Lead to Succeed - Mandy Lake, Supervisor of Wakefield Township, and Chris Patritto, President of Gogebic Community College

In this episode, Lead to Succeed welcomes Chris Patritto, President of Gogebic Community College, and Mandy Lake, Wakefield Township Supervisor and Bessemer City Manager, to discuss the economic potential of the Copperwood Mine project. With job creation, infrastructure investment, and community growth on the line, they break down what this could mean for the region.

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Transcript

Lead to Succeed Podcast Interview with Team Gogebic
 
 Steve Arwood
Well, good afternoon.
Welcome to another edition of lead to succeed, a UP-based podcast sponsored by InvestUP where we talk to leaders in the Upper Peninsula from institutions, business, education, and talk about both current events, timely ideas, and what folks are doing to increase prosperity in the peninsula.
Today, I'm pleased to have Chris Patritto. He is the president of Gogebic Community College, and Mandy Lake is the supervisor of Wakefield Township, located within Gogebic County.
Welcome. Thanks for participating today.

 Chris Patritto   21:49
 Thanks. Thank you for having us.

 Steve Arwood   21:51
 Well, we'll just jump right in for the past two years, InvestUP and your great community has been partnering and working toward getting across the finish line with the Copperwood mine located in Wakefield Township.

It's been a long haul. We're still working at it. Lansing is considering a significant infrastructure grant to the area in order to allow this operation to take place. It's been a long process.

And Mandy, you've been kind of involved from the beginning.
 And you know you've spoken to leaders in Lansing?
 You've spoken to leaders in the community.
 Maybe you can give us a sense from the governmental perspective of the units of government in your neck of the Upper Peninsula?
 What does this opportunity mean?

 Mandy Lake   22:55
 This opportunity, to me it means that we would bring life back to our area. I've been born and raised here in Wakefield. I left to go to Marquette for college and then left the area for a couple of years. Once I graduated there and then always wanted to come back home just because I missed, you know, the features here, the water, the trees, my family, that sort of thing.
 So that's what brought me back to this area when I left my job in Minnesota and I came back here. I didn't have a job. So I had to be creative.
 I worked at the post office for a while for way less than what I was getting paid in Minnesota, and then I decided, okay, I'm going to start a business up here and that was hard going to, you know, not really knowing how to start a business. Now there's a lot more help there to do that, but back then there wasn't. But because of the lack of opportunities and jobs here,
 I was left to you know, let's try something and see if it works, because there's, I mean, back then and now it's hard to find a good paying job to survive here.
 After COVID, house prices have, I would say, skyrocketed compared to what they were previously.
 Back five years ago, you could buy a house for $50,000, which would constitute having a lower paying job. You could make it on $12.00 an hour, $15.00 an hour, and now those same houses are selling for $180,000 and you can't do that.

 Steve Arwood   24:40
 Mm hmm.

 Mandy Lake   24:41
 Salaries have not increased to that.
 So then that leads many people working 2-3 jobs, trying to make it with a family on peanuts for income.
 And all of our prices are the same as everybody else.
 House prices, car prices, groceries. We all pay the same, if not more, sometimes.
 So having something like that, whether it's a mine or any other type of business that will come into our area to provide those well paying jobs would be an extreme benefit to our region as a whole.
 And I hope I can see that happen someday.

 Steve Arwood   25:16
 Well, it's interesting because you're not only the supervisor of Wakefield Township, but you're also the city manager of Bessemer.

 Mandy Lake   25:25
 Yes.

 Steve Arwood   25:26
 Two local government jobs and I think you've got a third job too, correct.
 Did I miss that one?

 Mandy Lake   25:31
 I yeah, 3rd, 4th, 5th. I have a couple different businesses.

 Steve Arwood   25:37
 Yeah. Well, I mean certainly thank you for all you do.
 I know that in many parts of rural America, rural Michigan, and particularly the Upper Peninsula, it is difficult to find talented people who can do jobs like you're doing and be able to keep them in the community.
 And I guess, Chris, you've had a long tenure as an educator in the Western UP, and you've probably seen a lot of changes over the years in terms of where young people are headed and you know is it because they're wanting to stay in camp or is it because there are just fewer and fewer families in the area now.

