different firms, Gautreaux said, and the firm that stood out was CLA.
“I agree,” Councilor Todd Coulombe said. “The reason I say that is, it sounds like they’ll be: you can call them, and they’ll offer to help, or you can get help.”
The firm won’t just be around every January for auditing, Coulombe said, and will be available year-round as a partner to help the city with questions they might have.
Even though CLA is one of the largest auditing firms in the U.S., Councilor Ron Wilcox said, they perform services in-house, and don’t outsource processes to other firms.
“These other companies that we had here, they were always part of another company,” Wilcox said. “So whenever they had to make a decision, they have to go through that other company to get approval.”
One of the firm’s major focuses is governmental auditing, Gautreaux said, which makes them an ideal firm to work with.
“A lot of their business is small cities, and they take it very seriously,” Gautreaux said. “It’s their passion.”
The company’s proposed cost is $15,950, Gautreaux said, which is more than the city’s previous rate with the previous firm, Miller McDonald Inc. from Bemidji. All the proposals were higher than the old firm’s rate, she said.
The cost is the most the city would be charged, Gautreaux said, and is based on an hourly rate. If CLA doesn’t spend as many hours as proposed, the city won’t be charged the full amount.
“If they don’t use all the time that they have allotted, they wouldn’t charge that much,” Gautreaux said.
During the open forum period at the end of the meeting, Wagner recognized outgoing Councilor Brenda Bauer, who was attending her last meeting after 11 years of service on the council. Bauer chose not to run for reelection in November.
Pete
Kalar
A discussion Monday about the timing of appointments to be made by International Falls Mayor Bob Anderson turned into endorsements for reappointments to the North Koochiching Area Sanitary Sewer Board.
Councilor Gail Rognerud, at her last meeting of nearly 30 years of council service, asked Anderson when he planned to make the appointments to the board. Rognerud did not seek reelection as the Center Ward councilor.
Councilor Cynthia Jaksa was absent from Monday’s meeting.
The appointments are made by nomination from the mayor with approval by the full council. Tom Worth and Brian McBride represent the city on the board. Their terms expire on New Year’s Eve.
Anderson said at the Dec. 1 council meeting he planned to bring to the council at the first meeting of 2015 his appointments for council action.
On Monday, Rognerud pointed to letters sent to Anderson urging him to complete appointments prior to the end of the year to remain in compliance with the legislation that created the NKASD district.
In October, a letter from McBride, who serves as NKASD Board chairman, and Tim “Chopper” McBride, the board’s executive director, asked Anderson to nominate, with council support, prior to Dec. 31 to fill the three-year terms that begin Jan. 1.
“The city’s last meeting of the year would be Dec. 15, 2014, for formal acceptance of city representation to the NKASD,” said the letter of compliance with the act that established the NKASD. The legislation states the seats must be filled 60 days before the existing term expires.
In November, Anderson replied it is his intent to follow the city’s charter and ordinance, which outlines appointments be made at the first regular meeting in January.
A Nov. 24 letter from the board’s attorney, Joe Boyle, said the appointment timeline “is a specific legal requirement of each governmental entity of NKASD.”
Boyle, who served as city attorney for many years, pointed to wording in the city code which allows for an exception to the city’s regular January appointments that allows for compliance with the state law that created the district.
Boyle’s letter also asserts the council could lose the ability to make appointments after Dec. 31.
City Attorney Steve Shermoen said the board could petition the court to make an appointment should it not be made in 2014.
Shermoen said Anderson’s plan to nominate in 2014, but seek council acceptance in January, could be viewed as a compromise, however the council faces some risk of losing the ability to appoint with that approach.
Anderson said he believes there is some ambiguity in the state law passed in 1981 that established the district.
Endorsements
Meanwhile, the discussion about timing turned into endorsements for the reappointment of Worth and Brian McBride.
But Anderson said he has four applications for the two positions on the board. He said the costs of sewer service has caused concern in the community, and is part of the reason the city will implement the final 5-percent increase in water and sewer rates in January under a three-year plan.
Rognerud asked how the mayor received four applications when the city had not sought applications for the positions on the sewer board. Anderson said he assumed the candidates had been following district activities and felt compelled to seek appointment to the board.
Councilor Pete Kalar said should McBride and Worth not be reappointed, Anderson would be guilty of “political gamesmanship.”
He said he would vote no for any other appointments to the board, adding Worth and McBride handled the district through difficult times.
“Now is not the time to have new members,” he said.
East Ward Councilor Paul Eklund, who also did not seek reelection to another term on the council, echoed Kalar’s comments, adding appointing someone other than Worth and McBride would be an insult to them.
Rognerud, acknowledging she would not be a member when the appointments were brought to the council for consideration, said she would be disappointed should the two men not be reappointed.
