Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Sorted by date Results 4270 - 4294 of 9747
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] HURLEY - Negotiations are continuing in an effort to keep Beacon Ambulance in business. The Hurley City Council on Tuesday discussed the status of the talks with Iron County Emergency Management Director Stacy Ofstad, who said Beacon is decreasing its proposed costs to area communities in seeking a new contract. At a city council meeting last week, Hurley Mayor Joe Pinardi said Beacon was requesting an increase in its annual contract with Hurley from...
ONTONAGON — Repairs on the M-64 bridge over the Ontonagon River will begin Monday. The Michigan Department of Transportation said the estimated completion date is Sept. 14. The $1.2 million MDOT project will include epoxy overlay, deck patching, joint replacement, substructure repair and approach reconstruction work. One alternating lane of traffic will be open, with use of temporary traffic signals. An 11-foot width restriction will be in effect in the work zone. MDOT said the project will restore the pavement condition on the bridge and a...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY - Fourteen members of the Iron County Board of Supervisors were sworn-in for another term during Tuesday's reorganizational meeting; after which, Joe Pinardi was voted in as board chair. Jim Kichak was elected vice-chair. Along with determining the board's leadership, the county's two elected committees were also chosen. The Highway Committee consists of Karl Krall, Scott Erickson, Pat Hanson, Kichack and Larry Youngs. Youngs was the only...
By IAN MINIELLY [email protected] RAMSAY - The Bessemer Township planning commission met Tuesday afternoon for an extended discussion on the park improvement project. Anna Lovelace, of Coleman Engineering, explained the plans and the members of the commission discussed them in detail. Hope Tarnaski, member of the Ramsay Memorial Park township board and commission, said multiple times how excited she was this was coming to fruition and how long they have waited for the park to be...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] HURLEY — The Hurley City Council re-organized without its mayor in charge on Tuesday. Because an appeals process is in effect following Paul Mullard’s one-vote victory over Joe Pinardi on April 3, Mullard can’t be sworn into office until Monday. As a result, mayor pro-tempore Steve Lombardo was briefly in charge Tuesday until he handed the reigns over to council member Joanne Bruneau, who was named to preside over the meeting. The council tabled two items until its May meeting — a proposed new contrac...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] It took a bit longer than had been predicted, but the Tax Day Blizzard of 2018 arrived in full force across the Gogebic Range on Sunday. The April 15-16 storm socked the Ironwood area with 10 inches of snow for the 24-hour period to 7 a.m. Monday, and more was on the way, as another two to three inches of fluffy stuff had fallen by noon in downtown Ironwood. The 10-inch snowfall set a 119-year record for April 15-16. A lake effect snow advisory...
By IAN MINIELLY [email protected] BESSEMER - Sylvain Collard, general manager of Highland Copper Company Inc., provided the Bessemer city council a brief before they voted on a resolution supporting the Highland Corporation's efforts to open up mines in the area. Collard outlined the three routes Highland is working on. -The Copperwood project, which will begin construction in the third quarter of 2018 and should employ 250-350 people during construction and 300-400 during full-blown...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Ironwood Area Schools is asking for the community’s support, as the district’s board of education approved the official language of a bond measure for the August ballot Monday. The measure is asking voters to approve a tax levy averaging 1.02 mills over five years, with an initial mill rate of .71 in 2019. One mill translates to $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value. The money increases from the initial .71 mills over the course of the millage as previous bond proposals are compl...
WAKEFIELD - The Wakefield-Marenisco School teachers and students are getting ready for annual state testing. Students will take grade-specific state tests during testing windows, which are scheduled from now through the end of May. The teaching staff worked together at an in-service earlier this year to create an action plan which would help to reduce student anxiety over state testing and ultimately increase state test scores for the district. Some of the activities the teaching staff came up...
By STEVE NEWMAN [email protected] MERCER - Readers took advantage of the opportunity to get good books for low prices Saturday at the Mercer Friends of the Library used book sale. According to Teresa Schmidt, the library director, the book sale is one of several pathways that are used by the Friends of the Library to fund special projects to improve the library for its patrons. "The Friends of the Library provides money for the things that are not in our regular budget." Some examples of...
By STEVE NEWMAN [email protected] IRONWOOD — Residents of the area were treated to a chance to think about spring and summer with the Sport and Recreation Show Friday-Sunday at the Pat O’Donnell Civic Center on the Gogebic Community College campus. John Warren, general manager of Heartland Communications Group in Ashland, has put together the show for the past eight years. Warren was pleased with the vendors who came to take part in the show, and particularly the variety of vendors. He stated “we have a variety, from boats, campe...