 Chris Patritto   26:25
 I've been an educator in the Western up the right across the border in Hurley for, you know, 36-37 years.
 We've watched the student population decline all across the western UP. I think back to when I graduated from Ironwood in 1981. I think we had 162 in our class, and probably right now if you added all the senior classes and Gogebic and Ontonagon County together, you wouldn't come up with 160, you know.

 Steve Arwood   26:57
 Yeah.

 Chris Patritto   26:57
 So that just kind of gives you an idea of what's happened over the course of time being in the K-12 world for so many years in this area.
 I think there was a push for a lot of students to stay.
 Yes, some wanted to leave.
 You know, the typical small town got to get out and see the world and a lot of them did that. But a lot of them tried to come back.
 And some were successful, some failed.
 But ultimately it was, it was hard for students to stay here because there's really not a lot offered to them. You know, as far as job creation, that type of thing.

 Steve Arwood   27:29
 Mm hmm.

 Chris Patritto   27:32
 So either they're going to come up with something on their own, or, you know, luckily they would get in somewhere. But for the most part, you know, they had to look elsewhere.
 And I guess that's what we've seen over the last, you know, 30-40 years is just the slow decay of the population, which now like Mandy, we'd love to see them come back.

 Steve Arwood   27:55
 The mine would create approximately 425 very high paying jobs.
 Around $85,000 a year.
 Not to mention all the construction jobs and the related economic activity that would lead up to the production.
 That is a significant impact obviously in your Community and there are many that say, particularly those that are, you know, opposed to this mine that's just a boom and bust cycle and don't be lured into the idea that mining is good for your community because the mine will play out eventually. They all do.
 And then you're left with the bust cycle.
 Do you feel that way?
 I mean is that? I don't sense that's a community sentiment.
 I feel that the Community sentiment is looked at by telling us that from the outside you're kind of discrediting our ability as locals to manage the boom cycle for long-term benefit, and how do you feel about that?
 That kind of argument, that it's boom and bust and you're just being, you know, pulled along to something that's gonna go away.

 Chris Patritto   29:26
 I guess moving in a positive direction is number one. So that would move us in the right direction to have Copperwood come in. Number two, I think that the Copperwood mine itself, the employee opportunities there, is one thing, the offshoot businesses that come from there, the support of local businesses that are here already is another framework, but also with an increase in population and opportunity.
 Maybe other businesses want to move into the area, so you know you can. You can look at it from any way you want. I think for anybody in this area, you know the boom and bust, we'd rather have the boom and we try to figure out the bust at the end.
 But I just think there's a lot of opportunities with the mine and outside the mine.

 Steve Arwood   30:14
 Mm hmm.
 Mandy, the critical infrastructure that would certainly be going to stay behind.
 Would you speak to that for a second?
 Because this is not necessarily supporting the mine directly.
 Is it supporting a community that needs infrastructure?

 Mandy Lake   30:39
 Yes. So one of the main parts of the $50 million grant that they would be receiving would be to replace County Road 519. If anybody has driven on that road as of late, or even 10 years ago, it was in bad condition.
 It needed to be upgraded at least 10 to 15 years ago.I'm trying to think of it so when I started on the Township board, we were talking about fixing 519.
 We have several businesses in our industrial park in the Township that include heavy traffic and employees. I consistently get emails and phone calls, you know there's potholes all over the place.
 What are we supposed to do?
 I made a phone call.
 They get filled temporarily.
 It's better in the winter months when the potholes disappear with the snow.

 Steve Arwood   31:33
 When the impact was snow.

