Finlandia downsizing, garbage stickers, and fire truck overhaul

Council members chatting with each other and city residents at the meeting. Photo by Juxta Sprague.

At the meeting, City Manager Mary Babcock updated the council on Make a Difference Day, which has been dubbed as “Deb Mann Day” in honor of the late community figure. A new tree has been planted behind the City of Hancock sign near the Krist Station in honor of Deb Mann as well.

Babcock also explained that a new police millage is on the ballot as current officers are working a lot of overtime to maintain 24-hour service due to a shortage of part-time officers. The city has also finished the search for a new Police Chief and will be hiring Tami Sleeman, a Yooper native, who will start later this year.

Babcock also stated that there are many openings for city boards and commissions including the Zoning Board of Appeals, Board of Review, Rental Board of Appeals, Recreation Commission, and Planning Commission. New garbage stickers have received mixed feedback, though education efforts are underway.

The Fire Chief also gave a brief update about the state of fire fighting vehicles. He recommended doing an overhaul on the aerial truck, as it would take far less time and money to complete a refurbishment on the existing vehicle than to order a new one.  Rough estimates were $300,000 and 3 months to complete a refurbishment compared to $1.6 million and 48 months to deliver a new truck.

Timothy Pinnow, the new president of Finlandia University, gave a short oral presentation to the city council. Finlandia is restructuring to the “reality of being a smaller university” and will be enduring “a lot of painful cuts this year.”

Pinnow expressed that his first five months as Finlandia’s president has been the most challenging of his professional career, though he remains optimistic that the university will soon be in a better position for enacting austerity measures. The total budget has been trimmed by 12% through a number of cuts, including shrinking the employee base and closing the art gallery.

Pinnow also stated that Finlandia will be looking to release some land and buildings as they have more space than they need for their student population of ~400.  Pinnow concluded his presentation by offering help to address any community needs that the city council might identify, and expressed interest in working with the city in the future.

Other Items of Note

• The city sold a 1995 pickup truck to the Houghton County Fair board for $500.

• The recent community recycling program was a success and reached capacity three hours early.

• A homeowner in Spruce Haven is trying to buy an adjacent lot without having to build a home on it as required by Hancock city policy. The city council was made aware of potential aftermarket sales that might have already been in violation of the home building requirement.

• Local teamsters representing employees of the city have submitted a formal request to reopen contract negotiations with the city.

For the love of learning, for all

The Hancock Public School Board meeting on Oct. 17, nearly empty except for school officials, library officials, and reporters. Photo by Sydney Wilmot.

The Hancock Public Schools Board of Education had a sparse audience to their October assembly, in stark contrast to their standing-room-only August meeting. The minutes were passed, the discussion and updates for different projects of the Hancock Public School were presented. Finally, came the time for visitor comments.

There was silence.

Following the principal reports, the approval for the contract with the Portage Lake District Library (PLDL) was then put to a vote. It was recommended by Superintendent Steven Patchin, moved by Board Secretary Michael Lancour and seconded by Trustee Rod Paavlova.

Before it was voted on, information was put forth by Patchin to distinguish it from the previous contract.

“The big thing is the potential membership fee,” he said. “We talked about serving the tax paying community, and it was brought up we were interested in those outside our tax paying community, but there should be a fee just like Portage Lake District Library has on the other side… it came out to a cost of round about $24 per [card].”

This means if a household wants to utilize the Hancock Public School’s library but lives outside the tax paying community that has full access, the household can pay $24 to purchase a library card to check out items.

PLDL Director Katrina Linde-Moriarty explained that some people may wish to buy multiple cards because of the checkout limit. The PLDL circulation policy states 25 items can be checked out on one card.

After the extra information was presented, the partnership was put to a vote. The motion passed unanimously.

The PLDL and Hancock Public Schools will continue their contract until Oct. 31, 2023.

Linde-Moriarty inherited this collaboration after it was created after seeing “that PLDL could help… [and] previously, due to funding structures, it wasn’t feasible to have a librarian in that role or to staff the library at all. It was teacher and volunteer run, so we had the skill set on hand at PLDL to help, and I think we have our work cut out for us moving forward to see [what the] next step in the process would be.”

The library partnership began with a three-year contract with the school that started in Nov. 2018, but was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the partnership, the library was run by teachers and volunteers.

“They only had the plan for it to be a stepping-stone to see if it was possible to either expand the district or to show people within the Hancock School District what a well-staffed library could be and how big of a resource it could be, not only for the students but for all of the residents,” said Linde-Moriarty, who started as PLDL’s director earlier this year.

This vote on the contract is the second amendment made to the agreement to extend the partnership.

In response to being asked about the dissent that was present at the last meeting, Linde-Moriarty said, “I think a better way to talk about [it] would be the misinformation around the situation… what is interesting is there is less than a dozen public school libraries in Michigan. They are mostly in the UP, and mostly in the peninsula, so we are very unique.”

They said the contract the council had just voted on was unique in the state, so there were no models to follow and “a lot of new ground to cover in what that partnership looks like.”

