WHERE HAVE ALL the florists gone? Forsberg Flowers on Front Street moved out a couple of weeks ago and has relocated to the Crossroads, in the building formerly occupied by Cannabis Lupus…Why the move out of a prime downtown location where business seemed robust? “We cover a very large area,” says owner Erika Kantola, “and our new shop is more centrally located. And there’s so much traffic coming by here every day.”
Forsberg’s departure follows the closing of Flower Works on Third Street last year, which leaves Lutey’s Flower Shop as the only full-time florist in town.
One more thing: Kantola says they’ll be starting a new farmers market on Friday evenings in their parking lot at the Crossroads, likely in June. About a dozen vendors have signed up for the market so far. The Marquette Farmers Market downtown, by the way, debuts on Saturday, May 16th.
FORSBERG MOVED OUT of the building it had been sharing with Bluff Street Station, the new events venue that’s still under renovation. Their first event is scheduled for June 13th, but the building, which has all sorts of promise, looks to be far from ready. So, is Bluff Street director Amanda Knaffla getting any sleep these days? “No, I’m not!” she says, laughing. “Not at all! But we’re excited about the progress and we’ll get it done.” Bookings are already building up for later in the summer. Bluff Street will be able to handle events of up to 200 people…And eventually, Knaffla says, the events venue will also be taking over the space vacated by the flower shop.
MARQUETTE’S NEW TRAILHEAD at the site of the former LSCP building will be open to the public in October. Meantime, the Arts and Culture staff will be moving into the building in June while construction around the site is still underway…What will we find at the new, gussied up trailhead? A fireside room, a community space for gatherings, a deck overlooking the lake, improved walkways, public art, landscape art, rest rooms, and more…“It’ll be a warm and inviting space infused with local art,” says Tiina Morin, the manager of the Office of Arts and Culture. “It’ll tell the story of Marquette and our local artists.”
TALK ABOUT A turnaround…It’s a new season for the Marquette Golf Club, with Heritage opening up last week (Brrr!), and Greywalls likely to open in the next two weeks. Clean-up from the winter storms still taking place…But it’s the club’s financial situation that is the story here…More than a decade ago, it was on the brink of bankruptcy, with preliminary talk about selling off some of the golf course property to the new hospital…Well, this year, the club is capping the combined membership for Greywalls and Heritage; they’ll start a waiting list for wannabe members.
Why the dramatic reversal of fortune? Two main reasons: Sound financial decisions made by Marquette Golf Club officials over the last decade, and the remarkable appeal of Greywalls to downstate and out-of-state golfers.
HERE’S ANOTHER COMEBACK story…WNMU TV and WNMU FM were broadsided last year when Congress and President Trump decided to end funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting…That meant our local public TV and radio stations suddenly lost more than $1 million dollars—one third of their total annual budget. Disastrous…“It was a significant blow but we’re working through it,” says Patrick Lakenen, the director of broadcast and audio visual at WNMU. “We’ve managed to get some cost reductions with our regional and national providers.” They also received a one-time grant of $576,000 from the Public Media Bridge Fund, and they’ve left some staff positions open. Amazingly, though, they never laid anybody off.
Since the grant was for one year only, the stations will still face serious challenges in the years ahead. What will keep them afloat? Continued financial support from the local community which Lakenen says has been incredibly generous.
PROGRESS ON THE new dog park in north Marquette…Looks like the Lake Superior Community Partnership Fund will partner with the Marquette Dog Park Friends group to aid in fundraising and building the new park…The group is meeting every two weeks at the library to plan the design, funding, and media outreach for the new park…Jon Swenson, Marquette’s Director of Community Services, is working closely with the group…The hoped-for opening of the new park? The summer of 2027.
SOMETHING THAT WE’VE learned here at MAT—When aspiring developers or business owners tell you they’re planning to open up by a specific date, add another six months to that date. Business conditions change, construction slows, unexpected problems pop up…So it goes with Earl E Byrds, the Front Street diner that, a while back, was scheduled to open its doors a month or so ago…Now, according to co-owner Tom Dolaskie, it’ll be late June or July. Why the delay? He wants to do it right. “We can’t just go in there and slap some lipstick on it, and call it Earl E Byrds,” he explains. “It’s gotta be different. It’s gotta be compelling.” So we’ll wait for a few more months.
Same thing with the Gallery Coffee Company which Dolaskie and his partners will be locating at the corner of Washington and Front Streets…An uncertain opening date for Gallery—maybe…hopefully…sometime this summer.
“CONSTRUCTION IS WRAPPING up, and we’re expecting to open in mid-July.” That’s the latest from Fairfield Inn and Suites GM Lynne Stiebe on Towneplace Suites, the new 53-room hotel on the Fairfield property…The Fairfield and Towneplace will be operated jointly, but Towneplace, with kitchens, will place a greater emphasis on longer stays…The two hotels will share a lobby, fitness center, bar, and breakfast room…Stiebe says Towneplace will also feature a rooftop deck with an “amazing view” of Lake Superior.
BACK IN OUR DAY, (Okay, Boomer…), students were “held back” a year if they couldn’t keep up with the rest of their classmates. They had to repeat third grade, for example. No “social promotions”…Doesn’t happen much anymore…Well, in Mississippi, they have re-instituted that practice, and it’s shown dramatic results: their fourth graders used to rank at the bottom of reading rankings nationwide. Now, Mississippi ranks ninth…Meantime, in Michigan, which does allow social promotions, fourth graders’ reading skills rank a dismal 44th in the country…So, does this prove that holding back struggling third graders a year makes them better readers? No, but it certainly seems like it’s something we should consider. Education officials and legislators here are now doing just that.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark."
—Victor Hugo
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