Bohnak Says No, a Union at Swick?, the Cooling Real Estate Market, NMU Presidency Update, and NIL Money for Athletes

The Latest From Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell

THERE WILL BE no comeback for meteorologist Karl Bohnak on local TV….For the last several months, he’d been seriously considering taking the weather job at WZMQ, the new CBS station in town, but…no. “I just decided I didn’t want to go to an office every day and wear a suit,” he explains. He may become an occasional “contributor” to the station, however. He’s also in the process of writing another book…

Bohnak was forced to quit his longtime gig at WLUC last year when he refused to get a Covid vaccination.

It’s sure seemed like a cool summer so far in the UP, but numbers don’t bear that out, according to Bohnak…Both June and July started out cold, but overall, both months are up slightly over the yearly average. In fact, June 20th, at 94 degrees, was the hottest day measured at the National Weather Service in Negaunee since 2011.

Bohnak, of course, is well-known for his controversial views on climate change. He still doesn’t buy the view of most scientists that man is substantially responsible for the warming of the planet… “I can look at natural factors and explain it,” he says, regarding the recent deadly heat wave in the US and Europe…Three straight La Nina seasons in the Pacific Ocean have been a major factor, he claims.

YOU’VE SEEN THE yard signs around town—“Support Swick Workers”…Dean Gutzman, the business representative of the plumbers and pipe fitters union, explains: “We’ve been trying to talk to the ownership at Swick for years, and now we’re talking to the employees, one on one.”…If the union can draw enough interest from the approximately 36 Swick workers, they’d file with the National Labor Relations Board to force a vote…

Several Swick employees reached out to us by email and indicated they were not interested in unionizing….

And this response from Rick Gilles, the owner of Swick: “We respect our employees’ right to make their own choices, and that includes the choice of whether to work in a union workplace…we work hard to pay well, provide training, tools, resources and benefits that are among the best in the Marquette area…” Is there enough interest to start a union there? Stay tuned.

WE’VE BEEN HEARING about a national upsurge in union activity recently—at Starbucks, Uber, etc, but the numbers remain extremely low. Only 10% of American workers are union members—and the decline has been steady for the last 40 years…What’s new, however, is our view of unions. A recent survey tells us that 68% of Americans now have a favorable opinion of unions. Back in 2009, only 48% of us viewed unions favorably.

THE REAL ESTATE market in Marquette County is cooling, ever so slightly… “The market remains robust,” says broker Carol Vining Moore of EXP Realty, “but I do think we’re in for a little bit of a downtrim.” …The inventory of homes on the market in June of 2022 was half of what it was in June of 2021…Sales were also down…Time on the market? About 50 days for both years…List and sales price were 100% for both months (ie on average, sellers got what they were asking for)…Average sales price in June 2021 for Marquette County: $170,000. Average sales price in June 2022: $225,000…A healthy increase.

So why the “downtrim”? Mortgage rates continue to climb, fall and winter are arriving sooner than we think, and the inventory is way down—you’re not going to sell your house if you can’t find another house to buy.  

The most expensive home this year (actually, the sale is pending): $1,175,000. It’s a cozy, little shack on Marquette’s Eastside.

SO, MAYBE YOU’RE looking for a nice 4 bedroom, 4 bath home in the heart of Marquette. Almost 5,000 square feet on an acre of land? We got it for you at $630,000—seems like a reasonable price…It’s actually the Kaye House, home of NMU presidents in recent years, but the university has decided to go in another direction—a housing stipend, instead, so that the president can choose his/her own place. That’s been the trend with other universities.

SPEAKING OF NMU presidents, applications for the job are still open, until August 1st. After which the Board will select semifinalists and conduct Zoom interviews before the fall semester begins….Final on-campus interviews in mid-September, and the selection of the new president to be announced on September 26th…If all goes according to plan. 

LOOKS LIKE WE LOVE absentee voting in Michigan…As of Tuesday, according to Bridge Michigan, more than one million of us have asked for absentee ballot applications in the November election—that’s up from 550,000 who asked to vote absentee in 2018….In the 2020 election, 57% of us voted with absentee ballots…There’s been pushback against the practice but it seems like it’s here to stay. Main reason: convenience.

SEEMS UNLIKELY THAT the NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) controversy that’s been roiling college sports will have much impact on NMU and its rivals…Background: a court has ruled that college athletes can work out deals with businesses so that athletes get paid in return for their association with the businesses (advertising and such)…So, a bidding war for top athletes at top colleges has ensued...High school kids being promised hundreds of thousands of dollars, in some cases, to sign with a certain university…That certainly couldn’t lead to corruption, could it???

A big deal at NMU? Not so much...“Several businesses have approached NMU athletes, but activity in the NIL space here has been minimal,” says NMU Athletic Director Forrest Karr….Most, if not all, of the interest here has come from national companies…By the way, Karr supports the idea of financially supporting the athletes, though, like many observers, he has concerns about the free-wheeling manner in which NIL has been rolled out…Dollars seem to trump almost everything else in our society.

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