Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Sorted by date Results 1165 - 1189 of 9971
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] BESSEMER — Gogebic County Board of Commissioners Chair Jim Lorenson is working with Emergency Management and 911 Coordinator Heidi DeRosso to secure grant funding from the state for first responder training. At the board’s meeting on Wednesday, Lorenson said there are two requirements for the grant: one is that the governmental units have a per capita taxable value of under $15,000, the other is that the training be completed by the end of the fiscal year. Lorenson said it would be wonderful if sta...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] HOUGHTON — As February nears, the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department reported a decrease in the COVID-19 cases rate on Thursday. However, the updated numbers continue to show that the risk of transmission is high. “The good news is that the new case count and case rate per 100,000 population both dropped by more than 10 percent from last week,” the update says. “The bad news is that both are still extremely high and for the eighth week in a row we’ve had more than three people in the weste...
IRONWOOD - The Gogebic Community College Board of Trustees heard Tuesday a report from six students that attended the National Council on Student Leadership through the college's TRiO Student Support Services program in Orlando, Florida, this past November. The participants included Alyssa Knight, Amber Dwyer, Brianne Bastman, Emaleah Niemi, Corrin Kelly and Adelya Maxinoski. They were chosen to go through an essay competition. "The essay winners each wrote compelling pieces on the qualities and...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] BESSEMER — Erin Ross, a 4-H supervisor from Michigan State University Extension-Gogebic County, attended the Gogebic County Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday to request $76,000 of the 2021-2022 budget allocation for their programs, which led to criticism from some committee members about the office’s services. Chair Jim Lorenson said the board said $68,000 would be enough. He said that he was not opposed to allocating this amount, but he wants the Gogebic County office to show them the pro...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] HURLEY - Residents from Wisconsin's Northwoods had the chance to have their voices heard by one of their elected officials when U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, visited the Iron County Memorial Building in Hurley on Tuesday. Tiffany said that he comes from Washington, D.C., to various parts of his congressional district two to three times a year to take questions from his constituents and this is his first visit to Hurley as representative. "I...
ONTONAGON — The Ontonagon Area Board of Education elected its officers at the re-scheduled reorganizational meeting Tuesday. Tanya Weisinger was re-elected president of the board. Julie Kolpac was re-elected vice president and Tammy Strasser was re-elected Secretary. The new board treasurer is Natalie Morgan. The board hear that students are in class, in the building, and following protocols from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although they were expected to be in virtual classroom mode on Wednesday because of expected s...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Ironwood City Commission authorized the calling for bids for a new water treatment plant after an update on the project from the engineering company that designed the plant at their regular meeting on Monday. Chris Larson of HDR Inc. said they have submitted the completed designs of the water treatment plant for review. Larson presented a floor plan and 3-D renderings of the plant to the commission. He said it will be located on the same property as the old pumping station on Pump Stat...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield Library board is seeking a part-time librarian as well as to fill two vacant board positions. The board announced its board member vacancies last week, and expects to post the librarian position this week. The library is temporarily closed following the resignation of library director Joel Laessig on Jan. 3, and the library board is in the process of restructuring the operation. “We are proposing a part-time librarian due to the fact that a full-time librarian with fri...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] IRONWOOD — Fans of Billy Joel will have the next best thing to seeing the songwriter in person with the 52nd Street band playing his music in a concert at the Historic Ironwood Theatre on Feb. 10. “This is a full concert show packed with hits from start to finish and features ‘spot on’ performances of the songs that made the ‘piano man’ from Brooklyn one of the top selling and beloved artists of all time. With a grand piano at center stage and a...
ONTONAGON — The Ontonagon County Animal Protection shelter is going green. During the fall spruce-up event held at the facility in October, the idea to recycle materials which were then going into the shelter’s dumpster was discussed, according to a release from Ken Raisanen, who is a cat volunteer at the shelter as well as a member of the Ontonagon Recycling Initiative committee. A proposal to begin recycling pet food containers and empty bottles from sanitizing and cleaning products was brought to the OCAP board. With the board’s appro...