 Mandy Lake   31:35
 That's the only time the road is good.
 But just safety concerns for traffic. We have several logging businesses also that are quite active on that road.
 Right now it is an all-season road to a certain point and then it comes to this point of the year. This weekend they were rushing to get all of their wood out because the seasonal road restrictions are going on.
 So part of that money would go to upgrading the road to an all-season road. for our businesses within the Industrial park, for our logging businesses, for our tourism people.
 The Porkies is rated one of the best parks, I believe it's the best State Park right now, actually, and our visitors have to travel on that road also. So it helps them.

 Steve Arwood   32:29
 Mm hmm.

 Mandy Lake   32:30
 It helps tourism.
 It helps our businesses, the few that we have, and then it also supports local traffic. And that's just the road, add in cell phone towers.
 Cell phones are non-existent past a certain point. I believe it was either last year or the year before. Time is kind of flying by. A little boy was lost in the park.

 Steve Arwood   32:53
 Yeah.

 Mandy Lake   32:54
 They had to move.
I don't know how many people went out to the State Park and set up communication centers that were not there to try to find this little boy, and how long did that take?
Whereas if communication was available, it would have been a lot faster moving.

 Mandy Lake   33:13
 And they suffer that often with lost hikers on trails, kayakers down the Presque Isle River. If we had some kind of communication out there.
 And yes, I know it's great to not have it to be unplugged, but when you need to be plugged in, it's not there.
 And we are a small area with minimal resources, and it takes that much longer to access those resources to help people.

 Steve Arwood   33:30
 Yeah. And I know that.
 The electrical grid is not in great shape over there and that would receive a serious upgrade as well that would serve the community for many, many, many years.

 Mandy Lake   33:46
 Yes.For many years.

 Steve Arwood   33:51
 Yeah, Speaking of, going back to the opportunity, Chris, you're in a position to dynamically grow as a training institution in the traditional role that your grade school has played in the past.
 Are you able to ramp that up and go after it?
 I mean, it's got to be a wonderful opportunity to be able to provide that kind of curriculum and training in the western end.

 Chris Patritto   34:30
 You know one of the things I’ve always love about Gogebic is it served the Western UP very well over the years.
 You know, whatever came up, Gogebic was always here. You know, when I was a student, even while I was Superintendent for many years, Gogebic was always involved in things.
 This opportunity for us to serve.
 The entire western UP, if you look at it from this standpoint, is very exciting.

 Steve Arwood   34:53
 Mm hmm.

 Chris Patritto   34:55
 There's many different facets to this.
 There's, you know, the mining itself, all the certificates that people need there, the engine services, the safety training that are needed. There's just multiple services we can provide the employees there for the mine. Offshoots. There’s entrepreneurs that were going tona come here.
 They're gonna need some training or they're gonna need some certificates or degrees that we can help them along with.
 So I mean the opportunity, that is what we're here for.

We relish this opportunity because it's really going to serve our community so well and it's just going to help us grow. So we are 110% on board to help this out.

 Steve Arwood   35:44
 Mandy, the tax impact of the mine is significant and I think it's one of the things that people don't.
 I don't necessarily just like to focus on the economics of everything because I know it's broader than just the economics but there's a significant amount of revenue that would be directed back to the community because the mine would pay a specific tax.

 Mandy Lake   36:11
 Mm hmm.

 Steve Arwood   36:11
 And it's not a tax after several deductions and losses and all this. This is the value tax on top. So, it is not only a replacement for any lost revenue, but in this case it would seem to be gigantically additive, I guess is the way to put it for the local units of government.
 How do you see that?
 I mean, obviously there's a critical need over there, but out of that, are there long-term investments you're looking at probably need to be made once, and if this mine begins to pay this tax?
 In terms of your local infrastructure and your other needs.

 Mandy Lake   36:57
 For sure.
 So like part, I mean we'll kind of go down to the basics even with the business located out there between Ironwood Township and Wakefield Township, we would receive more tax revenue adjusted on their infrastructure, which would greatly help us out.
 
