8/21/2024

MINOCQUA - A 71-year-old woman is dead after a vehicle / bicycle crash on US highway 51 near Minocqua yesterday afternoon.  The Minocqua Police Department responded to the crash just before 1:00 yesterday near the intersection of US HWY 51 South and Timber Ridge Road. The bicyclist, 71 from Oconomowoc, was pronounced dead at the scene and the driver of the vehicle, only being identified as a 20-year-old from Minocqua, was transported to the Howard Young Medical Center for injuries sustained during the crash.  This incident is still under investigation and specific details of the crash are not being released currently.

8/21/2024

IRONWOOD - The Superior Health Foundation Board of Directors approved 13 new grants totaling $271,549 aimed at improving health across the Upper Peninsula. Gogebic Community College received a grant to enhance EMS offerings in its service area, which includes Ontonagon County. The grant will reduce EMS student travel cost barriers by providing local training lab opportunities, which are currently only offered in Ironwood. This project aims to reduce the cost of EMS education while helping place more EMS providers in high-need regions in the Western U.P. A grant to the City of Marquette will train more instructors in the Asahi Nordic’s Fall Prevention Program in Marquette, Baraga, and Houghton Counties, increasing the number of older adults with access to the program. For more information, go to shf@superiorhealthfoundation.org.

8/21/2024

ONTONAGON - The Ontonagon Township Board has moved forward with a plan to establish a critical access hospital in the area. Since Aspirus Ontonagon closed its doors this past April, county officials have been searching for solutions to the lack of health care in the area. The township board accepted a donation of the former Maple Manor Nursing Center to be used as a critical care center where patients can be stabilized and sent to other hospitals. Renovations are being made to the building courtesy of business owner Norman Pestka, who says he’s funding the work because he cares about the community. The township also has plans to put out a request for proposals for a non-profit medical team to staff the center. The goal is to open the center by 2027