Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
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IRONWOOD — The 21st annual Festival Ironwood drew large crowds from Wednesday through Sunday. An appreciative crowd enjoyed the Lowell Street Band Saturday evening, punctuating the end of the festival. The overflow of listeners spilled out of the tent in Depot Park onto, of all things, Lowell Street, which was blocked off for the event. Different types of music were offered for festival-goers to enjoy, from polka to bluegrass, to country, and rock and roll. On Saturday, there were twice as m...
MERCER, Wis. — Mercer Woods and Blooms Garden Club will host a public tour of private gardens on Saturday, July 27, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is the eighth year of the tour, said Jan Peterson, chairperson of the garden club. This year's tour will include the Mercer Community Garden, adjacent to the Haines Civic Building, which is new this year. The Mercer School, Mercer Senior Center and the food pantry are raising vegetables and herbs there for educational purposes, as well as for c...
SAN FRANCISCO — Bessemer native Capt. Jay Jewess retired from the U.S. Coast Guard in May. He was the deputy sector commander in the USCG's San Francisco sector, which covers more than 2,500 miles of shoreline within the San Francisco Bay and its tributaries. A ceremony celebrating his career was held on Yerba Buena Island on May 24. Nearly 500 people attended, said Yoko Jewess, Jay Jewess' mother. “I'm very proud,” she said. Eric Jewess, Jay Jewess' brother, is also retired from the Coast Guard and lives in Mississippi, where he works for t...
MELLEN, Wis. — The North Country Trail Association-Heritage Chapter is seeking volunteers to help build tread on five new miles of trail in the Copper Falls State Park this weekend. The group will also perform trail maintenance on existing sections of the trail in the Uller and Wren Falls sections. The North Country Trail is being developed as the longest national scenic trail, stretching 4,600 miles from New York to North Dakota, with 225 of those miles in Wisconsin. “What is significant about this trail is that it is built by volunteers,” sai...
IRONWOOD — Chris Hillier arrived at Festival Ironwood in the Depot Park on Thursday afternoon, ending a 924-mile hike from Detroit. In December, Gov. Rick Snyder announced he was going to make Michigan the trails mecca of the Midwest, and wanted a non-motorized trail from Belle Isle in Detroit to Ironwood. The trail hasn’t been officially named yet, but Hillier said he will call it the Ironwood Trail, because he has been dreaming of reaching Ironwood for 11 weeks. Hillier is the first to mak...
IRONWOOD — Aspirus Grand View Hospital held Senior Day on Thursday, serving a light lunch and providing education on pertinent health topics. Seventeen people attended. AGVH corporate operations officer Paula Chasermside greeted the guests, telling them, “It is your loyalty that allows us to continue to grow, advance, and provide services.” AGVH was founded in 1923 as a tuberculosis sanitorium, and in the 1950s it began to offer surgical services. Currently, AGVH is a fully accredited criti...
BESSEMER— Jane and Mark Bale have been providing foster care for 32 years, in addition to raising two daughters, now aged 30 and 27. This May they took on a new task for the state of Michigan, recruiting and retaining foster families in Gogebic and Ontonagon counties. There are 650,000 children in foster care in the U.S., said Mark Bale. To become foster parents, people must undergo 24 hours of training, as well as have their homes pass inspections by the department of human services for s...
BESSEMER— The park slated for construction on Mary Street in Bessemer is a great idea, just in a bad location, said Bob Vestich, owner of a tavern on Mary Street, at Monday's Bessemer City Council meeting. Three realtors have assessed his property because of his concerns with the project, and they have estimated devaluation to be between 33 and 50 percent, said Vestich, owner of Uncle Sam's Place. Vestich asked the council to put a hold on spending the money, because he wanted to get a p...
HURLEY — A small group of folks, some wearing masks of woodland animals, gathered Saturday in Hurley to protest a proposed iron mine near Upson, Wis. Robert Menard of Ashland, Wis., spoke to the group of around 15 at the visitor’s center, warning them of the dangers of continuing an industrial society. The group then headed downtown to the offices of Gogebic Taconite. G-Tac is conducting exploratory drilling at the site along the Iron and Ashland county line near Wisconin 77. Menard, former und...
IRONWOOD — The city of Ironwood Planning Commission approved a request for proposals from planning consultants to initiate a new 20-year plan for the city, and will next get the request approved by the city commission, said community development director Michael Brown. Ironwood’s last 20-year plan was written in 1982, with updates in 2000, said Brown. The landscape and economy have changed since then, Brown said. The goal in a 20-year plan is to get the public’s input as much as possible. For example, a community visioning session with local...
IRONWOOD— Governor Rick Snyder and his family toured the Stormy Kromer factory in Ironwood’s Industrial Park Thursday morning, learning the history of Jaquart Fabric Products and the expansions that have taken the family company from a one-man basement operation in 1958 to a 80,000-square-foot facility with $15 million in annual sales. “Jacquart’s is a great company, and I am very proud to see Stormy Kromer in Michigan,” said Gov. Snyder. In 2001, Bob Jacquart got a tip from the late Mark Fitt...
BESSEMER — A single engine airplane was forced to make an emergency landing on U.S. 2 near Blackjack Road in Bessemer Township at 4:45 a.m., Thursday, according to a Gogebic County Sheriff’s Department release. Aaron Ruotsala, of Ironwood, was alone on an early morning flight to Iron River when the low oil pressure light came on, he said. Soon his engine failed in midair. Ruotsala was online with Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center during the flight, and when it was evident that he wou...