How communication with community stakeholders is handled is one of those things.

“I thought we were doing a pretty decent job about being transparent about the efforts that we were making in administering the library, and then we got different feedback,” Linde-Moriarty said. “So we took in that feedback and analyzed it and worked together with the school district to find solutions to move forward, and really try to recontextualize what our focus is for the future, but we still don’t have the answers, and that’s what I’m looking forward to exploring.”

Find more information on the Hancock school Public Library programs and more here.

Ontonagon Village Council takes a pass on Sen. McBroom Resolution

The Ontonagon Village Council sat in regular session on Oct. 10. Present were President Tony Smydra; Sarah Hopper, President Pro-Tem; Trustees John Hamm, Elmer Marks Jr., Don Chastan, Brittny Penegor, and Mike Rebholz. Also present was Village Manager William DuPont and Clerk Kori Weisinger.       

It is expected that $3.1 million is coming to the village from the State of Michigan, specifically to be used for the MERS obligation, but this money has not yet been received.  State Representative Greg Markkenen (R) and State Senator Ed McBroom (R), have been contacted by the village manager asking for their assistance in receiving these funds. Contact is also being kept with the Michigan Treasury Department. DuPont added that Rep. Markkenen had forwarded some forms to the village which are being filled out.

•  Senate Resolution 150:  A resolution that has been prepared and offered by State Senator Ed McBroom (R) opposing the designation of additional national wilderness designation in the Upper Peninsula.

The issue is that the Environmental Law and Policy Center has asked the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) to request that Congress designate four (4) sites in the Ottawa National Forest as wilderness areas in which there would be no permanent improvements or human habitation (homes or houses).  The U.S. Forest Service has taken no position on this matter at this time.    

Locally, this involves the Ehlco Area of 16,000 acres (just south of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park); the Trap Hills of 25,000 acres (southwest of Rockland between US 45 and M-64); the Norwich Plains of 8,000 acres (northeast of Bergland); and in Baraga County, an addition to the Sturgeon River Gorge of 2,000 acres which comes to a total of 51,000 acres in all.    

The Ontonagon Village Council has been asked to consider going on record as supporting Senator McBroom’s resolution opposing the addition of the above tracts to the NWPS. The Ontonagon County Board of Commissioners has also been asked to take a position supporting opposition to the designation of additional wilderness areas, but the matter was tabled until information from both sides of the matter could be heard. The county commissioners will be considering a vote on this at their meeting on Oct. 18. Those seeking more information should attend this meeting at the Ontonagon County Courthouse at 4 p.m. on Oct. 18.

It should be pointed out that the entire matter is a simple resolution and not binding. The final decision will be made by the US Congress at some point in time. The resolution being considered would only be a matter of expressing local sentiment.

Hopper felt that this matter is something that the village should not become involved as this is not within the purview of the village.

Hamm felt that council should support the resolution for the benefit of those who use ATV’s or wish to use these areas for recreational purposes. He also feels that the Federal Government has enough wilderness land.

Chastan stated his support for Hopper’s position, that the village should not become involved in this matter as it has no direct impact on the village.

Given the availability of more detailed information at the forthcoming county commissioner’s meeting, the village council took no action.

Houghton County COVID-19 timeline

I built a really nice interactive timeline, but Substack won’t let me include it directly in a post or email. More on that later. I’ve added a little teaser image to give you an idea of what it looks like, but to see the whole thing, you’ll have to follow a link.

The timeline marks school openings and closings, potential exposure sites announced by the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department, and a few more things against the backdrop of new, confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Houghton County. With so much happening across different spaces and in such a short time, I thought having things laid out chronologically might help make sense of things a bit better.

Check it out by clicking right here.

I’d like to state clearly that I have not and would not draw any conclusions from this graph. This is an incomplete data set, and not all significant events are included, either. I can add things if you feel like something crucial has been omitted.

This is simply a visualization to help place disparate events in their chronological context, I thought it worked well with the story below on non-pharmaceutical intervention.

I really like building visualizations like this to help people understand stories. I hope you like them, too. I used JS Storyline from Knight Labs at Northwestern University for this one. They provide a suite of free, easy-to-use tools for storytelling.

History’s relics still reside beneath the surface of the Keweenaw Waterway

Adrienne Newman learned about local shipwreck research while watching her neighbor’s garage burn down. She ran into another neighbor and friend, Captain Stephen Roblee, while viewing the scene.

“And he’s like, ‘Hey, I’m doing this shipwreck research, and I’m wondering--I need somebody to help me with social media content and basically marketing communications. Do you know anybody?” Newman said.

Newman had been doing a mentorship in marketing communications, and just the day before had told herself she’d learn about sailing as a new interest and way of meeting new people and exploring the community. Shipwreck research was completely “off the radar” at the time, but it was close enough to sailing for her.

“I was like, ‘Heck yeah, let me in’,” Newman said. “So I really knew nothing about the world prior to that. I’ve lived in the Keweenaw for 20 years. I didn’t even go boating prior to that. I didn’t know the water.”

