Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Laurium Village Manager Ian Lewis explains the source of confusion to the Village Council over Gipp Recreation Area property annexation.

LAURIUM – Moyle Construction is building a new $3.6 million Village of Laurium Department of Public Woks (DPW) facility near the Gipp Recreation Area. Construction was projected to begin in late 2025, with an expected completion date of this summer. Construction became delayed, however, because the property was listed under a Calumet Township zoning ordinance, even though the property has been owned by the Village of Laurium for more than 50 years.

Village Manager Ian Lewis said the discrepancy arose when the village applied to Houghton County for a building permit. One of the requirements of the application is to include the parcel identification number of the construction site. During the process it was shown that the property was listed under under a Calumet Township parcel ID number.

Lewis said he was searching through old village files for an unrelated project when he found official documents from 1970-1975 showing the property had been annexed, but it was not properly recorded either by the county or the township. Somehow, he said, the paperwork did not get from the village to the township.

“That’s what caused the issue,” said Lewis. “Laurium approved our permit, then we had to go through the township and that’s when we realized the property was not zoned for governmental building, though everything has been there for quite some time.”

Lewis said the DPW had been located at the back of the Village Hall until that facility burned down sometime in 1980s. It was at that time the DPW relocated to the former Laurium airport hangar. After the airport was closed in 1968, it was used as an ice rink until the village constructed the Bicentennial Arena, which is now the George Gipp Memorial Arena. The hangar was destroyed by fire in February, 2025.

“The annexation was completed prior to the village moving onto the property,” Lewis said, “so this is something that just gone unnoticed by Laurium, Calumet Township and Houghton County until the fire, and then we had to go through the building permit process.”

Lewis said with the recently discovered documents showing the annexation of two properties, one in 1970 and the other in 1975, the next step is to file the change of the parcel ID with at the County Courthouse, and then the Township Office. Lewis said the issue should be resolved before the regular May meeting of the Laurium Village Council.

Construction on the new DPW facility began last October, but was delayed briefly while the parcel ID and the zoning issues were being addressed. Lewis said the delay should not affect the completion date extensively.

“It delay us about a month,” he said, “but in the grand scheme of things it didn’t harm us at all.”

Lewis said without the delay, Moyle could have perhaps gotten the roof on the structure, but at the same time, perhaps not, due to frequent high winds last fall and winter.