 The Bemidji City Council has taken a crucial step forward in developing the next phases of Bemidji's railroad corridor. Council members met for a work session Monday where they reviewed a proposal from the Port Authority to clean up the corridor and develop the site into multifamily attached townhomes and apartment buildings. The council was hesitant to take on another major project but voted unanimously to move forward so the project could apply for grants needed to execute the project. We have two grants from the state of Minnesota that were eyeballing a contamination cleanup grant from the PCA and also a redevelopment grant both through the Department of Deed. And so what this does is it allows us to keep the process moving forward. The council approved to spend up to $235,000 to move on to the next phase of the project of which $147,000 is eligible for grant reimbursement. For now the city of Bemidji now was the time to act. It was a big decision for the council to make tonight to keep the project moving forward. If we wouldn't have made this decision, the project, the rail corridor would have been stalled, the development, we wouldn't have had anything happen down here of any substance. City Manager Nate Matthews says the earliest we could start seeing construction in the railroad corridor would be in the year 2021. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.