Roblee is a professor retired from Michigan Technological University, and used to sail a Tartan 34.

“And I sailed that, mostly single-handed, all over the Great Lakes,” Roblee said.

MTU’s video about how the Agassiz is used.

He got trained and certified as a captain to pilot a commercial boat with the support of MTU, and he’s been the captain of the R/V Agassiz, which operates out of MTU’s Great Lake Research Center, for fifteen years. 

His independent shipwreck hunting is a more recent development.

“Everybody uses the word shipwreck and I have been using it, too,” Roblee said. “But in the Keweenaw Waterway, there are very few shipwrecks, but many, many, many, many abandoned vessels.”

Roblee said a shipwreck is the result of an accident, and injury and death are at risk. Many of the vessels in the Keweenaw Waterway were simply abandoned to what fate befell them. Sometimes a fire or a mechanical failure causes them to be left moored until they sink, as was the case with the Sea Fox.

“There are many boats and vessels in here for one reason or another,” Roblee said. “And over time all those boats get abandoned.”

From Brendon Baillod’s collection, parts of which are online at Baillod.com. Used with permission.

In 2019, Roblee and the Agassiz were part of a GLRC team that conducted a wide-area search with side-scan sonar to try and find a location for the Cerisoles and Inkerman shipwrecks. They are two French minesweepers that were lost in a November 1918 storm in the deep waters of Lake Superior while on their maiden voyage. 

The team scanned roughly miles of Lake Superior’s bottom with side-scan sonar. Side-scan sonar works similar to a fish finder, but rather than pointing straight down from a boat, it images to either side of a torpedo-shaped “fish” that gets dragged behind the boat. It’s focused on scanning the ground rather than for fish in the water. 

MTU runs R/V Agassiz as a self-sustaining enterprise.

“And that means somebody is going to pay for it,” Roblee said. “And usually, nobody is interested in paying for shipwrecks.”

Roblee said the week-long search for the minesweepers cost $10,000, and was funded largely through crowdsourcing. Most shipwreck hunters--even the experts--are enthusiasts, not getting paid but doing the work out of curiosity and passion.

Through the summer of 2020, Newman and Roblee went out frequently to scan for and observe vessels at the bottom of the Keweenaw Waterway in Roblee’s private vessel, a 22-foot C-Dory, with a small, inexpensive side-scan unit. Roblee says side-scan units can range in cost from $700 to $150,000. 

To augment Roblee’s own search equipment, GLRC’s Christopher Pinnow, an electronics and computer engineer, has lent his technical expertise and some equipment on loan from GLRC to Roblee’s summer work. Pinnow is also a sailing enthusiast with a small boat, and worked with MTU on a shipwreck hunting project in Thunder Bay, a marine sanctuary in Lake Huron, using unmanned vehicles to document two shipwrecks.

A side-scan image taken by the GLRC’s IVER3 during work Christopher Pinnow helped with in Thunder Bay. The black stripe in the center of the image in the water column directly below the IVER3 as it moves, and the shadow it casts to either side helps define 3-dimensional objects. Researchers believe this to be the wooden bulk carrier Ohio, which sank in 1894. (Image courtesy of MTU’s GLRC)

Roblee and Pinnow each have their expertise and tend to focus closely on their duties of making sure the people and equipment are safe and operational. The side-scan sonar equipment and Remote Operated Vehicles require constant monitoring when in use to make sure they’re operating well and not in any danger of getting tangled, snagged or damaged.

This means Newman fulfills an important role by being available for a variety of other tasks.

“I have helped hold the [ROV’s] umbilical line, which is like the connection between the camera and the device that we use to navigate,” Newman said. “I help drop the anchor, I keep track of where the camera is…”

The umbilical line, or tether, is made of a heavy PVC-like material, with woven Kevlar underneath that, protecting the cables within that carry data. Pinnow said it’s more like a really long, formed cylinder than a rope. If it gets broken or cut, it’s not really repairable.

Underwater ROV’s always have an umbilical, because radio waves don’t propagate well through water. This makes the transmission necessary to send video, data, or guidance information, impossible via radio between the vehicle and operator.

A short video from MTU about the IVER3 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle.

This also means no GPS signals for the unmanned vehicles like IVER3 that Pinnow works with on projects like in Thunder Bay.

“You can talk to them over radio when they're there on the surface,” Pinnow said.

Once floating on the surface IVER3 can send telemetry and receive commands wirelessly, but once they dive, all contact is lost until they resurface. So the UAV navigates with a magnetic compass and gyroscopes to measure inertia and establish orientation.

“So that means it can feel as it gets shoved around by the currents and stuff like that. Just by inertia,” Pinnow said.

For their work in the Keweenaw Waterway, the group uses a much smaller unit than the IVER3, a ROV called the Trident.

Newman has had a chance to “drive” the Trident, too. It’s controlled with something very similar to a Playstation controller, with a large screen in the center.

