Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Sorted by date Results 1813 - 1837 of 9733
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD — Growing interest in the Western Upper Peninsula might turn out to be the silver lining of the COVID-19 crisis, according to reports at Wednesday’s meeting of the Ironwood Economic Development Corporation. In his COVID-19 business update, Tom Bergman, director of community development for the city of Ironwood, said he is hearing at InvestUP meetings that the Upper Peninsula had better than average tourism and sales as compared to previous summers. The exceptions were bars and res...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER — Students at Bessemer Area Schools will continue to attend classes in-person five days a week, after the school board passed an amendment on Monday, modifying its original plan for being in Phase 4 of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s MI Safe Start Plan. The school had announced on Friday that it would be switching over to a blended learning plan due to the area dropping down a phase — from 5 to 4 — because of a surge in COVID-19 cases in the Upper Peninsula. The district’s original COVID-19 preparedn...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD TOWNSHIP - Members of the Wakefield Township Board of Trustees received good news on an audit of the fiscal year that ended March 31. CPA Karl "Gus" Ahonen of Makela Pollack and Ahonen, an accounting firm in Ironwood, provided the report, which indicated no problems. "You guys do a great job with your financials, and it's a very pleasant audit to do," said Ahonen. He said the township had a fund balance of $540,539 at the end of the fiscal year,...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] LANSING — Local education officials can breathe a sigh of relief after the state budget Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed last week didn’t contain any of the funding reductions they feared. Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District Superintendent Alan Tulppo and the superintendents of the GOISD member districts had warned a budget that included steep reductions in per-pupil funding could cripple their efforts to provide an education to students in their districts. Instead, the budget for the fis...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER — After hearing public opinion and much discussion, the Bessemer City Council approved detour routes for the upcoming U.S. 2 reconstruction project planned for 2021-22. The two routes — one east to west and the other west to east — will be used in 2022, and were originally discussed by the board with Michigan Department of Transportation officials at a September meeting. The routes were approved 4-1, with only councilman Bill McDonald dissenting during Monday’s regular meeting. McDonal...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] HURLEY - The Hurley K-12 School has come up with a way to provide public access to sports and other events through a live-feed video subscription service. With the COVID-19 shut down orders, the impact to sports and other school events is to limit or deny any fan participation. Cameras now installed in the high school gym and at Veterans Memorial Field will allow viewers to live-stream games or watch archived games at a more convenient time. "This...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] Although a Michigan Supreme Court ruling later in the day called into question her powers to impose restrictions designed to halt the spread of COVID-19 in the state; Gov. Gretchen Whitmer moved the Upper Peninsula back to Phase 4 of the MI Safe Start Plan Friday, due to the region’s rise in cases. “After seeing the increase in cases in the U.P. region over the past several weeks and consulting with medical experts, I have decided to take action to protect U.P. families and move the region bac...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD - There was a damp chill in the air from the season's first snowfall but that didn't stop people from sporting plaid shirts, jackets, hats and even facemasks at the First Friday downtown and as part of the international celebration of plaid. "It's really good to see people downtown," said Zona Wick, president of the Historic Ironwood Theatre Board. "I wish we had a First Friday movie at the theatre, but we don't. At least people are...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD - The sky was gray during Saturday's game between the Gogebic Miners and the Manistique Emeralds, but rain never interfered with the considerable spirit present during the homecoming celebration at the Wakefield-Marenisco K-12 School. Although the Emeralds won the game 12-0, moods were upbeat despite the added masks worn by many in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-op members - who are led by head coach Nick Heikkila - are using the...
HURLEY — A fatal car accident temporarily closed a section of U.S. 51 in northern Iron County Thursday evening. The Iron County Sheriff’s Office received a call about the three-vehicle crash on U.S. 51 near Spruce Road just south of Hurley at approximately 5:01 p.m., Sheriff Paul Samardich told the Daily Globe. Samardich said Friday morning the crash resulted in one fatality. The person was initially transported by ambulance to Aspirus Ironwood Hospital, and later flown to Aspirus Hospital in Wausau, where she died as a result of her injuries....
BESSEMER - The Bessemer parks and recreation committee held its first meeting since March on Thursday afternoon at Bluff Valley Park. This was the first time that any of the city's sub-committees and groups have met in-person since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting was held under the pavilion with committee members wearing masks and bundled up with coats and hats, maintaining their social distancing by sitting at separate tables. Terry Kryshak, mayor pro-tem and a member of the...
IRONWOOD — An expansion in the city’s industrial zone could create a new business category to buffer non-industrial areas, according to reports at the Ironwood Planning Commission meeting on Thursday. In his report to the commission, Tom Bergman, director of community development for the city of Ironwood, said zoning consultants are recommending that, if the city were to expand out of its current industrial zone, it include a business district area. The question for the planning commission and the city commission is to consider if Ironwood is...
IRONWOOD - The city of Ironwood is showing a 237% increase in absentee ballot applications from the last presidential election and the requests are still coming in, according to city clerk Karen Gullan. The absentee ballots were received at the city clerk's office late Thursday afternoon, Sept. 24, Gullan said. The mailing started last week on Friday with the third precinct, followed by the second precinct on Monday and the first precinct on Tuesday and Wednesday, she said. "I am already...
