At Monday night’s Duluth city council meeting, councilors passed the consent agenda with one vote. Major items on that agenda included $1.2 million dollars for city-wide sanitary sewer lining and nearly $700-thousand dollars for engineering services for lead pipe replacement projects in the Fairmont and Lincoln Park neighborhoods.

In other action, council vice-president Terese Tomanek shared positive financial news with the council regarding the Duluth entertainment convention center, telling fellow councilors, “I’m pleased to report that the DECC did not need to use any of the $1 million that we approved last fall. And there’s no need, there is no foreseeable need for the future to be using that $1 million line of credit. The DECC administration has been working very hard on keeping costs low, on finding and bringing in new business. And so far in 2024, revenue is up 8% or $400,000. So they are ahead of budget and scheduled to finish the year in the black and are cautiously optimistic.”

Something else Duluth residents will likely be hearing a lot about in the coming months is regarding local sports. The council passed a resolution authorizing more than $380-thousand dollars for RDG Planning & Design to design an athletic venues plan.

RDG will produce a plan that would include indoor soccer, lacrosse, baseball and softball involving public-private and intergovernmental partnerships.