“I have a 15-year-old and we play video games together and I was like, ‘This is amazing,’” Newman said. “Like, the time I spent with my son is helping me on this new project.”

Newman also helps keep track of where the boat is in relationship to shore. This can be important because the sidescan sonar is used while the boat is moving, so after spotting something on the sonar, the boat still has to turn back to try and more accurately pinpoint the location.

“So I’m just an extra set of eyes, and backup,” Newman said.

Roblee said that an extra set of eyes can help a lot. Spotting something on the bottom once can be luck. Because side-scan sonar produces an image that’s disconnected with the boat’s position, it often takes multiple passes to be sure of anything’s location despite GPS and other location technology.

“When you're dealing with a space that you can only see tangentially, it's not actually very simple,” Newman said. “It's like it disappears. You know, it's a little bit like a mirage.”

Even with an ROV under the surface, visibility can be as short as 4 feet in turbid water, so even finding something you know is there can be challenging, let alone something you’re unsure of. An extra set of sharp eyes to pick up on details that might help realign the boat, or guide the ROV operator, can make the difference between success and failure.

“I like to have someone you know, like shoulder surfing, right?” Pinnow said. “Because there might be things that you see that can help you stay oriented as well.”

Anchor lines, big rocks, and other features can help the operator navigate, and keeping track of what side they’re passed on can help avoid tangling the tether on the ROV’s trip back to the boat.

On July 4, 2020, Roblee, Pinnow and Newman were joined by Brendon Baillod. Baillod grew up around the Keweenaw Waterway, though he now lives in Wisconsin. 

“I cut my teeth up there on the waterway, when I was a young man, in the 1970s and 80s, identifying many of the early sites up there” Baillod said.

The Sea Fox was one of his early finds. He regularly posts his research finds to Facebook.

Click here to go to Baillod’s Facebook post to view the photos.

He said he’s found everything from old industrial sites and copper ingots to dugout canoes and antique snowmobiles on the bottom of the Keweenaw Waterway.

“Things like the ingots and like these historical artifacts on the bottom are prohibited from illegal recovery because they are now in a national park,” Baillod said.

Baillod said the focus is on finding and documenting the wrecks and telling their history, not recovering artifacts or “getting rich.”

“There's no money to be had in it,” he said “A lot of money spent on it.”

Baillod is a widely-recognized expert on the history of Great Lakes shipping and shipwrecks now, and serves on the board of the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association. He has an immense personal collection of photographs, artifacts and other shipwreck information. 

“I have a huge collection,” Baillod said. “Largest private collection of Great Lakes antiquities, private or public, in the world.”

For the last two years, he’s hosted Great Lakes Shipwrecks LIVE, a livestreaming interview show with other experts and shipwreck hunters. One page on his website focuses on the wrecks of the Keweenaw Underwater Preserve and the Keweenaw Waterway, with documentation of over 30 wrecks.

Click here to see the full Facebook post and images.

“To be out on the water with Brendon Baillod is a real treat, because he’s a historian,” Newman said.

Roblee played hockey with Baillod and worked with his father, and reconnected with him through Facebook, where Baillod hosts a group, Great Lakes Shipwreck Research. It’s a private group of shipwreck researchers and enthusiasts with well over 3,000 members.

“And he’s real good with diving, and also high-tech hardware,” Roblee said. “But the thing he’s most known for is… archaeology aspects in the searches. He’s a search master. He’s a master of information related to shipwrecks.”

While surveying a different sunken barge in the Keweenaw Waterway that day, the group spotted something else on the sonar. It looked like a small vessel of about 25 feet.

“Brendon, because he is an expert, was able to say ‘This is unknown. We don’t know this thing,’” Newman said.

Pinnow sent down the GLRC’s Trident to take a closer look with a camera. The group’s find looks like a wooden Victorian-era private pleasure vessel, which Baillod announced on his Facebook later that week.

Click here to visit Baillod’s Facebook post and see the photos.

For now, they don’t plan on releasing any more details, including the location, of this new find.

The wrecks in Lake Superior are protected by the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, and many of the wrecks in the Keweenaw Waterway are within the territory of the National Park Service, who thus owns them.

“Those that are not, are owned by the nearest riparian landowner,” Baillod said.

He said often those landowners don’t care, but if they are preservation-minded, Baillod likes to work with them on a stewardship agreement for the site. Otherwise, he at least likes to document them before releasing the location to anyone else.

“I always report them to the state underwater archaeologist or the state historic preservation officer for the state or province in which they lie,” Baillod said.

He’ll report his finds to the NPS if they lie within a park, and he said the “gold standard” is to get a significant wreck added to the National Register of Historic Places.

What Baillod and many shipwreck hunters want to avoid is allowing someone to pull the wrecks out of the water “and make letter openers out of them”.

“There’s a long history of making shipwreck furniture on the Great Lakes,” he said.

