Gazette file photo The Laurium Village Hall is seen in this undated file photo. Laurium has entered into an exchange with Wakefield in an exchange offered by the Michigan Municipal League.

LAURIUM – The village recently learned it has been awarded a space in a competitive community exchange program offered by the Michigan Municipal League (MML).

The U.P. Community Exchange Program pairs U.P. communities to share resources and ideas. The program, along with others like the Business Alliance Program, helps municipalities build partnerships, share best practices, and improve community wealth building.

Designed for Upper Peninsula municipal leaders to engage in peer-to-peer networking and shared learning, programs often focus on sustainability through the Michigan Green Communities network or economic development through local business partnerships.

Village Manager Ian Lewis said Laurium has been paired with the town of Wakefield, in Gogebic County.

“Essentially, we go there, they come here,” he said. “We discuss what’s going on in their community and what’s going on in our community. The goal is to try and show other communities that, even if you’re smaller and rural, you can still do big things in your community.”

Lewis said Wakefield shares many similarities with Laurium, and there is much the two municipalities can learn from each other.

“I’m familiar with Wakefield,” Lewis said. “Having family on the Gogebic Range, and being from that area originally, my whole family was, so, I think what we look forward to seeing is they’re a really small community. They have Sunday Lake, which is a great asset to their community.”

“How do they play off the assets that they have? How are they rebuilding their downtown, which is fairly similar to ours?”

Lewis said he looks forward to learning how Wakefield is approaching its downtown and bringing businesses back to the area.

We’re working on bringing businesses back here,” said Lewis. “We just got word that a little cafe is coming to Laurium, a breakfast and lunch cafe, it sounds like.”

Another area of information exchange is recreation, Lewis said.

Lewis said Wakefield is community similar to Laurium. Wakefield has a recreation area at Sunday Lake, which includes a small campground, something Laurium has flirted with in the past.

“Perhaps create a number of camping spots near the Gipp Recreation Area,” he said, “something that could generate revenue. So I’d be curious how Wakefield manages that – how they take care of it.”

Lewis said he believes Wakefield can potentially take away from Laurium as much as it contributes, especially in the area of recreation.

“We’re a little community that just got an ice rink,” he said. “We’ve been getting a lot of grant funding. Where are some resources? How can we help them? Maybe they’re looking for resources and just don’t know where to go. We can put our two communities together and try to get even more funding for our communities.”

One example Lewis suggests is a splash pad in their recreation area. Laurium has secured grant funding and donations for a splash pad, which should be completed and open to the public this summer.

“I think we’re all anxious to discuss recreation,” said Lewis, “but also how can we create better atmospheres in our downtown districts and how can we bring businesses back.”