Rumors have been circulating that Forsberg Flowers, a longtime Marquette institution on Third Street, is going out of business.
Not true, says co-owner Lou Ann Balding (a Forsberg), but the property is for sale. In fact, it has been for a year now.
Why the sale? Balding simply says it’s to “keep our options open.” She’s not comfortable getting more specific than that.
Meantime, though, Balding says business continues normally. A rumor (false) that Forsberg’s was no longer selling corsages and boutonnieres certainly didn’t help during the prom season.
Forsberg has been making things pretty for us since 1971.
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The boathouse controversy is heating up.
Background: the Upper Peninsula Community Rowing Club wants to build a boathouse near Founders Landing that would house its boats, along with those from the NMU rowing teams…and any other human-powered boats that other citizens might want to store.
They’d do it with all private money and they’d maintain it. No taxpayer money, no public obligations.
The rowers insist the beach would still be open to everybody, as would a viewing area on top of the structure.
Sounds fine, except that back in the 90s, the City Commission declared that the still undeveloped shores along Lake Superior should remain undeveloped.
That declaration, according to an increasing number of petitioners and a heavily promoted campaign on Facebook, should remain sacrosanct.
The intent, of course, was to prevent selling the city’s coastline (and soul) to private developers. God knows, a lot of towns have been ruined by unrestrained greed.
But would a boathouse for citizen and student rowers truly violate the spirit of the declaration? Marquette’s justifiably proud of its marinas. Sure seems like a facility for rowers and kayakers would be less expansive, intrusive and exclusive than the marinas…and less noisy.
A tough call.
The City Commission, which has initially endorsed the idea of a boathouse, will likely decide the issue within the next couple of months.
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Marquette County Sheriff Mike Lovelace is back in town and he’s hearing a little criticism.
Some are calling him an absentee sheriff. He’s calling it politics.
Lovelace, who’s held the job for 18 years, concedes he’s spent most of 2014 at his home in Arizona but he’s had to do it, he says, only because his wife has been dealing with serious heart problems. She’s been in and out of hospitals.
But even when he’s been out of town, he’s handled the department’s conference calls, emails and faxes. There have been no problems with the operations of the department, Lovelace insists. No hiccups.
His undersheriff, Jack Schneider, has been filling in admirably, he says.
And that’s where the “politics” comes in.
Late last year, Lovelace announced he was retiring but he was doing so with the expectation that Schneider would inherit the job until the next election. However, the county had other ideas and opened the job up to other applicants.
That’s when Lovelace suddenly stepped in and said, “Never mind, I’ll unretire and keep the job until 2016.”
So he’s still got the job, he’s now back in town and he’s tending to the health of his wife of 40 years. He owes it to her, he says. Can’t blame him.
But don’t expect the politics and the criticism to just fade away.
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You got a spare 3.9 million dollars?
If so, you can go out and buy the Rosewood Building which houses Upfront, along with some retail and office space.
The Upfront, more than a year and a half after closing, is now officially up for sale.
Owner Rhys Mussman had been coy about his plans for the building until now.
Any buyers for a gorgeous building in an unsurpassed location? Maybe we should pass a hat.
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As for the Carmike Theater next to Econo, you’ve got to wonder about its future now that the fancy new theater complex in the Township is set to open later this month.
The Carmike corporate folks in Columbus, Georgia aren’t saying much about their plans for the theater.
Well, actually their legal department said, “We got nothing to tell you, and we’ll tell you when we’re good and ready.”
Hard to imagine that Marquette could support two theater complexes, but who knows? We’ve done it before.
Stay tuned.
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Get prepared for a cool summer.
That’s what WLUC weather guru Karl Bohnak says. A frosty winter like the one we’ve just experienced (It’s over, right?) generally leads to a late- starting summer with temperatures that usually stay below average.
Doesn’t mean we won’t have hot spells, just not as many or as hot.
Just what we want to hear as we’re staring out at the dreary skies, the ugly, little patches of snow, and the miles upon miles of stubborn ice still clogging Lake Superior.
How cold was the winter? How about 5 degrees below average in April? Nine degrees below average in March. Ten degrees below in February, 8 degrees below average in January and December.
Historically frigid, Bohnak says.
Bring on the cool summer and those balmy 60 degree days.
You got news? Email me at briancabell@gmail.com