Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By STEVE NEWMAN
Ironwood — Bob Jacquart couldn’t hold back his excitement for the $10 million in funding to help renovate Copper Peak that was included in the state’s budget bill passed early Friday morning.
“We’re happy with what the state did, it’s pretty special,” he said. The state budget includes grants for a variety of Upper Peninsula projects, including grants for $1 million for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to create 10 jobs in Gogebic County, $1.5 million for Waupaca Foundry to open a plant in Ironwood, $2 million for a facility for teaching skilled trades for Gogebic Community College and the lion’s share of a $10 million appropriation for renovating Copper Peak.
According to Marty Fittante, chief of staff to outgoing State Sen. Tom Casperson, there was a concerted effort among U.P. legislators to go to bat for Gogebic County, especially after the announcement of the closing of Ojibway Correctional Facility in Marenisco. While they recognize the investments won’t replace the 200 jobs at Ojibway, Fittante felt they were a “big step” for the area.
Many of these projects are seen as “public-private partnerships,” meaning that private entities also will have to put their own funds into completing the projects.
According to Jacquart, the Copper Peak grant is shared with Pine Mountain Ski Resort near Iron Mountain.
The $10 million in funds will be distributed by the Great Lakes Sports Commission, according to Fittante, and will be distributed proportionately to the size of the project. Since Copper Peak’s project is much larger than Pine Mountain’s, it is expected to get most of the funds. According to Jacquart, Copper Peak will continue to need to do fund-raising to complete its project.
The grant for GCC is for providing a facility to train for skilled trades. Fittante pointed to work done by GCC President Erik Guenard and the college to identify a need for this kind of training in the area. The college will need to put up to $500,000 of its own funds in partnership to get the project off the ground.
Fittante said MDNR director Keith Creagh spearheaded the drive for funding for locating up to 10 DNR employees in Gogebic County. While it is not 100 percent clear of their duties at this point, the expectation is that all 10 would be based in the county, whether they work in the Porcupine Mountains or are administrative staff doing remote work for the state.
The grant for Waupaca Foundry had already been announced and was finalized in the budget, seen as a big victory. Fittante said U.P. legislators were all focused on “finding wins” for the area.
State Rep. Scott Dianda, D-Calumet, said, “while it took a long time to get us here, I am proud to say that the supplemental budget we approved will be one of the most economically impactful pieces of legislation for the U.P. in decades.”
Other U.P. grants in the budget bill included around $52 million for the Soo Locks, $30 million for Michigan Tech University’s H-STEM outlay project, $20.1 million for Northern Michigan University, $1 million for the Delta County Conservation District and $3 million for Buffalo Reef remediation.
