Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
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To write or not to write; to print or not to print, that is a very big question recently. Many schools no longer teach children to write in cursive, but are teaching instead to print. That program has been ongoing for several years and each year more schools are choosing printing over cursive. The subject became a hot one on my radio show and even in an informal discussion I had after a recent school board meeting. When I registered my dismay that cursive is no longer taught, one man added, “We no longer teach Latin because it is a dead l...
To the Editor: I call it the Water Tower Bluff, it’s the one next to Bessemer Bluff, and the area the city of Bessemer is considering selling to private interests. In the winter the snowshoe trails are beautiful. It is a magical place and I know because I snow shoe in there often, sometimes every day. I make the trails. So does someone else. I’ve never seen the other trail maker but I enjoy those trails, too. I snowshoe with my friends and neighbors. I have taken people from Chicago, Milwaukee, Marshfield, Escanaba and other cities sno...
To the Editor: Recently, my children and I attended an honorable remembrance of the B-47 Crash Site Memorial. At the service, I met some of the family members who came quite a distance to participate. I also felt honored to meet a few of the B-47 Crash Site committee members. This unique experience had a positive influence on my kids, those who attended with our family, and on me. Having attended a number of veterans memorial events with my family, I know these events can often be very emotional. Yet, some memorials are sure to stand out in...
To the Editor: Ross Perot talked about the giant sucking sound about jobs if NAFTA, the free trade agreement, was passed. With the help of Bill Clinton, it did get passed. Clinton won the election and tried to ridicule the statement made by Perot about the giant sucking sound taking jobs to Mexico. Clinton said, “Look, we are selling Mexico more than they are selling us.” That was only half the story, we were selling them machinery and setting up their companies and training their workers to take our jobs away. Look at where your stoves, ref...
To the Editor: In review of our Michigan Department of Natural Resources game biologists, I am sorely dismayed at how they have managed our wildlife populations, especially deer and turkey populations. We have had two killer winters that took 50 percent of our deer and turkeys and a wolf population that is basically not managed but rivals most Canadian provinces per square mile. Meanwhile, our biologists continue not to make any adjustments in harvest quotas or shortening of season dates. The two buck per year has degraded the age class of our...
To the editor: Pride reigns strong in our community once again. This was evident when the B-47 Veterans Memorial was dedicated on June 27, along with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the crash site on June 28. Family members of the deceased airmen, invited dignitaries, veterans and community members chose to take part in this grassroots, all-volunteer endeavor, which is now a state official tourist veterans attraction, as well as a Wisconsin Veterans Administration official designated Veterans Memorial. All of this was coordinated by Curt Myers, a...
To the Editor: On Friday, June 20, Houghton Judge Charles Goodman ruled to remove the consolidation vote from the August primary election. His decision was no surprise; it was a certainty before the marathon hearing began. The more surprising information came from Superintendent Dave Radovich’s incredulous comments after the hearing. He attempted to spin the sustained effort by the Bessemer School Board to block consolidation and the resultant voter fallout with confusing remarks. Note Radovich’s comments. A June 21 Daily Globe article rep...
To the Editor: In regard to the consolidation issue, we need to vote on it, for or against it. Many mistakes were made in the process of drafting and circulating the petition, but the intention was in the right. Those who are opposed to it may fall into two categories. They are afraid it would pass or they are afraid their financing isn’t in order if it does. Some may have personal reasons. This is a time when the electorate has to have its say. This question has to be decided by the majority of voters, not by self-serving individuals. L...
To the Editor: For nine seasons I have enjoyed watching “America’s Got Talent,” or AGT — until June 17. AGT is billed as a family show, but the audition of 12-year-old Josh Orlian as a “stand-up comedian” ruined that image. The sixth grade boy recited “jokes” that were all of sexual nature. For this to be allowed and then to be given four “yes” votes by the judges is disheartening. An older person reciting such garbage would have been viewed as perverted. So why was this child given applause and the opportunity to perform again? Is this the...
All the activities this week were done on “Tucker Time.” Tucker Time means don’t look at your watch, if we say dinner at 6, it means anywhere from 6 to 8! It has been a wonderful week at our house. All the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were here. It was our annual reunion, a little earlier than usual. Normally everyone comes home in July, but this year granddaughter Megan was married to Matt Hagen and we pushed up the reunion date. Our prayers for good weather were at least one-half answered. On the first day the large tent...
To the Editor: Bessemer Principal Daniel Vander Velden’s June 13 letter to the editor regarding the condition of our schools fails to discuss the elephant in the room. That is, the state’s education dashboard, mischooldata.org, has a detailed accounting of the Bessemer Area Schools’ deficiencies, both financial and academic. In fact, we’re on the state’s radar for academic and financial deficiencies. When citizens debunk the school board’s and superintendent’s claims of academic glory with facts to the contrary, facts from the state’s accou...
To the Editor: The Hurley School District has finished up another successful year. We have graduated another talented group of young men and women. We look forward to seeing our next group cross the stage in 2015. At this time of year I think it’s appropriate to look back and reflect on all that goes on within our four walls here and in our community. I see a student body that has historically been the benefactor of a great school board, staff and a great community that has surrounded us and supported us. Hurley has a school board that’s wil...
