Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By PAMELA JANSSON
Marenisco TOWNSHIP — After nearly four years as Marenisco Township’s supervisor, Bruce Mahler has announced that he plans to retire as of the November election.
“It’s time for me to do other things,” said Mahler, who also served as the township’s police chief for 17 prior years.
Mahler also owns 5 Sons Brewing in Marenisco.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he told The Globe on Tuesday.
But he added that his pending retirement will give him more freedom. “Now, if I decide to go on a golf trip for a month, I can,” he said.
Running for supervisor in November’s general election will be Rob Dorgan, a retired professor of architecture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He moved to the township more than a decade ago to purchase and restore the former Marenisco School building.
Dorgan also operates an online, nonprofit venture called the Institute for Small Town Studies.
In other news, Mahler said the township’s Board of Trustees approved on Monday an agreement with the Gogebic County Road Commission regarding summer road work.
He said the township will pay $121,000, or 60% of the full cost of the work, which is scheduled for several roads in the unincorporated community of Marenisco.
“This actually brings us under budget,” he said, adding that the board had budgeted $125,000 for road work.
Streets scheduled for varying degrees of work include portions of Hall, Curtis and Third.
In addition, Mahler said that — in the past week— the community has had installed new sidewalks entering the town hall and new concrete beds behind the adjacent fire hall and maintenance area and where diesel tanks are stored behind the hall.
According to Mahler, the township also will offer its spring clean-up on June 15 and 16 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day near the pavilion between Hall Street and Fair Avenue.
He said that tighter restrictions will be in place this year, with township residents required to register in advance at the town hall, where they will be issued a voucher.
Mahler said that, during clean-ups in recent years, “We’ve had a lot of issues with people coming here and just dumping their stuff.”
He added, “We’ve had lots of people taking advantage of it.”
In some cases, he said folks who are not residents dumped refuse, and in other cases township residents dropped off trash from property owned in other regions or even in another state.
“It’s a sad thing that we got to this point,” said the supervisor, who said anyone violating rules this year will be cited by township Police Chief James Webber.