When Baillod’s friend and shipwreck-hunting colleague Jim Kennard discovered the HMS Ontario, a ship lost on Lake Ontario in 1780, he contacted the British Navy. They still own it under Admiralty law, and the ship is also the gravesite for many sailors. Kennard signed a non-disclosure agreement with the British Navy concerning the location of the wreck to protect it from salvagers and potential vandalism.

“The US military and the military of any country never abandons a site or a vessel or an airplane, any of their property,” Baillod said.

If the Cerisoles and Inkerman are found, they will belong to the French government.

French minesweepers at dock, possibly the Cerisoles and Inkerman. (City of Thunder Bay Archives via wikimedia)

Stumbling upon something entirely unknown can be exciting, because most of the time shipwreck hunters don’t go out on the water until they know what they’re looking for, and have an idea of where to find it.

“When we want to find a ship, we construct a search grid based on primary source material, usually eyewitness accounts or newspaper microfilm accounts,” Baillod said. “And debris sightings.”

Newman said the preparatory work is a lot like getting ready to paint. The more carefully you prepare, boxing in your search area and preparing the right tools, the easier the job is once you begin.

Pinnow also said that people sometimes get the wrong idea about shipwreck hunting because of what they see on television.

“If you're used to the National Geographic kind of point of view… the sun is shining and, the research vessel is plowing through the water and people are standing around with sunglasses eating sandwiches. That’s not it,” he said.

He said it can be cold on the boat, and between preparatory work, traveling to the site, searching and documentation, and then the return trip, some of the days can get long, too.

“Some of this work is extremely time consuming,” he said. “A lot of it’s not even spent on a boat.” 

Once the search area is as narrow as possible, a team can start “painting the bottom” with the side-scan sonar. Baillod said the data is viewed live, but also saved to be reviewed and analyzed more closely later.

“Oftentimes, we’re shooting out, you know, sometimes a quarter of a mile on each side, we’re painting a half-mile wide swath of the bottom,” Baillod said. “So a small vessel is easy to miss.”

In the Keweenaw Waterway, where they know there is a lot of industrial debris, they can use a higher-frequency sonar, and they only cover about a 300-foot swath.

Because of emerging technology, Baillod thinks all the wrecks of the Great Lakes will be found within the next twenty years, and that’s not a small statement. 

“The Great Lakes have more wrecks per square mile than anyplace else in the world,” Baillod said.

He said there used to be 40,000 commercial vessels alone on the Great Lakes, and roughly 8,000 of them have been lost.

One shipwreck hunter, Jerry Eliason, used magnetic anomaly data he obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request to uncover the location of the Henry B. Smith in 2013.

Baillod said the same strategy could be used to find other significant steel wrecks on the Great Lakes.

Side-scan equipped AUV’s similar to the IVER3 are also being deployed by enthusiasts in some places, and can be used more easily than regular side-scan in deep water, because they don’t depend on a boat being steady on the surface. Baillod said the boat can’t be moving more than about 2 feet.

“If the boat is rocking, and that fish is cavitating, you lose your resolution of the bottom,” Baillod said. “You can't see it.”

There’s also a possibility of using a ROV during the winter, while the waterway is covered in ice. This would eliminate the unsteadiness of the boat and the difficulty of keeping it positioned. But working on the ice is not without its own drawbacks.

“There's a lot of computers and stuff involved that-- we can't really use them in the snow very well,” Pinnow said.

It’s also not known how current side-scan technology would handle the acoustic reflections of the ice.

Roblee is recruiting people now for a week-long shipwreck exploration experience in summer of 2022. Participants will work with the crew of the Agassiz to document wrecks in both the Keweenaw Waterway and Lake Superior, using side-scan and MTU’s larger ROV, an Outland 1000. Registration has not been announced and the total cost will be $1,500 per person.

Editor’s note: This story has been edited with updated information on Roblee’s summer of 2022 program, and for technical detail.

Claw and Order

The increasing stray cat population in Houghton County is an invisible issue tackled by the Copper Country Humane Society (CCHS) and Keweenaw Spay and Neuter Assistance Group (KSNAG). Domesticated cats living outdoors are often considered an invasive species, as they can cause significant damage to the ecosystem.

Stray cats have been an issue in the area since CCHS first formed in 1974. These cats kill billions of birds and small mammals in the US annually, according to this study from Nature Communications. A stray cat was defined by Rebecca Brink (Assistant Manager of CCHS) as a “any cat that’s out roaming, especially outside of [the owner’s] property… Technically, even if they have a home, if they’re just out roaming, I would still consider them a stray.”

A roaming cat still has significant impact on the ecosystem, even if they aren’t hunting to eat.

This is ‘Sprinkles’ who recently passed through the Copper Country Humane Society. Photo by Sydney Wilmot.

Dawn VerBerkmoes, the woman running KSNAG, has a set of questions that must be answered to define a cat as a stray: How long has the cat been there? Does it look thin and bedraggled? Check with your neighbors first, has anyone moved in the neighborhood? If the cat looks healthy and well-fed, it most likely has a home. 

