Last Wednesday morning Laurium’s Department of Public Works garage caught fire. After the fire was put out and the Fire Marshall was able to gather initial findings Laurium was informed of the likely cause of the fire. A shorted wire harness under one of the village fleet of vehicles.
This building housed all of our snow removal equipment for the most part, which included two graders, three loaders, a couple of snow goes, our garbage truck, five dump trucks, I believe, and a sander dump truck, in addition to all the tools for our maintenance bay in the garage. So, yeah, the scope of the fire was pretty large, pretty significant. However, we’ll pull through it and we’ll start working with the adjusters that came out and are still coming out this week. Hopefully, we’ll start receiving funds for the equipment at least next week or in the next two weeks. – Ian Lewis, Village Manager, Village of Laurium
The former DPW garage was large and stored the majority of Laurium’s heavy equipment. Village Manager Ian Lewis says a couple of items were saved by being stored at a separate site. Over the weekend the village was able to move the DPW to temporary homes.
So MDOT has rented us some equipment, same with both road commissions, the Keweenaw County and Hone County road commissions, City of Hancock, City of Hone, Brian Bonnen, B&B Contracting, and Jeff Kalcich at Kalcich Contracting. They’ve all lent out equipment. All of our equipment is kind of placed all over the community, some at our fire department, some at our new temporary garage that has been generally used. Generously donated by the County Water and Sewage Authority and also at Calumet Townships Garages. They graciously donated one of their garages to us to house equipment. – Ian Lewis, Village Manager, Village of Laurium
At the upcoming village council meeting Lewis hopes to offer the council an idea of how Laurium may move forward.
We know we need loaders and dump trucks. However, my job is to see what do we need right now. So that’s what I’m going to present to the council at the next council meeting so that we have an idea already in place. So when the insurance proceeds do come in, we can essentially start purchasing newer used equipment so that we can get back up and running. – Ian Lewis, Village Manager, Village of Laurium
Lewis feels the village will return to strength in part with support from the Copper Country. He wanted to include appreciation for the community members, near and far, who have reached out and asked how to help Laurium recover.
I’d also like to thank ACE Hardware of Calumet. They graciously replied to our Facebook posts and said, come on down. We’ll help supply you guys with your needs. I believe our guys are going to go down there this week to meet with someone at ACE. And then I’d also like to thank the numerous volunteers who came out on the day of the fire and after the fire. I know Tony’s here in Laurium is offering pasties. I want to say Copper Country Sweets graciously donated cinnamon rolls to us, which helped the guys at least have some positive mindset after the fire. There’s been just numerous different restaurants and partners throughout the area that have donated to us. And I hope to get a list put out and put together to continue thanking everyone and to let everyone know. Who is donating? Who is helping us? Because I think that’s crucial, that our community knows who’s helping us get through these terrible times. – Ian Lewis, Village Manager, Village of Laurium
Laurium’s village council meeting next week will offer residents an in-person chance to learn more about potential plans and solutions. Laurium council meets on the third Tuesday of the month at 6 pm in the village hall.
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