Silver Bay launches new website, schedules water treatment groundbreaking

Silver Bay put its new municipal website, silverbaymn.gov, online and set a July 7 groundbreaking at 10 a.m. for the water treatment facility and booster station project, two moves that put the city’s most visible infrastructure work in front of residents at once. The old website now redirects to the new one, giving the city a cleaner public entry point as several utility and capital projects move forward.

The water project has been building for months. In February, city council materials warned that much of Silver Bay’s infrastructure is reaching replacement age at the same time and that project costs have climbed sharply since 2023, leaving the city to lean on utility fees and stormwater fees for improvements. The June 15 decision to mark the next phase with a public groundbreaking signals that the water treatment and booster station work is moving from planning into the part residents will start to see and hear on the ground.

Council members also updated the North Shore Management Board joint powers agreement, with Mayor Wade LeBlanc saying the document had not been revised in about a decade. The change was described as modest, but it gives the city a current version of an agreement that governs how Silver Bay works with other local partners on shoreline and regional matters.

The clearest financial win from the meeting came from the Multi-Modal Trailhead Center, which finished $116,265.50 under budget. City leaders plan to use part of that savings for items that had been cut from the original build, including security cameras and signage, a practical step for a site that already sits near some of Silver Bay’s most heavily used recreation routes.

That trailhead has been one of the city’s biggest public investments. A 2022 work plan put the project budget at $1.97 million and described it as a central access point for the Gitchi-Gami Bike Trail, Superior Hiking Trail, CJ Ramstad Snowmobile/ATV trail and Black Beach Park. The plan called for 169 parking sites, lavatories, showers, a plaza, playground and picnic areas, making the under-budget finish especially useful for adding the safety and wayfinding features that were pared back earlier.

The council also moved ahead with a PTZ camera to cover blind spots around the trailhead parking lot and trail entrances. Police Chief Cole Ernest said it would help enforcement in the area bordering the wilderness behind the facility, underscoring how the city is pairing new recreation amenities with more attention to security and liability.

In other routine action, the council accepted election judges for the 2026 primary and general elections, a small but necessary step in keeping the fall calendar on track while Silver Bay pushes several bigger projects forward at the same time.