30 years ago

MARQUETTE – Marquette moved a step closer to filtered drinking water Monday, when city commissioners approved a $3.5 million contract for what will become the largest microfiltration plant of its kind in the nation. The total cost for the project is expected to be $6.7 million. Marquette City officials have accepted an innovative design that was recently lauded by the Michigan Chapter of the American Water Works Association. Microfiltration, a less expensive process than conventional chemical filtration, has never before been used in the Midwest or with water as cold as Lake Superior’s. A $400,000 Community Development Block Grant will cover engineering costs, and there is also approximately $1 million in reserve in the city’s water/sewer fund. Interim City Manager Dan Smith said he hopes to cover at least half of the remaining costs with federal grants. In 1986, amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act required filtration for all surface sources. Health officials said solids in open water supplies like Lake Superior could harbor harmful bacteria and viruses. They said chlorination does not kill microscopic parasites such as giardia or cryptosporidium–the organism responsible for numerous deaths in Milwaukee in 1993.

60 years go

NEGAUNEE – Ernest Ronn, Negaunee, area representative for the United Steel Workers Union, is starting to wonder just how much bad luck an automobile owner can encounter. About two weeks ago, Ronn had the unusual experience of having the car he was driving struck by lightning. It shattered the windshield and demolished his radio aerial. Ronn was away on business the majority of last week and on his return home decided to drive downtown on an errand. He had scarcely gone a block when he began to smell the radiator heating up and noticed the temperature gauge rising rapidly. He returned home and on checking the vehicle noticed a hole in the radiator. It appeared to have been made by a bullet. He notified city police, and Chief Ralph Carlson, who responded to the call, confirmed his suspicion. Chief Carlson theorizes from the angle at which the bullet entered the radiator that it came from the area near the city dumping ground, located about a half-mile away. Police earlier had received reports of youngsters firing at reflectors on poles in this area.