MPR: IRRRB: The Future

IRRRB: The Future
By Amy Radil
December 8, 1999
Part of "After the Mines"

The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board evolved into its present form 20 years ago to insure life after taconite in northeast Minnesota, a purpose many "rangers" say they support. But in recent years the agency's reputation has been linked more to political turmoil and failed investments. Local business owners say the IRRRB has rarely sought their advice or responded to their needs. They're holding out hope for change, though, thanks to new people onboard and a potential resurgence in the industry that started it all: mining.

While the IRRRB continues trying to bring new businesses to the Range, it is also putting money into what many hope will be a resurgance in the mining industry.

AFTER MONTHS OF WRANGLING, House speaker Steve Sviggum finally got his wish, and changed the make-up of the IRRRB board to include three so-called "citizens' seats." The idea was to allow qualified non-legislators to serve. Governor Ventura appointed Hibbing business owner Patricia Ives, who showed up at her first board meeting eager to take part, only to find one of her fellow citizen appointees, former legislator and board member Joe Begich, railing against the very idea of citizen involvement. Begich said the board of politicians was doing just fine, and told Senator Jerry Janezich the law allowing citizens on the board should be changed.

Begich: Who represents this area, but you people who are elected, you have the pulse of this area. If we get the majority back and the Democrats in the House, the very first bill ought to be from Janezich, becase you're the one that caved in, Jerry. The very first bill you ought to get is to put it back the way it was.

Begich's speech was IRRRB oratory at its finest. Patricia Ives describes the meeting as an eye-opener, but says she expects things to go more smoothly in the future.

Ives: I guess I could describe it as I was aware there was some grandstanding going on and a little bit of theatrics. But I was told by some staff people that are quite a bit more experienced than I am that this was necessary, it had to be done and to get it over with and the meetings would continue on like they should.

House Speaker Steve Sviggum, says the appointment of Begich as a citizen, selected by Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe, while legal, is hardly what he had in mind.

Sviggum: His appointment only smacks of the good-old-boys power control, all internal power, it runs contrary to the intent of the legislation to get real citizens, not professional politicians, on the board.

Sviggum represents Kenyon in southwestern Minnesota. He says he was spurred to try to change the board when he heard stories of IRRRB board members bullying businesses to relocate in their districts. Sviggum's views of the IRRRB are not just held by non-Range Republicans. Local business owners have long considered the agency a purely-political entity.

Bonnie Fena is president of K-Byte Electronics in Hibbing, a business she began 25 years ago. Now with 630 workers K-Byte is one of the few large employers in the region not connected to mining. Fena says she'd like to see more partnerships between the IRRRB and local businesses because when economic development money starts flowing, home-grown businesses are more likely to stay around. She's seen firsthand the lengths cities or in fact states will go to to lure businesses away.

Fena: I've had a minimum for the last two years, letters from governors from other states, mayors from other communities, inviting me. They'd send jets to pick me up, they would give me buildings, they would give me tax-free benefits. The bottom line is, if the person at the helm of the company doesn't want to be there, they aren't going to be there.

IRRRB Commissioner John Swift comes across as modest and soft-spoken, and is described by others as someone able to build bridges. In the past, he, too, voiced his own frustrations about the board members, once dismissing them in a letter as "clowns." These days he's more diplomatic.

But area business owners' longstanding disenchantment with the IRRRB is mixed these days with newfound optimism. They hope citizen-appointees Patricia Ives and Sandy Layman will counteract the board's political atmosphere. They are also pleased by Ventura's appointment of commissioner John Swift, a local resort owner. Swift comes across as modest and soft-spoken, and is described by others as someone able to build bridges. In the past, he, too, voiced his own frustrations about the board members, once dismissing them in a letter as "clowns." These days he's more diplomatic.

Swift: I think in the past they have done a good job when politics didn't get in the way of decisions.

Under Swift, the agency has established a business recruitment office in the Twin Cities, put more focus on helping existing businesses, and is pursuing an initiative begun by previous commissioner Jim Gustafson to bring information technology companies to the Range. Swift has reaffirmed the agency's focus on economic development rather than community improvement grants, a decision that is not popular with everyone.

Swift: We can no longer afford, though, to spend money on tennis courts, on crossroads that have nothing to do with economic development. When you look at the mission of the agency and the statutes that govern the agency, the primary objective is to bring diversified exmployment to the taconite tax-relief area. And it's a stretch to look at some of the things that have been done in the past and say this is how a tennis court played in economic development.

While the IRRRB continues trying to bring new businesses to the Range, it is also putting money into what many hope will be a resurgance in the mining industry. The agency is contributing $20 million to help the area's first steel plant, Minnesota Iron and Steel, get off the ground. The company could eventually employ up to 1,000 people. A Colorado-based company, PolyMet, is test drilling for a proposed mineral mine, another "first" in the region.

Don Hilligoss, whose family runs Ranger Cheverolet dealerships in Hibbing and Ely, echoes the feelings of many when he says he's delighted to come full circle back to mining.

Hilligoss: The other jobs don't pay as well as the mining industry. We see it in the customers who comein here, the mining people are able to spend more money than most of the other people.

The average wage in mining is $60,000, a figure most businesses can't or won't meet. There's also a certain nostalgia among many Iron Rangers for the industry that formed their towns and brought their ancestors to the area. Even as the IRRRB tries to ease the area's reliance on one industry, local business owners are pragmatic and blunt. They say the IRRRB's efforts are fine, but no one has any illusions there would be anything on the Iron Range today if the mines disappeared.

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