Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Sorted by date Results 1654 - 1678 of 9733
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] MERCER, Wis. — The town of Mercer will continue its community outreach regarding a proposed Premier Resort Area Tax (PRAT) as a preferred source of revenue to maintain roads as opposed to placing the burden on the property tax. The Mercer Community Center held as many people as could be safely distanced at a special meeting prior to the regular town board of supervisors meeting on Thursday. There were several questions along with opponents and proponents of the PRAT that failed a previous ballot a...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD — Members of the Wakefield City Council learned Monday that the city’s municipal building may serve as a site for COVID-19 testing and/or immunizations. City Manager Robert Brown, Jr. reported that the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department in Hancock has requested to use the municipal building gym as a site to administer COVID-19 testing. He said that it could be just a one-time event before the end of the year or possibly could involve weekly sessions during the first couple months of 2021....
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Downtown Ironwood Development Authority welcomed two new members at its virtual meeting Thursday, bringing the city board to full strength at nine members. The two new members are Bruce Greenhill and Darrin Kimbler. It was their first meeting since their mayoral appointments were approved by the Ironwood City Commission. Greenhill is the operations manager for the Historic Ironwood Theatre. Kimbler owns Taiga Farm and Vineyards in Ironwood Township. He is also the agriculture e...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] RAMSAY — The Powderhorn Area Utility District is close to finalizing a change to the district’s late fee which would make it non-compounding. The district board discussed the matter at its meeting Wednesday, held via telephone conference. The board is seeking to have the late fee for unpaid utility bills remain at 10%, but eliminate the compounding portion, to make it easier for customers to get caught up. The members heard that the Bessemer Township board approved the change at its meeting Monday and...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD - Jeanne Olsen's travels around the country to visit her children have also made her somewhat of a culinary ambassador. The Ironwood resident says her five grown children grew up eating pasties and that prior to each of her visits, she shops her favorite area bakeries to bring dozens of them with her. While visiting, she is also invited to hold a pasty making class for family friends and relatives, including her recent Thanksgiving trip to...
IRONWOOD — An Ironwood City Commission workshop on Monday revealed the benefits and consequences that come from choosing which grants to apply for in order to build a proposed water treatment and filtration system with a new pump station. Jeff Sjoquist of Coleman Engineering, said his firm is taking the lead on Michigan grant applications as the subcontractor to Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. SEH is the construction engineering firm that recommended a $9.7 million concrete, gravity filtered water treatment plant that would address manganese a...
WAKEFIELD - Several local food pantries got an early Christmas gift Tuesday as the Michigan State Police's Wakefield Post distributed the goods collected during the post's annual Harvest Gathering food drive. "Just before Christmas, I think the pantries are going to be well supplied for the people who need it," said Lt. Donald Horn, commander of the Wakefield post. The post's food drive, in partnership with Super One, raised over 20,000 pounds of food for food pantries in Ironwood, Bessemer and...
HURLEY — The Iron County Board of Supervisors and its various committees will continue to meet in person, while giving individuals an opportunity to attend remotely, after a motion to switch entirely to Zoom meetings failed to get enough support for a vote Tuesday. Supervisor Anne McComas proposed the switch to completely remote meetings due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, saying she didn’t think it was safe for the county board and its committees to meet in the boardroom in the county courthouse. “Having been elected by the people of the...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD — It will take two people to fill the shoes of a retiring city assessor and building inspector, according to the Ironwood City Commision meeting on Monday. Dennis Hewitt is retiring at the end of December after 24 years in the dual role of city assessor and building official for the city of Ironwood, according to city manager Scott Erickson at the meeting. Hewitt has abilities and specific credentials, certifications and licenses that have allowed him to serve both in positions. “Both posi...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP — For the second time in four years the Ironwood Township Board of Trustees voted to take ownership of the natural spring off Lake Road near Little Girl’s Point Monday. The board’s decision came in anticipation of an expected decision at the Gogebic County Road Commission meeting that same night to either transfer the property to the township or pull the pipe that people use to get water from the spring. “If we don’t take possession of it, their plan is to go ahead and pull the sp...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD — Members of the Wakefield City Council voted Monday evening to enter a purchase agreement for two industrial lots intended for pending use by the Department of Public Works. The cost now stated in the agreement is $400,000, and a written report by City Manager Robert Brown, Jr. states that the total cost could run more than $600,000 due to interest on an expected 30-year government loan of $450,000. The targeted property — which is southwest of Sunday Lake — consists of about eight acres and t...