Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Sorted by date Results 990 - 1014 of 9971
BESSEMER - Construction season is fast approaching and Bessemer is gearing up for the second phase of its two large construction projects: a rebuilding of U.S. 2 through town and the city's water and sewer project. The Michigan Department of Transportation and city officials have announced that a detour of eastbound U.S. 2 traffic along city streets south of the highway will take effect May 31 and last through early September. "This summer is going to be hectic. There are a lot of good things...
HANCOCK — New COVID-19 cases in the western Upper Peninsula continued to rise over the past seven days as Gogebic and Ontonagon counties moved from low to medium COVID-19 community levels, according to an update from the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department on Thursday. From May 11-18, there were 60 new cases in Houghton County, 32 cases in Gogebic, 12 cases in Baraga, nine cases in Keweenaw and seven cases in Ontonagon, for a total of 120 new cases. This marked the fifth consecutive week that the case rate increased, the health d...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] IRONWOOD - To help students from Luther L. Wright K-12 enjoy the warmer weather and learn about the western Upper Peninsula's history of mining communities, Downtown Art Place volunteers collaborated with Ironwood Area Schools staff and the Ironwood Carnegie Library for an outdoor art project during school hours Wednesday afternoon. Daniel Negro, Judy Balchik and Rebecca Sim's fourth grade classes used a somewhat uncommon medium for this project:...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] IRONWOOD — Now that Chad Lashua has taken on the role of vice president of business services, Gogebic Community College now has all its vice presidential positions filled. Lashua is the former director of business services at Nicolet Area Technical College in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, where he held various business-related roles since 2010. He has worked in business and industry fields since 2001. He has a Master of Business Administration degree from Western Governors University, a bachelor’s deg...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] HURLEY — At the Iron County Forestry and Parks Committee meeting last week, department head Eric Peterson said they anticipated that the county ATV/UTV trails would open by the end of the month. On Monday, officer manager and trail coordinator Tara Krall confirmed that they will indeed open at 8 a.m. on Friday. “Please stay on marked ATV/UTV trails and routes, as off trail riding is trespassing and can cause loss of trail use. Be aware of changing trail conditions due to wind or rain,” Krall said...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] WAKEFIELD - A large crowd filed into the Wakefield-Marenisco gymnasium twice on Tuesday to hear students in the school's music program perform in their spring concert. The elementary students performed in the afternoon and the junior and senior high school band students performed in the evening. The afternoon concert featured K-5 students singing songs such as "My Country Tis of Thee," "Follow My Rhythms", "Banana Smoothie" and "Thunder." Then, the...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] IRONWOOD — Students at Luther L. Wright K-12 School will have a somewhat different academic year when they return from summer break in August. The Ironwood Board of Education approved the 2022-2023 school calendar at their regular meeting on Monday. Superintendent Travis Powell said this calendar has two notable differences compared to previous ones. Powell said that one difference is that the first semester ends before, not after, winter break, ending on Dec. 21 this year rather than sometime in Jan...
ONTONAGON — The Ontonagon Labor Festival will be back looking like the festivals of old after two years of altered format because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival will celebrate its 66th year as the welcome to fall Sept. 2-4. The Labor Day Committee in its first meeting of the year confirmed that Marty’s Goldenaires Drum and Bugle Corps will be back for the big parade and provide a concert. The opening event, the Friday evening picnic at the marina hosted by the village, returns and will be augmented this year with fireworks over the Ont...
