BOB & DEBBIE–are in the war together against his esophageal cancer, with an amazing amount of community support for which the couple is deeply grateful. Bob was declared cancer-free following surgery to remove his esophagus in December.
by Nancy Besonen
Bob “Eel” Eliason is back to work. It doesn’t seem that big a deal. People do it every Monday morning. But the head of the L’Anse Village Department of Public Works has fought the battle of his life these past seven months with an outpouring of community support, and folks are heartened to see “Eel” back behind the wheel. Eliason was diagnosed Aug. 21, 2017, with T3 locally advanced esophageal cancer. He and his wife, Debbie, traveled to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN in early September for further testing and to chart the course for his treatment: Chemotherapy and radiation, followed by surgery to remove his esophagus. The Eliasons returned to Mayo shortly after to begin Bob’s course of radiation five days a week and chemotherapy one day a week. Treatment was delayed due to a lost battle with insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS), over the type of radiation recommended by Eliason’s oncologist. To read more, subscribe to the L’Anse Sentinel online, or buy a print copy at our local retailers.
KEEPING AN EYE —Baraga school building has 48 security cameras in strategic locations. Principal Tim Marczak can monitor 32 of them with 16 images on each of two screens. The elementary school office has a screen that monitors 16 more views. The operator can zoom in on any image for a closer look.
by Nancy Besonen
Sacred Heart School (SHS) in L’Anse and Arvon Township School in Skanee work hard at keeping their students both safe and secure. Recent upgrades, training, drills and diligence are helping to arm both schools against the unthinkable. Principals Christy Miron from SHS and Lori Johnson from Arvon Township School spoke of the often intersecting paths their schools have taken toward greater security. Arvon Township School “Our entry doors are locked, and we have video cameras on the property,” said Johnson, who also teaches grades 3-6 at Arvon Township School. “We have a motion sensor so we know when someone has entered the driveway, and an audible alarm when someone is on the stairway.” Video cameras were installed by the front and back doors this past summer, Johnson said. The new technology features audible alarms that sound in the classrooms, similar to a doorbell, where a quick look at an i-pad or laptop by school staff provides a visual. To read more, subscribe to the L’Anse Sentinel online, or buy a print copy at our local retailers.
PIT CREW–Members of the Baraga High School VBots team work between matches during FIRST Robotics Competition in Escanaba this past weekend. Pictured from l-r are Jeremy Brown, Alexis Hebert, Roger Hebert behind Alexis), Zach Welch on the floor, Kara Laramore, Ryan DesRochers, Katie Parker and Opal Ellsworth. Photos courtesy of Baraga lead mentor John Westman.
by Nancy Besonen
The Baraga High School (BHS) VBots wound up in the middle at FIRST Robotics Competition this past weekend in Escanaba. The acronym stands “For Inspiration of Science and Technology,” and Baraga placed a respectable 20th among 39 teams throughout upper and lower Michigan in Baraga’s second year at bats in robotics. FIRST is a world-wide organization promoting skills that will serve students into in the future, whatever their futures may hold. Working together to design and build a robot and compete with others teaches a wide range of lessons, from tool use to social skills to coding and more. John Westman and Eric Lauritsen serve as lead mentors or co-coaches for the team, with mentors Roger Herbert and Jeremy Brown. Team members who traveled to Escanaba included Katie Parker, Zach Welch, Opal Ellsworth, Alexis Hebert, Kara Laramore and Ryan DesRochers. The FIRST season got off to a rousing start with a launch at Houghton High School in January, including the reveal of an 80’s Arcade Games theme for 2018. Baraga’s VBots team began meeting soon after to create a robot that could hold its own, and sometimes soar, in competition. The FIRST organization covers most of the cost of the first two years of competition. Team sponsors lend support after. Westman donated his coaching stipend back to the school this year to help cover travel costs so the young team could focus entirely on its robot. He traveled with the team to Escanaba. To read more, subscribe to the L’Anse Sentinel online, or buy a print copy at our local retailers.
