International Falls Daily Journal - Big 3 Talk about 5 Ts

International Falls Daily Journal - Big 3 Talk About 5 Ts

Author: Amanda Ricker

Borderland's three Congressional representatives listened to ways the federal government can better serve the area's economic needs during a Saturday summit at Rainy River Community College.

Attended by U.S. Sens. Mark Dayton and Norm Coleman as well as U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, the event focused on the five Ts that drive the local economy: timber, trade, transportation, training and tourism.

"How do we at the federal level become better partners with Koochiching County?" asked Coleman in his opening remarks.

"You've given us some great ideas and we need to develop them further and more intensively," Oberstar said at the end of the session. "We'll take these ideas and maybe they won't come out exactly the way you proposed, but they will come out for something better for the longer and greater good of this Borderland community. It's going to take a lot of work for us all coming together doing the best that we can here with what we have."

Dayton expressed his willingness to return for future summits, with an additional request to do as Coleman did during his visit to Borderland -- fish.

"We will do this a second and third time if need be," said Dayton. "Except next time I will have to go fishing."

Oberstar joked that he is better at eating fish than catching them, and said he'd never turn down a good fish fry in International Falls.

The trials of timber

Bob Anderson, public affairs director at Boise Cascade LLC, testified on the decline of the timber industry in Minnesota and the need for legislators to meet with federal forest managers.

"In 1987, federal lands provided 14 billion or 25 percent of national use. Today, they provide 2 billion or about 3 percent, said Anderson. "The reason for that decline has been primarily lawsuits by extreme environmental groups that have made Minnesota their battleground."

More attention needs to be given to managers and supervisors of the two U.S. forests in the state to encourage them to offer for sale as much wood as possible for the timber industry, he said.

Anderson asked the lawmakers to meet annually with federal forest managers to find out how much of the allowable sale quantity of timber has been put up for sale.

"See how efficient they have been versus the state and county foresters in putting up wood," Anderson said. "And further, ask if they have the resources to do their job."

Oberstar said he has spoken with forest managers about the matter and noted that fear of lawsuits is affecting sales.

"What I have heard from Superior National Forest and Chippewa National Forest, is that they spend more time working out the legalities of the sale than working out the mechanics of the sale itself," he said.

Opportunities in trade

Steve Anderson, director of Minneapolis Foreign Trade Zone, and Paul Nevanen, Koochiching Economic Development Authority director, spoke about the need to take advantage of the Falls' area foreign trade zone status and the increasing number of railcars passing through Ranier.

"International Falls is a seaport," said Oberstar, noting that more than 650,000 rail containers pass through the Ranier port-of-entry yearly. "We have to think more creatively about what we can do other than screening those containers. We need to find a way to enhance this asset."

Nevanen said the goods coming in include Canadian agriculture products and lumber, and more recently, products from China and the Pacific Rim. He also suggested that the International Falls' zone could provide services such as warehousing, assembly and repackaging.

Nevanen asked the legislators to support the area's application for a Department of Commerce infrastructure grant and for help in promotion and awareness of the zone program in International Falls when they are on trade missions outside the U.S.

Expanding transportation

Thor Einarson, president of Einarson Brothers Flying Service and manager of Falls International Airport, and Bob Anderson, who is also the airport commission chairman, testified to the necessity of making International Falls more accessible.

Einarson asked for support for an airport runway project lengthening the runway to 7,400 feet by 2006.

"Our focus now is to convince the Federal Aviation Administration of the value of completing this project in its entirety for the future of the airport," he said.

Oberstar also commented on the importance of improving highways to make the area a national trade corridor and reduce the cost of congestion.

Anderson said a citizen's task force will meet on the Highway 53 expansion issue in April.

Training in Borderland

Nevanen and Wayne Merrill, newly-appointed provost at Rainy River Community College, also encouraged the lawmakers to continue their support of designating the college as a Homeland Security training center for agents serving along the northern border of the United States.

Nevanen said the Falls would be an ideal, cost-effective location for northern border security training for a variety of reasons, including the area's central location in the nation and its 40 years of cold climate testing.

Merrill also said RRCC is willing to offer its facilities and technology.

"There really is a need for this and I would hope that the folks at Homeland Security would be smart enough to take advantage of this opportunity," Coleman said.

At the conclusion of the summit, the senators and representative thanked each other and the community for their input.

http://coleman.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Articles.Detail&article_id=51&Month=3&Year=2005