Falls city councilors hear update on plasma gasification project Monday

A feasibility study is the next step for a proposed plasma gasification facility in Koochiching County.
Falls city councilors Monday heard an update on the project from representatives of Coronal, a company performing logistics of the project, and Paul Nevanen, director of the Koochiching Economic Development Authority.
The feasibility study costs $400,000 and will be done by Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc., an engineering firm hired by Koochiching County.
John Howard, chief technical officer for Coronal, said the plasma gasification facility could be a prototype for rural communities elsewhere.
“If we can make it work in International Falls, in rural America, this then can be considered a model for the rest of the United States,” Howard said.
The total cost of the project is approximately $30 million.
Among the benefits of the plant, say its proponents, would be its proximity to the county’s rail lines, less garbage-hauling costs than at present, an eventual reduction of mercury and other pollutants in Minnesota lakes and the promotion of more international co-dependence if trash is shipped to the facility across the border.
Coronal is functioning as developers for project, Howard said.
“We’re pulling together all of the pieces that the county and the city would otherwise not be able to pull together,” he said.
Howard said the feasibility study could be completed within the next four to five months.
Nevanen said this type of project, by nature, is arduous and comes with lots of twists and turns along the way, but he said the time is ripe.
“The timing is absolutely as good as it’s going to get right now,” Nevanen said.
To gain more support for the project, city councilors were asked to send letters to their congressional delegation; to the state of Minnesota; to Tom Dorr of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and to the Economic Development Agency, part of the federal Department of Commerce.
Councilors approved sending the letters.
Councilor Bill Torseth was absent from the meeting.
In other business:
• Councilors approved pursuing a grant application in 2007 designed to secure funding for apartment homes in the Alexander Baker School building.
A grant application for the project, asking for $391,000 from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, was denied for 2006.
The rehabilitation plan includes creating 28 apartment homes in the building, 23 of which would be affordable-rate units, at a total project cost of approximately $4.7 million.
The grant was submitted to the agency by Citizens for Backus/AB, the city of International Falls, the Koochiching County Board, and developer MetroPlains.
• Councilors approved spending $2,000 for a fireworks year-end celebration. The county is also contributing $2,000. The city of Littlefork did not contribute, and Ranier trustees have yet to announce if they will contribute.
• International Falls will be the pilot city for Minnesota’s first experience with the “A Child Is Missing” program, similar to the Amber Alert program but easier to use, according to Police Chief Chris Raboin.
The program is currently used in 37 states, but not Minnesota.
“It’s very, very close to Amber Alert, but ... it’s more user friendly,” Raboin said.
The launch in Minnesota of the program will be at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 4. in the Holiday Inn. The demonstration will last four hours.