Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
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IRONWOOD - Students at Luther L. Wright School in Ironwood participated in a "Lift Off to Literacy" event Monday, which also marked International Literacy Day. Elementary, middle and high school students filled the bleachers at the football field to witness a rocket being launched by teachers Doug Foley and Paul Mattson and students Austin Danielson and Michael Newberry. The high school band was also in attendance and performed the school song. "The kids were well behaved and participatory, so...
HURLEY - Suicide is something that has touched the lives of nearly every person. They know someone who has lost a loved one to suicide, or have had someone they love take their own life. It's a subject not often talked about, especially in men. In Wisconsin, men are four times more likely to die by suicide than women, and the suicide rate is highest in people ages 45-54. Wisconsin alone had an average of 724 suicides a year from 2007 to 2011, with 568 male suicides alone. To help deal with the...
Joan Rivers, the raucous, acid-tongued comedian who crashed the male-dominated realm of late-night talk shows and turned Hollywood red carpets into danger zones for badly dressed celebrities, died Thursday. She was 81. Rivers died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, surrounded by family and close friends, daughter Melissa Rivers said. She was hospitalized Aug. 28 after going into cardiac arrest in a doctor's office following a routine procedure. The New York state health department is investiga...
IRONWOOD - The first day of school provides a unique set of challenges for students. New teachers, classmates and lockers can make the day seem daunting. For students in the Ironwood Area School District, Tuesday provided a new challenge - a new building, or newly repurposed building. Not only was Tuesday the first day of school, but it was also the first day of Luther L. Wright School being a K-12 facility. Kindergarten through second grade students made the move to LLW from Sleight...
HURLEY - After a rainy start, Festivale Italiano went off without a hitch on Saturday afternoon in downtown Hurley, with more than 1,000 people attending the annual event. Rain caused the event to be delayed for 30 minutes, but according to Dorrene O'Donnell, executive director of the Hurley Area Chamber of Commerce, everything fell into place. "The community came together, despite the weather, to support this event and each other," O'Donnell said. "I'm just thrilled at how this turned out." Vis...
ONTONAGON - Beautiful weather, large crowds, music, floats and some surprises highlighted the 57th annual Ontonagon Labor Festival parade Sunday in Ontonagon. The parade featured a special presentation, welcoming Highland Copper Company president David Fennell to Ontonagon County. Highland recently purchased the rights to mining projects in the Upper Peninsula, including the White Pine Mine. William Fischer, president of the Ontonagon County Economic Partnership, presented Fennell with a framed...
When you have been involved with an organization as long as I have with the Ontonagon Labor Festival, you have many memories. For more than 50 years, with many chairmen and groups, the annual event has been part of my life. It has become more than a local celebration. It is a homecoming, a last hurrah of the summer, a goodbye to the Upper Peninsula. It's all these things and more to many people. For me, it is a flood of memories. The most vivid, of course is the one in 2008. The phone woke me...
HURLEY - Since 2005, numerous agencies across Iron County have come together to respond to cases of domestic and sexual violence. The Iron County Coordinated Community Response Team is a partnership of six agencies or departments in Iron County. According to Malinda Peterson, team chair, the group started after three individuals in the county died as a result of domestic violence. "These deaths signified the realities of the issues on how our community responded to domestic violence cases,...
HURLEY - Grab a fork and prepare to dine on authentic Italian cuisine during the annual Festivale Italiano in downtown Hurley on Saturday at 11 a.m. According to Dorrene O'Donnell, executive director of the Hurley Area Chamber of Commerce, a popular attraction of the annual festival is the food. "I've been told by people that one of they big reasons they come back is for the food, because it's authentic Italian food," she said. "These local chefs have been working on their craft for years and...
ONTONAGON - Ontonagon Labor Festival officials learned Highland Copper president Dave Fennell will be the parade marshal at the Festival Parade Sunday at 2 p.m. The Ontonagon County Economic Partnership has spearheaded an effort to welcome Highland Copper by distributing "welcome" signs around town. Fennell received a law degree in 1979 from the University of Alberta and practiced corporate and resource law until 1983 when he founded Golden Star Resources. During his term as president and CEO,...
Ontonagon and Baraga counties were the only two western Upper Peninsula counties to see unemployment rates improve in July, according to the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget. In Ontonagon County, the jobless rate fell from 13.1 percent in June to 12.6 percent in July. A year agoit was 14 percent. The labor force took a jump of 125 to 2,550 in July and 100 more people were employed in Ontonagon County. Total unemployment stayed the same at 325. Despite that good news, Ontonagon County recorded the highest jobless rate in...
IRONWOOD - Young girls, and a few boys, dressed in their best finery on Thursday afternoon to attend the fifth annual Fancy Nancy Tea Party, hosted by the Ironwood Carnegie Library. The event was in the Ironwood Memorial Building, featuring girls and boys in fancy clothes learning more about Nancy, a young girl who loves fancy things. "Fancy Nancy" is a series of stories by Jane O'Conner, following the young girl's adventures to make things more fancy in life. Nancy likes to dress extravagantly,...
