Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Sorted by date Results 1412 - 1436 of 9747
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER — The Bessemer Downtown Development Authority decided Wednesday to allow the Bessemer Area School District to hang senior banners on light poles around the city again this year if the district chooses. “Last year, just the community feedback, it was fantastic,” said DDA member Kady Meinke. “It was good seeing the kids pictures up there. It really brought a sense of community to our high-schoolers.” Fellow DDA member Cheryl Leskoviansky agreed, saying that she thought it was a good idea. Cit...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD — To fence or not to fence, as well as where and how to fence, was a major topic at Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Wakefield Planning Commission. City Manager Robert Brown, Jr. said the city’s current ordinance allows residents to install a fence directly on their property line. However, he noted, that can result in problems — particularly when new neighbors settle in. Brown added that six feet and three feet are the current height maximum and minimum, respectively, but he added that city of...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER — The Bessemer City Council hired two local contractors for its water and sewer projects during a special meeting on Wednesday. Jake’s Excavating and Landscaping LLC, of Ironwood, was awarded the contract for the city’s major water and sewer project, following the recommendation of its hire by C2AE Engineering, of Escanaba. The company came in as the lowest of four bidders with a total bid of $14,525,949, coming in $193,124 cheaper than the second lowest bid received. Ruotsala Concrete Const...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD - Wakefield City officials conducted the first of four public tours of current and pending sites for the Department of Public Works on Wednesday afternoon. A second tour was expected on Thursday afternoon, and two additional tours are scheduled for next Wednesday and Thursday at 5:30 p.m. Anyone wishing to attend should call the municipal building at 906-229-5131 to RSVP. Wednesday's tour started at the century-old garage attached to the former...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] HURLEY — The Hurley City Council on Monday approved a recommendation from the parks and recreation and finance committees to build a full court basketball court at Riccelli Park, a new court at Pena Park, and to continue researching costs for playground equipment at both parks. Riccelli Park has an existing half-size basketball court and aging playground equipment. To make room for a full-size court two restrooms that are no longer in use may need to be removed. The need to bid out the work or a...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] HURLEY — The Hurley City Council on Monday voted 4-1 not to close Silver Street or provide other support that would allow for a downtown parade during the annual Memorial Weekend ATV/UTV Rally. Council members Joanne Bruneau, Jamey Francis, Robert Lanctoe and Stephanie Innes-Smith voted with the decision to withhold city support required for the Hurley Area Chamber of Commerce and other event partners to hold the parade in the interest of following COVID-19 pandemic guidelines that still r...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] HURLEY - A rescue effort that included the help of the Hurley Police and Public Works departments successfully retrieved a dog that had fallen into a manhole near Second Avenue near downtown Hurley Wednesday morning. Sadie, a 13-year-old German wire hair pointer belonging to Karen and Paul Hagemann, ventured off into a culvert during her morning walk shortly before 9 a.m. The culvert starts at the west side of Second Avenue and runs under the road...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Ironwood City Commission approved two projects Monday that are meant to help Miners Memorial Heritage Park continue to grow and expand. The commission approved a $264,364 bid from Marquettebased Flowtrack Mountain Bike Trails, LLC, to complete the mountain bike trail construction and qayfinding signs project at Miners Park. The project includes construction of a pump and hand cycle tracks; cross country and mountain bike trails; a 3-foot boardwalk trail; trail signs and posts. The a...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD — After nearly two years of preliminary work, the Ironwood City Commission on Monday approved an engineering service agreement to start the water treatment plant project. The commission, 5-0, approved the design and project management services with HDR, Inc., of St. Louis Park, Minnesota. The firm will start work on final engineering of the estimated $9.7 million concrete, gravity filtered water treatment plant and pump station to better address manganese and iron water quality issues a...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD - City Manager Robert Brown, Jr. announced on Monday evening that tours of Wakefield city garage sites will begin today at 5 p.m. While presenting a related slideshow at a regular meeting of the Wakefield City Council, Brown said the tours will allow the public to compare the three existing sites used by the Department of Public Works to the projected new site in the city's industrial park, southwest of Sunday Lake. In addition to today's tour, a...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD — With the Ironwood City Commission’s blight action on a long-time problem residence on Monday, the commissioners called upon all residents to clean up this spring. Commissioner Kim Corcoran said that with the commission taking action on one residence on Monday she wanted the city to consider something more constructive than punitive. She took the opportunity to drive around the city recently and noticed a number of properties with blight issues, and along Copper, Oak, and Ironwood str...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD — There have been significant improvements with on-time arrivals and departures along with increased boardings according to comments from an official of Boutique Air Inc., the Essential Service Provider that started service on Aug. 1. Tom Warren, vice president of business development for Boutique Air, traveled from Colorado to provide a progress report on issues presented by the Gogebic-Iron County Airport Regular Board at its meeting on Monday. He first appeared before the board in F...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER — Bessemer high school students will continue with in-person learning despite a recommendation from the Michigan Education Association on Friday to revert back to virtual learning for two weeks. “(Schools in the Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District) came to the conclusion that because it is just highly recommended and not mandated, that we’re just going to continue in person,” said Dan Niemi, superintendent of Bessemer Area School District. Niemi said he believes the recomme...