 Wakefield Township doesn't have all too much in the way of, say, water sewer infrastructure.
 Ironwood Township does.
 With minimal users on the system, whenever we do water sewer projects, because we have the same thing in Bessemer, whenever we do projects like that, you are tapping that same $2,000,000 for a project whether you have 50 users or 5,000 users.
 So having that extra money available from a large user like that, they're going to pay a little bit more and take the burden off of the people that live here. And I think that's one of our number one complaints here is why are bills so high?
 Well, it's because there's only so many users, you add a big user in like that, they're going to take that burden off right there.
 So that's helpful for that personal property tax. They have items in their buildings that those entities will also get money for.
 That goes into our general fund that we can do more projects, building projects, equipment upgrades.
 It's that sort of thing that we are extremely tight on right now.
 
 Steve Arwood   38:30
 How about police, fire, and emergency service vehicles?

 Mandy Lake   38:34
 Yes. So between the city of Wakefield and, say, the city of Bessemer, as they would probably be the closest ones responding along with Bessemer Township having that money available in the general Fund, which is what the city contributes for the fire departments, it's all under our general fund. We have a tiny, tiny budget right now for Fire. City, Wakefield, Wakefield Township provides money to them to help provide services to us so that money would increase fully and, you know, to be able to have them come and help us.

 Steve Arwood   39:07
 And do your public safety services emergency response?
 Do they serve the park as well?

 Mandy Lake   39:17
 Yes, yes they do so.
 Fire would be from the city of Wakefield, although for something like an event like that, we all have mutual aid agreements.
 So if something big were to happen, then more entities get called out.

 Steve Arwood   39:34
 OK.

 Mandy Lake   39:35
 EMS.
 The county also pitches in for two and all of the local taxpayers pay for that. So that would probably help alleviate some of that burden too, and be able to upgrade those services.

 Steve Arwood   39:47
 And I would guess that with the amount of state and federal property within your jurisdiction.
 Your opportunity for expanding your property tax base dramatically probably does not exist.
 So yeah. So let's talk about community for a second. We've talked about it.

 Mandy Lake   40:00
 Very slim, yes.

 Steve Arwood   40:07
 You know, the young people we've talked about.
 You know, kind of rebuilding.
 You've lost a hospital.
 I mean, we could go down the list and I don't want to do that because that's behind us and I want to look ahead of us.
 The community sentiment is very pro for this mine and we have, I believe, every or you have, I believe every jurisdiction, I think 22 local government jurisdictions have passed resolutions in support of this significant investment.
 There is a major opposition group that has developed, as you're well aware of, and that group operates.
 It appears to be either remotely or nationally.
 You know, with leadership that doesn't necessarily live here or live in your community.
 You're a couple thousand people.
 You know, up against a well-organized group.
 How does that sit locally and how does that, you know, kind of sit with you all?
 You know, everybody has a right to oppose something, correct?
 And anybody that's opposed to anything with facts and science, solid science, that's that's a good discussion.
 But I sense that maybe.
 There's a little more to this locally in terms of not seeing this opposition locally, but it's coming from everywhere else.
 Can you comment on that at all?

 Chris Patritto   41:57
 Well, I guess I would just say, yeah, I think locally we've got you know I think there's a ton of support. And there are some people that probably aren't thrilled with it, but I think as you said the major group seems to be formed from outside of this area, you know, and I guess that's it. It's kind of like fighting with a ghost because you just don't see them, you know.
 I guess that's the way I look at it. 'cause, you're not here and I think.
 Looking at the the people in this area, I think that should be considered #1.
 What do the people in the area want? What do they need?
 And then start from there.

 Mandy Lake   42:43
 I'm disappointed that there are more legislators.
 The upper government is not listening to what the local voices have to say about this project. I've been involved with this just Township level, over 12 years now, and before that, on a personal level with our business things and stuff like that. But the 12 years of the Township involvement, I've been to every single public comment meeting held up at the college. I've been notified of every single permit I've been to every single board meeting that we've had for a Township board meeting, except for maybe two in my whole 12.
 In the past year I have not heard any negative comments.
 All I have heard of is when is this going to start?
 I want a good job.
 I want to work.
 I want to stay here and I want to have a good living.
 That's the only thing that I have heard locally.
 When they first started, it was really ramped up and really supportive.
 We saw yard signs, people were talking about it in the coffee shops.
 They were excited about it. It brought excitement to our area and over this span of time, it's kind of dwindled, but people are still so supportive.
 But it's just like, you know, they're almost giving up hope.
 But if they have hope, I mean, even with the $50 million announcement, you could see that spark come alive again.
 And they're like, when is it gonna start?
 I'm ready to start.
 So I really hope that comes to fruition just to keep us alive here.

