Koochiching County commissioners Tuesday agreed to commit up to $350,000 toward construction of a second cold box at the area’s cold weather testing facility.
The action paves the way for Jaguar Land Rover of the United Kingdom to test at the facility for 10 years with it repaying the two governments the money in a 5-year loan repayment period at 2-percent interest.
The county’s financial commitment matches one made last week by the city of International falls. The cold weather testing facility is jointly owned by the city and county and managed by the Koochiching Economic Development Authority.
Paul Nevanen, KEDA director, told The Journal Tuesday that Jaguar Land Rover of the United Kingdom had recently signed the 10-year agreement, and named the company for the first time publicly.
The county’s commitment will be backed by Koochiching Economic Development funds, according to county Administrative Director Teresa Jaksa.
Jaksa said that the county initially considered asking the city to pledge the entire $644,000 price tag of the second cold box, with the county backing loan.
However, she told commissioners Tuesday, that further consideration of the county budget showed that the money could be taken from the county’s undedicated fund reserves.
The worse case scenario, she said, would be to repay the county’s funds from annual allotment the Koochiching Economic Authority is expected to receive from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation agency.
Commissioner Wade Pavleck said the proposal alleviates concerns he raised earlier about the risk taxpayers may face should the client not repay the loan.
“Things can go wrong, but the KDA backing satisfies my concerns,” he said Tuesday.
Board Chairman Brian McBride said that discussions at an earlier meeting included brainstorming and the county’s delay in committing the funds did not jeopardize the project.
“Bad decisions can be made in a hurry,” added Pavleck.
Debbie Bowman, an alternate member of the KEDA, suggested that such a project would be better handled by private enterprise rather than governments.
But Commissioner Mike Hanson said that no private entity had come forward for this project or to take over the cold weather testing facility. In addition, he said the KEDA manages the cold weather testing facility well, pumping thousands of dollars annually into the community.
Nevanen earlier estimated that Jaguar Land Rover and its clients would add more than $500,000 to the community’s economy via use of the local airport and other amenities.
In other business, the board rejected a Planning Commission recommendation to deny a conditional use permit that would allow blasting and crushing of rock on property owned by Ron Peterson near the Highway 11 east overpass.
Instead, the board approved Peterson’s request for a conditional use permit and placed the same conditions on the operation as are now in place for the county’s crushing and blasting at the nearby foreign trade zone. Among those conditions are an outline hours of operation, dust control measures, and pre-blasting surveys.
The county reviewed concerns brought to the Planning Commission by several property owners near the proposed operation, but said that the conditions of operation should alleviate those issues.
Peterson was denied a similar request about one year ago. At least two other CUPs were provided to other blasting and crushing operations since then in the county.
Bowman, representing Bowman Construction located adjacent to Peterson’s property, reiterated concerns about the blasting and crushing near Bowman’s fuel and road. She said Peterson contracts for the blasting and crushing and the responsibility trail is unclear because others are involved.
But commissioners said the contractors involved must abide by the conditions set for the operation.
