Stories of the year

Editor’s Note: Each year, members of The Globe staff choose what they believe were the year’s biggest stories: ones that resonated with readers and that often involved topics with ongoing ramifications in particular communities or throughout the Gogebic Range. Below are this year’s choices in no particular order of importance.

By PAMELA JANSSON

pjansson@yourdailyglobe.com

GOGEBIC RANGE — When it comes to drama, a major, accidental fire at the Gogebic County Fairgrounds in Ironwood certainly sufficed as a story of the year in 2023, when the event occurred on Sept. 26.

After all, the fire took down three structures at the site, which already had lost two other structures via demolition.

But the fallout ever since has been just as dramatic, with ongoing struggles to work out insurance from three different sources, and to follow the guidance of engineering consultants while also trying to decide what is best for the community at large.

Add to that what appeared at times a tug of war between the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners and its separate Gogebic County Fair Board, which operates at its pleasure and yet still retains some measure of independence.

Differing approaches, opinions and priorities led finally this fall to county commissioners not renewing the membership of three Fair Board members: Linda Nelson, Tom Hampstead and Melinda Kostac. A fourth member, James Byrns, shortly before had resigned, leaving the seven-member board with only three members: James Lorenson, who also chairs the county board; Shelley Suckow and Holly Ramme.

Members of both boards believe that disagreements in procedures and conflicts in personality contributed to commissioners’ decision not to back the three Fair Board members who were up for renewal.

It is not yet clear how the now empty seats will be filled as the seven-member county board also will result with four new members as of the new year.

On the bright side, Fair Board members made the best of the necessity to hold this year’s fair at Ironwood’s Pat O’Donnell Civic Center, and county board members have worked steadily toward a number of improvements at the fairgrounds, where everyone expects the 2025 fair to occur.

Insurance is expected to cover the construction of a new 4-H horse barn, a new hay barn and new, portable bleachers. Among other pending progress are structural improvements for the livestock building and the two race horse barns.

New Bessemer staff

The city of Bessemer has seen a complete overhaul of its top staff in the past year.

The changes did not happen all at once and often have resulted in simply shifting existing staff from one position to another.

The most major action occurred on March 13 when the City Council voted to give then-city manager Christopher Frazer 48 hours to resign or be fired.

Councilman Adam Zak said Frazer was not the right “fit” for the city, and Frazer submitted his letter of resignation on March 15.

Frazer had started the job on Nov. 6, 2023, after Jennifer Adams had resigned as city manager after having also carrying for months her previous job as clerk/treasurer.

Just prior to Frazer being hired, Mandy Lake began as clerk/treasurer, and she then also became interim city manager after Frazer left.

Lake first appointed then-secretary Samantha Zacovek as deputy clerk, and Lisa Selin was hired as a utility clerk.

The council then appointed Lake as city manager this fall and, shortly afterward, appointed Zacovec as clerk/treasurer and Selin as deputy clerk.

Having reached a hard-fought happy ending, council members now describe their staff as a dream team.

New sheriff elected

When Gogebic County Sheriff Ross Solberg retires at the end of this year, he will turn over the reins to Undersheriff Jorge Cruz, whom he strongly endorsed as the latter ran for office this year.

The election for sheriff likely was the most closely watched contest leading up to the Nov. 5 election, which saw Gogebic County repeating a rightward lean as it did in the most recent presidential election year of 2020.

Cruz, a Republican from Erwin Township, ran against one of his own coworkers: Democrat Gabe Justinak of Ironwood Township, a corrections officer in the Gogebic County Jail.

The two men probably resulted with more election signage than any other candidate, whether local, state or national.

But there’s was not so much a battle as agreeing to disagree, and the signs — often standing side by side — appeared less like the statements of enemies than a testament to brothers in arms.

In his own election statement published in The Globe, Justinak classily described his opponent as “a good man.”

In the end, Cruz — who received a long list of endorsements from law enforcement officials who lauded his longstanding experience — won the election with 5,136 votes and 69.18% of the votes, beating Justinak, who got 2,263 votes or 30.48%.

Materials Management

Gogebic and Ontonagon counties, by necessity, entered a new era this year when they agreed to join a consortium of other western U.P. counties who now will approach waste management as a team.

The Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region, known by its acronym on WUPPDR, is directing the effort, which was mandated by the state’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

EGLE, moreover, is pushing a broader view of waste management — one that moves away from the former system of county-run solid disposal and exchanges it for regional systems that are more comprehensive in scope, including attention to recycling.

Hurley road work

Since spring, the city of Hurley has undergone extensive utility reconstruction along U.S. 51 and peripheral routes. There is no controversy here, as the project was successful and will be followed next summer by highway paving planned by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

The objective had been to replace sanitary sewer and water utilities, and Jake’s Excavating and Landscaping of Ironwood was the main contractor of the project.

The city experienced further good news in that it now anticipates a new housing project and is working toward facilitating the establishment of a $10 million Cobblestone Inn.