Masonic Building Sold, Campfire CoWorks Closing, 44 Nickname Possibilities, Marvelous Concerts, a Publicity-Shy Tenor, and Dinners at $450 a Plate
The Latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell
IT TOOK A while, but the Masonic Building, home to about 20 businesses, most of them arts-related, has finally been sold. The new owner, Northarrow LLC, closes on the deal today (Friday)…Northarrow partners are Rusty Northrup and Sam Garrow who own Marquette Fence Company and other local properties…“We’re going to continue to partner with MATI (Masonic Arts, Theatre & Innovation Company),” says Northrup, “and we’re going to honor all current leases, and keep the theaters and the commercial kitchen.” They also plan to promote the Masonic more as a wedding venue in the future…Bottom line: nothing much is going to change for now…Most important: They’re not going to convert the Masonic to condos!
But hold off on the cheering because we also get word that Campfire CoWorks—a 4-year-old, forward-thinking business in the Masonic, is closing at the end of the month…Mike Gorski, one of the co-founders of Campfire, says he and his partners weren’t thrilled with the management of the building—“a misalignment of of values and priorities,” he called it—and rumors of its imminent sale were hurting the business.
So, what happens to the space being vacated by Campfire? Northrup and Garrow plan to keep a few offices open for weekly or monthly rent, but the bulk of the space will go to another tenant…Talks underway. One possibility: I Love Marquette, the clothing and souvenir store from down the street—not really arts-related—might move in.
THE ABSENCE OF snow has created a problem for Travel Marquette which, traditionally, has hung its hat on the attractive recreation possibilities that Marquette County offers…So, they’re now looking at promoting Marquette more as an arts and culture center…“It came out of strategic planning,” says Susan Estler, the Travel Marquette executive director. “We knew we wanted to diversify our focus so that it wasn’t just about outdoor recreation. We want to give people more reasons to visit Marquette.”
And the fact is, Marquette, with a huge helping hand from NMU, is becoming an arts and culture center with multiple galleries in town, a few theater groups, a symphony and orchestras, magnificent choral groups, arts festivals…and murals! Huge murals spread all over town. And several live music venues throughout Marquette County…What’s more, we’re seeing that more artists, artisans, and writers are settling here…Real estate prices may be climbing in town but they’re still better than in Chicago, New York, or San Francisco…And the vibe here, needless to say, is more calming than it is in the big cities. The scenery ain’t bad, either.
CLIMATE CHANGE…Yeah, we can continue to argue about how much man has contributed to it (50%? 90%? Not at all?), but we certainly can’t deny it’s happening. It’s right there at our front door, and it’s right there in the global calculations by a vast majority of esteemed climate scientists…Heck, upon reconsideration, we’re going to delete the previous few lines so that the feverish online climate warriors, ready at their keyboards, don’t work themselves into a lather…No, what the heck. We’ll just leave it.
THE NICKNAME SAGA continues…The MAPS Board of Education received 2000 suggestions from the community for a new mascot name for Marquette Senior High School…They checked for duplicates (there were many) and names that were inappropriate, and whittled the number down to about 350…They’re now sending those 350 proposed names to the 44 high school homerooms, eight to each class. Each class will vote for their number one favorite, and then those 44 names will be sent back to the Board for its final decision…“I’ve taken a good look at the names that we sent to the high school,” says Board chairperson Kristen Cambensy, “and I think there are quite a few that would work well.”
Three-hundred-fifty different names? We’ve got some creative folks in town…Final decision by the Board is expected in January.
BIG CHANGE AT UPHS-Marquette…Tonya Darner, the interim CEO and former COO at the hospital, has been named permanent CEO. She has impressive credentials, including 20 years in the Air Force, but she inherits a hospital with a somewhat shaky local reputation…Can she attract more specialists to the hospital, fix the Emergency Department, and ease the burnout rate among nurses? We hope so…Skeptics will tell you, though, that the strings are actually being pulled by the corporate officials in Tennessee. Let’s hope they’re wrong.
A BIGGER ROLE for the Marshfield Clinic Health System in the UP in the future? Maybe…They bought a large, well established practice at the Med Center back in March—14 providers in all…They installed a new records system and made a few personnel changes, but have adapted well…They, like UPHS, are trying to recruit more specialists for their clinic…“There’s a lot of opportunity here,” says Joe Rizzo, the director of public relations and business outreach. “We want to broaden our reach and expand our services to the community.”
Marshfield has more than 50 locations in Wisconsin and one in Dickinson County, as well as Marquette. One cautionary note: Marshfield has also been experiencing financial and operational difficulties in the past year…Sounds familiar.
RETIREMENT? NAAH. NOT for Pam Christensen, the former director of the Peter White Public Library, the director of the Superiorland Library Cooperative, and the manager of the West End Health Foundation…She retired a couple of years ago, but now she’s become one of the primary writers for Silent Sports Magazine, based in Wisconsin. They were looking for someone to cover the active and varied silent sports scene in the UP, and they found a former librarian who is a skilled writer. “I love living in the UP, I love writing, and this allows me to tell stories about our little corner of the world,” Christensen says…She’ll be writing at least one Silent Sports article every month, except for February, over the next year.
AGAIN, THE LEVEL of talent in this little burg of 21,000 residents astounds us…The Symphony’s sold-out Christmas concert last weekend was top notch…The orchestra was superb as were the two soloists, Kristen Beth Williams and Darrius Morton. Both, with national reputations, have settled in Marquette. Amazing.
Morton will sing again this Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon at the Marquette Choral Society’s concert at Kaufman Auditorium. He’s an operatic tenor. A stunning voice. Gives you the chills…“My reason for moving to Marquette was to start a family and prioritize them, while serving God with the gifts I have been given,” he says…A modest man, prodigiously talented, who prefers to sing without shining the spotlight on himself. Refreshing.
About the Choral Society’s concert this weekend—It’s titled “Transcendence”. It’s sacred music, choral director Erin Colwitz explains, but not necessarily Christmas music…“The soloists are stellar (four of them), the chorus (100 strong) is fantastic, and the 30-piece orchestra is great,” says Colwitz who, year after year, blesses us with remarkable music.
“WE’LL BE FACING a lot of pressure to give them a unique and memorable experience but we’re looking forward to it.” That’s Kristin Tessman, the First Lady of NMU, describing the dinners they’ll be preparing for two separate groups of eight over the next few months…Why the pressure? Because Tessman and her husband Brock, the President of NMU, auctioned off the dinners at last week’s UP Children’s Museum Art Auction…and the spirited auction soared all the way up to $3600 for each group! That comes to a piddling $450 for each dining guest and $7200 raised for the museum…The menus for the two groups haven’t been decided yet. The Tessmans are waiting for their guests to tell them what kind of cuisine—Indian? Italian? Vietnamese? Brazilian?—they want, and then they’ll provide an unforgettable meal and experience…So, no pressure at all.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly."
— Stephen R. Covey
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What an incredible misstep to lose the Coworking space and shift it to a terrible souvenir shop. Business as usual for the Masonic is so disappointing.
You think if the I♥️Marquette shop moves over they can fix their signage spelling mistakes??? Has driven me nuts for YEARS.