County board seeks bids on new roof for annex

BESSEMER — The Gogebic County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday agreed to call for bids on a new roof on the annex to the courthouse.

The building and grounds committee recommended seeking bids. The bid opening will be on March 23, according to Tom Laabs, of Ironwood, chair of the committee.

Laabs said it could be around a $100,000 project, with funding possibly to come from the delinquent tax fund.

He said the project would extend from May to around June 15, with the old roof being torn off and replaced.

In other business Wednesday, the county board learned Ashley Hampston, of Ironwood, has been hired for the full-time Michigan State University-Extension 4-H coordinator position. She had been working in the office in a temporary on-call 4-H job. She was attending a conference on Wednesday.

Paul Putnam, Upper Peninsula District 1 Extension director, also said Megan Martell, a Michigan Tech graduate and Bessemer native, has been hired for a nutrition education job with the Gogebic County Extension office.

With Anita Carter taking a position in the office that begins Monday and Ramona Shackleford to fill a temporary grant-funded position that begins in March,

Erin Ross, of the Extension office, said all of the hirings mean there will be no gap in coverage.

Putnam said hiring local people should mean more consistency in the office, which was hampered last year by a death and several resignations.

“You have the largest MSU-Extension staff in District 1,” Putnam said.

“This is good news,” county board chair Joe Bonovetz, of Bessemer, said, pointing to the struggles over the past year.