Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Sorted by date Results 5911 - 5935 of 9816
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Ironwood City Commission was asked this week to contribute $5,000 toward the restoration of the Hiawatha Indian statue. John Rudberg appeared before the commissioners to update them on fund-raising efforts. Rudberg said around $13,000 has been raised toward the restoration, but the fund drive is running out of steam and he suggested the commission include $5,000 in its next budget as the city’s contribution. The entire renovation project is estimated at $20,000. After 52 years, Rud...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY — Iron County and local officials took part in a statewide “Turnout for Transportation” meeting Thursday night to discuss the lack of adequate road funding in Wisconsin. Meetings happened simultaneously in every county in the state. Iron County Highway Commissioner Mike Swartz said a meeting like this had never been done before and indicated how serious the state’s road funding problem is. After a short video featuring representatives that sponsored the meeting — including the Wisconsin...
By TOM STANKARD [email protected] Students in Ironwood and Hurley cap off a jam-packed homecoming week today. Throughout the week, they dressed in themed clothing and showed their school spirit by decorating hallways with posters rooting for their team. Outside the classroom, students participated in competitions to see which grade is the best. To kick off the school week at Ironwood K-12, students wore clothes featuring their favorite sports teams. After school, girls participated in...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] IRONWOOD - City Commissioner Jim Mildren is impressed with the new stretch of the Iron Belle Trail from Ironwood to Bessemer. City commissioners learned Monday the non-motorized trail construction is nearly finished. The trail will tentatively be dedicated at an Oct. 24 ceremony at the Bessemer end. The Ironwood stretch of the hiking-biking trail has been in use for more than a year and a Friends of the Iron Belle Trail group has organized. It will...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY — The Gogebic Range Broadband Committee, Wednesday, learned some details of the ceremony planned to mark Iron County’s reception of a broadband expansion grant. According to Iron County Development Zone Coordinator Kelly Klein, one of the people involved in obtaining the grant, the ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 9 at one of the fire towers that is being purchased through the grant. “The committee, along with the county board and development corporation, will all be invited (to the cerem...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] HURLEY — Iron County Judge Patrick Madden on Tuesday gave a Superior man who previously pleaded no contest to a heroin count one last chance to stay out of prison. Bernie Sanders, 47, had received a deferred sentence in 2015 on a charge of possession with intent to deliver heroin. On Tuesday, acting Iron County District Attorney Fritz Schellgell recommended Sanders be sentenced to 18 months in prison and 18 months of extended supervision for violating conditions set in the deferred prosecution a...
Thursday, Sept. 29 Pickleball, 9-11 a.m., Hurley High School Tennis Courts. Gogebic County Veterans Service Officer, 10:30-11:30 a.m., Wakefield City Hall; 1-2 p.m., Watersmeet Township; 2:45-3:15 p.m., Marenisco Township. 906-667-1110. Alcoholics Anonymous, noon, Salem Lutheran Church, Ironwood. area74.org. Grief Support Group, 2 p.m., The Inn Bed and Breakfast, Montreal, Wis. 906-663-0308. ReGeneration Youth, 5:30-6:45 p.m., ages 10-11; Relentless Youth, 7-9 p.m., ages 12-18; Lighthouse Faith Center, Ironwood. Alcoholics Anonymous, 6:30...
By JAN TUCKER [email protected] ONTONAGON — The Regional Driving Under the Influence and Drug Court program in the five-county Western Upper Peninsula is four years old and has achieved some significant success. It covers 97th and 98th district courts in Houghton, Baraga, Keweenaw, Ontonagon and Gogebic counties. At a regional meeting two weeks ago, the court was able to show some impressive statistics. Kelly Plutchak, of Ontonagon, is administrator of the program. She told the Ontonagon Rotary last week there were 67 participants this f...
IRONWOOD -The Gogebic Community College Registered Nursing students, along with the Certified Nursing Assistant students from the Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District, heard a presentation from Aaron Ruotsala, of Cole's Foundation, on Monday. Ruotsala spoke to the group about his son, Cole, and his journey with adreno-cortical carcinoma from diagnosis to his passing on Sept. 19, 2008, at age 3. He also spoke about the creation of Cole's Foundation and the work that it does supporting...
By TOM STANKARD [email protected] IRONWOOD - The Gogebic Community College Board of Trustees approved the college's 2016-17 budget Tuesday evening. GCC Dean on Business Services Erik Guenard said the college's 2016-17 general fund budget "reflects a very modest increase of less than 1 percent in expenditures, and about a .4 percent increase in revenues." "This reflects an approximate 2 percent increase in enrollment that we experienced this fall, a slight increase in state aid and...
By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] IRONWOOD - "I cannot thank you enough," Kenneth Wegmeyer, of Ironwood, said Monday as the people who saved his life on Aug. 17 were honored. The Ironwood City Commission recognized the citizen volunteers, public safety officers and Beacon Ambulance attendants who revived Wegmeyer after he suffered a heart attack while riding his bike with the Superior Riders that evening. Wegmeyer was able to joke Monday that he really doesn't remember much of that...
