Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Sorted by date Results 3841 - 3865 of 9883
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] ODANAH, Wis. - The National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot of a helicopter was killed in a crash reported early Tuesday in the Birch Hill area of the Bad River Indian Reservation. The pilot was identified as Dean Bass, 64, of Ontario, Canada. Numerous agencies had been looking for the Enbridge Energy helicopter since it failed to arrive at the Duluth International Airport Monday evening for a brief stop before heading to its destination in...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] IRONWOOD — An Ironwood man will have to serve two and a half years in prison after being sentenced in Gogebic County Circuit Court Tuesday. Michael David Zupan, 32, was sentenced to between six months and 10 years in prison for each of two counts of receiving and concealing stolen firearms. He was also sentenced to two years in prison for possessing a firearm while committing a felony. “The materials that were stolen here weren’t just TVs, appliances and other things of a personal nature, they...
By LARRY HOLCOMBE [email protected] BESSEMER — Voters in the Bessemer School District will face a busy ballot on Tuesday as part of a larger general election ballot full of federal, state and local candidates and issues. There are six candidates running for five seats on the Bessemer School Board in what is two separate races, as well as a district-wide question about renewing a millage limited to 18 mills levied on non-homesteads for another 10 years to provide funds for operating purposes — a move generally known as a Headlee ame...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] WAKEFIELD - The wait is over. For the first time since the end of May, drivers on M-28 could use the bridge over Jackson Creek Monday afternoon. The bridge east of Wakefield had been expected to reopen Wednesday after the Michigan Department of Transportation announced Friday it was pushing back the prior target date of the weekend due to "rainy weather and saturated ground conditions." However, according to MDOT spokesman Dan Weingarten, work...
By JAN TUCKER [email protected] ONTONAGON - Edwin Hokans was a shop teacher at the Ontonagon School in the 1930s when he and his wife, Esther, decided to build a cabin on their property one and one-half miles outside of Ontonagon. One cabin led to another and eventually a motel was added, with the complex known as Hokans Cabins and Motel. Since that time, with its location on Lake Superior, the cabins have changed hands many times. All the owners since Edwin Hokans Sr. gathered at the...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] HURLEY — An 81-year-old Kimball, Wis., man appeared in court Monday morning on two threat counts and an additional count of making a terroristic threat. Robert “Barrel Bob” Gollubske is charged with threatening to blow up both the Iron County Courthouse in Hurley in 2013 and the Northwoods Paving (Mathy Construction) asphalt plant in Kimball in 2016. Iron County Judge Patrick Madden advised Gollubske to seek representation through the public defender’s office. Gollubske said he had sought to contact...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD - A "Fun Frolic" at the Wakefield-Marenisco K-12 School packed the gym Saturday as fuzzy animals, skeletons, mummies, superheroes, and even a pint-sized policeman ran to and fro with pumpkin-faced bags, collecting candy and memories while making lots of noise. The event, which was bursting with joy, featured a central area circled in chairs, where tiny witches, goblins, etc. could play safely in a munchkin-sized acrylic house or shoot balls into...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] BESSEMER - Screams echoed off the slopes of Big Powderhorn Mountain Resort this weekend as the ski hill and the Awkward Stage Drama Club partnered to host A Haunting at the Hill. "(A haunted house) has always been something (we've considered), and all of us thought it would be a really fun thing to do. And so we decided to try and go for it this year," said Cathy Flory, who oversees marketing and special events for Powderhorn. "And then (we) found...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] IRONWOOD — The audience at the Historic Ironwood Theatre had a chance to go back in time and experience a silent movie the way it was intended Saturday, watching “The Man Who Laughs” with Andrew Rogers accompanying the film on the theatre’s Barton organ. “This is great to see, (there’s) a nice little crowd here for the movie and Andrew always does such a nice job accompanying it,” said Bruce Greenhill, the theatre’s operations manager. “A lot of new faces tonight, which is good. (We had) a bit of...
WAKEFIELD — The reopening of the M-28 bridge over Jackson Creek east of Wakefield has been further delayed. The detour was planned to be lifted Oct. 27, but the bridge is now expected to be reopened to traffic on Oct. 31, weather permitting. Access is being maintained to businesses and residences along M-28. Eastbound traffic is detoured onto U.S.2 at Wakefield, then north onto M-64 and back to M-28. The route is reversed for westbound traffic. The length of the detour is 33.5 miles. Michigan Department of Transportation is investing $3.9 m...
