Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
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HURLEY - While many Gogebic Range residents were pursuing deer on the first day of Wisconsin's gun-deer season on Saturday, others were hunting for bargains in a festive atmosphere at the Hurley K-12 School's annual craft fair. More than 40 vendors were on hand, filling the commons area of the school and elementary gymnasium. Among the vendors in the small gym was the school's Northwoods Manufacturing team of students, offering for sale numerous items produced right there at the school. Six...
MARQUETTE — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder declared Nov. 5-11 Winter Hazards Awareness Week more than a week after the snow began falling throughout much of the Upper Peninsula. While 15.2 inches of snow had fallen at Ironwood through Friday and the November temperatures have been unseasonably cold, it’s too early to say the area will be in for a brutal winter. As of Friday, the average reading for the month in Ironwood of 27.6 degrees compared to the 116-year average of 36.7 degrees. The 5 inc...
HURLEY - Call it ghoulish history. Twelve at a time, groups heard tales of horror and despair as they made their way through the Iron County Courthouse Museum in Hurley Saturday night. The second year of flashlight tours through the museum sent a few chills down the spines of the attendees, especially when two young girls popped out of a darkened room and pleaded, "Play with me, play with me," to the youngsters who were taking the tour. One might have expected Jack Nicholson to jump out and psyc...
BESSEMER — The Gogebic County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution supporting continued funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the board received an update this week from U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet. Bergman said he signed a bipartisan letter to President Donald Trump calling for $300 million for the program in fiscal year 2016. On May 5, Trump signed legislation to fund the government through Sept. 30 and that kept full funding for the GLRI intact, according to Bergman. As Congress considers the 2018 budget, B...
BESSEMER — The three-year audit for Gogebic County is up for renewal, so the county board of commissioners decided to seek bids from companies to perform the work. At its meeting on Wednesday, the board received only a single audit bid and it came from Gabridge and Company, of Grand Rapids, the business that performed the most recent audits for the county. Gabridge bid $19,680 for each audit in 2017, 2018 and 2019. That led to a discussion of Gabridge’s past performance and whether the board should seek to re-bid the audit. Commissioner Joe...
IRONWOOD — Grants totaling $58,255 for 2018 were announced Friday for the Ironwood Theatre and Downtown Art Place. The downtown theater will receive two grants of $17,500 and $29,505, or 70 percent of its request, according to the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs. DAP will receive an $11,250 grant, or 40 percent of its request, according to the state council. Ironwood Mayor Annette Burchell said much of the money will go for roof repairs. Arts groups, “bedrock cultural institutions,” schools and popular festivals around Michig...
IRONWOOD - The new overlook on Mt. Zion is a result of a lot of positive efforts falling together, Ironwood Mayor Annette Burchell said Friday. "It only happened because of a unique collaboration," she said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the overlook deck near Gogebic Community College. There was fog in the air after a mild rainstorm, but the majestic Copper Peak slide was visible in the distance from the overlook. About 75 people attended the ribbon-cutting, many of them from the...
IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP - The Gogebic Range continues to cope with the aftermath of the flooding of July 2016 with reconstruction projects. Lake Road, north of the Wisconsin-Michigan border line bridge, will remain closed likely through next Tuesday, according to the Gogebic County Road Commission. A big box culvert not far from the Montreal River bridge is being worked on along Lake Road, near the Xcel Energy gravel road that leads to Superior Falls. That means that motorists cannot access Little...
IRONWOOD — A twist has been added to the city of Ironwood’s bow deer hunt this year. Deer heads will be collected to be checked for chronic wasting disease, the city commission learned on Monday. It will be the 12th year of the inner city archery hunt, designed to decrease the booming deer numbers of more than a decade ago. City manager Scott Erickson said the hunt has been effective. “We’ve been recognized statewide,” he said. As deer numbers have decreased in the city, so have the reports of wolves, although coyotes were a problem last wint...
SAXON, Wis. - The poultry and rabbits were active with a cool north breeze drifting through their weekend home at the Iron County Fair in Saxon on Friday. Two geese were cackling in their cage, greeting fair-goers who were checking out the poultry barn that was full of animals. The clouds left and the skies brightened in the early afternoon as cattle judging was taking place in the livestock ring in mid-60s temperatures. A familiar face to fair-goers, Dan Meyer, was judging cattle in the show ri...
MONTREAL, Wis. - One year after 12 inches of rain in four hours destroyed Saxon Harbor, the Montreal man who lost his life in the storm is being remembered. City of Montreal Mayor Todd Haeger on Monday declared Mitch Koski Week. "I would ask that during this week, think about your friends, neighbors and find a way to help better the community," Haeger said. "That's what Mitch would have done. On July 11, 2016, there was a call for help, and Mitch answered." Koski, 56, was killed when his truck...
IRONWOOD - Threatening skies cleared in time for Ironwood's initial First Friday downtown promotional effort. After Friday afternoon events at Deport Park, people headed downtown for the evening hours to shop and listen to a one-man concert in the Art Park. The performer, David Paul Martin (Niemi), writes his own music, including an ode to Bald Mountain and a song about driftwood on the Lake Superior beach. He's the son of Paul and Linda Niemi, who are area natives and have a home near the Saxon...
