Tuesday Group

Our Tuesday Group presentation on Tuesday (October 20) featured Tom Omerza from the Ely School District School Board, with a presentation on the Operating Referendum on the ballot this November.

om solo'd in 1969 while attending college in Virginia (the state). After 10 years on active duty as a pilot/instructor pilot, he worked for Rockwell International for 30 years as an aircraft program manager, while completing 13 more years in the Air Force Reserve. A private aircraft owner and advisor to the Civil Air Patrol, Tom taught Ground School for 32 years. After announcing his retirement in 2010, he was approached by a former student who offered him a job as aerial fire fighter. Tom spent 7 years as an Air Attack pilot for the US Forest Service. He flew 232 incidents, including 171 named fires, mostly in the Northwest US, but with many months also in Texas and Oklahoma. After years as a part year resident of Ely, he and his wife Karen moved up here full time in June of 25. As his time in the Ely area increased, he was surprised by the number of questions he got from local residents about forest fire fighting. He had assumed that folks in the old north woods would have been quite knowledgeable on the subject, but that wasn't the case. Typical questions were things like... ..."What's the red stuff - isn't it toxic?" ..."How come it doesn't put the fire out?" ..."What are all those airplanes doing? How many different types are there? Who's in charge of them....how do they coordinate with the ground fire fighters?" ... "With all those aircraft, why can't they stop the fire?" Tom will answer these questions and any new ones you have pondered based on our recent experiences this summer.

The North to the Pole expedition successfully made it to their destination 40 years ago! Hear from the team -- Will Steger, Ann Bancroft, Paul Schurke, 'Ironman' Bob Mantell, Richard Weber, & Geoff Carroll. Speakers will each share a few minutes about their experience (and their many polar adventures since then), followed by an audience Q&A.

The problem is that we depend more and more on critical metals that are becoming more difficult and expensive to find and extract. We need to continue to extract critical metals, but we also have an opportunity to mine our electronic waste (e-waste). Over 75% of e-waste is discarded each year, which is estimated to be valued at $65 billion. And currently, of what is recovered 90% is sent overseas for smelting and recovery costing American’s billions of dollars of value. Reclaiming Critical Metals (RCM) is a clean-tech metals recovery company based on Minnesota’s Iron Range. We reclaim critical metals from electronic waste (e-waste) using environmentally safe, state-of-the-art technologies. Our process avoids smelting, toxic chemicals and harmful emissions, providing a local, sustainable alternative to shipping overseas for processing. Working with a Swiss company, RCM is developing a scalable Minnesota Iron-Range-based business to reclaim critical metals from electronic waste and other sources in a safe and cost-effective way. We will fill a critical niche using propriety mechanical methods and researching and patenting bio-inspired technologies, avoiding the need for widely used and environmentally damaging smelting. We expect to lead the United States in sustainable e-waste recycling to satisfy the increasing demand for critical and precious metals. We aim to establish local employment opportunities and diversification, bring the supply chain back to the U.S. to bolster domestic manufacturing, and in so doing, tackle national security issues. Keith is an experienced technology engineer and executive. He holds a BS (The University of Iowa) and an MS (University of Minnesota) in Electrical Engineering with additional engineering and computer applications studies at the Laboratory of Applications of Remote Sensing (Purdue University). Moving into commercial fields, he worked for 20 years developing technical and mechanical fulfillment systems; engineering, among other things, conveyor systems using cross belt sorters and sophisticated order fulfillment software and equipment, software and hardware computer technology. Starting at Digi-Key Corporation in 1978 when Digi-Key had 20 employees, Keith took it to a company of 2,000 employees in 1997, attaining among other roles Executive Vice President and Vice President of Technology. He then went on to work at Gateway 2000, eBay, Salesforce and other leading technology companies working globally. After retiring, Keith was asked to come back to work for three more years at Digi-Key as CIO and CTO. He now advises and leads two startup companies.

David Hakensen is a writer and corporate communications consultant living in Minnesota. He currently serves on the boards of Norway House and the Norwegian American Historical Association and was president of the Executive Council of the Minnesota Historical Society from 2018-2023. He has written for Format, Minnesota History, Mpls.St. Paul, The Norwegian-American and Twin Cities Business. Her Place in the Woods is his first book.

Shane G. Drift is an aspiring screenwriter, author, songwriter, and poet. He has carried many stories since his childhood. One of his stories inspired him to write a screenplay called, Sad Evil. Shane's girlfriend, the late Christina Premo strongly encouraged him to turn his Sad Evil screenplay into a book. He is currently writing a follow up to Sad Evil. Shane wrote his first children's book, Spirit Quest: Hummingbird and Sage's Journey. Shane is currently writing the second book in the Spirit Quest series. Shane lives on the beautiful Bois Forte Reservation located in northern Minnesota. Shane is an enrolled member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa. He graduated with honors from Mesabi Range Community and Technical College in 2005. Shane is learning his native language. He also believes in his culture, traditions, and traditional teachings.

Our Tuesday Group presentation on August 18, 2026 featured Wendy Longacre Brown, a Death Doula & co-founder of Minnesota Death Collective. Wendy Longacre Brown is a certified end-of-life doula (INELDA, NEDA), filmmaker, and national speaker dedicated to supporting individuals and families navigating the end of life. She specializes in guiding those considering Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED), a legal option for eligible individuals seeking to shorten the dying process with compassionate support. Wendy is the co-founder of the Minnesota Death Collaborative and producer of The Cheryl Hauser Effect, a documentary currently in production inspired by her mother's end-of-life journey. Drawing from both her work as an end-of-life doula and her family's experience, Wendy invites meaningful conversation about VSED, personal choice, and what it means to live fully through the end of life. Her presentation includes a preview of The Cheryl Hauser Effect followed by time for questions and discussion.

Our Tuesday Group presentation on August 25, 2026 featured Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters with an update the work over the last year. Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters, present ed on updates in the effort to protect the Rainy River watershed from copper mining, including Governor Walz’s recent Executive Order.

Our Tuesday Group presentation on September 1, 2026 featured Becky Rom with a presentation on the history of the Kekekabic Trail through today. The historic Kekekabic Trail (“the Kek Trail”) traverses America’s most-visited national wilderness area, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, for forty miles from Snowbank Lake on the west to the Gunflint Road on the east. The Kek Trail was built during the Great Depression to connect four U.S. Forest Service fire lookout towers. Crews of 10 or 12 young men grubbed every foot of the Kek Trail with hoes; they moved rocks and leveled the ground. They cleared brush and trees with hand axes, crosscut saws, and brush scythes. A major reward for this grueling work was immersion in truly wild country. Becky will tell the story of the construction of the Kek Trail and nearby portages in the 1930s based on the recollections of her father, Bill Rom, who was one of the young men in the Forest Service’s Kek Trail crews of 1937 and 1938. She will also describe Bill Rom’s year manning the Kekekabic Fire Tower in 1939 and his year as a wilderness ranger in 1940.