St. Louis County approves $955,000 roadwork contract, opioid settlement funds

A $955,000 seal coat contract will put a taconite tailings by-product on 14 miles of St. Louis County roads starting in June, sending summer traffic and truckers onto stretches in Maple Grove, along the St. Louis River and in Greenwood Township.

The board approved the work at its meeting in Hermantown, awarding the job to Gee Asphalt Systems of Cedar Rapids. The treatment will use material supplied by Optimal Aggregates of Gilbert, crushed and mixed with oil as part of the bituminous surface work. County officials said the project will cover 4.5 miles of Maple Grove Road between Highway 2 and Canosia Road, four miles of St. Louis River Road between Canosia Road and Midway Road, and 5.5 miles in Greenwood Township along County State Aid Highway 77 and County Road 929.

For drivers who use those corridors, the timing matters. The June start means the county’s summer construction season will begin with a project that affects a mix of neighborhood travel, freight movement and access between rural homes and larger roadways.

The board also approved joining another nationwide opioid settlement agreement that will bring $36,000 to St. Louis County. County leaders have repeatedly treated settlement dollars as one of the few flexible tools available for opioid remediation, and the new money will be directed to further treatment, prevention and response work tied to addiction harms in the county.

While the settlement payment is modest compared with the road contract, it adds to the county’s ongoing pool of opioid funds at a time when local agencies continue to face treatment gaps and the downstream effects of overdose and substance use. The board’s action keeps that financing stream moving, even as the county balances it against transportation and land-use priorities.

The most politically sensitive decision involved Ordinance 62, the county’s land-use framework. Commissioners had been hearing objections to two parts of the update package, one dealing with inoperable vehicles and another tied to data centers. On Tuesday, the board moved toward a split approach, asking for an amended resolution that removes the inoperable-vehicle language and sends the data-center section back to the Planning Commission for a more complete zoning amendment.

That choice leaves the broader ordinance overhaul moving forward, but in a narrower form. The board is expected to take up the remaining Ordinance 62 updates at its May 5 meeting in Duluth, where the county will again weigh how quickly to revise zoning rules that could affect nearby property owners and future development.