MEISTER’S GREENHOUSE, WHICH has long been synonymous with gardening in Marquette County, is no more.
It is now Nagelkirk’s, and it’ll be opening for the season on April 20th, come rain, snow, sleet or shine.
Steve Nagelkirk, who operates a landscaping business in Marquette Township, bought Meister’s on M-28 back in October and promises to make the nursery better than ever.
It’ll be more than plants, flowers, shrubs and trees. It’ll also be offering landscape and garden design, lawn service, irrigation systems, “live roofs” (roofs with gardens), bulk mulch and top soil, an outdoor kitchen with a wood-fired smoker and oven, patio furniture, specialty foods, plus delivery and even planting.
In other words, you won’t have to do a damn thing except order up a back yard, then sit back and watch the sweating workers install it while you sip your gin-and-tonic under a parasol.
Or you could do it yourself.
It’s quite a turnabout for Nagelkirk who was ill and actually considered retiring last year. Now he’s got a smile on his face and spring in his step as he and his crew ready the garden center for their opening in three weeks.
And yep, that’s the same Steve Nagelkirk who recently suspended operations at L’Attitude. He admits he feels much more comfortable with a shovel in his hand than with a spatula.
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YOU MAY HAVE heard those nagging rumors about difficulties surrounding the construction of the new Duke LifePoint Hospital in Marquette.
That’s exactly what they are, according to city officials: rumors. Unfounded. Untrue.
The project is proceeding relatively smoothly. Fifty-six million dollars for the road improvements and the moving of the Municipal Service Center has been approved.
And in two weeks, city officials are visiting DLP’s headquarters in Brentwood, Tennessee to 1)meet with DLP’s CEO and full Board for the first time, 2) get DLP’s thoughts on what it plans to do with the old hospital (no one wants a blighted property), and 3) see where DLP is in the design process.
Does DLP yet know exactly what the new hospital will look like? City officials hope to find out.
Ground breaking is planned for next year.
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PLANS FOR MARQUETTE’S Smartzone get the headlines when it comes to city development. After all, everybody loves luring smart, young, high tech entrepreneurs to their town.
But Marquette County (and Delta County) recently achieved another coup. The two counties were given the okay to create a Next Michigan Development Corporation.
All right, stop yawning.
Here’s the deal. It’ll allow the two counties and all the municipalities to work together to lure and grow businesses by building infrastructure together. Improving seaports, airports, roads, energy operations.
The counties and towns will be collaborating rather than competing for business, and now with this new Next Michigan Zone set up, they’ll be able to offer tax incentives and investment incentives that weren’t available before.
So what’s it all mean? Mo’ money. Maybe.
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A REVOLVING DOOR at ABC 10.
Longtime reporter Mike Hoey recently took an anchor job in Utica, New York, three hours from his hometown.
Anchor/reporters Molly Smerika and Kevin Terpstra recently left to take producers’ jobs in Green Bay.
The newcomers? Reporters Caleb Scanlon and Mikenzie Frost and AM anchor Katlin Connin. All three were onetime interns.
Oh, and Rick Allen has returned to ABC 10 as their Keweenaw reporter. And former Keweenaw reporter Sam Ali is now the full time sports anchor and reporter.
And…whew…finally, the newly appointed news director and former sports anchor Jerry Taylor is now also the news anchor at 5:30.
For now. He says he’s still figuring it.
Best advice to the new arrivals. Rent, don’t buy.
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EVERY ONCE IN a while, even the cynics get their faith renewed in our young people.
Case in point: A sensational concert put on by the Marquette Senior High School chorus and orchestra. It’s a stunning show put on by 45 students and their music directors, Jan Broderson and Janis Peterson.
They’ll now be taking the show overseas where they’ll be performing two concerts in Vienna, and also take part in what’s known as a Master Class. Famed conductor Martin Fuschberger will be critiquing them.
It’s a pretty big deal.
They leave on Friday for Munich, Germany. Yeah, if you can’t make your way to Panama City for Spring Break, you might as well settle for the Bavarian Alps.
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