Unemployment numbers reached nearly 30-year low levels in Gogebic and Ontonagon counties in September, according to the Michigan Bureau of Labor Market information. In Gogebic County, the September jobless rate was 4 percent, down from 4.4 percent in August. One year ago, the September rate was 5.4 percent. According to the bureau’s statistics, the size of the civilian labor force in the county fell from 6,075 in August to 6,025 in September. Total employment in Gogebic County was also down. Twenty-five fewer people were employed in S...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] HURLEY - Kathy Santini will celebrate her fifth anniversary next month. It's been five years since a mammogram revealed she had breast cancer. Santini said she'd been getting mammograms annually "for years," and the one in November of 2013 showed she had ductal carcinoma in situ, which she said means the cancer had not spread beyond the spot in which it was found. "If you have to get cancer," she said, "that's the kind to get." She said breast cancer did...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] IRONWOOD - The inspection of the city of Ironwood's water tank on Mt. Zion found no issues and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality gave the go-ahead to begin refilling the tank. That's the good news. The bad news is the process of draining the water tank so it can be inspected is likely the cause of numerous water leaks throughout the city Wednesday and Thursday. "We have guys trying to take a peek in the tank and trying to put it back...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WATERSMEET - A Wednesday evening town meeting on Gogebic County's proposed ambulance millage drew several dozen people to the Watersmeet Community Center. The nearly two-hour session was led by Jim Lorenson and Jim Loeper, members of the Gogebic County ambulance committee. The Nov. 6 election ballot will ask county residents to vote yes or no on raising taxes for three years on all Gogebic property by no more than one mill, or $1 of state taxable...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] IRONWOOD — The state and Upper Peninsula directors of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development came to the Gogebic Range this week to promote the many department programs that could potentially benefit locals. “We always like to say we are the only federal agency that can literally build a community from the ground up,” joked Donald Gerrie, the area director overseeing operations in the Upper Peninsula. “We have water and waste and we go all the way to the air, and everything in betw...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] WAKEFIELD — Barring an unforeseen delay, the reopening of M-28 over Jackson Creek this weekend remains on track. The road is scheduled to be reopened Saturday for the first time in roughly five months while the bridge over Jackson Creek was replaced. While some paving and guardrail work remains, Michigan Department of Transportation spokesman Dan Weingarten said traffic should be able to use the bridge some time this weekend. “Depending on the weather, the (Saturday) date might slip to Sunday, Oct...
BESSEMER - Bessemer biology students have been netting Bluff Valley Pond in Bessemer annually since 2015. The collaborative event involves 10th grade students in biology teacher David Rowe's classes, Mark Mylchreest of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and aquatic lab manager and Bessemer alumnus Roger Greil. "When the project started, no one even knew if there were fish in the pond. Now four years later, students have captured, measured, released and tagged fish in a multi-year...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] The federal Essential Air Service program that subsidizes passenger service at the Gogebic-Iron Airport in Ironwood Township has been extended for five years. The government program currently pays a subsidy for Air Choice One to operate out of Ironwood. Air Choice One, which has been offering passenger flights at the airport for four years, is currently under a three-year EAS agreement. Commercial air providers are selected for EAS through bidding processes and passenger boardings have increased here...
By LARRY HOLCOMBE [email protected] BESSEMER TOWNSHIP - A half dozen Gogebic Community College forestry students and a few full and part time instructors gathered Tuesday morning to see what they could get out of one of the newest and hottest technology gizmos - a drone. In an outdoor lab setting, the plan was to use the drone's photographic capabilities to create an arial map of some property in southern Bessemer Township. Todd Gibbon, a civil engineer from Ashland, Wis., and a...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] IRONWOOD — The lease agreement approved Monday by the Ironwood City Commission for students from the Sleight School is temporary while arrangements are being made to house the students in the Luther L. Wright School. Students from the Community Schools of Gogebic County Alternative Education Program are going to class in the Ironwood Memorial Building because of an electrical problem at the Sleight School. The city will be paid $525 per month for the 1,000 square feet by the Ironwood Area Schools D...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP — Among the items township voters will decide in the Nov. 6 election will be a ballot measure asking for the renewal of the township’s road millage. The measure on the back of the ballot asks voters to approve 1 mill from 2019-2023 dedicated solely to maintaining township roads. One mill translates to $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value. “(the millage) provides funds that are matched by the county for road projects. The great thing about this is it provides a floor of fundi...
