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Five Reasons to Support the Houghton County Jail Millage
To the Editor:
Over the past 25 years, we've attended numerous meetings about the Houghton County Jail. Recently, we've both also toured the jail. Given this, we support the proposed millage for a new jail for the following reasons:
1. SPACE: Any structure can only be repaired so much before it's better to build anew. Modern jails require much that was not considered when our current jail was build 53 years ago: Internet technology; space for safely storing personal protective equipment and weapons; disability accommodations; etc. In the existing jail, staff have to edge sideways around cramped aisles due to lack of safe storage.
2. SAFETY: More space means more safety can be built in for the good of the staff, the inmates and the surrounding community. The present entry point is too small to allow staff to drive in, close the garage door and safely offload a prisoner. It also requires ushering a prisoner up a flight of stairs to a small booking hallway. Staff can be injured trying to wrangle unhappy prisoners up the stairs, and inmates have escaped during transfers.
3. SEPARATION: More beds allow for the separation of different types of prisoners. Legally, the jail must separately house females and males; juveniles and adults; lesser and serious offenders; those with mental health issues and those without; etc. Having just 28 spaces does not allow for all the necessary combinations.
4. SERVICES: More space does not mean working harder to fill the jail. New Drug-Treatment-Court options are already in place to try to divert people from the incarceration system. Sadly, however, many still need to be jailed. The new design allows space for more prisoner treatment, education and exercise options; for pre-trial defendants to speak privately with their attorneys; and for juveniles to be held in spaces sight-and-sound-separated from other prisoners.
5. SITE: Many voters do not want a jail sited in downtown Houghton. Fortunately, American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds were available to allow the purchase of a parcel on Sharon Avenue that already included utilities and an access road. By state law, the County Sheriff's office must be sited within the county seat, and the sheriff is best kept with the jail. Hence, this site was annexed into the City of Houghton.
For these reasons and more, we support this jail bond. We hope that others will do the same.
Victoria Bergvall and Craig Waddell
Houghton
Unbelievable Navy Street Expansion Continues
Editor:
The City of Hancock is moving forward with constructing a road on a narrow easement between the DNR trail and the PLCA garages on the west end of Navy Street.
Despite the substantial concerns of the Portage Lake Condominium Association and the Navy Street Townhouse Residents, a vote on giving access to the property to our west will come back again as a City of Hancock Council Item for consideration soon. There is urgency on the part of the City of Hancock Administration to have the Navy Street Expansion voted on before the November election occurs as two of the City of Hancock Council Members who are in favor of the Navy Street Expansion Project, are not running again.
How can the City of Hancock City Council "approve access for the one developer to our west" when there are critical questions to be answered? These fundamental questions are as follows:
1. There are no core samples of the City of Hancock easement to determine whether the easement is stable enough to build a road
a. It would be neglect on the part of the Hancock City Council to pass a motion to grant access without this critical information. Is the City of Hancock Easement usable?
2. There is no approved construction plan for taxpayers to view
3. The cost of the Navy Street Expansion Plan behind our PLCA garages is not determined--estimates vary from $2 million to $3 million or more
4. Snow removal is and will be a problem both for the existing Navy Street townhouse owners and the townhouse residents
5. There is a significant conflict of interest in granting this access
The entire process used by the Hancock City Council and the Navy Street Work Group was truly wrong. The Portage Lakeside Condominium Association and the Navy Street Residents are significantly impacted by the decisions of the City of Hancock Council and we have not been consulted.
Please contact the City of Hancock Manager, City of Hancock Mayor, and City of Hancock Council, Planning Commission, and Downtown Development Authority members, and express your concerns.
Above all, please attend the Hancock City Council meetings and express your concerns. This could happen to you.
I can understand the desire of the City of Hancock to develop a road behind our garages but not at the expense of existing residents.
Glenn Bugni
Hancock
Remove Trump
Editor:
At least 227 people have been killed in U.S. military strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs over the last year. These alleged "drug runners" were not captured but killed without proof. The Trump administration acted as judge, jury, and executioner in violation of the Constitution of the United States.
Also, well over a thousand civilians have died in Trump's illegal and immoral war with Iran. An estimated 120 children were killed in the February 28, 2026, airstrike on an elementary school in Minab, southern Iran.
Despite widespread public support for U.S.-funded foreign aid, the Trump administration has shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which funded the majority of U.S. humanitarian and development assistance worldwide. As many as 95 million people would lose access to basic healthcare, potentially leading to more than 3 million preventable deaths per year.
Consider COVID-19: Throughout January and February 2020, Trump's messaging frequently minimized the virus, with claims that it would "miraculously go away," which critics argue created a false sense of security and delayed state-level lockdowns. A prominent report argued that structural failures, combined with the suppression of scientific data and resistance to masking guidelines, especially from Christian fundamentalists with no concern for others, contributed to the high U.S. death toll.
All of the above, and more, show that Trump is guilty of promoting murders and unnecessary deaths at home and around the world.
Trump, a convicted felon, is a narcissistic sociopath with visions of grandeur. He exhibits all the characteristics of a fascist and the Republicans in Congress are too cowed to go against his projects and desires. His mental decline is evident in his bullying of Canada, talk of taking control of Greenland, and the insane posting of AI generated pictures of himself as a great hero.
There were images of Trump personally bombing enemy targets. There were maps showing the United States taking over other countries, a picture intimidating Canada's prime minister with a hockey stick, attacks on the "Dumocratic Party," and tributes to himself as "the Greatest President of All Time!"
Violence is a recurring theme in Trump's pictures. He relishes the idea of himself as a tough man staring down anyone who gets in his way.
Trump is the most incompetent and corrupt president in the history of the United States. He must be removed from office immediately utilizing the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.
David Keranen
Bakersfield, CA
A Poem for 9/11
When my boy was one
The Twin Towers fell
And the wars began anew.
Out of the ashes
Built on the lies of Bush/Cheney
We became inured to torture
And spit bags.
The hoods of the unseen who were shackled and water boarded
They seized the opportunity to reinvigorate a war machine
To spill blood for oil
For the lifetime of my boy
Now 26
Still living in an age of terror and hunger and loneliness
Born into fear and hatred
And an age of change: the climate, our democracy, and
Still no end to endless wars
Nancy Supanich
L'Anse, MI