International Falls City council is expected to discuss a resolution next month regarding the future of the International bridge linking the city with Fort Frances.
Fort Frances council passed one earlier this month, calling on the federal government to get involved in the potential sale of the bridge.
It also sought support from International Falls to ask for its state and federal representatives to get involved.
Falls City Councillor Joe Krause says it’s time for a new bridge.
“With Resolute Forest products being taken down, moving the bridge, there’s never going to be a better time to move the bridge,” says Krause.
Krause notes the U.S. General Services Administration did look at it several years ago but ran into budget issues and the idea on hold.
“I think we have an opportunity to push that again. Now with the new infrastructure bill and all this push, it might be the time to a strike while the iron’s hot and make it happen,” says Krause.
The idea of a new bridge has surfaced many times in the past twenty years.
A citizen group advocated for a new bridge in 2000 when Canada Border Service Agency relocated its office off the bridge.
Five years later, Fort Frances and International Falls councils form a committee when talk of the bridge’s sale surfaced then.
International Falls City council is expected to continue the discussions about the bridge at their first meeting in July.
