Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Sorted by date Results 3346 - 3370 of 9883
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] BESSEMER — The Bessemer city council voted Monday evening to pass an ordinance to prohibit zoning in relation to the enterprise of recreational marijuana. The unanimous vote followed the second reading of Ordinance No. 372, as well as a public hearing in which no comments were offered. The council already had voted previously to prohibit marijuana enterprise, but city manager Charly Loper then had recommended also passing a separate, related zoning ordinance on the basis of legal opinion. In another u...
By JAN TUCKER [email protected] ONTONAGON — Ontonagon County Equalization Director, Ann Marie Husar had some good news for the Ontonagon County Board Tuesday. Husar said the valuation of Ontonagon County in 2018 has risen by 2.5% over the previous year and the taxable value has increased by 3%. Husar gave the board the value change in each of the categories in the county, noting that Commercial Property has increased by 4.49% and residential real property by 3.04%. Husar cited the new Dollar General in Ontonagon as part of the reason for t...
IRONWOOD - The Gogebic Community College Foundation threw a party Monday to benefit the college. The 10th annual Taste of the Gogebic Range drew a crowd Monday evening filling the David G. Lindquist Student Center lounge. A ticket for the event gave the attendee a set of coupons good for samplings of food and beverages at tables set up around the room, offering fare from area restaurants and caterers. "It's a fun event and we're excited for another good turnout," said foundation director Kelly...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] RAMSAY - The U.S. Post Office in Ramsay has been locked for more than five weeks, since regional postal authorities in Grand Rapids posted a notice of closure on March 8. On Monday morning, a pair of pigeons peered out of the front window having likely entered via an exposed region directly under the collapsed roof. Speaking by phone afterwards from Grand Rapids, postal spokesperson Sabrina Todd said she would inform local authorities of the situation. As...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] IRONWOOD — Ironwood Area Schools may soon be paying less on some of its bonds as the district’s board of education approved a resolution explore refinancing its older bonds Monday. The measure would be for two of the district’s bond measures — a $1,655,000 measure from 2002 and a $1.4 million measure from 2009 — and is designed to save the district money by getting a lower rate. Superintendent Travis Powell said the district would only proceed with refinancing the bonds if it was determine...
By BRYAN HELLIOS [email protected] BESSEMER - Kids waited for the countdown before scrambling to load their baskets with eggs during Bessemer's annual Easter egg hunt held at the VFW on Saturday. In a matter of minutes, more than 2,000 plastic eggs were in the hands of children who pried them apart hoping to find a ticket and win a prize bucket. Bridgette Strebe, a third grader in Ironwood, said she helped her little brother find one of the special eggs. "I kinda directed him where to...
By BRYAN HELLIOS [email protected] WAKEFIELD - People hit the slopes at Indianhead Mountain on Saturday trying to squeeze in a few more runs before the ski resort closed for the season. B.J. Westfahl, from Fox Point, Wis., said he and his family traveled about five hours to ski the final weekend. "It's nice to get the last run in before winter ends," he said. Westfahl said the snowfall this week kind of "pushed" them "over the edge" which helped their decision to make the trek a...
By BRYAN HELLIOS [email protected] HURLEY — The smell of sizzling butter and frying flapjacks filled the Iron County Memorial Building during the Hurley Lion’s Club annual pancake breakfast on Sunday. Jerry Pisani, club president, said they have been doing the pancake fundraiser for “way over 20 years.” “The revenue we receive from this is mostly donated to 4-H Summer Youth Camp in Manitowish Waters,” he said. With roughly about 200 people expected to come to the event, Pisani said it is a lot of work to set everything up. Student...
By BRYAN HELLIOS [email protected] IRONWOOD — Braving blizzard conditions, Tristan McIntosh and fellow band members of the Linda Ronstadt Experience drove from Minneapolis, Minn. to perform Friday night at the Historic Ironwood The winter storm tuned a four hour drive into a nine hour route though a national park with no cell phone reception, but McIntosh said despite feeling a little nervous at times, she felt drawn to the HIT. “I don’t know what kind of magic is in this old aweso...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY — Iron County employees likely won’t have to use their own vehicles when traveling out of the area for work, after the Iron County Board of Supervisors’ finance committee recommended purchasing two county vehicles Thursday. The two Jeep Cherokee Latitudes are expected to cost roughly $22,098 a piece, according information presented at the meeting. Based on information presented at previous committee meetings, the purchase is expected to be less than the county spends paying for mileage each...
