Dog Park Prospects, NMU Construction, WNMU Dilemma, Whitmer's Disappointment, Downtown Facelifts, Love for Marquette, and That Crazy Cyclist

The Latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell

A NEW YEAR-ROUND dog park in Marquette may happen sooner than we had thought. City Commissioner Paul Schloegel says he’s confident, after the Commission expressed its wishes several weeks ago, that city staff will find a location for a park on either city or BLP land.

“We don’t want to put any pressure on the staff,” he says, “but they know it’s a priority in the Master Plan, and they know the Commission wants it.” A recent petition drive for a dog park also garnered hundreds of signatures.

Location? One possibility is in Tourist Park itself (the location of the wintertime dog park) where a section of the park not used by campers in the summer months might be fenced off and designated as a dog park.

When? Schloegel feels certain it can happen within a year. He emphasizes that no city funds would be used for the park; fundraising by a foundation would supply the fence and any other needed structures for the dog park.

It is surprising that in the summer of 2025, Marquette, a progressive, outdoorsy city of 21,000 people and who-knows-how-many canines, still does not have a full-time dog park.

EXPECT CONSTRUCTION OF two new NMU residence halls on either side of Presque Isle Avenue to begin at the end of the summer…They’ll replace the former Temaki and Tea, Smoothie King, and Invent NMU buildings on one side—all have been closed. And the other residence hall will fit into the space across the street now occupied by a large parking lot and some green space.

The two large four-story buildings will create a different look for that area, a changed landscape. Construction to be completed by the Fall of 2027.

Temaki and Tea, by the way, has been moved back to its original space in the Hedgecock Building. The contract for Smoothie King was not renewed.

Why the two new residence halls, you ask? Last Fall, NMU, facing a housing shortage, had to put two students in single rooms, and three students in double rooms. The university has found that more and more juniors and seniors are opting to stay on campus because of rising rents for off-campus housing.

WE COULD BE on the verge of losing NPR and PBS in the Upper Peninsula. WNMU has been ordered by President Trump to stop broadcasting NPR and PBS programming by June 30th of this year. The Executive Order characterizes government funding of news media as outdated and unnecessary, and further asserts that neither PBS nor NPR presents a fair, accurate and unbiased portrayal of news events.

WNMU gets one third of its funding—$1.1 million—from the federal government. So, it appears that it will either 1) give up its federal funding (unlikely), or 2) lose a substantial and popular part of its programming…“This is a dynamic situation with further guidance expected as well as legal review of the order,” says NMU Marketing Director Derek Hall. “The University is following these developments closely.”

NOT MUCH BANG for our buck. A recent investigative piece by Bridge Michigan reveals that since Governor Gretchen Whitmer took office in 2019, Michigan has paid $995 million in subsidies to firms that have created only 13,079 jobs with that money…That’s one-fifth the number of jobs that were promised when the incentives were handed out…102 companies have been awarded the subsidies so far—54 of them have yet to create even a single job.

FACELIFTS COMING SOON, thanks to facade grants…first to Forsberg Flowers (above) on Front Street. The new look, likely to occur in the next month or so, will replace some of the stucco in front with wood. A more woodsy, much more attractive look, we’re told, for the thriving florist.

AND THE QUEEN CITY Running Company will get a makeover after the summer season. The precise look and color not decided yet, but it’ll look something like the above rendering, according to co-owner Kevin Thomsen. Queen City, which is extremely busy now that the snow has melted and runners are hitting the trails, is also occupied with supplying and staffing a brand new store that just opened in Iron Mountain.

GUSHING PRAISE FOR Marquette from the Travel and Leisure website, in a lengthy article entitled, “Here’s Why I Keep Coming Back to this Small Lakefront Town”. It begins with “…Six hours north of Chicago, a charismatic town sits on the shores of Lake Superior…”, then continues with “For starters, to say it’s pretty up here would be an understatement…”, and “Toss in a collection of artists, creatives, thinkers and shakers, and this old mining outpost has outdone itself…”

The article goes on to list hotels, restaurants, breweries, shops, beaches and green spaces that make Marquette special…The tourism folks in town gotta be thrilled with the article; some of the old-timers, probably not so much.

HE’S AT IT again…80-year-old Bruce Closser, Marquette’s very own Energizer Bunny who bicycled 4200 miles across the U.S. east-to-west a couple of years ago, is now biking south-to-north. From Mobile, Alabama to Marquette. A mere 2600 miles this time…He figures it’ll take him about six weeks. Last we checked, he was in Mississippi. He’s documenting the journey daily on Facebook.

Recent excerpts:

“…In the first about 15 miles I dealt with 11 dogs that came out to chase me on the road. Only once did I have to get off my bike to have a discussion with the three dogs who were barking at me…”

“…While I was riding this morning, I was thinking about what I enjoy so much about bicycle touring. Many people, with whom I have spoken about it, imagine that it is mostly a suffer-fest and that I just have to endure the suffering. But that’s not at all what it is. Today was a beautiful day and I rode for several hours through rolling hills seemingly with no effort whatever. I was filled with an intense feeling of pure joy…”

A bicyclist, a humorist, a philosopher, a man filled with gratitude…Talk about a life well-lived…

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop."

—Confucius