Due to recent growth, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is seeking new employees at its Iron Range-based Operations Center.  

The Eagan-based health plan will have a significant number of job openings for customer service and claims processing positions at its call center in Virginia in the coming months.

The Iron Range Operations Center handles calls from Medicare and Medicaid members, as well as members who purchase individual and family health plans, including through MNsure, the state health exchange.

More than 100 positions were added in the last year, and several more will be opening. Positions in customer service and claims processing will need to be filled by early 2016. Applicants should possess customer service skills along with basic typing, computer navigation ability, critical thinking skills and a high school degree. Advancement opportunities to jobs such as technical specialist, supervisory, and learning and development instruction, are available.

“We’ve seen a lot of new positions open up and are thrilled to see more opportunities in our northern offices,” said Penny Erchul, director of service delivery at the Iron Range Operations Center. ”I can say from my own experience that Blue Cross is a wonderful company and a great place to work.”

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Pictured above: Kristen Gauthier responds to a member call at the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota customer service center in Virginia.

More than 250 high school students from 11 northeastern Minnesota schools next week will receive an in-depth look at a wide variety of technical careers through a collaboration of industry, Northeast Higher Education District (NHED) colleges and IRRRB.

“Mining, Machinery and More!” on Sept. 16-17 exposes students to a variety of technical training programs at Mesabi Range College Eveleth campus and Hibbing Community College. The event also includes student tours at two major Iron Range employers, Joy Global near Virginia and Ziegler CAT near Buhl.

Schools participating are Bigfork, Cherry, Ely, Eveleth-Gilbert, Floodwood, Grand Rapids, Greenway, Mountain Iron-Buhl, Nashwauk-Keewatin, Northeast Range, and Virginia.

The career awareness event is designed to assist students in connecting personal interests to careers and to educate students on how to obtain the education and skills needed to achieve career goals. In addition to the college visits and industry tours, students will be able to try their hand at operating heavy equipment simulators at the colleges.

Guest speakers, Jon Anderson, general manager at Road Machinery & Supplies in Virginia and Paul Anderson, human resources technical recruiter for Ziegler/Cat, will speak with students about job demand and qualities that employers are seeking in new employees.

Kevin Byrnes spent his college years guiding visitors through the beauty of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). So when it came time for the filmmaker to write and shoot a feature-length film about a couple retreating to sort their lives out, Byrnes knew where the film needed to be shot.

Heart of Wilderness, a movie filmed in May 2014, at Garden Lake on the edge of the BWCAW, receives a screening at 7 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 19, at Vermilion Community College Theater in Ely. The screening is free and open to the public. 

“Because we shot the film in the (Ely) area, this is an opportunity to show it to the people there, showcase it, and have them see what other people across the country are seeing,” said Byrnes, of St. Paul.  

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Pictured above: In May of 2014, cast and crew members of the independent movie Heart of Wilderness found themselves filming on a partially frozen Garden Lake that borders the BWCAW.

For more than 10 years, the Sax-Zim Bog has been welcoming thousands of bird watchers per year. Now, birders will really feel welcome.

The Sax-Zim Bog Welcome Center, an educational facility and gathering place for birders, is near completion. By mid-December, the new $100,000 welcome center will be finished. 

“It’s the gateway to the bog,” said Sparky Stensaas, Friends of Sax-Zim Bog executive director and founder. “People can come to the welcome center to get oriented to the bog, talk with a naturalist and pick up a map. It’s also a good place for people to come to talk about the birds they’ve seen.”

Since 2004, the 300-square-mile Sax-Zim Bog near Meadowlands has become one of North America’s most popular bird watching areas.

“We call it the 'Arctic Riviera,’ because this is where birds from the north spend their winters,” said Stensaas, a 1985 University of Minnesota Duluth biology graduate.  “It’s a magic mix of bogs, open hay fields, abandoned farms, upland and a ton of voles, which are food. There’s nothing like this east of Winnipeg in the north.”

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Pictured above: Sparky Stensaas, Friends of Sax-Zim Bog executive director and founder, says the Sax-Zim Bog Welcome Center will be a valuable gathering place for birders.

In June, IRRRB launched a quarterly print edition of The Ranger newsletter in the Mesabi Daily News, Hibbing Daily Tribune and Grand Rapids Herald-Review. Article topics in the latest issue include:

• Grassroots efforts expand NE Minnesota broadband (Pictured at right)
• Mind Trekkers brings "Wow!" of STEM back to Iron Range 
• We're at work pursuing new jobs, a message from IRRRB Commissioner Mark Phillips

Read the print edition of The Ranger.

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