Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
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By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] BESSEMER — Members of the Bessemer Parks and Recreation Commission voted last week to add several additional components to a pending new five-year recreation plan and a related capital improvements plan. Commissioners voted, specifically, to add the expense of a splash pad and ADA playground equipment to the improvement plan’s cost. They also voted to add the splash pad to the recreation plan and to track down which goals in the previous five-year plan already had been accomplished so that those ite...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] HURLEY - Members of the Hurley City Council learned Tuesday evening that the city's $2.3 million utility construction project is set to start as soon as weather permits. Jeff Seamandel, a project manager in the Rhinelander office of MSA Professional Services, said he has scheduled an April 3 pre-construction meeting. He predicted that a May start date for construction led by Jake's Excavating and Landscaping will be set at that meeting. The session is expe...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD — Two city officials provided annual updates to the Wakefield City Council on Monday evening. Public Works Director Michael Singleton and Water and Electric Lead David Semenac delivered the reports. Semenac said that flooding in the spring of 2023 posed challenges for his crew, which had to deal with water sampling, water boil notices, etc. He said his crew likes to average the installation of 15 new electric poles each year. “We were able to do 18,” he said of the past year. “We had a great c...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] BESSEMER TOWNSHIP - This year's mild winter resulted with more grass than snow on Saturday, but skiers still threw plenty of powder as they competed in the annual Muk UP at Black River Basin. Snowmaking at the Snowriver Mountain Resort site made it possible for the fundraising event for Team Z to proceed as usual with a crowd of supportive spectators at the bottom of the hill. "The snow is great here right now," said Dan Tregembo, director of Team Z, a...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] HURLEY — At their Tuesday evening meeting, members of the Hurley City Council gave an informal thumbs up for plans to improve local ball fields. Brad Benton, speaking for Hurley Area Youth Softball and Baseball, said that he and his colleagues would like to “spruce up” local fields. He specifically asked permission to remove some of the pine trees around the baseball field. “It’s very wet,” said Benton, explaining that the trees keep part of the field shaded so that it does not fully dry out. As a result,...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Pat O’Donnell Civic Center may be the site of this year’s Gogebic County Fair in Ironwood. County Fair Board members voted on Monday evening to have board member Linda Nelson prepare a related proposal to submit to the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners in time for that board’s March 13 meeting. Board member Thomas Hampston opposed the vote, but all others voted aye. Before the vote, Nelson said she already had spoken with Jay Kivisto, Civic Center manager, and said that he and his ass...
By MEGAN HUGHES [email protected] Three community hubs in Gogebic and Ontonagon counties were recipients of Michigan Community Centers grant funds announced last week by the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, and are now planning for the future in which they can use these funds. Local recipients included the Ironwood Carnegie Library, the Historic Ironwood Theatre, and the Lake Gogebic Senior Citizens Club in Bergland. The Michigan Community Centers grant funds of $64...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] In what has been called a no-snow or low-snow winter, area ski hills are ending a short season early. In Wisconsin, Whitecap Mountains Resort in Upson closed on March 1. In Gogebic County, Big Powderhorn Mountain Resort and Mt. Zion Ski Hill closed on Sunday. The latter is on the campus of Gogebic Community College. In Ontonagon County, the Porcupine Mountains Ski Area and Adventure Mountain - due to their reliance only on natural snow - have each been ope...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] BESSEMER — At their most recent meeting last week, the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners delivered a hard no to any attempts to retain the 2024 fair at the county fairgrounds. The agenda included two items: 1. Reconsideration of the board’s Oct. 11, 2023, vote to close this year’s fair at the fairgrounds, along with any other major events there; and 2. Subsequent action to consider a revised proposal by county Fair Board members, who have been pushing for a smaller version of the fair that would...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] IRONWOOD - Robert Sertic of Ironwood is 88 and still going strong, but he's already left a legacy in relation to a decades-long hobby. Sertic recently donated 270 model planes to Michigan Technological University. "They have an Air Force ROTC program," said Sertic in explaining the school's interest. He added that his daughter, Sue Pertile, also of Ironwood, put an ad out regarding the planes and MTU happened to answer it. "My daughter and her husband...
By MEGAN HUGHES [email protected] BESSEMER - The Bessemer Area School District held its monthly board meeting Thursday. The board approved the formation of a school golf team, and welcomed Max France to the board as the K-6 dean of students. France was voted unanimously into his position at the meeting, and is already settling into the new role at the Washington Elementary School after a month. Superintendent Richard Matrella commended the work of the new team at Washington elementary...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] BESSEMER — Members of the Bessemer Downtown Development Authority voted last week to allot $3,500 over a 9-month period to a Bessemer business that is now entering its third year of operation. The funding is part of the city’s Pop-Up Shop program. Benefitting from the funding are Nicolas Hernandez and Victoria Arrington, owners and operators of Iron Bay Delivery. They are doing business as Iron Bay Detail and Wash. “Iron Bay Detail and Wash will offer a wide range of vehicle detailing services, inclu...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] BESSEMER — Members of the Bessemer Downtown Development Authority voted last week to advertise the position of a part-time executive director for their board. The person hired will take the reins from Samantha Dorr, who has served in that role for the past year and a half. The position was created when former City Manager Charly Loper assigned Dorr, then the city secretary, to round up information for the DDA while Loper was immersed in a multi-year utility and road project. It began as an extra r...
