A tire store has its eyes on the site
LOOKS LIKE A tire store will be built on the site of the former Cenex gas station at the junction of the US 41 and Wright Street.
The company name has not been publicly disclosed yet. Its site plan will be reviewed by the Township early next month.
The store will occupy only the southern half of the property (adjacent to US 41). No word yet on what will happen with the northern half.
It’ll be a good use of the property with some planning improvements, according to Jason McCarthy, the Township planning and zoning administrator. The proposed plan would consolidate two driveways from NAPA Autoparts and the tire store into one–that’s safer. And the plan also calls for a pedestrian walkway on the eastern side of the property, along Wright Street. That pathway would tie into the tunnel newly constructed under US 41.
Easier and safer.
And, according to McCarthy, the project made use of Brownfield funds to clean up the site. All in all, a win-win-win for the Township.
From TV to the ministry to the National Park Service
YOU MAY NOT have heard yet, but Bill Roth, WLUC’s unique and unforgettable meteorologist from several years ago, is back in the Upper Peninsula. In the Keweenaw, specifically.
Even more specifically, he’s been working as a National Park Service ranger on Isle Royale, but it’s a seasonal job so he’s now back home with his wife Shana who’s a dietician at Portage Health in Hancock.
Last we heard, Roth had enrolled in a seminary in Kentucky, then became a parson at a small church in Indiana. So what happened?
“I haven’t given up on the Christian ministry,” he writes us, “but I’ve firmly hit the Pause button. I’d like to get back into it in a capacity where it is not solely responsible for paying the bills. In other words, I don’t want to live off the offering plate anymore!”
He and Shana have three children. Bill’s taking care of the kids this winter, and he’s hoping that returning to the park service as a ranger next season is in the cards. Nothing certain yet.
“I found it very much to be in my wheelhouse to tell the story of the island (Isle Royale),” he writes, “presenting evening programs on copper mining, orienting people to the vast wilderness, celebrating the moose, and standing in awe of the fact that the island plays some still unknown role in the ancient human history of North America stretching back 6000 years or so.”
You can see him as a story teller. Likable, smart, personality-plus.
Welcome back, Bill.