MARQUETTE — Michigan State Police and other local law enforcement officials are reminding the public about the importance of wearing a seatbelt as the Memorial Day holiday weekend approaches. The Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning is launching a “Click It or Ticket” seat belt enforcement campaign that runs May 16 to June 5. Lt. Mark Giannunzio, MSP’s public information officer for the U.P. based in Marquette, said they will have extra patrols out in the coming weeks as part of an effort to remind motorists to buckle up. “In times of...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] IRONWOOD - Luther L. Wright middle and high school vocal students offered their annual spring concert at the Historic Ironwood Theatre on Saturday night. The concert theme's was "world unity and brotherhood," which vocal music director Darin Schmidt said felt appropriate for a community and society just coming out of a global pandemic. The concert began with the middle school choir Ayer Street Voices. The students performed a variety of songs including...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER - Several people came to the Bessemer Downtown Development Authority meeting on Wednesday evening to hear a discussion about the possibility of purchasing colored, stamped concrete to be laid down along U.S. 2 as part of the ongoing highway reconstruction project. The idea was to fill the space between the curb and sidewalk with the concrete instead of grass from Mill Street to Peck Street, and the DDA was going to pay for it. However, the...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] HANCOCK — There were almost 100 new COVID-19 cases but zero deaths across the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department’s five counties in seven days from May 4-11, a Wednesday briefing from the health department says. Most of the new COVID-19 cases were in Houghton County, which had 60 new cases. There were also 18 new cases in Gogebic County, eight new cases in Ontonagon County and three new cases each in Baraga and Keweenaw counties, for a total of 92 new cases. The seven-day case count went up...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] The Gogebic Range Trail Authority will perform a spring cleaning on Saturday of the snowmobile and ATV trails going from Marenisco west to the Montreal River and the border with Wisconsin, trail authority president Steve Hamilton said. GRTA members will use chainsaws to break down and remove fallen trees that are blocking the way, pick up trash and brush the trails, Hamilton said. State of Michigan ATV trails officially opened on April 1 and multi-use trails are open all year, but Hamilton told the D...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] WAKEFIELD - After months of anticipation, planning and fundraising to build a skate park on the Eddy Park tennis courts by middle school students at the Wakefield-Marenisco School, a monkey wrench has now been thrown in, which may alter their plans within weeks of opening. Area pickleball players Lorraine Mussatti and Julie Hautala made a request to the Wakefield city council on Monday for permission to create two pickleball courts on the same tennis...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] HURLEY — As warmer temperatures melt the last of the snow, Street Commissioner Scott Santini and Water Manager Gary Lugana provided the Hurley City Council with a public works update at its regular meeting on Tuesday. Santini informed the council that there was a “serious undermining” of a drain on Fifth Avenue in Hurley and he went out for bids to replace the drain. The council approved a $8,500 contract with Ross Peterson Construction for the replacement. Santini said that Cary Park is open as of...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] IRONWOOD - Twenty-eight nurse graduates celebrated National Nurses Day on Friday by receiving pins and their degrees from Gogebic Community College. The college's Associate Degree in nursing program's pinning ceremony took place prior to graduation in a classroom on campus. The event marks the student's successful completion of educational nurse training and transition into the nursing profession. During the ceremony, GCC president George McNulty and...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Ironwood City Commission set a public hearing for 5:20 p.m. on June 13 on an amendment to the marijuana establishment ordinance. Director of Community Development Tom Bergman said the draft includes licenses for two additional retail marijuana establishments. “I would just say this to the public: this would be their opportunity, then. This would be their opportunity to either talk about going forward or holding the course,” city commissioner Jim Mildren said about the public heari...
By LARRY HOLCOMBE [email protected] High winds caused power outages across the region on Monday that continued into Tuesday. Xcel Energy reported 1,200 customers in the Gogebic County and northern Iron County were without power Monday evening as crews were worked to restore power, according to spokesperson Chris Ouellette. "There were a lot of trees down on power lines," she said. She said some 800 customers were still without power Tuesday morning as new crews were brought in to...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] IRONWOOD — The Gogebic-Iron County Airport Board agreed to purchase two trucks at its regular meeting on Monday morning. Airport manager Michael Harma reported to the board that his search for a new or used jet fuel truck has been fruitless because he has been unable to find one with the desired type of engine. Board member Brandon Snyder suggested they purchase the rental truck the airport has been using instead. The board authorized Harma to negotiate the purchase of the rental from the vendor at a...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] WAKEFIELD - Ten eighth grade students from the Wakefield Marenisco School District got up early on Mother's Day morning to wait tables at the Wakefield VFW Post 9084, in an effort to raise funds for a skate park to be built on the Eddy Park tennis courts. The students came up with the idea during a social studies class last fall and presented it to the city planning commission. After some discussion, the commission and the city council approved their id...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] MERCER, Wis. — The town of Mercer board of supervisors voted to repeal an ordinance passed requiring that any person residing in the town keep their dog tied and upon their own premises on Thursday. The town will now adhere to the Iron County animal ordinances. “The sheriff’s department and the health department work together with dog bites,” supervisor Eric Snow said. “All that stuff is very thoroughly tracked. I believe it’s not even a three-strike policy. I believe if there’s a second aggres...
By CHARITY SMITH [email protected] BESSEMER — The Bessemer veterans organizations are selling poppies to aid veterans near and far. Members of Bessemer VFW Post 3673 and American Legion Post 27 were out in the community offering the small, red silk flowers for a donation on Friday and will be out again today, according to VFW Post Commander Donna Frello. Proceeds from poppy sale will go towards the service members relief fund to help veterans in need of assistance, said Frello. Locally, the funds help with things such as gas cards a...
By ZACHARY MARANO [email protected] HURLEY - In Wisconsin, the Iron County Highway Department is hoping to pave some roads in the gap between the winter seasons. Department head Mike Swartz said they have two levels of projects: they maintain county highways by themselves and collaborate with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation on state highways. On the state level, Swartz said they are repaving part of U.S. 51 with a mill and overlay from Iron Street in Hurley to County Road C...
