Two Harbors Council: New Employees, Public Art, Planning for Highway 61 Disruptions

The Two Harbors City Coun­cil welcomed two new employ­ees at their meeting this week. Tia Harrison has been hired as an Electric Data Processing Technician and Jonathan Bou­vine is the new Public Works Director for the city.

The council has accepted the recommendation from the Public Arts Commission, to hire Artist Greg Gossel for the 2025 mural project. Mr. Gossel resides in Trimbelle Wiscon­sin and has a background in design. He has been exhibited throughout the U.S and abroad, including New York, Los An­geles, San Francisco, London and Copenhagen. His com­mercial clients include Chivas Regal, Hyundai, Burton Snow­boards and Interscope Records, to name a few. Gossel is one of a number of artists who submit­ted design ideas for the mural that will adorn city hall. Goss­el’s mural work is vibrant and colorful and leans toward illus­trating historical and cultural change and process. For more information on Gossel’s work, readers can visit his website at greggossel.com.

In other news, the council accepted a recommendation from the Finance Committee to award the bid for the City Hall Exterior Facade project to David Holm Construction. The reported cost of the project will be $246,865 with an expected contract time of 45 days. The council has also been consider­ing options for utility improve­ments on the west end of town. They voted to approve a jack and bore method for installing utility lines under highway 61. This means that the utility lines will be installed underneath the road without disturbing the sur­face. The other option for this work is called open cut and by­pass, which would be impracti­cal and would disrupt the flow of traffic into and out of town. The price tag for the work is $588,400.

Finally, the council has for­malized a request for the city to work with MnDOT on devis­ing a detour route and business exposure plan for the upcom­ing Highway 61 project that is scheduled to begin in 2028. Donna Heil, who attended Monday night’s meeting with a number of other residents, informally mentioned the pos­sibility of opening up vacant buildings along 1st Avenue as places where businesses that will be impacted by construc­tion can temporarily operate out of. Although the logistics of this idea will need thought and planning, the idea might help solve both the business exposure issue and could sug­gest a sensible plan for the de­tour route around the construc­tion. Folks who owe businesses along the Highway 61 corridor and City Administration may want to consider this idea.

The next Two Harbors Coun­cil meeting will be held on Au­gust 11th at 5:30.