HURLEY— Registration began Wednesday night for the 105th annual Apostolic Lutheran Church convention, hosted this year at the Hurley K-12 school. Between 1,000 and 1,500 people are expected to attend. The convention lasts through Sunday. Events began at the school on Wednesday evening with a presentation by Harry Ylippa of Sweden in the Hurley K-12 high school gymnasium. Daily worship services will be offered at 10 a.m. and 2 and 6 p.m. in English in the gymnasium; and at 9:45 a.m., and 1:45 a...
IRONWOOD— The 21st annual Festival Ironwood will have a little different look this year because of the recent Depot Park expansion project, and organizers expect the community summer celebration to be bigger than ever. Festival Ironwood will run July 17-20, centered under the familiar blue and white tent in downtown Ironwood. This is the fourth year Will Corcoran and Keith Johnson are in charge, and they say it would be impossible to put it all together without the help of volunteers and l...
IRONWOOD — The Ironwood City Commission approved motions relating to three public hearings held Monday before the commision’s regular meeting. One hearing regarded using the Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund to finance improvements at Riverside Cemetery, another addressed changing the gross vehicle weight limits on South Range Road from Pine Street to Norrie Park Road from five tons to 15 tons, and a third hearing was about a potential millage to fund local street improvements. City manager Sco...
ERWIN TOWNSHIP — On Sunday, a project that Ivan Hellen, Erwin Township historian, has spent hundreds of hours working on since 2009 came to fruition with the unveiling and dedication of a historical marker at the Erwin Township Hall, formerly the Erwin Central School. “It’s an honor to preserve the legacy and heritage of our pioneer settlers 104 years later,” said Hellen, who is also the historian for Miner’s Memorial Heritage Park. Hellen and his brothers David, Bill and John unveiled...
BESSEMER — Fourth of July celebrations drew crowds across the region Thursday, helped along by good weather. Bessemer Blast reached its peak with the annual Fourth of July parade Thursday evening drawing a large crowd along the route. Many people set up their lawn chairs early in the day to ensure a good spot to view the festivities. A drum and fife group from Janesville, Wis., enlivened the parade with period costumes and music. A bag-piper and bands from A.D. Johnston High School and Luther L...
WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield Post of the Michigan State Police celebrated 95 years serving Michigan Wednesday with an open house for citizens to meet personnel and find out more about what state troopers do. Jay Peterson was on hand from the state crime lab in Marquette, which has a brand new facility with state-of-the-art equipment. The lab not only processes fingerprints there, but also handles polygraphs and drug analyses. One of seven crime labs in the state, the Marquette lab handles the e...
BESSEMER— Michigan State University Extension’s 4-H offered a Science Blast for local children Monday afternoon at Bluff View Park in Bessemer. Children took part in six activity stations: creating lava lamps, “chicken clucker,” making catapults, crazy putty and judging age of trees by their rings. Children were credited for attending each station, and then were eligible for a prize after completing a survey. Emily McGrath, new 4-H coordinator, said this was her first big event with 4-H. Mc...
HURLEY— The 105th Apostolic Lutheran Church Convention begins July 10 with a service at 7 p.m. at the Hurley K-12 school, said convention chair Alan Estola. It runs through July 14. From 1,000 to 1,500 people are expected from all over the U.S., as well as Finland, Sweden, Canada, Guatemala and other countries, Estola said. The event was held here last in 1997. When it was here in the 1950s, Dorothy Benjamson, a long-time member of the local Apostolic Lutheran Church in Ironwood, was 10 or 12. About 5,000 people came then, Benjamson said. A...
IRONWOOD — Changes are coming for this year's Gogebic-Iron County Airport Fly-In, slated for Saturday, Aug. 24. “We are hoping for better weather with the earlier date,” said Fly-In committee chair Donna Scorse. Welcoming ceremonies begin at 10 a.m. This year there will be four aircrafts offering free plane rides to youth aged 8 to 17, accompanied by a parent or guardian, and another aircraft will be available for younger children with parents to fly for a small fee. This year's event will...
IRONWOOD — Local youth in the Ironwood Carnegie Library's summer drama camp have been working together since early last week to prepare for a performance Friday at 5:30 p.m. in the Ironwood Memorial Building auditorium. The kids, aged 11 and up, are from Ironwood and Bessemer. Under the direction of Mary Hansen, the youth will perform, “The Golden Rooster,” “The Bremen Town Musicians,” and “Henny Penny.” “I'm very, very proud of these kids,” Hansen said. “Some of them have never been on stage...
IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP — Construction is rolling right along in the Carl Kleimola Applied Technology Center at Gogebic Community College. Twelve workers from Angelo Luppino, Lindquist Electric and other local subcontractors were busy Tuesday preparing for the drywall to arrive, said foreman Bill Tregembo, of Angelo Luppino Inc. “There will be a lot of lighting. It was 26 feet up in the air before,” said Jon Werkmeister, automotive technology instructor. The department is gaining floor space and l...
IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP — Jon Parker, of State Farm Insurance in Ironwood, donated a 2012 Ford Escape Hybrid to the Gogebic Community College Automotive Technology program. Parker has arranged a partnership between State Farm and GCC with automotive technology instructor Jon Werkmeister to donate a vehicle every year for use as a teaching aid. The project began in December, said Parker. “It took a few months to get what they needed,” he said. The vehicle was shipped from Bartlett, Ill. The partn...
WAKEFIELD — New Beginnings Pregnancy Services of Ironwood hosted its sixth annual “Walk, Run and Roll” event Saturday morning at Sunday Lake to raise funds for families experiencing crisis pregnancies. About 40 people walked, ran or rolled. Each registrant got a raffle ticket, and director Harry Swanson said that local businesses were so generous with their donations that it looked like everyone who participated would get a prize. Denise and Jonathan Haas provided music. The agency served 47 pe...
