The City of Duluth’s Parks Maintenance Division will place clean, discarded wood chips for public use and pick up in bulk at the U-shaped driveway by Tony Emanuel Field at Woodland Park beginning Saturday.
The wood chips, which are an urban forestry byproduct and are untreated, are available on a first-come, first-served basis to anyone wishing to use them. If the pile depletes, parks maintenance staff will continue to refill them until the spring.
Duluth residents should not accept a budget narrative built only around the bad news. Transparency requires more than explaining the size of the shortfall. It requires identifying every option, every revenue decision and every pool of existing or reasonably anticipated financial capacity.
Early-term labor agreements, sluggish revenue growth and familiar levy politics have left City Hall confronting a projected $5.5 million deficit.
The city estimates its recently negotiated labor agreements will increase personnel costs by approximately $9.9 million over three years, according to the 2026 city budget. There is your deficit, dressed in a collective bargaining agreement and scheduled to arrive on time.
Duluth taxpayers are not prepared to approve another vague promise that new money will stabilize a system the district admits will remain financially unstable.
The Hermantown Hawks boys hockey team will return to the ice this weekend for three days of summer scrimmages against several of Minnesota’s established programs at Hermantown Arena. The Hawks’ varsity and junior varsity teams will each play one game Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the arena’s North
Before City Hall asks property owners for another increase, it must account for the recurring $4.5 million created by its retiree health care breakthrough.
