Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Sorted by date Results 1174 - 1198 of 9883
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Jack Frost Festival starts in Ironwood on Friday and will run to the end of January. This weekend’s events include a parade, ice-carving event and a visit from Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus. Ironwood Area Chamber of Commerce Director Michael Meyer said that some businesses in downtown Ironwood celebrate the first Friday of the month by staying open late and Dec. 3, or “Frost Friday,” will be no different. The fourth annual Northern Elves Holiday Market will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. on...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] IRONWOOD - Gogebic Community College will soon add a third Zoom classroom. The Board of Trustees approved a contract for a Zoom chemistry lab at the Ironwood campus. The college has been using the Zoom platform for instruction since March 2020. The college now has two classrooms dedicated to classes offered on Zoom - one located on the third floor of the Erickson Academic Building on the Ironwood campus and the other is at the Copper Country campus in...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] MERCER, Wis. — The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction recently produced report cards for every publicly funded school as part of the state accountability system. The Mercer Board of Education discussed the Mercer district’s scores on the report card at its meeting on Monday. School Board President Bob Davis said the accountability score on the report card was 50.8 out of 100. According to the department’s website, a score ranging from 48 to 57.9 places the school district into the two-star ac...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] WAKEFIELD - Mike Zeckovich was selected to join the Wakefield City Council during a special council meeting on Monday night. Zeckovich will replace Amy Tarro, who resigned shortly after being re-elected last month but never took the oath of office. During the special meeting, Zeckovich and another candidate for the seat, Carrie Braspenick, were interviewed individually by city clerk Sue Ahonen in front of the council. By a flip of a coin, Braspenick...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield planning commission went back and forth on the issue of limiting the number of dogs that a person can have at a residence, during a lengthy work session on Monday, Nov. 20. The original plan was to limit the number of animals to two dogs and two cats, or a combination thereof not to exceed four animals. Then Mayor Dale White suggested simply putting the brakes on the issue of the number of dogs. The commission then returned to limiting the number of dogs when councilman Cal Sh...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] IRONWOOD — Winter sports enthusiasts gathered at the Historic Ironwood Theatre on Saturday to watch Warren Miller’s new film “Winter Starts Now,” featuring ski and snowboard athletes. The event was organized by Ironwood Ski Devils coach Dan Tregembo and the proceeds from the ticket sales will support the high school ski racing team. “Winter Starts Now” is Warren Miller Entertainment’s 72nd annual release. Miller was an American skier, snowboarder and filmmaker. He passed away in 2018, but his compa...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] BESSEMER — The Gogebic County Board of Commissioners held their regular meeting at the Gogebic County Courthouse in Bessemer on Tuesday and the board discussed a national settlement and two information technology-related issues. The board authorized the Gogebic County administrator to pursue participation in the national opioid settlement. There are ongoing cases involving pharmaceutical companies that handle the distribution of opioids and CVS, Walgreens and Walmart have settled outside of court. C...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER - A complimentary holiday meal brought forth by the Bessemer VFW Post 3673 gave many members of the community a place to go this Thanksgiving and a reason to be thankful. "I'm so glad that I could come here. Otherwise I would have had nowhere to go," said Vicki Duray, of Ironwood, who attended the dinner with her son, Dylan. She said she found out last minute about the dinner and said she was so thankful to the person she spoke with at the...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER - National Honor Society Students served a Thanksgiving lunch to students at Washington Elementary School on Tuesday. "We like the kids. That's why we wanted to come down here and we didn't want to be at the high school. We just love the kids," said NHS member Kristen Smith, 17. The other NHS students echoed her sentiments. "We all just love kids," said NHS member Leilani Casiano, 17. Along with serving the elementary students, the NHS members...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] WAKEFIELD – The City of Wakefield received an award for its water fluoridation quality from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The city has received the award annually since at least 2015, according to Dave Semenak, who runs the city’s water department. “There’s a really good balanced system because the guys here they keep it balanced to between .60 and .80,” said Semenak. “They just are really diligent. They check daily. Just like the chlorine levels at the pumphouse. So if there is...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Ironwood City Commission authorized adding fluoridation to the city’s water system and applying for a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services fluoridation equipment grant at their regular meeting on Monday. City Manager Scott Erickson said the city is designing a water treatment plant in the city of Ironwood and one of the topics that they are discussing is supplementing the level of fluoride in the water system. Erickson said that about 89% of the population in Michigan has f...