WAKEFIELD — After decades of work with snowmobile trails, the Gogebic Range Trail Authority is expanding its work to support ORV use in the region, according to club president Steve Hamilton. The GRTA recently became part of a Michigan Department of Natural Resources administered ORV Trail Sponsorship Program. This program establishes GRTA as the maintainers of a 12-mile ORV trail from M-64 in Marenisco west to Korpela Road in Wakefield Township, and provides access to ORV trail-permit improvement funds, according to Hamilton. The club p...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY — The process of reimbursing local communities for damaged sustained during a pair of storms last year is under way as the Federal Emergency Management Agency has begun issuing checks to Iron County communities included in the federal disaster declarations. The town of Oma and the city of Montreal should be receiving checks for $5,417 and $3,206 respectively in the coming days for the costs they spent on “protective measures,” according to Iron County Emergency Management Director Stace...
By BRYAN HELLIOS [email protected] BESSEMER - The Gogebic-Ontonagon Community Action Agency has made changes to its monthly delivery of groceries through its Commodity Supplemental Food Program. Linda Cossi, CSFP coordinator, said, more pick-up locations plus the convenience of a "drive-through" system will allow for more efficient food distribution. "Like in Ontonagon," she said, "We'll park our truck in the Catholic church parking lot. People will drive up - we'll put the box in...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] BESSEMER — Members of Bessemer’s Downtown Development Authority learned Thursday that they received an $8,000 grant from the Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region. City manager Charly Loper said the funds, which include an additional $2,000 required match from the DDA, will be applied to creating videos aimed at marketing the city as a great place in which to work and live. “We are going to be focusing on six short videos of people who work here,” said Loper, who added that attenti...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY — Iron County won’t be able to officially award the contract until federal officials sign off, but the county’s forestry committee recommended a contractor for building Saxon Harbor’s campground Wednesday so everything will be ready once federal approval comes through. Four companies submitted bids to rebuild the harbor’s campground — which was destroyed in the July 2016 storm — with Snow Country Contracting’s bid of $1,802,873 coming in as the low bid. “The bids were, across the board, very...
ONTONAGON - Michigan Trails and Recreation Alliance of Land and the Environment received a grant for $363,630 to complete upcoming trail projects. Linda Schulz, secretary and special project coordinator for MI-TRALE, said the money will be used to replace an "old iron beam bridge" that collapsed in 2013 and a couple other projects scheduled for 2019. "We were there one and the next day we were there to finish up our project and the bridge fell in overnight," she said. Schulz said MI-TRALE has be...
By JAN TUCKER [email protected] ONTONAGON — The dredging of the Ontonagon Harbor is expected to be done after the Fourth of July. EDC member Pat Tucker told the Economic Development Corporation Board Wednesday that the dredging company officials have received the contract from the Army Corps of Engineers to perform the dredging and the project manager told Tucker he will be coming to Ontonagon at the end of April or early May to look over the area. The manager had slated a visit for March when the area received a big snowstorm and it was pos...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD - The City of Wakefield addressed its first "rain event" of the year by discharging an excess of diluted raw sewage into designated ditch lines between Sunday and Monday. According to city manager Bob Brown, the action was necessary in order to minimize sewer water back-up into the basements of some Wakefield homes and businesses. "The pumps were fully functional prior to that," said Brown at Monday's meeting of the Wakefield city council. "We...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] RAMSAY - A Tuesday evening public session on a continuing millage proposed by the Bessemer board of education closed early after nobody showed up during the first 15 minutes. The Q & A meeting was offered so the general public could learn details about why the board is asking citizens to vote for a levy of 2.05 mills at a May 7 election. Superintendent Dave Wineburner said the lack of attendance probably suggested that local residents realize the...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP — It’s a situation no one wants to be in, but Ironwood Township officials are preparing to move forward following township supervisor Steve Boyd’s death. Boyd died early Thursday morning following a battle with cancer. The township board has 45 days from last Friday to appoint a person to fill the vacant supervisor position, which township officials said translates to May 19. “They have to take the oath prior to that (date),” said treasurer Maria Graser. If the board doesn’t a...
By BRYAN HELLIOS [email protected] WAKEFIELD - The Michigan State Police Wakefield Post 86 recently had three troopers join its ranks. Stefin Robinson, Paul Maxinoski and Evan Fezatt completed 28 weeks at the MSP's training academy and all three said the training was "intense." "I thought I was in good shape going in, but I'm definitely in better shape now," Fezatt said. F/Lt. Donald Horn, commander of the Wakefield Post, recognized how difficult it is to become a trooper. "For a recru...
