Local News

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed another Copper Country community event. Heikinpäivä will not be held next month.  Members of the City of Hancock’s Finnish Theme Committee said they couldn’t come up with a way to do justice to the tradition and spirit of the event, and still conduct it in …

Santa will be making his final visits to the Copper Country Saturday. He will visit the Baraga Fire Hall for a drive-through Christmas party between 11:00 and 1:00. Kids are invited to wave at Santa, drop off letters to him, and register to win gifts. The L’Anse Christmas drive-through event …

Despite the lack of natural snow, Mont Ripley will open Saturday. General Manager Nick Sirdenis says they’ve been able to make enough snow to begin operations. He also says they’ve implemented new COVID19-related safety measures. That includes reducing face-to-face transactions for equipment rentals and lift tickets by upgrading the website, …

There will be no formal commencement ceremony this weekend, but Michigan Tech is still saluting almost 700 students who completed their degrees at the end of the fall semester. More than 350 undergraduate diplomas will be awarded. Nearly 330 graduate degrees will be conferred, including 53 doctorates. One part of …

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the western Upper Peninsula has passed 3,000, but the rate of increase seems to be slowing. The most recent report from the Western U.P. Health Department includes 59 more confirmed positives since the previous update was issued Monday night. 35 of those were …

Aspirus Keweenaw has begun vaccinating employees against COVID-19. Hospital officials say the first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine arrived yesterday, and inoculations began immediately. The Laurium hospital was the first in the Aspirus system to receive the vaccine. Not enough doses were included in the initial shipment to vaccinate all …

Former Hancock City Manager Dave Richards has died. Richards led Hancock’s city government in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. He also served several cities in Alaska and California, before becoming city manager of New Buffalo, Michigan, in 2017. The South Bend Tribune reports that Richards was hospitalized with COVID-19 …

Reaction to the initial proposal for the Lakeshore Drive Redevelopment Project has been mixed. Comments about the plan lasted more than an hour at last night’s Houghton City Council meeting.  Most citizens who spoke were unimpressed. Patty Vilman was concerned that the reconfigured Lakeshore Drive will be too tight… “You …

The City of Hancock will apply for a grant to help deal with a growing erosion problem along the Portage waterfront. High water levels are washing away the shoreline between the Houghton-Hancock Bridge and the Ramada Inn. The city owns the strip of land between the hotel property and the …

This year’s Portage Health Foundation Giving Tuesday campaign brought in twice as many donations as last year’s. Final totals show that $394,514 was raised from 1,239 individual contributions. Donations were received from 28 states, but PHF officials said most came from their four-county service area. The foundation has provided $200,000 …