By ISABELLE KLEINSCHMIDT [email protected] WAKEFIELD - Wakefield City Manager Richard Brackney asked the city council to consider increasing several fees at its meeting Monday. Brackney suggested the disconnection fee for city services be raised from $30 to $100 for the summer and $200 during the winter months as a means of offsetting the costs to disconnect services. According to Brackney, about 200 Notices to Disconnect were sent out this month, and he would like for the increase to...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] BESSEMER — A plea agreement was reached in the two cases against a man authorities say is a key figure in the Gogebic Range drug trade which will see him serve at least eight years in prison. In Gogebic County Circuit Court Friday, Adam Lee Stone, 36, of Ironwood, pleaded guilty to a total of four felonies — two in each of the cases against him. Gogebic County Prosecutor Nick Jacobs said he pushed for the sentence due to Stone’s importance in the area’s illegal drug trade. “After processing these r...
By ISABELLE KLEINSCHMIDT [email protected] BESSEMER - Orange balloons speckled the skies of Bessemer over the weekend in celebration of the 38th annual Pumpkin Festival. The festivities put on by the Bessemer Area Chamber of Commerce began on Thursday and carried on through Sunday in downtown Bessemer. Thursday evening, the event kicked-off with a Spaghetti Dinner at the American Legion Post 27. Later on at the Pitstop, the Chamber sponsored a "Business After 5" social and a Poker Run took...
By TOM STANKARD [email protected] IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP - To support the fight against cancer, more than 50 residents attended a Touch of Gold gala, benefiting Cole's Foundation Saturday evening at Big Powderhorn Mountain Resort. Peter Grewe, of Ironwood, played the keyboard as people gathered for the evening at the Gun Barrel Lodge. In his welcoming remarks, Grewe said gold is the color of pediatric cancer awareness. Cole's Foundation was founded in 2008, after Cole Ruotsala, a...
By JAN TUCKER [email protected] EWEN — The Ewen-Trout Creek Board of Education Wednesday learned that taxpayers will get a break due to a decreased interest rate and the district’s strong financial position. Business Manager Tammy Gibson reported taxpayers will see a lower than projected millage rate on their winter taxes with the lower than anticipated interest rate on the bonds sold to finance the building project. Taxpayers approved a 1.7 mill increase in taxes in November 2015 to complete the building project. Gibson said, however, tax...
HURLEY — Since 1966, Highline has continued to provide rehabilitation services for individuals with disabilities in Iron County and the surrounding area. When the disability services program became incorporated in 1966, people thought it wouldn’t last more than six months, according to current CEO Donna Reinerio. In response, Hurley Mayor Paul Santini and a group of like-minded people formed a board and selected Santini to be chairman. They were determined to prove the naysayers wrong, Reinerio said. Moving forward, in November 1966 Rei...
By TOM STANKARD [email protected] IRONWOOD - When Pat Gallinagh's sister died of suicide in 1967, he wanted to do something about it. To raise awareness of suicide, he joined the Lifekeeper Memory Quilt program. Through the quilts, Gallinagh, of Ironwood, said it puts a human face on the tragedy of suicide and the toll it takes on the victim's family and the community. Gallinagh, a member of the Range Suicide Prevention Council, said the club finished its sixth quilt earlier this...
By TOM STANKARD [email protected] IRONWOOD — Theatre North is continuing its 53-year-old tradition of providing community entertainment by presenting three shows this season. The season begins with the classic American comedy “You Can’t Take it With You,” directed by Helen Fashbaugh. In the play, set in 1936, Alice Sycamore and Toby Kirby Jr. fall in love. When Kirby proposes, Sycamore fears of introducing her “crazy” family to the “snobby” Kirbys. There are fireworks thrown in when the IRS threatens Grandpa because he doesn’t believ...
By RICHARD JENKINS [email protected] HURLEY - In an effort to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of broadband service in Iron County, particularly the resources offered to senior residents, the Gogebic Range Broadband Committee and University of Wisconsin Extension System are holding an upcoming focus group session. "The primary reason (the focus group) is coming together is to analyze the resources that are available to the senior citizens of this area. And senior citizens when I say...
By TOM STANKARD [email protected] MARENISCO - After a proposal to build a water-bottling plant in Presque Isle, Wis., was turned down, the plants developers are contructing a similar plant 10 miles away in Marenisco. The Presque Isle town board rejected a request for the plant because of concerns about using water from the nearby Carlin Club well because it could cause a reduction in the aquifer level. In response, the Marenisco Township board gave the developers 10 acres of land to...
By TOM STANKARD [email protected] BESSEMER — The finishing touches are being made on Phase 2 of the Western Gateway Trail that will stretch from the Ironwood city limit to Bessemer by the end the construction season in October. The authority governing the trail learned Wednesday paving of the trail is complete all the way to the end of Phase 2 on Moore Street, according to Coleman Engineering’s Paul Anderson. Also, the observation decks are complete, he said. Work on fencing the trail where necessary is in progress. Meanwhile, wor...
By JAN TUCKER [email protected] ONTONAGON — The Ontonagon County Board Tuesday joined the growing chorus of those objecting to the decision of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) to cancel the services of the White Pine Electric Plant. In a letter to the governor, the Michigan Agency for Energy and MISO; the board stated it understands MISO plans to replace "this critical generating resource (White Pine) with a 1998 operating protocol called radial reconfiguration that will provide the same level, or assurance, of r...
