Vern Barber, the longtime general manager at Marquette Mountain, is heading to snowier slopes.
Mount Bohemia in the Keweenaw, specifically.
After 32 years at Marquette Mountain, he’s looking for a new challenge at a unique venue (extreme skiing, ungroomed slopes) with the potential for growth. That’s what Bohemia offers.
No hard feelings here, he says, it’s just time to move on.
Was the issue compensation? He wouldn’t “go there.”
This last ski season was a tough one here. Extremely cold temperatures kept attendance down for much of the winter although the last three weeks were pretty good.
Barber will face a different kind of a challenge at Bohemia–they need more lodging in a more remote location than Marquette–but it’s the kind of challenge he welcomes at this point of his career. And, he says, Bohemia is his kind of skiing.
Good luck to him. And thanks.
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More losses for Marquette tourism.
The Convention and Visitors Bureau recently lost its PR and marketing director, Allison Silk, to the Mackinac Island CVB. Silk had been considered the likely successor to Pat Black, the CVB director who’s retiring at the end of this year.
So that means there’s a vaccum at the top in an industry that needs to continue showing growth in Marquette County.
A search is now underway for Silk’s successor who ultimately might be Black’s successor.
The big loss, of course, will be Black, who is Ms. Tourism for Marquette County. She knows and charms everyone in the tourist industry, in the state and far beyond.
In her retirement, she’s planning to travel–for pure pleasure, not for business. She’s earned it.
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Any day now, you can expect to see a new local newscast on your TV screens at 6 and 11 pm.
Preparations continue at the new WJMN studio and offices, just off US-41 in Marquette Township. Some of the staff have moved in, they’re working with their new computers and getting acclimated to their new surroundings.
Two months ago, management guaranteed the newscasts would start in April. News Director Cynthia Thompson says that remains the plan, though she wouldn’t get specific.
They’ve got their equipment, the news cars are in the lot, the news staff (about 10, less than half the size of TV6’s staff) are arriving to begin their careers in the UP.
Interestingly, one of the most important rating periods for local TV stations is May. WJMN, no doubt, will try to make a big promotional splash when it starts its newscasts but certainly can’t have expectations of a major ratings impact in May.
Many UP viewers will sample the new newscasts but will likely return to
the tried and trusted Steve Asplund, Karl Bohnak, Greg Trick and Mike Ludlum on TV6 at 6 and 11. Fifty years of history is a lot to overcome.
WJMN will have to be in it for the long run.
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Casa Calabria is certainly in it for the long run.
The popular Italian eatery on Third Street, one of the biggest restaurants in the city (seating for 188), is now finishing off major renovations of both the restaurant and bar.
New booths, tables, chairs, stone walls, pillars, wallpaper, floors, bar stools. That’s just about everything. It’s the first major renovation for the Casa since 1995.
Sometimes, even when you’re popular, you gotta freshen things up.
The result is a new, Old World look, if that makes sense. Clean, fresh, casual, comfortable, classy.
The Casa never closed down during the construction period. They just worked at it during the day, then swept up, and started cooking.
Smart. That’s a good way to keep the customers…and the revenue…streaming in.
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