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Race director announces 2020 CopperDog

Daily Mining Gazette photo file The CopperDog 150 annual dog sled race is returning to Calumet this February, with the race beginning Feb. 28, and games and events scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 29.

CALUMET — CopperDog 150 will begin on Friday, Feb. 28, this year, and conclude on Sunday, March first, Jeff Foss told the Village Council last Tuesday.

Foss, race director of the annual dog sled race, addressed the Village Council at its regular meeting and said he put together a proposal for the consideration of the trustees’ consideration.

“As we do every year, we plan to close down Fifth Street with our snow road,” he said.

The proposal calls for the construction of the snow road to begin at 3 a.m. on the day of the race, then have it removed by 4 p.m. on March 1.

As in past years, the organization will also contribute $1,000 to the village to defray the cost of installing the snow road. CopperDog will have a private contractor remove the road on Sunday.

The proposal also includes a list of side streets requested for closure, which are Scott, Portland, Oak and Elm streets. Foss said there is a defined time frame in which those streets must be closed. The times would be approximately 3-10 p.m. on Friday, then again on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at which time the contractors would remove the snow road.

The race purse this year is $26,000 for first through 10th places, with First Place being awarded $7,500. The goal is for 25 registered teams.

Foss told the council that race organizers last year anticipated a turnout of approximately 4,000 spectators, and they are anticipating around that number again, contingent on weather conditions.

“This has been an on-going thing, and it keeps growing every year,” he told the council. “It dips up and dips down a little bit, depending on the weather, but I think we hit pretty close to 5,000 at our peak so far, and I don’t see that going anywhere.”

Village President Dave Geisler told Foss that CopperDog is the best thing that happens all year to the village.

“I’ve talked to business owners,” Foss replied, “and they’ve said it’s by far their biggest money maker of the year.”

Trustee Doug Harrer said there was is one thing he wanted everyone to understand from the beginning.

“Normally, we’ve donated more money,” said Trustee Doug Harrer. “We’ve donated for police coverage in the past, but of course, this year we don’t have police coverage, so we took that out, and I believe we’ve given $12 or $1,400 in the past, donated to the village.”

Harrer said he has suggested to Foss, and to the council, that the amount be decreased this year, because the village’s contractors build the snow road.

“They do a lot of work for us, and generally what happens is we’re using a few dump truck loads, and that’s about it,” explained Harrer. “We’re really not using our equipment as much as we have over the years. So, just so everyone knows, just so everyone’s clear, it’s about $400 less than what we did last year.”

The council voted unanimously to adopt the proposal.

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