 Chris Patritto   44:38
 We had a little over a decade ago this opportunity here with Gtech mining was up in the area, and I would venture to say three to four years trying to get a mine going over in the melon area which gave this area a whole ton of hope and whether be on the Wisconsin side or the Western UP side, it was pretty much the same type of the things we're dealing with right now, and there was a lot of local support, there were some dissenters.
 They ran into roadblock after roadblock with people from outside legislators and finally they just said, OK, we can't. We can't. We can't do it anymore.
 And off they went somewhere else. And that takes the wind out of your sails when something is that close and all of a sudden they couldn't. They couldn't deal with too many hurdles.
 So that's kind of that's kind of where we are with this right now is that people are himming and hahhing saying, OK, how long is this gonna go before?

There's gonna be too many roadblocks, and they're gonna move on somewhere, and we hope we don't do that.

 Steve Arwood   45:38
 Yeah. The interesting thing is, as you both know, I mean.
 Copperwood has advanced its mine to a fully permitted stage.
 Michigan's mining laws are some of the strictest anywhere.
 The state of Michigan, by permitting this mine, has said you met our standards and you know if you can meet and stay at these standards, then yeah, you may build the mine.
 That's what the law says.
 Several people say this is environmentally irresponsible.
 I don't think so.
 The permitted status granted by the state bears that argument.
 Oh, but I suppose people are allowed to say what they say, but my guess would be as community leaders that have to juggle both.
 You know tourism and y’all love your natural resources and other activities that go on in the community, that contribute to the economy.
 For me at least for my part, is that if the local community felt that this mine was not safe and that the company was not a good operator, they probably would not be as supportive as they are, because you certainly don't want to spoil your own backyard, correct?
 Do you care to comment on that?
 I mean, obviously you've looked at this.
 You'rehighly involved folk and you must have a sense of or the community, must have a sense of satisfaction that this is going to be done well and done right.

 Chris Patritto   47:23
 Well, if you look at it like you said, Michigan's has the most stringent requirements for mining.
 Mining now isn't what it was 40-50 years ago when we had it before we made it through that.
 You know what we have right now is more highly regulated and I think we just need to get to the point where we can try and give it a chance.

 Steve Arwood   47:41
 Mm hmm.

 Chris Patritto   47:53
 Like GTech, they wanted to come in and do some testing and what not.
 They never even got to that point, I think.
 Here you know, I think it's a world of difference than it was in the past. Everything they've met, all the stringent categories. Now we know that this community wants it based on that. Nobody here wants to see the environment destroyed,
 We love it here.
 We live here for a reason, but I think we're all pretty confident in what's coming here.

 Mandy Lake   48:23
 And I think what people need to realize too is I mean, yes, they're fully permitted and they've received all of those licenses and permits now, and that has been quite the process for every single permit they've received.

 Chris Patritto   48:26
 Thank you.

 Mandy Lake   48:36
 It's not going to stop once they start, so there are going to be boots on the ground watching every single thing that they do, and things do not slide.
 Within Michigan's system, you have a licensing permit for every single thing that you do, whatever type of business you have.
 So that will be ongoing.
 It'll be continuing.
 We don't want to see the environment hurt in any way, so that is why we are supportive of it.
 Bringing new things to the area.
 Opening us back up to opportunities, we want the environment to be stable as well.

 Steve Arwood   49:12
 Mm hmm.

 Mandy Lake   49:17
 We're not looking for it to go downhill.

