Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Ironwood — The Ironwood Area Schools’ board of education is expected to consider a request for a trail reroute at its meeting Monday after the district’s building and grounds committee forwarded the issue to the full board Wednesday.
The Gogebic Range Trail Authority is requesting a land-use agreement with the district for part of the district’s property near its bus garage and the Miners Memorial Heritage Park for the development of a looped trail through Ironwood which the club is looking to develop.
GRTA President Steve Hamilton said the planned motorized trail would use the existing connection at May Street before deviating from the historic route.
“We would essentially be going along the eastern edge of the practice field behind the bus barn, turning west in the southern corner over to … Mr. Lorenson’s property, where we would then turn again back south towards Frenchtown Road. Then it would go straight to the Aurora Athletic Club, it would cross through their property, it would go through Globe’s property over to Manny’s and Norrie Club and then back down by the Little League fields around the old dump back to Frenchtown Road,” Hamilton told the committee.
The change would eliminate two non-motorized trail crossings.
The committee and district officials were receptive to the proposal, with Ironwood Superintendent Travis Powell noting the change would also reduce the current practice of people cutting across part of the district’s practice football field to avoid a low, wet area.
“It’s the right thing to do in my opinion,” Powell said, regarding entering the land-use agreement with the club.
Along with discussing the GRTA’s request, the committee recommended Powell be allowed to negotiate with the owners of Sleight Elementary School regarding the terms of the district’s lease of several classrooms in the building and seek bids for a number of maintenance projects for the Luther L. Wright K-12 School and other district property.