Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Sorted by date Results 1836 - 1860 of 9650
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] SAXON, Wis. — For the first time since 2016, Iron County can say Saxon Harbor is fully open for the season this week, as the harbor’s campground opened for the remainder of the 2020 camping season Thursday. “It will be nice to see a full facility again,” Iron County’s forestry and parks administrator, Eric Peterson, told the Daily Globe last week. With the exception of those who took advantage of the first-come, first-served camping last weekend, Saxon Harbor’s campground hasn’t been open since the...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER - A new ramp is gradually taking shape at the front of A. D. Johnston Junior/Senior high school, as crews from Angelo Luppino, Inc have been working to replace the prior ramp, which was severely dilapidated. "It's more of an emergency exit ramp. It's not fully ADA compliant, but we felt that we needed a ramp at the east side door, just in case we have a fire and we have handicapped students on that side of the building that need to get out,"...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] HURLEY — This is the final week of a summer breakfast and lunch program offered through Hurley K-12 School. “This is our last week,” said Kevin Genisot, Hurley school district administrator. “We were averaging almost 3,000 meals a week all through summer. A lot of families really relied on that and they really enjoyed it.” The Summer Foods School Program stemmed from the free or reduced breakfast and lunch program that is made available through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency an...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY — Iron County is approaching a total of 100 residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the coronavirus was first detected in the county as the county health department announced new positives Thursday. As of Thursday, Iron County has had 98 residents test positive for COVID-19 since the health department announced the first case in the county in late March, with 77 of those cases now considered recovered. The county has had three of the cases require hospitalization, and the singl...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP — The Gogebic-Iron County Airport reopened for a second time in a month to complete a summer-long runway project. The airport was set to reopen officially at 8 p.m. Thursday, according to Michael Harma, airport manager. The airport was closed from Aug. 13-20 so workers could cut drainage gaps across the new surface following a $5.19 million runway reconstruction project in June and July. The temporary runway lines were replaced this week with permanent lines after oils in the n...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER - Officials with the Ottawa National Forest announced the reopening of Black River Harbor to swimmers on Tuesday after test results on the water by the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department came back as "clear and safe for body contact." The harbor and river had been closed to swimmers since Aug. 5, following a sewage discharge by the Bessemer Township waste water treatment plant's sewage lagoon. The lagoons had reached it's maximum...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] IRONWOOD - The rituals of campus life are slowly beginning to resume at Gogebic Community College, as students began moving into the dorms Monday and the first orientation events were held Wednesday, with more planned for today. However, things are undoubtedly different as the college takes steps to protect students during the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are excited to welcome students to GCC this fall, ... the safety of our GCC community continues to be our...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD — All systems are go to welcome students at the Wakefield-Marenisco K-12 School, said Superintendent Jason Gustafson. Students will report on Tuesday at 10 a.m. to a school that Gustafson assures is “cleaned, polished” and “as safe as it possibly can be.” The superintendent reported the news to board of education members at their Monday evening meeting and also noted in a related, written agenda report that custodial staff was putting “finishing touches” on the school and that he also had plac...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] HURLEY — The Hurley community still puts students above profits, even during a pandemic, as demonstrated by the annual Cash for Kids donation at the Hurley Public School Board meeting on Monday. Tammie Bartels, the store manager of the Hurley Cenex, a company of Midland Services, Inc., under the Midland Energy brand, presented this year’s Cash for Kids patronage refund check donation of $17,300 to the Hurley Education Foundation. The donation was slightly less than the $20,508 donation in 201...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HANCOCK — A pair of Michigan National Guard COVID-19 testing events in Gogebic County earlier this month resulted in a total of nine new positive cases, according to information from the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department Monday. The Aug. 8 event at the Lac Vieux Desert Casino in Watersmeet had 341 people tested, with five new positive cases and three confirmations of existing positives. There were 319 negative tests at the event, along with one pending or inconclusive test. There were a t...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] HURLEY - Students of the Hurley Public School District will start the fall semester in the classroom, with virtual attendance available as an option, following a unanimous decision of the school board on Monday. The school reopening committee plan is able to shift study from in-class to virtual as needed throughout the school year based on area COVID-19 cases and at the school in particular. The plan allows for in-classroom learning to start the...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER — The city of Bessemer adopted a policy on Monday night to specify the requirements for the restoration of grass and property damaged by snow plows during the winter months. “We are not obligated by any means to repair grass, this is something that we have just done; most communities do not do it,” said Charly Loper, city manager, of her talks with city attorney Ray O’Dea. “It was getting a little out of hand and we were repairing all these little things. People were calling to complain...