DON’T EXPECT THOSE new condos atop Shiras Hill, just off of US 41, to go up this summer. Surprise, surprise, these things things take longer than expected.
Site plans have been submitted to the city but nothing is finalized. What we’ll see on those six acres over the next several weeks is a leveling of the ground and some landscaping.
Building construction will likely start next year.
The plans at this point called for six two-story buildings, each of them with two residences. Twelve condos in all, but again, that could change.
The developer says the buildings won’t seem particularly imposing because they’ll be built at an elevation below the highway, and motorists will still have a view of the lake.
Access to the condo development from the highway is still under discussion. MDOT, the city and the developer are all involved. Their concern is how to safely get onto the highway, or off of it, when cars are zipping by at 60 miles per hour.
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MARQUETTE’S NEWLY FORMED Chamber of Commerce now has an actual bricks-and-mortar headquarters. It’s in a duplex at 813 North Third Street across the street from Border Grill.
It’s a modest space, to say the least. No sign out front yet, and equipment and furniture are on their way. But Chamber director Jason Schneider can at least say he now has a place to work. Prior to this, he was rotating from coffee shop to restaurant to brewery, meeting with potential members while working his phone and his computer.
The Chamber’s now up to 28 members. Schneider expects to boost that to 170 on the Chamber’s one year anniversary next April. Pretty ambitious. We’ll see.
They took a big step forward last Thursday. The Chamber’s new website went live: marquettechamber.org. Strange, though: The Home page photograph is ancient–taken before the roundabout was built. Otherwise, the site is impressive. It may help entice more members in Marquette, Marquette Township and Chocolay Township to join.
Still uncertain and fragile is the relationship between the new Chamber and the Lake Superior Community Partnership which was the de facto Chamber before Schneider started the new one. The LSCP’s role is broader–promoting business development in Marquette County–while the Chamber sees itself as servicing the individual needs of its member businesses on a daily basis.
The two agencies are civil and diplomatic toward each other for now, but there’s an undeniable tension as the new Chamber grows. Eventually, you would hope, the two of them will genuinely work together.
(Cliche alert!!!)
Time will tell.
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THE PETER WHITE Public Library could be changing its weekly “closed” day.
In March, due to revenue shortfalls because of Tax Tribunal rulings, it started closing every Sunday. The thought now is that maybe Friday would be a better choice to put up the “Closed” sign.
The reason? The library serves five surrounding townships and for some of them, it’s easier to get to Marquette on the weekend than it is during the weekdays.
The change would have to be approved by the library board which meets this week. Nothing is certain yet.
As for funding, the library’s about $30,000 short on its budget at this point but director Pam Christensen seems confident they’ll figure out where they can cut.
Looming ahead though is that massive storm cloud known as the Tax Tribunal and its consideration of a property tax cut for WE Energies. The case has been put “in abeyance” for now, but if and when it comes up, and if the tax cut is approved, the library will have to refund $200,000 in taxes to WE.
Enormous. Devastating. Almost certainly requiring the library to close down two days a week.
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IF YOU’VE NEVER lived outside the Upper Peninsula, you probably can’t appreciate how dominant TV6 news has been here.
One recent survey, in fact, rated the TV6’s Early News at 6 pm news as the single most dominant TV newscast in the country. Not the best, by any means, just the one that gets a larger share of viewers than any other in the nation.
The February Nielsen book, according to these rankings, had the Early News getting a 73 share…that means that 73 percent of the TV’s that were turned on at that hour were watching TV6. Ridiculous numbers.
For the record, a station in Presque Isle, Maine was second, another one in Watertown, New York was third. It’s far, far easier for small market stations to dominate than it is for the big market stations.
For means of comparison, WPBN in Traverse City-Cadillac gets a 22 share and WJBK in Detroit attracts only a 9.
TV6’s competitors, ABC 10 and Local 3, have a steep hill to climb. Both need more money, more staff and more resources if they ever hope to chip away at TV6’s dominance.
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