PEACH’S PIT CREW–Left to right are Donnie Paquette, mentor Nathan Taisto and Coach Cara Wightman. Left of robot “Peaches”, standing l-r are team captain Ethan Hansen, Greg Dowd, Corey Fus and Sienna Stein and seated, l-r, are Noah Aleo, Brea Hoffman and Shelby Harrison.
by Nancy Besonen
The L’Anse High School Robotics team is preparing to conquer the world with “Peaches.” Peaches is the robot the team will take to the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics competition this weekend in Escanaba. It will mark L’Anse’s second FIRST after a strong start in competition its rookie season. “We rocked it last year,” said team coach Cara Wightman, who teaches science, physics and chemistry at L’Anse Area Schools. “We were hard to beat. Our ‘bot was bulletproof!” That’s FIRST-speak for success. L’Anse went all the way to statewide competition, which means Peaches has a lot to live up to. It all started the first weekend in January when the team traveled to Houghton High School for the FIRST Launch, a pep rally to help fire up kids from across the Western UP to gear-up for robotics competition. Wightman, who also coached last year, said every competition is a whole new ballgame. Here’s how it works, in L’Anse at least: Wightman said FIRST Robotics provided a kit of parts and the chassis for a robot, paid for by grants the school received from the state. The L’Anse team also recycled (sounds better than “cannibalized”, which the team suggested) parts of last year’s robot for this year’s entry. To read more, subscribe to the L’Anse Sentinel online, or buy a print copy at our local retailers.
COVINGTON CREW–Members of the Covington Township Ambulance pictured above included, l-r, Marvin Rajala, Daune Smith, Carole Rajala, Carol Holma, Shirley Younggren, David Besonen and Linda Rajala. Members of the new Covington Township First Responders include the Rajalas, Besonen, Younggren, Holma and Emmy Heikkila. Photo courtesy of Joanne Besonen.
by Nancy Besonen
The Covington Township Ambulance service has officially disbanded. At its regular monthly meeting Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018 the Covington Township Board voted 4-1 to end the service effective March 1. The township has contracted with Bay Ambulance of Baraga to provide future emergency response services. The decision was made due to a small and aging ambulance crew. The staff of eight volunteers was required by law to provide around-the-clock ambulance services, seven days a week, 365 days of the year. With runs on the increase, the crew saw the day coming when it couldn’t keep up. “We have eight members, average age 60, which does not bode well,” volunteer Marvin Rajala said at a public meeting in January regarding the future of the service. “We’ve seen a steady increase in runs, maybe a reflection both our ambulance and people are getting older.” David Besonen of Covington has been a member of the ambulance crew from its start. He said a fatal accident on M-28 in Covington, in which two area children were killed and another seriously injured, highlighted the need for a local emergency response team. To read more, subscribe to the L’Anse Sentinel online, or buy a print copy at our local retailers.
WATCH DOGS—Pete Dove volunteered to serve as a positive male role model at CJ Sullivan last week. Among the classrooms he visited was the second grade taught by Emily Maxson. At the table, l-r, with Dove are his d daughter, Emily, Mayson Thompson, and Arianna Loonsfoot, studying the math lesson her teacher has on the board.
by Barry Drue
C.J. Sullivan Elementary School in L’Anse has gone to the DOGS! As in the WATCH DOGS program. In this case “DOGS” stands for “Dads Of Great Students”. CJ has initiated a growing national program to encourage positive male role models to volunteer to interact with students at school. In 1998 the first WATCH DOGS program launched at Gene George Elementary in Springdale, AR. Now more than 6,450 schools across the country have WATCH DOGS programs. “Each school year hundreds of thousands of fathers and father-figures make a positive impact on millions of children by volunteering millions of hours in their local schools,” the WATCH DOGS web site (www.fathers.com. watchdogs) explains. Under the guidance of CJ Student Service Director Darrin Voskuhl, the L’Anse school just started the program earlier in February. And so far it’s a huge hit with the dads, students and staff. To read more, subscribe to the L’Anse Sentinel online, or buy a print copy at our local retailers.
CROWD PLEASER–Gwen Apger, right, greets Marcy Franti, left and many others at the MSU Extension booth during the 26th Annual Healthy Heart Fair in the Niiwin Akeaa Center in Baraga Feb. 14, 2018. Crowds come out for free screenings, information on healthy living–and nice giveaways!
by Barry Drue
Negotiations between Baraga County Memorial Hospital administration and BCMH’s approximately 50 AFSCME employees continue after stretching for seven months. A three-year contract for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union Local 2088 expired on Sept. 22, 2017. Negotiations began in August, 2017. AFSCME employees work in departments such as dietary, billing, housekeeping, admitting, and serve as ward clerks, lab staff and radiology technologists. BCMH CEO Margie Hale said administration and its attorney, Grant Pecor of Grand Rapids, MI, “met several times before being joined by a State Mediator. Following the parties’ November mediation session the union indicated it was going to take the employer’s proposal back for a vote.” AFSCME Staff Representative Bob Murphy of Ironwood has led the bargaining process for the union. He said it was never the intent of the union to go back to membership for a vote, but rather to obtain feedback. He said administration left the a Jan. 5 meeting with the mediator and would not return. “They left the room. We had the mediator there and they never came back. One of the things we were prepared to address was the Health Savings Account. We could have had that done,” Murphy said.Hale said, “Instead of resuming our efforts to use a mediator to resolve the parties’ differences the union presented a petition for fact finding at the start of the parties’ January meeting and refused to engage in further mediation efforts. As a result the parties broke after only a few hours.” Hale and Murphy agree that a neutral fact-finding specialist from the Michigan Employment Relations Commission will be brought in to comb through the proposals. Fact finding is nonbinding, meaning neither party is forced to accept the results. Fact finding will likely take place sometime this spring. To read more, subscribe to the L’Anse Sentinel online, or buy a print copy at our local retailers.
