Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Sorted by date Results 4067 - 4091 of 9797
By JAN TUCKER [email protected] ONTONAGON - A solemn line of people waved flags and bowed their heads as the hearse holding the casket of Ontonagon native Lowell Earl Valley was carried through Ontonagon to his final resting place at Holy Family Cemetery Saturday. Navy Fireman Second Class Valley, was killed December 7, 1941 when his ship, the Oklahoma, was torpedoed at Pearl Harbor. It took 77 years and several graves, before his remains were identified and sent home to Ontonagon. A full...
RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] HURLEY - Senior citizens who can no longer bicycle will be given the opportunity to ride the trails with a new bike that was on display Saturday at Cary Park in Hurley. The bike was demonstrated at the Iron County Outdoor Recreation Enthusiasts event at the park. On an 85-degree day with only slight breezes, bicyclists went out in intervals on the non-motorized trails. It was a fundraiser for ICORE, but Enni Gregas, of the Friends of the Iron Belle Trail,...
By JEAN NORDINE [email protected] The big top tent is being set up today for the 27th annual Festival Ironwood. The 2018 Festival gets in full swing this Wednesday and continues through Saturday, concluding on Sunday with church services and the Range Art Association Master’s Art Show at the Ironwood Memorial building. Festival coordinators Will Corcoran and Keith Johnson appreciate the numerous work by volunteers behind the scenes, before, during and after the festival. It is truly a team effort to bring it all together. There are p...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] IRONWOOD - Ironwood area residents gathered Friday evening to pay tribute to a war hero they never knew. The Patriot Guard caravan escorted the remains of Pearl Harbor victim Navy Fireman Second Class Lowell Valley to Ontonagon, where he will be buried today. Around 50 people, many of them veterans, had gathered at the Michigan Tourism Information Center on U.S. 2 in Ironwood by 9 p.m., as darkness was setting in. Former Iron County Veterans Service...
By JEAN NORDINE [email protected] HURLEY - The Hurley School held a blood drive Friday in the library of the school. The school participates in a scholarship program with the Red Cross. The scholarship goes to a graduating senior and the scholarship amount depends on how many pints of blood are collected during the year. The school hosts blood drives three or four times a year, with the next one in September. Friday's was the first blood drive to count in the total for the...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] WAKEFIELD TOWNSHIP — The Wakefield Township board of trustees on Tuesday expressed its continued support for Highland Copper’s effort to develop a mine in the township. Wakefield Township Supervisor John Cox said the support will extend to the upcoming Michigan Department of Environmental Quality public hearing regarding several permits for the company’s Copperwood Project in northern Ironwood and Wakefield townships. “All five of our board members will be there and we’ll be standing together....
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] BESSEMER - One person was killed and two were injured in a Thursday afternoon accident in the city of Bessemer that closed U.S. 2 for more than four hours. Gogebic County Sheriff Peter Matonich said a 41-year-old Wakefield man, Rex Robert Smith, was traveling east near Fairview Drive when he lost control of his vehicle and it spun into the westbound lanes of the highway. It collided with a vehicle driven by Alvin Liikanen, 86, of Ironwood. Liikanen and...
By JEAN NORDINE [email protected] BESSEMER - At Thursday night's city of Bessemer's Downtown Development Authority meeting, DDA agreed to a request for facade improvement funds for Alpha Management, 302 S. Sophie St. Owner Kara Bucknell asked for improvement funds to be able to repaint the non-brick areas of the building. Bucknell was approved $1,100 for the project. She is to bring in all receipts once the project is completed to get reimbursed. Also receiving funding was Louis Campos...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY — Iron County is continuing its efforts to expand broadband access throughout the country, with the Board of Supervisors’ finance committee budgeting $18,000 towards local matching funds for the latest state grant application Wednesday. The application to the Wisconsin Public Services Commission is seeking to build a new tower in the area near Fisher Lake in the town of Mercer. “This would be a new tower out near Fisher Lake and it would kind of expand off of what we’ve already been doing ...
By JEAN NORDINE [email protected] IRONWOOD - After 117 years of U.P. winters the Wesley United Methodist Church's roof was on the verge of collapsing. When the church was built in 1910 with old growth timber, the trusses were not adequately reinforced which eventually led to a crack in the roof. Over the years the weight of snow build up made the crack travel the length of the roof. Last fall the members of the church knew that something had to be done, but weren't sure how to begin. A...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY - Iron County Outdoor Recreation Enthusiasts and other trail advocates in Iron County continue to work to develop the non-motorized trail between Hurley and Montreal, with a fundraiser planned Saturday at Cary Park in Hurley. ICORE will have brats, hot dogs, salad and cold drinks at Cary Park, according to Iron County's University of Wisconsin-Extension community educator Amy Nosal, starting at noon Saturday. Along with the food, the...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] BESSEMER — Gogebic County has joined a class action lawsuit for the past three fiscal years, seeking additional payments from the federal government for payments in lieu of taxes. After Wednesday’s county board meeting, county treasurer Lisa Hewitt noted the county receives about $600,000 annually in PILT money, so the suit could mean a great deal to the county. The suit seeks to recover money the county is owed for the past three years. The county was required to join the suit by Sept. 14. Kane Cou...