By LARRY HOLCOMBE [email protected] If it's Wednesday, there's a snowshoe outing awaiting outdoor enthusiasts in the region, thanks to organizers of the Superior Snowshoe Walks. The weekly group snowshoe walks are marking their 11th season in 2022, according to organizers Sam and Anne Davey. The series of Wednesday walks are scheduled on various trails in the region. Snowshoers of all abilities are welcome. There are two roughly hour-long walks each Wednesday, both at the same trail...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] MERCER, Wis. — The town of Mercer’s planning commission updated the board of supervisors on their changes to the business park ordinances and covenants at their regular meeting on Thursday. Planning Commission board member Bob Davis said the commission reviewed the history of the business park and its ordinances and covenants. He said that two key discoveries came out of their research: the business park covenants were vague and not enforced consistently. Davis said that according to the cov...
By LARRY HOLCOMBE [email protected] IRONWOOD - The Ironwood Chamber of Commerce honored Burton Electronics Manufacturing System as the 2021 Business of the Year on Wednesday as chamber officials handed out four annual awards in a virtual ceremony. For the second year in a row, the chamber chose to hand out the awards for business, organization and volunteer of the year, as well as the Gus Swanson Educational Award, in a serious of individually recorded presentations that were to be po...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] HURLEY — The Iron County Board of Supervisors held a hearing on Tuesday to prepare for applying for funds through the bipartisan deal for broadband infrastructure that was passed in Congress in early November. At the board of supervisors’ meeting in December, Iron County Development Zone Coordinator Kelly Klein said that the bipartisan deal will deliver $65 billion to help with broadband infrastructure development. Klein said that each state will receive $100 million with the opportunity to compete f...
By MEGAN HUGHES [email protected] WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield-Marenisco school board proceeded Monday with plans to install new windows across the school. At last month’s meeting, the board heard a bid from Nasi Construction with a price tag of just over $1 million to re-window the entire school. The board decided, in order to lower the cost, they would not update the gymnasium windows at this time, instead focusing on the rest of the school building. This lowered the price to $869,719, which remained $100,000 over budget for the pro...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] HURLEY — Five high school students from Hurley School District were sworn into the Iron County Board of Supervisors as student representatives at the board’s meeting on Tuesday. The students were introduced to the board by Neil Klemme, 4-H youth development educator with the University of Wisconsin-Madison – Extension Iron County. “The goal of the program is to provide an opportunity for the youth to have a voice in county decision making. Our county is trying to find ways to attract and retain...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] IRONWOOD — In the Ironwood Area Schools Board of Education meeting on Monday, Superintendent Travis Powell said the latest update from the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department shows that the number of COVID-19 cases and the case rate per 100,000 population in Gogebic County are the highest they’ve ever been. Despite these numbers, the school will continue with in-person classes for now. “A year ago in November, when there were half as many cases per 100,000 as we have currently, we were shut...
By MEGAN HUGHES [email protected] WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield-Marenisco School Board discussed the continuation of COVID-19 masking policies at its monthly meeting on Monday evening. The topic of masking has been an ongoing conversation during past meetings, with concerns being raised by several of the board members about the effectiveness of the procedure. At the previous meeting, held in December 2021, the board had voted to continue the masking procedure until Jan. 20, with plans to revisit at Monday’s meeting. A vote to continue the...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] HANCOCK — The Western Upper Peninsula Health Department reported Saturday that the omicron variant of COVID-19 was identified in its five-county coverage area. According to a release from the WUPHD, the variant was identified by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Laboratories in one case in Baraga, Gogebic, Houghton, Keweenaw and Ontonagon counties. “It is important to know that not all COVID tests are sequenced. With the rapid rise in case counts over the last few day...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] WAKEFIELD — Joel Laessig, who recently resigned as director of the Wakefield Public Library, will receive his sick and vacation pay. The library board held a special meeting on Thursday to determine if it should pay Laessig, who resigned Jan. 3 citing issues with the city regarding budget restraints, for the sick time and vacation time he had accumulated. In total, Laessig had 157 hours of vacation time, which will be paid at a rate of $16 an hour, which equates to $2,512 before taxes and five hours o...
