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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

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No Reid I do not and cannot leave the area for nine months of the year! I have stated in the past that I both work in one of the mines and I am a small business owner here. Many years ago when I started my business I saw some great traffic through the three summer months. As the business got more established I saw the summer business season expand by a couple of weeks on each side of June and August. Eventually I was actually still making money into the end of October. Business in the spring increased to the first week of April. But since then my business has been flat or decreased a small amount as far as sales go. This would be for most of the last ten years. So I considered it a success that I only lost money five months of the year. But, very slowly business slowed because the lack of locals here on a daily basis. There are less students around and just plain less customers coming into the business. Is it because of competition? No because many of my competitors close for the winter. If the number of people moving into the area to retire, vacation or to start new businesses was at the level you speak of I would be more than excited. I know I would benefit from it. I can honestly say that I can walk the walk and talk the talk when it comes to both understanding how many people are moving up here and doing business in Ely and how much I benefit form a good paying mining income.

From: Tourism study

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