By JEAN NORDINE [email protected] BESSEMER - A public meeting in the auditorium of Bessemer City Hall, concerning the possible closure of Marenisco's Ojibway Correctional Facility, drew approximately 40 people last evening. Jeanne Graham, Gogebic Community College's dean of students, power point presentation provided statistics and information the public can use to spread the word about how detrimental the closure would be for the area. The information shared was compiled by Graham...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] HURLEY - The Hurley City Council approved sewer rate increases at Tuesday's regular monthly meeting. The increase to Hurley customers was necessary because of higher rates being charged by the Gogebic-Iron Wastewater Authority. City clerk Stacey Wiercinski said the first bill from the wastewater authority with the higher rates was for $1,667 more per month, or around $5,000 per quarter. She said the Hurley increase will amount to about $7 per quarter...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] MARQUETTE — Four western Upper Peninsula drug dealers were sentenced to federal prison, the Department of Justice’s office in Michigan’s Western District announced Monday. Patrick Joseph Sievers, 36, formerly of Ironwood, was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison and eight years of supervised release. Kathryn Maria Hellen, 27, formerly of Ironwood, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and five years of supervised release. Jennifer Elizabeth Smith, 29, formerly of Ontonagon, was sente...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] MOUNT MORRIS, N.Y. — A Superior, Wis., man who faces charges in the March 27 traffic death of Amanda Schiiller, formerly of Ironwood, was arrested on a warrant Saturday in Mount Morris. Jesse Troy Gasper, 34, who absconded to New York after a warrant was issued for his arrest on June 26, will be returned to Iron County to face charges of homicide by a vehicle with use of a controlled substance, two other felonies and two misdemeanors. He was arrested in New York at a hospital, where he went for i...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD - When Wakefield's Fourth of July parade was cancelled last Wednesday due to lightning, it was disheartening for anyone who had worked hard to set it up. "Six months of planning and meetings," said parade chair Ann Marie Cooney in a later phone interview. Nevertheless, she said canceling was the right action to assure the safety of everyone expecting either to watch or participate in the event. The Fourth of July parade had been ready to go,...
By JEAN NORDINE [email protected] RAMSEY — The Bessemer Township Board of Trustees agreed to proceed with the application process for the proposed sewer improvement project in New Location during Monday’s board meeting. Supervisor Jeffery Randall presented a comparison of the previous Eureka Platt project to estimate how much the New Location would cost. Eureka Platt cost the township $295,000, and Randall said the New Location project should be about the same. In other action: —The board awarded the new park renovation contr...
KIMBALL, Wis. - Shade from the property's tall trees and a fairly steady breeze made Sunday's heat more pleasant at Little Finland, where a crowd gathered to dance and have a good time at the organization's annual Viola Turpeinen Day celebration. "We've got a pretty nice turnout for a warm day," Little Finland president Ken Hannula said, adding a number of people even were dancing in the shade of Little Finland's pavilion to polka tunes from the Merrill-based band Finn Power. Little Finland has...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP - Residents can once again cool off at Little Girl's Point and several other area beaches and parks, after the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department's latest round of testing showed E.coli levels had improved enough to reopen them. A total of 26 locations the health department is monitoring are reopen, according to the health department Saturday, with another seven locations under an advisory for users to swim at their own...
GREENLAND — The Ontonagon County Fair, 2018 edition will be held July 26-29 at Adventure Mountain and features some new challenges and events. In place of the previous 5K Walk-Run, the Aspirus Ontonagon Hospital is sponsoring a “ninja course” competition. There will be a quarter-mile course walk-run loaded with various challenging obstacles. The event will be Saturday, July 28, with registration at 1 p.m. and competition at 2 p.m. Other challenging events this year are the Adventure Mountain Mud Challenge, also on Saturday, as ATVs and UTVs...
IRONWOOD - Downtown Ironwood and Depot Park were hopping Friday with events connected to the city's continuing First Friday promotion. On a perfect day weather-wise, following the farmers market offerings at the park, the focus shifted to the main street area where people were shopping and taking advantage of some events designed for the kiddies. "We're the Schnellers," of Ironwood Township, Elle Schneller proclaimed as she worked on coloring fans with her brother, Mason, and mom, Brittany....
HURLEY — Iron County, along with other communities across northwestern Wisconsin, continues to prepare the necessary documentation needed in Madison to determine if the state will request a federal disaster declaration for the mid-June rain and flooding. Iron County was one of five counties in the state of emergency Gov. Scott Walker issued June 18, along with Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett and Douglas counties. The communities are verifying the estimated costs of the damage from the June 15-17 storms are as accurate as possible, according to I...
