Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Sorted by date Results 3103 - 3127 of 9797
LANSING — The proposed Michigan Department of Corrections' budget that passed the state house Tuesday included language proposing Ojibway Correctional Facility as a potential training site for corrections officers. State Rep. Greg Markkanen, R-Hancock, said Tuesday he added the prison in Marenisco Township to the list of locations being considered for a potential training facility. “The closure of the Ojibway prison devastated the surrounding communities,” Markkanen said in a statement. “Rather than letting the vacant facility continue to dete...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] BESSEMER — Various highway, bridge and street projects in Bessemer this summer are meant to make driving a lot less bumpy, officials said. “The work is to improve the ride quality of the roadway,” said Phil Strong, an engineer with the Gogebic County Road Commission (GCRC). The Michigan Department of Transportation and the GCRC plan to soon start milling an inch-and-a-half of asphalt road surface off the top of U.S. 2, Strong said. The 1.25 mile project will start from where the highway comes...
By Bryan Hellios [email protected] HURLEY — The Hurley City Council met Tuesday to raise resident’s water rates by a 3% increase to offset the cost passed on by the city of Ironwood. Robbie Lanctoe, chairperson for the public works, said they have had a lot of phone calls about the “black water.” “Just all the dirty water we’ve had the last three weeks before this and then they (Ironwood) raise it 2.8%,” he said. Lanctoe doesn't know what happened to the water quality in Ironwood and said he even asked them for guidance. “We...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP — The Ironwood Township Board of Trustees approved seeking bids for a sewer project Monday evening. An approximately 180-foot section of the sewer line between GCC Drive and Lake Road needs to be replaced, according to Treasurer Maria Graser. “It’s been an issue now for probably the last 4 years, it’s getting a little bit worse,” Graser reported, adding the line has problems backing up. There had been plans to address the problem a couple years ago, Graser said, but those wer...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD - The Wakefield City Council voted Monday evening to double the compensation of campground hosts for the Eddy Park Campground on Sunday Lake. According to city manager Rob Brown, the city in past years has paid the hosts $1 for each reservation generated. As of Monday's vote, that rate now will be $2 per reservation. Jim Anderson was the only council member to vote against the raise, but he said afterward that it was only because he expected the...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] RAMSAY — Recent disruption of garbage pickup to six municipalities has led to the dismissal of two drivers and hiring of their replacements, according to the supervisor’s report of the Bessemer Township Board on Monday. “We have two new hires,” said Jeffery Randall, supervisor of Bessemer Township. “They will be officially sanctioned at a special board meeting Thursday night.” The two former drivers were dismissed from the Gogebic Range Solid Waste Management Authority, the garbage pickup firm...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] MERCER, Wis. — Participants of the 13th annual Mercer Lupine Junefest said warm weather and sunshine made for a great event — even if the lupine were not yet in bloom. “This is our seventh year doing it,” said Gail Ondresky, of Mercer. Ondresky completed the shorter 10 mile ride with her 4-year-old grandson in a tandem seat and a 6-year-old granddaughter was made the ride all on her own. Other riders opted for the 28 mile and 50 mile tours. “It’s j...
By Tom LaVenture [email protected] MERCER, Wis. — For groups involved with the fifth Mercer Bird Festival on Saturday, the event has increased its visibility by joining the annual Lupine Junefest at Carow Park. The Bird Festival is a collaboration with the Mercer Area Chamber of Commerce and it’s still a work in progress but is doing well, said Licia Johnson, education director and naturalist at the North Lakeland Discovery Center, which started the birding event five years ago. This is the second year together with the Lupine Junefest. ...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] IRONWOOD — The 15 women at a firearms training event Saturday expressed a variety of reasons for participating but said they were excited with the opportunity to expand their knowledge, gain some skill and enjoy the company of other women. “I have a fear of guns,” said Tanya Thomas of Ironwood, who attended the fifth annual Ladies-Only Shooting Clinic at Superior Range Shooters’ Club in Ironwood Township, together with her mother, Debra Pate of Iron Mo...
By BRYAN HELLIOS [email protected] HURLEY - Elemetary students at the Hurley K-12 School spent Friday, their last day of class, at a Hawaiian-themed picnic sponsored by the Parent Teacher Organization. Steve Lombardo, elementary principal, said they are sending the students off in style. "Our fine PTO has a number of different stations set up all throughout the school," he said. Children at the picnic raced from station to station following a schedule of events such as minnow racing,...
