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February 2008
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From the Western UP Convention & Visitor Center (http://www.westernup.com)
CURRENT SNOW DEPTHS: 19 inches
LATEST SNOW AND WEATHER: Forecast looking good with cold nights and mild days. We have a little more fresh snow, super bases, great grooming and the entire western U.P. Trail System is just about as good as it gets. If you're planning one trip, don't hesitate to head on up.
CURRENT TRAIL CONDITIONS: Nothing has really changed...Trails across the whole area overall are Good to Very Good to Excellent. All depends when and where you choose to ride. They really are in primo condition.
From the Gogebic Range Trail Authority: All groomers out on all trails; trail 2 is freshly groomed and good to very good condition. The rest of the trails are in very good condition.
From Lake Gogebic: All groomers out on the entire system everyday and conditions reported very good.
Silver City: Plenty of new snow has trails in very good condition.
Ontonagon: tells us with more fresh snow trails are groomed and in very good condition.
Watersmeet: has all trails in great shape and trails are in very good condition.
Bruce Crossing: Trails good to very good; watch for icy corners.
BE AWARE: Tickets are being issued for illegal behavior and sleds, including trespassing, not stopping at stop signs, riding illegal railroad grades and loud or altered exhausts. Just obey the laws and you'll be fine. As always, check with your lodging facility on ice depth and conditions before venturing out on any Lake. Big Snow Country trails are the best they've been in years- Don't miss out these outstanding conditions...Come on up-have fun-be safe!
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On February 14th, Ironwood city officials received a check for $130,718 for Phase II of Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm's façade improvement initiative to help fix up downtown areas. To briefly recap from a blog a week or so ago: Nine building will be refurbished. The city expects to award bids on all the projects in Phase I and II later in February and two projects have been completed to date.
To continue with positive downtown Ironwood news, make a note to check out an article in the Ironwood Daily Globe Progress Edition scheduled for publication on February 28th. Deb Gotham, one of the many hard working and dedicated individuals involved with the Historic Ironwood Theatre has written the article.
The Theatre operates as an independent, non-profit organization, which leases the building from the City of Ironwood. It receives no local tax for its support, so assumes all operating and maintenance costs. This is funded by ticket sales, user fees, a number of fundraising events,  local business support and a grant given by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affiairs.
The theater was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1985, and in 1986 the Downtown Ironwood Development Authority (DIDA) was awarded a grant by the State of Michigan to begin an extensive renovation process to the Theatre. Completed renovations include the seats in the main auditorium and balcony, carpeting, restoration of the ceiling mural, wall and beam decorations. There is also a new stage floor, heating and state of the art lighting and sound systems.
Two other important "restorations" within the Theatre is of the Barton Organ and the  Proscenium Mural, both pictured here. Read more about both these beautiful features of the Ironwood Theatre and see more and larger photos of the organ, mural and all the renovation process at www.IronwoodTheatre.net/theatre_history.html.
….and in the spirit of full disclosure: the author of this Blog also maintains the theatre's web site!
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If you're planning a trip to Ironwood or Hurley over the long President's Day weekend here is the weather and trail conditions report thanks to the Western U.P. Convention and Visitors Bureau.
LATEST SNOW AND WEATHER: The snow on the ground at the Ironwood measuring station is now officially 15"...Forecast normal and President's weekend looks like a super time to come play. CURRENT TRAIL CONDITIONS: Snow, Cold and Lighter than usual traffic has the trails in great shape. From the Gogebic Range Trail Authority: All groomers out - trail 2 freshly groomed and good-rest of system said to have good snow and in real good shape.
From Lake Gogebic: All groomers out on the entire system and conditions reported good to very good. Heads up! You MUST follow the rules if you don't want a ticket. This means STOP at Stop Signs-rolling stops do not count. Stop. Tickets are being issued. Also-it is illegal to ride active railroad grades-ditto about the tickets. Silver City: Plenty of new snow has trails in very good condition. Trail 1 from White Pine to Silver City and to the Ski Hill still have a few icy patches under the snow. Ontonagon tells us trails are groomed and in good to very good condition. Watersmeet has all trails in great shape and trails are in very good condition. We are continually hearing our Big Snow Country trails are the best they've been in years- PLEASE NOTE: As always, you need to check with your lodging facility on ice depth and conditions before venturing out on any Lake. Don't miss out the outstanding conditions...Come on up-have fun-be safe!
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We’ve all heard the old adage of “real estate is all about location, location, location” right? Well, twice in the past 2 weeks, real estate became all about location to me, in a very personal way! The outside walls to both bathrooms in my house face west and I learned the hard way about frozen pipes.
On January 29th, Ironwood and Hurley had sub-zero temperatures with a wind chill of -52 (severe NW winds); I woke up to a non-functioning sink in my upstairs bath. A couple hours later I was dealing with a burst pipe and water pouring into a downstairs bedroom closet, down through the heat ducts and a rainfall in my basement! After a minute of running around the house in a panic, I thought to shut off the main water valve into the house and the rainfall stopped shortly afterwards.
