Page 44 - Keith Vandervort News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Posted Keith Vandervort ELY– The U.S. Forest Service reported several fires in the Ely area late last week due to extremely dry conditions and a lightning storm on July 4. Hot shot crews continued to battle the largest, the Delta Lake fire, this week, as worsening drought has pushed the fire danger to extreme. The Delta Lake fire is burning in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in a thicket of waist- to chest-high blowdown dating back to 2016, that is hampering firefighter access, according to an update from the Forest Service’s Incident Command Team, which assumed unified comma...

Keith Vandervort ELY - After a year on hiatus because of public health concerns due to the coronavirus pandemic, the community’s signature art and craft event, the Blueberry/Art Festival, is back for 2021, hosted by the Ely Chamber of Commerce. The Blueberry/Art Festival begins on Friday, July 23 and runs through Sunday, July 25.  “This year’s festival will concentrate on arts, crafts, and food,” said Ely Chamber of Commerce Event Coordinator Ellen Cashman. Public health guidelines for the COVID-19 pandemic led Chamber officials to downsize the festival this year. The 2021 Blueberry...

Keith Vandervort ELY - Highway 169 about two miles west of Ely was shut down last Saturday afternoon for more than six hours because of a fire involving a semi truck that was pulling a tanker of gasoline. According to a report from Morse-Fall Lake Fire Chief Ted Krueger, as related to the Northland Fire Wire, around 2:15 p.m. Saturday the brakes of the semi caught fire and the blaze spread to the vehicle’s tires. The truck driver uncoupled the burning vehicle from the tanker. The front of the tanker hit the ground, rupturing a tanker pocket containing 3,400 gallons of gasoline.

Posted Keith Vandervort ELY - A sparse agenda for the city council here this week found council members in the middle of a dispute between neighbors over lawn mowing. One neighbor wants to mow the lawn on portions of city property surrounding his property on Sibley Drive. The other neighbor doesn’t want him to. Apparently, Andy Hill, of 2111 Sibley Drive, has been doing the extra lawn mowing outside his property limits for the past two summers, but the Ely City Police were recently notified of the random act of beautification and Hill was told by the local lawn mowing police that he would...

Keith Vandervort ELY – U.S. Forest Service crews used the Ely Airport for a helicopter training session last Friday as the trainees learned and refreshed their skills in working with rotary aircraft while fighting wildfires in the North Country. Eric Holzem, USFS Helitack supervisor for District 9, including the Kawishiwi District, oversaw the training as eight students on the ground performed training drills in cargo transport via external load. “The skills are needed for transport into and out of remote sites for fire suppression, or building projects in areas that are hard to reach any...