Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By BRYAN HELLIOS
Ironwood — The Ironwood Parks and Recreation Committee met Monday evening to discuss its five-year park and recreation plan.
Part of the set of action plans is to revitalize the area around a small group of cottonwood trees in Ironwood.
Committee member Tom Kangas said the oldest one has suffered some damage due to winds and ice storms.
He said the tree is located off of Frenchtown Road and can be seen towering over all of the other trees.
“They think it is the third oldest tree in the state of Michigan,” he said. “Luckily, there are two other cottonwood trees there, although they are not as big.”
Kangas said they are looking at improving a path to the area where the trees are into a trail that would connect with the Little League and high school baseball diamonds.
A few trees have been marked for removal, but he said they are only poplar trees which usually snap and fall anyway due to not having a good root system.
“We are just trying to decide on the best route, and the bids came in a little high from the contractor,” Kangas said.
He said they are looking at saving money by doing some of the tree removal using in-kind work.
In other business, the committee is looking at locations for a sledding hill in Ironwood.
Sam Davey, who is also on the committee, said they have a nice stretch of street in Aurora Location that is currently being used, but it’s still a street. He remembered sledding on the hill as a kid.
“The problem with streets is they are sanded,” Davey said.
He said the committee is open to recommendations from the public.
“Right now we have nowhere for the kids to go sledding,” Davey said.
