EDITOR’S NOTE: Superiorland Yesterdays is prepared by the reference desk staff at Peter White Public Library.

30 years ago

April 29, 1993 – HANCOCK – There’s some bad news in store for 500 senior citizens in Houghton and Keweenaw counties. The state Office of Services to Aging has cut next year’s grant funds to the local senior meals program by $16,629. The program is sponsored by Keweenaw Health Resources, a subsidiary of Portage View Hospital. Program Director of Nutrition Services Ed Jenich Jr. said the cut represents 10 percent of the program’s grant money. The program receives the remainder of funding by asking recipients to contribute $1.95 for home-delivered meals and $1.75 for congregate meals. “We’ve been cut over the last three years in different categories,” Jenich said. He said the program was able to survive those cuts by restructuring. This time, there is no more fat to trim. “We’ll have to eliminate services like cutting one day a week or cutting routes,” he said. The program serves 500 meals daily: 300 are home-delivered on 11 routes and 200 are served at 12 congregate sites. The program has 35 part-time employees and serves meals as far north as Mohawk and as far south as Tapiola. The latest cut is almost equivalent to the program’s entire mileage budget. The program expended $18,816 last year to deliver meals.

90 years ago

April 29, 1933 – MARQUETTE – State conservation officials and district supervisors in the Upper Peninsula were in conference here last night to determine the location and organization plan for the emergency forestry and conservation employment camps to be established north of the Straits. The purpose of the conference, according to H.R. Sayre of Lansing, chief field administrator for the conservation department, was to decide upon priority of projects to be undertaken by the men enlisted for the camps and to definitely select sites for the camps. There will be 18 camps in the peninsula, Mr. Sayre said. It is expected that approximately 200 men will be sent to each camp, or from 3,800 to 4,000 men in all. All men will be recruited in accordance with the federal plan. The Michigan quota of men for the forestry corps project is 9,700, and about 600 will be recruited in the Upper Peninsula. It is probable that most of the men who will work in Upper Peninsula camps will be sent to this district from Wisconsin and Illinois.