GRAND RAPIDS — A plea agreement has been reached in the case of a White Pine man facing federal drug charges. Jesse James Monville, 46, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine in federal court in Grand Rapids Sept. 22 as part of an agreement that will have five other charges dismissed at his sentencing. Monville was arrested during a traffic stop in Wakefield on Dec. 17, 2019, at the end of a Gogebic Iron Area Narcotics Team investigation that began in August of that year, which included s...
BRUCE CROSSING - VFW members in Bruce Crossing recently erected a new sign in front of the post on M-28. The sign, which cost more than $1,000, according to Roger Anttilla, commander of the Henry A. Holappa VFW Post 9345, was placed in front of the post last week. "One night at a meeting I said, I don't like that old sign and we should do something about it and everyone agreed. It was as simple as that," said fellow member Jimbo Jorgensen, who Anttilla credits with getting the ball rolling on...
HURLEY — For much of their tenure, the teen members of the Iron County Youth Leadership Council who sit on the Iron County Board of Supervisors have taken a smaller role in meetings — listening to discussions and voting at the appropriate times. On Tuesday, however, the county board passed a statement the youth leadership council played a key role in developing. The Iron County Board of Supervisors Statement of Community Integrity and Respect highlights that Iron County is a great place and a community that takes pride in “small town values” su...
IRONWOOD - A new executive order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has theaters and bowling alleys preparing to open months before it was thought possible, along with more possibilities for outdoor events. Two executive orders signed on Sept. 25 will amend the MI Safe Start order to reopen theaters, cinemas and other performance venues starting Oct. 9. Other businesses in the statewide reopening orders include arcades, bingo halls, bowling centers, indoor climbing facilities and trampoline parks....
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Ironwood City Commission on Monday approved the date for the marijuana establishments ordinance to take effect. The commission 4-1 approved Nov. 10 as the date that applicants may file applications in a competitive licensure process for marijuana micro-businesses, retail, processors, various classes of growers, safety compliance facilities and secure transporters that operate within approved areas of the city. The action follows the commission’s 3-2 approval of the ordinance to reg...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP — Although the details aren’t available yet, it appears a settlement has been reached in the lawsuit between several local municipalities and their insurance companies over the lost tax money connected to former Ironwood Township Treasurer Jyl Olson-DeRosso’s embezzlement case. During his supervisor’s report at Monday’s board of trustees meeting, Ironwood Township Supervisor Jim Simmons said the sides have reached a settlement, but he couldn’t release the specifics yet. “Details a...
By JAN TUCKER [email protected] ONTONAGON - The history of the Ontonagon area is depicted in a new 10-by-40-foot mural commissioned by the Ontonagon County Historical Society. It is on the wall of the museum facing the Ontonagon County Regional Inclusive Consumer Coalition Park and located between the museum and Aspirus fitness center. The colorful mural was done by Sue Martinsen of Ashland, Wisconsin, who has done numerous murals on buildings in Ashland. In Ontonagon, Martinsen's mural...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD — Ironwood’s First Friday celebration moves outdoors again for the first time since the monthly events went virtual last April due to the coronavirus pandemic. The October First Friday event will be held from 4 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 2, said Tim Erickson, community development specialist for the city of Ironwood and First Friday committee member in his report to the Downtown Ironwood Development Authority Board on Thursday. The farmers market will move from the Historic Ironwood Dep...
WATERSMEET - Several groups involved with the effort to protect Wildcat Fallson the Scott and Howe Creek near Watersmeet are declaring success with the acquisition of property that will put the area under a conservation program. In a Monday announcement, Joe Hovel of Northwoods Alliance Inc., and Partners in Forestry Cooperative, based in Conover Wisconsin, said the two organizations have worked to protect the Wildcat Falls area for more than 10 years. A recent conservation acquisition was...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HANCOCK — The Western Upper Peninsula Health Department confirmed Saturday that a third person in the region has died of complications surrounding COVID-19, as Baraga County had its first death tied to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. “Our heartfelt sympathies and prayers go out to the family and community who has lost their loved one,” WUPHD health officer Kate Beer said in a statement. “This is a sad reminder of the danger that COVID-19 continues to impose on our friends and families. We must...
Email calendar items and community news to [email protected]. For more information, call 906-932-2211. Tuesday, Sept. 29 Community Pickleball, 9-noon, Patterson Tennis Court, weather permitting. Gogebic County Veterans Service Officer, 9:30-11:30 a.m., Ironwood Memorial Building. 906-667-1110. Alcoholics Anonymous, noon, Salem Lutheran Church, Ironwood. area74.org. Alcoholics Anonymous, 6 p.m., Sharon Lutheran Church, Bessemer. area74.org. Alcoholics Anonymous, 7 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, Ironwood. area74.org....
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD — Area ski resort managers are optimistic that more regional skiers will stay closer to home this season and help boost the struggling pandemic economy in the new year. All the local ski hills and trails plan to be open with adjustments to operations that discourage crowds and lines. Area cross country ski events have gone virtual, were canceled or are still being considered. Big Powderhorn Mountain Resort in Ironwood Township is p...
