PicoBlog

MEXICAN FOOD RETURNING to Downtown Marquette? Absolutely. The deal to convert what was formerly The Marq to El Santo Tacos and Tequila closed last Friday…Carlos Romo and his partners, who also own La Catrina out in the Township, hope to open El Santo within three months…The Health Department has to sign off on the kitchen…new equipment, including a tortilla-maker, needs to be brought in…and the overall atmosphere of the restaurant has to be given, of course, a Mexican theme.

BIG CHANGES OCCURRING at the recently acquired Masonic Center downtown. Looks like more of a focus on picking up foot traffic inside the building, and less on the arts and innovation…Specifically, what was once Campfire CoWorks will now be three separate businesses—a candy shop, Anchor Church (a small congregation), and Office Suites, renting office space by the month…

Also moving into the Masonic is Four Swords, a retro video game parlor also offering ramen, and possibly alcohol in the future…Aurora Piercing, relocating from up the street…and Chicago Beefs, a Houghton-based sandwich shop that’s been looking for a home in Marquette…

Northarrow LLC, which bought the building, is making other, much needed changes. “We’re doing upgrades on the boiler and AC,” says co-owner Rusty Northrup. “And we’re telling the cleaning ladies, ‘Floors and bathrooms!’ ‘Floors and bathrooms!’” Lack of cleanliness has been a major criticism of the Masonic in the past.

ENCOURAGING NEWS for Michigan, according to Bridge Michigan. The percentage of high school graduates enrolling in four-year colleges has increased for the first time in years…Here are the numbers for local high schools: Marquette Senior High School is sending 74% of its graduates to a 4-year college…Negaunee High School sends 58%…Ishpeming High School is at 40%…Westwood High School is at 41%…And Gwinn Middle/High School is at 44%.

IS NMU TOO expensive? You might want to re-think that, especially if your high school graduate is coming from a lower income family…NMU is now offering the NMU Tuition Advantage program which guarantees that any tuition expenses not covered for those students by the federal or state government will be picked up by the university itself…Tuition now costs about $14,000 a year, so that’s a pretty hefty savings…“It’s all about access for the students and their families,” says Kari Garcia, the director of admissions at NMU. “We know that a college education can change lives.”Families can start the process of applying for financial aid by logging onto FAFSA.gov

STYMIED. THAT’S HOW to best describe the plight of Jeremy Johnson and his two partners who, four years ago, bought a pristine 80-acre tract of land a few miles south of downtown Marquette, with the intent of converting it to a rustic, tents-only campground…Great idea, but—the Michigan Department of Transportation wasn’t enthused because the narrow access road off of US 41 (near the Rock Cut) to the campground was not intended for commercial use…An attempt to buy some adjacent land fell through when the owner suddenly raised the price…and an attempt to get an easement for a road near the prison also failed when the Department of Corrections turned thumbs-down…

“We’ve been trying to do everything right, we want to open up this land (for 50 campsites and hiking) to the public,” says Johnson, “but we’re being blocked by two state agencies.” Namely MDOT and the DOC…State senator Ed McBroom, and Invest UP, led by Marty Fittante, are trying to forge a path through the bureaucratic blockade.

LESS DRIVING AND a more walkable streetscape. That seems to be the vision of Marquette’s new Master Plan which was recently revealed to the public in its draft form…Doug Garrison’s Word on the Street lays it out very well…Higher density, better access to businesses, better use of vacant properties, and more public transit are other priorities…Of course, the Master Plan is only a vision, a goal, a hope…It’s up to the citizens and city officials to actually make it happen.

BYE BYE, CAREER…Hello, retirement!…The U.S. now has 2.7 million more retirees than expected, according to a recent economic report and Axios. And the numbers are still increasing…We’d all heard that the pandemic had persuaded many older workers to accept early retirement. And now, it turns out, that trend is continuing…Reasons? Higher stock market returns and increasing asset values (eg home prices).

WE KNEW THEY were good. They might actually be great…The Marquette Senior High School Sentinels boys basketball team has now won sixteen straight games to finish at 19-3 on the regular season after a shaky start. “We went back to fundamentals, we got a lot more physical, and the boys all bought into it,” explains head coach Rich Ledy, now in his second season with the boys’ varsity…He’d spent the previous 18 years as a girls’ coach…The Sentinels open the District playoffs against Gaylord on Wednesday.

COMING UP—THE 7th annual “Spread Goodness Day” on March 8th…“It’s coming together well and I’m doing what I can,” says Anna Dravland, the founder of the annual event…The idea is to get groups and individuals to go out of their way to do something kind, something helpful for at least this one day of the year…Dravland, of course, has undergone major health challenges of her own during this seven year run, but she powers on…Spread Goodness Day, in one form or another, has spread to about 25 states and dozens of communities. And it started right here in Marquette, in the mind and the heart of one remarkable young woman.

REASON #342 WHY we love Marquette…It’s 6:45 pm Thursday and after dinner, you read that the NMU and Michigan Tech choirs are holding a joint concert at St. Peters Cathedral that evening…Nice, really nice, but then you move on to another story on your iPad…But then your spouse, who’s washing the dishes, casually mentions, “Well, you know, we could go to the concert.” Really?? Well, yes, it starts at 7:30, and this is, after all, Marquette…So you pause to consider it.

Twenty minutes later, you’re in your car heading for the cathedral which is thirteen minutes away…Parking is free, the concert is free (donations requested), and you seat yourself with 250 other music lovers…And what you’re treated to over the next hour is spectacular choral music—soaring pieces, haunting pieces, incredibly complex and perfect harmonies…A spiritual journey even for those not given to spiritual journeys…And afterwards, you walk out of the glorious cathedral into the brisk evening air with those voices—those heavenly voices—still singing in your head.

POEM OF THE WEEK

Orpheus

Orpheus with his lute made trees
And the mountain tops that freeze
   Bow themselves when he did sing:
To his music plants and flowers
Ever sprung; as sun and showers
   There had made a lasting spring.

Every thing that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,
   Hung their heads and then lay by.
In sweet music is such art,
   Killing care and grief of heart
   Fall asleep, or hearing, die.

—William Shakespeare

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