If a person who calls about a stray cannot take in the cat, then a volunteer from KSNAG will retrieve it. KSNAG advertises they have the cat and call the CCHS to see if anyone has called looking for the same one. They also check if the cat is microchipped. Only after four days of being unclaimed is it considered a stray, and can be put up for adoption. Though there are a few who may feed strays or build them a warm place for the winter, the responsibility of finding these cats a good home remains solely on the CCHS and KSNAG.

Brink said that outdoor cats often have shorter life spans: “Disease, wildlife attacking, domestic cats attacking, a lot of dogs don’t like cats, and cruel people… you would be surprised at some of the things people say they will do to cats and actually follow through with if they are on their property.”

VerBerkmoes said that when she first started in 1975,  “People were taking newborn kittens and… putting them in plastic bags and throwing them at the dump… there would be a man that kinda managed the dump, and if he heard kittens crying or heard something, he’d bring them to us. But usually they were too far gone to save.”

She continues to say that it has gotten better, especially with the decrease in euthanasia at shelters. Both VerBerkmoes and Brink mentioned an increase in abandoned kittens this year, and they both stated it was likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic that caused vets to restrict their visitors and appointments. They said it was likely the cats people got during quarantine couldn’t get spayed, or they wanted the cat to have a litter of kittens. If or when the cat got pregnant, the kittens were abandoned when homes couldn’t be found for them, and they ended up dead or at the shelter. 

Both Brink and VerBerkmoes said that strays often use children’s sandboxes as litter boxes, which puts children at risk for illness. There is also disease that is shared between stray cats. 

“There’s two diseases with cats that roam,” VerBerkmoes said. “One is feline leukemia. The other is… Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, which is FIV, and that’s cat AIDS… It’s usually unneutered males living outside that fight, and when they fight, that’s how the disease is transmitted through bodily fluids.”

She said if there is an unneutered male roaming on people’s porches that spray, it can make the house cats upset and start wetting and spraying inside. House cats who are allowed to roam also cause an unbalance in the ecosystem. They do not have the need to hunt for food, but still drag home their prey. In some places, they have even caused species to go extinct. 

It is a tragic story that is common among stray cats in the Upper Peninsula, as there is no animal control to pick them up. Police and sheriffs will pick up wandering or stray dogs, but not cats. It’s a misconception that cats can fend for themselves easily in the wild, or that elderly animals wander off to die alone. Often, they end up at the shelter with nobody looking for them. Some places with mild climates have cat colonies, but the long, harsh winters up here frequently result in the death of cats and kittens without a home.

The author’s own cat, Luna Lovegood, adopted from the Copper Country Humane Society. Photo by Sydney Wilmot.

If a stray cat is found, contact CCHS. The quickest reply is on Facebook, but you can call (906) 487-9560 and leave a message, or email contactus@cchumanesociety.com. Include the location you found it, and a description/photo of the cat. CCHS will post the information on Facebook and Instagram. If you cannot take in the cat until the owner is found or comes forward, make arrangements to bring the cat into the shelter. If you bring the cat in, you will fill out a form to inform them where the cat was found.

Ontonagon Village Council fills two seats

The Ontonagon Village Council met on Feb. 22 and the headline of the meeting was to fill two vacancies on the council. It is a story unto itself how the vacancies occurred. Prior to the November 2020 election, Trustee Michael G. Mogan announced plans to leave the community and resigned his seat as of the end of the year. This left a partial term available and Jessica Huntzinger filed for election. After the deadline for filing Robert “Skip” Schulz filed as a write-in candidate for the same seat. Huntzinger was elected by a landslide with Schulz receiving fewer than 40 votes, however Huntzinger had a change in employment plans (she is a traveling nurse) and though she was sworn in to serve, she resigned her new seat. Schulz almost immediately started a campaign to be appointed to the vacant seat as the only other candidate who had run. The village council, however, has a policy to advertise the vacancy and then appoint whomever fills the qualifications and is recommended by the personnel committee. 

Schulz applied, and in his letter of application stated and charged, “While I highly doubt I will be appointed as I agree with many citizens in our Community that the resignation of Ms. Huntzinger was known BEFORE the election in a way for the Council to appoint one of their friends....”.   Schulz had unsuccessfully run for council on two previous occasions. Schulz is a reporter for the Daily Mining Gazette.

There were two other applicants, Mike Rebholz and Michael G; Mogan, who had changed his plans to leave the area and applied for his old seat.

Also to be filled was the unexpired term of Maureen Guzek, publisher and editor of the Ontonagon Herald, who passed away unexpectedly in January following heart surgery.

The council appointed Rebholz and Mogan to the two vacancies, based on the recommendation of the personnel committee.

 Other council business included a review of the village audit, a discussion regarding the needed repairs to a walkway approach to the east pier at the harbor, and adoption of a resolution reinforcing support for the pension liability for former employees of the Ontonagon Memorial Hospital, which is now operated as Aspirus Ontonagon Hospital.  The pension costs have risen radically and now consume over half of the general fund revenue of the Village.

