STEVE ASPLUND AND Greg Trick will soon have a female co-anchor sitting across from them at the TV6 anchor desk.
Her name is Sophie Erber, fresh out of a Masters program at the University of South Florida. She’d previously graduated from University of Tampa in the honors program.
A co-anchor? We haven’t seen that since the days of Elizabeth Peterson and Jackie Chandonnet.
It’s a further indication that TV6’s new owner, the Sinclair Broadcast Group, has money to spend and intends to head off the challenges of Local 3, WJMN’s new newscast team, and ABC 10.
Dual anchors at TV6 were ditched several years back by the previous owner, Barrington Broadcasting, in a cost-cutting move. Times have changed, ownership has changed.
Erber is scheduled to arrive in the UP in a couple of weeks. You’ll see her on the air as a reporter initially as she familiarizes herself with the area…and then she’ll sit down in the 6 pm co-anchor chair. Eventually, plans call for her to appear on the 6 pm, 7 pm and 11 pm newscasts.
One more report, that Asplund won’t comment on but everybody else at TV6 will, tells us that morale at the station, especially in the news department, has soared since the former ND Regena Robinson abruptly left late last year, and Asplund took over.
One staffer referred to Robinson’s tenure as “two and a half years of hell.”
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A FEW YEARS ago, Forsyth Township and Randy Buchler, a local farmer, were battling each other in a courtroom. Today, they’re working together to come up with new and fair zoning ordinances on backyard farms.
Take note, Washington DC. This is a story about how government is supposed to function.
Quick background: Buchler and his wife have been raising laying hens and sheep (for wool), along with vegetables, for the last decade at their Shady Grove Farm in Gwinn. However, a few years ago, the Township Planning Board determined that the Buchlers were in violation of the township’s zoning ordinance.
The township took them to court but, surprise, the Buchlers actually won. The judge ruled that Michigan’s right-to-farm act trumped the county ordinance. The ruling garnered national attention.
So, was there bad blood between the victors and the losers?
Nope. The planning board is now drawing up new ordinances that will fit in with the township’s master plan and it wants Buchler, with his experience and knowledge, to help them. The board also acknowledges that its residents have made it clear they want to loosen the rules when it comes to raising livestock on their property.
How about that? A government that listens to its constituents, doesn’t hold grudges, and simply wants to govern.
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HOW MANY FITNESS gyms does Marquette need?
Well, we just got another one. Anytime Fitness, without any fanfare, opened its doors on Washington Street across from Shopko August 1st, and the manager claims they’ve already signed up 100 members. Mostly by word-of-mouth.
Radio ads are just starting. The official grand opening won’t take place until the end of the month.
It’s not just some modest little hole in the wall, either. It’s a brand new two story facility. Anytime Fitness now boasts 2600 gyms worldwide. It’s one of the fastest growing chains in America.
The new gym comes on the heels of Snap Fitness, on US 41, closing down. Not enough clients?
So again, do we need another gym? There are now about a dozen in and around town, some specializing in personalized training, others offering a wide array of activities, still others keeping their doors open 24 hours a day.
We’ve become a fitness-obsessed society although you’d never know that by looking at our ever expanding waistlines.
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YA GOTTA LOVE this.
Have you seen all the attractive landscaping outside the new Marquette Food Co-op?
It’s all being irrigated by rainwater captured on the roof of the store. Simple but brilliant and far-seeing. That’s what sustainability is all about.
Oh, one other thing. The toilets at the Co-op are also using water from the roof. Flushing is provided by rain.
It’s amazing what you can learn by reading informational signs on the back of the commodes.
You got news? Email me at briancabell@gmail.com
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