To the Editor: In recent letters to the editor, it is quite clear that Michael Korpela’s and William Hill’s highly negative attacks on the Bessemer schools are extreme. Korpela’s letter states that the data from the Michigan Education Department website mischooldata.com provides accurate information regarding the pros and cons of consolidation. This is misleading. The website provides data regarding school enrollment, test scores and special education reports. Nowhere does it mention the pros and cons of consolidation. Concerned citizens are e...
To the Editor: Only a fool is sure, but given the fact that it did not snow during the entire month of May, perhaps summer is indeed upon us. Now I can walk our dog Sidetrack not only on the streets and byways of town, but also on the all-terrain vehicle tracks and trails, and then beyond to secluded paths etched into the woods and fields long ago by deer and bear, and adapted by indigenous aborigines. Once we reach the hinterlands, the dog is free to roam without a leash. His movements are contrary to any human logic, rather more consistent...
To the Editor: The article “School boards look to delay consolidation vote” in the June 4 Daily Globe has me wondering when (or if) the school boards of the Bessemer Area School District and Wakefield-Marenisco School District are going to allow their respective voters to vote on the consolidation issue. Sure, there may be legal problems with how signatures were obtained to create a vote on Aug. 5. That will be determined by our courts. But the fact remains that there are many eligible voters in both districts who signed the petitions to put co...
To the Editor: Residents of Bessemer recently lost a lifelong brother to death by cancer. Bob “Bobski” Slomkowski died in Minneapolis, where he had resided for the past few years. His abbreviated out-of-town obituary did not do this man the justice he deserves. A carpenter by trade, he was most often seen on someone’s roof or chimney. His hometown volunteerism was unmatched by anyone I know. For many years, he put his personal business on hold for two weeks every year to serve on the Fourth of July Committee. He was the originator for the d...
To the Editor: Just because it doesn’t come from the Bessemer superintendent’s office doesn’t mean its propaganda. Superintendent Dave Radovich has been stating from the beginning that Bessemer student count has not been going down, but actually increasing. Well, here are some facts he doesn’t share with you. Here are the enrollment numbers for Bessemer Area Schools for the 2013-2014 school year. Please take note that these are audited numbers. This means that these are the numbers that their funding is based on. Bessemer: Fall 2013: 447.97....
To the Editor: The letter from Jenna Pedrin dated June 5 is an excellent example of fear mongering at its worst. She claims that hydraulic fracturing “could” endanger Michigan’s water supply. She fails to note that Michigan has never had a single case of water contamination due to hydraulic fracturing, and we have been doing this for more than 40 years. If her claims were true, with more than 60,000 wells already hydraulically fractured, there should be plenty of evidence to point to as examples of the danger posed by this process. Unfor...
I had a birthday this week. When you are a twin, birthdays are a little different, even from the start. It is never just your birthday. It is our birthday. The cakes have both the names, the parties are shared and the songs sung to both of you at the same time. Often the gifts are double of the same item, two sets of roller skates, two bikes, two radios, games addressed to both of you. When it’s time to go to school, you walk together, are generally in the same room and often sit alphabetically (at least it was that way in the old days). S...
To the Editor: Unknown by most, a method called fracking could be threatening Michigan’s water supply. Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, is an extraction process used by the natural gas industry that involves blasting a mixture of water and dangerous chemicals deep underground to explore for natural gas. So why does the natural gas industry want to increase fracking in Michigan, potentially jeopardizing our water supply? They make a great deal of money off of natural gas drilling. However, the industry refuses to disclose the ch...
To the Editor: There are moments when civility should be used by all of us, especially when the reputation of neighbors and acquaintances known for many years are concerned. What occurred in Bessemer on Thursday, May 22, to Bill McDonald, a member of the Bessemer Area School Board of Education, while he was preparing the weekly American Legion Post 27 spaghetti dinner is a perfect example of what I speak. That an officer of the court, the county prosecutor, Michigan State Police and other elected officials timed this arrest to publicly...
To the Editor: On behalf of our membership, American Legion Post 5 would like to thank everyone in the city of Ironwood for their participation in our recent Memorial Day ceremonies. We are encouraged by the number of individuals that still manage to come out and support our soldiers during that national day of recognition. We realize that many think of Memorial Day as just another holiday and forget the importance of the real meaning of the day. It is really nice to see citizens supporting us at our Memorial Day program at the Memorial...
To the Editor: At the April 29 public meeting regarding consolidation, Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District Superintendent Bruce Mayle was asked if Bessemer was on the state’s (Department of Education) radar for academic and financial problems. His answer was “yes.” The facts support him. Mayle and his assistant directed the audience to mischooldata.org. The state’s website offers a wide range of information regarding every district in the state. It’s an eye-opening exhibit, particularly for citizens seeking accurate informati...
To the Editor: Here are five of the dumbest decisions that businesses, schools or communities have recently made. Fifth, and a good contestant for dumbness, was a court order which prohibited a small meatpacking company from testing all its meat for mad cow disease rather than the small sample required by law, because if they had tested all, the larger meat packing industries might feel obligated to test all their meat and they didn’t want the extra expense. Fourth, and even dumber, was a natural resources official who fined two men $90 each f...
To the Editor: Ewen-Trout Creek School Superintendent Loren Vannest stated in an April 30 Daily Globe article that the loss of federal aid is a serious problem. He’s right. Business manager Tammy Gibson said it is as if we are getting punished for having federal lands in our district (241,627 acres). She’s right. However, it’s important to know just who is punishing us. It’s popular to blame Washington or Lansing. However, the facts show the ones to blame are our county commissioners and some local politicians who haven’t spoken out or even a...