By IAN MINIELLY [email protected] HURLEY - April 3 election results had Paul Mullard besting incumbent Hurley Mayor Joe Pinardi 185 to 184 and Friday morning's recount confirmed the totals. Mullard will take office Tuesday during a 4:30 p.m. reorganizational meeting at city hall. Kathleen Byrns, deputy clerk and treasurer for the city, directed June Calvetti and Kathy Osterman in recount procedures while Stacey Wiercinski, city clerk, recorded the votes. The two men agreed when it...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] IRONWOOD - The Historic Ironwood Theatre will host American singer-songwriter Peter Yarrow in a concert on Sunday, April 22, at 7 p.m. The Peter in the folk music trio of Peter, Paul and Mary, Yarrow co-wrote - with Leonard Lipton - one of the group's greatest hits, "Puff, the Magic Dragon." He said he was looking forward to performing, given the divisive political atmosphere around the country. He said his performances often produce a spirit in the...
HURLEY — The Hurley City Council on Tuesday agreed the Hurley Area Chamber of Commerce can place an events message sign at the downtown trailhead for the snowmobile-all-terrain vehicle trail. Rita Franzoi, representing the chamber, said it will be a one-sided message center similar to the one in the town of Mercer. Council members noted in addition to the many events sponsored by the chamber, city happenings may be posted on the sign board. Franzoi indicated the cost of electricity, at $146 a year, won’t be excessive. The light emitting dio...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY — The Iron County Board of Supervisors’ Finance Committee approved the purchase of a pair of radar signs Thursday which will be installed near the two schools in the county. The county had previously installed signs near the Hurley and Mercer schools, according to Iron County Emergency Management Director Stacy Ofstad, but they weren’t working the way the county had hoped. “From the first year we had major issues with those two signs,” Ofstad said. “The one (in Hurley) never did work — we d...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD - Wakefield City Council members began parsing details of the city's 2018-'19 budget at a Thursday workshop in which they also discussed how to evaluate city manager Richard Brackney. Mayor John Granato said the formal evaluation of Brackney will be at an as yet unscheduled public session, but stressed the importance of choosing a "consistent" means of considering criteria in advance. "In the past, we've handed out a questionnaire to each...
By IAN MINIELLY [email protected] BESSEMER — The Downtown Development Authority in Bessemer on Thursday supported Pop-Up shops for Brandon Saari and Bridget O’Sullivan. The two made pitches for the new businesses to open in May. The authority voted unanimously to support both new businesses. O’Sullivan is opening “The Yellow Umbrella,” a thrift and vintage store at 306 S. Sophie St. in “the other” Couch Potato location. She said between her and her husband, they have 50 years of experience in artifacts and antiquing and expect to...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY — Iron County Sheriff Tony Furyk has decided to retire at the end of his current term, with Lt. Paul Samardich recently taking the first steps necessary to run for the office. Furyk has been with the Iron County Sheriff’s Department since 1983, serving the last eight years as sheriff. He said while he loves the job, he felt it’s time to let someone else do it. Since starting with the department, he said he has seen a lot of changes — most notably the technology the department uses. While t...
By JAN TUCKER jamadots.com ONTONAGON - The announcement of a $300 million biofuel plant to be located in Ontonagon is "imminent," the Ontonagon County Economic Development Corporation was told Wednesday. Pat Tucker, a member of the EDC, President of Lost Bowl, who owns the land on which the former Smurfit-Stone Paper mill was located, said SynSel Energy of Elmhurst Ill. has the firm commitment of all the funds for the project and has closed on most of them and is now in the process of the final...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] HURLEY — The water mixer that was installed in the city of Hurley’s tank on Germania Hill is not working. The Hurley City Council learned Tuesday that a detached wire is apparently the cause of the problem. The mixer was installed as part of a city infrastructure project to ensure that the water stays fresh. Jeff Seamandel, of MSA Professional Services, the city’s’ engineering company, said the mixer is under warranty for one year after the project is “substantially complete” and that point has n...
By P.J. GLISSON [email protected] WAKEFIELD - In back-to-back Monday meetings, the Wakefield City Council and planning commission both voted to "file" a request for support from Superior Cannabis Solutions, LLC, in Bessemer. The request came from a March 28 letter from Kathleen Whitburn, director of market and business development for the company. "As business owners and investors in the medical marijuana industry and in the U.P. of Michigan, we are actively reaching out to you to...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] HURLEY — Beacon Ambulance is looking for an 800 percent increase in its contract with the city of Hurley. Mayor Joseph Pinardi told the city council Tuesday there’s no way the city has money in its budget for a proposed increase from $5,231 to $46,710, or more than $41,000, retroactive to March 1. “This is just a shock,” Pinardi said, adding that the $41,000 is basically the cost of a city employee. Pinardi said the city could negotiate next year’s contract with Beacon, but doesn’t have the funds f...