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] WAKEFIELD TOWNSHIP - A Wisconsin man died Friday night after going over a waterfall on the Presque Isle River in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in northern Gogebic County. Michigan State Police troopers were dispatched at 8:30 p.m. to the Presque Isle Campground, off of County Road 519, after a 911 caller reported seeing someone go over the falls, according to a MSP news release. The man - later identified as Ryan Kohnhorst, 39, of...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY — The Iron County Health Department has reported two new possible COVID-19 exposure sites. The health department confirmed there were positive cases identified at a sand volleyball tournament in Mercer from 6 to 9 p.m. on Aug. 11 and at the Liberty Way Tap House in Mercer on Aug. 8 from 4 to 6 p.m. “This is not intended to lay blame on any local businesses, anyone who tested positive … or other locations identified,” a department spokesperson said in the announcement Friday, adding that pe...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] BESSEMER — A Bessemer man was sentenced to prison last week for an April shooting in the city. Timothy James Wigman, 26, was sentenced to between 3 and 10 years in prison for assault with intent to commit great bodily harm. Gogebic Circuit Judge Michael Pope warned Wigman in court Aug. 11 that he came close to facing a much longer prison sentence. “That was a very serious offense. As the doctor acknowledged, a little bit down and a little bit more in center and this would be a totally dif...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] RAMSAY — The Gogebic Range Water Authority board received some good news Thursday regarding highway construction that will require moving of water mains. The water authority engineer, Darren Pionk of C2AE, updated the board on the U.S. 2 reconstruction through Bessemer that will require the water authority to adjust the depth and placement of some water mains in the Marshalek Road area. A virtual meeting with Michigan Department of Transportation engineers addressed major concerns over the l...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] SAXON, Wis. - Saxon Harbor played host to a larger vessel than it usually sees over the past few days as a tall ship, Schooner Huron Jewel, docked in the harbor Thursday. "We're sailing around the Great Lakes this summer to put smiles on people's faces by bringing a tall ship to their backyard," said Julie Covert, who owns the ship with her husband, Hugh. The 60-foot schooner - which means the vessel has more than one mast and has its biggest sail...
IRONWOOD — The Historic Ironwood Theatre announced Wednesday it was awarded a COVID-19 Emergency Relief grant of $3,000 from the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA), according to a Thursday announcement from the theatre. The funding is available from the National Endowment for the Arts through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The act made a total of $502,400 in one-time grants from MCACA to eligible nonprofit arts and cultural organizations that are negatively impacted by the pandemic. ...
BESSEMER — The Gogebic County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday heard a request for an allocation increase from the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department. Kate Beer, the health officer for WUPHD, attended the county board meeting to discuss the fiscal year 2021 county allocation request and said the department is losing approximately $150,000 annually due mostly to a loss in Medicare reimbursements following federal adjustments and to the unfunded pension liability. “Right now we are paying over $800,000 annually, about 50% of the pay...
SAXON, Wis. - For the first time since the former location was flooded in the July 2016 storm, people will be able to camp at Saxon Harbor's campground today. Although the campground is only scheduled to open for the weekend before closing to allow for some final work to be done, the plan is to reopen for the season Thursday. "It will be nice to see a full facility again," said Eric Peterson, Iron County's forestry and parks administrator. The campground opens today at 4 p.m., on a first-come,...
HURLEY - The Downtown Art Place completed its outdoor art and science classes for children on Thursday with a study of trees at Riccelli Park in Hurley. The series of classes was coordinated by Sue Spaete, a retired Wakefield kindergarten teacher. She said she wanted to do a series of outdoor classes which integrated both art and science for children. Each class in the series had a different theme - insects, birds, shoreline and trees - and the classes - taught by local artists and naturalists...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY - The November ballot is continuing to take shape in Wisconsin as Tuesday's primary formalized several of this fall's contests. There were no contested races in Tuesday's election, however, voters decided who would represent their respective parties in a variety of federal, state and local elections in the Nov. 3 general election. The only unknown Tuesday, whether write-in candidate Doug Muskett would receive enough votes in the Democratic...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER — A Return-to-Learn plan was approved by the Bessemer Area School Board during a special meeting held over Zoom on Tuesday. The plan offers parents the option of enrolling their students in one of two ways — virtual or in-person, this fall as long as Gogebic County remains in Phase 5 of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Safe Start plan. If the county’s status should drop back to Phase 4, the in-person students will be put into a blended learning plan. “We want to keep it flexible, it’s a fluid-type...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD — Thanks to progress now being made toward new standards in property maintenance, residents of Wakefield soon will face stricter rules and penalties if they do not comply. At a Tuesday evening meeting of the city’s planning commission, members strongly expressed their desire to create a new ordinance that will allow them to address persistent problems with blight and related issues. “Our city looks terrible,” said commission member Marsha Vestich. “There are so many buildings that should be...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP — The Gogebic-Iron County Airport will need to close for a few days to wrap up the summer runway project, according to reports at the airport board meeting Monday. The airport will close again from Thursday to Aug. 20 to allow workers to paint permanent lines and to cut 2-inch drainage gaps across the surface of the runway, said Michael Harma, airport manager. The work follows the runway reconstruction that occurred over 45 days through June and until mid July. It takes about 3...