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield City Council approved the city’s amended budget to reflect several increases needed for various accounts during a very brief regular meeting on Monday night. The amended budget included an increase in revenue to reflect the $87,293 the city received from the state through the American Rescue Plan Act. The Miscellaneous Public Expense Land Purchase/Sale account was also increased by $5,000 to cover a tax payment for the Department of Public Works garage buildings, which was...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] HURLEY - The Hurley Craft Fair experienced a good turnout at theHurley K-12 School on Saturday. The event included food and refreshments, a performance by the Silver Express, free balloon twisting and face painting and a visit from Santa Claus. The fair has been going on for more than 20 years and occurs every Saturday before Thanksgiving. The event was sponsored by the Hurley Booster Club and raised money for the school's athletic programs. More than...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] IRONWOOD — Two eighth-grade students at Luther L. Wright K-12 School, Olivia Salazar and Reino Ranta, are starting a Gay-Straight Alliance student group that will hold its first meeting on Dec. 8. The group will provide a safe space for LGBTQ students at Ironwood Area Schools. Salazar said that she came out of the closet during the Pride UP 2020 campaign in Ironwood with the support of her parents. However, she said that not all LGBTQ youth are accepted by their friends and family members. “It was...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] IRONWOOD - Slight flurries helped to boost the Christmas spirit as the Jack Frost tree was lit at the Depot Park on Thursday night. "The Jack Frost Festival of Lights will begin tonight," said Mike Meyer, executive director of the Ironwood Chamber of Commerce to a crowd of approximately 50 people gathered near the tree as the bell rang out to mark the 6 o'clock hour. "As you can see, we have lights all around us and tonight we are going to light the...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] MERCER, Wis. — After a public budget hearing and a special town meeting of electors, the town of Mercer board of supervisors held their regular meeting at the Haines Building in Mercer on Thursday evening. This year, the Rice Lake Association of Mercer received a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to remove curly leaf pondweed from Rice Lake to prevent or minimize the downstream contamination in the Turtle River Watershed. According to the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage & Trude Lake P...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Downtown Ironwood Development Authority is preparing to decorate the city for the holidays. Community Development Director Tom Bergman said the Department of Public Works puts lighted wreaths on 79 light posts in the city of Ironwood every year. Bergman said that the money to purchase the wreaths is donated to the DIDA throughout the year by local businesses, organizations and individuals. At the DIDA meeting on Thursday morning, Community Development Specialist Tim Erickson said that...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] Ironwood - November is National Alzheimer's Awareness, National Family Caregiver, and National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. In honor of this, the Ironwood Carnegie Library has put together some "memory kits," to help jog the memory of those who are affected by the disease. "We have started to recognize the needs of an aging population over the past few years and are working toward better serving those patrons," said library director Lynne...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] HOUGHTON — Recent wastewater monitoring indicates that communities in the western Upper Peninsula will see another increase in COVID-19 cases, according to a release from the Western U.P. Health Department on Monday. The health department has partnered with local wastewater monitoring systems as part of a continued statewide effort in Michigan to help slow the spread of COVID-19, the release says. They are testing wastewater samples for the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. According to the r...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER — The city of Bessemer sold just over seven acres of land to Glen Peterson, an attorney from Kerrville, Texas, with ties to the U.P. during the regular city council meeting on Monday night. The 7.3 acres of land is located near Marshalek Road off U.S. 2. Peterson offered to purchase the land for $2,000 per acre. The land is adjacent to 20 acres of land he recently purchased from the Gogebic County Road Commission for $40,000. Peterson said in a letter to the city that he will plan, design a...
MONTREAL, Wis. - Mayor Kelly Traczyk said that the city of Montreal applied for the Neighborhood Investment Fund Grant to receive funding for a proposed park at the Montreal common council meeting on Nov. 9. Traczyk said it will be named Riverside Park, which is also the name of the community center on a 1938 map of the city. The proposed park will be located on 22 acres of city property and will have a "mindfulness meditation walk," a dog park and community gardens. An old baseball field will...
HURLEY, Wis — The Hurley School Board awarded the Hurley/Ashland co-op hockey team a $500 grant per player during its regular meeting on Monday night. The district has been participating in the co-op for four years, and every year participation has increased. According to Brooke Gilbertson, the team was formed with five players from Hurley. In its second season it had six, in the third season there were eight players, and there are now nine Hurley players on the team. She said she expects to have at least nine next year as well, possibly m...