by MEGAN HUGHES [email protected] PENCE, Wis. - The Penokee Rangers gathered Saturday morning for an important task, preparing trail markers for the summertime. The markers, which are fashioned out of ironwood, will mark the trail for summertime hikers, and are planned to last for a long while. Volunteers gathered at the Pence trailhead to work on stripping bark and smoothing down branches. "This is the first time they have met to do this as a group," according to chief of trails, C...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY - The Iron County board of canvass met Friday to complete the canvass of local votes cast in Tuesday's election, formally certifying the results. The three-person board reviewed the tally sheets for every ward in the county to ensure the filled out tally sheets accurately reflect the number of paper and electronic ballots cast. The process largely confirmed the results initially reported Tuesday night, with the exception of Sharon Ofstad...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] HURLEY — The Hurley K-12 School has released its spring calendar with events modified for public participation. Scheduled spring events include traditional but modified graduations and prom, choral and band concerts, scholarship and awards programs, according to Melissa Oja, the middle and high school principal. The success of the fall and spring sports programs provided a model for pandemic safety and allow for more people to attend with the open gym floors not in use for the events, she said. ...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HANCOCK — As the weather warms up, the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department is warning residents of potential diseases they can get from ticks and mosquitoes. Ticks live in grassy, bushy or wooded areas, according to the health department, and can be active any time there are multiple days in a row where temperatures are above 32 degrees. They can carry a variety of diseases — including Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tulameria and anaplasmosis — a health department spokesperson sa...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] WAKEFIELD - The Wakefield Public Library reopened its monthly patron exhibit this month. The exhibit, which features artwork and other collectibles belonging to library patrons, had been shut down for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "With the relaxing of some of the restrictions, we decided that we were able to safely reopen that. So we just restarted that," said Joel Laessig, library director. The library started the exhibit in August...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP — The presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the area of the Gogebic Iron County Airport has prompted a second phase of sampling to determine the spread of the toxic chemicals into nearby land, wells and waterways. Abigail Hendershott, the executive director of the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team (MPART), led a team of experts in a virtual meeting Tuesday to discuss the process with residents. She said an executive order created MPART as a collaboration of s...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY — Iron County will continue to use the Duluth-based Jamar Company for heating and cooling work at the county courthouse after the Iron County Board of Supervisors’ finance committee approved a 5-year contract extension Thursday. The agreement will have the county pay $59,800 in 2022, according to Iron County Clerk Mike Saari, with roughly half of the cost going to replacing aging equipment at the courthouse. Saari said most of the heat pumps at the courthouse have been there for 20 yea...
MERCER, Wis. - Mercer voters approved a half-cent consumer tax to help pay for roads and infrastructure costs in Tuesday's spring election. The voter approved the Premier Resort Area Tax (PRAT) with 278 votes (59.7%) for the proposal and 187 votes against. This contrasted the previous PRAT attempt in the 2019 spring election when the proposal lost 507-264. Mercer is eligible to utilize PRAT as a municipality with at least 40% of its equalized assessed property value in use by tourism-related...
BESSEMER — The Bessemer City Council gave the organizers of local Fourth of July festivities its “blessing” Monday to go ahead with plans for this year’s events. “I’ll be happy with absolutely anything that we can have just to bring our hometown pride back. Bring the community back together and just celebrate the Fourth of July. So anything that we can possibly have, I am grateful for,” said Linda Nelson, president of the Fourth of July organizing committee. Nelson said normally at this time of year they would be finalizing plans, howeve...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HANCOCK — The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has identified a variant of COVID-19 that is thought to have emerged in the United Kingdom in five Houghton County cases, the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department announced Monday. “When a variant is identified or suspected, additional measures take place, such as a strict 14-day quarantine,” WUPHD Health Officer Kate Beer said in the announcement. “A new variant in our community is concerning since it can be related to higher...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD — As the heavy work involved in building the new Pat O’Donnell Civic Center is completed the more detailed finishing work has its own complications with scheduling and shipping delays that are related to pandemic, according to reports at Monday’s board meeting. “There are a lot of things on back order,” said Jim Collins, board chair. “Everybody is waiting for somebody else to finish something. It’s a hard time and, in my opinion, no one is dragging their feet and they are working very...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] GREENLAND - The region's fickle weather can make spring a difficult time to plan construction projects in the Western Upper Peninsula, as evident by the delayed start of a bridge project in Ontonagon County. Work completing a multi-year project replacing two bridges over the Firesteel River near Greenland had been scheduled to start in mid-March, according to a Michigan Department of Transportation announcement. However, MDOT spokesman Dan...