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY — Iron County District Attorney Matt Tingstad is no longer responsible for prosecuting former Hurley fire chief Darrell Petrusha after a judge removed Tingstad from the case, citing a totality of circumstances that “gave the appearance of impropriety.” “The defendant has the constitutional right to be prosecuted by a conflict-free prosecutor,” Taylor County Judge Ann Knox-Bauer wrote in a ruling last month. “Further, the public has the right to a prosecutor who is viewed to be free from a...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD — An equipment failure in Ironwood led to a power outage over much of the region miday Monday. An Xcel Energy map showed there were 26 outages in the area affecting 8,574 customers from Saxon and Gurney in Iron County, Wisconsin in the west, to Berglund in Ontonagon County to the east, and much of the Upper Peninsula communities to the south. “We had equipment failure in our Ironwood substation,” said Christine Ouellette, senior media relations representative with Xcel Energy’s Michiga...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] MARENISCO - An open house for Santa and area children was a big success on Saturday at the Marenisco Town Hall. The one-hour event drew a steady stream of visitors to greet the seasonal icon with precautions in place in respect to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the festively decorated hall, tables were placed several feet apart from each other, so that family members could visit separately during the event. Kids took turns approaching Santa but did not sit in h...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] The Western Upper Peninsula Health Department and Iron County Health Department released the latest updates of local COVID-19 cases Thursday as health officials continue to battle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic; and although the numbers continue to rise, Thursday didn’t show as large of a jump as the region has seen in the past. Gogebic County had a total of 656 positive cases and 271 additional probables over the course of the pandemic, including 24 deaths and 69 active cases as of Thursday. Thi...
LANSING — State Rep. Greg Markkanen’s plan to protect funds intended for sustainable forest management is headed to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk after the state senate passed the legislation Wednesday. The legislation aims to limit what the money in the state’s Forest Development Fund can be used for. “Living in the Upper Peninsula, we all know how incredibly important it is to ensure our forests are managed properly,” said Markkanen, R-Hancock. “In addition to providing jobs for many U.P. residents, the forest management industry help...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] MERCER, Wis. — The Mercer Area Food Pantry has seen a dramatic increase in the demand for food since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to pantry board member Louise Minisan. “My numbers are at least a thousand (people) a week that we are feeding, and that’s pretty huge for Mercer,” Minisan told the Daily Globe. “Previously, we had about 350 people per week that we serviced.” The pantry handles food distribution twice weekly. On Wednesdays they distribute dairy products from the state’s...
By JAN TUCKER [email protected] WHITE PINE — Refinery operations could begin as soon as the first quarter of 2021 with the announcement Wednesday that Northern Initiatives has received a $700,000 grant award to support Phase 2 development of the White Pine Refinery at the former White Pine Mine. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Community Services made the announcement as part of its Community Economic Development Program. The White Pine Copper Refinery Inc. and PM P...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] BESSEMER — Gogebic County will need to hire an attorney administrator to appoint lawyers for indigent defendants now that the judiciary is barred from that role, according to a presentation at the Wednesday meeting of the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners. Appearing virtually from Ogemaw County, attorney Melissa Wangler, the Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan regional manager for the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission, said the MIDC is implementing the new Standard 5 that was approved b...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] MERCER, Wis. — The Toys for All program, which benefits children of low income families in the Mercer school system, is gearing up for distribution day on Dec. 19 at 9 a.m. “We have 41 children that we have gotten coats and boots and snow-pants, Christmas outfits and toys for,” said Louise Minisan of the Mercer Food Pantry. She said that the program focuses on warm clothing, but there are lots of toys for the children, too. “There are literally garbage bags that I use to pack all the toys in and som...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] HURLEY — The Hurley City Council on Monday heard more updates on the proposed Range View Drive project that could see nearly half of costs reimbursed through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Multimodal Local Supplement program. Hurley Street Commissioner Scott Santini, and Jeff Seamandel, a project engineer with MSA Professional Services, the city’s engineering company, were present to update the board on progress to rebuild and widen Range View Drive from 10th Avenue to the west side...
