8/22/01 - About this time last week people were stopping by the mid-county Senior center to say "goodbye" to Donna Thonne who, after ten years of working as Administrator of the center, is moving on to a new job. As of Monday she is the new Food Service Supervisor at Bay Area Medical Center in Marinette. Becky Thoune has taken over as the Center Administrator at the Daggett facility.

Live music is definitely making a comeback all over the area. There is the annual Motongator Festival in Wallace for country music fans, the Woodtick Festival in Hermansville which mixes country, bluegrass, jazz and other things, and the weekly concerts in the park in Menominee and Marinette throughout the summer. Why not something in Stephenson? Jason Parrett, Shane Johnson and John Berzsenyi decided to give it a try. They came up with the Swamp Rock Bash, featuring 20 bands providing music for the younger set, in a field about a mile east of town last weekend. The crowd was not as big as expected, what with competition with the U.P. Fair in Escanaba, and several other events, and this being their first year. Still, a lot of work went into the planning and preparation, and chances are it could grow into a major attraction in a few years.

8/14/01 - When you're used to feeding and milking over 400 cows every day you don't get too nervous about welcoming about 2,000 visitors to your farm, even if most of them expect to be served a typical farmer's breakfast. Becky and Steve Brock hosted the Breakfast On The Farm event, sponsored by the Farm Bureau, at their farm east of Daggett last weekend. It was a beautiful day and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, especially the children. There were free wagon rides and free ice cream, and lots of room to run.

Bonnie Hartzheim, her family, friends and grandchildren, twins Lynsee and Lexie Bohan, from Marinette, were there. When asked what she liked best, Lynsee thought a minute before saying, "Everything!" Her best friend, Autumn Martin, heartily agreed.

Phyllis and Art Strohl were there. They had been there before. Many times. The free ice cream cones were being handed out near the corner of the house they had built there over 50 years ago, and had lived in for the first 28 years of their married life.

Gary Klatt, his wife and grandkids were there. They too had nothing but good comments - with one exception. Gary said it was hard to get the grandchildren to leave - and they were riding on motorcycles!

8/11/01 - Kids find ways to have a good time, no matter what the weather, when it's vacation time. A group of teens attending an overnight camp out at the rustic cabins at Wells Park described the100+ temperatures as "perfect." Of course they were canoeing and kayaking, etc. Sue and Wayne Mulzer were among the adults who helped with the MSU Extension sponsored project.

Stephanie Bruno also got much praise for keeping 7 boys and 5 girls busy from 9 am to 3 pm for a whole week recently. They were learning to cook things kids like - pancakes, pizza, cookies, even made-from-scratch noodles that they twisted into various shapes.

The Holmes Township crowd has a way of making things special. Sometimes without even trying. Like the unplanned "fly-over" during the dedication of the war memorial in front of the township hall on August 5th. I wasn't there but the report is that as the National Anthlem was being played and everyone watched the flag being raised to full staff, a large Bald Eagle appeared and circled slowly directly overhead.

8/11/01 - From Bald Eagles to Woodticks - quite a switch. As the eagle represents America, so the woodtick represents the U.P. And that's not always bad. At least not for the many that attended the 2nd public Woodtick Festival on the lake in Hermansville a week ago. The music, lots of great country and bulegrass style stuff, mut have had the woodticks singing and dancing high in the trees because there were no reported sightings on the ground.

Pat and Roseanne LaRue, from Beaver, WI, and their son, Patrick, from Milwaukee, were there to check it out. One of the first things they did was buy a Woodtick Festival tee-shirt and take pictures of each other holding it. They had lived in Ohio,near the West Virginia border, before moving back to the farm where Roseanne grew up. So they know good bluegrass music. Patrick even explained the origin of it, how it came from Ireland and was blended with blues, gospel, and other styles to create it's own special sound. I have a felling they will be back in Hermansville again next year at Woodtick time.

8/3/01 - All you Stephensonites TAKE NOTICE! Starting this Monday, August 6th, the city will be testing the severe weather warning siren at noon on the first Monday of every month. It will seem loud, long, and probably irritating, but necessary. The siren will blow for one minute, pause for 30 seconds, blow for another minute, stop again for 30 seconds, and then blow a third time for one minute.

At a meeting on July 25th the city awarded the contract for the construction of the ice rink pavillion to Pride Builders of Marinette. Their bid of $267,885 was the lowest received. The total project cost is estimated to be about $310,000, which is $60,000 more than originally anticipated. The extra money will have to come from City funds. The Council agreed to go ahead with the project , with the understanding that doing so will require conservative spending over the next few years.

Council members also voted to award the design engineering job for the Menominee Street and Mill Street bridges to U.P. Engineers and Architects of Norway, MI. Their cost proposal of $39,164 was the lowest of the three bids received.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please take a minute to write H. Barb Upton.