By LARRY HOLCOMBE [email protected] IRONWOOD — With this coming week’s production of “Mamma Mia!” Theatre North begins its 56th season. A June launch to what is usually a three-show season is a change from the past, according to TN board president Cindy Franck. Typically, the community theater season included show in the fall, another in February and a third in the spring. Franck said the plan is to avoid a show in the middle of winter. “A lot of our patrons who buy season tickets ahead of time and make a donation with that purc...
By Bryan Hellios [email protected] IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP - The Gogebic County Road Commission stated Lake Road will be closed for culvert replacement beginning 7 a.m. Monday through 4 p.m. June 22. The closure will be located approximately 11 miles north of Airport Road through Brace Road. Access to Little Girls Point County Park will require using Wisconsin State Highway 122 or Powers Road GCRC engineer for Phil Strong said. "It's (a segment of Powers Road) a narrow one lane road so it's...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] SAXON, Wis. — Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources crews were at Saxon Harbor Tuesday, releasing brown trout as part of the department’s continuing effort to stock Lake Superior and provide a popular fishery for local anglers. Approximately 27,000 Seeforellen brown trout — a specific strain of brown trout, according to the DNR’s website — were released into the lake just outside the harbor’s breakwall. “(The brown trout fishery) became really...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] BESSEMER — The Bessemer Recreation Committee on Thursday approved 4-0 the instillation of a basic bocce ball court at Bluff Valley Park. It is believed that bocce ball as a recreational activity for some and a competition sport for others would be popular in the city, said Ron Zaleski, committee president. People are playing bocce ball in their yards and the hope is that courts in the parks will help grow that popularity, he said. John Turkal, a Bessemer resident and bocci ball aficionado, was p...
By BRYAN HELLIOS [email protected] HURLEY — Hurley K-12 School students and staff voted on Wednesday and chose Northstars as their new mascot to represent the school. The school originally planed to announce the new mascot at an upcoming school board meeting, but Kevin Genisot, district administrator at Hurley, said he wants the process to be transparent. “Here is what will be presented to the board on June 17, it doesn’t mean we have changed yet,” he said. “We need board approval for that.” Nearly 79%, or 500 out of 636 students an...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD - Recent low copper prices appear to be slowing progress toward the long-anticipated resurgence of copper mining in Wakefield and Ironwood townships, according to a report during Tuesday evening's Wakefield Township board meeting. As of the end of Tuesday afternoon, Wakefield Township supervisor John Cox said the price of copper was at $2.67 per pound. "They got to have $3.20 per pound to make money," he added. Area residents had renewed their...
BY TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Wild and Scenic River postage stamp set from the U.S. Postal Service is now available and to celebrate the Ottawa National Forest will host a hiking event to Kakabika Falls along the Ontonagon River that is depicted in one of the featured stamps. “A lot of people are buying the stamps,” said Pam Franti, the postmaster of Ontonagon, Mich. The Post Office announced the series in November 2018 and the stamps were expected to come in the fall...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY - Gov. Tony Evers visited Hurley Tuesday to present Iron County officials with a coastal management grant and highlight the importance of protecting Wisconsin's natural resources. "Whether it's downtown Milwaukee or Iron County, Wisconsin; if we want to continue to have the heritage that we were given around water, we have to protect it," Evers said, while presenting the grant. The $12,995 grant through the state's coastal management program...
By Bryan Hellios [email protected] KIMBALL - Roughly 2 miles of ditch line west of Valley Road along U.S. 2 was left charred after a grass fire Tuesday afternoon. Paul Samardich, Iron County Sheriff, happened to be close by and said he was the first to respond. "It was pretty active when I first arrived on the scene," he said. The Kimball, Saxon and Hurley Fire Departments and the Department of Natural Resources foresters responded to the blaze. Montreal was paged, but Samardich said...
By TOM LAVENTURE [email protected] BESSEMER — The Bessemer City Council on Monday voted 4-0 to extend the city manager contract for four years. The contract for Charly Loper, who started as city manager in 2016, would have expired in November 2020 with her earning $61,327 in Year Four of the contract. The four-year extension comes with a 2 percent raise in years five, six and seven and a retention bonus for overseeing a $7 million sewer and water project currently underway in Bessemer, along with a $21.4 million construction project a...
By BRYAN HELLIOS [email protected] IRONWOOD - The Ironwood Parks and Recreation Committee announced at its meeting Monday meeting that construction has started on the Curry Park Trail enhancement project. Funded with a grant from the Gogebic Range Health Foundation, the 10-foot wide trail utilizes an old railroad grade which will connect the trail to Miners Memorial Heritage Park. Committee member Tom Kangas said he would like to see the old mine footings along the trail preserved....