Once the contractor I generally use for home improvement and fixits showed up, he gave me the bad news that I don’t have any way to access my plumbing. So we started by sawing a hole in my bedroom wall, which backs up to the bathroom sink and found out that the pipes we could reach there were fine, but the rest of the pipes were underneath the bathroom floor. Fortunately, we could cut a hole in the downstairs bedroom closet and he got to the burst pipe to make the fix. He filled the cavity with spray foam insulation and made access panels for the holes in the walls. I had to wash down walls and windows from all the super fine plaster dust that happened from cutting and got the carpets cleaned too.
On February 9th, Ironwood again had sub-zero weather with massive NW winds and a wind chill of more than -40. I woke up around 2:30 am, heard the wind and thought perhaps I should turn on the bathroom sink faucet, just to make sure. Oops, already frozen. I just shut off the main valve and went back to bed. Thankfully, my contractor will work on Sundays and he was able to open the access panel, use a hair dryer to thaw the pipe and get my water running again.
And why did the pipes freeze? This is my 3rd winter in the house and we’ve had weather like this before. Best we can figure out is that I have an exhaust fan mounted on the upper part of the wall in my downstairs bathroom and when the wind hit in the right direction it swirled through that and up a couple of feet to the pipes upstairs. And based on how my walls feel to the touch, it’s pretty obvious I don’t have the best insulation between the walls and the siding on the house!
We thought the foam insulation he added would work and it turned out the cavity he had filled was OK, but the cold air moved into another cavity between the upstairs floor and downstairs ceiling. So for a temporary fix (it being a Sunday), we stuffed all the openings with several of my dog’s kennel pads and I’ll leave the faucet running very slowly. Once the weather warms up enough (hopefully in the next couple of days) he’ll take a look at creating some sort of cover for the exhaust vent on the outside of the house and will insulate further into pipes.
Moral of this story? If you live here already, own a recreational property, or are looking at moving to the “great up north” make sure you know where your main water valve is; make sure you know how to turn off the water to sinks and toilets and that the handles aren’t so rusted/corroded that you can’t; think about where your pipes are located – inside walls or outside walls and can you access them in a hurry; find out how much insulation is in your house; check how much draft you get from your windows – basement windows too; and most importantly, make sure you’ve paid the premium on your home owners’ insurance policy!
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Our local Ironwood Daily Globe reports that the city will receive a $130,718 grant for phase two of the facade improvement project on Feb. 14th. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development through MHSDA issues this grant.
The grant money was applied for by the city commission for downtown storefront improvements for nine businesses. Phase one of the project has seen two projects completed from five that were approved. The grant money must be matched by the participating business. All projects require two bids, so it’s been slowing the approval process down.
Once the projects are all completed, the appearance and marketability of downtown Ironwood should be greatly improved. While the real estate business is all about location, location, location we need to couple that with desirable appearance. Not only are there many businesses downtown, but many of those businesses include 2nd story apartments. Improving outside appearances might make downtown a more attractive place to live.
Revitalizing the downtown neighborhood is important to our community. We have new businesses moving into town and hope to attract more in the future. Ironwood’s downtown is full of many unique and historical old buildings; a little facelift is all some of them need to perhaps bring a new business into the downtown streets.
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Snow Country Real Estate finished 2007 as #3 in sales volume in our MLS, but our average sales dollars were higher than anyone else within our Western Upper Peninsula board: $103,000 vs $66,000.
We are currently #2 in sales for 2008 and we're gunning for #1 by the end of the year. What's remarkable about our standing? Again, it's the average sales dollar we've generated! Our sales are averaging $142,000 vs. $54,000 within the WUPEN board.
Two of our agents (unfortunately, not me......yet!) are in the top 10 producers for the 2008. Granted, it's early in the year, but we've had a couple of record-breaking years and this just motivates us to continue the trend.
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According to the local newspaper, residents along Alfred Wright Blvd in Ironwood, MI can expect torn up streets during the summer of 2008….and given that residents selected the stretch of Al Wright from McLeod Ave to Norrie School as being one of the worst in the city during town hall meetings, I would expect most of them will be relatively happy to deal with detours and the inconvenience for a few months.
City manager, Scott Erickson said the project will include sidewalk replacement and water main and sewer rehabilitation work. It was planned for 2009, but the street is falling apart so quickly that it was decided that it needed to be taken care of a year early. Local company, Coleman Engineering got the engineering bid on "an hourly, not to exceed" basis. The project will be funded through Michigan's Department of Transportation with the state being responsible for obtaining construction bids.
Ironwood has suffered through its fair share of bad roads, but a number of them have been repaired in the past couple years and it's good to see plans for future rehab. With new people moving into our area for new jobs at the Grandview Hospital, Walmart and Walgreens, it's great to be able to tell them our community does take pride in its appearance and accessibility; that we are a progressive town worth moving into. From a personal perspective, I appreciate that any improvements in Ironwood's infrastructure make my job as a real estate agent a little easier. My sellers want to sell their home at the best possible price and living on or close to a stretch of road that's been recently upgraded helps them and my buyers (particularly the out-of-town buyers) expect to move into neighborhoods that look well maintained. I believe a disintegrating street can pull down the value of an entire neighborhood and as well, I firmly believe that a well maintained street should motivate home owners to keep their homes and yards looking nicely kept.
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