MERCER, Wis. - U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, toured Action Floor Systems in Mercer Wednesday, the proposed iron mine site near Upson and visited the Hurley K-12 School. Johnson, kicked off the day by spending about an hour and a half touring the plant at Mercer, and discussing some concerns the company has regarding possible or pending legislation. Dan Corullo, owner of Action Floor Systems, said he and Johnson have met on other occasions, and Johnson was interested in stopping by. "He is...
IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP - About 40 people came out on a drizzly Tuesday evening to celebrate the grand opening of the Airport Recreation Park in Ironwood Township. The event allowed local residents to view the completed park, featuring a pavilion, soccer fields, volleyball court, walking path and playground equipment. Planning the park had been a long process, spanning numerous years. According to township supervisor Alan Baron, his portion was a "smooth process. "Kim (Mattson, former supervisor) and...
IRONWOOD - The location of offices inside Luther L. Wright School in Ironwood were a focal point of discussion that split the board during an Ironwood Area Schools Board of Education meeting Monday evening. According to board member Leroy Johnson, he had some safety concerns regarding the location of one of the elementary offices on the first floor. With LLW becoming a K-12 building officially this upcoming school year, an early initial plan was to have the middle-high school office move up...
IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP - Ironwood Township will celebrate the grand opening of the Airport Recreation Park on Tuesday. The event runs from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the pavilion at the park. According to treasurer Jyl Olson-DeRosso, the park is "a decade in the making." Over the last 10 years, the township has acquired surrounding property, built soccer fields and more recently added a pavilion, walking track and playground equipment. The playground equipment was installed this summer, and was the final...
HURLEY - Enough is enough. The Iron County Finance Committee took steps Thursday to prevent tax delinquent properties from showing up year after year. There are around 13 properties in Iron County behind four years on taxes, dating to 2010. Three property owners have began paying, but the remaining 10 parcels may be taken by Iron County. Each year, a deadline is set for people to pay the furthest year of taxes to keep their properties another year. Within the county, a final deadline is set...
HURLEY - Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S., with one person dying every four minutes as a result. The symptoms are silent, sudden and leave devastating effects on those who suffer from a stroke. In the medical field, research has been conducted on how strokes occur, how it affects the body and ways to prevent strokes from happening. For the employees of Avanti Home Health, strokes hit home in April, when one of their own, a 36-year-old registered nurse, suffered a stroke....
Party battles came to a head during the primary election across Wisconsin on Tuesday. Votes during the election were cast along party lines, and in Iron County, more people voted on the Democratic ballot than the Republican one. In local races, incumbents Sheriff Tony Furyk (410 votes), coroner Diane Simonich (422 votes) and clerk of circuit court Karen Ransanici (433), all ran unopposed as Democrats. Janet Bewley, of Ashland, Wis., won the Democratic nomination for the District 25 state senate...
ONTONAGON - The cause of an early Monday morning fire and explosion in Ontonagon remains under investigation, according to the Ontonagon County Sheriff's Department and Michigan State Police. A fire marshal was on the scene of the fire, reported at 1:23 a.m. Monday. It demolished a two-story building at 426 Minnesota Ave. According to neighbors, two young men saw flames in the house as they drove by and broke in the door and yelled to see if anyone was inside. Shortly after that, neighbors said...
IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP - The Ironwood Township Board of Trustees was busy Monday, discussing the final details of two events taking place in a few weeks. The township is hosting an open house to celebrate the completion of the Airport Recreation Park on Aug. 19. Questions were raised on whether a speaker should be present at the event, and supervisor Alan Baron said he left a message with state Rep. Scott Dianda (D-Calumet) to see if he would be willing to speak at the open house. As of Monday evenin...
HURLEY - Students at the Hurley K-12 School are getting their hands dirty while planting, growing and selling produce from the school garden at the Iron County Farmers Market. Every Wednesday, students sell their own produce at the market with the "Garden to Market" program under the guidance of the Iron County University of Wisconsin-Extension office. According to Joy Schelble, Wisconsin Nutrition Education Program coordinator in Iron County, it is the second year students have participated in...
MERCER, Wis. – Thousands of people enjoyed sunshine, shopping and the occasional sound of a loon call during the annual Loon Day celebration in downtown Mercer on Wednesday. Attendees browsed through more than 220 vendors, selling everything from bubble makers, homemade jams, clothing, jewelry and handmade crafts and wooden items. Temperatures climbed into the mid-to-upper 70s with sunshine, equaling "great weather," according to Mercer Area Chamber of Commerce director Tina Brunell. "We c...
WAKEFIELD - "Weird animals" is the theme of this year's Vacation Bible School at All Saints Lutheran Church in Wakefield. The annual event has become a "staple" within the church, according to VBS director Cheri Brentar. Each year, a new theme is selected for area children to learn about God in new ways. Brentar said this year's theme is a hit with the kids. "They absolutely love it," she said. "It shows them that Jesus' love is one of a kind." Throughout the week, kids from age 4 up to sixth...
IRONWOOD - Things are moving along "smoothly," according to superintendent Tim Kolesar as the Ironwood Area School District prepares Luther L. Wright School to become K-12. On Monday, a few boxes and some desks lined the hallways on the first floor, while teachers spent the day organizing classrooms. Kindergarten through second grade teachers moved from Sleight Elementary School over to LLW in the beginning in June, and some teachers already have their classrooms ready for the first day of...
