ITASCA SPARKING CHANGE: DIVERSIFYING OUR REGIONAL ECONOMY | 2024-2025
Challenge: The Boswell Energy Center, a coal-fired power plant in Cohasset, Minnesota, was directed to cease coal operations by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. These impeding changes fueled a larger community conversation about impacts to local tax base, jobs, and planning for diversification of the Itasca County area economy. The process, known as Sparking Change, sought to plan proactively for this potential transition and think as broadly as possible about how to respond to it.
Role: Northspan partnered with the Great Plains Institute (GPI) to guide a yearlong engagement process. Together, they worked with a steering committee of highly engaged partners, including the City of Cohasset, Itasca County, Itasca Economic Development Corporation, Minnesota Power, and the Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation, along with regular dialogue with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. This group planned for and participated in a larger task force of over 30 participants from a wide range of backgrounds that created a plan with six strategies to adapt to the changes at the Boswell site. The effort included extensive survey work and two rounds of town halls across Itasca County to bring in broad community input. It culminated in a two-day Sparking Change Summit in February 2025 featuring speakers from across the state and nation.
Results: In the process, Northspan’s local connections and historical knowledge paired with GPI’s regional and national perspective on energy transition communities combined to provide broad-based expertise. Northspan and GPI used their connections to bring a variety of resources to educate task force participants and help them understand what other communities had done and what was realistic for Itasca County. The combined capacity of the two groups provided a robust partnership that ensured a variety of perspectives in the development of the process, workshop facilitation, and creation of the final report. The Sparking Change process participants are now putting their plan into action.
Reference: Tamara Lowney, Itasca Economic Development Corporation President & CEO, tlowney@itascadv.org, 218-326-9411
Full report link: Itasca Sparking Change Final Report