By LARRY HOLCOMBE [email protected] IRONWOOD - Local Girl Scouts are marking their an annual rite of spring with the selling of Girl Scout cookies across the region. A group of Junior Girl Scouts with local Troop 5429 -- Natalie Sackmann, Evelynn Hembree, Ivy Bromley and Azaylia Jewell -- set up a table to sell cookies on Friday at 5 p.m. at Super One grocery store in Ironwood. It was just one of several planned pop-up shop cookie selling booths planned for the region by the troop...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] BESSEMER — Members of the Finance, Budgeting and Auditing Committee of the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners voted last week to accept and file a written proposal to help initiate a new drug treatment and mental health center in the U.P. Commissioner Joseph Bonovetz said the proposal that Houghton County Administrator Ben Larson submitted to the Upper Peninsula Coalition for Area Progress. Larson’s proposal says that there is U.P.-wide support to establish a U.P. Drug Treatment and Mental Health Cri...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] BESSEMER — A variety of improvements are now in store for the Gogebic County Jail, thanks to a vote last week by county officials to fund $1.5 million for the listed projects. Members of the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners’ Finance, Budgeting and Auditing Committee discussed and recommended the action, which the board later approved. The vote specified that funds will be allocated from the Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund. The U.S. Department of Treasury defines that fund as “a gener...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WATERSMEET — A history of the Anishinaabe people is the focus of a traveling exhibit called “The Seventh Fire,” running from March 11-22 at the Ottawa National Forest Visitor Center in Watersmeet. “Anishinaabe” means “the original people” and also refers to the Ojibwe, who compose Watersmeet’s Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. The word is pronounced ah-nish-i-NAW-bee. Organizers of the exhibit report that it will include a timeline of the Anishinaabe, as well as “videos that sh...
By LARRY HOLCOMBE [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Ironwood City Commission spent time looking forward at its meeting Monday evening, approving a list of goals and hiring a firm to update the city Comprehensive Plan. Commissioners previously pared down a list of goals and then voted on the 12 remaining. City Manager Paul Anderson reported the results on Monday, listing them in a chart titled Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Goals. They included: 1. New Civic Center ice making system, 2. Coordinate, communicate and expand city recreational s...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WATERSMEET - When Ricky White interacts with kids at the Watersmeet Township School, it's like an exercise in glee. They flock to him like groupies, engaging in high-fives, group hugs, and lots of smiles and laughs. "If I wanted to feel like a rock star with kids jumping all over me, that would be the place I'd go every day," he told The Globe. White is a Native American consultant, and for more than a year, he's been regularly visiting the school to work...
By MEGAN HUGHES [email protected] IRONWOOD - Gogebic Community College's new president, Chris Patritto, heard ideas from the community at a listening session on Feb. 22. He encouraged people to share their thoughts on what GCC could improve upon in the future. One of the largest talking points was the future of the college pool, which was closed down more than a decade ago. Patritto said that at this time there is no plan at all regarding the pool, whether that be to open it, demolish...
By MEGAN HUGHES [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Gogebic Community College Board of Trustees heard Tuesday the college has been granted accreditation through 2034. “This comes following our comprehensive visit this past October following years of hard work by all staff in all areas to meet the Higher Learning Commission’s criteria for accreditation,” said Maria Sokol, accreditation liaison and anatomy and physiology instructor in a college press release. Accreditation is a stamp of approval that GCC is meeting quality standards, said th...
By LARRY HOLCOMBE [email protected] President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump were the winners of Tuesday’s Michigan Presidential primary. Locally, results mirrored the statewide count. Biden won the Democrat primary with 81.1% of the statewide vote, followed by 13.3% of voters choosing “Uncommitted.” According the Associated Press, Biden gained 86 of the state’s 117 available delegates to this summer’s national convention. On the Republican ticket, Trump garnered 68.2% of the vote, compared to 26.5% for former South Car...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] IRONWOOD - Local kids who benefit from mentoring received a boost last Saturday from the 22nd annual Gogebic Range Bowling for Kids' Sake. The 5-hour event, which was a fundraiser for the Brothers and Sisters of the Western Upper Peninsula, was held at Big Shots Sports Bar and Grill in Ironwood. Individuals and teams of four to eight people, or more, registered to help raise funds for the BBBS mentoring program. Prizes and drawings were included, and...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] HURLEY - Iron County Board Member Kurt Wolff reported to fellow members on Tuesday evening that he will make formal recommendations on the 2024-25 budget at the board's March meeting. He requested that members submit any concerns they have to him as quickly as possible. Wolff, who represents the town of Sherman on the board, is the lead coordinator in working toward budget reconciliation for the pending new fiscal year. One of his first objectives was to...