Original Comments:

Joshua

The thanks really belongs to Bruce! He pestered me about including Ontonagon, and when I explained how difficult that would be for me, he started sending in the stories, too.

Susan

Thanks for covering Ontonagon.

UPPCO, L’Anse star in Goliath v. David

The Upper Peninsula Power Company has filed with the Michigan Supreme Court over the appeal on a case first heard by Judge Charles Goodman in Baraga County Circuit Court. UPPCO lost their case against the Village of L’Anse, wherein they asserted the village was stealing their customers through unlawful means, and denying a franchise unreasonably.

If this case mystifies you a little, you are not alone. Judge Amy Ronayne Krause from the Court of Appeals said the case was interesting but “a little bit complicated” during the oral arguments.

UPPCO sued L’Anse in August of 2018, after being informed their non-exclusive franchise to serve customers in the Dynamite Hill industrial area of L’Anse was not to be renewed. The franchise had a 30-year term. The village was willing and able to serve those customers on the municipal grid at a lower rate, which it was not able to do previously when it annexed the area.

UPPCO lawyers argued that ending the franchise was arbitrary, and that the municipality couldn’t do it without citing a reason, like a health or safety concern. They alleged that L’Anse village officials were behaving dishonestly in order to strip UPPCO of customers, with help from WPPI Energy, who L’Anse contracts with for services.

The Daily Mining Gazette reported in October 2018 that three customers, L’Anse Manufacturing, Collins Brothers Sawmill, and the village water tower, had been switched to the village power supply already. President of L’Anse Manufacturing, Mark Massicotte, said the village power costs were lower and lend a competitive edge to his business. He had worked with UPPCO for twelve years, but requested a transfer to village power in 2016.

The DMG also reported that the village agreed not to switch any more customers over until the trial concluded. That was 28 months ago.

After UPPCO filed two amended complaints days before scheduled court appearances, they eventually lost the case in June of 2019. They filed an appeal the following July, which was decided, again against UPPCO, in November 2020.

If you’ve never been in a courtroom, or if you’re into courtroom drama, the oral arguments are worth listening to. They’re available on the Michigan courts website. The clerk opens with some announcements, and then you have Jason T. Hanselman representing UPPCO, Peter H. Ellsworth representing the Village of L’Anse, and Judges Jansen, Hood and Krause asking questions.

If you aren’t into hearing the entire thing, listen to Ellsworth’s final statement. Other than blatant use of metaphor like “declared war”, I can’t disagree with his statements, based on available evidence. I have read the Bundo and Delmarva cases, too. Of course, I am not a judge or lawyer, either.

And he points out the importance of this case. If municipalities can’t end a franchise with UPPCO, then what choice do consumers have?

I’ll share the entire opinion from the appellate judges, but I think the crux of the issue is really on the last page.

Hope isn’t admissible in court. Here’s the rest of the judge’s opinion.

Twelve wind turbines planned for Houghton County

Twelve wind turbines are being planned for locations in Stanton and Adams Townships, southwest of Houghton. The project, named Scotia Wind, is being developed by Circle Power, a small company based in southern Michigan.

Circle Power is picking up a project that Farm Wind Energy attempted in 2015, but later abandoned. The Scotia Wind turbines are planned for locations that comply with the Adams Township ordinances, whereas Farm Wind Energy was pressing the township to change the ordinance in a way that would allow them to put a turbine on top of Whealkate Bluff, and other locations closer to residences.

“He wasn’t an experienced developer, and he didn’t necessarily understand how people might react,” Jordan Roberts, co-founder of Circle Power, said.

Roberts said about the only thing they took from the previous project was the wind measurement data that they had. He said that Circle Power is trying to be better about engaging with the township, too.

“We were there on a monthly basis,” he said. “Prior to, you know, the coronavirus situation.”

The Adams Township ordinance requires that turbines be set back at least 3,000 feet from the nearest property line, and that sound levels at the nearest property line cannot exceed 55 decibels. The average refrigerator makes about 55 decibels of sound when it is running. The Scotia Wind project is being developed to be on active timberland land, owned by Lake Superior Timberlands, LLC.

This is a screenshot from “The Wind Prospector” a site run by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. It shows the area where the turbines will be built is in the light green area, which is labeled as “6.5 to 7 m/s” on the legend. Dark green and blue have speeds reduced at .5 m/s intervals.

Stanton Township does not yet have a wind ordinance, but is working on developing and passing one. Township supervisor John Mattila said it will probably look quite similar to the Adams Township ordinance, as they intend to use it as a template.

Below is a copy of the Adams Township Wind Turbine Power Generation Ordinance, and an application. the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines” the ordinance refers to are available here.

Circle Power has not filed for permits with the township yet. Roberts said that they will engage with the permit process once they’re ready.

“We’ve been doing environmental surveys for several years,” Roberts said. “You know, birds, wetlands, our wind studies, are ongoing.”