BRUTAL CONDITIONS–Crews and agencies continue response to a spill of 4,000 gallons of gasoline and a quantity to diesel fuel from a fatal crash on the U.S. 41 bridge of the Sturgeon River just south of Chassell. Immediate response to the Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018 crash and spill has apparently limited impact to the river. Workers have spent over a week excavating and cleaning up, often in single digit temperatures.
by Barry Drue
A well-coordinated and effective multi-agency response has resulted in the containment of 4,000 gallons of gasoline and an undetermined amount of diesel fuel at the Sturgeon River just south of Chassell. The spill is the result of a fatal, multiple-injury accident on the U.S. 41 bridge at the Sturgeon on Saturday morning, Feb. 3, 2018. A vehicle attempting to pass a Klemm Trucking fuel semi tractor trailer hit an oncoming car and pushed it into the path of the semi, which hit it, killing the driver and toppling the tractor trailer, spilling the fuel. Fuel went downhill at the bridge embankment and was absorbed by snow, ice and soil. Some went onto the ice-covered river. It is believed that little if any made it downriver and to Portage Lake. Ralph Dollhopf has been the Environmental Protection Agency’s On-Scene Coordinator for the Emergency Response Team since 1985. He has helped lead EPA’s responses to clean-up of residential methyl parathion sites in Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Mississippi, the World Trade Center, Washington DC anthrax attacks, the Columbia Space Shuttle recovery and Hurricane Katrina. He also coordinated EPA’s response to the July, 2010, Endridge Line 6B discharge into the Kalamazoo River. To read more, subscribe to the L’Anse Sentinel online, or buy a print copy at our local retailers.
SCHOOL CHOIR–The new L’Anse Area Schools choir directed by Courtney Jones took to the stage Saturday night to perform during the 14th Annual L’Anse Variety of Music Show. The show packs the L’Anse cafetorium and features a wide range of local talent. Proceeds from the event benefit the band program, which has purchased uniforms and instruments in the past as well as scholarships for band members. More instruments may come thanks to this past weekend’s event.
by Nancy Besonen
The 14th Annual L’Anse Variety of Music Show hit all the right notes Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018 in L’Anse. The L’Anse Area Schools (LAS) set its stage for the event that brings out the best in musicians from throughout the community. Talented music staff and students join in for an evening featuring a wide range of sounds, styles and fun, playing to a most appreciate crowd. Band Director Aaron Poniatowski helps to bring it all together, for the benefit of the band. Proceeds from the popular event help put gently-used instruments into new band members’ hands–and replace band instruments that are showing some serious age. “Instruments get old, and cost a lot of money,” Poniatowski said. “We need some beginning band instruments– baritones, flutes, trumpets–used but in good shape for students to rent from the school. “We’re also talking about purchasing a marching baritone,” she added, “and we always hope for a tuba, but it’s expensive.” To read more, subscribe to the L’Anse Sentinel online, or buy a print copy at our local retailers.
FORWARD, MARCH!–left to right, Abby Nankervis, Alayna Waara, Chloe LaForest, Kathleen Tollefson and Rachael Velmer enjoy their bag lunches in preparation to march. Photos courtesy of Jacque Velmer.
by Nancy Besonen
Five Baraga County ninth graders recently took their Faith Formation studies a step further–all way to Washington, D.C. The girls traveled to the nation’s capitol to join in the March For Life, an annual anti-abortion protest held around the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision which legalized abortion in the U.S. This past Sunday they shared the experiences at mass with many who had helped them along their way. The annual exodus from Baraga County started years ago when eighth grader Michaela Velmer of L’Anse wanted to go to the march, and wouldn’t give up. Her mother, Jacque Velmer, said a coordinator agreed to chaperone her daughter with a group going from Escanaba. “The next year she was chaperoned from Marquette, and it started to grow,” Velmer said. “When she was a senior in high school, her and four boys from our parish went! Last year we had nine or 10 high school students from L’Anse.” To read more, subscribe to the L’Anse Sentinel online, or buy a print copy at our local retailers.
