Keith Vandervort
ELY – “The real crusher was that Friday was so much fun,” said Adam Zins as he and his wife, Tanja, tried to untangle a wire shelving unit early Saturday morning from under a mangled tent. All around them, in the middle of Whiteside Park, was what remained of the Blueberry/Art Festival. “It looked like a war zone.”
A line of thunderstorms with damaging 70-mph winds driving torrential rains hit Ely at about 6:30 p.m. Friday night, just as the first leg of the three-day Blueberry/Art Festival was wrapping up.
The short but severe storm destroyed scores of arts vendors’ displays and tents, and uprooted big trees in the park, prompting Ely Chamber of Commerce officials late Friday to cancel the remainder of the 2021 festival.
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Ely city council: No need to ‘prove it first’
Adopts another resolution in support of sulfide mining Posted
Keith Vandervort
ELY – With little fanfare and no opposition, the City Council here this week adopted another resolution in support of sulfide mining in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness watershed.
In a unanimous vote, council members agreed to disregard proposals to “Prove it First,” as spelled out in recent federal and state legislation that would require scientific proof before any copper-nickel mining could be permitted in Minnesota without risking pollution to the nearby million-acre wilderness.