At the Adams Township meeting on Monday, Christopher Moore, another Circle Power co-founder, shared a map that showed the routes of roads that would need to be constructed or improved to build the turbines. Township officials said it would be shared online, but is not yet available on their website. This is a screen capture from the Zoom meeting.

The turbine’s access road would initially follow the path of the ATC transmission line, before splitting to reach the turbines.

Roberts said he believed there would be “significant” tax generation for the local municipalities and schools, but wasn’t ready to release any numbers. He said they would be supplied to the townships first.

Paperwork filed with the American Transmission Company shows the turbines Scotia Wind is planned to use are Siemens Gamesa 5.0-145 (Type 3) turbines, which have a total height, including blade length, of about 808 feet. The project is intended to generate a maximum of just under 40 megawatts of renewable energy. Agreements for that energy have already been signed by UPPCO.

The introduction of turbines in Houghton County will not impact electric rates for nearby residents. Rates are set through a process through the Michigan Public Service Commission.

“We understand the issue of rates in the area,” Roberts said. “We’re not involved in the rate-making process...”

During the controversy surrounding the now-abandoned Summit Lake Wind Project by RES in L’Anse Township, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Tribal Council passed a resolution opposing wind energy generation within their ceded territory.

Moore has met with the Tribal Council and other individuals from the KBIC to discuss the impacts and concerns of the project, according to Jeffrey Loman. Loman was involved in protesting the construction of the Summit Lake Wind Farm, but thinks it’s unlikely the turbines in Houghton County will be halted.

On the other hand, Roberts said it will likely be a while before construction can begin.

“We think this is a great location for a wind farm, and we think a bunch of the pieces are falling in place,” Roberts said. “But it’s certainly not a done deal.”

Comments on original story

Daryl Self

Don't you dare destroy that beautiful landscape with bird choppers.

Bill manderfield

Wind is bad, it takes more energy than it gives. They claim to pay taxes but they always find loopholes and don't pay any property tax. I live here I don't want windmills churning at all hours of the day and night. They kill birds constantly and the windmills will not lower anyone's bills. People think about this and fight.

Paul Maki

Wind and Solar are the future for our energy needs. Utilities that promote renewable energy are able to promote lower rates in the end.

Ontonagon village president questioned about firing of village manager

In a brief question and answer session, Ontonagon Village President Tony Smydra addressed questions surrounding the firing of Village Manager Joe Erickson.

Q) The Feb. 25 special meeting of the village council was called in something of a hurry with a posting only at the village offices. What precipitated calling a meeting on such short notice?   

 Smydra: “I called for a special meeting because it was discovered that the final payment for the Marina Dredging grant had not been received.  To receive the payment, the village would have to pass a resolution and agree to sign a contract extension.  I did not feel it was wise to wait for two weeks for a regular Council meeting to address the matter.”

Q) The posted agenda only mentioned one item, Marina Grant and other related issues.  How did this come to include the firing of the Village Manager on such short notice? 

Smydra: “After we passed the resolution and agreed to the contract extension with the DNR, there was a discussion on what happened – What was the reason the village had not received the final payment?  As a result of the discussion, it had become clear that Mr. Erickson had not submitted the required paperwork.  As he was the responsible party and the potential financial implications to the village, his employment was terminated”.  

Q) Did former Village Manager, Joe Erickson, have any intimation that this special meeting would end with his termination? 

 Smydra: “I wouldn’t think so as no one would have had any such intimation.  His termination was a result of the discussion that followed the passing of the resolution and the extension of the contract.” 

Q) The final vote was split, with three votes to fire the Manager and two votes against. Obviously, there was some reluctance on the part of two trustees to take this action. In view of the fact that you had only five out of seven council members present, it seemed that this decision was being made in something of a hurry, however, there seemed to be no real effort on the part of the dissenting trustees to table action on the firing until two new trustees are seated in March. Comment, please?  

 Smydra: “Currently, our council consists of four trustees and myself.  Two additional council members will be seated on March 8th. To conduct any business, a quorum of four council members is required.  We had a quorum and conducted business with 5 members as we have done since Maureen Guzek’s passing.  Nothing was done “in a hurry.”  We addressed a situation as it unfolded before us.” 

Q) We have been given to understand that Mr. Erickson’s termination was on the basis of his mismanagement of an MDNR grant that is paying for the dredging of the Ontonagon Village Marina.  Specifically, how many dollars did this involve and will the village be able to recoup these grant funds? 

 Smydra: “If my memory is correct, it was something in the range of $134,000.  Yes, the village will recoup those funds.  That was the purpose of the resolution and the contract extension.  We now have until December 31, 2021, to submit the required paperwork to secure those grant funds.” 

Q) It must be clarified for our readers:  is Mr. Erickson under suspicion of any criminal mishandling of Village funds? 

 Smydra: “Oh, goodness, no!  I am not aware of any allegations of that nature.  The action on the part of the village council was simply a direct response to a specific situation related to the marina dredging grant.  We will be getting those funds once the village submits the appropriate paperwork.”