Psst: In partnership with the City of Duluth, Essentia Health will be breaking ground on a new parking ramp in January that will provide 350-plus new parking spaces for public use directly across 1st Street from the existing Medical District Ramp, City of Duluth Planning and Economic Development Director Chad Ronchetti wrote in a public email Saturday. Once complete, the new ramp will be owned and maintained by the city, he said.
The agency lowered the Duluth's issuer rating and several debt ratings from A3 to Baa2. Moody’s also reduced the rating on the district’s annual appropriation certificates of participation from Baa1 to Baa3. The district had about $184 million in outstanding debt as of October 2025.
Financial need alone will not carry two operating referendum questions across the finish line Nov. 3. The district must confront a trust issue that has accumulated over two decades and explain why voters should believe the next 10-year, $103 million plan be better than the plans that preceded it.
Hibbing/Chisholm defenseman named 2026-27 Howie Prep Hockey Preseason Player of the Year
St. Louis County Public Works and the city of Duluth are partnering on the project, which will eventually reconstruct nearly a half-mile of 40th Avenue West and add a mini roundabout at Grand Avenue. The city also will replace utilities beneath 40th Avenue West as part of the project.
Duluth does not have one governmentwide financial crisis. It has a school district in a precarious position and a city government that is beginning to encounter some of the same cost-versus-revenue pressures.