 Steve Arwood   49:19
 In other words, these things can coexist.
 They're not usually exclusive that well.

 Mandy Lake   49:22
 Yes.
 I fully believe it because I mean just one quick tidbit.

 Steve Arwood   49:28
 Yeah.

 Mandy Lake   49:29
 There are so many other businesses because, you know, Lake Superior that keeps being brought up. If you look around Lake Superior, how many businesses are already located there?
 Are they following the same stringent guidelines?
 I mean Wisconsin, Minnesota, Canada.
 All through the rest of the UP, businesses that have been located on or within a close vicinity of Lake Superior are held to those same guidelines at this mine. They're new and they're starting up and they have to follow this.
 So I would ask the opposers to look at the whole shoreline of Lake Superior to see what's going on, not just here.

 Steve Arwood   50:03
 Mandy, you mentioned something that struck me.
 Over in Gogebic County, Ironwood, Wakefield. It's just distance. And there's this distance factor from the decision makers down in Lansing and it just makes you sense that there were some.
 You know, I need to punch through that somehow and say, hey, we're up here. We are part of Michigan.
 You know, we want to succeed too, assuming that this podcast gets seen by a few people other than just those in the UP. Do you have a message that you'd like to give those decision makers directly from your office in downtown Bessemer?

 Mandy Lake   51:06
 They can feel free to call, e-mail, or text me on every single letter that I have sent.
 What I usually get are just automated responses.
 Thank you for contacting my office.
 And then I read articles of, they've talked to several local community leaders and I'm like, well, who are they talking to?
 Because I've never received a phone call, I'm the Township supervisor.
 I represent the Township.
 I've never received a phone call from anybody.
 So feel free to call me anytime.
 I'll relay the story. All of my board members are supportive of this project and we've had a complete turnover when I became supervisor.
 All of our board members retired.
 They've been there for 20 plus years. So they wanted to be done and to push it off to a different crowd.
 So between that board that I was previously on, all of them supported this project, and then this new board, all of them support this project.
 So we're here to support it.
 We're excited for it.
 We hope it comes.
 So I just hope that downstate Lansing, if they have any questions, please reach out and call and talk to us.
 Talk to the people that live here.

 Steve Arwood   52:23
 How about you, Chris?
 Educators looking at the future of, you know, young people opportunities, not just young people, opportunities, I mean reskilling opportunities, and being able to provide people a step up in their economics.
 What would your message be?

 Chris Patritto   52:47
 Well, I guess the message to the legislators would be you're here to serve the people, and I think sometimes because of the distance, the needs of the people from this area, I guess, aren't considered as highly as they should.
 And I think we're big boys and girls and we kind of know what's probably best for our communities and areas.
 And support us. And like Mandy said, if there are questions you want to know more about how we feel, call somebody, come and see us.

 Steve Arwood   53:21
 Mm hmm.

 Chris Patritto   53:22
 You know, we trundle down there all the time.
 Turn around and come visit us.

 Steve Arwood   53:28
 But probably not today. From looking at the weather.

 Mandy Lake   53:30
 No.

 Chris Patritto   53:30
 No, not today.

 Mandy Lake   53:32
 Not today, no.

 Steve Arwood   53:33
 Maybe give it a few days to get cleaned up and then try.

 Mandy Lake   53:38
 Mm hmm.

 Steve Arwood   53:38
 I did want to just mention that you said what year you graduated from high school and it was the same year I did.
 So we've kind of dated one another there.

 Mandy Lake   53:49
 I am a couple of years later.

 Chris Patritto   53:54
 I think our hair shows it anyway.

 Steve Arwood   53:56
 Yeah, yeah.
 Well, guys, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day.
 Thank you for doing what you do in your community. Keep pushing.
 You know it's a good thing to get to a point where everybody enjoys some new prosperity.
 You know, not only in the West End, but also across the entire peninsula.
 So thank you once again and have a nice day.

 Chris Patritto   54:26
 Thank you.

 Mandy Lake   54:27
 Thank you.

 Chris Patritto   54:27
 Bye.