IRONWOOD - Ironwood's Galaxies may be entering Michigan's Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame. The four-man group that performed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when rock was young, is in the running for the hall in online voting. Of the four members, only Andy Abraham, 75, of Hurley, is still alive. Other Galaxies included Bernie Michelli, Danny Sullivan and Greg Winn. Danny Sullivan Jr., of Bessemer, said the Galaxies cut two records. He said a display on the Galaxies can be viewed at the Iron...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] BESSEMER - Two weeks ago, Northern Michigan University in Marquette announced it had received a $6.5 million grant to provide educational broadband services to the entire Upper Peninsula. On Wednesday, the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners learned how the Educational Access Network of NMU will provide Internet services to the western U.P. Eric Smith and Don Salo of NMU addressed the board and answered questions throughout a 45-minute presentation....
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] HURLEY — The Donald Rick sentencing hearing in the Bear Trap murder-arson case has been changed from today to June 1 at 10 a.m. Rick, 45, of Saxon, admitted to murdering Lisa Waldros of Kimball in the fire that destroyed the Bear Trap Inn in Saxon on March 12, 2016, and will be sentenced in Iron County Court. Rick previously entered a guilty plea to first-degree murder and five additional counts were dismissed, but will be read into the record at the sentencing hearing. A jury trial had been s...
IRONWOOD - Ironwood City Manager Scott Erickson told the city commission Monday at least two road projects are on the horizon. Van Buskirk Road will be seal-coated. The project is expected to begin in four or five weeks, he said. The Michigan Department of Transportation plans a summer project to mill and overlay (resurface) U.S. Business Route 2 throughout the city, extending from Cloverland Drive, through downtown and all the way to Hurley, Erickson said. The commission also learned the new...
HURLEY — A $2,500 bond was set Monday in Iron County Court for an Ironwood man who faces a felony bail jumping charge in connection with numerous other cases. LeRoy Hamm, 34, appeared before Judge Patrick Madden, who ordered a blood draw for analysis for Hamm, who faces charges dating to 2014. Under conditions of the bond, he may not use controlled substances, nor alcohol. Madden questioned Hamm about a black eye and his swollen face, asking whether that occurred in the county jail. Hamm said he had been in an altercation at an Ironwood r...
HURLEY — A 48-year-old Ironwood woman was sentenced Monday afternoon in Iron County Court to a year in jail and three years probation for a single count of identity theft. Wendy Wuorinen had originally been charged with 26 counts of theft for withdrawing around $7,613 from a customer’s account at the Iron County Community Credit Union in Kimball without authorization. She earlier entered a guilty plea to a single felony, under an agreement that the other felonies would be dropped, but read into the record. Although a pre-sentence inv...
HURLEY — A planned plea and sentencing hearing scheduled for Friday morning for a 52-year-old Hurley woman who is charged with five counts of theft from a business setting was postponed in Iron County Court. Joseph Rafferty, the attorney for Mary Peterson Tijan, told Judge Patrick Madden he needed more time to review “a vast amount of (computerized) data” he had received lately from Fritz Schellgell, acting Iron County District Attorney. Madden postponed the hearing to May 4 at 10 a.m. The judge agreed the data needs to analyzed by the defen...
Gusty west winds that continued on Wednesday morning combined with snow on the Gogebic Range to create some hazardous driving conditions and power outages. Trees and branches fell across many roadways Tuesday and Wednesday as debris was scattered throughout the area by 30 to 50 mph winds. Highway billboard signs in Ironwood and Kimball, Wis., blew down during wind peaks, trash cans were damaged and leaves were scattered like on a late autumn day. Most of the previous snow had melted, so the...
BESSEMER — The Gogebic County Board of Commissioners Wednesday tabled a proposal to move a sheriff’s department deputy into a part-time data processing position for a three-month period to prepare for the retirement of Brad Noren. The proposal is to eventually replace Noren with Brandon Tauer, who is now a full-time deputy. At a technology committee meeting on March 1, the committee recommended the move for three or four months, with the details to be worked out with the sheriff’s union and a job description to be drafted, if needed. Noren...
IRONWOOD — The Ironwood Planning Commission Thursday approved a five-year Capital Improvement Plan for the city. The plan will go before the five-member city commission for final approval. The CIP is part of the city’s comprehensive plan and is a sort of “wish list” of projects that might be tackled if funding is available. Many of the projects are contingent on the availability of grants. Many park projects in the city, for example, were funded in the past five-year CIP, which is necessary in the grant application process. In other busines...
IRONWOOD — After narrowly missing a record high the day before, a new daily high temperature was set for Ironwood on Friday. For the 24-hour period to 7 a.m. on Friday, the high was a balmy 50 degrees, which broke the old mark of 48 set in 1981. Temperatures in the low 50s were unofficially recorded in other areas of the Gogebic Range. For the 24-hour period to 7 a.m. on Thursday, the high was 46, but that fell short of the 116-year Ironwood record of 47 set in 1981, according to the National Weather Service office in Marquette. Steady r...
BESSEMER — Three appointments to Upper Peninsula agencies were approved at Wednesday’s reorganizational meeting of the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners. Joe Bonovetz, of Bessemer, who stepped down as chairman of the county board earlier in the meeting, was named to all three appointments. On the Upper Peninsula Commission for Area Progress, it was a reappointment for Bonovetz. The UPCAP board of directors will meet in February to act on the nominations from the various counties. On the Michigan Works Upward Talent Council Board, Bon...
IRONWOOD — Ironwood Chamber of Commerce Director Michael Meyer told the city’s Economic Development Corporation Wednesday why the December Jack Frost parade has been shifted from Friday to Saturday. Meyer said the primary reason for the change was to create more opportunities for businesses, as the original intent of the downtown December parade was for commercial purposes. Also, he said a Saturday evening parade will be better for school children and working families who not only want to watch the parade, but also participate in it. Meyer sai...
