A New Mexican Restaurant, A Late-Night Takeout, Bohnak the Politician, Osta's Departure, an Overabundance of Deer, Sawyer's Foggy Cancellations, and Closser Is Officially in the Record Books

The Latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell

LOOKS LIKE A NEW Mexican restaurant will be coming to town…It’ll be El Santo Tacos and Tequila, to be located in the old The Marq location on Baraga Avenue…The deal hasn't closed yet—the buyers are awaiting the transfer of the liquor license. They’re the same folks who operate the highly rated La Catrina in the Township…“It’s going to be very different from La Catrina,” says Carlos Romo, one of the three partners. “We’ll have more of a focus on drinks and getting the food out faster.”

Also a smaller menu, featuring Mexican staples such as tacos and quesadillas. And drinks, of course. You might recall that The Marq has a very attractive bar…They’ll be changing the overall decor of the restaurant to give it more of a Mexican flavor…Opening date? Depends on the liquor license transfer, but likely sometime this Spring…Romo and his partners (a brother and a cousin) will also be opening up another restaurant in the Houghton area this Spring.

SANDO’S EATERY, THE new takeout restaurant on Third Street near Washington (the former Rotations) should be opening by the end of January…”We were all getting a little frustrated because our equipment wasn't quite ready, but now it is,” says Ross Mulder, one of the three partners in Sando’s…They’re now working on refining the menu—sandwiches, soups, sides, and maybe salads—as well as settling on a Point of Sale system…

Mulder says Craig Columbo, one of the three partners, will be the primary cook and the “personality” at Sando’s…Tentative plans call for the takeout restaurant to be open five days a week, including until 3 am on Fridays and Saturdays…Which means there must be some hungry diners out there wandering the streets of Marquette at 2 am, dying for a grilled cheese sandwich.

METEOROLOGIST AND AUTHOR Karl Bohnak is trying something new…He’s running as a Republican for State Representative in the 109th District. That post is currently held by Democrat Jenn Hill who’s announced that she will be running for re-election in 2024.

“I’ve been toying with the idea of running for quite a while,” Bohnak says. “I’ve still got my health, and I’d like to serve my community.” He’ll make an official announcement of his candidacy at the Marquette Commons on Friday, January 12th…followed by an appearance in Munising that same day…then in Baraga and Norway the following day.

He’ll explain his reasons for running during those appearances. What do we know about his politics? Conservative, for the most part. In the past, 1) he’s taken a very public position arguing that man is not responsible for climate change, and 2) he was terminated from his job as chief meteorologist at TV6 more than a year ago for refusing to get a company-mandated Covid vaccination.

He’ll be a formidable candidate. When he was the TV6 weathercaster, he was arguably the best-known and most popular personality in the Upper Peninsula.

TV6 MORNING ANCHOR Pavlina Osta will soon be headed to Milwaukee where she’ll become the new weekend anchor and weekday reporter at WDJT, the CBS affiliate…She’s excited for the new challenge in a larger market, but her departure from the UP will be bittersweet…“I never thought I’d love it so much here, but I did,” she explains. “I got to reconnect with nature, and the people here have been incredible. They’ve been so nice to me.”…She’s from Florida originally, and prior to signing on with TV6, she’d been working only in radio, so the entire experience here was quite a change…Her last day on the air at TV6 is March 1st.

TOO MANY DEER, not enough hunters…That’s become a major problem in the state, according to Bridge Michigan….Officials have been trying to shrink the state’s herd of two million deer, but without much luck. Why? Because back in 2000, there were about 800,000 deer hunters; now there are only 540,000, and 100,000 of those will likely hang up their rifles in the next decade. A cultural shift, some are calling it. Younger folks are taking up other recreational pursuits…Officials are also trying to get hunters to shoot more does (to reduce the birth rate) and fewer bucks, again without much luck.

The Department of Natural Resources is also urging hunters to shoot more than one deer per person. It’s actually legal to shoot up to twelve per person…Most hunters, though, are satisfied with just one.

IT WASN’T THE most relaxing Christmas holiday that Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport Manager Duane Duray has ever spent…“It was challenging and it was distressing, especially around the holidays, since we couldn't do anything about fog,” Duray says…For four days, the airport was socked in with fog. No flights in, no flights out…Snow and ice they can handle with equipment. But fog? Not so much. Car rentals predictably soared around Christmas.

As for Sun Country Airlines, the low cost carrier that tried a single flight out of Sawyer to Nevada several weeks ago, Duray is hopeful that there are more flights ahead…Talks ongoing, but nothing is certain.

MARQUETTE COUNTY GARNERED national attention for its recent snowless Christmas…The National Weather Service determined that Marquette had experienced only its fourth “brown Christmas” since 1961, and its first Christmas without even a trace of snow on the ground since 1961…A foot of snow on the ground here is the average at Christmas, and last Christmas, there were 18 inches of snow on the ground…So, yes, this is, indeed, an extraordinarily peculiar winter so far.

A MISERY INDEX paradox…At the end of the year, you add up the inflation rate and the unemployment rate, and you come up with the Misery Index. This year, it was a remarkably low 6.8%…The average so far this century has been 8.3%…And then, when you throw in the record and near-record levels in the stock market, you have to wonder what gives?…Why do so many people think the economy’s a mess? Yeah, egg prices are high, real estate prices are high, but…It just seems that people are personally unhappy and convinced that we, as a country, have lost our way.

THE ST. VINCENT de Paul Society of Marquette is getting ready to launch a $4 million capital campaign…The money would enable St. Vinnie’s to raze one of their two buildings in north Marquette, and expand and modernize the other one…The building to be demolished is an older, decrepit building (a former school) in the back where items have been stored and sorted for years. “It’s just not safe for our volunteers,” says Karen Reese, St. Vinnie’s district president of Marquette. “It has serious ventilation problems and it might be a fire trap.”…The capital campaign will start in the Spring.

Reese says the nonprofit is also trying to update its image. Most of us think of it as just a discount store with used items. But it also helps feed the needy with a pantry, gives them financial aid, and offers a program that lends out medical devices.

MARQUETTE RESIDENT BRUCE CLOSSER IS now officially a world record holder. Guinness World Records has certified him as the oldest person to ever cross America by bicycle (male). “This wasn’t the reason for the trip,” Closser assures us, “but it took on a life of its own.”…Closser, who’s 78, recently completed the 4200 mile trip from Virginia to Oregon…His next adventure? A group bicycle ride in the Swiss Alps…with an E-BIKE!

An E-Bike…Finally the man is starting to act his age.

POEM OF THE WEEK

Peace Be Around

Peace be around thee, wherever thou rovest;
May life be for thee one summer’s day;
And all that thou wish, and all that thou lovest,
Come smiling around thy summer way.

If sorrow e’er this calm should break.
May even thy tears pass off so lightly,
Like spring showers, they will only make
The smiles that follow shine more brightly.

—Thomas Moore

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