Anchor Changes at TV6, Future Plans for Eagle Mine, Great Lakes Recovery Expansion, and an NMU Tackle with Big NFL Hopes
The Latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell
A RECENT CHANGE at TV6 seems to be working out well…Evening co-anchor Pavlina Osta has switched to the Morning News where she now co-anchors with Elizabeth Peterson. Osta had been filling in temporarily, after Alyssa Erwin left the station a couple of months ago…
“I’ve always been a morning person,” Osta says, “and I think the morning show allows me to be myself more…” It’s true--the Morning News is looser and more personality-driven. The evening newscasts, on the other hand, are more scripted, more tied to reading from the teleprompter. And teleprompter reading has not been one of Osta’s strengths so far, though she’s improved tremendously in the last year.
Her strength: she’s a dedicated and ambitious newswoman.
Most important for the station, the chemistry among the morning team—Peterson, Osta, Tia Trudgeon and Chief Meteorologist Jennifer Perez—seems solid. They know their stuff and they genuinely seem to like each other.
TV6 STILL HAS two major holes to fill—a co-anchor to replace Osta in the evening, and a sports director… “We’re getting really close on both,” says news director Andrew LaCombe. “I feel really good about both of them.”…They’re out-of-towners, he says, but not from too far away…When will they show up? When the deals are sealed.
“WE’LL DELIVER ON what we promised,” says Darby Stacey, the managing director of the Eagle Mine. “The environmental impact of the mine will be just about nil…” Stacey’s talking about the eventual closure of the Eagle Mine, outside of Big Bay—which is coming sooner than you think: 2027, in all likelihood.
Following the shutdown, Eagle’s parent company, Lundin Mining, will be charged with replanting and re-grading the area, while taking down all buildings, and eliminating all asphalt and concrete. A massive job.
The onetime controversial nickel and copper mine opened in 2014 for an expected seven year run, but then an additional rich deposit discovered later added an additional six years to the mine’s life…A further extension is not expected.
Environmental concerns aside—and we probably won’t know the true environmental impact for another 10 or 20 years—the closure of the mine will also dramatically impact the economy here. Namely, 430 workers losing their jobs (and most will stay on until the end, according to company officials)…And local vendors and contractors will lose lucrative contracts they’ve enjoyed for the last decade.
Finally, there’s the philanthropy: Eagle, during its tenure here, has given generously to the Middle College of NMU, Accelerate UP, the NTN, the UP 200 and others…It’s fair to say, however, that Lundin made out pretty well in the deal. Eagle has been a big money-maker for them, especially when nickel prices soared.
A CRAZY WINTER…Not enough snow for the UP 200, but then a week later, it starts piling up. At the National Weather Service in Negaunee, the snow total is already 200 inches, slightly more than the yearly average. Normal date for snow cover at NWS to disappear: April 9th. We’ll see…So how is summer looking, whenever it arrives? “It looks like an average summer, not too hot,” says weather guru Karl Bohnak. “There’s a lot of moisture in the West and the Plains. That should keep temperatures down here.”…Given the recent national weather craziness, though—drought, floods, unprecedented snowfalls, tornados, atmospheric rivers—it’s probably best not to take any meteorologists’ projections too seriously.
BIG CHANGES COMING to Great Lakes Recovery Centers in Marquette County…Their 36 bed facility for men and women on Wright Street will soon be for men only…Women, and women with children, will be housed at a new home now being renovated in Negaunee—formerly the Teal Lake Medical Facility which Great Lakes Recovery bought last year…”This will be a comprehensive behavioral campus,” says Great Lakes Recovery CEO Greg Toutant. “A state-of-the-art treatment facility providing whole-person care.”…Detoxing, addiction help, adolescent care, transitional housing and more, all on the same campus…In the meantime, the Wright Street facility will be geared more closely to men’s needs…
HIGH HOPES FOR for NMU tackle Jake Witt as a prospect in the upcoming NFL draft…He doesn’t come in with national acclaim, but The Athletic, a highly regarded sports publication, recently wrote a lengthy story on him… He’s 6’7”, 300 lbs, but relatively inexperienced…He used to be a tight end, and was also a star in basketball...Now, most NFL teams have contacted him because he’s remarkably athletic for a man his size—fast (4.89 in the 40), with outstanding jumping ability (37 inch vertical)…The likelihood, it seems, is that he’ll be drafted in a late round as a “project,” someone who could develop into a star as he gains experience.
(A reminder: Man About Town is a newsletter, not a blog. It arrives by email, free of charge. You can tap the Subscribe button below to sign up. Know someone who would like to subscribe? Let them know they can go to www.SubscribeToMAT.com and they can sign up there.)