Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette The Calumet Township Board of Trustees on Friday approved resolutions regarding improvements to a ballfield and the Colusseum and an Industrial Facility Tax Certificate.

CALUMET TOWNSHIP — The Township Board on Friday held three consecutive public hearings to receive comments regarding two proposed DNR grant requests, one for the Paul Lehto Baseball Diamond and for replacement of the roof of the Calumet Colosseum, and a request for an Industrial Facility Tax Certificate.

The township will seek a $100,000 grant from the DNR Recreation Passport grant program for improvements to the dugouts as well as to the field, and fencing repairs. The estimated cost of the project is $125,000.

Township Supervisor Tim Gasperich said it is a 25% matching grant, meaning the township’s match would be between $25-$30,000. The Baseball Diamond project is divided into two phases. Phase I of the project would cover building new dugouts and repairs to the fencing.

For the Colosseum roof replacement, the township will seek a $400,000 DNR Trust Fund Grant. The cost for Phase I replacement is estimated at $500,000. This is also a matching grant, Gasperich said that while the facility does need a new roof, currently the Township does not have the revenue to support the match. After some discussion, it was decided that with careful planning, and local athletic organization fundraising efforts, the match amount could be raised.

A third agenda item at the public hearing was to consider an application by Calumet Electronics for an Industrial Facility Tax Certificate. A tax exemption certificate provides a tax incentive to manufacturers to enable renovation and expansion of aging facilities, assist in the building of new facilities and to promote the establishment of high tech facilities.

An Industrial Facilities Exemption (IFE) certificate entitles the facility to exemption from ad valorem real and/or personal property taxes for a term of 1-12 years as determined by the local unit of government.

Calumet Electronics specializes in the engineering and manufacturing of high-quality Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) and pioneering Packaged Substrates critical to the semiconductor ecosystem for aerospace and defense.

The company plans to construct a $51 million factory for critical technology by the aerospace and defense industries. The expansion will enable next-generation Department of Defense technology in multifunction applications including advanced radar, communications, high speed computing and artificial intelligence, made possible by advanced packaging of semiconductors. The proposed facility will close the U.S. technology gap with Asia.

All three measures were discussed and voted on during the regular February meeting Friday, which followed the public hearings. All three measures passed by unanimous vote.