Marquette City Commission Talks Kennecott

Recently, Kennecott Eagle Minerals announced its decision to drop all plans to build the long-proposed plans for the 20-mile-plus Woodland Road in favor of using current roads within Marquette County to get to the Eagle Mine.

Some of those current roads lie within the city of Marquette.

The City Comission held a special discussion last night during its regular meeting discussing the new changes and what the city should do.

The company announced its plans to use County Roads 510 and 550, as well as Wright Street in Marquette.

Commissioners who were generally for the idea of jobs coming to Marquette, such as John Kivela and Don Ryan, were concerned with the company’s new road plans and thought it would be best to find a middle ground between the surrounding communities and the company.

Other commissioners, such as Fred Stonehouse and Jason Schneider, were surprised by the company’s decision.

They and some residents in attendance said they were apprehensive about working with the company in the future.

Stonehouse also brought up the idea of having City Manager Bill Vajda explore what options the city has legally to can prevent trucks from driving into the city.